Supreme Court dashes immigrants’ hopes

Scan page 2

Socialist Action: Where we stand We support the struggles of those who are specially oppressed under capitalism— women, LGBT people, national minorities, etc. We support the right of self-determination Socialist Action is a national organization of activists committed to the emancipation for oppressed nationalities, including Blacks, Chicanos, and Puerto Ricans. We are of workers and the oppressed. We strive to revitalize the antiwar, environmental, labor, internationalists, and hold that workers of one country have more in common with workers of anti-racist, feminist, student, and other social movements with a mass-action perspective. another than with their own nation’s capitalist class. We seek to link struggles across national Recognizing the divisions that exist on the left and within the workers’ movement, we seek boundaries, and to build an international revolutionary movement that will facilitate the to form united front type organizations around specific issues where various groups have sharing of experiences and political lessons. That is why we maintain fraternal relations with agreement. In this way we seek to maximize our impact and demonstrate the power and Socialist Action believes that the capitalist state and its institutions are instruments of the In the process we hope to bring activists together from different backgrounds into a ruling class, and that therefore they cannot be used as tools of the working class but have revolutionary workers’ party that can successfully challenge the wealthy elite—whose profit- to be smashed. That is why we fight for revolution. When we fight for specific reforms, we driven system is driving down living standards and threatens all life on this planet. do so with the understanding that in the final analysis real social change can only come We are active partisans of the working class and believe in the need for independent about with the overthrow of capitalism, the establishment of a workers’ government, and the working-class politics—not alliances with the bosses’ parties. That is why we call for workers fight for socialism. Our ultimate goal is a truly democratic, environmentally sustainable, and in the U.S. to break from the Democratic and Republican parties to build a Labor Party based egalitarian society organized to satisfy human needs rather than corporate greed. We invite you to join us in the struggle to make the world a better place!

SOCIALIST ACTION Closing news date: July 7, 2015 Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.

Postmaster: Send address changes to: Socialist Action, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610. RATES: For one year (12 issues, 1st-class mail): U.S., Canada, Mexico — $20. All other countries — $30. Money orders and checks should be in U.S. dollars.

Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. Socialist Action is edited, Clip and mail to: Socialist Action newspaper, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.

2 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 2016 On June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court tied 4-4 regarding an immigration action taken by President Obama in 2014. The decision left in place a lower court’s ruling that had blocked imple­ mentation of the program. Officials in our so-called democratic system have once again disregarded the immigrant rights movement and let down the hopes of some 4 million immigrants affected by Obama’s proposal.

These millions of parents of U.S. citi­ zens and permanent residents were hoping for a positive ruling on the Deferred Action for Parents of Ameri­ cans and Lawful Permanent Resident (DAPA) program.

This program would have provided temporary relief from deportation to parents and permanent residents who have lived in the U.S. since 2010. It also would have allowed them to obtain the all-important work permit that en­ ables them to work without fear.

Additionally, having work permits could aid these immigrants in finding better jobs with improved conditions and the overtime pay that many are de­ nied when receiving “under the table” wages.

On Monday, June 27, the immigrant rights movement marched in Con­ necticut against Obama’s deportation machine and the Supreme Court’s deadlock on Obama’s relief policy. The Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance organized the demonstration and civil disobedience action. The protest in­ cluded many parents of U.S. citizens or effectiveness of mass action. on the trade unions. designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor. Name City State Phone E-mail permanent residents who would have benefitted from the president’s ex­ ecutive action on DAPA and those who would benefit from the expansion of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals).

Nine people, including undocument­ ed youth, were arrested for blocking Main Street in Hartford. Those arrest­ ed came from a variety of organiza­ tions, including Connecticut Students for a Dream, Unidad Latina en Acción of New Haven, and Amistad Catholic Worker House.

Editor: Michael Schreiber Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Subscribe now!

Address Zip Lucas Codognolla, an undocumented youth organizer from Stamford who was arrested, said: “Our message was heard loud and clear. We will not stand for deportations and the zacriminal­ ization of communities of color. We will continue to take action and make sure that our immigrant communities in Connecticut are safe”.

The majority of protesters in Con­ necticut were released with a promise to appear. The community was able to collect bail money funds in solidarity with those detained. the Fourth International.

• Boston: socialistactionboston@gmail. com • Buffalo, NY: [email protected] • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860) 478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.: [email protected]. www.thenorthernworker.blogspot.com • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • LOUISVILLE, KY: [email protected], (502) 451-2193 • Madison, Wis.:

[email protected] • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 802-1482, [email protected] • New York City: (212) 781-5157 • Philadelphia: [email protected] (Left) The Rev. Adan Mairena is arrested for blocking a street during a June 28 protest by immigrants and their supporters outside the ICE offices in Philadelphia.

We hope that this will be the start of a renewed effort against deportation in Connecticut and the region.

