Doing policy from below: Worker solidarity and the prospects for immigration reform

Cornell International Law Journal

Volumn 41, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 101-114

  Ansley, Frances ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 42149190703     PISSN: 00108812     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (86)

1. For those seeking a helpful guide, the elegant new book, LINDA BOSNIAK, THE CITIZEN AND THE ALIEN (2006), would be an excellent and thoroughly grounded place to start.
2. MORRISTOWN: IN THE AIR AND SUN (Appalshop 2007). Fortunately, for those who want to pursue it, the film is now available from Appalshop, the venerable Appalachian community arts center in Whitesburg, Kentucky, through its website at http://www.appalshop.org.
3. Some of the people I owe thanks to were far from famous, and the names of many of them I have long forgotten. For example, the passengers on the segregated Greyhound bus that traveled between Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia showed me how people in transition can push subtly but firmly against unjust rules or generously welcome a shy teenager into their midst. Some remain giants who have continued to inspire others. In this latter category, I particularly recall Vincent Harding and Rosemarie Freeney Harding, who came to speak one evening to the Columbus chapter of the Georgia Council on Human Relations, electrifying their listeners with their vision of an alternative society and their call to action. For a current window onto some of the Hardings' work, see The Veterans of Hope Project, http://www.veteransofhope.org (last visited Jan. 9, 2008).
4. One such person was Anne Braden, whose astonishing book I read long before I met and worked with her.
5. See ANNE BRADEN, THE WALL BETWEEN (Univ. Tenn. Press 1999) (1958);
6. see also CATHERINE FOSL, SUBVERSIVE SOUTHERNER: ANNE BRADEN AND THE STRUGGLE FOR RACIAL JUSTICE IN THE COLD WAR SOUTH (2002).
7. See John Hayakawa Török, Freedom Now! Race Consciousness and the Work of De-Colonization Today, 48 How. L.J. 351, 388 (2004). The decision behind SNCC's request for white students to leave the organization was neither easy nor uncontroversial.
8. See HOWARD ZINN, SNCC: THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS 187-89 (1964) (describing contemporary struggles with the question).
9. Kendall Thomas, A Political Conception of Racial Justice, 27 N.Y.U. REV. L. & SOC. CHANGE 114, 118 (2002).
10. For more on the story of the Poor People's Campaign and of the complex relationships between King's network and SNCC,
11. see TAYLOR BRANCH, AT CANAAN'S EDGE: AMERICA IN THE KING YEARS 1965-68, at 652-690 (2006).
12. The literature on this point is of course enormous. For one thoughtful entry point,
13. see MICHAEL HONEY, SOUTHERN LABOR AND BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS: ORGANIZING MEMPHIS WORKERS (1993).
14. For a suggestive sketch of how the story of race and class has unfolded, see Howard Winant, The New International Dynamics of Race, in DOUBLE EXPOSURE: POVERTY AND RACE IN AMERICA 45 (Chester Hartman ed., 1997).
15. See Highlander Research and Education Center, http://www. highlandercenter.org (last visited Jan. 9, 2008).
16. See Risa L. Lieberwitz, Linking Trade and Labor Standards: Prioritizing the Right of Association, 39 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 641, 644-45 (2006);
17. see also Fran Ansley, Standing Rusty and Rolling Empty: Law, Poverty, and America's Eroding Industrial Base, 81 GEO. L.J. 1757, 1772-82 (1993).
18. See Lieberwitz, supra note 11, at 647.
19. See id. at 644-45.
20. Of course, this discourse also reveals a nationalist frame that raises its own problems. See infra pp. 107-09.
21. "Co-production" refers to manufacturing systems in which a product is made partly in one country and partly in another and travels across national boundaries as it passes through different stages in the production process.
22. See Don Haynes, Book Review, 49 J. POL. 313, 314 (1987). Most items assembled in Mexican maquiladora plants are the products of co-production arrangements.
23. See Stanley E. Fawcett et al., The Realities of Operating in Mexico: An Exploration of Manufacturing and Logistics Issues, 25 INT'L J. PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION & LOGISTICS MGMT. 49, 50 (1995).
24. For selected transcripts of this hearing, see Frances Lee Ansley, North American Free Trade Agreement: The Public Debate, 22 GA. J. INT'L & COMP. L. 329, 388-403 (1992).
