AFSC-SENE Periodic Postings on Peace and Justice

Into the Mountains

2012-02-29T00:20:00.000-05:00

Oaxaca is a fascinating city, but this country spirit was thrilled to climb on a bus for the Mexreca are north of the city. We traveled north in the Central Valley for a bit, then began to climb into the mountains. (Oaxaca, like Dencer, sits at about 5,000 feet above sea level and the mountains go to 10,000 feet and more.)

After a stunningly beautiful ride, we arrived in Nochixtlan, where we visited the CEDICAM project (center for IntegralDevelopment of Campesinos of the Mexteca). We were greeted by Phil Dahl-Bredine (worked for many years with Mary Knoll in Latine America and has spent more than the last decade as a volunteer with CEDICAM).

Phil took us on a tour of the little museum that tells a little of the Mexteca story and in particular their relationship to the land. For several thousand years they have lived on this land, growing corn so drought resistant it can go form5 months with no rain, interplanting crops in a way that maximizes growth and continuously feeds the soil. Food crops, flowers and medicinal plants are all grown together in complex mixture.

CEDICAM was started in 1997 after beginning under another organization. To be a member you must be a campesino and a Mexteco. There are 14 facilitators who train local people to be promoters in the villages, helping people relearn the traditional ways of farming so that they don't have to buy seed or fertilizer or expensive tools while benefiting from research and technology when it benefits this sustainable way.

Much of our lively discussion revolved around the amazing work being done on sustainability that we in the north don't hear enough about. Monoculture is destroying the earth. It isn't sustainable. We have much to learn from the local economies that live more sustainably and use more local agricultural methods. Phil has a book you might be interested in, The Other Game. . I will try to write more on this in coming months.

Following our meeting with Phil were climbed back in the bus for a wild two hour rodeo very tiny and hilly dirt roads to the village of San Miguel Huatla, at about 7,000 feet above sea level. Home to about 250 families, about 75 families are active members in CEDICAM and they are looking to double in size. Everyone here is a subsistence farmer. CEDICAM helps them expand their crops, increase yield with organic practices, supports the communal practices that help reduce the need for cash and strengthens community. Actually very few people migrate from this village, which suggests it as a model for other struggling agricultural communities. Several amazing women took us for a hike up the hillside to see the see their gardens, worm farms and wheat/pea/and corn fields. It was an incredible afternoon. I can't wait to share photos, but that will have to wait.

A tired crew got back on the bus for the three hour trip back to the city. Doing the winding dirt roads in the dark added a whole new layer!

Lessons from Oaxaca

2012-02-27T23:47:00.001-05:00

This morning after a lovely breakfast and time together for reflection, we climbed into taxis and rode to the building housing Services for an Alternative Education, where Miguel AngelbVasquez de la Rosa made a presentation on their work. EDUCATION is an NGO that focuses on responding to the most urgent needs of the people in situations of economic, social and political vulnerability. EDUCATION supports indigenous communities and organizations in Oaxaca in defense of their rights to civic participation, observation of electoral processes in indigenous communities and studies the traditional judicial system in the Coastal, Mixteca and Southern Mountain region ofmOaxaca.

After an amazing lunch and walk in the neighborhood we went to a lovely convent where Witness for Peace had rented a room. Our next speaker was delayed because of some street blockades near his office - apparently a common thing. The occupy movement could learn a great deal by studying the social movements here!

Juan Gutierrez, from the Oaxacan Migrant Services Institute (IOAM), the state agency that provides legal assistance an other services to Oaxacan migrants and their home communities. They use various strategies (street theater, programs in schools, films and conferences) to educate Oaxacans about the risks and realities of migration, as well as works to create opportunities for migrants to build community and share information. Both our speaker and the agency director are indigenous people themselves, and have experience with binational community organizing. They are proposing some reforms to state government to better address the complex reality.

And complex it is. Agricultural workers migrate within Oaxaca on a seasonal basis. Because of the rural poverty (created in large part by a series of U.S. and Mexican policies) many also migrate within Mexico, going both to Mexico City and to agricultural areas further north. A sizable number go to the United StAtes (many also used to do that seasonally before the border tightened). In part because it is so hard to come back, the demographics shifted from migration being something that primarily men did, to something men and women did together, to more recently, whole family groups and communities migrating together. The other sizable piece of the challenge is the movement of Latin American and Central American migrants through the state.

The afternoon ended with a "game" of Soccer for Suckers, a fun way to learn about imbalance of power, followed by an exploration of how the "Drug War" factors into the complexity.

The evening was for slow walks in the lovely cooler air, dinner near the zocalo, and preparing for tomorrow.

First Day in Oaxaca

2012-02-26T23:54:00.000-05:00

Today is the first full day in Oaxaca Mexico with the AFSC/Witness for Peace delegation to Oaxaca to learn from people here about their economic reality, the roots of migration and the impact of migration on the communities people leave behind.

We woke to cool fresh air and brilliant blue skies. Using the Hostel Don Miguel as our base, we set about the process of becoming a group for this week of learning, then moved on to interactive learning about the global economy, and in particular it's impact on Mexico. In the afternoon we went for a history walk, with local Witness for Peace staff briefing us on Oaxacan and Mexican history, including indigenous history.

Oaxaca is a city of about 500,000 people in the State of Oaxaca. It is the second poorest state in the country. About one third of the state's population speak one of the sixteen indigenous languages. More than 50% of Oaxacans farm, the majority on community held lands.

and farming has been devastated in many ways by global finance, NAFTA, and programs the government agreed to to get IMF and World Bank loans. when people are hungry and unable to provide for their families, one of the main options is to move to a place with more opportunity. There has been substantial migration with in Mexico as well as movement to the United States.

Tonight our heads are spinning with the complexities of economic history, the history of a variety of empirial powers, and how it has all played out in this place. We have had a little time to explore the zocalo (central plaza) and some of the nearby neighborhoods. Tomorrow we begin meeting with people from the community who will share their insights and experience.

And maybe I can figure out how to add a photo.

