The program is designed to offer capitalist farmers and factory and hotel owners a stable workforce and guaranteed profits, while isolating a section of the working class and institutionalizing their pariah status. Workers coming to the United States should have the same rights as all other working people, including the right to unionize, freedom of movement, the right to seek any work they choose, and all social entitlements.

The plan is a refurbished version of previous contract labor programs, which wealthy U.S. ranchers and businessmen have relied on for a low-paid pool of labor since the early 20th century. The U.S. government contracts for the temporary importation of workers from Mexico, the Caribbean, and elsewhere to fill the needs of U.S. agribusiness. These workers are not allowed to freely move, change jobs, or fight for better wages and working conditions. They are forced to accept the conditions of superexploitation that the employers and government dictate. When the bosses no longer need their labor power, they are to be shipped back like cattle to their countries of origin.

This setup is designed both to legally restrict the rights of these workers and to isolate them from other members of their class in the United States. It will be used by employers to undercut unionization drives and pit the "guest workers" and other workers against each other.

This move goes hand in hand with the broader immigration policy of the U.S. rulers. The ongoing factory raids across the country and the deportations of hundreds of thousands of workers are aimed not at keeping out immigrant workers but at maintaining their second-class status--with lower wages, intolerable conditions, and minimal social benefits and democratic rights.

Workers and small farmers in the United States have every interest in opposing the "guest worker" attack on our fellow working people from Mexico and other countries, while giving no quarter to those who oppose the plan because they want to keep immigrants out, often in the name of defending "American jobs." There is no such thing as "American jobs"--a boss-inspired notion--only jobs, which working people of all nationalities need. The only effective way to address this need is to band together and organize a fight to demand jobs for all.

Labor must demand full and equal rights for all workers in this country, including immigrants working under the "guest worker" contract. These workers should not be approached as rivals but rather welcomed as fellow toilers and organized into unions. They are not merely victims but potential fighters in the battles against our common exploiter, the employer class. Many immigrant workers bring with them substantial trade union experience in the class struggle--as demonstrated by the role of such workers in the recent strike at the Excel meatpacking plant in Colorado, union-organizing drives at several industrial laundries, and the fight by Chinese-born workers against garment factory owners in Brooklyn.

Similarly, the union movement should join forces with working people across the border. Rather than oppose the U.S. bosses' moves to set up maquiladoras in Mexico--which only feeds into reactionary demands for "American jobs"--unionists should embrace and link up with the struggles that workers in many of these plants are engaged in, such as the unionization battle at Kukdong International in Puebla, Mexico.
 
 
Related article:
U.S., Mexican rulers discuss expanding 'guest worker' plan  
 
 
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