The Revolutionary Meaning of the George Floyd Uprising by Shemon Salam Arturo Castillon

Author:Shemon Salam, Arturo Castillon [Shemon Salam, Arturo Castillon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781988832951
Google: o2VBzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Daraja Press
Published: 2021-02-15T04:17:22+00:00

The Latinx Proletariat

Whereas the first civil war was basically a Black and white affair, the second US civil war would be much more complex. The greatest demographic difference between the first civil war and the second civil war is the growth of the Latinx proletariat. As of today, Latinx people account for 18.5% of the population, and there are more Latinx people in the country than there are Black people. To the extent that Latinx proletarians make up a disproportionate part of the agriculture sector, what they do in a revolutionary crisis will be decisive, since they have the potential to counterbalance the racism of the mostly white countryside. The Latinx proletariat could play a vital role in a revolutionary process, because they are in exactly those industries which will be needed to feed the revolution.

Masses of proletarians from Latin America have migrated to the so-called United States and have become a cheap labor force for American capitalism, working in the lowest paying jobs. They are hunted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and under the constant threat of deportation. The abolitionist framework of the uprising is ripe for resisting ICE and other apparatuses of deportation. Antagonism with ICE has been a feature of the overall uprising. Even before the eruption of the George Floyd uprising, undocumented prisoners were already rebelling against the poor sanitary conditions in ICE detention centers.

Yet, at the same time that they occupy a highly precarious position within the US class structure, Latinx proletarians are simultaneously wooed by whiteness and can display strong anti-Black tendencies. Most immigrants are taught all kinds of anti-Black garbage. Much of the immigrant rights movement and their emphasis on immigrants being good, law abiding, hard workers easily slips into anti-Blackness.

Like all sections of the working class, the Latinx proletariat has many contradictory tendencies. The term “Latinx” is itself a fairly loose and broad term, one which fails to capture the internal dynamics and contradictions of any community that might be defined as such. Divisions of gender, ethnicity, class and nationality result in different political and economic relationships to capital and the state. Another important contradiction is how Latinx US citizens view undocumented immigrants. There is a sizable portion with papers who view undocumented immigrants as criminals who skipped the line. These and other contradictions will have to be worked out in the process of mass revolutionary activity.

While much of our analysis focuses on Black and white relations within the proletariat, it is undeniable that the Latinx proletariat would be a decisive force in a civil war scenario, particularly because so many Latinx workers currently work in some of the most important industries in the country, especially farms and food processing centers. While we are inspired by the fact that a layer of Latinx proletarians participated and fought alongside Black and white proletarians in the 2020 riots, the deepening of this shared struggle is not at all guaranteed. To begin with an assumption that darker skin color automatically translates into political unity is a gross simplification.

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