Blood Red Lines
How Nativism Fuels the Right
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
An engaging and reflective look at how austerity and the billionaire class paved the way for Trump's presidency, the rise of the "alt-right," and the caging of migrants children and adults in detention centers across the country. For all of the energy that the far right has demonstrated-and for all of the support that they receive from institutional conservatives in the GOP and affiliated organizations-the United States is experiencing an upsurge in left-wing social movements unlike any other in the past half-century, with roots not in the Democratic Party but Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter.
Drawing on his original reporting as well as archival research, O'Connor investigates how the capitalist class and the radical right mobilize racism to defend their interests, while focusing on one of the most pressing issues of our time: immigration.
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Journalist O'Connor debuts with a searing and wide-ranging investigation into "the relationship between capitalism and white supremacy" and "the machinery of exploitation and oppression used by the ruling class" in America. He claims that U.S. owned factories in Mexico ignored government orders to close during the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in worker deaths; details links between the 1970s environmental and population control movements and today's most strident anti-immigration think tanks; and documents how technologies developed by Palantir, a surveillance company cofounded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, have been used to conduct workplace immigration raids and investigate adults who come forward to claim unaccompanied children detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite the powerful people and vast fortunes behind the nativist agenda, O'Connor finds hope in recent protests against ICE and police brutality, and the rise of left-wing politicians including congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He endorses German communist Clara Zetkin's 1932 call for an "iron-like community of struggle of all working people," envisioning a broad-based coalition of progressive groups to defeat "today's border fascism." Though the book's focus wanders and its Marxist ideology feels somewhat half-baked, O'Connor's impressive research and investigative skills shine through. Liberals will cheer this impassioned manifesto.
