Proletarian Rebellion

 “The Great Escape – a True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America,” by Saket Soni, 2023

Hurricane Katrina left a wake of destruction across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Thousands of homes, businesses and structures were damaged. Who fixes this wreckage? This is the story of Indian men tricked into going to the U.S. as welders, and paying $20K for the promise of a 'green card' by a 'reputable' Indian company, Dewan Consultants and a U.S. lawyer, Malvern Burnett. The book illustrates the cruel life of migrant workers who might have worked in the Arabian Gulf, then went to the Mexican one. It is also the story of thousands of unknown migrants who rebuild the U.S after its repeated disasters, from many countries.

Actual green cards can take five years. A loophole in the 1986 immigration act allowed companies to bring in labor for 10 months on a temp H-2B visa if no local labor could be found. A Mississippi firm, Avondale, which built ships, didn't want to pay local wages and was fighting a union drive. They needed 450 welders and it was the '90s. Burnett went to work and traveled to India. The Indians would pay $1,000 each for the privilege, and Avondale would pay him too. The Labor Department approved and Malvern and his business partners made lots of money. But the end run around U.S. labor was discovered and the visas later shut down, as U.S. labor was available.

MAN CAMPS

In 2003 the rules for the H-2B visa changed, with a chance at a green card in 2 years. Malvern went back to India in 2004 and this time charged each worker $10,000 for a chance at a visa and got rich again. This money came from the workers' families, who mortgaged or sold houses and land in India to pay the exorbitant fees. In August 2005 Katrina hit and all the applications were destroyed in Malvern's office in coastal Mississippi - though they could have been filed in March. And that is when Malvern hooked up with Signal International, an oil rig construction firm to save himself. The Gulf Coast and the Labor Department were frantic for workers, so 10 month work visas were approved again. Malvern said they could extend them 8 months, then promise to try to get green cards for the best workers – though they would have to return to India to apply. The big hitch was they had to lie and tell the Indians they would all get a green card as part of the deal. And pony up $20,000. $20,000.

Man Camp - Popular in Williston, ND too - trailers and fences

The Indians were stuck in a fenced company 'man camp' in Pascagoula, near Mobile by Signal. Others were sent to a Signal man camp in Orange, Texas. The Sikh's were made to cut their beards. The camp sat over soil with toxic levels of lead and overflowing toilets. Men hired as welders were told to work as pipe-fitters. The trailers were packed; they were fed only rice every day; their work dangerous and grueling. The Indians worked with black and white locals, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Laotians, Central Americans. And never news on green cards. Because of this, anger began to simmer and the company heard about secret meetings, a lawyer and a union. And of course, the one telling this story from his own experience and court documents, Saket Soni, is the outside immigrant activist - not a lawyer - who wrote the book.

WHEN BOSSES' ATTACK...

Signal instituted harsh rules to deal with the threat of rebellion, then tried to deport 5 'trouble-makers' back to India. It threatened to not renew the visas of the hundreds who rallied around the deportees and refused to work. After this some workers escaped into the U.S. and illegality. Another worker realized the lie about green cards and decided to rebel. Signal refused to grant extended visas and all the workers became 'illegal' but were still expected to work.  The battle begins to revolve around the “T-Visa” - given to people who are victims of human trafficking. It involves “debt bondage, peonage, involuntary servitude, slavery.” Filing a claim like this with the Justice Department would allow workers to stay and work, as they are witnesses. This process is called “Continuing Presence.” The catch is they all have to escape the guarded company compound and shut down the project. According to Soni, a strike would only lead to negotiations, a few changes and back to the same old, same old. Their real chance at a green card was rebellion.

Soni tells his own Delhi immigrant story, of studying literature at the University of Chicago on a full scholarship, then being stranded after 9/11 as an undesirable darker-skinned illegal, his visa expired, no jobs offered. This story is part of his; of all the tricky ways the men organized; how they hid what they were doing from the bosses; how they made friends with the guards; the problems with the 'Delhi-wallas' of north India; how they escaped, how nearly all hung together to file against Signal. It is also the tale of the vicissitudes of the turgid, U.S. legal system, of spies, lack of money, weariness and fortitude; of a very long 'satyagraha' march to Washington, D.C. and a hunger strike.  There is even a visit to Greensboro S.C. and an echo of the murder of anti-fascists by the Klan and Nazis, protected by the local government and police.  It is a narrative of the fight against the largest human trafficking operation in U.S. history ... that has been discovered, that is.

Their opposition – ICE, the company slandering them, the politicians intent on ignoring them, the Indian government turning up their nose at these 'coolies' – runs the gamut. It's a great story and a successful one. But most of all it is a true example of proletarian rebellion by the most exploited workers, a “Grapes of Wrath” for our own day. Funny how labor's side of capitalist time is circular, aye?

I won't reveal the whole tale, as you'll have to read the rest.

P.S. - an interview with Soni on Democracy Now!  https://www.democracynow.org/2023/9/4/the_great_escape_saket_soni

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms: “Modern DeFacto Slavery,” “Debt & Capital,” “Blood and Earth – Modern Slavery,” “Not a Nation of Immigrants,” “Central America's Forgotten History,” “Slave States - Kafala,” “Illegals, Migrants and Refugees,” “The Latino Question,” “Stateless,” “The Debt Trap.”

And I got it at May Day's excellent cutout / used section!

Red Frog

April 24, 2023