Widening the Circle
What do we mean when we say “abolish” ICE?
Your National Political Committee newsletter — Socialism Beats Fascism
Enjoy your February National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 27-person body (including both YDSA Co-Chairs) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, sign up for know your rights training, help melt ICE, join political education classes, and more!
And to make sure you get our newsletters in your inbox, sign up here! Each one features action alerts, upcoming events, political education, and more.
- From the National Political Committee — DSA’s Growth Means Hope in Dark Times
- Help Elect Socialist Candidates! Phonebanks Starting Sunday 2/22
- Melt ICE Off Our Streets — Give Today!
- Sign Up for Sunday 2/22 Know Your Rights Training
- Mutual Aid Working Group Elections — Nominations Until Saturday 2/14
- Our Religious Socialism Work Group is Growing! Events Sunday 2/15, Thursday 2/19, and Thursday 2/26
- En Español: Housing Justice Commission Weekly Language Exchange Tuesday 2/17
- Political Education Trainings Thursday 2/19 and Thursday 3/12 — Sign Up Today!
- AfroSoc is BACK in Action! BIPOC Members, Join Our February Meeting Sunday 2/22
- Help Support DSA — Join Growth and Development Committee Phonebanks Starting Sunday 2/22
- Do You Have Fundraising Experience? Apply for DSA’s National Fundraising Committee!
- DSA is Hiring! Application Deadlines Starting Sunday 2/15
- Help Build Strong Chapters! Apply for the Locals First Implementation Committee
- DSA Fund is Hiring a Program Lead!
From the National Political Committee — DSA’s Growth Means Hope in Dark Times
Dear Comrades,
“The issue is Socialism vs. Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough. Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization. The time has come to regenerate society — we are on the eve of a universal change.” — Eugene V. Debs, 1897
Great news: DSA is now over 100,000 members strong! This milestone is many years in the making, and was borne out of the tireless work of countless members to bring socialism from the margins to the mainstream since DSA formed in 1982. We encourage you to take a moment and reflect on the ways that your work has helped build us into the largest socialist organization in the USA since Eugene V. Debs’s time over a century ago, when the Socialist Party in the US at its height in 1912 counted 118,000 dues-paying members.
The capitalist class suppressed that era of burgeoning socialism with decades of Red Scare repression and propaganda — but not completely. Even past the worst years of McCarthyism and the Cold War, and then through the supposed “end of history” era of neoliberalism, many brave socialist organizers kept the flame alive throughout the 20th century. Socialists have always been organizing to build the power of labor unions and expand rights for all workers, and helped form the backbone of movements for racial justice, women’s liberation, queer liberation, against war and militarism, and for environmental protection in the United States.
Wherever people were organizing for a better, more democratic, and more just future for all working people, socialists like us were holding fast. And now, generations later, democratic socialism is going mainstream.
So many people are joining DSA today because we are a fully member-led and member-funded mass organization. Over 220 local chapters are growing because we represent a real alternative to the corporate oligarchy of our political system. We’re responding powerfully to the current political situation — channeling rage and fear over the Trump administration’s violent policies which scapegoat immigrants, trans folks, and marginalized people while making everyday life more precarious for the broader working class; and also organizing for democratic socialist victories, like our member Zohran Mamdani’s election to mayor of the wealthiest city in the world.
Zohran’s election in New York City brought a surge of new members to DSA because he represents reasons for active hope through the darkness of our time, showing how far our movement has come through the past decade. He is a product of independent grassroots organizing where strong DSA chapters, alongside labor unions and working class community organizations, work more and more like a party of our own. DSA members are winning life-changing policies for millions of people across the United States, expanding affordability and economic security for all, and showing how socialism is what can beat fascism.
All of this has effects everywhere, not just in NYC. Some of our fastest-growing chapters are in places you might not expect, like Corpus Christi, Birmingham, Southern Idaho, Middle Georgia, and Eastern Kentucky. Folks are fed up across the country and finding ways to organize for socialism and against fascism wherever they live. Whether you were inspired by high-profile campaigns like Zohran’s or were organized at the grassroots level at local actions like union picket lines or Abolish ICE rallies, being part of a democratically run mass movement like DSA means we take back a lot of the power that capitalism has taken from us.
