OPEN BORDERS 1NC
1.
Case Turns
a. In the long-term open borders will be reversed and lead to
more violence – Brexit proves
Wilkinson 16
Brexit,
debate has focused on just one specific concern:
immigration.
the alarmism
about immigration has somehow hit new heights.
the leader of
the (UKIP), unveiled a poster last week featuring a queue of refugees and
migrants with the words “BREAKING POINT” in red. Critics have compared the
imagery to Nazi propaganda.
Politicians from both major parties are now keen to show they take concerns
about immigration seriously—while too few attempt to make a convincing case
for welcoming migrants. Member of Parliament Jo Cox, 41, was shot dead
Thomas Mair, appeared in court charged with her murder.
When asked to give his name, he instead said “death to traitors, freedom for
Britain.”
Leave EU was also accused
of stoking prejudice after it claimed continued E.U. membership would put
Britons in danger by exposing them to the criminality of Turkish citizens.
Rather than reaffirm their commitment to the union’s open borders, proE.U. politicians responded to these claims by insisting that free movement of
people between Turkey and the U.K. is,
“not going to happen.”
Wilkins on, Abi. “T he Brexi t Vote Is R eall y About J ust One Thi ng.” T he New Republic, 21 J une 2016, newrepublic .com/articl e/134507/brexi t- vote-reall y-jus t-one-thing.
the nic kname for T hurs day’s r eferendum on whether the U.K. s houl d leave or remain in the European Uni on, c oncer ns a thic ket o f iss ues: Empl oyment rights. Tr ade agreements . T axation autonomy. Di plomatic infl uenc e. But over whel mingl y, the
It was a sign of things to c ome.
Of course, right- wi ng news papers have been running s tories for years about the s upposed dangers of i mmigration fr om Eur opean countries . “Sol d out! Flights and buses full as Romanians head for the U K” screamed The D aily M ail, for exampl e, after c ontrols on migrati on fr om those states were li fted i n 2013. Last year, i n response to the c ontinent’s migrant crisis, Kati e H opki ns wr ote a col umn for The Sun calling for g uns hi ps to be deployed in the Mediterranean Sea to s top r efugees fr om entering Europe. H er pi ec e began, “No, I don’t c are. Show me bodies floati ng in water, pl ay vi olins and s ho w me s kinny people looki ng sad. I s till don’ t c are.” As the J une 23 vote has dr awn clos er,
“Mass migration is allowi ng terrorists to pour into Europe” read a D aily M ail headli ne in April, whil e T he Sun cl aimed, “Ti de of T error: Ji hadis AR E expl oiting r efugee crisis to s muggle mi litants acros s Eur ope.” Nigel Far age,
U.K. Independence Party
Farage is one of the most pr ominent figur es i n the anti-E.U. movement, and i n many ways this r eferendum r epr es ents the c ul minati on of his life’s wor k. H e first joi ned the U KIP when it was in i ts i nfanc y, i mmedi atel y followi ng the signing of the 1992 M aastricht Treaty to cr eate an i ntegrated Europe. H e became the party’ s leader i n 2006, and has overseen its rise from obscurity to become a major political forc e. UKIP s ec ured nearl y 13 perc ent of votes in l ast year’s general election. Due to the U .K.’s non-pr oporti onal elec tor al s ys tem, this didn’t translate into a sig nificant legislati ve pr esenc e: The par ty hol ds j ust one s eat in the Hous e of C ommons . But UKIP’s i nfl uenc e has been
far-reachi ng.
Last T hursday,
outsi de a librar y in West Yor ks hire where s he was about to hold a cons tituenc y
surger y. A moder ate by most measur es, she had been a s trong advoc ate for the rights of refugees and migrants. She was als o a voc al bac ker of the Remain campaign and had tweeted a photo of her hus band and c hildr en aboar d last Wednesday’s pr o-E.U . T hames flotill a. T his week, 52- year-old
Among those who were alr eady critical of the anti-immigrant tone of the Leave c ampaign, many feel that Cox’ s death is a direc t c onseq uenc e of s uc h extr eme and di visi ve rhetoric. “If you keep tal king about br eaki ng poi nts and traitors,” one 20-s omethi ng Londoner told me, “it’s not s urprisi ng someone might s nap.” M any i n the anti- E.U. camp have pus hed bac k agai nst what they s ee as the “ politiciz ati on of a tr agedy.” T hey c ontend that M air was a l oner who appar entl y s uffered from mental illness; as suc h, his actions can’t be blamed on the wi der political climate. I s poke to one man who s ai d that, though he pl anned to vote for the U.K. to remain in the E.U ., “I feel a bit uneas y about anyone usi ng this as an argument for R emain.” n r ec ent days , s everal promi nent anti -E.U. figures have tri ed to distanc e thems el ves from the mos t toxic as pects of the Leave campaign. Barones s Warsi , for mer c hair of the Cons er vati ve Party, went as far as
to s wi tch her allegianc e to R emai n, describi ng the “hate and xenophobia” of UKIP’s “breaki ng point” pos ter as “ a s tep too far.” She has fac ed Isl amophobic abus e onli ne since defecti ng, and right- wi ng Br eitbart London nic knamed her “Barones s T oken.” Other politicians have stuck to their guns whil e attempting to emphasiz e the disti ncti on between the Leave.EU c ampaign, which Far age is as soci ated with, and the for mall y dis tinc t Vote Leave campaign, whic h is s upported by most pro- Leave M Ps. “T hat’s not my politics and that’s not my c ampaign,” for mer London Mayor Boris Johnson tol d r eporters during a r ecent tour of fis hing ports in East Anglia. However, l ast month
Turkey is n’t c urrentl y part of the E.U ., but is keen to neg otiate members hip, and headlines have war ned this
means “ 75 million Tur ks [are] on course for vis a-free tr avel in EU”— a cl ai m which has been r epeated by Leave campaig ners .
