tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34485229347089711582024-03-12T00:52:37.687-07:00Chaparral respects no bordersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger173125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-8240487283713223932015-03-01T20:28:00.001-08:002015-03-01T23:14:33.004-08:00Mines, Water, Roads, Borders<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
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The Resolution Copper land grab is also a water grab, with a projected use of millions of gallons per year and contamination of more; and during what could be a mega-drought. Water is often compared to gold as its value increases the more scarce it becomes, which means we may soon be fighting not only the increasing privatization of land, but also of water. Despite the fact that the Resolution Copper deal, having been snuck into a defense bill, involves an exchange of land, it is being done to the advantage of a transnational mining corporation and to the detriment of the <i>Chi’Chil’Ba’Goteel</i>/Oak Flat/Apache Leap area and the people who hold it sacred. This land grab represents a continued prioritization of economic development in so-called Arizona, which means more resource-extraction and increased international trade (specifically with or through Mexico). Mining and other industries shaped by trade-related demand bring not only risk to water, but also more roads like Interstate 11 and rail (which require land acquisition), and increased border militarization. US trade policy is largely culpable for the violence on the border and south of the border.<br />
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Economic development is portrayed as bringing more jobs, but these “free-market” policies, as in the case of NAFTA, are meant to redistribute wealth to the hands of the rich. Because of their trade relationship and connecting infrastructure, Arizona and Sonora have a shared fate as land, water, safety, indigenous ways of life and sacred sites are all at risk. The state governments enable resource-extraction and other infrastructural projects, lucrative to those who would build them and those who would finance them, through subsidization and protection with our tax dollars.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0cNU258pCEOnJMEVYWAlccGeBlBwGWno4l4KtblGPXUOvA7rzf5GSdp3TcHXwNv1nLv8HGMxwG5VHAh1eVjWVCoxle60kp_VoZw2dVQN8RPHnf0a8tU76ar5dgVw3G-EMxWqmdgjbhE/s1600/canamexnaftamap.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0cNU258pCEOnJMEVYWAlccGeBlBwGWno4l4KtblGPXUOvA7rzf5GSdp3TcHXwNv1nLv8HGMxwG5VHAh1eVjWVCoxle60kp_VoZw2dVQN8RPHnf0a8tU76ar5dgVw3G-EMxWqmdgjbhE/s1600/canamexnaftamap.png" height="320" width="249" /></a></div>
Arizona's connection to a port in Guaymas, Sonora is crucial to the Arizona mining industry. Copper is one of the <a href="http://www.worldsrichestcountries.com/top_us_exports.html">fastest growing US exports</a>, and much of what is and would be mined in Arizona would be transported down to where mining companies such as BHP Billiton (of Resolution Copper) and Freeport McMoran do <a href="http://www.insidetucsonbusiness.com/news/growing-port-of-guaymas-busiest-in-a-decade/article_ed0a6fcb-6acd-5611-9793-4f473acf51c9.html">business</a> at this Mexican port on the Sea of Cortez. Guaymas is also significant because shipping companies can have lower standards for working conditions in Mexico versus the US. This port is the southernmost point of the CANAMEX Corridor, the NAFTA trade route connecting Canada and Mexico through five US states including Arizona. The Port of Guaymas has been expanding over the years and brings along its own set of problems in the vicinity, requiring its own energy sources and water, damaging the environment, impacting the local communities, etc. Arizona is counting on the continued growth of the Mexican economy, yet the importance of the Port of Guaymas also signifies that a lot of exports from the US are meant to cross the Pacific ocean (especially if the Trans Pacific Partnership goes into effect), not stay within its favored trade partner's borders.<br />
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The <a href="http://stopcanamex.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-canamex-sun-corridor-basics-part-1.html">CANAMEX Corridor</a> already exists, but will be considered complete once Interstate 11, which is in the study phase (aside from the Boulder City Bypass which is scheduled to break ground this year) has been constructed, connecting Las Vegas and Phoenix with a route fit for freight traffic. <a href="http://stopcanamex.blogspot.com/2014/05/filling-in-i-11canamex-gaps.html">Interstate 11</a> may eventually refer to the entire trade corridor reaching from Mexico to Canada, or at least is intended to span from the Mexican border and beyond Las Vegas. Parts of it maybe multi-modal including rail and other infrastructure possibly including water pipeline. This massive project will cut through communities and damage the environment. Conceptualized as the entire trade corridor, it is currently also referred to as the Intermountain West Corridor--basically CANAMEX but with a more updated, more western route where it would run north of Las Vegas. South of the border, the Mexican government has recently agreed to the request by Arizona officials to improve Route 15, which is part of this Corridor, for freight traffic.<br />
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<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/jTOcdCH5OFZyDZjGsr9tBtb4Mxx_-WQsXQYfnhDG5Bm8QSkCMUBF8xrQwP2XvwJHKWkLkzkyxd1vJRxQCEvH227wl56rK9bziETEdAsrCoK5juQuKJ8kuSgrvObwOtxmdSoT12g" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/jTOcdCH5OFZyDZjGsr9tBtb4Mxx_-WQsXQYfnhDG5Bm8QSkCMUBF8xrQwP2XvwJHKWkLkzkyxd1vJRxQCEvH227wl56rK9bziETEdAsrCoK5juQuKJ8kuSgrvObwOtxmdSoT12g" width="320" /></a>Intermittent <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexico-The-Yaqui-Tribes-Struggle-for-Water-20141006-0072.html">blockades</a> of Route 15 have been one tactic used by Yaqui resisters in response to the theft of their water in the last few years. The rapid growth of the City of Hermosillo in the state of Sonora, Mexico situated along the CANAMEX Corridor, on the way to the Port of Guaymas, is due in part to NAFTA-fueled agribusiness and mining which are the primary water-users. As it is, Sonora essentially exports millions of gallons of fresh water to the US in the form of fruits and vegetables. In the context of the drought and overuse of water, and as a result of the ways international trade has impacted Sonora, Hermosillo has required acquisition of water, <a href="http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/13854">impacting</a> the Yaquis, Mayos, and Guajiríos with aqueducts and dams on the rivers. These mega-projects, enacted by Sonora SI (started by the Sonoran Governor who has a close relationship with the mining industry), have the intention of addressing the water crisis (for Hermosillo), contributing to the competitiveness of the region and providing new infrastructural projects for companies to make money from.<br />
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Since technology is now allowing for relatively affordable removal of salt from the plentiful ocean water, one megaproject planned for Sonora is one or more desalination plants. It is possible that the<a href="http://www.azmc.org/2014/06/25/"> Agreement of Cooperation</a> between the states of Arizona and Sonora signed by the respective governors at the Arizona-Mexico Commission’s Plenary Session last summer to jointly evaluate the feasibility of desalination at the Sea of Cortez for a new water supply for Arizona and Sonora is related to the Sonora SI project, which includes a desal plant in <a href="http://www.bnamericas.com/news/waterandwaste/mexico-pours-millions-into-desalination-plants1">San Carlos</a> near Guaymas. The potential for desalinated water piped from California or Mexico is part of <a href="http://www.azwater.gov/AzDWR/Arizonas_Strategic_Vision/" target="_blank">Arizona's official water strategy</a>. This year, <a href="http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2015/02/lawmaker-seeks-committee-to-study-history-potential-of-water-desalination/" target="_blank">a bill</a> is in the Arizona House of Representatives to fund and arrange a study for the potential for desalination for Arizona. The intention for Arizona to expand and become more competitive in trade, along with potential new copper mine(s) will mean new demand for water, and with the combination of scarcity and new infrastructure, the water could be privatized. Desalination plants threaten the environment in various ways including the direct impact on their location on the water, as well as through the use of energy in the process and transport of the water.<br />
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Despite the likely need for drastic measures even if Arizona doesn't grow, some in Arizona find that expansion is necessary and inevitable. A so-called “megapolitan” area including Phoenix and Tucson called the “<a href="http://stopcanamex.blogspot.com/2014/10/megapolitan-in-mega-drought-guide-to.html">Sun Corridor</a>” is intended as an economically integrated trade hub along the CANAMEX Corridor. Those interested in this concept have been attempting to reform state trust land law in the interest of further growth and development. The Sun Corridor concept is supposedly justified by—at the same time as it is used to encourage—growth and accompanying infrastructure especially for freight traffic in the area despite that growth is not sustainable in the area. The infrastructure required includes new roads, rail, ports, and border security.<br />
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Along with the steps to build Interstate 11, just in the <a href="http://aztransportationboard.gov/downloads/presentations/2014-121214-Transportation-and-Trade-with-Mexico-Update.pdf">last few months</a>, Arizona opened trade offices in Hermosillo and Mexico City, committed funding to increase freight rail infrastructure near the border and to expand ports of entry at the AZ/Mexico border. According to <a href="http://azdot.gov/media/News/news-release/2014/10/14/launch-of-arizona-s-new-trade-office-collaboration-with-mexican-leaders-among-highlights-of-trade-mission-to-mexico">ADOT's press release</a>, Arizona was involved in a US/Mexico joint investment “implementing U.S. technology, equipment and training to enhance the efficiency of the military inspection station north of Hermosillo," which involves $6.8 million almost certainly from the <a href="http://www.azmc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/TheCatalyst2014Fall.pdf">Mérida Initiative</a>, with an additional $4 million from the Mexican Government.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLA1tjufjNg8MDzIbKbSHynbdYHCUpcclJsMoC3Kr7piDIpWlNDrZU_LIB6-8NahzrZUntVvYi7Ne2wUKkyxwC6x7w5hU4Q69kirXiObGi-nEEWJeklhZjXIT14jytPUMGxiUgzuKROIQ/s1600/border_towers_090514.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLA1tjufjNg8MDzIbKbSHynbdYHCUpcclJsMoC3Kr7piDIpWlNDrZU_LIB6-8NahzrZUntVvYi7Ne2wUKkyxwC6x7w5hU4Q69kirXiObGi-nEEWJeklhZjXIT14jytPUMGxiUgzuKROIQ/s1600/border_towers_090514.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a>The primary intention of the Mérida Initiative (also known as Plan Mexico, a reference to the failed Plan Columbia) is supposedly to fight the drug trade, but one major role, to create a “<a href="http://mexico.usembassy.gov/eng/ataglance/merida-initiative.html">21st Century Border Structure</a>,” deals with trade and migration as well. This is meant to “Facilitate legitimate commerce and movement of people while curtailing the illicit flow of drugs, people, arms, and cash. The Mérida Initiative will provide the foundation for better infrastructure and technology to strengthen and modernize border security at northern and southern land crossings, ports, and airports.” Sure, the US wants to prevent the illicit activity that correlates with increased movement of trucks across the border. It is also the trade policies themselves, and the accompanying poverty and displacement, that contribute to migration (and arguably contribute to the drug trade). Many in US benefit from exploiting the cheap labor created by criminalization of migrants. And then there are the security and technology companies who can profit from infrastructure and equipment involved in securing the border. Large transnational companies such as Israeli company <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175947/tomgram:_miller_and_schivone,_bringing_the_battlefield_to_the_border/">Elbit Systems</a> brings their similar experience in militarizing the Gaza Strip and enforcing their apartheid wall to the border as well. The potential for any future Comprehensive Immigration Reform to bring about a "<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175947/tomgram:_miller_and_schivone,_bringing_the_battlefield_to_the_border/">border surge</a>" manifesting a massive profit-making opportunity for the military industrial complex to the US/Mexico border will likely make it even worse than it already is. Migrants continue to die crossing the border. Tohono O'odham who live along the border or visit relatives also face daily harassment, abuse, check-points, invasion of privacy, limits on movement, drones, cameras, etc. due to the border patrol's activities where the border bisects their lands.<br />
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Arizona officials and business leaders want to believe the myth that Mexico has the violence and organized crime under control. In the interest of becoming more friendly to international investment, for just a few years prior to the violent disappearance of the students from Ayotzinapa in late 2014, Mexico attempted to make itself look as though it was successfully instituting the rule of law. Yet law enforcement is clearly involved in much of this violence. And U.S. trade policy is largely culpable. Many violent acts tend to be depoliticized and obscured by associating the victims with drugs. Students at the Normal school in Ayotzinapa were known for protesting neoliberal reforms in Mexico. The fact that they were clearly not involved with the drug trade and that it involved so many youths made what happened to them more worthy of media attention.<br />
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The drug war, instead of curtailing the production and movement of drugs, functions, even if not specifically intended to, to facilitate resource-extraction and international investment in areas such as Mexico and Central America. Militarization and paramilitarization benefit US and transnational corporations' involvement there through displacement and social control, as described in Dawn Paley's new book, "<a href="http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/27962-south-of-the-us-border-the-war-on-drugs-is-really-a-war-on-people">Drug War Capitalism</a>." With at least a <a href="http://www.conflictosmineros.net/">couple dozen mining conflicts in Mexico</a> alone, and the violence faced by activists who oppose mining, it is clear that even when organized crime groups are involved in law enforcement and violence, these are often acts of repression. For mining to continue, people are forcibly displaced, and the state facilitates this, in part by US tax dollars and to a certain extent for Arizona trade interests. Mining companies around the world often have arrangements with paramilitaries and/or military to protect them, such as in the cases of Resolution Copper's <a href="http://links.org.au/node/306">BHP Billiton in Columbia</a>, and Phoenix-based <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Freeport-McMoRan_Copper_&_Gold">Freeport McMoran</a> in Indonesia.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj6D75Kck83nF35g9Y7y0Nua-00f8SEvTNJnSnXl0aYLpHgza2ANws22CRyA06KDFV-IE6_2i8GX19HaoAD7n7o2ap9oIdLoI41udnw8k-kqwEn9zLg3uFL73MLoojK4VCP8phD3shlkU/s1600/peabody.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj6D75Kck83nF35g9Y7y0Nua-00f8SEvTNJnSnXl0aYLpHgza2ANws22CRyA06KDFV-IE6_2i8GX19HaoAD7n7o2ap9oIdLoI41udnw8k-kqwEn9zLg3uFL73MLoojK4VCP8phD3shlkU/s1600/peabody.png" height="215" width="320" /></a>In modern history in Arizona, displacement looks different but is no less significant. Confiscation of livestock, used as a tactic of attrition to force Diné who have resisted displacement from their lands so Peabody Coal can continue strip-mining the Black Mesa area, has occurred as recently as <a href="http://www.indigenousaction.org/alert-dine-face-arrest-livestock-theft-on-black-mesa/">October 2014</a>. Some <a href="http://beatricedailysun.com/news/national/lawmakers-seek-to-wrap-up-costly-tribal-relocation-program/article_54ff9baf-0cb1-5c2e-98cf-0110ae60ad57.html">members</a> of Congress have recently urged that the relocation project be completed. Arizona's urban areas' access to water and electricity involves a mega-project that has a complex history few know about, which is all the more relevant in relation to the Yaqui water struggle and the potentiality of infrastructure being built for desalinated water. Often characterized as savvy and industrious, the efforts made to create the Central Arizona Project (CAP) that brings water from the Colorado River, and the whole project including Peabody Coal's strip-mining (to fuel the generating plant that powers CAP and provides electricity to Phoenix, Las Vegas and other areas), rests on a history involving manipulation, manufactured conflict between the Diné and Hopi and among tribal members, forced removal of families, contamination and depletion of water, and the poisoning of those who have lived close to the mines and the generating station.<br />
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Indigenous people's access to clean and plentiful water has been threatened since settlers arrived, even after they were given priority water rights by the federal government. Not only did Southern Arizona settlers divert water away from <a href="http://tucson.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/for-o-odham-water-will-return/article_4ce71e07-30ea-52f1-b28b-900051afbb61.html">sources</a> Tohono O'odham and other indigenous people relied upon, and contributed to erosion of their lands, indigenous people have been swindled for their priority <a href="https://privatewaterlaw.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/arizona-strategic-vision-for-water-resources-sustainability-2014.pdf">water rights</a> over the the last several decades. The Arizona Department of Water Resources considers the resolution of tribal water rights claims (9 more out of 22 total) the <a href="http://www.azwater.gov/AzDWR/Arizonas_Strategic_Vision/">number one priority</a> due to the uncertainty of long-term water availability for Arizona. Often the settlements promise infrastructure to provide water delivered to homes on the reservations, instead of addressing the root causes of poverty and lack of access to clean water. The mining industry consumes and contaminates water on a massive scale, and because of how much water it depends on, is especially interested in securing water rights at the expense of priority water rights held by some tribes in Arizona, such as in the case of <a href="http://docs.house.gov/meetings/II/II13/20140919/102689/HHRG-113-II13-Wstate-McAllisterF-20140919.pdf">Freeport McMoran</a> being involved in the settlement of Hualapai water rights claims last year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDy7IR2NgWka69ei8F-Epc6I4fHW7A_1VmbmKzlabvNx7pXhKDG2CTa3P1AE9RcfNDajIFJWT303KSeD3s0gwdvTGRUFEG5DxZ8vDbSYFWSSrfC1WF1aw3cDLpfhJjHag5j3SiEMbTX4/s1600/bagdadmine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDy7IR2NgWka69ei8F-Epc6I4fHW7A_1VmbmKzlabvNx7pXhKDG2CTa3P1AE9RcfNDajIFJWT303KSeD3s0gwdvTGRUFEG5DxZ8vDbSYFWSSrfC1WF1aw3cDLpfhJjHag5j3SiEMbTX4/s1600/bagdadmine.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
In some cases, mining companies like Freeport McMoran have been <a href="http://www.stockhouse.com/opinion/independent-reports/2014/05/26/rick-rule-explains-why-price-water-bound-to-rise">buying land</a> for the associated water rights. Freeport and Resolution Copper have benefited from legislation and/or legal exemptions that allow them to essentially hoard water. No doubt the Resolution Copper mine near Superior would use <a href="http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2014/12/apache-elders-words-on-theft-of-sacred.html">several millions of gallons</a> of water a year. Rio Tinto (of Resolution Copper) has<a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/24336-despite-promised-jobs-desert-town-opposes-giant-copper-mine%20"> purchased future water rights</a> from CAP. The risk to water in AZ will be compounded if the Rosemont Copper mine near Tucson also gets approved. Access to clean water that is also affordable becomes a grave concern as water becomes scarce, commodified, and potentially privatized as more infrastructure is involved in its acquisition and treatment.<br />
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As is implied in "<a href="https://fireworksbayarea.com/featured/there-is-no-drought-californias-twisted-water-ways/">There is No Drought: California's Twisted Waterways</a>," the threat of a serious drought can be used by those interested in profiting off the scarcity of water, and the "solutions" which are proposed are those that benefit these private interests. Obama made water privatization in the US easier, when on June 13 of 2014, <a href="http://www.processingmagazine.com/articles/127448-obama-signs-water-resources-bill-into-law">he signed</a> the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) into law. This included the <a href="http://www.waterworld.com/_search?q=%22Water+Infrastructure+Finance+and+Innovation+Authority%22&x=0&y=0">Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Authority (WIFIA)</a> which is a 5-year pilot program providing financing for P3s for water projects. WIFIA, mirroring the "Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act" (TIFIA), was a concept developed and promoted by the <a href="http://www.awwa.org/">American Water Works Association</a> (AWWA). The new director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources was a member of the AWWA.<br />
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Additionally, various companies involved in other Arizona infrastructural projects (AECOM, CH2MHill, CDM Smith, Bechtel) are involved in water privatization across the world.AWWA, a non-profit, is <a href="http://www.omi.ch2m.com/about/affiliations.html">supported by CH2MHILL</a> and closely affiliated with AECOM. And with more P3s for transportation, the likelihood for P3s for water increases.<br />
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Private interests have pushed for Interstate 11 due to its role in trade. I-11 is also likely to be procured as a public-private partnership (or several). Public-private partnerships (P3), a type of arrangement which we'll be seeing more of in the coming years (and is in the works for the <a href="http://stopcanamex.blogspot.com/2014/08/loop-202-extension-public-private.html">South Mountain Freeway</a>), are proposed as a mutually-beneficial solution that uses complicated financial strategies to leverage state assets and essentially provide federal and/or state subsidies (through tax-free bonds, low-interest loans, etc.) to the private sector. It helps finance projects for which funding is otherwise lacking—therefore it is a much desired arrangement for construction and engineering companies, consultants, as well as banks. The P3 creates new profit opportunities for financial institutions, in the meantime creating more debt, and therefore it is largely about financialization. A P3 can also be understood as a form of privatization, not because a P3-built road would not be publicly accessible, but because P3s afford private entities influence, agency, and financial deals they would otherwise not have access to. Projects such as roads are more likely prioritized based on the interest of private parties, and based on what is incentivized by the federal government. A public-private partnership could also refer to an organization ("P3 unit") that involves public officials and private members, creating new forms of governance that provide opportunities for private involvement in decision-making.<br />
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Two such P3 units of note in Arizona are the Arizona-Mexico Commission (AMC) and the Transportation and Trade Corridor Alliance (TTCA). Both of these <a href="http://stopcanamex.blogspot.com/2014/11/arizonas-roads-meant-for-trade-with.html">organizations</a> involve the Director of the Arizona Department of Transportation and other state officials as well as various corporate leaders, with much overlap between the two. The pro-NAFTA AMC, who takes credit for pushing CANAMEX along, seems to have had a lot to do with getting TTCA instituted and becoming a major influence in Arizona policy on trade and transportation in recent years. Freeport McMoran has been a major sponsor of AMC and has had someone on the board of directors for several years. The locations of Freeport's Arizona mines and their use of the Port of Guaymas correlates with their interest in CANAMEX and I-11. Freeport hired the last director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources as their water strategist, and this department now has an intimate relationship with AMC, even listing AMC<br />
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It is no surprise as well that Senator John McCain has been a large proponent of the land swap for Resolution Copper, the Mérida Initiative, increased trade with Mexico, and the <a href="http://www.bigstory.ap.org/content/sen-mccain-us-slow-seek-trade-pacts-asia">TPP</a>. But this goes far beyond him and the AMC. Across the world, the World Bank and IMF have coerced countries into adopting structural adjustment programs or other changes in exchange for access to loans. We may be aware of austerity measures in the US, but we may not realize the various ways in which Arizona (or other US states for that matter) is also impacted by state-enabled free market ideology even as the state is not forced into formal agreements to open new areas up to private "partners." The economic development, made to seem intended to create jobs and improve the livelihoods of citizens is about nothing more than accumulation of wealth. It is clear though, that whether we call it neoliberalism, capitalism, or colonialism, is also a project of the state.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-54186137947876580092014-03-17T23:09:00.003-07:002014-03-17T23:11:08.196-07:00Circular Motion: Their Dream is Our Nightmare: How the Prison Industry is Holding the Human Rights Movement Hostage from http://jupiternmarsattack.blogspot.com/2014/03/their-dream-is-our-nightmare-how-prison.html<br />
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014<br />
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<span>Wednesday, March 12, 2014</span></h2>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="3558772776107651714"></a>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
Their Dream is Our Nightmare: How the Prison Industry is Holding the Human Rights Movement Hostage
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<span class="null">Civil rights eras of the past convey inspiration and
hope. Hunger strikes have been used as a technique throughout history
as a mechanism of both awareness and prayer. It is a sacrifice
indicative of struggle and a plea to end oppression. It is symbolic and
meaningful in this way, in many ways symbolic of strength in the face of
adversity. The will to survive when deprived of necessary elements.
This will is a source of inspiration and solidarity for that struggle.
It brings public awareness to a cause often greater than the hunger
strike itself, bringing awareness to suffering and a call for
alleviation of it.</span><br />
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The private prison industry has a lot of power. It has a lot
of money, influence, and is well connected with many people within the system.
