SWOPblogger

Here's something to start your Monday on a funny note.

Click here: May Day Presidential Address

Tune in tomorrow for the Great American Boycott Blog for what has now become the US May Day. Come out and demonstrate with us at Tiguex Park.

International Workers Day.

Ever wondered why we work 8 hours a day? Thank the labor movement. Although this day is an important holiday for the rest of the world, and ignored by the US, May Day was ignited by riots in Chicago - go figure.

International Workers' Day

International Workers' Day (a name used interchangeably with May Day) is a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labour movement.

May Day commonly sees organized street demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of working people and their labour unions throughout Europe and most of the rest of the world — though, as noted below, not in either the United States or Canada.

More radical groups such as communists and anarchists are also given to widespread street protest on this day as well.

May Day was originally the commemoration of the Chicago riots of 1886: in 1889, the first congress of the Second International, meeting in Paris for the centennial of the French Revolution and the Exposition Universelle (1889), following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne, called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago riot.

These were so successful that May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International's second congress in 1891. The May Day Riots of 1894 and May Day Riots of 1919 occurred subsequently.

In 1904, the International Socialist Conference meeting in Amsterdam called on "all Social-Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace."

As the most effective way of demonstrating was by striking, the congress made it "mandatory upon the proletarian organizations of all countries to stop work on May 1, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers."

May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and anarchist groups. In some circles, bonfires are lit in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot, usually right as the first day of May begins [2].

Due to its status as a celebration of the efforts of workers and the socialist movement, May Day is an important official holiday in Communist countries such as the People's Republic of China, Cuba, and the former Soviet Union. May Day celebrations typically feature elaborate popular and military parades in these countries.

In countries other than the United States and Canada, resident working classes fought hard to make May Day an official holiday[citation needed], efforts which largely succeeded. For this reason, in most of the world today, May Day is marked by massive street rallies led by workers, their trade unions, anarchists and various socialist and communist parties.

The First and Second Red Scare periods ended May Day as a mass holiday in the United States, which now celebrates its Labor Day on the first Monday of September, due to its importance in Communist countries.

Labels: May Day, worker's rights

The New Mexico delegation to the US Social Forum needs your support!

Come to our Enchilada Dinner

When: May 5, 2007, 6:00-8:00pm

Where: St Francis Xavier Parish Hall, 820 Broadway SE

Donation: $10-$15 per person, sliding scale

In June 2007, 100 New Mexicans representing 9 social justice organizations will travel together to the United States Social Forum in Atlanta, Georgia.

The U.S. Social Forum is a historic gathering of community based social justice organizations from throughout the country. For 5 days we will share experiences, strategies, and perspectives.

We will travel to the forum on two charter buses, participating in the "People's Freedom Caravan." We'll learn about social justice history and current struggles in San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, Jackson, and Selma along the way. In each city our friends will then join the caravan on our journey to Atlanta.

We need your support in order to make our delegation a success. Please join us on May 5 for an evening of food, friends, and fundraising!

Labels: USSF

Planning on doing an action? Here's a national calendar:
May Day Calendar

Go post!

Labels: Immigration, May 1st, May Day

SWOPISTAS: Join us on May Day for the National Day of Action in Santa Fe & Albuquerque

Albuquerque
National Day of Action
SUPPORT IMMIGRATION REFORM NOW!
STOP THE RAIDS!

CELEBRATION & March
Tuesday, May 1st
International Worker's Day
3:00-5:00 march
at Tiguex Park
(Moutain/calle 16)

March & Family Event for Comprehensive Immigration Reform and Family Unity
Featuring: Cumbia Band, Grupo Zeda, Mariachis Dorados de Villa; family activities, and information.

Wear something white in solidarity and bring a picnic for your familiy (it is a no-purchase day).
For more information: El CENTRO de Igualdad y Derechos (505) 246-1627
________________________________

¡REFORMA MIGRATORIA AHORA!
¡ALTO A LAS REDADAS!
¡Únete! Celebremos un año más de lucha y esperanza

CELEBRACIÓN Y Marcha
Martes, 1º de mayo
Día Internacional de los Trabajadores
3:00-5:00marcharemos
En el parque Tiguex
(Moutain/calle 16)

Evento familiar y Marcha para una reforma justa de emigración y la unidad familiar presentándose: Cumbia Band, Grupo Zeda, Mariachis Dorados de Villa; actividades familiares e información.

Use algo blanco en solidaridad y traiga algo de comer para su familia (es un día de no compras).

Para más información: El CENTRO de Igualdad y Derechos (505) 246-1627 o SWOP 505-247-8832


Santa Fe
National Day of Action
SUPPORT IMMIGRATION REFORM NOW!
STOP THE RAIDS!

RALLY & CELEBRATION
Tuesday, May 1st
International Worker's Day
4:00-7:00 PM
at De Vargas Park
(Downtown in front of Guadalupe Church and Dept. of Labor)

Music, free food and entertainment for the whole family.(Nacha Mendez, Mariachi Buenaventura, Monica y su Flechazo, Misterio de la Sierra)

For more information: Somos Un Pueblo Unido 424-7832 ________________________________

¡REFORMA MIGRATORIA AHORA!
¡ALTO A LAS REDADAS!
¡Únete! Celebremos un año más de lucha y esperanza

CELEBRACIÓN Y RALLY
Martes, 1º de mayo
Día Internacional de los Trabajadores
4:00-7:00 PM
En el parque De Vargas
(Parque de los Trabajadores, en frente de la Iglesia de Guadalupe)

Música, comida y diversión para toda la familia --Nacha Méndez, Mariachi Buenaventura, Mónica y su Flechazo y Misterio de la
Sierra-

Para más información: Somos Un Pueblo Unido 424-7832

Labels: Immigration, May 1st, May Day

MAY 3 2007
5:00 pm
6400 Uptown Blvd NE
DeLayo–Martin Community Room

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR
YOUTH WHO WANT THE TRUTH

For More 411 Contact The SouthWest Organizing Project or Another Side
(505) 247-8832/(505) 268-9557 www.myspace.com/swopyouth

Thus far in the War on Terror 3335 American soliders have died, 29 from the Land of Enchantment. It is also estimated that over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have also died.

The Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has declared the War in Iraq to already be 'lost'. Dubya's approval ratings are at all time lows, the people in the U.S. are taking to the streets VietNAM style.

We're in the middle of an Iraqi Civil War and we're gambling with the highest stakes imaginable, the lives of our brave young men and women.

