José María Morelos

LIBERACIÓN EXIGE ORGANIZACIÓN
¡Que la América es libre e
independiente de España …
que la Patria no será del todo
libre y nuestra, mientras no se
reforme el Gobierno, abatiendo
el tiránico...y echando fuera
de nuestro suelo al enemigo
Español…que la esclavitud
se proscriba para siempre,
quedando todos iguales…!
- Sentimientos de la Nación
José María Morelos
J
osé María Morelos y Pavón prócer de la lucha anti-colonial contra España
y la Independencia Mexicana 1810-1821; nació en Valladolid (hoy Morelia,
Michoacán ) el 30 de septiembre de 1765. Ingresó al Colegio de San Nicolás
Obispo como pastor en 1790, en Valladolid, donde llegó a conocer el cura Miguel
Hidalgo y juntos desarrollaron los planes con otras fuerzas independentistas para
iniciar la lucha contra el colonialismo español.
Durante la lucha por la Independencia iniciada el 1810, Morelos se unió,
y en varias ocasiones lideró, los rebeldes en batalla en el sur de México. En
sus primeros nueve meses de campaña aniquiló a varios pelotones del ejército
español en lo que hoy es el estado de Guerrero. En una segunda etapa Morelos
creo tres cuerpos insurgentes (guerrillas) para tomar posiciones importantes,
como Cuautla, para asegurar el triunfo de la insurrección contra la corana
española. Para mayo de 1813 Morelos logró la liberación de las ciudades de
Citlala, Tehuacán, Orizaba, Oaxaca y Acapulco.
Julio-Diciembre 2007
José Maria Morelos
Unión del Barrio
En septiembre de 1813 Morelos con las fuerzas insurgentes, convocó el
Congreso Nacional Constituyente en Chilpancingo, Guerrero. En este Congreso
Nacional se declaró la independencia de los territorios liberados y la creación
de poderes de un México Independiente del reino Español, confiscando las
propiedades de los españoles para posteriormente repartirlas a los mexicanos.
En este Congreso se Morelos da a conocer los “Sentimiento de la Nación” que
proclama entre otras cosas, ¡Que la América es libre e independiente de España
y de toda otra Nación, Gobierno o Monarquía, y que así se sancione, dando al
mundo las razones…que la Patria no será del todo libre y nuestra, mientras no
se reforme el Gobierno, abatiendo el tiránico, sustituyendo el liberal y echando
fuera de nuestro suelo al enemigo Español, que tanto se ha declarado contra esta
Nación…que la esclavitud se proscriba para siempre, y lo mismo la distinción
de Castas, quedando todos iguales…!
ver Morelos pg. 2 >
¡LA VERDAD!
Auto-Determinación y
Liberación Mexicana
Unión del Barrio reconoce que el pueblo
mexicano en ambos lados de la “frontera” sufrimos de inseguridad política,
económica y social desde que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos robo la mitad
de nuestro territorio nacional en 1848.
Desde ese año hemos sido victimas del
gobierno norteamericano: nuestra mano
de obra es explotada; miles de nuestros
jóvenes están en las prisiones y miles
más están en los frentes de las guerras
imperialistas impulsadas por este país;
el sistema educativo nos niega una educación equitativa y relevante; nuestros
derechos humanos y civiles han sido
limitados casi en su totalidad y cada año
miles de nuestros hermanos y hermanas
pierden la vida al tratar de cruzar la frontera ilegitima, en busca de una vida mejor. Frontera que se impuso para prevenir
la entrada del mismo pueblo la cual su
territorio fue arrebatada.
Reconocemos que California, Colorado,
Arizona, Tejas, Utah, Nuevo México
y Nevada constituyen Aztlán-México
Ocupado. Es el territorio que geográfica
y políticamente le pertenece al pueblo
mexicano y que fueron usurpadas por el
imperio Norteamericano en la guerra de
1848 contra México.
Creemos que el pueblo Mexicano en Azltán -Mexico Ocupado, tiene que auto-determinar nuestro propio futuro. La autodeterminación se define de la siguiente
manera - el poder de:
1. Interpretar colectivamente nuestra historia
2. Controlar económicamente nuestro
destino
3. Avanzar el desarrollo social de nuestro
pueblo al promover nuestra cultura, la
educación y nuestro idioma
4. Desarrollar de forma independiente el
carácter y la dirección de nuestra orientación política
5. Controlar las instituciones políticas
que hacen las leyes que nos gobiernan.
Julio-Diciembre 2007
< Morelos de la portada
José María Morelos; Independence Fighter
for a Free México from Spanish Colonialism
Para octubre de 1814 convocó otro
Congreso en Apatzingán donde anuncio
el Decreto Constitucional para la
osé María Morelos y Pavón was a
Libertad de la América Mexicana donde
Mexican Independence fighter against
se establece la República de México Spanish colonialism. He was born
bajo un estado soberano.
on September 30, 1765 in Valladolid
(now know as Morelia, Michoacan).
Atacado en las afueras de Tezmalaca, Morelos attended the college of San
fue tomado prisionero por mercenarios Nicolás Obispo as a pastor, where he
de las fuerzas españolas y fue conducido met Miguel Hidalgo and together they
a la muerte. El 22 de diciembre de would develop a program, along with
1815 fue asesinado en San Cristóbal other independence fighters, to initiate
Ecatepec, hoy Estado de México. En the anti-colonial uprising against
1828, su ciudad natal recibió el nombre Spanish rule in México.
de Morelia. En 1869, Benito Juárez en
su facultad como presidente del país During the struggle for Mexican
decretó la creación del estado que hoy Independence, which initiated in
lleva su nombre. El 16 de septiembre 1810, Morelos united and in various
de 1925, sus restos fueron llevados a cases led the rebel insurrection in
la Columna de la Independencia en la battle throughout the southern part
ciudad de México donde aun reposan.
of México. In the first nine months of
the insurrectionary campaign, Morelos
¡Viva la Insurrección Guerrillera
defeated entire Spanish platoons in
Libertadora!
the state today known as Guerrero. In
¡Viva José María Morelos!
a second phase of Morelos military
strategy three guerrilla insurgent armies
Raza In the Occupied
were formed to take critical positions
such as Cuautla, in order to ensure
Territories Celebrate the
the triumph of the insurrection against
Mexican Liberation
Spanish colonial rule. By May of 1813
Struggle Against Colonialism Morelos’ guerrillas liberate the cities of
an Diego, Chicano Park- On Satur- Citlala, Tehuacán, Orizaba, Oaxaca and
day September 15, The Raza Rights Acapulco.
Coalition celebrated the 197 anniversary of the anti-colonial insurrection In September of 1813 Morelos and
against Spanish colonialism; a struggle various insurrectionary forces convened
that Unión del Barrio recognizes as a a National Constitutional Congress
current struggle against U.S. settler co- in Chilpancingo, Guerrero. At this
National Congress, Morelos declares the
lonialism today.
liberated territories an Independent State
As Raza living within the Occupied Ter- from Spanish colonial rule, confiscating
ritories of Mexico (or what people know stolen lands in the possession of Spanish
as the U.S. Southwest), we struggle to settlers and redistributing these lands to
rescue our history in a time when the the indigenous peoples of México. At
J
S
capitalist colonialist state (U.S. laws)
are attacking our people with slander
telling us that we, the Mexican people,
are foreigners to these lands and arresting, incarcerating and separating our
families from each other with home and
work-site raids by Immigration authorities.
¡ÚNETE A UNIÓN DEL BARRIO!
Unión del Barrio will continue to
resist colonial oppression!
We Didn’t Cross the Border; The
Unión del Barrio contact information:
Border Crossed Us!
Contactos para Unión del Barrio:
Reconocemos que la liberación absoluta
e inequívoca de la mujer mexicana es
un componente crítico en la lucha de
liberación de nuestro pueblo. Es fundamental para toda organización libertaria
promover la absoluta igualdad política,
económica y social entre mujeres y hombres.
San Diego
P.O. Box 620095
San Diego, CA 92162
(619) 696-9224
[email protected]
this Congress he declares the National
Sentiment a decree which expresses
the following: “That the Américas are
free and independent people from Spain
and any other nation, government or
monarchy, and that it be recognized
as such given the following reasons…
That the people cannot be free and ours
while the government is not reformed,
abolishing the tyrants and the liberals,
and expelling from our lands the Spanish,
who are our enemy and who have made
many declarations against our people…
That slavery be forever proscribed, as
well as all cast distinctions, establishing
equality among everyone…!
By October of 1814, Morelos convened
another Congress in Apatzingán where
he announced the Constitutional Decree
for the Liberation of México, where the
Mexican Republic was consolidated
under a constitutional government,
establishing the nation state of México.
Attacked in the outskirts of Tezmalaca
and taken prisoner by mercenaries
of the Spanish army, Morelos was
assassinated in San Cristóbal Ecatepec
on December 22, 1815. In 1828 his
home town was renamed Morelia in
his honor. In 1869, Benito Juárez,
declared the establishment of the state
of Morelos. On September 16, 1925 his
remains were relocated to the Column
of Independence in Mexico City, were
they rest until now.
¡Viva la Insurrección Guerrillera
Libertadora!
¡Viva José María Morelos!
Mexicanos Celebran 197 Años de lucha Por La
Liberación Nacional y en contra del Colonialismo
S
an Diego, Parque Chicano - El sábado 15 de septiembre la Coalición
Pro-Derechos de la Raza celebró el 197
aniversario de la insurrección del pueblo Mexicano contra el colonialismo español. Unión del Barrio reconoce que
la lucha contra el colonialismo no ha
acabado, y que el enemigo contemporáneo es el capitalismo (sistema económico donde la riqueza que producen los
trabajadores/obreros y campesinos es
robado por los patrones/ricos).
Como Raza que vivimos en los territorios
ocupados Mexicanos (lo que se conoce
como el sur-oeste de Estados Unidos),
luchamos por revindicar nuestra historia
como pueblo original e indígena de este
continente sigue en pie de lucha para
acabar con el sistema esclavista que nos
subyuga, que nos discrimina y no mantiene en la pobreza.
Luchamos por organizarnos
para defendernos de las leyes
racistas que el gobierno utiliza
para reprimir a nuestro pueblo; somos quienes generamos
toda la riqueza con el sudor
de nuestras frentes, aseguramos el bienestar para otros, es
hora de asegurar el bienestar
para nosotros mismos, nuestro
pueblo y nuestras familias.
Ventura/Oxnard
P.O. Box 20411
Oxnard, CA 93034-0411
(805) 436-5901
[email protected]
Los Angeles
[email protected]
The Mexican people, indigenous to the continent, celebrate our culture as an act of
resistance to U.S. settler occupation and colonialism
¡Únete a Unión del Barrio!
¡Somos Un Pueblo,
Sin Fronteras!
Mexicanos en los territorios Ocupados (Sur Oeste de Estados
Unidos) celebran, combativamente, la lucha contra el colonialismo
2
Unión del Barrio
July-December 2007
DEMOCRACY, POLITCAL POWER AND THE PRESS
THROUGHOUT LATIN AMERICA AND INSIDE THE
IMPERIALIST CORE, THE MEDIA SUPPORTS
THE CAPITALIST OPPRESSION OF THE MASSES
Part I
Editor’s note: This is the first part in a two part series
on the power of the capitalist media and it’s role in the
oppression of the masses of people both within and
outside of the U.S. This first installment covers the
manipulation of information by the private media in
Venezuela, especially the case of RCTV of 2007, the
rise of participatory democracy, as well as elections
in revolutionary Cuba. The second installment will
discuss Bolivia, as well as the role of the media and
democracy in Mexico and within the U.S., focusing on
the 2008 elections.
