SWOPblogger

From top to bottom:

- SWOP posters materials table;
- Dancing to Duke Zity Boyz
- Jeremy on drums, after performing "25"
- Somos and Enlace in the house
- Contreras' receive founders' award
- Gail Small (keynote) and friends
- More dancers
- Gladys in a familiar pose
- Jovenes perform
- Joaquin and Teresa MC's

karlos says: Follow the link to hear me talking about the World Social Forum on KUNM. Also, hear Andrea Quijada from the NM Media literacy Project.

Victoria Rodriguez, Joaquin Lujan and Sandra and Salvador Montes were part of a SWOP delegation that went to Juarez/El Paso on February 18th to participate in the planning meeting for the Foro Social Fronterizo (FSF), Border Social Forum, to be held May 1- 6, 2006.

SWOP is a sponsoring organization of the FSF.

The Organizing Committee of the FSF is inviting social-movement organizations in the US and Mexico to submit proposals for panels, workshops and events for May 3 - 5, 2006.

Dates: May 3 - 6, 2006
Location: Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua Mexico (across from El Paso, Texas)
The common meeting ground for the Border Social Forum will be Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua (across El Paso, TX) also the scene of a femicide where more than 500 young women have been brutally assassinated and their bodies dumped in the desert sands.

Proposed Program
May 1: International Day of Workers, simaltaneous protests. Organizing an action again the Wall in your City.
May 2: Border Tour and Travel Day to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico o to El Paso, Texas (and take a taxi to the International brige Punte Libre)
May 3: Social Forum
May 4: Social Forum
May 5: Social Forum
May 6: Action at the Border Wall of Death (Anapra & Sunland Park, NM) and closing events

The FSF website says the idea for a Border Social Forum...

...came out of an agreement between global south & global north social movement organizations and in particular from a discussion to develop a movement to ‘Tear Down the Wall of Death’ that Bush is pushing to complete and thus seal the US-Mexico border physically. Social movements from Mexico and the south will mobilize north to Cd. Juarez and groups from the US and Canada will go south to converge in Cd. Juarez. The goal of the Border Social Forum is to create a space for the ‘integration’ of the social movements from the border bi-national region and to connect social movements of the global north and global south.

Campaign:

Mobilizing and the campaign to ‘tear down the wall of death’ will kick-off or launch on March 21, 2006 to co-celebrate Don Benito Juarez, Indigenous president of Mexico whose slogan was “as in people and nations, peace is respect for the right of others."

La Idea:
La idea del Foro Social fronterizo sale del acuerdo tomado entre organizaciones de movimiento social del sur global y norte global en el Foro Soccial Mundial en caracas, Venezuela 2006. El acuerdo decidio tomar accion para derrumber el ‘MURO DE LA MUERTE’ entre EEUU-Mexico. Este muro de la muerte que Bush quiere fisicamente cerrar la frontera entre Estados Unidos y Mexico. La idea del Foro social Fronterizo es crear un espacio donde puede crear una ‘integracion’ entre el movimiento social de la frontera pero mas alla a la frontera con Mexico y Centro America y frontera norte con Canada.

Su presencia, apoyo y solidaridad es necesaria para derrumbar el
‘Muro de la Muerte’

For more Info/Para mas Info

World Social Forum
WSF
Foro Social Mundial
foro social fronterizo

What: SWOP Movie Night - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, 2003

When: Next Wednesday March 1, 2005, 6:30PM (The movie runs about 70 mins.)

Where: SouthWest Organizing Project offices, 211 10^th Street SW, 87102 (Just south of Central on 10^th)

**Two Irish filmmakers were in Venezuela in April of 2002 making a documentary about Hugo Chavez when they were swept up in a televised coup d'état. Their cameras caught his removal by force, and his unlikely return to power amid near chaos in the streets. With supporters and opponents hitting the streets during the power vacuum caused by Chavez’ removal, Kim Bartley’s and Donnacha O’Brien’s cameras caught all the action inside from the presidential palace.

Some of the most interesting scenes are from Venezuela’s private media, known to be hard-line Chavez opponents.

Anyone interested in social movements, the power of media or Latin American politics should see this film.

What begins as a run-of-the-mill propaganda piece for Chavez turns into a hair-raising piece of film when cameras capture this historic moment. No matter the film makers’ obvious reverence for Chavez, the film captures the realities of the coup and the depths of support for Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution.

