thenation--2020-12-01--These Visa Recipients Are Stuck in the US And Demanding Their Rights

By mid-March , Mars was starting to worry .
The 27-year-old was living and working in Little Rock , Ark.
, where the mayor had just imposed a midnight curfew .
Restaurants and shopping malls were beginning to be shuttered .
On March 20 , Arkansas recorded the state ’ s biggest one-day spike in Covid-19 cases since the outbreak began .
Mars is from the Philippines , and he came to the United States last year on a visa called the J-1 .
Technically , his J-1 visa is meant for “ trainees ” ; by March , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ placement at a well-known hotel chain where he was supposed to be receiving management training .
( He and the other workers interviewed for this story asked The Nation not to publish their last names or the names of their workplaces for fear of retaliation . )
To get that position , which paid $ 11 an hour , Mars had to pay $ 10,000—plus a $ 7,000 bond—to a recruiting agency in the Philippines , which then arranged the placement through the State Department ’ s J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Mars had been keeping tabs on the hotel ’ s occupancy rate , noting the rising number of cancellations .
When he raised concerns to the HR department on March 19 , they assured him that the hotel staff would weather the crisis as a team .
Three days later , HR handed him a termination letter .
“ I didn ’ t know what to do , ” Mars told me .
“ I felt betrayed.
” Mars became one of thousands of J-1 visa program participants—many of them from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States after losing their positions because of Covid-19 .
They may be unable or unwilling to return home .
Many paid thousands of dollars in fees to get here , and some worked only a few days or weeks before being laid off .
The stakes are especially high for Filipino recipients ; remittances sent home by overseas Filipinos keep an estimated 10 million Filipino families afloat .
J-1 workers also face a hurdle that other overseas Filipino workers , or OFWs , do not : Neither the US nor the Philippine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is officially a cultural exchange visa , admitting 300,000 people into the United States each year .
Despite little employer accountability and no Labor Department oversight , J-1 visa recipients have increasingly been used to fill US employers ’ labor needs in hospitality , teaching , and other fields .
The Philippine government , similarly to the US State Department , classifies J-1 participants as study abroad students , rather than overseas workers .
Yet US government oversight agencies , labor advocacy nonprofits , and grassroots organizations argue that the visa program functions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ labor and props up US industries like hospitality and tourism .
At its worst , the program creates the conditions for human trafficking .
Since Covid-19 began shutting down economies around the globe , the Philippine government has offered some assistance to stranded OFWs , such as the preexisting Assistance to Nationals fund—a billion pesos set aside to help migrant workers in distress .
The government has also offered a $ 200 amelioration payment for overseas workers affected by the pandemic .
But because neither the Philippines nor the United States categorize Filipinos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not entitled to funds from either government .
“ We do the same thing as other OFWs , but we are not a part of the benefits , ” Mars said .
“ We ’ re not privileged to it , even though we actually paid more [ for our visas ] than them.
” The J-1 visa was conceived by the State Department in 1961 , as a tool of diplomacy with the stated mission to “ increase mutual understanding ” between the United States and other countries .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this country scholars who would teach and conduct research during their sojourn .
Over the last two decades , the J-1 visa has transformed from a diplomacy program into a de facto labor program .
Unlike most other employment-based visas , there is no cap on the number of J-1s made available each year—making it a convenient workaround for US employers looking to fill worker shortages .
It also presents an opportunity to cut labor costs : Employers do not have to pay payroll taxes , which the Southern Poverty Law Center estimates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ payroll expenses .
The sponsor organizations that arrange work placements also do not charge employers for providing the service , making money chiefly from their cut of the fees paid by visa applicants .
I spoke with three J-1 program participants from the Philippines who reported that they were left to fend for themselves after the pandemic cut short their internships or work placements .
They had paid between $ 4,000 and $ 10,000 in application fees—higher than an average year ’ s salary in the Philippines—often borrowing from family members or banks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Philippines split those fees with privately owned sponsor organizations in the United States , which partner with employers such as the Marriott and Sheraton hotel chains to fill internships that supposedly provide “ on-the-job training.
” Why the Left Should Ally With Small Business Even before the pandemic , many J-1 recipients said they experienced problems with their programs at hotels and hotel restaurants .
Sponsors had sent them detailed training plans—issued on State Department letterhead and cosigned by the future employer—to review and sign before leaving the Philippines .
The agreements @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the employer will follow the training plan with “ definite phases [ and ] specific objectives , ” and guarantee that the training will be “ provided by experienced and knowledgeable staff.
” Many arrived in the United States with degrees in hospitality management , expecting to be trained as managers .
Workers told me they spent months busing tables or mopping floors instead .
When Joy , a 25-year-old chef from the Philippine province of Negros Occidental , arrived in Dallas for an internship at a hotel in January , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She was told that she she ’ d have to find an apartment in town alongside the other newly arrived J-1 workers .
Her employers had her working inconsistent hours in the hotel kitchen—often clocking in under or over the 32-to-40-hour work week stipulated in her contract—and she said they blew through the discrete phases of her 12-month training plan in about three months .
The person training her was another J-1 intern , who had started working at the hotel just a few months before Joy ’ s arrival .
“ That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the chefs or the heads to teach us how to operate the restaurant , the kitchen , ” Joy said .
“ Sadly , it was just the J-1.
” The J-1 workers told me that when managerial training was implemented in their programs , it was often superficial .
“ They showed me how to do payroll once .
They also showed me how to do the schedule—once , ” said Mars .
“ But am I really going to understand if they only show me once ?
” Mars said he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the internship delivering room service and working as a host at the hotel restaurant .
Then Covid-19 hit .
Mars and Joy both reported that their supervisors gave no advance notice before telling them that their schedules were being cut indefinitely .
Their employers and sponsors urged them to return home to the Philippines , but offered no financial assistance .
The workers were often cramped together in tiny apartments .
Joy was living with six other J-1s .
The J-1 program does not make employers answerable to hires in any meaningful way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visa recipients to file any complaints about the “ legitimacy ” of their internship with the State Department ’ s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs , the federal agency in charge of administering the J-1 program .
J-1 recipients said that their complaints about working conditions—mainly , that their training plan was not being followed according to the contract ’ s terms—to sponsors and management alike were often ignored or met with threats of being sent back to the Philippines .
One former intern said she called the State Department help line @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one picked up .
In response to allegations of neglect , a State Department official said it “ monitors sponsors ’ programs for adherence to federal regulations , and we take very seriously any report we receive concerning the welfare of an exchange visitor.
” Migrant worker advocates , however , say that the program shields both employers and sponsors from accountability .
“ The State Department formally administers the program , but delegates much of its day-to-day authority to a mix of for- and nonprofit sponsors , ” said Catherine Bowman , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Center for Global Workers ’ Rights .
“ There is a running criticism that this results in lax oversight and inaccuracies about the J-1s ’ well-being.
” Once the Covid-19 layoffs began , the State Department published one advisory on its website to J-1 program participants : Contact your sponsors .
When Joy reached out to her sponsor , she said , “ They e-mailed us two options : Either go home or stay .
All of us chose to stay , because we need to recover our losses.
” After that , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to requests for further guidance .
There are 15 subcategories in the J-1 program , for professions ranging from physicians and professors to au pairs and camp counselors .
Of the 37,000 J-1 interns and trainees admitted to the United States in 2019 , about a third were assigned to work in the hospitality and tourism sector .
J-1-sponsoring organizations are a political force , with powerful legislative influence in Washington , D.C .
This includes the Alliance for International Exchange , a lobbying group whose board of directors consists of multiple J-1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sponsors are labor brokers , and they ’ ve created this self-regulating system , ” said Nap Pempeña , secretary general of Migrante USA , a nationwide alliance of Filipino worker organizations .
As the groups profiting from , administering , and regulating the J-1 , these sponsors face a logistical problem when it comes to overseeing this expansive program .
In 2011 , hundreds of J-1 workers of varying nationalities walked off the job at a Hershey ’ s chocolate packing plant in Pennsylvania , decrying long hours and low wages .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” a Chinese undergraduate told The New York Times .
“ It is just work , work faster , work.
” At its worst , the J-1 visa can lead to more extreme instances of human trafficking .
In 2016 , a Florida man was convicted of sex trafficking after bringing a group of students from Kazakhstan to Miami on J-1 visas to supposedly work in a yoga studio .
No such studio existed , and the workers were coerced into providing erotic massages to clientele .
The most sweeping attempt at regulating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s comprehensive immigration reform act , which passed with bipartisan support and is best remembered for expanding the DREAM Act .
The bill sought to rein in human trafficking endemic to other guest worker programs by implementing registration requirements for recruiters and making recruitment fees illegal .
But the final bill exempted J-1 sponsor organizations from those requirements .
“ It really just shows the power of the J-1 lobby , ” said Daniel Costa , director of immigration law at the Economic Policy Institute .
“ This lobby inserted itself into those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their entire business model was going to go away if that recruitment registration was implemented.
” By early March , market analysts were already warning of a “ record scarcity of workers ” in the hospitality industry .
Since then , the Trump administration has used Covid-19 as a pretext to pass unprecedented immigration restrictions , attempting to ban asylum indefinitely and suspending most legal immigration until 2021 .
But in July , the State Department issued a list of exceptions to the president ’ s proclamations , including one that allows for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ admitted if it supports the “ economic recovery of the United States.
” It has not released a comprehensive policy regarding renewals or extensions for J-1 workers who were already in the country .
While President-elect Joe Biden has promised to reinstitute the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program , which offered temporary legal status for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children , and is expected to admit more highly educated tech workers , his initial immigration plan says nothing about reforming the J-1 visa .
For years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Derechos Del Migrante have called for oversight of J-1 programs to be transferred to the Department of Labor , which unlike the Department of State , has the power to enforce labor standards and investigate violations such as wage theft .
“ When you hear employers and politicians talk about the J-1 program , they talk about it like it ’ s a labor shortage program , not like a cultural exchange program , ” said Costa .
“ Still , there ’ s no Labor Department involvement in any of this , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In late March , after losing his job , Mars joined the J-1 Workers Network , a group of about 300 Filipino J-1 visa holders who say they are stuck in cities across the United States .
The network was formed in response to a Facebook post by a Filipino J-1 worker describing the Covid-19 layoffs , which was shared nearly a thousand times .
The post caught the eye of Migrante USA organizers , who reached out to the workers to develop a campaign .
The Philippines sent 3,000 J-1 interns to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ top-sending country in 2019 , and most members of the J-1 Workers Network fall under the intern and trainee J-1 categories—professional development programs that target college students and recent college graduates .
Network members are making demands of the institutions that they feel abandoned them , from local recruiting agencies to the Philippine and US governments .
They are calling for full or partial refunds from visa sponsors or recruitment agencies for programs that were cut short .
But their core demand lies in the name of the group itself : Members say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exchange visitors ” —they are workers , entitled to rights , benefits , and protections .
Overseas employment is a vital component of the Philippine economy .
Remittances from overseas Filipino workers comprise 10 percent of the Philippines ’ total GDP .
Of the $ 35 billion to the Philippine economy generated by remittances in 2019 , about one-third came from workers in the United States .
Last year , however , the Trump administration removed the Philippines from eligibility for H-2A and H-2B guest worker visas , coded for low-wage work , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with human trafficking .
Organizers with the J-1 Workers Network say the system itself creates the conditions for overstaying .
“ These overseas jobs pay so little and Filipino workers pay so much to get these visas .
Can you really blame Filipinos for overstaying ?
” said Migrante USA ’ s Pempeña .
“ At the end of the day , they have mouths to feed and debts to pay.
” Every member of the J-1 Workers Network who spoke to me said that the difficulty of attaining an H visa influenced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instead .
But they also wanted to enhance their skills and become more competitive in the Philippine job market .
Many were also remitting portions of their wages to support their families back home .
In April , the network sent an open letter to the State Department , requesting a formal response to the demand that the US government provide assistance to victimized and abused J-1 workers and implement protections for J-1 workers during disasters like the pandemic .
The State Department never responded to the network , but it did answer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Intern and trainee exchange programs are not labor programs and exchange visitors are not workers , ” a State Department official said in an e-mail .
Members of the J-1 Workers Network said they have mainly relied on advocacy groups like the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns and Migrante USA , as well as GoFundMe campaigns , for financial and logistical assistance during the pandemic .
The Alliance for International Exchange , the lobbying group , told me that its member organizations have committed $ 2.1 million to support exchange visitors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for flights home and rent assistance .
None of the members of the J-1 Workers Network that I spoke with had received any support from that group .
Since being laid off , Mars has spent his days rummaging through discount department stores in Little Rock , buying brand-name shoes and reselling them at a markup online .
His visa is rapidly expiring : He has to decide between going back to the Philippines or riding it out here .
Right now , he wants to stay .
He might apply for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a nonimmigrant visa awarded to victims who can prove they are in the United States as a result of trafficking .
“ I was treated as a worker—not a manager in training , ” he said .
I ask Mars why he ’ s speaking out about the issue now , despite the risks .
“ I want to give future J-1s an idea about what to expect when you come to the US , ” he says .
“ Future J-1s shouldn ’ t have to go through the same things that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
”

