BY GALE SHANGOLD
LOS ANGELES - Outrage greeted the August 2 news of 72 Thai workers living and working in slave-like conditions in El Monte, California.
Sewing garments, often 19-20 hours a day, the workers averaged 69 cents an hour, much of which went to pay for their travel from Thailand to the United States and for their living expenses at the apartment complex that was also the factory. They were not allowed to leave the barbed-wire surrounded premises, which had plywood blocking the windows.
Chances are that the workers would still be enslaved today if it were not for their own courage and resistance.
A woman escaped by crawling through air-conditioning ducts and over razor wire before alerting government officials.
The officials never lifted a finger to deal with this situation, even though the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had been aware of this complex for more than three years. In March 1992 the INS received a report from a Thai-speaking police officer that "40 females and 5 males ... are being detained, controlled and held against their will in a condition of involuntary servitude."
This was not the first time that a worker had escaped, even though the bosses continually threatened the workers by saying that if they escaped and were caught the penalties would be severe.
After the raid, the government then had the gall to send the workers from one prison to another. They were taken to an INS detention center in shackles and held for nine days.
The public support they received was instrumental in
their release.
According to Chanchanit Martorell, director of the Thai
Community Development Center, which is coordinating the
financial, legal, job, and housing related aid for the
Thai workers, the support has been tremendous. "The vast
majority of it is coming from mainstream, white
Americans," she told me.
Support from other workers
About 20 unions have contributed funds. A number of
churches and community groups have also supplied funds as
well as housing.
The Thai workers were the featured guests of the Labor Day event sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. At that event Jim Wood, executive secretary of the County Federation of Labor, presented the workers with a $2,500 check for their legal defense fund. They received standing ovations by a deeply-moved audience more than once.
The factory where I work hired three of the Thai workers. The Latino workforce there welcomed them. Some of the Spanish-speaking co-workers are attempting to learn some key words in Thai.
I think that the response to the Thai workers reveals three greater trends going on in society today.
First, the capacity and potential for solidarity among working people is still strong despite the fact that the government and the corporations pit us against each other, especially in this period of advancing economic and social crisis.
We are forced to compete against each other for a piece of a supposedly shrinking pie - the biggest division being between those of us who are employed and those of us who are unemployed.
We are taught to blame each other for the worsening conditions instead of the wealthy few who rule this country.
But despite the sharp divisions in society, the capacity for solidarity is strong and there are many examples of this.
Nowhere have I heard workers say that the Thai workers got what they deserved for being here illegally or that they should be immediately deported. The response for the most part has been the opposite.
In other words, the victory of the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in California last year was a limited one. The lives of immigrant workers have not changing significantly since its passage.
In fact, the immigrant rights mobilizations combined with everyday experiences, as workers of all nationalities live and work side-by-side, has a positive impact on attitudes and consciousness.
Secondly, you may not have slavery, barbed wire, and the intensity of the exploitation of the Thai workers in El Monte, but elements of it are everyday life for more and more working people.
A longer and longer work day for less money; brutal, degrading work conditions; speed-up; fewer and fewer rights on the job - all are the everyday workings of capitalism.
There are even factories that routinely lock in their workers. In l991, 25 poultry workers died in a factory fire in North Carolina because they could not get out.
Working class is more international
And thirdly, the earth is more and more a single world,
as workers from every continent in search of survival
become part of the working class in cities and towns
across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand,
and to a smaller but growing degree, even Japan. The
borders are porous, the working class becoming more
international and stronger as a result.
It is the anti-immigrant policies of both the Democratic and Republican parties that put immigrant workers in jeopardy.
The goal of the politicians' scapegoating is not to get rid of anyone but to make immigrants pariahs so they can be easily exploited and discouraged from confidently fighting back as they have in the past.
Presently, the 72 Thai workers are allowed to live and work in the United States until they testify in court against their former bosses. Then they will most likely face deportation proceedings.
Now is an important moment in the fight for immigrant rights. We must mobilize all the support the Thai workers have won to demand that they be able to live and work in this country for as long as they want to, including permanently.
If a victory is won in this case, it will benefit all immigrant workers and the whole working class.
Gale Shangold is a member of Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 482.