by Anti-Racist Inland Empire
Friday, Sep. 25, 2009 at 1:08 AM
AntiRacistIE@gmail.com
The Nazis have not yet announced where their rally will be, and will not do so until Friday, they say. So instead of letting this disorganize us, we are just going to go ahead and schedule our anti-Nazi rally for 10 am to 11 am (or a little after) on the public right-of-way right next to Riverside City Hall, at Tenth and Main Streets. It is a "Rally Against Racism," intended to counteract the Nazi message of hate, division, and scapegoating of immigrants and minorities.
unityagainsthate26sep2009.jpg, image/jpeg, 745x965
There will be some music, and a number of very short speeches from representatives of various organizations, congregations, and communities.
There will definitely be media attention (the calls are coming in already), and it would certainly be a good thing if the media were able to report that our rally had two, or five, or twenty times as many people as the Nazi rally.
Please note that the entire rally will be held in the shade, a serious health concern in Riverside on the 26th of September. This is also a reason why the rally is starting at 10 am, to avoid the hottest part of the day.
The rally will be absolutely non-violent, of course, and families are invited to attend and bring their children. While we do not know where the Nazi rally will be, we can be reasonably sure that it will not be held near ours, as our location is being announced in plenty of time for them to avoid us.
While we understand that some people from various Southern California locations may demonstrate against the Nazi group near their rally, this has no connection with the broad effort at City Hall to show that Riverside rejects Nazi racism. We neither endorse nor oppose the direct confrontation some are reported to plan at the site of the Nazi rally. It is simply a different effort.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) night a list of sponsors will be provided to the local media. Please, if you wish to co-sponsor this peaceful Riverside Rally Against Racism, tell me immediately. Appropriate officials of organizations should also advise me of their organizations' endorsements. A revised endorsement list will be announced on Thursday night, and another on Friday afternoon. (We currently expect most organizational endorsers to be congregations or their social action committees, unions, political party central committees, and community organizations.)
We expect to have about 20 very short speeches (about 2 minutes each), by some clergy and by representatives of endorsing organizations. If you are available to speak, please advise me, and I will pass it on to the committee coordinating the rally.
Tomorrow, together with the initial endorsement list, we expect to announce some additional details and some other contact names and addresses.
Please pass this on to others who might be interested. Thanks!
