RE: [Marxism] America No. 1?

[Julio Huato <juliohuato@xxxxxxxxx>]

One final point.

Joaquín insists on emphasizing the divisive role of racism,
xenophobia, and imperialistic hubris in the ranks of the U.S. working
class.  As a diagnosis, it is hardly debatable.  But, IMO, what
matters is to decide what to do about it.

IMHO, it is not in our interest to treat racism and xenophobia as
*fundamental* problems that exclude the possibility of class unity. 
They are big challenges, but not unsurmountable.  If we use "racial
harmony" as the basis for unity, we're fried.  The understanding among
workers from different origins and backgrounds is not the horse, it's
the cart.

The horse -- or, rather, the locomotive -- is a basic, matter-of-fact,
self-interested, prosaic understanding of the basic unity of
*economic* and *political* interests and needs among workers. 
Co-existence, occasional social interaction, neighborhood, cooperation
at work, immediate common needs, and cooperation in the struggle (in
that order) will create better conditions to deal with racism and
xenophobia.

We need to emphasize jobs, better wages, better working conditions,
protection of benefits (including Social Security, etc.), basic
education, health care, etc. for all workers, and then full rights to
all their brethren, etc.  (I volunteer at an organization that
provides support services to migrant workers from Mexico and Central
America.  It is perhaps surprising, but jobs have as much -- if not
more -- importance to the concrete living conditions of these workers
than immediate full legal rights.  The reason is that jobs allow them
to settle, and as they settle, learn their way around, marry and/or
have children, their opportunities for legalization increase.  On the
other hand, the lack of jobs undercuts their whole effort.)

Also, a lot of the garbage that Black, Latino, Asian, etc. workers
have to put up with arises from their financial condition.  A lot of
discrimination uses race and ethnicity as markers for economic
standing.  It is very important to distinguish between racism as such
and race as a marker for economic disadvantage, because the strategy
to deal with each of them is completely different.  If the problem is
racism as such, then the immediate goal is the enforcement of civil
rights legislation.  However, if the real problem is that race and
ethnicity are being used as signals of economic disadvantage, then the
problem is poverty and inequality.  And it is in the narrowest
self-interest of workers in the U.S. to attack those problems.

There's a lot of education and organizing to be done.  But for
education and organizing to work out, they have to be oriented and
framed correctly.  The emphasis should be on the unity of the workers
as a class, regardless of their existing differences, so that they can
struggle together for goals that are clearly perceived as common to
them all.  A lot of this work has to be done at the retail,
short-distance level.  Then it'll be the time for these threads to be
tied together.

Julio

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