A United Front of the Working Class: San Joaquin County Stands Together Against the Persecution of Immigrants and the Intimidation of Workers

Across the country, immigration enforcement and police surveillance disrupt daily life in neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and churches. Our coworkers and our neighbors are questioned and detained with little regard for fairness or due process. Though we are not seeing the same level of activity as Chicago and Los Angeles, we must not let that make us complacent.

We are farmworker committees, tenant unions, religious congregations, and union members in San Joaquin County. Our commitment is simple: this is our Central Valley, we will protect one another, and we will act together.

A united front brings together working-class organizations around shared goals. It is independent of the two major parties and institutions of the capitalist class. This is not a popular front that subordinates us to the program or candidates of the Democratic Party. We cooperate with those who respect our independence and the leadership of working-class organizations.

Large corporations, and their allies in government, impose exploitation and war abroad, forcing millions to migrate to survive. The same ruling class then blames immigrants for crises caused by corporate greed, hoping to fracture the working class and keep wages low. When undocumented workers are kept in fear, employers can threaten deportation to crush organizing and drive down pay. That hurts the entirety of the working class. The answer is not to turn on each other; the answer is to unite and fight the bosses together.

Both parties answer to big money. Republicans campaign on open attacks against immigrants and unions. Democrats offer kinder words but have presided over mass deportations and expanded enforcement, while leaving working-class cities to shoulder costs of migration without support. The result is predictable: people already struggling with housing and services are pitted against new arrivals for resources neither group should have to fight over. We reject the propaganda that our only choices are one party's cruelty or the other's empty promises. We build independent, organized working-class power.

The immigrant struggle cannot be confined to viral slogans as if words alone could change reality. Outbursts of energy must be converted into patient, disciplined organizing rooted in workplaces, neighborhoods, schools, and congregations. We must explain our situation clearly, do the hard work, and persuade.

We fight to defend San Joaquin County, and a country, where every worker can live and work with dignity, safety, and equal rights.

• Due process and civil rights
• Freedom of speech and association
• Real enforcement of labor rights for all workers, regardless of status
• Citizenship for all who are already here and real pathways to citizenship for future immigrants