This is a cross post from something I said on my site on July 26th. Thought this might help spark some debate.

Our comrades in CT took on the freaking minutemen!! CT somehow has the 5th largest immigrant population in the United States (I don't know how either).

The presence of a fascist group in Danbury, combined with Mayor Boughton’s repressive legal proposals, spread terror throughout the immigrant community. Danbury, like many towns in Connecticut, has seen a large influx of Central and South American immigrants in the past several years. Of the 75,000 residents of Danbury, an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 are immigrants, with Brazilians, Ecuadorans, Mexicans, and Dominicans representing the largest groups.

http://www.socialistaction.org/cain2.htm

Excerpt:

...Boughton (mayor), who is running for re-election in November, also moved to crack down on volleyball games that draw large crowds of primarily Ecuadoran immigrants to improvised backyard courts. Boughton proposed a public nuisance ordinance that would grant police greater leeway to shut down the games.

Three days after Boughton’s an-nouncement, a right-wing populist group calling itself Connecticut Citi-zens for Immigration Control (CCIC) held its

first public meeting in a Danbury American Legion hall "to call attention to the problem of illegal immigrants in Connecticut." Nearly 200 people attended.

200 people is a lot of racist assholes. Seriously, if you have a meeting with 200 people, that's pretty sizeable... And in response...

The middle-class layer of the Danbury immigrant community announced the formation of the Danbury Coalition for the Rights of Immigrants (DACORIM), and elected the Ecuadoran restaurant owner and former civic association president Wilson Hernandez as its spokesman. Hernandez announced there would be a silent "Danbury March for Unity" on June 12.

Meanwhile, CCIC called its second public meeting for May 24 in the liberal town of West Hartford, located on the outskirts of the state capital of Hartford,

more than 50 miles east of Danbury. Hartford area activists responded immediately, forming an ad hoc coalition of immigrants, progressive churches, labor unions, antiwar groups, and community organizations to call a mass picket outside the CCIC meeting. The action was also intended to help build for the June 12 action in Danbury.

On the day of the meeting in West Hartford, nearly 300 people marched on the CCIC, asserting that no human being is illegal.

And...

A contingent of Latino and Haitian immigrants led the march behind a colorful banner that depicted the Statue of Liberty as the famous Mexican religious

icon, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and proclaimed: "Equal Rights For Immigrants!" Another banner near the front proclaimed the slogan: "Unite and Fight for Jobs and Justice!"

The streets echoed with the spirited chant, "No Minutemen, no mas! No Minutemen jamas!" ("No Minutemen, No More! No Minutemen Ever!") Approving honks issued forth from the stopped traffic and onlookers cheered.

Inside the meeting, an estimated 25 partisans attended, with a near-equal number of counter-protesters, who had filtered into the meeting during and after the picket. The pro-immigrant march was front-page news the following day. It lent a tremendous boost to area turnout for the June 12 action, and the Hartford coalition subsequently organized a caravan.

The "Danbury Unity March" turned out to be the largest mass political demonstration in that town since a famous strike of hatters in 1890. Three thousand people, nearly all of them immigrants, marched silently down Main Street in a sea of white t-shirts, which organizers had asked them to wear as a sign of peace.

Many of the participants marched in contingents grouped around large flags of their respective countries. Organizers had also distributed miniature flags of the United States, which many of the marchers carried.

So the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control (CCIC) came back with another meeting after this rally.

Only 20 people turned out to CCIC’s follow-up meeting in Danbury, which took place one week after the unity march.
...
Counter-demonstrators, who staged a lively picket line across the street from CCIC, outnumbered the anti-immigrant forces 100 to 15. A small contingent of protesters on the CCIC side identified themselves as followers of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.

When I went to meet these comrades, they were easily the most spirited, enthusiastic, inspiring people I have ever met. During our convention in CT, one of the 'illegals' came up and told us a story.

A friend of one of the people I stayed with, he spoke no English (a few people there didn't speak any English, we had translators), and told about how he lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with 7 other people, and each had to pay $200 a month. $1,600 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment with 8 people living in it... His landlord and his employer were the same person, and one week, after he worked 2 weeks without pay, his employer said "if you want to get paid, you have to come to North Carolina with me". There were a total of 6 immigrants who were told this, 3 agreed (I think...) and 3 refused, and the ones who refused were told by this fuck head that he just called the INS and they were about to be deported. He spent the prior night sleeping in a parking lot, since he was also evicted from his apartment (despite having a month left on his lease).

After this story, our comrade Jeff Mackler, the National secretary of Socialist Action, gave an awesome speech that was something to the effect of.

"We're going to get this racist asshole, and here, I'm going to pass this hat. This is not for a donation, or an act of charity, but for an act of solidarity. Please, give anything that you can, and let this man continue his awesome work inside Connecticut."

In a room of about 70 people, we raised close to $500 for these guys. You have no idea how great that felt...

There's a solidarity rally planned aimed specifically at this racist asshole, and in general, about to other employers who employ similar tactics. At the rally, they will give out the home phone number of the employer who fired this guy.

We kick ass.

There is a difference between immigrants and illegal aliens. Immigrants are those who follow the law, apply for a visa, wait, and then accept entrance into the United States to work and make better money than they could in their own country.

Illegal aliens are the people who sneak accross the border, often in the middle of the night, who take no time to follow the law.

What amazes me the most Comrade, is how so many of these illegal aliens are coming from countries that have supported the socialist form of government. Makes me kinda wonder that if socialism is so great, why are so many people trying to escape to a capitalist country?????? Doesn't bode well for socialism now does it, Comrade????

As citizens we have the right to protect our borders from those who seek to enter illegally. I love how you can call a group that seeks to stop the influx of illegal aliens a right-wing populist group, unfortunately, the truth is that it is a mainstream group. It is a novel notion that no human being is illegal, however, we live in a world with borders. Many of us are hardworking, tax-paying individuals who have grown tired of seeing our tax money spent on illegal immigrants for services, to only turn around and hear progressive and liberal politicians crying for more tax money to better provide for the underprivileged. Perhaps, if we spent more of the tax money on the underprivileged and less on illegal immigrants, we could provide better services.

Try as you like, there is and always will be a difference between an immigrant and an illegal immigrant. One got here legally, though they may have had to wait, the others plainly said screw the law. I am sorry, but if you break the law, you should be forced to face the reprecussions of that decision. In this case, deportation.

dmk