In Atlanta, Ga., affected com­ munity members and allies marched to the ICE field of­ fice, where “Operation Border Guardian” has been used to conduct raids in the region tar­ geting teenagers from Central American fleeing gang violence and poverty for deportation. The members of the Georgia #Not1More coalition called on the Obama administration to dismantle ICE and put a mora­ torium on deportations now. The next day June 28, protest­ ers from the organization Jun­ tos and others rallied outside the Philadelphia ICE office. Several protesters were arrested for blocking an expressway entrance.

The Not One More Deportation net­ work helped coordinate the nation­ wide actions (NotOneMoreDeporta­ tion.com).

These types of civil disobedience are expected to ramp up as a reflection of the immigrant community’s frustra­ tion with continued deportations of immigrants with family and commu­ nity ties in the U.S. n For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610, (510) 2689429, [email protected] Socialist Action newspaper editorial offices: [email protected] Website: www.socialistaction.org WHERE TO FIND US • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Providence: [email protected] (401) 592-5385 • Salem, Ore.: [email protected] • San Francisco Bay Area:

P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, Ca 94610 (510) 268-9429, sfsocialistaction@ gmail.com • WASHINGTON, DC:

National Office

Scan page 3

We are all Orlando!

On June 12, the nation and the world were stunned when a mass shooting took place in Orlando, Fla., at the Pulse, a gay nightclub. Forty-nine people were killed and 53 wound­ ed. Five people remain hospitalized.

This was the deadliest attack in the Unit­ ed States since Sept. 11, 2001. The shooter opened fire and took hostages. After three hours the police stormed the bar, where 300 patrons were trapped. The shooter, Omar Ma­ teen, 29, was killed in a shootout with law en­ forcement officers.

The LGBTQ community and friends are pouring out to attend vigils across the U.S. and the world. In the first two days after the mas­ sacre, 250 vigils were organized in the U.S. and numerous events also took place in Brazil, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Neth­ erlands, Poland, Puerto Rico, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, and Great Britain. Readers can find a continual updating of vigils and solidarity ac­ tions at weareorlando.org.

This mass murder did not happen in a politi­ cal vacuum. In the last year over 100 bills dis­ criminating against LGBTQ people have been introduced and are pending in 22 states. Sev­ eral bills allow any person or business to deny services to same-sex couples based on their religious objections. In some states judges may refuse to marry same-sex couples, and in others adoption and foster-care agencies may refuse to provide any services that conflict with their religious beliefs about marriage, regardless of what is in the best interests of a child.

Some laws allow health professionals to deny services to LGBT people by citing re­ ligious objections, and others prevent local governments from passing nondiscrimination protections, including LGBTQ protections, that go further than protections at the state level. Nine states place restrictions on the use of public bathrooms by transgender persons. All these laws have the same goal—to further legalize discrimination against the LGBT com­ munity.

History of violence Author, journalist, and gay-rights activist Michel­ angelo Signorile reminds us, “The brutal reality that jarred Orlando’s LGBT community, and the entire nation, is something that LGBT people have always experienced, as gay and lesbian bars and clubs have been targeted consistently by those who harbor hate toward LGBTQ people. And it’s a reminder of the ani­ mus against LGBTQ people that still exists, and the ever present danger with which we still live.”

On June 24, 1973, an arsonist set fire to the Up Stairs Lounge, a gay bar located on the edge of the French Quarter in New Orleans. The result was the deadliest single event to affect the gay community in U.S. history until this weekend.

Thirty-two people were killed, and some bodies were never identified. The primary suspect was nev­ er charged with the crime. There were also the de­ layed injuries—lost jobs, fear, public ridicule and sev­ ered families. The devastation was compounded by the homophobic reactions and utter lack of concern by government and religious leaders and the general public.

In 1996, Eric Rudolph targeted lesbian bars, and in 1997 detonated bombs in the Other Side Lounge, a lesbian bar in Atlanta. The press coverage of him only covered his actions at abortion clinics. In 2014, Musab Masmari was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for setting fire to a Seattle gay nightclub on New Years Eve in 2013. Last year, there were a series of unsolved attacks on gay men coming out of gay bars in Dallas. In one case, a man was dragged into a van and beaten with a baseball bat.

The LGBTQ community has always been victim of the oppression of invisibility, and there was no clear­ er attempt to erase their identity than the ongoing coverage of this massacre. Many news organizations are refusing to center the conversation around exact­ ly what this is—a homophobic, transphobic attack, in which 49 members of the queer community, mostly people of color, were slaughtered in one of the few places that they feel safe, during the one time of year when LGBTQ people celebrate in public. To make this Tony Savino / Socialist Action point, Owen Jones, a writer for the Guardian, walked off the set of a Sky News studio set interview, where they had refused to say the attack was specifically on the LGBTQ community.

Islamophobia As soon as the report came out that the shooter was Omar Mateen, whose parents had emigrated from Af­ ghanistan, some were quick to connect him to “Islam­ ic terrorism.” The press quickly took up this narrative and ran with it, even before a perfunctory investiga­ tion had begun. The Muslim community once again was forced to defend itself against attacks scapegoat­ ing them for the tragedy. Presidential candidate Don­ ald Trump, who reiterated his call for a ban on the entry of Muslims into the United States, assisted in deepening the climate of bigotry.

