Help Save the ones who defended the South Central Farm

Help Save the ones who defended the South Central Farm

Help Save the ones who defended the South Central Farm

Save the South Central Farm DEFENDERS

Save the South Central Farm: DEFENDERS

When police raided the South Central Farm to evict the families, a few people stood between the bulldozers and the land.

Now they are facing felony charges...

Drop all charges against the South Central Farm Defenders because:

1. People who protect the right of poor communities to cultivate land, grow healthy food, and develoop green space that improves air quality and contributes to environmental health for everyone in L.A. must be honored NOT PROSECUTED.

2. The farmers acted in good faith with both city officials and the property owner, but L.A.'s politicians chose to defend the rights of a single landlord over the rights and needs of hundreds of families.

3. LA's communities have the right to plan for local programs and land use. When the city, ignores the wishes of its people, then the people also have the right to resist the government and mobilize for justice.

Statements from the Defenders of the South Central Farm, who are being charged with felonies and other crimes for standing up for their community. They are also members of Cop Watch Los Angeles:

Martha Escudero charged with misdemeanor trespassing, resisting arrest and vandalism
On July 5th, I we went into the farm. The security guards at the South Central Farm, began to harass us and beat us with their hands. They grabbed a womans breast purposely and sexually harassed and groped others. Then, Los Angeles Police Department arrived at the scene and watched as the security guards beat us and did not do anything.
I was around on the sides of the bulldozer. I went in there with the intention of doing civil disobedience and standing in front of the bulldozer to stop it. When I was on the side of the bulldozer I witnessed a security guard throw a milk crate into the air that ended up hitting a police officer, which they try to charge one of the other arrestees Yolanda Carlin. The police slammed me on the ground, and I landed on a fence with my face in the dirt. They handcuffed me and left me on the dirt for 15 minutes.
I heard the police officers say racist comments, Officer Reese actually said, The south will rise. Another officer insulted us, my culture, and our political values. They insulted us, and called us names. This was my experience at the farm during the bulldozer incident at the South Central Farm.

Yolanda Carlin is charged with misdemeanor vandalism, trespassing and felony assault on an officer for allegedly throwing a milk crate.
On July 5th, we went into the farm. I wanted to see the campesinas and campesinos (farmers) on the other side of the farm, who had been crying because their farm was being destroyed. They werent allowed to get their sentimental belongings that were still inside the farm and their most sentimental belonging was being bulldozed in front of their eyes. I went in there because I wanted to help the farmers retrieve the belongings that we could have still saved.
The cops allowed the security guards to beat us, harass us, and even grab us with their hands. I was on the left side of the bulldozer, when I saw the security guard coming after me I ran to the other side of the bulldozer, because I had seen the security guards beat, and grope others. Officer Ennis grabbed me by the arm, twisted my arm behind the back, and threw me on the ground. Then they handcuffed me to another arrestee Holly Enriquez, who was handcuffed to Robert Fofreich. Officer Ennis tried to hit me on my face with his baton. Robert blocked the officers hit with his body. He then told Robert, Youre getting on my nerves. Real men show their faces. I thought that this was a sexist and racist comment, because he said this while beating women and people of color. He then pulled back the bandana that was on Roberts face and used it to choke him with it. Then I witnessed Officer Reese pulled Martha Escudero who was by the bulldozer. They tossed her to the floor facing up and then they turned her over and shoved her face in the dirt while twisting her arm to handcuff her. This what I experienced and witnessed on July 5th at the Bulldozer incident at the South Central Farm.

Christian Michael Tzintzun (16 years old) is facing felony vandalism charges.
On July 5th I entered the farm with intentions to do civil disobedience by standing in front of the bulldozer to stop it from continuing to destroy the South Central Farm. The security guards at the South Central Farm were brutalizing and hitting women and men so I got away by jumping on top of the bulldozer. A security guard spotted me so they pulled me off of the bulldozer and slammed my face into concrete.
Then I stood up to get myself off of the ground when Officer Reed kicked me on the knee and I feel to the ground. They slammed their knee into their chest; he continued to slam his knee into me, all over my chest area, my stomach and my throat. He did this more than three times. He then hit me with his baton and shoved it into my upper abdomen area. At this time he tried to continue to try to hit me with his baton, so I rolled away intending to get away from this police beating.
I sat up after I got away from his baton swings. Officer Ennis was witnessing the Officer Reed as he beat me. Officer Ennis then grabbed me by the neck when I sat up and choked me to the ground. He put handcuffs on me and cut my wrist while he was doing this. He pulled me by the handcuffs, hurting my wrists. He tried to stand me up, but I loss balance and fell onto the ground again. He dragged me on the ground for 8 feet, and he handcuffed me next to the other arrestees. During this whole incident my mouth was covered in dirt and I couldnt breathe. They didnt want to give me my water, while they saw that I was coughing and choking until later a legal observer gave me water. That was my recollection from my arrest and experience with police brutality at the South Central Far on July 5th.

We're asking people to show up for court support, the dates will be posted soon.

For more information or to talk to the defendants contact the Youth Justice Coalition at 323 235 4243 and freelanow@yahoo.com
or Cop Watch Los Angeles at (562) 252-850 and copwatchla@riseup.net
www.copwatchla.org
====================================
A video of the incident can be downloaded from:
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/9471569/detail.html?taf=la
(double clicking on the video screen will enlarge the footage)

Forging a New Strategy on Immigrant Rights

Saturday, August 26, 2006
Forging a New Strategy on Immigrant Rights (Report from the Chicago convention)

August 17, 2006

By JOAQUÍN BUSTELO

Hundreds of immigrant activists and supporters met in Chicago August 11-13 in a national strategy convention of the legalization-for-all wing of the movement.

The event was the largest of at least three national gatherings of immigration activists held over the summer, and the one that was directly based on the "Calendar Coalitions," as the Latino-led grass-roots-based left wing of the immigrant rights movement is popularly known because many local groups take their name from the date they were formed or held a significant action.

The main decision of the convention was to found a National Alliance for Immigrant Rights around the central demands of a halt to all deportations and full legalization for all immigrants. A national coordinating council was created with the participation of activists from all over the country.

"The most important thing is that we gave the movement a national structure that will allow us to coordinate our actions," Jorge Mújica, one of the key organizers of the convention told reporters shortly after the meeting concluded.

"We have transformed ourselves into a national movement."

The Alliance also projected a series of nationally-coordinated local actions, the first during the Labor Day holiday weekend, the second on September 30, right before the beginning of the government's new fiscal year and Congress's adjournment for the elections.

These protests will be demanding not just legalization for all, but an immediate moratorium on all deportations and round-ups pending Congressional enactment of a comprehensive immigration reform.

Right now Congress is deadlocked on the issue. The House has passed a punitive, so-called "enforcement"-only act which militarizes the border and brands all undocumented immigrants as "aggravated felons."

Attempts by the Senate to reach a "compromise" with the House have only led to a Senate Bill that incorporates many of the repressive features of the House version and has a convoluted, multi-tiered structure for a temporary semi-legalization that would not cover many millions of undocumented workers already in the country and puts off citizenship for those that do qualify almost two decades.

This attempted "compromise" has been rejected by the Republican House leadership.

The conference voted to oppose both these bills. "Better no law than a bad law," said Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Association and a leader of the movement in Los Angeles.

Instead, the convention agreed to counterpose to bills like those, an immediate a moratorium on raids and deportations pending further Congressional action.

The generalization of the moratorium demand to the national movement as a whole represents an important advance in taking into account the desperation of millions of undocumented who want full legalization for all, but consider even a partial and punitive legalization better than no legalization at all.

Attendance at the convention far exceeded the expectations of the organizers. They had expected 300 participants at the event. In reality more than 400 formally registered, and many more participated without registering. Organizers estimated that, in all, around 700 people took part.

The big majority of those attending were Latinos, with Mexicans the biggest Latino nationality, as they are in the population as a whole. Reflecting the immigrant composition of the majority, the convention was mostly conducted in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English.

For many participants, an important part of the conference was the convening of a women's caucus that demanded full, equal participation by women in all aspects of the movement.

The impetus for the formation of the caucus came from Latina activists in their 20's who objected to the virtually all-male slate of presenters and chairs organized for the first plenary session of the convention.

The convention as a whole unanimously approved motions from the caucus requiring equal female representation in all leading bodies and among spokespeople and national coordinators.

Joaquín Bustelo can be reached at: jbustelo@bellsouth.net

http://counterpunch.org/bustelo08182006.html

“We Are Preparing Our Next Steps”: Words of the Sixth Comission of the EZLN for the Second Indigenous Gathering of the Yucatan Peninsula

“We Are Preparing Our Next Steps”

Words of the Sixth Comission of the EZLN for the Second Indigenous Gathering of the Yucatan Peninsula

By Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
The Other Mexico

August 29, 2006
SECOND PENINSULAR INDIGENOUS REUNION
Candelaria, Campeche, Mexico
August 2006

Compañeras and compañeros:
We thank the Peninsular Indigenous Coordination and the National Indigenous Congress, who have given us a space for this meeting.

We also thank our friends of Candelaria, Campeche, for being the place where our words and thoughts find their place and march onward.

This is our word as the Zapatista indigenous that we are, not only greeting the Mayan roots that unite us to the Indian peoples who dignify the lands and skies of Quintana Roo, Yucatan, and Campeche.

Also with the roots that make us one with all the indigenous of our country.