25. I have written about some of these adventures elsewhere. See, e.g., Fran Ansley, The Gulf of Mexico, the Academy, and Me, 78 SOUNDINGS 68, 68-104 (1995);
26. Frances Ansley, Putting the Pieces Together: Tennessee Women Find the Global Economy in Their Own Backyards, in WOMEN WORKING THE NAFTA FOOD CHAIN: WOMEN, FOOD & GLOBALIZATION 141, 141-60 (Deborah Barndt ed., 1999) [hereinafter Ansley, Putting the Pieces Together];
27. Frances Lee Ansley, Rethinking Law in Globalizing Labor Markets, 1 U. PA. J. LAB. & EMPL. L. 369, 369-427 (1998) [hereinafter Ansley, Rethinking Law];
28. Fran Ansley & Susan Williams, Southern Women and Southern Borders on the Move: Tennessee Workers Explore the New International Division of Labor, in NEITHER SEPARATE NOR EQUAL: WOMEN, RACE AND CLASS IN THE U.S. SOUTH 207, 207-44 (Barbara Ellen Smith ed., 1999). The 1991 trip is the subject of a twenty-minute documentary, FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE MAQUILADORAS (Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network 1993).
29. See SUSAN WILLIAMS & BARBARA ELLEN SMITH, ACROSS RACES AND NATIONS: BUILDING NEW COMMUNITIES IN THE U.S. SOUTH 2-4 (2004).
30. See Kevin Sack, Police Learning Spanish as Latino Population Grows, N.Y. TIMES, Mar. 4, 2001, at A14.
31. See Anita Drever, New Neighbors in Dixie: The Community Impacts of Latino Migration to Tennessee, in LATINOS IN THE NEW SOUTH: TRANSFORMATIONS OF PLACE 19, 20-24 (Heather A. Smith & Owen J. Furuseth eds., 2006).
32. See generally Bob Moser, White Heat, THE NATION, Aug. 28, 2006, at 11. For more on new destinations in the Southeast, see LEON FINK, THE MAYA OF MORGANTON, WORK AND COMMUNITY IN THE NUEVO NEW SOUTH (2003); LATINO WORKERS IN THE CONTEMPORARY NEW SOUTH (Arthur D. Murphy et al. eds., 2001);
33. NEW DESTINATIONS: MEXICAN IMMIGRATION IN THE UNITED STATES (Víctor Zúñiga & Rubén Hernández-León eds., 2005);
34. STEVE STRIFFLER, CHICKEN: THE DANGEROUS TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA'S FAVORITE FOOD (2005);
35. William Kandel & Emilio A. Parrado, Hispanics in the American South and the Transformation of the Poultry Industry, in HISPANIC SPACES, LATINO PLACES: COMMUNITY AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA 255 (Daniel D. Arreola ed., 2004).
36. For more on Tennessee in particular, see Fran Ansley, Constructing Citizenship Without a License: The Struggle of Undocumented Immigrants in the USA for Livelihoods and Recognition, in INCLUSIVE CITIZENSHIP: MEANINGS AND EXPRESSIONS 199 (Naila Kabeer ed., 2005); Drever, supra note 20, at 20-24;
37. Jamie Winders, "New Americans" in a "New South" City? Immigrant and Refugee Politics in the Music City, 7 SOC. & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 421 (2006).
38. See Ansley, Rethinking Law, supra note 17, at 391-92.
39. Moser, supra note 21, at 12.
40. Id. at 12-14.
41. In the last session of the Tennessee General Assembly, there were over forty antiimmigrant bills introduced and some of them passed.
42. See Anti-Immigrant Bills Failed in the 2006-2007 TN Legislative Session, http://www.tnimmigrant.org/news.php?viewstory-54 (last visited Jan. 9, 2008).
43. See, e.g., Michelle Rupe Eubanks, Klan Rallies in Tuscumbia, TIMES DAILY (Tuscaloosa, Tenn.), May 27, 2007, available at http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20070527/NEWS/ 705270447/1007; Moser, supra note 21, at 12.
44. As Martha Mahoney has observed in a discussion of racial privilege: Most whites understand racism as something that a second party (the racist actor) does to a third party (the subordinated person of a minority race);
45. racism appears to be a phenomenon distinct from themselves. Because whites do not see the dominant norm of whiteness and the mechanisms of its reproduction, bigotry and prejudice-individualized and intentional harms-become the focus of inquiry for whites .... For white Americans above the working class-those who write the books and do most social analysis-racism often appears to be something that working class whites (particularly Southerners) do to African-Americans and other people of color.
