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Indybay Feature

SF March for Immigrant Rights

by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
Tens of thousands of people throughout the Bay Area skipped work and school on Monday, May 1, to show their support for immigrant rights.
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It was difficult to estimate the size of the crowd, but it appeared as a large as the largest of the recent antiwar demonstrations. By the time the front of the march had reached Civic Center, the tail end was still leaving the Embarcadero.

The days actions began at 8:30 am with a "cacerolazo" (banging pots and pans, a la Argentina) as a couple hundred activists on foot and on bikes played cat-and-mouse with the police in the financial district.

A large crowd gathered at 11am at the Embarcadero for the day's major march. People from all walks of life were out in force, including, of course, thousands of immigrants from Mexico, Central America, Asia, Muslim countries, and Europe. Anarchists, communists, and socialists were present in large numbers, along with queer, transgender, labor, and student contingents. Many parents brought out their children for what proved to be a festive and peaceful march, followed by an afternoon rally at Civic Center Plaza.

As evening approached, the remaining crowd marched to the Federal Building in the Tenderloin, for a rush-hour rally, joined by those who had not been able to ditch work during the day.
§"You Can't Spell USA Without US"
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§Festive & diverse crowd
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§Homemade banners and signs
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§"You like our food, why not us?"
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§Domestic Workers Coalition
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§An awful lot of flags...
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§"Victory Forever"
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§No to anti-immigrant HR4437
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§Anarchosyndicalist block celebrates MayDay
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§Gringos for immigrant rights
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§Transgender contingent
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§Rainbow flag
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§"We Are Not Criminals"
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
blackred03-cr-sm.jpg
§One of many families
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§Anti-Bush/Pro-Immigrant
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§Asians also out in force
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§"The Pilgrims Were Immigrants"
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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§March approaches Civic Center
by Liz Highleyman (liz [at] black-rose.com)
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Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by Chris Crass
Thanks Liz for the photos. For all of us who have been working to relaim may day
over the past decade, today was incredible. With love for our comrades in 1886 who
organized the first May Day - like Lucy and Albert Parsons, Agust Spies and the International
Working People's Association and - and with tremendous inspiration from the immigrant of color
led movement that made today historic once again.
by Tortuga
In one photo, somebody is wearing a
rainbow flag (cape?) (hoodie?).


Is this the queer rainbow flag --

or is it the Andean rainbow flag,
representing the Quechua people?
by Dr. Sigmund
Hey Chris Crass, sorry to conform to spelling rules for unknown words, but you probably meant "re-lame" not "relaim." Which is closer to the truth than what you might have meant to say. I agree though that you bring a certain lameness and incoherence to your pro-Demoractic Party reformism. Since Kerry lost, who's your new saviour--Todd Chretien?

And some Anarchist you are, with every event having to be "led" by some vanguard. By your statements, your politics could probably be better described as liberal-Maoist, with dashes of Third Worldist, Weather Underground Stalinism tossed in.

An unsolicited piece of advice to Chris: if you pulled your head out of your ass long enough, you'd see that no one is fucking "leading" this thing. I know there are Maoist connotations to this that I disagree with, but it was a perfect example of Marcos' "the people leading." Fuck your elitist vanguardist ideas that working folks can't organize themselves. Again, some Anarchist you are!

The Doctor
by Chris Crass
In a time of mass movement with millions on the street and a fight against the ruling class
on International Workers' Day, this is a sad reflection of what some strands ofdogmatic
anarchism has to offer. Luckily everyday people are leading the way on this May Day and
thousands of anarchists around the country are engaging in real organize to build rather then
tear one another down.
by Chris Crass
In a time of mass movement with millions on the street and a fight against the ruling class
on International Workers' Day, this is a sad reflection of what some strands of dogmatic
anarchism has to offer. Luckily everyday people are leading the way on this May Day and
thousands of anarchists around the country are engaging in real organize to build rather then
tear one another down.
by Dr. Freud
So those of us critical of bootlickers of Stalinist apologists, who double as liberal hacks for the Democratic party, are now *dogmatic.*

Chris Crass, you've never seen a pair of Stalinist boots, especially on a person of color, that you didn't want to lick.

The Doctor
by Dr. Carl Jung
hey Dr. siggy freud (your choice of name is even better than chriss crass' typo-- all of freud's politics were sooooo good, right?)

sorry i missed your "critique" in your post, you hid it really well. (you know, the well-written political "critique" that led to poor you being called dogmatic.) hmmm. looked a lot like someone who has an uncomfortable stick up their ass and itchy keyboard fingers. did you actually have something to say and i blinked and missed it?

gotta say i wonder about you folks who have so much time to lurk on indybay sites all day flaming people but without anything constructive to say. are you actually trying to make revolution, make us stronger? cuz you're not actually contributing anything to that. which is ridiculous when there are millions of people out in the street. and yes, immigrants (and i will say immigrants of color because if you look out your window that's actually true, so i'm not sure why you think that makes chriss crass a bootlicker to point out the obvious) of color are leading it. these protests blew up all around the country from a combination of real organizing from these neighborhoods, churches, labor centers, and then all the kick ass super spontaneous shit like the myspace and text message and workplace conversations and kids breaking out of their schools. revolutions don't happen without ordinary working folks stepping up to the plate and yes taking LEADERSHIP. which is HAPPENING. which is exactly *why* we don't need a vanguard, so fucking ISO/ANSWER opportunists can fuck off. and for that matter, you too can fuck off unless you get the stick out of your ass and contribute something useful. people who aren't immigrants need to get off those sore asses and not just get in the streets but hook up with this shit that is blowing up and figure out how to put our backs into it and support this shit keeping going, even if that means tainting your precious anarchist purity and calling a senator to tell them to vote down some whack bill. you can hold your molly in one hand and the receiver in the other and i promise not to tell any of your friends. cause it's pathetic when purity is more important than the actual work.



--yer buddy, Carlsie
( to save the shit talkers some of their large amounts of free time, no i don't think carl jung is the most super politicl figure that ever lived either)

ps if you really want to make a living debating on indy media sites, you have to come up with stronger arguments than just saying oooh, they're saying anyone who disagrees with them is dogmatic! cuz ya know what? it doesn't hide tha fact that your posts are nothing more than shit talk, no substance. and dogmatic. yep!
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