If at one time in the National Indigenous Congress we found indigenous dignity with different tongues, cultures and ways of life, struggle for our rights, now in the Other Campaign we have found more Indian peoples and other friends who make up those who are below and to the left.

Our cause as Indian peoples is alive and present, thanks to, among other things, our friends from the National Indigenous Congress, especially the Indian peoples of the Central-Pacific region.

With them, we have begun a new step which seeks a new way of doing politics, anti-capitalist and of the left, to raise a national program of struggle and a new constitution, and which we call the Other Campaign.

In this movement we are learning to call compañero and compañera the working man and woman, the farmer, student, teacher, the adult woman, teenage woman and girl, the elder, the little boy, the housekeeper, the artist, the intellectual, the devout religious person, the one who is different because of her sexual preference, the teenager, many people who are stripped, exploited, unappreciated, and repressed by a system that has made money its law and fakery its doctrine.

As different as we are, we have found equal ground when we searched for and found the party responsible for our pains: the capitalist system.

Our individual struggles haven’t been lost, but they have grown, not just because the anger inspired by them has united with that inspired by others’, but also because they have established who is the enemy and decided to confront it.

Our struggle for freedom, justice, and democracy knows that these are not possible within the system that has imposed itself on our country by blood and fire.

Freedom which has been taken from our friends the prisoners of Atenco, and from the hundreds of political prisoners, disappeared, and persecuted in our country.

Justice which is now denied to the Oaxacan people who, in the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, demand the exit of the bad governor Ulises Ruiz.

Democracy which was converted into fraud and shameless mockery in the past presidential elections, and which is at the point of converting itself into the fall of the electoral process.

Those of us in the Other Campaign search for an other freedom, an other justice, and an other democracy.
We know that towards that end we must destroy the capitalist system and search, together, for an other country.
Along the way, we also have to construct our space as different kinds of people, defending our identity and history.

As the Indian peoples that we are, this construction cannot be set aside nor subordinated.

It has its own pace, its own logic, its own destiny.

That’s how we have seen it within this great movement, wherein some people carry on without recognizing our differences, nor those of other men and women, and they wish to impose their own vision and decision.

That’s why, far from communications media and the “important” projects up there above, within the Other Campaign, we continue to advance as Indian peoples, we get together, we meet, we come to agreements, and we work on constructing an identity, our identity, within the Other Campaign and inside our country.

As well, as Zapatistas, we continue opening the heart and the ear to the thoughts of those who struggle beside us.
Without making a fuss, our ear picks up the word from different lands and realities, but all from below and to the left.
With that cordial thought we are preparing our next steps.

This meeting of Indian peoples, now in the Mayan lands of the peninsula, is part of this process we walk through.

And here is our word.

While above the noise and hurry of the powerful attempt to impose a bad governor once again, enthroning him with lies and disrespect.

While it is stated and repeated that the only thing that counts is the view and voice of the one appointed from up above.

While it is propagated among good and noble hearts that nothing matters if it doesn’t follow a movement that aspires to be up above.

While all around the lie which impedes a critical view and a deeper analysis is bought and consumed.

While it is continually forgotten that our color is the color of the earth, even by those who claim to look for the best in everyone.

While up there above they look at each other, and they don’t listen to one another.
In these times of noise and confusion, the word comes back to finding ourselves among those that are like us.

We women and men Zapatistas of the EZLN know, just as you do, we find tomorrow in the night, in the silence, in the shadows.

We know that the great nurturer of the world, the ceiba tree, the mother, has her roots in what is low, in the depths, in the unseen; and that from there they rise and hold up the world and the heavens which are seen and loved.

And such is our thinking.

The thinking which we are often passes and goes by in our heart before becoming the word and the road that invites destiny for those who are below with us.

And this way of ours exasperates those who are hurried and moved by the noise up above.

If we don’t walk at the speed and in the route of those up above, they say we don’t exist, that we fell, that we died, that it’s over, that we were mistaken, that we missed our chance, that we lost out.

But we, men and women, we know that every time we have always to the rhythm from above, and we have searched for a place for our word among those who are Power or who aspire to it by the road that Power itself sets up, we lose.

We know now that it’s not up above, not in time nor in space, where we will find what we are looking for, what we need, what we deserve.

We learned. Now we know.

It’s with those people who are like us because they are different.

Up there above they offer us a road full of lights, prestige, fame, applause, greetings from those whose work is thought and word.

But that road doesn’t lead to where we want to go.

If it’s going somewhere else, why should we add ourselves to that march, even if it’s a lot of others, on that road that they engineer from up above?

We learned. Now we know.

The place where our march will find liberty, justice, and democracy, doesn’t exist.

We have to create it.

And we have to do it alongside others different from us in their pain and history, but put on our level by that which robs and oppresses us, that which doesn’t value us and exploits.

And in that place must be the earth color that we are with its own way, with our way of doing things.

Friends:

Here, in these Mayan lands, let us remember the ceiba tree mother and the history of thought that is embraced in her body. And we tell the story with the words of he who was our chief and who carried in his blood the dignity of the Mayan indigenous. This is…

The History of Thought

The most ancient of our ancestors, those wise elders of our peoples, said that the greatest gods, the ones who gave birth to the world and set it in motion so that later we would be the ones walking it, left everything unfinished.

And this they did not because they were lazy or because they got caught up in dance.

That was just how they planned it, because complete and finished worlds are the ones those up above impose, those who made money god and human stupidity sacrosanct and every time, like now, by way of the lie government is made.

So, it was a number of things that were left on hold in the first world that those earliest gods, the ones who birthed the road.
It is said, for example, that thought wasn’t born of the gods.

Or rather thought wasn’t born the way we now recognize it, but instead was just a seed that stayed right where it was so that somebody might take it and birth it and give it its form and style and road and destiny.

And since then there have been many thoughts that were born. And not just one or a few, but as many as the colors that painted the world we were on and still are.

And so it is, for example, with the thinking that says only one man or one woman matters, that the collective isn’t worth anything, doesn’t count, that individual well-being is what we should seek out, even at the cost of ending up with collective evil.

And this is the thought that’s right now in charge and is our government and truth imposed on our Indian lands.

And this is the thought that seeks to exterminate us as we are and try to convert our history, our culture, our land, our dignity to commodities.

But that thought wears many disguises which hide its true nature.

And sometimes it wears the costume of freedom, and it lies.

And sometimes it wears the suit of justice, and it lies.

And sometimes it wears the cloak of democracy, and it lies.

“Equality” demonstrates that he who is up above is there by getting rich off our pain.

And the freedom he promises is one that seeks to do business using our blood as trade.

And the justice he defends is one that leaves him unaccountable and goes after the one from below who won’t let himself be subjugated.

And the democracy he proclaims is one of resignation before the various faces of the same Power that robs us, exploits us, does not value us and persecutes us.

But there was and still there is another way of thinking.

The thinking that knows that the one who lives up above off our blood and the one who lives below making the world go round with his labor are not equal.

The thought that knows the history of struggle that pains that place below.

The thought that seeks to build an other something, an other world.

The thought that does not conform to what the eyes see and the ears hear, but instead begins to look and listen to what appears not nor makes a sound.

The thought that gives strength to our compañeros and compañeras from Atenco who are in prison, and with which they resist injustice and forgetting.

The thought that our friends in Oaxaca hold high, who struggle to free themselves of the bad government that oppresses them.

The thought that makes its path in those people who have adopted a new way of doing politics which neither looks toward nor aspires to nor sighs for the one up above who denies our worth.

The thought that as Indian peoples and as Zapatistas of the EZLN we struggle.

Friends:

The Mayan legend which tells us that the mother ceiba tree that holds up the world – who digs her roots down to the underworld and over that force lifts and supports the heavens – doesn’t have her eye turned only towards the history of what we were; she also points to what we are now and what we will be that day of tomorrow that lies in the steps that we and others take.

As the Zapatistas that we are, as Indian peoples of Mayan roots, as comrades in struggle, we salute the words and stories spoken and found while we are here.

And here we say:

A tomorrow of freedom, justice, and democracy which we need and deserve will be our color, the color of the earth, or it will not be at all.

Compañeros and compañeros, accept our, the smallest thing in the world that right now is just a thought and a step in shadows, but which is beginning to peek through into the wee hours of a new day, one which will strip the morning of fear and shame.

With the Indian peoples!
Freedom for the prisoners of Atenco!
Justice for the people of Oaxaca!
Democracy for the Mexico from below!

For the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
For the Sixth Commission of the EZLN

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, August 2006

U.S.-MEXICO BORDER RESOURCES

U.S.-MEXICO BORDER RESOURCES

Between 2000 and 2005, over 1,000 migrants died along the border in southern California and southern Arizona. The following links provide more information about conditions on the border and groups that are working to change this situation.

Border Maps - showing where migrant deaths have occurred. Created by Humane Borders - http://www.humaneborders.org/news/news4.html

Coalition for Human Rights/Coalición de Derechos Humanos -
www.derechoshumanosaz.net/

Humane Borders - www.humaneborders.org

Migrant Deaths - a list of migrants who have died crossing the U.S. Mexico border since 2001. Prepared by the Coalition for Human Rights. - www.derechoshumanosaz.net/deaths.php

No More Deaths/No Más Muertes - www.nomoredeaths.org/

Stop Border Deaths Now (PDF 421 KB) - A report by the Border
Working Group -
www.highlandercenter.org/r-stop-border-deaths-now.pdf

We will be adding other U.S.-Mexico Border resources to the "Immigration Issues" page on the Highlander Web site - www.highlandercenter.org/r-immigration.asp. Please check this page regularly for updates.

