The pounding drum, the stomping feet with rhythmic rattles, and the resounding echo of "Pueblo, ¡Si! Guerra, ¡No! thundered up both sides of Broadway in Los Angeles this morning. One hundred and twenty-five people marched in the drizzle and unseasonable chill from Olympic to the Federal Building on Temple to declare that the U.S. war on migrants must end.

As shoppers and workers poured to their doorways to support the marchers, twenty members of Danza Cuauhtémoc, escorted by the Aztlan Nation Harmony Keepers, spun, stepped, twirled, and dipped at the head of the procession. The youngest danzantes, ninas and ninos of five and six years old, led the way. A boy of about ten pulled the drum, while a teenager pounded out the complex rhythms.

Following the danzantes were members of Comité pro democracia en México, AnswerLA, Jornaleros Unidos de Valle San Gabriel, Frente Unido de los Pueblos Americanos (FUPA), Colectivo Tonantzin, the Orange County Red de vigilancia contra cazamigrantes, brought together by the Anti-Minuteman Watch Network, with an outpouring of anarchists.

At each intersection the east- and west-side contingents faced the passing motorists and each other, and bullhorned across the street, "¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!" Signs boldly announced Migra: racista y asesina." Marchers declared, "Esta mi tierra, esta mi lucha."

Outside the Federal Building speaker after speaker decried the U.S. assault on migrants, proclaiming the southwest U.S. and Mexico as ancestral territory. Today's marchers had coalesced around the needless and tragic Border Patrol killing of Guillermo Martínez Rodríguez on December 20.

Eighteen-year-old Martínez, father of two small children, was shot in the back and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent at a distance of less than eighteen feet with a hollow point bullet as he tried to cross into the United States. He was the last to die on the border in 2005. A record number of people, estimated at 500, died crossing the border last year, and four have been shot by the Border Patrol since October. In the eleven years since the U.S.’s Operation Gatekeeper policy authorized the construction of walls and increased patrols across parts of the U.S.-Mexico border, some 4000 people have died trying to migrate. Prior to Operation Gatekeeper, annually fewer than a dozen people died making the southern passage.

One march leader deplored the increasing U.S. military presence in Central America and the Caribbean. In another conversation, a person remarked on the inhumanity of the upcoming trial of Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss in Arizona. The two face up to fifteen years in prison for transporting two dehydrated border crossers to a local hospital.

Meanwhile, in the next few weeks the Sensenbrenner anti-immigrant bill will be debated in the Senate. The bill would classify border crossers, including 1.5 million children, as felons; enable deportation and imprisonment of border crossers without legal counsel or family notification; 700 more miles of wall to divide Mexico from the United States; militarize the border with the newest war technology; and make it a felony to aid an undocumented worker, putting charities and family members at risk of three to thirty years in prison. While fewer than a dozen police lounged on either side of Temple Street, marchers brought together the messages of the day laborers, migrants, those who aid them, and from beyond the grave, the message of Guillermo Martínez and rest who died because of U.S. immigration policies: no war on immigrants.

graphic

by Monk

The spirit of this march was intense and tremendous. The drum echoed from the walls of the buildings on Broadway like the rattle of a machine gun echoing through a canyon.

This march was in the spirit of Baldwin Park 1 and 2, and of the protest in Garden Grove - many of the people, and the militant spirit of a united community fighting for - and creating - a different future, was in the streets.

A fellow protestor mentioned to me that the scent of sage filled the air as he drove up Broadway, and I realized that I had neglected to mention one of the more important moments of the rally.

As the protestors poured into the plaza between the barricade and the steps of the Federal Building, we walked between rows of danzantes to our left and our right. They were burning sage, and that somehow transformed this place of towering monoliths and bureaucracy, reconnecting it to the land, invisible but pulsing under our feet.

That needed to be said.

Well, anything other than the scents in the air ? Not that the smells in the air are not meaningful to you all or anything. Just wondering

We told you we dont care if media comes or not. corporate media most offen cover the right wing slant i.e. national vanguard, save our state, and the other fringe groups.

utterly unsophisticated they are. They really have no idea why SOS, the Minutemen and other immigration reform groups attract so much media and they attract none.

They can not see past their facist heart, and give the same old reason "everyone ELSE is a nazi."

It is inevitably their undoing.

Me thinks thou dost protest too much, El Chivo.

The mainstream news doesn't care about immigration issues from an immigrant perspective. They only think the native-born perspective or the "white" perspective really sells. They have this bias, because they are mostly native born and mostly white.

