Tar Sands, Video II, US Social Forum Detroit

Tar Sands organizer Thomas Clayton-Muller,
at US Social Forum Detroit. Video begins with Casey Camp, Ponca.
Video by Earthcycles www.earthcycles.net
Photo BBC

Forgotten People Notice of Suit Against Navajo-Hopi Land Commission

FORGOTTEN PEOPLE GIVES NOTICE OF SUIT AGAINST NAVAJO-HOPI LAND COMMISSION FOR ACCOUNTING OF MONIES
By Forgotten People

Photo: Earl Tulley fills containers with uranium-contaminated drinking water at Box Spring well in Black Falls, Ariz. Photo by Rachel Wise/Pavement Pieces
June 29, 2010

The Forgotten People announced today that they have given notice to the President and the Attorney General of the Navajo Nation of an intent to sue the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission and others to account for the expenditure of funds from the Navajo Rehabilitation Trust Fund.


The trust fund was established by Congress in 1988 to be spent “solely for purposes which will contribute to the continuing rehabilitation and improvement of the economic, educational and social condition of families, and Navajo communities” that were affected by various events of the “Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute,” including the Healing decision, federal legislation that addressed the dispute and the set aside from grazing district No. 6 “for the exclusive use of the Hopi Tribe.” The trust consists of funds from surface and mineral interests in lands in northwest New Mexico (also known as “The Paragon Ranch”) and federal appropriations.


There have been news reports over the years about mismanagement of the trust and its funds but there has never been an public accounting of how much money has been received from Paragon Ranch or Congress, how those monies were spent when they were transferred to the Navajo Nation through the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission, and how the statutory purposes for the trust were served.


This suit seeks to resolve lingering questions about the trust, its size and income, and how monies have or have not been used for the benefit of the Navajo survivors of the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute. That information should be made public so the people will know whether or not a public trust has been violated or observed.


The notice is the initial step prior to the filing of suit and the Navajo Nation will have thirty days from receipt of the notice by the President and the Attorney General of the Navajo Nation to consider the claims.


Forgotten People will hold a public press conference at the conclusion of the notice waiting period to more fully explain why the suit is being brought, who is bringing it, and why it is necessary.

.

..

Creative Bridge: Youth Exchange Arizona/Germany

A Creative Bridge Across the Ocean
YOUTH EXCHANGE CHEMNITZ, GERMANY - NORTHERN, AZ
JULY 1st - JULY 10th, 2010

This is a 10-day cultural youth exchange between German and Northern Arizona youth.

The spirit and purpose of the youth exchange project is to connect young people with
different cultural backgrounds to find out similarities, to learn to respect differences,
to complement and help each other, and to be creative.

Participants in the exchange will bring together ideas to collaborate to create a performance for the community to be presented on Saturday, July 10th. The exchange is open to youth ages 13-25.

If you'd like to participate in this 10-day cultural exchange project please email oybm@oybm.org or call (928) 527-1041.
If you cannot be present for all 10 days but would like to make a donation or volunteer please contact us.

More info: www.oybm.org

Located at: Taala Hooghan Infoshop & Youth Media Arts Center
1700 N. 2nd St, Flagstaff, AZ

Schedule:

Thursday, July 1st - Meeting & Discussion
1:00PM - Participants will meet & discuss the project - Lunch will be provided
3:00PM - Presentations about regional cultural and environmental issues

Friday, July 2nd - Trip to Black Mesa area and Peabody Coal Mine
9:30AM - Depart from Taala Hooghan Infoshop

Saturday, July 3rd
9:30AM - Trip to Grand Canyon
6:30PM - Planning for collaborative presentation

Monday, July 5th
4:00PM - Planning/rehearsal

Tuesday, July 6th
10:00AM - Trip to San Francisco Peaks
4:00PM - Rehearsal

Wednesday, July 7th
9:30AM - Trip to Sedona
4:00PM - Rehearsal

Thursday, July 8th
Rehearsal (schedule to be determined)

Friday, July 9th
Rehearsal (schedule to be determined)

Saturday, July 10th - COMMUNITY PRESENTATION
6:30PM - Location TBD


The exchange hopes to address:
• Cultural experiences, building bridges
• Creative media and theater improvisation workshops
• Visiting chosen areas of political, historical, cultural meaning
• Learning the foreign language
• Visiting the reservation and learning about life of Native Americans in AZ
• Learning about the political situation of Native Americans
• Reducing prejudices
• Organization of public actions

The youth exchange is an cooperation beween OUTTA YOUR BACKPACK MEDIA
(AZ) and PYROCATHARSIS E.V. (Germany).


Pyrocatharsis
We are a 6 years old registered association located in
Chemnitz, Germany. We facilitate theatre and circus
projects for mainly young people in schools, youth
centres etc. We teach subjects like fire spinning,
acrobatic, jugglery, balance, creative expression.
During the last years we organized different projects
in cooperation with international artists to connect
people from all over the world and to sensitize and
conscientize young people for political, environmental
and social concerns.
www.myspace.com/pyrocatharsis
www.pyrocatharsis.de

Outta Your Backpack Media
Since 2004 Outta Your Backpack Media (OYBMedia) has empowered Indigenous youth through free movie making workshops and resource distribution. OYBMedia is an Indigenous youth response to the need for media justice in our communities.We seek to create community ownership of media through youth empowerment.
www.oybm.org



--
www.oybm.org - Indigenous Youth Empowerment! / Filmmaking Workshops / Resource Distribution


*If you would like to be removed from this list, please reply with the subject "REMOVE".








--
Berta Benally
bertabenally@g

VIDEO: Bolivia Ambassador at US Social Forum Detroit

Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com

Video by Free Speech TV.

Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Solon speaks on the final day, Saturday, of the US Social Forum in Detroit.

Oklahoma: American Indians Protest 'Take Back our Country Tour'

June 26, 2010 – Oklahoma City, OK – American Indians to Protest the “Take Back Our Country Tour”
By Brenda Golden

OKLAHOMA CITY -- John Rich (Big & Rich) and Holden Productions are holding the Taking Our Country Back Tour today Saturday, June 26 at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. The rally and concert will feature conservative talk radio and television host Glenn Beck and former Senior Advisor to the President Karl Rove, plus country artist John Rich performing in concert.

While their mission states they are attempting to unify and inspire all Americans to raise their collective voice. They have left out one important part of that picture – this land was not theirs in the first place. We the American Indians never willingly gave up this land called the United States of America. Witness the fact that there are over 500 broken treaties in which promises were made by the United States in exchange for land. In almost every instance, the federal government promised, “as long as the grass will grow and the rivers flow.”