Making Change Happen

2012-02-03T22:10:00.002-05:00

This month's calendar is full of ways to help work for change. There are meetings and legislative press conferences, general assemblies and vigils. At a recent Occupy meeting I listened to a young activist lending support to some work on the state legislature say "We have to do more than march around in the street. The marching is good, but we have to talk to people who can make things better".
It's true. The marching is important. And there are limits to what the existing political structure can do. But if it can help stop racial profiling by the police and if it can keep people in their homes after foreclosure - let's try to make it happen. So learn about your favorite issue (AFSC-SENE has a list of bills we would love your help on, on the website) We will update this list weekly with information on hearings, press conferences and rallies. You can watch the great video on racial profiling made by Youth in Action here.
Take Action: I know, calling Congress can feel like a pointless exercise, but it isn't. On a good day, a flood of calls does make a difference, On a bad day, they know we don't like what they are doing - and that matters. Our silence can be read as agreement. I don't want my grandchildren asking "Why didn't you try to fix it, Nana?" We owe our kids and grandkids that. And if it all feels pointless, get involved with the Occupy movement, which stands outside of most political activity and insists on deep system change.
That said: go to http://www.afsc.org/action/tell-congress-they-must-cut-military-spendingand voice your thoughts about the attempts to make deep cuts in human needs spending while sparing the military spending (which at about 60% of the spending, should be the place to start). Email your congressional people and/or write a letter to the editor. The link helps you with wording if you want help.
Many thanks

Building the Beloved Community

2012-01-13T12:03:00.000-05:00

On December 11, 1964 Dr. Martin Luther King said "Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
As I listen to the judgements, racism and anger in the farce that tries to pass for an electoral process, Dr. King's words echo in my ears. I hope we will take time over the coming week to read his speeches and writings - they are powerfully relevant for today. I hope that they inspire us to stand up when needed to oppression and injustice. (He also wrote, "In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.") Our system of government and our economy are failing us. There is much work to do.
And we must begin. But we can take a lesson from the civil rights movement, which took on one town clerk, one polling station, one lunch counter at a time. By each one doing their part, taking a stand, the movement became unstoppable in spite of the violence and anger that met it.
We begin a bit at a time, figuring out how to meet the needs of people worse off than we are in our communities, figure out how to stand together with respect for one another in the face of injustice, each day making sure to do our part, however small. Silence is no longer an option.
There are lots and lots of local activities planned. You can find a partial listing on the SENE events page. There are breakfasts and art events and marches. Join one. Or go to an online library of King quotes, speeches and videos, and read some of his speeches. They speak to our time.
You can also check out the SENE calendar here. There are lots of ways for us to get involved. Bring a friend. Your presence and your voice matters - and the rewards of a vibrant community are abundant!

Occupy energy reinforces protest of Tar Sands Pipeline

2011-11-07T12:03:00.000-05:00

Encircling the White House: A New Beginning is Here

By Ted Glick

About noon, as the organizers of yesterday’s encirclement of the White House to stop the tar sands pipeline were setting up, someone said, “the flag is flying over the White House, that means President Obama is home.” Said a US Park Police person standing next to me, “it’s not true, sorry to disappoint, but he’s not home.”

But lo and behold, at 5:15 pm, as the light was rapidly fading and a beautiful ¾ moon appeared in the sky over Lafayette Park, as Bill McKibben was wrapping up, speaking about the wonder and power of the day’s event and this movement, a motorcade appeared at the top of Lafayette Park. Someone pretty reliable said, “It’s President Obama!,” and Bill proceeded to lead the thousands of people still there in a chant of, “Yes We Can Stop the Pipeline” as hundreds streamed toward the cars with their flashing red lights. If, indeed, it was Obama in that motorcade, there is no way he didn’t hear us.

This was just one of many amazing things that happened yesterday.

There was the turnout, ten thousand plus, as many as 12,000 in the view of the organizers.

There was the virtually unprecedented discipline and organization of the 2 pm rally which ended just before 3 pm despite there being 17 speakers, an amazing mix: Gloria Reuben, McKibben, Michael Brune, Congressman Steve Cohen, Mark Ruffalo, James Hansen, Naomi Klein, Courtney Hight, Rev. Jim Wallis, Jody Williams, Nebraskan Bruce Boettcher, Larry Schwieger, Roger Touissant, Heather Mizeur, Tom Poor Bear, John Adams and Rev. Lennox Yearwood.

The encirclement! It worked. And there were probably enough people that if we had had the time and resources to do so we could have been two-deep or even three-deep all the way around. Instead, some places there was a single line, others it was five-deep, and there was a powerful spirit of hope and determination that was palpable as I walked the circle doing a numbers count.

There were large numbers of youth in attendance, perhaps half of the total being under 30. Students came on buses from as far away as Missouri and Florida.

There was the 100-yards-or-so-long “Stop the XL Pipeline” creation which was carried by hundreds up and down Pennsylvania Ave., chanting as they marched.

There were the connections made by many of the speakers at the rally, connections between the no pipeline movement and the movements against fracking, deepwater oil drilling and mountaintop removal, with the struggle of workers for jobs and their rights, with the #Occupy movement and with past social movements.

A highlight of the pre-encirclement rally was Marc Ruffalo giving his two minute speech without using the electronic mic and sound system. He called out “mic check,” thousands repeated it, and he spoke [he spoke] in the Occupy mode [in the Occupy mode] effectively and powerfully [effectively and powerfully].

This was in no way a culminating rally; just the opposite. At a pre-rally event Saturday evening attended by many hundreds, and in what McKibben talked about throughout from the stage, the warmly-received message was that people need to go back home and, over the next few weeks, organize actions at and visits to Obama for America reelection campaign offices. A major demonstration is already being organized at the national Obama reelection office in Chicago on November 16th at noon.

Bill McKibben was clearly impressed by what took place yesterday. For the first time that I have heard since he and others publicly initiated this movement over four months ago, he said, as he closed the post-encirclement second rally, “we can win this fight.” Yes, si se puede, yes we can stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Yes we can transform U.S. energy policy and create a new world.

Nov. 6th at the White House is the latest sign that a new beginning, a powerful, loving and hopeful new beginning, is here and sinking deeper and deeper roots among the people of the USA.

Ted Glick is the National Policy Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Past writings and more information can be found at http://tedglick.com, and he is on twitter @jtglick.

There's a fresh wind ablowin'...

2011-10-14T17:31:00.000-04:00

Greetings, Friends

There is a fresh wind ablowin' and we don't yet know quite where it will take us or how strong it will get. But it is exciting. I just got off an AFSC conference call where I learned what the Occupy movement looks like across the land. Each place seems to have its own character. And yet they all have much in common. The system is broken. Some would phrase it as there having been a corporate coup that has taken over the government. Others phrase it in terms of corporate greed and the vastly different economic realities of the top 1% of the population and the remaining 99%. It is a street movement with lots of new people getting involved. It is a movement that unions and others are trying to support (but must not co-opt). Their rallying cry last night helped stop what could have been a very ugly confrontation in NYC this morning. It has a lot of potential.
I am puzzled when media fuss that they don't hear demands. Aren't they listening? People are angry at the corporate control of governement. Undo the concept of corporate personhood. At the very least, undo the recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United. The economic disparities are not acceptable. No one in this country should be homeless or hungry. The demands: whatever it takes to right those wrongs - changes in tax policy, shift funding from the military to meeting human needs, ending wars... There are many ways to do it. It is true that much of what is voiced (and on which there seems to be pretty broad agreement) are the things people are angry with. But implied in most of those things are various solutions.
What remains to be seen is how sustained these efforts are to not just protest what is but to build something new. The General Assemblies are a remarkable step in that direction. Not everyone has the time for regular participation, but for many it is their first encounter with a group operating mostly by consensus and committed to nonviolence. In many places there are struggles to address race and class issues, of how to connect with the important organizing already going on. But it is a work in progress.
So... find the encampment near you and check it out. Lots of groups are having events on the national day of action this Saturday. Go to the Occupy Together website and watch the movement grow. Look for it on Facebook and YouTube (there are some amazing videos being created!).
Once again the calendar is full of great events. This Saturday there are lots of Occupy events plus a town hall with Barney Frank at 2pm. Sunday is the program With Hiroshima Eyes: The Hibakusha Experience and Art of Junko Kayashige at Providence Friends Meeting at 4pm. Tuesday there is a press conference on recent racial incidents in Worcester with a petition to the city council. Next Monday there is a forum on women's heath issues at Brown. ... Check out the calendar. And get involved!
Thanks so much for all you do. In Peace Martha

