Malcolm X had global view of struggle

Malcolm X and Fidel Castro met in 1960 at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem.

Feb. 21, 2025, marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz). Malcolm was killed just two months before his 40th birthday while speaking at an Organization of African American Unity indoor rally at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. His pregnant wife and four children witnessed his murder.

The mosque where Malcolm spoke, Temple #7, was firebombed after Malcolm’s murder. Malcolm’s supporters had a difficult time finding a venue for his memorial service due to the threat of violence. The Faith Temple Church of God in Christ agreed to conduct the funeral service. Between 20,000 to 30,000 people waited in line to pay their respects to Malcolm X as his body lay in state at the Unity Funeral Home in Harlem. 

Ossie Davis’ eulogy

Betty Shabazz chose Ossie Davis to give the eulogy. Despite the damage that it may cause his mainstream acting career, Davis agreed. His eulogy delivered on Saturday morning, Feb. 27, 1965, would be among the most memorable words he ever wrote.

A quote from Davis’ eulogy states “There are those who will consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people to tell us to revile him, to flee, even from the presence of his memory, to save ourselves by writing him out of the history.”

Honoring Malcolm X by commemorating his death serves as a reminder of his lasting impact on social justice, racial equality, and human rights movements.

On Jan. 24, 1965, Malcolm gave his first lecture on Afro-American history, which was planned to be the first of three public meetings designed to lay the political groundwork for the new program, the Organization for African American Unity (OAAU), leaders were preparing. The second meeting addressing the current condition of Afo-Americans was on Jan. 3. The third meeting set for Feb. 7 was postponed to Feb. 15 because Malcolm accepted invitations to speak in London and Paris. On Feb. 14, Malcolm’s house was firebombed while he and his family slept. At the Feb. 15 meeting, Malcolm spoke on the attack and the issues it raised. The third public OAAU meeting was postponed to Feb. 21, where Malcolm was cut down by assassins’ bullets as he started to speak.  

FBI and COINTELPRO

The assassination had signs of involvement by the FBI, which targeted for assassination members of the Black Panther Party, like Fred Hampton in Chicago. Cointelpro began the special attention of harassment and threats against Black liberation leaders in the U.S. in 1956. Those threats included other collaborations that were directly or indirectly responsible for the death of other Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr.

The text of the OAAU Basic Unity program, read and approved by Malcolm X, is printed in the appendix of Malcolm X: The Final Speeches.

In the preface to the book Malcolm Talks to Young People, Steven Clark states that “Malcolm seized every occasion to talk to young people. All over the world, it is young people [quoting Malcolm X] ‘who are actually involving themselves in the struggle to eliminate oppression and exploitation.’” 

Malcolm said, “One of the first things I think young people … should learn how to do; see for yourself, listen for yourself, and think for yourself. Then you come to an intelligent decision for yourself.”

We are seeing today another genocidal threat from the Department of Justice targeting Black and Brown and Palestinian people in the U.S., with Trump increasing the already heinous violations of human rights by the Democratic Party.

However, young Latine people are now in the streets almost daily, not backing away from Trump’s threat of massive raids.

LA Times reported on Feb. 10 about a leaked memo by the State Department of a “large scale” immigration raid that is expected to happen in Los Angeles by the end of February. 

ICE raids and resistance

ICE agents began targeting major sanctuary cities immediately after Trump’s inauguration – the same day, including LA, Chicago, and Atlanta. The following day, Trump lifted well-established guidelines that restricted ICE from operating at “sensitive locations” such as schools, churches or hospitals.

Sixty organizations in LA united in response: The press conference held in LA on Feb. 12 – launching now one of the largest Immigrant and Migrant solidarity organizations – had the greatest participation of leading youth who were making their own way, while respecting history’s lessons and older activists and leaders who led the historic 2006 demonstrations on May 1. Indeed, the youth heeded Malcolm’s words.

