Archivos de la categoría ‘Uncategorized’

Actually, Ethnic Studies Should Not be in Compliance with HB 2281

Publicado por digoguerra en octubre 25, 2010

Actually, Ethnic Studies Should Not be in Compliance with HB 2281

By Raúl Al-qaraz Ochoa

(also in http://chicanamagazine.blogspot.com/)

Ethnic Studies is part of a legacy of resistance and rebellion to colonization—past and present. People in Arizona struggled since the late 60’s for a program like this and finally 10 years ago after tireless community mobilizing, TUSD has the only K-12 Ethnic Studies program of its kind in the nation.

Yes, ethnic studies makes students do better on AIMS. Yes, ethnic studies bolsters college-going rates for Latinos/as. Yes, ethnic studies promotes diversity. But what is often not highlighted by our side is that Ethnic Studies does in fact promote some real, subversive, revolutionary, transformative shit! Tom Horne has this very well understood. So why can’t we come to grips with this reality and be publically proud of it? Why do we have to hide our history of resistance behind diversity, good AIMS test scores and high college-going rates? If Tom Horne and the entire Arizona state apparatus are attacking us, why not declare the Ethnic Studies department as the training ground for social justice community organizers that will transform the way Arizona operates? I mean, they’re coming after us anyways.

Considering we live in Apartheid Arizona with jacked up laws flying through the Arizona state legislature like crazy, we are in desperate need of some new, militant youth leadership. Ethnic Studies should serve to fill this need, and we should not hide it.

Tom Horne writes that Ethnic Studies is not in compliance with 2281 because:

It promotes the overthrow of the United States government
It promotes resentment toward a race or class of people.
It’s designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic groups.
It advocates ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.

We get so caught up trying to prove him wrong and counter each of these points. But I think Ethnic Studies should not be in compliance with HB 2281. Here’s why I think this: 1. Ethnic Studies envisions a world free of injustices and oppression. If Chican@ communities face oppression and injustice today, a tyrannical government should be “overthrown”—Tom Horne’s forefathers say we can do so. 2. The classes do promote resentment towards a class of people. We resent oppressors, colonizers and rapists, whatever race they may be. 3. Of course Ethnic Studies is designed for particular ethnic groups, doesn’t the name say it all? 4. Yes, “ethnic solidarity” is the goal and we see ourselves as a collective, not “individuals”, cuz if we have “solidarity” we can take you down more easily Mr. Horne, and others like you.

So not being in compliance with HB 2281 wouldn’t be such a bad thing, it would just affirm our compliance with the roots of Ethnic Studies.

Anyways, if this is the case, the more I think about it, the more Tom Horne makes sense to me. With the browning of America and the right-wing agenda of making holy hell fall on Arizona, Horne seems a bit late. This program exists in a state where it is perfectly acceptable to racially profile and separate families; the program exists in a state that has the most extreme legislature in the country and allows for a genocide to take place at the Arizona-Sonora desert. In all truth, I am very surprised we have an Ethnic Studies program today, considering we live in a state that has genocide as its state policy. Stripping youth of their history and culture (through HB 2281) is a part of such a policy.

To conclude I will say that we all need to continue fighting tooth and nail for Ethnic Studies to be preserved and expanded. However, we should also realize that the idea and meaning behind Ethnic Studies will remain alive no matter what Horne or his posse may do. We’ve prevailed throughout the centuries, and I’m sure we will survive this one. Ethnic Studies is about being part of a community, it’s not about being part of an institution. If we have homes and communities, it doesn’t really need to be in their schools. Ethnic Studies was born in the streets, and if they ban it, Ethnic Studies will have to return to the streets. Arizona can take Ethnic Studies away from our students, but they can never take their heart, their roots or their warrior spirit.

¡Que Vivan los Estudiantes!

¡Que Viva Ethnic Studies!

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Teen Murders: A Brief Context for Gay “Suicide”

Publicado por digoguerra en octubre 4, 2010

Teen Murders: A Brief Context for Gay “Suicide”

by Raúl Al-qaraz Ochoa

4 October 2010

Originally published in Chican@ Magazine:

http://chicanamagazine.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post.html

Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old student at Rutgers University in New Jersey plunged from a bridge to his death after his roommate secretly recorded him having sex with a man and streamed it live on the internet. In another suicide, 19 year-old Raymond Chase, an openly gay sophomore studying culinary arts hung himself in his dorm in the morning hours of October 1st. These are but the latest of an epidemic of suicides involving young men who were believed to be victims of anti-gay bullying.

