SWOPblogger

For Immediate Release: April Fools’ Day
Contact: Karlos Schmieder, SWOP Communications

SWOP Delays Awarding Mattress Factory for 6 Months

ABQ, NM - This year's IRBy award - given out annually by SouthWest Organizing Project to those corporations and elected officials who most successfully exploit New Mexico's corporate welfare system - goes to Temper-Pedic Mattress Factory.

But due to the award committee's business model, SWOP has decided to delay the awarding by six months.

When Bernalillo County yielded Temper-Pedic Mattress Company a $100 million Industrial Revenue Bond, worth a minimum $10 million in tax breaks, public scrutiny pressured 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 conditions, like reporting on job numbers, a preference for local south valley hires and Payments in Lieu of Taxes were also included.)

Temper-Pedic has since postponed its hiring process for its West Side plant by six months, and we have no guarantee against further delay.

Temper-Pedic CFO Dale E. Williams' statement to the Albuquerque Journal that their business model dictated the slowdown (Feb. 6 ’06 Business Section) was refreshingly honest and instructive for future debate. Ultimately, companies seeking tax breaks are accountable to principal stock owners and business models; not tax payers or voters.

In the future these agreements can be improved and communities and tax payers can benefit by incorporating real community involvement from the beginning of negotiations. Without that involvement these deals undermine democracy, hurt taxpayers and are responsible for that giant sucking sound you hear.

SWOP Will March in Cesar Chavez Parade; Making Call to Support Protests around the Country against Anti-Immigrant/Anti-Family Legislation

Saturday's March, called "Social Justice for Immigrants March and Rally," is a chance for all of us who have wanted to join in the massive protests around the country calling for fair, humane and reality-based immigration policies to hit the streets.

Stand up against HR 4437! HR 4437 Criminalizes Immigrants, their families (regardless of status) and anyone who is deemed to have "aided" anyone without proper documentation. '

Pajrito Mesa wins Special Permit re-issue

Pajarito Mutual Domestic Water Association was issued a special use permit by the Bernalillio County Commission to again start building a temporary emergency well for the residents now living with out running water. The victory comes on the heals of bad news for the community, and was received very well. There's optimism right now.

**For real, it's time the children of Pajarito had the water. After years of hard work, thousands of hours of volunteer time and miles of red tape, it's time the county, state, regional and federal government work together to solve an emergency, deal with communities in good faith and stop the blame game that has become all too familiar.

SWOP, Sage Council , others to Work Together on Voter Initiative

"This is an historic weekend," says SWOP Director Robby Rodriguez .

Around 30 locals participated in a weekend skills building and planning session with Soltari, a local political consultant company. It is the first of three scheduled such weekends, looking to directly impact local and congressional races in the next couple of years.

Along with SWOP and Sage, El Centro de Igualidad y Derechos, a project of Enlace Communitario, and a representative from the Heirs of Atrisco also participated in the session.

**On the fun side, use the player below to hear a mock political ad for Paula Abdul for president from the hands-on skills building session.


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Solidarity Tour, COMPA, GGJ

Pedro Vargas of Venezuela and Herman Bedoya of Columbia were hosted by SWOP this past week during their month-long tour of the United States. The tour is an attempt to follow up on the relationships built at the World Social Forum. Vargas and Bedoya have toured Portland with PCUN, San Francisco with PODER and others, LA with the Strategy Center and others and Albuqeurque so far. They will be in Raleigh, NC, New York, Washington DC and San Antonio in the coming weeks. (In Albuquerque they met with SWOP, PMDWCA, Sage Council, Center for Economic Justice and the Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center.)

In Raleigh, Vargas and Bedoya are participating in Grassroots Global Justice's membership assembly as representatives of a Hemisphiric Network of social movements and NGO's called Convergence of Movements of the Americas (COMPA). SWOP is a founding member of COMPA.

HR 4437
Immigration

KTLA.com has a live feed from the student walkouts in LA. Awesome!

Take that, Minutemen!