In Malcolm’s 1964 speech, “Ballot OR The Bullet” he explained the difference between civil rights and human rights. Civil rights mean you’re asking Uncle Sam to treat you right. Human rights are something you were born with. Human rights are your God-given rights. Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this earth. Any time anyone violates their human rights, you can take them to the World Court. Malcolm spoke of the need to expand the civil rights struggle to a higher level – to the level of human rights.

Malcolm would have today seen the immigrant struggle as part of the broader struggle for human rights.

International solidarity

Malcolm saw that solidarity with the international victims of U.S. and Western imperialism empowers those struggling here, especially in terms of Black and Brown unity and solidarity with the Global South.

On Sept. 19, 1960, 35-year-old Nation of Islam member Malcolm and 34-year-old Cuban Head of State Fidel Castro had a historic meeting of the minds on the ninth floor of the Black-owned Hotel Theresa in Harlem. The midnight meeting lasted about 15 minutes, in which the two revolutionaries exchanged ideas and experiences. Malcolm said, “I just wanted to Welcome Fidel.” Fidel delivered a powerful speech at the 15th U.N. General Assembly summarizing the policy of the revolutionary government of Cuba.

Malcolm once said that you can’t understand what is going on in Mississippi if you don’t know what is going on in the Congo.

Malcolm X condemned the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in January of 1961. He believed the U.S. government arranged Lumumba’s murder to protect investments and profits in the Congo.

He understood the importance of international solidarity, especially with Africa and Latin America and Asia. And after his trip in April 1964 to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, performing the Hajj – he declared that unity of the oppressed nationalities was essential. After seeing the people he shared that trip to Mecca with, he began to think that “race” and ethnicity were not the determinants of friends, allies or comrades in the struggle against oppression and imperialism.

From Malcolm’s letter on his trip to Mecca:

“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black skin Africans. But we were all participating in the same rituals, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white. America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. …”

“On this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to re-arrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions … I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.” – the “Autobiography of Malcolm X”

He understood that the unity and the struggle of African people was an intrinsic part of the victory of the entire international working class.

Malcolm’s international global view and his experiences as a Black person in the U.S. provided the fuel building the wisdom and courage to see and feel much of the pain of the Palestinian people. In September of 1964, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza and witnessed firsthand the displacement and suffering caused by the 1948 Nakba. This visit was significant because it reflected Malcolm X’s growing international perspective and his commitment to linking the fight against racial oppression in the U.S. with anti-colonial and liberation movements worldwide. He spoke out against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, calling it unjust and unsustainable. He condemned the annexation of Jerusalem and other Palestinian lands, emphasizing the importance of human rights for all, including Palestinians.

Malcolm X was no friend of capitalism and his hatred of the system grew into an understanding that, as long as it existed, oppression and division would thrive.

“You can’t have capitalism without racism. And if you find a person without racism, usually they’re socialists or their political philosophy is socialism.”

Ossie Davis eloquently portrayed Malcolm X in his eulogy. In Honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves. Read Malcolm X, “our own Black shining Prince! – who didn’t hesitate to die, because he loved us so.”

Malcolm’s speeches are available on YouTube, and in books. 

Suggested Malcolm X Books: 

  • “By Any Means Necessary“
  • “Malcolm X Talks to Young People”
  • “Malcolm X on Afro-American History”
  • “Fidel & Malcolm: Memories of a Meeting”
  • “Malcolm X’s Letter from Mecca”
  • “The Final Speeches”
  • “The Last Speeches”
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National Forum honoring Malcolm X – Feb. 23

Immigration and Black Liberation – What Would Malcolm X Say

This is the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, which took place on Feb. 21, 1965. To pay tribute to this anniversary, the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, Peoples Power Assembly, and Struggle for Socialism are paying tribute by holding a national forum, “Immigration & Black Liberation – What Would Malcolm X Say.”  

