[Sosfbay-discuss] FW: Why We March on May Day

Wed Apr 30 22:19:02 PDT 2008

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: WHY WE MARCH ON MAY DAY
From:    "Mexican American Political Association" <newsletter at mapa-ca.org>
Date:    Wed, April 30, 2008 15:04

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WHY WE MARCH ON MAY DAY
April 30, 2008

Greetings!

WHY WE MARCH ON MAY DAY

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CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE, PHOTO, AND
SURVEY:

www.nativolopez.blogspot.com/ -
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001b0YbTPOFHNWtf7LMMU99qGT3Gk-UNjTq39MrrhinxRlXp_MDZzlfyvFKdTRiKc8VtP5E40fvxQ_9C40aAb698WQYOC1V3TXrzU0MkAmwOpoVdYGRR8Gs_T-hOcs-Fb8z

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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.

<p/>
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..

<p/>
CONTACT:

Nativo V. Lopez, National President of MAPA (323)
269-1575

<p/>
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Sincerely,

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Mexican American Political Association
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email: nativolopez at mapa-ca.org
phone: 323-269-1575
web: http://www.mapa.org

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