Don't get played by the immigrant baiting game

[brindis_desala]

Importing non-white labor and then denying those same workers equal rights is as American as baseball and apple pie. It began with the African slave trade which brought a permanent subhuman caste to serve the New World plantocracy. Faced with a shortage of stoop labor after rapid western expansionism (in which the US seized half of Mexico), the Southern plantocrats, spurred by the Industrial Revolution and the consequent Civil War, scoured Asia and Latin America for cheap "temporary" labor. It created the same nativist "outcry" in the 1880's being heard today with the same racist overtones. It's divide and conquer folks, based on cultural xenophobia and an exploitable sense of white entitlement. Demand that all employers hiring more than a dozen workers pay a minimum wage with equitable benefits or face stiff penalties and I'll bet my bottom dollar the illegal issue gets solved or disappears.

[mac56]

1. kick

Word.

[uppityperson]

2. Yup.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

3. America was built on cheap labor...Now we export & import it

We were one of the last nations to abolish slavery & that was after a civil war. During colonial times we had indigent servants who were just one step above slavery. Rail roads & canals were built by cheap Irish & Chinese labor. A lot of drug laws (pot) were put in place to round up Mexicans during the depression era when they were no longer welcome. Now we export our jobs to other countries for cheap labor & import cheap labor for the ones we cannot export.

Heard on Lou Dobbs the other day that we have 20,000 border guards but only 141 federal agents who look at the corp. doing the hiring. These corp. are enabling the illegal immigrants through their illegal hiring practices. Laws are on the books, but this is a classic case of selective enforcement. Come on, you don't expect the GOP to lock up their supporters,donors, and voters. The anger a lot of Americans feel should be directed at them, but they are being directed at the immigrants who are really victims in this whole thing. If we had 20k feds putting executives in jail it would slow down the import of cheap labor.

[brindis_desala]

19. More than that , if minimum wage wage laws were enforced

the oligarchs fronting for Anglo/American corporations would be forced to pay a living wage to their "seasonal workers" in Central America. Ironically that would open a new market for the manufacturers. We're being played to keep looking at the wrong end of the donkey.

[Sperk]

4. it's just the latest pre election "gay marriage" diversion...also a cover

story for when they steal the next election

[Broken_Hero]

13. exactly...

the sad thing is, is that it is stirring the base of the RW...my father in law, and my wifes, uncle had a searing argument ove illegals/mexicans, and my wife, had to walk away from them, because their attitudes were totally, barbaric. This is what, the powers to be want, to stir the pot....good post, K and R

[porphyrian]

5. Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!

Classism and racism remain inextricably intertwined in America, especially in places where labor unions wield the least power, such as in the South. Punishing those who hire illegal labor would be the fastest route to ending illegal immigration, and they have no intention of cutting into their profit margins. That, and the racism/xenophobie you allude to, are why immigration can be safely used by corporate-bought elected officials as a polarizing distraction from issues that prove they are a bunch of self-serving, lying traitors that, in another time and place, would be drug into the streets by angry mobs long before now.

[sam sarrha]

6. there are other factors going on here, Mexico is exporting their poverty

to us to take care of, we are not importing labor, the Mexican government is 'sending it here to raise their standard of living..

also.. Migrants sending $15,000,000,000 home every year is Mexico largest growth industry..

since the mexican government is coordinating the migration that makes it an invasion, technically. this activity has been going on for many years, NAFTA takes 26,000,000 jobs, the mexicans get screwed at $4.60 a day wages and a company store. not counting China, india. Bangladesh, pakistan, etc then another 15,000,000 mexicans not counting their birth rate, moves in.. there are serious consequences down the road.. that are not being addressed.

we are being divided and conquered on this subject.. this is not about feeling good or being a bater if you dont... it is about manipulation attitudes, big Corporate money on both sides of the boarder, and no one is talking about the consequences of allowing Mexico to perpetrate this and have everyone flame me because i point it out.. Mexico has been declared by the UN to be,..'Morraly Bankrupt and Democratically Irretrievable'. i really feel for the mexican people, but this is not as it seems, there are very bad consequences for everybody down the road if we dont look at the bigger picture.

[brindis_desala]

7. The problem is universal but China is the key. Its workforce

has to demand their fair share. In a global economy minimum environmental and working standards are a must. The clock is running, we don't have the luxury of waiting for the investment dollar to find
its greatest return on the cheapest labor.

[Karenina]

9. NAFTA

was the morally bankrupt boulder that has long since rolled down the hill.