It IS the system. It can detain, incapacitate, steal, silence, torture, and
kill. It represents an unchecked authority that is sick with power. This
sickness continues infect society as long as it remains unchallenged. </div>
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Comprehensive immigration reform is a legal reflection this sickness. With
the <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/21/Sen-Leahy-Federal-Contracting-Firms-High-Fiving-Corker-Hoeven-Amendment" target="_blank">border surge amendment</a> included, <a href="http://immigrationpolicy.org/special-reports/guide-s744-understanding-2013-senate-immigration-bill" target="_blank">S. 744</a> allocates billions of dollars to
the private prison industry, military contractors, and border patrol. It ensures
that the industry is well endowed with money, prisoners, lots of ammo, and and much more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So
how are nonprofit human rights organizations addressing
these injustices? Do they make people aware of these discrepancies? Do
they fight against militarization? Nope. Instead they put on a hunger
strike to promote Comprehensive Immigration
Reform. Instead they deceptively work to promote the very system they
claim to campaign against—feeding into their prison industry power with
legislation ensuring their profits.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have to give it to the private prison industry. They are
master minds! They have the perfect set up. With the nonprofit orgs now in full effect promoting CIR...
hunger striking even... the prison industry now
has a perfect hostage situation in which all of their demands are met
and more. The nonprofits orgs are there, eager and ready to throw up
signs, rally their paid
cheerleaders, and fast for the cause. But what cause is this? Taken at
face value, it sounds like they want to
stop deportations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then they continue...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
“Comprehensive immigration reform now!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
“The time is now!” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
prison industry must love these tactics. It is the perfect power
play! Not only are these hunger strikers advocating for legislation that
the prison system helped create, the prison system can now use the
strikers to their advantage, enabling the perfect
hostage scenario to play out. As each hostage is released, the nonprofit
organizations
cheer and declare victory. As they dance around and celebrate, the
hostage takers do also. They only have to release a few at a time for
this master plan to work. Not only do they get to keep the majority of
their prisoners in chains, they get billions of dollars in ransom! And
of course,
these hostages are hand picked to ensure maximum media coverage in the
human rights circle. This ensures the
sexiness and allure of the demonstrating nonprofit, so that
they can continue to use them to do their dirty work. The private prison
industry must be laughing their way to the bank! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why do they give prisoners up to these hunger strikers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a non affiliated group of concerned
citizens set up camp and did the same thing minus the CIR promotion, would they
let anyone go?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it really normal for
prisons to free prisoners just because people have demanded it? If this were
the case, wouldn’t Leonard Peltier have made it out years ago?<br />
<br />
<span class="null">When you pray, is there meaning and purpose behind
your prayer? What do you pray for? What do you strike for? What is
the goal? Is it to further human rights? Is it a fight against the
status quo? Shouldn’t we be asking ourselves those questions when we
take it upon ourselves to promote mass actions of resistance against
oppression? Shouldn’t we be evaluating the effectiveness of this
strategy?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the border line in 1848,
nobody consulted Tohono O'odham people when it effectively cut our land
in half and divided us among two nations. Similarly, nobody gave these
non profit organizations ownership of
indigenous lands. Yet they take it upon themselves to compromise them
and
subject them to militarization. Nobody gave them the right to Tohono
O’odham, Hia C-ed O'odham, Lipan Apache, or any lands in the area. That
also includes Ajo! The border
patrol has been harassing, invading, and discriminating against
indigenous
people for as long as I can remember. The abuses are too many to list.
If they are willing to sell out indigenous lands and support legislation
that actually encourages deportations, what human rights do they really
advocate for?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When does it stop? When are we really going to fight back? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The prison industrial complex has demonstrated their weakness. They
fear what they have effectively prevented: power to the people becoming an
effective mantra—a collective mass taking matters back into their own
hands. They want to keep us misinformed so that we keep fueling their power play.<br />
<br />
For any real, effective movement to really work, people need to actually
be informed on what they promote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Knowledge, information, and truth should be prized. In addition,</span>
the marginalization of indigenous voices has got to stop. Before any
human
rights struggle can make any motions to intervene, it must first show
respect for indigenous people, the land, and also recognize that borders
crossed people and not the other way around. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<a href="http://jupiternmarsattack.blogspot.com/2014/03/their-dream-is-our-nightmare-how-prison.html?spref=fb">Read more...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-66134607589067799552014-01-09T11:49:00.000-08:002014-01-12T22:47:27.198-08:00Plunder Road: CANAMEX and the Emerging Impact of NAFTA, TPP on Western North America<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
As people across the world honor the twentieth anniversary of the Zapatista Liberation Army rising up in response to the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), resistance continues, most notably against resource extraction and other infrastructure. Meanwhile, what some call “NAFTA on steroids,” the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is currently pending agreement involving the North American countries and others scattered around the Pacific. And rather quietly, a transportation project called the CANAMEX Corridor is underway to facilitate trade along a north-south corridor of western North America. This corridor runs from a port on the Pacific coast of Mexico, through Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and north near the Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada. <br />
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<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/sallydarityanarcha/canamexmap2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://sites.google.com/site/sallydarityanarcha/canamexmap2.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
Opposition to the CANAMEX Corridor is necessary not only because it is a major piece of the physical infrastructure needed to facilitate this trade. Its function in international trade is also used to justify the damage brought by its imposition locally, throughout the corridor. CANAMEX, designated as a High Priority Corridor shortly after NAFTA was implemented, already exists in the form of highways, but requires improvement and expansion to effectively facilitate trade. <br />
<br />
The trade corridors of North America, CANAMEX being one of them, are extensions of NAFTA. They function as the infrastructure, such as roads, rail, ports, etc., that perpetuates the harms caused by so-called free trade. Among the effects of NAFTA since its implementation have been dramatic unemployment and displacement in Mexico due to subsidized US agricultural products such as corn, and a shift in privatization/ownership of Mexican land by private interests. One of the worst environmentally damaging projects in the world is the Tar Sands extraction in Alberta, Canada, which is in operation at its current level largely due to the NAFTA obligations to supply oil to the US. CANAMEX would also be an important corridor of TPP trade due to its Pacific seaport in Guaymas, Mexico, and its proximity to the west coast in general.<br />
<br />
The impact of CANAMEX involves displacement of people and destruction of sacred sites and the environment, thereby affecting indigenous communities and various others. Trade transportation infrastructure is necessary for free movement of goods across borders, but along with it must come heightened border security in response to displacement caused by the impacts of trade agreements. Because it requires fuel, trade infrastructure is one of the primary reasons for resource extraction and is an extension of colonialism. Additionally, it is justified and imposed locally in the form of development and sprawl with compounded reliance on energy and resources such as water.<br />
<br />
A project increasingly being used to circumvent the obstacle of lack of funding for these trade corridors is called a public-private partnership (P3), which is an arrangement that is essentially privatization but with some state control. Having been utilized throughout the world, P3s in North America seem now more than ever to go hand-in-hand with trade infrastructure development and neoliberalism in general.<br />
<br />
In simple terms, neoliberalism involves trade liberalization, privatization, and relaxation of state power in effort to allow for a free market economy. It is important to frame opposition to the practice of neoliberalism and its trade pacts, privatization, etc., by foremost addressing state collusion and repression, in addition to its form as an extension of colonialism and capitalism. State repression against resistance makes possible the ease with which these colonial/neoliberal projects expand. <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Trade and Resource Extraction </b><br />
<br />
In December 2013, tens of thousands of Mexicans demonstrated against the recent decision by the president to open oil and gas reserves to foreign investment, the implications of which, due to NAFTA and TPP, are predictably negative for the people. Up in the north, Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Warm Springs tribal members, and Rising Tide members, among others, have partially stalled attempts to transport massive pieces of equipment called “megaloads” to the Tar Sands in Alberta over the last couple of years with various protests along the route from ports in the northwest US to the Tar Sands. By no coincidence, Interstate 15, which is part of CANAMEX, will possibly be used to transport megaloads north from where the 90 meets it in Montana. Expansion of trade transportation infrastructure is dependent on resource extraction and vice versa. Trade corridors provide the infrastructure for the movement of this type of equipment and could additionally facilitate future extraction at the tar sands in Utah, which is not very far from the CANAMEX Corridor. Rail may possibly be a significant mode of transportation of crude oil in the near future, especially with obstacles, largely due to grassroots resistance, to the construction of pipelines. <br />
<br />
The CANAMEX Corridor is one expansive piece of the physical infrastructure of NAFTA and potentially the TPP. Even though the TPP does not seem primarily to emphasize trade as much as one might assume, it is undoubtedly the case that increased trade traffic will have an impact along the corridor, in the form of prioritization of transportation projects, and shifts in policy.<br />
<br />
Citing the problem of bottlenecks in trade ports on the US west coast, CANAMEX-proponents favor trade products entering North America through western Mexican ports such as the Port of Guaymas, the southern-most tip of the CANAMEX Corridor, which is due to double in size in the next couple of years, making it the second largest seaport in Mexico. The benefits (for capitalists) of receiving trade shipments there, rather than in the US, are multiple aside from avoiding the bottleneck problems. Dockworkers in Mexico have lower wages, lesser benefits, and fewer safety measures than union workers in the States.<br />
<br />
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/RYXMTIVoVjKeo0YWzfpqyanVsPp56jaQCmvqxWSVjMX_pU2YcIV_xRQVfKwGEtvl38sbYGsmFKVfa1FykP4zCDpDhou6JYosLZnSCSnobWPpL-N2m0c" /><br />
<br />
In his commentary as the Arizona-Mexico Commission’s CANAMEX expert, Jim Kolbe stated that trade with Asia will likely continue to increase and CANAMEX is meant to facilitate the movement of those goods into Arizona. This was discussed years prior to official TPP talks. Certainly if the agreement goes forth, trade with Asia will grow even more.<br />
<br />
Currently, talks on the TPP involve Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam. Not only are Chinese wages lower than Mexican wages, but the wages in Vietnam are half to a third of that of Chinese workers. The ramifications of this could involve increased unemployment and lowering of wages in Mexico and the US. Clearly some of these countries, or specifically their corporations, could easily take advantage of some of the other countries. For example, aspects of the TPP would make it even easier for companies to wreak environmental havoc wherever they choose; saving money on measures that would otherwise limit pollution. <br />
<br />
There are various benefactors of the broadening of trade pacts and expansion of infrastructure. Describing the web of connections behind these neoliberal projects would take pages and could look a bit too much like conspiracy theory. We do not need a conspiracy theory to see how neoliberalism works and to understand that certain powerful individuals, corporations, and their organizations are going to have their hands in projects that promote their causes. Elsewhere, I have drawn connections between NAFTA, the Council of the Americas, North American Business Council, Security and Prosperity Partnership, North American Competitiveness Council, UPS and other corporations, McLarty Associates and its member Jim Kolbe who is part of the Arizona-Mexico Commission and the new Arizona Transportation and Trade Corridor Alliance which encompasses the Governor’s CANAMEX Task Force. Exposing these networks can be useful to show that these projects are being imposed by a wealthy few.<br />
<br />
On a more local level, certain organizations and businesses are seeking expansion of “inland ports” consisting of multi-modal transportation nodes and foreign trade zones (FTZ) especially along trade corridors like CANAMEX. In regions zoned as FTZs, businesses get tax breaks and duty exemptions and deferrals. The placement of these FTZs will serve to justify infrastructure for this trade traffic to and through these areas. The presence and authority of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in these foreign trade zones have unknown implications for migrants within them.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Trade and Border Security</b><br />
<br />
On May 21, 2010, protesters locked down at the Border Patrol Headquarters in Tucson, Arizona with demands for self-determination for indigenous people, to regularize (“legalize”) all people, and for an end to NAFTA, among many related general and specific demands, which were and continue to be lacking from other similar actions. Involving members of Indigenous Nations of Arizona, migrants, people of color and white allies, it represented a more cohesive and radical analysis of the interlocking impacts of border security and trade.<br />
<br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzsl3C5A5nKjaoM5gCwwNWOrSfMysvUyFcstg-dCSN58kbe5ttWR68F8VfGA2SM3Gi4K-yKFy6mHt5iE_K9fTDsOl6UV327c_JcLKByQ4Gu7tNJdkcsT3mElG6HPbpOq7D4u2a02w4Z4o/s400/bp-protest-1.jpg" />
<br />
<br />
Despite NAFTA being sold as a way to increase job opportunities in all three countries, the timing of beefed-up border security such as Operation Gatekeeper in the San Diego area, launched in 1994, indicates that the US government knew that NAFTA would cause an upsurge in migration from Mexico to the US due to the economic impact. On the surface it seems contradictory for Arizona to promote further NAFTA (and TPP) trade while enforcing immigration law. Yet capitalists and their government collaborators simultaneously want goods to move freely across borders and they want people moving across those borders to be criminalized and limited, thereby making them more exploitable. Governor Jan Brewer, for example, enthusiastically signed SB1070 and is promoting CANAMEX through the Arizona-Mexico Commission and the new Transportation and Trade Corridor Alliance. <br />
<br />
This is not to imply that SB1070-style immigration enforcement is the preferred type. In fact, many would prefer some level of legalization, particularly guest worker programs, but either way it would be a “solution” with an emphasis on border security, and certainly not something that addresses the root causes of mass migration.<br />
<br />
Border security will increasingly militarize O’odham communities in Arizona, coinciding with the invasive development and construction of trade infrastructure (roads, ports of entry, foreign trade zones) involved with CANAMEX. In Arizona, various freeways, or possibly toll-ways, comprising (or in close proximity to) the CANAMEX Corridor might be built through or along reservations and/or sacred sites, such as the Loop 202 Freeway extension in Phoenix, slated to cut through South Mountain which is sacred to O’odham. Construction of the wall, border-patrol harassment (and reckless driving), check-points, cameras, drones, severe limits on movement across the border for ceremonies (or for any reason), are some of the impacts of border security on O’odham and others living near the border—repercussions that would only worsen if/when Comprehensive Immigration Reform were to pass as proposed. CIR fans clearly ignored the escalating detriment it would create for border communities and recent/future border-crossers, and have largely failed to even mention the root causes of mass migration such as NAFTA.<br />
<br />
CANAMEX-promoters are selling their development projects as ways to increase job opportunities, as did those hyping NAFTA in the ‘90s. However, the so-called free trade pushed by neoliberals has contributed to a hike in out-sourcing of jobs from the US. Rather than blaming the companies moving their facilities to countries with cheaper labor while continuing to pay their CEOs extravagant sums, it is the migrants who are scapegoated for the loss of jobs in the US. And while migrants are also blamed for taking advantage of welfare in the US, criminalization of migrants essentially acts as a form of welfare for the rich in that it maintains a permanent underclass of exploitable undocumented workers making wages, goods, and services cheaper. Without state repression, this situation would look far different.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Trade, Colonialism, and Sprawl</b><br />
<br />
Unist’ot’en, Wet’suwet’en, and their allies continue to resist the imposition of various pipelines being planned to cut through unceded Wet’suwet’en Territory in northern British Columbia to link the Tar Sands to the west coast for trade with Asia. Down south in Mexico, the Council of Ejidos and Communities in Opposition to La Parota Dam (CECOP) and guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias-Liberación del Pueblo (FAR-LP), continue to resist La Parota hydro-electric dam intended to provide water and electricity to the Port of Acapulco. There are numerous other examples of opposition to the slew of negative impacts of the Athabasca Tar Sands project, against the Keystone XL Pipeline and countless other pipelines, movement of megaloads, development of the Utah Tar Sands, numerous fracking sites, and on and on. These and other forms of resistance are met with state repression. The physical infrastructure of neoliberalism such as highways, mines, pipelines, dams, etc. embody the continuation of colonialism. The plunder results in destruction of indigenous ways of life, displacement of people, and detriment to their health. <br />
<br />
Every community the trade corridors cut through is affected by it. To the extent that people are even aware of the intentions meant for their local area, decision-makers may simply promote whatever benefit to the economy that might supposedly be brought by trade traffic. There are bigger plans at work, however. In the so-called Sun Corridor, expanding development, trade infrastructure and policy changes are justified by supposed population growth in general, and promises of prosperity that ideologues of regionalism are using to entice state leaders to embrace CANAMEX. The growth is forecasted by academics and others associated with organizations such as the Brookings Institute, the Morrison Institute working with Arizona State University, and companies such as AECOM promoting the concept of the Sun Corridor. The Sun Corridor is the name for this so-called megapolitan or mega-region consisting of Phoenix and Tucson (and possibly Prescott and Nogales), and making up part of the CANAMEX Corridor. ADOT and other transportation committees have taken this concept of the megapolitan, an economic integration of nearby metropolitan areas that are expected to reach 10 million residents by 2040, as inevitable. The Federal Highway Administration website also includes megapolitans in discussion on planning. <br />
<br />
Increased sprawl in the so-called Sun Corridor is generally unpopular. Various communities oppose highways due to environmental impacts on the air, animals, plants, climate, and health. Additionally there are concerns about accidents involving dangerous cargo, and noise pollution. While highways are thought of as a way to improve movement, to the local community they often has the effect of a wall, dividing neighborhoods (not to mention demolishing homes and other places of importance) and often involving actual walls (which helps with noise pollution, but one would rather have a view of the mountains than of a wall). In the case of the Loop 202 Freeway extension, the above issues apply, along with concerns regarding threats to the O’odham way of life and sacred sites. Even if this proposed road isn’t part of the official CANAMEX Corridor, it is meant to support Sun Corridor sprawl and trade traffic.<br />
<br />
Often the issue of sprawl or the requirement for expansion is framed as a problem of over-population primarily blamed on immigrants. This blame often functions to shift the responsibility away from massive resource-extraction projects that use water, energy and other resources (a never-ending cycle); use of fuel in trade-related shipping; irresponsible and inefficient planning and expansion; etc. This expansion and required resources is pushed by neoliberal academics and consultants, and even small-time real estate developers, resulting in over-consumption. Applying the label of “sustainable” or “green” to their projects makes it seem that they are doing this responsibly. Water is a particularly volatile issue, threatened by pollution from energy extraction, use of massive amounts in these projects, climate change, and the requirements of supporting the consumption involved with sprawl.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Neoliberalism and Public Private Partnerships</b><br />
<br />
The public-private partnership (PPP or P3) is becoming increasingly more common in North America. Researching the P3s being discussed locally or globally for an infrastructure project is definitely a useful way to follow the money. It should be clear, however, that this type of arrangement is not in and of itself the problem (see most other imposed projects prior to P3s), but the problem is that it carries with it new and more insidious problems.<br />
<br />
The main organizations promoting CANAMEX – the Arizona-Mexico Commission (the “godfather” of CANAMEX) and the new Arizona Transportation and Trade Corridor Alliance (TTCA), which is said to encompass the Governor’s CANAMEX taskforce – are both entities comprised of public and private members, with overlapping membership between the AMC and TTCA. The weight of their influence is uncertain, as they are not official decision-making bodies although there is also overlap with government committees. Sometimes an organization like this is referred to as a P3 or a “P3 Unit.” An example of a better-known P3 Unit is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), exposed in 2011 for its facilitation of collaboration between private prison companies and state legislators, resulting in the proliferation of SB1070-type anti-immigrant laws.<br />
<br />
P3s more often refer to business arrangements between the state and private companies, often to build infrastructure and/or to manage a utility or service. P3s have been implemented across the world, primarily in cases where countries are indebted to neoliberal institutions. A lot of water privatization programs across the world are actually P3s. Along the lines of austerity measures, these arrangements in North America are not unlike structural adjustment programs (SAP) mandated in countries in debt to the World Bank or IMF. But while SAPs are largely involuntary, public-private partnerships in North America for projects such as transportation, are being promoted voluntarily as “innovative financing” by many government officials in cahoots with private interests. Compared to total privatization, an arrangement in which the government remains in so-called partnership with private interests makes the scenario easier to stomach for the residents affected, yet the private interests profit while the state government, or more specifically taxpayers, are left in debt to the companies for decades.<br />
<br />
Arrangements such as these have been increasingly pushed by neoliberal organizations such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership and its successors, partly to promote the idea that the private sector is more efficient in projects such as for infrastructure, partly because various businesses want to make a buck, and because the funding is not available for these projects that are supposedly needed. The needs of the public are being defined in many ways by private interests such as construction businesses, real estate developers, trucking companies, banks; and in the case of international trade corridors, investment firms, and especially neoliberal think-tanks and consulting services, who often have ties to NAFTA and SPP and/or big banks. A little web research into who the members of P3 organizations are, and who is attending or sponsoring P3 conferences, reveals how steeped in the trend various public officials and big construction companies are.<br />
<br />
If a company or companies see dollar signs in a particular project, this project is likely to be prioritized by the state, as in the case of trade transportation, for example. Many people do not even know about the plans for CANAMEX and its freight truck traffic, yet the roads that would facilitate this trade flow are being promoted (by politicians) as useful to the residents of the area in question. New transportation legislation like MAP-21 and institutions such as the Federal Highway Administration encourage and help facilitate public-private partnerships for transportation projects. Private conglomerates can potentially take advantage of loans (such as TIFIA loans) and tax breaks that the state would access. Sometimes in conjunction with, but often in lieu of toll roads, the private companies would receive availability payments, which ultimately come from taxes.<br />
<br />
This information became relevant in Arizona when a business conglomerate proposed a P3 to build the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway extension in Phoenix in 2012. Legislation is in place in Arizona for a range of P3 arrangements and Arizona Department of Transportation is salivating for a good P3 deal in transportation. <br />
<br />
These public-private partnerships, along with the so-called free trade pacts, are the brainchildren of neoliberalism. Often in discussion on neoliberalism, the political Left presents false dichotomies between privatization vs. the commons (held by the state), and regulation vs. deregulation. While regulation might mean keeping private interests from doing more damage, it encourages a reliance on the settler state to protect the people, meanwhile diverting attention from the ways in which the state has perpetrated harm against the people from its beginning, and has hardly been neutral regarding the interests of the rich. Although perhaps ideologically inconsistent, in practice neoliberalism relies on collaboration between state and the private sector to provide privileges to those private interests in the form of defense and security (police, military, prisons, border security), tax breaks, subsidies, access to information, prioritization, and promotion of private plans. While lobbying dollars and such likely have a lot to do with it, this is not corruption; it is the role of the state in this latest form of capitalism. Capitalism has always involved power and force; neoliberalism just comes in a different form. In this sense, it does not matter the extent to which a project is privatized or neoliberal if it harms people, but the focus is on neoliberalism because it is the primary modern economic form particularly in relation to infrastructure. <br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>CANAMEX Development</b><br />
<br />
The naming of the concept of the CANAMEX Corridor goes back at least to 1993 just prior to the passing of NAFTA, followed by the designation as a High-Priority Corridor by congress in 1995, and implementation of the Arizona Governor’s CANAMEX Task Force in 1998. The Arizona-Mexico Commission (AMC), now along with the TTCA, seems to be the main promoter of the corridor. <br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/Graphics/000/09/000-0922095012-naftadees.jpg" />
<br />
<br />
The route given for CANAMEX, which is subject to change, involves Mexico Federal Highway 15 in Sonora connecting the Port of Guaymas with the US border in Nogales; State Route 189, Interstates 19, 10, and US Route 93 (and now Interstate 11) in Arizona; Route 93/Interstate 11, Interstates 515 and 15 in Nevada; Interstate 15 through Utah, Idaho, and Montana; then a complicated route involving the following highways in Alberta and British Columbia: 4, 3, 2, 216, 16, 43, 2, and 97.<br />
<br />
For a while, it seemed like there was some sort of hiatus on the project, likely due to the economy. However, things picked up in 2012. Currently the primary project within the CANAMEX Corridor is Interstate 11, which is in the study phase. It is meant to provide transportation for freight traffic for which the US Route 93 between Las Vegas and Phoenix is inadequate. In fact, many news articles seem to refer to Interstate 11 interchangeably with the often-unnamed trade corridor stretching from Mexico to Canada.<br />
<br />
The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) designated this route as Interstate 11 in 2012. Part of what would be Interstate 11, phase one of the Boulder City, a.k.a. the I-11 Loop, is currently in the works. Phase two will connect with the Hoover Dam Bypass which was completed in 2010. A public-private partnership involving a toll road had been a possibility for the Boulder City Bypass in Nevada but this idea was abandoned mid-2013. Instead a gas-tax increase would fund the construction. Public-private partnerships, possibly including tolls, are being discussed for implementation of other parts of Interstate 11. In fact, despite this being a priority corridor, some experts have stated that most new projects would require a P3 or won’t be built at all due to lack of funding. <br />
<br />
The Arizona Transportation and Trade Corridor Alliance (TTCA), in conjunction with Pima County, is talking about southern Arizona connectivity, and therefore Interstate would not only connect Las Vegas with Phoenix, but extend through Tucson and Nogales. <br />
<br />
Ports of entry along the borders will likely be expanded for easier movement of goods, in addition to seaports such as the Port of Guaymas in Mexico which is the southern tip of the CANAMEX Corridor, due to double in size in the next couple years. The Corridor also involves rail, fiber optic telecommunications, and possibly pipelines.<br />
<br />
The CANAMEX Corridor is an important part of NAFTA (and possibly TPP) trade, and as such, is a weak point of globalized infrastructure according to the strategic campaign Root Force. The promise of economic prosperity is used as justification for the imposition of trade infrastructural projects throughout the corridor. Discussion on these “NAFTA Super-Highways” has been dominated by right-wing conspiracy theorists concerned about US sovereignty. It is important to shift the debate towards indigenous sovereignty and solidarity, towards an end to capitalism rather than just a reaction to economic integration, towards an end to resource extraction projects, towards an end to state repression and the state in general. <br />
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See <a href="http://stopcanamex.blogspot.com/">stopcanamex.blogspot.com</a> for more info.</div>
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<![endif]-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-321677966143296032012-12-31T12:56:00.003-08:002012-12-31T12:56:31.952-08:00Repost: Private Prisons in a Wider Context: VideoI watched this video again and felt that it might be worth re-posting. There are some really important points in here, especially those made by Michelle Alexander. Many people watched the first video but not the second. Are you one of those people? Check it out.