The march probably got coverage in the ethnic media and on an inner page of the LA Times.

I don't think IMC is that demographically different from the mainstream. There are some immigrants or children of immigrants on the newswire, but, not *that* many. Probably more than your typical paper, but, I don't see it being more than half. That is not very much in this city. It just seems like it's more, because fewer immigrants or children of immigrants silence themselves (or are silenced by editors).

Actually, channels 5, 52, and 34 were present. I saw myself on Channel 22 at 6PM and 11PM. So, yes, we had game, if you consider that game.

there.

Low numbers for you.

Yep, 3 TV stations and one of the talk radio stations- not KFI.

There were 125 people, maybe more, not less. In the rain.

But really, these media hounds from MinuteKlan/SOS are fools.

I mean, why do these clowns think so many of us wear masks - so we get to be little news/porn stars like Don Silva?! (this idiot actually reposted the mockery of him as a porn star on the SOS site, as if to brag about it - what a pedazo de animal.

we still out number save our state and the minions. at a good day save our state brings out about 30 people with the National Vanguard, neo nazi. at a bad day, 10 people. They are just a pathethic group. I say they are a useful idiot who wants a attention from the media. the general public is just laughing at MMP/SOS.

Are you capable of thought? Let's examine the facts.

The size of the army does not matter, if the smaller army, is able to manipulate the greater army, to achieve the desired goal.

SOS/MMP, does not bring anybody. SOS/MMP attracts everybody.

We know we have our Reconquista/Pro-Mexican/Anti-American opposition worried, when they have to resort to bussing in a few loads of jornaleros, for a few hours of protesting, rather than allow the men to seek day labor. In our opposition's desperate efforts to front greater numbers, they have resorted to aligning themselves with Anarchists, AnswerLA, the O.R.G.A.N.I.C. Collective, Seditionists, Socialists, Communists, EZLN, M.E.Ch.A., Mexica, Zapatistas, MS-13, and other insurgencies.

In all of this confusion, what the followers of our opposition, fail to see, is that we at SOS/MMP are:

-- Supporting and defending the US Constitution.

-- Strengthening our borders, especially in this time of war.

-- Defending our nation from foreign invaders, seditionists and an unfair take over.

-- Trying to solve the complex issues, caused by years of unregulated immigration.

-- Trying to protect future generations of American citizens, from the mistakes of our politicians.

-- Protecting all blue-collar workers, by separating those legally eligible to compete for jobs, from those who are not eligible for employment, in the USA.

-- Urging self-deportation of illegal aliens, before roundups and massive deportations force the separation of families.

-- Fighting the participation in the "underground economy", that enables the rich to get richer, on the backs of the poor.

-- Trying to regulate the rate of remittances, flowing from the USA to foreign economies.

-- Walking the fine line between activism and racism.

-- Protecting the rights and benefits citizens of the USA expect to be afforded to them.

Choose all that apply:

[ ] Rights

[ ] Responsibility

[ ] Privilege

[ ] Authority

[ ] Accountability

We are so laffed at by the public that every move the '10' of us make, they media, including the non-corp outlets scurry to cover, and wait in parking lots for us to show up, even when we say we WILL NOT be there !

Face it, you guys are so bothered right now that you search our forums almost non-stop, follow us around EVERYWHERE we go, and lie all day long about how we do not matter, even tho you are talking about us everytime we say we are even CONSIDERING doing something !

Denial of reality is a sign of insanity guys....plz hit the reality check button on your computer keyboard.

where is that key, donnie?

even the MLK parade is against you guys!

I find these demonstrations rather amusing. It almost looks like each activist side is trying to convince the other side that they are wrong. The big question is who is winning the hearts and minds of the silent majority? According to the public opinion polls, I would suggest SOS and the Minute Man project are in first with 75% of voting U.S. citizens supporting tougher laws against illegal immigration and even a border fence. Don't be discouraged though, the President and the Senate are corrupt and in the pockets of business. I believe this is the only reason indymedia groups will finally win. So thank the people that gave you NAFTA and CAFTA (business) when you do claim victory. The only chance of indymedia groups have at losing is if the Senate did what the majority wants. and That Aint Going To Happen!

How did the people vote?

The anti-immigrant coalition:

[ ] Rights

[ ] Responsibility

[X] Privilege

[X] Authority

[ ] Accountability



The human rights / anti-racist defense:

[X] Rights

[ ] Responsibility

[ ] Privilege

[ ] Authority

[ ] Accountability

Yeah - SOS and the Minutemen matter - a lot. Just the same way the Klan mattered a lot in the 1920's.