Congress just passed a bill that would require troop withdrawls to start no later than October 1st. This of course is headed for the inevitable showdown with the self proclaimed "Decider", and an even more inevitable Presidential Veto.

Public opinion including youth are now mostly against the war, but the administration refuses to listen. Since the first enlistment cycle in '03, recruitment goals had not been met. But after propaganda for the war pushes and "in house" military recruiters on high school campuses, enlistment goals were finally met in '05-'06.

According to the National Research Council the U.S. Department of Defense is the nation's largest employer, with 1.2 million active duty personnel and 675,000 civilian support employees.

The military enlists approx. 200,000 new recruits each year. With about 15,000 military recruiters on payroll, their sole purpose is to sniff out, find, recruit, (many times lie to) and enlist young people.

Military recruiters have stepped up their game, the effects of this increase in recruiting are the most visible in schools where the student body is made up of mostly people of color. With a recruitment budget of around $4 billion, young people are constantly being hit with a steady barrage of ads for military service.

The "No Child Left Behind" act allows recruiters access to school records of high school juniors and seniors and allows them access to campus' nationwide.

Recruiters are the salesmen for the military; misleading our youth with bribes of education and a chance to see the world in exchange for the ultimate risk- their lives.

Thats why the young folk over at SWOP have decided to stand against heightened military recruitment targeted at young low-income students of color.

We demand the opportunity for young people to make well-informed decisions about their future.

To ensure this, we demand APS provides access to alternative education to the military.

We might not be able to stop the death quota from being filled for this War OF TERROR, but at least we can make sure that our young people here in New Mexico have all the information they need to make an educated decision about their futures.

STOP SENDING OUR KIDS TO DIE!!!!!

Labels: APS, military recruitment, youth

Dog and Pony Show definition:

The term has come to mean any type of presentation or display that is somewhat pathetically contrived or overly intricate, or put on for purposes of gaining approval for a program, policy, etc.

This has also come to be the definition for the Community Participation Process for Albuquerque's Buena Vista St. SE Residents and the BMX open air stadium.

Read m-pyre's breaking story, it's damaging.

Labels: Albuquerque, BMX Stadium, Buena Vista

Toxic waste and race: Report confirms no progress made in 20 years

University of Michigan
ANN ARBOR, Mich.

April 10, 2007

http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=3253

Environmental injustice in people-of-color communities is as much or more
prevalent today than 20 years ago, say researchers commissioned to conduct a
follow-up to the 1987 landmark study, "Toxic Wastes and Race in the United
States."

The new report, "Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty,
1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism in the
United States," shows that 20 years later, disproportionately large numbers
of people of color still live in hazardous waste host communities, and that
they are not equally protected by environmental laws.

"People of color across the United States have learned the hard way that
waiting for government to respond to toxic contamination can be hazardous to
their health and health of their communities," said Robert Bullard, director
of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University.
Bullard was the principal investigator for the study.

The 160-page report, which was commissioned by the United Church of Christ
and produced by scholars at Clark Atlanta University, the University of
Michigan, the University of Montana and Dillard University, points to the
dismal post-Katrina response in New Orleans as one poignant example of
unequal treatment of minorities in hazardous waste emergencies. The findings
also show that environmental laws don't protect communities of color any
more than they did 20 years ago when the original report was commissioned.

Paul Mohai, professor of environmental justice at the University of
Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment and a co-author of
the report, described the results as dismaying. "You can see there has been
a lot more attention to the issue of environmental justice but the progress
has been very, very slow," Mohai said. "Why? As important as all those
efforts are they haven't been well executed and I don't know if the
political will is there."

Bullard, Mohai and colleagues Robin Saha, assistant professor of
environmental studies at University of Montana, and Beverly Wright, founding
director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard
University and a Hurricane Katrina survivor, are jointly releasing the full
report. An executive summary of the report was released in February at the
annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"The cleanup and reconstruction efforts in New Orleans have been shamefully
sluggish and patchy, and the environmental injustice may be compounded by
rebuilding on poisoned ground," Wright said.

The report is the first known national study to use a new method of data
analysis that better locates people in relation to hazardous waste sites,
and uses 2000 census data to show that the racial disparities are much
greater than previously reported.

"We think this study and the findings in it, as well as the case studies
that show the human side to the national statistics, make a really strong
case for environmental injustice to be on the policy agenda of Congress,"
Saha said. "It's clear the policies we are trying aren't working and that
something else needs to be done."

More than nine million people are estimated to live in host neighborhoods
within three kilometers of one of
413 hazardous waste facilities nationwide. The study found that the
proportion of people of color in host neighborhoods is almost twice that of
the proportion of those living in non-host neighborhoods. Where facilities
are clustered, people of color make up over a two-thirds majority (69
percent).

Ninety percent of states with facilities have disproportionately high
percentages of people of color living in host neighborhoods. States with the
10 largest differences in people-of-color percentages between host
neighborhoods and non-host areas include.



- Michigan (66 vs. 19 percent)

- Nevada (79 vs. 33 percent)

- Kentucky (51 vs. 10 percent)

- Illinois (68 vs. 31 percent)

- Alabama (66 vs. 31 percent)

- Tennessee (54 vs. 20 percent)

- Washington (53 vs. 20 percent)

- Kansas (47 vs. 16 percent)

- Arkansas (52 vs. 21 percent)

- California (81 vs. 51 percent)

Differences in these percentages range from 30 percent
(California) to 47 percent (Michigan). Host neighborhoods are typically
economically depressed, with poverty rates 1.5 times that of non-host
communities.

The report analyzed the percentages of all people of color in host
communities by EPA region and every region with commercial hazardous waste
facilities had a disproportionate number of minorities in host
neighborhoods. The study also looked at 80 selected metropolitan areas.

In addition to analyzing the total percentage of people of color in host
communities, the report analyzes the percentages of Hispanic/Latino, African
American, and Asian/Pacific Islander separately. For example in Michigan,
which had the largest disparity in the proportion of people of color living
in host neighborhoods, the majority of those minorities affected were
African American.

The report also gives more than three dozen recommendations for action at
the Congressional, state and local levels to help remedy the disparities. It
also makes recommendations for nongovernmental agencies and industry.

The report includes testimonials on the progress of the environmental
justice movement by some of its founders and key leaders. There are also two
detailed case studies, one on post-Katrina New Orleans, and the other on
toxic contamination of an African American community in Dickson, Tenn.
Finally, the report includes a timeline of milestones in the environmental
justice movement that Bullard solicited from environmental justice leaders
around the country.

