Voice of Revolution

Demonstrations Nationwide

Immigrants Say: No Second-Class Status!

Massive demonstrations opposing the anti-immigrant and anti-worker bills now being debated in Congress have taken place across the country in the past several weeks. More are planned and yet another action was organized in Washington, DC March 27 to demand the Senate reject anti-immigrant legislation criminalizing the tens of thousands of undocumented workers.

March 27, 2006 - Students in Dallas, Texas join youth in several states in a walkout to oppose attacks on immigrants and demand rights.

Huge demonstrations took place in Los Angeles and Chicago, while tens of -thousands also protested in Dallas, Phoenix, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Washington, DC and elsewhere. The actions have been characterized by large numbers of Latino high school youth walking out in protest, and construction and hotel workers leaving work. All are filling the streets and demanding respect, as human beings and as workers.

The large majority of protesters were immigrants from Mexico. Many people carried Mexican flags and those from Guatemala, Ecuador and Colombia were also present in the actions, along with American flags. Koreans, Chinese and Irish also participated. The chant of "Si se Puede" (It Can be Done) was common along with signs saying "We are Not Criminals," "No Second-Class Status," and "No One is Illegal."

March 27, 2006 - Nimitz Middle School and Bell High School students demand students be let out of Huntington Park High School to join in the march for immigrant rights, Los Angeles, California.

Protesters are targeting the bills being debated in Congress, especially the one already passed by the House of Representatives. It includes plans to criminalize undocumented workers and their supporters, making lack of documentation a felony. Supporting, housing or otherwise assisting undocumented workers is also being made a federal crime. Currently being in the country without documents is a civil offense and support is legal.

The bill also imposes new identification requirements on all workers in the U.S., serving to potentially criminalize them as well. It focuses on increased repression at the borders and more deportations of large numbers of workers.

The demonstrations have largely been organized by various immigrant and rights groups, including those working on the border. The Catholic Church, whose congregations often provide sanctuary and support, also joined the efforts. Latino radio personalities were able to announce the events and encourage participation.

Among the more recent actions was in Los Angeles, where an estimated one million people filled the streets on Saturday, March 26. The day before, hundreds of high school students walked out, waving Mexican flags and expressing support for Saturday's actions. Both long-time undocumented residents, newly arrived immigrants as well as those with documents and many supporters and activists participated. Thousands of farm workers protested again on Sunday.

March 10, 2006 - More than a hundred thousand turn out in Chicago to march for immigrant rights and oppose H.R. 4437.

In Chicago, on March 10, more than 100,000 demonstrated, with some putting the number at 300,000. Protesters filled the streets for 2 miles and more, marching downtown to Federal Plaza. Hundreds of high school students walked out and numerous workers walked off their jobs. Participants targeted the racism of the government and called for an end to deportations. The City of Chicago has long been known for providing the monopolies with a large pool of undocumented workers at slave wages. These workers are then arbitrarily targeted and deported whenever the monopolies require, including as punishment for union organizing, participation in strikes and so forth. Then they are brought back, to work and be deported again.

Numerous actions are also targeting legislation at the state level. In Denver, Colorado, more than 50,000 people demonstrated to demand that the state Senate reject a resolution supporting a ballot issue that calls for denying state government services to undocumented workers. Similarly, in Georgia, tens of thousands of workers did not go into work and protested anti-worker and anti-immigrant legislation recently passed by the state. Tens of thousands also demonstrated in Phoenix, Dallas, Reno, Columbus, Ohio and elsewhere. Earlier in the month, an estimated 50,000 marched in Washington, DC, also targeting the House bill.

According to police, there were no arrests during the various demonstrations. There are also no reports of reprisals from employers. In California, in particular, the agricultural and hotel monopolies depend on undocumented workers. They, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have come out against the House Bill and are demanding that there be a more regularized supply of workers.

Activists have called for a meeting of -immigrant rights organizers and all concerned in Dallas on April 8, to consider a common national action under the banner "A Day Without An Immigrant." Plans are also going forward to hold more actions across the country on April 10.

Defend Immigrant Rights!
No One is Illegal!

Left: Many actions defending immigrants and rejecting their criminalization took place in March, including this one in Tucson, Arizona; Right: March 25, Los Angeles, California

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No Welcome Here: An Immigrant's Saga

- Hugo Orellana -

If you have not been an undocumented immigrant from Central America making your dangerous way through Mexico only to face vigilante hate groups and la migra at the U.S. border, you don't know what hell is.

Fleeing poverty or persecution at home, you are exploited and persecuted again by Mexican police trying to rob your last coins. If you're broke, you wind up in a Mexican jail, charged with a fabricated list of crimes from A-Z.

Next you could find yourself being tortured by the federales, using techniques like those of the Guatemalan military, who learned them at the [U.S.] School of the Americas.

If by a miracle the planets are aligned in your favor and you get through Mexico with no problems, and if you are lucky to have family willing and able to help you with cash, you still find yourself at the mercy of the "coyotes," the smugglers of humans.

These experiences make the TV program Survivor look like a walk in the park. Yet they are just a sprinkle of the storm that awaits you once you make it into the promised land - and they are only the first pages in the book of my own life.

During the 1980s when I was in my twenties, I spent six months at the Port Isabel immigration processing center in Texas, together with 600 other Central American men and women escaping civil wars and seeking political asylum.

At Port Isabel, we were left outside in heat up to 100 degrees, while dust storms swept through the camp and invaded our bodies. My ears became infected, and it took several days of complaining before anything was done. Even at that, I was fortunate, because I spoke some English; others could not.

During my first few days there, we weren't provided with hygiene necessities like soap and toothpaste. Because there were no portable toilets outside, people had no choice but to just pee on the ground. When the guards saw this through their surveillance cameras, they would shout racist insults.

After 15 days, a prisoner would be called for a hearing, and bail would be set between $15,000 and $35,000. The way we were ripped off by the Mexican federales was nothing compared to this. How are poor immigrants supposed to come up with this much money, even if they have employed family members in the U.S.? Many detainees had panic attacks at the thought of being deported back to countries where they would most likely be killed by death squads.

Corruption and brutality were widespread. One time, a guard offered me food and money to beat up a detainee he had clashed with a few days earlier. I just walked away.

Another time, a Salvadoran prisoner from my barracks was slow to leave the courtyard when we were called in for lunch. An officer struck him, drawing blood. The detainee wanted to take legal action and talked to people at Proyecto Libertad, an immigrant rights project. At midnight, after the lights were out, about five immigration officers came into our unit, seized the injured man and his witnesses, and transported them to Houston, where they were deported.

This so-called democratic system failed these people. The constitutional rights that they are supposed to have as human beings in this country, regardless of race and national origin, were thrown in the gutter.

In Mexico and Central America, 90 percent of the people live day by day, just trying to make ends meet. Many depend on agriculture to survive, farming their own small piece of land or working for someone else. But they cannot compete with massive tons of cheap agricultural products from the USA, flooding in thanks to "free trade."

This gives people no alternative but to leave. Those who own houses or livestock sell them, others borrow money. A lot lose everything in their trek up north, and the ones who get deported back return to miserable existence, worse than when they left. What way out is left for these wretched of the earth except revolution?

But, like a curse, U.S. capitalism has been riding right by our side for what seems like forever, with the Yanqui government stopping us from pursuing our own destinies by supporting one oligarchy and genocidal military dictatorship after another. Still, don't think for a minute that our spirit of revolution has been shot.

Now more than ever, as we see movements in South America making advances toward better societies, we are inspired to struggle. But the people of Mexico and Central America also look to the native-born citizens of the U.S. to fight to get Tío [Uncle] Sam off our backs and to wage your own battles. After all, you have a history of making revolution; perhaps you can make just one more, in the cause of gaining freedom for all of us.

Hugo Orellana is from Guatemala, and is a U.S. citizen living in Seattle. He is a worker in the public sector and active in his union.

