Ella's Voice

We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest: Remembering the Freedom Rides

rachel@ellabakercenter.org — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:18:29 +0000

May 24^th commemorates the 1961 arrival of the first Freedom Riders into Jackson, Mississippi, where, in spite of Highway Patrol and National Guard escort, they were promptly arrested on charges that included incitement to riot, breach of peace, and failure to obey a police officer.

Upon reading about the 13 riders and their thousands of followers who boarded Interstate buses bound for the segregated South, my first reaction was awe at their courage.

My second reaction was the understanding that an activist’s work never ends.

The injustice addressed by these individuals in the sixties (systemic racism) is one of the same persistent issues present in our work here at the Ella Baker Center as we challenge mass incarceration and the War on Drugs.

Activism as a Life Path

I think individuals or organizations in our society (including me) often get in the habit of thinking that activism is a means of achieving a finite goal. For example, “ending mass incarceration”, “eradicating poverty”, or even “ending the war on drugs.”

But reading stories about the Freedom Riders negates this way of thinking. Rather, with a historical perspective in hand, I realize that activism is a life path that means following your heart.

Let me explain: I believe that every activist does what she does because she intimately knows a better world living in her heart.

The Freedom Riders could see a world where all people were given equal access to the resources they needed regardless of the color of their skin. Yet the gap between their internal vision and the external world was large in 1961, as Southerners continued to enforce Jim Crow laws.

Closing the Gap Between Our Vision and the World As It Is

Despite the challenge, the Freedom Riders felt compelled to act because of their vision.

After three weeks of hundreds of protesters continuing to board interstate buses, facing personal attack and arrest, on May 24th Attorney General Robert Kennedy demanded that the South desegregate interstate buses and terminals. His direction, through the Interstate Commerce Commission, finally enforced an earlier Supreme Court ruling, and took effect in September 1961.

The Freedom Riders achieved an incredible victory and helped to close the gap between their vision and the world. But I don’t believe any Rider who is alive today would say that the world she lives in matches the world in her heart.

"We who believe in freedom cannot rest." – Ella Baker, 1964

Systemic racism undoubtedly persists–the systemic targeting of people of color for drug offenses is just one example. Though I do believe in miracles, the gap between our vision and reality seems it will last beyond our lifetimes.

What Is Our Work All About?

Yet, if we cannot achieve the eradication of racism, poverty, and injustice, what is our work all about?

Rather than feeling discouraged by the persistence of these challenges or feigning that we have eradicated suffering when we have not, I believe that through telling stories about past victories we can learn about time and reevaluate our task.

In remembering the past we realize that external change is possible and that small moments, such as boarding a bus in the face of danger, accumulate into wholly re-imagined societies. But we also must own that injustice persists.

Our job therefore cannot be to achieve a single goal, but to commit ourselves day in and day out, through victories and failures, to living from the harmonious world we know in our hearts.

For not only does living from this place create a better world for generations to come, it creates a better world in the present, and it is what makes us come alive.

In honoring the brave actions the Freedom Riders and other members of SNCC and CORE took 52 years ago, let us thus internalize this wisdom: As long as there is suffering in the world, we have work to do.

What does the world in your heart look like? What lessons have you learned from the Freedom Riders’ stories? Please share in the comments below.

Harvey Milk Day: Lessons Learned

mverger — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:33:55 +0000

Harvey Milk left New York City in pursuit of a progressive urban community that was ready to make LGBTQ rights a national priority. In the San Francisco Bay Area, he found that community.

Over the next years, Milk sought public office unsuccessfully three different times. Ultimately though, an increasingly tolerant constituency enabled him to be the first LGBTQ person ever elected to any California public office, alongside the city’s first single-mother, African American woman, and Chinese American supervisors.

From Victory to Tragedy

The first thing Milk did in office was introduce the nation’s most stringent bill banning discrimination. The “the Mayor of Castro Street,” as he was called, continued to carry the message for not just the LGBT community but all minority communities stating, “It's not my victory, it's yours and yours and yours. If a gay can win, it means there is hope that the system can work for all minorities if we fight. We've given them hope.”

Tragically, on November 10, 1978, former Supervisor Dan White, angry with the mayor for refusing to overturn his resignation, opened fire in City Hall, killing both Supervisor Milk and Mayor Moscone.

Dianne Feinstein, then President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was first on the scene and experienced the horror that is a public spree shooting. Still shaking, she announced that both the Mayor and Milk had been shot and killed by a former Supervisor.

A Message that Endures Today

Although by all accounts former Supervisor White’s motives for shooting Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk were not based on animus toward gay people, Harvey Milk has been immortalized as a martyr for the LGBTQ rights community and movement as a whole.

“It takes no compromise to give people their rights...it takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.” - Harvey Milk

Though only in office for eleven months, his dogged perseverance for equal rights and freedoms for all people gave his voice a national audience and renewed inspiration within the embryonic LGBTQ movement.

