February 4 Week In Review

Week In Review

February 4 2013

by Bill Onasch

The Real Next Big Thing

The President opened his second term focusing on the trending, emotionally-charged issue of gun-control. He sought to balance his rhetoric for restrictions on magazine capacity and background checks by confessing to a reporter that, far from being anti-gun, his guilty pleasures include shooting a skeet now and then. When some raised doubts about this previously undisclosed penchant for slaughtering clay pigeons the White House released photographic proof , showing POTUS absorbing the recoil of a smoking shotgun. They even managed to include a clear image of the Nike® sign of the swoosh on his sleeve.

Whether this unexpected revelation will serve him as well as photos of Teddy Roosevelt accompanying the future German Kaiser on an African safari, or Saddam Hussein brandishing a long barrel birthday gift from the Iraqi parliament, remains to be seen. There’s always the risk that reaction might be more like the ridicule that fell upon presidential candidate Michael Dukakis when he was shown with a helmeted head protruding from the turret of a tank.

In any case, the present gun-control dust-up is likely episodic. It is not, borrowing the market vernacular of the raging smart phone wars, the Next Big Thing in Washington.

Presidents, with an eye on history books/downloads as they guide the ship of state to destinations determined by the ruling class, require more time for their Big Things than Apple or Samsung. In his first term, President Obama’s main domestic accomplishment was won only after nearly two years of take-no-prisoners combat in and with Congress– the Orwellian Affordable Care Act. Each day brings some new revelation about this “reform” that falls far short of promised universal care while making health costs less affordable than ever. Everything points to immigration “reform” as the Next Big Thing.

One of the shortcomings of English language education in this country is neglect of appreciation of irony. No prior President came close to matching the number of deportations of foreign born workers on the first term watch of Barrack Hussein Obama. During a time of draconian austerity measures the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) received more funds than the FBI, DEA, ATF, and Secret Service–combined. He is on pace to leave office with more than two million deportations as part of his legacy. Yet, if it were not for an over seventy percent vote from Latinos, BHO would instead now be e-filing his unemployment compensation claim from his Chicago residence.

Of course, not all immigrants are Latino. A substantial number come from the other side of the Pacific and I know of a few Irish lads and lasses blending in without papers as well. But the big majority of the undocumented come from south of the border, either originating from, or at least passing through Mexico.

They are the victims of NAFTA, CAFTA, and other deals that allowed global capital to turn their traditional lives upside down. Their precarious situation north of the border is of concern to most Latino citizens who are able to vote. While disappointed with Obama, Latino voters, limited to the same two choices as the rest of us, were even more alarmed by the undisguised xenophobia of the other party.

The Republicans are ruing the math. Senator John McCain–who once teamed up with the late Ted Kennedy on a failed immigration bill–was particularly blunt about the need of the GOP to change their perception by Latinos pronto. This has led the President to believe it is possible for him to take the initiative on a high profile issue that might actually get through an habitually obstructionist Congress.

Maybe, maybe not. In any case, the proposals bandied about so far are far from a just solution . They still presume those without papers are criminals. Law abiding politicians are determined those breaking the rules shall not get off scot-free.

All want to strengthen security at the border to stop any more workers displaced by Globalization from trying to find work to support their families.

All want to continue the high tech E-Verify program fingering suspicious workers that employers must fire.

Those immigrants wishing to pursue a long, uncertain eventual path to citizenship would, under all proposals, have to turn themselves in, agreeing to a background check; submit a complete resume of work history; pay fines and back taxes; and learn English.

Most undocumented workers have paid their taxes–that’s how E-Verify catches so many. Those who have worked as day laborers will have a tough time documenting either their work record or payment/nonpayment of taxes. The language requirement is something their employers have never imposed because learning a new language can be daunting for adults. The children of immigrants mostly have multilingual skills exceeding those of kids raised in English-only citizen households.

Ana Avendano, point person for AFL-CIO immigration policy, made some good points in a piece in The Guardian,

“In today's US immigration debate, some suggest that we take the easy road and ‘split the difference’ among proposals for reform from lawmakers – to choose political expediency and legalize immigrants without offering any chance for them to earn citizenship. That's wrong. That's the road to an America of permanent second-class workers, and it's a violation of our basic values. All men and women are created equal, regardless of where they were born....Hardworking immigrant families came to this country for the promise of freedom and the opportunity to provide a better life for their children. We're all the better for having hardworking new immigrants as contributing members of our communities, with full rights and equal protections.”