End Wage Theft

2011-07-08T08:58:00.001-04:00

Chants in Spanish and English filled the street outside the Bakery el Quiche in Providence Thursday afternoon as former employees and labor allies called on the owner of the bakery, Byron Juarez, to be held accountable. His workers report that for many years he has paid them less than minimum wage and that they have been required to work 70-90 hours a week, 7 days a week, with no overtime pay. They also report that they were not allowed to have a break during their long hours as mandated by Rhode Island law. The crowd dmenaded that Mr. Juarez immediately pay his workers their full hours plus overtime and apologize to them for taking advantage of them. They also want him to sign a Code of Conduct that commits him to comply with all labor laws from now on.

As people passed by and took flyers, many commented that wage theft is common for many workers (both documented and undocumented) and that they were so glad to see someone finally being held accountable.

The protests will continue today. The state Department of Labor has also begun an investigation.

The event was organized by Fuerza Laboral. They can be reached at 401-725-2700.

A Peace Float in a Militaristic Parade

2011-07-05T16:38:00.001-04:00

Photo courtesy of Judy Byrnes
There were formations of military marching in crisp uniforms even in the heat, the military bands, the folks dressed in Revolutionary War era costumes with their guns, the two floats commemorating September 11th, and the military heroes float from Raytheon. Then, tagging along near the end was the East Bay Citizens for Peace/AFSC peace float. The globe that was to go in the middle of it had collapsed (apt symbolism), but the signs on the sides and the songs sung by those on the float got the message across (Peace is Patriotic and War is not the path to Peace). We sang Down by the Riverside, This Land is Your Land (all the verses, including the one about the lines outside the relief office), Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream, and Give Peace A Chance.

As we rolled into view and gazes shifted our direction there would be a blank look for a moment as our message was taken in, then often a smile, sometimes a look of pleased disbelief followed by a loud "All right!" with a thumbs up or clapping. I saw more than one child turn to ask an adult what it meant, which made me sad, but at least the question got asked. Unfortunately more than one child turned his toy gun on us - and there was an abundance of toy guns (and not the pop guns of my childhood but fake automatic weapons!). Sometimes a whole section would erupt into cheers. Veterans solemnly shook their heads and nodded approvingly. Lots of folks sang along. Some laughed at us, shaking their heads that would could be so naive, but I didn't hear a single loud boo, which surprised me. Many openly welcomed the change of message.

It was HOT. The float was a lot of work (thank you, Kevin, for pulling it all together!). And it was just what the parade needed.

The Tide is Turning on "Secure Communities"

2011-06-08T19:06:00.000-04:00

On Monday Governor Patrick of Massachusetts added his voice to the growing chorus of opposition to the
Department of Homeland Security/Immigration and Customs Enforcement program called "Secure Communities". When he announced his intention last winter to enroll MA in the program, he was greeted with howls of protest. An earlier blog posting recounts the press conference and demonstration outside his office. That protest yielded a series of public hearings around the state. After the first few, the Tea Party began pushing hard to get their base to the hearings, at times even providing a bus. But immigrants and their allies also turned out in large numbers. Local groups organized, even when communications from the Governor made it appear that he had already made up his mind and it was an exercise in futility.

Then the Governor of Illinois announce he was terminating participation. Then came the Governor of New York. And finally Governor Patrick announced that he, too, would not enroll the state in the program. His statement reflects all the testimony that they received from the community about why this is such a bad program. A HUGE congratulations to all the folks who worked so hard on this.

And today - there is a great editorial in the New York Times.

Now it is time to really work on Rhode Island - the only New England State fully enrolled (CT has several counties enrolled).

the face of islamaphobia

2011-05-18T22:47:00.000-04:00

In the years since 2001 there has been a constant cultivation of fear of "the other". Sometimes it is directed at immigrants, sometimes at Muslims. In both situations it seems past time to stop and think about who we, as a people, have become; what it is we allow to be done in our name.

Please read the bloghttp://afghanistan101.blogspot.com/2011/05/targeted-and-entrapped.html for a look at the treatment of Muslims in our midst. They are our neighbors.

When the going gets tough...

2011-05-03T07:20:00.001-04:00

First published in the West Virginia Gazette

May 1, 2011

When the going gets tough

Opportunists take advantage of the fearful, suffering

By Rick Wilson

In 2007, writer Naomi Klein stirred up controversy with her book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." In it, she argued that economic elites and their political allies often take advantage of natural or social disasters to push through a radical agenda while ordinary people are still reeling from the events.

Klein defined disaster capitalism as "orchestrated raids on the public sphere in the wake of catastrophic events, combined with the treatment of disasters as exciting market opportunities..." The agenda pushed through at such moments includes three "trademark demands": privatization, government deregulation, and deep cuts to social spending.

Sound familiar?

While Klein's ideas seemed a bit paranoid to some critics, she had some points. The late "free market" economist Milton Friedman pretty much laid out the program when he stated that "only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: To develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable."

Friedman practiced what he preached. When Chilean general Augusto Pinochet, with covert support from the Nixon administration, overthrew the democratically elected president of that country in 1973, imposed a military dictatorship, and set about crushing labor unions and other political opponents, Friedman and other "Chicago Boys" took advantage of the crisis and offered their services in helping the dictatorship to privatize that country's social security system, cut social spending, and reduce regulations and taxes for businesses. Thousands of Chileans, including women and children, were murdered, tortured, raped and/or sexually abused in pursuit of this market utopia.

There are plenty of other examples of disaster capitalism. The Bush administration in the wake of the shock of 9/11 pushed through tax cuts and other business friendly policies that had nothing to do with protecting the country from terrorist attacks. A number of corporations, with the aid of friendly governments, found ways of cashing in on calamities as diverse as the invasion of Iraq, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, elected with help of the billionaire Koch brothers, played that game recently when he used state budget troubles as an excuse to attack collective bargaining rights for public employees. The budget was just a smokescreen - even when public workers agreed to wage and benefit cuts, he insisted on going farther by attacking rights on the job - while cutting corporate taxes even lower.

We are now witnessing a little disaster capitalism now as extremists in Congress led by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan used deficit fears to push a radical agenda through the House that includes gutting Medicaid and CHIP; dismantling Medicare by replacing it with a voucher system to pay for private insurance; repealing health care reform; slashing domestic discretionary spending; and further extending tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest.