Since the US Government broke the treaties; that makes the bargain broken and we American Indians consider them null and void.

You cannot take something back that is not yours. American Indians are the ONLY true indigenous people of this land, everyone else are immigrants.

A group of American Indians will be outside the Ford Center on the north side sidewalk in solidarity at 12:00 PM today, Saturday, June 26, 2010 in protest. Oklahoma is our land, this country is our land, taking back America is our line not theirs.

For more information, contact Brenda Golden at 405-471-7610.

###


Brenda Golden


Read more news at Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Leonard Peltier Statement to US Social Forum Detroit

LEONARD PELTIER: STATEMENT FOR THE OPENING CEREMONY U.S. SOCIAL FORUM-DETROIT

By Leonard Peltier

Welcome to the traditional lands of my people, the Anishinabe. Greetings, my brothers and sisters. Greetings also to my relations from the many different Indigenous Nations who now call this place "Home". Thank you for your warm welcome.

Hello to all the people of conscience in attendance at the US Social Forum. Thank you for taking the time and expense to attend an event that people will talk about for years to come. I know if you focus and believe, this event can be a major step in the development of a new society­one that turns away from fossil fuels, war and the rampant destruction of our universal home and, instead, focuses on the betterment of all... as opposed to the enrichment of a select few.

I ask that you work this week, in particular, toward full recognition of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as an essential component of a just and honorable U.S. human rights policy. As many of you may know, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was developed over many years with the participation of thousands of Indigenous Peoples. It is consistent with human rights principles as contained in international law, as well as the U.S. Constitution. And, yet, two nations with the largest Indigenous populations­Canada and the United States­have failed to endorse the Declaration. We call upon the United States government to finally endorse the Declaration in its entirety­without qualifications or exceptions­and to work in full partnership with Indigenous Peoples, Tribal governments and Nations to ensure its implementation.

I am Leonard Peltier, an American Indian political prisoner who fought against some of the same ideas and mechanisms many of you are fighting against today. Perhaps it was in a different way and a different time, but many years ago we were warning against the very realities many of you face today. The energy companies were raping Indian Country years ago­long before the oil spills, the mining disasters, and the poisoned waters America has come to know so well. So perhaps you can spare a few minutes to listen to the admonitions of an old man, an old warrior whose wisdom has come at a very high price.

I encourage you to find unity in your various causes, because all of your struggles are linked. Actually, you don’t just find unity, you create it­each of you individually. Create unity within your specific organizations. And between them. Link your efforts and find ways to network and maximize those efforts.

Making change has never been more important. Make the most of every second, for time is growing short, as so many prophecies have foretold. Educate others about the realities you are struggling for and against. Especially focus on educating the young people who will further your efforts tomorrow. Know that your sensibilities are a gift from Creator intended to wake up and shake up the world so that we may improve how we treat the Earth and each other.

We Indian people like to say “we are all related”. I pass that truth on to you now. Each and every one of you and the work you are doing are related. Let that be your greeting between groups and persons, as well as an ethic­the very spirit of what gatherings like this are intended to be. Practice thinking and saying it until it is automatic. We are all related, so put aside whatever differences you may have and make solidarity a new and constant reality. Remember, this is not your struggle. It is for everyone.

I thank you for taking the time to remember an old activist and perhaps learn from the experiences of another people from another time.

Now go out and change the world! Make it a place you’ll be proud to hand to the next seven generations!

Doksha.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,


Leonard Peltier

IPF WEBSITE:
http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm
and
www.myspace.com/leonardpeltierisinnocent

IPF e-mail:
ipforum@skynet.be


Also, please visit the website of the
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee (LPDOC):
www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

LPDOC e-mail:
contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info

VIDEO: Tewa Women United at US Social Forum Detroit

Tewa Women United speak out against the nuclear industry and the contamination of sacred Jemez Mountains by Los Alamos National Laboratories. Interviewed live at the US Social Forum in Detroit on Friday, June 25, 2010, by Earthcycles, Pueblo women describe the contamination from Los Alamos in northern New Mexico. Open air burning and the burial of radioactive substances exposes generations of Pueblos to risks. Beata Tsosie Pena said, "We live in the desert and our water supply is very precious to us. Water is our life. I'm scared for my children. I'm scared for my grandchildren. I'm sacred for my elders."
Tewa Women United http://www.tewawomenunited.org/


VIDEO LINK: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7887096

Roberto Rodriguez: Ipalnemoani: That For What We Live For

Ipalnemoani: That For What We Live For
By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

As we prepare to get arrested as a result of the passage of a new anti-ethnic studies law in Arizona, several attorneys explain to about 30-40 of us in Tucson’s state building the consequences of getting arrested. As such, the numbers are winnowed down to 15 due to legal reasons, parental authority, age, etc. Many of those making these decisions are middle and high school and college students.

All of us who remain on the 2nd floor have thoughts racing through our minds. As I think about why I will get arrested, all I can think of is the Nahuatl concept of Ipalnemoani: That for what we live for – or the Maya concept of Hunab Ku.

We can summons all the linguists and all the great philosophers of the world, but in the end, their translations will not suffice. It is meaning that I am looking for, not words. This is about who we are and about what makes us human. At this time, it boils down to one question: What in life is worth getting arrested for?

For those of us here, the right to our own narrative – the right to memory – is one of them.

The decision to get arrested is a collective one. These youngsters are courageous and determined to defend that which is theirs: a department (Ethnic/Mexican American Studies) that affirms who they are as full human beings – as peoples with a thousands-of-years culture, history and philosophy on this very continent.

Perhaps another 200 protestors on the first floor are also subject to arrest because they are also participating in a boisterous demonstration inside the state building. It is here where the state superintendant, Tom Horne – who spearheaded this law – has taken refuge after he failed to show up at Tucson Unified School District headquarters where perhaps 1,000 students surrounded that building.

Now in the heat of summer, that question – as to what triggers a decision to get arrested – is foremost on peoples’ minds, especially here in Arizona. It has come to that.

Several weeks before the racial profiling law (SB 1070) was signed, nine students and community members chained themselves to the state capitol and got arrested (The charges have since been dropped). After the 15 of us got arrested for criminal trespass, the week after that, five Dream students and community organizers staged a sit-in at Sen. John McCain’s office in Tucson. All subjected themselves to historic arrests – exposing themselves to deportation. Then a week later, a dozen members of the statewide O’odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective took over and occupied the Border Patrol Headquarters in Tucson (http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/). Six were arrested for Disorderly Conduct and Criminal Trespass.

