Latino Students Defend Education

Introduction: Latino Student Movements

by Editors. NACLA

Our education is under attack! What do we do? Fight back!” chanted high school students defending their beloved Mexican American Studies program in a Tucson, Arizona, school board meeting in April. They are not the only students fighting to defend education. Almost everywhere, education is under attack, and students across the Americas are fighting back in so many places that it would be impossible to include them all in just one issue.

Since the 1980s, the United States has been taking a page from the Pinochet neoliberal education playbook. Then president Ronald Reagan offered federally funded school vouchers for underprivileged youth to study at private schools (rather than investing the money into improving public schools). Voucher programs were promoted by right-wing think tanks, and former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Vouchers have grown exponentially over the last three decades.

However, the modern-day assault on U.S. public higher education was actually launched by Reagan long before he had been elected to the Oval Office.

“Ronald Reagan launched his political career as governor of California in 1967 by having run not so much against his popular New Deal opponent, Pat Brown, as against the students and faculty of the University of California at Berkeley,” wrote University of California (UC) Santa Barbara English professor Christopher Newfield in a 2008 exposé on the privatization of the U.S. public university.³

Once elected, Reagan attacked public higher education. He called for an end to free tuition for state college and university students, demanded annual 20% cuts in higher education funding, slashed state funding for public university capital projects, and declared that the state “should not subsidize intellectual curiosity.”⁴

Indeed, since the late 1970s, in the United States, student contributions as a percentage of total university income have been on the rise, from 35% to 48% in 1998. Meanwhile state and local contributions fell from over 55% to less than 43%.⁵ This trend has only been exacerbated in recent years, with massive budget cuts, tuition hikes, and layoffs at universities across the country in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Trampling Out the Vintage ?

Trampling Out the Vintage ?

A  dissident’s view of the rise and the fall of the United Farm Workers union.

By Duane Campbell

Frank Bardacke’s Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers. (2011, Verso). is the view of a well- informed observer  who  worked in the lettuce fields near Salinas for almost  a decade,  then spent  another 25 years  teaching English to  farm workers  in the Watsonville, Cal.  area. His views on the growth and decline of the United Farm Workers union – some of which I do not share–  offer  important points of history and reflection  for unionists today, particularly those working with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Trampling Out the Vintage, provides several insights not previously developed in well informed books on the UFW  including  important  differences between grape workers and  workers in row crops such as lettuce; the length of time workers were in the UFW,  the more settled family nature of grape workers, the strength of each  type of ranch committees,  the leadership of ranch crews  ( and thus the potential differences in creating democratic accountability), and the differing histories of worker militancy in  different  crops.  The author correctly argues that each of these led to somewhat different organizing environment in building the  union. He also details problems of administrative mismanagement in the hiring halls in the grape areas and alleged  mismanagement of organizing within the union sponsored health care insurance and clinic systems .

Based upon his own experiences and the histories of workers   in the Salinas valley, Bardacke  makes the case  that farm workers- not Cesar Chavez – created the union.  They built their union on a long history of previous collective work stoppages and strikes.  The union was created on the ground in Delano,  Salinas, Watsonville, and surrounding towns- not in the union headquarters of  La Paz.  The author reveals his strong viewpoint in the  title apparently referring  to Chavez “Trampling out the Vintage” where a union had  been created. 

La Jornada en Internet: Llama AMLO a tratar bien a migrantes que regresan al país

La Jornada en Internet: Llama AMLO a tratar bien a migrantes que regresan al país

Alabama anti immigrant law

This summer, Alabama passed one of the harshest anti-immigrant bills (HB 56) in the nation and the parallels between that law and the old South’s Jim Crow laws are “all too real,” says William Lucy, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU). [ From the AFL-CIO blog]

Lucy was part of an AFL-CIO-sponsored delegation of prominent African American labor leaders who traveled to Alabama last month to see firsthand the law’s devastating impacts on immigrant workers and their families. Today, the delegation released its reporton its findings. The leaders, who have for years been deeply engaged in the struggle for human and civil rights—some for decades—write that they were shocked by what they found.

None of us expected to witness the humanitarian crisis we experienced—a crisis that hearkens Alabama back to the bleakest days of the state’s racial history. The parallels to Jim Crow were all too real, and the prejudice we heard about felt all too familiar.

