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Sí se puede!
Finally an issue that brings masses onto the streets of U.S. cities. That alone is already good, because it will show people how they do have power if they stand up.
But the issue at hand is problematic. Progressives seem split on it. On one side, immigrants raise the potential workforce and thereby put pressure on wages. On the other side, for a nation based on immigration like the U.S., it is difficult to find a moral justification to stop it.
The mighty industries paying the right want the immigration wage cap and the new market it creates. But conservatives also want security which they see endangered by the inflow.
This will be a defining issue for the 2006 elections. But I fail to see a consistent positions on the issue in either party.
I am greatly saddened to see how easy it is to control and misdirect the vast energies of so many well-intentioned people. Why, we must ask ourselves, are we so historically ignorant and so emotionally reactive? How easy is it to misdirect, and blunt, the will of the people? How can people be made to work against their interests?
1 M Latinos marching for immigration, and soon there will be 1 M poor whites marching against it. The rich have to be laughing all the way to the bank! Either they get cheaper workers and the final unraveling of whatever social safety net is left, or they get another “war.” All Americans, rich and poor, love wars. War on poverty, War on drugs, War on Terrorism, and now we get the War on illegal immigration. More money spent on the penal state, which the elite feel is still too small, and the paramilitarization of the police.
You all remind me of the story of the Five blind men and the elephant:
Once upon a time, five blind men came upon an elephant.
“What is this?!” asked the first one, who had run headlong into its side.
“It’s an Elephant.” said the elephant’s keeper, who was sitting on a stool, cleaning the elephant’s harness.
“Wow! So this is an Elephant! I’ve always wondered what Elephants are like!” said the man, running his hands as far as he could reach up and down the elephant’s side. “Why, it’s just like a wall! A large, warm wall!”
“What do you mean, a wall?” said the second man, wrapping his arms around the elephant’s leg. “This is nothing like a wall. You can’t reach around a wall! This is more like a pillar. Yeah, that’s it! An Elephant is exactly like a pillar!”
“A pillar? Strange kind of pillar!” said the third man, stroking the elephant’s trunk. “It’s too thin, for one thing, and it’s too flexible for another. If you think this is a pillar, I don’t want to go to your house! This is more like a snake. See, it’s wrapping around my arm! An Elephant is just like a snake!”
“Snakes don’t have hair!” said the fourth man in disgust, pulling the elephant’s tail. “You are closer than the others, but I’m surprised that you missed the hair. This isn’t a snake, it’s a rope. Elephants are exactly like ropes.”
“I don’t know what you guys are on!” the fifth man cried, waving the elephant’s ear back and forth. “It’s as large as a wall, all right, but thin as a leaf, and no more flexible than any piece of cloth this size should be. I don’t know what’s wrong with all of you, but no one except a complete idiot could mistake an Elephant for anything except a sail!!!”
And as the elephant stepped aside, they tramped off down the road, arguing more loudly and violently as they went, each sure that he, and he alone, was right; and all the others were wrong.
The Elephant keeper sighed, and went back to polishing the harness, while the elephant winked solemnly at him.
I have already spoken as eloquently as I am able about the nature of the elephant, and gotten no response. Now some raw meat is thrown out to the starving masses, and like beasts, they rush over themselves to tear at it.
I refuse to discuss this issue on this level, because there is no positive response at this level. Feel-good, liberal, stop-gap solutions only diminish social pressure, and aid and abet the spread of death within the empire.
What do you call a bunch of doctors arguing over how to treat the patient, how to allay his pain, when none of them has done a diagnosis? Quacks and charlatans, who should be tried for malpractice. You remind me of the ridiculous debate several months ago about Iraq between Juan Cole and Helena Cobban, where they each argued what “should” be done, without first stating what they saw the problem to be, or taking into account the power dynamics of the situation. “The US ‘should’ do this. No, the US ‘should’ do that.” 500 comments, without any solid ground to stand upon. Clueless, in the US.
Until the problem is understood, all attempts at solution only make the problem worse.
People think the US lost the Vietnam war (due to popular protest), when it did nothing of the sort. Vietnam is now an impovershed outpost of mad “rush to the bottom” neo-liberal capitalism, its bought and paid for government a staunch foe of China, just like the US/Global elite always intended. Yes, the militarized killing was halted in that corner of the globe (and replaced by slow starving, birth defects and trepanned victims of the persistent landmine), only to metastasize to other parts of the globe.
First, let us diagnose the problem with Mexican and Latin American immigration. It would be helpful to read the writings of an inhabitant of the area we call Mexico first. Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos (not to be confused with the little man, “Marcos of Kos”) of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, based in Chiapas, talks about The Seven Loose Pieces of the Global Jigsaw Puzzle (Neoliberalism as a puzzle: the useless global unity which fragments and destroys nations). Perhaps it would behoove us to read and think deeply about this before we go off half-cocked. But we Americans are trained from the beginning to believe we ‘know’ what is right, without any knowledge or understanding of the problem, and its history. It is called “Democracy,” and the elite have carefully developed this modified etoliated strain to nourish their needs, and theirs alone.
Chomsky, in “Necessary Illusions,” talks about ‘worthy and unworthy victims,’ citing media coverage of the victims from both sides of wars that the US supports. Malooga’s corollary to this phenomenom is ‘known and unknown wars.’
We must understand that the US/Global elite are at war with the entire non-elite global population. There was unanimity to the unknown war with Iraq, which consisted of sanctions which resulted in the deaths of half a million, or more, mostly children, while Americans slept peacefully, and ignorantly, in their beds; Madeline Albright famously declared these deaths “worth it.” The debate among the elite was whether to change tactics in Iraq from ‘unknown war’ to ‘known war.’ ‘Known war’ allowed for vastly increased military spending (Dionysian Military Keynesianism), vastly increased social control, and public support for further metastases throughout the resource rich region.
