Friday, August 26, 2011

DETROIT Peoples Movements Assembly April 2011

Detroit’s People’s Movement Assembly

April 28th 2011 a People's Movement Assembly was held in Detroit to create a grassroots approach to find solutions for the city's problems and as a direct response to the mayor's "right-sizing" plan to shrink the city. The PMA was held at Sacred Heart Church with around 250 people in attendance. The energy was high and the event was successful in creating resolutions.

Groups that helped to anchor the process included the Detroit Environmental Justice office of the Sierra Club, the 48217 community, East Michigan Environmental Action Council, Michigan Welfare Rights, and Detroit Great Lakes Bioneers. To prepare for the PMA the organizing group held a two day facilitation training with Project South and led a city wide tour of areas that would be most affected by the Detroit Works Project.

The Detroit PMA is a collective of community groups and individual citizens that have been meeting around the Detroit Works Project and discussing alternative visions for land use. We come together around the shared principles of Environmental Justice, The Environmental Justice Principles of Working Together, the United Nation’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the Earth Charter for guidance. We are making our best effort to solve the most significant problems of the day. In doing so we are committed to building.

Therefore, in alignment the above principles, and all peoples’ struggles for freedom, self-determination, and dignity, we demand, will build and fight for:

Health and Healing Justice:

What we will build:

Reframing health and healing as a human right, not as a privilege.

Healthcare belongs in the commons not the "corporate/private" sector.

Our commitments:

Engage Future City web class in helping us build a community resource database. It will include health and healing resources, information, and education. We hope to eventually include the intersection of the other six PMA topics.

We can't only house information on-line. Therefore, create a monthly flyer distribution network, to get resources and information into the neighborhoods.

Participate in building the Midwest PMA health and healing justice network.

Media Justice:

· We demand media that comes from and centers those actually affected, empowering folks to create our own media, lift up what we have, and move from message to action.
· We will be a people's media network, scaled to the level of change we want, to harness our power and hold the city accountable. We will prioritize low and high tech media, analyze and influence the local and national discourse, and model transparency.
· We will build a reality where communications is a human right, build media education for youth and others that teaches us to consume critically, support strategically and create with vision, and build free hot mesh wireless!

Environment as a Human Right:

· We collectively support the 48217 community efforts to address the environmental injustice they face.
· We need a culture shift that sees environment as a human right
§ We see the value of creating a public education campaign that: calls for all of us to love the environment, establishes a pollution hotline, retells the story of the environment, set up awareness and solutions in context
· We want to foster a positive spirit, nurture diversity in relationships as well as healthy connections to each other and mother earth
§ We want to host community listening sessions
§ We will consider gathering at least annually to better communicate environmental concerns in our community
· We believe that we need to create new models and be the change we want to see: an eco-village in Detroit, new systems of waste management, phylo and bio-remediation, green commons, green walkways, rain barrels
· We want to advocate policy changes, bombard city and state officials to become environmental justice advocates. "We will connect with, develop, and leverage funding resources across our campaigns and work to really live our environmental awareness."

Food Sovereignty:

We commit to create an education campaign around healthy foods

We commit to collectively creating and supporting alternative distribution networks including worker-owned cooperative models and scaling up existing local food producers to get healthy and affordable food to people

We commit to supporting policy change on local and national levels

We commit to demanding a moratorium on new fast food chains and will work towards a full boycott of fast food chains in the city

We support value-based local businesses

We will host our own Food Justice PMA in Detroit and we invite all to attend

Neighborhood Stability:

We commit to asking our own communities what their needs are and creating citizen governance

We commit to look for the common analysis by polling our neighborhoods and adopting neighborhoods to create stronger communities

We demand businesses and factories in the city hire local residents and use grassroots community based research methods

We commit to create a Sanctuary City – for safe stable neighborhoods

DISINVESTMENT FROM DETROIT WORKS

We commit to create and develop an alternative plan.

We commit to oppose government take over

We commit to build intercontinental social movements.

We commit to regionalize

We commit to strengthen/engage existing processes and existing plan.

