Freedom Socialist Bulletin • Number 37 • Winter/Spring 2007


United for queer and immigrant rights

A colourful, multiracial contingent in Seattle's Pride march, carrying a banner emblazoned with "Love Knows No Borders: Unite for Queer and Immigrant Rights" and chanting "No Minutemen, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A.," was met with boisterous cheers by onlookers. But before arriving at the Queer Fest that concluded the parade, the contingent peeled off and walked from Seattle's gay Capitol Hill neighbourhood to the Federal Building downtown to protest anti-immigrant groups, including the Minutemen, who had called a racist March for America rally for the same day, June 23.

"We had planned the Love Knows No Borders contingent before we learned about the so-called March for America," Seattle Radical Women Organiser Christina López told the crowd, "but when we found out about the Minutemen's plans, three days before Gay Pride, Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party put out a call for a counter-protest."

"The cooperation demonstrated among various groups showed the importance of working collaboratively," said López, "because in just two days we were able to muster 100 counter-protesters, which equalled the number of people the Minutemen turned out after weeks of organising."

The March for America was part of a national effort by an anti-immigration coalition. A Northwest white power organisation also publicised the Seattle event on their website. March for America opposes amnesty and calls for securing the borders and "protecting American culture and the English language." Although the Minutemen have been organising in Washington State for some time along the Canadian border and in the eastern part of the state, where there is a large Latino farm worker population, this is the first major action they have attempted in Seattle.
 
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