The weight of over a century of struggle is on our shoulders, but we stand on the shoulders of giants. Together, we can and will rise to this task. Take a moment to embrace this history, and then remember what Debs would certainly call us to do: keep going. We can never take popularity for granted. Now is not the time to rest. It’s the time to keep organizing to turn momentum into even bigger growth and more powerful wins against the dictatorship of capital that we’re all living under, and toward true democracy for all of us. Ask yourself what steps you can take today to build the socialist future of tomorrow – and keep asking others to join in! 99,999 of your comrades (and counting!) are right there with you to do the same.
¡La Lucha Sigue, Hasta La Victoria!
Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique
DSA National Co-Chairs
Help Elect Socialist Candidates! Phonebanks Starting Sunday 2/22
Are you ready to help raise money for our socialist candidates across the country? Join DSA’s National Electoral Commission to call other DSA members to help raise money for our socialist campaigns. Phonebanks start Sunday 2/22, and will be on Sundays 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT.
Right now, we have five DSA member candidates with our national endorsement on our slate. Making calls is easy! Talk to members like you to raise money for:
- Adam Bojak, Buffalo DSA, New York’s State Assembly
- Tammy Carpenter, Portland DSA, Oregon’s State House of Representatives
- Bobby Nichols, Phoenix DSA, City Council in Tempe, Arizona
- Andrew Hariston, Austin DSA, Travis County Justice of the Peace
- Robert LeVertis Bell, Louisville DSA, Kentucky State Legislature
Melt ICE Off Our Streets — Give Today!
DSA members are leading the fight against the deportation regime in cities and towns across the country. So far, DSA members have raised over $25,000 to build our chapters’ responses to ICE terror. This money goes where it’s most needed, including multilingual know-your-rights literature, whistles, hand warmers, trainings, and more for the communities we defend. Even $25 dollars can help our chapters meet the moment and lead the movement to victory over fascism. Give today!
Sign Up for Sunday 2/22 Know Your Rights Training
Join the Trump Admin Response Committee on 2/22 at 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT for a Know Your Rights Training. Come hear from legal experts from the NYC-DSA Immigrant Justice Working Group about how to keep yourself and your neighbors safe from ICE.
Mutual Aid Working Group Elections — Nominations Until Saturday 2/14
Mutual Aid Working Group (MAWG) Steering Committee 2026 elections are open now, with nominations open until Saturday 2/14. Voting will be open for all MAWG members Sunday 2/15-Sunday 2/21.
The Steering Committee (SC) consists of 7-9 members including two co-chairs. SC members are expected to run trainings and virtual events, host quarterly all-member meetings, and mentor chapters. If you are interested or have questions, reach out to mutualaid@dsacommittees.org.
Our Religious Socialism Work Group is Growing! Events Sunday 2/15, Thursday 2/19, and Thursday 2/26
Our DSA Religion and Socialism Working Group brings together DSA members of all faiths to support each other, bring socialist ideas to our own faith communities, and work to combat white Christian nationalism. Join our monthly meetup Thursday 2/19 at 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT/6:30pm MT/5:30pm PT to find out more.
Two of our sub-groups are having events this month as well! The Democratic Socialist Episcopal Association is re-launching. People of all faith backgrounds are welcome to join us in our organizing, mutual aid, and common worship. We conduct all of our work and services via our Discord server here. Join us for our weekly virtual Compline prayer services every Sunday. The next one will be Sunday 2/15. Standing regular meetings will begin Wednesday, 2/18 and be held every other week.
And help build the DSA Buddhist Circle! Buddhists of all traditions, Dharma practitioners, and Mindfulness practitioners are invited to our planning and visioning meeting Thursday 2/26 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT. Feel free to review these notes before the meeting.
En Español: Housing Justice Commission Weekly Language Exchange Tuesday 2/17
Practica tu español con la Comisión para Justicia de Vivienda (CJV)!
Aprendiste español en el colegio o en el trabajo y quieres mejorar? Unete los martes a las 17:00 PST / 19:00 MEX/CST / 20:00 COL/EST / 22:00 / ARG para practicar con la CJV. Te pondremos en un cuarto de Zoom con otra persona para que practiquen juntos. Si quieres también tenemos guiones si necesitas ayuda!
Political Education Trainings Thursday 2/19 and Thursday 3/12 — Sign Up Today!
