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i have all of 2 seconds to write this, but if you get a chance check out what happened to the mayday rally in san diego. it was scheduled to start in balboa park at 5:30pm--and it did. i got there closer to 5:45 or so, and it was going strong. they had speakers, musical performers, dancers, more speakers--some in english, most in spanish. i really need to learn spanish!
at one point, a group of rally-ers started something like a conga line (only no conga--just walking). they had a big banner of the mexican flag at the front, and were just walking around the perimeter of the rally. all during the rally, people were driving by with huge mexican and american flags flying from their cars, honking horns, yelling, waving. it was such a great bunch of noise! suddenly, the "conga" line went "illegal." no...i don't mean that they crossed the border...but they *did* cross the street. (perhaps *too* metaphorically, there were a very few--like 2--counter-protesters across the street, with a sign on wheels saying "no amnesty.") then the line of demonstrators (the ones from the park) started walking down the middle of the street. more people poured into the street. they (we) kept walking. it turned into a HUGE, unauthorized parade down the hill, into downtown (which i hadn't seen up close yet, thank you very much), and through the streets of downtown. i'm happy to say the cops didn't try to stop it, and exerted only a minimal amount of traffic control, forming a line across the I-5 entrance to keep us from taking over the freeway, and turning us around once we had gone through downtown. this parade involved *thousands* of people, i'm sure--at one point i could see it stretching all the way from the park into the heart of downtown. it stopped the trolley--empty trolley cars were lined up, waiting for the parade of people to pass.
amazing. collective action in action.
si se puede! (that much spanish i know...)
at one point, a group of rally-ers started something like a conga line (only no conga--just walking). they had a big banner of the mexican flag at the front, and were just walking around the perimeter of the rally. all during the rally, people were driving by with huge mexican and american flags flying from their cars, honking horns, yelling, waving. it was such a great bunch of noise! suddenly, the "conga" line went "illegal." no...i don't mean that they crossed the border...but they *did* cross the street. (perhaps *too* metaphorically, there were a very few--like 2--counter-protesters across the street, with a sign on wheels saying "no amnesty.") then the line of demonstrators (the ones from the park) started walking down the middle of the street. more people poured into the street. they (we) kept walking. it turned into a HUGE, unauthorized parade down the hill, into downtown (which i hadn't seen up close yet, thank you very much), and through the streets of downtown. i'm happy to say the cops didn't try to stop it, and exerted only a minimal amount of traffic control, forming a line across the I-5 entrance to keep us from taking over the freeway, and turning us around once we had gone through downtown. this parade involved *thousands* of people, i'm sure--at one point i could see it stretching all the way from the park into the heart of downtown. it stopped the trolley--empty trolley cars were lined up, waiting for the parade of people to pass.
amazing. collective action in action.
si se puede! (that much spanish i know...)
