Los Angeles, CA – On May 5, students and community members protested the visit of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Clinton spoke to supporters on the East Los Angeles College (ELAC) campus Thursday afternoon. 500 protesters demanding she leave the campus marched on the gymnasium where she spoke.

Protesters gathered in nearby Belvedere Park and marched to the campus chanting “Deport Hillary!” “Hillary fuera! Fuera de East LA!” and “Chicano power!” Once on campus they were met by East LA sheriffs. Many of the sheriffs were on horseback. Many police helicopters hovered overhead. As the protesters kept chanting they gathered on campus for a round of speeches. After the speeches, they marched on the gymnasium and were met by barricades and more police.

Irving Grey Angeles, one of the organizers with MEXA de ELAC said, “The message is clear. She represents the 1%. She gives closed door speeches to Wall Street for hundreds of thousands of dollars and won't release the transcripts. She has called for the deportation of undocumented people, even children. As a working-class and immigrant community, clearly, she does not have our best interests at heart. In a classic display of pandering, she decides to visit us on 5 de Mayo. We're not having that. The protest brought out hundreds of students and community members who are tired of being lied to and misled by opportunist politicians. All power to the people!”

A few protesters went into the event and chanted during her speech. Clinton's speech was cut short by ten minutes and she was forced to leave early. As Clinton supporters filed out of the event, the protesters kept chanting: “Hey hey ho ho! Hillary Clinton's got to go!” “Vendidos!” and “Sell-outs!”

Long time Chicano activist Carlos Montes said, “We're not going to get Chicano political power through Hillary Clinton or the elections. We need to keep organizing and fight for equality and self-determination!”

#LosAngelesCA #ImmigrantRights #PoorPeoplesMovements #StudentMovement #OppressedNationalities #Elections #US #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #Latinos #Antiracism #California #HillaryClinton

Los Angeles, CA – On the afternoon of May 1, a powerful May Day march, organized by the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC), took place in the heart of downtown as many garment workers were leaving work. The highly spirited 1000-plus crowd was made up mainly of working class Latinos, union members from Roofers Union Local 36 and United Teachers L.A., street vendors, daily laborers, families and high school students. Also joining the march and helping to carry the lead banner were the women and men of the homeless shelter Projecto Pastoral in Boyle Heights.

The SCIC is composed of dozens of groups including the International Action Center, Community Service Organization, Union del Barrio and Bayan USA. SCIC is an independent grassroots coalition that receives no government or foundation funding.

The many speakers called for Obama to stop the deportations and demanded legalization for all. Many denounced the police/ICE abuses such as detentions, deportations and deaths at the border.

Bayan USA denounced U.S. imperialism and its intervention in the Philippines and other countries. Ramon Mendez, a member of Roofers Union Local 36, spoke about being harassed and exploited at work, and when he filed a grievance the boss called the ICE on him. Mendez had to live away from his family until others came to his aid, pressuring ICE to respect a labor neutrality agreement with the Labor Department that protects workers who are in disputes with employers. He is now out on bail, fighting his deportation. The MECHA students talked about the need for legalization and better schools.

Carlos Montes, a veteran Chicano revolutionary, stated that the fight for legalization is part of the struggle of self-determination for the Chicano/Mexican people and equality for Latinos. He noted that May 1 had been revived in the U.S. by the massive 2006 immigrant rights marches led by Latinos.

The spirited march included flags from Latin American countries, including the Chicano nation of Aztlan.

Two other May Day marches took place in Los Angeles on May 1.

#LosAngelesCA #ImmigrantRights #MayDay #Chican #SouthernCaliforniaImmigrationCoalition #CarlosMontes #MovimientoEstudiantilChicanoDeAztlánMEChA #Latinos #immigrationRights #legalizationForAll #NoMasDeportaciones #RoofersUnionLocal36

The weak job creation was reflected in the rise in the official unemployment rate, which rose by one-tenth of one percent, from 8.1% in April to 8.2% in May. This rise in unemployment was concentrated among oppressed nationality workers: the unemployment rate for African Americans rose from 13.0% to 13.6%, and the unemployment rate for Latinos rose from 10.3% to 11.0% between April and May. In contrast the unemployment rate for whites stayed the same, at 7.4%.

There was even more bad news in other parts of the report. Average weekly hours of work fell by one tenth of an hour, as more people had to take part-time work because of the poor economy. The broadest measure of unemployment, which includes people at work part time who can’t find full-time work rose from 14.5% to 14.8%. In fact the survey of households (on which the unemployment rate is based, as opposed to the survey of businesses that provides the number of new jobs) said that all of the gain in jobs came from part-time work, as the number of fulltime workers actually fell in May.

300,000 more workers said that they had been out of work for more than six months in May as compared to April, and now make up almost half (43.8%) of total unemployed. The average length of unemployment rose from 39.1 to 39.7 weeks, or almost ten months.

The poor employment report was the third month in a row that job growth has slowed and shows a slowdown in the U.S. economy. From December of 2011 to February of this year, an average of more than 250,000 net new jobs were created each month. But from March through May, the average was less than 100,000 net new jobs a month. Contributing to this problem is the continuing loss of government jobs, down another 13,000 in May alone, and 161,000 over the last year. The biggest loss in May was in public education, which makes up more than half of government job losses for the month.

The future is looking increasingly grim as major corporations such as Hewlett-Packard are announcing job cuts of tens of thousands while government at all levels (federal, state, and local) are cutting back on jobs. With almost half the Euro-zone countries already in a recession and growing signs of economic slowdown in Asia and Brazil (Latin America’s largest economy), the world capitalist economy is showing signs of stagnation – slow economic growth coupled with high unemployment – while the danger of another worldwide economic crisis is rising.

#SanJoséCA #Unemployment #AfricanAmericans #Capitalism #Latinos #workersStruggle