Oakland, October 27 — A loud and enthusiastic crowd picketed and rallied at Mi Pueblo Market today to popularize a community boycott here in Oakland (see CHALLENGE 10/17). The most organized and noticeable group were young people in 67 Suenos who took over the parking lot chanting, “If you’re E-Verifying, We Ain’t Buying!”. (a redo of E-40’s rap song, “We out here trying to function”). One manager got so frustrated that he threw raw eggs at the crowd!
PLP members and friends participated. We had signs and leaflets in Spanish and English about uniting the working class across all borders. (see photo). Our leaflet explained that the capitalist class worldwide causes migration around the globe and unemployment as a “labor policy,” as a race to the bottom for cheaper labor and maximization of profits. This hurts every worker, citizen or immigrant. We called to abolish racism, sexism, and nationalism with international working-class unity. When you look around, it’s only communists that say class trumps nationalism in all its forms.
Here we have a former “illegal” immigrant, Juvenal Chavez, who now owns 21 stores, pays substandard wages and uses Immigration Customs Enforcement to scare workers from fighting back. Nationalism doesn’t get in his way when he screws these workers! At the same time, his stores always have the red, white and green of the Mexican flag all over the place. “Patron” or “Boss — don’t be fooled — this is CLASS WAR. Capitalists of every nationality and every country are our enemies!