Cameron r ecentl y c onfirmed that he wouldn’t support Tur key j oini ng the E.U . within the next couple of years , but dodged questi ons on l onger-ter m possibiliti es.
in the words of Labour M P C huka U munna,
b. Large programs depress wages and ensures that
immigrants and natives are trapped into poor working
conditions
Esko w, Sen ior Advisor for H ealth & Eco nomic Ju stice at Social Securit y
Works, 16
(Ric har d, “’Open Borders’: A Gimmic k, N ot a Soluti on”, 8/5/16, T he Huffington P os t, https ://www.huffi ngtonpost.c om/rj-es kow/open- bor ders- a-gimmic k-no_b_7945140.html, 7/4/18, GD I C K)
News week rec entl y publis hed an articl e by D aniel Bier wi th the headline “ Ber nie Sanders on Immigrants: Sill y, Tri bal and Ec onomic all y Illiterate.“ The piece, when it i s not dis trac ting the reader wi th r ather uni maginati ve vi triol (phr ases li ke “lame s ocialist ag enda” ar e har dl y Pulitz er materi al), bas es its argument on a tr endy liber tarian i dea call ed “open bor ders.” Li ke many li bertarian i deas, “open borders” is bol d, has s uperfici al intell ectual appeal - and is inc apable of withstandi ng thoughtful scrutiny. It woul d benefit the weal thy few at the expens e of the many, her e and a broad. T he latest c ontrovers y beg an when Sanders (for whom, it shoul d be noted, I wor k) was as ked about immigrati on in an i nter view with Vox’s Ezra Kl ein. T he “open borders” conc ept is a simple one: allow wor kers to travel fr eel y fr om c ountr y to countr y i n s earch of employment. Proponents argue that this would improve the li ves of peopl e i n poor c ountries, becaus e they c ould earn more by movi ng to nations li ke the U nited States . T hey als o cl ai m it would, m agicall y, do ver y littl e
har m to wor kers i n nati ons li ke this one — even though proponents als o fr equentl y s uggest eli minating the mi ni mum wage at the s ame ti me. Kl ein, it should be noted, di dn’t si mpl y as k Sanders about the open-borders i dea. He argued for it, forcefull y. “You sai d bei ng a democratic soci alist means a mor e i nter national view,” Kl ein sai d to Sanders. “I think if you t ake global pover ty that s eriousl y, it l eads you to concl usions that in the U .S. ar e c onsidered out of political bounds. Thi ng s li ke shar pl y raisi ng the level of i mmigrati on we per mit, even up to a level of open bor ders .” Sanders r esponded that it the i dea is “a Koc h Br others pr opos al,” a “right- wing proposal” ( he pr es umabl y felt that Kl ein, a former D emocratic bl ogger, was not a right- wi nger), and added that “It would make ever ybody i n Americ a poorer — you’r e doi ng away wi th the c oncept of a nation state... “ What right- wing people in this c ountr y would l ove is an open-border polic y. Bring i n all kinds of peopl e, wor k for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them. I don’t believe i n that. I thi nk we
have to rais e wages i n this countr y, I thi nk we have to do ever ything we c an to cr eate millions of jobs. “You know what youth unemployment is i n the U nited States of America today? ... You thi nk we s houl d open the bor ders and bri ng in a l ot of low- wage wor kers , or do you think maybe we s houl d tr y to get jobs for thos e ki ds ?” T o Bi er, Sanders’ menti on of the Koc h brothers is gratuitous — as if i t wer e absur d to s uggest the Koc hs’ own ec onomic interests have moti vated their ideological i nvestments. (Don’t libert arians beli eve ever yone is pri marily an ec onomic act or?) Bier clai ms that it is “patentl y untr ue” that an open bor ders polic y “ woul d make ever ybody in America poor er,” and cites a study from the (Koch Br others-funded) Cato Institute as evidence. U nfortunatel y, that study bas ed on a far l ower rate of immigrati on than an open bor ders polic y woul d produce, rendering his i nterpr etation of it meaningl ess. The wor k of ec onomist Ha-J oon Chang, by c ontrast, provi des c ompelling evidence that an open borders polic y would exert a powerful downward
pull on American wor kers’ wag es. Bier then gets to the cor e of the open-borders argument, writing that “l abor is enor mousl y mor e producti ve here. As a r esult, i dentic al wor kers can earn 280 percent mor e her e than i n M exic o; wor kers from Yemen and Nigeria, 1,300 perc ent more; H aiti ans , 2,200 perc ent more.” It is inhumane, he s uggests, to deny wor kers the opportunity to multi pl y their earni ngs by s uc h i mpr essi ve perc entages. But that inter pretati on is, to borrow a phras e, “sill y, tribal and ec onomic all y illiter ate.” Bier fails to consi der a fundamental principle of economic s: when the s uppl y of labor incr eases, wages go down. A massi ve i nfl ux of for eign wor kers woul d lead to a s teep pl unge i n those multi ples. What’s more, ther e are often signi ficant cos t-of-livi ng differ ences between the U nited States and these wor kers’ c ountri es of origin. And this argument is “tribal” bec ause advoc ates li ke Bi er (and Kl ein) apparentl y don’t understand that other nati ons, despite their rel ati ve poverty, have vir tues of their own . T hat s houl d be a source of deep
It should not be necessary to endure the pain of displacement merely to
earn a livable wage. To claim otherwise, as open-borders advocates implicitly do,
is to reflect the xenophobic belief that everybody would be happier here than
anywhere else.
programs which might be
considered a model for the open borders concept — and entitled it “Close to
Slavery.” “Far from being treated as ‘guests,’” these workers are systematically
exploited and abused.”
This approach would lead to a downward spiral for
the middle class, as powerful corporate forces impose their will on an
embarrass ment for them. For most migrants, their nati ve l ands hold ties of l ang uage, c ulture, family and c ommunity.
In fac t, the open-borders cr owd someti mes c omes embarrassi ngl y close to making the ki nd of argument that was onc e depl oyed i n defens e of slaver y: Sure, they have a tough life i n this countr y, but it mus t be so much better for them her e than it was i n their ol d c ountr y. If that c omparison seems harsh, c onsi der this: T he Souther n Poverty Law C enter i ssued a report on “guest wor ker” pr ograms i n the U nited States —
the report sai d, “
T he report als o found that the pr ogram “har ms the i nterests of U .S. wor kers, as well, by underc utti ng wages and wor ki ng conditions for thos e who labor at the lowest rungs of the economic l adder .” The c ondi tions endured by past “guest wor kers” have been nothi ng short of horrifying. They i ncl ude young people on s tudent guest wor ker vis as forc ed to wor k 25-hour s hifts without overti me whil e payi ng exor bitant rents to sleep in their boss’s basement; and s eafood wor kers forc ed to endur e 16- to 24-hour work days , and 80- hour wor k weeks , laboring until their hands went numb but threatened with beatings if they stopped . Propos als li ke “ open bor ders” aren’t made in a vac uum. We already know how s uc h pr ograms l ead to abuse — and the victi ms are li kel y to
be immigrants thems el ves. Bier argues that wor kers fr om other countries should wor k for $2 or $3 per hour onc e they get her e. T hat, in a nuts hell, is why Sanders i s right and the open-borders crowd is wr ong. The open-borders i dea is inextric abl y linked to an appr oach in whic h US wages, al ong wi th thos e of for eign wor kers , are trapped in a rac e to the bottom.
inexhaustible supply of cheap and replaceable labor. mock the idea that an open
borders policy means “doing away with the concept of the nation state.”
