Steve

[poliphilo]

Steve is an engineer and he can't get work. "It's all these Poles," he said. "Eh up," I thought, "Here we go- the Daily Mail editorial." But I didn't jump down his throat and I'm glad I didn't because he went on to explain how he'd gone  to an interview and been up against all these Eastern European kids and the Eastern European kids had been hired- well some of them- and he hadn't. So he wasn't parroting something he'd heard down the pub, he was reporting his own experience. 

Middleclass, leftwing intellectuals like myself are wired to go off like alarm bells at the merest hint of racism. Which means we tiptoe round the subject, which means we can be blind to the facts. Steve isn't a racist- he lives in an Asian area and seems happy enough with his neighbours- but economic migration is something that impacts on his life. The Polish kids will work longer hours for less, so the native-born workman can't get a job and hangs around the house all day, drawing benefit and feeling worthless. 

The mass migration of labour is one of the spin-offs of globalisation and globalisation is unstoppable. It's a great leap forward- like the industrial revolution- and when the dust has settled we'll probably all agree that it was a very good thing. In the short term it's certainly a very good thing for the money men who can now pick and choose their workforces. But for the poor, bloody, English working class- for blokes like Steve- it's a disaster.   And ain't that always the case?

Comments

[algabal.livejournal.com]

Don't forget it was Bill Clinton that brought us NAFTA, and neither party is serious about ending illegal immigration.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

Exactly right. The Democrats certainly, but the Republicans just as much. It amuses me no end when people here seem genuinely surprised that the Republicans, for all their bluster about securing the borders, have offered little beyond work visa and general amnesty programs as a solution to the problem. Does it not occur to these people that businesses might actually WANT a workforce that labors for small wages and no benefits? No way does the GOP bite the hand that feeds them by taking that away.

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

Republicans have never been famous for being friends to the working class. That's the Democrats' thing, and that is why I and my whole family and most of my friends are Democrats.

[red-girl-42.livejournal.com]

I'm a Democrat myself, but I don't really believe that ANY politicians today are friends to the working class. The Democrats just talk it up more.

Wal*Mart Model

[pop-o-pie.livejournal.com]

Look at the trade deficit between the US & China. Many of the menial jobs have been outsourced there and to India. Take a look at the weakness of the dollar against other world currencies. Note that huge retailers like Wal*Mart can make or break a manufacturer of goods in the US and then ride into town and save the day by employing people who used to make a union wage with benefits for $8.00 and hour. This would be the global economy as it affects the US. Closing the borders will do nothing to change any of this.

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

But it was Ronald Reagan who busted the unions, which were the only thing that gave us "children of the fifties" decent wages and decent working conditions.

RE: NAFTA

[pop-o-pie.livejournal.com]

In general, the Clintons left us in fairly good shape at the end of their tenure, however, NAFTA was ill-conceived as it deflated Mexican currency and sent Mexicans running for the border looking for ways to survive. Bill Clinton is universally hated in Mexico.

I live near the border with Mexico in Arizona and it saddens me that the border cities like Nogales used to function as one community on both sides. More and more they are divided much like East & West Berlin were. This actually serves to increase drug trafficking and human smuggling.