'All men are created equal'

Wow this is in the UMKC student newspaper. It is a response to controversy over immigration and the minutemen's planned meeting in KC this weekend. This college student nails it.

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Anyone not living in la-la land knows Francis Semler resigned this week from the Kansas City Parks Board over the controversy over her membership in the Minuteman group. There have been many comments following the resignation on the Kansas City Star's comment section about how the Minuteman aren't racist, they're just protecting our borders from those rabid illegal immigrants.

The Minuteman are racist though. They're only protecting one border. Why not build a fence along the border to Canada? Or go to Chinatown in San Fransisco and boot out all the undocumented Asian immigrants? Minuteman aren't worried about the illegal sex or drug trade going on in the U.S., - they just go into a panic about undocumented workers arriving from Latin America.

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The thing that really gets me is anyone who is against giving Mexicans amnesty and any kind of chance in the U.S. doesn't seem to know about the conditions in Mexico - conditions for which the U.S. bears a large part of the responsibility.

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According to Ancel, the average Mexican makes 15 percent of what a U.S. citizen makes. Many work in maquiladoras, which are offshore, export assembly plants.

"In a maquiladora, you have to work for three hours to earn enough to buy half a gallon of milk," Ancel said. "If they work at a restaurant or hotel in Kansas City for 20 minutes they can make the same amount of money."

more . . .
http://media.www.unews.com/media/storage/paper274/news/2008/01/28/Forum/all-Men.Are.Created.Equal-3172158.shtml

Actually, the going rate at a maquiladora is 1000 pesos a week (about $90). That's over 2 bucks an hour, which is what 2 liters of milk is going to cost at most supermarkets, so it's a bit of an overstatement that you have to work three hours.

Maquiladoras, even though they pay shabby wages, are under pressure from China, where the wage is more like 20 cents an hour.

The conditions in Mexico are exactly as the ruling class want -- lots of poor and depressed wages. Just like it will be in the United States after another decade of downsizing, plant closings, and outsourcing.