Friday, March 30, 2018

Cesar Chavez Dolores Huerta, the UFW, and Strategic Racism.


Cesar Chavez & Duane Campbell. 1972
Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.  You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read.  You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.  Cesar Chávez.  November 9, 1984.

On March 31, 2018,  Eleven  states  and numerous cities will hold holidays celebrating  labor and Latino Leader Cesar Chavez. Conferences, marches and celebrations will occur in numerous cities this weekend and particularly in rural farm areas  of the nation.  A recent film Cesar Chavez: An American Hero, starring Michael Peña  as Cesar Chavez and Rosario Dawson  as Dolores Huerta presents important parts of this story.
Meanwhile,  in March of 2015  hundreds of farmworkers have walked off their jobs in Baja California, Mexico, from the agricultural fields just a few miles from the U.S. border , fields developed to provide a harvest to the U.S. markets.  Farm labor strikes and violence against strikers remains a volatile issue.  Farm workers deserve dignity, respect, and fair wages.  Achieving these goals will require a union.

The  current UFW leadership, as well as former UFW leaders  and former DSA Honorary Chairs  Eliseo Medina and Dolores Huerta  are recognized leaders in the ongoing efforts to achieve comprehensive immigration reform in the nation.
 On immigration, UFW President Arturo Rodriquez says, “We urge Republicans to abandon their political games that hurt millions of hard-working, taxpaying immigrants and their families, and help us finish the job by passing legislation such as the comprehensive reform bill that was approved by the Senate on a bipartisan vote in June 2013,” Rodriguez said.  Similar compromise proposals, negotiated by the UFW and the nation's major agricultural employer associations, have passed the U.S. Senate multiple times over the last decade. The same proposal has won majority support in the House of Representatives, even though House GOP leaders have refused to permit a vote on the measure. “The UFW will not rest until the President's deferred relief is enacted and a permanent immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants, is signed into law.”  www.UFW.org

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

ICE Uses Facebook

Excellent film about Dolores last night on PBS.


ICE, the federal agency tasked with Trump’s program of mass deportation, uses backend Facebook data to locate and track immigrants that it is working to round up, according to a string of emails and documentsobtained by The Intercept through a public records request. The hunt for one particular immigrant in New Mexico provides a rare window into how ICE agents use social media and powerful data analytics tools to find suspects.”

https://theintercept.com/2018/03/26/facebook-data-ice-immigration/

BUILD THE WALL WITH 'M'?: President Donald Trump is serious about the idea that the military could build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Washington Post's Josh Dawsey and Mike DeBonis report. Trump is "privately pushing" for the armed forces to foot the bill for the project, which the White House has estimated could cost $25 billion. News of the internal machinations follows a Trump tweet Sunday that said the wall is "all about National Defense" and should be built "through M." The Post (citing two advisers) confirmed that "M" stands for "military."

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Dolores






































Live boldly,   KVIE. Channel 6.  March 27,  9 PM, and other public television stations., 

by Duane Campbell
There is an important new film out – Dolores, the story of former DSA Honorary Chair Dolores Huerta and her fight for justice. (All DSA honorary chairs were eliminated by the 2017 DSA convention.) She is the woman holding the Huelga sign on the DSA landing page. If you want to be inspired by her struggle for social justice, go see the film. 
Although at times ignored by the Anglo media, and at other times castigated as a red and an “outside agitator,” Huerta tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Cesar Chavez, becoming one of the most important feminists of the twentieth century. If you don’t know her story, you should ask yourself why.  She continues the fight on many fronts to this day, at age 87. With unprecedented access to Dolores, the film reveals important parts of the struggle for dignity and justice for farmworkers, as well as the raw, personal stakes involved in committing one’s life to social change. 
Dolores, produced by PBS and Independent Lens, serves labor history well by accurately describing the often overlooked role of Filipinos who initiated a strike in Delano in 1965, which the nascent NFWA (National Farm Workers Association) joined to create the great Grape Strike that changed labor history in the Southwest.

Monday, March 12, 2018

Trump's Border Wall is Stupid and Dangerous


The Wall (or Fence)

Yes, the U.S. can build a wall or fencing on the U.S. side of the border, except for that portion of the border that is on the Tohono O’odhom reservation in Arizona.   But the wall will be an expensive failure.  

Donald Trump plans to build a border wall at a cost of at least $16,000,000,000, more likely $25 billion. 
Rather than building a wall that will not work, we could build 375 schools in the U.S., or 93 average size hospitals. 
For every 10 miles of wall built, we could have 30 schools.  For every 50 miles, we could have 4-5 hospitals.



The Border Community is 2,000 miles long, expanding from California to the Gulf of Mexico. It includes uninhabited desert, small and large cities, and el Rio Grande. 
·      The US considers Border Territory anything 100 miles from ports of entry. This includes the Southern and Northern Borders as well as all coasts, meaning that about  2/3 of the entire US population live within Border Territory.
·      About 200 million people live within the 100-mile zone; including 11 states that lie almost entirely within the zone and 9 of the 10 largest cities in the country: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego and San Jose.

Border Enforcement
·      The United States spends billions of dollars a year on border enforcement under the narrative of ‘national security’, which is primarily spent on the Southern Border.
·      Customs and Border Patrol is the largest federal law enforcement agency in the country. Today there are about 22,000 Border Patrol agents, 18,000 of them stationed on the Southern Border. 
·      CBP has full authority to operate anywhere within the 100-mile zone, including stopping and searching vehicles and persons on reasonable suspicion, regardless of legal status. 
·      The Department of Justice exempted Border Patrol from its most recent orders to local and federal police against racial profiling.
·      The budget for border enforcement increased by 75% in the last decade, to add up to 13.5 billion dollars per year. This is more than the DEA, FBI, and Secret Service budgets combined. 
·      Internal Border Patrol immigration checkpoints exist all throughout the 100-mile zone, way beyond Ports of Entry. In New Mexico, these checkpoints are located well beyond urban locations, forcing all undocumented immigrants to remain within the region. 
·      The current wall covers about 650 miles along the border and has already cost the US $7 billion, that’s about $5 million per mile in some areas.