THE CASE OF VENEZUELA AND THE ROLE
OF THE SO-CALLED “FREE” PRESS
I
n Venezuela private media corporations are leading
an undeclared war against democracy. On December
2, 2007 the masses of Venezuelans were provided with
the opportunity to vote for 69 constitutional reforms
that would, among other things, institutionalize a 36
hour work week; provide social security to workers
of the informal economic sector; address racial
discrimination by recognizing African and Indigenous
contributions to Venezuelan culture; extend Presidential
terms from six to seven years; as well as allow for
the elimination of term limits for President. In spite
of the failure to pass these constitutional reforms, the
referendum held in Venezuela on December 2nd was
a lesson of participatory democracy; a process that is
today becoming an increasingly common democratic
process in Latin America, as seen in Bolivia and
Ecuador.
Yet, if we look at what transpired in the months leading
up to the referendum, we can see how the capitalist
media in Venezuela orchestrated efforts at nurturing
an opposition movement against the constitutional
reforms and the Bolivarian Revolution in general. The
private media did this to undermine the referendum
and to create an artificial climate of tension and
EL 18
(POR LUIS EMILO RECABARREN)
Nota del editor: este ensayo fue
escrito por Luis Emilo Recabarren,
Chileno Revolucionario, considerado
padre de la clase obrera chilena.
Publicamos este ensayo ya que tiene
un significado mayor en esta era
contemporanea, donde los pueblos
de nuestra América Latina siguen
luchando por dehacerse del yugo
colonial de la burguesía capitalista
y para seguir revindicando nuestra
historia Latinoamericanista.
Muchas veces nos hemos
preguntado:
¿qué cosa celebra el pueblo en los
días llamados del 18 de septiembre?
Algunos y sobre todos los burgueses,
nos dicen:
“celebramos nuestra emancipación
política, nuestra independencia como
república”.
Mas en realidad de verdad, la clase
proletaria no tiene ninguna libertad
ganada con el cambio operado en
Chile el 18 de Septiembre de 1810.
Si alguna libertad tiene el
trabajador, ella es, la de morirse de
hambre, vivir en la misería o pasar
toda su vida en el presidio.
Para que veamos bien estas cosas,
A CNN en español news story already
had Hugo Chavez dead prior to the
December 2nd referendum (under Hugo
Chavezʼ picture the caption reads:¿Quien
lo Mato?, Who killed him?)
social unrest, as well as misinforming the Venezuelan
people. Internationally, we saw how this manipulation
of information promoted negative perceptions by
the general U.S. population towards the Bolivarian
Revolution.
Every major corporate media in the U.S. (New York
Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, La
Opinion, Univision, Telemundo, NBC, ABC, CBS etc.)
ran major “Opinion” pieces, articles, and news stories
slandering the Bolivarian Revolution. They argued
incessantly that what was happening in Venezuela was
a “power grab” by Hugo Chávez, that “rights were
being restricted,” or that the “freedom of the press”
was under attack. In reality the opposite was true.
These slanders began the day Hugo Chávez was elected
President. Over the last ten years it was not uncommon
to hear, see and read daily attacks against Chávez and
the Bolivarian government. Every single day over
90% of the private media corporations in Venezuela
para analizar su realidad, debemos
alejarnos un poco del fanatismo que
nos empuja a creernos emancipados
y a considerar como nuestra la
independencia de la República.
attacked Chávez personally, calling him a psychotic, an
ignorant savage, a “red gorilla,” and that he had a secret
love affair with Fidel Castro. The media corporations
went so far as to take it upon themselves to manipulate
broad sectors of the population to protest against and
overthrow the government. Several national media
corporations went so far as to call for the assassination
of President Chávez. The racism and violence these
media corporations expressed consistently for over a
decade would have never been tolerated in any “first
world” country, and had the media done this in the
United States the owners of these media corporations
would have been sent to Guantanamo Bay and tortured.
Yet, in Venezuela no journalists were imprisoned nor
any media outlets closed by the government.
PHONY CROCODILE TEARS FOR PARIS
HILTON AND RCTV
The greatest irony in the debate over freedom of the
press in Venezuela is the case of RCTV (Radio Caracas
Television - a privately owned profit oriented media
corporation). RCTV was established in 1953, and over
the last 20 years privately used “public” airwaves to
accumulate vast amounts of wealth for the owner, the
multi-millionaire Marcel Granier, making him one of
the richest people in Venezuela. Historically, RCTV
had been a solid pillar of the right wing elites, who
along with other Bush loving traitors controlled public
opinion in their favor. In Venezuela, the Indigenous,
African, and mestizo peoples (the great majority
of Venezuelans) were invisible to RCTV. Instead,
RCTV gave the false image of Venezuela as full of
güeros: blond, white, and blue eyed. Through its
images and main characters RCTV reinforced and
maintained racism; the classical self-hate promoted in
Latin America by ruling class elites. More recently,
RCTV was one of the national media outlets that had
called for the overthrow of the government, and those
forces that led the coup d’etat of April 11-14, 2002
see Democracy, Power & the Press on pg.10 >
la colonia para hacer la revolución
y una vez vencedores ellos se
apoderaron de la dirección de los
pueblos y del dinero.
Desde que se proclamó la
república, los impuestos y las
contribuciones han ido aumentando
asombrosamente hasta llegar a
formar hoy día una renta de más
de ciento cincuenta millones de
pesos anuales, que se la roban y la
malgastan entre los favorecidos y los
ricos.
Nada, pero nada, tiene que celebrar
el pueblo proletario en esta fecha,
porque su libertad aún no la ha
conquistado.
Los que verdaderamente se
emanciparon del yugo español
fueron los ricos, pero no por sus
esfuerzos, sino por los esfuerzos y
sangre de los pobres.
¿Qué toca al pueblo de toda esa
renta creada en esta república
independiente?
Los pobres eran pobres bajo el
yugo de la monarquía española, y
pobres son todavía, bajo el yugo de
la monarquía chilena, llamada por
sarcasmo república libre.
La metralla y los sables, el patíbulo
y las cárceles que con ese mismo
dinero, arrancado a su trabajo, se
le tiene preparado como premio,
cuando intente reclamar justicia.
Entonces, ¿qué celebran los pobres?
¿la emancipación de los ricos
chilenos sobre los ricos españoles?
Los proletarios que se precien de
serios, estudiosos y amantes de la
emancipación del pueblo, deben
comprender que es sumamente
pernicioso contribuir a celebrar una
fiesta que marca una nueva jornada
de esclavitud para el pueblo.
Abre tus ojos, pueblo, y verás la
verdad.
La libertad no la tienes y debes
prepararte para conquistarla.
.
Lo que hay de verdad, miradas las
cosas sin pasión, es que un grupo de
ambiciosos de poder y de dinero y
que hoy son llamados “ padres de la
patria”, armaron a los esclavos de
Es pernicioso porque la ignorancia
hace creer al pueblo que en esos
momentos se olvidan las diferencias
entre ricos y pobres, que al rico
le conviene porque así narcotiza
por algún tiempo al pueblo; pero
3
los trabajadores pierden porque al
calor de esos momentos los ricos
apretan más las cadenas con que
nos oprimen.
¿Qué patria tenemos nosotros que
no poseemos un solo pedazo de
suelo, ni un techo donde descansar?
¿Qué libertad tenemos nosotros que
no podemos andar, comer, gozar, ni
trabajar sino bajo el peso de leyes
abrumadoras y pesadas ?
¿Que celebramos entonces?...
Luis Emilio Recabarren S.
El Proletario.
Tocopilla, 16 / septiembre / 1905.
¡LA VERDAD!
Julio-Diciembre 2007
Unión del Barrio On the Question of Education
And The Struggle For National Liberation
PART II
Editor’s Note: This is the second article of a two
part series on Unión del Barrio’s position on the
question of Education and its role as a tool towards
Raza Self-Determination and National Liberation.
Part I, published in the February-June 2007 issue
of ¡La Verdad!, covered: a) The role of the colonial
educational system in failing Raza and other oppressed
nationalities, as well as its role in keeping the great
majority of society in a condition of generalized
ignorance; b) The historic gains won by the Chicano
Power movement of the 60’s & 70’s that opened space
for Chicano Studies and bilingual education to be
taught within the colonial public school system; c)
how the rules of capitalism control public education/
instruction; d) how the “general white” population
unite in opposition to their “working class” interests
in order to promote a racist anti-worker, anti-Raza
education; e) presented the Freidian (Paulo Freire)
philosophy of Critical Pedadogy and its role in
creating a process for authentic learning to emerge.
We offer our readership the continuation of Unión del
Barrio’s understanding on the role of education and
what needs to be done to bring about lasting change.
A RESPONSE TO THE DEFEATIST LIBERAL
STANCE ON EDUCATION
During the late 1980s, Unión del Barrio began
to discuss the necessity of creating mass based
committees and projects that would address particular
questions facing our communities and connect these
to the over all struggle for National Liberation. It was
this period in the history of our organization that gave
birth to Somos Raza; a barrio youth group, Comité de
Mujeres; a womens group, Chicano Studies Concilio;
a group of Chicano Studies instructors, students
and community group, and the Chicano Mexicano
Prison Project; a prisioner’s rights group. It was also
during this period that we recognized the need for the
formation of a group that would focus on the question
of education as it relates to Raza (read Somos Un
Pueblo, Sin Fronteras: A History of Union del Barrio,
La Verdad Publications, 1996).
It was the struggles and debates that took place in
1994 during the months leading up to the passage
of Proposition 187 (a law that would gravely affect
Raza, including the denial of social services and
education to Mexican/Raza children) which moved
us to join with other progressive elements to form
the Association of Raza Educators (ARE) in 1994.
The founding and first membership of ARE included
Luz Chung, Ernesto Bustillos, Esteban Vela, Gerardo
Reyes, Harry Simón, and many others.
In the founding statement of ARE, its history and
mission was described in the following way:
“The Association of Raza Educators (ARE) originally
began as a response to Proposition 187 in September
of 1994. ARE was organized by individuals who had
correctly read the growing anti-Raza atmosphere
within the United States, and recognized the urgency
for something ‘different’ to be done.
“These individuals - mostly middle and high
school teachers - understood that the efforts led by
most anti-187 activists were generally based on the
idealistic assumption that the ‘voters’ and ‘pro-187
politicians’ could be won over by reason alone. We
saw some activists go as far as to downplay the
necessity for progressive community-based political
consciousness. When discussions arose about how
to best respond to the racist attacks confronting the
Mexicano/Latino community, the importance of
solid organization and the development of strong
uncompromising strategies and tactics was never
even seen as an option.
“The original membership of ARE also understood
that the ‘traditional-progressive’ educational
organizations such as AMAE (Association of
Mexican American Educators) and CABE (California
Association of Bilingual Educators) were limited
Towards A Pedagogy of Liberation
within this same frame of existence. What was needed
was a different type of organization. An organization
composed of educators united to effectively defend
the democratic rights of our community - educational,
political, economic, and civil.
“Out of the initial meetings of ARE, a conference
was proposed to prepare the activist-educators for
actions that could be taken once Prop. 187 had passed
(pickets, demonstrations, etc.). This conference was
held in October of 1994 at St. Judes Church in the
community of Shelltown in San Diego, with about
100 people attending.
“After the conference, the ARE meetings began to
be centered around discussing the need for building
ARE as a progressive educators organization. A
we find ourselves. Contributing to the problems of
ARE was the lack of interest and urgency within
the educational community itself. The sad reality is
that most Raza educators do not see the urgency of
responding to the racist attacks against our children,
which would motivate them into joining a type of
struggle that calls for risks and sacrifices.
