Take a trip through this video to remember why it is so important that we begin thinking beyond the barrier.

In January 2009, the International League of Conservation Photographers sent a team of world-renowned photographers, with writers, filmmakers and scientists to the borderlands of the United States and Mexico to document the wildlife, ecology, and effect of immigration and the border wall on this landscape. The 17-member team spent almost a month traveling the nearly-2000-mile border and captured more than 10,000 images of the region and the impact of the wall. Since then, the images have been used in media outreach and in an exhibit that has been shown in the halls of Congress and around the country. The purpose of the project is to raise awareness of the peril that border infrastructure places on the long-term survival of myriad species that live in the borderlands. This area is a shared conservation treasure of international importance that harbors some of the most biodiverse landscapes on the continent. Many species here are found nowhere else in the US, and nowhere else in Mexico and some are found nowhere else on Earth.

Learn more about the iLCP Borderlands RAVE here: ilcp.com/?cid=93
For more on the iLCP: ilcp.com/
Sombrero tip to: Chris

By Nezua, Media Consortium Blogger

The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is shifting its focus to silent or “quiet” raids, as Erin Rosa reports for Campus Progress. In quiet raids, ICE conducts “audits” of staff at pre-selected organizations and gives employers a chance to fire all workers who cannot produce documents of citizenship.

The Bush administration favored dramatic, SWAT-like raids, but the Obama administration is taking a non-confrontational route. As Rosa reports, ICE has announced the latest wave of audits ahead of time, though specific business are not being named “due to the ongoing, law enforcement sensitive nature” of the audits. During a phone briefing, ICE chief John Morton explained that the “over 1,000″ new audits are designed to “create a ‘culture of consequences.’” Undoubtedly, the economic consequence of tens of thousands more people losing their income will be as dramatic as a door kicked open in the middle of the night, and it will affect all of us.

While job loss is undesirable, at least the audits are not aggressive or violent like some raids. Also, undocumented workers could find another job post-audit. The Obama administration’s claims that audits take the burden of raids from workers is defensible in that case, though reports of employers that are fined for having undocumented staff members are hard to find.

However, the Department of Homeland Security’s practice of jailing “unadjusted” refugees after a year is indefensible. As Emily Creighton reports for AlterNet, the U.S. has a long-running and proud history of providing a safe haven for those seeking refuge from persecution “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion.” And yet ICE is incarcerating refugees who have not adjusted to permanent resident status after one year of residency in the U.S. The problem is, permanent resident status is only obtained after a lot of paperwork, vaccinations, and other hurdles have been completed. The process “can take over a year” in and of itself.

A depressed economy and perceived cultural shifts in the U.S. demographic are bringing out the very best and worst of our society. In RaceWire, Michelle Chen writes that the immigration debate today “looks more like a balance sheet” and reflects “the economic anxieties besieging politicians and voters.” Chen does an excellent job underlining a recurring problem: As long as immigration reform is treated like a “number-crunching” exercise, nothing gets fixed. “Without a human rights-based counterpoint to the demand-supply rhetoric,” Chen writes, “lawmakers would be all too willing to cede immigration policy to the corporate gatekeepers of the private sector, while faithfully preserving the structure of inequity.” We can do better than this. “These are numbers, not people.”

Ironically, many immigrants pay into the health care system through payroll taxes, but cannot benefit from them, as EunSook Lee, reports for New America Media. “It is unreasonable and saddening that under the current health reform proposals, the people who really need it will not get it,” writes Lee. “Communities across America are waking up … and Congress needs to take notice.”

Another case of the most vulnerable being targeted unfairly comes, unfortunately, in a place we’d hope never to find it. In the Texas Observer, Melissa del Bosque reports on how the Salvation Army is trading Christmas cheer for anti-immigrant politics. The Salvation Army “and a charity affiliated with the Houston Fire Department” are holding an annual toy drive, but checking immigration status before giving any toys to needy families! “Apparently,” writes del Bosque,”even Santa isn’t immune to the anti-immigrant hysteria brewing in the nation.” Perhaps in the world that the Salvation Army envisions, we will encourage children to leave legal documents for Santa on Christmas Eve, rather than cookies and milk. [update: very vocal pro-migrant protests have caused Salvation Army to rescind this policy.]

Ending on a lighter note, Joshua Holland reports on how the mercurial Lou Dobbs now favors “the very legalization process for unauthorized immigrants that he’s long derided as a brain-dead ‘amnesty’ policy pushed by pernicious liberal elites in order to keep down the wages of good, hardworking Americans.” Dobbs is now championing what he once dubbed “shamnesty.” It is such a jarring reality that Holland muses on whether Dobbs “really is an undocumented Mexican immigrant named Luis Miguel Salvador Aguila Dominguez” as the Onion facetiously reported.

Also featured at Huffington Post, America’s Voice, FDL, Talking Points Memo, Open Salon, DailyKos, Sanctuary, Open Left, Rabble, RaceWire, In These Times Blog, NAM Ethnoblog

Proclama a los Pueblos de México
para organizar la revocación de mandato a Felipe Calderón

De nueva cuenta nuestra nación se debate en una crisis que sólo es comparable a las que dieron paso a la Revolución de Independencia, las Guerras de Reforma y a la Revolución Mexicana. Hoy como ayer, la crisis es total y de larga duración, abarca la economía, la política y la cultura.

La crisis pone en cuestión el futuro de los pueblos y la Nación mexicana. En el esquema de la clase política y de los grandes capitalistas, nacionales y extranjeros, carecemos de esperanza: los mexicanos no tenemos ya lugar en el mundo de la globalización neoliberal salvo como parias y mano de obra desechable.

En tales circunstancias, para enfrentar la crisis profunda de nuestra patria y los problemas de los pueblos de México se precisa de una transformación patriótica y democrática de la política, la economía y la cultura que desplace a la oligarquía burguesa y a su clase política de la conducción del Estado y acabe con el dominio imperialista sobre México. Se necesita la construcción de una nueva mayoría que incluya a todas las fuerzas patrióticas e instaure un nuevo gobierno y un nuevo Estado, capaces de recuperar el control y la propiedad de la planta productiva de la nación, de sus recursos estratégicos y de garantizar el desarrollo sustentable, la justicia social, la soberanía nacional, las autonomías de los pueblos indios y el ejercicio de la democracia popular.

El primer paso en la dirección de darle una salida nacional, popular y democrática a la crisis actual tiene que ver con la restauración del orden constitucional; con la lucha en contra de la usurpación del gobierno de la república por parte del grupo de políticos, empresarios, magistrados y militares del que forma parte Felipe Calderón. En las circunstancias actuales la recuperación de la dignidad nacional y solución a la miseria, el desempleo y la inseguridad pasan por la lucha para revocar el mandato presidencial que los golpistas confirieron a Felipe Calderón.

El jefe del ejecutivo federal de facto es la principal referencia de un régimen político corrompido y antinacional, el instrumento de los grandes empresarios y las trasnacionales para avanzar en la completa depredación y saqueo de nuestra capacidad de trabajo, de la propiedad pública y social y de nuestros recursos naturales. Calderón es la figura visible de la mafia que pretende consumar la instalación de un Estado obsecuente a Estados Unidos y de carácter delincuencial, de un régimen policíaco-militar al estilo colombiano. La lucha contra el usurpador y el grupo dominante, que incluye la defensa de nuestros derechos sociales y libertades políticas y civiles, prepara la ruta para remover del gobierno a los neoliberales que traicionaron al pueblo y a la patria.

Motivos legales y humanos para revocarle el mandato a Felipe Calderón sobran, la situación del país, o lo que queda de él, no puede ser más grave. En menos de tres años el número de mexicanos pobres aumentó en 10 millones; hoy más de 70 millones de pobladores viven en la pobreza; 24 o 25 millones de ese total son pobres extremos que padecen la miseria más degradante e inhumana. Según las cuentas oficiales, el “presidente del empleo” tiene en su haber el despido de casi millón y medio de trabajadores.

Calderón, que supuestamente encabeza la guerra contra la inseguridad y la delincuencia, ha convertido a México en el país más inseguro y violento del mundo en tiempos de paz. Fruto de su guerra contra el narcotráfico o contra uno de sus bandos, se han producido más de 15 mil asesinatos y más de siete mil desaparecidos. Sin embargo, ni la violencia, ni los secuestros tienen para cuando disminuir y mucho menos cesar. Mientras tanto, entre 25 mil y 40 mil millones de dólares se blanquean en bancos y empresas de la respetable iniciativa privada, con el beneplácito de los gobiernos de Calderón y Obama.

