SF - On Thanksgiving Day - Celebrate Native and Indigenous People's Resistance and Give Thanks for Survival and Social Justice

See Monthly Review for the full story [An Occupation Worth Supporting] of the November 20, 1969 takeover of Alcatraz off San Francisco's Bay.

International Indian Treaty Council presents
33rd Annual Alcatraz Island Sunrise Gathering
To Celebrate our Resistance and Give Thanks for our Survival - A special tribute and honoring of the Shell Mound Walkers, Elders, and the Veterans of Alcatraz.

THURSDAY - 11/22/07
PIER 33

UnThanksgiving Indian Ceremony
Date/Time: Thu., November 22
Price: free-$12
Contact Info: Event Website

Special guests, speakers and performances include:
MC: Bill Means, IITC Board Member
(Oglala Lakota), Mike Flores, IITC Board Member
(Tohono O’Odham), Ann Marie Sayers
(Ohlone); Radley Davis, Iss-Ahwi (Pitt -River);
Pomo Dancers; Shingle Springs Rancheria
Miwok Dancers; Aztec Dancers; Arigon Starr
(Kickapoo); Goodshield (Lakota); One Struggle;
and the All Nations Singers.
Tickets $12 per person, children 5 and under
free. Advanced tickets can be purchased online
at www.alcatrazcruises.com or by phone at 415-
981-7625. They can also be purchased the day
of the event at the Pier 33 Ticket Booth. This
event is wheel chair accessible. All are welcome.

time
• 4:00 am Alcatraz Cruises ticket office opens.
• 4:45 am First boat departure.
• 5:00 am Boat departure.
• 5:15 am Boat departure.
• 5:30 am Boat departure.
• 5:45 am Boat departure.
• 6:00 am Final boat departure.
• 8:00 am Boats begin return

About the 1969 Occupation, Mickey Z of Monthly Review writes:
"The occupiers," writes Ben Winton in the Fall 1999 issue of Native Peoples magazine, "were an unlikely mix of Indian college activists, families with children fresh off reservations and urban dwellers disenchanted with what they called the U.S. government's economic, social and political neglect."

"We hold The Rock," proclaimed Richard Oakes, a Mohawk from New York. Oakes became the occupiers' spokesman . . . and his words became their motto. "The occupation of Alcatraz was about human rights," said Winton. "It was an effort to restore the dignity of the more than 554 American Indian nations in the United States."
Over the course of the occupation, over 5,600 American Indians took part -- some for a day, some for the entire 18 months. Twenty-three year-old John Trudell, a Santee Sioux from San Bernardino, California heard about the occupation, packed a sleeping bag, and headed to Frisco. "He became the voice of Radio Free Alcatraz, a pirate station that broadcast from the island with the help of local stations" explains Winton. "When he hit the airwaves, the response was often overwhelming. Boxes of food and money poured in from everywhere-from rock groups such as The Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival (who staged a concert on a boat off Alcatraz and then donated the boat), Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, city politicians, and everyday folks." For the first time in modern American history, the plight of Native Americans was making headlines.
The fledgling American Indian Movement (AIM) visited the occupiers and soon began a series of their own occupations across America. AIM would soon become a powerful multi-tribal protest organization . . . just one of the many important outcomes of the Alcatraz takeover. More.

From the SF Weekly -

They Fought the Law
By Silke TudorIn 1969, a group of young Native Americans led by charismatic SFSU activist Richard Oakes successfully occupied and held Alcatraz Island for 18 long months, citing the 1868 Fort Laramie treaty which stated that abandoned federal land must be ceded to Native peoples.
Initial attempts to starve the activists off the Island failed because mainland supporters risked arrest by rowing out supplies under cover of darkness. By the time the activists were forced off Alcatraz, public awareness had been raised and US policy toward indigenous people had been affected. It was a start. For 33 years, the Indigenous People's Thanksgiving Sunrise Ceremony on Alcatraz has commemorated its occupation (radical graffiti from the time can still be found on the island). Often referred to as the "Unthanksgiving Ceremony," indigenous spokespeople will readily dispel any myths you may have been fed as a child (according to John Two-Hawks, the first official day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed by Governor Winthrop in 1637 to celebrate the safe return of his men from a massacre of Pequot) but the Sunrise Ceremony will not be wrapped in a fog of resentment. The transition from night to morning on this rugged outcrop is far too inspiring; as the sun rises over the water, the Native tribes will offer music, dance, and prayers of thanks to the wind. This year, with the recent adoption of the "Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" by the United Nations General Assembly, there might be a little something to be thankful for.

More - here and here on Indigenous People, Self-Determination and Solidarity.

Bill Sorro Presente! Longtime San Francisco Movement Leader Leaves Tremendous Legacy of Struggle

Longtime Bernal Heights community activist Bill Sorro, a leader in the International Hotel Struggle 30 years ago, passed away early Monday morning, according to his family.

Bill was a mentor to many of us in the Chinese Progressive Association, the labor movement, anti-displacement movements, and affordable housing struggles. He leaves an incredible legacy [see the current exhibit at the Manilatown Center in the I-Hotel site] of struggle and radicalism in the Asian American and progressive communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Strength to Bill's partner Huli, and his children Desu, Daphne, Django, Giulio and Joachin and the family that Bill and Huli built. We will make sure your legacy and spirit live on - Long Live the International Hotel and the Fighting Spirit of Bill Sorro!

inside the box

The most interesting debate for me at last night’s San Francisco school board meeting (ie until I had to leave at 9:15 PM) was over the supposedly mutually exclusive choice between spending prop H money on “violence prevention programs” ( $50K block grants to be spent as the school site chose) or academic support for teachers. Superintendent Gwen Chan argued that since the SFUSD district was now a “program improvement district” the priority needed to be “academic support” (as if violence prevention isn’t a precondition for learning). The Community Advisory committee argued for violence prevention and 4 Wellness Centers (instead of the 3 that Chan’s plan called for) as a priority, arguing that the students themselves defined that as a priority.

So, two things become clear to me in this debate. One, there isn’t enough money (in a BIG WAY). Two, the local community won’t get to set the priorities – state legislatures do.

These are the fundamental issues that were the pink elephants in the room last night. The debate should have been explicitly about how to do we mobilize the SF community to demand more money from the state and city (instead of arguing over the few crumbs we get from the table see ny times article, also below). The debate also should have focused on why does the community have so little say in what the educational theory and priorities are and how do we get a more democratic decision making process implemented? These issues remain unspoken. Instead, we have accepted the paradigm of inadequate funding and decision by test score alone in public debate.

The small school policy debate (that followed the prop H proposal discussion) has been equally narrowed to one in which the only reason an educational reform should be made into policy is to make sure that the school system continues to socialize and sort in a legitimate fashion. It was clear to me last night that small school proponents have accepted the premise that those who don’t “succeed” in school should be blamed for their failure as individuals. Equity, according to the small school proponents last night, will exist if school success cannot be correlated to race, gender, class or neighborhood or parental income. That is, if failure can be pinned on the individual or family, then the successful can wash their hands of any responsibility for the growing polarization of wealth and its resulting social, cultural and political impoverishment (not to mention impending ecological disaster – and why isn’t Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth required viewing in the district?). Apparently it is okay if a student is damaged or alienated by the school experience as long as such damage isn’t correlated with race, class or neighborhood. Equal opportunity damage. Yeah, sign me up.

The debates and presentations last night occurred within the paradigm that defines success as going to college. Let’s ignore all the reasons why the system, as is, will never let everyone go to college (which is why the RHETORICAL goal of getting the college bound to be proportional to disaggregated demographics exists). What if everyone went to college? Would that necessarily result in everyone having a decent home, health care, functional families, disposable income and world peace (would it alter the nation’s spending priorities – see article, also below)? What are people actually learning in school? How long does that learning last? How many adults, for example, learned algebra and still know it? Is anyone learning in school how the power structure in this country actually works (as opposed to the myth of how it works)? No one is explicitly examining, debating or questioning whether qualifying to go to college is really evidence of how well one has accepted one’s role to support the status quo.

