Workers of the United States Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose But Being Called the Enemy From Within

Daniel Warner

 October 25, 2024
Facebook

TwitterRedditEmail

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Remember during the last election the narrative was all about the vote of suburban women? This year it seems to be about the vote of Black men, or the schism between bicoastal elites and flyover America. What about the disappearing middle class and growing inequality? Behind these narratives is a much simpler and larger binary that remains unspoken: workers against business.

The very term worker has Marxist undertones. Workers/proletarians were the driving force in the 1848 Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. And given that Donald Trump has accused Kamala Harris of being a communist and her father a Marxist economist, the obvious negatives of talking about workers risks bringing to the forefront the 1950s Joe McCarthy era, the House Un-American Activities Committee, the Hollywood blacklists, the Alger Hiss hysteria, the loss of security clearance for J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

For isn’t it a return to communist scare-mongering when Trump threatens to use the military to squelch “the enemy from within”? If it’s not invading hordes of migrants, Trump’s enemies are un-American lefty sympathizers. What does Trump mean when he says he will “Make America Great Again”? Does Trump’s MAGA mean to continue quashing unions and workers’ rights in order to further enrich his business millionaire/billionaire golfing friends?

Why not use the term worker for all those not speed dialling their latest calls on the stock market or crypto currency? Why can’t Kamala Harris use the term worker when she describes how she workedat a McDonalds one summer when she was a student at Howard University? (Trump’s flipping burghers at a McDonalds in Pennsylvania is beyond absurd.) Why can’t Harris just say she will work for workers when workers make up the middle class she keeps trying to appeal to? Being president, after all, is a working job.

The non-use of the term worker is a denigration of what most Americans do. What’s wrong with punching a time clock every day? The real problem may be that because of the low minimum wage workers have to punch two or three time clocks every day to earn a liveable wage. The working poor are still workers.

My friendly banker once explained to me his point of view on how to make money: “If you’re working, Danny, you’re not making money.” His suggestion was that I place my money with him. He would then invest my money in stocks, bonds, gold, bitcoin or whatever else he had invested in to become a successful banker. If I invested with him, he tried to sell me, I would not have to work; my money would work for me.

Years after the demise of the Soviet Union, the ideological battle between capitalism and socialism/communism has not disappeared. In 2024, we should be able to realize that economic, cultural and social rights are as essential as civil and political rights. The two sets of rights are interdependent. And we should be able to discuss minimum wages and reducing poverty by talking about the importance of work and workers’ rights without being accused of being “fellow travellers” if not card-carrying members of the CP.

The business of the United States may be business, but business cannot exclude workers.

In his final report as U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, NYU Law Professor Philip Alston was dubious about the role of the private sector in reducing poverty. He said: “…multinational companies and investors draw guaranteed profits from public coffers, while poor communities are neglected and underserved.” His description of extreme poverty and the working poor in the United States was revealing, but it has had little impact for fundamental change. Trying to increase minimum wages at the state and federal levels remains contentious.

President Trump crushed labor. Under Trump, the National Labor Relations Act was diluted, and the National Labor Relations Board was stacked with pro-business people. The Democratic Party’s union backing, as shown in Biden’s early 2020 Pittsburgh campaign speech surrounded by major union leaders, has faded. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters  will not make an endorsement in the 2024 presidential election. The Teamsters supported the Democratic nominee in each election since 1996. (The AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation with 12.5 million members, did, however, endorse Harris.) Harris’s stint at McDonald’s does not overcome her image as elite San Francisco Kamala.

The major multilateral institution dealing with workers’ rights and social justice paints a grim future. The International Labor Organizations’s January 2024 report on World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2024 “forecasts a slight increase in global unemployment in 2024, signalling emerging labour market challenges…” The report points out that “a significant portion of the global workforce remains in informal employment” with few guarantees. It predicts “eroding prospects for greater social justice.”

Why “eroding prospects”? Are social justice, economic, social and cultural rights and workers’ rights still part of “Red Rights”? Over thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall we are still fighting the ideological Cold War with workers paying the price. To be concerned about work and workers’ rights is not to be a card-carrying member or sympathizer with the Communist Party. It is to respect basic human dignity for all.

