'We Are America Coalition' Opposes May 1st General Strike
We can now see that after the initial euphoria generated by the original mobilization of the outpouring of energy among immigrant workers and their families, this 'immigrant civil rights movement' is now having to grapple with hard political realities. The masses of Hispanic immigrants originally 'took to the streets' proudly flying the Mexican flag, but the immediate and huge backlash this produced caused them to adjust their tactics, and movement organizers are now calling on these immigrants, most of whom are very naturally nationalistic toward their native Mexico, to fly the American flag and proclaim, "we just want to be Americans". And in the most recent development, as a Homeland Security 'crackdown' against both undocumented immigrant workers, and the individual managers at companies that employ them, has been dramatically announced, the organizers of the 'immigration movement' are beginning to split into factions. Many of these organizers have now become aware that their primary 'position' in opposition to various 'immigration reform bills' is very problematic, in that it has completely ignored the fact that there are laws already on the books that could adequately enforce the nation's borders if there was any political will to do so. And now, as these laws are being suddenly and very selectively enforced in a dramatic public display, the organizers of this 'new civil rights movement' are being caught up short in some considerable tactical confusion. In this confusion, the 'immigration movement' is now splitting into these major factions, with some, like the 'We Are America' Coalition, which includes the Catholic Church, (which provided a major degree of the organizing 'chops' that produced the original marches), now recognizing that the upcoming May 1st 'general strike' could have the unintended consequence of providing the clear identification of illegal workers in the workplace, and could well lead to more firings, or even worse, deportations. How will employers who are knowingly employing illegal immigrants respond? It's hard to say. On the one hand they might be inclined to allow strike participation by their illegal workers, out of fear that any retribution against strikers will bring Homeland Security down on their own heads for employing the illegal workers. On the other hand, it might make them inclined to be more forceful themselves in threatening their workers with retribution, such as by reporting them preemptively as 'illegals', (and claiming they 'just discovered' that their social security numbers on their I-9 forms are false), to avoid being arrested themselves, as the managers of companies employing illegal workers so recently (and publicly) were. I have been trying to point out for some time that we don't need new laws to close our borders to illegal immigration. We already HAVE adequate laws that are NOT being enforced. I am as cynical as anyone in witnessing the recent 'crackdown' on illegal immigrants in the workplace and on the jobsite. This is very obviously where the border could be enforced, if there was any real political will to do so. Illegal immigrants are NOT hard to find. Everybody knows where they are. We already have laws that provide for severe penalties for employers who employ illegal immigrants. But these laws have not been enforced because the Corporate Elite that controls our nation does not WANT them enforced. I am as cynical as anyone now because I think the Corporate Elite is playing all sides against each other, making every side hop and dance on their always-clever strings. These Corporate Capitalist Puppeteers clearly see the advantage to be gained by 'playing' the semi-hysterical knee-jerk Left, which is (incredibly, not to mention stupidly) arguing loudly for open borders, (in full support of the policy of the Corporate Capitalist Elite, in one of the most bizarre political alignments we have ever seen). The Left is stupidly falling directly into the Corporate Capitalist 'trap' by railing hysterically against any enforcement of immigration laws at ALL. So.......taking full advantage of this bizarre position so firmly and loudly staked out by the Left, the Corporate Capitalists can now just put on a big 'show' of a few grandstanding 'crackdown' efforts, (which they are doing even now), while conveniently failing to follow through with consistent and effective enforcement. They will then 'blame' the Left in the Political Arena with their own propaganda, that will blare loudly (and VERY effectively) through every media bullhorn, (which they of course completely control), that "We tried to enforce our immigration laws, but the latte-sipping 'liberal elite' wouldn't let us". This will be VERY effective in winning even MORE support from the American working class, who, despite all the disingenuous Left-wing propaganda claiming that immigration is GOOD for America, and GOOD for the working class, can see with their own eyes that immigrants are taking their jobs and causing a dramatic slashing of wages in ALL jobs. And, (sadly.... no...much more than that.tragically), the end result of all this, (which the Left either does not see, or else does not, for some bizarre reason, care), will be that a majority of the American working class will continue to vote against its own interests, and will continue to vote to keep the Corporate Elite in power. The bizarre and misguided position being so proudly proclaimed by a severely confused