Asking everyone to think outside the box (eg give up the myth that we live or could live in a meritocratic society) is like being against slavery in 1750. It is an exercise in frustration, unless one is thinking in the long term. But unlike 1750, I worry that in 2007 there is no long term, that we are locked into a box on a truck heading towards the edge of a cliff. Two articles in the NY TIMES (yesterday and today, snippets below) make me feel that we are indeed in deep trouble unless we make some fundamental changes – one of which is transforming schools from places in which we socialize to one in which we actually start educating people. And for that to happen, much greater sums of money must be spent on schools, not war, as a necessary but not sufficient variable. It is not a matter, as Jurgis Rudkus (The Jungle) thought it was, of merely “working harder.”

What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy
by david leonhardt, January 17, 2007

…… $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives.

Combined, the cost of running those programs for a decade wouldn’t use up even half our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds.

The final big chunk of the money could go to national security. The recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have not been put in place — better baggage and cargo screening, stronger measures against nuclear proliferation — could be enacted. Financing for the war in Afghanistan could be increased to beat back the Taliban’s recent gains, and a peacekeeping force could put a stop to the genocide in Darfur.

All that would be one way to spend $1.2 trillion. Here would be another: The war in Iraq.

When Being Green Raises the Heat
By KEN CALDEIRA January 16, 2007

CARBON DIOXIDE is heating up the Earth. Ice caps are melting, ocean levels are rising, hurricanes are intensifying, tropical diseases are spreading and the threat of droughts, floods and famines looms large. Can planting a tree help stop all this from happening?. . . . While preserving and restoring forests is unquestionably good for the natural environment, new scientific studies are concluding that preservation and restoration of forests outside the tropics will do little or nothing to help slow climate change. And some projects intended to slow the heating of the planet may be accelerating it instead. . . . Consider Pacific Gas and Electric’s surcharge plan. While the carbon soaked up by California’s forests reduces atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations everywhere, cooling Crete, Cancún and Calcutta, the sunlight they absorb warms the state and the surrounding region.. . . The broadest goal is neither to slow the growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere nor to slow climate change, but rather to preserve the irreplaceable natural balance that sustains life as we know it on this planet. . . . regardless of its impact on climate — we need more trees, not fewer. But the notion that we can save the planet just by planting trees is a dangerous illusion. To preserve our environment, we must drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and this will require a major transformation of our energy system.

Got Soul? James Brown was a master teacher

The Godfather of Soul is no more.

It feels like only yesterday when KPOO [89.5 FM] DJ's Donald Lacy, Harrison Chastang and others of us were ending each show with the call "FREE JAMES BROWN" to protest his 1988 arrest and several years of hard time served. Brown is now Free.

James Brown was a master teacher. Ricky Vincent's The History of Funk Show on KPFA a few nights ago highlighted Brown's music, role in the civil rights movement, and also how he integrated his politics and social commentary in his art. He said that Brown "belongs to all of us."

In his History of Funk analysis Vincent says that Brown changed the structure of Black music more than any other person in history. Brown 'Africanized' Black music by changing the rhythm, the structure and the manner in which soul/Black music was played, according to Vincent. In 1968 Amiri Baraka called Brown "our number one Black poet."

In the Funk World 1969
If Elvis Presley/ is

King

Who is James Brown,

God?

I cherish an old 1984 EP with Brown and HipHop "godfather"Afrika Bambatta urging UNITY in the fight against racism, war and nuclear devastation. And, when I played "Say It Loud" to my 6 year old daughter Jade a several years ago it touched off an interest in music and her search for her own heritage and identity. Besides being drawn to Brown's screeching and grooving, Jade liked hearing the children singing the chorus - "I'm Black and I'm Proud!." When she later asked me: "Daddy, am I Black?" because of Brown and her predominantly African American classmates in her school in SF's OceanView/Ingleside neighborhood, I gently broke the news to her that she was not. But I told her that she should be proud of being Asian, Hawaiian, Japanese and Chinese and try to be an ally to African Americans and other oppressed peoples as well.

Brown's influence was worldwide - P-Funk Pioneers like Parliament and Funkadelic to Pop Icons like Michael Jackson and Prince owe a debt of gratitude as well to the Godfather of Soul. KRS-ONE says that Brown sums up the "entire black struggle" in his music. Learning about Brown's life is a sharp lesson in the struggle for self-determination of African Americans in the United States.

Of all the pieces on Brown's passing I've read, I think KRS-ONE sums up James Brown's life best in AllHipHop.com -

AllHipHop.com: How will James Brown's death affect Hip-Hop?

KRS-One: James Brown is the Grandfather of Hip-Hop, of course recognizing Kool Herc as the father. You're talking to a 25 year theologian, and Christ is my s**t. Jesus is my s**t, that's my n***a! [Laughs] This guy, James Brown, dying on Christmas is very symbolic. Dying on Christmas, we know God is looking at us! We established right here and now. According to Christian tradition, James Brown dying on Jesus' birthday means that Hip-Hop starts today. ...James Brown passing on Christmas could mean the birth of Soul in you. He is the Godfather of Soul – not Pop, not R&B, not Rock, not Blues, not Jazz – Soul music!

We should print the lyrics of "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)" and we should say it every Christmas. [KRS recites lyrics] He summed up the entire Black struggle. James Brown dying on Christ's birthday shows not only who he was – Christ returned – but that Hip-Hop has a chance, politically, to take a day. Let's celebrate James Brown! Hip-Hoppers celebrate the birth of their Soul, the birth of their Christ, the birth of their nature. Every Christmas, we gonna play James Brown records. ..

There is nobody who is more influential to Hip-Hop than James Brown. Kool Herc said that James Brown was the A-1 b-boy, the first MC, the first DJ – 'cause he had two drummers. The drummer was what the turntable was today. When one finished playing, the other'd start, and sometimes they'd play together! ... James Brown is our artistic father. We all sample from him. This is a day where we exchange gifts. The gift exchanged with us from James was our culture. He freely gave his music to our culture. To me, that brings tears to my eyes! That's some god s**t. That's the lord and savior. On December 25th, James Brown gives the gift of himself to his children. What's the gift we should be givin' back? We should be givin' back his request. "These record companies stole from me, get it back." Get it back, children. There should be a James Brown Soul Museum, not a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. James Brown.

The Godfather is now FREE - and his "fabulous flame" burns brightly in me, my daughter and hopefully many of us.
Celebrating James Brown's birthday a few years ago Davey D wrote:

I swear to God when I speak at schools I'm amazed how kids who love Juvenile, BG and Jay-Z will draw blank stares when you mention groups like X-Clan, Jungle Brothers and even Public Enemy. They're completely at a loss when you start talking about James Brown, George Clinton and others. Sure they may have heard the names, but they never heard the songs. Sadder still they have no idea of their importance. Hence, that is the reason for penning this article. It's up to us to make the necessary changes.

