Nearly 40,000 students from across Southern California staged walkouts to protest proposed immigration legislation Monday, blocking traffic on four freeways and leaving educators concerned about how much longer the issue will disrupt schools.
Nativo Lopez of MAPA said on KPFK this morning it was probably closer to 100,000. L.A. schools are locked down today (I forget, are these schools or prisons?)
These students, as well as the marchers on Saturday, aren’t about to accept a noxious (or even a semi-noxious) law on immigration. Jesse Diaz, one of the march organizers, summed it up at the press conference Friday, “no bill is better than a bad bill.”
The bill that past the Senate Committee yesterday is inadequate. It also won’t survive during the coming fractious Senate debate. Then it must be reconciled with the viciously racist House version.
Immigrant Rights leaders will be meeting April 8 in L.A. to plan coming actions. These include “Day without an Immigrant” general strikes as well as boycotts and walkouts.
The demands are amnesty and full rights for immigrants. What happened Saturday was historic. We may well be witnessing the birth of a new civil rights movement.
For those who say demonstrations don’t accomplish anything, the immigrant rights movement has just conclusively proven that they do.