The legacy of Cesar Chavez and the budget crises of today

 César Chávez:

By  Duane E. Campbell

On March 31, 2011, California and seven other states will celebrate the life and work of labor organizer Cesar Chavez.  State workers will have the day off.  Ironically, however, farm workers will not.  It is interesting that these states take a day off to recognize the contributions of a labor leader while cutting vital services for poor people.   Meanwhile the spirit of Cesar Chavez lives on in the struggle for union rights and justice in the fields of California, Ohio, and Florida as well as  in the struggles for union rights and workers dignity in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania.  What can we learn from the creation of the UFW that is useful today?

 Along with Dolores Huerta, Philip Vera Cruz, and others, César created the United Farm Workers  (UFW) the first successful union of farm workers in  U.S. history.  There had been more than ten prior attempts to build a farm workers union.

            Each of the prior attempts to organize farm worker unions were destroyed by racism and corporate power. Chávez chose to build a union that incorporated the strategies of social movements and community organizing  and allied itself  with the churches, students,  and organized labor.  The successful creation of the UFW changed the nature of labor organizing  in the Southwest  and contributed significantly to the growth  of Latino politics in the U.S. The UFW has shown unions that immigrants can  and must be organized.   

        César Chavez, Dolores Huerta,  Philip Vera Cruz, and others deliberately created a multiracial organization, Mexican immigrants,  Mexican American, Filipino, African-American, Dominican, Puerto Rican and Arab workers, among others, have been part of the UFW.  This cross racial organizing  was necessary in order to combat the  prior divisions and exploitations of workers based upon race and language. Dividing the workers on racial, language lines and immigration status  always left the corporations the winners.

Latin America and U.S. policy

Letter to President Obama on U.S.-Latin America Policy

The Honorable Barack Obama
The President
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

We, the under signers, leaders of prominent national Latino and Latin American/Caribbean immigrant organizations in the U.S., are writing to you in light of your current trip to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador.

First of all, we want to commend your Administration for the initiative to bring attention back to Latin America and the Caribbean, a region of the world with which the United States of America has had a long, often troublesome, relationship. Your victory in 2008 stimulated hope among Latin American societies that long for normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations; an end to the so called "war on drugs"; a recalibration of U.S. trade and investment policies; and a firm commitment to nonintervention and respect for sovereignty in the region.

The choice of Brazil, Chile and El Salvador for your visit is poignant. The U.S. has a large moral debt to these countries: In each case past Administrations (early 1960'S through early 1990's) supported directly or indirectly the ascent and continuation in power of brutal dictatorships and later, in the case of Chile and El Salvador, U.S.-client states-regimes. The current Salvadoran and Chilean-origin populations in the U.S. are essentially creations of massive refugee-flows caused by gross and wide-spread human rights violation and political repression carried out by U.S.-supported regimes.

Indeed, given the fact that most of the foreign born population now residing in the U.S. happen to be people born in Latin America and the Caribbean, we believe that U.S.-Latin America relations should have a much higher level of priority than it has been given so far.

As you visit the three countries mentioned above, we would like to bring to your attention some of the most important changes in Latin America and the Caribbean, which in our opinion should be taken into account as your Administration considers new policy approaches towards Latin America and the Caribbean:

Tunisian Labor Leaders call for support of Libyan Revolution

By Duane Campbell 

  Leaders in the Tunisian Federation of Labor, themselves organizers

organizers of the mass mobilization that led to the overthrow the Tunisian Dictator called for support of the Libyan revolution and for support of Tunisian unions and the  Egyptian Democracy Movement  at a solidarity dinner held by  the Sacramento Central Labor Council and the California Labor Federation  in Sacramento on March 20, 2011.  Delegates and members of community based organizations heard a direct report from the leaders of the labor side of the mass mobilizations.  The Tunisian revolution was the first of the over 6 major revolutions presently changing the nature of politics and freedom in the Middle East.  The success of the Tunisian revolution sparked the hopes and encouraged the other revolutions.

