Indignity on the border- El Paso

From Tijuana: Ex-Dreamer Calls for Immigration Reform

From Tijuana, Ex-Dreamer Calls for Immigration Reform

Posted on 28 August 2012

By Jacqueline Guzmán-Garcia, Translated by Elena Shore
Photo: Nancy Landa at graduation
Nancy Landa was working in the public sector at a California organization that fateful September in 2009, when she was 29. She had graduated with honors in 2004 with a degree in business administration from California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and had a steady job. Everything seemed normal.
All of a sudden, at the Third Street entrance to Highway 710 N toward Long Beach, Landa was stopped by two immigration officials. They got out of a van and, without showing her any official documentation, told her she was under arrest.
“I’m dreaming -- it’s a nightmare,” Landa thought as she climbed in the vehicle with four other people, heading to a detention center in downtown Los Angeles.
“I knew in that moment that what I had built in the United States, my life, was over. It was hard to take in what happened next,” she said.
Obama's Deportation Record
Without knowing it, Landa and her family, who were also deported after this incident, became yet another statistic, four of the more than 1.2 million people who have been deported since 2009, estimated by the Pew Hispanic Center. Under President Barack Obama, more people have been deported each year than under any other president in U.S. history.
In spite of this, on June 15, President Obama announced the establishment of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) plan for young people who, like Landa, were brought to the United States as children. DACA is expected to benefit about 1.4 million young people. However, young people Landa’s age will not qualify, since deferred action is limited to those who were under 31 years old as of June 15, 2012.

From School to the Fields

"WHENEVER I GOT OUT OF SCHOOL, IT WAS STRAIGHT TO THE FIELDS"
The Story of Javier Mondar-Flores Lopez
By David Bacon
New America Media  8/27/12
http://newamericamedia.org/2012/08/the-story-of-javier-mondar-flores-lopez.php

Mexico's Movement for Peace and Justice - Caravan

The CIP Americas Program--along with some 100 partner organizations of migrants, churches, unions, students, NGOs and community members in the cities along the route--is helping to organize caravan events and give voice to the victims of the drug war. We will be accompanying the caravan on part of its long journey through the country and providing daily blogs, articles and interviews as events unfold.
A handful of U.S. companies that produce weapons and defense and intelligence equipment are raking in taxpayer dollars in government contracts for the drug war, while in Mexico more than 70,000 people have died since the war was launched in December 2006.
Today the face of the U.S. government in Mexico is the face of war. This face is reflected in the vast expansion of joint security operations and direct intervention in Mexico´s counter-narcotics planning and operations. Instead of schools and hospitals, our tax dollars support military helicopters and espionage systems.
The relationship between the two nations has degenerated into a seemingly endless war on drugs. The war is commanded from the north, where enforcing prohibition is considered more important than human lives, and fought in the south, where the long arm of enforcement has left 70,000 dead in the past six years.
Despite tragically negative results, the U.S. government has dismissed calls from citizens in both countries to end the war on drugs and the misguided Merida Initiativethat supports it. Instead, we continue on a path that throws U.S. youth behind the bars of lucrative private prisons and feeds defense companies by perpetuating violent conflict in Mexico.
Family members of the thousands murdered, disappeared, attacked and displaced in Mexico’s drug war and their supporters will present a very different, human, face of binational relations. They will meet with families in the United States that have suffered senseless incarceration and violence as a result of criminalizing drugs, rather than supporting communities and individuals to manage the health and social threats posed by consumption and addiction.

Chicago Workers Collaborative

Listen to the podcast.

Chicago Workers Collaborative. – The Right to Have a Job.

Expanding Latino Workers Centers and supporting African American workers.

Episode 18 -- The Chicago Workers Collaborative

Recorded 08.11.2012: Bill Barclay interviews Leone Jose Bicchieri, Executive Director of the Chicago Workers Collaborative, about activism, organizing, and the work of the Chicago Workers Collaborative. MP3 (30.6 MB) or Ogg Vorbis (27.7 MB).

For past episodes, go to:

http://www.chicagodsa.org/audarch6.html
Also see http://www.chicagoworkerscollaborative.org

Educador President Correa on Wikileaks

http://assange.rt.com/correa-episode-six/

U.S. involvement in Ecuador politics. 