The report sheds new light on the crisis Alabama immigrant families are facing as a result of HB 56. Many of those who went to Alabama will present the report to lawmakers on Capitol Hill tomorrow.

The law requires school officials to question students about their immigration status and that of their parents. Mothers told the delegation they fear they will be separated from their children and some undocumented parents are making arrangements with church members, friends and even strangers to care for their U.S.-born children in case the parents are deported.

I drop my children off for school, but I’m not sure if I will be around to pick them up.

Alternative Christmas

Just for Fun

It’s always nice to take a moment out of the frenzied capitalist madness that is the holiday season these days and enjoy a good break. That’s why I saved the videos of our phenomenal speakers at the 2011 DSA national convention until now.

Go to the DSA video channel to see the following:

• Sarita Gupta, Jobs with Justice
• Jose La Luz, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
• Eliseo Medina, Service Employees International Union
• Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post
• John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation
• Joslyn Williams, Washington, DC Central Labor Council

Enjoy!

In solidarity,

Maria Svart

National Director

What is happening in Mexico ?

 By Laura Carlsen

This is a text version of a speech presented by the author to the ¡BASTA! Border Activist Summit for Teaching and Action Conference at the University of Texas/El Paso, October 13-14, 2011.

The cold, hard numbers are familiar:

Instead we are told that we should care—or rather, worry—about Mexico for a very different reason. The State Department, the Pentagon, the press and members of Congress tell us, with increasing shrillness, that Mexico poses a major threat to U.S. national security.

It’s incredible how quickly this meme has taken over. I’ve lived in Mexico for 25 years and in just the last four, the relationship between my country of birth and the country where my children were born has gone from being a relationship of neighbors– not without its contradictions and tensions–to a relationship completely dominated by the logic of war.

I don’t need to tell you, the residents of the world’s most integrated border area, that Mexico is our closest Latin American neighbor, with a tight web of personal, cultural, economic and historical ties between the two nations.

What should be seen as a far more nuanced and complex bilateral relationship based on shared human, geographical and environmental linkages now hinges on threat assessments and a Bush-era national security framework. The U.S. Merida Initiative and the militarization of Mexico and the border are the direct outgrowth of imposing this framework.

From a neighbor and a trade partner, Mexico is now portrayed as a threat to U.S. national security. From the hype on spill-over violence from the drug war (statistically false), to warnings of a “failed state” (also inaccurate), to statements that Mexican drug cartels not only seek to take over the Mexican government but also infiltrate and undermine the United States (a complete invention), alarmist and economically motivated rants have supplanted policy-making based on facts.

Immigrants rights group calls for end to deportations

On International Migrants Day, December 18:

U.S. Immigrant Rights Groups Urge An End to Detentions & Deportations,

Cite High Human Cost to Immigrant Families

(Oakland, CA) As we approach International Migrants Day (December 18), U.S. immigrant rights groups urge the U.S. government to take immediate measures to end the detention and deportation of immigrant women, men and children, and its subsequent high human cost. 2011 marked a record year of deportations, coupled with ongoing detentions that separate and destabilize families and undermine community health, most recently highlighted by the DOJ's scathing report of Maricopa County's systemic human rights violations and DHS's decision to suspend 287(g) in the county. 

“Despite the Obama Administration’s claims that they are only deporting so-called dangerous criminals, we witnessed the most deportations ever in the history of the U.S., including a record number of un-accompanied minors and long-term residents who are prosecuted for illegal re-entry,” declared Catherine Tactaquin, Executive Director of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR). “Until there is an end to these punitive enforcement programs and practices, and concrete steps are taken toward durable solutions to regularize the status of undocumented immigrants, our communities will experience another generation of oppression and hardship.”

Jose La Luz - The Current Crisis

Jose LaLuz Concluding Speech 2011 DSA Convention from Frank Llewellyn on Vimeo.

Jose La Luz. Concluding speech. DSA Convention. Nov. 13, 2011,

Solidarity with the Occupy Movement in U.S.

