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Web Link to Aztlannet_News Report:
http://aztlannet-news-blog.blogspot.com/2006/10/lunes-octubre-30-2006-aztlannetnews.html
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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/30/1535230
Monday, October 30th, 2006
Report from Oaxaca: Federal Police Do Not Have Control of the City
From Democracy Now!
Mexican President Vicente Fox has sent in thousands of federal police to Oaxaca to crush the popular uprising there. We go to Oaxaca to speak with Gustavo Esteva, founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca. Esteva says, "The police can come and occupy with all their weapons and tanks. They can occupy one area, they can occupy one specific point, but they cannot control the city. They cannot take over our lives and our country." [includes rush transcript]
We turn now to Oaxaca where Mexican President Vicente Fox has sent in thousands of federal police to crush the popular uprising.
Last night police stormed the city with armored vehicles, helicopters and water cannons. The police seized control of the city square.
Over the past four months, the residents of Oaxaca - sparked by a teachers strike - had turned the city into an autonomous zone. The police and official government had been kicked out - in its place the protesters formed the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca or APPO.
For months entire families have been camping outside to oversee barricades protecting the city. The protesters have been demanding the resignation of the state's governor Ulises Ruiz and the formation of a more representative government.
But in recent weeks the authorities have used increasingly violent tactics to crush the largely non-violent movement.
On Friday gunmen linked to the government shot dead the New York Indymedia journalist and activist Brad Will as well as a local teacher named Emilio Alonso Fabian and a demonstrator named Esteban Zurita. Two more protesters were shot dead on Sunday.
We talk more about Brad Will's life later in the show but first we go to Oaxaca to speak with Gustavo Esteva. He is the founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca and author of many books including "Grassroots Post-modernism: Remaking the Soil of Culture." Gustavo is also a columnist for La Jornada.
Gustavo Esteva, founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca and author of many books including "Grassroots Post-modernism: Remaking the Soil of Culture." Gustavo has also been a columnist for La Jornada.
AMY GOODMAN: We’ll talk more about Brad Will’s life in the program. But first, we go to Oaxaca to speak to Gustavo Esteva. He is the founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca and author of many books, including Grassroots Post-Modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures. Gustavo is also a columnist for La Jornada. We welcome you to Democracy Now!
GUSTAVO ESTEVA: Good morning. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Can you talk about the latest news right out of Oaxaca -- the storming of the city square by the federal police?
GUSTAVO ESTEVA: Well, basically, we have at least three persons dead. We have also lots of injured, people disappeared, and many people in jail. And they are transporting them to the military zone, involving the army in this illegally. And we have reports that some of them are being tortured.
The police is occupying several points in the city. What was most impressive yesterday, it was an amazing self-restraint of thousands of people, due to the decision of not confronting the police and abandoning the area for the police to occupy it, but then, immediately after that, surrounding the police. And then you have, yes, the police is occupying these critical strategic points, but the people are surrounding them. They are not in control of the city; the people are still in control of the city, of our lives, not confronting, using nonviolence.
I don’t know for how long we will be able to control the rage of the people to have this self-restraint. Yesterday, you could see many adults controlling the rage of the young people that wanted to attack. These are people that have been humiliated, offended, attacked and oppressed, and they have a lot of anger. But still, they controlled their anger and decided to use nonviolence. But we don't know for how long we will be able to control the young people that are ready to confront the police and start more violence.
AMY GOODMAN: Gustavo, I want to play for you part of one of the last interviews that Brad Will conducted before his death. It was with a female protester in Oaxaca. We don’t know her name, but the footage was found on Brad’s last videotape.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: [translated] From the pickup you see over there, two men got out, gun in hand, and started shooting at us. From that pickup over there, they went there. Then they started attacking us. That’s why all the people came outside to defend us. This morning, one of our comrades was kidnapped. He was taken by three men, and he hasn’t been found yet. That’s why they burned that pickup.
These guys are the priistas, members of the PRI, from the municipality of Santa Maria Ixcotel, and are paid for by the PRI. They’re paid 300 pesos a day to come and beat us up.
As you can see, we’re not teachers here. We’re just people. We are people here, not teachers. We’re people, not teachers. We’re just people, the people fighting for our rights. We don't want to live like this anymore. We don't want to live in a constant state of repression, of blackmail, of murder and shabby deals. When Ulises leaves Oaxaca, at that moment we will have peace. If he does not leave, we are not going to leave Oaxaca.
AMY GOODMAN: Gustavo, can you respond to what this protester said?
GUSTAVO ESTEVA: Yes. First, what they are doing, this woman is expressing exactly the very nature of our movement: it’s basically democracy now. And, of course, we can specify what kind of democracy we are looking for. Of course, we want a formal democracy. We want cleaner elections. We want legitimate representatives, not an illegitimate governor, as Ulises Ruiz, or an illegitimate president, as Felipe Calderon. But we want also participatory democracy -- that is, the involvement of the citizens in the decisions, including referendum and recall and all these tools for direct democracy. But we also want radical democracy, what we have in our municipalities, in our communities, when the people themselves, through assemblies, they can take decisions about their lives. We want democracy now.
And this is a peaceful, democratic uprising of the people, trying to follow all the lines of the paths of the law or the institutions, trying to respect the law and the institutions, trying to be nonviolent, and attacked by the police, attacked by these people. This woman was showing what we had in photos and videos, what blood was happening. The video of blood, the last video of blood is showing the killers. And the killers, we have the faces, we have the names, We have identified everyone. It is people of the police, people of respecting, following instructions of police. This is a governor launching guerrilla attacks against unarmed people. This is the kind of situation in which we are here.
AMY GOODMAN: Indymedia journalist Brad Will had been covering the situation in Oaxaca for four weeks. In his last dispatch from Oaxaca, he wrote about a demonstrator named Alejandro Garcia Hernandez, who was killed on the barricades. Brad wrote, quote, “one more death -- one more martyr in a dirty war -- one more time to cry and hurt -- one more time to know power and its ugly head -- one more bullet cracks the night.” Well, on Friday, Brad Will died at those same barricades. He had his video camera in his hand. His camera kept recording, even after he was shot.
[footage from Brad Will’s camera]
AMY GOODMAN: Brad Will died as he was being taken to the hospital. He was 36 years old. The Mexican daily, El Universal, has published photos of the alleged executioners. On Saturday, the mayor of Santa Lucia del Camino, Manuel Martinez Feria, said five men had been turned over to state authorities for possible involvement in the killing. He identified them as two members of the local city hall, two municipal police officers and the former justice of the peace of a nearby town.
Reporters Without Borders said it was deeply shocked over the killing of Brad Will. The organization called for Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz to be summoned before the new prosecutor's office dealing with attacks on press freedom. It also urged federal authorities to investigate Ortiz and the Oaxaca municipal police.
John Gibler, as well, joins us on the phone from Oaxaca, an independent journalist who knew Brad Will. John Gibler, can you talk about Brad?
JOHN GIBLER: I met Brad in Chiapas, when the Zapatistas’ Other Campaign began last January. We traveled together with a number of other people throughout a month, as we were filming -- or he was filming. I was mainly conducting interviews and writing for ZNet about the people, the everyday people who were coming out to join the Zapatistas’ movement there.
And then I saw him in the streets about a month ago here in Oaxaca for the first time since then, and we went off to get coffee and talked about what was going on. He said he had been trying to get here more or less since the state police came in the June 14th crackdown. It had taken him time to work up enough money to come down here and take time off work. And he was most interested in filming interviews with just the everyday people and the people that he thought their voices would slip through the cracks in international media coverage and not get out to the people that he was hoping would be paying attention to what was happening here in Oaxaca.
At first, he was saying he was really nervous. He didn’t want to walk around the barricades at night until he kind of got a feel for the town, which I thought was definitely very wise, and spent a couple of weeks just going out and hitting all the barricades, all the protest encampments, and conducting hours and hours of interviews with people. I saw him in several of the mobile brigades, where we joined the people who had commandeered city buses and go around to spray paint government offices. And he was definitely fearless, once he had gotten a feeling for the town, and just going wherever the action was. But he was also being smart. He was hanging out with all the national and the local press corps here who know the scene pretty well. But you can only be so smart when paramilitaries jump out of houses with machine guns.
