White People Step up for Immigrant Rights! (For May Day & Beyond)

[radio4progressives]

A Call for White People to Step for Immigrant Rights Petition to white u.s. citizens was created by Catalyst Project and the Heads Up Collective and written by clare bayard

[e-mail]

sign petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/mayday06/petition.html



===================================================

A Call for White People to Step Up for Immigrant Rights


To: white u.s. citizens

For May Day and Beyond: White People Step up for Immigrant Rights!

In the past month, five million people, mostly immigrants of color, have mobilized for justice and are making history, flooding the streets in unprecedented numbers. Meanwhile, the most visible participation by white people is coming from the racist and right wing leaders who are defining and dominating the debate in the Federal government and in the news, radio and opinion pages. Where are the voices of anti-racist white people in this crucial moment, when the worst anti-immigrant legislation in decades is still poised to drop?

We, white people who believe in justice and ending racism, have a responsibility and a historic opportunity to stand with immigrant communities and unite behind their demands. As white people, most of us with U.S. citizenship, we call out to our white communities to take to the streets for immigrant rights. We must demonstrate that the rightwing racists, from the Minutemen to in the Congress, do not represent us!

Anyone who has experienced this month’s electrifying, grassroots explosion feels the power and excitement growing. Working-class immigrants, with their crucial roles in the economy and culture of the U.S., have real power to reshape this country, as a vibrant part of broad multiracial movements for justice and equality. As anti-racist white people, we have a role to play in this struggle.

Immigrants are the direct targets of these policies, and we know enforcement will aim at immigrants of color. But we are all endangered by the accelerating drive of this country towards greater abuse of working people, more criminalization of poor/working-class people, and of all communities of color, particularly African-Americans. Our futures are tied together and now is the time to stand with immigrants fighting for their rights.

The ruling class in the United States has historically led anti-immigrant campaigns to divide working people, getting people to blame one another for stealing their jobs while corporations build their financial empires from all of our labor. Building from a foundation of enslaved African labor and mass land theft from indigenous nations, corporations used anti-immigrant campaigns against the Irish, Italian, Jews. Chinese, Japanese, Eastern Europeans and other immigrants, to deny them legal protections, attack unions and maintain cheap labor to under-cut better waged jobs. These campaigns intensified with the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 1880’s and as more and more European immigrants were assimilated into white society, immigrants of color from Asia and then Latin America were targeted to be a permanent low wage, legally unprotected, work force to drive wages down and corporate profits up.

White people have led and rallied behind anti-immigrant campaigns in the millions throughout the history of this country and today a new history for immigrant justice is being written and we have a responsibility to be part of it. We’re fighting two racist agendas: big businesses need to retain a vulnerable pool of exploitable labor, and the blatant organized racists want to preserve white political dominance and agitate for mass deportations. This divided right wing unites to dehumanize immigrants of color, working to strip them of any rights or protections. The small handful of mostly white billionaires backing and benefiting from these strategies depends on our complicity. Instead, let’s build upon the legacy of anti-racist white people who have refused to participate in divide and conquer strategies, where the ruling class historically uses race to pit us against each other.

White people need to take responsibility for countering the attacks generated by white racists, from the border to the White House.

If you’re a white person who stands for justice, we encourage you to step it up. How can you more actively support immigrants fighting for their rights, and encourage your families and friends to get more involved? What local organizing by immigrants can you support with your time, money, and resources? On April 23rd in the Bay Area, and throughout the country on May 1st (International Workers’ Day) immigrant communities around the country will again take the streets. Let’s be there in greater numbers: on the streets beside our friends and neighbors, raising our voices in the national debate, making a commitment to organizing more white people to stand up against attacks on immigrants.

