A Small Group Can Stir Up a Large Protest

TEXAS, April 22 — Every year one city hosts a large Cesar Chavez march. Chavez was a reformist who led a very large movement for the rights of migrant laborers in the United Farmworkers Union in the 1960s-70s. And during an election season like this year’s, the march swells with liberal misleaders. This year PL members in our area made a plan to coordinate several activities in order to counter the Chavez Committee’s “vote-for-lesser-of-two-evils” line.
We planned to bring a large base along with a leaflet and bullhorn in order to project a clear outlook of multiracial unity against capitalism and against voting for the bosses. In the past we executed a similar plan and were able to win hundreds of students and workers away from the march organizer’s meaningless “Si se puede” (“yes, we can!”) chant toward more militants chants like, “Obreros, unidos, jamás serán vencidos” (“The workers united, will never be defeated.”) As this year’s march date grew closer, however, our plan unraveled. We hadn’t written the leaflet and we had not sufficiently won our friends to attend the march.
Instead of feeling down, we regrouped. We printed sheets  with militant working-class and anti-capitalist chants and brought a bullhorn, something we have never brought to the Chavez march.
As the march began, we chanted, “Up, Up with Education, Down, Down with Deportations.” “Abajo Con Banderas, Afuera Con Fronteras.” (“Down With the Flag, Out with Borders!”) “When workers and students are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”
At first, our friends and the crowd around us were hesitant to join in. But the few PL’ers were persistent. We continued chanting and pointed out the limits of the march organizers’ chants.
As we entered downtown, our bullhorn rang loud and hundreds began to join in. At one point the march organizers tried to trick one member away from us and into the front of the march by telling him what a good leader he was. Their real intention was to steal away his powerful voice from leading the working class in militant anti-capitalist chants. We told the march organizer to get lost and we continued pressing forward.
By the end of the march we had influenced hundreds of students and workers. Students who attended with us and were initially hesitant ended up being some of the most active participants. As the march ended, several of us went for coffee. We had a good conversation stemming from the events of the day — ranging from racism and slavery to the politics of recent movies. We plan to continue organizing with these students and building toward May Day! With a revolutionary line and militancy, we can eventually influence millions.