Several public events marked the 43rd anniversary of the death of Chinese-American draftsman Vincent Chin, who was beaten to death by a Chrysler plant superintendent, Ronald Ebens and his unemployed son, Michael Nitz, outside a bar in Detroit. The anniversary takes place amid concerted moves by the Trump administration to impose a police state in the United States to enforce his program of mass deportations of immigrants, who are being blamed for all the social ills created by capitalism.

Chinese nationals in the US, including students and scientists, are being targeted for alleged spying on behalf of Beijing. The climate of bigotry is not just being fanned by the fascist Republicans, but is also being stoked by the Democratic Party and the labor bureaucracy in the United Auto Workers and other unions.

The brutal killing of Chin took place amid an earlier wave of anti-Japanese hysteria whipped up by the UAW and Democratic Party officials, who scapegoated Japanese workers for supposedly “stealing” American jobs. The UAW has never acknowledged, let alone apologized for its role in fueling anti-Asian hate.

On June 19, 1982, Ebens and Nitz instigated a fight with Chin, who was celebrating his upcoming wedding with friends at a bar. The two men thought Chin was Japanese. After they were thrown out of the bar Ebens and Nitz hunted down Chin and assaulted him with a baseball bat. Ebens reportedly told Chin, “Because of you (expletive) we’re out of work.”

The pair never served jail time for the murder. They were convicted only of manslaughter and sentenced to three years probation and a token $3,000 fine. A subsequent conviction of Ebens on federal civil rights charges was later overturned on appeal.

The official ceremony in Detroit marked the unveiling of a secondary street sign honoring Chin approved by the Detroit City Council. The event was addressed by representatives of Asian American civil rights groups as well as local Democrats, including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Reverend Horace Sheffield III, whose daughter Mary, is seeking to replace Duggan when he steps down at the end of the year.

The official speeches lacked both content and context and were more remarkable for what was not said than what was said. There was only one brief reference to the role of the Trump administration in promoting bigotry, by Democratic Detroit City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero. But she did not mention that the vicious scapegoating of immigrant workers is being aided and abetted by the Democrats, who support the crackdown on “illegals.”