MAY DAY IN SACTO AND DAVIS

Immigrants in the Central Valley took to the streets by the tens of thousands to protest "comprehensive immigration reform" on Monday -- the first anniversary of the Great American Boycott of 2006, in which immigrants led walkouts, boycotts, and protests all over the US.

"We believe they are not comprehensive and it does not speak of legalization of the 12 million undocumented workers," said Al Rojas, of the Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior and major organizer of protest at the state capitol.

Rojas led participants to deliver a petition (against the reform) to the office of Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, at Fifth and I streets.

Organizers had long predicted lower turnouts for this year's marches, saying an increase in immigration raids in recent months have left many immigrants afraid to speak out in public.

Meanwhile about people in Davis reportedly sat down in civil disobedience blocking Freeborn Hall, where the Department of Homeland Security hosted a public meeting to receive comments on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, “Minimum Standards for Driver's Licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes.”

The REAL ID Act requires every American to have a standardized driver's license -- a de facto national ID -- to fly on commercial airlines or enter government buildings. It also requires driver's licenses to have a "machine readable component," that will be read everywhere, from retailers to airports.

This component -- combined with state databases of drivers' information -- will create one-stop shopping for identity thieves. More importantly, it will invade people's privacy by allowing easy tracking and monitoring of ordinary, law-abiding Americans.

Also at UCD, hundreds in a coalition of contracted-out workers, students, professors, local elected officials, UC union members, and community members protested the university’s continued contracting out of food service workers, who are forced to endure disrespectful treatment, a lack of health care, and poverty wages.

At every UC campus and Medical Center administrators have found that direct UC employment is, like the UCSC administration stated, in “closer alignment with the values and mission of the university and with the expectations of students.” Even at the UCD Medical Center in Sacramento, food service workers are directly employed by the University and receive a pension and retirement, dollars on the hour more, paid uniforms and shoes, free meals, 13 paid holidays, at least 15 paid vacation days, union representation, and pay 95 percent less for medical, dental, and vision insurance.