This letter comes to you from two Bay Area-based white anti-racist organizations, Catalyst Project and the Heads Up Collective. Heads Up is a member organization of the Deporten a La Migra Coalition, which is primarily composed of organizations based in working-class immigrant communities. We ask you to act in solidarity with the principles generated by the Deporten a La Migra Coalition, Immigrants Fighting For Our Rights. They are:

• The land is for those who work it!
• No more displacement
• The border is hypocritical
• Unity makes us strong
• Demand dignity and equality for all immigrants
• In every neighborhood, organize!

please read full text at:

http://www.liberationink.com/revised/navigator.php?s=2&a=deporten

If you agree with these principles, we invite you to sign this letter and make your signature a commitment to putting them into action in your work and life.

In struggle,
Catalyst Project and the Heads Up Collective
[e-mail]

Endorsed by:
Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez, Institute for Multiracial Justice
Eric Mar
Eunice Cho
Maria Poblet, St Peters Housing Committee
Sheila Chung, Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition
Renee Saucedo, Day Labor Program/La Raza Centro Legal
Kali Akuno Williams, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
(organizations for identification purposes only)


Catalyst Project and Heads Up Collective were inspired by the work of white anti-racists with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice in New York City, and Italian Americans for Immigrant Rights in the Bay Area, who put out similiar open letters to move white people to stand for immigrant rights. By signing here, we are also joining with the thousands of white people participating in those and other efforts.


Please sign on if you stand with the principles above. To add your signature to those below, go to this link:

(organizations for identification purposes only)

Adam Welch, Industrial Workers of the World
Alexis Shotwell, UAW 2865, Long Road Collective
Andrew Willis, Washington, D.C.
Amy Dudley, Rural Organizing Project, Portland OR
Andy Cornell, NYC, NY
Betty G. Robinson, Baltimore Education Network and Baltimore Algebra Project

Bill Quigley, Professor of Law, Loyola University New Orleans
Brooke Atherton
Brooke DuBose
Camilo Viveiros, community organizer, Fall River, Massachusetts
Cathy Rion, Heads Up Collective
Chris Crass, Catalyst Project
Chris Dixon, UAW 2865 Members for Quality Education and Democracy
Clare Bayard, Catalyst Project/Heads Up Collective
cori schmanke parrish, North Star Fund
Chance Martin, editor Street Sheet Magazine
Dee Ouellette, mother
Diana Block, California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Dan Berger, Resistance in Brooklyn, co-editor “Letters from Young Activists”

Dara Silverman, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
Dixie Block, Oakland
Drew Dellinger, Poets for Global Justice
Ellen Chenoweth, D.C. resident
Elly Kugler, City at Peace D.C
Gordon Kaupp
Heather Meader-McCausland
Harmony Goldberg
Heidi Reijm, Ruby Affinity Group, Brooklyn, NY
Ian McCleod, San Francisco Indymedia
Ian White-Maher
Isabell Moore, ESOL teacher & coordinator Anti-Racist Organizing Network of NC

Jackie Downing
James Tracy, SF Community Land Trust
Jen Angel, Clamor, Toledo OH
Jen Collins, mother
Jennifer Miller, Oakland, CA
Jim Ace
Jim McAsey, Director- Jobs with Justice, Farmingdale NY
Joseph Phelan , Miami FL
Jordan Flaherty, Left Turn Magazine
Josh Raisler Cohn, Washington D.C.
Kate Berrigan, Critical Resistance
Laura Close, SEIU Local 503, Child Care Campaign, Portland OR
Leone Reinbold
Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, Oberlin, OH
Marc Krupanski, Immigrant Justice Solidarity Project
Matt Meyer, War Resisters League
Meg Starr, Resistance in Brooklyn
Mica Root, Philadelphia PA
Michelle Foy, Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Noah Gaiser, Free Mind Media
Paul Kivel, educator and writer
Rebecca Johnson
Ruby Affinity Group, Brooklyn, NY
Sasha Costanza-Chock, Los Angeles Indymedia
Sasha Vodnik, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Sean Sullivan, Ruby Affinity Group, Brooklyn
Seth Newton, AFSCME Local 3299
Sharon Martinas, Challenging White Supremacy Workshop
Vanessa Sacks, Childcare Collective

==============



A Call for White People to Step for Immigrant Rights Petition to white u.s. citizens was created by Catalyst Project and the Heads Up Collective and written by clare bayard

[e-mail]

sign petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/mayday06/petition.html

[EFerrari]

1. Hey! My editor is on this list. LOL!

I didn't know he was a white guy. :)

[shamrock]

2. delete

[NorthernSpy]

3. white people step up to raise black unemployment and lower wages!

