Nelson Mandela, RIP

by Stuart Acoff
One of humanity’s greatest figures has passed on. One of the greatest freedom fighters of all time has passed on. One of the greatest human beings of the entire history of our species has passed on.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in the Robben Island prison in South Africa for his leadership in the struggle to free all the people of South Africa and to bring democracy to South Africa.

I first heard of Nelson Mandela in the mid-80′s when the movement to support the freedom struggle against apartheid came to Atlanta, Ga. Rev. James Orange, Rep. Tyrone Brooks, and Dr. Joseph Lowery introduced me to that struggle, and we joined the movement pushing for the State of Georgia to divest our pension funds from South Africa.

Ambassador Andrew Young had a very close relationship with Mandela and his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Young and Dr. Lowery helped lead the American support work for the freedom struggle in South Africa. I remember getting up in the middle of an April night in 1994 to watch freedom become real in South Africa.

Eliseo Medina's Fast for Immigration Reform

by Randy Shaw

The Obama's Visit Eliseo Medina, Fast for Families
The Obama's Visit Eliseo Medina, Fast for Families

In my September 30 tribute to Eliseo Medina’s legacy when he retired from SEIU, I said he “is retiring from his job, though not from immigrant rights activism.” This has become clear as Medina and other activists have held a Fast for Families on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The President, Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett all visited Medina and the other fasters on November 29, bringing needed national attention to House inaction on immigration reform.

Ed. note.  Eliseo Medina is a Honorary Chair of DSA.  They ended their fast on December 3.  Others have taken up the fast.

 I discuss the strategic use of fasts by both Cesar Chavez and Eliseo Medina in my book on the farmworker movement and its legacy, and the 67-year old Medina’s current fast harkens back to Chavez’ Arizona fast that spawned the Si Se Puede UFW rallying call.

Medina knows the fast will not sway Speaker Boehner, but recognizes the action can transform public consciousness about the urgency of immigration reform. And for a media that has given much more coverage to technological delays caused by a deficient website as to Boehner’s intentionally delaying a vote on immigration reform, such transformation is vital.

When I heard that Eliseo Medina was planning a fast along with other immigrant rights activists, my first thought was his age. Fasting at 67 can be life threatening, and many believe Cesar Chavez’s life was cut short by damage caused by his late in life fasts.

My second thought was more pragmatic: should Medina be risking his life for a fast that was unlikely to win a House vote on the Senate immigration reform bill? But I think recent events have showed the wisdom of Medina’s decision.

The sad fact is that the traditional national media has failed to pressure House Republicans to hold a vote on immigration reform. As noted above, it has been far more focused on spinning a false narrative about health care reform.

Consider: immigration reform is a matter of life and death for millions facing deportation at any time. A delayed health care website puts nobody’s life, or even health, at risk.

There is a parallel between the media’s troubling coverage of the two issues: the eight to twelve million impacted by immigration reform are primarily Latinos, while the little told story of the five million Americans denied health care not temporarily by a website but permanently by a Republican Governor are disproportionately African-Americans.

Activists Did Everything Right

I have found that regardless of how uphill the battle, many always blame the activists pushing for change for it not being achieved. Mistakes are identified, wrong steps are highlighted, and history is written to absolve the political system of failing to implement social justice.

Had the immigrant rights movement just folded up its tent and conceded defeat in 2014, activists would be blamed them for the outcome. The movement would be accused of a) focusing too much on the Senate, b) putting too much faith in Obama, c) not doing sufficient groundwork with Boehner, or d) all or some of the above.

That’s one reason the Fast for Families is so important: it reminds us that activists did not fail, a political system that failed to secure immigration reform did.

I argue in my new book, The Activist’s Handbook, Second Edition, that the immigrant rights movement was too willing to sacrifice its agenda for Obama’s in 2009. But by the fasts and other actions the movement has laid the groundwork for a cautious President to take the unilateral action necessary to protect millions from deportation while House Republicans fiddle.

And the movement has also prepared millions to protest directly against the President should he fail to take such action.

