April 7 Coalition March Rally in Los Angeles Draws 75,000

Los Angeles, California - Amnesty Now! Full Rights for All Immigrants, Now!

With these resounding chants, more than 75,000 immigrants and immigrant rights advocates under the banner of the April 7 Coalition marched and rallied for full rights for all immigrants last Saturday, April 7, 2007, in Los Angeles.

Unlike the disparate and fewer numbers of mobilized activities last March 25, 2007, the April 7 Coalition march for full rights for all immigrants became one of the largest to be held in Los Angeles after May 1, 2006. This brings a new momentum for the immigrant rights movement in California. The conservative L.A Times estimated the crowd as 10,000 while the Latino Channel 34 estimate of the crowd was 50,000.

"Today's rally is really a response to all those who have been criticizing the immigrant rights movement and declared it dead," said Juan Jose Gutierrez, a coordinator with Latino Movement USA. "Most people are hard-working, taxpaying individuals," he said. "We need to stop polarizing."

“We have gained the momentum that was lost due to the betrayal of the traditional politicians and posturing organizations who now advocate for a modified guest workers program under the guise of legalization last year. This time, tens of thousands of people, not the pitiful hundreds around the federal building and the tame crowds at the L.A Sports Area with government officials in tow, joined the march that spilled into both the sidewalks of Broadway and Olympic streets,” expressed Arturo P. Garcia, People’s CORE Immigrant Rights Program Coordinator

The march lasted for one hour started at 12:00 PM from Olympic and Broadway. The march and wound up at Spring St. in front of the City Hall building where the marchers held a program at around 1;30 P.M. marchers were calling for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants; an expedited and less expensive naturalization process; education for all; and a stop to racist immigrant raids throughout the United States.

The rally speakers included Angeline Corona of Hermanidad Mexicana Nacional, Preston Woods of ANSWER-LA, Juan Jose Gutierrez of Latino Movement-USA, Muna Coobtee of the Free Palestine Alliance (FPA), Arturo P. Garcia of People’s CORE, Raul Murillo of Hermandad, Los Angeles City Council Member Jose Huizar of District 14, Carlos Alvarez of ANSWER Youth, Maria Elena Durazo of the Los Angeles County Federation, and many others.

April 7 Coalition members and supporters include Confederacion de Organizaciones Mexicanas, Latino Movement USA, Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, Alianza de Hondurenos de Los Angeles, United Farmworkers of America, ANSWER Coalition (Act Now To Stop War & End Racism), Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP-USA), United Farmworkers of America (UFW), Casa Nicaragua, La Casa Del Mexicano, Federacion de Clubes Michoacanos en California, Central American Round Table, National Lawyers Guild (NLG), Youth and Justice Coalition, Councilmember Jose Huizar, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), People's CORE, United Students, National Council of Arab Americans, Youth & Student ANSWER, Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV), Pilipino Workers Center (PWC), Frente Amplio Progresista-LA, ChicanoForums.com, Peace Bakersfield, Topanga Peace Alliance, Palisadians for Peace, The Immigrant Magazine, and other pro-immigrant rights individuals and organizations.

For more information please contact Al P. Garcia @(213)241-0906 oremail@apg_pcore@hotmail.com

You wrote: "Unlike the disparate and fewer numbers of mobilized activities last March 25, 2007..". blah, blah...

What's up with attacking people on our side for no good reason?

You wrote: "Unlike the disparate and fewer numbers of mobilized activities last March 25, 2007..". blah, blah...

What's up with attacking people on our side for no good reason?

As far as I can tell the success of this march wsa due to Piolin and EL Cucuy, ntot to badd ass organizing. I'm not a membr ot March 25, but those are very good people, and don't deserve this kind of dis from newbies, esp. PUt thos kind odf stuf in file 13 where it belongs.

for more pictures and commentary from saturday's gran marcha 2007, visit:

http://mexica-movement.org/granmarch2007.htm

As a grandchild of immigrants, I find it insulting that people who refused to do what millions of others have done and decided to jump the line to enter the us are being championed by my fellow citizens.

Our country is the greatest in the world and we have millions of people around the world who want to come to this country to make this country greater tomorrow than it is today. For those who are entering the United States, we only ask that you sign the guestbook and respect our laws. If you can't do that, then please stay home.
If you are considering going to the streets to support those who break our laws, then I ask that you think about all those that followed the rules, and honor them by staying home.

Jon the Mechanic;

"We'll sign the guest book just like you signed the "treaties"when you stole the land in the first place.
What's good for you is good for us, no?

canat thinks he's an injun 'cuz his mom was a "Nava-Ho"

Why do you Mexica guys still hold on to the easilly attacked "columbus stole stole our land" mantra? Have any of you gone beyond ELAC in terms of history and critical thinking classes (and I say this as a chicano activist from East Los who is sick of these wannabe-zapatas who use our struggle as a guise to feed their ego, like bitching that a news story had a possibly negative slant)?

Do yall not know about the blanket amnesties given to European illegals several times in the early 1900s? Have you not learned about the US' support of corupt Latin politicos and policies that sent our families here to be treated like shit by these huero pendejos in the first place? Things like NAFTA, the contras, etc., etc.?

These are water-tight arguments. White/stupid people already rolltheir eyes and dismiss the "this is our land first/aztlan" rebuttal, so give it a rest (even if it is true). The best stategy to end this nonsense is to have a mulitfaceted argument that shuts these people up. please have a brain beyond your ideas of righteousness and glory, and fight this battle with some brains rather than a fucken mexican flag covering your face. all you are doing is scaring white people more (which isnt a good thing no matter what you think) and doing a disservice to your fellow raza like myself.

All thse hueros' rhetoric and actions arent dong smack, it is the MECHA social overcompensation crap that is messing up the barrio.

get you.
"You really do need to fix your social problems in your home countries "
What we really need to do is take our economic boot off of the people of the south and repeal NAFTA.
You idiots make me want to puke.

Schwamm forgets a few facts in his convenient synopsis of reality, they are:

1)In the early 20th and late 19th century, European illegal immigrants were given almost a dozen blanket amnesties and natualized. These people given free citizenship are ancestors of the bulk of Americans today. They then beneffited off of a racially tiered society that beneffitted off the exploitation of minorities as well as people in other countries until recent times. White America (because others werent allowed into the dream yet) also recieved the largest investment of public welfare in the history of mankind since WW2.

2)Numerous objective studies by credible institutions have noted that illegal immigrants contribute much more to our social services than they use via unclaimed social security taxes, sales taxes, property taxes and other expenses (not to mention the cheap labor and free labor used to fix up most of America's slums they now live in). These institutions include the states of California and Texas, the 2 states with the most illegal immigrants. It has also been cocluded by objective study that illegals do not steal low wage jobs, but rather create a complimentary role that elevates the wages and positions of working class Americans. Go to any damned Joack in the box or construction site and count how many white folks are flipping patties or digging trenches and compare that number (0) to how many are the managers and foremen. This is prevalent across various industries, and we actually should thank illegals for keeping some jobs here, as our government has allowed US companies to outsource any job theylogically can. Again, all these facts are in scientifically accpted studies, which is in contrast to many of the reports complaining of the negatives of illegal immigration that are made using subjective reasoning and data collection.

3) The USA has supported and forced the embracement corrupt Latin officials and political/economic policies that have devastated the countries they are in. Look at our hand in El Salvador, Guatamala, Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile, etc., etc.; as well as our economic advice in mexico regarding NAFTA and the devaluation of the peso in the 1950/70s that wreaked havoc on the country's already starving poor. To begin with, we (the US) support an oligarchy of european elites who have minimally shared the wealht of their countries with the rest of their citizens for centuries, which is why they come here illegally. Right now our president supports a mexican leader who sits idle as US companies forcibly buy corn from mexican farmers dirt cheap(already devastating) and then sells back the products at inflated prices, tortilla has now tripled in prices with no reason or action by policymakers (Bring ont he more illegals). It amazes me that people have the analytical skill to figure out latino corruption being a major catalyst for illegal immigration (which it is), but not to figure out who supports and imposes them and their policies on countries where they will not benefit the vast majority- the USA. We are payng the price for our misguided and narcissistic policies and wealth hoarding. Suck it up.

BTW, I grew up on welfare in East LA as a kid and saw that our social services were crumbling well before the explosion of illegal immigration.

I can add more facts if you'd like to address them.

Your real enemy is not the refugee problem
Your problem is the corporations that have their fingers in the affairs of other sovern nations, if even such a concept as soverntry is allowed to survive.
Most people find the underclass a convienent, at so many levels, target.
What the hell does “Look what Israel's re-creation has done. “ have to do with grinding and oppressive poverty and refugee problems? Oh, that’s right. Never mind.

Hey Willnot -

Thanks for your brief course in political & consumer activism =;o]

I'm a proponent of and am active in both on a daily basis.

I agree, national sovereignty is at stake, and yes, scapegoating is one of the many weapons-of-mass-distraction used.

I'll discuss these issues with anyone and I believe I'm as angry about them as you are.

BTW: Vitriolic? No, not at all. I don't believe my head is any further up my ass than yours and I'm no greater fool than you are.

Be well.

the stupid remark about 'fixing your own blah blah' was hidden. Apparently I wasn't alone in having a problem with it.

positive now
What to do.
1st you refuse to purchase un necessary corporate products.
2nd you pressure, by activist involvement for instance, letter writing, town meetings, confrontations pickets, protects and the rest of the chain of escalating pressure to the point of general strike and infrastructure shut down, concerning popular mobilization.
Find appropriate targets, in the ruling class. They really want us to love and admire the useless twits. And they are emotional fragile cowards.
Any other questions can be solved by refusing to get absorbed in the ancillary bullshit. Like the victims of the overclass. They are potential allies.

Thanks for your participation. I agree about needing to hit the international issues more.

In defense of Mexica Movement, they do have some depth to their analysis, and it's deeper than most of the MEXA stuff I've read. I don't agree with their goals or even their rhetoric, but their site is pretty deep. (I'm saying this as a non-Latino.)

Back to the issue at hand, though. I think the reason why activists in America don't like to tackle these international issues is partly because it's not very "heroic" or romantic, and partly because denunciations of imperialism or class oppression quickly turn into finger pointing, and the finger often ends up pointing back to us. After all, we *are* Americans, and we or some of our relatives may be implicated in some exploitation.

It's a lot easier to adopt a new identity that's "way out" and engage the situation as an outsider. I've done it myself. You can't do it forever, though. Eventually, you have to get back to reality, and then it's more difficult to keep resisting and pushing for improvements, but also more rewarding.

2) Illegal aliens must help the economy. There's a simple inductive proof. California is not poor. Neither is Texas. New York - rich. The states that these workers avoided are the poor ones. Is any more evidence than blatant reality even necessary? The presence of new labor is both an indicator of a growing economy, and also the basis of continued growth.

3) See the first point.