Immigration, African Americans, and Race Discourse

Ever wondered what happens to the most vulnerable Americans when millions of foreigners sneak into the country and illegally compete for the same jobs?



More faux humanitarianism from a place of privilege and cluelessness.

:eyes:

[shamrock]

5. most of the people

who feel that we need to control illegal immigration in this country understand this very well, but if they voice that opinion on this board they will likely be called bigots, haters and racist.

[radio4progressives]

9. bad propaganda on this issue is created from corporatists using racism as

the primary catalyst..

slowly the working class is beginning to get it.. the enemy are the corporatists who profit from racism and bigotry using ignorance and fear as propaganda tools that you seem to cling to.

[NorthernSpy]

13. working class Americans hold views closer to those of the Minutemen...

... than to those of the privileged "open borders" crowd.


Look -- whatever you're trying accomplish, it would help if you started with a little reality...

[radio4progressives]

16. Actually I'm a working class person, and no one I know support the

minuteman vigilantism.. "open borders" crowd as you put it recognizes a certain reality based on our history and the real nature of our country's heritage than apparently your "unreal world".

just because the msm backs your point of view cause doesn't make it right or what "more working class americans" .

[Cleita]

19. Dear shamrock:

You are starting from a flawed position in this. Once you realize that illegal immigration can't be stopped. That's a start. By raising the quotas to reflect the numbers that are needed in labor here in the USA this makes the workers legal.

Next you must realize that if you want your good paying jobs back you have to join with these people as a labor block and not demonize them. I posted this today, which again got little notice from the hoorahers of "illegal immigration is a problem" like yourself.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x995857

It makes me and others think that you don't want the whole picture but just one part of it. That could lead one to believe that your reasons for being against immigration could be a tad xenophobic.

Now when you realize this same problem is on both sides of the border with our corrupt governments and that if Americans join with the Mexican labor movement on this side of the border, I think you might start seeing our corrupt, fat cat leaders and corporations start making moves to correct this.

When you blame the victims, this is what they want because they operate from a position of divide and conquer. Nobody wins when the fat cats can appeal to our baser side and make us fight among ourselves.

[NorthernSpy]

20. actually, the hiring of illegals CAN be stopped...

... by concentrating our efforts on prosecuting and punishing the employers.

It's just not true that we can't control our borders. We can, but doing it takes effort.

The majority of Americans believe that the effort is worth it.

[Cleita]

24. This is a way bigger problem that prosecuting and punishing

employers. All they have to do is move their operations across the border and still bring in illegals for those jobs they can't move.

Until labor unites in this northern American continent you aren't going to see any meaningful change. You can build all the walls you want but your jobs are going to fly elsewhere unless you get rid of your prejudices and unite with your fellow laborer to force the governments of both countries and probably Canada too to do the right thing.

If Mexicans made decent wages, had access to public education and decent health care, and were protected by worker's comp and OSHA laws you would see very few of them here anymore. Of course that doesn't mean that the illegals from Asia won't be pouring in here.

Once the Mexicans go home it will create a bigger demand for labor from other countries. Let's face it the USA can't operate without immigrant labor. Historically, this has always been true.

It's time to let the xenophobic scales fall from your eyes to see what the real problem is and who is responsible. It's time to raise the quotas for the labor that we do need so that these workers can compete in a fair labor market with Americans.

[radio4progressives]

29. I agree mostly with the points you raised except ...

I think the notion that the USA can't operate with out immigrant labor is not an arguement that I advance simply because, regardless of the merit of the claim, to me isn't even the real issue.

