Free the Prairieland Prisoners
Free the Prairieland Prisoners
Posters supporting the Prairieland Defendants outside the courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas.(Sara Van Horn)
ICE acts with impunity. Immigrant workers, families and communities are left defenseless. And in the absence of organized workers self-defense based in union halls trained, organized and disciplined to keep workers and communities safe we see well-intentioned activists leading confrontations with the state. It is organized Labor that has the muscle to confront ICE terror with mass pickets and put them to rout!.
The working class makes society run….or not.
The principle defense organizations (AFL-CIO etc.) of the great mass of U.S. workers have not interposed physically to prevent a single legal outrage perpetrated by ICE. The pretty sentiments nor the sensitive legalistic remarks the union leadership has released never restrained a fascist goon of the capitalist state or any paramilitary. That would take mass pickets and organized defense. The Trumpsters aim to criminalize dissent altogether. For workers to live, imperialism must die!
“On July 4, 2025, protesters had gathered at the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, to oppose immigration enforcement practices and show support for detainees, using fireworks and noise-making as their demonstration method — a traditional form of protest in solidarity with incarcerated people. When local police responded to ICE’s call to remove the protesters, an officer reportedly suffered a neck injury that authorities attributed to a gunshot. Prosecutors have only identified two individuals as alleged shooters despite the broad scope of arrests. Following the demonstration, federal authorities launched an extensive investigation that resulted in charges against 16 individuals known as the Prairieland Defendants, and harassment of their extended friends, families, and neighbors.” (Support the Prairieland Defendants)
“We have a verdict.
Everything about this trial from beginning to end has proven what we have said all along: this is a sham trial, built on political persecution and ideological attacks coming from the top.
The state never had a case. The state only has its intimidation, torture, and suppression. The federal government came out in force: using repression, terrorism charges, home raids, multi-million dollar bails, and torturous jail conditions.” (The trial is over)
The Communist Workers Group (CWG-USA) extends unconditional support and solidarity to the Prairieland Defendants. We demand that the sentences of all the Prairieland Defendants be overturned and that all be released immediately! We call on the international working class to mobilize in solidarity to demand their release. Labor actions with teeth are needed: militant, mass mobilizations in the streets and Labor political strikes. Free all class war prisoners!
It was the Communist International that created the International Labor Defense (ILD) as the world-wide defense organization of the workers and oppressed. They were prominent in defending Sacco and Vanzetti and later the Scottsboro Boys. It is this type of United Front organization that is needed today to meet state repression and the bosses’ attacks. The ILD provided legal defense and organized fundraising, but they also initiated mass defense actions.
The lack of mass organized working class response today against ICE and Federal terror can be directly tied to lack of revolutionary workers leadership, notably a workers party. Mumia Abu-Jamal has languished for decades in prison, and there is also the example of the Black Panthers who were murdered by the cops and the Feds. And others have been jailed for 50 years or more. A fighting Workers/Labor Party that stands as the :”tribune of the people” would organize and fight tirelessly nation-wide and internationally for their exoneration and release. Such a party with a base in the unions would be organizing the workers’ self-defense, Labor/Black/Brown Self-Defense Guards to confront ICE/CBP terror and drive them from our workplaces and our communities. These self-defense units will be backed up by Labor strikes that will send the unmistakable message to the capitalist ruling class that workers are serious and that we stand by the principle that an “Injury to One is an Injury to All!”
Don’t think for a minute that the scapegoating of immigrants and the fascist trampling of constitutional rights at home are not connected to the dying empire striving to protect its imperialist hegemony, the petrodollar and the pedo-bourgeoisie!
Free All the Prairieland Defendants and All Political Prisoners!
Smash ICE/CBP terror! Organize Workers Self-Defense Committees to Build Workers Self-defense Guards!
Build Strike Committees! Build Towards a General Strike!
Build a Fighting Workers/Labor Party! For A Workers’ Government!
For an International Workers United Front Against Imperialism and Fascism!
Victory to Iran! Hands Off Venezuela, Ecuador and Cuba!
March 20, 2026 CWG-USA