Like many great civil rights leaders, Milk’s life was taken in an act of gun violence. But his words and courage continue to embolden the shared struggles of communities from all races, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientations, ages, physical disabilities, and immigration statuses.

“Hope Will Never Be Silent”

Commemorative days are a chance to reflect on what there is to be gained out of these senseless crimes.

From Harvey Milk’s life I’ve learned that it takes courage to walk out the right path alone, but if you do so you will find many more by your side rather soon. If we abandon our core beliefs we will never know who may have joined us or the success we may have had.

From his death I add yet another story to the collage of gun violence victims stemming from inconceivable legislative neglect of gun safety laws and screenings to ensure the mentally ill and criminals cannot purchase firearms.

But as long as we hope for safety in every community we can make changes because, as Milk said, “Hope will never be silent."

Got any favorite Harvey Milk quotes or stories? Please share in the comments below!

Immigrants for Sale: How Private Prisons Exploit Aspiring Americans

murrietta — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:51:51 +0000

Five billion dollars.

That’s how much profit private prison corporations are making on immigration detention centers a year, according to the documentary “Immigrants For Sale.”

The Latino activist organization Cuéntame produced the documentary that depicts the lives of many families who have been victims of the immigration system.

How Private Prisons Benefit from a Broken Immigration System

Among those benefiting from the system is the country’s leading private prison corporation, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which runs a large number of the private immigration detention centers in the U.S.

The documentary notes that many anti-immigrant policies instituted by various states in recent years, including Arizona’s SB 1070, are uniquely tied to private prison corporations. According to the film, SB 1070 was largely drafted by CCA and, once enacted, the legislation contracted CCA to hold detainees for the state of Arizona.

“Immigrants for Sale” exposes the relationship between harsh anti-immigrant policies and the private immigrant prison system that has emerged within the last two decades.

The documentary highlights the various human rights abuses that have taken place within these facilities, including inmate deaths, lack of adequate health care, and the moving of immigrants from one detention center to another without notifying their families.

Film Gives Voice to Immigrants and Their Families

What sets this film apart is firsthand accounts from those most impacted, like the heartbreaking story of Guillermo Gomez, a mentally challenged individual detained by ICE who endured horrible abuse at a privately owned facility.

The prison neglected to accommodate Gomez’s condition, opting to put him in solitary confinement and beat him excessively for not listening to orders. Gomez’s mother, interviewed in “Immigrants for Sale,” explains how her son had been moved around a lot within the system, often times without notifying her of his move.

To many, it is inconceivable to imagine living conditions for immigrants in detention centers. When we hear about human rights abuses within these centers, we see them as abstract and rare events.

But “Immigrants For Sale” humanizes the experiences of families who must deal with this broken immigration system, and sheds light on a topic that is not usually discussed in mainstream media. The film explains the complex relationship between legislation and private immigrant detention centers, discussing the implications of this relationship on immigrant families.

These are not cases of human rights abuses in less "developed" nations; these are human rights abuses happening within The United States of America. This is not about being legal and illegal, being white, black, or brown. It is about taking action to put an end to these private detention centers because it is the moral thing to do.

Come Watch "Immigrants for Sale" on June 6th

Together with our allies at BAJI (Black Alliance for Just Immigration) and ACUDIR (Alameda County United in Defense of Immigrant Rights), we're inviting you to a free community screening of "Immigrants for Sale."

Come join us at 6pm on Thursday, June 6th, in the Ella Baker Center offices, 1970 Broadway (at 20th Street), Suite 450, in downtown Oakland. RSVP to reserve your seat: whoisamericafilmseries@gmail.com or 510-285-8244 (Rhina).

We want as many people as possible to see this film, so please invite anyone you think would be interested and share the flyer widely!

Download and share the "Immigrants for Sale" flyer

Photo credit: Jack Kurtz

Congratulations: You Just Won a Lawsuit in Guatemala!

Owen Thompson — Sat, 18 May 2013 23:15:53 +0000

What the conviction of Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt means for everyone else.

In a thatched hut with mud floors, a man held up a plastic bag for me to see. The lighting wasn’t good; there was no electric light, and although it was daytime the pounding rain made it dim inside the house.

Nevertheless, I could see that the bag contained what looked like dust and a couple of bones. “This is my father and my brother,” my host said.

Don’t worry, I’m going somewhere hopeful with this.

An Unlikely Verdict Against a US-backed Dictator

The man speaking was an indigenous Guatemalan, a member of the Maya Quiché people. He, like the roughly 100 other people living in the highlands village of Saq Ja, was a survivor of the scorched-earth warfare that racked Guatemala in the 1980s. Hundreds of thousands of people died in that civil war, and many of them were indigenous people who’d had no interest in fighting.

