A scholarly, heavily researched yet harsh wake-up call to American immigration policy injustice.

books:


	• No One Is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border Justin Akers Chacn, Mike Davis Haymarket Books, 2006 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fair trade, working class solidarity, compassion, etc.

This book dismantles the narratives we hear from the establishment media regarding undocumented workers. It covers the history of oppression migrant workers have faced, including beatings from the KKK and the Order of Caucasians, among other vigilantes organized by agribusiness interests.
It also covers the devastating impacts of NAFTA on Mexico's economy. Page 121 points out, "Over 1.3 million small farmers in Mexico were pushed into bankruptcy by cheap American grain imports between 1994 and 2004. Luis Tellez, former undersecretary for planning in Mexico's Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources, estimates that as many as 15 million peasants will leave agriculture in the next few decades, many seeing migration north as the only option. . . Meanwhile, the deindustrialization of Mexico continues unabated. Mexico lost an unprecedented 515,000 jobs in the first three months of 2005 alone."
What industry there is, is now found in the sites of hyper-exploitation known as maquiladoras.

One negative review calls the book "Marxist." Well, the book is mostly just an honest analysis of the situation. Something that demagogues like Tom Tancredo avoid. Tancredo likes to whip up hysteria. His congressional district (one of the wealthiest in the country) has a large Lockheed Martin plant. Lockheed will be making a fortune on the further militarization of the border.
Anyway, the book does include one quotation from Karl Marx, and I think it's worth repeating. Justin Akers Chacon writes: "Marx illustrated the self-sabotaging nature of the conflict between 'native-born' workers and immigrant workers in his analysis of the relationship between the English and Irish working classes when he wrote, 'The ordinary English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor who lowers his standard of life. In relation to the Irish worker, he feels himself a member of the ruling nation and so turns himself into a tool of the aristocrats and capitalists of his country against Ireland, thus stengthening their domination over himself. He cherishes religious, social and national prejudices against the Irish worker. This antagonism is the secret of the impotence of the English working class, despite its organization. It is the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power. And that class is fully aware of it.'
Inter-ethnic and international class solidarity, or lack thereof, has been a determinant of the progression, inertia, or regression of the American labor movement. When nationalist or chauvinist sentiments are strong, the working class is weak, demonstrating the deep penetration of ruling-class ideology into working-class consciousness."

This book also covers the conquest of Mexico, and the opportunities for organizing immigrants.
It's a sensational book that I have been quoting over various message boards. I'll be buying several copies of it.

[...]

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Great Book

Read this book for a class, truly enjoyed the book and the class

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A scholarly, heavily researched yet harsh wake-up call to American immigration policy injustice.

Written by Justin Akers Chacon (professor of US History and Chicano Studies in San Diego) and Mike Davis (teaches in the Department of History at the University of California at Irvine), No One Is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the US-Mexico Border is a sharp rebuke against anti-immigration vigilantism, denouncing the often violent right-wing backlash against immigrants and striving to put a human face upon the men and women who cross America's borders. Chapters survey white, anti-immigrant violence in California history from the inception of the Ku Klux Klan, the "Yellow Peril", and anti-Filipino riots to modern times, with an especially critical eye turned toward the Minutemen. Also scrutinized is the history of how dominant corporate interests and the wealthiest members of America have used immigration policy to control labor - such as the bracero program, an individualized contract that subjects a guest worker to deportation at the employer's relative discretion; such "guest worker" programs actually give agribusiness employers more control over their workers than they would have over undocumented workers, who can migrate to construction other fields and thus place some pressure upon agribusiness to raise its poverty-level wages. A scholarly, heavily researched yet harsh wake-up call to American immigration policy injustice.

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reviews: page 1, 2

"A rare combination of an author, [Mike Davis is] Rachel Carson and Upton Sinclair all in one."-Susan Faludi

"[Davis' writing is] perceptive and rigorous."-David Montgomery, The Nation

"[Davis' work is] brilliant, provocative, and exhaustively researched."-The Village Voice

"[Davis' work is] eloquent and passionate."-Tariq Ali

No One Is Illegal debunks the leading ideas behind the often violent right-wing backlash against immigrants.

Countering the chorus of anti-immigrant voices, Mike Davis and Justin Akers Chacn expose the racism of anti-immigration vigilantes and put a human face on the immigrants who risk their lives to cross the border to work in the United States.

Davis and Akers Chacn challenge the racist politics of vigilante groups like the Minutemen, and argue for a pro-immigrant and pro-worker agenda that recognizes the urgent need for international solidarity and cross-border alliances in building a renewed labor movement.

Writer, historian, and activist Mike Davis is the author of many books, including City of Quartz, The Ecology of Fear, The Monster at Our Door, and Planet of Slums. Davis teaches in the Department of History at the University of California at Irvine, and lives in San Diego. Davis is the recipient of the 2001 Carey McWilliams Award and the World History Association Book Award.

Justin Akers Chacn is professor of U.S. History and Chicano Studies in San Diego, California. He has contributed to the International Socialist Review and the book Immigration: Opposing Viewpoints (Greenhaven Press).

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