[May 21] Shutdown Prison Control Units - Event and Movie

Bay Area STOPMAX presents:

"UNLOCK THE BOX"

Event and Movie Documenting the Struggle to Shutdown Prison Control Units

Thursday, May 21st, 2009 | $5

Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts
2868 Mission Street
San Francisco CA 94110

6pm food, performance and Speakers; 7pm movie screening

Contact: bayarea.stopmax@gmail.com

For more information Download PDF flyer

MABEL NEGRETE : Community and Projects
www.mabelnegrete.com
www.thecounternarrativesociety.org

[May 19] Radical Graphics Workshop: Intro to Photoshop

Tuesday May 19
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Galería de la Raza
Studio 24 2857 24th St. @ Bryant
San Francisco,CA 94110

Open to the public / Donations appreciated

This very introductory workshop is aimed at those who have little to no experience with Photoshop, with hopes of giving radicals some tools to begin making their own print and web flyers, posters, announcements, etc.

[May 15] Dinner to Celebrate Elections in El Salvador (San Rafael)

Friday, May 15
6 - 9 PM
First United Methodist Church
9 Ross Valley Drive (at Fourth Street)
San Rafael

Victory party to celebrate the outcome of the recent elections in El Salvador and the upcoming inauguration of a progressive president

Special guests will include Bay Area members of the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) and CISPES (the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador), as well as Marin election observers.
They will share their impressions and expectations for the future.

Celebrants are asked to bring a main dish or salad for 10-20 people or donate $10-20.
This event is sponsored by the Task Force on the Americas.
The venue is wheelchair accessible.

For more information, contact 415/924-3227, mitf@igc.org, or www.mitfamericas.org.

[May 12] SF School Board to vote on restoring JROTC

San Francisco School Board to VOTE
on restoring JROTC at its next meeting.

Come to the meeting and show your support for the school board members who are standing up against the Pentagon's onslaught.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - 6:00 pm
555 Franklin Street at McAllister

It is time for JROTC to go.

The San Francisco Board of Education voted over two years ago to phase out the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. JROTC is run by the Pentagon and their hand-picked military instructors. The program is scheduled to end this June.

The Pentagon and their allies are trying to overturn the school board decision. The board is expected to vote at its next meeting on a resolution to restore the program, introduced by the Pentagon's two most shameless supporters, Jill Wynns and Rachel Norton.

The school board voted to phase out JROTC because San Franciscans do not want the military in our schools. JROTC targets children as young as 14 and 15, particularly working class youth from communities of color. Nor do San Franciscans support a program that won't hire openly LGBT instructors, in line with the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. JROTC costs school district taxpayers one million dollars per year.

The struggle to get the military out of our schools goes back to 1994, when the public and the school board learned that "for at least the last five years, ranks... a ritual punishment in which JROTC cadets are punched repeatedly... as they walk between a gauntlet of drill team members" was common in at least one high school. Since then, those opposed to the military presence in our schools have been subject to repeated threats and intimidation, including at least one death threat against a school board member.

In 2005, nearly 60% of San Francisco voters declared that we want military recruiters out of our schools. In 2006, the school board finally voted to phase out JROTC.

Last November, downtown and military money funded the "Yes on V" campaign, a purely advisory measure supposedly aimed at supporting JROTC, but really aimed at creating a "wedge issue" to defeat progressive candidates for the Board of Supervisors. Downtown poured $200,000 into this campaign, gained a small victory with Prop V, but lost every Supervisor campaign. Despite being out-spent 15 to 1, opponents of JROTC got nearly 150,000 votes.

The school board vote on May 12 should be the final chapter of this long campaign. If we win this vote, JROTC will be gone in June. Come to the meeting and show your support for the school board members who are standing up against the Pentagon's onslaught.

We can and will win.

http://www.NoMilitaryRecruitmentInOurSchools.org

NoJROTC@yahoo.com
510-326-1961

[May 9] Teach-in: Bail out working people, not the banks!

TEACH-IN & MASS MOBILIZATION PLANNING MEETING

SATURDAY, MAY 9, 2009 - 1 to 5 p.m.
(registration begins at 12:30 p.m.)
Plumbers Hall,
1621 Market St. @ Franklin St.
(3 blocks from Civic Station BART stop; @ Van Ness MUNI stop)
San Francisco

Without joining together for our common interests, we don't have the strength to change our government's priorities. We must begin to build a massive movement that will have the power to impact government policy and give people genuine hope for a better future.

