May 1st Day March & Rally, Sacramento, Cal 2006

1 de Mayo Marcha - Sacramento, California 2006

	PRESS CONFERENCE     Comunicado de Prensa                   LABOR & IMMIGRANT RIGHTS GROUPS  WILL ISSUE A CALL FOR :                       THEIR IS NO REASON TO CELEBRATE                                 MEXICO'S BICENTENNIAL !         PORQUE NO HAY NADA QUE CELEBRAR !           Organizations Migrantes Protestaran              Bicentenario del Consulado Mexicano         LABOR & IMMIGRANT RIGHTS GROUPS  WILL PROTEST THE                       SACRAMENTO MEXICAN  CONSULATE BICENTENNIAL                  PRESS CONFERENCE                          Tuesday, August 31, 2010 5:30 PM                                                   Raley Field                                                                400 Ballpark Drive                                                      West Sacramento,Ca 95691                    PORQUE NO HAY NADA QUE CELEBRAR                WHY WE PROTEST !                      THEIR IS NO REASON TO CELEBRATE            MEXICO'S BICENTENNIAL ! 72 Migrants murdered in Mexico see below link http://www.eluniversaltv.com.mx/detalle.php?d=19912 WE BLAME THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT FOR THE EXPULSION OF MILLIONS OF MEXICAN WORKERS WHO HAVE BEEN EXPELLED FROM THEIR HOMELAND AND SEPARATION FROM THEIR FAMILIES BECAUSE OF THE NAFTA ECONOMIC AGREEMENTS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA,WHICH HAS CAUSED THE MILLIONS OF MEXICAN WORKERS WHO HAVE BEEN FORCED TO NOW WORK IN THIS COUNTRY,WHILE AT THE SAME THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT HAS DONE NOTHING REGARDING EXTREME POVERTY AND THE EVER INCREASING VIOLENCE IN MEXICO,WHILE AT THE SAME TIME THE US HAS ALLOCATED  BILLIONS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS IN FIGHTING A DRUG WAR WHERE ALREADY ALMOST 30,000 MEXICANS HAVE BEEN KILLED AND THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT'S MINIMUM WAGE IS LESS THAT $ 5.00 US DOLLARS PER DAY !,WHILE THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT IS BUSTING MEXICAN INDEPENDENT LABOR UNION'S AND WASTING HUNDREDS OF MILLION'S OF DOLLARS IN THEIR PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN PREPARING FOR 2012 ELECTIONS ,IT IS FOR THAT REASON THAT THEIR IS :  NO REAL REASON TO CELEBRATE THE MEXICAN BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION ! Por eso nos manifestamos. PORQUE NO HAY NADA QUE CELEBRAR Porque a los docientos años de nuestra independencia de España no somos independientes.   Porque la patria ha sido empeñada una y otra vez a intereses extranjeros, y cuando ha sido rescatada con la sangre de los héroes, llega otro grupo de traidores y la entrega de nueva cuenta. En el bicentenario del grito de Dolores, la banca del país se encuentra en manos de agiotistas españoles y norteamericanos.  Los bancos Santander,Bilbao y Citibank exprímen hasta la última gota de sudor de la clase trabajadora mexicana con cargos onerosos en sus transacciones monetarias.  El pueblo se ve obligado a utilizar los servicios de la banca por la complicidad del gobierno que coonspira con éstos traficantes de sudor, manejando las nóminas salariales.  La práctica de obligar a los trabajadores a que acudan a los cajeros automáticos a retirar sus salarios viola la letra y el espíritu de la Constitución y la Ley federal del Trabajo cuyo dictado establece que a los trabajadores se les debe pagar su sueldo en su lugar de trabajo y dentro de sus horarios normales. En el bicentenario del levantamiento del Padre de la Patria don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, los usurpadores del poder se han aliado con el clero para manipularel proceso político desde los púlpitos, y han convertido las oficinas del ejecutivo en sucursales del Vaticano. En el bicentenario de la lucha por la independencia, las calles y carreteras del país están ocupadas por el ejército que está siendo utilizado de manera bastarda para amedrentar a la población bajo la excusa de la lucha contra el narcotráfico. Y porque el sacrificio de miles de mexicanos es una constante, lo mismo en el medio urbano y rural, que en el exilio económico al que el gobierno derechista nos condena. Nos han robado el legado de la revolución. Nos han robado las jornadas de ocho horas. Nos han despojado del derecho de huelga. Nos han negado el derecho a la educación laica, gratuita y obligatoria. Han entregado los recursos del subsuelo a las transnacionales. No tenemos una revolución que celebrar. Por eso nos manifestamos.     ¡No hay independencia que celebrar!   PORQUE NO HAY NADA QUE CELEBRAR Por eso nos manifestamos. CONTACT  (Contactos):  Al Rojas (916) 712-4251  -  Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior,  LCLAA  (AFL-CIO) Páramo Hernández (916) 825-0402  -  Union Civica primero de Mayo     SPONSORS AND ORGANIZERS: Union Civica Primero de Mayo Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior, Union Civica Primero de Mayo,  LCLAA (AFL-CIO), SEIU USWW 1877, LULAC West Sacramento,  OTAC (Organizacion de Trabajadores Agricolas de California), Sacramento Peace and Freedom Party.

