https://themilitant.com/2019/08/10/do-el-paso-killings-show-a-rise-of-white-supremacists/
Do El Paso killings show a rise of white supremacists?
??By Seth Galinsky
Vol. 83/No. 30
August 19, 2019
Is the massacre of Latinos at a Walmart in El Paso by a rightist killer
a sign that ???there are more and more angry white people out there
willing to commit mayhem???? as columnist Paul Krugman asserted in an Aug.
5 New York Times article. Are ???white supremacists,??? racism and
anti-immigrant hatred rising as many liberal commentators allege?
Patrick Crusius, 21, murdered at least 22 people and injured another 24
when he opened fire at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 3. There
were as many as 3,000 people shopping and 100 employees inside the store
at the time. According to one witness he shot people ???aisle by aisle,
with rage.???
Kianna Long, who survived the massacre, told CBS that workers at the
store stopped to hold doors open, helping people inside get out and
escape the slaying.
The store is close to the international bridge that crosses the border,
and is popular with large numbers of Mexican-American families as well
as families coming from Mexico. Working people in El Paso frequently
cross over to Ciudad Juarez for cheaper medical care. And many residents
of Ciudad Juarez go to school or work in El Paso.
At least seven of those killed or injured were Mexican nationals. Many
of the rest are from families that have lived in Texas for generations.
Some, like Arturo Benavides, 67, a bus driver, were U.S. army veterans.
Anti-immigrant manifesto
Police say that just minutes before he started shooting, Crusius posted
an anti-immigrant statement online saying, ???I support the Christchurch
shooter and his manifesto. This attack is a response to the Hispanic
invasion of Texas.??? He claimed to be ???defending my country from cultural
and ethnic replacement.???
The ???Christchurch shooter??? murdered 50 people at two mosques in New
Zealand March 15. He was a rightist terrorist and self-proclaimed
???eco-fascist,??? who called Muslim immigrants an ???assault on our
civilization.???
The liberal media made a big point of saying Crusius??? statement echoed
anti-immigrant comments by President Trump.
Beto O???Rourke, trying to salvage his presidential campaign, blamed Trump
for the attack, saying the president ???is a racist and he stokes racism
in this country.??? Candidate Elizabeth Warren said, ???We need to call out
the president himself for advancing racism and white supremacy.???
Trump tried to present himself as taking the moral high ground. ???In one
voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,??? he
said two days after the Walmart shooting and another in Dayton, Ohio,
where nine people were shot dead and 27 wounded Aug. 4.
The president seized on the mass killings to call for bipartisan support
for giving the cops and FBI ???whatever they need??? to combat ???hate crimes
and domestic terrorism.??? He also proposed expanding use of the death
penalty. But Crusius, charged with murder, already faces the death
penalty under existing laws.
As struggles by working people pick up in the future as the bosses
intensify their assaults, more working people will come to see that the
real target of stepped-up police spying and executions by the state is
not terrorists, but the working class.
Trump also called for extending ???red flag??? laws that exist in some
states. These vary, but can allow people to request a court order to
prevent someone they know and consider a threat from accessing firearms.
Many liberals called for further ???gun control.??? But undermining the Bill
of Rights, including the right to bear arms, to free speech and
assembly, to a speedy trial, undercuts protections that are needed for
defending the interests of the working class.
Less racism today
Anti-immigrant prejudices are continually fostered by the capitalist
rulers as they attempt to divide working people, hoping to sap our
capacity to struggle against their attacks on living standards and job
conditions. But it???s not true that there is growing racism and prejudice
against immigrants. In fact, there is less racism and anti-immigrant
sentiment among working people, the consequence of the defeat of Jim
Crow segregation by the mass Black rights movement in the 1950s and
???60s, which continues to be felt today. As native- and foreign-born
workers live and work alongside each other, anti-immigrant prejudices
begin to break down.
Liberal Democrats have pointed to President Trump???s anti-immigrant
rhetoric, which is aimed at bolstering the bosses??? attempts to divide
working people.
While the Democrats??? rhetoric may be different, their actions are not.
Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama deported more immigrants than Trump.
And Joe Biden, the leading Democratic Party candidate for president, has
said that immigrants without papers in the U.S. ???should have to get in
line [to apply to stay]. That???s the problem.??? All of this encourages
scapegoating immigrants for the social and economic crisis of capitalism.
Despite the bipartisan anti-immigrant policies of the Democrats and
Republicans, deportations are not popular among many workers.
???Working people need to denounce every attack on immigrants who are
fellow workers,??? said Lea Sherman, Socialist Workers Party candidate for
New Jersey General Assembly. ???The answer to the bosses??? attempts to
divide U.S.- and foreign-born workers is to demand amnesty for all 11
million immigrants in the U.S. without ???official??? papers. This is not an
???immigrant??? question. It???s needed to unite the working class and put us
in a better position to organize the unorganized and rebuild a fighting
union movement.???
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???New prime minister vows to take UK out of EU
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???UK gov???t fails to maintain dam, threatening homes
???Condemn anti-Semitic shooting in Miami, says Socialist Workers Party
???NYPD ponders firing cop 5 years after Eric Garner killing
???Do El Paso killings show a rise of white supremacists?
???Asia-Pacific Cuba solidarity conference held in Nepal
???Gibson family vows to continue their fight
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Letters
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George Carlin
??? Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe,
and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they
have to touch it to be sure. ???
??? George Carlin