[Peace-discuss] clarifying Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride

[Ricky Baldwin]

Coming from the labor movement myself and having seen
firsthand how poor and abused people are able to stick
up for themselves by forming and joining unions, I
admit I was initially angry when I read Mort’s
comments.  But it occurs to me that we may have very
different ideas on what being ‘progressive’ is about. 


And by the way, a lot of folks on the Left, in
organized labor, in black groups, in women’s groups
and others, have their own doubts about the anti-war
movement’s commitment to social justice beyond its
relatively narrow agenda.  For what it’s worth, I just
think activists have a tendency to focus on their own
priorities, because we get so wrapped up in the
terrible things that happen in our frame of reference,
and we sometimes have trouble seeing the value of what
others are doing.

Just a couple of points, then:

The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, as I understand
it, is not about “opening the borders,” but about the
rights of immigrant workers to be treated as human
beings, rather than enslaved, beaten, held at
gunpoint, paid less and worked harder than other
workers in dangerous or unhealthy conditions.  I’m not
sure where this ‘open borders’ idea arose, and I’m
sorry if I caused this misunderstanding.

I don’t think this is an issue that AWARE needs to
‘take on’ with working groups, etc. – although, yes, I
think it is largely about race.  All we are talking
about here, I believe, is a kind of nominal support,
somewhat less than the real coalition building we
probably need to be doing.

Mort is certainly right that organized labor is not
monolithic at any given time.  And it is changing over
time, too, now mostly for the better.  He is also
right to point out that many unions and the AFL-CIO
have taken retrograde stances. They also are
responsible for saving at least 271,704 lives that
would have been lost if pre-1970 rates of death on the
job had persisted – not counting hundreds of thousands
more who would have died at home from occupational
diseases.  That is, organized labor is almost solely
responsible for the existence of the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), with all its
flaws and successes.  Unions are among the strongest
defenders of affirmative action in the US.  Unions
oppose the ‘free trade’ agenda of Democrats and
Republicans alike.  Unions have been and still are the
single largest factor in raising the wages and living
standards of millions of poor people in this country,
union members or not, and are – at last - now working
with unions in other countries to achieve the same. 
We could also talk about child labor laws, the
eight-hour day and the 40-hour week (now under attack
again), etc.  So I think “neutral” is a gross
exaggeration.

Organized labor has been divided in its positions on
wars in the past, and still is.  But now for the first
time there is an organization within the labor
movement – US Labor Against the War – that that has
real potential.  To take a dismissive attitude now is,
I think, counterproductive.

And these other problems are certainly no reason not
to support an effort that is so clearly a good one,
like the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.  (See
www.aflcio.org and www.ucimc.org for more.)







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