Call for May 1 Strike!

Unfortunately, it usually goes by virtually unnoticed in this country. But this year, things may turn out differently. A loose network of immigrant rights coalitions is calling for a nationwide general strike and boycott, under the banner “The Great American Boycott ‘06.” The demand is simple: Papers for everyone.

Now. “I’m going to remove my cooperation with the system, and I’m going to see if it can function without me,” Nativo Vigil López said, as he rallied the crowd gathered at the auditorium. López, national director of Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana, was one of the key members of the Los Angeles-based coalition that first made the call for nationwide demonstrations against Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.’s bill, HR 4437; and he was in town that day helping to build the movement.López calculated that more than four million people had already marched in US cities and towns as of March 25 to demand fair treatment for immigrants.“Even with Prop. 187, we’ve never seen this number of people in the streets,” said veteran activist Renee Saucedo of La Raza Centro Legal. She recently ended a week-long hunger strike with others, in front of San Francisco’s Federal Building. She said she believes the action helped convince Sen. Dianne Feinstein to at least oppose the criminal provision of the Sensenbrenner bill. Now, those organizing the May 1 general strike and boycott are hoping to build on that momentum, in the ongoing struggle to fight back against draconian anti-immigrant proposals being considered on Capitol Hill.

These proposals threaten, among other things, to create even more obstacles to legal permanent residency, separate even more families, and result in even more detentions, deportations, and deaths.By the time this issue of El Tecolote hits the stands, another demonstration – a march on San Francisco’s Federal Building – will have taken place on April 23.In Mexico, politicians and TV stars have been joining the ranks of everyday people speaking out in solidarity with immigrant laborers in the North. Labor and migrant rights groups are asking people not to cross the border into the US to work or shop on that day, López told us. The Sensenbrenner bill “crossed the line, morally,” Saucedo said, explaining that it functioned as the main rallying call behind the movement being seen on the streets today. And, advocates say, immigrants are tired of the increasing backlash they’ve been bearing in recent years. “We’re saying enough is enough,”

Saucedo said.Both López and Saucedo point to decentralized, grassroots organizing as one of the immigrant rights movement’s most important strengths. It’s everyday people – students, workers, parishoners – who make up the heart of the struggle. There are no clear “leaders.” And other constituencies, including Asian civil rights groups and antiwar organizations, have begun joining the ranks in solidarity, noted Saucedo.“The worst battles are the battles that were never fought,” López told us. “And as long as we live in fear, we’ll live dominated by someone else.”

So don’t go to work on May 1. Don’t go to school. Don’t buy anything. And join the people in the street, to show the world what a day without immigrants really looks like.
On May 1st, gather at 11 a.m. at Embarcadero and Market Streets, to march to Civic Center Plaza.

For more information, contact the May 1st Coalition at (415) 861-3103. ♦