Global Capitalism, Immigrant Labor, and the Struggle for Justice

Around the world borders are militarized, states are stepping up repressive anti-immigrant controls, and native publics are turning immigrants into scapegoats for the spiraling crisis of global capitalism. The massive displacement and primitive accumulation unleashed by free trade agreements and neo-liberal policies, as well as state and “private” violence has resulted in a virtually inexhaustible immigrant labor reserve for the global economy. State controls over immigration and immigrant labor have several functions for the system: 1) state repression and criminalization of undocumented immigration make immigrants vulnerable and deportable and therefore subject to conditions of super-exploitation, super-control and hyper-surveillance; 2) anti-immigrant repressive apparatuses are themselves ever more important sources of accumulation, ranging from private for-profit immigrant detention centers, to the militarization of borders, and the purchase by states of military hardware and systems of surveillance. Immigrant labor is extremely profitable for the transnational corporate economy; 3) the anti-immigrant policies associated with repressive state apparatuses help turn attention away from the crisis of global capitalism among more privileged sectors of the working class and convert immigrant workers into scapegoats for the crisis, thus deflecting attention from the root causes of the crisis and undermining working class unity. This article focuses on structural and historical underpinnings of the phenomenon of immigrant labor in the new global capitalist system and on how the rise of a globally integrated production and financial system, a transnational capitalist class, and transnational state apparatuses, have led to a reorganization of the world market in labor, including deeper reliance on a rapidly expanding reserve army of immigrant labor and a vicious new anti-immigrant politics. It looks at the United States as an illustration of the larger worldwide situation with regard to immigration and immigrant justice. Finally, it explores the rise of an immigrant justice movement around the world, observes the leading role that immigrant workers often play in worker’s struggles and that a mass immigrant rights movement is at the cutting edge of the struggle against transnational corporate exploitation. We call for replacing the whole concept of national citizenship with that of global citizenship as the only rallying cry that can assure justice and equality for all.

Conceptualizing American power and security in a post-9/11 security context : conflict, resistance, and global security, 2001-present

In a post-Cold War, post-9/11 world, the advent of US global supremacy resulted in the installation, perpetuation, and dissemination of an Absolutist Security Agenda (hereinafter, ASA). The US ASA explicitly and aggressively articulates and equates US national security interests with the security of all states in the international system, and replaced the bipolar, Cold War framework that defined international affairs from 1945-1992. Since the collapse of the USSR and the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, the US has unilaterally defined, implemented, and managed systemic security policy. The US ASA is indicative of a systemic category of knowledge (security) anchored in variegated conceptual and material components, such as morality, philosophy, and political rubrics. The US ASA is based on a logic that involves the following security components: 1., hyper militarization, 2., intimidation, 3., coercion, 4., criminalization, 5., panoptic surveillance, 6., plenary security measures, and 7., unabashed US interference in the domestic affairs of select states. Such interference has produced destabilizing tensions and conflicts that have, in turn, produced resistance, revolutions, proliferation, cults of personality, and militarization. This is the case because the US ASA rests on the notion that the international system of states is an extension, instrument of US power, rather than a system and/or society of states comprised of functionally sovereign entities. To analyze the US ASA, this study utilizes: 1., official government statements, legal doctrines, treaties, and policies pertaining to US foreign policy; 2., militarization rationales, budgets, and expenditures; and 3., case studies of rogue states. The data used in this study are drawn from information that is publicly available (academic journals, think-tank publications, government publications, and information provided by international organizations). The data supports the contention that global security is effectuated via a discrete set of hegemonic/imperialistic US values and interests, finding empirical expression in legal acts (USA Patriot ACT 2001) and the concept of rogue states. Rogue states, therefore, provide test cases to clarify the breadth, depth, and consequentialness of the US ASA in world affairs vis-a-vis the relationship between US security and global security.