Neo-Liberal narratives have taken workers off the radar. Trump’s statements to use the military to hunt “enemies from within” resonates with a most disgraceful period in American history. Let’s put workers back in front. More and more people should look at the United States in 2024 and its corporatist, business obsession and say, “I have seen the future, and it doesn’t work,” as Professor Alston perceptively documented.

Daniel Warner is the author of An Ethic of Responsibility in International Relations. (Lynne Rienner). He lives in Geneva.

America’s Irreplaceable Immigrants

Robert Hunziker

 October 25, 2024
Facebook

TwitterRedditEmail

Image by Tim Mossholder.

Every day when breakfast is served, Americans come face to face with the impact of immigrant workers without whom breakfast items would be too expensive for everyday consumption and/or if short on time, the nearest drive-through fast-food establishment, cars lined up for blocks, would charge an arm and a leg for a simple egg, cheese, and sausage sandwich. Without immigrant workers, costs will skyrocket beyond the reach of many Americans. And thankfully, undocumented immigrants are safer for US citizens than their own neighbors.

“A NIJ-funded study examining data from the Texas Department of Public Safety estimated the rate at which undocumented immigrants are arrested for committing crimes. The study found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half (1/2) the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter (1/4th) the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.” (Source: Undocumented Immigrant Offending Rate Lower Than U.S.-Born Citizen Rate, National Institute of Justice, September 12, 2024)

“Substantial research has assessed the relationship between immigration and crime. Numerous studies show that immigration is not linked to higher levels of crime, but rather the opposite.” (Debunking the Myth of the ‘Migrant Crime Wave,’ Brennan Center for Justice, May 29, 2024)

In that regard, there’s been some chatter initiated by Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales about 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide. “A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said the data sent to Gonzales is being misinterpreted, and goes back four decades, long before the Biden administration.” (Source: More Than 13,000 Immigrants Convicted of Homicide Are Living Outside Immigration Detention in the U.S. ICE Says, NBC News, Sept. 28, 2024)

Immigrant laborers get their hands dirty when nobody else will. They are absolutely essential to the food supply chain, e.g., according to the Migration Policy Institute they are 30% of crop production workers across the country. In some instances, their numbers dictate survival of a basic food industry.

Some food production enterprises will cease to function without immigrant workers, e.g., 64% if Nebraska’s meat processing workers are immigrants. No immigrants, no steaks.

“Foreign workers make up about 68% of the workforce on American hog farms. Immigration is a key part of pork production, and many producers rely on foreign labor because it’s difficult to find a local workforce.” (Source: Immigration in the Swine Industry: Hiring Foreign -Born Labor, Pork Information Gateway). Moreover, immigrants make up 40% of the overall meatpacking workforce. No immigrants, no pork.

California supplies 33% of America’s vegetables and 75% of America’s fruit and nuts via a workforce dominated 65% by immigrants. They are at the core of the food supply chain to America. Additionally, California is America’s 4^th largest beef producer, and the state is America’s dairy leader. Immigrants do 2/3^rd of California’s agricultural work, supplying America’s all-important food chain. Without immigrants, breakfast costs will skyrocket beyond the reach of everyday Americans. Food inflation will eat America alive.

Iowa is one of America’s top pork and corn producers. A recent article in Bleeding Heartland, an independent website about Iowa politics, entitled Anti-Immigration Plans Could Have Unintended Consequences for Iowa AG d/d August 29, 2024: A major cattle producer in Sioux County claims: “If all of Sioux County’s immigrant labor left tomorrow, we’d have a huge problem. … We don’t have the people to replace them.” Moreover, according to the article: “It is not simply a matter of replacing immigrant labor with workers born in the United States. It is difficult finding people who want to do the backbreaking work of mucking out manure, hauling bedding for the animals, and moving thousands of pounds of feed for them every day.” No immigrants, no beef.