In other heartbreaking incidents, fifteen-year-old Billy Lucas hanged himself in a barn in Greensburg, Ind. Asher Brown, 13, shot himself in the head in Houston. And 13-year-old Seth Walsh of Tehachapi, Calif., hung himself from a tree in his back yard.

These tragic cases are a glimpse of a horror all too common in gay life. It is an epidemic that has plagued the queer community for generations. With the recent attention, the media, celebrities and national organizations are placing the blame on bullying. While this is definitely a contributing factor, we must also place these deaths/murders in the context of a long history of patriarchal violence. Gay “suicides” are an extension of a legacy of murders, committed by religious and state institutional heterosexist oppression.

The European/Christian invasion of the Americas used queer “unnatural others” as an excuse to take over lands in order to “civilize” native communities. Indigenous people that didn’t fit the male/female gender roles were tortured, killed and even thrown to be eaten by dogs. Sodomy was criminalized since the foundation of the United States and in 1786, Pennsylvania was the first state to repeal the death penalty for sodomy. Rights—much like they were denied to Africans, Natives, Asians, Latin@s and womyn—were also denied to queer people. In fact gay migrants were refused entry to the U.S. on the basis of their sexual orientation alone, until Congress lifted the ban in 1990. Recently, voters passed Prop. 8 which would have banned gay marriage in California if the courts had not overturned it. And scores of politicians like John McCain are allowed to spew homophobic idiotologies.

Then society has the nerve to wonder why there is an alarming rise in hate crimes against queer and trans people. Then society wonders why men are so desperate to end their lives at such a young age.

There is an undeniable correlation between institutional oppression of queer people (through anti-gay laws and rhetoric) that leads to interpersonal hatred (bullying and hate crimes) that leads to internalized homophobia—where a person begins to adopt negative views of themselves for being gay or the possibility of being queer. Gay teen “suicides”are essentially murders because social/political oppressions forced the conditions for someone to feel like death is the only way to escape torment and oppression. These murders are happening for reasons more complex than bullying. These youth have been murdered by society, religion and politics.

Society resting upon interlocking systems of oppression—patriarchy, heterosexism, capitalism and white supremacy—allows and promotes the violence that has ended the lives of Tyler Clementi, Raymond Chase and countless other anonymous rainbow warriors that felt they could no longer be part of such a world.

Rest In Power to my brothers that felt they no longer had a way to rise here on earth. Your pain, struggle and beauty lives in me. In your memory, I will continue to work towards building a world free of injustice and oppression so that no one has to ever go through the pain and self-destruction that you did.

I’m also compelled to apologize—sorry for not moving fast enough…

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Raúl: A Call to Dream; a Call to Action and Rebellion

Publicado por digoguerra en junio 17, 2010

A Call to Dream; a Call to Action and Rebellion
By Raúl Alcaraz (on Tohono O’odham lands)
www.antifronteras.com

Currently the DREAM Act Movement is being trashed by both the conservative and leftist tendencies within the Migrant Rights Movement. Reform Immigration for America (RIFA), a right-wing tendency within the movement supportive of an enforcement and militarization approach to Immigration Reform, has reportedly asked that the Senate not move forward with the DREAM Act. While on the other side, radical/revolutionary-minded folks are also critiquing the DREAM Act Movement for not being radical at all and for supporting legislation that feeds into the military industrial complex and the academic industrial complex.

So where does this leave the Dreamers?

To share a little bit about myself, I myself was an arrestee in the sit-in that took place in Senator John McCain’s office on May 17th in Tucson, Arizona to push for the passage of the DREAM Act. I chose to participate despite my own critiques of the DREAM Act. After meeting with the Dreamers and hearing their powerful life stories and listening to their plans of getting arrested despite the risk of deportation, I was deeply moved and compelled to participate. Their conviction, passion and willingness to sacrifice and push the envelope is admirable. It’s good to have constructive critiques, definitely. However, we have to check our privilege and recognize that this is undocumented youth determining their fight and making themselves the subjects not the objects of debate; they are putting themselves at the forefront of a struggle essentially for equal access to education. (It is important to point out the demographics of the DREAM Act 5: None us were U.S. citizens, 3 were womyn and most of us queer.) Yes, the DREAM Act is reformist. And yes, the DREAM Act is problematic for feeding into the military industrial complex. But regardless of our feelings on the DREAM Act, it is undeniable that the DREAM Movement has emerged as the most organized, “radical”, concrete and viable alternative defying the enforcement approach proposed by right-wing pro-Immigration Reform organizations like RIFA. As a recent article’s title suggests, the most visible forces within our movement can be simplified to “RIFA versus the DREAM Movement”.