On Feb. 23, an in-person forum will be staged at the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, 5278 Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, California,  90019.  Participants can attend nationally by registering at http://tiny.cc/HonorMalcolmX.  The program begins at 2 p.m. sharp on the West Coast (doors open at 1:30 p.m.). Hybrid begins at 3 p.m. Mountain time, 4 p.m. Central and 5 p.m. East Coast.  

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Colby Byrd: What Malcolm X means to me

We share this piece to commemorate the revolutionary leader Malcolm X, who was assassinated 60 years ago on Feb. 21, 1965. 

Malcolm X means an unshakable Brotherhood made in Blood. He means Uncompromising Resistance. He means Revolution … violent and untameable. Finally, Malcolm X means Liberation by any means Necessary. 

All these principles build on each other. As one discovers their fellow Blood Brothers, they begin to help them and fight for them. As the fighting continues, it reaches a point of no return where there is no longer just a fight to stay afloat, to stay alive, but now an uncontrollable brawl. A complete and total struggle to rid your Blood Brothers of whatever is afflicting them. And this struggle is fought until total victory.

Malcolm X reminds us that our fight is one for human rights, not civil rights. We are fighting for our equality as human beings, not as citizens of the U.S. We are fighting to end the exploitation of us all worldwide. We are fighting to destroy this hypocritical “democracy” for the rich and kill the bloodsucker known as Capitalism. 

He respected the fight. He analyzed what the revolution would look like and never once shied away from explaining how a mutually bloody fight was coming. He openly endorsed armed resistance to occupation and oppression. Whether it be Police in Harlem or Paratroopers in Vietnam, he understood that occupation is a tool of war used by the ruling class on all those below. 

His words from 1964 and ‘65 hold the same weight and relay the same relevant warnings here in 2025. The casbahs of Algiers back then are the refugee camps of Palestine today. The tactics used by French Paratroopers and Harlem police are now the tactics of the Zionist state of Israel and any city Police department. The game played on Black people of this nation back in 1964 continues to be played on us now. Forced to vote to “save” the nation, while no matter the outcome, getting left behind. His warnings against following the leadership that, although may be preaching for change and progress, they are ultimately tools of compromise that are backed by and rooted within the systems of oppression. His times’ Mau-Mau are our Al-Qassam.

In 2025, who are my blood brothers? Who are the people that have struggled as I have struggled? The list is almost never-ending, and that is the point. My Blood Brothers are the victims of racism, of homophobia, of misogyny. They are those fighting against Western Imperialism in defense of their homes and ways of life. My blood Brothers are the victims of natural disasters here, left abandoned by their government, the many people snatched up by today’s slave catchers, Queer people fighting to not be erased from society, and women fighting for bodily autonomy. My blood brothers are the Palestinian Resistance overseas and everyone of the Global South.

This family must learn how to support one another and how to fight off each other’s enemies. This family must always step together, where one blood brother goes we all go. When one is humiliated, we all are, and when one fights back, we all fight back. 

Colby Byrd is a young union member and organizer with the People’s Power Assembly and Struggle for Socialism. Byrd organized support for Baltimore Sanitation workers.

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JoyB: What Malcolm X Means to ME

We share this piece to commemorate the revolutionary leader Malcolm X who was assassinated 60 years ago on Feb. 21, 1965. 

Malcolm X to me represents the “good” in adversity.
The “loud” in alarm. Mr. X …The scholar – the
Minister & man of great tragedy. To me X was
Unafraid – always ready to battle – not necessarily
with a gun but always with the mind.

Born in Nebraska in 1925 – my dedication to this
giant will never die. Fiery, eloquent and spokesman
for an entire nation of MEN & women too.
X was leader – Black Nationalist too – if alive he
would tell you all yes it’s true. X was a force – who
challenged Dr. King. Intellectual – Influencer &
Intuitive too.

Malcolm X was my hero – then and still is now.
With Flavor Orange in the White House – X would
say how? Mentored by Elijah & sanctioned to
Prison – Likely X would say things happening now
would require immediate revision.