A constituição desmilitarizada: democratização e reforma do sistema constitucional de segurança pública

The normative construction of the public security system in the Constituent Assembly of 1987-1988 preserved paradoxical normative space, the military police linked to the Army with a restrictive legal statute of the police offices citizenship through a hierarchical and disciplinary model that is anachronistic. This research originates from the following problem: How is it possible to tailor the constitutional system of public safety, specifically the Military Police, according to the democratic paradigms constructed by the Constituent from 1988 and carry the right to public safety under these molds? The militarists limitations of the Constitution allowed the growing militarization of police departments, organizational culture and authoritarian institutional practices. Underlying this, the problems related to difficulties in realization of Right to Public Safety, the strikes of the military police, the incomplete policy cycle started demanding from the constitutional-legal system appropriate responses. Utilizing the dialogical method and an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, and theoretically grounded in overcoming of the constitutional normativist juspositivism.It was found that the constructed infraconstitutional legislation was insufficient to supply the systemic shortcomings of constitutional law, when looking to create a single system of public security without giving due scope to the federal principle and expand the autonomy the Federated States, and even grant democratic legal status to the military police. Formal legal limits imposed by the Constitution constructed a legal anachronism, the military police. Thus, a democratic reading of military police institutions becomes inconceivable its existence in the constitutional regulatory environment. Thus, reform the Constitution in order to demilitarize the police and conduct a normative redesign of the public security system is fundamental to Brazilian constitutional democracy

Cartografia do trabalho de agentes penitenciários: reflexão sobre o “dispositivo prisão”

The Brazilian prison system is going through a serious crisis, not only due to the growth in the number of prisoners and the consequent overcrowding of prisons, but also for the violation of human rights, institutionalization and difficulty in social rehabilitation of inmates. Furthermore, the harmful effects of the prison system affect their workers, who generally are not prioritized by researchers, health programs and government policies. The literature pointing to some consequences of work in prison, among them, the mental illness, stress, alcohol abuse, etc., but little is known about this profession, their problems, the difficulties of their work routine, so as subjective processes involved. So, what are the effects of this work in the prison in the lives of correctional officers? What strategies developed to address the work in prison? This research aims to analyze the effects of this work in the prison in the lives of correctional officers from the state prison in Parnamirim, located in the metropolitan region of Natal-RN. Within the theoretical and methodological perspective of institutional analysis and cartography were carried conversation circles, interviews, in addition to participant observation of the correctional officers work’s routine. The results point to a working routine marked by the performance of procedures that involve risk to the worker, generating situations of tension and stress. Besides, the culture of violence (which is implemented in jail everyday) as well as the training and initial learning of the profession, are responsible for the militarization process of the subjectivities of the correctional officers, producing hard subject, disciplined, stiff, likely to violent practices and other rights violations. Other mapped effects relate to the acquisition of knowledge about the human (“psy” knowledge) responsible for forging the conception of the criminal as "dangerous subject", which, in turn, acts as subjectivity vector in the daily life of prison guards by setting up a way of life crossed by fear and insecurity outside the work environment. Produces a control in the open about their lives and their families, limiting them with regard to family and community life and the realization of leisure activities in public spaces. In this sense, it appears that the arrest acts producing “bad meetings” (from Espinosa's perspective), once it produces sad affections responsible for weakening the conatus, limiting the possibilities of action of these subjects. Although agents develop some strategies to deal with the difficulties of working in prison (among which stand out the development of other professional or leisure activities, spirituality / religiosity and the ability to separate the labor moments from those of their the personal lives, is advocated that such strategies do not offer significant resistance, since they do not question the contemporary legal-criminal logic. The thesis presented supports the proposals of penal abolitionism to present other conceptions of crime and justice through the invention of other practical and conceptual strategies.

¿Otras independencias? : Los territorios indígenas rioplatenses en la década de 1810

El trabajo reflexiona sobre el impacto del proceso revolucionario rioplatense en los pueblos indígenas que mantenían su soberanía política y territorial en el espacio pampeano y chaqueño. Para ello, es esencial no limitar el estudio al grado de integración o de enfrentamiento de estos pueblos con respecto a los ejércitos patriotas sino intentar una mirada amplia que se inicie con una caracterización de los vínculos interétnicos previos para percibir los cambios y continuidades más generales que pudieran haberse producido.

¿Otras independencias? : Los territorios indígenas rioplatenses en la década de 1810

El trabajo reflexiona sobre el impacto del proceso revolucionario rioplatense en los pueblos indígenas que mantenían su soberanía política y territorial en el espacio pampeano y chaqueño. Para ello, es esencial no limitar el estudio al grado de integración o de enfrentamiento de estos pueblos con respecto a los ejércitos patriotas sino intentar una mirada amplia que se inicie con una caracterización de los vínculos interétnicos previos para percibir los cambios y continuidades más generales que pudieran haberse producido.

