Direct Action halts fence construction for an hour!

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MRW
El Paso

4-09-2009 El Paso TX

Of all the ridiculus schemes the GW bush regime came up with during their duration, this border fence just about takes the cake for being the most wasteful and least effective solution to a complex situation. Preventing undocumented border crossings by building a giant fence is no real solution, though it will cost taxpayers an arm and a leg in the process, maybe making politicians look like they are "doing something" (instead of repealing NAFTA/WTO like they should!!) to stem the tide of undocumented migrants coming north looking for work..

Once again the left/right supposed differences between Bush and Obama are obscured as this border fence construction continues despite evidence that it will not be effective anyway. If Obama is so different from Bush, than why would he continue down this path of sheer foolishness and wastefullness by completing construction of this nonsense fence??

Even the people who are oppossed to more undocumented border crossings (Minutemen, SOS, etc...) will not have their way with the completion of this fence, no matter how hard they want to believe that it will work, so long that there is poverty and economic inequality across the border, undocumented immigrants will continue to come over here..

The only real solution to slowing down the influx of undocumented immigrants (and their obvious exploitation by U.S. corporations) is to repeal NAFTA/WTO and help the small farmers regain their land in Mexico that their own government stole from them with the help of U.S. agribusiness corporations driving the small farmers out of business..

Though i am not a supporter of more undocumented immigrants coming here to work in U.S. slaughterhouses, agribusiness and other undesireable jobs, i would not scapegoat them as the source of the problem nor would i be foolish enough to believe that a police state border fence will ever manage to keep people out, if hundreds of miles of desert won't work to prevent people from coming here, then why would a fence? Obviously because economic desperation and poverty induced migration enables people to take great risks to make this migration against all physical odds..

So no go on the fence, whether you are "pro-immigrant" or "anti-immigrant", the border fence is just another wastefull band-aid psuedo-solution that avoids discussion of the central source problem of NAFTA/WTO free trade agreements that neither Bush nor Obama were/are willing to address, though Dennis Kucinich (D) and Ron Paul (R) did address in the debates (BOTH endorsed repealing NAFTA/WTO) and were treated like naughty stepchildren by their respective parties as a result..

What we get instead are band-aid policies like border walls and amnesty from both of the mainstream polticians (Bush/Obama), falling in line with the corporations (Cargill, Monsanto, IBP, etc...) who desire their continued influx of undocumented virtual slaves to work in the slaughterhouses and agribusiness fields until injury or exhaustion forces them elsewhere, and will soon be replaced by the next wave of undocumented immigrants fresh from their trek across the desert and ready for exploitation by whatever corporation is there..

Then we have the ICE agents frequently deporting undocumented workers like their recent raid of an Iowa meatpacking plants, yet avoiding any prosecution or penalty for the corporation that exploited their labor to begin with. As if another group of undocumented immigrants would not reappear the next week at the same corporation to replace those deported by ICE. Then the ICE agents can claim they are "doing something" about undocumented immigration yet ignore the corporations that fuel and entice the undocumented folks tro come over here in the first place..

Some background on meatpacking;

"The meatpacking industry changed rapidly through the 1980s. Business in the railroad stockyards and city packinghouses declined rapidly. Chicago’s Union Stock Yard closed in 1970. Instead, packing plants arose in rural areas near livestock feedlots. These new plants were equipped with power saws and mechanical knives for a more efficient “disassembly line”. New companies like Iowa Beef Processors (IBP) used financial, technical and engineering power to change the face of the industry. They competed with other companies by increasing worker speed and productivity while cutting labor costs. Other companies either followed suit, or lost out. Small, local and regional companies closed or were bought out by giants like Tyson and Smithfield—and these companies grew into industry leaders. Now, five mega-corporations control more than 80% of the market.

(Cargill, Tyson, Smithfield, Hormel, ConAgra)

These big, powerful companies continued to increase production speed, increasing the hazards for workers. Companies moved closed union plants and moved operations to states with right-to-work laws that made it difficult for workers to organize themselves into unions and fight for safer line speeds or wage increases. Workers who did seek to organize were met with employer resistance in the form of intimidation.

Today, workers have lost power at the bargaining table. Giant meatpacking and food companies are more determined than ever to keep labor costs as low as possible and production as high as possible. This means hiring cheap labor, maintaining intolerably high line speeds, demanding cuts in wages and benefits from unionized facilities. Many companies actively discourage workers from forming unions. In fact, a recent study by American Rights at Work revealed that 25% of employers fire at least one pro-union worker during worker organizing campaigns.