Economist Dean Baker summed up the Ryan plan eloquently as "government by people who hate you."

Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes that Ryan's plan "would get about two-thirds of its more than $4 trillion in budget cuts over 10 years from programs that help people of limited means ..." The proposed cuts to Medicaid alone would harm states, individuals and health care providers and could cost nearly 2 million private sector jobs, according to Ethan Pollack of the Economic Policy Institute.

Besides that, it doesn't do much to cut the deficit because it's so loaded with tax cuts. Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, stated that it "not only does nothing to raise revenues from those businesses and individuals who have enjoyed historically low tax burdens for more than the last decade, but it also proposes to actually lower taxes for corporations and the wealthiest among us."

The Ryan plan does nothing to address the actual causes of growing deficits: the Great Recession; Bush era tax cuts to the wealthy; military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan; the Pentagon budget; and the growing cost of health care, which will only increase when people lose guaranteed coverage and are thrown back to the tender mercies of the private insurance industry - or to no coverage at all. When you look at the details, it's more about redistributing wealth upward than bringing deficits downward.

West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller said it best: "The House Republican budget plan shows how out-of-touch they are. They want to give trillions in tax benefits to wealthy corporations that keep profits offshore, while slashing basic health care for children, seniors, and people with disabilities. This is not just foolish - it's cruel."

While the plan has little chance of passing the Senate in its current form, the danger is that its supporters will use the upcoming vote on raising the federal debt ceiling to push through something like it. If the U.S. fails to raise the ceiling, it would default for the first time on its obligations, which would send shockwaves throughout the global economy.

The plan's supporters may be willing to block the vote unless the Senate agrees to global spending caps, which could have the same effect.

If that happens, it would basically be closing time for the middle class.

We need political leaders who won't cave in to this agenda. There are responsible ways of dealing with the federal debt. This isn't one of them.

Racial Profiling Hearing Set for May 5

2011-04-29T11:01:00.000-04:00

I hope a lot of people will turn out for the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing of the bill to curb racial profiling. We are, in some ways, closer than ever to passage, and is some ways so far. Prior to the House hearing there were hours and hours of negotiations between community members and the police about compromise language. We went into the hearing with new wording we could all live with and all testified to that effect. Several police speakers said that all the bill really is is a codifying of best practices.

Then the bottom feel out. The police chiefs association voted to oppose the bill, unanimously with two abstentions. Not even close. Not even those who had said publicly that they could live with it voting for it.

So not it is time for the legislature to act. And they need to hear from you, because you can be sure that they will hear from their local police chiefs. And going against them takes courage. We need to ask the legislators to be courageous.

That is where you come in.

If you have experienced racial profiling, we need you to say so. Tell your story. The legislators still don't quite believe how pervasive and how humiliating it is, in spite of the statistics. They don't quite get how that anger and humiliation that result undermine the stated intent of the police to develop trust that is essential for good policing. So please, tell them your experience. If you can't be there, send it to sene@afsc.org and we will pass it on.

And if you are angered that people in our community are stopped for simply walking down the street or driving down the street, then your voice is needed as well. We need people to say this is not the kind of community I want and I want the police to listen to us.

And we need to call on the legislators to insist that the police listen to the community. We give the police an awful lot of latitude to decide how to go about the task of addressing crime and keeping our community safe. There are trade offs we make for that safety. And the police must listen when the community tells them that they have gone too far. If they don't listen voluntarily, then the legislature must step in and pass a bill that at least some police professionals admit is only a statement of best practices.

Please join in this effort. Thanks!

Call to the RI Legislature to pass bill curbing racial profiling

2011-04-27T22:58:00.002-04:00

Testimony on H-5263, a bill to curtail racial profiling

Greetings and thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. My name is Martha Yager. I work for the American Friends Service Committee, South East New England office, a Quaker-based organization which works throughout Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts.

Tonight we have heard from the various police units opposing this bill. And we have heard powerful testimony from people in the community about why we need the bill.

I want to step back for a moment to think about the purpose of laws. Laws are created to, at least in part, help us act as our better selves. For instance we may have opposed individual violent revenge in response to crime, but when our loved one is murdered or harmed, it is only natural that the hurt and rage flames into an impulse to want to kill the person who killed our loved one. The purpose of the law is to relieve the victim’s family of having to deal with that. It says we as a community also believe that murder is wrong and we will create a judicial system that can hold people accountable for the harms they do and to protect society from any further harm. It says that we understand your rage but you may not act on it and will act on your behalf. In so doing it helps the victims family live the values they hold dear in a time of deep distress or, as a friend of mine whose dad was murdered right in front of him, to be their better selves.

Likewise we have decided together that racism and discrimination are not how we want to live as a society. Yet we have a long history of racism in this country and it takes a long time to unlearn those attitudes and change our ways. We also know that in spite of our best intentions, because we have grown up steeped in those ways, we sometimes will act in ways that discriminate or are hurtful. We need laws and structures to hold us accountable to learning to behave differently, to help us become the community we want to be.

As I sat in the meeting with the police last week, listening to their justifications for why we don’t need this bill, and listening to the community explain the reality of racial profiling in our community, I realized that ultimately we all wanted the same thing. We all want a safe community. And we all know that there are people who cause harm who need to be stopped. But the police, for a variety of reasons, choose a very narrow approach to creating safety that looks with suspicion and assumption of wrongdoing at everyone they encounter and that that lens is certainly shaped by the long history of racism even when they don’t want it to be. And we have to acknowledge that there are some in the police community who are less committed to undoing racism and some who, for a variety of reasons, abuse their power and become accustomed to behaving in very intimidating ways. The community experiences their efforts as being counterproductive and indeed creating less safety because of the experience of the rage that results from humiliation and the resultant lack of trust that is necessary for good policing. The community is less safe when people are afraid to go to the police with concerns or fear they wont be taken seriously and the police themselves are less safe when people are enraged at how they have been treated.

This bill, which curtails only some aspects of racial profiling, which has been significantly modified to meet the concerns of the police, and which some police find acceptable, is a tool to help us move toward having the safe community that we all say we want. As one of the police pointed out the other day, it only holds them accountable to standards they already endorse, to their best practices. The community needs the legislature to finally pass this legislation to help hold us all to some basic standards, to help move us to being a more just and safe community for all of us.

One hundredth of 1 percent...

2011-03-09T22:40:00.001-05:00

That’s the percentage of the United States Institute for Peace budget as compared to the Pentagon.

As a government funded agency, the institute has a critical role to play in seeking to instill principles of conflict prevention and diplomacy into structures of decision making that to often depend on military aid and military action to resolve conflict.

Anthony C. Zinni, a retired Marine general and commander in chief of the United States Central Command from 1997 to 2000, offers an unexpected (to some) defense of the institute.

