FILIPINOS DEMANDS LEGALIZATION AND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS (tags)
Last Friday, May 1, International Workers’ Day, women workers, youth and allies of the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (Alliance Philippines) joined the groundswell of immigrants and workers demanding for Obama to deliver on his promise of immigration reform in nationally-coordinated marches. The Alliance Philippines called for full legalization, amnesty, a stop to racist enforcement measures like deportations, detentions and border militarization, full protections for all workers, and an end to US imperialism, the root cause of the Filipino people’s forced migration. “We are here to echo the voices of the 14 million undocumented who are struggling and working hard despite the economic crisis,” said Mona Lunot, nanny, housekeeper and Chairperson of DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association, in her speech at the concluding rally in New York City. DAMAYAN is a member organization of Alliance Philippines. “Undocumented workers are called ‘aliens.’ But we are the workers who take care of Americans’ homes and children, cook their food, build their houses, and plant the food they eat.” In the Los Angeles, the epicenter of the immigrant rights movement, in the biggest rally more than 30,000 marchers led by the Full Rights For immigrant coalition turned out and marched from Broadway and Olympic intersection around 1;00 PM. Composed mostly of Latino workers and advocates who filled the streets, the militant march overflowed the main streets of LA.
Unity in diversity. Five major coalitions for immigrant rights marched in different parts of the city of Los Angeles, mirrored the differences that united them in 2006. In almost every major city of the United States, workers and immigrants took to the streets to demand legalization and immigration reform. Hundreds of thousands marched and rallied US-wide for May 1 in a militant and defiant show of unity for a call for immigration reforms to the Obama administration. The Labor Front in Turmoil This year, several labor federations banded together to form a single unified union of all unions. Like the old AFL-CIO they want to strengthen the labor front that has been greatly weakened by the division between the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win Coalition.