On the Bus for Solidarity, Los Angeles to Phoenix
Peering out cautiously from behind a window, an Arizona resident watched as hundreds of immigrants, union members, clergy, and other community members marched past his home in downtown Phoenix July 29.
Hailing from Arizona, California, and elsewhere, we were headed to the Capitol to join the vigil in protest of Arizona’s SB1070 law, which had just gone into effect. Thousands of Phoenix residents had kept this vigil going for 103 consecutive days, and neither the sweltering heat of the day nor the unexpected rain showers of the evening could keep us away.
Although other residents came out of their homes and businesses lining the streets along the route, many of us sensed the undercurrent of fear in which undocumented workers in Arizona are now living.
Although the day before a federal judge had blocked some of the worst parts of the law from coming into effect—including the portion allowing police to ask for papers based on their “reasonable suspicion” of documentation status—other pieces of the law are now in force. Those include sections that make it illegal to solicit work on street corners or offer transportation to people who are undocumented, and that ban “sanctuary cities,” which direct local law enforcement not to interrogate the immigration status of their residents.
OPPRESSIVE ATMOSPHERE
Before the march began, the 575 union members and clergy who had left Los Angeles early that morning, in 11 buses organized by the LA County Federation of Labor, gathered at St. Matthew’s Church in Phoenix. We listened as immigrants, their families, and community leaders shared their recent experiences in the oppressive atmosphere of discrimination and intimidation that has surfaced in Arizona. As speaker after speaker told of arrests, detention, and deportation of undocumented immigrants, a sense of injustice and indignation filled our hearts and minds.
Speakers told of children afraid to go to school, families fearful of using social services, and workers who face the strong possibility of deportation just for showing up to work.
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And yet an even stronger sense of solidarity filled the room. We had come from Los Angeles determined to stand with the immigrant workers of Arizona. We represented 32 unions that protect the rights of longshoremen, nurses, home healthcare workers, teachers, and many others.
As members of United Teachers Los Angeles, the lesson plan for our trip was solidarity, and our objective was to dispel fear and help others to keep fighting back. We were also determined to honor the boycott of Arizona by not spending a dime there, so we brought our lunches and didn’t go near a convenience store!
Earlier in the day, more than 80 protesters were arrested in acts of civil disobedience elsewhere in Phoenix. About 30 blocked streets outside the office of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has made a point of targeting immigrants. Others locked themselves to the entrance of Arpaio's jail. Peter Morales, president of the Unitarian Universalist Church, as well as Salvador Reza of the Puente Movement, were among those arrested for blocking the jail.
We traveled the hundreds of miles from Los Angeles because what happens in Arizona does not stay in Arizona. The same mentality that brought SB1070 into existence has spawned similar anti-immigrant proposals in other parts of the country. We are union, and that means we join together to protect our collective right to work under humane and safe conditions and to earn a decent wage. But our unionism must reach beyond our pocketbooks. We, as unions, respect and defend the dignity of everyone, especially those who are most vulnerable. An injury to one is an injury to all.
We left Arizona reminded that we need not hide behind the curtain of our fear, but can walk out boldly together. We learned how important it is to join with others during their times of struggle. It’s far easier to continue the fight when someone who is standing with you will not give up—and will not let you give up.
Clare Martinet teaches ESL and Spanish on the east side of LA. Dan Barnhart, Mary Rose O’Leary, and Ted Weber, members of United Teachers Los Angeles, also rode the bus to Phoenix and contributed to this article.