A REPORT ON THE EMERGENCY NATIONAL BORDER TOUR

from Highlander Research and Education Center www.highlandercenter.org

SPECIAL ISSUE: A REPORT ON THE EMERGENCY NATIONAL BORDER TOUR

by Monica Hernández
Coordinator, Pueblos de Latinoamérica Program
Highlander Center

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"It's elementary that to defend ourselves against our determined and resourceful enemies, our border must be secure."
-- Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA at Laredo Immigration hearing, July 7, 2006.

"Five men stumbled out of the mountain pass so sunstruck they didn't know their own names, couldn't remember where they'd come from, had forgotten how long they'd been lost….They were burned nearly black, their lips huge and cracking, what paltry drool still available to them spuming from their mouths in a salty foam as they walked. Their eyes were cloudy with dust, almost too dry to blink up a tear. Their hair was hard and stiffened by old sweat, standing in crowns from their scalps, old sweat because their bodies were no longer sweating. They were drunk from having their brains baked in the pan, they were seeing God and devils, and they were dizzy from drinking their own urine, the poisons clogging their systems."
-- Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil's Highway

In the hallways of Congress, on the nightly news, during campaign stops across the country, and most recently, at Congressional hearings, the U.S.-Mexico border is a main protagonist of the current immigration debate. Border security is a centerpiece of both House and Senate immigration proposals, as politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, try to outdo each other in order to prove to their constituents that they are serious about national security. In this mid-term election year, the choice is between "enforcement first" -- secure the borders first and they deal with the estimated 12 million unauthorized immigrants -- or "enforcement plus" -- implement greater border enforcement and simultaneously deal with the nation's broken immigration laws that leave millions with no choice but to immigrate without authorization. It is considered political suicide to question the ethics, impact, or even the success (or, rather, failure) of our border policy.

As politicians in non-border states use border enforcement rhetoric to fuel their political futures, immigrant rights advocates in those areas are forced to make concessions by accepting the "enforcement plus" strategy or risk being deemed "irrelevant" political actors. In the current political climate, fixing the broken immigration system -- through legalization, for example -- means trading off the rights -- and in some cases, lives -- of migrants along border communities. This political dynamic has isolated border activists and left them to fend for themselves as they battle increased border militarization and the human rights crisis created by U.S. border policies.

To break this isolation, increase the awareness of immigrant rights activists in the interior about the consequences and realities of border policy, and strengthen ties and solidarity among border and interior groups, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) and the Coalición de Derechos Humanos (Coalition for Human Rights) organized the Emergency National Border Justice and Solidarity Community Tour along the Mexico-Arizona border. I had the opportunity to participate in the tour from June 15 to 18, along with a delegation of 30 other immigrant rights activists from around the country.

The tour begins in Tucson at a weekly vigil for fallen migrants. At an introductory briefing, members of Tohono O'odham Against the Wall describe the impact of increased militarization on their Nation, which spans 75 miles along the border. Roads built by the Border Patrol have destroyed burial sites, and Nation members are harassed, intimidated and even killed.

Border militarization has intensified since the Southern Border Strategy was implemented in 1994. Aware that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would increase migration from Mexico significantly, the Clinton Administration launched Operation Gatekeeper, which sealed off traditional urban entry points in San Diego and funneled migrants into the Sonora-Arizona desert, one of the most extreme areas of the border (Joseph Nevins, Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the "Illegal Alien" and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary; New York: Routledge, 2002; 138).

It is estimated that 52 percent of all migrant crossings are through the Sonora-Arizona desert, and the journey is treacherous and often deadly: 282 migrants were found dead just last fiscal year, and more than 4,000 have died because of the Southern Border Strategy. One-third of the dead are not identified. Border militarization has made human smuggling a lucrative business: at $3000 a person, many drug traffickers have become professional human smugglers.

At the Tucson Federal District Court, we meet with a Magistrate Judge and two Public Defenders, who explain that migrants are criminally prosecuted for unlawful entry and face from 6 months to 20 years, depending on the circumstances. They describe the steady erosion of constitutional rights over the last few years. Then we head down to the court room and witness several migrants being sentenced by a judge (they had already pled guilty).

The Medical Examiner presents a graphic PowerPoint presentation that shows some, but not the worst of the effects of the desert heat on the human body. So many people died last year that their office had to rent a portable refrigeration unit.

At the Southside Presbyterian Church, volunteers from several organizations describe their efforts to find and help people in distress. The Samaritans, a volunteer group of medical professionals, look for migrants left behind in the desert because they are too ill or too slow. Migrants need at least four gallons of water to survive the journey, but coyotes only let them carry two. A nurse who volunteers with The Samaritans describes in full detail the dying process from extreme heat. Cramps, swelling and feeling faint turn into weakness, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, confusion and disorientation. The final stages of heat stroke lead to blisters that are like 2nd and 3rd degree burns (the temperature of the soil can reach 120 degrees or more), hallucinations, seizures, coma and kidney failure.

We continue our journey to the border town of Agua Prieta, Sonora, where we visit Café Justo (Just Coffee) a fair trade cooperative that offers an economic alternative to migration for 30 families of the Salvador Urbina community in Chiapas. Many residents of Salvador Urbina began migrating north when middlemen cut coffee earnings from $1500 to $300 pesos per sack, or 35 cents per pound. The cooperative harvests, roast, packages and delivers the coffee. By cutting out the middlemen, the cooperative has increased their profits 400 percent. As a result, fewer community members are migrating to the United States.

We also meet with organizations such as Agua para la Vida (Water for Life), which has installed 16 water tanks in a 60 mile area. The tanks are placed on the Mexican side of the border, because the Minutemen have punctured water tanks on the U.S. side.

The most emotionally wrenching part of the tour is a full day trip to Altar and Sásabe. Altar, Sonora is a three and a half hour drive from Tucson. A small town of 16,000, it has become the major staging ground for migrant journeying north since 1994. Migrants travel to Altar, which is the bus destination nearest to the migration corridor on the border. Altar's entire economy revolves around the migrants: here people make arrangements to get to the border and cross, buy the things they might need, eat, stay in hotels or boarding houses, and wait in the main plaza until its time to go. In 2000, Altar received approximately 2,200 migrants each day; early this year, the daily number increased to 3,300.

At the plaza in Altar, we form teams and shared Know Your Rights information with migrants. Hamed Khan from the South Asian Network in Los Angeles and I approach two young men who are sitting at an empty table in an outdoor food stand. We share the information about their rights and learn that they are brothers from Chiapas (most of the people in the plaza our delegation talk to are from Chiapas). The older brother has been to the United States before. This time, he is taking along his 15 year old brother. They are matter of fact about the risks and optimistic about their fate. They are concerned about news reports regarding National Guard troops being stationed at the border, but feel they have no choice but to risk the dangerous journey. While we are at the plaza, a group of men squeezes into a battered van. Others continue to wait.

At an emergency shelter, a young single mother brings us to tears as she describes how thieves stole the little money she had when she went to take a shower at the boarding house she was staying at. She has left her three children and sick mother behind in order to earn some money to feed them. "The worst part is that I didn't accomplish anything," she tells us, tearfully.

Outside of Altar there is a bumpy, dirt road (ironically, a toll
road) that leads to Sásabe, on the border. The vans carrying migrants take this road. Our brand new, air-conditioned van navigates this dangerous road back to the United States. The hour and a half trip is so bumpy that I was literally lifted off my seat several times.

Our usually talkative group was silent for most of the
trip. We are all deeply reflective, as we absorbed the image of the desert's heat and dryness, seeing bottle after empty bottle of water along the road, and occasionally abandoned, partially dismantled, even burned vans. And to think that despite the inhuman conditions under which migrants travel down that road -- twelve, maybe fifteen or perhaps more crammed into small, falling-apart vans with no air conditioning -- this is the "comfortable" part of the journey. We can only begin to imagine what it is like trekking for three days in the desert just to earn some income so that your children can eat.

We end our tour by strategizing around how to integrate the intense lessons from this trip into our work back home. We talk about the need for an urgent media strategy, including organizing a border tour for local media in our areas, and about using popular education, including visuals and testimony, plugging into popular culture, such as Internet spaces and cultural work as tools to raise consciousness about the reality at the border. Our dialogue and strategizing will continue at NNIRR's membership meeting at the end of July.

In Operation Gatekeeper, Joseph Nevins argues that the immigration debate is increasingly framed in terms of legality. This framework

reinforces a powerful ideological force or position in American
society. The dominant view of the law sees it as rational,
benign, and necessary, as well as independent of any specific
and/or geographical context as it supposedly rests on immutable
principles. The effect of such a worldview is to put the law
beyond question.... Of course, as a social creation, the law
embodies…particular power relations. (139)

He adds that this framework

advances the equation of the unauthorized immigrant with a
criminal. As such, the 'illegal' becomes subject to a whole host
of practices legitimated by the full weight of the law.... The
designation 'illegal' and the concomitant ideology legitimate
punitive legislation...and, for some, the employment of force and
violence to expel those who are perceived to have no right to be
'in our country.' Furthermore, because the law, for the vast
majority, is seemingly neutral, unproblematic, and apolitical, it
offers both a standard and a means by which to maintain order and
to judge and treat human beings. The designation of the immigrant
as 'illegal' thus serves to stifle debate over border policing
and the rights of unauthorized immigrants. (140-141)

As I write this, the Senate just approved $350 million for "border security" as part of the Department of Homeland Security budget, and Bob Corker, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee, has revived his ads where he appears at the Mexico- Arizona border, alongside a cut barbed-wire fence, boasting about his "get tough" approach to national security---secure the border, no amnesty, immigrants who want to work should go back home and come in legally. Mr. Corker and his colleagues need to spend a few days-not a couple of hours---at the border, talk to the people we talked to, and stop their senseless and dangerous
rhetoric and political games.

Mexico Solidarity Network fall 2006 speaking tours: immigrant rights, border issues, braceros, femicides, women confronting globalization

The Mexico Solidarity Network is proud to facilitate forums for discussion by providing speakers directly affected by Globalization, US trade policies, Immigrant policies, and Femicides. We invite univerisites and community based organizations to contact us regarding your interest in hosting one of the below mentioned tours. Please click on the link to see details regarding specific tours.

FALL 2006 SCHEDULE

1. IMMIGRANT RIGHTS, BORDER ISSUES AND BRACERO HISTORIC LESSONS TOURS
· Oct 1-14: Speaking tour - Immigrant rights, featuring a representative from Mexicanos Sin Fronteras Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina
a.) Oct 8-21: Speaking tour - Border Issues and Immigrant Rights, featuring a representative from Border Action Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana
b.) Oct 22 – Nov 4: Speaking tour - Immigrant Rights, featuring an Ex-Bracero from the Asamblea Nacional de Braceros. Ohio, Michigan


2. FEMICIDES – CIUDAD JUAREZ AND CHIHUAHUA
a.) Sept 24 – Oct 7: Speaking tour – The Femicides of Juarez and Chihuahua, and border issues. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois
b.) Oct 15-28: Speaking tour – The Femicides of Juarez and Chihuahua, and border issues. California


3. WOMEN CONFRONTING GLOBALIZATION – FAIR TRADE
a.) Oct 29 – Nov 11: Speaking tour – Building autonomy in Zapatista communities and the 6th Declaration - California
b.) Nov 5-18: Speaking tour – Building autonomy in Zapatista communities and the 6th Declaration - New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
c.) Nov 26 – Dec 9: Speaking tour – Building autonomy in Zapatista communities and the 6th Declaration - New England
d.) Nov 26 - Dec 9: Speaking tour – Building autonomy in Zapatista communities and the 6th Declaration - Northwestern US

Indigenous updates: Argentina, Bolivia, Peru

ARGENTINA: CHACO INDIGENOUS WIN ACCORD

On Aug. 22, the government of Chaco province in northeastern Argentina signed a broad accord with representatives of the Chaco Indigenous Institute (IdACH) on land and budget issues in an effort to end a nearly three-month-old indigenous protest. Since June 6, some 500 indigenous people from rural areas of the province have been camped out in front of the provincial government building in the provincial capital, Resistencia, to demand land distribution, education and health care for Chaco's indigenous communities, among other demands [see Update #855]. Chaco, Argentina's poorest province, is home to 60,000 indigenous people of the Toba, Mocovi and Wichi ethnic groups.

The accord was signed on behalf of the indigenous communities by IdACH president Orlando Charole, and on behalf of the provincial government by Minister of Government Hugo Matkovich and Minister of Economy Roberto DellOrto. Under its terms, the Chaco government is to provide titles for 140,000 hectares of land currently occupied by indigenous communities, and hand over new agriculturally viable lands. In addition, the government promised to review previous suspicious land sales to private parties, increase next year's budget for the IdACH, continue licensing bilingual teachers and create new posts for bilingual and intercultural teachers. IdACH agreed to keep using the courts to pursue action against Lorenzo Heffner, mayor of Villa Rio Bermejito, for discrimination. A complaint against Heffner has been filed in federal court.

With the signing of the accord, the indigenous protesters agreed to abandon their encampment in Resistencia and return to their communities, though they said they will resume their protests if the government doesn't fulfill its commitments. The accord also brought an end to a hunger strike by nine indigenous protesters who had been camped out on the floor in a windowless provincial government office in Resistencia for over a month. Twelve protesters began the fast on July 21, but three had to drop out over the subsequent weeks because of health problems. A group of indigenous protesters had also set up camp in front of the Chaco government's offices in Buenos Aires the week of Aug. 14, to step up the pressure. [Agencia Informativa Pulsar 8/23/06; Agencia Periodistica del Mercosur 8/23/06; Ambito Financiero (Buenos Aires) 8/23/06; Pagina 12 (Buenos Aires) 8/22/06; Article by Marie Trigona 8/22/06 from upsidedownworld.org]

According to the non-governmental Nelson Mandela Center for Research and Investigation, of 3.9 million hectares of public
land that existed in Chaco in 1995, only 660,000 hectares remain. The indigenous communities, which under the law are supposed to be the main beneficiaries of land distribution, were shut out of the sell-off. [APM 8/23/06]


*4. BOLIVIA: INDIGENOUS SEIZE GAS PIPELINE

During the week of Aug. 14, some 500 indigenous Guarani people began an occupation at the Parapeti station of the Yacuiba-Rio Grande gas pipeline (GASYRG) near Charagua, in the eastern Bolivian department of Santa Cruz, to demand that the Transierra company pay the Guarani people $9 million in exchange for allowing the pipeline to operate on their land. Transierra agreed in a 2005 accord to provide that amount to benefit the Guarani people; the company says the funding was to be distributed over a 20-year period, and it has so far provided $255,887.

Transierra is co-owned by the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, the Spanish-Argentine oil company Repsol and the
French company Total. The protest is organized by the Assembly of the Guarani People (APG). On Aug. 19 the protesters seized a control station at the facility, but so far they are only maintaining a symbolic occupation and have not shut down
production.

On Aug. 21, the APG met with Bolivian government authorities and proposed that Transierra pay $4.5 million by Aug. 25, with the rest of the money due in five years. After five hours of meetings, in which a Bolivian government commission met
separately with the APG and the company, Transierra manager Marcos Beniccio announced he would discuss the APG's demands with the firm's shareholders and the World Bank, which is financing the pipeline.

On Aug. 22, two truckloads of activists arrived to reinforce the occupation, and the APG said it would continue to hold the
Parapeti station until at least Aug. 25, when talks with Transierra and the government of leftist indigenous president Evo
Morales Ayma were set to resume. [Europa Press 8/22/06 via Yahoo Noticias; AP 8/22/06; Reuters 8/22/06; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 8/22/06 from AP; Terra Brasil 8/22/06]


*5. PERU: INDIGENOUS OCCUPY OIL FACILITY

On Aug. 16, members of the Shipiba indigenous community of Canaan de Cashiyacu seized nine oil wells operated by the Maple Gas Corporation in Maquia district, Ucayali province, in the Peruvian Amazon region of Loreto. The Shipiba are protesting the failure of Maple Gas to fulfill accords it signed a year ago, and demanding that the company now leave the area.

Robert Guimaraes of the Inter-Ethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP) said the company's unfulfilled promises include payment for the use of the land and programs to monitor the health of the population. The Shipiba say Maple Gas never obtained authorization of any kind from their community to operate in the area, in violation of Peruvian law and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Maple Gas Corporation general manager Guillermo Ferreyros claims that studies done by the Loreto Regional Health Department showed no signs of environmental or health contamination in Canaan de Cashiyacu. In addition, Ferreyros said the land was valued by the National Appraisal Commission at 58,000 nuevos soles ($17,907), while the Shipiba communities are demanding $20 million. [Adital 8/21/06; Cadena Peruana de Noticias Radio 8/18/06]

But a study by the group EarthRights International, cited in an August 2005 report from the Regional AIDESEP Organization of
Ucayali (ORAU), concluded that Maple Gas "has caused serious environmental, social and cultural contamination" to the Shipiba community of Canaan de Cashiyacu. According to EarthRights International, the local Cachiyacu River "has rainbow colored reflections and a smell of hydrocarbons," indicating "it is not appropriate for human consumption." The company barred the community from planting crops in their own territory, resulting in nutrition problems, and the study also found that Maple Gas employees had treated residents badly and had sexually abused local women, resulting in many cases of sexually transmitted diseases. A high percentage of the population also suffers from pneumonia and diarrhea, and several community members have died while suffering severe abdominal pains. [Report from ORAU 8/1/05 posted on EarthRights International website, www.earthrights.org]

Source: WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS, ISSUE #865, AUGUST 27, 2006

Immigrant Rights Agenda Report pts 1 & 2

Part 1
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/08/immigrant-rights-agenda-report-part-i.html

Part 2
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/08/part-ii-of-ii-immigrant-rights-agenda.html

Close the School of the Americas and Change Oppressive U.S. Foreign Policy

Close the SOA and Change Oppressive U.S. Foreign Policy
Nov. 17-19, 2006 - Converge on Fort Benning, Georgia

People's Movements across the Americas are becoming increasingly more powerful. Military "solutions" to social problems as supported by institutions like the School of the Americas were unable to squash their voices, and the call for justice and accountability is getting louder each day.

Add your voice to the chorus, demand justice for all the people of the Americas and engage in nonviolent direct action to close the SOA and change oppressive U.S. foreign policy.