DSA’s National Political Education Committee (NPEC) welcomes all DSA members to our upcoming trainings:
- Socialist Archiving 201: Digital Deep Dive. Thursday 2/19 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT
- Running a Socialist Night School. Thursday 3/12 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT
And did you know? NPEC has a weekly podcast, Class! Subscribe to find out what DSA members all over the country are thinking and doing, and why, every Monday.
AfroSoc is BACK in Action! BIPOC Members, Join Our February General Body Meeting Sunday 2/22
AfroSoc, DSA’s Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus, is back! Join our February General Meeting Sunday 2/22 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT for announcements, a chapter spotlight on ATL AFROSOC, a walkthrough of the Start a Local Chapter Packet, and general discussion on WG/committee proposals. All BIPOC, good-standing DSA members are welcomed!
Working Group (WG) proposals are still being accepted, and bylaw changes are now open for submission for March discussion. You can review our current bylaws and submit resolutions here. Debate, voting, and collective decision-making will close out the February meeting.
Help Support DSA — Join Growth and Development Committee Phonebanks Starting Sunday 2/22
Join one of our upcoming Growth and Development phonebanks!
- Solidarity Dues Phonebank Sunday 2/22 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT
- Recommitment Phonebank Wednesday 3/4 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
Trainings will be provided at the beginning of each call.
Do You Have Fundraising Experience? Apply for DSA’s National Fundraising Committee!
DSA’s National Fundraising Committee is seeking members with fundraising experience. The application form is here. The Fundraising Committee supports the coordination of national fundraising efforts and serves as an advisory body for DSA’s fundraising practices and strategy. We’ll also focus on leading chapter fundraising trainings and providing support to members taking on this work locally. Committee members spend at least 4-6 hours a month carrying out committee duties.
With ambitious plans and a long road ahead, we must sustain ourselves, and that means coordinated and strategic fundraising. As a socialist organization engaged in class struggle, we must fund our own work!
DSA is Hiring! Application Deadlines Starting Sunday 2/15
DSA is hiring for the following four positions:
- Chapter Development Coordinator, application deadline Sunday 2/15
- Regional Organizer (Northeast), application deadline Sunday 2/22
- Regional Organizer (South), application deadline Sunday Sunday 2/22
- Data and Technology Director, application deadline March 3/1
You can find details, including job description and application links, on our Careers page here.
And congratulations to Kaitlin, our new Lead Regional Organizer! Her years as DSA’s Regional Organizer for the South will serve her well in her new role.
Help Build Strong Chapters! Apply for the Locals First Implementation Committee
Last month, the NPC voted to allocate $850k in Chapter Development Grants that local chapters can apply for to fund a broad range of activities, including campaign work, equity and administrative activities, and events. As part of the implementation, we are forming a dedicated team under the Growth and Development Committee (GDC) to oversee the distribution of these grants.
If you’re excited about building strong, well-resourced chapters, you can apply to join the GDC through this form. Indicate “Matching Funds/Chapter Grants” as your area of interest!
DSA Fund is Hiring a Program Lead!
The Democratic Socialists of America Fund (DSA Fund) is seeking a full-time program lead to cultivate the How We Win network of 250+ democratic socialist elected officials, staff and DSA chapters across the country.
DSA Fund is the 501(c)3 political education sister organization to the Democratic Socialists of America, investing in projects that help build a democratic socialist future. The Program Lead position can be based anywhere in the US. Please see the job description for more information. Applications are due by Thursday 2/26.
The post Your National Political Committee newsletter — Socialism Beats Fascism appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Never Again: Revisiting the Tragedy of Mass Detention in Utah
This is an opinion piece written collaboratively by the Migrant Rights Working Group and was not voted on at a general membership meeting. Opinion pieces from sub-bodies do not reflect the opinions of all members and are not chapter approved statements.
Without reservation, the Salt Lake Democratic Socialists of America (SL DSA) firmly oppose any and all immigration detention within Utah. We reject the Federal Government’s racist, nativist, and exploitative approach to immigration policy, and are appalled at the intentional and cruel humanitarian crisis it has created. Recent leaks uncovering plans for an immigration detention facility in Utah threaten to continue the state’s ugly history of participation in large scale, racially-targeted internment. These past and present attempts to suppress immigrant communities are not only an affront to the fundamental notion of intrinsic human dignity, but also a cudgel wielded against the interests of the working class. They obscure the identities of the true architects of our exploitation, redirecting responsibility for our justified feelings of bitterness and discontentment away from oppressive regimes and economies and onto the precarious and undocumented; those who are, in fact, our allies.