On the one hand I could almost care less whether or not business in amurka can make it without slave labor except when i have to buy my produce because i didn't grow enough of my own produce - or when i go to a fast food joint because it's supposed to be cheaper than a restaurant and the burger and fries just increased in price by about three or four dollars.. and so on..and that's when we'll see today's KKK David Duke's Minutemen and his xenophobes pining for the day when the poor and the working class used to be able to get their cheap burger king meals at cheap prices and the issue will simply "go away" until the fascists need another distraction and the racists need a new (or the same) target to vent their white supremacists rage against.

[Cleita]

33. The immigrants will be sorely missed if they are made

to go. For one thing getting harvests in means having a lot of available workers at that time that you don't need the rest of the year. If they aren't available, the crop rots in the field making whatever it is scarce and that increases the price in the market.

There will be many other places too that they will be missed. Didn't Mann Coulter complain about dirty towels at her hotel because the workers were out protesting? Imagine all those hotel rooms with no one to clean them? I mean really if twelve million people are rounded up and sent back across the border, it will be very noticable in a very short period of time.

[radio4progressives]

34. Absolutely! But to me, that point is almost superfluous

to me, the real issue driving the bigotry is nothing at all to do with labor - it is specifically about maintaining white supremacy in our national population..

as a "whitie" myself, i've been observing this phenom (especially by white males) since my youth growing up in the South. White Men HATE the very notion of another ethnic group gaining dominance in population in this country that they have so long assumed the privilege as their own inherent "right" to claim. I understand what the fear is based on.. that the chickens will have finally come home to roost - and that they will get their come uppins for centuries of brutal oppression and socio-economic injustice. Just because they fear it, doesn't mean i have to hold their hands and allow their lies, distortions and media fed propaganda to stand unchallenged - also, i wouldn't have a problem seeing multinationals and Big Ag collapse under this pressure, if only that didn't negatively impact the working class (and it would). Personally i'd love to see a collapse of Mutinationals, big Business and especially Big Ag fail - it would force everyone to grow their own food in their back yards or roof tops of their houses or get involved in community gardens, in order to eat, we'd all become vegitarians by default, and we'd have to cut down severely on automobile transportation - no more quick drives to the store for a few items.... but the multinationals own everything including the media, (they're the ones manufacturing fear and hate) and it's going to take all working class people to finally who the real enemy is before we can shut down their power..

but as anyone can see, the fascists have their propaganda mouth pieces and hired guns out in full force putting out their message of lies, hate and misinformation..

[Cleita]

50. Yes, and the proles are falling for their propaganda because

they are experts at appealing to their prejudices, whether it's racial or about women and other fallacies that they hold dear.

[951-Riverside]

51. You do realize African Americans did those jobs, right?

But I don't see anyone even mentioning their contributions to America, they have been cast aside and ignored all in the name of saving a buck.

[Cleita]

52. Yes, they did. When I worked as a waitress when I was going to

college my busboy was an African American also going to college. We shared tips and I couldn't have given good service or gotten good tips without him catching my back all the time. This was in the late fifties.

The African Americans moved on to better education and better jobs leaving many of the jobs that they did open. Today, that same African American boy would be the waiter with a Mexican busboy.

[951-Riverside]

53. Hmmm?

The African Americans moved on to better education and better jobs leaving many of the jobs that they did open.

Some African Americans have, not ALL and those who have not moved up are looking for jobs and I'm sure they will be more than happy like any American to take these jobs the only problem is they are not being hired.

[Cleita]

54. So you tell me why they aren't being hired?

Are they looking for these jobs? My husband had an African American janitor in his restaurant for four years. He was a musician and a college kid. My husband didn't hire him because of his ethnicity but because he was willing to come in at five in the morning to mop the floors and jons before he went to class.

After he graduated from college and got a full time job, he was replaced by Mexican workers because no African American or white person applied for the job, which my husband advertised at the local community college as well as the throw away papers.

Now I can understand not wanting these jobs if they are paying below minimum wage, however, isn't that something the labor board should be told about so they can investigate these employers?