<br />
<h4 class="date-header">
Saturday, July 2, 2011</h4>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3448522934708971158" name="6051405045905955487"></a>
<br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
Private Prisons in a Wider Context: Video
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
It has been encouraging to see the awareness about the role of private prison companies in influencing criminalization of people grow and grow in the last year. SB 1070 and the relationship between various legislators like <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-came-first-racism-or-profit-motive.html">Russell Pearce and private prison companies like CCA and Geo Group within the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)</a>, and between governor <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-came-first-racism-or-profit-motive.html">Jan Brewer and CCA</a>, has been exposed recently. People had already started to address the connection between Wells Fargo and private prison-run detention centers that hold thousands of migrants in other parts of the country and a tiny bit here in AZ. Now there are country-wide campaigns popping off against private prisons companies and against ALEC.<br />
<br />
However, as horrible as the conditions in private prisons are (and they do tend to be several times worse than state-run facilities), and as obvious as it is that SB 1070 passed with great influence on the part of those who stand to make millions off of putting people in cages, I would hate to see the focus be solely on this most recent phenomenon. An anti-private prison campaign can easily fall into the same traps as the "go after the real criminals" message, as though there's nothing wrong with the "criminal" "justice" system. As though the criminalization of people who cross a man-made line is not similar to the criminalization of so many of the people in prisons today and historically. We should also consider the limitations of previous nation-wide anti-private prison campaigns like the one that targeted Sodexho in the early 2000's. A focus only on the <i>privatization</i> of prisons can only divert energy from addressing the prison system in general; the various reasons people end up in jail or prison, and the ways in which the system will never and is not meant to address the real ills of our society.<br />
<br />
I put together the following video to provide a complex yet still simplistic (limited by time and resources) history of criminalization of people for the benefit of the few. Please share it with anyone you think would be interested. This video is a follow up from several of my blog entries including <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2009/03/no-borders-or-prison-walls-beyond.html">No Borders or Prison Walls</a> and <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-came-first-racism-or-profit-motive.html">What came first: the Racism or the Profit Motive? On Private Prisons' push for SB1070</a> <br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7QDtTK1uxrg" width="425"></iframe><br />
<br />
Please also view the 2nd part. It all ties together, and there's some good commentary towards the end.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w87duXstaKI" width="425"></iframe><br />
<span class="post-labels">
</span>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-4336817679087895352012-12-05T19:12:00.002-08:002012-12-06T09:30:14.290-08:00DeConcini Not the Only CCA Board Member of ConcernThe current prison divestment campaign in Arizona seems to be concentrating on <a href="https://azregents.asu.edu/public/AboutTheBoard/BoardMembers/c-bios-deconcini.aspx" target="_blank">Arizona Board of Regents</a> member Dennis DeConcini's involvement on the board of CCA (Corrections Corporation of America). What I find interesting is that many groups associated with the prison divestment campaign are funded by a group who has a board member who is also a CCA board member. The following are emails I've sent to inform groups of this (which I never got responses to). (I have more to say about a concentration on privatization of prisons, but the last post I was working on this summer got lost, but I'll likely pick it up again some day.)<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
to: fuerzatucson@gmail.com <br />
<div class="date" id="message_view_date">
<nobr>Tuesday, July 31, 2012 2:02 PM</nobr></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hi there,<br />
I recently came across your website and learned about your
campaign regarding Deconcini on the CCA board. I'm wondering if you
know about Thurgood Marshall Jr. He is also on the CCA board, but he's
also on the Ford Foundation board. A number of groups involved in the
campaign(s) against private prisons or CCA in particular get funding
from Ford Foundation. I personally feel that a group that gets money
from Ford Foundation must not be doing anything too threatening to the
system in the first place, but it should be alarming to those groups
that there is this relationship... <i>(the rest is the same as the latter part of the following email)</i></blockquote>
--------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
to: info@enlaceintl.org<br />
Tuesday, July 31, 2012 2:37 PM </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
Hi there,<br />
I am contacting you because of your prison divestment campaign, and some info you might not be aware of.<br />
I'm
wondering if you
know about Thurgood Marshall Jr. He is on the CCA board, but he's
also on the Ford Foundation board. A number of groups involved in the
campaign(s) against private prisons or CCA in particular get funding
from Ford Foundation. It should be alarming to the groups
that there is this relationship. Some groups that get Ford funding:
Enlace
though perhaps indirectly, Detention Watch Network via Tides Center,
The Sentencing Project, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, etc.
(see
more below).<br />
I'm wondering what you think of this issue. The Fuerza
Tucson campaign is seeking to get DeConcini to resign from the CCA
board. I
wouldn't guess that groups who get funded by Ford would have any
influence on the foundation but instead are concerned with maintaining
that funding. It is possible that Marshall Jr. is just on these boards
on paper and Ford or CCA may not ever realize the seeming conflict that
arises.<br />
I have my own ideas, which are part of this essay that i
wrote last year:
http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2011/07/beware-funders-of-immigrants-rights.html<br />
I'd be interested in hearing what you all think about this.<br />
<br />
<br />
You can search the grants database here: http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/search<br />
more groups:<br />
(Alto Arizona via NDLON)<br />
Brave New Foundation<br />
Border Network for Human Rights<br />
Center for New Community<br />
(Cuentame via Brave New Foundation)<br />
Enlace Institute/Communities United for People<br />
Grassroots Leadership<br />
Interfaith Worker Justice<br />
Institute for Transnational Social Change<br />
National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)<br />
National Immigration Law Center<br />
National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild<br />
(Puente Movement, via NDLON/Alto Arizona, Tonatierra)<br />
Resource Generation<br />
Seventh Generation Fund<br />
(Tonatierra via Seventh Generation Fund and NDLON)</blockquote>
<br />
------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
to: info@enlaceintl.org <br />
<div class="date" id="message_view_date">
Thursday, August 2, 2012 6:53 PM</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hi there,<br />
Not sure if you've seen my last email yet, but i was
looking at your website again today and noticed the most recent article
posted about Wells Fargo, at least the first few paragraphs (see below)
could apply to Ford Foundation in only a slightly different way. I am
genuinely interested in how you feel about this issue. We don't know
what Ford Foundation invests in. For all we know they have stock in CCA
or Geo or Wells Fargo, but having a board member on CCA is adequate for
me to be a bit alarmed.<br />
anyway, here's an article from today that you might like: <br />
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/08/02/20120802immigrants-prove-big-business-prison-companies.html<br />
<br />
<h1>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Janus-Faced Banking: How Wells Fargo Profits on Communities of Color</span></h1>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">By Christopher Petrella</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Social geographer, <a href="http://davidharvey.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">David Harvey</a>,
is famous for having noted that economic crises often “reveal the
rationality of fundamentally irrational systems.” For Harvey, a crisis
discloses the “irrational rationalizers” of our contradictory capitalist
arrangement. Philanthro-capitalism, or the popular practice of applying
business strategies to social challenges, represents the very core of
this contradiction. Firms participating in philanthro-capitalist
(ad)ventures privately support the very oppressive systems—white
supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, to name a few —that they publicly
denounce.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Enter Wells Fargo, the nation’s fourth largest bank and the principal mortgage originator in the United States.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Earlier this summer Wells Fargo announced its historic $3.395 million grant in support of the<a href="http://www.hsf.net/wellsfargogift.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF)</a>.
The grant represents the single largest corporate contribution to HSF,
“the nation’s premier not-for-profit organization supporting Hispanic
higher education.” Founded in 1975, “HSF provides American families with
the financial and educational resources they need to achieve a college
education.” To date, HSF has awarded over $360 million in scholarships
and has supported a broad range of outreach and education programs to
assist students and their families navigate collegiate life, from
gaining admission and securing financial aid to finding employment after
graduation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">HSF’s strategic vision includes “build[ing] a coalition of corporate
and philanthropic partners committed to increasing Hispanic degree
attainment.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">But Wells Fargo’s largess is as generous as it is ironic. Generous
because $3.395 million is a large chunk of change, but ironic because of
Wells Fargo’s simultaneously antagonistic relationship with the “Latin
community.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">According to the <a href="http://www.sec.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)</a>—the
federal agency responsible for protecting investors and maintaining
fair markets—Wells Fargo currently holds somewhere between
4,400,000-4,700,000 shares in the GEO Group, the nation’s largest
private detention owner and operator. <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=GEO+Major+Holders" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">With over 4 million shares of the GEO Group valued at close to $90 million, Wells Fargo owns nearly 8 percent of the company.</a></span></blockquote>
<br />
-------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
The following is the portion of my <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2011/07/beware-funders-of-immigrants-rights.html" target="_blank">essay</a> which discusses my thoughts on this situation.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Opposition to Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)—which runs private detention centers and has influenced legislation like SB1070 (through the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC) so they may continue to profit—is at odds with the interests of Thurgood Marshall Jr, a board member of both Ford Foundation and CCA. Whether or not there is some awareness of this seeming contradiction on the part of CCA or Marshall Jr., it may be more useful for Ford to fund legal, non-militant opposition in contrast to the much more militant targeting of businesses that invest in private prison companies (like Wells Fargo who invests in GEO Group, another large private prison company) such as the actions by anarchists that have been happening in various cities across the US. In addition, it seems as though focusing on private prisons as an aberration of the criminal “justice” system, deflecting attention away from the state and towards private entities, would be more in the interest of the Ford Foundation since they seem to be more generally allied with the state than any one corporation. To them it would be more important to have activists worrying solely about the privatization of prisons while leaving mass incarceration intact. </blockquote>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-1627132654719168402012-07-10T17:29:00.001-07:002012-07-10T17:29:37.212-07:00Border-control bill an affront to American IndiansFrom the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2018623764_guest09flores.html#.T_sdydmcNbc.facebook <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Would the Congress pass laws that tell other countries what to do, or
dictate how their natural and cultural resources will be used and abused
in whatever way Congress sees fit? Tribes are nations, and within this
nation there is a protocol for this type of action.<br />
<br />
<div class="byline">
By <a href="http://search.nwsource.com/search?searchtype=cq&sort=date&from=ST&byline=Kesner%20C%2E%20Flores%20Jr">Kesner C. Flores Jr</a></div>
<div class="source">
Special to The Times</div>
<div class="source">
<br /></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="body">
<blockquote>
THERE are dozens of tribal nations with lands along the U.S. borders.<br />
Our families, sacred sites and cultural treasures and traditions are
based here, and protecting this heritage is critical to our identity and
our sense of community. That's why a bill recently passed in the U.S.
House of Representatives was so disconcerting to American Indians. It
proposed to waive protections for public lands and those who live or
hunt or graze cattle within 100 miles of the northern or southern
borders — under the guise of national security.<br />
The border-control bill was buried in a massive public-lands bill,
passed by the House, sponsored by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah. H.R. 2578, as
amended and approved by the House, allows U.S. Border Patrol to build
roads and airstrips and forward-operating bases, erect vehicle barriers,
and close off national parks, forests, and grazing lands to the public
at a moment's notice within that 100 mile radius.<br />
The 100-mile zone includes iconic locations in Washington state —
North Cascades and Olympic National Parks; the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie,
Okanogan-Wenatchee, Kaniksu and Colville national forests; and the San
Juan Islands, Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge.<br />
As passed, the bill also authorizes Border Patrol to ignore 16 key
laws protecting our heritage, including the National Historic
Preservation Act, National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered
Species Act of 1973, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the Wilderness
Act.<br />
The bill removes public participation in land-management decisions
and amounts to what some have dubbed a land and power grab by the U.S.
government.<br />
Thing is, Border Patrol didn't ask for the bill and testified before
Congress that it doesn't need it. The agency is already working
hand-in-hand — and increasingly effectively — with tribal governments,
private landowners, and national park and forest land managers.<br />
Tribal nations weren't consulted when the bill was drafted, either,
and the National Congress of American Indians has registered its concern
by approving a resolution in opposition to the bill.<br />
Individual tribes have also weighed in with Congress. The original
version of Rep. Bishop's bill even overrode tribal sovereignty, but that
was redacted in the final version passed by the House.<br />
Tribes have a nation-to-nation relationship with the United States.
The U.S. government has a responsibility to consult with tribes when an
action such as this will affect their homelands. President Obama has
upheld the rights of our people.<br />
But these types of bills and actions by the House and Senate upset
this relationship and responsibility. Would Congress pass laws that tell
other countries what to do, or dictate how their natural and cultural
resources will be used and abused in whatever way Congress sees fit?
Tribes are nations, and within this nation there is a protocol for this
type of action.<br />
Despite efforts by some members of Congress to strip the border bill
from the broader package of lands bills, the overall act passed the
House in a 232-188 vote.<br />
In Washington, only Reps. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton; Rick Larsen,
D-Lake Stevens; Adam Smith, D-Tacoma; and Jim McDermott, D-Seattle;
supported the effort to throw out the border bill. In addition to those
members, Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, voted against the overall bill.<br />
A Senate version of the border bill is sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.<br />
We'll be looking to see that our Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and
Patty Murray don't allow the same railroading of our rights and
responsibilities to protect our heritage for the next generation.<br />
<i>Kesner
C. Flores Jr., is of Wintun and Paiute descent and is a member of the
Cortina Indian Rancheria Band of California. He works for the National
Tribal Environmental Council, a nonprofit that works with tribes to
preserve the environment.</i> </blockquote>
<br />
<a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112%3AHR02578%3A%40%40%40L&summ2=m">Bill Summary & Status - 112th Congress (2011 - 2012) - H.R.2578 - All Information - THOMAS (Library of Congress)</a>
</div>
<div class="source">
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-60794133963573660462012-06-28T12:13:00.001-07:002012-06-28T12:14:58.494-07:00Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa: Beyond the BS1070 Supreme Court RulingBeyond the BS1070 Supreme Court Ruling:
<br />
“Not even the highest court can turn back a determined people!”
<br />
<br />
By Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa / 25 June 2012
<br />
<br />
This can’t be said any other way. Our migrant/Latino community is getting crushed. In fact, we are getting stomped on and beaten like a colorful piñata. The piñata is electoral and the more they hit, the more political points are scored—at our expense.
<br />
<br />
On the surface, the political class wants to make us think they are at war with each other over immigration. When in reality we have a US Supreme Court ruling over BS1070 that is in complete alignment with Republican and Democrat immigration policies of exclusion, exploitation, and police and ICE collaborations.
<br />
<br />
In the wake of the US Supreme Court ruling, injustice and oppression are upheld once again. The “papers please” section of BS1070 has been upheld. In effect standing in the tradition of white supremacist historical Supreme Court decisions such as Dred Scott v. Sanford of 1857 in which the court ruled that slaves and their descendants were not protected by the Constitution and were not US citizens...
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://antifronteras.com/2012/06/26/beyond-the-bs1070-supreme-court-ruling-not-even-the-highest-court-can-turn-back-a-determined-people/">Read more...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-50576456225057528932012-06-01T18:08:00.002-07:002012-06-01T18:10:25.806-07:00PCWC: JT READY IS DEAD: FASCISM AND THE ANARCHIST RESPONSE IN ARIZONA, 2005-2012JT READY IS DEAD: FASCISM AND THE ANARCHIST RESPONSE IN ARIZONA, 2005-2012 ~ Fires never extinguished: A blog of the Phoenix Class War Council<br />
<br />
JT Ready is dead. And by his own hand. It took a while, but in the end JT took the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvZ5EG68zUq6PWs4rUs9u0SIgLxJkWJOjgdrT1vt3ItLzp20JlMCwaINlinYZhfBdo3vklp3-s0hXm7wsQINIxz8Jnbpc9dqLfSHvBSRCyl_V1yTwsEf2lQ8tioiU_IE3nFcsoB2w734/s400/Follow+1.jpg">free advice of his many anarchist adversaries</a> and followed his leader into oblivion. Though in the end he opted for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goebbels_children">Goebbels style</a>
over that of his boy Hitler. That's the thing with JT: despite being a
consistent white supremacist, he could sometimes surprise you. Not
with something entirely new. No. But with variations on a theme. Most
of us figured he would blow up somewhere, at some point, and given <a href="http://archcityara.blogspot.com/2012/05/child-molester-and-multiple-felon.html">the history of white supremacists with regard to child and spousal abuse</a>, we are not surprised that his end <a href="http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com/2009/10/nsm-offers-nothing-for-white-working.html">mimicked his political practice perfectly</a>: violence mostly aimed down the social hierarchy. Consider the death of National Socialist Movement leader <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/05/20/did-murdered-neo-nazi-jeff-hall-abuse-his-son/">Jeff Hall as another case in point</a>.<br />
<br />
According to the cops, on Wednesday, May 2, JT, a former <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2008/spring/the-nativists?page=0,17">president of the Mesa Community College Republican Club and Maricopa County Republican precinct committeeman</a>, stormed the house of his <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/2012/05/15/20120515gilbert-shooting-victim-declined-file-protection.html">much-abused and terrified girlfriend</a>
in Gilbert wearing full combat gear and then proceeded to open fire on
everyone in the place. The dead included Lisa Mederos, her daughter
Amber (<a href="http://www.wzzm13.com/news/article/211167/14/Sources-Militia-leader-killed-family-then-himself?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Cbc%7Clarge">JT's former treasurer for his run for Pinal County Sheriff)</a>, as well as her fiance, Jim Hiott, who was <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/05/03/20120503border-militia-leader-ready-friend.html#ixzz1tr80Z1B9">a fellow militia member</a>.
In a truly cowardly act, JT also killed Amber's 15 month-old baby.
Only Lisa's younger daughter survived, hiding under the bed in her
upstairs room.<br />
<br />
We in PCWC first began running into<a href="http://phoenixinsurgent.blogspot.com/2006/09/prop-405-denied-ballot-status.html"> JT during the early parts of the immigration movement</a>,
around 2005, before there was a formal PCWC, really. As many probably
know, JT had a rather chaotic political career, but in those days he was
allied with State Senator Russell Pearce and <a href="http://phoenixinsurgent.blogspot.com/2006/04/racist-jet-set-rusty-childress-and.html">local car dealer Rusty Childress</a>.
Even then political violence had already begun to rear its ugly head in
the anti-immigrant scene. It might be valuable to review some of what
had happened in Arizona in the several years preceding JT's final bloody
rampage, and it certainly would be worthwhile to consider the ways that
anarchists in Phoenix and Arizona organized against him, his politics
and his political allies (and enemies) over the last half decade or
more. While liberals advocated for his free speech, anarchists opposed
him every step of the way.<br />
<br />
Read more: <a href="http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com/2012/06/jt-ready-is-dead-fascism-and-anarchist.html">http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com/2012/06/jt-ready-is-dead-fascism-and-anarchist.html</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-53651050805397480912012-04-04T12:22:00.001-07:002012-04-04T15:26:17.964-07:00Feds to Sue Arpaio, but Carry Out Largest National Round-up YetIt may seem like great news that the federal Justice Department will finally be suing sheriff joe. According to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/03/us-usa-immigration-arizona-idUSBRE83213Z20120403?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=60573">"Government plans to sue Arizona sheriff for targeting Latinos"</a>,<br />
<blockquote>The administration's Justice Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office have been in settlement talks for months over allegations that officers regularly made unlawful stops and arrests of Latinos, used excessive force against them and failed to adequately protect the Hispanic community.<br />
Those negotiations have broken down because of a fight over the Justice Department's demand that an independent monitor be appointed by a federal court to oversee compliance with the settlement... </blockquote>But can the federal government really take the moral high ground when you contrast the latest round-up, which happens to be the largest yet, with sheriff joe's sweeps? In Colorlines' "<a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/04/ice_arrest_3k_immigrants_in_6_days_largest_roundup_ever.html">ICE Arrest 3k Immigrants in 6 Days, Largest Roundup Ever</a>", the raids are described: <br />
<blockquote>On Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced 3,168 undocumented immigrants were detained over the course of six-days in a national operation the agency dubbed “Cross Check.” According to ICE, the six-day operation was the largest such effort in the agency’s history.</blockquote>I find it interesting that I hardly saw any mention in my social media networks about this largest round-up ever. Arizonans in particular seem to think that the federal government could and would save us from horrible politicians like Arpaio. The Federal government prefers to think of their work as colorblind, that what sets them apart from Arpaio is that he is actively discriminating which "erodes the public trust," according to Napolitano. I snarkily commented in last December's post, "<a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2011/12/federal-goverment-prefers-their-way.html">Federal Goverment Prefers Their Way Better Than Arpaio's</a>", "because blatant maliciousness and hypocrisy erode the public trust, the status quo doesn't."<br />
<br />
The following points really contextualize the federal government's approach: <br />
<blockquote>“The raids are in line with the administration’s record on immigration to date: while claiming to target serious offenders the majority of those detained were in fact people with misdemeanor convictions and people who’ve returned to the United States after having been deported previously. In the case of the later group, many have returned to the United States to be with their families,” [Colorlines.com’s investigative reporter Seth Freed] Wessler went on to point out.<br />
<br />
In it’s press release, ICE again claims that the agency “is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that targets serious criminal aliens who present the greatest risk to the security of our communities.” And the Washington Post reported the news with an inevitable highlights reel, naming a Cameroonian drug distributer with a gun charge and Mexican murderer among the group. “But of course, the vast majority of those in the serious criminal list are not kin-pins and murderers. ICE officials continue to draw on racialized hysteria to naturalize what’s clearly a bald policy of mass deportation,” Wessler said.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white;">Wessler also notes operation Cross Check is the third such national scale enforcement operation in the last year, which together have detained nearly 8,500 people. “These numbers amount to only a fraction of all deportations. Last year nearly 400,000 people were deported</span>.”</blockquote>Read that last paragraph again. As I have pointed out in the past, the federal government does not create elaborate press circuses to feed their ego, accompanied by veiled racist rhetoric, quite the way Arpaio does. But let's be honest here. The federal government is doing the majority of the detaining and they're doing all of the deporting. It has been over three years since I wrote, <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2009/02/federal-government-will-not-be-maricopa.html">Federal Government will not be Maricopa County's Savior</a> in response to the announcement that the House Judiciary Committee was pushing Eric Holder and Napolitano to investigate Arpaio. I pointed out that "Much of the activism is focused around getting people from the federal government to pay attention, although others also call on the federal government to stop the raids. The primary voice of immigrants’ rights advocacy in anglo media is Stephen Lemons who recently said, 'The political reality of Cactus Country is this: Without intervention from the Obama administration, we are royally screwed.'"<br />
<br />
In further commentary, I wrote,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">We cannot expect a government that has been built on racism and continues to practice it in various ways (much higher rates of incarceration of people of color than whites, lack of indigenous rights, wars, just to name some examples) to be a force against white supremacy. The operator of immigration detention centers (or the ones who outsource private detention facilities), the performer of raids, is not the one whose going to save us from the similar actions of the Sheriff. He is doing their work for them. He's just doing it in an extra "look how demeaning i can be to these people" way. If the federal government does anything about it, it will only be to legitimize and continue its own actions and those of other jurisdictions. </blockquote>The federal government is the reason why stepping across a man-made line or overstaying a visa are illegal in the first place. They are they ones who have forced programs like Secure Communities onto city and state governments. Arpaio just pushes the limits to see how far and blatant it can go.<br />
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It seems in some ways that Arizonans are still waiting and hoping for some federal intervention. Considering the actions of the federal government, however, does this not seem rather ridiculous? Not to mention that treating the lawsuit against Arpaio as a victory distracts from the major problems that continue to occur.<br />
<br />
Edit: See also: <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/04/operation-cross-check/">Operation Cross Check » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-2507501626574234942011-12-15T21:51:00.001-08:002012-04-04T12:17:33.747-07:00Federal Goverment Prefers Their Way Better Than Arpaio'sThe federal government has finally decided it doesn't exactly like how Arpaio has been enforcing immigration, huh? Admittedly I can't help but get a little kick out of the blow to Arpaio's ego (and career?) but at the same time, I really can't stand the idea that people would be celebrating the federal government for finally putting their foot down against maltreatment of migrants. Why?<br />
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<a href="http://skipmaclure.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/border-patrol.jpg?w=450&h=300" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://skipmaclure.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/border-patrol.jpg?w=450&h=300" width="320" /></a>I broke it down almost three years ago in my blog post, <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2009/02/federal-government-will-not-be-maricopa.html">Federal Government will not be Maricopa County's Savior</a>, one of the main points being that the federal government is just as bad if not worse in handling the immigration issue. I think of Arpaio as an extremist clown- he is a spectacle that pushes the limits of what the public will accept. He makes nearly everyone else who is pro-immigration enforcement (aside from Pearce who was right there with him) look responsible and reasonable. So the federal government militarizes the border, holds thousands of migrants in detention centers and/or deports them, still conducts huge raids (Obama's raids surpassed previous ones, i.e. <a href="http://fairimmigration.org/2008/09/02/largest-workplace-raid-in-history-laurel-mississippi/">here</a> and <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/immigration-raids-net-2900-criminals.html">here</a>), etc,. but they get to decide, to the delight of many, that Arpaio just went to far because he's been using his federal authority to <i>discriminate</i>. <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">"The Department of Homeland Security is troubled by the Department of Justice's findings of discriminatory policing practices within the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office," Napolitano said in a statement. "Discrimination undermines law enforcement and erodes the public trust. DHS will not be a party to such practices. Accordingly, and effective immediately, DHS is terminating MCSO's 287(g) jail model agreement and is restricting the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office access to the Secure Communities program." (<a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/12/15/20111215feds-detail-pattern-discrimination-by-arpaio.html">Source</a>).</blockquote><br />