¿Otras independencias? : Los territorios indígenas rioplatenses en la década de 1810

El trabajo reflexiona sobre el impacto del proceso revolucionario rioplatense en los pueblos indígenas que mantenían su soberanía política y territorial en el espacio pampeano y chaqueño. Para ello, es esencial no limitar el estudio al grado de integración o de enfrentamiento de estos pueblos con respecto a los ejércitos patriotas sino intentar una mirada amplia que se inicie con una caracterización de los vínculos interétnicos previos para percibir los cambios y continuidades más generales que pudieran haberse producido.

Intersecting Whiteness: Interdisciplinary Debates

This article sets out the purview of this special issue of Ethnicities. Whiteness Studies has moved from the margins and has become an accepted focus for study in Critical Race Studies. We argue that current scholarship is developing the paradigm empirically and theoretically, and does so without need to justify its approach. This special issue incorporates a number of national and transnational contexts, is located in a number of disciplines and theoretical approaches, and develops the intersections between whiteness and gender, queer studies, migration, nationalism and militarization.

A Game of Horns: Transnational Flows of Rhino Horn

A multi-sectorial regime of protection including international treaties, conservation and security measures, demand reduction campaigns and quasi-military interventions has been established to protect rhinos. Despite these efforts, the poaching of rhinos and trafficking of rhino horn continue unabated. This dissertation asks why the illegal market in rhinoceros horn is so resilient in spite of the myriad measures employed to disrupt it. A theoretical approach grounded in the sociology of markets is applied to explain the structure and functioning of the illegal market. The project follows flows of rhino horn from the source in southern Africa to illegal markets in Southeast Asia. The multi-sited ethnography included participant observations, interviews and focus groups with 416 informants during fourteen months of fieldwork. The sample comprised of, amongst others, convicted and active rhino poachers, smugglers and kingpins, private rhino breeders and hunting outfitters, African and Asian law enforcement officials, as well as affected local communities and Asian consumers. Court files, CITES trade data, archival materials, newspaper reports and social media posts were also analysed to supplement findings and to verify and triangulate data from interviews, focus groups and observations. Central to the analysis is the concept of “contested illegality”, a legitimization mechanism employed by market participants along the different segments of the horn supply chain. These actors' implicit or explicit contestation of the state-sponsored label of illegality serves as a legitimising and enabling mechanism, facilitating participation in gray or illegal markets for rhino horn. The research identified fluid interfaces between legal, illegal and gray markets, with recurring actors who have access to transnational trade structures, and who also possess market and product knowledge, as well as information about the regulatory regime and its loopholes. It is against the background of colonial, apartheid and neoliberal exploitation and marginalization of local communities that a second argument is introduced: the path dependency of conservation paradigms. Underpinning rhino conservation and regulation are archaic and elitist conservation regimes that discount the potential for harmonious relationships between local communities and wildlife. The increasing militarization of anti-poaching measures and green land grabs are exacerbating the rhino problem by alienating communities further from conservation areas and wild animals. The third argument looks at how actors deal with coordination problems in transnational illegal markets. Resolving the coordination problems of cooperation, value and competition are considered essential to the operation of formal markets. It is argued that the problem of security provides an additional and crucial obstacle to actors transacting in markets. The systematic analysis of flows between the researched sites of production, distribution and consumption of rhino horn shows that the social embeddedness of actors facilitates the flourishing of illegal markets in ways that escape an effective enforcement of CITES regulations.

