{news} Fw: Rally Tuesday, May 24 in West Hartford - oppose the anti-immigrant Minuteman Project

[Justine McCabe]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics) 
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 11:17 AM
Subject:  Rally Tuesday, May 24 in West Hartford - oppose the anti-immigrant Minuteman Project



>We will mobilize en masse on May 24 against the anti-immigrant forces 
>meeting in West Hartford. It will be an action that is safe for immigrants 
>to attend, as it will be peaceful and without threat of physical 
>confrontation.
>
>Contact: Marela Zaccarias, 860-538-3921

>The newly-formed Ad Hoc Committee for Immigrant Rights, a coalition of
>community groups, has called for a march and demonstration in West
>Hartford on May 24, 2005, at 5:30PM. Participants will march on New
>Britain Avenue from Shield Street to Newington Road, and rally outside  of
>the Elmwood Community Center. The theme of the march will be "No  Human
>Being is Illegal."

>The action began as a response to the announcement that a right-wing,
>anti-immigrant group will hold a meeting at the Elmwood Community Center
>that evening. "When people learned that the Connecticut Citizens for
>Immigration Control was targeting West Hartford, there was immediate
>outrage," said Peter Goselin, an attorney with the National Lawyers  Guild
>and member of the new Committee for Immigrant Rights. "People felt  the
>need to organize a strong response showing support for immigrants in  our
>community." CCIC's members blame immigrants for virtually every  social
>problem in the U.S., from crime to low wages to terrorism. CCIC's  leader
>Paul Streitz has led the attack on Latino immigrants, proclaiming  his
>support for the Minuteman Project, a vigilante gang that has
>conducted patrols of the U.S./Mexico border.

>But the West Hartford march is not just a protest against the CCIC, says
>Goselin. "On May 24, the real story will not be that a small group of
>racists held a meeting to bash immigrants; it will be that working  people
>turned out in numbers to say that we support equal rights for all
>immigrants, regardless of their citizenship status."

>"Groups like the CCIC are always claiming that immigrants are bad for  the
>U.S., that immigrants steal jobs or make taxes go up," said Marela
>Zaccarias, an organizer for the Hartford group Latinos Against the War /
>Latinos Contra La Guerra. "That's a lie. A National Academy of Sciences
>study shows that immigrants add $10 billion a year in value to the
>economy. It's hypocritical to attack immigrants for being a drain on the
>economy, when the government's war on Iraq has wasted $200 billion so
>far, with the cost in money and in human lives going up every day."

>Kathy Hucks, a member of West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice,
>believes it is especially important for people from the local community
>to come out on May 24. "Our community has room for a lot of different
>ideas. But we have no room for bigots and no room for people who
>advocate violence against immigrants."
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