Fight Back! - News and Views from the People's Struggle

Hundreds rally in Chicago against SB1070

Fight Back — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:54:44 +0000

Chicago, IL - 300 people rallied at the Cook County Courthouse, at the corner of 26th Street and California Avenue, July 29. They demanded an end to deportations, and said no to SB1070, Arizona’s racist, anti-immigrant law.

Armando Robles, President of United Electrical Workers Local 1110 and a leader in the Republic Windows and Doors occupation, was one of the speakers at the rally.

Milwaukee marches against anti-immigrant SB1070 bill

Fight Back — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:50:51 +0000

Milwaukee, WI - Around 100 people, mostly Chicanos and Mexicanos, marched through downtown here, July 29, to protest racist Arizona’s SB1070 and HB2281 laws. They held banners reading, "We will not comply," and, "We are ALL immigrants."

A ten by twenty-five foot banner with the bold words "No SB1070 in WI" was hung from a parking structure. Students from MEChA de Milwaukee and SDS spoke at the rally. Demonstrators chanted, "No papers, no fear. Immigrants are marching here!" Passersby greeted the demonstrators with thumbs up and honked their horns to express support.

Arizona protests say no to SB1070

Fight Back — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:00:57 +0000

Phoenix, AZ - Over 500 activists and community members gathered here on the morning of July 29 to protest SB1070 on the day the law was going into effect. The law has lost some of its teeth due to pressure from the immigrant rights movement, which resulted in the long overdue federal injunction. On July 28, a judge struck down the part of the law that required all Arizonans to carry their proof of legal status constantly, as well as the part that legalized and mandated racial profiling, declaring these parts unconstitutional. However, most of the law remains intact, including the parts that criminalize day laborers and target families with mixed immigration status.

Chis Newman, an immigrant rights lawyer, rallied the activists July 28, in a meeting just before the protest saying, “This struggle did not begin with SB1070 and it will not end with it. SB1070 is a manifestation of the racist cancer that is affecting our Latino communities.” This means that the struggle for Chicanos and immigrants in this country is far from over.

Protesters rallied in front of the office of Sheriff Arpaio, one of the main figureheads of the racist, anti-immigrant movement. Not only does Arpaio wrench thousands of families apart with his excessive raids and deportations, he also commits human rights violations with his humiliating treatment of undocumented prisoners. An estimated 20 activists were arrested in the street, including members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), heroic local community organizers from Puente Arizona and others, as supporters chanted, “Arrest Arpaio” and “Down with 1070! We will not comply!”

Later, protesters blockaded the county jail, forcing sheriff department deputies to remain inside for over an hour. As a result of this blockade, Sheriff Arpaio was forced to cancel his raids and deportations for today. The July 29 demonstrations were a victory for the oppressed peoples of Phoenix and the rallies will continue across Arizona and the nation.

Grace Kelley is a member of University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

Say no to border militarization

Fight Back — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:21:23 +0000

Nearly all the recent immigration proposals from within the U.S. political establishment have called for an increase in the use of soldiers to guard the U.S. Mexico border. People concerned with immigration reform should understand clearly the reasons that a further militarization of the U.S. border is unacceptable.

First of all, the militarization of the border will kill migrants. There is no doubt about this. This policy is a natural extension of a policy the U.S. has followed for some years now of essentially pushing would-be migrants to attempt crossings in the more deserted, drier and dangerous parts of the border. It is an extension of the border fence and the ‘Canal of the Americas’, which have had the effect of causing more and more migrants to attempt crossings through the driest parts of the Arizona desert. The deaths are becoming more and more concentrated in the area of Pima County Arizona, where migrants are crossing some fifty miles of barren desert before they reach the first road. The cost of this can be counted in the bodies of migrants who do not succeed in making the crossing.

In the early and mid 1990s, the number of migrants dying each year trying to cross into the United States was typically between 200 and 300. In 2009, the bodies of 417 migrants were found. Even this number probably underestimates the true total, since the bodies of many migrants are probably never found.