This flurry of arrests highlights and brings to the fore what is happening in this insane asylum called Arizona, including the forthcoming attempt to void the 14th Amendment, which guarantees birthright citizenship to all those born in this country. This is also happening amid the constant arrival of racial and political extremists to this state.

As Arizona gets more insane, we have arrived at a moral precipice. Soon, others will face the same question; beyond protesting, people will ask: what am I willing to get arrested for?

In other countries, and at other points in history, this has triggered a different question: What am I willing to fight and die for? Here, that question has been inverted: What am I willing to live for? That such a question is being contemplated tells us that many people here are not content with simply sending emails or blasting text messages to our senators, etc.

And thus, as the anti-Mexican/anti-Indigenous and anti-immigrant hate-and-fear drums continue to increase in volume, the Obama administration capitulates by continuing to further militarize the border. This Arpaioization of not simply the border, but the nation, continues to elicit an unprecedented response. Human rights activists nationwide have united to boycott the state, while more than 100,000 recently protested in Phoenix.

As July 29 fast approaches, the date when the racial profiling law will take effect, people in Arizona, but also nationwide, will face a life-changing decision (We will also face that decision on Jan 1, 2011, the date when the anti-ethnic studies law goes into effect). Will we commit to mass civil disobedience or will we lack the courage as happened when Americans sat idly by as their fellow Japanese American citizens were illegally and inhumanely marched off to camps during World War II?

This is when history calls upon all of us to make that momentous decision. This time around, hopefully, the right decision will be made.


Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the university of Arizona, can be reached at: XColumn@egmail.com

VIDEO: Navajos Oppose New Uranium Mining at US Social Forum

Leona Morgan, Navajo, with Twa-le Abrahamson of the Shawl Society of the Spokane Nation, describes the threat of new uranium mining to Navajos in the Church Rock, N.M., area where one of the nation's deadliest uranium spills in 1979. Broadcast live on Earthcycles from the US Social Forum in Detroit on Friday, June 25, 2010.

FEDERAL COURT RULES URANIUM CORP. CAN PROCEED TO POISON NAVAJO WATER

In June, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Uranium Resources' subsidy Hydro Resources' 160-acre parcel of land, located six miles from the Navajo Community of Church Rock, is not on Indian land and is not under federal jurisdiction. The high court's decision means Hydro Resources can seek an underground injection control permit for its in situ uranium operation from the state of New Mexico rather than the EPA.

VIDEO LINK: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7887536

Watch more videos of Indigenous at the Social Forum on Earthcycles:

http://www.earthcycles.net/

Read more at Censored News:

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

VIDEO: Native Peoples Assembly at US Social Forum Detroit

Native Peoples Assembly at the US Social Forum Detroit
Broadcast by Earthcycles www.earthcycles.net

VIDEO: Tar Sands Movement at US Social Forum

Movement to halt the destruction at the Tar Sands in Canada.
Video by Earthcycles at the US Social Forum Detroit.
http://www.earthcycles.net/

Video Link: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7878955

SHOUT OUT FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE
On June 25, 2010, please join the Council of Canadians at Shout Out for Global Justice at Massey Hall in Toronto. NOW magazine calls the event a 'resistance highlight' confronting the G8/20 meetings in June.The event will feature global social justice speakers to challenge the G20 and demand trade, water and climate justice! This event will be broadcast live to the US Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan. Looking forward to seeing you!
For further information, call (800) 387-7177 ext. 239 or visit www.canadians.org/g20/event.html

VIDEO: Indigenous Dancers open Detroit Social Forum

Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com

Indigenous Peoples open US Social Forum Detroit

Video of Indigenous Dancers opening the US Social Forum, by Free Speech TV. See more photos, videos and articles on Indigenous Peoples at the US Social Forum at Censored News http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Watch live interviews at Earthcycles http://www.earthcycles.net/ Photo by Brita Brookes, published with permission.

VIDEO: Womens Economic Workshop Detroit Social Forum

Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com

Earthcycles' Govinda talks with Free Speech TV in Detroit

freespeechtv on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Govinda, broadcasting live on Earthcycles, http://www.earthcycles.net/, from the US Social Forum in Detroit, talks with Free Speech TV, also broadcasting live from the Social Forum.

Earthcycles has broadcast live from the Indigenous Border Summits on Tohono O'odham land and across Indian country, from the Lakotas' sacred Bear Butte to Western Shoshone land and Navajoland. On the Earthcycles radio bus across America, Earthcycles and Censored News broadcast the Longest Walk Talk Radio, for five months, from Feb. through July of 2008. Focused on the destruction to Mother Earth by mining, drilling and power plants, Earthcycles and Censored News broadcast live from the Havasupai and Acoma Pueblo uranium forums in the summer and fall of 2009. In April, Earthcycles broadcast from the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia. Earthcycles and Censored News have no sponsors or advertising and provide a volunteer media service to Indigenous Peoples. (Photo Earthcycles bus at the end of the Longest Walk in DC. Photo Brenda Norrell.)

Free Speech TV LIVE US Social Forum Detroit

VIDEO: Casey Camp interviews Bineshi at US Social Forum Detroit

Casey Camp, Ponca, interviews Bineshi Albert at the US Social Forum Detroit on Thursday.

Live from Earthcycles http://www.earthcycles.net/

Bineshi Albert (Euchee and Ojibwe) who makes her home in Albuquerque, is a founding member of the IEN Youth Program, and currently serves as an organizer for Center for Community Change, which aims to establish and develop community organizations across the country, bring attention to major national issues related to poverty, and help insure that government programs are responsive to community needs.

Canada Can't Hide Genocide: G8/G20 Day of Action

On June 25, please join the Council of Canadians at Shout Out for Global Justice at Massey Hall in Toronto. NOW magazine calls the event a 'resistance highlight' confronting the G8/20 meetings in June.The event will feature global social justice speakers to challenge the G20 and demand trade, water and climate justice! This event will be broadcast live to the US Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan. Looking forward to seeing you!

Can't make it to the Shout Out For Global

Justice? We got you covered. rabble.ca will be presenting an exclusive livefeed of Shout Out For Global Justice, Friday June 25 at7:00 p.m. on www.rabble.ca/rabbletv

For further information, call (800) 387-7177 ext. 239 or visit www.canadians.org/g20/event.html

On June 25, please join the Council of Canadians to challenge the G20 and demand trade, water and climate justice!
Friday June 25th, 7:00p.m., Doors at 6:00p.m.
Massey Hall, 178 Victoria St., Toronto
Tickets: $14 for Council of Canadians members, $20 for non-members (incl. 1 year membership). Get your tickets fast!
Tickets available from Massey Hall: (416) 872-4255 www.masseyhall.com
Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and chairs the board of Washington-based Food and Water Watch.
Leo Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers and Vice-President of the AFL-CIO.
Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now! a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 800 TV and radio stations in North America.
John Hilary, executive director of War on Want , which campaigns for human rights and against the root causes of global poverty, inequality and injustice.
Naomi Klein, award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and author of the international bestsellers, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.
Dr. Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya, an environmental justice organization that counts 5,000,000 farmer families in sixteen states of India among its members. Before becoming an activist, Dr. Shiva was one of India's leading physicists.
Pablo Solon, Bolivian ambassador to the United Nations and lead negotiator for Bolivia at the December 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen.
Clayton Thomas-Mueller, aboriginal activist and tar sands campaigner with the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Twenty-eight Children Orphaned by Flotilla Attack

28 children orphaned by Flotilla attack
Sat, 05 Jun 2010
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=129187§ionid=351020202


Twenty-eight children lost their fathers as a result of the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla.

Nine people were shot dead on May 31 by Israeli soldiers who attacked the Turkish vessel M.V. Mavi Marmara as it attempted to transport humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.

Eight of them were fathers whose children are now yatims due to the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla.

The Arabic word yatim is usually translated as orphan. However, in the Islamic religion, the word yatim actually means a child whose father is dead or whose father and mother are dead. This is the reason why Islamic media outlets are calling the children orphans.

Following are brief biographies of the nine people, as reported by Lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com:

1. Ibrahim Bilgen

Ibrahim Bilgen, 61, was an electrical engineer from Siirt. He was a member of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers of Turkey. He ran as a Saadet (Felicity) Party candidate in the Turkish general election of 2007 and the Siirt mayoral election of 2009. He was married with 6 children.

2. Ali Haydar Bengi

Ali Haydar Bengi, 39, ran a telephone repair shop in Diyarbakir. He was a graduate of Al-Azhar University, Cairo (Department of Arabic Literature). He was married to Saniye Bengi and had four children — Mehunur (15), Semanur (10), and twins Mohammed and Senanur (5).

3. Cevdet Kiliçlar

Cevdet Kiliçlar, 38, was from Kayseri. He was a graduate of Marmara University's Faculty of Communications and formerly a newspaper journalist for the National Gazette and the Anatolia Times. For the past year, he was a reporter and webmaster for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH). He was married to Derya Kiliçlar, and had one daughter, Gülhan, and one son, Erdem.

4. Cetin Topçuoglu

Cetin Topçuoglu, 54, was from Adana. He was a former amateur soccer player and taekwondo champion who coached Turkey's national taekwondo team. He was married and had one son, Aytek. His wife, Cigdem Topçuoglu, was also aboard the Mavi Marmara, but survived.

5. Necdet Yildirim

Necdet Yildirim, 32, was an IHH aid worker from Malatya. He was married to Refika Yildirim and had one daughter, Melek, aged three.

6. Fahri Yaldiz

Fahri Yaldiz, 43, was a firefighter who worked for the Municipality of Adiyaman. He was married and had four sons.

7. Cengiz Songür

Cengiz Songür, 47, was from Izmir. He was married to Nurcan Songür and had six daughters and one son.

8. Cengiz Akyüz

Cengiz Akyüz, 41, was from Iskenderun. He was married to Nimet Akyüz and had three children — Furkan (14), Beyza (12), and Erva Kardelen (nine).

9. Furkan Dogan

Furkan Dogan, 19, was in his senior year at Kayseri High School, where he was awaiting the results of his university entrance exams. He had hoped to become a doctor and loved chess. He was the son of Dr. Ahmet Dogan, an associate professor at Erciyes University. He was a Turkish-American dual national with two siblings.

The Israeli military attacked the Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea early on May 31, killing nine Turkish citizens on board the six ships and injuring about 50 other people.

The fate of three other Freedom Flotilla activists is still unknown.

Israel also arrested nearly 700 activists from 42 countries on board the Freedom Flotilla, which was attempting to break the siege of Gaza in order to deliver 10,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to the long-suffering people of the territory.

===

Hundreds in Oakland protest Gaza blockade
Victoria Colliver,David R. Baker
San Francisco Chronicle
June 21, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2010%2F06%2F20%2FBA0G1E28CV.DTL

Marshall Schwartz of Oakland waves an Israeli flag across the road from pro-Palestinian supporters protesting the Israeli Zim Shipping Line at the Port of Oakland on Sunday.

Protesters disrupt unloading of Israeli cargo ship at Port of Oakland:

(06-21) 04:00 PDT OAKLAND -- Hundreds of demonstrators, condemning Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, picketed at the Port of Oakland on Sunday and may have prevented an Israeli cargo ship from unloading for the day.

Two shifts of longshoremen agreed not to cross the picket line, leaving nobody to unload the vessel.

"Our objective was to boycott this ship for 24 hours, and we succeeded in doing that," said Richard Becker, with the ANSWER Coalition, one of the groups that organized the protest.

The demonstrators first gathered before dawn at Berth 58, where a ship from Israel's Zim shipping line was scheduled to dock Sunday, first in the morning then in the afternoon, protesters said. It eventually arrived around 6 p.m., Becker said, but by that time the dockworkers had agreed not to show up to unload the vessel.

An Israeli Consulate representative disputed that account, saying the ship was always scheduled to arrive about 6 p.m.

International pressure to end the Gaza closure has increased since Israeli commandos stormed a flotilla of ships attempting to run the blockade on May 31, killing nine people.

Israel formally announced on Sunday it would ease its blockade of Gaza, allowing more goods to enter the impoverished area. Israel said it would expand operations at the land crossings already operating to enable processing of "a significantly greater volume of goods" and "the expansion of economic activity."

More than 500 people showed up about 5:30 a.m. Sunday to begin the protest, according to police estimates. By around 10 a.m. the crowd dispersed, but about 200 protesters returned in the afternoon when the second shift of dockworkers were scheduled to work.

