SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
latin america
What is the Progressive Working-Class Policy on Immigration?
That we don't know the answer to this question is the first problem that must be addressed.
Dec 10, 2024
So what is the progressive working-class policy when it comes to immigration?
I don’t know the answer and neither does anyone else, because there isn’t one. Why is that?
To date there has been no serious effort to bring together the leaders of labor unions and immigrant workers centers to discuss common approaches to immigration that speak to the needs of all working people.
Further, and perhaps even more importantly, there has been no sustained educational dialogue at the local level that brings together immigrant and non-immigrant workers to discuss their hopes, fears, and desires.
To be sure there are widely shared negative positions: Opposition to separating immigrant families; opposition to creating mass detention centers; and opposition to forcibly expelling undocumented workers who are working hard and obeying the law. But there is no broad-based discussion, let alone agreement, on what a progressive working-class policy should include.
This is a disaster for progressive politics. For without addressing what is perceived widely as an immigration crisis, the field is left open to demagogues who want to divide and exploit workers for political gain.
Elements of a Progressive Working-Class Policy
There are several proactive and positive avenues to developing new progressive immigration policies. The first is the need to rebuild Latin American economies so that residents of those countries can find secure and sustainable employment near home. As one labor leader told me last week, we need an immediate multibillion-dollar Marshall Plan for these countries so that their people do not need to risk life and limb to come to the U.S. for incredibly low-wage jobs.
Unless a working-class approach to immigration is developed, progressive politics will become increasingly alienated from working people, and the right will make greater and greater inroads into the working class by promoting a politics of fear and resentment.
Making these changes is a tall order, but the root cause of the migrant crisis needs to be identified and discussed again and again. People are fleeing violence, dictatorships, and collapsing economies that U.S. financial assistance can help to rectify, and one could argue, that Wall Street’s wealth extraction and U.S. foreign policy maneuvers helped to create.
There is also reason to believe that non-immigrant workers increasingly support a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. In researching my book, Wall Street’s War on Workers, we uncovered a remarkable change in the attitudes of white members of the working class.
The Cooperative Elections Study, which has over one-half million respondents, asked the following highly charged question on immigration in 2010 and again in 2020:
“Do you favor or oppose granting legal status to all illegal immigrants who have held jobs and paid taxes for at least three years, and not been convicted of any felony crimes?”
In 2010, only 32.1 percent supported granting such legal status. By 2020, those who favored a pathway to legal status jumped to a remarkable 61.8 percent.
These working-class respondents, however, also want more enforcement on the border. In 2020, 72.6 percent were in favor of “increasing the number of border patrols on the U.S.- Mexican border.” This is a 5 percent increase compared to those who supported this statement in 2010.
Working people who are citizens want to see a fair and just path forward for the millions of law-abiding undocumented immigrants who are already here. But they don’t want open borders or mass unauthorized immigration.
This is not just a white worker phenomenon. Hispanic voters also seem to support a firmly policed border. That can be deduced from the enormous change in voting patterns in South Texas. Among 14 mostly Hispanic counties, Trump won 12. In 2016 he won only five. And Trump, to be sure, in the last campaign increased his focus on stopping the flow of immigrants even while threatening to deport all undocumented workers.
An Educational Model
In the 1990s, the Labor Institute—which I direct—conducted dozens of workshops that brought together environmentalists and oil and chemical workers to discuss climate change and the regulatory elimination of toxic substances. The workshops created an educational base in both groups for the idea of Just Transition, a set of policies to help workers and communities deal with the job dislocation that was likely to result from efforts to reduce toxic chemical production and the use of fossil fuels. It also led to new organizations that brought together workers and community members, such as the Just Transition Alliance and the BlueGreen Alliance.
A similar model should be created today bringing together immigrant and non-immigrant workers in joint workshops to share with each other their concerns and hopes, and to discuss joint policies on immigrant reform.
If ever there was a time to start an on-going dialogue, this is it.
There’s no guarantee that such an educational model will, on its own, produce progressive working-class immigration policies. But it is highly doubtful that a new common direction can be built without listening to rank-and-file immigrant and non-immigrant workers. Workshops can provide a safe and productive space to frankly consider and evaluate alternatives.
One thing is certain. Unless a working-class approach to immigration is developed, progressive politics will become increasingly alienated from working people, and the right will make greater and greater inroads into the working class by promoting a politics of fear and resentment.
If ever there was a time to start an on-going dialogue, this is it. Not doing so would be just another sign that progressives are writing off the working class.
Keep ReadingShow Less
El Salvador’s Self-Proclaimed Dictator Is On Trial
Nayib Bukele is persecuting water defenders on trumped up charges. In reality, he’s the one on trial.
