On The 50th Anniversary- Julie Christie and Alan Bates’ Film Adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s “Far From The Madding Crowd” (1967)

On The 50^th Anniversary- Julie Christie and Alan Bates’ Film Adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s “Far From The Madding Crowd” (1967)

DVD Review

By Senior Film Critic Sandy Salmon

Far From The Madding Crowd, starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Peter Finch, Terence Stamp, based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Hardy, 1967   

I am sure sometimes readers of these reviews must wonder why a certain film is being reviewed, especially older films which while a big deal in the old days may not seem classical enough to warrant coverage forty, fifty, sixty years later. There are many reasons for choices but for the film adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd there is one, and only one, reason. I had a big time “crush” on actress Julie Christie. That crush started not on this film but for her part in David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago about the turbulent period around the Russian Revolution and the early part of Stalin’s reign based on a book, a forbidden book under Stalin if I recall, by Russian writer Boris Paternak. If memory serves I almost lost a girlfriend, the girlfriend that I saw the film under review with, over my unbridled gushing on and on about Ms. Christie’s blue eyes (that gal’s eye were brown and she had come from an all brown-eyed world in Manhattan), figure (hers was very good as well but no young woman then, maybe now as well although body shaming is rightly considered social error, if not political liked to have some other woman’s body commented upon) and long blonde hair (hers again brown from that brown-eyed Manhattan Lower East Jewish quarters world). Not a good move no question but what could you expect of wet-behind-the ears high school student from New Jersey who was a “late bloomer” in the dating/sexual allure world.                

So much for young romantic love misadventures, although I rekindled that crush in re-watching this film so many not so young romantic misadventures since I went on and on to my longtime companion about those blue eyes (hers are brown) although she has that same ethereal beauty Ms. Christie had (and maybe still has since I have not seen her in anything recently). So maybe I am an eternal wet-behind-the ears guy. My big idea in taking this date to see this film is another little quirk I had. We had just finished reading Thomas Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge (Casterbridge the scene of many of Hardy’s novels) which I had been enthralled with, had devoured well before the class was supposed to finish the novel and I was trying to see if it was worthwhile for me to read the book this film was based on. I did that a lot then although now it is more likely to be the reverse, to read the book and then see the film adaptation which sometimes, actually many times, is not true to the author’s intention or plotline. That is a story for another day though.    

As Sam Lowell, the previous senior film critic now emeritus, is always found of saying let’s get the “skinny” on this one. Let’s get to why I was enthralled by Thomas Hardy’s novels and this film adaptation beyond short-cuts and Ms. Christie’s blue eyes. I grew up in the city, in urban Trenton (actually just outside but close enough to consider myself a city boy as did my friends) so reading about the rural life in 19^th century England was almost like I was reading a space adventure. The film in some scenes like when the shepherd Gabriel, Allan Bates’ role, loses all his flock when his sheep dog goes berserk and drives them over a cliff into the sea, or when Bathsheba’s, Ms. Christie’s role as the inherited from her uncle landowner, sheep come down with a disease that lays them low and harvesting wheat graphically showed what I had imagined when I read my first Thomas Hardy novel.         

But what we have here in this film is really well beyond some idyllic agricultural ideal a city boy had about the country. Let’s face it and deal with the real subject-the romantic endeavors of Bathsheba’s three, count them, three suitors and her attitude toward each one (and the reason that long ago almost lost girlfriend and the miffed longtime companion both loved the film). As noted poor girl Bathsheba inherited a landed estate from her deceased uncle. Being young and energetic she was determined to run the place herself and show what she was made of against the views of her fellow male landowners, male tenants and employees who believed she was in over her head. And at times, like that sheep sickness time, she relied despite her own judgement, she had to depend on Gabriel who after being spurned on his marriage proposal by Bathsheba before she inherited that land and losing his flock to that berserk dog found himself in her employ. Spurned love number one down.   

While tending to her land the precocious Bathsheba gathered in another suitor, the older bachelor neighboring landowner, Mr. Boldwood, played by Peter Finch, who developed a late life obsession about her. Spurned love number two. Along comes number three, a young man, Frank, played by bad boy Terence Stamp, a rather dashing cavalry sergeant and she is smitten beyond reason. (As was that almost lost girlfriend and that current longtime companion to Stamp’s blue eyes but I will just charge that to their respective reactions to my going on and on about Ms. Christie.) They eventually marry and this proves a marriage not made in heaven as he is something of a wastrel and philander. Or so it seemed until Fanny, a young woman from Bathsheba’s estate, whom he had gotten with child as they used to say delicately in the old days and was to marry came back to claim her man. Too late since she was very ill and passed away along with that child she bore. That began Frank’s gnashing of teeth over her death and he subsequent alleged drowning at sea.

