The AFL-CIO has just split up, as of a few days ago, over differences in the direction Organized Labor should take (besides straight down that is). One side, if I understand correctly, seems to feel that there should be more of an emphasis on attracting more members. They even look longingly toward the hordes of Mexican immigrants that stream across the border every day almost with lust in their hearts, it would seem, at the power these workers would provide. Well, they had better start jacking off, because I seriously doubt they will ever get in those pants. Mexican imigrants are here precisely because they are ready, willing, and able to work at menial jobs for far cheaper rates than most Americans are. And they are for the most part even cheerful about it. I remember once a while back, some years ago in fact, I and another white associate got us a temporary job picking oranges. We were driven out to the middle of nowhere, it seems, to a large farm, and were handed each a large burlap sack , and told to start picking. It was piece rate, now mind you, something like ten cents per dozen, or some kind of shit like that. I didn't like the sound of it, but I started picking. Hell, I needed the money, what can I say?
The Mexican workers were up in those trees, laughing and singing in unison as they picked, quickly filling their bags, by the time I was a third of the way through one. It was hot, sticky, stuffy, I was hungry and thirsty. And after a couple of hours of this bullshit, I had more than enough. I left, without pay. My friend stayed on, and I never saw him again. Not that this was unusual or suspicous, we were both transients, living in Phoenix Arizona at the time. We came and went with the winter. Snowbirds, they called us all. The worst thing about it, is those guys never so much as broke a sweat. They kept smiling, they kept singing, they kept talking and joking-all in Mexican-and they kept filling those goddamned bags full of oranges. Unlike me, or my friend, they didn't feel the least bit put out. The only thing that would have bothered them was if they were to be told they couldn't do it. And that's the point of all this. These schmucks actually feel they have a good thing going on down here, and I guess all things considered they do. As long as they keep that attitude, the Republican Party and their business supporters are going to ensure that they are able to come here in substantial numbers. To some, the more the merrier.
But Organized Labor? Believe me, I knew quite a few Mexicans during my time in Arizona, and since, and as a general rule, they are good, simple, humble, honest folks. But they are not stupid, by any means, and they damned sure aren't going to rock the boat that is responsible for their being here, whether by way of the border crossings, or through the dessert, or across the Rio Grande. And that boat is quite frankly the Business Community, in additon to the politicians, mostly Republicans, who look after their interests. True, most people on the Far Left welcome them as well, for different reasons, mainly idiotic ones. But the Far Left isn't paying their salaries. Maybe years down the line, it would eventually be differnet, but we are talking in terms of decades, not in just a few short years.
In the meantime, the quickest way for the Mexican workers to lose the support of the business community that hires them, and the Republican Party that supports and has up to now enabled their continued presence, is to start moving into the ranks of Organized Labor.