Of course, scant coverage on the cable network news.

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LA Student Walkouts

Creaciones, a youth cultural group from El Salvador, came by the SWOP office yesterday and participated in an exchange with Jovenes Unidos, SWOP's cultural youth group. Creaciones performed a skit from their upcoming performance about the healthcare crisis in El Salvador.

Venezuela World Social Forum Community Report-back

Monday, March 27^th

5:30 pm – 8:00 pm

First Congregational Church (Lomas and Girard)

The 2006 World Social Forum took place in Caracas, Venezuela this past January. Come and listen to the experiences of delegates from Albuquerque about the WSF, the Bolivarian revolution, and other Latin American movements.

Hear guest speakers Pedro Vargas from Venezuela, and German Bedoya from Colombia. Pedro and German are on a Solidarity Tour of the US which will be coming through NM. (Stay tuned abuot the tour.)

Other speakers will include delegates from the Center for Economic Justice, Kalpulli Izkalli, Grassroots Global Justice, NM Media Literacy Project, Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, SouthWest Organizing Project and Young Women United. Come enjoy food, refreshments and discussion about the convergence of movements in Latin America.

For more information call (505)247-8832 and ask for Karlos

(The pics below are of German and Pedro in San Francisco. They arrive in NM on Sunday to begin their tour here. The pic at top right is of the opening march in Caracas, Venezuela for the World Social Forum this past January.)

Tune-in to KUNM 89.9 TONIGHT, Monday, March 20th, from 8:00PM to 8:30PM for a half-hour interview with Anthony Garcia of Albuquerque on "Espejos de Aztlan." Anthony is a 24-year old former Marine who served in Iraq for seven months at the start of the war. He spoke at Saturday's anti-war march and rally in front of over 1,000 protesters about his personal experience in Iraq and decision to become an activist against the war which began 3-years ago this past Sunday.

March 15, 2006 - photos from Arnoldo Garcia, NNIRR

US Media Black Out Immigrant Protests

If you relied on the US media, you might not have noticed the massive pro-immigrant protests held in US cities in recent days. A survey of several leading US border and national media outlets revealed scant or non-existent coverage of protests against the Sensenbrenner immigration bill, HR 4437, convened in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Tampa by Latinos Unidos, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Sin Fronteras, and scores of other organizations.

The dearth of coverage is striking considering the ample doses of recent media attention on the Minutemen, immigration legislation and the growth of the undocumented workforce in the United States. Not surprisingly, the US exception was the Spanish-language television giant Univision which featured prominent stories about the protests on its nightly newscast. A program on a Univision-affiliated radio station in Chicago is credited for helping promote that city's action.

To sum up: An estimated 20,000 people rallied in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, March 7, against the provisions of the Sensenbrenner immigration bill passed by the US House of Representatives last December. On Friday, March 10, from 75,000 to 150,000 demonstrators-or more- held a massive protest in the heart of Chicago against Sensenbrenner. Local media called it the largest demonstration in the Midwestern City since an anti-Iraq war protest in 2003.

Taking on the characteristics of a strike, businesses were shut down and traffic was snarled for hours. Bus loads of demonstrators arrived from surrounding communities in Wisconsin and Indiana to participate in a march addressed by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Chicago Mayor Richard Daly and US Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), among many others. "You are not criminals!" said Gov. Blagojevich in his speech. "You are workers who love your families!"

Protestor Abigail Marquez, an immigrant from Guadalajara, Mexico, said she was satisfied at the community response to the convocation. "I feel happy, because this shows we are united," Marquez said. Although US and Mexican flags were prominent in the crowd, people from other nations joined in the protest. Contingents from the Caribbean, Central America, Ecuador, Colombia, Poland, Ireland, and China were especially noted. Other forces supporting the demonstration included labor unions, evangelical churches, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, and the Nation of Islam.