Posted by Peter Lems on the AFSC blog, Afghanistan 101. Check it out. http://afghanistan101.blogspot.com/

Maybe We Can Do More

2011-02-25T12:05:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Greg Williams for these thoughts:

It was a strike of mostly Black sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Martin got there by accident. A freak accident and bad working conditions got workers killed. A strike was called. Martin was called but he was planning a Poor People's Campaign, and he was tired. SCLC would send some one... They wanted Martin to stand with them and he did. Today he would be standing with Unions again if he were here. Just like 1968, in our world today there is a lot of unrest all over the place.

We should not be ignoring the signs of our time. If John Woolman could speak to us today, it would be to remind us that it is still the economy. Part of what Martin said the day before he died is:
"...The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis (or Wisconsin) to be fair and honest in its dealings with public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we've got to keep attention on that... Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation."

So While there are interesting things happening in Egypt, the Middle East, and elsewhere, we have a drama here that demands our attention as well. We ought to be making noise as Quakers, as spiritual people, as men and women interested in Justice. I find it interesting that folks from Egypt and elsewhere are sending Pizza to demonstrators here in the United States. They understand the links and are reaching out in support. We can send pizza as well, but maybe...we ought to do more? This ought to be a buzz on facebook, a buzz in letter to the editors, a buzz to City Councilors, State Reps. and up the chain to President Obama..

If we fail to act on this concern today it will be back tomorrow in greater force. CUT THE WAR BUDGET SEND THE MONEY HOME TO OUR STATES! The one thing we can"t afford to do is ...nothing.

Budget Math Doesn't Add Up

2011-02-18T20:12:00.002-05:00

Opinion: This Budget Cutting Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Robin Aura Kanegis
Philadelphia Inquirer Feb. 15, 2011
It’s simple math: A military budget that has doubled in twelve years + worries about the resulting deficit = deep cuts to military spending.
Yet in a display of backward logic, the House majority’s initial announcement of planned cuts to current spending only included cuts to non-military discretionary spending, the spending that helps invest in our communities, schools, and our economic infrastructure. It seems the Pentagon has developed the ultimate cloaking mechanism -- to protect military budget bloat from mathematical reality.
The US military budget currently accounts for over half of our discretionary budget -- and nearly half of all military spending the world over.
Despite this incredibly lop-sided investment, increased military appropriations are set to glide past Congressional “budget hawks” like Harry Potter in his invisibility cloak. Meanwhile the fragments of federal funding which would address human needs, long-term infrastructure, or non-military actions in the world are scrutinized down to the dollar – at a time when the number of Americans in need is growing with every lost job or home foreclosure.
Reducing government spending by shrinking investments in our long-term well-being rather than cutting the military budget is as sensible as dieting by cutting back on salad while eating three desserts a day.
Even cutting nearly a trillion dollars out of the defense budget over the next ten years—a sliver off that third dessert— would leave us spending 14 percent more than we did during the Cold War era, according to analysis by the Sustainable Defense Task Force.
Yet the measure the House will consider this week for FY 2011 funding would cut just 2.8 percent from the president's FY 2011 defense budget request, compared with 20.6 percent from the budget for non-military foreign operations. Under this proposal the “Defense” budget will still increase by $8.1 billion dollars from the previous year.
We invest tax dollars in a shared safety net so it will be there to catch us during hard times. In our current slow-grinding economic crisis, more Americans have fallen into poverty, needing help with things like food and housing. The fact that the burden has increased on such programs as low-income housing and preventive health care clearly shows they are needed more than ever, not that they should be taken away.
Jack Lew, the Director for the White House Office of Management and Budget, writes that, “the sacrifices needed to begin putting our fiscal house in order must be broadly shared.” Yet all the cuts being proposed this week in Congress hit low- and middle-income families and communities the hardest.
Lew says the easy cuts are behind us. But simple math above says we have yet to seriously consider them. It’s time to pull back the cloak and make budget cuts where we need them most: in our off-the-charts military spending habit.
Robin Aura Kanegis serves as Director of Public Policy and Washington Office for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker-based organization working for peace, social justice and nonviolent change. She provides strategic direction for all aspects of the organization’s engagement with Congress and the Administration

March of the Dead on 9th Anniversary of War

2010-10-08T21:30:00.000-04:00

A line of people dressed in black with uniform white masks walked slowly through the central bus plaza in downtown Providence this afternoon.

The plaza was crowded with students and people going home from work, enjoying the gorgeous weather at the start of a three day weekend. The war in Afghanistan was far from their minds. I watched their faces as this strange parade approached. Most looked puzzled or startled, then quickly became quiet and subdued. Many stopped talking. Some pulled out cameras and took pictures. Signs worn by the marchers carried the names of dead Afghan civilians - fathers, young men, women, children with names and ages, and date of death, followed by U.S soldier deaths and information on the other costs of war - the Post Traumatic Stress so many soldiers suffer and the $1 trillion that could have been funding head start programs, affordable housing, and health care. Those of us handing out fliers found people to be unusually receptive to receiving them. Some people wanted to talk. "Had it really been nine years?" "I had not idea so many people were dying there." "Wow, it keeps going on and we hardly think about it."

From the bus plaza we walked through city streets and over to the plaza in front of the Textron World Headquarters building. We paused there, standing in silence. One person came up to me looking curious. I handed him a flier and explained briefly what we were doing. A smile of recognition spread across is face. "That's the perfect place to stand" - and asked permission to take a photograph. The security guard came out, looking worried. I handed him a leaflet, reminded him we were on a public sidewalk and assured him we wouldn't be there long. (Note to self - we need to go back during work hours and stay longer!)

From there we walked back to the bus plaza for one more loop there. Two teenagers came over curious about the masks but utterly baffled about what we were doing. They had no idea that their country is at war. Lots of work to do!

As we debriefed at the end, the marchers we pleased with the event. They found that being in the mask was very powerful, that it removed the personal dynamics that are part of most interactions and let the message just speak for itself. Others spoke of it becoming a mediation walk, which allowed them to just be present to the horrors of war without the usual intellectual or political "noise". And all commented on how well it drew attention and seemed to touch people.

Thank you to all who participated. I am grateful.

.

One Nation Working Together for Peace and Justice

2010-10-04T23:54:00.000-04:00

On Saturday October 2 several bus loads of folks from Rhode Island attended the rally in Washington DC. What began as primarily a labor rally focused on a call for good jobs morphed into a more complex message as well over a hundred other groups endorsed the rally and added their messaging.

Over 150,000 people attended, packing the space on either side of the long reflecting pool all the way to the end opposite the Lincoln Memorial. It is pretty annoying to have the Washington Post under-represent the turn out, saying it "petered out" as you moved away from the Lincoln Memorial. I guess they must not have actually walked through the crowd or seen the view from the far end (shown above).

There were LOTS of different and creative signs. I was impressed at how common the theme of "end the wars/fund jobs" was. I think it resonated with a lot of people - not all of whom came planning to carry a sign but chose to pick that one up.