Bier
s
But his polic y pres cripti on would leave a s over eign people unabl e to s et its own mini mum wage or deter mine i ts own
empl oyment policies. Per haps the ter m “ open bor der” s houl d be replac ed with the phr ase “cheap lawnmowi ng,” since that is the ess enc e of the argument as one writer pres ents i t. In charac teris ticall y hyper bolic libertari an styl e, Jas on Br ennan’s “Li bertarianis m: What Ever yone N eeds to Know” says this about the i dea: “Mos t peopl e on the pr ogressi ve l eft ac ti vel y tr y to restr ain the world’s poores t and most vul ner abl e people from maki ng life-s avi ng and life-c hanging trades with willing empl oyers. T hey thus c ondemn the world’s poor to death and mis er y. The pr ogressi ve l eft is delighted with me when I donate money to the poor thr ough OxF am. But the l eft forbi ds me fr om hiring the poor to mow my l awn, even though that helps them mor e than an OxFam donati on.” T his is a fals e c hoice. T he worl d’s masses will not be forc ed to choos e between per petual poverty on the one hand or taki ng a weed whac ker to Jas on Br enn an’s crabgrass on the other. T hat is wher e the thinki ng of Sanders and his c olleagues is far more s ophistic ated and s ys tems- based
The issue isn’t
immigration.
opposition to “open borders” should be based on the
recognition that the rights of all workers
are eroded
when human lives
are subjected to the global flow of capital.
than that of Bier,
Klei n, or other open- bor ders advocates . One of thos e advoc ates is D ylan M atthews, who wor ks for Klei n at Vox. M atthews r epeats many of the li ber tarians’ discr edited arguments . H e even acc us es Sanders of “treati ng Americans’ li ves as more val uabl e and worthy of c oncer n than the lives of foreigners.” T hat is an ugly misstatement of Sanders’ position. Sanders, hi msel f the s on of an i mmigrant, is a str ong s upporter of i mmigrati on and i mmigrants’ rights who wants to ensur e that we have fair and humane polici es i n this area. He supports the DR EAM Act, and believes the Administr ati on’s Deferred Acti on for C hildhood Ar ri val s (DAC A) s hould be expanded to i ncl ude the par ents of citizens , the parents of l egal per manent r esidents and the parents of DR EAM ers.
The issue is fair pl ay for all worki ng peopl e. Principl ed
can and
— immigrant and nati ve-born, in the U S and overs eas —
when wor kplace pr otecti ons ar e weakened anywhere, and
c. Open borders discourse is bad --- more realistic political
aspirations are necessary. Zizek 16
Slavoj Žiž ek ( Sloveni an M arxis t phil os opher and c ultur al critic, seni or res earcher at the Insti tute for Sociol og y and Phil os ophy, Uni versity of Lj ubljana), 2016, “Agai nst the Doubl e Blac kmail: Refugees , T error and Other Tr oubles with the N eighbours.”
those who advocate open borders know this will never happen
their remedies are
part of the disease.
it is an aggravation of the difficulty.
our proper aim should be to try and reconstruct global society
Utopian
as it may appear, this large-scale solution is the only realist one, and the display
of altruistic virtues ultimately prevents the carrying out of this aim. The more we
treat refugees as objects of humanitarian help, and allow the situation which
compelled them to leave their countries to prevail, the more they come until
tensions reach boiling point,
“The greates t hypocrites are
: secretl y, they
very well
, for i t woul d trigger an ins tant populist r evolt i n Eur ope. They play the Beautiful Soul , which feels superi or to the c orrupted world whil e s ecretl y partici pating i n it : they need this c orrupted worl d as the onl y
terrai n wher e they c an exert their moral s uperi ority. T he reas on why these appeals to our empathy towards the poor r efugees flowi ng into Eur ope are not enoug h was for mul ated a centur y ago by Osc ar Wilde i n the opening lines of The Soul of Man U nder Socialis m. There, he pointed out that ‘it is much more eas y to have s ympathy wi th suffering than it is to have s ympathy with thought’:” “[People] find thems el ves s urrounded by hi deous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by hi deous star vati on. It is i nevitabl e that they s houl d be str ongl y moved by all this … Acc ordingl y, with admirable though misdirected i ntentions, they ver y s eriousl y and ver y senti mentall y set thems el ves to the tas k of r emedyi ng the evils that they see. But their r emedies do not c ure the dis ease: they merel y prol ong it. Indeed,
They tr y to sol ve the problem of poverty, for ins tanc e, by keeping the poor ali ve; or, in the cas e of a ver y advanc ed sc hool, by amusi ng the poor . But this is not a s olution:
The proper ai m is to tr y and rec onstruc t s oci ety on s uc h a basis that poverty will be i mpossi ble. And the altruis tic virtues have r eall y prevented the carr yi ng out of this aim.8
“With regar d to the r efugees,
on s uc h a basis that desperate refugees will no longer be forced to wander around.
to Europe,
not onl y i n the r efugees’ c ountries of origin but here as well. So, confr onted wi th this doubl e blac kmail, we ar e bac k at the great Leni nist q ues tion: what is to be done?”
d. Opening borders makes global poverty worse – it leaves
the world’s poorest to human capital flight and deflates
efforts to eradicate poverty
Baider, PhD, 1997
(Vei t, D octor of Philos ophy, meritus Profess or of Sociol ogy (Department of Political and Soci o-cultural Sci ences) and of Soci al and Politi cal Philos ophy (D epartmen t of Phil os ophy) at the U ni versity of Amster dam, “Fairl y Open Borders”, Ci tizens hip and Exclusi on, ed. Veit Bader, p. 28)CN
Open borders
is
outrightly counterproductive
the proportion of
the world who might be helped in this way will be very small
migration
may weaken pressures on corrupt governments to address problems of
poverty. As a device 'immigration is
not
a realistic option at all.
, an unli mited right to exter nal free movement or i mmigration
no effec tive r emedy agai nst poverty. It mig ht even be
and ther e are obvious reasons to be s keptic al with r egard to the effecti venes s of extensi ve immigration as an anti- poverty s trategy:? (i)
's poor
; (ii) it will be imperfectl y targeted: thos e who have an opportunity to move ar e far from being among the wors t off; (iii) free
may l ead to a br ain- drain,
leavi ng the wors t-off even wors e off; (i v) it
to r educe poverty
at best one str ategy among sever al' (Woodwar d 1992: 67), it may be
even a 'sec ond best' (Goodi n 1992) or 'third best stop gap' nor
e. Evaluate morality from the perspective of the bottom billion
Collier, PhD Oxford, 13
(Paul , Economic s@ Oxford, Exodus H ow Migration Is C hanging Our World, c ut from epub with no pages )
work on the poorest societies—the bottom billion.