Ace Tomato workers deserve a contract - sign the petition

United Farm Workers

Workers at Ace Tomato are tired of waiting. They are tired of dirty bathrooms, the lack of fresh water and decades of low pay. You might ask, why don't they vote for a union? They did—back in 1989! But, more than two decades later they still are waiting for their contract.
The UFW fought for and passed a law in California requiring employers to negotiate in good faith or face mandatory mediation. The way this works is a mediator speaks to both sides and neutrally sifts through both sides' documents and recommendations and at the end submits a report of terms to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) which is essentially a contract. After several months of discussion, the mediator submitted his report to the ALRB on June 28. The company objected, but on July 25 the ALRB ruled against the company and ordered Ace Tomato to implement the final mediator's report as the contract. Instead Ace decided to follow their normal delaying tactics and ignored the Board order. Now the ALRB is saying, while the contract should be in effect, the Board has no basis at this time to seek enforcement.
The UFW is planning on following up through every avenue possible.  But in the meantime we ask you to join us in helping the workers keep up the pressure. The first way you can help is sign a petition workers will deliver to the company on Tuesday.

It’s Hard to Imagine a Worse Choice for People of Color Than Paul Ryan - COLORLINES

It’s Hard to Imagine a Worse Choice for People of Color Than Paul Ryan - COLORLINES

A Great Day for Activism- and for America

by Randy Shaw

Beyond Chron- August 16,2012

http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=10406

For the estimated 1.2 million young undocumented immigrants
who began signing up for President Obama's "Deferred Action
for Childhood Arrivals" legalization program, August 15, 2012
will forever signify the power of grassroots activism. Those
eligible under the program will be able to legally work and
live in the United States but will not gain permanent
legalization status or a path to citizenship. Obama
implemented his "most ambitious immigration initiative" in
response to both growing Latino political power and the
courageous and inspiring grassroots pressure from young DREAM
ACTivists. It is these young people, not the fake,
billionaire-backed Tea Party Republicans, who represent the
true power of grassroots activism to create meaningful change.

When we look at the progressive movements that have made real
gains since President Obama's election in 2008, only two stand
out: marriage equality and immigrant rights. Both have a way
to go, and the lack of comprehensive immigration reform
coupled with increased deportations has left many disappointed
with progress in this area.

But the ability of DREAM ACTivists to win tangible gains for
over one million young immigrants remains an historic
achievement. And they accomplished this almost entirely with
the type of true grassroots activism that many previously
doubted could still make a difference.

Why we will be voting for Obama

 By Bill Fletcher, Jr., Carl Davidson 

The 2012 Elections Have Little To Do With Obama's Record … Which Is Why We Are Voting For Him  August 9, 2012  |  

Let’s cut to the chase. The November 2012 elections will be unlike anything that any of us can remember.  It is not just that this will be a close election.  It is also not just that the direction of Congress hangs in the balance.   Rather, this will be one of the most polarized and critical elections in recent history.  

Unfortunately what too few leftists and progressives have been prepared to accept is that the polarization is to a great extent centered on a revenge-seeking white supremacy; on race and the racial implications of the moves to the right in the US political system. It is also focused on a re-subjugation of women, harsh burdens on youth and the elderly, increased war dangers, and reaction all along the line for labor and the working class. No one on the left with any good sense should remain indifferent or stand idly by in the critical need to defeat Republicans this year.

U.S. Presidential elections are not what progressives want them to be

A large segment  of what we will call the ‘progressive forces’ in US politics approach US elections generally, and Presidential elections in particular, as if: (1) we have more power on the ground than we actually possess, and (2) the elections are about expressing our political outrage at the system. Both get us off on the wrong foot.

The US electoral system is among the most undemocratic on the planet.

On the border of change: A portrait of the workers’ rights movement in El Paso

On the border of change: A portrait of the workers’ rights movement in El Paso

Trampling out the story of Cesar Chavez

Trampling out the story of Cesar Chavez and the UFW.

by Duane E. Campbell

            In California in 2012 the k-12 school population is 48.72 %  Hispanic, the great majority of whom are Mexican Americans, the California Dept. of Education estimates the state drop out rate for Hispanics at 32 % having changed little for over a decade, where farm workers and their families generally have lower wages and fewer work benefits than they did in 1974, where only two Mexican Americans appear in the state approved text books, Frank Bardacke thinks that the important issue for labor historians is to de construct the “Cesar Chavez myth” – really?  

