Post by crudo on Oct 4, 2005 10:34:57 GMT -5
-Borders only exist for the poor. For foreign elites it is relatively
easy to migrate to the US. For poor people the country is off limits.
-At the point on the map where the US and Mexico meet, there is for all
practical purposes a border that is only one sided. That is, Anyone can
pass freely into Mexico, but only those with “citizenship” can pass
into
the US.
-For the rich, for corporations and for capital, borders don't exist.
While the rhetoric of freedom and liberty is thrown around regularly we
actually take these things seriously. We are all subject to innumerable
controls in our daily lives, but millions of people in this country
have
been stripped of the right to exist, their very being deemed illegal.
This is an abomination.
- Furthermore, immigration controls, like other forms of racism, create
a class of people who have less rights and are more precarious in the
living and working situations. Having such a class of people at hand
only serves to make all people more likely to have less rights, as well
as to divide people with the threat of putting them into such a class.
Think Apartheid, but this time poor whites and African American’s are
pitted against poor migrants so that everyone loses except corporations
and a handful of folks at the top.
- European immigrants who stole this land 150 years ago through
genocidal aggression would like everyone to forget the history of this
land and its peoples. They would like to write-out this controversial
history of racism, aggression and the resistance to it. Erecting
borders
and hiding behind so-called morally neutral laws, written and enforced
by a government built upon this shameful history does not obscure basic
moral questions about the way we treat other human beings.
Migrant people are subject to beatings, detention for years without
trial and deportation, often splitting and destroying families forever.
And while the privileged amongst us cross through the turnstiles at the
port of entry, more then 3300 people have died, and tens of thousands
have been incapacitated crossing through the deserts to get to this
side
of the
line.
- We take very serious the belief that every human being is inherently
equal, valuable and deserving of rights. Borders, “citizenship” and
migration controls are a means of saying that one person is more
valuable and deserving of rights, and dignity than another person. And
not only is it a way of saying some people are more valuable, it is a
way to justify and give license to the cruel exploitation and gagging
of
millions of people.
And lets be very clear. To willfully ignore all of this or to say that
it is acceptable because people had a choice to migrate is disgusting,
immoral and inaccurate.
When discussing migration, often the most bigotted and ignorant
thoughts
come to the minds of U.S.ers - invasion and disease, joblessness and a
loss of culture. People cannot understand our desire to tear down the
border they so mistakenly think keeps them safe. "They would all move
here." or "It would destroy the country" as well as other ideas loaded
with similar racism and xenophobia surface in the public language.
As equally powerful as the physical wall, is the symbolic or
psychological significance of the border. For many in the U.S., the
wall
is a point at which the great other, all that is bad and out of control
can be kept out. Hundreds of millions of people, including many people
in the organic collective, have a very different experience. There is
no
validity to the claims made by many border vigilantes that they are
stopping terrorism at the border. The border, to the millions who have
encountered it, is terrorism.
Migrant people bring money into our economy, they do not drain the
economy, as the common misconception holds. Here is a good study
explaining it.
As Anarchists, we want Autonomy and Freedom. What kind of Freedom and
Autonomy do people have if they don't have Freedom of Movement and the
Right to Stay? How free are people if they can't choose where they want
to live?
We are working to create a world without borders or war. We are
working for a world of self-governed communities, based on mutual aid
and human dignity, which are more democratic and humane than the
nations
we see today which are built on genocide and protected by fences, hired
killers and guns.
For similar campaigns around the world, see:
noii.org.uk/ - No One Is Illegal - UK
solidarityacrossborders.org - Solidarity Across Borders
noii-van.resist.ca - No One Is Illegal - Vancouver
noborder.org/ - The No Border Network
The organic collective is an Anarchist collective in San Diego whose
mission is to organize creative resistance at the intersections of
oppressions locally and globally, and to nurture the emergence of
futures shaped by autonomous spaces and collective liberation.
