On May 15, a global day of action protesting corporate greed and planting the seeds of a more just and sustainable future, New Mexicans gathered in Albuquerque for a spirited protest at the annual PNM Shareholders Meeting. Community members sought to force the northern New Mexico utility company to address the pollution caused by the San Juan coal-fired power generating station – calling the coal plant a dangerous investment and pointing to corporate profiteering over community interests. View a series of great photos from the day of action!
Protesters briefly entered and occupied the PNM lobby, causing security to throw a fit:
Economically, coal is a risky bet, which is why over 100 proposed coal plants have been abandoned in the past few years. PNM is now waging costly legal battles over the San Juan Generating Station, which could cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars, in attempting to maintain a coal-based infrastructure in the face of further rising coal costs.
How can PNM executives justify short-term bonuses or increases in executive compensation, when communities are being poisoned by the continued use of coal, and shareholders, who expect long-term financial viability from the company, are the ones bearing the risk?
If executives want to be rewarded, then they need to make the smart decisions for the environment, the communities you serve, AND for PNM shareholders. It’s time to make a meaningful commitment to renewable energy and energy efficiency, and close down San Juan Generating Station before it costs the company, and the community, even more.
Here are a few of the best photos from the PNM Shareholder Action … If you have any more media to share from this action, please send it to occupynmtogether@gmail.com. Thanks!
Protesters take part in a “cough mob” die-in…
“PNM: Stop the Murder, Retire San Juan”
Dozens of New Mexico clean energy activists pose for a group photo…
“Occupy Supports PNM Workers Not Corporate Greed”
State Senator and Congressional Candidate Eric Griego speaks to the crowd as a PNM ratepayer, demanding serious clean energy transitions…
Rallying to protect the future for these kids…
A poster encouraged people to join the Shareholder Action:
The Santa Fe City Council sent a message to the president and Congress on May 9, 2012, telling them to say “No” to any attack on Iran. Mayor David Coss introduced the resolution, along with councilors, Wurzburger, Calvert, Ives, Dimas and Rivera. It passed with overwhelming support.
In a press release, Jeff Haas of Occupy Santa Fe wrote, “We have turned to the Santa Fe City Council because we feel the need to start locally to build a national consensus against another war of choice. We see how the Bush Administration used lies to play on our fears to start the Iraq War and we saw a similar scenario beginning to unfold around Iran a couple months ago during Netanyahu’s visit. We at the local level know another Mideast war will not benefit us or the United States. We have obtained 500 signatures from Santa Feans supporting our Resolution and we hope other cities will adopt it as well.”
The resolution cites four reasons why its supporters oppose an armed Attack on Iran:
(1) The consensus of US and Israeli military and intelligence that Iran is not a nuclear threat and has not decided to develop a nuclear weapon;
(2) that any attack on Iran is likely to have a calamitous impact on the people of Iran, Israel, and further destabilize the Middle East;
(3) that Santa Fe taxpayers have already paid over $186,000,000for the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars when “we need our tax dollars at home to rebuild and preserve our communities, our land, air, water, our schools, our healthcare system, our infrastructure, and not to engage in another unnecessary, deadly, and costly war.”
(4) that military threats and a preemptive attack are illegal under international law and the non-proliferation treaty, and could cause Iran to decide to build a nuclear deterrent.
The resolution was drafted by local labor, civic, peace and religious organizations and was unanimously supported by Santa Fe’s mayor and City Council members.
OSF: Santa Fe City Council poised to pass ‘No Attack on Iran’ resolution!”
Occupy Santa Fe is reporting that a vote this Wednesday, May 9th will bring approval of a resolution supported by over 10 groups that have been lobbying the Santa Fe City Council to condemn a potential attack on Iran.
WHAT: THE SANTA FE CITY COUNCIL is poised to pass a Resolution to “Petition the President and the Congress of the United States to say NO attack on Iran, and that it use diplomacy and not threats in negotiations with Iran.” Further, that “the US will NOT allow US planes, weaponry, intelligence or technology to be used in a preemptive attack on Iran. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be forwarded immediately to the President of the United States and to all members of the New Mexico Congressional Delegation.”
WHERE: Santa Fe City Council, City Hall, Lincoln and Marcy
WHEN: Wednesday, May 9, @ 5pm for vote, 7pm for comments by supporters.
The Resolution was drafted by a coalition of over 10 antiwar, religious, grass roots, and labor organizations including Another Jewish Voice of Santa Fe, Occupy Santa Fe, We are People Here, Local 7076 of the Communications Workers of America, Veterans for Peace, and the Social Justice Team of the Unitarian Church. The Resolution was introduced by Mayor Coss and co-sponsored by all six attending Council members. Among the reasons cited in the Resolution for opposing any military attack on Iran are (1) The unanimous consensus of US and Israeli military and US and Israeli intelligence that Iran is not a nuclear threat and has not made a decision to develop a nuclear weapon; (2) that any attack on Iran could have a calamitous impact on the people of Iran, Israel, and foment armed conflicts in the Middle East, (3) that military threats and a preemptive attack are illegal under International Law and the non-proliferation treaty: (4) that Santa Fe taxpayers have already paid over $186,000,000.00 for the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars when “we need our tax dollars at home to rebuild and preserve our communities, our land, air, water, our schools, our healthcare system, our infrastructure, and not to engage in another unnecessary, deadly, and costly war.”
The leaders of Santa Fe have shown they want the City to support progressive, peaceful, and citizen friendly positions, which serve as an example to other cities. All politics is local and Santa Fe joins Charlottesville, VA and Oakland, CA and the National Council of Mayors in saying US citizens want no more foreign wars and want their tax dollars to go to peaceful pursuits.
International trade ministers and corporate lobbyists will be descending on Texas from May 8 to 18 for a critical trade summit aimed at rushing the secretive new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement toward completion. The Texas Fair Trade Coalition and our allies are planning to welcome them — and we need you to join us.
TPP: Out of the Shadows!
Rally for Good Jobs, Affordable Medicine & a Healthy Environment
Saturday, May 12 * 1:00pm
Addison Circle Park * 15650 Addison Rd * Addison, TX
The May 12th rally and march is the main event while negotiators are in town. It features a permitted rally with trade justice advocates from around the world, followed by a march down to the negotiation site. It has been endorsed by the Citizens Trade Campaign, Code Pink, Communications Workers of America, Dallas AFL-CIO Council, Dallas Peace Center, Friends of the Earth, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, MoveOn.org Dallas, National Family Farm Coalition, North Texas Jobs with Justice, Occupy Austin, Occupy Dallas, Occupy Texas, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, Texas AFL-CIO, Texas State Building Trades Council, United Steelworkers, United Students Against Sweatshops, Welcoming Immigrants Network and many others.
Intercontinental Dallas Hotel * 15201 Dallas Parkway * Addison, TX
The Texas AFL-CIO, the Texas Fair Trade Coalition and others will hold a press conference demanding transparency in the TPP negotiations and delivering a petition urging that negotiators release the texts.
Community Center for Cooperation * 2900 Live Oak St * Dallas, TX
Join trade justice advocates from around the world for an activist reception starting at 6:00pm, followed by a teach-in at 7:00pm with national and international speakers including Lori Wallach (Global Trade Watch), Celeste Drake (AFL-CIO), Ilana Solomon (Sierra Club), Sanya Reid Smith (Third World Network) and Kelli Seals-Obazee (Dallas Peace Center).
The TPP negotiations are a big deal, and people will be coming from far-and-wide to ensure that the 99%’s voices are heard by negotiators. If you can put up one or more activists, or if you’re still looking for housing, please use the following forms. No guarantees., but folks will try to match you.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a massive, new international trade and investment pact currently being negotiated behind closed doors between the United States and countries throughout the Pacific Rim. Wall Street banks and other corporate interests are pushing for the TPP to:
Offshore good-paying jobs to low-wage nations and undercut working conditions globally
Create new tools for attacking environmental and consumer safety policies
Expand the deregulation of banks, hedge funds and insurance companies
Further concentrate global food supplies in the hands of fewer-and-fewer middlemen, displacing family farmers and subjecting consumers to wild food price fluctuations
Institute longer patents that restrict access to affordable, generic medications
Instead of being debated out in the open, the TPP has thus far been negotiated in the shadows. Approximately 600 corporate lobbyists have been given special “cleared advisor” status to review negotiating documents and advise negotiators. Meanwhile, the general public has been barred from even reviewing what U.S. negotiators have proposed in our names.
