BY HARRY RING
LOS ANGELES - Labor Day activities here included an immigrant-rights march and rally in Chinatown. More than 500 people participated in the event, which was sponsored by a coalition of Asian, Pacific Islander, and Latino groups.
Despite searing heat, members of the Korean Senior Citizens Association participated in the action. Banners identified the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, Asian Pacific Islanders for Immigration Rights, and the Korean Resource Center.
Latino participants included the Association of Pasadena Day Workers.
A highlight of the rally was the presence of some of the 72 Thai workers who experienced near-slave conditions in a garment sweatshop in nearby El Monte.
Speaking on their behalf was Chanchanit Martorell, director of the Thai Community Development Center. She has played a central role in defending their rights. She spoke of the contributions of immigrant labor to the U.S. economy but said that instead of being welcomed, these workers "are being persecuted and made the scapegoat for every social ill this country has created."
A series of speakers assailed the current immigrant- bashing drive and urged ongoing action against it. They voiced particular anger at moves to deny social benefits to legal permanent residents and to deny entry preference to immediate relatives of citizens and permanent residents.
The entire group of Thai garment workers were the featured guests at the annual Labor Day breakfast of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.
The gathering was deeply moved by the account of their experience offered by three of the women through an interpreter. "It was like coming to hell," declared one.
Meeting under a banner that declared, "The new faces of labor," the union gathering was larger than those in recent years.
In the port area of San Pedro, a coalition of unions staged a march and rally with some 2,000 participants. This too was larger than recent ones.
The largest contingent was that of the International Longshore Union, whose members staged a 24-hour strike in August that shut down all West Coast ports.Leading the march was a battery of rigs driven by members of the Latin- American Truckers Association, an organization of independent drivers.