Re: Common Dreams xenophobia

[paul phillips <phillipsp@xxxxxxx>]

The issue of anti-immigration and labour in historical perspective is
somewhat more complex that  just  racism, though obviously that played a
part.  I think one has to look at the material basis of this
anti-immigration sentiment in the late 19th century.  Anti-orientalism
played a significant part in the early organization of labour in British
Columbia but it was tied to the use of Chinese as strike breakers, low
wage competition, and willingness to work under unsafe conditions which
endangered the lives of European workers.  The following is a selection
from my book on BC labour "No Power Greater" (1967).

"The [coal miners'] strike of 1883 brought to light a new grievance of
the infant labour movement in the province, the issue of oriental
labour, which was to become a central issue in industrial relations for
forty years.  Many Chinese had entered the province form California
during the gold rush and, as in the United States, worked the low yield
gold fields for much lower returns than white miners would accept.  By
the time B.C. entered confederation in 1871 they dominated the
Similkameen and Lower Fraser areas.  But as the gold industry declined
and became more capital-intensive they moved into competition with white
labour by being willing to accept wages of about half of what white
workers received and to work longer hours.
   The problem was particularly acute in the coal mining industry where
the Chinese were used repeatedly in later years as strikebreakers.  An
initil cause for concern was their inability to read or understand
English and their readiness to work under unsafe conditions.  This
concern is understandable as the Vancouver Island mines proved to be
among the most dangerous mines in the world and the casualty list was
stagering [between 1879 and1909 there were 426 miners killed out of a
total labour force that never exceeded 4,000.  In addition there were as
many, or more, injured.  If one were to work one's whole career as a
coal miner, the expectency of death was 50 per cent.] .... The Chinese
were partly blamed for many of these disasters because they were afraid
or unable to enforce the safety regulations which the mine owners never
applied or enforced willingly.
   On the other hand, the anti-oriental feeling was not restricted to
the coal mining areas.  In Vicoria in the late 1870s the low wage
competition promped unrest and discussion discussion among many workers
with the result that on September 1st, 1878, a general union, the
Workingman's Protective Association, was formed in the province's
capital...." (pp. 8-9)

This was, of course, a period of high unemployment after the financial
crash of 1873.  After 1880, however, the construction of the CPR
produced a mini-boom but the demand for labour was filled by the
importation of Chinese labourers -- 2,000 of the 6,500 Chinese who
worked on the construction of the Rlwy were imported by the contractor
in 1881-2.  Because of  extremely dangerous working conditions and
terrible living conditions very many of the Chinese died during the
construction, construction which European workers tended to avoid.  Only
about 2,500  white workers were involved in the CPR Rlwy construction.
"The temporary labour shortage raised wages to the benefit of all
workers in the province but the increased oriental population compounded
the existing social problem.  Allegations were made that the Chinese
were unclean, opium smokers, diseased and "heathen" but, as has been
pointed out, 'their acceptance of low wages and long hours ... was the
point which most closely touched other workers and was the main cause of
the anti-Chineses bias in the British Columbia Labour Movement.'" (p. 10)

Paul Phillips

> > Louis Proyect wrote:
> >
> > > On today's Common Dreams website (a pro-Democratic Party outlet
> > > founded by nonprofit foundation entrepreneur Don Hazen), there's a
> > > completely rancid article on immigration written by Thom Hartmann,
> > > an Air America radio host and author of such groundbreaking books as
> > > "Focus Your Energy", which is described on his website
> > > (http://www.thomhartmann.com/focus.shtml) as a way to succeed in
> > > business even if you suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder. Just
> > > what suffering humanity has been waiting for. Although I lack the
> > > patience to do a thorough study of Hartmann-thought, he strikes me
> > > as a combination of New Age hustler and woozy-headed liberal.
> >
> >
> > Hartmann's also big on how the furriners are buying up 'murica.
> >
> > I'm just reading Peter Kwong & Dusanka Miscevic's Chinese America, a
> > history of the Chinese in the US. It's distressing to be reminded
> > once again how anti-Chinese agitation was practically the founding
> > act of the US labor movement. This toxic stuff has a long history.
> >
> > Doug


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