Defend the El Balazo Workers! Santa Cruz Meeting

Thursday August 7th

7pm / Beach Flats Community Center

Defend the El Balazo Workers!

Immigrant Rights are Workers Rights!

On the heels of May Day marches for immigrant rights around the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers conducted raids targeting the El Balazo Taqueria chain in the Bay Area on May 2.

ICE officers stormed 11 different chain locations in at least six cities. According to detainees, the agents came in and locked the doors. No one was allowed to leave as every taqueria employee on duty in all locations was interrogated.

ICE claimed to have had warrants for "wanted criminals" and insisted that it didn't do a haphazard sweep. But according to its own press statement, ICE arrested 62 people, all of them Latino. The detainees were taken to the ICE office in downtown San Francisco.

Immigrant workers across the country are facing the same type of repression—from Iowa and Texas to right here in Santa Cruz County. In San Francisco, politicians (including Mayor Gavin Newsom) and the corporate media are conducting a publicity campaign blaming immigrants for the problems of crime and poverty in Bay Area cities.

The El Balazo workers are taking a stand against this campaign of racism and repression. Together with activists from the immigrant rights and labor movements, this group of working men and women are building a campaign to defy la migra and keep their families together.

Their struggle is a struggle for all working people. With workers on the Central Coast and across the country facing the worst economic crisis in decades, it’s vital that we take a stand against attempts to divide us through racist scapegoating. As the AFSCME strike proved last month, we’re stronger when we stand together.

Come to this public meeting to hear El Balazo workers and movement activists talk about the impact of the raids and the progress of the defense campaign, and to discuss the way forward in the struggle for immigrant rights.

DONATIONS FOR THE DEFENSE FUND GREATLY APPRECIATED

Sponsored by the El Balazo Workers Defense Fund and the International Socialist Organization (ISO), publishers of Socialist Worker and Obrero Socialista newspapers

For more information, call James at (831) 430-6133