Centro CSO takes to the streets of Boyle Heights for its 10th annual May Day

Los Angeles, CA – For the 10th consecutive year, hundreds of workers, students and activists joined Centro CSO for its May Day in Boyle Heights march and rally. For this year’s event, CSO raised two main demands: “Legalization 4 All” and “No to Deportations” as part of the movement against Trump’s attacks on immigrants.

After a spirited rally at the historic Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, protesters marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison where immigrants are incarcerated.

Karina Lopez and Sammy Carrera, members of Centro CSO and co-emcees of the event, launched the rally with chants and told the history of International Workers’ Day. Lopez and Carrera outlined CSO’s work, which includes fighting police terror in Boyle Heights and East LA, defending public education from privatization, and conducting barrio walks to inform immigrants of their rights.

The first set of speakers focused on the detention and deportations of immigrants. Verita and Nadia Topete, sisters from Boyle Heights and members of Centro CSO’s immigration committee, spoke about their father Marcos Jose Topete, an immigrant who, after seeking asylum, was detained for three years at the Adelanto Detention Center. Verita said, “While detained, our father suffered abuse – physical, sexual, emotional, psychological – and also medical neglect. But what hurt the most was watching him be punished for speaking out. He became a whistleblower and advocate within the facility, exposing the inhumane living conditions inside and leading hunger strikers.”

Veronica Hernandez, a member of CISPES (the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador), connected Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation to the mass incarceration that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is carrying out against his people. Abrego Garcia’s “experience to be detained and deported without any legal proceedings has been the experience of 80,000 Salvadorans for the past three years under Bukele’s State of Exception,” according to Hernandez.

Next Antonieta Garcia, chair of CSO’s education committee, kicked off a block of education speakers by highlighting how public schools are under attack. Garcia called for “Community, schools and workers to organize, unite and fight against the Trump administration.” Maria Miranda, elementary vice president of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), also spoke during this section.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, denounced the attempts by ICE to enter schools in Los Angeles in order to apprehend and deport students. Weingarten said, “Today, educators are all over the country, 800 events all over, to say one thing, which is what Centro CSO has said over and over and over again. Do not come into our schools!”

After the education block, Sam Carrera, one of the rally’s emcees and a member of Teamsters Local 396, pumped up the crowd by speaking on his experiences as a sanitation worker. He called for workers to organize and to fight against their bosses at the negotiation table. Michael Williams of Black Lives Matter – LA and Nyusha from the International League of People’s Struggle then closed out the rally at Mariachi Plaza.

The protesters marched down 1st Street, crossing over the Los Angeles River and arriving downtown. Chants included, “Trump, escucha! Estamos en la lucha!” and “¡Se ve! Se siente ¡El pueblo está presente!” The march eventually reached the Metropolitan Detention Center where protesters heard from a block away the Centro CSO organizers and allies.

Marisol Marquez, co-chair of both CSO’s immigration committee and Legalization 4 All, a national network of organizations that fight for immigrant rights, celebrated those in the crowd who had recently organized the Emergency Southwest Summit against Deportations in East LA and Boyle Heights.

“One thing we took away from the emergency summit is that now is the time to unite as many people and organizations to fight back,” said Marquez. “Today, each of us took a step out of the shadows and marched all of the way here. Raise your hand if you know at least one person or family who could be affected by ICE. Be proud of yourselves. Without an organized way of fighting back, we are powerless. There is power in unity and we have shown that today.”

Gabriel Quiroz Jr, co-chair of Centro CSO’s police accountability committee, outlined CSO’s fight against the East LA sheriffs and LAPD before connecting the struggles for police accountability and immigrant rights. “Attacks on raza by immigration enforcement and local police brutality are forms of national oppression Chicanos go through here in Aztlan,” he declared.

A representative from the Palestinian Youth Movement, spoke on how struggles within the U.S. are linked to those in Palestine. He emphasized how the technology that Israel uses to kill Palestinians is the same used to detain and deport immigrants.

Luis Sifuentes, a member of Centro CSO and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, raised the demands of the protest, “On International Workers’ Day, our mission is clear: Stand up for workers and immigrants’ rights.” He also called for revolution and ending national oppression.

Alejandro Mendez, a Zapoteco activist, closed the rally outside the Metropolitan Detention Center by linking indigenous struggles with the fight for immigrant rights. After this speech, the protesters marched one-and-a-hlaf miles back to Mariachi Plaza, filling downtown and Boyle Heights with their chants against Trump and his reactionary agenda.

If you would like to join the movement against Trump and his reactionary agenda, you attend Centro CSO’s general meeting every third Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m. at the Boyle Heights City Hall. You can also follow CSO on social media @CentroCSO.

#LosAngelesCA #CA #Labor #ImmigrantRights #MayDay #CentroCSO

Source: https://fightbacknews.org/centro-cso-takes-to-the-streets-of-boyle-heights-for-its-10th-annual-may-day?pk_campaign=rss-feed