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“Selena Would Be Right Here with Us”: Dispatches from Los Angeles

The combative resistance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and deportations in Los Angeles continued on Sunday, June 8. Tens of thousands of the city’s multi-racial working class took to the city’s streets, led by Latino youth, and stood down against police at detention centers. 

Police — some of whom were on mounted horses — deployed flash bang grenades and rubber bullets, and arrested 27. The protesters fired off bottles and rocks, and wore masks and keffiyehs to protect themselves and to support Palestine, defying Trump’s no-mask order. Thousands took over the 110 freeway, cheering and marching and waving Mexican and Palestinian flags. Protesters threw motorized scooters from a bridge above the cops, busting the windshields of their cars. 

When I interviewed people in the street, they said they wanted “ICE out” and were clear the police were deliberately provoking confrontations with protesters. 

Sunday’s demonstrations were also full of joy. Protesters line danced right next to the police line and sang Selena’s hit “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom.” A protester remarked, “Selena would be right here with us”. A woman selling Raspa Hielo (Mexican flavored ice) joked, “This is the good kind of ICE!” People brought their children to the frontline explaining to them why the police were attacking the community. People wandered through the protest with a wagon full of free cold water, fruit snacks, granola bars, and masks.

When people were shot with projectiles from the police, someone would shout “Medic!” and within seconds a team of street medics would come and provide water, bandages, and ointment, as well as social support for those stressed by the fighting. There were many moments of solidarity. 

The protests continued through the night. A right-wing Trump supporter attempted to run over protesters with their minivan, but they thankfully evaded this reckless violence. The Right may be realizing that Trump has not and cannot contain the uprising, and so these reactionary forces are taking it upon themselves to attack. 

This is why this uprising needs class-independent organization — we need to more deeply defend the community against ICE, the raids, the national guard, and the Right. The working class and the labor movement in particular must take up this fight. Only in this way can we free David Huerta as well as defend the youth in the streets and our immigrant siblings. And uniting the struggle with the struggle for Palestine would be more incendiary than any burning cop cars. 

But what was lacking throughout the weekend were visible signs of the labor movement. People chanted, “Free David Huerta” and raised their fists when they saw my SEIU 721 shirt. It was clear many in the crowd understood the importance of labor. But other SEIU members came without signs nor union shirts. We have been on the frontlines during strikes and faced the police. Now, it’s also up to us to bring together our coworkers to come to the rallies and to defend against ICE. An injury to one is an injury to all. 

On Monday, the protests may have quieted down compared to the weekend. But the fight isn’t over, and people are organizing across the country to demand not just the release of those arrested, including Huerta, but ICE out of our communities, and an end to the war on our immigrant siblings. To make this a reality, we need full unity between our unions, the social movements, and the student movements, fighting on the streets and in our workplaces to bring an end to this reactionary bipartisan regime, and their violent, anti-worker and anti-immigrant agenda.

>> The report above is by Julia Wallace, and was originally published by Left Voice

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