---
Click Here to listen to KPFA/Ricky Vincent/History of Funk's tribute to the Godfather of Soul
Click Here for Davey D's Blog on James Brown's Passing
Davey D's Hip Hop Corner
Ricky Vincent's History of Funk
KPOO - Poor People's Radio

Sick Kids & Yes on SF's Prop F, the Makibaka Hotel and learning about people's struggle

My 6 year old daughter Jade is sick today, so I had to quickly make arrangements to get the day off to care for her and get her to the hospital. Yet most low wage workers in San Francisco don't have that luxury, or even the luxury of getting a paid sick day for themselves. That's why low wage worker organizations like Young Workers United with their allies like Parent Voices, Chinese Progressive Association, St. Peter's Housing Committee [which just celebrated their 25th anniversary this past weekend], POWER, SEIU Local 790 and others in the May 1st Alliance and the labor movement placed Prop F on the ballot. See Sasha's great post from Left in SF.
The Yes on Prop F campaign is stepping up their Get out the Vote work these next 3 weekends. To plug in contact - www.paidsickdayssf.org/ or if you want to target low wage workers and their families in the Asian American and immigrant communities - contact the Chinese Progressive Association at www.cpasf.org/home.html. Parents can plug into the campaign too through Parent Voices at www.parentvoices.org/ or contact www.youngworkersunited.org/

As a parent and teacher with a sick kid at home waiting for our visit to the doctor, I had to come up with some kind of relaxed learning activity for us. Over the past month I had been teaching my SF State college students about the history of SF's International Hotel and our current ongoing anti-displacement struggles in San Francisco's SOMA, Bayview Hunters Point, Mission, Tenderloin and other neighborhoods in Seattle, Boston, NYC, and Philly.
So I needed a teaching resource that would help my 6 year old develop skills of empathy and some understanding of SF's Filipino and low income immigrant communities...
Luckily for me Manilatown poet, activist and father extraordinaire Tony Robles has just released his most recent children's book - Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel. Robles teamed up with painter Carl Angel for an incredibly beautiful and moving story that's also fun and serious at the same time. This children's book breaks down the complexity of displacement and gentrification to the level of elementary school kids like my daughter. Inspired by the recent struggle of the Trinity Plaza Tenants Association in SF's SOMA district, the story makes an important and inspiring political statement in support of Makibaka or the struggle of our communities for self-determination and the need for solidarity with other communities as well.

Filipino History Month Event with Tony Robles/Chris Daly - 10/19/06 -4-6 pm
Jade and I plan to join Tony, Carl, District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly, and others for a celebration of October as Filipino American History Month in City Hall, Room 273. Many of us are also rallying to support our ally progressive Supervisor Chris Daly in his re-election campaign as well.

Though my daughter is sick and I had to stay away from work with her, through Tony's book and our time learning together we have become more human, and I have satisfied my role as a parent, teacher and activist.
Makibaka! Huwag Matakot!
Struggle! Don't Be Affraid!
[and best wishes to Trinity Plaza Tenant leader Ken Werner in his recovery]

San Francisco Bayview/Hunters Point Communities March on City Hall -We Demand Self-Determination

As activists gather from around the world for the 40th anniversary reunion of the Black Panther Party in Oakland this weekend, San Francisco's POWER - People Organized to Win Economic Rights - is organizing with Bayview/Hunters Point community groups and allies to march on City Hall on Monday, October 16th to halt the gentrification, curfews, school closures and other attacks on African American, Latino and Asian Pacific Islander and working class communities in the City.
In the end of September, POWER and others organized a mass march and rally commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1966 Hunters Point Uprising. Some longtime activists like Dr. Jimmy Garrett credit the SF Hunter's Point Uprising, the 1965 Watts Riots/Rebellion and Oakland resistance to police brutality with the 1966 founding of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.

On Sept. 27, 1966, Matthew Johnson, 16, was fatally shot in the back by SFPD, and the people rose up in rage -- only to be put down by National Guard troops and tanks called in by City Hall. On Sept. 27, 2006, we demand that City Hall reinstate our referendum petition signed by over 33,000 San Franciscans to stop the redevelopment land grab and 'repeopling' of Bayview Hunters Point. For 40 years, we've demanded:No more police brutality, Living wage jobs, especially on City construction, and the right to develop our own community. Don't let City Hall shoot us in the back again!

Enough is Enough! -

We Demand Self-Determination for our Communities!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 16th

SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL - 11AM-4PM

**SPONSORED BY: POWER, AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY POLICE RELATIONS BOARD, LATINO/ASIAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER COALITION, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ADVOCACY, NATION OF ISLAM BAY AREA, SAN FRANCISCO BAY VIEW NATIONAL BLACK NEWSPAPER
TRANSPORTATION PROVIDED. FOR TRANSPORTATION, PLEASE CALL (415) 240-0313. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL POWER: (415) 864-8372 EXT. 302/303

POWER is a multi-racial, multi-lingual organization of no- and low-wage workers who are united in our commitment to fight for racial and economic justice. When we say “no- and low-wage workers”, we're talking about that section of people in the
economy whose ranks are rapidly growing. That section of people who do the work that is vital to the functioning of the economy and who work in the most dangerous and under-valued jobs- jobs which receive small wages, usually no benefits and no opportunity for advancement. These workers are welfare recipients, workfare workers, unemployed workers, domestics, day laborers, childcare workers, security guards, sex workers, farmworkers, housemakers and all other no- and low-wage workers.

Learning From New Orleans - One Year Later - SF Bay Area commemorations

As my students at SF State and within the SF Unified School District go back to school this coming week, many displaced students and their families in the Gulf Coast area still are in limbo as New Orleans struggles to rebuild. I have found many of the resources below helpful in teaching about what New Orleans means for our ongoing struggles for educational and social justice in America.
Great Resources for Teaching About New Orleans and Katrina - Rethinking Schools - An Unnatural Disaster: What will Teachers Do?
Rethinking New Orleans Schools By Jordan Flaherty, WireTap.
We urge folks to join us for SF, Oakland Bay commemorations in support of the People's Basic Democratic Demands:
Fight for the Right to Return, a Just Reconstruction, and Black Self-Determination in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast!

* Sunday, August 27th *
Katrina Commemorative Film Festival
6:00 pm - 522 Valencia St., San Francisco

* Monday, August 28th *
Press Conference
12:00 Noon
@FEMA Headquarters - 1111 Broadway Ave., Oakland

* Monday, August 28th *
Katrina Commemoration Vigil
8:00 pm - Oakland City Hall

* Tuesday, August 29th *
Katrina Community Commemoration Event
6:00 pm - @1st Unitarian Church
685 14th St., Oakland

Organized by Survivors for Survivors and the Bay Area Katrina Solidarity Committee.
For more info call (510) 655-7342 or email mxgmoakland@hotmail.com
-----
Also, Watch Spike Lee's new HBO 4 part documentary WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS.
And, for insightful analysis which puts New Orleans into historic context of civil rights and black liberation check out Eric Mann's Katrina's Legacy: White Racism and Black Reconstruction in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast

Here's a 2005 version of Mann's analysis from Monthly Review http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/mann061005.html
Mann spoke with Kali Akuno of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and others to a packed auditorium of activists and revolutionaries in SF's Mission District earlier this month. Mann and Akuno urged stepped up solidarity and support for New Orleans and Gulf Coast people.

ColorLines Magazine also features an excellent piece by Jordan Flaherty with great examples of people organizing for a new day despite tremendous oppression and repression.
THE KATRINA ANNIVERSARY By Jordan Flaherty www.colorlines.com
Jordan's previous articles from New Orleans are at: http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/SpecialCollections/jordanonkatrina.aspx

Other Resources: ONE YEAR AFTER KATRINA, a new report from Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch. see http://www.reconstructionwatch.org
For a comprehensive calendar of events during the anniversary week, go to http://www.neworleansnetwork.org
Some resources for information and action: Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children - http://www.fflic.org
A Fighting Chance - http://www.a-fighting-chance.org/
People's Organizing Committee: http://www.peoplesorganizing.org
Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund - http://www.peopleshurricane.org/
Justice for New Orleans - http://www.justiceforneworleans.org/
Common Ground - http://www.commongroundrelief.org

Educational Justice: Chinese Style - San Francisco's Chinese Progressive Association

