Facing Off in the Desert: Intense Week of Protest vs. Fascist SB1070 in Arizona

Posted on August 3, 2010
Share:

Initial Report from Arizona Freedom Summer

 
We’ve been in the middle of a very intense battle here in Arizona. Folks have been shutting down the jail, protesting at the Sheriff’s compound where Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio keeps his notorious "tent city", taking to the streets, confronting Minutemen and Nazis, and disrupting Russell Pearce’s fascist pep rally Saturday.
 
All of this is very good and needs to continue, injunction or not.

 
Arizona Freedom Summer participated in many of the actions last week, and we will write more about it soon. One of the most important was the "No deportation zone" that AFS volunteers and people from the neighborhood declared at 16th Street and McDowell in Phoenix. Something new is on the scene. The days when people allow their neighbors and coworkers to be dragged off and deported by the authorities instead of standing up to stop it, those days must be over and they can be. The protests at 16th and McDowell are just the beginning and these "No deportation zones" need to spread everywhere.

If you haven’t seen the giant billboard that we put up next to the 17 freeway (at Grant St. going North) go check it out! "WE DON’T HAVE AN IMMIGRATION PROBLEM, WE HAVE A CAPITALISM PROBLEM." http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=175957&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=132773390085142&aid=-1&id=100000888363913

It’s already inspiring people, pissing off the fascists, and challenging many thousands more to think. DONATE here! http://www.facebook.com/l/b5fe86Y_6TW55g1uRt2NZszmKLQ;www.revcom.us/fund_en.php and write "Arizona Freedom Summer Billboard" in the comment box. We’ve raised about $1000 but need another $2000. If you appreciate this message, please donate generously. And spread the picture on facebook.

Then check out the link at the bottom of the billboard to Bob Avakian’s 2003 speech "Revolution: Why it’s necessary, Why it’s possible, What it’s all about": http://www.facebook.com/l/b5fe8FWPdqi8aIrX29inV4lQP4A;REVOLUTIONTALK.NET. Watch the whole thing, but start with the clip "Why do people come here from all over the world?"

And check out this article from EFE, reporting on the "No Deportation Zone", that went out to over 100 media outlets from all over the world:

Phoenix (EE.UU.). (EFE).- Activistas contrarios a la ley de inmigración de Arizona mantuvieron este viernes sus actos de "resistencia" en la capital de ese estado de EE.UU., mientras los republicanos han expresado su apoyo a esa norma que pretenden aprobar al menos cinco congresos estatales más.

Las calles de la zona céntrica de Phoenix, que el jueves fueron un hervidero de activismo contra la llamada ley SB1070 y de una extensa cobertura mediática, hoy se encontraban vacías. Pero en la intersección entre las calles 16 y McDowell, una arteria muy transitada de la ciudad, un pequeño grupo de militantes se apostó a tempranas horas para establecer una "zona de no deportación".

"Estamos aquí para organizar una resistencia a esta ley fascista y antiinmigrante, y para decir claramente que no tenemos un problema de inmigración sino un problema de capitalismo", dijo a Efe el activista Travis Morales.

Morales criticó que la Administración que preside Barack Obama ha continuado y aumentado la detención y deportación de los indocumentados. "Necesitamos más resistencia masiva para impedir y parar las deportaciones y las redadas y los arrestos", enfatizó.

Leave a Reply