Bleeding Heartland’s article followed on the heels of a reversal of mean-spirited, lowbrow legislation: “In a victory for immigrant communities and families, on June 17 a federal district court in Iowa issued a preliminary injunction to block SF 2340, one of the worst, most far-reaching immigration laws ever passed in the state of Iowa.” According to Emma Winger, deputy legal director, American Immigration Council: “Sadly, we are still seeing copycat laws and proposed measures that would cause irreparable harm for immigrant families, including in Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma. These types of laws create absolute chaos and human suffering and have no place in our legal system.” (Source: Iowa Blocks Hateful Anti-Immigrant Law, American Immigration Council, June 17, 2024)

And beyond the basic necessities of food supply, industry increasingly relies upon migrant workers. For example, in Ohio: Unions, Businesses Eye Migrants to Fill Labor Gaps in Ohio Reuters, May 2, 2024: “Help accessing immigrant communities to find workers to hire has been among the top three requests the Columbus Chamber of Commerce has fielded from local businesses in recent years, said Kelly Fuller, the chamber’s vice president of talent and workforce development.”

In the U.S., the expansion of the labor force via immigrants has kept the economy growing and consumer spending up without driving inflation even higher. According to Brookings Institution economist Tara Watson: “Immigration is bolstering a U. S. workforce that would otherwise be set to decline as the baby boomer generation retires. And especially in some fields, we have long-run structural needs that Americans are just not going to fill,’ Watson said, pointing to a lack of home health aides and other direct care workers,” Ibid.

In Charleroi, Pennsylvania David Barbe of Fourth Street Foods claims: “We operate 26 production lines for sandwiches, dinner, and breakfast bowls.” Out of 1,000 employees, 700 are immigrants on the assembly line. “The hours are long and monotonous, and Barbe says he gets almost no local applicants.” (Source: Charleroi, Pennsylvania, Business Owner Says Immigrant Population Works Jobs Americans Do Not Want, CBS News, September 18, 2024)

Pennsylvania thrives on newfound immigrants: “It is hard to overstate the importance of entrepreneurship since new businesses are the main driver of job growth in the United States. Immigrants play a particularly important role in this—founding businesses at far higher rates than the U.S. population overall. Today, millions of American workers are employed at immigrant-founded and immigrant-owned companies.” Pennsylvania claims 70,200 immigrant entrepreneurs paying $13 billion in taxes with $4.4 billion paid to social security and 650,200 total immigrant workers in the labor force. (Source: Immigrants in Pennsylvania, American Immigration Council)

Immigrants may be a political football that is easy to kick around but ironically, America’s biggest risk of becoming a third world country is loss of immigrant labor, resulting in grocery store shelves become increasingly empty, restaurants using paper plates/plastic forks to replace migrant help, and local farmer’s markets experiencing vicious, sometimes deadly, street fights by local citizens over scarce precious food items.

America’s Economic Growth Depends Upon Immigrants

“Immigrant workers are responsible for 88% of labor force growth in America since 2019.” (Source: Immigrants Will Be America’s Only Source Of Labor Force Growth, Forbes, October 16, 2024).

Labor force growth is crucial to economic growth, raising living standards for all citizens. According to the Dallas Fed: “While technological advances and incentives for investment will contribute to productivity growth, immigration will be vital to propping up labor force growth… The United States would have experienced no labor force growth during the past five years without immigrants and their children. Between 2018 and 2024, the number of workers with U.S. parents declined by 1.3 million, while the number of immigrants and children of immigrants in the U.S. labor force grew by 5.4 million,” Ibid.

America’s colleges and universities hold a special status in the eyes of the world: “Immigrant-origin students are the fastest growing group of students in higher education, driving over 90 percent of the domestic enrollment growth at U.S. colleges and universities from 2000 to 2022.” (Source: Immigrant-Origin Students in U.S. Higher Education – September 2024, Higher Ed Immigration Portal, Oct. 1, 2024)

Immigrants have never been more important to America’s growth and future. Immigrant labor does the backbreaking work that regular Americans refuse, the backbone of America’s food chain and industrial assembly lines. They do hard work in a quiet reserved manner. They are irreplaceable and the single most crucial factor to America’s future economic growth, which would stagnate without their resourcefulness and dedication to hard work.

Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

 

Israel’s Biblical Wars of ‘Self Defense’: The Myth of the ‘Seven War Fronts’

by Ramzy Baroud Posted onOctober 25, 2024

Israeli officials keep repeating that Israel is fighting on multiple fronts. The truth is that Israel chooses to fight on multiple fronts. The two claims are fundamentally different.

Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went as far as saying that his country is fighting on seven different war fronts, all driven by the objective of “defending ourselves against… barbarism.”

These supposedly defensive wars are also carried out in the name of protecting “civilization against those who seek to impose a dark age of fanaticism on all of us,” Netanyahu said in a speech in early October.

There will be no need to counter Netanyahu’s diatribes. It should be obvious that neither genocide is classified as self-defense, nor does preserving human civilization include burning people alive, as was the case with Sha’ban Al-Dalou, who was horrifically killed alongside his family in the recent Israeli shelling of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

But is Israel being forced to fight on seven fronts?

According to Netanyahu, but also other top political and military officials, the fronts are Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and groups in Syria, Iraq and the West Bank.

Though the major fighting is only taking place in Gaza and Lebanon, the official Israeli line is keen on exaggerating the number of war fronts to continue capitalizing on the generous US and western military and political support. More wars for Israel also translate into more money.

Of course, Israel is fighting actual wars too; a war of extermination and genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, which has killed and wounded more than 150,000 people in the course of one year.

There is also a war in the West Bank, carried out with the precise aim of subduing all forms of resistance, so that Israel may accelerate its settler-colonial project in the occupied territories.

The above is not an inference, but a statement of fact, based on Netanyahu’s own declared policies. “Israel must have security control over all the territory west of the Jordan,” he said during a news conference last January. To be more precise, “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty,” he said. ‘Security control” is an Israeli euphemism for territorial expansion.

In an interview with the European public service channel, Arte, Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich said Israel would expand “little by little” to eventually encompass the whole of the Palestinian territories, in addition to Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and other Arab countries.

“It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus,” he said.

Religious prophecies are particularly dangerous when they are embraced by unhinged extremist politicians who wield the political clout and military power to put them into action.

Netanyahu is a leading member of the same group. He has already justified his genocide in Gaza and wars everywhere according to religious texts, where he sees his army as the Israelites fighting the Amalekites.

These religious sentiments are common in Israel’s political discourses throughout history. However, they have taken center stage in recent years under a succession of far-right governments, mostly formed by Netanyahu. They see in the Gaza war an opportunity to bring about what Smotrich, then the vice-chairman of the Knesset called in 2017 as “Israel’s decisive plan”.

Ironically named ‘One Hope’, Smotrich’s plan is primarily centered on the annexation of the whole of the West Bank, which he, like Netanyahu and others, refers to as ‘Judea and Samaria’. The plan entails “imposing sovereignty on all of Judea and Samaria”, with the “concurrent acts of settlements”, as in “the establishing of cities and towns”, with the aim of “creating a clear and irreversible reality on the ground”.

Smotrich’s plan, which is being implemented, now that he is one of the two kingmakers in Netanyahu’s government – the other is Itamar Ben-Gvir – was prepared years before the ongoing war on Gaza, and is being implemented, per his own admission, “little by little” ever since.

Israel may claim that it is fighting a war on seven or seventy fronts. It may also assign itself the role of the savior of civilizations. But the truth cannot be hidden, especially when the Israelis themselves are the ones who are disclosing their sinister intentions.

Even the ongoing war on Lebanon, which Israeli leaders, along with their US backers, have dubbed a defensive war, is now being promoted by some Israeli politicians and their rightwing supporters as another expansionist war, or more accurately a quest for “Greater Israel”

There is a difference between a country fighting a defensive war on multiple fronts and another fighting for colonial expansion, for regional hegemony and for military dominance driven by religious prophecies. Those who have chosen the latter path, as Israel has, cannot claim to be in a state of self-defense.

“Self-defense in international law refers to the inherent right of a State to use of force in response to an armed attack,” the International Red Cross states on its website.  This definition does not apply to a state that is itself a military occupier, thus is in an active state of hostility and unlawful use of violence.

Netanyahu and Smotrich, however, are hardly concerned about international or humanitarian laws. They are driven by ominous, expansionist agendas. If they succeed, more deadly wars are sure to follow. The international community must do everything in its power to ensure their failure.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out. His other books include My Father was a Freedom Fighter and The Last Earth. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.