United States: communist interviewed by WSJ sets the record straight

The Wall Street Journal interviewed comrade Mia Jimenez – a member of the Revolutionary Communists of America in Los Angeles – for a June 11 article titled “A Veteran, a Construction Worker, a Communist: The Many Faces of the L.A. Protests.” Naturally, the Journal’s coverage was shallow and skewed by bourgeois ideology. Comrade Mia gives her side of the story below.

[Originally published at communistusa.org]

At the anti-ICE protests on June 9, a reporter from The Wall Street Journal approached me for an interview.

The main question was, “What does the RCA have to do with the immigration protests?” I explained the capitalists want us working for as little as possible, so they can make more profits. Legal restrictions on immigration mean undocumented workers are more exploitable and forced to work for lower wages. Other workers must compete with them for jobs on the labor market, driving down wages for the working class as a whole.

He asked if I thought there should be an easier path to citizenship. I reiterated that the purpose of criminalizing immigration is to maintain the class enemy’s profits and no worker should be terrorized for the “crime” of crossing an arbitrary border.

Then he asked if my parents are immigrants. I said they came from Mexico and El Salvador. He asked if they are here illegally, which is a pretty invasive question. I told him my mom was a refugee from the Salvadoran Civil War, and both my parents are citizens. “So, this is more personal for you,” he said, “rather than political?”

I could already see the kind of story he wanted to write. I said, “The main reason I’m here is political. I’m here because capitalism is the reason I can’t retire or own a home, and why the climate crisis is happening.”

After all the care I took to be clear, the article was completely watered down. According to the Journal, I am merely a critic of the “US political system” and “spreading the word” that communism would “fix” things.

We don’t expect to read the truth in the favorite paper of American finance capital. What really matters is that the RCA is building a revolutionary party which can smash ICE by smashing capitalism!