WWP vice-presidential candidate Teresa Gutierrez:
'Immigrant rights--a crucial battle of our times'
The immigrant rights struggle is one of the most important
civil rights and working-class issues of our times. That
struggle is rising. And we are in it with you.
We hail, with complete support, the Oct. 16 marches in Los
Angeles for immigrant rights. And we salute the Million Worker
March which is raising so many critical issues. The MWM is not
only showing solidarity with immigrants, it is also going to
help elevate the struggle of immigrants by fighting to improve
the lives of all workers.
This battle against increased repression, racism and dire
social conditions--including some of the most abusive and
exploitative working conditions--demands the utmost solidarity
of all workers, particularly U.S.-born workers.
Last month an Associated Press dispatch, based on analyzing
years of federal statistics, reported that on average, one
Mexican worker dies every day on the job in the United
States--impaled, crushed or in some other terrible accident.
And overall, Central and South American immigrant laborers here
died in record numbers in 2002. These accidents are often
preventable with simple safety precautions, the report
admitted, even in the most dangerous job categories.
But it will take a fight with the bosses to win these safety
and health battles.
And for the last 10 years, Mexican workers trying to cross
the border into the United States have been dying at the rate
of one per day.
The militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border has meant more
deaths because workers looking for jobs are forced to travel
through even more remote desert and mountainous regions.
Workers risk drowning, freezing, dehydrating and being shot
down by "La Migra"--immigration cops.
The urban areas that workers are attempting to reach are
those most heavily guarded. The U.S. government has spent more
than $10 billion to seal off the crossing area between Tijuana
and San Diego. It has beefed up the force of border patrol
agents to more than 9,000. They are armed with motion and sound
detectors, infrared telescopes, stadium lighting and
military-style helicopters. This militarization also means
further strengthening of state repression in this country.
The Department of "Homeland Secu rity" has inherited the
duties of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This
makes immigration a highly political issue tied directly to
imperialism's so-called war on terror. And the round-ups, the
disappearings of Arab, Muslim and South Asian immigrants, are
part and parcel of this war.
The U.S. immigration policy is set by a capitalist
government which acts as a representative of the capitalist
ruling class. It is this class that ultimately sets policy--on
immigration, on war in Iraq, on every ques tion. And it is this
class--from the boardrooms of transnational corporations to the
front offices of cockroach capitalists--that grows rich from
profits they steal from the working class, including millions
of immigrant workers, who create all the wealth of this
country.
Sweatshops and poverty wages are a cornerstone of this
profit system. And with their armies, the capitalist class
tramples on borders all over the world in its drive for war and
profits. They demand the freedom of "globalization"--the right
of finance capital to cross any border in order to create the
economic and social conditions that force workers to come to
the U.S. in search of jobs.
The NAFTA trade agreement has driven Mexican farmers off
their lands and into tax-free maquiladora factories along the
border that produce super profits for U.S. imperialists.
And the U.S. capitalist class is trying to impose the Free
Trade Area of the Amer icas--the FTAA, or ALCA in Spanish--on
the region to force more countries to open their markets and
borders to U.S. finance capital and privatize their most
profitable national enterprises. FTAA/ALCA also demands removal
of duties on U.S. goods. And at the same time, these
governments are being ordered to slash domestic budgets for
social programs--health care, housing, education and so on.
But all of this is going to bring a massive fightback by
immigrant workers--as we've already seen.
Just a year ago immigrant workers--documented and undoc u
mented--said "Basta ya," enough is enough, and rallied 100,000
strong in the historic Oct. 4, 2003, demonstration in Queens,
N.Y. following the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. Their main
demand was amnesty for undocumented immigrants.
As never before, from California to New York, from Illinois
to New Jersey, immigrants are changing the face of labor and
organizing to defend their interests.
And this fightback will have a great impact on the overall
class struggle.
The erosion of living standards and increased repression are
spurring political consciousness.
What is needed is an independent struggle against the
capitalist bosses that is cemented by solidarity. The bosses
try to divide the workers, with bigotry and with borders. But
we say: There are no borders in the workers' struggle. We need
to fight back, together. And together we will win!
Reprinted from the Oct. 21, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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