[shamrock]

23. Thank you Cleita, but

I don't blame the 'victims'. I do understand their plight, which is, in most cases, looking for a way to survive. I do completely understand that the corporations are taking advantage of this due to greed. I understand all of that. I understand that if I were a poor person in Mexico, for instance, I would likely do whatever was necessary to survive, including coming here illegally. I do not agree with the border fences. I am NOT against 'immigration', I simply feel that it needs to be reasonably controlled.
My best bet is to just stay completely away from these types of posts. I have a hard time with the vulgarity and rudeness. As for the link you posted, I was aware of that. We have the Spanish channels on all the time, and I did watch it, but I was already aware of it from postings on DU.

[radio4progressives]

27. Excellent post Cleita..

:applause:

[NorthernSpy]

25. we can't let that stop us

most of the people who feel that we need to control illegal immigration in this country understand this very well, but if they voice that opinion on this board they will likely be called bigots, haters and racist.

I'm tired of being condescended to by the pseudohumanitarian open-borders crowd.

Actually, I'm not just tired of being condescended to by them, I'm tired of THEM, period. They're the same bunch of career "activists" who've spent the past few decades diligently alienating working class Americans from the left.

Just look at them! The can't even bring themselves to acknowledge the possibly legitimate interest of Americans in controlling the borders our own country, or the possibly legitimate interest of American workers in not being subjected to competition from an endless flood of cheap labor from elsewhere. No, all they have to offer is utopian mush about how all borders will fall (or maybe just our border) and everyone will forget little trifles like citizenship and law and unite against the Man in an uprising of global groovyness. Dessert to follow.

:eyes:

[radio4progressives]

6. read the article and cleanse your brain from bull shite propaganda you've

been spoon fed (apparently with glee)and get a clue about the lies you cling too with such utter desperation and utter lack of intellectual honesty.

[NorthernSpy]

11. pretending that there are no opposing interests here...

... won't make the opposing interests go away.

Do have a look at the material I've linked to in my posts in this thread.

[pitohui]

36. yeah really thanks northernspy

you read my mind

god forbid that black people should have been able to make a good income rebuilding after katrina/rita

sigh

sometimes i really do lose hope in humanity

[radio4progressives]

47. Who are you calling Privilege and Clueless?

I'm as working class as it gets, and unemployed due to OUTSOURCING.

the place of privilege of being white is true, but on terms of class, i'm working class - pro union ..

The immigration wars on the other hand originated from a White Supremacist KKK Leader David Duke - who spearheaded the Minuteman border patrol militia back in 1982 - this racist biggotted bullshit began a long time ago.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Done. With pleasure.

[radio4progressives]

7. Hear! Hear! Tom Paine who knows the real cause of wars and those who

promote them...

[NorthernSpy]

8. "Latino Only" -- how 'network hiring' pushes out blacks

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/34418/

The young black man hesitated as he stood outside the small furniture manufacturing shop in South Los Angeles. He was dressed neatly, and he was well-groomed. He eyed the building warily. The sign on the narrow glass door, in English and Spanish, read "help wanted" and trabajo aqui. The opening was for a shop helper, mostly to sweep up and do routine clean up and maintenance. It did not require any education or special skill. It paid minimum wage, as did the thousands of shops that dotted the area. The company had no employee health care plan or other benefits.

After a moment he went in and politely asked for an application. The petite receptionist, a young Latina, handed him an application form, with an airy nonchalance. She curtly suggested that he fill it out and bring it back. When he asked if there would be an interview, she haltingly said only if there was a position open. The young man looked perplexed, glanced at the help wanted sign, politely thanked her and left.

A couple of hours later two young Latinos came in to apply. One was immediately hired. The other was told that another helper job might open up within the next few days. However, the workers in the shop, as in nearly all the other shops in the area, were Latinos, a large percentage of whom were illegal immigrants.

Where are all the "antiracist" calls against this practice, hmmm?

[radio4progressives]

12. this situation is being used to promote racial divisions on this issue..

bigotry and racism is a tool - pointing to racism and bigotry in the Latino/a communities to reinforce more of the same is exactly what the corporatists and imperialists want to see continue.

don't be a tool for the corporatist who want keep wages driven lower and prevent unanimity among the poor, the dispossessed and the working class in joining common cause for socio-economic justice and equality for all.

[NorthernSpy]

15. no, network hiring isn't "being used to promote racial division...

... on this issue".

Network hiring IS racial division in real life.

It's a real, honest-to-gawd bad thing -- at least for American workers.

don't be a tool for the corporatist who want keep wages driven lower and prevent unanimity among the poor, the dispossessed and the working class in joining common cause for socio-economic justice and equality for all.

I don't think it's valid to simply assume a unity of interests like that.

[radio4progressives]

30. sorry we have a very very very long history on this subject...

there is absolutely nothing whatsoever new in this current "debate".

[BlooInBloo]

10. A call for white people to honor JUST ONE treaty made with Native Am's!

Sorry to be a buzzkill, but the notion of white people standing up for people who aren't white just doesn't fill me with confidence... History and such things, ya understand....

[radio4progressives]

14. I'm not clear... are you saying that you don't have confidence that the

white community will join in solidarity en masse? (I share your lack of confidence) or do you mean if they did, (not likely) you would not be in solidarity with the shared cause?

[BlooInBloo]

17. The former - sorry to be confusing.

[radio4progressives]

21. ok.. i agree but we can't let history prevent us from struggling on..

in solidarity for socio-econimic justice and equality for all..

[BlooInBloo]

22. It's true. Sigh.

[radio4progressives]

26. no worries..i understand.. but "keep hope alive" and show up on May 1st!

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Signed

Thanks this is a great idea.

[radio4progressives]

31. good on you proud2blib.

you are a true patriot for humanity...

[proud2BlibKansan]

45. Why thank you

and thanks a ton for posting this. :hi:

[951-Riverside]

28. I will not sign & I will not participate.

I will NOT sign anything that allows rich white republicans to exploit poor people from abroad by paying them dirt wages while undermining the labor movement & I will NOT sign anything that encourages rich white republicans to put my fellow Americans in the poor house just to save a few bucks then spit in their faces by telling them that others will do the work they won't do, everyone knows its bullshit.

[Elwood P Dowd]

32. I will drink to that

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

[radio4progressives]

35. you should read your own sig line..

you are buying into the very thing you claim (vis a vis sig line) to protest.

[951-Riverside]

38. I really don't understand what you're getting at.

My sig has nothing to with the specific topic but by all means please point out the contradiction.

[radio4progressives]

40. I was responding to Elwood P Dowd's post and sig line.. eom

[Elwood P Dowd]

41. No, I'm buying into what I see locally

Young black and white US citizens need not apply. Immigrants, both legal and illegal, will work harder, longer, and for lower wages and zero benefits. They will often work for cash under the table at lower than minimum wage.

It's all about supply and demand. The repukes want the supply of cheap labor to keep pouring into this country, whether it's through illegal immigration or the H1B Visa program. If the supply dries up (immigrants), then millions of US citizens will suddenly see employers forced to pay an actual living wage. Mexico, along with other countries south of the border, will then have to face the facts and deal with their own problems rather than exporting them to the USA. It's as simple as that.

[pitohui]

37. thanks riverside

i agree w. you

clearly this is an issue on which democrats can disagree but i think you are right and deserve a shout out

even if it's only from a nerd

[951-Riverside]

39. Thank You pitohui *nod* n/t

[msgadget]

42. I like your posts so much, Radio

but this is not an inclusive petition. The above petition very accurately details the history and actions of The Man without asking for more than the right of undocumented persons to stay here and have their demands (see below) met. Meanwhile, there are citizens who don't even have what they're asking for, who can't vote because they're too downtrodden to produce the documentation necessary for a driver's license or voter's registration card, who don't have healthcare or decent wages, who are discriminated against because of their lifestyle or heritage. I'd like to see a White People for Equality and Labor Rights for ALL instead. If you really, really support the rights of people to be free and equal, you won't seperate them or make them a special interest. (Not that I could sign either one, me not being white and all! :))