We commit to build community home first

We commit to create regional support

We commit to find someone who can do a city audit

We commit to use alternative media strategies to uplift existing community work

We commit to utilize the DWP summit meetings to voice concern, use sign-in sheet to get commitment today’s Action Steps

Education Transformation:

We commit to coming together after the PMA to Formulate Strategic planning group for community empowerment regarding education and moratorium on all school and library closures
· 1st meeting May 6th 1264 Meldrum – Earthworks open to youth, parents, teachers, community
· We will commit to show up to rallies that support Catherine Ferguson Academy (a school dedicated to educating teen mothers and their children).
· We commit to connecting school and community (churches, non-profits, etc)
· We commit to investigating and discussing community charters as a strategy to Explore alternative plan to closings i.e. community charters
· We will commit to sharing resources and ideas in alternative media, so that people are informed on political happenings and can learn from successful models implemented locally and beyond. Specifically publication in Critical Moment’s education section
· We commit to fighting for libraries to remain open and including public libraries in discussions about the future of Detroit’s education

Media coverage of Detroit PMA:

Create Solutions for Detroit:

http://www.blacdetroit.com/BLAC-Detroit/April-2011/Create-Solutions-for-Detroit/

What is community engagement:

http://critical-moment.org/2011/07/21/what-is-community-engagement/

Peoples Response to the Detroit Works Project:

http://michigancitizen.com/the-peoples-movement-community-response-to-detroit-works-project-p9708-1.htm

check: www.pma2010.org

Thursday, August 25, 2011

STOP TAR SANDS KEYSTONE KILLER PIPELINE...

25 comments Keystone XL Protest Continues At White House, Over 250 Arrested

It is now day five of a two week-long protest of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, and approximately 275 people have been arrested for their participation in what is being called the largest act of civil disobedience in the environmental movement’s recent history.

The sit-in is a strategic event designed to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of the Keystone XL, a pipeline that transports tar sands oil, a particularly dirty and corrosive type of heavy crude, from Canada to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

Bill McKibben, renowned climate activist and one of the protest’s organizers, was arrested on Saturday. McKibben and others were charged with “failure to obey a lawful order” and taken to Anacostia Station to be processed.

From behind bars, McKibben issued the following statement:

“Hello everyone! We don’t need sympathy, we need company. It’s clear to us that police were hoping to deter this action, and it’s equally clear to us the opposite will be the result.

“I’m looking forward to seeing everybody over the next two weeks. It has been a little hot here in central cell block, but not as hot as it will be if we don’t stop this project. People here have been in good spirits, and there has been a great deal of learning. We are thinking ahead to this weekend to share stories about Dr. King and freedom movement.

“Even though uncomfortable, this experience has given us a greater sense of that part of history. Come on in, the water is fine.”

McKibben and the others originally believed that they would be able to pay a $100 fine and get out of jail the same day, however the the US Park Police decided to hold the protesters for 48 hours.

As another 56 people headed to jail today, leaders of groups as diverse as Greenpeace and the Environmental Defense Fund told the president, “there is not an inch of daylight between our policy position on the Keystone XL pipeline, and those of the protesters being arrested daily outside the White House.”

In a letter released Wednesday, these groups made it clear they counted on President Obama to take decisive action to block the pipeline. “We expect nothing less,” they said, describing the pipeline battle as “perhaps the biggest climate test you face between now and the election” and adding that denying the permit would trigger a “surge of enthusiasm from the green base that supported you so strongly in the last election.”

The leaders cited dangers to the climate, the risks of disastrous spills and leaks, and the economic damage that will come from continued dependence on fossil fuel in their letter, concluding, “this is a terrible project.”

The protest in Washington, D.C. is scheduled to continue until September 3rd. Oil Change International is currently collecting donations that will be used to reimburse activists directly for expenses relating to the protests, including travel, lodging, and legal fees. Please click here if you’d like to contribute.

Related Reading:

Dozens Arrested In Pipeline Protest

Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline Could Be Used To Remove Water

Environmental Leaders Encourage Civil Disobedience To Stop Keystone XL Pipeline

Canadian Government Says Emissions From Tar Sands Could Double

Image Credit: Flickr – tarsandsaction

Monday, August 22, 2011

Peoples Movement Assembly 'a sure way to grow social movement!!!

The Peoples Movement Assembly: (also check: www.pma2010.org)

What is it?

It is a methodology in which to bring people together in a 'convergence' of forces of the social movements fighting the frontline struggles for systemic social change.

