A Hero of Tlatelolco

A Hero of Tlatelolco

Every year on October 2 thousands of Mexican students pour into the streets of Mexico City, marching from Tlatelolco through the historic city center downtown, to the main plaza. This year they commemorated the 1968 massacre of students, the attack on Ayotzinapa students last month and the life of Raúl Alvarez Garin, “the hero of Tlatelolco”.

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From Perote to Tar Heel

For over two decades, Smithfield has used NAFTA and the forces it unleashed to become one of the world’s largest growers, packers and exporters of hogs and pork. But the conditions created in Veracruz to help it make high profits, as one of Mexico’s largest pig producers, also plunged thousands of Veracruz residents into poverty.

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The Modern Immigrant Rights Movement

Over the 27 years since IRCA, a general division has marked the U.S. immigrant rights movement. On one side are well-financed advocacy organizations in Washington DC, with links to the Democratic Party and large corporations. They formulate and negotiate over immigration reform proposals that combine labor supply programs and increased enforcement against the undocumented. On the other side are organizations based in immigrant communities, and among labor and political activists, who defend undocumented migrants, and who resist proposals for greater enforcement and labor programs with diminished rights.

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Increasing Reliance on Guest Worker Programs

Over the last 25 years, guest worker programs have increasingly become a vehicle for channeling the migration that has stemmed from free market reforms. Increasing numbers of guest workers are recruited each year for labor in the U.S. from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean under the H1-B, H2-A and H2-B programs. Recruiters promise high wages and charge thousands of dollars for visas, fees and transportation. By the time they leave home, the debts of guest workers are crushing.

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Immigration and the Culture of Solidarity

In this final article of David Bacon’s series ‘Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity’, the author looks at immigration and the potential of migrant worker organizing. This article was originally published in the Institute for Transnational Social Change report ‘Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity’.

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Growing Ties Between Mexican and U.S. Labor

In this fourth article of David Bacon’s series ‘Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity’, the author looks at the growing ties between U.S. and Mexican unions. This article was originally published in the Institute for Transnational Social Change report ‘Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity’.

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