It is a difficult but
important question whether the resulting exodus is beneficial or harmful to those
left behind. These are the poorest societies on earth, and yet the West’s policies
on immigration create effects on them that are both inadvertent and
unrecognized. We should at least be aware of what , we are doing to these
societies.
.
People’s str uggle to migrate fr om these c ountries to the rich Wes t is both of profes sional and pers onal moment.
This book is in part a c ontinuati on of my
, in an absenc e of mi nd
I also see my friends torn between their duty to r emai n home and their duty to make the most of opportuni ties
Zapatista K
2.
a. Open Borders is the end goal of neoliberal globalization
Ackerman 11
(Dr. Edwi n Ac kerman uses c omparati ve- historical methods to unders tand how political i dentiti es for m and bec ome oper ati ve. H e has s tudied this pr ocess i n two c onte xts : politic al party for mati on in Lati n Americ a, and the historical traj ector y of debates over ‘illegal’ i mmigrati on from the global South to the U .S. His wor ks has been published in Ethnic and R aci al Studi es, the Journal of Language and Politics , and C ontexts, and has been featured i n N ati onal Public R adi o (N PR), among other medi a outlets. H e is curr entl y wor ki ng on a book manuscript that foc us es on how mass political parties for m and c onsoli date, devel opi ng a compariso n between post-revolutionar y Mexi co and Boli via. Edwi n is a for mer MFP Fell ow and F ord Fell ow. H e r ecei ved his PhD in Sociol ogy fr om UC Ber keley, “N AFTA and Gatekeeper: A T heoretical Ass ess ment of Border Enforcement i n
the Er a of the N eoliberal State”, Ber keley J our nal of Soci olog y, 2011, ac ces sed 7/13/18, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23345247) //JC
Existi ng Theor etic al Fr amewor ks: Erosion versus Trans for mation Geographer Lawr ence A. Herz og, who has studi ed the U.S.-Mexic o border region ( but not bor der enforc ement), has s uggested that
the internationalization of the world economy: has led to an
inevitable reshaping of boundary functions. The most obvious change has been
the shift from boundaries that are heavily protected and militarized to those that
are more porous, permitting cross-border social and economic interaction (
situation, it is i mportant to poi nt out that H erz og was interested in the i ncreasi ng ur baniz ation of internati onal boundar y z ones. Wher e N orth Meets South (1990) foc us es on the economic and functi onal circ ulati on patter ns that have emerged between "twi n citi es" and whic h ' eclipse the tr adi tional screeni ng functions of boundaries" ( xi). Herz og develops the c onc ept of "tr ans-fronti er metropolis": "
the ideas is that borders are being c hang ed independentl y of the will of gover nments . H erzog writes
:
1992:5-6). While such a statement is obvi ousl y perpl exi ng consi dering the present
the dejure functions of the bound ar y are fading, g iving way to n ew territor ial political co mmun ities with som e degr ee of autonom y and jurisd iction over th eir tran sn ation al living sp ace " ( xi). A c entral idea in H erz og's wor k is that s ome overall tendenc y to move pr ogressi vel y away from fortified b arriers has been in effec t beginni ng in the s ec ond half of the twenti eth c entur y. F or the author , the tr aditi onal functi ons of boundaries (to func tionall y and s ymbolic all y represent the outer lini ng of the sover eign nation s tate) have been changed. W hile the c oncept of "tr ans- frontier metr opolis" s eems to exaggerate the c hanging r ole of nati on states, one of
cros s-national tr ade, migration, and global transportati on have gener ated a sc ale of human behavi or that tr anscends the nation-state [...] the border z one between the U nited States and Mexi co is one s uc h plac e. Her e, not onl y is the boundar y increasing l y porous, i t has bec ome the loc us of large perma nent urban centers ( 1990:2- 3). T he idea that the nation s tate is bei ng transc ended is rei nforced by Herz og's embrac e of a world-s ystems approac h: " boundar y z ones deri ve their meani ng from a rol e deter mined by the wor ki ngs of the world ec onomy" (1990:13) . F urther mor e, H erz og argues: "Boundar y cities have become s o functi onall y i ntertwined that their futures ar e inextric abl y bound, wh ether or not the national governments are able to devis e for mal pr oce dures for addres sing bor der -rel ated pr obl ems" ( 1990:61; emphasis added). So, while i t might be eas y to dis miss Herz og's pr opositi ons as bl atantl y misgui ded consi dering the enforcement
the current policies are a sign of the contradiction that
exists between the interests of at least a part of the state and the tendencies
unleashed by globalization.
sovereignty is being
decentered and redistributed onto other entities such as supranational
organizations,
polici es that began in 1994, ther e is still a level at whic h his i deas are worth considering ( world-s ys tems approach asi de — whic h woul d explai n the s hift in border policies as a function of a change i n the world ec onomy); i f we take his ideas s eriousl y we c ould concl ude that
The state is tr ying to bloc k a tendenc y that transc ends i t, yet the transc end i ng is happeni ng anyway (through i ncreas ed econ omi c inter acti on and undocumented i mmigrati on, for exampl e). Sas ki a Sass en (1 995) has als o poi nted out a simil ar c ontr adiction. While s he has emphasiz ed the ways in whic h
inter national agreements on human rights that li mit s tate autonomy, and the inter national legal regime for business trans actions (65). Sas sen writes: "Ec onomic gl obalization denati onalizes nati onal ec onomies ; i n c ontras t,
imm igr ation is ren ation alizing politics
[...] that national state cl ai ms all its old s plendor i n asser ting its sover eign right to c ontrol its bor ders" ( 63) . Denationalization is i n progres s onl y i n a highl y s pecial iz ed ins titutional and functi onal way ( 65). The q ues tion becomes: "how c an the state r elinquis h s overeignty i n s ome realms an d cli ng to it i n others ?" ( 64). For Sass en, the ans wer has to do with the fact that immigration legisl ation lies within the C ongressional J udici ar y C ommittee (not wi thi n the F oreign Affairs committee, for example). Since Congress is s ubj ect to different i nteres ts based on variegated c onstituenci es, we stumbl e upon a "polic y-
