“This law will make me feel like a Nazi out there. I have a great deal of contempt for it; I’m very emotional about it… This law is – pure and simple – a racist law.”
In the lead-up to the implementation of SB1070, the Arizona law known commonly as “papers please”, it is heartening to see a police officer in AZ speak up against it:
He very clearly states why this law is a huge health/human rights violation:
“So under SB1070 I know that people will not call officers in the case of a real emergency. I could see this type of scenario: a woman is being beaten by her husband or her significant other. And, if I show up, and I develop reasonable suspicion, or LESS, even, that the person that is a perpetrator in this case, is in this country extralegally, i’m going to start heading in the direction of asking the victim of the case, are you here illegally? I will have to arrest both of them — I’ll be required to — and both will be deported. It violates our calling to serve and protect. It violates, under our Constitution, the requirement to serve and protect.”
Thanks to the savvy folks at Cuentame for collecting video testimonials. And check out Alto Arizona for actions in Arizona this week, and solidarity actions you can join in your own towns and states.
This year, the final stops will be pulled, and NAFTA will be the great train derailing everything in sight. On 90.7FM (KPFK) in Los Angeles, I heard a wonderful interview (can’t remember who it was with) but essentially, this is what’s happening — we’re pulling the final stops on any restrictions (tarriffs, etc) on our huge corporate agribusiness companies’ exports of corn and beans to Mexico, this year.
What does this mean?
In simple terms, we’re putting the rural campesino, the rural farmer who grows and sustains his family on corn or beans, two of Mexico’s staple crops since Aztec and mayan times, IN DIRECT COMPETITION with ConAgra and other huuuuuuuge multimillion dollar multimillion acre American companies.
Mexican rural farmers will be buying our corn and beans from the United States. And they won’t be able to compete because we’re bigger, badder, and yes, our government subsidizes these goods. So not only is the rural campesino pitted against big American corporate business, we’re given the unfair advantage of heavily subsidized (therefore cheaper to the mexican govt than their own farmers’ goods) goods. Yes, yes. And 80% of “illegal immigrants” (for those in america who have the gall to call ANYONE illegal) come from rural parts of Mexico. It’s not so hard to connect the dots.
Oh yes! The show was Connect the Dots — where I heard this interview. NOW it’s all making sense.
I’ve not gone into how NAFTA hurts American farmers, that will be saved for another post. other than the quick mention that more than 1 million US jobs have been lost as a result of NAFTA, wages have stagnated, and outsourcing became the norm because of NAFTA.
But this brings me to this point — who of the leading democratic candidates is passionate about repealing NAFTA’s unfair “free trade” that benefits NEITHER mexicans NOR working Americans (only benefits the corporate elites on either side). Who? ONLY John Edwards. Because he cares about the workers, the middle class.
I’m feeling Obama’s talk and his visions of hope, and yes they’re very moving, but underneath that talk I’m not feeling any commitment to the middle class on issues of “free trade”. Very recently he supported a unilateral USA-Peru Free Trade Agreement. When the US cannot con a whole region into believing the virtues of its free trade, it attempts to create unilateral free trade agreements where other countries can be manipulated a bit more. And this is what happened with Peru. If you look at the details of the US/Peru free trade agreement, it helps NEITHER the middle class in Peru, NOR the middle class in the United States. [of note, and of IMPORTANT note -- Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton didn't even show up for the vote on the US-Peru free trade issue, but they both noted their support for it previous to the vote].
It’s all pretty infuriating. There’s not much making me feel like a vote for Obama or a vote for Clinton would be a vote for the status quo of the democratic party (the party that pushed through NAFTA). Not to say they couldn’t be nudged to the left if one of them wins the dem nomination. But come on, people want change. And change shouldn’t have to be nudged right now.
Yano?
Is it too much to ask to not HAVE to nudge? To not beg and plead?
Some Edwards love, as I’ve been doing, and will continue to do, as long as he’s in the fight:
Does this irk you? It irks me. I saw it at the Women of Color blog (check out the rest of the post here), where Brownfemipower (BFP) breaks it down. Other than portraying native americans as passive wusses, well-intentioned cartoons like this deny the history of native american resistance and as BFP says so well:
They imply that the colonization of indigenous land is parallel to or equivalent to the migration of brown people over falsely created borders.
