But this is unlikely, given all the shortages showing up in the economy. Shortages of computer chips have slowed car production. Shortages of lumber are crimping housing construction and driving up prices.

One thing that is not rising rapidly are wages, with a gain of 2% over the last year. This is less than half the overall inflation rate for consumers reported in April of 4.2%. This means that the actual purchasing power of workers’ wages are going down on average.

Nevertheless, businesses across the country are complaining about a shortage of labor, even as they drag their feet on increasing wages, in an effort to further fatten their bottom line. The big corporations and the richest 1% made out like bandits during the recession, and now they are doing the same.

Businesses are showing their control of both political parties, as 25 Republican-led states are ending the $300 a week supplement to unemployment benefits and also the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA for the self-employed and gig workers. President Joe Biden defended their “right” to end the aid and emphasized that they are temporary programs.

But the PUA in particular is needed as a permanent program, as a growing number of businesses like Uber and Lyft convert their workforce to “independent contractors” to save on taxes and benefits. These workers are not covered by traditional unemployment insurance, and the PUA actually is paying benefits to more jobless workers than the regular state unemployment program.

Last month, when the job creation number was only about one-quarter of what economists predicted, businesses launched a campaign to blame unemployment benefits. This month, with twice as many jobs created, they are still singing the same tune. What they really want is to reduce unemployment benefits as much as possible to force the jobless to work for lower wages. Another sign of the businesses chasing lower wages is that the unemployment rate for teenagers fell to a historic low in records going back to 1953.

The same jobs report also said that the official national unemployment rate fell in May to 5.8%, from 6.1% in April. While most of this improvement came from the unemployed finding jobs, almost one-third came from people leaving the labor force by giving up their search for a job. Over the last three months the unemployment rate has only dropped by 0.2%. At this rate is would take almost three years to get the rate down to the pre-recession level of 3.5% last seen in February 2020.

The official unemployment rate understates the economic hardship workers have faced. Counting all the people who have given up looking for working or working, the unemployment rate would be closer to 7.6%, more than twice the level before the recession. The rising tide of job creation, as usual, is very unequal, with Latinos and African Americans having unemployment rates 50 to 100% more than that of whites.

Another challenge for jobless workers is that the federal eviction moratorium is ending on June 30. More than 10 million tenants are behind on their rent and could face evictions once this protection is dropped. The federal government is spending billions to try to aid tenants and landlords. But not only is the amount too little; only part of the money has been spent. A handful of states have enacted their own moratoriums but many more will need to do this.

#SanJoséCA #US #PeoplesStruggles #IndigenousPeoples #MasaoSuzuki #economy #PandemicUnemploymentBenefitsPUA

San Jose, CA – On Sunday, April 11, at 2 p.m. Pacific / 5 p.m. Eastern, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization is hosting an online program about the wave of violence against Asian Americans; violence which led to the recent massacre of eight people, six of whom were Asian American women near Atlanta, Georgia.

Four community organizers: David Monkawa, Progressive Asian Network for Action, in Los Angeles; Monique Sampson, Freedom Road Socialist Organization in Jacksonville, Florida; Daisy Sim, Tallahassee Community Action Committee, Tallahassee, Florida, and Masao Suzuki, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, San Jose, California, will be speaking on how to fight anti-Asian American violence, understanding its historical roots, and building unity among Asian Americans and solidarity with other oppressed nationalities.

Event details here.

#SanJoseCA #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #MasaoSuzuki

Fight Back! interviews Masao Suzuki, professor of economics and a leading member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Fight Back!: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham once said that extending the extra $600 a week in unemployment insurance would happen “over my dead body.” Why are Republicans so opposed to helping out the millions of workers who lost their jobs during the current crisis?

Masao Suzuki: A common view is that the Republican party leadership is cruel and uncaring – and of course this is true. But underlying this inhumanity is the logic of capitalism, which needs what Marx called a “reserve army of labor” to keep wages down and maintain profits. This reserve army is made up of both the unemployed, and in the United States, immigrants from Mexico, Central America and Asia in particular.

Regular unemployment insurance benefits came out of the massive, communist-led struggles by the working class during the Great Depression of the 1930s. But typically, these benefits only replace a fraction of the workers’ lost wages, and last for a short period of time. While they are able to stave off crippling poverty, there is still a strong economic incentive to take another job, even at lower wages.

The fact of the matter is that lower-paid workers were the hardest hit by the crisis, as millions of jobs in low-wage service industries were lost. Since the extra $600 is across-the-board, many of the lowest paid workers are getting more in benefits than when they were working. So, many capitalists would like to end these benefits to put pressure on workers to return to work, without the businesses spending enough to make the workplaces safe. In addition, we see Republicans also pushing for legal protections for businesses that reopen and allow the virus to sicken their workers.

