Socialist Action /April 2000
Labor's Turn Toward Immigrant Workers
By NAT WEINSTEIN
The following report is based on the lessons drawn in last month's article
by Charles Walker on the AFL-CIO's policy shift; that is, the reversal by
labor's top officialdom of its long-standing hostile stance toward undocumented
immigrant labor in the United States.
Rather than viewing undocumented immigrant workers as unfair competition,
the AFL-CIO is now on record as recognizing the necessity of embracing the
struggle by documented and undocumented immigrant workers for their human
right to a job and a living wage.
The labor federation's new position includes calling for an end to sanctions
on employers who hire undocumented workers, an amnesty for an estimated
six million immigrants, and the granting of legal status to 350,000 other
immigrants denied amnesty under the 1986 law-as well as to 500,000 Central
Americans, Haitians, and Liberians denied refugee status during the past
two decades.
Walker correctly judged the AFL-CIO officialdom's decision to commit
themselves to come to the assistance of the most super-exploited and oppressed
sector of the American working class to be a hugely positive step forward.
This month, however, we intend to focus on further steps that must be
taken in order to realize the promise made to immigrant workers by the labor
movement's officialdom.
After all, it should be obvious that gaining even the smallest victory
will take more than resolutions and declarations. And it will certainly
take more than demands on capitalist politicians to enact legislation designed
to bring social, economic, and political justice to our most suffering class
sisters and brothers from east and south of U.S. borders.
Politicians bought and paid for
In order for the labor movement to hope to realize its promise to champion
the struggle of immigrant workers, it will take mass action in the streets
and workplaces.
To win any concessions at all for these workers, the labor movement must
organize mass action not only in this country but also in close collaboration
with our class sisters and brothers across our southern and eastern borders.
Looking to Republicans, Democrats or to the various "third"
capitalist parties to rectify the plight of documented or undocumented immigrants
would be worse than doing nothing at all. Why? Because it feeds the delusion
that capitalist politicians are in the business of "serving the people."
In the first place, every last one of these politicians is bought and
paid for by America's banking and corporate establishment-national and multinational
alike. The long debate in Congress and in the mass media about establishing
even the most minimum restrictions on "campaign contributions"
has been a years-long joke that has ended with not the slightest correction
in sight.
This is simply because it's not a matter of contributions, but a matter
of buying and selling of politicians!
In the second place, capitalist politicians have not the slightest intention
of removing any restrictions on "legal" and "illegal"
immigrants. They won't do it simply because it would make it a little easier
for immigrant workers to organize and fight for decent wages and working
conditions.
And if they did make it possible for immigrants to organize and fight,
American history gives abundant evidence that given half a chance, the Irish,
the German, the Polish, Italian, Jewish, and other waves of immigrants that
are an integral part of American labor history were fully capable of organizing-in
conjunction with the existing unions-an effective campaign to defend and
advance their class interests.
Thus with the collaboration of the AFL-CIO and without legal restrictions
blocking the road to a better life for immigrant workers, wages for them
would slowly and steadily begin rising.
And if the lowest paid workers are able to raise their average income,
the real wages of all workers will also tend to rise. The fact is that the
lower the real minimum wage, the lower is the wage of all other unskilled,
semi-skilled, and highly skilled workers. And the higher the former, the
higher, also, is the latter.
Negative effects for corporate America
Moreover, a rise in the wages of those at the bottom of the totem pole
would, in turn, set into motion other negative effects for corporate America
and their political representatives in government.
Labor costs to both directly and indirectly affected American capitalists
would also rise in tandem as the general wage level of the lowest paid workers
pushes all the wage levels of those above them upward. This means that the
general rate of profit in this country would, by the same token, tend to
fall inversely proportional to a general rise in wages.
Furthermore, a generalized rise in the wages of American workers would,
indeed, make American exports less competitive! But long before that would
happen, those in the leadership of the AFL-CIO would come under enormous
pressure by capitalists and their government to "convince" their
dues-paying members that they have to be "reasonable"; that is,
"in their own interests," they must sacrifice so that their employers
are able to make a "reasonable" profit and thus stay in business.
