Disinterested Voters, Is It Apathy or Manipulation and Gridlock?

by Jimmy Franco Sr.  Latino Point of View.

The November mid-term elections are now approaching and a political debate and divide is developing among many disgruntled voters as to whether to cast a ballot to support the continuing gridlock in congress and the governmental inaction that has resulted from this situation or abstain. California’s recent June electoral primary had the lowest proportional turnout ever as only a quarter of the voters even bothered to cast a ballot. For many Latinos who are disillusioned with the unprincipled Democrats and their disrespect and empty promises, a decision must be made whether to continue

A Latina activist ponders whether to support Democrats who retreated on immigration reform

following them in a slavish manner after being continually taken for granted or simply sit this one out. Many elitist pundits and die-hard Democratic Party loyalists lament the low rate of voter turnout at election time and tend to label and fault the voters as being either apathetic of even worse lazy and not caring. In reality, the majority of working-class voters, minorities and women do care about their jobs, wages, children’s education, rights and the continual rise in consumer prices. What these frustrated and angry voters have experienced and still observe is a government that takes their taxes while talkative politicians continue to break their campaign promises by not enacting any concrete laws to improve economic and social conditions for middle-class and lower-income people. This is particularly true at the federal level and even locally within the Los Angeles Unified school District where chaos and dysfunction dominate an educational system that is run by incompetents. Distrustful voters have witnessed a situation of ongoing political gridlock among the US Congress and the president for close to four years now. This legislative stalemate, name calling and inaction on pressing issues is what creates cynicism and non-voting among the electorate especially those who are low-income, minority and young. People no longer want to hear rhetoric, but want to see real changes occur within the real world in which they live. During the 2008 presidential election a ‘messianic’ Obama campaigned as the people’s anti-war candidate and he preached and enthralled voters with his idealistic messages about hope and peace, a new type of government with real representation, a reduction in military conflicts and nuclear weapons, and an improvement in the well-being of working people’s lives. This type of revivalist campaign talk and lofty beliefs particularly inspired the hopes of the young, minorities and women and energized them to turn out in large numbers to support and vote for his promise of change and the building of a new society.

Yes on 47, Safe Neighborhoods and Schools

Safe Neighborhoods and Schools

Dia De Los Muertos

Republicans Love Latinos, Except When Hating Them Gets More Votes

Latino Families Criticize Democratic Senator Kay Hagan

A coalition of Latino families is going after Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina in a pair of Spanish-language billboards that are meant to expose her record on immigration.

The billboards went up Tuesday — one in Raleigh and another in Durham — and were paid for by donations from Latino families. They show an image of Hagan and assert that the Democratic senator “is not a friend of immigrants.” Hagan is among the handful of vulnerable Democratic senators running for re-election in tough races.

Viridiana Martinez, a Dreamer who helped with the efforts to put up the billboards, said the purpose of the billboards is to hold Hagan accountable on immigration.

“This isn’t about a political party,” Martinez said in an interview with VOXXI. “This is about accountability, and Sen. Hagan needs to know that there are consequences for being anti-immigrant.”

The billboards allude to a vote Hagan took in 2006 when she was a state senator to prohibit undocumented immigrants from being able to get driver’s license in North Carolina.

US Returning Migrants to Danger

Out of control: Torture and other ill-treatment in Mexico | Amnesty International USA

Out of control: Torture and other ill-treatment in Mexico | Amnesty International USA

Who do you want deciding on curriculum for California's school children?

Or,  do you prefer the people who fund the Tuck campaign ?

A handful of ultra-wealthy donors who support school privatization and cutting public pension systems are behind a flood of spending supporting former Wall Street Banker Marshall Tuck's campaign for state schools superintendent, campaign disclosure records show.

Far from "Parents and Teachers for Tuck," the $4.7 million collected so far comes instead from sources that support school vouchers, privatization of public pension systems and using disruptive business tactics to overhaul public schools.

Major funders include:

$500,000 from Carrie Walton Penner, whose family made its fortune running anti-union, low-wage paying Wal-Mart. The Walmart 1% website reports that Penner's biography includes serving on the board of the Alliance for School Choice - a school voucher advocacy group.

We have a choice between a teacher with a record of standing with teachers to fund the schools, and a corporate "reform" agent. Your vote will count. 

Campaign to promote Ethnic Studies

Campaign To Promote Ethnic Studies Summit - October 18, 2014

      

PURPOSE: A conference for those committed to promote Ethnic Studies at all levels of the educational system, to discuss the state of Ethnic Studies in California, Arizona and Texas, and present new models that enhance Ethnic Studies in K-12, based on local-control school board policies and partnerships between schools with colleges and universities.

KEYNOTE ADDRESSES: by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor & Chair, Africana Studies Dep't, CSULB and Dr. Rudy Acuña, Professor Emeritus, Chicana/o Studies Dept., CSUN.

Campaign to Promote Ethnic Studies Summit 

Saturday, October 18, 2014 ~ 9am-5pm

CSULB Anatol Conference Center

(University Library)

1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840

(Directions and $5 parking at Lot 7: http://csulb.edu/community/v-gettinghere.html)

Cornel West, others, arrested today in Ferguson

Report from Ferguson

By Femi Agbabiaka

This weekend, I, along with several other students from the University of Missouri-Columbia, traveled to Saint Louis to stand in solidarity with the protestors in Ferguson. What I saw and experienced there was astonishing and enraging. Every night there are strong, young, and radical voices engaging in nonviolent, but militant, civil disobedience. They’ve organized in groups such as Lost Voices, who have slept out on the streets and protested nightly since Mike Brown was murdered. They’re critiquing not just the police state, but also patriarchy and white supremacy in an attempt to take back their community for themselves.