AMY GOODMAN: Gustavo Esteva, you also knew Brad Will. You also, in addition to founding the University of the Land in Oaxaca, are a columnist for La Jornada, the Mexican newspaper.
GUSTAVO ESTEVA: Yes, yes. He was coming to our office. We were collaborating with Indymedia. And he was fantastic. I liked the guy a lot. He had a peculiar genius for reporting, and he was, of course, very courageous. Yes, he was prudent, as was just mentioned, but he was very courageous. He had no limits on his activity with the people, and he shared this element of being unarmed and doing his things and being attacked by these people. Yes, he had a peculiar genius for reporting.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to go to break, and when we come back we’ll continue this discussion and also the extended struggle, why the teachers originally went out on strike five months ago. We’re talking to Gustavo Esteva. He is a columnist for La Jornada. We’re also speaking with John Gibler. He is a U.S. journalist who is based in Oaxaca, like Brad Will, who was killed on Friday at one of the barricades, shot by men who have been identified and apparently have been taken into custody. The break today is Brad Will singing.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Federal police have laid siege to the city square in Oaxaca, as of last night. We’re talking today also about one of the people who were killed over the weekend. It’s believed six people were killed. Our guests are Gustavo Esteva, columnist for La Jornada, as well as in John Gibler, a U.S.-based journalist who is in Oaxaca right now and has been reporting for us. Gustavo, can you go back and talk about why the teachers went on strike five months ago? What is the significance of this uprising that has taken place?
GUSTAVO ESTEVA: Well, the question was that the teachers started their strike, as usual. Every year, they are forced to do this kind of strike to get some improvement in their terrible conditions, terrible economic condition. But that was not something special. That was the usual thing.
But then, after three weeks of their strike, on June 14th, they suffered a terrible, stupid, barbaric repression by the police of Ulises Ruiz, the governor, and that was the detonator of the movement. People started to react immediately, joining and supporting, expressing solidarity with the teachers and expressing the decision to oust the governor. And then this was the detonator of the accumulated discontent of the whole state.
After that, five days later, we have APPO, the creation of this Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca. We have a march of almost a million people. That is a third of the population of the state. We have every kind of activities after that, with -- that was the consolidation, the expression of a very well organized discontent of the people. This is a movement without leaders, in which the people themselves, very well organized, with amazing courage and amazing capacity of expressing their will. They are organized first to oust this governor, and then to change our society, to create a different kind of society. We don’t want anymore this kind -- as the woman said, we don’t want anymore this kind of repression, of corrupt government, of imposition of authoritarianism, and we want a different kind of conviviality in our lives.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting, Gustavo, that you said that, in fact, the federal police don't have control of the city, whether or not they’ve taken the city square. It’s certainly not what’s being reported in the U.S. press. The reports are that Vicente Fox, as a result of an American journalist being killed and others, moved in thousands of federal police to restore order to Oaxaca, and they have taken the city.
GUSTAVO ESTEVA: Well, the disorder has not been created by the people. It has been created by this barbaric, psychopathic governor. You see hired killers, and you’ve seen the structures of authority, that should protect the law, to violate the law. It is not the people themselves who have created disorder in the city. That is the alibi of President Fox, using the police to support this governor in a very peculiar structure of cynicism and complicity. It is a combination that is forcing the people of Oaxaca to pay a very heavy price for a democratic, peaceful struggle.
And I cannot avoid but remembering, it was Napoleon, they say, who said that “My units can be used for many things, except to sit on them.” You cannot govern or control the city with the police. The police, yes, can kill us. The police can come and occupy with all their weapons, with all their tanks. They can occupy one plaza. They can occupy one specific point, but they cannot control the city. They cannot govern the city. They cannot govern our lives and our conscience. We are in control of the city and in control of our lives. And we will surround these police with our bare hands, and we will still control our lives, not the police.
AMY GOODMAN: John Gibler, this report of the five men that have been taken and that Gustavo also commented on -- on Saturday, the mayor of Santa Lucia del Camino said five men had been turned over to state authorities for the killing, identified as two members of the local city hall, two municipal police officers, the former justice of the peace of a nearby town. Just before Brad Will was killed, you did a piece on paramilitaries and death squads. Can you talk about them?
JOHN GIBLER: Absolutely. It's really important to remember, and this kind of reinforces Gustavo’s point about who creates disorder in Oaxaca. Since August, paramilitary groups who have been identified in photographs have been driving through the city killing protesters at barricades, and they’ve been doing this with total impunity. The fact that they’ve claimed to have apprehended and turned over to authorities the five gunmen who were killing people on Friday is of little consolation, since they’ve had these people identified for months. And the very authorities themselves have taken steps back to actually trying to enforce the law and bring the gunmen to any kind of justice. Both the government and most of the press, especially the international press, has made much more of a fuss about protesters wearing bandannas and spray painting pretty buildings than they have about paramilitary death squads who have been driving around town, with total impunity, killing people for months.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn now to the response in New York to Brad Will being killed. And also, I want to let our radio listeners know that we are broadcasting this on television, of course, as we do every day, and all of the video here is available online at democracynow.org. But in New York, demonstrators gathering outside the Mexican consulate this morning at 9:00 a.m. to protest the murder of Brad Will and the killing of other peaceful protesters in Oaxaca.
Brad Will was a well-known and much loved activist and journalist in New York and around the world. He was involved in countless struggles over the past decade. Many in New York remember him standing on the roof of a squat on 5th Street in Manhattan just as New York was trying to demolish the building. The scene was captured in a documentary made by Paper Tiger Television. Brad would later play a key role in trying to protect the city's community gardens. He hosted his own radio show on the pioneering microradio station, Steal This Radio. For years he was involved in the Indymedia network in New York, as well as in Latin America. He spent much of the past few years documenting the peoples’ movements in Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, most recently Mexico.
On Saturday night, an emergency rally was held outside the Mexican consulate in New York. Speakers included longtime New York activist Beka Economopoulos.
BEKA ECONOMOPOULOS: Our friend Brad Will was murdered by government-backed paramilitary forces in Oaxaca, Mexico. Now Brad’s death is being used as a pretext by the government and the media to send in more of those same troops. Brad was there to support and document the resistance of teachers and other civilians. We demand that his death not be used as an excuse to increase of the oppression and violence against the people of Oaxaca by government forces.
In solidarity with the people of Oaxaca, we demand that the federal government negotiate directly with people on the barricades in Oaxaca, remove all armed forces acting on behalf of the government against the people, the immediate removal of the illegitimate governor, Ruiz, all guilty parties at all levels be identified and held accountable for the assassination of Brad Will and other civilian victims in Oaxaca. We make these demands in support of the Oaxacan people’s efforts to establish a new autonomous popular government that recognizes local traditions and values.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Beka Economopoulos. Brandon Jourdon of the New York City Independent Media Center also spoke outside the Mexican consulate.
BRANDON JOURDON: Brad Will went to Oaxaca, because he was a firm believer in direct democracy. He went there to document what was happening amongst people there, who are trying to create a system of direct democracy. He died doing what he loved. He died with his passion, doing media activism and creating a radical alternative to the corporate media.
The Independent Media Center is a network of over 160 Independent Media Centers worldwide. This developed out of the movement against corporate globalization in 1999 in Seattle. Brad was a volunteer from the very beginning. Brad was close to all of us. He will be missed. He was a wonderful, gentle, beautiful person.
AMY GOODMAN: Indymedia journalist Brandon Jourdan outside the Mexican consulate.
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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/30/1535244
Monday, October 30th, 2006
Brad Will In His Own Words: Archival Footage of Slain Journalist and Activist Discussing the Importance of Community Media and the Struggle Against NYC Demolition of a Lower East Side Squat
We turn to some archival footage of Brad Will, the U.S. journalist and activist shot dead in Oaxaca on Friday. We play a recording of Brad from the late 1990s at a time when he hosted a radio show on the pioneering microradio station "Steal This Radio" and a recording of Brad talking about efforts to prevent New York City from demolishing a squat on the Lower East Side. [includes rush transcript]
We turn to some archival footage of Brad Will. The following was recorded in the late 1990s at a time when he hosted a radio show on the pioneering microradio station Steal This Radio.
