Solidaridad sin Fronteras
0:49 Stephen’s Updates
- Still using Vanillux GNU/Linux
- Having some audio issues with alsamixer and pulseaudio
- Also trying to find good FOSS software that tracks and bills a computer for a cyber cafe – any suggesttons?
2:30 Walton’s Updates
- Dealing with immigration issues
- Took the Life in the UK test -test your knowledge on this unofficial test site.
- Visa fees are expensive – approaching £2,000 for Walton
- Consecutive governments have dramatically increased fees amid anti-immigrant rhetoric. Conservatives doubled fees in April 2011
- You need a visa to go anywhere on a South African passport. Travelling on a passport from a developing country is tough.
- We have a guest today – Lindsey works for an immigrant advocacy organisation in Boston
8:00 It’s Labor Day in the US
- Why September? Because conservative element sin the US labor movement wanted a day distinct from the more radical May Day.
- May Day comes from the Haymarket massacre when workers were attacked while fighting for an eight hour day
- Guardian article about Joe Hill and Labor Day
10:30 Our guest Lindsey speaks about immigration
- Lindsey works at an immigrant advocacy organisation in the Boston area called Centro Presente
- The UK relies on immigrants – especially doctors, nurses and home carers
- Lindsey works with undocumented workers – sans papiers – because No one is Illegal
- Immigration policy is often nakedly racist
18:00 Neoliberalism is responsible for immigration
- Policies driven by rich countries decimate economies in poorer countries
- Poor people need to move in order to survive
- Neoliberal capital also needs a cheap and vulnerable labour supply – so immgrants suit them
- Walton’s experience
- Many poor countries receive large numbers of immigrants too – for instance, 3 million Zimbabweans live in South Africa – a quarter of the population
- Human migration is natural, neoliberalism adds both push and pull factors
26:00 What is to be done?
- Understand the global factors that lead to migration
- Unions need to do more to reach out to migrants
- We need solidarity networks
- Social Movement Unionism is an industrial relations model that links union and community struggle
29:00 We agree to dedicate a future show to Social Movement Unionism
Some interesting case studies we didn’t get time to talk about
- The Lindsey refinery wildcats – media reported them as anti-foreigner strikes, but workers said they were happy to work with foreigners as long as they were covered by the union agreement
- The Chinese cocklepickers in Morecambe Bay who drowned
- The New American Sweatshop – carwash operators employ immgrants and violate employment rights
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