WHY WE MARCH ON MAY DAY
WHY WE MARCH ON MAY DAY
April 30, 2008
Greetings!
WHY WE MARCH ON MAY DAY
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WHY WE MARCH ON MAY DAY
Op-Ed for L.A. Daily News
By: Nativo V. Lopez, National President,
Mexican American Political Association (MAPA)
The immigrant vote will increase to unstoppable heights in four short
years across California's political landscape, a veritable big-foot electorate,
according to a recently released study commissioned by the Grantmakers
Concerned With Immigrants and Refugees. Fully one-third of California voters by
2012 will be comprised of immigrant voters - naturalized U.S. citizens and
permanent residents eligible for citizenship - and their teenage U.S.-born
children. The implications of even greater growth for Los Angeles city and
county are abundantly clear.
So why do we march this MAY DAY considering these very promising
demographic projections? If history teaches us anything it clearly demonstrates
that numbers alone do not translate into political power. The political muscle
necessary to make substantive policy changes favorable to immigrant working
families devolves from organization of the numbers exercised repeatedly towards
very specific ends. And the oxygen pumping up those muscles is civic education
plus experience.
Today we continue to wage costly battles over too many issues related to
the social well-being of our families. The list is long, and much remains as a
legacy of the nasty 1990s in California - denial of the driver's license,
higher education, financial aid, healthcare access, business and professional
licenses, employment authorization - on the one hand, and overt forms of state
terror on the other hand - wanton work-place and neighborhood raids by the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE, the arbitrary
impounding of vehicles, which constitutes the outright seizure of a personal
asset, facilitated by a growing number of police check-points in multiple
jurisdictions, and the increased cooperation between ICE and local police
authorities throughout the country. The most recent example is the Arizona
legislature's approval of legislation mandating local law enforcement
involvement in enforcing immigration laws. The state's governor vetoed it.
Notwithstanding a decade of political gains and increased electoral
representation for Latinos, in particular, at all levels of government, we have
not secured sufficient political strength to curb the practices mentioned
above. Although, the prospect of these issues being resolved in favor of
immigrants and their children within one more presidential term is highly
probable if the numbers coalesce politically at the ballot box and in the
street. In others words, it is not the vote juxtaposed to street heat. Both
tactics are absolutely relevant to any credible social movement for change,
although the change is not an iron-clad guarantee.
Take the city of Los Angeles as an example. The composition of the city
council and mayor's office is an embodiment of diversity and liberalism - the
greatest number of Latinos, blacks, Democrats, gays, and liberal Jews probably
ever in the history of the city. Yet, the city is not as friendly to immigrants
as one might think. Immigrant raids continue to abound, vehicles are regularly
impounded, sweat-shops are more the norm than the exception, the poverty index
remains high, the city is no longer considered a sanctuary as once touted by
Mayor Tom Bradley in the 1980s, more then 94 percent of the private work-force
is not represented by a union or enjoys a collective bargaining agreement, the
city's schools are a laboratory of failure for immigrant youth, and the
prevalence of gangs is greater today than a generation ago, disproportionately
concentrated in immigrant neighborhoods. This is why we continue to march.
May 1st is a shout out not just to the adversaries of the immigrant's
social integration and progress. It's footprint on California's political map
will only get bigger. But, it is just as much a shout out internally to the
immigrants themselves that shares the story of Lucy Gonzalez de Parsons, Albert
Parsons, and the others of Chicago's Haymarket Martyrs in the fight for the
eight-hour day during the 1880s, who with the vast majority of other immigrant
workers of European national origin stock led the movement to improve the
conditions of life and work for all workers, and as a result made America a
better place to live. Ironically, however, black, Mexican, Chinese, and
Japanese workers remained in even more inferior stations and were forced to
create their own segregated organizations to contend with the challenges of the
day.
The lesson to working people today is that nothing changes without a
fight, a struggle, and a purposeful movement by collections of people with a
common cause. And if they don't pursue their dream in an organized fashion,
life goes on as before and they remain as objects of history, not subjects.
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Join us in this prolonged campaign for driver's licenses and visas for
our families. The first step in making change is to join an organization that
pursues the change we desire. We welcome you to our ranks.
Other organizations leading this movement include: Hermandad Mexicana
Latinoamericana, Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), MAPA Youth
Leadership, Liberty and Justice for Immigrants Movement, National Alliance for
Immigrant's Rights, and immigrant's rights coalitions throughout the U.S..
CONTACT:
Nativo V. Lopez, National President of MAPA (323) 269-1575
Join the Mexican American Political Association mailing list
Email:
Sincerely,
Mexican American Political Association
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