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The Border: The New Color Line

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Thu Aug 18, 2005 at 09:52:46 AM EST
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Great post by Nathan Newman on the border as the new color line. Here's a snippet:

Similarly, a politics of national "citizenship" and exclusion of immigrants may juice electoral coalitions in the short term -- although I'm not even convinced of that -- but in the long run such politics of nationalist politics does nothing to address multinational corporations moving jobs around the globe like a chessboard, pitting workers against each other in a race to the bottom. And such nationalist rhetoric just feeds a politics that will likely block the creation of international institutions that can restrain corporate power.

In the end, no idea of justice can justify a politics that excludes the poorest of the earth from sharing in the wealth of work in our country, but even more so, no idea of political success can be built on that exclusiona, since it will be subverted by global capitalism that will take most of those jobs to those desperate workers if they are not able to come here for them.

This is one reason why the labor movement in the US has both idealistically and pragmatically adopted a strongly pro-immigrant-- and yes, that include pro-undocumented immigrant -- vision of what needs to be done to challenge corporate power and protect the living standards of American workers. Because the lesson from Dred Scott onwards is that "citizens" don't thrive by hording the benefits of that citizenship to themselves, but thrive in a world where the benefits of shared rights are continually expanded to new groups.

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    • The Border: The New Color Line | 12 comments (12 topical)
    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#1)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:28 PM EST
    And such nationalist rhetoric just feeds a politics that will likely block the creation of international institutions that can restrain corporate power.
    And what might these institutions be, and what must we give up to enjoy their protection? Anyway you slice it, unrestrained immigration is bad. This article is just a call for UN control of our lives.

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    The half-wits attacking immigration for the red meat NEVER criticize Walmart, which is moving semitrucks full of who knows what (and apparently who-cares-what). Oh, and hiring illegals whenever profitable. They never criticize the corporate issues you mention. They never mention the maquiladoras. They never mention the outsourcing which is worse on American jobs BY FAR than illegal immigration. They prefer to attack the Mexicans, because the poor aren't powerful like Walmart and McDonalds (which plans to outsource its drive-through lines, to India or some other distant land, if you can believe that). UN control? Hilarious. NAFTA has already replaced any worries we might have from that quarter. NAFTA has damaged the economy of the border states more than a thousand years of the UN. We also didn't hear a peep about jobs-destroying CAFTA from the RW. They are too busy working up to a lynching along the borders.

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    Citizenship is a double-quote word now? Good lord. -C

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    Newman: And so today we have those who defend the rights of undocumented immigrants depicted as the tools of the corporate "cheap labor" lobby How many examples do you want? For instance, Lee Culpepper works for the National Restaurant Association and is Chairman of the National Immigration Forum. Check out the others on its board. And, the immigration forums held by First Data/Western Union are quite illustrative. There would certainly seem to be a partnership of some sort between that large corporation on those on the left who support illegal immigration. In fact, UCLA Prof. Raul Hinojosa was on one of their panels, and he also heads up a company that explicitly states it's going after the illegal alien market. Then, look at the support for AgJobs: a noxious combination of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and race-based groups. And, look at those who opposed AZ's Prop. 200: the AZ Chamber of Commerce together with similar race-based groups. See also Who is the Cheap Labor Lobby? Cui bono, baby.

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    "There would certainly seem to be a partnership of some sort between that large corporation on those on the left who support illegal immigration." Sure, sure. The left LOVES to support companies which pay pennies and offer no benefits. The just LOVE to support large corporations that rob employees. Didn't you know? Leftism = Capitalism. NEXT hairbrained theory.

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    Everyone has seen "a day without Mexicans" haven't they? -C

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    The left LOVES to support companies which pay pennies and offer no benefits. The left, "liberals", and Dems end up supporting companies like that with their support for illegal immigration. Here's a very good example: "We think there might be a better way to go about this because the fact is that it is against the law for the employer to hire these people so there should be more focus on the employer and less in these terrorizing raids," Pelosi said. She was talking about the Walmart raids. She was also in Mexico at the time, and she was accusing the government for which she works (and presumably to which she has some degree of allegiance of some kind) of terrorizing people. The Walmart raids ended in a slap on the wrist, and were clearly intended as a way for the Bush administration to get a showpiece. In effect, she ended up supporting the use of cheap, illegal labor with her comments.

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    Everyone has seen "a day without Mexicans" haven't they? Because of the idiotic nofollow tags used here, I'm not going to bother providing yet another link. However, there's an article at National Review pointing out what a smear piece that POS movie was.

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:30 PM EST
    If you think Rep. Pelosi is a leftist, you have marbles in your skull. If you think the Walmart prosecution was weak, yoru beef is with the Justice Dept. As for the INS or other agencies and encouraged vigilantes, she doesn't owe them allegiance for their terrorising of immigrants, or for their decades-long delays in supplying papers to legal immigrants of the lower or darker classes. Head downtown in LA on any weekday. The line is two blocks long, doesn't move, and that's how it is for WEEKS. Making people campout on the sidewalk for days on end is not the kind of welcome to America I think we should be making. Hilarious that you attack Pelosi, when she was pointing out that Walmart has lawyers, while its employees don't. So the Waltons don't get guns pointed in their faces, for their policies. It's the employees, and the communities, that suffer from Walmart's bad neighbor/bad employer policies.

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:30 PM EST
    bigmedia - Smear? It was all about personal relationships. Plus there were some great homage bits to WKRP, Greatest American Hero, and several other 80's serials that escape me now. -C

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:31 PM EST
    I don't watch movies, but I'm going to take Meghan Clyne's word that it was just a smear job. I used to go to the federal building in downtown L.A. on a regular basis. I'd walk in the front door (the only door non-employees could walk in) and I'd walk out the back door. I never saw any lines around the block. Perhaps PinLA is referring to the federal building in his mind.

    Re: The Border: The New Color Line (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:32 PM EST
    Posted by -cliff: Citizenship is a double-quote word now? Good lord." Ask any Black. Ask any Woman before 1924. Ask a Muslim in Bush's Amerika. Incorrect on your first link, DA, which is in Westwood. Whether or not the INS has 'tucked in' the line since I worked downtown, the waits are still interminable. I have friends who are here legally, who have waited for their paperwork for over a decade. If you are rich, or have rich friends, you get the papers in a week. Heck, even a TERRORIST like Posada Carilles gets the immediate protection of the Florida and US authorities (from extradition), because killing civlians en masse is a skill they value.

    The Border: The New Color Line | 12 comments (12 topical)