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By mid-March, Mars was starting to worry. The 27-year-old was living and working in Little Rock, Ark., where the mayor had just imposed a midnight curfew. Restaurants and shopping malls were beginning to be shuttered. On March 20, Arkansas recorded the state’s biggest one-day spike in Covid-19 cases since the outbreak began.
Mars is from the Philippines, and he came to the United States last year on a visa called the J-1. Technically, his J-1 visa is meant for “trainees”; by March, he was eight months into a year-long work placement at a well-known hotel chain where he was supposed to be receiving management training. (He and the other workers interviewed for this story asked The Nation not to publish their last names or the names of their workplaces for fear of retaliation.) To get that position, which paid $11 an hour, Mars had to pay $10,000—plus a $7,000 bond—to a recruiting agency in the Philippines, which then arranged the placement through the State Department’s J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program. He arrived in Little Rock in debt.
Mars had been keeping tabs on the hotel’s occupancy rate, noting the rising number of cancellations. When he raised concerns to the HR department on March 19, they assured him that the hotel staff would weather the crisis as a team. Three days later, HR handed him a termination letter.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Mars told me. “I felt betrayed.”
Mars became one of thousands of J-1 visa program participants—many of them from the Philippines—who have been effectively stranded in the United States after losing their positions because of Covid-19. They may be unable or unwilling to return home. Many paid thousands of dollars in fees to get here, and some worked only a few days or weeks before being laid off. The stakes are especially high for Filipino recipients; remittances sent home by overseas Filipinos keep an estimated 10 million Filipino families afloat. J-1 workers also face a hurdle that other overseas Filipino workers, or OFWs, do not: Neither the US nor the Philippine government considers them workers.
The J-1 is officially a cultural exchange visa, admitting 300,000 people into the United States each year. Despite little employer accountability and no Labor Department oversight, J-1 visa recipients have increasingly been used to fill US employers’ labor needs in hospitality, teaching, and other fields. The Philippine government, similarly to the US State Department, classifies J-1 participants as study abroad students, rather than overseas workers. Yet US government oversight agencies, labor advocacy nonprofits, and grassroots organizations argue that the visa program functions as an unregulated pipeline for temporary migrant labor and props up US industries like hospitality and tourism. At its worst, the program creates the conditions for human trafficking. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
Since Covid-19 began shutting down economies around the globe, the Philippine government has offered some assistance to stranded OFWs, such as the preexisting Assistance to Nationals fund—a billion pesos set aside to help migrant workers in distress. The government has also offered a $200 amelioration payment for overseas workers affected by the pandemic. But because neither the Philippines nor the United States categorize Filipinos on J-1 visas as workers, they are not entitled to funds from either government. Current Issue View our current issue
“We do the same thing as other OFWs, but we are not a part of the benefits,” Mars said. “We’re not privileged to it, even though we actually paid more [for our visas] than them.”
The J-1 visa was conceived by the State Department in 1961, as a tool of diplomacy with the stated mission to “increase mutual understanding” between the United States and other countries. In the beginning, the program primarily brought into this country scholars who would teach and conduct research during their sojourn.
Over the last two decades, the J-1 visa has transformed from a diplomacy program into a de facto labor program. Unlike most other employment-based visas, there is no cap on the number of J-1s made available each year—making it a convenient workaround for US employers looking to fill worker shortages. It also presents an opportunity to cut labor costs: Employers do not have to pay payroll taxes, which the Southern Poverty Law Center estimates saves businesses 8 percent on their total payroll expenses. The sponsor organizations that arrange work placements also do not charge employers for providing the service, making money chiefly from their cut of the fees paid by visa applicants.
I spoke with three J-1 program participants from the Philippines who reported that they were left to fend for themselves after the pandemic cut short their internships or work placements. They had paid between $4,000 and $10,000 in application fees—higher than an average year’s salary in the Philippines—often borrowing from family members or banks to do so. Local recruiters in the Philippines split those fees with privately owned sponsor organizations in the United States, which partner with employers such as the Marriott and Sheraton hotel chains to fill internships that supposedly provide “on-the-job training.” Related Article Why the Left Should Ally With Small Business Stacy Mitchell and Susan R. Holmberg
Even before the pandemic, many J-1 recipients said they experienced problems with their programs at hotels and hotel restaurants. Sponsors had sent them detailed training plans—issued on State Department letterhead and cosigned by the future employer—to review and sign before leaving the Philippines. The agreements promise interns a proper orientation, specify that the employer will follow the training plan with “definite phases [and] specific objectives,” and guarantee that the training will be “provided by experienced and knowledgeable staff.” Many arrived in the United States with degrees in hospitality management, expecting to be trained as managers. Workers told me they spent months busing tables or mopping floors instead.
When Joy, a 25-year-old chef from the Philippine province of Negros Occidental, arrived in Dallas for an internship at a hotel in January, she said she received no formal orientation. She was told that she she’d have to find an apartment in town alongside the other newly arrived J-1 workers. Her employers had her working inconsistent hours in the hotel kitchen—often clocking in under or over the 32-to-40-hour work week stipulated in her contract—and she said they blew through the discrete phases of her 12-month training plan in about three months. The person training her was another J-1 intern, who had started working at the hotel just a few months before Joy’s arrival.
“That was the worst thing. We expected the chefs or the heads to teach us how to operate the restaurant, the kitchen,” Joy said. “Sadly, it was just the J-1.”
The J-1 workers told me that when managerial training was implemented in their programs, it was often superficial. “They showed me how to do payroll once. They also showed me how to do the schedule—once,” said Mars. “But am I really going to understand if they only show me once?” Mars said he had spent most of his time during the internship delivering room service and working as a host at the hotel restaurant.
Then Covid-19 hit. Mars and Joy both reported that their supervisors gave no advance notice before telling them that their schedules were being cut indefinitely. Their employers and sponsors urged them to return home to the Philippines, but offered no financial assistance. The workers were often cramped together in tiny apartments. Joy was living with six other J-1s.
The J-1 program does not make employers answerable to hires in any meaningful way. The contract agreement directs J-1 intern visa recipients to file any complaints about the “legitimacy” of their internship with the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the federal agency in charge of administering the J-1 program.
J-1 recipients said that their complaints about working conditions—mainly, that their training plan was not being followed according to the contract’s terms—to sponsors and management alike were often ignored or met with threats of being sent back to the Philippines. One former intern said she called the State Department help line multiple times with concerns, but no one picked up.
In response to allegations of neglect, a State Department official said it “monitors sponsors’ programs for adherence to federal regulations, and we take very seriously any report we receive concerning the welfare of an exchange visitor.”