EN SOLIDARIDAD CON EL MOVIMIENTO ‘OCUPA’ EN ESTADOS UNIDOS

CARTA ABIERTA DESDE MÉXICO

Al movimiento OCUPA en Estados Unidos:

 Nosotros, integrantes de la Coalición por los Derechos Políticos de los Mexicanos en el Extranjero (CDPME), enviamos nuestra solidaridad con la resistencia pacífica que iniciara el movimiento Occupy Wall Street el 17 de septiembre de 2011 en la ciudad de Nueva York, y cuya inspiración se repite hoy en cientos de ocupaciones en ciudades estadunidenses. Saludamos este movimiento porque su lucha contra la supresión de los derechos políticos y contra las injusticias económicas y sociales, ha sido parte fundamental de nuestra lucha, la lucha del pueblo mexicano sin fronteras, la lucha de millones de migrantes mexicanos que viven en Estados Unidos.

Los mexicanos en ambos lados de la frontera, nos solidarizamos ante la represión policíaca contra los participantes y simpatizantes de este movimiento durante las protestas pacíficas. Condenamos la brutalidad policíaca en los desalojos de los campamentos OCUPA desde Los Angeles hasta Nueva York. Si bien estos actos son reprobables, muestran también la complicidad y la coordinación nacional concertada de los cuerpos de policía para defender y mantener el orden, los valores, y el sistema capitalista de privilegios que ha arrastrado a la sociedad estadunidense –y al resto del mundo– a la incertidumbre económica, el desempleo, la merma de derechos políticos, y la destrucción de los sistemas de seguridad social a una escala global.

Occupy and the immigrant communities

David Bacon
OAKLAND, CA  (12/5/11) -- When Occupy Seattle called its tent camp "Planton Seattle," camp organizers were laying a local claim to a set of tactics used for decades by social movements in Mexico, Central America and the Philippines.  And when immigrant janitors marched down to the detention center in San Diego and called their effort Occupy ICE (the initials of the Immigration and Custom Enforcement agency responsible for mass deportations), people from countries with that planton tradition were connecting it to the Occupy movement here.

The banners at Occupy Seattle

        This shared culture and history offer new possibilities to the Occupy movement for survival and growth at a time when the Federal law enforcement establishment, in cooperation with local police departments and municipal governments, has uprooted many tent encampments.  Different Occupy groups from Wall Street to San Francisco have begun to explore their relationship with immigrant social movements in the U.S., and to look more closely at the actions of the 1% beyond our borders that produces much of the pressure for migration.
   Reacting to the recent evictions, the Coalition for the Political Rights of Mexicans Abroad recently sent a support letter to Occupy Wall Street and the other camps under attack.  "We greet your movement," it declared, "because your struggle against the suppression of human rights and against social and economic injustice has been a fundamental part of our struggle, that of the Mexican people who cross borders, and the millions of Mexican migrants who live in the United States."

Save Ethnic Studies in Arizona

The American Dream...

In the midst of economic and political turmoil, it is difficult to imagine and embrace the fundamental values that we as Americans believe in; the things that make our country the greatest nation on earth. Sadly, these tough times have made too many middle class families believe that the American Dream is far from reality.

But I am writing to tell you that the American Dream does exist – and I am living proof of its incredible promise.

The son of migrant farm workers, I was able to rise from the fields of California and touch the sky on the Space Shuttle Discovery as an Astronaut, a lifelong goal I was able to achieve thanks to the promise of the American Dream. Now retired, I feel it is my obligation to help others achieve the American Dream just like I did.

That's why I am proud to be running for United States Congress in California's 10th Congressional District. Learn more about my campaign and watch our introduction video right here:
Jose Hernandez. 

War Times analyzes Occupy Movement

(excerpts)

Occupy has changed the country.  People are fighting back.  And the developments are happening faster than anyone could have guessed even a few months ago. The Occupy movement has gone from a few dozen in Zuccotti park in New York to thousands of participants in hundreds of cities.  Across the country occupations have become pitched battles between the people’s movement and municipal police forces. 

The speed with which this unfolded, the degree of brutality leveled against the occupiers, and the resilience of the Occupy movement are all remarkable.  In times like this the movement outstrips the best expectations of organizers and organizations.  And while these developments defy simple explanation, their impact is undeniable.  People are no longer talking about deficits and budget cuts, but about Wall Street and the one percent. 

So it is with Occupy.  It has bypassed traditional forms of political mobilization, leaving more established organizations trying to play catch up. And the movement has changed form, from public occupations, to marches and rallies, civil disobedience and city-wide strikes – all faster than anyone would have expected. 