Guatemala, like Central America as a whole, was violent and unstable for pretty much all of the Cold War era.

But the very worst period came in 1982-83, when a U.S.-backed military dictator named Efraín Ríos Montt directed the army to weaken the insurgency in the countryside by killing rural, largely indigenous Guatemalans indiscriminately. Entire villages were wiped out, with a terrifying brutality meant to teach the remaining communities a lesson.

In short, indigenous Guatemalans went through hell for decades, and emerged from the civil war as poor and oppressed as ever. Yet on Friday, May 10^th, the survivors of the genocide won an unprecedented victory when a Guatemalan court found Ríoss Montt, now 86 years old, guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. This unlikely verdict is not just a win for Guatemala: it’s a win for the world.

Guatemalans See the Fruits of Patience and Resilience

When I visited Saq Ja in 2002, as part of a church delegation, I knew that the people I was meeting were courageous: after years of diaspora they had returned to Saq Ja to rebuild their lives in the very place, sometimes the very houses, where they had watched soldiers cut down their families.

The fact that some villagers had the mortal remains of their relatives (however fragmented) was thanks to the work of Guatemalan and international human rights workers, who had been busy exhuming mass graves and identifying victims since the civil war officially ended with a peace agreement in 1996.

So it was clear that there were plenty of brave people in Guatemala—and yet if you had asked me, at any point up until a few weeks ago, if Rios Montt could be tried and convicted for his crimes, I would have said “No way.”

He almost did dodge the bullet, as a matter of fact. I was on hand as an election monitor in 2003, when Ríos Montt was a serious contender for the presidency. Had he won, it would have greatly strengthened his hand politically and quite possibly closed the door on any potential prosecution.

Some of my fellow monitors felt cynical at the time about the importance of that election, which brought to power a slick, wealthy corporate type. But the Guatemalan voters turned out in huge numbers to make sure Ríos Montt never again would lead the country, and we can see now how much that vote mattered.

What It Takes to Hold the Powerful Accountable

So much is still going wrong in Guatemala. The country as a whole is very poor, and the indigenous people remain the poorest. Violence did not end with the war; street gangs have grown frighteningly powerful, and the military-backed repression in the countryside continues to this day. The current president, Otto Perez Molina, is himself another alumnus of the dirty war in the 1980s.

If you spend time in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, you see the evidence of Guatemala’s problems every day in the faces of new immigrants: more than a million Guatemalans live in the U.S., a de facto referendum on the state of their homeland. Not surprisingly in such an unstable and unjust country, the justice system all too often denies justice to ordinary citizens.

And yet Guatemala, of all places, is showing us what it looks like to hold the powerful accountable for their crimes. There are a few precedents for this sort of trial, but most of these cases—Slobodan Milosevic of the former Yugoslavia, Charles Taylor of Liberia, Saddam Hussein of Iraq—took place only under the direct supervision of foreign powers, with outsiders as judges.

By contrast, the trial of Ríos Montt was accomplished within the Guatemalan system and came about in large part because of a grassroots effort: the survivors of genocide, marginalized as they have been, simply refused to let the issue drop.

They dug up their families and tied little tags to their bones. They came forward in court to testify against men who once commanded battalions. Like the Quiché man in Saq Ja who showed me the remains of his family, they were willing to call up their most painful memories so that the world would know the truth.

Keeping Faith in Justice

I find it all too easy to be cynical about the idea of justice these days. Our own system has yet to seriously punish any of the financial titans who made huge profits by sabotaging the economy, leaving many people without jobs, homes, or hope.

On a local level, our civilian review boards show far less backbone in their investigations of police murders than Judge Yasmín Barrios showed in Guatemala City the other day. I don’t think I’m alone in expecting little in the way of true justice for the crimes that matter most.

I’m ashamed to say it now, but a few years ago I casually told some friends that I had “given up” on Central America entirely—it was just too hopeless, I said, to believe these countries could ever rise above their awful statistics.

But I was foolish to lose faith in people who had shown so much resilience already. And I feel grateful today that they never lost that faith.

Readers: What are your thoughts on seeing the news from Guatemala? What victories have given you hope lately? Share in the comments section below.

L.A. Unified Puts a Clog in the School-to-prison Pipeline

Nikki Howell — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:14:05 +0000

On Tuesday, May 14^th, Los Angeles Unified School District voted in a 5-2 ruling to ban suspension for “willful defiance.”

LAUSD is the second largest school district in the country and the first in California to completely ban defiance as grounds for suspension.

Making Sure All Youth Are Treated Fairly

In a district where over 80% of the students are youth of color, suspensions for minor behavioral issues are keeping an overwhelming number of African American and Latino students from access to education. They are often suspended from school for acts such as wearing improper uniforms and cell phone use.

