Despite The Odds, Local Communities Take To the Streets on May 1st
On May 1st , New York member groups of the national Break the Chains Alliance – Chinese Staff & Workers' Association, National Mobilization Against SweatShops, & New York Unemployment Project – and other local grassroots organizations led a march that put forth specific demands on the government, namely: “Repeal Employer Sanctions!” and “Derechos iguales, NO visas temporales!” (Equal rights, no guestworker program ).
Break the Chains began the day with a pre-rally march of a police-estimated 5,000 strong. Converging at the border of the Lower East Side and Chinatown neighborhoods, Latino families united with Chinese, Polish, and other U.S.-born workers. Together we opposed the current proposals by Bush and Congress that call for guestworker programs that would keep workers in indentured servitude-like conditions, and the reinforcing of the employer sanctions provision – a modern-day slave law passed in 1986 as part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act.
Up until the very last minute, city officials had refused to approve a permit for the Lower East Side-Chinatown march in an attempt to fuel fears of backlash and to stop the diverse communities from coming together. But the community proved to be unstoppable. As throngs of workers – including contingents from Make the Road By Walking, Industrial Workers of the World, Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund, Asociación Tepeyac, and other groups – began gathering at Roosevelt Park on Grand Street, determined to march uptown, the police had no choice but to let the march take place. Extending over one mile long, we took to the streets, raising placards and banners in different languages that proclaimed, “No Guestworker Program!”, “Repeal IRCA Now!”, and “Equal Rights for All Workers!” On route, several hundreds more joined the Break the Chains march.
At Union Square , Break the Chains joined together with well over 100,000 other workers whose numbers surprised many in the Big Apple. For weeks leading up to May 1st , some so-called immigrant rights advocates, as well as some elected officials, called on undocumented workers to not risk jeopardizing their employment, their families' safety, or the ongoing “negotiations” in Washington D.C. by participating in New York's May 1 st demonstration. These individuals hope for a quick “compromise” that would include a harmful guestworker program, strengthening of employer sanctions, and a very limited legalization. They exploit the fear and hope of those desperate to adjust their immigration status.
But members of Break the Chains, seeing their lives as directly impacted by immigration reform, refused to be silenced. We worked with the ethnic press, who up until a few days before the march were undecided about promoting May Day activities, to encourage all workers to attend. The resulting march was a breakthrough for workers here in New York .
We are moving beyond seeing the immigration debate as only affecting undocumented immigrants and are bringing together documented and undocumented workers from diverse communities. We refuse to settle for crumbs (e.g. guestworker programs), and instead are fighting for measures that decriminalize undocumented workers and ensure equal rights for all workers.
For more information about May 1 st and the Break the Chains campaign to repeal employer sanctions, check out the BTC website at www.breakthechainsnow.org , email info@breakthechainsnow.org , or call (212) 358-0295.
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THE BREAK THE CHAINS ALLIANCE
BREAK THE CHAINS is a broad coalition of community-based organizations. We are fighting for the rights not just for immigrants, but for all working people; that is, to repeal employer sanctions and restore labor protections to all workers, regardless of their immigration status. In conjunction with the demand to repeal employer sanctions, we also support measures that will allow undocumented immigrants to adjust their status.
BREAK THE CHAINS ALLIANCE :
Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund · New York , NY
Asociación de Trabajadores Fronterizos · El Paso, TX
Border Agricultural Workers Center El Paso , TX
Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena · Fresno, CA
Chinese Staff & Workers Association · New York , NY
Coalition of African, Asian, European & Latino Immigrants of Illinois · Chicago , IL
Day Laborer Collaboration · Chicago , IL
Fanm Ayisyen Nam Miyami · Miami , FL
Mississippi Poultry Workers Center Morton , MS
Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights · Greenville , MS
National Mobilization Against SweatShops · New York , NY
Nebraska Appleseed Center · Lincoln , NE
PODER · Austin , TX
Pueblo Sin Fronteras · Chicago , IL
San Lucas Workers Center · Chicago , IL
Somali Justice Advocacy Center · St. Paul , MN
Tonatierra · Phoenix , AZ |