Migrant worker advocates, however, say that the program shields both employers and sponsors from accountability. “The State Department formally administers the program, but delegates much of its day-to-day authority to a mix of for- and nonprofit sponsors,” said Catherine Bowman, assistant professor at Penn State’s Center for Global Workers’ Rights. “There is a running criticism that this results in lax oversight and inaccuracies about the J-1s’ well-being.”
Once the Covid-19 layoffs began, the State Department published one advisory on its website to J-1 program participants: Contact your sponsors. When Joy reached out to her sponsor, she said, “They e-mailed us two options: Either go home or stay. All of us chose to stay, because we need to recover our losses.” After that, she said, her sponsor never responded to requests for further guidance.
There are 15 subcategories in the J-1 program, for professions ranging from physicians and professors to au pairs and camp counselors. Of the 37,000 J-1 interns and trainees admitted to the United States in 2019, about a third were assigned to work in the hospitality and tourism sector.
J-1-sponsoring organizations are a political force, with powerful legislative influence in Washington, D.C. This includes the Alliance for International Exchange, a lobbying group whose board of directors consists of multiple J-1 sponsoring agency executives. “The visa sponsors are labor brokers, and they’ve created this self-regulating system,” said Nap Pempeña, secretary general of Migrante USA, a nationwide alliance of Filipino worker organizations.
As the groups profiting from, administering, and regulating the J-1, these sponsors face a logistical problem when it comes to overseeing this expansive program. In 2011, hundreds of J-1 workers of varying nationalities walked off the job at a Hershey’s chocolate packing plant in Pennsylvania, decrying long hours and low wages. “There is no cultural exchange,” a Chinese undergraduate told The New York Times. “It is just work, work faster, work.”
At its worst, the J-1 visa can lead to more extreme instances of human trafficking. In 2016, a Florida man was convicted of sex trafficking after bringing a group of students from Kazakhstan to Miami on J-1 visas to supposedly work in a yoga studio. No such studio existed, and the workers were coerced into providing erotic massages to clientele.
The most sweeping attempt at regulating the J visa program was 2013’s comprehensive immigration reform act, which passed with bipartisan support and is best remembered for expanding the DREAM Act. The bill sought to rein in human trafficking endemic to other guest worker programs by implementing registration requirements for recruiters and making recruitment fees illegal. But the final bill exempted J-1 sponsor organizations from those requirements.
“It really just shows the power of the J-1 lobby,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law at the Economic Policy Institute. “This lobby inserted itself into those legislation efforts to make the argument that their entire business model was going to go away if that recruitment registration was implemented.”
By early March, market analysts were already warning of a “record scarcity of workers” in the hospitality industry. Since then, the Trump administration has used Covid-19 as a pretext to pass unprecedented immigration restrictions, attempting to ban asylum indefinitely and suspending most legal immigration until 2021. But in July, the State Department issued a list of exceptions to the president’s proclamations, including one that allows for new J-1 interns and trainees to be admitted if it supports the “economic recovery of the United States.” It has not released a comprehensive policy regarding renewals or extensions for J-1 workers who were already in the country. Related Article Can American Labor Survive Prop 22? Wilfred Chan
While President-elect Joe Biden has promised to reinstitute the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which offered temporary legal status for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, and is expected to admit more highly educated tech workers, his initial immigration plan says nothing about reforming the J-1 visa.
For years, advocacy groups such as Centro De Los Derechos Del Migrante have called for oversight of J-1 programs to be transferred to the Department of Labor, which unlike the Department of State, has the power to enforce labor standards and investigate violations such as wage theft. “When you hear employers and politicians talk about the J-1 program, they talk about it like it’s a labor shortage program, not like a cultural exchange program,” said Costa. “Still, there’s no Labor Department involvement in any of this, which I think is really problematic.”
In late March, after losing his job, Mars joined the J-1 Workers Network, a group of about 300 Filipino J-1 visa holders who say they are stuck in cities across the United States. The network was formed in response to a Facebook post by a Filipino J-1 worker describing the Covid-19 layoffs, which was shared nearly a thousand times. The post caught the eye of Migrante USA organizers, who reached out to the workers to develop a campaign.
The Philippines sent 3,000 J-1 interns to the United States, making it the top-sending country in 2019, and most members of the J-1 Workers Network fall under the intern and trainee J-1 categories—professional development programs that target college students and recent college graduates. Network members are making demands of the institutions that they feel abandoned them, from local recruiting agencies to the Philippine and US governments. They are calling for full or partial refunds from visa sponsors or recruitment agencies for programs that were cut short. But their core demand lies in the name of the group itself: Members say that they aren’t “cultural exchange visitors”—they are workers, entitled to rights, benefits, and protections.
Overseas employment is a vital component of the Philippine economy. Remittances from overseas Filipino workers comprise 10 percent of the Philippines’ total GDP. Of the $35 billion to the Philippine economy generated by remittances in 2019, about one-third came from workers in the United States.
Last year, however, the Trump administration removed the Philippines from eligibility for H-2A and H-2B guest worker visas, coded for low-wage work, citing high rates of overstay and problems with human trafficking. Organizers with the J-1 Workers Network say the system itself creates the conditions for overstaying. “These overseas jobs pay so little and Filipino workers pay so much to get these visas. Can you really blame Filipinos for overstaying?” said Migrante USA’s Pempeña. “At the end of the day, they have mouths to feed and debts to pay.”
Every member of the J-1 Workers Network who spoke to me said that the difficulty of attaining an H visa influenced their decision to pursue a J-1 visa instead. But they also wanted to enhance their skills and become more competitive in the Philippine job market. Many were also remitting portions of their wages to support their families back home.
In April, the network sent an open letter to the State Department, requesting a formal response to the demand that the US government provide assistance to victimized and abused J-1 workers and implement protections for J-1 workers during disasters like the pandemic. The State Department never responded to the network, but it did answer my request for comment on the letter. “Intern and trainee exchange programs are not labor programs and exchange visitors are not workers,” a State Department official said in an e-mail.
Members of the J-1 Workers Network said they have mainly relied on advocacy groups like the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns and Migrante USA, as well as GoFundMe campaigns, for financial and logistical assistance during the pandemic. The Alliance for International Exchange, the lobbying group, told me that its member organizations have committed $2.1 million to support exchange visitors affected by the pandemic, including paying for flights home and rent assistance. None of the members of the J-1 Workers Network that I spoke with had received any support from that group.
Since being laid off, Mars has spent his days rummaging through discount department stores in Little Rock, buying brand-name shoes and reselling them at a markup online. His visa is rapidly expiring: He has to decide between going back to the Philippines or riding it out here. Right now, he wants to stay. He might apply for a student visa—or even a T visa, a nonimmigrant visa awarded to victims who can prove they are in the United States as a result of trafficking. “I was treated as a worker—not a manager in training,” he said.
I ask Mars why he’s speaking out about the issue now, despite the risks. “I want to give future J-1s an idea about what to expect when you come to the US,” he says. “Future J-1s shouldn’t have to go through the same things that the current J-1s are experiencing right now.”


