Congress and the Clinton administration are cranking up their joint campaign against the rights of immigrants, both "legal" and "illegal." Federal cops have raided factories and arrested thousands of workers in recent months. One of their main arguments is that workers born abroad cause unemployment.
Not true. The cause of joblessless is the bosses themselves and their economic system. They are the ones who issue the pink slips. And they do so for one reason alone: to boost their sagging profit rates, at the expense of workers. The relatively high levels of permanent unemployment and job insecurity today are a result of the declining capitalist system, now mired in depression.
The government's claim of arresting immigrants to rescue "American" jobs is an attempt to drive a deep wedge in the heart of the working class by dehumanizing one section - workers born abroad - while tying another to the apron strings of the "fellow American" bosses who exploit all of us. That's the powerful truth behind the statement often made by Malcolm X: "I'm not an American - I'm a victim of Americanism."
Only the labor movement can offer a solution to joblessness - by leading a struggle to create jobs for all, not some. This means demanding a shorter workweek with no cut in pay; a massive public works program to build housing, schools, and other social necessities; and defense of affirmative action programs enforced by quotas. It also means fighting every move to curtail the rights of immigrants and rejecting the scapegoating arguments of big- business politicians.
Immigration is not just a jobs issue. Championing equal rights for immigrants is part of the life-and-death struggle to unite the working class across nationalities and borders so we can be strong enough to fight the employers' assault on the rights and living standards of our entire class.
Fortunately, immigrant workers have not rolled over and played dead. In many cities they have led demonstrations against such attacks, from factory raids to Proposition 187-style legislation. These protests have also drawn youth and others who are repelled by a government whose "solution" to social problems is cops, prisons, razor-wire fences, ID cards, and chauvinist poison. The unions should join these protests too.