Mientras tanto, la impunida d reina, los responsables del crimen industrial de Pasta de Conchos siguen libres, al igual que Ulises Ruiz, Mario Marín, Javier Lozano y los verdaderos culpables del caso de la Guardería ABC; qué decir de las muertas de Juárez o de las violaciones a los derechos humanos en San Salvador Atenco, Acteal y tantos más. Mientras tanto, los magistrados de la Suprema Corte de Justicia siguen ganando más de 340 mil pesos al mes; mientras que Ignacio del Valle y sus compañeros —entre muchos otros luchadores sociales y personas inocentes— siguen secuestrados en las ilegales cárceles de máxima o baja seguridad.

El presidente de facto ha desplegado a las fuerzas armadas por todo el territorio nacional en misiones de seguridad pública que violentan el artículo 129 de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos y, en consecuencia, ha degradado a la institución armada, transformando al elemento castrense en un Ejército de ocupación y contrainsurgencia al servicio de los oligarcas. En su papel de comandante supremo ha subordinado a las fuerzas armadas a las estrategias militares y policiacas del gobierno de Estados Unidos, a través de la Alianza para la Seguridad y Prosperidad de América del Norte y la Iniciativa Mérida, entre otros acuerdos y acciones pactadas a espaldas del pueblo mexicano que afectan gravemente la soberanía nacional y que, en su esencia, constituyen actos de traición a la Patria.

Con base en atribuciones que no le corresponden, ha llevado a la economía nacional al colapso, a la recesión, a la contracción del mercado interno, al crecimiento astronómico de la ilegal deuda interna y externa, a la destrucción de la planta productiva, a una mayor dependencia técnica y científica, a la devastación del campo y al fin de la autosuficiencia alimentaria, provocando mayor migración de trabajadores y afectando el nivel de vida de toda la población. Además ha entregado ilegalmente el territorio a empresas mineras, petroleras, agrícolas y hoteleras, solapando los daños ambientales y las afectaciones criminales en contra de pueblos y comunidades enteras, que son ya irreparables en términos humanos, ambientales y económicos.

Violando el artículo 123 de la Constitución y siguiendo la política antilaboral de sus antecesores, recientemente transgredió la autonomía del Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME), con el solo propósito de dar un paso más en la destrucción de nuestra soberanía energética y la privatización de la energía eléctrica y los servicios derivados del uso de la fibra óptica, lanzando a la calle a más de 44 mil de trabajadores que de forma permanente se habían caracterizado por su oposición a los planes gubernamentales.

Ante este sombrío proyecto en desarrollo las preguntas centrales son: ¿estamos dispuestos los ciudadanos que no votamos por Calderón, los que nos abstuvimos, o incluso quienes se han arrepentido de su voto por el PAN a soportar otros tres largos años de penurias, autoritarismo, desnacionalizaciones y entreguismo? ¿Sobrevivirá la nación mexicana como ente soberano ante el acoso sistemático privatizador de los apátridas que gobiernan para beneficio exclusivo de las corporaciones capitalistas? ¿Es necesario pagar un altísimo precio en vidas humanas, daños ambientales, sufrimientos y esfuerzos inútiles por aguantar a un gobierno que ya resulta intolerable para millones de mexicanos? ¿Existe alguna duda razonable sobre la naturaleza reaccionaria y regresiva del actual grupo gobernante, que pudiera dar lugar a la esperanza de una posible corrección del rumbo por parte del usurpador y de su gente?

En vísperas de la conmemoración del Bicentenario de la Independencia y del Centenario de la Revolución Mexicana y ante el agravamiento extraordinario de la crisis social y nacional, que nos ha colocado en la pendiente de salidas represivas y de la catástrofe económica y socioambiental más grave en toda la historia del país, es preciso dar un paso al frente y autoconvocarnos como en los tiempos de Hidalgo, Morelos, Juárez, Magón, Villa, Zapata y Cárdenas a la disputa por la nación, a la pelea por revocarle el mandato al presidente de facto Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa.

Para discutir las formas y los cómos, estamos organizando una primera reunión para el 5 de diciembre en Dr. Lucio 29, col. Doctores, DF (Sindicato de Tranviarios) a la que todos los mexicanos dispuestos a emprender está batalla están invitados en calidad de organizadores. En particular, hacemos un llamado al Movimiento en Defensa de la Economía Popular, el Petróleo y la Soberanía, al Movimiento por la Soberanía Alimentaria y Energética, los Derechos de los trabajadores y las Libertades Democráticas, a la Asamblea Nacional de la Resistencia Popular, a la Otra Campaña, a la Conferencia Nacional Unitaria de las Izquierdas a participar de las discusiones y acuerdos para que de una vez por todas, Calderón y su gobierno se vayan.

Respetuosamente.

Firman:

Personalidades y organizaciones:

Dr. Gilberto López y Rivas, Dr. Andrés Barreda Marín, Dr. Armando Rendón Corona, Dr. Enrique González Ruíz, Dra. Patricia de Oteyza, Antrop. Miguel Ángel Adame Cerón (ENAH-INAH), Dip. Hortensia Figueroa Peralta (Morelos), Ignacio Suárez Huape, Dr. Gerardo De La Fuente Lora, Dip. Alejandro López Villanueva (DF), Pietro Ameglio, Cecilia González Arenas y Víctor Ariel Bárcenas Delgado, Adriana Mujica, David Barkin (Profesor UAM), Carlos Aparicio (Drector de Radio Bemba y Representante de la Asociación mundial de Radios comunitarias de México), José Luis Mariño López, José David Vega Becerra, Silverio de la Mora, Juan Ignacio López Espinoza, Raúl Barba Arciniega, Rosalio Morales Vargas, Gloria Teresa Parada Arvayo, Martín Rodríguez, Celso Hernández, Guadalupe Sandoval, Antonio Mendoza, Enrique Zapata, Claudia Valadez, Isaías Martínez, Rodolfo Pérez Peralta (STUNAM), Juan Pablo Jardón (MNCNS), Irene Patricia Bautista Berriozabal (FNADEZ), Alfonso Jesús García Pérez (Barzón Industrial, AC), Antonio González Abundio y Joaquim H. Vela González (UDENA-Plan de Ayala), Ismael Cano Moreno (Organización de la Sociedad Civil Tlaliyapatl), René Torres Bejarano, María Fernanda Campa, Mara Rosas Baños (IPN), Marjory González Vivanco, Alberto Moreno Gaytán, Eulalia Eligio González, Adriana Chávez Tejeda, Horacio Castillo, Esteban Escudero, Mauricio Ortiz (Expresión Ciudadana), Cirilo Padilla García (Comité Democrático Ciudadano), José Antonio Espinosa Vázquez (Ciudadanos Libres de Azcapotzalco), Sergio Ávila Rojas (Movimiento Ciudadano del Sur), Marco Antonio Padrón Martínez (Sol Naciente de Iztapalapa), Cuauhtémoc Garduño (Poder Ciudadano Nacional), Marza Antonieta Farfa (Frente Amplio de Izquierda Queretana-FAIQ-MNCNS), Javier Pineda (metrópolis Poder Ciudadano), José Arturo Tapia Flores (MNCNS), Sergio García Ayala (Movimiento Entre Ciudadanos), Miguel Ángel Flores Trueba (Partido Comunista Mexicano), Fernando Sánchez Barreda, Alejandro Martínez Mondragón (Tequio Ciudadano A.B. D.F.), Frente de Asambleas Vecinales Heberto Castillo (FAVHECA DF), Alianza de Bases Ciudadanas, (ABC), Frente de Asambleas Municipales Heberto Castillo de Tlaxcala, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Puebla y Chiapas, Unidad de la Fuerza Indígena y Campesina de Tlaxcala (UFIC Tlaxcala); Benito Baena Lome y Gustavo Ortega (Alianza de Tranviarios de México); Benito Mirón Lince, Alfredo Percastegui, Federico Abarca Reyes, Marcelo Herrera Herbert, Ismael Hernández Rojas, Juan Gutiérrez Calva, Daniel Carlos García, José Jiménez, David Villarruel Velazco (Movimiento Nacional Organizado “Aquí Estamos”); Paul Hersch Martínez, Arturo Figueroa Saucedo, Rafaél Trujano Fermoso, Jorge Martínez Soto, Antonio García Morales, Porfirio Barrera Jiménez, Dora Treviño, Juan Emilio González Espinosa Garrido, Elis Martínez, Nayar López Castellanos, Marjory González Vivanco,

Organizaciones nacionales:

Sección XVIII SNTE-CNTE Michoacán, Sección III SNTE-CNTE Baja California, Partido Popular Socialista de México, Frente Popular Francisco Villa, Coordinadora Metropolitana, Unidad de la Fuerza Indígena y Campesina, Red Izquierda Revolucionaria, Partido Comunista de México-Marxista Leninista, Frente Popular Revolucionario, Rumbo Proletario, Movimiento Socialismo Nuevo, Central Campesina Cardenista, UNTyPP, UNTCIP, Coordinadora Nacional de Municipios y Pueblos Originarios de México A.C., Nueva Fuerza Democrática Mexicana A.C., Alianza de Bases Ciudadanas (ABC); Sindicato de la Unión de Trabajadores del Instituto de Educación Media Superior del Distrito Federal (SUTIEMS), Organización Nacional del Poder Popular-PRP (Sociedad Cooperativa Emancipación del Pueblo, CUT-Coyoacán, A.C., Forjadores del mañana, A.C., UCISV-El Ejido, A.C., Movimiento de Pobladores, A.C., UCISV-1o. de mayo, A.C., UPTYL 10 De abril, MOPOPROVI 1O de junio, Colectivo Cultura y Democracia, Centro Cultural Comunitario Carlos Marx, Col. Pro-Revolución, Ecatepec, Comunidad Ecológica El Jobo, Catemaco, Ver., Agricultura Urbana Cinturón Verde El Molino),

Organizaciones estatales:

Baja California: MLN; Chihuahua: MLN; Chiapas: OCEZ-MLN, OPEZ-MLN, Sindicato de Salud Sección 50 (Adrián Vázquez Rodríguez y Víctor Hugo Zavaleta), OCD AC (Moguel Santiago), Frente Campesino Popular de Chiapas, Unión Campesino Totikez Anek (Ruly de Jesús Coello Gómez); Distrito Federal: Ediciones del Poder Popular, Pregón, Calpulli Tlatoani, Grupo Democracia Revolucionaria, Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria Nueva Aztlan, Promotora de la CND, Frente de Asambleas Vecinales Heberto Castillo (FAVHECA); Durango: Comité de Defensa Ciudadana de la Región Lagunera, Consejo Coordinador Obrero Popular; Estado de México: Prof. Pedro Ramírez y Prof. José Figueroa González (Magisterio Democrático del Valle de México-Sección 36 SNTE-CNTE), Comité de Defensa de las Colonias (Tultitlan), UVVAC (Municipio Romero Rubio); Guerrero: MLN, Unión Estatal de Transportistas, AC (Presidente: Apolinar Segueda Dorantes), Dr. Pablo; Jalisco: Bases Democráticas Magisteriales de Jalisco (Francisco Montero), Consejo de Defensa de la Salud de Jalisco (Dr. Alberto Reyes), Coordinadora Estatal del Movimiento Urbano Popular de Jalisco (Mario Brown y Arq. Antonio Orozco); Morelos: Prof. José Basurto F., Saúl Roque M. (Comunidad de Xoxocotla), Guadalupe Zayago (Comunidad de Alpuyeca), Pregón; Nayarit: MLN, Organización Popular Teocalli de Aztlan (Martín Ulloa Benítez), José Manuel Ulloa Benítez, Martín Pérez Castañeda, Leopoldo Mora Iglesias, Partido Socialista Mexicano de Nayarit (Cutberto Ortiz Mariscal), Federación de Estudiantes de Nayarit (Presidente: Jorge Armando Ortiz), Unión de Colonias Independientes de Nayarit (Martha Isela Tirado González); Oaxaca: OOCEZ-MLN; Puebla: UPVA 28 de octubre; Jorge Amaya, Norberto Amaya, Humberto Sotelo, y Filomeno Gutiérrez (UNyR, Coordinación estatal Puebla), Gloria Hernández (Unión de Colonias Populares Democráticas de Puebla); Comisión política del Colectivo Ciudadano Carrillo Puerto (San Pedro Cholula), San Luis Potosí: Miguel Ángel Guzmán (FPFV), Martín Garay (Frente de Productores Potosino), Sebastián de la Cruz (Gobernador tradicional Xi-Iuy), Maximino Hernández (Gobernador tradicional Tenek); Sinaloa: Oscar Loza Ochoa (Regidor de Culiacán y defensor de Derechos Humanos); Sonora: Jorge Rountree Cons (Secretario de Relaciones Exteriores del STAUS), Rosa Ma. Oleary Franco, Javier Valenzuela, Mónica Soto Elizaga (Ciudadanos por el Cambio Democrático), Salvador Hernández Hernández, Dorotea Razcón Gámez (Secretaria General, STEUS), Cuauhtémoc Nieblas Cota (Secretario de Relaciones Exteriores, STEUS), Antonio García Morales, Jesús Martínez Soto, Arturo Figueroa Saucedo, Fco. Rafael Trujano Fermoso, Salvador Hernández Hernández, Ramón Valdéz, Catalina Soto Cota, (Ombusman de la Universidad de Sonora); Tlaxcala: Grupo Ecologista de Tlaxcala, Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y el Agua Puebla-Tlaxcala (Región Malinche), Eco Global Arte A.C. (Sede Tlaxcala/Organización Internacional); Veracruz: Antonio Santos, José Antonio León Mendívil, José Juan Ríos, Carlos Morales, José Luis Morales, Luis Miguel López-Mena, (periodista), Hipólito Flores Alonso (despedidos de la ex CIVSA), Marisa Fernández Pérez (Xalapa), Alicia Castillo Díaz (Zoncuantla-Coatepec), Álvaro Brizuela Absalón (Xalapa); Zacatecas: Frente Social por la Soberanía Popular (FSSP), Coordinación Ejecutiva: Mirna E. Puch Ceballos, Efraín Arteaga Domínguez, Gregorio Sandoval Flores, José Luis Figueroa Rangel, José Santos Cervantes. Organizaciones que integran el FSSP: Federación de Sindicatos de Trabajadores al Servicio del Estado (FSTSE); Sección 46 del Sindicato de Telefonistas de la República Mexicana (STRM); Sección 34 del SNTE-CNTE; Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la UTEZ (SUTUTEZ); Sindicato Único de Trabajadores Académicos de CONALEP (SUTACZ); Sindicato Único de Personal Docente y Administrativo de COBAEZ (SUPDACOBAEZ); Sindicato de Trabajadores de la UAZ (STUAZ); Coordinadora del Magisterio Democrático de Zacatecas, Secc. 58; Sindicato de Trabajadores de CECyTEZ (STCECyTEZyEMSAD); Sindicato de Trabajadores de Confianza de CECyTEZ (SITCOCECyTEZ); Secciones 95, 201 y 166 del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros; Metalúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana (SNTMMySRM); Sección 59 del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la SEMARNAT (SNTSEMARNAT); Sección 29 del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores del Seguro Social (SNTSS); Asociación Nacional de Empresas Comercializadoras de Productores del Campo (ANEC); Movimiento del Sindicalismo Revolucionario (MSR); Frente Nacional de Organizaciones Braceroproa, A.C.; Asociación Civil “5 de Mayo de Guadalupe y Zacatecas; Solidaridad Cívica Zacatecana, A. C.; Agrupación Política Nacional (APN) “Nueva Democracia”; Promotora por la Unidad Nacional Contra el Neoliberalismo (PUNCN); Colectivos y trabajadores de la Otra Cultura; Federación de Organizaciones Sociales del Estado de Zacatecas-Movimiento Avance por la Democracia (FOSEZ); Barzón Zacatecas; Frente Popular de Lucha de Zacatecas-Coordinadora Nacional Plan de Ayala (FPLZ-CNPA); Jóvenes por el Socialismo (JPS); Alianza Ciudadana de Comunidades Urbanas y Rurales, A. C. (ACCUR, A.C.); Integradora Estatal de Productores de Frijol; Comercializadora “Alfonso Medina” SPR de RI; E.I.S.A.; Enlace al Campo SPR de RI; Los Ejidos SPR de RI; Vaqueros de La Cocinera SPR de RI; Tianguis La Campesina; Sección 32 del Sindicato nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación para Adultos (SNTEA).

Firmas solidarias:

Manuel Talens, escritor (España), MEPLA: Luis Acevedo Fals, Cineasta, Beatriz Muñoz Chan, Historia del Arte, Vivian Tabares Hechevarria, Secretaria, Daylet Acevedo Pérez, Editora, Ledys Pérez Corvea, Fotógrafa (Cuba), Percy Francisco Alvarado Godoy (Escritor guatemalteco) Correo: revocacionmandato@gmail.com

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Call to the Peoples of México to Organize the Revocation of the Presidency of Felipe Calderón

On the Eve of the 2010 Bicentennial of Mexican Independence, an Organizing Campaign Begins

Our nation is debating a crisis on par with that which gave birth to the Revolution of Independence, The Reformation wars and the Mexican Revolution. Just as was the case then, this is a long overarching crisis in our economy, politics and culture.