So where does this leave the radical/revolutionary tendency of our movement?

Since SB 1070 blew up nationally, there have been a series of nonviolent civil disobedience actions across the country which have tended to be more militant in analysis and demands than the DREAM Movement. Beginning with the Capitol 9 in Phoenix and subsequent actions in Los Angeles, Tucson, New York City, Santa Ana and other places, there’s huge revolutionary potential here yet low capacity for long-term massive coordination and sustainability of direct action mobilizing. These actions seem to be sporadic and disconnected with no clear strategy in sight.

This is at a time when our community is the most radicalized and militant it has ever been, yet the most visible/radical element getting all the attention in the mainstream media is the DREAM Movement?! Dang. This begs the question: What’s wrong with the Left? What are we doing wrong? Instead of just critiquing the DREAM, why don’t we ask ourselves why we are allowing this NIGHTMARE called Amerikkka to continue unchallenged? Why are we allowing Border Patrol Pigs to taser, torture, terrorize and assassinate our people? How could it be that we idly sit by continuing our everyday lives uninterrupted as 7 year-old Brisenia Flores and her father are shot to death by White supremacists in Arizona or 14 year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez is shot in the head by an agent in El Paso, Texas??? Why do we allow Arizona to be ground zero for police brutality against Latinos and the site of a quiet GENOCIDE against thousands of our sisters and brothers that have lost their lives crossing the desert—year after year after year??? How could we let this government get away with genocide and terrorism? What’s going on with our movement? Our strategy? Our tactics? Why are we letting this once in a lifetime opportunity to push our revolutionary visions to the forefront of the movement slip through our fingers? Where have our clenched fists gone? Why are we hiding behind our comfort? Where’s our dignity? Where’s our courage? Where is our commitment to our families and our visions of freedom? Whether it’s the DREAM Act or Immigration Reform, WE CANNOT depend or place our hopes on politicians of either party to be persuaded to side with justice or morality. If this is our strategy we will be waiting for a very long time and have lost from the very beginning.

Have we forgotten about the legacies of Harriet Tubman? Ricardo Flores Magon? Reies Lopez Tijerina? Assata Shakur? Robert F. Williams? Malcolm X? The Black Panther Party? Loilta Lebron? Silvia Rivera? Comandanta Ramona? If there was ever a moment to build on their legacies, it is now. Lobbying, voter registration drives, vigils and marches are obviously not gonna get us anywhere except backwards… nonviolent civil disobedience actions must continue, but that ain’t gonna get us much further either; not in violent Nazi-zona, not in violent Amerikkka.

So where does that leave you?

What are you doing as an organizer or activist fighting for the liberation of our people? What are you proposing? What are you doing? How are you taking things to the next level? Are you being creative? Are you pushing the envelope? What are you scared of? Are you being revolutionary to your fullest potential? Are you sacrificing yourself and your lifestyle like the Dreamers did? The Dreamers quit their jobs. They left their families, cities and communities. They came to Arizona and not just for a day or for a march. They got one-way tickets to support movement-building in Arizona and got arrested and are now facing possible deportation. If you were born with the privilege of having U.S. citizenship and claim to be radical or revolutionary or supportive of that in any way, I ask “how are you challenging your comfort and privilege to achieve visions of social justice?” Furthermore, I ask all people: “what are you doing to build upon the militant/revolutionary herstory of our ancestors whom resisted colonization by any and all means necessary?” Only by reflecting on these questions will we get to formulating concrete next steps that will truly cause an impact on this decadent political, economic, social system we live in. It is not acceptable to be racially-profiled. It is not acceptable to get separated from our families. It is not acceptable for massacres to take place because of U.S. border policies. It is not acceptable for us to get raided, deported and assassinated. So why are we living like it is okay for these things to happen daily? Ethnic cleansing and genocide are at our doorstep. How do we plan to adequately respond to this grim reality?

Beyond a call to DREAM, this is a call for all of us to step it up, to walk the walk, to seize the moment, resist and struggle for the LIBERATION of all people.

Beyond a call to DREAM, this is a call for ACTION, REBELLION and REVOLUTION.

It’s now or never.

For our dreams to become reality it’s up to you, it’s up to us to make it happen.

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Corporate VULTURES

Publicado por digoguerra en febrero 5, 2010

ICE “Industry Day” on detention reform attracts familiar faces

http://www.centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogs?#4332

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last fall held an “Industry Day” on detention reform as a way to get feedback from current and potential contractors and other interested parties. The event was closed to the news media.