Malcolm X changed the racial climate back in the
day. For me – Malcolm’s legacy will always remain
constant and true to the game. I love his stance on
Education – which he always maintained.
Complex – who could figure Malcolm out? The
Minister – The Man all clothed in power. To me &
many more X is such a tower.

Let’s talk more about Malcolm X – we could talk all
day. Imagine being void of education – X would have
an issue with that. Malcolm! Malcolm! I wish you
could speak! That’s nothing but FACT.

X was gallant – to me – tall as a Tree. Taking great
pride in his culture – all he wanted was for Black people
to live free. Malcolm the Warrior – Hustler and
King … alleged Con Man & Little with a DREAM!
Malcolm X counted & courted defeat. Always on
the move – forever in the streets.

He spoke of heartbreak in the fondest of terms. His
was a mixture of both LIFE’s twists and turns. The
truth about “X” is that he was a King … Like Martin
Luther, he too had a dream. Malcolm X represents
the word Bravery to me – how else did he live in a
Foster Home & never tried to flee? I’d love to see
Malcolm X alive and well – oh what stories he would
sit and tell. Malcolm X would likely say we need to
prepare for tomorrow and that would be true – he
would insist that we snatch the future “he’d say – it’s
there waiting on you.”

What does Malcolm X mean to me – X means hope
and pride. An entire people representing an individual
man – to me X typifies advancement & truth for all
races. Again if he were alive – he’d take us through
the paces. X wasn’t afraid to speak truth to
power – I love that – he wasn’t one to cower.

Troubled & Tried … Malcolm X stayed for the ride.
What’s the name of the movie … “Get on Bus” … I
wish he could have taken all of us.

With X – civil rights became human rights. There are
so many things about Malcolm – again we could talk
all day. We could talk about his many achievements
& by “any means necessary” mantra.

Every “L” was a small seed of its own (in the words
of the Great Malcolm X) losses & lessons to be
used as Courses in Improvement.
Malcolm great in stature – well versed in the ways of
Islam. I pay both honor and homage to this man
because he was bold enough to admit that Black people
needed to come to together against the
“Common Enemy.”

Malcolm X was accused of dealing in hate. I loudly
proclaim this is a falsehood. This man spoke about
oppression & exploitation. He forced us to take an
intricate look at our own hatred – self-hatred – hatred
of our own kind.

This question by Malcolm took me all the way in – at
what we would eventually refer to as “rallies” – X put
forth “Nooooooo – before you come asking Mr.
Mohammed does he teach hate – you should ask
yourself who taught you to hate being what GOD
gave you.”

Finally, I deem Malcolm X an icon – that was then
and this is now!

JoyB is a community organizer with the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly and Struggle for Socialism. She helped found the Prisoners Solidarity Committee.

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Rubens Paiva: Presente! How ‘I’m Still Here’ challenges Brazil’s resurgent far-right

The commercial and critical success of the 2024 film “I’m Still Here” represents a triumph for the Brazilian people. Directed by Walter Salles, the movie is based on the 2015 book of the same name written by Rubens Paiva’s son, Marcelo Rubens Paiva. 

The film narrates the story of Rubens Paiva’s “disappearance” from the perspective of his wife, Eunice Paiva. If you spend time in the film corner of social media, you might have seen the enthusiasm of Brazilians with the international success of the movie, being the first Brazilian film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. 

Set in the scenic Leblon neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro in 1971, the movie tells a story well-known to many Brazilians. Rubens Paiva is one of the few martyrs from the U.S.-backed right-wing military dictatorship whose name has endured despite right-wing efforts to erase it from public memory. In schools, Paiva’s story was taught as an example of the senseless cruelty inflicted by the military dictatorship on the Brazilian people, alongside others such as Vladimir Herzog and Stuart Angel.