LA Times reports, “the offense accounted for 48% of 710,000 suspensions issued in California in 2011-12.” In the previous year, African American students made up 9% of the student population, but made up 26% of the students suspended in L.A. Unified.

The disproportionate effect is what prompted board members Monica Garcia and Nury Martinez to push the proposal. With the support of community organizations, nonprofits, and Superintendent John Deasy, L.A. Unified has another historic victory under its belt.

Restorative Justice and Other Alternatives

Although students will no longer get suspended for “willful defiance,” Board members have made it clear that schools will not simply let students off for breaking the rules.

Instead of sending students home, school officials are required to set in place alternative disciplinary actions to keep kids on campus. LAUSD will have to use programs like restorative justice and behavioral incentives to address defiance issues.

Through restorative justice, students are not suspended and are instead held accountable for their actions by determining the root of a problem while developing solutions to resolve issues and prevent the negative behavior in the future.

Practicing restorative justice in schools has resulted in significant drops in disruptive behavior, suspensions, violence, and reoffending, as this video from a West Philadelphia high school shows.

Pushing Youth to Excel, Not into Prison

"For the youth, this experience afforded them a rare and sacred opportunity to test their dedication to the social justice, increase their faith in organizing and positively effect the culture and climate of their school communities," said Alex Stewart, a Community Coalition youth organizer involved in the campaign.

In a district where students feel policed and are set up for failure, this victory helps to slow down the flow of students headed towards incarceration through the school-to-prison pipeline.

Take a look at the graphic from Community Coalition for more information on the school-to-prison pipeline:

L.A. Unified has taken the lead and made a bold statement with the ruling. Bay Area schools in Oakland, Berkeley, and Contra Costa have used alternative measures to address behavioral issues.

What do you think about this ruling? What would you like to see happen in your own local schools? Please share in the comments below.

Photo credit: Alberto Retana, Executive Director, Community Coalition

What It Means to Be a Mother of Many Sons

murrietta — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:11:58 +0000

On any given day, a young person, someone’s child, is arrested.

Oh my God! What happened? What did he do? Where are they taking him? Please don’t hurt him. Why are you being so rude? Son—remain calm! I’ll get a lawyer. Call me!

This is the cry of a mother’s heartfelt pain hurled into an unrehearsed scene that is being played out right before your eyes.

A Nightmare Come to Life

It is happening to thousands of parents daily all over America, mostly in the inner cities. A young person is being arrested and charged with breaking the law. As the mother of this child, you feel you are dreaming, yet it is real. You feel helpless. You cannot even touch your child. Your parental control is not allowed, another control has overridden your jurisdiction.

As the police car speeds away, you get a glimpse of a head sitting in the backseat that resembles your child, who is now handcuffed and heavily guarded. Life as you know it has taken a strange turn, which will forever be different from this day forward.

I now wonder, where or when did my son ever receive the rights that I have witnessed so many times on TV shows? My family watched and waited in total trust that everything would work out in the correct balance (meaning the punishment would fit the crime).

However, that is not what happened. My son received a very outlandish sentence and is still serving time from age 17 to now. He will be 30 years old this year, 2013.

Finding a Lifeline in Books Not Bars

I was introduced to a young woman named Kaye whose son was arrested at 14 years old, who was going through the same process that my son had just come through. She and I together wanted to get involved.

In 2004 I read about a group called “Books Not Bars.” Kaye and I found out that they were holding a meeting in Los Angeles, and so we attended. From that meeting on, they became my lifeline.

Unfortunately, Kaye unexpectedly passed away in June 2005, leaving a son without his biggest support system, his mom. I always say that only God knew that he was devastated without his mom and I was devastated without my son. Books Not Bars helped me to get in to see Kaye’s son in 2006. Right away from our first meeting, I knew that I was supposed to help him in any way that I could.

Creating a Support System for Other Families

Listening to parents who cried many times in our monthly Books Not Bars telephone meetings because the pain and helplessness were so great, I knew I wanted to do more.

As we worked on issues that would impact our family members’ futures, the pain that we carried as parents continued to linger from day to day. I am a Christian, I believe in the power of prayer and I felt that, if we could come together and pray for each other, support each other while facing the court system, sharing and collecting pertinent information, it could make a tremendous difference.

So much abuse, neglect and injustice was happening on a daily basis and having someone to talk to and stand by your side, I believe, can make the difference in a better outcome.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 - Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

I know that I did not have that support system when my son went through this process. I believe that the unfair outcome was due to ignorance, lack of money, and lack of support at the time when we needed it.

Looking back, I know now that having the right information in a timely manner could have changed the outcome for my son. Sadly enough, by the time you get some of the information that you need, it is too late and the system has placed your loved one on the assembly line to the state prison. There are many mothers and many sons who can relate to a similar or worse story than I am sharing.