The militarization of the border is a criminal policy. Those who are pushing this policy are clearly aware that it will kill migrants, since the effect of this sort of policy was clearly pointed out to Congress in a General Accounting Office report in 2005. The policy of militarization of the border nevertheless has almost universal support in Congress. This shows the cynicism of our political leaders, who are evidently unconcerned with how many people their policies, especially when the victims are Mexicans.

But this disregard for human life has a long history in the Southwest. Mexican miners and ranchers were robbed of their land and lynched in California during the Gold Rush. Chicanos, Mexicanos and Central Americans have suffered from police brutality and police murders throughout the modern history of this region. They continue to be criminalized, as seen in Arizona’s SB1070 that mandates that police stop and question people based only on a ‘reasonable suspicion’ they are undocumented. And the prisons are full of Chicanos, Mexicanos and Central Americans who are imprisoned for years in circumstances where others would be set free.

The same dehumanization of Chicanos, Mexicans and Central Americans is evident in the violence with which political movements in this community are often suppressed. It is only three years ago - May 1, 2007 - that a peaceful immigrant rights rally in Los Angeles was suppressed by police firing rubber bullets and swinging batons, leaving dozens of people injured, including nine journalists. Nor has the community forgotten the police riot and the murder of Ruben Salazar, and killing of Angel Diaz, and Lynn Ward at the hands of police during the mass Chicano Moratorium march and anti-war rally of August 29, 1970.

In light of all this, the Congressional disregard for Mexican life, while appalling, is not surprising. We must keep in mind as well that the use of soldiers to keep Mexicans out of the Southwestern United States is a historical injustice. It is a well-known fact that the United States seized the territory which is now California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas from Mexico by war and the treaties which followed wars. This chapter in American history is shameful and many Americans now recognize that. But that is mere historical fact: To use the military to prevent desperate Mexicans from entering the territory which was stolen from Mexico is to continue these historical crimes into the present day.

It is a well-known fact that the use of soldiers to perform police duties is a recipe for trouble. Soldiers are trained and equipped for war, in which it is a matter of kill or be killed. They are not prepared for the much grayer area of law enforcement. It is dangerous to civilians and unfair to soldiers to thrust soldiers into a role for which they are not prepared. The Border Patrol has already killed two Mexicans this year, how many more will die with soldiers there?

Furthermore, the militarization of the border is a serious danger to United States civil liberties. The right wing is trying to whip up fear of immigrants by saying that immigrants are bringing crime and drugs to the United States. But the reality is that immigrants are less likely to be involved in criminal activity than native-born Americans. This policy of militarization calls for an enormous increase in the use of surveillance equipment, including remote cameras and even military drones, and hugely increased patrols by soldiers and border patrol officers alike through a large swath of the United States. These are steps that are unprecedented in American history. In the history of this country no government has ever found it necessary to do this. It sets a dangerous precedent can be followed by similar increases in surveillance in American cities. This will come down the hardest on Latinos, African Americans and other oppressed nationalities who bear the brunt of the governments violation of civil liberties.

Also, we must keep in mind the fundamental injustices of U.S. border policy. Migrants from Mexico and Central America are coming to the United States because of the economic devastation in their own countries. The reality is that the economic problems in those countries are a direct result of United States policy. U.S. policy has devastated our neighbors to the south through free trade agreements, U.S. funded civil wars, the drug industry which supplies the United States and neoliberal economic policies which our government has forced the governments of those countries to implement. It is grossly unfair that we should destroy the economies of those countries and then turn our soldiers against the refugees we have created by preventing them from seeking a better life here.

President Obama's recent remarks have given many people in the immigrant community renewed hope that there may be some form of reform this year. It is plain to see that at most what can be expected from this administration is half measures. But the situation of immigrants in the United States is so poor that even half measures must be welcomed. At the same time, those of us involved in the struggle for immigrant rights must not lose sight of the dangers of border militarization.

We must to fight against any border militarization component of immigration reform proposals and continue to struggle against this murderous and unjust policy.

