Anti-Racism team learns about the Border
Last week, as part of their annual planning retreat, the Anti-Racism team took some time out to learn from some inspiring activists in the border region of South TX. We crossed the border to meet women organizing in the Maquilas, factories set up under NAFTA with limited regulation or taxation. The Promotoras (community organizers) told us about their work organizing workers in the factories, which employ over a million people for wages of just a few dollars a day. The Promotoras work for the Comite de Apoyo and bravely talk to workers about their rights and organize to put pressure on companies which illegally mandate overtime, refuse to train new workers and operate blatantly unsafe work places. We heard from one woman who lost both her hands when a machine malfunctioned; she still has not received any compensation and is struggling to support her children (you can read more about her story here). We also heard of a successful campaign by workers whose contract had been ignored when the factory slowed production; having learned about their rights from the Comite, the workers demanded to be paid for the days they'd shown up, and won!
The team was honored to meet these women and certainly inspired by their work, the visit was made possible by CTA members who've worked on labor issues with the workers in the Maquilas and the fields. That afternoon, the Team crossed back to the US side of the border to meet with another activist group that CTA members are a part of. We ate lunch with community activists who volunteer with LUPE, they organize locally on issues affecting their rural neighborhoods (known as colonias), lobbying for things like street lights and better drainage. Many of the families in these communities are undocumented or mixed status, so lobbying nationally for immigration reform and the DREAM act are very important to them too. The lunch was delicious and hearing their passion for the volunteer-run community center and campaigns they work on was inspiring!
You can check out pictures of the trip on our Facebook page, and find out more about our Anti-Racism Team at http://cta-usa.org/focus-areas/racial-justice/
