1000s at U.S. immigrant rights actions:
‘Legalization now!’
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Militant/Sylvia Hansen
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Some 5,000 march for immigrant rights September 2 in Los Angeles. Other actions drew 8,000 in San Jose, California; 3,000 in San Francisco; and 2,000 in Chicago.
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BY NAOMI CRAINE
LOS ANGELES—Nearly 5,000 people marched to City Hall here September 2 to demand legalization of undocumented immigrants and an end to deportations. The protesters called for an immediate amnesty and condemned the “immigration reform” bills before the House and Senate, both of which would beef up the immigration police and deepen attacks on immigrants.
Similar actions took place in several cities across the country on the Labor Day weekend. Some 8,000 marched in San Jose, 3,000 in San Francisco,
2,500 in Oakland, 2,000 in Chicago, 1,000 in Houston, and 1,000 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hundreds rallied in Fresno and Sacramento, California; Phoenix; Dubuque, Iowa; Newark, New Jersey; and Dallas.
In a few cities the ultrarightist Minutemen held small counterprotests.
The March 25 Coalition, which organized the September 2 march and the large spring mobilizations in Los Angeles, dedicated the action to Elvira Arellano, a worker in Chicago who is fighting the U.S. government’s attempt to deport her.
Marchers included contingents from immigrant rights groups such as Hermandad Mexicana and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. A couple dozen workers from a day laborers center in nearby Pomona marched as a contingent. While the majority of the marchers were Latin American, there were groups of Korean, Filipino, and other Asian workers.
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BY ARLENE RUBINSTEIN
WILMINGTON, California—Teamsters, longshore workers, port truckers, janitors, steelworkers, teachers, and other unionists gathered here 5,000-strong for the Labor Day march and rally. Explaining that immigrant rights is a labor issue, Hermandad Mexicana and other groups formed a lively contingent that chanted, “Amnistía ahora” (Amnesty now!)
A group of 15 Minutemen, with signs that declared, “Unions embracing illegals are selling out their members,” organized a counterprotest on a hill near the stage. Miguel López, chief marshal of the Labor Day event and port division representative for the Teamsters in Southern California, organized a squad of union marshals that surrounded the rightists and began pushing them further up the hill. From that position, the union members and their supporters, chanting “Sí se puede,” escorted them out of the park.
Mario Escobar, a young worker who was part of the escort, said he had been “walking across the grass and someone shouted ‘wetback’ at me. I turned around and there were all these white people with American flags. I am proud of how we turned them back. Immigrant or not, this is a workers’ struggle.”
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BY ERNEST MAILHOT
CHICAGO—Chanting “Sí se puede” (Yes we can), a group of hundreds of tired but exuberant campaigners for the legalization of undocumented immigrants completed the last leg of their “Walk for Justice for Immigrant Workers” on Labor Day, September 4. They marched into downtown Batavia, a Chicago suburb, to protest in front of the offices of U.S. House of Representatives speaker Dennis Hastert, a staunch opponent of legalization. Feeder marches from Aurora, Elgin, and Joliet swelled the crowd to 2,000.
About 200 people began the four-day walk, organized by the March 10 Movement, in Chicago’s Chinatown. Many Asian groups were part of the kickoff event, including Korean-Americans, Chinese, Cambodians, Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Indians.
Kat Choi, from the Korean American Resource and Culture Center, said, “There is a backlog to become a legal resident. Some wait for 12 years. We can’t be separated from our families for that long…. And a lot of Koreans and others without documents are not paid overtime and can’t get workmen’s compensation.”
Those at the Labor Day rally included members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), UNITE HERE, United Electrical Workers, Laborers, Teamsters, and United Food and Commercial Workers.
The Chicago and Midwest Joint Board of UNITE HERE handed out a statement saying in part, “We cannot accept any proposal which divides U.S.-born workers from immigrant workers or which divides immigrant families. Labor has to stand for full and complete rights for all workers, regardless of where they were born or how long they have been in the United States.”
Many speakers at the final rally spoke in support of Elvira Arellano, who has taken sanctuary in a local Chicago church rather than report for deportation (see box on this page).
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BY JOEL BRITTON
SAN JOSE, California—Some 8,000 people marched here to demand “Legalization for all!” on Labor Day. “We are AMERICA” proclaimed T-shirts worn by some of those who marched in East San Jose to City Hall. One section of the march, which stretched 10 blocks, held aloft a cloth banner with many individualized slogans and signatures of entire families.
Minutes before the marchers arrived at City Hall, San Jose motorcycle cops told organizers that the final rally would have to take place in an unpaved parking lot rather than filling the wide street as planned. But the cops didn’t get their way as José Sandoval of Voluntarios de la Comunidad (Community Volunteers) and other protest organizers went ahead as provided by their city-issued permit. Traffic was diverted as the rally proceeded for a couple hours.
In San Francisco, the 3,000 protesters who marched from the Embarcadero to City Hall included lively contingents of unionists from UNITE HERE Local 2 and SEIU Local 790. Local 2 members remain engaged in a fight for a new contract with major hotels. Hundreds marched on August 28 to publicize their demands.
Related articles:
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Elvira Arellano, worker in Chicago defying deportation order, stands up to rightists
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