The twelfth major round of TPP negotiations — perhaps one of the last — is taking place at the Intercontinental Dallas Hotel in Addison, Texas, from May 8 to 18. Please join us in dragging these negotiations into the light of day and ensuring that we aren’t saddled with a back-room deal that enriches the global 1% at the expense of the economy, the environment, family farms, public health and democracy itself.
Demand Transparency
The vast majority of Americans have been barred by the U.S. Trade Representative from reviewing its proposals for the massive new Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement. Meanwhile, approximately 600 corporate lobbyists have regular access to the negotiating texts as so-called “cleared advisors.”
The revolution is alive and strong this spring 2012 in New Mexico!
May Day protestors in Albuquerque started with a core group near the University of New Mexico and were estimated at 1,000 by KRQE by the time they reached Robinson Park downtown.
Derek Seashore/KRQE
Meanwhile in Santa Fe, over 100 May Day celebrants converged for a Food Not Bombs picnic and General Assembly in Railyard Park, and hundreds more gathered with Somos Un Pueblo Unido for the grand opening of the New Mexico First Workers Center on the city’s southside.
May 1, 2012 – General striker celebrates the grand opening of New Mexico First Workers Center with immigrant rights champions Somos Un Pueblo Unido
And not to be outdone by their NM neighbors to the south, now Occupy Taos is stepping up with OCCUPY THE MESA from Friday, May 4th to Sunday, May 6th – a mind-blowingly phenomenal, no-holds-barred three-day weekend of grassroots resistance filled with live music, awesome food, radical sustainability skillshares, a seed exchange, barter faire, and Statewide General Assembly!
This weekend’s events in Taos are taking place at Sky Cafe on beautiful off-the-grid West Mesa (within sight of Rio Grande Gorge and a short drive away from the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge) and at the legendary New Buffalo Center in Arroyo Hondo. Scroll down for more details!
OCCUPY THE MESA @ Sky Cafe, Flag Road, Three Peaks, from Taos- take W. 64 over the Gorge Bridge; turn left onto W. Rim Road; drive 3 mi, turn right onto Flag Road. We’re the blue trailer 1/4 mi. on the right.
a three day festival with workshops and demonstrations
regarding sustainability issues interspersed with art,
kids activities and music. a community that stands strong
SATURDAY
10am- 2pm: seed/seedling swap, dialogue with local farmers
11am-1pm: kitchen magic- sprouts, cultures, fermentation
2pm: how to convert an old hot water heater to a solar heater
3pm: biodiesel- how and why by someone who does
4pm: the art of splitting wood
7pm: main stage-
- MEGA Jam
- Elizabeth Croyden
- ElectricLuLuLand
- Robert McCormick as the Voice of
Reason
- PastAFist
- Bark Beatles
- O’syris
- Chez Shay
SUNDAY
10am-2pm: barter faire; all are welcome to participate, no fees
11am: introduction for firearms for practical home defense
12 pm: practical home defense without the use of firearms
1pm: puppet show
2pm-3pm: creating sculpture from discarded items
4pm: making practice poi from everyday items
7pm: main stage-
- Gemma Ra’Star
- Tha KnuckleSlovakians
- Shrewbox
- SugarBEATS
- DayGlow
- Psychedelic Selassie
- 3 Ton Strap-On
ALSO ON SUNDAY: Occupy Taos & New Mexico : New Buffalo Center
11:30: Poetry by Ron Chavez
12:00: Kathleen Dudley of Drilling Mora & Democracy School
2:00: New Mexico General Assembly
both Sat. & Sun. will feature:
Food Not Bombs goes solar! 12pm-2pm, free food for all
Dinner highlighting local foods, 5pm-7pm
various performers during dinner
ongoing demonstrations throughout the weekend: creative recycling, solar cooking, earthbuilding, hemp awareness, and much more
please leave dogs at home for this event if possible
From the Walk to Cure Capitalism in Albuquerque, to the grand opening of the NEW MEXICO FIRST WORKER CENTER for immigrant and non-immigrant workers in Santa Fe, people are joining together across New Mexico in celebration of International Workers Day!!!
All events on Tuesday, May 1st
ALBUQUERQUE:
WALK TO CURE CAPITALISM Gather at 4:30 pm by the Lobo statue on the corner of Central/University - walk to Robinson Park (8th/Central) ::: A PEACEFUL march FOR justice for workers, family unification, and AGAINST the attempts to scapegoat immigrants in New Mexico! Then: A celebration of SOLIDARITY at Robinson Park at 5:30 – live music, games, Aztec dancers and Matachines – bring the kids!
Plus: Music and Art will be going on at the Peace & Justice Center (corner of Harvard & Silver one block south of UNM) from 10AM-4PM. There will be live art, sign making, an open mic, DJ’s-Feelin’ Up Jetti, Zia Zombie, and the Community Projektz as well as live performances by Felix y Los Gatos, L@s Otr@s, members of Albuquerque’s national Slam poetry team and mucho mas!
Workers Day Event & March — 12:00m – 9:00pm El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos will be hosting their own worker event at Robinson Park. (8th & Central) It will include live music, activities, teach-ins, info about worker rights, fun for kids, and Aztec Matachine dancers. Their march will leave the park at 5:30pm and make a circuit downtown (where the Walk to Cure Capitalism will meet them) before heading back to Robinson. Their flier is available as a JPG, and as a bilingual PDF.
Civil Disobedience Training — 9:00am – 4:30pm Also, 350NM and 99% Spring will be sponsoring a no-cost direct action training by Joshua Kahn Russell at Immanuel Presbyterian Church. (Silver & Carlisle) The capacity is 175 people, with pre-registration advised, though not required.
And on May 1st, the GUILD CINEMA (3405 Central Ave) will be showing SALT OF THE EARTH at 3:30, 5:30, and 7:30 PM (All seats are $3). There will be a panel discussion following the 7:30 showing.
LAS CRUCES:
“NMSU Aggie Solidarity wants to invite everyone to participate in our May Day demonstration on campus. On Tuesday, May 1st, starting at 11:00 AM we’ll be out on University Ave with banners reflecting the workers’ rights messages of this international socialist holiday. We will have all of the banners there, so no need to bring your own. We actually prefer that people do not, because we worked hard to develop a really concise message for this event. We would really appreciate Occupy’s support with this demonstration!”
SANTA FE:
1) May Day General Strike Picnic – 12 noon in Railyard Park at the grassy area near Warehouse 21 Community building begins as a picnic! Please bring your picnic food & low impact plates, cups and utensils. Occupy Santa Fe will have a General Assembly at 2:00 PM.
2) Somos Un Pueblo Unido invites you to celebrate INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ DAY with THE GRAND OPENING OF: NEW MEXICO FIRST WORKER CENTER ~ Tuesday, May 1st, 5:00 to 8:00 PM, 1804 Espinacitas St. ~ Mariachi, BBQ, Moon Bounce and much more. To get a copy of the flier click here. “With help from national organizations, local workers committees, and allies around the state, Somos Un Pueblo Unido’s Workers Committee now has the opportunity to open Santa Fe’s first worker center. We hope to create a space that immigrant and non-immigrant low-wage workers can use as a resource to help them organize workers’ committees whose main goal is to better the working conditions for all New Mexico workers.” For more information call 505-424-7832
TAOS:
In solidarity with Occupy Wall St. we are asking members of the community to join us for a General Assembly and BYOL at noon in Kit Carson Park. Facebook event page
BEGINNING MAY 1, 2012
NO WORK – NO SCHOOL – NO SHOPPING – NO BANKING – NO TRADING
THE PEOPLE OF THE PLANET WILL TAKE TO THE STREETS www.OccupyMay1st.org www.occupytogether.org/actions/
GENERAL STRIKE AND BOYCOTT CALLED!
FOR IM/MIGRANT RIGHTS
FOR AN END TO ALL WARS
FOR ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND LABOR RIGHTS
FOR PEACE WITH JUSTICE
FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES AND AN END TO THE POLICE STATE
FOR HOUSING, EDUCATION, AND HEALTH CARE AS HUMAN RIGHTS
FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUITYEvery continent, every country, every state, every city will stand up.
