Deleting borders and the capitalist system

While mocking Matthew 25:35, Skip Thacker wrote: “When I see pictures of [undocumented people] being welcomed into the homes of Marsh and other[s], with porta-potties and tents in their yards and driveways, they’ll know what filth is...”

With that statement’s typical Christian hypocrisy and “subtle” racism aside, virtually all undocumented workers contribute to society by working diligently and paying taxes.

They’re nearly entirely self-reliant, devoid of a need to reside on the driveways of others, and are anything but filthy.

They perform indispensable roles in agriculture, construction, hospitality, and other industries where capitalists don’t need to pay meaningful wages. Capitalism couldn’t function without them.

Capitalists rely on a globalized labor pool. And, for capitalists to meet their demand for labor power, that labor pool must be mobile, poor, and vulnerable. And the nation-state is the primary mechanism of control over the mobility of labor power while ensuring low wages.

Border controls enable capitalists, via the state, to assert control of migrant workers instead of permitting them to move freely.

For its part, NAFTA advances the smooth transit of commodities and raw materials across borders while preventing the establishment of an international minimum wage.

After NAFTA became law, many capitalists told their employees they intended to relocate to Mexico unless their workers accepted wage and benefits reductions.

That and other fear-inducing divide-and-conquer strategies cause many white Americans to embrace various forms of bigotry as feudal attempts to protect their jobs and well-being.

Referring to immigrants as “filthy” denies them their humanity and right to equal treatment. It also plays all workers into the hands of capitalists who depend on a divided workforce.

Deleting borders and the capitalist system they serve are the only way humanity will ever again live in relative harmony. We “have nothing to lose but our chains.” http://www.slp.org/

Guy Marsh Lancaster