EAST CHICAGO, INDIANA, April 2 — Today, a large multi-racial group of nearly 1,000 people marched against SB 590, the proposed state anti-immigrant law. This may have been the largest protest in this part of Indiana in decades, demonstrating that the working-class is ready to fight back.
The bill, similar to Arizona’s racist SB 1070, would allow local police to question and potentially detain individuals who they “suspect” to be “illegal.” In fact, the Indiana bill even exceeds the Arizona bill. Indiana’s bill would require that only English be used in a variety of public and formal settings. The bill also enables the state to maintain its independence of federal law, something that slowed the enactment of Arizona’s law.
The demonstration, named “La Gran Marcha (The Great March),” was organized mainly through numerous different churches and immigrant rights coalitions in northern Indiana and had a distinctly religious tone. Numerous bishops and religious leaders dominated the michrophones during the opening rally, leading chants with slogans such as “Somos el pueblo de Dios (We are the people of God).”
Though church leaders organized the bulk of the demonstrators, the contingent of PL’ers and allies projected a communist perspective, countering the church leaders’ dead-end liberal reformist “solution.” Signs expressing the need for international working-class solidarity were proudly held high, in stark contrast to the few U.S. and Indiana state flags being waved. During lulls in the religious hymns, chants of “Obreros unidos jamas seran vencidos!” won a positive response.
Next time we will make an even more organized effort to distribute PLP’s literature with a solid communist political line which would definitely have had an even more profound influence than our chants and signs.
We are making gains. Party members are active in several immigrant rights groups and are building strong personal and political ties as we deepen our involvement in this important fight against racist oppression. These struggles bring to life the lessons of the need for communist revolution in Indiana and all over the world.
With strong anti-racist, communist leadership these battles will inevitably expand beyond their current limitations en route to international working-class revolution.