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Posted on
02/26/2009 8:01 PM EST
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Indigenous: Protection of workers rights
Part 4 of 4
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Rufino Domínguez-Santos
The Democrats' victory by electing President Barack Obama was achieved in part by the reaction against the anti-immigration policies of the Republicans, their constant verbal attacks against Latino immigrants, and their pseudo-legal actions in some cities and at the federal level, such as Law HR 4437. If the Democrats do not demonstrate the opposite in their governance, they will lose in the next election, which would not be good for anyone.
In this situation, migrants and our organizations have great challenges and hopes that should be taken advantage of to achieve what we want as a community:
To work and coordinate as far as possible with all migrants' organizations, small and large, so as to continue peaceful street demonstrations, public forums, and conferences to demand integral legalization with a path to citizenship and based on family reunification.
Our struggle should not lose sight of itself by focusing on the demand that Latinos be included in Obama's cabinet, because this is not the most important thing. Often, there are Latinos who think more like Anglos than the Anglos and who in reality do not respond to the needs of the migrant community.
To demand that the new U.S. government recognize, ratify, and sign all of the international conventions it has not yet recognized, such as the International Labor Organization's Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. Although the United States has various native communities and although hundreds of thousands of indigenous people have arrived from Latin America, the government has not been willing to sign this convention.
The other instrument that has not been recognized, ratified, and signed is the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. And this despite the fact that the United States is the number-one country in the world in terms of numbers of immigrants. Many other international instruments have not been passed, such as the International Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
To form and consolidate one or several national migrants' organizations for the new generation in order to meet the necessities of our communities at this time, and to replace several existing ones that often do not defend migrants' interests.
These are the challenges we face as Indigenous people and as migrants in the United States. Our organizations need to continue to collaborate with other organizations, working together on these issues to achieve measures that fully benefit our community.
Rufino Domínguez-Santos is director of the Binational Center for Oaxacan Indigenous Development and a collaborator with the Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org). This article was presented to the Mexican Congress's event on migration on Nov. 25, 2008. Translated for the Americas Program by Nalina Eggert.
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