Santa Barbara "living wage" rally consciously ignores 
international proletariat

SANTA BARBARA--Over 1,500 people marched here on May 12 
demanding a "living wage" and "economic justice." MIM and 
RAIL comrades attended to gather signatures on a petition 
against the INS "Operation Gatekeeper" (1) and distribute 
MIM Notes. Similar to the rally and sit-in for a "living 
wage" for Harvard University employees,(2) organizers 
consciously refused to the idea of a "living wage" in an 
international perspective, thereby confusing the class 
demands of the imperialist-country proletariat and the 
international proletariat, the detriment of the latter.

This is frustrating for us, because many of the march 
participants are also involved in movements with an 
internationalist perspective, such as student campaigns 
against sweatshop labor. Others were agitating around 
concerns which appeal to both the proletariat and 
imperialist-country middle classes, such as free health 
insurance for the world. Most eagerly signed the petition 
and took MIM's newspaper.

At the same time, the march's organizers consciously decided 
not to include a discussion of Third World workers' economic 
struggles, instead raised vague slogans like "stand up for a 
fair economy where you live." The march's website (3) 
demonstrates just how easily such slogans are stolen by 
privileged classes. One of the reasons given to march was 
that median income in Santa Barbara was "only" $34,000 per 
year. Evidently income in Santa Barbara did not keep up with 
the rest of California, which increased over the 90s.

Unlike a recent march on the u.$-Mexico border, the 
organizing materials for the Santa Barbara march did not 
acknowledge that u.$. residents benefit from the 
exploitation of workers in oppressed nations. Indeed, they 
did not even discuss the possibility that $16-an-hour wages 
(about $34,000 per year) were only possible because the 
imperialists pay workers in the Third World on average 
48¢.(5)

MIM believes that our project -- socialist revolution -- has 
a lot to offer people from imperialist-country middles 
classes. Under socialism, everybody will be guaranteed a 
job, housing, free heath care and education -- not to 
mention an end to the threat of environmental or nuclear 
catastrophe. MIM supports a campaign for an ITAL 
international END minimum, living wage. But we cannot allow 
imperialist-country middle classes' backwards ideas about 
"economic justice" -- which amount to redistributing stolen 
booty more "fairly" -- to take precedence over the struggle 
against imperialist exploitation worldwide.

There are many reasons people take up slogans about 
"struggling where you live" to the detriment of 
internationalism. Some are class-conscious. They've chosen 
the imperialist country middle-classes over the 
international proletariat. Others are hampered by populism 
or vulgar democracy. Perhaps they feel that by definition a 
majority in every community is exploited and oppressed. 
Perhaps they think they have to appeal to a local majority 
out of principle or pragmatism.

For internationalists working in imperialist countries, such 
ideas are a drawback. Take for example the issue of the 
environment. We could win a lot of votes right by promising 
cheaper gas for Amerika's SUVs, but we know that this is not 
the right thing to do. Aside from encouraging continued 
environmental destruction, it would preserve the imbalance 
in global resource control.

Part of being an anti-imperialist "behind enemy lines" in 
the "belly of the beast" is having the courage and stamina 
to go against the tide. Globally, we have a majority. 
Locally, we do not. But there is much we can do here so long 
as we do not forget who our friends and enemies are.

The people behind the Santa Barbara march -- mostly 
university students and staff -- clearly have the chutzpah 
and organizing skills it takes to put on a big event geared 
at influencing public opinion. MIM hopes it does not all get 
wasted in a reformist channel for the labor aristocracy. We 
hope these organizers will return to the issues of the 
international proletariat and organize from the true bottom 
up.

Notes: 1. MIM Notes 233, 1 May 2001 2. MIM Notes 234, 15 May 
2001 3. www.peoplesmarch.org 4. Imperialism and its class 
structure, 1997, Section C.4. 
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mt/imp97/imp97c4.html