At the student walkout today, thousands walked to City Hall. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came out to speak to them. He uttered a few  bland words of support then said “when your parents protested, they went back to school after that.”

He was loudly booed. Just then, a contingent of 200 students walked in and got many cheers. The mayor kept talking, and got more boos.

The boos continued. He finally walked away.

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Thousands of Los Angeles high school students walked out of class today to protest the proposed immigration laws.

The LA School District is reporting 24,680 students walked out. LA Indymedia has breaking news.

Students sat down in streets and at one point closed a freeway. The protests are expected to grow tomorrow. This from someone who participated.

The following report is from Don White via the CISPES listserv.

Mayor, others, address students on steps of City Hall; some marchers take the streets and freeways; no arrests up to 2:00 p.M.

Peaking at about 5000 students, a demonstration Monday on the south lawn of City Hall in downtown Los Angeles was addressed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as the youth chanted, applauded and waved banners and flags. His appearance from a City Hall door created a surge of students to the steps of the building.

Earlier students poured into the City Hall lawn after walking out of scores of local high school and middle schools to protest the immigration legislation now in Congress. As each student contingent enter the area, deafening cheers greeted the newcomers.

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From the Times of London

There is no phenomenon more important in shaping American policy, at home or abroad, than the huge tide of immigration rolling in across its borders.

In the home stretch of George W. Bush’s presidency, a vast amount of attention is still given to the analysis of his inclinations. As the imminence of his departure begins to drain the interest from that exercise, the same attention will be transferred to Hillary Clinton and John McCain. That is wilfully blind. The scale of immigration that the US is facing is so large that the subject will come to dominate all of its politics.

The past fortnight has given us a taste of the future. Aerial photographs of the sea of people demonstrating in Los Angeles on Saturday suggested the crowd was half a million strong. There were 300,000 in Chicago on March 10, 50,000 in Denver, 20,000 in Phoenix, and 10,000 in Milwaukee.

Bill Frist, the second-most powerful Republican in the Senate, say the borders should be tightened for reasons of national security.

Hispanics fiercely resent that claim. “When did you ever see a Mexican blow up the World Trade Centre?” David Gonzalez, a Los Angeles marcher, asked the Associated Press. “Who do you think built the World Trade Centre?”

Just as Republicans began to make big inroads into the traditionally Democrat immigrant vote, they have jeopardised it.

But it is not something either party can duck.

It is bound to make the US more introverted, with preoccupations very different from Europe’s. Those who protest against the US’s “overbearing” foreign policy should consider how hard it may become to keep it interested in the rest of the world when it faces such a revolution at home.

Sue and I handed out placards and flyers (pdf) on Saturday as the sea of marchers moved past us. The flyer detailed ANSWER’s position on amnesty. People would see me, a middle-aged Anglo with a flyer, and start to move on. Then they’d see “Amnestia” in big letters as the title of the flyer and come back, asking for one. There were times I couldn’t hand them out fast enough. What struck me the most was this was the working class, the poor, the recent immigrants marching - and that their sheer numbers made this a historic event.ANSWER wasn’t just flyering. We had two speakers during the rally as well as two co-chairs. Why? Because we see immigrant rights as an equal issue to antiwar. The system that invades based on lies is the same system that exploits and demonizes immigrants. The antiwar and immigrant rights movement are starting to join forces. May it grow.

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NY Times:

“It’s an entirely predictable example of the law of unintended consequences,” said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, who helped organize the Chicago rally and who said he was shocked by the size of the turnout. “The Republican party made a decision to use illegal immigration as the wedge issue of 2006, and the Mexican community was profoundly offended.”

Until the wave of immigration rallies, the campaign by groups demanding stringent enforcement legislation seemed to have the upper hand in Washington.

Note to the netroots and liberal blogs. Immigrants have just shown you how to organize and get results. It’s by getting in the streets, and not by blogging about what each other is saying. Recently, as war raged and the immigrant rights movement exploded into prominence, many liberal blogs were preoccupied by the WaPo hiring a conservative blogger. Yes, he was a turd, and yes I’m happy AmericaBlog nailed him, but I think y’all need some perspective. Other issues are vastly more pressing and important than a twerp blogger.

Yet the progressive blogosphere virtually ignored the March 18 antiwar demonstrations and didn’t even see this immigrant tsunami of protest coming. They need to link up with these various movements, to become part of them, otherwise they’re just reporting news instead of making it. In these crazy times, we all need to be activists.

Mercury News

Outraged relief workers say they could face up to five years in prison for providing immigrants with humanitarian assistance. “This bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan - and probably even Jesus himself,” Sen. HiIlary Clinton, D-N. Y., said last week.

“Nobody is talking about prosecuting anyone for providing . . . soup at soup kitchens or a place of rest for somebody who turns out to be an illegal alien,” said Tancredo, leader of a coalition of conservative House Republicans calling for rigorous enforcement of existing immigration laws.

Yet that is precisely what the Sensenbrenner bill calls for. Prison for those rendering any aid to the undocumented. The neocons wanted to get out the racist vote for the elections. But then they kicked the sleeping giant.

The Telegraph

In a sign of Mr Bush’s weakened authority, leading Republicans in the Senate will this week promote a law that calls for strict new controls on the border with Mexico and makes no mention of his “guest worker programme”.

Again this, um, demonstrates that getting in the streets is an effective tactic. Net petitions, phone calls, they all help. But a million people in the streets is what gets their attention.

Christian Science Monitor

“Today’s immigration policy is almost founded on lies,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “It presupposes lying by almost everyone involved.”

(photo: Bill Hackwell)

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Better yet, let’s jail the neocons for deliberate and criminal neglect of the planet.

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This post from April 13, 2003 seems more relevant than ever.

“I was listening to Alternative Radio yesterday on KPFK, with host David Barsamian interviewing Noam Chomsky on the current Iraq invasion.

Barsamian asked Chomsky, “Many people ask, what can we do? How would you answer that?”.

Chomsky’s reply was fascinating. He said he travels worldwide, meeting many different kinds of people. He said when he’s speaking with campensinos in Mexico or labor organizers in a third world county, they never ask, what can we do? Instead, they tell HIM what they ARE doing.

It’s only elites in highly technological countries, he continued, who ask, what can we do, hoping for some quick fix so they can get back to the normal routine of their lives. The campesinos know better than that, they know struggles like this require long term dedication.”

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The food in my bowl
Is old, and more to the point
Contains no tuna.

So you want to play.
Will I claw at dancing string?
Your ankle’s closer.

Seeking solitude
I am locked in the closet.
For once I need you.

Your mouth is moving;
Up and down, emitting noise.
I’ve lost interest.

My brain: walnut-sized.
Yours: largest among primates.
Yet, who leaves for work?

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