MOMS: Mothers of Many Sons

MOMS (Mothers of Many Sons) Support Group Ministry was birthed out of this painful experience. Many parents share this same heart-wrenching experience, yet many have accepted it and buried their sorrow deep inside feeling helpless and alone. It is taking a toll on families all over this country, especially single moms. I wanted to help find solutions and offer a support system.

The first official meeting of MOMS Support Group Ministry was held on January 28th, 2007. We have had many challenges getting started. We pray for our loved ones, we write letters and send cards to our inmate sons (anyone on our list), we visit when possible, we support with finances when we can, we offer court support, we gather pertinent information to help families and we rally around families and their incarcerated loved one as a family giving encouragement and strength where needed.

We do all this while trusting that this dreadful time can be a little better for all involved if we stick together and offer support to one another.

Kaye’s son was released in April 2012. He is a wonderful person who is now working to become a law abiding citizen after 10 years of incarceration. My son continues to dwell in the state prison system out of state in Oklahoma. We have not been able to visit him since they moved him out of state in 2009. The toll out of state imprisonment is taking on my son and our family is a whole other subject. I have a trip planned this month.

Thank you Books Not Bars and the Ella Baker Center for all that you have done to make this dreadful time more bearable. Thank you to all of the mothers, and the many sons, who have endured this painful process with their loved ones.

Learn more about Mothers of Many Sons

Tags:

Guest Author:

Lanita Mitchell

Oakland’s DoBake Workers Refuse to Be Silenced by Silent Raid

murrietta — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:14:38 +0000

For the low-wage undocumented workers of Oakland's DoBake industrial bakeries — some making $9.40 an hour after decades of strenuous labor for the company, producing goods for Trader Joe's, the Oakland Unified School District, Costco, Safeway, 7-11, and other clients — the impact of their sudden mass firing earlier this year was devastating.

Especially hard hit were those who are elderly, disabled, the primary earner for their family, or, in one case, eight months pregnant.

A Brave Contingent Calls for Justice

The firing was disastrous for the 125 workers and their loved ones, but it has also proved infuriating, politicizing, and galvanizing. Many have organized into a committee, and their aims include the broad vision of a moratorium on all "silent raids" nationwide.

At today's May Day march in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, this brave contingent will be risking further exposure in order to share their emerging struggle against the I-9 audit that ruined their livelihood, one of the latest in a wave sweeping the country.

Pushing Back on Those Who Put Profit Before People

When DoBake facilitated the raid, perhaps they were eager to rid themselves of a troublesome element that could interfere with profits. Some workers who had toiled in the factory for 10, 15, or even 20 years were starting to ask for better wages and conditions.

On the subject of the I-9 audit, the union that was paid to represent the workers didn't make a peep: didn't even warn the workers that the firings were coming. When 50 workers pressed the BTCGM Local 125 reps on why they didn't at least call a meeting, the response was: "Each worker's situation is different."

In abrupt joblessness, the workers seem to have found a certain commonality. Many have also found the strength to take a stand: fighting back against the mass I-9 firings they call unjust and racist, and calling for papers for all (papeles para todos, ya!).

This Monday, April 29, 15 ex-DoBake workers were joined by 50 community members, including the Brass Liberation Orchestra, to stage their first public action, right outside the factory gates.

This is only the beginning of what could become a protracted struggle for reinstatement, severance pay, and a broader statement against the "silent raids" that have escalated significantly in recent years.

Fighting a Bigger Fight through a Local Struggle

In 2012 The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) hit a record high of I-9 audits: more than 3,000, compared to 250 in 2007.

Over the same time period, private prison companies have increasingly contracted with ICE to build immigrant detention facilities, a growth strategy the companies have specifically identified in reports to stockholders.

In their local struggle, DoBake workers are joined by former workers of Berkeley Pacific Steel, similarly fired by the hundreds (possibly in retaliation, after their union successfully went on strike for better benefits).

Fights like the DoBake fight are about people's basic needs of jobs and dignity, but they are also about a larger movement around immigrant rights (or lack thereof) and hyper-exploitation in this country.

Below, in Spanish with an English translation, is the speech given by one of the DoBake ex-workers at Monday's press conference.

Speech from a Former DoBake Worker

Buenas tardes estoy aquí como trabajadora y representando en este día a mis compañeros de Dobake bakeries. Esta es una compañía que durante muchos años ha estado en el mercado del Área de la Bahía dedicada a la producción, empaque y distribución de diferentes tipos de pan que son parte del consumo diario para todas nuestras familias y distribuidos entre otros en el el Distrito Escolar de Oakland, cárceles, supermercados como Foodmax, Costco y Trader Joe's.

