I am a student at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Labor and Urban Studies and I am graced to be a part of the great struggle being led by students against imperialist and domestic state terror. From the encampments for Palestine to the walk outs against ICE, the students inheriting this world are exclaiming the loudest that things must change. They are leading the charge to counter the lies of the state, and their bravery is inspiring even more people to take to the streets to fight back.

As a product of this historic moment, as an active participant within it, and as someone who knows we can’t do it alone, I implore the labor movement to add all of its forces to the struggle against ICE and to use its power to shut society down, because this is your struggle too. The strikes on January 23, even though they were not a complete shut down of the city of Minneapolis, nonetheless sent shockwaves throughout the nation and chills down the spines of Trump and his pathetic cronies in ICE and the CBP. January 30 was a continuation of this popular enthusiasm; however, the labor movement was far less involvement.

Living in this era of genocide, the kidnapping of the president of Venezuela and the bombing of residential areas for the sake of advancing the interests of oil companies, and the brazen kidnapping of people by state agents like the days of slavery has left immigrants, people of color, and the working class of the U.S. and the world scared, uneasy, anxious, and pissed off.

We are pissed off that our lives are so callously thrown away, that we and our loved ones can find ourselves dehydrated and dying in a holding cell after being snatched off the street heading to school or trying to find work.

We are pissed when we’re forced to watch merchants in our neighborhoods who are like family to us be snatched and disappeared by the state.

We are pissed off and scared when we are forced to watch our neighbors be shot in the face for resisting state oppression.

We are pissed off that the Trump administration thinks it can throw its will around, crushing our communities and stripping our right to speak and organize and that is why we are in a moment hyper-organization.

Black youth like myself are tired of walking around in fear of the police, of ICE, and state violence. Minneapolis showed the way forward in 2020, refusing to accept another police murder, setting off the massive 2020 Black Lives Matter uprising. And now, Minneapolis is rising up again, and inspiring the country to do the same. Grassroots committees of community members in Minneapolis are organizingICE patrols and a nationwide student movement is taking to the streets to express solidarity and carry that same fight into their communities.

The mass shutdown and protests in Minneapolis, which were supported by many unions, revealed the power of solidarity and self-organization. It is because of that power that Trump terminated Gregory Bovino in an attempt by the administration to placate the movement by offering a despot on a slab in hopes that we will stop and that his administration may continue its offensive across the country. This is further illustrated by Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan’s decision to withdraw 700 ICE agents from Minneapolis — an objective retreat by the state due to the movement’s strength.

We forced the state to acknowledge our power and their fear of it, showing us just how powerful the combination of the youth movement and the labor movement can be and giving us insight on how much more we can win if we can deepen that alliance.

Now is not the time to be scared or hold back. Now is not the time for the labor movement to limit ourselves to statement of support. Students of higher education, like those at CUNY, should join the wave of student walkouts happening across the country. Other Unions across the country like the PSC at CUNY and the United Federation of Teachers, should join the call for mass shutdowns in solidarity. Together, we can raise the call to kick ICE out of MInneapolis, to kick them out of our schools, and to abolish them and the Department of Homeland Security that terrorizes working class communities and communities of color.

Now is the time for us to acknowledge our strength and seize on its potential. Now is the time for labor to fully commit itself to the movement and follow the lead of the courageous students and community members taking up fiercely the fight against the cowards of ICE. Now is the time for bigger and louder labor contingents in our marches.

Now is the time to call for a nationwide strike against state terror to defeat Trump and his big bad state with the power of our alliance.

The post Open Letter from a CUNY Student to U.S. Labor Unions: Join the Fight Against State Terror appeared first on Left Voice.

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