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We are ready for May Day, are you?
This year in Madison, more than 30 organizations will celebrate May Day with a march next Friday, May 1st at 11am starting at Brittingham Park. The theme of the rally this year is “The March for the Poor, Immigrants & Workers.”
A broad coalition is calling for the community to come out and unite for demands that affect us all, such as the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, the reversal of the bus fare increase, paid sick leave and the end of sheriff Mahoney’s collaboration with I.C.E. The event will start at Brittingham Park at 11am, to be followed by a march down West Washington Ave, stopping at the Capitol Square near the State St. entrance.
At the capitol, some speakers will address several of the State and Federal demands and the demonstration will end at the Dane County building to address local demands.
Music, singing and poetry... 
The rally will feature a number of local, national and international artists: Son Mudanza, a Chicano Son group that dedicates its efforts to activism through Son Jarocho music; Vicky Guzman, a well-known labor folk singer, former resident of Madison and currently living in Toronto; Luis Rodriguez, a poet, novelist and journalist and recognized as a major figure of contemporary Chicano literature; and the Madison chapter of Raging Grannies.
Because together we can!
This rally represents an effort toward building unity and raising our common concern with how the crisis is affecting worker and immigrant families while public money keeps flowing to the banks in the form of the bailout. It is time to come together as a progressive movement and start setting the tone in the struggle to improve our living conditions!!!
More info about our demands.
As the May First is gettign close we want to take the time to explain some of the demands in detail. I this edition we will write about the Sheriff Mahony's Policy to collaborate with ICE.
Stop Sheriff Notification to I.C.E.!!!
Since October 2007, the number of Holds set by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has increased 500% and so the number of deportations.
This has led to hundreds of immigrant families broken apart and has created a general distrust of the local police by the immigrant community.
“Every week we receive calls from community members not knowing what to do, in a complete state of panic. People are afraid to be deported and are avoiding any contact with the police.” Christopher Chable (IWU Community Cases Manager)
The root of this problem is the Sheriff’s policy to notify ICE any non US citizen that is sent into jail. Sheriff Mahoney admitted on record at the EOC Public Hearing in October 2008.
This policy is not mandatory, neither standard in most counties in Wisconsin. Actually it is out of the scope of his competencies. To make an analogy, it is like Sheriff Mahoney would send a notification to the IRS to all who gets into jail that makes more than 30k. It is just not his job!
Besides, the presumption that all non nationals have to be screened by ICE is discrimination on the basis of national origin. More importantly, Sheriff Mahoney calls ICE on many immigrants who are in jail waiting to pay bail, go to court or who are doing time for minor offenses that by federal law are not “deportable” crimes like terrorism, drug distribution and so on.
The Sheriff’s office notifies ICE before a judge can rule if the inmate is innocent or guilty. Some judges wonder what the value is to sentence someone for 3 days in proportion to their actions, if Sheriff Mahoney will overturn their ruling by triggering deportation.
IWU worries that eventually domestic violence victims will not call the police because if the aggressor is put in jail even one night, that might be enough to have him or her deported.
“As much as we cannot tolerate domestic violence, we cannot use immigration deportations as a “tool” to address this problem. Women should be encouraged to call the police at the first sign of violence letting the justice system deal with it. Today thanks to sheriff Mahoney, hundreds of women are debating between suffering in silence or possibly deporting their partners, many times a fundamental income in their household.” Says Yvonne Geerts
During 2008 several public hearings, legal opinions and different public and private efforts have been undertaken by many members of the immigrant, faith, labor and legal community to arrive at a solution. However, Sheriff Mahoney shows he is not willing to partner with the community to resolve this issue.
What are we asking?
IWU asks for the Dane County Board, Dane County Executive and the City of Madison to publically put pressure on Sheriff Mahoney to stop notifying ICE of inmates booked into the jail because by federal law, once a non US citizen is sentenced to aggravator felonies, ICE will get notified anyway!
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Madison, WI Proudly Joins The National Actions On May First. Join The Rally. March In Your City! Now Is the Moment!
Join the May Day March!
Take the Day Off on May First and join the March!
It is time to stop the social attacks and demand our rights!!!!
We want to invite YOU to join the May Day Rally and March for the poor, immigrants & workers.
What We Demand !!!
Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act
Universal health care now
Mandatory paid sick leave
A living wage
Halt foreclosures and evictions
Increased funding for Section 8 housing
Free university tuition for low-income students
No increase in bus fares
A living wage for W-2 workers
Real funding for public schools
Immigrant access to identification and drivers licenses
Amnesty for immigrant workers
Stop sheriff notification to ICE
No firings for Social Security no match letters
List of Endorsers (last updated April 24th)
Immigrant Workers Union
Workers International League
International Socialist Organization
AFSCME Local 171
South Central Federation of Labor
Liberty Tree
Four Lakes Green Party
Student Progressive Dane
Student Labor Action Coalition
GEF 1 Stewards Committee
AFSCME Local 145
State Employees Action Coalition
Latino Law Students Association
AFSCME Local 333
Peregrine Forum
Progressive Dane
IBEW Local 2304
Madison Area Peace Coalition
The Progressive Magazine
The Workers' Rights Center
Freedom, Inc
MEChA
Industrial Workers of the World
Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice
Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative
Madison InfoShop
Madison Area Bus Advocates
UW Multi Cultural Coalition
AFSCME Local 2412 (UW-M campus Admin. Support workers)
Madison Branch Women's Int'l League for Peace and Freedom
TAA
Grassroots Leadership College
LUCHA
Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice (ICWJ)
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