Immigrants’ Rights are Workers’ Rights — The Case for United Struggle

http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article15.php?id=1353

Apr 29, 2010
By Dylan Seo

On March 21 of this year, the immigrant worker rights movement was reborn with hundreds of thousands protesting in Washington, D.C. An “immigration reform” bill is being discussed in the halls of power, co-sponsored by Democrat Charles Schumer and Republican Lindsey Graham. While many immigrants’ rights activists are excited for the prospect of this bill passing, the legislation would leave many workers as indentured servants under a guest worker program while tax-payer money would be wasted on militarization of the border.

Glenn Beck’s and Lou Dobbs’s TV shows are filled with stories about how undocumented immigrants are destroying America. This is an absolute lie! Big Business wants and needs immigrants. In fact, immigration helps corporations make higher profits with cheaper labor. If anything, immigrants are helping to float the economy while corporations destroy it and take billions of our tax dollars in bailouts while they’re at it. According to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, undocumented noncitizens paid almost $50 billion in federal taxes from 1996 to 2003 (testimony of The Honorable Mark W. Everson, Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service, before the House Committee on Ways and Means, July 26, 2006).

To drive down the wages of all workers, undocumented immigrants are harassed and threatened with deportation hanging above their heads like a guillotine’s blade. Treating people who are underpaid, overworked, and often far from home like criminals is unjust, showing the mentality of big business. Keeping millions of workers in a state of terror drives down our ability to organize and fight back. The biggest fear the bosses and super-rich have is the working class, united and organized, standing up against their small minority of super-investors.

On January 24, 2007, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided the Smithfield Meat Packing Plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina. Twenty one workers were harassed and arrested, under the guise of calling workers to the office for “random drug tests.” This raid, like the numerous others that year and since, had ripple effects through the whole plant and the surrounding communities. Many families were left torn apart; other people were left afraid and confused.

This raid, meant to strike fear into the hearts of immigrants and native-born workers alike, was intended to bust the union drive, but it made workers more determined. For years before, the workers at the plant had been trying to join the ranks of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union; each time, the voters were intimidated and final votes were dismissed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). However, less than a year after the raids, the workers joined the UFCW in January 2008.

FULL story at link.

I do not fear posting Socialist articles. Socialists gave us work comp laws, unemployment ins, a presidential candidate siting in jail that got over 1 million votes,....

International labor solidarity is boring.