This is Democracy Now, DemocracyNow.org, The War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzales.

As we continue with Part Two of our conversation with John Wilmac Jr., the legendary historian

and economist.

He's one of the foremost historians of the Mexican Revolution, author of the book Zapata

and the Mexican Revolution.

He's also written extensively about labor, power and strategy, which is the title of his

new book.

It's featured in the nation and a piece headlined, What Does It Take to Win a Strike?

We thank you so much for joining with us.

I wanted to ask you about what immigration, the immigration reform and control act of 1986.

It has to do with labor unions.

You talk about the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union's efforts at the time.

Now the ILG, the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union, joined with Act Wu, the

amalgamated clothing textile workers union, to form Unite.

And then they went together with here, Hotel employees, restaurant employees, to be

Unite here.

What did that original union, the ILG, have to do with the Immigration Act?

And how did that affect labor in the United States?

Well, the Garment industry had been recruiting labor, cheap labor, unorganized labor, especially

from well, from very all over the world.

So there were people from Mexico, people from the Philippines, people from elsewhere across

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