Alberta, May-June 2006
17
ALTERNATIVA Latinoamericana
ENGLISH SECTION
T
he demonstrations,
walk-outs, boycotts,
marches, work-stoppages,
and protests of the past
few weeks are more than
just an inspiring example
of resistance to
reactionary government
legislation; they may
signal the birth of a new
left. In response to the
ominous portend of an
immigration bill so extreme
that it alienated the
Catholic church, millions of
people have participated in
recent weeks in the
beginnings of a mass
movement for immigrant
rights. Far from just a flash
in the pan, this movement
will have long-reaching
effects on the balance of
class and political forces
in the US, so as leftists we
have to wrap our heads
around it.
Causing a
Backlash?
Sensenbrenner's bill is only the sharpest edge of
a brazen and arrogant Republican party, who (thanks
to the good will of the Democrats) have gotten away
with the invasion and occupation of Iraq, exposure of
an international archipelago of torture camps, multiple
high-level corruption scandals, criminal negligence of
Hurricane Katrina's victims, vast expansion of powers
for the surveillance-industrial complex, two fresh far-
right "judges" for the supreme court, and on and on.
If the Democrats' response to all of this has
been predominantly collaborative, the response of the
broader left hasn't been much better. The antiwar
movement has been anemic for months, with no
national demonstration on the 3rd anniversary of the
invasion of Iraq and continued marginalization of
Arabs, Muslims, and Palestine in the politics of the
movement. South Dakota's abortion ban has been
met with stultifying silence and demobilization from
liberal feminist organizations. Widespread outrage at
Hurricane Katrina's exposure of the depth of poverty
and racism in America found no expression in a
national movement around justice for Katrina
survivors. And on and on.
Unfortunate as these failings of the left may be,
they're rooted in our historical circumstances. The
American elite have been on the offensive for the last
30 years in an effort to roll back the social and
political gains of the social movements of the 60s and
70s and to repair the relative economic damage to the
US economy wrought by the Vietnam war. Attacks on
wages and living standards, rollbacks of civil rights,
diminished access to health care, chipping away at
abortion rights, and the era of NAFTA-style "free trade"
programs for US-based transnational corporations
have all come at the expense of one or another sector
of the working population in this country.
No surprise then that at some point people
would push back; especially with the mass revolts
against the effects of neoliberalism taking root in so
many other parts the world, North and South from
Bolivia to France. The beginnings of that revolt have
now come home, in part because the radical labor
experiences that immigrant communities often bring
with them. Although we couldn't have predicted our
revolt would come from immigrant workers, it makes
sense. Which is why the liberal argument that
cautions a "backlash" is so ridiculous: the mass
movement for immigrant rights IS the backlash. And
hopefully only the beginnings of it.
Historical Turning Point?
The fault lines in US politics are shifting. On
May Day, up to 700,000 people marched in Chicago.
Over a million marched in Los Angeles, 75,000 people
in Denver--about one-sixth of the city's population--
all participated in a march on the state capitol. In New
York City, over 100,000 (following 300,000 two days
earlier for a march against the war in Iraq). 72,000
students (around one in four) walked out of classes in
the LA school district alone. Untold millions
participated in a boycott of buying and selling
anything. Across the country, businesses that rely on
immigrant labor were forced to scale back or close
down completely, including major food production and
processing corporations like Cargill. Meanwhile, in
Los Angeles, truckers stayed away from the country's
largest shipping port, and
an estimated one-third of
the city's small businesses
were shuttered.
May Day 2006 was
the biggest and most
inspiring resurgence of
labor (and civil rights)
militancy that this country
has seen in a generation.
More generally, the
immigrant rights movement
holds the possibility of
reviving a vibrant left in the
US of the kind that we
haven't had since the
1960s.
The New Civil
Rights
Movement
The civil rights
movement of the 1960s
was a turning point in US
history. Starting more or
less in the mid 1950s with
Brown v. Board, Emmett
Till, and Rosa Parks, and
continuing for nearly the next two decades, the civil
rights movement inspired the beginnings of a
resurgence in political activism on a massive scale in
the US. It ripped open the straight jacket of
McCarthyism, creating political space and inspiration
for the student movement and the movement against
the Vietnam war, which in turn inspired the feminist
movement and the gay liberation movement, which
then gave rise to later environmental and anti-nuclear
movements. In short, it marked the birth of a new left.
Like the last civil rights movement, the immigrant
rights movement can revive the US left of today-it can
initiate a period of wider and wider resistance to Jim
Crow-level segregation and racism (against migrant
workers), rejection of imperialist war half way around
the world, reversing the attacks on women's rights,
and so on. But there is one key difference: the
struggle this time includes massive working-class and
labor-based action, which was basically the main
ingredient missing from "the fire last time."
Because the immigrant rights movement is so
predominantly working-class, it can provide an even
wider basis for struggle around key political questions.
For example, it can be linked to the struggle against
the war in Iraq, whose victims (Iraqi and American
alike) are predominantly working-class, and thrust into
combat because of the economic and military
consequences of the US-dominated world order. It can
also be linked to the struggle for reproductive rights,
whose beneficiaries are predominantly poor and
working-class women, particularly Latinas (among
other minorities). It can be linked to the African-
American struggle for justice on the basis of unity
against racism and resistance to prison-industrial-
complex-style militarization, which attempts to control
both populations.
