Criminals calling working class men and women criminals. A master
stroke of misconception. When an Oligarchy or a dictatorship writes
the laws of the land, and enforces them, anyone they choose to call
"criminal" can be charged and sent into forced labor. At the same
time, this corrupt power continues to tighten the constraints around
the "free" workers, constricting their remaining Freedoms. And yet,
far too often, those "free" workers think that they are different than
the criminals, in the eyes of the Ruling Class. They are not. None
of us, whether crawling in the bowels of the Earth or sitting behind a
highly polished desk and wearing a $1,000 suit, we are all owned by
our Masters, and each of us pay for the privilege of laboring for a
living.
When I worked for Bartmann and Bixers' drapery factory, the company
sent an executive out from their New Jersey office to study our
performance and develop plans for cutting costs. Carl Petzel did not
want to come to Seattle. He and his wife had a Developmentally
delayed daughter living in an institution near their home in Passaic.
They could not move her, and hated leaving her. But Mister Bixer
insisted, and Carl and his wife moved. For five years he did his job.
He did it so well that he actually worked himself out of a job.
Mister Bixer sent down the word that Carl was to return to New Jersey.
Carl and I had developed an open communication, despite being on
opposite sides, workers versus employers.
Carl had once told me that he had been in the same position as I found
myself in, a young worker having to decide whether to throw in with
the workers or with the company owners. He said he had chosen the
owners, and had been treated well over the years. But on his last day
in Seattle, Carl shed tears in front of me. He said, "If I were a
younger man, I'd tell Mister Bixer to take his job and go to Hell."
But he had no choice any longer. Carl was nearing retirement age and
would have been Black Balled in Seattle if he quit and looked for
other work.
I felt sad, but on the other hand, while doing his job, Carl had
caused many low income women to be forced out of their job, through
his cost cutting measures.
And after all, I had thrown my lot in with the Workers.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/19/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2017/8108/810801.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 8 February 27, 2017
(lead article)
‘Stop the raids! We are workers, not criminals!’
Thousands join protests against immigration raids
Above, Joe Brusky; inset, Militant/Bernie Senter
Above, more than 20,000 march in Milwaukee Feb. 13 protesting
immigration raids and moves by County Sheriff David Clarke to allow his
deputies to act as federal immigration agents. Inset, Dennis Richter,
Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, at Feb. 12
protest against ICE raids in Van Nuys, California.
BY SETH GALINSKY
Protesters took to the streets across the country after more than 680
immigrants were arrested Feb. 6-10 by the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency in “targeted enforcement actions” focused on
undocumented workers who have been found guilty of various crimes.
Immigrants earmarked by la migra, along with others caught up in the
raids, were seized in their homes or on the street in the first
nationwide raids since President Donald Trump took office. Like similar
“targeted” sweeps under the Barack Obama administration, these raids are
aimed at dividing and weakening the working class.
The nation’s immigration cops said they were stepping up business as
usual to carry out Trump’s Jan. 25 executive order broadening the scope
of who they can go after. “Big cities tend to have a lot of illegal
immigrants,” one immigration official told the Washington Post. They’re
“a target-rich environment.”
In the largest action to date, more than 20,000 people marched in
Milwaukee Feb. 13 protesting the raids, the exclusion of refugees and
immigrants based on their religion or national origins, and moves by
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke to allow his deputies to act as
federal immigration cops.
Protesters came from all over the state in what Voces de la Frontera,
which organized the action, called a “Day Without Latinos, Immigrants,
and Refugees.” According to the group, more than 150 farms, factories,
restaurants and other businesses across the state closed down in what
was in part a one-day strike against the anti-immigrant moves.
“I don’t want to be deported. I work for people and society and it’s
unfair to get kicked out, ” Eliseo Rivera, a 30-year-old restaurant
cook, told Socialist Workers Party members as they marched together.
“Doesn’t matter if you’re from China, doesn’t matter if you’re from
Puerto Rico or from Mexico, we all stand together as one because we
believe that we are the people,” Luis Ortega told WBAY-TV News.
SWP candidates: ‘Amnesty now!’
“The truth is that the capitalists want undocumented workers to come to
the U.S., because they can be pressured into a pariah status and
superexploited, to drive down the value of all our labor power,” Osborne
Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of New York, told
workers at a Feb. 14 protest there.
“Trump’s measures, like those of Obama, Bush and Clinton before him, are
not designed to stop the flow of immigrant labor, but to regulate it and
to divide the working class,” he said.
“That’s why protests that say ‘Stop the Raids. Amnesty now!’ are so
important,” Hart said. “Our trade unions should organize everyone with
or without papers into the unions. Together we can fight more
effectively for better wages, working conditions and job safety. We
should champion demands and protests that advance the unity of the
working class.”
Court upholds injunction
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
in a unanimous vote Feb. 9 upheld an injunction by a federal district
court in Washington state staying Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order, which
imposed a three-month ban on all travelers from seven mostly Muslim
countries, a four-month moratorium on admitting refugees from any
country and an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. After nationwide
protests, the White House backed off a little, saying the ban didn’t
apply to permanent U.S. residents.
“We oppose Trump’s blanket ban on refugees and visitors from seven
countries. No one should be penalized because of their religious beliefs
or background, their political views or their country of origin,” Hart
said. “At the same time the slogan raised by many liberals and
middle-class leftists to tear down the wall and open the border is
utopian and dangerous. If enacted, such moves would sharply increase
joblessness and competition among workers, and deal blows to the unity
of the working class.”
Lawyers for the state of Washington charged that the executive order was
intended as a “Muslim ban.”
While agreeing with government lawyers that the president has wide
powers on immigration, the Appeals Court ruled that his decisions are
subject to review. And, they said, anyone residing in the United States,
regardless of whether or not their presence is “lawful,” has a right to
due process.
The White House is considering rewriting the executive order with a
clearer focus, but has not ruled out pursuing appeals of the court ruling.
Trump’s Jan. 25 executive order broadening ICE raids has not been
challenged in court.
Protests pushed back factory raids
Until 2008, one of the main ways the U.S. government tried to instill
fear in workers without papers was through factory raids. But after
millions of immigrant workers went on strike and protested on May 1,
2006, against an anti-immigrant bill then in the U.S. Congress, factory
raids became more and more unpopular among broad sections of the working
class.
They were increasingly met with protests that united Black, Caucasian
and Latino workers. The last major factory raid was in Postville, Iowa,
in 2008.
The U.S. government shifted gears, ending factory raids and relying more
on operations targeting “criminal aliens,” E-Verify, and immigration
“audits” to force bosses to fire workers without papers. Some sweeps
under Obama detained over 2,000 immigrants.
In Obama’s second term, deporting undocumented workers with felonies or
“significant” misdemeanors was proclaimed ICE’s top priority.
Trump’s executive order says U.S. policy is to detain all individuals
who violate federal immigration law. Despite this, the recent raids were
largely carried out under Obama administration guidelines.
Dan Fein and Samir Qaisar contributed to this article from Milwaukee.
Related articles:
‘Amnesty now!’ says SWP candidate in LA
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