My involvement in educational justice work began when I joined the Chinese Progressive Association in SF's Chinatown in 1984. My twin brother Gordon [in the picture on the far right] had been active in the Asian Student Union at UC Berkeley and joined CPA a few years earlier. He is now the Executive Director. Former Emeryville Unified Superintendent Henry Der is to my right, in the middle of the photo. At the time Henry was director of Chinese for Affirmative Action. He is now a senior program office for the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. Burton High School teacher Eric Chow is to the far left.
In 1987 CPA organized thousands of students, parents and community folks to March on Sacramento for bilingual education, Ethnic Studies, adequate funding, equal opportunities to learn and against the racism and anti-immigrant sentiment of the period. My wife and I continued to support summer youth programs in Chinatown and youth leadership in the Environmental Justice movement as well into the 1990's. We also dabbled in electoral politics during the Rainbow Coalition campaigns of 1984 and 88 as well, and learned to "wield the weapon" of electoral politics to help build stronger social movements for a more democratic and just society, as one of our leaders Wilma Chan used to say. Wilma is now in the California State Assembly.
CPA also sparked my interest in US China relations, fighting against anti-Asian violence, and connecting immigrant rights and workers rights and economic justice for our communities.
CPA continues to do amazing multiethnic alliance building, immigrant rights, tenant empowerment, low wage worker organizing, and anti-globalization work as well.
For more info: www.CPASF.ORG

Building the Black/Brown Alliance LA-Style; 17 year old Senior Antonio Williams tells it like it is on the racist CA High School Exit Exam

One of my mentors Chicano Studies Prof. Carlos Munoz and other Chicano, Latino and African American activists are getting together in Los Angeles this coming weekend at
The First Annual National Conference on Latino and African American Race Relations
Date: June 3, 2006 Time:Registration: 6:00 PM Begins: 7:00 PM
Location:Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation 1025 W.Exposition Blvd (Directly across from USC at Vermont & Exposition Blvd.)Los Angeles, CA 90007
Critical issues will be discussed and policy made that will no doubt change Los Angeles and be an example across the country. The conference will feature a morning Symposium that will feature national Latino and African American leaders who will dialogue on issues of immigration, labor, politics, health, economic empowerment and violence in our communities, schools and jails.
Rev. Al Sharpton and Christine Chavez, granddaughter of Cesar Chavez will headline the morning symposium that includes Mayor Roosevelt Dorn of Inglewood, Ca, Mayor Eric Perrodin of Compton Ca, Mayor Letica Vasquez of Lynwood Ca, State Sen Gloria Romero & Assemblymember Karen Bass, & Moderator Dr Earl Ofari Hutchinson.
Registration begins at 6:00 PM. Symposium begins at 7:00 PM
Registration fees for the conference are free.
However, donations can be made toProject Islamic HOPEP.O. Box 43-A-122Los Angeles Ca 90043 - For more info e-mail islamichope@aol.com or call (323) 769-5267
-------------------

Poor News Magazine intern Antonio Williams tells it like it is on the racist and class biased CA High School Exit Exam.

Of the 46,700 seniors who have failed the test, 20,600 are designated as limited English learners and 28,300 are very lo-income.
I am a 17 year High School Senior. I failed the Exit Exam. Due to the delay ruling of the first challenge I might have a chance to receive a diploma as I am in the class of 2006. But what about my younger brothers and sisters? ...
According to Multiple Measures Approaches to High School Graduation published by the School Redesign Network at Stanford University, alternatives are currently being used by several states such as Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Maine. The Stanford Study stated that rather than being detrimental to student learning, alternatives such as the Senior Year Demonstration encourages an ambitious range of thinking and performance skills in students who participate.
So why can't Jack O'Connell understand that? Or better yet why doesn't Jack O'Connell listen to us, the students struggling with resource-poor, arts-poor and skilled- teacher poor schools. Struggling under endless test preps and no real teaching...
As I, a young African/Latino PoorNewsNetwork reporter watched the young Latina student of Richmond High School capture a corporate media minute in April and spit truth, I felt hope. As I, a young African/Latino high School student watched a young person of color question a stereotype to thousands of corporate media viewers, I felt possibilities. As I, a young brother of color who failed the exit exam watched resistance to the racist and classist Exit Exam. I didn't feel like completely giving up. At least through the media lens, I felt like we were listened to. Maybe sometime in the future we will be heard.

Poormagazine.org

Celebrate, don't desecrate Cinco de Mayo

I commonly ask my Ethnic Studies students at San Francisco State to explain the origins of May Day and Cinco de Mayo. And, almost always no one ever has any consciousness of the history of either day. This is particularly frustrating to me since both holidays were born out of struggles here in the US - the militant labor movement of the 1880's and the Chicano Movimiento of the 1960's.

Ironically, SF's Indy Media is reporting today that racist/anti-immigrant groups are desecrating Cinco de Mayo by holding "anti-illegal immigrant" rallies on May 5 and 6 in the San Jose area. The mainstream media reports of the historic May 1st rallies and marches throughout the United States barely mentioned the connection that immigrant communities are making to the struggle of working people represented by OUR international workers day.

To connect my students with more on Cinco de Mayo and immigrant workers' struggles, I often use perspectives from former LA 13 defendent and longtime Chicano Movement veteran Carlos Munoz' writings - Carlos often describes Cinco de Mayo as an anti-imperialist holiday [1862 Battle of Puebla] which was popularized by activists within the Chicano movement of the 1960's.
Be Down with the Brown! - For a great historical piece about the student-led blowouts/walkouts from the 1990's - see 'Betita' Elizabeth Martinez' piece from ZMagazine over 12 years ago wrote about the post-Prop 187 Latino student blowouts up and down California - and the use of Cinco de Mayo as a tool to advance community struggles.
For another great piece on the significance of the Cinco de Mayo today see Rosalio Munoz' piece
A Holiday for Democracy Some historical thoughts on Cinco De Mayo

In the coming week millions of Mexican Americans, mexicanos, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, white Americans — Americans of all kinds — will take part in Cinco de Mayo events across the United States. The holiday is celebrated more in the Southwest, but increasingly in other parts of the country as well. It is as American as tamale pie, almost as much as May Day, the international workers’ day, but more popular with the media and government.
The celebration of Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. precedes that of May Day. The victory of the meztizo/indio Mexican troops over the French at Puebla in 1862 predates the attack on the workers in Chicago’s Haymarket Square by well over a decade. One of my great-grandfathers was helping organize Cinco de Mayo events in Tucson by the early 1880s.

Munoz argues for the linking of May Day with Cinco de Mayo

One way to acknowledge this is to combine the commemorations of Cinco de Mayo with May Day. In some ways, the support for Cinco de Mayo by the powers that be developed here as an attempt to detract from May Day. Celebrating the International workers’ day was one of the traditions Mexican immigrants brought here from their homeland. That’s all the more reason to celebrate democracy on both days.

Racism, Redevelopment, Displacement and the San Francisco Earthquake; Chinese Progressive Association Statement on building the movement

See BeyondChron's great coverage of this week's people's forum on the Centennial of the Great SF Earthquake - The Other Side of the Earthquake Story by Jacob Schneider‚ Apr. 18‚ 2006

A diverse group of San Francisco politicians, progressive activists, and Chinatown residents packed an elementary school auditorium Monday night for a unique forum. As the city marked the eve of the 100-year anniversary of the great 1906 earthquake and fire with a variety of commemorative events, “Ruin, Rubble and Race,” sought to connect the social fallout of that disaster with the reaction to Hurricane Katrina last year.

Lastly, immigrant rights groups are mobilizing for the large A23 - April 23 immigrant rights rally and march in San Francisco. for details http://www.immigrantrights.org
Asian and Pacific Islander organizations are mobilizing and holding forums this week as well.
Forum at Chinese for Affirmative Action today at 4pm. http://www.caasf.org
Youth forum 4/20 at 4:30 at Chinese Progressive Assn office 1042 Grant, 5th Fl. SF
info 415/391-6986 or justice@cpasf.org

Here's a new statement from the Chinatown-based Chinese Progressive Association on the eve of the immigrant rights events -

April 18, 2006

Stand Up Against Anti-Immigrant Laws!
Equal Rights and Dignity for All Immigrants!