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For Your Information

House Immigration Bill Criminalizes Immigrants

The House of Representatives passed -immigration bill H.R. 4437 in December with a vote of 239 to 182. The Senate is currently debating three main versions of its bill on immigration. A Senate bill could pass within the next two weeks. If the Senate passes a bill, then a joint committee will likely be created to reconcile the two bills, with the agreed on bill then needing to pass both houses. It is possible that no immigration bill will be passed this year.

H.R. 4437 criminalizes all undocumented workers. It turns simply being in the country without documents into a felony, regardless of circumstance, or time in the country. At present it is a civil offense. Undocumented workers will now be subject to immediate deportation, without a hearing, and imprisonment.

The bill also broadly defines what it calls "alien smuggling." Much like the USA Patriot Act's broad definition of "material support for terrorism," the bill's definition can brand anyone who assists, supports, houses, feeds, transports or in any other manner has contact with undocumented workers, a "smuggler"- subject to fines and -imprisonment. All supporters, including people serving food at a soup kitchen, for example, will now be committing a federal felony offense. This section of the bill is what has brought the Catholic Church, including the Cardinal of Los Angeles and 70 dioceses nationwide, into opposition. Many other religious groups are also opposing the bill as all have congregations that provide sanctuary for immigrants.

In addition, a number of cities, -including Los Angeles have passed resolutions against the bill. The small city of Maywood, near Los Angeles, has declared itself a sanctuary for undocumented workers. The California agricultural, construction and hotel monopolies also oppose the bill. They depend on the ability to brutally exploit and, as needed, deport, the estimated 10 million immigrant workers now in the state. It is estimated that Latino immigrants make up about one third of the California workforce and 28 percent of the population.

The bill also is putting in place the means to criminalize all workers. It includes special identification requirements that must be verified by employers, called the Employment Eligibility Verification System (EEVS). The bill includes a retroactive clause, meaning all those already working as well as new workers, are subject to the identification requirements. In this manner, the stage is being set for a national ID card, likely with biometric identifiers (such as eye scans), in order to be able to work. Any worker, citizen and non-citizen, who cannot meet the requirements to secure the card can be branded as undocumented and refused work. As well, in the name of identifying "undocumented" workers, people could be required to have such ID on them at all times, a requirement that does not exist today.

For the EEVS, employers will be required to match the required ID to a national computer database, under the control of Homeland Security. Such a database could also be shared with the Pentagon and other police agencies. As people have already experienced with the government's "no-fly" lists, the likelihood of misidentification by employers, is very great. This means many people can be wrongly denied work. As well, like "no fly lists," employers can arbitrarily use these lists to create blacklists, or "no work" lists, targeting union, anti-war or other activity, as the monopolies and government dictate.

Another key part of the bill is a proposed measure to strip people born in the United States of their citizenship, beginning with the daughters and sons of immigrants. Thus simply being born to parents who are undocumented will make the babies criminals, whereas now they are automatically citizens. As well, once such a precedent is set to deny citizenship to those born in the country, then the citizenship of anyone the government may brand as an "enemy combatant" or a "threat to national security" could also be stripped.

The demand by government, for people to submit to what it terms "American values" or lose their citizenship, can already be seen in the demands made on the people applying for citizenship. As President Bush himself said in a recent radio address, repeated in a White House Fact Sheet on immigration, "Every new citizen makes a life-long pledge to support the values and laws of America. New citizens have an obligation to learn the customs and values that define our Nation-including liberty and civic responsibility, equality under God, tolerance for others, and the English language." At the same time, Bush ordered that those who join the military and participate in U.S. wars of aggression be automatically granted citizenship. About 20,000 people in the military have become citizens in this manner in the past four years.

The House bill also calls for deputizing local police forces, or people they designate, as immigration agents. One House member, for example, is proposing giving $100 million to arm and deputize the vigilante Minutemen. The Minutemen, for a second year are positioning themselves on the border to arrest and harass immigrants. Homeland Security and the Pentagon are also to develop plans to use more military surveillance along the border.

