[FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE] IMMIGRANT RIGHTS GROUP TO HOLD PRESS CONFERNCE FOR MAYDAY MARCH-April 21st 11:30AM
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josefro...@aol.com
Apr 20, 2011, 3:07:19 PM4/20/11
to moratoriumon...@gmail.com
[Attached and bellow please find Press Advisory for April 21st Press Conference at 11:30AM. Please also note! that organizers for Chicago May Day March will present the attached and bellow statement on the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance at the City Council Hearing on April 21st 10:00AM]
***********FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE************
Press Advisory
April 20, 2011 for April 21st Event
IMMIGRANT RIGHTS GROUP TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE
TO ANNOUNCE MAY DAY MARCH IN CHICAGO
Chicago, IL
- Despite the tide of anti-worker and anti-immigrant bills in Illinois and
around the country, immigrant rights activists and supporting organizations are
putting out the call to march on May Day in support of the rights of both
documented and undocumented workers.
“We march because the
classic union anthem of ‘Solidarity Forever’ refers to every worker -
documented and undocumented, waged and unwaged, in the US and around the
world,” stated Robin Hewlett, an artist and organizer for May Day.
What: Press Conference to
invite Chicagoans to march on May 1st 2011
When: Thursday, April 21st
at 11:30 AM
Where: Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Building, 101 West Congress Parkway
Who: Members and
Supporters of the Moratorium on Deportations Campaign (MDC)
BACKGROUND:
May Day is celebrated
around the world as the international day of solidarity among working people.
This global celebration recognizes the historic importance of worker struggles
in Chicago, as a city in which immigrant workers in the 1800s led the fight for
the 8-hour work-day.
In 2006, Chicago’s
immigrant communities marched in protest and defeated the harsh anti-immigrant
Sensenbrenner Bill; it was this struggle for immigrant rights that breathed new
life into Mayday and re-ignited the fight for the rights of all working people.
This legacy continues in 2011 as a grassroots coalition calls for a Mayday
march in Chicago from Union Park to Pilsen, a Latino neighborhood of great
international significance in the history of the struggles for worker rights.
Today the political and
economic problems facing the nation are even more dramatic than in 2006. The
attack on workers in Wisconsin, and the enormous nation-wide response of
support, comes against the backdrop of copy-cat anti-worker bills around the
Midwest. At the same time, deportations continue at historically high rates,
and anti-immigrant legislation is being introduced around the country including
proposed bill HB 1969 here in Illinois. As two sides of the same coin, these
dual attacks highlight the importance of solidarity for workers regardless of
their legal status.
Mayday is the largest
show of worker solidarity in the world, in which teachers, workers, immigrants
and students in Chicago will join their counterparts around the world to march
for a fair and equal Chicago.
“We march because our
communities are under attack” said Jose Herrera, a youth organizer of the
march. “Politicians make false promises in order to mobilize the immigrant
vote, while at the same time they enforce a system that oppresses and
criminalizes immigrants. We march as a way to build political power and
consciousness in our communities,” he concluded.
“We march because we are in a moment of emerging
global consciousness among working people” stated Carmela Garcia. “The failure
of the neoliberal system is clear, and there is an emerging globalized movement
to build a better and more just world”.
The demands of the march are as
follows:
1. Stop all deportations
NOW — we demand an immediate Moratorium on Deportations !
2. Legalization and full
status without conditions for undocumented immigrants NOW !
3. An end to
anti-immigrant legislation and the criminalization of immigrants
4. Labor rights,
employment, and a living wage for all workers
5. Funding for health
care, jobs and education, not for war and deportation!
The itinerary for May Day
Event is as follows:
4:00PM March Ends and Rally Starts at Plaza Tenochtitlan, (Corners of 18th St/Blue Island/S. Loomis)
Endorsing organizations include:
Moratorium on
Deportations, 3d Graphics Inc, 8th Day Center for Justice, AFSCME
Local 2081, Albany Park, North Park, Mayfair Neighbors for Peace and Justice,
ANSWER Chicago, Biblioteca Popular, Centro Americano para la Cultura y las
Artes, Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism
(CCAWR), Chicago Jobs with Justice, Committee Against the Militarization of our
Youth (CAMi), Gay Liberation Network, Iglesia Metodista Amor de Dios, Immigrant
Solidarity Dupage, International Socialist Organization, Justice
Mission, La Villita-Chicago Facebook Community, Labor Committee on
Immigrant Worker Rights, M19 Anti War Coalition, Movimiento Migrante
Mesoamericano, Radios Populares, Red Migrante, Socialist Worker Party, Teachers
for Social Justice-Chicago, Teamsters Local 743, The Chicago Chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild, The Coalition of Utah Progressives (CUP)
For more information, or to set up an interview, please contact:
Jose Herrera at
773-632-9992 or Carmela Garcia 847-809-0611
###
From: Moratorium
on Deportations
Contact:Jose
Herrera (773) 632 9992
josefro...@aol.com,
Rozalinda Borcila (813)789-0123 rbor...@yahoo.com
Rozalinda Borcila (813)789-0123 rbor...@yahoo.com
To be
presented at the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance City Council Hearing on April 21st
2011 10:00AM
Statement from the organizers of Chicago Mayday
March 2011: “Worker’s Struggle Beyond
Borders”
Why we support
the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance
As a
coalition that brings together immigrant rights groups, anti-war organizations,
neighborhood associations and rank and file workers, we understand that issues
of environmental justice are intricately
interwoven with issues of workplace justice and human rights. We support the Chicago Clean Power
Ordinance because:
1. Chicago
offers a dramatic example of how environmental devastation disproportionately
affects immigrant communities and people of color. Our communities experience a
warzone with every breath, the kind of war that builds battlefields in our
neighborhoods and inside the bodies of our children. The city has the
authority, and the obligation, to stop this deadly attack on its residents.
2. The
air we breathe knows no borders. The toxic pollutants produced by the Fisk and
Crawfold coal-fired plants (in Pilsen and Little Village respectively) affect
people across the city and the region. We expect the city of Chicago to live up
to its green image as more than an empty slogan.
3.
We believe that support for the rights and health of workers, like those that
work at the Fisk and Crawfold coal-fired plants, is entirely compatible with
the health and well-being of the primarily immigrant communities that suffer
the deadly affects of the two unregulated coal plants.
4.
Working people are being forced to pay for economic and environmental crisis
created by corporations that destabilize economies, devastate life-sustaining
ecosystems, displace workers and pollute communities around the globe. Average
working people cannot afford to bear these disproportionate costs while the top
1% profit.
Who
we are:
On May
Day, as millions of people around the world celebrate workers' rights, a
coalition of grassroots immigrant rights activists, anti-war organizations,
rank and file workers and community members are calling on Chicago to march! On
Sunday, May 1st, we march in solidarity with all working people -
documented and undocumented, waged and unwaged, in the US and around the world.
Together we march for justice, fair wages, decent working conditions, basic
dignity, healthy communities, and full legal status for all working people.
For
more information see: www.moratoriumondeportations.org
-END-
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