Problem is: we don’t have a party to vote into power that will heed the voice of the people who voted them in: the Obama administration promised comprehensive immigration reform in its first year. On May Day 2010, after more than a year of Obama’s inaction on his promise, hundreds of thousands of us marched in more than 100 cities in the U.S. against ICE raids in Latin@ workplaces and communities, against deporations, for immediate regularization of immigration status for all, against ‘guest’ worker programs, against I-Verify checks and for comprehensive immigration reform and all we’ve gotten is more of the same.

What the working people of the United States need is an independent labor party beholden to no one but the people who vote for it, not to corporations, oil companies (e.g. BP) and banks that are ‘too big to fail’. Only an independent labor party will, ultimately, wrest power from the twin parties of tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum and put it in the hands of miners, smelter workers, teachers and other union workers who stand in defense of their rights and of their immigrant sisters and brothers regardless of their immigration status.