End of story for the widowed Bathsheba (although since the body was not found she would have to wait the legal seven years in order to remarry). Or so I would think. Re-enter that besotted Boldwood and another marriage proposal. Spurned again. End of story now. Well no that bastard Frank actually had not died but had taken off for parts unknown and wouldn’t you know showed up just when Bathsheba was ready to conditionally accept Boldwood’s marriage proposal. End of Frank as the enraged Boldwood pulled the old rooty-toot-toot and he fell down. Off to the gallows and probably some measure of relief for the unlucky Boldwood. You can’t have a romance end on a sour note, or at least you couldn’t in a 19^th century romantic novel so with two departed lovers finished dear fickle, there is no other word for it, Bathsheba finally, finally gets under the sheets with Gabriel something that kept getting telegraphed throughout the movie as they threw those meaningful glances as each other. And maybe Ms. Christie batted those blues eyes. A fine if long film version of well-done book.           

   

From The Partisan Defense Committee- Native Americans Targeted Free Dakota Access Pipeline Activists!

From The Partisan Defense Committee- Native Americans Targeted  Free Dakota Access Pipeline Activists! Workers Vanguard No. 1143	2 November 2018

Native Americans Targeted

Free Dakota Access Pipeline Activists!

Six Native Americans who two years ago protested against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota today are facing years-long federal sentences. The Standing Rock encampment, which attracted thousands of American Indians and environmental activists in late 2016 until its dismantling in February 2017, was brutally assaulted many times by police, National Guardsmen and private security thugs, with over 800 arrested. The Water Protector Legal Collective reports that 132 state criminal cases are still active. We demand: Drop all the charges against the protesters now!

On 27 October 2016, cops used pepper spray, rubber bullets, Humvees, armored trucks and bulldozers in an attempt to clear the encampment, arresting more than 140 and leaving over 50 injured. One of those arrested that day was Oglala Lakota Sioux activist Red Fawn Fallis, a respected leader and medic at the camp whose family includes a number of American Indian Movement (AIM) members. As she was pinned to the ground by several burly cops, a .38-calibre revolver at her waist went off. Lucky to survive this assault, she was slammed with three federal felony charges, including discharge of a weapon, which carries a sentence of ten years to life. She took a plea deal and was sentenced in July to 57 months on the lesser charge of possession and is incarcerated in Texas.

Michael “Rattler” Markus, Michael “Little Feather” Giron, Dion Ortiz and James “Angry Bird” White were charged with starting fires during the cop offensive of October 27—a federal offense that carries a minimum of 15 years. Three have now been sentenced on civil disorder charges to 16 or 36 months. In a subsequent attack by state forces on 19 January 2017, Navajo student Marcus Mitchell was shot in the face with a bean bag pellet. He lost sight, feeling and taste on his left side and his spine was severely damaged. For surviving, he was charged with criminal trespassing and is due in federal court on November 5.

The capitalist state vendetta against these American Indians is the latest racist atrocity committed by federal authorities against the indigenous population. Indeed, the frame-up of Fallis is straight out of the FBI’s standard playbook. The gun that discharged during her arrest belonged to her then boyfriend, Heath Harmon, who has since been exposed as an FBI informant tasked with spying on AIM. Red Fawn’s mother, Yellow Wood, founded the Colorado chapter of AIM and protested forced sterilizations of American Indian women, among other issues. Her uncle is an AIM spokesman in Colorado today. Documents acquired by journalist Will Parrish and published on The Intercept website show that Red Fawn was targeted by state forces—they literally had her photo on the wall chart.

In the 1970s, AIM and the Black Panther Party were marked for murderous repression under the FBI’s COINTELPRO, which used infiltration, surveillance and disinformation to “neutralize” these organizations. Notable among the leaders of AIM who languish in prison to this day is Leonard Peltier. Framed for killing two FBI agents during a government assault on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975, Peltier has been consistently denied parole because he steadfastly refuses to admit guilt for a crime he did not commit.