[bleedingheart]

8. "Dumb Hunky" was the phrase used in Pittsburgh for Eastern Europeans

that were taking the mill jobs in early 1900's...

[brindis_desala]

10. Every new group took their lumps. The native labor force naturally

fears the "immigrant" lowering his status. But for white immigrants there was a solution: they organized. Unfortunately the employers used the country's racist history to undermine the movement by convincing the unions it was in their "interest" to exclude non-white workers. The other side of the coin is the stratification of South and Central American societies where a tiny European elite resisted industrialization with a big assist from the US military as our robber barons feared the potential competition.

[bleedingheart]

11. Zinn's - A people's history of the US is a great book that describes

what you are speaking about....did you know that Oklahoma was once a bastion of socialism???? amazing ain't it...this and more in Zinn's book.

[brindis_desala]

12. The turn of the century saw an upsurge of socialist parties in

response to industrialization. Now only was Oklahoma one of the bastions of socialism it was home to one of the few chapters that advocated for full black participation and equal voting rights. No doubt this "liberalism" was one of the factors that inspired the violent backlash in the 1921 Tulsa massacre when a thriving black community was strafed by airplane-fire and burned to the ground.

[Ms. Clio]

14. So few people know about the Tulsa Massacre

Most of the Oklahomans I've known have never even heard of it.

[brindis_desala]

18. if there's one subject the power elite never want our children to

learn in school it is U.S. history. The victims get to carry their scars then told to hush and listen up to another fairy-tale about our great democracy.

[Ms. Clio]

21. Hopefully they learn some of the truth in college

but those fairy tales are powerful and seductive.

[Igel]

27. Hungarians, in fact.

Other ethnicities had other insults thrown at them. Polak (which is ok in Polish, since it's merely the standard word for 'Pole') was a biggie. I'm not aware of any for Czech or Slovak, but I know they must have had them; I've heard "Slav" used as an insult ("Jew", too), it referred specifically to the "swarthy" south Slav--Serb or Croat, possibly Bulgarian.

[libnnc]

15. Yeppers. Thought it sounded familiar.

You just won the Christmas turkey.

[WillyT]

16. Yep... In 2004 It Was Gay Marriage, In 2006 It's Illegal Immigrants !!!

And the American people, and many Dems, fall for this shit EVERY TIME!!!

The Republicans are not going to allow a rollback, or a sunsetting of the tax breaks for the filthy rich. They are not gonna regulate the amount of interest on loans and credit cards that corporations charge. They are not gonna toss that bankruptcy bill so that if you get in dire straits you can fix it, but still allow that for the corporations. They are not gonna do a damned thing about the price of gas either.

What they ARE gonna do, is squeeze the regular American worker, middle and lower classes. What they are gonna do, is bet their entire political future, on getting Americans to once again fight amongst themselves while they rob us blind in our rage. What they are gonna try, is to use this as the reason they barely survived the 2006 "close" election carried by Diebold et. al.

And waiting in the wings???

Iran
Terrorist Alerts (2004 Reprise)
Bird Flu
Janet Jackson's Nipple
The Fucking Kitchen Sink

Don't fall for any of it.

Think about it.

Why haven't they taken back up Social Security this year? Political loser for them.

Why are they falling all over themselves to look like they're trying to fix the gas\oil situation? Politically scares the hell out of them.

Why are they so gung-ho about dealing with Immigration NOW? After 5 years of silence, other than the vigilante yahoos at the border? Because they think it is a winner for them! They think it keeps them in power.

PROVE THEM WRONG!!!

There will be time enough to figure out sane Immigration reform when some semblance sanity is restored to congress when we oust the criminally insane running it now.

:shrug:

[brindis_desala]

17. Willy T it never fails to amaze how many times

the average American voter gets conned by the same old lines. The snakeoil salesmen like Elmer Gantry and P.T. Barnum see them coming from a country mile.

[omega minimo]

23. The cream rises to the top...........

oh I'm sorry to use such a "white" metaphor...and in this esteemed company (great OP, great replies) I trust that my dry humor is kosher...... or sumthin.......... :evilgrin:

Dear brindis desala, always a pleasure.

I was in a Human Psych class with a focus on race/gender issues in the mid-90's, during the time that NAFTA was being shoved thru Congress and Prop. 157 (anti-Mexican immigrant worker) was on the ballot in CA.

I remember bringing up in class how these two stories (globalization sucks jobs out of the country) and immigrant labor (hordes of "scary" brown people from the South clamoring for jobs) were side by side on the front page....

My question to the class "How stupid do they think we are?" was met by blank stares............ so much for connecting the dots.