46. Martha R. Mahoney, Constructing Solidarity: Interest and White Workers, 2 U. PA. J. LAB. & EMP. L. 747, 750-51 (2000) (footnotes omitted).
47. See CTR. FOR NEW CMTY., NATIVISM IN THE HOUSE: A REPORT ON THE HOUSE IMMIGRATION REFORM CAUCUS (2007); Mark Potok, Bait and Switch: The SPLC vs. Lou Dobbs, S. POVERTY L. CENTER, http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?pid=282 (last visited Jan 9, 2008).
48. See Rodolfo O. de la Garza, Understanding Contemporary Immigration Debates: The Need for a Multidimensional Approach, BORDER BATTLES, July 31, 2006, http://borderbattles.ssrc.org/ de_la_Garza/index1.html.
49. See RUTH MILKMAN & KENT WONG, VOICES FROM THE FRONT LINES: ORGANIZING IMMIGRANT WORKERS IN LOS ANGELES (2000); Jennifer Gordon, Transnational Labor Citizenship, 80 S. CAL. L. REV. 503, 526-27 (2007).
50. See Susan Ferriss, Survival Tactic Stirs Up Unions: Enrolling Immigrants, Legal or Not, Is on the Rise but Rankles Some, SACRAMENTO BEE, Oct. 1, 2007, at Al;
51. Steve Greenhouse, Labor Coalitions Divided on Immigration Overhaul, N.Y. TIMES, June 26, 2007, at A19;
52. Marc Santora, '08 Candidates Weighing Consequences As They Take Sides on Immigration Plan, N.Y. TIMES, May 19, 2007, at All (noting that labor unions are split on the issue of immigration).
53. See JAMES GREEN, TAKING HISTORY TO HEART: THE POWER OF THE PAST IN BUILDING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (2000) (providing the perspective of a historian asking some of the same questions from his own disciplinary foundation).
54. . Keith Cunningham-Parmeter, Address at the Cornell International Law Journal 2007 Symposium: Immigration Policy: Who Belongs? (Feb. 24, 2007) (transcript on file with the Cornell International Law Journal);
55. Kati L. Griffith, Address at the Cornell International Law Journal 2007 Symposium: Immigration Policy: Who Belongs? (Feb. 24, 2007) (transcript on file with the Cornell International Law Journal).
56. See Loretta Price & Melinda Davis, Seeds of Change: A Bibliographic Introduction to Law and Organizing, 26 N.Y.U. REV. L. & SOC. CHANGE 615 (2001) (introducing and presenting a social justice lawyering bibliography).
57. See, e.g., JANICE FINE, WORKERS CENTERS: ORGANIZING COMMUNITIES AT THE EDGE OF THE DREAM (2006);
58. JENNIFER GORDON, SUBURBAN SWEATSHOPS: THE FIGHT FOR IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS 185-236 (2004);
59. Alan Hyde, New Institutions for Worker Representation in the United States: Theoretical Issues, 50 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 385, 398-400 (2006);
60. Michael J. Wishnie, Immigrant Workers and the Domestic Enforcement of International Labor Rights, 4 U. PA. J. LAB. & EMP. L. 529 (2002);
61. Sameer M. Ashar, Public Interest Lawyers and Resistance Movements (2006) (unpublished paper, on file with author).
62. For reflections on the role of "framing" in the development of social movements, see generally Fran Ansley, Inclusive Boundaries and Other (Im)possible Paths Toward Community Development in a Global World, 150 U. PA. L. REV. 353 (2001).
63. There are excellent examples of lawyers and others who do their work with these movement-building goals in mind. For instance, members of the Immigrant Justice Project (IJP) of the Southern Poverty Law Center have worked to promote cross-race and cross-ethnic cooperation between immigrant communities and the native-born population while collaborating with community organizers to pursue strategic litigation on behalf of immigrant workers cheated of their earnings in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. SPLC Seeks Justice for Katrina's Migrant Workers: Lawyers Challenge Government's Inadequate Response to Rampant Abuse, S. POVERTY L. CENTER, Feb. 2, 2006, http://www.splcenter.org/ legal/news/article.jsp?aid=160&site_area=1. Similarly, when Julie Su tells the story of litigating for a group of Thai garment workers working in near slavery in a Los Angeles suburb, she emphasizes the legal team's pointed efforts to include a group of Mexican workers who had been employed and cheated (though not physically confined) by the same employer as co-plaintiffs in the case. See Julie A. Su, Making the Invisible Visible: The Garment Industry's Dirty Laundry, 1 J. GENDER RACE & JUST. 405 (1998).