thenation--2020-12-01--Appalachia’s Hospital Closures Are a Slow-Motion Health Care Emergency

The ongoing struggle for racial justice .
The future for immigrant families .
The health and well-being of all Americans .
The very fate of our fragile planet .
The United States faces a crossroads in 2020 .
Seeking out the stories flying under the national radar , The Nation and Magnum Foundation are partnering on What ’ s At Stake , a series of photo essays from across the country through the lenses of independent imagemakers .
Follow the whole series here .
This installment was produced with support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project .
Even before the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system was in crisis .
Skyrocketing costs for patients , an accelerating work pace for nurses and other health care workers , and a tangle of private and public insurance bureaucracy throw up barriers to care for millions of Americans .
But this doleful situation isn ’ t for lack of doctors , or lack of facilities , not really .
At heart , what is strangling America ’ s health care system is that we still don ’ t count health care among the human rights to which we ’ re all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our fellow citizens as another potential source of profit .
Nowhere is this more evident than in the many rural areas where hospitals are being shuttered at an alarming rate .
A local hospital—easily accessible , with short wait times—can be a boon to residents seeking care , but it ’ s not a recipe for moneymaking .
Appalachia is an epicenter for this health care emergency : According to the University of North Carolina ’ s Sheps Center for Health Services Research , 23 hospitals have closed in the region in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that 2020 is a record-breaking year , with eight hospitals already shutting their doors in Appalachia .
When the pandemic struck , and hospitals were forced to largely suspend outpatient care and elective procedures , rural facilities already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy were pushed over the edge .
Right now , coronavirus infections in rural communities are skyrocketing .
Hospitals in eastern Tennessee , where I live , are reaching capacity .
Yet we have the second highest rate of hospital closures in the country .
Studies have found that states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Affordable Care Act—states like Tennessee , Mississippi , Alabama , Georgia , and the Carolinas—have seen the most hospital closures .
A number of factors also conspire to make the coronavirus particularly dangerous in Appalachia : With a disproportionately older population , and with high rates of heart disease , obesity , and diabetes , the region has a large proportion of people who are at risk of hospitalization for virus complications .
For a couple weeks this fall , I drove across the region , to the small towns that have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the facilities that used to provide health care and jobs in areas desperately in need of both .
These photos capture some of the many shuttered health care facilities across Appalachia .
Many rural hospitals didn ’ t receive relief from the first coronavirus economic relief package , but they were included in a $ 10 billion rural Covid-19 relief fund that offered a temporary Band-Aid to many struggling rural hospitals and health clinics .
The Cumberland River Hospital in Clay County , Tenn. , is fully functional and ready to receive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it did not receive any support through the CARES act , and hasn ’ t yet received support from subsequent relief packages .
As the pandemic escalates and the flu season begins , Clay County has no available medical care between the hours of 5 pm and 8 am .
In nearby Jamestown , Tenn. , the Jamestown Regional Medical Center closed in 2019 .
Since its closure , people have still rushed to the hospital in dire need of care , only to find its doors locked—they end up in the parking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Clinic across the street , but the urgent care facility does not have the kind of equipment needed to restart someone ’ s heart , and patients have died before they could be taken the 30 miles to the nearest hospital .
Mingo County , W.Va. , was the site of the 1920 Matewan Massacre , a deadly battle in America ’ s labor history that pitted the United Mine Workers of America against a coal company ’ s guns for hire .
Coal mining was vital to West Virginia ’ s and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ steep and steady decline in the number of mining jobs has been devastating .
Hospitals like Williamson Memorial Hospital—the only one in Mingo County—were something of an economic lifeline : They are usually the largest employers in these economically depressed areas , and offer the highest-paying jobs .
New industries are also less likely to come to areas without a hospital .
Williamson Memorial shut down this year at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak .
A few hours away , a merger of two hospital systems in parts of northeast Tennessee , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drastically altered the shape of care in 29 counties .
Federal officials had objected to the merger , on the grounds that it was creating a medical monopoly .
But the consolidation went ahead anyway , and Ballad Health , the name of the system that resulted from the merger , now is effectively the only health care provider for a region the size of New Jersey .
In the 2018 merger agreement , Ballad is not allowed to close any hospitals for five years , and it is reopening a hospital in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ closed in 2013 .
For Ballad , these rural hospitals are considered referral hospitals , bringing rural populations into Ballad ’ s urban facilities .
As rural populations shrink and hospitals continue to consolidate , these trends will only accelerate .
Unless there are drastic changes to how we apportion health care in this country , the future of rural care will be either no care , or no choice .

Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital, in Ashland, Ky., closed in 2020. (Stacy Kranitz)
The ongoing struggle for racial justice. The future for immigrant families. The health and well-being of all Americans. The very fate of our fragile planet. The United States faces a crossroads in 2020. Seeking out the stories flying under the national radar, The Nation and Magnum Foundation are partnering on What’s At Stake, a series of photo essays from across the country through the lenses of independent imagemakers. Follow the whole series here. This installment was produced with support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
Even before the coronavirus, America’s health care system was in crisis. Skyrocketing costs for patients, an accelerating work pace for nurses and other health care workers, and a tangle of private and public insurance bureaucracy throw up barriers to care for millions of Americans. But this doleful situation isn’t for lack of doctors, or lack of facilities, not really. At heart, what is strangling America’s health care system is that we still don’t count health care among the human rights to which we’re all entitled—we still largely view the health of our fellow citizens as another potential source of profit.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the many rural areas where hospitals are being shuttered at an alarming rate. A local hospital—easily accessible, with short wait times—can be a boon to residents seeking care, but it’s not a recipe for moneymaking. Appalachia is an epicenter for this health care emergency: According to the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center for Health Services Research, 23 hospitals have closed in the region in the past decade. There is no doubt that 2020 is a record-breaking year, with eight hospitals already shutting their doors in Appalachia. When the pandemic struck, and hospitals were forced to largely suspend outpatient care and elective procedures, rural facilities already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy were pushed over the edge.
Williamson, W.Va. (Stacy Kranitz)
Williamson Memorial hospital, in Williamson, W.Va.., closed in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Stacy Kranitz)
Right now, coronavirus infections in rural communities are skyrocketing. Hospitals in eastern Tennessee, where I live, are reaching capacity. Yet we have the second highest rate of hospital closures in the country. Studies have found that states that didn’t expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act—states like Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas—have seen the most hospital closures. A number of factors also conspire to make the coronavirus particularly dangerous in Appalachia: With a disproportionately older population, and with high rates of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, the region has a large proportion of people who are at risk of hospitalization for virus complications.
Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital. Mental health services in Appalachia are hard to come by. (Stacy Kranitz)
For a couple weeks this fall, I drove across the region, to the small towns that have suffered hospital closures, making my way to the facilities that used to provide health care and jobs in areas desperately in need of both. These photos capture some of the many shuttered health care facilities across Appalachia.
Many rural hospitals didn’t receive relief from the first coronavirus economic relief package, but they were included in a $10 billion rural Covid-19 relief fund that offered a temporary Band-Aid to many struggling rural hospitals and health clinics. The Cumberland River Hospital in Clay County, Tenn., is fully functional and ready to receive patients, but is currently closed because it did not receive any support through the CARES act, and hasn’t yet received support from subsequent relief packages. As the pandemic escalates and the flu season begins, Clay County has no available medical care between the hours of 5 pm and 8 am.
Cumberland River Hospital, in Celina, Tenn., closed in 2020. (Stacy Kranitz)
Cumberland River Hospital. (Stacy Kranitz)
A surgery suite in the closed Cumberland River Hospital. (Stacy Kranitz)
Cumberland River Hospital. (Stacy Kranitz)
In nearby Jamestown, Tenn., the Jamestown Regional Medical Center closed in 2019. Since its closure, people have still rushed to the hospital in dire need of care, only to find its doors locked—they end up in the parking lot of Clarke’s Acute Medical Clinic across the street, but the urgent care facility does not have the kind of equipment needed to restart someone’s heart, and patients have died before they could be taken the 30 miles to the nearest hospital.
Mingo County, W.Va., was the site of the 1920 Matewan Massacre, a deadly battle in America’s labor history that pitted the United Mine Workers of America against a coal company’s guns for hire. Coal mining was vital to West Virginia’s and Virginia’s economies, and the steep and steady decline in the number of mining jobs has been devastating. Hospitals like Williamson Memorial Hospital—the only one in Mingo County—were something of an economic lifeline: They are usually the largest employers in these economically depressed areas, and offer the highest-paying jobs. New industries are also less likely to come to areas without a hospital. Williamson Memorial shut down this year at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.
A few hours away, a merger of two hospital systems in parts of northeast Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky drastically altered the shape of care in 29 counties. Federal officials had objected to the merger, on the grounds that it was creating a medical monopoly. But the consolidation went ahead anyway, and Ballad Health, the name of the system that resulted from the merger, now is effectively the only health care provider for a region the size of New Jersey. In the 2018 merger agreement, Ballad is not allowed to close any hospitals for five years, and it is reopening a hospital in Lee County, Va., that was closed in 2013. For Ballad, these rural hospitals are considered referral hospitals, bringing rural populations into Ballad’s urban facilities.
Copper Basin Medical Center, in Polk County, Tennessee, closed in 2017. (Stacy Kranitz)
Copper Basin Medical Center. (Stacy Kranitz)
As rural populations shrink and hospitals continue to consolidate, these trends will only accelerate. Unless there are drastic changes to how we apportion health care in this country, the future of rural care will be either no care, or no choice.


