News (Noticias) Tagged ‘protest’

WHEN: Tuesday September 23, 2008TIME: 4PM-6PM

PLACE: CLEAR CHANNE, 340 TOWNSEND

SAN FRANCISCO CA.(between 4th&5th St. next to Caltrain Station)

As hate speech spirals, a local group of community activists are organizing a demonstration in San Francisco against shock jock Michael Savage. The group, Hispanic / Latino Anti-Defamation Coalition SF and allied Community Organizations, plan to rally in front of the building which houses radio station KNEW-AM where Savage transmits his nationally-syndicated program.

On his program, Savage call for troops on the street “to protect us from the scourge of illegal immigrants who are running rampant across America, killing our police for sport, raping, murdering like a scythe across America while the liberal psychos are telling us they come here to work.” Or that autism is a “fraud, a racket, that in 99 percent of cases is a brat who hasn’t been told to cut their act out” and to stop being ‘morons‘, he also tells fasting immigrant students “to starve to death, then we won’t have a problem.”

These kind of statements incite people who are already angry and resentful, as when Jim David Adkisson entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun, killed two people and wounded six during the presentation of a children’s musical. In his car, police found a four-page letter where he expressed his hatred of the “liberal movement’, and wrote he targeted the church “because of its liberal teachings” and his belief that “all liberals should be killed” because they were “ruining the country.” Inside Adkisson’s home, officers found “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder” by radio talk show host Michael Savage.

Shock jocks insist their rants are not hurting anyone and that they are not inciting hate attacks. Meanwhile disenfranchised groups continue to be targeted. Another instance was the senseless savage beating that resulted in the death of Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala by a group of four young white males in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania on July 12, 2008. Luis E. Ramirez was a hard-working father of small children and a decent member of the community. His killers ranted racial comments against Mexicans while cowardly beating him; as reported by eyewitnesses.

For too long the Hispanic/Latino, and other minority communities in the Bay Area have suffered Clear Channel/the Savage Nation/Michael Savage and his attacks. His insulting, degrading, sophomoric tirades are racist and divisive to a dangerous level. His rhetoric, has resulted in erroneous definitions of whom we are as Hispanic/ Latinos and he contributes to stereotypes which we have for a long time tried to defuse.

We, the Hispanic/Latino community in the Bay Area hold CLEAR CHANNEL/The Savage Nation/Michael Savage and other shock-jocks like him and their Media Channel Broadcasters directly responsible for the increase in crimes against Hispanic US Citizens, Latinos, Immigrants, other groups and individuals; and for destroying and terrorizing our communities through their hateful ON-AIR XENOPHOBIC, HENCE, UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA! ” .

As in Last year’s Protest, the Peninsula Contingent will be boarding CalTrain’s “Hispanic Dignity Train” From San Jose to San Francisco as it stops in each local station to join us in front of 340 Townsend St.

Contacts info:

San Francisco: (650)-740-1910 — (415)-368-8406
SF Peninsula: (650)-324-4082 — (650)-992-1680

Hispanic / Latinos Anti-Defamation Coalition SF

“http://hladc-sf.blogspot.com/“

http://www.latinosagainsthatespeech.org
http://elrinconcitodeaurora.net/docs_pub/hladc-sf/savage_protest_press_release.pdf
http://elrinconcitodeaurora.net/docs_pub/hladc-sf/savage_protesta_comunicado_prensa.pdf
http://elrinconcitodeaurora.net/docs_pub/hladc-sf/anti_savage_press_release.doc
http://elrinconcitodeaurora.net/docs_pub/hladc-sf/anti_savage_protesta_comunicado.doc

“

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the Latin American Working Group (LAWG) have sent a letter to the governor of the Mexican state of Guerrero expressing serious concern about reports of human rights violations and criminalization of social protest in the state, particularly against indigenous communities.

