Can NY top LA?

Adrianne Shropshire

As the immigration debate heats up and large scale protests mount around the country, one can't help but hear the whisper, "where is NYC?". With students from LA to North Virginia walking out of their classrooms and DJ's playing the role of mobilizers we find ourselves witnessing a scale of mobilization that organizers in this country only dream about.

But what of us here in the most diverse city on the planet? Recently there has been a call to organize a mass protest here in coordination with cities around the nation on April 10th. Big numbers are being tossed about - 500,000 going once, going twice, do I hear 1,000,000? Our potential is certainly great and our disgust with the current batch of legislation and reactionary rhetoric no less than anywhere, but is mobilizing the immigrant community in NY the same as mobilizing in LA?

We are not unclear about the importance of immigrants to the very fabric of our community, but can we pull-off a half a million person march or rally? Should the numbers of the Carribean Day parade be used as an indicator for what is possible? Do the number of people who attend reflect our willingness and determination to fight around the core issues of this debate? Should we be focused on raising consciousness and deepening alliances for this fight or should we be focused on the size of our demonstration?

We may in fact hit numbers in the hundreds of thousands on April 10th (if not more) but if we do not the measure of our success should be the diversity of representation and the numbers of people who continue to engage in the fight after the banners come down.

Comments

Many have been getting emails inviting us to a demonstration tomorrow at 11 AM marching over the Brooklyn Bridge to 26 Federal Plaza. A long list of sponsors appears to include many Hispanic groups and the Catholic church.

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Those interested in the demographics of immigration in NYC as compared to the US as a whole may want to turn to an interesting article in the gotham gazette by Andrew Beveridge -- http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/demographics/20060406/5/1809