Should Organizations Boycott Texas? SB 4.

To Boycott or not to Boycott Texas that is the Question?

By WCVI President Antonio Gonzalez

Twitter: @agonzalez1217

Texas' SB4 the "show me your papers" bill was signed into law on May 7 by Republican Gov. Abbott. On Sept 1, 2017 SB4 will take effect outlawing local "Sanctuary Cities" policies embraced by places like Dallas and Travis Counties. SB4 obligates local cities to spend local funds to cooperate with certain federal immigration enforcement policies; it also obligates local police to operate de-facto as immigration agents on the streets virtually guaranteeing the likelihood of racial profiling of some part of the 10 million US citizen Latinos who call Texas home.

The fight against SB4 mobilized Latino community and immigrant activists, local governments and the mostly Mexican American democratic caucus of the Texas legislature. But alas Texas' Republican-dominated state government has morphed from a business-friendly bipartisan regime to Tea-Party extremism since 2010, as extremist-Republicans have defeated common-sense legislative Republicans in four conservative primary seasons. Thus, Latinos and their allies had little chance to stop SB4 though they put up a good fight.

The question for Latino and immigrant leaders and organizations now is what to do?  Groups like ACLU and MALDEF have sued to enjoin the law from taking place on Sept 1. But given the givens of anti-immigrant ideologues in control in the White House, Congress, and now the Supreme Court it seems likely that SB4 will prevail, for now.

The Grape Strike That Transformed a Nation: 50 years Later

Steve Magagnini, The Sacramento Bee

Philip Vera Cruz 

On Sept. 8, 1965, Lorraine Agtang, her family and other Filipino grape pickers walked out of their fields to protest a cut in their pay from $1.40 to $1.25 an hour. Twelve days later, labor organizer Cesar Chavez and more than 1,200 Mexican workers joined the strike that led to the first United Farm Workers contracts with growers in 1970.


Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article34268826.html#storylink=cpy

Sacramento State professor emeritus Duane Campbell, who worked for the UFW from 1972 to 1980, said the strike “totally changed labor politics and Latino politics.” Inspired by the events of that September and the impact of the international table grape boycott that followed, thousands of people of different races and ethnicities devoted their lives to activism and nonviolent protest.

“It was a training ground for organizers who spread to hundreds of different fields – a large number of Latino legislators worked with the UFW,” Campbell said. “The strike and boycott awakened Latinos, ‘the sleeping giant of California politics,’ triggering the Chicano movement and the creation of Sacramento State  bilingual education department.”

The Arizona boycott continues

TONATIERRA

Press Release

La Huelga del Pueblo!
Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio

"Hay conciencia: Somos Pueblo Unido - y va ver consecuencias."

September 11, 2011

In violation of the dignity and spirit of solidarity with the most affected members of our collective community, an announcement was recently made by the National Council of La Raza and business interests loyal to the economic elites of the state of Arizona, both Anglo and Hispanic, that the boycott of Arizona would be canceled by their organization and affiliates.

Two points of contention that immediately arise form this public statement:

1) There was no absolutely no process of consultation with the most affected communities who have suffered the harshest impact from the assault of the AZ SB1070 pogrom of persecution.

2) The reasons given by NCLR for calling off the boycott are not valid by any measure of community impact of the original reasons for the call to boycott of Arizona, and that NCLR would claim to take credit for the success of boycott actions is a blatant misrepresentation of the history of La Huelga del Pueblo and the Boycott of Arizona.

Therefore, at the weekly meeting of the Council of Representatives of the Comités de Defensa del Barrio, with instructions to the Boycott Commission of the CDB on Sunday September 11, 2011 the clarification is made to each and all once again:

!LA LUCHA SIGUE !
!Ya Basta!

Message:
To those who would attempt to dismantle the Call to Justice by attempting to co-opt, corrupt and denigrate and divide the movement to achieve Social Justice and Human Rights in Arizona for all, !!El PUEBLO ESTA EN HUELGA!!

The Boycott of Arizona Continues
until AZ SB1070 is repealed.

