August 29, 2010, marks the 40th anniversary of the historic Chicano Moratorium protest against the Vietnam War. On Aug. 29, 1970 over 30,000 Chicanos marched down Whittier Boulevard in the heart of East Los Angeles protesting the Vietnam War, the high casualty rate of Chicano soldiers and racist conditions in the barrios. The participants included youth and families of a mainly working class community with delegations from throughout the Southwest. The marchers chanted “¡Raza Si, Guerra No!” inspired by the call for Chicano self-determination and opposition to the imperialist U.S. war in Vietnam. Many Chicano youth had been drafted into the military after being pushed out of high school. The Chicano Movement was on the rise after several years of mass actions like the East Los Angeles high-school walkouts of 1968, land struggles in New Mexico, strikes by the United Farm Workers union, and the growth of new Chicano groups like the Brown Berets and MEChA (Movemiento Estudiantil Chicano de Atzlan, a Chicano Student Movement of the Southwest).
Salt Lake City, UT- 200 protesters filled the Utah State Capitol Building in solidarity with undocumented immigrants on July 29. Their chants rang through the capitol, expressing outrage at Arizona’s latest piece of racist legislation aimed at Mexican and Chicano people. On the day that SB1070, the anti-immigrant law, went into effect in the neighboring state of Arizona, groups such as the Salt Lake Autonomous Brown Berets and the Revolutionary Student Union (RSU) joined with Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) for a rally. The coalition sent a clear message to Utah’s legislators, “Racist legislation not welcome here!”
Chicago, IL – 300 people rallied at the Cook County Courthouse, at the corner of 26th Street and California Avenue, July 29. They demanded an end to deportations, and said no to SB1070, Arizona’s racist, anti-immigrant law.
Chicago, IL – As part of strike preparations at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), a leadership group from all three committees met at the famed DuSable Museum of African American history on July 23. Nine out of ten SEIU members at UIC are Black or Latino, and Local 73 had waged a decade long struggle in the 1990s to win pay equity with the employees at the University’s campus in Urbana, where the workforce is mostly white. UIC was compelled to raise workers’ salaries because of the fight that Local 73 waged, and because of a broad coalition that was built with Black and Latino forces on campus and in the community.
Phoenix, AZ – Tensions build as July 29 nears – the date set for the racist law SB1070 to go into effect. Under this law police officers will have the power to demand immigration papers from any person who they stop. Garage sales have already begun lining the streets of Arizona as families flee trying to escape the impending oppression.
Milwaukee, WI – The student and youth leaders of the Chicano student group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) are at the forefront in building for July 29, the National Day of Action Against SB1070. They have set forth the plan for a massive march and demonstration in downtown Milwaukee.
Raleigh, NC – Four activists were arrested during a Wake County Board of Education meeting, June 15, as the struggle to stop the resegregation of Wake County schools intensifies. The civil disobedience action was carried out to protest a 5-4 vote by Wake County's majority conservative board to end Wake's busing program. The demonstrators locked arms and sang We Shall Overcome during the meeting. They were arrested when they did not stop.
On Thursday, the Los Angeles City council passed a motion to officially boycott the State of Arizona. Arizona’s new racist law SB1070 targets Mexican, Chicano, and Native American people for harassment. From California, right across the country, many people are outraged. Under the new Arizona law, local police will have the power to harass and arrest people based on immigration status. This will increase the already existing racist harassment and arrest of Mexican, Chicano, and Native American people. Many police, including the police chief of Tucson, AZ, publicly oppose the law because of the burden it places on them and because it promotes racial profiling.
Corvallis, OR – Over 300 students, campus workers, professors and community members rallied at Oregon State University on May 12, to protest the racist SB 1070 law in Arizona. Chanting “The people of Arizona are under attack, what do we do, stand up fight back!” the demonstrators marched from the Centro Cultural César Chávez to the center of campus, with banners and brightly-colored signs denouncing SB 1070, as well as another racist bill, HB 2281, which bans schools in Arizona from teaching ethnic studies.
Dallas, TX – More than 20,000 people marched and rallied here on May 1. Protesters marched for legalization and against the racist Arizona law that targets Mexicans, Chicanos and other Latinos. The new Arizona law criminalizes the undocumented, requiring police to demand papers concerning a person’s status. A Chicano truck driver was already jailed in Arizona until his wife produced his California birth certificate hours later. The new law targets Chicanos born in their own homeland and Mexican immigrants because of their nationality.
Los Angeles, CA – 250,000 people marched in the streets here, May 1, demanding immigrant rights. Most of those attending were Mexican and Central American families, along with contingents from the Philippine and Korean communities. A queer contingent also had a visible presence.
Tucson, AZ – “This law is unwise. This law is stupid, and it’s racist. It’s a national embarrassment…if I were a Hispanic person in the state, I would be humiliated and angered.”
On Friday, April 23rd, Republican Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona signed SB1070. This law makes it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant and requires police to stop and arrest people who they suspect of being undocumented. While the law will not go into effect for more than three months, some police and sheriffs in Arizona are already stopping and arresting Latinos, including native-born citizens.
Fight Back News Service is making available the video Arizona Resiste, which shows some of the inspiring struggles that took place in Arizona before the anti-immigrant Jim Crow type bill SB1070, was signed into law.
Tucson, AZ – Arizona’s Apartheid bill, SB1070, was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer, April 23. The law gives local and state police the authority to stop anyone, anywhere, to demand proof of citizenship based only on “reasonable suspicion.” In Arizona, “reasonable suspicion” of being an undocumented immigrant means being Latino and speaking Spanish. The bill also lets citizens sue government institutions for not enforcing immigration law aggressively enough.
Tucson, AZ – “They have every right to be here. This is about civil rights. And the youth are leading the way.” Those were the words of Pima County Board of Supervisors Chair Richard Elias as we talked across the street from where over 100 students had gathered to protest Arizona’s SB1070 – the harshest, most anti-immigrant legislation in the country.
Lakeland, FL – Over 1500 farmworkers and their allies gathered throughout the weekend of April 16-18 to fight for an end to slave-labor practices and for higher wages in south Florida.
On to D.C. on March 21! Thousands of immigrants, supporters and activists will rally in Washington D.C. It’s time to demand legalization now for the 12 million undocumented in the U.S. The rally is important because it draws attention to the increased suffering of the millions of immigrants, especially those from Mexico and Central America. It comes at an important time where immigration reform legislation is being discussed in the U.S. congress. The rally will put pressure on President Obama and the U.S. congress to take action now – this spring – we cannot wait another year.
Saint Paul, MN – On March 10, a bill that would allow immigrants to get drivers licenses in Minnesota passed its first hurdle in a key vote. By a vote of 8-5-1, the “drivers license for all” bill, HF1718, passed the House Transportation and Transit Policy and Oversight Committee.