In order to address these realities, ARE held several
meetings in 2004 in which the history of ARE was
discussed, limitations and errors of work were
identified, and a plan with long and short range
objectives was formulated. Since then, ARE has been
steadily working, according to its ability and capacity;
and within the last year, 2006-2007, ARE has grown
to include a chapter in the Los Angeles area.
In a bulletin published in 2006, ARE raised concerns
which profoundly describe the reality of the state of
education today. ARE posed questions that need to
be addressed and called upon educators to join the
struggle for democratic schooling. The following
were the concerns and the call in that bulletin:
A. Concerns:
1. Bilingual Education has been virtually destroyed.
It fact, it was never given a chance to succeed.
2. Raza Studies and Multicultural Studies, in the great
majority of the schools, no longer exist. Educators
who favor a multicultural, working class based
education are under constant attack.
ARE members at a community forum with 3. Critical Pedagogy is a thing of the past, and most
SD City Council representatives to demand teachers, as well as administrators, don’t even know
what it is.
an end to the ICE Raids; the forum was
4. The English Only movement is getting
organized by the Human Rights Committee stronger. Educators are told not to speak Spanish to
of Mt. View in San Diego
students. Speaking Spanish will soon be a crime.
5. Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) is being
constitution was drafted and officers elected to carry eliminated, especially where Mexican-Latino and
out the work of this [Association]. It was during African (Black) students are in the majority.
this time (post 187) that the question of raising the 6. “Academic Freedom” is a thing of the past. Most
consciousness of educator’s themselves took place.
teachers are scared to speak out. Teachers are being
“During this period ARE emphasized community forced to use materials and limit their curriculum
involvement in education and Critical Pedagogy as to a particular area of study, and utilize methods of
central to our work. ARE upheld the important role instruction created and promoted by people who do
of teachers in social struggles, especially in Latin not have the well being of our students in mind [i.e.
America. We saw ourselves also as part of a [world publishing houses, private tutoring organizations
wide] struggle to build a better society that would Supplemental Educational Servivces, etc.].
benefit the great majority of all people.” (founding 7. School administrators have rejected a space for
statement, ARE, 1994).
alternative or creative methods of teaching and are
demanding that educators teach to “the test,” or
THE REALITY OF THE STATE OF RAZA instruct in robotic, one size fits ALL approaches.
EDUCATION AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
8. Administrators are now dictators, not educators, or
Unfortunately, the level of activism of ARE has been have become enforcers and thugs for the racist-fascist
sporadic. There have been periods of high activism Boards of Education or of the federal government.
and times where little, if any, work was done. This (e.g. NCLB, see below)
was a result of taking on struggles without truly
understanding the limitations of its membership and
see Pedagogy of Liberation on pg.5 >
resources, as well as the social conditions in which
Association of Raza Educators and Somos Raza discuss strategies to advance
Self-Determination and progressive education in Los Angeles.
4
Unión del Barrio
The Battle for Santee
July-December 2007
< Pedagogy of Liberation from pg. 4
B. Questions Facing Raza Educators:
1. What are we going to do when we attempt to include
multicultural and critical pedagogy into our curriculum
and are told by the administration not to do so?
2. How are we going to deal with the English Only laws,
or requests from the state to turn over the information
of students [or their families by Border Patrol/ICE
(migra) agents]? Are we going to be accomplices in
denying education to children?
3. What are we going to do when our school
administrators start harassing or move to fire us for
refusing to betray our students, or when we teach in
a fashion or use material that we feel, as professionals
and Raza, would most benefit our students?
4. What should be more important to us, the education
of our students and their/our dignity as a people, or our
jobs? And why should we be forced to choose?
C. Joining The Struggle As A Solution:
1. The truth is that no progressive change ever came
about without struggle. Educators must unite and fight
to create positive progressive social change.
2. History has proven, that in numbers and in unity
there is strength. If you want to protect yourself against
harassment and reprisals, you must unite with other
educators who share the same ideas or objectives as
you.
3. Simply complaining or living in fear, or denying the
realities around us, are not virtues of an educator. Our
profession demands that we do something concrete about
problems affecting our students and our communities.
(In Unity There Is Strength Join The Association of
Raza Educators Bulletin/Announcement May 2006)
CURRENT ATTACKS ON THE EDUCATION OF
RAZA AND OTHER OPPRESSED PEOPLE: THE
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (NCLB) ACT
The attacks by the state to keep a relevant education
from oppressed people are relentless. The following
are but four examples that describe how the colonial
system works against our communities.
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) pushed through
the U.S. Congress by the criminal and genocidal G.W.
Bush regime in 2001 is the latest federal law which
attempts to destroy public education and transfer the
task of “educating” the public to private corporations.
Four key areas of this law that are particularly damaging
to our youth were identified by ARE as well as Unión
del Barrio:
1. It Opposes an Education that Promotes Critical
Thinking and Humanities.
Concentrating on math and acquisition of the English
language, the NCLB closes this “space” (funding,
support, legal protection) for multicultural and bilingual
education, as well as critical thinking. It completely
eliminates the “critical thinking spirit” of education
and opposes the teaching of the Humanities (those
branches of knowledge, such as philosophy, literature
and art - anything concerned with human thought and
culture- also known as the liberal arts).
2. It Creates a Dictatorship vs. Educational
Administration. While claiming to be “Improving
Teacher Quality,” this law could easily be used
against those teachers who promote progressive
and democratic schooling (an education based on
improving the condition of the majority of the people:
workers and the poor) or those who an administrator
may choose to dismiss. Moreover, the NCLB promotes
the privatization of education and the busting of teacher
unions.
3. The “Safe Schools” Section of the NCLB is in
reality the continuing criminalization of youth. The socalled “Safe Schools and Zero Tolerance” section of
the law is just another way of getting rid of troubled
youth and making criminals of them. It is a way of
hiding the problems found in society. It will give more
power to schools, enabling them to expel students
for infractions that could be dealt with proper oncampus guidance and counseling. Data proves that
most students expelled from schools are Raza/Latino
and African (Black). [Analysis of the No Child Left
Behind Act, informational pamphlet, Association of
Raza Educators, 1995]
The Association of Raza Educators wins a tremendous
victory in South Central Los Angeles
S
ur Centro, Los Angeles - The Association of Raza strategically began to build community based power
Educators’ (ARE) fight for educational justice and making strategic alliances with the teachers union
culminated during the summer of 2007 in the ouster (UTLA).
of racist principal Vince Carbino at Santee Eduational A.R.E. and Unión del Barrio was forced to challenge
Complex, as educators, students, parents and community Carbino when he switched class titles in the middle of
members took on the task of organizing themselves to the summer semester in order to falsify documents for a
have community control of this educational institution. Los Angeles County of Education textbook audit coming
Santee High School in South Central Los Angeles is 96% that same week. This change affected the AP program
Raza and 4% African (black) with just under 50% of the most because Carbino failed to order books for the
students designated English Language learners and over AP courses and, as a consequence, all AP classes were
90% eligible for free or reduced lunch.
cancelled. When teachers and students began to question
In what seems as a trend towards criminalizing Raza the timing and reasoning for the switch, they were targeted
youth through militarization of public education, the by Carbino with threats of police arrest, suspensions and/
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) placed or removal from campus.
Vince Carbino, an ex-San Diego Police cop with military
training, as principal of Santee in the fall of 2005. After Carbino demonstrated he was serious about his treats
a rollercoaster beginning, which included on campus when- in an attempt to intimidate staff- he had two
teachers removed from campus
rebellions, the task was given
by school police. Then, he fired
to Carbino to get Santee “under
control.”
the school librarian and coupled
This trend of employing former
that action by having school
military/police administrators to
police begin to target parents
be in charge of public education
dropping their children off at
is part of a policy of “controlling
school by giving them traffic
and pacifying” students, instead
tickets. Students who entered
of educating them. Recently
the main office in an attempt to
LAUSD hired Admiral David
talk with him, were told that they
Brewer III as superintendent of
could not and “if they did not
the 2nd largest school district in
leave the office immediately,
the country.
Santee High students in Los Angeles de- Carbino would have them
With the arrival of Carbino at
arrested.” His intimidation
mand the ouster of racist principal
Santee, we saw the repressive
tactics backfired as it only
hand of the state come down harder than even before. emboldened a community effort to have him fired.
Working with the local and school police department,
Carbino began to transfer or “kick” students out of Santee’s The Fire Carbino Campaign, kicked off with a large
Campus. In a twisted turn of events, this principal would protest in front of Santee that brought together over 150
boast about the reduction of school suspensions while parents, students and teachers. That was followed by a
failing to announce the sharp increase of expulsions.
series of strategic planning meetings at local churches
The police became a regular appearance at Santee with and community centers in the barrio of South Central.
Police dogs sniffing through classrooms during searches, The Association of Raza Educators was able to assist by
metal detectors at each entrance, regular arrest and random providing equipment, supplies, organization tools, and
searches of students in the middle of the quad becoming leadership to parents and youth.
routine. Carbino was training students psychologically to
become used to this type of treatment as future criminals; In total, over 8 different protests where held in front of
moreover, his overreaching and abusive tactics of control the school over a three week period. This was coordinated
demoralized and dehumanized students.
with a large media and Internet campaign that put the
Through the use of the police department, Carbino school district to shame for supporting such a repressive
intimidated students, parents and teachers into obeying principal. A.R.E., Somos Raza and Unión del Barrio were
his backward neo-colonial model of education.
able to organize three sectors of the school: teachers,
Among the targeted groups by Carbino were student students, and parents, into a successful campaign for
groups Somos Raza and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/ educational justice. Teachers from A.R.E. demonstrated
a de Aztlán (MEChA) de Santee. These two groups came extreme conviction for educational justice by coming out
under attack as their meetings began to be monitored, the and organizing at Santee, sometimes waking up at 6:30
administration denied approval of activities/facilities, last in the morning in order to flyer in front of the school
minute cancelations of events, and threatening to have before they had to clock in. The students of Somos Raza
members arrested and even deported if they continued demonstrated their strength by leading and organizing the
with there activism.
students at Santee and lastly, Unión del Barrio was able
The Association of Raza Educators also became a target to help mobilize the community in support of this just
when they were not allowed to have a scholarship cause.
fundraiser for “undocumented” students on campus.
Shortly thereafter, Carbino barred A.R.E. from hosting any After what seemed as a long three weeks, LAUSD
meetings or events on campus and began reprimanding finally decided to remove Carbino on August 24th 2007
teachers who spoke out against his abuses, many of which from Santee. This was a tremendous victory for parents,
were members of A.R.E. Classrooms were searched students and teachers of South Central. The Association
after school hours, classroom computers confiscated for of Raza Educators and Unión del Barrio will continue its
“investigation,” and teachers even escorted off campus struggle for educational justice and will continue to build
by police.
our capacity to have community control over schools in
The Association of Raza Educators took on Carbino our communities.
straight on and challenged every oppressive decision he
¡Que Viva La Raza Y Que Viva La Communidad
made at Santee. While battling this oppressive principal
Organizada de South Central!
for over a year, ARE with the help of Unión del Barrio,
waged a low level campaign against this principal and
Student, Parents and Teachers meet; and with the help of Somos Raza and the Association of Raza Educators, the people organize to retake Santee from Racist Principal
see Pedagogy of Liberation on pg.6 >
5
¡LA VERDAD!