Contact: Salvador Reza 602 446-9928
Date: September 11, 2011
Phoenix, Aztlan - (Donde vive el espíritu de la verdad)

Boycott of Arizona is not over

Boycott Against Arizona Is Not Over, Say Grassroots Groups

By Valeria Fernández

The decision by the Hispanic advocacy group National Council of La Raza to call off a year-long boycott of Arizona for its passage of one of the nation’s toughest anti-immigrant pieces of legislation is being met with opposition by grassroots organizations determined to keep up the pressure.
“This is a decision they took without consulting all the people affected,” said Salvador Reza, organizer of PUENTE, a pro-immigrant rights movement. “SB 1070 still affects us and it is disrespectful not to consult with the community.”
SB 1070, passed by state lawmakers last year and approved by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, sought to criminalize undocumented immigrants by making it a crime to remain in the state without proper papers. A federal judge blocked that and other key provisions of the bill, however, in response to a legal challenge from the Obama administration.
Activists like Reza argue that despite the injunction, local-police are still enforcing aspects of the law and that the overall effect has been to create a hostile climate towards undocumented immigrants in the state.
Some SB 1070 Opponents Urged Decision

Boycott of MLBA All Stars Game in Arizona

July 4, 2011

BOYCOTT and PROTEST
Of
MLBA All-Stars Game

Phoenix, July 12, 2011

Good greetings to all. We are a community alliance of families, communities, organizations, and individuals that represent the most affected constituencies of the pogrom of persecution known as AZ SB1070, and the Obama Policy of immigration enforcement known as ENDGAME. We are Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio (Committees in Defense of the Barrio). We raise our voices to you as our relatives, as our heroes and as role models to our youth to consider the implications and consequences of your participation in the 2011 MLBA All-Stars Game in Phoenix.

We have made our position clear since the beginnings of our collective campaign in 2009 to address the inhuman, discriminatory, and unjust state and federal policies that officialize state sanctioned racism as result of the AZ SB1070 legislation. We have always stated as a matter of principle that our community sanctions in the form of targeted boycotts of the financial accomplices to the injustice of AZ SB170 would not be removed until AZ SB1070 is completely dismantled and rejected as law and policy in Arizona. From this position we have never waivered and today we reiterate our call to confront the moral crisis of the present reality in Arizona:

Oprah promotes Arizona, progressives boycott Arizona

Oprah Winfrey from time to time makes media exposure contributions to civil rights efforts.  She has also made extensive contributions to the fake “school reform” crowd of Bill Gates, Michele Rhee and others.

Today she had her Best Friends show.  All the members of the audience received a trip to an Arizona spa.

Apparently she does not know that many in the labor and Latino community are boycotting Arizona in protest of the anti immigrant, anti Latino legislation passed there.  That is unfortunate.  Perhaps you should send her an e mail and tell her of her contributions to the anti Latino campaigns.

Solidarity works when we work together.

Boycott Arizona  http://www.boyhttp://www.boycottarizona1070.com/cottarizona1070.com/

Groups that announced travel boycotts of Arizona:

•                                Service Employees International Union

•                                United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

•                                National Council of La Raza

•                                Asian American Justice Center

•                                Center for Community Change

•                                League of United Latin American Citizens

•                                National Puerto Rican Coalition

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

You can leave comments to the Oprah show  here: http://www.oprah.com/index.html

Arizona boycott is working - conferences cancelled

Arizona’s enactment of harsh, anti-immigrant legislation—S.B. 1070—sparked an incendiary national debate over the role of states in making and enforcing immigration policy. Some states and localities rushed to copy Arizona’s draconian approach; others adopted resolutions condemning Arizona’s intolerance. But all states would be wise to consider the practical implications of their decisions before following Arizona any further down the proverbial garden path.

Passage of the Arizona legislation triggered a fierce, national public-opinion backlash against the state and led many national organizations and opinion leaders to call for economic boycotts. Arizona’s business community, especially those in the tourism industry, anticipated and feared this type of response to S.B. 1070. And the convention industry felt the effects of this backlash immediately when major groups and associations started canceling events and conventions in the state. Arizona’s Hotel and Lodging Association publicly reported a combined loss of $15 million in lodging revenue due to meeting cancellations just four months after the bill’s passage.

The Arizona boycott

Arizona: A Critical Resistance Boycott

By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

The first rule of any boycott is to keep your eyes on the prize; translated, this means never lose sight of the big picture.