Brad Will, speaking in 1998. Courtesy of Paper Tiger Television.
Brad is also remembered by many for his efforts to prevent the city from demolishing a squat on the Lower East Side. When the city moved in to demolish the building on Fifth Street he stood atop the roof waving his arms. Brad's efforts stalled the demolition but the city eventually leveled the building which housed a cafe, a meeting place and a performance space. Brad later talked about the building in a program produced by Paper Tiger Television called "ABC Survives, Fifth Street Buried Alive."
Brad Will, excerpt of program, "ABC Survives, Fifth Street Buried Alive." Courtesy of Paper Tiger Television.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn to some archival footage of Brad Will. This was recorded in the late 1990s at a time when he hosted a radio show on the pioneering microradio station, “Steal This Radio.”
BRAD WILL: I think for the FCC, micro media that is non-commercial, anti-profit, community-based, is poison to their program of supporting corporate control of the media. And what they are interested in is supporting the National Association of Broadcasting and their complete leveling of culture in the United States, their complete clear-cutting of American tastes and values and trying to propagate through Congress, through elected officials, through lobbyists, through huge amounts of money being thrown into the media spectrum, their ability to control what people think. And that’s really what’s at stake, is the free flow of ideas in people's minds that is so much controlled by the media as we know it and especially the mass media that has the public ear and that really dominates people's lives.
You know, New York is a very isolating place in a lot of ways, and I think the Lower East Side is one of the few places that’s actually still a community. And it’s easy for people to kind of fall into that go home, turn on the TV and eat their dinner and try to survive mentality that takes so many people away from an awareness of what’s really going on, and on a micro level, on a local level, a community level, you know, that there’s a community space right down the block that’s under threat. You know, CHARAS/El Bohio has been sold by the city, and it can be stopped. And what people need to know is that it’s possible, it’s not over, or that even if one garden falls, that there are still so many more to save and that there’s still a chance.
And the concrete things is that people come up to me and talk to me about things they want to be heard on the radio, events that they want to propagate and demonstrations that they want people to show up for. And, you know, people come up to me and tell me about my show and are really appreciative, you know, about what I’m trying to do and what we’re all trying to do: save this neighborhood, save ourselves.
AMY GOODMAN: Brad Will is also remembered by many for his efforts to prevent New York City from demolishing a squat on the Lower East Side. When the city moved in to demolish the building on Fifth Street, he stood atop the roof waving his arms. Brad’s efforts stalled the demolition, but the city eventually leveled the building, which housed a café, a meeting place and a performance space. Brad later talked about the building in a program produced by Paper Tiger Television called ABC Survives, Fifth Street Buried Alive.
BRAD WILL: We were making a home out of a crumbling building. The interior of the building needed help, and we brought that building back to life. It was standing strong. And the only reason it was standing was because people were living in it. If we had let it go the way the city wanted it to go -- they tore out the stairwell, they punched holes in the roof. The water -- the rain was rotting that building from the inside out. We replaced the joists. We rebuilt the floors. We sheetrocked the walls and made the building alive. What did they do? They killed it. That building is over a hundred years old. It was standing strong.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Brad Will, as he was talking about squats in New York. Leslie Kauffman, can you talk about these squats, for people who have never even heard the term?
LESLIE KAUFFMAN: Well, they were abandoned buildings that had been just standing vacant for years and years all over the city, but there was a particularly strong movement to rehabilitate these buildings in the Lower East Side. And really, they were homesteaders. I mean, it’s a longstanding all-American tradition. They took over these abandoned properties, and they fixed them up and created spaces for people to live who had nowhere to live, and much as those who created the community gardens in New York City were homesteaders, too. They took over abandoned lots and cleared them of bottles and used needles and all the garbage that was there and turned them into spaces of beauty and hope.
And Brad so much believed in creating that kind of hope and beauty in the world and found himself in conflict with the authorities over and over again, because, for example, the City of New York wouldn’t let that stand, wouldn’t let the squats continue, wouldn’t let homesteaders get the deed to their own place, wouldn’t let the community gardens flourish.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go back to Gustavo Esteva in Oaxaca, the columnist for La Jornada. You knew Brad, and I was wondering the significance of having U.S. journalists and activists come down to Oaxaca. How do you see it?
GUSTAVO ESTEVA: He was in our office a week ago. And you have been listening to some examples of Brad’s passion for life and beauty. He had a genius to discover where life was, where it was flourishing, and sharing his own passion with our passion for life. It is really one of the many paradoxes that he died in his search for life. And it is also a paradox that he is now being used as a subtext for more killing and more oppression. His death is really used now by the authorities saying that it is a justification, it is because of this kind of violence that they are bringing in the police for more oppression and more aggression and more killings.
Yes, Brad was with us just a few days ago in our office, with our people, working together. We have been involved in one of the activities of Indymedia. And he was with us and with [inaudible] -- that is one of our collaborators. He was very close to [inaudible], and both [inaudible] and Brad were working together in their supporting. And, of course, also Brad had this specific genius for reporting what was happening, what he was capturing, these living elements that he was discovering in the middle of the movement.
AMY GOODMAN: John Gibler, there is a protest planned for today in Oaxaca?
JOHN GIBLER: Correct. They’ve -- yesterday the APPO provisional leaders, and as well just the word that was running through the crowds on the street, was to pull back at night, to not fall into provocations, to not fall into violence, to take back the streets during the daytime today.
As Gustavo mentioned, the control of the city depends how you define “control.” If it's presence of armor and automatic weapons, then the mainstream media might think that the police have control. But if it’s the spirit of the people and the people taking to the streets, even in the face of continued paramilitary attacks and the police invasion, then the people of Oaxaca strongly retain control of the city.
I was greatly impressed yesterday by the numbers of people that came out to fill the barricades, and people from all walks of life, entire families, people holding their children, walking right up to the police to put flowers in their armor and then march with them instead of confronting them. And I think that the response today will be similar, that it will be thousands and thousands of people taking to the streets to march and to stand in the barricades.
AMY GOODMAN: Gustavo Esteva, do you see Oaxaca today as Chiapas, what, more than ten years ago?
GUSTAVO ESTEVA: We are the same. Chiapas is still alive here in Oaxaca. And in a sense, we are a fruit of Chiapas. It was an awakening created by Chiapas. When in Chiapas ten years ago they said, “Basta! Enough! We have enough of this system, of this oppression,” that was something that awakened us here in Oaxaca. We had, of course, our own long struggle, but Chiapas is here with us right now. We are joining in the same kind of struggle for democracy now, for our definition of our own life. “We want to define us,” the Zapatistas said. This is exactly what we are saying today in Oaxaca. We want a world in which many worlds can be embraced. We want a harmonious coexistence of the difference.
Perhaps the Oaxaca movement today, it is one of the best expressions of one element, brilliant element, of contemporary movements all over the world. That is, a policy of one no, many yeses, in which in the past you had movements that would have one no and one yes and saying an affirmation to something and denial to something. Here, we have a no to something and accepting the plurality of yeses, the plurality of affirmations, the plurality of life. Here in Oaxaca, you have -- this is the only state, in which the majority of people are Indians, and they belong to sixteen different indigenous cultures. Here, we have the plurality as -- it is also natural and cultural plurality via diversity. And you have this expression of a movement that is saying no to this government or no to this oppression, no to this kind of political regime, no to this kind of economic organization. But we are accepting, we are not attached to any specific ideology or any specific leader or any specific organization. We have many yeses. We are accepting the plurality of our world, and we want to find ways for the harmonious coexistence of these different people.
AMY GOODMAN: Gustavo Esteva, we are going to turn now to a tribute to Brad Will from his friend and fellow musician, David Rovics.
