The economic collapse of the US Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands has intensified the desperation and uncertain plight of twenty thousands guest workers. Those long abused workers marched in record numbers in December against an Island Slave Law and federal control over the situation has stalled. Longtime garment executive and now Governor Ben Fitial has returned this week from Washington DC with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and HANMI (hotel association) claiming to have halted federalization of the CNMI and freezing the minimum wage to 3.55 per hour.
A throng of Saipan residents marched in December to oppose PL-15-108, also called the Island Slave law. One worker emolliated himself in the immigration office to highlight the tyranny here. Community action has been dismissed by local lawmakers and the law remains unchanged.
What are decent citizens to do? What action should follow the Unity March? Some Unity core organizers think a mass hunger strike may move our government to action, but this writer does not think so. Marches, rallies, and hunger strikes are symbolic shows of support, but not actions that force a response. Gandhi said an action without response was not successful and likely not proactive enough. By Gandhi’s definition, the Unity March, was a complete failure, even-though the marching percentage numbers of Gandhi and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. paled in comparison to the numbers of Unity marchers. What would work to eliminate this ghastly law?
To deal with big business, which has long controlled our officials here, we must adversely affect their business revenue directly. They will bend, if, and only if, it will cost them MONEY.
It is a well-documented fact that greedy Saipan garment owners lured indigent third world workers to Saipan with promises of opportunity and a better life in America. They targeted non-English speakers that had never been afforded an education so their future workers would have no ability to communicate the dire situation or represent themselves against ghastly abuse, branding them the unheard. Colluding with a few crooked NMI lawmakers, the garment gangsters monopolized our tiny island’s infrastructure and created labor and immigration laws that denied workers their most important freedom — the ability to quit and/or change employers. Workers were financially controlled with textbook factory town strategy. Behind spiraling wealth, the garment industry here turned full blown organized crime whose power and influence even controlled voting in the U.S. Congress and so arrogant that they openly bragged of their absolutely untouchable status. Financially handcuffed, workers lived in fear, afraid to speak, afraid to quit, and afraid to stand.
Core organizers have decided a general strike is the only answer to deal with the slave driving mindset that business has here. Gandhi called it a day of prayer and fasting. A core organizer here prefers the term a Day of Sacrifice. A Day of Sacrifice is the most peaceful of all forms of protest. The participant merely stays home. Can the worker be fired or deported? No, workers participating in such a concerted action may not be reprimanded according to US law, and Federal Ombudsman Jim Benedetto has published answers regarding that question.
I suspect, a Day of Sacrifice is coming.
Ron Hodges
Island of Saipan