Anytime 10- 20 lonely assholes can flop around pathetically, unable to increase their numbers on the street after months on end of trying, and still get media attention, it's significant.

But it's significant because someone else - the state and its media - makes it significant, not because these clowns can organize their way out of a paper bag.

The first Minuteman event was a hell of a media stunt, even though it was a copy cat of the Klan Border Watch decades ago.

Everything they've done since has flopped.

SOS and the Minutemen are a joke - their whole "national" network could only tune out 700 people for a national day of protest.

But the people promoting these Nazi scum are not a joke. The Republicans and their media pimps.

Like attracts like. Badly as the minuteklowns hate Bush, they are all facists, and _that_ is what is dangerous and significant.

and you can have them.

Are you capable of thought?

by Border Raven Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2006 at 7:40 AM

snip

We know we have our Reconquista/Pro-Mexican/Anti-American opposition worried, when they have to resort to bussing in a few loads of jornaleros, for a few hours of protesting, rather than allow the men to seek day labor. In our opposition's desperate efforts to front greater numbers, they have resorted to aligning themselves with Anarchists, AnswerLA, the O.R.G.A.N.I.C. Collective, Seditionists, Socialists, Communists, EZLN, M.E.Ch.A., Mexica, Zapatistas, MS-13, and other insurgencies.

__________

Your comments as as stupid as it gets. We _are_ MEChA, etc.

Likewise, we are the day laborers. Get it? The people you are targeting have thier own national organization and they do not fear you. They have come to get in your face, because they understand their own interests. The response

from the day laborers is there because THEY ARE MORE ORGANIZED THAN YOU on a national scale.

Far from being a desperate move, all of us are proud as hell of these brothers and sisters - who risked everything to come face off with you. They ar braver and more conscious than you could ever hope to be.

In LA alone, between the various demos on your national day of protest - more day laborers turned out to face you than you brought to the streets.

Not to mention the rest of us.

__________________

In all of this confusion, what the followers of our opposition, fail to see, is that we at SOS/MMP are:

-- Supporting and defending the US Constitution.

__________________

The border was OPEN until the early 20th century. This has nothing whatsoever to so with the so-called "Constitution." The "Constitution" doesn't say a damn word about borders.

_____________

-- Strengthening our borders, especially in this time of war.

_____________

A time of war in which the US is the imperial aggressor, persecuting a third world people, just like you.

_____________

-- Defending our nation from foreign invaders, seditionists and an unfair take over.

______________

An UNFAIR TAKEOVER???????

You've got a lot of damn gall. Until and unless you can justify the theft of Indian land and half of Mexico, you pig, you have no right to even breathe these words.

Not to mention that your comments about a reconquista are insane, paranoid and xenophobic.

___________________

-- Trying to solve the complex issues, caused by years of unregulated immigration.

__________________

No, you are ignoring the complexities of the problems, which stem from globalization and imperialism. Immigration is a symptom, not a cuase, and it is only your racism that blinds you to the fact and causes you to scapegoat innocent people instead of addressing the real larger problem, the existence of US imperialism.

________________

-- Trying to protect future generations of American citizens, from the mistakes of our politicians.

________________

Empty rheotric and ho-hum politician bashing, not analysis.

________________

-- Protecting all blue-collar workers, by separating those legally eligible to compete for jobs, from those who are not eligible for employment, in the USA.

_________________

Migrant workers are becoming highly unionized - the fastest growing union is SEIU, which is largely migrant based.

It isn't immigrants that exported jobs from here - it was capitalism. Even so, unemployment is only at 5% - completely negligible, and real wages haven't risen since 1980 - since steel and auto work was sent overseas.

__________________

-- Urging self-deportation of illegal aliens, before roundups and massive deportations force the separation of families.

__________________

Sort of like the Nazis "encouraging" Jewish migration before they all end up in concentration camps.

You are a scumbag lying murderer - by which I mean you mentality is genocidal.

What you are ADVOCATING is MASS DEPORTATION, you Brown Shirt thug.

___________________



-- Fighting the participation in the "underground economy", that enables the rich to get richer, on the backs of the poor.

___________________

What crap. The US gets rich off the Third World. The Third World _can't_ develop becuase the profits leave the country to the first world, and capital can _never_ accumulate in the Third World, except to the extent it must to support imperialist profit.

People come here to work for a few dollars an hour, because the economies of their home countries can pay them maybe - at best - two dollars a day, because their economies are robbed by the US and its partners in death and starvation.

