Friday, January 31, 2014

SF Supervisors Vote for Immigrant Rights


San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Vote for
Immigrant Rights Resolution Is Unanimous
Posted from Hermandad Mexicana.
 
By ALAN BENJAMIN
 
JAN. 29 -- Yesterday afternoon, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a resolution that calls upon President Obama to (1) stop the deportations, (2) extend DACA [Deferred Action] to all undocumented immigrants, and (3) end the firings of undocumented immigrants by means of  I-9 audits, E-Verify and employers' sanctions. The resolution -- which was initially adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council -- was introduced by Supervisors David Chiu, David Campos and Scott Wiener.
 
Earlier in the day, the San Francisco Labor Council and numerous immigrant rights and community-based organizations in the city held a rally / press conference on the steps of City Hall to convey the urgency of approving this resolution. Speaker after speaker decried the more than 2 million deportations under Obama and the tens of thousands of workers fired -- with their families torn apart -- because of lack of papers.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Sojourner Truth Museum : Movie Fruitvaile Station


Black History Month. Join Sojourner Truth Multicultural Art Museum 2014 Sacramento Museum Day Celebration
Saturday, February 1, 2014 from 10:00 am to 5:00pm
Special movie presentation: Fruitvaile Station 3:00pm to 6:00pm


Exhibit theme: The Charles W. White and Charles Alston Experience. 

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

How parent income effects school achievement

How California’s Growing Income Gap Affects Our Schools

School Suspensions decline

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Reports California Sees Significant Drops in Student Suspensions and Expulsions

SACRAMENTO—The number of students being suspended or expelled in California declined sharply during the last school year as more schools and districts put into place measures designed to keep young people in the classroom and learning, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today.
Across the state, the total number of expulsions decreased by 12.3 percent, from 9,758 in 2011-12 to 8,562 in 2012-13. The total number of suspensions—either in-school or out of school—dropped 14.1 percent, from 709,596 in 2011-12 to 609,471 in 2012-13.
"Educators across California work hard to keep students in school and learning," Torlakson said. "It can be a challenge to find the balance between maintaining a safe learning environment and giving young people the tools and opportunities they need to succeed. But we're working with schools and districts throughout the state to do exactly that."
A review of almost every ethnic subgroup of students, particularly the larger subgroups, shows substantially fewer of them were suspended. Among African-American students, 53,187 were suspended in 2012-13, down 5,606 or 9.5 percent from the year before. Among Hispanic students, 179,867 were suspended in 2012-13, down 20,416 or 10.2 percent from the year before. Among white students, 68,913 were suspended, down 8,363 or 10.8 percent from the year before.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Raza Educators Conference



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WORKSHOP PRESENTATION PROPOSAL
APPLICATION FORM


8th Annual A.R.E. Conference
Saturday, March 1st, 2014
C.K. McClatchy High School
Sacramento, CA

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Friday, January 31st, 2014
Email Application to: Sacra.ARE@gmail.com

CONFERENCE TITLE
20 Year Effort: Raza Educators Building Liberated Spaces

WORKSHOPS
·       Critical Pedagogy: Theory and Practice
·       Media and Education
·       Immigration and Its Relationship to Education of Raza Youth
·       Role of Community In Education
·       Art and Culture
·       Educational Empowerment and Self-determination
·       Violence, Drugs, and Imprisonment of Raza Youth
·       The Struggle Against Cutbacks and Teacher Layoffs
·       Corporate Take Over and Privatization of Public Education

Please submit your workshop proposal using the enclosed form and send it via email to sacra.are@gmail.com

The conference will be free for all attendees and will include continental breakfast. Lunch Options: A) $5 donation or B) on your own. All presenters will be required to pre-register.   Pre-registration is available online, please visit the following webpage: www.razaeducators.org/conference14/theme2014.html

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Martin Luther King Jr., Economic Justice, Worker's Rights, and Multiracial Democracy

by Thomas F. Jackson
In 1968, a united black community in Memphis stepped forward to support 1,300 municipal sanitation workers as they demanded higher wages, union recognition, and respect for black personhood embodied in the slogan “I Am a Man!” Memphis’s black women organized tenant and welfare unions, discovering pervasive hunger among the city’s poor and black children. They demanded rights to food and medical care from a city and medical establishment blind to their existence.
That same month, March 1968, 100 grassroots organizations met in Atlanta to support Martin Luther King’s dream of a poor people’s march on Washington. They pressed concrete demands for economic justice under the slogan “Jobs or Income Now!” King celebrated the “determination by poor people of all colors” to win their human rights. “Established powers of rich America have deliberately exploited poor people by isolating them in ethnic, nationality, religious and racial groups,” the delegates declared.
So when King came to Memphis to support the strike, a local labor and community struggle became intertwined with his dream of mobilizing a national coalition strong enough to reorient national priorities from imperial war in  Vietnam to domestic reconstruction, especially in America’s  riot-torn cities. To non-poor Americans, King called for a “revolution of values,” a move from self-seeking to service, from property rights to human rights.

King’s assassination—and the urban revolts that followed—led to a local Memphis settlement that furthered the cause of public employee unionism. The Poor People’s March nonviolently won small concessions in the national food stamp program. But reporters covered the bickering and squalor in the poor people’s tent city, rather than the movement’s detailed demands for waging a real war on poverty. Marchers wanted guaranteed public employment when the private sector failed, a raise in the federal minimum wage, a national income floor for all families, and a national commitment to reconstruct cities blighted by corporate disinvestment and white flight. And they wanted poor people’s representation in urban renewal and social service programs that had customarily benefited only businesses or the middle class. King’s dreams reverberated back in the movements that had risen him up.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Film- Rape in the Fields


The Sacramento Press Club presents the screening of the award winning documentary Rape in the Fields, Wednesday, January 15th 2014 at 6:15pm at The Crest Theatre (1013 K Street, Sacramento). “For the women who pick and process our food, sexual assault, and even rape, is sometimes part of the job. Is it the hidden price that many women farmworkers, especially those not authorized to work in the U.S., are paying to stay employed and provide for their families. Rape in the Fields tells the story of how female farm workers fall prey to their field bosses and co-workers – and dare not denounce their attackers. The film is a unique collaboration between FRONTLINE, Univision, The Center for Investigative Reporting, and The Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism.” 5:30pm – Cocktail Reception at The Crest Theatre, 6:00pm Opening Remarks by Dolores Huerta, 6:15pm Screening of Rape in the Fields, 7:15pm Q&A with filmmakers and reporters. For questions please contact myriam.valdez@sen.ca.gov (1/13).