Over the past several months, internal ICE documents have emerged that outline a plan utilizing US military resources to establish “facilities to house as many as 10,000 people each” in several locations across the country, including Salt Lake City. After the failure of Florida’s taxpayer funded “Alligator Alcatraz” which was shuttered after violating detainee rights, disregarding local government and tribal rights, and dismissing environmental concerns, one would think that Utah’s leaders would express more hesitation to ride shotgun on this wild spectacle of waste and abuse. Sadly, it is not so: Utah’s state-level and congressional leadership, in submissive fealty to Trump’s agenda, refused to comment, much less openly oppose the effort. With new leaks indicating a warehouse near Salt Lake City International Airport as the intended location, there has been mixed response from local officials. The only official acknowledgement from Salt Lake City has been a rather passive reminder from Mayor Erin Mendenhall that a detention center at the location would run afoul of local zoning ordinances; on the other hand, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson admirably condemned the plan and committed the county to fighting it “using every available tool.” In the face of such inconsistent leadership, we salute the people of Utah that showed up in the early hours of January 13th to make their opposition perfectly clear. While the owners of the rumored detention center site ultimately denied their intent to sell or lease to ICE, it is abundantly clear that ICE’s continue working to build the infrastructure necessary to execute their authoritarian directive. Considering today’s fresh atrocities and with historical perspective, SL DSA’s stance is rooted in one critical message: never again.
“Never again:” a much-needed refrain which calls us to remember Utah’s record of hosting racial concentration camps within its borders. In 1942, Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, directing the Secretary of War to “prescribe military areas […] from which any or all persons may be excluded” and provide for them “other accommodation as may be necessary.” EO 9102 established the War Relocation Authority, and assigned it the task of “[effectuating] a program for the removal…of the persons or classes of persons designated under [EO 9066], and for their relocation.” In the text of these two executive orders, which speciously argued for the need to protect against foreign espionage and sabotage, Roosevelt identifies a single justification: national security.
Two of the sites that provided for that relocation program, which in total detained approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent, were the Topaz War Relocation Center in the desert west of Delta, Utah, and the Dalton Wells Isolation Center, a disciplinary camp outside Moab. From 1942 to 1945, 11,000 people were incarcerated in the Topaz camp, making it the fifth largest city in Utah over its three years of operation. Prisoners were given “loyalty questionnaires,” with those not deemed sufficiently loyal sent to more restrictive isolation facilities like Dalton Wells. A unique stain on state history, these concentration camps were the result of a government empowering itself to decide whose rights were sacred, and whose were forfeit.
The stage is set for another monumental crime of a scale that promises to shock Utahns to our core; and in this crime, we will be complicit. We cannot say we did not see it coming.
Now, these actions are justified with the same warlike rhetoric and appeal to the maintenance of national security. Equating immigration to a “foreign invasion” and making use of military largesse, ICE and the US military are coordinating on a facility in Utah that could have a capacity nearly the size of Topaz. This facility could have up to 10,000 beds, with detainees potentially housed in weather-vulnerable soft-sided tents. We are now living through a moment that demonstrates that although history doesn’t repeat, it does rhyme: the Trump regime engages in racial profiling, deports citizens and legal residents, targets and sanctions those critical of the regime, and offers excuses and justifications for its most violent excesses. The stage is set for another monumental crime of a scale that promises to shock Utahns to our core; and in this crime, we will be complicit. We cannot say we did not see it coming.
SL DSA’s stance is one that increasingly resonates with the people of Utah as we face a hostile government intent on stripping away our rights. We demand: no detention centers in Utah, no cooperation with ICE, and full solidarity with our immigrant community. We reject any false distinction between “good” and “bad” immigrants, “legal” and “illegal” immigrants, and immigrating the “right way” and the “wrong way.” These distinctions are nothing more than the flimsy judgements of an immoral power structure with no respect for our rights, protections, or human worth. Finally, we reject the increasingly brazen lies of the Trump administration, as it claims “If you are here legally and contributing, you have nothing to fear.” In fact, cases of arrest based on ICE’s refusal to accept documentation, employment records, payment of taxes, or even while following the official immigration process all fall apart under the barest scrutiny. There is no logic, no rule of law, and no respect for human beings in ICE’s “enforcement” activities.
