''Path to Citizenship'' into What ? - An Anarchist take on the Politics of Nativo Lopez.

by Semper Indomitus
An anarchist criticism of the politics of Nativo Lopez and the positions taken by the U.S. ''far left'' vis a vis the ongoing ''immigrant rights revolution''.

The aim of the so-called ''immigrant rights revolution'' currently sweeping the United States is NOT to ''liberate'' the immigrants but to integrate them into the political economy of American capitalism. This is the ethos behing the ''path to citizenship'' rethoric emanating from the wing of the immigrant movement led by Nativo Lopez. Curiously enough, the International Socialists are backing this position, while the ''Anarchist'' NEFAC remains mute. The erstwhile ''far left'' once more capitulates principle in order to accomodate itself to the fashionable currents of social democratic movementism.

The ''immigrant rights revolution'', should push for the creation of COOPERATIVE SPACES outside the private sector economy and the State; so that the immigrants can then be free to engage in autonomic associations in the social experience of EMANCIPATION. In this way, the immigrants who are ''undocumented'' would not need to depend on the private sector for ''jobs'' (exploitation) and/or on the State for recognition. The movement should not look for legitimation outside of itself, it should legitimise itself by creating counter-institutions. IT SHOULD BE A MOVEMENT OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. Breaking with the ''democrat'' party is an essential task. Reliance on the Law is a mistake. The law is not and can never be Justice. The language of ''legalization'' must be transcended.

The aim should be to ABOLISH the Migration Control System and The ''Homeland Security'' Gestapo. The immigrant movement in this sense could then merge with anti-war currents and movements seeking to defend Civil Liberties and Human Rights against the Patriot Act. The aim should be to break an unjust system and not seek to assimilate people into it. The Migration Control System and the Laws that institutionalize it must be broken. To legitimize migration control is to legitimize injustice.

I do not want a ''residence permit''. I want absolute freedom to come and go as I please whenever I please as I feel like it. To settle and unsettle myself wherever I please. In fact, I already HAVE that freedom - it is only that the State acts to restrict it arbitrarely. The solution for Undocumented Immigrants in The United States, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan is NOT ''integration'' into the spectacle of Western neo-liberal capitalism and racism, but rather CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.

Semper Indomitus !
anifesto of a Migration Control Outlaw