Los Angeles protest confronts anti-immigrant racists

On May 25, some 400 people demonstrated against the racist anti-immigrant Minuteman Project organization in Garden Grove, near Los Angeles. The Minute man Project’s founder, James (“I’m damned proud to be a vigilante”) Gilchrist of Orange County, was the featured speaker and honoree at a club banquet.

Also at the banquet were other racists such as Barbara Coe, chairwoman of the Coalition for Immigration Reform. Coe was the leader of the racist Proposition 187 campaign, which sought to deny all social and economic rights to undocumented workers.

The Minutemen have recently formed a much ballyhooed project, sending armed racists to the United States/Mexico border to terrorize Mexicans seeking work in the United States.

The anti-racist demonstration surrounded the club where a hundred or so KKK-racists had gathered. The racists were defended by over 100 cops with tear-gas canisters and shotguns, and 20 cops on horseback.

Not intimidated, the fierce demonstrators were loud. They bombarded the Minutemen for over three hours with chants and denunciations such as: “Immi grants yes, save our state! We don’t want your racist hate!”

The demonstration remained strong although there were arrests and casualties. Two demonstrators were run over by a racist as he drove into the lot. They were taken to the hospital and the racist, Hal Netkin, was arrested, but then released after the demonstration.

Eight demonstrators, including a man in a wheelchair, were arrested on trumped- up felony charges.

Organizers and participants at the demonstration included the Alianza Indigenes, which vows to continue the struggle. Other groups there in support were the Centro Cultural Mexicano, Inter national Socialist Organization, Carecen, and International Action Center.