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Donald Trump's Deportation Machine

Please go to the newsstands later this month or click on http://time.com/longform/donald-trump-immigration-policy-splitting-families to read a TIME Magazine cover story: "No one is safe. How Trump's immigration policy is splitting families apart.”
The farm worker movement helped put TIME Magazine in contact with the family featured in this story, a hard working farm worker family with three American-born children whose father, Alejandro, was ripped apart from them. The father had no criminal record -- not even a speeding ticket. The mother, Maria, is alone in the country hoping the same horrifying situation does not happen to her. As a member of the UFW Foundation, Maria has learned about her rights and is empowered to tell her story.
We wanted to share Maria and Alejandro’s heartbreaking story with you as an example of the realities we see way too often in farm worker communities. Stories like this are why we continue to do everything we can to protect farm workers and immigrants who contribute so much to our economy.
Please read this heartbreaking article. This is affecting not only the adults, but their children. Kids are being taught at a very young age what it is they need to do if mom and dad don’t come home. I will be reaching out to you again, in hopes that you will continue helping us protect these vulnerable members of our communities and their families. 
Thank you for supporting us.

Arturo S. Rodriguez
UFW President

Tuesday, March 06, 2018

Jeff Sessions- ICE Out of Sacramento

ACTION ALERT!


Jeff Sessions Out of Sacramento!


Jeff Sessions, Trump’s hate-mongering Attorney General, is coming to Sacramento to spread his message of xenophobia, and make a “statement” on sanctuary jurisdictions.

Let's show Sessions and his supporters that this message of hate is unacceptable. Show out to protest his visit and show solidarity with migrant communities! Keep Jeff Sessions out of Sacramento and defend sanctuary cities!

DATE: TOMORROW, March 7th, 7:30am
LOCATION: 
Kimpton Sawyer Hotel, 500 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
RSVP on Facebook

Chicanos Made History

The East L.A. Walkouts, 50 Years Later
By TIM ARANGO AND MATT STEVENS
Sophie Peterson, 14, from Sylmar, at a rally against gun violence in Los Angeles last month.
Sophie Peterson, 14, from Sylmar, at a rally against gun violence in Los Angeles last month. Richard Vogel/Associated Press 
Good morning.
Fifty years ago this month, amid the tumult of the 1960s, thousands of Chicano students from Los Angeles high schools walked out of class to protest racism and failing schools. 
“I was pretty beat down,” recalled Bobby Verdugo, who was one of the student organizers. “I didn’t think I would amount to much. That’s what teachers were telling me.” 
As Mr. Verdugo, 67, and other veterans of the Chicano walkouts made the rounds of events at schools here recently, to mark the anniversary, students told them about their own intentions to walk out of class next week, in solidarity with student activists across the country who have called for protests for gun control in the aftermath of the shooting in Parkland, Fla.

Monday, March 05, 2018

Putting Trump On Notice About DACA: Fix What You Broke.

DACA Campaign Targets Trump

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union, United We Dream, MoveOn.org, and SEIU kicked off a new campaign demanding Donald Trump take action to save 800,000 immigrant youth from deportation. The launch comes on the eve of the arbitrary deadline Trump set for Congress to deliver a solution for the crisis he created when he announced he would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program this past fall.

The campaign includes multiple six figure advertising buys focusing on Trump, the man who put immigrant youth in danger. A 30-second video spot speaking to Trump directly will air during Fox & Friends, his favorite show. The ACLU will also be using aggressive digital tactics to reach Republican influencers, honing in on White House and RNC staff. The ads will be featured in D.C. area taxi cabs and in leading outlets such as Axios, Fox News, and Politico. The organization will also provide a feature that allows its two million members to tweet the 30-second ad directly at Trump.

“This campaign is about holding Trump accountable,” said Lorella Praeli, ACLU director of immigration policy and campaigns. “He created this crisis when he ended DACA in September, and he has sabotaged every reasonable legislative solution. We are taking our fight for Dreamers and immigrants’ rights to Trump himself. We will maintain pressure on him and demand that he fix what he broke when he ended DACA six months ago.”

Today’s launch event at the Ellipse, near the White House, featured speakers from the ACLU and UWD as well as impacted immigrant youth. Hundreds of attendees got a first look at the 30 second ad, which uses Trumps own words against him. The event featured a 16-foot parachute banner with Trump’s photo and the phrase, “Time to show the love.” There was also a digital countdown clock to March 5, Trump’s self-imposed DACA deadline.

“Trump created the crisis that we face, set the deadline of March 5 to fix it, and then mobilized to block the Dream Act and three bipartisan proposals. Since Trump killed DACA, immigrant youth have been losing our protections from his agents every day. Instead of becoming citizens of the country that is our home we are being hunted. This needs to stop and the man who can stop it is Donald Trump,” said Greisa Martinez Rosas, advocacy director of United We Dream and potential Dream Act beneficiary.

The 30 second ad is available here:
https://youtu.be/lG9xEEdEh58

The Spanish version is online here:
https://youtu.be/VBu96BVqDxQ

STAY INFORMED


ICE LIES, Immigrant Justice Report

https://www.immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/content-type/research-item/documents/2018-02/IceLies_DWN_NIJC_Feb2018.pdf