This attitude is very different than workplaces in China, which has a socialist economic system and was the first country with a large outbreak of the pandemic and to bring it under control. In a recent interview by a U.S. business news outlet, the head of operations for a large Chinese computer company in Wuhan said that his first priority is keeping the virus out of the plant, while production comes second. This is the reason why China has gone from also having all of the world’s infections to catching small outbreaks numbering less than 50 per day. In contrast, here in the United States, where we had months to prepare, we have been number one in infections since the end of March. Day after day we have record numbers of new infections, more than 68,000 at last count.

Fight Back!: We seen a big shift to online commerce and a drop in in-store retail. Doesn’t this help keep people safe from the pandemic?

Suzuki: One of the things that capitalist economic crises do is to speed up economic trends already happening. For example, in the last economic crisis, there was a large increase in the use of part-time, temporary and contract workers, who are paid less, often with no benefits, and whose work hours can rise and fall as the business needs. This was already happening before the 2008 crisis but grew even faster with the crisis.

In the same way, the shift to online retail was already happening before 2020 and the pandemic. This is usually explained as a result of new technology, but in fact distance retail has been going on for over 100 years. The rise of Sears, Roebuck and Company and its mail-order catalog in the 19th century was beginning of distance mass merchandising. The explosion of online sales today is safer for consumers, many of whom do not feel as safe browsing through a retail store even when they are open.

But they do not protect the growing number of warehouse workers, like those working at UPS, who are the backbone of online sales. The growth of online sales is also speeding up another tendency under capitalism, which Marx called the rising organic composition of capital. Marx recognized the tendency for capitalist enterprises to substitute machinery and technology for human labor. From the first large textile factories in England, which threw thousands of independent weavers out of work, to the automated warehouses of today, there has been a constant stream of working people who have lost their livelihood to new technology.

This is also happening today in meatpacking, which has perhaps the most labor-intensive large factories in the United States today. Large meatpacking companies such as Tyson foods are doubling down on their efforts to use more robots in their factories in a way that has already been done in industries such as auto.

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #MasaoSuzuki

San José, CA – On Sunday, February 17, more than 400 people filled the San Jose Buddhist Church gym for the 39th annual Day of Remembrance event. Across the country, Japanese American communities commemorate the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. The San Jose event was organized by NOC, the Nihonmachi [Japantown] Organizing Committee.

This year’s event came just two days after President Trump declared a National Emergency in order to build his wall on the Mexico-U.S. border. Criticism of this act and comparisons with Japanese American experience and the World War II concentration camps ran throughout the program, which had the theme, #NeverAgainIsNow.

Sumi Tanabe, who was incarcerated during World War II, welcomed the audience on behalf of the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin. Sumi was the first woman to be president of the church.

She was followed by Masao Suzuki, a professor at Skyline College. He pointed out that many Japanese unauthorized immigrants came to the United States through Mexico, just as Honduran and other Central American refugees are coming to the United States today. Like these refugees today, Japanese immigrants came to improve the life of their children. They had the saying “kodomo no tame ni” – for the sake of the children – to explain how they endured the hardships in America.

Suzuki described how the World War II concentration camps were caused by “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” These same forces are at work today with President Trump’s declaration of a ‘state of emergency’ to build his wall on the border. “The yellow peril of a hundred or more years ago has been replaced by a ‘brown peril’ today,” continued Suzuki. Suzuki called on the audience to support protests against the state of emergency and Trump’s wall.

Fahad Alam, President of the South Bay Islamic Association, thanked NOC and the Japanese American community to be the first to stand up for the rights of American Muslims after September 11, 2001. The importance of today’s immigrants was stressed by Teresa Castellanos, who is the coordinator of Santa Clara County’s Immigrant Relations and Integration services. She was followed by Chizu Omori, another Japanese American who was incarcerated in the Poston camp on the Colorado River Indian Reservation. Omori was also co-producer of the film, Rabbit in the Moon, a documentary on her family’s experiences.

The last speaker of the evening was Don Tamaki, one of the lawyers for Fred Korematsu. During World War II, Fred Korematsu, along with Min Yasui and Gordon Hirabayashi, had challenged Executive Order 9066 and took the fight all the way to the Supreme Court. While the courts upheld the concentration camps under the guise of ‘national security,’ Don Tamaki and others fought to reopen Korematsu’s case many years later and were able to get his conviction vacated on the grounds that the U.S. government had hidden evidence. Tamaki criticized Trump’s national of emergency as unconstitutional.