Sep 29, 2024
Nayib Bukele has proudly called himself “the world’s coolest dictator.” On October 8, his government will begin an unjust trial of five water defenders from El Salvador. These men are heroes of El Salvador — and they never should have been arrested.
In these two weeks leading up to the trial, human rights supporters across the United States, Canada, Germany, and elsewhere are joining counterparts in El Salvador to call for the five to be freed.
In January of 2023, Bukele’s attorney general arrested five prominent environmental defenders and charged them with a murder that took place in that nation’s brutal civil war 35 years ago. It doesn’t matter that the government has no evidence to back up the charges or that the five are covered by a 1992 amnesty. Bukele has no use for domestic or international law as he bulldozes civil liberties in mass arrests under the banner of eliminating gangs.
Opposition to these mass arrests is now rising — some from parents whose children were wrongly swept into his prisons, some from human rights defenders, and some from communities that fear he will undo the seven-year old ban on mining which was won by communities that placed the health of their rivers and lands over the profits of mining corporations.
This is where Bukele’s argument that he is only arresting gang members gets murky. In a fact-finding delegation to El Salvador last fall, eight of us from the U.S. and Canada found that thousands of innocent people had also been arrested. We found cases of torture. And we found that Bukele had been locking up opponents, including labor leaders and leaders of the successful fight against mining.
In reality, it’s Nayib Bukele who will be going on trial on October 8 — the trial of global public opinion. If there is any justice left in El Salvador, these five will be freed and the charges dropped. If Bukele instead is insisting on total control of his courts, then the public will see him for what he is: a vindictive bully who has no respect for either human rights or the environment in El Salvador.
On September 26, at protests in front of Salvadoran embassies and consulates in Washington, DC, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver, people gathered to call for justice. IPS joined the Committee in Solidarity With the People of El Salvador (CISPES), and the Washington Ethical Society at the Washington protest.
Bukele hopes to squash democratic opposition to his policies with this trial, and the groups that IPS joins under the rubric of International Allies Against Mining in El Salvador are responding that they will not be moved.
A word of hope, and a word of shame.
In terms of hope, the efforts of organizations in Canada, German, France, and the UK have convinced those four governments to express discontent over the arrests of the five by agreeing to send representatives to the October 8 trial.
In terms of shame, the United States government stands tall. Despite a clear condemnation of the arrests by 17 members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. government is shamefully remaining silent on the trial.
IPS’s Trade and Mining Project has worked with allies on the ground in El Salvador since 2009, when IPS awarded its prestigious Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award to the National Roundtable on Metals Mining in El Salvador. And just as IPS has fought for justice for 48 years in the assassinations of our IPS colleagues Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, we will fight for justice for the Salvadoran water defenders.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Guatemalan Women Fought for Democracy. Now They Have to Make It Work for Them.
A historic grassroots mobilization stopped the nation's corrupt elites from consolidating authoritarian rule in what could have spelled the demise of democracy in Guatemala. The women who led that movement have no illusions about the challenges ahead.
Sep 15, 2024
Outside the window, a storm gathers over Lake Atitlan. Inside, more than 50 women activists, including Guatemalan indigenous land defenders, international feminist leaders and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, listen attentively. Mayan ancestral authorities are telling the deep story of how a recent popular uprising mobilized by indigenous organizations held on for 106 days, defying one of the world’s most corrupt and tyrannic elites who were attempting to override the election results.
The triumph of the Guatemalan people’s movement in defense of democracy is all the more extraordinary because it was led by Indigenous peoples, youth, women, workers, urban poor—those who’ve been ignored and oppressed for centuries by the neocolonialist powers they now defeated at the polls.
Luz Emilia Ulario, ancestral leader of Santa Lucía Utatlán, summed up the moment: “We grew up in this racist, discriminatory system. It hasn’t just been 106 days--it’s been more than 532 years that we’ve been resisting. Those 106 days are when we all rose up together, we all spoke out to say what we think. We shed our fear. It was really the culmination of the 532 years.”
Ulario is one of many women ancestral authorities and indigenous community leaders who traveled to the lakeside village of Panajachel to meet with the international delegation “Women for Peace and Democracy,” organized by the Nobel Women’s Initiative of Peace Prize laureates; JASS, an international feminist movement building organization that supports women’s organizing and movements; and the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation.
Defending representative democracy was not the obvious battle for Guatemalan indigenous peoples, and especially indigenous women, in a system rigged to exclude them.
The mobilization began after Bernardo Arevalo, the son of a former president and candidate of a relatively new and small party called Semilla, unexpectedly beat the candidate of the ruling elite, Sandra Torres. The Pact of the Corrupt, as these elite interests are known, controls most courts, and had twisted the laws and regulations to eliminate candidates it considered a threat, but Arevalo flew in under their radar. His surprising first-round win, confirmed in the second round, sent the elites into a panic.