            Frank Bardacke’s Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers. (2011, Verso). is the view of a well- informed observer  who  worked in the lettuce fields near Salinas for six seasons,  then spent  another 25 years  teaching English to  farm workers  in the Watsonville, Cal.  area.

Trampling Out the Vintage, provides several insights not previously developed in well informed books on the UFW  including  important  differences between grape workers and  workers in row crops such as lettuce; the length of time workers were in the UFW,  the more settled family nature of grape workers, the strength of each  type of ranch committees,  the leadership of ranch crews  ( and thus the potential differences in creating democratic accountability), and the differing histories of worker militancy in  different  crops.  The author correctly argues that each of these led to somewhat different organizing environment in building the  union. He also details problems of administrative mismanagement in the hiring halls in the grape areas and alleged  mismanagement of organizing within the union sponsored health care insurance and clinic systems .

The Failure of National Latino/Mexican American Organizations

Rodolfo F. Acuña

With all of the hype around Latinos these days, how could Arizona have happened? I thought we had power. One-third of Arizona is Latino and its neighbor California is the land of milk and honey – the favorite destination of politicos of all colors. Over fifty percent of Los Angeles is Latino; its mayor is Mexican American as is the mayor of San Antonio, Texas.

Arizona’s war on Mexican Americans does not make sense, especially in the light of the growth of the Latino population that now numbers 50 million. This nightmare seems out of place.  Alabama maybe, but Arizona?

It is time that we try to find answers and admit our weaknesses. The most obvious flaw is that Arizona has exposed a weakness in Latino and Mexican American organizational infrastructure.

A partial answer as to why Latinos are so ineffective is that the Latino population is having growing pains. It has grown dramatically in the past fifty years, going from a regional to a national phenomenon. This transformation has out stripped the capacity of traditional organizations such as the League of United Latin American Citizens and the American GI Forum to  deal with this change.   

Presently there are only two organizations that could be called national and they came about in 1968 with the founding of the Southwest Council of La Raza and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.   

Latin America moves left and forward

by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero
Counterpunch

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/18/latin-america-moves-left-and-forward/

The Foro de Sao Paulo (FSP), a forum that brings
together most of the Latin American left, had its 18th
meeting in the Venezuelan city of Caracas on July 4-6.
In attendance were representatives of practically all
of the Foro’s member organizations, including El
Salvador’s FMLN, Nicaragua’s Sandinistas, Guatemala’s
URNG (all three of them former guerrilla groups), the
Cuban Communist Party, Ecuador’s Alianza PAIS,
Uruguay’s Frente Amplio, Bolivia’s Movement Toward
Socialism and the Puerto Rico Socialist Front, as well
as leftist and socialist political parties from
countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican
Republic, Haiti, Barbados and Argentina.

The host country’s left pulled out all stops in
helping to organize the event. Countless youth
volunteers of the ruling party- president Hugo
Chavez’s PSUV- looked after every detail of logistics
and protocol, and the local communist party, the PCV,
was also out in force. There was also a substantial
number of observers and dignitaries from other parts
of the world, including Russia, China, Vietnam,
Saharaui, Lebanon, Palestine, France, Spain and
Greece. VIP’s included Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchú
from Guatemala, and writers Ignacio Ramonet and Atilio
Boron, who sat in places of honor near president
Chavez at the closing activity.

Brazil’s delegation, which included the ruling
Workers’ Party (PT) and the Communist Party (PcdoB,
now celebrating its 90 years), had a commanding
presence in Caracas. The PT was indeed the main
driving force behind the FSP’s founding, and the
meeting’s proceedings were presided over by the
extremely capable Brazilian political strategist
Valter Pomar, who is not only the Foro’s executive
secretary but also a member of the PT’s top
leadership.

Currently one of the world’s leading economies, Brazil
has a gross domestic product dozens of times the size
of any of its neighbors’. The country’s political and
economic shadow looms over all South America. The PT
has won the last three presidential elections- in the
first two of these the winning candidate was former
factory worker and labor organizer Luiz Inacio “Lula”
Da Silva, and the current president is the former
guerrilla and political prisoner Dilma Roussef. It
must be regarded as the most important political
institution of the Latin American left and one of the
single most important political parties in the
hemisphere. Lula fully intended to come to Caracas but
could not do so due to health problems. He did,
however, send a video greeting in which he expressed
support for president Chavez’s reelection bid.