The San Jose Day of Remembrance had a number of cultural performances, including singer Safiyah Hernandez, the young musician Jake Shimada, and the traditional San Jose Taiko [Japanese drum] performance. San Jose Taiko did a piece with poet Asha Sudra, and two of their younger members, one Vietnamese American, and the other the child of recent Japanese immigrants, on what Day of Remembrance and the Japanese American community meant to them.

In the middle of the program there was a candlelight procession through San Jose’s Japantown. It began with a candle-lighting ceremony, one candle for each of the ten concentration camps. The candles were lit by Betty Shibayama and Eiko Yamaichi, who had both been incarcerated during World War II, assisted by their children and grandchildren. The program ended with a benediction by Reverend Inouye of the Wesley United Methodist Church and closed by the Nihonmachi Organizing Committee emcee Reiko Nakayama.

Photos the San Jose Day of Remembrance can be seen at www.probonophoto.org/2019/Feb17DoRSJ/i-BXswz4z/A,courtesy of pro bono photographers Chris Cassell and Jack Owicki.

#SanJoséCA #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #MasaoSuzuki #PoliticalRepression #NationalEmergency #NihonmachiOrganizingCommittee

This is part three of a three-part interview. Click for part one and part two of this interview. Fight Back!: President Trump seems intent on risking on a trade war with China in order to narrow the U.S. trade deficit. Trump thinks the U.S. trade deficit means that the U.S. is a loser, and by bringing down the trade deficit the U.S. economy will grow by the same amount, creating jobs and income here in the U.S. What do you think?

Masao Suzuki: I think that this is wrong.

For example, let’s see what would happen if Trump were to cut imports from China by $100 billion over the next year. Instead of tariffs, he could ban the sale of Chinese-made cell phones and personal computers, which came to about $110 billion last year. Would this boost the U.S. economy by $100 billion?

It would, but only if Americans spent that $110 Billion on U.S.-made cell phones and personal computers. The fact is that U.S. cell phone manufacturers such as Apple have offshored all of their cell phone production. The same with U.S. computer manufacturers such as Dell and HP. Ironically, the only major computer company still making personal computers in the U.S. is Lenovo, a Chinese company.

Fight Back!: So what would happen instead?

Suzuki: Some Americans would turn to cell phones made in other countries. For example, the south Korean company Samsung, which is one of the world’s largest cell phone makers, assembles many of its cell phones in Vietnam. So one effect would be to increase imports from Vietnam and other cell phone exporting countries, meaning no net fall in the total U.S. trade deficit.

Others would choose to spend their money on other goods and services, although many consumer goods – clothes, shoes, TVs, electronics, etc. – are also imported. But many would just wait the year or two it would take for Apple, Samsung and other manufacturers to move their manufacturing out of China to another country, like Vietnam. So, what would happen in a year or two is that trade deficit would shift to other countries.

Fight Back!: What about in the meantime?

Suzuki: Apple has only about a week’s worth of inventory, other manufacturers a little more. So, starting in about a week, Apple runs out of cell phones and computers to sell, followed soon after by other companies. The Apple store has more than 30,000 employees in the U.S., many of who would lose their jobs while Apple scrambles to move its production out of China. Add to this the workers at other cell phone and computer companies, trucking and shipping workers.

So in the near term the impact of a ban on Chinese imports would be higher prices for cell phones and computers, and job losses. A trade war with China involving higher tariffs could have the same effect – and this is not even taking into account retaliation by China, which has already targeted U.S. soybeans and aircraft after Trump called for tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports.

Fight Back!: The underlying issue is that millions of manufacturing jobs, many of them unionized with decent pay and benefits, have disappeared from the U.S. in the last 20 years. If slashing the trade deficit won’t help, what would?

Suzuki: Some of the job losses in manufacturing are because of automation or other improvements in productive technology. For example, in steel the more labor-intensive open hearth production using iron ore has been largely replaced by electric arc production uses a lot less labor. In auto too, production of cars and light trucks has remained the same while employment has fallen.

But it is true that that there has been a large increase in imports of auto sedans, washing machines, etc. as U.S., European, and Japanese corporations shift production to other countries, in particular Canada and Mexico, with NAFTA. But Mexican workers have not benefitted from NAFTA nor have American workers – only the big car companies have. So dismantling so-called free trade agreements like NAFTA, whose real purpose was to ease the ability of corporations to move production and jobs in search of profits, is needed.

But it is important to recognize that manufacturing jobs are not inherently ones with good pay and benefits. It took the unionization of basic industry through massive struggle during the 1930s, and then more struggle by unionized workers following World War II, to win higher pay and benefits.

During the 1980s many labor leaders adopted the “made in the USA” slogan and targeted imports of Japanese cars. But this did not stem the decline of good union jobs as companies moved production to the non-union South and increased automation.