Globalization and Imperialism Fuel Global Migration
Following NAFTA in 1994, millions of Mexican communities were forced off their land and were given no other option to provide for their family than to risk their lives to find work in the U.S. In China, similar free trade policies have impoverished and displaced over 120 million farmers and migrant workers. Faced with long waiting lists and barriers to legal immigration, over 11 million undocumented immigrants, including nearly 1 million from China, have come to the U.S. in recent decades seeking a better life. The U.S. government’s response to the consequences of their own neo-liberal trade pacts has been to militarize the U.S./Mexic//o border and criminalize the very people that they displaced: immigrant workers.

Today's Anti-Immigrant Laws Mirror the Anti-Chinese Laws of the 1800's
In 1882, the U.S. government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to ban immigration of Chinese workers to the U.S. and prohibit Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens. This discriminatory law was eventually expanded to exclude all Asian immigrants and was not fully reversed until 1965. To pass these laws, racist politicians blamed Asian immigrants for “stealing” jobs from white Americans. Today, similar arguments are used by racist politicians to push new anti-immigrant laws such as HR 4437.

We Are All Immigrants
Right wing groups and politicians have focused their recent attacks on undocumented immigrants. Regardless of your immigration status, this is just a way for the Bush administration to divide us and undermine the rights of all immigrants. In 1994, Prop 187 excluded undocumented immigrants in California from social welfare benefits. Two years later, the U.S. government cut off most legal immigrants from public health care, food stamps and cash assistance programs for the needy.

We Demand COMPREHENSIVE Immigration Reform
The Chinese Progressive Association stands with communities across the entire nation, and throughout the world demanding full equality and dignity for immigrant workers. We call on our senators and representatives to say NO to enforcement-only legislation such as HR 4437 and to support comprehensive immigration reform that will:
§ Provide the opportunity for undocumented immigrants to legalize their status
§ Expand avenues for legal immigration and support family reunification
§ Strengthen labor protections and their enforcement for all workers, both native and foreign born
§ End neo-liberal trade policies that impoverish and displace farmers and workers in developing countries and fuel global migration

Chinese Progressive Association
1042 Grant Ave. 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94133
Tel: (415) 391-6986 Fax: (415) 391-6897 justice@cpasf.org

Learning about educational justice - Chicago style

As a west-coast visitor to Chicago [for an urban schools meeting] I have been very lucky to hook up with some amazing community organizers, parents, teachers, small school movement folks out here in the past couple of days. Learning about the histories of the Haymarket Massacre 120 years ago, to the Harold Washington/Rudy Lozano and Rainbow coalition movements for justice and political power in the 80's, to the rich community organizing history of the Local School Councils, ACORN, and many other groups. What an amazing history of struggle Chicago represents.
But the heart of today's burgeoning immigrant rights movement here is clearly the Little Village/Pilsen neighborhood- with a huge mostly Mexican immigrant population resides. The community also is adjacent to Cicero, which has become majority Latino as well over the last few decades.
I visited 3 schools yesterday and hope to check out another amazing new community-based high school with a social justice focus that was WON through community struggle and a 19 day hunger strike by 13 community folks who were sick and tired of politicians' promises.
More info on the Little Village Lawndale High School and info on the historic Little Village/Lawndale Hunger Strike for edjucational justice in May 2001.
More info on the 12 year old Telpochcalli Community Arts Elementary School.
My gratitude and props go out to Sue and Mike Klonsky of the Small Schools Workshop here, Carl Davidson of Networking for Democracy, the folks from the Little Village CDC, and former CPS administrator and now Community Links HS principal Dr. Carlos Azcoitia for their hospitality.

As San Francisco parents, teachers and communities led by SFOP and the folks from June Jordan School for Equity fight for a stronger small schools policy in our district today, these examples from Chicago's decades of organizing and history of people's struggle are very useful and profoundly inspiring.

Student protesters in San Diego need support

San Diego immigrant and police accountability groups like the AFSC - American Friends Service Committee are calling for solidarity with student activists who are facing a crackdown by San Diego police because of their blowouts/walkouts over the past few days.
Local affiliates of the SouthWest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice or SNEEJ and Grassroots Global Justice like AIWA, PODER and the Chinese Progressive Association have worked closely with Jose Bravo from San Diego. See the call to Action below.
Historical note: when students from East LA high schools organized their March 1968 blowouts or walkouts of Wilson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Garfield High Schools with support from students from many other schools they faced the same kind of police and school district repression that the current students are facing today.
But at its height in 1968 the blowout movement counted somewhere between 10,000 to 15,000 students, according to LA 13 veteran and UCB Prof. Carlos Munoz in his chroncle of the Chicano Movement "Youth Identity and Power" [Verso 1989]. See also Brown Beret founder Carlos Montes' reflection on the making of the 2006 HBO film Walkout. Montes was also arrested as one of the LA 13 in addition to Munoz, and David Sanchez and Moctezuma Esparza and others portrayed in the HBO film.
Today's youth protests are clearly much larger and widespread. The LA based Brown Berets and UMAS [United Mexican American Students] supported youth movement in 1968 spread to schools in Denver and Crystal City Texas and were encouraged by Corky Gonzalez' [Crusade for Justice] and Reies Lopez Tijerina and other movement leaders.
At the college level students at San Jose State held walkouts later that year, and the Mexican American Student Confederation - MASC - at San Francisco State and groups at UC Berkeley helped to form the multiracial Third World Liberation Fronts on those campuses to shut them down from November 1968 through the Spring of 1969 over demands for student power, fair admissions and student support programs, Ethnic Studies, an Autonomous Third World College and community control over education. The establishment of Chicano and La Raza Studies and Ethnic Studies at many campuses up and down the Southwest were, in part, a result of the walkout movement begun in East LA by high school students and the growing Chicano movement.
But it appears that today's walkouts are more massive, spontaneous and widespread - thus the intense crackdown by police and school districts.

From: Jose Bravo
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006
Subject: Emergency call to action! Pass it on!
San Diego Police are in the process of Intimidating, brutalizing and arresting hundreds of students right now as I write this email. Many are being held by the SD Police Department in the a sub-station in Barrio Sherman (Sherman Heights) next to Barrio Logan. Cristian Ramirez / Cesar Luna and other people mobilizing for their release and legal representation. We need your help urgently.

Call the SDPD and demand an end to the violence on students from Memorial Jr. High. If people need to contact Cristian Ramirez with AFSC at the scene or can get press to contact Cristian here is the number 619 885-1289 Cell.

Here is the SDPD contact information:

By telephone at (619) 531-2000
By mail: San Diego Police Department 1401 Broadway, Mail station 700 San Diego, CA 92101
Citizens' Review Boardon Police Practices1200 Third Avenue, Suite 916San Diego, CA 92101(619) 236-6296Email: http://us.f825.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=citizensreviewboard@sandiego.gov

Jose T. Bravo
Jose T. Bravo Executive Director Just Transition Alliance 2434 Southport Way, Suite D National City, California 91950 Office Phone: 619 474-4001 Cell Phone: 619 838-6694 http://us.f825.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=justtransition@sbcglobal.net
http://www.jtalliance.org/

LA's independent media center just reported that the LA National Lawyers Guild is providing legal support for students -
Legal Defense for Walkouts
by Pachuco Wednesday, Mar. 29, 2006 at 10:14 AM
Legal Defense for Students Participating in Walkouts
For Students that have participated in the Walkouts and face legal issues resulting from their participation may contact the National Lawyers Guild at:
8124 West Third Street, Suite 101 Los Angeles, California 90048
(323) 653-4510; Fax (323) 653-3245
http://www.nlg-la.org/
http://www.nlg-la.org/

Latino Voice for Peace March - Mexico Border to the Mission District in SF; Edward James Olmos' Walkout: Based on the East LA Student Protests of 1968