Rubens Paiva, a former congressman of the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB) and a civil engineer, was taken from his family home by armed men. His wife Eunice and 15-year-old daughter Vera were also taken. While Vera returned home after 24 hours, and Eunice was only released after 12 days of detention, Rubens Paiva never came home, and his remains were never found.

In 2014, a bust of Rubens Paiva was unveiled in the House of Representatives in Brasília. This was a poignant tribute to a man who had been “disappeared” by the right-wing dictatorship. During a small ceremony attended by Paiva’s surviving family members, Congressman Jair Bolsonaro left his office and approached the gathering. He shouted, “Rubens Paiva got what he deserved, disgraced communist, bum!” Paiva’s nephew, Chico Paiva Avelino, later recounted in a Facebook post that Bolsonaro spat on the bust before walking away.

This incident marked the first time I heard about the man who would later become Brazil’s president. I remember being shocked by his blatant disrespect for the family members of someone I considered a hero. How could someone be so crass? I was certain his behavior would be deemed unacceptable by people across the political spectrum.

By 2018, when Bolsonaro won the presidential election, he had shown what Avelino described as an “obsession” with Rubens Paiva. Bolsonaro vehemently opposed investigating the cases of those who were “disappeared” by the military dictatorship and consistently blamed Rubens Paiva’s death on the political left. 

Since Bolsonaro’s election, nostalgic sentiment for the repressive military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985 has only intensified. The shock I initially felt at the crass attitude of a minor political figure in 2014 has now permeated the country. Brazilians are grappling with the reality of a significant political faction that claims the country was better during the dictatorship and advocates for the reinstatement of military rule.

At the time, the military justified his disappearance with the same excuse Bolsonaro would later claim to be true: that Paiva had been rescued from detention by left-wing comrades. Only decades later, in 1996, did the truth surface through the National Truth Commission, which investigated the crimes of the military dictatorship; it was revealed that the former congressman had died due to injuries related to torture on the second day of his imprisonment. His wife fought courageously and tirelessly for the truth. 

The story told in “I’m Still Here” is not exactly the entire account of Rubens and Eunice Paiva’s lives or all of the oppression exerted by the military during the dictatorship. But it presents the experience of Eunice Paiva through her husband’s disappearance and her strength to deal with its aftermath. It is brilliantly portrayed by Fernanda Torres — nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards and Brazil’s favorite nepobaby (her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, was also nominated for the same award 25 years ago for the movie “Central Station,” also directed by Walter Salles).

Brazilians are celebrating the success of “I’m Still Here” with good reason. The film portrays a true story from a period of oppression that should not evoke nostalgia. It serves as a powerful reminder of how dangerously close Brazil came to experiencing another right-wing military coup when Bolsonaro took power in 2018. It reminds us that, as the film’s theme song suggests, we must remain vigilant, for danger always lurks around the corner.

“I’m Still Here” is currently playing in theaters everywhere in the United States. 

For further reading on the role the United States played in the Brazilian military dictatorship, see Vincent Bevins’s I’m Still Here

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‘Trump’s not welcome here!’: Protesters brave police blockades at Super Bowl

Donald Trump found himself rebuffed on multiple fronts at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, as did millionaire Gov. “Janky Jeff” Landry. The message of resistance sounded both inside and outside the Superdome. 

Despite heavy rain, more than a hundred protesters took to the streets, rallying first at Armstrong Park and then marching as close to the Dome as possible. This was difficult because police blocked routes to the Dome during the march. But a concentration of repressive forces had already been building in the city. 

After the New Year’s Eve terrorist attack and leading up to the Super Bowl (which makes the big tourism bosses a lot of money), the French Quarter has been turned into a military occupation zone. Racist governor Landry flooded the majority-Black city with state police and the National Guard. Checkpoints with armed guards have gone up in parts of the tourism-focused French Quarter.

Even with these hindrances, the crowd defied both Trump and Landry. Coming out at all was a big statement. We can’t give into fear. It’s time to fight. 

