LULAC Supports Immigrant Rights Demonstrations

LULAC STANDS WITH OUR COMMUNITY IN THE EXERCISE OF ITS FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND NONVIOLENT PUBLIC ACTIONS

Nation's Oldest and Largest Latino Civil Rights Organization Prepares Local Leaders on How to Hold Safe, Lawful Rallies in Support of Non-Criminal Immigrants

Washington, DC - The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) stands in solidarity with the tens of thousands of individuals who have taken to the streets across the United States in support of non-criminal immigrants falling victims to mass deportations.

"LULAC is moved by the spontaneous show of solidarity, courage, and unity across our great nation in recent days," says Roman Palomares, LULAC National President and Chairman of the Board. "Throughout our country, people young and old are joining hands, raising their voices, and standing for the millions of undocumented immigrants who are now being threatened with unfair mass deportations,” he added.

LULAC has developed a simple checklist on how to organize safe, effective public actions.

In Los Angeles, thousands of demonstrators gathered near City Hall, eventually moving to a section of the 101 Freeway, one of the nation’s busiest thoroughfares. Similarly, in Dallas, approximately 1,600 protesters convened downtown, carrying signs and flags. San Diego also witnessed significant demonstrations, with groups of protesters displaying homemade signs with pro-immigration messages throughout the city. 

Action to Close the Camps

NATIONAL WEEKEND OF ACTION TO #CLOSETHECAMPS

From the day he took office, Donald Trump escalated a failed and cruel immigration policy into an all-out war against immigrants, banning Muslims, slamming the door on refugees, tearing children from their parents’ arms.

In this context, DSA has endorsed a national weekend of action to #ClosetheCamps on Indigenous People's Day weekend, Oct 11-14. Our national immigrant rights working group has helped to initiate and lead this action, in partnership with other organizations (including the Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps and the indigenous socialist group The Red Nation). At present over  a dozen DSA chapters are organizing actions in major cities and local areas. 

It's not too late for your chapter to participate! The website gives some guidelines, and the working group is happy to help you figure out how to begin building your coalition, choosing a strategic target, and organizing your action. These actions are meant to be a step toward ongoing campaigns for immigrant rights that will build the base for larger national actions to come.

Contact the DSA national immigrant rights working group at dsa.immigration@gmail.com for more information or to get plugged in to the working group.

Nancy Pelosi Press Conference Derailed by Dreamer Protesters in San Fran...

SAN FRANCISCO — Protesters shouted down House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, on Monday morning, denouncing her for negotiating with President Donald Trump as she tried to hold a news conference advocating for the Dream Act.

About 40 young protesters, including undocumented immigrants, surrounded her as she started an event at College Track, an education nonprofit in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood, shouting at the top of their lungs for 30 minutes straight.

The protesters harangued Pelosi for using Dreamers as “bargaining chips” in negotiations with Trump, and for being “complicit” with stepped-up deportations under the eight years of the Obama administration.

“You met with Trump and you call that resistance?” they chanted. “This is what resistance looks like!”

In recent weeks, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have held several meetings with Trump, and last week announced that they were making progress toward a deal that would involve passing the Dream Act — which would protect young undocumented people brought to the U.S. illegally as children — in exchange for some border security measures.

Many of the protesters said they opposed that deal, and others said that they opposed the Dream Act because it didn’t cover enough undocumented immigrants. The bill would essentially replace provisions of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program put in place by Obama.

Pelosi, who looked on uncomfortably from the middle of the protest, tried several times to talk with the demonstrators, telling them, “I totally agree with you.” But she barely got a few words in as they continued their call-and-response chanting

Austerity protests rock Spain

The excellent video that was here has been removed.
You can see it at https://vimeo.com/50542582

I had to remove the video because the sound engaged automatically each time a reader went to a blog post, any blog post.
Editor. 

Thousands march for Education in California

By Duane Campbell

Over  2000  union faculty, students and their supporters rallied at the California State Capitol in Sacramento on March 4,2010,  in support of adequate funding for public education , both k-12 and higher education.  The rally was one of more than 40 events across the state asking people to Stand up for Education.  Faculty and students came from U.C. Davis, Santa Cruz, and Berkeley, as well as CSU Sacramento, Chico, and  community colleges.  Rallies  and protests also occurred on other CSU,U.C.  and community colleges across the state.

George Lakoff,  well known  for his works on framing issues argued for signing petitions for the  California Democracy Act which would reduce the requirement to pass a state budget from the current 2/3 vote to a simple majority.

Lakoff asserted that the  demonstrations will mean little unless the California Democracy Act gets on the ballot by April 12 and passes in the November election. That is the only way that revenue can be raised to fund California's needs, including education. Lakoff criticized leaders of the California Democratic Party for not getting enthusiastically behind the initiative.

The California Democracy Act is simple. It changes just two words in the Constitution: "two-thirds" becomes "a majority" in two places. That's all. The initiative is one sentence long: "All legislative action on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote." It's simple democracy. And because it is a ballot initiative, a simple majority can bring democracy by eliminating the two-thirds vote requirements. The initiative has until April 12 to gather over 600,000 signatures of registered voters.  At present the campaign is far behind the required number of signatures.    Lakoff argued that an on-line campaign which would  ‘go viral” was needed to push the initiative over the required signatures.