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El Laberinto, 1971-1987
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Another example Corona cited was the situation in 1952 of the copper mining unions attempts to secure better wages and working conditions from the various mining companies that exploited their labor. Refusing the demands of the workers, ignoring their threats to strike, the companies threatened to move operations into places like Africa, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico, in a virulent display of capitalistic aggrandisement. Suddenly, in 1953, a coup in Chile erupted followed by the installation of a dictator. American corporations went to Chile and copper mining operations opened up. And then in Rhodesia, the Southern Rhodesia Copper Trust was formed with none other than Addlai Stevenson, the then liberal candidate for presidency of the United States, as the leading attorney putting the legal mechanics together. These, as Corona said, are the historical roots of repression today with imperialism operating all over the world. This, along with ninety percent of the Supreme Court in America representing the giant monopolies, should an attorney attempt to bring these corporations to court, is what he or she is up against. The direction the Supreme Court is taking in its decisions has been to amplify and fortify big business' and employers' rights within the National Labor Relations Board Act ever since the Nixon administration, and now with the Ford administration. Workers and lawyers must assume whatever possible position they can take, or are able to take in contending with these political socio-economic partners. Workers and lawyers must prepare themselves, in moving against these mutually complicit forces, to take on a parade of appendages and tentacles of the great corporations dispersed in the guise of small independent operations, and against the endless supernumeraries of accomplices, allies, and cohorts. * After the opening addresses were made, the conference broke up into the various workshops that were scheduled. The workshops included: Immigration Law; Anti-Imperialism; Equal Rights; Communications; Legal Alternatives; and Prisoners' Rights. Of the Immigration Workshop: "One of the goals of the immigration workshop is to begin a process of clarification among Chicano and Latino law students of the economic bases of imperialism, particularly in the fact that imperialism is a system under which one nation robs another not only of its vital natural resources, but also of its human resources in the form of mass migration... All the objective studies on the subject point to a very definite and real cause-and-effect relationship between imperialism and migratory labor shifts from the under-developed Third World countries to the developed capitalist countries. This fact dictates that the topic of immigration become one of the dominant themes of the conference, as there is hardly any Chicano or Latino community in the country where the immigration status of at least a substantial number of its members is not a major issue for struggle." As to the role progressive Chicano and Latino lawyers should play in regard to the legal struggles of the immigrant workers: "First of all, we must start with the perspective that we are members of the U.S. 'intelligestsia' and that as such we can sell dearly our privileged skills; much to our personal advantage. But we also play a class role in the society; we can serve either class with our skills. We hope that ...we can come to the conclusion that we have a moral duty to side with the class which produces the wealth and from which we came: the working class... (We can) develop, out of a sense of justice, an attitude of total support for the right of undocumented workers to live and work free from the constant fear of persecution and discrimination by immigration police. To do this concretely, we must exploit fully all those internal contradictions of the U.S. legal system which give us tactical advantages in the legal arena...We must stand behind the undocumented workers, their presence gives us the strength of numbers and conviction...Let us hope that (we) can take a decisive step forward on behalf of all oppressed people. We call on all progressive Chicano and Latino law students to recognize that: TO ASSIST IN THE LEGAL STRUGGLES OF THE UNDOCUMENTED WORKER IS A REVOLUTIONARY ACT! 11
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Another example Corona cited was the situation in 1952 of the copper mining unions attempts to secure better wages and working conditions from the various mining companies that exploited their labor. Refusing the demands of the workers, ignoring their threats to strike, the companies threatened to move operations into places like Africa, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico, in a virulent display of capitalistic aggrandisement. Suddenly, in 1953, a coup in Chile erupted followed by the installation of a dictator. American corporations went to Chile and copper mining operations opened up. And then in Rhodesia, the Southern Rhodesia Copper Trust was formed with none other than Addlai Stevenson, the then liberal candidate for presidency of the United States, as the leading attorney putting the legal mechanics together. These, as Corona said, are the historical roots of repression today with imperialism operating all over the world. This, along with ninety percent of the Supreme Court in America representing the giant monopolies, should an attorney attempt to bring these corporations to court, is what he or she is up against. The direction the Supreme Court is taking in its decisions has been to amplify and fortify big business' and employers' rights within the National Labor Relations Board Act ever since the Nixon administration, and now with the Ford administration. Workers and lawyers must assume whatever possible position they can take, or are able to take in contending with these political socio-economic partners. Workers and lawyers must prepare themselves, in moving against these mutually complicit forces, to take on a parade of appendages and tentacles of the great corporations dispersed in the guise of small independent operations, and against the endless supernumeraries of accomplices, allies, and cohorts. * After the opening addresses were made, the conference broke up into the various workshops that were scheduled. The workshops included: Immigration Law; Anti-Imperialism; Equal Rights; Communications; Legal Alternatives; and Prisoners' Rights. Of the Immigration Workshop: "One of the goals of the immigration workshop is to begin a process of clarification among Chicano and Latino law students of the economic bases of imperialism, particularly in the fact that imperialism is a system under which one nation robs another not only of its vital natural resources, but also of its human resources in the form of mass migration... All the objective studies on the subject point to a very definite and real cause-and-effect relationship between imperialism and migratory labor shifts from the under-developed Third World countries to the developed capitalist countries. This fact dictates that the topic of immigration become one of the dominant themes of the conference, as there is hardly any Chicano or Latino community in the country where the immigration status of at least a substantial number of its members is not a major issue for struggle." As to the role progressive Chicano and Latino lawyers should play in regard to the legal struggles of the immigrant workers: "First of all, we must start with the perspective that we are members of the U.S. 'intelligestsia' and that as such we can sell dearly our privileged skills; much to our personal advantage. But we also play a class role in the society; we can serve either class with our skills. We hope that ...we can come to the conclusion that we have a moral duty to side with the class which produces the wealth and from which we came: the working class... (We can) develop, out of a sense of justice, an attitude of total support for the right of undocumented workers to live and work free from the constant fear of persecution and discrimination by immigration police. To do this concretely, we must exploit fully all those internal contradictions of the U.S. legal system which give us tactical advantages in the legal arena...We must stand behind the undocumented workers, their presence gives us the strength of numbers and conviction...Let us hope that (we) can take a decisive step forward on behalf of all oppressed people. We call on all progressive Chicano and Latino law students to recognize that: TO ASSIST IN THE LEGAL STRUGGLES OF THE UNDOCUMENTED WORKER IS A REVOLUTIONARY ACT! 11
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