The Revolution Was Calm And Orderly

[May 3rd, 2006] After all the sound and fury ended from the downtown rally Monday for immigrants' rights, WW had a notebook full of unanswered questions beyond the obvious "what was achieved?"

Where were all the xenophobic counter-protesters? With Oregon's candidates for governor bickering over who's toughest on "illegals," one would have expected at least a handful of angry white men.

But we spotted only two. One, a guy with a crewcut, dropped his "We need a fence" sign 10 minutes into the rally and walked away when he saw a reporter heading over.

The only other anti-protester was an older guy riding a bike. He wouldn't give his name, but held two small paper signs reading, "Illegal immigration voids the relevance of my legal vote!" "I'm not against immigration," he said. "There just needs to be a debate. This isn't debate."

When did anarchists become so well behaved? A dozen or so youths with bandannas covering their faces, carrying black-and-red flags, marched in an orderly manner with the crowd, readily following instructions from cops who cleared the streets ahead of the march.

What was Radical Women, a self-proclaimed "anti-capitalist feminist group," doing at an immigrant workers'-rights rally? The group's spokeswoman elicited shouts of agreement from some in the crowd, but left many men looking confused when she shouted from the stage, "Together we will topple this system that oppresses our sisters."

Radical Women wasn't the only odd rally-crasher.

Organizers from every leftist cause certainly saw the protest as a wet dream come true. Dreadlocked young men did a brisk trade collecting signatures for a ballot measure to legalize marijuana. Members of the Socialist Party of Oregon carried signs demanding an end to the Iraq war.

And the right wasn't absent, either.

Signature gatherers were there for measures to impose term limits, to put a spending cap on the Legislature and to prevent the government from condemning private property. "Hey," one of the signature-gatherers told WW, "wherever there are people is good."

Here's one question we could answer: Who saw the rally as an excellent recruitment opportunity?

Frito-Lay. Company representatives handed out packages of cookies with attached business cards that said, in Spanish, "Are you interested in a Career with Frito-Lay? Make a call to start your Career and 'Try the Success!'"