I wasn't able to hear most of the speeches - I was helping staff the AFSC table at the far end of the Reflecting Pool. I have a sense that a lot of the "dots" were there but that they weren't necessarily connected - war/military spending, militarization, immigration, funding for services, anger at corporate greed and congressional failure to bail out workers. So that is our work as we come home - to build on the relationships and connections that came from bringing so many people together and connecting to dots so that we can tackle corporate power, massive wealth concentrated among just a few, the profiteering of the military industrial complex, immigration and more.

We would love to hear what you thought of the rally. Respond if you'd like and start the conversation of next steps.

An Invitation to Paul Ortiz and the DREAMers from an Ally (Community Voices)

2010-09-28T14:17:00.001-04:00

Please read this post by my colleague, Pablo Parades, as he reflects on the Dream Act.

Pablo Parades Fri, 24 Sep at 1:17pm

LA DREAM Act Credit-Ruben Hernandez, http://www.flickr.com/photos/dreamactivistorg/3660708115/
by Pablo Paredes
Dear Paul and beloved DREAMers,
As a Latino, a veteran and an activist we share much in the way of life experiences. When I hear Paul's history I am proud and stand in admiration wondering how I can connect with such an activist and build together. I can see why you are throwing your hat in the ring in defense of the DREAMers. These are folks I also admire and feel a deep sense of pride for because I consider myself connected to the larger community with them. A community of migrants, children of migrants, people of color, and marginalized folks fighting back against injustice. In many ways, I feel they have become excelent role models for our community. They challenge us to be unafraid and to stand for what is right even if it means taking risks. They have answered a call that many sheros and heros in our history have before them. They now form part of an amazing continuity of freedom fighters that includes the freedom riders of the civil rights era, the out and unafraid queer folk who staged the Stonewall uprising and many even before those moments in relatively recent history.

5 years ago I also felt the call and I also took some risks. See in 2004 I found my brown body in a blue navy uniform and I was asked to take young Marines to Iraq to face possible death and probable orders to take the lives of Iraq's women, children and elderly in large numbers as "colateral damage". I could not do it. What's more, I felt it was the time to take a stand. As a latino I was also motivated by the reality that 4 green card Latin@ soldiers were among the firs week's casualties and over 20% of the invading force was RAZA. These numbers speak to the reality that when brown bodies finish bootcamp they are more likely to navigate combat rather than navigating radar and high tech systems. When I took my stand on December 6th, 2004, and refused to participate in the invasion and occupation of Iraq and spoke out publicly against that illegal and imoral war being fought disproporitonately by folks of color - my family was also risking something else.
My partner's visa had expired and I was drawing attention to our family at a time when her status was a vulnerability. She told me that the risks we faced were so much smaller than the risks that soldiers of color and Iraq's people faced. So I went through with it and I was Court Martialed and kicked out of the military without many benefits. I was held in a legal detention center for 10 months and I served out a 3 months of a Hard Labor sentence as well. My wife discovered she was pregnant a few months before my trial. I was not free during the final months of her pregnancy.
It is this history that makes me feel closer to the ideals, activism experience and willingness to face risk of the DREAMers than perhaps most people who haven't lived these kinds of life choices involving serious risks. After being discharged I was unemployed, uneducated, and unqualified to do anything other than War making from a Navy vessel. My undocumented partner and I, who were living in San Diego where I was discharged, had a newborn baby. Our Young family went from friend's living room to living room trying to survive and figure out an employment opportunity for me to support us. We were always terrified of travel even in the city and of accessing services because there were raids back then all the time and families torn apart. I wanted to petition for my wife's status but the process took long and we could not afford the application and legal fees ($1500 just to get started at that time.)
After almost a year of this lifestyle a job opportunity appeared in Oakland. This was almost as scary as continuing our current reality because it meant crossing ICE check points in order to go north. Because the job had a 3 month trial period we made an even more difficult decision that I would go first and stay in a friends living room while sending money back to my wife who now had to navigate the city, undocumented and not very fluent in English- by herself. As soon as the first paycheck came we began trying to work for her status but the lawyers said we had to be together and so she had to come up to Oakland. I went back down and we decided we would risk everything driving up even though my trial period was not over yet. We hopped in a little car and headed north with a newborn and not much to call our own. As we approached a truck weigh station I think some powerful force intervened on our behalf. I accidentally got off on the weigh station which was only for trucks and it just so happens by doing so we dodged an ICE Check point. My wife's heart pumped so hard I could feel it in her tense piercing grip around my right hand as we drove just ten feet to the right of the destruction of families like ours.
I am sharing some of my personal life to assure you that I am not the "Social Justice Elite" by any stretch of the imagination. I am not an "anti-militarist absolutist" by any stretch of the imagination. My experience led me to commit myself to work with young people of color and undocumented youth in low-income realities to fight for rights and challenge militarism that leads so many in these communities to death, psychological trauma and dire poverty. I've spent the last 5 years working with high school aged youth from low-income communities of color mostly in the public schools of this interesting state of California.
I am committed to these youth. I organize with them politically, I believe in lifting their voice but I also am committed to their basic needs. I help many of the youth I work with on homework and school projects, i've invited more than one into my home when they were in trouble. They have cried on my shoulder and vented in my living room. I've advocated with them about problems in their group homes, in altercations with police, and in problems at school. I've volunteered to teach spanish as an active elective, so that one of them could make enough credits to graduate on time. This community is my life. I know it well I know their stories and most of this country does not and does not seem to want to listen.

So let's talk about undocumented youth within this community. Studies and activist often mention that there are over 2.1 million undocumented youth in this country and about a quarter of them live in California where I do my work in the public schools. Most are in elementary school or High school or were there in the last 5 years at the same time that i've been doing this work in High schools. Few, a relatively small percentage are in college where you do your work. I don't mean that to minimize your commitment or your voice but i think perspective is critical. The fact is of these 2.1 million we know that at least 1.4 million will never see a college classroom. There are reasons for this that most activist and people wrestling with our country's inequality are somewhat familiar with. But I will restate a few.
Tracking systems in public schools that often pipeline white students to college tracks while students of color and especially undocumented English language learners are tracked on paths that don't prepare them for transfer into 4 year institutions. English Language Learners often undocumented are also mislabeled "special needs", sometimes they are erroneously thought to have speech impediment and other tracked disabilities simply because they are not english dominant and administrators misunderstand this.
The parents of undocumented parents earn far less income and work longer hours than citizen parents leading to low parent involvement and behavioral as well as academic problems that push these students out of school or into poor grades and bad tracks. The lack of federal financial aid for those who somehow make it past all these other barriers means youth who are academically prepared for college still lack access to college. Many undocumented youth have family commitments that result from their parents status that don't allow them to pursue a higher education including single parent homes where the eldest has to pay parental roles or be a wage earner.
These stories and these youth who will never see a college classroom, account for over 62% of the 2.1million undocumented youth being talked about in the DREAM debate. They are the majority, the most affected, and they are almost completely absent from the dialogue. We are focusing on the voices of the relatively small slice of this community that is very articulate, educated, and already in or clearly pipelined toward a four year university. I admire them, I support them and I can understand very clearly why being with them and seeing their valiant efforts day in and day out someone as committed to justice as you, would stand with them.
This is exactly why I stand with the other 62%. I admire them and I support them because they have a strong voice as well, they have a lot to say and they are also valiant. Every day they face this adverse system that pushes them literally out and they do so with courage. Yesterday one of these valiant youth told me enraged how he feels when even teachers speak of "illegals". He responded "I may have come from Mexico but they came from England, so why am I the Illegal."

