Sacramento Central Labor Council (SCLC)
Resolution
Endorse and Supports the
April 30, 2010 International Workers Day
Immigration Public Forum,
and,
May Day-International Workers Day
March
and Rally on May 1, 2010
Intro Note: Please find below the resolution adopted
last night (April 12, 2010) by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement AFL-CIO. The resolution was submitted
and motivated by Lino Pedres Execuative Board member of SCLC, and Shalom Rojas, Vice President Sacramento LCLAA Chapter both
active on the Social and Economic Justice Committee urged the SCLC to endorse and assist in building the International Workers
Day Immigration Public Forum to take place on April 30, 2010, at the California State Capitol at 10:00 a.m., and, also to
contribute financially toward the organizing efforts for the May Day-International Workers Day March and Rally on May 1, 2010,
at the California State Capitol, at 10:00 a.m.
* * * *
*
Resolution to Endorse and Support International Workers Day Public Forum,
AND, March and Rally in Sacramento, California on May 1, 2010
Whereas,
in past years the Sacramento Central Labor Council has supported May Day-International Workers Day demonstrations for the
rights and just demands of immigrants and all workers; and,
Whereas, this year the protest will take place on Saturday,
May 1, 2010, assembling at 10:00 a.m. at the California State Capitol in Sacramento California, joining in spirit other May
Day protests in New York, Los Angeles,San Francisco, Fresno, Stockton, Chicago, Detroit, and many other cities; and,
Whereas,
the SCLC officially supports and endorses each of the demands of the Sacramento May Day-International Workers day 2010 protest
as itemized below:
- Full Rights for Undocumented Workers!
- Legalization/Amnesty
For All!
- Money for Jobs and Education!
- End the War and Occupation!
- Jobs For All!
- No Budget
Cuts or Fee Hikes!
- Tax the Rich and Corporations!
Therefore be it resolved, that the Sacramento Central
Labor Council endorses the May Day International march and rally in Sacramento, notifying affiliates and otherwise building
participation in this important day of protest.
STATEMENT ON IMMIGRATION REFORM
United We Will Win!
Immigrant Workers Demand Rights For All!
Joint Statement by the following
organizations:
The Organizer/El Organizador;
Front of Mexicans Abroad (Frente de Mexicanos en el
Exterior, FME);
Union Cívica Primero de Mayo;
Organization of Agricultural Workers of California (OTAC);
The Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations; and,
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement AFL-CIO
(LCLAA-Sacramento Chapter)
More than a year after his inauguration, President Barack
Obama has not responded to the demands of immigrant workers who enthusiastically voted for him with a mandate to implement
an immigration reform law that would legalize undocumented immigrants.
In recent
years, some of the provisions contained in the immigration reform bills introduced by Democrats and Republicans raised expectations
among millions of immigrant workers. But all these proposals became mired in the Congress. Today, many immigrants still maintain
hope that this or that Democratic Party elected official will champion their demands and incorporate them into a bill before
Congress.
The difference today, however, is that the illusions in the Democratic Party
have gradually dissipated and that a series of organizations and activists, concerned about the deepening economic crisis,
are beginning to understand that their demands can only be won through the methods of working-class struggle; that is, through
mass rallies and demonstrations, by taking to the streets by the millions, as was done in the huge mobilizations of March-May
2006.
The present circumstances, marked by widespread attacks against the entire working
class and most particularly against immigrant workers, compel us to rebuild the movement of 2006 on the basis of a fundamental,
principled demand: Immigrant workers want rights and justice, they want "Legalization Now"!
A Time Bomb on Both Sides
of the Border
The immigration problem is like a pressure cooker, not
only in the United States but throughout the Americas. The crisis of decay of the capitalist system is dismantling economies,
societies, and entire nations. The exodus to the North remains the only option for survival for millions of poor and unemployed
people in Latin America. In response to this massive immigration, the United States is further militarizing its borders and
tightening its "security" policies. This has created an overall set of dysfunctional policies. President Obama has proven
to be incapable of addressing the deep problems affecting working people in this country, including the issue of immigration.
Unemployment
and foreclosures have adversely impacted immigrant workers and undocumented immigrants in particular. Pursuing the mass deportations
has been the Obama administration's answer to the immigration issue. But deported migrant workers know that returning to their
homelands will not resolve anything; they were essentially expelled from their countries for lack of jobs and security. They
would only return to countries with even fewer job opportunities than when they left.
During
his first year in office, President Obama has increased the militarization of the borders, while domestically he has strictly
enforced the Employment Verification (E-Verify) system, leading to an increased number of home raids and deportations (with
some figures showing an increase of 60% in deportations over the previous year). At all levels of government -- federal, state
and local -- public agencies are collaborating with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to accelerate
the deportations.
Meanwhile, in their countries of origin, the governments
-- instead of promoting national development policies that root their citizens on national soil -- are promoting the imperialist
"free trade" policies that are dismantling the national economies and driving millions from their homes and communities. At
the very same time, these governments are lobbying hard in the U.S. Congress for policies that ensure that the migrants within
the United States can continue to send back their remittances to family members in their countries.
In a word,
the immigration problem is a time bomb on both sides of the border. The unity of workers and peoples of the continent is thus
an urgent need.
Democrats Promise Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Aware that
the immigration issue is an urgent one, all Democratic Party presidential candidates in the United States since 1987 have
stated to Latino and Latin American audiences over Univision Network that "immigration reform" is a priority for them. When
he campaigned in 2008, Barack Obama pledged that during his first year in office a comprehensive immigration reform bill would
be submitted to Congress. That was 2008. In his State of the Union Address in January 2010, after one year in office, President
Obama downplayed the issue of immigration reform, devoting only 38 words in a speech of more than 7,000 words to the issue.
Once again, the priority for immigration reform was cast aside.
To try
to address the problem of dysfunctional immigration policies, on December 15, 2009, Illinois Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez
introduced a new bill on Immigration Reform titled, CIR-ASAP 2009.
Luis Gutierrez's
bill faces formidable obstacles in the Congress. Obama is caught in a tight squeeze between the demands of the workers and
oppressed communities who voted for him, on the one hand, and his role as savior of the capitalist system, which is in the
throes of a deep political and economic crisis, on the other hand.
There are
many immediate actions that the president could implement by Executive Order, like putting a halt to all the raids and deportations,
but he has not taken any such measures because of the pressures from the high command of American capitalism, expressed both
by the Republicans and the Democrats. The reactionary right wing, in fact, has been more successful in prevailing in this
immigration debate, preventing any honest discussion on the subject.
The People's Demands Are Not
Negotiable
A genuine immigration law should heed the demands
of immigrant workers and their families:
- Unconditional legalization for all,
- No to the militarization of the border and tearing
down the Wall of Shame,
- Stop the raids and deportations,
- No to the Employement Verification Law and to the
criminalization of immigrant workers,
- No to
the Guest Worker Programs,
- No separation of immigrant
families,
- Free health services to undocumented immigrants,
- Repeal of the "Free Trade" and Military pacts in Latin
America (including the dismantling of all U.S. military bases in the region)!
These are
some of the demands that the national movement for immigrant rights could champion.
Similarly,
addressing the immigration problem requires a solution to the root problem in the countries of origin, where the migratory
waves originate.
In this regard, the continental unity of workers and
peoples is more than ever necessary to build a movement that can break with the "free trade" and military cooperation treaties
and that can close U.S. bases in the Americas. Such a movement also must organize to demand the cancellation of the foreign
debts of the Latin American nations and genuine land reform laws, along with the defense of all natural resources and their
use at the service of the development of Latin American nations. A unified movement must demand policies that promote employment
and development, with full labor and national rights, decent wages, and the like.
The immigration
problem cannot be resolved by militarizing the borders, building Walls of Shame, punishing employers who hire cheap labor,
or carrying out raids and deportations.
It is only from the standpoint of these fundamental
principles -- principles that the Front of Mexicans Abroad (FME) has outlined in its campaign for the Right to Not Migrate
-- that we can and must evaluate the CIR-ASAP 2009 bill submitted by Congressman Luis Gutierrez, or, for that matter, any
other bill that may be submitted later this year to the Congress.
The CIR-ASAP
2009 bill is a bill that has been submitted by the "liberal" wing of the Democratic Party. It was introduced in the Congress
in an attempt to jumpstart the immigration reform debate and press the Obama administration for a better reform bill. At this
writing, the Obama administration is still in the initial stages of this discussion. Congressman Gutierrez is pushing for
a more liberal Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill than the ones submitted in recent years by John McCain and Ted Kennedy.
Everyone understands that Obama is not about to support the CIR-ASAP 2009 bill and that it is essentially a bargaining tool
within the framework of the Democratic Party for a "better" immigration reform law.
What does
CIR-ASAP 2009 call for?
First -- and this is not a minor question -- CIR-ASAP
2009 calls for a streamlined path to legalization for undocumented immigrants that is more far-reaching and has fewer roadblocks
than any of the bills submitted in Congress in recent years. It is for this reason that Republicans and conservative Democrats
-- the so-called "Blue Dogs" -- have launched a heinous and openly racist smear campaign against Luis Gutierrez. "This is
an amnesty proposal that we must crush," state all the rightwing politicians and their pundits.
However,
despite this very progressive stance in support of legalization, CIR-ASAP 2009 includes provisions that echo the reactionary
demands of the right wing and the higher echelons of the ruling class. It calls for closing the borders to all new immigrants,
increasing the militarization of the borders, continuing the "guest worker" programs (but now with provisions aimed at putting
a "human face" on these programs) and maintaining policies against all who are undocumented. ASAP CIR-2009 contains key provisions
that are unacceptable to the labor and immigrant rights' movement -- which is why we cannot support this bill, even critically.