The letter specifically voices concern about the arrests of five leaders of the Me Phaa Indigenous People Organization on April 18 and asks for better due process guarantees in these and other cases involving indigenous people in the state. “*

Marchers Say Education Officials Are Changing LGE “Behind Teachers and Students’ Backs”

A sea of umbrellas flooded Santiago’s central Plaza de Armas around midday last Wednesday as teachers, high schoolers, university students, and parents took over the rainy Santiago streets in a national protests called by the Teacher’s Association. The protest was against the General Education Law (LGE), an education reform package being put forward to replace the existing Organic Constitutional Education Law (LOCE).”*

A veteran guerrilla leader who helped spark a revolution here 30 years ago is again putting her life on the line to protest a government she claims is returning Nicaragua to its dark, dictatorial past.

Dora María Téllez, 52, started a hunger strike this week, plopping down in downtown Managua to ‘’sound the alarm bell” against what she says are President Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian intentions.

The former rebel leader and ex-minister of health under the first Sandinista government in the 1980s says her protest is a continuation of the revolutionary struggle she started three decades ago against the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship.”*

The Hispanic Institute today announced that it will mount a Latino boycott of CNN to protest the cable news network’s ongoing distortion of facts surrounding U.S. immigration issues, especially in commentaries and reports on “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”

The nonprofit organization said the proposed boycott will begin today June 3, 2008 and will seek to stop Hispanic viewership of all CNN outlets, including the Spanish language service. There are now 12.14 million Hispanic television households in the U.S., according to Doug Darfield, Sr. Vice President of multicultural measurement for The Nielsen Company.”*

On the eve of Gov. Mark Sanford’s signing an immigration bill into law, a dozen Latino residents from Charleston staged a protest at the State House.

Holding handmade posters, the group made one last effort Tuesday to fight back the bill that would regulate businesses’ hiring practices and bar illegal immigrants from attending state colleges.

“We’re here one more time to say, ‘Reconsider it,’” said Diana Salazar, president of the Latino Association of Charleston.”*

A pair of uncombed, college-aged Mexican pop singers tonight will usher in the first attempt by a national environmental organization to target Nevada’s Hispanics.

A free concert by Latin Grammy winners Jesse and Joy at the Rio is the hook for la onda verde, or “green wave,” a campaign being launched here by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The idea is to draw a few thousand Hispanics to listen to the wispy duo’s harmonies and then persuade the crowd to dash off notes to Gov. Jim Gibbons protesting three coal power plants planned for rural Nevada.”*

One of Spain’s top recording artists, Alaska, launched a campaign against bullfighting by presenting a poster of herself posing nude with three spears stuck in her back.

“We need to stick some little banderillas (spears used in bullfighting) in the backs of those who think that the bull does not suffer,” she said Monday in presenting her campaign “The Naked Truth: Bullfighting is Cruel.”"*

Eight-year-old Gianella Ramos clutched a protest sign Monday at a City Council meeting, chanting “No to GEO! No to detention!”

She was among 30 protesters who rallied on the steps of the Aurora Municipal Center on Monday and called on the City Council to oppose the planned expansion of an immigration detention center that will more than triple the size of the facility.

“I do this for my mother who is an immigrant,” she said.”*

The Democratic presidential nominee this year was supposed to be a sure thing with Hispanics.

The party’s candidates received almost 70 percent of the Hispanic vote in the 2006 congressional elections, up from less than 60 percent two years earlier. Democrats had expected to replicate or improve on the 2006 showing this year, after a Republican-backed anti-immigration movement sparked protests by hundreds of thousands of Hispanics.”*

A broad coalition of activists will gather Wednesday, May 28 in New York City to express support for Puerto Rico’s embattled teachers and schoolchildren, to protest the decision of SEIU’s leadership to launch an attack on the existing teachers union and to exhort SEIU to cease this activity.

Rafael Feliciano Hernandez, President of the Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR — the Puerto Rican teachers’ union) will be joined at the event by members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC), SEIU, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and other local labor leaders, along with the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), community and religious organizations, local student activists, and concerned relatives of Island students.

