GUNFIRE IN TUCSON

This is an important article which can give us needed perspective about the recent events in Tucson. It is written by George Shriver:

TUCSON, Arizona ---- This state has become a symbol of hatred. intolerance, bigotry and violence -- especially after the signing of the Arizona Senate Bill SB 1070 last April which in effect authorized racial profiling. That law is now going through a lengthy process of court challenges and appeals.

Unfortunately, while the immigrant rights movement continues to organize and build the fightback against SB1070 it has not become sufficiently powerful. It has not acquired a mass base, nor a mobilized union movement. Most unions declined to back the call for a boycott against SB 1070. After the midterm elections of November 2010 it seemed that the racist forces had been strengthened.

Now in January 2011, the government-promoted atmosphere of hatred, violence and dehumanization (mainly against Mexicans and generally against people of color) has boomeranged

On January 8, Jared Lee Loughner, a mentally unbalanced and possibly drug addicted white 22 year old from a middle class suburb of Tucson lashed out and killed 6 people and wounded at least 13 in a deliberate assassination attempt aimed at a white politician, U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She is a pro corporate "Blue Dog" Democrat recently re elected to the House of Representatives. Giffords was at a shopping mall to meet with constituents. The assassin brazenly ran up and opened fire - reportedly with a Glock 9mm semi automatic pistol with a high capacity magazine holding more than thirty bullets.

Without necessarily being aware of it, the assassin was acting out the messages of hatred and intolerance encouraged by the U.S. Federal and Arizona State governments. These policies have been pursued with heightened intensity since the introduction of NAFTA in the 1990's. At the same time that NAFTA was pushed through by the twin parties of the capitalist ruling class - both Democrat and Republican - they began a deliberate policy of militarization of the border.

This promoted the idea that the solution to problems is to take up the gun, use force and violence. i.e the military. The U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan give the same message. If there is a problem, shoot! Or wipe people out with predator drones. In April 2010 the top official of the U.S. Government, Barack Obama, declared it was all right for the government to assassinate U.S. citizens. What an example to set from the highest office in the land. What Martin Luther King said in 1967 is truer than ever: "The U.S. Government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world".

Interestingly, it was reported that Loughner had tried to join the military but was rejected because he failed a drug test.

But let's take a closer look at the impact of the government militarization policy on the Arizona border. Isabel Garcia, a leader of the immigrant rights movement in southern Arizona, pointed out that the assassination attempt and the killing of six people were directly related to the policy of border militarization: "These senseless deaths are a result of a border policy that has been building since 1994. This policy has propelled the growth of fear, hate and violence. Over 5,000 migrant deaths, shootings and continual violence are a direct result of this policy."

The militarization policy took the form of blocking off traditional crossing routes through populated urban areas in California and Texas. As a result they were funneled into the inhospitable and dangerous desert regions of Arizona.

These migrants are essentially "NAFTA refugees". An estimated six million peasant farmers in Mexico, growers of maiz, have been driven off the land, unable to compete against U.S. government subsidized corporate agribusiness, which under NAFTA was allowed to flood the Mexican market with cheap corn. The ruined farmers are forced to seek work where ever they can. Large numbers attempt to migrate north to the U.S. in search of jobs.

But the U.S. government dehumanizes these migrants, labels them "illegal aliens" Washington takes no responsibility for the social impact of its NAFTA policies or for having used militarization to funnel migrants into the deadly desert. Meanwhile the public in Arizona is made callous and hardened, inured to the ongoing cruelty. And many are frightened by the stream of impoverished migrants coming through the Arizona desert. They do not understand how and why they have been driven to make this desperate journey and have no compassion for them.

The government policy of ICE raids also suggests to the public that extreme and inhumane measures are necessary. A few years ago, self appointed vigilantes, inspired by hatred of Mexicans and under the impression that such actions were officially approved, invaded the home of a Mexican American family near the border south of Tucson. The family members were U.S. citizens living in the small town of Arivaca in full legality. The vigilantes killed the father of the family and the 9 year old daughter.

No great outpouring of rage greeted that action. No visit by a U.S. President to southern Arizona to protest the killings. The corporate owned media and capitalist establishment actually look with tolerance, even with favor on the vigilante types and encourage the hysteria and hatred voiced by these racists.

The Obama administration pursues equally dehumanizing , though less blatant, anti immigrant policies. Rather than denouncing and opposing the racist policies of the state legislature in Arizona, Obama and company act in a similar manner. The White House web site brags that an unprecedented 400,000 "illegal aliens" were deported in 2010. After the signing of SB1070 he sent thousands of National Guard troops to the U.S. - Mexico border, as if to say to the racists, "Yes, this unauthorized immigration is terrible and must be stopped by any and all means, including military violence." Obama even bragged that "we now have more boots on the ground on our southwest border than ever before in history".

In the background of this recent assassination attempt, building up for nearly two decades has been the U.S. Government promoted message of divisiveness, dehumanization and carte blanche for military-type violence.