Communique #3 from the Revcoms
The Coronavirus and the Attacks on Immigrants: We Need a Revolution!
| revcom.us
Centuries ago, the Europeans who first invaded this continent brought with them diseases like smallpox. The Europeans had built up immunity to these diseases over many centuries. This meant that epidemics would occur and kill people, but many survived.
But the people who lived here—the Native American Indians—had not yet encountered these viruses. As a result, as many as nine out of 10 of them died when they came into contact with the Europeans.The invaders claimed this was proof that “god was on their side.” This genocide—along with the enslavement and centuries-long exploitation and oppression of African-Americans—was one of the founding crimes of America.
Today, the U.S. government is following in the footsteps of “their forefathers.” They are taking actions that will make the impact of a disease much more deadly against a people that they want “out of the way.” The disease is the novel coronavirus. The people are those immigrants who have committed the “crime” of coming to this country seeking safe haven from political persecution or economic immiseration. In a bitter irony, many of those being attacked are the descendants of the Native peoples who did survive the guns and germs of the European invaders.
ICE (the immigration police) has been rounding people up for months—arresting fathers as they take their daughters to school, beating and tasing bystanders who ask what is going on, raiding workplaces with SWAT teams, etc. They are running the streets of immigrant neighborhoods like they are Hitler’s Gestapo. Neighborhoods in which people are already terrorized by fear of deportation... already exploited in rotten jobs with the worst pay, no health insurance, and unhealthy housing... already demonized and threatened by MAGA-fascists whenever they show their face “where they shouldn’t be.”
Then ICE locks the people they snatch into detention centers where the conditions are inhumane and diseases are left to breed. Forty thousand people a day are caged in these pens. Now with the coronavirus making things even worse, over 3,000 medical professionals released a letter last week demanding the release of individuals and families from these hellholes. The medical professionals pointed to:
often crowded and unsanitary conditions, poor ventilation, lack of adequate access to hygienic materials such as soap and water or hand sanitizers, poor nutrition, and failure to adhere to recognized standards for prevention, screening, and containment. The frequent transfer of individuals from one detention facility to another, and intake of newly detained individuals from the community further complicates the prevention and detection of infectious disease outbreaks....
For these reasons, transmission of infectious diseases in jails and prisons is incredibly common, especially those transmitted by respiratory droplets....
ICE then made headlines by claiming in March that they were going to seek alternatives to detention and only make arrests that were “mission-sensitive.” This made headlines. What did NOT make headlines was the announcement the very next day when ICE announced that, in fact, it would “continue to prioritize arresting and removing criminal aliens and other aliens who pose a threat to public safety, just as it always has during President @realDonaldTrump’s administration.”
“Just as it always has” means that they are continuing to round people up. “Just as it always has” means that the subhuman murderous conditions protested by the medical professionals will continue. “Just as it always has” means that the unbearable, indeed genocidal, oppression continues.
This pandemic has not stopped Trump from hounding, harassing, and now sentencing the immigrants to death through the use of ICE. It must not stop us from standing with the immigrants to STOP this.
This persecution is outrageous—and it is totally unnecessary. There’s an entirely different way that we could be living. The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian, takes this stand:
The orientation of the New Socialist Republic in North America is to welcome immigrants from all over the world who have a sincere desire to contribute to the goals and objectives of this Republic, as set forth in this Constitution and in laws and policies which are established and enacted in accordance with this Constitution. [Go to www.revcom.us to read full thing.]
The world outlined by this Constitution is possible—but it will take a revolution, nothing less. We have the science, the strategy, and the leadership in Bob Avakian for this revolution. What is needed is you—your ideas, your spirit, your resources, and your activity. A first step: spreading the word of this, including through reposting this communiqué. And let us know what is happening...
Read Communique #2:
The Coronavirus… and the Savage Inequalities of America
Read Communique #1:
Real Truth on the Coronavirus: What It Is and How to Confront It
Los Angeles:
With space for contact info:
For more about the National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour click HERE
See also:
The Coronavirus Pandemic
— A Resource Page
Including:
- Revcom Communiques
- Interview with Lenny Wolff
- An Overall Orientation: Thoughts from a Reader
- Frequently Asked Questions
Migrants in Greece wait to board a ferry to a detention center in Turkey. March 20, 2020. (Photo: AP)
People seeking asylum wearing masks to a mandatory immigration court hearing in El Paso, Texas, March 16, 2020. (Photo: AP)
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