Campo Minutemen in the News

http://presstelegram.com/news/ci_4287227




Immigration fireworks at parade
Union festivities attract border activists.
By Greg Mellen, Staff writer

WILMINGTON - For the most part, the 27th annual Labor Day Labor Solidarity proceedings in Wilmington went off without a hitch.

But not without some spice.

While picnickers were loading up on hot dogs and sodas and listening to union speeches, about a dozen activists from Save Our State and the Minuteman Project made an unexpected appearance and added a little heat to the Monday holiday.

Waving American flags and bearing posters with sayings such as "illegal immigration is not civil rights," the protesters appeared on a knoll at Banning Park, where they were almost immediately confronted by a large group unionists as well as of members of Hermandad Mexicana LatinoAmericana, a pro-immigrant organization that marched in the parade and was one of the larger groups on hand.

After some jostling and heated debate, the two groups were separated by a large contingent of parade security personnel representing the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union.

Soon after, Los Angeles Police Department officers, several on bikes and four-wheel all-terrain vehicles, cordoned off the protesters and escorted them out of the park, while a large group of event-goers followed.

Chanting "union, union," and "racists go home," the picnickers easily drowned out a short-lived attempt at a "USA" chant by Minutemen and Save Our State members.

Standing across M Street from Banning Park, Deborah Grais, wearing a Campo Minutemen T-shirt, said she came to the event because she views illegal immigrants as "scabs" who hurt rather than help unions.

The protesters said they felt mistreated by the union security personnel.

"I'm upset the police forced us to go," said Knewt Young of Torrance, as he held an American flag. "We were causing no problems. The only thing agitating was our presence."


Part of the acrimony may have arisen because the National Alliance for Immigrants' Rights had joined in the parade to call for a moratorium on deportations and amnesty for illegal aliens.

"You can't talk about immigration without labor and you can't talk about labor without immigration, they're one and the same," said Nativo Lopez of Hermandad Mexicana LatinoAmericana, adding that events such as Monday's parade and picnic put them "under one house."

There were no arrests and no injuries and the confrontation was dispersed in about 20 minutes.

Before the protestors' appearance, the parade and picnic went smoothly.

The event began with the Oakland ILWU Drill Team being recognized for its 40th anniversary. Wearing yellow T-shirts, white ILWU hats, black pants, yellow gloves and carrying longshoremen's traditional hooks, the group put on a 20-minute show before receiving a plaque from the ILWU local chapters.

The drill team debuted in July 1966 when it marched with Cesar
Chavez down Market Street in San Francisco in a solidarity display.

Josh Williams, who founded the group, says it performs about 20 times per year, mostly on the West Coast.

"Whenever there's strife in the union, the drill team helps to unite us," said Anna Wills, a union and drill team member.

The parade was a spectacle of unionism, with carpenters, steel workers, pile drivers, flight attendants, nurses and machinists among the groups represented.

Each group seemed to have telltale colors. T-shirts bore a variety of messages, including an ILWU shirt with a snake emblazoned on the back and the message "will strike if provoked."

Several unions were on strike or contemplating strikes. The Los Angeles Engineer and Architects Association, fresh off a two-day strike, showed up in force with placards protesting conditions and wages.

Michael Davies, president of the local chapter, said his group didn't normally show up in the parade in such large numbers.

However, on Monday they wanted to show gratitude to the Teamsters in particular for honoring their work stoppage.

Flight attendants for Northwest Airlines were also contemplating a strike strategy they called "CHAOS" for "Creating Havoc Across Our System," which they said would consist of intermittent work stoppages and other actions.

Les Meeks, interim president of the local group, said his group's plight is not uncommon.

"We're not the only ones struggling," Meeks said. "All across America workers are struggling. There's a climate of corporate greed run amok."

At the post-parade picnic, representatives from disparate groups ranging from the Peace and Freedom Party to the International Workers of the World, or Wobblies, to the Colombia Peace Project, set up shop and handed out leaflets and sold T-shirts.

After the Minutemen and Save Our State protesters had left, a large tarpaulin was draped across the knoll, it said "The sun shines for everyone."

It had been painted by a man named Jose Matias, who said it was his message that "America is for everyone."

Greg Mellen can be reached at greg.mellen@presstelegram.com or (562) 499-1291.

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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/05/ldt.01.html

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, supporters of expanded rights for illegal aliens blamed everything from the holiday weekend to poor organization for the small crowds at their Labor Day marches.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Bush, escucha, estamos en la lucha!

WIAN (voice over): About a thousand supporters of expanded rights for illegal aliens marched in the streets of Los Angeles chanting, "Bush, listen, we are here!" They flew the flags of anarchists, Mexico and the United States, and demanded full amnesty for anyone in this country illegally. Illegal alien supporters rallied in several other U.S. cities on Labor Day. They're continuing their effort to link illegal immigration and organized labor.

Border security activists accuse the union marchers of betraying American workers.

DEBORAH CRAIG, CAMPO, CALIF., MINUTEMEN: We had a standard of living. We had a wage. The middle class is nonexistent in Los Angeles. It's being destroyed by illegal immigration. That's why we're here, because illegal immigrants are scabs, period.

WIAN: Police separated this group of counter-protesters from a hostile crowd of illegal alien sympathizers who continued their practice of calling anyone favoring immigration law enforcement "racist."

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Racists go home! Racists go home!

WIAN: The marches were nowhere near the size of the Mayday Open Borders protest earlier this year. It's another sign their movement, and especially their effort to register a million new sympathetic voters by 2008, is losing momentum.

An Associated Press analysis of voter data in a dozen U.S. cities found no evidence of a pro-amnesty voter registration surge. In fact, in Los Angeles, the birthplace of the illegal alien marches, new voter registration actually dropped 54 percent during the first six months of this year compared to 2004.