New California history texts will include Chicano history and diversity

Dolores Huerta 

By Stephen Magagnini, Sac Bee.

"After 10 years, thousands of public comments and contentious debates, the California Department of Education has rewritten the history curriculum for California’s more than 6.2 million public school students.

The new History-Social Science Framework for grades K-12 was adopted by the state school board on July 14. It reflects the struggles and progress of LGBT Americans in the United States and California. It also contains more detail on Latino history, along with the role Filipinos played in both World War II and the United Farm Workers movement."


Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article92446782.html#storylink=cpy

If you are willing to serve as a reviewer to see that the new textbooks meet the new requirements, apply here. 

2017 History–Social Science Adoption

The application for reviewers for the 2017 History­–Social Science Adoption is now live on the CDE Web site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/im/, under the tab “Reviewer Info.” as a reviewer. Applications will be accepted through October 19, 2016.

Elizabeth Warren On Trump: "He Sounded Like A Two-Bit Dictator"

Organize Against a Trump Victory

DSA believes that a Donald Trump presidency would represent a victory for the most reactionary nativist, misogynist, Islamophobic and racist forces in the country. A Trump administration would bring immediate harm to many people and would create conditions hostile to organizing for progressives. Therefore, DSA will work with the emerging labor, immigrant, and anti-racist-led “Dump Trump” movement. For this reason, we do not endorse the #BernieOrBust tactic, though we understand the sentiment behind it. Our perspective can best be summarized as: “Dump the Racist Trump: Build the Left from the Grassroots Up.” 

See the complete list of talking points  here:

http://www.dsausa.org/talking_points_for_dsa_s_electoral_work_dl

See more:  Trump, Racism and the Left.

http://www.dsausa.org/trump_racism_and_the_left_dl

We Cannot Have a Candidate Who Insults Mexicans and Latinos, women, African Americans and Muslims.

We Won ! Chicano History Will be in the California Textbooks in 2017

Cesar Chavez & Duane Campbell -1972

By Duane Campbell

History and social science textbooks in public schools in California and most of the nation are racist, class-biased, and ignore LGBT history. This condition will change in California in 2017 when new textbooks are adopted.

It is over. We won !

 At 2:45 PM July 14, 2016,  the California State Board of Education unanimously endorsed a new History /Social Science Framework for California’s public schools that includes a substantial addition of Chicano/Latino history, improved history of LGBT people, and improvements in several other histories.

This completes a 6 year effort against substantial opposition to revise the Framework.  As a result textbooks in California in 2017 will be the most inclusive ever required, and all students will be taught an inclusive history. This has been the major campaign of this blog and the Mexican American Digital History project since 2009. 

Under this decision California students will finally be encouraged to know the history of Latino civil rights leaders like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and Filipino labor leaders like Larry Itliong, as well as an accurate and inclusive history of LGBT activists  as a part of the history of California and the nation. These topics are currently substantially absent from public school textbooks and curricula in California.

The Quality Instructional Materials Committee of the  California State Board of Education decided to include these long- ignored histories in their re-writing of the History/Social Science Framework for the state.  The Framework  document sets the parameters and the minimums required of textbooks used  in the schools.  Because of California’s large size and market, what goes into California textbooks  frequently also gets written into textbooks around the nation.

"Justice is what love looks like in public"

“Justice is what love looks like in public.”
 - Cornel West

DSA  National Political Committee Statement on the Killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the Dallas Police Officers (July 12, 2016)

The Need for A Democratic Transformation of the Criminal Justice and Police System

Democratic Socialists of America condemns the recent police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. These are the latest in the endless taking of black lives by the excessive and precipitous use of deadly police force. Despite the increased attention to these arbitrary killings by the militant protest of #BlackLivesMatter, the deaths of Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Walter Scott and scores of others go unpunished.

This devaluing of the lives of African Americans derives from a racist criminal justice system that serves to repress and contain low-income communities rather than promote peace and well-being. The close working relationship between prosecutors and police precludes the impartial investigation and prosecution of police violence. Thus, in addition to greater community control of policing and the demilitarization of police, DSA calls for independent investigation of all uses of lethal police force.

As an organization committed to nonviolent political action to achieve social justice, DSA also  condemns the murder of police in Dallas this past week. This senseless loss of life occurred during a peaceful protest against police brutality and in a city where a relatively integrated police force has taken some useful steps towards community and accountable policing.

Love, Justice and Dignity |

Love, Justice and Dignity | Portside



Work with Standing Up for Racial Justice

Trump and the Left in California

Duane Campbell
Like Bernie Sanders- I think that defeating Trump is the major issue of the current campaign.
There is an argument  being made in much of the Anglo left in California and around the nation that Trump may be dangerous, but he will be defeated in California.  So, we don't have to organize and mobilize to defeat him here.
This is the argument of that makes sense to many on the white left. As before, they have failed to recognize the reality of the terrorism imposed on the Mexican and immigrant communities by Trump's proposals and the Trump campaign.  And, they fail to recognize that they can not win their various projects and proposals without the support and growth of the Latino vote.  For more on this issue see  Harold Meyerson, http://prospect.org/article/bernie-hillary-and-ghost-ernst-thalmann

While Trump may well be defeated at the ballot box, Trumpism-- the organization and mobilization of a anti immigrant Right Wing, will grow.  Even a modest vote gain by Trump in California will foster the growth of naked racism, xenophobia, and authoritarianism.  This kind of populist right wing White nationalism is what passed Proposition 187 ( and re-elected Peter Wilson), passed Proposition 209, and similar right wing mobilization led to the deportation of over a one million Mexicans ( including U.S. Citizens) in 1932, and over one million Mexican workers in 1952.
As in the case of California proposition 187, a surge of right wing voters will doom all efforts on immigration reform for at least a decade.

None of the favored progressive initiatives can be passed without the active participation of Latino voters.  Together we can build a better society.
Divided- we all loose.

Fight Trump's Wall

Puerto Rico Can’t—And Shouldn’t—Pay Its Debts Just to Enrich Wall Street Profiteers - In These Times

Puerto Rico Can’t—And Shouldn’t—Pay Its Debts Just to Enrich Wall Street Profiteers - In These Times

July 4th: No Time for Celebration for Indigenous Peoples in US | Portside

July 4th: No Time for Celebration for Indigenous Peoples in US | Portside

Wall- Register and vote