New HBO film about the Chicano/Latino struggle for Self-Determination and Educational Justice in East LA premieres March 18th:
Reading Writing Revolution!
Walkout: Based on the East LA Student Protests of 1968
Edward James Olmos directs this HBO Films drama that tells the true but little-known story of a group of Chicano students who staged a compelling 1968 walkout to protest the injustices of the public high-school system in East Los Angeles. Starring Alexa Vega as Paula Crisostomo, an idealistic honor student who refuses to "play it safe" in a school system that clearly discriminates against Chicanos, instead banding with a group of activists to coordinate a multi- school walkout of students. Mentored by her charismatic teacher Sal Castro (Michael Peña), Paula learns that sometimes the price for progress is high -- but it's ultimately worth paying.
HBO PR for film

Latinos Against the War links:
http://www.latinoscontralaguerra.org/
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051003/lovato

Connecting the War on Latinos and the Poor today with the Chicano Moratoriums of 1970 - 35 years later -
http://www.fightbacknews.org/2005/05/chicano35.htm
From United for Peace and Justice -
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=188
From Freedom Road -
http://www.fightbacknews.org/2005/04/latinosagainstwar.htm
http://www.fightbacknews.org/2003-2-spring/latinosvswar.htm
----------------------------

MARCH FOR PEACE
Raising Latino Voice of Opposition to the War in Iraq
Objective: A 241 mile march that aims at ensuring thatthe Latino voice of opposition to the War is heard loud and clear across the Americas.
WHAT/ WHEN: Fernando Suarez del Solar, Pablo Paredes,Camilo Mejia and Aidan Delgado will lead a coalition ofthe willing across this 241 mile quest for peacestarting in Tijuana, Mexico, going through Marine Corps Depot Camp Pendleton to the Cesar Chavez burial site inLa Paz, CA, culminating in The Mission district of SanFrancisco with a memorial ceremony and blood drive.
The March will begin on 12 March 2006. The coalition ofthe willing will arrive at La Paz, CA on 22 March 2006 and culminate in San Francisco from 26 March 2006 to 27March 2006.
WHY: Latinos represent nearly 15% of the US populationand 11% of the US military, with many serving in combator hazardous duty occupations. In addition, anestimated 20% of the fallen service members in theearly months of the invasion were Latino. With thecontinued growth of the Latino population and its vitalimportance to the future of this country, it is time for the Latino community to become an active and vocalpart of the 60%+ of US citizens that oppose this War.It is also time to show the Latino community that theyhave a voice and a right to fight for peace andstability. Fernando Suarez Del Solar is committed toself-sacrifice. At 50 years of age he cares more aboutending this war than even his own health. We make thiscall not only to the Latino population but to all thosewho agree with our message "No more bloodshed in Iraq".
About the Route and Structure
Why 241 miles? Last Year was the 75th anniversary of Gandhi's Salt March, one of the most impactful non-violent acts of protest and civil disobedience inpursuit of social justice in history. Gandhi marched241 miles to free India from British imperialism. This legacy has been vibrant in all Latino Social Justice movements. Cesar Chavez was a disciple of Gandhi. We wish to rekindle this tradition and one year after the75th , we wish to put Gandhi's spirit into practicerather than wait for the next milestone to honor hismemory.

About the march leaders:
Fernando Suarez Del Solar Is the father of one of the first Latinos to die in Iraq. He was lied to about his son's death, but found thetruth in Iraq with the help of a well know recentvictim of the war, co-anchor of ABC's World NewsTonight, Bob Woodruff. Fernando's son Jesus stepped on an illegal US cluster bomb. Since then Fernando has been a tireless advocate for peace.
Pablo Paredes Navy warresister who refused boarding an Iraq bound ship on Dec. 6th 2004. He was court martialed, sentenced andnow speaks out for Peace.
Camilo Mejia Served one tour in Iraq and then became a National Guard war resister. He was jailed for nine months for his opposition to thewar and is now a prominent anti-war speaker and memberof Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).
Aidan Delgado Is a Conscientious Objector of the Iraq war. He served at Abu Gharib and now tours the country withslide shows of the prison abuses.

About the march route:
Tijuana - The march from Tijuana across the US-Mexico Border is a symbolic gesture of Peace without borders. As Jesus Suarez del Solar was born and educated in this beautiful city, our marchwill also be born in Tijuana, and we also wish that our gesture serves to educate around border issues andpeace.
Escondido Escondido is the city in which Jesuswas recruited and today is buried. We wish to trace Jesus' steps and then continue his fight for thechildren of Iraq and America in the name of peacerather than war.
Pendleton Marine Corps Depot Camp Pendleton is the place where Jesus and many of ouryouth are trained for war. Jesus deployed fromPendleton to Iraq. We wish to rewrite history with our march and deploy our soldiers from MCD Camp Pendletonto La Paz. La Paz - La Paz translates to The Peace, and is the burial site of Cesar Chavez. We wish to evoke his legacy and lead our coalition to peace.
San Francisco's Mission district is predominantly Latino. We will hold a service in the mission to commemorate Jesus. We will also stage ablood drive. The blood donated will be equally distributed to cope with Iraqi as well as coalition needs.

The March will arrive in all the following cities:Tijuana, San Diego, Escondido, Camp Pendleton, SantaAna, Los Angeles, San Fernando, Palmdale, Rosamond,Keene (La Paz), Fresno, San Jose, and San Francisco.
MORE INFO ON THE MARCH

Farewell Sox Kitashima - redress/reparations movement leader

Farewell Sox - Thank you for inspiring our generation to fight for redress/reparations and for community empowerment and social justice. We'll never forget your smile, warmth and 'serve the people' spirit.
For more info on NCRR [Nikei for Civil Rights and Redress, formerly National Coalition for Redress/Reparations]

Tsuyako "Sox" Kitashima - [from the SF Chroncle]

Tsuyako "Sox" Kitashima Passed away on Thursday morning December 29, 2005 at the age of 87. Preceded in death by her husband Tom. Loving sister to the late Nobuko, Lillian, Masao, and Hisao. Sox is survived by her son Alan (Sylvia), grandson Aaron, and her brother James (Boe). Aunt to many nieces and nephews. She was totally devoted to the San Francisco Japantown community.
A community leader on many issues. She became synonymous with the redress and reparations campaign for Japanese Americans wrongfully incarcerated during World War II. She loved volunteering her time to Kimochi Inc., a community based organization which provides services for the Japanese American elderly. Sox spent so many mornings working in the kitchen helping prepare lunches for the elderly. Sox will be missed by all she touched. She was "one of a kind." She lived a full and wonderful life. A Memorial Service will be held on Sunday, January 8, 2006 at 4:30 P.M. at the JCCCNC (Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California), 1840 Sutter St., San Francisco. Published in the San Francisco Chronicle from 1/1/2006 - 1/5/2006.
--------------------------

Asian American Curriculum Project's Review of
Joy Morimoto's autobiography of Sox's life -
Birth of an ActivistThe Sox Kitashima Story

By Tsuyako "Sox" Kitashima and Joy K. Morimoto
Published by AACP2003, 174 pages, paperback.