Help organize a mass mobilization and ongoing action campaign around the following demands:

- No layoffs. Massive job-creation program.
- Tax the rich -- don't bail out the banks.
- Pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
- Single-payer healthcare for all.
- Affordable housing for all. Tenants' rights. Moratorium on foreclosures & evictions.
- Funding for jobs and for social services & infrastructure, not for war.
- Stop the ICE raids and deportations. Legalization for all!

Speakers:

- Art Pulaski, Secretary-Treasurer, California Federation of Labor;
- N'tanya Lee, Executive Director, Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth;
- Mark Dudzic, National Organizer, Labor for Single Payer Healthcare Campaign (Washington, D.C.);
- Rosie Martinez, SEIU Local 721 (Los Angeles);
- Steve Williams, Executive Director, POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights);
- Conny Ford, Vice President, San Francisco Labor Council;
- Clarence Thomas, ILWU Local 10;
- Jack Rasmus, Professor of economics St. Mary's College and Santa Clara Univ.;
- Alan Benjamin, Executive Committee, San Francisco Labor Council and Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign;
- Student representative, City College of San Francisco, Mission Campus.

ALSO:

Extended remarks from Bay Area labor and community leaders -- and ample time for dialogue among teach-in participants.

AND:

Spoken Word performance by YOUNG PLAYAZ

Initiated by the San Francisco Labor Council, South Bay Labor Council, and Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign

Donations will be requested at door to defray cost of renting the hall, printing leaflets and posters, and copying teach-in packets for all participants.
No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

[May 3] Justice for Atenco! / Justicia por Atenco (Oakland)

Sunday, May 3
Justice for Atenco!

A Community Report on San Salvador Atenco in Oakland

Niebyl-Proctor Library
6501 Telegraph Ave
Oakland, CA 94609
6:30 - 9:00 PM

We will show two videos on San Salvador Atenco and give some background on the community’s successful 2001 & 2002 resistance to government plans to build an airport on their land.
The second video will show police terrorizing the community on May 3 and 4, 2006, several days after the Zapatista Other Campaign visited Atenco.
We will have information on the new campaign to free the 12 remaining political prisoners.

This video commemoration is part of a coordinated national campaign in Mexico and an international support campaign to free the Atenco political prisoners.

Free admission.

=======================

¡JUSTICIA PARA SAN SALVADOR ATENCO!

el 3 de Mayo de 2009 - 6:30 PM

Biblioteca Marxista de Niebyl Proctor

Avenida Telegraph # 6501

Oakland, California 94609

Informe comunitario sobre San Salvador Atenco. Presentación de dos videos. Uno, sobre el triunfo de la resistencia en San Salvador Atenco durante 2001 y 2002 ante los planes gubernamentales de construir un aeropuerto en sus terrenos. El segundo, muestra la violencia policiaca aterrorizando a la comunidad el 3 y 4 de Mayo de 2006, días después que la caravana de la Otra Campaña Zapatista visitara Atenco. La presentación de estos videos conmemorativos son parte de una campaña nacional en México e Internacional para no olvidar lo sucedido y para liberar a los presos políticos de Atenco. Habrá más Información sobre esta campaña para liberar a los 12 compañeros Atequenses aún presos. Todos son bienvenidos. La entrada es gratis.

Habrá a la venta artesanía de las cooperativas Zapatistas: Playeras, blusas y huipiles, bolsas, pasamontañas, paliacates y más!

Se habla español. Traducción disponible.

Auspiciado por: Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

Para más información: (510) 654-9587

correo electrónico: cezmat@igc.org

http://www.chiapas-support.org

[May 2] U.S. Trade Policy & Its Impacts on Food, Land, and Immigration in the Americas (UC Berkeley)

Not Just Change but Justice!

A joint LASC/NACLA Conference

U.S. Trade Policy & its Impacts on Food, Land, and Immigration

Saturday, May 2, 1 PM - 6 PM

110 Barrows Hall (near Telegraph & Bancroft)
UC Berkeley Campus

LASC: Latin america Solidarity Coalition (www.lasolidarity.org)

NACLA Report on the Americas: North American Congress on Latin America

(http://nacla.org/justicecampaign, https://nacla.org/donate)

U.S. Trade Policy & its Impacts on Food, Land, and Immigration

As we approach the end of Obama's first 100 days, grassroots groups working

in solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean will come together to

assess the recent history of U.S. trade policy toward the region, and to

construct an agenda for the future that places the rights of people above

profit. This half-day program will examine how U.S. trade policy has

impacted issues of food, land, and immigration throughout the region, from

questions of food security in Haiti and Cuba, to biofuels and GMOs in

Brazil; from NAFTA and migration, to indigenous land rights in Bolivia.