making tug of war" (76) between c ongressional intent and the foreign affairs prioriti es of the exec uti ve: "i mmigrati on polic y c ontinues to be c har acterized by i ts for mal isol ati on from other maj or proc ess es, as if it wer e pos sibl e to handle migration as a bounded, cl os ed event" ( 91). Even so, Sas sen beli eves that human rights regi mes begin to impi nge on the pri ncipl e of nation-bas ed citiz enshi p and the boundaries of the nati on (95). T his i dea h as been ec hoed by Soys al, although in a mor e qualified manner: boundaries ar e not more flui d, but rights within them ar e, and i t is perhaps pr ecis el y bec ause of this that the state s eeks to enforc e territorial exclusion (1994:141). Soys al writes: The flui d boundaries of membershi p do not necessaril y mean that the boundaries of the nation-state- are flui d. N either does it i mpl y that the nation-s tate is less pr edominant than before. Indeed, the nation-states, still acting upon the national model — sinc e their exis tenc e is pr edic ated on tins model — c onstantl y tr y to keep out for eigners by iss uing new ali ens laws and
adopting r estricti ve i mmigrati on policies (1994:141; emphasis added). However, the li mits of human-rights r egimes have been evi dent in ins tanc es i n which border-enforcement polici es i n the U.S. have been contes ted on thes e grounds . In 1999, the San Diego c hapter of the American Ci vil Liberties U nion and the C alifor nia Rur al Legal Assis tanc e F oundation plac ed a demand before the Inter-American C ommission on H uman Rights agai nst the gover nment of the Uni ted States. T he petition alleged that the State was r es ponsi ble for the deaths of migrants who l ost their li ves after the i mplementati on of Operation Gatekeeper (Inter -Americ an Commissi on R eport 2005). Acc ordi ng to the petiti oners, the U.S. gover nment was ac ting i n vi olati on of Article I of the American D eclar ation of Human Rights by designi ng str ategies that consciousl y aimed at r e-channeling the fl ow of undoc umented migration to hars h rur al terrain. T he government del ayed in submitti ng a res pons e to the C ommissi on for clos e to two years . In its eventual defense, the govern ment
argued that migrant deaths c oul d not be attributed to state acti ons but rather to people being ill prepared to cr oss harsh terrain; ther e was no basis under the Americ an Declaration to sugges t that a gover nment was obligated to resort to "all r easonabl e efforts" to mini miz e threats to the right to life when crafting polic y meas ures (Inter -American C ommissi on Repor t 2005) . T he stat e c ontended that i t c oul d not be held res ponsi ble for the natural l andsc ape or " for the illeg al acti vity that its law-enforc ement personnel are acting to pr event." T he U.S. gover nment c ould not be as ked to "indiscri minatel y forgo i ts s overeign right and duty to contr ol the entr y of foreign nati onals wi thi n its territor y." The C ommission si ded with the State. Whil e the models pres ented by H erz og and Sass en s everel y un der esti mate the conti nui ng power of the s tate's bor der-enforc ement capabiliti es and i ntentionality, it is unfair to charac teriz e the debate as one between beli evers in the " erosion" of the s tate and thos e who s ee the power of the state even in an era i n whic h the ethos of
neoliberalism, at a basic level, is a theory that
claims that human well-being is best advanced by liberating individual
entrepreneurial freedoms, and hence state intervention in markets must be
liberaliz ati on was pr evalent. After all ( especi all y s o for Sas sen), there is an implicit i dea that a part of the state is i mmers ed i n "fighting" agains t the erosi on of its traditi onal functi ons in th e border. We might be i n a better positi on to unders tand bor der-enforc ement policies if we c oncentr ate on the ways in whic h the s ta te has been tr ansformed under neoli ber alis m. F or D avid Har vey ( 2005:2), for exampl e, although
severely restrained
(the state c annot poss ess enough i nfor mation to s ec ond-guess mar ket sig nals, and it mig ht become per meated by i nteres t groups who shape state inter ventions for their own benefi t), i n practic e, ther e is, however, an i mpor tant r ole for the state: [N]eoli ber alism does not make the state or partic ular i nstitu tions of the s tate (s uc h as the c ourts and police func tions) irrelevant [...] There has, however, been a radical r ec onfigurati on of s tate i nsti tutions and practic es (partic ularl y wi th res pect to the balanc e between c oerci on and c ons ent, between the powers of c apital and of popul ar movements , and between executi ve and judici al power, on the one hand, and powers of repre sentati ve democrac y on the oth er) (Har vey 2005:78; emphasis added).
This
means that, while there is a push to increase the free mobility of capital between
sectors, regions, and countries — which implies that barriers such as tariffs,
punitive taxation, and environmental controls must be removed — the state is
expected to proactively promote a "good business-investment climate." This
tension within the theory of the neo liberal state results in practices that favor a
good business climate over collective rights of labor or environmental protection
(
Harvey 2005:70) . F or Har vey the neoli ber al state i n practi ce tends to produc e legisla ti on and regul ator y fr amewor ks that advantag e c orporations ( or specific inter ests such as energy, pharmac euticals , and agribusiness) ( 77). In fulfilling this tas k, the s tate may incr eas e i ts c oerci ve capacities: T he neoliberal state will res ort to coerci ve legislation and policing t actic s (anti- pic keting r ules , for instanc e) to dis pers e or repres s c ollec ti ve for ms of opposition to cor por ate power. F or ms of sur veillanc e and polici ng multi pl y: in the U S, i nc arcer ati on bec ame a key state str ateg y to deal with prob l ems arising among the dis car ded wor kers and marginaliz ed popul ations. The coerci ve ar m of the state is augmented to pr otect cor por ate inter ests and, if nec ess ar y, to repress dis sent ( 77). Loi'c Wacquant (2009) has taken up and extended the anal ysis of the coerci ve aspect of th e neoliberal state by posi ting that the penal ap paratus has i ncreasi ngly bec ome part of the cor e organs of the state. The penal appar atus c omes to embody state s over eignty and is