With the Feds throwing the book at the American Indian DAPL protesters, most were compelled to accept non-cooperating plea deals on lesser charges. Another factor was the prevalent racism against Native Americans in the area; a survey of jury-eligible locals showed that the vast majority assume they are guilty or are biased against them. As Michael Markus explained: “Having a fair trial in Bismarck was going to be impossible,” adding, “If you go to court in North Dakota, you are going to get convicted.” Indeed, it was an all-white jury in North Dakota that convicted Leonard Peltier even though prosecutors later admitted, “We can’t prove who shot those agents.” Free him now!

American capitalism was built on the brutal dispossession and near genocide of the indigenous peoples. Having pushed the Sioux onto a reservation established under the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the federal government stole large chunks of the reservation land later in the 19th century, including a stretch of 35 miles that the DAPL goes through. The Sioux are owed substantial compensation for this historic land grab.

As for the DAPL itself, Marxists had no reason to either support or oppose it. Oil pipelines serve a socially useful function of transporting fuel and are overall safer than other forms of oil transport. Protesters expressed concern that the reservation water supply will be polluted by a leaking pipeline. Cutting corners to boost profits is the name of the game for the energy barons, as it is for the capitalists in every industry. What is needed are fighting unions that enforce safety standards and practices in construction, operation and maintenance. Then, both those living near pipelines and workers on the job would be better off.

To this day, the reservations are blighted by poverty and desperation. At the same time, much of the indigenous population now lives in America’s cities and is a component part of the multiracial proletariat. We seek to build a Leninist workers party that will unleash the social power of the working class in defense of all the oppressed, on the road to sweeping away the capitalist system and establishing a workers government. Such a government would immediately spend the money to provide a decent life for those who have suffered most under capitalism, not least Native Americans and black people. It would ensure the social emancipation of American Indians, promoting their voluntary integration on the basis of full equality while providing the fullest possible regional autonomy for those who desire it.

The Partisan Defense Committee, the legal and social defense organization associated with the Spartacist League, has contributed to Red Fawn’s legal defense. Details on how to write to the prisoners, contribute to their commissaries and donate to the legal defense of the protesters can be found at waterprotectorlegal.org.

As We Pass The 1st Anniversary Of The “Cold” Civil War In America-A Tale Of Two Boston Resistance Events –Join The Resistance Now!

As We Pass The 1^st Anniversary Of The “Cold” Civil War In America-A Tale Of Two Boston Resistance Events –Join The Resistance Now!

By Si Lannon

The headline to this piece is something of a misnomer as the “cold” civil war in America as I have been calling the great expanding divide between left and right, the oppressed and the oppressor (and its hangers-on including, unfortunately, a not insignificant segment of the oppressed), the haves and have nots and any other way to express the vast gulf, getting wider, between those siding with white rich man’s power and the rest of us, since this cold civil war has been building for a couple of decades at least. The Age of Trump which started officially one year ago though is a pretty good milestone to measure both how far we of the left, of the oppressed, have come and to measure the responses by the oppressed (the ones not hanging on to the white rich men) a year out in Year I of the Age of Trump Resistance.

Two local signposts, let me call them, stick out this weekend of January 20^th. One, the Women’s Rally on Cambridge Common on the 20^th organized to commemorate the anniversary of the historic Women’s mega-rally and march in Washington and it’s gigantic satellite event on Boston Common, The other a cultural/political event organized by Black Lives Matter and its allies held in the historic Arlington Street Universalist-Unitarian Church in Boston on the 21^st.

Those two events which I attended in person in my capacity as a member Veterans Peace Action (VPA, an organization which my old friend Sam Lowell who will take the spotlight below got me involved in as fellow Vietnam War veterans) while they share some obvious over-lapping political perspectives to my mind represented two distinct poles of the resistance as it has evolved over the past several years.

No one, including I assume the organizers of the Women’s Rally, expected anything like the turnout for the 2017 Inaugural weekend event on the Boston Common or else they would have had the event on the Common so I did not expect a tremendous turnout. That event could not be duplicated and moreover over the year some of the anger over the Trump victory, etc. and maybe just plain horror and discouragement would have sapped some energies. However the several thousand who showed up represented a good turnout to my mind.

What I didn’t expect was the rather celebratory feeling that I got from the crowds as the poured into Cambridge Common from the nearby Harvard MBTA subway stop. I was positioned along with a number of my fellow VPAers as volunteers to insure the safety of the crowds and any threaten action by the Alt-Right who were said to be “organizing” a counter-rally at the Common as well. (In the event that small clot of people were isolated and protected by the Cambridge police without incident. We kept our side cool as well.)