View Additional InformationORDER --Price $19.95
"Birth of an Activist: The Sox Kitashima Story" by Tsuyako "Sox" Kitashima and Joy K. Morimoto is the autobiography of a California-born, Japanese American woman who was one of the leaders of the redress and reparations campaign for Japanese Americans wrongfully imprisoned during World War II.
This book tells the very human story of "Sox" Kitashima, whose life was caught up in extraordinary national and international events and how she became an activist as a result. The beginning of the book offers a fascinating glimpse into what life was like in the 1930s in what is now Fremont, California. Far from being part of the high-tech urban center it is today the area was rural and agricultural where the main forms of entertainment were the radio, baseball and other sports, movies in Oakland or San Jose, or local dances.
"Sox" received her lifetime nickname at this time because few of her non-Japanese American teachers and peers could pronounce her given name of Tsuyako. Interestingly enough, the schools in this farming community were completely integrated with Asians, whites, and blacks sharing the same classrooms.
The center part of this book is the experience of internment during World War II and the aftermath. One of the problems of memorializing the internment is that so many of those adults who experienced it have already passed away leaving the experience to be described by those who were children at the time. Sox is one of the surviving young adults of the time who had a clear eyed understanding of what was happening without the warm glow of childhood to soften the experience. She remembers the humiliation, the suffering, and the suicides that the Japanese American community experienced as the result of losing their property, homes, jobs, and identities when they became government issued numbers in the camps. Above all they had the shock of being treated in such a fashion by what they had been taught was the best and most enlightened democracy in the world.
One area that is rarely explored in history is the post-camp experience of Japanese Americans. Apparently it wasn't easy for many of these displaced persons to return to a normal life after the war. The US government gave each released internee $25 to begin their lives again as they left the camps. As a result of this further injustice, many of the former internees were initially forced to live in charity shelters and churches in overcrowded conditions that were in many cases worse than they had lived in during the war years. They also had to face the continuing hostility of many communities who failed to distinguish between Japanese and Japanese Americans.
Sox joined the redress movement in 1980 inspired by the passion and convictions of the Sansei or third generation of Japanese Americans. These young activists along with some members of the Nisei or second generation of Japanese Americans waged a long lobbying campaign in the United State Congress for an official apology and monetary compensation towards the internees. Sox came to know many politicians in Washington DC personally in her quest to enlist them in the redress cause. For much of this time most people, even those within the Japanese American community remained firmly convinced that nothing would ever come from the effort and that the US Government would never apologize for its actions. Even the activists were surprised when their oftentimes amateur lobbying efforts culminated in the successful passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Former surviving internees were to be paid $20,000 each and receive a formal written apology from the United States Government. In many cases, the apology was more valued than what was by then a very token compensation in relation to the property already lost and the humiliation already experienced. Moreover, many internees were no longer eligible since they'd already died before the law came into existence. This group of people included Sox's mother and two brothers.
Sox volunteered with the government's Office of Redress Administration to educate the Japanese American community about their rights and their eligibility to apply for redress soon after the passage of this law. She tells of her many different triumphs and tragedies in finding these people, in some cases living very neglected and lonely lives in forgotten apartments, veteran's homes, and even prisons. She also describes her continuing battles with Congress and the rest of the US Government to insure adequate funding for redress and the battles to include those determined as ineligible in the 1988 law. Among the excluded were children born to mothers temporarily on leave from the internment camps who were visiting their husbands serving in the US military, and were subsequently returned to the camps. Also, there were citizens of Japanese descent living in Latin America, who were arrested by the FBI, and interned as exchangeable hostages in the United States. Officially these internees were held as "illegal immigrants" to the US despite the fact that it was the US Government that had brought them here.
Above all, this book emphasizes the fact that people need to be educated about what this period of internment means to our history as Americans. It also emphasizes the fact that people must stand up for their rights. Sox's story shows that even short, feisty grandmothers can carry out this fight for rights and the task of educating people about them.
Review by Philip Chin
ORDER THE BOOK!
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For more history on NCRR and the redress and reparations movement -
http://www.aamovement.net/history/ncrr.html
History of CANE - Committee Against Nihonmachi Evictions - SF
http://www.aamovement.net/history/canehistory.html

Myth of Education Gap Closing in NYC Schools and the Nation

NYC Black Radical Congress leader Sam Anderson critiques NYC Superintendent Joel Klein's claims of 'closing the gap' .... from the NYTimes article from December 2, 2005. Anderson was a founding member of the NY Chapter of the Black Panther Party and now serves as Education Director at Medgar Evers College’s Center for Law & Social Justice.

In the aftermath of NYC's elimination of their community school boards in 2002, Anderson and others formed the Independent Commission on Public Education (iCOPE) which is forming an independent task force of parents, community members, students, teachers, principals, policy-makers, elected officials, scholars and business leaders to shape a new common vision for our schools based on human rights. http://www.icope.org/
------------------------

The Myth of Education Gap-Closing in NYC Scools (and the Nation)
From: "S. E. Anderson

Folks,
Malcolm X said (I'm paraphrasing): When a man with a 12 inch knife in your back pulls it out 3 inches, you don't call that "Progress."
The Bloomberg/Klein spinmasters at the NY Times have produced another "gem" of mythical propaganda with Dec 2's news article rosily headlined: "City's Schools Cut Racial Gap in Test Scores". (the link to the full article below) also visit <http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard> for the data.

DAVID M. HERSZENHORN's raggedy mishmash article is a classic attempt to abuse statistics for the sake of shoring up and covering up a major corporate-sponsored education implosion. Herszenhorn and The Times can get away with it because 99% of US citizens don't have a clue about analyzing statistical data. Let's be real here: there is a real educational meltdown going on in NYC's public schools (as well as the rest of the US's public education system).
So let's take a look at the Times's attempt at bamboozling and obscuring and fabricating....
"The results are divided into four categories: below basic, basic, proficient and advanced."
What The Times DOES NOT tell you is that "below basic" and "basic" are actually about being super-illiterate/innumerate and functionally illiterate/innumerate. A "proficient" score means that your child is AT grade level.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) lumps the "basic" level with the "proficient" and "advanced" levels, thus distorting the reality of literacy and numeracy in the US. It prettifies a national horror of tens of millions of academically ill-prepared young citizens (but that's what present-day capitalism needs!). So when you go to: <http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard> and look at the stats, regroup the stats to have basic and below basic together to get a better picture of the depth and breadth of US miseducation.
For example: if we look at the nationwide Black 8th graders Math scores this way, we'll see that 92 out of 100 Black 8th graders are incapable of doing -at best- 7th and 8th grade math! And 89 out of 100 NYC's Black students are in the same devastating state. see: data.
>---------------------------

"Mirroring a nationwide pattern on state by state results released last month, reading scores in the urban districts were up in the fourth grade but flat or lower in the eighth grade."
So how's this education progress when by the 8th grade, most children -at best- know only as much as they did in the 4th grade?
-----------------

"New York City's strongest results over all were in fourth-grade math, with the number of students scoring at the basic level up 6 percentage points, to 73 percent, from 2003."
You get these results by:
(1) making the test even easier than all the previous ones...
(2) ...then spend 80-90% of classroom time teaching-to-the-test (meaning that no real math education is going on... resulting in disastrous test scores and grades by the 8th grade AND nurturing the pre-high school dropout rate)
(3) Give the test earlier in the year, thus testing more 3rd grade material than 4th grade material.
(4) systematically weed out low performing students test time.
-------------------------

"In fourth-grade reading, New York City's gap between the average score of black and white students shrank by 10 points. Among Hispanic students the gap shrank 7 points."
10% and 7% shrinkage from what gap? It's never revealed. So these numbers sound good but have no context. How wide was the gap? That's key to see how much progress is being made and how long it will take to achieve parity.

