Say NO to the Senate’s immigration “reform” act! Demand open borders & real workers’ freedom! Remember the racist Sensenbrenner immigration bill? It has reproduced! The proposed “Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007” is currently being debated in the Senate as a more humane alternative – but this act is Sensenbrenner on steroids! It is worse than the existing laws and it should be outright opposed by all who support immigrants’ and workers’ rights. Please call your senators today and tell them to oppose the bill. Like Sensenbrenner, the Senate’s proposal would step up the criminal- ization of undocumented immigrants and dump billions of dollars more into militarizing the border. Unlike Sensenbrenner, however, it gives low priority to family reunification and instead promotes vastly expanded “guest worker” programs that reflect the needs of big business for vulnerable, lowwaged workers – and the willingness of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to deliver. No more human bondage! “Guest worker” proposals today are modeled on the infamous bracero program begun during World War II. Workers imported from Mexico filled over 4.5 million short-term jobs between 1942 and 1964. Families were torn apart while workers were at the mercy of bosses who abused them and often robbed them of their wages and housed them in dirt-poor shacks. Both the current Senate package and the STRIVE Act which was proposed by the House of Representatives in March would repeat this shameful history of indentured servitude. The treatment of current “guest” workers bears this out. Signal International Corporation recently fired 300 workers from India for protesting their wages and job conditions as welders of oil rigs used in the Gulf of Mexico. After paying up to $20,000 each to company recruiters, workers were receiving only half the wages promised! A common cause for all workers If the border is open for big business, it should be open for workers too. So-called free trade forces migration. As corporations cross borders to make higher profits, they wreck whole economies. As neoliberalism has stalked the hemisphere, immigration of workers with and without documents from Central and South America and from Mexico has sky- rocketed. The ruthlessness of global capitalism doubly hurts women, who are exploited as workers in the maquiladoras and free-enterprise zones while also struggling to make ends meet in the home. Immigrants in the U.S. have shown they aren’t afraid to hit the streets. But they can’t defeat nasty legislation like the Senate act alone, and they shouldn’t have to. Everyone’s wages and living standards suffer when immigrants are used as a low-paid labor force with virtually no rights. And everyone’s civil liberties are jeopardized when “national security” is used as a pretext to militarize not only the borders, but workplaces as well through the introduction of computerized employment verification systems and national ID cards that this legislation mandates. Defense of immigrants is defense of all workers. Immediate and unconditional amnesty! Open the borders for working people! Stop the raids and dismantle Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)! No “guest worker” program! Call your Senators today – this legislation is moving fast! Tell them to support immigrant rights and VOTE NO on the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007. Find the contact information for your senators at _www.senate.gov_ (http://www.senate.gov/) . Issued by: National Comrades of Color Caucus of the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women ___________________________________________________________ Freedom Socialist Party U.S. Section 4710 University Way NE, #100 Seattle, WA 98105 USA Australian Section PO Box 2066 Brunswick, VIC 3055 Australia ___________________________________________________________ To subscribe to the Freedom Socialist newspaper, or see the booklist at Red Letter Press, or to find out more about the Freedom Socialist Party, go to _www.socialism.com_ (http://www.socialism.com/) , or reply to this message. We would love to hear from you! ___________________________________________________________ To subscribe to this list send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) with Subscribe in the subject box. P.S. If you prefer not to receive future mailings, please reply with Remove in the subject line and we will take you off our list.
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