Re: [Marxism] Fresh Direct

["aaron amaral" <amaral1871@xxxxxxxxx>]

Just to provide some info...I was at the vigil on Thursday night where the
Fresh Direct workers spoke. About 50-60 people turned out, and even though
confronted by a contingent of fascists who were blowing whistles, shouting
racists slogans, and demonstrating their new-found confidence. It was a good
turn out given the weather and I did not sense demoralization, just a real
grasping for the meaning of this new conjuncture marked by incredible
increase in attacks and a mainstream polity reveling in legitimized racism.
The union officials there were from UFCW and it seems as though there is an
inter-union struggle (with the Teamsters) going on about who is meant to
represent these workers. (I hope this rebounds to the workers benefit in the
willingness of the unions to put some energy into this.)
However, more to Joaquin's point, the union leadership that was there was
multi-racial and expressing, to me, very real outrage. In fact, one of the
organisers said that this issue is way more important than just an issue for
the union. That they have been shocked at the fact that hundreds of these
workers and their families essentially went into hiding making the
organising difficult but making it clear how much of a larger political
issue this is...I was impressed by the overall sincerity and anger and the
coming together of forces in an extremely defensive context. An explicit
mention was made of the fact that the Cignas workers experience in Chicago
was a model for the UFCW organisers. And I think that struggle stands as an
example of publicly standing up to the migra and using the protection of the
broader community to defeat the bosses use of ICE leverage. In any event,
 folks are legitimately struggling with how to respond to the doubling of
ICE raids in NY over the last year.

There is a plan for some sort of demonstration at Fresh Direct, at the
beginning of the week. This particular situation is needing wide-spread
 publicity as it speaks, as clearly as any, to the current strategy being
employed by ICE and the danger to the entire working class.
-aa

On Dec 15, 2007 9:43 AM, Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Greg says: "If the Teamster-sponsored union drive is nothing more than a
> judas goat operation, then why is the National Immigrant Solidarity
> Network
> supporting the union drive?"
>
> Joaquin: "I don't receive mailings from that group, not regularly.
> And I don't know
> anything about this particular Teamster organizing campaign.
>
> But any of the typical organizing campaigns normally carried out by
> unions,
> if carried out today among mostly Latino immigrant workers is likely
> to be
> met with an ICE roundup. That is the reality. To start an organizing
> campaign today among such workers, unless the union officialdom
> involved is
> willing to go to the mattresses to fight la migra, which means, taking
> arrests, taking indictments, taking convictions, taking jail time and
> maybe
> even taking a bullet if things get out of hand, is irresponsible. It is
> irresponsible because the tactics of the labor officialdom are
> designed for
> conditions of bourgeois-democratic legality. The Latino community no
> longer
> has conditions of bourgeois-democratic legality. I leave aside that the
> tactics are ineffective even under conditions of bourgeois democratic
> legality.
>
> And if Greg doesn't think the United States is a white European
> colonial-settler state, perhaps he wants to explain why he feels that
> way
> about his country."
>
> Oh please, Joaquin. I never said I did not think the U.S. of
> Amerikkka was built on anything but the racist and genocidal impulses
> of white european settlers, impulses which are an ever-present
> reality for the latino communities living in its borders. But there's
> a big difference between US unions and the US state, and to conflate
> the two is equally irresponsible. If you know anything about the
> Teamsters, especially the anti-corruption, pro-internal democracy
> wing represented in the Fresh Direct campaign, then you know they can
> be pretty militant and direct-action oriented. It should be pointed
> out that some dual-carders have and still do militate among their
> ranks, and one in particular is a member of my branch of the IWW,
> albeit a retired member.  So if I were you I would be a bit more
> circumspect in criticizing a union organizing campaign which you
> admittedly know nothing about.
>
> Greg
>
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