	Why Immigration Reform is Not the Only Solution ! By José Luis Pérez Canchola The Labor Department reported that the U.S. unemployment rate in the month of May 2010 reached 9.3 percent. This is the highest rate in the last two decades. Only in the period from January to May of this year, a total of 825,000 workers lost their jobs across the United States. In the case of California, a favorite destination of hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers, the unemployment rate currently is 12.3 percent, with a record 245,000 jobs lost in the last 12 months. According to official information, from May 2009 to May 2010, the fall in employment was recorded in 39 states of the United States. To make matters worse, the U.S. political class is now focused on the elections of November 2, 2010, when they will elect 36 senators of the 100 that make up the Upper House. For candidates, Republicans and Democrats, the topic of immigration reform is an issue of risk. The majority argues that before any reform, we must first ensure a satisfactory and sufficient control of the border with Mexico. Others say that in addition to the above, the government should continue with the raids in workplaces and public places in order to drive out the largest possible number of undocumented migrants, as a condition to start the debate on immigration reform. In the case of Democratic Party candidates, those seeking the Latino vote and other minorities by offering their support for immigration reform, know that this will not be possible in the short term. In 2006, then Senator Barack Obama delivered a speech in which he stated: "The immigration problem requires three combined actions: (1) Strengthening border security, (2) paving the way toward a legalization program for undocumented residents upon payment of fines and the commitment to full respect for the law with criminal background check, and (3) a guest worker program for those with temporary employment productive sectors where American workers can not or will not seek employment." Now, when Obama is president of the United States, it is difficult to think that Democratic candidates will be able to successfully promote immigration reform without complying first with the actions proposed by Obama himself. About all the Democratic Party candidates can do is promise, with tears in his eyes, their support for immigration reform in order to pool votes. For all these reasons it is noteworthy that Mexican deputies and senators have turned up the heat at the 49th Inter-Parliamentary Meeting of Mexico and United States, which was held recently in Campeche, demanding that U.S. lawmakers adopt an immigration reform law this year. One might think that is naive or perhaps simply reflect their ignorance of American politics. No. What it reveals is simply their demagogy. Clearly these Mexican legislators pose as defenders of the homeland when they launch their oratorical tirades in defense of Mexican migrants. The reality is that these Mexican deputies and senators are also to blame for the fate of the migrant workers, by their failures and omissions, as can be attested by the treatment of migrants along the Mexican side of the border and by the Mexican border police, who have beat up and even killed these undocumented migrants. The recent crimes perpetrated by border policemen against two Mexicans on the border in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez are to be added to the deaths of more than 5,600 migrants since the launching of Operation Gatekeeper in 1994. More than a thousand of them correspond to the remains of unidentified migrants and have deposited in cemeteries on the U.S. side in unmarked graves. What do the Mexican deputies and senators about this tragedy? In April 2005, Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs acquired a Remains Identification System (SIRLI. by its acronym in Spanish), with an investment of approximately US$2 million and a maintenance contract of $280,000 a year to Web Image Systems, the company that designed the DNA identification program. At first the identification program was led by Consul Juan Miguel Gutierrez Tinoco with some modest but effective results. But by 2009 the system was barely functional, while thousands of families across the country continued to report missing migrants who attempted to cross the border into the United States. What do our legislators think about all this? Do they mind the tragedy of these Mexicans? Are they aware that the SIRLI id. system identified only 6 percent of migrants reported missing each year? Logic tells us that our elected representatives who are demanding that the U.S. government implement an immigration reform should call upon with the Mexican government and the President, with the same energy and rhetorical skills, the creation of jobs with fair wages in Mexico, with jobs-training programs. healthcare for all, youth job opportunities and scholarships for students from poor families. Can't our Mexican legislators not understand that this is what it will take to prevent further deaths of Mexican migrants in the border? What happened in Campeche, in the 49th Inter-Parliamentary meeting was a mockery of the dead immigrants, their families and Mexican society in general. The Speaker of Chamber of Deputies, Francisco Ramirez Acuña, sounded ridiculous and fake to the core when he demanded that the Mexican's Congress counterparts in the Unites States "stop the use of lethal weapons and gunshots on migrants." This kind of empty rhetoric has taken place during the past 20 years by politicians, NGOs, religious authorities, so-called defenders of human rights, media, etc. The truth is that nobody pays any attention to their appeals. Undocumented migrants continue to die in conditions of total abandonment. The unidentified remains are still in the cemetery in Holtville, California and elsewhere, waiting to be identified and retrieved by their relatives for burial in their places of origin. Of course you need for immigration reform to end the anguish and fear of Mexican families living illegally in the United States. But let's not be duped: The Mexican government and legislators must comply with their constitutional mandate by advocating for and fighint for better working and living conditions for Mexicans inside their own country. This is the way to end the spiral of migration and deaths at the border. All the rest is just political demagoguery. Jose luis Perez Canchola :  Former State Human Rights Commisioner, Baja California Norte,Director of "Casa Migrantes",Baja California Norte, Baja California Representative for Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador  (translated from Spanish by Alan Benjamin)