Becker said some workers showed up for the morning shift, but virtually none did for the second. All agreed not to unload the ship or cross the picket lines, citing concern for their personal safety.
"I want the Palestinian people to have peace and land. They have been suffering for 60 years, and it's time for them to have justice," said Marina Gutierrez of Kensington, a demonstrator who showed up both in the morning and the afternoon.

In the afternoon, two Israel supporters stood across the street from the pro-Palestinian demonstrators waving Israeli and American flags.
"Israel is a democracy, just like America, and Israel is faced with a fight for its life," said Faith Metzer of El Cerrito.

E-mail the reporters at vcolliver@sfchronicle.com and dbaker@sfchronicle.com.

===

Israelis Targeting Grassroots Activists
By Mel Frykberg
http://alethonews.blogspot.com/2009/10/israelis-targeting-grassroots-activists.html

EAST JERUSALEM, (IPS) - Israeli authorities are increasingly targeting and intimidating non-violent Palestinian grassroots activists involved in anti-occupation activities who are drawing increased support from the international community.

Several weeks ago masked Israeli soldiers stormed the home of Ehab Jallad from The Jerusalem Popular Committee for the Celebration of Jerusalem as the Capital of Arab Culture for 2009.

"Around 3am the soldiers started kicking and banging on the door and threatened to break it down if I didn't open immediately. My young daughters were terrified as they didn't know what was happening," recalls Jallad, a young Palestinian architect from Jerusalem.

"The soldiers then proceeded to ransack my home before confiscating my laptop, several computers, files with my contacts and my ipod. When I asked them why they were doing this and told them I wanted to call my lawyer, they told me to shut up and threatened to beat me up," Jallad told IPS.

This is just the latest incident in which the Israeli authorities have arrested and taken Jallad in for questioning over his organisation of cultural events marking East Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture. Jallad has also been monitoring the protests outside Al-Aqsa Mosque during the last few weeks.

"The Israeli officer questioning me said he knew I was in contact with the media but stated this would not help. He further warned me that I was being monitored, and if I continued with my activities my family and I would be subjected to further raids and harassment," said Jallad.

The same morning that Jallad was arrested Israeli security forces raided a warehouse used by Jerusalem community groups and cultural events organisers.

"They vandalised material we use for cultural events and confiscated other material," Jallad told IPS.

To date Jallad has not been charged with anything. But a war between Palestinians and Israeli continues unabated over Israel's continued Judaisation of East Jerusalem.

This has involved the expulsion of Palestinian residents from their homes in the eastern sector of the city and the expropriation thereof to make way for Israeli settlers.

A number of Palestinian families continue to live in tents pitched on streets outside their former homes as they watch Israeli settlers go about their daily business in their former homes.

Periodic violence between the two groups has broken out during the last few weeks with the Israeli police selectively arresting only Palestinians.

The Jerusalem Municipality has deliberately limited building permits for East Jerusalemites despite a chronic housing shortage, while the settlement of Israeli settlers in the area has been actively encouraged. Palestinian homes built without permits are regularly destroyed.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) envisions East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Under international law East Jerusalem is part of the Palestinian occupied West Bank.

The PA has tried to counter Israel's Judaisation efforts by asserting its presence in the contested part of the city. Organising cultural events has been part of the effort.

Hatem Abdul Qader, a PA official for Jerusalem Affairs, has been arrested by Israeli security forces several times over the last few months. He has also been banned from the city for several weeks on a number of occasions.

Muhammad Othman

Meanwhile, Muhammad Othman, 33, from the northern West Bank village Jayyous continues to languish in solitary confinement in a dirty Israel prison cell devoid of natural light or windows.

Othman has been labelled a "security threat" by the Israelis ever since his arrest on Sep. 22 as he crossed into the West Bank from Jordan. Othman had returned from a trip to Norway where he met with senior officials to discuss human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Norwegian government has divested its funds from Elbit, an Israeli company which supplies drones and other military technology.

During his incarceration Othman has been subjected to hours of interrogation, handcuffed, seated in stress positions and denied sleep. Like Jallad he has had no involvement in military activities which could constitute a security threat to the Jewish state. He too, has not been charged with any infringement of the law.

But Othman, a political activist, has been joining the Stop the Wall Campaign against the illegal Zufim settlement built by Russian billionaire Lev Leviev. The Stop the Wall Campaign is fighting against Israel's construction of a separation barrier which separates Israel proper from the West Bank.

The wall cuts through swathes of Palestinian territory dividing Palestinians from their agricultural fields, and trapping some Palestinian communities in pockets of territory between Israel and the West Bank.

The wall was ruled illegal by the International Court at the Hague, and several years ago an Israeli high court ordered the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to reroute parts of the wall, arguing that is compromised the livelihoods of Palestinian farmers.

Othman is also involved in the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign which has been drawing increased international support.

Othmans supporters believe his main "crimes" are his activities on behalf of the BDS which wants to see a boycott of Israel along the lines of the former boycott against apartheid South Africa.

"I think Israel is worried about its reputation amongst the international community now that more people are waking up to the human rights abuses and injustices being committed here," Jallad told IPS.

"I think in some ways we are perceived as more of a threat than an armed cell of Hamas fighters precisely because we are non-violent and what we are fighting for is reasonable."

*********************************************************************

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Democracy Now! 10,000 March at Social Forum Detroit

Democracy Now! Over 10,000 March in Detroit to Open US Social Forum
Thousands of people from across the country marched through Detroit Tuesday afternoon to kick off the opening ceremony of the US Social Forum. The colorful, joyous, and sometimes raucous procession down Detroit’s Woodward Avenue included social movements and community organizations struggling for justice on everything from healthcare, the environment, fair trade, labor solidarity, immigrant rights, and racial profiling to Palestine solidarity, ending the wars, police brutality, and the devastating impact of the recession on people’s lives and sense of security.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/23/over_10_000_march_in_detroit

Tar Sands: Casey Camp with Clayton Thomas at Social Forum

Interview by Casey Camp, Ponca, with Clayton Thomas-Mueller on the campaign to halt the destruction of the Tar Sands in Canada. Provided by Earthcycles, www.earthcycles.net , at the US Social Forum in Detroit.

SOCIAL FORUM VIDEO: Casey Camp, Ponca, and Carl Wassilie, Yup'ik

Provided by Earthcycles, www.earthcycles.net , at the US Social Forum in Detroit.