Labor and workers are under attack by the 1%. Occupy stands Immigrants and with Labor both organized and not. Unions and union rights are what made our working class strong. Every benefit we have as working people has come from the struggles of organized labor and immigrants fighting for their rights. Now they are trying to destroy our bargaining rights, they want their greedy hands on our pensions. They don’t have enough already? ENOUGH.
A DAY FOR MIGRANT RIGHTS, LABOR RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS.
STOP FORECLOSURES!!!
We demand good jobs and good pay for everyone on the planet. Citizen of the country they work in or not. Outsourcing will no longer be tolerated by the so called “job creators” for cheap labor. All human beings deserve a living wage.
Education, Housing and Healthcare are human rights NOT “entitlements.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We can tell you that May 1st is International Workers Day. We can tell you that in some countries it’s a public holiday to commemorate the historic gains made by the Labor movement. We can tell you that in Los Angeles, May 1st is traditionally a day to celebrate and make a stand for immigrant rights.
But only you can tell us what you’re striking for on May 1st, 2012.
Because the May 1st General Strike is about you. It’s about the debt imposed on you for daring to dream about a college education. It’s about the healthcare you can’t afford, the family member with a disease which goes untreated because they lack insurance. It’s about your car that got repo-ed after you lost your job. It’s about your home that got foreclosed on when the bank went bust. It’s about your family, who came here for a better future, and got lost in the broken immigration system, and found that they’re denied access to legal work, education and security because they’re undocumented. It’s about you, the gay kid who gets bullied at school, and will grow up in a country which denies you equality and humanity, simply because you love someone of the same gender. It’s about the fact there’s no jobs, even if you got that college education and those grades. It’s about the single mother who struggles to support her kids on minimum wage – which is not a living wage. It’s about the woman who makes it through Harvard, works her ass off in one of the best law firms in the country, and constantly loses out on that promotion because she’s not a man. It’s about the homeless African-American guy who lives on Skid Row and gets thrown in jail for peeing in a park, because there are no toilet facilities on the street for those like him. It’s about the protestor who gets beaten and thrown in jail for holding a sign in a public space which says he’s had enough. It’s about the farmer who’s had to leave his home and work, because the state raised his land tax. It’s about the father who loses a son to a pointless war over oil in a foreign land.
In 1943, the Manhattan Project was started at Los Alamos, New Mexico, on land taken from Native American pueblos. There, scientists developed the world’s first atomic bombs, which killed up to a quarter of million people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since then the work has continued at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where a new generation of scientists have designed the majority of the U.S.’ nuclear bombs and warheads, weapons of mass destruction hundreds of times larger than those first two bombs.
The cost of this work is immense. Billions of dollars of taxpayers money spent on weapons production and millions handed over as profit to the two private corporations that run the laboratory. Radioactive and chemical pollution spills into the surrounding air, land and water, gravely affecting the health of local communities, and poisoning the water supply of Santa Fe.
“Up On The Hill” is a new film that exposes the horrifying truth of the weapons production, corporate profiteering and environmental and health consequences of the work of Los Alamos National Laboratory – truths that for too long citizens and politicians alike have chosen to ignore. Please view the trailer, and click here to make a donation in support of completing production of this important film! You can also help to spread the word by joining the film’s Facebook Page, following us on Twitter, and sharing this information with others.
Meanwhile, participants in New Mexico’s Occupy movement and allied organizations are planning a weekend of large-scale non-violent direction in Santa Fe and Los Alamos in August 2012 to coincide with the anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombs dropped on civilian populations.
The mission of this group is to raise awareness of the true costs and consequences of nuclear weapons production, nuclear energy, & corporate profiteering. We are transforming the nuclear narrative and inspiring a life-affirming future.
We of the Occupy New Mexico Movement, nukefreenow.org, and allied organizations worldwide invite you to join our 4-day event to transform the nuclear narrative in the public consciousness and inspire a life-affirming future.
The event will take place August 3rd through the 6th (Hiroshima Commemoration Day). Please join us in Santa Fe and Los Alamos, New Mexico, or coordinate an event in your community to call for the end of nuclear weapons production and nuclear energy, disarmament, clean-up and remediation, peace and justice.
Another great way for supporters to get ready for these days of direct action, and to help you understand why many New Mexicans are so upset with the devastating economic, cultural and environmental injustices committed by Los Alamos, is to attend a “toxic tour” of the area. Led by Santa Fe-based Concerned Citizens for Nucleaar Safety (CCNS), this irregularly scheduled tour provides a comprehensive view regarding the deadly and dangerous risks that LANL is taking with the health of local residents, the natural environment, and the region’s water supply. Or you can stay at home and simply read this excellent in-depth account below from a recent Los Alamos reality tourist!
You’d expect to be taking a “toxic tour” in an industrial part of the Rust Belt, or maybe around the uranium mines of Libby, Montana or even Grants, New Mexico. In the beautiful bottomlands along the Rio Grande northwest of Santa Fe, and even up on the rugged Pajarito Plateau, gouged by deep, tree-lined canyons, with outcroppings of basalt and layers of volcanic tuff, you probably wouldn’t be looking for deadly toxins or high levels of radionuclides. That is, unless you thought about what inhabits the area on the edge of the Pajarito Plateau—Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Aerial view of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
The Toxic Tour, guided by Joni Arends, executive director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS), with help from fellow activists including David Bacon and Mark Sardella, is an eye-opening journey through terrain many of us who live in Santa Fe or northern New Mexico have seen from some distance, or driven past without too much thought of what lurks beneath the surface of our watershed. For water is what this tour is all about, even though air and soil are of course intimately involved as well. Water that irrigates our crops and slakes our municipal thirst and washes our children and pets and cars—and that may not be nearly as harmless as we casually believe, trusting those who are supposed to regulate its safety.
The truth is, we don’t think too much about where our water comes from—beyond the taps and faucets in our homes—unless it is visibly compromised or lacking, or until certain concerns are brought to our attention.
But Arends and a number of other activists who have been keeping a watchful eye on Los Alamos and its nuclear activities for years, want more New Mexicans to think about a major source of their water and the kinds of things that catch a ride along with the storm runoff and the melting snow from the Jemez Mountains. They want authorities to take a closer and more accountable look at the water from Los Alamos that winds up in the Rio Grande, where the Buckman Direct Diversion Project now pumps thousands of gallons into Santa Fe’s domestic water supply, while the rest flows downstream to Cochiti, Albuquerque, Las Cruces and El Paso and percolates into underground aquifers.
On a cold and windy Saturday morning, the Toxic Tour starts in Los Alamos in the maintenance yard of the Los Alamos Public Schools, where a dozen interested participants huddle against a stiff March breeze. Arends points out three massive gas tanks, which she says are double-lined but otherwise simply sit above the bare concrete- and asphalt-paved yard perched on the edge of Pueblo Canyon, where a water treatment plant can be seen below. She tells how during the early years of the Manhattan project (1943) waste disposal largely consisted of rolling metal drums full of contaminants—radioactive, toxic and hazardous wastes—over the edge and into this and other canyons. Further up the hill, an open retention pond above the yard collects untreated surface water and debris, and in storms its overflows spill into the canyon, where they will work their way around the water treatment plant and down toward the Rio Grande.
One canyon over is Los Alamos, the deep gorge that begins above the townsite and follows NM 502 through San Ildefonso Pueblo to the river at Otowi. Across from the Canyon Rim Trailhead, Arends points out the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, which she says, when it operates has “the dirtiest [emissions] stack in the Department of Energy complex.”
Texas-based educator and activist Tony Diaz, nicknamed “El Libro-Traficante“, this week is set to launch a caravan to smuggle carloads of Chicano books through New Mexico, and into Arizona, that were recently banned by Tucson public school officials after the city suspended its acclaimed Mexican-American Studies program due to a state ban on the teaching of ethnic studies. “When Arizona tried to erase our history, we decided to make more,” Diaz says. “We’ve unleashed this informal network that’s galvanized into a national movement… People are forming groups to read the books that have been confiscated. They have actually brought so much attention to our community that I think right now we really are on the verge of a Latino Renaissance.” [See the full transcript of Democracy Now's March 9th interview with Tony Diaz.]