Friday night, we arrived in Saint Louis around 9 p.m. and immediately started marching to the Ferguson police station, following a candlelight vigil. The march was loud, focused, angry, but not violent. We were stopped momentarily by a few police checkpoints, but kept marching through. Once we reached the police station, we were greeted by a group of about 400 other protesters, and together we marched to the police barricade shouting chants such as, “No justice! No peace!” and “Mike Brown means we’ve got to fight back!” I stood together with others, arms locked, as we provided a barrier between the police and the peaceful protest. When we were finished there, we marched back to West Florissant Street, chanting all along the way, as police in helicopters beamed down on us.

Yasunidos' Resistance - today.

Women Allege Sexual Exploitation in For Profit Texas Detention Center

Justice for the 43 Disappeared Mexican Students

Justice for the 43 Disappeared Mexican Students

Petition by Trinational Coalition in Defense of Public Education - USA

To be delivered to Angel Aguirre Rivero, Governor of the State of Guerrero, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, Mexican Secretary of State, and Enrique Pena Nieto, President of Mexico

In solidarity with the families, friends, and supporters of the disappeared Mexican students, we hereby support their demands:
1. Return the 43 students alive - they were taken alive, we want them back alive!
2. Remove and punish Angel Aguirre, the Governor of Gurrero, and Jose Luis Abarca Velazquez, the municipal president of Iguala, for their responsibility in the murder and disappearance of the students.
3. Stop the repression of the democratic movements of Mexican teachers, students, and other citizens. Free the political prisoners.

There are currently 29 signatures. We need 50 signatures!

Petition Background

We, the undersigned, are writing in support of the demands of Mexican protesters and to express our indignation about the horrible events of Friday, September 26, 2014, when six people, three of them students, were assassinated and 43 other students were disappeared from the Rural Normal School “Raul Isidro Burgos” in the State of Guerrero, Mexico, and when two teachers two teachers from the State Coordinators of Workers of the Education of Guerrero were mortally wounded.

Mexicans demand justice of their government

ed

Cornel West: President Obama Doesn't Belong on Any Shirt with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X

Cornel West: President Obama Doesn't Belong on Any Shirt with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X

Hong Kong movement for Democracy

The Democratic Socialists of America supports the goals of the Hong Kong movement for democracy (the “Umbrella Movement”).

When the British handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997, the Chinese government promised both in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the mini constitution of Hong Kong (the Basic Law) that a democratic system eventually would be implemented in Hong Kong.

However the current resolution passed by the Chinese National People’s Congress for implementing that promise by 2017 would sharply restrict candidates for political office to those preselected by an unrepresentative body representing mainly business interests.

The struggle to create a political system with more democratic self-determination is an essential step towards rectifying the growing economic inequality in Hong Kong.

As democrats and as socialists we support our sisters and brothers in Hong Kong who are fighting for the same goals we have in the USA.

Keeping Ferguson Alive - Cornel West

Here is a video from Wed. night at Union Theological Seminary in New York City  about Ferguson.

All the speakers are good.  It gets very interesting at about 31 minutes in.  Cornel is about 45 minutes in.

There was a great meeting at Union Theological last night in NY featuring Cornel West and others including student who went to Ferguson. 

Here is a link to the video.  http://bit.ly/FL10214
It is 2 hours but is a good program to share with other activists. All of the DSA'ers that were there thought it was excellent.

What President Obama Told Latino DC About Immigration

Presidential speech on Immigration to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Oct. 2, 2014

Mas de 50,000 Estudiantes Politécnicos Marchan al SEGOB.

Ignore the ad.

More than 50,000 Mexican students march to resist neoliberal education "reforms" and corporate control. Sept. 30,2014

Chinese Students Ask for help, support !

October 3, 2014

Chief Executive CY Leung promised to appoint the Chief Secretary for Administration and the political reform trio to have a dialogue with the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), yet allowed thugs to attack the protesters the very next day. This is no different from suppressing citizens who strive for democracy. On October 3, the peaceful protesters were attacked with violence, but the police did not enforce the law though witnessing the thugs hurting the civilians. This is literally giving support to brutality, murdering the freedom of assembly and freedom of speech of Hong Kong people. HKCTU is in extreme anger and hereby strongly condemns the police for tolerating violence and being negligent towards their duty. We strongly demand that the police arrest and prosecute the thugs.

Today, there were a large number of people of unknown background gathered at the Mong Kok occupy area. It is believed that over a thousand members from organizations like "Caring Hong Kong Power" and "Voice of Loving Hong Kong" screamed, cursed at and attacked the protesters at the scene. At that time very few police were there to support, nor did they stop the attacks. Many unarmed students, workers and citizens were hurt by the thugs. There was even a female student being sexually assaulted and the materials of the protesters got destroyed maliciously. As the working class, while striving for democracy, we also believe in engaging in civil disobedience in a loving and peaceful manner. We hereby appeal to all Hong Kong citizens and the international society to: 1) support the students, workers and citizens in the Occupy Movement 2) urge CY Leung to stop using violence and tolerating violence to suppress the peaceful protesters, and to uphold the freedom of assembly and speech of Hong Kong 3) urge the police to instantly investigate the thugs who were organized to attack the protesters and give an explanation to the public 4) urge the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress to withdraw the fake universal suffrage proposal, and the Hong Kong Government to re-launch the consultation on political reform and implement a genuine universal suffrage The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions includes affiliates with about 170,000 members in Hong Kong.

For more information go to www.TalkingUnion.wordpress.com

Choosing Democracy: What It Takes to Unite Teachers Unions and Communi...

 What It Takes to Unite Teachers Unions and Communi...: What It Takes to Unite Teachers Unions and Communities of Color | The Nation

Resources for DACA and Undocumented

Resources HERE. 

Link to Alianza at Sacramento City College.