Sleeping with the Pigs

A foundational text for any aspiring Marxists or political economy students is Frederich Engels's The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844.  Engels, a social scientist and philosopher, was the son of a German textile manufacturer who is considered a founding father of communist theory (his commitment to exposing class inequities no doubt born of his poor relationship as a high school dropout with his well-to-do pop).  Engels traveled to England in the early 19th century to apprentice at a textile mill firm in which his dad was an investor, and came to know and observe the English working class.  His subsequent, highly descriptive publication on the conditions in which they lived is considered a "classic" in socialist circles as well as in the muckraking tradition.

As an Irish-American, I had a real problem with this book, because of the disdainful (read: not sympathetic) way Engels described the destitute Irish living in England.  We (if I may) were described as dirty drunks who slept with our pigs.  Now, in this description bears out, chances are humans might be cuddling up to animals to keep warm through the chilly London winters in the no doubt substandard tenements in which they lived.  Whatever the reality and reasons behind it, the xenophobic, racist (?) characterizations of Irish immigrants by this elite observer were too much for me.

Often I wish white Americans would remember that the majority of our relatives who emigrated to this country were viewed with the same hostility and suspicion we now reserve for Latin@ immigrants.  The whole "swine flu = dirty Mexicans are to blame" meme is a case in point.  First, let's keep in mind that wealthier travelers for whom it's easy to circulate the globe are likely the ones pollinating this disease across national borders.  Second, let's not forget the fundamental problem of industrial animal farming that has led to these hog-human-bird hybrid flu strains - we are all sleeping with the pigs these days!

The role of an American industrial pork farm is under investigation as a potential source of the outbreak.  Instead of looking for scapegoats, perhaps we should consider the exploitative nature of these mega-factories, not only for the animals but for the low-wage workers who most often work in this unsafe, unsanitary conditions.  If we want to lay blame (and you know we do, we're like that) for this outbreak, consider the employers who operate these plants.  If we want to crack down on our borders, we need to start by shoring up those that protect workers on American soil from labor abuse and exploitation and protect consumers from harmful business practices like animal overcrowding.  Or none of us is safe, and we are all complicit.

(Photo by Elsie esq.)