Helped along by its own words and actions, and a way of dealing with the public that can feel more remote than professional, the force has a poor reputation with minorities that predates the Watts riots of 1965, set off by white officers arresting a black man for drunken driving. In 1982, Daryl Gates, then police chief, set a tone the city has yet to live down when he explained — after a black motorist was rendered unconscious by a police chokehold — that blacks might be more likely to die by chokehold than “normal people.” The mayor, Tom Bradley, was African-American, as were the next two police chiefs. That hardly mattered. The South Central unrest in 1992 that followed the acquittal of officers who beat Rodney King, a black man, was the worst in the nation’s history.
In these days of heated national debate over immigration, the police’s edginess seems heightened when immigrants congregate, and in California, that is frequently. Some 600 officers were assigned to the demonstration in MacArthur Park on May 1. They included dozens of officers equipped with face shields and enough body armor to resemble a small army of Robocops.
Immigrant advocates said the riot unit cast a pall over the crowd, which posed no threat and included undocumented workers who prefer to avoid law enforcement altogether. Before long a group of about 30 people at the fringe of some 25,000 demonstrators threw plastic bottles and cans at the police. The police failed to isolate the troublemakers, instead managing to push them into the larger crowd.
Officers seemed clueless or unconcerned about procedures for crowd control and even about allowing journalists to do their jobs. They ineptly ordered the crowd to disperse, in English, from a helicopter that may have been too far away for anyone on the ground to hear.
Several people were wounded by so-called rubber bullets, batons or general manhandling, including working journalists, some of whom are themselves immigrants. An officer caused a hairline fracture to the wrist of a local news camerawoman. Her camera was flung to the ground, but images from other cameras, including from cellphones, showed the police out of control. One video showed an officer using his baton more than once to strike a boy who appeared no older than 12.
Yes, yes! Tonight! I’ve written about Rupa and the April Fishes previously on this blog. They graced Los Angeles with their presence in March 2007 (part of the Por la Frontera Tour from San Francisco to Tijuana). Here’s a personal quote from Rupa (who’s also a resident physician in internal medicine at UCSF and sees firsthand the struggles of immigrants through their health experiences):
This tour was inspired by several patients i met working at sf general, immigrants who came to health care too late in their disease process for fear of being deported. it struck me as messed up that a policy could alienate someone from their own sense of health so much that they would not seek help when they knew they needed it.
Below and above are two videos I’ve uploaded from the show at Temple Bar, Santa Monica, in March. They’ll make you want to dance all burlesque and stuff. Disclaimer — these videos were taken on an it’s-getting-up-there-in-age digital camera (not a videocamera) and I kept running out of memory so I wasn’t able to capture the whole songs (but nost of them).
Ok, so meet us there! Hotel Cafe, 1623 1/2 North Cahuenga Blvd, Los Angeles. 7pm! We can all hang with the band afterwards, groupie style :>
Want more?
SUPER fun video from their Extraordinary Rendition cd release party at the Independent in SF.
…of a number of posts here regarding the brutality that the LAPD inflicted on people gathering peacefully on May Day (May 1) in Los Angeles. Late by 6 days, yes, but I needed to process… and more recently I’ve become quite incensed by some peoples’ responses, whether apathy or a sense of “they deserved this.” Video does it SO MUCH better, so here is some (if you haven’t already seen this):
For those who are ACTUALLY discussing whether or not these peaceful protestors brought this onto themselves or not, I bring you the few and important words of the U.S. Constitution’s First amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Black people and the diverse peoples of Latin America share a bond of blood and the struggle for freedom. Whether we are children of Bolivar or the children of la negra Hipolita , we are one.
The terror of the Holocaust has been used since World War II to justify the colonial creation of the Israeli settler state. Did the Jews deserve a state as compensation for the crimes committed against them by the Nazis, compounded by the global silence? Absolutely! But the choice of Palestine and the construction of a state on top of a pre-existing social formation reflected the sort of settler mentality found in other settler states, e.g., the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, apartheid South Africa, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.
From the settler framework, history begins and ends with the experiences of the settlers. Even the Irish, oppressed by Britain for hundreds of years in what the Irish aptly describe as “racial oppression” (the proto-type, according to the late US Marxist scholar and activist Theodore Allen, for the system of white supremacist rule imposed on colonial North America), allowed too many of themselves to become foot-soldiers for settler states when they fled the horrors of their own persecution, ignoring the similarity between the oppression that they had suffered and that which they helped to perpetuate…
The work of progressive and Left forces in the USA who are pro-Palestinian must emphasize that the past (and in some cases, present) persecution of one group does not justify displacing an uninvolved third party from their land. The settler’s reality is not the reality, but is only a portion of a total equation. Restricting one’s vantage point to the problems of the settler condemns one to supporting the ‘right’ of the settler to preserve their existence irrespective of the methods and consequences. Not only is this morally bankrupt but it is also politically insane since the final result will be interminable war, and quite possibly, mutual destruction.
