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International Workers Day 2006 was the greatest May Day in U.$. history. Over a million skipped work and millions demonstrated across the country--including in many places not known for any political or social activism.
"Police estimated 400,000 people marched through Chicago's business district and tens of thousands more rallied in New York and Los Angeles, where police stopped giving estimates at 60,000 as the crowd kept growing."An estimated 75,000 rallied in Denver, more than 15,000 in Houston and 30,000 more across Florida. Smaller rallies in cities from Pennsylvania and Connecticut to Arizona and South Dakota attracted hundreds not thousands."(1)
The favorite chants of the day were "si se puede!" and "un pueblo unido jamas sera vencido!" ("Yes we can" and "the people united will never be defeated.")
The negative lesson of the day was that the Euro-Amerikan so-called workers were less than 5% of the participants if New York City is any indication. MIM gave out 1900 copies of MIM Notes to demonstrators in Union and Foley squares in Manhattan.
One comrade in MIM circles put it this way: "It was hurtful really. If you were a white liberal, what would you say? What would be your excuse?"
New York City was the unavoidable proof of white non-participation. Just two days before, thousands of flyers went out to a mostly white demonstration in New York City to oppose the Iraq war. Every single group calling itself socialist or communist was there April 29th talking about May 1st and the controversy over immigration and migration. We can say the grass tips did the politically correct thing in linking to the migrant movement, but the grassroots of the anti-war movement were not buying.
On April 29th, MIM spoke with one white who turned out to be typical. "Is there one [a demonstration]?" MIM told the persyn there were going to be demonstrations everywhere, even in New Hampshire. It's important to understand--the Euro- Amerikans did know. CNN and Netscape even announced the demonstrations in advance--a rarity. We found the flyers all over the place in New York City, but two days later, there was little overlap in the demonstrations; even though, the two demonstrations covered the exact same streets.
Across the united $tates we would not expect Blacks to be more than 15% anyway, but whites are about 60% in the under 40 age group and more in the over 40 crowd. In New York City, Blacks also did not show up, and that is a failure because Blacks are 25% of New York.
It appears that Asian ethnicities pulled their weight this May 1st thanks to the stout example of the Latino proletariat. 18% of Koreans inside U.$. borders are undocumented workers such as textile workers, restaurant workers and karate instructors. In total, the U.S. Government estimates that Asian ethnicities comprise 13% of undocumented workers inside u.$. borders as of 2005, despite being only 3.6% of the population total.(2)
The Korean bourgeoisie located in the textile centers of places like Los Angeles also hire Latino proletarians: "The Korean Apparel Manufacturers Association in Los Angeles sent a memo to its 1,000 members urging them to allow workers to take Monday off."(2) This is another example where actual employers are less reactionary than the Euro-Amerikan labor aristocracy exploiters when it comes to borders. In New York City, there ended up being one Asian "human chain" at lunch time to complement several Latino ones celebrating the undocumented workers.
At first glance, it appeared Blacks were 5% and whites another 5% tops at the general rally in New York City. When MIM investigated more deeply, even this turned out to be an overestimate. The persyn MIM Notes distributors had pegged as the whitest most typical suburbanite to take MIM Notes turned out to be from Latin America. One Black participant wore a Black Panther button, no surprise to MIM Notes readers, but a Black pair that took MIM Notes also were from Latin America. Too many people from the left-wing of the parasite movements do not know about Latin America's multiracial character or race in general in the world outside u.$. borders.
So going by purely visual appearance at this rally would have been a mistake. It's just another reason MIM rejects the analysis of race as primary. Going by race alone would have resulted in an overestimation of Euro-Amerikan participation in the rally. This May 1st rally was Latino to the core and that covers white, mostly brown, red and black-skinned peoples--including mixtures that would be tough to tell apart from yellow.
The best speaker we heard was a student who used the u.$. flag as a scarf. He chanted a list of countries followed by the word "power." He included Boricuan power and got down to "Argentinian power!" There were hot sales of flags from all Latin American countries plus sales of the u.$. flag.
After speaking agitatedly, the student speaker gained great applause from his listeners, at a strategic pause, when he said, "yes, I'm a Mexican and yes, I have a white friend!" His joke was to turn the tables on the white liberals, by mirroring them in a pro-Mexico way and his joke also poked fun at the typical white liberal way of individualizing politics as if having a friend could justify oppressive politics.
Another speaker in the same circle simply told her listeners "never to be afraid" and "God loves you." She repeatedly reassured her listeners and told them "to never give up." The Catholic Church has to be involved, because its newest and most devoted members are potentially from Latin America.
There were several different circles and speakers. The one with the loudest speaker equipment featured some confused activists denouncing temporary worker programs in a way to echo the Minutemen and Lou Dobbs. These supposed radicals will not achieve even their meagre citizenship slogans but allying with the right-wing of white nationalism, they may accomplish a "reform" to close the border to temporary workers. There is no "reform" at the moment that can bring just wages to the world, so the activists should just drop their focus on this one question and stick with revolutionary slogans.
Incorrect focus on the temporary worker programs is an example of how ultra-leftism works hand-in-hand with Euro- Amerikan chauvinism. Let these groups that want a "multi-racial" approach to a supposedly "multi-racial working class" stick to their demands for open borders and offers of citizenship to all who want it. They should not echo the Minutemen; even though, in truth they both represent the same privileged exploiter labor aristocracy class.
We said the same thing about school bussing for integrated schools. Of course it is not a solution, but yelling against it is reactionary. The ultra-leftists working with the fascists may achieve that demand now without getting any revolution.
The demand to offer everyone citizenship is correct and completely unambiguous by contrast. If everyone could get instant citizenship, there would be no temporary worker program questions anymore.