But the forces opposed to Occupy are moving fast too. Occupiers have faced serious police repression around the country, with pepper spray attacks in Seattle and Davis, California, life-threatening injuries in Oakland, and in Seattle a miscarriage caused by police violence.

Meanwhile, Wall Street’s agenda of austerity for the poor and attacks on the public sector has not yet been derailed.

Alabama reconsiders immigration law after not-brown person gets arrested

Alabama reconsiders immigration law after not-brown person gets arrested

The law was supposed to stop these folks.

Cornel West at CSU East Bay Strike

Cornel talks about his support for Occupy Oakland, Seattle, Amsterdam, and more.
Cornel West is an Honorary Chair of Democratic Socialists of America.

Recall Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer

JILLIAN RAYFIELD NOVEMBER 22, 2011, 1:35 PM 

The group behind the successful recall of Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce is now targeting infamous Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.

Citizens For A Better Arizona is gauging interest among Arizona voters for a recall of Brewer (R), saying they would back a recall effort if they get 5,000 people to sign a volunteer petition in which each person pledges to collect 100 signatures. “If Governor Brewer is recalled, I commit to being one of 5,000 citizens to collect 100 signatures,” the petition says.

For Brewer to be recalled, they would have to collect 432,000 valid signatures. Her term is currently set to end in 2014.

CFBA was the driving force behind the recall election of Pearce (R), who is infamous for drafting the state’s immigration crackdown. The efforts were primarily focused on mobilizing Hispanic voters to get out to the polls in order to elect a Republican with a more moderate stance on immigration.

Student-Police Clash at UC Davis Reveals Campus One Percent - New America Media

Student-Police Clash at UC Davis Reveals Campus One Percent - New America Media

Mexican Mine workers Union leader honored by AFL-CIO

Exiled Mexican mine workers union leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia will be honored with the AFL-CIO’s 2011 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award tonight at a ceremony at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says Gómez Urrutia is a ”truly courageous man who has shown us how difficult and how important it is to be an independent leader of a democratic union.”

Gómez Urrutia, head of the Mine, Metal and Steel Workers Union (SNTMMSSRM), also known as Los Mineros, was forced to flee Mexico to Vancouver, Canada, in 2006. The Mexican government filed criminal charges against him after he publicly accused the government of “industrial homicide” following a February mine explosion that killed 65 miners.

Mexican and international human and labor rights organizations have dismissed the government’s charges as false.

Mexican Union files NAFTA labor complaint

November 4, 2011

On October 27 the Mexican Electrical Workers Union, joined by  more than eighty partners in the U.S. and Canada including USLEAP, submitted a labor complaint to the Canadian government charging Mexico with violating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The complaint focuses on the firing of 44,000 electrical workers in 2009 and the subsequent harassment and intimidation of union members who are fighting for their rights.  A similar complaint will soon be filed with the U.S. government, making it the first labor NAFTA labor complaint submitted under the Obama Administration.

In 2009, the government of President Felipe Calderón sent in soldiers to close the Central Light and Power Company of Mexico, liquidating the state-owned operation and effectively disbanding the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), one of the most important independent and democratic unions in Mexico. More than 44,0000 workers lost their jobs and another 20,000 retirees lost union benefits. The Calderón Administration then replaced the state-owned company with a non-union company and subsequently refused to accept legal recognition of SME’s leadership elected this summer as the union refused to die, occupying the main square in Mexico City until some of their demands were met in mid-September 2011. 

Pearce defeated in Arizona

New America Media, News Report, Valeria Fernandez, Posted: Nov 09, 2011

MESA, Ariz. -- Mesa voters got their say in a historical election that resulted in the recall of Republican Senator Russell Pearce, also known as the architect of SB 1070.

Pearce conceded defeat in a brief press conference in the City of Mesa surrounded by politicians, friends and controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“If being recalled is the cost of keeping one's promises, then so be it,” said Pearce.

His opponent, Republican Jerry Lewis, expressed surprise. “I think people were tired of the vitriolic politics,” he said.

Pearce will be required to step down immediately from office once the results are made official. His recall marks the success of a new strategy of political organizing in Arizona that brought together a diverse array of voters representing various religious and political affiliations.

