I have not been part of this list in the past; I joined specifically so that I could respond to Marta Russell's comments about disability and immigration, which were forwarded to me by a disabled comrade, and which I found deeply disturbing. As both a long-time activist in the disability rights movement and a socialist, I have enormous admiration for the work that Marta has done to enrich the disability movement with her writing about capitalism and its impact on the lives of disabled people, as well as all she has done to educate those on the broader left about disability's role in the social and economic order.
I am frankly perplexed and startled by the comments Marta has made about immigration, and want to assure you that it does not represent broader thinking within the progressive wing of the disability movement on these issues. (I should also say here, with some degree of embarassment, that there has been precious little discussion of immigration among those of us who see ourselves as leftists/socialists within the disability movement.) Others have responded so well to Marta's assertions about employment and wages that I don't need to rehash those.
Marta gives examples of Medi-Cal notices being translated into 21 languages while there are 12 hour waits in the emergency room, and strongly implies that immigrants are to blame for difficulties disabled people have in accessing the health care we deserve. We don't directly see the people who make millions from our for profit health system--everyone from stockholders and executives in pharmaceutical companies to those who administer HMOs. We do see those who are sitting next to us in the waiting room outside the ER, waiting and waiting. And it is easy to think--gee, if they just weren't here, I could get what I need. But that is an old trick of capitalism--to keep us fighting among ourselves, rather than looking beyond to those who are really profiting from our health care system. What we as progressives need to be doing is building alliances with others who share our difficulties in our profits-first, people-last system. In addition I would be indeed remiss if I did not note that our health care system as a whole--as well as those of us who use personal care assistants--benefits enormously from the too-often undercompensated labor of immigrant people.
As activists, I think we always need to be thinking about where we can make alliances. The millions of people--young and old, "legal" and "illegal," disabled and non-disabled--who have poured into the streets in hundreds of communities in these last few weeks has been an amazingly heartening development in these troubled times. As disabled activists, we need exploring the ways that issues of disability and immigration intersect, and above all wheeling and walking alongside our immigrant sisters and brothers.
Anne Finger