On June 21st, 45% of the eligible voters in Fremont, NE turned out to vote on whether or not to pass an ordinance that would penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent them shelter. The ordinance was passed 57% to 43%. 1 What many people don't know is that the ordinance was largely the work of Kris Kobach who works for the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) - the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a group listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center due to its ties to white separatists, racist eugenicists and racist authors. 2, 3 In 2009 Kobach also sued the University of Nebraska Board of Regents and the Board of Governors for Nebraska Community Colleges in order to prevent in state tuition being offered to undocumented students. 4
The passage of this ordinance was a major blow for the working class here in Nebraska, not only because it was the work of a front group for an outright racist organization, but because it demonstrates how little we understand about the nature of our class-divided society. If you don't recognize the fact that modern society is divided into two general classes it might not make sense to you why this hurts all of us working people, but the truth is there are two very distinct and separate classes - those who own the places where we work and make their living off of employing others and those whose only option is to sell their mental or physical labor to an employer. Respectively these two classes are the ruling class (or the employing class) and the working class.
The ruling class of course enjoys being able to take advantage of the cheap labor that undocumented immigrants provide. They could care less who works in their plants as long as it betters their bottom line. The ordinance was not proposed by them (at least not the ruling class owners who directly profit off of undocumented immigrant labor), it was proposed by a few right-wing demagogues and a portion of the working class people in the community. The situation that exists in Fremont is one in which working class people have become divided - they have turned on each other just like starving dogs turn on one another for scraps of food. It is a classic case of scapegoating - by both the ruling class and the working class. The endemic problems that exist in capitalism are not blamed on the system of inequality and manufactured scarcity itself but on the most vulnerable - the undocumented immigrants or the impoverished who are just trying to get by. It should be made clear that undocumented immigrants do not come to America for baseball and McDonald's, they are here due to economic necessity - the conditions in capitalist Mexico are even worse than the conditions here in the US; for these immigrants, coming here to work is the only option they have to provide for their families.
In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was created. NAFTA allowed subsidized corn and other agricultural products from the US to enter into Mexican markets, which in turn drove millions of Mexican farmers out of farming - they couldn't compete with US corporate agriculture. In addition the entry of corporations like Walmart, which rely primarily on cheap Chinese labor, out-competed small Mexican grocery stores and shops, creating further unemployment, desperation and poverty. If that wasn't enough to completely crush the Mexican working class, the average wage for Mexican workers also dropped significantly, so work in American owned factories was not even enough to provide for a family. All of these factors led to the current up-swing of immigration to the US. It should be understood that the American ruling class was the main force behind the passage of NAFTA - this trade agreement would allow them to increase their profits by exploiting the cheap labor of Mexican workers and it would also allow them to expand the market for goods produced by even cheaper labor or government subsidized products.
Working class people who are US citizens are very much aware that, out of desperation, the undocumented workers will often work for much less and without benefits, they are made to believe that these workers are in competition with them for jobs, so it seems to make sense to them to eliminate this competition through the ordinance. By eliminating the competition for jobs they hope to raise wages and make jobs available for themselves and their family and friends. What a significant portion of the Fremont working class fails to realize is that low wages are a result of so-called fair trade agreements like NAFTA (which allow corporations to out-source labor) and that they are unlikely to see any benefit, even short-term benefits, for turning on their fellow workers. In fact, they are more likely to see rising taxes, pay reductions and loss of jobs. A similar ordinance in Pennsylvania has already incurred 5 million (1.25 million a year) in legal bills to be paid mostly by tax-payers. 5 In addition, the owners of the plants who employ/ed undocumented workers will continue to keep wages low any way that they can, if necessary they will move the plant elsewhere where labor is cheaper. Employers also have the option of filing for work visas from the government; this creates a sort of feudal arrangement where undocumented workers are allowed to legally stay in the country in order to work for these employers. In these arrangements the worker is at the complete mercy of the employer and cannot complain or make any sort of demands for better conditions, to do so would likely result in termination and subsequent deportation.
Ruling class employers are expert at dividing us: creating hierarchy and inequality in pay within the workplace that pits worker against worker, effectively playing on prejudices or fear by blaming low wages, lack of jobs and rising taxes on immigrants or the down-trodden, etc. But no matter what happens in Fremont as long as the working class remains divided the ruling class wins (and most of them know this very well) - divided working people can't fight for better conditions. We don't need to turn on our brothers and sisters to fight for a decent living; we're all in the same sinking boat. The only way workers can better their lot is to band together - regardless of skin color, country of origin, religion, etc. Only through this working class solidarity can we stand up to the ruling class and demand fair wages and benefits and eventually change society into one in which we run and control our workplaces democratically and for the good of all (instead of for the profits of a few).
The ruling class elites are stronger than us - they have all the weaponry of the state at their disposal - but they are few and we are many, when we come together nothing can stop us from demanding an end to wage slavery, poverty and oppression. A society where everyone contributes what they can and takes what they need is possible, there is plenty of food, water, shelter, clothing, and the things in life that make it enjoyable to go around. It is time to get rid of the real parasites - the ones that don't work like us working folks do - the ones who get rich off of our labor. As long as class-divided society exists there will always be an antagonism between these two classes - the ruling class wants cheap labor; the working class wants wages higher, better benefits, etc. - It's a constant class war that will never end until class society is abolished, including all the tools that class-based society uses to oppress workers - money, borders, and the state.
1. http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/article_a36e5b1c-7d5e-11df-a972-001cc4c002e0.html
2. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2007/winter/the-teflon-nativists
3. http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2010/06/23/kobach-calls-fremont-falls/
4. http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2010/02/19/anti-immigrant-forces-target-struggling-american-communities/
5. http://thereader.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1276719988&archive=&start_from=&ucat=3&
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