BY MARTÍN KOPPEL AND ELIZABETH STONE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - "No human being is illegal!" That slogan appeared on countless hand-lettered signs among the crowd of thousands of demonstrators from across the country who converged on the U.S. capital October 12 for the first national demonstration for the rights of immigrants.

Mónica De Casas, 23, a Chicana student who came with a group of 25 youth from the University of Rhode Island and Brown University, expressed the exuberance of many marchers. "It's great to see so many of us here to make our voice heard. They can't stop us now." The students marched behind a banner proclaiming: "We support La Raza." (Raza refers to the Chicano people; the term is sometimes extended to all Latinos.)

The march was overwhelmingly young. Mexican, Chicano, Puerto Rican, and other Latino student groups from campuses throughout the country played a major role in organizing buses, vans, and cars to get to the demonstration, especially in the three or four weeks before October 12. Organizers of the demonstration reported the turnout at 25,000. Other estimates ranged from 10,000 to 20,000.

The call for the national demonstration was first made two years ago by One-Stop Immigration and other groups that organized the 70,000-strong demonstration in Los Angeles in October 1994 against the anti-immigrant ballot measure in California known as Proposition 187. A coalition of organizations, Coordinadora '96, was set up to coordinate the October 12 action.

Chicano youth groups were strongly represented at the march, reflecting the resurgence of activity among Chicanos nationally. One group of high school and college students from Chicago identified themselves with a sign reading, "Chicano, Illinois, Contingent."

Sizable numbers of workers and young people from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean were present, many carrying the flags of their country of origin. Mexican flags were by far the most numerous. Many flew the flags of El Salvador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Ecuador, among others.

There was a sprinkling of Asian organizations, including a group of Vietnamese immigrants from Philadelphia and a busload of Bangladeshi workers from Brooklyn. Haitian groups from New York and Miami were also in the march.

"The new laws of the government are against all immigrants," commented Onécimo Orea, a garment worker from New York who marched with others from the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). "We are better organized and more united than before. We are saying, Enough!"

Demonstrators carried seven bilingual banners at the head of the march with each of the official demands of the march. These were: human and constitutional rights for all, equal opportunities and affirmative action, free education for all from kindergarten to college, preserving and expanding public health services, "citizen police review boards," labor law reform and raising the minimum wage to $7 an hour, and an extended government "amnesty" for undocumented workers.

Buses brought demonstrators from as far away as California, Florida, and Arizona. Close to a thousand came from Texas, with a contingent of 100 from the Río Grande Valley. Several hundred came by bus or plane from California. Possibly the largest mobilization was from Chicago, where many marchers carried the Coordinadora '96 signs along with homemade ones.

Dozens of organizations in the Chicago area were represented, from El Fuego del Pueblo (Fire of the People), a student group at Northern Illinois University, to the Club Patriótico del Sur de Chicago (Patriotic Club of South Chicago), to LULAC-Zapatista Chapter. While the national leadership of the League of United Latin American Citizens did not endorse the march, a number of local LULAC chapters from around the country were present.

Besides the large number of student groups, contingents came from a diverse range of local community organizations, such as the West Dallas Coalition for Environmental Justice and the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, which helps get loans for Blacks and Latinos in Washington, D.C.

Joel Cruz, a Chicano worker, came with a contingent of federal employees from the Hispanic Civil Rights Fund in San Antonio, Texas. "I think affirmative action must be enforced," he stated, adding that his group is involved in a major class- action lawsuit against the Defense Department over job discrimination against Latino workers at the Kelly Air Force Base. "Nine of 10 times, when there is an Anglo and a Latino in line for a promotion, they select the Anglo," Cruz noted. Hatred of `la migra'
Banners, T-shirts, and buttons expressing hatred and defiance of la migra - the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) - and the government's attacks on undocumented workers were everywhere. Many chanted or carried signs asserting: "Migra no, Raza sí!" One contingent chanted, "Si hoy nos deportan, ya mañana regresamos" (If they deport us today, we'll be back tomorrow). Another popular slogan was, "Aquí estamos y no nos vamos" (We are here, and we're not leaving).

In the weeks and months before the march, President William Clinton and Congress launched a series of attacks on the rights of immigrants. Clinton signed a measure doubling the Border Patrol and allowing the summary deportation of immigrants seeking asylum.

The new Welfare Reform Act bars hundreds of thousands of "legal" immigrants from food stamps and other federal entitlements. "Antiterrorist" legislation speeds up deportations by denying immigrants the right to due process. Meanwhile, the Clinton administration has escalated factory raids across the country.

At a speakout organized here the day before by students at Bell Multicultural High School - dozens of whom canvassed Latino neighborhoods to build the march in the preceding weeks - one youth after another denounced the scapegoating of immigrant workers by capitalist politicians. "They say Latinos cause the economic problems, but the ones that cause the economic problems are the ones over in the White House, the owners of the fields where our gente [people] work at," said Andrea Serrano, a college student from New Mexico who addressed the 120 youth at the meeting. "The ones who have all the money - they are the cause of the problem."