These moments of push back and resistance have made me fall in love with these young folks that no one seems to want to listen to. They are not as fluent and articulate as some of the DREAMer voices in english. They are not without "baggage". They are often not college bound. But they have dignity, humanity and incredibly valuable things to teach us as well.
I learned a lot from your open letter, Paul, even if some comments felt unfair. I am sure this letter will contain some language that you to will take issue with. But I also hope that the DREAMers and you too, will find some value in my perspective and my call for inclusiveness and unity.
Given that I absolutely admire and stand in solidarity with the intentions of the DREAMers if not the current DREAM Act options for 62% of our youth. Given that I want to build with this new vanguard of the freedom fight and with you and your important contributions to this fight. Given that our movement can be stronger if it includes more voices especially the voices of the majority and the most affected among undocumented youth. I want to propose that we try to move forward together incorporating each other's voices and concerns. I want to invite the DREAMers to meet with the youth I love and hear their stories, concerns and needs. Most importantly I want to ask that the DREAM movement would invite us to their table where we would be honored to sit and better STAND with them and organize with them for all of our collective rights and freedom.

At that table we will have to have difficult conversations about wether federal financial aid such as pell grants is negotiable, and wether community service and vocational paths are negotiable, and lastly what the military component means to 62% of the youth who are most affected and for whom college may not be an option.
I am sure there will be some compromises, I don't expect all of our issues to unilaterally shape the debate. But I do hope they can get a fair hearing, without name calling and with sophisticated understanding of what is at stake and sufficient voice for the major stake holders.
I think I have laid out the case for why the voices of the youth I love and of veterans of color like myself deserve to become part of the dialogue. These are the most affected youth and the largest part of the undocumented youth community and to exclude them would betray the spirit of this struggle for justice.
As long as a military component is on the table then voices from young vets of color are critical to raise the issues that we understand are at stake. Paul, I know and appreciate that you were able to follow the footsteps of Zinn and Fanon and to a large extent so have I even if I am still low-income living in affordable housing and not your typical success story. And you are right that those experiences shaped me and politisized me as they did you and our elders you mention.
However this experience is the exception not the rule. For every Zinn there are thousands of homeless vets. For every Fanon there are thousands of veteran suicides (18 a day as we speak). For every story like mine there are dozens of stories like Jesus Suarez del Solar who got his citizenship through the military but post humorously after bleeding to death in the harsh Desert lands of Iraq.
So our stories and our ability to raise the stories of the homeless, the war casualties, the suicides and all manner of injury that the military can inflict (on our Arab brothers and sisters as well) have to become a part of the DREAM dialogue so long as a military component is considered.

Hoping to build bridges and unity like what we saw in the marches of 2006. Back then I marched with a diverse group of folks from the community and allies from Tijuana to California raising the issues of criminalization and militarization of the Latin@ community.
Our March stopped of at Cesar Chavez's Grave to let him know he can rest in peace and power because his struggle continues and it stopped at recruiting stations not to advertise the military path to our community but to challenge it.
In struggle and toward comm-UNITY,
Pablo Eduardo Paredes
Latin@ Veteran and Undocumented Youth Ally
American Friends Service Committe
Youth and Militarism Program and Human Migration and Mobility Network
First published on Facebook, reprinted with permission

2010-07-29T21:57:00.000-04:00

It has been an intense 24 hours. Wednesday night several hundred people gathered for a candlelight vigil for our friend and fellow activist David "Doc" St. Germain. Many people spoke of his love, his passion for justice, his love of talking things through, and how we will all miss his wonderful bear hugs. We were people from his church (First Unitarian), fellow activists, people who had been homeless, his family - all people touched by his generosity of spirit, his love (which meant action, not just some nice mushy feeling) and his determination that ALL people be treated with dignity. It was a powerful gathering.

This afternoon over 200 people gathered at Dexter Park in Providence to say NO to racism and racial profiling, to say NO to RI being like Arizona. We have come close. Governor Carcieri's Executive Order implementing E-Verify and police participation in the 287 G program have put us closer that many are aware. Though it is hard to document changes, many people of color are clear that there is increased racial profiling, more pretext stops (a broken taillight that leads to further questioning, including on immigration status) and more deportations, often of people who have been living and working here for years.

Following the rally, over 100 people loaded onto buses for a trip to the Chaffee for Governor campaign office. All candidates for Governor had been asked to fill out a survey of policy positions, ranging from their willingness to withdraw the Executive Order (stop insisting on the use of E-Verify for all state contracts and sub-contracts and withdrawal from the 287G program), support instate tuition for RI high school graduates, regardless of immigration status, drivers licenses based on ability to drive not proof of residency, and more. Chaffee's office had not returned to survey, and as one of the top candidates, the group wanted answers. 100 people streamed into his office, and presented the list of questions, one by one. Most of the answers were actually pretty good. He has declared that one of his first acts as governor would be to renounce the use of E-Verify and he supports the in-state tuition bill and the bill curtailing racial profiling. It was not clear that his office understood the 287G program and that there was hesitancy on the drivers license issue. There will be more conversations! But it was a strong visit, with the group making it clear that we expect to be consulted and listened to.

R.I.P. David St. Germain (Doc)

2010-07-25T18:38:00.001-04:00

My friend Doc jumped to his death on Friday, July 23rd, despairing that the medical care he needed to survive would not happen. But that is not what I want you to know about Doc.

David St. Germain, known to most of us as Doc, was a man with a huge heart, an intolerance for injustice and the courage to speak truth to power, even when doing so cost him personally. If someone was being wronged, he simply couldn’t stand by and not try to address the problem. It breaks my heart that we were not able to adequately stand by him in his latest troubles. I’m sorry Doc. All I can say is that I, and I suspect others as well, will try to pick up where you left off. They are big shoes to fill.

I met Doc shortly after moving here three years ago. In what became a pattern, Doc would show up at some event, wait till things quieted down afterward, then ask if we could talk. Something was troubling him. Sometimes it was individuals he was concerned about , but often it was systems that were causing harm that so troubled him. I remember him looking at me, tears pooling in his eyes, and asking if I knew that there was human trafficking in Providence. It hurt him deeply that people could be caught in such a degrading situation right in front of us and people were looking the other way. Later he refused to stand by silently after the police brutally beat a man in their custody and he struggled to find a way for the community to hold the police accountable. Other times he was searching for ways to approach problems. He queried me about Quakers and the American Friends Service Committee, about non-violence and ways to speak truth to power that would achieve the results he wanted, always wanting to learn more so that he could be as effective as possible. Would that more of us were as humble and as open to learning new skills as Doc.

