FILIPINOS DEMANDS LEGALIZATION AND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS (tags)
Last Friday, May 1, International Workers’ Day, women workers, youth and allies of the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (Alliance Philippines) joined the groundswell of immigrants and workers demanding for Obama to deliver on his promise of immigration reform in nationally-coordinated marches. The Alliance Philippines called for full legalization, amnesty, a stop to racist enforcement measures like deportations, detentions and border militarization, full protections for all workers, and an end to US imperialism, the root cause of the Filipino people’s forced migration. “We are here to echo the voices of the 14 million undocumented who are struggling and working hard despite the economic crisis,” said Mona Lunot, nanny, housekeeper and Chairperson of DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association, in her speech at the concluding rally in New York City. DAMAYAN is a member organization of Alliance Philippines. “Undocumented workers are called ‘aliens.’ But we are the workers who take care of Americans’ homes and children, cook their food, build their houses, and plant the food they eat.
FILIPINOS DEMANDS LEGALIZATION AND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS (tags)
Last Friday, May 1, International Workers’ Day, women workers, youth and allies of the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (Alliance Philippines) joined the groundswell of immigrants and workers demanding for Obama to deliver on his promise of immigration reform in nationally-coordinated marches. The Alliance Philippines called for full legalization, amnesty, a stop to racist enforcement measures like deportations, detentions and border militarization, full protections for all workers, and an end to US imperialism, the root cause of the Filipino people’s forced migration. “We are here to echo the voices of the 14 million undocumented who are struggling and working hard despite the economic crisis,” said Mona Lunot, nanny, housekeeper and Chairperson of DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association, in her speech at the concluding rally in New York City. DAMAYAN is a member organization of Alliance Philippines. “Undocumented workers are called ‘aliens.’ But we are the workers who take care of Americans’ homes and children, cook their food, build their houses, and plant the food they eat.” In the Los Angeles, the epicenter of the immigrant rights movement, in the biggest rally more than 30,000 marchers led by the Full Rights For immigrant coalition turned out and marched from Broadway and Olympic intersection around 1;00 PM. Composed mostly of Latino workers and advocates who filled the streets, the militant march overflowed the main streets of LA.
FILIPINOS IN THE UNITED STATES: WHITHER? WHENCE? (tags)
The publication of four essays by Filipino activist-scholar E. SAN JUAN, Jr. on the situation of Filipinos in "the belly of the beast" marks a historic stage in the criticial self-examination of this community at a time when the USA Patriot Act and Bush's "war of terror" have stigmatized this group as somehow connected with the Abu Sayyaf terrorism in the Philippines. It is time for Filipinos in the U.S. to stand up and fight continuing racial stigmatization and inferiorization of the Filipino national identity. Makibaka, huwag matakot!