USA : Join in the May 1st Boycott and Day of Action for Immigrant Rights!

On Monday, May 1, International Workers Day, we will all be participating in one of the most momentous political events as millions of immigrant workers and students, and hopefully a large number of their allies, participate in the Great May 1st Boycott. Initiated from within the immigrant workers movement itself, the call for the May 1 Boycott has received the active support of organizations throughout the country.

For the last six weeks ANSWER chapters, organizers and volunteers have been going all out to build concrete solidarity for the mobilization of the millions of immigrant workers who have been in the streets demanding full rights and equality.

In Los Angeles alone, ANSWER Coalition supporters and activists have passed out 80,000 leaflets at workplaces, high schools and college campuses. In New York City, ANSWER has been building neighborhood-based outreach committees to promote the boycott and other supplementary actions that will take place on May 1 including rallies and vigils that are scheduled throughout the city.

In San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, DC, and other ANSWER regional organizing centers similar work has been going on every day. We hope that all anti-war and social justice activists in the U.S., who have not already done so, contact local immigrant rights organizations to see how they can help. Take a moment this weekend to call an ANSWER organizing center near you to see how to get involved now (see phone numbers below) and help with the May 1 actions and beyond.

We are inspired by this movement which is truly led by the
people themselves. Risking deportation and loss of job, millions of immigrants have decided, however, that it is better to come out and stand together rather than be beaten back by the racist right-wing Sensenbrenner bill which would turn all undocumented workers and those who aid them into criminal felons. Now the struggle has expanded. People are feeling their strength and demanding full legalization and equality.

Since its inception, on September 14, 2001, ANSWER has made a point of linking the struggle for peace with opposition to the U.S. government’s domestic policy which has demonized and scapegoated immigrants and other targeted communities. We have also made the point that scapegoating and fear-mongering directed against immigrant communities is not simply the tactic of the Republican Party. During the Clinton years and since, the Democrats have either embraced or surrendered to the anti-immigrant bashing that has become all too commonplace in the United States.

There have been many parallels drawn between this new civil rights and workers rights movement with that of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. Even with all the obvious differences, this analogy is apt. The most noteworthy feature of the civil rights uprising of the 1950s and 1960s was that it was the people themselves who overcame the fear and intimidation and became the central actors on the political stage. It was the unbelievable heroism of "ordinary" people that made the difference. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were adopted by a Congress whose social and racial composition were almost identical to the Congress of the 1950s that upheld Jim Crowism as the law of the land.

What changed the political situation was the action of the mass of the people. That’s exactly what is happening today, and that is what will make the May 1 boycott such a huge success.

This new civil rights and workers and rights movement is diverse and decentralized. Because of its breadth, it is only natural that there will be many scores of organizations at the national and local level that have formed and will form in a leadership and coordinating capacity. The ANSWER Coalition is working with and supporting the efforts of many organizations in the immigrant rights movement and community. The International May 1 Coalition has played a major role in promoting and coordinating some of the main boycott efforts on May 1. To get more information, you can visit http://www.may1coalition.org/.