<clip>

WE DEMAND DIGNITY & EQUALITY!
With or without immigration papers, with or without work, we all deserve our human rights, and the right to equality – drivers licences, the right to vote, the right to work for a just salary, the right to decent housing, the right to health care, to education, and to the preservation of our diverse languages and cultures. We also deserve the right to live free from persecution by “La Migra” in collaboration with with police, and the persecution of racist vigilante groups – whether they are on the border or in government offices.
http://www.liberationink.com/revised/navigator.php?s=2&a=deporten

Edit for the 'but' :)

[radio4progressives]

43. we are actually in agreement..

the petition isn't calling for exclusivity.. it is calling for the white community to stand in solidarity for this struggle which actually represents solidarity in struggle for socio-economic justice and equality for all.. simply because the white liberals have a history of ignoring the struggles of other community groups, notwithstanding the days of civil rights movement in the sixties - since then however, white liberals have largely ignored the struggles communities of color deal with, and especially the plight of the immigrant workers, in terms of coming together in the streets en masse...

the failure of white liberal "activists" to show up and be there in common cause and solidarity has been an issue for decades - it's an issue i hear about constantly for the past several years - here in the bay area we have the most progressive communities in the country and this a constant complaint among comrades in the Latina/o communities..

at first i didn't see it, until demonstration after demonstration came and went and i began to make certain observations - us whities never deal with their issues - we only deal with anti-war or the environment etc. this is a chance to come together to show solidarity even if we don't agree on every single point..

edit to say thank you for you acknowledgement and great input...

[msgadget]

44. Good, I'm glad of that, Radio

but, oh, the 'for immigrants' parts keep jumping out at me, shadowing the noble intent of socioeconomic justice for all!

I don't think just the white liberal has been absent, btw. I think we've all fallen down on the job as leaders died, political opportunists began to influence social movements and this world got complicated. The democrats didn't help by stepping away from their traditional labor and equality platform so they could win. Well, that 'victory' cleared the way for us to end up...here. As such, May 1 should be about all who have been adversely affected by classist, racist, uncaring deep pockets and calculating politicians.

Why not invite all who feel disenfranchised to march on May 1 with 'justice for all' signs? Our goal should be one big fight, not to help immigrants permanently define themselves as different, seperate. Their struggle is our struggle and vice versa. If all who are underpaid take off and march, imagine the impact. Imagine the validity.

[radio4progressives]

46. actually ALL are invited to gather en masse in solidarity May 1st...

May 1st March is International Workers Day.... by definition International Workers day includes (ALL)the workers of the world (every one)

this specific petition is simply a message targetted to the "white" community.. "others" are not as absent as whites have traditionally been.. are .. it's intended to send a message that those of the white community stand in solidarity with their brothers and their sisters in the latina/o community who are victims of an intensley biggotted political campaign deeply rooted in and originated in KKK's David Duke's Minuteman project/movement ....

I'm not absolutely positive, but i think if "progressive whites" were to send a petition to the AA community urging them to join with them in solidarity, the AA would not take it too kindly and seen as insulting or at least condenscending.. though i could be wrong..

but if African American organizations organizations like the NAACP and such decided that it would be good to send a petition, letter urging African Americans to stand in solidarity, that would be all together different..

this would be a good opportunity for Jessie Jackson and the Push Coalition to reach out to both, but as of yet i haven't heard him step up to the plate on this matter.. could be that i missed it?

[msgadget]

48. Good, that's great

and you're right, labor and so-called minority leaders should be rallying their troups to join. Jesse Jackson and the NAACP did issue a statement in support of the immigrants and Rev. Lawry spoke of joining together at the last Camp Casey. This could be a great thing IF all the groups get the message they're invited. I haven't received anything yet so I'll poke around to see why not.

Thank you so much for clarifying and for taking action, Radio.

:yourock:

[lonestarnot]

49. The pro and the cons nearly came to blows here in AZ yesterday.

No arrests.