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http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/10/30/1535249
Monday, October 30th, 2006
David Rovics Pays Tribute to Fellow Musician and Friend Brad Will
Musician David Rovics, pays tribute to his friend, Brad Will, the U.S. journalist and activist shot dead in Oaxaca on Friday. Rovics says, "For those of us alive today who had the honor of being one of Brad's large circle of friends, his memory will be with us painfully, deeply, lovingly, until we all join him beneath the ground -- hopefully only after each of us has managed to have the kind of impact on each other, on the movement, and the world that Brad surely had in his short 36 years." [includes rush transcript]
We end today's show with a tribute to Brad Will from his friend and fellow musician, David Rovics. David Rovics, musician remembers his friend, Brad Will.
Website:http://www.DavidRovics.com/
AMY GOODMAN: Gustavo Esteva, we are going to turn now to a tribute to Brad Will from his friend and fellow musician, David Rovics.
DAVID ROVICS: Brad embodied the spirit of Indymedia. He was not just covering stories that the mainstream press ignores, such as the exciting violent revolutionary moment, which has gripped Oaxaca for several months now. Brad was not risking his life to get a good shot at a confrontation at a barricade because he might get a photo on the cover of a newspaper, get some perhaps well-deserved fame and money. He was posting his communiques on Indymedia for free.
Sure, Brad was filming in order to cover history, but he was there also to make history. Brad knew that a camera is a weapon, or hopefully a shield of some sort, and sometimes can serve to deescalate a situation, to protect people from being violated, beaten, killed. And Brad knew that if the independent media didn’t document history, nobody else would.
Brad deeply appreciated the power of music and culture. If he did not have a camera in his hands, he often had a guitar. During some of his many travels around Latin America, he wrote emails to me about the musicians he met, with whom he shared my songs and recordings. He particularly liked my song “Saint Patrick Battalion” and reportedly shared his rendition of it with lots of people. He would not live to know just how much his life and death would resemble the San Patricios who died fighting for Mexico during the first and the U.S. invasion of that country in the 1840s.
Through all Brad did and saw on large swaths of three different continents, he somehow continually brought with him a boundless enthusiasm and obvious love of life, love of good parties and good riot. He was my favorite kind of person, my favorite kind of revolutionary: the sort who is just as comfortable talking about revolutionary theory, current events, music, relationships or smoking a bowl on a Manhattan rooftop at sunset, the kind of person who was alive in mind, body, and spirit in equal proportions.
Brad became a radical long before it was briefly fashionable in the U.S. with the WTO protests in Seattle and long since it became unfashionable there -- September 11, 2001. The kinds of tactics and politics that the global justice movement became briefly known for were practiced by people like Brad in the squatters movement in New York City and the radical environmental movement on the West Coast in the ’90s. Brad was in both places and many more. Brad was somewhere near the ground floor of many other more recent anarchist institutions: Food Not Bombs, Critical Mass, Reclaim the Streets, guerrilla gardening, Indymedia. He saw the connections, deeply understood the concept of the commons and went for it as an activist, a video journalist, a musician and a cheerleader.
There have been many debates about whether it is more useful to organize large events or to focus on community organizing locally, whether to focus on recording history or making it, whether to educate or to act, whether to have a party or have a meeting. Brad clearly decided that the correct answer is “all of the above.” The reality of this is easy to demonstrate. Talk to anybody in New York City involved with just about any aspect of the progressive movement. It’s a city of eight million people, but if they are serious participants in the more grassroots end of the movement, they know Brad, though they may not have known his last name. He was just Brad, the tall, thin guy with long hair, who was often flashing a warm, gentle smile with a compassionate, intelligent glint in his eye. He was often described with a connector, like Brad from Indymedia, or Brad from More Gardens, or Brad the musician.
I haven’t seen him in a while, several months at least. But suddenly, I miss him so much. I miss hanging out with him in the Lower East Side, chilling at his place there, swapping stories. I miss the rejuvenating warmth of his presence. I miss the unspoken mutual admiration. I miss the feeling that I was in the presence of someone who so deeply felt his connection to the world, the feeling that here was somebody who would die for me, and me for him, no questions asked. And now, like so many others before him, he has done just that.
Like all of the rest of us over the generations, his memory will fade and eventually disappear. But for those of us alive today who had the honor of being one of Brad's large circle of friends, his memory will be with us painfully, deeply, lovingly, until we all join him beneath the ground, hopefully only after each of us has managed to have the kind of impact on each other, on the movement and the world that Brad surely had in his short 36 years.
AMY GOODMAN: David Rovics, musician, remembering his fellow musician, also journalist and activist, Brad Will. Dyan Neary, we end with you.
DYAN NEARY: Wow, that was really hard to see, but it was really good to see his face and hear his voice again. I miss him to death. My life is forever changed. I mean, it was, from the day I met him. But I’ve been thinking a lot about him in just the last few days, how much he’s affected my life and how much he made me want to be a better -- not just a better warrior, but a better human being, because he was such a good person and a good friend. I love you.
AMY GOODMAN: Dyan, thanks so much for being so brave as to come on today, and Leslie Kauffman and our friends in Oaxaca, Gustavo Esteva and John Gibler.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/10/30/critics_slam_proposed_fees_us_citizenship_rules/
October 30, 2006
Critics slam proposed fees, US citizenship rules
By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES -- Advocacy groups are decrying an array of proposed federal immigration measures, including application fee increases and online filing requirements, that they say will sharply reduce the ability of some legal immigrants to become US citizens.
President Bush signed a bill last week authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the US-Mexico border. Immigrant rights groups say that the US Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services is erecting a regulatory "second wall" that would disproportionately hurt Mexican immigrants, who tend to be less educated and earn lower incomes than others.
Last week, a coalition of more than 230 religious, labor, and immigrant rights groups delivered a letter to Emilio González, citizenship bureau director, expressing strong concern about application fee increases that could more than double to $800, a mandatory online filing system, extensive new paperwork, and a revised history and civics test they say could be more difficult.
"Together they appear to us a clear strategy pursued through administrative fiat to make the dream of American citizenship unattainable for many lower-income, less-educated immigrants," said the letter, which was initiated by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
US immigration officials deny any partisan motives. They say they are aiming to make the system more efficient, financially self-sustaining, and better able to ensure that new citizens understand foundational American values and historical events.
In 1997, the US Commission on Immigration Reform recommended some of the initiatives, including the move to automation and a revised test . The final proposals are expected to be announced in the next few months and would take 12 to 18 months to implement.
To become citizens, legal permanent residents must live in the United States five years, or three if they are married to a US citizen or serve in the military. They must also pass English and civics tests, be of "good moral character" and take an oath of allegiance.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1030/p07s02-woam.html
From the October 30, 2006 Edition
Federal police intervene in Mexico unrest
President Fox dispatched forces this weekend in bid to quell violent protests in southern town of Oaxaca.
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
MEXICO CITY: Five months after leftist protesters occupied the center of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, President Vicente Fox sent federal security forces this weekend to resolve a deadly conflict that has stained the image of a town famed for its colonial facades and gourmet food.
The move came after three men, including an American journalist, were killed Friday by gun-fire. But for many it comes five months too late, and at too high a price.
Like their counterparts in the US, Mexico's federal police are only ordered to resolve local or state conflicts in extreme circumstances. But this protest, which began in May as a teachers' strike for higher pay and morphed into an unwavering demand for the governor's resignation, has long since turned acute. Protesters have barricaded the center of town and chased local police from the streets. At least six people have been killed. Children have missed 100 days of class, and the tourist sector has lost millions of dollars.
Many say the violence has been left to simmer in large part because of a power vacuum after the July 2 presidential election, the closest in the country's history. Although the crisis is motivated by local factors, intervention has national consequences.
"The [Fox administration] has not stepped in because of how complicated the situation is politically," says Alberto Aziz, an analyst at the Center for Research and Higher Learning in Social Anthropology who has studied civil resistance movements in Mexico. "The federal government has not resolved it for the sake of a political alliance."
Political considerations: Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftist candidate who lost the race, has declared the presidential elections fraudulent and illegitimate. The ensuing political divisions have left many to believe that the only way to push through legislation is an alliance between the National Action Party (PAN), to which President Fox and incoming president Felipe Calderón belong, and the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the party of Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz.
