Two New Articles by the Authors of "The Politics of Immigration"

[These two op-eds appeared on the MRzine.org website July 20-21. If you think they will be useful, please feel free to repost or reprint them. We only ask that you give credit to MRzine and include the URL. Thanks.]

Union-busting by Any Other Name...

If this had happened in another country, many of us would condemn it as an effort by an authoritarian regime to smash a unionization drive. But it happened in Postville, Iowa, so we call the massive May 12 raid by the U.S. government's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant a "workplace enforcement operation."

by David L. Wilson, MRzine
July 20, 2008

The huge meatpacking plant had been cited by government agencies for numerous violations of environmental and labor laws and for "acts of inhumane slaughter" of animals. New inquiries were under way into allegations of wage violations and the illegal employment of minors. A large national union was trying to organize the factory's 970 workers. But all this was put on hold the morning of May 12, 2008. [...]

Read the full article:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2008/wilson200708.html

Tears of Rage, Tears of Hope

Then there's Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a friend and colleague... Farouk would be 60 now, but he died four years ago today--on July 21, 2004, his 100th day of freedom after two years in immigration detention.... [H]is entire detention was a farce, since the government already knew Farouk was a man without a country who couldn't be deported.

by Jane Guskin, MRzine
July 21, 2008

Nurses see everything in a day's work. But at the maternity ward of Nashville General Hospital, nurses caring for an immigrant woman in labor broke down and cried when the sheriff's deputy guarding the woman refused to remove the shackles chaining her leg to the bed. The undocumented woman was detained by local authorities because of a cooperation agreement between the county sheriff's department and the immigration enforcement agency, ICE. [...]

Read the full article:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2008/guskin210708.html