[Peace-discuss] Another view of amnesty for illegal workers -- P S

Wed Jun 6 22:01:40 CDT 2007

Friends,

  I believe there are other views of the immigration issue for progressives to consider... and it has nothing to do with "them" -- the corporations -- "playing us"  

  I  agree with those who say that many/most African Americans believe that illegals don't legitimately HAVE any rights, and that if Latinos want rights, they have to emigrate/go thru the existing channels... That if wages/working conditions are lousy in their own countries, they should stay there and do what they can to fix them (think Oaxaxa, etc, etc)... That when Latinos come to the US and illegally take jobs ('that even blacks won't take" -- I HATE that phrase!!), US workers lose the leverage needed to improve working conditions for un- and semi-skilled workers in the US. 

  Despite being the original "guest" workers, and despite hard-fought gains during the 60s, most blacks STILL fight for their rights on a daily basis... (A friend adds that Latinos didn't join her struggle for civil rights in the 60s, so why do they expect others to support them now? Also, that 12 million undocumented workers are using US infrastructure and facilities and paying little more than sales tax for the privilege, plus they send money back to their own countries instead of putting it back into the US economy.. So as a result, social, medical, and educational programs are cut, which increases poverty, drugs, crime/incarceration among blacks especially... And there's also the drug trafficking -- more crime bro't into the US, with most of the drugs crossing the border ending up in poor black neighborhoods.) 

  I think we all agree that African Americans -- despite  centuries of residency, loyalty, service, labor, and sacrifice as patriotic Americans -- continue to remain at the bottom, while -- during those same centuries -- wave upon wave of immigrants from Europe and Asia have come to the US, have started at the bottom, but have soon moved (past African Americans) into the middle class mainstream. Blacks were started at the bottom and they have been kept at the bottom. (Consider our own enlightened, well-heeled, segregated college town here in the sunny North. Obscene, isn't it?) And here's another wave of immigrants doing the same thing... 

  Yes, corporations LOVE the status quo -- no rights and no amnesty means an endless supply of cheap labor. Corporations use whatever scams, arguments, or causes  support their case -- it's what corporations do!!! They'll continue doing anything in their power to
   ensure that they benefit from whatever laws go down... or don't. (Nothing new here.)

  This is a complex issue, and I think progressives should at least consider the above (non-corporate) reasons for alternate views of immigration rights and amnesty for illegal workers. I have noticed that alternate views are voiced privately rather than publicly. While some African American (and other) leaders have been neutral or  mildly supportive, most have been silent on these issues as they relate to and reverberate with black Americans. I believe there are 2 reasons for this. First, they don't want to risk alienating their "base" -- the legions of progressives, Democrats, and others who are currently, vocally, and unequivocally supporting immigration rights. Second, as things now stand in the US,  voicing objections to immigration rights for illegals probably won't help African Americans very much anyway, and it sounds like petty jealousy. (Jealousy, of course. Petty? Definitely not.). So they/we must persevere in other ways to improve conditions for black Americans.
 They've been granted equal rights, but their lives are a very long way from being equal... and immigration rights and amnesty for illegal workers (it can be argued) makes the playing field less and less level. 

  Jenifer

  Jenifer

Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:
  Unfortunately, this is not really "another" view of
the issue. It's the dominant one. We can't be humane
toward workers who are fleeing (primarily the
conditions our government and our nation's
corporations are creating in) their own countries,
because we have our own mouths to feed. Etc. 

Sure, there's a twist there that we don't *expect*
from the rightwing anti-immigrant folks: 'But what
about African Americans?' But that just shows how
naive we often are. Just because a racist group may
not *care* about black Americans doesn't mean they
can't *appeal* to liberal sympathies toward black
Americans... or appeal to black Americans with this
kind of narrow argument.

But consider the alternative: Increasingly we allow
free reign to capital to operate across borders, to
dodge labor and other standards, but we keep the
workers who suffer from these policies imprisoned in
borders, perhaps lined by heavily guarded Berlin-style
walls.

Now, of course, we may argue that the problem there is
NAFTA, etc. And it is. But likewise the fact that
racism exists in the US is not the fault of
immigrants, and should be dealt with on its own
merits, not either-or.

We shouldn't let them play us.
Ricky

--- "Chas. 'Mark' Bee" wrote:

> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Jenifer Cartwright 
> To: Jenifer Cartwright ; Peace Discuss Lists 
> Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 2:27 PM
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Another view of
> amnesty for illegal workers -- P S
> 
> 
> A letter to editor in the next edition of Nation
> Mag exposes this ad/outfit as a front for vested
> corporate interests. I still think that this and
> other views of amnesty for illegal workers are worth
> considering. It's a complicated issue (to say the
> least) and African Americans have been silent on the
> issue publicly, tho' not privately... 
> 
> Jenifer 
> 
> 
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_for_the_Future_American_Worker
> 
> 
>
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coalition_for_the_Future_American_Worker
> 
> 
> Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
> Hi AWARE Friends,
> 
> Check the back cover of your Nation Magazine, or
> go to Cooalition For The Future American Worker's
> website at www.AmericanWorker.org for another view
> of amnesty for illegal workers. I definitely see
> their point, one rarely encountered on DN! or
> discussed in AWARE circles, tho' I think it should
> be and wish it were.
> 
> Jenifer
> 
>
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