ICE provided to the Center for Investigative Reporting a list of the companies represented, but would not disclose who the attendees were. The event was held at the Julie Myers Conference room at ICE headquarters.

The companies in attendance range from builders to current jailers to the Royal Bank of Canada. Several already have detention-related contracts or are staffed with former ICE or the old Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials.

Here’s the list of the companies, as provided by ICE (with light editing):
1. K4 Solutions, Inc. (past DHS contractors)
2. McConnell International, LLC (an executive was formerly with INS.)
3. The Dozoretz Group, LLC (Nina Dozoretz, formerly with the Division of Immigration Health Service; recently returned to the government to work with ICE on detainee health care.)
4. PSA-Dewberry, Inc. (architects)
5. Proteus On Demand Facilities (builders)
6. Kelly, Anderson & Associates (The company has several former high-ranking Homeland Security officials on its staff, including a former chief of the Border Patrol.)
7. Arc Aspicio, LLC
8. Stanley Associates
9. Pike County Corrections Facility (currently holds detainees)
10. Pike County Commissioners Office
11. Northrop Grumman Corporation
12. Worchester County Jail (currently holds detainees)
13. LCS Corrections (ICE contractor)
14. CACI, Inc. (ICE contractor)
15. Emerald Companies (ICE contractor)
16. Nortel Government Solutions (DHS contractor)
17. Youth Services International
18. Capgemini Government Solutions (DHS contractor)
19. USIS (DHS contractor, background investigations)
20. MGT of America (ICE contractor)
21. The CMC Group (builders)
22. Ernst & Young
23. KeyPoint Government Solutions (Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff on board of directors, DHS contractors)
24. The Forest Group, Inc.
25. Community Education Centers, Inc.
26. CCA (ICE contractor)
27. Unique Comp Inc. (CBP contractor)
28. Office of Federal Detention Trustee
29. Management & Training Corporation (ICE contractor)
30. Strategic Business Alliance
31. Health Insurance LLC
32. JJ DeLuca Company, Inc. (construction)
33. NetStar 1 (ICE/DHS contractor, data management)
34. GEO Group (ICE contractor)
35. Global Integrated Security
36. iSECUREtrac
37. Oldcastle Precast Modular & Security (builder)
38. Sundt Construction
39. KIMBALL furniture
40. Royal Bank of Canada
41. Frederick County Adult Detention (ICE contractor)
42. Argyle Corrections Group
43. ManTech (DHS contractor)
44. GEO Transportation (ICE contractor)
45. Volunteers of America
46. Price Waterhouse Coopers (DHS contractor)
47. Correctional Eye Care Services
48. STG International (DIHS contractor)
49. Dun & Bradstreet Gov. Solutions
50. Cornell Companies (ICE contractor)
51. Loredo Lomas Properties (real estate)
52. IBM
53. RTR Technologies engineering
54. Immigration Centers of America (ICE contractor)
55. Nabholtz Construction Corporation
56. Accenture (DHS contractor)

Tags:

ICE, immigration, detention

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198 Methods of Nonviolent Action

Publicado por digoguerra en enero 11, 2010

198 Methods of Nonviolent Action

http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations/org/198_methods.pdf

These methods were compiled by Dr. Gene Sharp and first published in his 1973 book, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Vol. 2: The Methods of Nonviolent Action. (Boston: Porter Sargent Publishers, 1973). The book outlines each method and gives information about its historical use.

You may also download this list of methods.

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION

Formal Statements
1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
3. Declarations by organizations and institutions
4. Signed public statements
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
6. Group or mass petitions

Communications with a Wider Audience
7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
12. Skywriting and earthwriting

Group Representations
13. Deputations
14. Mock awards
15. Group lobbying
16. Picketing
17. Mock elections

Symbolic Public Acts
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
20. Prayer and worship
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
24. Symbolic lights
25. Displays of portraits
26. Paint as protest
27. New signs and names
28. Symbolic sounds
29. Symbolic reclamations
30. Rude gestures

Pressures on Individuals
31. “Haunting” officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils

Drama and Music
35. Humorous skits and pranks
36. Performances of plays and music
37. Singing

Processions
38. Marches
39. Parades
40. Religious processions
41. Pilgrimages
42. Motorcades

Honoring the Dead
43. Political mourning
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals
46. Homage at burial places

