May Day Boycotts
May 1st, also known as May Day is the International Workers' Day which commemorates the struggle of working people throughout the world. Every country except the United States, Canada, and South Africa observe this day.
May Day began in the 1880s in the United States to fight for an eight-hour work day. Ironically, in the US it is now viewed as a socialist/communist agenda based day and for that reason this American created day is not celebrated freely in this country...unless it was downplayed and only by those considered Left.
2006, May Day had a purpose... to protest a pending bill which would in essence boot out all illegal immigrants and force them back into their countries without a second chance and discounting any contributions they have made to the US economy. Hundreds of thousands of people in the US participated, whether legal or illegal, by not showing up to work or school and not buying anything in an attempt to show the real clout this population has on the US economy.
As a result, many businesses with a large consumer market of first and second, even third and fourth generation immigrants as well as those who employ them had to shut down or suffer monetary losses.
Some critics could argue this amounts to economic terrorism, but a point is made clear, this country is made up of immigrants and immigrants are the backbone of this country. Without immigrants, we would have no one here but the original natives. If you felt so strongly against the immigrants, you could have easily tried to walk in their shoes by working their jobs and spending their share of the money.
I don't know if I believe in this tactic for awareness, but I do sympathize with the message as my father is an immigrant from Jamaica. My mother is an American because she was born here, but she was raised in Jamaica and only came back shortly before I was born. I could have just as easily been born Jamaican.
Not all immigrants are illegal and not all illegal immigrants are trying to ruin this country. The law illegal immigrants are breaking is not on the same criminal level of murder, rape, extortion... The law they are breaking is on the same level of a parking fine, forgetting to file taxes on time, breaking curfew. It is only a minority which make a run for the border. Most come into the country legally, but due to forgetting to file the right paperwork in a timely manner have become illegal.
Illegal immigrants are here to make a living because opportunities in their country of origin is limited. Many of them even pay taxes as well as contribute to our society.
For those who are fearful of immigrants taking over and losing all the good jobs to them, there is a remedy, but you may not like it.
Start insisting that large corporation who export all the good jobs outside of the country pay a decent living wage which is comparable to what they pay in the US. It would lead to higher prices on all goods you buy, but it would also assure that the countries which are getting the jobs have some security and incentive to stimulate their own economies and create new businesses which would employ more local people leading eventually to better education and more opportunities in those countries.
At the same time, it would also mean more jobs would stay at home paying decent wages with benefits. We cannot have fair trade unless it is fair all across the board. Unfair trade is why we have illegal immigrants. Not all come here illegally, but most have just overstayed a work permit and continued to work as normal because the desire to go back home where there is nothing available is not an acceptable option.
And insist other countries do more to stimulate their own economies and assure their citizens are treated fairly when they work. If they accept funds from other countries to help them support their people, insist they are responsible with the money and can account for it in the form of better education and more job opportunities. Most foreign aid is wasted by corrupt governments who do not help their people at all. All this wasted money could have been used to make their country better.
When you have an upside down economy, eventually the fallout will come to surface in ways we do not like. That day will come soon to the US and it will not be easy. The workers in the rest of the world are realizing they have the right to be treated humanely and deserve better working conditions as well as better trade terms.
Sooner of later, the US will not have the upper hand and it will be a very sorry day for everyone. I do not say it to gloat, but out of fear. Unless we come to terms with the fact that it is not the US above everyone else, we will go down in flames. This narrow-minded view of immigrants is only one aspect of how this tunnel vision will ruin our country.
May Day began in the 1880s in the United States to fight for an eight-hour work day. Ironically, in the US it is now viewed as a socialist/communist agenda based day and for that reason this American created day is not celebrated freely in this country...unless it was downplayed and only by those considered Left.
2006, May Day had a purpose... to protest a pending bill which would in essence boot out all illegal immigrants and force them back into their countries without a second chance and discounting any contributions they have made to the US economy. Hundreds of thousands of people in the US participated, whether legal or illegal, by not showing up to work or school and not buying anything in an attempt to show the real clout this population has on the US economy.
As a result, many businesses with a large consumer market of first and second, even third and fourth generation immigrants as well as those who employ them had to shut down or suffer monetary losses.
