Statement on Alhambra

Greetings companeras/os,

I would like to first of all congratulate and thank
all the organizations and individuals for responding
to the call to mobilize and confront the nascent
fascist organization "SOS" who tried to assert
themselves here in Alhambra on June 18, 2005. We of
the San Gabriel Valley Neighbors for Peace and Justice
(Alhambra) are very much gratified that so many stood
with us in solidarity, shoulder to shoulder, with the
Day laborers in their right to work without right wing
thugs breathing down their necks.

The mobilization was, without a doubt, a major
SUCCESS! Not only were some 300+ militant protesters
marshaled to oppose the SOS's presence, but with those
numbers we were able to apply great pressure on the
xenophobes for more than three hours without losing
our focus and determination to expel them and at the
same time, not falling for any provocation to engage
the police! The energy was exemplary and made a great
impact by emboldening all present while reducing the
Neo-fascists to whimpers and complaints to the police
for protection and insisting that we must treat them
civilly in their so called right to intimidate the
workers.

IN THE END, IT WAS THE SOS WHO WAS INTIMIDATED! But it
was not just the organized contingents that kept them
diminished, but the continuity of mass mobilization
and focused "direct confrontation" that has gained us
our victories in Baldwin Park (last month) and also in
the forces we turned out in Garden Grove. In all
cases, the SOS and their allies the "Minutemen" were
stifled in their strategy to present a media event
that would insinuate that there is no real opposition
to their thuggish pretense to waltz into people of
color communities to scapegoat.

The SOS/Minutemen want to have the same success that
they had in Arizona where opposition was too little
too late in their response; they thought that they can
just walk into California simply with the praise of
Arnold Schwarzenegger and counted on the Democrats to
wage no fight!

BUT THIS IS CALIFORNIA BIRTHPLACE OF THE STUDENT WALK
OUTS IN EAST LA OF THE 70'S,THE HOME OF MASS
MOBILIZATION AGAINST THE VIET NAM WAR THROUGHOUT LOS
ANGELES AND IN EAST LOST ANGELES IN AUGUST 29TH, 1970.
THE PLACE OF VICTORY FOR THE JUSTICE FOR JANITORS
STRIKES AND COMMUNITY SOLIDARITY MOBILIZATIONS AND
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, THE MOBILIZATION OF 100,000 TO
150,000 IN IT'S FINAL MARCH TO DEFEAT 187 back in 1994
WITH 10's OF THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS STRIKING AT THEIR
HIGH SCHOOLS AND JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS THOUGHOUT THE
STATE!
I would also like to point out that some 25 per cent
of the forces we had marshaled in Alhambra JUNE 18TH
were of communities other than Latino and Indigenous
communities. HOW POWERFUL WERE WE IN OUR CULTURAL
DIVERSITY, in our sisterhood and brotherhood. WE WERE
UNITED in our united front of various political
organizations regardless of our varying perspectives.

I would like to point out that in spite of Governor
Schwarzenegger giving public support and therefore
political justification for them to attack immigrants
and the indigenous we were united in our united front
of various political perspectives and by that unity we
were able to assert maximum pressure on the SOS and
avoid repression from the police forces.

This was a continuity of the same strategy that won us
our victory in Baldwin Park! I am encouraging those of
us who are organizing this struggle to "smash" the
SOS/Minutemen to build on this strategy and mobilize
our forces to 10's of thousands and confront the SOS
as we have in Alhambra and Baldwin park last month as
the effective way to demoralize and demobilize their
potential support.



ADELANTE, ALVARO MALDONADO
JUNE 21,2005