Opposing temporary worker programs implies that the speaker has a piecemeal approach that opposes offering all citizenship. Otherwise, there would be no specific reason to oppose temporary worker programs instead of demanding citizenship for all. Everyone should be suspicious of the people talking about the temporary worker programs.
Larry Holmes from Workers World Party spoke last with the loudest speakers before leading off a fraction of the Union Square rally on a march. As time approached 8pm, the New York police tried to close down the demonstrations, even when protesters used the sidewalks in perfectly legal fashion. We overheard the cops saying how they were going to cut off one group, but then another group would be coming at them from another direction. An apparently Euro-Amerikan Trotskyist group with green shirts chanted at the police, "racist, sexist, anti-gay, NYPD go away!"
The few whites around thought of themselves as socialist, communist or some kind of radical. One walked around with a placard saying "land of the free and home of the hypocrite" (to mock "land of the free, home of the brave.") This is true of Amerikans in so many ways. 1) The original Pilgrims had no legal permits. 2) The Statue of Liberty says the borders are open. 3) Fear-mongerers (not the brave) say that border-crossers are terrorists, when in truth Pilgrims killed thousands times more people than Al-Qaeda did. 4) The united $tates has the world's highest percentage of imprisoned people, a significant portion of which are in prison for border-crossing--some free country.
The few awake white people at the demonstrations smolder inside knowing the truth about their own country. Unfortunately, as part of the general culture of stress-relief, they often fall victim to the left-wing of white nationalism which tells them their country is not oppressive and as exploited workers they can forget about that national oppression thing. Others forget it through pseudo-feminist identities. White nationalism has always had two wings--one that is aggressive and forward and one that denies that it is white nationalist or oppressive.
Even capitalism and its ideologues say the migration issue is all about "supply and demand." According to the true capitalists, the right to do business is a humyn right. So Euro-Amerikans do not even honor their supposed capitalist credo, because they are so reactionary and chauvinist.
The lessons of this greatest of May Days are profound and there for the taking by anyone honest enough to admit facts. The multi-racial left-wing of parasitism talked about "divisions in our communities," but failed to admit why this was the greatest of May Days in U.$. history.
This May Day could have happened before. It was there for the taking had enough abandoned parasitic politics and mobilized the Latino people for national liberation. The "reconquistas" are the backbone of the labor movement inside u.$. borders, even if they do not know it.
A poll by the Democratic Party pollster Zogby showed that the controversy over Mexican flags at the rallies has caused the Euro-Amerikan petty-bourgeoisie mistakenly thought of as "workers" to retaliate. The majority of Euro-Amerikans are so chauvinist that 65% of people polled have now literally admitted that they would rather have their economy spiral downward than let in migrants at the border!(3) 51% said the Mexican flags at rallies make them oppose guest worker programs.(3) This is the kind of labor aristocracy scum that our left-wing of white nationalism falsely calling itself socialist and communist caters to with "multi-racial" politics and specific opposition to guest worker programs.
The Zogby poll was if anything generous, as it found a higher opposition to building a wall with Mexico than other polls--69%. We should pay more attention to the Zogby poll than random white people on the street willing to lie about not having heard about the migrant demonstrations. If we do not understand that those anti-war demonstrators in New York City April 29th were petty-bourgeoisie, we might mistake what they told us as some kind of proletarian truth. May 1st showed that Zogby was right and the fuss on April 29th about building links to the migrant worker movement was just politically correct fluff that whites ignored.
When asked, the super-exploited of the Latino community do not need to be begged or cajoled into striking. They set off continent-wide activity--because there is a real and substantial Latino proletariat. All the bullshit excuses about "false consciousness" that the left-wing of white nationalism uses for itself disappeared. The real proletariat fights, large vanguard party there for it or not.
Latin America as a collection of oppressed nations is bound to play an evermore significant role in the labor movement inside u.$. borders. Mexico's boycott of the united $tates May 1st was just the beginning. Only the MIM line has correctly identified how the struggle must proceed. None of those other parties calling themselves socialist or communist are even close, because they do not understand super-profits or nationality: they're stuck on race within u.$. borders.
This is not the civil rights movement all over again. It is better, because it will draw in greater international participation in defeating white nationalist reaction and the current movement has a better chance of ending the system of exploitation than the civil rights movement which was about individual rights within the exploiter community.
In response to all this, jack-ass imperialist Senator Lamar Alexander wants to make the U.$. national anthem to be English-only by law.(4)
Pro-Confederacy activist and Senator Trent Lott also said the demonstrations went too far by striking: " 'To encourage people not to go to work or children not to go to school is counterproductive,' Lott said on CNN's 'Late Edition' program yesterday. 'And if they're there waving foreign flags, I take offense to that.'"(5) We're sure Lott will go to a German restaurant with a German flag on it, visit a hotel with a Swiss flag on it and feel no offense. Yet Lamar Alexander and Lott's phony internationalism is only for European cultures. The imperialists and their allies push around the people they think they can push around.
The real proletariat cannot help but offend the imperialists like Lott and Alexander and the proletariat is just warming up. When we say "when asked" the Latino proletariat fights, we could refer to Lou Dobbs(6) or the Minutemen. Without those representatives of the Euro-Amerikan labor aristocracy, the proletariat might not have stirred. So we thank the pig-headed for being so reactionary.
Notes:
1.
"Immigrants Walk off the job in boycott," http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001/20060501/1758752953.htm&related=off&floc=NW_1-T
or http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1912413
2. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-05-01-immigration-asians_x.htm
3. http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1102
4. http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_84955.asp
5. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=adXB6mgjE5nM&refer=latin_america
6. Dobbs was another imperialist saying the rallies were too radical.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/01/dobbs.immigrantprotests/index.html
