"Someone kicked the sleeping giant"

The Immigration Rights movement in the U.S.

The recent huge immigrations rights marches in the U.S. are nothing less than the birth of a civil rights movement. From seemingly out of nowhere, immigration rights has become a central political issue, and has done so in less than two months.

The precipitating issue was the racist House of Representatives bill, HR4437. Among other things, it would make it illegal to give any aid to an undocumented worker. Not food, not medical help, not anything. The Catholic Church solidly opposes the bill. It would mandate building a 700 mile long 12 foot wall on the US/Mexico border. Golly, what a beacon of freedom that would be. In my opinion, HR4437 was a deliberate attempt by the neocons to mobilize the hard right to vote in the upcoming November mid-term elections. But it blew up in their faces.

The size of the marches have staggered even the organizers. It started in Chicago on March 10 - organizers expected 20,000 and several hundred thousand came. I'm a political organizer. The Chicago numbers were so huge that I didn't believe it at first. Then we all realized - something Real Different was happening. Next was the now historic March 25 march in L.A. The police estimate was 500,000, and thus it probably more like a million. It was the largest march ever in California and one of the largest ever in the U.S. This was the march that put the issue on the national map.

The nationwide May 1 marches and boycott reinforced this. There were two marches in L.A. Both got multiple hundreds of thousands of people. Truckers shut down the ports. California agriculture had its biggest work stoppage ever.

At the marches, and I was at March 25 and May 1 in L.A., it's not political or movement people, it's working class Latino mom, dad, and the kids. I was one of the few middle-aged Anglos at either march and was handing out flyers in Spanish detailing the ANSWER Coalition position on amnesty. The flyers went amazingly fast, sometimes 5-6 people wanting one at the same time. They were happy, proud, and knew the whole country was watching. It should also be stressed that many of those marching have green cards or are citizens.

My blog, Politics in the Zeros, has multiple posts in the immigrants rights category including all the L.A. marches plus photos.

A movement has been born. It will be here for years to come. And it came straight out of the working class.