“This is an exciting time for Arizona. We are (heading) in a new direction. We are saying, 'No' to the extreme divisive politics of Russell Pearce,” said Randy Parraz, co-founder of Citizens for a Better Arizona (CBA), the group that started the recall more than 10 months ago.

Beyond the Washington Consensus on the economy

Democratic Socialists Hold Convention in Washington-

Responding to the Economic Crisis: Beyond the Washington Consensus.

  

“Occupy Wall Street and the Struggle for a Democratic Society-“

A plenary session at 1:30 PM  on Friday  will kick off the national convention of DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America to be held from  Nov. 11 through Nov. 13 at the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner located at 8661 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA.

DSA, the U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International, is the largest socialist political organization in the country with more than  7000 members and active locals in more 40 U.S. cities and college campuses. DSA members reside in all 50 states. 

A public outreach event “Equality and Jobs for the 99%: Economic Justice for All” featuring speakers including labor leader and immigration reform activist Eliseo Medina, author John Nichols, Josyln Williams of the AFL-CIO,  Maria Svart and additional progressive activists,  occurs at 7 p.m. on Nov. 11 at the St. Stephen and Incarnation Church at 1525 Newton St. NW, Washington, D.C.

Occupy Cal 11/9/11

Students Occupy U.C. Berkeley

by David Bacon.

OCCUPY CAL

Photos by David Bacon

BERKELEY, CA - 09 NOVEMBER11 - Students at the University of California walk out of classes to protest budget cuts and rising tuition, and to support the New York City demonstration, Occupy Wall Street.  The rally protested economic inequality and its impact on students, the poor and the young -- in the words of the occupy movement, a protest by the 99% of the people who are exploited by a system that only benefits the top 1%.

Later that night, students were beaten by police batons as they tried to set up tents in Sproul Plaza, and six students and an assistant professor were arrested.  Student continued to occupy the plaza without tents, however.

Arizona Right Wing leader Pearce goes down to defeat

Citizens in Mesa's very conservative District 18 elected Russell Pearce six straight times. He was virtually untouchable, and when the nation pivoted to the right in 2010, Arizona went over the edge. Voters elected "Headless Bodies" Jan Brewer as governor, they gave her a veto-proof House and Senate, wingnuts Tom Horne and Ken Bennett were elected Attorney General and Secretary of State, and then legislators installed Russell Pearce, chief architect of SB 1070, as President of the Senate. Talk about a mandate!

The media dubbed Pearce "the most powerful politician in Arizona." That was one year ago. Tonight Russell Pearce can't say he's never lost an election.

Jerry Lewis, a political neophyte who was outspent greatly in the historic recall of Senate President Russell Pearce, sailed to victory tonight as the vast majority of votes have been counted in the west Mesa special election. Arizona Capitol Times

Rally to Defend Your Education

Why California Students ( and most teachers) don't know Chicano History

Workshop: Teaching Chicano/ Latino History in Grades 8-12.  Curriculum ideas for teaching about César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, Civil Rights Movement, and economic justice.  With Duane Campbell, Director of the Education and Democracy Institute. Dolores Delgado Campbell.  Professor. American River College

Presented  as a part of the  annual conference of The Bilingual Multicultural Education Department (BMED)  Sat . Nov. 5, 2011.  8:30 Am. In the University Union, at  Sacramento State.

 California has the largest population of any state, with more than 6,252,000 students  in school in 2008.   California students make up more than 11 percent of the United States total. California, along with some 16 other states, adopts textbooks for the entire state instead of district by district purchasing.  This makes the California adoption the largest single textbook sale in the nation.

California has failed to revise its k-12 history curriculum since 1987.  Since 2008, the failure was caused by the state’s budget crisis.

"News for All the People": Juan González & Joseph Torres on the Epic Story of Race & the U.S. Media

"News for All the People": Juan González & Joseph Torres on the Epic Story of Race & the U.S. Media

Arizona's experiment in Democracy Failing;

Arizona's Experiment in Democracy Failing... Badly

By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

The experiment in Democracy seems to be failing badly in Arizona. Here, government, the state legislature, law enforcement, the educational system, the courts and the media are a testament to this colossal failure. Here, rampant hate and bigotry starts at the top and here, it is government by [ugly] mob rule.