instrumental in imposing c ategories and upholdi ng material and s ymbolic di visi ons . Wacquant writes: the ongoing c apitalis t "r evol ution from above commonl y call ed neoliberalis m entails the enlargement and exaltation of the penal s ec tor of the bureaucratic fiel d, so that the state may c hec k the s oci al reverberations c aused by the di ffusi on of s oci al ins ec urity i n the lower r ungs of the class and ethnic hi erarc hy as well as ass uag e popul ar discontent over the derelic tion of its tr aditi onal ec onomic and social duties (305) . Wacquant builds on Pierr e Bourdi eu's notions of the bureaucratic fi eld as travers ed by two i nter necine s truggles. The first str uggle pits the " higher state nobility" of polic y makers ai mi ng to pr omote mar ket- ori ented refor ms agai nst the "l ower state nobility" of exec utants adhering to tr adi tional g overnment goals. T he s econd s trug gle — an oppositi on between the " Left hand" and the "Right hand" of the s tate — is between the "s pendthrift" mi nistries in charge of "social functi ons," on the left, and the ministri es c harged with enforcing the new
economic discipli ne (budg et c uts , fis cal i nc enti ves and economic der egulation) on the right. Wacquant wis hes then to inc orporate an anal ysis of the penal appar atus of the s tate as a cor e c onstituent of the Right hand (289). He writes : Ever ywhere the l aw-and- order guignol has become a c ore ci vic theater onto whose stage elected officials pr anc e to dr amatize moral nor ms and dis play their profess ed c apacity for decisi ve ac tion, thereby r eaffir ming the politic al rel evance of Levi athan at the ver y moment when they organize i ts powerles sness with res pect to the mar ket (298). Wacquant, however, is critical of H arvey, who Wacquant s ees as faili ng to envisi on how the penal appar atus is centr al to the nor mal functioni ng of neoliberalis m ( 309). F or H ar vey, Wacquant cl aims, the s tate i nter venes onl y when the neoliberal order breaks down. Furthermore, the victi ms of state i nter venti on have not been opponents of cor por ate rul e, as Har vey would have it, but r ather pr ecari ous fr ac ti ons of the prol etariat. Wacq uant als o poi nts out that law enforc eme nt carries
an "expressi ve func tion [with the] ramifyi ng material effects [of] gener ating] c ontr olling i mag es and public categ ories, to stoke c ollec ti ve emoti ons and acc entuate s alient social boundaries , as well as to acti vate s tate bureaucraci es s o as to mo uld s ocial ties and str ategies" ( 309). Indeed, Douglas S. Massey et al. ( 2002) argue that border militariz ati on strategi es were enac ted mostl y for s ymbolic political purpos es and wer e gener ated by the partic ular i nterac tions between ec onomic i nsecuriti es and the "c ulti vati on of public hysteria about undoc umented mi gration" (88). Acc ordi ng to Massey et al., INS bureaucrats detec ted a means of increasing both their prestige and their resources by promoting an i mag e of a border in crisis. R ec alling the impact of the Border Patr ol's public rel ati ons fil m Bor der U nder Sieg e, M ass ey et al. state: "Los t i n the uproar was the fac t that t he i mag es were a direct c onseq uenc e of the Bor der Patr ol's own polici es — neither the number nor the charac teristic s of migrants had c hanges in any signi ficant way" (2002:88) . Yet, it i s still
uncl ear where one c oul d plac e border enforc ement wi thi n a model ( Wacq uant's and Har vey's ali ke) that does not pr ovide a spac e for instanc es in whic h the repres si ve ar m of the state is ag grandiz ed in at least appar ent detri ment to s trict neoliberal sc hemes. This oversight c an par adoxic all y result in a disreg ard for the connec tion between bor der enforc ement and N AFTA, or in exaggerated notions about the correspondence between the s tate and c api tal. Indeed, s ome have s een
N AFT A
and Gatekeeper
as serving co mplem entar y fun ction s for national and tran sn ation al capitalism
( maintai ning a vast amount of wor kers i n M exic o to feed the maquil ador as while at the same ti me allowi ng jus t enoug h wor kers to cross the bor der — un doc umented, and henc e s ubor dinated — to s atisfy American i ndustri es dependent on mi grant l abor). H us pek (2001) go es as far as to i mpl y that Gatekeeper has a s ocial-evol uti onist function as a filter that all ows i n onl y thos e who ar e more fit for wor k (those who are able to undergo the hars h c onditi ons of
capitalists demand cheaper labor for their domestic industries and actively
recruit the "industrial reserve army of labor" found in foreign labor markets.
clandesti ne crossi ng). In ti mes of high pr oduc tion, it is argued,
Convers el y, in ti mes of economic unc ertainty, a demand for a mor e cl osed
immigration polic y arises in order to avoid capital i nstability. Gr ac e C hang (2000:174) for example, has argued that the "true functi on of the IN S [is] to regul ate the movement, availability, and independenc e of migrant labor ." C ertai nl y we c an think of the ways i n which border-enforcement polici es may end up benefiti ng capitalist s ec tors. Har vey ( 2005:168-169) writes that the "geographic al mobility of c apital per mits it to dominate a global labor forc e whose own g eographi c al mo bility is cons trained." U ndoc umented l abor's "clandes tine" s tatus automatical ly r es ults i n the pres ence of a marginalized and subordinated pool of l abor, and, as Peter Brownell (2 001:85) writes : "M exican wor k ers are not i nher entl y 'cheap l abor.' R ather , U.S. i mmigrati on polic y struc tur es the c onditi ons of their partici pation i n the labor mar ket." But to pr ovi de a caus al expl anati ons of the wor kings of the state s olel y by referenc e to the benefits alloc ated (often i ndir ectl y) by its polici es puts us too cl os e to a functi onalist anal ysis at best, and, at worst, bec omes pur e s pecul atation. Neil
Brenner (2004) provi des us with a thir d model to be c onsi dered. Brenner has argued agai nst the i deas of the immi nent demis e of the nation s tate due to the unc ontroll abl e forc es of gl obalization, while at the s ame ti me critiquing the " pur el y territori alist, nati onall y foc us ed models [which] have become an inadeq uate basis for understanding the r api dl y c hanging i nstituti onal and geographical lands capes of c apitalism" (7). Brenner is inter ested in understandi ng statehood under c ontemporar y capitalism by developi ng the counter argument that national states are being q ualitati vel y transformed, not dis ma ntl ed. F or him, s tate power, polic y for mation, and s ociopolitical struggle ar e bei ng dec entraliz ed i n r espons e to both global and domes tic press ur es, maki ng city-regions " key ins titutional sites i n which a maj or resc aling of nati onal s tate power has been unfoldi ng" (3). While Br enner is mostl y i nteres ted i n the tr ans for mati on of state s truc tur es i n rel ati on to c apitalist development, it is i mportant to c on sider that the s tate func tions at differ ent j urisdicti onal l evel s.
Indeed, a recent trend has been for cities to pass anti-immigrati on laws indepen dent of the feder al gover nment (M ass ey et al. 2002:93). It is als o i mpor tant to not e, for example, that the anti-i mmigration campaign that l ed up to C aliforni a's Pr opositi on 187, which woul d deny public ser vic es to undoc umented i mmigrants in the state arguabl y beg an in Januar y 1992 when Gustavo de la Vina, a Border Patr ol c hief in San Dieg o, unilaterall y decided to put up a new fenc e and depl oy additi onal agents j ust in ti me for many undoc umented migrants' ret urn to the U.S. after vi siting famil y i n D ec ember. When migrants and s mugglers enc ountered thes e new obstacl es, they began or ganizi ng "banzai runs" (of fi fty or more i mmi grants) thr oug h the cl osest unbarricaded s ector (the offici al port of entr y its elf). By that ti me, de l a Vina had ass embled a vi deo cr ew to document the funnel ed migrator y flow and later edit a public r elati ons vi deo en titl ed Border U nder Siege. T he video bec ame an important res ourc e during Governor Pete Wils on's push for Pr opositi on 187
(in fact, it s till remai ns arc hi val footage of c hoic e for many mains tream medi a outl ets even thoug h " banz ai runs" have dis app ear ed al tog ether after Gatekeeper). Also, in the case of the border-enforcement buildup of the 1990s , it is inter esti ng to note that its i mmedi ate prec ursor was Operation Bloc kade, which was al s o unilaterall y l aunc hed by the Border Patr ol s ector i n El Pas o, T exas, in 1993 (N evins 2002:90). F urther more, in Nevi ns's descrip tion of the more immediate political atmos phere pri or to the i mpl emen tation of Gatekeeper, the new operation is disc uss ed as an attempt by the Clinton adminis tration to cr eate a counterweight t o the politic al c apital gained by the R epublic an Party through Gover nor Pete Wilson and his push for Pr opositi on 187. Fr om a politic al s tandpoint, Gatekeeper was enac ted as a way to pr ove that the Clinton admini stration was "s erious" about stopping undoc umented immigration and to communi cate to the voter that Wilson's Pr opositi on 187 was, henc e, unc alled for. It is hard to s ay that Gatekeeper is due to a r esc aling
of the s tate bec aus e certain decisi ons wer e taken at a l ocal level. Indeed, i f these deci si on s are i n hindsight c onsi dered historic all y r elevant it is bec ause they inaugurated a s et of policies that were pr ojected as a national str ateg y. T he federal state si mpl y adopted l ocall y developed appr oac hes when it s aw it fit its inter ests .
b. Capitalism is the only consistent paradigm to explain
migration patterns – any attempt to reform immigration
without first recognizing the role it plays in contemporary
neoliberalism is doomed
Ness
, Br ookl yn C olleg e – City Uni versity of New Yor k,
2007
(Immanuel , “Forging a Migrati on Polic y for C apital : Labor Shortages and Guest Wor kers”, N ew Politic al Scienc e, Vol ume:29, 12/2007, p 430- 449, APS)
most scholars fail to account for the powerful influence of corporations and the
historical tension between state, citizens, and international capital. What is
missing in the prevailing discourse on migration is the remarkable and
extraordinary effort of state and political officials to bend to the will of the
capitalist class, a historical pattern far superseding episodic periods of paying
heed to xenophobic nativist rhetoric and a weak labor movement during periods
of economic crisis.
capital permanently settles at the
lowest point, in search of the lowest-cost labor in every industry
labor is likely
to erode still further if it is unable to challenge the imposition of a national and
global regime based on a migrant temporary-labor force.
to challenge
contemporary neoliberal capitalism, it is first necessary to understand capital
restructuring and its reliance on migrant labor to expand profitability.
This article argues that
Zolberg’s pers pec ti ve c onfuses xenophobi c rhetoric for polic y, as even i n the most r estricti ve era, fr om 1882 to 1965, employers have had their way, i mporting European i mmigrants, c ontracting g ues t wor kers from M exic o, and recr uiting wor ker s from the Cari bbean. Li ke the water level, I argue that
. T his articl e asser ts that U S and for eign-born wor kers must engage in coll ecti ve cl ass s truggle thr oug h the poi nt of producti on and the state to g ain gr eater l ever age and digni ty. While the power of wor kers is evi dent through 200
years of i mmigration i t is neces sar y but not s ufficient to build clas s power through labor organizations, be they wor ker cent ers, legal clinics, or es tablished uni ons. Even vali ant str uggles to build wor ker power on an inter national scal e have failed, due to the weaknes s of wor king c lass politic al power i n the U nited States and the r eluc tanc e of organized l abor to j oin militant trans national labor mobilizati on efforts— a par adox, si nce unions have renewed i nteres t in organizing i mmigrants. T he pri mar y as serti on of this article is that i nternati onal c apitalis ts are determi ned to build a new r egime of l abor migrati on through the us e of guest wor kers on a global basis. While cros s-border labor mobility has been a persisti ng means to r educ e the power of l abor uni ons for over 200 years, nati onal l abor uni ons are unable to c hall eng e c api tal wi thout for mi ng internati onal allianc es. Ther efor e,
To devel op the politic al and economic heft
c. ¡Ya Basta! — Enough is enough. Our alternative is
solidarity with and participation in the Zapatista Army of
National Liberation.
d. At this junction, we note that the neoliberal economic
politics discipline all of our engagement towards Mexico.
Thus, we take this opportunity to affirm solidarity with the
Zapatistas, in favor of a different form of engagement, a
different pedagogy, beyond neoliberalism.
e. We should recreate debate as a pedagogical space beyond
the ideological parameters of neoliberalism. This is the only
way to change the world—each and every instance is key
Rodriguez 9
(Arturo, pr ofess or in the C olleg e of Educ ati on at Bois e State Uni versity, “Anti-c apitalist Anal ytical Fusion: Scienc e, Pedagog y and Revol ution”, Journal for Acti vist Science & Technol og y Educ ation, volume 1, number 2, pp. 48- 58)-jn-gender+ disability modi fied
If the above res embles a rant c onsider why a s tring of words that includes politic al and ec onomic critique and the ac tual mar ket func tions of our global society affect the r eader’s vi ew of this paper. T he academy tur ns its nos e at wor k marginall y revi ewe d or c onstruc ted as outcr y, pedagog y of indignation (Freir e, 2004) at how peopl e c ontinue to enslave other peopl e while destr oyi ng the last us eable res ources on the planet. Organic and ac ademy trained i ntellectuals have gi ven the world their li ves, their blood s weat and fears c hasing the ether, the unifying princi ple, in some fi elds read as tr uth in an effort to s ol ve the worl ds mys teri es. And how are they r epai d? They are indicted by the F BI, distr acted fr om their wor k by coll eagues who s cream bl oody mur der as they find ways to take s olac e from the ever yday right wing never endi ng barrage. Is it the argument they ar e after when they cry foul ? Or is it the sign, the s ymbol of freedom r epr esented by a life’s wor k in the ac ademy s haring the li vi ng experience with students , c olleagues, all wor kers ali ke
managing the li ving, the breathing and the dyi ng. And what is capitalist s chooli ng at its best mar ked by the ali enati ng pri ncipal: fuc k
[forget] the [one]
guy
& J aramillo, 2009) even the right c an s ee the fl uidity of acc epti ng the c hanging c onditi on of the s ys tem what Lacan r efers to as s ynthome of s oci eties (Lac an, 2006).
