By Huey Dessalines

TUCSON: Scott Warren, a 37 year old geography teacher and progressive activist working with migrant support group No More Deaths/No Más Muertes, was found not guilty Wednesday of felony charges of harboring and conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants. Warren was arrested in January, 2018, after a reactionary snitch tipped off Border Patrol agents to migrant support activities being carried out at a locale called “The Barn”. From this location, Warren and other activists with No More Deaths/No Más Muertes offered food, clothing, and warm beds to migrant workers, children, families, and others who crossed the border. This aid is provided in the spirit of solidarity and support for fellow workers and human beings in need, forced to emigrate from their countries of origin by the policies of the reactionary Amerikan state which is the number one enemy of the people of the world.

According to No More Deaths/No Más Muertes, hundreds of people have died in the Arizona/Mexico border region since 2001. Border Patrol agents have treated this nonviolent, progressive, religious organization as enemy number one since its inception in 2004, destroying water and food supplies left for migrants trekking through the desert, displaying disregard and callousness towards the masses of migrants. The United States regularly violates basic legal prescriptions regarding migrant rights as established by the OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner – Human Rights) at the United Nations. These basic rights violations that the USA regularly engages in are: denial of civil and political rights such as arbitrary detention, torture, or a lack of due process, as well as economic, social and cultural rights such as the rights to health, housing or education…

The denial of migrants’ rights is often closely linked to discriminatory laws and to deep-seated attitudes of prejudice or xenophobia. It is ironic, but not surprising, that the USA which hosts the UN and oftentimes throws its economic, political and military weight around to influence this supposedly objective organization is committing the very same human rights violations that it routinely attacks small states in the Third World for allegedly violating to justify attacking these countries either unilaterally or with a coalition of junior imperialist states such as Israel, the UK or the EU countries. The work of progressive organizations such as No More Deaths/No Más Muertes is important not just because of the material assistance that it provides to the masses of migrants driven to immigrate here because of havoc stirred up in places such as El Salvador and Honduras by this imperialist State, but because of the important work that it does in documenting the crimes of this State.

No More Deaths/No Más Muertes is an official ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson. Religious organizations with a progressive character that are willing to go toe to toe with Yankee imperialism in opposition to its crimes on the legal front deserve credit where it is due, and should be included in United Front work led by a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Party. However, activists should be consistently educated and struggled with in regards to the policy of pacifism and social peace/reformism that many of them have incorporated into their philosophy. Communists establish a reputation for supporting material assistance efforts but also for not mincing our words when errors/repression happens such as in the Warren case. Only through revolution can the conditions that No More Deaths/No Más Muertes works so vigorously to fight be eradicated once and for all. We encourage readers to donate to the work of this life-saving organization.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images