Julio-Diciembre 2007
< Pedagogy of Liberation from pg.5 officials because of a complaint from
4. In addition, section 9528 of the
NCLB Act requires that secondary
and high schools turn over the name,
address and telephone listing of all
students to military recruiters upon
request for the purpose of recruitment
into the the U.S. imperialist armed
forces. This provision, if not followed
by School Districts, could have their
funding taken away by the federal
government.
In short, the NCLB Act works to keep
the masses from acquiring the critical
thinking skills necessary to challenge
colonialism, creates a mechanism that
could be used against progressive
teachers, makes it easier to criminalize
Raza youth, and makes it easier for
a substitute teacher that it was a form
of “religious indoctrination.” (Arabic
program offered at school, San Diego
Union Tribune, April 12, 2007.)
A WAR CRIMINAL CRITICIZES
MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
Recently, the right-wing fascist pig
known as Newt Gingrich (former
congressman and speaker of the house,
and 2008 presidential candidate) said,
as he addressed hundreds of cheering
middle and upper class white women,
members of the National Federation
of Republican Women, “We should
replace bilingual education with
immersion in English so people
learn the common language of the
country and they learn the language
of prosperity, not the language of
ARE-San Diego joins the Raza Rights Coalition at the Assembly of Peopleʼs Struggle in National City on November 20th, 2007 to advance our
peopleʼs struggle for Raza Self-Determination.
the state to recruit our younng people
to be used as cannon fodder for the
colonial wars of conquest.
RACIST ASSAULT ON THE
“ACADEMIA SEMILLAS DEL
PUEBLO”
Another example of racist colonial
reaction against the education of
Raza children is the on going attacks
against Academia Semilla del Pueblo.
Academia Semillas is a charter school
in Los Angeles that teaches Nahautl
(the language of many indigenous
people of México and Central
America) and Mandarin Chinese.
Students also learn Tai Chi and Aztec
Dance. The goal of Semilla is to
provide students with an education
which recognizes the cultures of all
people, not just European (White).
The response from certain segments
of the white community, led by KABC
radio (a right wing talk show) has been
to call for the shut down of Academia
Semillas and the mass deportation
of Mexicans and Central Americans.
(“Charter School Fighting Back”, Los
Angeles Times, June 9, 2006.)
DENYING AFRICAN CHILDREN
THEIR CULTURE
In San Diego, an Arabic language
elementary school program is currently
under attack. Carver Elementary
School, with a large African student
population, mostly Somali, offers a
culturally relevant program where
many cultures are recognized and
celebrated at the school. It includes
the teaching of Arabic, Middle Eastern
culture and traditions, and the cafeteria
provides children with food that
Muslim students can eat. The school
is being investigated by school district
living in a ghetto”, (Gingrich scornful
of bilingual education, Associated
Press (AP), April 1, 2007). Gingrich,
as an initiator of U.S. imperialist wars
of aggression is responsible for the
deaths of thousands of people around
the world and thus has the blood of
innocent people on his hands.
UNLIKE SOME WITHIN OUR
MOVEMENT, WE STRUGGLE
OPENLYFOR OUR COMMUNITY’S
RIGHTS
Unión del Barrio, along with other
progressive
and
revolutionary
formations, most notably San Diego
State MEChA and Mexicanos Unidos
En Defensa del Pueblo-MUDP (both of
these organizations have struggled for
years for the creation of an education
based on critical pedagogy), have made
addressing the question of education
a central component of our struggle
for justice and self-determination.
Unlike some liberals and “so-called”
(wannabe) Chicano/a activists who
use slander, rumors, secrecy, and
police-like tactics, we openly fight
for a democratic and multicultural
education that includes giving voice
to parents and the community. As
we have said before, our struggle is
neither based on one particular race
or sex, but rather on true equality and
justice for all.
In the future, we will continue to expose
and challenge colonial education,
fight for the inclusion of parents and
community in the education of our
children, as well as to create programs
and spaces where a pedagogy of
liberation can take place.
¡Unidos Venceremos!
2nd Raza Educator’s Conference On...
“A Day in the Lives of the
Marginalized and the Oppressed”
Saturday April 12th, 2008
Location: Lincoln High School
4777 Imperial Ave
SD CA. 92113
Speakers, Workshops, Dialogue, Y Cultura
Confirmed Speakers:
• Jeff Duncan Andrade (Professor, San Francisco State University)
• Maria Reyes (Educator and Social Activist, Long Beach, CA.)
For more information:
Association of Raza Educators
PO Box 740337
San Diego, CA 92114
[email protected]
6
Unión del Barrio
July-December 2007
Summing the current situation of the Raza Press and Media Association (RPMA)
AN ACTIVE AND WELL-ORGANIZED RAZA MEDIA
IS A NECESSITY TO OUR PEOPLE’S SURVIVAL
Editor’s Note: The following article was put together
by the staff of ¡La Verdad! newspaper, which has been
part of the Raza Press and Media Association (originally named the Chicano Press Association) since its
re-establishment in 1990. This assessment comes from
¡La Verdad! staff, and not necessarily from the RPMA.
During the past three months (Sept-Nov, 2007) the
RPMA mesa directiva has held three extraordinary
meetings: September 22nd in Oxnard, November 3rd
in San Diego and November 10th in Los Angeles. The
purpose of these juntas were to address the problems
that have beset the Association since its re-establishment in 1990. Central to these difficulties has been
the RPMA’s inability to attract new members and the
unwillingness of much of the existing progressive and
reformist media workers to struggle in a unified, structured, and accountable fashion based on concrete principles. Of specific concern to the RPMA, has been the
failure to realize the goals and objectives it set for itself
at its last retreat, which was held on January 20th of
this year (2007).
Furthermore, as we witness the growing attacks against
Raza, in all fronts and in multiple ways, the question of
a lack of Raza media is becoming more crucial by the
moment. It is obvious to most, that La Raza, throughout the belly of the beast (or what people call the United States) is going through a crisis of enormous proportions: economically, socially, and politically. Central
to tackling and effectively dealing with this situation
demands a Raza press and media that can wake up the
people, help organize them, and actively participate in
the liberation struggle. The staff of ¡La Verdad! believes RPMA is the only formation that can take on this
challenge.
The RPMA has a long and rich history, one that is
rooted in the “Chicano Power Movement” of the late
1960’s and early 70’s, and re-established in 1990 under the name of the Chicano Press Association (CPA);
an Association that included the participation of over
20 publications during the Chicano Power Movement.
The group later changed its name to the Raza Press
Association (RPA) in 2004. The RPMA acquired its
present name at its last retreat held in San Diego, on
January 20, 2007 as we recognized the technological
advances in using electronic and other forms of media
in our stuggle.
Since its re-establishment, dozens of publications have
been associated with the RPMA, including La Gente
(UCLA), Voz Fronteriza (UCSD), Nuestra Cosa (UCR),
El Andar, Pueblo Unido (newsletter of the Raza Rights
Coalition-San Diego) and ¡La Verdad! (Unión del Barrio newspaper). Throughout its two decades of existence, the RPMA has organized dozens of conferences
and workshops, book fests, and has produced literally
hundreds of publications and other forms of media,
including Guerrilleros de la Pluma (newletter of the
RPMA). The RPMA is the only progressive/revolutionary-oriented media association (that we are aware),
which functions in an organized way; by this we mean
that it has clearly defined goals and objectives, meets
on a regular basis, has a structure and leadership, and is
completely independent of corporate and government
funding. Today, RPMA is anchored by AMATE, ¡La
Verdad!, Voz del Pueblo, Pueblo Unido and Clavo En
El Corazon.
At the retreat of January 20, the RMPA set for itself a
long list of objectives, that included:
• To conduct a series of educational workshops throughout Aztlán with the objective of raising consciousness
and training future media workers.
• To undertake an ongoing recruitment drive of active
media workers/or those seriously interested in this form
of struggle.
• To maintain a public on-line resource with current
news/opinions, library, and archives of relevant historical documents.
• To engage in an anti-war propaganda campaign titled
“La Campaña del Pueblo Contra La Guerra: Luchando Contra La Guerra por la vía Cultural, Artística y
de Prensa”
• To organized a Book Fest on October 2007, in Los
Angeles,
Also at the retreat, a new Mesa Directiva was elected:
Antonio Velazquez (Coordinator), and mesa members
Paula Reynoso, Jose Moreno, David Rodriguez, and
Luis Moreno. The RPA name was changed to Raza
Press and Media Association (RPMA) as a way of ensuring that everyone understood that the Raza press
was not limited to print journalism.
As stated earlier, the RPMA was not able to meet most
of the objectives, which were agreed upon at the retreat. Within months, by May of 2007, the RPMA
found itself unable to fulfill in any significant way, the
goals it set out to accomplish. This situation was based
on three fundamental and concrete factors: (1) Unfortunately, within three or four months, three members,
found themselves in personal circumstances that did
not permit them to continue as members of the mesa.
This crippled the structure and the available human resources of the RPMA. (2) The goals developed at the
Jan 20th retreat were unrealistic, as they did not correlate to the resources possessed by the RPMA. And (3),
the objective conditions within our movement (which
is both extremely small and weak) were not suitable to
attaining the goals developed at the retreat.
The “conditions” of our movement, as identified in
The Raza Press & Media
Association Presents:
factor three, is something ¡La Verdad! has attempted
to grapple with since the establishment of the Raza
(Chicano) Press Association. We have found that our
movement is saturated with radical petty bourgeois
elements that practice a media that is individualistic,
ego-tripping, and hobby-based. These elements despise organized struggle -which calls for discipline and
sacrifice- and choose to function as individuals or loose
collectives; some despise accountability so much that
they openly opposed those forces in our movement
who work in a disciplined manner or call for media
workers to unite and work under some kind of accountable fashion. They have not come to terms with the
fact that only a well-organized and united movement
can liberate us from the oppressive chains of capitalism
and imperialism.
In an effort to align its objectives to the material reality,
as this relates to its resources and the current conditions
of our movement, the RPMA came up with the following objectives:
• That a Barrio Book Fest, under the theme “WORDS
AS WEAPONS” be held in April 2008, in South-Central Los Angeles and coordinated by a committee made
up of Daniel Flores, Reymundo Reynoso, and Francisco Romero
• That we publish several works by the end of year:
Antonio Velasquez’s writings, Ernesto Bustillos’ compilation of articles, possibly the publication of an organizing manual on civil gang injunctions by Francisco
Romero and the Committee On Raza Rights (CRR),
and a bounded copy of the last twenty years of ¡La Verdad!
• That the journal of the RPMA, Guerrillero/a de la
Pluma, be prioritize and that Antonio Velazquez push
the work forward and Luis Moreno be the production/
layout editor
• That we focus on recruiting more members and the
creation of a network of active “writers and media
workers”
• That the focus of the content and context of materials produced or promoted by the RPMA be “local”
issues that are current and the people’s minds, or are
part of the struggle coming down in the occupied territories. There was a general agreement that the best
way we can unite with the progressive/revolutionary
international press, is for the RPMA to actively engage
in struggle in the occupied territories.
The staff of ¡La Verdad! is committed to working with
the RPMA in creating the type of media our people’s
struggle demands.
¡Venceremos!
Editorial Board of ¡La Verdad! Newspaper
La Verdad Publications • Unión del Barrio
The Raza Press and Media Association (RPMA) is organizing this year’s Barrio Bookfest
in Los Angeles with the goal of continuing to assist in the growth of the progressive and revolutionary media (in all of its forms, i,e. writing, art, film, music, poetry). The bookfest hopes
to accomplish this by providing media workers a space to show case and exhibit their work
as well as sharing with the community the work of progressive and revolutionary media
works being produced and created by Raza.