The Libro-Traficante caravan will hold a day of events in Albuquerque on Thursday, March 15, including a press conference with renowned New Mexico poets and authors, before traveling into Arizona. See the full caravan schedule here.
HOUSTON (February 20, 2012) – The Librotraficante Caravan set to smuggle banned books back into Arizona has established a network of Underground Libraries in Houston, San Antonio, Albuquerque and Tucson.
The Librotraficante Caravan is partnering with nonprofit organizations to help receive, catalogue, distribute and provide an open environment for students and communities to access books. We intend to collect 1 complete set of the books banned by the Tucson Unified School District for each of these libraries. We also ask all multicultural writers to donate copies of their books, when they are published, from now on, 3 years, 5 years and ten years down the line. We will also donate copies of the banned books to public libraries once a complete set has been collected for each of the Underground Libraries.
“You can bet I’ll be donating my books to the Librotraficante Underground Libraries,” said Sandra Cisneros, author of HOUSE ON MANGO STREET, now prohibited by the Tucson Unified School District.
Beginning in Houston, at 10 a.m. on Monday, March 12, 2012, from Casa Ramirez Folk Art Gallery (241 West 19th Street, Houston, Texas 77008), the Librotraficante Caravan begins its trek to San Antonio and El Paso, Texas; Mesilla and Albuquerque, N.M., and arrives in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday, March 16. The entire schedule is available online atwww.Librotraficante.com.
“Our literature and our history must never be at the mercy of political whim ever again. We ask supporters to donate copies of the banned books by the dozen to these Underground Libraries to preserve freedom of speech, so that all of us can tell our stories,” said Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante.
PNM Resources Inc., the parent company of New Mexico’s largest electric provider, this week reported earnings of more than $176 million for 2011 and “improvements in ongoing earnings per share of nearly 25 percent.” But PNM’s earnings report came as environmental groups accused it of pursuing rate hikes, higher profits and exorbitant executive pay at a time when ratepayers are struggling to pay their electricity bills. On Tuesday, February 28, five nonprofit groups — The Sierra Club, New Energy Economy, San Juan Citizens Alliance, Diné CARE and Southwest Organizing Project – issued a new report contending that while rate increases in 2008, 2009 and 2011 have amounted to an additional $250 million in revenue for PNM, less than 6 percent of the money was spent on energy efficiency programs and clean energy projects. ”With three rate hikes in four years going mostly to corporate profits while New Mexicans are struggling, PNM is behaving like a big Wall Street bank,” said Mariel Nanasi, executive director of the environmental group New Energy Economy.
On February 29 — an international “Leap Day of Action” mobilized by the Occupy movement — protesters with (un)Occupy Albuquerque and Occupy Santa Fe continued to turn up the heat on PNM by joining forces for a coordinated protest outside the corporation’s downtown Albuquerque headquarters. Here is a video report from KOB that covers the un/Occupy protest and environmentalist criticism against PNM:
Then on Thursday, March 1st, environmentalist won a victory for clean energy as the US Court of Appeals denied PNM’s request for a delay in the Environmental Protection Agency’s five-year compliance deadline for the company’s flagship San Juan coal-fired plant to install “selective catalytic reduction” (SCR) clean air technology. However, the court will now consider the merits of appeals against the requirement by PNM, the N.M. Environment Department and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez. Those parties maintain EPA’s mandate would cost New Mexico electric ratepayers and others about $750 million or more while a New Mexico plan could meet the same federal visibility rules for $77 million, or about one-tenth of the cost. Environmental groups that have fought the company over San Juan emissions for years contend PNM has greatly exaggerated the cost of selective catalytic reduction, noting its share of the cost based on the EPA number would actually be $160 million. Some have criticized the state proposal as “nothing more than a cheap air filter.”
The EPA’s rule would provide far greater visibility and health benefits, said Shrayas Jatkar of the Sierra Club. “A long-term affordable energy strategy that works for New Mexico means transitioning away from dirty coal and meaningfully investing in energy efficiency … and installing renewables,” said New Energy Economy’s Mariel Nanasi.
While this issue plays out in court, New Mexico environmentalists and grassroots activists for economic justice, including the un/Occupy movement, are sure to continue doing our part to ensure that PNM cannot escape the glare of public outrage for putting corporate profits of the 1 percent above the common interests of the 99 percent!
Visit these links for more media about PNM’s bad week:
The petition at Change.org says, “Chile is historically, culturally and economically important to New Mexico and Colorado. We have raised crops of chile for hundreds of years in this region. As land-based peoples, our daily lives have centered around our environment. We have sustained ourselves through subsistence living fueled by corn, beans, squash, and chile.”
The petition continues, “We have watched as GE crops in Canada and Mexico have infected non-GE crops of canola and corn … Those who grow traditional chile should not face the same fate of having their crops contaminated through cross-pollination. New Mexico State University must stop the research and development of GE chile in order to protect our traditional chile. We stand together to preserve the heritage, traditions, and culture of this region of the United States. We stand together to protect our Traditional (Native) Chile! We petition the NMSU Board of Regents to STOP the Research and Development of Genetically Engineered Chile, NOW!”
Albuquerque filmmaker Chris Dudley has created a documentary film focused on GMO chile entitled Genetic Chile, a movie about “Genetic Patents” and the unknown health risks in genetically modified food. The film is an in-depth disection of the corporate takeover of the world’s food supply and the resulting increases in hunger, poverty and death. Here is the trailer:
In brief, the background on this issue is that the New Mexico Legislature has funded New Mexico State University (centered in Las Cruces, NM with extensions throughout New Mexico) to research the feasibility of GMO chile. In turn, the New Mexico Chile Association has lobbied for and supports the research and development of GMO chile. While various reports have said that GMO chile is not yet available for sale and production on the commercial market, NMSU could decide to release it at any time — unless traditional-chile lovers rise up to stop it!
New Mexico Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s third attempt to repeal a 2003 law that allows undocumented immigrants to apply for drivers licenses failed Thursday after the Democratic controlled Senate Judiciary Committee refused to hear the bill and the 2012 legislative session ended without its passage through the Senate.
HB103, the bill backed by Martinez, passed the State House earlier this month but failed to make it through the State Senate. An alternative Senate bill, SB235, which would have tightened residency requirements but not repealed the 2003 law, passed the Senate. Governor Martinez, however, vowed to veto that Senate bill. New Mexico and Washington are the only states that issue driver’s licenses regardless of immigration status (Utah issues a driving certificate that can’t be used for identification).
Republican Governor Susana Martinez has repeatedly tried (and failed) to repeal the state’s nearly decade old driver’s license law. Last year, a state district judge halted on constitutional grounds Gov. Martinez’s costly campaign to “certify” the driver’s licenses of foreign nationals. A spokesman for Gov. Martinez claims the current law “leads to fraud, human trafficking, organized crime and significant security concerns.” Supporters of the law, however, say the current policy aids cooperation between immigrant communities and local police as well as reduces the number of unlicensed drivers.
But the Santa Fe-based immigrant rights group Somos un Pueblo Unido (We Are a United People) reports that in a recent survey, 64% of New Mexicans support improving, not repealing, the current law—which is what the alternative Senate bill (SB235) sought to do. Senate bill (SB235) would have strengthened identity and residency requirements, required re-verification of documents, annual renewals, imposed fingerprint requirements and increased penalties for fraud. HB103 would have repealed the current law by requiring applicants to provide a Social Security number in order to receive a license.
Marcela Diaz, executive director of Somos un Pueblo Unido, said the Senate measure “is the only piece of legislation that takes serious steps against fraud while keeping all residents of New Mexico licensed and insured. We are thrilled that the sweeping majority in the Senate has rejected the politics of fear and believes there is a better option for New Mexico than repeal.”
For now, New Mexico remains one of the three states where undocumented immigrants can obtain driver’s licenses. “It’s a great victory for the immigrant community,” said Diaz. For Somos un Pueblo Unido, the message being sent is very clear – that New Mexico is a “friendlier” state toward immigrants and it won’t play games with public safety. “This has been a battle like David and Goliath, because the funds we have don’t compare with the funds the governor used to promote this bill,” Diaz said.
