Barry Sheppard, Los Angeles
In what the LA Times called "A thunderous display of clout", up to 1 million immigrants — with immigration papers and without — and their supporters marched through the streets of Los Angeles on March 25 demanding their rights.
It was a boisterous, loud and determined crowd. There were bands, noisemakers and vigorous sloganeering. Some of the most popular chants were "Si, se puede!" ("Yes, we can!"), "Amnesty" and "We are workers, not criminals". Most of the marchers were Latino, and many held Mexican flags. One large banner read "You've bugged us too much — the sleeping giant awakes!" There were hundreds of colourful and creative homemade signs. One read, "Pilgrim, who are you calling illegal?" An older worker had written on his T-shirt "36 years of work = criminal?"
People started arriving at 8am, but marchers were still coming into the rallying point at 2pm. The police estimated the crowd to number 500,000 at its peak. However, the total number was much larger, as earlier arrivals streamed out of the rally while other demonstrators still hadn't arrived. The evening before the march, police estimated it would be between 5000 and 8000.
The march was originally called by disc jockeys on Spanish-language radio stations, and was then taken up by the Spanish-language press and the Catholic Church. The word spread throughout the Latino community.
Marchers' anger was directed at a racist immigration bill that was passed by the House of Representatives in December, sponsored by Republican James Sensenbrenner. Provisions of the bill include building an 11,000-kilometre wall between the US and Mexico and making all immigrants without papers felons subject to imprisonment and deportation — 12 million people would be declared criminals at the stroke of a pen!
Anyone who helped an "illegal" immigrant in any way would also be declared a felon. This could include church charities, social workers, lawyers and food kitchens. Children of immigrants who are born in the US are automatically granted citizenship, but if they aid their undocumented parents, they would also be declared criminals.
The Catholic Church has decried the bill. Cardinal Roger Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, said that if these provisions of the bill become law, he will order all priests in his diocese to defy it and to continue to provide services to undocumented immigrants.
The day before the demonstration, thousands of high school students left school and marched through the streets holding Mexican flags and shouting slogans. Students at one high school scaled the fences after their principal shut the gates.
The same day there were student walkouts in Phoenix, Atlanta and other cities. On March 27, two days after the mammoth march, 40,000 students in Los Angeles left their schools to demonstrate. Authorities plan to lock down schools in an attempt to stop the walkouts, which could lead to a more powerful student explosion.
While Los Angeles' protest was the largest to date, demonstrations have occurred in many cities. On March 10, 300,000 marched in Chicago, with many workers joining the march as it passed by their workplaces. There were similar worker walkouts to join demonstrations in Milwaukee and other cities. In Atlanta as many as 80,000 Hispanics didn't go to work on March 24 in protest. The movement is snowballing and further actions are being planned.
While many Democrats opposed the Sensenbrenner bill, 36 of them voted for it. Most Democrats are getting behind a different bill in the Senate, which doesn't contain the outrageous provisions of the House bill but is still anti-immigrant.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Ted Kennedy and John McCain, is touted as a way for undocumented immigrants to become citizens. It would require immigrants without papers to hand themselves in to authorities. After clearing a criminal background check (and many have criminal records for offences such as driving without a licence because they are denied licences in many states), they would be allowed to work in the US for six years. They could then apply for permanent residency. If residency was granted, then, after five more years of holding jobs, they could apply for citizenship, after paying a fine, paying any back taxes and passing an English-proficiency exam.
The Kennedy-McCain bill also provides for a "guest worker" program that would allow 400,000 foreign workers each year to come to the US, but they would be without any rights and subject to deportation if they lose their job. This would create a huge pool of low-wage workers subject to the whims of employers.
The bill would also double the number of border patrol agents. Border patrols often force immigrants to cross into the US in desolate places where they face many dangers, including high temperatures in the desert, and force them to rely on "coyotes" — unscrupulous types who charge large fees to immigrants to be smuggled across. Hundreds of immigrants die each year while attempting to cross the border, including from suffocating in locked and abandoned coyote trucks.
Some industries that depend on immigrant labour, such as agriculture, construction, meat packing and hospitality, favour the approach of the Kennedy-McCain bill. They want to continue to employ undocumented workers without giving them the full rights of citizens, so they can't unionise, or complain about wages lower than the official minimum or bad working conditions without fear of reprisal.
From Green Left Weekly, April 5, 2006.
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