             As of today, the Libyan revolution is still being resisted by the armed forces of Colonel Gadaffi with planes, tanks and guns.  Non violent  revolutions are shaking Yemen and Bahrain (where oil workers are on strike), among others.  The revolutionary movement in Egypt has won initial success, by toppling the Murbarak dictatorship,  but consolidation of the revolution is still precarious.

            A delegation of union leaders from  Tunisia praised the role of the youth movements and  described their own  role of the union movement in organizing and assisting the Tunisian revolution of Jan. 14 to overthrow the dictatorship.  A general strike had been called for Jan.14,  and began at the labor offices on the day when the revolutionary movement won control of the country and the dictator and his family fled.

The union activists from the Women’s Federation, the Professors Union, and the Public Workers unions are a delegation traveling in the U.S. as guests of the  staff of AFL-CIO solidarity house.  They asked for unions to support them in two ways: support a moratorium on repayments of the debt  to the I.M.F. and the World Bank ( accumulated by the dictatorship), and asking the U.S. to freeze the  U.S. assets of the former dictator and his family.

The life of migrant school children

March 12, 2011

By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN: New York Times.

SALINAS, Calif. — A girl in Oscar Ramos’s third-grade class has trouble doing homework because six relatives have moved into her family’s rusted trailer and she has no private space.

A boy has worn his school uniform for two weeks straight because his parents are busy with harvest season.

And while Mr. Ramos patiently explains the intricacies of fractions, he is attuned to the student who confides, “Teacher, on Saturday the cops came and took my brother.”

“I know you still love your brother,” Mr. Ramos gently told him. “But let’s talk about your vision for your future.”

In the clattering energy of Room 21 at Sherwood Elementary here, Mr. Ramos, 37, glimpses life beneath the field dust. His students are the sons and daughters of the seasonal farmworkers who toil in the vast fields of the Salinas Valley, cutting spinach and broccoli and packing romaine lettuce from a wet conveyor belt: nearly 13 heads a minute, 768 heads an hour, 10 hours a day.

One-third of the children are migrants whose parents follow the lettuce from November to April, Salinas to Yuma, Ariz. Some who leave will not return.

Arizona, bigots, and racism

Sometimes columns just seem to write themselves. The world is aflame, particularly in North Africa and the Middle East, and as a result, extremist Arizona legislators seem to be getting a complex… nobody seems to be paying as much attention to them compared to just several weeks ago. Even Wisconsin has managed to upstage the rogue Arizona legislators. Utah too. As such, theArizona rogue legislators have stepped forward to once again capture the 19th century spotlight.

Arizona put itself on the map last year for passing several bills that appear to send out the message that brown people are not welcome. The bill, SB 1070, the one that compels local police to seek out the legal status of suspects based on the nebulous concept of “reasonable suspicion,” is as close to official ethnic cleansing as one can get. Because the “migra” or immigration services have long had that power, on the streets, “reasonable suspicion” translates to brown skin and the use of the Spanish language.

The HB 2281 bill is an attempt to deny the teaching of Ethnic Studies in Arizona. Its first target is Tucson’s highly successful Mexican American Studies K-12 program. The attack on this program amounts to cultural genocide, though many people bristle at that description. Yet, how else to describe an attempt to forcefully assimilate any population?

But all that is so 2010.

2011 in Arizona began with not simply declaring Mexican American Studies illegal – with an April 18 deadline to dismantle the program – but with a flurry of bills that make both of these bills seem Mexican-friendly.

The following will give you an example of the environment we are living – this, in the midst of a huge nationwide state-by-state budget crisis in which Mexicans always become convenient scapegoats.