	WHY WORKING IN THE FIELDS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER!   BY AL ROJAS    My family and many others spent well over 25 years organizing and eventually founding the original United Farm Workers Independent Union, IBT based in San Jose California. Led by Oscar Gonzalez, from 1961 to 1983 we were able to organize committees throughoutCalifornia, specifically in the coastal areas from Northern Californiadown to the Mexican border. It was during that time, in 1966, that the UFW,IBTmerged with the National Farm Workers association (NFWA) led by César E. Chávez and others and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee AFL-CIO (AWOC),thereafterbecoming the United Farm Workers of America (UFWA).  Since having worked alongside braceros in the vegetable industry in Oxnard, California in the early 1960's, I was able to understand the issues involved in foreign contract labor then embodied in theBracero Program (Public Law 78). At that time people like the Hon. Dr. Ernesto Galarza, César E. Chávez, Gilbert Padilla, John Soria, and others opposed this inhumane system of indentured servitude, which did not allow workers protections, the right to decent wages, or the right to decide whether to have a union of their choosing represent their interests. Although the Bracero Program was abolished through the efforts of Galarza, Chávez, Padilla and others, it has now resurfaced as the guest worker program.  Recently, Arturo Rodriquez, president of the United Farm Workers (UFW), was invited to appear on Comedy Central’s Steven Colbert Report to encourage U.S. Workers to take jobs in agriculture. With UFW's “Take Our Jobs” Campaign, the Union comes out in support of the the UFW's proposed federal legislation Ag-Jobs. In essence, Ag-Jobs would allow the recruitment of foreign workers from countries like Mexico, Thailand, and Vietnam to labor in U.S. fields as "guest workers". In coming out in support of Ag-Jobs, ironically the UFW is taking on a contradictory role, being a union in defense of farm workers’ rights and now acting as agents in the recruitment of foreign agricultural workers for the U.S.Corporate Agri-business-industry. Interestingly enough, while Mr. Rodriquez is asking Americans to take agricultural jobs, he has never been a farm worker himself. Is Mr. Rodriguez prepared to reduce his $90,000 per year salary for a farm worker’s $8.00 per hour wage?  Ag-Jobs which the UFW is pushing, is heavily supported by the National Farm Bureau, California Nisei League, Western Growers Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party and President Obama. The need for an overhaul of our immigration laws is not in question here; the issue is that at a time when unemployment is estimated at between 18 to 21% in California's Central Valley and there are over 10 millionundocumented immigrants already in the U.S. it is a complete farce to mislead the public by promoting and pushing for importing cheap foreign labor through a guest worker (Ag-Jobs) program. What we need are decent wages and working conditions and humaneimmigration reform. A great example is the recently introduced state bill 1121 by State Sen. Dean Florez, which would allow agricultural workers to earn overtime for more than 8 hours worked in a day and 40 hours in the work week. However, the same corporate growers who are in favor of guest workers testified in opposition to this bill, while continuing to work farm workers overtime at 10 hours per day and over 60 hours per work week. Corporate growers have testified and argued that "agriculture is very unique", in other words, agricultural workers, who are majority Mexicans and other people of color, can be treated with indifference.   The real issue is organizing and representing workers and the workers’ right to negotiate a union contract. The real issue is legalization for all immigrants who are here to work because their home economies are being devastated by free trade agreements likeNAFTA and CAFTA. The real issue is the millions of American workers who are unemployed and struggling to feed their families while the White House bails out Wall Street to the tune of billions of dollars.   We believe that the UFW as a Union,needs to concentrate on organizing and representing workers. The real issue is decent wages, benefits, safety protections, and the right to unionize, NOT more guest worker programs that exploit workers who are not free to unionize and who are completely in the hands of the employer who is free to hire and fire at will. If agricultural growers paid a decent wage, U.S. workers would apply for those jobs and there would be no need for guest workers.  Al Rojas was a former farm worker, UFW Labor Organizer 1961/1979, SEIU Local 1000 labor leader, and former State Deputy Labor Commissioner.

