MAYWOOD, CA, 26 August 2006--Maywood handily fought off an invasion today, as the minuteman-style group Save Our State tried to force its message of rejection and hate on the small suburb on the southeast edge of Los Angeles. Five hundred people lined the barricades along the city's main street to face off against fifty SOS members behind barricades a hundred feet away.
The 28,000 residents of Maywood – a small town of just over one mile square that proudly proclaims itself 96% Hispanic – are experienced at defending themselves from oppression. The "Maywood revolution" began last fall, when residents rose up against their police chief, who routinely had used roadblocks to confiscate the vehicles of undocumented immigrants and sell the cars for public revenue. Maywoodians threw out their city council and mayor in the November elections, an election in which nearly 100% of eligible voters cast ballots, and replaced them with representatives who promptly disbanded the police traffic division, demanded an audit of LAUSD, denounced the Sensenbrenner anti-immigrant resolution, endorsed drivers licenses for all residents, and proclaimed Maywood a sanctuary city, where the police would no longer check immigration or citizenship status.
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Full report wth photos:
Maywood Stops the Invasion by Leslie Radford
Photos: Maywood Stands Against the Minutemen
by Marcus
Hundreds marched down Whittier Boulevard, retracing the steps of the
Chicano Moratorium's march against the Vietnam war, and attended the 36th anniversary rally and celebration, at Salazar Park. Naturally, this celebration was also a protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and against the militarization of the border, and increasing sweeps of mesoamerican workers at their workplaces and homes.
READ: Hundreds march on the streets of East LA by Jose X Lara
(Take the The People's History Tour.)