Martinez is promoting an anti-immigrant political agenda that is part of a national drive by the Republican Party, according to Diaz, who said that while immigration is a controversial subject that divides communities, up to now the extremists haven’t achieved their goal in New Mexico. “What the state Senate did was important, because it said that if the point is to prevent fraud and protect public safety, it’s possible to pass reasonable regulations and statutes to combat fraud,” Diaz said. “What we want to do is protect immigrant families who live here, work here, and whose kids study here,” she said.
Martinez has said she will veto any bill that would continue to grant driver’s licenses to the undocumented. Diaz believes that the governor “took off her mask” when she talked of vetoing any kind of agreement, since what she wants is “all or nothing.” “We see that the governor is not interested in public safety – this is an immigration issue, it is definitely an attack on our families,” Diaz said.
“I think voters are pretty tired of this issue,” said Díaz. “We know New Mexicans care about jobs and the economy and not wedge issues and this kind of political posturing.”
The power of corporations to influence elections has emerged as a strong theme during New Mexico’s 2012 legislative session. In the final weekend of the 30 day session, the Senate joined the House in sending a message to the U.S. Congress that steps need to be taken to reign in corporate spending on elections. It also passed a law requiring public disclosure of funds spent to influence the outcome of elections.
The message to D.C. via a Memorial passed by both chambers of the New Mexico legislature is to fix the 2010 Citizen’s United decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, which serves to allow unlimited corporate spending to influence elections. The only way a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court can be changed short of its own reversal of itself, is for the U.S. Constitution to be amended.
There’s a long history of such amendments, starting with the First Amendment itself that enshrined the right to free speech. There have been 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, in all, with six occurring since 1950.
It was the First Amendment that the U.S. Supreme Court used as a basis in the 2010 Citizen’s United case to dismiss almost a century of case law that supports regulation of corporate and union spending in elections. The Citizen’s United decision is expected to unleash a torrent of money into the U.S. election campaign process.
The New Mexico memorial asks the U.S. Congress to move to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow regulation, or outright bar, such spending by non-people in the political election process. In the meantime, the state senate took concrete steps to do what it can do–create an enforceable law requiring that electioneering expenditures be publicly disclosed.
As it happens, New Mexico’s legislature has been debating how to fix its own Campaign Reporting Act for a few years, in light of a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in 2010 that said the Act was ‘constitutionally infirm.’ Efforts to create a fix have been stymied by a lack of agreement between New Mexico Attorney General Gary King, and Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, who’s worked for a number of years with good government advocates to fix the Act.
This year, however, the specter of money flooding the state during the 2012 election year created the added urgency necessary to get a bill addressing disclosure out of the Senate.
“This bill addresses life after Citizens United”, the sponsor of SB 11, Sen. Peter Wirth, said during the debate of the bill on the Senate floor.
It passed the Senate unanimously, and now has three days to make its way through the House.
Basically, the bill defines what an independent expenditure is, and requires organizations or groups of people to set up a separate bank account for such expenditures. It also creates a window of almost 60 days prior to both the primary and the general elections during which a public official running for office becomes unquestionably a candidate. During that window, public communications about that person by two or more people would trigger the Campaign Reporting Act.
While the bill passed unanimously in the Senate, there will likely be continued debate before it reaches the House floor. The specter of Super-Pacs flooding the state with money has served to bridge differences between legislators, adovactes, and the Attorney General, but state-based non-profits in particular point out that the bill as currently written still threatens their ability to effectively advocate on issues.
In particular, the labeling of issues based advocacy as electioneering for four months out of the year creates onerous conditions for small non-profits that don’t have the budgets necessary to jump through the hoops established by the bill. The result could be that big wealthy Super-Pacs who have those budgets are allowed plenty of free speech, while groups who just want to do issue advocacy will be iced out for a considerable portion of the year.
These issues will likely be discussed in the one House committee to which it’s been assigned, House Voters and Elections. The big question now is whether the political will exists to push it through the rest of the legislative process in the final three days of the session.
A look back at Occupy Oakland before it was razed.
In a world devastated by poverty, austerity cuts, and bank foreclosures, community action likeOccupy Oakland’s recent attempt to turn a derelict building into a vibrant social center for the needs of the 99% should be applauded. Instead, the agents of the 1%, in this case the Oakland police – already under investigation for excessive force – once again attacked. Using flash bang grenades, projectiles, batons, tear-gas, and other weapons, police arrested over 400, bringing total US Occupy-related arrests to over 6,300. As the Occupy Oakland Media Committee said:
“With all the problems in our city, should preventing activists from putting a vacant building to better use be their highest priority? Was it worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars they spent?”
But we aren’t dormant; we’re escalating. The only lull has been in the media coverage of our continuing struggle to create a more just world for all. While the corporate media have shifted focus to the U.S. Republican primaries and Presidential election, government agents of the 1% continue their assault on Occupy camps – inventing new PR-friendly excuses like the “no camping” rule used to rip apart Occupy DC - to dismantle not only our rights, but our homes.
The corporate-funded political status quo, including corporate-funded news coverage, benefits the 1% at the expense of the 99%. This is exactly why the corporate media would rather run speeches by Presidential candidates (all millionaires) than stories of members of the 99% taking direct action to create economic justice, like our comrades in Oakland and DC who are peacefully fighting for their beliefs only to be attacked by police, or the many OWS supporters in cities across the country who are taking direct action to help keep low-income families in their homes by resisting unfair evictions and foreclosures. Our movement to create real democracy and and economic fairness is far more newsworthy than the tired rhetoric and false hope of the Republicans or Democrats.
Bank-beholden politicians created this economic crisis. No matter who wins the U.S. Presidential election circus, only direct action – not the same politics-as-usual – can rebuild democracy and justice. And make no mistake: such transformative revolutionary action is continuing to unfold in every corner of the United States, and across the globe, and no amount of “camping bans” can stop us. Let’s take a closer look by examining a few of the major Occupy stories and actions of the past month that the corporate media would rather dismiss than cover by debunking their myths about OWS…
Occupy protests have reached across the globe. Here is (Un)Occupy Honolulu.
Misinformation #1: “OWS’s numbers are dwindling.”
Last fall, we helped bring the revolutionary wave to the U.S. Tens of thousands came to the streets. But revolutions aren’t just mass demonstration. Our success cannot be counted by the number of people at a rally or park at any given moment.
It’s great to have 30,000 marchers, but that isn’t how we changed the world. We changed the world through the millions of individual lives and minds we’ve reached. Millions who have witnessed or experienced Occupy camps and events, seen self-government and consensus in practice, and been exposed to new ideas and conversations through OWS have been changed forever. We each take those new ways of thinking back to our everyday lives and communities.
And we’re still in the streets, too. Thousands from New Hampshire to Los Angeles Occupied Congress on Jan. 17th. The same day saw over 80 solidarity actions from New Mexico to New Zealand, a funeral for the Bill of Rights in Chicago, and a glitter-march to celebrate our 4-month anniversary in New York City. A few days later, Occupiers shut down parts of the San Francisco financial district (including Goldman Sachs and Bank of America) before taking over an abandoned hotel and declaring it housing for the 99%, while over 130 cities held protests against Citizen’s United.
Occupy Congress marches through Washington, DC
After the violent attack on Occupy Oakland by police, Occupations in dozens of cities around the world organized near-immediate responses by getting thousands into the streets the very next day. Police violently arrested more at Oakland solidarity rallies in Tampa,Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and beyond. From Boston to Oslo, Occupiers expressed their outrage with state repression of the 99% Movement. Days later when Occupy DC, the largest and longest-standing encampment, was first threatened with eviction, thousands came to support.
Our tactics and rhetoric have proven so useful and effective that they continue to inspire protest movements across the world, who then share their experiences and tactics with us. This year already, we have seen massive uprisings across Nigeria, largely sparked by Occupy Nigeria’s response to the theft of oil subsidies from the people by the government. In Japan, anti-nuclear protesters set up tents in front of the Ministry of Trade, Economy, and Industry and refused eviction notices. In Brazil, after 6,000 were forcibly evicted from their homes by police using teargas and projectile weapons, residents of impoverished Pinheirinho occupied their neighborhood and resisted the violent police action. On the one year anniversary of the start of the Egyptian revolution – which heavily and directly inspired OWS – more people than ever gathered in Tahir Square to finish what they started and oppose military rule; OWS supporters across the US rallied in solidarity. The revolutionary wave is bigger than the U.S. election cycle. And from Bahrain to the streets of Brooklyn, the 99% remain active.