Send a birthday greeting to Ricardo Palmera, the kidnapped Colombian rebel locked in a U.S. Supermax

Fight Back — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:01:20 +0000

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera. We urge all of our readers to join this effort.

Happy Birthday Greetings to Ricardo Palmera!

The National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera is calling on supporters to send birthday cards to Ricardo Palmera, a Colombian revolutionary and prisoner of the U.S. Empire. July 30th, 2010, marks Professor Palmera’s 60th birthday, which he will celebrate alone in a Colorado Supermax prison.

Ricardo Palmera is a brilliant man who dedicates his whole life to the Colombian people and their fight for independence. Even from his prison cell, even with a gag over his mouth, Professor Palmera inspires thousands in the struggle for peace and justice. Many see Ricardo Palmera as a modern day Che Guevara. As a young man from a wealthy family and attending the naval academy, Palmera could not accept the violence, exploitation, and oppression he saw in his own country. He wanted no part of it. He turned towards organizing reform movements of peasants, workers, and progressive Colombian professionals demanding change. Palmera was tortured for his efforts and most of his friends were murdered by the Colombian military. In the mid-1980’s he became an organizer for the Patriotic Union, a peaceful, leftist electoral coalition. But when the Patriotic Union made gains, the Colombian military and their death squads assassinated 4000 of their activists and elected officials. With the electoral path to social change blocked, Palmera decided to go to the mountains and join the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) at the age of 37. It was in his capacity as a peace negotiator, traveling in Ecuador on a mission to meet a UN official, that he was seized by U.S. agents and extradited to the United States.

Palmera faced ten charges in Washington DC trials that were designed to find him guilty, thereby criminalizing the Colombian national liberation struggle. However he turned the tables on the U.S. prosecutor, judges, and government. Judge Hogan had to step down when he and U.S. prosecutor Ken Kohl were caught cheating after the first trial ended in a hung jury. Professor Palmera’s testimony put the U.S. war and military intervention in Colombia on trial. Palmera sounded like a true patriot dedicated to the defense and liberation of his people, while the witnesses of the U.S. State Department, the FBI, the Colombian military and U.S. military contractors came across as arrogant and sketchy.

At his trial, Ricardo Palmera said, “ Colombia has been at war for more than 60 years, with the growing participation of the USA. Today the war against the insurgents of the FARC is disguised behind other arguments. The war on drug trafficking is a disguise the US uses for greater interference in the Colombian conflict, sending advisors, spies, weapons, and investing millions of dollars in the war. This financial and military support emboldens the Colombian oligarchy and sustains the conditions that cause the Colombian conflict, but provides no solutions. Simon Bolivar said, "the destiny of the US is to plague America with misery in the name of liberty."

Today, while Ricardo Palmera is in solitary confinement with no human contact, the U.S. is building and occupying seven new military bases in Colombia to intensify the counter-insurgency war against the Colombian people and the FARC. Beyond fighting the FARC, the U.S. plans to use the bases to harass and intimidate Colombia’s neighbors —Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador where revolutionary and progressive governments rule. More U.S military intervention will only create more Ricardo Palmera’s throughout the Americas. For the Colombian people, it promises more poverty, displacement, and death. We must demand “NO to US bases in Colombia!”

We are asking people to send birthday cards and greetings for Ricardo Palmera to our friends at Fight Back! newspaper. We will then organize a delegation to visit a U.S. Attorney General’s office with the request that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder deliver the birthday cards to Ricardo Palmera. Eric Holder is the enforcer of the “Special Administrative Measures” that do not allow Ricardo Palmera to receive mail from his U.S. supporters. Please mail Ricardo Palmera birthday cards to:

Ricardo Palmera
C/O Fight Back!
P.O. Box 582564
Minneapolis, MN 55440
U.S.A.

