On Saturday, a panel discussion was held at the Midwest Social Forum in Milwaukee to examine the oft-forgotten ways in which the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and globalization provide a necessary context for understanding the debate over immigrant rights. The discussion featured three panelists—Leila Pine, a labor and immigrant rights activist; Christine Neumann-Ortiz of Voces de la Frontera; and Leone Bicchieri an organizer with the SIEU’s Justice for Janitors campaign. The panel explored how NAFTA has affected Mexico and spurred immigration, NAFTA’s continuation of a legacy of colonialism towards Mexico, and how organized labor—as one of the most vocal opponents of NAFTA—can support the movement for immigrant rights.
The panel began with Wisconsin activist Leila Pine sharing a slideshow of photos that she took of Mexico on a recent delegation to the country. The photos were shared as a means of setting the stage from which to talk about NAFTA, with the photos clearly showing a harsh economic reality for much of the Mexican population, particularly for those living in rural communities where agriculture has been devastated and where low-wage workers—often displaced due to NAFTA—work in maquiladoras. This economic reality has been brought about in part due to the combined removal of access barriers for United States agribusiness under NAFTA, the elimination of the Mexican Ejidos system of communally owned land as mandated by NAFTA, and United States corn subsidies that have resulted in the flooding of the Mexican market. Christine Neumann-Ortiz asserted that NAFTA has brought nothing more than “unemployment and exploitation” both in the United States and in Mexico. Neumann-Ortiz explained that while Mexico has become the United States’ second largest trading partner, more jobs have been lost since the passage of NAFTA than have been gained. Her statistics, from the years 1994 to 2002, documented that 500,000 factory jobs have been gained due to NAFTA but that 1.3 million have been lost in Mexico while wages for these jobs have also fallen. In the United States, one million jobs have been lost and new jobs obtained by workers displaced by NAFTA pay 13% less and are in the service industry. This has created a situation where workers on both sides of the border are being exploited and set against each other using a “divide and conquer” strategy that prevents strong union organizing.
Both Leila Pine and Christine Neumann-Ortiz placed the discussion of NAFTA in the larger context of colonialism in the Americas. Early on in the discussion, Pine reminded the audience that globalization was not the beginning of United States’ domination through trade but that rather it is a continuation of colonialism. While NAFTA has rightfully garnered considerable attention, it is only the latest in a long line of economic policies that institutionalize colonialism. Neumann-Ortiz expanded on this by explaining that there has always been an uneven economic relationship between the United States and Mexico—formed during the era of colonialism—and continuing to this day through institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Contemporary neoliberal trade agreements with their opening of borders for capital but closing them for people were described as being “essential” to understanding immigration. It was also mentioned that these trade agreements, by virtue of their affects on both immigrants and workers within the United States, could function as a basis for bringing disparate movements such as the immigrant, labor, and environmental movements together.
The final panelist, Leone Bicchieri of the SEIU, shared a number of insights into why the labor movement has failed to get involved in the struggle for immigrant rights despite the fact that the struggle of immigrants and labor are often “one in the same.” He explained that this coalition has failed to materialize for a number of historical reasons including the narrow view that unions are only pursuing membership, that labor leaders have historically failed to act in solidarity with black and brown communities, and a failure on the part of unions in the United States to engage in (or even talk about) class struggle. He apologized for the fact that the labor movement in the United States has been historically racist, but argued that now the immigrant and labor movements need to come together to act collectively. To do this, organized labor is going to need to give up the idea that the goal is simply to elect better politicians and instead needs to start “catering to the needs of the people.” He explained how in Madison on May 1 the labor and immigrant movements were able to come together over mutual interest in a unionization campaign and explained that the September Labor Day demonstrations for immigrant rights will be another opportunity to work together. Bicchieri went on to state that unions need to actively participate in the immigrant rights struggle and not simply “join” it by going to events and attempting to get people involved in labor’s issues.