Anglos and Historical Amnesia

by Rodolfo F. Acuña  

       What Americans just don’t get is that most people see history differently than they do.

Truth be told, Mexican Americans are the only ethnic/racial group in the United States who are at this moment being ordered to forget their history. No one has passed a law ordering the English, the Irish, or the Jews to forget their history and culture; it was only demanded of the Germans during the American cultural and political panic after World War I.

I went to Catholic Schools that for all intents and purposes nurtured Irish nationalism. St. Patrick’s was a holiday and we learned the latest score of and prayed for the Fighting Irish football team.

American historical ignorance is a disgrace.  Students have a D.W. Griffith “The Birth of a Nation” vision of slavery and even at the university level most students do not know that the Southwest once belonged to Mexico.

In 1968 I was denied employment in the History Department at San Fernando Valley State because, according to the chair, I could not be objective in teaching Latin American history because my parents were Mexican. He forgot that every U.S. History class was taught by a white American.

“Occupied America” was attacked by academic reviewers at the University of California Santa Barbara because, according to them, I lied when I wrote that the United States invaded Mexico.

The study of history is the search for the truth and you cannot learn the truth unless history is vetted and discussed.

Immigrant Firings

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and STEVEN YACCINO

MILWAUKEE — On May 27, about 150 workers from Palermo’s Pizza factory here, representing three-fourths of its production workers, met to sign a petition saying they wanted to unionize. They say they gave the petition to management two days later.

Around the same time, Palermo’s delivered letters to 89 immigrant workers, asking them to provide documentation verifying that they had the right to work in the United States. Ten days later, almost all of them were fired.

Labor organizers assert that Palermo’s, one of the nation’s largest producers of frozen pizza, was trying to snuff out a unionization drive in its infancy. The company says it was merely responding to warnings it had received from federal immigration authorities to fire unauthorized workers or face hefty fines.

Scores of Palermo’s workers have been on strike since June 1 to protest this immigration crackdown, as well as what they say were poor wages and working conditions. Day after day, the strikers picket outside the factory, often in 90-degree heat, chanting, “No justice, no pizza.” Labor unions across the nation have rallied behind them and called for a boycott of Palermo’s products.

Anaheim: 9 things you should know

Racial Tensions and Questionable Killings by Police in Anaheim: 9 Things You Should Know

Alternet. 

July 26, 2012  |  

The city of Anaheim, California  may be best-known as home to the "happiest place on Earth.”  But on Tuesday, just four miles away from Disneyland, a cloud of tear gas swept over Anaheim. Angry residents smashed business windows, hurled rocks, and started trash-can fires as the police shot bean bag bullets, pepper balls, and tear gas at them.

The majority-Latino town appears to have imploded, as residents demand answers for a police killing they say is proof of racial biases.

Saturday afternoon was the last time twenty-five-year-old Manuel Diaz saw daylight. Residents say Diaz was unarmed and running when police shot him from behind. That afternoon, angry neighbors gathered near the incident in protest. Video shows Anaheim police firing bean bags and pepper spray into a crowd full of families. By Sunday, about 50 demonstrators marched to the Anaheim Police Department's headquarters, but the Anaheim PD had already killed again. This time, the dead was “documented gang member” Joel Acevedo, who allegedly fired at police pursuing his stolen vehicle. Demonstrations continued into Tuesday, when tensions erupted in a near- warzone just miles away from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

The people of Anaheim are demanding justice. What will happen next is uncertain, and anger rages on. Here are nine things you need to know about Anaheim’s past four days, and the building tension erupting in Southern California. 

1)The Shot That Started It All

Residents first were in a uproar about the nature of Diaz’s killing, which appears to be an overt abuse of force. According to witness accounts [3],  police first shot Diaz in the leg, bringing him down to his knees, before firing again at his head.  Mayor Tom Tait called reports that Diaz was shot in the head and leg "unsettling." On Tuesday, Diaz's family filed a civil rights lawsuit for $50 million in damages from the city of Anaheim and the Anaheim police department. They say Diaz was not threatening, but was shot while running away.