At the march, many carried signs ridiculing the distorted versions of history that justify discrimination. "Who are you calling alien, Pilgrim?" was a favorite. One banner depicted an Aztec figure sitting behind a desk and demanding from an arriving Spaniard, "Papeles! [Papers]"

"They say we are illegal but it is they who killed the Indians and took their land," commented Ronald, one of a group of l00 demonstrators organized by the Haitian Mobilization To Defend Immigrant Rights in New York.

Monica Loaiza, a teacher from Los Angeles, commented, "People attack us for not marching with the American flag, but what does that flag represent? Oppression. This is a history you are definitely not taught in school!" Workers' struggles
The march also marked the increased confidence of many immigrant workers in resisting government and employer attacks. Dozens of poultry workers from North Carolina, most of them Guatemalan, came in two buses organized by the Laborers' International Union. They brought a large banner and leafleted the crowd to win support in the fight for union recognition by 450 workers at Case Farms, a processing plant in the town of Morganton. "We've carried out two strikes since last year," said Sergio Matheu, 21. "When we began to organize the union, the bosses improved the conditions slightly, but they are still abusive and refuse to recognize our union."

A few other union contingents were at the demonstration. Among them were a bus organized by United Auto Workers locals 600 and 900 at Ford plants in the Detroit area, a group from the Justice for Janitors campaign by Service Employees International Union Local 82, mushroom workers from Pennsylvania, and farm workers from Washington state, New Jersey, Ohio, and Florida.

"Workers are divided - that's why they can attack us," commented José Rangel, 40, a worker belonging to the Garment Workers Justice Center in Los Angeles. "This march is a good beginning. We should organize not only Latinos but all immigrants."

The theme of greater unity among immigrant workers in the fight for their rights ran like a thread throughout the demonstration. Members of the Farmworkers' Association in Florida carried a banner written in three languages: English, Spanish, and Creole. A group of construction workers marched with a sign in Spanish asserting, "In unions there is strength - Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Latin Americans." A chant heard over and over was: "La Raza unida jamás será vencida" (Latinos united will never be defeated).

Marchers broke into applause as they passed a group of young Irish immigrants who held up a sign along the parade route saying, "My struggle is your struggle."

The march culminated in a rally at the Ellipse, an area near the White House. Speakers ranged from Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice-president of the AFL-CIO, to María Jiménez, a well-known Chicana rights activist in Texas. A string of Congresspeople who are Hispanic, among other elected officials, addressed the rally. Calls for voting Democratic Party
In marked contrast to the slogans captured in many of the signs and chants of the demonstrators, most on the speakers list repeated one overriding theme: voting for Democratic candidates in the November elections. While not explicitly advocating Clinton's reelection, many speakers focused on defeating Republicans, who they blamed for the anti-immigrant moves by the government.

Nydia Velázquez, a Democratic Congresswoman from New York, denounced "Newt Gingrich and his gang of radicals" in Congress. "Our message to the Republicans is: don't take us for granted anymore." Then she added, "And even to the Democrats in Congress: don't take us for granted anymore." Rep. José Serrano of New York condemned "English only" legislation being pushed by capitalist politicians around the country, and pleaded, "Don't lose faith. Your voices are heard. Register and vote."

William Bywater, president of the International Union of Electronic Workers (IUE), urged the crowd to "take the enthusiasm you've shown here and go to the polls and throw those bums out, and then we'll have a good Congress." Jaime Martínez, IUE secretary-treasurer, also spoke.

While the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) did not endorse the demonstration, its director, Raúl Yzaguirre, spoke. Several other traditional Latino rights organizations, such as LULAC and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), did not endorse the action either.

One speaker who received a particularly warm response from the crowd was Baldemar Velázquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). "I am not a politician," he stated. "I don't make the economic decisions that oppress the people of our country and other countries. I'm a tomato picker....We're here to declare our right to this land."

Describing how farm workers organized FLOC over the years, Velázquez said, "We didn't wait for the politicians. We didn't wait for the AFL-CIO. We started organizing the brothers and sisters. We started organizing the tomateros [tomato pickers]. We said: We fight now. We can't wait for later. That's what we have to do - take the fight back to our communities."

A few speakers described other current struggles, such as the years-long fight to win permanent residency for Central American refugees, the campaign to free Puerto Rican political prisoners, and the fight against police brutality.

Ramón and Iris Báez, whose son Anthony was choked to death by a New York cop, attended the rally and were introduced at the speakers platform. The week before there had been protest demonstrations in New York in response to a judge's decision to acquit the cop who killed him. "In this country, we are seen as second-class citizens," Báez told the press. "Our only strength against abuse is being united."

Elizabeth Stone is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 1487 in Chicago. Ruth Nebbia, a member of the United Transportation Union in Newark, New Jersey; and Young Socialists member Verónica Poses of St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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