STEPHEN BARTLETT
Solidarity Key Strategy
for Economic Justice Struggle

"For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the immigrant, giving him food and clothing. Love the stranger therefore, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." (Deuteronomy 10:17-19)

In this era of corporate-led globalization, racism is used and perpetuated by those in positions of economic power to divide people through structural exploitation. The untold history of labor struggles in the American South reveals how the Ku Klux Klan played a role in combating and dividing white and black workers when, for example, they united in struggle against the abuses of the timber companies during the early 20th century. Another example is struggle of the Small Tenant Farmers Association in the 1930s. The recent Denzel Washington film The Great Debaters depicts some of the realities of that era and the integrated organizing that took place at that time, and the lynchings.

Corporate-sponsored violence and paramilitarization were aimed to create a deep wedge among those being victimized by the economic system of resource extraction and labor exploitation. The ruling class decided that the most effective way to destroy the southern labor movement was to divide white from black.

Today we see the emergence of new paramilitaries, dubbed the Minutemen, as well as the re-emergence of other white supremacy groups, whose driving force once again is racism. They direct their violence against new arrivals to the working class of the United States. We see widespread scapegoating of immigrant workers under the guise of the war on terror. But we also see this clearly situated in the chronic ruling-class strategy of racial fear-mongering and divide-and-conquer tactics.

My organization Agricultural Missions gathered together more than 60 people in late February this year for a study session entitled "Black-Brown Solidarity: Countering the Divide". Other hosts included the National Farm Worker Ministry, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the Justice at Smithfield campaign of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), and the Beloved Community/Southern Faith and Labor Community Alliance.

We gathered in North Carolina to took a look at two particular struggles where the Black-Brown Solidarity equation is seen as critical: (1) the Justice at Smithfield campaign to unionize the largest pig processing facility in the world in Tar Heel, NC, and (2) the Farm Labor Organizing Committee campaign to bring RJ Reynolds tobacco company to the table to improve the conditions of tens of thousands of farm workers who labor in the North Carolina tobacco fields. Some of us visited the UFCW Workers Center in Lumberton, NC to meet with injured workers and UFCW organizers; others visited the FLOC offices in Dudley to visit with farmworker organizers and allies, followed by a visit with a farmworker on a tobacco farm.

We learned about the many injuries and indignities experienced by many Smithfield processing plant workers, and the segregation and communication problems that plague Latino and African-American relations in the plant. We heard about the spontaneous uprising of Latino workers when pressured to respond to federal no-match letters and about the raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that led to the deportation of hundreds of undocumented workers.

We also learned about the difference between H2A guest workers conditions and that of undocumented farm workers, and the paradoxes (pros and cons) of each lowly status. We heard about the difficulties of workers maintaining marriages when working away from their homes in Mexico from 3-10 months of each year; the challenge of using one kitchen for the cooking of lunch for 36 workers at a time; and the long row to hoe for immigrant workers from south of our borders, whether they are legal "guest workers" or "undocumented" workers laboring outside the formal economy, as most do.

The Rev. Nelson Johnson of the Beloved Community Center and Southern Faith and Labor Community Alliance spoke on these points during his inspirational keynote biblical foundation talk that opened the Black-Brown Solidarity conference. "It was not long ago that our ancestors in slavery had to endure the lash of the whip and the strangling pressure of the noose around our necks. So how can we who have had that experience fail to come to the help of those today who are being exploited and persecuted? People today are trapped and devalued, turned into mere beasts of burden."

Love the stranger therefore, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Stephen Bartlett is Coordinator for Education and Advocacy with Agricultural Missions, Inc. Learn more at www.agriculturalmissions.org.


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This article was published in the Spring 2008 issue of Catholic Rural Life©. No portion of this article may be reproduced without written permission from The National Catholic Rural Life Conference. To purchase the Spring 2008 issue of Catholic Rural Life, please contact The National Catholic Rural Life Conference office at 4625 Beaver Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50310-2199, call (515) 270-2634, or e-mail info@ncrlc.com. The cost is $2.50 an issue plus postage and handling.