the activist left should be figuring out a way to get these people to stay where they are and organize for local change, not come to america to work slave labour under the table, undercutting organized labour.

and i don't mean that abstractly. american unions should have people on the ground, helping them organize their own society.

they say there's no opportunities; what that means is that they don't have access to education.

a wall is a bandaid, but in the face of this kind of population movement, some kind of barrier is necessary. when people talk about open borders, they mean a two way exchange of goods and people - not a one-way movement of slave labour. if you don't try and reverse this, the inevitable long term consequence is that you end up with this bizarre kind of voluntary slave economy in the united states, and increasingly in canada, too, that is going to decrease everybody's quality of living, for the benefit of a small elite at the top.

it's obvious that american policy in the region is largely to blame for this, but nobody wants to talk about a good neighbour policy - the republicans just want to double down, and the democrats just want the slaves.

the labour movement needs to get people on the ground. yes - it's dangerous. but the consequences of ignoring this, one way or the other, are going to be severe.

this is how empires fall.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/16/migrant-caravan-honduras-march-trump-wall