Workers hold forum on UIC’s discriminatory practices

Fight Back — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:27:15 +0000

Chicago, IL - As part of strike preparations at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), a leadership group from all three committees met at the famed DuSable Museum of African American history on July 23. Nine out of ten SEIU members at UIC are Black or Latino, and Local 73 had waged a decade long struggle in the 1990s to win pay equity with the employees at the University’s campus in Urbana, where the workforce is mostly white. UIC was compelled to raise workers’ salaries because of the fight that Local 73 waged, and because of a broad coalition that was built with Black and Latino forces on campus and in the community.

At the time of that struggle, state legislators, including Barack Obama, came to UIC for a hearing we called to address the communities’ charges of discrimination. Obama was quoted in the Chicago Tribune saying, "I recognize that in any institution there are going to be some glitches. But when you do get repeated complaints, that indicates that maybe we need some institutional change."

Today, UIC is trying to undo the advances made through the years of struggle. For example, it is mostly white ‘academic professionals’ (APs) who are displacing union workers.

A special presentation was made at the DuSable by Professor Timuel Black, a 91-year old historian of the Black freedom struggle in Chicago. He showed the union members at UIC that they are continuing a century long struggle for full equality. Professor Black said, “The union gives us that opportunity to fulfill our hopes and dreams.”

Latino workers have also had their struggles with UIC. Maria Garcia, a customer service representative and a member of the Clerical/Administrative bargaining committee, explained that she is ready to fight. She pointed to “… inequity in treatment, wages, work-loads, management’s disregard for us, [asking us] to use our language skills selfishly without compensation. Also and most important, the lack of information we are given regarding our future and any attempt to give us a wage increase, in spite of the ridiculous salary imbalances.”

UIC won’t just face 2700 angry workers: they’ll be facing the Black and Latino communities that make up most of their employees, the patients in their medical center and many of their students.

1200 more UIC workers to vote on striking

Fight Back — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:23:55 +0000

Chicago, IL - Between July 30 and August 2, 800 service and maintenance workers and 400 technical workers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) will take strike votes. Bargaining for the two contracts has gone on since February and ground to a stop in the past several weeks.

On July 9 the negotiating committee for the technical unit walked out of bargaining. Andre Reed, a pharmacy technician, explained that the negotiation session was the first time they had met in one month. “Management promised if we took a one month break, they would have proposals on economics, but their representative, Steve Katz, came with nothing in his hands.”

Jerry Thomas, an equipment specialist in the College of Dentistry, described the reaction from the members of the committee when they caucused. “One worker said he was fed up and we should walk out and everyone else agreed. When we came back to the table and said we were walking, it was the first time that Katz looked like he cared about us at all.”

Management has agreed to federal mediation, but the committees have gone ahead and called for strike authorization votes for both units. A third bargaining unit of 1500 clerical workers voted by 84% in April to strike if contract can’t be reached with the help of the federal mediator. All three bargaining units are represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73.

Remzi Jaos, director for the Higher Education Division of Local 73, told the members in a letter mailed to everyone’s home, that either management negotiates “… a fair contract or [we] will strike together when the students return to campus for fall semester.” The first day of classes is Aug. 23.

Mood Changes Among Workers

Early this year, many workers were worried about their jobs in the economic crisis and were taken in by management’s claim of economic hardship.

Then in May, the University hired a new president for $620,000 a year. This is $170,000 above the salary of the outgoing president. In addition, newly installed President Hogan just doubled the salary for his assistant. White’s assistant made $107,500. Hogan will pay his new assistant almost double that: $195,000.

These outrageous increases happened while UIC laid off 40 union members during the spring. The number of building service workers is half what it was a few years ago, with each worker expected to take on more work. Technical workers are seeing more and more non-union, non-civil service employees taking their work. For clerical and administrative employees, the issue of job security issue is the top priority. In recent years, hundreds of civil service and union workers have been replaced by ‘academic professionals’: non-civil service employees.

Immigrant rights struggle heats up in Arizona

Fight Back — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:47:29 +0000

Phoenix, AZ - Tensions build as July 29 nears – the date set for the racist law SB1070 to go into effect. Under this law police officers will have the power to demand immigration papers from any person who they stop. Garage sales have already begun lining the streets of Arizona as families flee trying to escape the impending oppression.