So, I think that what is really needed is for the labor movement to take up their most powerful weapon, the strike, and use it to fight for better pay and benefits.

#UnitedStates #MasaoSuzuki #China #tradeDeficit

This is part one of a three-part interview. Click for part two and part three of this interview. Fight Back!: Professor Suzuki, there has been a lot in the news about the Trump administration’s new tariffs and the U.S. trade deficit. How big is it really?

Masao Suzuki: Trump claims that the U.S. trade deficit with China is $500 billion. But this figure, like many by President Trump, is wrong. The actual U.S. trade deficit with China in goods is about $375 billion, meaning that the U.S. imports about $375 billion more in goods from China, like the iPhones, then China imports goods like soybeans from the U.S. But the U.S. actually has a surplus, meaning we export more to China than we import from them, in services. For example, the American-made movie Black Panther, opened in China as number one in their box office. So together the U.S. trade deficit with China was about $337 billion in 2017.

Fight Back!: That still seems like a large number.

Suzuki: Yes, it is. But the U.S. trade deficit with China is deceptive, because many of the goods that the U.S. imports from China are just assembled there, and their parts are often imported from other countries. Take for example again, the Apple iPhone. Less than 5% of the value of the iPhone is added in China, almost half comes from parts made in Japan and Germany. So what we should look at it is a country’s overall trade balance, not just the balance with one other country, which can be misleading.

Fight Back!: So how do the U.S. and China’s total trade balances look?

Suzuki: Well let me make two more important adjustments to the numbers. The first is that we should include the income that U.S. corporations and investors get from the rest of the world. For more than 100 years, U.S. corporations and wealthy individuals have been investing around the world – indeed this total foreign investment of almost $21 trillion is huge.

The second adjustment is measure this so-called “current account” balance in terms of the size of the U.S. economy. This allows for better comparison with other countries in the world, whose economies are individually all smaller than the U.S., and to look at how our balance has changed over time. The standard measure of the size of the economy is Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. GDP measures the production of goods and service during a year in a country, which is the basis for jobs and income. Last year the U.S. GDP was over $19 trillion.

Fight Back!: Whew. And?

Suzuki: The U.S. current account deficit was about 2.3% of GDP last year. While this is still a substantial number, it is only half the size that it was ten years ago in 2008. The big difference is that the U.S. used to run a huge trade deficit in petroleum products as we imported massive amounts of oil. But with the surge in domestic production, largely because of fracking, the trade deficit in oil has fallen dramatically, along with the overall U.S. current account deficit.

China, on the other hand, does have a current account surplus, based on it exporting more goods than it imports. China’s current account surplus used to be quite large – ten years ago it was seven times as large, at over 9% of GDP. But last year it was down to 1.3% of GDP – even less than what it was almost 20 years ago, before China joined the WTO [World Trade Organization]. What happened? China has made big efforts to raise people’s standard of living by encouraging more domestic consumption of goods and services, and also has emphasized a shift towards services. One factor helping this along was the large increase in the value of the Chinese currency, which makes their exports more expensive and makes it cheaper to import foreign goods and services into China. This so-called “rebalancing” of the Chinese economy has dramatically cut their current account surplus.

Fight Back!: If China’s surplus isn’t that big, which country does have a big surplus?

Suzuki: Among the world’s larger economies, Germany has the largest current account surplus, at over 8% of GDP.

Fight Back!: But we don’t hear Trump complaining about Germany’s big surplus…

Suzuki: Maybe he is just trying to be chivalrous to German Prime Minister Merkel.

Fight Back!: Ha-ha. Sorry professor, but your economics is better than your humor.

Suzuki: No problem. I’m sure that almost all my students would agree with you.

Masao Suzuki teaches economics.

#UnitedStates #MasaoSuzuki #tradeDeficit

Suzuki is chair of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) Joint Nationalities Commission, which helps guide FRSO community organizing among oppressed nationalities – African Americans, Chicanos, Mexicanos and Latinos, Arab and Asian Americans, and indigenous peoples. He further noted, “The bill would have a great impact on Asian American communities, as immigration from China and India are now greater than from Mexico.”

In addition, the bill would slash immigration from Africa by ending the ‘diversity visa,’ which admits about half of all immigrants from that continent and would permanently decrease the number refugee visas. Suzuki ended by saying that “Donald Trump and the Republican Party are trying to roll the country back to 1924,” a reference to the racist 1924 Immigration Act, which restricted immigration from eastern and southern Europe and excluded Asians.

#WashingtonDC #MasaoSuzuki #RAISEAct #FRSOJointNationalitiesCommission

Tampa, FL – Over two dozen activists attended a panel discussion here, at the University of South Florida in Tampa. “ Legalization for all, stop the deportations!” read the banner at the front of the room. Professor Masao Suzuki of San Jose, California, an economist and expert on immigration, was the guest speaker.

Professor Suzuki began the immigration panel with a report on what is happening across the country with immigration. In 2006, the House of Representatives passed the Sensenbrenner Bill, a big attack upon undocumented immigrants. The bill contained harsh consequences for being undocumented, like a mandatory $3000 fine before being deported. Also, the bill had a felony charge and up to three years in prison for friends, family members or good Samaritans housing or aiding undocumented immigrants. The reactionary Sensenbrenner bill sparked the largest marches in U.S. history, with millions upon millions of immigrants and their supporters taking to the streets of every city, big and small. This became known as the Mega-marches of May Day 2006.

Suzuki spoke about the January 2013 Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR), which was supposed to help immigrants but took a turn for the worse. The Republicans changed it, adding more and more repressive measures, until there was more bad than good in it for the people. The current CIR bill adds more militarization at the border, more stalking at the workplace thru E-verify, more abuse of immigrant workers with the Guest-Worker Visa, an extreme wait of ten years to apply, and higher cost to immigrants.

“Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are interested in the passing of CIR at this time. And that is why we are urging those who support CIR to join forces with those pushing to put a stop to the deportations and those who are urging for Deferred Action for All, or DAFA,” says Suzuki. “Not only would DAFA be an immediate relief, it would help stop the over 1100 daily deportations.”

The professor continued, “The executive order of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [DACA] in June of 2012 allowed for some young DREAMers to have immediate relief from being deported. If DAFA was issued to the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants, DACA could be an all-inclusive sigh of relief for the undocumented.”

Professor Suzuki ended his presentation saying, “But we know that DACA currently isn't applicable to all DREAMers and we know that because of the current criminalizing of the undocumented, many don't qualify. If DAFA were to be ordered by President Obama, we also know not everyone would be able to obtain DAFA. That is why we push not only for DAFA but also for legalization for all of the undocumented.”

Veronica Juarez spoke next about the tuition equity campaign of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in Florida. Tampa Bay SDS joined other chapters to organize for in-state tuition for the undocumented students of Florida. As it currently stands, undocumented Florida students pay 3.3 times as much as other students they went to high school with. SDS organized call-in days, campus speakouts and a big rally in the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee demanding politicians take action and make education affordable and fair.

“It wasn't until we started having rallies, speak-outs and actually organizing affected students that we saw bills like Senate Bill 1400,” says Veronica Juarez of Tampa SDS.

SB 1400 allows a DACA student to pay the same tuition rate as all other resident students of Florida. SB 1400 is well on its way and moving forward, having already passed the Judiciary portion needed to come into effect.

Juarez pointed out two glaring problems, “The thing is, even though SB 1400 would make tuition more affordable for undocumented students, two bad amendments were sneaked into the law; the first being that the student would on paper, still not be a ‘resident of Florida’ and the second is that a student would have to be enrolled in a Florida high school for 24 consecutive months. This means DACA students who are migrant farm-workers would be most affected. Migrant families are forced to move with the changing crop seasons across the U.S.”

Marisol Marquez of Raíces en Tampa rounded out the immigration panel saying, “In Florida we saw that the majority of deportations involved the police using driving without a license as an excuse to detain and eventually deport. We wanted to help stop deportations and knew that if we pushed for Florida to issue drivers licenses to all of the undocumented, we could help.”

Raíces en Tampa is working to unite with other groups around Florida and create a buzz about driver's licenses for the undocumented. Raíces en Tampa created a campaign page called Driver's Licenses for All Undocumented – Florida and is seeing a building movement around Florida.

“We take a table and place it where we know there will be people interested. We walk around and ask people to come show their support!” says Marquez, describing how Raíces en Tampa has been able to go viral in the immigrant areas of Florida. “The people want to be able to drive without looking behind their shoulder and without fearing they will be torn away from the years they have put into trying to create a life for themselves in Florida.”

The organizing in the Tampa community is a completely new experience for some. “As an undocumented individual, being with Raíces en Tampa gives me not only a sense of identity, but the strength to continue fighting for everyone's dreams,” says Cristian Cintora, one of the newest members of Raíces en Tampa.

Those in attendance were able to pick up free literature, buttons, information and even know-your-rights pamphlets from various groups including: Tampa Bay SDS, Raíces en Tampa, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Activists gathered for a picture and held up the banner, “Legalization for all, stop the deportations!”

Marquez finished the event, announcing, “Future actions for Raíces en Tampa include coordinating May Day events in many cities to call for a stop to deportations, legalization for all, and for Florida politicians to issue driver's licenses to all of the undocumented. We hope everyone can come out or show their support by signing our petition.”

