[Fwd: Re: Chinese labor]

Sam Pawlett rsp at uniserve.com
Wed Jun 23 22:36:00 PDT 1999


W. Kiernan wrote:
>

What was the ethnic composition of
> > all those who worked (and died) on the Panama Canal?
>
> Among others, a lot of blacks from the West Indies worked for both the
> French and the American Canal efforts.

A lot of Chinese and other ethnic groups worked on the canal too which accounts for the diversity of Panama City. Many of the wooden apartment blocks constructed to house these workers are still standing and form the crowded slum Caldonia in downtown Panama City and the slum city of Colon[one of the few places you can get mugged in broad daylight--also has the world's largest duty free zone after Hong Kong] These buildings are in really bad disrepair with the ones in Colon slowly sinking into the sea. Caldonia was nearly leveled during Bush's Panama adventure. This is documented in the film "Panama Deception". When I was there in '95 one could still see the widespread bombing damage in Caldonia and the colonial part of the city [also a slum]. The U.S. bombed the poorest parts of the city because they thought this is where the main resistance to U.S. occupation would come from.

The anti-americanism of the poor and working class[mostly blacks] and the pro-Americanism of the upper class[mostly whites]in Panama is something to behold.This accounts for the extremely violent nature of Panamanian politics...daily rioting against U.S. occupation in the university districts. U.S. soldiers walking in public must walk in groups of at least 4 or 5 to prevent being murdered in the street. Listening to the radio one day I found the station of one of the huge U.S. military bases just outside the city...complete with syndicated Rush Limbaugh, hillbilly music and very mild anti-racist education programs ["try to learn a little Spanish, the locals will really appreciate it"] Scary. I asked a U.S. soldier who I met during "Carnaval", when the forces were going to pull out and give the canal back to the Panamanians, he replied "Never" and went on a frothing racist rant against Panamanians.

Sam Pawlett



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list