>is manufacturing work. If you don't feel you're appropriate for this work, >then maybe you should find other work." This was a token line she used >pretty much every time I put out some complaint about health and safety. The >woman didn't open her mouth again after that. She eventually got laid off, >too. > >------------- > >(Permanent damage to Immune Mother Cell production areas (DNA,RNA, etc.) >leads to the inability of the Immune System to be able to tell which cells >to attack. >Toxins inhaled lead to permanent left Ventricle damage and heart failure, >sometimes decades later. >Permanent damage to cells in organs such as the liver can lead to cancer >after a period of decades, >during which the life is gradually drained from the worker, as production >fails in all organs and systems .) > >------------------ > >Solidarity That Comes from Experience as Oppressed People > >RW: What else should people know about the situation in these plants? > >A: There are no unions at all in this industry. That has to be questioned as >to why. It's actually frightening, because Silicon Valley is being pushed >all over the world as an "economic model." I honestly think that there's >still a lot of racism and sexism coming from the unions. They'll look at a >workplace like this and say, "Oh well, these are immigrant women. They're >passive, they'll cry a little, but won't challenge the employers." But what >I learned when I was down there was how much--I'll use the term--indomitable >will there is. How much strength is actually in people that are working >there. > >And there is a lot of organizing history, revolutionary history, from the >countries of where people came from. There was this brother there who hails >from southern India. One day I talked with him, and he said that workers in >India wouldn't stand for this. I asked him, "Yeah, well, what happened?" He >said, "Oh, we would stage a garehoe." I said, "What's that?" He said, >"That's when we surround management until they give in to our demands." "Oh! >Right!" He said, "Oh yeah, another thing that we do is we hold city-wide >bandh." I said, "What's that?" He said, "That's when we have a work >stoppage, and every other industry in that city has a work stoppage, too. So >the city just dies until the demands are met at this one company." > >There's all of that organizing knowledge in the immigrant communities that >are here. It's completely untapped. > >RW: You've got this workplace that's very diverse, you've got immigrants >from all these different parts of the world working side by side. What kind >of unity was there? > >A: There was a lot of solidarity that I think comes from work experience or >oppressed experience. I'll give you an example of what our pot lucks were >like. Every now and again one of the leaders on the line would tell us to >bring in food the next day. We'd all bring in food. And so, we'd all end up >with pansit from the Philippines and potatoes from India and burritos from >Mexico--and it all tasted good together. > >And there was a camaraderie that went well beyond racial or national or >ethnic lines that I've never seen before, really. There were Indian workers >and there were Pakistani workers there. That summer I was working in the >plant, things were hot in South Asia. Pakistan and India were fighting over >Kashmir, a disputed piece of land ever since the English cut up South Asia. >These countries' governments have always been at each other's throats, but >things had gotten extra dramatic since both countries just became equipped >with nuclear capacity. > >Indians in the U.S. were trippin. They had a huge march on the Golden Gate >bridge to condemn Pakistan, calling them an "aggressor." But the South >Asians in the plant didn't get caught up. South Asians were building bonds >in the workplace based on the experience of being South Asians in U.S. >plants. > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >---- > > >This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online >rwor.org >Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654 >Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497 >(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.) > > >---------------------- > >http://www.rwor.org/a/v22/1052-059/1053/elian.htm > >Eli�n-ation > >Revolutionary Worker #1053, May 7, 2000 > >This past week we were subjected to a hypocritical frenzy from members of >the U.S. Congress--who suddenly discovered INS violence with the return of >Eli�n Gonz�lez to his father. > >New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani provided one of the most surreal moments in >the national frenzy over the fate of the six-year-old Cuban boy. Joining the >ever-expanding group of "Miami relatives"--which now includes Senator Trent >Lott and others--Giuliani denounced the federal raid in Miami as the act of >"storm troopers." This is the same Giuliani who has never met a police >murder he couldn't embrace; the same mayor who stood behind the police who >murdered African immigrant Amadou Diallo in a hail of 41 bullets. > >Can we now expect Giuliani and the Republican senators to speak out on May >13 in demanding justice for the six adults and five children murdered in a >bombing raid by Philadelphia police in the 1985 MOVE massacre. Obviously >not. > >But the outrageous hypocrisy of these ruling class brutes helps make clear >that the Eli�n affair has been whipped into a national obsession because of >major political infighting within the U.S. ruling class. > >The label "Miami relatives" has emerged as a media codeword for the ugly >Cuban-emigr� deathsquad forces who orchestrated the kidnapping of this boy. >Now, after the April 22 raid, it's even more clear that behind these "Miami >relatives" stand high-level U.S. ruling class forces--like Senators Trent >Lott and Connie Mack--who have chosen the Eli�n case as a battleground over >power and policy. > >That is why Attorney General Janet Reno has acted with such >indecision--spending 147 days in kid-glove negotiations with the lawyers of >Cuba's emigr� networks. That is why the U.S. government has been so patient >with the claims of Eli�n's rightwing grand-uncle (who has no right at all to >this boy by any known law or logic). > >Once again the U.S. ruling class is dressing up its in-fighting as "family >drama." And the "Eli�n Saga" is the son of the "Monica Scandal" in more ways >than one. > > >Brutality