Apparently the federal government knows how not to <i>erode the public trust</i>. For similar reasons I have a problem with people focusing on the "innocent" victims of racial profiling and such. Sure, go after the <i>real criminals</i>, we won't question that concept, just as long as all the people caught up in the deportation/detention system are the ones you say you're going after- because blatant maliciousness and hypocrisy erode the public trust, the status quo doesn't.<br />
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<a href="http://cmsimg.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=D2&Date=20080512&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=80512012&Ref=AR&MaxW=300&Border=0&Claims-ID-fraud-lead-largest-raid-state-history" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cmsimg.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=D2&Date=20080512&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=80512012&Ref=AR&MaxW=300&Border=0&Claims-ID-fraud-lead-largest-raid-state-history" /></a>Yes, I'd like to see Arpaio gone, just as I liked seeing Russell Pearce gone (it'd be better if he was goner) but the illusion of victory distracts from what's really happening. As I've mentioned numerous times, the Phoenix PD continues to deport more people than MCSO, but they do it without all the media hubbub, and therefore without comment from Stephen Lemons and migrant rights groups. Arpaio is the face that can be pasted to a piñata, but he's not the only one we should be hitting with the metaphorical (or not) stick.<br />
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Some of what I wrote in early 2009 is pretty out-dated, but the following concluding paragraphs are more timeless.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">One problem with appealing to the government is that to do so would require not being a threat. But any real just solution to the “immigration problem”, inevitably involving the dismantling of NAFTA and other neoliberal projects, as well as a serious change in social/political structure, is and always will be a threat to the government.<br />
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Another problem is that the government has an interest in appearing to be able and willing to deliver justice. But overall it is not in its interest to truly liberate the people from injustice and in fact its existence is actually antithetical to such an action. It would like to have people ask instead of demand changes, however, and would like us to think of it as a benevolent force in such cases when it’s actually worth the time to make reforms that benefit the people. Therefore, if we ask and they give, they are the heroes. If we demand and they give, they are still the heroes although we still have some sense of having played a part. <br />
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Related, the government is not a just one. We cannot expect a government that has been built on racism and continues to practice it in various ways (much higher rates of incarceration of people of color than whites, lack of indigenous rights, wars, just to name some examples) to be a force against white supremacy. The operator of immigration detention centers (or the ones who outsource private detention facilities), the performer of raids, is not the one whose going to save us from the similar actions of the Sheriff. He is doing their work for them. He's just doing it in an extra "look how demeaning i can be to these people" way. If the federal government does anything about it, it will only be to legitimize and continue its own actions and those of other jurisdictions.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-664826920508504132011-12-10T13:24:00.000-08:002011-12-10T23:43:39.067-08:00Law Enforcement Doesn't Stop Sexual Assault: On the MCSO Controversy<i>Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault </i><br />
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While it's embarrassing for the MCSO that former investigators' claims led to media attention such as <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/12/08/20111208mcso-priorities-blamed-sex-crimes-snafu.html">MCSO priorities blamed for sex-crimes snafu</a>, I cringe when thinking about how this will be framed, as usual, that regular police departments who are not led by extremist clowns like Arpaio, do a fine job at dealing with sex-crimes. Interestingly, the articles I read barely mention Arpaio's focus on immigration, whereas independent media like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmh3PfckhoQ&feature=share" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sheriff Arpaio ignored rape cases for years</a> does. It is clear that solving sexual assault cases took a back seat to the politically-motivated anti-immigrant campaign of attrition. Yet this is not to insinuate that law enforcement is meant to prevent or even solve crime for the most part- particularly when it happens to especially-marginalized people.<br />
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Let's contrast this recent MCSO controversy with the situation that is rarely talked about: <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/nov/23/immigrant-detainees-new-sex-abuse-crisis/">Immigrant Detainees: The New Sex Abuse Crisis</a>. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">There is abundant evidence that rape is a systemic problem in our immigration detention facilities—for women, for men, and, as the Women’s Refugee Commission has documented, for children. In 2010, Human Rights Watch released a <a href="http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0810webwcover.pdf">report</a> based on over fifty known incidents and allegations of sexual abuse of immigration detainees. The American Civil Liberties Union has discovered 185 government reports of such allegations since 2007, and a senior <span class="caps">ACLU</span> staff attorney says this is only <a href="http://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights-prisoners-rights-prisoners-rights/documents-obtained-aclu-show-sexual-abuse">“the tip of the iceberg.”</a></blockquote>For crossing a man-made line in the sand in an unauthorized way, people are made particularly vulnerable to abuses inside and outside the prison system. Sometimes the coyotes assault those they're helping to smuggle across the border. Men have dressed as ICE agents to assault women. Real ICE agents, police, and detention officers get away with abuses of this sort all the time. Whether this behavior is excused or ignored because of racism or because the survivor is "illegal", it is made easier and more commonplace because of the criminalization of people.<br />
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Police or ICE officials sometimes make themselves out to be saviors of people held against their will, such as in drop-house busts in cases where migrants are held for ransom, only to turn around and hold the migrants in their own cages, where many of the same abuses occur. The question that arises while people are calling out Arpaio for de-prioritizing sexual assault cases is, whose bodily integrity matters? Are we considering the cases of those who get picked up for overstaying their visa? Do they even have the choice to report the crimes perpetrated against them?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">Terrified of deportation and separation from their families, immigrants in detention are often <a href="http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/226680.pdf">extremely reluctant</a> to file grievances against facilities run by the very people who can expel them from the country; and there is little question that deportation is sometimes used as retribution against immigration detainees who complain, and sometimes as a way of forestalling investigations into abuses. And it’s clear that facilities holding people who do not feel able to complain are particularly fertile grounds for abuse, as are institutions that can easily deport witnesses against them. </blockquote>What comes to mind is the situation with criminalization of sex-workers, especially where it overlaps with immigration. While sex-trafficking does occur, laws that are written to supposedly curb sex-trafficking actually make things worse for sex-workers.<br />
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As Nandita Sharma said in an <a href="http://anarchalibrary.blogspot.com/2010/10/sex-work-migration-and-anti-trafficking.html">interview</a>,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">Anti-trafficking legislation is used to target so-called “illegal migration.” Instead of placing the blame for migrants’ vulnerability on the restrictive immigration policies of national states that force people into a condition of illegality, it blames those who are actually facilitating their movement across borders... Anti-trafficking legislation criminalizes people who facilitate migrants’ entry into national states. I think this is the underlying agenda behind anti-trafficking legislation. It offers ideological cover to target both the migrants themselves and the people who facilitate their movement. In this way, anti-trafficking legislation strengthens border policing...</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Let me give you two examples of how anti-trafficking legislation actually increases the vulnerability and exploitation that many women migrants face. First, anti-trafficking legislation targets people who are helping women cross borders. This raises the cost of moving across borders and, as a result, women have to go further into debt in order to do so. Second, by imposing these enormous penalties – which, in Canada, can include a life-sentence and in the United States can include a death sentence – those facilitating movement make migrants use routes that are less safe. People are being forced to cross borders in very vulnerable places like deserts and mountains, places where hundreds of migrant bodies are found dead every year. Anti-trafficking legislation is thus making migration less safe for women. </blockquote>Jessica Yee was also <a href="http://anarchalibrary.blogspot.com/2010/10/sex-work-migration-and-anti-trafficking.html">interviewed</a>: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">Women around the world, especially racialized women, shoulder the burden of labour that doesn’t get acknowledged or reported. Forced labour and exploitation are reported even less. When we’re talking about “trafficking,” people assume we’re talking only about sex work, and only about cross-border trafficking. We need to remind ourselves that sexual slavery and the forcing of sexual acts are not the only kinds of exploitation, even though they seem particularly salacious compared to other forms of forced labour. We also need to understand that “trafficking” takes place within nation states, and against Indigenous people.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Many people uncritically accept the conflation of trafficking and sex work. The same people who think it is taboo to talk about sex are the first to suggest that this is the number one issue of forced labour, but it’s not. And people who are actually being trafficked and moved against their will receive no attention because the state is so focused on raiding massage parlours and arresting women who are sex workers. This neglect occurs in the name of righteousness and “saving” women, yet it is merely the further colonization of women’s bodies, women’s spaces, and women’s choices.</blockquote>(Listen to the radio show <a href="http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2010/02/no-one-is-illegal-radio-february-2010.html">here</a>).<br />
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This is all to familiar to those of us who had been following the situation of the migrants in Maricopa County who were charged with <i>conspiracy</i> in human smuggling cases. Even though the law wasn't meant to go after migrants themselves, hundreds of migrants were charged with conspiracy by MCSO over the last few years. While many who didn't take a guilty plea were not convicted, MCSO was still able to get them caught up in the legal system because they could take them in under reasonable suspicion. And even though the authors of the bill said they didn't intend for the law to be used that way, it was clearly an effort to cut down on migration, while likely increasing the risks of those involved in a similar way as the sex-trafficking laws discussed above. This is also similar to the ways in which the Employer Sanctions Law should really be called the Employee Sanctions Law because many more employees have been arrested under the guise of going after employers, few of whom have seen any consequences (<a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2009/06/another-workplace-raid-targets-workers.html">Another workplace raid targets workers not bosses</a>).<br />
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The criminalization of unauthorized movement, drugs, and sex-work is done allegedly for the sake of minimizing violence, issues of security, and health problems, when in fact it perpetuates these things. <br />
The badges, guns, and official vehicles, this assumption that law enforcement are never/rarely law-breakers, allows violations to occur against people, not to mention the drug smuggling enabled by the authority provided to various agents (<a href="http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2011-12-01/news/mexican-smugglers-exploit-the-corrupt-reputation-of-u-s-border-officers/">Mexican Smugglers Exploit the Corrupt Reputation of U.S. Border Officers</a>). This is not about the unfortunate bad apples who spoil the barrel- this is a systemic, institutional problem. And even while Arpaio gets publicly called out for deprioritizing sex-crimes, it is not as though the media doesn't praise the (other) police as well as perpetuate victim-blaming.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-10392214745597887242011-12-03T09:02:00.000-08:002011-12-03T09:08:42.501-08:00ALEC Resistance Continues with SRP ProtestAs a follow-up to my <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2011/12/alec-protests-any-more-radical-that.html">last post</a>, I want to say, that I had not closely seen the banners in the following photo, which clearly show a more radical message. Of course there were others, but I felt that overall it was not an adequate attempt at drawing a bigger picture of people. It's difficult however, as when I found myself explaining ALEC to passersby tonight, since so few people have ever heard of it, it makes sense to just stick to the basics. Anyway, these banners had great messaging.<br />
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<img height="300" src="http://azresistsalec.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/abolishcapitalism.jpg" width="400" /><br />
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When I wrote my last piece I also make a distinction between tactics and message. I include the call for shutting down ALEC more as tactics than messaging. Again, many people were down with the "shutdown" message as well as the actual tactics which were as close as could be gotten to that goal, which you can read about <a href="http://anarchistnews.org/node/19559">here</a>. <br />
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Check out this zine also: <a href="http://azresistsalec.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/n30.pdf">N30 Shutdown ALEC zine</a><br />
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I was delightfully surprised about the protest planned for the morning of Dec 2nd at the Salt River Project (SRP), which is a local energy company and an ALEC board member, and has collaborated with Peabody Coal (another ALEC member) for resource extraction. I wasn't aware of the issues with SRP specifically and so I imagine very few other people were until this action. This action definitely addressed the broader issue of colonization, which was present at the N30 event, but perhaps a bit drowned out. Although several people involved with Occupy Phoenix showed up, some of whom were down with what was going on while others didn't get it but showed up because they got the message to, this action steered away from the occupy message. It helped to make clear that the opposition to ALEC is not just coming out of occupy, even though the media seems to be portraying the N30 action that way.<br />
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Please check out the following independent media: <a href="http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/breaking-news-indigenous-elders-supporters-occupy-alec-member-salt-river-project-headquarters/">BREAKING NEWS: Indigenous Elders & Supporters Occupy ALEC Member Salt River Project Headquarters</a><br />
<a href="http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/photos-video-indigenous-elders-supporters-occupy-alec-member-salt-river-project-headquarters/">PHOTOS & VIDEO Indigenous Elders & Supporters Occupy ALEC Member Salt River Project Headquarters</a><br />
and more at <a href="http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/">http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-31788848671288555292011-12-01T11:55:00.000-08:002011-12-01T16:35:06.853-08:00ALEC Protests: Any more radical than Bush protests?Considering that ALEC has not been shut down (yet?), I'm concerned that some of the message has been lost in the interest of gaining numbers and exposure. I do think it's important to expose ALEC, and that has been accomplished on a large scale over the last year, with this protest in Scottsdale being the largest and most militant yet.<br />
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I've been concerned about ALEC being the new public enemy #1 when in fact they are just a good example of the larger system(s) at work that affect laws to the benefit of the rich and powerful. So we're talking colonization, capitalism, slavery and the continued criminalization of people of color, which included borders and prisons, etc. There certainly are benefits to the exposure of the World Trade Organization (WTO) culminating 12 years ago, but in a sense, it focused on neo-liberalism/globalization at the expense of a focus on capitalism.<br />
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While ALEC came to be exposed to us in AZ because of its links to SB1070 and private prisons, I was concerned that the private-ness of prisons would be the focus, rather than the history of criminalization people, primarily people of color, which has also benefited the rich and powerful. But while I don't know a lot about the messages coming out of the liberal/progressive/democrat groups that are also opposing ALEC, it seems that even the private prison connection is not the main focus. And with the occupy rhetoric, ALEC can just be understood as representing the 1%. <br />
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Today I asked myself what made these ALEC protests different than the old Bush protests where democrats and anarchists gathered together to oppose a common enemy. Not to say we shouldn't oppose a common enemy, but it is clear to anarchists (for the most part) that democrats can be just as bad if not worse in their slimy deceptive ways. Or they don't have to be deceptive, it's that those who would oppose Obama's higher rates of raids and deportations are more isolated because the left is too afraid or enamored to oppose Obama. It's similar to how Arpaio has been the face of evil anti-immigrant schemes, while the Phoenix PD has made more arrests than MCSO and with hardly a peep from the immigrants' rights movement.<br />
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All this is intended as constructive criticism and self-criticism. What is it that we'll wish we had done differently, and is it to late? The indigenous gathering was very encouraging. There will be more media releases that address the wider context. It was great that the "SHUTDOWN ALEC" message did not alienate many people, even if it hasn't resulted in the achievement of that goal. I hope that now that ALEC has been further exposed, we can bring the bigger issues into the forefront. Because if ALEC didn't exist, there would still be prisons, borders, colonization...<br />
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It's the never-ending conundrum: say what only anarchists will say at the risk of total isolation, or compromise a bit in hopes that people will slowly be drawn towards being open to what only anarchists will say. I honestly fall somewhere in the middle of these, but sometimes more towards the former.<br />
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See also: <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2011/11/alec-protest-wednesday.html">ALEC protest Wednesday</a><br />
<a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2011/11/alec-in-context.html">ALEC in context...</a><br />
<a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2011/07/private-prisons-in-wider-context-video.html">Private Prisons in a Wider Context: Video</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-69963339918012105782011-11-27T23:27:00.000-08:002011-11-27T23:27:24.108-08:00ALEC protest WednesdayCheck out http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com for more info.<br />
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Wednesday is November 30, which is the 12th anniversary of the WTO protests in Seattle. It's also the first main day of the ALEC States and Nation's Summit in Snottsdale. This is the Summit at which two years ago they agreed upon SB1070 becoming one of their many pieces of model legislation, which corporations and legislators collude on propagating across the country. In the case of SB1070 and legislature before it (three strikes laws, mandatory minimums, etc.), the three largest private prison companies in the country were involved in the discussions. It also turns out that various companies involved in resource extraction are also involved.<br />
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I haven't spent much time on the details about ALEC because ALEC is just an example of what happens on a large scale, everyday and with a long history. There are many horrible things about ALEC, but they didn't create the border wall, they didn't build the prisons. Sheriff Joe's jail is as bad or worse than any private prison or detention center, with the temps reaching 117 in tent city this summer. When I first learned about ALEC last fall, i wrote <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-came-first-racism-or-profit-motive.html">What came first: the Racism or the Profit Motive?</a> which i would write a bit differently today, but has some important questions within. Now i would answer that question by describing it as an intricate combination of the two. I do believe that people will try to profit off something that is already happening, as in the case of private prisons, and that they do try to shape how we see different populations so as to justify criminalization (not to mention the ways that other interests seek to justify exploitation- and this is justified partly through criminalization). But i also think that there is a history of racism that this concept of privatized prisons is built upon. Yet at the same time, as i discussed, this racism is built on a desire for stability for the rich and has ultimately resulted in a divided working class that could not rebel in unity, and therefore could not successfully rebel. <br />
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Based on this, i was motivated to create this video, which is explained further at this link: <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2011/07/private-prisons-in-wider-context-video.html">Private Prisons in a Wider Context</a> (maybe you watched part one, but did you watch part two?). It brings the focus more towards a historical arc that incorporates colonization, the criminalization of slaves then ex-slaves, and the continuation of criminalization of people of color. This doesn't have to be directly for profit as in the case of private prisons. <br />
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Anyway, hope to see you out at the ALEC protest events (there's more going on than just wednesday by the way).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-34644999575476466292011-11-21T15:39:00.000-08:002011-11-21T15:39:07.872-08:00ALEC in context...<i>This is the text of a flier, which can be viewed or printed, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SDKfPTJBm5fKlZ5MzqeUXGuCxK_GrfkfAdG5AsEPCgk/edit">here</a>. </i><br />
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What!? Politicians and private companies get together to create laws that benefit those companies? AZ Senator Russell Pearce and other legislators from around the U.S. meet in a group called ALEC*.<br />
You never thought it would be so blatant as private prison companies** having a say in laws that can create more demand for their facilities and services. How could people be criminalized so companies can profit from imprisoning them?!?! Not only is ALEC behind mandatory minimums and three strikes laws, they also had a hand in SB1070. When they see immigrants, they see dollar signs, and so they participate with other racists to paint immigrants as a problem--deserving of imprisonment. This is nothing new...<br />
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The deviousness that occurs within ALEC is just an example of how people are criminalized for profit. But it does not have to be as directly profitable as this. Colonization has of course provided settlers with land and other resources at the expense of those who are native.<br />
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Slave codes & convict leasing created crimes that made it easier to exploit the labor of people of color. Criminalizing unauthorized migration did the same thing, specifically affecting the Chinese and Mexicans for many decades. More recently, the drug war also criminalizes people of color more disproportionately to maintain racist policies without them appearing race-based.<br />
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* American Legislative Exchange Council ** Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group are the largest private prison companies.<br />
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<i>More info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QDtTK1uxrg </i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-12112514277305609792011-11-09T10:02:00.000-08:002011-11-09T10:02:50.355-08:00Satire for Russell Pearce- again, because he's GONEI haven't posted in a while as things seem somewhat tame for a bit, and I've been working on other projects. <br />
<br />
In celebration of Russell Pearce's ouster, i'd like to repost this piece i compiled/edited/wrote which i have always felt somewhat awkward about, but nonetheless gets the point across in a more creative way.<br />
<span class="widget-item-control"><span class="item-control blog-admin"><a class="quickedit" href="http://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=3448522934708971158&widgetType=Text&widgetId=Text4&action=editWidget&sectionId=crosscol" target="configText4" title="Edit"> </a> </span> </span> <div id="main-wrapper"> <div class="main section" id="main"><div class="widget Blog" id="Blog1"> <div class="blog-posts hfeed"> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class="date-header"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span>Sunday, July 12, 2009</span></span></h2><div class="date-posts"> <div class="post-outer"> <div class="post hentry"> <a href="" name="2186021551709088371"></a> <h3 class="post-title entry-title"> Satire for Russell Pearce </h3><div class="post-header"> </div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2186021551709088371"> <blockquote><b>No more catch and release of the unwelcome male</b><br />
(or, what if you took the extremist position of our anti-immigrant Arizona Senator Russell Pearce, and put it in a different context?)<br />
by Senator Valerie Solanas Pearce<br />
<br />
I sat ashen as I watched the news reports. Several chiefs of police stood at a press conference and publicly refused to enforce the law. Less than a month after the brutal murder of a police officer at the hands of a male, they snubbed the opportunity to make necessary changes and violated their oaths of office for the sake of political correctness. Meanwhile, people are killed, maimed and raped. Men cost citizens billions to educate, medicate and incarcerate, and they take jobs from women.<br />
<br />
Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to prevent the potential crimes that men commit, by destroying or at least repressing the entire male class. I will not stand by and be a spectator to male-perpetrated violence because we refuse to enforce our laws and fail to put women first.<br />
<br />
The courts have not identified any policy or humanitarian argument that would negate the fact that men in the United States are more likely to abuse others. The male is, by his very nature, a leech, an emotional parasite and, therefore, not ethically entitled to live, as no one has the right to life at someone else's expense.<br />
<br />
Women have a constitutional right to expect the protection of federal laws that prohibit unauthorized activities by men, cluttering up the world with their ignominious presence, and are denied equal protection by law enforcement, police departments or magistrates that fail to enforce those laws.<br />
<br />
This is the only law we put conditions on before a police officer can enforce it. Men as a social category are the only criminals we protect by policies. No other crime or criminal gets this protection by our elected officials. The sick, irrational men, those who attempt to defend themselves against their disgustingness, when they see us barreling down on them, will cling in terror to Big Mama with her Big Bouncy Boobies, but Boobies won't protect them against us; Big Mama will be clinging to Big Daddy, who will be in the corner shitting in his forceful, dynamic pants.<br />
<br />
Studies and reports have cited alarming statistics: Men commit about 91% of all homicides, and they commit 98% of all sexual assaults. Gratuitous violence, besides 'proving' he's a 'Man', serves as an outlet for his hate and, in addition--the male being capable only of sexual responses and needing very strong stimuli to stimulate his half-dead self--provides him with a little sexual thrill.<br />
<br />
Phoenix runs second in the world in kidnappings and third in the United States for violence. Arizona has become the home-invasion, carjacking, identity-theft capital of the nation. These are not statistics Arizona should be famous for.<br />
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The elimination of any male is, therefore, a righteous and good act, an act highly beneficial to women as well as an act of mercy. Enough is enough. The laws must be enforced. <br />
<br />
I pledge that if we eliminate all men in this state, the result will be less crime and lower taxes. The costs of these crimes are far more than financial to our citizens, and HB 2280 will help make Arizona a safer place. </blockquote><br />
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"What is this?" you must be asking. An op-ed piece taken from a sci-fi novel depicting a feminist semi-utopia? Well, it is a stretch to imagine women's livelihood and bodily integrity being considered valuable, much less a priority, but it is not sci-fi or fantasy. This is a hodgepodge of an editorial by Russell Pearce with some nouns and statistics altered, with some gems from Valerie Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto (SCUM stands for Society for Cutting Up Men).<br />
<br />
While I disagree with most of Solanas's manifesto, it is an example of an extremist position. And though Russell Pearce, our dishonorable anti-immigrant senator, would be repulsed by the SCUM Manifesto, I insist that his position is equally unreasonable. He has been advocating for dealing with the crimes committed by some of a certain class of people by removing the whole class of people (undocumented immigrants), even though those crimes are also committed by others. He has praised Sheriff Arpaio for being the only one to do “preventive law enforcement”. What can be made of that other than he prefers to stop crime before it is even committed. What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”? <br />
<br />
Of course, Pearce is saying that undocumented immigrants have already committed the crime inherent in being in the country illegally, though clearly he needs to defend this point ad nauseam because crossing a man-made line is just not something most people find important. The satirical piece is a bit of an exaggeration, as Pearce probably wouldn't publish such harsh words about immigrants as Solanas did about men. For one, he learned his lesson when he forwarded out an email from the National Alliance, a white supremacist organization. And two, it's just not politically useful. In addition, Pearce doesn't have to make insults--it is implicit in his position. He unflinchingly equates all undocumented immigrants with murderers and rapists.<br />
