The
success of May 1st's "A
Day Without Immigrants" has been an historical turning
point for the immigrant rights movement.
At this point it is vitally important for the immigrant rights
movement to keep the momentum going, and there is an urgent
need for national meetings in which community/grassroots immigrant
activists can meet face-to-face to discuss how to build a
new national, broad-based, immigrant rights/civil rights movement,
and to set a 6-9 month national strategy for this movement.
Recognizing that:
- The
Senate's immigration 'reform' bill (S. 2611) positive provisions,)
are far outweighed by the damaging impacts it will have
- When
the Senate bill meets that of the House (HR 4437) in conference
the outcome, if there is any, will inevitably be worse.
- There
is a pressing need to quickly ourselves nationally for what
we know will be a long grassroots campaign to defeat the
racist anti-immigration legislation currently being debated.
- There
is a need to maintain the momentum of the undeniable success
of the Los Angeles March 25th "Gran Marcha" and
the national May 1st "A Day Without Immigrants"
boycott/strike.
- In
order to successfully move forward in our organizing process,
there is a need to resolve the conflicts that have arisen
within the movement, many of which (not all,) are a result
of tactical differences (primarily regarding the May 1 boycott.)
- TRUE
SOLIDARITY (founded on mutual aid and respect and demonstrated
through embracing a diversity of tactics,) between progressive
mobilizations across the country can only benefit us all.
The following are the Working Goals of the Conference:
1. Agree on points of unity for a new civil/ human /immigrant
rights movement.
2.
Create a broad-based, multiethnic, community-led national
immigrant solidarity coalition (similar to coalition models
such as United for Peace & Justice and US Labor Against
the War), with an elected steering committee and working groups.
3.
Set a 6-9 month national campaign strategy plan for united
action.
4.
Establish a framework for true solidarity amongst organizations
nationally by: recognizing our common points of unity and
the value of a diversity of tactics. Such solidarity will,
hopefully, resolve the conflicts that have arisen in the movement
and allow us to focus on the work at hand
Working Points of Unity for the Conference:
(Drafted by the Los Angeles March 25th Coalition)
-
No to the anti-immigrant HR4437/SB2611 legislations from Congress
- No to militarization of the border
- No to criminalization of immigrant communities
- No to the planned immigrant crackdown across the country
- No to the guest worker program
- No to Employer Sanctions
- Yes to amnesty for undocumented immigrants
- Yes to immigrant family reunification
- Yes to a humane path to citizenship
- Yes to labor rights and living wages for all workers
Vision of the Conference:
We
envision this as a grassroots activist conference of broad-based,
multiethnic organizers from African American, Native American,
African immigrant, Asian American, Latino/Latina, Arab-Muslim-North
African, progressive labor, interfaith, LGBT, student, anti-war/peace
and global justice groups from across the country.
We
envision this conference as a nexus around which a large diversity
of organizations can cultivate true solidarity, e.g. anti-militarization
of the border/ anti-war efforts, joint labor/ immigrant rights
work regarding the effects of N.A.F.T.A.
The Call:
We
invite your organization:
- To
attend and endorse the conference;
- To
register as soon as possible-to do so will help us finalize
logistics with the university.
- To
guide the program of the conference by offering workshops;
- To
support our call for creating a national coalition, and
consider running for a position on the steering committee
or in working groups;
- To
bring proposals for the 6-9 month
campaign strategy.
On
May 1st, millions of us made history with our nationwide action,
"A Day Without Immigrants". We have shown the world
that our force, our strength and our voice cannot be silenced
from this moment -- and we'll fight for our demands until
we prevail! United We'll Win! Together We'll Achieve Our Dreams!
United We'll
Win! Together We'll Achieve Our Dreams!
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