#TampaFL #MasaoSuzuki #legalizationForAll #DACA #TampaSDS #RaicesEnTampa #DAFA

El 17 de abril, un grupo bipartidista de ocho senadores lanzó su propuesta de “reforma integral de inmigración.” Si hay partes de la propuesta que mejore las vidas de millones de indocumentados, pero también incluye muchas partes malas que no pueden ser compatibles. Lo que hay que hacer es la reconstrucción de un movimiento amplio y militante por la legalización y contra más militarización de la frontera y contra de la represión laboral. Tenemos que darle fuerte para movilizar el 1 de mayo y mantener la presión sobre los políticos para llegar a un mejor proyecto de reforma migratoria.

La propuesta establecería un “inmigrante Provisional registrado” (RPI) visa temporal para los indocumentados que tendría que ser renovada después de seis años. Esta visa RPI ayudaría a millones de indocumentados trabajar sin miedo a las redadas de ICE. La visa RPI dejaría a indocumentados obtener licencias de conducir y ser capaz de manejar sin temor a tener sus vehículos confiscados. Muchos de los indocumentados que no han podido visitar a sus familiares fuera de los EE.UU. durante muchos años sería capaz de viajar con la visa de RPI. Sus familias aquí en EE.UU. que incluyen muchos de los residentes permanentes legales y ciudadanos estadounidenses nacidos y naturalizados, no tendrían que seguir viviendo con el temor de ser separados por las deportaciones.

Mientras que la visa RPI mejoraría la vida de los indocumentados, no es la “legalización para todos” que la comunidad necesita. La diferencia de la residencia permanente legal, los que tienen una visa de RPI no puede patrocinar a sus familiares para venir a los EE.UU., ni pueden solicitar la ciudadanía. Hay una fecha límite arbitraria el 31 de diciembre de 2011 al calificar para la visa RPI, con exclusión de todos los que vinieron en 2012.

La propuesta también establece cuatro barreras principales a la legalización. En primer lugar, una espera de diez años con el fin de convertirse en un residente permanente legal. En segundo lugar, hay un requisito de que la frontera México-Estados Unidos se declaró “seguro” y que el 90% de los indocumentados que intentan cruzar son parados antes que cualquiera de los que tienen RPI visa puede legalizar. En tercer lugar, existe el requisito de que cualquier persona con un programa RPI visa que no sea desempleado por más de 60 días. Por último, aquellos con una visa de RPI deben solicitar una nueva visa con requisito de un nuevo sistema que pone importancia principal en la educación y la capacidad de hablar inglés, lo que podría excluir a muchos de inmigrantes de México y América Central.

Una excepción importante a esta larga espera y muchas barreras se hace para los jóvenes indocumentados que tienen un título universitario o que han servido en el ejército, y para los trabajadores agrícolas, que sólo tienen que esperar cinco años para convertirse en residentes legales permanentes. Además los jóvenes “DREAMERS (SUEÑO)” pueden solicitar la ciudadanía inmediatamente después de convertirse en residentes legales permanentes. Por otra parte, los requisitos para calificar son más estrictas que en la DACA (Acción Diferida para los Llegados niño), ya que la DACA sólo requiere un grado de secundaria, mientras que la parte SUEÑO de esta propuesta requiere un título universitario o el servicio militar.

Hay otras partes positivas de la propuesta, como la expansión de la inmigración de la familia inmediata de los residentes legales (cónyuges e hijos menores de edad), así como una serie de pequeñas correcciones para los problemas de la ley de inmigración actual.

Por otro lado, la propuesta eliminaría visas para los hermanos de ciudadanos estadounidenses y niños casados de ciudadanos que tienen más de 31 años de edad. No hay reconocimiento de parejas del mismo sexo en la propuesta. La propuesta de ley también pone un esfuerzo por cambiar la inmigración fuera de la reunificación familiar a un sistema de puntos que favorece a los que hablan Inglés y son muy educados. En lugar del ideal, escrito en la Estatua de la Libertad, de “Dame tus cansados, tus pobres, tus masas apiñadas, anhelando aire libre ...” hay una filosofía de darnos su ociosa, su riqueza, su alto nivel de educación que sirven a las necesidades de las corporaciones estadounidenses.

La propuesta aumenta enormemente los programas de trabajadores temporales para el beneficio de las empresas estadounidenses. Aumenta el número de trabajadores temporales calificados (H-1b) de 65.000 por año hasta un máximo de 180.000 por año. El proyecto de ley también establece un nuevo programa de trabajadores temporales para los trabajadores no calificados que las rampas de hasta 75.000 por año. Estas visas no son trabajadores temporales, ya que podrían cambiar de empleador y pueden solicitar la residencia permanente.