"This is an extreme expression of a power vacuum in Mexico politics," says John Ackerman, a law professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "It shows the desperate need of the PAN to maintain PRI support. If not [López Obrador's party] gets more powerful, and the opposition becomes more threatening."
Situation brewing since May: The teachers' strike, which began five months ago, drew protesters from across the state under an umbrella group, called the Oaxaca People's Popular Assembly. They have maintained that they will stop at nothing short of the resignation of Governor Ruiz.
Violence ensued Friday when gunmen attempted to remove a street blockade. Bradley Roland Will of New York, an independent journalist, was shot in the stomach and died later at a hospital. The next day, Fox, who had been resisting pressure to use force in Oaxaca, ordered federal police to intervene. The forces, clad in riot gear and backed by trucks and helicopters took positions on the edges of the city Sunday.
Some in Oaxaca are suspicious that the Fox administration is only taking action now because a foreigner was killed, fueling even more distrust. "That would pain me if it were true," says Fredy Alcantara, the president of the hotel and motel association of Oaxaca. "A Mexican life counts as much as a foreigner's."
Thousands of striking teachers are scheduled to return to classes Monday, while other protesters prepared for resistance.
Some fear that federal force will not resolve the conflict, and that it might just provoke more violence. "What the government should have done was find a way for the governor to step down," says Mr. Aziz.
Still, the government intervention came as a relief to many. Mr. Alcantara says that the tourist sector has lost $440 million in five months, and that the school's 1.3 million children have lost some 100 days of classes.
"In Oaxaca, we have been waiting for this for five months," Alcantara says. "We have lost our liberties, free transit, the education of our children, cultural celebrations, the ability to walk outside at night," he says. "We have been kidnapped by radical groups, and the government should have intervened after the first day."
• Ms. Llana is Latin America correspondent for the Monitor and USA Today. Wire services were used in this report.
Full HTML version of this story may include photos, graphics, and related links
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http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB8H80DWTE.html
Published: Oct 30, 2006
Initiative Urges Latinos To Vote
By CHRIS ECHEGARAY The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - Caesar Gonzmart organized his voter registration table at Curtis Hixon Park well before the first citizen-to-be arrived for a naturalization ceremony.
After they swore their allegiance to the United States, the new Americans swarmed him. Tall and lanky, wearing a toothy grin, Gonzmart swiftly signed up a Colombian woman - sprinkling a little Spanish into that conversation - and Indian and Vietnamese men to vote.
He's the first Hispanic community liaison for Hillsborough County's supervisor of elections - an acknowledgement of a Latino population that has more than doubled since 1990 in the county. Gonzmart is in charge of voter education and enrollment.
"There's a keen interest to make sure Hispanics have every opportunity to avail themselves, as all voters should, of the election process," said Gonzmart, 62.
Gonzmart's Oct. 1 hiring coincides with a statewide and national push by grassroots organizations to register Latino voters. For instance, Democracia U.S.A., a national nonpartisan group, has registered more than 105,000 people this year, more than half in Florida.
With the general elections Nov. 7, some criticize the Supervisor of Elections Office for not hiring someone sooner.
In Hillsborough County, there are 65,096 Latinos registered to vote in this year's elections. There are 124,288 Latinos of voting age, according to 2000 census data. Overall, there are 624,293 registered voters in the county and 745,810 residents of voting age.
Gonzmart Family Has Deep Roots
Latinos in Hillsborough County will respond to Gonzmart's initiative, according to Jorge Mursuli, vice president for Hispanic affairs and executive director for Democracia U.S.A., in Miami.
During the Mi Familia Vota (My Family Votes) project, Mursuli's group registered 6,442 Latinos in the county in 2004, a presidential election year.
"That position in the elections office is a good example of what I think other places should do," Mursuli said. "It's a fallacy when people think Hispanics don't vote. They don't necessarily know how to vote. You have to engage them more in the process."
The Gonzmart name is intertwined with Tampa's history. The family has been here for more than 100 years and their historic landmark, the Columbia restaurant, is synonymous with Ybor City. They are linked to fundraisers for charities or at the forefront of benefits.
Their tradition of public service is what attracted Gonzmart, whose two brothers own and operate the Columbia, to his new position created this month.
Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson said he's counting on the Gonzmart name recognition in reaching the Hispanic electorate.
"I sure don't think it hurts," Johnson said. "He's doing a wonderful job. We wanted the right person."
He hired Gonzmart as a consultant in August and gave him the full-time position Oct. 1 with a $65,000 salary. Johnson said it was the timing of the position and Gonzmart's intellect that made it a fit.
Gonzmart, a self-proclaimed historian, studied the city's past and its role in the Cuban revolution. Politicians and revolutionaries made Tampa a campaign stomping ground.
He said Tampa was once a hotbed of Latino politics and he sees the opportunity to bring back a level of interest. As the Hispanic population has grown, so has the number of Hispanic candidates. In 2002, there were four Latinos on the ballot. This year, there are eight.
Gonzmart was reticent to talk about what the increase in Latino candidates may mean for Latino election participation. He likes to stay focused on the education and registration aspects of the process.
"What I'm doing is apolitical," Gonzmart said. "But this is a very dynamic environment, and it's one of the most populous counties with Hispanics."
Childhood Spent Away At School
The eldest of three brothers, Gonzmart spent most of his childhood in a military academy in Miami. During summer vacation, he went fishing in Boca Ciega Bay and visited with family and friends.
After graduating from the academy, Gonzmart went to George Washington University for a bachelor's degree in Latin American affairs and to Florida State University for a master's in international affairs.
He worked for 15 years as a consultant in international trade in Washington, D.C., before he decided to come home. He has a 17-year-old daughter in Virginia.
Before Gonzmart was hired as the election supervisor's liaison, he was the curator of the Columbia Centennial Museum, which opened next to the restaurant in 2004. The family converted the museum into a special events hall for private functions earlier this year.
Gonzmart's most pressing goal in his job is to reach out to the Spanish-language media, which are running public service announcements about the initiative. He also has formed an advisory committee.
The initiative's voter education drive has time to make an impact, said Univision news producer Sandra Gomez, a member of the committee, which is thinking about the next big thing after Nov. 7 - the 2008 presidential election.
"We have to start somewhere, and we'll start to give fruit to elections in two years," Gomez said.
Sandra Acevedo, who puts together the annual Puerto Rican parade, is on the advisory committee. Although she backs the idea of attracting Latino voters, Acevedo questions the position's timing.
With this election season nearly gone, the position should have been formed well in advance of the elections, she said. Acevedo also notes budgetary constraints when it comes to having the elections supervisor at Latino events.
"We can decide an election," Acevedo said. "I know the power we have. The U.S. Army recruiters don't let us go. They know we can reach people."
MORE LATINO VOTERS
Caesar Gonzmart is the new Hispanic liaison for the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections office. Even before his Oct. 1 hiring, the number of registered Hispanic voters was increasing dramatically.
2000 - 30,459
2002 - 39,524
2004 - 57,440
2006 - 65,096
Source: Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections office
Centro Mi Diario reporters Yadira Y. Caro and Geraldine Perez-Cook contributed to this report. Reporter Chris Echegaray can be reached at (813) 259-7920 or Email= cechegaray@tampatrib.com
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http://www.vibe.com/news/news_headlines/2006/10/mun2_airs_latinos_in_the_military_news_special/
October 30, 2006
Mun2 Airs Latinos in the Military News Special
By: Mariel Concepción
MUN2, the MTV sub-channel that prides itself in being the voice for Latino youth in America, will air an in-depth and compelling special report entitled For My Country? Young Latinos in the Military on November 18 at 10PM.
The one-hour report exposes the trend of Latinos as the fastest growing ethnic group in the military, all while chronicling the personal experiences of Mexican-born Diego Sosa, a 21 year-old former high school student who enlisted in the Marine Corps, received disablement retirement after undergoing over 50 operations to his leg, and became a purple-heart recipient.
Comment “Considering the ongoing U.S. military campaigns and that young Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in the military, it’s important for us to take a close look at this issue and how it affects our viewers and the community which we represent,” said Alex Pels, General Manager, mun2. “In this special, we hope to shed some light on the choices that young Latinos face when deciding whether to join the military, and at the outcomes of that decision, both good and bad.”
