July, 2006

Editorial:
The Roots of the Immigration Crisis

Demonstrating for immigrant workers' rights in Lansing, Mich. PHOTO/DAYMONJHARTLEY.COM

The American government is sending heavily armed troops to seal the Mexican border. Aping Israel, they hope to build a fence to keep the "Barbarians from the gate." France is facing a political crisis as immigrants from Northern and Western Africa filter through Spain and into the French metropolitan areas. German Nazis are emerging from the ashbins of history to attack Germans of Turkish or Arab origin. The skinheads of Russia are creating a fascist-nationalist movement through their systematic attacks on the darker skinned peoples of the former Soviet Republics. Even such time-honored democracies as Norway and Sweden are pulled toward the vortex. At the same time, Canada is searching for ways to increase immigration into her country. What in the world is going on?

Every country is facing social and political problems connected to immigration. Every country is attempting to find a solution without dealing with the root of the problem. Until they do, matters will only go from bad to worse. No problem can be solved unless it is understood. It cannot be understood without going back to the roots and following its development. The specifics of immigration today are rooted in the centuries of imperialist expansion and the looting of the economically backward countries. The current immigration crisis, though rooted in the imperialist era, is emerging under the new conditions of globalization. Imperialism required the division of the world into competing economic blocs. Globalization is the process of dismantling these divisions and creating an international production process based on an international market.

The buying and selling of labor power is the foundation of the capitalist method of production. The forced sale of labor power below the cost of its production was the basis of imperialist super profits. This could be enforced because the imperialist power could and did pass laws prohibiting the free movement of the worker. The post WWII dismantling of the colonial system was a prelude to globalization and somewhat loosened the restrictions on the movement of labor. With the development of electronic production, full globalization became possible. Since labor power is the commodity-producing commodity, the idea of globalizing production without globalizing the producer simply did not and does not work.

What is the future of immigration? Immigration is linked to the concept of nations. A nation is an historically evolved community. The national market and national production became an economic reality before it could become a political reality in the form of a modern nation. Therefore, "national" exclusiveness is part of the economic and political outlook of all nations. Remember when for $10 you could use a sledge hammer to smash a Toyota in defense of American automobiles? Today, the reverse is happening. The globalization of production and the market is undercutting the political viability of nations. With globalization, the productive process flows to the low-wage areas while internationalized labor naturally flows to the high-wage areas. Therefore, the greater the globalization, the greater the immigration. This is economic reality. Politics, the handmaiden of economics, cannot for long be at odds with this reality.

We have entered the first stage of this political realignment. The recent demonstrations against repressive immigration legislation were carried out by literally millions of workers of all colors, ethnic origins and languages. It was the beginnings of the growth of self-consciousness in this new international class of poor alongside the emergence of international fascism.

Immigration sounds the political death knell of the old system. The slogan "Workers of the world -- Unite!" takes on new meaning. The birthing of a world class struggle brightens an otherwise dark and dangerous tomorrow.