Led by Attorney General Consuelo Porras--sanctioned for corruption, obstruction of rule of law and anti-democratic acts by the United States, Canada and the European Union—corrupt judges and conservative members of Congress attempted to annul the elections, criminalize Arevalo and other party leaders, and block the transition of power. For years, this group of politicians and justice officials had been coopting democratic institutions in the legislative, executive and judicial branches and persecuting land and rights defenders. The historic grassroots mobilization stopped them from consolidating authoritarian rule in what could have spelled the demise of democracy in Guatemala.
Defense of democracy
In many ways, neither the electoral upset nor the mobilization was surprising. For decades Guatemalans had watched the slow strangulation of their fledgling democracy while the world paid little attention. There were moments of breakthrough hope, like the historic recognition of genocide against the Mayan people in the Rios Montt trial in 2013 (despite being later overturned by the court on procedural issues), the resignation and imprisonment on corruption charges of former president Otto Perez Molina following widespread protests, and charges leveled against corrupt officials by the UN International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala together with a small group of honest judges.
But mostly the hope resided in the people themselves, in the local acts of resistance—against attacks on basic freedoms, against extractivist projects that take their land and resources, against violence, and in defense of human rights and democracy.
Isabel Matzir, a leader of the community-based defense of the Cahabón River in Alta Verapaz against a hydroelectric project and partner of Bernardo Caal, Cahabón leader imprisoned for four years for defending the river, described this longstanding resistance:
In spite of the repression, corruption and impunity of part of the Guatemalan State, the Mayan people have resisted forever. Our values and principles motivate us to defender our mother earth, our territory, our collective rights, our natural goods and especially our life. We’ve developed a form of activism with deep conviction, even with the risk that we’ll be criminalized or killed.
Matzir addressed the Vice President, ministers and the international delegation. Perhaps for the first time in the nation’s history, the words of an indigenous woman activist were within the walls of the National Palace.
The 2023 protests united these daily acts and catalyzed broader resistance. The crack in the system that opened up when the Pact of the Corrupt lost the presidential election became a floodgate. Traditional forms of indigenous organization that evolved despite centuries of neocolonial rule provided the strategic and logistical backbone--and the moral authority--to convoke broad swaths of society sick of elite pilfering and repression. Alongside the demand to defend the vote, a deeper movement emerged that goes beyond party politics and challenges the pillars of colonialism and neoliberalism. Within this deeper movement, women shown as leaders and support systems, for sustaining the protests and the spark of hope for a better future.
This hope, at a time when authoritarian forces are gaining strength in other parts of the world, was what drew the international feminist delegation to Guatemala. Shereen Essof, executive director of Just Associates--an international organization that supports women’s organizations--placed it in a global context. “Democracy is under threat around the world. There has been a real erosion of democratic institutions by electoral processes, by cooptation of state mechanisms over the last years, so here today the defense of democracy led by indigenous peoples in Guatemala gives us hope. There are great opportunities, but we also know there are great threats in relation to the democratic transition.”
A centuries-old resistance
It’s impossible to understand Guatemala’s 106 days of resistance without taking into account the Indigenous power structures that have existed since before the Conquest and erupted into view during the mobilization. Forty-five percent of the Guatemalan population is Mayan according to official figures, probably more. The 1996 Peace Accords recognize four peoples—Maya, Xinca, Garifuna and Mestizo—in the country the largest being the Mayan. The Mayan population has won recognition of numerous “indigenous mayorships” made up of ancestral authorities throughout the country. These leaders issued the national call to action, organized on the local level and in regional associations, such as the 48 cantons of Totonicapán, which played a key role in the mobilization.
Without this organizational frame, the cross-sector protests could not have come together as quickly and as powerfully as they did. Patricia Ardon, Guatemalan activist who works in feminist popular education with JASS, attributes the ability to break through the racist context and organize a nationwide movement to the long history of indigenous resistance and organizing.
She writes, “Indigenous authorities—Guatemala’s formally recognized Indigenous Mayorships and those whose legitimacy stems from their history of service to their communities and ancestral practices—said ‘Enough is enough!’ and called on the people to mobilize. They marched to the capital city to stand in front of the office of the Public Ministry and demand the resignation of the Attorney General and respect for democracy, symbolized at this juncture by respect for the citizens’ vote.”
Mayan organizations were able to catalyze the movement because of the power and cohesion derived from centuries of conscious effort to preserve culture, historical memory, and territorial rootedness. The mobilization came to be called “the uprising of the ruling staffs.” Feliciana Herrera, Ixil leader and ancestral authority of Nebaj, explained: “The Ixil people have maintained our resistance, our identity, against the constant efforts to undermine us. We’ve maintained our language, our culture and our practices… There is power in the ruling staff—this staff is not just a stick, it is sacred to us because it’s a symbol, the insignia that listens to our problems, that listens to everything we seek to resolve.”