<br />
The change in references to “illegals” to men in Pearce's op-ed were made so one can see that he is targeting a whole class of people to prevent the violent crimes that some of them commit. No doubt it seemed really extreme to the reader, particularly because men in general are not seen as the "other" like immigrants are. Despite the fact that the statistics about men committing such crimes are true and far worse than the statistics about undocumented immigrants, no one, aside from Valerie Solanas perhaps (tho she seemed less concerned about violence than men’s dullness and egocentricity), would propose that such pre-crime fighting should be exercised to thwart male-perpetrated violence.<br />
<br />
What would seem absurd to most people, unfortunately, is to actually get at the root of the problem regarding violent crime. Mental health issues, poverty, social alienation; racist, heterosexist, capitalist patriarchy. But instead, undocumented immigrants are scapegoated for various problems including the crimes that a few commit, usually due to the fact that they must live a criminal, clandestine, and desperate lifestyle, one which is rewarded by exploiting others. Meanwhile there are worse criminals who don't have to be secretive because they are part of the establishment.<br />
<br />
<br />
Russell Pearce's op-eds which ran with similar tho not exact text in two publications: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/141045<br />
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2009/06/24/20090624pearce25.html<br />
The SCUM Manifesto: http://www.womynkind.org/scum.htm</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-6990873138053924492011-08-14T13:21:00.000-07:002011-08-14T13:21:54.140-07:00ALEC thinks they're meeting in Scottsdale, AZ this November...ALEC thinks they're meeting in Scottsdale, AZ this November...<br />
<br />
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a massive non-profit body that brings corporations and legislators together to draft "model" legislation. For example, AZ Senator Russell Pearce and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest private prison firm, have been members for years. ALEC finalized the model legislation which became, almost word for word, Arizona's SB1070, aka "Support Our Law Enforcement." It's the latest in the historical pattern of colonization, slave codes, convict leasing, and the drug war, that CREATES crimes and therefore criminals, for profit. <br />
<br />
With British Petroleum (BP) and the Koch brothers as some of their funders, ALEC has pushed for Three Strikes and Mandatory Minimum sentencing, as well as the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. More than 200 of ALEC's model bills became actual laws throughout the country over the past year.<br />
<br />
We're a group of people in occupied Indigenous lands, now called Arizona, who demand the end of SB1070 and 287g, the criminalization—and then the incarceration—of migrants, and the militarization of the border. We oppose private prisons, detention centers, and security companies, not simply because they are private, but because we are sickened by profiteering on human misery. ALEC desires "free markets" and "limited government," which means they use the state to support profit-making, the continuance of colonization, and neo-liberal policies (NAFTA, CANAMEX, etc.) that draw lines, make laws, and build freeways and prisons to exploit labor and the earth. <br />
<br />
Whether maintained by the state or corporations, we're against all systems of control. We are for freedom of movement for all people.<br />
<br />
ALEC should know there are a million better things to do with their time than plotting mass incarceration. But there’s nowhere we’d rather be than confronting their meeting. We're calling for four days of action here in occupied Onk Akimel O’odham lands from November 29th - December 3rd, 2011, with an emphasis for action on November 30th (N30!). We encourage a creative diversity of tactics on N30, the 12th anniversary of the Seattle uprising against the WTO. No matter the acronym, ALEC is no different than all the other gangs of businessmen, politicians, and bureaucrats that we’ve been resisting for over 500 years.<br />
<br />
In solidarity with everyone locked up and locked down in AZ, and all O’odham, Yaqui, Lipan Apache separated by the border, and anyone dispossessed by the wealthy and powerful… <br />
<br />
Project Baldwin<br />
projectbaldwin@riseup.net<br />
<br />
<br />
see also: <a href="http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">azresistsalec.wordpress.com</a> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-13112180931843257832011-07-22T12:04:00.000-07:002011-07-22T12:04:33.325-07:00NOLA Anarcha- Why Anarchists Should Protest the ALEC ConferenceIt is important for everyone interested in the topics I write on here to know what ALEC is. I've written a bit about it on a few occasions, and included a bit about them in the <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2011/07/private-prisons-in-wider-context-video.html">video</a> I compiled.<br />
<br />
ALEC is meeting in New Orleans in just a few short weeks. ALEC protests have thus far mostly called for transparency and similar watered-down demands. The article I include below calls on anarchists to participate. What I like about the article is that it argues that anarchists should be involved not so much because of the specifics of ALEC's heinousness, but because of what they represent.<br />
<blockquote>While ALEC's dealings aren't a meaningful divergence from the normal machinations of power, it is easier for people to see that the system's a sham, and easier for them to finger the true culprits, when corporations are writing their own legislation. This is why the anti-ALEC organizing to confront those economic power structures is worth supporting.</blockquote>The article below didn't emphasize the <i>privateness</i> of prisons the way a lot of websites and articles do. At the same time, the reason I put together the video <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2011/07/private-prisons-in-wider-context-video.html">"Private Prisons in a Wider Context"</a> is because ALEC and privatization of prisons is part of a broader trajectory that we must oppose on that macro scale, which is something I'm seeing very little discussion of so far.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><h1>Why Anarchists Should Protest the ALEC Conference in New Orleans, August 5th</h1>via <a href="http://nolaanarcha.blogspot.com/">NOLA Anarcha</a> Blog ---<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed">American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)</a> is coming to town! They are a bunch of nasty fuckers who bring corporations together with state legislators so corporate lawyers can hand pre-written bills to the politicians, who then try to get the bills passed in their state legislatures.<br />
<img alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPCtNNyrZhlo4kOvTEanAEhlyjPebQIRJTO9U5FY6v9AqCO5dgCVP-zyyHlGQtMdH1a2ROq6kvATQTdd4daTB2So_n8_pxeMb7GwJWPEXWR-PuBJmFyeunTQWtyqJn8n-0sR5iKQtf4_Q/s400/dsc033261.jpg" /><br />
<br />
ALEC has been making the news a lot recently, with NPR pieces[<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741">pt.1</a>, <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130891396">pt.2</a>] about how, in meetings with private prison corporations, they wrote the infamous SB1070, the anti-immigrant law that anarchists and others have been <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/">fighting against</a> in Arizona.<br />
<br />
Leaked documents from inside ALEC prompted an interview segment on <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/15/alec_exposed_state_legislative_bills_drafted">Democracy Now!</a> The documents show that ALEC, in partnership with it's corporate members, actually wrote many pro-corporate laws that have since gone into effect, including free trade agreements that were a main focus of the anti-globalization movement many anarchists participated in after the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999.<br />
<br />
And on the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-bottari/alec-exposed-milton-fried_b_901029.html">Huffington Post</a>, an article explains how ALEC is carrying forward the ideological program of deregulation and privatization pushed by Milton Friedman. This simplistic, fundamentalist capitalist ideology has had many negative local effects, as was mentioned in <a href="http://nolaanarcha.blogspot.com/2011/07/for-those-who-dont-know-milton-friedman.html">a recent article on this blog</a>.<br />
<br />
Now, anarchists have no illusions about the fact that big business owns and runs the government, but at least corporate power usually fears public anger that arises from the blatant merger of State and corporate power enough to put on a political puppet show for us! Mostly, the way elites legitimize the unequal and unjust system that they preside over to the rest of us is to make sure that it at least has the <i>appearance</i> of people, through elected politicians, getting to decide democratically what happens in our country. ALEC doesn't bother with that populist song and dance, they facilitate the outright penning of legislation by corporations themselves becoming law. So we end up with things like <i>Immigration Policy, brought to you by Corrections Corporation of America! </i>etc...<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
While ALEC's dealings aren't a meaningful divergence from the normal machinations of power, it is easier for people to see that the system's a sham, and easier for them to finger the true culprits, when corporations are writing their own legislation. This is why the anti-ALEC organizing to confront those economic power structures is worth supporting.<br />
<br />
Of course, there will surely be those in the protest calling for the political charade to be played out fully once again, for the kabuki theater to re-close the curtains that shields us from what's happening backstage, so we can once again be whisked away to fairyland, where democracy exists and people power is in charge, and we can return to our peaceful slumber, dreaming the American Dream.<br />
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But, there will be also be people protesting who know returning to the democratic facade is not going to solve any of our problems, and that confronting the corporations behind the curtain of our "democracy" is the first step to destroying their control of our lives and communities.<br />
<br />
In that spirit, anarchists should come out to the locally-organized <a href="http://protestalec.org/">ALEC protests</a> in New Orleans (<b>August 5th, 2pm, 500 Poydras St.</b>). Come out not to demand stricter adherence to lobbying laws, more transparency, or less corruption. Come out to demand an end to the power of corporations, and their use of State violence to increase their wealth, and thereby control over our economy, society, and lives. Come out to say that it doesn't matter whether that power is hidden behind the veil of democracy, or is blatantly transparent, as it is with ALEC, that either way it has to be dismantled. Anarchists should come with flags, in black, or with banners and signs to show our united stance, to show that we are not in favor of a return to the democratic political farce, but organizing for an end to capitalist control.<br />
<img alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHbidU-4zCE-PyGEjWXUh-mSDi3HJ6_8nAxN1QgL1EPgveacIGKBcQc4Mlc_X4wigVGXmZ2VW9ez0NmMWMOc69k2yexaSlV39Mu1VgNbyr5QAKpliWCqTx3J7rNz7qhgzqEDrhKuwBjBo/s200/Anarchists_1761178c.jpg" /><br />
<br />
Not only should anarchists participate in the protest on August 5th, but we should organize other actions to confront the corporations who are members of ALEC during the conference, from August 1st-6th. ALEC's members include oil companies responsible for ruining the Gulf and Wetlands, big banks who own hundreds of foreclosed homes in our city while people sleep on the streets, and private prison companies directly profiting from tough on crime laws, the creation of a racist, militarized police state, and booming incarceration rates, which Louisiana leads the nation in. Let's get creative and use their conference to catalyze our own actions to take back our city from these profiteers of human suffering!<br />
<img alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeTs4jt66BAXQqhNQCDsVZpVpzaIFToA2MtRj_StjhVADjCnUytE3cj4Vxn8Iz1yTwe29DSD-7TbM2DaZcEzWiolaFDrw2eMbhjl4mGN4ZOgSaybZd0YtVrLenhjg1whRgnoEC_TRdY-Q/s200/anarchist-protest-001.jpg" /> <br />
</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-49074330948197843292011-07-04T13:44:00.000-07:002011-07-04T17:08:45.057-07:00Beware the Funders of Immigrants’ RightsWhat would make a giant foundation headed by rich people be interested in donating money to so many groups promoting social justice? What’s Ford Foundation’s interest in all the immigrants’ rights non-profit organizations that are involved in Arizona (and beyond)? While a member of the Board of Trustees at Ford Foundation is simultaneously on the Board of Directors at none other than the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)[1], Ford funds groups who have campaigns against CCA.[2] Other groups[3] also funded by Ford, are working on campaigns to counter the racist overpopulation myths that have been promoted by institutions like the Population Council who have received close to $100 million from Ford[4]. This speaks not so much of blatant hypocrisy, but that those in charge of the Ford Foundation have a completely different agenda than a lot of the groups they fund.<br />
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The publication in 2007 of the book <i>The Revolution Will Not Be Funded</i> put out by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence sparked discussions about the role of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC)[5] in movements. The book delves into “…the way in which capitalist interests and the state use non-profits to (1) monitor and control social justice movements; (2) divert public monies into private hands through foundations; (3) manage and control dissent in order to make the world safe for capitalism; (4) redirect activist energies into career-based modes of organizing instead of mass-based organizing capable of actually transforming society; (5) allow corporations to mask their exploitive and colonial work practices through ‘philanthropic’ work; (6) encourage social movements to model themselves after capitalist structures rather than to challenge them.”[6] <br />
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This article will focus on points one and three, addressing not only Ford’s historical involvement with the CIA and violent coups, but also their tendency to channel resistance into “reasonable” and “responsible” activities like legal defense and reform, and how their hollow push for “equality” is part of “progress” on their terms. Although there is emphasis here on the Ford Foundation and how it may impact the immigrants’ rights movement, this article also addresses funding from other foundations[7], private donors and the government, which may have similar impacts on groups, as does the desire to win over politicians, mainstream media, etc. This is about whether the world we want to live in is compatible with that of any funder or anyone in positions of power whether they’re promoting social justice or not. This is about how people orient themselves in relation to the current power structure.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>History of Manipulation</b><br />
<br />
Many of us are engaged in a battle against the deeply engrained myths about overpopulation which are part of the attack on the fourteenth amendment which gives citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. The argument that immigration means overpopulation and destruction, reeking of racism, has infiltrated various sectors of politics and activism, including environmental groups. These myths can partly be traced back to the Population Council, which Ford Foundation has been funding since 1954. What does it mean for organizations working to fight these ideas about immigrants and overpopulation to accept Ford Foundation funding?<br />
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A little context: “The 1957 report of an ad hoc committee, consisting of representatives from the Population Council…outlined the emerging strategy of population control. Titled Population: An International Dilemma, the report depicted population growth as a major threat to political stability both at home and abroad.”[8] As I have written in “Invasion by Birth Canal?” “The efforts to supposedly end poverty through population control…is actually an attempt to decrease the threats that Black/Brown and poor people’s desires for freedom and equality (or even just survival) represent to these systems,” and to deflect responsibility for the poverty which is usually due to “resource/labor extraction as part of colonialism, capitalism, and neo-liberalism.”[9] Ford Foundation and others, making themselves out to be benevolent funders of the “empowerment” and “education” of poor (brown) women, are making deflecting responsibility for poverty and environmental problems onto these same women in the U.S. and abroad.<br />
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Ford Foundation, along with other institutions has sought stability across the world including within the US. In so doing, it has made itself a player in supporting the promotion of population control, as well as Capitalist-influenced economic change that has been accompanied by coups and horrendous human rights abuses, such as in Indonesia:<br />
<br />
“Sukarno’s independent foreign policy greatly antagonized Western powers, and during his regime international agencies such as the Ford Foundation focused on sending the country’s intellectual elite [known later as the Berkeley Mafia] abroad for training, in the hope that one day they would inherit power. Their investment paid off in 1966, when a bloody military coup, which left a million dead, brought the country’s current ruler, General Suharto, to power. Under the influence of Western-trained technocrats, Suharto embraced the philosophy of population control. Today he has become one of its most prominent spokesmen in the Third World.” Naomi Klein describes Ford’s involvement a bit more in depth, “The Berkeley Mafia had studied in the U.S. as part of a program that began in 1956… Ford-funded students became leaders of the campus groups that participated in overthrowing Sukarno, and the Berkeley Mafia worked closely with the military in the lead-up to the coup, developing ‘contingency plans’ should the government suddenly fall.”[10]<br />
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Extremely similar was Ford’s link to the 1973 coup in Chile, involving the Chicago Boys who were trained (funded by Ford) in Milton Freidman’s neo-liberal program at the University of Chicago.[11] The coup and the resulting detainment, torture, and deaths are an indirect result of Ford’s vision for stability and development.<br />
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Of course Ford Foundation is a different entity now and has turned to superficially supporting human rights efforts in response to the torture, disappearances, and murders. Yet, maybe Ford is not all that different. Naomi Klein wrote, “Given its own highly compromised history, it is hardly surprising that when Ford dived into human rights, it defined the field as narrowly as possible. The foundation strongly favored groups that framed their work as legalistic struggles for the ‘rule of law,’ ‘transparency’ and ‘good governance,’”[12] which, as we’ll see, is part of a larger pattern.<br />
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In reading about Ford, one might get the sense that they didn’t fully comprehend the implications of that which was being taught to the Chicago Boys. Compared to many other institutions, Ford Foundation hasn’t pushed a neo-liberal agenda much. However, despite the fact that they have funded projects that are critical of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), they have also funded organizations with a more successful pro-NAFTA stance.[13] It is commonly acknowledged that NAFTA contributed to the loss of land and jobs in Mexico and so not only is Ford tied to the myths about overpopulation, they also share responsibility for the economic/political conditions that have led to mass immigration. It also appears that they are funding research that would help facilitate Homeland Security, as well as trade and growth in the border region, something that may cause more migrants and indigenous people to face displacement and dispossession.[14]<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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We can’t separate the interests of Ford Foundation from the interests of the state and capitalism. Need more examples? “The Ford Foundation's history of collaboration and interlock with the CIA in pursuit of U.S. world hegemony is now a well-documented fact...The Ford Foundation has in some ways refined their style of collaboration with Washington's attempt to produce world cultural domination, but retained the substance of that policy...The ties between the top officials of the Ford Foundation and the U.S. government are explicit and continuing.”[15] As part of the Cold War and beyond, the CIA set up front-groups which would provide funding for hand-picked groups through foundations such as Ford.[16]<br />
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So while Ford has supported the police state’s standard avenues of repression,[17] its primary role has been more as “soft power.”[18] Joan Roelofs elaborates, “Coercive institutions also have their role, but attracting flies with honey can get them stuck good. Foundations <i>induce consent</i> by creating an ideology that appears to be common sense…”[19] (emphasis mine). Comparing the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) with the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC), Andrea Smith explains, “While the PIC overtly represses dissent the NPIC manages and controls dissent by incorporating it into the state apparatus.[20]<br />
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The Civil Rights/Black Power movements are a good domestic example. “Philanthropy suggests yet another explanation for the decline of the 1960s’ and 1970s’ protest movements. Radical activism often was transformed by grants and technical assistance from liberal foundations into fragmented and local organizations subject to elite control. Energies were channeled into safe, legalistic, bureaucratic and, occasionally, profit-making activities.”[21]<br />
<br />
James Forman of SNCC wrote in a later version of his book[22] that the following had been censored from the original: “After the call for Black Power had become popular in the United States and other countries, McGeorge Bundy, former National Security Advisor under the late President John F. Kennedy, called a meeting at the Ford Foundation in New York City of twenty or more Black leaders. At that time McGeorge Bundy was the President of the Ford Foundation. Bundy announced to the assembled Black leaders that a decision had been made to destroy the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and to save the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). This decision was based on an assessment that it was possible to wean CORE away from the concept of Black Power through massive infusion of money for its operation. In the case of the SNCC, however, the assessment was that it was too late to save it; it had to be destroyed.” [23]<br />
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In 1969, Robert Allen wrote in <i>Black Awakening in Capitalist America</i>, “CORE's militant rhetoric but ambiguous and reformist definition of black power as simply black control of black communities appealed to Foundation officials who were seeking just those qualities in a black organization which hopefully could tame the ghettos. From the Foundation's point of view, old-style moderate leaders no longer exercised any real control, while genuine black radicals were too dangerous. CORE [fit] the bill because its talk about black revolution was believed to appeal to discontented blacks, while its program of achieving black power through massive injections of governmental, business, and Foundation aid seemingly opened the way for continued corporate domination of black communities by means of a new black elite.”[24] As another example, Roelofs adds, “Under the leadership of Ford and Rockefeller foundations, the National Urban Coalition was created in 1967 to transform ‘black power’ into black capitalism. Foundations donated $15.6 million in 1970 to moderate black organizations, mostly to the National Urban League, the NAACP, the NAACP-LDEF, and the Southern Regional Council.”[25]<br />
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You can see that foundation involvement in social justice groups undermined radical currents in the past, and while people more often talk about COINTELPRO,[26] Ford and others are still affecting groups today through the “state’s ongoing <i>absorption</i> of organized dissent through the non-profit structure.”[27] It is important to view this history in the context of current foundation involvement as well as the ways current activism often models itself on past activities.<br />
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Based on <i>Foundation News</i> articles, Roelofs determined that the attitude was the following: It was important that “the wildest appearing groups were essentially pragmatic. Ignore their rhetoric; all they want is to obtain benefits or their ‘rights’ from the system.”[28] She also wrote, “Those who see our travails arising from corporate power and wealth gradually are excluded from political discourse; they are labeled ‘irresponsible,’ ‘unrealistic,’ and ‘unfundable.’”[29] In this context, are the groups receiving foundation funding meeting these more conservative qualifications, and if so, is it to get/maintain funding?<br />
<br />
Joaquin Cienfuegos, an anarchist organizer, wrote in 2009, “Non-profits… have hired many people of color who in other sectors of work would not have a job, but looking at the role that the Non-Profit Industrial Complex plays in guiding the struggle in a direction that is not a threat to the state because their funding in large comes from the state itself. We have many recent examples where these people have not been honest to the communities they ‘serve’ in terms of their real relationship they have to the state apparatus, and in many key times of repression they have sold out the more radical segments of the movement.”[30] It is important to see how funders can lead to divisions between people when “leadership” and non-profits find it more important to seem “responsible” and “realistic.”<br />
<br />
White people have a specific problem when being “good allies” and “following the leadership of people of color” leads to uncritical acceptance of existing leadership and assumptions of unanimity, considering that people of color have divergent priorities, visions, and influences. It becomes essential to view leadership with a critical eye especially because, as Roelofs writes, “‘Leadership training’ is another project of foundations that sought to tame radical protests. Here influence was exerted not on specific organizations but on activists and potential leaders. Domestic programs paralleled foundation and CIA cold war efforts to identify activists in the Third World, preferably at the high school level, and to capture them for our side, through conferences, scholarships, and extended stays in the United States.”[31] She adds that leadership programs “sought to identify militants from various ghettos and to persuade them that responsible leadership means giving up the idea that the power structure should be changed.”[32] Don’t think that Ford Foundation doesn’t still have leadership programs and that current local “leadership” hasn’t been courted, trained, and funded by them.<br />
<br />
Undoubtedly there are individuals who, despite having gotten caught up in these types of programs, take advantage of them, and never have or no longer will let foundations dictate their actions. However, there are likely many cases in which foundation-picked leaders use and maintain their imparted legitimacy and assume responsibilities for speaking for the community they claim to represent. They may try to influence this community on the issue of “responsible” and “reasonable” priorities, when in fact their interests may run counter to members of the community. They are also in a position to single out the “irresponsible” and “unreasonable” dissidents. (Ford Foundation has also promoted coalition building, which often comes with acquiescence to the lowest common denominator regarding demands). Certainly those of us who are white should be humble about our position in the power structure, but if we yield unquestioningly to the leadership or groups that have possibly been manipulated by foundations, we are contributing to the marginalization of voices that may be purposefully marginalized.<br />
<br />
Really it’s hard to say how much influence funding has on any given organization or individual at any given time. We know from the past that various groups including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and Chicana Rights Project had to change their personnel and/or focus to maintain Ford funding.[33] INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence got their funding revoked by Ford Foundation because of their position on Palestinian Liberation.[34]<br />
<br />
Ford Foundation’s conditions for grant money led the ACLU in 2004 to ultimately take a strong principled stance and reject $1.15 million in funding from Ford and Rockefeller foundations and return $68,000 previously received from Ford. This was in response to requirements (as of 2004) to sign a pledge to agree, “not to ‘promote or engage in violence, terrorism, bigotry or the destruction of any state, nor… make subgrants to any entity that engages in these activities;’”[35] “not to ‘directly or indirectly engage in, promote or support other organizations or individuals who engage in or promote terrorist activities;’” and to “not ‘knowingly employ’ individuals found on a series of ‘watch lists’ of known or suspected terrorists.”[36] Based on this language, organizations would possibly be forbidden from supporting or promoting groups like the Zapatistas for example. Or considering the broad definition of terrorism, even promoting Food Not Bombs could perhaps get you into some trouble.[37]<br />
<br />
This pledge was modeled after the Patriot Act in response to controversy over offensive language in some literature from a Palestinian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO—similar to non-profits, but non-profits specifically meet the requirements for tax status within the U.S.) that Ford Foundation previously funded. Although Ford Foundation is still accused of supporting Palestinian groups that are opposed to a two-state solution, Zeina Zaatari states,“Funders supported the Oslo agenda by rewarding projects concerned with mutual coexistence, and forced the collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian groups. Within Palestine, organizations previously concerned with a broader vision for justice—such as freedom for historic Palestine, the right of return, and the land—turned their attention to smaller issues such as social services…, representational politics, and constitutional development.”[38]<br />
<br />
It is no coincidence that Ford Foundation’s involvement during the resistance to apartheid in South Africa was similar to the Civil Rights movement in the US and in with Palestinian groups. Roelofs writes, “Foundations had been working for some time creating NGOs as alternatives to the liberation movement approach. The Ford Foundation promoted public interest law firms concerned with civil rights, which helped people to whom the apartheid laws were unfairly applied, and assisted black trade unions, especially those developing power in the mining industry…. Ford also gave… scholarships to enable blacks to become lawyers, and generally helped to moderate reformers.”[39]<br />
<br />
