Revolution #206, July 4, 2010
Arizona Freedom Summer—We Are Here. Join Us
Arizona Freedom Summer has hit the ground running, taking out the Revolutionary Communist Party’s (RCP’s) Message and Call, bringing to people the “Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have,” and building broad and defiant resistance to SB 1070. This is the law that will go into effect on July 29 that targets immigrants with no papers and, in essence, legalizes racial profiling. Our slogans are: We are all Illegals! We don’t gotta show no stinkin’ papers! We don’t have an immigration problem, we have a capitalism problem! No more troops! Demilitarize the border!
Arizona Freedom Summer will be uniting with people who hate this law to oppose it and to change the current dynamic where people are being told, and mobilized, to identify immigrants as a problem. We will be countering this with the truth that it is this system of capitalism-imperialism that is the problem. This system compels people to come here, seeking a way to survive, and then forces them to live under conditions of terror and with no rights. “The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and around the world…when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up strength to put an end to this madness…those days must be GONE. And they CAN be. (From the “Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have,” A Message, and A Call, from the RCP, USA)
Things are very polarized in Arizona. On the one side stands Governor Brewer with the Arizona State government, law enforcement like Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County and the Border Patrol, and the extreme forces of reaction like the Minutemen and Nazis. Sheriff Joe has announced that on July 30 he plans to start implementing SB 1070 with his sixteenth operation of mass arrests, deporting all those who do not have papers. Governor Brewer has made the outrageous statement that “The majority of the people that are coming to Arizona and trespassing are becoming drug mules.”
On the other side of this extreme polarization stand those who are targeted by SB 1070 along with a broad section of the people who oppose this law and have stepped forward to resist this whole offensive. Many people around the country have come forward and expressed their opposition in different ways, but it is on the ground in Arizona where the struggle is now joined most intensely.
An immigrant told us what it’s like getting ready to go to work on Monday morning, the hesitation before you leave, knowing that a stop by the police, at any moment and for whatever reason—like your car being parked wrong—could mean you won’t make it back home, and then what will happen to your children? We heard a story from one person about a carload of five youth being stopped by the police for a broken headlight and when they protested that there was nothing wrong with the headlight, the cops smashed it in. None of the young men had papers and all were taken in, some are still being held and others already have been deported. Immigrants, who are looking for leadership, have welcomed the revolutionaries and have taken up the Message and Call as a way to end this madness in Arizona and in this country. One guy told us, “I never knew there was a Party talking about revolution in this country, and I never knew it was possible.”
Many people are planning to come to Arizona on July 29 in a massive show of defiance and opposition to this law. Between now and then, Arizona Freedom Summer will be reaching out to immigrants who are targeted, but also to many different sections of the people to build up the spirit of resistance and defiance against this law as part of building a movement for revolution. We have big plans and need many people to come and contribute to making this real. If you really want to make a difference and change the world, there is no better place to be this summer than Arizona. Come for a week, come for a month, but come. And donate generously.
- Come to the Phoenix Vans Warped Tour on Tuesday, June 29. Be a part of an anti-4th of July picnic in Phoenix.
- Funds are urgently needed to support those who are on the ground in Arizona. Send funds to Arizona Freedom Summer, c/o RCP Publications, P.O. Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654-0486. (Make check or money order payable to RCP Publications.)
- Build support for the Arizona Freedom Summer. Spread the word everywhere. Watch for regular online reports at www.revcom.us.
- Contact us on Facebook at Arizona Freedom Summer! or email us at arizonafreedomsummer@yahoo.com.
See “Arizona Freedom Summer—Be in Phoenix starting June 26” at revcom.us.
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