At the link there are copies of the posters in English and Spanish.


Arizona Boycotters Will Show Up At Giants Games

By Lauren Smiley, Friday, May. 28 2010 @ 12:30PM

Supervisors David Campos and John Avalos slated to appear at 'informational pickets'

Opponents of the Arizona "papers, please" law SB1070 will be boycotting the Giants game against the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight and tomorrow by ... showing up at the game. Of course, you could make the case that everyone who does not attend the game tomorrow is boycotting it. But these are organized boycotters, and they will marching from the Embarcadero to converge outside the stadium to let everyone know that they are boycotting.

Calls for boycotts of the Diamondbacks were included in the Board of Supervisors resolution asking for a boycott of Arizona-based businesses and official travel to the Grand Canyon State. There have been protesters following the Diamondbacks around the country -- not only because the team hails from Arizona but because their owner Ken Kendrick has made campaign contributions in the past to the Republican party (a wealthy Republican from Arizona -- egad!).

Matt Chisholm, the Giants' senior coordinator of media relations, said he already saw a group of 30 protesters outside the stadium this morning. He didn't know whether there was any noticeable decline in the number of tickets sold for the Diamondbacks games today and tomorrow. By the time we checked at noon, the protesters were nowhere to be found, and scalpers hadn't seen hide or hair of them either.

Supervisor David Campos, the author of San Francisco's boycott resolution, said he hoped to make today's ballpark picket. He confirmed his colleague John Avalos is slated to be there tomorrow. "And hopefully, the Giants win," he added.

Avalos said he hoped to make tomorrow's picket. But he said boycotting a game in San Francisco wasn't the most rational thing to do: "You're boycotting the Giants, too." Still, "It's worth sending a message to the Diamondbacks' owner for supporting this law by not coming out against it."

The posters advertising the protest coordinated by the May 1 Coalition were multi-purpose: they also informed folks in English and Spanish of President Obama's visit this week, calling for a protest outside the Fairmont Hotel. The posters also sought to broaden their base by apparently showing their contempt for swastika signs. That's a cause most can get behind.

While the boycott should be peaceful, should things get rowdy, the protesters should be safe on at least one front. San Francisco doesn't enter the Secure Communities program until Tuesday. That's the controversial federal program that will check the fingerprints of anyone booked into jail in San Francisco against a federal database. So no one detained this weekend on anything other than a felony needs to fear being reported to ICE.

UPDATE, 4:45 P.M.: May Day Coalition organizer Diana Macasa says that a bus and two vans of SEIU-Local 1021 members and activists from PODER, POWER, St. Peter's Housing Committee, and the International Socialist Organization took off around 9:00 this morning from the Giants stadium on a caravan to Phoenix. They will march in the National Day of Action Against SB1070 on the Arizona capitol tomorrow, and attend a conference on repealing the controversial law. That explains the protesters that the Giants spokesman told us about earlier today.

Here in San Francisco, Macasa says she expects 500 people at tomorrow's boycott (if one can actually "attend a boycott") of the Diamondbacks game.

Meanwhile, Giants spokeswoman Staci Slaughter reports that the ticket office hasn't seen any significant decrease in sales for tonight's or tomorrow's games against the Arizona team.

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