But we know nothing about “mad King Leopold’s legacy,” the war in Central Africa, which by some accounts has killed up to four million in the past decade alone. We must think deeply why this is. Only the ignorant, and liberals (which amount to much the same thing), will believe that the press, and Clinton, made “mistakes” and overlooked this war because it is “in a remote part of the globe where we don’t have any reporters.” Evelyn Waugh, author of the masterful “Scoop” almost 100 years ago, would have another best-seller from that line.
It is fairly typical of self-involved USA’ans that they should decide that this is their problem, this immigration thing, when it is nothing of the sort.
So, let’s name this ‘unknown war,’ of which the vast majority here are either ignorant of, in denial of, or like a bunch of quack surgeons, insist upon focusing upon a single lump, hoping naively to cure or ameliorate it, while the entire body is riddled with cancer. It is called the War Upon Indigenous People, and it is global in scale. We are being ‘adversely’ affected by the hemispheric manifestation, called the “War on Indians,” which has never stopped or abated since that fateful day in 1492 when Columbus landed on a small island, populated by peaceful Arawaks, in the Bahamas.
To quote from Žiga Vodovnik, in her introduction to “¡Ya Basta! Ten Years of the Zapatista Uprising”:
The Arawak Indians lived in village communes, developing an agriculture of corn, yams, cassava. They could spin and weave, but had no horses and work animals. They enjoyed a far more “civilized” life style than any society in Europe; the natives only worked the equivalent of a few days per week, pulling fish out of the sea, taking fruits from the trees; their children often accompanied them during their work; they dispayed no shame, waering little or no clothing; they had no guilt; making love openly; and they were so generous that anything Europeans showed interest in, was promptly given to them. You should expect Columbus to say,”We should send our best scholars here to study and learn from them.” Instead, Columbus wrote in his diary: “…They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword and they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
As the West was settled by white men, displacing and slaughtering the native Indian tribes, deracinatied Indians often wandered into outposts like Denver to try to survive and make a life for themselves. The white settlers argued amongst themselves about the “Indian Problem.” The conservatives said, “They are savages, destructive, and we must keep them out.” The liberals said, “No they are innocents, and we can educate them to become Americans, like us.” Both conservatives and liberals were deeply complicit in the genocidal war crimes which killed another culture more successfully than the Nazis ever did. I ask you how, by intentionally limiting the frame of inquiry and debate, your self-serving arguments today are any different?
Study your history of immigration well, for I will not take the time to lecture you here. All great waves of immigration are caused by crushing social inequality, religious persecution, or outright genocide. People don’t just up and leave their homes and communities for fun and profit. The great Irish wave, which we were taught was caused by the “Potato Famine,” when the Irish were actually exporting all their food to England, and the Jewish influx during the pogroms of eastern Europe, are just two cases in point.
What do we want from penniless natives? What we have always wanted: Their land, their resources, and their servitude. We are at war with the 10 million Indigenous people of Mexico, and the 100 million more throughout Latin and South America: Chile, Ecuador, Venequela, Bolivia, El Salvador. This is the unknown war, whose depredations are left daily undocumented in the pages of New Pravda and The Washington Isvestia.
Again, Let me quote from Subcommandante Marcos in his “letter to the people of the U.S.: “
Fomenting racism, fear and insecurity, the great personalities of U.S. politics offer economic support to the Mexican government so that it controls by violent means the discontent against the economic situation. They offer to multiply the absurd walls with which they pretend to put a stop to the search for life which drives millions of Mexicans to cross the northern border.
The best wall against massive immigration to the U.S. is a free, just, and democratic regime in Mexico. If Mexicans could find in their own land what now is denied them, they would not be forced to look for work in other countries. By supporting the dictatorship of the state party system in Mexico, whatever the name of the man or the party, the North American people are supporting an uncertain and anguishing future. By supporting the people of Mexico in their aspirations for democracy, liberty and justice, the North American people honor their history…and their human condition…Today, in 1995, the U.S. government has begun to get involved in the Mexican government’s dirty war against the Zapatista population. War material support, military advisors, undercover actions, electronic espionage, financing, diplomaticc support, activities of the CIA. Little by little, the U.S. government is beginning to get involved in an unequal war condemned to failure for those who are carrying it on, the Mexican government.
This is not the place to detail the history of this war, in Mexico, and throughout Latin America. But it is the place to ask all the “doctors” out there who solemnly examine the single lump in the cancerous global body, and haughtily and sanctimoniously prescribe their naive little remedies, why they don’t know about this war, why it has never been legitimated and given a name by the press. We had a “War on Terror,” declared in headlines splashed angrily across the land, before 2,800 people were laid cold in their graves, but this war, which kills and displaces millions across Latin America, and devastates communities and ecologies, the people and the land, has no official name and no legitimation. Why we must ask ourselves? Why does the government do everything in its power to keep us historically ignorant and emotionally reactive?
Are we, as Churchill notoriously formulated, “little Eichmanns,” mere functionaries in the vast machinery of empire, or are we in deep denial, assuaging our liberal consciences until, as I have quoted from Yeats, “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;”
Marcos tells us that there is a puzzle which, no matter how hard we try, cannot be put back together. Like Humpty Dumpty, and our famous Zen Cat we must ask ourselves how the cat ever came to be cut, how the egg toppled and cracked, and how the puzzle was disassembled, and pieces changed, before our very eyes.
The “increases in productivity” wraught by capitalism leave daily in it’s wake the deracinated, the unemployed, the starving “lucky duckies,” the marginalized, the sick, the downsized, the outsourced, the women, the children, the elderly, the forgotten, the evicted, the “criminals”, the “islamo-fascists,” and soon all who do not live behind the reassuring protective gates and walls of our metaphorical ignorance and our physical borders and communities.
The elite prescription of ever more out of control runaway Kesnisian militarism is killing us, our victims, and the planet.
We must study the puzzle carefully and see if there is not another solution.
We must think deeply about this question, for there is little margin of error if we come up with the wrong answer. Lives are at stake, and we are only yet dimly aware that they may be our own.