Experts and movement leaders from throughout the country will participate in

this day of learning and action, and work together to create not just

change, but justice in the Americas.

1pm – 3pm: Panel discussion: each speaker is 10-12min

- Introduction: Christy Thornton, NACLA

- CAFTA: Kathy Hoyt, Nicaragua Network

- NAFTA: David Bacon, photojournalist, author of Illegal People

-US Trade Policy and Immigration: Colin Raja, National Network on Immigrant and Refugee Rights

- Agrarian and Land Reform: Angus Wright

- Biofuels and agrobusiness: Eric Holt Giménez, Food First

- Indigenous issues/mega projects: Maria Ramos, NISGUA

- U.S. trade and relations with Venezuela: Martin Sanchez, Consulate of Venezuela

3:30 – 5: Workshops

Constructing alternatives in food, land, and trade: Bolivia, Venezuela, and Ecuador

• Roger Burbach, Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA)

• Martin Sanchez, Consulate of Venezuela

- Militarization & Counterinsurgency: How Plan Colombia and "Plan Mexico" support the neoliberal agenda

• Mary Ann Tenuto, Chiapas Support Committee

• John Lindsay Poland, Fellowship of Reconciliation

Immigration, food security, and US relations: a comparison of Cuba and Haiti

• Delvis Fernandez, Cuban American Alliance Education Fund

• Pierre Laboissiere, Co-Founder, Haiti Action Committee

Big soy and ethanol agribusiness in the Southern Cone: /Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay

• Eric Holt Giménez, Food First

• EricaOmena Erickson, Friends of the MST

• Theresa Cameranesi, SOA Watch San Francisco

5 - 6: Wrap up and moving forward

WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE

CONTACT 510-525-5497

[May 1] Marcha 1 de mayo / May 1 march (San Francisco)

[English below]

Únete a la marcha pro-migrante y trabajadores
Día internacional del trabajador

¡Trabajo sí! ¡Guerra no! ¡Legalización ahora!

1 de mayo - 1:30pm
Parque Dolores [Calle 19 y Dolores]

El gobierno sigue gastando billones en la guerra mientras que las condiciones para los trabajadores empeoran por la perdida de sus trabajos, los recortes en servicios e incremento a la represión. Este día internacional del trabajador, tomeremos las calles para exigir respeto a nuestra ciudad santuario, derechos iguales para los inmigrantes, ¡no! al recorte de ningún servicio, y paz con justicia en Irak, Afganistán, Palestina y más alla.

coalición deporten a la migra . alianza 1ero de mayo . sf immigrant rights defense committee

Para más información: 415.487.9203

---

Join the immigrant & worker rights march

Work not war! Legalization now!

May 1st - International worker's day
1:30pm - Dolores Park [19th & Dolores]

The government continues to spend billions on the war while conditions for workers worsen due to job loss, service cuts and increased repression. this international worker’s day let’s take the streets to demand respect for our sanctuary city, equal rights for immigrants, no cuts to any services, and peace with justice in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and beyond.

deporten a la migra coalition . may 1st alliance . sf immigrant rights defense committee

for more information: 415.487.9203

[May 1] Marcha 1 de mayo / May 1 march (Oakland)

DIA INTERNACIONAL DE LOS TRABAJADORES
VIERNES, 1ro de Mayo 2009 en Oakland

"DERECHOS HUMANOS PARA TODOS: Legalizacion, Si Podemos!"
3:30 - 4:30pm Programa en Fruitvale BART Plaza
4:30 - 6:00pm Marcha al Municipal

Alto a los ataques contra Inmigrantes!
Deporten a los bancos, NO a los Inmigrantes!
Alojamiento, Salud Medica y Educacion para TODOS!

---

INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY 2009
FRIDAY, MAY 1 in Oakland
"HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL: Legalization, Yes We Can!"
3:30 - 4:30pm Program at Fruitvale BART Plaza
4:30 - 6:00pm March to City Hall

Moratorium on ICE Raids, Detentions & Deportations!
No more Corporate Bailouts!
Housing, Healthcare & Education for ALL!

SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS
Oakland Sin Fronteras Coalition (Mujeres Unidas y Activas, La Clinica de la Raza, Huaxtec, Filipinos for Affirmative Action, Anakbayan East Bay, East Side Arts Alliance, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, East Bay Sanctuary/Santuario), Lucha Unida al Jornalero, EBASE, Interfaith Worker Committee, Critical Resistance, JustCause Oakland, Alameda Labor Council, Priority African Network, Bay Area Immigration Task Force, TIGRA, Association fo Raza Educators, Centro Legal, Revolutionary Workers Group, Labor Committee for Peace & Justice, American Friends Service Committee, Solidarity, Oakland Education Association, Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian-Universalists.

[May 1] Marcha 1 de mayo / May 1 march (San Jose)

Inmigrantes Unidos Marchando por una Reforma Justa y Humana

Alianza por Reforma Migratoria del Valle del Silicio (SVAIR) urge a todas las comunidades a participar en las Marchas Nacionales:

1 de mayo - 4:00 PM

Story & King Rd

San Jose

¡Si no puede marchar, dénos la bienvenida en el City Hall de San Jose, pero no deje de participar!

---

Immigrants United Marching for Just and Humane Immigration Reform

Silicon Valley Alliance for Immigration Reform (SVAIR) urges all communities to participate in National Marches:

May 1st at 4:00pm.
Story & King Rd
San Jose, CA

[Apr 28] Workers Memorial Day speak-out to protect health and safety on the job (SF)

April 28, 2009 Workers Memorial Day
Speak-Out To Protect
Health And Safety On The Job

3:00 PM - Press Conference
At front of Pfizer Research Facility
455 Mission Bay Boulevard South at 3rd St.
San Francisco
(Next to the New UCSF Biotech China Basin building)

7:00 PM Speak-Out
At ILWU Local 34
2nd St/Embarcadero on the left side of AT&T Park
Free Parking at ILUW Local 34

Speakers including: Shiela Davis, Executive Director Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition, Daniel Berman, author of Death on The Job, Becky McClain, injured Pfizer molecular biologist, Dina Padilla injured Kaiser worker, Carl Bryant, NALC Local 214, Mike Daley, Iron Workers Local 377 on 9/11 NYC First Responders, also representatives from the ILWU and other unions, injured workers and their families.

California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day (CCWMD)
P.O. Box 720027, San Francisco, CA 94172
www.workersmemorialday.org
(415) 867-0628

Workers Memorial Day was established to commemorate and defend workers injured and killed

on the job. This year, the California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day (CCWMD) will also focus on the need for health and safety protection, regulation and standards for new industries such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. These industries are not properly regulated with strong health and safety standards. The CCWMD is calling for national Congressional hearings on these issues and also for the defense of injured workers who face a deregulated workers comp system in which seriously injured workers are not able to get proper healthcare and compensation. We need to get the insurance industry out of healthcare, so all workers can get healthcare.

The elimination of all doctors at Ca-Osha is another dangerous threat that threatens the health and safety of 17 million workers of California particularly those facing the use of new technology in the workplace. Many dangerous toxic sites in Northern California and around the country have been privatized and labeled “Brownfield” sites. Workers, veterans and community people have also been sickened by the failure to clean these sites.

[APR 27] Blackfire & Jeremy Goodfeather

Urban Rez Productions Presents

Saving the Legacy

A Benefit for the Intertribal Friendship House

Featuring:

Blackfire

Jeremy Goodfeather

Food Sale

Special Guests

Vendors & More!

All proceeds go towards renovating the IFH silk screening studio and gift shop!

$7-10 sliding scale

No Drugs or Alcohol

No one ever turned away for lack of funds. 

[Apr 25] “Love Yo’ Mama” Environmental Justice Earth Day Celebration

Join Communities for a Better Environment for our
First Annual “Love Yo’ Mama” Environmental Justice Earth Day Celebration
in East Oakland
April 25, 2009

There will be local talent, entertainment, live music, speakers, poets, food, vendors, free health screenings and more. The parade stars at Tassafaronga Recreation Center (975 - 85th Avenue) at noon, and ends at ACORN Woodland Elementary (1025 81st Ave), where the festivities go on from 1PM until 6 PM. To get involved, contact our Community Organizer, Nehanda Imara, nimara@cbecal.org, 510-302-0430 x21

For more info: http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/3604

[Apr 25] Ama a tu Mamá: evento para el Día de la Tierra

Sábado, 25 de abril

Comunidades para un Medio Ambiente Mejor
en colaboración con ACORN Woodland escuela primaria
y Tassafaronga centro de recreación
presenta

“Ama a Tú Mamá”

el primer evento anual del Día de la Tierra
con el tema de justicia medioambiental

Habrá talento de grupos locales, entretenimiento, música en vivo, oradores, poetas, comida, vendedores, pruebas de salud gratis y más! El desfile empieza en el Centro de Recreación “Tassafaraonga” (975 – avenida 85) a las 12 PM y termina a la Escuela Primaria “ACORN Woodland” (1025 avenida 81) donde las festividades siguen desde la 1 PM hasta las 6 PM.