A court proceeding earlier this month in Phoenix – with a decision expected any day now – attests to this experiment gone awry; the court hearing was as absurd as the daily Kangaroo trials in Tucson known as Operation Streamline (70 migrants are charged, tried, convicted and sentenced in one hour). This Phoenix proceeding was part of an appeals process, being held to determine whether Tucson’s Mexican American Studies (MAS) Department is out of compliance with HB 2281, the state’s anti Ethnic Studies or mind control measure. The program graduates nearly 100% of its students and sends over 70% percent of them to college. Yet, these phenomenal accomplishments are of little consequence for those trying to eliminate it.

Why California Students ( and most teachers) do not know Chicano History

Workshop: Teaching Chicano/ Latino History in Grades 8-12.  Curriculum ideas for teaching about César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, Civil Rights Movement, and economic justice.  With Duane Campbell, Director of the Education and Democracy Institute., Sacramento.  Dolores Delgado Campbell.  Professor. American River College. 

Presented  as a part of the  annual conference of The Bilingual Multicultural Education Department (BMED)  Sat . Nov. 5, 2011.  10:35  Am. In the University Union, at  Sacramento State.

 California has the largest population of any state, with more than 6,252,000 students  in school in 2008.   California students make up more than 11 percent of the United States total. California, along with some 16 other states, adopts textbooks for the entire state instead of district by district purchasing.  This makes the California adoption the largest single textbook sale in the nation.

California has failed to revise its k-12 history curriculum since 1987.  Since 2008, the failure was caused by the state’s budget crisis.

       When the 48.72 % of students who are Latino , and the 11.5 % who are Asian do not see themselves as part of history,  for many their sense of self is marginalized.   Marginalization negatively impacts their connections with school and their success at school.  It contributes to an over 50% drop out rate for Latinos and some Asian students.  An accurate history  would provide some students with a  a sense of self, of direction,  of purpose. History and social science  classes  should help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives.   Instead, the current history textbooks tell a fairy tale of what happened here in the Southwest.

Ruben Navarrette is a fool - and misinformed

Ruben Navarrette is a fool.  And, he is published in the Sacramento Bee as an informed essayist on the Latino population.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/30/4015119/latino-numbers-are-up-why-isnt.html#ixzz1cJJKqYNI

Navarrette is a paranoid fool who spends too much time reading  Tea Party/ Republican talking points developed and funded by the Koch brothers. He is primarily  a source  on the fringe party element of the Tea Party.  Read his other writings on Cesar Chavez and the UFW, you will see his very conservative perspective.

  RE: bilingual education establishment. I guess he hasn't read the paper since 1996. Bilingual Education was eliminated in almost all California schools with Prop. 227. - an anti immigrant proposition much like those of Arizona and Alabama.  In Sacramento City Schools, for example, there are 77 schools.  Five of the schools have a bilingual program for less than 20% of the students in the schools. It usually lasts 2-3 years of schooling at best.  Only one school is fully bilingual, The Language Academy.  The Academy is a charter school.  Only parents who want to have their children there are enrolled.  The same campus has an English language school.  The hypocrisy of Navarette and his Tea Party allies is revealed. 

Biliterate Against the Odds,

 Becoming BILITERATE AGAINST THE ODDS : A Cause for Celebration:

                  La comunidad entera de Sacramento está invitada a la 18a Conferencia Anual sobre Educación Multicultural en Sacramento State University, el sábado, 5 de noviembre de 8:30 am – 1:00 de la tarde en la University Union, Sacramento State .  La entrada y el estacionamiento de carros (en Parking Structure II) son totalmente gratis.  

                  La invitada de honor es la Doctora María de la Luz Reyes, autora de of Words Were All We Had: Becoming Biliterate Against the Odds.  En su presentación de las 9:00 am la Dra. Reyes nos explicará por qué  el crecer bilingue en los Estados Unidos debería  de ser una causa de celebración.  El éxito de los profesionistas latinos de educación rechaza el mito de “en riesgo” sobre los que crecen con idiomas nativas, indicando que el saber el Espanol apoya el aprendizaje del  Inglés y refuerza la lucha contra la hegemonía de “English Only.”

