Why the Tucson Ethnic Studies Ban Matters
Donna Gratehouse, who blogs at DemocraticDiva and elsewhere on all things Arizona, sends us this.
Hundreds of high school students walked out of their Tucson, Ariz., schools Monday in a coordinated protest against the banishment of the district’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program. This from Common Dreams:
In recent days, administrators and board members have issued a series of conflicting and inaccurate statements and carried out the extreme actions of confiscating books in front of children.
Last week, a recently hired assistant superintendent from Texas told Tuscon students to “go to Mexico” to study their history–nevermind that most of their families have been in the United States for decades.
If you are not familiar with the Tucson Mexican American Studies saga, Sunday’s New York Times
editorial summarizes the current situation nicely and says in part:
The Tucson Unified School District has dismantled its Mexican-American studies program, packed away its offending books, shuttled its students into other classes. It was blackmailed into doing so: keeping the program would have meant losing more than $14 million in state funding. It was a blunt-force victory for the Arizona school superintendent, John Huppenthal, who has spent years crusading against ethnic-studies programs he claims are “brainwashing” children into thinking that Latinos have been victims of white oppression.
More background and a disclosure: I ran (sadly, unsuccessfully) against John Huppenthal for State Senate in 2006. That was also the year Republican Tom Horne was reelected to his second term as Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction. Killing the Mexican American Studies program – often referred to as MAS or “ethnic studies” – was really Horne’s crusade from the beginning.
It all started in 2006, when famed labor organizer Dolores Huerta addressed a Tucson high school assembly. Huerta is known for being feisty and pulling no punches – ideal qualities for a labor organizer – and in her characteristic style at the assembly she made the blunt observation that “Republicans hate Latinos.” Read the rest of this entry »
Push Is On to Pass DREAM Act
Breaking News: The House has passed the DREAM Act by a 216-198 margin. Eight Republicans voted for the bill and 38 Democrats voted against it.
As Congress prepared to vote on the DREAM Act today, thousands of students, immigrant activists, religious and political leaders are making a last-minute push to pass the bill.
Across the country, thousands of workers and activists held vigils in support of the bill as part of a national day of action. Yesterday, groups of DREAM Act youth and supporters arrived on Capitol Hill with giant checks for $2.3 billion to give out to lawmakers. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated late last week that passing the DREAM Act would create $2.3 billion in revenue over the next 10 years and slash the deficit by $1.4 billion.
Take action now. Call your representative at 1-866-967-6018 or your senators at 1-866-996-5161 and tell them:
America needs the DREAM Act now. This bill will allow undocumented youths to earn their legal status through either a college education or military service. Additionally, the DREAM Act strengthens the U.S. economy by cutting the deficit by $1.4 billion.
Latino Leaders: ‘Don’t Vote’ Ad Is Irresponsible, Dangerous
With less than two weeks to go, a Republican operative has been roundly condemned for trying to suppress the Latino vote, this time through a TV ad that Latino leaders say is both irresponsible and dangerous.
The Spanish-language network Univision on Tuesday pulled an ad funded by the front group, Latinos for Reform, urging Latinos in Nevada not to vote in the upcoming election, supposedly because Democrats had not reformed immigration laws. Latinos, who make up 15 percent of Nevada’s voters, overwhelmingly support Democrats.
Nevada’s Latino vote could be decisive in the race between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and tea party-backed Sharron Angle in one of the most high-profile races in the country. Nationally, Latino voters also will most likely play critical roles in races in California, Florida, New Mexico and Illinois, and Latino voter participation also will be watched closely in Arizona and Texas.
Workers Fired Up About One Nation
Working families are getting fired up about the One Nation Working Together march Oct. 2 in Washington, D.C. One Nation is our chance to tell the country that working people and civil and human rights activists are turning the discussion away from fear-mongering and deficit doomsaying to renewing the American Dream for everyone.
Coming just one month before the fall election, the march could have a huge impact, says Transport Workers (TWU) President James Little:
This November’s congressional and state races will decide our country’s direction for years to come and have vital importance for…working Americans. This mobilization will demonstrate the power of our united One Nation coalition, created by forces of goodwill that stand for hope and change.