Besides the Washington and Chicago protests, a smaller demonstration against the Sensenbrenner bill, but still drawing hundreds of people, was conducted in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, March 11. Despite the large turn-outs, many US English-language media outlets in the border region initially ignored the protests. The Internet news sites of the Laredo Morning Times, El Paso Times, Las Cruces Sun-News and Albuquerque Tribune did not carry any stories about the burgeoning pro-immigrant movement in the two days following the Washington rally. Nor did the print edition of the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico's largest circulation daily. The publications are located in cities with huge Mexican immigrant populations.

Tucson's Arizona Daily Star and the San Diego Union-Tribune ran small stories from the Reuters and Associated Press news services, respectively. Written by Karen Hawkins, the Associated Press piece included quotes from the director of the Illinois Minuteman Project , Rosanna Pulido, who participated in a press conference and tiny counter-demonstration in Chicago. Pulido said she didn't want to Chicago become a "sanctuary city," adding that 14 million underemployed US citizens could assume the jobs currently done by immigrants. Another Minuteman Project member, Carmen Mercer, was quoted by the EFE news service as saying that 9-11 made it imperative to oppose undocumented immigration. Although the movement kicking off last week's protests has obvious national implications, as well as local ones in communities across the US, the importance was missed by the US border media outlets surveyed. The significance of the movement wasn't lost on the Chicago Sun-Times, however, which ran a follow-up story to last Friday's massive march. "We've been taught a lesson by Chicago," said Martha Ugarte, an activist in Los Angeles, California, with the pro-immigrant movement. Ugarte said the Chicago rally was the talk of the town in Los Angeles, where organizers are gearing up for a similar action later this month.

According to Univision, anti-undocumented worker laws in Arizona are also inspiring the movement. Back in the Windy City, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights plans an event next weekend to help newly-naturalized citizens register to vote. On the other hand, members of the Illinois Minuteman Project and 9/11 Families for a Secure America blasted the pro-immigrant mobilization. Rosanna Pulido said US citizens are fed up with the illegal immigrant population. The Minuteman Project leader hoped that the "the outrage of the people of Illinois is heard through voting."

For their part, Mexican border and national press outlets gave high profile treatment to the immigrant demonstrations. Accompanied by an article drawn from different news wires, Mexico City's La Jornada daily displayed a big photo of the Chicago protest on the home page of its website, as did El Sur of Acapulco, Guerrero. The newspaper is widely distributed in state that contributes large numbers of migrants to the Latino population of Chicago. El Universal, El Diario de Juarez and enlineadirecta, an Internet news site based in Tamaulipas state, all featured stories written by the EFE, Notimex and the Spanish-language AP news services.

Additional sources: Univision, March 7, 10, 11, 14, 2006. Univision.com, March 10, 2006. Article by Fabian Santillan. El Universal, March 11, 2006. La Jornada, March 11, 2006. El Sur, March 11, 2006. enlineadirecta.info, March 11, 2006. El Diario de Juarez, March 11, 2006. ArizonaChicagoSun-Times, March 11 and 12, 2006. Articles by Dave Newbart, Monifa Thomas, Oscar Avila, Antonio Olivo, and Rick Pearson. HoyInternet.com, March 10, 2006. Article by Leticia Espinosa. Daily Star March 11, 2006. San Diego Union-Tribune, March 11, 2006.

Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

For a free electronic subscription email fnsnews@nmsu.edu

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SWOP was recently profiled by Clamor Magazine for their Land and Geography issue.

From the article:

Because we have to …
Environmental Justice as a Global Necessity
By Chad Jones and Mariana Ruiz

The struggle for environmental justice embodies Do It Yourself; as Angelo Logan of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice says, “Part of Environmental Justice is self determination and being able to speak for ourselves.” In this struggle, the Do it Yourself ethos is a necessity - not a choice.

After years of localized environmental justice organizing, leaders from community groups around the nation expressed interest in meeting together. Foundation allies who had long been supporters of the groups provided financial support which enabled the first national People of Color Environmental Justice Leadership Summit. The summit, held in October of 1991 in Washington D.C. resulted in the drafting and adoption of the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice. This convention also provided the opportunity for organizations to build regional networks that set the stage for a decade of building the national environmental justice movement.