BARRIO BOOKFEST 2008:
This is precisely why the full-day activities set for Saturday April 26 and Sunday April 27 will
be held in the barrio in South Los Angeles at Santee High School, which is centrally located
in the Mexican and Latino community. The Barrio BookFest as a means to raise the social
and political consciousness of our community through book readings, panel discussions, cultural and music presentations as the main way of trying to accomplish this objective.
WORDS AS WEAPONS
April 21-April 27, 2008
A full program of activities will be announced as we
near April. If you are a vendor of books, etc. or your
organization would like to reserve a table for the main
days of activities on Saturday and Sunday, please email:
[email protected]
Santee Educational Complex
1921 South Maple Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90011
For more information please visit us at:
http://razapressassociation.org
7
¡LA VERDAD!
Julio-Diciembre 2007
ICE/MIGRA RAIDS:
A POLICY OF STATE TERRORISM
LAS REDADAS DEL ICE/MIGRA:
UNA POLÍTICA DE TERRORISMO DE ESTADO
Unión del Barrio- Los Ángeles
July 25, 2007
Unión del Barrio- Los Angeles
25 de julio 2007
At the beginning of this year, when the majority of the
A principio de este año, cuando para la mayoría de políticos
Democratic Party politicians and the self-proclaimed leaders
del Partido Demócrata y de los autodenominados lideres de
of undocumented workers were expecting the passing of
los trabajadores indocumentados esperaban una aprobación
Immigration Reform, Unión del Barrio (UdB) understood
de una Reforma Migratoria, Unión del Barrio tenía claro
clearly that immigration reform would not be passed, and
que dicha reforma no seria aprobada y que por el contrario
that on the contrary, migra raids of undocumented migrant
continuarían las redadas de trabajadores migrantes
workers would continue and even increase.
indocumentados.
In February, UdB convened a press conference in front of
En el mes de febrero Unión del Barrio convocó a una
the Los Angeles Federal Building to denounce the campaign
conferencia de prensa frente al edificio federal de Los
of terror that the government was sowing in working class
Ángeles, para denunciar la campaña de terror que el gobierno
Raza communities. What we observed were raids being
estaba sembrando en las comunidades de trabajadores
conducted by ICE/Migra who would arrive at dawn looking
indocumentados, al efectuar “operativos fantasmas”
for alleged “criminals”, but when they would not find them,
donde la migra llega de madrugada buscando a supuestos
they would instead focus on arresting anyone found in the
delincuentes, pero al no encontrar a éstos, arrestan a quien
home that had been targeted.
se encuentre en el domicilio afectado.
This protest came as a result when community members,
La denuncia se hizo a raíz de que algunas personas
had started calling in to different radio stations to inform
llamaron a diferentes estaciones de radio para informar
the public that ICE/Migra was “arresting people in Los
que la migra estaba “arrestando personas en el transporte
Unión del Barrio en Los Angeles se organiza Angeles on public transportation buses.” That same evening
publico de la ciudad de Los Ángeles”.
Esa misma noche , en la cadena de televisión Univisión, para hacerle Frente Contra las Redadas del ICE a report on Univisión television station featured a story on
the mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa who came
el alcalde de Los Ángeles Antonio Villaraigosa, llamó a
out to calm things down and declared that Los Angeles was
la calma y dijo que Los Ángeles era una ciudad Santuario,
a sanctuary city, where ICE/Migra would not be allowed to
donde la migra no realizará arrestos. En el mismo noticiero,
arrests people. That same news report featured an interview
José Ubaldo vocero del sistema público de transporte,
with José Ubaldo, the spokesperson for Los Angeles public
declaró que no se realizará ninguna redada en el sistema
transportation department, who stated that there would be
público de transporte. Los operativos continuaron, según
no raids on public transportation.
un reporte del ICE de octubre de 2006 a junio de 2007
However, according to an ICE report, from October of
fueron aproximadamente 1,600 los detenidos en el área
2006 to June 2007 there were approximately 1,600 people
de Los Ángeles. A nivel nacional se espera que este
detained in the Los Angeles area. On a national level, ICE
año sean arrestados alrededor de 36,000 trabajadores
intends to arrest nearly 36,000 undocumented workers by
indocumentados.
the end of 2007.
Esta situación llevó a Unión del Barrio a convocar a
This situation is what has led Unión del Barrio to convene
organizaciones, colectivos e individuos, que estén fuera del
independent oriented organizations, community collectives
control de los partidos políticos Demócrata y Republicano,
and individuals- who are not tied to the two party political
así como a aquellos que no estuvieran de acuerdo en marchar
system, neither Democrats nor Republicans- as well as those
detrás de banderas gringas; a construir un movimiento
who do not agree with marching behind the U.S. flags. We
independiente que organice al pueblo para detener las
have made this call to unite around building an independent
redadas que son nada más y nada menos que el terrorismo
de estado en contra del pueblo trabajador indocumentado. La Coalición Pro-Derechos de la Raza- San Di- movement of organized people who are committed to
El Frente Contra Las Redadas: Una Estrategia de ego realiza actividades en defensa del pueblo ending these raids, which are nothing more and nothing less
than state sponsored terrorism which targets undocumented
Unidad
workers.
Es así como surgió el Frente Contra las Redadas, que este
This is how Frente Contra las Redadas (FCR) was born, and on Saturday July, 28th the FCR
próximo sábado tendrá su segunda reunión plenaria, para continuar desarrollando estrategias
will have a second plenary meeting, to continue to develop strategies to inform and organize
para informar y organizar al pueblo para detener las redadas.
our people to end the raids.
Declaración Contra el Tratado de
Libre Comercio y La Migra
1º de Enero 2008
A Las Comunidades en Resistencia a la
Explotación y Opresión
A Las Comunidades en Lucha por la Dignidad
y Auto-Determinación de los Pueblos
Indígenas
A Todas las Comunidades del Mundo
Declaration Against the North American
Free Trade Agreement and the Migra
mercados de México y destruir los pequeños
campos e industrias nacionales. Esto ha
causado que millones de Mexicanos sean
desplazadas y sin trabajo. Obligando a
millones de personas a que se mueva a las
ciudades o migrar hacia lo que hoy es los
Estados Unidos o Canadá.
January 1, 2008
To All Communities in Resistance to
Exploitation and Oppression.
To All Communities in Struggle for Indigenous
Peoples’ Dignity and Self-Determination.
To All Communities of the World.
Según reportan analistas del Programa de
Nosotros somos el
Póliza de América,
Frente Contra las
“Cada hora, México
Redadas del Condado
importa $1.5 millones
de Ventura. Somos una
de valores de productos
red de organizaciones,
de comida agrícolas,
colectivos e individuos
casi todas viene de
que se formó en el
los Estados Unidos”
2007 cuando Unión
y “en esa misma
del Barrio, una de las
hora, 30 personasorganizaciones
que
hombres,
mujeres,
lucha por la Liberación
y niños- dejan sus
Nacional Mexicana con
hogares en el campo
una hístoria de lucha
El pueblo marcha contra las Mexicano para tomar
al norte de la frontera
el viaje mas peligroso
redadas en Oxnard, CA el
de sus vidas-como
EEUU/México, hizo
5 de septiembre del 2007
un llamado por la
migrantes a los
unidad y resistencia organizada en contra Estados Unidos.” (Informe Legislativo Sobre
del incremento de leyes racistas y del el Programa Político de Estados Unidos,
terror causado por La Migra [y ICE] contra “Luchando Contra el TLC”).
trabajadores migrantes.
Para los ricos de arriba, esto es buena
Ahora, el 1 de Enero del 2008, el Tratado noticia, pero para nosotros, los trabajadores,
de Libre Comercio (TLC) entra en su etapa los pobres, esto señala más pobreza, más
final de implementación. El TLC, desde represión y más muerte. Por eso resistimos.
su inicio, tenía como su meta, apoyar al Luchamos por nuestro trabajo, tierra,
las Corporaciones Agrícolas e Industriales comunidad y dignidad.
Estadounidenses a tomar control sobre los
ver FCR-Ventura pg.11 >
8
We are the Frente Contra las Redadas del
final stage of implementation. NAFTA, since
its inception, was designed to help the rich
U.S. Agriculture and Industrial Corporations
take over the markets of Mexico and destroy
the small farms and national industries. It has
caused millions of displaced or unemployed
Raza to move to the cities or migrate to what
today is the United States and Canada.
Committee on Raza Rights organize the people to defend
workersʼ rights against DHS No Match Letters
Condado de Ventura. We are a network of
organizations, collectives and individuals
that was formed in 2007, when Union del
Barrio, one of the oldest Mexican Liberation
organizations north of the U.S./Mexico border
called for broad unity and organized resistance
against the increased racist laws and Migraterror against migrants.
Today, January 1st 2008 the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) enters its
According to America’s Policy Program
analysts, “Every hour, Mexico imports $1.5
million dollars worth of agricultural and
food products, almost all from the United
States” While, “In that same hour, 30
people˜men, women, and children˜leave their
homes in the Mexican countryside to take up
the most dangerous journey of their lives as
migrants to the United States.” (America’s
Policy Program Congressional Briefing,
see Ventura-FCR pg.11 >
Unión del Barrio
July-December 2007
Solidarity, not charity!
Africa Is Not Poor. Africa is Being Looted!
Editor’s Note: The following are excerpts of a presentation
made by African People’s Socialist Party Chairman Omali
Yeshitela on November 14, 2007 at the University of Huelva
in Huelva, Spain at the European Foundation for North-South
Cooperation’s First International Congress entitled “Africa
and the West: The Need for New Relationships.” Chairman
Omali’s presentation was the keynote address. We offer this
presentation as a means to expose our members, supporters,
and general readership of the common contradictions imposed
on Africa and Latin America by Imperialism and the reasons
our people continue to face mass migration.
I would like to offer my profound thanks and appreciation to
the organizers of this congress. I would also like to express
my appreciation to the other presenters in this congress.
First of all, coming from the United States, I feel that it is
absolutely necessary that I express my absolute condemnation
of the U.S. aggression, occupation and new colonization of
Iraq and Afghanistan. I do not think it would be appropriate
for me leaving the United States to come and speak to such
an august body without publicly expressing the fact that there
are a number of us who live in the United States who are
opposed to colonialism, however it looks and in whatever
period of time it exists.
Secondly, when we first met, my esteemed comrade here
asked me whether I am aware of the roots of my family in
Africa. My answer is no.
I told him I am not curious as to where my family comes
from in Africa. The reason is because Africa today — trapped
in artificial borders created by imperialism in 1884-1885 — is
too involved now with ethnic politics and politics based on
some assumption of a relationship to an artificial nation that
in most instances did not exist prior to 1884-1885.
I am an African. That is good enough for me.
I am one who understands that it would be impossible for
an African to get on a ship in Africa, as an African, and then
arrive in America and become something else. If I got on the
ship as an African, I had to be an African when I got off the
ship in America.
We were Africans then, and we are Africans now. That is the
perspective that I come from.
I want to also say to you that my perspective is informed by
philosophy, by an ideology. I am politically influenced by
philosophies of people like Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah,
Patrice Lumumba, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe and Malcolm
X. They are some of my ideological parents.
I do not pretend to speak to you as though we do not
live in a very real world where the conditions we are talking
about in Africa are not conditions that simply occurred, but
are conditions which have been imposed on Africa.
I am not someone who speaks to you as a social worker. I
am a revolutionary.