It is a portal to bring people into the social movement into an 'open space' where collective work and consensus decisions or/and agreements are agreed upon

It is the open space where all voices are heard and become part of the whole; creating integration of voices and forces and organizations

It is a space for decisions, agreements and ACTION

A space to identify the problems we face collectively as a social movement

To provide and advance SOLUTIONS (dismantle the old system and build alternatives for a new system)

To have a open space to collectively plan ACTIONS

The United States Social Forum process organized Peoples Movements Assemblies (PMA's)

At Southeast Social Forum 2006 (Black & Brown PMA)

At Border Social Forum 2006 (Social Movements Assembly and synthesis declaration)

In 2007 at US Social Forum (Atlanta) Peoples Movements Assembly with 4,000 delegates

...And in 2010 at US Social Forum II in Detroit, with 25 PMA;s before the USSF II; 54 PMA's at USSF II; and some 20 PMA's after the USSF II with over 10,000 delegates participating in total

OUTCOMES:

Southwest PMA organizing Tour (June & July 2011)

Southeast PMA Organizing Tour (June-Dec 2011)

National Peoples Movements Assembly (Detroit)

Latin@ PMA Portland, Oregon

Drug War PMA 2011

Anti Poverty PMA (Detroit)

100's of action resolutions

10,000 participants in PMA's

And lots more to come...

ruben solis garcia

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Masacre de la familia Reyes Salazar en Valle de Juarez

Investigación ''urgente'' al
secuestro de Isela Hernández, exige líder estatal del PRD

Atención urgente al caso de secuestro de Isela Hernández Lara, ocurrido el domingo anterior en Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, exigió Miguel Vargas Loya, presidente estatal del Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD).
Dijo, según el boletín difundido, que "es urgente que se de celeridad al asunto, dados los antecedentes que existen y la relación de esta activista con la familia Reyes Salazar, a quienes el Estado tiene la obligación de brindar la protección necesaria".
Agrega el texto que "ante la ausencia de seguridad para esta familia, se han visto en la necesidad urgente de pedir protección y asilo político a gobiernos extranjeros, cuando es el Estado mexicano quien debiera proporcionarla".
"Exigimos que se atienda este caso urgentemente", reitera el líder del PRD en ese comunicado de prensa.

► Comunicado de la denuncia pública

► Lenta masacre de una familia mexicana por pedir justicia; Público.es

De la Redacción

Denuncian desaparición forzada de Isela Hernández Lara.

Guadalupe, Distrito Bravos, Lunes 15 de Agosto de 2010.- Alrededor de las 19:30 horas del domingo 14 de agosto del 2011, fue secuestrada de su domicilio la señora Isela Hernández Lara de 39 años de edad. En los hechos ocurridos en la colonia Francisco Villa de Guadalupe, Distrito de Bravo (municipio al sureste de Ciudad Juárez). Presenciaron el secuestro sus dos hijas de 13 y 16 años, así como su esposo, quien fue brutalmente golpeado y ya se encuentra hospitalizado en El Paso, Texas.

Entraron al domicilio por la fuerza aproximadamente ocho hombres fuertemente armados que viajaban en una camioneta Ford Explorer negra, de cabina y media, placas desconocidas. Con extrema violencia, maltrataron a la familia con la finalidad de encontrar al señor Enrique Hernández Lara y a su nieto, el niño "Alberto" (nombre falso) de 3 años de edad, a quien la señora Isela tuvo por encargo bajo su cuidado hasta hace apenas dos días.

"Alberto" es también nieto de Marisela Reyes Salazar, hermana de Josefina y Rubén Reyes Salazar, líderes sociales de Guadalupe asesinados en Enero y Agosto de 2010 respectivamente, así como de Elías y Malena Reyes Salazar, desaparecidos y asesinados en Febrero del presente año, también en el Valle de Juárez. Todos los crímenes fueron perpetrados por grupos paramilitares que operan con la anuencia de las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado en todo el territorio de Guadalupe.

Como consecuencia de estos hechos dos hermanos de la hoy desaparecida Isela Hernández Lara se entregaron anoche en el puente fronterizo de Dr. Porfirio Parra (Caseta), que comunica con el municipio texano de Tornillo, para solicitar refugio en los Estados Unidos dadas las condiciones de riesgo en que se encuentran por haber atestiguado la desaparición.