This crisis brings into question the future of the Mexican Nation and it’s people. In this political scheme by the grand capitalists, domestic and foreign, we lack hope. The Mexican people do not have a place in this world of neoliberal globalization except as pariahs and a disposable labor force.

Given these circumstances, we need a patriotic transformation and a democratization of the political system, the economy and the culture that can confront this deep crisis of our country and the problems of the Mexican people. We need a transformation that will push out the bourgeois oligarchy and the political class that governs the state and the imperialist domain of Mexico. There is a need to construct a new majority that includes all of the patriotic forces that will install a new government and a new state. A new majority that is capable of taking back control and the property of the productive forces and strategic resources of the nation, and also able to guarantee sustainable development, social justice, national sovereignty, the autonomy of the indigenous pueblos and the practice of popular democracy.

The first step towards a national exit strategy, popular and democratic is the actual crisis. We have to see a restoration of constitutional order through struggle against the usurpation of the government of the Republic by the group of politicians, business magnates, judges, and military officials that are behind Felipe Calderón. In order to recuperate our national dignity and find a solution to misery, unemployment and insecurity, there must be a battle waged to revoke the presidential mandate that the coup leaders conferred upon Felipe Calderon.

The de facto chief of the federal executive is the primary evidence of a political regime that is corrupted and anti-nation, an instrument of large businesses and transnational corporations that advance the complete depredation and plunder of our work force, public property and our social and national resources. Calderón is the most visible figure of the mafia that pretends to consume the installation of the State obedient to the United States and the delinquent characters of a Police State, a la the Colombian Military. This struggle against this usurper and the dominant group includes the defense of our basic rights including, social and political and civil freedoms, and also laying the groundwork to remove this neoliberal government who have betrayed the people and the motherland.

The grave situation our country finds itself in creates the legal and human motives to revoke the mandate of Felipe Calderón. In less than three years the number of poor Mexicans has increased by 10 million. Today, more that 70 million people live in poverty; 24 or 25 million of these live in extreme poverty suffering a degrading, inhuman misery. Calderón may be known as “The President of Employment” yet he has caused almost a million and half workers to lose their jobs.

Calderon who is supposedly in charge of the “War against insecurity and delinquency” has converted Mexico into the least secure and most violent country in the world in a time of peace. His war against narco-trafficking has left more that 15,000 people assassinated and more than 7000 disappeared. Neither the violence nor the kidnappings seemed to be diminishing and much less are ceasing to exist. Meanwhile between 25 and 40 billion dollars are in the banks and the companies of this respectable private initiative with the approval of the government of Calderón and Obama. Meanwhile impunity reigns, and those responsible for the industrial crimes in the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster remain free along with Ulises Ruiz, Mario Marín, Javier Lozano and the real culprits of the case of the ABC daycare center. Not to mention the deaths in Juarez, or the violations of human rights in San Salvador Atenco, Acteal and many more.

Meanwhile the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice continue making more than 340,000 pesos per month, while Ignacio del Valle and his compañeros along with many other social justice fighters and innocent people continue to be held in illegal jails of maximum and low security. The president has deployed the armed forces throughout national territory in his mission of public security, in violation of article 129 of the Mexican Political constitution. He has consequently degraded the Armed Forces by transforming a military into an occupation army and a counter-insurgency force in service of the oligarchies. As his role of Supreme commander he has subordinated the Armed Forces and the police of the government of the United States, behind the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America and The Merida Initiative. These agreements gravely affect national sovereignty, which in essence are acts of treason against the motherland.

With a base of attribution that does not correspond, they have brought the national economy to collapse, the recession and the contraction of the internal market, the astronomical growth of the illegal internal and external debt and the destruction off industrial productivity as well as a major technical and scientific dependence on the devastation of farmland and the end of self sufficient farming. This has led to a major migration of workers, affecting the quality of life for all sectors of the population. Moreover Calderón has illegally given territory to the mining, oil, agricultural and hotel owning interests leading to environmental degradation and criminal affliction against people and entire communities that have already been irreparably damaged in human, environmental and economic terms.

In violation of article 123 of the Constitution and according to the anti-labor politics of his predecessors, recently the transgression of autonomy of the Mexican Union of Electricians “Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas” (SME) whose only purpose was to take a step forward to destroy our energy sovereignty as well as to impose the privatization of electric energy and the services derived from the use of fiber optics, and the firing of more that 44,000 workers who have been characterized for their opposition to governmental plans.

Before the shady development project the central questions are: “are we stripped of our citizenship because we didn’t vote for Calderón? Or because we abstained, including those who have repented for voting for the PAN party and supporting three long years of shortages, authoritarianism, anti-nation and betrayal. Will the Mexican nation survive as a sovereign entity between the systematic privatized harassment of the anti-patriots who govern for the exclusive benefit of the capitalist corporations? Is it necessary to pay the highest price for human life, environmental damage, suffering and useless force to endure a government that has already yielded intolerable results for millions of Mexicans? Does there exist any reasonable doubt about the regressive and reactionary nature of the current governing group that could give anyone hope toward redirecting the course of the country on part of the usurper and his people?

In the days leading up to the commemoration of the Bicentennial of Mexican Revolution we are confronted with this extraordinary escalation of social and national crisis leading us on a downward slope of repressive measures and an economic socio-environmental catastrophe graver than any in the history of the country. It is necessary for us to take a step forward and convene ourselves just as Hidalgo, Morelos, Juárez, Magón, Villa, Zapata y Cárdenas did and fight to revoke the mandate of the de facto president Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa.

To discuss the ways and means we are organizing a first meeting for December 5 at the Railworkers Union hall at Calle Dr. Lucio #29, Colonia Doctores, Mexico City, two which all Mexican citizens ready to wage this battle are invited in the quality of organizers. In particular, we call upon the Movement in Defense of Popular Economy, Oil and Sovereignty, the Movement for Food and Energy Sovereignty, Workers’ Rights and Democratic Freedoms, upon the National Resistance Popular Assembly, upon the Other Campaign and upon the National Unity Conference of the Left to participate in the discussions and agreements so that once and for all Calderón and his government will be gone.

Respectfully.

Signed:

Personalities and organizations:
Dr. Gilberto López y Rivas, Andrés Barreda Marin, Dr. Armando Rendón Corona, Enrique González Ruiz, Dr. Patricia de Oteyza, Antrop. Miguel Angel Adame Cerón (ENAH-INAH), Dip. Hortensia Figueroa Peralta (Morelos), Ignacio Suarez Huape, Dr. Gerardo De La Fuente Lora, Dep. Alejandro López Villanueva (DF), Pietro Ameglio, Cecilia Gonzalez Barcenas Ariel Sands and Victor Delgado, Adriana Mujica, David Barkin (Professor UAM), Carlos Aparicio (Radio Bemba Drector and Representative of the World Association of Community Radio in Mexico), Jose Luis Mariño López, José David Vega Becerra, Silverio de la Mora, Juan Ignacio Lopez Espinoza, Raul Barba Arciniega, Rosalio Morales Vargas, Gloria Teresa Parada Arvay, Martin Rodriguez, Celso Hernandez, Guadalupe Sandoval, Antonio Mendoza, Enrique Zapata, Claudia Valadez, Isaias Martinez, Rodolfo Perez Peralta (STUNAM), John Paul Jardon (MNCNS), Irene Patricia Bautista Berriozabal (FNADEZ), Jesus Alfonso García Pérez (Barzon Industrial AC), Antonio Gonzalez Abundio and Joaquim H. Vela González (UDENA-Plan de Ayala), Ismael Moreno Cano (Civil Society Organization Tlaliyapatl), René Torres Bejarano, Maria Fernanda Campa, Mara Rosas Baths (IPN), Marjory Gonzalez Vivanco, Alberto Moreno Gaytan, Eulalia Eligio Gonzalez, Adriana Chavez Tejeda, Horacio Castillo, Esteban Escudero, Mauricio Ortiz (Expresión Ciudadana), Cirilo Padilla Garcia (Democratic Committee Citizen), Jose Antonio Espinosa Vázquez (Free Citizens Azcapotzalco), Sergio Avila Rojas (South Citizens Movement), Marco Antonio Padrón Martínez (Rising Sun of Iztapalapa), Cuauhtemoc Garduño (National Citizen Power), March Antoinette Farfa (Frente Amplio de Izquierda Queretana-Fa’iq-MNCNS), Javier Pineda (metropolitan Poder Ciudadano), Jose Arturo Tapia Flores (MNCNS), Sergio García Ayala ( Movement Between Citizens), Miguel Angel Flores Trueba (Mexican Communist Party), Fernando Barreda Sanchez, Alejandro Martínez Mondragón (Tequio Citizen ABDF) Neighborhood Assemblies Front Heberto Castillo (FAVHECA DF), Civic Alliance Base (ABC), Front Heberto Castillo Municipal Assemblies of Tlaxcala, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Puebla and Chiapas Force Unit Indigenous and Peasant Tlaxcala (Tlaxcala UFIC) Lome and Gustavo Baena Benito Ortega (Tram Alliance for Mexico), Benito Miron Lince, Alfredo Percastegui, Federico Reyes Abarca, Marcelo Herrera Herbert, Ismael Hernández Rojas, Juan Gutiérrez Calva, Daniel Carlos Garcia, Jose Jimenez, David Villarruel Velazco (National Movement organized “Here we are”), Paul Hersch Martínez, Arturo Figueroa Saucedo, Rafael Trujano Fermoso, Jorge Martinez Soto, Antonio Garcia Morales, Porfirio Jimenez Barrera, Dora Trevino, Juan Emilio González Espinosa Garrido, Elisa Martínez, Nayar López Castellanos, Marjory Gonzalez Vivanco