WHAT: News Conference Insisting SEIU Cease Attacks on Teachers Union

WHO: Puerto Rican, Labor, Education, Religious and Progressive Activists

WHEN: Wednesday, May 28, 10:30 am

WHERE: Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, 475 Park Avenue South
at 32nd Street

SEIU — facing a well-publicized internal battle — begins its Convention in Puerto Rico next week in the shadow of its attempt to take over the Island’s 42,000-member teachers’ union. SEIU’s “raid” comes on the heels of sustained efforts by the Puerto Rico Teachers Union (FMPR) — united with parents and students — to fight against:

– horrific educational conditions
– privatization of schools
– the negative effects of “No Child Left Behind”
– government assaults on democratic school leadership committees
– repressive labor laws
– abysmal salaries — monthly average of $1600 with living costs higher
than those in the US.

After nearly three years of working without a contract, the teachers unanimously voted to strike in a mass union meeting of over 7,000 members in November 2007. While negotiations continued, sources report that SEIU leader Dennis Rivera was meeting with Puerto Rico Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila.

According to the New York Daily News, the Governor told Rivera that the teachers’ union is “yours to take.” Previously El Diaro-La Prensa reported that Rivera had discussed the teachers union with Acevedo in addition to possible SEIU monetary support for the Governor, who has recently been indicted on corruption charges.

The Puerto Rican government declared the teachers’ strike illegal, based on the vote alone — the actual strike was not called until late February 2008 — and moved to decertify FMPR. Almost simultaneously, SEIU announced that the Island’s union of school principals and supervisors was affiliating with SEIU — and would attempt to take over the teachers’ union.

In the aftermath of the 10 day strike that paralyzed the nation’s public schools with unprecedented support and participation from teachers, students and parents, FMPR continues its work as the representative of the Island’s teachers, negotiating with the government over school conditions while fighting for recognition as the bargaining unit.

The Delegate Assembly of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers (UFT) declared solidarity with the Puerto Rico teachers and voted unanimously to “support the Puerto Rican teachers in their struggle to be treated with dignity.” CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC) resolved to “participate in strike support efforts and solidarity with the striking teachers of the FMPR.” The struggle was discussed at NYC’s Central Labor Council, and the California Federation of Teachers, having sent funds already to support FMPR, plans to urge the AFT to do so as well.

SEIU leadership is in the midst of a tremendous internal struggle with sectors within the union advocating for greater member democracy. As these members engage President Andy Stern and other leaders inside the Convention Hall — ironically to be held in Puerto Rico — FMPR teachers will surely protest what they view as SEIU’s sabotage of the struggle for quality education on their island nation. SEIU leaders’ apparent collusion with the government/employer of teachers in Puerto Rico echoes similar accusations of what critics characterize as a recent trend toward “sweetheart deals” with employers in the private sector on the mainland.

Here in NY, 1199/SEIU, one of the international’s locals with an exemplary reputation as a progressive union, recently launched a series of attempted raids against the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), which represents Registered Nurses. These raids occur as NYSNA’s nurses battle hardened employers who are attempting to diminish nurses’ power as they advocate for quality care for their patients, further escalating the inter-union wars on the mainland.

Rather than destabilizing already difficult situations faced by unions — particularly in a nation such as Puerto Rico that has its own particularities — SEIU’s leaders need to focus on their members as they grapple with the difficult questions that face trade unionists today.
“*

A series of protests in East Los Angeles, known commonly as the Chicano Blowouts, roiled Southern California in opposition to unequal conditions in Los Angeles-area schools.

What began with a dissatisfaction in education became a conflagration of issues whipped together in a turbulent time. Civil rights, the Vietnam War and Chicano equality created a volatile cocktail.

A local teacher named Sal Castro courted history. He stirred students and organized protests, and was ultimately arrested for his role.”*

Death threats have not intimidated pro-Latino activists in Georgia. Instead, they have spurred them to join forces across racial lines to counteract the anti-immigrant atmosphere that has taken on a sinister tone in the state.

Less than a week after Rich Pellegrino called a group of human rights organizations together to protest the sale of a racist T-shirt, he received a shocking death threat at the door of his home.

It had been a rough week for Pellegrino, director of the Cobb Immigrant Alliance, who protested in front of Mulligan’s Bar and Grill in Marietta with other activists on May 13. “*

As the Department of Homeland Security pushes to complete 670 miles of fencing along the Mexican border by the end of this year, it is confronting the sharpest resistance yet while conceding that physical barriers alone do not stop illegal crossings.

