Monday, October 30, 2017
Sac City Teachers Prepare for a Possible Strike
Sacramento City Teachers Vote to Okay Strike
Make S.C.U.S.D. a Destination District Rally
November 2nd, 4pm @ S.C.U.S.D. HQ
PLEASE JOIN THE TEACHERS OF THE SACRAMENTO CITY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION AND COMMUNITY ALLIES ON NOVEMBER 2ND @ 4PM
WHAT: 'MAKE S.C.U.S.D. A DESTINATION DISTRICT RALLY'
WHERE: - Serna Center, 5735 47th Avenue, Sacramento Ca 95824
WHEN: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2nd, 4pm
Please join educators, parents, students and community members to rally to stand with Sac City Teachers. The Sacramento City Unified School District is in the best financial position in its history.
It is currently sitting on $81 million dollars in reserves while hundreds of our students do not have fully qualified teachers in their classrooms. Sac City educators have united with parents, students and the community to put forward proposals that would make Sac City the Destination District.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Dia De Los Muertos - Panteón
The Sacramento Latino Center of Art and Culture will honor Día
de los Muertos with its 7th annual el panteón (the name
refers to a cemetery in the Spanish language). The two-day event will host
local artists selling handmade Mexican art, including silver jewelry, beaded
necklaces and hand-painted glassware, along with paintings and sculptures of
traditional sugar skulls. Individuals and families can reserve one of 40 altars
to set up photos, candles, paintings and food in honor of their loved ones. The
Center will also display a community altar to recognize Juan Gabriel, a popular
Mexican singer-songwriter who died in August. Free. Sat. 11 a.m.-1 a.m;
Sun. 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Oppose the new Bracero Program !
Take action to oppose Rep. Goodlatte’s expansion of the guest worker program
Update: The bill made it through committee !
AG VISA BILL ADVANCES: The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would create a new visa for agricultural businesses. The legislation, H.R. 4092 (115), sponsored by Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), squeaked by 17-16, confounding Morning Shift's expectation that opposition from Democrats and some Republicans would doom it. Two immigration hawks, Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), voted against the bill; five other Republicans abstained.
"The bill would essentially scrap the H-2A visa and replace it with an H-2C program that would allow agricultural employers - such as meat processors, dairy farmers and loggers - with year-round work to apply," writes POLITICO's Sabrina Rodriguez. "The bill eliminates requirements that employers provide workers with transportation and housing, and it exempts workers from Fair Labor Standards Act compliance." Next stop is the House floor, where it faces steep odds. A similar measure passed out of committee in 2013 but was never taken up.
A more practical option for businesses could be the existing H-2A visa, which is available for temporary, seasonal agricultural work. Growers have increased their dependence on the visas in recent years: Labor Department H-2A certifications grew 63 percent in fiscal years 2013-2016. And H-2A visas may soon become available to a broader range of businesses. In September, the House passed a spending package, H.R. 3354 (115) , that included a rider to make the program available to year-round agriculture businesses (the same meat processors, dairy farmers and loggers mentioned above). The Senate hasn't marked up its bill yet.
The prospect of easier access to H-2A guestworkers worries Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "The H-2A program could radically change in purpose and size without ever being debated in either the House or Senate Judiciary Committees, which are responsible for crafting immigration legislation," he wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. Read more from POLITICO's Rodriguez here and Costa here.
Rep. Goodlatte has announced he will introduce the “Agricultural Guestworker Act” in the Judiciary Committee for markup Tuesday, October 24. This bill creates a modern day Bracero program and would undermine the wages and working conditions of all agricultural workers. This bill comes at the same time that other members of Congress are trying to use the appropriations process to expand the scope of the current H-2A program in a way that will harm both US and immigrant workers.
Help the United Farm Workers and a broad coalition of almost 150 groups oppose this bill. Instead of taking agriculture back to the 1940’s, join us in asking Congress to refocus on the one thing that could stabilize agriculture quickly -- providing farm workers already laboring in the US with a path to lawful permanent residency and eventual citizenship.
The unwise expansion of the H-2A program and the creation of a new guestworker program would result in the displacement of US agricultural workers. Neither would protect the farm workers who do some of the most difficult work in America. Instead they would import guestworkers who have even fewer labor and political rights.
The efforts by Congressman Goodlatte to replace the H-2A program with a new agricultural visa system will create even more unfairness and dysfunction in our already broken immigration system. Even worse, it would deprive US citizens and lawful permanent residents of job opportunities. It does this by weakening the laws that requires US citizens and legal residents to be offered these jobs first. The bill expands access to guestworkers for even more employers, such as those in year-round processing. It would also lower farm workers’ already poor wages and allow exploitative conditions for hundreds of thousands of new guestworkers.
Help the United Farm Workers and a broad coalition of almost 150 groups oppose this bill. Instead of taking agriculture back to the 1940’s, join us in asking Congress to refocus on the one thing that could stabilize agriculture quickly -- providing farm workers already laboring in the US with a path to lawful permanent residency and eventual citizenship.