As the tension has mounted, so has the struggle for human rights. Activists from all over the nation are descending on Phoenix to organize against this law, joining grassroots organizations in Arizona. Already, on July 22, 16 people were arrested for blocking an intersection in an act of defiance saying, “We will not comply!”

In the 90-degree heat of the evening, over 100 community organizers sat outside gearing up for the huge events this Thursday, July 29. The actions will begin at 8:00 a.m. with a march to the courthouse. Later in the day activists plan to confront Sheriff Arpaio and rally outside the county jail. “After this Thursday, we won’t even be allowed to be on the sidewalks to find work,” said Karlos, an activist with PUENTE. Asked why he fighting back, Karlos replied, “They just want to scoop us up and throw us out, but we won’t let them.”

A somber testimony from a pair of Guatemalan day laborers at the meeting highlighted the urgent need for legalization and reform.

One of the workers spoke about how his cousin (also a day laborer), was picked up for a job one day. “I never saw him alive again,” the man confided. He had fallen to his death from a palm tree where he had been working. The employer disappeared without a trace and with no way to be held accountable by the law. “Now we just need $500 to send him home.” The activists at the meeting rallied and in an act of solidarity raised over $1000 passing around a baseball cap.

It is this kind of unity that will win the struggle for immigrant rights. These communities refuse to be silenced or bullied into submission. The meeting ended with people stating why they organized, one older Latino man shouted from the crowd, “Because we are not animals!” Copycat laws are starting to encroach on other states. Now is the time to get involved and help in the fight for full legalization!

Immigrant rights struggle heats up in Arizona

Fight Back — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:47:29 +0000

A somber testimony from a pair of Guatemalan day laborers at the meeting highlighted the urgent need for legalization and reform.

Milwaukee MEChA builds for National Day of Action against SB1070

Fight Back — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:28:03 +0000

Milwaukee, WI - The student and youth leaders of the Chicano student group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) are at the forefront in building for July 29, the National Day of Action Against SB1070. They have set forth the plan for a massive march and demonstration in downtown Milwaukee.

On July 22 MEChA held a community forum on Arizona's SB1070 and HB2281 as an effort to build for the July 29 action. Community members and several organizations such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) attended and engaged in planning sessions and discussions on Arizona, ICE and police collaborations (which are on the rise in Milwaukee), recent raids and the impact that the national day of action will have nationally and locally.

"It's important for the Milwaukee community to stand up and make our voices heard not only to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Arizona but also to shed light on the ways in which we are experiencing anti-immigrant oppression here. Our Latino working class communities have been the sites for large escalations of police presence unlike that any other part of the city. As immigrants we are criminalized and racially profiled. The reality is that people don't feel safe in their own neighborhoods. They may be trying to silence us with fear but we simply cannot and will not stand for it," Anahi Sanchez, member of MEChA de Milwaukee, told Fight Back!.

Jeanette Martín of the Milwaukee and Madison MEChA chapters said, "July 29 will be a day to lay down the semillitas [little seeds] of education about our own struggle and it is our duty, as organizers, students and folks concientes of these injustices, to make sure we keep watering that seed and have community water it too."

Milwaukee's action is taking place in concert with the hundreds of actions all over the country in solidarity with those in Arizona fighting SB1070 and the wave of attacks that have hit the Chicano, Mexicano and Latino community there. The slogans they are raising include "End police/Ice collaboration!" "Stop separating families. End the raids!" and "Boycott racism! Say no to Arizona's SB1070 & HB2281."

Valeria Gonzalez of MEChA de Milwaukee stated, "These new Arizona laws and their copy-cat laws in states around the country are all manifestations of a civil rights crisis people in power are causing for the Chicanos, Mexicanos and Latinos by attacking the immigrants and undocumented people of our communities. This will be a historically momentous day when people all over the country stand together and demand an end to this unjust treatment."