Para patrocinar este evento, o ser vendedor, o para participar, favor de llamar a Ana Orozco, Organizadora Comunitaria
(510) 302-0430 x12, aorozco@cbecal.org.

[Apr 24] 19th Annual Statewide Latino Social Work Network Conference (Sacramento)

19^th Annual Statewide Latino Social Work Network Conference

Statewide training conference on Immigration
Starts: 8 AM Friday, April 24^th

Sierra II Arts & Community Center
2791 24^th St.
Sacramento, CA. 95818.

8:00 A.M. Continental breakfast
9:00 A.M. Opening Remarks by Bishop Soto, MSW, is FREE & Open to the Public for that hour.

Scholarships to attend the conference are available

The 5:30PM Gala Reception is Free & Open to the Public.
Come and have some snacks and bring your guitar or musical instrument.

[Apr 24] Encuentro Xican@ 2

U.C. Berkeley's Xican@ Culture Working Group is proud to announce

encuentro xican@ 2,

or, xican@ love and the new familia: gender, sexuality, and alliance

University of California, Berkeley

April 24, 2009

"Tenderness, a sign of vulnerability, is so feared that it is showered on women with verbal abuse and blows. Men, even more than women, are fettered to gender roles. Women at least have had the guts to break out of bondage. Only gay men have had the courage to expose themselves to the woman inside them and to challenge the current masculinity. I've encountered a few scattered and isolated gentle straight men, the beginnings of a new breed, but they are confused, and entangled with sexist behaviors that they have not been able to eradicate. We need a new masculinity and the new man needs a movement." Gloria Anzaldúa

The California electorate recently voted to uphold traditional gender roles by passing Proposition 8. The controversy over the role played by voters of color in passing this anti-gay measure has raised some questions full with the possibility for both tension and alliance. At the heart of this inquiry is love as responsibility, the ability to respond to one another. Does the Chican@ community have love for its gays, lesbians, queers and transgenders, and do gay, lesbian, queer, and transgender Chican@s have love for their community? Familia has always been an important value for Chicana/os, and familia seems to be the central value or the advocates of gay marriage. How can familia be redefined without the fetters of gender roles?

For our second encuentro xican@, we wish to explore tensions and alliances among queer, straight, male, female, transgender, ChicanO, and ChicanA. What does it mean to be a ChicanO/A feminist? What does it mean to be a Chican@ feminist? In this 21st century, do we see Anzaldúa's new breed of “gentle straight men”? What is at stake with this critical dialogue is the possibility of re-articulating thoughts and practices, decolonizing the present as well as articulating a future where gender and sexuality are re-inscribed into the dynamics of power, society at large, and the Chican@ community in particular. We are fully aware that alliances are subject to betrayal, even self-betrayal. An alliance must be both mutual learning and referenced positionality, which means recognizing one's own privilege. True meaningful alliances between Chicanas and Chicanos--across genders, sexual orientations, generations, classes, and political ideologies--is an ethical demand we must forge together and must not be taken lightly. How can alliance be redefined as familia, with all its tensions and all its loves?

We invite presentations (in English, Spanish) that explore and interrogate various conflicts/alliances among gay, queer, straight, male, female, transgender, ChicanO, and ChicanA, and their relations to labor history, youth culture, indigeneity, migration, spirituality, performance studies, visual and popular culture, policy, and violence against people of color. Cultural arts centers, community workers, students and faculty from all levels are all invited to participate in our encuentro. We are open to receive individual or panel proposals that might work differently than a ‘traditional’ conference paper and encourage academic-artist-activists to integrate different aspects of your work and talents that may take the form of exhibit, performance, workshop, roundtable discussion, academic criticism, or any rasquache combination of these.