In our ongoing work, our goal is to mobilize, organize, and educate the working class, ultimately engendering and reinforcing solidarity within it. This objective necessarily must include working class immigrants. If a portion of the working class is deemed unworthy of protection, the rights of the working class as a whole cannot be assured.
Words on a page, however, are not enough. As wages are depressed, as landlords are permitted to use immigration status to threaten tenants, as bosses and managers benefit from workers’ stolen labor, the consequences of this authoritarian regime will affect us all. This regime and the capitalist economic structure that gave birth to it requires systemic exploitation in order to sustain themselves. At its best, it must demand silence; at its worst, it requires complicity and total obedience. In order to justify this system and its cruel repercussions, we are invited to despise and ostracize our fellow human beings. As socialists, we refuse. We invite you to join us in that refusal, and struggle with us to build a better world that is inclusive of us all.
ETA: Credit where credit is due to Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who in her 2026 State of the City address, elaborated on her firm opposition to ICE operations in the city.
No, there is no terrible thing happening coming for you in some distant future. But know that a terrible thing is happening to you now. You are being asked to kill off a part of you that would otherwise scream in opposition to injustice. You are being asked to dismantle the machinery of a functioning conscience. Who cares if diplomatic expediency prefers you shrug away the sight of dismembered children? Who cares if great distance from the bloodstained middle allows obliviousness? Forget pity. Forget even the dead, if you must. But at least fight against the theft of your soul.”
― Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
The post Never Again: Revisiting the Tragedy of Mass Detention in Utah first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.
Milwaukee DSA ready for statewide governor’s race as Madison DSA joins in endorsing Francesca Hong
The Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are working to support a statewide race for governor after both that chapter and Madison DSA voted to endorse DSA member Francesca Hong in her bid for that office.
“Working people have seen that the system doesn’t work for them,” Milwaukee DSA Co-Chair Autumn Pickett said. “Time and again, the establishment has failed us so as not to upset their billionaire donors. As ICE threatens to terrorize our communities and kidnap our neighbors, Francesca Hong stands committed to fight back as the only candidate calling for their abolition.”
Hong’s campaign comes at the heels of successful DSA campaigns across the country, from New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Milwaukee District 3’s Alder Alex Brower, and U.S. polling has shown an increased interest in socialism, a clear reflection of the crumbling material conditions of the American working class amid ongoing crises at the hands of capitalism and its benefactors.
“Francesca Hong has fought for Wisconsinites’ right to healthcare, paid family leave for all, a vibrant union movement, and public power owned by the people and not for the profit of billionaires—the same billionaires who are now forcing us to pay for their destructive data centers,” Pickett said. “She, thankfully, is not alone in this fight. As a movement of everyday people, DSA members are tired, fed up, and ready to win the better world we know is possible. Mayor Zohran Mamdani proved there is a better alternative to fascism than the same old tired establishment policies that brought Donald Trump into power to begin with. Socialism beats fascism, and now it’s our turn to prove it. Elect Francesca Hong for Governor.”
Those interested in joining DSA’s efforts to elect Hong can fill out a DSA campaign interest form to get plugged into the chapter’s work. More information on Hong’s candidacy is available on her campaign website.Milwaukee DSA is Milwaukee’s largest socialist organization fighting against imperialism for a democratic economy, a just society, and a sustainable environment. Join today at dsausa.org/join.
2026 Twin Cities DSA Annual Member Convention
Vermont Socialist (2/4/26): February Edition
GREEN MOUNTAIN DSA MEETINGS AND EVENTS
Our Tax the Rich Working Group will meet on every Sunday, including Sunday Feb 1 at 6:00pm on Zoom. Sign the Tax the Rich for Healthcare and Schools petition here.
Our Steering Committee meets on the first Monday of every month at 7:30pm on Zoom, including Monday Feb 2. All members are welcome to participate in the meeting discussion, only members of the steering committee can vote. Email hello@greenmountaindsa.org for the Zoom link.
Our Labor Committee meets on the second Monday of every month at 6:00pm on Zoom, including Monday Feb 9.
Find out how you can help our Membership Committee improve recruitment and involvement in our chapter on Monday, Feb 9. The Membership Committee meets on every 2nd Monday of the month at 7:30pm on Zoom.