Tomorrow night, a beautiful sound is coming to Los Angeles. It’s called Rupa and the April Fishes, and they’re gracing us with their presence at Temple Bar in Santa Monica. I’ve seen the lead singer Rupa perform solo — just her and her guitar — at a coffeehouse in San Francisco last year, and she’s fun, socially conscious and versatile, to say the least.What’s even more interesting to me (and inspiring!), is that Rupa is a 3rd year Primary Care Internal Medicine resident at UCSF — you know, the job where you work 80 hours a week after medical school for a few years? She’s finagled a way to truly pursue both doctoring and performing music — a way that includes splitting up her residency into a few months on, few months off (to perform) and I hear from my friend Nicole (who’s a resident in that same program) that Rupa comes back to the hospital with a renewed sense of energy for her work and compassion for her patients.
Her experience as a physician shaped the evolution of the group’s current tour called “Por la Frontera”. They’re performing from SF to Tijuana and raising awareness and doing benefits for immigration rights issues. As she explained to me in an email:
This tour was inspired by several patients i met working at sf general, immigrants who came to health care too late in their disease process for fear of being deported. it struck me as messed up that a policy could alienate someone from their own sense of health so much that they would not seek help when they knew they needed it.
Come play! 10pm, Temple Bar. When you’re asked at the door who you’re there to see, say Rupa and the April Fishes! (this way they’ll surely come back to the Temple Bar to perform!) Call or email me if you’re planning on going :>
A snippet from a review:
“They sing and play together with such wonderful ease and gusto, it’s as if they’ve been playing together for years. Their multilingual music draws from cross-cultural influences and source material — Indian ragas, tango, French chanson, bossa nova, jazz, not to mention numerous forms of folk music from around the world — which conjures words like slinky, fevered, hypnotic and intoxicating.”–Aquarius Records Review
NEW HAVEN, March 1 — The people have been arriving here for years from Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica and Ecuador, some staying just a few months, but more settling in for years.
The way Mayor John DeStefano saw it, there were basically two choices: City officials could look the other way, as if the change were not happening, or they could embrace the transformation, doing whatever was possible to welcome the newcomers.
For now, this city is marching steadily toward becoming a safe haven for immigrants — whether they are in the country legally or not.
The Police Department has adopted a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding citizenship status. City Hall is sponsoring workshops to help illegal immigrants file federal income taxes. And this summer, New Haven plans to allow illegal immigrants to apply for municipal identification cards, in what immigration advocates describe as the first program of its type in the nation…
At the same time, immigrant groups in New Jersey are working with Hackensack, Paterson and other places to pass resolutions prohibiting the police or other city officials from questioning residents about their immigration status, joining Newark and Trenton in becoming so-called sanctuary cities.
Yay! My New Jersey (and Newark) shout out for the week :> Go sanctuary cities! I like the framing of that term, as opposed to negative terminology that’s been used to describe the same.
From 1992. I was not able to find a link to the article, so I’m claiming “fair use” and posting the entire piece below. Thanks to the BlackBrownUnityCommunity listserv for the article.
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
September 29, 1992 WHAT IS IT WE SHOULD CELEBRATE?
Author: CHARLEY TRUJILLO Edition: Morning Final
Section: Editorial
Page: 7B
THE PRESIDENT of the United States receives reports of 650 strange beings arriving on the coast of his domain. They come in ships never before seen, like floating islands. They speak an incomprehensible language. They are armed with sophisticated weapons; this has been demonstrated by the several thousand people they have killed in Atlantic City, where they landed.
The president postulates that it perhaps could be the second coming of Christ, so he wavers on his military options — a mistake he will regret when he learns the strangers are mortals like himself. Nonetheless, the president does not want the strangers to approach Washington, so he sends gifts of gold bullion and plutonium to try to appease the strangers. This only whets the foreigners’ lust for wealth. Along the way to Washington the strangers, aided by people whom the United States has economic and military control over, kill many thousands of people. Baltimore is particularly devastated by a huge massacre of its denizens.