The people leading the resistance

The march was led by the very people Trump and Landry are cynically targeting, with many of these identities intersecting: queer and trans people; immigrants; women; youth; Black people; working-class people — the people who make up the vast majority.

Some organizers of the action were New Orleans for Community Oversight of the Police, Southeast Dignity Not Detention, New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Queer and Trans Community Action Project (QTCAP).

Chants included “Our bodies, our choice”; “Say it loud, say it clear, Donald Trump’s not welcome here”; “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re fabulous, don’t mess with us”; and many more. 

‘Trump and Landry are afraid of us’

A speaker with QTCAP said, “We know Trump and Landry are afraid of us. They’re cowards. When Landry finally agreed to do one debate while running for governor, we showed up outside the TV station in Lafayette and made a lot of noise. As soon as the broadcast was over, he got in his car and his driver sped him out of there!”

This writer was there. It was a bit like how Trump sped out of the Dome last night. 

Halftime show becomes a stage for resistance

Inside the Dome, Kendrick Lamar and other performers put on a showcase of Black talent and resistance during the halftime show. 

One of the performers heroically unfurled the flags of Palestine and Sudan before being seized and detained by security. The racist NFL bosses declared him banned for life, while the New Orleans Police Department said that they were “working to determine applicable charges” before finally announcing that he would not be charged. 

What an admission of malice and abuse of power! They were literally scratching their heads for a pretext. But apparently, displaying the flags of these two countries is not illegal yet.  

Community voices speak out

A New Orleans-area Palestinian community member told Struggle – La Lucha: 

“I applaud the man’s courage for taking a risk and showing unwavering solidarity for the Palestinian and Sudanese people during one of the country’s biggest events. Protests like these show that Palestine will remain a thorn in the imperial world’s side until it is free.”

Speaking to SLL, NOLA resident and Palestine-solidarity activist Kevin Ericksen said:

“That man’s action was like a shot in the arm. Thank you, thank you, thank you whoever you are!”

A 19-year-old south Louisiana woman summed up the night like this to SLL:

“This didn’t go how Trump planned at all. And I’m assuming that’s why some news stations added cheers over the boos when they showed Trump.” 

So, let’s learn from everyone who took a stand during the big game. Wherever Trump goes, let’s make sure he knows he’s not welcome.

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Latinx youth lead anti-Trump protests in Los Angeles

Organizers from the Harriet Tubman Solidarity Center gathered on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall on the morning of Feb. 7 to send a message that the people will not tolerate landlord price gouging in the wake of the recent wildfires. That was how the day began, but not how it ended.

Roughly five minutes into the press conference, a large, organized group of high school students approached City Hall carrying homemade signs and flags from various Latin American countries. The demonstration was entirely composed of local Latinx teenagers who attend a high school about a mile from City Hall.

Once the march arrived, the Harriet Tubman Center emcee, John Parker, took the initiative to combine the two events. He invited anyone interested to speak using the center’s amplified sound system. Many of the young people accepted the offer.

Most of those who spoke identified themselves not only as Latina, Latino or Latinx, but also proudly announced themselves as queer, gay or trans. So why had these students taken to the streets?

This demonstration followed a week of similar protests by Latinx youth, all denouncing Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy. The speakers at the Friday demonstration made it clear that they, too, took to the streets to protest what they called Trump’s fascist deportations directed at the Latinx community.

These are quite literally the children of people being deported. The week leading up to Friday, Feb. 9, saw protests of thousands that blocked highways, walked out of schools, and directly confronted police forces. All of these actions were organized and carried out by Latinx youth.

At the peak of the demonstration, Harriet Tubman Center organizer John Parker led the students in anti-Trump and anti-Elon Musk chants. Another political point raised at the demonstration, which had echoed throughout the week, was: No one can be illegal on stolen land.

