Immigrant Rights News is posted from 1 to 5 times a week, and is for educational purposes only.
Monday, December 27, 2010
NNIRR's New Year's Resolutions: CELEBRATE, RISE, ORGANIZE
December 2010
Dear Friends,
We promised to DREAM, RISE and ORGANIZE this year, and as 2010 comes to a close we remember unforgettable moments symbolic of that pledge despite the onslaught of political and economic challenges.
We wanted to share the National Network’s New Year’s Resolutions with you and hope you will resolve to join the National Network sustainer program—or make your year end contribution to support our continued efforts in 2011—our 25th anniversary year!
See highlights of our activities in 2010, and what's on the agenda for 2011 by clicking here.
Even in these final weeks of 2010, NNIRR and its members are rallying to stop deportations, pushed for the final passage of the DREAM Act, and stood with colleagues around the world in solidarity with International Migrants Day, December 18!
NNIRR New Year’s Resolution #1:
Fervently defend the rights of all immigrants, regardless of immigration status, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or nationality…by organizing to roll back the system of enforcement and local police collaboration that is stomping on human and civil rights. This includes the fight for legal status for all undocumented. The failure of the DREAM Act to move forward, despite public support and support from members of Congress—is another indication of how tough this battle is, as well as the absolute need to keep legalization central to our agenda!
Resolution #2:
Amplify the message, Migrant Rights are Human Rights!We’re stepping up our communications capacity, collaborating with partners and members to beat back an environment of hostility, racism and xenophobia. With this message we also connect with our colleagues around the world, and together we will continue to uplift this message and raise awareness about the “root causes” of migration and the need for global solutions.
Resolution #3:
Enhance NNIRR as a strategic space for members and allies to build relations, share information and analysis, and converge on plans and actions. We are reminded everyday of one of NNIRR’s core functions—building a diverse and strategic movement for immigrant rights--and we resolve to redouble our efforts to make this convergence happen!
… and there is one more!
Resolution #4:
Celebrate! Despite the grim political developments that have deepened the human rights crisis for immigrants and refugees here and globally, we find it even more important to celebrate our movement, our victories (big and small), our dreams and the National Network’s silver anniversary.
THANK YOU for your support and solidarity! And please join us in 2011 when we will celebrate, RISE and ORGANIZE.
Peace,
Catherine Tactaquin
Executive Director
P.S. We’re excited to unveil a new and improved NNIRR website in mid-January, so please remember to visit us! Go now to www.nnirr.org to check out our latest report, “Injustice for All: The Rise of the U.S. Immigration Policing Regime,”which includes documentation and stories from the field detailing the growth of the immigration enforcement system. Print copies of the report will be available at the beginning of the year.
(Mexico City, Mexico) Dozens of U.S. immigrant groups are heading to the 5th People’s Global Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights (PGA) being held in Mexico City Nov. 2-5. The PGA is a community-based gathering to develop and advocate alternatives to the 4th intergovernmental Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), meeting a week later in Puerto Vallarta on Nov. 10-11.
Led by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR), close to 80 groups from around the U.S. will join an estimated one thousand other civil society delegates from around the world at the PGA. This will be one of the largest international civil society gatherings focused on one of the most contentious issues worldwide, migration. NNIRR is a co-founder of the PGA.
“There is an unprecedented increase in hostility towards migrants around the world, including in the U.S.,” declared Colin Rajah, Director of NNIRR’s program International Migrant Rights & Global Justice and a member of the PGA international coordinating committee. “As governments discuss ways and means to maximize the development benefits of migration, migrants themselves are being traded as cheap and disposable labor commodities.”
Raising Migrant Voices for Justice & Human Rights
During the PGA, community- based, human rights, women’s, faith-based, labor, migrant workers and other organizations from Africa, Asia, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe will share their experiences, strategize and develop action plans to counter the growing government attacks undermining the rights and safety of migrants. Key PGA representatives will also attend the Civil Society Days Nov. 8-9 at the GFMD, and will be delivering one of four international civil society presentations during the government forum.
The PGA serves as a broad-based civil society forum exposing governments’ repressive and inhumane criminalization of migrants around the world and the increasing exploitation of migrant workers in vulnerable and precarious conditions. The PGA also advocates for better global governance and adherence to human rights protections of migrants.
U.S. Will Attend GFMD for First Time
For the first time, the U.S. State Department will be leading an inter-agency delegation of a dozen government representatives to the GFMD. Assistant Secretary of State Eric Schwartz, heading the delegation, is expected to deliver a speech in New York on Nov. 8, in conjunction with the opening of the GFMD.
Rajah commented, “While we applaud the Obama Administration’s reversal of the previous U.S. government policy of non-participation in international fora such as the GFMD, we are concerned that there is little if any indication that the U.S. will modify it trade and migration policies, which drive the forced displacement of communities and violate the rights of migrants. We will be pushing the U.S. to turn around these policies and end the repressive and inhumane treatment of migrant communities. The U.S. must comply with the international human rights protections of all migrants around the world, including in our own country.”
The GFMD was created in 2006 by the United Nations General Assembly, upon the recommendation of then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. While its mandate seeks to overcome the limitations of strictly national approaches to key migration issues, the GFMD has become a key site for developing migration and development policy at the expense of the rights of migrants and countries in the Global South.
The inaugural GFMD was held in Brussels in 2007, followed by Manila in 2008 and Athens in 2009. The Swiss government is expected to host the GFMD next year.
The PGA: Creating a Global Vision & Action Plan for Migrant Rights
The PGA was jointly created by regional migrant and migrant rights networks from around the world. Recognizing the limitation of the GFMD’s framework approach, it sought to raise the level of broad civil society engagement as key stakeholders in the debate, and more importantly, to promote the central role of human rights as a framework for migration and development.
What is Neo-liberalism? A brief definition for U.S. activists.
Haga clic aqui para leer este ensayo sobre el neoliberalismo en español
EDITOR'S NOTE:In the U.S. neo-liberalism was more commonly known as "Reaganomics," after the policies and measures that were inaugurated under the Republican Administration of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. We are offering this early work produced in 1996 by Elizabeth "Betita" Martinez and Arnoldo Garcia as background information to help develop and engage discussions to build-up and promote the U.S. Social Forum. The U.S. Social Forum will be starting when thousands of activists, organizers and community leaders and members of U.S.-based social justice movements converge in Detroit the week of June 21, 2010.
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What is “Neo-Liberalism”?
A Brief Definition
By Elizabeth Martinez and Arnoldo García
“Neo-liberalism” is a set of economic policies that have become widespread during the last 25 years or so. Although the word is rarely heard in the United States, you can clearly see the effects of neo-liberalism here as the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer.
“Liberalism” can refer to political, economic, or even religious ideas. In the U.S. political liberalism has been a strategy to prevent social conflict. It is presented to poor and working people as progressive compared to conservative or Right-wing. Economic liberalism is different. Conservative politicians who say they hate “liberals” -- meaning the political type -- have no real problem with economic liberalism, including neo-liberalism.
“Neo” means we are talking about a new kind of liberalism. So what was the old kind? The liberal school of economics became famous in Europe when Adam Smith, a Scottish economist, published a book in 1776 called The Wealth of Nations. He and others advocated the abolition of government intervention in economic matters. No restrictions on manufacturing, no barriers to commerce, no tariffs, he said; free trade was the best way for a nation’s economy to develop. Such ideas were “liberal” in the sense of no controls. This application of individualism encouraged “free” enterprise,” “free” competition -- which came to mean, free for the capitalists to make huge profits as they wished.
Economic liberalism prevailed in the United States through the 1800s and early 1900s. Then the Great Depression of the 1930s led an economist named John Maynard Keynes to a theory that challenged liberalism as the best policy for capitalists. He said, in essence, that full employment is necessary for capitalism to grow and it can be achieved only if governments and central banks intervene to increase employment. These ideas had much influence on President Roosevelt’s New Deal -- which did improve life for many people. The belief that government should advance the common good became widely accepted.
But the capitalist crisis over the last 25 years, with its shrinking profit rates, inspired the corporate elite to revive economic liberalism. That’s what makes it “neo” or new. Now, with the rapid globalization of the capitalist economy, we are seeing neo-liberalism on a global scale.
A memorable definition of this process came from Subcomandante Marcos at the Zapatista-sponsored Encuentro Intercontinental por la Humanidad y contra el Neo-liberalismo (Inter-continental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neo-liberalism) of August 1996 in Chiapas when he said: “what the Right offers is to turn the world into one big mall where they can buy Indians here, women there ...” and he might have added, children, immigrants, workers or even a whole country like Mexico.
The main points of neo-liberalism include:
THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating “free” enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers’ rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say “an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone.” It’s like Reagan’s “supply-side” and “trickle-down” economics -- but somehow the wealth didn’t trickle down very much.
CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply -- again in the name of reducing government’s role. Of course, they don’t oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business.
DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminish profits, including protecting the environment and safety on the job.
PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs.
ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF “THE PUBLIC GOOD” or “COMMUNITY”and replacing it with “individual responsibility.” Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if they fail, as “lazy.”
Around the world, neo-liberalism has been imposed by powerful financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. It is raging all over Latin America. The first clear example of neo-liberalism at work came in Chile (with thanks to University of Chicago after the CIA-supported coup against the popularly elected Allende regime in 1973. Other countries followed, with some of the worst effects in Mexico where wages declined 40 to 50% in the first year of NAFTA while the cost of living rose by 80%. Over 20,000 small and medium businesses have failed and more than 1,000 state-owned enterprises have been privatized in Mexico. As one scholar said, "Neo-liberalism means the neo-colonization of Latin America.
In the United Statesneo-liberalism is destroying welfare programs; attacking the rights of labor (including all immigrant workers); and cutting back social programs. The Republican “Contract” on America is pure neo-liberalism. Its supporters are working hard to deny protection to children, youth, women, the planet itself -- and trying to trick us into acceptance by saying this will “get government off my back.” The beneficiaries of neo-liberalism are a minority of the world’s people. For the vast majority it brings even more suffering than before: suffering without the small, hard-won gains of the last 60 years, suffering without end.
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Elizabeth Martinez is a longtime civil rights activist and author of several books, including “500 Years of Chicano History in Photographs.” Arnoldo García is a member of the Oakland-based Comite Emiliano Zapata, affiliated to the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico. Both writers attended the Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and against Neo-liberalism, held July 27 -August 3,1996, in La Realidad, Chiapas.