thenation--2020-12-01--The Coup That Never Happened

The Coup That Never Happened

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thenation--2020-12-01--Don’t Abandon the Democratic Party—Take It Over

The electoral arena matters too much to abandon it to gutless liberals , the extreme right wing , and corporate interests .
The problem facing progressive insurgents is how to engage with it .
In 1864 , abolitionists debated whether to endorse Abraham Lincoln for reelection .
( William Lloyd Garrison did so enthusiastically ; Wendell Phillips supported a third-party candidacy . )
After the New Deal cemented white working-class and Black voters to the Democratic Party , many in the labor movement bemoaned the absence of a true workers ’ party .
Moderate socialists , like Michael Harrington of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the 1970s and ’ 80s that the Democratic Party constituted an American version of European social democratic parties , while a few leftists have experimented—with little success—with various third-party incarnations , from the Peace and Freedom Party in 1967 to the US Green Party , which still putter along today .
Versions of these strategies compete for support in today ’ s reemerging political left .
The Other Side of The Debate The Democratic Party Will Keep Betraying Labor .
It ’ s Time to Launch a Workers ’ Party .
With @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last year , working people clearly need to build and wield greater political power .
Toward that end , neither uncritical immersion in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party nor abstention from major-party politics is an effective strategy .
Instead we need an inside-outside approach to electoral politics .
We have to treat the Democratic Party not as an impenetrable monolith but as contestable terrain .
We need an independent infrastructure , with its own staff , funding , base , and political capacity .
But we also must reject the role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ primaries to unseat corporate Democrats .
The good news is that this plan is already underway , with a growing list of upset victories .
It is not easy to beat the Democratic establishment , but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , Jamaal Bowman , Cori Bush , Rashida Tlaib , and many others have demonstrated that it can be done .
Meanwhile , independent groups like Justice Democrats , the Sunrise Movement , Mijente , Dream Defenders , People ’ s Action , the Working Families Party , Democratic Socialists of America , and sections @ @ @ @ @ @ @ critical role that independent movements and organizations can play in shifting the terms of debate , putting pressure on the power structure , and electing people ’ s champions .
( The organization I cofounded , Pennsylvania Stands Up , is doing just that . )
We have a long way to go , but the insurgency has gained more traction than any other electoral attempt by the left in the past four decades .
Our work now is to scale up .
With each electoral cycle , we need to recruit more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ develop more savvy campaigners and skilled organizers .
We are hitting our stride with a strategy that ’ s making measurable gains , and that should be argument enough .
But let ’ s address the proposed alternative : exiting the Democratic Party to form our own labor party .
The bottom line is that the United States ’ winner-take-all voting system presents barriers to the emergence of a competitive third party that are insurmountable for the foreseeable future .
A broad left political alignment can win in the US , but neither @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can beat the GOP if they ’ re competing against each other .
In US history , only the issue of slavery was sufficiently disruptive to give rise to a new party that could contend for majority support .
And immediately afterward , the system contracted to two parties .
Even the Great Depression—when a quarter of the nation was unemployed , millions of people were hungry and homeless , thousands of banks failed , and uprisings of the unemployed shook the political establishment—led to the transformation of the Democratic Party , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cursory look at the most recent consequential progressive third-party attempt , the US Green Party , shows why the path leads to a dead end .
Ralph Nader had no strategy to win or to build power when he ran in 2000 .
Bernie Sanders , by running in Democratic presidential primaries , has done more to advance the left than the US Green Party has over its decades-long existence .
And the same thing would happen with any national-scale third party effort .
Unless we can organize a successful constitutional convention , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ viable at the national level .
And because they ’ re not viable , they will not attract serious leaders .
( Consider Jill Stein and Howie Hawkins . )
And without serious leaders , we will never build a mass party .
Fortunately , we don ’ t have to choose between a fantasy third party and the Democratic Party in its current state .
We ’ re in the process of organizing a force to wrest the helm from the neoliberal old guard .
We have a recent example that shows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ party is possible : the Tea Party and Donald Trump .
They took over the GOP and won the presidency with an unpopular agenda that excited their core base .
Imagine what we can do running on a people ’ s agenda that enjoys widespread support .
To read the other side of The Debate , read Paul Blest ’ s “ The Democratic Party Will Keep Betraying Labor .
It ’ s Time to Launch a Workers ’ Party .
”

This article appears in the December 14/21, 2020 issue.
The electoral arena matters too much to abandon it to gutless liberals, the extreme right wing, and corporate interests. The problem facing progressive insurgents is how to engage with it. In 1864, abolitionists debated whether to endorse Abraham Lincoln for reelection. (William Lloyd Garrison did so enthusiastically; Wendell Phillips supported a third-party candidacy.) After the New Deal cemented white working-class and Black voters to the Democratic Party, many in the labor movement bemoaned the absence of a true workers’ party. Moderate socialists, like Michael Harrington of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, argued in the 1970s and ’80s that the Democratic Party constituted an American version of European social democratic parties, while a few leftists have experimented—with little success—with various third-party incarnations, from the Peace and Freedom Party in 1967 to the US Green Party, which still putter along today. Versions of these strategies compete for support in today’s reemerging political left. The Other Side of The Debate The Democratic Party Will Keep Betraying Labor. It’s Time to Launch a Workers’ Party. Paul Blest
With only 10.3 percent of US employees unionized last year, working people clearly need to build and wield greater political power. Toward that end, neither uncritical immersion in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party nor abstention from major-party politics is an effective strategy. Instead we need an inside-outside approach to electoral politics. We have to treat the Democratic Party not as an impenetrable monolith but as contestable terrain. We need an independent infrastructure, with its own staff, funding, base, and political capacity. But we also must reject the role of third-party spoiler and run candidates in primaries to unseat corporate Democrats.
The good news is that this plan is already underway, with a growing list of upset victories. It is not easy to beat the Democratic establishment, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, and many others have demonstrated that it can be done. Meanwhile, independent groups like Justice Democrats, the Sunrise Movement, Mijente, Dream Defenders, People’s Action, the Working Families Party, Democratic Socialists of America, and sections of the labor movement have revealed the critical role that independent movements and organizations can play in shifting the terms of debate, putting pressure on the power structure, and electing people’s champions. (The organization I cofounded, Pennsylvania Stands Up, is doing just that.)
We have a long way to go, but the insurgency has gained more traction than any other electoral attempt by the left in the past four decades. Our work now is to scale up. With each electoral cycle, we need to recruit more candidates, build stronger organizations, and develop more savvy campaigners and skilled organizers.
We are hitting our stride with a strategy that’s making measurable gains, and that should be argument enough. But let’s address the proposed alternative: exiting the Democratic Party to form our own labor party. The bottom line is that the United States’ winner-take-all voting system presents barriers to the emergence of a competitive third party that are insurmountable for the foreseeable future. A broad left political alignment can win in the US, but neither the Democrats nor a new leftist party can beat the GOP if they’re competing against each other. In US history, only the issue of slavery was sufficiently disruptive to give rise to a new party that could contend for majority support. And immediately afterward, the system contracted to two parties. Even the Great Depression—when a quarter of the nation was unemployed, millions of people were hungry and homeless, thousands of banks failed, and uprisings of the unemployed shook the political establishment—led to the transformation of the Democratic Party, not the emergence of another one.
A cursory look at the most recent consequential progressive third-party attempt, the US Green Party, shows why the path leads to a dead end. Ralph Nader had no strategy to win or to build power when he ran in 2000. Bernie Sanders, by running in Democratic presidential primaries, has done more to advance the left than the US Green Party has over its decades-long existence.
And the same thing would happen with any national-scale third party effort. Unless we can organize a successful constitutional convention, third parties are not going to be viable at the national level. And because they’re not viable, they will not attract serious leaders. (Consider Jill Stein and Howie Hawkins.) And without serious leaders, we will never build a mass party.
Fortunately, we don’t have to choose between a fantasy third party and the Democratic Party in its current state. We’re in the process of organizing a force to wrest the helm from the neoliberal old guard. We have a recent example that shows that a successful insurgency within a major party is possible: the Tea Party and Donald Trump. They took over the GOP and won the presidency with an unpopular agenda that excited their core base. Imagine what we can do running on a people’s agenda that enjoys widespread support.
To read the other side of The Debate, read Paul Blest’s “The Democratic Party Will Keep Betraying Labor. It’s Time to Launch a Workers’ Party.”