¡Que Viva El Pueblo Venezolano!

The cost is free, and folks should RSVP by clicking and sending an email…

Karlos Schmieder
Communications Organizer
SouthWest Organizing Project
karlos@swop.net
http://www.swop.net.blog.htm

SWOP - Over a quarter-century Empowering Communities and Fighting Injustice.

From the Journal [paid site]

Hiring Delay Won't Cost Tempur-Pedic Tax Breaks

By Dan McKay
Journal Staff Writer
A hiring delay at Tempur-Pedic won't cost the company any of its tax breaks, Bernalillo County officials say.

The company is installing equipment at its mattress factory near Paseo del Volcan and Interstate 40. The plant won't open until the end of the year— about six months later than expected.

A slowdown in company earnings late last year triggered the hiring delay.

The company gets a break on some of its property taxes as part of a $100 million industrial-revenue-bond package approved by the county last year. It's the largest IRB deal ever adopted by Bernalillo County.

The value of tax breaks, which are in effect now, start at roughly $600,000 a year, with the value declining as assets depreciate. An agreement approved in August calls for the company to pay back abated taxes if it halts operations or moves the plant out of town within 10 years.

"By virtue of the fact that they have not even begun their production process, the claw-back provisions do not apply," spokeswoman Liz Hamm said.

Tempur-Pedic has made its first payment to cover the cost of taxes for the local school district and county hospital, which weren't abated.

About 300 people will work at the plant when it's in full production. Salaries are in the $25,000 to $50,000 range.

Karlos Schmieder— communications organizer for the SouthWest Organizing Project, a watchdog group— suggested the company should face some kind of penalty.

"Is there any way to delay some of these tax breaks?" he asked in an interview.

[Update] karlos says: Basically, Liz Hamm, a spokesperson for Bernalillo County, is saying that as long as the company doesn't start its production process, it could conceivably continue receive tax breaks on the equipment it purchases in the state indefinitely. (The Philips deal from a few years back should raise some flags - readers may remember that they were moving their tax-abated equipment to other sites.) That's a pretty big loophole considering the company bases its production decisions on business models, not taxpayer gifts from elected officials.

Still no guarantee against future delay. Still no jobs. Still no transparency.

Still no community benefit from the deal.

corporate welfare
taxes
Economy
Business
labor

Folks from Carlsbad at the Roundhouse lobbying their representatives.

SWOPblogger note:

And shame on those Senators for sticking it to working people while padding their pensions!

karlos says: forwarded by our friends at NNIRR...

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste:
February 14, 2006

In simultaneous press conferences today in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, immigrant rights advocates released a report on immigrant rights in the Northwest: "In Our Own Words: Immigrants' Experiences in the Northwest." The report is available on-line at the PCUN website:

http://www.pcun.org/campaigns/InOurOwnWords.pdf

“In Our Own Words” presents the testimonies of 230 immigrants from around the world living in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. As the Senate prepares to debate immigration reform, this report provides a timely look at the real lives of immigrants and shows how the immigration system affects immigrants’ efforts to live, work, and integrate into communities in the Northwest.

The immigration system fails to provide a meaningful path to citizenship for many immigrants in the Northwest. As a result, millions of immigrants without permanent status suffer employment discrimination and civil rights violations, and have limited access to basic services like health care and education.

To eliminate hardships that immigrants face, the report recommends creating meaningful pathways to citizenship and strengthening and enforcing worker protections. It also recommends broadening opportunities for immigrants to become a part of community life, and protecting immigrants from civil rights violations and institutional discrimination.

--30--
_________________________________
Arnoldo Garcia
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados
310 8th Street Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94607
Tel (510) 465-1984 ext. 305
Fax (510) 465-1885
www.nnirr.org

... there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it." GW Bush 03/14/2001

dick cheney
hunting
shooting

Chavez Speech, WSF 2006

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Opening March...

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karlos says:
Temper-Pedic's (TP) announcement to postpone its hiring process for its West Side plant by six months came as a disappointment, to say the least.

When Bernalillo County approved Temper-Pedic's $100 million Industrial Revenue Bond, worth a minimum $10 million in tax breaks, SWOP was very critical of the ordinance and was able to pressure the county to include some provisions for clawbacks to recover lost taxes if the Swedish Mattress Manufacturer halts operations or moves the plant within ten years. (Other provisions, like reporting on job numbers and a preference for local south valley hires were also included.)

