This sounds like a bad approach no matter how you slice it.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pro-immigration activists say a national boycott and marches planned for May 1 will flood U.S. streets with millions of Latinos to demand amnesty for illegal immigrants and shake the ground under Congress as it debates reform. Such a massive turnout could make for the largest protests since the civil rights era of the 1960s, though not all Latinos -- nor their leaders -- were comfortable with such militancy, fearing a backlash in Middle America.

"There will be 2 to 3 million people hitting the streets in Los Angeles alone. We're going to close down Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Tucson, Phoenix, Fresno," said Jorge Rodriguez, a union official who helped organize earlier rallies credited with rattling Congress as it debates the issue.

Immigration has split Congress, the Republican Party and public opinion. Conservatives want the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants classified as felons and a fence built along the Mexican border. Others, including President George W. Bush, want a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship. Most agree some reform is needed to stem the flow of poor to the world's biggest economy.

"We want full amnesty, full legalization for anybody who is here (illegally)," Rodriguez said. "That is the message that is going to be played out across the country on May 1."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20060427/ts_nm/usa_immigration_dc_5

...without taking sides on the issue, this most certainly is not a compromise.

:patriot:

M$M? repukes? The senate and house?

Whoever handed out all those Mexican flags at those rallies was either a fool or a counteragent.

Those protesters did not go out and buy those flags in stores, some organization had thousands of them at the ready.

I will wager that if one scoured all the retail stores in the US right now, there would not be that many Mexican flags available.

Many of the organizers of the rallies are radical extremists that would support any movement that would disrupt the government or economy. That is why May 1st is choosen... May Day.

Also it was the spanish-speaking tv networks that encouraged people to go out into the streets with the Mexican flags.

Sheesh. Or Ay, caramaba!

I know that the majority of immigrants are not anti-America, but there is a vocal segment that is pro-Mexico, anti-America. They are calling for a boycott of all "gringo" produced goods in Mexico as well As America. It is disturbing.

So that marginalizes it right away - and rightfully so.

"strong socialist influence"

while all the illegals are enclosed in a smallish area, grouped tightly together.

Otherwise, I disagree with the idea that doing something "bad" like closing down a city is bad for a cause. I say, go ahead and shut the cities down: then someone will finally fucking listen. Once they show that they have the power to shut down a city, and that they aren't afraid to use that power, then they will have a voice. Just like the early unionists who showed they can shut down a factory.

marching "nicey nicey" is utter bullshit.

...and don't agree with it, but that's OK...I didn't post this looking for agreement.

Here in the Bay Area we have "Critical Mass"...bike protests which basically jam up a city during peak commute times. They high-five each other over fucking with men and women who are on their way to work. I don't buy it.

My opinion...my own personal opinion, that doesn't require agreement...is that this kind of thing is bullshit. The fact that I can walk over to my neighbor and shove something up his ass and make him angry doesn't mean I should do it, and it doesn't make me powerful. It just makes me a guy with the ability to shove something up my neighbor's ass without remorse.

I can't be that guy, and can't applaud that behavior.

But everybody has their own way of pursuing their agenda.

:patriot:

But it worked.

I'm not saying it needs to be the first action, but when is not listened to for long enough, one needs to realize that the other side is determined not to listen - and then it becomes necessary to do something that get their attention. Whether it's a great salt march, shutting down a factory in a sit-in protest, shutting down a mine in West Virginia, or costing your city shitloads of money in lost bus revenue, or strangling traffic. (I do not, however, condone terrorist tactics or other acts of violence).

...there are people who fuck with other people simply because they enjoy fucking with other people.

That's my basic objection to this.

I have my own opinions on the issue, and when it comes to DU, I prefer to keep them to myself.

Focusing strictly on the method that's being proposed for this May 1 protest, there will be people who will show up who simply enjoy fucking with other people.

How many? 5%? 10%? 50%? I have no idea. I just know that I wouldn't lump this in the same category as the civil rights bus boycott.

But I respect your opinion...as I've already said...and I just hope that the people who are doing this simply for the joy of fucking with others get their ample supply of karma. Sometimes you fuck with someone for the sheer joy of it and you get fucked back, you know?

:patriot:

You're suggesting that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of hard-working immigrants are going to take the day off and risk getting fired just so they can "fuck with people." Grow up.

I can't say I understand it and you COULD be correct in what you say... others joining in just to make them look bad, either way... it started from the seed THEY planted!

