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Originally Posted by nroberts
They didn't really do a good job of pulling it off it seems. I don't know what impact it would have had if they did but they didn't commit enough to create the impact they wanted even if they could have. Reading comments from the various protestors...some only stopped working for lunch so they wouldn't impact anything...some didn't go shopping, others just didn't shop for certain things...
Not at all like what Gahndi did in India where the whole damn country stopped. They actually commited to what they were doing, these protestors didn't commit enough. If they had we may or may not have been impacted more.
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Very good point:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont....8c329513.html
day without an outcome
Immigrants show clout but will boycott help or hurt?
12:28 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 2, 2006
By DIANNE SOLÍS and BRENDAN M. CASE / The Dallas Morning News
It shut down restaurants, slowed construction projects and brought thousands out to rally against proposed laws that would criminalize illegal immigration.
But at the end of the day, even many participants and civil rights experts were not entirely clear on what was accomplished by Monday's "Day of Action" – an economic boycott that came less than a month after the largest march in Dallas' history.
To a degree, Monday's boycott demonstrated the economic clout of Hispanics. But it also may have antagonized a segment of society that already viewed the immigrants' cause with suspicion. And at least some businesses affected were owned or operated by Hispanics whose families may have immigrated only a generation or two ago.
Gustavo Bujanda Jr., a Dallas-based marketing specialist who supported some of the first rallies, said the net result of Monday's action was "more polarization."
The rest of the month will call for damage control, said Mr. Bujanda, who watched news reports throughout the day. "There is a general population that will be a little more negatively predisposed to the cause of legalization or being part of the mainstream," he said.
"There is a fine line between lobbying for reform and it being perceived as an ultimatum," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.. "Ultimately, I think today was very risky."
Thousands of North Texas Latinos stayed away from jobs and stores Monday.
The impact of absenteeism from work was hard to measure, though restaurants and construction sites appeared to take the brunt. The effect of the shopping boycott was even harder to gauge because businesses won't report receipts for weeks – and several opponents of the boycott planned to counter the effort by keeping Texas cash registers busy.
The boycott, seemed to have more force than one on April 10, which came a day after the march that brought as many as 500,000 to City Hall. Many more businesses reported absent workers Monday.
Many customers were surprised to find restaurants shuttered at noon.
At Taco Diner in Irving, Wayne Tutt was clearly irritated that the restaurant had closed. "If you are an illegal alien, you have no right to be here," Mr. Tutt said. The owner should be fired, he added.
In the chain'scorporate office, owner Mico Rodriguez, said he closed 21 of his 24 restaurants in the Mstreet Restaurant Group, which includes Mi Cocina and Taco Diner locations. "All of the managers were there," Mr. Rodriguez said. "But we just couldn't open because we manufacture food every day, which takes a lot of labor."
He added, hopefully, "Everybody is going to eat big at Mi Cocina tomorrow."
Showing up to work
And some of his workers came to work anyway. Angel Gallegos, a cook at Mi Cocina, showed up for his job at an Irving restaurant. "I have a lot of bills," the 31-year-old said, before he was sent home.
The jobs boycott, in particular, underscored the grass-roots nature of the labor action from 12 million illegal immigrants – men, women and children who generally avoid attention.
"This is important because our future is at stake," said José Mauricio Ruiz, who works illegally as a restaurant dishwasher in the Dallas area.
"Are we criminals, or do we provide a valuable service to this country? That's something that only Americans can decide, because we have no voice in this country."
Political analysts say the U.S. lawmakers galvanized the immigrant rights movement by passing a bill that would make felons of illegal immigrants and those who help them.
Many immigrants on Monday said they didn't mean to offend with their actions, but the need to take a stand was overarching. Offend, or at least annoy, they did.
"Demanding rights?" said Darlene Knight, a 71-year-old retiree from Rowlett. Illegal immigrants use public hospitals and schools, and Latin American immigrants have higher birthrates, causing further "drain," she said. "I was never prejudiced until I moved to Dallas. Now, illegals are dictating what their rights are!"
To counter the protests, Ms. Knight said she planned to spend in excess of $500 on Monday.
Closed businesses
In a few sections of Dallas with large Latino populations, many businesses were closed. Among them were eateries, grocery stores and bakeries on Henderson Avenue in Old East Dallas and along Davis Street and Jefferson Boulevard in Oak Cliff.
Along the jumble of businesses on West Davis Street and Jefferson Boulevard, such favorites as Cesar's Tacos, Panadería Vera's, and Jerry's Supermarket were closed.
"I'm OK with what people are trying to do, but I needed milk and came to see if they were open," said María Rodriguez, who was shopping for her baby.
Business slumped at Norma's Cafe on West Davis.
"Normally, at this time, we have a lot more people here," said general manager Pam Spell, pointing to the customers seated around her at 9 a.m. "We usually have our specials on the board above you, and our mile-high pies on the counter. But I just don't have enough people today. The bakers aren't here."
About a quarter of her nearly 40 employees weren't at work. "Some of them asked us, and we said we supported them. They're people too," Ms. Spell said.
Supervisors at several construction sites said they were working with reduced crews. At a Dallas luxury condo site, Luis Moreno pushed a wheelbarrow of wet cement. He came to work because the supervisor, an immigrant, is a friend. But his heart, he said, was with those workers who took the day off. "God willing, something will get done," he said in Spanish.
"We are here to work, and we need help."
Monday, though, at several locations, it was employers who needed help.
"It's a ghost town," Allen builder David Waller said of his job sites. "In my subdivision, there are several houses under construction, and I've only seen three of our trucks."
Then, he added, "They'll be back tomorrow."
Others had similar woes. "Our concrete crew cancelled out on Friday," said Mike Mishler, a Rockwall-based builder and president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas. "My painters aren't working. My tile setters aren't working."
And at highway construction sites, there were more reports of worker shortages. Crews weren't able to pave on State Highway 121 in Collin and Denton counties, and one project was slowed in Grand Prairie, said Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Mark Ball. In addition, two of 15 projects in Ellis County were affected. "They were not getting materials delivered on time," Mr. Ball said.
But there were also locations in North Texas where job walkouts were capped, or didn't occur at all. Some business owners and managers worked with employees in a letter-writing campaign to key politicians who are debating the immigration overhaul.
At Luna de Noche restaurants, Lisa Galvan told 250 employees at her four sites that she supported their legalization effort. "But I do not think it is wise to demand the right to work by not working," Ms. Galvan said. "I do not think it is wise to alienate the customers who put bread on your family's table."
When the whole crew showed up, she treated them to steak, shrimp and anything else they wanted from the kitchen.
In Denton, at the bakery Morrison Milling, chairman and CEO Harry Crumpacker reported no staffing problems among the 190-person crew. Nearly two-thirds are Hispanic.
"They, our employees, I think, all know how important they are to our daily production," he said.
Several other Texas cities also had rallies and boycotts.
In Houston, between 15,000 to 30,000 people at Memorial Park for the nationwide "Day Without Immigrants" protest waved U.S. and Mexican flags. About 2,000 people marched from the Chamizal National Monument to a nearby international bridge connecting Cuidad Juarez with El Paso.
At a rally at the Capitol in Austin, more than 1,000 people carried signs and flags from the U.S., Mexico and other Latin American countries. A small group of counter-protesters stood nearby. Sidewalks were almost empty in downtown Brownsville, a grid of shops that usually bustles with foot traffic from across the border.
At schools
Some Houston schools in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods reported absentee rates of 13 percent to 19 percent, up from the usual rates in the single digits.
In North Texas, several school systems, including the Dallas Independent School District, reported no unusual absences. But in Irving, 4,200 students were absent – 2,500 more than usual, a district spokesman said. The Irving district, with 32,000 students, is about a fifth the size of DISD. Like the Dallas district, a third of students are dominant in a language other than English.
One illegal immigrant student, a 17-year-old senior who asked that she not be identified, went to school Monday. Some students had urged her to stay home, and her mother lectured her and her two sisters on the importance of an education.
"I don't need my mother, or anyone telling me that," said the teenager, who is on the honor roll. "My parents made the sacrifice of leaving their life in Mexico so that we could find a better life by getting an education and learning English.
"We have only a few weeks before we graduate, so this is no time to waste."
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