General Strike May 1st | No Work | No School | No Buying Anything
Quick on the heels of the massive March 25th mobilizations and the student walkouts during the following week, April 10th was a historic day of action for immigrant rights across the USA. Tens of thousands of people took the streets in Los Angeles and in Santa Ana, while 5,000 marched in St. Louis and 10,000 raised their voices in the largest march in Fresno's history. San Diego also made history with a march of up to 100,000 people on April 9th. There were mobilizations in the Bay Area, in Tennessee, in Rochester, NY, and in DC. In Portland, up to 8,000 marched, while thousands gathered in Love Park in Philly. Allies mobilized in Pittsburgh. In Arizona, people were on the move in Flagstaff. There were major marches and actions in NYC and Boston, and Houston Indymedia provided a blow by blow of actions in Texas. In Puerto Rico, hundreds took the streets of Barrio Obrero. (These amazing stories are just a small sample of coverage of April 10th actions across the country; for more go to your local IMC.) Congress has been forced to backpeddle on brutal anti-immigrant legislation, but they are nowhere near to meeting the demands of the movement, especially amnesty for all. So the movement for immigrant justice keeps rising, with more major actions planned in the coming weeks: April 15th is a student day of action, and May 1st will be a historic day of action, with calls for a general strike, boycott, no sales or purchases, walkouts, marches, and actions in financial centers and at anti-immigrant corporations throughout the country.
http://deletetheborder.org/node/932
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L.A. Rally Supports Illegal Immigrants
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By ROBERT JABLON Associated Press Writer
April 15,2006 | LOS ANGELES -- Led by the family of a teenager who committed suicide, several thousand people rallied Saturday at City Hall to demand reforms allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S.
Friends and family members of 14-year-old Anthony Soltero were at the front of a march through downtown that ended with the rally. They held signs with his photo that said, "Continue the struggle in Anthony's name."
"We're supporting him, and we want justice for our son," said his mother, Louise Corales, 32, of Ontario.
The teen shot and killed himself with a .22-caliber rifle at home March 30. According to attorneys for the teen's family, a suicide note said he was upset after a vice principal at his middle school warned he would be disciplined for leaving school on the day of an immigration protest.
Immigrant advocates have cited Soltero as a casualty of their campaign. School district officials dispute the assertion that the eighth-grader was threatened and question whether he even attended an immigration rally the day he left school.
Police estimated that about 3,000 people, many with children, gathered at City Hall -- well below the attendance at other immigration rallies in the past several weeks. There were no arrests or reports of problems.
At the rally, speakers called for amnesty for the millions of illegal immigrants in the nation. They also reminded people of a planned May 1 boycott of work, school and business that is being dubbed "a day without an immigrant."
Some students who had skipped school to take part in previous protests were among the marchers who waved Mexican and American flags and held signs with messages in English and Spanish such as: "Our parents are not terrorists."
Jeffrey Santamaria, 16, of Glendale was with his parents, whom he said have been in this country for two decades without proper documents.
They "deserve to be respected. They are just here to work," Santamaria said.
http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8H0QJCG1.html