rory sez: immigrants are not the enemy and "illegality" is but a scam when the Titans of Meat and Money invited 'em here
January 2002 somethin' was buggin' me so I scribbled out a "cartoon" between more "productive" activities. This is it. You gotta clickonit to see it well at all.
bottomlineisthis: meat packin' corps, like Tyson that owned stock in Wild Bill Clinton, want cheap, desperate, scared labor. they want labor that can't file for worker's comp when they get cut up or get broken by the swingin'-from-chains-kickin'-dyin' growth-hormone-anti-biotic-enriched-USDA-cows they have to hack up all day long on floors slippery with blood so that johnny can have a cheap burger and ceo can have a porsche, a mongo house or two, plenty of golf time, and all that sort of shit. the meat packers want labor that's too damn afraid to even talk union, because when the"illegal" immigrant union-talker gets fired in violation of unionization laws, the talker is completely fucked. "illegals" are not really here. big business, and in particular big agribusiness, along with their enabling bitches in the government, created the immigration "crisis." guess they feel like there's a little TOO MUCH cheapass labor around now. need to cut it back a little bit. guess what fuckwads, the damage is done. your cheap labor may also be the seeds of your comeuppance from whence a new labor movement will grow, one that's too big and too desperate for you to fuck over with impugnity. See, the other thing about all this cheap labor you brought in ... a lot of 'em don't have a lot to lose. just a lot to gain.
the laws aren't there to protect "illegals." by definition they are on the outside of the law looking in. they'll get locked up and deported by a suddenly interested INS if they become really visible instead of remaining one of the invisible-visible. this is good for the meat packer ceos and their main minions. its really bad for all workers in the bigger picture. even better for the ceos and minions if the "illegal" workers have been here for awhile and have kids. gives 'em more to lose. makes 'em more willing to keep their mouths shut, suck it up and live with the carpal tunnel syndrome a little longer. take care of that 27 stitch-lines-too-fast-knife's-too-dull gash on their own. "illegal." man, I can see why a lotta people are tired of being that kinda "illegal." how the fuck can we consider people "illegal" that were invited here by the power structure to be used by the power structure for the power structure. that ain't fair. cognitive dissonance is speading in this country like weeds on a forgotten rightofway. time to pull a few of the weeds of dissonance.
recently, "illegal" people learned that they have a lotta power. meat production in this country took a massive hit as a result of the immigrants' rights demos. cattle killin' was down 28%. bossie got to hang out in the feedlot a few more hours before being swung upside down on a hoist and cut up to put the green in boss man's pockets. still, the meat packin' magnates were up to their old ways, sending out the message: for example, 15 workers, some "illegal" but employees of several years, were canned for attending recent immigrant's rights rallies.
Now those of us who feel it when wages stagnate or are driven down by excess labor willing to work cheaply could be pissed off at the immigrants. I say don't be pissed off at the immigrants. don't be pissed off at the dude who is only a pawn in the game. makes as much sense as being pissed at iron shavings for moving toward a magnet, really. no don't be pissed at the "illegals."
rorysez: this isn't about "them and us" -- the "illegal" immigrants versus those of us who fit the current definition of "legal immigrant" -- it's about THEM AND US -- the people versus those who deny reasonable power, safety, wages, and basic human rights to PEOPLE. Something is making the invisible ones willing to come out and be visible. hello people, they are here. millions of 'em. the invisible have begun appearing in the streets. and there's not gonna be enough fence available to keep 'em inside a "free speech zone." and a lot of people are being reminded while others are being shown for the first time that when labor sticks together the worker has power. you can fuck over some of the people some of the time, but you can't fuck over most of the PEOPLE all the time.
rory recommendz: Blood Sweat and Fear (Human Rights Watch)
bottomlineisthis: meat packin' corps, like Tyson that owned stock in Wild Bill Clinton, want cheap, desperate, scared labor. they want labor that can't file for worker's comp when they get cut up or get broken by the swingin'-from-chains-kickin'-dyin' growth-hormone-anti-biotic-enriched-USDA-cows they have to hack up all day long on floors slippery with blood so that johnny can have a cheap burger and ceo can have a porsche, a mongo house or two, plenty of golf time, and all that sort of shit. the meat packers want labor that's too damn afraid to even talk union, because when the"illegal" immigrant union-talker gets fired in violation of unionization laws, the talker is completely fucked. "illegals" are not really here. big business, and in particular big agribusiness, along with their enabling bitches in the government, created the immigration "crisis." guess they feel like there's a little TOO MUCH cheapass labor around now. need to cut it back a little bit. guess what fuckwads, the damage is done. your cheap labor may also be the seeds of your comeuppance from whence a new labor movement will grow, one that's too big and too desperate for you to fuck over with impugnity. See, the other thing about all this cheap labor you brought in ... a lot of 'em don't have a lot to lose. just a lot to gain.
the laws aren't there to protect "illegals." by definition they are on the outside of the law looking in. they'll get locked up and deported by a suddenly interested INS if they become really visible instead of remaining one of the invisible-visible. this is good for the meat packer ceos and their main minions. its really bad for all workers in the bigger picture. even better for the ceos and minions if the "illegal" workers have been here for awhile and have kids. gives 'em more to lose. makes 'em more willing to keep their mouths shut, suck it up and live with the carpal tunnel syndrome a little longer. take care of that 27 stitch-lines-too-fast-knife's-too-dull gash on their own. "illegal." man, I can see why a lotta people are tired of being that kinda "illegal." how the fuck can we consider people "illegal" that were invited here by the power structure to be used by the power structure for the power structure. that ain't fair. cognitive dissonance is speading in this country like weeds on a forgotten rightofway. time to pull a few of the weeds of dissonance.recently, "illegal" people learned that they have a lotta power. meat production in this country took a massive hit as a result of the immigrants' rights demos. cattle killin' was down 28%. bossie got to hang out in the feedlot a few more hours before being swung upside down on a hoist and cut up to put the green in boss man's pockets. still, the meat packin' magnates were up to their old ways, sending out the message: for example, 15 workers, some "illegal" but employees of several years, were canned for attending recent immigrant's rights rallies.