VIDEO: Danny Glover at US Social Forum Detroit

Tucson's Pan Left at US Social Forum Detroit

Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com

Tucson filmmakers from Pan Left are at the US Social Forum.

http://www.livestream.com/freespeechtv/video?clipId=flv_901bc8b0-27cd-4cc6-ad94-8a7c6e8045aa

VIDEO: Indigenous Open US Social Forum Detroit

Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com

Source:
http://www.livestream.com/freespeechtv/video?clipId=flv_f6a084df-e641-40d4-8a0d-f38edd00db78

Ian Zabarte: In Memoriam Ms. Renate Domnick

June 17, 2010

In Memoriam of Western Shoshone advocate Ms. Renate Domnick

By Ian Zabarte, Western Shoshone
Photo: Nevada Test Site

It is with sadness that I must write to inform you that Ms. Renate Domnick, a longtime and trusted advocate for the Western Shoshone people has recently passed away. There are few who gain trust and then live up to that trust by their actions. Ms. Domnick was one whose actions spoke consistently on behalf of the Western Shoshone on nuclear issues.

I first met Ms. Domnick at the Nevada Test Site in 1985 where together we protested the testing of US nuclear weapons by both the United States and the United Kingdom . While most protesters were unaware of the Western Shoshone, our lands and people Ms. Domnick was keenly aware and took up the cause to support our Western Shoshone leaders. Among them, Joe Sanchez, Jr., Bill Rossee, Sr., Mary Dann, and Corbin Harney who have passed; and many others who still continue to press for the end of nuclear weapons. Ms. Domnick joined with the Western Shoshone people educating a wide audience including the protesters, most of whom were American, about the heavily impacted and already vulnerable Western Shoshone Nation.

Ms. Domnick was appointed as the European Envoy for the Western Shoshone Nation under Chief Yowell and conducted many independent visits and presentations on behalf of the Western Shoshone with supporters and foreign government leaders then faithfully followed up by coordinating visits by Western Shoshone leaders including Chief Yowell, Carrie Dann, and myself. It is that trait of faithfulness…a fidelity to the message of the traditional Western Shoshone leadership that I have known and here honor of Ms. Domnick by writing.

The result of those years of generous support for the traditional Western Shoshone beliefs and values has been fostering a new generation of hope for the Western Shoshone Nation to continue to achieve the full status of nationhood among the nations of the International Community. Also, we have been afforded an opportunity to challenge directly the United States development of our lands for nuclear development before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety Licensing Board in the case of the Yucca Mountain high level nuclear waste repository designated by President George W. Bush--an act of environmental racism, a violation of the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley and a violation International Humanitarian Law.

Only more to be said would be to thank you on behalf of the countless future generations that will benefit from your effort.

Mr. Ian Zabarte, Principal Man
Western Shoshone Government
Mr. Ian Zabarte
e-mail: mrizabarte@gmail.com
http://www.digital.library.unlv.edu/ntsohp
http://www.trackhearing.com/

Truth and Reconciliation? How Dare We Celebrate

How Dare we Celebrate?
An Open Letter and a Requiem
to Governor-General Michaelle Jean
from Kevin D. Annett

Photo: Children at residential school in 1930s in Alberta

Dear Ms. Jean,

Yesterday, as I watched you preside so "regally" at the closing events of the "Truth and Reconciliation" farce in Winnipeg, and presume to smile at those native people who somehow survived the massacre inflicted on them by your government and your Queen and her church, I was once again disgusted to be a Canadian.

How dare you claim to speak for me when you declare that "Canadians are healing together" from the Indian residential schools nightmare? For we are doing no such a thing. All you are doing, in our name, is to candy-coat genocide, protect child killers in clerical garb, and muzzle the survivors while patting them on the head.

It's all so familiar. For, despite your claim, there is nothing new about your "truth and reconciliation commission", since its self-congratulatory hype and horrible exploitation of native people is an exact repeat of the torture they suffered in Indian residential schools.

My friend Doug Wilson of the Haida Nation is almost dead now, but as a child he was incarcerated in the United Church's Edmonton residential school in the late 1950's. At age nine, he was on the burial detail, hiding the murdered children from the school and the Charles Camsell Indian hospital in mass graves at night. School staff used to give him electric shocks to his head so he'd forget what he saw, but his memories have returned.

The one night of the year when Doug wasn't being sodomized, beaten and electro-shocked by Christians was Christmas eve, when he and all the other Indian kids were bussed to a local United Church to entertain the lily-white congregation by singing Christmas carols to them. Just like at the recent TRC forum in Winnipeg, Doug and his friends had to perform and make whites feel good so that their guilt and complicity could be relieved by the heart-warming spectacle of "assimilated" Indians behaving as expected.

Doug says that after the Christmas service, the congregants would hand them gifts - but before they left the church, they all had to hand them over to the white kids in church, or face a beating, or worse.

You know about Doug Wilson, of course, because his story was made public
by me and a few others twelve years ago, along with countless tales of murder and torture in the residential schools. Since 1907, when the crime was reported in national newspapers, Canadians have known that half the children were dying in these schools after being deliberately exposed to tuberculosis by staff and left to die. But despite this blatant genocide, you and your government have refused to press criminal charges against the churches responsible.

That's called complicity in murder, Michaelle: not "healing and reconciliation" .

When your government so magnanimously tossed a few dollars at some of the aboriginal survivors of this mass murder on the condition that they shut up, and pretended you were "healing" them, you were simply being Canadian: like all those nice, upstanding Christians in the Edmonton United Church who herded the violated and dying native children into church on Christmas eve for their own sick, private amusement.

I don't expect us to change. Why should we, when we won the war that started centuries ago when the first missionary landed here? We get to write history, define reality, and believe our own lies. We even get to brainwash and hire Indians to dance to our tune and issue nauseating "Forgiveness Proclamations" which declare it fine for us to rape and murder little kids, and then absolve ourselves of the crime with an "apology".

I also don't expect us to face justice, except at the hands of an equivalent to the Nuremburg trials, presided over by our victims after their successful overthrow of you and your government.

What I do expect, and demand, is the truth, which is all that the dead require. And, thankfully, such truth lies not in your hands at all, for you are incapable of bearing it. It resides, rather, among the very souls you trample and exploit so shamelessly, with typical Canadian nicety.

That truth is spreading, slowly but surely, throughout our land, and when its spirit and implications reach the next generation of Canadians, your regime will be over, along with its putrid legacy of Christian supremacy, colonialism and crown.

So enjoy the treats while you can, Michaelle. The hangman approaches, in the most unlikely of people.