By the time the bond deal was made public, the manufacturing plant was already being constructed on Albuquerque's west mesa. Robby Rodriguez, SWOP director, was quoted in the 8/24/05 issue of the Journal saying, "It creates the perception there was a deal made sometime before."

At the time, TP insisted it needed the tax breaks to keep going and start hiring.

The company changed its tune recently. From Feb 6, 06 Journal...

"We have thoroughly analyzed our (business) models and made the decision to slow down the completion of the Albuquerque facility," chief financial officer Dale E. Williams said. "(We) will delay its opening by six months to the end of 2006."

CFO Williams' response was refreshingly honest and instructive for future County Commission debate. The risk to tax payers from these kinds of deals is dramatic, even more so on the West side where residents lack infrastructure. Ultimately, companies looking for entitlements are accountable solely to principal stock owners and business models; not tax payers or voters. Deals like TP received from the County are icing on the cake, and don't really impact siting, hiring or environmental practices.

The myth that the use of entitlements to lure companies as economic development is to bring jobs is slowly being debunked. Tax breaks and other incentives for large, often multi-national corporations is about a transfer of wealth away from tax payers and working families back to wealth.

Without transparency, measures for tax-payers to recoup losses if the company doesn't live up to its side of the deal and real community involvement and benefit, these deals undermine democracy, hurt taxpayers and are responsible for that giant sucking sound you hear.

Bernalillo County should inquire about some additional community benefits in light of TP's announcement to postpone hiring.

Along with community groups and service agencies, local governments can negotiate better deals for tax-payers and recieve real community benefits in the future.

karlos says: from Joann at GGJ...

Copied and pasted below is an exerpt from an article where GGJ gets mentioned and a link to some short videos of the WSF. (There is a link to the complete article.)

Video’s
The GGJ banner comes out for a brief sec on the “Kickoff” video. http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm

1. Kickoff at the World Social Forum
2. The opposition to Chavez
3. In the barrios
4. Final report on the World Social Forum

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

Under the Sign of Bolívar:
The World Social Forum of Caracas (2006)
by Jim Cohen

ZNet
February 09, 2006

http://www.zmag.org/

The World Social Forum is taking place this year in a "polycentric" manner and in three stages: first in Bamako, Mali (January 19-23), then in Caracas (January 24-29), and finally in Karachi (March 25-28). In Caracas, inevitably, the gathering came under the influence of the presidential regime of Hugo Chávez, which led to a more fervent and more strategically-oriented brand of political language than usual in the space of the Forum. This led some commentators and participants to worry about a political takeover of the Forum. It must be recognized, however, that in Latin America today, the "radical pole" taking shape around Chávez and the new Bolivian president Evo Morales is not a marginal phenomenon, and the demand for a decisive political break with the neoliberal model of society is becoming insistent. Yet by no means did the Forum in Caracas cease to be a very pluralistic space of interaction among social movements and currents of thought in all their diversity...

The Forum organizers also made sure that large numbers of activists from the U.S. were on hand. Among the groups most visibly present were Grassroots Global Justice, which describes itself as "an alliance of US-based grassroots groups who are organizing to build an agenda for power for working and poor people." MORE

Former SWOP co-director and current Grassroots Global Justice coordinator, Michael Leon Guerrero, facilitates a panel of heavyweights during the main plenary of the World Social Forum...

photos from Genaro, SWU, and Tere, PODER, SF.








































































































































































































World Social Forum
Foro Social Mundial
Venezuela
chavez
Hugo Chavez
WSF

karlos says: My initial jetlagged thoughts on the WSF, Venezuela...

10 Million! 10 Million!
Caracas, VZ - With the opposition boycotting recent national elections, that was the mandate in favor of Hugo Chavez’ fire-brand style of Bolivarian Socialism. The people of Venezuela seemed genuinely proud of that democratic demand. With their hands raised and their fingers doing the counting, they chanted that magic number over and over again wherever, whenever people gathered.

“10 Million! 10 Million! 10 Million! 10 Million!”