Sister Avendano’s boss, Richard Trumka, has often offered similar solidarity remarks. Trumka was on hand for the President’s speech in Las Vegas last week that signaled the administration was serious about immigration legislation. Commenting on the Obama initiative Trumka told Yahoo News,

“We think everybody ought to have the right to work hard and to progress to citizenship....We’ll be at the table the whole time this thing is being developed to make sure it meets the needs of workers.”

It’s that second sentence that concerns me and should make Ana Avendano at least a little nervous as well. It sounds exactly like the approach taken toward Obama’s first Big Thing on health care. Trumka tried hard then to make sure that reform met “the needs of workers.” He even drew several lines in the sand around issues such as “public option” and taxation of benefits.

But after getting the sand kicked back in his face on those and more, the leader of organized labor bowed to political expediency. He helped get the back of reluctant single-payer liberals who voted against their conscience and to this day Trumka and the AFL-CIO are the most enthusiastic defenders of this odious gift to health care capital at the workers’ expense.

We should support the lofty sentiments of immigrant solidarity expressed by our leaders. At the same time we should also be prepared to expose and denounce another abandonment of principle as was done around health care.

It’s good to be knowledgeable about the issue. As part of our 2006 Labor Day Special I wrote a piece on immigrant rights that included a nutshell history of U.S. immigration policy. For an in depth look at the dynamics of immigration today David Bacon’s books, Illegal People, and The Children of NAFTA, can’t be beat. Twin Cities immigrant rights activist Lisa Luinenburg did a good update on current proposals on the Socialist Action site. But you don’t have to be a policy expert to understand that working class solidarity is threatened if it’s limited only to those with proper paperwork.

In an era when capital is guaranteed the right to move freely across borders seeking profits workers who do the same to feed their families are not criminals. They are our working class sisters and brothers who deserve not only our sympathy but active solidarity. Our defense of them is not open to negotiation or compromise. It is a principle upon which the future of our whole class depends.

In Brief...

¶ From New York Times reporting on the “encouraging” employment report that set off a surge in the stock markets, “‘The decline in the unemployment rate really masks how protracted the crisis really is,’ said Christine L. Owens, the executive director of the National Employment Law Project, a labor research and advocacy group. ‘It’s coming down largely for the wrong reason: because people are dropping out of the labor market or not entering it.’ For the long-term unemployed — who now represent nearly 40 percent of all jobless workers — the opportunities still seem few and far between. Millions have exhausted their unemployment benefits, and many more will roll off the government’s system in the coming months with no options in sight.”

¶ CalOSHA issued its biggest ever fine--963,200 dollars–against Chevron for an August 6 refinery explosion and fire in Richmond. While only one worker suffered minor injuries thousands of nearby residents were endangered by the release of sulfuric acid and nitrogen dioxide fumes with 200 needing hospital treatment for respiratory problems. Among other complaints, the agency cited Chevron for ignoring the advice of its own inspectors to replace a corroded pipe and also failing to follow emergency shutdown procedures after a leak was found. The facility is the third largest refinery in California normally processing 245,000 barrels of crude a day. It’s expected to be offline until late March.

¶ Steven Greenhouse wrote in the New York Times, “The nation’s largest union of retail and grocery workers has formally pledged not to try to unionize Walmart workers, even though it helped coordinate picketing, protests and scattered strikes about wages and working conditions at the retailer last fall. The union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, made the pledge this week to avert likely charges from regulators that it engaged in weeks of illegal picketing at Walmart stores last fall. The National Labor Relations Board said Thursday that it would hold in abeyance any charges against the union and its affiliate, OUR Walmart, for six months to make sure they fulfilled their commitments.”

¶ A recent survey by the National Academy of Social Insurance found 89 percent believe Social Security is more important than ever and 75 percent think benefits should be raised.

¶ AP reported Friday: “New York’s City’s two-week-old school bus strike will continue. On Friday, officials of the National Labor Relations Board refused to order its end. Lawyers for the board issued a memorandum rejecting a complaint brought by a coalition of 20 private bus companies, which argued that the strike was illegal. ...About 8,000 drivers and bus aides who belong to Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union walked off the job on Jan. 16 as part of a labor dispute revolving around job-security provisions. The workers were angered when the city announced that it could no longer require private companies bidding for transportation contracts to hire drivers on the basis of seniority and maintain previous pay rates.” The city has refused to participate in negotiations.

¶ A report by the National Consumer Law Center explains how the biggest banks are draining millions from workers’ unemployment benefit payments. Many states have abandoned paper checks, or making direct deposits, in favor of fee-gouging bank cards. The banks charge the states nothing as they suck their money out of the pittance paid to the jobless.

¶ The average student loan debt now stands at 27,253 dollars–up 58 percent over the past seven years. The grand total of this non-dischargable debt now exceeds the total of all car loans.

That’s all for this week.