While Congress debates the various immigration bills, Bush is moving forward with increased repression. He is dictating what he calls a "catch and return," policy, mandating that every person apprehended and found without documents be immediately returned. The large majority of those detained are Mexicans and they are generally deported to Mexico within 24 hours. Immigrants detained from other countries, mostly Latin America and the Caribbean, are sent to detention camps. When there is insufficient space, these immigrants were released with a court date. Now, Bush is organizing to expand the detention camps and to require that all those apprehended be detained until they are deported.

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Battle Royal Brews Over Immigration Reform

- William Fisher, Inter Press Service -

NEW YORK, March 20 - So passionate are the views of legislators and advocacy groups representing all points on the political spectrum that Congress-watchers are expressing serious doubts that this year will see any meaningful progress toward comprehensive immigration reform in the United States. Tom Barry, policy director for the International Relations Center (IRC), predicted flatly to IPS, "There will be no comprehensive reform proposal approved by the U.S. Congress during this session or any session in the near future because the immigration restrictionists have seized control of the debate."

What is likely, experts agree, is a battle royal between two critical Republican constituencies - the "law-and-order conservatives" and business interests that rely on immigrant labor. One camp wants to tighten borders and deport people who are here illegally. The other seeks to bring undocumented workers out of the shadows and acknowledge their growing economic importance.

The issue is complicated by the competing - and sometimes counter-intuitive - demands of a wide range of groups and coalitions. Usually conservative business interests, particularly in the fields of agriculture, construction and hospitality, want to open U.S. borders to avail themselves of cheaper labor.

Groups representing states on the U.S.-Mexican border propose adopting draconian measures, including construction of a "security fence", to stem the tide of undocumented immigrants. Others are advocating legislation that would tighten U.S. border security but give some legal status to newcomers. Still others are focusing on providing "a path to citizenship" for the more than 10 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.

Legislation reflecting the varied panoply of solutions has already been introduced. Led by conservative Republican James Sensenbrenner, Jr. of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary, the House passed a bill in January that would create a giant fence along the Mexican border, and increase criminal penalties for immigration violations - including some mandatory minimum sentences - for people who encourage illegal immigration and for immigrants who return to the United States after being deported.

It would also broaden the range of deportable aliens so that, for example, repeat drunk drivers can be kicked out of the country.

The House bill would also force employers to verify employees' Social Security numbers against a national database, reimburse sheriffs in the counties that border Mexico for the costs of holding undocumented immigrants, and make both detention and deportation easier. The George W. Bush administration, which earlier had proposed a "guest worker" program, supported the House the bill, which was passed 239 to 182.

Critics of the House restrictions, including many Senate Republicans, say the curbs would trample states' rights and lead to more unlicensed drivers while ignoring what they believe to be the crux of the problem: the millions of undocumented people already entrenched in the workforce.

In the Senate, two pieces of major legislation were introduced last year. One bill, sponsored by Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, calls for increased border security but also creates a guest worker program.

It would require illegal aliens to pay all regular fees as well as a 1,000-dollar fine to join the program and, after six years, another 1,000 dollars to obtain a green card signifying legal permanent residence. Green card holders eventually can apply for citizenship.

Another bill was introduced last year by two border-state Republicans, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, and Senator John Kyl of Arizona. It proposes a "work-and-return" rationale rather than the McCain-Kennedy "work-and-stay" approach.

Currently at the center of the task of attempting to craft passable Senate legislation is Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who heads the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee. His "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006" would allow new immigrants to work in the country for up to six years without applying for citizenship.

It would create a temporary status for the estimated 11 million to 20 million undocumented people already here, provided they pay their taxes, remain employed and pass background checks. The Specter bill does not limit the amount of time those workers may remain in that status.

But Specter's proposal is likely to meet stiff opposition from champions of the much tougher immigration bill passed by the House. Some observers believe the differences in approach between House and Senate are irreconcilable.