The four groups profiled in this issue talk about the real impact to their communities, the lack of access to a safe and healthy wellbeing, loss of sustainable jobs and resources, and systemic loss of life. Their work and energy involve keen organizing strategies, real democratic practice and a commitment to members. And these groups are winning, having impacted legislation on a statewide and national level.

(The pic to the right is from the first People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit)

Read More...

karlos says:
Tomorrow (Friday 3/17/06) is the last day to cast your ballot for the Alibi's annual Best of 'Burque edition. The online form requires you to sign-up as a user prior to voting. (It's pretty non-intrusive, and the terms guarantee they won't sell your email address.) The city's most-read weekly freebie takes this voting thing seriously, and who's to blame them with all the shady elections around here.

Of course, we're encouraging folks to vote for SWOP in the "Community Action Group" category.

There's plenty of worthy organizations and groups out there, so cast your vote and give some publicity to the movement!

Saturday 04.01.06

• March begins at 11:00 am
  Martineztown Park
• Rally and Celebration 12:00 noon
  Civic Plaza 3rd and Marquette Downtown
  

Celebrate Albuquerque's diversity with speakers, entertainment and food provided for purchase by local vendors.

For more information call: 3-1-1 Citizen Contact Center
or Bonnie Rucobo 505-824-3380, Chuy Martinez768-3531 or Eduardo & Ysaura 256-1523

SWOP is a sponsoring organization.

Go to Spel One's (Jeremy's Giannini's) MySpace spot to hear his song, "25", a tribute to SWOP's 25 years of community organizing. On the site, click on "It's the 25" to hear the song.

Jeremy performed the song along with "Wally World," a song about WalMart, at SWOP's 25th anniversary Banquet and in Caracas, VZ, at the World Social Forum.

Spel rhymes about the petroglyphs, black berets and social justice while he disses Virgil Havestick, corrupt politicians and youth criminalization.

Chorus from "25":

25 years of stru-ggle
keepin' our people a-live
with the 25 years of stru-ggle
it's the 2-5, 2-5

Yo S to the W-O-P
and we owe it to every-body
25 years of stru-ggle
it's the 2-5, 2-5

You'll be able to hear spel at the Recuerdo Cesar Chavez March and Rally this April 1.

You can contact Spel One (Jeremy) if you want him to perform at your political event:

spellone@yahoo.com
swop 247-8832
www.myspace.com/emceespel

Wednesday, Tomasita answered Grist's Questions.

Today, she answered readers' questions.

Readers wanted to know about water issues, the nuclear cycle, housing, immigration, and much more.

karlos says:
The Journal had a story this week about a meeting between the Guv and Mayor Marty about placing an initiative to increase the city's minimum wage on this November's ballot.

ACORN, along with a coalition of allies, has also been gathering petitions from voters to put the initiative on the ballot.

The Mayor has said he'd support a state-wide or federal minimum wage increase, but has been hesitant to support a city-wide increase.

I'm calling the Mayor today (768-3000) to tell him I support a city ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage. Then I'm going to send him an email.

**There's also a Federal minimum wage bill being sponsored by Sen. Kennedy that will supposedly increase the minimum wage to $7.15/hr in three increments. It's a start, I suppose. I signed on as a "citizen co-sponsor " of the bill.

bill richardson
minimum wage

This pic comes to us from our sister organization over in San Antonio, Tx, Southwest Workers' Union (SWU).

They held a march to commemorate International Women's Day last weekend.

Pictured is a SWU youth holding a placard of Jeanne Gauna, former SWOP co-director.

***Don't forget about tonight's IWD event, organized by District 1199 Healthcare Workers to be held at ABQ peace and justice center over at 202 Harvard SE at 6pm.

Jovenes Unidos, SWOP's cultural youth group, will be meeting with CREACIONES, a youth theater group from El Salvador, at the SWOP office ( 211 10^th St. SW) on Thursday, March 23, from 5-6:30pm. Contact rosina@swop.net or call us at 505 247 8832 if you want more info.

