FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2009
Jollene Levid, Gabnet Secretary-General
secgen@gabnet.org
323-356-4748
GABNet/Ma-Al Calls for Dismantling of Imperialism;
Demands Migrant Workers Legalization
Los Angeles: From the East Coast to the West Coast, GabNet of the Mariposa Alliance carried its banner in all the major mobilizations in the US on International Labor Day, May 1, 2009, with a call to dismantle imperialism even as it demanded legalization of all migrant workers’ status in the US.
Marching with ethnic and worker contingents, GabNet brought its anti-imperialist perspective to the issue of immigration, pinpointing US-led imperialism as the root cause of migration. Favorite chant of the day was:
From Iraq to Palestine, (repeat)
Occupation is a crime!
Yea, yea, yea, yea! Yea, yea, yea, yeah!
Immigrants demand our rights,
We’ll unite and we will fight!
Yea, yea, yea, yea! Yea, yea, yea, yeah!
From the borders to the streets,
Our people will be free!
Yea, yea, yea, yea! Yea, yea, yea, yeah!
In its official 2009 May Day statement, GabNet of the Mariposa Alliance declared that US-led imperialism “renders (the migrant’s) home countries virtually economically uninhabitable,” thus forcing women, men and even children to migrate to survive.
GabNet of the Mariposa Alliance condemned imperialism for intensifying patriarchal values, even as it drives women into acute poverty by re-organizing national economies and destroying women’s livelihood. “Women are transformed into cheap labor and sex commodity, as we witness in the export processing zones of the world and in the global sex trade. As if this injury is not sufficient, imperialist culture then insults women into an acceptance of their selves as having value only in terms of how their sexuality can serve men. Women are being asked to ignore the history of prostitution as originating in slavery,” the statement said.
The San Diego chapter of GabNet led a landmark demonstration of 1,000 men and women to the surprise of residents of this military city.
In Los Angeles, GabNet co-sponsored a march from Echo Park with MIWON and helped turn out 15,000 marchers. GabNet read its statement at La Placita Olvera where the marchers congregated.
In New York, GabNet was with a 100-strong contingent of Filipinos, mostly women, who marched with the Immigrant Communities in Action. Members braved the rain which had fallen intermittently the whole day but did not deter some 10,000 people from congregating at Union Square.
Mainstream media, including Spanish television, covered the presence of GabNet at all the rallies – perhaps in reaction to the Filipinas’ strong presence at all the rallies. There are only three million Filipinos total in the United States.
