They Call Us Illegal, But What They're Doing is Even More Illegal

"THEY CALL US ILLEGAL, BUT WHAT THEY'RE DOING IS EVEN MORE ILLEGAL"  
Fast Food Workers Face the Silent Raids
By David Bacon

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20289-they-call-us-illegal-fast-food-workers-face-silent-raids


OAKLAND, CA  (11/23/13) -- Since the Golden Arches rose above the first southern California drive-ins, workers have labored in their shadows for the lowest legal wage a boss can pay.  Other fast food chains have mushroomed since, copying the same ideas.  Pay workers the least possible.  Keep them guessing from week to week how many hours they'll get.  If anyone gets upset, there are always many more people on the street, ready to step behind the counter, clean up the dirty tables, or stand at the grill in the heat and smoke.

Is it a surprise that many people in those jobs came to this country to feed their hungry children, or give a future to those they left behind?  People will put up with a lot when they're hungry enough.  They'll take ibuprofen to get through the shift, or line up for food at the local food pantry at the end of the month, because their paychecks won't stretch that far.  All to keep that job.

A Progressive Agenda- Sen.Bernie Sanders

The Right to Stay Home: How U.S. Policy Drives Mexican Migration

 A review. by Duane Campbell

The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration by David Bacon  is a well written, well informed book that explains political and economic currents shaping the US immigration experience.

The U.S. public is  engaged  in a sustained and divisive debate over immigration. Unfortunately, at the same  time ,  most U.S. do not recognize that U.S. economic policy,  particularly NAFTA created many of  the conditions that produce the very immigration of some 8 million people  that many on the Right and the Tea Party   so oppose.

The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 accelerated a neo-liberal form of economic growth in Mexico that drove poor farmers, particularly in the indigenous south to lose their farms and their livelihood.  In  response  young men, and increasingly the young women,  made the dangerous trek to the U.S. in search of work and an income to feed their families and keep their families from losing their  farms.  

Chicano Studies y Los Pochos

Los Pochos y Los Vendidos

 “Viví en el monstruo y le conozco las entrañas”

By

Rodolfo F. Acuña  Dec. 2013.

When I sat down to conceptualize Chicana/o Studies, I was forced to distinguish it from Mexican Studies. If I had not done so, I would have never gotten it through the committees. I also had to differentiate CHS from race studies as well as Latin American Studies. I was fortunate that I had taught U.S. history and government, and specialized in U.S. History for my Masters. My PhD was in Latin American studies so that was icing on the cake.

Academe was caught flatfooted in responding to the challenge of ethnic studies, and it has never really got a handle on them. Many perceive them as race studies, so the inclination is to lump Chicana/o Studies into their flawed model.

I believed that if Chicana/o Studies was to grow; it had to find its own identity. Very early the main thrust of our program was pedagogical. We were there to teach more than a subject; it involved teaching students identity and skills. The truth be told, years of marginalization had damaged Chicanas/os.

Eliseo Medina on Organizing for Immigration Reform

DSA Honorary Chair, Labor Leader, Eliseo Medina on...: DSA Honorary Chair, Labor Leader, Eliseo Medina on Fasting for Immigration Reform

Latino Arts not funded

MEDIA ADVISORY                                                          

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  
December 12, 2013

 

Latino Arts Network of California Releases Study

Documenting Sacramento's History of

Favoritism in Arts Funding

Decades of selective distribution and failed investments demands new  

funding policies that include equity to art organizations of color

(Sacramento, CA)  The Latino Arts Network of California, a statewide service organization dedicated to the promotion of California Latino arts organizations, artists and communities, will release a report addressing the City of Sacramento's history of funding policies for arts organizations. The report details arbitrary funding steered toward Eurocentric art organizations to the determent and exclusion of the growing diversity of art patrons in the region.   

WHAT:      Press Conference to Announce Study Findings and Recommendations

When:        TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2013

WHO:        Tomas Benitez, Chairman, Latino Arts Network of California  

                     and supporters of more funding for art organizations of color.

WHERE:   MAYAHUEL RESTAURANT

                    1200 K St

                    Sacramento, CA 95814

                    (Corner of 12th and K Streets)

TIME:       10:00 AM

"The findings in our report should be a wake-up call to other municipalities who are ignoring the huge demographic changes taking place in our state," said Tomas Benitez, Chairman of the Latino Arts Network. "Our hope is that this study, which took place over eight months, will encourage greater equity in the distribution of tax payer money and wiser investments in the arts. Sacramento deserves better."

DSA Honorary Chair, Labor Leader, Eliseo Medina on...

DSA Honorary Chair, Labor Leader, Eliseo Medina on...: DSA Honorary Chair, Labor Leader, Eliseo Medina on Fasting for Immigration Reform

DSA Honorary Chair, Labor Leader, Eliseo Medina on Fasting for Immigration Reform

La Pastorela de Sacramento - You are invited !

We invite you to join us!

¡NAVIDADES! CHRISTMAS ON K STREET

A LA RAZA GALERÍA POSADA PREMIER

“LA PASTORELA DE SACRAMENTO”

Adaptation by Manual Pickett and Tomas Benitez with Marie Acosta

Directed by Manuel Pickett and Marie Acosta

Original costumes by Rory Castillo

DATE:                    SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15TH, 2013

TIME:                    1PM – 2PM

LOCATION:         13TH &  K STREETS IN DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO ON THE K ST. MALL

PRICE:                   FREE TO THE PUBLIC

President Obama Speaks at a Memorial Service for Nelson Mandela

Celebrate the Life and Work of Jose Montoya

We celebrate the life and work of Nelson Mandela

by Bill Fletcher,

I expected to hear the news.  I did not know when it would arrive.   I did not believe that he had much longer to live.  So, when, this afternoon, i heard that Nelson Mandela, at the age of 95, had passed away, i was nevertheless surprised at my reaction.  Actually there were two reactions.

The first reaction was that of the loss of an elderly relative.  I know that sounds melodramatic but i feel that i grew up with Nelson Mandela.  From my earliest days as a young radical i heard the name “Nelson Mandela”.  I learned about the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress, and later the other forces that contributed to the South African Freedom struggle.  His picture was in my home in the form of a poster.  He was present in my life.  And, at the age of 95, one could not be surprised in hearing of his passing.

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.

Obama, Tear Down this Wall!

Dreamer's arrested outside of Boehner's Office

Eleven million dreams will not be stopped. Today, more than 200 DREAMers took to the halls of the U.S. Capitol office buildings to protest House Speaker John Boehner's refusal to hold a vote on citizenship for the nation's 11 million aspiring Americans.

Earlier today a group of DREAMers crossed the Key Bridge from Arlington, Va., and marched to the Capitol.

While the hundreds of DREAMers filled the hallways outside Boehner's and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) offices, 11 people took arrest for refusing to leave Cantor's office. A group hummed "Amazing Grace" outside the Republican leader  Boehner's office.

Source: AFL-CIO Blog. 

Border Issues Deserve a Humane Solution

INTRODUCTION - There is probably no one who can speak to the citizenry from a greater moral high ground than Enrique Morones from Border Angels.  He has been at the forefront on the ground for over a decade offering humanitarian aid to the sick, elderly, young, and dying migrants attempting to cross the Mexico-United States border in search of a new and better life than the one they left behind.  His work became ever more urgent with the imposition of Operation Gatekeeper in 1994 thanks to President Bill Clinton and Senator Diane Feinstein.  More than 10,000 migrants have perished since that inhumane policy was enacted.  Enrique has become the nation's moral conscience on the border.  This is what he has to say about immigration reform and the urgent tasks of the day.  

THE HERMANDAD FAMILY.

Border Issues Deserve a Humane Solution

By Enrique Morones

The U.S.-Mexico border has never been more secure, but we still hear from many people: "Secure the border!" "Get in line!" "Citizenship for all."

We rarely hear from the migrants themselves. Not only do I hear from them everyday, I also see them daily - both dead and alive. For the past several months we have had a growing coalition asking for a piecemeal approach to humane immigration and not the militarized version being offered now. The migrant community wants the Dream Act, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), to process those already in the system and passage of the agricultural jobs bill. This would qualify more than 4 million of the current 11.5 million undocumented people in this country today.

When most of our forefathers and foremothers came to this country, there was never any question of legal vs. illegal. They just came. Many even had a statue welcome and encourage them. "Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses."

The War on Chicana/o Studies - Acuña

Los Muertos de Hambre :The War on Chicana/o Studies  Unmasking the Illusion of Inclusion 
By  Rodolfo F. Acuña

Muertos de hambre is a derogatory phrase often used by Mexicans to refer to people who are predators, i.e., human vultures, vendidos. They are so starved for attention or recognition that they pounce on scraps of garbage discarded by their colonial masters.

The history of Chicana/o Studies is replete with examples of myths such as that they are failing because of a lack of enrollment. The truth is that they fail because they are denied a place on the Monopoly Board (General Education, electives and the like) that runs the university and rewards departments.

