Author: David Bacon

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.

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.

A political alliance is developing between countries with a labor export policy and the corporations who use that labor in the global north.

The Americas Program presents a slide show of pictures and texts from renowned photojournalist David Bacon, who takes an up-close look at Occupy Movements on the West Coast.

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’.

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’.

Increasing anti-union practices on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border have spurred a revival of solidarity work over the last several decades. In this third article of David Bacon’s series ‘Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity’, the author looks at the causes of this trend, the obstacles to it, and the power and potential of organizing across borders. All articles in this series were originally published in the Institute for Transnational Social Change report ‘Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity’.

The Party of Institutional Revolution’s (PRI) recent effort to reform Mexican labor law took aim at workers and independent unionism in Mexico. In this second installment of David Bacon’s series on cross-border solidarity, the author looks at this legislative assault on workers’ rights and other recent neoliberal reforms of Mexico’s economy. All articles in this series were originally published in the Institute for Transnational Social Change report ‘Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity’.

In this first installment of David Bacon’s series on cross-border solidarity, the author lays out the questions that informed the series and takes a look at some of the notable campaigns and figures of the often overlooked history of US-Mexican labor solidarity. This installment, and all subsequent installments, first appeared in the report ‘Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity’ put out by UCLA’s Institute for Transnational Social Change.