|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By HC116, April 27, 2005
Minuteman Project co-founder and Civil Homeland Defense Corps leader Chris Simcox has reportedly set his sights on San Diego, where the u.$.-Mexico border is already tightly controlled, and even the u.$.-Kanadian border (Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota, and Vermont).(1) The Sacramento Bee reports that an organization called Friends of the Border Patrol has independently undertaken to "secure" the u.$.-Mexico border in Kalifornia and plans to patrol the border this August.(2) On TV the other day, Friends of the Border Patrol chairpersyn Andy Ramirez, from Chino, called on "retired military, retired law enforcement, and citizens of the State [Kalifornia]" to patrol the border, like the Minuteman Project has done. The pig-wannabes' focus on Kanada is ostensibly to stop terrorists from coming into the united $tates, but the self-styled border patrollers are more likely to cite chauvinist economic reasons for strengthening u.$. borders, at least in private when they aren't giving their canned statements to the media.(3)
The fascist activism going on at the u.$.-Mexico border in different places has roots in u.$. labor aristocracy petty-bourgeois exploiter discontent. However, the ongoing "close, er, secure the border" movement is also based in extremely chauvinist and imperialist elements of finance capital. Chris Simcox himself has been scheduled to "testify" before Tom Tancredo's Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus.(4) Congress is currently considering an act, attached to an important supplemental spending bill for the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq among other things, prohibiting driver's licenses for undocumented persyns and making it legally easier to extend and build more fences on u.$. borders, the Kalifornia-Baja border in particular. The rapidly organizing upsurge of border "vigilantism" expresses the awesome power of the labor aristocracy, and puts the lie to the opportunist line that fascism is organized from only the top-down. However, these grassroot fascists still work directly with the imperialists. The "vigilantes" also work in tandem with the official Border Patrol pigs. Border Patrol unions appreciate the vigilantes' assistance. The cooperation and mutual reinforcement of the vigilantes and patriotic Border Patrol unions is indicative of a fascist tendency.
There is a split within the imperialists. For example, New York Senator Hillary Clinton is in some ways more restrictive than President Bu$h on undocumented migrants; although, Bu$h's "guest" worker proposal is itself an imperialist machination reminiscent of the old Bracero Program.(5)(6) Other Demokrats as well have Republikans have criticized Bu$h's policies on undocumented migrants, but have offered no alternative that does not repress undocumented migrants. Yet, some people still lump KKKlinton together with Bu$h and say that neither are tough enough on undocumented migrants.(9)(10) So, it is possible to speak of another split in the imperialists. There are fascists and crypto-fascists throughout these divisions. The Minuteman Project and its allied organizations are a concentration of incipient fascism. International considerations , rather than some mythical white proletariat, are what prevents widespread internal fascism in the united $tates in addition to the lack of material conditions for fascism in the united $tates, but if other nations' orientation toward internal fascism in the united $tates changed enough, even more fascists would come out of the woodwork.
A recent poll shows that "57 percent of those interviewed [Arizonan registered voters] say they supported the Minuteman Project, while 34 percent are opposed and nine percent are unsure. . . . Bush's guest worker program drew 62 percent backing, with 29 percent opposed and nine percent unsure. In addition, 54 percent of voters say they would favor the plan even if it contained a provision to allow permanent status for people already illegally in the country."(11) Far from being paradoxical, this combination of support for the Minuteman Project, on the one hand, and support for Bu$h's guest worker program, expresses exactly the imperialist mentality: repress undocumented migrant proletarians, and exploit them, too. The imperialists have always repressed undocumented migrant proletarians. The fascists want to raise the repression to a higher level.
The Liberals at ACLU spread a lot of confusion among the oppressed, but it is symbolic, at least, of a deeply reactionary trend that the Border Patrol union in Tucson has apparently spent more time criticizing the ACLU observers than the Minuteman Project; this is despite the Border Patrol's official disagreement with the MMP.(12) The union suggests that it is only ACLU observers, not any Minuteman Project volunteers, who have tripped the Border Patrol's ground sensors. Border Patrol officials and the union disagree on who has been tripping the sensors. It is doubtful that no Minuteman Project volunteer has tripped the sensors; yet, the Border Patrol union has decided to single out the Liberals at ACLU for attack on this point.