The CSUN Chicana/o Studies Department has a unique problem, it has been too successful. It offers 175 plus sections per semester, and campus wide departments are salivating at the prospect of picking off pieces of the program. The sad thing is that without the Mexican student population the university would be half its size.

Ed. note. For parallel descriptions of hiring at CSU-Sacramento see;

https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/faculty-retention-at-csus--2011

https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/the-creation-and-demise-of-bilingual-education-at-csu-sacramento-2

Native Protest Movement

                     Sacramento City College
Cultural Awareness Center & ; International Studies Program
Presents Native Protest Movement.   Francisco Dominguez , Photographer
Monday , November 18, 2013 Cultural Awareness Center 3:00~4:15 p.m.

For more information contact the CAC @ 916-558-2575.

Students requiring additional accommodations  contact

DSPS at 916-558-2087.  Sacramento

CAC is now on Facebook  : SCC-CAC

Little Manilla, Filipino history

Good piece in the Sacramento Bee by Steve Magagnini

On Oct. 2, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law AB123 requiring public schools to teach their students about the contributions of Filipino Americans to the state’s fields of plenty and the farmworkers movement that transformed American labor.

Many Californians don’t know that Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers movement were inspired by Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz and other Filipino farmworkers who led the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) and started the Delano grape workers strike of 1965. “The students of California need to learn that the sacrifices made by both Filipino and Latino workers benefited all California,” Huerta said.

Much of that history is detailed in “Little Manila Is In The Heart,” a new book by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, an associate professor of history at San Francisco State University and a daughter of Stockton’s once-vibrant Little Manila District – for half a century the apex of Filipino life in America. Little Manila – like Sacramento’s Japantown and Chinatown – was wiped out by urban redevelopment in the 1950s and ’60s. But its legacy lives on in California’s fields and levees, said Mabalon, 41.

What do Californians need to know about Filipino Americans?

They built the Central Valley with their bare hands in asparagus, tomatoes, celery, peaches, tomatoes and grapes. Filipino and Mexican immigrants and their families turned California into the seventh-largest economy in the world. There are still Filipinos working in the fields and sorting asparagus with Mexican immigrants. The first seven Filipinos – called Indios by the Spaniards – arrived on a Spanish galleon that landed around Morro Bay on Oct. 18, 1587.

More;

smagagnini@sacbee.com

Chicana/o Mexican American Digital History Project grows

We have created an online history collection of Chicano/Mexican American/Latino activist history in the Sacramento region 1940- present.  We make this history available to students and teachers to balance the lack of inclusion of Chicano history in public schools, text books, and college classes.   Additional digital materials are welcome.

 https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/

Ray Suarez leaves PBS Newshour for Al Jazeera

Latino newsman Ray Suarez has left   his position  as a senior correspondent at the PBS Newshour.  His new book is a companion volume to the series on  history of Latinos in the U.S. aired in September on PBS.

Earlier in October, Suarez announced that he was leaving PBS after 14 years on the network's flagship "Newshour." He told told Fox News Latino that he did not see "much of a future" with the network, although he did claim that his departure was not bitter and that he left "on good terms."

Suarez announced on Twitter that he is the new host of the program “Inside Story” produced n Al Jazeera America.  It is broadcast at 5 pm. Eastern. Mon-Friday.

The PBS Newshour has new direction and no Latino journalists.

Muticultural Education Conference

Chicano/a Studies- Not Hispanic

Identity Crisis: An Arrested Development

By  Rodolfo Acuña

The debate as to what to name Chicana/o Studies will have future repercussions. The proposals are not new; they are not innovative; and they are symptomatic of the historical struggle of Mexican origin people in the United States to identify themselves. 

The problem is that the group has grown so large and the stakes so high that the consequences will hurt everyone. Unfortunately, the level of the discourse lacks logic, and it prolongs a resolution to the identity crisis of Mexican Americans.

Admittedly, Latinos have a lot in common, but we also have a lot of differences, e.g., in social class, population size, where we live, and our history to name a few dissimilarities. These differences strew the landscape with landmines especially for those who already believe that all Latinas/os look alike. It makes it easier for them to lump us into one generic brand.

Defend Ethnic Studies

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: Defend Ethnic Studies: Defend Ethnic Studies- Or we will lose them. At several   CSU campuses including San Jose, Bakersfield, Long Beach, Sacramento State...

El Día de Los Muertos

El Día de Los Muerto And Halloween

Quo Vadis?