If the immigrant rights movement is also indeed
a revolt against the effects of "free trade" NAFTA-style
policies, then it could conceivably develop into a
struggle against corporate globalization and
neoliberalism itself-in the primary offending country, for
that matter.
Significantly, these ideas are not lost on the
migrant workers in the streets. In LA, for example,
despite the media's focus on flag-wavers to the
exclusion of political messages, there were home-
made signs saying "Are our troops in Iraq illegal too?"
and "Your Foreign Policy Brought Me Here." If those
workers don't represent the inspiring potential for a
radical challenge to neoliberalism and imperialism
inside the movement, we'd have to be politically
impotent. Or Democratic Party enthusiasts.
The masses of undocumented workers in the
streets can lead the revival of a new left, and one that
is even broader and more labor-radical than what
came out of this country in the 1960s. For the first
time in decades, millions of people celebrated May
Day in the US, for heaven's sake! Of course the
political, economic, and social conditions today are
very different from 40 years ago. For example, global
warming now threatens life as we know it, so the
stakes are far higher. But the immigrant workers
movement taking to the streets has shown that the
once-in-a-long-time opportunity for transformative
change is returning. We need to throw ourselves into
it with all the energy we can muster.
Brian Kwoba (Counterpunch)
Birth of a New New Left?
The Immigrant Rights Movement
A word of warning for next winter: When it's
cold outside, and you're getting up when it's still
dark, and, Stephen Harper is your country's prime
minister, do not re-watch Manufacturing Consent,
the NFB film about Noam Chomsky.
Oh, I know it's tempting -- intellectual
stimulation and cultural insight proffered like
candy. But it's just too depressing to think, even
in really interesting ways, about how there are so
few ways to poke through the power structures
and change anything, and how even the
punctures we do make can function as steam
vents, helping to keep the whole soul-killing
system functioning.
All great social justice movements, Chomsky
points out, begin with thousands of acts of
change and resistance among everyday people.
That's the machine I want to be a cog in. And it
can be inspiring to hear about fellow cogs,
particularly those who are excelling at their task.
It was my good fortune right around the time
of deep-winter-Manufacturing Consent
depression, to go out for breakfast at Toronto's
Free Times Café. The regular weekend event
features a traditional Jewish brunch and, often, a
not-so-traditional all-female klezmer band called
Pomegranate. People come and stuff themselves
with latkes and blintzes and pickled herring and
listen to five feisty fiddling women remake cultural
connections and challenge conventional thought.
Reena Katz, newly 30 on the day I saw her
perform, is the one who does the shtick. She
banters with the audience, asks them if they are
in a carb coma from the food, introduces the
songs (some traditional arrangements of classic
klezmer, and some seriously campy ones -- Hava
Nagila meets John Waters) and casually calls for
a just peace for Palestine while kibitzing about
queerness.
The more conservative in the crowd seem to
experience an emotional rollercoaster, one
minute dancing in their seats, the next stiff-spined
and irritated, then throwing their arms in the air
again. Pomegranate's infectious repertoire
includes an ode to the love of a girl and her goy
(dedicated to partners Rachel Melas, the bass
and tuba player, and Conny Nowé, the
percussionist). The band, which also includes
Bee Sack on flute and Rachel Sheinin on fiddle
and vocals, asks for a toast to Palestine before
playing Baym Rebn In Palestina (At the Rabbi's in
Palestine).
"Our generation of Jews was encouraged to
Israelify -- to identify with the Zionist project,"
says Katz. "But there are many ways of being
Jewish." She notes that the relationship to
nations has always been troubled for Ashkenazi
people. "We were never allowed full citizenship in
Poland, or Russia, or anywhere; we understand
the absurdities produced by nationalism."
To invoke this under-remembered lineage,
Katz dedicates a song "to the socialists, the
Bundists, the anarchists, avant-garde artists,
kabbalists and the non-Zionists who loved
diaspora."
And despite the group's serious political
aims, only the most irate could resist laughing
when they play, for example, a Yiddish insult song
in honour of some current villain -- like Stephen
Harper: Er zol zein vi a chandelier, hangn by tog
un brennen by nacht! (He should be like a
chandelier: hang by day and burn by night!)
Khaseneh hobn zol er mit di malakh hamoives
tochter! (He should marry the daughter of the
angel of death!)
It's easy to debate among people who share
a common world view, but a lot harder and rarer
to play to a mixed crowd. Over lots of good food
and fun, Katz accomplishes the impressive feat of
speaking to the unconverted.
Of course, she does get heckled. "Often,"
says Katz. Someone will yell: "What about the
suicide bombers?" or some sexist comment. "But
that's really what I enjoy," she says convincingly.
"Shtick is about that -- the goal isn't to convince
them of your view; it's to intervene in their normal
thought pattern." Chomsky would approve.
"When they yell something, I know the veil of
propriety has dropped for a moment and I've
gotten through."
Lisa Rundle (Herizons)
Shticking it
to `em