The next May Day Coalition meeting is Tuesday Feb 17 at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington) and on Zoom.
Our Electoral Committee will meet on Tuesday Feb 10 at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom.
Talk about your job and learn about shop-floor organizing from peers at Workers' Circle (co-hosted with the Green Mountain IWW) on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, including Feb 11 and 25 at 6:00 p.m. at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington).
GMDSA's East and West branches will come together for another general meeting on Saturday Feb 21 at 11:30 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church Community Room (64 State St, Montpelier, VT 05602). Newcomers encouraged to show up at 10:30 a.m. for an optional “DSA 101” orientation.
Our Palestine Solidarity Committee will meet on Monday Feb 23 at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom.
Our Communications Committee will meet on Monday Feb 23 at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom.
GMDSA Steering Committee recently passed a resolution to advocate for and ask members to attend Migrant Justice's next rapid response training, Feb 10, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sign up for the meeting here
Add our Google Calendar - Check out our website
NATIONAL DSA MEETINGS OF INTEREST
Saturday, February 7th, 5pm, Recommitment Phonebank link
Saturday, February 7th at 2pm Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee 2026 Winter Cohort Training (1 of 4): Social Investigation & the Tenant Movement link
Sunday, February 8th at 2pm: Chairing a Meeting with Robert's Rules Workshop link
Sunday, February 22nd at 5pm: Solidarity Dues Phonebank link
Vermont Public Meetings of Interest for February
Thursday, February 5th at 9am: 9:00am: VSEA v. State of Vermont, Department of Human Resources
Friday, February 13th at 9:00am: Hearing in the matter of Commissioner of Labor v. Wesco, Inc.
Public Meeting Calendar Link: Published Calendar - Outlook
Important Dates this Year
Town Meeting Day, March 3rd, 2026
May Day: May 1st, 2026
2026 Labor Notes Conference: June 12-14th
Statewide Primary Election: August 11th, 2026
Labor Day: September 7th, 2026
General Election: November 3rd, 2026
Next DSA National Convention: 2027
Abolish Borders: Why we can’t stop at ICE
The government and ICE are using the threat of deportation to strike fear into our hearts. It is because they want to stop people and workers like us from working together — from trying to create genuine positive material change in our lives and workplaces. How and why does the owning class align with and use the state to prevent our unity? They know that when we are divided is when we are most exploitable.
They want to convince us that immigrants and citizens are somehow fundamentally different, despite immigrants living and working in the same community as us. They want us to think that immigrants are aliens or foreigners, when they call the same cities home. The ruling class enforces a border and ever-stricter legal barriers on movement from country to country to keep us divided, when the only real difference between citizens and immigrants is that immigrants are forced into fear of deportation should they speak up or try to organize when their employers or the state exploit them.
While the extraction of labor value is inherent to capitalism, immigrants are much more exploited, being paid less and subjected to significantly worse conditions.
Immigrants are forced into submission and squeezed for every last droplet of profit.
Every moment they step outside, there could be a ‘legally’ armed swarm of masked bandits to abduct them.
This is not acceptable.
This is fascism, and this is our reality.
The owning class has a long history of implementing the divide and conquer strategy towards workers, legally and socially supporting racial segregation, and racializing immigrant groups as somehow different from citizens. It has been done to exploit existing populations, as with Irish immigrants entering into “whiteness” to gain a position of social superiority over Black workers. It has been done to exploit incoming populations, as with Chinese immigrants in California during the 19th century. This strategy has been used repeatedly, around the United States and worldwide. Our history is a history of exploitation fueled by the profit motive.
Let us consider why there are so many immigrants here from Latin America today. What economic and personal hardship could they be fleeing, or what greater opportunity does the U.S. provide?
Consider that the U.S. has repeatedly destabilized Latin America for centuries. The U.S. has sent its agents to coup any government that might turn against U.S. hegemony. It has turned Latin America into an economy of extraction, with resources being exported and very little money flowing back in.
U.S. imperialism, another extension of capitalism’s need to expand and find more exploitable methods to drive higher profit margins, has created the migration that the imperialists and fascists now portray as invasion.
We created this displacement crisis, and because climate change disproportionately affects the overexploited global south, there will be significantly more people seeking refuge and a place to start over.
Yet the U.S. stops immigrants at our arbitrary border and says, “Even if you enter, you will not be free.”