Additional interviews with principals, teachers, career counselors, activists and students help shed light on current and relevant trends of Latinos in the armed forces, including the economic and social factors that drive them to enlist, the recruitment versus counter-recruitment controversy on high school campuses and Latino-targeted recruitement.
The documentary-styled piece also offers viewers a realistic comparison of the costs of war in contrast to the benefits offered to new recruits joining the armed forces.
For more information, visit www.holamun2.com or www.hellomun2.com
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http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/immigrants/20061030/11/2011
October, 2006
Immigrants: Back In The Spotlight
by Norman Eng
Minutemen at Columbia:
The vigilante border patrol group, The Minuteman Project, has received more than its fair share of attention in recent weeks. It all stems from an October 4th incident at Columbia University , where the group's founder, Jim Gilchrist, was invited to speak by the College Republicans.
Soon after Gilchrist began his speech, two Columbia students came onstage and unfurled a banner reading, "No One is Illegal." A tug of war over the banner ensued, and more people rushed onto the stage. Fists started to fly, and the event was shut down.
Unfortunately, a speech that should have been a blip on the media radar has instead catapulted The Minuteman Project into the national media spotlight. Lost in the wake of the spectacle and the debate about each side's free-speech rights is any serious discussion of our nation's immigration policies, which remain utterly dysfunctional and in need of comprehensive reform.
New Yorkers Protest Immigration Policies:
On October 21st, hundreds of New Yorkers rallied at Union Square Park and marched to Times Square to call for full legalization, family reunification, an end to detentions and deportations, and equal rights for all workers.
Protesters constructed a Wall of Remembrance to memorialize their loved ones who have suffered under the immigration laws - in prison, in deportation, at the border, or in an abusive workplace - and a procession of mock coffins symbolized deaths at the border and the death of human rights. The protest was organized by New York United for Immigrant Rights.
Nonetheless, on October 26th, President Bush signed into law the Secure Fence Act, authorizing construction of a 700-mile border fence along the U.S./Mexico border. The fence is projected to cost at least $6 billion, though many experts doubt the wall's feasibility. The bill's enactment is widely viewed as election-year posturing by politicians who want to appear tough on illegal immigration.
Immigrants Running for State Office:
Several candidates running for State Assembly this year hail from New York 's immigrant communities.
Democrat Alec Brook-Krasny is competing for an assembly seat against Republican Patricia B. Laudano in South Brooklyn 's 46th Assembly District, where the Russian American community has emerged as a potent political force. In the September primaries' tightest race, Brook-Krasny narrowly defeated his rival, Russian-language journalist Ari Kagan, by 94 votes. If he prevails in the general election, Brook-Krasny, who served as founding executive director of the Council of Jewish ?migr? Community Organizations, would become the first Russian immigrant in the country to be elected to a state legislature.
In Assembly District 22 in Flushing, Queens , Democrat Ellen Young, a former top aide to City Councilmember John Liu, will face off against Republican Christopher M. Migliaccio, a 23-year-old law student. Flushing is one of the most diverse communities in the nation, with established Irish and Italian communities living beside large Chinese and Korean immigrant populations. That diversity was reflected in the Democratic primary, where Young narrowly defeated Terrence Park and Julia Harrison by 122 votes. If elected, Young would become the first Asian woman to serve in Albany .
++++++++++
Norman Eng is an attorney and communications coordinator with The New York Immigration Coalition.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061030/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_oaxaca_unrest_32
Sunday, October 29, 2006 PM
Mexican police seize center of Oaxaca
By Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer
OAXACA, Mexico - Federal police backed by armored vehicles and water cannons tore down barricades and stormed embattled Oaxaca on Sunday, seizing control of the city center from protesters who had held it for five months.
A 15-year-old boy manning one barricade was killed by a tear gas canister, human rights worker Jesica Sanchez said.
With helicopters clattering overhead, police earlier entered the city that was once one of Mexico's most popular tourist destinations. They marched up to a final metal barrier blocking the center, but pulled back as protesters with sticks attacked them from behind, hurling burning tires. The air filled with black smoke and tear gas.
Some demonstrators used syringes to pierce their arms and legs, then paint signs in their own blood decrying the police.
As night fell, however, protesters decided to abandon the center and regroup at a local university. They pledged to continue their battle to get Gov. Ulises Ruiz to resign, even as police tore down the banners and tents in the center that had served for months as the headquarters of often violent demonstrations.
Protest spokesman Roberto Garcia said 50 supporters had been arrested and police were searching houses, looking for leaders of the demonstrations. Police did not immediately confirm that.
Protesters said they had tried to contact the Interior Department late Sunday to negotiate, but were unable to reach anyone.
They also said electricity was cut to the radio station being used to transmit information to demonstrators.
At least eight protesters have died in clashes with police in the city since August. But President Vicente Fox, who leaves office Dec. 1, had resisted repeated calls to send federal forces to quell the violence, opting instead to try to negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff.
After the deaths of an American and two local residents in protests on Friday, Fox sent in thousands of federal police who launched the first major offensive Sunday to end the unrest.
The protests began in May as a teacher's strike in this colonial southern city of roughly 275,000. But the demonstrations quickly spiraled into chaos as anarchists, students and Indian groups seized the central plaza and barricaded streets throughout the city to demand the Ruiz's ouster.
Protesters accused Ruiz of rigging his 2004 election and using thugs to kill or crush political opponents. They say his resignation is not negotiable and they won't return home without it. The violence has driven away tourists, forcing hotels and restaurants to close their doors.
The offensive came after the teachers agreed to return to work by Monday; their strike has kept 1.3 million children out of classes across the state. But it was unclear whether the police action would undermine that agreement.
Once breathtakingly beautiful, Oaxaca's main plaza is now covered with graffiti, having served as a home base for protesters who first seized the area in late May.
As the offensive got under way Sunday, officers from the Federal Preventative Police climbed over burned-out vehicles, hijacked tractor-trailers, buses and sand bags blocking streets as they moved toward the central plaza. Some residents emerged from their homes to cheer and wave white flags, others fought to beat back their advance.
On one major street, police buses had most of their windows shattered by protesters hurling rocks and massive chunks of concrete.
Protest leaders urged those at street barricades not to respond to advancing police with violence.
Bertha Munoz, one of the movement's leaders, said that many demonstrators were peaceful.
"How can we confront them? We have already seen the R-15 (rifles) and AK-47s they carry," she said.
In Mexico City, several hundred supporters of the Oaxaca protests converged on a hotel where Ruiz was rumored to be staying, damaging the grounds and screaming "Murderer! Murderer!"
The protesters estimated that around 4,000 federal police had taken up positions around the edges of Oaxaca. There were no official reports, however, on how many officers were deployed.
Late Saturday, protesters gathered to mourn Bradley Roland Will, 36, of New York, who was killed Friday during a shootout between protesters and men they claim were local officials in Santa Lucia del Camino on Oaxaca's rough outskirts.
Will, whose body was laid out in a white shirt and a glass-topped coffin at a funeral parlor near the square, was remembered as a video and documentary-maker devoted to the protesters' cause.
A video posted by Indymedia.org showed the last minutes of footage Will shot Friday, apparently including the moment he was hit by gunfire.
U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said Oaxaca police may have shot Will. Mayor Manuel Martinez Feria of Santa Lucia del Camino said five men seen brandishing pistols at the time of the shooting had been turned over to authorities. He identified them as two members of Santa Lucia's city council, two of that town's police officers and a former justice of the peace from another town.
In a statement, Will's family said it was "grieving over the tragic and senseless loss of Brad's life."
+++++
On the Net:
Will's video (Spanish site): http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/542.shtml
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http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_302155540.html
Oct 29, 2006 @12:52 pm US/Pacific
Immigration Advocates Decry Proposed Rules
(AP) LOS ANGELES Fee hikes, online filing requirements and other rules threaten to hinder the ability of some legal immigrants to become U.S. citizens.
