Boomcrash

Meanwhile, plenty of oppression in the U.S.Meanwhile, plenty of oppression in the U.S.Meanwhile, plenty of oppression in the U.S.

Just Jo Nubian reminds us all to keep under-reported stories about the murdering of African-Americans in the U.S. in mind, as the mainstream media continues to cover events in Iran.

The border. The right. What’s the solution?

Just so we’re clear: I have my biases. I’m Black Portuguese via mi mama, born and raised in Califlas, and my step-grandpa was Cherokee. I’m also solidly Internationalist, definitely Horizontalist, and pro-Indigenous sovereignty. What I know as well is that the re-location of non-US labor into the US is part of yet another get-even-richer-quicker scam of the likes that we’re been seeing since the 1970s. Given that, it’s not surprising that the present political situation between Mexico and the US, as well as the resulting social upheaval in both countries, is not helping anybody in the long term — save for the elite of the elite.

While a mutually cooperative rank-and-file response to this sociopathic ponzi scheme is the ideal in my view, the reality is anything but cooperative. What we are presently witnessing, and have been witnessing for some time, is an erosion of both the US and Mexican economies due to corrupt, self-serving politicians and greed-based policies in both countries. Mexicans are being squeezed from both sides, which can lead anyone in the direction of dog-eat-dog solutions, partially formed revolutions or both; and in turn, working people in the US (black, brown, yellow, red and white alike) are being squeezed as well by similarly corrupt forces. This has been and promises to continue to be a destabilizing factor in both countries, which breeds resentments in both directions. Further, if the US economy fully collapses, it’ll most likely take the Mexican economy and many others with it as well. (The reverse is also true — further erosion of the Mexican economy is anything but good for the North American economy as a whole.)

As such, it is my view that the right in the US is attempting to respond to the US part of this equation from a perspective of intelligent self-interest, at least in some cases. I also think that the solutions they are coming up with are deeply flawed (Minutemen, supporting ICE raids, et. al.); even if you happen to think that this all constitutes a legitimate approach, which I don’t, it still doesn’t change the socioeconomic realities described above. Terrorizing people benefits nobody – what it does do is create further animosity, tension and resentment; the problems are too globally interconnected to solve by drawing a line in the sand, armed or otherwise. (It is also true that the problems are too complex to address by linking hands and singing “We are the world” — but that is not what I am proposing, nice though it may feel.) What people on the US right — and in particular, the anti-corporatist right — need to realize is that the alienation that they feel is not unique; if the governments of the US and Mexico are not going to address this problem adequately, the US and Mexican people need to start figuring things out for each other, not against each other.

What may change things for the better is a re-evaluation of economic, trade and social policies that is in keeping with the globalized economy — but from a perspective of addressing the world’s needs, including those of US citizens, while not further eroding global standards of living, especially but not exclusively among those who are the most in need. This is what the anti-globalization/anti-capitalist movements, as well as other movements, have been promoting for decades now, and continue to promote to this day.

We are not going to accomplish that goal without a fight though, regardless of whether we want one or not — which in turn raises the question of how do we all succeed towards that goal, in a world where both Capitalism and Communism has failed. I’ll save that for a later post.