What is now called the U.S. state of California is, in fact, stolen Mexican land. In 1846, the U.S. military invaded Mexico under the orders of President James K. Polk. The invasion’s goal was no secret. The U.S. invaded Mexican land in Texas and California to expand its markets fueled by slave labor and to strengthen the position of slave states as opposed to free states.

Further, anti-immigrant deportation policies did not begin under Donald Trump. The U.S. has a long history of xenophobic laws and violent anti-immigrant raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its predecessors. In fact, President Joe Biden broke Trump’s deportation record just last year.

For the U.S. government, whether led by a Democrat or a Republican, to deport anyone from land stolen from their ancestors for the purpose of strengthening chattel slavery is as evil as it is ludicrous.

All progressives must join the Latinx community in resisting Trump’s mass deportation policy. This expansion and escalation of Manifest Destiny cannot be tolerated, whether it is aimed at Indigenous, Palestinian or Latin American communities.

 

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Mexico: Pentagon to send another 1,500 soldiers to the border area

The Pentagon will send another 1,500 active-duty soldiers to the Mexican border to support President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, an American official said yesterday. This would bring the number of troops on the US-Mexico border to 3,600.

A logistics brigade from the Airborne Corps based in Fort Liberty, North Carolina, will be sent, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the matter in public.

The troops going to the border are expected to help install barbed wire barriers and provide necessary transportation, intelligence and other support to the Border Patrol. The logistics brigade will help support and sustain the troops.

The first group of 1,600 active duty soldiers has already been deployed to the border, and nearly 500 more troops from the 10th Mountain Division are expected to begin mobilizing in the coming days.

In addition, another 500 marines were deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to help prepare the facility for the arrival of a flow of detained migrants, he told AP.

Meanwhile, the Border Patrol said that schools and churches are not targets of their raids.

Texas governor, Greg Abbott, reported on his official website that as part of his collaboration with the Trump administration to deport and arrest migrants, he authorized his state’s National Guard to provide support to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to eradicate, arrest and assist in the detention and deportation of anyone who is here illegally.

“Let no one dare to violate our sovereignty!”

“Let no one dare to violate our sovereignty! Mexico is a free, sovereign and independent country,“ emphasized President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo before hundreds of people from Michoacán who gathered in the community of Zirahuén.

“You are not alone, you are not alone!” was heard on several occasions. It was the cry of the attendees who accompanied her to the ceremony to deliver fertilizers to this land, which produces one out of every three dollars from agricultural exports.

Faced with the current geopolitics, where the figure of the US president, Donald Trump, has created new bilateral relations, the president warned: “We Mexicans are always ready to defend our country”.

Faced with the Republican magnate’s threats to deport millions of undocumented people in the United States, including fellow Mexicans, the head of the executive branch reminded him:

“The United States would not be who it is without the Mexicans who work on the other side of the border.”

From this state — which for decades has been one of the main sources of migrants to US soil — Sheinbaum Pardo emphasized that although her fellow citizens across the northern border sent $65 billion dollars to their families last year, that figure represents barely 20 percent of their income.

“80 percent stays in the United States, (the Mexicans there) pay taxes and improve the US economy,” she emphasized.

Accompanied by Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla; the Secretary of Agriculture, Julio Berdegué, and other federal officials, the president affirmed that the president and the entire people will defend the compatriots and, in case they wish to return, ”here we embrace them.”

She emphasized the value of her fellow citizens: “We Mexicans are the best workers in the world, let no one say anything about Mexicans. The best farm workers? Mexicans. The best construction workers? Mexicans. The best factory workers? Mexicans. The best service workers? Mexicans.”

She pointed out that Mexico is strong because it has a history and a culture that comes from the original peoples, and from the heroes and heroines who built the nation.

And that description, of heroes and heroines, was given to the countrymen and women who earn their living day by day in the United States.