Randy Shaw is Editor of Beyond Chron,  where this post  originally appeared.  His book on the farmworkers movement, which highlights Eliseo Medina’s accomplishments, is Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century

California Holocaust

Some celebrate the 300 anniversary of Serra’s birth. 

by  George Monbiot

Nowhere is the Church’s denial better exemplified than in its drive to canonise the Franciscan missionary Junípero Serra, whose 300th anniversary falls on Sunday. Serra’s cult epitomises the Catholic problem with history – as well as the lies that underpin the founding myths of the United States.

You can find his statue on Capitol Hill, his face on postage stamps, his name plastered across schools and streets and trails all over California. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II, after a nun was apparently cured of lupus, and now awaits a second miracle to become a saint(9). So what’s the problem? Oh, just that he founded the system of labour camps that expedited California’s cultural genocide.

Obama visits activists fasting for immigration reform

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stopped by the National Mall on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to speak with immigration reform activists who are fasting as part of an effort to push Congress to act on a path to citizenship for millions of the nation's undocumented immigrants.
"The President and the First Lady are visiting individuals taking part in Fast For Families on the National Mall and offer their support for those who are fasting on behalf of immigration reform," a White House official said, according to a pool report.

Activists have been fasting on the National Mall since Nov. 12 and have attracted several White House and Congressional leaders who have visited to show solidarity. The Obamas spoke with 18 day fasters and two activists who have been fasting for 18 days: Eliseo Medina (left) and Dae Joong Yoon (right), and thanked them for their "sacrifice and dedication."

Can President Obama Do More To Stop Deportations?

Fast for Immigration Reform - Update

Pressure and Passivity on Immigration

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD.  NYTimes. November 27, 2013.

President Obama made the case for immigration reform again on Monday, in a speech in San Francisco that seemed mostly directed to Republicans in Congress, who aren’t listening. (See post below)

Noting the Republican resistance to passing a single comprehensive bill, he struck an oddly lighthearted note. “It’s Thanksgiving,” he said. “We can carve that bird into multiple pieces — a drumstick here, breast meat there.” This drew chuckles. By suggesting that large-scale immigration overhaul can be done incrementally, he was retreating from an argument that has guided reform advocates for a decade: fixing the broken system requires three things at once — tighter enforcement, an improved flow of new immigrants and legalization for the 11 million living here outside the law.

Fast for Families: A Call for Immigration Reform

Our broken immigration system has caused a moral crisis -- where every day more and more families are torn apart by deportations.

Today, faith, immigrant rights, community and labor leaders began a fast in front of the Capitol's doorstep and at locations across the country to send a clear and visible message to Congress: we will not wait for reform any longer.

The campaign launch of "Fast for Families: A Call for Immigration Reform and Citizenship" was announced this morning at a press conference at the campaign's community tent in front of the Capitol. The event featured prominent leaders and members of the immigrant community including former International Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU, Eliseo Medina; Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights President Wade Henderson, NETWORK Lobby Executive Director Sister Simone Campbell, Sojourners President Rev. Jim Wallis, Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism Director Rabbi David Saperstein, National African-American Clergy Network's Rev. Barbara Williams Skinner, NAKASEC Executive Director Dae Joong Yoon, Make The Road NY's Lucy Tzunun, PICO National Network's Rev. Al Herring and Interfaith Worker Justice Public Policy Director Rev. Michael Livingston.

Eliseo Medina expressed his commitment to the cause of immigrant justice and this fast during the presser, saying,

Barack Obama on Immigration Reform - November 25, 2013

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody!  (Applause.)  Well, hello, San Francisco!    It is great to be back in California.  It is great to be with all of you.  I love San Francisco.      

And it’s fitting that we’re here in Chinatown, just a few miles away from Angel Island.  In the early 1900s, about 300,000 people -- maybe some of your ancestors -- passed through on their way to a new life in America.  And for many, it represented the end of a long and arduous journey -- they’d finally arrived in a place where they believed anything was possible.

And for some, it also represented the beginning of a new struggle against prejudice in a country that didn’t always treat its immigrants fairly or afford them the same rights as everybody else.  Obviously, Asians faced this, but so did the Irish; so did Italians; so did Jews; and many groups still do today.