Paperless, Práxedis* is a Mexican anarchist who has been working in Canada as a cherry picker in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia.
After a walk within the ‘’Solidarity with Palestine’’ demo in downtown Montreal, Práxedis and I ended up in a coffee shop where we spent the rest of the evening talking.
He talked about the abuses, injustices, and exploitation he and other temporary workers had to live through while working as cherry pickers. He explained to me that his coworkers were recruited under the temporary worker program of Canada. Yes, the same program that Tomoya Obokata, a UN reporter, qualified as a ‘’breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery’’.(1)
Our talk stretched from discussing perspectives on anarchism to labor rights. ‘’Anarchism is stereotyped in popular minds as Black Blocks breaking stuff. Meanwhile, the labor movement is jammed by laws into collaboration with bosses and the state. Organizing workers on an anarchist basis here and now, that’s the thing. This is how I see change toward an anarchist society.’’
And Práxedis practices what he preaches. While he was cherry picking, he organized a strike.
‘‘We were living in badly maintained shelters. We didn’t always get paid. Once we even had rat feces in our crockery cabinet. Some of us realized we had to do something. We didn’t strike for a contract, we striked because we were angry.’’
He has been active in labor organizing in Canada since he met with a migrant worker-rights defense group in BC. This group has been active in BC for several years now among the temporary workers. Práxedis seems to always have their labor rights leaflet with him. ‘’Our rights are rights,’’ it says in Spanish.
Talking about his involvement with the workers center, he tells: ’’We organize parties with free food for workers and we hand out those flyers around. We also have a radio show in BC, that even temporary workers here in Quebec listen to!’’
It all felt so distant to me, until he says, ‘’Well I know some folks working on a farm in a town near here. They’re interested in defending their rights. We could go to meet with them!’’
I didn’t think I’d become a temporary worker organizer by the end of that night. Where there’s a will there’s a way, I guess. Without any pretensions, that’s at least how one starts.
The rest of the story is yet to be written. But let’s hope that it ends up well for people like Práxedis, soon enough.
That night I really felt like the IWA is more than an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist unions meeting in congresses. It is also an international network of direct mutual aid between anarcho-syndicalist activists like Práxedis.
* Names have been changed for security reasons.
Citations
1. Major, D. (2023, September 6). UN envoy links temporary foreign worker program to ‘contemporary forms of slavery’. CBC News. Updated September 7, 2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/un-special-rapporteur-migrant-worker-program-modern-form-of-slavery-1.6958592