thenation--2020-12-01--The Democratic Party Will Keep Betraying Labor. It’s Time to Launch a Workers’ Party.

Joe Biden lost Florida by more than double the margin that Hillary Clinton did in 2016 .
Democrats lost at least five seats in the Florida House , and Republicans defeated two Democratic members of Congress in South Florida .
An amendment to increase the minimum wage to $ 15 per hour , however , won by 22 points .
The Other Side of The Debate Don ’ t Abandon the Democratic Party—Take It Over Florida isn ’ t alone .
Arizona voters approved a tax increase on people making over $ 250,000 a year to fund public education in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ teachers ’ strikes , and in Colorado paid family and medical leave passed with 58 percent of the vote .
In both states , the measures passed with a larger share of the vote than Biden got .
There were disappointments , of course—the success of Prop 22 in California and the defeat of the fair tax plan in Illinois .
But across the country , policies supported by the left and labor groups have proved more popular than the Democratic Party .
Combine the dissatisfaction with Democrats with the dislike of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe the country needs a third major party , a September Gallup poll found ) , and you have the conditions for an actual labor party to emerge and compete against the two parties of capital .
Since American Federation of Labor founding president Samuel Gompers and his allies stifled the nascent movement for a labor party in the late 19th and early 20th centuries , the Democratic Party has ostensibly been the party for workers .
And yet its alliance with labor has always been one of conflicts and contradictions—first with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Jim Crow South and more recently as the party embraced corporatism .
The arrangement isn ’ t working for unions .
Nearly a third of US workers belonged to a union in the mid-1960s , but after 50 years of decline , union membership stood at just 10.3 percent in 2019 .
The pandemic ’ s devastation of the restaurant and hospitality industries is likely to do even more damage to workers .
Many Democrats are realizing that the gradual deemphasis and weakening of labor has cost them electorally .
After @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , once strongholds of labor and the Democratic Party at the presidential level , have become swing states .
Bear in mind all of the usual caveats about the unreliability of exit polls , but a New York Times exit poll in Ohio gave Donald Trump a double-digit victory among union households there .
After being pushed by unions , the House passed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act this year , an overdue reform of labor law that would , among other things , empower the National Labor Relations Board to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ independent contractors , and override right-to-work laws .
But we ’ ve seen Democrats betray labor before , most notably in 2009 , when the conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition killed card check , which would have allowed workers to avoid NLRB-administered elections on union representation if a majority of people in a unit indicated support for forming a union .
And despite the best efforts of high-profile leaders like Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to reorient the party toward the multiracial working class , it ’ s obvious where the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ September the US Chamber of Commerce—one of the most influential institutions of the conservative movement and capitalism—endorsed 23 freshman House Democrats for reelection along with 29 House Republicans .
The message was clear : Business might be better under Republicans and their corporate tax breaks , but it wouldn ’ t exactly be bad with the other party of capital in power , either .
There are significant obstacles to starting a third party , including restrictive ballot access laws , the perception that a labor party would hand elections to the GOP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Any credible effort would need to begin with the most powerful unions in the labor movement as well as the defection of top Democratic critics within the party .
The Green Party , with its overreliance on presidential elections and irrelevance at the local level , is instructive here : If a new party has any chance of succeeding , it needs to be built from the ground up , not the top down .
A labor party could mimic what the Democratic left is currently doing : challenge establishment Democrats in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the groundwork to organize rural areas and battle Republicans .
Taking cues from the Working Families Party and the Vermont Progressive Party , such a party could form an occasional pact with labor-friendly Democrats to hold off a Republican and vice versa .
( Another lesson from the WFP , at least in New York state : That alliance will be tenuous , and the Democrats will shiv you at the first opportunity . )
While the Democratic Party is the lesser of two evils , we need a new party concerned with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , not with balancing conflicting interests in search of a tent big enough to hold both the sheep and the wolves .
To read the other side of The Debate , read Jonathan Smucker ’ s “ Don ’ t Abandon the Democratic Party—Take It Over .
”