"In all, 36 percent of white fourth graders achieved reading proficiency on this year's test, compared with 16 percent of black students and 15 percent of Hispanic students."
64 out of 100 white 4th grade students being illiterate is an alarmingly horrific figure! But the Times hides this horror thru its glazing data-ese. 84 out of 100 Black 4th grade students can't read and 85 out of 100 Latino students can't read. This is beyond horrific. This is educational genocide. But all this is counched in the shroud of "progress" and "gap closing." I am convinced that if white, Black, Latino parents are given test data in this manner, there would be more outrage and action against Bloomberg/Klein (mis)education policies. But the Times's job is not to give a true picture of the education crisis. There job is to say: "You're doing a good job Bloomie!"
----------------------

"...New York had the most striking gains in fourth-grade reading scores, with 57 percent of students testing at the basic level this year, up from 47 percent in 2002...."
(1) How do you get 57% from the data state above: 36% white proficiency, 16% Black profiency and 15% Latino profiency? Even if the Asian and "other" 4th graders scored 100% proficiency (which they did not), they only constitute an even smaller-than-white-students percentage of 4th graders.
(2) Don't forget: not ALL 4th graders took the tests: thousands were "absent" from the exams thru various underhanded bureaucratic maneuverings.
-----------------------

"But while New York City could boast of encouraging gains in several areas, the overall picture of student achievement remains sobering. The results showed that in the city 43 percent of students remained at the below basic level in reading in the fourth grade. And eighth-grade reading scores fell slightly on the federal test, to 20 percent at the proficient level from 22 percent in 2003. The eighth-grade reading scores were the one area where the gap between white and black students widened."

(1) Education regression is progress according to The Times: "sobering progress." I hate to see "drunken progress."
(2) Now we see reality: "...eighth-grade reading scores fell slightly on the federal test, to 20 percent at the proficient level from 22 percent in 2003." Translation: By the time your 4th grader gets to an 8th grade class in NYC public school system he/she will most likely be among the 80 out of 100 who CANNOT READ at either the 7th or 8th grade level (because the test content is really wieghted on 7th grade material).
(3) "The eighth-grade reading scores were the one area where the gap between white and black students widened." Why is the widening happening?
(a) Teacher expectation is higher for white teens than for Black or Latino teens.(b) More tutorial support (via parents and schools) for white students(c) White teens are surrounded by white achievement and power(d) Black/Latino teens are surrounded by oppression, negative/criminal imagery, eurocentric curriculum(e) Black/Latino accept a form of racial inferiority complex about low test-score expectations(f) White Teens go to qualitatively better middle schools than Black/latinos
-------------------------------

"Mr. Klein played down the fact that gains were made in moving students to the basic levels, but not to the level of proficiency required by President Bush's signature No Child Left Behind law."
Bloomberg/Klein Progress = getting students to basic level NOT proficiency level. Emphasize this to parents and media rather than he reality that the city's children are, for the most part, functionally illiterate.
--------------------------------

"New York City's gains among black and Hispanic students were also accompanied by drops in scores among white students that both national experts and local school officials were at a loss to explain.
Some said the drop might be a result of the fact that the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests a sample of students rather than the entire district. Both gains or declines in scores must exceed the margin of error to be statistically significant."

The Real Deal: When you gear all your teaching to making sure students pass exams, this has a ripple effect thruout the system. One result is "white student alienation." That is, there are culturally given expectations for white student's intellectual development. Their family, their friends, their neighborhood expects that. But being immersed in a test-driven schooling system collides with these expectations by the time of the 8th grade test.

Remember, most of these white students and their families are already looking at high school and college. But many of them have experienced only teaching-to-the-test and very little critical thinking that's essential for being college bound. Hence, many white students join the ranks of the academically aliented... and just tune out of his miseducation scene.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress's sampling is done in the standard scientific manner: maximizing the possibility of getting a true representation of NYC's white student population. So... don't blame NAEP for the white student score decline: it's a result of years of teaching-to-the-test having a negative impact on thousands of white teens.
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"Mr. Easton, one of several officials making the presentation, cited research in Chicago showing that ninth-grade outcomes are highly predictive of high school success or failure, and he noted that black eighth graders in about half of the urban districts had very low math scores."
This telling fact is buried near the end of the article. One thing we never see in these news articles is projection. That is, given these data how long will it take for Black/Latino 4th and 8th graders to reach parity with white/Asian students? They don't want us to look at this because it would reveal that it would take DECADES to reach parity. Remember, the education gap existed from the end of slavery and was exacerbated by segregation's separate and unequal policies both NORTH and SOUTH.

Only total systemchange based on the premise that education is a Human Right can reverse this education pogrom/implosion. No Bloomberg/Klein mandates of corporate intervention can do it. No moral and intellectual suasion with Bloomberg/Klein can do it. It's parents, students, teachers, communities emnvisioning another educational system grounded in critical thinking and truly embracing New York's vast cosmopolitan culture and fighting to make it real.

NY Times Article

Happy Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Buy Nothing Day, and Indigenous People's 'Unthanksgiving Day' to everyone!

SF Turkey Day Championship Goes to Lincoln High School
Congratulations to San Francisco's Lincoln High School Football team for their exciting 21 to 20 victory, but also to the inspiring 20 point 2nd half effort from the Balboa High School Buccaneers as well in the Annual SF Turkey Bowl at Kezar Stadium on Thanksgiving Day. What a game this year! Though I missed the game this year, we are fortunate that there has been good local coverage of public school athletics in the SF press.
See the SF Examiner's article on the game.

San Francisco Solidarity with Indigenous People on Thanksgiving Day


Over the years, as a progressive tradition of solidarity I have always tried to attend the annual Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering to support Indigenous Peoples Thanksgiving Day and to confront the myths of history, give thanks for our lives and honor the spirit of continued resistance.
The alcatraz event is a tradition that streches back 30 years to Thanksgiving 1975 when the American Indian Movement and others came together to support the struggle of Native people for self-determination.
Every Thanksgiving morning thousands gather at PIER 41 - at SF's FISHERMAN'S WHARF - to catch ferries from 5 - 6:30 am. This year MC's and special guests included:
Lenny Foster, Floyd Westerman, Traditional Pomo Dancers, Danzantes Aztecas, Humaya Dancers, and the All Nation Drummers.
The Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz Island is always followed by a pot-luck feast, open to the public, free of charge, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Inter-Tribal Friendship House, 523 International Boulevard, Oakland. The organizers always include music, special guest speakers and great food and solidarity. They always need volunteers as well for cooking. If you can help, please call (510) 444-5808.
For more history on the American Indian Movement and the history of the Indian Occupation of Alcatraz from December 1969 through early 1971 check out the film Alcatraz is not an Island . From the website -

The takeover of Alcatraz was one of the most successful American Indian protest
actions of the 20th century, fueling the rise of modern Native American activism. In fact, many of the 74 Indian occupations of federal facilities that followed Alcatraz were either planned by or included people who had been involved in seizing the island.

The occupation also brought Indian rights issues to the attention of the federal government and American public, changing forever the way Native people viewed themselves, their culture and their inherent right to self-determination. The occupation also succeeded in getting the federal government to end its policy of termination and adopt an official policy of Indian self-determination. From 1970 to 1971, Congress passed 52 legislative proposals on behalf of American Indians to support tribal self-rule. ...

After visiting the occupiers on Alcatraz Island, the American Indian Movement (AIM) began a series of national protest actions by seizing federal facilities. Comprised of mostly younger, more progressive and better educated urban Indians, AIM was initially formed to protect urban Indians from civil rights abuses. Inspired by the Alcatraz occupation, AIM became an important multi-tribal protest organization during the '70s. Its first protest action was on Thanksgiving Day 1970, when AIM members painted Plymouth Rock red and seized the Mayflower II replica in Plymouth, Massachusetts to challenge a celebration of colonial expansion. From the takeover of Alcatraz Island in 1969 to the Longest Walk in 1978, the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement (ARPM) used social protest to demand that the government honor treaty obligations by providing resources, education, housing and healthcare to alleviate poverty. The ARPM aimed to build Indian colleges and create Indian studies programs, museums and cultural centers with federal funds to redress centuries of cultural repression.

At San Francisco State, where I teach, we also honor the memory of Richard Oakes, a SF State student leader who was instrumental in leading the Alcatraz takeover. Along with other students from SF State and campuses like UCLA, Oakes represented a generation of youth and oppressed groups fighting for power and self-determination for their peoples. The spirit of Alcatraz lives on through us and the annual Sunrise gatherings. Please join us next year.
For more info on the Film Alcatraz is Not an Island

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