[Marxism] Re: Immigration

[l.willms@xxxxxxxxxxx (Lueko Willms)]

.    On  24.09.05
  wrote  louisgodena@xxxxxxx (Louis R Godena)
     on  /ALIST/MARXMAIL
     in  21d701c5c156$e3854f40$0302a8c0@GodenaFamily
  about  [Marxism] Re: Immigration


LRG> This immigration rights movement (with its attendant isms, like
LRG> nationalism) is an odd piece of work.   In many ways, it serves as a
LRG> sort of "labor-ready" hiring hall for the low-wage sector like
LRG> restaurants, nursing homes, domestic services, etc.

   Sounds reasonable. The capitalist market for the merchandise labor  
power drives down wages, and workers with a lower value of their labor  
power, i.e. with lower costs of reproduction put pressure on the wages  
of all.

   But this process does not only work within national boundaries, but  
worldwide.

   Sure, it is economically not feasable to send used dishes to China  
to get them washed and send back at lower wages, but for other goods,  
that is true.

   And the bosses to actively use the competition among the sellers of  
labor power to drive down our wages.

   Recently the bosses of Volkswagen mangaged to get wage concessions  
from their workers in Germany, by threatening that they would get the  
new mini-van (or mini-SUV?) built in their plant in Portugal instead  
of the head plant in Wolfsburg, Germany.

   GM organised a competition between their workers in Europe, asking  
for concessions to get a new model being built in Saab's Trollhättan  
factory in Sweden or at Rüsselsheim, Germany. They all do it. They all  
call for tenders from the various subsidiaries or factories making the  
lowest bid to set up a production line for this and that product.

   Siemens got concessions from workers in Germany assembling cell  
phones in Kamp-Lintfort, Germany, by threatening to relocate the  
production to somewhere in Asia, but in the end was not satisfied and  
sold the whole business to the Benq corporation from Taiwan (who  
promised to use the German factory for at least some years).

   Well, you see, competition works to lower prices from the beginning  
of capitalism, and not only for cars or bread, but also for labor  
power.


   The patented solution to counter the pressure from competition on  
the prices has been for the sellers to form a cartel, and to eliminate  
the competition, or at least alleviate it, by agreeing covertly or  
overtly on minimum prices and to refuse to sell below that price.

   For the sellers of labor power, this is the process of forming  
trade unions. Scabs, who refuse this cartel with their co-workers,  
refusing solidarity with lower paid workers in the mistaken arrogance,  
that they could keep their wages higher by excluding the lower paid  
workers from the cartel, are despised and need to be kept under  
control, so that the full effect of the cartel, i.e. the trade union,  
and its collective bargaining power can be brought to work.

   For such scabs, the description given by Louis R. Godena, really  
fits, such scabs "place their foot on the neck of others":

LRG> The bosses in America have become "born again" "multiculturists",
LRG> urging workers to get behind programs facilitating the entry of
LRG> many more millions for whom the prospect of laboring at the
LRG> expense of other workers means nothing but an opportunity to
LRG> place their foot on the neck of others, regardless of
LRG> country of origin.

   the bosses urge "all american" workers to reject the needed unity  
of workers and to scab on them by soliciting political support for  
splitting the union of all workers, who in the words of the famous  
manifesto, to not have a fatherland.

   In Europe, the bosses have found ways to declare certain jobs, e.g.  
in construction or slaughterhouses as "services" for which they do not  
hire individual workers, but recruit a "service company", which then  
comes with their own workers from, say, Poland, Hungary or Romania.

   Workers in Germany, France or other richter countries within the  
European Union, who think like Louis R. Godena, think the solution  
should be to exclude such workers from the country; a motivation which  
has driven many to vote against the ratification of the so called  
"European Constitution".

    But driving wedges between workers can't be a solution, on the  
contrary, it will only weaken those, who intoxicate themselves with  
the illusion that they keep up their wages by refusing to include  
_all_ workers in the selling cartel.

   The task is, on the contrary, to fight for higher wages, shorter  
hours, and better working and housing conditions for _all_ workers,  
and not to greet the latest immigrans with hostility, but to greet and  
include them as fighters for the common interest.

   In quite a number of slaughterhouses in Germany, the directly  
emplowed workers have been sacked to make room for such  
subcontractors.

   But it is not the workers from Eastern Europe who have fired those  
workers, but the German bosses. The solution, of course, can't be to  
isolate the workers from Eastern Europe again behind an Iron Courtain,  
and to facilitate the divisive efforts of the bosses even more. It is  
easier to destroy solidarity between workers who cannot come together  
in the same place, who do not have a chance to talk face to face with  
each other.

   And utterances like these:


LRG> And if these people won't even fight for what is theirs in their own
LRG> country, what makes you think they will risk their necks for
LRG> strangers in a foreign land?   They will not.

   are really a disgrace for any worker. And they will fight all the  
more if they are greeted as not only co-workers, but also as co- 
fighters. Workers who are being excluded by other, seemlingly stronger  
workers, have more problems to fight what are _their_ own interests,  
i.e. the _common_ interests of all workers.

   One of the first task would be to fight for better housing  
conditions for such migrant workers, which does increase the need on  
the part of these colleages for higher wages.

LRG> I propose to vitiate both the worker v worker situation created
LRG> to ensure a supply of cheap labor for the boss

   I do not really understand what you mean. The "worker v worker  
situation" can only be improved by greeting the new arrivals as  
brothers and sisters, as co-workers and co-fighters, to recognize them  
as belonging to the same class of working people.

LRG> AND to provide standards of living for immigrants - legal and
LRG> 'illegal' - comparable to those enjoyed by American workers.  All
LRG> this at the expense of those who profit from this nefarious
LRG> trafficking both here and abroad.   If we were able to do this,
LRG> it would make the bosses' hill a lot harder to climb.

   This is of course only possible by class solidarity and greeting  
the new arrivals as co-workers and co-fighters.

   Trying to isolate workers from each others by fighting against  
immigrants is the best service we could do for the bosses.



Yours,
Lüko Willms                                     http://www.mlwerke.de
/--------- L.WILLMS@xxxxxxxxxxx -- Alle Rechte vorbehalten --

"Die Arbeit in weißer Haut kann sich nicht dort emanzipieren, wo sie
in schwarzer Haut gebrandmarkt wird."     - Karl Marx     12.11.1866

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