National organizations:
Section XVIII SNTE-CNTE Michoacan, Section III SNTE-CNTE Baja California, Mexico Socialist People’s Party, Frente Popular Francisco Villa, Coordinating Unit, Metropolitan Force Indigenous and Peasant Red Revolutionary Left, Mexico’s Communist Party-Marxist Leninist Front Popular Revolutionary Proletarian Rumbo, new social movements, Central Campesina Cardenista, UNTyPP, UNTCIP, National Coordinator of Municipalities and Native Peoples of Mexico AC, New Democratic Force Mexicana AC, Citizens Alliance Base (ABC); Union Workers Union Media Institute of Higher Education of the Federal District (SUTIEMS), National Organization of People’s Power-PRP (People’s Empowerment Cooperative Society, CUT-Coyoacan, AC, Builders of Tomorrow, AC, UCISV-El Ejido, AC, settler movement, AC , UCISV-1o. May, AC, UPTYL April 10, MOPOPROVI June 1O, Collective Culture and Democracy, Community Cultural Center Carlos Marx, Col. Pro-Revolution, Ecatepec, Ecological Community El Jobo, Catemaco, Veracruz, Agriculture Urban Green Belt El Molino),

State organizations:
Baja California: MLN; Chihuahua MLN Chiapas OCEZ-MLN-MLN OPEZ, Union of Health Section 50 (Adrián Vázquez Rodríguez and Víctor Hugo Zavaleta), OCD AC (Moguel Santiago), Frente Popular de Chiapas Peasants, Farmers Union Totikez Anek (Ruly of Jesus Coello Gomez) Ontario: Ediciones del Poder Popular, Proclamation, Calpulli Tlatoani, Democracy Group Revolutionary New Revolutionary Left Movement Aztlan, Promoter of the CND, Neighborhood Assemblies Front Heberto Castillo (FAVHECA), Durango: Citizen Defense Committee of the Region Lagunera, Obrero Popular Coordinating Council, State of Mexico: Prof. Prof. Pedro Ramirez and Jose Figueroa Gonzalez (Democratic Teachers Valley-Section 36 SNTE-CNTE Mexico), Committee for the Defense of the Colonies ( Tultitlan) UVVAC (County Romero Rubio), Guerrero: MLN, State Transportation Union, AC (Chairman: Segueda Apolinar Dorantes), Dr. Paul, Jalisco: Jalisco Magisterial Democratic Bases (Francisco Montero), Council of Health Advocacy Jalisco (Dr. Alberto Reyes), State Coordinator of Urban Popular Movement of Jalisco (Mario Brown and architect Antonio Orozco); Morelos: Prof. Jose Basurto F., Saul M. Roque (Community of Xoxocotla), Guadeloupe Zayago (Community Alpuyeca), Proclamation, Nayarit: MLN, Aztlan Teocalli People’s Organization (Martin Ulloa Benitez), José Manuel Ulloa Bonilla, Martin Perez Castaneda Leopoldo Mora Iglesias, Nayarit Mexican Socialist Party ( Cuthbert Ortiz Mariscal), Nayarit Students Federation (Chairman: Jorge Armando Ortiz), Union of Independent Colonies Nayarit (Martha Isela Gonzalez Tirado), Oaxaca: OOCEZ-MLN Puebla UPVA Oct. 28; Jorge Amaya, Norberto Amaya, Humberto Sotelo, and Filomeno Gutierrez (UNyR, Puebla State Coordination), Gloria Hernandez (Popular Democratic Union Colony of Puebla); Commission Policy Watch Collective Carrillo Puerto (San Pedro Cholula), San Luis Potosi: Miguel Angel Guzman (FPFV) Martin Garay (Front Potosino Producers), Sebastian de la Cruz (traditional Governor Xi-iuy), Maximino Hernandez (traditional Governor Tenek); Sinaloa: Oscar Loza Ochoa (Ruler of Culiacan and human rights defender), Sonora: Jorge Rountree Cons (Secretary of Foreign Affairs of staus), Rosa Maria Oleary Franco, Javier Valenzuela, Monica Soto Elizaga (Citizens for Democratic Change), Salvador Hernández Hernández, Dorothea Razcón Gamez (Secretary General, STEUS), Cuauhtemoc Mists Cota (Secretary of Foreign Foreign STEUS), Antonio Garcia Morales, Jesús Martínez Soto, Arturo Figueroa Saucedo, Rafael Trujano Fco Fermoso, Salvador Hernandez Hernandez, Ramon Valdez, Catalina Soto Cota, (Ombudsmen at the University of Sonora); Tlaxcala Tlaxcala environmental group, People’s Front in Defense of Land and Water Puebla-Tlaxcala (Region Malinche), Global Eco Art AC (See Tlaxcala / International), Veracruz: Antonio Santos, Jose Antonio Leon Mendivil, José Juan Ríos, Carlos Morales, Jose Luis Morales, Luis Miguel Lopez-Mena, (journalist), Hipolito Flores Alonso (dismissed from the former ICVF) Marisa Fernández Pérez (Xalapa), Alicia Castillo Diaz (Zoncuantla-Coatepec), Alvaro Brizuela Absalom (Xalapa); Zacatecas Social Front for Popular Sovereignty (FSSP), Executive Coordination: Mirna E. Puch Ceballos, Efrain Arteaga Domínguez, Gregorio Sandoval Flores, Jose Luis Figueroa Rangel, José Santos Cervantes. FSSP member organizations: Federation of Unions of Workers in State Service (FSTSE), Section 46 of the Telephone Workers Union of the Mexican Republic (STRM), Section 34 of SNTE-CNTE; Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores de la UTEZ (SUTUTEZ) ; Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores Academic CONALEP (SUTACZ) Single Union of Teachers and Administrative COBAEZ (SUPDACOBAEZ) Workers of the UAZ (STUAZ) Democratic Teachers Coordinator of Zacatecas, Sec. 58 Workers Union CECyTEZ (STCECyTEZyEMSAD) Workers CECyTEZ Confidence (SITCOCECyTEZ) Sections 95, 201 and 166 of the National Union of Miners, Metallurgical and Similar Mexico (SNTMMySRM), Section 59 of the Union National Workers SEMARNAT (SNTSEMARNAT), Section 29 of the National Union of Social Security (SNTSS) National Association of Manufacturers Traders del Campo (ANEC) Revolutionary Labor Movement (MSR), Frente Nacional de Organizaciones Braceroproa AC, Asociación Civil “May 5, Guadalupe and Zacatecas Civic Solidarity Zacatecana, A. C.; Association National Policy Congress (NPC) New Democracy; Promoter for National Unity Against Neoliberalism (PUNCN) Collective and workers of the other culture; Federation of Social Organizations of the State of Zacatecas Forward Movement for Democracy (FOSEZ ); Barzon Zacatecas Popular Front for the Struggle of Zacatecas-Plan de Ayala National Coordinating Committee (FPLZ-CNPA), Youth for Socialism (JPS) Citizens Alliance for Urban and Rural Communities, A. C. (ACCURA, AC); Integrative Bean Growers State; Comercializadora “Alfonso Medina” SPR RI; EISA; Link to Camp RI SPR; The SPR Ejidos RI; Cowboys SPR The Cook RI; Tianguis La Campesina; Section 32 of the National Union of Workers in Adult Education (SNTE).
Signatures solidarity: Manuel Talens, writer (Spain), MEPLA: Luis Acevedo Fals, Film, Beatriz Muñoz Chan, Art History, Vivian Tabares Hechevarria, Secretary, Daylet Acevedo Perez, Editor, Ledys Corvea Perez, Photographer (Cuba), Percy Francisco Alvarado Godoy (Guatemalan writer)
Email: [revocacionmandato][@][gmail][.][com]

From Narco News

—

The criminalization of poverty spreads. Half a million cannot afford water in Mexico, and Felipe Calderón shuts off their power for being delinquent. Lou Dobbs offers us some more entertainment by telling the world he is “Latinos’ Greatest Friends.” Nezua laughs and invites you to join him. Finally, four skinheads attempt to start a race war in Slater Slums but meet an unexpected conclusion to their evening. What a wild world. Thanks for riding along!