Other companies actively exploit our broken immigration system, purposely recruiting and hiring undocumented immigrants to create a disposable workforce. These immigrants often don’t speak English and aren’t aware of labor laws or their rights on the job. It’s a vulnerable, easily-intimidated workforce too afraid to speak out when their paychecks aren’t right, when working conditions are not safe or even when there’s a potential problem with the food they’re producing.

This has resulted in an industry where workers have less bargaining power, where it’s becoming harder and harder to earn enough to support families, and where it’s becoming less safe to work. In early 2005, Human Rights Watch released a report entitled "Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants," which concluded that the working conditions in many of America's meat packing plants violated basic human and worker rights. This was the first time the human rights organization had criticized a single a U.S. industry."

read on @;
http://www.fairnessforfoodworkers.org/history.shtml

What needs to happen is the "pro-immigrant" groups need to get real and admit that undocumented immigration is only good for the wallets of corporate CEOs, regardless of the cultural changes or numbers that seem to promote some sort of "Aztlan" movement, in reality just a new form of slavery!!

Furthermore, there are 8 billion people on Earth today, should they all be coming to north america for a "better life" of workaholic wage slavery and mindless consumerist materialism? How would that effect the ecosystem??

Assimilation and loss of indigenous cultures (Mexico has several hundred different indigenous languages, what happens to these languages as people leave their home territory and assimilate into mainstream English/Spanish culture??) by migrating to an imperialist nation like the U.S. cannot truly be "good" for anyone, no matter how the short term benefits of alleviating poverty may feel. Assimilation and loss of indigenous language/culture by forced migration is another form of genocide..

How about showing some real human rights and working to make conditions more livable in their native countries, maybe by reigning in U.S. corporations that flood their markets and drive their small farmers off the land and into the stream of undocumented immigration??

For all the pro-Aztlan "Reconquista" people, the southwest of North America does not belong to either the U.S. or Mexico (BOTH nation states are illegal occupation on indigenous land!!), so if we're going to be historically correct the land in question would be returned to indigenous peoples on both sides of the border (Navajo, Tohono O'odham, Seri, Pima, etc...) who were the original inhabitants. How about honoring the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1862 and returning land occupied by U.S. military (Nevada Test Site) to the Shoshones of Nevada?

http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/shoshone/ruby_valley.html

http://www.tonation-nsn.gov/

The "anti-immigrant" groups also need a good dose of reality and help with understanding that only prevention of the cause of the problem, namely poverty and instability in Central/South America resulting from NAFTA/WTO "free trade" programs will ever prevent additional flood of undocumented immigrants coming here, get over their cultural and linguistic differences and work together in solidarity with revolutionary groups in Mexico (EZLN, Zapatistas, Oaxacan activists, etc...) seeking to restore their autonomy and self determination in Mexico against land theft by their own government (Calderon another "lapdog" of U.S. empire as Hugo Chavez said of former Mexican Pres. V. Fox), demand the repeal of NAFTA/WTO and boycott protest and even sabvotage the meatpacking and agribusiness corporations that entice and exploit undocumented workers for short term profit..

The "anti-immigrant" side of the debate has been stolen by groups like the Minutemen and S.O.S. that avoid discussion of source problems like NAFTA/WTO and instead focus their time on scapegoating and false patriotism, thus drawing the predictable response from the left and neoliberals that they are racist and ignore the "positives" of undocumented labor (sprawl housing, sickly factory farmed meat, pesticide soaked food, etc...).

By targeting the top five agribusiness corporations mentioned above, the activist groups on both sides of the debate will also help restore small family farming collectives here in North America, as the EZLN/Zapatistas are working to do in Mexico..

When both polarized sides of the immigration debate can face reality and challege their illegitimate governments and their corporate masters, then there will be no need for border fences, ICE agents or other programs to divide people and the land they live on..

PS - Making friends wasn't ever on my agenda, sometimes reality and truthtelling makes people unpopular, though that doesn't change the fact that both sides of the immigration debate are wrong..

the border fence idea wasn't a product of the GWBush era. Bill Clinton was hard at work with Alan Bersin who Obama is thinking about putting in charge of the border again.

Silly borders, walls can't protect the rich forever!

Avata Cadavra!

Thanks for putting your body where it needed to be, and doing the right thing at the right place at the right time. Will look for your longer written account and help spread the word.... hope the video is returned!

BTW, if you were stopped from doing what you were doing, and were not free to go (even if just for a short time), you were in fact arrested.