I am convinced that Europe and North America do not have
the ability to do right by Africa, but it is the responsibility
of ourselves as Africans to organize and to overturn the
relationship we have with Europe and North America.
Look at Africa with outrage, not pity
Unfortunately, the last 500 years of history has been a
history of imperialism. We wake up today in the 21st century
and look around at a world that gives the impression of having
always been like this, but it has not always been like this.
The fact of the matter is that Africa is the richest continent
on earth in terms of natural resources. It is 12 million square
miles, when you count the islands, of tremendous wealth in
natural resources.
Billions of dollars are taken every year from Sierra Leone
in the form of diamonds, as an example, on the one hand.
But on the other hand, the African workers who bring those
diamonds to the surface for Europe and North America are
expected to live off of 30 cents a day, and if they’re lucky, a
cup of rice.
Africa is not poor. Africa is being looted.
Each of us who has a cell phone or a mobile has an
instrument that requires for its workings a strategic mineral
known as coltan. Eighty-seven percent of the world’s coltan is
located in what is now referred to as the Democratic Republic
of Congo. Since 1998, from five to seven million African
people have died in Congo as a consequence of proxy wars,
being fought, among other things, for those resources.
Africa is not poor. Africa is being looted.
It is not only being looted of natural resources, but of
human resources as well. This is something that has been
going on for a very long time.
We are Africans
I come here from the United States, a country that is oftentimes
referred to as a “nation of immigrants.” It is a concept that we
disagree with.
We do not see the United States as a “nation of immigrants,”
rather, as a prison of nations. It is an entity that was founded
as a consequence of an aggression that was made against
the indigenous population there now called “indians.” The
majority of the survivors are currently living in concentration
camps that are known as reservations where they have a
lifespan in the 40s.
They talk about the United States being a nation of
immigrants, but I can tell you that African people did not come
to the United States as immigrants; we came as captives. Our
conditions of existence in the United States are conditions
that stem from the relationship that the United States and
Europe have with Africa.
The conditions of Africans in the United States are an
extension of the conditions of Africa itself. Our relationship to
imperialism is the same in the United States as it is in Africa.
I should have said to you that it is impossible for an
African in the United States to be an “African-American” as
we are sometimes called. We believe that to be an “AfricanAmerican” is the same as saying that someone is a slave and
African Peopleʼs Socialist Party Chairman,
Omali Yeshitela (file photo)
a slave master at the same time. It is impossible to be both a
slave and a slave master.
America built itself at the expense of Africa. So we say that
we are not “African-Americans.” We are Africans.
We are Africans regardless of whether or not many of
our people understand our historical relationship with Africa,
because the reality is that most of our people have got our
education — in the United States and in Africa itself — from
the colonizer who is responsible for our conditions. So we got
the same education that you got.
We were taught in schools that slavery was something
wonderful. Even now, the president of France talks about how
Africa has never brought any kind of contribution to the world
and that it is quite “uncivilized.” The British and the French
have talked now about having to introduce into schools the
benefits of colonialism, the good things that colonialism did.
Poor, diseased and undemocratic Europe rescued itself by
attacking Africa
My friends, the reality is that when Africans met Europe,
it was not Africa who was poor; it was Europe that was poor.
When Africans met Europe, it was not Africans who were
unhealthy; it was Europe that was unhealthy.
The reality is that when we met Europe, Europe lived under
a system of feudalism. There was no freedom or democracy
in Europe. We met Europe during a time when kings would
actually tell free men to shut up, not the 21st century, when
free men tell kings to shut up!
When we met Europe, there was no such thing as ordinary
Europeans owning your own homes. There’s a saying in the
United States: “a man’s home is his castle.” No, the castle was
the place where the nobility resided when we met Europe.
The fact of the matter is that in the four short years between
1347 and 1351, half the people in Europe died of plague. For
the next 100 years, Europe suffered the consequences of that
and several other plagues.
9
You cannot lose half your population in four years and have
a viable economy! It was a poor and impoverished Europe that
rescued itself from poverty and disease through the invasion
of the rest of the world.
We are told that Europeans came to Africa and the Americas
to export Christianity and civilization, but the reality is that
Europe was impoverished and diseased, and if they had
anything to export it was poverty and disease.
Europe attacked the rest of the world with a vengeance.
Europe rescues itself by attacking the rest of the world
We are talking about the development of impoverished
Europe, a place that did not exist as a concept up until the 17th
century. Europe achieved its identity as a concept through the
process of slavery and colonialism.
Prior to slavery and colonialism, Europeans identified and
defined themselves primarily in relationship to each other. It
was only as a consequence of slavery and colonialism, the
competing drive to capture human beings and resources from
around the world, that Europe increasingly began to define
itself, not primarily in relationship to each other, but primarily
in relationship to the rest of us.
It was a process that saw the entire ecosystem of the
Atlantic Ocean changed as a consequence of the attack on
Africa and African people being shipped across the Atlantic.
Millions of Africans would die in the process.
Some were thrown overboard. Some refused to go
willingly and leapt overboard. Some threw their children
overboard rather than see them go into slavery. Schools of
sharks actually learned to follow those ships from Africa
across the Atlantic.
There is an umbilical cord connecting Africans in Africa
and in America, made of the skeletons crossing the Atlantic
Ocean; a highway of bones of African people. That is our
connection.
That is something that I think is fundamentally important
to understand when we look at where we are today. It has its
origin sometime ago in the history of this relationship.
There was the aggression against China in 1841-1842. The
so-called “Opium War” turned China into a nation of addicts
for the benefit of England, which was a participant in the
development of the entire economy of Europe.
We’re talking about France, which held Vietnam as
a colony for 100 years or more in addition to what it was
doing in Africa. Most of the colonial resources coming from
Vietnam to France were in the form of the drug opium. There
were at least 3,000 legal opium dens in Vietnam under French
colonialism.
We’re talking about Portugal, which by 1500, had itself
brought out some 700 tons of gold from Africa. These are
resources that went to developing Europe — a Europe that
was impoverished, diseased, and unfree when we first came
into contact with it.
We are here because you were there
Despite the fact that today, Africa is so wealthy in terms of
natural resources, we are treated as beggars across the world.
We are in Spain as “illegals.” We are in England and France
as “illegals.”
There’s a saying among Africans that goes, “We are here
because you were there.” [Applause]
I think it is necessary for us to deal with this reality, because
both Africans and non-Africans live under some kind of
illusion about this relationship. It is an illusion that somehow
getting to America or getting to some place in Europe is our
salvation.
When we are in Africa, that is how we feel. Then those
Europeans and North Americans often feel also that somehow
we are intruding on Europe and North America by being here
and that we are somehow impacting upon the resources that
ought naturally to go to Europe and North America.
But the truth of the matter is when I walk through the
streets in Amsterdam and I see the incredible architecture,
the obvious wealth, the magnificent social system that takes
care of their elderly and gives them tremendous amounts of
resources after they can no longer work — when I look at
that, I have to recognize the fact that Holland built itself off
of slavery.
I have to recognize that the first Africans who came to North
America came in slave ships from Holland! Holland took so
many resources from what we now refer to as South Africa,
and the fact is that Holland is not alone in this relationship to
Africa.
Not only did these things happen, but on the backs of these
things like slavery and colonialism, we saw the emergence
of things like the Industrial Revolution that changed all of
see Solidarity, not Charity! on pg.11 >
¡LA VERDAD!
< Democracy, Power & the Press from pg.3
used the studios of RCTV to prepare their subversive
transmissions.
In early 2007 RCTV’s license to transmit a national
signal expired and was not renewed by the popular
and democratic government of Venezuela. RCTV
finally went off the public airwaves as a result of
the expiration of its state license, and the Bolivarian
government turned these public airwaves over to a
public Venezuelan television station called Venezuela
Social Television (TVes).
In a sick display of reactionary arrogance, RCTV and
the old political elites of Venezuela rallied a campaign
in the “defense of freedom of the press” that hit a
fever pitch throughout Latin America and inside the
political borders of the US in May of 2007. It was
then when we saw that a group of all white actors
and “journalists” - in an Indigenous/African country
- protesting in the streets for having their classist and
racist novelas taken off the air. These RCTV racist right
wing cretins - who had called for the assassination of
the Venezuelan president and directly participated in
the overthrow of the government - screamed and cried
their hollow indignation mimicking Paris Hilton as she
was sentenced to 15 minutes in jail. Seeing that their
elite Venezuelan partners in media criminality had lost
their privileges, corporate media outlets around the
world cried crocodile tears about over this “terrible
blow against freedom of expression.” (For more on
RCTV see Corporate Media Outraged: Venezuela
Expands Free Speech, Woldpress.org).
This RCTV puppet show was built up as an
international capitalist-imperialist campaign and
was imposed on the world, to the point of obsession,
hollering that an “attack on freedom of speech” had
occurred in Venezuela, and that we should have been
offended and indignant at this “steamrolling of human
rights.” These media corporations are nothing but
compulsive liars – not long ago they tried to justify
the Iraq war, they launched mass media war against
those terrible “illegal aliens,” and even today continue
to call the Pakistani dictator “President Musharraf”
a beacon for democracy for his “plans to spread
freedom throughout [his] country.” (See http://www.
whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/200603042.html) If we examine what has taken place since
Musharraf’s meeting with Bush in March of 2006
here is the democracy that Bush upholds: Musharraf
has cancelled elections, suspended the constitution,
implemented Martial Law, arrested his opposition, and
his political oponent Benazir Bhutto, was assasinated.
(See Bush More Emphatic In Backing Musharraf, He
Says Leader ‘Believes in Democracy’, Washington
Post, November 21, 2007). These are the same media
corporations that orchestrated the slanderous campaign
against the Venezuelan government.
If we examine what the rich consider to be “freedom
of expression,” it does not include access to
information or access to education. The freedom
they speak of is that exclusive freedom reserved
for the transnational corporations and “globalized”
imperialist companies who finance these media
outlets through paid advertisements. Simply put, these
so-called journalists publish what is convenient to
Wal-Mart, Coca Cola, Citibank, and any number of
huge businesses that treat Latin America like a giant
ATM machine. We must understand that these are not
small, struggling newspapers, but massive corporate
businesses receiving subsidies from the US to mold
public opinion in support of the rich.
OUR PEOPLE IN VENEZUELA ARE
CHALLENGING THE ESCUALIDOS (RICH)
With the 1998 election of Hugo Chávez and the
referendum of people’s power with the ratification
of the 1999 Bolivarian Constitution in Venezuela,
the people, through participatory democracy, have
challenged the racism and privileges of the rich, or
“escualidos” as they are known in Venezuela. Many
compañeras and compañeros who have traveled to
Venezuela have seen this process with their own eyes,
and inform us of a reality totally different than what
Televisa, Univision, Telemundo, and RCTV want to
make us believe.
Julio-Diciembre 2007
Those of us who believe in humanity and the liberation
of our peoples know that “freedom of the press” is not
a freedom to deceive and deny people our freedom
of being informed. Capitalist society hypocritically
manipulates and suppresses information when it feels
the need to, and then howls in protest when a country
takes measures to protect its freedom and sovereignty
from foreign sabotage. We must analyze the role of the
media in Venezuela, and it’s implications here in the
occupied territories (Aztlán –México Ocupado), and
under capitalism in general. Living under capitalism
(where the means of production are in the hands of the
rich) means that what is most important to those who
rule society is not the common good for the majority
http://www.ain.cu/2007/octubre/22cvelecciones.html)
These elections were not mentioned on CNN, NBC,
ABC, CBS, New York Times, Los Angeles Times,
Washington Post, La Opinion, Univision, Telemundo,
etc.; they never mentioned a word of this to its U.S.
audience.