Rasha Mubarak, Orlando regional coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement. “The Muslim community joins our fellow Americans in repudiating anyone or any group that would claim to justify or excuse such an appalling act of violence.” There has been a large turnout of Mus­ lims at the hundreds of vigils across the country.

Samra Habib, a lesbian and a Muslim, pointed out in the Guardian: “We are now used to the fact that, ev­ ery time a criminally misguided Muslim commits an act of violence, the entire religion and all its followers are questioned and placed under suspicion in a way that isn’t replicated with other faiths. We—and this of course includes queer Muslims—have to take extra care walking down the street at night and entering our mosques for fear of Islamophobic attacks. Mus­ lim organizations and activist groups are tasked with the responsibility of releasing public statements, apologizing for the actions of terrorists and remind­ ing the world that Islam promotes peace so innocent Muslims who are just trying to go about their daily lives don’t suffer repercussions….

“Our thoughts must for now be with those in Orlan­ do. But over the next few days, as we try to recover from this atrocity and begin to piece together what it all means, it’s important to remember that Islam is exploited by religious extremists all over the world, often in attacks committed against other Muslims. ...

Marty Goodman / Socialist Action (Above) Protesters light candles outside the historic Stonewall Inn at June vigil in New York City.

This can’t be boiled down to us v them. We’re all experiencing the same tragedy together.” Unfortunately, Islamophobes were not the only ones with a biased agenda. Early de­ scriptions of the attack by the media merely stated, “A bar has been attacked.” This would have been like referring to the 2009 attack on the Holocaust Museum in Washington as merely an “attack on a museum.”

But even worse was what we heard after­ wards. The Democrats, who always come to the LGBTQ community for money and votes, claiming that they are “friends,” instantly di­ verted all discussion away from homopho­ bia and transphobia. Their single focus was on exploiting the mass murder for their own narrow political agenda. After a few words of condolences, hours and hours were spent talking about “gun control,” and any discus­ sion of addressing the motivation of the mas­ sacre was absent.

In the first place, if any of them cared at all about the homophobia and transphobia that motivated this terrorist attack, they would have demanded long ago the passage of the Equality Act, which is languishing in Congress. The legislation would ban discrimina­ tion on the basis of sexual orientation, gender iden­ tity, and sex in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations in all 50 states.

While the bill would not end institutionalized ho­ mophobia any more than the 1964 Civil Rights Act ended institutionalized racism, it would outlaw dis­ crimination in employment, housing, and public ac­ commodations throughout the country.

Instead of yelling and screaming about the lack of gun-control legislation, it is time for all people who really care about the LGBTQ community to be out­ raged about the continuing violence they suffer and the lack of basic legal protections against discrimina­ tion and for basic human rights. n No to Austerity in Puerto Rico!

The austerity offensive of U.S. imperialism has recently been focused on Puerto Rico. On June 30, Barak Obama signed a bill into law that sets up a colonial-style, federally-appointed “fiscal control board.” The New York Times said it would “restruc­ ture its [Puerto Rico’s] $72 billion total debt so it can manage payments, and … guide what is sure to be a painful recovery process.”

Puerto Rico’s natural resources are ripped off by in­ ternational corporations, and the products these gen­ erate are then sold back to the Puerto Rican people at hugely inflated prices. To buy back these essentials, the Puerto Rican government has had to borrow mas­ sive sums at high interest rates. Both capitalist par­ ties have lined up in support of this colonial “Control Board” to enforce collection of the huge Wall Streetimposed debt.

The Socialist Action 2016 campaign of Mackler/ Schraufnagel demands: “Self-determination for Puer­ to Rico! No to imperialist-imposed austerity! n SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 2016 3

Scan page 4

tecting women’s health. “Each [requirement] places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, each constitutes an undue bur­ den on abortion access, and each violates the Federal Constitution”.

It was interesting that even Justice Anthony Ken­ nedy saw this law as unconstitutional. Kennedy has been involved in 12 cases addressing abortion re­ strictions. In those 12 cases, he has voted on whether 21 different abortion restrictions could take effect. In all instances except one, he has always allowed re­ strictions on abortions.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg concurred with the opinion written by Justice Beyer and added a short but clear statement that was aimed at state legisla­ tures around the country telling them that any cases restricting access to abortion violated Roe v. Wade and would be struck down: “Abortions are statistically safer than many simpler medical procedures, includ­ ing tonsillectomies, colonoscopies, in-office dental surgery and childbirth—but Texas does not subject those procedures to the same onerous requirements. Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers laws like HB.2 that do little or nothing for health, but rather strew impediments to abortion, cannot survive judi­

----- pull-quotes -----

Socialist Action — $10 / six months — $20 / 12 months ­— $37 / two years — I want to join the Socialist Action Newspaper Supporters Club. I enclose an extra contribution of: — $100 — $200 — Other

[email protected], (202) 286-5493 Socialist Action Canada

526 Roxton Road, Toronto, Ont. M6G 3R4, (416) 535-8779 http://socialistaction.ca/