A principal supporter of the House approach, Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican and one of the shrillest voices in the immigration debate, said of the Specter proposal, "Words almost fail to describe the threat this bill poses to our national and economic security."

While most civil liberties and immigration experts favor any of the Senate proposals over the "enforcement only" bill passed by the House, they nonetheless express reservations about such issues as privacy, asylum and due process protections for immigrants.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) notes that under Specter's proposed "Employment Verification System", all workers would be required to obtain a federal agency's permission to work. All employers would be required to participate in a national employment eligibility verification program.

"Even assuming a near-perfect accuracy rate in the program, millions of legal, eligible American workers could still have their right to work seriously delayed or denied - while they fight bureaucratic red tape to resolve errors," the ACLU charges.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents millions of employers, has also expressed strong objections to the -employment verification provisions.

Another immigration authority, Karen Musalo, director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law of the University of California, told IPS, "The central goal of any comprehensive immigration legislation should be to build and maintain an immigration and judicial system based on core American values like fairness, family, and recognition for one's work; one that recognizes that the consequences of removal for most immigrants and their families are severe."

"Such legislation must contain safeguards and ensure due process for vulnerable groups seeking protection in the U.S., including refugees, children and victims of trafficking," she said.

She criticized Specter's legislation for imposing "harsh criminal penalties on undocumented workers and other immigrants for even minor or technical infractions that cause them to lose their legal status, creates a permanent sub-class of immigrant workers with no real protections and no provisions for acquiring long-term legal status, and strips immigrants of judicial review."

The IRC's Barry told IPS, "The battle within the Republican party has been instigated by largely by social conservatives, and it is likely that their positions on enforcement will be adopted by the Republican party leadership, leaving the Democrats looking in the public mind as if that they are the ones without a clear stance against illegal immigration."

He says the Kennedy-McCain bill is the "most comprehensive" legislation being considered, but adds, "This is a nonstarter in Congress and in U.S. society because of the fierce restrictionist sentiment that now frames the political debate over immigration in the United States."

Apparently drowned out by the shrill charges and counter-charges in the immigration debate is a simple truth articulated by George Hunsinger, McCord professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and coordinator of Church Folks for a Better America.

He told IPS, "No human being - whether citizen or non-citizen - should be placed outside the protections of the law. No one who performs needed work should be denied fair wages and decent conditions. A society that exploits immigrants for their labor while declaring them illegal is caught in a tangle of contradictions."

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Harper, Fox and Bush Summit, Cancun Mexico

U.S. Seeks to Strengthen Annexation and Dictate

President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Vincente Fox of Mexico are holding a two-day summit in Cancun, Mexico, March 30-31. The summit marks the first anniversary of the establishment of the Security and Prosperity Partnership for North America (SPP). The SPP was launched following a similar summit in March of 2005. This second summit is an indication that these meetings will now become an annual event.

The U.S. will no doubt try to use the summit to further strengthen the SPP, a main tool for U.S. annexation of Canada and Mexico, economically, politically and militarily. Given the U.S. emphasis on developing a single North American Security Perimeter, further measures to militarize the borders and ports will likely be discussed. As well, trade and immigration issues, both a source of current conflict among the three, will be main issues.

In the lead-up to the meeting, the NAFTA Free Trade Commission met on March 24 in Mexico. Mexico's Secretary of the Economy, Canada's Minister of International Trade and the U.S. Trade Representative issued a joint statement following the meeting. According to the statement, the three governments "reaffirmed our commitment to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) as the cornerstone for strengthening North American competitiveness in today's global economy. We have committed to achieving concrete, commercially relevant results that will continue to ease the flow of goods, services and capital between our three countries."

The statement also speaks to the further involvement of Canada and Mexico in U.S. efforts to impose the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and other trade agreements in the Americas. It says, "We will examine how our three countries might collaborate in the trade agreements with other countries." It emphasizes, "We also reaffirmed our commitment to achieving the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)." Already the U.S. is forcing Colombia to take on the task of consulting with the 34 FTAA countries (all of the Americas except Cuba).

