The Politics of Labour Migration: Chinese Workers in New York

Abstract

Most socialists have always embraced the concept of proletarian internationalism. Indeed, organizations like the International Working Men's Association and the Second and Third Internationals were established to forge alliances among working people of all countries. This kind of alliance was necessary to fight the capitalist form of accumulation, which is global. To counter this, as Marx and Engels pointed out, it is necessary to 'bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality.' It is clear that a central challenge for socialists today is to turn the issue of international workers' migration to their advantage in the struggle against global capitalism. As it is, the inability to incorporate immigrants politically has been the weakest link of most labour movements around the world. In this essay, I will use the experience of Chinese workers in the U.S. as an example to show that immigrants are indispensable strategic partners in the building of a powerful labour movement for socialist transformation.