Tahir Square on the anniversary of the Egyptian revolution
With this many people braving the winter cold here, just wait until spring! We started as one occupation in NYC and held huge marches in a few cities. Now, OWS-inspired actions, camps, events, and meetings occur in thousands of cities, each networked with similar horizontal, directly democratic uprisings across the world. New camps continue to appear from cities like Frederick, MD to college campuses like Penn University and the University of Massachusetts, and international trade centers like the Dame Street financial district in Ireland. OWS protesters even dug igloos out of the snow in Davos, Switzerland to Occupy the World Economic Forum, where the transnational capitalist ultra-elite meets each year.
Misinformation #2: “OWS was weakened by the eviction of our camps.”
If anything, the evictions emboldened us and forced us to dig deeper into our communities, building even broader networks of support, mutual aid, and solidarity. The show of militarized force, violent police over-reaction, and totalitarian security measures like the indefinite detention provisions in the NDAA invigorated resistance.
The first ever Occupy Town Square on Jan. 29th in Washington Square Park.
The government’s assault on our movement never ended. Already just in the U.S. this year:
In Los Angeles, two people were attacked and arrested by police at an Art Walk for apparently walking off the sidewalk:
In the past month, Occupations from U.S. cities like Charlotte, Boise, Miami, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, DC, Portland Maine, and elsewhere are contending with evictions and “camping bans.” Members of Occupy Austin are still in jail after police evicted their camp; Occupy Austin is marching on city hall today in solidarity with the homeless. Abroad, cities like Melbourne, Auckland, The Hague, Toronto, and Londonhave been attacked by courts and violent police raids yet again.
However, in virtually every U.S. city – including those that have faced major evictions – like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, Baltimore, Chapel Hill, Austin, Roanoke, Santa Cruz, and Portland, Occupiers continue to hold public events and open meetings. Occupy Honolulu has maintained a park for 91 days, in spite of 5 eviction attempts and four attempts by police to dismantle their homes. Meanwhile, without central camps, General Assemblies have become even further entrenched into communities. In larger cities, we’ve seen the proliferation of new neighborhood-based General Assemblies like Occupy the Southside and Occupy Rogers Park in Chicago and across the boroughs in New York. Numerous Occupations have conducted door-to-door outreach and groups like Occupy the Hood and Occupy El Barrio are still growing across the country.
Police arrived to evict Occupy Buffalo just days ago.
These actions, begun under Obama and sure to continue even if a Republican were elected, have been carried out by Democrats and by Republicans. An election will not stop the assault on OWS. But the repression itself is another sign we’re winning. The 1%’ers who call the shots behind these government decisions are afraid of us. And – from the Philadelphia March Against Police Terror, to the anti-repression marches in Oakland and Seattle, to Chicago’s protest of Mayor Rahm’s draconian anti-protester ordinances – we aren’t backing down.
Free Speech rally at Occupy Chapel Hill/Carboro, NC
Misinformation #3: “OWS has lost its purpose and focus.”
We began protesting bank bailouts, but we’ve always fought for total social and economic justice – from the right to form unions to the need for accessible education and affordable housing. Our focus has never changed: ending economic inequality, injustice, and oppression in all forms against all marginalized communities. Here are just a few examples from the first month of 2012:
Riverside: Over 800 students came to a protest at the University of California to fight for accessible education and were attacked with pepper-spray by a small army of riot police. They returned again last week to continue their protest.
Students confront riot police at UC-Riverside
Philadelphia: Occupiers marched in defense of women’s right to choose and other Occupations celebrated the anniversary of the legalization of abortion. Other Occupiers joined with an evicted homeless camp, Camp Liberty, and continue to clean out empty lots and convert them into community gardens in the city.
Milwaukee: Occupiers have stood in solidarity with striking hotel workers and prepare to celebrate one-year anniversary of the historic people’s takeover of the Wisconsin capitol in Madison.
Baltimore: Occupiers built a school on the site of proposed juvenile detention center and a rec center in front of City Hall to protest the cities’ use of public funding on jails even as it cuts funds to education and municipal services.
Baltimore’s “Schools Not Jails” asks why we’re building prisons instead of investing in education during an economic crisis.
Our primary target is still the corrupt bankers on Wall Street. Occupy San Francisco occupied a Wells Fargo branch in the Mission on Jan. 14th, and a Bank of America on the 20th. OWS supporters in other cities, including Philly, New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit also continue to protest against Bank of America even in the face of arrest for civil disobedience. In Austin, Occupiers held a street theater trial of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase Manhattan.
In Los Angeles, Tampa, and Brooklyn, we have continued the on-going tactic of disrupting foreclosure auctions that began last year. In Brooklyn, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, and Nashville, we continue to help homeless and displaced families remain in homes after being evicted by banks. Unlike politicians, we are taking actual action to rebuild true democracy and provide for people’s immediate needs like housing, food, and education.
Once again, this is but a small sampling of the actions taken by OWS supporters in the past months alone. The common denominator: We take action to improve the lives of the 99% and fight oppression in all forms, wherever it occurs. Sadly, oppression exists in nearly every facet of society, under a seemingly endless number of disguises. Our expanding scope shows we’re growing, maturing, making connections with diverse communities and movements, and broadening our perspectives. We don’t need centralized decisions or “party line” platforms – our diversity of tactics, range of causes, and spectrum of equally-empowered voices are among our most powerful strengths.
Misinformation #4: “The 2012 U.S. elections are eroding OWS’s relevance.”
Every major U.S. presidential candidate and most of Congress are millionaires. The system is stacked against those without money – until we change the system, until corporations no longer buy politicians through campaign finance or high-powered lobbying, elections will never be “free.” We are anti-partisan — we oppose all of them. We’ve mic checked every major Presidential candidate and picketed outside campaign rallies and disrupted caucuses on both sides. Just this week, Occupy Minneapolis glitter-bombed Mitt Romney and Occupy Las Vegas was removed by police while trying to ask him “tough questions” at an event. Change comes from below. The goal of OWS is social change. Political change, including reforms, as a result of this uprising and critique from the least enfranchised.
Occupy Chicago confronts Obama.
This is already happening. This year already, we have seen the cancellation of the Keystone Oil Pipeline; many city governments have passed resolutions against corporate personhood; popular dissent stopped the internet privacy bill SOPA; and millions recalled Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for his drastic anti-worker agenda. In Britain, the executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland turned down his bonus after public outcry. In the U.S., commentators from CNN to the Daily Show are referencing OWS slogans like the 99% and openly discussing income inequality in ways that were unheard of before we began Occupying Wall Street. We are influencing U.S. mainstream politics in more subtle ways: President Obama co-opted Occupy’s language in his State of the Union address, and even the Republican candidates attack one another for being “vulture capitalists” in hopes of tapping into popular anger at the 1%.
We are bigger than the U.S. presidential election. We already have the power to solve our problems if we take direct action and occupy together for revolutionary systemic change – just as Occupy Oakland tried to do last month. The government, rather than helping alleviate problems like homelessness and poverty caused by the greed of the 1%, has acted in the interest of the wealthy. First, they cut vital social services for the poor and middle class and used our tax money to bail out the banks. Now, when we take action to solve the crisis the banks created with their predatory lending and greedy money-making schemes, the government intervenes to stop us by using violence.
Politics-as-usual won’t fix our problems. If we lobby against every unsustainable pipeline or unjust eviction, we’ll be stuck begging and waiting forever while our communities continue to suffer. We are fighting for deeper changes than any politician can bring, so that someday there are no more unsustainable pipelines or evictions at all. We support communities trying to improve their present living conditions and fight back against corporate control and economic injustice, no matter how they chose to. But we do not endorse any politician(s) because no candidate will bring change. Only the people, united together with the common goal of building a truly free society, can do that. This is exactly why we are even more relevant during the election season than ever.
1/31 Update: Memorial opposing #CitizensUnited passes NM House 38-29!
A Mesage From Occupy Santa Fe’s “March to the Roundhouse” Working Group
It’s thanks to your help that we’ve come this far. We won a pair of victories in Santa Fe late last week, when committees in both the state House and Senate voted to approve our memorial, after you flooded the committee members’ offices with calls. Congratulations on that first step! Tuesday, January 31st, the full New Mexico House of Representatives will vote on our memorial (bill) calling on Congress to overturn the Citizens United ruling and return fair elections to the people.
