SWOPblogger

Friday, September 29, 2006
Mesa Takes on Well of a Project

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez
Journal Staff Writer
The settlers of Pajarito Mesa have lived without a convenient water source since they began arriving more than 25 years ago.

But residents' dream of a community well is closer to becoming a reality.

As part of Gov. Bill Richardson's colonias initiative, Pajarito Mesa is due to receive $500,000 for the well.

"I have pushed for this project because I am committed to helping all New Mexicans get access to good, clean drinking water," Richardson said in a statement released by his office Thursday.

"The folks up there have no drinking water source at all. It's a health and safety issue," said Rick Martinez, deputy cabinet secretary for the state's Finance and Administration Department, which is overseeing the distribution of the money.

The colonias initiative funds public projects in small border communities.

Although Pajarito Mesa is not a border community, it shares some characteristics of such an area, such as its lack of basic services.

Many of the mesa residents are low-income Mexican immigrants, but there are also some longtime New Mexicans and people looking to escape normal society who make their homes in the rural environment.

"I love it up here," said Patrick Wyscarver. He said he's lived on the mesa for about five years and prefers the rural, do-it-yourself environment to the city. He makes his living selling tools at flea markets.

Water and electricity don't come easy on the mesa. It's not on the power grid, nor do any water lines extend to it.

Most people live in mobile homes in varying states of repair, and use solar energy to power their light bulbs and appliances.

But water is the real problem.

Mesa residents have to haul thousands of gallons of water every month from private and public wells in the Valley so they can drink, cook and bathe.

Elizabeth Cervantes, who has lived on Pajarito Mesa for three years with her husband and three children, gets extra water by collecting rain from the roof gutters. The family stores it and uses it for washing clothes and dishes.

Sandra Montes has lived in a trailer on the mesa with her husband, Salvador, since 1997.

"It's very quiet and peaceful," Montes said of the mesa. "Now I'm so used to being out here, when I go down to the city I get nervous."

Montes has led a long campaign to build a community well for mesa residents. In the meantime, she said mesa residents have learned how to conserve their water.

"We've been trying to get basic services up here, and it's just been one obstacle after another," Montes said.

In 2000, Montes helped found the Pajarito Mesa Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association. The group was created to organize the effort to get a well.

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the association $500,000 for planning and construction of the well.

But this February, the USDA took back the money, saying the association took too long in getting the well started and hadn't met some conditions of the grant.

"It was emergency money, we'd been sitting on it too long and it had to be rescinded," USDA spokesman Ernie Watson said.

Montes said her group tried to get the county permits, easements, water rights and meet the other USDA requirements. But she said the group always seemed to come across problems or new requirements that cost the association valuable time.

"That money is needed by the national office for the Katrina victims and other emergencies," Watson said.

New Mexico Legal Aid, a nonprofit law office, is representing the Pajarito Mesa water association in appealing the USDA's decision. They dispute the USDA's claim that the conditions were not met.

However, in the months following the loss of the federal money, the water association has made considerable headway.

Rosendo Abeyta, a mesa resident and member of the water association, donated a 3-acre parcel on Pajarito SW to the association for the project.

"This is going to considerably help a lot of people over here," Abeyta said. "We sure need it up here."

The association also received a special use permit for the well on that property, at 8913 Pajarito SW, in late March.

And Montes said a local engineer has volunteered his services to design the well.

Martinez said the state has met with Bernalillo County officials in the past few weeks to discuss the option of working through the county on the project.

County Commissioner Teresa Córdova said the county is currently studying how it might do that.

"We're doing the best we can to find solutions," Córdova said. "The county has supported their effort to get that well up there."

New Analysis Shows Risk from Intel Silica Dust

Scientific analysis of Intel’s claim that it does not release a potentially lethal form of silica, suspected in the deaths of two Corrales residents, concludes Intel is probably wrong.

Read the full story at CorralesComment.com...

Juárez to Host Border Social Forum (BSF) to Highlight Violence, Environmental Damage and Displacement Caused by North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

October BSF to Build on Momentum of Immigrant Workers and Family Mobilizations for Human
Rights in the United States, and Popular Mobilizations taking place in Mexico

500 + Representatives of Organizations (and rising) from the U.S. and Canada, and from Mexico and other countries of the Global South expected to Attend

Contact: Rubén Solís, Southwest Workers Union, San Antonio, Texas (210) 378-5699 or (210) 222-1704 email: grulla@igc.org

immigration
MEXICO
venezuela
Border
Border Social Forum
World Social Forum
US Social Forum

Congratulations to all our friends over at SAGE. From NM Environmental Law Center's Website:

SAGE (Sacred Alliances for Grassroots Equality) Council is an Indigenous and people of color-led organization using community organizing to build power through action, education, leadership development and political participation. Our commitment to social change and self-determination is based in spirituality that honors Mother Earth and all peoples.