Es necesario la solidaridad de todos y todas para encontrarla. Exigimos la inmediata presentación con vida de la señora Isela Hernández Lara, así como protección y garantías de seguridad a la familia Reyes Salazar. Responsabilizamos a Felipe Calderón, al gobernador de Chihuahua César Duarte, al General Guillermo Galván Galván, al Secretario de Seguridad Pública Genaro García Luna de lo que le pase a la señora Isela Hernández Lara.

Atentamente,

Comité Ciudad Juárez No Están Sólos
cdj.noestansolos@gmail.com

ruben solis garcia

Human rights in Mexico under attack by PLAN MEXICO

Mexican military is major problem, exiled Human Rights worker says

by Aurea Cardiel, August 16, 2011

Over the past several years violence in Northern Mexico has risen dramatically, in what many liken to an internal civil war. It's an assessment given weight by the sight of the Mexican army occupying Juarez, a sprawling metropolis just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. Civil society is caught in the middle of the upheaval, with those in public positions in particular threatened. Government officials, human rights workers, journalists-the list of murdered, disappeared, or driven into exile is long.

New Mexico, being adjacent to Juarez, has become home to many of those for whom staying in Juarez and northern Mexico is just too dangerous. One human rights worker, Cipriana Jurado of Centro de Investigación y Solidaridad Obrera (CISO), just received political asylum in the U.S. and is residing with her family in Santa Fe. And Jurado says the Mexican military is to blame.

Jurado's mission these days is to bring more awareness to the public about the reasons for the violence in Juarez and other cities in Mexico by sharing her experience living and struggling to survive there. While mainstream news accounts say it's all about drugs, she draws on her extensive experience to link the violence to unrestrained industrialization and the impacts on workers and residents who continuously fight against the abuse and corruption they experience.

At the age of 13, Jurado started working in the maquiladoras (sweatshops), in Juårez. In the early 80's the industry was booming and maquiladoras were being built rapidly, haphazardly and without any attention to safety regulations for the workers. Houses for the workers were often built with no electricity, running water or roads to the maquiladoras, and the commute from home to work was long because there was no public transportation. Her experience there was the start of her lifelong fight for human rights, putting into practice skills she had learned from "theology of liberation" bible studies.

In the 1980's she co-founded the Centro de Investigación y Solidaridad Obrera in Ciudad Juárez and later became the director, fighting for improved working conditions for women and men and better treatment for workers in maquiladoras. Through CISO she also began working with families who were victims of femicide. On their behalf she would investigate and file complaints through the state and federal police and sometimes at the military station. This work made her a go to person when families began to have problems with the Mexican military, which moved into the area as part of the "Conjunto Chihuahua"-the Mexican government's war on drugs. More than 8000 military troops moved into Juarez beginning in 2008, leading to military abuses on the civilian population.

Jurado became a "quadjuvante" or legal representative to families who had loved ones kidnapped by the Mexican military. She filed a number of high profile formal complaints in 2008 against the military with the Mexico Attorney General's Office (PGR), the Chihuahua State Organization on Human rights and with the Chihuahua State Police Commission (PGE) on missing persons. She worked closely with Amnesty International to bring international pressure to bear on the cases of Saul Becerra and the Guzman Brothers, Carlos and Jose.

On April 3, 2008 Jurado was arrested by two unidentified federal officers in accordance with an "alleged" warrant that was issued in 2005 accusing her of costing the city money for having organized a demonstration at the international bridge. While in jail, after some of the other detainees learned she was a human rights activist, they shared their personal stories of Mexica military brutality and abuses. Luckily Jurado had Congressman Victor Quintana's number or she might not have ever made it out.

Over the course of the next two years, Jurado was repeatedly harassed by the Mexican military, at both her home and work place. Her good friend and fellow human rights worker Josefina Reyes was murdered in January 2010. Jurado had worked closely with Reyes on human rights cases, and had led public protests and organized press conferences which were held at the Military Installation in Cd. Juarez. Ultimately, 19 family members or colleagues were killed before Jurado decided she had to leave Mexico.

Realizing how tenuous her position had become, Jurado left Mexico with her two children and went to Chicago under the protection of the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America. She received political asylum in June of this year, and now resides in Santa Fe, where she continues her efforts to bring attention to abuses of the Mexican military. On August 31, 2011 Jurado will speak about the issues on the ground in Juarez at a public event at the Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center.

ruben solis garcia

from El Grito Albuquerque, NM SWOP

Friday, August 12, 2011

Violación de derechos humanos en Mexico contra Migrantes...