So while the US laments and ignores that in Cuba there
is a democratic process that is most profound, they
also protests that there are no media outlets in Cuba
to provide a different point of view other than what
the socialist government provides. Yet, they ignore the
electoral process is one that actively involves 98% of
the people. Through the mass organizations (Women’s
Federation, The Labor Committees, Communist
youth, and infant Pioneers), Cuba is a society united
under solid principles of solidarity, justice and truth, a
society led by the vanguard of the Cuban Revolution,
the Communist Party of Cuba. The media in Cuba
works to keep the Cuban population as some of the
most well informed people in the world.
When we analyze the composition of Cuba’s
candidates to the National Assembly we can see just
how strong the guiding principles of Socialist Cuba
are; as this society has involved an entirely new
generation of Cubans in its democracy, with 60.91%
(374) of the 614 candidates representing people born
before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959;
21.82% (134) were below the age of 10 when the
Revolution triumphed; and only 17.25% (106) knew
what Capitalism was on the island of Cuba. (See
Cuba Socialista http://www.cubasocialista.cu/texto/
0008102parla.html). On January 20th 2008, Cuba will
show the world, especially the U.S. dictatorship of the
rich, what a true democracy looks like, when the people
will vote a second time, this time to elect the Deputies
to the National Assembly and we can expect that the
corporate media will ignore the popular election and
will of the Cuban people.
Pioneros cubanos, guardianes de la democracia
Pioneer Youth, custodians of Democracy in
Socialist Cuba
of human beings; the only thing the rich ruling class
cares about is the concentration and accumulation of
wealth and resources.
For this reason the media functions as a tool for social
control. The job of the media is to advance the interests
of the rich, and force upon the masses the “values” of
the rich. The media tells us that we must identify with
rich people (respect and aspire to be like them), and that
big business is democratic and good for everyone. On
the other hand, the corporate media teaches us (directly
and indirectly) that we must hate our own class (the
workers, poor people) by presenting us as ignorant,
uncultured lawbreakers. This is brainwashing, and
explains how so many workers in the US prefer to
identify themselves as “middle class,” continue voting
against their own interests, and speak with contempt
and disgust of the class they really belong to (workers
and the working class).
THE CASE OF CUBA: POPULAR DEMOCRACY
IS PEOPLE’S POWER
The case of Cuba demonstrates the clearest example of
popular expression and democracy unparalleled in the
world. To illustrate this we need to look at the political
process taking place in Socialist Cuba today, where
the capitalist media has not mentioned anything about
the elections taking place throughout the island, as
people elect their representatives to the National and
Provincial Assemblies. It was on July 9th, 2007 that
acting Vice President of the National Council, Raul
Castro Ruz, convened the people to initiate popular
elections for representatives to the Provincial as well
as National Assemblies, an electoral process that has
been in place since 1976. On every block, in every
town and city in Socialist Cuba, the people nominated
their candidates, and in October 2007 they conducted
general elections for the Provincial Assemblies
with 95.4% voter turn out; a number that represents
8,174,350 Cubans. (See Agencia Cubana de Noticias
10
It is a democratic process in which the aspirations of
the people are represented, as they could never be in
Gringolandia. This builds a truly Cuban consciousness,
a love for culture, and solidarity with the peoples of
the world. To demonstrate this, one only has to look
at their social programs: free health care for its entire
people, free education from pre-K to the University,
decent and affordable housing. In addition, if we
consider Cuba’s top two exports we can see their
tremendous care and love for humanity; teachers
and doctors are their top exports to the poorest parts
of the world, including U.S. occupied Afghanistan.
Cuba also offered to send as many as 1,586 doctors,
each equipped with 55 lbs. of medicine, to treat the
mostly African community of New Orleans who were
left to die by the U.S. government after Hurricane
Katrina; of course the United States government never
responded to Cuba’s offer. (See Granma Internacional
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/septiembre/lun5/
37reitera.html)
So when George W. Bush stood before the UN National
Assembly on September 25 2007 and threatened the
Cuban people with “regime change” as a solution
to the “violation of human rights” and “the need
for democracy and freedom of speech,” the Cuban
delegation walked out. They returned the next day, led
by Felipe Pérez Roque – Cuba’s Foreign Minister - and
before the world exposed the hypocrisy of imperialism
calling out Bush several times for perpetrating crimes
against humanity (see Felipe Pérez Roque, Minister of
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, at the 62nd
session of the United Nations General Assembly,
http://www.cubaminrex.cu/English/Speeches/
FPR/2007/FPR_260907.htm). We must ask ourselves
what “rights” does the US pretend to advocate for in
Cuba? Do they defend the right to exploit women,
through pornography and objectifying them? Are they
defending the right to portray African, Indigenous,
and poor people in grotesque and degrading images as
it happened before the Revolution? What is clear to us
is that the US remains determined to impose its will on
the Cuban people. Yet, we are confident that the will
of the Cuban people is more powerful than the tanks,
bombs, intimidation, and economic sanctions imposed
by the imperialist US government. This is why Unión
del Barrio stands in unconditional solidarity with
Socialist Cuba.
Unión del Barrio
July-December 2007
< FCR-Ventura de la pg.8
Cada año, más de 400 personas mueren
cruzando la frontera de EE.UU/México, una
frontera que cada día es más militarizada.
Este “Muro de la Muerte,” día tras día lo
expanden, y cada día más agentes de la Migra
incrementan sus números, registrándose para
aterrorizar y perseguir a los trabajadores
como animales. Cada día, un político racista
o sus lacayos, tratan de implementar sus
leyes opresivas contra migrantes, contra
los trabajadores que se vienen cruzando la
frontera.
La Migra ha descargado una ola de represión
contra de los trabajadores migrantes,
hombres, mujeres y niños con leyes y planes
como el Operativo Guardian, una estrategia
que obliga a los migrantes a morir cuando
cruzan la frontera tras del desierto. Otro
plan vicioso a reprimirnos, es Operation
Endgame (Operación Fin del Juego), donde
dice que quieren crear la infrestructura para
así deportar 12 millones de trabajadores
indocumentados de los Estados Unidos para
el año 2012.
El ciclo de temor y muerte sigue y ahora
los mismos campesinos forzados de sus
tierras en Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, y
otros estados están aquí en los barrios de los
Estados Unidos, despertándose a las cuatro
de la mañana cada día para ir a recoger los
mismos cultivos que mandan alrededor del
mundo, haciendo los que están arriba más
ricos, mientras nosotros al fondo nos hacen
más pobres.
Así como nuestros hermanos y hermanas, los
Zapatistas, bajaron de la Selva Lacandona
de Chiapas en la víspera de 1994 cuando
establecieron la primera fase de TLC.
Nosotros, ahora, catorce años después, en
esta víspera del 2008, en uno de los barrios
Mexicanos mas viejos en California, el
Barrio de La Colonia, declaramos ¡Ya Basta!
Hacemos el llamado a todos que están en el
lado de la humanidad a unirse con nosotros y
luchar por la justicia y dignidad.
< Ventura-FCR from pg.8
“Standing Up to NAFTA”)
For the rich this is good news, but for us, the
working poor, it signals more poverty, more
repression, and more death. This is why we
resist. We resist the oppression and exploitation
of our work, our lands, our community, and of
Vamos a organizarnos en los próximos cuatro
our dignity.
meses que siguen en preparación de nuestra
Marcha Por la Dignidad que se llevará acabo
Every year over 400 people die crossing the
el Día Internacional de los Trabajadores, 1º
U.S./Mexico border, a border that each day
de Mayo, 2008, en el parque La Colonia,
is more militarized. Every day this Wall of
aquí en la cuidad de Oxnard. Los esperamos
Death stretches onward, inch by inch, and
aquí, marchen con nosotros. Si no puedes
everyday more Migra agents are added to
venir, organicen una Marcha Por la Dignidad
the ranks, signed ujp to terrorize and chase
en tu comunidad, dondequiera que estén. No
down workers like hunted animals. Every day,
podemos marchar por ese día nada mas, ni
some racist politician or their lackey, conjures
creer que los políticos van a resolver nuestras
up new legal ways to implement their laws
problemas, necesitamos organizarnos.
of oppression against migrants, against the
workers that come across the Wall of Death.
Como dijeron nuestros herman@s Zapatistas
en la Primera Declaración de la Selva
The Migra has unleashed a wave of repression
Lacandona, debemos organizar y luchar
against migrants, against workers, men, women
para el trabajo, la tierra, el hogar, comida,
and children with laws and plans like Operation
salud, educación, independencia, libertad,
Gatekeeper, a plan that forces migrants to
democracia, la justicia y la paz. Estamos
cross the border through the deserts to die. At
en la misma lucha de nuestros hermanos y
the same time, another vicious plan to repress
hermanas Chiapanecos, porque nosotros
us is Operation Endgame, a plan that aims to
Somos…, como exclamamos claro y fuerte
deport 12 million undocumented workers out
en las Mega-Marchas de 2006 contra la
of the United States by the year 2012.
ley racista HR-4437,…Un Pueblo Sin
Fronteras!
The cycle of fear and death continues and now
the very same campesinos that are forced off
¡Alto a TLC! ¡Alto al Terror de la Migra!
our lands in Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, and
¡El Pueblo Unido; Jamás Será Vencido!
other areas of Mexico, are here in the barrios
of the United States, waking up at 4 a.m.
Frente Contra Las Redadas del Condado del
everyday, to go pick the same crops that are
Ventura
shipped off around the world, making those
Territorio del Pueblo Indígena Chumash
at the top richer, while we at the bottom get
poorer.
< Solidarity, not Charity! from pg. 9
Europe.
When we met Europeans, the vast majority of Europeans
lived as serfs, tied to the land in the feudal system. They
weren’t slaves, but they were the next closest thing to slaves.
They couldn’t be sold as Africans were later sold, but if the
land was sold, they went with the land, tied to it without
freedom.
And now we have the emergence of all these resources
coming from Africa and the rest of the world that begins to
transform European society.
Africa’s relationship to Europe enforced at gunpoint
In the 1960s, all of us saw so much hope for our Africa.
Osagyefo Doctor Kwame Nkrumah was such a shining
example that fought for a united Africa. People like Patrice
Lumumba, a great patriot, loved Africa and died for Africa,
and there were countless numbers of others.
We had so much hope for our Africa, and then, of course, we
saw a terrible aggression against Africa. We have in this
congress now, to talk about relationships between North and
South, but these are relationships that have been imposed at
gunpoint!
Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown by the U.S. government.
It created the coup.
The United States, France and Belgium were actually
engaged in a race to see who could kill Lumumba first! This
is an objective reality.
There is evidence of this today. I am not telling anybody
something that is a secret. Right?
Why? Because Nkrumah said that the wealth of Africa
should belong to Africa and African people. Nkrumah
understood that the colonial borders that had been created
by imperialism locked us into poverty and said that the only
way that Africa could survive and move into the future was
through being united and liberated!
Lumumba stood for the same thing, and there were people
like Sobukwe in South Africa and others.
This is what we are contending with. It is no accident.
Africa did not volunteer for this!
Even the most rabid, right wing, foaming-at-the-mouth
forces throughout Europe and North America have to admit
today that human life itself originated in Africa. This tells us
that Africa is not hostile to life. It is the place on earth that is
most naturally the friendliest to life itself.
There was nobody from Manchester, England or Paris,
France that went to Africa and created life. Life emerged in
Africa. Civilization emerged in Africa — great civilizations.
So why is Africa poor today?
Africa held in parasitic relationship with Europe and
U.S.
