All Over the U.S.A. Millions Rally for Immigrant Rights
Submitted on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 12:48am
By Mike Hargis, Chicago - Industrial Worker, April 2006
It was so incredible: I never saw the beginning of the march, nor the end. I didn’t hear one speech and never even made it to the Loop where the march was supposed to end. There was just this sea of humanity gathered in the streets, flowing in the same direction with the same object in mind: defeat the new, draconian immigration bill known as “The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005” (HR4437).
On March 10 at least 300,000 people took the day off work or school and converged in Chicago’s Loop to protest this bill, which would turn undocumented workers into “aggravated criminal felons” and those who assist them, such as priests and nurses (and unionists) into criminals as well for “aiding and abetting” them. The bill passed the House of Representatives just before Christmas, it is currently being debated in the Senate.
While the crowd was predominantly Latino there were also substantial contingents of Polish, Irish, Korean, Arab and other immigrant communities.
Chanting “¡Si, se puede!” (Yes, it can be done) and “¡El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!” (The People United Will Never be Defeated), factory workers, dishwashers, carpenters, high school students and even small shop-keepers marched from Union Park two miles into the Loop. They carried hand-lettered signs saying: “We are America,” “My Mexican immigrant son died in Iraq,” “I’m a dishwasher – not a criminal” and “Don’t deport my parents.”
More than 100 factories in the Chicago area shut down for the day because so many workers had told their bosses that they were planning on taking the day of for “the general strike,” according to Jose Artemio Arreola of the Coalition Against HR4437.
The predominant colors of the day, however, were red, white and blue as U.S. flags were evident everywhere. There was even one small group who insisted on chanting “USA, USA.” (Were they being ironic, I wonder?) Undoubtedly many were eager to show their fellow Americans that they were just as patriotic as them – that all they wanted was to work, pay their taxes, raise their families and partake of the American Dream. “We are all America” and “We Pay Taxes” were other signs in evidence.
At the rally at the Federal Building local Democratic Party bigwigs spoke to those who were actually able make it there. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Mayor “Little Dick” Daley, Senator Dick Durbin and Congressmen Bobbie Rush and Luis Gutierrez all denounced the pending legislation noting that the city of Chicago was build by immigrant labor. Employers are undoubtedly concerned that this legislation will cut into their profit margins by depriving them of low-wage labor and the politicians want those Latino votes.
A small group of the anti-immigrant Illinois Minuteman Project held a press conference in Grant Park at 10:00 a.m. Their Latina-token front, Rosanna Pulido, declared, “I don’t care if there’s three million people out there, if they are illegal they do not have a voice in America.” What a putz!
The Chicago GMB voted at our March 3 meeting to endorse the protest, at the request of Union Latina. Unfortunately, we were not able to mobilize a visible contingent in so short a time. A call was sent to our e-list to meet up at the edge of Union Park but when I got there with my IWW flag there were already so many people it was impossible to find any other Wobs. Several people, however, did ask me what IWW meant. When I informed them that it was “Trabajadores Industriales del Mundo, mi sindicato” they nodded in appreciation.
March 10 was the largest workers’ demonstration in Chicago history. Not since 80,000 workers marched down Michigan Avenue in 1886 to demand an 8-hour workday has there been such a demonstration of solidarity in the streets of the Windy City. Still, in many ways, it was a conservative movement, aimed at preserving the chance at the American Dream for this new wave of immigrants that was enjoyed by those of past generations. On the other, hand it graphically showed the potential power of immigrant labor when united in a common cause.
Hopefully efforts to organize immigrant labor in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs will be given a boost by this show of solidarity. It should certainly awaken local Wobs up to the need to strengthen our connections to immigrant workers.
Similar actions have been held across the country, including a March 7 rally in Washington, D.C. that drew some 20,000 workers. Philadelphia Wobblies will be joining the city’s second “paro” (work stoppage) March 27, as organizers deliberately schedule demonstrations on work days in order to force employers to recognize their reliance upon immigrant workers.
By Jim Crutchfield - Industrial Worker, April 2006.
Workers who move from countries whose economies have been destroyed by foreign competition are merely obeying the laws of the free market, taking their labor power from one market, where they can find no buyers for it, into another, where buyers are abundant.
Increasingly, however, obedience to economic law threatens to place these workers in violation of the United States’ criminal laws. The U.S. Congress is presently considering a raft of proposed legislation intended to resolve the contradictions of American economic rule by punishing its victims.
