Wanna see a border fence go up REEEEAAAALL quick?

[inthebrain]

Watch what happens should the day come one labor finally grows a pair. They say FU to the bourgeoisie union leadership that's played the "America first" card and sold out the interests of the bosses over the people they are supposed to represent. This leading to nothing but concession and concession as their benefits go out the window, cuts in pay and no vacation time.

Watch what happens when labor shakes off the chains of economic nationalism for a real fucking labor movement. One that has workers from all countries, races and ethnicities deciding they've had enough and demand respect. Sit ins after sit ins and factory takeover after factory takeover.

Wanna see that stupid fence built? That's when the oligarchs are gonna build you a nice borded fence with sniper towers to boot.

[leftstreet]

1. ouch

K&R!!

[anonymous171]

2. What's wrong with "America first" ?

[RetiredTrotskyite]

3. Yeah....

I always thought (and still think) that "charity begins at home".

[nsd]

10. ..

[pampango]

4. What's wrong with "Whites first" or "Protestants first" or "Straights first" or lots of other

"firsts"?

I was born American, just like I was born white, protestant (that's changed since), and straight. Doesn't mean I think that non-Americans, blacks, muslims, and gays should be "second"? Or should all people be treated equally.

I realize that there are many benefits for me (as an American) in an "America first" policy. Just as historically there have been benefits for favored groups from "whites first", "straights first", or "protestants first" policies. When you devalue or exclude one group, it allows the favored group more access to the good things.

[inthebrain]

15. Well, the phrase "America first" does imply an order to things..

Someone has to be second. Which ussually means everyone else but Americans.

And the bosses LOVE to use this stuff even against those proclaimed to be first. The trick is to get labor to fight amongst themselves rather than have the bullseye placed on their backs.

And they pull this shit today.

And the economic and social are not seperate from each other. They are one in the same.

[DailyGrind51]

20. While American citizens are unemployed, it is just wrong to hire non-citizens,

especially if they undercut wages to do so. Citizenship has to mean something!

[Chulanowa]

5. Solidarity benefits everyone

And if what you're worried about is Mexicans or whoever taking American jobs... Well, that won't be something you'll have to worry about if labor is strong in their home nations. They come here because, as bad as our work conditions are, theirs are worse. We can build all the moats and fences, pass all the laws we want, and they're still going to come. More might die in the desert, but they won't stop.

Help their worker's movements. Pressure their governments. Invite them to help ours as well. Globalization got the drop on labor, and it's time for labor to catch up and go international.

[pampango]

6. Great points. The best way for me to have a great job, pay and working conditions

is to work to see that everyone has them. I can try to achieve these things while being surrounded by people who don't have them, but I will have to rely on walls and moats, laws, police and ICE agents, to protect me all from those poor people and the stuff they make.

Throughout our history people have moved for better jobs. The Irish came and took "American" jobs, Eastern Europeans came and took "American" jobs, Blacks migrated from the South to the North and took "American (well, white)" jobs, now it's Hispanics who are the latest "threat" to "American" jobs. They may die in the desert, we may arrest them and send them back, but they will continue to come.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

7. Personally, I don't care about Mexicans coming here to work

I care about our jobs getting sent to other countries to save corporations money at American's expenses.

I think it should be America first. Our jobs should be kept here. Mexicans aren't taking jobs that people really want anyway. Mostly, they just come here, work their asses off, and try to support their families. I have no problem with that.

[joeglow3]

13. Jobs Americans don't want????

Tell that to my father who has seen his wages drop (in real dollars, not adjusted for inflation) and the unions crumble thanks to illegal immigrants in the construction industry. It always pisses me off when people say this is a job Americans don't want as I know he is damn proud and happy to work his job.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

14. I was thinking more about migrant farm laborers

[Chulanowa]

16. THose jobs go overseas for the SAME reasons workers sneak into America

Because there are no labor protections there, so wages are cheap and nobody expects benefits. The people in India are getting as fucked as the people in America by this situation.

The offenders in either cases aren't the people of Mexico or Bangladesh or wherever. Just like you, they're trying to keep food on the table. The problem comes from Plutocratic governments that prevent them, or us, from securing protections for ourselves, our wages, and our employment.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

8. Nothing

[inthebrain]

9. You don't understand the dangers of Nationalism?

How about the fact that it empowers the bosses to abuse the workers.

Build a bigger fence and they just move the jobs on the side where they can exploit the most. There's great power in people saying "Fuck you" and bucking back at a system that doesn't work for them.

As long as you look at it as "America first" the bosses are just gonna keep on exploitin. And the political establishment ain't gonna do shit for you becuase it ain't set up like that.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. The same thing that's wrong with "anywhere else first".

If one country does it, so will all the others, and everyone's a loser.

The American government can't directly encourage people to buy American goods and employ Americans; what it can do is discourage them from buying non-American goods and employing non-Americans, and hope that they choose to buy/employ American instead.

There are two big problems with that. Firstly the government wouldn't be doing it if people couldn't get better deals by buying or employing non-Americans in the first place, so what you gain in preferential access to domestic markets (if you're a producer) and employers (if you're a worker) you lose in higher prices (if your'e a consumer) and higher wage bills (if you're an employer).

Secondly, if Freedonia discourages people from buying Syldavian goods and employing Syldavians, Syldavia will respond by discouraging people from buying Freedonian goods or employing Freedonians. Net result: everyone ends up discouraged, and you're all strictly worse off that you would have been without the protectionism.

[JNelson6563]

11. Know what's wrong with labor?

Too many higher up the food chain get fat and happy and will remain so, so it's pretty easy to throw the little people under the bus. And before anyone flies off the handle I am pro-labor and I speak from first hand experience.

Julie

[inthebrain]

17. I agree with you

Union leadership has been god awful. Too close to the bosses.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. Indeed...labor must be international, or it will fail

the nationalist Trade Union is nothing but a scheme of the bosses to divide workers, no less than bringing minority strike breakers was in the early 20th century. That so many leftists would continue to rail against globalization in favor of Americanism is a testament to how deluded the Left really is these days. We need MORE globalization, not less: globalization of the labor movement to combat globalized capital. A New International. The so-called "immigration" debate (together with outsourcing) is the primary contradiction at the heart of contemporary capitalist exploitation.

[wolfgangmo]

19. I've always maintained that a fence is a good idea...

For Canada!

So they can keep all the religious nuts, anti-guvmint nuts, and freepers out. At least that way there will still be one functioning democracy in north america.