Submit 300 word abstracts via email as word documents or PDF files by March 27th, 2009. Submissions and inquiries should be sent to encuentroXWG@gmail.com

[Apr 23] Crimes without Punishment: Gender-Motivated Killings in Guatemala

At the University of California, Hastings College of the Law

Crimes without Punishment:
Gender-Motivated Killings in Guatemala

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Guest Speakers:
Carmen Aída Ibarra Morán, Mónica María Leonardo Segura and Professor Karen Musalo

Reception: 5:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Program: 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.

UC Hastings College of the Law, Alumni Reception Center
200 McAllister Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102

Violence in Guatemala, particularly violence against women, has risen to epidemic proportions. Those who beat, maim or kill women are rarely held accountable for their actions, and enjoy almost total impunity. In the last eight years almost 4,000 women have been killed in gender-motivated killings, known as "femicides," and less than 2% of these crimes have been investigated and prosecuted. On April 23, representatives from the Myrna Mack Foundation, a Guatemalan organization which is internationally known and respected for its work on issues of justice and the rule of law, will come to U.C. Hastings to discuss impunity and violence in Guatemala.

Join us for a discussion on the issue of violence-and courage in the face of violence.

To RSVP for this event visit the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies website at: http://cgrs.uchastings.edu/

[Apr 18] Community Report on the Zapatista Festival of Dignified Rage

Saturday, April 18
The Chiapas Support Committee presents
Community Report on the Zapatista Festival of Dignified Rage

Program starts at 3:00 PM and ends at 6:00 PM.

Fresno City College, Forum Hall
1101 E University Ave
Fresno, CA 93741

Hosted by Sustainable Action. Free Admission!

[Apr 17] La Otra Educacion/The Other Education

HOMEY Movie Nights Presents
La Otra Educacion, The Other Education

April 17, 2009, 6pm-9pm
HOMEY Office: 1337 Mission St. (9th & Mission)
San Francisco

Food & Refreshments Served

We will be hosting Patricia Hernandez, a professor and sociologist from Mexico's University, UNAM. Specializing in "popular education" that connects theory with practice, she has helped indigenous communities in Mexico's southern states, with the aim of sustaining autonomous communities and teaching self-determination.

Bring your youth to dialog, learn, and network how we can reclaim education for our communities in the Bay Area to serve the needs of the people.

• What is "popular education"?
• How do we create alternative spaces to learn our communities struggles, history, and distinct cultures?
• What does autonomy look like in an urban environment like the Bay Area?

[Apr17] Gold, Greed, & Genocide

Film Screening and Panel Discussion!!!

Film: Gold, Greed, and Genocide

Date: Friday, April 17, 2009

Time: 7pm-10pm

Location: Eastside Arts Alliance (2277 International Blvd @ 23rd Ave, Oakland)

Donation: $5-$5,000, 000 (no one will be turned away for lack of funds, serio)

One Struggle! Una Lucha!

The Native Delegation Collective is having this film screening to fund raise for a delegation of local indigenous community members to Chiapas, Mexico, which will be taking place late this summer. The delegation is an opportunity for the Indigenous communities in Chiapas and the Indigenous communities in the California Bay area to exchange knowledge, culture, histories, and experiences in order to find the connections in the work that we are doing as a way to support each other and strengthen our struggles.

About the Film:

Over 150,000 Native Americans lived sustainably in California prior to the gold rush. They had existed for many centuries, supporting themselves mostly by hunting, gathering and fishing. This life changed drastically in 1848 when James Marshall discovered the yellow metal in the American River at Coloma, in Northern California.By 1870, there was an estimated native population of only 31,000 Californian Indians left. Over 60 percent of these indigenous people died from disease introduced by hundreds of thousands of so-called 49ers. However, local tribes were also systematically chased off their lands, marched to missions and reservations, enslaved and brutally massacred.

In 1851, the California State government paid $1 million for scalping missions. You could still get $5 for a severed Indian head in Shasta in 1855, and twenty five cents for a scalp in Honey Lake in 1863. Over 4,000 Native American children were sold - prices ranged from $60 for a boy to $200 for a girl. The gold miners dug up 12 billion tons of earth - excavating river beds and blasting apart hillsides in their greed. In addition, they used mercury to extract gold from the ore, losing 7,600 tons of the toxic chemical into local rivers and lakes. The amount of mercury required to violate federal health standards today would be equivalent to one gram in a small lake. Although this gold rush ended in the late 19th century, a new gold rush began in the 1960s. In California, Nevada and around the globe, multinational companies have begun to use giant earth movers and new technology using deadly cyanide to extract gold from indigenous lands.