>You celebrate the French union protests and bemoan the lack of same in the
>US, while ignoring the union role in those mass immigrant rights rallies.
>These rallies didn't come out of nowhere--
Right. In Los Angeles it mostly came from the radio. As of a few weeks ago, big labor had still not signed onto Saturday's march.
>He's one of the hottest Spanish-language radio personalities in the
>nation. So when Los Angeles deejay Eddie Sotelo joined hands with
>his radio rivals to urge listeners to turn out for a pro-immigrant
>rally in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, organizers hoped for a big turnout.
>
>But many said Monday that they were stunned by how many responded to
>the call to march against federal legislation that would crack down
>on undocumented immigrants and penalize those who assist them. As a
>result, what was initially expected to draw fewer than 20,000
>ballooned into a massive march that police estimated at 500,000 and
>said was one of the largest demonstrations in Los Angeles' history.
>Los Angeles just elected the first latina as a head of a major labor
>federation and, again, this isn't irrelevant to the story of this past
>weeks' events.
But you're leaving out that the position was open because her predecessor was indicted.