• If you prefer a dark room for viewing, you can catch News With Nezua videos at the XOLAGRAFIK Theater, [they go up Wednesday mornings] and as always, NWN vids can be found [Monday mornings] at La Frontera Times. [Last but not least, on YouTube!]

—————-

Transcript for News With Nezua Video “Let Them Drink Sand” by Nezua

(Transcription by Arban)

SPOKEN:[NEZUA]

Hola Gente, and welcome to News With Nezua! (Translation from Spanish, “What’s up, people, and welcome to News With Nezua!”

[Flamenco/Latin style music.]

SUNG:

“Guerrero!” (translation from Spanish: “Warrior!” or “Soldier” or “Fighter!”) “Ole!”

[Vibrant Latin music fades into thoughtful Spanish guitar]

TITLE: “Let Them Drink Sand”

Lower Third Graphic: “nezua, theunapologeticmexican.org”

SPOKEN [NEZUA]:

“Pobre Mexico. Tan lejos de Dios, y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos.”

(Translation from Spanish “Poor Mexico, so far from God, and so close to the United States.”)

“We are walled apart in a few spots, but our fates are definitely interwoven together. ”

“Mexico has been hit hard by the economic downturn. Petroleum revenues are down, tourism is down in large part because US right wing commentators incessantly hyped fears of the swine flu, NAFTA has helped result in a negative trade balance between Mexico and the United States, and Felipe Caldarón continues to dump money into his failed drug war which has killed over thirteen thousand people at last count.”

Lower Third Graphic: “UPDATE: Over 15,000 lives claimed behind FeCal’s Drug War so far

“In 2002, a move by Mexico state owned power utility cut subsidies to people using over 125 kilowatt hours a month. The 10 million pesos they were supposed to gain from that was to go into maintenance and distribution of electricity.

“Perhaps that would only set the stage for Felipe Caldarón’s latest move. Mexican president, Felipe Caldarón, not known for his brilliant or nuanced solutions to societal problems has hiked taxes on people already struggling to pay their electric bills and raised the prices of petroleum and electric.

Many people in Mexico have simply responded by boycotting the raised prices, and the Mexican government has responded in turn, by simply cutting off power to towns delinquent on their electric bill.”

“One such town is Ecatepec, where the town owes the Mexican government over 600 million pesos… ”

Lower Third Graphic:

FACT: 619 MN PESOS= US $56.6 MN

“…and therefore has been cut off from the power that feeds their wells. That means that half a million people are without water.

“Now granted to people in the United States, this might seem like something distant; some other government, some other kind of people that they don’t have to think about, or worry about…but I predict many news stories and reports in the coming days where people cannot afford very simple things like water, or shelter, or food, perversely punished by the state wielding laws banning the homeless…

[sad minor scale wispy flute melody]

“…banning loitering, laws like this will begin to shove and shuffle these suffering parts of our society out of the public realm, so we can’t see them or we deal with these people with punitive laws. ”

TEXT ON SCREEN:

TOUGHER ENFORCEMENT for the hungry.

Sound familiar?

[happy, cheesy, 1950's sit com flute music]

TEXT ON SCREEN:

LOUIE pulls a U-IE

SPOKEN [NEZUA]

“Birther champion Lou Dobbs has dropped hints that he may challenge first term incumbent, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez for his New Jersey seat in 2012″

Lower Third Graphic:

FACT: SEN ROBERT MENENDEZ IS THE SON OF IMMIGRANTS

“When asked if he was considering the presidency, the deluded megalomaniac replied in the affirmative, and then on Tuesday, Louis Dobbs sat for a rather hallucinatory interview on TeleMundo, where he declared himself ‘Latinos’ Greatest Friend‘.”

Lower Third Graphic:  LOU DOBBS: “LATINOS’ GREATEST FRIEND??”

SOUND OF: Buoyant laughter, someone shouts, “¡WHAT!?!?!”

“Prompting a rash of similar statements from various public figures.”

[more cheesy 1950's sit com music]

[ON SCREEN IMAGES OF WELL KNOWN Villains e.g. Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood, Wolf says "I'm your best friend" to Little Red Riding Hood, Godzilla declaring"Don't run I am your greatest friend" all in comic book style ]

SPOKEN [NEZUA]

“Mr. Dobbs now states that he is for the legalization of the undocumented. Dobbs wants to clear the air and smooth the waters. That’s all well and good, all I can say is that a man who possesses this little continuity, and this little integrity of conviction cannot be trusted.

“He flipped now 180 degrees, he’ll flip again. You can’t ignore the years that Lou Dobbs spent drawing a connection, a correlation, causation, between Mexicanos and criminality, and violence, and disease. ”

[ cheesy si com music mixes into bonkers, disjointed woodwind jazz ]

“That wasn’t a fluke. That wasn’t by accident. Its very much like Dick Cheney drew a connection between 9/11 and Iraq by constant repetition, association and implication. That’s Lou Dobbs! You don’t spend everyday pushing a well honed message from various angles and then one day in the middle of the week, before your contract is up, quit your 30 year running job, so you can run for office to enact the exact opposite measures you’ve been advocating. That’s not how life works.”

“There was one thing that I believed in, when I saw Lou Dobbs and heard Lou Dobbs on CNN. I believed that he meant what he said, and that he was talking about something he believed in…and now we don’t even have that!

“…and now that all Louis Dobbs stands for is hating on Latinos, Mexicanos and immigrants, and shear opportunism and lying about hunting season.

That’s a hell of a way to go out, Lou.”

TEXT ON SCREEN:

SKINHEAD GO HOME

[tension building cinematic score]

SPOKEN [NEZUA]

“Now, I’ve commented, various times, over the years, about the hate crimes perpetrated on Mexicanos or Latinos, by gangs of white people who jump upon a person walking down the street doing nothing more than existing and being Latino in the U.S.A…

“..and these gangs are simply acting out on the repulsion that commentators like Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Tancredo, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh…all these people espouse on the regular…but last July according to a story by OCWeekly.com..

Lower Third Graphic: FACT: by Gustavo Arellano

“…four skinheads found out that there’s different ways sometimes that people of color deal with harm coming to our communities.

“It happened in a town called Oak View, California, known to outsiders as “Slater Slums”

“Four people, three men and one woman, clearly pumped up with their affiliation to various skinhead gangs and Aryan brotherhood, and their own radio show, which is a white power radio show, took a drive into Oak View.”

“Now, as we know with many of these deviant human beings, this is their way of having fun…as one of the perpetrators said on their white power radio show, “It’s not a hate crime if you love doing it“.

“So they rolled up into an alley, where they saw one Mexicano…

Lower Third Graphic: FACT: “Motherfucking Mexicans!” one yelled, while a woman inside the truck shouted, “Stab him! Stab him!”

“… Three men jumped out of the truck, the woman cheering them on, and they leapt upon this guy…we know how this story usually goes.

Lower Third Graphic: FACT: & stabbed him three times in the chest

“I don’t think these people knew where they were, or I don’t think they counted on José having friends and family not far away, who all rushing into the alley and delivered a heinous smackdown on the skinheads who tried to run away and get back in their truck.”

Lower Third Graphic: FACT: The Skins and their lawyers and supporters now portray Skins as the victims

“They were caught a block later by the police…

Lower Third Graphic: UPDATE: Caught 2 miles & 10 minutes later

“…and they are now not only nursing wounds, they are also to stand trial for felony counts of attempted murder, with hate crime enhancements.

Lower Third Graphic: FACT: Brooks is free on $100,000 bail. The rest await trial in jail.

[easy going Latin music]

TEXT ON SCREEN: FINAL NOTES

SPOKEN [NEZUA]

“A couple of other small items:

Maybe if you read the blog, or have spoken to me personally, you know, that I have won a scholarship to the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, in February, in the Yucatán.