This article appears in the December 14/21, 2020 issue.
Joe Biden lost Florida by more than double the margin that Hillary Clinton did in 2016. Democrats lost at least five seats in the Florida House, and Republicans defeated two Democratic members of Congress in South Florida. An amendment to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, however, won by 22 points. The Other Side of The Debate Don’t Abandon the Democratic Party—Take It Over Jonathan Smucker
Florida isn’t alone. Arizona voters approved a tax increase on people making over $250,000 a year to fund public education in the wake of last year’s teachers’ strikes, and in Colorado paid family and medical leave passed with 58 percent of the vote. In both states, the measures passed with a larger share of the vote than Biden got.
There were disappointments, of course—the success of Prop 22 in California and the defeat of the fair tax plan in Illinois. But across the country, policies supported by the left and labor groups have proved more popular than the Democratic Party. Combine the dissatisfaction with Democrats with the dislike of the two-party system (57 percent of Americans believe the country needs a third major party, a September Gallup poll found), and you have the conditions for an actual labor party to emerge and compete against the two parties of capital.
Since American Federation of Labor founding president Samuel Gompers and his allies stifled the nascent movement for a labor party in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Democratic Party has ostensibly been the party for workers. And yet its alliance with labor has always been one of conflicts and contradictions—first with the anti-union, anti-civil-rights efforts of the Democrats in the Jim Crow South and more recently as the party embraced corporatism.
The arrangement isn’t working for unions. Nearly a third of US workers belonged to a union in the mid-1960s, but after 50 years of decline, union membership stood at just 10.3 percent in 2019. The pandemic’s devastation of the restaurant and hospitality industries is likely to do even more damage to workers.
Many Democrats are realizing that the gradual deemphasis and weakening of labor has cost them electorally. After passing right-to-work laws, Wisconsin and Michigan, once strongholds of labor and the Democratic Party at the presidential level, have become swing states. Bear in mind all of the usual caveats about the unreliability of exit polls, but a New York Times exit poll in Ohio gave Donald Trump a double-digit victory among union households there.
After being pushed by unions, the House passed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act this year, an overdue reform of labor law that would, among other things, empower the National Labor Relations Board to fine companies, limit the misclassification of independent contractors, and override right-to-work laws. Current Issue View our current issue
But we’ve seen Democrats betray labor before, most notably in 2009, when the conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition killed card check, which would have allowed workers to avoid NLRB-administered elections on union representation if a majority of people in a unit indicated support for forming a union. And despite the best efforts of high-profile leaders like Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to reorient the party toward the multiracial working class, it’s obvious where the party’s heart is. In September the US Chamber of Commerce—one of the most influential institutions of the conservative movement and capitalism—endorsed 23 freshman House Democrats for reelection along with 29 House Republicans. The message was clear: Business might be better under Republicans and their corporate tax breaks, but it wouldn’t exactly be bad with the other party of capital in power, either.
There are significant obstacles to starting a third party, including restrictive ballot access laws, the perception that a labor party would hand elections to the GOP, and the intransigence of labor leadership. Any credible effort would need to begin with the most powerful unions in the labor movement as well as the defection of top Democratic critics within the party. The Green Party, with its overreliance on presidential elections and irrelevance at the local level, is instructive here: If a new party has any chance of succeeding, it needs to be built from the ground up, not the top down.
A labor party could mimic what the Democratic left is currently doing: challenge establishment Democrats in their dominance in the cities and lay the groundwork to organize rural areas and battle Republicans. Taking cues from the Working Families Party and the Vermont Progressive Party, such a party could form an occasional pact with labor-friendly Democrats to hold off a Republican and vice versa. (Another lesson from the WFP, at least in New York state: That alliance will be tenuous, and the Democrats will shiv you at the first opportunity.)
While the Democratic Party is the lesser of two evils, we need a new party concerned with the material well-being of the working class, not with balancing conflicting interests in search of a tent big enough to hold both the sheep and the wolves.
To read the other side of The Debate, read Jonathan Smucker’s “Don’t Abandon the Democratic Party—Take It Over.”


thenation--2020-12-01--Letters From the December 14/21, 2020, Issue

One reason for the steady decline of African Americans in Major League Baseball that Gene Seymour neglected to mention [ “ Fade to White , ” November 2/9 ] is the overwhelming number of football and basketball scholarships offered by colleges and universities , compared with the paucity of those for baseball .
The football and basketball scholarships offer a huge incentive for Black athletes ( and their parents ) to steer toward those sports .
It ’ s hardly the only reason , but given the number of players who are drafted by MLB teams out of college , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ factor .
When baseball was reaching its peak of African American participation in the 1970s and early ’ 80s , college football and basketball , especially in the South and Southwest , were still overwhelmingly white .
It wasn ’ t until the mid- ’ 70s that this began to change in large numbers , and since the early ’ 80s , there has been an almost perfect inverse correlation between the percentages of Black players in college football and basketball and their percentage in Major League Baseball .
I can ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I was honored to be noticed in these pages by someone whose work I have long admired , Katha Pollitt , who in “ Settling Out of Court ” [ November 2/9 ] responded to my thoughts on the future of abortion rights , given that Amy Coney Barrett would soon join the Supreme Court .
If I ruled the world , Roe v. Wade would be nonnegotiable .
But I do not .
As a longtime abortion rights supporter , I stated clearly in my New York Times op-ed that I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also consider it a done deal , either through the Supreme Court ’ s current death-by-a-thousand-cuts gutting of Roe or by an outright overruling .
Pollitt asks what the 850,000 people per year who now get abortions will do after Roe .
They will do what far too many women do now : travel .
We need to mobilize to help them and follow the example of Women on Waves , a group of Dutch activists and doctors who loaded a drone with abortion pills and flew it to Poland , where abortion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abortions occur each year .
I explored potential silver linings of an overruling of Roe not because I want it—I said clearly I did not—but because I consider it inevitable .
Yes , as Pollitt says , every state legislative session will become a battleground over women ’ s rights ( as they already are over racism and workers ’ rights ) .
Let ’ s get on with it .
Re “ Stephen F. Cohen ” by Katrina vanden Heuvel [ October 19/26 ] : I always knew my radio interviews with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because he had a sense of history and was never afraid to challenge any shibboleth .
Friend , scholar-activist , deep thinker , and wonderful orator—Steve Cohen , rest with the giants .
Suzi Weissman

This article appears in the December 14/21, 2020 issue.
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Moneyball
One reason for the steady decline of African Americans in Major League Baseball that Gene Seymour neglected to mention [“Fade to White,” November 2/9] is the overwhelming number of football and basketball scholarships offered by colleges and universities, compared with the paucity of those for baseball. The football and basketball scholarships offer a huge incentive for Black athletes (and their parents) to steer toward those sports. It’s hardly the only reason, but given the number of players who are drafted by MLB teams out of college, it’s definitely not a minor factor.
When baseball was reaching its peak of African American participation in the 1970s and early ’80s, college football and basketball, especially in the South and Southwest, were still overwhelmingly white. It wasn’t until the mid-’70s that this began to change in large numbers, and since the early ’80s, there has been an almost perfect inverse correlation between the percentages of Black players in college football and basketball and their percentage in Major League Baseball. I can’t see this as nothing but a coincidence.
Andy Moursund
Roe Reversal
I was honored to be noticed in these pages by someone whose work I have long admired, Katha Pollitt, who in “Settling Out of Court” [November 2/9] responded to my thoughts on the future of abortion rights, given that Amy Coney Barrett would soon join the Supreme Court. If I ruled the world, Roe v. Wade would be nonnegotiable. But I do not. As a longtime abortion rights supporter, I stated clearly in my New York Times op-ed that I regret the passing of Roe. I also consider it a done deal, either through the Supreme Court’s current death-by-a-thousand-cuts gutting of Roe or by an outright overruling.
Pollitt asks what the 850,000 people per year who now get abortions will do after Roe. They will do what far too many women do now: travel. We need to mobilize to help them and follow the example of Women on Waves, a group of Dutch activists and doctors who loaded a drone with abortion pills and flew it to Poland, where abortion is illegal and an estimated 50,000 underground abortions occur each year. I explored potential silver linings of an overruling of Roe not because I want it—I said clearly I did not—but because I consider it inevitable. Yes, as Pollitt says, every state legislative session will become a battleground over women’s rights (as they already are over racism and workers’ rights). Let’s get on with it. Current Issue View our current issue
Joan Williams
san francisco
Remembering Steve
Re “Stephen F. Cohen” by Katrina vanden Heuvel [October 19/26]: I always knew my radio interviews with Steve would be filled with wisdom, because he had a sense of history and was never afraid to challenge any shibboleth. Friend, scholar-activist, deep thinker, and wonderful orator—Steve Cohen, rest with the giants.
Suzi Weissman