With former SOA graduates being unmasked in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, Honduras, and Peru for their crimes against humanity, and with the blatant similarities between the interrogation methods and torture methods used at Abu Ghraib and those described in human rights abuse cases in Latin America, the SOA/WHINSEC must be held accountable!

Visit http://www.soaw.org to learn more about the November Vigil, hotel and travel information, the November Organizing Packet, and more.

Apply to serve on the 2007 Student/Farmworkers Alliance Steering Committee

Greetings,

Want to be a part of the leadership of one of the most dynamic youth & student movements in the U.S.?

Apply to serve on the 2007 SFA Steering Committee!

Check out the description of Steering Committee responsibilities at www.sfalliance.org/steering.html. If you still have questions, feel free to contact the SFA staff in Immokalee or any of the members of this year's Steering Committee. Our contact information is listed at www.sfalliance.org/contact.html. If you feel comfortable with the responsibilities and would like to apply, fill out the application below and email it to organize@sfalliance.org no later than Friday, October 6, 2006. The current Steering Committee (www.sfalliance.org/2006steering.html) will announce its selections by Friday, October 27; new terms begin in November.

Thanks for your support!

In solidarity,
Student/Farmworker Alliance


************

Application
www.sfalliance.org/steeringapp.html

Name:
School (if applicable):
Year of graduation:
Organization:
Phone:
Mailing Address:
City:
State:
Zip:

Optional - Do you identify as a person of color, woman, working
class, immigrant, differently-abled, and/or LGBTQ?

Please answer the following questions in three to six sentences.

1. What have you done to further the work of SFA and CIW?

2. What other work have you engaged in that you feel is relevant to SFA?

3. What are your goals for SFA? What is working well now? What should be improved?

4. What kind of organizing projects would you like to undertake as a Steering Committee member?

5. Anti-racism and a systemic analysis of power is central to SFA's work. How would you build upon this commitment as a Steering Committee member?

6. In what ways do you see yourself as accountable as a Steering Committee member and how will you hold yourself to that standard?

7. Are you able to make the time commitment (a minimum of 5-10 hours per month) and fulfill the fundraising commitment ($500 over the one-year term) necessary for serving on the Steering Committee?

8. What motivates your dedication to the work of CIW and SFA?
________________________

Student/Famworker Alliance is a national network of youth and
students organizing in solidarity with farmworkers to eliminate
sweatshop conditions and modern-day slavery in the fields. We work
in partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a
membership-led organization of mostly Latino, Haitian, and Mayan
Indian low-wage immigrant workers in Southwest Florida. Together we
won the Taco Bell Boycott in 2005. Visit http://sfalliance.org
__________
Marc Rodrigues
Student/Farmworker Alliance
(239) 292-3431
http://sfalliance.org
http://ciw-online.org
http://myspace.com/sfalliance

"The Immigrants' Rights Movement is in Good Hands"

http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs08282006.html

August 28, 2006

Talking to Nativo Lopez
"The Immigrants' Rights Movement is in Good Hands"
By RON JACOBS

I was at a conference titled Build the Left, Fight the Right this past June. The speakers and workshops at the conference ranged from the war in Iraq to the immigrant rights movement in the United States. One of the most interesting (and there were many) and hopeful (in terms of a brighter future for the world's majority) was a well-attended presentation by Justin Akers Chacon, co-author of No One Is Illegal, and Nativo V. Lopez, the National President of the Mexican American Political Association, and National Director of the Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana. The conversation after with the audience the two spoke covered topics ranging from immigrant organizing to the Democratic Party and union sellouts and working class solidarity. I recently exchanged a series of emails with Nativo Lopez, who has been touring the United States.

Ron: Nativo. I heard that you were on a national tour. What is its focus? Who do you hope to reach? What has been the response so far?

Nativo: The focus of the tour is to meet with the base organizations and coalitions of immigrants who were responsible for the mega-marches throughout the country, invite them to the National Immigrant Strategy Convention held in Chicago on August 11-13, and make the national links between our organizations to strengthen the movement from the bottom up. A mega-march does not a national social movement make. In other words, for us to sustain a truly national social movement for the rights of immigrants, we must build mass organizations of the immigrants, and strengthen those that already exist, as the backbone of the movement in a politically independent current that draws its strength from the immigrants themselves who know best what they want and what they are willing to fight for.

The response from grassroots organizations and coalitions has been magnificent, and gives one every confidence that the movement is on the right track. There exist grassroots organizations in every community even if only in elementary form because of the newness of the immigrant community in a given locale. Where there is oppression and repression, there exist the seeds of organization with the immigrant workers and families.

I heard you talk in New York during the Socialism 2006 conference. During that talk, you told the audience that the SEIU, UNITE and the leadership of the UFW were selling out the immigrant rights movement. What did you mean by that comment? Why do you think they are siding with the Democrats in favor of legislation that would penalize migrant men and women looking for work in the US?

Nativo: The public, and private, positions taken by leaders of these three unions is well known. All three have agreed to a more onerous form of employer sanctions than currently exist in federal law, and they support a massive contract labor program much beyond the scale ever witnessed in U.S. history. It is hard to discern why they have taken this position even though it is tantamount to support perpetual servitude for the immigrants and undermining wage and other labor standards for all workers. Perhaps it has something to do with their affiliation and participation in the Essential Worker Coalition, which is comprised principally with corporate and agri-business employers who advocate the same positions. Perhaps this is the trade-off they are willing to accept (without having consulted their respective membership, or the immigrant communities) for some form of legalization for some workers. Perhaps it is a strategy to build their unions on the short-term basis by obtaining contracts from these employers who would potentially be the employers of the "guest-workers" in the various industries where they could be employed. This is all supposition, however, because they refuse to explain their positions to our organizations. We are only left to judge by the practical implications of their positions on the legislation. And, we have certainly concluded that it is not in the interest of the immigrant workers, their families, or workers generally.

Are you surprised at the stance taken by these unions? Or is this about par for the course?

Nativo: In fact, I was surprised in that these unions have traditionally been at the forefront in defense of the rights of immigrants, and played a progressive role in shaping the new policies of the AFL-CIO when they were affiliated with the labor federation. I have said that Cesar Chavez, Bert Corona, and Ernesto Galarza, all three iconic figures in Mexican American labor and immigration history, are turning over in their graves by what they are witnessing in relation to the advocacy for a massive contract-labor program. All three individuals played a role in the elimination of the old Bracero Program in 1964.

At the conference you made a clear and concise equation. You essentially stated that if the fruits of immigrant labor wasn't illegal, than neither should the producers of those fruits. Would you mind elaborating on that statement?

producing greater value for the employer. It is no secret why corporations "outsource" and go abroad in search of cheaper labor, land, natural resources, etc. But, only labor of the three factors just mentioned produce value over and above what is required to sustain the worker. Certainly this value is not considered illegal, therefore, neither should the producers of such value be considered illegal. Contrariwise, the term could just as easily be applied to all those workers throughout the world who are employed by U.S. corporations, but then again, that would be just silly. Now, this equation has another dimension to it. If we recognize that all workers produce value irrespective of their immigration status, and immigrant workers produce greater amounts, a fair exchange for their value would be legal permanent residence. It is a known fact that immigrant workers in the U.S. have a higher labor participation rate than native-born workers. This becomes the basis for our demand of legalization for ALL. The immigrant worker is producing more than enough value to warrant permanent residence status in exchange, a fair exchange.

Over the past year or so, the anti-immigrant organization The Minutemen have received a high (and often positive) profile in the corporate US media. Why do you think this is happening?

Nativo: Every right-wing movement requires its shock troops and these are generally found within the lower middle classes, popular sectors, and even amongst workers. The U.S. experience is no different. Certainly it comes in a different form, but this phenomenon is connected to political circles in the U.S. Congress and even sectors of capital that oppose globalization, which does not serve its interest. Capital, in this sense, is divided. Remember the comment I made earlier about the Essential Worker Coalition, which advocates for a massive contract-labor program. This group is representative of a different sector of capital. Again, circles within the corporate media also represent different sectors of capital. The Lou Dobbs and O'Reillys of the media world are given free rein to spill their venom nightly only because they represent a view corresponding to a certain sector of capital. Therein you have complementary remarks by these television hosts about the Minutemen.

As regards the Minutemen and similar organizations, what do you see as the best strategy for negating their essentially racist agenda?

Nativo: The best response to these organizations is to build mass organizations within the immigrant communities, and broad coalitions representative of the majorities labor, church, business, youth, African-American, and across national origin lines, within the peace, environmental, and women movements, and across international borders with international and bi-national organizations and social movements, for fair and progressive immigration reform legislation, policies, and practices. Second, it is important to conduct education within those sectors targeted for recruitment by the hate-mongers as difficult as this may be. And, third, support those individuals and organizations which have the courage to organize counter-protests to those of the Minutemen in order to reduce the social space of operation and message of these racists.

What do you say to people that blame immigrants for the declining wages almost all workers face in the US (and other northern countries)?

Nativo: This is difficult, but we must be honest with people. We should not play word games, for example, not mention amnesty and instead call it a "path to citizenship." We should be willing to explain the role of capital in undermining wage and working standards for all workers in the U.S., and other advanced industrial and technological countries. In many ways, capital has made our explanation easier to make the logical and economic connections of the devastation wrought on community after community. Wal-Mart has made it easier for us to make the argument that big-box is not necessarily better for our communities especially when you consider that the local community is subsidizing this corporation by way of land write-downs, government-sponsored health services, deferred taxes, etc.

