Mural dedicated to undocumented workers, world without borders

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On May 15, 1990, the California Library for Social Studies and Research sponsored a ceremony dedicating a two-story mural to the undocumented workers of Los Angeles. The mural artist, Mike Alewitz, is a coordinator for ARTIWORK, a new organization of artists and activists in solidarity with the struggles of working people. ART/WORK can be reached at 31 Central Ave., Newark N.J. 07102, (201) 733-4959. The following is the dedication speech given by Mike Alewitz.

The mural is special not only because of all the people who contributed to its production, but primarily because of what it represents. I proposed this mural to Spark [Muckhart] based on a trip that I made to Los Angeles, where I saw some of the changes that have taken place in the city over the past decade.

And I think what we see in this city is a reflection of what is happening internationally—the massive uprooting of people who have been driven from their homeland, either from political or economical repression, and who come to this country, and come to Los Angeles in particular, seeking a better life Samia Halaby is a painter and teacher. She was invited to participate in the Third Havana Biennial as a Palestinian artist. She exhibited abstract paintings which depict centers of energy and motion based on and dedicated to the Intifada.

HAVANA-The Third Havana Biennial, which opened last November and continued for several months, provided a comprehensive view of our time by artists from oppressed nations (Third World).

The core of the Biennial, the "Tres Mundos" (Three Worlds) show, was housed in the city's Museum of Fine Art. The Biennial also included 23 satellite exhibitions that established a fuller definition of the visual arts by including fiber art, textiles, a fashion show, photographs, masks, dolls, toys, prints, calligraphy, and sculpture.

Artists from Africa, Asia, and South America-including the Caribbean—were invited. The 491 participating artists were given equal wall space and were encouraged to express their artistic wishes thereon.

Artists were invited who are frozen out of the bourgeois art circuit and the media which expands it massively.

This Biennial stressed equality. There were no prizes, no "superstars," and no exhibi14 SOCIALIST ACTION for themselves.

Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that this better life will not be realized in this country. Once they get here, they will be met with new forms of repression, new forms of racism, and new forms of exploitation.

I had very capable and wonderful assistants whom I would like to introduce at this time-Debbie Velasquez, Mauricio Cabrero, Juan García, Spark Muckhart, Etha Malik, and Dudley Watson. Some people are not here, but those who are I would like to stand now. I'd like to give them a round of applause.

The people who painted this mural reflect what this city is. We are of Anglo, Iranian, African-American, Mexican, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan background. And while there are other nationalities in the city now, the fact is that the artists who painted this mural reflect the great diversity that Los Angeles has become.

There are really two Los Angeleses. One is the Los Angeles that you can see when you watch the show "L.A. Law." This is the Los Angeles of high-rolling lawyers who live in beachfront homes, who drive fancy cars. Even the secretary is wealthy. The Chicanos and Blacks are lawyers and wear $800 suits. The show reflects a culture and a myth. It's a lie. It's a lie that's fed to us like all the other shows that are on TV.

But there is a different Los Angeles. That's the Los Angeles that the undocumented workers find when they come here. That's the Los Angeles that I see when I drive down here to paint in the morning. Hundreds of workers, hundreds of men standing on street corners hoping that someone will come by and offer them day labor.

It's what I see driving by when I see women who have been driven into prostitution after coming to this country. You see a lot from the top of a scaffold when you're working in a neighborhood like this. You see what the drug war is really all about. It's really not a war on drugs; it's really a war on the Black community.

From the top of that scaffold, I watched young people forced to kneel in the streets by Los Angeles policemen with guns to the back of their heads after being pulled over in an attempt to terrorize the community here. It's a war that's really designed to make the victims of drugs into criminals. City, it isn't happening to them, it's happening to us. Because we are all part of one class, whatever we may think of ourselves, you may call yourself middle-class, or call yourselves something else but the fact of the matter is we are all working people. In one way or another, we sell our labor.

There are those who hate and fear immigrant labor. They hate and fear the millions of people who are driven into this country. But I believe-and I think most of you believe-that the millions of people who come to this country from around the world will have a profound political and culturally liberating effect on political life in this country.

The U.S. government does not speak for them and it doesn't speak for us. So we're here today to say, "Welcome brothers and sisters, we want you to join the struggle here. We want you to join us on the picket lines and the demonstrations here, no matter where you may have come from." We can begin by joining the Greyhound and Eastern picket lines.

The people who organized the CIO [Congress of Industrial Organizations] were often referred to as the people with no names. And we want to welcome today those people who come with no names and no papers. We dedicate this mural to you undocumented workers. This is your mural. It is a small expression of the great potential power that labor solidarity has. We say to you—labor solidarity has no borders. • commentary were the narrative pictures of