That celebratory spirit, rather unwarranted given the defeats on our side over the previous year from Supreme Court justice to DACA to TPS to a million other injustices, flowed into the main thrust of the rally. Get Democrats, get women Democrats, elected to public office and “scare” the bejesus out of Donald J. Trump and his hangers-on. In other words the same old, same old strategy that the oppressed have been beaten down by for eons. Like things were dramatically better for those down at the base of society, down where everybody is “from hunger” with Democrats. Worse though than that pitch for the same old, same old was as the younger radicals say “who was not in the room, who had not been invited.” Who didn’t show up for the “lovefest” if it came to that. The representation on the speaker platform, always a key indicator of whose agenda and whose buttons are being pushed, looked like the old-time white middle-class feminist      cabal that has been herding these women-oriented political events for years to the exclusion on the many shades (and outlooks) of people of color. Not a good sign, not a good sign at all a year out when we are asking people in earnest to put their heads on the line for some serious social change.

Fast forward to the very next day at Arlington Street U-U Church in Boston where a Black Lives Matter event, co-sponsored by Veterans Peace Action, was held to a infinitely smaller crowd around black cultural expression and serious political perspectives. The cultural events were very fine, rap, music, poetry slam put on by skilled artists in those milieus. Interspersed in between those performances was very serious talk, egged on by the moderator, about future political perspectives, about the revolution, however anybody wanted to define that term, In short a far cry from what was being presented and “force-fed” in Cambridge the previous day.             

Now it has been a very long time since, except in closed circle socialist groups, that I have heard about the necessity of revolution (again whatever that might mean to the speaker), so it was like a breath of fresh air to hear such talk in Arlington Street Church, a place where legendary revolutionary abolitionist John Brown spoke, to drum up support for his Kansas expeditions and the later Harpers Ferry fights against slavery. Listening to the responses, as Sam Lowell who attended with me noted later, the missing links to the 1960s generation, to our generation, the last time a lot of people seriously used the word revolution, have left the younger activists in various states of confusion. That will be worked out in the struggle as long as people keep the perspective in mind. What bothered Sam, and me as well although I could not articulate it like him, were two points that seemed to have been given short shrift by the various talkers.

I was going to enumerate them but why don’t I let my recollection of what Sam said (edited by him before posting so very close to what he actually meant) to the gathering after listening to some things that as Fritz Taylor from the South, another VPAer and Vietnam vet used to say- “got stuck in his craw.” Sam had not intended to speak since he, we, thought the event was to be totally a cultural one so he kept it short but also to the point, to our collective agreement point:

“Hi, I am Sam Lowell for Veterans Peace Action (VPA), a co-sponsor of this great event. I didn’t expect to speak since I thought this would be solely a cultural event. But some comments here have got me thinking. First a quick bio point or two-like one of the sisters who performed I grew up in “the projects,” a totally white one, although still “the projects” with all the pathologies that entails and I have remained very close to those roots my whole life whatever successes I have had in breaking out of those beginnings. Early on, don’t ask me how or why, I came to admire John Brown, the white righteous avenging angel revolutionary abolitionist who fought slavery tooth and nail out in Kansas and later, more famously, at Harpers Ferry slave insurrection. He was, is, my hero, my muse if you can use such a term for avenging angels.      

A couple of points. One speaker mentioned a litany of oppressions which had to be eliminated by us, by society, by us as the most conscious of things like patriarchy, racism, classism, gender-sexual preference phobia for lack of a better term, a term that I could use anyway, capitalism and so on. What I have noticed though as people here have tried to struggle with all of that and come up with some kind of strategy is what Lenin, and others, have called imperialism, our American imperialism, which means against all the oppressed of the world we are “privileged” Americans privileged no matter what oppressions we face in this society.   

On this point I will bring back from the dead two important quotes from the legendary revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara-“it is the duty of revolutionaries to make the revolution.” We cannot spent our precious lives “purifying” ourselves of all the oppressions and all the ways we, in turn act as oppressors, so we are “worthy” of the revolution while the world outside this room suffers from our wrong-headed sense of liberation struggle. Second “we who are in the heart of the beast,” who are in America have a special obligation to bring the monster down. To fight the fight now and to be there when the masses rise up in righteous indignation.    

Second and last point. One speaker a few minutes ago mentioned that it seemed impossible that we could win against, 

I assume she meant the American ruling class, through the route of violent revolution so she projected by non-violent alternative which seemed to my ears rather utopian. She mentioned that the other side, the ruling class, had the heavy military advantage and so that route was precluded. That statement showed a lack of “imagination” which is the theme of this event. No question right now an armed uprising would be ruthlessly crushed. But when the masses rise and are determined a funny thing happens at least if you read history. The military splits along officer and soldier lines, the fighters of the war, the grunts, either go over to the people or go home. The cops go into hiding. 

