Report back from Worcester 's May 1 Rally : IMC Worcester

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Report back from Worcester's May 1 Rally
by Kevin Ksen Thursday, May. 04, 2006 at 10:30 AM

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Midway through Monday’s Immigration Reform Rally in Worcester, Carmen Negrón stepped up to the microphone. She spoke passionately and strongly. “We want amnesty for all immigrants!, We want Worcester City government, the Worcester Public Schools and local social service agencies to truly reflect Worcester’s diversity. We are proud to be a part of the national immigration rights movement.”

Her words were clear, the requests were clear and over two-thousand people in the large crowd cheered, echoing their own matching passion. This they did for the speakers before her and those that followed. Speaker after speaker, from Ghana, Brazil, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere passionately spoke about how White America still wasn’t seeing the demonstrations on corporate media, Sunday morning pundits still weren’t discussing the issues being raised and the White House and Caimmigrant groups are treated, how they struggle and how change is desperately needed not just legislatively but simply as a society.

But while many of the speakers called for amnesty, asking for major changes locally and nationally, the response they received was sadly off the mark. Mayor Timothy Murray, a good mayor and candidate for Lieutenant Governor chose to repeat the partly line, declaring his support for the Kennedy-McCain Immigration Bill. Mayor Murray fell far short of the hopes and dreams of many in the crowd who came asking, perhaps even demanding, that major changes are needed. People are upset about the criminalization of immigrants but they are equally upset about our country, state and city’s unwillingness to open doors and include immigrants in decision-making and securing good dignified well paying jobs.

But that is exactly the abyss between White America and the growing immigrant communities. On March 25th massive demonstrations across the country yielded no change of congressional direction. On April 10th, massive demonstrations across the country yielded no change of congressional direction. It was the failure of these demonstrations that motivated organizers to call for the May 1st boycott. They knew, and immigrants nationwide knew, that White America still wasn’t seeing the demonstrations on corporate media, Sunday morning pundits still weren’t discussing the issues being raised and the White House and Capital remained close to the status quo.

The call for the national boycott came from the ground up, and Worcester was no different, speaking after the rally one main organizer of the local effort expressed his epiphany, “As a coalition we decided not to promote the boycott, but I see now that the boycott was something the people wanted. We wanted the rally, but the people wanted the boycott.” That sentiment was made clear and visible when performer Matt Feinstein paused to ask Monday’s crowd how many stayed home from work, from school or closed their stores and the sea of white shirts turned into a sea of smiling faces with arms proudly raised.

Sixty-seven local businesses and organizations are known to have closed on May 1st in Worcester; there are probably many more that did not get counted. The Worcester Public Schools estimate that 800-900 students stayed home. That was Worcester’s real vote on immigration reform; mom & pop small businesses in Main South, throughout Pleasant, the Valley and Grafton Hill deciding to close. Worcester’s event planners hesitated in supporting and promoting the boycott because they were worried about what might happen to immigrants that supported it. I remember Atty. Randy Feldman at the first meeting, tense and anxious as he compassionately stated, “We’d be responsible if something happened to someone.”

It was exactly that caregiver, protective, social service world compassion to protect immigrants that carried many of the Coalition’s local planners away from even discussing the goals and strategy of the national boycott. The problem is though, that event planners weren’t the ones who would make Worcester’s decision about how to support the boycott. Immigrants from Westboro to Worcester’s west side who live with the threat of losing their jobs, losing their income, becoming separated from their families every single day were the people that would make that decision. It was they not event planners that knew the full costs of joining the boycott. Dishwashers, janitors and factory workers everywhere knew EXACTLY what they risked if they joined the boycott, and the bodegas, restaurants and other local business owners new EXACTLY how much money they were sacrificing by shuttering their stores. They decided the risk and sacrifice was worth the message that they as immigrants wanted to send.

Across this country and city, business owners may have finally got it. Memos and announcements quickly filled Worcester’s lunchroom bulletin boards as owners attempted to discourage and intimidate workers from staying home. Locally, one area business owner who was so worried about the boycott not only offered $100 bonuses to all workers for coming in on May 1st but also paid each employee time-and-a-half! Finally, people were starting to remember and learn that they depend on their dishwashers, office janitors and fast food clerks to keep their businesses open. This was the message the boycott wanted to send, and this is the message that was heard across the U.S. on May 1st.

Charlie Washburn, Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, no one could remember a demonstration larger than this at City Hall since the Vietnam War. Asking friend after friend just which elected community leaders they saw who came to City Hall, or came out of City Hall only provided negative responses. Several folks at the rally said they saw City Manager O’Brien briefly present on the stairs and in an upstairs window and School Committee member Joe O’Brien present throughout. Tim Murray spoke at Monday’s rally, and then he left. Jim McGovern also spoke at the rally and he too sadly departed. And that’s the reason people closed their doors and came to City Hall on Monday. Worcester’s local politicians who queue up for St. Patrick’s Day fundraisers, Labor Day gatherings and set everything aside for the MLK Day Breakfast just didn’t have Worcester’s “Day Without Immigrants” anywhere on their radar screen, nevermind the wishes and demands put forward by the most amazing group of community representatives ever assembled.

And so as Carmen Negrón finished up, asking for a place for new immigrants inside city hall and inside our public schools ears were not present to hear. No one has really been listening to the immigrant rights movement in the United States, and no one inside City Hall or up at Irving Street was really listening on Monday.

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