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Millions mark America's 'day without immigrants'
The surging movement for immigrants' rights across the United States reached new heights as millions of foreign-born workers walked off their jobs, withheld all but the most necessary consumer purchases and joined noisy, peaceful May Day protest marches in more than 50 cities.
The "day without immigrants" showed every sign of being the biggest protest to date, with hundreds of thousands of people turning out for marches yesterday. In Los Angeles, the focal point of the battle for greater workplace protection and legal recognition for an estimated 12 million undocumented workers across the country, more than 100,000 people wearing white T-shirts and brandishing flags and banners took part in a morning protest outside City Hall.
A much bigger number was expected to march through the heart of the city in the afternoon and evening very possibly more than the half million people who swelled the downtown streets at a watershed demonstration in late March.
Across southern California, middle and high school students either failed to show up at school or else snuck away as soon as they were dropped by their parents. Truancy rates were reported as high as 27 per cent in some schools. Police and civic authorities arranged an ambitious programme of street closures on a scale reminiscent of an Olympic Games or presidential funeral.
Nannies and gardeners informed their wealthy employers that they would not be showing up. Several big businesses, including slaughter houses in the Great Plains and numerous branches of McDonald's, either rearranged working shifts or decided to close for the day in recognition of the fact that their workforces would be severely depleted. The Los Angeles fruit and vegetable market came to a standstill, as did the garment industry and at least some of the operations at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
"No human being is illegal," read one banner at the LA demonstration. "Today we march, tomorrow we vote," read another. Both were written in English and Spanish. Music blaring through the street included Mexican mariachi tunes and Neil Diamond's "America". The atmosphere was overwhelmingly joyous, with little or no tension with police.
"There's no question in my mind that we are in the midst of an historic, new social movement," commented Marc Cooper, a border and immigration specialist with the University of Southern California's Institute for Justice and Journalism. "It's taken decades to build and reach critical mass and it is still going to take years to mature and fully pay off. So far, the cool-headed long-term strategists have dominated."
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article361313.ece
A much bigger number was expected to march through the heart of the city in the afternoon and evening very possibly more than the half million people who swelled the downtown streets at a watershed demonstration in late March.
Across southern California, middle and high school students either failed to show up at school or else snuck away as soon as they were dropped by their parents. Truancy rates were reported as high as 27 per cent in some schools. Police and civic authorities arranged an ambitious programme of street closures on a scale reminiscent of an Olympic Games or presidential funeral.
Nannies and gardeners informed their wealthy employers that they would not be showing up. Several big businesses, including slaughter houses in the Great Plains and numerous branches of McDonald's, either rearranged working shifts or decided to close for the day in recognition of the fact that their workforces would be severely depleted. The Los Angeles fruit and vegetable market came to a standstill, as did the garment industry and at least some of the operations at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
"No human being is illegal," read one banner at the LA demonstration. "Today we march, tomorrow we vote," read another. Both were written in English and Spanish. Music blaring through the street included Mexican mariachi tunes and Neil Diamond's "America". The atmosphere was overwhelmingly joyous, with little or no tension with police.
"There's no question in my mind that we are in the midst of an historic, new social movement," commented Marc Cooper, a border and immigration specialist with the University of Southern California's Institute for Justice and Journalism. "It's taken decades to build and reach critical mass and it is still going to take years to mature and fully pay off. So far, the cool-headed long-term strategists have dominated."
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article361313.ece
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· More than 1 million take to streets over new bill
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles and Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Tuesday May 2, 2006
The Guardian
One of the biggest protests in US history unfolded across America yesterday as more than a million demonstrators took to the streets to protest against proposals to toughen immigration law.
From New York to Los Angeles and more than 50 cities in between, they streamed out in their numbers, waving US, Mexican and El Salvadorean flags. Most of the protesters were Latino, reinforcing what for many was the true impact of the day: the emergence of a powerful Latino political voice angry at a system which they say judges them good enough to work in the US but not good enough to be citizens.
Read More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1765520,00.html
Mass rallies were staged across the US as immigrants boycotted work or school and avoided spending money as a way of showing their worth to the economy.
Called A Day Without Immigrants, the protest comes as Congress wrestles with reform of immigration laws.
About 11.5m illegal immigrants live in the US, many of them of Latino origin.
'All are immigrants'
The protest comes as the US Congress is caught up in the divisive business of reforming immigration laws.
A bipartisan bill currently stalled in the Senate would bolster border security, but also provide illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship and a guest-worker programme long favoured by President George W Bush.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4961734.stm