Dobake bakeries tiene un promedio de 200 trabajadores los cuales estamos sindicalizados conBCTGM local 125 desde el 2006. Este sindicato representa a trabajadores de Panaderías, Confiterías, Tabacaleras y Molineros. Lastimosamente el desempeño de los líderes de este sindicato ha dejado mucho que desear ya que no han hecho nada durante este tiempo por mejorar nuestra situación laboral en dobake de hecho a estas alturas estamos trabajando con un contrato que expiró desde noviembre del año 2012 y cuyas negociaciones han sido retrasadas con el pretexto que los dueños de la compañía no tienen tiempo para reunirse con los representantes nuestros y del sindicato. Para la firma de este nuevo contrato Estamos exigiendo el pago de salarios mas justos mejores prestaciones y condiciones de trabajo. La compañía ha hecho oídos sordos a nuestros reclamos por mejoras laborales y en su lugar ha empezado a implementar una "supuesta" inspección federal, I-9, mejor conocida como Redadas Silenciosas. Es por eso que el día de hoy, nosotros los trabajadores de Dobake Bakeries estamos aquí para denunciar y dar testimonio de las prácticas llevadas a cabo en contra de nosotros!

Dicha panadería se ha dado a la tarea desde enero de este año de despedir a sus trabajadores en grupos pequeños de 5 a 10 personas semanalmente tomando como justificación una supuesta auditoría de autoridades federales llevada a cabo en 2010 y luego en este ano la implementacion y uso del I-verify y el I-9, desatando con esto,la angustia y preocupación de alrededor de 125 trabajadores que estamos siendo afectados por esta práctica y que somos el sosten de nuestras familias. Curiosamente, la implementación de esta "supuesta" redada la están llevando a cabo de manera estratégica ya que los primeros en ser despedidos son los "empleados generales" de tal manera que los empleados clave como los encargados de línea o los especialistas los han mantenido hasta ahora para que entrenen a los nuevos trabajadores que ocuparán sus posiciones para eventualmente deshacerse de cada uno de nosotros, los 125 trabajadores que estamos en la lista negra.

Como parte de la fuerza laboral de este pais es difícil explicarnos cómo si durante tantos años hemos ayudado a sostener su economía, por qué ahora esas mismas compañías que durante todo este tiempo nos han usado para obtener ganancias millonarias, pagándonos sueldos bajos, se han aprovechado de nuestro estatus legal y nos han vendido. Hoy en este momento, momentos de cambio para este pais, implementan herramientas como el I-9 o el E-Verify para dejar a nuestrasfamilias sin el principal medio de ingresos para su sostén. Esto es injusto! No cabe duda que nuestra comunidad está siendo vigilada y atacada con este tipo de leyes anti inmigrantes. De todos es conocido que el gobierno de Barack Obama ha roto el récord de deportaciones en EU!!!

Es por eso que hoy estamos aquí para dar a conocer a la comunidad lo que a puertas cerradas está pasando y para exigir que dejen de ser implementadas el E-Verify y el I-9 porque como seres humanos atentan contra nuestra dignidad y el justo derecho que todos tenemos de ganarnos el pan de cada día.

Denunciamos la Injusticia que se está haciendo con nosotros y con muchas otras familias!!!

Rechazamos políticas anti inmigrantes como son el E-Verify, el I-9 y el S-COMM.

Invitamos a toda la comunidad a rechazar la implementación de estos programas que atentan contra la dignidad del ser humano y el derecho al trabajo. Como comunidad debemos estar unidos en la lucha por la legalización y el rechazo a la prácticas anti- inmigrantes poque recordemos que la unión hace la fuerza y solo unidos podemos hacer la diferencia!

PAPELES PARA TODOS!

======================

Good afternoon. I am here today as a worker and representative of my compañeros at Dobake bakeries. This is a company that for many years has been in the bay area market, dedicated to the production, packaging and distribution of different kinds of bread that are part of the daily consumption for all our families as well as distributed to others in the Oakland School District, prisons, and supermarkets like Foodmax, Costco and Trader Joe’s.

DoBake Bakeries has an average of 200 workers who have been unionized with BCTGM local 125 since 2006. This union represents bakery workers, confectionery workers, tobacco workers and grain millers. Unfortunately the performance of the union leadership has fallen short since they have done nothing during this time to improve our employment situation at DoBake, when in fact at this point we have been working with a contract that has been expired since November 2012 and negotiations have been delayed on the pretext that the company’s owners don’t have time to meet with us or our union representatives.

By signing this new contract we are demanding fairer wages, better benefits and better working conditions. The company has turned a deaf ear to our demands for better working conditions and instead has begun implementing a “supposed” federal I-9 inspection, better known as a silent raid. This is why on this day, we, the workers of DoBake Bakeries are here to denounce and give testimony to the practices carried out against us!

