Home : The United States : Latin America : Fight Racism!
By Alejandra Ramirez
August, 2000
A new wave of racism is invading the frontier of the United States. In the recent period, public opinion has been astounded at the appearance of ads in newspapers and on the Internet placed by ranch owners in southern Arizona, openly promoting the hunting of illegal immigrants as if it were a sport.
But this is not the first time that openly xenophobic declarations have been made. A few years ago, a radio DJ from northern California offered a McDonald’s hamburger as a prize to anyone who ran over immigrants on the highway. This, combined with the openly racist attitude of the American authorities – let’s not forget California governor Pitt Wilson’s proposition 187, and more recently the start of the "Guardian" system begun by the Immigration and Naturalization Service – has created an atmosphere of hatred and revulsion among a layer Americans towards immigrants in general, and illegal Mexican immigrants in particular.
The True Causes
Contrary to what many believe, the climate of racism is not the cause, but rather, the consequence of a structural problem within the capitalist system. We must begin by understanding that the migration of workers from Mexico to the US ultimately favors to a greater or lesser degree the bourgeoisie of both countries. On the one hand, Mexican workers, unable to find work in their own country, have to emigrate north, creating an escape valve for the Mexican government. In this way they can avoid the responsibility of creating jobs, and eases the problem of unemployment and the potential social explosion this could cause. The Mexican government also benefits from the money sent home to Mexico by the immigrant workers in the US, helping prop up the weak national economy. In fact, the most important source of revenue for the state, aside from PEMEX (the nationalized petroleum industry), is money sent home by Mexicans working in the US.
On the American side, the US bourgeoisie benefits a great deal from illegal immigration. With this "reserve army of laborers", as Marx called them, they can keep wages lower. By having a large supply of cheap (and non-unionized!) labor, businesses can reduce wages to the absolute minimum possible. This allows companies to impose a high level of "flexibility" in the labor force. If the workers protest, the bosses can fire them indiscriminately, as there are always another 5 or 6 who will take their place at an even lower salary.
In addition to this, the fomentation of xenophobic attitudes among more backwards layers of the population by fascist groups like the KKK, is totally beneficial to the bourgeois, especially in periods of crisis. Racism is used as a way to distract the American workers’ attention from the fundamental economic problems facing them – even amongst more advanced layers of the working class. In blaming immigrant workers for their low wages, for unemployment, and even for increased crime, the bourgeoisie is placing the blame for its own faults on someone else. It is therefore clear that the only way to fight against racism is through the class struggle.
Alternative
The only real solution to the exploitation, mistreatment, and murders of thousands of illegal workers in the United States is to be found along class lines. We must fight against the smokescreen created by the bourgeoisie of both countries to divide the working class. In this sense, we need to explain that "solutions" such as fostering "respect for human rights" are totally insufficient. We need to fight for the unity of the working class, reviving one of the most important labor traditions: proletarian internationalism. Only the working class of both countries can finish with all the filth of exploitation which weighs upon the backs of the workers, especially on the undocumented ones. To achieve this would mean the end of the bourgeoisie and its reign.