WHEN:  Sat, Oct 16, 12 noon
WHERE: Assemble at Olympic & Broadway       
Downtown Los Angeles       
March to Federal Building (Los Angeles and Temple)

Those in L.A. may be wondering why there are two Immigrant Rights marches this Saturday,  one downtown, the other in East L.A.

This statement from the coalition of over 100 groups building for the downtown march and rally explains why. The full statement is on the ANSWER LA website, and includes the huge list of endorsing organizations.

Statement Of The Coalition - The Necessity Of Unity

The Coalition of over 100 groups that has been building this demonstration for many, many months has been promoting unity so that there will be a unified action on October 16.

On October 16, however, there will be two immigrant rights demonstrations in Los Angeles.

Our Coalition has made every effort to forge unity with  the group building the other activity. In August, we  offered the group organizing the other activity full unity and a range of options: (1) complete unity with one united march and rally; or (2) two separate marches and one united rally. Under the unity proposal from our Coalition, our Coalition and the other group would have shared equally in the selection of the program for a united march and rally.

Unfortunately, our offer of unity was not accepted by the organizers of the other activity. We also regret that we have not received any communication from them since they decided not to accept our offer.

Nonetheless, although we are disappointed that there is not a single march or a unified rally, we believe that all activities in support of immigrant rights, at this critical moment, will make a contribution to the overall struggle for justice.

March At Olympic And Broadway Called Two Years Ago

The march from Olympic and Broadway was called two years ago at an immigrant rights rally in downtown LA by Latino Movement USA and Hermandad Mexicana Nacional. Since then, more than 100 other groups have joined the call, which has been raised many more times at mass immigrant rights and antiwar demonstrations throughout 2002 and 2003. It has also been covered in the media on numerous occasions over the past two years.

The call was initiated to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the huge anti-Proposition 187 demonstration which represents the largest mobilization by the Latino community in the history of the U.S. But the Coalition saw the need to broaden the call to encompass the struggle for ALL immigrants against racism and government repression.

Immigrants Of All Nationalities Organizing for Oct 16

The massive Coalition building the march from Olympic and Broadway is multinational and fully represents the diverse immigrant community in Southern California.

More than 80 organizations representing Mexican and Central American immigrants have endorsed and are actively mobilizing for the march. Arab, Muslim, South Asian, Korean, Philippino, Asian Pacific Islander and other immigrant organizations are building for the demonstration as well. Youth, students, LGBT, antiwar and anti-racist groups and labor unions are  also actively involved.

At this critical time, we must organize and fight back against racism, bigotry and all forms of oppression. We must elevate the level of struggle to win full rights for  ALL immigrants, especially for undocumented workers and their families.

All progressive individuals and organizations are invited to join the march and rally on October 16. A strong, united demonstration in downtown Los Angeles will prove  the incredible strength and resolve of the movement for immigrant rights in the United States today.

Latino Movement USA 323-269-6069
Hermandad Mexicana Nacional 213-745-5222
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition 323-464-1636

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Bush at the final debate flatly denied he ever said “I’m not that concerned about bin Laden”.

Yet at a press conference in 2002, he said just that, as this Quicktime video clearly shows.

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Those who attend antiwar rallies in Los Angeles already know about The Believers. Now it’s time the rest of you did too.

The best way to do that is to watch their video, “New (R)evolution”, which is on their website now, and features them performing at an ANSWER LA antiwar demo.

This acoustic rock duo has excellent political lyrics, strong stage presence, and always gets the crowd moving when they play. Good stuff indeed.

(Full disclosure, I’m their webmaster. )

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Former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said Wednesday the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq had failed tragically in its aim of making the world a safer place and succeeded only in stimulating terrorism.

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Rackspace Managed Hosting, the San Antonio-based company that manages two Indymedia servers seized by the US government last Thursday, said yesterday that the servers have been returned and are now available to go back online.

EFF will take legal action to find out what really happened to Indymedia’s servers and ensure that Internet media are protected from egregious First Amendment violations like this in the future.

EFF, like the National Lawyers Guild, does a huge amount of important, often behind-the-scenes work. They are well-financed and dedicated. I’m glad they’re there.

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I officially changed my voter registration and left the Green Party this past week. Or, more aptly put, the Green Party left me. Actually, they abandoned many of us last summer when they decided not to run a candidate for president.

As of August 31, the Cobb campaign had raised just a little over $100,000 — by far the least of any presidential aspirant. Despite this meager level of support, Cobb contends that he has reached “millions and millions of people.” Yet, the only polls that even include Cobb in their totals say he’s polling at around 0.05% nationwide.

He’s not even trying, is he? But of course, that’s the precise point of his campaign. Do as little as possible. Don’t do anything that might upset a Democrat. 

If the Left throws their weight into the bourgeois electoral ring, they better be prepared to come out swinging. That means somebody better be ready to represent the movement. Clearly, Cobb ain’t that guy. It also looks like the Green Party ain’t that party. At least not this election season.

Nevertheless it is not the Greens’ goal this year to challenge the political status quo. As Cobb admits, “I don’t have any goals for votes except for states in which we need a certain percentage to retain ballot access.” So Cobb just wants to register some Greens and maintain ballot lines. Forget challenging the two corporate war parties head on.

Cobb is doing dismally, not even meeting his own way low expectations. Interest in the Green Party has vaporized and that’s in large part due to his non-existent campaign.

In a debate with Peter Camejo on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! , Cobb even went as far to say that the US can’t just “cut and run” in Iraq. Cobb informed me that he now regrets taking the same position on Iraq as both John Kerry and George W. Bush.

Uh huh. I sure believe him. Don’t you?

Meanwhile

The Nader campaign continues its sorry downward slide, losing more credibility every day.

In Pa., fake signatures keep Nader off ballot

Nader needed 25,697 valid names to qualify for Pennsylvania’s ballot; Colins ruled that fewer than 19,000 of the signatures were legitimate.

“I am compelled to emphasize that this signature gathering process was the most deceitful and fraudulent exercise ever perpetrated upon this Court,” Colins wrote in a ruling produced after at least 11 judges in four courtrooms pored over the signatures for about two weeks.

Cobb is a Demogreen nonentity, and Nader has become a tiresome cranky old man, spending all his time fuming at the Democrats, and none attacking Bush - contrary to his promises of a few months back. Pennsylvania is just one more state where he’s been claiming to be the purest of the pure, while using sleazy signature gathering to get on the ballot. A sad end to a once great progressive.

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