Fwd: DWVDG: May Day, immigration reform, and the Syrian uprising

[gregory...@aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Green <comv...@flash.net>
To: Gregory Butler <GREGORY...@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Apr 23, 2013 11:24 pm
Subject: DWVDG: May Day, immigration reform, and the Syrian uprising

To: Detroit Workers' Voice mailing list
April 23, 2013
Re: Discussion Group meeting this Sunday
From: Joseph Green, editor of "Communist Voice"

------------------------------------------------------------
Join us this Sunday, 6 - 8  pm, April 23, 2013
to discuss
(a) the fake Congressional immigration reform
proposals, and
(b) our defense of the Syrian uprising at the
anti-imperialism panel at the Platypus convention
of earlier this month
------------------------------------------------------------

The capitalists want to divide the workers on any possible basis, such
as nationality, religion, language, income, or gender. But May Day is a
time for activists to consider what's needed to unite the workers as a
class in the struggle for a better world. Two of the important issues in
uniting workers in the US are support for the immigrant workers, and
support for the struggles of workers in other countries against
oppression. Such support is proletarian internationalism in practice.

This May Day comes at a time when the bourgeois politicians are debating
the status of the millions of undocumented immigrant workers in the US;
the undocumented workers are those immigrants who lack legal status in
this country. They are super-exploited by the capitalist class: they
live under the threat of deportation, and are subject to racial abuse;
they are denied many benefits and services; many work in the worst jobs
at low wages; and they are often cheated out of their wages. Some of the
politicians are continuing a crusade against the undocumented
immigrants; new restrictive laws have been passed in various states; and
the Obama administration itself has deported a record number of
immigrants. But the Obama administration also claims to be on the side
of the immigrants, and it has joined with various politicians in putting
forward what it calls a reform proposal. We will discuss this reform
proposal and show that, while promising to provide a section of
immigrants with an incredibly long and arduous path towards citizenship,
which wouldn't lead to actual citizenship for anyone until at least 2026
or 2027, it steps up various repressive measures against the immigrants.

At the end of this notice, I append the May Day leaflet of the Seattle
Communist Study Group, which denounce the fake reform proposal and calls
on workers and activists to support full rights for immigrants.

The meeting this Sunday will also have a report on the participation by
the Communist Voice Organization in the Platypus International
Convention earlier this month.  I was invited to be one of the speakers
on the panels on anti-imperialism and on the environment. The CVO does
not share the views of the Platypus Affiliated Society. Among other
things, it is essentially a liberal Trotskyist organization, while the
CVO is against both Trotskyism and Stalinism. But the Platypus Society
organizes discussion among many different activists and organizations of
important issues, and most of the sessions of its Convention are open to
all interested people.

The subject of discussion on the panel on imperialism was whether there
is a contradiction between support for anti-fascism and support for
anti-imperialism. I put forward that both true anti-imperialism and true
anti-fascism meant support for the struggles of the masses against their
oppressors. I reviewed Lenin's attitude to the anti-imperialist movement
and contrasted it to "non-class anti-imperialism", which repeatedly ends
up supporting various reactionary regimes and movements, such as the
Assad dictatorship in Syria, the fallen Qaddafi dictatorship in Libya,
or the Taliban in Afghanistan. I discussed the concrete nature of the
struggles of the Arab Spring, and the reason why it is important to
support the democratic movements of the masses even though social
revolution is not imminent. The other speakers found reason to take a
hands-off attitude to the mass struggles.

At the environmental panel, I spoke about the need for a working-class
environmental movement that was consciously opposed to the wrong
measures and market-fundamentalism of establishment environmentalism. <>

- - - - - - -- - -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - --

March on May Day!
Full rights for all immigrants, now!
(Leaflet of the Seattle Communist Study Group, April 19, 2013
  in support of May Day actions)

May Day is the holiday of the world's workers. It commemorates the May 1
start of the 1886 general strike for the 8-hour work day in the United
States, a historic strike in which the working people united nationally
to fight for their independent class interests for the first time. And
it's a day when workers lay demands upon the capitalist class as a
whole, and rally forces for future battles.

This year's May Day marches in the U.S. are again standing up for
immigrant rights.  When migrant workers are denied rights and forced to
live under the threat of deportation they're easier to exploit, thereby
increasing the capitalists' profits.  This super-exploitation of one
part of the working class is not only unjust, but is also used to drive
down the wages and conditions of the rest of the working class.  Thus,
the need for the entire working class to fight for full rights for all
immigrants -- a reform. But in unison with many leading Republicans,
social-security-and-medicare-cutting Obama is also pushing for
immigration reform. So we had better look into the kind of immigration
reform Obama says he'll sign.  And that's contained in the 844-page
bi-partisan reform bill which the "gang of eight" in Democrat-controlled
Senate has just released. (If passed, it will have to be compromised
with a worse bill from the Republican-controlled House, if the House
even comes up with a bill.) Some of its features are:

*More deportations.* The supposed friend of migrant workers, Obama, has
already deported more people than any president in U.S. history by far,
including a record of over 400,000 in fiscal year 2012. Nearly a quarter
of those deportations involved parents whose children are U.S. citizens.
This inhuman policy will continue. Among others, it will be directed at
hundreds of thousands of undocumented people who arrived in the country
after Dec. 31, 2011 plus undocumented new arrivals; at large numbers of
immigrants unable to meet the requirements necessary to get (or keep)
the new "Registered Provision Immigrant"(RPI) legal status and green
cards; at those who will refuse to participate in the entire
bureaucratic, fascistic, trap-filled DHS process, which will also
include a mandatory E-Verify card.

