Why I'm Not Standing With The Gringo Border Vigilantes

[Itsthetruth]

CounterPunch
April 28, 2005

Notes on Misplaced Autonomy
Why I'm Not Standing with the Gringo Vigilantes
By GREG MOSES
Greg Moses is editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review and author of Revolution of Conscience: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Philosophy of Nonviolence.

SouthWest Border Vigilantes say gringos should drop everything they are doing and go stand shoulder to shoulder at the Mexican border to prevent anybody from walking North.

Where border vigilantes should look is toward the tallest skyscrapers of their hometown cities, up to the penthouses where business plans are being hatched to pay ever fewer American workers ever smaller paychecks. There is where the vigilantes should stand shoulder to shoulder not letting anyone down the elevators until a national labor plan is laser printed and signed by each and every penthouse occupant and posted on the internet in pdf format.

It is just plain sick to see gringos standing at the Mexican border as if their own gringo forefathers walked the Bering straits or paddled the great oceans to get here 10,000 years ago, got to know all the plants and animals, bred corn and tapped pulque, discovered tomatoes and tortillas. Inhospitality however is a gringo specialty and the sickness we are quite used to seeing, even when they have their mouths stuffed with fajita enchilada specials. For shame.

Blaming Mexicans for the effects of a poorly managed USA labor policy is a sign of intellectual and moral weakness, as if the leading question asked by the vigilantes is not who is most responsible for this mess but who can we most easily pick on.

http://www.counterpunch.org/moses04282005.html

[ret5hd]

1. exactly. spot on. stigmatize the poor, masturbate the rich.

[Booster]

2. It is my understanding that the vigilantes are going to go after the

people who are hiring illegals next, and standing shoulder to shoulder at the borders gets attention and starts people thinking and talking about the problem, so it's a good start. Change only comes when the people start to stand up and fight back.

[Misunderestimator]

3. Right.... they're going to go after the companies that hire them...

Maybe they should think about STARTING THERE? Stupid, stupid, stupid, Minutemen, indeed.

[Itsthetruth]

11. Border Patrol Oufits Don't Worry About Outsourcing And NAFTA

Has everyone noticed that these border patrol outfits say nothing .... absolutely nothing negative about corporations that oursource millions of jobs and nothing about NAFTA and other proposed job destroying "free trade" agreements? They have never organized a picketline against am outsourcing corporation nor have they ever supported a union-led campaign that has attempted to improve the wages and conditions of immigrant workers.

This is not a mere oversight or mistake on their part. Their "job" is to scapegoat immigrant workers for low wages and unemployment in order to take the heat off big business. It's right-wing diversion. Right-wing and neo-fascist outfits are doing the same thing in Europe against the "invasion" of "foreign" workers.

[G_j]

7. especially when

you can "stand up" and see who is not white? ..gotta start somewhere..

:argh:

[Maat]

4. Thanks for the post!

I live in California, and that's exactly right.

Do you think that the owners of these huge agricultural operations want to pay a decent wage? I think not, experience has shown.

Boooosh's backers want cheap labor; they do not want their supply of it cut off; therefore, the stream of immigrants will not be diverted.

[Cleita]

5. But...but....but...

they're breaking the law; taking my job; lowering my wages; using our tax money for services; marrying my daughter and making brown grandchildren....but...but...but...:sarcasm:

[donsu]

6. kick

nt

[Bridget Burke]

8. I'd stand with Los Hombres Minutos...

[Cleita]

9. LOL. I love Lalo.n/t

[Bridget Burke]

10. He's been having a lot of fun with the Minutemen.

And he was ahead of the pack on the Gannon story!

http://www.lacucaracha.com/

[RagingInMiami]

12. That's a good article

I spent four years in Arizona and I found it be a really weird state. These same white people who hate Mexicans are basically midwest transplants who are shocked that Arizona is not as lily-white as their hometowns.
Of course, these same white people will be out partying come this Cinco de Mayo.

[Itsthetruth]

13. Good Cartoon