“So that’s very exciting. I’m sure I will be very busy for the time I’m there, but you can count on me trying to send some photographs, and some audio clips and some video from there, so, I look forward to that.

“Second of all, if you’re interesting in placing any kind of ads in the show, please get in touch, there is contact information after the video is over.

ON SCREEN TEXT:

Place an Ad on News With Nezua!
•Range of (Reasonable) Pricing
•The Spiciest of Demographics
•Creative Placing of Ads
•Videos uploaded and distributed on various sites

SPOKEN [NEZUA]

” You don’t have to be any kind of big established corporation or company, you could have a little Etsy shop, you could have a site you want to advertise.

“Pricing is very reasonable, and videos are watched over and over again, so your ad will reach alot of people. So, get in touch.”

“Also from time to time, sometimes I review things, people send me books, send me movies…the last two things sent, was “Made In L.A.” its a great film and I suggest you look around the web to find it…and just recently, I was sent a book by a man named  Mike Palecek, the book is called “Speak English”, thanks Mike, I’ll take a look at it, I haven’t read it yet, so I don’t have anything to say, but keep an eye, keep watching and I shall drop some words about it sooner or later.”

[vibrant Latin music]

“…and that’s pretty much it. Thanks again for joining me here at News with Nezua, thanks for your comments on the blog, thanks for all your support, and I will see you soon…peace”.

[ LATIN MUSIC]

[FADE TO BLACK]

This week’s episode with News With Nezua brought to you by lafronteratimes.com

FEEDBACK, IDEAS, QUESTIONS, INFO, AD BUYS:
NWN[at]ATNEZUA[dot]NET
TWITTER: @NewsWithNezua

NEZUA: all writing, lighting, shooting, editing, arte & scoring
a XOLAGRAFIK production
-end-

Pobre México is fighting to stay solvent, as the economic downturn of course, has a passport, and crosses the border all day, both ways. And with FeCal at the helm, well. His idea of change was an onslaught of failed drug war (an estimated 16,500 corpses stacked up at FeCal’s door now) that the USA is still helping to fund via the Mérida Initiative that Bush brokered. Ugh.

Pobre México. Tan lejos de dios, y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos.

—Porfirio Díaz

Here is, at first glance, a fleeting fragment of news from October, wherein FeCal opted not to close Luz y Fuerza, México’s second-largest power utility.

• Mexico Ministry Rules Out Creating New State Power Company

“Mexico decided it won’t create a new state power company to replace Luz y Fuerza del Centro, the Energy Ministry said. … President Felipe Calderon ordered on Oct. 11 the liquidation of Luz y Fuerza, the nation’s second-largest power supplier, firing more than 40,000 electricity workers. The decree was because the company’s finances were “unsustainable” amid mounting losses, he said.”

The thing is, in the US when we read news in English language on typical US news sites (like above) we almost always get FeCal’s desired spin, or I should say the government’s point of view only. And FeCal and his crew are not El Voz de la Gente, bleeve that.

Note that in this article, it claims FeCal was going to close Luz y Fuerza for rather dry reasons. “Unsustainable” and all that. Sure. Just fire FORTY THOUSAND WORKERS, another day in the life, move along. There’s more to this story, have no doubt.

If you have been following Mexican news at all, FeCal (a not so nice name for Felipe Calderón) was—to oversimplify a bit, as I am here overall—their George W. Bush. In fact, Felipe Calderón stole the presidential election with the help of some of the same players who helped Bush. I know all this should have links, but if you go to El Grito (I’m running around this morning, have errands, tiny break in video production schedule) and search for these people and you will find it all. Many hours spent on those stories back then.

Manuel Lopez Obradór was running as (and I do think he is far more of this camp than FeCal) Mister Downtrodden, Mister Para la Gente. Mister Left. While FeCal was and is Mister “Let’s Be Like the USA,” working with the Bush admin. He is Mister “Let’s Do All They Want Us To, Let’s Militarize This Joint, Let’s Wiretap, Let’s Bring on a Drug War.” And of course, that’s why he was given the presidency, and why the US GOP GOV would surely cheer it on. (Although Obama is fully committed to funding Mérida, even past its expiration date which really, really, really angers me with his adminstration.)

It’s unfortunate to me that the US is so very in the dark on all Mexico’s politics…because truth is, we better know this stuff. It’s all affecting us, all the time. And the relationship between the US and MX has so much history. And the media and governments actually use the language barrier and the apathy that dwells north of the Rio Bravo to the advantage of the elites and to the people’s detriment.

Anyway. I hope to help bridge this gap a tiny bit myself, and my plans are to become far more effective at it in time. It will take time, and it will take many of us. For now, I can offer you the bare outline of  some of these shapes, and if you like you can research and find out more.

Mexican Electrical Workers Union members protest the summary firing of 44,000 members. Photo: La Jornada

There’s history and politics, of course, behind what is going on with the power plants in Mexico. And in general, North and South of the border, you and I need to keep an eye on the plight of workers and the unions. That (and the media) is where the people’s power lies. And that’s where oppressive power cracks down hard. (Peep the body count that journalism produces in war zones.)

Things aren’t as cut and dry with the Luz y Fuerza story as bloomberg.com would have you believe. As one could learn in the Narcosphere:

In the middle of the night last Saturday, President Felipe Calderon sent six thousand soldiers and militarized Federal Police to take over state power company Luz y Fuerza installations in Mexico City and the states of Mexico, Puebla, Morelos, and Hidalgo.  Immediately following the takeover, Calderon issued an executive order closing Luz y Fuerza.  Because no law or decree can go into effect until it is published in the federal government’s Official Diary of the Federation, the government published the executive order in a special edition of the Official Diary of the Federation to coincide with the military and police raids that closed Luz y Fuerza.

Federal Police occupy a Luz y Fuerza building. Photo: La Jornada

Mexican legal experts have criticized Calderon’s action as illegal, unconstitutional, and “an excessive and abusive use of power” because he by-passed Congress when he decided to close Luz y Fuerza and deploy the military and police against workers.

The government’s official justification for closing Luz y Fuerza is that the company’s operating expenses exceed those of other state-owned companies.  It claims its use of the military and militarized federal police was a pre-emptive strike: it wanted to prevent workers from striking, taking control of the facilities, and cutting off power in protest of the closing of Luz y Fuerza.  However, a week prior to the police and military takeover, the union specifically stated in a press release that it had no intentions of striking nor cutting off power to electricity customers.

Jose Hernandez, a leader of the Mexican Union of Electricity workers (SME)

As little as I know about Mexican politics and media, once you find one spot of corruption, you will find more. And they all magically seem to connect the more you read. Even these recent events, and the arc of Mexican right wing politics since FeCal stole the office.

…[I]n Mexico, we have an ultra-right national government. Formally its considered Christian democratic, but its lead by the extreme right group, el Yunque. This group is anti-communist and well linked to the right wing groups of the Catholic Church. They’re committed to the privatisation of the energy sector, of electricity and oil and last year they wanted to pass reforms to privatise the oil, but they didn’t achieve it because of a large national mobilisation.”

“These mobilisations were lead by Manuel Obrador, who’s a leader of the PRD (Revolutionary Democratic Party) and from the most nationalist and progressive section of this party. He also ran in the 2006 elections, in which all most all studies say there was fraud. Calderon won by 0.56%. Despite large mobilisations we couldn’t overturn the fraud.”

“So this right wing government aims to deepen what they call the structural reforms, reform the work law to allow for flexibility of the working day, for unstable work, for sub-contracted labour, and the biggest obstacle to be able to pass these reforms is the SME.”

—Jose Hernandez, a leader of the Mexican Union of Electricity workers (SME)

The Mexican Union of Electricity Workers (SME) is almost 100 years old, known for being very independent of the MX government, and democratic in nature. This is a rarity in México, as most unions are corrupt and inextricably linked with the government. SME  won the right to retirement for workers in 1936 through strikes, which was a huge strengthening of the working class. And most importantly, SME works out of Luz y Fuerza. As we can see, like Lopez Obradór, SME is aligned with the People, and not with Big Business or Iron-Fisted Gobierno, and thus is an enemy to the FeCal administration.

And so Felipe Calderón and his forces have been doing all they can to destroy Luz y Fuerza, and take down SME with it. But this predates even FeCal, and is a long running motion recognizable in many nations, when the richest and most powerful suck upon the necks of the  poorest and most vulnerable.

“The government has been trying to destroy the SME for 20 years, they’ve been investing in the CFE, in modernising it, and not in Luces y Fuerzas. So now Luces y Fuerzas seems like an inefficient company and its equipment is ancient and it needs a lot of maintenance to work. The government effectively took away its ability to generate electricity, and now it’s buying 98% of it its electricity from CFE.”