In some reports, police claim they approached Diaz for “suspicious” [4] behavior --  hurling something they “believe” to have been heroin onto nearby roofs. Still, drug allegations have not been substantiated, with no recovery of the alleged heroin.

2. Child Victims of Police Brutality

Children were present at Saturday’s demonstration when police unleashed attack dogs and rubber bullets into the crowd. According to this heartbreaking video [5], some of Anaheim’s youth were not spared the police department’s force. Police dogs knocked over a stroller and a bit a young boy. One little girl said, “They’re saying they let the dog go out by accident but it was on purpose.”

Todos a Votar!- Stockton

Grupos Nacionales Latinos y de Derechos Civiles Lanzan la Gira Nacional ¡Todos a Votar! para la Movilización del Voto Latino en California

Los grupos también viajaran a NV, AZ, FL, CO, TX para promover la participación electoral de los votantes Latinos en la elección 2012

STOCKTON, CA – California será el punto de inicio esta semana para la campaña de educación publica para los votantes Latinos, ¡Todos a Votar!, patrocinado por los grupos nacionales Latinos de abogacía, incluyendo el Sindicato de Empleados de Servicio Internacional (SEIU, por sus siglas en inglés). La campaña registrar y movilizara los votantes Latinos al nivel nacional.

Las organizaciones uniendo sus esfuerzos a la gira por todo los Estados Unidos son SEIU, Mi Familia Vota (MFV), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Consejo Nacional de La Raza (NCLR, por sus siglas en ingles), Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), Center for Community Change (CCC), Presente.org, Voto Latino, y el Hispanic Federation. Los grupos trabajarán con los activistas en el campo y en línea para registrar votantes Latinos, informarles sobre los temas en juego en esta elección, y aumentar la participación de votantes Latinos.

La campaña Latina de educación pública iniciara el miércoles, 25 de julio a las 5 pm Pacífico (8 pm Este), con un evento a través de Twitter donde usuarios podrán hacer varias preguntas sobre registración y asuntos de derechos para votar. Lideres y jóvenes Latinos les informarán a los usuarios sobre el voto Latino y contestarán preguntas. El hastag es #voto12.

Brown -Salazar push plan opposed by tribes

Brown, Salazar to announce Delta plan Wednesday

by Dan Bacher

Governor Jerry Brown and federal officials will unveil their plan to build twin “peripheral tunnels” to export more Delta water from the Sacramento River to corporate agribusiness and southern California tomorrow – and Delta advocates will launch their campaign against the tunnels with a rally and news conference at the West Steps of the State Capitol on Wednesday, July 25 at 12:30 p.m.

Governor Jerry Brown will be joined by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Assistant Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the National Marine Fisheries Service Eric Schwaab in Sacramento tomorrow to announce a “proposed path forward for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and California’s water future,” according to a news release from the Governor’s Office.

The announcement will take place July 25, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. at the Natural Resources Agency Building, Room 1131, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. “This event is open to credentialed media only,” the news release states.

Restore the Delta, elected leaders, the Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Planning and Conservation League, Environmental Water Caucus, Delta Counties Farm Bureau Caucus, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Golden Gate Salmon Association, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and other groups will point out the expected damage to water, the environment, fish, farming and water ratepayers presented by the proposal.

Tribal Chief slams Brown's plan to destroy the Delta

http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2012/07/23/caleen-sisk-make-your-voices-heard-against-the-tunnels/

By Dan Bacher

Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, has issued a urgent call to show opposition to the state-federal plan to build a peripheral canal or tunnels at a rally on the West Steps of the State Capitol in Sacramento on Wednesday, July 25 starting at noon.

Governor Jerry Brown is expected on or near July 25 to announce his plans to build two gigantic tunnels to divert Sacramento River south to corporate agribusiness and southern California, killing Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other species and destroying the estuary.

"California Indians and Tribes need to come make your voices be heard on July 25 at the Capitol if you need salmon and/or water,” said Sisk. “The old failed plan in back in the saddle and needs to wear an arrow shirt if the life of the California homelands are to survive this harebrained plan.”

“Please join the efforts of Restore the Delta and many others in opposing this! We need to unite about this misinformation of no scientific common sense! This a drastic mistake!” Sisk urged.