Eventually, the foreigners reach Washington. They are greatly impressed by the capitol and its monuments. The city is as developed, if not more, than any from their own land. The aliens are arrogant and audacious and quickly take the president captive in the White House. The president is indecisive and orders his commanders and the population not to resist. They torture him to learn where the rest of the wealth is. The president is brave and obstinate and does not divulge that it is in Fort Knox. There are conflicting reports as to how he dies. Some say he was killed by a rock thrown by one of his relatives as he tried to calm the citizens down while he spoke from a balcony. One report is that the usurpers killed him. Yet others are convinced that he died of a broken heart.
After 37 days of being trapped in the White House, the invaders are running out of food and ammunition and decide to escape in the middle of the night. They flee Washington loaded down with all the treasures they can carry. The army and the citizens of Washington attack them. Many of the aliens and their allies are killed as they attempt to escape. They are pursued and harassed back to Atlantic City. Here they regroup. Alien re-enforcements arrive with more deadly weapons and are able to hold off the U.S. military and militia. Millions of citizens, who have no immunity to the new diseases brought by the strangers, become infected. The diseases are more lethal than AIDS or cancer because they kill quicker and are much more contagious and easier to contract.
Several weeks later, the invaders return and lay siege to Washington. The citizens continue to die from diseases, enemy assaults and starvation. After 85 days, Washington capitulates and is sacked. The Library of Congress and the White House are burned down. The Lincoln and Vietnam memorials and other symbolic structures are destroyed and buried. The vice president, who has taken command, surrenders and is tortured along with members of Congress. Their feet are so severely burned that they will never be able to walk again. The vice president is valiant and unflinching. Later he will be hanged in Honduras.
This pattern of destruction follows throughout the country and continent. Two thirds of the U.S. population will perish, 160 million, within 10 years. One hundred years later, 95 percent of the original U.S. population will be decimated. This rapid decline can be attributed to diseases, starvation, murder and working the people to death in mines and other types of hard labor. After the military conquest, the English language and U.S. culture are suppressed. English is not allowed to be used in the schools, media, courts and other institutions. Holidays like Easter, Christmas and George Washington’s birthday are prohibited. Christianity is considered an evil religion, and the U.S. population is forced to adopt the conqueror’s religion.
It all happened to the Aztecs and their civilization when Hernan Cortes and the Spanish arrived in central Mexico in 1519. Leaders like Moctezuma and Cuauhtemoc were tortured and killed. Their capital city, Mexico/Tenochtitlan was sacked. Aztec culture and institutions were attacked and dominated by the Spanish. The demographic catastrophe that occurred, one of the most profound in human history, reduced the 25 million pre-Columbian population of central Mexico by 95 percent within 100 years. The epidemic of 1547 alone killed 2 million people. Other indigenous people of this hemisphere fared no better under the succeeding invasions and domination by the French, Dutch, English and Portuguese. Now, do you think that the 500 years since the arrival of the Europeans should be a time for celebration by the descendents of the original inhabitants of this continent?
Back in NYC, I used to dj with the mutiny crew. One of the founding DJs of the crew was Vivek Bald, who produced and directed the documentary “MUTINY: Asians Storm British Music” that led to the fundraiser MUTINY party that then led to the successful monthly party, MUTINY (ya didn’t know that was the sequence, didya?)
So anyway, fast forward to 2006. Vivek’s partner Kym Ragusa, a documentarymaker and writer herself, wrote this fab book called The Skin Between Us. She’ll be gracing us with her presence at Book Soup in West Hollywood tomorrow night (that’s thursday the 15th of june) and i’m heading over – join me if you’d like. More about the book here and the event here.
…sh** is real. Whoever said the kids don’t care? More than 26,000 students in 52 school districts in the LA USD walked out today to protest the anti-immigration bill HR 4437. This from JC:
Today I was subbing at Jefferson High and the school adminstrators there were much more lax with the students walking out. They let many of them walk out and locked the door on some of them. However, they may be punished upon their return to school tomorrow.
I just watched the channel 2 news and they said 26,000 students walked out and that every middle school and high school in LAUSD is going to be on lockdown tomorrow.
And for the kicker:
I heard from my housemate that all the students from different schools met downtown and some of them actually managed to block the freeway!! I was attempting to drive through downtown this afternoon and saw some people protesting and a lot of cops. I heard that many students are communicating through flyering and through my space.
Did you hear that? Communicating through flyering and through My Space! I love the web 2.o and all its potential for resistance.
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Back in NYC, I used to dj with the 
