BY TOBA SINGER
SAN FRANCISCO - About 700 immigrant workers, youth, community, and political activists rallied in Chinatown's Portsmouth Square here October - to celebrate Immigrant Pride Day, and protest bi-partisan attacks on immigrant rights by the Clinton administration, and anti-immigrant legislation supported by California governor, Peter Wilson.

The event was the first of its kind co-sponsored by organizations in the Chinese and Latin-American immigrant communities here, and the first ever of its kind in Chinatown. The event was sponsored by a wide range of immigrant rights groups, unions, and others.

Thai Phuong Nam, a young Vietnamese staff worker at Chinatown's Cameron House, played a central role in organizing the event. She described Immigrant Pride Day as "something positive, to counter the attacks by the Clinton administration that say that immigrants are taking advantage of welfare or don't want to work. Immigrants know all about work. They often work two or even three jobs: this is an event that tells who we really are."

Brad Erickson, coordinator of the Political Ecology Group, emphasized that "inclusivity is what we're going for here. This action embodies Asian and Latino unity against these attacks. The Clinton legislation is really an attack on all immigrants, trying to divide one from the other by making different groups ineligible for services that everyone should have."

Sima Shakhsari, of the Near Eastern Alliance and Iranian Refugees Alliance spoke detailing the situation of Kurdish immigrants driven from their homelands because of U.S. military aggression in the Mideast.  
 
 
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