                  El Departamento de Educación Bilingue  Multilingue (BMED) de Sacramento State patronina esta conferencia anual para unir la facultad y estudiantes con miembros de la comuniadad de Sacramento para apoyar a la educación bilingue y multilingue en nuestra escuelas publicas K-16.  Invitamos cordialmente a todos los estudiantes, alumna de CSUS, maestros, padres de familia , profesionistas y toda persona interesada a que acuda a esta manana con la Dra. Reyes.  Después de la presentación, habrá grupos mas chicos para discutur temas relacionadas, dirigidos por facultad, maestros y estudiantes.

Equality and Jobs for the 99 %

  Equality and Jobs for the 99%:  Economic Justice for All

A public event sponsored by Democratic Socialists of America

Date and Time: November 11, 2011; 7:00 p.m.

Location: St. Stephen and Incarnation Church, 1525 Newton NW, Washington, D.C.

Speakers

John Conyers – U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 14^th district

Eliseo Medina – International Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU

Sarita Gupta – Executive Director, Jobs with Justice

John Nichols – Washington Correspondent, The Nation

Joslyn Williams – President, Metropolitan D.C. Central Labor Council

Maria Svart – National Director, Democratic Socialists of America 

DSA, the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International, is the largest socialist political organization in the country, with more than  6,000 members and active locals in more 40 U.S. cities and college campuses. DSA Locals in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Wichita, among others, have taken an active role in the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Freedom Plaza, and other Occupy protests in support of jobs and economic justice.

This meeting is organized in conjunction with the 15^th National Convention of Democratic Socialists of America, which is being held at the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner November 11-13, 2011. Visit www.dsausa.org for more information. A full press kit with bio’s and photographs will be available at the event. Advance requests for press kits should be sent to the email address listed above.

David Bacon: Letter from Oaxaca

LETTER FROM OAXACA
David Bacon

The Investigative Fund, a project of The Nation Institute, 10/24/11

http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/blog/1569/letter_from_oaxaca/

       If there's one experience that Mexicans have in common more than any other, more even than hatred and repudiation of the mutual violence of the narcos and the government, it's migration.  In Oaxaca, 18% of its 3.7 million people have left for other parts of Mexico, and especially for the U.S.  Almost half its towns have shrunk, and migration has become part of the daily experience for almost every family.

        I just spent three days listening to indigenous people here talk about it, in a unique organization that brings together people from both sides of the border, the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations (FIOB).

        Two things make this organization different from the average hometown association organized in the U.S. by people from the same Mexican village or state.  It's not just an organization of the people who've left, but of those who still live in those hometowns as well.  And while FIOB members spend a lot of time talking about their indigenous culture (languages like Mixteco, Zapoteco and Triqui, and the dances, music, food and history shared by people for hundreds of years before Columbus arrived in this hemisphere), their organization has very political goals.
   The debates at the FIOB meeting, which lasted for two days in Oaxaca, revolved around two general rights.  One is the right to migrate, and in particular the rights of Oaxacan indigenous migrants in the U.S.  The other is the right to not migrate - to stay home. 

Ohio: Repeal S.B.5.

Republicans try to stop the Dream Act

Opponents of a new law that allows illegal immigrants to receive college financial aid were given the green light to begin collecting signatures for a referendum to overturn the measure, Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office announced today.

Led by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, referendum backers hope to halt implementation of the California Dream Act. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure Oct. 8.

Donnelly's group has until Jan. 6 to collect valid signatures from 504,760 registered voters. Donnelly has said he hopes to wage a largely volunteer effort fueled by social media and talk radio.

Assembly Bill 131, written by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, will allow undocumented immigrant college students who already qualify for in-state tuition rates to receive state-funded financial aid, including Cal Grants. Qualified students must have attended California high schools for at least three years and graduated.

Alabama Workers Leave crops in the fields

Alabama Workers Meet Harsh Immigration Law with Wildcats

EDUARDO SORIANO-CASTILLO

    |  OCTOBER 21, 2011

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through downtown Atlanta July 2 to protest an anti-immigrant law. Georgia's was one of four bills passed this year that are creating fear in immigrant communities, driving people out of state, and leaving crops rotting in the fields. Photo: Caitie Leary.