“And the government designed a system of accounting to make it seem like Luces y Fuerzas was going bankrupt.” …

And of course, this isn’t just about electricity, though the power utilities are surely a massive force to control. The government of Mexico is looking ahead. This is yet one more strike against the people—and we are mostly talking the indigenous in México, the poor, because this won’t hurt most of the expats or the ones cashing in—and a strike for the illusion that Mexico can become a “first world country” if it just keeps erecting hotels, strengthening the military, and crushing the poor.

“Another reason why the government wants to privatise Luces y Fuerzas and destroy our union is because of the possibility of further profit. With the new technology the power lines and cables can also be used to transmit images, voice, and information- that is, television, internet and phone. It’s a bigger business than electricity. The union has proposed that Luces y Fuerzas provide those services, without any concessions to private companies, which is what the government wants.”

“It shows the irrationality of capitalism, these things could be provided free to society, but they want to privatise it all to make money.”

So you see, it wasn’t just that the Mexican President decided, oh, that finances weren’t quite working out so they laid off a few people. This isn’t about a steward of the nation making wise decisions about safeguarding the People’s interest, no not at all! This is about greed, corporate and state hunger, and the People’s needs aren’t even in the picture.

Police occupy Luz Y Fuerza. Photo: El Pais

And that’s why it’s so important to keep our eyes on the unions and the strikes and the workers.

“The first thing we did in response was to mobilise; on 16 October there were nearly 500,000 people; unionists from various unions, students, Obrador’s movement, farmers- that is, the people mobilised, and despite the huge media campaign attacking the SME, saying we are corrupt, we’re lazy.”

“And in the legal terrain, we’ve been fighting as well, seeking legal protection before the actions of the government.”

And that’s one thing Mexicanos sure are good at. Standing up for their rights. Let’s hope they prevail, because for such injustices to sweep down and grab la gente by the neck and so close to us and without our help is a failure of activism and people power. If borders did not wall off humanity to sections of our brain, the People would have all the rights and powers that would help the world thrive. I’ll type that one more time because it’s so important.

If we did not use “the border” concept to separate in our imagination who is a friend, who is an enemy, who is “US” who is “THEM,” who is a resource, and who is in need, there would be no state power or army that could continue to make us toil and die for the continued power and wealth of the very few who are on top of this global pyramid.

It begins in the mind. Those who would rail against migration, against natural flow of river and human, who would deprive fellow humans of healing and medicine when they need it, who would insist on fences and walls and guns and prisons for those ousted by economic needs…when it is those very pieces of machinery that we are being penned into suffering with…today’s “immigration restrictionists” are members or affiliates of hate, they are distracted, they are simply tools of the same forces who delight in having us at each others’ necks while we are all exploited and robbed.

Here in the US, we see more and more laws being instituted that penalize the poor, that oust the homeless, that ticket those who feed them. And in México, half a million people in Ecatepec have had their wells shut off.

Where is our real fight? With people of different skin tones? With people who use different word sounds to express their dreams, their pain, their hope, their hunger?

Or with those who move hugely and cloaked over with flag and legal document, drawing blood worldwide and siphoning away oil, monies, and the very water that we need to live?

By Nezua, Media Consortium Blogger

Ed. Note: This week’s Diaspora is short because of the holidays. We’ll be back to full-length next week.

Last Tuesday, Amy Traub dismantled a few harmful myths about immigrants for The Nation. Traub takes on the old ‘immigrants steal our jobs’ myth, saying it “holds no water.” Immigrants of both documented and undocumented status help the economy, and their energy and efforts create jobs that would not exist without their participation. Traub makes a crucial connection clear: Immigrants are a boon to the economy, and “U.S. natives gain $37 billion a year from immigrants’ participation” in the U.S. workforce.

In AlterNet, Timothy Noah outlines the cost of denying immigrants health insurance, dubbing the overall effect a “Nativist Tax.” If we begin restricting the access immigrants have to health care, why not bar them from other parts of society? Why not bar them from the hospital altogether? Why not prevent them from buying milk at the corner store? It’s the beginning of what could be a bad chain reaction.

Katherine Vargas describes her own naturalization ceremony for the Progressive. It’s a good read. Vargas writes that citizenship is not, to her, only about apple pie and baseball, or even the paper we call a passport. To Vargas, citizenship is the ability and right to participate in the political process and take part in the history of the country.

New America Media covered the “Phone Call Heard Around the Country,” a nationwide teleconference on the approaching year and immigration reform. “Tens of thousands” of callers were connected, and on the call—which turned telephones on speakerphone into “de-facto radios” around which so many gathered—legislators urged listeners to “call their members of Congress and ask for action on immigration reform.”

Finally, for some light fare, Wiretap Mag features a “humorous—albeit problematic—parody” of the immigration issue.

I understand why Wiretap deems it problematic. The cartoon tries to create a perfect parallel between the conquest and decimation of the North American indigenous population in the 1600s by Europeans with today’s economically displaced immigrants (who are, themselves, often indigenous, or descended from the indigenous). In this way, it uses the words of the cartoon “Indians” to argue against their own kind. The cartoon is probably quite useful, however, in opening dialogue with younger people on the topic.

The Weekly Diaspora wishes you and yours a satisfying holiday season, whether you are fasting or feasting. May you be safe and with loved ones.

sombrero tip to Alfredo at LFT for this little gem!

The turkeys piled into supermarket freezers carry their own stories. Raised primarily in massive confinement buildings by low-paid growers under contract to corporate food giants, they are genetically designed for plentiful breast meat to grace our Thanksgiving platters. They are then trucked to a processing plant, where they meet their demise.

Reflecting the racial structure of the nation’s entire food system, turkey processing relies largely on the hard labor of low-wage workers of color. On plant floors across the country, a predominantly black, Latino and Asian work force kills, guts, cleans, processes and packages the Thanksgiving centerpiece along fast-moving production lines.

Injuries are commonplace. Thousands of individual repetitive motions every shift raise the probability of chronic pain for line workers.

Federal safety inspectors are spread thin, and when they do arrive it is not unusual for supervisors to silence workers. At a recent meeting of Somali immigrants with an Occupational Safety and Health Administration representative, workers were shocked to learn that they had the right to speak when an inspector came to their workplace.

Every day of the year, and especially on Thanksgiving, no one in this country eats without the labor of immigrants, refugees and other workers of color. This is not a new reality.

That’s who.

Give thanks.

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Related:
• The Story of a CAFO Survivor
• We Grow Fat Upon the Fruits of Their Labor

THIS VIDEO of children reenacting Thanksgiving is pretty funny. And reminds me of early quandaries I found myself in while playing “Cowboy and Indians.”

Thanksgiving. As I wrote last year, it is a holiday that is split, in my own mind and being. Of course I remember and cherish all the times various parts of my family came together on this day and ate, drank, and recounted family stories, looked at old photos, laughed, and got full on delicious food. But like many of our holidays, the truth (the blood) has been wiped clean from this glossy card (only $2.99!) and in its place raised a cluster of days upon which we shop, spend money, send cards, and often, if that’s all—forego a chance to learn lessons from the world’s past.

I don’t want anyone to stop enjoying themselves on any day of their life. I heartily cheer on one more day where people can gather, share love, share food and drink and laughter. In that sense, I’m quite the Tolkienite. Though some choose to fast, which I respect as a means of mourning lost opportunities to connect, and lost lives, and lost culture.

We know the results of forgetting important lessons and replacing them with feel-good fable. I think I cannot improve on last year’s words:

Thanksgiving is the earliest fable given to us along the path of mental indoctrination that allows the USA to continue its method. Some say now a great change has come upon us and we may have to shift the way we do things. Global powers now, no sole hyperpower, diminished American might, changing demographics. We’ll see. …

Nonetheless, the path is in place and it is a path that begins with commercially-crafted tales designed to distract us from the USA’s long-running methodologies of exceptionalism and crusade and in place of that, offer us patriotic pablum; saccharine feelgood fakery that suffocates entire peoples and their struggles. Ultimately, who benefits from these fables and the lessons they instill? Who benefits from the invasion of Iraq? From the mercenary armies we have there and are now launching into many nations and onto ocean vessels? From our military bases that multiply like virus? Who are the myths of Thanksgiving designed to benefit? What are the truths they are meant to obscure?

—Stolen Not Given

All that said, I wish you and yours another day of life, and joy, and a billion magnificent sensations. Including a full belly and a full heart. Today, tomorrow, and every day.

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PS: the art used on the front page for this post uses Diego Rivera’s The Market of Tlatelolco from The Great Tenochtitlan.