See full report > http://tinyurl.com/2nd7dz (.pdf)

Reference sites:

- Clark Atlanta University: www.ejrc.cau.edu

- University of Michigan: www.snre.umich.edu

- University of Montana: www.umt.edu

BY JUAN-CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
Journal Staff Writer

This year’s Legislature set aside more money for Pajarito Mesa’s elusive community water source, but a plan for the system has yet to be finalized.

Gov. Bill Richardson’s request for $250,000 for a water system was passed by the Legislature in a capital expenditures bill. It will be added to the $500,000 the governor designated last year for the project.

“We would like to thank the governor for giving us this extra money,” said Sandra Montes, president of the Pajarito Mesa Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association.

The association is a group of Pajarito Mesa residents who have organized to lobby for a communal water source because one does not exist on the mesa. Mesa residents currently transport water from other water sources on the valley floor to their homes.

The association has been working toward the goal for several years. Although the funding is in place to start a project, there is still no plan.

The state is using the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority as its fiscal agent to distribute the money and the authority has taken over planning for the project.

“What’s been lacking is a plan to proceed,” said Mark Sanchez, executive director of the authority. “We were asked (by the association and the state) to step in and solve the problem.

We’re trying to do that to the best of our ability.”

The association’s original plan was to create a community well that could be used by association members on donated land. But during the course of the planning discussions at the end of last year, the authority came up with alternatives.

The plan Sanchez said seemed most feasible was to construct a large water tank at the west end of Pajarito SW, just at the top of the mesa.

“Water would be trucked in (by the authority) from an existing fill station,” Sanchez said.

“Residents could pull up and fill large containers for their own drinking water purposes.”

Sanchez added that one missing piece of the puzzle is land on which to construct the tank. He said no costs have been finalized, but he thinks the majority of the money that has been set aside for the association would be consumed by the project for planning, construction and land purchase.

“That’s one of the challenges, because without land, we’re forced into the process of having to acquire land, which is always difficult and expensive and time consuming,” Sanchez said.

The authority would deliver the water once a day and charge the association monthly for the water. The association would be responsible for collecting money from its members to pay the bill.

Montes said she hopes that, with the additional money provided by the Legislature this year, the well option may still be on the table.

“We are asking Mr. Sanchez to pursue that option,” Montes said.

Sanchez said a well would not be feasible because there is no guarantee that water under the mesa is drinkable, but there’s no way to tell before drilling a hole and testing the water.

Bernalillo County Commissioner Teresa Córdova said another issue with the well was securing water rights for it.

“But we’re doing everything we can to assist them in their efforts,” Córdova said of the association.

Montes said that, whichever option works out, it can’t happen soon enough.

“We are anxious to get started as soon as possible,” Montes said.

TERRORIST GOES FREE, BUT IMMIGRANTS DETAINED - WHY?
By ALBOR RUIZ

The New York Daily News
April 22 2007

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/ruiz/

While thousands of poor, decent, hardworking immigrants are kept detained in terrible conditions, Luis Posada Carriles, a dangerous man with a long criminal history and a pending deportation order, was freed on Thursday by a federal court in El Paso, Tex.

Posada's rap sheet includes terrorist acts in several countries, yet he was released on $350,000 bond and arrived in Miami late Thursday to a hero's welcome.

While hundreds of immigrant families are mercilessly torn apart by raids and deportations, this shady character was sent home to his wife and children.

Posada, 79, had been in jail since he entered the U.S. illegally in May 2005. He will stand trial on May 11 and, outrageously, the only charge against him is immigration fraud.

But Posada - born in Cuba and a naturalized Venezuelan - is accused by those two countries of planning the bombing in 1976 of a Cuban passenger jetliner over Barbados that killed 73 civilians, including the young members of the island's fencing team. Venezuela has requested his extradition.

The Justice Department, though, has refused even to classify the former CIA operative as a terrorist. No matter that in March of last year, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denied Posada's release, calling him a "danger to the community" and "a risk to the national security of the U.S."

Last year, an immigration judge ordered him deported - but not to Venezuela or Cuba where, the judge said, he could be tortured.

The deportation order has been unenforceable. Despite Washington's pressures, no country has offered shelter to such a character. And now Posada has been released and sent back to Miami.
Posada's release happens at a time when, according to the Homeland Security Department, the number of immigrants in detention in the U.S. has gone up from about 6,000 in 1995 to a whopping 200,000 today.

Even worse, as it was revealed in January, immigrant detainees have endured the hardship of being confined in in overcrowded jails where the temperatures often drop below freezing.
Yet Posada is back home in Miami, and has only to wear an electronic ankle bracelet. And although he is not permitted to leave his house without authorization, one of his lawyers told a Spanish-speaking TV journalist that he is "allowed to go to see his doctor and his lawyers." Undoubtedly, Posada is a lucky man.

"It is an affront to the memory of the victims of Posada's terrorism," said José Pertierra, a Cuban-American lawyer who represents the government of Venezuela in its extradition case. "But it speaks volumes about the absence of sincerity in President Bush's so-called war on terror."

In a written statement, the Cuban government, quoting the judge who ordered Posada freed, asks an interesting question.

"Why is he released," the statement says, "when judge Kathleen Cardone herself, in her ruling of 6 April that ordered the release of the terrorist, recognized that he is accused '... of being involved in or associated with some of the most infamous events of the 20th century. ... Some of these acts include the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Iran-Contra scandal, the midair explosion of Cubana de Aviación Flight 455, the 1997 bombs planted in tourist resorts in Havana and, according to some conspiracy theoreticians, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy?'"

This is the man who was freed and sent home to his family. In the meantime, thousands of poor, decent immigrants are detained, sometimes for years, and their families are torn apart.

aruiz@nydailynews.com

The first day of the Hunger strike was Friday. Today, they demonstrated again.

Solidarity for all hunger strikers and migrants!

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
Contact: Che Lopez
Office 210 299.2666
Cell (210) 378-5132

Organizers Stage 1-Day Hunger Strike in Front of Senator Cornyn’s Office

“We are demanding family reunification, a stop to all deportations & an end to racist laws. This is a symbolic action in support of migrant and worker rights leading up to the May 1st General Strike.”, states Sandra Garcia, Youth Leadership Organization.

Friday, April 20, 2007
10 AM
Senator Cornyn’s Office @ 600 Navarro

Members of the May 1st Coalition hold a hunger strike today to highlight the unjust immigration policies that separate families. Members of Southwest Workers Union and other organizations will not eat in solidarity with Elvira Arellano and her son Saulito.

Elvira is facing deportation, and is currently residing in church sanctuary in Chicago in order to be able to stay with her son. The strikers will refuse food from 8AM to 5PM today, in the spirit of the 8 hour work day which was won by striking workers on May 1st, 1886 and will be commemorated with a general strike and march in San Antonio Tuesday, May 1st.

Two weeks ago, Senator Cornyn introduced a draft bill that would eliminate visas for the reunification of families. Drafted in closed door meetings with the Bush Administration, the bill will only allow workers to come the U.S. as “guest workers” and virtual slaves.

Strikers and the May 1st Coalition rejects Cornyn’s racist proposals to divide our families, separate parents from their children, and create a sub-class of workers without protections from exploitation. We demand just and humane immigration reform now that protects the rights of migrant workers and families to live with dignity in the U.S.

1-day hunger strikes will be repeated on April 24th and May 1st culminating with the May 1st General Strike and March. May 1st events will begin with a rally at 12 noon at Milam Park 500 West Commerce (In front of Santa Rosa Hospital). The March begins at 6 PM from Milam to Travis Parks.

“This May 1st is being organized to celebrate the contributions that migrants & working class communities offer to society & the economy of the United States.” states Diana Lopez.

Labels: hunger strike, Immigration, May 1st, SWU

Cover the Uninsured Week begins today. I didn't realize we had a week like that. Can we name next week, Employ all with a living wage week? Or what about: Get water to Pajarito Mesa week.

Here's one in the spirit of the French Elections: House the homeless week.

This is a great article on healthcare and it's band aid approach to fixing the uninsured crisis, bottom-line it doesn't work. Real health care will come when we see it as a right, not a privilege. We need to end poverty first, and ending poverty isn't pie in the sky ideals, it's just not priority.

Money & Medicine
WINTHROP QUIGLEY Of the Journal

The debate over health care change in New Mexico always comes down to two closely related questions: how to cover the 20-plus percent of our population that is uninsured, and who should pay the bill.

We’ll be hearing a lot about these issues over the next few weeks. The annual Cover the Uninsured Week begins today. Consultants to state government on Thursday will release their evaluation of three proposals to bring health coverage to everyone. New Mexico First convenes a threeday “town hall” meeting on health care access and coverage May 3.

There is much more to health care reform than these perennial New Mexico concerns. Health care delivery is famously inefficient. Computerization has barely made a dent in providers’ offices. Studies show physicians deliver appropriate care only slightly more than half the time, and hospitals are dangerous to your health.

There are not nearly enough doctors, nurses, pharmacists or technicians. To keep up with population growth, we need far more providers who, if they are to be productive enough to be helpful, will practice in as-yet unimagined ways.

Those problems seem almost quaint in a state where more than 40 percent of the population is classified as lowincome, 400,000 people lack health insurance and 20 percent of children and 15 percent of working adults live in poverty. Much of what is wrong with New Mexico’s health care, including its uninsured population, is a function of that poverty.

“How do you build a system that addresses a population where 40 percent don’t have resources?” asked Lawrence H. Lyons, a physician with Santa Fe’s Presbyterian Medical Services.

Health care providers spend a lot of time dealing with social pathologies like teen pregnancies and violencecaused trauma spawned by poverty, which diverts time, resources and attention. Poverty is the reason so many people lack health insurance; people with good jobs get good benefits.

People without health insurance get demonstrably inferior care. They are sicker.

Their children are less likely to have insurance, even when the kids are eligible for publicly funded programs like Medicaid.

Uninsured people still need and get medical care. Service for which they don’t pay themselves out of pocket is paid through taxes or higher insurance premiums. Costs get shifted to people with insurance or eaten by health care providers; the costs don’t disappear.

Since enough payment doesn’t come from conventional insurance companies, New Mexico health care providers are in a continuous scramble to find someone to pay the bills. This results in a certain amount of tail wagging the dog. Providers sometimes set up programs not necessarily because they are needed but because a foundation or government agency will fund them.

That adds to the system’s inefficiency.

Government is the funder of last resort, and not just because people need care. Providers need revenue streams to pay for salaries, ever-more-expensive technology and infrastructure. As Presbyterian Healthcare Services CEO Jim Hinton observed, running a health care company in New Mexico is like operating an airline when you know that 20 percent of the people on the plane haven’t paid for their seats.

But upstream from the clinic and the hospital are the pathologies spawned by poverty. “A lot about health isn’t about health care,” Lyons said. “Before you get into health care, how do you raise the health status of the population?”

A kid on Medicaid will keep showing up with lung problems because the substandard housing he lives in is full of mold. A homeless guy keeps showing up at the emergency room with any number of complaints when what he needs is a job, shelter and help overcoming addiction.

All of the health insurance in the world, whether it’s underwritten by insurance companies or the government, doesn’t solve poverty. Until our reform efforts address poverty, we’re merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Winthrop Quigley covers health care and insurance for the Journal. You
can reach him at 823-3896 or wquigley@abqjournal.com.

Labels: health care, New Mexico, poverty

This is a great example of popular education in action and a way to learn about globalization. Much thanks to the children and the innovatinve ways of the after school program of Tesuque Pueblo. This was in today's Journal Santa Fe Edition.

Tesuque after-school group sells sports bottles to buy rain gathering system

BY GINGER MCGUIRE Journal Staff Writer

TESUQUE PUEBLO — Being able to help people in Africa gives 11-year-old Lakeisha Moquino an warm feeling and a sense of accomplishment.

The fifth-grader said participants in Tesuque Pueblo’s afterschool program researched poor water conditions in the world and learned that the people of Africa are experiencing a shortage of clean drinking water.

“We saw that (the people of) Africa walk miles to get water,” she said.

Some 25 members of the after-school program, mainly elementary students, are participating in a leadership project called Tapping Water for the World. So far, by selling sport water bottles with the “Water for the World” logo, they’ve raised $1,700 to help build a rainwater harvesting system in Chad. The goal is to raise $2,500.

Robb Hirsch, director of the after-school program, said he is looking for donors to match the money collected. The total cost for a rainwater harvesting system is $5,000.

The money for the water project will be sent to Global Green USA, an affiliate of Green Cross International. Hirsch said the organization helps build school-based rainwater harvesting systems that capture, treat and recycle water.