Documentan 40 mil agresiones a migrantes en noreste de México

Dom, Julio 3, 2011

Saltillo.- En los últimos diez años, el albergue “Belén posada del Migrante” ha logrado documentar cerca de 40 mil casos de migrantes que fueron agredidos por la delincuencia organizada, por autoridades migratorias o por elementos policiales en el noreste del país.

En entrevista con Notimex el padre Pedro Pantoja Arreola, asesor general del albergue, destacó que han logrado crear un archivo a lo largo de una década, con los testimonios de extranjeros sobre todo centroamericanos, que lograron sobrevivir en algunos casos “milagrosamente”, a maltratos de toda índole.,

“Son víctimas de la delincuencia organizada, de la experiencia brutal y cruel de las torturas y de los asesinatos, de la indiferencia y desprecio de las autoridades; son personas que han llegado despedazadas física y mentalmente”, indicó.

El sacerdote explicó que en el albergue “Belén Posada del Migrante”, ubicado en el norte del Saltillo, a un costado de las vías donde arriba el tren conocido como “la bestia metálica”, se da alojo a cualquier migrante que llega a pedir ayuda, generalmente tras haber sobrevivido a una travesía de semanas.

Un equipo en el que participan 15 trabajadores y 15 voluntarios, no sólo da techo, comida y atención médica a los extranjeros, sino también se trabaja con ellos primero para que aprendan a vivir con la experiencia que sufrieron, y segundo, para que ellos mismos se conviertan en agentes de cambia de la realidad que han padecido.

“El contexto en el que nació esta posada del migrante no fue de una intención académica, de altruismo y ni siquiera humanitaria, sino de una necesidad urgente de protección a los migrantes en un escenario criminal y de sangre en el que se ha convertido el noreste de México”, apuntó.

A lo largo de los años, subrayó, se ha logrado no sólo apoyar a los extranjeros que llegan a las puertas de Belen sino además crear un archivo completo, con más de 40 mil casos documentados, que sirvan como una herramienta más de cambio.

No obstante, Pantoja Arreola reconoció que si bien, la sociedad civil pareciera estar ahora más consciente de la masacre humanitaria que padecen los migrantes, el contexto actual de violencia han terminado por complicar aun más la situación de personas que buscan cruzar el territorio mexicano

“Todo se ha ido complicando en los últimos cuatro años con el crimen organizado, la corrupción de fuerzas de seguridad y el despojo de la migración; si recibíamos una multitud empobrecida y despojada ahora tenemos una multitud desnuda en todos los aspectos de dignidad”, puntualizó.

La documentación de todos estos casos ocurridos en el noreste del país, sirven ahora como una prueba de la situación crítica que padece la población migratoria en México.

“Con el archivo formal de historias que los mismos migrantes nos han querido contar, podemos realizar ahora una investigación y defensa jurídica; cada año presentamos un informe nacional y mundial sobre la situación de los derechos humanos de los migrantes”, concluyó.

Notimex

ruben solis garcia

Monday, August 8, 2011

SAVE San Francisco PEAKS in Flagstaff, Arizona (Sacred Peaks)

San Francisco Peaks Supporters Lockdown Again!

MONDAY MORNING: Taala Hooghan Infoshop: San Francisco Peaks Supporters Locked Down on Snowbowl Road RIGHT NOW! Eight supporters locked down at 5 am this morning.
Support Needed! Flagstaff, Arizona.San Francisco Peaks defender police laision Rudy Preston arrested at the scene. Flagstaff and Coconino Co. police are cutting away the pipes. So far two of the eight have been cut away, with Alex Soto reporting on the scene.
Leadhorse Choctaw asks, "Where are the tribal leaders who should be defending the Peaks?"
Also, where are the news media? You don't have to be paid to do the right thing.

Police attack Save the Peaks marchers, arrest six

BREAKING NEWS - Six of the fiercest warriors who have been protecting the peaks were targeted and arrested in front of Macy's Coffeehouse last hour. Undercover police have infiltrated the hundred person march and are attempting to squash the growing anti-snowbowl movement!
This was a peaceful march that was surrounded by police from the minute it formed and they were just waiting to pounce. And they did! The six arrested were released on bail late Sunday. A protest is planned outside the US Forest Service at 12:30 pm on Monday.

Peoples Movements Assembly: Asamblea de los Movimientos Sociales