The summit is taking place at a time when broad resistance and protests are occurring in Central and South America opposing U.S. efforts to secure bilateral free trade agreements. The FTAA, which was supposed to be completed in 2005, faced broad opposition by the peoples across the Americas, beginning in Quebec City, Canada. Its last summit failed, but it remains a weapon of annexation the U.S. wants. The joint statement indicates that one aspect of the summit will be U.S. efforts to force Canada and Mexico to support efforts to revive the FTAA in 2006.

The U.S.-Mexico Binational -Commission also met on March 24 in Washington, DC, where U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez. Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff and Ministers Medina Mora and Abascol from Mexico were also present. A statement issued by the State Department on the meeting said that the "U.S.-Mexico border has become one of the most economically integrated and active regions in the world.[...] We have deepened our economic integration." The statement emphasized, "We have greatly improved our law enforcement cooperation." This includes "day-to-day tactical and strategic cooperation between our law enforcement agencies." It also spoke to U.S. efforts to secure a greater role inside Mexico, by acting to "assist the Mexican government in modernizing and better equipping the justice sector institutions." The statement adds, "U.S. and Mexican authorities discussed the movement of people across our borders and our mutual interest in ensuring that these movements are safe, legal and orderly, that they contribute to our mutual prosperity, and do not pose a threat to our mutual security."

Given that the immigration issue is a source of conflict between the U.S. and Mexico, a statement like the above may be all the summit publicly offers on this problem. Failure of both governments to in any way provide for the estimated 11-20 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S., with the majority from Mexico, is also contributing to the credibility crisis facing Bush, Fox and the SPP itself.

Fox, for example, has been forced to publicly come out against a current immigration bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and called on Bush to oppose it. He has also spent more then $300,000 in government funds for full page ads in major U.S. newspapers, running this week, saying Mexico should help the U.S. design a "guest worker" program.

Bush, for his part, has been unable to get legislation with his proposed "guest worker" program through Congress. The U.S. Senate is now fighting over its version of an immigration bill, with three different bills already proposed. Among the measures included in the bills are special identification requirements not only for immigrants, but for all workers in the U.S., criminalizing any workers without the needed identification. As well, there was a proposal to strip people born in the U.S. of citizenship, beginning with the sons and daughters of immigrant workers.

President Bush, rather than promoting the summit and its "partnership," has been engaged in the fight over immigration in Congress. In meetings with border agents and with "agricultural and faith-based leaders," March 23, and again in his radio address on March 25, he emphasized, "Comprehensive immigration reform begins with securing our borders." This "security" already includes plans for building 700 miles of giant walls along the border with Mexico, adding thousands of more border patrols, to about 12,500 now, and building more detention camps for immigrants.

The 14 miles of wall already built near San Diego has added hundreds of more deaths for Mexican workers and their families coming into the U.S. Increased deportations are already underway, with 85 percent of those deported coming from Mexico. Bush is instituting what he calls a "catch and return" policy, demanding that all those caught be immediately returned.

While Bush continues to call for a "guest worker" program that has similar ID requirements and rejects the demands of the peoples for amnesty for all undocumented workers, it is not expected to pass. He thus has little to offer that Fox can use on this problem, itself a problem for the Summit. Indeed, the brutality of the U.S. at the borders and concerning immigrant rights is serving to expose the whole "partnership" as a failure in providing any security for the peoples.

The focus on immigration leading up to the Summit is evidence that the monopolies are organizing to use it to try to work out the size and location of labor available in all three countries. Canada, for example, is also now stepping up deportations, such as the Portuguese workers recently targeted in Toronto. The monopolies are also striving to use the giant pool of undocumented workers to drive down not only the wages, but the legal standing and rights of all workers. What remains unclear is how far the summit will serve to advance efforts to create a single North American perimeter dominated by the U.S. military and border machinery. Such a perimeter could change the immigration equation for all three governments while greatly harming the peoples of all three countries.