For ten years, the SAGE Council has fought to protect the sacred lands located near the Petroglyph National Monument on the west side of Albuquerque . Using education, advocacy, political activism and legal avenues, SAGE Council proved to be a formidable champion for the petroglyphs. Through its hard work, it transformed the fight from a local issue to a national symbol of Indigenous people's plights to protect places sacred to their cultures from sprawl.

Blossoming from its work to protect the petroglyphs, SAGE Council has grown into a strong advocate for environmental justice, social change, and political participation by people of color. The organization is now focusing its efforts to mobilize Native American voters, so as to bring about lasting change via the electoral system. SAGE Council is also working with other non-profit groups to prevent irresponsible growth in New Mexico , in order to ensure that low-income communities and communities of color have access to a high quality of life.

SAGE Council receives the Jeanne Gauna Award for Community Environmental Activism in 2006 in honor of its tenacious work to protect sacred sites and communities of color in New Mexico .

The Law Center gives the Jeanne Gauna Award to New Mexicans who have given significant time and effort towards grassroots advocacy for the welfare of our state's communities, especially through the linkage of environmental health and community well-being. Jeanne Gauna was a co-founder and Co-Director of the SouthWest Organizing Project. Once again, the award is sponsored by Doug Wolf, former Law Center attorney, and his wife Ann Strickland.

See the past winners of the Jeanne Gauna Award.

from CommonDreams.org

Divine Strake Heads for New Mexico
by Ed Kociela

The bomb test looking for a home may have found one in White Sands, N.M.

A spokesman for Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said recently that the Divine Strake test - an explosion of 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil over a series of tunnels to see how deep it will go, how much damage it will create - has not been scrubbed. Read More.

[karlos says] So, it looks like the lease on Intel's latest IRB doesn't have any clawbacks of any significance, as was reported at NMBW and on the SWOPblogger. We've combed the agreement and can't find any reference to clawbacks that reqire Intel to "maintain current workforce population."

(A shout out is in order for Andrew Webb of the Journal.)

So, gulp, I was wrong.

I know we pushed for clawbacks at SWOP, but, alas, we weren't on the commision. Maybe it was just wishful thinking (and reading).

The good news here is that layoffs at the Rio Rancho plant look to be minimal.

(Here's to hoping it's none at all!)

There is a "clawback" that requires Intel to hire 60% locally. Unfortunatly, the penalty is only $100,000 fine to be paid to local schools if Intel fails to meet the 60% mark with local hires.

Ultimately, it may be cheaper to just pay the fine than hire locally. And besides, they didn't promise any new jobs with the last round of tax breaks - only that they keep their current employment numbers.

They are required to report employment numbers to the county, and we'll be hawking those and reporting it out to folks.

There are Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILOTS) that will kick in soon regardless of employment numbers. We'll get back to folks on those soon.

It's a great time to revisit this issue, so keep looking back for stories of Intel Inside New Mexico.

Intel
Layoffs
New Mexico

SWOP Chile Tardeada
Friday September 15, 2006
5:30-8:00 p.m.

Deadline to order your sack of organic chile: Tuesday, September 12, 5:00pm
$25 per sack – medium hot or hot – roasted.

This Friday - We will provide the green chile stew and beans. Bring your
favorite dish.

You can pick up your pre-ordered sack of chile beginning at 1pm on the 15th.
You must place your order by Tuesday, 9/12/06 at 5:00pm. Limited quantities,
order early.

Call for more information.

SouthWest Organizing Project
211 10th St. SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
505.247.8832
swop@swop.net
www.swop.net

MetroWestDailyNews.com is reporting that recent Intel layoffs won't affect a TIF accord Intel has with Hudson, Mass.

Even with recent job cuts, Intel employs more people than required by a tax increment financing, or TIF, agreement it has with Hudson, according to Paul Blazar, the town's executive assistant.
Intel's 1999 TIF called for 450 new local jobs when the company employed about 1,200, Blazar said. The number of jobs leaving Hudson, mostly through attrition, "doesn't sound like a tragedy to me," he said.

