COMMENTARY
ALL OUT ON MAY DAY IN SUPPORT OF IMMIGRANT RIGHTS- A VERY APPROPRIATE WAY TO CELEBRATE THIS INTERNATIONAL WORKERS HOLIDAY
MAY DAY IN BOSTON-RALLY, BOSTON COMMON, 4:00 PM
And while we are at it let us fight to make May Day the recognized labor holiday here in America as it is in most of the world.
Over the past couple of months the desperate struggle of both legal and illegal immigrants in this country to stay here has reached epic proportions, highlighted by the dramatic and ruthless actions of the Immigration Service against mainly women factory workers in New Bedford, Massachusetts. If one needed visually to capture the domestic side of the arrogance the American imperialists have exhibited in Iraq that event did so in a nutshell. More importantly, the lesson militant workers should take from New Bedford and elsewhere is that, hell, we could be next and it could be almost anyone who gets in the crosshairs of some governmental agency. What in the old days we used to kiddingly laugh off as ‘paranoia’ when someone talked about Big Brother watching us seemingly comes closer to the truth as events unfold in the ‘belly of the beast’.
The American government, its Republican and Democratic agents alike, has targeted the most vulnerable part of the working class, the ‘illegal’ immigrants, in their efforts to tighten up the ‘security’ of their capitalist system. However, working people native born or otherwise, have no objective reason to fear so-called ‘illegal’ immigrants. These hard working, woefully underpaid and inadequately serviced workers take on the jobs, let us face it, that American born and raised workers of all colors have learned turn their noses up at. Such are the ‘benefits’ of living under the number one imperialist power. Thus, the simple, decent minimally democratic call for full citizenship rights for all immigrants in the headline above is one that trade unionists in particular should raise and support.
Despite the reasonableness of this demand bourgeois politicians in both camps and their labor bureaucracy hangers-on in the AFL-CIO and Change to Win toy around with all kinds of propositions from the now internationally fashionable one of walling the borders to various ‘guest worker’ (really indentured service) programs. What is needed, although it is not being seriously raised at this time, is a full amnesty program for all immigrants who are here. Militants should wholeheartedly support such a demand. We should be propagandizing for such an amnesty at union meetings and among our fellow workers.
In the meantime May Day (May 1st) is just around the corner and everyone should answer the call put out by many organizations in support of immigrant rights by going out to the various demonstrations and meetings in your area. Last year on May Day 2006 there were tremulous demonstrations, particularly in the West, driven by the huge Hispanic populations there in support of doing something. Unfortunately, since that time not much has been done except the inevitable roundups and deportations. The government has its policy. We have seen what that looks like. We best have ours. FULL CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS NOW FOR ALL WHO HAVE MADE IT HERE.
Locally in the immigrants rights group here in Minneapolis, we have to fight Maoists, trying to turn the group into a lobbying group.
ReplyDeletei HAVE FOUND THE SAME PROBLEM HERE IN MY UNION AND IN THE LOCAL ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT WHEN THE MAOISTS HAVE POSITIONED SOMEWHERE JUST TO THE LEFT OF HILLARY. REMEMBER THE DAYS AROUND THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION WHEN MAOISTS COULD AT LEAST BE TALKED TO (AND SOMETIMES PHYSICALLY FOUGHT WITH). AT LEAST FOR THE MOST PART THEY WERE SUBJECTIVELY REVOLUTIONARY. SOME POLITICAL MOVEMENTS ARE PAST THEIR TIME. MAOISM IS ONE OF THEM. HOWEVER, AS WE KNOW REMNANTS CAN CONTINUE FOR A VERY LONG TIME. THINK OF DANIEL DELEON'S SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY.
ReplyDelete