Los Angeles on the Brink of Civil War

By Nelly Mary

A “controversial” decision, “legally questionable” and “with unpredictable consequences,” according to the U.S. press.

On June 7, Donald Trump called in the National Guard to intervene against demonstrations
opposing raids by ICE, federal immigration police, in Los Angeles.

To understand what happened, we need to go back to the beginning. On the morning of June 7th, an alert was posted on social media: ICE agents had been spotted in the streets of Paramount, a working-class suburb of Los Angeles with a predominantly immigrant population.

Following this, workers gathered to protest and clashes broke out between demonstrators, on one side, and the Los Angeles police and ICE, on the other.

During the preceding week, ICE had arrested several dozen immigrant workers, including David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) of California.[1]

Rapidly, Trump declared that this was an “insurrection” and decided to send 2,000 National Guard troops to “liberate Los Angeles from the invasion of migrants.

This decision, widely criticized, is part of Trump’s crackdown on immigrants since his return to the White House, which recently led him to ban citizens of citizens of twelve countries from entering the country. … The deployment of the National Guard is far from unanimous within the capitalist class itself, however, starting with the governor of California himself, Democrat Gavin Newsom.

Not everyone is happy about the march towards civil war that Trumpis rushing into.

And the arrival of the National Guard has only amplified the clashes: on Sunday, June 8, many protesters converged on the federal building where ICE detainees are being held. New clashes broke out, sometimes leading to shots being fired at protesters and causing several injuries.

If the deployment of the National Guard is so widely criticized, it is because this decisionis usually made at the request of state governors. This is not the case here, where Trump decided on his own, against Newsom’s advice, to deploy the National Guard. For the governor of California, this is an “illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional” decision that calls into question the sovereignty of the state.

Others, in the Democratic camp, accuse Trump of wanting to divert attention from the crisis his own administration is facing after his break with his main ally, Elon Musk, was revealed to the public.

Mobilization continues, including a number of trade unions, as almost all of the “undocumented” are workers. Its demands: free the arrested workers and activists, withdrawal of the National Guard, end to ICE raids, and repeal of all anti-immigrant measures by Trump and his predecessors!

To achieve this, a question is being asked: Will all workers’ organizations, at all levels,
mobilize around these slogans?

Breaking news: on June 9, Trump announced the deployment of 700 Marines to
Los Angeles. We will return to this.

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[1] Union representing 2.2 million employees in the public and hospital sectors.