Please, look, we're white workers we, we want be, have a more privileged position and not experience this downward mobility, please recognize our white privilege. And so that's the social base for a phenomenon like Trump. You know Trump has a mass social base and a working class. Not in professionals, not in the well off, in the downwardly mobile white working class. And the anti-immigrant movement has its social base in the downwardly mobile white working class. But all of this situation, is all, as you call it, connection consciousness, I call it a transnational you know global class and social consciousness. It's all linked to these structural movements in capital into this new stage of globalized capitalism. So obviously you know I won't go on but you could continue making all of these connections and show that how the most local struggles, such as taking place in Chicago, you know right now as we speak, is linked to these larger global movements. One final comment in this regard, so why in part, police have always killed black people. I mean that's not new, and in part is just being filmed now, right? Recorded because of smart phones and so forth. But also in part there's without any doubt, and unbelievable escalation of racism, racial violence, racial hostility towards black and Latinos in the United States and in police brutality and in murders.
And so again if you have a super exploited working class, fine they're integrated into the workforce, but if you have a sector of the working class that you have made structurally marginalized and needs to shut up and go to prison, you know or be locked down into inner city ghettos, then that's the conditions which generate, which generate heighten state repression. And in the first instance the regression is the police force and the courts. So again we need to tie all of this together and that sounds like your connection consciousness. And in turn, we need to link all of these things we're tying together into how the whole global capitalist system has evolved through globalization in the last two-three-four decades.
Rob: So how do we get this idea injected into the conversation?
WR: Right well I mean that's a really great question and I'm not sure that I have the answer besides, besides I think people with the, people like you and I that are trying to get the big picture and inject into the mass movements. Need to also be activists in these mass movements. I mean I really don't have the answer to that, that's a crucial, that's absolutely a crucial question.
Rob: Are there any signs or examples of it happening at all?
WR: Oh, absolutely, and let me actually, there's a lot positive, you know you said you've read my writing so you know I focus generally on analyzing a global capitalism from the top down, not because I believe in the top down, I'm from the bottom up, but because we need to understand our enemy in order to confront our enemy we need to understand the nature of the beast in order to transform or challenge this beast. But having said that, there's all over the world, there's a global revolt under way and some of it of course is sort of a negative revolt, but you know. Misdirected revolt. But there's also incredible leaps and bounds in terms of mass social movements and political resistance movements with this growing transnational consciousness. And the example I want to give you is that I just got back from Palestine and when I was in Palestine I, the Palestinians of course are confronting the increased escalation of really facing some sectors like in Gaza, are facing genocide.
But the point I want to go here is that they're acutely aware the Palestinians I spoke with on the West Bank are acutely aware of the struggle of African Americans, for that matter, poor people in general in the United States, They have a deep politically and transnational consciousness and they were very aware of what happened in Ferguson. Of course all the listeners remember Ferguson from last year. But they were also aware of the massacre that took place in Ayotzinapa, Mexico in September of 2014 which sparked a national uprising in Mexico and really brought the Mexican struggle against oppression and so forth to a new level. And so the Palestinians are aware of that. And in turn that pointed out to me that the, that when the police in Ferguson started using rubber bullets and tear gas and basically an armed occupation of Ferguson, the Palestinians contacted the African America communities organizing resistance and said look we've been dealing with Israeli tear gas and rubber bullets and so forth for a very long time now and we can give you advice on how to resist it and how to the tear gas. And that started communication between Ferguson and Palestine. And then a delegation of African American Community leaders from Ferguson actually traveled to Palestine and set up a transnational connections and I think they even called it Blacks for Palestine or something like that, don't quote me on that I don't remember the exact name. And in turn, again, you saw it in Ferguson,
I mean a lot was going on there a lot's going on all around the world. but you actually saw signs that in Ayotzinapa in Mexico. So you see this three way consciousness race, people in Mexico with that Ayotzinapa massacre. I don't know if your listeners are familiar, when the 43 students were kidnapped and brutally murdered and clearly the Mexican army and police were and the state, were organizing that. And that was September of 2014. So there's this three way consciousness rising between Ayotzinapa, Ferguson, and Palestine. And that's one hands on example of, you know the rise of a new global consciousness, and the transnational coordination of these local and national struggles. And we need a lot more of that. In fact that's our only hope, to continue deepening these types of transnational struggles and consciousness.
