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Vol. 81/No. 16 April 24, 2017
Join May Day protests! Demand amnesty for immigrant workers!
BY SETH GALINSKY
NEW YORK — May Day actions this year to demand an end to deportations
and for amnesty for all undocumented workers in the U.S. will be the
largest in years. Marches, rallies and strikes are planned in dozens of
cities and towns from coast to coast, many with official labor union
involvement.
“An injury to one is an injury to all,” Sean Campbell, president of
Teamsters Local 813, told an April 3 press conference announcing the May
1 rally here at Foley Square. The 5 p.m. rally is being organized by a
coalition of labor, immigrant and religious organizations. There will be
a number of other actions around the city starting at 6:30 a.m.
“This is the first time our local has played a major role in a May Day
protest,” Campbell told the Militant by phone. “We want as many people
as possible to come out and see more of these actions take place.”
“We believe that workers’ rights and immigrant rights go hand in hand,”
Héctor Figueroa, president of SEIU 32BJ, told the press. Local 32BJ
scored a victory when Immigration and Customs Enforcement released
electrician Juan Vivares, an undocumented worker from Colombia, from
custody. Vivares is married to Yahaira Burgos, a building porter, U.S.
citizen and member of the union. When the union learned Vivares had been
detained during a regular check in with ICE, it organized a protest
outside the immigration jail where he was being held.
Deportations are increasingly unpopular among workers born in the U.S.
The longer workers live, work and join together in fights against
attacks from the employers, the more it breaks down barriers between them.
Edison Alvarado, a worker at Tom Cat Bakery here, encouraged others to
go on strike May Day. Alvarado is one of 31 workers at the Long Island
City bakery who are fighting plans by the company to fire them following
an ICE I-9 audit that began during the Obama administration. The workers
received a letter March 15 giving them 10 days to produce proof that
they had work permits. After protests outside the bakery, Tom Cat
extended the deadline to April 21.
In another victory, Guyanese immigrant Ramesh Palandiandi was released
from ICE detention April 7. Although he has a green card and is married
to a U.S. citizen, ICE claimed he was deportable because of a
non-violent felony conviction in 2007 for which he served six months in
jail.
Several marches are planned in Los Angeles that will converge at Los
Angeles City Hall. “I am marching on May Day to participate in sending a
clear message: Immigrant workers in America will never give up on our
struggle to win dignity, respect and justice,” Lydia Flores, a
supermarket cashier and member of United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 770 told a Los Angeles press conference March 21.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has made demagogic
statements scapegoating undocumented workers, claiming they take
“American” jobs and are a threat to national security.
But for the most part Trump has extended policies implemented by Barack
Obama, including immigration sweeps that supposedly target undocumented
workers who have done jail time, I-9 audits that force the firings of
workers without papers, and beefing up the border patrol.
In 2006 legislation was introduced in Congress that would have made
presence by anyone without papers in the U.S. a felony. It went down to
defeat when immigrant workers led a wave of protests that culminated on
May 1 with millions going on strike and marching in the street.
Related articles:
May Day Protests Calendar
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