Save Ethnic Studies in Arizona

For the past four years, Arizona Superintendent of Public Schools,

Tom Horne, and the Arizona State Legislature have relentlessly attacked the Tucson Unified School District’s (TUSD) Mexican American Studies Department (MASD). Tom Horne and the Arizona State Legislature have accused that Mexican American Studies classes are: “promoting the overthrow of the United States Government; promoting resentment toward a race or class of people; designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group; and advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals ”

This past May 11, 2010, AZ Governor Jan Brewer, signed into law AZ HB 2281, the anti-Ethnic Studies law, which will in effect eliminate TUSD’s MASD on December 31, 2010. A major provision of the law calls for a 10% withholding of the State of Arizona’s monthly allotment to TUSD if MASD continues to teach Chicano Studies classes.  Speakers for the teachers, Sean Arce and Curtis Acosta said  after exhausting our efforts through lobbying, community activism, and public relations, we are left with no other option than to 

 file a federal injunction in the Federal District Court in Arizona to stop AZ HB 2281.  They are currently suing the state and the school district. (photo. Curtis Acosta)

The Ethnic Studies program in Tucson was developed with the input of university students, community members and local teachers.  Together they developed a Mexican American studies curriculum focusing on culturally relevant and historically relevant materials to overcome the persistent high drop out rates and the lack of college going by Raza students.   This program has become the largest Mexican American studies program at a high school level in the U.S. And, it is under attack by Republicans in Arizona.

The program is the focus of a soon to be released film, “Precious Knowledge.” Teachers from the school program are available for speaking opportunities around the nation.  The two speakers at the Sacramento event –Sean Arce and Curtis Acosta-  were clear, articulate, knowledgeable, inspiring and engaging.  

Latin America and China trade

Kevin Gallagher
guardian.co.uk
Monday 7 March 2011 16:38 GMT

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos sent shockwaves through Washington when he told the Financial Times that his nation is holding negotiations with China to build a multibillion dollar "dry canal" that would compete with the Panama Canal. After all, Santos said, China is "the new motor of the world economy".

This deal is charged with politics. Colombia is trying to get the US to pass a long-stalled trade deal. And let us not forget that the original canal was to be the result of an agreement between the US and Colombia. When the Colombians didn't like the deal the US had on offer and threatened to squelch it, Washington supported Panamanian separatist movements and got itself a new country to build a canal with.

But that's all water under the isthmus. Or so we thought.

Whether or not this deal goes through, it highlights the stark contrast between China's foreign economic ventures and those of the United States.

For 30 years, Washington has been shopping a trade-not-aid based economic diplomacy across Latin America and beyond. According to what is generally known as the "Washington consensus", the US has provided Latin America loans conditional on privatisation, deregulation and other forms of structural adjustment. More recently, what has been on offer are trade deals such as the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement: access to the US market in exchange for similar conditions.

The 30-year record of the Washington consensus was abysmal for Latin America, which grew less than 1% per year in per capita terms during the period, in contrast with 2.6% during the period 1960-81. East Asia, on the other hand, which is known for its state-managed globalisation (most recently epitomised by China), has grown 6.7% per annum in per capita terms since 1981, actually up from 3.5% in that same period.

Latino Organizations unite to oppose attacks on working people

 

NINETEEN LEADING NATIONAL LATINO ORGANIZATIONS UNITE TO OPPOSE GROWING ATTACKS AGAINST WORKERS' RIGHTS

 

WASHINGTON, DC-  As working families struggle to stay afloat in this economic downturn, a wave of state-led attacks are threatening workers and the basic structure that protects their rights on the job. Attempts to destroy the right of workers to bargain collectively raise grave concerns about job quality and economic security for working families and vulnerable segments of our populations including Latinos and low-income families. Poor quality jobs, limited access to health care, pensions combined with high rates of wage violations, injuries and fatalities in the workplace are grave issues that disproportionately affect the Latino community.  In the absence of unions, attacks on workers' rights and declining job quality will go unabated for all workers; exacerbating these risks among vulnerable populations.

Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Iowa and Florida are among a growing number of states with legislatures proposing bills to destroy workers' right to bargain collectively in the workplace.  In light of these attacks on workers and labor unions, nineteen leading national Latino organiz! ations united to call on lawmakers to oppose legislation that limits the power of workers to negotiate for quality jobs, good wages, benefits, safe working conditions and job security.