Pero lo peor de todo, la propuesta comienza, y se centra claramente en adelante, el aumento de la militarización de la frontera, incluyendo el despliegue de la Guardia Nacional. La política actual está matando a cientos de personas tratando de entrar en los EE.UU., el actual proyecto de ley aumentaría esto. Además, la propuesta quiere ampliar un programa federal para detener, acusar, condenar y encarcelar a los inmigrantes indocumentados por cargos penales por cruzar la frontera. Este es otro paso hacia la criminalización de los indocumentados.

La propuesta también quiere intensificar la aplicación de las leyes en los EE.UU. Intensifica el sistema de trabajo E-Verify, por lo que es obligatorio en los próximos cinco años. Esto facilitaría el desarrollo de un sistema nacional de tarjeta de identificación. La propuesta también pide un nuevo sistema para rastrear a los visitantes a los EE.UU. para asegurarse de que abandonaran el país. También mantiene el programa Comunidades Seguras, por lo que la policía local puede ser un brazo del ICE.

También existe el racismo apenas velado en el proyecto de ley. La Ley de Inmigración de 1990 estableció una “Visa de Diversidad” para permitir que más inmigrantes procedentes de países que no envían a muchas personas a los EE.UU. fue ampliamente visto como un esfuerzo para permitir que más irlandeses a emigrar y para permitir la legalización de los inmigrantes irlandeses indocumentados en los EE.UU. Sin embargo, durante los años de la visa de la diversidad se ha convertido en una ruta importante para la inmigración procedente de África. La propuesta eliminaría la visa de la diversidad, lo que reduciría la inmigración procedente de África, en medio y al mismo tiempo la propuesta añadiría un nuevo visado para inmigrantes de Irlanda!

Entonces, ¿qué se debe hacer? Lo más importante es que tenemos que reflexionar sobre una de las mejores partes de la propuesta, la legalización relativamente más rápido, con menos barreras, de los jóvenes indocumentados. ¿Por qué obtuvieron una oferta mejor? Debido a que la juventud indocumentada realizo protestas masivas y acciones militantes, bajo el lema, “Indocumentados y sin miedo.”

Lo que se necesita más que nunca es reconstruir un movimiento masivo y militante por la legalización para todos y que amplía la legalización de los jóvenes sin requisito de la universidad y del servicio militar, y que se abre la legalización más rápido para todos los indocumentados, no sólo los jóvenes y los trabajadores agrícolas. Esta lucha por la legalización para todos necesita ir junto con la lucha contra más militarización de la frontera y las medidas para ampliar E-verify.

#SanJoseCalifornia #SanJoseCA #MasaoSuzuki #Immigracion #CIR

The film showed the round-up of Japanese Americans after the Japanese empire attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. Korematsu tried to evade the round-up, was caught and arrested, and set to a concentration camp. He fought his arrest all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1944 upheld the government’s round-up by a six to three margin. Then in the 1980s, a team of young Asian American lawyers fought with Korematsu to overturn his conviction on the basis that the government had suppressed evidence that there was no threat from Japanese Americans. A federal court vacated (cancelled) his conviction, but the Supreme Court did not rehear the case, and did not rule the camps unconstitutional.

The film was followed by a panel of speakers from the Japanese American and American Muslim communities. Tom Izu, director of the California History Center of De Anza College in Cupertino, California, spoke about his own experience of being called a traitor by another faculty member after organizing a program on the WWII concentration camps after September 11, 2001. He was followed by Yasir Afifi, a young college student who found a GPS tracking device attached to his car and is currently suing the government over this. The last speaker was Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Bay Area Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), who said that it was important for people to fight discrimination and government harassment.

The panel was moderated by Masao Suzuki, a member of the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee and the South Bay Committee Against Political Repression, who spoke of his own experience of being visited by the FBI as part of the FBI raids and federal grand jury subpoenas on 23 Midwest anti-war and international solidarity activists. The program was chaired by Will Kaku of the Japanese American Museum of San José, which organized the event. He quoted the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in urging solidarity between the Japanese American community and American Muslims.

#SanJoséCA #JapaneseAmericanInternment #Islamophobia #MasaoSuzuki #AntiWar23 #WorldWarII #FredKorematsu

For many years young people have been told that they should go to college to improve their opportunities in life. And it is true that adults who are college graduates do have higher incomes and lower unemployment rates on average than those who did not get a college degree.

