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Workers Vanguard No. 876 |
15 September 2006 |
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Racist Minuteman Provocation Spiked L.A. Labor Day LOS ANGELES—Workers at the annual Labor Day march and picnic in Wilmington’s Banning Park on September 4 stopped an attempted provocation against L.A.’s diverse working class by a dozen anti-immigrant Minutemen and Save Our State (S.O.S.) vigilantes. The racist bigots tried to get into the midst of the picnic, which is largely centered on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). But the vigilantes miscalculated.
When the bigots raised their signs—reading “Illegal Immigration Is Not Civil Rights,” “Unions Embracing Illegals Are Selling Out Their Members —Support HR 4437” and “I.C.E. [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Where Are You?”—angry individual unionists and members of immigrant rights groups started to surround them, chanting “Racists out!” and “Que viva el trabajador inmigrante!” (Long live the immigrant worker!). Union bureaucrats sent a team of 20 or so designated “Labor Day Security” people, mainly ILWU, to stand between the Minutemen/S.O.S. and the angry crowd. Spartacist League and Spartacus Youth Club supporters joined the workers, carrying a sign calling for “Full Citizenship Rights for Immigrants!” After unionists and immigrants still pushed forward, L.A. cops, some on all-terrain vehicles, escorted the Minutemen and S.O.S. out of the park to safety, as the crowd chanted, “Union! Union! Union!”
Immigrant workers, who have spearheaded militant union struggles in Southern California and elsewhere, are a vital factor for reinvigorating the labor movement in this country. But the crucial task of mobilizing labor to organize immigrant workers requires a fight against the policies of the pro-capitalist labor tops, whose chauvinist protectionism helps breed anti-immigrant prejudice among workers. The multiracial labor movement must use its power to stop the sinister anti-immigrant racists!
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