[lbo-talk] The raids against immigrant workers

Julio Huato juliohuato at gmail.com
Sat Dec 16 09:29:49 PST 2006


boddi satva wrote:


> Lefties have to stop getting so hysterical about deportations.

How cool would you be if, out of necessity, you had to move to another country, the bigots in that country called you a scab, and the government of that country jailed you and kicked you out?

I mean, you wouldn't be doing anything criminal -- unless the legislators in that country make the basic conditions for survival subject to punishment. There must be a clear difference between fair and legal. No?

I'd say that kicking boddi satva out of that hypothetical country might be "legal," but it ain't fair.


> Nobody is doing illegal workers a favor by importing their oppression.

So, if boddi satva migrates to that hypothetical country, out of necessity, and the gov't of that country jails him and deports him, we should applaud the action because -- tough love -- the gov't is doing him a favor by returning him to his country so that he can fix things there instead of bringing his misery with him to alien places. I see.


> Historically, illegal workers have been imported to oppress domestic
> workers and that's what's happening now. The companies that do this
> should be sued for being the racketeers that they are. I'm sorry if
> illegal workers lose their jobs because of it, but how are we supposed
> to oppose capitalism if we ignore capitalist lawbreaking INTENDED to
> reduce working people's wages and break their unions?

I don't know. It doesn't really sound like you're sorry. Or it's like the "I'm sorry I'll have to let you go" phrase a boss would utter when handing a pink slip. Genuine or not, I think you should keep that sorrow to yourself.

Let me see if I get your argument straight: If local workers are pitted against "imported" workers, the local workers should fall for it and take it against the "imported" workers, instead of uniting with them to disable the divide-and-conquer strategy of their common oppressor? I can see the convenience in your reasoning:

The "illegal" aliens are poorer, weaker, desperate, with virtually no legal right. So, it must be easier to gang up on them than to confront the common oppressor, who -- chances are -- is rich and powerful. In my book, that is the definition of cowardice. And it's the surest way to break any chance of solidarity among workers, the only serious defense against oppression.

It's basic that the power and wealth of the oppressors is built upon the disunity of those below. For the better-off among the oppressed to be able to legitimately protect their jobs and standard of living, they have to stand by their poorer and weaker sisters and brothers -- extend them some solidarity first. Otherwise, they would just be coating their selfish interests with anti-capitalistic, legalistic speech.

U.S. workers who take it against the poorer, legally more vulnerable, and politically weaker members of their class, using boddi's kind of contorted, legalistic, patronizing, condescending "logic" to justify their stance, are -- in fact -- sucking up to their oppressors, no matter how they cover their position with anti-capitalist rhetoric. They are just riveting the shackles that tie them.

And in this world we live in, the protection afforded to local workers by fences and tough enforcement of immigration laws, is more illusory than real. They take it against workers of a different skin color, because it's easier to personalize and find an scapegoat than to pin down the global invisible forces that shatter your little cocoon. It's not a real strategy, but a delusion.

It's not impossible to oppose capitalism without taking it against the "illegals." It's just not as easy and fun as blaming the "illegals."


> The truth of the matter is that we have to fight the oppression that
> makes these illegal workers so desperate.

So? How? By feeling "sorry," but basically applauding that they are kicked out of the country?


> Mexicans, for example, who are living here as an underclass
> could be at home, changing Mexico.

Could, but they already chose to be here instead! If boddi satva were down in Mexico, changing things there, then he'd have plenty of moral authority to address migrant workers this way. But he's not there. He's here, admonishing them from afar.


> Nobody wants privation and disaster, but you have to be honest about
> what is happening. American capitalists are attempting to import a
> permanent legal underclass and that must not be allowed.

LOL.



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