Thread: Hundreds gather for immigration rally in Los Angeles

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4280560

Article Launched: 9/03/2006 12:00 AM


Hundreds gather for immigration rally
Marchers hope to keep protest spirit alive
By Brent Hopkins, Staff Writer
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

LOS ANGELES - Their numbers were diminished, but their voices were still loud and angry.
Immigrant-rights protesters descended by the hundreds into downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, aiming to keep alive the spirit of the springtime marches that began the nationwide movement. Banging drums and bearing signs, they rallied for amnesty for the undocumented and protection from laws they called racist.

Estimates on the crowd's size varied from several hundred into the thousands, but the march clearly drew less than the massive crowds that jammed downtown streets March 25 and May 1.

"We're not criminals, we're not terrorists," said Socorro Berberian, a 45-year-old Ventura preschool teacher who came here illegally from Mexico 30 years ago, but has since become a U.S. citizen. "We're just normal people, looking for work."

While previous protests were raucous affairs that filled the streets with marchers for blocks upon blocks, Saturday felt smaller and more orderly. Parents wheeled their children in strollers, kids toted signs demanding respect and justice for families.

Toward the front, labor unions hauled banners proclaiming solidarity. A few blocks back, near the tail end of the procession, more extreme groups wearing bandannas and carrying signs likening Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), author of a controversial bill calling for the prohibition of aid for undocumented immigrants, to Nazis.

The march was a prelude to a larger Labor Day gathering planned for Monday in downtown Los Angeles where state and local officials are expected to gather at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for a Labor Day breakfast in advance of a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

"The momentum went out in the spring, but I think it'll be back again," said Eugene Hernandez, 54, of Sylmar, a Green Party member, social worker and second-generation Mexican American. "This helps empower the undocumented people. They're not citizens, but they have tremendous political impact."

Pete Sake, a rapper and warehouse worker from La Puente, came to the United States at the age of 3 and later became a citizen. With a group of friends, he walked through the sweltering heat and chanted.

"I gave up my Saturday because I see these people out here and they're the future of America," the 20-year-old said. "It's a beautiful thing, people of all different colors working together. Regardless of what people think of this march, we're out there working, proving the point that we're not going to give up."

http://www.latimes.com

Labor Day Events Bring Calls for Action
By Joe Mathews
Times Staff Writer

12:43 PM PDT, September 4, 2006

California's labor-trained elite spent Labor Day calling for action to defend the rights of struggling workers while at the same time showcasing the union movement's growing power in Los Angeles politics.

"All right!" shouted Maria Elena Durazo, chief of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor at a union-sponsored breakfast that included most of the Los Angeles City Council and the region's state legislators, as well as the entire statewide Democratic ticket in next month's election. "We're building power!"

At today's events, labor leaders outlined their goals for the next year, which include high-profile organizing campaigns of workers at airport-area hotels and the security staff of county office buildings. They said walkouts are possible among hotel workers, grocery store workers and city employees.

Durazo praised Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez as examples of union organizers who have turned their experience and skills into influential political careers.

The potential for conflict between Villaraigosa and city workers, who are already holding monthly strike preparation meetings, was a topic avoided on Labor Day.

Instead, Villaraigosa and leaders of state and city teachers' unions exulted at the passage of legislation they say will give both the mayor and labor more influence in the running of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The mayor wrapped California Teachers Assn. President Barbara Kerr in a long embrace and asked TV cameras to record the hug. "Let's get a picture of me and my sister," he said.

Labor events were full of denunciations of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, likely to be a target of labor-funded campaign ads this fall.

But the toughest language of a morning full of events -- the 27th annual Labor Day march and rally took place in Wilmington -- was offered by Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony during his homily at a special Mass.

He criticized the region's grocery stores for a union contract that he said was creating "this whole new underclass" of workers.

"We cannot have this kind of representation, that kind of contract," Mahony said. He also criticized the owners of hotels near Los Angeles International Airport, who are resisting a massive union organization drive.

But Mahony reserved his toughest language for the U.S. Congress. He said Congress is running out of time to address immigration law problems, which he called "one of the most pressing moral issues of our time."

Mahony, whose comments were greeted with loud applause, warned members of Congress that they need to produce comprehensive immigration legislation in the next four weeks or face retribution at the polls.

Speaking as a citizen and not for the church, he told a nearly full cathedral, "on Nov. 7, I'm not voting for anybody for Congress who is not supporting the legislation that we need."


joe.mathews@latimes.com

Hundreds in LA! Hundreds in LA !?!?!?!

Their march unraveled!

We have them on the run!

illegal alien rights movement IMPLODES on Labor Day!
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... =1&thold=0