Public Assemblies
47. Assemblies of protest or support
48. Protest meetings
49. Camouflaged meetings of protest
50. Teach-ins

Withdrawal and Renunciation
51. Walk-outs
52. Silence
53. Renouncing honors
54. Turning one’s back

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

Ostracism of Persons
55. Social boycott
56. Selective social boycott
57. Lysistratic nonaction
58. Excommunication
59. Interdict

Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions
60. Suspension of social and sports activities
61. Boycott of social affairs
62. Student strike
63. Social disobedience
64. Withdrawal from social institutions

Withdrawal from the Social System
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation
67. “Flight” of workers
68. Sanctuary
69. Collective disappearance
70. Protest emigration (hijrat)

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION: (1) ECONOMIC BOYCOTTS

Actions by Consumers
71. Consumers’ boycott
72. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
73. Policy of austerity
74. Rent withholding
75. Refusal to rent
76. National consumers’ boycott
77. International consumers’ boycott

Action by Workers and Producers
78. Workmen’s boycott
79. Producers’ boycott

Action by Middlemen
80. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott

Action by Owners and Management
81. Traders’ boycott
82. Refusal to let or sell property
83. Lockout
84. Refusal of industrial assistance
85. Merchants’ “general strike”

Action by Holders of Financial Resources
86. Withdrawal of bank deposits
87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
88. Refusal to pay debts or interest
89. Severance of funds and credit
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a government’s money

Action by Governments
92. Domestic embargo
93. Blacklisting of traders
94. International sellers’ embargo
95. International buyers’ embargo
96. International trade embargo

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION: (2)THE STRIKE

Symbolic Strikes
97. Protest strike
98. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)

Agricultural Strikes
99. Peasant strike
100. Farm Workers’ strike

Strikes by Special Groups
101. Refusal of impressed labor
102. Prisoners’ strike
103. Craft strike
104. Professional strike

Ordinary Industrial Strikes
105. Establishment strike
106. Industry strike
107. Sympathetic strike

Restricted Strikes
108. Detailed strike
109. Bumper strike
110. Slowdown strike
111. Working-to-rule strike
112. Reporting “sick” (sick-in)
113. Strike by resignation
114. Limited strike
115. Selective strike

Multi-Industry Strikes
116. Generalized strike
117. General strike

Combination of Strikes and Economic Closures
118. Hartal
119. Economic shutdown

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

Rejection of Authority
120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
121. Refusal of public support
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance

Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government
123. Boycott of legislative bodies
124. Boycott of elections
125. Boycott of government employment and positions
126. Boycott of government depts., agencies, and other bodies
127. Withdrawal from government educational institutions
128. Boycott of government-supported organizations
129. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
130. Removal of own signs and placemarks
131. Refusal to accept appointed officials
132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions

Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience
133. Reluctant and slow compliance
134. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
135. Popular nonobedience
136. Disguised disobedience
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
138. Sitdown
139. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
141. Civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws

Action by Government Personnel
142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
143. Blocking of lines of command and information
144. Stalling and obstruction
145. General administrative noncooperation
146. Judicial noncooperation
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

Domestic Governmental Action
149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays
150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units

International Governmental Action
151. Changes in diplomatic and other representations
152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
154. Severance of diplomatic relations
155. Withdrawal from international organizations
156. Refusal of membership in international bodies
157. Expulsion from international organizations

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

Psychological Intervention
158. Self-exposure to the elements
159. The fast
a) Fast of moral pressure
b) Hunger strike
c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
161. Nonviolent harassment

Physical Intervention
162. Sit-in
163. Stand-in
164. Ride-in
165. Wade-in
166. Mill-in
167. Pray-in
168. Nonviolent raids
169. Nonviolent air raids
170. Nonviolent invasion
171. Nonviolent interjection
172. Nonviolent obstruction
173. Nonviolent occupation

Social Intervention
174. Establishing new social patterns
175. Overloading of facilities
176. Stall-in
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system

Economic Intervention
181. Reverse strike
182. Stay-in strike
183. Nonviolent land seizure
184. Defiance of blockades
185. Politically motivated counterfeiting
186. Preclusive purchasing
187. Seizure of assets
188. Dumping
189. Selective patronage
190. Alternative markets
191. Alternative transportation systems
192. Alternative economic institutions

Political Intervention
193. Overloading of administrative systems
194. Disclosing identities of secret agents
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws
197. Work-on without collaboration
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government

Source: Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Vol. 2: The Methods of Nonviolent Action (Boston: Porter Sargent Publishers, 1973).

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