Protesters at local airport try to stop the deportation of immigrant workersCHICAGO, IL April 5—Two buses transporting undocumented workers pulled up at the airport, and the crowd grew restless. A strong multiracial crowd of 50 from  community groups protested the racist deportations taking place at a local airport.
Stop the Bus, Stop the Planes
Clergy, attempting to pray away our problems, initially dominated the rally. While some protest leaders tried to distract us with speeches, a group of workers made their way into the street to block the buses. The buses then dashed toward another entrance of the airport. Progressive Labor Party members and friends called for a march on the buses, and led the rally to confront the buses.
As we approached, we realized the kkkops were not prepared. A militant worker opened an unlocked gate and we went onto the tarmac. We were no longer about stopping the buses; we wanted to stop the planes. A group of workers militantly began to do so when some local clergy, openly “agreeing” with the police, called for protesters to come back.
This created mass confusion, which eventually led to people getting off the tarmac. Although the attempt to stop the airplanes was derailed by misleading clergy, it showed workers potential willingness to take bold action to defend the working class.
A member of PLP called out out the true enemy of working class people, capitalism, and said that Trump was actually continuing the policies of Obama. He also connected mass incarceration with mass deportations, since both Black and Latin workers are all super exploited by capitalism. Many people agreed, took
Challenge newspaper, and gave contact information.
Airport Serving its Racist Purpose
This airport is used to deport Black and Latin undocumented workers in the entire Chicagoland area. It was built decades ago, but under a 1995 contract it was never to conduct commercial flights. Its sole purpose has been the deportations of undocumented workers. For the past eleven years, every Friday morning, Homeland Security and ICE have used this airport to carry out the racist, capitalist deportation policies.
This rally was the result of a multiracial, multi-gender group that has begun organizing to halt these racist deportations. PL has been immersed in this, struggling to call for more militant actions and also to draw the connections between racist mass deportations and mass incarceration. We must understand that the fate of undocumented workers is our fate as well; no workers are safe under capitalism.
No Sanctuary under Capitalism
In a capitalist society where the rulers are bent on accumulating profit over everything else, the international working-class faces continual misery from poverty and miseducation to wars and refugee camps. Workers are used only for their ability to make money for the bosses who will trade their lives for just one more dollar. The discussions about establishing sanctuary and welcoming cities and campuses must include discussions about attacking the root of the problem, capitalism. And that means talking about revolution and communism.
Most members of our coalition believe in doing good works to help the most vulnerable people in this system. However, there is some unwillingness to relate these reforms to the long-term struggle for revolution. Some say that we need to establish safe or welcoming spaces for immigrants first, then make the links to capitalism and its’ profiteering wars. But it’s a long struggle and we must strengthen the working class for the many battles on the way to a communist revolution. Capitalism divides us by race and sex with the super exploitation of Black, Latin, immigrant and women workers. We fight to unite the working class to get rid of capitalism once and for all.
Only Communism Can Smash Fascists
Members of the PLP must be immersed in all these reformist class struggles. That’s how we learn to fight for a better world. But these reforms will not end the economic, political and social terror that capitalism inflicts on our everyday lives. Capitalism will not collapse on its’ own and become something better.
The only way to ensure a world free from murderous police and mass deportations is to uproot the entire profit system. Only by organizing an international revolution, led by a disciplined Progressive Labor Party can we build a communist society that the working class deserves.  For a world without deportations, join the fight with PLP.