While it has not been directly stated, it is likely that energy will also be an issue discussed, perhaps less publicly. Both Canada and Mexico are top exporters of oil to the U.S. President Fox visited Alberta in October 2005, promoting what he called a NAFTA policy in energy. He said, "We need to make the best and most efficient use of energy to keep this region of the world competitive." Fox, following the demands of the North American monopolies, is pressing to change Mexico's laws blocking private investment in the energy sector, particularly oil.

Speaking about the summit on behalf of Canadian monopolies, Thomas d'Aquino, who is chief executive of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, emphasized that "The energy sector must be opened up and public safety assured." He added that Mexico is in "greatest need of reform." Openly serving U.S. annexation, he said that NAFTA "requires reaffirmation. It needs to be strengthened and deepened," and political and business leaders alike have a responsibility to strengthen it. He said the SPP "seems to be faltering" and that the summit offers "an opportunity to breathe new life into the SPP." Defending President Bush against "some in positions of authority" in Canada who "relished in delivering insults," he said, "I do not believe we should deal with a great friend and ally with anything other than profound respect."

Given the U.S. path of more imperialist wars, securing control of the energy resources of all three countries and advancing a North America of the monopolies is vital. Efforts in this direction are likely to be part of the summit.

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All Out to Oppose the Creation of a United States of North American Monopolies!
Annexation No! Sovereignty Yes!
Another World Is Possible!

- Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), March 31, 2005 -

The following statement was issued after the March 23, 2005 summit between then Prime Minister Paul Martin, -Mexican President Vincente Fox and U.S. President George W. Bush where the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was announced. -Buffalo Forum stands together with CPC(M-L) and urges everyone to study and discuss the content and take the plans of the imperialists for a single North American Perimeter and a North America of the Monopolies very seriously. Say No to annexation and U.S. dictate to the world!

* * *

On March 23, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Mexican President Vicente Fox and United States President George W. Bush gathered in Texas to announce the establishment of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. The meeting officially adopted the trend in North America towards absolutist monopoly rule with decision-making powers concentrated in the ruling executives using the fraud of representative democracy as a cover for this dictatorship of the monopolies.

The Partnership announcement -released details of specific measures to change, if necessary, or strengthen and codify in law existing arrangements regulating the activities of the monopolies and their relations with the people, other businesses and with the social and natural environment in favor of monopoly right and the trumping of public right in all matters. The Partnership agreement is another example of the transformation of the Canadian state from social democratic arrangements in the service of monopoly capital of the post-war period, to fascist arrangements in the service of the most reactionary sections of monopoly capital. It is yet another international accord with the U.S. to negate the Canadian and Mexican peoples' right to self-determination, including the indigenous peoples and Quebec, which means their very right to be. Furthermore, it imposes the darkest dictatorship on the U.S. working class and people. The negation of Mexico and Canada's sovereign right to independence and the right of the peoples of all three countries to determine their own affairs, bolsters monopoly right throughout North America. It greatly increases the danger of the destruction of all three countries with the creation of an extremely reactionary United States of North American Monopolies.

It also aims to set up Fortress North America as a bulwark capable of dominating Europe and taking over Asia. The inter- imperialist rivalry with Europe concerning Asia will give rise to even more collusion and contention at the expense of the working class and peoples of those three continents. Fortress North America will lead to even more attempts to suppress the struggles of the peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean for their right to self-determination and independent progress. As they boast in the Partnership agreement, the monopolies want to use their commanding base in North America - the existing modern industrial means of production, the skilled and educated workforce, the public infrastructure and abundant natural resources, especially the energy reserves of Mexico and Canada, and the armed forces - as an invincible fortress to compete globally, expand the U.S. empire and attack all those who would resist its domination or dare rise in competition.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) released details of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America under two broad themes:

"Advancing our Common Security and Advancing our Common Prosperity."

Enunciating the agenda of big business interests, the announcement said in part: "We will work to enhance North American competitiveness ... Improve productivity through regulatory cooperation to generate growth ... Promote sectoral collaboration in energy, transportation, financial services, technology, and other areas to facilitate business ... Reduce the costs of trade through the efficient movement of goods and people ... Enhance the stewardship of our environment, create a safer and more reliable food supply while facilitating agricultural trade, and protecting our people from disease."

