story by La Marchadora
How do you measure the success of a march? Is it by the number of
people who come out? Is it by the number of media outlets that cover
it? Or the number of organizations you can list in support? I say that
gives you some kind of measuring stick, but the way you make people
feel says a lot more about your success than the 30 second mention on
the news. All I felt this year was that this march didn’t wait for
me, and I don’t think I was alone in the sense that as participants we
didn’t get fully taken into account.
May 1st in San Jose has become a day of taking the streets, where
during a three mile walk, we hold our heads high standing for
something greater than ourselves, and leading a movement that has
gained international notice. Our efforts have forced people to feel
their humanity by recognizing that these brown faces are human beings
worthy of respect. It has become a day to be heard, to raise our
voice, to raise our fist, and move our bodies in dance as we take the
familiar road from the east side to downtown San Jose.
But this march felt a lot different than previous marches. It felt
like we got gypped.
Far from the natural momentum of the marches in 2006 of folks heading
out together when they were ready, this march didn’t take a cue from
the people in the crowd. It started before many people got to the
corner and took off at a pace that seemed like a race to the finish.
And that distinction that something was different was hinted at with
the texts this year that had in parenthesis “meet in the target
parking lot,” and especially a sign that got hung up a night before
the march indicating the march started on a certain side of the
street. Since when do we need a sign to tell us where the march
starts, if in 5 years it has always started in the same place?
It is a disconnection that maybe isn’t noticed by all, but evident if
you have been there every year. The folks who have been claiming
leadership of the marches, of the movements finally positioned
themselves at the front. Starting with a program (on the Target side)
of Story and King and heading out at 4:05, only to gather folks with a
final program that didn’t reflect them or give them the customary
chance to take the mic and share what was on their minds. The groups
of people with instruments in the streets and people dancing around
didn’t form. Folks asking to speak on stage had no one to ask, and
could only turn back around.
This wrestling for “leadership” didn’t respect that folks have been
coming out for years, didn’t respect that they come out on and march
because their hearts and souls are in this cause and not because their
body guarantees that there will be big numbers. Our marches shouldn’t
loose their touch because labor can’t swallow its pride and get over
Mi Pueblo not getting unionized. If we all envision the same end of
just and humane immigration reform, why waste energy in drawing more
lines? In San Jose, we know the faces of the few folks on the ground
doing the work to spread the message of immigration reform and this
march ignored the contributions of the folks who marched by their
side, to finally be able to claim that they made May 1st happen.
However, as we learned in 2006 – this movement isn’t orchestrated by
paid organizers, it is moved by those under attack, who see it as a
necessity, not just another success to claim.
3 comments:
Thank you!
I was at Mi Pueblo just like every year, and I so surprised when I saw that marchers were already on the move while we were still just rallying up. Then, all of a sudden we started marching and people were in a big hurry to catch up.
Rididculous! And I agree that there was no community building at the end of the march where folks could talk to each other and to the crowd. With SB1070 in Arizona, we needed to have a talk about what we were going to do about it, like demand that San Jose boycott Arizona until the law is repealed or organize places for refugees from Arizona to come if the law really takes effect.
Let's keep the discussions going and try to do something more than compete over "leadership" of a movement that belongs to migrant workers and their families, not politicians and bureacrats.
As I told someone during the march, I refuse to take sides in a "race to control". We all need each other. It's not as if immigration reform is right around the corner so we can afford to allow these kinds of arguments to distract us from our purpose.
Every day that goes by without immigration reform is another day of deportations, fear, division, car stops, raids, and separated families.
Are unions stubborn, self-interested, controlling, and disrespectful to the community? At times they absolutely are. In fact, up until 10-12 years ago the AFL-CIO was outright anti-immigrant.
Are some of the immigrants rights leaders stubborn, uncollaborative, and unwilling to work together well? At times they absolutely are.
But none of these situations can last. Unions are under such an unrelenting and concerted attack that they have no choice but to begin to humble themselves and learn to work with the community. And immigrants are under even stronger attack. They have no choice but to reach out for allies beyond the immigrants and Latino people.
In my humble opinion, because of their past errors on this issue, it would be appropriate for the unions to make the first moves to compromise (and I have been a union member most of my life).
It is true that the key to a successful march is the feeling of pride and participation in a historic movement that is larger than all of us. But we also do need the other things: lots of people, media coverage, supporting organizations, and yes, even some paid organizers if we can get them.
But I agree it is always the people that should be allowed to take their place front and center, not the paid organizers. And my personal feeling was that, although some were dissatisfied, for most people on Saturday they WERE the center of the march, and the distractions at the beginning and the end of the march did not really matter to them very much.
The Good Lord put us here on earth to encourage and embrace one another, not to quarrel and compete. An out-of-control economy is destroying the world as we know it. In times like these, as Benjamin Franklin famously said, we must all hang together - or else we will all hang, separately.
As one of those "paid organizer" I know that movements come bottom-up and not the other way around. I sense that this article tries to discredit to role of different sectors of a strong movement.
I agree with most of Sandy's points.
My initial organizing experience is with Voluntarios de la comunidad. I continue working with them. A large part of my organizing experience is student organizing with SAHE at SJSU. While I respect your opinion and value your critizism, I think some facts are needed so you could have a well founded opinion.
Background- There's a coalition in San Jose called United Voices/Voces Unidas that started organizing for the May 1st action. This coalition include non-profits (PACT, SIREN Sacred Heart), unions (SEIU, UFCW, Unite Here), student/community organizations (Voluntarios, SAHE, others) and community leaders.
First- The sign didn't say "March starts at target". It said "March starts here". Sure it was on the target corner of Story & King. The agreement between Voces and Voluntarios was to promote Story & King- not a particular store.
Second- We value the respect of everyone that has the heart to fight for social justice. We made all efforts to work together with everyone. We changed time and location of meetings because of a request from Voluntarios. We did but they stop attending the meetings. Many of the decisions of the march were decided collectively, but if folks don't come then there's something wrong.
Third- We started at 4:15pm. The agreement was 4:20pm. But because our corner was packed with people the police pushed us to start marching.
Fourth- Some leaders want to do things without communicating to other leaders/organizers. This creates disunity and conflict.
Post a Comment