that hel ped you graduate that ens ured you made it to the next step
, the next posi tion on the res earc h/c ar eer l adder. Was it tr uth we were after as we began our doctoral s tudy i n the hopes of sheddi ng light on s ome obsc ure fac t? The mati ng pri ncipl es of the mud-was p or s exuality in the human male, ar e thes e blac k holes in the minds eye as rebellion takes the plac e of cultur al logic and cultural truth? So pr ogressi ve educ ators a refl ecti on of the reality that is human des troy the earth and its atmos pher e when their pedag ogy ens ures chil dren l ear n the sci ence nec ess ary t o produce i ndus trial c oatings , fertilizer and c yani de without als o ens uring they acquir e the depth of c onsciousness nec ess ar y to make c onnecti ons between wearing a gol d and diamond ring and the use of c yanide and s trip mi ning for their pr oduc tion. Pushi ng further, why is Mar xis m such a wor d of abus e (Mc Lar en
Radical pedagogy aint for the timid, it is a critical revolutionary praxis
marked by the blood of Zapatistas ,
searc h for truth is not about fi ndi ng the sourc e of all energy or a c atal yzi ng pri ncipal. It is the understandi ng that humans and obj ects s har e rel ati ons hi ps, princi ples that adhere to organiz ational value an d metaphysic al c oncepti on and oscillations.
human made
Che Guevara and progressi ve i ntellec tuals organic and ac ademic ali ke
that understand a need for change
.
from grippi ng tight to the c os mic orgone (Reic h, 1973) that does not permi t any competing princi pal or i deol ogy to s eep i n
The
The gangrene of racism, sexism, fascism and homophobia are
(McLaren & Jar amillo, 2009) they are the l egac y of the left and of the right. What can be done about them is mar ked by the wa ys i ntellectuals enact and partici pate in their praxis . A critical refl exi vity that draws the ki te-s tring of princi pal between the mar ket need to produce chemical s for c ons umption li ke Z yklon B and the neces sar y day to day Socratic disc ursi ve practi ces
doing more than s houti ng out to father capital in the clas sroom.
Human and environmental
devastation are the end result of our social relations
(Rodriguez, 2009)
whic h i ncludes the needs and whi ms of mar kets and of the hyper-complex s ystems that ar e s ocieties as they tr ade i n material and human s urpl us value. The l egac y of M ar x and critic al anal ys es are not the mere Utopic visions of a few stal wart yet antiquated intellectuals (McLaren, 2009) they are an entreaty
All symbols of experience return
to the source; that is we humans police ourselves and each other and we free
cultural critique positioni ng trade c ons cious ness and s ocial amnesia as the cul prits on the mar ket stage of gl obal c api talist dominati on. Critic al s ocial theor y does not dis-clude what is or what the ag ent knows or has known, li ke the c onglomerate it promulgates all bypr oduc t of human relations bad and good as actors t hat c ontribute to the enslavement of the indi vidual and the devas tati on of the natur al envir onment. Dis semi nation, the s ymbol, the di vision of units and of labor, the s tructure of the phenomenon all bear as a deri vati ve of the human and envi ronmental condi tion of existenc e mar ki ngs of each other.
ourselves and each other. Closing Remarks
The global mar ket occ upi es vir tuall y ever y cor ner of the str uggle for humanity
(McLaren & J ar amill o, 2007) c hildren i n cl assr ooms ar e the dir ect inheritors, as they grow to adulthood of the sort of s ocial and natural environment adults acc ept.
War is class war as those
who reap the benefits, profit margins, on a global scale are never those with
most at risk ;
the s ol diers doing the killing i n the fi elds benefi t onl y so far as their us e value is jus tified i n c ontrolling the world vi a the whol esal e sl aug hter of, “ enemy combatants.” T hese are c hildren and adul ts i n t he s o c alled terrorist states who happen to be in the way of c ementi ng capitalist s oci al rel ati ons — whether c opper , oil, ti mber or human inter ests . F urther mor e the human life s pan is far too s hort for any one human being to h ave an effect that significantl y i mpacts the worl d mar ket. We ar e far beyond the moment wher e the M olotov coc ktail, the baton or a roc k thrown by its s elf c an c ause the adopti on among the human c hain of a worl dwide posi tion for r evol uti on. Ev en when riots occur , the 1960s, 1980s or 1990s globall y, the mar ket fights indi vidual citiz ens to a s tandstill. H ard to throw a r oc k when you ar e star ving, or when you have to exc avate rubbl e to r ec over and then bur y
your chil dren. And yet the US has been s ucc ess full y fought to a s tandstill, i n the mar ket by C uba and Venez uel a and at war by Afg hanistan and Ir aq. Why does a militar y that possesses the s ole sur vi vi ng global Air Forc e, Navy and Army c ontinue to make war on people that return fire from horsebac k usi ng mus kets and si ngle s hot World War I er a muniti ons? The war beg un in 2003 was c onc ei ved over ten years prior; in 2009 the U S is still at war with accor ding to Gi bso n, a militar y with no long histor y of defens e no inter nal defens e i ndus tr y of note, no definabl e s uppl y lines, no cl ear c hain of c ommand or centr al leaders hip (2009).
Can i t be there is more to life and war than production or enslavement? T he cl assrooms as McLaren and Jar amillo r elate and as Bencz e and Alsop elaborate, wer e the last tr ul y public domai ns wher e students and teachers c ould engage in a r es pite from the dominant i deolog y (2009, 2009). They could take it upon themsel ves to c onsi der the soci al rel ati ons that exist and their effec t on the environment. Accor ding to
Critical educators in and out
[are] a measure of change as the onslaught of
David Hursc h, “Neo-liber als’ desir e not to i nter vene in mar kets and to foc us on economic growth, pri maril y ter ms of c ons umption, has both signific antl y c ontributed to the envir onmental pr obl ems that we face and to global war ming.” ( 2009: p5) T he copper c anyons in U tah were not put their by meteors but by mi ning operations. The depl eti on of s almon and s teelhead in the ri vers and s treams of C aliforni a, Oregon and Was hington did not happen as a pr oduct of the ravages of ti me. H uman constr ucted, petroc hemicals , posi tions on the treatment of the environment as things exis ting s olel y for the purpos e of provi di ng the cor por atocrac y with s urpl us value created all of i t.
of the classroom stand as
neoliberalism continues.
People cause the ravages of time to negatively affect the planet, surplus accumulation whether it is PCB’s in the Hudson,
Yet there is another
more insidious form of surplus accumulation—it is the toll on students in classrooms
ammonium nitrates at the mouths of the world’s major rivers or the debris from surface and subsurface detonations of nuclear material.
across the globe of curricula and pedagogies ensuring students leave classrooms
functionally illiterate. Capable only of reading and acting out the prescribed lives global
capitalists have set. Human agency and enslavement result as people live their lives
careless to the effect their actions have on the natural environment and each other.
Pedagogists in the natural and social sciences do more than share information with their students. They leave a lasting imprint, a seed
for enlightenment, which may contribute to the production of knowledge. But, more
importantly, offer an alternative to the living currently destroying the planet.