Some critics could argue this amounts to economic terrorism, but a point is made clear, this country is made up of immigrants and immigrants are the backbone of this country. Without immigrants, we would have no one here but the original natives. If you felt so strongly against the immigrants, you could have easily tried to walk in their shoes by working their jobs and spending their share of the money.
I don't know if I believe in this tactic for awareness, but I do sympathize with the message as my father is an immigrant from Jamaica. My mother is an American because she was born here, but she was raised in Jamaica and only came back shortly before I was born. I could have just as easily been born Jamaican.
Not all immigrants are illegal and not all illegal immigrants are trying to ruin this country. The law illegal immigrants are breaking is not on the same criminal level of murder, rape, extortion... The law they are breaking is on the same level of a parking fine, forgetting to file taxes on time, breaking curfew. It is only a minority which make a run for the border. Most come into the country legally, but due to forgetting to file the right paperwork in a timely manner have become illegal.
Illegal immigrants are here to make a living because opportunities in their country of origin is limited. Many of them even pay taxes as well as contribute to our society.
For those who are fearful of immigrants taking over and losing all the good jobs to them, there is a remedy, but you may not like it.
Start insisting that large corporation who export all the good jobs outside of the country pay a decent living wage which is comparable to what they pay in the US. It would lead to higher prices on all goods you buy, but it would also assure that the countries which are getting the jobs have some security and incentive to stimulate their own economies and create new businesses which would employ more local people leading eventually to better education and more opportunities in those countries.
At the same time, it would also mean more jobs would stay at home paying decent wages with benefits. We cannot have fair trade unless it is fair all across the board. Unfair trade is why we have illegal immigrants. Not all come here illegally, but most have just overstayed a work permit and continued to work as normal because the desire to go back home where there is nothing available is not an acceptable option.
And insist other countries do more to stimulate their own economies and assure their citizens are treated fairly when they work. If they accept funds from other countries to help them support their people, insist they are responsible with the money and can account for it in the form of better education and more job opportunities. Most foreign aid is wasted by corrupt governments who do not help their people at all. All this wasted money could have been used to make their country better.
When you have an upside down economy, eventually the fallout will come to surface in ways we do not like. That day will come soon to the US and it will not be easy. The workers in the rest of the world are realizing they have the right to be treated humanely and deserve better working conditions as well as better trade terms.
Sooner of later, the US will not have the upper hand and it will be a very sorry day for everyone. I do not say it to gloat, but out of fear. Unless we come to terms with the fact that it is not the US above everyone else, we will go down in flames. This narrow-minded view of immigrants is only one aspect of how this tunnel vision will ruin our country.
posted by Callen Damornen at 10:54:00 pm
4 Comments:
So we are supposed to reward the illegals with citizenship? What about all of the legal immigrants that decided that it was the right thing to do and follow the procedures to become legal citizens? If you were to sneak into Mexico and get caught, you would go to prison for two years and then get deported back to the US. All we are asking is that they get taken back to the border and attempt to enter the country legally. By the way who cares what they have done in this country up until now, they paid zero income tax and yet they claim they deserve all the benefits and rights of legal citizens of this country.
And you completely missed my point.
Great answer Callen
Most of our relatives were either undocumented or came in before massive quotas.
Some of my best friends, who own very successful businesses and happilly pay taxes were once illegal
Immigrants keep this country vibrant.
No undocumented worker gets all benefits and rights of this country--yet many pay taxes
The neocon wet dream is to export any job that pays above starvation wages, and then flood the domestic job market so that even the jobs here don't pay starvation wages. And this is what the Chimperor has done by leaving the border unguarded.
Old Mr. Security has said, in effect, "If it is a choice between allowing 'turists' access to our country or destroying the wage base in America, then I guess you'll just have to live with 'turists' coming over the border." And his worshippers (the group most up in arms over the illegals) don't even see it.
I am not in favor of rewarding violators of the law with normalcy, but now that the Chimperor's policies have allowed so many of them in, certainly we must find a way to work them into society. I think perhaps McCain-Kennedy is the best set of ideas I have seen on the subject.
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