*Further militarizing the Mexico border.* Twenty years ago, fewer than
4,000 Border Patrol agents worked the entire southern border. Today
there are 18,500. Some 651 miles of fence have been built, and drones
and electronic devices are everywhere. The result has been racist
murder, i.e., in order to avoid fences and surveillance, a record of at
least 477 people died from the elements in the deserts just last year,
while attempted crossings have actually declined since the outbreak of
the U.S. economic crisis. Border Patrol agents even destroy water
bottles left on desert routes by U.S. citizens who are dedicated to
saving lives. But that's not enough. The "gang of eight" bill would
spend $4.5 billion more on surveillance and fences, and an additional $2
billion if "initial goals aren't met." It would fund 3,500 additional
Customs agents nationwide, and authorize deployment of the National
Guard on the border with Mexico.

*More "guest workers."* To serve the high-tech industries, the bill
would raise the cap on highly educated and skilled H-1B workers to
110,000 the first year, and then allow it to go to 180,000. To serve the
agricultural, construction, hotel and other capitalists, 200,000 "guest"
wage slaves will be authorized the first year under a new "W visa," with
annual increases for the next three years. After that, a new government
bureau would determine the cap. W visa workers cannot quit their
employer to take any new job they wish, but must hire on with another
employer in the same industry who is authorized to employ W visa workers.

"Guest workers" would be allowed to eventually become citizens, and are
supposed to be paid the prevailing rates in the geographic areas where
they're employed, which is good. But those wages are notoriously low,
while the jobs are hard, dirty and dangerous. And raising them enough to
attract a stable domestic workforce would greatly reduce the capitalists
profits. So importing thousands and thousands of "guest workers" at
present low rates solves their problem nicely--which is why
construction, agricultural and other capitalists are already loudly
complaining that the "guest worker" caps are too low!

*Discrimination against the poor and less educated.* The reform would
shift away from giving green cards to people with relatives in the U.S.
to an immigration policy strictly serving the needs of the capitalists.
And since the U.S. education system has gone to hell, 40% of
employment-based visas would be reserved for professionals holding
advanced degrees, especially in science, technology, engineering or
mathematics, plus there would be a new "merit based" visas. Thus, a
humble worker with U.S. family members would be pushed aside by the
needs of the capitalists.

*A long, degrading, snare-filled path to citizenship.* Just to get a
green card, one would first have to slave ten years under the new RPI
status (which would have to be renewed at the six-year mark), pay
thousands of dollars in fines and fees, prove that they've worked
regularly, and "demonstrate knowledge of civics and English," an
anti-democratic requirement. Further, anyone laid off or who had a
medical emergency during those years couldn't get unemployment
compensation, medicaid, or food stamps despite all the taxes they'd
paid...and they'd better not get arrested in a strike or protest because
that might put them over the limit of three misdemeanors or one felony
conviction. Moreover, actually getting a green card would be contingent
upon there not already being too many green card holders (according to
the limits the politicians set) who had come through the legal
immigration route. Then, after getting a green card, one would have to
wait three more years to get citizenship. Thus, *thirteen years* (!),
and it would only start *after* the Secretary of Homeland Security had
certified measures concerning the "security" of the southern border (the
so-called border triggers).The "Christian Science Monitor" estimates
that it would be almost 2030 before the main bloc of today's
undocumented immigrants could start becoming citizens.

"Gang of eight" conservative Republican Marco Rubio praises this path to
citizenship, saying that "the alternative we've created is going to be
longer, more expensive and more difficult to navigate" than going back
to one's home country and waiting ten years to apply for a U.S. visa.

  So the immigration reform Obama pledges to "sign right away" turns out
to be a reform most vile. This is because the Democrats, like the
Republicans, are political tools of the biggest banks and corporations.
And what about the AFL-CIO (which collaborated with the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce to help write the "guest worker" provisions of the bill) and
the various immigrant rights groups who've for years preached reliance
on the Democrats? Well, they're now hiding the rotten nature of the
proposed reform. This is why the immigrant rights movement has to be
built without and against both capitalist parties and their defenders.

Indeed, history is teaching that a progressive immigration reform is
only going to be won through massive and militant struggles like those
of the 1930s and 1960s and early 70s, a path the immigrant rights
movement was starting to take in early 2006: huge demonstrations, the
May Day "day without an immigrant" strike and boycott, etc. A first step
in reviving the movement requires exposing and denouncing the rotten
reform currently being debated in workplaces, schools, and on the
streets. It requires organizing groups of workers and others to do this,
as well as holding meetings and organizing actions. And it requires
linking up with others in the country who are determined to do the same.

We should expect no quick victories, but our cause is just. The reform
the capitalists want means continued super-exploitation and abuse, the
platform of the workers is full rights for all our class brothers and
sisters now!

Denounce Obama's immigration reform!
Everyone out for May Day! <>