You are marked for life, and unless you want ICE to come knocking on your door, you can never protest, you can never fight back.
You will never be free.
Never forget that those who endlessly scapegoat immigrants for all of the inevitable horrors of capitalism are the cause of their own problem. Capitalism is a gluttonous system. It cannot help but decay, because infinite growth is not possible, when there is nobody left to exploit here or abroad, and when all limited resources are inevitably extracted.
First, fascists find a target, be it immigrants, queer people, or any marginalized group. Then, the fascists attack those groups because it is an easy narrative to say: “Immigrants are the ones taking your jobs and bringing wages down.” The narrative that immigrants drive down wages because “they will work for less” has to be defeated. Immigrants do not voluntarily choose to work for less than the full value of their labor; exploitative work is the only option offered to them. Additionally, wages are only “brought down” when a manager or a member of the owning class chooses to lower them.
It is easy to blame every societal problem on already marginalized groups, because it gives the masses an easy out, a narrative to follow, rather than forcing themselves to come to terms with the full scale of their oppression. It is easy for the fascists to create their own “problem” and then use the promise of solving it to gain power. Anyone who has studied the Holocaust understands this to be the case. This is the same method the Nazi party gained support in Weimar Germany, and it is the same method the Trump administration used to gain power today.
They want us to accept their narratives rather than face the reality that immigrants are the same as all legal citizens — they are people, they are workers, they deserve endless kindness, love, and respect, they deserve the same access to education, welfare, and basic amenities as we all do.
We must understand that immigrants are often the most exploited workers, and that liberals and conservatives alike use their immigration status as a means to force them into low-paying jobs. The narrative that we only accept immigrants because they “do the jobs citizens don’t want to do” must be eradicated. It is the justification for using immigrants as what amounts to a slave class: people only allowed in society as long as they engage in the most exploitative labor.
All immigrants are welcome. We must eradicate the narrative that any immigrant is more valuable than any other because of how long they have been involved in their current community, or how much they have produced within it. These factors are irrelevant. All immigrants deserve to have their needs met, just as every other human does.
The idea that we must organize society from each according to their ability, to each according to their need, does not stop at an arbitrary national distinction. It does not stop at the racial border perpetuated in our minds.
We must understand that immigrants would not be illegal if those in power did not make them illegal. They decide to arbitrarily restrict movement and to create national boundaries. They choose the criteria for legal entry and set the threshold as high as they wish.
The abolitionist struggle cannot stop at state policing, incarceration, or ICE.
We must abolish borders as well.
Likewise, the socialist struggle cannot stop at capitalism or imperialism.
We must abolish borders as well.
Today, we must come to a realization. Immigration was never the problem. Borders themselves are the problem.
They exist for no reason but to divide us — to divide the people so that we may not rise up together against our oppressors.
If the owning class can drive us apart by nationality and race, then they can exploit us. If the owning class can tie these with immigration status, they can and will use ICE to destroy our communities.
We will no longer let that happen.
As organizer and author, Harsha Walia writes in the conclusion to Border and Rule:
We understand that “man-made borders shall never fully thwart human movements compelled by the upheavals of our era.”
We fight for the idea that “the freedom to stay and the freedom to move are revolutionary corollaries refusing imperial bordered sovereignties, with home as our shared horizon.”
Abolish ICE!
Abolish Borders!
None of us are free until all of us are free.
Sources:
Border and Rule by Harsha Walia (Ch. 4; Conclusion)
Walia, Harsha. Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism and the Rise of Racist Nationalism. Haymarket Books, 2021.
How the Irish became White by Noel Ignatiev (Introduction)
Ignatiev, Noel. How The Irish Became White. Routledge, 2009.
Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat by J. Sakai (Ch. 4, s. 3)
J. Sakai. Settlers: the Mythology of the White Proletariat. Morningstar Press, 1989.
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano (Part 1, Ch. 3)
Galeano, Eduardo. Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Monthly Review Press. 1973.
Endorsement: Tammy Carpenter for Oregon State House
DSA is endorsing Tammy Carpenter for Oregon State House, and we need your help to win 
Dr. Carpenter is a proud member of Portland DSA running to fight for universal healthcare, fully-funded schools and a renters’ bill of rights 
Dr. Carpenter is part of a slate of candidates in the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising project!