Appendices

 

Unions are from Mars, Community Groups are from Venus:
Does that Mean We are All Aliens?

By Pancho Arguelles


On October 9th I was one among the many community representatives attending a Washington event to deliver one million post cards for legalization to re presentatives of Congress. The event was supposed to cap a “One Million Voices for Legalization” campaign spurred by SEIU, with the slogan, “Reward Work.”

 

But the immigrant community was not rewarded, at least by its allies in the labor movement. On the day of the event, they failed to turn out members and turned the rally itself into an affront. The most blatant offense was when the masters of ceremonies "lost” the order of the speakers, and left the two key speakers representing the community - Maria Jimenez from the AFSC and Dolores Huerta from the UFW - until the very end, when the media photographers were packing up, people were leaving and even some of the organizers of the event were getting off the stage.

 

And if this weren’t enough, the guest of honor, Congressman Richard Gephardt, led with the silly insistence that we are fighting for “earned legalization...”

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