Since January of this year the bakery has been given the task of firing workers in small groups of 5 to 10 people each week, using as justification a supposed federal audit conducted in 2010 and then in this year, the implementation and use of E-Verify and I-9, which has triggered the anxiety and concern of around 125 workers who have been affected by this practice and who are the main support of their families. Interestingly, the implementation of this "supposed" raid is being conducted strategically, in which the first to be fired are the "general employees" so that key employees and line managers or specialists have been maintained up to now in order to train new workers to take up their positions in order to eventually get rid of each one of us, the 125 workers who are on the blacklist.

As part of the workforce in this country is difficult to explain to us how if for so many years we have helped to sustain its economy, why now are those same companies that during all this time have used us to make millions in profits by paying us low wages, have taken advantage of our legal status and have sold us. Today in this moment, a moment of change in this country, they implement tools like I-9 or E-Verify to leave our family without main source of income. This is an injustice! There is no doubt that our community is being scrutinized and attacked with these kinds of anti-immigration laws. We all know that the government of Barack Obama has broken the record for deportations in the US!!!

This is why we are here today to inform the community of what is going on behind closed doors and to demand an end to the implementation of E-Verify and I-9 because they threaten our dignity and basic rights that we all have as human beings to earn our daily bread.

We denounce the injustice being to us and many other families!!!

Reject anti-immigrant policies such as E-Verify, I-9 and S-COMM.

We invite the entire community to reject the implementation of these programs that threaten the dignity of our our humanity and our right to work. As a community we must be united in the fight for legalization and the rejection of anti-immigrant practices because we must remember that unity is strength and only united can we make a difference!

PAPERS FOR ALL!

Join the DoBake Ex-Workers at Today's Rally in Oakland starting at 3pm

Music for May Day: La Santa Cecilia and Las Cafeteras

murrietta — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:01:17 +0000

La Santa Cecilia, "El Hielo"

LA-based band La Santa Cecilia has shared this beautiful, haunting song (and video - I admit I was surprised by that twist) as part of the #Not1More campaign.

Our National Campaigner, Rhina Ramos, told us how moving it was to hear this song being sung by the thousands who marched in Washington, D.C. on April 10th, part of a National Day of Action calling for transformation of our nation's broken immigration system and an end to unjust arrests and detentions.

Here's an English translation of the lyrics:

"ICE"

Eva using a rag to wipe clean the table
Cautiously making everything shine like a pearl
When the boss gets home, she hopes there’ll be no complaints
Accusing her of being illegal
Jose tends to the grounds, they look like Disneyland
He drives an old truck without a license
It doesn’t matter if he was a taxi driver in his home country
That doesn’t count for Uncle Sam

Chorus:
ICE is on the loose out on the streets
You never know when your number’s up
Cry, children cry when they get out
They cry when mom’s not coming to pick them up
Some of us stay here
Others stay there
That happens for going out to find work.

Martha arrived as a child and dreams of studying
But it’s hard for her without papers
Those who were born here get the laurels
But she never gives up her fight

Las Cafeteras, "La Bamba Rebelde"

And from Las Cafeteras, another LA-based band adding to the soundtrack of a growing movement, "La Bamba Rebelde," a joyful declaration that "yo no creo en fronteras/yo cruzaré" ("I don't believe in borders, I will cross"):

Bonus Tracks: Los Tigres del Norte

As the granddaughter of migrant farmworkers from Mexico, Los Tigres del Norte was the first band I heard creating music that isn't afraid to take on big issues of economic justice, immigration, and human rights, while getting you up out of your chair to dance. If you're not familiar with them, this list of 10 of Los Tigres' favorite tracks is a great intro.

What are your favorite songs that get you inspired to take to the streets, to make your voice heard, to create change? Share in the comments below!

Why I'm Marching for Immigrant Workers this May Day

Rhina Ramos — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:42:51 +0000

When the Boston bombings happened two weeks ago, many of us were left feeling vulnerable, scared and mourning for those who suffered loss as consequence of these acts.

Many rose to the occasion and gave of themselves to help out the victims. Others, and I like to think they are a small group, acted predictably prejudiced, and made racist remarks about immigrants, muslims and people of color.

Don't Let Racism Hold Us Back

We shouldn’t let this smaller group undermine passage of crucial and long-awaited changes to our broken immigration system.

Racist remarks suggesting that all immigrants and/or muslims are violent and that they shouldn’t be admitted to live in this country distract us from the fact that an estimated 11 million hardworking people with families and community ties should no longer live in fear simply because they are undocumented.

This prejudiced message ignores the vast contributions of immigrants like myself and my brother. According to those who deny immigrants’ basic humanity, my brother and I should have spent time in jail for having crossed the border 30 years ago (that's my passport photo from when I immigrated, above).

My brother, a transplant surgeon, saves lives every day in Philadelphia. I graduated from law school with a dream of dedicating my career to improving the lives of those who are forced to live in the margins.

