"Un dia sin immigrante" "A day without an immigrant"
National
No School
No Selling
No Buying…
- Yes To Immediate Amnesty
- No To Criminalization of Immigrants
- No Border Fences and Racism
- No Increased Immigrant Enforcement
On May 1, we will wear "white" a T-Shirt and/or white arm bands, we can paint and write our political demands (and creative arts) at the T-shirt go to rally, protest, strike, vigil, work or school--we will have a ocean of white T-shirts with our political demands from east coast to west coast, at the street, work place, school, bus station & store... and our voice will be LOUD AND CLEAR AND CANNOT BE SILENT FOR EVER!
We will settle for nothing less than full amnesty and dignity for the millions of undocumented workers presently in the U.S. We believe that increased enforcement is a step in the wrong direction and will only serve to facilitate more tragedies along the Mexican-U.S. border in terms of deaths and family separation.
The success of the March 25 Los Angeles "Gran Marcha" proves
that we can make it happen! A new civil rights movement of the 21st
century is building, a multi-ethnic movement to link immigrant rights,
social justice and anti-war together.
Therefore, activists and organizers have a particular responsibility to
point out the links between Katrina's impact, immigrant rights, civil
liberties, labor rights and the U.S. war in Iraq. We need to make the
connections between: wars in Africa, south America, Asia, Iraq, Palestine
and Korea, and sweatshops in Asia as well as in Los Angeles and in New
York; international arms sales and the WTO, FTAA, NAFTA & CAFTA with
AIDS, hunger, our reproductive rights, child labor and child soldiers;
multinational corporations and economic exploitation with racism,
homophobia and poverty at home--then we can win the struggle.
[Col. Writ. 4/2/06] Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Now, as polls show growing disenchantment with both political parties,
the issue of immigration is raised once again, as politicians seek to
stir the pot of social resentment.
Voices are raised, tempers are frayed, proposals are launched, and
the destinies of millions are apparently held in limbo.
But, in numbers not seen for generations, mostly Mexican-born (or
related) families pound the pavements in protest, demanding amnesty
for the millions who live and work, in the most thankless jobs, here in
the U.S.
The immigration "discussion" masks deeper currents in American life,
of those who dread the approaching dawn when those who number the
nation's majority are brown, instead of white.
As the government and the servile corporate media hawked fear to trap
the nation into the Iraq War, so now fear is once again merchandised for
political gain. The perpetual fear of the foreign Other, the fear
of Spanish-speaking people, who are called 'criminal' for daring to
cross the
The truth of the matter is that it is highly unlikely that over 11
million men, women, and children will be returned to Mexican territory.
That's because businesses, especially those engaged in agriculture,
would virtually go out of business, if their immigrant-based work-force
up and disappeared.
But, like most people, many Latino immigrants are involved in other
businesses and industries in
share of the work to actually re-build
not guessed, let me just say it - It ain't FEMA!).
With the exception of Native Americans (as in so-called 'Indians'), and
African-Americans, every person in the U.S. today is a descendant of a
willing immigrant (OK, strict historians will object that many poor
whites, especially in the Southern states, were sent to George and
Maryland as indentured servants, as part of a penal sentence).
But, the point is clear. Immigration was consciously used to craft the
Chinese, for example, were specifically excluded by law from citizenship
(like their Mexican counterparts, many Asians were needed in the
building of this country as cheap labor).
As law professor Ian F. Haney-Lopez has shown in his book, *White by
Law: The Legal Construction of Race* (N.Y.:NYU Press, 1996), American
courts and legislatures have consistently defined 'citizens' as
'whites', and over the course of centuries, millions of people were
denied entry to the US, or even if allowed in denied citizenship,
because they were not 'white.' In 1882, Haney-Lopez explains, the
Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese workers
for a decade. In 1884, the Act was expanded to bar all Chinese people,
and shortly thereafter an indefinite ban was implemented. State and
federal court decisions banned Syrians, Asian-Indians, Palestinians,
mixed-race people, and multitudes of others on the basis of
insufficient whiteness!
That ugly history may be reborn in this latest 'battle' over Mexican
immigration. Political storms have a way of giving way to political
hurricanes, that even those who planned them cannot control.
Several years ago, a right-wing politician in
the anti-immigrant train to the White House. This man was Pete
Wilson, and his playing with fire left him politically burnt. Angry
Hispanics in
Party, into retirement.
But, this era of politicians, trying to create an issue that protects
them from the falling numbers of the incumbent Bush Administration,
look at
Perhaps the recent demonstrations, massive in their size, vociferous in
their spirit, have given them pause.
Time will tell.
The political entity that truly befriends this growing segment of the
population will have tapped into a powerful social force.
Don't expect it to be either the Republicans or the Democrats.
Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal
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No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights!
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