Roberto Rodriguez: From Manifest Destiny to Manifest Insanity

From Manifest Destiny to Manifest Insanity
By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Special length Feature

As a result of several recent draconian laws, Arizona’s image has taken a drubbing internationally. And yet, Arizona is but the spear. In reality, its politics are not that dramatically different from other states and not that different from Washington. That more than a dozen states are waiting in the wings with copycat legislation and that the Obama administration continues to view migration through a law enforcement and military prism is plenty proof.

Those politics, fueled by hateful and cowardly politicians and the hate-radio universe, are undeniably anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant. Yet in truth, they actually are anti-Indigenous. In effect, the politics that we are seeing are undeniably but an extension of Manifest Destiny. Its modern expression is a Manifest Insanity – an attempt to maintain the myth of America – conceived of as a promise of a pristine, God-given home – reserved for English-speaking White Anglo Saxon Protestants, this amid the “browning” of the nation.

These Arizona laws are part of a spasmodic reaction to this demographic shift, an attempt to maintain a political and cultural dominance over [brown] peoples seen as less than human and as defeated peoples. These laws seek to maintain this narrative of conquest. This is why the loss of lives of some 5,000 Mexicans and Central Americans – primarily Indigenous peoples ––in the Arizona/Sonora desert in the past dozen years, mean little in this clash. The same is true in regards to the recent killings of two Mexicans by U.S. agents along the U.S./Mexico border.

For those who are attempting to uphold this dominance, this browning represents a time reversal – a cultural and political reversal of the so-called triumph of Western Civilization. This is what Arizona represents; a civilizational clash and a clash of narratives over the myth of America itself. Nothing less.

Rodolfo Acuña, author of Occupied America, came to Arizona last week, offering a stark reminder about this clash. His book – along with Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed – has been at the center of the anti-ethnic studies firestorm and law – HB 2281 – signed last month by Gov. Jan Brewer (She had signed SB 1070 – the racial profiling law – the previous month). The controversy surrounding his book has been fueled by an extreme Eurocentric ignorance. For several years, State Superintendent, Tom Horne, has been pushing an “Americanization” agenda, insisting that Arizona students be exposed only to "Greco-Roman" knowledge. Knowledge centered elsewhere is generally considered subversive and un-American, including Mesoamerican or Maize knowledge – knowledge that is Indigenous to this continent It is this knowledge that is at the philosophical heart of Mexican American or Raza Studies. Arizona is not alone in this insanity; Texas Education officials recently banned the inclusion of labor leader Dolores Huerta in Texas school curriculums.

Horne, via HB 2281, has long-claimed that Raza Studies preaches hate, results in segregation and promotes anti-Americanism and the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Truth is, he has had a vendetta against Raza Studies since Dolores Huerta proclaimed in 2006 at Tucson High that Republicans “hate Latinos.” Horne, who constantly denigrates her as “Cesar Chavez’s former girlfriend,” and his allies have spent the past several years trying to prove her right.

As Acuña found out in Arizona, for some, having a different philosophical center, in and of itself, constitutes a threat to this cultural and political domination. More than that, it threatens the national narrative of having tamed a wild, savage and empty continent… of having conquered, exterminated and civilized “the Indians.”

Enter Occupied America and it upsets the carefully crafted myth and narrative of the United States as the land of freedom and democracy or Paradise on Earth.

Raza Studies critics in Arizona – including media professionals – are barely familiar with Acuña’s book (He matter-of-factly tells them to read his book before attacking). At best, they spar over its title and a few catch phrases (mistranslating La Raza to mean “The Race” as opposed to “The People”) and attempt to denigrate an entire discipline on the basis of their ignorance. Yet, at the core, the critics are correct. Ethnic Studies indeed is a threat to the myth of America – the mythical America where genocide, land theft, slavery and dehumanization are denied or are but mere footnotes, as opposed to being the recognized foundation of this nation (Unchallenged, this glossed-over view is what permits U.S. citizens to view permanent war as a God-given birthright). With such a denial, the concept of Occupied America – an occupied continent – becomes unfathomable. The narrative of an empty continent, incidentally, is what permits the myth of “no occupation.”

The best Raza Studies critics do is attempt to dehumanize Mexicans/Chicanos. In their conjured up narrative, Mexicans/Chicanos are neither legitimate Americans, nor legitimate human beings. Neither are they afforded the status of Indigenous peoples; at best, they are mongrels, undeserving of full human rights. This dominant narrative is dependent upon this process of de-Indigenization and dehumanization. Those of us that cannot be deported (can’t wait for next year’s Arizona battle over the 14th amendment and birthright citizenship) are welcome here, as long as we participate in our own assimilation or ethnic cleansing and are happily subservient and willing to accept this nation's mythologized narrative.

That’s the definition of Manifest Insanity.

Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com

BEWARE: Greyhound Bus Stranding Passengers, Abusing Disabled

Greyhound Bus Stranding Passengers, Abusing the Disabled

A paid ticket is no longer a guarantee of a seat on a Greyhound bus. You can forget about humane treatment for elderly or disabled. Don't expect Greyhound customer service department to care less, no matter what happens. It is now located in South America.

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

If you’re planning to take the Greyhound Bus in the United States this summer, make other plans. Even if you have a paid ticket, there is no guarantee you will be getting on the bus. All of the buses are packed. If the bus you hope to be on arrives full, you will be sitting at the bus station indefinitely.

NO SEATS: When I arrived in El Paso, the Greyhound clerk said, “We don’t know when you’ll be getting on the bus. All of the buses going west are full.”

Greyhound took an entire busload of us over the Mexico border and dumped us out at their partner's Americanos bus lines, and left us there. Then, Americanos said they had no buses going west. An 80-year-old disabled woman with a large suitcase was left on the corner in summer’s heat. I took her back to Greyhound in El Paso in a taxi. When I asked to be reimbursed for the fare, the manager could have cared less. He refused.

One family had been waiting to get seats on their bus for 24 hours. The staff at the El Paso Greyhound is some of the worst.

In Flagstaff, a large group of people had been waiting from dawn until afternoon because all the buses were full. So, I asked the clerk, "If I buy a ticket, does that mean I'm getting a seat on the bus?" The answer was: "No. Get in line and wait to see if there are any seats."

LOST BAGGAGE: On another recent bus trip, Greyhound said it would transfer my bag in Amarillo, Texas. They didn't. So, in Albuquerque, all I could do was check into a hotel and wait. Two nights in a hotel and taxi fare was $80. Not only did Albuquerque Greyhound refuse to reimburse the costs, but Albuquerque Greyhound also refused to deliver my bag to the hotel when it arrived. Picking it up by taxi was another $15. That's a total cost of $95. Customer Service in South America could have cared less.