That's the warning from immigration rights advocates, who are protesting proposed federal measures. They decry application fee increases that could hit $800, a "digital barrier" of a mandatory online filing system, extensive new paperwork and a revised history and civics test they fear could be more difficult.
The coalition of more than 230 religious, labor and immigrant rights groups said the rules would disproportionately hinder Mexican immigrants, who tend to be less educated and earn lower incomes than others.
The final proposals were expected to be announced in the next few months and would take 12 to 18 months to implement.
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http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/10/29/100wir_a3rules001.cfm
Sunday, October 29, 2006
New fees and rules for new citizens
Los Angeles Times
Immigrant advocacy groups are decrying an array of proposed federal measures, including application fee increases and online filing requirements, that they fear will sharply reduce the ability of some legal immigrants to become U.S. citizens.
As President Bush signed a controversial bill last week authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, immigrant rights groups charge that the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services is erecting a regulatory "second wall" that disproportionately would hurt Mexican immigrants, who tend to be less educated and earn lower incomes than others.
Last week, a coalition of more than 230 religious, labor and immigrant rights groups delivered a letter to Emilio Gonzalez, citizenship bureau director, expressing strong concern about application fee increases that could more than double to $800, a so-called "digital barrier" of a mandatory online filing system, extensive new paperwork and a revised history and civics test they fear could be more difficult.
"Together they appear to us a clear strategy pursued through administrative fiat to make the dream of American citizenship unattainable for many lower-income, less-educated immigrants," said the letter, which was initiated by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Some activists fear the Bush administration is seeking to tighten access to citizenship to bar potential new Democratic voters. But U.S. immigration officials flatly deny any partisan motives.
They say they merely are aiming to make the system more efficient, financially self-sustaining and better able to ensure that new citizens understand foundational American values and historical events. Some of the initiatives, including the move to automation and a revised test, were recommended in 1997 by the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform under the Clinton administration. The final proposals are expected to be announced in the next few months and take 12 to 18 months to implement.
Republican-sponsored legislation that passed the Senate earlier this year requires that a revised exam test understanding of major documents, such as the Federalist Papers and Emancipation Proclamation, and important historical events, such as major court decisions and key figures in U.S. politics, science, business and art.
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http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=08f7b036-df9a-4fae-962c-0186ef3540f8&k=15636
Published: Sunday, October 29, 2006
Border guard accused of smuggling for money and sex
CanWest News Service; Vancouver Province
VANCOUVER -- A 30-year-old U.S. customs and border patrol officer has been charged with helping smugglers sneak pot past the border in return for cash and sexual favours.
Desmone Bastian, who lives in Surrey, B.C., was arrested last Thursday on a warrant charging him with receiving a bribe and importation of a controlled substance.
The indictment filed in U.S. District Court alleges that Bastian deliberately failed to inspect vehicles entering the U.S. at the Blaine border crossing on Feb. 5, 2005, in return for cash and sexual favours. He also allegedly aided in the smuggling of 100 kilograms of marijuana that same day, say court documents.
Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Western Washington, said it's unclear if Bastian is a permanent resident of Canada or if he holds dual Canadian and American citizenship.
Bastian is currently in custody in the U.S.
The investigation began in April, led by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Supt. Bill Ard with the RCMP Border Integrity Unit said the Mounties played no role in the investigation.
Vancouver Province
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http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4568956
Article Last Updated:10/29/2006 10:08:05 AM MST
Voting machines' Venezuela link probed
By Tim Golden
The New York Times
The federal government is investigating the takeover last year of the manufacturer of electronic voting systems used in Denver and Arapahoe County by a small software company that has been linked to the leftist government of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
The federal inquiry is focusing on the Venezuelan owners of the software company, the Smartmatic Corp., and is trying to determine whether the government in Caracas has any control over the firm's operations, officials and others familiar with the investigation said.
The inquiry is being conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, the same panel of 12 government agencies that reviewed the abortive attempt this year by a company in United Arab Emirates to take over operations at six American ports.
The committee's inquiry into Smartmatic and its subsidiary, Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland, Calif., was first reported Saturday in The Miami Herald.
Sequoia makes electronic voting machines used in Denver and Arapahoe County.
Officials of Smartmatic and the Venezuelan government strongly denied Saturday that Chavez's administration, which has been bitterly at odds with the White House, has any role in running Smartmatic.
Asked late Saturday about the federal probe, Alton Dillard, spokesman for the Denver Election Commission, said: "We're happy with the performance of the machines in Denver County. They've worked properly."
He said officials are confident Denver's voting systems are not vulnerable to tampering: "These machines cannot be hacked."
Smartmatic was a little-known firm with no experience in voting technology before it was chosen by Venezuelan authorities to replace the country's elections machinery ahead of a contentious 2004 referendum that confirmed Chavez as president.
With a windfall of some $120 million from contracts with Venezuela, Smartmatic bought the much larger and more established Sequoia Voting Systems from a British-owned company. Sequoia now has voting equipment installed in 17 states.
Since its takeover by Smartmatic in March 2005, Sequoia has aggressively marketed its machines in Latin America and other developing countries, but the role of the Venezuelans who founded Smartmatic has become less visible in public documents as the company has been restructured into an elaborate web of offshore companies and foreign trusts.
"The government should know who owns our voting machines - that is a national- security concern," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who asked the Bush administration in May to review the Sequoia takeover.
The concern over Smartmatic's purchase of Sequoia comes amid rising unease nationwide about the security of touch- screen voting machines.
Opposition members of Venezuela's electoral council said they were excluded from the bidding process that led in February 2004 to the selection of Smartmatic and a partner, Bizta, over companies with ample experience to replace a $120 million election system built by another American firm.
At the time, Smartmatic was a technology startup that operated from a small house in Boca Raton, Fla. Its chief officers were two 30-year-old Venezuelan engineers, Antonio Mugica and Alfredo Anzola, who were childhood friends.
After an election in Chicago in March in which Sequoia voting machines were blamed for delays and irregularities, Smartmatic's president acknowledged that Smartmatic workers had been flown up from Venezuela to help with the vote.
Staff writer David Olinger contributed to this report.
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http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/10/27/155521.shtml?s=us
The Real Immigration Crisis
Virginia Deane Abernethy, Ph.D.
Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006
The Census Bureau's much-heralded announcement in October that the United States has reached the population milestone of 300 million is another scene in a great charade. The Census Bureau (CB), it appears, is massaging statistics, possibly in the service of policy rather than accuracy.
The CB also claims there are roughly 9 million illegal aliens in the United States, and that the U.S. population will reach 600 million by the year 2100. But can we believe these statistics? Many estimates, along with some conservative mathematical calculations, suggest that the U.S. population is already nearing 330 million, and that we could have a billion people in America by the year 2076.
Illegal Calculations: In February 2002, a Border Patrol supervisor of 27 years service testified before Congress that the number of illegal aliens was several times the Census Bureau (CB) estimate. He stated, "According to various Mexican media and official Mexican government sources, the country of Mexico has 18 million of its citizens residing illegally in the United States at this very minute."
That is not to mention other illegals: Filipinos, Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Eastern Europeans, Irish, Brazilians, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Haitians.
Using financial and employment data, analysts for Bear Stearns Asset Management also put forth a number much higher than anything considered by the CB. They concluded in early 2004 that, "The number of illegal immigrants in the United States may be as high as 20 million people, more than double the official 9 million people estimated by the Census Bureau."
Time magazine asserted, also in 2004, that more than 4,000 illegal aliens walk across just the Mexico/Arizona border each day. Nationwide, an estimated 3 million enter annually, and as many as "15 million" are thought to remain in the United States.
Department of Education reports are also suggestive. Comparing projected and actual enrollments for the latest years the data were compiled yields this: The projected K-12 increase in public school enrollments from 2002 to 2003 was 11,000 pupils. But "actual 2003 enrollments came in 339,000 above 2002's level — more than 30 times the projected rise." Where did these children come from, if not illegal immigration?
Patrick Buchanan's 2006 book, "State of Emergency: Third World Invasion and Conquest of America," states that the Border Patrol apprehends 150,000 illegal aliens breaking into the United States each month, amounting to 1.8 million apprehensions annually.