One of the defining aspects of Marxist analysis (at least in my mind) has been the fact that workers around the world have more in common with each other than they do with the ruling elites in their own countries. What are your thoughts on this and how do you think this relates to immigration? Also, if this internationalism is key to any movement for immigrant rights, how can that best be organized and expressed?

Nativo: The internationalization of capital (commonly referred to as globalization) breeds its opposite international labor organization, social movements, and solidarity. The information and technology revolutions have made the world smaller, and the sharing of experiences between communities vexed by the same or similar corporate enemies easier and faster. The World Social Forums are a good example of this expression of internationalization of organization, movement, and solidarity. This will only grow stronger. The national movement for immigrants' rights in the U.S. will only become stronger by formalizing connections with other social movements, but especially those from whence the immigrants sojourn. This movement will soon develop a clearer international dimension in terms of what it advocates for itself within the U.S., and what it advocates for its brethren left at home and left to fend for themselves against unfair trade agreements concluded between the elites.

Can you elaborate a little on why the Sensenbrenner Bill and the subsequent "compromises" should all be rejected?

Nativo: These immigration legislative proposals are restrictionist, exclusionary, and criminalizing by their very nature. While the first, Sensenbrenner, is all enforcement, the second, Hagel-Martinez (S.2611) is enforcement, plus the illusion of something beneficial to the vast majority of immigrants currently in the U.S. Both would codify in law provisions to criminalize workers, build a border wall, deploy the national guard on the U.S.-Mexico border, eliminate legal rights to judicial review, require local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities, and create massive detention facilities for prolonged and indefinite incarceration of immigrants. Both would result in the separation and deportation of millions of families, and undermine the legal rights of U.S. citizens. Neither proposal fairly address the current need to legalize the estimated 12 million undocumented in the U.S., or provide for future flows of immigrants. They both represent the tendency towards criminalization and militarization of our immigration issues. This will only lead to social conflict, death on the border, and potential social explosion.

What about the immigrant rights movement? Are there elements that organizers and other interested folks should be aware of? Trends they should combat?

Nativo: I believe that the immigrants' rights movement is in good hands to the degree that we invest faith and confidence in the immigrants themselves. They know what they want. They know what they are willing to fight for. While the movement has a spontaneous element to it as do all movements there has always existed the organizational element. This is the kernel of leadership that exist in all communities some more experienced than others, and some more independent than others. The real test of the movement is whether it will be able to develop a strong enough independent leadership, build mass organization within the immigrant communities, and steer the movement in a direction that accords with the legitimate interest of the immigrants and not those that are extraneous to the immigrant or the movement. Only time will tell.

Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's new collection on music, art and sex, Serpents in the Garden. He can be reached at: rjacobs3625@charter.net

September 7: Immigrants' Rights Day

September 7 Camp Democracy: Immigrants' Rights Day
Washington D.C.

Sponsored by: National Immigrant Solidarity Network
Location: Washington Monument, Between Mall and Constitution Avenue, Between 14 and 15 Streets, Washington D.C.

For More Information: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/CampDemocracy/

Information Hotline: (202)595-8990

Yesterday We Marched
Today We Organized
Tomorrow We'll Achieve Our Dreams and Goals!

On September 7 2006, when Congress return to Washington following summer recess, we are calling for Camp Democracy Immigrant Rights Day near Washington Monument.

Camp Democracy (http://www.CampDemocracy.org 9/5 - 9/21) aims to bring together peace and justice movements to find strength in numbers and cross issue organizing. Those attending the camp will learn about a variety of issues and acquire skills in communications, organizing, nonviolence, and lobbying.

Immigrant Rights Day will be one of the key days for the camp to build multi-ethnic, multi-issue and multi-constituent based immigrant movement, and linking peace movements with anti-war/anti-globalization movements, and mutually supporting each other's causes.

It is critical for the antiwar and immigrants rights movements to coordinate and support each other's struggle -- activists and organizers have a particular responsibility to point out the links between Katrina's impact, immigrant rights, civil liberties, labor rights and the U.S. war in Iraq because right-wing anti-immigrant forces have successfully created a 'common sense' message of links: September 11 = counter-terrorism = anti-immigrants = invade/occupy Iraq/Afghanistan = tax cut = faith-based initiatives.

On May 1st, we showed the world that our force, our strength and our voice cannot be silenced from this moment on! This is the birth of a new civil rights movement for the 21st century, and we will fight for our demands until we prevail.

Border hearing slices through hype

Border hearing slices through hype

Tohono O'odham, others reveal life in a militarized zone

TUCSON, Ariz. - Rep. Raul Grijalva and others heard from indigenous whose communities are located on both sides of the border, along with other border residents describing the realities of death in the desert and the hidden agendas of those profiteering from the sudden attention to the southern border, at a public hearing held Aug. 17.

While testimony focused on human rights at the national border hearing at the Armory Park Community Center downtown, outside members of the Border Guardians burned a Mexican flag. Before the testimony began, one Border Guardians member was arrested for harassing and yelling at those arriving at the hearing.

In response to the ongoing national Republican-sponsored border hearings held at other locations, Grijalva, D-Ariz., said those were ''road shows.'' Grijalva attended the hearing in Tucson hosted by the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos and the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

With the theme ''Communities on the Line: the Impacts of Militarization and Impunity,'' testimony called for fair and just immigration reform.

Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, told Grijalva and others on the listening panel that the Tohono O'odham Nation must be held accountable for migrants who are dying from dehydration on Tohono O'odham tribal lands.

''What is the [Tohono O'odham] Nation doing to prevent migrant deaths on tribal lands?'' said Wilson, who places water in containers on Tohono O'odham tribal lands for migrants as a humanitarian action without the support of the tribal government.

Baboquivari District on the Tohono O'odham Nation is one of the areas with the highest number of migrant deaths due to heat exposure and dehydration in the international border region, according to Humane Borders.

Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias, on the listening panel, reiterated Wilson's comments in his summary and stated the Tohono O'odham must be held accountable for actions regarding the deaths of migrants.

Pascua Yaqui from Arizona, Aurelio Alipa Valencia and Mario Gamboa Leyva, said their U.S. passports appear to be worthless, since border agents harass and threaten Yaqui who hold U.S. passports upon re-entry at the Arizona border.

Recently, Alipa attempted to re-enter the U.S. with his U.S. passport, but a border agent threatened and intimidated him.

''Anyone could have given you that,'' the border agent told Alipa. The agent assumed Alipa was Mexican and told him to get a U.S. visa. Later, when Alipa tried to make a formal complaint against the agent, he was repeatedly told that the U.S. border representative was on vacation and was then referred to another agent, then another.

Gamboa, supporting Alipa's testimony during the hearing, tossed his passport aside and said it must be worthless.

David Garcia, Tohono O'odham, said he came to be present in solidarity with others testifying and pointed out that he had personally invited Tohono O'odham Chairman Vivian Juan-Saunders, who did not attend.

During the public testimony, Halliburton was named by border residents as one of those profiteering from the Bush-fueled attention and media frenzy at the southern border.

The Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root was awarded a contract worth up to $385 million for building temporary immigration detention centers. Halliburton, the subsidiary criticized for overcharging the Pentagon for its work in Iraq and which was previously led by Vice President Dick Cheney, will build the centers for Homeland Security in the event of an unexpected influx of immigrants.

Speaking on structural violence toward migrants at the hearing, Yendi Castillo, Tucson defense attorney, said two of her clients were healthy when they entered prison.

''They died in prison,'' Castillo said.

Pima County Medical Examiner Bruce Parks said in 2001, there were 80 deaths of persons in transit classified as migrants, including 14 in one group. In 2005, the number increased to 197. The primary cause of death was exposure to the heat, followed by undetermined causes (due to rapid decomposition caused by heat) and the third is traffic crashes (primarily resulting from patrol pursuits).

Bianca Encinias of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice described how she grew up in Albuquerque, N.M., where community water sources are contaminated. Encinias also pointed out that New Mexico was the site where the atomic bomb was first tested.

Encinias said American Indians in New Mexico are now suffering from high rates of cancer and other diseases because of widespread uranium mining in Indian communities.

After stating that there is a need to reconnect with the Earth, she said, ''We have a responsibility to ensure the health and safety of our communities.''

The Center for Biological Diversity said a proposed border wall is ''a colossal environmental disaster'' which will not stem illegal immigration. The proposed triple wall of more than 370 miles of the U.S./Mexico border is opposed by many traditional Tohono O'odham who say it will close their traditional route to ceremonies.

The CBD said the militarization of the region, low-flying aircraft, roads and border wall will further stress the fragile ecosystem of the border region, home to the cactus pygmy owl and Sonoran pronghorn in Arizona. It is also home to the flat-tailed horned lizard and peninsular range bighorn sheep in California. The triple wall, the length of the border, would block critical wildlife migration and destroy valuable habitat, according to the center.

Currently the Border Patrol operates in eight federally protected areas in Arizona.