A handful of the youth involved in the project made a presentation to Tesuque Pueblo Thursday, teaching their audience about the project and the importance of water conservation.
They hung posters with messages such as, “The world’s water needs are in our hands” and “Don’t waste water.”

Hirsch said the students involved had a big say in the type of project they would work on, and work on a new leadership project each school year.

Last year the students collected blankets and books for the homeless. The year before they worked on a “Be Alive, Don’t Drink and Drive” CD that was played on local radio stations.

While the youth in the afterschool program launched this year’s campaign, Hirsch said a number of organizations including the Tesuque education and environment department have been instrumental in the project.

The water bottles, which cost $5, are available at Tesuque Village Market and Camel Rock Casino. For more information, or to donate, call Robb Hirsch at 988-3364 or email him at info@ takeresponsibility.us.

Labels: globalization, jovenes, Santa Fe, Water, youth

Labels: Dario Fo, grassroots theatre, jovenes

City, Mesa del Sol Execs Argue Over Water Rights Would Cost Almost $48 Million

Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal
BY DAN MCKAY
Journal Staff Writer

Mesa del Sol executives and Albuquerque’s public water utility have a $48 million question on their hands.

Who should pay for acquiring water rights to serve the massive development?

The developer of Mesa del Sol, Forest City Covington, says a 1993 agreement with the city of Albuquerque means the company doesn’t have to pay extra for water rights when it connects to the utility system.

The city-county water authority, on the other hand, says the agreement calls for the development to come at “no net expense” to the rest of the utility’s customers.

That means homeowners in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County shouldn’t have to subsidize the water rights needed for Mesa del Sol, said Mark Sanchez, executive director of the water authority. Instead, the company — or the new home buyers — would pay.

Mesa del Sol is a 12,900-acre planned community expected to consist of 35,000 homes and additional commercial space, within 30 years. The water authority has never had to consider a development of that magnitude, Sanchez said.

“We can’t handle that with our current water supply,” he said.

The dispute came up Wednesday in a meeting of the water authority’s governing board, which includes city councilors, county commissioners and the mayor.

The board voted 5-1 in favor of a resolution saying new development outside the
existing service area should pay for its own water rights. The measure touches on a host of other policies as well.

Mesa del Sol executives objected and asked the board to postpone action on the resolution. They said the water rights policy shouldn’t apply to them because of the 1993 agreement, which was for annexation into city limits.

Sanchez said the water rights policy isn’t new. The principle of growth paying for itself — including the need for new water rights — is already contained in the city and county’s top land-use document, the Comprehensive Plan; the Water Resources Management Strategy adopted by the utility; and the Planned Growth Strategy adopted by the city, he said.

The resolution adopted Wednesday simply compiles a host of existing policies into one document, Sanchez said.

Voting in favor were City Councilors Martin Heinrich, Isaac Benton and Michael Cadigan and County Commissioners Deanna Archuleta and Teresa Córdova.

Bruce Perlman, the top executive under Mayor Martin Chávez, voted “no.” During the meeting, Perlman said the “no net expense” policy seems reasonable, but he didn’t say why he voted against the resolution.

Earlier agreement
Mesa del Sol executives argued that the policy violates the 1993 agreement and that they had been assured by either the state Land Office, the University of New Mexico or the city administration that they didn’t need water rights.

The agreement mentions water service coming at “no net” cost to the city, but that phrase applies to water lines and equipment — not to securing more water rights, contends Forest City. The company said the regular water rates paid by each customer each month are supposed to fund the acquisition of water rights.

Michael Daly, chief operating officer for Forest City, said water rights are a “major impact on us.” The cost of water rights has been rising over time.

“We cannot have costs out of our control,” he told the authority Wednesday. “We have very tight economics.”

He said the cost of water just adds to other expenses at Mesa del Sol, such as neighborhood association fees.

“We can’t die the death of a thousand slices. It’ll ruin the project,” Daly said.

Possible lawsuit
A three-page letter from Forest City’s attorney mentions the possibility of litigation over the issue.

Cadigan said the company should have anticipated the cost of water because the 1993 agreement mentions the “no net expense” requirement and doesn’t have an exception for water rights.

“It seems to me that ‘no net expense’ means ‘no net expense,’ ’’ Cadigan said.
Failing to anticipate that cost “is a risk of doing business. If Mesa del Sol doesn’t pay for this, the existing ratepayers do.”

Córdova and others directed the authority’s staff to try to reach some kind of agreement with Mesa del Sol.

After the meeting, Daly said the policy vote wasn’t a major blow to the project and that he would continue working with the water authority to resolve the dispute.

The water authority estimated the cost of acquiring water for homes and businesses at Mesa del Sol at almost $48 million.

The cost would be spread out over several decades and could climb based on the market for water rights.

The water debate is likely to linger — developing the old Westland property and the expansion of water service in the South Valley also could raise the issue.
Sanchez pointed out that new development is required to be conservation-friendly and use only about 75 gallons daily per person — less than half what the utility’s customers as a whole consume.

Labels: Albuquerque, City Politics, Mesa Del Sol, Water, Water Rights

Commentary: Green apartheid
`Green economy' can be a luxury, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening by Kent Paterson

Albuquerque Tribune
April 19, 2007

http://abqtrib.com/news/2007/apr/19/commentary-green-apartheid/

In the age of global climate change, green solutions are the in-thing. New Urbanism-style living, sexy bicycles, nifty electric cars and fluorescent light bulbs are rolled out as answers to the ecological crisis that is sinking Planet Earth.

Visionaries who would've been dismissed as eccentric cranks or just plain ignored a decade ago are gaining a prominent place in the public discourse. Their solutions are interesting, innovative and futuristic.

Yet, many proponents of the new green economy possess an upper-middle class bias that will only further pulverize hard-pressed working-class people if their ideas are put into practice without any fundamental changes in the political economy.

In New Mexico, examples of the new eco-classism are everywhere.

The redevelopment of downtown Albuquerque provides a neat lifestyle for the yuppies who live in trendy lofts, charge their morning espresso and bagels on credit cards and cherish walking or biking to work. But an emerging eco-apartheid exists for workers who commute in jalopies from affordable sections of town, shop for cheap food at Wal-Mart and resort to payday loans to survive.

Street cars are cute additions to the New Urbanist landscape but do absolutely nothing for the many New Mexicans who live where basic bus service is either non-existent or an annoying joke.

A salient example of eco-elitism in action is in the battle over a town-home development planned for Northeast Albuquerque. Press coverage frames the fight in terms of low density vs. high density and New Urbanism vs. suburban conflicts. But the hoopla is meaningless to many - if not most - Duke City residents who can't afford either the pricey town homes or the existing single-family dwellings.