In 1988 and probably prior, Ford Foundation was invested in IBM,[40] a corporation which was actually sued for their involvement in apartheid. “The complaint states, ‘The South African security forces used computers supplied by ... IBM and Fujitsu ... to restrict Black people's movements within the country, to track non-whites and political dissidents, and to target individuals for the purpose of repressing the Black population and perpetuating the apartheid system.’ Black South Africans were issued passbooks, which the apartheid regime used to restrict movement and track millions of people, and to enable politically motivated arrests and disappearances over decades.”[41] IBM divested from South Africa in 1987 and it is difficult to say what their relationship with Ford Foundation was prior to this. It is interesting to note that Ford Motor Company, along with IBM, was also involved in S.A. apartheid[42]—just as both were with Nazi Germany[43]—but this is pretty irrelevant since Ford Motor Company and the Foundation have been separate since 1976. Yet IBM’s involvement might be especially relevant considering they are one of Homeland Security’s top contractors,[44] so they are likely to be involved in any national ID containing biometric information that U.S. citizens may be required to carry, possibly as part of Comprehensive Immigration Reform.[45]<br />
<br />
Very similar to concerns raised in the book <i>The Revolution Will Not Be Funded</i> are the experiences of Arundhati Roy about Non-Governmental Organizations in India. “Eventually–on a smaller scale, but more insidiously–the capital available to NGOs plays the same role in alternative politics as the speculative capital that flows in and out of the economies of poor countries. It begins to dictate the agenda. It turns confrontation into negotiation. It depoliticizes resistance. It interferes with local peoples’ movements that have traditionally been self-reliant. NGOs have funds that can employ local people who might otherwise be activists in resistance movements, but now can feel they are doing some immediate, creative good (and earning a living while they’re at it). Real political resistance offers no such short cuts. The NGO-ization of politics threatens to turn resistance into a well-mannered, reasonable, salaried, 9-to-5 job. With a few perks thrown in. Real resistance has real consequences. And no salary.”[46]<br />
<br />
With the Civil Rights Movement, Palestine, South Africa, and India in mind, let’s consider an example of what’s going on right now in the U.S. Opposition to Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)—which runs private detention centers and has influenced legislation like SB1070 (through the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC) so they may continue to profit—is at odds with the interests of Thurgood Marshall Jr, a board member of both Ford Foundation and CCA. Whether or not there is some awareness of this seeming contradiction on the part of CCA or Marshall Jr., it may be more useful for Ford to fund <i>legal, non-militant</i> opposition in contrast to the much more militant targeting of businesses that invest in private prison companies (like Wells Fargo who invests in GEO Group, another large private prison company) such as the actions by anarchists that have been happening in various cities across the US.[47] In addition, it seems as though focusing on private prisons as an aberration of the criminal “justice” system, deflecting attention away from the state and towards private entities, would be more in the interest of the Ford Foundation since they seem to be more generally allied with the state than any one corporation. To them it would be more important to have activists worrying solely about the privatization of prisons while leaving mass incarceration intact.[48]<b> </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>“Equality” for Stability</b><br />
<br />
If you looked at the Ford Foundation’s literature today, you might think they’re a totally different organization than they were during the civil rights movement or apartheid in South Africa. But Ford Foundation primarily discusses immigrants’ rights on a very superficial level, as though migrants didn’t have it bad other than the “roundups, the denial of due process in deportation proceedings, abusive detention conditions and increased hate crimes and bias attacks.”[49] Although Ford Foundation acknowledges that the reasons for migration need to be addressed,[50] they do not explain how. It is pretty clear what their idea of “justice” for migrants is, considering their language on immigration and influence with NAFTA. When they have rationalized their support for immigrants’ rights, they speak of “our Nation’s future,” progress, stability, development, advancement, and finding our “common goals” or “common ground.”[51] <i>Ford is not interested in equality; they want stability</i>. Keep in mind that those in charge of Ford are some of the richest people in the world. They want enough people, who might otherwise be threats to the status quo, to come to share the values of “mass consumption, economic abundance… individualism, and mobility.”[52]<br />
<br />
That said, Ford is interested in <i>some</i> immigrants’ economic participation as part of the larger success of the economy of the US,[53] in addition to being interested in directing political participation in specific ways (i.e. into the democratic party). But whether or not you agree with the significance of the Ford Foundation’s involvement with the CIA, their interest in channeling activists’ energies in certain directions, or at least keeping tabs on them, there is one thing that is less deniable—either way, their strategy is about <i>recuperation</i>. Even a former Ford Foundation program officer in South Africa stated, "The agenda of grant-making organisations is the agenda of capital. It is an agenda that is designed to make negative effects of capital more bearable rather than to reform the system by which capital is created."[54]<br />
<br />
It is true that the various non-profits that are funded by Ford may have a diverse range of intentions regarding long term goals in relation to immigrants’ rights. While an end to raids, mass detention and hate crimes is obvious, these are shorter-term goals. This ambiguity about long term goals opens the movement up for co-optation or being channeled in a direction that benefits few, similar to the examples given above about the Civil Rights Movement. What are and have been the long term goals of proponents of immigrants’ rights beyond basic human rights, and how do they compare to what entities like the Ford Foundation want?[55]<br />
<br />
Ford hypes integration,[56] but what does this mean, and is this goal shared by those who get the funding? When we speak of integration let’s not think of it as the opposite of segregation. This sort of integration is about participation, compliance, and partial assimilation as far as values related to consumerism and the law go. Yet the sort of integration Ford seeks does not mean there will be no one excluded. For example, the President of MALDEF (funded by Ford) said the following about an agricultural jobs bill, “I don’t think that there’s much of a debate that there is not a domestic work force, and you need an immigrant work force in that particular industry.” [57] What does it mean to need an immigrant work force? Doesn’t that imply a need for a workforce that is exploitable? Doesn’t this imply that certain work, in addition to cleaning toilets and washing dishes, is fitting for certain people—immigrants? The participation/integration of some allows the continued exploitation of others. There still has to be an underclass, just like with Comprehensive Immigration Reform where there will still be “illegal” people.<br />
<br />
While right-wing conservatives may want you to believe that liberal organizations such as the Ford Foundation are trying to undermine America’s values and facilitate the invasion of the country by Mexicans, the interests of the Ford Foundation might be more closely aligned with conservatives than with many immigrants and immigrants’ rights activists. Right-wingers tend to hate the promotion of multiculturalism while some on the left tend to embrace it without realizing the implications—that it “renders race marginal by heralding the primacy of culture.”[58] Ford and similar organizations have an interest in promoting multiculturalism at the expense of truly addressing the political implications of race and racism. In addition, multiculturalism is not necessarily incompatible with capitalism. It may be as Noam Chomsky describes, that capitalism would like us all to be interchangeable cogs as producers and consumers.[59] Of course in the U.S., capitalism functions and has functioned in part by dividing people along racial lines, and functions better with the illusion that we live in a post-racial society.<br />
<br />
Multiculturalism fits Ford Foundation’s vision of democracy. Ford and sections of the immigrants’ rights movement replicate the “‘colonizing trick’—the liberal myth that the United States is founded on democratic principles rather than being built on the pillars of capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy.”[60]<br />
<br />
Since integration entails participation in promoting the rule of law, we can see where some elements of the immigrants’ rights movement perpetuate the white/black color line and ally with whiteness. Examples include the lack of acknowledgement of the white supremacy-saturated “justice” system in activists’ calls for going after the “real criminals,” or demanding that Sheriff Arpaio serve Maricopa County’s unserved warrants instead of going after immigrants.[61] In “No One is Criminal,” Martha Escobar wrote, “[W]hen we claim that immigrants are not criminals, the fundamental message is that immigrants are not Black, or at least, that immigrants will not be ‘another Black problem’… [C]riminalizing immigrants serves to discipline them into whiteness.”[62]<br />
<br />
I wrote in “No Borders or Prison Walls,” that “the war against ‘illegal’ immigration is just one part of institutional racism, except this is an example that makes it all the more clear that <i>crimes have been made</i> out of the actions of people because of who they are.”[63] Yet the above attitude has also contaminated the calls against racial profiling that targets immigrants from south of the border, these calls being primarily concerned with innocent people getting caught up in what’s portrayed as an otherwise legitimate law enforcement system.[64] Limited by their own desire for credibility, many spokespeople have been unwilling to oppose the border or immigration laws;[65] unwilling to call out these laws as unjust; and even Black folks who are aware of the racism of law enforcement, such as Al Sharpton, have perpetuated these ideas.[66] This speaks to why the dichotomies between “good” and “bad” (white/black, hard-workers/“real criminals”) are complex. Martha Escobar explains that if one suggests that “those targeted are upstanding members of society,” this rationalizes “the violence that occurs to those that do not fit this category.” She continues, “…the binary opposition between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ immigrants necessarily naturalizes the exclusion of some, mostly immigrants labeled ‘criminal’ in order to defend the belonging of others. This naturalizes any negative effects on those that are deemed ‘criminal,’” which applies to immigrants labeled “criminal” as well as the huge number of black people labeled “criminal.”[67]<br />
<br />
Speaking of certain European immigrants, Daniel A. Rochmes and G. A. Elmer Griffin wrote, “…in order to become white they had to join in Black subjugation, i.e., the construction of Blackness as inferiority. Agreeing to support the system of slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow, immigrants attained upward social mobility and secured a privileged status in their new country. The social status and rights granted them were those accorded to all who chose whiteness in exchange for endorsing and enforcing the notion of Black inferiority.” [68] It is important for white people to challenge this trajectory.<br />
<br />
Things are not just black and white, but in many ways, power is structured on this black and white binary and is enforced through the law. Rochmes and Griffin continue, “‘Brownness’ has no fixed place in the Black–white binary. Chicano identity strives to say<i> I am not white</i>, but to not be white means to be both Black and inferior. This equation has pressed many Chicanos into uncritically disassociating with Blackness as a way of affirming the value of a brown identity. However, Chicano identity constructed without a critical awareness of whiteness as ‘the maintaining force’ of a racial system that posits ‘some as superior and others as subordinate’ replicates its hierarchies. The disassembly of whiteness would appear to be the necessary predicate for the formation of an ethnic identity that does not require a corresponding inferior.”[69] Considering that undocumented immigrants from south of the border do not necessarily subscribe to this type of identity, and more of them are increasingly from indigenous communities that don’t even speak Spanish (and therefore are even less likely to be able to integrate), applying this analysis of Chicano identity to these immigrants is not particularly useful. The issue here is not so much about attainment of whiteness by immigrants, but participation in white supremacy by anyone in the immigrants’ rights movement. An important question is: who is speaking for the immigrants’ rights movement, and how often is the messaging of the movement geared towards appealing to whites or alleviating the fear of white (and rich) people?[70] What role do white people play, then, in fighting white supremacy?<b> </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Legal Routes</b><br />
<br />
Although the Ford Foundation may not have any clearly defined agenda regarding whiteness, they put a large amount of their “Advancing Racial Justice And Minority Rights” funding towards legal defense (MALDEF, NAACP-LDF).[71] Even though there are some important victories that come out of these activities, it is clearly within the framework of the current oppressive legal system.[72] The funding hardly challenges the system that labels people criminals, nor does it challenge the laws that have led to mass incarceration of Black people and undocumented immigrants. Michelle Alexander, author of <i>The New Jim Crow</i>, explains that civil rights groups have not been fighting mass incarceration because they have been focusing mostly on litigation, which cannot solve this problem. They also tend to avoid advocating for people who have been labeled criminals.[73]<br />
<br />
Although Alexander is speaking about affirmative action in the quote that follows, it could also apply to the types of reforms that Ford has promoted in the past and what it intends for its advocacy of immigrants’ rights: “We should ask ourselves whether efforts to achieve ‘cosmetic’ racial diversity—that is, reform efforts that make institutions look good on the surface without the needed structural changes—have actually helped to facilitate the emergence of mass incarceration and interfered with the development of a more compassionate race consciousness.” She continues, “Racial justice advocates should reconsider the traditional approach to affirmative action because (a) it has helped to render a new caste system largely invisible; (b) it has helped to perpetuate the myth that anyone can make it if they try; (c) it has encouraged the embrace of a ‘trickle down theory of racial justice’; (d) it has greatly facilitated the divide-and-conquer tactics that gave rise to mass incarceration; and (e) it has inspired such polarization and media attention.[74]<br />
<br />
Have civil rights efforts been specifically steered (by forces like Ford) in the direction of legal defense and away from the grassroots fights in the streets? Is this an effort to channel energy into directions that would be largely ineffective? Clearly one does not need a nefarious conspiracy theory (though one could still be true) to explain the counter-revolutionary efforts of those such as Ford. It is important to consider the ways that legal defense strategies have relied on an assumption of innocence, which then requires that everyone be innocent or else they will not be defended. Do Mumia Abu Jamal or Leonard Peltier have to be innocent to be defended? If immigrants or their supporters decide to use unconventional tactics in protest, will they be on their own?<br />
<br />
If advocacy for undocumented immigrants is limited to the current set of laws, one is more likely to focus on racial profiling,[75] and educating about their rights although rights-education groups have fewer and fewer rights to inform them of. This will be a perpetual dilemma until the idea is challenged that a migrant’s crossing of the border or staying in the country illegally is the problem. A good portion of the immigrants’ rights movement seems to wait, therefore, until some undocumented immigrants get legalized through Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). This reform will still leave plenty of migrants criminalized, including the newer arrivals whose border crossing may be more dangerous with the increased border militarization that seems to be part of every plan for CIR. It also certainly doesn’t address the causes of migration or the legitimacy of the border. Fighting current policy with the law is limited as well, because, “…as Native scholar Luana Ross notes, genocide has never been against the law in the United States… On the contrary, Native genocide has been expressly sanctioned as <i>the law</i>.”[76] You can say the same about the border, which is intimately tied with genocide and dispossession. The circumstances surrounding immigrants’ plight are pretty much all legitimized within the law. Therefore the debates lie safely between whether the federal or local governments should be enforcing immigration law, and whether local police should avoid making immigrants afraid to call the police or not (as though the enforcement of immigration law is the only thing that makes people, citizen or not, avoid calling the cops).[77]<br />
<br />
The fight for legalization does not question the notion that undocumented immigrants’ actions are wrong instead of the laws and the economic circumstances being wrong. As I’ve mentioned, the intention of any passable reform is not to legalize all undocumented immigrants who are in the country, much less address the source of the problem that cause the necessity of migration (although I would also argue that people should be able to move from region to region even if they don’t need to). And as Raúl Al-qaraz Ochoa writes, “The concept of citizenship has helped capitalism by always providing a subclass of exploitable, disposable cheap labor at their convenience. Citizenship legitimizes the global capitalist order, as well as their borders and their nation states. So when we talk about citizenship today, we should ask who/what benefits from the exploitation of an ‘illegal class.’”[78]<br />
<br />
Integration means not only participating in the reinforcement of black inferiority and the concept of rule of law, but also of colonization. For example, take Mary Rose Wilcox, who, fully integrated as a Latina citizen, has allied herself with, and seems to be embraced by, elements of the local immigrants’ rights movement. Yet she supports the Loop 202 freeway extension that would either cut through the Gila River Indian Community reservation or their sacred South Mountain, displacing and dividing people within their own community, desecrating sacred sites, increasing pollution, among other problems. She is and has been affiliated with various Ford Foundation-funded organizations[79] and currently sits on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors where she has come into conflict with Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Yet while she opposes Arpaio’s immigration policies, she is also part of the Arizona-Mexico Commission which facilitates free trade, partly through building infrastructure like NAFTA highways by being “instrumental in the development of the Canamex Corridor,” which, guess what, includes the “Sun Corridor” of which the Loop 202 extension would be part. So not only is she part of an organization that seeks to facilitate NAFTA—one major cause of people (indigenous and mestizo) having to leave their homes south of the border—she also aligns herself with development that negatively affects indigenous people in this region. Yet local activists have also shared the stage with her and cheered on her calls for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.[80]<br />
<br />
Ford seems to be trying to push a consensus about Comprehensive Immigration Reform[81] although if any Ford-funded non-profit opposed CIR or even has serious qualms about what it could entail, they do not seem to have voiced it. Some immigrants’ rights groups have concerned themselves with addressing the issue of border security/militarization and specifying “humane” reform (which is still ambiguous), but most have not. Every CIR proposal I’ve seen has catered to white supremacist/nationalist fears and included increased border security (along with other plans such as requiring a national ID card containing biometrics information, which would diminish civil liberties even further[82]). This is a problem not only for those who would be crossing the border in the future, but also for the indigenous communities along the border.<br />
<br />
Pointedly speaking to the larger movement about CIR, the press release for the May 2010 lockdown at a Border Patrol Headquarters in Tucson stated, “Border militarization destroys Indigenous communities. The development of the border wall has lead to desecration of our ancestors graves, it has divided our communities and prevents us from accessing sacred places. Troops and paramilitary law enforcement, detention camps, check points, and citizenship verification are not a solution to migration. We have existed here long before these imposed borders, my elders inform us that we always honored freedom of movement.”[83] The action and the press release played a role in shifting the debate away from the settler-centered point of view which did not address the implications of border militarization as well as the larger economic and colonialist context.<br />
<br />
As a participant in the action wrote, “[H]ow can reform for many, be at the expense of the original inhabitants of the land? We need to see it for what it is, and question neo-liberal projects, such as NAFTA, not just put a bandage on policies that affect everybody! We must challenge both the politicians and reformist activists that try to pit indigenous and migrant communities against each other in their ‘political’ solutions! We are in this together, and must start at the root of the problem, in this case from an O'odham perspective.”[84]<br />
<br />
The problem for the immigrants’ rights movement is that if it calls into question the legitimacy of the U.S. in general, it loses all credibility in the eyes of the media and anyone in power, and reinforces the fears of nationalists (This means it’s all the more important for white people to join in the fight). For the most part, the more pragmatic strategy has been to win over enough people through ideologically non-threatening means, appealing to their morality instead of telling them to move out of the way if they’re going to impede liberation. Does this mean that at the risk of people not finding their personal interest or <i>stake</i> in allying with migrants, they should not be challenged on their racism and settler privilege? Winning people over would seem to require ignoring issues of colonization or state violence (historical and current).[85]<br />
<br />
In this context, indirectly calling for the militarization of the border (via CIR) does not seem contradictory to the goals for “racial justice,” so how can anything fundamentally change? Ford sees “The Law-Related Work of Ford Foundation Grantees Around the World” as part of the “Many Roads to Justice.”[86] You can perhaps see the parallels between the emphasis on legal work around cases in which South African apartheid laws were unfairly applied and the focus on racial profiling by Arpaio. It is no wonder, when fights for justice are channeled into legal battles, that “justice” loses meaning.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>False Solutions</b><br />
<br />
One of the primary criticisms of philanthropy is that it simply alleviates some of the harm caused by capitalism without addressing the root of the problem. Maybe it makes rich people feel better, or maybe it just relaxes their worries about the likelihood that people will resist in a manner that the people in power cannot control. Either way, let’s have no illusions. Andrea Smith explains that foundations provide rich people with a way to “escape estate taxes, compensate relatives, and pay annuities to themselves.” With this tax shelter method, they only have to spend five percent of their net investment income on charitable expenses.[87] They are also very secretive about what they’re investing the rest of that money in.[88]<br />
<br />
For them, instability is detrimental for so many reasons. While some further to the right might feel they can rely on the heavy hand of the state, others would prefer to avoid blatant state violence in solving these problems, especially when “soft power” might be even more effective. As the Secretary of the Ford Foundation in 1969 said, “We are in need of more—not fewer—instruments for necessary social change under law, for ready, informed response to deep-seated problems without chaos, for accommodation of a variety of views without deafening anarchy. Foundations have served as such an instrument.”[89]<br />
<br />
Foundation funding for non-profits is similar to green capitalism in that it provides false solutions to real problems (“buy more stuff, as long as it’s green!” and “recycle and ride your bike more but don’t look at what the military and big corporations are doing”). In fact, often these solutions are directly or indirectly profitable to those promoting them (i.e. see Grameen Bank’s relationship with Monsanto).[90] “People of conscience” can get behind a campaign that feels good to them; meanwhile the problems remain because energies are being diverted to “solutions” that perpetuate the wider problems. They deflect responsibility away from economic inequality/capitalism and the state, allowing the rich to continue to profit.<br />
<br />
Poverty is a problem for which people like to shift responsibility especially to the poor. They do not acknowledge that the rich benefit from the state-enforced theft of land and the limiting of freedoms that have impacted people all over the world in their ability to subsist more easily. Ford Foundation has been deeply involved[91] in the proposal of solutions like helping to provide microloans to impoverished (often landless) people (which by the way, is happening in Mexico[92]), without acknowledging the reasons and consequences of their circumstances in the first place.[93] Microcredit programs, while sometimes bringing a few people out of poverty, have also put many people into debt whereas before they were just poor. Additionally, more insidious entities such as the World Bank[94] have gotten into the microfinance, creating an image of helping the poor while in fact putting even more people into debt and profiting from it. The purpose here may also be to prevent uprisings,[95] and to create more participants in capitalism, creating new “needs” for television sets and such things. And even when programs cut ties with foundation funding, they may still replicate the structure.[96]<br />
<br />
Ford Foundation’s false solutions to the problem of poverty are closely tied to its false solutions to immigration problems. So we can see how all this could be a conspiracy[97], but it doesn’t need to be a conspiracy to be counterproductive or worse.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusion: Money is not neutral</b><br />
<br />
The Ford Foundation has its hands in all sorts of immigrants’ rights (and other progressive anti-racist) non-profit organizations. It could be seen as part of an organized effort to secure the status quo, or it may just be rich people trying to solve other people’s problems in their narrow way that obviously would not threaten their own position of wealth.<br />
<br />
Hopefully it is clear that Ford Foundation funding is not the only problem being discussed here. It is the values and the objectives—not coming just from foundations—that influence the goals, messages, and activities of those who might otherwise push things to their limit. Even groups who forego funding may still live by the values held by their funders.[98] There may be various groups and individuals taking advantage of funding and not letting that funding dictate what they do.[99] You can argue that Ford is so large (especially if you include foundations it funds, like Tides), of course so many groups are going to receive funding from them. But we still must question what foundations are getting out of it. What would things look like if there were no groups whose dependency on funding required that they carry out “responsible” and “reasonable” activities and messages?<br />
<br />
To break it down, the problem with anyone getting funding is the possible direct or indirect influence on organizations or individuals receiving funding, if energy is drawn away from more liberatory goals, if it means activities and messages get controlled or managed, if it causes leadership or spokespeople to speak for people they don’t represent, if it causes the leadership to police the group and/or outsiders or to sell others out. It is a problem if groups’ existing goals go unquestioned, or whether their ambiguity about long term goals can be co-opted into reinforcement of the status quo. There are so many people limiting their activities to safer (as in less threatening to those in power) activities like educational, legal, and charity “work” because that will get funded or will get more respect from politicians—when instead they could be doing something more effective with that time. Maybe no one has the answers right now about what will work, but if people stop limiting themselves to the accepted strategies, and to pragmatic visions, those answers are much more likely to come.<br />
<br />
Dylan Rodriquez suggests, “Perhaps it is the fear of a radically transformed, feminist/queer/anti-racist <i>liberation</i> of Black, Brown, and Red bodies, no longer <i>presumed to be permanently subordinated</i> to the structures of criminalization, colonization, (state and state-ordained) bodily violence, and domestic warfare, that logically threatens the very existence of the still white-dominant US Left… that compels it to retain the staunchly anti-abolitionist political limits of the [NonProfit Industrial Complex].”[100] Ford and others may co-opt the language of these struggles, and put on a façade of concern about them, while avoiding getting at the root of the problems.<br />
<br />
Some immigrant-haters seem to have decidedly taken their strategies to the extreme, perhaps hoping they will achieve something close to their objectives. Fanatical activities such as the Minuteman Project patrolling the borders, or Russell Pearce and others daring to change or reinterpret the constitution which they claim to revere, may not achieve their specific demands, but they succeed in shifting the debate. On the side of immigrants’ rights, very few people are even calling for an end to immigration laws, border controls, and the like, much less total freedom and no borders.[101] But isn’t that what we should be fighting for?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Some groups linked to Ford Foundation:<br />
<br />
<br />
(Alto Arizona via NDLON)<br />
Brave New Foundation[102]<br />
Border Network for Human Rights[103]<br />
Center for New Community[104]<br />
(Cuentame via Brave New Foundation)<br />
Enlace Institute/Communities United for People[105]<br />
Grassroots Leadership[106]<br />
Interfaith Worker Justice[107]<br />
Institute for Transnational Social Change[108]<br />
National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)[109]<br />
National Immigration Law Center[110]<br />
National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild[111]<br />
Pan Left (“Under Arpaio”)[112]<br />
(Puente Movement, via NDLON/Alto Arizona, Tonatierra)<br />
Resource Generation[113]<br />
Salvador Reza[114]<br />
Seventh Generation Fund[115]<br />
(Tonatierra via Seventh Generation Fund and NDLON)<br />
<br />
You can search the grant database for recent grants to groups on fordfoundation.org. Some groups don’t come up in a database search and can be found by searching for the group name in google, accompanied by “site:http://fordfoundation.org” in your search field.<br />
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Tides Center and Foundation, which receive millions of dollars from Ford also funds Brave New Foundation, Coalición de Derechos Humanos, NDLON, Resource Generation, Seventh Generation Fund, and Southern Poverty Law Center, Tonatierra Macehualli [116]<br />
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[1] http://www.linkedin.com/pub/thurgood-marshall-jr/6/345/808<br />
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[2] http://enlaceintl.org/about/financial-report-and-funders/<br />
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[3] http://www.newcomm.org/content/view/2152/1/<br />
