https://themilitant.com/2019/05/11/thousands-demand-licenses-amnesty-at-may-day-rallies/
Thousands demand licenses, amnesty at May Day rallies
By Janet Post
Vol. 83/No. 20
May 20, 2019
“Immigrant workers need driver’s licenses, like everyone else,” Santos
Ramos told Militant at May Day protest of 4,000 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Demand is in interest of entire working class.
Militant/Dan Fein
“Immigrant workers need driver’s licenses, like everyone else,” Santos
Ramos told Militant at May Day protest of 4,000 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Demand is in interest of entire working class.
Tens of thousands of workers in small towns, large cities and rural
areas across the U.S. took to the streets for International Workers Day
May 1 as the capitalist bosses and their government bear down on
workers’ living and working conditions — immigrant and native-born. The
main focus of many of the protests was the rights of undocumented
workers, and that they have access to a driver’s license.
“Immigrant workers need driver’s licenses for the same reason as
everyone else,” factory worker Santos Ramos told the Militant at a May
Day rally of 4,000 in Madison, Wisconsin, “to get to work and to do the
shopping. Demonstrations like today will help win them.”
In Wisconsin, immigrants had been able to get driver’s licenses
regardless of their legal status until 2007, when a law requiring a
Social Security number to get a license went into effect. “I want to be
able to drive without fear. Sometimes the police stop us just for being
Hispanic, even if there’s no infraction,” said Gonzalo Hernández, a
Mexican-born restaurant worker who came to the protest from Milwaukee.
“And I’m also here because we need amnesty.”
Uniting the whole working class
“Amnesty now!” for the 11 million undocumented workers in the U.S. — a
demand in the interests of all working people — is a necessary step
toward uniting the whole working class. “It’s in the interests of
working people to fight for amnesty for all undocumented immigrants in
the U.S.,” said a campaign flyer distributed by Seth Galinsky, Socialist
Workers Party candidate for New York City public advocate. He joined a
May 1 rally in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
“The capitalists depend on this pool of superexploited workers to better
compete against their rivals around the world,” Galinsky said. “They try
to pit us against each other, to bring down the wages and working
conditions of all.”
The Perth Amboy demonstration of 250 included construction, restaurant
and factory workers and small-business owners. In New Jersey the maximum
fine for driving without a license is $500. But as in other states that
deny licenses to immigrants without “proper papers,” those that do
drive run the risk the cops will turn them over to immigration authorities.
In Elkhart, Indiana, 70 people rallied in the parking lot of Cueramaro
Supermarket and marched downtown chanting “Licensia, si! Promesas, no!”
(Licenses, yes. Promises, no.) There were 900 documented stops by cops
of drivers without licenses in Elkhart County in 2018 and 361 people,
mostly Hispanic, were arrested and jailed.
Marchers talked to the Militant about a victory there last year
preventing the building of an immigration detention center. “A detention
center didn’t open last year because people in the town of Elkhart did
not want to see people incarcerated,” said Jesus Huizar, a 25-year-old
factory worker participating in his first May Day demonstration.
“Really, it’s not a ‘detention,’ it’s incarceration, another prison.”
In Detroit, 250 workers, majority Latino, assembled downtown to march to
southwest Detroit behind a banner saying “El grito por licencias” (the
cry for driver’s licenses.) By the time the march arrived in Clark Park,
there were more than 800 people.
‘We are here, we will not leave’
At an event sponsored by Immigrant Dignity in Athens, Georgia, 60 people
marched and rallied, chanting “Aqui estamos, no nos vamos.” (We are
here, we will not leave.)
Organizer Beto Hernandez told marchers that on April 13, the Clark
County government there promised to stop arresting undocumented workers
who are unable to get driver’s licenses. “We will continue to organize
to make sure that this promise is carried out,” he said.
Construction workers, domestic workers and day laborers, many originally
from Central America, were among the 40 protesters in Mineola, New York,
who marched to Hempstead for an evening forum. Speakers called on state
legislators to pass a bill providing driver’s license for all. The
protest also demanded legal residence for all undocumented workers.
Sponsors included the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and
Workplace Project.
Similar actions took place across the country.
There were also International Workers Day rallies in North and South
Carolina attended by thousands of teachers and other school workers
demanding their state governments provide more money for schools.
From San Juan, Puerto Rico — where some 2,000 people marched against
government austerity measures and called for the speedup of hurricane
recovery efforts — to Manila, Philippines, where workers demanded a
raise in the minimum wage, protests were organized worldwide. In Seoul,
South Korea, workers demanded equal pay for temporary workers; in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, demands included reinstatement of fired workers and paid
maternity leave for garment workers. Thousands of protesters marched to
the national palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, to demand higher wages.
Riot police attacked workers’ marches in Turkey, Italy, Russia and in
France, where the yellow vests have been protesting for months.
Laura Anderson and Naomi Craine from Chicago; Rachele Fruit from
Atlanta; Robert Kissinger from Detroit; Martín Koppel from New York; and
Ron Richards from Puerto Rico contributed to this article.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Demand US hands off Venezuela and Cuba!
•Uber, Lyft drivers strike across US for pay, dignity
•Latest fighting shows need for recognition of Israel, Palestine
•One of 3 Florida prison bans on ‘Militant’ overturned, two to go
•‘Working people have nothing to gain from the US rulers’ wars’
•Moves by UK gov’t to scuttle leaving EU deepens crisis, angers workers
Feature Articles •Sankara’s revolutionary legacy discussed at New York forum
Also In This Issue •Thousands demand licenses, amnesty at May Day rallies
•Political censorship by Facebook threat to working class
•Canada: Deadly rail disaster is result of bosses’ drive for profits
•School workers in Carolinas rally for pay raise, better conditions
•New Florida law restricts ex-felons voting rights victory
•Campaign to expand reach of ‘Militant,’ books, fund April 6 - May 28
(week four)
Editorials •Fight Fla. prison censorship of ‘Militant’
Books of the Month •‘Proletarians have a world to win. Workers of all
countries unite!’
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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David Hume
“ In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees
of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral
evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. ”
― David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding