On September 17, the Pennsylvania-Ohio Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee met, discussed and passed the following resolution condemning the fascist violence being directed against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

The committee is made up of educators in Pennsylvania and Ohio, including educators that work and live in the Springfield area.

The committee was formed in 2020 to protect educators and students from the impact of the COVID pandemic and the push first of the Trump and then the Biden administrations to reopen schools without proper safety measures.

To find out more and join the rank-and-file committee, fill out the form below.

The Pennsylvania-Ohio Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee condemns the fascist violence being whipped up against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance.

We stand for the unity of all workers without regard to nationality, race, sex or gender. We oppose all attempts to divide the working class. We commit to organize educators to oppose fascist violence against immigrants and any other scapegoats for the plight of educators and all other sections of workers.

The working class of all countries faces a common enemy in the ruling class. It is the ruling class that is seeking to make the working class pay for their crisis through unemployment, cuts in education and social services, destruction of living standards and ultimately with war.

There is absolutely no truth to the claims of Trump and Vance that immigrants are eating pets. Both Trump and Vance are well-aware that these claims are false. Vance has admitted as much on national television. Rather, their aim is to whip up fascist violence against the whole working class.

Since promoting this claim, which first originated from Nazi organizations and was amplified by Trump at last Tuesday’s presidential debate, there have been over 33 bomb and other terrorist threats made against the people of Springfield, forcing the closure of schools and city office buildings. The threats have also impacted many adjacent buildings throughout Springfield that have also had to close.

Trump and Vance have called upon their supporters, including the fascist Proud Boys, to come to Springfield, Ohio.

Students are facing growing police presence in their schools. Every morning, schools are searched for bombs. Midday, schools have had to be evacuated as parents rush to pick up their children.

For immigrants there is no guarantee of safety as they face continued threats to their lives.

It is not immigrants but the fascist violence of Trump and Vance which threatens the lives of residents of Springfield, Ohio. Trump has also expanded the attack to Aurora, Colorado, and other cities.

This is a small sample of the scope and violence that will be unleashed throughout the country, no matter who wins or loses the November elections. Just as Hitler and the Nazi Party scapegoated the Jews for the crisis of capitalism in the 1930s, Trump and his supporters are seeking to scapegoat the immigrant population for the crisis of capitalism today.

Educators and other workers can place no faith in the Biden administration, a future administration of Harris or the courts to prevent this violence or prosecute Trump and Vance for their role in instigating threats and violence.

In a statement this past Saturday, Biden merely issued a pathetic statement saying that this narrative is “simply wrong” and has “no place in America.”

“This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop,” he added, referring to Trump.

In an interview Tuesday, Harris echoed Biden’s appeal to Trump, saying, “It’s a crying shame,” and appealing to Trump and Vance to be more careful about what they say on a national stage.

This is reminiscent of the appeal that Biden made of Trump during the January 6 riot and attack on the Capitol, begging Trump to call it off.

Both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have thrown their full backing behind the election of Harris and other Democrats in the November election. They seek to continue to tie educators and the working class to the two-party system.

The election of Harris will not stop the growth of the right wing. If elected, Harris has pledged to continue the crackdown on immigrants and people seeking asylum. During last Tuesday’s debate, Harris did not call for the defense of the Haitian immigrants but instead called for tougher border measures. She blamed Trump and the Republicans for not supporting a bill earlier in the year to increase spending on more border police.

Neither party has an answer to the growing crisis of the capitalist system, which is responsible for the attacks on living standards and war. 

In fact, the attack on immigrants is ultimately connected with the ongoing wars, the US-NATO proxy war against Russia and the US support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The US ruling class seeks to use its military might to reassert its control of the world’s resources. But to wage war abroad also means the waging of war at home.

Socialist Equality Party presidential candidate Joseph Kishore stated, “Trump is promoting and the Democrats are abetting the fascist provocation against immigrants in Springfield and elsewhere because they fear the threat that a united movement of the working class will direct its anger against capitalism.”

The Pennsylvania-Ohio Educators Rank-and-File Safety committee will work to warn educators of the growing danger represented by this attack on immigrants in Springfield and will work to unite the working class of all nationalities in a common struggle against the capitalist system.

We call upon all educators: teachers, paraprofessional, counselors, librarians and other support personnel to take a stand and denounce this attempt to incite fascist violence against the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, in particular and the immigrant community in general.