64. See e.g., Memorandum from Jobs with Justice on Victory at Koch Foods for Immigrants' Rights and for Labor/Community Cooperation (Oct. 2005) (on file with author); Press Release, Fran Ansley, Jobs with Justice Morristown Project, New Opportunity to Support Human Rights of Immigrants in Tennessee (June 2005) (on file with author); Press Release, Fran Ansley, Jobs for Justice, Rally to Support Poultry Workers (July 2005) (on file with author);
65. see also Fran Ansley, Classifying Race, Racializing Class, 68 U. COLO. L. REV. 1001 (1997);
66. Fran Ansley, Local Contact Points with Global Divides: Labor Rights and Immigrant Rights as Sites for Cosmopolitanism Legality, in LAW AND GLOBALIZATION FROM BELOW: TOWARDS A COSMOPOLITAN LEGALITY 158, 158-80 (Boaventura de Sousa Santos & César A. Rodríguez eds., 2005);
67. Ansley, Putting the Pieces Together, supra note 17; Ansley, Rethinking Law, supra note 17.
68. MORRISTOWN: IN THE AIR AND SUN, supra note 2.
69. See, e.g., John M. Broder, Immigration, From a Simmer to a Scream, N.Y. TIMES, May 21, 2006, § 4, at 1;
70. Darryl Fears, Immigration Reform Revisited; Bipartisan Bill in House Includes Guest-Worker Program, WASH. POST, Mar. 23, 2007, at A2;
71. Editorial, Marching on; Comprehensive Immigration Reform Is the Best Way for Congress to Mark the Rally's One-Year Anniversary, L.A. TIMES, Mar. 25, 2007, at M5.
72. See Kevin R. Johnson & Bill Ong Hing, The Immigrants' Rights Marches of 2006 and the Prospects for a New Civil Rights Movement, 42 HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 99 (2007);
73. Rachel L. Swarns & Randal C. Archibold, Immigration Movement Struggles to Regain Momentum Built in Spring Marches, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 11, 2006, at A11.
74. Robert D. McFadden, Across the U.S., Protests for Immigrants Draw Thousands, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 10, 2006, at A14.
75. A discussion of the causes of international migration is, of course, beyond the scope of this essay, but the literature is vast and growing.
76. See JORGE DURAND & DOUGLAS S. MASSEY, BEYOND SMOKE AND MIRRORS: MEXICAN IMMIGRATION IN AN AGE OF ECONOMIC INTEGRATION (2002) (providing a helpful entry point to migration generally and Mexico-U.S. migration in particular).
77. For an eye-opening look at Mexico-U.S. migration from a critical Mexican perspective, see Raúl Delgado Wise, Critical Dimensions of Mexico-U.S. Migration Under the Aegis of Neoliberalism and NAFTA, 25 CAN. J. DEV. STUD. 591 (2004).
78. See Peter Dale Scott, Capital Flight Fuels Illegal Immigration, NAT'L CATH. REP. (Kansas City, Mo.), May 26, 2006, at 18.
79. See generally Thomas Clay Arnold, Rethinking Moral Economy, 95 AM. POL. SCI. REV. 85 (2001).
80. See Virginia Abernethy, Environmental and Ethical Aspects of International Migration, 30 INT'L MIGRATION REV. 132 (1996);
81. Graeme Hugo, Environmental Concerns and International Migration, 30 INT'L MIGRATION REV. 105 (1996).
82. For earlier work that involved close listening by this scholar, see Barbara Ellen Smith, Market Rivals or Class Allies?; Relations Between African American and Latino Immigrant Workers in Memphis, in GLOBAL CONNECTIONS, LOCAL RECEPTIONS: LATINO MIGRATION TO THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES (Fran Ansley & Jon Shefner eds., forthcoming 2008).
83. See generally Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB, 535 U.S. 137 (2002).
84. See Christopher David Ruiz Cameron, Borderline Decisions: Hoffman Plastic Compounds, The New Bracero Program, and the Supreme Court's Role in Making Federal Labor Policy, 51 UCLA L. REV. 1 (2003).
85. See Editorial, House of (Immigration) Blues, L.A. TIMES, July 3, 2006, at B14.
86. See Pamela Constable, Klan Leaflets Denounced in Manassas, WASH. POST, Sept. 6, 2006, at B2.