For an outside observer, the scene of several hundred workers lining
up across a quarter mile and waiting an hour to cross the U.S. border
strikes one as unreasonable. In addition, that this was witnessed at
1:45 a.m. and considered a common occurrence strikes one as unjust. For
many immigrants, along with U.S. resident farm workers, the long and
nightly Calexico-Mexicali border crossing is a routine part of their
workday.
Off the clock, workers cross the border to catch seats on buses
arriving at 3 a.m. in order to sleep a couple of hours before they leave
for the fields. Between the hours of 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., hundreds of
workers slowly make their way through the empty streets of downtown
Calexico to the vacant parking lots where the buses, which leave at 5
a.m. for 12-hour workdays, await. But even before the farm workers face
brutal working conditions, they face a humiliating inspection by border
patrol officers, who must give them permission to do so.
Witnessing
the interaction between “la migra” and “los trabajadores” exposes the
irrational and inhumane priorities of the capitalist system.
Prioritizing profit, not workers’ needs
In
the past 10 years, the Imperial Valley has succumbed to numerous crises
that have left it in a difficult economic state. The post-9/11
militarization of the border has left the Valley under occupation, and
the collapse of the housing bubble has left it jobless. Outside of
minimum-wage retail and agriculture-related jobs, the only growing
industry that seemed to offer “middle-class” wages was the “security”
sector.
With the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security during the Bush administration, numerous agencies, including
the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, were brought
under a single department to fight against “terrorism.”
Highly
bureaucratic and corrupt, the DHS “has become so large, so unwieldy and
so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people
it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many
agencies do the same work. … Some 1,271 government organizations and
1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism,
homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the
United States.” (Washington Post, July 19, 2010)
In 2010, the
Obama administration granted $56.3 billion to the DHS for fiscal year
2011, a 2 percent increase from the year before. For the Valley, this
trend of prioritizing the “security” apparatus has led to a massive
influx in investment, further neglecting the depression-era plight of
the region’s residents. Profit drives the investment in the security
industry, as it does any investment in the capitalist system. Capitalist
investors profit from upgraded SUV’s, military-grade weaponry and
sophisticated surveillance equipment, lucrative data analysis contracts,
facility maintenance and building contracts—the list goes on and on.
Investments
in the security sector, while highly profitable for a few corrupt
capitalists, attack workers on two fronts. One, the oppression and
monitoring of the citizens of the border is stepped up; two, as more
resources are sucked up by the security apparatus, it leaves fewer
resources for meeting the needs of people such as health care, education
and other social services.
The scene at the Calexico-Mexicali
border summarizes the irrational and inhumane priorities of the
capitalist government and the system as a whole. While immigrant workers
are demonized and blamed for the corruption of the capitalists, they
are expected to bear long hours, brutal working conditions and low
living standards. In the case of farm workers, whether immigrants or
U.S. residents, the wages are insufficient to meet the basic needs of
food, housing, transportation, health care and child care—which is why
there has been a large migration of farm workers moving across the
border to Mexico in order to be able to pay for basic necessities. But
their misery means more profits for the security sector, because there
is more activity along the border.
Thus, in a capitalist
economy, the government prioritizes profit (met by “la migra”) over the
needs of people (met by “los trabajadores”).
Capitalist reform or socialist revolution: la solución para el pueblo
For
immigrant rights activists and the Latino community in general, 2010
was a critical year. The state Department of Education reported that
for the first time in California history Latinos make up 50.4 percent of
public school students. Nationwide, we witnessed the passage of the
racist Arizona Law SB 1070, the growing racism towards immigrants, the
rising influence of Latinos in the media and political elections, and
the massive youth movements for public education and the Dream act.
These developments offer glimpses of struggles to come.
As
socialists and revolutionaries, the Party for Socialism and Liberation
has supported and organized critical actions in the struggles against
national oppression, exploitation and racism. But as a revolutionary
working-class party, we also understand that the true liberation of all
oppressed communities and workers will only come with the overthrow of
the capitalist system. While the Latino community represents an
oppressed sector of U.S. society consisting of numerous nationalities,
as workers we have positioned ourselves in key sectors of industry
capable of bringing about our own and all workers’ liberation.
Success
in immigration reform, more Latino representatives in government, or
growing markets that cater to Latinos, while noted successes for the
Latino community, cannot fundamentally change the priorities of the
capitalist economy, where the labor of a border patrol agent is viewed
as more productive than the labor of a farm worker. It cannot explain
why a “migra” gets paid well for having produced nothing of value to
society and a “trabajador” cannot feed his family for having met the
nutritional needs of that same society.
The irrational and
inhumane priorities of capitalism witnessed that night at the
Calexico-Mexicali border can only be overturned by a socialist
revolution. In 2011 and beyond, we workers must fight to get rid of the
system, not simply reform it.