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[4] “In 1954 the Ford Foundation started funding the Population Council’s work, and during the Council’s first 23 years they provided it with a staggering US$94 million… Such a massive investment paid substantial dividends to both the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations -- which during this time had also been working hand-in-hand with the CIA in waging the cultural cold war against the Communist 'threat' -- and, by 1959, population issues had begun to ‘assume the weightiness of a major geopolitical force on the world scene, soon to be adopted as a cherished cause by the 'military-industrial complex'.’ This led to the creation of what was referred to as the population-national security theory (PNST), a dubious theory that causally linked ‘overpopulation, resource exhaustion, hunger, political instability, communist insurrection, and danger to vital American interests.’ As JDR3 explained in a lecture to the United Nations in 1961, ‘population growth is second only to control of atomic weapons as the paramount problem of the day.’" http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2008/barker230708.html<br />
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[5] Dylan Rodriguez defines the NPIC as “the industrialized incorporation of pro-state liberal and progressive campaigns and movements into a spectrum of government-proctored non-profit organizations” Rodriguez, Dylan. “The Political Logic of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex”. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Cambridge: South End Press, 2007. 21.<br />
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[6] Smith, Andrea. “Introduction.” The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Cambridge: South End Press, 2007. 3. <br />
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[7] There is a good amount of criticism of the Soros Foundation. “The Soros Media ‘Empire’: The Power of Philanthropy to Engineer Consent “http://www.swans.com/library/art14/barker02.html<br />
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[8] Hartmann, Betsy. Reproductive rights and wrongs: the global politics of population control. South End Pr, 1995. 103 And more financial incentive: “In the mid-1960s…General Electric researcher Stephen Enke produced the first cost-benefit analysis of population control, which claimed that resources spent on family planning could contribute up to 100 times more to higher per capita incomes than could resources invested in production. In other words, population control was a very profitable investment indeed, more profitable in fact than most any other development expenditure!” Ibid.,104. Problems with Population control: Developed Norplant[8] recklessly promoted in china, India, Bangladesh, Egypt. Used on blacks and native Americans, Ibid., 207.<br />
<br />
Also Michael Barker interviews Daniel Faber, “The neo-Malthusian perspective (overpopulation = poverty and environmental destruction) long predates the rise of liberal foundations, but it has been reinforced in the U.S. environmental movement since by a host of grantmakers. In the early 1950s, for instance, the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller money helped to establish the Population Council, providing over $94 million in funds in a little over two decades. Many writers (Bonnie Mass, Steve Weissman, Robert Arnove, Vandana Shiva, etc) have outlined the role of the Malthusian establishment in justifying the various manifestations of U.S. imperialism (the green revolution and capitalist land reforms in the developing world, sterilization campaigns, counterinsurgency). Rather than developing strategies to address the systemic sources of poverty and rapid population growth, the U.S. government-sponsored coercive population control programs and policies supported by liberal foundations and much of the traditional environmental movement. These programs served to facilitate control over the local populations in order to serve the needs of U.S. capital and the national security state; and to perpetuate the myth that poverty and environmental destruction is created and reproduced by the oppressed themselves via overpopulation. The argument disguises the fact that rapid population growth is a function of the unequal distribution of resources, wealth, and political power that characterizes dependent development.” http://www.counterpunch.org/barker09132010.html<br />
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[9] "Invasion by Birth Canal? The fourteenth amendment and its opponents’ motivations" http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/08/invasion-by-birth-canal-fourteenth.html<br />
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[10] Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Picador USA, 2008. 68.<br />
<br />
See also “The Ford Foundation And The Co-option of Dissent” at http://www.swans.com/library/art16/barker41.html<br />
<br />
Also “The Berkeley Mafia and the Indonesian Massacre” at ://www.swans.com/library/art16/barker41.html<br />
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[11] http://shockdoctrinesummary.blogspot.com/ You can read pages 59-71 of the Shock Doctrine online: on books.google.com<br />
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[12] Klein, 23.<br />
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[13] “During the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) debate, the EPI (funded by Ford and others) made technical objections to the models supporting the trade agreement. At the same time, a much greater effect was produced by Ford funding to the other side, which included grants to the Institute for International Economics, a think tank that emphasizes the benefits of NAFTA. In addition, ‘the Ford Foundation also awarded grants to environmental groups and the Southwest Voters Research Institute to convene forums on NAFTA. These resulted in an alliance of 100 Latino organizations and elected officials, called the Latino Consensus on NAFTA, which provided conditional support for the agreement.” Roelofs, Joan. Foundations and public policy: the mask of pluralism. State Univ of New York Pr, 2003. 99.<br />
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[14] “[F]unding from US agencies such as the Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP), the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the New Mexico Environmental Department (NMED). All of these agencies were interested on mapping natural resources and infrastructure along the US-Mexico border region, which in turn help on identifying gaps and geodata needs for the border communities, on important, relevant and strategic projects such as the US Homeland Security initiative.” http://www.asprs.org/a/publications/proceedings/portland08/0022.pdf<br />
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[15] Petras, James. (12/15/2001) quoted in "The Ford Foundation and the CIA: A documented case of philanthropic collaboration with the Secret Police" at http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/FordFandCIA.html It’s no wonder since, “McGeorge Bundy, became president of the Ford Foundation in 1966 (coming straight from his job as Special Assistant to the President in Charge of National Security, which meant, among other things, monitoring the CIA).” http://www.newsofinterest.tv/politics/media_issues/ford_cia_establishment.php See also http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/06/the-ideology-of-philanthropy/<br />
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[16] http://www.rupe-india.org/35/app1.html, see also http://www.questionsquestions.net/feldman/feldman07.html<br />
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[17] “Ford monies also were employed to improve the efficiency of police and criminal justice processes, through better equipment, computerization, and coordination of local and national police (e.g. encouraging CIA-NYC Police cooperation.” Roelofs, 113.<br />
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[18] http://mostlywater.org/hijacking_human_rights<br />
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[19] Roelofs, Joan. Foundations and public policy: the mask of pluralism. State Univ of New York Pr, 2003. p 199. <br />
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She also write, “Foundation wealth and connections are used to pursue interests directly and also to maintain hegemonic control via consent.” Ibid, 198. <br />
<br />
And “When they were criticized by the right for aiding these strange bedfellows, the foundation spokespeople explained how useful it was to have a ‘piece of the action.’ Bob Nichol, a consultant to foundations, advised: ‘Prepare your boards….You’re moving into a new funding arena. These are people dealing with social change….It is buying into a movement,’ which is ‘what America is all about.’ Ibid, 128. (1984)<br />
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And “As Progressives, [liberal foundations and their allies] strive for rationalization, centralization, and bureaucratization in public policies. They have promoted many reforms to reduce threats to capitalism arising from our archaic and local traditions, such as segregation, police brutality, and dumping raw sewage into rivers. Their reformism contrasts with the right wing of the elite, which may stubbornly attempt to prevent all change. Nevertheless this does not put them on the ‘left,’ as they do not defer to the democratic process.” Ibid, 122.<br />
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[20] Smith, 8.<br />
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[21] Ibid, 121.<br />
<br />
[22] Forman, James. The making of Black revolutionaries. Univ of Washington Pr, 1972.<br />
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[23] “’1967 was the year in which the influence of the CIA on the National Student Association, labor unions and foundations was exposed -- but people forget that there are other foundations well founded to carry on the CIA's job. The powerful Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation are two outstanding examples.’ http://www.swans.com/library/art16/barker70.html#9<br />
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Here it is intriguing to note that despite Forman's keen awareness of the viable threat posed by liberal foundations to progressive activism, their activities did not warrant a mention in his history of the SNCC, The Making of Black Revolutionaries -- which was first published in 1972. Yet it turns out that even this book, which itself amply documents the manipulative intentions of the liberal elites, was censored by his publishers. Thus in the preface of the 1985 edition of the book he acknowledges how he was forced to cut out the following information owing to censorship demands from "a lawyer of Macmillan" -- the publishers of the original edition. The section that was edited out read…” http://www.swans.com/library/art16/barker70.html<br />
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[24] http://www.swans.com/library/art16/barker70.html<br />
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[25] Roelofs, 131.<br />
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[26] “COINTELPRO is an acronym for a series of FBI counterintelligence programs designed to neutralize political dissidents. Although covert operations have been employed throughout FBI history, the formal COINTELPRO's of 1956-1971 were broadly targeted against radical political organizations.” http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/cointel.htm<br />
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[27] Rodriguez, Dylan. “The Political Logic of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex.” The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Cambridge: South End Press, 2007. 23.<br />
<br />
[28] Roelofs, 128.<br />
<br />
[29] Ibid, 123. Also: “’Troubles’ were not to be linked, and organizations and movements that found systemic causes for poverty, military intervention, racism, and environmental degradation would be ignored, transformed, or destroyed.” and “Groups genuinely independent of elite control are to be feared.” Ibid, 128.<br />
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[30] Cienfuegos, Joaquin. http://theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Joaquin_Cienfuegos__Critical_Analysis_of_the_Left__Lets_Clean_House.html#toc2<br />
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[31] Roelofs, 128.<br />
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[32] Roelofs, 129.<br />
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[33] “The militancy of some MALDEF personnel, however, produced tensions between MALDEF and its primary sponsor, the Ford Foundation,'' One MALDEF staffer, for example, made widely reported "anti-gringo" statements that caused US, representative Henry B, Gonzalez of Texas to criticize Ford's support of various radical Chicano organizations on the floor of Congress, These criticisms prompted Ford to reevaluate and place conditions on its sponsorship of MALDEF, Political scientist Benjamin Marquez argues that the Ford Foundation, by making funds available for social advocacy, hoped to draw Chicano activists away from disruptive politics and into institutionalized politics." In 1970 the foundation informed MALDEF that further funding was contingent on merging the positions of president and general counsel and on moving the organization's headquarters from San Antonio to a less politically charged, "neutral" location on the East Coast.” Fores, Lori A. “A Community of Limits and the Limits of Community: MALDEF's Chicana Rights Project, Empowering the ‘Typical Chicana,’ and the Question of Civil Rights, 1974-1983”<br />
<br />
“Chicana Rights Project should be examined with a critical eye. Not only was the Project funded almost entirely by the Ford Foundation—which brought to bear its own agenda and conditions on the Project's future path—but the CRP was far from a grassroots organization.” Ibid.<br />
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[34] Smith, 1.<br />
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[35] http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/21/opinion/op-sherman21<br />
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[36] http://www.forward.com/articles/4457/ and http://www.hereinstead.com/NYTIMES-ON-ACLU-PROBLEMS-2004.PDF<br />
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[37] http://web.archive.org/web/20061002224854/http://www.acluaz.org/News/PressReleases/06_21_06.html<br />
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[38] Zaatari, Zeina, Interview by Andrea Smith. “The NGOization of the Palestine Liberation Movement. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Cambridge: South End Press, 2007. 176.<br />
<br />
Also: "Without exception, every foundation that funds work on Palestine (from the most conservative to the most 'progressive') does so from the understanding that Israel, as it currently exists, should stay intact, and the solution is to change Palestinians so that they will adapt to their colonial situation." -Hatem Bazian, 2007. Ibid, 178. <br />
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See also: http://electronicintifada.net/content/one-voice-manufacturing-consent-israeli-apartheid/8208<br />
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And http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker35.html<br />
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[39] Roelofs, 174.<br />
<br />
See also: “Liberal Philanthropy And Social Change In South Africa” http://www.swans.com/library/art16/barker46.html) and “George Soros And South Africa's Elite Transition” http://swans.com/library/art16/barker51.html<br />
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[40] “The Ford Foundation has almost half of the investments held by the 10 foundations in these corporations. The holdings account for 16 percent of Ford's total investment value, or $496 million, with the largest holdings being in nuclear contract-rich IBM and General Electric.” http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1988/12/mm1288_05.html<br />
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[41] http://staugustine.com/opinions/2010-01-18/amy-goodman-holding-corporations-accountable-apartheid-crimes<br />
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[42] “South Africa Backs GM, Ford , IBM Apartheid Lawsuit” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a2xm_iMWNc7g<br />
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[43] “AMERICAN CORPORATIONS COLLABORATE WITH THE NAZIS” http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/jphuck/Book14Ch.1.html<br />
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See also: http://www.ibmandtheholocaust.com/ “IBM Germany, using its own staff and equipment, designed, executed, and supplied the indispensable technologic assistance Hitler's Third Reich needed to accomplish what had never been done before--the automation of human destruction.”<br />
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[44] http://www.govexec.com/features/0809-15/0809-15s10s1.htm<br />
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[45] “Biometrics Still Likely to be Part of Reform “http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/04/biometrics-still-likely-to-be-part-of.html and Biometrics Part of Immigration Reform? http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2009/08/biometrics-part-of-immigration-reform.html<br />
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[46] Roy, Arundhati. “Help That Hinders” http://mondediplo.com/2004/11/16roy <br />
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Although Roy doesn’t specifically discuss the Ford Foundation, they were involved early on in the “Green Revolution” which was used to prevent uprisings in India. http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1611<br />
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[47] Some examples: “ATMS Broken at Wells Fargo : Indybay” http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/07/22/18518792.php<br />
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“Tacoma, Wa: Paint thrown on a Wells Fargo in Solidarity with ...” http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/14143<br />
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“Wells Fargo Attacked In Minneapolis | Twin Cities Indymedia” http://tc.indymedia.org/2008/aug/wells-fargo-attacked-minneapolis<br />
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[48] “While many…in the establishment Left pay some attention to the unmediated violence waged by state formations… the implicit theoretical assumptions guiding much of this political-intellectual work have tended to pathologize state violence, rendering it as the scary illegitimate offspring of a right-wing hegemony… [T]he treatment of state violence as a nonessential facet of the US social formation is the discursive requirement for the establishment Left’s strained attempts at political dialogue with its more hegemonic political antagonists…” Rodriquez, 36.<br />
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[49] Ford Foundation, A New Generation of Social Change, 2009. http://www.fordfoundation.org/pdfs/library/new-generation.pdf<br />
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[50] “We support organizations… that are engaged in… efforts to secure comprehensive immigration reform that addresses the realities of migration in both sending and receiving countries.” http://www.fordfoundation.org/issues/human-rights/protecting-immigrant-and-migrant-rights<br />
<br />
“A $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation will support a new initiative by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to create momentum for comprehensive immigration reform, including through advocacy skill-building workshops for Latino leaders and organizations around the country.” http://www.thedailytell.com/2009/06/ford-foundation-grant-supports-immigration-reform-effort/<br />
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[51] Bach R. L. Changing Relations: Newcomers and Established Residents in U.S.Communities. New York: Ford Foundation. 1993.<br />
<br />
Additionally, you can find these ideas in the language of groups that Ford funds: “the DREAM Act is a much-needed stimulus to our nation's continued development.” These are the words of Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel of MALDEF, which has gotten tons of funding from Ford, and has been working on the DREAM Act Legislation for about a decade. It is clear that not only is it a problem for the DREAM Act to channel youths into military service, it is also problem to reinforce this concept of progress of “our nation,” and to integrate immigrants into the American capitalist mind-set. http://www.maldef.org/news/releases/dream_act_phone_bank/<br />
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[52] “[Accommodation is] a process of mobilization and participation. It takes many forms, including day-to-day activities associated with work, school, shopping, and acting as a neighbor. Newcomers encounter pressures to conform to standard community practices. They also embrace many of these actions and identify them with opportunities that come from membership and participation in American society. The abstract principles of American society—including mass consumption, economic abundance, equality under the law, individualism, and mobility—are learned in these everyday encounters. These community practices are not necessarily steps toward assimilation, if by that we mean abandoning group backgrounds and identity. They are efforts to participate fully in local activities. For accommodation to succeed, the more established generation of residents must also reach out to newcomers… Yet in those instances when participation prevails, newcomers and residents found common ground and begin to work together.” Bach, 52. <br />
<br />
[53] These sentiments have been repeated by local organizers. “Salvador Reza, PUENTE movement organizer said: ‘We are grateful for the Republicans who voted in the interest of defending our state's economy. It is now time to repeal SB 1070 in its entirety to cure the self-inflicted wound on our state's economic health. We are hoping today's vote marks a new beginning in the Capitol where all lawmakers understand respect for Human Rights is crucial for our economic prosperity.” http://www.pitchengine.com/ndlon-and-puente-respond-to-rejection-of-arizona-anti-immigrant-bills/133182/<br />
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[54] http://www.swans.com/library/art16/barker46.html Original Source: Moyo Bhekinkosi, “Setting the Development Agenda? U.S. Foundations and the NPO [Non-Profit] Sector in South Africa: A Case Study of Ford, Mott, Kellogg and Open Society Foundations,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Witwatersrand, 2005, 99, 177.<br />
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Also: “The nature of such foundation power and control can be traced to the philanthropic philosophy of "misery reduction," which is all that social service agencies are really supposed to do. The think-tanks and intellectual justification that guide these foundations don't go [to] the root of the problem. They abjure questioning the system or organizing people so there could be a chance for real unity or the possibility of real change. As such they are the firmament of the establishment, and may do more harm than outright conservatives and known racists, because they claim to be helping poor people, but their job is only to hold them down and keep them divided, fearful and weak.” “Anonymous Latin-American workers collective undertook such a communicative effort in 2008 when they gave a presentation at an activist conference titled "Liberal Mayors and Liberal Funders: A Case of Racism, Classism, and Ideological Warfare." http://www.swans.com/library/art16/barker41.html<br />
<br />
And from Ford Foundation’s website: “Expanding opportunities and providing fair and equitable ways for all people to earn a decent living and build economic resources is essential to creating prosperous societies… Our efforts seek ways to make markets and public systems and policies work better for low-income families…” http://www.fordfoundation.org/pdfs/ar08/FF_AR08.pdf<br />
<br />
[55] See Ford Foundation’s page on grants for Protecting Immigrant and Migrant Rights http://www.fordfoundation.org/issues/human-rights/protecting-immigrant-and-migrant-rights/for-grant-seekers<br />
<br />
[56] “We also built upon decades of work supporting groups that have helped inform the debate on immigration reform and fostered the integration of immigrants into American life.” http://www.fordfoundation.org/pdfs/library/ar2006.pdf<br />
<br />
“2006: INTEGRATING NEWCOMERS” Nashville, Tenn., reflects the growing diversity of communities across America. Ford grantees, such as the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, are part of a national movement dedicated to supporting the successful integration of immigrants into social, political and economic life. http://www.fordfoundation.org/pdfs/library/ar2006.pdf<br />
<br />
[57] http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/maldef-thomas-saenz/<br />
<br />
[58] Ana Clarissa Rojas Durazo, '"we were never meant to survive" Fighting Violence Against Women and the Forth World War', In: Incite! Women of Color Against Violence. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Cambridge: South End Press, 2007. 115.<br />
<br />
[59] “See, capitalism is not fundamentally racist—it can exploit racism for its purposes, but racism isn’t built into it. Capitalism basically wants people to be interchangeable cogs, and differences among them, such as on the basis of race, usually are not functional. I mean, they may be functional for a period, like if you want a super-exploited workforce or something, but those situations are kind of anomalous. Over the long term, you can expect capitalism to be anti-racist - just because it’s anti-human. And race is, in fact, a human characteristic - there’s no reason why it should be a negative characteristic, but it is a human characteristic. So therefore identifications based on race interfere with the basic ideal that people should be available just as consumers and producers, interchangeable cogs who will purchase all the junk that’s produced - that’s their ultimate function, and any other properties they might have are kind of irrelevant, and usually a nuisance.”- Noam Chomsky http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Understanding_Power<br />
<br />
[60] Smith, Andrea. “American Studies without America: Native Feminisms and the Nation-State” American Quarterly, Volume 60, Number 2, June 2008 (referencing Davis Kazanjian, The Colonizing Trick. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.)<br />
<br />
[61] As an example of the focus on warrants, a press release from no specific organization but from "Leaders from the civil rights and Latino communities" came out in March 2008 saying, ‘The people are entitled to have a true lawman for Sheriff, someone who goes after real criminals, not gardeners, cooks, nannies and pregnant mothers. America’s “toughest sheriff” must stop making mothers and fathers disappear in the middle of the night, callously leaving vulnerable, terrorized children at home alone. He can turn a new leaf and start protecting the public by serving the county’s 70,000 arrest warrants that he has allowed to remain outstanding.’” http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-happens-when-they-serve-warrants.html<br />
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[62] Escobar, Martha. “No One is Criminal.” Abolition now!: Ten years of strategy and struggle against the prison industrial complex. A K Pr Distribution, 2008, 57.<br />
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[63] “No Borders or Prison Walls: Beyond Immigrants' Rights to Ending Criminalization of All People of Color” http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2009/03/no-borders-or-prison-walls-beyond.html<br />
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[64] See http://criticalresistance.org/ for criticism of the criminal justice system, and imprisonment in particular.<br />
<br />
[65] I don’t want to imply here that there aren’t plenty of people who buy into the ideas that are compatible with funders and politicians, but I believe some do not believe these ideas yet go along with it for credibility.<br />
<br />
[66] “First They Came for the "Illegals" But I Only Care about Racial Profiling” http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/05/first-they-came-for-illegals-but-i-only.html<br />
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[67] Escobar, 66.<br />
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[68] Rochmes, Daniel and G. A. Elmer Griffin (2006). “The Cactus that Must Not Be Mistaken for a Pillow: White Racial Formation Among Latinos,” Souls 8 (2): 77-91.<br />
<br />
[69] Rochmes. “There is no “white” culture, religion, or language, Baldwin wrote; there are many cultural ways of being white. Any immigrant group, including Latinos, could become white while maintaining their holidays, native languages, naming conventions, and other proprietary cultural practices. This was certainly the case with the Irish. As Noel Ignatiev has shown in How the Irish Became White, the Irish chose to endorse the system of Black slavery in exchange for acceptance as white. In declaring solidarity with so-called whites against so-called Blacks, the Irish were able to fold themselves into the privileged group of “a bipolar system of color caste, in which even the lowliest of ‘whites’ enjoyed a status superior in crucial respects to that of the most exalted ‘Blacks.’” However, this did not require that they relinquish Catholicism or St. Patrick’s Day.”<br />
<br />
“One organization at the forefront of assimilation efforts is the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). LULAC understands itself, or describes itself now as having been organized in response to anti-Latino racism. However, it was formed in response to the Black–white color line demarcation which made Latinos Black, and LULAC’s original and to some degree its contemporary energy comes from crossing this line into the white “mainstream.”<br />
<br />
“In the wake of the Watts riots in 1965, both LULAC and the American GI Forum ‘sent President Lyndon Johnson a resolution pointedly contrasting [Latinos’] assimilationist orientation with Black militancy’ and claimed that ‘unlike Blacks, Mexican Americans eschewed civil disobedience and violent confrontation in favor of loyalty to’ whiteness. Criticizing the slogan ‘Brown Power,’ the founder of the American GI Forum, Dr. Hector P. García, said, ‘That sounds as if we were a different race. . . . We’re not. We’re white. We should be Americans.’22 For García, the prospect of being a ‘different race’ from whites, or Black, was the difference between being American and non-American.”<br />
<br />
“López rightly sees that ‘Mexicans stressed their native ties partly in order to distance themselves from the Black experience... Though Chicanos did not want to be white, neither did they want to be Black.’” <br />
<br />
“It is the disavowal of Black identity which opens Chicano identity to the possibility of a credible (non-Black) indigenous identity. López does not see anti-Black sentiments as the decisive component which re-connects the apparently radical, indigenous focused Chicano movement with conservative assimilationist ideology.”<br />
<br />
“[T]he history of the Chicano movement demonstrates that Chicanos and Chicanas persistently disassociated with Blacks and rejected Blackness as inferior. The critical question therefore becomes whether or not contemporary Chicano identity constitutes sufficient resistance to the dynamics of whiteness construction. In their desire to reject whiteness Chicanos are faced with the difficulties of the whiteness equation: whiteness defines itself as the superior opposite of Blackness. Those who are not white must be Black and by definition inferior.”<br />
<br />
“Latino whiteness is less detectable as whiteness, particularly to Latinos themselves. It has been seen in the larger political world in terms of conservative political agendas and characterized in the rhetoric of hard work, hard-won social gains. Predicated as it is on the construction of Latino immigrants as prepared to do the work that others do not want to do, Latino whiteness makes them increasingly exploitable as it ties the image of so-called Blacks more firmly to the construction of them as lazy, foolish, and quintessentially un-American. As Latinos become white, so-called Blacks are debased.”<br />
<br />
“Latinos must cultivate a political alliance with Blackened people not simply to avoid the stultifying economic wages of whiteness, but also to effectively challenge whiteness as the signifier of superiority in this country.”<br />
<br />
[70] “Video: Civil Rights Activist Salvador Reza Interviewed by David Pakman (2 of 2)” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W4tLzHcSW4#t=1m45s<br />
<br />
[71] Advancing Racial Justice And Minority Rights http://www.fordfoundation.org/issues/human-rights/advancing-racial-justice-and-minority-rights<br />
<br />