 I would use the example of the Vietnam War which a lot of Veterans Peace Action members are very familiar with. At some point around 1968, 1969 the troops, the grunts on the ground in Vietnam, hell, here at home too began to essentially “mutiny” against the war in fairly big numbers. That army became unreliable, was in many ways broken both by the futility of fighting a determined enemy and vocal opposition at home. And that was not even close to a revolutionary situation but will give you an idea what that situation would look like as the masses rise. If it ever happened where will you be? Thank you.        

From The Secret Files Of American Left History-The Cats' Meow

From The American Left History Archives -Why Must I Be A Golfer In Love -Scenes For Frosty Frog Pond Golf Course

From The American Left History Archives- Free Reality Leigh Winner -Sign The Pardon Petition At Stand With Reality

From The Veterans For Peace Archives- Veterans Reclaim Armistice Day in Boston Sunday, November 11, 2018 Armistice Day Parade and Peace Event

Veterans For Peace

For Immediate Release

Veterans Reclaim Armistice Day in Boston

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Armistice Day Parade and Peace Event 

The Boston Chapter of Veterans For Peace, the Smedley D. Butler Brigade will be having their Armistice Day Parade in Boston this Sunday. The parade will begin on the corner of Charles and Boylston Street beginning at 1:15 pm. The parade will circle the Boston Common and proceed to Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Sam Adams Park, where there will be an Armistice Day Peace Event with speakers and music starting at 2:00 pm.

Over 100 local Boston area churches will be ringing their bells at the 11^thhour in partnership with Veterans For Peace to celebrate Armistice Day as a Day of Peace.

Veterans For Peace has taken the lead in lifting up the original intention of November 11th – as a day for peace. As veterans we know that a day that celebrates peace, not war, is the best way to honor the sacrifices of veterans. We want generations after us to never know the destruction war has wrought and continues to reek on people and the earth. 

On the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, signaling the end of World War 1, the Armistice went into effect.  Congress responded to a universal hope among Americans for no more wars by passing a resolution calling for “exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding … inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.” Later, Congress added that November 11th was to be “a day dedicated to the cause of world peace.”  On June 1, 1954, Congress changed the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day.  This year, on November 11th, Veterans For Peace chapters and their allies all over the country intend to restore the tradition of Armistice Day.

“We want to change the focus of the day from militarism to it’s original intent as a day of peace” stated Dan Luker the Coordinator of the Boston Chapter of Veterans For Peace. 

SmedleyVFP.org

Francis Crowe is now 99 years old, and has spent many of those years as an effective peace activist -- AH] Francis Crowe: No one wins a war

[Francis Crowe is now 99 years old, and has spent many of those years

as an effective peace activist -- AH]

Francis Crowe: No one wins a war

 

·         

Frances Crowe at her home in Northampton, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018. —STAFF PHOTO/JERREY ROBERTS 

By Frances Crowe

Friday, November 09, 2018

During the Vietnam War, I knew I had to act when our teenaged son Tom and some of his classmates from Williston Academy stood around our kitchen unsure that they wanted to be conscientious objectors. That marked a turning point for me. I knew I had to raise awareness about the evil of war.

I decided to act on my profound belief that morality prohibits war and killing. I had studied psychology and advertising during my college and post-graduate years, and I recognized subliminal persuasions about patriotism, heroism, and service that encouraged support for the U.S. military.

I wanted to confront the distortions and encourage young men to search their consciences and recognize their own reluctance to kill. I wanted them to realize that the military exists to kill, and I wanted to assist them in filing for status as conscientious objectors in the face of the draft. The government would assign some COs to alternative service, and some COs would be exempted from service.

In order to begin my work, I took a workshop about conscientious objection for a weekend with the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO) in Philadelphia and another about group process at the University of Massachusetts.

No one wins a war, including one waged by an all-volunteer military as employed and deployed by the United States today.

Pacifists and realists warned us against the ill-advised invasion of Afghanistan 17 years ago when we began the war there in the wake of attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Our unresolved interventions in Central America, South America, and the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Syria perpetuate devastation, displacement, rape, pillage, and a heart-rending, widespread refugee challenge that divides public opinion and, by itself, threatens world peace.

