Estimates ranging from 100-250 thousand people in Chicago took to
the streets Friday, March 10 in a massive protest for immigrant rights.
The protest was organized to oppose the Sensenbrenner bill, which, if
it passes through the Senate, will make it a felony to help illegal
immigrants in any way (even providing water), and make undocumented
workers criminals. Not only was this protest the largest of its kind in
Chicago in at least a century, but the crowd (consisting mostly of
Latinos and other immigrants) by and large took off from work to come,
shutting 
down many businesses and risking their jobs. At a time when
the Bush regime increasingly criminalizes and brings about new
suffering to immigrants, and right-wing vigilantes like the Minutemen
hunt down immigrants with government encouragement, this resistance in
Chicago by many of the very people facing such attacks is extremely
important and an example others need to follow.
Report from a Chicago World Can’t Wait organizer who attended the protest
It’s hard to find the words for the
exhilaration felt in the streets of Chicago yesterday. Official police
figures put attendance at the march for immigrant rights at 100,000 and
here in Chicago, the rule of thumb is to double the police figure to
get the real one. But the expanse of people was beyond our capacity to
absorb! Grandmothers and toddlers in strollers, whole groups of workers
and even owners from businesses marching in their work uniforms, mostly
Latino but smaller contingents of Polish workers and Irish too–it was
inspiring.
World Can’t Wait got to the park where the
marchers assembled two hours ahead of time and we weren’t too early.
What was going to be our meeting spot turned into a logistical station
as people lined up to get our “Bush Step Down” posters as fast as they
could be stapled onto picket sticks, many signing up to keep in touch
and many more donating to our cause as well. And the whistles with
green stickers in Spanish were very popular. Teams of teenagers we met
there took leaflets and whistles to distribute in the crowd and brought
back donations, then turned around and took more of everything to get
out.
Our contingent of WCW organizers was small and
we could never have distributed all 20,000 copies of the Call in
Spanish that we brought without the efforts of many hundreds of people
in the march we met on the spot. But we did, along with thousands of
copies in English as well. Many sections of the march were dotted with
our bright green Bush Step Down! posters and the chant of “Fuera Bush,
Si se puede” was taken up by the crowd around us at several junctures.
We marched for hours with our green “World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the
Bush Regime” banner, arriving at the Federal Plaza with thousands of
others after the rally had been prematurely ended by the police, who
were anxious to get all these people out of the Loop before rush hour.
Many marchers thanked us for coming but we
replied that this is our struggle too, about the kind of country we’re
all going to live in. Some of us had talked before the march about
whether it was up to Jews to fight anti-semitism under Hitler or
whether all Germans had that responsibility. We are determined not to
be good Germans! Frankly, there were very, very few non-immigrants
apparent in the march so it wasn’t surprising that they might see our
participation as an anomaly.
Passing out our Call, we agitated that the
war is criminal, the regime is criminal, but immigrants are NOT
criminals and it’s the regime that has to go. Fuera Bush! This was met
with almost universal support, which shows the strong anti-war
sentiment among the marchers as well. We urged people to come out next
week too (March 18th anti-war march) as part of taking on the whole
program of the Bush regime, not only “fighting Bush’s outrages one at a
time.”
How did all this happen? There was certainly
no word of this in the mainstream English-language media, although the
Spanish dailies reported on the growing movement, including an Irish
pub on the Northside that sponsored an Irish contingent. We heard many
stories, such as a grocery store in a far south suburb of Chicago that
shut down and paid for 10 buses to bring their workers and customers to
the protest. But so many wanted to come that they ordered three more
buses, people chipped in to pay for them, and there still wasn’t enough
room for everyone. In many neighborhoods and suburbs, grandmothers
opened their homes to take in children so their parents could
participate. And many churches and schools brought their congregations
and students en masse to the protest.
People under vicious threat by this
government, facing their families being ripped apart by this new
legislation if moms and dads without papers can be deported and their
children left behind, took to the streets to fight for their rights.
They realize that demonstrating does make a difference and that they
must take responsibility for the direction their lives and this society
are going to go. What if this had been the response to the murderous
callousness of this regime after Katrina? And when will women who know
the devastating impact of the loss of choice follow this example rather
than the mis-leaders of the Democratic party and quit “putting our
hopes and energies into ‘leaders’ who tell us to seek common ground
with fascists and religious fanatics”? World Can’t Wait must learn from
and build on this terrific new development, this “sleeping giant that
has awakened” (as the Spanish news reported) to stop “the whole
disastrous course of this Bush regime.”