[72] Roelofs, 102. “…Foundation-supported efforts at legal reform aimed to remove glaring inequalities, but ‘…will not disturb the basic political and economic organization of modern American society.” Quoting Joel Hander, social movements and the legal system 1978, 233.<br />
<br />
[73] Alexander, Michelle. The new Jim Crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New Press, The, 2010, 214.<br />
<br />
[74] Alexander, 232-3.<br />
<br />
[75] For example, see MALDEF’s lawsuit against Arpaio: http://www.maldef.org/news/newsletter/07252008/index.html<br />
<br />
[76] Smith, Andrea. “American Studies without America: Native Feminisms and the Nation-State” American Quarterly<br />
<br />
Volume 60, Number 2, June 2008 (referencing Luana Ross, Inventing the Savage: The Social Construction of Native American Criminality (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998), 15.)<br />
<br />
[77] “’In addition to blatantly flouting the U.S. Constitution, Arpaio’s focus on federal immigration issues has come at a cost to public safety,’ said Kristina Campbell, MALDEF Staff Attorney. ‘He has drained resources from other crime fighting and investigation units, and his discriminatory practices have undermined trust – a critical component of effective law enforcement – in the Latino community.’” http://www.maldef.org/news/newsletter/07252008/index.html<br />
<br />
“The letter states that the program-which relinquishes the power to enforce federal immigration laws to local law enforcement and correction agencies-lacked oversight…, deteriorated public safety and trust between communities and local law enforcement, diverted scarce resources, and was abused to ‘target immigrants and persons of color.’” http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/10/01-10<br />
<br />
[78] “Citizenship is perfect for capitalist exploitation. Mexican and Central American labor has become the most appealing to the ruling class; Largely because they could easily divide and conquer the labor force (similar to how they did during slavery times) between “American” and “immigrant,” between “citizen” and “illegal” or essentially between “human” and “sub-human.” This has not only crafted a perfectly segregated labor force, but also a social, psychological, cultural, economic and political apartheid system segregated along racial, class, gender, sexual orientation and citizenship lines.” -Raúl Al-qaraz Ochoa http://antifronteras.com/2010/12/27/legalization-kills-revolution-the-case-against-citizenship/<br />
<br />
[79] “Mary Rose is very involved with the local and national Hispanic community and has served as a past or current member of such organizations as MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund) and NCLR (National Council of La Raza). She also served five years as the Chair of the NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials) Educational Fund.” http://www.maricopadems.com/mary-rose-wilcox<br />
<br />
Mary Rose Wilcox is on the board of NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials) 1999-2006 which receives Ford Foundation Funding http://fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=8727 <br />
<br />
“The NALEO Educational Fund appreciates The Ford Foundation’s commitment to helping the Fund remain the leading advocate for increased Latino access to the American political process.” (2010 grants only?) “…we carry out our mission through programs that integrate Latinos fully into American political society, provide professional development opportunities and technical assistance to the nation’s more than 6,000 Latino elected and appointed officials, and monitor and conduct advocacy on issues important to the Latino community and our political participation.” http://www.naleo.org/naleoeducationalfund.html<br />
<br />
“Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox has been named to the 30-member national board of directors of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund” http://www.maricopa.gov/pr_detail.aspx?releaseID=1729<br />
<br />
MALDEF was funded by Ford: 2.5 million dollars in 2009-2011 alone.<br />
<br />
“[Arizona-Mexico Commission] was born from a visionary spark in the ‘Cold War’ climate of 1959. Suspicion was closing trade between nations. During a first-of-its-kind university-sponsored conference aimed at expanding Arizona and Sonora cultural and trade relations, Arizona Governor Paul J. Fannin envisioned a great possibility for collaboration that could lead to mutual prosperity.” http://www.azmc.org/about-us/Arizona-Mexico-Commission-brings-together-private-and-public-partnerships/<br />
<br />
“AMC was instrumental in the development of the Canamex Corridor.” http://azmc.org/amc_downloads/amcdownload440.pdf p4<br />
<br />
Mary Rose Wilcox’s restaurant “El Portal” has hosted numerous events related to Alto Arizona, Puente, etc. http://blog.altoarizona.com/blog/2010/05/friday-may-28th-join-us-for-a-festival-of-human-rights-in-phoenix-az-the-day-before-national-day-of-.html Friday, May 28th - Join us for a Festival of Human Rights in Phoenix, AZ - The day before National Day of Action against #SB1070<br />
<br />
“She has been in the forefront in the push for comprehensive Immigration Reform.” http://www.maricopa.gov/dist5/biography.aspx<br />
<br />
[80] Video: “Phoenix Represented at DC Immigration Rally” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu7VLxATQR4&#t=2m23s<br />
<br />
[81] “We support organizations at national, state and local levels that are engaged in immigrant rights advocacy, including efforts to secure comprehensive immigration reform that addresses the realities of migration in both sending and receiving countries. We also support institutions that are crucial to building an effective and lasting movement to protect immigrants' rights.” http://www.fordfoundation.org/issues/human-rights/protecting-immigrant-and-migrant-rights<br />
<br />
“A $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation will support a new initiative by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to create momentum for comprehensive immigration reform, including through advocacy skill-building workshops for Latino leaders and organizations around the country.” http://www.thedailytell.com/2009/06/ford-foundation-grant-supports-immigration-reform-effort/<br />
<br />
[82] “Biometrics Still Likely to be Part of Reform “http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/04/biometrics-still-likely-to-be-part-of.html and Biometrics Part of Immigration Reform? http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2009/08/biometrics-part-of-immigration-reform.html<br />
<br />
There’s also a possibility of CIR including a guest worker program http://www.excludedworkers.org/guest-workers<br />
<br />
[83] “OCCUPATION OF BORDER PATROL HEADQUATERS DAVIS-MONTHAN AIRFORCE BASE, TUCSON, AZ” http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/2010/05/occupation-of-border-patrol-headquaters.html<br />
<br />
[84] “Movement Demands Autonomy: An O'odham Perspective on Border Controls and Immigration” http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/2010/04/movement-demands-autonomy-oodham.html<br />
<br />
[85] “…the treatment of state violence as a nonessential facet of the US social formation is the discursive requirement for the establishment Left’s strained attempts at political dialogue with its more hegemonic political antagonists: whether they are police, wardens, judges, legislators, or foundations. In this way, a principled and radical opposition to both the material actuality and political legitimacy of racist US state violence—which is inescapably a principled and radical opposition to the existence and legitimacy of the US state itself—is constantly deferred in favor of more “practical” or “winnable” campaigns and demands.” Rodriguez, 36.<br />
<br />
[86] http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTJUSFORPOOR/Resources/ManyRoadstoJustice.pdf<br />
<br />
[87] Smith, Andrea. “Introduction.” The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Cambridge: South End Press, 2007. 5-6.<br />
<br />
[88] “While promoting/saving/improving capitalism over the long term, foundations are also deeply entrenched in the corporate sector, including the military-industrial complex and finance capitalism, through their trustees and investments. In 1971, the Ford Foundation established the Commonfund for managing the investments of private universities, schools, and foundations.” http://www.counterpunch.org/roelofs05282009.html<br />
<br />
[89] Smith, 8. quoting Howard Dressner<br />
<br />
[90] http://www.peopleofcolororganize.com/analysis/be-aware-organizations-promoting-microcredit/<br />
<br />
[91] http://laffsociety.org/blog/?p=627 “The Ford Foundation considers microlending the most successful form of aid ever invented.” Source: http://www.womenstrust.org/content/wt-microlending<br />
<br />
[92] http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/events/223<br />
<br />
[93] http://www.peopleofcolororganize.com/analysis/be-aware-organizations-promoting-microcredit/<br />
<br />
[94] World Bank partners with the Ford Foundation, by the way: http://www.worldbank.org/foundations<br />
<br />
[95] “Elite financiers fulfill an important role in shaping the evolution of civil society; promoting low-intensity democracy in a frantic, yet strategic, bid to undermine citizen-led attempts to promote a type of democracy that demands their active participation. It is no overstatement that public-funded, and directed, social change strikes fear into the heart of elites who are well aware of the tenuous hold they maintain on power.” http://www.swans.com/library/art16/barker46.html<br />
<br />
Regarding the “green revolution” and prior, “Nehru, although himself a populist, realized that a widespread insurgency—such as that foreshadowed by the Telengana revolt—would destroy the young Indian republic, and thus hailed this early Ford [Foundation] work, ‘as a model for meeting the revolutionary threats from left-wing and communist peasant movements demanding basic social reforms in agriculture,’ and calling it a means toward “peaceful revolution.” http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1611<br />
<br />
[96] “I have seen micro-credit groups in Lebanon decide to end their dependence on the foundation system and still end up operating as if they ere NGOs…These micro-credit groups, in order to become independent, also ended up focusing on growth; ironically, once they became self-sufficient, theirs became indistinguishable from a foundation agenda.” Said, Atef,. Interview by Andrea Smith. “The NGOization of the Palestine Liberation Movement. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Cambridge: South End Press, 2007. 178.<br />
<br />
[97] “At worst, we can accuse the Soros, Ford, Mellon, and Rockefeller foundations, and their ilk of NGOs and non-profit organizations, of accompanying and facilitating these massive structures of human domination, which simply cannot be reformed or ‘reconciled’ in a manner that legitimates anything approaching a vision of liberation or radical freedom.” Rodriguez, 36.<br />
<br />
[98] “I have seen micro-credit groups in Lebanon decide to end their dependence on the foundation system and still end up operating as if they ere NGOs…These micro-credit groups, in order to become independent, also ended up focusing on growth; ironically, once they became self-sufficient, theirs became indistinguishable from a foundation agenda.” Zaatari, 178.<br />
<br />
[99] Regarding James Forman of SNCC: “However, he writes that although he accepted the idea that donating money to support activism is a political issue, ‘I also reject the popular notion that he who pays the piper calls the tune, for my experience has been that you can put radical policies up front and stick to them and still get financial help.’ Yet despite SNCC's fetish for decentralization, ideologically-speaking his organization was just the type of group that could be influenced by elite funders, as ‘[o]pen criticism and self-criticism were not the style of the SNCC’ and, as Forman continues with respect to their work in 1964, their ‘lack of ideology’ meant they were ‘caught in the habits of thinking about short-term objectives only.’ This is on top of the fact that SNCC had systemic funding problems.” Barker, Michael. “Elite Philanthropy, SNCC, And The Civil Rights Movement (Part II of III) http://www.swans.com/library/art16/barker69.html<br />
<br />
Also : “We began to understand that there is a very thin line between ‘milking the system’ and being milked by the system.” Jones de Almeida, Adjoa Florencia of Sista II Sista Collective. “Radical Social Change: Searching for a New Foundation.” The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Cambridge: South End Press, 2007. 186.<br />
<br />
[100] Rodriguez, 22.<br />
<br />
[101] “The Best Immigration Law is No Law at All” http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/03/best-immigration-law-is-no-law-at-all.html<br />
<br />
[102] http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=9419<br />
<br />
[103] http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=7299<br />
<br />
[104] http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=7775<br />
<br />
[105] http://enlaceintl.org/about/financial-report-and-funders/ <br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=9322<br />
<br />
[106] http://www.grassrootsleadership.org/detention.html<br />
<br />
[107] http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=9228<br />
<br />
[108] http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=8367<br />
<br />
[109] http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=9307<br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=9091<br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=8747<br />
<br />
[110] http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=6971<br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=7577<br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=7772<br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=7970<br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=9069<br />
<br />
[111] http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=7773<br />
<br />
[112] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA_6zsLcX0c&#t=2m1s<br />
<br />
[113] RG is partnered with Ford foundation, and has received money from them http://www.resourcegeneration.org/about-us/history<br />
<br />
http://www.resourcegeneration.org/about-us/partners<br />
<br />
And has toured AZ to fund other groups http://www.facebook.com/pages/RG-Migrant-Justice-Solidarity-Working-Group/190333824342351<br />
<br />
[114] http://www.leadershipforchange.org/awardees/awardee.php3?ID=28<br />
<br />
[115] http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=1501<br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=2523<br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=3405<br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=4414<br />
<br />
http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/grantdetails?grantid=6497<br />
<br />
[116] http://www.tides.org/fileadmin/user/pdf/Tides-Foundation-List-of-Grantees-2010.pdfUnknownnoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-60514050459059554872011-07-02T12:18:00.000-07:002011-07-02T14:19:06.820-07:00Private Prisons in a Wider Context: VideoIt has been encouraging to see the awareness about the role of private prison companies in influencing criminalization of people grow and grow in the last year. SB 1070 and the relationship between various legislators like <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-came-first-racism-or-profit-motive.html">Russell Pearce and private prison companies like CCA and Geo Group within the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)</a>, and between governor <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-came-first-racism-or-profit-motive.html">Jan Brewer and CCA</a>, has been exposed recently. People had already started to address the connection between Wells Fargo and private prison-run detention centers that hold thousands of migrants in other parts of the country and a tiny bit here in AZ. Now there are country-wide campaigns popping off against private prisons companies and against ALEC.<br />
<br />
However, as horrible as the conditions in private prisons are (and they do tend to be several times worse than state-run facilities), and as obvious as it is that SB 1070 passed with great influence on the part of those who stand to make millions off of putting people in cages, I would hate to see the focus be solely on this most recent phenomenon. An anti-private prison campaign can easily fall into the same traps as the "go after the real criminals" message, as though there's nothing wrong with the "criminal" "justice" system. As though the criminalization of people who cross a man-made line is not similar to the criminalization of so many of the people in prisons today and historically. We should also consider the limitations of previous nation-wide anti-private prison campaigns like the one that targeted Sodexho in the early 2000's. A focus only on the <i>privatization</i> of prisons can only divert energy from addressing the prison system in general; the various reasons people end up in jail or prison, and the ways in which the system will never and is not meant to address the real ills of our society.<br />
<br />
I put together the following video to provide a complex yet still simplistic (limited by time and resources) history of criminalization of people for the benefit of the few. Please share it with anyone you think would be interested. This video is a follow up from several of my blog entries including <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2009/03/no-borders-or-prison-walls-beyond.html">No Borders or Prison Walls</a> and <a href="http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-came-first-racism-or-profit-motive.html">What came first: the Racism or the Profit Motive? On Private Prisons' push for SB1070</a> <br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7QDtTK1uxrg" width="425"></iframe><br />
<br />
Please also view the 2nd part. It all ties together, and there's some good commentary towards the end.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w87duXstaKI" width="425"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-38402982440197992642011-06-30T23:07:00.000-07:002011-06-30T23:07:46.743-07:00Tucson: Angry community members storm offices of G4S Wackenhut<div class="post-header"> </div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4696715011802567510"> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a3orSeTfzGA/Tgy4sEcSALI/AAAAAAAAb5A/jwWoQSSRAX4/s1600/G4S%2Bagain.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624073101925023922" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a3orSeTfzGA/Tgy4sEcSALI/AAAAAAAAb5A/jwWoQSSRAX4/s320/G4S%2Bagain.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 214px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><strong>ANGRY COMMUNITY MEMBERS STORM G4S OFFICE </strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-size: 85%;">Press statement</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 85%;">Censored News</span></strong><em>Protest Targets Prison Firm for Profiteering, Police Cite 16 for Trespassing</em>TUCSON --(June 29, 2011) At around 2 p.m., community members burst uninvited into the Tucson offices of private security firm G4S and declared in no uncertain terms their opposition to the company’s profiteering at the expense of immigrant communities in Tucson, across the nation and throughout the world. Incensed by G4S’ role in promoting the criminalization of immigrants and the expansion of the private prison industry, the protestors entered the G4S office complex, delivered a letter to company representatives and unfurled a banner reading “G4S: Prison profiteering destroys communities.”</div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4696715011802567510"><br />
Today’s action, which was organized autonomously by Tucson community members, was carried out under the banner of Direct Action for Freedom of Movement. Although the protesters were never asked to leave the building, and were there only 10 minutes, the Tucson Police cited 16 individuals for criminal trespassing.</div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4696715011802567510"><br />
G4S is the world’s largest security company and has public contracts to transport, detain and imprison immigrants throughout the world. The company is infamous for the mistreatment of individuals in its custody, with the most atrocious examples including the senseless deaths of two inmates in 2010. Since 2006, G4S has provided transportation for Customs and Border Protection and, in 2010 alone, secured over 125 million dollars in contracts from the Department of Homeland Security. <strong><em>Read more ...</em></strong></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4696715011802567510"><br />
<a href="http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2011/06/tucson-angry-community-members-storm.html">http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2011/06/tucson-angry-community-members-storm.html</a><br />
<br />
<strong>Also see: </strong><br />
<strong>Australian Aboriginal elder cooked to death by G4S<br />
Duty of Care: beyond the case of Mr Ward, cooked to death by gigantic outsourcer G4S</strong>Clare Sambrook, 8 June 2011<br />
Last week in Western Australia, Graham Powell and Nina Stokoe, two former private security guards, pleaded not guilty to charges relating to the death of renowned Aboriginal elder Mr Ward, cooked to death while being transported more than 220 miles across searing Goldfields in a badly maintained van with faulty air conditioning in January 2008.<br />
<strong><em>Read more:</em></strong><a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/duty-of-care-beyond-case-of-mr-ward-cooked-to-death-by-gigantic-outsourcer">http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/duty-of-care-beyond-case-of-mr-ward-cooked-to-death-by-gigantic-outsourcer</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-69762576652424734502011-06-30T23:02:00.000-07:002011-07-02T13:39:11.220-07:00Lulzsec/Antisec Hackers Fight SB1070, PoliceChinga la Migra! Here are some recent articles on the hacked websites and information that targeted Arizona police agencies in response to racism. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/hackers-slam-arizona-police-for-third.html">Hackers slam Arizona police for third time</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.heatcity.org/2011/06/minuteman-group-talked-of-shutting-down-arizona-freeway.html">Minuteman group talked of shutting down Arizona freeway</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.heatcity.org/2011/06/leaked-memo-shows-border-patrol-found-roadside-bomb-along-smuggling-route.html">Leaked memo shows Border Patrol found roadside bomb along smuggling route</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/tucson-hackers-reveal-data-targeting.html">Tucson: Hackers reveal data targeting ethnic studies</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/hackers-slam-arizona-cops-again-to.html">Hackers slam Arizona cops again to expose racism and corruption</a><br />
<br />
I know various people are making suggestions as to who could be targeted next. In my humble opinion, Arpaio might be on the top of the list, Arizona Legislative Exchange Council, Geo Group, Corrections Corporation of America, Arizona-Mexico Commission...<br />
<br />
<br />
See also: <a href="http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com/2011/07/hazy-shade-of-criminal-antisec-police.html">http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com/2011/07/hazy-shade-of-criminal-antisec-police.html</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-15106777382054272902011-06-30T22:50:00.000-07:002011-06-30T22:50:33.666-07:00OSABC: Border Patrol Headquarters Occupation Protesters Found Not Guilty-Reaffirms Call to End Border Militarization<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4iAQg2kRdM2Vx_Iwso43E20RN7W8UgTNUv5t10Or1CasPpGBTwyYgSiNl33ELACCPdMPwfFwpwKSi0MN9oWn2t-1L3yhZ567RaAr2prhYcl6bH8hiLmGsuXROHGNBxyl_IrP1Din_-10e/s1600/IMG_7175.jpg"><br />
</a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzsl3C5A5nKjaoM5gCwwNWOrSfMysvUyFcstg-dCSN58kbe5ttWR68F8VfGA2SM3Gi4K-yKFy6mHt5iE_K9fTDsOl6UV327c_JcLKByQ4Gu7tNJdkcsT3mElG6HPbpOq7D4u2a02w4Z4o/s1600/bp-protest-1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623938799546940338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzsl3C5A5nKjaoM5gCwwNWOrSfMysvUyFcstg-dCSN58kbe5ttWR68F8VfGA2SM3Gi4K-yKFy6mHt5iE_K9fTDsOl6UV327c_JcLKByQ4Gu7tNJdkcsT3mElG6HPbpOq7D4u2a02w4Z4o/s400/bp-protest-1.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYu_6_wQzs_gmgGhOkgwV9D9Q2PBHA7-_QD2uNGXMfcCmuRvYfBr0469Khx5tAPMySQBZBtzq_Dbw29BecG05CEppsUodx-jbgd3G9ZAgUF3ImhufTr2q2l3d5_0cZs1vhbWPfN9WYkbg/s1600/bpsolid.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623937428925776130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYu_6_wQzs_gmgGhOkgwV9D9Q2PBHA7-_QD2uNGXMfcCmuRvYfBr0469Khx5tAPMySQBZBtzq_Dbw29BecG05CEppsUodx-jbgd3G9ZAgUF3ImhufTr2q2l3d5_0cZs1vhbWPfN9WYkbg/s400/bpsolid.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
NEWS RELEASE<br />
DATE: Thursday June 29, 2011<br />
Contact: Alex Soto<br />
Phone: 602-881-6027<br />
Email: stopbordermilitarization@gmail.com<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Border Patrol Headquarters Occupation Protesters Found Not Guilty<br />
Reaffirms Call to End Border Militarization</span><br />
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Chuckson (Tucson), AZ - The six protesters who locked-down and occupied the United States Border Patrol (BP) – Tucson Headquarters on May 21, 2010 were found not guilty on the remaining count of a disorderly conduct "with serious disruptive behavior” charge.<br />
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The legal defense, William G. Walker and Jeffrey J. Rogers, argued that the remaining charge of disorderly conduct did not apply because it did not meet any of the statutes of the charge. After three hours of deliberation, the judge found the six not guilty.<br />
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The city prosecutor had attempted to re-introduce the previously misfiled criminal trespassing as a misdemeanor charge, but this charge was dismissed after the first trial date for the occupiers in February. After an objection by the defense, the state’s motion was denied.<br />
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<a href="http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/2011/06/border-patrol-headquarters-occupation.html">Read more...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-28157605468661540572011-06-19T14:16:00.000-07:002011-06-19T14:38:35.939-07:00Stolen Labor on Stolen LandThe video below of Harsha Walia of No One is Illegal in Canada is a couple years old, but i just came across it and wanted to share it. She addresses some of the common struggles between indigenous and immigrant communities and what solidarity looks like. These things are being increasingly discussed in Arizona. The primary issue is the marginalization of the impacts on indigenous people the border has, and in particular, how Comprehensive Immigration Reform will more than likely bring increased border militarization to indigenous communities along the border.<br />
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There is also a marginalization of local indigenous struggles in favor of a concept of pan-indigenism (if indigenous issues are brought up at all). One local struggle is against the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway extension. There was a recent action addressing a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors who has come into conflict with Arpaio over his immigration sweeps. To me, this action not only calls out Wilcox, but those who see her as an ally in the immigrants rights struggle. It has become more clear that she is not an ally (not even to migrants) especially because of her involvement in the pro-NAFTA <a href="http://azmc.org/">Arizona-Mexico Commission</a> which is a private entity influencing policy and development.<br />
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The statement says, "Mary Rose Wilcox... you continue to posit yourself as some champion of immigrant and worker rights... [W]e are pro-migrant, and in our support of immigrants who have been dispossessed by predatory American trade policies, we recognize that it is those trade policies, in particular NAFTA, that are the enemy of all workers in North America. What, then, is solidarity when you support all of these conditions that line the pockets of corporations, while keeping indigenous people, workers, and immigrants down? <br />
It is your involvement in the Arizona-Mexico Commission that signals your complicity with the exploitation caused by neo-liberal trade that continues to impact people’s lives in Mexico by dispossessing them and keeping wages in the toilet, forcing the poorest to migrate for survival... Another of the consequences of increased trade between Arizona and Mexico are the proposed freeways that would devastate the land and air, in particular the proposed Loop 202 freeway extension through the Gila River Indian Community (Akimel O’odham land). Surely, you’re aware that the tribe has opposed the freeway extension, as both District 6 in Gila River, and the tribe as a whole has previously opposed any new freeway, so it should be no surprise that there continues to be opposition..." Read the entire statement <a href="http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2011/06/oodham-to-maricopa-no-south-mountain.html">here</a>.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TOpHkCheFtc" width="560"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448522934708971158.post-71084270237882000422011-06-09T13:37:00.000-07:002011-06-09T13:38:47.274-07:00Designed to Kill: Border Policy and How to Change it (Crimethinc)<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></div><br />
This article is from the Crimethinc. reading library. I imagine it'll be printed in Rolling Thunder. It is definitely worth a read, really well written, and covers so much ground regarding the issues. If this piece of writing had existed 5 years ago, i probably wouldn't have felt so compelled to start my own writing on such subjects. <br />
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There are a few things I would've said differently, but one thing i especially wish it would've addressed more was the way the border impacts indigenous communities on the border. I think this is such an important piece of the puzzle, especially when so many anarchists and other anti-authoritarians support others' fight for Comprehensive Immigration Reform which would only contribute to more border militarization.<br />
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<a href="http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/recentfeatures/border.php">Designed to Kill: Border Policy and How to Change it</a><br />
<blockquote><br />
<a href="http://thecloud.crimethinc.com/images/border/4b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://thecloud.crimethinc.com/images/border/4b.jpg" width="400" /></a>For a number of years now I’ve worked in the desert on the Mexican-American border with a group that provides humanitarian aid to migrants who are attempting to enter the United States—a journey that claims hundreds of lives every year. We’ve spent years mapping the trails that cross this desert. We walk the trails, find places to leave food and water along them, look for people in distress, and provide medical care when we run into someone who needs it. If the situation is bad enough, we can get an ambulance or helicopter to bring people to the hospital. We strive to act in accordance with the migrants’ wishes at all times, and we never call the Border Patrol on people who don’t want to turn themselves in.<br />
During this time I’ve been a part of many extraordinary situations and I’ve heard about many more. Some of the things I’ve seen have been truly heartwarming, and some of them have been deeply sad and wrong. I’ve seen people who were too weak to stand, too sick to hold down water, hurt too badly to continue, too scared to sleep, too sad for words, hopelessly lost, desperately hungry, literally dying of thirst, never going to be able to see their children again, vomiting blood, penniless in torn shoes two thousand miles from home, suffering from heat stroke, kidney damage, terrible blisters, wounds, hypothermia, post-traumatic stress, and just about every other tribulation you could possibly think of. I’ve been to places where people were robbed and raped and murdered; my friends have found bodies. In addition to bearing witness to others’ suffering, I myself have fallen off of cliffs, torn my face open on barbed wire, run out of water, had guns pointed at me, been charged by bulls and circled by vultures, jumped over rattlesnakes, pulled pieces of cactus out of many different parts of my body with pliers, had to tear off my pants because they were full of fire ants, gotten gray hairs, and in general poured no small amount of my own sweat, blood, and tears into the thirsty desert. <a href="http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/recentfeatures/border.php">Read more...</a></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0