U.S. military spending amounts to 54 percent of the federal budget, according to National Priorities Project. The U.S. military budget exceeds the combined military budgets of the next seven highest military spenders in the world: China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, United Kingdom, India, France, and Japan, in order of their expenditures. In a vicious circle, Saudi Arabia, the UK, and Japan buy much of their military hardware from us.

In any war, arms traders prosper along with their investors in the face of sacrifices by taxpayers, those targeted by war, and those trained by the United States to constant combat-readiness. Despite attractive prospects advanced by military recruiters, men and women who volunteer and deploy to fight our wars rarely find promised rewards without strings attached.

Suicide, post-traumatic stress, homelessness, readjustment issues, and employment challenges meet returning veterans. A June 2018, U.S. Veterans Administration report cites 20.6 military or veteran suicides every day, 16.8 daily by veterans and 3.8 daily by active-duty personnel, amounting to 6,132 veterans and 1,387 service members who die annually by suicide. At least 10 percent of deployed veterans return with PTSD, according to the VA.

Some 30 percent of veterans returned with PTSD from our war in Vietnam, where the U.S. accepted defeat after some two decades of war that took almost 60,000 US lives and millions of Southeast Asian lives. We fought the Vietnam War with conscripted or drafted soldiers, all men at the time, as well as those who enlisted in all branches of the military.

The Selective Service System supervised the draft, and U.S. towns and cities each had a group of citizens, the draft board, to select and induct young men for military training. The military then taught inductees to use weapons and kill before assigning them to war-related duties.

By 1967, soon after our family moved into our smaller house in Northampton as our children left to further their educations, I was ready to embark on my quest to assist young men in announcing to their draft boards and to U.S. society that “War is not the answer.”

A 1977 Gazette article described Frances Crowe as “a long-time anti-war activist.” The founder of the American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts, Crowe continues her pioneering peace work today.

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[SocialistWorker.org] Solidarity rises up to greet the caravan in Mexico

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11/12/2018 5:42 PM

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Mike Heichman <mikeheichman@verizon.net> sent you an article from SocialistWorker.org:

http://socialistworker.org/2018/11/12/solidarity-rises-up-to-greet-the-caravan-in-mexico

FYI from Mike Heichman

Report from Mexico

Solidarity rises up to greet the caravan in Mexico

Afsaneh Moradian, Bea Abbott, Héctor A. Rivera and Brian Napoletano report from Mexico and the U.S. on the progress of the migrant caravan through Mexico — and on the inspiring displays of solidarity at every stop that set an example for activists in the U.S.

November 12, 2018

DONALD TRUMP has been demanding for weeks that Mexico prevent the Central American migrant caravan, now numbering some 5,000 people, from reaching the southern border of the U.S.

Instead, on its journey through Mexico, the caravan has been met with solidarity and love, not scapegoating and hate.

The migrants fleeing violence, repression and poverty in Central America received substantial support from the communities they pass through, including popular mobilizations that at times compelled local officials to also provide assistance, despite the government’s traditional hostility to migrants.

This is a welcome contrast to the militarized reception that the Trump administration — along with neo-fascist movements inspired by Trump — are preparing at the U.S. border.

Central American refugees continue their journey across Mexico

Such solidarity is an important source of hope. If the popular support and mobilization for the caravan was able to compel Mexico’s authoritarian government to avoid overt use of force against the migrants — at least so far — then supporters of the migrants in the U.S. can take confidence that that their initiatives can have an effect as well.

This response of ordinary people in Mexico is unsurprising for a number of reasons.

Trump’s racist and xenophobic attacks on Mexicans themselves have encouraged a deeper sense of solidarity with the rest of Latin America — and attempts by Republicans to demonize people in the caravan as invaders, terrorists and criminals has actually drawn more attention in Mexico to the real reasons people are fleeing: extreme poverty and political marginalization.

Plus, Trump’s claims that Mexico was doing nothing to stop the caravan get little traction in Mexico, where the government’s role as a junior partner in U.S. efforts to prevent Central Americans from reaching the southern border are widely recognized.

Hence, the demands that outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto take steps to block the caravan created a difficult situation for an already hated politician, since the open use of force at the behest of Washington risked a backlash against an administration that already has the reputation of resorting to violence against all threats.

Any attempts made by the Peña Nieto government to halt or demoralize migrants through police barricades and abductions prompted strong denunciations from political, religious and other leaders demanding that the Mexican government stop acting as a “watchdog for U.S. interests.”