As a member of SouthWest Organizing Project, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I was part of a Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ) delegation over a hundred strong that traveled to Caracas, Venezuela in the middle of a democratic social revolution for the VI World Social Forum, from January 24-29, 2006. We were welcomed with open arms, if not great logistics or transportation.

People approached us on the streets and asked us to be very critical of what they referred to as their “process.” ‘Tell us what you think,’ they boldly, proudly exclaimed. “Ask questions.”

Debate was everywhere. In cafes, classrooms and living rooms and community spaces. During political rallies, happy hour, breakfast, lunch and dinner. In subways and community gardens and museums and even under freeway ramps.

I have never seen such a hunger for information, or unfettered dialogue and examination of the political process between people from all different political leanings, backgrounds and economic class.

They wanted us to return to our work and talk about the sweeping democratic changes taking place all over South America, to talk about what we saw. They asked us to return and tell the world that the social changes, their Bolivarian circles and, yes, Chavez are here to stay.

“Oooh! Aaah! Chavez no se va!” they chanted.

(To be fair, we were also yelled at once in an upscale neighborhood – they called us “Socialistas con Dollares,” Socialists with Dollars, and urged us to leave their country. That made us all chuckle.)

Debate also raged within the WSF itself. Was it just “leftist tourism,” as Chavez and others warned could be its future? Was having the WSF in Venezuela right now a nod of support to Chavez? What would come out of the WSF? Just more workshops, debate and a forum for relationship building? Or would there be concrete proposals adopted by the WSF as a body? Could the WSF become a unifying force for social movements worldwide?

Surely, there was a little bit of all those things and none of those things happening at the diverse, multifaceted conference.

Some personal highlights…

Coordinadora Simon Bolivar. A former neighborhood jail and police station where local organizers say they were tortured turned community space complete with radio station, internet connections and revolutionary spirit…

What an amazing place. Seemingly across the street from Mira Flores, where Chavez makes his bed, Coordinadora Simon Bolivar is a lesson in self-determination. Chavez didn’t order it or let it happen; the community – the organized community – just took it over. Participatory democracy and direct action – what an inspiring combination.

Institutio Bolivar Marti. In cities as big as Caracas, under freeway ramps and forgotten open space there often lies informal societies of homeless, often drug addicted and gang afflicted compatriots. Bolivarian circles and projects flourish in such places. Built in former off-the-record dumping grounds for trash, pollution and even human beings, this community run, led and worked garden was a case study in environmental justice.

As a side note, it was the most dangerous EJ tour ever. We walked across the freeway, with our guides stopping traffic. Now, if you’ve ever driven in Caracas, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Muro de Muerto Press Conference. (Look back for more on this exciting mobilization to symbolically tear down Bush’s wall at the US/Mexico Border.)

COMPA Connections. Herman, Suraima, Maglio, Pedro, Victor, SWU etc…

Victor is a part of 170 brigades of 4 to 5 people each. Brigades are responsible for block-walking districts or precincts [barrios] during elections. The vote is supposed to be a “reflection of the movement.” )

GGJ Delegation. Couldn’t have been there with a better bunch! The opening march was so fun. Props to the folks leading the chanting!

**SWOP’s stated mission continues to be to ‘empower disenfranchised communities in the southwest United States to realize racial and gender equality and social and economic justice.’

It’s our humble vision for democratic participation from the grassroots.

Over SWOP’s 25 year existence we’ve taken heat for principled stances against US militarism and imperialism and their devastating impacts abroad and in our own communities. We will continue to do so. We offer our solidarity to the people of Venezuela in their search for a better, more just society. Ours is a solidarity not born from charity, but rather instinctive from the understanding that our interests, values and needs are one and the same.

Must Have’s at WSF, global conferences, etc…
(from experience without)

Local Cell Phone

Walkie talkies, if no cell

Camera

Laptop

Voice recorder

Comfortable shoes

Cash – effectivo

Business Cards

Gifts/Materials

Poster Tube

“We have been run over by capitalism as you can see,” said a member of the Bolivar Marti Ecological Institute as he pointed to a huge ad on the side of the freeway GGJ delegates were touring as part of a series of site visits with local organizations. “But we are proud of [the democratic process] and our revolution. …With all do respect, Chavez is the only real Chavista.” Said in all respect for Chavez, the bro was talking about people power.

World Social Forum
Foro Social Mundial
Venezuela
chavez
Hugo Chavez
WSF