American Left, is only serving to drive the American working class more firmly into the confused and completely bamboozled support of its own oppressors. According to a story from yesterday's LA Times: ".Nativo Lopez, a boycott supporter and president of the Mexican American Political Assn., said a more confrontational approach in the model of Cesar Chavez and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was needed to shake up the nation's power structure and demonstrate the indispensable role that illegal immigrants play in the economy. He questioned why organizations that celebrate the civil rights leaders through Masses and annual memorial events balk at following their tactics. "Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King were extremely militant advocates of Gandhian principles of civil disobedience, and they lived by those principles," Lopez said in an interview. "So what's the ruckus about a boycott? We need to put the focus of power with the worker and immigrants, not in the hierarchies, to resolve the immigration reform debate." It is very interesting to watch as we see the memory of Cesar Chavez now being brought to bear in support of illegal immigration. Cesar Chavez, whatever his faults might have been in his later career, (many say his insistence on keeping power undemocratically centralized in his own hands eventually led to the demise of everything he accomplished), was a brilliant and inspirational leader, who did indeed believe in taking militant action, (such as civil disobedience), when it was called for. But these organizers now invoking the memory of Chavez to inspire a movement whose goal is to prevent enforcement of immigration laws, and prevent us from controlling our own borders, are conveniently ignoring the fact that Chavez was VEHEMENTLY opposed to illegal immigration, and even as he set his energies to organize farm workers, he also lobbied tirelessly for enforcement of immigration laws, including criminalization of employers for employing illegal workers. He knew instinctively what should be obvious to all of us, (but obviously is not for some reason I do not understand), that farm workers could not gain power through organizing workers into a union, to support collective bargaining through collective action, (strikes, etc), if growers had a constant supply of desperate new workers immediately at hand. A well known Labor activist recently asked me what my 'strategy' would be to organize illegal immigrant workers into unions. Unfortunately, this activist cannot see the contradiction contained within this question itself. It's very hard to imagine how 'illegal' workers can be organized at ALL. Oh sure, we can call them 'out into the streets', of course, but as some organizers are now realizing, this can have serious unintended consequences. As some factions among the organizers, such as the We Are America Coalition, now realize, when these undocumented workers 'strike', they are only going to help identify themselves to authorities, and since they are 'illegal', they can be picked up and deported, (which is already happening). And what organizers MUST realize, (and what they could learn from Cesar Chavez), is that even if undocumented immigrants already in America are granted some form of 'amnesty', by being given a legal path to earn citizenship, they will have NO success in organizing effective unions, (the key word here being 'effective'), until or unless the border is closed. As long as a million or more desperate workers are pouring into this country each year, all of Organized Labor, and ALL of the American working class, INCLUDING the newly 'naturalized' workers, will continue to experience a precipitous decline, no mater how much organizing effort we exert, or how much 'success' we might enjoy in getting people to sign union cards. All that Labor will accomplish by 'organizing' these workers into unions, (with the border continuing to be as porous as it is now), is to provide a windfall bonanza of new dues revenue for Andy Stern's SEIU, and Wilhelm and Raynor's UNITE-HERE, and other unions who will herd these hordes of new workers into dues paying membership, but will have little (if any) effective power to improve their wages or working conditions, as long as new hordes of desperate workers continue to pour across the border. A ready supply of desperate 'scabs' has always been the 'Achilles heel' of any effort to organize workers into EFFECTIVE unions. One would think this most basic 'tenet' would be on page ONE of the 'Organizing 101' manual, and that all Labor activists would clearly understand it. Unfortunately, all too many activists on the Left do NOT, and are instead claiming that this sudden and massive wave of illegal immigration is somehow good for the American working class. Cesar Chavez, who, (whatever his faults), was one of Labor's most brilliant organizing geniuses, understood this 'Basic Tenet' of Labor organizing very well, and he was VEHEMENTLY opposed to illegal immigration. But this does not stop the propagandists on the Left, whose bizarre purpose, in their bizarre alignment with the Corporate Capitalist Elite, is to fight AGAINST any effort to control illegal immigration, from now disingenuously invoking the memory of Chavez to help them advance their cause, a cause that is very clearly GREATLY damaging to the interests of the American working class. Zwarich [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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