Aztlan Arising: 700,000+ March in Los Angeles
"La Gran Marcha" surpasses all expectations
by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
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| LA GRAN MARCHA- March 25, 2006 -In foreground is LA City Hall. |
Los Angeles, Alta California - March 26, 2006 - (ACN) Yesterday's march and rally for immigrant rights in downtown Los Angeles is the largest in the city's history. Never has the "City of Angels" seen so many demonstrators filling the streets of the city's center. The sleeping giant has finally awaken giving rise to a new immigrant civil rights movement of unprecedented proportions. The leadership of the various participating groups demonstrated extraordinary organizational skills. Much credit goes to the over 700,000 marchers, that included entire families, for their superb orderly behavior. There was not one act of violence even though the vile "Minutemen Vigilantes" had made threats against "La Gran Marcha" on their websites. The size of the pro-immigrant march and rally surprised the world and the nation. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department made a statement on Thursday, to the local media, that they expected between 10,000 to 15,000 to participate in the march. What a surprise they received on Saturday! The LAPD is now reporting that over 500,000 participated but the true number is actually over 700,000. AnswerLA.org, an organization with a lot of experience in organizing mass marches and rallies, estimate that over 1 million participated. The Aztlan Research Institute, however, utilizing sophisticated crowd counting methodologies, estimates a figure of over 700,000.
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| Seventeen year old Anabel Chavarria reflects the exuberance felt by the marchers |
What does the immense success of "La Gran Marcha" mean to Mexicanos and other Latinos? It simply means that we now have the numbers, the political will and the organizational skills to direct our own destinies and not be subservient to the White and Jewish power structures. It means that we can now undertake bigger and more significant mass actions to achieve total political and economic liberation like that being proposed by Juan José Gutiérrez, President of Movimiento Latino USA. Juan José Gutiérrez is proposing that the coalition that organized "La Gran Marcha" meet in Arizona or Texas on April 8 to "organize a mass boycott (huelga) against the economy of the USA" to take place on May 5 or 19. A major reason for the great success of "La Gran Marcha" was the strong participation of labor unions and the Catholic Church. This same alliance contributed to the success of Lech Walesa's "Solidarity Movement" in the Republic of Poland. This can be done in Aztlan as well. If the racist "Sensenbrenner Legislation" passes the US Senate, there is no doubt that a massive civil disobedience movement will emerge. Eventually labor union power can merge with the immigrant civil rights and "Immigrant Sanctuary" movements to enable us to either form a new political party or to do heavy duty reforming of the existing Democratic Party. The next and final steps would follow and that is to elect our own governors of all the states within Aztlan.
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| Thousands of students walkout of LAUSD high schools on Friday March 24. |
The great success of "La Gran Marcha" also means that the time has come to organize and politicize our great number of youths that are just festering in many of our school districts. The walkouts in Los Angeles of thousands of Mexican and Latino students from Huntington Park, South Gate, Southeast, Jordan, Montebello, Garfield and Roosevelt High Schools on Friday, one day before "La Gran Marcha", only shows that they are now ready to be mobilized and advised on how they can improve their educations. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villagairosa, a Los Angeles Unified School District victim himself before he turned his life around, is already undertaking a bold moved to wrestle control of the district from a Jewish dominated school board and a White superintendent that are just fleecing the schools of much needed funds. School board Jews like Julie Korenstein, Marlene Canter, David Tokofsky, Jon Lauritzen and Mike Lansing are just enriching themselves and their cronies through crooked deals involving school construction projects, and contracts with so called consultants and vendors. The LAUSD is the second largest in the nation, next to New York, with a multi-billion dollar annual budget. It has an overwhelming Mexican and Latino student population. Jews have their own private schools so why are 5 Jews out of 7 school board members interested in governing the school district? The answer is all too obvious. La Voz de Aztlan has interviewed LAUSD teachers that complained that they have to buy, with their own money, pencils, paper and other school supplies that the district should provide. Something has to be done and Mayor Villaraigosa is on the right track We thank the many marchers for the sacrifice they made on Saturday. Many came from as far as San Diego and San Francisco. They came in on buses, trains, trucks, RV's , motorcycles and autos. Some came the night before and slept in their vehicles. Entire families arrived from Fresno, San Jose and Coachella. One family of eight included a grandmother, father, mother, daughters, and sons. One section in the march consisted of at least 20 on wheel chairs. They all came to Los Angeles and made history. This great city will never be the same! |
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