National May 1st Movement for Worker and Immigrant Rights

Los Angeles Immigrant Rights May Day Conference States:

On to the May 1st Great American Boycott II

• Stop the Raids & Deportations NOW!!

Conference formed the:
National Coordinating Committee of the
May Day National Movement for Workers and Immigrant Rights

(See Below for the Demands and Points of Unity Adopted)

In an historic development in the U.S. immigrant rights struggle, a coalition of national organizations met in Los Angeles on Feb. 3 - 4 to plan and coordinate the "Great American Boycott II" for May 1. Out of this formation came the National Coordinating Committee of the May Day National Movement for Workers and Immigrant Rights. That national body includes:

Chris Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer Local 808 Teamsters;
SEIU Local 721 - Latino Committee;
March 25 Coalition;
May 1 Coalition - New York
May 1 Coalition - Northern California;
UTLA Human Rights Committee;
Charles Jenkins, Transit Workers Union Local 100;
Latinos Unidos - Detroit;
Mexican Senator Jose Jacques Medina (PRD);
Che Lopez, Border Social Forum;
Southwest Workers Union;
Elvira Arellano - in sanctuary in the Chicago church of coordinating committee member Rev. Slim Coleman;
William Robinson, Professor of Sociology - University of Santa Barbara;
Father Ben Alforque - National Alliance for Filipino Concerns;
Father Luis Angel Nieto;
Bishop Teixera, Dorothea Manuela - New England Coalition for Immigrant Rights;
Kentucky Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform;
Puerto Rican Caucus;
World Can't Wait;
Troops Out Now Coalition;
BAYAN-USA;
Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation;
Clarence Thomas - Million Worker March Movement, ILWU Local 10 and executive board member of Alameda County Central Labor Council.

Called by the March 25 Coalition, initiator of the 2006 May Day actions that brought millions into the streets, the coalition aims to defend immigrant workers and show their power by bringing "business as usual" to a halt across the country on May Day.

A press conference and demonstration condemning the raids and kicking off the conference, called by the March 25 Coalition organizers on Feb. 2 outside the Los Angeles Federal Building, drew almost 100 people and much national and local press. Two Latina women from a local factory raided the previous day came and described the brutalization by ICE agents, who had held guns to the heads of workers.

Regarding the raids Chito Quijano, one of the speakers at the plenary sessions that began Saturday, Feb. 3 who is the national chair of BAYAN-USA and organizer with the California Nurses Association stated: "Sensenbrenner was the fire that fed last year's massive protest. This year, the raids will be the fuel."

A plenary on "Globalization of Immigrant labor and Transnational Capitalism" featured Teresa Gutierrez of the May 1 Coalition in New York and William Robinson, professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Robinson outlined the growth of immigration and repression in the U.S. over the last 30 years, pointing out that contemporary "transnational capitalism" makes the profits it needs to sustain its existence through the value produced by low-wage labor of immigrants. To keep those profits it must maintain economic, legal and cultural control of immigrant workers.

Gutierrez highlighted the use of racism to divide the working class and posed a crucial question: "How, given the repression against immigrants, can we sustain the magnificent movement begun May Day 2006, and bring unity to the immigrant rights struggle?"

Relating to this question, Javier Rodriguez, co-initiator of the March 25 Coalition said at a plenary: "This conference is significant because it is the first organized national effort to convene the major coalitions and groups that are more to the left, that initiated last year's May 1 boycott. This is the movement that will attempt to coalesce to establish a historical alliance of Latinos and African Americans. All the roots are here at this conference, with significant representation from both groups."

Part of that representation of African Americans came from Clarence Thomas, an intitiator of the Million Worker March , member of International Longshore Workers Union Local 10 and the Alameda County Central Labor Council's Executive Board. He paid homage to the country and people of Mexico for their support in the historical struggle against U.S. slavery, and called the absolute right of Mexicans to travel across the U.S.-Mexican border without reprisals. Thomas vowed to return to Local 10 to ask that it participate in May 1 in a "meaningful way," adding, "This is a rank-and-file movement, and that's what's keeping it afloat."

Chris Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 808 who has also been the president of the 400,000-member Teamsters Black Caucus was also an invited plenary speaker who led a workshop on Black-Brown unity.

International solidarity took on a big emphasis at this conference with a plenary featuring Pablo Franco Hernández of the Unión de Juristas de Mexico and attorney of Oaxacan political prisoners. In addition, Senator Jose Jacquies Medina of the PRD of Mexico also spoke at this plenary session.

A video message from Elvira Arellano brought forward the special oppression and resistance of women immigrant workers. Arellano, founder of La Familia Unida Latina, has been in sanctuary in Chicago for six months in defiance of threated deportation. She affirmed, "I am not a criminal. I am a mother and a father to my son. I fight so the undocumented people will be respected."

Demands and Points of Unity Include:

• Stop raids and deportatoins
• Government reconstruction and the right of return for Katrina survivors
• Money for social services, not war
• Stop & reverse militarization of the borders of the Americas
• No to "free trade" agreements, including: NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA & all FTAs imposed by U.S. transnationals
• Immediate, permanent, non-revocable legal residence for all who live in the U.S.
• Stop the Minutemen, KKK, Neo-Nazis and all racist organizations
• Access to higher education for all undocumented students
• Immediate Reunification of all families
• No criminalization of those giving aid to immigrants
• Full Legalization for All NOW
• Equal Rights for All Workers Now
• Jobs for All NOW

Posted by National May 1st Movement on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 2/28/2007 08:14:00 PM | Permalink