Rob: Well then let's talk more about that. If that's our only hope, let's put some more time into that.
WR: Mmhmm
Rob: Tell me more, what are some of the other movements, some of the other examples.
WR: Well I think there's two movements, there's the one movement which is truly transnational. I mean it's moving in the right direction, it's just a question of do we have time. The Ebola environmental movement. By definition that has to be transnational because we know that environmental, or ecological problems in any one part of the globe affects the entire globe. You can't talk about climate change in the United States or climate change in Kenya without talking about Climate change at a global level. So by definition that already is.
And of course if you want to talk about transnational consciousness and transnational coordination really the most advanced social movement on the planet, transnationally, would be, I would say, would be the global environmental, environmental movement. But also I'll add here that, there's the environmental movement then there's the environmental justice movement. And what's clear is you can't talk about, addressing the environmental movement without seeing the fundamental, you know essential to that is the issue of social justice. So the environmental justice movement is really bringing together struggles for social justice and struggles around the environment and ecology. But that is, happily to say, although you know we have a mass, we have a long road ahead of us to confront the crisis. The ecological holocaust. But happy to say that that is a shining example of a movement which is, by definition, transnational and global. So you know I would really highlight that. Also I would point out, I just I got back after Palestine made a quick trip to Juarez.
Your listeners will know or many will know that that's a border city, the other side of El Paso, and in Juarez are these Maquiladora sweat shops that again are a reflection of globalization. And the workers there for the last 20 years have been repressed, there's femicide going on there. But also there's mass repression when they tried to organize independent trade unions and struggle for wage heights and better working conditions and an end to state repression. But in the last 3, 4 months there has been an unbelievable upsurge in workers struggles in Juarez and these are led by women, by women workers. The majority of the work force there are female. And they're organizing and going out on strike and sit-ins and hunger fastings and organizing independent trade unions in Juarez because the government trade unions are all co-opted, they're simply useless and actually repressive. And we haven't seen that in quite a number of years. And I was there in Juarez in the last couple days of October. And there, again, you see the workers talking about cross-border organizing. That is useless for them to struggle in Juarez without linking up with trade unions and with workers on the US side of the border and without linking things to free trade agreements, which are by definition transnational, international and often global. So really another crucial dimension to these global struggles needs to be transnational working class organizations, transnational trade unionism, transnational worker struggle.
And that's where I would say that in most cases, workers still think in terms of their own nation state and so I think there's a lot of work to do in terms of developing a transnational working class consciousness. And of course part of the problem here, in fact I just had a debate even, historically, because of colonialism and imperialism, the workers in first world, former first world countries, you know in the sort of the rich countries of world capitalism, have higher standards of living and condition. That's exactly why migration goes from south to north by and large not north to south of Atlantic. And this represents privilege that workers have had because of colonialism and imperialism. In countries like the United States and you know Germany and Japan and so forth. Now of course, inside the United States, Germany and Japan there's poor workers, super exploited workers, marginalized workers, we've spoken about that already.
But none the less, so you get this situation where a significant portion of the trade union movement, and this is a generalization, it's not across the board, in Europe is, or the rank and file is coming out against opening up Europe, the doors of Europe to people fleeing from Iraq and from Syria and from North Africa because they say it will overflow, it will expand the ranks of the working people and therefor lower wages. Well that's an attitude which defends your own particular privilege, have it coming from rich countries, having become rich by colonialism and Imperialism, against the more transnational class consciousness and offense of the interests of working and poor people and oppressed people everywhere. So those are three things I've mentioned and is the example I gave from Ferguson and colonized and oppressed people across borders, the example of the environmental movement which is again is our best example, and then both mixed cases when we talk about the need for transnational trade union and labor organizing. But I mean those would be the points on the table for discussion.
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