The labor officialdom would be hard pressed to resist. And as has been
the case for many decades, they are quite likely to cave in and "persuasively"
transmit the employers' threat to their dues-paying members. That is, either
accept our terms or some or all of you will have no jobs because you will
have "priced yourselves and our company out of the marketplace."
Now, to be sure, this is far from a simple problem with a simple solution.
But, as we shall see, there is no way around the fact that some companies
will "downsize" their workforce, or shut down entirely if their
profit level falls or they become "uncompetitive" and lose their
share of the world market.
But, and here is the rub, even if these workers capitulate and accept
cutbacks, albeit because they mistakenly believe it will save their jobs,
"downsizing"-a euphemism for mass layoffs-has and will continue
unabated. In other words, good paying industrial jobs will continue to disappear
and will, at least so long as the current booming economy continues, be
replaced by lower-paying part-time as well as lower-paying full-time jobs.
It's not hard to see how it works: When some employers in a given sector
of the economy are granted wage concessions in order to remain competitive,
all their competitors come under the same pressure to also do what's necessary
to remain competitive. Thus, competing capitalists everywhere invariably
demand that their workers also make concessions "in order to save their
jobs."
Consequently, the workers in any given industry or country, or among
competing countries, are whipsawed against each other, and the vicious cycle
of falling wages continues and inevitably intensifies.
So, one obvious part of the answer to the dilemma of what to do when
faced with the choice of taking a cut in wages or losing jobs should now
be clear. The only real choice workers have in such cases is simply to stick
to their guns, give no further concessions, and let the bosses decide which
plant to close, if close they must.
(We leave aside the problem of how to fight plant closures for another
time, except to mention the historic working-class demands for a steadily
reduced workweek without a reduction in wages. And under the condition of
sharpening class struggles, there is a rich labor history showing how it
is possible to force the reopening of shut plants and then operate them
under workers' control.)
International class solidarity
It should be clear now that there's a whole lot more to the problem of
what it will take for the AFL-CIO officialdom to make good on its promise
to embrace the struggle of documented and undocumented immigrant workers
and help them and the working class as a whole make headway toward a better
life.
So let's go to another side of the problem that will arise if we confidently
assume that the American labor movement will sooner or later mobilize on
a massive scale behind the struggle by immigrants for their rights. And
let us also assume that they will be mobilized in sufficient strength to
make a breakthrough for immigrant workers (and by the same token, for all
American workers). That would tend to give an impulse to the struggle for
a living wage by Mexican workers as well-and so on from country to country.
To sum this all up, the struggle by any section of the world working
class is organically linked to the global class struggle between workers
and bosses. Thus, class solidarity among workers in one's own shop, or industry
or country should not stop at any point along the line. Every partial struggle
is part and parcel of the global class struggle. Solidarity in one plant
or one industry or one country is incomplete without international class
solidarity.
Neither does it stop there-if we are to gain a more rounded conception
of the essence of an effective and comprehensive working class strategy.
We need to also understand that as great as is the intrinsic power of
the working class based on its strategic location at the points of production,
distribution, and communication inside the global economy, even that is
not enough for the workers of the world to realize their full revolutionary
potential.
A necessary component of international proletarian solidarity is the
indispensable responsibility of the international workers' movement to embrace
and champion the social, economic, and political interests of all the victims
of capitalist exploitation and oppression.
Finally, as can now be better understood, the problem is not about whether
or not the working class is capable of accomplishing its historic task-there
can be little doubt about that. The real problem that must be resolved is
the construction of a revolutionary working-class leadership, without which
ultimate victory is impossible.
That is a leadership that has absorbed the lessons of class struggle
history and has developed the capacity to lead the working class and its
natural allies successfully through the unfolding series of class confrontations
that are ahead-steadily building up the confidence of the masses in their
strength-and all pointing toward the ultimate conquest of state power and
world socialism.
Socialist Action /April 2000 |