and Hypocrisy > >When the Senate Republicans finally hold their hearings on Janet Reno's >little Miami raid, they are unlikely to explore these enlightening >questions: "Why is it that the Immigration and Naturalization Service even >has highly trained SWAT teams to put on high alert? What is it these teams >do day to day?" > >After all, everyone in the ruling class supports the "bipartisan" policy of >hunting down immigrants, brutalizing them, jailing them and deporting them >by the hundreds of thousands. > >Republican senators rushed to TV talk shows after the Miami SWAT-team raid >and asked "Can this be happening in America?" But they know that immigration >raids happen every day and every night in countless cities and towns, and >all along the intensely militarized southern border with Mexico. They know >because they, and the whole ruling class, support this--and voted in 1996 to >triple the size of the INS police forces. > >Literally hundreds of thousands of people have been seized in the last years >by armed immigration agents -- jailed, brutalized, deported and separated >from their families. Countless other people have been stopped, frisked, and >humiliated, simply because police felt they looked like "illegal aliens." >Literally tens of millions of people live with the fear of raids and >deportation, every day, when they go to work, or walk the streets, or take >their kids to school. > >The organization La Resistencia writes, "Every year in the U.S., over 4,000 >immigrant children who are crossing the border with no adult family members >are arrested by the INS. Many are held in detention centers indefinitely, >while the others are deported by the INS." Will the coming Senate hearings >discuss this abuse of immigrant children? > >Last fall, as Eli�n was rescued at sea, a boatload of 400 Haitian people >were rudely forced back to Haiti. 75% of Haiti's people live in absolute >poverty and 60% of the children are malnourished. Why is there no debate >about granting asylum for Haitian people? Why are there no ruling class >tears about the "opportunity" for their children? Because the brutal >government system Haitians are fleeing was installed by U.S. occupation >forces. > >But with the revolution of 1959, Cuba slipped out of U.S. control. And the >U.S. has never stopped trying to reimpose its domination there. Behind the >U.S. double-standard and its special treatment of Cuban immigrants is an >exploitative eagerness to recapture the island for U.S. imperialist >interests. > > >>From One Captivity to Another > >And now the Eli�n case has triggered a major debate within the ruling class >over how best to exploit the economic problems facing Cuba since the >collapse of their Soviet Union "sugar daddy." The U.S. ruling class is not >arguing over whether to dominate Cuba, but how. Where various factions of >the imperialists differ is over how to speed up a U.S. takeover of Cuba. >Will it work best to continue to completely demonize, isolate and punish >Cuba? Or will a slow increase in U.S. contact (and perhaps trade) even more >rapidly "open the door" to U.S. imperialist control? > >Officially all major forces in the U.S. ruling class insist they intend to >keep the embargo. But increasingly, supporters of the Clinton administration >suggest that rigid isolation of Cuba is now "strengthening Castro." They >suggest that dangling offers of normalization might bring forward forces >within Cuba's current ruling circles (especially within the military) who >could help create a future, pro-U.S. government on the island. And they have >seized on the Eli�n case to publicly have some `normal' relations with the >Cuban government. > >This infuriates the reactionary Cubans in Miami who want any future Cuban >government to emerge from their fascist organizations (and not from within >the island). > > >***** >As for Eli�n--he has left Miami, but he remains a prisoner of this ruling >class infighting. In an absurd and highly political decision, a federal >court ruled that Eli�n cannot leave the U.S. until a court hearing is held >to consider an appeal by the "Miami relatives." And now his father, Juan >Miguel Gonz�lez, is a prisoner too. > >This is just another attempt to drag this case out--to prevent these folks >from returning home and to prevent the Clinton administration from having >even the slightest interaction with the Cuban government. Undoubtedly, there >are forces (in Miami, in the Senate, and apparently in Al Gore's election >campaign) who hope that Juan Miguel Gonz�lez might (over time) be induced to >stay in the U.S. They wanted Eli�n as a poster boy for the perverse cause of >reconquering Cuba--and cling to the hope that Juan Miguel might apply for >that job too. > >Many people in the U.S. have supported Juan Miguel's fight to get Eli�n away >from the foamy rightwing fanaticism of Little Havana. And many people >believe that Eli�n would be much better off growing up away from the >gimme-gimme, shopping mall culture of the U.S. > >So far Juan Miguel has been firm about returning to Cuba--publicly giving >the finger to the "Miami relatives." And there are many proletarian people >hoping that he continues to stand strong, that he flips the bird to the >"American Dream," and that Eli�n gets some relief from the imperialist >madness that still has him in its grip. > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >---- > > >This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online >http://www.mcs.net/~rwor >Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654 >Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497 >(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.) > > > > > >---------------------------- > > >_______________________________________________________________________ > > >REVOLUTION, COMMUNIST & CONTINUOUS ! ! ! > > http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/macau/1178 > > >E Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >To Subscribe or Unsubscribe; Click Reply in E Mail Program, > >enter 'Subscribe' or 'Unsubscribe' on Subject line and Send to: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >If wish to receive only certain types of Revolutionary Communist Information >Please Specify. > > >_______________________________________________________________________ > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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