Posted by: Malooga | Mar 27 2006 16:26 utc | 47
Great thoughts malooga, Pepe
I’m still very sick, in between going to the can and being glued to the bed I wanted to at least check in.
What the multinational corporations are trying to do, literally, (WTO, GATS mode 4 proposals) is make workers “commodities to be traded”. So in other words, people will be classified as “services to be traded” across borders. That will be the final blow to labor for then no nation-state will be able to control it’s population (all immigration policies will be ruled illegal by the WTO as a barrier to trade), control it’s workers rights and protections (the immigration status is now controlled by the employer) and we have basically a slave economy.
Offshoring Report SUPRESSED
In November 2003, Congress directed the US Department of Commerce to complete a study on offshoring for delivery in June 2004. The 200 page study was completed by Commerce Department analysts but was never released. Instead, after more than a year of wrangling, a 12 page document, written by political appointees, was released in September 2005. The 12 page document only highlights the positives of offshoring. The original study has never been released even though it cost taxpayers $335,000. Congress cannot obtain a copy of the study from Commerce.
Here’s some US companies that are
outsourcing jobs.
A
3Com, 3M, A. Schulman, Inc., Aalfs Manufacturing, Aavid Thermal Technologies, Abbott
Laboratories, ABC-NACO, Accenture , Access Electronics, Accuride Corporation, Accuride
International, Acme Packaging, Adaptec, ADC, Admanco, Adobe Air, Adobe Systems, Admanco,
Advanced Energy Industries, Aei Acquisitions, Aetna, Affiliated Computer Services, AFS
Technologies, A.G. Edwards, Agere Systems, Agilent Technologies, A.H. Schreiber Co., AIG,
Air Products & ChemicalsÊ, Alamo Rent A Car, Albany International Corp., Albertson’s, Alcoa,
Alcoa Fujikura, Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corporation, Allen Systems Group, Allflex USA, Alliance
Fiber Optic Products, Inc., Alliance Semiconductor, Allstate, Alpha Thought Global, Altek, Altria
Group, Amazon.com, Ames True Temper, AMD, Americ Disc, American Dawn, American
Express, American Fashion, American Greetings, American Household, American Management
Systems, American Standard, American Tool, American Uniform Company, Applied Micro
Circuits Corp., Amerigon Incorporated, AMETEK, AMI DODUCO, Amloid Corporation,
Amphenol Corporation, Analog Devices, Anchor Glass Container, Anchor Hocking, ANDA
Networks, Anderson Electrical Products, Andrew Corporation, Angelica Corporation,
Anheuser-Busch, Ansell Health Care, Ansell Protective Products, Anvil Knitwear, AOL, A.O.
Smith, Apex Systems, Apparel Ventures, Inc., Apple, Applied Materials, Applied Micro Circuits
Corp., Arimon Technologies, Inc. , Arkansas General Industries, Ark-Les Corporation, Arlee
Home Fashions, Artex International, Art Leather Manufacturing, ArvinMeritor, Asbury Carbons,
Asco Power Technologies, Ashland, AstenJohnson, Asyst Technologies, AT&T, AT&T Wireless,
Atchison Products, Inc., A.T. Cross, A.T. Kearney, ATMI-Ecosys Corporation, Augusta
Sportswear, Aurafin-OroAmerica, Authentic Fitness Corporation, Automatic Data Processing,
Avanade, Avanex, Avaya, Avery Dennison, Axiohm Transaction Solutions, AXT, Inc. and Azima
Healthcare Services
B
B.A.G. Corporation, Bakka, Ball Corporation, Bank of America, Bank of New York, Bank One,
Bard Access Systems, Barnes Group, Barth & Dreyfuss of California, Bassett Furniture, Bassler
Electric Company, Bausch & Lomb, BBi Enterprises L.P., Beacon Blankets, BearingPoint, Bear
Stearns, BEA Systems, Bechtel, Becton Dickinson, BellSouth, Bemis Manufacturing Co., Bentley
Systems, Berdon LLP, Berne Apparel, Bernhardt Furniture, Besler Electric Company, Best Buy,
Bestt Liebco Corporation, Beverly Enterprises, Bijur Lubricating Corp., Birdair, Inc., BISSELL,
Black & Decker, Black Diamond Equipment, Blauer Manufacturing, Blue Cast Denim, Blyth,
Inc., BMC Software, Bobs Candies, Boeing, Borden Chemical, Bose Corporation, Bourns,
Bowater, Braden Manufacturing, Brady Corporation, Briggs Industries, Brinker International,
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Bristol Tank & Welding Co., Brocade, Brooks Automation, Brown,
Wooten Mills Inc., Buck Forkardt, Inc., Bumble Bee, Burle Industries, Burlington House Home
Fashions, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway
C
C&D Technologies, Cadence Design Systems, Cains Pickles, California Cedar Products
Company, Camfil Farr, Candle Corporation, Capital Mercury Apparel, Capital One, Cardinal
Brands, Cardinal Industries, Carrier, Carris Financial Corp., Carter’s, Caterpillar, C-COR.net,
Cellpoint Systems, Cendant, Centis, Inc., Centurion Wireless, Technologies, Cerner Corporation,
Charles Schwab, The Cherry Corporation, ChevronTexaco, CIBER, Ciena, Cigna, Circuit City,
Cirrus Logic, Cisco Systems, Citigroup, Clear Pine Mouldings, Clorox, CNA, Coastcast Corp.,
Coca-Cola, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Coherent, Inc., Collins & Aikman, Collis, Inc.,