An all-out attack on immigrant workers, their families, and communities continues in the South and West. In Alabama, immigrant workers met it with a day of wildcat strikes.
The now-infamous Arizona anti-immigrant law SB1070 kicked off the current wave of anti-immigrant legislation last year. This year Georgia, Utah, South Carolina, and Alabama jumped on the “show me your papers” bandwagon with copycat legislation.
Immigrant rights advocates say Alabama’s law is the harshest. It gives police the right to stop and investigate anyone they “reasonably suspect” of being undocumented—in other words, an open invitation to racially profile.
The legislation also denies immigrants state medical aid and unemployment benefits. It forbids individuals and employers to hire, harbor, rent property to, or even give a ride to undocumented immigrants. Public schools must check the immigration status of children when they enroll.
One town, Allgood, announced that all water customers must have a state picture ID on file or “you may lose water service.”

ON HOLD

Most of Alabama’s law, and the other states’ laws, are on hold pending Department of Justice challenges. The government has argued that these state laws are unconstitutional because immigration is a federal matter.

NAFTA Is Starving Mexico – CIP Americas

NAFTA Is Starving Mexico – CIP Americas

California Republicans propose anti immigrant initiative

Conservative activists have submitted an initiative proposal targeting illegal immigration by imposing limits on financial aid and Medi-Cal benefits while requiring California law enforcement to work with federal immigration officials.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is responsible for preparing ballot language, received the proposal Monday from former state GOP chairman Tirso Del Junco, San Diego Republican Ted Hilton and Concord Republican Bill Siler. Proponents are calling it the "California Taxpayer Protection Act of 2012."

Hilton and Siler pursued a similar measure in 2009 but failed to gather enough signatures.

The proposal would prohibit undocumented immigrants from receiving public financial aid in California, a hot-button topic after Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this month allowing them to qualify for tuition help in certain circumstances. The initiative also would block driver's licenses -- which California does not issue currently to undocumented immigrants -- and require fingerprinting for Medi-Cal pregnancy services, with fingerprint reports relayed to the federal Department of Homeland Security.

It would also require that law enforcement officials transfer people they arrest to federal custody if those individuals have an "immigration detainer."

The measure can be seen here.

Source. the Sacramento Bee.

Dr. Cornel West Occupies @ Supreme Court Oct 16 2011

Occupy Sacramento: Indigenous Day of Resistance

Native American groups, Occupy Sacramento proclaim Indigenous Day of Resistance 

by Dan Bacher 

On Friday, activists from Native American, student, labor and civil rights groups and Occupy Sacramento joined together in a march from Cesar Chavez Park to the Capitol for an Indigenous Day of Resistance protest to denounce the United States’ “glorification of the atrocities committed against native ancestors of the Americas during the Indigenous Holocaust let by Christopher Columbus.” 

“With many severe cuts to education and social services nationwide, we call to question, why we continue to increase our $14.6 billion US National Debt to fund wars over seas,” according to a statement from the groups. “Instead we have a war at home, were millions are losing their homes and jobs while the banks are plundering our wealth. CA is #1 in Prison Spending and #43 in Education Nationwide. Why is that?” 

“As for our Native Community surrounding the US/Mexican border, we are now being labeled as ‘Immigrants’ that was once home. We are tired of seeing migrants scapegoated for the failures of capitalism. It angers us to be called 'illegal aliens' when it was our ancestors who inhabited this lands before Columbus came to conquer and plunder this land. Now in contrast our people are forced to risk their lives crossing a further militarized border. Over the last decade, it is estimated 10,000 died crossing the border.” 

“Occupy Wall Street:” Black Voices for Economic Justice

“Occupy Wall Street:” Black Voices for Economic Ju...: October 12, 2011 By Ron Daniels Struggling to come up for air from a brutal schedule, for several weeks I had been planning to write an a...
an essay on the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

Cornel West Arrested

By James Oliphant Los Angeles times.

October 16, 2011, 7:07 p.m.

Liberal professor Cornel West was one of 19 people arrested on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Sunday, according to the Associated Press, as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

West, a former Harvard University professor now teaching at Princeton University, took part Sunday in the dedication of the monument to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., an event that was delayed from August because of Hurricane Irene. He then, according to media reports, moved on to a protest at the home of the high court.

A well-known commentator on civil rights issues, West recently got into a TV spat with presidential candidate Herman Cain, telling Cain to "get off the symbolic crack pipe."

In Washington, the anti-corporate protest movement is known as Occupy D.C.