This banner says: "From New Orleans to Haiti to Iraq to LA
Mothers, daughters, sisters, wives: fighting for our loved ones lives.
Madres, hijas, hermanas, esposas: luchamos por las vidas nuestras seres queridas"

The shops and businesses were all shuttered along Pico Blvd. as we car-pooled from the Center toward the Day Without an Immigrant March to begin at noon at Olympic and Broadway, streets deserted except for the throngs of white shirted marchers heading there on foot. Streets were closed to traffic or too jammed with those who arrived ahead of us, so we parked several blocks away and carried our signs and banners well in advance of the designated start of the route. Families with strollers, young women holding infants in their arms, and young men carrying children on their shoulders all surged ahead carrying U.S. flags or Mexican, Salvadoran and some Venezuelan flags along with signs proclaiming " I am not a Criminal", " Amnesty Now " and other phrases expressing the feelings of the marchers. It was an extremely peaceful, jovial and proud march. No one expressed anger or rudeness, just a determination that was evident in the chanting   "Si, se puede " all along the slow and crowded streets.

The mass of bodies was so great we never got closer to City Hall than 2nd St before heading back. We could see thousands of others on the streets one block over also making their way back to the start where cars were parked or heading for the other march on Wilshire which we didn’t participate in -- reports vary but more than a million people on the Broadway boycott march, according to the March 25 Coalition. All in all a very exhilarating feeling!!  The march, overwhelmingly Latino, included more diversity, more Black, Asian and white people than March 25^th, with flags from Haiti to Ireland mixed in, and the program speakers were also more diverse.

Two marches actually took place in LA.  The noon protest up Broadway was part of the ‘Day Without an Immigrant’ national boycott called by the March 25^th organizers.  The second march up Wilshire Blvd. later in the day was called by a coalition that did not support the boycott, they said the march was for people who did not participate in the boycott but wanted to protest.  That coalition is entitled:  ‘We are all Americans’, and made up of labor and advocacy groups, Catholic Archbishop Mahoney and others. The archbishop and some others in this group as well as LA’s mayor urged people not to boycott and not to skip school.  However many grassroots people who boycotted simply moved from the first to the second march and were joined by others continuing the strong show of force.   

Pam, Ro, Sharon, Sid, Ruth, Susan, Alex participated in the boycott march; Margaret was at the KPFK live-coverage booth and hosted coverage from 5-6pm, though forced to leave and go to the studio to broadcast when police shut the rally down early, saying they were needed at the other march on Wilshire!    Our banner was carried high, From New Orleans to Haiti to Iraq to LA – Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Wives: Fighting for Our Loved Ones’ Lives (also in Spanish).  Placards read: Capital Travels Freely, Why Not People (also in Spanish); Invest in Caring Not Deportation or Detention; Black & Brown: One People, One Struggle – Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike; Women Say, No Separation of Families Amnesty NOW; Family Reunification and Amnesty for ALL. 

An older white woman, a KPFK supporter who listens to “Sojourner Truth”, stayed with us most of the way. She had joined our march last year to the Twin Towers jail.  Other groups we saw in the march included the Haiti Solidarity Committee, the South Central Farmers, and ANSWER. 

At the end, when we could get no closer to City Hall, a drumming circle formed in the middle of the street and people danced and jumped and shouted for at least 30 min before disbanding!

Audio tapes of Margaret’s shows on May 1 and May 2 can be ordered from the Pacifica Archives at parchives.org (Beneath the Surface, May 1, 5-6pm), (Sojourner Truth, May 2, 7-8am).