Whose Democracy?
The inauguration of the new president and vice president caused jubilation among the indigenous and citizen groups that mobilized, but they didn’t stop questioning the system itself or lose focus on ongoing issues of access to land and territory and basic human rights. Defending representative democracy was not the obvious battle for Guatemalan indigenous peoples, and especially indigenous women, in a system rigged to exclude them.
Luz Emilia explained, “Many people ask: Why do you defend democracy if everyone knows we don’t live in a democracy, we’re never taken into account? Because democracy is broad. For the government, it’s asking people to go out and vote, that’s democracy for them, then they forget about us in governing… and we’re back to being obedient and receiving what they say. We mounted this defense and we organized because the people have given this government a vote of confidence, we’re defending ourselves from going back to being a country run by a dictatorship.”
In a joint statement delivered to the new government during the delegation, 24 Guatemalan women’s organizations wrote: “In Guatemala, the recently elected progressive government presents a historic opportunity to deal with problems that women face and the impact these have on our communities… We celebrate our victories and the resistance of innumerable women who have struggled for profound change. As opportunities come up, we also prepare to face the challenges and ensure that our voices are heard.”
“Now we succeeded in defending our country, but we’re going to continue to organize to show that we are capable of defending our rights."
The women water and land defenders, persecuted judges and journalists, indigenous authorities, students, representatives of LGBTQ+ and Garifuna Afro-descendent communities told the delegation that the electoral victory is a window. They have no illusions regarding the challenges ahead. Arevalo’s party does not have a majority in the legislature, the party is inexperienced, and his government faces a justice system captured and controlled by the ruling elite. Luz Emilia stated, “Now we have a president who understands the peoples, and is willing to work with the peoples, but if the legislation and judicial branches don’t contribute, we’re still living in a nation of impunity.”
Abigail Monroy, Maya Kaqchikel and ancestral authority of Chuarrancho, also noted that this is only a turning point on a long road. “The Guatemalan people initiated this resistance to defend democracy in the country. But we women say we still a lot of work to do. We don’t know how this government will do, so the struggle continues… we want a free democracy for our peoples, with us-- the women who have been part of this fight for national justice, for local justice, who seek the right to the common good. The state says ‘Here come the women, they don’t know how to read or write, they don’t even know what the State is.’ Of course we know what the State is, but who chooses it, who runs it? They do.
“Now we succeeded in defending our country, but we’re going to continue to organize to show that we are capable of defending our rights,” she concluded.
The power of women working together
The delegation promised to carry the words of Guatemalan activists into international forums. The last day, Nobel Prize winner Jody Williams told a prominent group of Ambassadors and heads of multilateral organizations,
The women we talked to are extremely interested in seeing the law changed. They worry about the megaprojects. They want studies of ecological impacts and consultations. They don’t want promises without results, words without actions, they want the state to provide resources for women… and a world where women do not have to worry every time they walk out of their houses that they might be raped or killed.
Guatemalan organizations note that they played the leading role, but that the international community played a supporting role in the defense of democracy. Countries, including the United States, which has historically supported coups and upheld genocidal dictatorships in Guatemala, immediately congratulated the president-elect and denounced the pseudo-judicial moves to prevent him from taking office. The OAS and European Union called for respect for the vote and many nations issued stern declarations and imposed sanctions against Attorney General Porras and her cohorts. When it became clear that the ruling regime was isolated in both the national and international sphere, it could not block the transition of power. Civil society organizations around the world also mobilized to pressure their governments to firmly reject all efforts to undermine democracy in Guatemala, and to support the nonviolent resistance.
More than solidarity, women are building a relationship of mutual benefit in difficult times.
International vigilance and solidarity continue to play a role. “This isn’t struggle for foreigners, it´s a struggle for here—to open the doors for dignifying our lives, for the defense of human rights by our own means, but the upholding the legitimate role of the women leaders, of the social organizations, must be on everyone’s agenda,” Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu said at the delegation’s closing press conference.
More than solidarity, women are building a relationship of mutual benefit in difficult times. While Guatemalan indigenous leaders seek global alliances to face down the economic and political forces against them that are more threatening than ever, the international feminist activists know that Guatemalan women have set an example for the world that holds important lessons for confronting rising authoritarianism and patriarchal violence everywhere.
Months after the historic inauguration, the conservative forces of the Pact of the Corrupt have launched a series of actions that directly threaten the new government’s hold on power. The people continue to hold high expectations for real change, but that demands round-the-clock vigilance to hold back the offensive from the right, and to strengthen the ties and commitments forged in the 106 days of resistance.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular