HIGHLIGHTS from the BAMN contingent at the April 10, 2013 Immigrant Rights March on Washington!

Below are selected highlights from the BAMN channel playlist featuring videos of BAMN’s contingent for FULL CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS FOR ALL at the April 10, 2013 Immigrant Rights March on Washington!

Full playlist on BAMN YouTube channel!

Read BAMN’s full Call to Action for the day

#1. BAMN Chair Shanta Driver: “Many of the leaders [who say they are for immigrant rights] are more scared of the movement and the people that would come out and march today than they are of living in a society that has growing inequality and rising racism… BAMN is different from all those other groups.”

#2. BAMN Chair Shanta Driver introduces and reads the demands of the BAMN contingent: Full citizenship rights now–not probation! Open the borders. No fines, no deportations. DREAM Act now!

“The marches that are taking place today in other places are calling for immigration reform, but they do not have a single demand expressing what that reform should be. The other people who are marching are saying we are going to leave it up to the politicians to decide what the reform should be… [BAMN] thinks we cannot leave it up to the politicians — what we fight for are the demands of the movement.”

#3. Las demandas en español: Derechos de ciudadanía completos ahora—No al plazo de prueba! No a las multas. Paren las deportaciones. Abran las fronteras. Promulguen el Acta del Sueño ahora:

#4. Some videos of the march!

“What do we want? THE DREAM ACT! When do we want it? NOW!”

¡La Migra, escucha! ¡Estamos en la lucha!

“Black, Latino, Arab, Asian and white–By any means necessary we will fight!”

At a post-rally, BAMN members made observations about the day and talked about where the movement goes from here.

Jump to the full list of speeches

#5. BAMN Chair Shanta Driver: “Despite the harassment of the police at the front of the march and the back of the march, our determination to keep on marching left them with nothing to do other than pretend that they were giving us an official escort down to the Capitol… Those police knew that behind us there were and are millions of people in the United States… What they feared and what the leadership of this event has feared from the beginning, is that a confrontation could be viewed by young people in Washington D.C. — Latino and black — as the kind of outrage that makes you want to come out of the streets and express your anger in what is popularly called a riot. That is what they feared.”

#6. Jose Alvarenga, BAMN Detroit: “This integrated contingent expresses that: You don’t have to be Latino to be fighting for immigrant rights; you don’t have to be undocumented to be fighting for equality. But you know it’s needed and it’s necessary if you want to live in a country that is just for everyone… When we go back to wherever you came from, remember what it felt like today, remember what it feels like to be a leader and fighting for equality and make that happen in your city as well.”

#7. Sidney Adebayo, BAMN Oakland: “We can do this; this fight can be done. It can be done the easy way or it can be the done the hard way — or, as I prefer to call it, the fun way… I’m going to come out with you guys every day until we win the fight by any means necessary.”

See the rest of the speeches