I already posted, but wanted to reply to what you said. If they ARE being infiltrated, it would behoove them to come out and say so, then re-organize for another time. This is DANGEROUS for them.

So now it's going to be a fight for full amnesty against path to citizenship. And the media is giving the reasonable compromise, path to citizenship, to Bush; which isn't what he wanted originally at all and I don't think he even wants it now. I see nothing good coming out of this anymore, they've allowed themselves to be maneuvered out of the mainstream and we're going to pay for it in November.

...so it's a matter of how many people are willing to stand behind his methods.

I don't see this helping a bit. It's like handing the keys to the car to Rush Limbaugh and begging him to drive. This is how he's painted the picture all along and Jorge Rodriguez is living up to everything he's said on his show.

I'm not defending Limbaugh...but I am also not applauding Jorge Rodriguez.

I was actually going to go to one. The full amnesty part, flat out stupid. Of all the rallying points available, they choose the one guaranteed to turn the majority of the country against them. It's really incomprehensible to me.

solutions that have any chance at all of working. Just more distractions to fill the space between advertisements. :grr:

:patriot:

I'm a little shocked at the sentiment in this thread that protests and strikes are evil evil evil. We owe a heck of a lot to people that were willing to shut things down in order to get some justice.

Those of you that think strikes or protests should be done nicely during the cocktail hour so as not to disrupt anything don't quite grasp the concept, imho. It's no wonder our election fraud protests were nothing like the ones in the Ukraine.

The constitution does not grant rights to non-citizens. The Supreme Court has ruled on that several times already. And the 14th amendment also doesn't apply to foreign nationals. The authors of the amendment made that very clear.

I don't care where you go... you can go to Mexico, Britain, France, Germany, Russia... if you go into any of those countries and go into the street waving the American flag and demanding this and demanding that...you are going to get a lot of anger aimed towards you by the government and the population.

We have not reached a stage in civilization where you can just walk into any country you feel like and get full benefits of that country. The world does not yet work that way. And it will be a VERY long time before it does.

Deport 11 million people?

"We want full amnesty, full legalization for anybody who is here (illegally)," Rodriguez said. "That is the message that is going to be played out across the country on May 1."

Bullshit.

that statement pisses me off as well.

...and no, I don't have the answers, but I do know that this ain't it, folks...

:patriot:

with the 12 million people that are here illegally?

...and watch them go back to Mexico?

:shrug:

that for years. My wife works at a place where they hire illegals, which really pisses me off because I've been in 3 different unions in the past 40 years, that have fake I.D.'s. She's worked there for 15 years and the I.N.S. has never been there. I agree with you that we should attack the Employers but we both know that will never happen, remember that mostly the owners of these company's are repugs and in bed with this administration.

If we forced the illegals to leave the country our economy could easily colapse. The first thing we have to do is CONTROL our borders. We have the technology to do it, not using guns, but the repugs don't want that to happen. They want them to flow in illegally to drive down wages. So in 10 or15 years we'll have exactly what Bush said "the haves and the have nots".

I'm not saying that it's a good idea either, I'm merely pointing out that getting rid of the 12 million illegal immigrants in this country is actually pretty easy. And I completely agree with you, the reason Congress doesn't do it is simple: their corporate masters are addicted to cheap labor and don't want them to do it.

"We want full amnesty, full legalization for anybody who is here (illegally)," Rodriguez said. "That is the message that is going to be played out across the country on May 1."



Sorry - you can want the whole day long. You're not going to get it, nor do you deserve it.

Let's take 11 million Americans and go to ANY other country in the world. Start bitching that they're not giving us full rights of their citizens, protest en masse and shut down their cities and demand they make all of us citizens just for being there.. I can't think of one country on the earth who wouldn't do one of three things: Begin deporting all of us, shoot us down in the streets, begin imprisoning all of us.

Now we can't shoot the illegal aliens here, and we can't imprison, them... and sadly we can't seem to deport them. But I'll be goddamned if their bullshit gets accepted. Hell, maybe a lot of these protesters will get fired then Americans who've been having trouble finding jobs will be able to get one finally.

Don't get me wrong. My first boyfriend was Mexican, and back in the day I did missionary work in Mexico. I love Mexicans, and I love the culture and history. Yes, I like almost everyone else came from immigrants, but they came here legally. I welcome all immigrants from all cultures who want to come here legally, the diversity is beautiful.

Oh, and this argument that much of the US was originally Mexican? Well, to slightly modify a line from Kingdom of Heaven: You are not those Mexicans, and we are not those Americans.