The most controversial of the current bills is HR 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, introduced by Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, which passed the House of Representatives last December by a vote of 239 to 182, and is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill represents an all-fronts attack on human and civil rights, not only of undocumented immigrants, but also of any American citizen who “assists, encourages, directs, or induces a person [who has entered illegally] to reside in or remain in the United States.” The bill appears to make all groups that help undocumented immigrants – including churches, workers’ centers and labor unions – into criminal organizations. It could prevent any undocumented worker from receiving humane services, medical care, legal counsel or any other benefit of society.
Under the bill, anybody who knowingly “transports” an undocumented worker – even just to give a friend a ride to work or the doctor’s office – could be punished with five years in prison. Under already-existing law, vehicles allegedly used in the commission of federal crimes can be seized and sold before the owner is even convicted of anything.
The act of entering the U.S. without permission would for the first time be made a crime by HR 4437. And virtually any offense committed by an undocumented immigrant – even one committed years ago – can be declared an “aggravated felony” under the Sensenbrenner bill. “Aggravated felony” status has previously been reserved for the most serious of violent crimes, like rape and murder. Under the Sensenbrenner bill, virtually any violation of law by an undocumented immigrant – or by anybody who helps such an immigrant – is considered an aggravated felony. Conviction of an aggravated felony has devastating consequences for immigrants, including mandatory detention, mandatory deportation and banishment for life from the United States.
Immigrants charged with aggravated felonies under the bill would be presumed guilty of illegal presence in the U.S. until they proved themselves innocent. The bill also expands the authority of the executive branch of government by eliminating judicial review for many administrative decisions on immigration and visa applications. It allows the Attorney General to criminalize free association by declaring virtually any group a “criminal street gang,” making mere membership in the group, without any personal participation in criminal acts, a felony, for which an immigrant can be deported and banished for life.
Several similar bills are also pending before the Senate. They offer variations on the same program, some more, some less oppressive. None, however, appears to address, or even to recognize, the economic origins of the recent, dramatic increase in immigration to the U.S. The government seems content to continue its usual practice of treating social problems by declaring their victims to be criminals, while leaving the causes untouched. The possibility that the upsurge in immigration of impoverished workers from Latin America may be directly linked to the recent imposition of international free-trade agreements like the FTAA, seems to escape the notice of U.S. legislators.
Meanwhile, immigrant groups and advocates are not standing idly by. Though the bill’s rapid and easy passage in the House of Representatives seems to have come as a surprise to some immigrant groups, an opposition movement is building. In Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., demonstrations took place February 14th as part of a movement that is becoming known as “el Paro” (Spanish for “the stoppage”). Washington, D.C., workers again rallied on March 7th, drawing some ten thousand people. Then, on March 10th, immigrant workers in Chicago staged a mass strike, and paralyzed the central city with a rally that drew more than 300,000 people.
The significance and consequences of these actions have not yet become clear, but there are more than eight million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., and if the pending legislation wakens them to the need for economic organization, their power will be formidable.
The following article is based on excerpts from actionla.org - March 25, 2006; The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.
Today in downtown Los Angeles, over 1 million people demonstrated in support of immigrant rights. This was the largest demonstration in the history of California. March organizers announced from the stage that the crowd was over 1 million. Univision and other Spanish-language television reported that up to 2 million people marched. The Los Angeles Times, reflecting police estimates, gave the march 500,000 - police estimates have been trying to minimize pro-immigrant rights demonstration for the last few weeks.
Today's demonstration was the largest of many immigrant rights demonstrations that have taken place this month. It is an uprising from the people against the reactionary Sensenbrenner Bill that passed in the House of Representatives. The bill criminalizes immigrants and those who support them. The demonstrations began with 50,000 in Washington DC on March 7, 500,000 in Chicago on March 10 (the largest demonstration ever in Chicago history), and tens of thousands more in the last week in Milwaukee, Phoenix, Atlanta and other cities. In build up for today's demonstrations, thousands of high school students walked out of class and marched yesterday in Los Angeles. Yesterday in Georgia, tens of thousands of immigrant workers refused to show up at their jobs in a work stoppage protesting regressive legislation passed by the Georgia State Legislature. These demonstrations reflect a tremendous upsurge in the immigrant community.