IWW Marches in Minnesota Immigrant Rights Demonstration
Submitted on Mon, 02/18/2008 - 10:33am
Saturday, February 16, 2008.
Approximately one dozen fellow workers from the Twin Cities General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World marched in support of immigrant rights and struggles in Minnesota on Saturday. The demonstration was organized by MIRAC, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition.
The rights of immigrant workers - both documented and undocumented - is part of a nationwide discussion during this election year, and an international discussion. The terms of the discussion are often the same in today's neoliberal environment. The reactionary right demonizes all those who are forced or choose to travel in search of security, opportunity, and a life; the reactionary left pretends that this is merely a moral issue and ignores the economics of immigration, and the 'muddled middle' hold a variety of contradictory opinions.
One of the most popular 'pro-immigrant' stances in the USA is that undocumented immigrants do the jobs that no "American" would be willing to do, and that this justifies their presence, and accepts their economic, political, and social subordination. People who hold this position oftentimes do not realize that they are implicitly arguing that this is a just and fair tradeoff - political subordination is somehow balanced out, in this argument, by the incredibly low wages paid and the routine abuse suffered by immigrant workers.
The specific impetus for Saturday's march, however, were new attempts begun in January by Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, to punish immigrants in Minnesota. Pawlenty issued an executive order requiring all state agencies and all businesses working with the state (if they have contracts over $5000) to investigate the immigration status of their employees. Like all states, the USA claims the power and the legal right to determine and enforce borders, but increasingly it is outsourcing this 'responsibility' to members of the capitalist classes, creating and supporting paramilitary organizations like the Minutemen, Infraguard, Blackwater, and in this case, local business owners.
Since business owners are precisely the class that benefits most from undocumented laborers, since they can be paid less than minimum wage and are unprotected by wage and labor laws, the real intent behind the increasingly close cooperation between government and business on immigration issues becomes increasingly clear. Businesses need to keep the swelling and increasingly radical immigrant labor population docile, and need to throw sops to the reactionary right, which believes that immigrants are 'taking their jobs.' Increasing the pressure on immigrants, terrifying their families, and forcing them to go or remain clandestine does both.
The IWW achieved many of its most important and historic successes through the organization of recent immigrants - those who left their worlds behind and came to make a new world for themselves and their families. Perhaps this fact makes immigrants more capable of recognizing the historic opportunities of the struggle they are in. The diversity of culture, background, and personality among immigrant workers cannot be overestimated. As a population, however, they share common interests, and face a common threat. The IWW has faced these threats before: we have a lot to learn from the pro-immigrant movement, and undoubtedly have something to offer in return.
The march began at two o'clock in the afternoon, and moved from the corner of Lake and Chicago Avenues to Walker Community Church. No official participant counts were available at the time of this report, but there seemed to be about 250-350 people involved.
The march was peaceful and uninterrupted by police presence. This was perhaps due to the presence of many legal observers who were specifically trained to face down Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and whose presence was explicitly and repeatedly pointed out over the public address system.