
On May Day 2006,
International Workers Day -over 1.5 million immigrants and their allies poured into the streets in over 200 cities across the country to demand full legalization and dignity for undocumented workers. Many, responding to the national call for "Un dia sin immigrante" - "a day without an immigrant" refused to go to work or school in order to join the marches and rallies
national organizers hope will spark the biggest multi-national civil rights/social movement in U.S history. [
US-IMC May Day 2006 coverage |
LA IMC |
SF Bay IMC |
San Diego IMC |
NYC IMC |
Democracy Now! ]
In Chicago, Monday's May Day march reached historic proportions - dwarfing the original 1886 march for the eight hour day. Crowd estimates varied, with Chicago police and corporate press accounts estimating the march at over 400,000 participants. But March 10th Movement organizers and activists asserted that the day's turnout topped out well over 700,000. While marchers from Chicago's Latin American immigrant communities clearly comprised a majority, the march also included large contingents from the city's Irish, Polish, Ukrainian, Indian, Pakistani, Haitian and Arab communities, along with union and neighborhood groups, churches, mosques, civil rights and social justice organizations. Feeder marches from various parts of the city converged in Union Park, spilling out into the surrounding streets. Marching down Randolph St, past Chicago's historic Haymarket Square enroute to an afternoon rally in Grant Park, the crowd erupted into chants of "Sí se puede" (Yes we can!) and "El pueblo unido jamás sera vencido" (The people united will never be defeated).
Read More |
Photos: [
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CIMC Newswire Accounts:
Black and Brown Unite and Fight - STOP Contingent in Immigrant Rights March |
Account of the Anarchist Bloc at Chicago Mayday/Immigrant's Rights March |
Immigration and May Day |
GLN: Photos and Story from LGBT Contingent
Comments
Re: El Pueblo Unido... A historic May Day in Chicago
18 May 2006
But we don't hear about that crazy shit because ILLEGAL FUCKING *ALIENS* ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD!
Re: El Pueblo Unido... A historic May Day in Chicago
20 May 2006
There will be no huge "crackdown" on "illegals". the Republicans are making and saving too much money by using them. There will be a few symbolic raids and roundups to pacify the ultra-fascists, but mostly, things will stay the same. The guest worker program might go into effect if bush can swing it. This will create yet another class of working poor, and serve to better keep working people divided.
The goal of the wealthy is to maintain and strengthen their position. Keeping working people divided is a very important part of that. The other key element is the cheap house labor and construction labor.
With so many mexicans willing to kiss the asses of the wealthy, and stick it to each other, stick it to working blacks, and stick it to working whites, this situation will continue for a very long time.
The republicans and wealthy democrats and the mexican immigrants are in a love affair. If you've never been on a job site in a wealthy community, you'd never be able to see this.
The sooner working people find areas of agreement and begin acting on them, the sooner the situation will improve. There is not an atmosphere of trust and unity among working people, and whites and blacks are not the only ones to blame. There is hostility and other untoward behavior directed at whites and blacks that comes from Mexican workers, as well as vice-versa.
If it is some kind of race war that people are trying to create, then things are going on the right track. That would be a stupid move though, because Caucasians have more perfected the crafts of weaponry, metallurgy, and chemistry, not to mention the other sciences, so trying to take them on is pretty shortsighted and foolish.
Creating false friendships with the wealthy to get their feet in the door so to speak, the Mexican strategy has walked into a trap they will not escape.
The best move would be to reach out to other working people, hopefully, it's not too late.
Re: El Pueblo Unido... A historic May Day in Chicago
28 May 2006
chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/72208/index.php