To hear the Minutemen tell it, today’s protest in Santa Monica was an urgent part of their plans for a national day of protest against immigrant workers – a site in the heart of the entertainment and media enclave of greater LA, and an anchor site for a Japanese TV network’s international coverage of white America’s immigrant-bashing rage.

Days ago, Minutemen email lists published an “urgent appeal” for their troops to come for Santa Monica’s first-ever anti-Mexican, anti-migrant picket line.

Santa Monica’s Chicana/o community got the news late Friday. By Saturday morning, literally overnight, 25 people from the community hit the streets against the Minutemen.

All four of them.

People turned out from Mothers for Justice, the Pico Youth and Family Center, Comite Pro-Democracia de Mexico, the Center for Urban Policy at UCLA and the Aztlan Mexica Nation Harmony Circle, surrounding the Minutemen until they were all but invisible from the street.

“It was powerful,” said one man from the youth center, who was holding a sign that said ‘Show Me Your Green Card, Pilgrim.’

“I got the call 8 hours ago – so we’re the _real_ minutemen, coming out on short notice to defend our people. This was a test for us. Today we see who’s down. These are the people we will depend on for our future.”

One Minuteman said “This is good; we keep the issue in the media and so we pass legislation.” But the media he got this day was not so good.

A reporter from the Santa Monica Daily Press noted his sign. On one side it read “Hire an illegal, you go to jail – he goes home.”

On the other side it said “No La Raza Bronce” (“No Brown People”) and “No Espiritual Aztlan,” a garbled reference to El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, a founding document of the Chicana/o Movement. As a white counter- protestor said, “It’s racism, just translate the damn sign.”

The Japanese TV network never showed up. A befuddled writer for GQ Magazine out of London left early.

At 11 in the morning the three remaining Minutemen walked away, too, 25 counter-protestors on their heels, chanting “La Raza, Unida, Jamas Sera Vencida.” As one of the Minutemen stopped to talk to a person who pulled up in a truck, the tone of the counter-protestors quickly shifted into gentleness.

The chant changed, too. “Don’t teach your children hate.” They were almost singing it, like a lullaby. In Santa Monica, the Chicana/o family stood up together with love in our hearts for our People.

As we followed the retreating Minutemen, a migrant worker, a man about 55, looked up at me from where he crouched, next to a flower bed, “Gracias, Maestro,” he said quietly.

A post-doctoral student specializing in migrant studies told me, “It was impressive that people came together so quickly. I got the email this morning. It just shows how strong the network is.”

As the counter protestors gathered in a circle to close the day one man said, “Today we won one battle. We can’t let them come to the West Side gang banging against our People.”

The day was a disaster for the Minutemen nationally – they were outnumbered by counter-protestors in virtually every protest site across the nation.

-30-

Few Drawn to Illegal Immigration Protests
Jan 07 11:40 PM US/Eastern


By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES

Illegal immigration protests organized across the country Saturday drew small numbers, and some were outnumbered and out-shouted by those who support immigrant rights.

The so-called "Stop the Invasion" protests were organized in 19 states, demanding the government increase border security and penalize employers who hire illegal workers.

"We are keeping the debate on illegal immigration in the forefront of the American consciousness," said Joseph Turner of Save Our State, who was among about two dozen protesters who waved American flags outside a home-supply store in a Los Angeles suburb.

But Turner's group in Glendale was surrounded by more than 100 drum- beating supporters who chanted, "Racists go home." The two groups traded shouts and obscene gestures for more than an hour. One man was arrested for assault, police said.

In Farmingville, N.Y., where immigration-related violence erupted several times in recent years, only about a dozen protesters showed up and argued against the growing number of day laborers on eastern Long Island.

Paul Streitz, who organized the demonstrations, said members believe illegal immigrants are taking jobs from citizens while driving down property values.

"This is not a racist thing," said Daniel Anastasia, 46, a construction worker from Westchester, N.Y. "We pay taxes, they don't. I get paid what the union says. The contractor pays them cash. It's not fair to me."

In Framingham, Mass., near Boston, a small group protesting illegal immigration was met by a much larger group of counter-demonstrators, some of whom surrounded them and temporarily disrupted the protest.

"What they are doing is just harassing people who are out here to go to work every day, and they're doing it in a hateful manner, which is against everything this country stands for," said Manuel Olivera, pastor of the nearby New Life Presbyterian Community Church.

In Danbury, Conn., about 50 people calling themselves the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control spent about two hours chanting and holding signs that read "Arrest Illegal Employers." Several dozen people held a counterprotest across the street.

In Las Vegas, John Holiday, 43, and his son, Conner, 9, held signs near a convenience store where undocumented workers are picked up by employers. The boy, who held a sign that read "Our lawmakers encourage lawbreaking," said illegal immigration has divided the country.

"Do you think the problem will be over when I grow up?" Conner asked.

___

Associated Press writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

but it keeps coming back, don't it?

It's great to see in this report the gratitude from the victims of these SOSMM scumbags. They're the ones that the real Americans are fighting for.

Great job.

My opinions only and only my opinions.

But it's okay to say "SOSMM scumbags".

Where would we be without the Self Anointed?

> But it's okay to say "SOSMM scumbags".

Where _I_ was brought up -- Born in Baldwin Park, California, raised all over the country -- I was taught that standing on street coirners waving Nazi and Confederate flags _is_ the act of a scumbag, yeah.

Incidentally, I was also taught that invading innocent countries, slaughtering, raping, and torturing innocent people, murdering over 100,000 innocent people is also the act of terrorist scumbags.

Except that these days such acts seems to be called "Christian Republicanism."

Yep.

My opinions only and only my opinions.

> Do you know my name? Do you dare speak for me?

Golly. Whoever says Republicanism isn't a debilitative disease should pause a moment and rethink their mistaken notion.

I guess since FOX isn''t telling Republicans what their mass murdering baby killing Fuhrer is doing, it's up to me.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/29/iraq.deaths/

There ya go. An eye-witness, door-to-door study enumerating Christian Republicanism's latest crimes against humanity the likes of which haven't been seen since Molosovich.

Note that Republicanism's body count is a year out of date. The fascists baby killers have murdered many more since that study was performed.

Glad to help! If I can be of any further assistance, please don't hesitate to email me with your problems.

My opinions only and only my opinions.