The incoming president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO), who takes office on December 1, has declared that he “will not do the United States’ dirty work” on migration, and while AMLO is not as radical as the U.S. media make him out to be, Mexico will be less likely to act as a border guard for Washington.

---

MORE IMPORTANT to the caravan’s progress than anything the government has done has been the surge of solidarity from communities all along the way in Mexico.

The caravan defied federal police in riot gear and armed with tear gas at the border crossing into Mexico at Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, on October 20, and again faced a force of 700 federal police on the highway to Tapachula, who finally withdrew when the migrants came within 200 yards.

The caravan reached the city of Mapastepec in Chiapas around October 25, where volunteers from the Morelia campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico who were delivering aid reported being amazed by the way in which community members organized to provide food and shelter to the thousands of migrants — despite widespread evidence of poverty and neglect by the state in the community.

The volunteers described the solidarity shown as a moving but absolutely necessary response to the heartbreaking conditions of the migrants, many of whom are families with young children, including one couple with a 21-day-old infant.

The next day, while the caravan was moving on from Mapastepec, Peña Nieto apparently decided to shift from attempts at direct force to a more conciliatory posture. The government announced its “Estás en tu casa” (You are in your home) plan, which offered medical attention, schooling for children and regularization of legal status for migrants, all provided they did not leave Chiapas or Oaxaca.

Reports on the number of people who accepted Peña Nieto’s offer vary widely — Mexican authorities claim to have granted nearly 3,000 temporary visas, while Denis Omar Contreras of Pueblos sin Fronteras (People Without Borders) stated that 99 percent of the migrants rejected the proposal. Clearly, the main body rejected it and continued onward.

When the caravan, then numbering more than 7,000 people, arrived in Juchitan in Oaxaca on October 30, the city mobilized to provide food and shelter.

Juchitan was badly damaged during the earthquake in September 2017 that killed 98 of its inhabitants. But even as parts of the city remain in disrepair, the local government, members of Section 22 of the Oaxaca state teachers’ union and others organized relief efforts for the caravan. That same day, the main body of a second caravan arrived in Mexico.

Despite xenophobic calls by some to ignore the caravans, residents of Juchitan provided support. Many recalled how migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and elsewhere stopped on their way to the U.S. border to help dig victims out of the rubble in the aftermath of the 2017 earthquake.

An entire bus terminal was turned over to be temporary housing for the caravan, and health care professionals arrived to provide medical attention. The second caravan received the same hospitality when it arrived on November 5.

It was here in Juchitan that members of the caravan decided, by democratic vote, to split into two groups. One group continued to travel through Oaxaca en route to Veracruz, and the larger group went on a more direct route to Veracruz.

Once there, the migrants were offered transportation to Mexico City by state authorities, but in the end, most migrants got to the capital by riding on the backs of trucks and trailers making the trip or in other vehicles passing through the state.

---

THE MAIN body of the first caravan arrived in Mexico City early in the first week of November. The migrants were provided temporary shelter in the large Complejo Deportivo Magdalena Mixhuca (Magdalena Mixhuca Sports Complex) east of the city.

Here, they remained for the week, resting and regrouping for the second half of the journey ahead, while discussing next steps and voting on how to proceed in nightly assembly meetings.

The bulk of the caravan’s members slept in large tents inside the stadium, while those who could not find space or arrived later slept in the bleachers and in makeshift tents scattered around the property.

The LGBT Migrant Solidarity group of Mexico City, including LGBT Quakers, also organized to welcome LGBT members of the caravan.

These activists reported being overwhelmed by the sight of the caravan itself. Most people had been walking for three weeks, and were nearly destitute when they arrived. Most had no sweaters to protect them from the cold, high-altitude weather of Mexico City. Very few had blankets, either. The blankets some possessed were flea-infested and in tatters. But whatever they had, the migrants shared.

After a meeting with the LGBT Quakers, an assessment of the particular needs and wants of caravan members was undertaken. Volunteers discovered that retroviral HIV treatment, STD tests, condoms and numerous other medical supplies were needed. Within 24 hours, LGBT organizations of Mexico City had begun responding. Volunteers report an Occupy-style atmosphere of organic solidarity.

Many trans women also requested deodorant, shampoos and makeup. Volunteers answered this call, too, and were disappointed to learn of machista discrimination against LGBT groups in the caravan. They have made extensive efforts to ensure that future queer migrants would be warmly received.

At a forum organized for these groups to speak publicly about their issues, queer migrants, heartened by the support they received, began chanting; “Trans resistance is here!”