________________

-- Trying to regulate the rate of remittances, flowing from the USA to foreign economies.

_________________

Economies like that of Mexico and El Salvador are deeply dependant on remittances, and would collapse without them. Of course, if the border were closed that would then solve your problem. Brown people would starve to death en masse. You racist.

Of course, if Mexico collapses economically, the world goes with it. Good luck, idiot.

__________________



-- Walking the fine line between activism and racism.

__________________

There is no damn fine line between activism and racism.

The only fine line is the one you walk between being a racist activist and an outright Nazi.

___________________

-- Protecting the rights and benefits citizens of the USA expect to be afforded to them.

____________________

You mean, protecting white privilege.

______________________

Choose all that apply:

[ X] Indigenous Rights

[ X] Human Responsibility

[ ] White Privilege

[ ] White Authority

[X ] Accountability

Accountability counts a lot. You've just been held accountable, pig.

I've said it before, and will say it one more time: remittances are preferable to "foreign aid" or "investment."

In order for any country to trade with the US, they need some dollars. With "foreign aid" dollars are "given", and immediately used to buy things from the US. (It's just like a gift card :-) ) With "investment", dollars are used to buy up assets in the country, and dollars are put into the economy... but due to overall economic inequalities, the investor is probably going to get a bargain (and the sellers are likely to be short-changed). These are both top-down exchanges, and subject to corruption.

With remittances, however, you have millions of individuals sending dollars to millions of family members. This money is used to improve their lives. This money circulates in the local economy, and eventually is used to trade with the US or another country that will trade in dollars.

If anyone wants to support destabilizing the government in Mexico, you do it by cutting all foriegn aid and banning direct investment into Mexico, and increase remittances and support worker education here. This will filter into Mexico, person by person, increasing the power of the people.

We know that much remains to be done in support of Immigrant Rights and Humane Rights in general.

The United States benefits enormously from the cheap labor of foreign-born Mexican immigrants and the one-dimensional law enforcement approach of the United States is insane and unrealisic.

Plus, there is another complexity. Most Americans are White-Americans and most Whites are racists ~whether consciously or not~ against non-White peoples, especially Mexicans and other dark-skinned peoples born outside the continental United States.

There should be a sound Humane Immigration Policy between the United States and Mexico. This will require the intelligent input from migrants themselves.

Progressive White activists must help to educate their own people and liberate their people from any remnants of racism. Indeed. the US came to us and many of La Raza {Latinos, Hispanics, Indigenous, Chicanos etc.} know that in the past all this was once out land and we do have amnesia about that historical fact. Understand that as human beings we all have basic universal needs and basic universal humane rights! Work with us, not against us! And NO we are not going back to where you think Mexico is! We are here to stay in Aztlan!

MEXICANS Rights = Humane Rights!

sacranative@yahoo.com Sacramento, Califas [it will forever be California!]

As a humane being and long-time liberationist it was great to see that there was a good March in Support of the Rights of MEXICANS last Saturday in Downtown Los Angeles led by La Raza[the Racists] and others! We had an anti-neo-Minuteman Protest here at the State Capitol of the Golden State of California ~Sacramento~ on October 29th, 2005 and the struggles goes on!

We know that much remains to be done in support of MEXICANS Rights and The rest of MEXICAN'S Rights in general.

The United States [offers]benefits enormously [desired by MEXICANS]. Only Mexican immigrants matter and the one-dimensional law enforcement approach of the United States is insane and unrealisic.

Plus, there is another complexity. Most Americans are White-Americans and most Whites are racists [stereotyping MEXICAN SUPREMIST]

~whether consciously or not~ against non-White peoples, especially Mexicans and other dark-skinned peoples born outside the continental United States [Because they have decades of history of invading the USA illegally, and not enough of the legal immigrants nor Americans of Mexican descent are taking actions to put an end to this crime against the sovereingnty of our nation, si we citizens are forced to do it.]

There should be a sound MEXICAN Immigration Policy between the United States and Mexico. This will require the intelligent input from migrants themselves.

Progressive White activists must help to educate their own people and liberate their people from any remnants of racism. Indeed. the US came to us and many of La Raza {Latinos, Hispanics, Indigenous, Chicanos etc.} know that in the past all this was once out land and we do have amnesia about that historical fact. Understand that as human beings we all have basic universal needs and basic universal MEXICAN rights! Work with us, not against us! And NO we are not going back to where you think Mexico is! We are here to stay in Aztlan! F*** YOU!

Seems like Border Raven has a bird's brain, and can't understand satire.

I lost a lot of satire then.