We Can Create Peace and Prosperity for All

My brother and I have been fortunate indeed reaching high professional degrees through the hard work of my mother and my aunt, immigrants too. Yet we are not so unique.

The immigrant experience in the United States is full of people like us who become part of the tapestry of human beings living in the United States with the desire to prosper and contribute. We immigrants are hard working people. We run businesses, join faith communities and raise families with the struggles of any other American citizen, and yes, sometimes, like any other American citizen, we fall from grace.

But to create the prosperous and peaceful communities we all want requires a commitment to self-reflection, rather than reacting to violence with more violence and blame of innocent people.

One way to foster that self-reflection is to take a quiet moment to understand how our lives connect with the world around us.

Blaming or finding a culprit for our suffering only further divides us and separates us from deep connection with one another. It’s a tactic that has been used throughout history to divide and conquer people, including the workers we honor on International Workers' Day, May 1st.

Show Your Solidarity

So don’t buy into it. Show that you are for peace, come out and march on May 1st. Come join me in Oakland, California, or find an event in your area. Stand up for a message of inclusivity, don’t let hate be the driving force. Let your love for one another shine.

Join Rhina at the May Day Rally & March in Oakland

#EndTheWarOnDrugs Playlist: The Gregory Brothers

murrietta — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:13:05 +0000

The failed War on Drugs is having a moment.

Earlier this month, Russell Simmons organized a coalition of celebrities, advocates, and faith leaders to call for an end to the War on Drugs.

Then, Justin Bieber tweeted about it to his 38 million followers.

And now the War on Drugs and its failures are the focus of this "Auto-Tune the News"-style music video, created for The New York Times by the Gregory Brothers (infamous for their "Bed Intruder Song" featuring Antoine Dodson).

All of these things keep the disaster that is the War on Drugs in the public eye. But what's really going to get our elected officials to move some legislation is pressure from Americans who are fed up with this ridiculous waste.

We Can't Just Leave It to the "Experts" Anymore

To create that pressure for change, we all need to understand what we're talking about, so no one gets lost in jargon or legal terms that make it seem like only "experts" can weigh in on policies that affect all of our lives.

Plus, the "experts" have been in charge of the War on Drugs for over four decades now, and you know where that's gotten us – #1 in the world for locking people up while our schools and communities struggle.

In an effort to help you explain why the War on Drugs needs to end and/or call bullshit on those who don't think it's a problem, we decoded seven terms that appear in the letter Russell Simmons and his coalition sent to President Obama.

What videos, information, or other resources would be helpful to keep the conversation about ending the War on Drugs going?

7 Terms that Can Help You Explain the War on Drugs to Anyone

Ella's Voice

We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest: Remembering the Freedom Rides

Activism as a Life Path

Closing the Gap Between Our Vision and the World As It Is

What Is Our Work All About?

Categories:

Harvey Milk Day: Lessons Learned

From Victory to Tragedy

A Message that Endures Today

“Hope Will Never Be Silent”

Categories:

Immigrants for Sale: How Private Prisons Exploit Aspiring Americans

How Private Prisons Benefit from a Broken Immigration System

Film Gives Voice to Immigrants and Their Families

Come Watch "Immigrants for Sale" on June 6th

Categories:

Tags:

Congratulations: You Just Won a Lawsuit in Guatemala!

What the conviction of Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt means for everyone else.

An Unlikely Verdict Against a US-backed Dictator

Guatemalans See the Fruits of Patience and Resilience

What It Takes to Hold the Powerful Accountable

Keeping Faith in Justice

Categories:

L.A. Unified Puts a Clog in the School-to-prison Pipeline

Making Sure All Youth Are Treated Fairly

Restorative Justice and Other Alternatives

Pushing Youth to Excel, Not into Prison

Categories:

Tags:

What It Means to Be a Mother of Many Sons

A Nightmare Come to Life

Finding a Lifeline in Books Not Bars

Creating a Support System for Other Families

MOMS: Mothers of Many Sons

Categories:

Tags:

Oakland’s DoBake Workers Refuse to Be Silenced by Silent Raid

A Brave Contingent Calls for Justice

Pushing Back on Those Who Put Profit Before People

Fighting a Bigger Fight through a Local Struggle

Speech from a Former DoBake Worker

======================

Categories:

Music for May Day: La Santa Cecilia and Las Cafeteras

La Santa Cecilia, "El Hielo"

Las Cafeteras, "La Bamba Rebelde"

Bonus Tracks: Los Tigres del Norte

Categories:

Tags:

Why I'm Marching for Immigrant Workers this May Day

Don't Let Racism Hold Us Back

We Can Create Peace and Prosperity for All

Show Your Solidarity

Categories:

#EndTheWarOnDrugs Playlist: The Gregory Brothers

We Can't Just Leave It to the "Experts" Anymore

Categories: