NAFTA & immigration: who's to blame?

[WinterBybee]

There is an unmistakeable "blame the victim"
mentality underlying much of the furor over immigration. I
found a distinct scent of that in one of the responses to our
article, and have included my exchange with the respondent
(whose name I have excised, since I didn't seek his permission
to included it). Hopefully, you will find the exchange
interesting and informative:


1.We've known for years what's causing the problem. 'Casino'
fordist and agro-capitalism requires the cooperation and
collusion of nation states. The slime bags of the PRI, in my
opinion, take 50% of the blame for approving NAFTA and the
resulting predictable destitution on their people. NAFTA was
also 'sold' to Mexicans as well as Americans.  The
dissemination of Mexican slave laborers in the US only aids
this process.

RESPONSE FROM ROGER BYBEE: Mexico's elites--who blatantly
stole the 1988 presidential election (the Wall St. Journal and
World Policy Institute have provided some very good
documentation) that should have been won by populist Cuahtemoc
Cardenas who was critical of NAFTA--usurped the voice of
ordinary Mexicans. 

Looking forward to the richest to be made from the "crony
capitalism" of privatizing public resources, Mexico's
richest citizens pushed NAFTA not only through their own
legislature, but also spent an unprecedented $25 million
lobbying for NAFTA's passage in the US. NAFTA was opposed by
64% of Americans in 1993 prior to the NAFTA vote in Congress,
but as in Mexico, elite opinion was all that mattered. Before
you judge ordinary Mexicans as more gullible than Americans
about NAFTA and somehow responsible for the devastation it has
caused, remember that the implementation of NAFTA on Jan. 1,
1994 triggered a massive uprising in Chiapas by peasants
declaring that "NAFTA is our death warrant."

>
>2--I'm afraid  we're all way past the point of 'most
favored' policies broadcast by marginalized NGOs who speak of
'healthy job creation' as a solution to this problem. The ONLY
workable option in the long run: Mexicans need to get off
their whipped behinds and take back their country. I hear no
one on this immigrant issue entertaining the obvious: calling
for the removal of the corrupt government and controlling
mafia families in Mexico. This-- and not the border, or
NAFTA-- is THE elephant in the room no one wants to touch.


RESPONSE FROM ROGER BYBEE: For decades, ordinary
Mexicans--like many of us in America-- have been fighting for
social justice against entrenched centers of power who are
reluctant to give up their privileges. Who would have imagined
that elections could be stolen in America, as in 2000 thanks
to the phony-felon purge of about 60,000 African-American
males entitled to vote in Florida (copiously documented by
Greg Palast in The Best Democracy Money Can Buy) and again in
2004, especially in the critical state of Ohio (as very
persuasively outlined by Mark Crispin Miller in Fooled
Again.)? Americans, too, need to get off their "whipped
behinds."

As Mexico heads into the 2006 election, the leading candidate
by far is Mexico City Mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose
policies are hostile to corporate domination. 

If he prevails--and it will take a major struggle to enforce
the will of the majority over the objections of Mexico's
powerful and their allies in the Bush administration--Mexico
will be aligned alongside nations like Venezuela, Brazil,
Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile who are all led by democratic
leaders intent on challenging the US-imposed model of
globalization. A Lopez Obrador victory may well be tantamout
to a second Mexican revolution.

>
>3--The other completely discounted discussion by the left
in this country is the need for an accurate and unbiased
analysis of the urban and rural environmental impacts of 12
million (and growing)  undocumented workers/consumers in this
country. To shove this issue under the table is irrational,
but sadly, standard practice for the left.

RESPONSE FROM ROGER BYBEE: Yes, a full accounting of the costs
and benefits should be conducted. But it is vital to separate
what is the responsibility of desperate economic refugees and
the corporations who cruelly exploit them.

For example, don't forget that the chemical pollution of
America's rural land, air, and water is the responsibility of
agri-business, not the immigrant workers who toil away in the
fields and incur untold illnesses from the wanton use of
harmful chemicals and the spread of factory farming. 
Remember, too, that illegal immigrants are paying Social
Security and Medicare benefits and unable to draw upon them.
Finally, recall the scandals about major meatpackers
systematically recruiting immigrants in order to assemble a
pliable low-wage workforce that is too vulnerable to challenge
the unfair wages, unsanitary conditions, and dangerous work in
the industry.



>4--For Americans sharing a common, reality-based dream, we
too need to march en masse on DC and let these creeps know who
still holds power.

RESPONSE FROM ROGER BYBEE: Yes, we need to march en masse on
DC--and proudly include the "illegal immigrants"
that the Right seeks to scapegoat. The loss of
family-supporting jobs is not the result of illegals entering
America; it's the direct consequence of Corporate America
abandoning US workers and communities. 

[mdmc]

1. corporate america is to blame

if this is not rhetorical

[msgadget]

2. Thanks very much.

[WinterBybee]

3. Thanks!

Glad you liked the article. Positive reinforcement is always welcome! Best, Roger Bybee