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Goal of Feb. 3-4 immigrant rights conference
Build May Day 2007!
By
John Parker
Los Angeles
Published Jan 19, 2007 12:10 AM
The power and potential of our working class was dramatically illustrated last
year on March 25 and again on May 1 with the immense marches by immigrants.
Many are still inspired by those huge protests.
May 1 has historically been a day to celebrate the massive outpourings in 1886
in Chicago demanding an eight-hour work day. Since then, the capitalist class
has worked overtime to try and diminish the day’s importance to
workers.
The marches last year reignited and re-established the relevance of May 1 in
the United States to the working-class struggles of today, this time in regard
to the exploitation and repression of immigrants.
As many activists working to revive May Day have put it, the immigrant struggle
is a major component of the working-class movement in general in the United
States.
The challenge for the labor movement and other progressive organizations is to
build solidarity with the immigrant communities by helping to broaden May Day
2007 in terms of greater and more helpful participation by the anti-war and
social justice movements, unions and more.
To facilitate that participation, the March 25th Coalition, which
initiated and pushed for the May 1 national boycotts last year, has called for
a conference to take place this year on Feb. 3-4 here in Los Angeles, where it
is based, to begin a national planning strategy to build May Day 2007.
“We intend to put this effort in the context of the history of the
immigrant and workers’ movements in this country, to link it to allies
internationally and to address the root causes of mass migration in the
policies of transnational globalization,” explained Javier Rodriguez, one
of the main organizers of the conference and co-initiator of the March 25 and
May 1st actions last year.
In regards to building international and multinational solidarity, a special
emphasis is being made at the conference to include the issues affecting Black
people in this country. In the plenary session of the conference there will be
a speaker on building Black and Brown unity, with a workshop addressing such
issues as Katrina, Haiti and more.
‘Si se puede!’
The call for the conference starts out: “On election day, Nov 7, 2006,
the Iraq war, corruption and a lack of immigration reform took center stage.
The electorate spoke and the extreme right lost control of congress and the
Democrats are the new majority.
“The correlation of forces has changed and there is a new political
reality, but as history tells, the Democrats are part of the
‘Empire.’ They will not end the war. Corruption and record profits
will continue to soar. An inclusive pro-immigrant, non-corporate immigration
reform will not be addressed unless we march and boycott as we have in
2006.”
Already the conference boasts a number of very significant
endorsers—student organizations, labor unions, various progressive
organizations, activists who are on the front lines of the immigration issue.
Included in that latter category is Elvira Arellano, who is in sanctuary at the
Adalberto Church in Chicago. Arellano, who has become a symbol for all faced
with deportation, was forced to take refuge in the church Aug. 15 after being
arrested and threatened with deportation and separation from her son. Her
lawyer is working on a temporary restraining order against the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement to provide a legal means for her to attend the
conference.
Another endorser is the Border Social Forum, which has 100 organizations on
both sides of the border, including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California,
Oregon, Washington State, Colorado, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sinaloa, Sonora and
Baja California.
Union endorsements for the conference include the Sindicato Mexicano de
Electricistas-SME (Mexican Electrical Workers Union), a powerful union in
Mexico which today is playing a major role in the struggle against
U.S.-supported privatization plans there.
Already, national participation in this conference spans from the West Coast to
Midwest, from the South to East Coast. In addition, international participation
includes representatives from Venezuela and Mexico, and possibly Cuba.
As the opening of the call for the May 1st National Conference
states, it will take a united movement in the streets to stop the attacks on
immigrants, like the increased ICE raids plaguing numerous cities in the United
States that sometimes even leave children abandoned.
Undoubtedly this united movement in the streets to stop immigration attacks
will be the foundation of the renewed struggle to stop the attacks on all
workers.
If you would like to register for the conference, you can do so at the March 25
Coalition Web site located at: www.march25coalition.org.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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