Greater Mexico City has more than 23 million inhabitants, and the caravan arrived at the peak of a citywide “corte de agua” (water outage), with a majority of population without running water for over a week as the city struggles to repair its failing infrastructure.

Nonetheless, Chilangos (the nickname for people from or living in Mexico City) were very hospitable. Indeed, many are no strangers to such a dangerous journey.

At the stadium, volunteers delivered supplies, provided massages and haircuts, made fresh tortillas, and offered daycare and games for children. Mariachis entertained crowds of people, and food trucks gave out food.

The city government, as well as big NGOs like Oxfam, Save the Children, the Red Cross and UNICEF, had a presence at the stadium, but the fact that the migrants in the caravan were themselves running the show was never in doubt. Collectively, caravan members have been making major decisions and articulating their demands to local governments and NGOs.

This included an effort by 200 caravan members who traveled to the UN offices in Mexico City on November 8 to try to negotiate buses to carry them further north. By the next day, it became clear that the UN was unwilling to provide such assistance, and members agreed to set out on the second half of their journey on Saturday morning.

After receiving free transportation via metro to northernmost part of Mexico City, migrants again set out on foot for the next leg of their journey to Querétaro, and from their eventually to the Tijuana-San Diego border crossing. Meanwhile, two subsequent caravans reportedly met up and merged while on their way to Mexico City.

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THOUGH IT is around three times the distance to the nearest border crossing into McAllen, Texas, caravan members decided to travel to Tijuana because the route is believed to be somewhat safer.

Even so, the caravan will face brutal weather and will have to pass through areas where migrants are frequently abducted by criminal organizations operating in the region.

The massive growth of the narcotics industry in Latin America to service the U.S., along with the “drug war” promoted by Washington, has allowed cartels to seize control of most rural municipal governments, effectively splintering the countryside into what researcher Claudio Garibay Orozco describes as a matrix of competing narco-fiefdoms, frequently at war with one-another.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has intensified control over a limited number of border crossings, contributing to the increased violence in the north of Mexico — though the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border has done virtually nothing to halt the flow of drugs.

These are the conditions that the caravan will face now. Given their precarious social status and political marginalization, migrants passing through these fiefdoms are particularly vulnerable to extortion and random aggression, including the horrific levels of femicide near the border.

Migrants are also frequently forced by cartels, under threat of death, to act as drug mules — and then they are labeled and treated as criminals by U.S. authorities.

It was just such threats that forced many of the migrants in the caravan from their homes in Central America. Banding together for the journey, rather than attempting to reach and enter the U.S. individually or in smaller groups, will hopefully increase the chances of migrants reaching the U.S. alive.

But these are still grave and intolerable risks in the caravan — and that is not to mention the threat they face at the border, including the deployment of the most powerful military in the world.

Nevertheless, the solidarity for the caravan shown across Mexico is inspiring, and it should encourage our efforts in the U.S. to build solidarity. Protests and actions in the U.S. should not only oppose the Trump administration’s cruel response at the border, but illuminate the policies and actions of the U.S. government in Latin America that contribute to forced migration in the first place.

Forced international migration is a vital question for the international working class, as the living conditions of workers everywhere continue to deteriorate and as the ruling classes of numerous nations become increasingly reactionary in their efforts to channel popular dissent into nativist and xenophobic outlets.

In these conditions, internationalist politics are more important than ever. As the Mexican people have shown, the necessary solidarity is already present, waiting to be mobilized.

Further reading

• Elizabeth Schulte

  Fear and loathing and more fear

  The Republicans’ campaign strategy is ramped-up racist scapegoating of immigrants — but the Democratic “opposition” is all but silent.
• Rory Fanning and Spenser Rapone

  Refuse to follow Trump’s orders

  Two antiwar veterans call on U.S. soldiers to defy their orders if they are called to the Southern border to confront the migrant caravan.
• Tyler Zimmer

  Will Trump sign an ethnic cleansing order?

  When Donald Trump talks about ending birthright citizenship, he’s playing a dangerous game — and we have to take him seriously.
• Danny Katch and Khury Petersen-Smith

  Their courageous caravan needs our solidarity

  Trump and the racist right have put the migrant caravan at the center of U.S. politics, and the Democrats are ducking. The left has a duty to respond.
• Kristen Kelley

  The many victims of Trump’s war on refugees

  Presidential slander against the migrant caravan is only the tip of a vicious spear aimed at asylum seekers around the world.

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Solidarity rises up to greet the caravan in Mexico

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