I contend that there is a relationship between the poverty
of Africa and the wealth of Europe and North America.
This relationship is tied to slavery, to colonialism, and to
instruments of coercion that have been created in the wake of
slavery and colonialism to keep Africa trapped in the place
where it is today.
Africa is trapped into a parasitic relationship with Europe
and North America. We’re in a university here where I’m
sure they teach what parasitism is all about.
A parasite must have a host to live on. You can’t convince
a parasite to leave a host. You can’t pray a parasite off a host.
Parasites must have a host in order to exist.
So it seems to me, the question we are confronted with is
what is the responsibility of Africa and African people? What
must we do to change the reality that in most of Africa, we
see African women who will work all day just to get enough
food for that day?
We see African children who would walk miles to get
water, because there is no clean water in most of Africa. We
see people who are trapped in the most miserable kind of
poverty in the place that has so much wealth — even as they
are sitting in a place where they see their wealth leaving in
trucks going to Europe on a daily basis.
We talk about immigrants? It’s so difficult today for
Africans to travel anywhere — to Europe or the United
States from Africa.
“You can’t come.” “You’re some kind of illegal.” What
we must tell them is, “When we come here, we are chasing
our own resources that have been taken from Africa and
transformed. You may have forgotten where they have come
from, but I remember!”
Imperialist aggression increasing
As you know, George W. Bush, and the one who came
before him and the one before him and before him, saw as
their national interest oil that is under the sands of the people
of Saudi Arabia and other places like that. Coltan that comes
from Congo is seen as being in their national interest.
Right now, the United States is creating this thing called
AFRICOM (the African Command), where they will have
even more U.S. troops in Africa to control Africa. Right now,
in the Gulf of Guinea, there is new increasing U.S. military
intervention.
Of course, it has nothing to do with the oil that they have
found there and the growing contest for oil that they have
with China that is also oil-hungry. We are told that they are
doing this for our own good — like when they first came and
got us to bring us to Christianity and civilization.
11
Just as our brothers and sisters, the Zapatistas,
descended down from the Chiapas Lacandon
Jungle on the eve of 1994 when the first
phase of NAFTA was implemented, we today,
fourteen years later, on this eve of 2008, in one
of the oldest Mexican barrios in California,
el Barrio de La Colonia, declare Ya Basta!
Enough is Enough! We call on all those that
stand on the side of humanity to join us and
fight for justice and dignity.
We will organize for the next four months in
preparation for our March for Dignity that will
take place on International Workers’ Day, May
1, 2008 in Colonia Park, here in the city of
Oxnard. Meet us here, march with us. If you
cannot come, organize a March for Dignity in
your community, wherever you are.
But as we march, we must understand that we
cannot just march for one day or believe that
politicians will solve our problems. We must
organize ourselves. As our Zapatista sisters
and brothers said in the First Declaration of
the Lacandon Jungle, we must organize and
struggle for work, land, housing, food, health
care, education, independence, freedom,
democracy, justice and peace.
We are in the same struggle as our Chiapaneco
brothers and sisters, because we are, as we said
loud and clear in the Mega-Marchas of 2006
against the racist law HR-4437, One People
Without Borders!
Stop NAFTA! Stop Migra-Terror!
El Pueblo Unido! Jamas Sera Vencido!
Frente Contra Las Redadas del Condado del
Ventura
Chumash Peoples’ Territory
We must say “no!” No to AFRICOM. No to this imperialist
intervention.
We must do this. The countries and their governments
won’t do this.
Africa must be united under African working class
leadership
I want to finally say this: the primary project that I am
working on is called the African Socialist International
(ASI), where we have as an objective the organizing of
African revolutionary organizations everywhere on Earth
where African people live. I speak passionately about Africa
as our Africa, not as some observer.
We work in South Africa right now. We work in Swaziland
as well. We work in Kenya. We work in West Africa — in
Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea-Conakry under the worst
kinds of circumstances under the puppet governments that
serve imperialism and not our own people.
We work in Europe, primarily in England, and throughout
North America. Our responsibility is to build the organization
that Garvey and Nkrumah talked about.
There is not going to be a free Ghana or a free Nigeria
separate from the rest of Africa and African people. Africa
must be free. Africa must be united in order to even have
access to its own resources.
Some Africans may disagree with this. They may say,
“Oh, I’m Nigerian or I’m Sudanese or I’m something else so
I have no relationship to the rest of Africa.”
But even as we are having these silly arguments, there are
Europeans from France, North America, Germany, England,
Spain, and all these other places who are sucking the blood
of Africa. So they act like Pan Africanists even as we run
away from the fact that Africa must be united.
So we have to fight for all of Africa in order for African
people everywhere to be free. So our primary project is
to unite and build a revolutionary organization with the
understanding that the freedom of Africa will have to be
taken, not given to us.
We have to forge relationships with other freedomloving people all over the world in this process. That’s how
I know who’s my friend when I hear an argument between
Hugo Chavez and the king of Spain. ¡Viva Hugo Chavez, El
Presidente!
We stand on the side of the future, and the future belongs
to the oppressed peoples of the world.
Africa does not need charity. Africa needs solidarity. So,
hopefully, there is solidarity here.
Izwe Lethu I Afrika! [Africa is Our Land!]
Uhuru!
¡LA VERDAD!
Unión del Barrio Projects • Proyectos de Unión del Barrio
Raza Rights Coalition • Coalición Pro-Derechos de la Raza
Committee on Raza Rights • Comité Pro-Derechos de la Raza
Unión del Barrio promueve el desarrollo de colectivos comunitarios que abogan por la defensa
de la comunidad Mexicana. Nuestra membresía
participa activamente en estos colectivos para
promover el poder independiente y avanzar la
lucha por la auto-determinación de nuestro
pueblo. Este trabajo se desempeña bajo el liderazgo de Unión del Barrio o como proyectos directos de Unión del Barrio. Entre los colectivos
existe La Coalición Pro-Derechos de la Raza en
San Diego y Los Angeles, y el Comité Pro-Derechos de la Raza en Oxnard.
Unión del Barrio promotes mass based community collectives to advance Raza Self-Determination to build independent power. Our communities have identified the following statement of
purpose and list of demands that unite these
collectives. This work is carried out either under
the leadership of Unión del Barrio or as direct
projects of Unión del Barrio. The San Diego and
Los Angeles based Raza Rights Coalition and the
Oxnard based Committee on Raza Rights function as these mass based community groups.
Así Pensamos:
This Is What We Believe:
Mucho más temprano que tarde, los millones de
mexicanos que somos explotados económicamente,
que somos victimas de la represión y la opresión,
optaremos por la autodefensa, por la organización,
seremos libres, y no habrá ley, fuerza o gobierno
que pueda detener nuestro proceso libertario.
La existencia de la Coalición Pro-Derechos de La
Raza se basa en los derechos fundamentales de
nuestro pueblo por alcanzar la justicia, la igualdad y
una existencia libre del racismo, de la explotación,
del sexismo y de la ignorancia. Buscamos una
vida digna donde la represión, la inseguridad y la
brutalidad de la policía y de la migra sean cosas
del pasado. Este es el futuro que hoy empezamos
a construir.
Creemos en la construcción de una organización
independiente y democrática, libre de instituciones
gubernamentales, que promueva nuestra cultura y
el derecho innegable a la libre determinación de
nuestro pueblo.
POR ESTO LUCHAMOS:
1. Empleo total con trabajos sindicalizados y
salarios dignos
2. Educación culturalmente relevante y de calidad,
publica y accesible en todos los niveles, para
nuestra juventud- incluyendo educación
bilingüe y Estudios Chicanos/La Raza
3. Servicios de salud gratuitos y de calidad para
todo el pueblo
4. Vivienda decente y económicamente
alcanzable
5. Control comunitario de la policía y los Sheriffs
6. Abolición de la Patrulla Fronteriza y la
desmilitarización inmediata de la Frontera
7. Alto a la importación de drogas a nuestros
barrios
8. Alto al intervencionismo de Estados Unidos en
México, América Latina y el mundo
9. Suspensión inmediato al Tratado de Libre
Comercio (TLCAN, CAFTA, ALCA, etc.) y
el apoyo al La Alternativa Bolivariana de las
Americas (ALBA)
10. Exigimos un medio ambiente limpio y
saludable.
11. Justicia social y verdadera democracia en
México.
¡POR LA DIGNIDAD
LUCHAMOS!
San Diego
P.O. Box 620095
San Diego, CA 92162
(619) 696-9224
[email protected]
www.coalicionproderechos.org
Sooner or later, the millions of Mexicanos that
are economically exploited, politically repressed
and oppressed, will choose to defend ourselves,
we will organize ourselves, and we will liberate
ourselves and there will be no law, physical force,
or governmental institution that will be able to hold
back our liberation.
The existence of the Raza Rights Coalition is based
on the basic right of our people to pursue justice,
equality, and a life free of racism, exploitation,
sexism, ignorance, physical and cultural repression,
insecurity, racist laws, and police/migra brutality.
This is the future we are building.
We believe in building independent community based
organization and power, free from all government
institutions and corruption, promoting political,
economic, and socio-cultural self-determination.
THIS IS WHAT WE STRUGGLE FOR:
1. Full employment with union jobs and decent
wages.
2. Quality education for all our children including
Chicano/Raza Studies and Bilingual Education at
all levels.
3. Free health care for all people
4. Decent affordable housing
5. Community control of the police and sheriffs
6. Abolishment of the racist Border Patrol and the
demilitarization of the Mexico/U.S. border
7. End to the importation and promotion of drugs in
our communities and barrios
8. An end to U.S. intervention in Mexico, Latin
America and all over the globe
9. An immediate halt to all Free Trade Agreements
(NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA, etc.) and support for
the Alternativa Bolivariana Para las Americas
(ALBA)
10. A Clean and Healthy Environment
11. Social justice and true democracy in México
¡POR LA LIBERTAD
VENCEREMOS!
Los Angeles
[email protected]
Ventura/Oxnard
P.O. Box 20411
Oxnard, CA 93034-0411
(805) 436-5901
[email protected]
LIBERACIÓN EXIGE ORGANIZACIÓN
¡La Verdad! is published by Unión del Barrio as a means to
provide political education and information to its membership,
supporters, and other movement forces. ¡La Verdad! is
currently the most widely read completely Independent
Chicano Mexicano liberation publication and circulates
throughout occupied Mexico/Aztlán; from San Diego to San
Antonio, Texas. ¡La Verdad! is the political organ of Unión del
Barrio, therefore the writings herein represent the collective
voice of Unión del Barrio and its projects.
Any questions, comments or responses directed at Unión del
Barrio or its publications must be addressed to:
Unión del Barrio
c/o La Verdad Publications
P.O. Box 620095
San Diego, Califas 92162
¡LA VERDAD! se publica por Unión del Barrio con el propósito
de proveer educación e información para su membresía,
simpatizantes y otras fuerzas dentro del movimiento.
Actualmente ¡La Verdad! es un periódico que circula
extensamente por todos los territorios ocupados mexicanos
(Aztlán); desde San Diego, Califas hasta San Antonio Tejas;
¡La Verdad! es el periódico más leído con orientación de lucha
por la Liberación Nacional Mexicana. Es el órgano político de
Unión del Barrio; por lo tanto, representa la voz colectiva de
Unión del Barrio y sus proyectos.
Cualquier pregunta, comentario o respuesta dirigida a Unión
del Barrio o sus publicaciones deberán ser dirigidas a:
Unión del Barrio
c/o La Verdad Publications
P.O. Box 620095
San Diego, Califas 92162