CUSTOMER SERVICE IN SOUTH AMERICA NOW: There is no Greyhound customer complaint center in the US. If the complaint center answers the phone at all, after hours of calling, you will find yourself talking to someone at Greyhound Customer Service Center in South America, where the complaint call center is now located at. This basically allows them to get away with anything.

VIOLATIONS OF LAW: The constant abuse of the elderly and disabled by Greyhound employees nationwide demands a class action lawsuit.

In most places in the United States, Greyhound is the only bus line. Because of the lack of competition, Greyhound employees have become hostile and careless, mistreating people constantly.

BORDER PATROL'S RACIAL PROFILING: If you're traveling along the border, you'll also have to deal with the hostile US Border Patrol agents barking at you when they board the bus. They always harass people of color.

Once, late at night near Lordsburg, New Mexico, I watched a white person get fed up with the barking demands of the Border Patrol agents. When he was harassed for no reason, he picked up his belongings, got off the bus and walked into the desert alone, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night.

MONOPOLY Why has Greyhound plunged to such a deplorable and completely rotten condition? They have a monopoly. They underpay and under staff their station staff. Their customer service center is in South America. They violate the law by abusing the disabled and elderly. They refuse to carry out ethical business practices, including assuring a seat when a ticket is purchased and reimbursing unforeseen cost caused by Greyhound staff's incompetence. They refuse to even deliver your lost luggage to your hotel.

GREYHOUND ABUSES POOR AND PEOPLE OF COLOR

Let's cut to the real reason Greyhound finds it so easy to abuse people: The people who ride Greyhound are for the most part America's poor. They are people of color.

They are the disenfranchised, the voiceless, the elderly, the desperate and the disabled. They are the homeless. They are the sad youths in camouflage uniforms going and coming from war. They are women fleeing abusive husbands, single mothers searching for a place to live. They are an endless stream of hopeless people wandering America in search of jobs. They are the downtrodden, counting their pennies at the dollar menu stops.

These are the voiceless people that Greyhound finds it so easy to abuse.

Unless you like being miserable and mistreated, with all your rights violated, avoid the Greyhound bus. Yes, it was bad in the past, but now there's a good chance you will not be getting a seat on the bus.

If you are on a vacation, this is the last mode of nightmare travel you will ever want to take during the summer of 2010.

--brendanorrell@gmail.com

Roberto Rodriguez: Rushing Toward the Wrong Side of History

Arizona: Rushing Toward the Wrong Side of History
By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Before the Dream students made their historic stance in Tucson, Arizona last week—to stage a sit-in, in Sen. John McCain’s office, and thereby subjecting themselves to deportation proceedings – this sun city had already been in the eye of the storm. The perfect storm.
And yet, they were not the only ones to take a powerful stance that week; several hundred Indigenous peoples from throughout the world rallied at the Tucson Immigration Department Headquarters, protesting Arizona’s new racial profiling law; it was followed by the dramatic takeover of a Border Patrol station in Tucson by more than a dozen members of the statewide O'Odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective. They were protesting the state’s draconian and nation’s anti-Indigenous immigration policies. Six were arrested (http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/).
That law confirmed that Arizona is governed by extremist politicians. On the day it passed in April, nine human rights activists chained themselves to the capitol building. The anti-ethnic studies law, which was signed in May – resulting in 15 arrests as a result of the takeover of the state building – proved that the state has returned to the Dark Ages as this law sets up a mechanism to censor books and curriculums (It was preceded by a siege of the Tucson Unified School District Headquarters by middle and high school students).
Two days before the racial profiling law passed, 800 military-clad federal agents swooped into South Tucson looking for human smugglers. This unprecedented action, along with the two laws had precipitated protests, walkouts, marches, community forums, boycotts, vigils and runs in both Tucson and Phoenix.
Now, as Dream students gathered in Tucson – something even bigger was about to happen. Dream students from throughout the country – students deemed to be without U.S. legal documents, in this country since they were children – had decided to intentionally turn themselves in so as to bring awareness regarding the approximately 65,000 Dream students who graduate annually and cannot continue their higher education. In the realm of civil disobedience, subjecting themselves to deportation was unfathomable.
But as they spoke of their proposed action, they stated that their historic action was to be taken because they could no longer wait for others to act for them; the leadership of their movement would hereafter be in their own hands. And if they did enter deportation hearings, they believed they might be able to remain in the country between 3-5 years – enough time to bring about passage of the Dream Act.
The Dream Act, in its original form, was first introduced in 2001. The logic of the act is that children are not responsible for the acts of their parents, etc… meaning, that to break a law, one must be conscious that one is breaking a law. Many of the Dream students were brought to this country as infants, thus, incapable of breaking any law. The Dream Act seeks permits such students to continue on with their higher education.
The calculated gamble by the Dream Students has paid off (see: http://www.thedreamiscoming.com/). Since then, other dream students have stepped forward nationwide. Just but a few weeks ago, the true identity of Dream students was a closely guarded secret. Now, they are confronting Sheriff Arpaio himself (June 3) and are leading marches nationwide… including the massive march and rally in Phoenix last week (Filming from a fixed point – a 4-lane street – it took 1.5 hours to film the march. The media is notorious for underreporting numbers, but the travesty in this case is that the media made the number of counter-protestors -- a few hundred – appear to be comparable to the more than 100,000 marchers).
The dramatic developments these past two months in Arizona – along with an international boycott of Arizona – reveal that resistance has entered a new phase. And with the addition of Indigenous peoples sending the world a dramatic message – regarding who is legal on this continent – it is clear that indeed, Arizona is rushing toward legal Apartheid.
Despite more than a dozen copycat states, those who fear a brown nation have decided to make their stand in the Arizona desert. Next year, legislators will attempt to revoke the 14th Amendment in Arizona, which guarantees citizenship to all born in this country. The state’s undocumented [unelected] governor, Republican Jan Brewer, is one of those with this fear. Appealing to the nation’s anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant sentiment, she has established a nationwide fund to support her legal retrenchment into the Dark Ages.
Morally, Brewer -- akin to George Wallace of a generation ago -- is on the wrong side of history.
Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached a: XColumn@gmail.com　



--
Thanks & Sincerely
Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Column of the Americas
PO BOX 85476
Tucson, AZ 85754

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XColumn@gmail.com