Columbia House, Columbia Showcase & Cabinet Company, Columbus McKinnon, Comcast
Holdings, Comdial Corporation, CompuServe, Computer Associates, Computer Horizons,
Computer Sciences Corporation, Concise Fabricators, Conectl Corporation, Conseco,
Consolidated Metro, Consolidated Ventura, Continental Airlines, Convergys, Cooper-Atkins
Corporation, Cooper Crouse-Hinds, Cooper Industries, Cooper Power Systems, Cooper Tire &
Rubber, Cooper Tools, Cooper Wiring Devices, Copperweld, Cordis Corporation, Corning,
Corning Cable Systems, Corning Frequency Control, Countrywide Financial, COVAD,
Communications, Cvansys, Cray, Inc., Creo Americas, Crompton Corporation, Cross Creek
Apparel, Crouzet Corporation, Crown Holdings, CSX, Cummins, Curtis Instruments,
Cutler-Hammer, Cypress Semiconductor
D
Dana Corporation, Daniel Woodhead, Dan Post Boot Company, Dan River, Data-Ray
Corporation, Datex-Ohmeda, Davis Wire Corp., Daws Manufacturing, Dayton Superior,Dearborn
Brass, DeCrane Aircraft, Delco Remy, Dell Computer, Del Monte Foods, DeLong Sportswear,
Delphi, Delta Air Lines, Delta Apparel, Direct TV, Discover, DJ Orthopedics, Document
Sciences Corporation, Dometic Corp., Donaldson Company, Dorr-Oliver Eimco USA, Inc.,
Douglas Furniture of California, Dow Chemical, Dresser, Dun & Bradstreet, DuPont, DuPont
Beaumont Works
E
Earthlink, Eastman Kodak, Eaton Corporation, Edco, Inc., Editorial America, Edscha, eFunds,
e-Gain Communications Corp., Egs Electrical Group, Ehlert Tool Company, Elbeco Inc.,
Electroglas, Electronic Data Systems, Electronics for Imaging, Electro Technology, Eli Lilly,
Elkins Hardwood Dimension, Elmer’s Products, E-Loan, EMC, Emerson Electric,
Emerson Power Transmission, Emglo Products, Endwave Corporation, Engel Machinery, En
Pointe Technologies, Equifax, Ernst & Young, Essilor of America, Ethan Allen, Ethicon, Evenflo,
Evergreen Wholesale Florist, Evolving Systems, Evy of California, Exabyte Corporation,
Exfo Gnubi Products Group, Expedia, Extrasport, ExxonMobil
F
Fairfield Manufacturing, Fair Isaac, Fansteel Inc., Farley’s & Sathers Candy Co., Fasco Industries,
Fawn Industries, Fayette Cotton Mill, FCI USA, Fedders Corporation, Federal Mogul, Federated
Department Stores, Fellowes, Fender Musical Instruments, Fidelity Investments, Financial
Techologies International, Findlay IndustriesFinotex, First American Title Insurance, First Data,
First Index, Fisher Controls, Fisher Hamilton, Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Flowserve,
Fluidmaster, Fluor, FMC Corporation, Fontaine International, Ford Motor, Foster Wheeler,
Franklin Mint, Franklin Templeton, Freeborders, Friedrich Air Conditioning Co., Frito Lay,
Friwo-Emc, Fruit of the Loom
G
Garan Manufacturing, Gateway, GE Capital, GE Medical Systems, G.E. Packaged Power,
Gemtron Corporation, General Binding Corporation, General Cable Corp., General Electric,
General Mills, General Motors, Generation 2 Worldwide, Genesco, Georgia-Pacific, Gerber
Childrenswear, Gillette, Glacier West Sportswear, Global Power Equipment Grp.,
GlobespanVirata, Golden Northwest Aluminum, Goldman Sachs, Gold Toe Brands, Goodrich,
Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Google, Goss Graphic Systems, Graphic Controls, Graphite Design
International, Green Bay Packaging, Greenpoint Mortgage, Greenwood Mills, Grote Industries,
Grove U.S. LLC, Guardian Life Insurance, Guilford Mills, Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.
H
Haggar, Halliburton, Hamilton Beach/Procter-Silex, Hamilton Sundstrand, Harman International
Industries, Harper-Wyman Company, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Hasbro
Manufacturing Services, Hawk Corporation, Hawker Power Systems, Inc., Haworth, Headstrong,
HealthAxis, Hedstrom, Hein-Werner Corp., Helen of Troy, Helsapenn Inc., Hershey, Hewitt
Associates, Hewlett-Packard, Hoffman Enclosures, Inc., Hoffman/New Yorker, The Holmes
Group, Home Depot, The HON Company, Honeywell, Hooker Furniture Corporation, HSN,
Hubbell Inc., Hudson Rci, Humana, Hunter Sadler, Hutchinson Sealing Systems, Inc, HyperTech
Solutions
I
IBM, iGate Corporation, Illinois Tool Works, IMI Cornelius, Imi Norgren, Imperial Home Decor
Group, Inamed Corporation, Indiana Knitwear Corp., IndyMac Bancorp, Inflation Systems,
Infogain, Ingersoll-Rand, Innodata Isogen, Innova Solutions, Insilco Technologies, Intalco
Aluminum Corp., Intel, InterMetro Industries, International Garment Processors, International
Paper, International Steel Wool Corp., Interroll Corporation, Intesys Technologies, Intuit,
Invacare, Iris Graphics, Inc., Isola Laminate Systems, Iteris Holdings, Inc., Itronix Corporation,
ITT Educational Services, ITT Industries
J
Jabil Circuit, Jacobs Engineering, Jacuzzi, Jakel, Inc., JanSport, Jantzen Inc., JDS Uniphase,
Jockey International, John Crane, John Deere, Johns Manville, Johnson & Johnson, Johnson
Controls, JPMorgan Chase, J.R. Simplot, Juniper Networks, Justin Brands
K
K2 Inc., K&S Interconnect, KANA Software, Kaiser Permanente, Kanbay, Kayby Mills of North
Carolina, Keane, Kellogg, Kellwood, Kelly-Springfield Tire Co., KEMET, KEMET Electronics,
Kendall Healthcare, Kendro Laboratory Products, Kenexa, Kentucky Apparel, Kerr-McGee
Chemical, KeyCorp, Key Industries, Key Safety Systems, Key Tronic Corp., Kimberly-Clark,
KLA-Tencor, Knight Textile Corp., Kojo Worldwide Corporation, Kraft Foods, Kulicke and
Soffa Industries, Kwikset
L
LaCrosse Footwear, L.A. Darling Company, Lake Village Industries, Lamb Technicon, Lancer
Partnership, Lander Company, Lands’ End, Lau Industries, Lawson Software, Layne Christensen,
La-Z-Boy, Leach International, Lear Corporation, Leech Tool & Die Works, Legendary
Holdings, Inc., Lehman Brothers, Leoni Wiring Systems, Levi Strauss, Leviton Manufacturing
Co., Lexmark International, Lexstar Technologies, Liebert Corporation, Lifescan, Lillian Vernon,
Linksys, Linq Industrial Fabrics, Inc., Lionbridge Technologies, Lionel, Littelfuse, LiveBridge,
LNP Engineering Plastics, Lockheed Martin, Longaberger, LOUD Technologies,
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, Louisville Ladder Group LLC, Lowe’s, Lucent, Ludlow Building
Products, Lund International, Lyall Alabama
M
Madill Corporation, Magma Design Automation, Magnequench, Magnetek, Maida Development
Co., Maidenform, Mallinckrodt, Inc. , The Manitowoc Company, Manugistics, Marathon Oil ,
Marge Carson, Inc., Marine Accessories Corp., Maritz, Marko Products, Inc., Mars, Inc.,
Marshall Fields, Master Lock, Masterwork Electronics, Materials Processing, Inc., Mattell,
Maxim Integrated Products, Maxi Switch, Maxtor Corporation, Maxxim Medical, Maytag,
McDATA Corporation, McKinsey & Company, MeadWestvaco, Measurement Specialties, Inc.,
Mediacopy, Medtronic, Mellon Bank, Mentor Graphics Corp., Meridian Automotive Systems,
Merit Abrasive Products, Merrill Corporation, Merrill Lynch, Metasolv, MetLife, Michigan
Magnetics, Micro Motion, Inc., Micron Technology, Microsoft, Midcom Inc., Midwest Electric
Products, Milacron, MKS Instruments, Modern Plastics Technics, Modine Manufacturing, Moen,
Money’s Foods Us Inc., Monona Wire Corp., Monsanto, Moog, Inc, Morgan Stanley, Motion
Control Industries, Motor Coach Industries International, Motorola, Mrs. Allison’s Cookie Co.,
MTD Southwest, MTI Technology Corporation, Mulox, Munro & Company, My Room, Inc.,
N
Nabco, Nabisco, NACCO Industries, National City Corporation, National Electric Carbon
Products, National Life, National Semiconductor, National Textiles, NCR Corporation, neoIT,
NETGEAR, Network Associates, Newbold Corporation, Newell Porcelain Co., Newell
Rubbermaid, Newell Window Furnishings, New World Pasta, New York Life Insurance, Nice
Ball Bearings, Nike, Noble Construction Equipment, Nordstrom, Northrop Grumman, Northwest
Airlines, Nu Gro Technologies, Nu-kote International, NutraMax Products, Nypro Alabama,
O
O’Bryan Brothers Inc., Ocwen Financial, Office Depot, Ogden Manufacturing, Oglevee, Ltd,
Ohio Art, Ohmite Manufacturing Co., Old Forge Lamp & Shade, The Oligear Company, Olympic
West Sportswear, Omniglow Corporation, O’Neal Steel Inc., ON Semiconductor, Oplink
Communications, Inc, Oracle, Orbitz, OshKosh B’Gosh, O’Sullivan Industries, Otis Elevator,
Outsource Partners International, Owens-Brigam Medical Co., Owens Corning, Owens-Illinois,
Inc., Oxford Automotive, Oxford Industries
P
Pacific Precision Metals, Pak-Mor Manufacturing, Palco Labs, palmOne, Paper Converting
Machine Co., Parallax Power Components, Paramount Apparel, Parker Hannifin, Parks &
Wolson Machine Co., Parsons E&C, Pass & Seymour Legrand, Paxar Corporation, Pearson
Digital Learning, Peavey Electronics Corporation, Pendleton Woolen Mills, PeopleSoft, PepsiCo,
Pericom Semiconductor, PerkinElmer, PerkinElmer Life Sciences, Inc, Perot Systems, Pfaltzgraff,
Pfizer, Phillips-Van Heusen, Photronics, Pinnacle Frames, Pinnacle West Capital Corporation,
Pioneer Companies, Pitney Bowes, Plaid Clothing Company, Planar Systems, Plexus, Pliant
Corporation, PL Industries, Polaroid, Polymer Sealing Solutions, Portal Software, Portex, Inc.,
Portola Packaging, Port Townsend Paper Corp., Power-One Inc., Pradco, Pratt & Whitney,
priceline.com, Price Pfister, Pridecraft Enterprises, Primanex Corporation, Prime Tanning,
Primus Telecom, Procter & Gamble, Progress Lighting, ProQuest, Providian Financial, Prudential
Insurance
Q
Q.C. Onics Ventures, Quadion Corporation, Quaker Oats, Quantegy, Quark, Quickie
Manufacturing Corp., Qwest Communications
R
Radio Flyer, Radio Shack, Rainbow Technologies, Rawlings Sporting Goods, Rayovac, Raytheon
Aircraft, RBX Industries, RCG Information Technology, Red Kap, Regal-Beloit Corporation,
Regal Rugs, Regal Ware, Inc., Regence Group, Renfro Corp., Respiratory Support Products,
Rexnord Industries, R.G. Barry Corp, Richardson Brothers Co., Rich Products, River Holding
Corp., Robert Manufacturing, Robert Mitchell Co., Rochester Button Co., Rockshox, Rockwell
Automations, Rockwell Collins, Rogers, Rohm & Haas, Ropak Northwest, Roper Industries, Inc.,
Royce Hosiery, RR Donnelley & Sons, Rugged Sportswear, Russell Corporation
S
S1 Corporation, S & B Engineers and Constructors, Sabre, Safeway, SAIC, Sallie Mae,
Samsonite, Samuel-Whittar, Inc., SanDisk Corporation, Sanford, Sanmina-SCI, Sapient, Sara
Lee, Saturn Electronics & Engineering, Sauer-Danfoss, SBC Communications, Scantibodies
Laboratory, Schott Scientific Glass, Schumacher Electric, Scientific Atlanta, The Scott Fetzer
Company, Seal Glove Manufacturing, Seco Manufacturing Co., SEI Investments, SEMCO
(Southeastern Metals Manufacturing), Sequa Corporation, Seton Company, Sheldahl Inc.,
Shipping Systems, Inc., S.H. Leggitt Co., Shugart Corp., Siebel Systems, Sierra Atlantic, Sights
Denim Systems, Inc., Signage, Inc., Signal Transformer, Signet Armorlite, Inc., Sikorsky,
Silicon Graphics, Silvered Electronic Mica Company, Simmons Juvenile Products, Simonds
International, Simula Automotive Safety, SITEL, Skyworks Solutions, SMC Networks, SML
Labels, Snap-on, Inc., SNC Manufacturing Company, SoftBrands, Sola Optical USA, Solectron,
Solon Manufacturing Co., Sonoco Products Co., Southwire Company, Sovereign Bancorp,
Specialized Bicycle Components, Spectrum Control, Spicer Driveshaft Manufacturing, Spirit
Silkscreens, Springs Industries, Springs Window Fashions, Sprint, Sprint PCS, SPX Corporation,
Square D, SRAM Corporation, Standard Textile Co., Stanley Furniture, Stanley Works, Stant
Manufacturing, Starkist Seafood, State Farm Insurance, State Street, Steelcase, StorageTek,
Store Kraft Manufacturing, StrategicPoint Investment Advisors, Strattec Security Corp.,
Strombecker Corp., STS Apparel Corporation, Summitville Tiles, Sun Microsystems, Sunrise
Medical, Suntron, SunTrust Banks, Superior Uniform Group, Supra Telecom, Sure Fit, SurePrep,
The Sutherland Group, Swank, Inc., Sweetheart Cup Co., Swift Denim, Sykes Enterprises,
Symbol Technologies, Synopsys, Synygy
T
Takata Retraint Systems, Target, Teccor Electronics, Techalloy Company, Inc., Technotrim,
Tecumseh, Tee Jays Manufacturing, Telcordia, Telect, Teleflex, TeleTech, Telex
Communications, Tellabs, Tenneco Automotive, Teradyne, Texaco Exploration and Production,
Texas Instruments, Textron, Thermal Industries, Therm-O-Disc, Inc., Thermo Electron, Thomas
& Betts, Thomas Saginaw Ball Screw Co., Thomasville Furniture, Three G’s Manufacturing Co.,
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Tiffany Industries, Time Warner, The Timken Company,
Tingley Rubber Corp., TMD Friction, Tomlinson Industries, The Toro Company,
Torque-Traction Mfg. Tech., Tower Automotive, Toys “R” Us, Trailmobile Trailer,
Trans-Apparel Group, TransPro, Inc., Trans Union, Travelocity, Trek Bicycle Corporation, Trend
Technologies, TriMas Corp., Trinity Industries, Triquint Semiconductor, TriVision Partners,
Tropical Sportswear, Trumark Industries, TRW Automotive, Tumbleweed Communications,
Tupperware, Tyco Electronics, Tyco International, Tyler Refrigeration
U
UCAR Carbon Company, Underwriters Laboratories, UniFirst Corporation, Union Pacific
Railroad, Unison Industries, Unisys, United Airlines, UnitedHealth Group Inc., United Online,
United Plastics Group, United States Ceramic Tile, United Technologies, Universal Lighting
Technologies, USAA
V
Valence Technology, Valeo Climate Control, Valeo Switches & Detection Systems, VA
Software, Vaughan Furniture Co., Velvac, Veritas, Verizon, Vertiflex Products, Vestshell
Vermont, Inc., VF Corporation, Viasystems, Vilter Manufacturing Corp., Virginia Industries,
Virginia KMP Corporation, Vishay Intertechnology, Vishay Vitramon, Visteon, VITAL Sourcing
W
Wabash Alloys, L.L.C., Wabash Technologies, Wachovia Bank, Walgreens, Walls Industries,
Warnaco, Washington Group International, Washington Mutual, Waterbury Companies, Waterloo
Industries, Weavexx, Webb Furniture Enterprises, WebEx, Weiser Lock, WellChoice, Wellman
Thermal Systems, Werner Co., West Corporation, West Point Stevens, Wetherill AssociatesÊÊÊ,
Weyco Group, Weyerhaeuser, Whirlpool, White Rodgers, Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing
Company, Winpak Films, Wolverine World Wide, Woodstock Wire Works, Woodstuff
Manufacturing, WorldCom, World Kitchen, Worldtex, Wright Products, Wyeth, Wyman-Gordon
Forgings
X
Xerox, Xpectra Incorporated, Xpitax
Y
Yahoo!, Yarway Corporation, York International
Z
Zenith, ZettaWorks Zimmerman Sign Company
Amazing, isn’t it? Each job that is outsourced harms America in so many different ways. Wages, benefits, federal taxes, state taxes, city income taxes, payroll taxes, etc.
When will corporate America and Congress realize the harm of such stupidity?
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 27 2006 18:32 utc | 55
The ‘economic’ troubles of the US are finally waking the anti – immigration (and sometimes racist) beast, putting paid to melting-pot myths.
Rumblings have been loud but not prominent in the press except for isolated examples. The WALL (US – Mexico) though is being built. It looks like part of Palestine.
The issues are very complex, see all the arguments above.
It cuts to a stark problem of US society – the need for cheap, submissive, badly qualified, no-rights, expendable labor, so that ‘capitalism’ and ‘entrepreneuship’ can flourish, opposed by some of the original ‘white’ settlers who now can no longer compete in a globalised world.
The industrial jobs that paid good money and guaranteed the son did better than the father have gone.
The very idea of a perpetual rise in standard of living -from a new Frigidaire and a Packard to a Mac Mansion and 1000 digital TV chains plus a hybrid car or two snugly tucked into a lit garage and a heated swimming pool – is dead in the water.
Some can still achieve it. But as a model for society – no.
People realise that. They see the failing health care, the downgrading of salaries, the unemployment, the need to buy a car with no money, the need to f** the boss to keep the low paying job, just the tips, why not.
The US Gvmt. has actually done a tremendous amount to guarantee the ‘living’ (old English term) of its lower graded citizens. They get cheap gas, practically free water, agricultural subsidies to the skies, health care that is shoddy but still existent (Medicare is single payer, etc.), free – if very poor – schooling, and they are flattered to vote, they are real people who count, the system says.
In return, they send the sons and daughters to fight, and die. Don’t forget the coffins draped with the flag.
The jobs that illegal or regular immigrants occupy are jobs that American citizens often don’t want. (Pay, hours, security, benefits.)
They regret the days when they themselves could hire or control that cheap labor. To do that today, you have to be top of the heap. It is out of their reach, so the cheap labor has to go, never mind the results. (For some.)
— It is all a grand distraction away from reality – the new gay marriage as Pepe said. ( I still have to digest Mallooga’s long post above.) —
Why all this?
Because resources are dwindling (oil, gas, fish, sugar, beets…), populations is growing, the obvious ideas or scams have been implemented already, extractive capitalism is becoming impossible.
Guns and authoritariasm must take their place, creating a new (in the West) class of loosers, those useless eaters, itinerant workers, crazies, prisoners, etc.
Posted by: Noisette | Mar 27 2006 19:11 utc | 60
@pepe:
“Mexico currently gets a boost of $10 to $25 Billion per Year from transfers by Illegal Immigrants.”
How true. As countries are hollowed out they exist only through remittances and narco-trafficing. Which gives the US even more leverage over their policies.
@Uncle $cam:
I thought I had found one you missed, but no, you had it.
@skod: Unskyld. I’m sorry. I know I was a bit rough. I was just trying to make the point that we need historical understanding and knowledge of how the empire works before we can offer solutions. And our solutions have to be grounded in that knowledge to have a long term positive effect. So, while your suggestion, and ralphieboy’s conclusion might be good, they should be seen as short term band-aids in nature. Will we have another round, and another, and another, endlessly?
I do think my corollary of known and unknown wars, or, shall we say, recognized and unrecognized conflicts, is an important addition to understanding the workings of power.
@pb:
I would argue that sharing was the natural model, by which mankind evolved without going extinct. Indigenous cultures have always worked collectively. It has to be driven out of us forcibly by way of the propaganda stream, cultural hegemony, engineered shortages, manufactured fears and desires, unfair and repressive laws, divide and conquer strategies, appeals to false tribes, etc. Having spent some time away from the world in a monastic setting, without media, I can attest to just how quickly the conditioning falls away.
@dan of steele, conchita, Noisette, et al:
Actually your rambling is very good. That is the dialogue we all hear in our heads, everyday. There are no easy answers. Clearly, we could never be able to outgun the empire, so that kind of violence is out. It also does not feel morally right to me. But that doesn’t mean we can’t defend ourselves, and it certainly doesn’t mean that we can’t get very confrontational. There is nothing wrong to appealing to others guilt, shame, sense of justice, or any other emotion, positive or negative.
Clearly, the human race is self-destructing before our eyes. I don’t know how degraded the quality of life will become, and I don’t know if we will be able to save ourselves, or at least a significant percentage of ourselves, beside the pathological elite. I think the fact that we are reaching limits to growth, pollution, radiation etc. makes this more than a case of past “just fighting injustice.”
I, too, have a brother who wants a child. I too, conchita, wonder why anyone would want to bring a child into this world to inherit the mess we have created at this time. When I was younger, I never wanted children. But even guys face a biological imperative, and I have had to face it. One hundred years ago, I would have had children with joy. Now, I am forced to grow, and find other ways to find meaning in life, besides self-perpetuation.
I don’t know that education, organizing, and activism are enough. But I do know that it needs doing and is its own reward. I can’t think of anything more worth spending one’s time and energy on these days.
Yes, we must take care of ourselves in this society. But how we define that is up to us. Bill Gates might think he is about another 100 Billion away from true financial security. Those I know who have spent their entire lives chasing lucre, die sad and unfulfilled deaths.
The moment we are born, we are destined to die. So hopelessness and its opposite, meaning, are things we must discover for ourselves. Surely, even the poorest and sadest among us often find periods of great joy: family, food, love; all that is still possible.
I believe in finding meaning within ourselves through mystical experience. And I believe that mankind has always found meaning without through perpetuation of the family, and larger tribe or group. I think that meaning can still be found without reproducing.
This past century, a new goal has been added: The betterment of mankind through science and growth. This is an interesting, complex, and extraordinarily self-contradictory myth, due its own full analysis at another point. Suffice it too say that, while I am not a complete primitivist, I do not believe the myth of growth and betterment. I have seen every Mengelean atrocity use this myth for justification. Furthermore, problems with pollution and overdevelopment are creating a vicious cycle of ever more expensive and intrusive interventions without end.
We cannot expect to entirely change the system. However, with time, all things change naturally. We can hope to be part of making that change for the better.
Yes, most people are not interested in hearing all this. I too have squandered vast stretches of my life. But the current crumbling system leaves many openings for us to reach others: When they have to care for a parent, when they are sick, when they lose a job, or a career, when they lose their retirement, when the officially sanctioned narratives fall apart (9-11, fair elections, etc.). There are more and more possibilities for positive change as more of us get screwed. They have the power. We have the numbers. As our numbers become empowered, we prevail.
You are right that “The American Dream” as a model for collective, or societal development is inoperative. It does not work. We don’t have the resources, or the space, on this planet. We need new models. There is much exciting work to be done.
