Protesters outnumber Minutemen
By
Heather Cottin
Long Island, N.Y.
Published Sep 17, 2005 10:24 AM
“Minutemen,
racist, KKK, fascists out of the USA!” chanted a crowd of more than 100
protesters outside the American Legion Hall in Babylon, N.Y., on Sept. 10. The
local Immigrant Rights Committee of the Troops Out Now Coalition organized the
demonstration with several Long Island activist groups.
Outside the American Legion Hall in Babylon, N.Y., on Sept. 10.
|
Anti-fascist
organizations from New Jersey and from New York City came out to castigate the
Legionnaires for inviting Minutemen founder Chris Simcox to Suffolk County.
Simcox is organizing vigilantes to keep immigrants from crossing the
border.
In Babylon, the local reactionaries who attended were far
outnumbered by their opponents. Students skateboarding at the high school across
the street joined the mostly youthful and multi-national pro test ers. Together
they chanted, “No human being is illegal!” and “El pueblo
unido jamas sera vencido” (the people united will never be defeated).
The right wingers screamed homophobic and racist epithets at
demonstrators. When one Legionnaire asked, “Where are your American
flags?” an African American demonstrator responded, “Where are your
people of color?”
When Simcox arrived, he scuttled inside where he
was joined by the local founder of Farmingville’s anti-immigrant group
called “Sachem Quality of Life,” Margaret Bianculli-Dyber; Yonkers
Mayor John Spencer, who supports “secure borders”; and a local
businessman who wants to start a Minutemen group in Suffolk County. John Clark,
a member of both California Citizens for Immigration Reform and the American
Immigration Control Foundation, was present. So was Ron Bass, a New Jersey
organizer for the ultra-right United Patriots of America. Bass is trying to
bring the Minuteman Project to the Garden State.
The Minutemen chose Long
Island to launch their neo-Nazi campaign against immigrants because recent
arrests, police harassment, evictions and official sanctions against Mexican day
laborers residing in Farmingville have encouraged reactionaries to believe that a
Minuteman pre sence could be established in the area.
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.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email:
[email protected]
Subscribe
[email protected]
Support independent news
DONATE