Now those of us who feel it when wages stagnate or are driven down by excess labor willing to work cheaply could be pissed off at the immigrants. I say don't be pissed off at the immigrants. don't be pissed off at the dude who is only a pawn in the game. makes as much sense as being pissed at iron shavings for moving toward a magnet, really. no don't be pissed at the "illegals."
rorysez: this isn't about "them and us" -- the "illegal" immigrants versus those of us who fit the current definition of "legal immigrant" -- it's about THEM AND US -- the people versus those who deny reasonable power, safety, wages, and basic human rights to PEOPLE. Something is making the invisible ones willing to come out and be visible. hello people, they are here. millions of 'em. the invisible have begun appearing in the streets. and there's not gonna be enough fence available to keep 'em inside a "free speech zone." and a lot of people are being reminded while others are being shown for the first time that when labor sticks together the worker has power. you can fuck over some of the people some of the time, but you can't fuck over most of the PEOPLE all the time.
rory recommendz: Blood Sweat and Fear (Human Rights Watch)
posted by Rory Shock at 10:30 AM
8 Comments:
Are you kidding? You CAN fuck over all of the people all of the time. They've been doing it since the dawn of time.
Rock and roll, Rory, rock and roll. You sound like you're getting fired up! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember somewhere that MOST illegals are white Europeans. It's just easier to blame little brown people, I suppose.
Honestly, I've known more illegal Britons than Mexicans and I've worked in many places.
Good one on the "Carpal Tunnel". Onward with the chicken motif!
Coming from a border state, I've seen it all, the good the bad & the ugly (from both sides). Personally, I'm happy to see people out in the streets now protesting, no matter what the cause. The disappointing thing about these particular protestors is how few of them will be able to vote.
And I think RFK Jr makes good points about big agri-business & their horrid explotation of workers & the environment ... given a level playing field, meaning having to pay the true cost their bad practices cause society, the big agri's really could not compete with the small farmers (who have quickly become an endangered species). Small farmers took better care of their land, animals & workers because they had to, it was their actual home & to their benefit to more gently use resources. Sorry if this seems off-topic, rory, but I think from a labor angle (which as you brought up is largely illegal ), there's a relationship. D.K.
man GREAT posting dearest mr shock. i too get fired up about this.
don't they understand this country IS a melting pot. well it became one after the land was stolen from the aborigines.
i can't say i know many illegals but i CAN say i know many from central and south american. many from el salvador specifically. they work TWO jobs (most of them), PAY TAXES, raise families and laugh and cry just like ME and YOU! wow they ain't aliens after all, THEY'RE HUMAN
My mom and dad are both 1st generation Americans. Both of their parents were naturalized immigrants from Europe (Romania & Italy) as children.
We all have to come from somewhere to get here.
Both of my grandfathers served in WWII (Navy & Army) and after the war, they went home to their wives and worked in steel mills. They were able to provide very comfortable middle class lives thru their blue collar union jobs. Those jobs do not exist anymore. Those middle class opportunities are sadly long gone. Not everyone can or wants to attend college, so we have to have jobs for them.
So what is left? Mc-Jobs. And Mc-Jobs pay squat and you get bent over b/c you have no bargaining power. If you demand much, you will simply be replaced with another Mc-Worker. And if you're not even lucky to be a Mc-Worker, you might just have to be a Mc-Slave. Mc-Slaves frequently speak lil English and do back breakin work for pennies on the dollar. And oh yeah... they have no rights and can't complain b/c they came here illegally. Mc-Slaves are a corporate whore's wet dream.
It is beyond depressing to see that the unions have become so weakened and often corrupted that they cannot rally behind the immigrants and give heavy weight to the voice of the exploited workers who have become a slave class to corporate American whores. Hell... it is beyond sad that the unions have been slapped into submission for all of our workers who are citizens.
But the fear is if the immigrants unionized and demanded fair wages, voting rights, and healthcare, the corporate whores would fire them and hire the next batch of desperate border crossers w/in hours... and we all know that no one hates unions more than the GOP. So no wonder they want to round them all up and criminalize them. We can't have those desperate brown folks unionizing and getting all uppity by voting, now can we?
neil: okay ... but not without occasional adverse consequences for the fuckor ...
guerillas: fuckin' A everyone is an "illegal" if you go back a few microseconds in the great cosmic time scheme ... any news on Lakota immigration reform legislation? vive la chicken motif!
dk: your comment rocks and I think it's totally on subject excellent point about how this plays into the issue of mongo versus "family" or little person farming ... if we could control the insane population explosion, I'd be all 4 the 40 acres and a mule model ...
rose: thanks you are so right ... nicely said ...
Tina: right on comment ... I'm just hopeful that the hiriing the next batch to be unwitting de facto scabs scam will break down ... the movement that is afoot right now seems to provide some hope in that regard ... things are a mess ... but the blowback regarding fucking labor over seems to be starting ... for every action a reaction ... just a matter of time ... and we all need to learn to surf the waves that are rollin' in now ....
Great post! For me, coming to your blog has become almost like taking a bath. It's a place where I can wash away all the bullshit, the spin, the PC rhetoric.
You're right, they only become "illegal" when they become a problem for those in power.
gugon: thanks man ... it's always a real boost for me to have you come ... and I appreciate you're awesome literary madness at your place ... you the chill meister ...
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