But today’s college students are facing a triple whammy of soaring college costs, cutbacks in public schools that make it more difficult to attend and graduate from college and bleak job prospects once they graduate. After accounting for financial aid, as well as government aid in the form of tax credits, the cost of college tuition has risen 87% faster than the overall rate of inflation over the last ten years. This has led to a huge rise in student loan debt, which now totals about $1 trillion and is more than credit card balances, auto loans or any other consumer debt.

Cutbacks in public colleges and universities are forcing students to take longer (and spend more) to complete their degrees, or turn to even more expensive private schools that at least offer a shorter path to graduation. At Sonoma State University (one of the California State University campuses north of the San Jose-San Francisco Bay area), students this spring were allowed to sign for only nine units in the first round of registration, and then there was a second round where few classes were available for the rest of the units. At that rate it would take a student almost seven years to graduate.

Both these trends of higher fees and class cuts can be seen at the College of San Mateo, a community college about half way between San José and San Francisco. Enrollment at CSM fell 10% over the last year as fees went up 40%, a new, stricter payment policy was implemented and class sections cut. The administration there is planning another 5% cut in class sections, and fees are going up another 30% for this coming fall semester. And to add insult to injury, administrators at CSM and the other campuses in its district are phasing in a 20% raise for themselves, even as they say there is no money for more classes.

Last, but not least, there is a just plain terrible job market for new graduates. Of the nearly 3 million young people with college degrees, about a quarter, or 750,000, had no jobs at all. Another 750,000 were underemployed, or working in occupations that didn’t need a college degree, such as food service workers, receptionists, and retail clerks. A sign of these hard times is that a recent poll of college seniors showed that 85% planned to move back home after graduation. On college campuses across the country, students, with support of progressive faculty and staff and their unions, have been fighting both campus administrators as well as state politicians to limit tuition increases and stop the cutbacks in higher education. But college students and college graduates will need to struggle with the capitalists and their economy to provide more jobs that use their skills.

One reason for the bleak job market is the financial crisis and deep recession brought about by Wall Street’s financing a boom and bust in housing. Studies show that almost all the job losses were in middle-income, semi-skilled jobs that could provide entry-level work for college grads. But the elimination of middle-income jobs did not just start during the last economic downturn.

There is a long term tendency, first described by Karl Marx 150 years ago, for capitalism to deskill jobs with the use of new technology. The government’s Department of Labor estimates that only 10% (3 of 30) of the fastest growing occupations in 2020 will require a college degree, while the other 90% will not.

While right-wing Republicans and those enthralled by or on the payroll of Wall Street call big corporations and the rich “job-creators.” In fact, large U.S. corporations have cut millions of jobs in the United States through the use of technology and off-shoring jobs to other countries. Big business (and capitalism) itself is not about job creation, it is about profit maximization, which often mean cutting jobs and making the remaining workers work even harder. Look at the reaction of Wall Street when a big company announces another round of lay-offs – the company’s stock price goes up, showing that wealthy investors think that the business will be more profitable.

As we build a fightback against tuition increases and even more cuts to education, we also need to demand that the government start a jobs program that puts the millions of unemployed back to work and offers unemployed and underemployed college grads a chance to use their education. Those who see the need for radical change should study the political economy of Marx and other socialists to better understand our capitalist system and the need for a socialist economy that is based on people’s needs, not profit.

#SanJoséCA #BudgetCuts #Capitalism #TuitionHike #DefendEducation #MasaoSuzuki #Marxism

San Francisco, CA – About 3000 people joined a spirited anti-war rally and march here, April 10, to demand an end to the war on working people at home and aboard. Organized by the United National Anti-War Committee, protesters gathered at the Dolores Park, marched through the Mission District and returned to the park for a closing rally.

Keynote speakers included Malalai Joya, who was suspended from Afghanistan’s parliament and has denounced the U.S. occupation of her country, and Mick Kelly of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

Kelly, one of the international solidarity activists raided by the FBI and summoned to a Chicago grand jury, told the crowd, “The United States has built an empire that spans the globe...in every part of the world people are standing up to oppression and exploitation. The government is trying to criminalize those of us who stand in solidarity with the peoples of Palestine, Colombia and other places who are fighting to free themselves.”

Masao Suzuki, of the South Bay Committee Against Political Repression told the crowd, “As a Japanese American, I see the combination of racism, war hysteria and political misleadership that sent 120,000 Japanese Americans to concentration camps during World War II at work again with the persecution and harassment of Arab Americans and American Muslims such as the Irvine 11.” The Irvine 11 are students who interrupted a speech by an Israeli ambassador, and were then the target of a grand jury. They currently face criminal charges.

The April 10 rally in San Francisco followed the successful April 9 anti-war protest held in New York City.

#SanFranciscoCA #AntiwarMovement #MickKelly #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #MalalaiJoya #MasaoSuzuki #UnitedNationalAntiWarCommittee