After mayor bans 'muster zone'
Diverse crowd supports struggle of day laborers
By Deirdre Griswold
Freehold Borough, N.J.
Drivers negotiating their way through the
slush and snow on Main St. couldn't believe their eyes. Their
heads snapped as they passed the large crowd of huddled
umbrellas near the sign proclaiming "Borough Hall, Freehold
Municipal Building, Settled 1683."
On a day "not fit for man nor beast," nearly 200 people had
gathered and marched to declare support for the rights of
immigrant workers, specifically the day laborers whose right to
meet each morning with contractors in a "muster zone" has been
banned by Freehold Mayor Michael Wilson and the Town
Council.
As a temporary measure, Rev. Andre McGuire of the Second
Baptist Church, whose congregation is mostly African American,
has come forward in solidarity with the Latino immigrant
laborers and allowed them to gather at the church in the
mornings in their quest for work.
What brought people out on Jan. 18, a day of unrelenting
sleet and snow, was not just the official ordinance but also
the campaign of slander, abuse and harassment against the
workers, most of whom were born in sunny Mexico but have had to
look for work in the U.S.
The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement 10
years ago has accelerated the destruction of small farms and
businesses in Mexico, allowing U.S. capital and goods free
access to the Mexican market. But it has provided no relief for
workers, millions of whom must now emigrate to find
employment.
The Committee of Workers for Progress and Social Wellbeing
handed around a list of the day laborers' demands: "The
immediate annulling of the measures imposed by City Hall. The
immediate end to harassment and intimidation against our
community and our work center. The recognition of our
contribution to the cultural, economic and social development
and progress of Freehold. That we not be considered delinquents
or terrorists. That our rights be respected like those of every
inhabitant of Freehold and of the world."
"Delinquents or terrorists." What's that about? It seems
that, in addition to imposing fines and jail terms, the town
authorities have threatened to turn over to the Department of
Homeland Security the names of day laborers who defy their new
rule. This super-department created by the Bush administration
has taken over the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
further criminalizing the treatment of immigrant workers.
Freehold is a town of 11,000, 28 percent of whom are
Latinos, that is surrounded by upscale developments like
Freehold Pointe, where new single-family homes start at
$600,000. Doing the landscaping and yard work plus a thousand
other low-paying jobs in and around the town are the day
laborers. The wealthy want an available pool of underpaid
workers--but they also want them to be invisible and without a
voice.
However, the workers are part of a new civil rights movement
that will not shut up. It got media attention last Oct. 4 when
national labor unions organized a cross-country caravan for
immigrant rights that ended up in a rally of 100,000 in Queens,
N.Y., now the most multinational borough in New York City. The
Freehold workers chose Jan. 18 for their rally to coincide with
the Martin Luther King holiday, underscoring their connection
to the civil rights movement.
With the help of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and
Education Fund and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network,
they have also filed a class action suit demanding a reversal
of the "muster zone" ban.
Also supporting the immigrant workers are Monmouth County
Residents for Immigrant Rights, a group of Black, white and
Latino residents that has passed out thousands of informational
flyers and that turned up in force at the rally. In addition,
people drove through the sleet from nearby communities like
Middletown and Toms River, and delegations came from the
International Action Center in New York and the All Peoples
Congress in Baltimore.
The solidarity shown this day in Freehold has put the
authorities and their racist backers on notice that there are
many people in the area who take seriously the old union
slogan, "An injury to one is an injury to all." This is an
ongoing struggle and the day laborers say they will not stop
until their rights as workers and as human beings are
respected.
Reprinted from the Jan. 29, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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