The movement
to defend immigrant rights must not get derailed into accepting immigration policies that are the only ones deemed "acceptable"
or "possible to obtain" by the politicians and employers. No! More than ever it is necessary to fight for our own demands
-- that is, for the independent demands of the working class and the immigrant rights' movement.
Opening the Debate on Immigration
Policy on Our Own Terms
In recent weeks, Brother David Bacon and Sister Renée
Saucedo, both renowned activists in the immigrant rights' movement, issued an Open Letter in which they call on activists
to develop our own alternative legislative bill on immigration reform. They call for "alternative legislation based on our
immigration reform agenda."
We fully agree with Brother Bacon and Sister Saucedo
when they write that, "We will not stop the introduction of a Comprehensive Immigration Reform law," and "nor will we be able
to alter its basic structure, since it is the product of a partnership between employers, lobbying groups in Washington, and
a powerful section of the Democratic Party." We also agree with their warning that there is great danger that the trade union
movement will support whatever Comprehensive Immigration Reform may emerge from Washington, assuming, of course, that Congress
is able to pass any immigration reform law in the foreseeable future. In the current political climate, this is far from certain.
The idea
of proposing an alternative immigration reform law in Congress is not contrary to our principles, but in the current political
situation -- with a bipartisan system dominated by the Big Business parties and with a working class that has no independent
political representation -- we are concerned that such an effort may take us back to having to negotiate political compromises
with liberals in the Democratic Party, who, in the name of still other considerations of "political realism," may ask us to
accept planks and language that are not part of our struggle and could even be contrary to our interests.
This is
especially true insofar as we do not have an independent, mass political organization of Latinos capable of championing the
fundamental interests of Latinos and all the undocumented, and therefore capable of developing and spearheading an immigration
reform proposal that is a progressive alternative to the Gutierrez bill.
We understand
and sympathize with the quest to "create a positive alternative program as a tool for organization and agitation," as the
authors of the Open Letter explain so well. But we fear, based on many negative experiences in the past, that such an effort
could divert us toward channeling the demands and aspirations of the immigrants toward the Congress, where the mostly likely
event is that nothing positive will come out for the immigrants in our country.
What is
clear is that the proposal put forward by Brother Bacon and Sister Saucedo underscores, yet again, the need for U.S. workers
and all the oppressed nationalities to forge their own independent political instrument of their own -- that is, a Labor Party,
a truly independent party which, through its own candidates, can promote and fight for our interests. For now, we do not have
such a Labor Party. Creating such a party of working people, of immigrant workers, is back on the agenda.
A precondition
for advancing in this direction is affirming the independent planks of the workers' and immigrant rights' movement in the
form of an action-oriented united front -- in the workplaces, communities, schools, and trade unions. And to move in this
direction, in turn, we will need to organize a series of public forums all across the countries on these issues and on all
other issues that are brought up by the rank and file.
What Platform of Demands for
Immigrant Workers?
The first step toward building unity around principled
demands is to open the broadest possible debate over immigration policy -- but a debate on our own terms and in which we put
front and center our own demands.
As trade union activists and immigrant rights' organizations
and activists we need our own public spaces where, with the fullest democracy, we can discuss these questions and develop
our own platform of demands.
For our part, we propose for discussion a platform containing
the following demands:
* Amnesty / Unconditional legalization for all,
* No militarization of the border, tead down the Wall
of Shame,
* Stop the raids and deportations; No to the Employment
Verification Act and the criminalization of immigrant workers,
* End all
Guest Worker programs,
* For family unity,
* Free health services for undocumented immigrants.
* Repeal the "Free Trade" treaties and military pacts
in Latin America; dismantle all U.S. military bases in the region
* For the
Right to Not Migrate!
For United and Class-Struggle
May First Protests!
May First 2010 is an opportunity to build the kind of unity that can win our
demands. We can take as our example the unity that was forged in the March 4 Strike and Day of Action in Defense of Public
Education and Social Services. We can also look to the unity that is being built, and that must be deepened, on March 20,
when we will be taking to the streets on the seventh anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan to demand an
end to the wars and the war economy.
On May First we can and must demand that the political
mandate that the people gave to Obama, a mandate which Obama has turned his back on, be heeded.
We must
also call for:
- Bring all our Troops
Home Now / End the Wars of Plunder and Occupation,
- Employee
Free Choice Act, with Card Check,
- Single Payer healthcare now,
- Full
rights for all undocumented workers,
- For a Massive Job Creations program to put every unemployed
worker back at work,
- No more bailout of banks, Wall Street and corporations!
Bail out working people,
- No cuts, layoffs and fee hikes in public education
and all social services,
- Money for education, healthcare and social program
-- not for war and speculation,
- Tax for the rich and the corporations!