Havana meeting almost all of its food needs is a very promising model. Besides all that great organic food, people enjoy gardening and feel more connected with their life and community.
I personally don’t believe much in “Socially Responsible Investing,” and see it as not much more than “greenwashing.” The whole model of raping communities of their resources and land, and then “re-investing” is suspect. This is not a blanket condemnation, but even the fundamentalist right uses the term to meet its racist agenda. The concept of micro-investing is solid. But we need to work to minimize the importance of using wealth to generate investment returns as a crucial way of supporting ourselves. It represents another “race to the bottom,” this time in the name of “enlightened self-interest.” Additionally, it pits investor class against worker class, a prime source of economic inequality.
I believe the biggest challenge facing us economically is not sustainable growth, but steady sustainable shrinkage. All of our economic and business models are based upon limitless growth, which is clearly absurd. How anyone could win a Nobel prize for a development based upon a premise so obviously false that a four year old could refute it, is beyond me. I always figured that when I grew up, I would understand, but, not surprisingly, I find that I don’t. I do like the work that Catherine Austin Fitts is doing with her Solari approach to reinvesting locally, providing jobs, revitalized neighborhoods and increased property values. You can hear some of her talks by searching at Radio4all.net.
Posted by: Malooga | Mar 27 2006 22:08 utc | 68
a few quick points:
1) The US produces 25% of the world’s greenhouse gases and pollution, and consumes 25% of the world’s resources. What happens when our population grows by 25%? From a pollution standpoint, what we have here, is more people buying into an unsustainable model. You do the math.
2) Analyzing politics on the level of “the repubs are fracturing, key provisions are being removed, etc.”, is extremely limited, at best, if not downright misleading. It is buying into the surface appearance of a theatre piece, and clapping at all the applause lines. How do we know that the Repub’s did not introduce this bill knowing that it would fail, that it was designed to fail, but it would serve the purpose of satisfying key elements of their coalition? They could then go back to their base and say, “We tried.” Additionally, this is clearly a regional issue, with different areas of the country having different experiences. I would again like to suggest that this is finely crafted theatre by both parties (after all, isn’t that what the ‘commitees’ do, create mutually acceptable theatre) in order to score local points for individual candidates, some of whom might need to distance themselves from the administration as part of their ‘branding.’
A theme I would like to develop at greater length in another post, is the essential illegitimacy of the system. Asking the system of corporate contributions and political patronage to adhere to the Iroquios Conventions is about as laughable as expecting teenagers to abstain from sex. You can ask, you can threaten, you can cajole, you can sermonize, and you can implore all your want; it simply will not happen. You can’t expect political whores to cut their own necks.
That doesn’t mean that advocacy groups should stop lobbying, and we should give up putting pressure on politicians to enact the policies we want. It simply means that we should see the process, and the power dynamics, for what they are, without romantic illusions. It will serve us better in the long run.
3) jdp is right that the “immigrants do jobs that none of us will do” meme is very dangerous reactionary cant. Before the modern labor movement, all industrial jobs were jobs which no one wanted to do. Unions, fair wages and hours, and safer conditions, converted these same jobs into desired positions in our society. This happened because people struggled and lost their lives fighting for these changes; they were not bequeathed to us by the noble and gracious elite. We should be taught extensively about this in school, not about all of our “great wars.” As these standards are rolled back, under the relentless attack of neo-liberalism, we are seeing more and more “jobs that no one wants to do.” It is not the jobs that are at issue, is is the pay and the labor conditions — something which is not “ordained” but set consciously by society. Our enemy is the rollback of labor gains, and we forget this at our peril.
If I could make $100/hr. cleaning toilets, and work at it one day a week, in order to have the money to do something else, I would jump at it.
4) Now let me get romantic for a second. Imagine that we had the power to create the world we want. Imagine if, instead of serving in the military killing brown people, our youth had other options. Imagine a just world. Imagine a world where several years of real “public service” were required of all. Every teenager might be afforded the opportunity to follow our great harvests, fruit and vegetables on the east and west coast, grains and meat in the heartland, from south to north, along the great rivers and vast plains, to awake in the mornings with the sun and bed down at night with the stars; to really see and understand and feel gratitude for ‘the ways and means’ by which our food comes to us.
Every teenager might have to spend a year in true public service — cleaning up environmental problems, caring for the elderly or poor, and ministering to the sick, especially those from past wars, who we now sequester away in the vast VA bureauocracy. Inner city, suburban, small town, and country kids would exchange places, traveling east or west, north or south, to see the country, and learn and get to understand how it functions.
Imagine that all the violence, and injustice, and theft, which we compartmentalize, and secret away from us so we do not have to see it, in this construct which we call “civilization,” were broken apart, like an immense pocket watch, and its workings laid bare for us to examine freely and comment upon.
Imagine that, instead of setting up systems of compartmentalized slavery, and calling it “work that no one wants to do,” we set up systems of mutual cooperation, and called it “society.”
Well, well, well… In these days of constant nightmare, of outrage upon outrage, crime upon crime, murder upon murder; of man against man and machine against man, we must have our warm and comforting hopes, aspirations, and dreams.
It would most certainly spell the death knell of extreme sports, populated by that claque of young urban apparatchiks serving the vast propaganda apparatus (which we call advertising, and media, and art, and fashion), who have never had to do anything remotely adventurous, or dangerous, or even remotely concretely meaningful. Why is jumping off a cliff with a bungee cord in Nepal considered more of an “experience” than spending three months with a jackhammer helping repair our crumbling infrastructure? I spent 4 1/2 years as an operator at an oil refinery, climbing 250 ft towers which jump and rock with the boiling oil percolating madly within them, walking a bunch of six inch pipes forty feet in the air with nothing beneath me, and fighting huge fires which threatened to explode at a moments notice. I did this all in the service of producing a product which we all consume. Why would I need extreme sports?
Posted by: Malooga | Mar 28 2006 14:26 utc | 83
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