Some illegal border crossers may be apprehended more than once, although most — 70 percent — make it in a first or second attempt, and 92 percent make it eventually according to the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California at San Diego. In recent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center, stated that 92 percent to 97 percent succeed on two tries or less.
The Border Patrol, now formally called the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) estimates that, for each illegal alien apprehended, three to five succeed in entering. Taking the middle figure of four, then four multiplied by 1.8 million annual apprehensions equals 7.2 million aliens who enter illegally each year.
Moreover, many foreigners enter supposedly for a visit but never leave. In 1992, approximately 150,000 more foreign passengers arrived in U.S. airports than left. USA Today reports that "at least 3.8 million" illegal aliens arrived legally but remained after visas expired. This could be, in part, workers who stayed — contrary to the terms of their visa — after termination of their job.
Conservatively, assume that just 5 million — rather than 7.2 million plus visa over-stayers — actually enter the United States each year. Of these 5 million, assume that 40 percent remain indefinitely. This calculation suggests that 2 million illegal aliens melt permanently into the U.S. population annually. If 60 percent stay, then approximately 3 million new illegal aliens remain in the United States annually. Compare that to the Census Bureau's puny estimate of 500,000 illegal aliens staying annually.
Once here, illegal aliens seemingly wish to stay: According to the U.S., Mexico will take in a record $24 billion in remittances this year. Transients do not earn that kind of spare change, particularly in the low skill jobs available to most Mexican and Central American workers.
Real Population Numbers: In reality, the U.S. population passed 300 million in year 2000. The current U.S population is approximately 327 million.
According to statistics for which the latest year was reported, 2004, there were approximately 1.7 million more total births than deaths. This indicates a faster rate of population growth and a shorter doubling time than the CB rate reported for the 1990s (1.2 percent annual growth, projecting 58 years to double).
Summing annual growth figures (1.7 million natural increase, 1 million legal immigrants, and 2 million or 3 million illegal aliens who stay), one sees that, each year, the population grows by 4.7 million to 5.7 million. The annual growth rate is between 1.4 percent and 1.7 percent. If 1.4 percent, the population doubling time is 50 years.
The rate of growth has itself been growing. If acceleration of the growth rate continues, we are on trend to pass the 1 billion mark in approximately 70 years.
What's Wrong With Rapid U.S. Population Growth?
Some ecologists, labor economists, and conservationists say that rapid population growth, regardless of its source, is a danger. This concern departs from the United Nations and The Wall Street Journal view, which decries European and Japanese economic and social health because these countries' populations are on the verge of stabilizing.
So what, if anything, is wrong with an exploding U.S. population?
First, native-born Americans spontaneously chose small family size starting in approximately 1970. The majority would probably be better off economically and ecologically today if, congruent with the recommendations of the 1972 Rockefeller Report, the U.S. population had begun to stabilize 30 years ago.
Second, current population growth is being forced on native-born Americans by immigration. Approximately 90 percent of growth results from the annual immigration flow and the descendants of post-1970 immigrants.
Third, current immigration comes overwhelmingly from Third World countries that have cultures vastly different from ours. These immigrants may not wish to assimilate and, indeed, may have difficulty adjusting.
The territorial integrity of the United States may develop into a further contentious issue that divides citizens from Mexican immigrants. A June 2002 Zogby poll reveals that a "substantial majority of Mexican citizens believe that Southwestern America properly belongs to Mexico."
Fourth, rapid increases in the labor force have resulted in a 30-year trend toward lower real, inflation-adjusted income for the 80 percent of Americans who depend on wages and salaries. Immigration drives most of labor force growth and thus accounts for virtually all of the recent income depression.
Economist George Borjas observes that immigration depresses wages and displaces Americans from jobs, costing native-born American workers $195 billion annually. In 2000, the wages of native-born American workers were reduced by an average 3.2 percent.
Not Just ‘Jobs Americans Don't Want':
The impact is not even. Citing a current Northeastern University study, The New York Times states that "illegal immigrants contributed to a sharp decline in employment of teenage and young adult Americans." The effect on young and less-educated workers is not new news. Most recently, however, Borjas reported that the wage impact is "most intense at the two ends of the native-born education range."
In addition to depressing wages, immigrant workers displace Americans. Steven Camarota analyzes CB data, finding that "between March 2000 and March 2004, the number of adults working actually increased, but all of the net change went to immigrant workers."
Andrew Sum and his colleagues at Northeastern University concur. Since 2000, immigrants have taken more than 100 percent of net new jobs, that is, both capturing new jobs and displacing Americans from existing jobs.
Another fiscal problem: Many Third World immigrants are very low skilled. Consequently, they do not pay taxes commensurate with the costs they impose on communities and States.
High Public Costs: Professor Donald Huddle estimates that between 1996 and 2006, immigrants cost taxpayers an average of $93 billion annually, net of any taxes immigrants pay. In view of the unexpectedly high flow of immigrants, Huddle's numbers would, today, be adjusted higher.
The National Research Council's well-received report, The New Americans, estimates that each legal or illegal immigrant without a high school education imposes a net (that is, after subtracting all taxes the immigrant pays) lifetime cost on taxpayers of $89,000 in direct services. With a high-school education, the average fiscal impact per immigrant is still negative, $31,000. The figures are significant insofar as the average Mexican and Central American has less than an eighth-grade education.
Economist Lester Thurow's 1990s analysis of the cost of population growth — without reference to whether the growth is organic or from immigration — concludes that maintaining the quality of infrastructure requires a nation to commit 12.5 percent of its GDP for each 1 percent of population growth.
A community study on infrastructure costs associated with population growth is congruent. Eben Fodor calculated in the 1990s that each new three-person residential unit burdened taxpayers with an average of more than $15,000 in new requirements for capital improvements, not counting annual operating costs.
Diminished Resources: Less immediately evident but powerfully important in the long run, population growth harms the nation through depleting its natural wealth — as documented by Carrying Capacity Network, a non-profit grass-roots organization that advocates an immigration moratorium. One acre of land is lost to highways and urbanization for each person added to the U.S. population; each person uses 2,800 gallons of oil equivalents and 530,000 gallons of water per year.
Such ecological losses and challenges are separate from the loss of community public spiritedness that follows rapid growth and multiplying languages and cultures. Immigration advocates are challenged to show one fast-growing, multicultural society that is cohesive, democratic, and smoothly functioning.
The tally of losses from mass immigration suggests that a large price is paid for so-called cheap labor and for advancing the financial and political elite's agenda of erasing borders and integrating Canada, Mexico, and the United States into the Partnership for Prosperity and Security, aka the North American Union. Middle-class Americans, possibly to be joined by Canadians, would pay the greater part of the bill.
A healthy respect for probable errors in Census Bureau data advances the case for putting enforcement with the purpose of stopping illegal immigration and dramatically reducing legal immigration at the top of the legislative and executive branch agenda.
A catch-our-breath moratorium on all immigration should be a further goal of domestic policy. Immigration legislation should be debated on the basis of accurate demography, as well as economic and social data, that recognize both the costs and the benefits of additional immigration.
Unrealistic Estimates: The Census Bureau's misinformation appears consistent with intent to soothe a public that is becoming alarmed at the scale of immigration and the rapidity of population growth.
"Underestimates" also go far to discredit those who call for a moratorium on both legal and illegal immigration, and for ending automatic citizenship awarded to children born in the United States to illegal alien parents. Accurate reporting of numbers would make ending birth-right citizenship politically compelling and would strengthen the argument for a catch-our-breath moratorium on legal immigration.
One may fairly conclude that the Census Bureau is a willing participant to misinforming the public on the state of the nation. Perhaps this is a strategy designed to redirect and lull voters into complacency so that they forgive their representatives and senators who legislate in favor of illegal aliens and massive legal immigration, rather than in the interest of citizens of the United States.
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Virginia Deane Abernethy is professor emeritus of psychiatry (anthropology) at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She has published widely in both scholarly journals and popular media and is the author of "Population Politics and Population Pressure and Cultural Adjustment." Until 1999, she was editor of the ecological journal, "Population and Environment." She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University.
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