--
o.r.g.a.n.i.c.
opposing repression globally and nurturing independent communities
deleteTheBorder.org
organicCollective.org
easy to migrate to the US. For poor people the country is off limits.
-At the point on the map where the US and Mexico meet, there is for all
practical purposes a border that is only one sided. That is, Anyone can
pass freely into Mexico, but only those with “citizenship” can pass
into
the US.
-For the rich, for corporations and for capital, borders don't exist.
While the rhetoric of freedom and liberty is thrown around regularly we
actually take these things seriously. We are all subject to innumerable
controls in our daily lives, but millions of people in this country
have
been stripped of the right to exist, their very being deemed illegal.
This is an abomination.
- Furthermore, immigration controls, like other forms of racism, create
a class of people who have less rights and are more precarious in the
living and working situations. Having such a class of people at hand
only serves to make all people more likely to have less rights, as well
as to divide people with the threat of putting them into such a class.
Think Apartheid, but this time poor whites and African American’s are
pitted against poor migrants so that everyone loses except corporations
and a handful of folks at the top.
- European immigrants who stole this land 150 years ago through
genocidal aggression would like everyone to forget the history of this
land and its peoples. They would like to write-out this controversial
history of racism, aggression and the resistance to it. Erecting
borders
and hiding behind so-called morally neutral laws, written and enforced
by a government built upon this shameful history does not obscure basic
moral questions about the way we treat other human beings.
Migrant people are subject to beatings, detention for years without
trial and deportation, often splitting and destroying families forever.
And while the privileged amongst us cross through the turnstiles at the
port of entry, more then 3300 people have died, and tens of thousands
have been incapacitated crossing through the deserts to get to this
side
of the
line.
- We take very serious the belief that every human being is inherently
equal, valuable and deserving of rights. Borders, “citizenship” and
migration controls are a means of saying that one person is more
valuable and deserving of rights, and dignity than another person. And
not only is it a way of saying some people are more valuable, it is a
way to justify and give license to the cruel exploitation and gagging
of
millions of people.
And lets be very clear. To willfully ignore all of this or to say that
it is acceptable because people had a choice to migrate is disgusting,
immoral and inaccurate.
When discussing migration, often the most bigotted and ignorant
thoughts
come to the minds of U.S.ers - invasion and disease, joblessness and a
loss of culture. People cannot understand our desire to tear down the
border they so mistakenly think keeps them safe. "They would all move
here." or "It would destroy the country" as well as other ideas loaded
with similar racism and xenophobia surface in the public language.
As equally powerful as the physical wall, is the symbolic or
psychological significance of the border. For many in the U.S., the
wall
is a point at which the great other, all that is bad and out of control
can be kept out. Hundreds of millions of people, including many people
in the organic collective, have a very different experience. There is
no
validity to the claims made by many border vigilantes that they are
stopping terrorism at the border. The border, to the millions who have
encountered it, is terrorism.
Migrant people bring money into our economy, they do not drain the
economy, as the common misconception holds. Here is a good study
explaining it.
As Anarchists, we want Autonomy and Freedom. What kind of Freedom and
Autonomy do people have if they don't have Freedom of Movement and the
Right to Stay? How free are people if they can't choose where they want
to live?
We are working to create a world without borders or war. We are
working for a world of self-governed communities, based on mutual aid
and human dignity, which are more democratic and humane than the
nations
we see today which are built on genocide and protected by fences, hired
killers and guns.
For similar campaigns around the world, see:
noii.org.uk/ - No One Is Illegal - UK
solidarityacrossborders.org - Solidarity Across Borders
noii-van.resist.ca - No One Is Illegal - Vancouver
noborder.org/ - The No Border Network
The organic collective is an Anarchist collective in San Diego whose
mission is to organize creative resistance at the intersections of
oppressions locally and globally, and to nurture the emergence of
futures shaped by autonomous spaces and collective liberation.
--
o.r.g.a.n.i.c.
opposing repression globally and nurturing independent communities
deleteTheBorder.org
organicCollective.org