• March, 2006: at least one such organizer arrived for what was initially to be a 3-month stay, and began working with the Workers’ Center (a coalition member of PHRF) to organize day laborers, under the guidance of Curtis (henceforth CM).
• Three months was extended indefinitely, grant funding was obtained to pay organizers, and a more substantial organizing campaign was developed in coordination with POC, which by then had become separate from PHRF. Together with CM, the understanding developed that what was called for was an anti-slavery campaign, an understanding that the “old slaves” (black workers displaced by the government after the flood) were being replaced by “new slaves” (immigrant guest workers).
• The anti-slavery campaign was initiated with a call for black-immigrant unity against slavery, and in particular the need for immigrants to understand that poor black people are the most oppressed in the US and consequently should be looked to by them for leadership, and should be aided by them in reclaiming and rebuilding their homes, while on the other side, members of the black community were called on to provide protection and safe haven for immigrant workers who needed to get away from their slave masters (just as historically Native Americans had provided protection and safe haven for African slaves running away from their slave masters in previous times). Specifically, the idea was promoted that immigrants and blacks are the same people, and that all should be organized as one community within the NOSC.
• An appeal was made by black and immigrant organizers to the Native American community to also provide safe haven, but this did not materialize.
• May/June 2006: Members of POC and the NOSC attended early meetings of hotel guest workers to express welcome support. These black folk also began to visit hotel workers in their rooms, play soccer with them on weekends, and in general develop friendships.
• About this time, a close working partnership, including sharing funds and organizers, developed between POC and the Workers’ Center. The staffs began meeting together on the basis that doing so would help develop the unity between blacks and immigrants in the anti-slavery campaign.
• July 2006: POC’s organizing in the Baker trailer park and the partnership’s organizing among immigrant shipyard workers led to a meeting at Baker between the two groups, both living in similar conditions as a result of the same events and the same groups of slave masters. This meeting resulted in one of the very few face-to-face tearing down of stereotypes and friction between black and immigrant workers. The workers and Baker residents described their own experiences, talked about the lies told about them, learned about their own mistaken stereotyping of the other group, and began to forge some tentative friendships. Baker residents took immigrants on a tour of their trailer park and saw photos of the trailers the immigrants lived in. A black former shipyard worker told the guest workers the wages and benefits he used to get working the jobs they now held for slave wages and no benefits. The immigrants discovered for the first time that they had been imported to replace black workers’ jobs.
• August, 2006: NOSC and POC members attended the meeting in which hotel workers confronted their bosses to show support for the immigrants from the black community, and to stand as evidence that the recruiting and hiring companies had lied when they claimed that no American workers were available to take the jobs they imported the immigrants to fill.
• February, 2007: Guest workers in western Louisiana had their passports held by their recruiter, who in many cases also provided no work or income for them. The POC-Workers’ Center partnership planned and attempted to execute a citizens’ arrest under US anti-slavery laws. Black NOSC organizers came fresh from a major attack on public housing residents to help the immigrants confront their slave master. The event resulted in dozens of workers getting their passports back the same day.
• Winter, 2007: When several immigrant day laborers were arrested in Gretna for standing on the street to try to get work, NOSC came forward to help bail them out of jail. In response, the immigrants decided to help the NOSC rebuild the home of an elderly black woman, working on Sundays and after hours as volunteer labor. A joint event was held on May 1 to do this work, which was a positive event, but also one that showed that more work needed to be done by organizers to help the grassroots people understand the anti-slavery campaign and basis for unity on both sides.
Throughout these positive developments, it has begun to be clear that even among the organizers there is not a solid commitment to true unity, and particularly to black leadership. As a result, immigrants are primarily being organized entirely separately from black folk, rather than directly under the auspices of the NOSC as originally envisioned. This is creating a situation in which the main aspect of organizing is separate, with unity being a temporary and conditional thing under specific circumstances. The idea that all of us are one people, one community, and need to be together seems to have been abandoned. The idea that immigrants coming into the US need to immediately be exposed to the truths about racism and the need for black leadership seems to have been abandoned. Across the US there has been an enormous campaign to separate black and immigrant workers, and to convince immigrant workers NOT to unite with blacks, but rather to fear and shun them. Unfortunately, this campaign seems to be having its effect also on the Workers’ Center organizers.
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Please feel free to share your thoughts on these ideas by responding to:
Curtis Muhammad
International School for Bottom-up Organizing
bottomuporganizer@yahoo.com
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