Nationwide general strike brings May 1 rally to Eugene

Presenter: The Oregon farmworkers union PCUN has been involved with large-scale May Day events  in Salem for the past 20 years, drawing 12,000 people in 2006.

This year, Eugene will have the opportunity to share in that experience by hosting its own May Day events as part of a nationwide general strike. From United for Immigrant Justice, Guadalupe Quinn: 

Guadalupe Quinn: Over the many years that PCUN’s been around as a farmworker union, PCUN’s always focused on doing an event at the Capitol on May 1 to recognize the contributions of immigrants in the community, both as consumers and also as workers, because it is one of those historic days that have been set aside to focus or at least acknowledge the contributions of the working folks and unions. 

This year it’s culminated on the campaign around ‘A Day Without An Immigrant’ that PCUN had asked folks to participate in since December.

You know, monthly events around the rights of immigrants, the what-is-going-on, the contributions of them as workers, getting support from organizations and businesses and faith communities to recognize the value and the contributions of immigrants who right now are under attack and to ask them to support by closing down, by acknowledging or signing pledges. 

I think it’s going to be a really great activity. Obviously there’s a lot of folks, you know, who are gathering in Salem and that’s not a new thing. I’ve been to the rallies in Salem for years and years and years. There’s thousands of people there and it’s great.

But I think our local events are all tied together, to make sure that folks here locally have an opportunity to participate and if folks want to be in Salem, that’s up to them. But I feel like yeah, everywhere we can raise awareness, or come together, and speak up and speak out, and stand up for what we believe is important, I think is a great opportunity.

And I think our local event’s going to be really good. We’ve got some great speakers, an opportunity to walk and march and a chance to once again raise awareness of what’s going on, encourage people to pay attention to what’s being decided and done and not-done by our government. 

And I think at this moment in time, because of our administration, this is a campaign that had been set up for every month for something. We’ve done all this for months and we hopefully have raised some awareness. And we also have raised some information and resources out there on how people can help, but also just making folks aware of what is going on, what are the issues, and the situation for immigrants in this moment in time in our communities and nationwide.

And making sure that folks understand what that looks like on a daily basis and putting a human face on this whole issue of immigrants being scapegoated, of the attacks on immigrants, on the increased presence of ICE and all of that kind of stuff.

So I think this is a campaign that was set up to really acknowledge that in this moment in time, this is the kind of attention that’s needed. And I think it’s really important to do that, because a one-time thing would not have drawn as much attention. 

And then what do we do after May 1? The struggle is not over. This isn’t even a new struggle for immigrants or farmworkers or any of us. It has been an ongoing struggle. I just think it just got really a lot scarier and a lot more dangerous with this administration.

And so the thing is to figure out, what do we do next to continue to support and to push back on the kind of anti-immigrant stuff that’s being pushed in Washington by folks who are pretty racist and hateful and who are putting a lot of resources into attacking our community here in our country—as well as here locally and in Oregon.

I’m an immigrant, have been in this country since 1951, when it all looked very different. And so when I see what’s going on and when I hear what’s being said and what’s being done and how folks are allowing people to break the law, to not follow policies, to not follow the Constitution—

It’s really scary, obviously, to the immigrant community, and certainly not just the Latino immigrant community, but other immigrant communities, as well as the trans community, and finding ways to be allies and to support one another, as things have progressed in a really kind of scary, dangerous way.

So United for Immigrant Justice is part of the planning of these events and is certainly a sponsor and a supporter of it as is Plaza as an org is also supportive. They obviously serve a lot of our community. And GLAD is also part of supporting this, and other organizations in our area, so we’re all kind of working in coalition to make this happen.

And I feel like UIJ has taken the lead in it. And thanks to Rob (Fisette), we’ve had somebody to move this forward along with the rest of us, so he’s done a really great job of taking the lead in this.

The UIJ network is a pretty large network of agencies and organizations and groups and individuals, and so we’ve been around since 2010. And so after the elections in January, we had gotten a whole lot more interest from folks joining us as part of figuring out what we were going to do. 

The other piece that I think has been great about this campaign is that it has created for us an opportunity—whether it’s with UIJ or other groups—to really come together and try to figure out: How do we respond to what’s going on, in a way that supports our community, while they’re dealing with a lot of stuff?

And I know that faith communities have been really interested in finding ways to support the community as it finds itself either not able to go to work, or feeling that they can’t leave their homes, or wanting to keep their kids home, or extra resources, that the folks that are set up with those resources already can get overwhelmed when it increases.

And so there’s folks who have been willing at all different levels and arenas to find ways in big and small ways to make a difference and to be there, in support, and to be allies to the immigrant community, which I think is great.

I mean, if anything, sometimes the ugly stuff brings out folks who are ready to stand up and be together in solidarity. And I think that’s really important. I wish it wasn’t that way, but I’m grateful that in Lane County folks have stepped up in a lot of different arenas, which has made a difference in our community because (I mention often that) we need to put a human face.

This struggle is not just about politics. There is a human face behind all of the activities that are going on that are not okay, that are impacting real families and real people and real workers and real kids as well as the idea that our community feels alone at times.

And right now, because of our community stepping up in a way that I’m really grateful for, our community does not feel alone. They know that people are out here, that they care, and they’re doing what they can to be supportive and helpful.

Presenter: You can show your support in Eugene at the May Day rally and march, starting at the Park Blocks at noon.