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Between now and November, we will be treated to a great deal of talk about immigration. While the party in power, a subsidiary of the corporate elite, has no real interest in arresting the flow of cheap labor, it will feel obliged to raise a fuss in order to soothe its political base.
The loser party sees its advantage in culling votes from these same exploited masses. But come November, everything will revert to the present status.
Let's dispense with a few of the chestnuts. Illegal immigrants do not take jobs Americans are unwilling to take. They accept wages and lack benefits that Americans can't afford to go without.
Illegal immigrants don't hold down the cost of living. Their need for health care, schooling, etc., draws on money that could go to improve conditions for all citizens. Should we be saving lunch money because illegal workers are living six to a room? I thought America was better than that.
A letter writer compared illegal labor to slavery. The issues intersect. During the Civil War, the Union had 359,538 deaths and 275,175 wounded. I daresay these soldiers didn't suffer for love of their black brethren. Abe Lincoln himself never relished the idea of an emancipated population of slaves.
Leading up to the war, America was undergoing a transformation from an agricultural nation of farmers and merchants into an industrial nation of workers and factory owners. The existence of slavery harmed the tenuous status of workers. If workers could be replaced with slaves, how essential were they in capitalism? Slavery demeaned the free worker as well. Union soldiers fought and died not for the slaves but for their own dignity in society.
What is your labor really worth if you can be replaced with an illegal worker, without recourse to a living wage and the prospect of living the American dream?
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