Across the country, tens of thousands of workers and their supporters are gathering to oppose legislative measures targeting the rights and pockets of public sector workersas the means to address budget shortfalls.

Hundreds of thousands of state, county and local employees are battling proposals in Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Tennessee, Michigan and Florida that seek to: revoke "prevailing wage" laws; restrict or destroy collective bargaining rights; terminate union negotiated contracts; remove required binding arbitration; and prevent unions from collecting dues from their members.

Presidential Meeting Puts US-Mexico Relations Back on Track–In the Wrong Direction – CIP Americas

Presidential Meeting Puts US-Mexico Relations Back on Track–In the Wrong Direction – CIP Americas

Arizona and Raza Studies tour

CFA Latino/Latina Caucus

“Save Ethnic Studies” Tour Background Information

For the past four years, Arizona Superintendent of Public Schools,

Tom Horne, and the Arizona State Legislature have relentlessly attacked the Tucson Unified School District’s (TUSD) Mexican American Studies Department (MASD). Tom Horne and the Arizona State Legislature have accused that Mexican American Studies classes are: “promoting the overthrow of the United States Government; promoting resentment toward a race or class of people; designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group; and advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals ”

Tues. March 8.  University Union.  Sac State.   12 Noon.  Foothill Suite.
                          6 PM.  Sol Collective.  Sacramento

This past May 11, 2010, AZ Governor Jan Brewer, signed into law AZ HB 2281, the anti-Ethnic Studies law, which will in effect eliminate TUSD’s MASD on December 31, 2010. A major provision of the law calls for a 10% withholding of the State of Arizona’s monthly allotment to TUSD if MASD continues to teach Chicano Studies classes.  After exhausting our efforts through lobbying, community activism, and public relations, we are left with no other option than to file a federal injunction in the Federal District Court in Arizona to stop AZ HB 2281.

Eleven Critical Raza Educators have formed a campaign “Save Ethnic Studies”.  The Raza Studies educators will serve, independently from TUSD, as a collective of plaintiffs in filing an injunction in Federal District Court to stop AZ HB 2281 from going into effect. This legal effort will require an enormous amount of financial and human resources in order to be effective in legally challenging AZ HB 2281. As a consequence, we will be embarking on a national fundraising campaign to raise consciousness and resources for our “Save Ethnic Studies” Defense Fund to defeat AZ HB 2281.

The California Faculty Association will host a delegation from the “Save Ethnic Studies” organization in Spring 2011. The “Save Ethnic Studies” presentation will include an overview of the work that Critical Raza Educators in Tucson public schools and describe the struggle these educators have waged against Arizona’s Legislative attacks on the Critical Raza Educators of TUSD’s MASD. The presenters will also cover the status of the filed in the Federal District Court to fight AZ HB 2281; and if the film is produced by Spring 2010, the documentary film “Precious Knowledge,” will be shown. If the film is not ready by the Spring, the program will include the 10-minute video. 

Dismissal of Teachers Union Leadership in Puerto Rico

“We Will Not Be Intimidated”

 By Hugo J. Delgado-Martí

Bandera Roja - 2/21/11

 The Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR) denounced in a press conference today the firing by the government of 11 members of the Executive Committee of their union and the revocation of those teachers' licenses.

"This unprecedented, brutally repressive measure is intended to strike a blow against the leadership of the Federation and to intimidate teachers from fighting the fascistic plans of the Fortuño government to privatize schools and rob the Teachers' Retirement System," said the president of the Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico, Rafael Feliciano Hernández.

The 11 teachers, who were sanctioned, worked for over 20 years and three of them have more than thirty (30) years of teaching experience. "They enjoy great prestige in their school communities and have always distinguished themselves as formidably dedicated fighters for the rights of teachers and public education," said Feliciano, who teaches in the Cayey School District.