And as globalization has reached a HIGH POINT of public (even MSM!!) awareness and the China Thing is there for anyone to figure out if they care to, HERE COME THOSE SCARY BROWN PEOPLE AGAIN!!!!!!

What an amazing thread................... such insight here. It's all been said, so well.

I'm wondering if there's even ANOTHER test going on: the racial divide. We need "people in the streets" and the Peace Movement has been active and rising in public awareness recently, too.

Was this a test to see if the Anti-war, Pro-Peace, Pro-America, Impeach Bush contingent would JOIN the General Strike of the immigrant rights crowds on May Day?

WillyT's great OP describing the scene and his participation................ Sacramento probably has NEVER seen a surge of humanity like that at the Capitol.

It seems possible that the wedge that's being driven (shhh, don't tell anybuddy!) is "law and order" vs. "not." There was a woman on NewsHour the other night who I didn't want to agree with due to the RW pedigree, but she was saying quite well what the divide is boiling down to........ reasonable people who relate to the human rights issues still do not relate to the "in your face" demands being made as if something is OWED to people who come here illegally. I am not trying to make her argument, but point out that that will be used by the Rong Wing.

Thank you brindis d.

[brindis_desala]

24. Thanks for your usual thoughtful reply. yes the law and order card

is the "ace-in-the-hole" against these 'felons' and 'terrorists'. John Brown where are you...?? I mentioned in another thread how amusing it was to hear folks living in Los Angeles, San Marino and El Paso decrying bilingual education. That a city with a musical heritage unparalleled in recent history would be allowed to perish with barely a mewl from the corporate media speaks volumes to the poverty of our culture. In truth those who are frightened of the "alien invaders" have nothing to protect, the beauty of this country has been bought, sold, repackaged and dispersed to the winds for the almighty buck. My only hope is that when the dystopians have finished thrashing about in their nihilistic death throes that enough seeds of human genius will be spared for a fresh beginning. Stay strong, a new dawn is freshly awakening.

[omega minimo]

26. True dat

:thumbsup:

"Stay strong, a new dawn is freshly awakening."

[Kansas Wyatt]

22. The Democrats dropped the ball on the illegal immigration issue

If the Democrats were really representing and legitimately wanting to reclaim Working Class voters they have lost over the years, they only had to do one thing.

Raise Hell and demand massive fines for employers and corporations employing illegal workers. Call for a three strikes law, where, if an employer is caught employing illegal workers three times, the Federal Government seizes that employer's business and it's assets. Call for an Extended Unemployment Fund to be set up, which would be funded by the fines and seizures, minus expenses, which would be an extension of existing state unemployment funds for unemployed and under-employed legal workers (citizens & legal immigrants). This proposal would do nothing additional to illegal immigrants already here, nor would it grant any citizenship, amnesty, or any immunity. Employers and corporations would immediately halt employing illegal workers and would quickly determine who was an illegal worker, because they are not about to risk losing money and/or their business to the blue collar workers they are screwing out of a fair wage and adequate conditions, in the first place. Illegals would have no choice but to return to their native country, due to the lack of work. On their own expense, just like they came in illegally, and they already accepted and agreed to those terms, along with getting caught, when they came here.

That is all the Democrats had to do to immediately gain widespread support from a strong majority of the American people, and it does not punish illegal immigrants (they already knew & accepted the legal terms) and it directly attacks the problem itself. Employers breaking the law and committing unfair labor practices, at society's expense.

Instead, the Republicans are the ones who appear to be angry about all the illegal workers in the country and the ones willing to do something about it, which will fail to penalize the greedy ones responsible and only keep the status quo in place, minus a few "examples." And, the MSM will make sure the American people know that Republicans are taking a tough stand on illegal immigration.

[brindis_desala]

25. you nailed it. Unfortunately the unions made a deal with the devil

in the 1970's and it was sold to them by a Democratic party that feared the emergence of a large non-white constituency that would offend their populist Southern base. I strongly suspect that when Meany went golfing with those corporate execs they told him- "George, those dadblame liberals have gone and given the black and brown people the vote. We can't go on refusing to hire them so here's what we'll do... we'll have this two-tier system..." Sound familiar?

[4_TN_TITANS]

20. rrrrrrrrAmen to that.....

All of this immigrant BS is just this election-cycle's hot button issue to try and stir up the Repug base. The 'conservative' hate emails are flying away at my work regarding Mexicans. Congress is bought and paid for by the companies and people who make a killing by exploiting cheap labor - they aren't going to change a damn thing.