A State of War: Florida from 1939 to 1945

World War II profoundly impacted Florida. The military geography of the State is essential to an understanding the war. The geostrategic concerns of place and space determined that Florida would become a statewide military base. Florida’s attributes of place such as climate and topography determined its use as a military academy hosting over two million soldiers, nearly 15 percent of the GI Army, the largest force theUS ever raised. One-in-eight Floridians went into uniform. Equally,Florida’s space on the planet made it central for both defensive and offensive strategies. The Second World War was a war of movement, and Florida was a major jump off point forUSforce projection world-wide, especially of air power. Florida’s demography facilitated its use as a base camp for the assembly and engagement of this military power. In 1940, less than two percent of the US population lived in Florida, a quiet, barely populated backwater of the United States.[1] But owing to its critical place and space, over the next few years it became a 65,000 square mile training ground, supply dump, and embarkation site vital to the US war effort. Because of its place astride some of the most important sea lanes in the Atlantic World,Florida was the scene of one of the few Western Hemisphere battles of the war. The militarization ofFloridabegan long before Pearl Harbor. The pre-war buildup conformed to theUSstrategy of the war. The strategy of theUS was then (and remains today) one of forward defense: harden the frontier, then take the battle to the enemy, rather than fight them inNorth America. The policy of “Europe First,” focused the main US war effort on the defeat of Hitler’sGermany, evaluated to be the most dangerous enemy. In Florida were established the military forces requiring the longest time to develop, and most needed to defeat the Axis. Those were a naval aviation force for sea-borne hostilities, a heavy bombing force for reducing enemy industrial states, and an aerial logistics train for overseas supply of expeditionary campaigns. The unique Florida coastline made possible the seaborne invasion training demanded for USvictory. The civilian population was employed assembling mass-produced first-generation container ships, while Floridahosted casualties, Prisoners-of-War, and transient personnel moving between the Atlantic and Pacific. By the end of hostilities and the lifting of Unlimited Emergency, officially on December 31, 1946, Floridahad become a transportation nexus. Florida accommodated a return of demobilized soldiers, a migration of displaced persons, and evolved into a modern veterans’ colonia. It was instrumental in fashioning the modern US military, while remaining a center of the active National Defense establishment. Those are the themes of this work. [1] US Census of Florida 1940. Table 4 – Race, By Nativity and Sex, For the State. 14.

Participación política de las fuerzas militares: el caso colombiano

El objetivo general de esta monografía es explicar cómo se ha desarrollado la participación política de las Fuerzas Militares en la democracia colombiana; lo cual permitirá tener una visión clara del problema, y entender el cómo y el porqué de esta participación. La pregunta de investigación, guía de esta monografía, es la siguiente: ¿cómo se ha desarrollado la participación política de las Fuerzas Militares en la democracia colombiana?. A partir de esta pregunta se planteó la siguiente hipótesis: las Fuerzas Militares han participado dentro de la política colombiana, ya sea por medio de la formulación de la política de seguridad y defensa nacional o por las opiniones y actuaciones de los altos mandos militares, lo cual ha convertido a la institución en uno de los actores más importantes dentro de la democracia nacional. A su vez, se estableció cómo se llevan a cabo las relaciones entre las Fuerzas Militares y el Estado, en qué situaciones las Fuerzas Militares han recibido funciones constitucionales que no les corresponden y, qué tipo de actores y factores han motivado a las Fuerzas Militares a participar en política.

Contribución de la misión de naciones unidas en Guatemala – Minugua, a la promoción, defensa y garantía de los derechos de la población indígena guatemalteca (1994 a 2004)

El conflicto armado en Guatemala se originó por el abuso de poder, la desigualdad, la exclusión y la profunda discriminación, sobre todo hacia la población indígena, a la que se le han desconocido históricamente sus derechos y que fue la más afligida durante el conflicto. Lo que desembocó en el nacimiento de grupos al margen de la ley, cuyo propósito fue reivindicar los derechos de la población, así como la equidad y justicia social. El conflicto se caracterizó por la formación de grupos paramilitares, la violación al Derecho Internacional Humanitario, el elevado número de víctimas del conflicto, mayoritariamente indígenas y porque más del 85% de las violaciones a los derechos humanos fueron perpetradas por el Estado. Gracias a la voluntad política, al respaldo de la comunidad internacional, especialmente de la Organización de Naciones Unidas -ONU, y a los buenos oficios de la Comisión Nacional de Reconciliación – CNR, se lograron firmar los Acuerdos de Paz y dar fin a este cruento conflicto de más de 36 años. Las partes firmantes vieron la necesidad de que un ente autónomo e imparcial de Naciones Unidas, verificara el cumplimiento de La Misión de Naciones Unidas en Guatemala - MINUGUA contribuyó a la promoción, defensa y garantía de los derechos de la población indígena guatemalteca. Específicamente, incidió en el cumplimiento de los compromisos contenidos en el Acuerdo sobre Identidad y Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas guatemaltecos –AIDPI, que fue suscrito el 31 de marzo de 1995, asimismo, contribuyó a la garantía del derecho a la justicia de la población indígena, lo que se evidenció en las acciones y el papel que desempeñó en los componentes de verdad, justicia y reparación.