U.S. paramilitaries hunting immigrants

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

How does the rightist course of a bourgeois-democratic government (a
course that is essentially bipartisan even though the Republicans are
the preferred executors of policy these days) foster the development
of incipiently fascist formations, often in close collaboration with
the government and mainstream politicians.  Here is an example from
the southwest United States.

It's also worth recalling that the witch-hunt opened up by the liberal
Truman administration after World War II, and enthusiastically joined
by the liberal union bureaucracy, set the stage for the emergence of
the extra-establishment and in some ways anti-establishment
McCarthy-led  witch-hunt.  (Nixon's use of frame-up methods to jail
Alger Hiss as an alleged Soviet spy was a step in the direction of
this kind of incipiently fascist crusade.)

McCarthy emerged after the warlike course of the Truman administration
failed to block the victory of the Chinese revolution.  We should
expect some sharp and violent polarization, including in the
Republican Party and the administration,  to take place when -- not if
in my opinion -- the current war drive is stymied by  powerful
counterforces abroad and/or at home.
Fred Feldman


MEXICO SOLIDARITY NETWORK
EEKLY NEWS AND ANALYSIS FROM MEXICO
JUNE 2-8, 2003

US PARAMILITARIES HUNT IMMIGRANTS
Lawyers for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and
Education Fund (MALDEF) criticized the resurgence of
paramilitary groups in the Southwest that "hunt"
undocumented workers.  MALDEF was particularly critical of
Ranch Rescue, a paramilitary group that is active in
eleven states.  Ranch Rescue "recruits in magazines such
as Soldier of Fortune, in other words, they are
mercenaries that use high caliber weapons and night vision
equipment, and organize themselves along military lines,"
according to MALDEF.


Earlier in the week ranchers killed, 24-year-old
undocumented worker Jesus Vazquez Barrera in the Texas
desert, claiming they mistook him for a wild pig.  Ranch
hands responsible for the shooting took two hours to call
emergency assistance, and Vazquez bled to death by the
time help arrived.  On Tuesday, officials discovered the
bodies of three immigrants in a train in southern Texas.
The men apparently spent at least three days locked in
the train in sweltering temperatures.  And on Monday three
women, one only 12 years old, perished of dehydration in
the Arizona desert.