Ken, you state the case succintly..... immigrants must be stopped from
arriving, otherwise all us US workers are going straight to Hell. And
you quote the Book of Marx to do it!
Thirty years ago, I worked with Mexicans that didn't speak a word of
English, in construction and factory jobs in Houston. � � Today,
when you're not vacationing in Maine, you are working in Houston with
immigrants alongside you, still. �
Somethings got to change.
You are right! � � Houston has gotten even more Hellish in these
last 30 years. � � And all due to too so many immigrants taking away
American jobs.
I personally don't want to even have to deal with them. � � I think
that they have been responsible for why labor has not got itself
organized in Houston. � � They make the Houston Ship Canal smell.
Hey, when you get tired of eating lobster, and decide to return to Hell,
where you belong. � � Let's go out and order some pupusas. � �
I'll pay. � � Haven't had Salvadoran food in a long while. I
can't find any in San Antone.
Come on back, you Nut! Texas needs you!
Sincerely, Tony
______________________________
Ken wrote-
Tony, As many times as you and I have had this out, I cannot believe
that you cannot see the issue from the socialist perspective, which is
not, I repeat, as you present it. So long as capitalism exists, that is,
so long as labor is considered a marketable commodity, the self-interest
of EVERY nation's working class consists of doing whatever is necessary
to uphold a reasonable price for the commodity of labor power. Yes,
certainly, we as socialists look beyond this to a happier day when labor
will no longer be commodified, but will be the master of capital. IN THE
MEAN WHILE, however, we use such tactics as collective bargaining to
keep the price of labor above the subsistence level. When unskilled
foreign labor, with the unconscionable goad of the employer's sword of
Damocles (turning them in to the INS if they begin to militate for
better wages or conditions, especially in sweatshop situations), and in
any case being willing (perforce) to work under nonuninon conditions
that ! UNDERMINE the historic gains of organized labor, it is
deleterious to the interests of the indigenous working class. This is
all a given.
You are quite right that leftists must repect and support equal rights
for immigrant labor and indigenous labor. This is one way of
countervailing the "two-tier" approach of the capitalists. But it is one
thing to support the rights of existing immigrant labor (whether "legal"
or not), and quite another to advocate the elimination of immigration
restrictions. These restrictions, if well enforced, serve as a prop on
the price of human labor power for all those in the US labor market. The
massive influx of unskilled labor, occasioned by the inevitable impact
of your policy proposal, would lead to an immediate and irreversible
depression of wages in the United States, and this would not bode well
for the future of labor, and hence for socialist advance. You really
need to rethink your position on this question. Marx said that we cannot
entirely put a brake on the pauperization of the proletariat, but could
put an effective brake on the process through organization of labor.!
The importation of masses of unskilled labor would take away even that
thin reed on which the working class is able to lean for support.
Peace,
Ken
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