Over time we talked about some of his problems, but all too often he pushed those aside to refocus the conversation on whatever injustice weighted on his heart at the time. I wish I had been a better friend and worked as hard on the ways the systems he needed failed him as he worked when it failed others. There is much work to do. I hope that his death reenergizes us, helps us understand how essential this work is to real people. May we do so with the love and passion and humor that he modeled, but may we also be sure to care for one another along the way.

MassHope 2010 victory

2010-06-28T21:37:00.000-04:00

MassHope 2010 and the Student Immigration Movement held a press conference on Friday June 25th at 1pm to declare victory for their vigil at the MA State House. The conference committee had pulled the most offensive amendments on immigration from the budget. What remained was offensive but redundant to federal law and would cause no new harms. It was time, after 19 days and 18 nights to reflect on all that had been accomplished and go home.

And so much had been accomplished. In addition to the legislative victory, the Student Immigrant Movement gained new strength, leaders emerged, community built, and the larger community both educated and inspired. It was an amazing process.

MA immigration update

2010-06-24T14:46:00.000-04:00

It is reported in the Boston Globe this morning that a compromise on the budget was reached last night which stripped most of the most onerous immigration amendments from the budget, but others remain. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/06/24/budget_would_cut_services_local_aid/

The Student Immigration Movement will continue their vigil outside the state house. Join them if you can!

Will Massachusetts be the next Arizona?

2010-06-24T00:43:00.001-04:00

What? Seems preposterous. Not Massachusetts. But I think we dismiss that possibility at our peril.
Here is why I am concerned: there are a cluster of amendments to the MA state budget that are based on legislation recently passed in Arizona. The details, taken from the SIM website, include:
•    Creating an anonymous tip line to report suspicious people using false documents, business hiring undocumented people and people who are undocumented and mandating investigations of all no matter how uncredible the reports are. (This is a hateful part of the law, requiring neighbors to spy and report on neighbors. This is putting the federal government’s job of immigration reform in the hands of the MA state investigators and in individuals’ hands which would bankrupt and use tax dollars to follow up on less than credible reports.
•    -Denying access to assisted housing programs for undocumented people (This would leave many U.S. citizen children and family members homeless and increase government spending on motels, shelters and housing in the future.)
•    Creating stricter requirements for housing, social security and health benefits, documented or undocumented (This is redundant for undocumented peoples because they currently receive no social security, welfare nor food stamps, receive basic necessary health insurance and do not benefits in the federal housing projects and vouchers. This requirement would make receiving benefits for all, especially poor and lower income people, more difficult and stricter.)
•    Blocking limited and basic health care for undocumented people. (This is hateful and dangerous for the immigrant community as well as public health, creating barriers to basic health care for all, which is a human right, and therefore putting us all at risk for higher emergency costs and communal sicknesses.)
•    Requiring businesses that work with the state to use some system (like E-verify) to verify paperwork, or the business will lose contract with government and be fined. (Verifying immigration status for employees is the federal government’s responsibility, not our state’s job.)
•    Barring undocumented students from receiving In-State tuition. (This is redundant since MA undocumented students do not receive In-State tuition but it would block the five years of work that the Student Immigrant Movement has done to push for In-State tuition for undocumented students.)
Standing up in fierce opposition to these amendments, and leading the way for the rest of us, is the Student Immigration Movement. They have been holding a vigil outside the MA State House for almost three weeks now, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are holding press conferences, getting good media attention and doing a fabulous job of calling attention to what is about to happen.
Now they need your help. They need you to call your state senator and tell him/her that you want those amendments removed , that Massachusetts does not want to be in the same category as Arizona when it comes to racial profiling. The phone numbers of the state senators are available at the state website, http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenus.htm Then make a call to the Governor. http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3homepage&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Agov3   The students also would love to have you join them outside the state house. They plan on being there until either the amendments are removed or the Governor vetoes the bill because of the amendments.
The Student Immigration Movement is a collection of youth who feel the direct impact of our nation’s broken immigration system. Many of them, like the student at Harvard recently in the news (See below for link to Eric’s story) came to this country with their parents when they were very young.   They have grown up here, belong here, “feel” American.   They want to go to college, and like many immigrant children, want to go to state schools because that is more affordable.   They want comprehensive immigration reform that acknowledges the special problems of youth and protects their families. They come from many places around the world.   Some are still in high school, others are in college or working. And they are strong and inspiring!   Join them for a few hours – you will be glad you did.

PS Want to know more?   Here are some recent news articles and a couple of websites:
www.MassHope2010.com Information on the ongoing vigil.

www.afsc.org/goal/human-migration-and-mobility contains a number of resources and stories, including the document “A New Path Toward Humane Immigration Policy” http://afsc.org/document/new-path

WBUR is doing a series on immigration. On Monday the report included an interview with Susan Martin, director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University who says that an estimated 40% of people in the U.S. illegally, came here legally – on visas or border crossing cards. You can find the WBUR reports on the show Here and Now, http://www.hereandnow.org/

Eric Balderas and the Rule of Law, http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/06/eric-balderas-and-the-rule-of-law/58488/

Let's give this a try

2010-06-15T22:52:00.000-04:00

It seems like it is time to start a blog to the AFSC-South East New England Program in an effort to help our community stay in touch with events, news and periodic reflections on Peace and Justice activities in our region. Newletters seem to be a thing of the past and, at this point, somewhat beyond our budget, so we are going to try this. Please let us know what you think.

We invite people in South Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island to send us information about events we should highlight (either upcoming or recent), articles/books/websites you think we should share, photos of your events or anything else you think others who work for peace and justice in our region should know about.

Tonight I attended the report-back from the group of 10 folks who traveled from Providence (including 3 from Boston) to the national May 29th demonstration in Phoenix Arizona protesting SB1070. Over 100,000 people attended the demonstration from all over the country (though it barely got noticed in the mainstream media). The travelers came back full of enthusiasm, with a sense of embarking on their generation's civil rights struggle.

What many found most exciting about the gathering was that there is growing unity that racial profiling is racial profiling, doesn't matter if you are black or brown or Asian. It's wrong. It's all the same. And we must work together to make sure that it does not get encoded in our laws (and to make laws that explicitly prohibit it). The sense of unity at the rally was powerful. And folks are committed to that unity here in Providence.

T0ward that end, we began creating groups to greet the National Governor's meeting in Boston on July 3rd with a strong presence calling for an end to racial profiling and bills that copy Arizona's SB1070. There also are beginning plans for national demonstrations July 29th (the date the AZ SB1070 is to go into effect). If you are interested in working on any of these projects, please let me know.