Familiar class and color lines are already etched in the changing natural - not economic - climate. While thousands of expensive new homes are sprouting up like desert wildflowers outside Las Cruces - carbon emissions reductions, anyone? - environmental refugees from last summer's Hatch flooding, the vast majority of whom are working-class Latinos, get a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer park off Interstate 25 in Rincon.

On April 14, a new movement was launched in the United States. Called "Step it Up 2007," the coalition staged more than 1,400 actions in support of demands to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Step it Up promises more actions in the months ahead, including star-studded concerts in the mold of Live Aid.

Movement spokesman and eco-guru Bill McKibben said that Step it Up aims to unite the citizenry across economic and racial boundaries.

"This is a global crisis that will affect all of us and requires immediate and bold action," McKibben affirmed.

Noticeably absent from the April 14 actions was a clear message in solidarity with the still-displaced, low-income African-American refugees from Hurricane Katrina, who are among the first victims of environmentally excused ethnic and class cleansing. Prancing around in polar bear suits is a clever protest tactic, but organizing a national movement to ensure that all citizens have access to affordable, environmentally-efficient homes is another matter altogether.

At a public forum sponsored by KUNM-FM radio earlier this year, former New Mexico Environment Secretary Judith Espinosa was the only panel participant to cast the climate crisis in down-to-earth, class terms.

"Not everyone can afford to buy PNM's green wind power or green energy," Espinosa said. "Not everyone can afford a $26,000 Camry that is a hybrid vehicle." She raised the provocative question of why the budding green economy is so expensive when the ultimate price of our current, fossil fuel-based one is incalculable.

Espinosa, who has a long history of community activism and service in working-class Chicano communities, is one of the few leaders with a green vision and an economic-justice outlook.
More voices like Espinosa's are needed in the emerging climate change movement. Otherwise, it will be dominated by a well-intentioned, but well-off, white-hued green gentry.

Paterson is a writer and journalist based in Albuquerque who specializes in covering Mexico.

It's enough. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled to uphold a ban on partial-birth abortions.
8 out of the 9 judges are men. It's disgusting really.

The Journal then followed on to quote 2 men on the matter. Richardson and the Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan.

This one is just to easy to jump on the band wagon, but I'm getting on. Gloves are off.

Sheehan was quoted saying: “Those who believe in the dignity of human life got a wonderful blessing today when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth abortion Ban.” Enough already.

If he, the Catholic Church or any religious behavior controlling monster really beleived in dignified life, why aren't they fighting the living wage battle, the health care battle, or the immigration battle.

We live in a white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy. That, Archbishop Sheehan is NOT DIGNIFIED. Human life under these conditions are not dignified by the people that run this system for profit.

If you really want to bless us, make concrete changes to the economic and social strucutres in place. This new decision to uphold this ban is not only a set back for women, it's a precedent for dictatorship.

I'm a mother of 2. I found out that I was pregnant with my kids when I was already 9 weeks into the pregnancy. I have been fortunate enough to be in a space where I beleive that I can be a mother. If I wasn't, with this new law I would only have 3 weeks to make a life changing decision. I'm 28 years old.

The space for a 15 year old may be different, or the space of a woman in a relationship that she is not happy with may also differ.

3 weeks is not enough to decide if you need to move, or buy a house, or change jobs, or go on a diet, or stay on a diet. Yet why do you think it's enough to decide whether or not to take a pregnencay to term?

You Archbishop Sheehan, Supreme Court Judges and supporters of this ban have created the conditions for another health crisis, you will be held responsable for any death of a woman who took matters into her own hands, after 12 weeks of pregnancy. I will hold YOU accountable.

Read the article here: ABQ Journal

Labels: abortion, pro-choice, sexual health, women

Remember this from a few weeks ago...it got published today in the ABQ Journal Business Outlook section. For those of you that missed it, check it out.

very cool!

I wanted to share with you my thoughts about the unfolding reporting of the Virginia Tech...

Last night, I went to bed listening to the latest update on the Virginia tech shooting, with a vague notion that the shooter was ‘Asian looking’ from one of the eyewitness accounts.

This morning, I looked up the AP wires news on the internet. The headline was: Gunman Student from S. Korea. My heart sank as I clicked on the link. Seung Hui Cho was 23 years old. The article said that he had a green card and as a permanent resident alien, he was able to buy guns. His family had lived in Virginia since 1992. He went to a public high school there. His neighbor Abdul Shash said he was a very quite boy growing up. The only brush with the law for this young man was a speeding ticket.

Then the article started quoting the South Korean government saying that they are shocked and that they hope this will not cause racial conflicts. It also quoted someone at the Korean government office in charge of North American affairs saying ‘we convey deep condolences to victims, families, and the American people.”

I was mad at where this article was leading. Seung Hui was not just a legal resident alien from Korea. He came to this country holding onto his parents’ hands at age eight! He is an immigrant, a 1.5 generation Korean American. He probably spoke very little Korean and had hard time communicating with his immigrant parents. He went to grammar school, junior high school, and high school in Virginia before he enrolled at Virginia Tech. Whatever his dark demons are, they are as American as any other troubled boys’ growing up in the suburbs. He could not have caused so much pain and suffering had he not had such easy access to guns. This is an American problem. Why not interview his high school friends and teachers? His college advisors? The gun lobby? That’s what they did when Columbine High School shooting happened. Instead, the reporters went straight to the South Korean government sources. These government officials have no real connection to nor have an understanding about this young man. All condolences may be appreciated, but the real condolences, apologies, and changes must come from the institutions and leaders deep in the heart of this country.

--Helen Kim

Labels: virginia tech

What happened at Virgina Tech, is truly tragic. Questions will swarm about why, and how. I can't say that I would know either, but what I do know is that our youth need alternatives.

It's not about a question of security or getting the call out early enough, it's about what is the infrastructure that is in place to support our youth to make healthy and well informed decisions. There are too many economic pressures, emotional pressures, identity issues that live within our young people.

Today in the journal there is an article on the draft. Why is there even talk about a draft? Bush needs to fill the death quota.

These are the types of pressures and decisions we want our young people to make. I can't even fathom at my age making that decision let alone when I was 18. And then we wonder why young people snap.

The SWOP youth group have been organizing around the heightened military recruitment for the war in Iraq. Our youth need alternatives to live successful lives, not perish unjustly and highly misinformed.