Project South Sketches a New Roadmap for a New Moment

From Dothan to Durham
Project South Sketches a New Roadmap for a New Moment

By William Cordery (Development Director)
& Christi Ketchum (Program Director)

After an 18-month period of evaluation, collective discussion, and organizational planning, we joyously approve and implement our new Strategic Plan for 2006-2008. Informed by both external and organizational struggles, this plan provides us with focus and a renewed purpose. Like you, we at Project South know the political, historical, and social relevance of the US South. As an organization, we plan to rebuild and refocus all of our programs around moving the South forward. Our plan includes working with committed and conscious grassroots organizations throughout the South, specifically in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana Tennessee, and Florida, to build movement-based practices for local/regional campaigns and programs. Our work includes getting our movement-building and leadership development tools and curriculum in the hands of community members and organizers at the front of struggles across the region.

Though not always prioritized in times of urgent crisis, strong leadership development has proven an essential component to responding to the root causes of the crisis in the Gulf Coast. Our mission, regional focus, and organizational politics becamefrighteningly more significant when the levees broke in New Orleans and the floodwaters of deeply-rooted oppression and poverty washed over the entire Gulf Coast and Southeast. Project South knows that if there is anything we can offer to our abandoned regional community, it will be to create the space, tools, strategic planning, and infrastructure needed for the South to reemerge out of poverty, free from criminalization of poor people of color, and at the forefront of building a new movement for social and economic justice in the US.

As a movement-building organization in the Southern region we recognize the massive pain, mistrust, and continual devastation that historically reside in the southern region. It became painfully obvious that special attention and the historical reference of W.E.B. Dubois As the South Goes, So Goes the Nation needed to be readdressed as we saw the destruction and distain for our Brothers and Sisters in the Gulf Coast. We have a responsibility to educate and use the rich and powerful history of struggle and perseverance as key to our work. Our current programs reflect a strategy to work on multiple levels and increase constituent participation in movement-wide efforts.

LOCAL
1. Education Teams: Developing Education Teams concentrating on Prison Industrial Complex and Economic Justice

2. Co-Coordinating a Youth and Adult Alliance with local youth and youth-serving organizations in Metro Atlanta to build relationships, collaborate on projects and create plans to fight against injustices happening to todays youth.

3. Creating Model Approaches and Curriculum for Youth Organizing & Leadership Development, particularly for the Youth Council.

4. Coordinating the Local Host Committee for the US Social Forum with local community-based organizations to plan, mobilize, and organize for the 2007 US Social Forum

REGIONAL
1. Preparing for the Southeast Social Forum & Planning Meeting on June 16-18, 2006 in Durham, NC bringing together community, organizers/organizations, youth, students, and those who want to build towards the US Social Forum in 2007.

2. Conducting the 1st Building A Movement (BAM) Institute for regional organizers to strengthen leadership and education skills

3. Actively supporting Gulf Coast organizations and displaced people in the region.

4. Engaging in a year-long organizational partnership with The Ordinary Peoples Society in Dothan, Alabama

NATIONAL
1. We will conduct/facilitate 4-5 Building A Movement (BAM) Sessions & Retreats nationwide for community-based organizations.

2. Connecting National Membership to participate with research projects, special events, organizing internships, and website development.

INTERNATIONAL
3. Attended the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela to continue the work of building relationships and preparing the Social Forum in 2007.

4. Co-Facilitate several workshops at the United States tent for the US delegation of 400+ Participate in the Grassroots Global Justice network as a part of the Coordinating Committee and build the membership of people-of-color led organizations to connect to global movements.

Our strategic plan and shifts in program work are especially important to Project South as two of our founders will be transitioning out of key leadership of our organization. In the next 3 years Jerome Scott (Executive Director) and Walda Katz-Fishman (Board Chair) will shift their participation with the organization. We have formed a Transition Committee of board and staff to make sure their transition is strategic, thoughtful, and smooth. Founder transition is definitely a work in progress for Project South and other organizations we will keep yall posted on our lessons from this process.

Movement Is Building
One of the lessons Project South learned during our 18-month period of evaluation and planning is that we could not always quantify our work with numbers of whos been touched, how many leaders have been developed, or what campaigns were won because folks work with us. We are able to see how important our hard work has been in shaping grassroots movement in our communities and across the country. Organizations and community groups who use our tools and participate in Project South-led trainings continue to seek us out. They tell us that our popular education and leadership development tools provide clarity and give them focus. They are making connections between local everyday struggles and long-standing global infrastructures of money, power, and greed.

Movement building pulsates through the hearts of communities across the South. Though our organizations remain isolated and fragmented to a certain extent, our community partners tell us that they want to evolve their knowledge of whats wrong into a vision of what we (as a community) want. And we are committed to working with them long-term to develop strategies on how to achieve it. Building power in communities and building movement is a significant part of the Souths rich history. Although it may not always be called movement building, deep connections and analysis is needed now more than ever. Our 20-year history, collective operating structure, and our abundant grassroots and community support allow us to respond to that need, and to continue the fight for social and economic justice through long-term change. Thanks to our membership and your hard work to engage, Project South has been able to create opportunities for oppressed peoples to reflect, evaluate, and plan for fundamental transformation. We are excited to continue the work. We are committed to listening to the needs and concerns of the movement in this new moment. We are moving forward.

WWW.PROJECTSOUTH.ORG

Social Justice Movements Alternative Border Communities Conference

Social Justice Movements organize Alternative Border Communities Conference:

Organizations create alternatives to Border Militarization plans

Press Conference
August 23, 2006 @ 11 AM
Cristo Rey Church 2201 E 2nd Street Austin, Texas

A Bi-National convergence of grassroots organizations and networks representing communities along the border, migrant workers and families will announce the goals and visions of the II Alternative Border Communities Conference sponsored by the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice. This people’s conference is a counter to the US-Mexico Border Governors Conference hosted simultaneously in Austin whose governance has resulted in more deaths along the border, division of families, loss of jobs, loss of public services and further militarization and impoverishment of the US-Mexico border region.

“Migrant workers and communities provide a very important asset to the U.S. and global economy. We are not going to let the governors support racist laws that discriminate against migrant families or allow the military to continue low-intensity warfare against border communities.” stated Richard Moore, Executive Director of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice.

Problems on the border do not derive from lax law enforcement or insufficient military might, but rather is rooted in economic problems associated with free trade, corporate welfare and unsustainable wages. It is illogical to attempt to address a problem that is of an economic nature with repressive enforcement measures. Migration and poverty is linked directly to Free Trade Agreements such as NAFTA and CAFTA. These trade agreements create a ‘race-to-the-bottom’ scenario that drives displacement of families, workers and farmers on both sides of the border. It is these trade agreements that have to be changed to fair-trade agreements that create jobs and a living wage for all workers.

“Our families have been living along the border region for hundreds of years. The migrants crossing the border are in search of a better future for their family. Human rights are systematically violated for the benefit of a few multi-million dollar corporations,” stated Susana Almanza, Founder of PODER Austin, TX.

The just solution is to legalize all workers in the United States, allow them full right to jobs and to unionize, end the militarization of the border, reverse failed free trade policies and stop the campaign of fear against border communities. We demand immigration and trade policies based on equity between poor and rich countries. We demand legal and human rights for all families. We demand comprehensive border governance based on solving the economic problems of the poor and ensuring justice for workers rather than encouraging repressive and racist policy and practices.

Contact: Che , Southwest Workers Union, (210) 299-2666/ 378-5132-
Susana Almanza, PODER 512 472-9921

Parenting for Youth Liberation

RADICAL PARENTING: Parenting for Youth Liberation, an interview with Cynthia Peters by Tim Allen

http://www.zmag.org/petersint.htm

How can parents behave in a non-oppressive way?

There is no getting around -- nor should there be -- the fact that parents have a lot of power over children. We exercise the greatest power of all, which is deciding to bring children into the world, or, as in the case of adoption, deciding to bring children into our families. Once I bring a child into my family, I continue to exercise a lot of power over her. I decide where she will live, what her name will be, who she will live with, whether she will have siblings, which community subcultures she will experience, what language she will speak, what she will eat, how often she gets a bath, and how much she will be held.

Not all of this power emanates directly from me. I am influenced by other institutions in society. My salary will help determine where I live, and therefore what community I raise my kid in, for example. How I was raised will affect how I raise my own child. My access to privilege or my sense of what my child can expect from the world will affect what I communicate to her about what she should expect. Etc.

So, as a parent, I experience many social and economic and cultural pressures which significantly affect the options I can make available to my child, her opportunities, and values. Making these institutions less oppressive is probably the single most important thing we could do to influence parents to be less oppressive towards their children.
For example, removing the stress of poverty and of living in a culture that emphasizes marketplace values would liberate parents and children to create families outside the confines of financial concerns. When my daughter breaks her arm, my first thought should be concern for her well-being, not dread at how much it will cost and anxiety about how to get time off from work in order to fit in all the Dr.'s appointments. It would be nice for parents and children if we could significantly reduce the amount of time we spend negotiating the pressure to buy Disney products, conform to Disney values, and consume various forms of instant gratification. Parents would be less oppressive with children if they did not have to pass on oppressive behaviors that come with living in violent neighborhoods, near toxic landfills, and in poorly designed cities and suburbs that create overcrowding and/or isolation rather than community.
Reducing sexism would steer the family away from the being the site where gender roles are reproduced -- and instead a place where people experience attachment, comfort, nurturing, and mentoring in non-gender-specific ways. Reducing the myriad ways parents are oppressed by racism, sexism, classism, etc. would make it possible for adults to be challenged, supported, and nurtured to their full human capacity in their workplaces, communities, and organizations -- a scenario which would eliminate or greatly reduce the need to return to "hearth and home" for rejuvenation and the chance to recover a few shreds of humanity. When the private sphere is the only place that people operate according to values like sharing, caring, nurturing, and non-remunerated giving -- then there's a disastrous amount of stress on that one site.


