anti-racist anarchist | 24.07.2005 18:48

A group of 40-50 people came out to the Campo Camp against the MinuteMen and the Border last night to send the racist vigilantes home. Here's a very brief summary of what happened.

When I arrived, there were about 5 news crews hanging out at our camp and lots of anti-racists milling around. We had a brief meeting and decided on our plan of action.

We went up the hill to the terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail and had a vigil to honor the 3,200 people who have died crossing the arbitrary, immoral US/Mexico border. The vigil was led by Enrique Morones and followed up by a few speakers expressing solidarity with migrant people. The media was present to film this.

After this, we drove in a large caravan to the main MinuteMen encampment. We stopped before we got there because the last hill is too difficult for small cars to make it over.

We marched through the night along the fence. This was actually a really exciting march, seeing so many people marching through the night, in th eheat, under stars, banging on the fence gave me a real feeling that this was something unique. It was inspiring to see so many people so dedicated to stopping the racist organizing in Southern California and expressing solidarity with migrant people.

When we arrived at the camp with our loud march, we chanted "racist go home" and sung "o lay o lay o lay o la, RACIST, GO HOME!". After a few minutes, we started another vigil in front of their camp. The corporate media was on hand to film the protest.

As soon as Enrique started the vigil, one of the violent vigilantes tried to push his way through to stop Enrique, and he had to be restrained by his fellow racists. The vigil continued. When we asked for a moment of silence for those who have died crossing, one of the MinuteMen interrupted it. We started it over and were able to complete it.

We stayed there for a half an hour or more, facing off the the MinuteMen. A huge portable sound system on a dolly provided the pumping bass. The police made Jimmy Chase move his car from the entrance of the campsite. We entered the campsite and surrounded Jimmy Chase, Jimmy Gilchrist and the racist head of Save Our State, chanting for them to go home. Jim Gilchrist tried to blow his air horn at us, but we continued chanting and yelling for them to go home. The racists all had their guns openly displayed on their persons: pistols, shotguns, knives and more.

Finally, after being nose to nose with these racists, the police asked us to step back after a long confrontation. We decided to march to camp and come back later, having made our point abundantly clear. Two people from our group were overcome by the heat and had to be given water and driven back.

Later in the night, we went out in smaller groups following their patrols. There was an intense standoff when the MinuteMen tried to leave, passing by our camp, and people stood in front of their cars to stop them. The MinuteMen pushed their cars against the people, speeding up until the people had to jump out of the way or be crushed. Video of this will be posted soon. In this confrontation, Jimmy Chase got out of his car, shotgun in hand and entered the crowd to try to move them from in front of the car. As people chanted for him to go home, he turned his shotgun around, pointing it at the face of one demonstrator. Video of this will be posted soon as well.

We went back to the racist's camp at about 2am. We played them music, read to them from Gloria Anzaldua's book Borderlands, danced and gave them a history lesson. Their responses were comical and infuriating. One of our members had been drinking and he was detained by the sherrif, who cited and released him. Unfortunately, some comments were made calling the MinuteMen homosexuals, which were immediately rejected by the demonstrators. Later at camp we had a discussion about creating a safe, respectful space for all who oppose the racists. Our camp continues and our day and night actions to disrupt their migrant hunts will continue until they give up and go home.

This is only the beginning. Even larger nationwide mobilizations are being planned for September. We will not allow racists to organize in our communities. We will continue to oppose the existence of the Border and human rights violations against migrant people and show solidarity with them.

There was a report from the nigth before that a woman was seen close to the border, on the Mexican side, giving birth. The MinuteMen stood by and did not offer any help. Demonstrators showed up as well to offer help to the woman. Eventually, the paramedics on the US side showed up and took her to a hospital in the US. The corporate newspaper the SD Union Tribune reported:

'One of the protesters, Michela Saucedo of San Diego, said the authorities showed compassion.

"When this woman was giving birth, there was no fence," Saucedo said. "At that moment, they don't think if she was illegal or not. That was humanity." '

After our 2AM action, we went back to camp. We all cheered and celebrated our victory as we watched 7 cars full of racists leave for the night! We had successfully sent them home for the night!