By

Rodolfo F. Acuña

                                                    

Mexicans, more than most races, seem preoccupied with death.  Since colonial times Mexican laborers have continuously been uprooted, travelling thousands of miles from the interior of Mexico forging an El Camino Real to to mining camps and plantations in northern Mexico. They arrived in places like Zacatecas where they fanned out, forging spider web corridors in form of roads.

These workers felt vulnerable. They missed home, and most knew that they would never see their homes or families again.

La Cancion Mixteca written in 1912 in Mexico City by José López Alavez, a Oaxacan composer, speaks to feelings of homesickness for Oaxaca. The song was later taken north to places such as Chicago where it became a favorite of Mexican migrants in the United States.

The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration

The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration
David Bacon.

The Killing of a Child

Another child has been killed. Andy Lopez was playing with a toy on Oct. 22 near his home in a Latino community in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, Northern California. A sheriff's deputy pulled the trigger and hit the 13-year-old seven times, fearing that his toy assault rifle might be real. His partner, sitting next to him in the car, held his fire. That patience was a better approach. Who is responsible for this death? "The shots were fired within 10 seconds of the deputies' first report of a suspicious person," according to the daily Press Democrat. Why was he suspicious? Does it have to do with the fact that he lives in a Latino neighborhood? Or that he was wearing a hoodie, as some of my college students do?

Growing Clash Between Immigrants Rights Activists and Washington DC Power Brokers

GROWING CLASH BETWEEN IMMIGRANT RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND WASHINGTON DC POWER BROKERS By David Bacon http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/19564-growing-clash-between-immigrant-rights-activists-and-washington-power-brokers OAKLAND, CA  (10/21/13) -- This fall, when Congress couldn't pass immigration reform bills -- even ones deeply unpopular among many immigrants themselves -- one of the most important responses came from Oaxaca.  In the capital of this southern Mexico state a representative of a Silicon Valley union sat down with a state agency and an organization of indigenous migrants, and signed an agreement for mutual cooperation. All three groups pledged to work to protect the rights of Oaxacans who have migrated to the U.S. -- about 800,000 now live in California alone.  "Our objective," the agreement reads, "is the protection of the human and labor rights of Oaxacan workers and their families, in the food and commercial industries."  It lists a number of shared commitments, including explaining to immigrant workers their labor rights in the U.S., helping them file claims when they're hurt at work, and advocating for them when they face government agencies.

Bart Strike settled; DSA Convention on Schedule

The BART Strike has been settled. We await a vote on the contract.

 Building the Next Left : Rebirth and Renewal

A public event sponsored by Democratic Socialists of America

Date and Time: Friday, Oct. 25, 2013.  7:30 PM. 

Location: Humanist Hall. 390 27^th Street, Oakland, California

Speakers

John Nichols – Washington Correspondent, The Nation

Catherine Tactaquin, Executive Director. National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Steve Williams. Co-founder .Former Executive Director,   POWER ( People Organized to Win Employment Rights) S.F.

Maria Svart – National Director, Democratic Socialists of America

Performer

Mario de Mira aka Nomi from Power Struggle

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 16^th National Convention of Democratic Socialists of America, which is being held at the Hilton Garden Inn, Emeryville, Ca. Oct. 25-27. . Visit www.dsausa.org for more information. A full press kit with bio’s and ph

DSA Joins With Others to Support Bart Strikers and Their Union

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) joins with the broad labor and social justice community in the Bay Area (including Jobs with Justice and the Chinese Progressive Association) in supporting the strikers of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).

Even after the BART employees, represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, and BART management were nearing a difficult economic agreement, management insisted that workers sacrifice long established work rules. The union negotiators offered to submit the rules to impartial binding arbitration, but the BART management team, led by a highly paid union busting attorney, refused. This precipitated the strike.

DSA, which is celebrating its National Convention in Emeryville the weekend of October 25‐27 ( see post below) will face some of the inconveniences faced by 400,000 Bay Area commuters. But we join with the broad Bay Area progressive community in unconditionally supporting the BART workers in their fight for a fair contract. We reject this new assault on public sector workers and their unions. The BART unions have helped thousands of people of color and immigrants to gain secure and stable jobs, and BART workers are fighting to retain those conditions of work, which we all want to have.

We stand with them in their just struggle.

For the Bay Area Chinese Progressive Association statement on the strike see:

http://www.cpasf.org/standwithbartworkers

For the Bay Area Jobs with Justice statement on the strike see:

http://portside.org/2013‐10‐19/support‐bay‐area‐transit‐strikers