Check out what high school students have to say about a draft.
*************************************
WOULD YOU ANSWER THE CALL?
Teens divided over need for draft, whether they’d register
Journal Wire Report

Today’s teens weren’t around for the military draft of the ’60s and ’70s. Still, many express strong views about bringing back the draft during the war in Iraq. “If they were to reinstate it I would probably move to Canada, because I don’t like war and I think it’s pointless and ineffective, and it would ruin the economy and a lot of people would be (angry),” says Dan Wehr, a junior at Manzano High School.

Others teens have equally strong views.

“It would be foolish to do such a thing,” says Raphael Ramos, a sophomore at Modesto High School in Modesto, Calif. “The reasons keep changing for why we are in Iraq. I don’t see why there should be a draft for a war that doesn’t have a clear purpose.”

Resurrecting the draft, which would require young people of a certain age to register to serve in the military, has been in the news since Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., reintroduced the possibility of a draft.

The lawmaker says his goal is to force others to think more about the human cost of going to battle and to spread the burden of service more fairly across the population.

Some teens were strongly against it.

“The United States Constitution is a contract between the people of the United States and the government. To ask citizens to suffer severe psychological trauma, lose limbs and die for a cause that they may not even believe in is a violation of that contract,” says Paul von Soosten, an Eldorado High School junior.
Some teenagers say a draft should be used in only dire circumstances. Aaron Stigers, a senior at Modesto’s Johansen High School, thinks “a draft would be an appropriate measure if America is at war or when our freedom is in danger.”
Other teens say it isn’t needed.

“There are enough people willing to join the armed forces that a draft is not necessary,” says Felipe Linares, a graduate of Downey High School in Downey, Calif., who completed Marine Corps boot camp.

“I saw hundreds of people come in to boot camp while I was there,” he says. “Also, it was obvious who wanted to be there and who didn’t by the effort that people put in. A drafted military would not be as effective as our current all-volunteer forces.”

But some still think a draft would be necessary at times.

“I think it’s kind of scary, but I think that if the government thinks that it’s
the right thing to do for the country, that would be OK to reinstate the draft,” says Lauren Denman, a sophomore at Albuquerque Academy.

“But at the same time I realize that it’s hard for families to have to send their children and brothers and sisters to war,” Denman says.

Some teens remain undecided.

“Well, I respect it but I wouldn’t be all for it, and I would have to decide if I wanted to consciously object or just do it,” says Gabe Zambello, an Albuquerque High junior.

Kaitlyn Wakefield, a junior at Eldorado High School, contributed to this report. Read what more local teens have to say. www.abqjournal.com/yes

Labels: Draft, virginia tech, war, youth

Neither do the residents of the South Valley or Pajarito Mesa.

The Southwest Landfill has been operating on a crucial area endangering the water to nearby residents.

What’s a crucial area? It is an area where the aquifer replenishes itself through ground water seeping through.

Having the Southwest Landfill directly on top of the replenishing area can seriously contaminate the precious water resource of thousands of residents on well water living in the South Valley and Pajarito Mesa.

Now the landfill is requesting to renew their New Mexico Environment Department Permit for another 10 YEARS.

What they need is an exit strategy not a permit renewal.

Come Be Present – Be Heard!

Wednesday April 18th 6:00pm – 9:30pm
Polk Middle School
2220 Raymac Rd. SW
Albuquerque, NM 87105

This is a Community Information meeting where the landfill will listen and address public comments. We have the space, now lets take advantage of it. It's a chance to demand the landfills closure and to voice our concerns on the environmental degradation the landfill is creating in our communities of color.

Since 1984 SWOP and the South Valley Coalition have been involved in stopping the landfill from operating. The impacts of the landfill besides the water contamination are high traffic, nasty dust (see picture below), an increase in illegal dumping and will also pose a danger to the new community well that is being built by the County.

Labels: Envirionmental Justice, Landfill, Pajarito Mesa

BY BENJAMIN R. BARBER From the Los Angeles Times

The crisis in subprime mortgages betrays a deeper predicament facing consumer capitalism triumphant: The “Protestant ethos” of hard work and deferred gratification has been replaced by an infantilist ethos of easy credit and impulsive consumption that puts democracy and the market system at risk.

Capitalism’s core virtue is that it marries altruism and self-interest. In producing goods and services that answer real consumer needs, it secures a profit for producers. Doing good for others turns out to entail doing well for yourself.

Capitalism’s success, however, has meant that core wants in the developed world are now mostly met and that too many goods are chasing too few needs. Yet capitalism requires us to “need” all that it produces in order to survive. So it busies itself manufacturing needs for the wealthy while ignoring the wants of the truly needy. Global inequality means that while the wealthy have too few needs, the needy have too little wealth.

Capitalism is stymied, courting longterm disaster. We still work hard, but only so that we can pay and play. In order to turn reluctant consumers with few unsatisfied core needs into permanent shoppers, producers must dumb down consumers, shape their wants, take over their life worlds, encourage impulse buying, cultivate shopoholism and invent new needs.

At the same time, they empower kids as shoppers by legitimizing their unformed tastes and mercurial wants and detaching them from their gatekeeper mothers and fathers and teachers and pastors. The kids include toddlers who recognize brand logos before they can talk and commodityminded baby Einsteins who learn to shop before they can walk.

Consumerism needs this infantilist ethos because it favors laxity and leisure over discipline and denial, values childish impetuosity and juvenile narcissism over adult order and enlightened self-interest, and prefers consumption-directed play to spontaneous recreation. The ethos feeds a private-market logic (“What I want is what society needs!”) and combats the public logic fashioned by democracy (“What society needs is what I want to want!”).

This is capitalism’s all-too-logical way of solving the problem of too many goods chasing too few needs. It makes consuming ubiquitous and omnipresent, turning shopping into an addiction facilitated by easy credit.

Compare any traditional town square with a modern suburban mall. In the square, you’ll find a school, town hall, library, general store, park, movie house, church, art gallery and homes — a true neighborhood exhibiting our human diversity as beings who do more than simply consume. But our new town malls are all shopping, all the time.

When we see politics permeate every sector of life, we call it totalitarianism. When religion rules all, we call it theocracy. But when commerce dominates everything, we call it liberty. Can we redirect capitalism to its proper end: the satisfaction of real human needs? Well, why not?

The world teems with elemental wants and is peopled by billions who are needy. They do not need iPods, but they do need potable water, not colas but inexpensive medicines, not MTV but their ABCs. They need mortgages they can afford, not funnymoney easy credit.