The Partnership agreement greatly accelerates the annexation of Mexico and Canada by the United States and the consolidation of decision-making power in the hands of representatives of the most powerful North American monopolies. It is another step down the slippery road to fascist arrangements in the service of the most reactionary sections of monopoly capital. It is incredible to see how the Canadian government does all this behind the backs of the people while the political parties in Parliament blithely carry on horse-trading for self-serving advantages allegedly to favor their chances for an increased vote in the next election.

According to the PMO, actions to concentrate decision-making in the hands of all-powerful ruling executives in North America include the following: "We will establish Ministerial-led working groups that will consult with stakeholders in our respective countries. These working groups will respond to the priorities of our people and our businesses, and will set specific, measurable, and achievable goals. They will identify concrete steps that our governments can take to meet these goals, and set implementation dates that will permit a rolling harvest of accomplishments. ... Within 90 days, Ministers will report back to us with their initial report. Following this, the groups will report on a semi-annual basis. Because the Partnership will be an ongoing process of cooperation, new items will be added to the work agenda by mutual agreement as circumstances warrant."

The agreement to standardize regulations throughout North America and make them more amenable to monopolies; and, the agreement to destroy the independent control of energy, farming, environmental and other matters are part of the wrecking activities of the new arrangements, which in the name of serving monopoly right militate against science and enlightenment and promote ignorance in all matters that may restrict the monopolies. This allows the monopolies to use disinformation, bravado and assertion in the place of science in all matters relating to relations of production and with regard to the social and natural environment. The Partnership agreement allows the monopolies and their representative governments to militate against the skills and intelligence needed for civilization. It promotes incompetence by denouncing the establishment of validity in science and the requirement to follow independent laws and regulations of each country that depend on the developed thought matter of sovereign peoples. The Partnership agreement, together with the existing North American Free Trade Agreement, demand a regime of impunity for the monopolies and their rule by dictate, privilege and prerogative with political power concentrated in the various executive committees of the anachronistic system of representative democracy.

The Partnership agreement serves to completely marginalize the sovereign peoples from the decision-making process so that they cannot exercise control over their lives. It deprives them of the information they require to take control of the affairs of the polity, thereby permitting the fraudulently elected president, U.S. imperialist chieftain George W. Bush, and the likes of Paul Martin and Vincente Fox to impose these new arrangements to negate the right to self-determination of the peoples of North America. The tiny minority that rules in North America, which has usurped power by force, is turning public institutions - the presidential offices, parliaments, congress, courts, armed forces, public service, political parties, trade unions, cultural, social and educational institutions and even charities - into appendages of the state to defend monopoly right and facilitate the control of North America by the most powerful monopolies.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist- Leninist) vigorously opposes the Partnership agreement as a recipe for the negation of the sovereign independence of the many peoples and nations of North America, and a blueprint for the monopolies of North America to expand globally through war and terror. Canadians, Mexicans and the people of the U.S. must denounce and soundly repudiate the Partnership agreement, NAFTA and U.S. empire-building, which negate the peoples and nations of the continent and feed the growth of a monstrous United States of North American Monopolies.

CPC(M-L) calls on the Canadian working class and people to take this treacherous activity of the Martin Liberals very seriously. It will be used to make illegal all the demands of the workers, farmers and people for their rights and will embroil Canada in U.S. imperialist war preparations. The fact that all of it is done in the name of the high ideals of security and prosperity requires an on-going program of active opposition and discussion amongst the workers, women, youth, all progressive and democratic forces, all national and other minorities and all working people. Through active opposition and discussions the people will raise their level of consciousness and organization to better develop their plans of action to defend their interests and those of the entire society, country and peoples of the world.

All Out to Oppose the Creation of a United States of North American Monopolies!
Annexation No! Sovereignty Yes! Another World Is Possible!

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