Today, the citizens of New York are voting for a new mayor – and it is quite likely going to be Bill de Blasio. The reports on the news remind me of a rally a month ago that took place in Brooklyn one day after the UN High-Level Dialogue and was organized by the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC). Here, among many other speakers, the candidate (pictured) gave the kind of speech I would love to hear more often from European politicians (chances are best to hear it from a Mayor here, too): Very supportive of the Rights of (im)migrants and acknowledging their contributions. Thousands of People participated in the event, lending it a very pleasant vibe and shouting slogans like “Education, not Deportation” . The program ranged from trade Union speeches through hip hop to – this is the USA after all – blessing from priests of different demonitions. My participation was almost incidental since I had joined the event through yet another demonstration: The International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR) that had held their own parallel event during the HLD marched from the Brooklyn City Hall to the park where the NYIC event was held and added a global perspective to the proceedings that were naturally dominated by the national debate on the Immigration Reform.
One Major issue of the NY campaign was the “Stop and Frisk” policy of the NYPD; I plan to write separate post on this, but if you speak German, you can already check out my interview with activist Monami Maulik here:
This is the website of the NYIC: http://www.thenyic.org/
While the PGA march 3 days earlier had started on Manhattan and went via the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn,
this one went almost exactly the other way round – so I got a new perspective in this regard as well 😉 (super-annoyed/rude NY bikers were the same on both marches 😉
Enjoy the pics!
The GFMD, Migration, Development and Human Rights 