To serve such needs, however, capitalism must once again learn to defer profits and empower the needy as customers.

Entrepreneurs wanted! With micro-credit, villagers can construct hand pumps and water filters from the clay under their feet. Pharmaceutical companies ought to be thinking about how to sell inexpensive retro-virals to Africans with HIV instead of pushing Botox to the “forever young” customers they are trying to manufacture here. And parents can refuse to relinquish their gatekeeping roles and let marketers know they won’t allow their kids to be targeted anymore.

To do this, we will require the assistance of democratic institutions and an adult ethos. Public citizens must be restored to their proper place as masters of their private choices. To sustain itself, capitalism once again will have to respond to real needs instead of trying to fabricate synthetic ones — or risk consuming itself.

Benjamin R. Barber is a professor at the University
of Maryland and is the author of many books,
including “Jihad vs. McWorld.” His latest book is
“Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults and Swallow Citizens Whole.”

PHRF Condemns Recovery Czar Edward Blakely and Mayor Nagin; Demands Blakely be fired immediately.

The People's Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) demands that Mayor Ray Nagin and the City Council fire Edward Blakely for his demeaning statements and plans denying the basic rights and dignity of the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. "Blakely's statements in the New York Times yesterday, were totally inexcusable", say's Kali Akuno, PHRF Executive Director. "It is clear that he was brought here merely to finish the ethnic cleansing of New Orleans by making no provision in his plans for the Black working class majority that was and is the heart of New Orleans".

PHRF strongly condemns Blakely's gentrification and displacement schemes for the redevelopment of New Orleans that only favor the developers and corporate profiteers. We further condemn Mayor Ray Nagin and the City Council for tolerating and approving his schemes. The privatization of the very office and position of Edward Blakely must also be condemned. Mayor Nagin should not have followed the footsteps of Governor Blanco and set up a private entity to manage and contract out public funds. These extralegal institutions and initiatives are wholly undemocratic and nepotistic.

Moreover Blakely slanders those of us who advocate the right to return for all those who want to return. Blakely claims we are "using people" for political ends. To the contrary it is the capitalist developers that Blakely represents who are using the people, by refusing to provide affordable housing; by refusing to open up the public housing projects and by refusing to grant any direct aid to the more than 50% of the New Orleans population that were renters. These actions are in place to facilitate a grand land theft from Black working class homeowners and to change New Orleans into a white majority city.

The Right of Return is a fundamental human right enshrined in several international treaties that the United States Government is a party to. The United States Agency of International Development (USAID) articulates the clearest statement and support of this human right by the Federal Government in its "Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons Policy". Produced in October 2004 the report states, "USAID's interest in internal displacement is driven by humanitarian and development concerns as well as political and security considerations" (Summary, Page V). Further it states, "USAID advocates that IDP's should be granted the full security and protection provided for under applicable norms of international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and national law" (Summary Page VI). This policy statement can be located online at www.usaid.gov (search Internally Displaced Persons Policy).

Edward Blakely, Mayor Ray Nagin, the New Orleans City Council, and all the branches of Government interfacing with Katrina and Rita related IDP's must be held accountable to the standards outlined in the Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons Policy and the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. To hold the US government accountable to these and many other human rights laws and policies, PHRF and a broad range of Gulf Coast community, civil, and human rights organizations will conduct an International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita August 29th – September 2nd, 2007.

In the interests of accountability and restorative justice, we demand that Blakely be fired immediately for his blatant disregard for the human rights of the displaced.

People's Hurricane Relief Fund
###

To read Ed Blakely's comments see:
New York Times
April 10, 2007
Steering New Orleans's Recovery With a Clinical Eye
By ADAM NOSSITER

Labels: Development, Gulf Coast, Katrina, New Orleans, Racism, Survivors

Attention: APS School Board April 12, 2007

Another Side, a project of The Peace and Justice Center and The SouthWest Organizing Project stand united against the biased system of military recruitment that exists in our public schools today. Recruiters are the salesmen for the military; misleading our youth with bribes of wealth & education in exchange for the ultimate risk- their lives. We stand against heightened military recruitment targeted at young low-income students of color. We demand the opportunity for young people to make well-informed decisions about their future. To ensure this, we demand access to all Albuquerque Public Schools to provide alternative education to the military, specifically those of predominately low-income young people of color.

The “Controversial Issues and Outside Speakers” section of the student handbook states, in accordance with Board policy and the APS student behavior handbook that, “as a public institution the schools have a commitment to objectivity and fairness in the presentation of all sides of an issue”. It has been the experience of both of our organizations that equal access is not being provided to groups offering education and alternatives to military enlistment.

This issue was brought to the attention of the School Board throughout the summer of 2006. It is our understanding that on October 2, 2006 the office of the Superintendant met with Albuquerque Public High School Principals and requested that a study be done on the status of equal access within the schools.
The results of the study were scheduled to be reported on January 25, 2007 in the District Relations Committee of the School Board. The results were not heard and have been consistently postponed throughout the past four months.

The report back was scheduled for the 26th of this month, which once again has been canceled and rescheduled for May 25th. School will no longer be in session at that time. We demand to hear the results of the study today and that steps be taken towards providing equal access immediately. Each day this report is delayed and equal access is denied, young New Mexicans are at risk of making uninformed decisions that will forever affect their lives with serious ramifications for their futures and ultimately their communities.


Julian Moya
On Behalf of The SouthWest Organizing Project

Maria Santelli
On Behalf of The Peace and Justice Center

Labels: APS, military recruitment, youth

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
April 11, 2007

Several hundred people protested outside the Texas Capitol on Tuesday,
saying proposed legislation would discriminate against illegal
immigrants by denying them education and health care.

"There's a hypocrisy that says, 'We want you to come; we want you to
work cheaply, but we don't want to give you any rights,' " state Rep. Jose
Menendez, D-San Antonio, told the crowd.

Lawmakers have filed more than three dozen proposals focusing on illegal
immigrants and trying to lessen the burden they put on social services.
Texas has an estimated 1.5 million illegal immigrants.

In April 2006, an estimated 12,000 people marched up Congress Avenue in
one of the largest civil demonstrations in the city's history to protest
proposed federal legislation that would have made it a felony to be in
the country illegally. The U.S. House proposal died, as did other
congressional efforts to overhaul immigration laws.

Cities and states are increasing efforts to pass laws addressing illegal
immigration.

Noe Lemus, an Austin cafeteria worker who was holding an American flag