‘Immigrants in! Minutemen out!’

On July 26, a militant pro-immigrant rights picket line, organized by the May 1 Coalition and others, confronted the presence of the Minutemen in lower Manhattan near Ground Zero.

July 26 protest against Minutemen. WW photo: Heather Cottin

The Minutemen is the name of a two-year-old racist group that has organized armed, terrorist, anti-immigrant vigilantes on the northern and southern borders of the United States.

“We are calling on all supporters of immigrants rights to help us send a clear message to the Minutemen: Get out of our city!” said May 1 Coalition member Teresa Gutiérrez, who, along with two other organizers, was harassed with hate calls and threats by the vigilantes in the days before the protest.

One Minuteman told Gutiérrez that their meeting was to be a “prayer meeting,” in front of Ground Zero, but instead the event was organized to promote a book by Jim Gilchrist, the Minutemen’s fascistic founder.

Gilchrist works with the Nazi-affiliated Council of Conservative Citizens. Some Minutemen are with the National Alli ance. Some wear Nazi swastikas. At the July 26 protest, one of the Minutemen gave the Nazi salute to the anti-racist protesters.

Over 200 protesters drowned out Gilchrist’s speech, chanting, “Racists go home!” Their signs read, “The Minute Klan are not welcome in New York.”

The demonstrators reject the Minute men’s opposition to what they call “illegal immigration.” “No human being is illegal,” shouted a woman who sneaked into the Minuteman rally. She quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who stated, “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”

Coalition member Larry Holmes noted, “This protest is a followup to the recent protest at CNN headquarters against racist TV personality Lou Dobbs. Dobbs’ show promotes the same racist attitudes as the Minutemen.”

Filipina activist Berna Ellorin, who is a Bayan representative to the May 1 Coali tion, said, “The Minutemen are simply using the congressional debate [about legalization of immigrants] in Washing ton, D.C. right now as a pretext and platform to push their agenda of hate politics that espouses total state repression and a hierarchy of human beings based on race and citizenship. They will simply fail in every attempt.”

Scores of demonstrators broke through a police pen and surged across the street toward the 30 Minutemen, who were visibly shaken. The police, the armed protectors of the Minutemen, forced the protesters back.

“If it wasn’t for the cops, you wouldn’t stand a chance!” chanted the demonstrators. With drums beating and whistles blowing, they shouted, “Immigrant workers built this town. Racists, fascists, get out! Get down!”