It’s not too late to plan to come to Washington or to plan an event in your city. Click here to learn more.
One Nation Formed to Bring Back the American Dream
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Working people are frustrated and angered by the inability of lawmakers to stop the massive loss of jobs and decline in living standards, while Republicans—and some Democrats—freely hand over the economy to corporations that are growing richer and more powerful each day.
To help renew the American Dream for everyone, some 170 progressive groups, including the AFL-CIO, NAACP, National Council of La Raza and many affiliated unions, have come together in One Nation.
One Nation is a multi-racial, civil and human rights movement whose mission is to reorder our nation’s priorities to invest in our nation’s most valuable resource—our people. One Nation is holding an Oct. 2 rally at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. with tens of thousands of activists taking part. They will then return to their neighborhoods, congregations, schools and, especially, voting booths, fired up with new energy to take back the country.
On the same day, the union movement will walk door-to-door in targeted states around the country, mobilizing union members exactly one month before the fall elections.
Lessons of Financial Collapse Can’t Be Ignored
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If the nation ignores the history of what caused the collapse of the financial system, says Phil Angelides,
“We will be doomed to bail it out again.”
Angelides is chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission charged with finding the causes and culprits behind the nation’s economic disaster. Speaking at panel discussion this afternoon at the America’s Future Now conference, Angelides said he dubbed the meltdown, “the immaculate financial crisis” because no one on Wall Street, the Big Banks or the deregulating policy makers that controlled the reins of the system, will take responsibility.
There has been almost no reflection by Wall Street over the crisis because the American taxpayers gave them $1 trillion. Wall Street reform is a start, not an end. We have to commit to changes in our financial system so it works for the many, not the few.
America’s Future Now Conference Sets Progressive Vision
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The America’s Future Now conference kicks off this morning. During the next three days, the largest gathering of progressive activists, leaders and lawmakers will map out an economic and political agenda for change—and the organizing strategies for taking that agenda to the country.
Those strategies will focus on fighting the corporate lobbies that stand in the way of economic justice and reform; energizing and building a movement for jobs now; and creating a progressive majority that challenges both obstructionist Republicans and timid Democrats.
We’ll bring you reports from several of the sessions, panels and break out groups.
Progressives Set for America’s Future Now Conference, June 7–9
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More than a year into the Obama administration and with November elections just ahead, progressive activists will gather June 7–9 in Washington, D.C., to forge a strategy to build a majority for real change in America.
The America’s Future Now conference, sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future (CAF), traditionally is the largest gathering of progressives in the country. There’s still time to register for the conference. Register now here or click on the America’s Future Now icon above.
Grassroots activists and policy-wonk analysts have gathered at the campaign’s conferences each year for six years to forge an economic agenda for change—and the organizing strategies for taking that agenda to the country.
Trumka to Launch Jobs Initiative Tomorrow
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Tomorrow morning, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will announce a major new initiative to create and save jobs.
(Watch the live webcast at www.aflcio.org/createjobs starting at 9 a.m.)
Trumka will be part of a noted panel in “Spotlight on the Jobs Crisis” at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
With unemployment at its highest rate in more than 20 years, Trumka says America needs bold, quick action to put people back to work, in addition to longer term, structural fixes for our economy. The AFL-CIO initiative he announces will include calls to extend help for the unemployed, rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, provide aid to struggling states and communities, create federally funded community-based jobs and increase lending to small and medium-sized businesses to spur job creation.
Unions Can Help Create Good Jobs for People of Color
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Increasing union membership is one of the keys to creating more good jobs for all workers, but especially for people of color and those in low-wage jobs, several experts said today. Many of the 8.1 million jobs lost during the current recession have been good jobs, including union jobs in manufacturing. The jobs now created, mainly in the service sector, are less likely to provide what working families need.
In a new report released today, Algernon Austin, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI‘s) program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, says the United States has too few good jobs. He defines a good job as one with a wage that can support a family, health care benefits and retirement security. Using that minimal standard, Austin found that Hispanics are less than half as likely as non-Hispanic whites to have good jobs, and African Americans about two-thirds as likely.
