Latino Strike Scheduled for May 1st

dominic

Beast of Burden
have people heard about this?

it'll shut down every restaurant in new york city and quite a few essential services

idea is to make the american public realize how much latino immigrants contribute to this country
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
US Hispanic groups, buoyed by massive weekend protests against a proposed immigration crackdown, are planning a major boycott of American life dubbed a "day without Latinos," leaders said on Tuesday. Organizers of the planned May 1 "A day without Latinos or a day without immigrants" boycott will ask immigrants to put down tools, leave their places of work and classrooms, shut their business and take to the streets en masse to protest a bill that would criminalize illegal immigration.

Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Association, one of the organizers of a massive protest in Los Angeles that saw at least 500,000 protest on Saturday, said the protest would send a stern message to Washington.

"We are looking forward to a major action in all large US cities where immigrants make up a significant proportion of the workforce," he told AFP.

"We are asking people not to go to school, or work, or shopping and instead to go out and protest against the racist and inhumane measures in this bill.

In addition to the "day without immigrants," MAPA and other grass roots Latino groups are also organizing a massive protest in 20 major US cities on April 10 in a bid to defeat the legislative reform proposal, Lopez said. The cities targeted include Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, Atlanta, San Francisco and Dallas, Lopez said.
 

kemikazi

New member
It would be remarkable even if 50% stay home. Here's hoping at least 90+% of the Latino community support this.
 

bruno

est malade
let me play the devil's advocate. the arguments put forth by mexican illegal immigrants in this current mess are flimsy and revanchist. that these territories were usurped from mexico and therefore it's their land by god-given right is plain rubbish. in that case the whole non-indigenous population of the americas should pack their bags and leave the continent as it was stolen from the natives, and most populations of the world should dive into the sea because their ancestors stole the land from someone else, etc. it's ridiculous. the other excuse, that the united states is solely responsible for the woes of mexicans is blatantly not true, as mexican elites have been more than capable of keeping their people in a state of poverty. there is such a thing as a spanish legacy of corruption, mismanagement, racism, and that has nothing to do with the united states. then there is the 'we take the jobs you won't touch' argument, which says nothing except that their taking up of ridiculously low-paying jobs at substandard conditions foments the very exploitation they claim to reject. and then there is the issue of illegality. what of the people that pay up to their noses, waiting for years in the immigratory line? and whatever happened to immigration as assimilation and adoption of local culture? isn't it a bit stupid to wave the mexican flag in a protest for your immigratory rights? a provocation to produce a spanish american anthem? the nerve!

ok, now you can shoot at me.
 

DavidD

can't be stopped
A quick answer: most of the things yr arguing seem to follow "we're not responsible for it = we don't deal with it" whereas its more like "things are fucked up = if we don't deal with it who will."
 

bruno

est malade
thought it was more interesting to present the anti-illegal-mexican arguments. not sure there's much point in presenting the solutions side as americans seem uniformly pro-enforcement of borders, pro-castigating of employers of illegals. which is what counts at the end of the day. and i wouldn't be fooled by the current democrat support for the protests, they do this periodically out of political necessity.
 
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ripley

Well-known member
bruno said:
thought it was more interesting to present the anti-illegal-mexican arguments..

It would only be interesting if none of us ever left the house or interacted with other media sources than Dissensus. However, since many of us do.. yawn..

on another note, the rally I went to today was interesting because of the amount of American flags and "USA! USA!" chants by the marchers. I've been to many protests in my time, and usually those flags and chants are on the other side. I admit to a feeling of cognitive dissonance. Also, given the number of people claiming status as workers - "we only come here to work" "we work harder than anyone" "our work built your houses" etc, it was interesting to note the almost total absence of MayDay references from what I saw (apart from one Anglo dready kid on a bicycle)

a lovely experience though - the march and rally in Oakland was great in several senses of the word!
 

bruno

est malade
ripley said:
It would only be interesting if none of us ever left the house or interacted with other media sources than Dissensus. However, since many of us do.. yawn..
i can see why you would want to avoid this garbage whenever possible, being bombarded with it day in day out. i'm not, so you understand that as someone who watches the u.s. from the outside all these views are interesting to me.
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
ripley said:
I like to call that little press release "rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg"

hope you don't mind if i disseminate this joke!

i will of course give you credit

(lest you break all your principles and sue me)
 

ripley

Well-known member
dominic said:
hope you don't mind if i disseminate this joke!

i will of course give you credit

(lest you break all your principles and sue me)

hey attribution is way more important than exclusion.

but in the interest of attribution, I must tip my hat to Stephen Colbert, who used this joke TO THE PRESIDENT'S FACE last night. I urge you to watch the whole speech.
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
perhaps worth sharing . . . .

i wait tables in a french restaurant here in new york. (slowly trying to devise a plan for living, in the meantime i wait tables and stay awake nights.) the entire kitchen staff is mexican, save for one of the owners, who is the nominal chef. however, the real chefs are the mexican sous chefs, holdovers from the ancien regime, which featured a real french chef. the current owner-chef is utterly dependent on the skills of his two mexican sous chefs, and simply cannot do what they can do in a kitchen.

many of the mexicans in the kitchen are illegal immigrants, including one of the sous chefs.

upon learning that the kitchen staff were discussing among themselves the possibility of joining today's protest and not showing up for work, the owner threatened retaliatory measures, including firing some of the lesser skilled cooks should they not show for work.

i deemed it an empty threat, a threat made out of desperation, the knowledge of dependency

the result? none of the mexican workers joined the protest. all dutifully reported reported to work.

my thoughts? the owner is not a bad guy per se. he's gay and comes from a fairly humble irish immigrant background (which ain't the same thing as being from south of the border or a muslim from the middle east). he's always been nice to me (though he perhaps fails to appreciate just how superior my performance as a waiter in fact is), and his boyfriend's a very cool and on the level veteran of paradise garage and early 80s club scene. he's simply very selfish and petty bourgeois. likes to fly the rainbow flag of gay pride (has a rainbow flag sticker at the base of the restaurant's front door), but not the flag of homo sacer -- hope this doesn't read as gay bashing -- i'm merely struck by the pathetic irony

as for the mexican kitchen staff? they perhaps failed to appreciate their real power? or did they think today's protest unworthy of their while?

i don't know
 
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