It's a L-O-N-G list, believe me. I'd love to demand that I get everything on the list, NOW. Instead, I think I'll keep working for it instead of demanding that someone hands it to me.

When the average American finds out just how much work isn't going to get done if all those illegals are sent home they might just change their tune.

It reminds of a couple of years ago when A.N.S.W.E.R. got involved with things and grabbed the spotlight front and center for a demonstration in D.C.

First, I don't know who elected this guy to be the spokesperson, but it seems that he's not the best choice. Second, his threats and demands only make me focus on his threats and demands. It doesn't put me in a frame of mind to want to "work with" anyone on ANYTHING.

it was a darn shame -because all they showed on C-Span was that stuff.

you people floor me.. are you democrats???.. do you remember we are truly a melting pot?
what happened to ONE NATION UNDER GOD FOR LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!!!!

criticize the organizers all you want, I think this boycott is BRILLIANT and don't want to see bloodshed
but good old fashioned civil disobedience and non-cooperation!

I am proud of my fellow immigrants for standing up for their rights as well as causing a boycott

to send a message to the leaders that they don't lead us anymore....

when my mother came over from Germany did she have to jump thru as many hoops as immigrants post 9/11 have to jump through?



no..



I get chills up my spine when I see the TRUE SPIRIT of America showing itself in these immigrant protests.. they seem to have more backbone than the rest of us that have NOT shown up in the millions to protest bush's torture, his illegal war in iraq, etc. if we were smart, we'd marry the peace and immigrant movement to really shut things down.. (with all due respect to peace movement, there have been lots of good protests, but we can't deliver the #'s that the immigrant population can)....

I am totally FOR MAY 1st showing the leaders and corporate thieves who really runs their companies and who really runs this country. it's the workers who make America plain and simple. and that they don't have legal status is a big problem in our policy to not think thru a plan to making it easier for these people to not only get jobs legally, but become legal taxpaying citizens.. it's like we think it's ok for 12 million people to hide and run and be afraid for the cops to kick them out of the country any second and in some cases work here and not pay taxes... I say friggin' legalize them and then create a ramp up program for new incoming immigrants to get legal ID's like driver's license when they show tax documents to show they are legit paying members of society....... crtitizing immigrants is not what America was built on.. and equating their taking our jobs away to limiting our access to american jobs is like punishing a poor man trying to feed his family..the bigger problem is American companies are not developing core competencies and building industries that world populations want to buy.. that's the bigger problem is job creation and the stifling of small business over big business in america. letting AT&T become a monopoly again killing hundreds of thousands of telecomm jobs...... that is what hurts immigrants and americans alike.. jeez can't you guys see the big picture..... what would jesus say to such racism? he'd reach out and hand his bread to an immigrant and say 'thank-you brother, for your struggle is my struggle'... I thought I'd never see the day when democrats BUY INTO the fox created furor of hating immigrants...

it's sad and somewhere in NY a statue of immigrants looking up hopefully at the Statue of Liberty, that statue is shedding a tear for the insanity of the anti-immigrant movement in this country...

and ALL DAY TODAY FOX and CNN giving crap about the spanish Anthem.. jeez.. let them sing if they want to... it's just singing.....


I'LL BE THERE WITH YOU ALL ON MAY 1st NOT BUYING ANYTHING at all!!! viva la revolution!!

Thank you and welcome to DU! :hi:

do people get Cindy?

do they really get her power?

i'd vote for cindy over hillary any day of the week....

But the rest of the US? No they just don't get her.

Have you met her? She is one of the most charismatic and good hearted people I have ever met. I thank God for her every day.

too much hate mongering
too much anger toward strikes that actually are effective!

not enough understanding of the history of oppression
not enough solidarity

Nuthin like Mexicans to draw out the low count nativists.

xenophobic.. you said it honey...

UP-END any gains immigrants think they have made. Plus, pushing the National Anthem to be sung in Spanish seems like a REALLY bad move. Why are they moving in this direction??

Kind of like stirring up a hornets nest here. I don't want to send any of them back to Mexico, but I would like to see more regulation to keep this situation under control. I've long wondered JUST WHAT The Idiot & Fox worked out with each other. But now, to have so many immigrants thumbing their noses at the country that sheltered them seems so very "wrong-headed!"

I simply don't understand why the leaders of these demonstrations don't "get it!" They are just going to alienate and fire up those who oppose them even more. Sorry to say it, but that's what I think.