If there’s a thread running through this issue, it is globalization, its effects, physical, material and spiritual, on the working masses in the Western Hemisphere — North, Central and South America.
The effects of globalization are wearing on our soul — how many news reports are we going to see of immigrants caught in the Mexico-U.S. border fence like flies, without our soul tearing? How can we read that deported undocumented immigrants across Tijuana, B.C. are living in holes, waiting desperately, for the opportunity to come back to the U.S. to rejoin their families and their loved ones? How many more migrants are going to be thrown off the “Bestia” to their deaths because they didn’t have the money to pay for the space they’re standing on, without our conscience stirring and our humanity being shaken?
What is globalization? Globalization is the electronic global integration of the capitalist economies of countries throughout the world. Immigration is a direct outcome of globalization. Our editorial on this page makes the point that globalized capital “is displacing millions and forcing them to migrate to the U.S. or other countries.”
On page 5, Juan Gonzalez in his book, Harvest of Empire talks about how, “The Market recruits it (immigration), exploits it, abuses it, divides it, then ships it back home when no longer needed.“
Furthermore, on page 9 padre Alejandro Solalinde offers his thinking on the importance of consciousness and to “fight intelligently.” The editors of the Tribuno del Pueblo add to “fight intelligently”—we need to know the root causes of our problems. The root of all of our problems is the economy. Our economy is a capitalist economy where profits rule supreme over our humanity. See “Mexico and U.S. Cooperate to Eliminate the Border—But only for Corporations” on page 7 and “The Monopoly of the Press” on page 12. In the same vein of raising consciousness, we respectfully reprint Rudy Acuña’s article’s “Hedge Funds: The American Nightmare,” page 14.
On page 10 you read the stories of working class warriors who on May 1st took to the streets to let their demands be heard. One of the largest May First immigrant-and-labor-rights marches in the country was in San Jose, California this year. As many as 20,000 people marched the three miles from the East Side to San Jose City Hall downtown. On this same page we announce the embattled workers against Walmart, Ride for Respect Caravan.
Last but not least, on page 15 we have an interview with Gloria M. Sandoval who sees the Green Shadow Cabinet as a tool in our fight. The green shadow cabinet is “to show resistance and opposition to the established and moneyed interests who have bought, stolen, or swindled their way into elected office. By providing timely responses to current events we can raise the bar for just, sustainable solutions to the crises we face in the U.S. This exposes the self serving intentions of the ruling parties, as well as showing that normal, everyday people like me can propose solutions that are humane, just, and cost-effective, unlike the austerity and repression that the established parties offer.”