CREACIONES will be performing on Saturday, March 25, at the South Broadway Cultural Center.

A crew will be going from SWOP that evening if people want to tag along with us.

***CREACIONES is an El Salvadorian community youth group that uses theater to bring up issues such as immigration, culture, children's rights, and the environment. They are on tour in NM giving workshops and performing plays about conditions as a result of the civil war, the assassination of Oscar Romero, oppression and colonization in El Salvador."

Tomasita González, SWOP organizer and mother of 2, is participating in a Grist Magazine's online "interactivist" dialogue.

Today she answered Grist's questions.

Next week, she'll answer yours.

From grist.org:

González in 60 Seconds

Posted by Grist at 12:13 PM on 06 Mar 2006

Carlsbad, NM - SWOP's voter empowerment team (I just made that up) went back down to Carlsbad this last weekend and hooked up with the local NAACP chapter and community members to phone bank local voters.

The phone bankers targeted 1300 voters from their list of 7000 for tomorrow's city elections.

Volunteers also hit the doors in 3 neighborhoods and passed out basic info to their neighbors.

Joaquin Lujan, who is taking on most of the organizing around this project, is headed back down to Carlsbad as this is going to post. He seemed optimistic about affecting tomorrow's turn out.

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

You can also find a quote from SWOP in today's Tribune about Rio Rancho's upcoming elections...

Help local folk go to Cuba!

A group of 10 people and their supporters are holding a garage sale to fundraise for a trip to Cuba this summer as part of the 37th Contingent of the Venceremos Brigade. The group's purpose is to protest U.S. Government policies against traveling to Cuba and the hostility of the Bush Adminstration against the island nation.

Garage sale: Saturday March 11 and Sunday March 12, 9am-3pm at the offices of SouthWest Organizing Project at 211 10th St, at 10th and Park St (1 block south of Central).

Please drop off saleable items or cash donations at the SouthWest Organizing Project office. You can make an appointment to drop off your stuff by calling Monica, Rosina, or Celia at the office: 247-8832, or emailing nmbrigada@yahoo.com.

From a friend in Havana:

Last night (Wednesday, March 1) Manu Chao played a free concert in Havana at the Anti-Imperialist Tribunal in front of the US Interest Section. There are 2 articles in the Granma International newspaper about this. They are interesting and mention that Manu Chao will play in Caracas on Friday and later in Bolivia. Both free. See http://www.granma.cu/

One thing that the articles don't say is how the USIS responded to Manu Chao's declarations in the paper supporting the Cuban Revolution and against the Bush regime.

On the one story high electronic billboard that spans the entire forth floor of the USIS office building just behind the stage..... the gringos flashed over and over again a message to Manu Chao utilizing the musician's own lyrics (in bold print below)...taken out of context ... and from a couple of different songs ....pasted together... they read:

Bienvenidos a Cuba Manu Chao..... Todo es mentira en este mundo... Por eso hay muchas Cubanos que tambien estan esperando la ultima ola…

Translated: Welcome to Cuba Manu Chao... Everything is a lie in this world.... For that reason there are many Cubans also waiting for the last wave...

During the concert that opened with cartoons on large screens making fun of "W", Manu Chao dedicated the concert to all those who fight against those who hide their evil deeds behind the word democracy. He also called W the single biggest danger to the health and happiness of the world's children. Toward the end he made statemenst praising President Fidel Castro and in memory of El Che.

Fortunately, concert goers could not see the nasty message being displayed by the shameless dogs at the USIS because the stage itself along with a sea of flags blocked the view. Probably less than 100 people saw it.

Still, what a great way to spend US tax dollars....eh? Stealing a revolutionary singer's words to broadcast nasty quips from a building that is supposed to represent the only official relationship between the countries (which, if the US were in fact a democracy, would be representing your relationship with Cuba). I think that more needs to be done about this billboard.... It seems to not be getting enough US and international attention.