RUSHING TOWARDS APARTHEID: Arizona is speeding towards an apartheid state. Some of this rush has to do with repressive laws (including the legalization of racial profiling and the elimination of ethnic studies) that have been recently signed by the governor. Truthfully, however, this move pre-exists the recent legislation and much of the repression against the Mexican community here is also historical in nature and it is actually nationwide.

On the surface, it is about migration issues. Yet if we probe a little deeper, it’s about the Browning of Arizona. Probe some more and you will see that much of the hate has little to do with peoples’ legal status. That’s where English-Only and the new anti-ethnic studies law comes in. It is not simply about our physical presence (red-brown), but about our culture – which is thousands of years old and Indigenous to this continent. In this sense, it is beyond physical removal and even beyond thought-control; this is about our souls (they can’t have them).

THE PRINCIPAL TARGETS: Mexicans-Central Americans in this country are the primary targets. Also generally targeted are Indigenous red-brown peoples from the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Tragically, in the end, as state and federal governments defend themselves against racial profiling charges, they will move toward a checkpoint society in which officials will demand documentation of everyone in the country, of all ages and at all times.

How to Win the Arizona Boycott

Created 05/12/2010 - 1:25pm

By Randy Shaw
In the past two weeks, the call for an economic boycott of Arizona has spread far beyond the political arena. In addition to labor and immigrant rights groups, it quickly won support from such unusual suspects as pop singers Shakira and Ricky Martin, the NBA’s “Los Phoenix Suns,” and the Major League Baseball Players Association. Polls show African-Americans are even more hostile than Latinos to the racist Arizona law, and conventions from multiple groups are already being switched out of state.
But boycotts typically start with a flurry of activity. Most then dissipate without building the boycott infrastructure necessary to achieve their original goal. For the Arizona boycott to succeed, activists must follow the lessons of the UFW grape and lettuce boycotts of the 1960’s and 1970’s, the South Africa divestment campaign of the 1970s and 1980’s, and the UNITE HERE “Hotel Rising Boycott” of 2006. And the timing is perfect for a “Boycott Summer,” which would boost immigrant rights activism both in Arizona and nationally.
“Boycott Summer”
The critical distinction between successful and failed boycotts is the creation of a boycott infrastructure. In other words, a campaign operation that continues after the media launch event ends, and that builds the boycott through continually harnessing and recruiting volunteers.
The Center for Community Change, its network of affiliated groups, and its labor allies collectively has the staff capability to build an Arizona boycott infrastructure. And while some might argue that focusing on Arizona is a distraction from comprehensive federal reform, at this point the only way a breakthrough can happen on the latter is by activists showing clout on the state boycott.

La Opinion - Boycott Arizona

La Opinión Calls for National Boycott of Arizona

La Opinión, Editorial, Staff, Posted: Apr 24, 2010 

An editorial in the Los Angeles Spanish-language daily La Opinión calls for a national boycott of Arizona after the governor signed the nation's toughest bill on illegal immigration into law on Friday. The new law makes it a misdemeanor to be undocumented, and requires police to question people about their immigration status if the police officers have "reasonable suspicion" that they are in the country illegally. While lawyers challenge the law's constitutionality in the courts, editors of La Opinión call on U.S. residents to take direct action by boycotting all goods and services from Arizona.

We call on those who believe in the U.S. Constitution to boycott the state of Arizona.

The anti-immigrant bill signed yesterday in Arizona is a violation of our right to be free from police harassment based on the way we look.

SB 1070 requires the police to question people about their immigration status if they suspect they are in the U.S. illegally, without any objective basis for that suspicion. This gives free reign to racial profiling and the discriminatory actions that will ensue for being —or appearing to be— Latino.

The law is a violation of basic civil rights. It also wrongfully asserts that states can set their own immigration policy when that is the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government.

The Arizona law is based on inflammatory depictions of the undocumented —repeated by Governor Jan Brewer when she signed the executive order— to justify such a repressive piece of legislation.

There are two ways to fight this law: one is in the courts and the other is through direct action. As for the first, lawyers will be filing lawsuits challenging the law's constitutionality. The latter, direct action, is a call to boycott the state of Arizona.

We express our outrage in the face of this abuse of power. We call for a boycott of all goods and services from Arizona and pledge to avoid tourism in the state as well. Let's send a signal of our disgust with an arrogant state government that asserts powers it does not have in order to persecute a minority population.