International Solidarity

By Immanuel Ness - Dollars and Sense, September 2006.

Testifying before the Senate immigration hearings in early July, Mayor Michael Bloomberg affirmed that undocumented immigrants have become indispensable to the economy of New York City: "Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders or overstaying their visas, and our businesses broke the law by employing them, our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported. The same holds true for the nation." Bloomberg's comment outraged right-wing pundits, but how much more outraged would they be if they knew that immigrant workers, beyond being economically indispensable, are beginning to transform the U.S. labor movement with a bold new militancy?

After years of working in obscurity in the unregulated economy, migrant workers in New York City catapulted themselves to the forefront of labor activism beginning in late 1999 through three separate organizing drives among low-wage workers. Immigrants initiated all three drives: Mexican immigrants organized and struck for improved wages and working conditions at greengroceries; Francophone African delivery workers struck for unpaid wages and respect from labor contractors for leading supermarket chains; and South Asians organized for improved conditions and a union in the for-hire car service industry. (In New York, "car services" are taxis that cannot be hailed on the street, only arranged by phone.) These organizing efforts have persisted, and are part of a growing militancy among migrant workers in New York City and across the United States.

Why would seemingly invisible workers rise up to contest power in their workplaces? Why are vulnerable migrant workers currently more likely to organize than are U.S.-born workers? To answer these questions, we have to look at immigrants' distinct position in the political economy of a globalized New York City and at their specific economic and social niches, ones in which exploitation and isolation nurture class consciousness and militancy.

To the Federal Government of Mexico, National Union of Education Workers Section 22 (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de Educacion -Coordinacion Nacional de Trabajadores de Educacion SNTE-CNTE), Popular Assemblies of the People of Oaxaca (Assemblias Populares de la Pueblo de Oaxaca), and the people of Oaxaca

The International Solidarity Commission of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) stands strongly in support of the National Union of Education Workers Section 22 (SNTE-CNTE) and the Popular Assemblies of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) in their demands for the immediate resignation of the governor of the state of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, for the repeated acts of violence committed against the people of Oaxaca by police under his command.  The IWW demands the Mexican government cease its military and police preparations to attack the members and supporters of APPO and the SNTE section 22 in Oaxaca state, and instead honestly address these groups' concerns. Furthermore, the IWW demands the Mexican government free the political prisoners, Germán Mendoza Nube, Erangelio Mendoza González, Catarino Torres Pereda and Ramiro Aragón Pérez.

To whom it may concern,

The International Solidarity Commission (ISC) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is extremely concerned with the disappearance of Julio Lopez.    We recognize that witnesses like Julio are key to bringing to justice the military and police officers who during the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, committed crimes against humanity.   The ISC supports the demands of Argentinean civil society that the Argentine government exercise its responsibility to protect such witnesses.  We urge the government to employ all the resources of the State to find him, alive and intact. The ISC stand in solidarity with the companeros and companeras who are searching for Julio and hope for his immediate safe return.

Sincerely,
International Solidarity Commission, IWW