Let's assume we are working to change oppressive institutions and thus improve parents' prospects at behaving non-oppressively. Meanwhile, we want to create families, and we want to behave well as parents. How can we do that?

Most important, I think is to acknowledge and take responsibility for the power we exercise. We can't avoid it, but we can be judicious in how we employ it, and we can use it in such a way that empowers our children as they grow.

Parents can try to structure families so that the kids are not completely and utterly dependent on them for all their emotional needs. Familial relationships determine so much about how we think we're supposed to relate to other humans. Giving our children the opportunity to experience some variety opens doors for them and empowers them at least a little to explore ways of relating that they don't see modeled in their own families.

Parents can do what they have to do to not hurt their children -- emotionally or physically.
Parents can be careful NOT to treat our kids as appendages, expressions of our own desires and unfulfilled wishes, or as little human strategies for working out our own childhood issues. On the other hand, they have to know what we expect of them. We have to offer clear guidelines, norms for behaving, and expectations around how we interact in the world, so that we raise children we like and can live comfortably and productively with, and so that we enjoy somewhat functional families.

We can prioritize developing relationships with our kids based in mutual respect, not fear. Our authority should be rooted in honestly trying to do what's best for the child. When you say to your kid, "Sure, you can play outside, but please don't cross the street," you're not arbitrarily throwing your weight around. You're looking out for your kid's best interest according to your best judgement of how safe your kid would or wouldn't be crossing the street. Ideally, your kid understands this and basically takes it for granted since you have a long track record of taking good care of him, and he, astutely, has noticed. Thus, the child can get down to the serious work of playing in the yard. If on the other hand, your track record is one of inconsistent use of power, arbitrariness, and mixed signals about how much you care, then your kid is unlikely to pay any attention to even your sensible rules because he, again astutely, has noticed that you care more about being in control, than you care about him.

Parents can listen to their kids. I don't mean we should spend 20 minutes negotiating a candy purchase, or respond to whining about having to help with the laundry. Every family should set up shared norms about candy purchases and laundry duties, and parents should help make sure the norms are basically kept or revised as necessary in whatever way the family finds it can best meet its needs. These aren't serious things after all. Whether the laundry is done once or twice a week has no great repercussions in the world. Negotiating about candy with a child is not empowering for a child. The most it yields is candy. More serious is being present for our kids as they explore the world and digest what they see around them. We need to listen, not instruct. And show rather than tell. We are behaving non-oppressively when we support them to understand, absorb information, analyze, think hard, pursue their curiosity, test their conclusions, be wrong, be right, be confused, be empowered, and show agency in the world. We are behaving non-oppressively towards our children when we role-model for them what it means to interface with the world in a resposnible way -- when we do the serious work of being adults -- attempting to affect our world, make it more just, more livable.
We would probably be less oppressive towards our kids if we were more mindful of our own problems and tensions that we bring to our role as parents. Being self-aware helps us know when we should put ourselves in a padded room to blow off steam and/or when we should look for help because some weakness makes it hard for us to do what we think is right in terms of our childrearing. Mindfulness can be painful because maybe we'd just rather not explore the places we fall short, but as parents, the consequences of our shortcomings are felt by other human beings -- small human beings who have no ability to exchange us for a set of parents with fewer flaws -- so it is extra incumbent upon us to acknowledge and deal with them.

I know you homeschool your children instead of sending them to public school. Why do you do this? And how do you think homeschooling compares to public education?
We decided to try homeschooling for personal reasons at first. Our oldest daughter just didn't seem happy in large groups - like classrooms. In kindergarten, she seemed to be fine-tuning her “tuning-out” skills, and that was not something we hoped she would get particularly good at. So, we decided not to send her to first grade.
It was quite a shock to "drop out" of school. I never quite imagined what it would mean to separate ourselves from the institution that so much shapes our days, our weeks, and the look and feel of our years. Little by little, we've gradually replaced school with our own home-grown structures. The kids have important friendships with adults who mentor them in different ways; they know lots of neighbors and community people; they do volunteer jobs for the MSPCA; the oldest is the block captain for city's recycling program. They come to meetings with me, and go to work with their dad. Every Tuesday, they spend the day working on an organic farm. They spend a lot of time playing. Occasionally, they delve into math and phonics workbooks; they keep journals and read. But most of what the "know," they've picked up through experience. They are what is known as "unschoolers."
In a large institution like a school, kids can’t stray too far from the average range -- in academics or behavior. Rules, norms, remedial programs, disciplinary actions, rewards, expectations and even medications work to pull children as close to the curve as possible. Millions of children are diagnosed with learning disabilities, prescribed ritalin, bribed, punished, or just gently coaxed to stay with the program. If children stray from prescribed norms, how can a class of 30 or a school of hundreds, possibly thousands, function? Furthermore, how will children move from the educational world to the work world if they haven’t learned to tolerate boredom; respond easily (if numbly) to rules, expectations and meaningless hierarchies; squash organic desires and replace them with externally generated ones; consume grades, certificates and other rewards for a job well done; meanwhile accepting the “bitter pill” explanation for all that is dull, boring, and relentlessly draining around us.
Imagine the consequences if kids were empowered to reject monotony, develop internal incentives, question authority, and refine the ability to think deeply and thoroughly, rather than skittishly and superficially, about topics that move them. They might actually question the necessity of boring rote work and bosses. They might rebel against the notion that they have more to offer society than what can be extracted from them in terms of their productivity - whether it’s filling in the proper oval with their number 2 pencil (as a student), or making consumer gadgets (as a worker) and then conuming them (during their meager leisure time).
I’m not saying homeschooling is a political cure-all for everything that ails kids and schools.
Schools can and should work better for more people. Progressives should work to make schools encourage intellectual freedom and critical thinking. We should not just allow, but enthusiastically embrace a diversity in learning styles. We should drop standardized tests, punt rewards and punishments, foster internal discipline rather than external incentives, rethink the meaning of learning disabilities, and better envision exactly what schools are meant to be preparing children for.
Finally, we should consider what we lose when kids are gone all day. Some critics worry that homeschooling shields kids from the real world, but from what I can tell the opposite is true: they are plunged directly into it. As a result, I believe both sides benefit - the kids and the community. Let’s reconceptualize the long school day, the after-school programs, and the extra-curricular activities. Let’s find ways to make children part of the *real* real world. This will have many challenges as it involves such goals as decreasing the work week, eliminating pay discrimination so that being at home with children is not a luxury experienced by the rich, enhancing family supports so that people can make real choices about how to be in families, and addressing gender discrimination which often leaves women responsible for maintaining the family. A tall order, you say? True, but aiming high is not a bad thing to do, and probably a useful practice to model for our children.

Now screening important vids at Salon Chingon !

What is going on in México? Please check out a wealth of important independent videos and media available FREE to view at Salón Chingón !!

http://www.salonchingon.com/


A partial list of availaible titles:

Atenco: Breaking the Siege
A Video Analyzing the Events in San Salvador Atenco During the First Days of May, 2006 (47 minutes)
Produced by Canal 6 de Julio and Promedios


Atenco: Romper el Cerco


Video newsreel: We Are All Atenco
The Other Campaign in New York, Produced by The Other Journalism With The Other Campaign


Video Newsreel: The Windmills of Capitalism
Produced by The Other Journalism With The Other Campaign


Video Newsreel: Prisoners of “Democracy”
Produced by The Other Journalism With The Other Campaign


Audio Work: “What the People Really Feel, What They Live, Does Not Exist to the Government”
Coastal Indigenous Communties in Quintana Roo Anticipate Marcos' Arrival in Quintana Roo
By Karla Lorena Aguilar, The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign


"The Enemy is a System"
Public Opinion in Mérida on the Eve of the Zapatista Visit
By Karla Lorena Aguilar , The Other Journalism With The Other Campaign


"The Sum of These Autonomous Women Will Form Autonomous Territories"
Epilogue to a Documentary on Abortion in Mexico
Produced by Greg Berger
Gringoyo Productions

media misrepresentation of Oaxaca "political unrest" in US

Letter to the Editor, San Francisco Chronicle (unpublished)
To the Editor:

Re "Political Unrest Slows Tourism in Mexico" (Aug. 4): I recently returned to the Bay Area from a two and a half month trip through Mexico doing reporting for KPFA, and I can assure you that what I saw has nothing to do with the images painted in the article. It states, for example, that in Oaxaca "tourists must pass through checkpoints" to enter the main square. Not once was I "checked" or my path blocked. What's more, the Oaxacan teachers' movement has gone far out of its way to include tourists in its efforts -- the plaza features kiosks where college students fluent in English offer free explanations, while others distribute posters and pamphlets in English, French, German, and Italian. The coverage of the Mexico City protests is equally flimsy. It seems the author did not venture very far outside of his hotel, let alone speak with protesters, but rather relied solely on interviews with tourist industry officials. Finally, the arbitrary links to drug trafficking in Acapulco -- which has absolutely nothing to do with the "political unrest" of the headline -- strike me as notably out of place.

Sincerely,
Daniel Nemser

The author is a graduate student in Latin American literature and history at the University of California, Berkeley.

http://pinguinozapatista.blogspot.com/