BY JOAQUIN BUSTELO
ATLANTA — Thousands of immigrant workers and their supporters marched and rallied here September 29 to demand equal rights and the right to hold a driver's licence. The protest was part of the national Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.
The freedom ride is being spearheaded by the Direct Action Committee of the Georgia for Safe Roads Coalition, the Coordinating Council of Latino Community Leaders (CCLCL), the Atlanta Labor Council (AFL-CIO) and the Atlanta chapter of Jobs with Justice.
Dozens of other groups and many prominent individuals actively supported the action and other freedom ride activities, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, groups representing African, Arab and other immigrants, and many individual unions, notable among them UNITE, which is organising industrial laundry workers in Georgia, many of whom are undocumented immigrants.
The protest was held in the metro area Doraville, a city in which a major General Motors' assembly plant is organised by the United Automobile Workers union. The UAW has significant influence in Doraville's municipal politics. It is also a major immigrant neighbourhood. The starting point for the march was the Our Lady of the Americas, a Catholic mission next door to a mass transit station; the end point was the UAW Local 10 headquarters.
As the march crossed a paralysed Buford Highway, the heart of the Latino community, the chants could be heard for blocks around: "Licenses, licenses, licenses"; "Bush, listen, we are in the struggle"; and the farmworkers' rallying cry, "Si se puede".
Originally, an indoor meeting had been scheduled for after the march. However, as the march arrived at Local 10 it became obvious that the crowd would overwhelm the 700-seat auditorium, so a pickup truck was turned into an improvised stage and the rally was held in the union car park.
Parts of the rally were broadcast live by Radio Mex, one of a half-dozen Spanish-language AM stations that have sprung up in the past decade as Georgia's Latino community has exploded from around 150,000 to more than 500,000 (according to official figures, but probably closer to 1 million in reality).
For this burgeoning community, driver's licenses are a desperate need. The denial of this right has become a symbol for the indignities, abuse and exploitation that the Latino community is subjected to.
Perhaps the best received speaker was Mexico-born Adelina Nicholls, vice-president of the CCLCL and the central organiser of the Georgia campaign for driver's licenses for immigrants. "Today is a historic day in the state of Georgia, and we want to let our brothers and sisters know that here, too, we have launched the struggle to demand our rights be respected and to obtain driver's licenses", Nicholls said in Spanish.
"Today the Latino Community, as well as our Afro-American brothers and sisters, our American brothers and sisters, have decided to take to the streets in an action called the March for Dignity, and we come to say that you are not alone, the time has come for our voice to be heard and we will not take even one step back in our struggle to obtain the respect we deserve."
Nicholls slammed the hypocrisy and racism that brands undocumented immigrants as "illegals": "They call us illegals while we build roads that we aren't allowed to drive on. They call us illegals while we prepare the food in their restaurants. They call us illegal while we take care of and raise their children. They call us illegal while we process the chicken they eat. They call us illegal while we tend to their gardens from dawn to dusk. They call us illegal while we build their houses and harvest their crops."
To every accusation the crowd responded with pumping fists and shouts of "Duro! Duro! Duro!" ("Hit them hard"), "Today we have come out to say, enough!" and "No more abuse, no more discrimination, no more racism, no more police harassment!".
"We are workers", Nicholls said, "and we demand respect."
"Who are we?", Nicholls asked, again and again. Time and again the crowd roared back "Somos trabajadores" ("We are workers!").
"The struggle continues", Nicholls concluded. "Today is just the beginning of this great movement. In unity there is strength. The people united will never be defeated."
From Green Left Weekly, October 15, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.