The head of the executive branch highlighted the program to provide free fertilizer to small producers. She recalled that it was former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador who promoted this project during the last six-year term and today it is a constitutional right.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – Buenos Aires

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Trump and his distant forerunner

By glorifying the figure of William McKinley, president of the United States between March 4, 1897 and September 14, 1901, Donald Trump is trying to find a universally acclaimed precedent for his controversial policies in the political history of the United States. McKinley was assassinated, Trump miraculously escaped the same fate on July 13, 2024 in Pennsylvania. But unlike the New Yorker, McKinley was a man of the political class. Except for a short period of two years (1869-1871) when he practiced law, he spent his entire life in the world of politics.

At the age of 33 McKinley entered the House of Representatives for the Republican Party. In 1890 he proposed and succeeded in getting a law passed increasing import tariffs. Shortly afterwards he was elected governor of Ohio and, in 1897, president of the United States. It was during his term of office that the country became a world power: he achieved the annexation of Hawaii by taking on the local government’s four million dollar debt and the following year he took advantage of the defeat that the Cuban mambises had inflicted on the Spanish army to get involved in the Cuban war of independence and seize the island, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. The pretext was to “provide aid” to the Cuban patriots, even though they didn’t need it. However, in order to strip Spain of its territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific, Washington needed to enter the war.

As the Cubans did not ask for their help, an incident had to be fabricated that would enrage US public opinion and justify US intervention. The self-inflicted attack on the battleship Maine, anchored in Havana Bay to evacuate the citizens of that country, which mysteriously blew up on February 15, 1898, precipitated the entry of the United States into a war that had already been won by the Cubans but was taken away from them precisely by McKinley. It was under his presidency that the United States went from being a regional power in Central America and the Caribbean to taking the first steps in the construction of a global empire.

And it is this man, McKinley, a supporter of economic warfare with his tariffs; of direct military action, as in the case of the war against Spain; or appealing to money to buy an island like Hawaii who, not by chance, has been repeatedly praised by Trump. It was he who, having defeated the Spanish monarchy in the Philippines and Guam, ordered Pentagon cartographers to include those two distant Pacific islands on US maps.

This brief sketch allows us to decipher and put into perspective some of Trump’s initiatives. For example, ordering the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. His blind faith in import tariffs has its most notable precedent in McKinley, only in today’s highly interconnected global economy such a policy is doomed to failure, and Trump himself will pay dearly for it. As an unscrupulous businessman he believes that everything has a price, that anything can be bought or sold. Patriotism, honor or dignity are meaningless words to the tycoon.

If McKinley acquired Hawaii, why not do the same with Greenland, especially when Denmark and European governments are displaying a scandalous apathy in the face of Trump’s outburst? Why not use economic blackmail to turn Canada into the 51st state of the United States? And although for now there would be no need for a self-attack – the current version of Maine – the lies, fake news and cowardice or passivity of many politicians can have the same effect. If George Bush convinced the world that there were “weapons of mass destruction in Iraq”, which was blatantly untrue, why would the powerful media apparatus that the United States controls on a global scale not be capable of deceiving half the world when spreading a lie as scandalous as “the presence of Chinese soldiers in the Panama Canal”, or that his administration is surreptitiously run by the Chinese Communist Party? Or to convince world public opinion that someone who enters the United States illegally is a criminal, as the serial liar Marco Rubio claimed?

Beyond these parallels, the truth is that with his bluster and contradictions Trump represents a danger to international coexistence and a return to the most brutal and brazen phase of imperialism. Those naïve souls who thought that it had disappeared, replaced by benevolent globalization, are now silent. Imperialism exists, and will continue to generate pain and death everywhere, destroying the environment, promoting wars and sowing poverty with both hands. Trump’s illusory attempt to resurrect US unipolarism, or “American superiority”, is a chapter closed under lock and key by the history of an international system whose current architecture has been radically and irreversibly modified in the direction of a multipolar power configuration, whose gravitation grows day by day.

Source: Cuba en Resumen

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