BY CÉSAR GUERRERO
LOS ANGELES - Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class
Politics at the Millennium, to me, is a handbook for workers,
working farmers, and students who throughout the world
increasingly recognize themselves as part of the vanguard of
the working class. As a member of the International
Association of Machinists (IAM) and a ramp worker at LAX
airport in Los Angeles, I work and participate in struggles
everyday like everybody else. I know how important it is to
study this book, because it helps me and my co-workers
understand the struggles around us.
Different races of people, languages, and cultures exist in different countries. The capitalist rulers use these differences to try to divide all working people. In the section on "Immigration: Internationalizing the working class" in the chapter "So Far from God, So Close to Orange County," the book talks about why and how capitalists attack immigrant workers' rights. It gives the example of how in California the majority of the employing class recently pushed through Proposition 187, which seeks to deny immigrants schooling and social benefits available to other workers. I was living in Boston three years ago when I first heard about Proposition 187. I didn't think it was right. I'm one of the many immigrants who feels this is an attack on all workers.
Another section that I feel is important is in "Capitalism's Deadly World Disorder" where it talks about single mothers. For example, it gets across the point that the oppression of a woman in the capitalist class is different than the oppression of a women in the working class. As working-class fighters, we have to be clear. There are two classes of families in society, and thus two classes of women. There are those, like my mother and sister, who raise their children the best they can under the conditions they face, and there are those who hire other women to raise their children. And the women who are hired are often also raising children of their own.
Another point in the book that got my attention is in "A Sea Change in Working -Class Politics" where it says: "There is a hunger among working people that is greater than in any other section of society, a political hunger among workers and farmers-the fighting coalition that will make up the government that will carry humanity into a new world. It's a hunger for solidarity, for struggle; it's a hunger to learn from each other."
The beginning of wisdom for us is not just recognizing this, as I did along with others at the 1999 SWP convention in San Francisco. But to fight along side and be a part of those saying "NO" to the demands for sacrifice by the employers and their government.