A Plea for New Bedford & Against Bostoncentrism

a letter from my friend camilo:

Colours of Resistance comrades,

This email was written for the Boston activist scene but how does it resonate for the broader activist scene, including some self-proclaimed "anti-racists"? We should think about if this same event happened in a different city that is already tapped into the sensationalized activist scene. How would the response to it might have been different?

Of coarse I do not expect everyone from around the country to stop what they are doing and come to New Bedford. Your local work and connections is what makes you relevant and is where your potential lies to make change. I do encourage people to try to do at least one solidarity action/event in their community around solidarity with New Bedford before May 1st. We all know that the raid in New Bedford was not isolated so please connect this issue to immigrant rights issues in your community.

It is not too late to make the difference between freedom or deportation, family or tragedy for those who have been detained. I challenge my comrades to not just make New Bedford a poster child victim of ICE raids but to build real solidarity tied to demands to free all those arrested in New Bedford. We want strategic solidarity and mutual liberation!
With respect, Camilo Viveiros camiloviveiros@yahoo.com

A Plea For New Bedford & Against Bostoncentrism

Please mobilize people for this Saturday's rally in New Bedford.

New Bedford a City of Immigrants Rally
Saturday, March 17th, 2pm
Come out to support New Bedford workers and families.
Gather at the Federal Building, Downtown New Bedford

Push Boston people to transcend Bostoncentrism! If this raid happened in Boston there would have already been national solidarity actions. Challenge the classism that ignores oppression when it does not happen in widely known places. Please come down, organize carpools and pressure Boston based organizations to provide buses for Saturday. We have to break out of the idea that the largest rallies should always be in Boston. I have driven low-income tenants, immigrants and youth of color up to Boston countless times for events and lobbying at the statehouse. Let's give back some of that solidarity that Southeastern Mass. communities have shared with Boston for years. We from Southeastern Mass. are mostly people of meager incomes yet we have made the commute to Boston and filled your ranks at protest after protest. Let's make it cool to come down here for once!

When they attack us in smaller working class cities like New Bedford we need to challenge the idea that resistance should be stronger or is strongest only in the big cities. We should fight the classist myth that activists only live in cities with a lot of affluent college students or cities where there is a concentration of capital. Let's make this rally truly a regional event.

Thanks for your solidarity, Camilo Viveiros

To counter raids like this from happening in other communities we need to stand up
for New Bedford workers and their families and show that we will not tolerate this!

IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE TURN OUT IN LARGE NUMBERS
TO SUPPORT NEW BEDFORD!

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Federal immigration agents raided a New Bedford leather manufacturer Tuesday March 7th using militaristic tactics, including helicopters. At least 340 workers were detained from the Michael Bianco Inc. factory. The factory employs mostly women and mostly immigrants from Guatemala and El Salvador (but also immigrants from Cape Verde, Brazil and Portugal). The raid has torn apart hundreds of families and left dozens upon dozens of babies and young children without a home. Over 100 children were directly affected. Some of the detainees have been flown to Texas and many families still do not know where their loved ones are. Somewhat coincidentally, the raid led to the arrest of a handful of managers - none of whom were charged for any of their violations of labor law related to factory working conditions. Factory workers detained by the Department of Homeland Security's ICE where making leather products for the US military operations in Iraq. The US contract with the employer was not canceled. Federal officials are calling Tuesday's attack the largest INS raid in recent history.

See: http://www.miracoalition.org

Photos of the Raid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxnHGeENkmE