Demand that the U.S. oppose the Coup in Bolivia

 Subject: Send a letter: Call on your electeds: denounce the coup in Bolivia! 

I wrote a letter for the Action Network letter campaign: Call on your electeds: denounce the coup in Bolivia! .

On June 26, 2024 military forces entered the Bolivian capital of La Paz in an apparent attempt to depose the democratically-elected government of Sergio Arce, who represents the Movement for Socialism party and its popular, grassroots indigenous base. World leaders have already denounced the coup, including Lula of Brazil, AMLO of Mexico, and even the secretary-general of the US-backed Organization of American States. However, the US State Department and even progressive congresspeople have up to this point remained silent. The right-wing reaction must not be allowed to depose one of Latin America's most popular left-wing governments! Call on your representatives and President Biden to clearly and loudly denounce the coup and restore sovereignty to President Arce and the people of Bolivia. Solidarity with Bolivia! ¡Solidaridad con Bolivia!

Can you join me and write a letter? Click here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/bolivia?source=email&

Thanks!

Violence in Mexico and the Arms Trade :Ayotzinapa

 

The stories of Kimberly Rubio and Cristina Bautista cannot be heard without sharing in their pain - the void that exists from losing their children senselessly to gun violence, combined with the pain and rage of systemic inaction.  In a one-of-its-kind summit, the People's Movement for Peace and Justice (PMPJ) gathered in Washington DC last week as part of the Binational Advocacy Days for Peace & Human Rights, three days of events that included a civil society gathering, a congressional briefing, scores of congressional visits, and a town hall, all featuring survivors of gun violence from the U.S. and Mexico.  “I am the mother of Benjamin Ascencio Bautista, one of the 43 students in Ayotzinapa that were forcibly disappeared,” said Doña Cristina Bautista. “At first, they blamed the cartels, but then it was proven that the local police and other state actors played a role in the disappearance of my son.”   “There were 19 children and two teachers murdered on the same day as my daughter. An 18-year-old walked into her building and began murdering students. It took 77 minutes for 376 officers to confront one teenager armed with an assault weapon. They were scared of the guns. It’s the guns. My purpose is to join the gun violence prevention movement to end gun violence. For Lexi Rubio and all victims of gun violence,” said Kimberly Rubio, whose daughter Lexi was among 19 children killed in the massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.  At this event in DC, the PMPJ introduced the Binational Agenda for Peace and Justice, which includes ten bold proposals to curb illegal gun and drug trade, humanely address the region’s migration flow, protect the environment, and uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples.  Now, We need your help with another important action to help stem the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Mexico! Earlier this year, the U.S. Commerce Department published an “Interim Final Rule” on gun exports under its jurisdiction and invited members of the public to submit comments until July 1st. While the new rule makes several positive changes, it doesn’t curb some of the worst parts of U.S. gun exports, including exports to human rights violators – from Mexico to Israel. Nor does it put an upper limit on the number of weapons exported to any one country. Can you take a moment and send a message to comment on the rule, to reduce the use of U.S.-exported weapons in violence and human rights violations around the world? Last week we were honored to stand-by the survivors of gun violence and to join them in their call to end the flow of weapons to Mexico. Today you have the chance to make your voice heard.

In Solidarity, Marco Castillo Co-Executive Director Global Exchange

Immigration Victory : Legal Status

 

President Biden just announced parole in place, a policy

We are thrilled to announce a major victory in our movement: immigration relief for half a million undocumented people!  President Biden just announced parole in place, a policy that will grant temporary legal status, work permits, and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people who have been living in the United States for at least a decade and who are married to U.S. citizens.  This policy could directly benefit an estimated half a million undocumented immigrants throughout the country. It would also apply to approximately 50,000 noncitizen children whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen. For many parents who have worried about not seeing their children grow up, or spouses who have feared being taken away from their loved ones, parole in place will provide welcome relief. In New York alone, tens of thousands of people could be eligible for this benefit. We are jumping into action with mass outreach, workshops and legal support for our community. As we prepare to serve thousands more to take advantage of this policy, we need your support.  This victory was the direct result of our communities’ years of unrelenting pressure on the Biden Administration, holding them accountable to passing critical immigration reform.  Ultimately, the power of our movement made this possible – thank you to our members, organizers, supporters, and allies for fighting for and alongside immigrant communities.  While this is a major step in the right direction, we need permanent solutions for all and to fight back against the extremist anti-immigrant hate that has become so pervasive. With your support, we will keep fighting to achieve a permanent pathway to citizenship for all immigrants and a welcoming home for all!  ¡Sí se puede! – Theo Oshiro, Co-Executive Director

March on Washington; PPC

 National Poor People’s Campaign.  March on Washington and to the Polls.

Image and link is up on our blog.

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/march-on-washington-and-to-the-polls

 

 

Mass Poor People’s Campaign and Low Wage Workers.

Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly & Moral March on Washington, D.C. & to the Polls, Livestream Party for those unwilling or unable to travel to Washington DC for the event. Refreshments will be provided. Event is free and open to the public. The venue is St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 910 NW 38th St, Lawton OK 73505. The date and time are June 29, 9 AM to 1 PM.

 

https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org

Asylum seekers

For Immediate Release: June 5, 2024\ National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights We need safe pathways for asylum seekers and migrants, not border closures The Biden Administration has largely closed the U.S.-Mexico border to most asylum seekers - an Executive Order that became effective today. The order recalls the Trump Administration’s actions to “close the border,” and is a transparent attempt to gain advantage in the 2024 Presidential race. While President Biden has criticized those Trump-era policies, and those of Texas Governor Abbott, calling them "cruel, dangerous, and inhumane,” he has taken these hostile and extraordinary steps in defiance of U.S. law and international policies and obligations to provide access and protection to those seeking safety.  Instead of closing the border, the Administration needs to recommit and expand access and resources to ensure safe and rights-based pathways for migrants and refugees. Those seeking asylum are often doing so because it is their only option for safety and survival as other pathways are limited or non-existent. The closing of the border will have no impact on the number of those forced to migrate due to wars and violence, political and economic instability, as well as environmental degradation and the consequences of climate change – and often an intersection of all of these factors. In bowing to rightwing pressures and fear-driven narratives, Biden’s border closure will undoubtedly fuel more anti-immigrant scapegoating and vigilantism at the expense of women, men, and children already traumatized and in crisis, and who deserve human rights and lives with dignity. Without opportunities to safely approach a port of entry, and with a low daily threshold on how many people are able to seek asylum before a cap is triggered, people will have no options but to cross through more treacherous terrain that will lead to increased injuries and deaths.    NNIRR

 

The Left Wins in Mexico : Again

 On our blog. 

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/the-left-wins-in-mexico-again

 

Claudia Sheinbaum’s Victory Is a Triumph for Mexico

BY

KURT HACKBARTH

 

Claudia Sheinbaum has won Mexico’s presidential election in a landslide. In her victory speech, she paid homage to the social movements of the past and promised to continue MORENA’s impressive record of social progress.

 

…So far, Claudia Sheinbaum holds a thirty-point lead over her conservative rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, 58.3 percent to 28.7 percent, with third-party candidate Jorge Álvarez Maynez coming in at 10.5 percent. According to projections made by the National Electoral Institute, Sheinbaum’s final total was expected to fall within a range of 58.3–60.7 percent, outperforming all but a pair of final preelection polls.

According to the institute’s conteo rápido, or fast count, the landslide was expected to carry over into Congress as well, with MORENA and its allies winning up to 380 of 500 seats in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, and up to 88 of 128 seats in the Senate. This would put the center-left coalition within range of its ambitious goal of achieving a qualified majority of two-thirds, which would allow it to pass constitutional reforms on its own (together with the state legislatures it controls). And not only did MORENA win the all-important mayorship of Mexico City with candidate Clara Brugada, the MORENA coalition is also set to pick up at least six of the eight governor’s races up for grabs.

To put MORENA’s victory in perspective, Sheinbaum is on course to best Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)’s 2018 landslide victory of 53 percent by some five to seven points. Where AMLO received a historic total of thirty million votes, Sheinbaum will have received some thirty-five million. Similarly, Gálvez was running about ten to twelve points behind the conservative party’s total in that election. In 2018, the conservative parties Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and National Action Party (PAN) ran separately; this year, they ran in coalition. But instead of adding in numbers, the coalition wound up subtracting.

A Refusal to Be Goaded

True to her scientific background, Sheinbaum ran a disciplined, methodical campaign. Taking nothing for granted despite holding a virtually unchanged lead since announcing her candidacy, Sheinbaum racked up the miles, holding three times as many rallies as Gálvez. Where Gálvez veered from one uncosted policy proposal to another, Sheinbaum rolled out a hundred-point program that includes extending social programs and scholarships, continuing annual minimum-wage increases, consolidating Mexico’s push toward national health care, building a million affordable homes on a rent-to-buy plan, constructing seven long-distance train lines, avoiding the maquiladora experience of the 1990’s by mandating that companies investing in the “nearshoring” phenomenon provide higher wages and benefits, and — in what is certain to continue raising the shackles of multinational energy interests — a public sector–led energy transition building on Mexico’s state-owned oil, electricity, and lithium companies.

UC Workers on Strike

Choosing Democracy: UC Workers on Strike: In an Historic Show of Labor Solidarity with Palestine, UAW Local 4811's Stand-up Strike Grows by 12,000. U.C. Workers.  The academic wo...