In the latest challenge, the Texas Border Coalition, an organization of mayors, county commissioners and economists opposed to the fence, filed a federal lawsuit on Friday. It says that the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, failed to conduct required negotiations with property owners and local authorities when he ordered that the barrier be built in Texas. The group wants the construction halted.

The protests come as known efforts at illegal crossings — measured by the number of people detained at the border — have fallen 17 percent this year, after declining 20 percent in 2007, figures that Chief David V. Aguilar of the Border Patrol points to as proof that the overall approach to border enforcement is working.”*

link to graphic mentioned

A letter is being drawn up from local officials to protest a border patrol decision. The patrol plans to check immigration status on all evacuees in the middle of a hurricane evacuation this upcoming hurricane season. A couple counties are not happy about it.

County and the city of McAllen are not happy with the border patrol’s decision to check every person’s U.S. immigration status. One county official says that will prevent people from evacuating to safety.

Cameron County’s goal is to make sure everyone is safe during a major hurricane. But if border patrol checks each person’s legal status at the hub in San Benito, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos believes it will keep people away from safety and ultimately jeopardize their lives.”*

Seven men chained in wrist and ankle shackles walked about 500 feet Monday to be told they were being deported and could never return to the United States.

Most of the media was gone who had covered the initial appearances in court last week for the 390 arrested in what is called the largest single-site Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in United States history on May 12.

No protesters lined the streets, cheering for freedom and demanding change, as they did Sunday. In stark contrast, several men wearing blue jackets displaying “ICE Police” were the only ones lining a back wall in the courtroom.”*

While Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, help crown national nominees, their commonwealth status prevents them from casting ballots in the November presidential election.

“It’s ludicrous that people can participate in selecting a candidate for whom they cannot vote,” says Fernando Martín of the Independence Party of Puerto Rico, which is organizing a protest march for primary day. Other politicians are calling for a boycott of the vote.

Clinton, 60, is favored to win here, thanks to greater name recognition and involvement in hurricane relief, a base closure and legislation to resolve Puerto Rico’s status. The New York senator’s supporters hope high voter turnout and a big winning margin might boost her long-shot nomination chances.”*

A group of about 50 immigrant rights activists rallied in south Minneapolis Friday afternoon to protest the arrest of nearly 400 people at a kosher meatpacking plant in northeast Iowa this week.

At least 390 people were detained on immigration charges at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville on Monday.”*

Last month, all anyone could talk about in the marketplace was the rising cost of food. Now that a violent transportation strike has paralyzed the country for two weeks and prevented deliveries from getting to market, the conversation has shifted to food shortages.

”Things are going from worse to more worst,” said veteran market vendor Manuel Ramírez, inventing a superlative to describe his frustration with the unraveling situation in Nicaragua. ”Even the [produce] baskets look like they are on strike,” he said, nodding to the large market bins that are empty except for a few rotting tomatoes and what appears to have been lettuce.

In the streets, several protests continued Wednesday while a tense calm prevailed throughout most of the country. Striking bus and truck drivers have clashed with riot police in recent days and the U.S. Embassy in Managua warned U.S. citizens to take precautions in the face of the strike, which began May 5.”*

Thousands of Mexicans dressed in white marched silently Sunday through the streets of Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas to protest drug-related violence. that killed more than 100 people, including about 20 police officers, during the past week in Mexico. VOA’s Greg Flakus has been following the situation from our Houston bureau.

Ordinary citizens in Mexico are reacting with alarm as the war between rival drug smuggling groups erupts in city centers and residential neighborhoods. Law enforcement experts say drug gangs are reacting violently to efforts by police and the army to break up their operations.”*

Thousands of white-clad people marched silently Sunday to protest a surge of drug-related violence in a Mexican city across from Texas where the No. 2 police officer was shot dead.

The crowd of several thousand students, church leaders, businessmen and politicians walked for about four miles (six kilometers) across Ciudad Juarez to a park near a border crossing, breaking the silence in a burst of speeches, dancing and singing.

More than 200 people have been killed so far this year in Ciudad Juarez. The city of 1.3 million across the border from El Paso, Texas, is home base for the powerful Juarez drug cartel.”*