The unwise expansion of the H-2A program and the creation of a new guestworker program would result in the displacement of US agricultural workers. Neither would protect the farm workers who do some of the most difficult work in America. Instead they would import guestworkers who have even fewer labor and political rights.
The efforts by Congressman Goodlatte to replace the H-2A program with a new agricultural visa system will create even more unfairness and dysfunction in our already broken immigration system. Even worse, it would deprive US citizens and lawful permanent residents of job opportunities. It does this by weakening the laws that requires US citizens and legal residents to be offered these jobs first. The bill expands access to guestworkers for even more employers, such as those in year-round processing. It would also lower farm workers’ already poor wages and allow exploitative conditions for hundreds of thousands of new guestworkers.
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Thursday, October 19, 2017
We Can Learn from Paulo Freire
Paulo Freire was regarded by many on left as one of the most significant educational thinkers of the twentieth century. His most famous book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed applies the ideas of Antonio Gramsci and U.S. philosopher and socialist John Dewey to educational projects of organizers and educators working along with the oppressed in a capitalist society.
In Brazil in the 1960’s, Paulo Freire and his coworkers taught peasants to read in about 30 hours using cultural circles. They developed a theory to explain their action. The theory required praxis, an interaction of consciousness, and social action on the side of the poor (Freire, 1972). Often working along side of efforts of Liberation Theology, Freire, his students and allies formed teams of cultural workers to engage peasants in dialogue to develop literacy and to democratize knowledge, culture, and power in their societies.
The works of Freire and his teams have had a profound effect on literacy, political ,and education practices worldwide. Revolutionary projects in Brazil , Nicaragua, Cuba, Guinea-Bissau, and elsewhere applied and developed his pedagogical ideas .
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Dolores - A Life for Justice
Dolores – A Film Review
by Duane Campbell
There is an important new
film out – Dolores, the story of
former DSA Honorary Chair Dolores Huerta and her fight for justice. If you want to be inspired by her struggle for social justice, go
see the film.
Although at times ignored by the Anglo media, and at other times
castigated as a red and an “outside agitator,” Huerta tirelessly led the fight
for racial and labor justice alongside Cesar Chavez, becoming one of the most
important feminists of the twentieth century. If you don’t know her story, you
should ask yourself why. She continues
the fight on many fronts to this day, at age 87. With unprecedented access to
Dolores, the film reveals important parts of the struggle for dignity and
justice for farmworkers, as well as the raw, personal stakes involved in
committing one’s life to social
change.
Dolores, produced by PBS and Independent Lens, serves labor history well by
accurately describing the often overlooked role of Filipinos who initiated a
strike in Delano in 1965, which the nascent NFWA (National Farm Workers
Association) joined to create the great Grape Strike that changed labor history
in the Southwest.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Thursday, October 05, 2017
California Becomes Sanctuary State
 |
| Senator Leon |
Governor Jerry Brown just signed into law SB 54, the "California Values Act", which built upon the landmark Trust Act to help protect California immigrant residents from deportations.With today’s signing of SB 54 into law, one of the most important parts of that legal wall of protections is now in place. Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions will not be able to use California’s own law enforcement officials in an effort to round up and deport our fellow Californians
Last month, Sessions called California’s sanctuary state bill “unconscionable.” Other
federal officials also have sounded off against SB 54, suggesting illegal
immigration is tied to increases in violent crime.
Throughout his campaign and in his tenure as president, Trump
has tried to make the same connection, showcasing the relatives of people
killed by immigrants in the country illegally. And one of his earliest
executive orders put cities and counties on alert that they would lose federal funding if law
enforcement did not cooperate with immigration agents.
Monday, October 02, 2017
DACA Filing Fee Assistance
We just received the following list from a colleague of non-profits throughout the State that the California Department of Social Services has contracted with to provide FREE DACA APPLICATION ASSISTANCE AND THE $495 USCIS FILING FEE.
You can also find the list here.
Please spread the word educators, community members and students, Oct 5th is around the corner!
What the White House Wants in Exchange for Extending DACA
WASHINGTON
The White House is expected to ask Congress to approve a Republican wish list
of immigration policies as part of a deal to protect hundreds of thousands of
young people brought into the country illegally as children, known as Dreamers,
according to a preliminary document obtained by McClatchy.
Talking
points written by the president’s Domestic Policy Council and given to some
members of the conservative Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill include a dozen
proposals grouped into three broad areas — border security, interior
enforcement and merit-based immigration.
The
proposals run afoul of the tentative agreement Trump discussed with Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi at a Sept. 13
dinner at the White House, according to a Democratic staffer on the Hill who
asked for anonymity to discuss a preliminary proposal.
“In
fact, there is bipartisan opposition to many of them,” the Democratic staffer
said.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article175484806.html#storylink=cpy
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