	Make a Donation Now Sacramento LCLAA Chapter P.O. Box 245913 Sacramento, California 95824

	Independent Civil Rights Commission   P.O. Box 488 Davis, CA 95617   Art Apodaca, Liaison: 530-796-3721   independentcivilrightscommission@yahoo.com   Justice Cruz Reynoso (Ret.), Chair Contact: Arthur Apodaca, J.D., Liaison                                                    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                 530-796-3721 or 916-370-3068   THE INDEPENDENT CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION, CHAIRED BY FORMER CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT JUSTICE CRUZ REYNOSO, TO HOLD OPEN PUBLIC HEARINGS             The Independent Civil Rights Commission will hold the third of a series of public hearings on the killing of farm worker Luis Gutierrez, on April 30, 2009 by Yolo County Sheriffs deputies dressed as gang members driving an unmarked car. The commission is engaged in gathering data which will be shared with the public and public officials.             Eye witnesses testified at the first two hearings regarding the day’s activity of Luis Gutierrez and the actual incident of the killing.  Some of the testimony was at variance with the report the District Attorney’s Office submitted to the State Attorney General and released to the press in November, 2009.  Additionally, witnesses identified the Officers Bautista, Oviedo and Johnson as participants, who were involved in the Luis Gutierrez killing in another tragic accident while serving a warrant.  Two adults were physically abused and threatened with guns, and a gun was placed to the temple of their nine year old daughter.             Public officials have responded to the new witness revelations: First, Sheriff Prieto announced in February that his office would investigate the report of police abuse, particularly the placing of a gun at the temple of the nine year old girl.  He declared that he would announce the results within 30 days.  We look forward to his report.             Second, in response to a freedom of information request by this commission, County Counsel Dan Cedarborg, the District Attorney’s legal representative denied the request.  The denial was based on a declaration by the District Attorney’s office that the investigation is ongoing: 1) the District Attorney has reopened the investigation of the Luis Gutierrez killing and 2) the FBI is still investigating. TIME: 2pm-5pm, Sunday April 18th, 2010 PLACE: Woodland Community College-Community Room, 2300 East Gibson Road, Woodland, CA 95776 ATTENDANCE: OPEN TO ALL NOTE: Parking $1 and there is absolutely no smoking allowed in the community room or at the college.

see Luis Gutierrez pages above at left.

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10th Annual Cesar Chavez Marcha - Sacramento