No word as of yet on the number of layoffs at Intel's Rio Rancho facility, or how much the layoffs will affect Intel's Industrial Revenue Bond agreement with Sandoval County. A clawback provison - designed for states and local governments to recoup taxes when companies don't live up to their end of the bargain - was included in 2004's IRB package that required the chip giant to maintain its current workforce population.

Intel
Layoffs
technology
AMD
New Mexico
Massachusettes
Oregon
Rio Rancho

"Organized youth make a stronger Albuquerque. Support our culture, respect our art."

There's a meeting tomorrow, September 7, 2006 at 6pm (Note the time change), here at SWOP to take the first steps in launching a campaign to create a youth friendly Albuquerque. Please join us in this important process and let other young people know how they can get involved. Please call or e-mail me with any questions.

That's Thursday, 9/7/06 at 6pm at SWOP - 211 10th Street SW in Albuquerque

Mónica Córdova, Youth Coordinator
SouthWest Organizing Project
211 10th St. SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
505.247.8832 (phone)
505.247.9972 (fax)
www.swop.net

Geek.com is spreading rumors about Intel's announced layoffs that may interest locals.

Geek says Wall Street Journal reported that Craig Barret asked to speak to workers tonight via some sort of high tech gadget. Would've loved to be a bug in Intel's modems to hear that presentation. (Kinda' hard to be a fly on the wall when Intel is into Cyber-redeployment.)

More importantly, for folks interested in what's happening in Rio Rancho, is Geek's gossip about a report by "Deutsche Banc's Alex Brown in San Francisco" that "claims Intel has pushed-out chip-equipment deliveries for its high-volume 300 mm wafer fab (Fab 11x in Rio Rancho, New Mexico)..."

Coming on the heels of a $16 billion Industrial Revenue Bond with Sandoval County, representing over $2 billion in tax breaks, this is particularly bad news. To say the least.

Intel
Layoffs
New Mexico
Rio Rancho
AMD

The Trib's coverage can be seen here. The Journal's coverage can be seen here. (Both are AP stories)

Interestingly, company officials declined to say if the Rio Rancho plant would be affected.

NM Biz Weekly has pointed out that the latest round of tax breaks came with a clawback clause that would allow Sandoval County to recoup some of the lost taxes if Intel reduces its workforce in Rio Rancho.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Intel
Layoffs
technology
AMD
New Mexico

One if Intel’s great secrets – besides hiding behind a clean industry myth – has been their ability to pit communities against each other to lower their labor costs and maximize the “incentives” they receive from local, state, federal and other governmental and quasi-governmental agencies.

In the 1990's Intel received what was then the largest tax giveaway in the history of the United States from Sandoval County, New Mexico, according to the New York Times. Since then Intel has gone on to receive sweetheart deals wherever they set up shop. The amount in tax breaks across the country, and world for that matter, must be staggering. Billions in New Mexico alone.

The one thing they promised other than that they’d “eat their children” in their quest for a smaller, faster microchip: Jobs.

That’s right, subsidized jobs.

Brought to you by the good citizens of Arizona, Oregon, California and New Mexico. And worked by dedicated and loyal employees.

Now with AMD on their heels, Intel is looking to layoff a healthy part of their workforce – and no locality is safe. There are estimates in the tens of thousands. Anything short will hurt stock value at this point.

USA Today has even begun to speculate. (Read the comments!)

Fred Marsh sent us following email last month:

Yesterday's Oregonian:

"Intel says it's not done reorganizing, and nearly all industry watchers agree more job cuts are on the way. Estimates run as high as 15,000, but others expect the number to be much smaller.

"Although Intel wouldn't provide the job titles of any workers being laid off, there are apparently no top-level executives among them. That frustrated laid-off workers I spoke with on Friday. They complained that the people whose leadership put Intel in a tough spot dodged the ax, which fell instead on the rank and file."

“I think many former Enron employees would recognize the way top managers are protected, no matter how much damage they do,” wrote Marsh.

So there you have it, folks.

I suppose many would say that nothing’s guaranteed in the business world, particularly one as cut throat as Intel’s. But it just isn’t true. The tax cuts they’ve received from governments all over the country have been, up to this point, guaranteed.

So what’s Intel top management's message to their employees, stockholders and to the taxpayers of the states they do business in?

‘Let them all eat chips. Micro-chips.’

Intel
Layoffs
Oregon
New Mexico
Rio Rancho
AMD