"In fact, while the Border Patrol 'jefes' have to publicly not like this incursion into their job, the U.S. Border Patrol Local 2544 wrote in its recent report: 'We have not had a single complaint from the rank-and-file agents of this sector about the Minutemen. They have the support of our agents. They are courteous, many of them being retired firefighters, cops and other professions, and they're not causing us any problems whatsoever. If sensors were set off in the field, it was because of the A.C.L.U. sneaking around watching them.' "(13)
Perhaps the union is hoping that the vigilantes will draw attention that increases border patrol employment through increased government spending and that is why we are seeing labor aristocracy solidarity. On the other hand, the union risks that the public may decide to cut the border patrol and let the vigilantes do the job for free.
The Border Patrol "rank and file" consists of Euro-Amerikans, honorary white people / nation traitors, and others. The average annual Border Patrol agent salary was $49,764 in 2003.(14) Starting salaries for Border Patrol agents were $30,466 to $37,043 in 2002.(15) The starting salaries are close to the 2000 median income of a one-earner household with a "White, non-Hispanic" householder (U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/income00/inctab1.html) and close to half of the median income of a two-earner household with the same. Based on surplus value appropriation, these are exploiter incomes even if the Border Patrol agents were in the productive sector, which they obviously are not. They are exploiters and at least petty-bourgeois.
The fact that many Border Patrol agents are Latinos confuses some people who do know what a bureaucrat or comprador class is and have no concept of nation traitor in any sense. Seeing oppressed nationalities carrying out repression in blue uniforms or the green uniforms of la Migra is confusing in general. (Related to this is why the bureaucrat government in Mexico has been discouraging migrants from crossing the border and even redirecting them to cross at other points reportedly. The Mexican bureaucrat capitalists and u.$. imperialists both have an interest in not seeing the Minuteman Project turn into a crisis that would make it more difficult for imperialism to maneuver.) Not even police agents in Juárez got one-fourth the reported lowest starting salary of u.$. Border Patrol agents in 2000.(16) Yet, San Diego Border Patrol agents union president Joseph Dassaro has complained that "an agent who has worked five years and makes $50,000 can't afford the region's cost of living" (to which MIM would respond: so what? La Jolla has a "cost of living," too).(17) National Border Patrol Council (AFL-CIO and AFGE) T.J. Bonner opposes the overtime cap for Border Patrol agents. The fact that Border Patrol agents would like to be paid overtime for a job that already pays almost $50 thousand on average is not surprising. What's interesting is that Bonner cites border security as a reason to decrease the overtime cap:
"In October, Congress raised the annual overtime cap per agent from $30,000 to $35,000, but it also added premium pay to that cap. That essentially decreased the total number of hours that agents can work in any given year and decreases border coverage in critical times, said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. Premium pay is the additional pay given for working Sundays, holidays, and nights from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. . . . Andy Ramirez, chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol, a nonprofit group that supports Border Patrol agents, said the new cap doesn't help protect Americans."(17)
It's almost a threat to withhold security--saying that doing their jobs depends on having even more money--but Border Patrol unions view themselves as playing a patriotic role and openly defend organizations like the Minuteman Project despite the Minimum Project's decrying cultural mixing in its literature. The National Border Patrol Council's Web site and NBPC Local 1613's Web site conspicuously link to honorary cracker Andy Ramirez's Friends of the Border Patrol for instance.(19)(20)
MIM is not Liberals, and for MIM, individuals are part of a nation whether they know it or not. Ramirez barely addresses his Latino ancestry (http://www.andyramirez.com/). Well, Euro-Amerikans rarely identify themselves as being part of the Euro-Amerikan or white nation or even "race" (supposedly, everyone is "racial" or "ethnic" except white people). If Ramirez wants to portray himself as being All-AmeriKKKan, MIM is not going to argue with that: Ramirez is an honorary Euro-Amerikan. Civil Homeland Defense Corps board of directors member Henry Esparaza has made a point identify himself as a Latino persyn, which is even more confusing than what Ramirez is pulling. "Henry Esparaza, one of four members of the Civil Homeland Defense board of directors, said he hopes his involvement will convince critics that the group, which patrols the border looking for illegal immigrants, is founded on respect for the law."(21) If the fascists are going to use this kind of cover, that has to be called out. It is propaganda maneuvering, like the Minuteman Project's claim that it wouldn't engage alleged undocumented migrants--just terrorize them from a distance. The Minuteman Project highlights its own "racial diversity." This is a ploy to trick those who equate fascism with racism. There are plenty of lackeys with Third World roots perpetrating white national oppression and racism on behalf of the white nation. This is what happens in effect when the Minuteman Project says "culture," rather than nation. Most Amerikans have no concept of different nations within u.$. borders, so culture becomes race in their heads, particularly at a time when oppressed nationalities are still portrayed as animals and inherently criminal.
Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist is a caricature of a fascist who, without any conscious worked-out theory of fascism, is driven by his petty-bourgeois leanings. " 'Part of me is conservative,' Gilchrist concludes. 'And part of me is a left-wing wacko.' "(22) His so-called left-wing thinking is limited to criticizing corporations for hiring desperate undocumented migrants. It is subjectivist to deny the existence of large exploiter classes in the united $tates that aren't just corporations. For fascism to grow out of such subjectivism in a petty-bourgeois persyn is not shocking.
"After patrolling the border for 30 days, Gilchrist wants his volunteers to begin assisting the Internal Revenue Service in cracking down on companies that hire illegal immigrants. 'It is more effective,' Gilchrist says, than waiting around in the middle of the Arizona desert. And on the Jan. 26 broadcast of Hannity & Colmes, Gilchrist described himself as a former '60s liberal . . . turned quasi-conservative in the '90s.' "(22)
These clowns paying lip service to anti-capitalism are fascists. They are vigilantes, but Border Patrol agents endorse them. Andy Ramirez calls Border Patrol agents his friends. "You are also left with a sense of outrage for what the Bush Administration is doing to them. Let's talk about their [Border Patrol agents'] plight.(23)" Ramirez defends these murders, the rank and file of the Border Patrol, who police a border that kills undocumented migrants and would-be migrants.
Notes
1. Lara Jakes Jordan, "Arizona Border Patrol Looks to Canada," April 26, 2005, http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050426/APA/ 504261054&cachetime=5
2. Emily Bazar, " 'Minutemen' may start patrolling state's border," April 27, 2005, http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/regstate/articles/1505507.html
3. Morgan Loew, "Undercover With The Minuteman Project," April 22, 2005, http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=3188000&nav=14RTYTLb
4. Jerry Seper, "Border vigil group calls for immigration reform," April 26, 2005, http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050425-095005-7495r.htm
http://tancredo.house.gov/pressers/04.22.05%20CIRC%20-%20Minuteman%20Presser.htm
Deborah Barfield Berry, "Ready to tackle ID Act : Congress will begin to hash out provision, part of contentious immigration measures, that would bar the undocumented getting driver's licenses," April 25, 2005, ld/nation/ny-usimmi254232817apr25,0,5641981.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines
"A mistaken ID bill," April 27, 2005, /news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/04/27/a_mistaken_id_bill/
"H.R.418," http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.00418:
erts/publaw/publaw-11113?f=templates&fn=document-frame.htm#publaw-sec-46--32-102
5. Charles Hurt, "Hillary goes conservative on immigration," December 13, 2004, http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041213-124920-6151r.htm
6. Hillary Calls for National ID Card," February 11, 2003, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/840763/posts
7. "Democrats: Bush immigration plan not enough," January 7, 2004, http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/07/elec04.immigration.dems/
8. Sergio Bustos, "Americans of all types decrying lax border," April 21, 2005, http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0421border-frustrate.html
9. Michelle Malkin, "President Bush and Hillary Clinton Identical on Immigration," April 27, 2005, http://www.nationalledger.com/commentary/article_1353.shtml
10. Rob Sanchez, "What's Hillary Up To?" http://www.teamamericapac.org/ta-l-012.shtml
11. "Voters favor Minuteman efforts, Bush guest worker proposal," http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=3264991
12. Chad Groening, "Border Patrol Has Issues with ACLU Operatives in Monitored Sector," http://www.theconservativevoice.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5120
13. Georgie Anne Geyer, "Minutemen Project backs up an overextended Border Patrol," April 26, 2005, http://story.news.yahoo.com/ news?tmpl=story&cid=2205&ncid=742&e=14&u=/ ucgg/20050426/cm_ucgg/minutemenprojectbacksupanoverextendedborderpatrol
14. "Federal Government, Excluding the Postal Service," http://bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs041.htm
15. Diane Smith, "Agents leaving Border Patrol in droves, union says," July 30, 2002, http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/3762176.htm
16. Jeff Barnet, "Juárez Police Best Paid In The Country," April 2000, http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/apr00/secr.html
17. Brenda Gazzar, "Border Patrol union says overtime cap affects jobs : Group says limits curtail ability to seal border," April 7, 2005, http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~21481~2804986,00.html
18. http://www.local2544.org/
19. http://www.nbpc1613.org/
20. http://www.nbpc.net/
21. "Hispanic man serves as civil patrol recruiter," Associated Press State & Local Wire, December 30, 2002.
22. Gustavo Arellano, "The anti-immigrant movement's Trotsky," OC Weekly, February 11, 2005, 14.
23. (http://www.friendsoftheborderpatrol.com/Viewpoint.html).