If we want to save mankind from this self-destruction, we have to better distribute the wealth and technologies available in the world. Less luxury and less waste by a few countries is needed so there is less poverty and less hunger on a large part of the Earth. We do not need any more transferring to the Third World of lifestyles and consumption habits that ruin the environment. Let human life become more rational. Let us implement a just international economic order. Let us use all the science necessary for pollution-free, sustained development. Let us pay the ecological debt, and not the foreign debt. Let hunger disappear, and not mankind...

Tomorrow it will be too late to do what we should have done a long time ago. – Fidel Castro Ruz, 1992 Earth Summt, Rio de Janeiro
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karlos says: From Greg Leroy, director of GoodJobsFirst.
by Greg LeRoy

I and several colleagues Wednesday morning witnessed the Supreme Court arguments in DaimlerChrysler v Cuno, the landmark economic development investment tax credit (ITC) case from Toledo Ohio. The case could invalidate one or more kinds of tax breaks states grant companies; the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2004 that a huge ITC given by the state to the company violated the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Arguing for the plaintiffs was Northeastern University law professor Peter Enrich. DaimlerChrysler was represented by Theodore Olson, who served as Solicitor General for the Bush administration in its first term and is now in private practice.

As expected, about half of the one-hour session dealt with the technical issue of standing. DaimlerChrysler and the State of Ohio now claim that the Toledo plaintiffs do not have the right to bring the case in federal court. But this struck me as cynical business: the plaintiffs originally filed in state court; it was the company and the state that insisted on moving the case to federal court – and now they claim no standing?

Justice Ginsburg was especially tough in her questions about the standing issue, which besides being highly technical also involves the fact that originally there were two tax breaks at issue (the other was a property tax abatement). If the Court rules the plaintiffs lack standing in federal court, the case would begin again in state court.

When the discussion turned to the commerce clause issue, it became far more interesting. Justice Breyer’s questions, though few, were especially acute; he clearly understood the plaintiffs’ core argument: how the commerce clause’s ban on interstate discrimination was violated by the DaimlerChrysler tax credit.

The questions from some other justices, I am sad to report, suggested they are not conversant with some basic principles of how states tax corporate profits, such as nexus (whether a company has enough physical presence in a state to have its income taxed there) and apportionment (how states divvy up the income of multistate companies for purposes of taxation). More than once, Prof. Enrich had to correct a question’s assumption before giving his answer.

Enrich once even referred Justice Scalia to a footnote in a previous Supreme Court decision; Justice Scalia thanked him, adding "I don’t read footnotes," for the biggest laugh of the hour.

Justices Kennedy, Thomas and Alito did not participate in the discussion.

Afterwards, several of the plaintiffs from Toledo flanked Prof. Enrich as they faced about eight TV cameras on the courthouse steps. Two spoke, bristling with anger that the court might somehow rule that they were not harmed and therefore lacked standing. Kim Blankenship, who with her husband, owned Kim’s Auto Body, recounted how she was evicted through the use of eminent domain and compensated inadequately ro rebuild. How could they say we were not harmed she asked?

Charlotte Cuno, the name plaintiff, said she has three grandchildren in Toledo public schools. Their teachers have not had a raise in seven years and each school has just two computers, she said. How could anyone say I am not harmed, she asked?

In a touching moment that reminded us of what a David and Goliath struggle this is, Prof. Enrich acknowledged his braintrust – dozens of Northeastern University law students who have helped him over the past six years. Several were present and were warmly cheered.

View the entire content of this article with its press clips.

Greg LeRoy

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karlos says:

Next Wednesday, March 8, 2006 at 6 pm District 1199 Hospital and Health Care Employees will be holding their annual International Women's Day March and Celebration.

There will be a dinner at ABQ Center for Peace and Justice - 202 Harvard Dr SE.

Music by the Raging Grannies, exhibits, entertainment, etc...

Call 884 7713 if you have any questions.

Always one of my favorite events in the city.