This is an important vote, and a big test for our campaign to return American democracy to the people, instead of continuing to accept rule by the corporations.
The state Senate Judiciary Committee will also consider an identical bill this Wednesday. Please also call these committee members, after you’ve called your own Representative:
Committees in both the Senate and House have approved memorials that call for Congress to pass and send back to the states for ratification an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would overturn the controversial and unpopular 5 to 4 Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court in 2010.
The History
The Citizens United decision allows corporations to contribute an unlimited amount of money to groups that support or oppose candidates. It swept away decades of campaign finance law aimed at reining in the influence of money in politics.
This is a tradition of reform that dates back as far as the Tillman Act of 1907 that was signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt and banned direct corporate contributions in federal election campaigns.
Because this Supreme Court decision now trumps anything that Congress could do on its own, a constitutional amendment is the only recourse. Seven times previously in our nation’s history, the constitutional amendment route has been used to reverse Supreme Court decisions.
The most prominent example is probably the Fourteenth Amendment that was needed to overrule the pre-Civil War era Dred Scott decision, which enshrined Chief Justice Roger Taney’s constitutional interpretation that said black people were not, and could not become, citizens of the United States or enjoy any of the privileges and immunities of citizenship.
Legislative action
Fast forward to 2012 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. On Thursday the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee voted to give HM4 a “Do Pass” recommendation, sending it to the House floor. It passed on 3-2 party line vote with Democrats in support and both Republicans voting against.
Friday morning, two Citizens United memorials moved forward with bipartisan support as the Senate Rules Committee unanimously gave a “Do Pass” to SM3 and SJM24. Two Republican Senators joined with the five Democrats in support of the two measures which now move on to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
UPDATE: Sens. William Burt (R-Alamogordo) and Stuart Ingle (R-Portales) later changed their votes to vote against the memorials. The official vote is 5-2.
“I heard all the time from my constituents and the public in general about the lack of confidence in our political system,” Rep. Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque), the sponsor of the House memorial, said during the hearing. “And really the biggest complaint is money in politics.”
Sen. Steve Fischmann (D-Las Cruces), the sponsor of the Senate memorial, said that he invests in some mutual funds who could use that money to spread messages that he does not agree with and that they are “usurping” his free speech.
“I don’t think that’s democracy,” Fischmann said.
Sen. Eric Griego sponsored the Joint Memorial which echoes a national proposal by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Fischmann said his memorial allows more latitude in approaches to undoing the harm caused by the Citizens United decision.
At last count, five amendment resolutions addressing Citizens United have been introduced in the congress, including one by New Mexico Senator Tom Udall.
In explaining his opposition, Dennis Kintigh (R-Roswell) said he would be “hypocritical” to vote for the memorial because he was the recipient of a huge amount of money when he defeated House Minority Whip Dan Foley in a 2008 party primary. (Heath Haussamen reported extensively on that race – here and here.)
“I would not have succeeded without significant funding,” Kintigh said.
“We believe the citizens of the United States deserve more out of our Supreme Court and more out of our Congress,” Vicki Harrison, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico said at the House hearing. Harrison echoed her comments at the Senate panel the next day.
Of the dozen or so members of the public that stayed throughout the long committee hearing, all were in support of the memorial including a number of representatives from a number of organizations throughout the state, including the League of Women Voters.
Rep. Moe Maestas (D-Albuquerque) had the most memorable lines of the House hearing. In one, he compared corporations to the Borg, a villain from Star Trek.
In another, Maestas said, “It is OK for corporations to control he economy, it is not OK for corporations to control the government.”
On January 25, 2012, a group of (un)/Occupy protesters interrupted the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) dinner for New Mexico legislators in Santa Fe. Occupy Santa Fe has reported, “Four women and two men committed to nonviolent civil disobedience interrupted the dinner to hold members accountable for their anti-immigrant, anti-union and anti-environment policies, while Crime Scene tape was dispersed around the tables. Protesters sought to distribute paper programs parodying ALEC’s agenda. When one protester was attacked, some programs unintentionally flew from the protester’s hand. The resulting injury was unfortunate, and totally unintended.”
Now for the first time online, we share that satirical, hilarious, and famous ALEC dinner menu program. We would also like to assert once again that while this peaceful menu program is non-violent, the aggressive actions of ALEC members in reaction to its presentation certainly were not!
Approved by Occupy Santa Fe Media Working Group and ALEC Protest Organizers
Wednesday night, Jan.25th at the Eldorado Hotel, Santa Fe the worst of corporate corruption of our democracy reared its ugly head at a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). This innocent-sounding group drafts, recommends and promotes “Model Legislation” to conservative legislators. Funded by Koch Industries and over 300 corporations, ALEC authors legislation destructive to the working class and environment and which displaces native peoples and contaminates their air, soil, and water.
The Nation reported that ”Hundreds of ALEC’s model bills and resolutions bear traces of Koch DNA: …Of all the Koch’s’ investments in right-wing organizations, ALEC provides some of the best returns:” Those returns are crushing unions, lowering wages for working Americans, wiping out clean water and air regulations, and exploding profits for the already rich. ALEC is the force behind the disastrous Wisconsin and Ohio Union Busting. ALEC presents “Model Bills” and encourages conservative legislators to present them for approval to legislatures.
Occupy Santa Fe protested outside the Eldorado Hotel exposing this reprehensible organization. A very large banner was dropped from a 5th floor balcony of the El Dorado, which read: “ALEC Buys NM Legislators. ALECEXPOSED.ORG 99% Expect Us.”. OSF understands the continuing corruption of our democracy is a matter of sheer survival with 146 million Americans at or below the poverty line. A noisy interruption of the ALEC $250 dinner is mild compared to the economic, social, and environmental devastation caused by corporate domination. The global Occupy Movement is loud but has been peaceful from day one and remains so today.
Four women and two men committed to nonviolent civil disobedience interrupted the dinner to hold members accountable for their anti-immigrant, anti-union and anti-environment policies, while Crime Scene tape was dispersed around the tables. Protesters sought to distribute paper programs parodying ALEC’s agenda. When one protester was attacked, some programs unintentionally flew from the protester’s hand. The resulting injury was unfortunate, and totally unintended. OSF is glad to hear the victim is recovering. By contrast ALEC members choked two women protesters with their own scarves while simultaneously punching them in the back, one by Representative Kintigh of Roswell. Following them to the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, an ALEC member punched a male protester in the face, and shoved another male protester to the wall in a chokehold. Four security guards from the Eldorado Hotel contained the violent ALEC legislative member. A 68-year-old photographer filed a complaint that night after she was manhandled and injured in an effort to take her camera. ALEC members are attempting to cover up their violent response to the protesters in the Eldorado, deflecting responsibility on protesters, hotel security, and State Police. This is a continuation of ALEC’s political maneuvering, one of corruption, dominance, and deceit.
ALEC defines itself as a proponent of “Jeffersonian democracy and small government,” but in reality passes state laws to prosecute immigrants, seeks lower taxes on fruit-flavored cigarettes to entice teenage smokers and most recently ALEC sponsored laws in Texas and Louisiana requiring public schools to teach “climate change denial” as a credible theory. We don’t think Jefferson would have been bought by the private prison industry, the tobacco lobby, and the coal company polluter. In fact Jefferson warned against the tyranny of large banks.
The aggressive physical response of ALEC members is characteristic of their policies.
Contact:
Media Working Group of Occupy Santa Fe
press@occupysantafenm.org
Jeff Haas 505-469-0714
Lisa Law’s video of ALEC members violently assaulting peaceful protesters:
… We think it’s important to note that, contrary to what some reports relayed, the dinner was not held in a private dining room that was then violently ransacked by Occupy protesters. The corporate-funded dinner was held in an open dining room of the Old House restaurant that is connected to the Agave Lounge. We observed the 6 protesters enjoying a peaceful meal in the Lounge for about 45 minutes while the lobbying dinner took place.
When the protesters were finished with their meal they walked into the adjoining dinner space and began a “mic-check” before being immediately (and violently) removed by hotel security. One protester was heard yelling “Get a soul!” as he was aggressively pushed out the front entrance. Photographer Lisa Law, who we observed sitting peacefully in the lounge the entire night and who was not a part of the protester’s interruption, was inexplicably “roughed up by hotel security and ALEC members who sought to grab her camera,” according to Occupy spokesperson James Haas. We, too, saw Ms. Law removed from the Lounge for no apparent reason.
On Thursday, Rep. Bill Payne mischaracterized the brief disruption as “very ugly” and called for the protestors be prosecuted merely for exercising their First Amendment rights as United States citizens. Sen. Clint Harden also made a wild leap of imagination when he said that the protestors “were interested in doing harm.” The only harm the protesters wished to inflict was upon the intimate and inappropriate relationship between our public officials and their corporate backers. (Both of the above quotes can be found in this account.)
… When the amount of money you have and wield determines how much free speech you’re granted under the law, it comes as no surprise that those people (the 99%) who have the least must resort to colorful displays in order to have their voices heard.
ProgressNow New Mexico is in possession of audio and video recordings of the ALEC dinner and Occupy protest. We are in the process of identifying the lobbyists and legislators who were present at the event and we will be looking into their finance reports to see just how deep the ALEC lobbyist-legislator relationship goes. In the coming weeks, look for an in-depth report about ALEC’s involvement in New Mexico politics from us here at ProgressNow New Mexico.
GREAT NEW VIDEO via ElGritoNM.org! “On opening day of the 2012 New Mexico legislature, the New Mexico 99% ((un)/Occupy) movement descended on the Roundhouse to make their voices heard. At one point, the participants were able to completely encircle the Roundhouse holding hands, with more than enough people to comfortably do so. Also at the Roundhouse earlier that morning was a Tea Party rally. Marchuleta Productions was on hand to capture the 99% movement as well as hear some perspectives from participants, as well as one Tea Party representative.” This video includes interviews with New Mexico citizens at the Opening Day of the NM Legislature at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe, NM on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012.
This should be obvious to all, but we would like to emphasize that the Tea Party representative interviewed in this video does not represent the views of the NM (un)/Occupy movement. In fact, many NM (un)/Occupy participants have actively supported the movement to protect and defend immigrant rights, including the 2003 NM law that enables access to drivers licenses.
1/26/2012 Update – Reports came out today that not only were (un)/Occupy protesters hurt by rough treatment from ALEC members and security, but also that a guest attending the ALEC dinner was slightly injured by a piece of paper allegedly thrown by a protester. Occupy Santa Fe participant Jeff Haas said in a letter to the The New Mexican, “While Occupy believes that confrontation and civil disobedience are often effective as demonstrated by Dr. King and Rosa Parks, we regret that anyone was injured last night by either flying paper or rough treatment by hotel security or ALEC members. Fortunately the injuries were minor compared to the devastation to people and the environment caused by ALEC legislation.”
New Mexico’s (un)/Occupy movement is now coming under heavy criticism for this protest action from Roundhouse legislators, including several who have been vocal supporters of our message, mission and non-violent tactics for economic justice. Local media coverage includes the Roundhouse Report, Capitol Report New Mexico, Santa Fe New Mexican. This story is still developing and we’ll post more information as it comes in. We also want to remind readers that the 1/25 action was not an isolated incident, but is part of a national effort to expose and shut down ALEC’s corrupting corporate influence over America’s legislative processes.
February 29th, 2012 - Leap Into Action! Reclaim Our Future!
GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER?
99%ers drop banner on Jan. 25 to protest ALEC recruitment dinner for New Mexico legislators at the El Dorado Hotel in Santa Fe, NM - "ALEC BUYS NM LEGISLATORS - ALECEXPOSED.ORG - EXPECT US"
Lisa Law’s video of ALEC members violently assaulting peaceful protesters:
Occupy Santa Fe and friends gathered on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 for THE PEOPLE’S PROTEST against the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) ”Membership Drive Reception Dinner” for NM Legislators, and our alternative PIZZA & POTLUCK DINNER!
While many 99%ers protested outside, some also protested inside the El Dorado Hotel, dropping a banner from a hotel balcony, and interrupting ALEC’s dinner with a mic check. No one was arrested, but peaceful protesters and media were assaulted and forcibly removed from the ALEC event by ALEC members and security. One member of the media (who was not protesting but filming the protesters) suffered injury when she was tackled in the hotel lobby and had her camera wrestled away from her. Police reports were filed and criminal charges may be pressed.
WHO IS ALEC? ALEC is a powerful institution where greedy corporations and corrupt legislators collude behind closed doors to conceive and provide legislatures with model laws to maximize corporate profit, deprive basic human rights, and implement a Right Wing Agenda
ALEC PROMOTES LAWS THAT ARE: Anti-Environment & Pro-pollution, Anti-Immigrant , Anti-Union & Anti- Public employees, Restrictive of Voting Rights, Racist, and Exploitative against the 99% to Profit the 1% … There are 23 active ALEC members in the NM Legislature including one Democrat, Rep. Munoz (Gallup).
WHO FUNDS ALEC? The Koch Brothers, ExxonMobil, Coors, Verizon, Coca Cola, Duke Energy and many other right-wing corporations and individuals. Find out more on how ALEC corrupts democracy at www.alecexposed.org
“The new year begins with the potential for huge consequences. As the candidates vie to control the elections through sound bites and slogans of attack, we are mobilizing to spread the consciousness of how much these campaigns are financed by Wall Street, oil and gas, and the Chamber of Commerce. The millions that the Koch Brothers and Karl Rove intend to spend on US elections will, we all know, not be aimed to increase the incomes of the middle class or curtail foreclosures or to ease the pain of bankruptcies caused by illness and disease. These millions are intended to continue the progress of America down the road toward plutocracy.”
Founded on the spirit of the words above, We Are People Here! has created a new slideshow presentation on this condition, called “Reviving Democracy”, to be copied and reproduced and delivered by teams all over New Mexico. They are planning to go to groups small and large, from Taos to Las Cruces, to carry the message that our government is not for sale and that the values of compassion, integrity, nonviolence and respect are the key to our survival as a people, as an economy, and as a nation. The presentation is now ready to go public!
On Tuesday, January 24 at a Town Hall Meeting in Santa Fe, Craig Barnes presented the first public screening of the new “Reviving Democracy” slideshow. With permission, here we share a segment from this presentation. Please visit the We Are People Here! website if you are interested in donating to this excellent Santa Fe-based organization, learning more about their projects, or reaching out to bring the complete “Reviving Democracy” presentation to your local community.
Immigrant Rights Day of Action: Tuesday, January 24 For more information contact Somos Un Pueblo Unido www.somosunpueblounido.org/DLNews
Hundreds of immigrant advocates from across New Mexico converged at the State Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 24 to protest Governor Susana Martinez’s attempts to repeal a state law that allows immigrants to acquire driver’s licenses. A coalition of immigrant groups, religious organizations and student activists gathered inside the Roundhouse, marched around the Capitol building, rallied outside for more than one hour, and spent the afternoon lobbying NM legislators to uphold the current law. Below we share video and media from the day of action for immigrant rights.
A march and rally in Albuquerque on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 were part of a national “Occupy the Courts” Day of Action that stretched from Bangor, Maine to San Diego, California. It marked the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court “Citizens United” decision and protested the corporate corruption of democracy that this ruling has come to represent. The march on Friday in Albuquerque started from Robinson Park at 11:30 a.m. and ended at the Pete Domenici Federal Courthouse with a rally until 3 p.m. About 150 people were in attendance.
The “Citizens United” ruling has generated more than 100 grassroots challenges to the idea that corporations have the same free-speech rights as individuals. For some, the events are part of an effort to amend the U.S. Constitution.
Tom Dent, event coordinator for Albuquerque’s “Occupy the Courts” day of action, says the march and open mic at the federal courthouse are part of an effort to educate the public. ”This is the start of work on the local level. We plan to work with Albuquerque city councilors to get a local resolution passed.” Dent says additional efforts are under way to convince members of the New Mexico Legislature to consider a similar resolution opposing the “Citizens United” decision. For the 2012 NM Legislature, non-binding memorials calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to restore democracy — in response to “Citizens United” – have been introduced in both New Mexico legislative chambers, by Sen. Steve Fischman (SM3) and Rep. Mimi Stewart (HM4).
Move to Amend sign at Occupy rally at opening day of 2012 NM Session
