BERT CORONA: LABOR RADICAL

In: Socialist review: SR, Band 19, Heft 1, S. 41-55

Abstract

IN THIS INTERVIEW, HUMBERTO "BERT" CORONA--LABOR ORGANIZER SINCE THE 1930S, CHAMPION OF IMMIGRANT RIGHTS, EARLY LEADER OF CHICANO POLITICS, TEACHER, AND ORAL HISTORIAN-REMINDS US THAT THE US IS ONE OF ONLY TWO INDUSTRIALIZED CAPITALIST STATES IN THE WORLD WHICH BORDERS A THIRD WORLD NATION (SOUTH AFRICA IS THE OTHER). AS SUCH, IMMIGRANT WORKERS ARE AN INSEPARABLE PART OF THE US WORKFORCE; THEY ARE NOT "TEMPORARY" WORKERS, AS SOME WOULD LIKE TO THINK. MEXICAN NATIONALS AND MEXICAN AMERICANS HAVE LONG WORKED IN THE SHIPBUILDING, SHOEMAKING, FOOD PROCESSING, GARMENT AND OTHER INDUSTRIES, AS WELL AS IN AGRICULTURE, AND HAVE LED MANY OF THE STRUGGLES FOR UNIONIZATION IN THOSE INDUSTRIES. CORONA ALSO REMINDS US THAT, JUST AS EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT WERE SINGLED OUT FOR REPRESSION DURING THE PALMER RAIDS OF THE 1920S, SO WERE MEXICAN AND OTHER LATINO WORKERS SUBJECT TO REPRESSION DURING THE MCCARTHY ERA. IN OUR PRESENT CLIMATE OF HOSTILITY TOWARD UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS, THIS REPRESSION CONTINUES.