Please distribute widely...
Ron Gochez Social Justice Educator/Community Organizer Union Del Barrio- Los Angeles! ¡Ni Republicanos, Ni Demócratas; Solo el Pueblo Organizado Vencerá! October 20, 2008 Founded in 1981, Unión del Barrio is an organization committed to the struggle for the self-determination of the Raza/Mexicano communities. We believe that it is our obligation to address, with the objective of furthering our liberation, all issues of political, social, and economic importance to our people. Therefore, it is of utmost important that we bring clarity to the question of the current "presidential elections" and how this will impact our people. It goes without saying, that the corporate media are nothing more than the spokespersons of the rich, the powerful and of the US government. Hence, since our community cannot rely on the media to provide us with an analysis that represents our working class interests, we offer our perspective in hopes that it will help our people better understand the realities of the current political process. Our position is not to tell people not to vote, on the contrary, our organization believes in a participatory democracy and we want all members of our community to participate in the political process. However, we do not believe that we should waste our time, money and energies, in supporting political parties that actively work against the interests of our community. BOTH THE DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS REPRESENT THE INTEREST OF CAPITALISM AND IMPERIALISM In this particular period, when capitalism and imperialism finds itself in deep political and economic crisis throughout the world, many opportunistic and self-appointed "Hispanic leaders" are calling on our communities to vote for the "lesser of the two evils". They are clamoring over the necessity to remove the Republicans out of the White House. So when this group of liberals/and or sellouts scream, "Your vote is your voice" or "Today we march, tomorrow we vote", our response is, "Vote for whom???" The truth is that the neither the Democrats nor the Republicans represent the interests of our community; and in fact both parties represent the capitalists and imperialists who are oppressing and stealing from people at home and throughout the world. Although we too want to remove the Bush regime from the White House, we clearly understand that a Democratic Party administration will not change the living conditions of our people or imperialism around the world. Our position is that as oppressed people, we do not need another capitalist party to lead us. We need a revolutionary organization that will defend the rights of our community and who will struggle for bettering the living conditions of all people. BOTH PARTIES ATTACK DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORLD AND SUPPORT THIEVES HERE AT HOME In the last few months we have seen how both parties have teamed together to attack the revolutionary and democratic process that is advancing all over Latin America. In the last week we have seen how both of these capitalist parties have jointly labored arduously to give away over $700 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars to their capitalist buddies who have mismanaged the multi-billion dollar financial institutions and stole from the masses of the people through predatory lending and sub-prime loans. Both support the same corporations who have been enriching themselves off of our blood, sweat, and tears. More recently, we are witness to the fact that the differences between both of these parties, as represented by their public stances and debates, are basically indistinguishable. The Democrats represent a rightwing ideology and the Republicans represent an ultra-right wing ideology. Like Compañero Rodolfo Gonzalez, one of the leaders of our struggle of the 1960s and early 70s, once said, they are both lethal poison, no matter what dosage you take. THE NEO- COLONIALIST FACTOR A particular darling of the liberals and vendidos, is the Democratic Party candidate, Barack Obama. He is being pushed upon our communities as an agent of change and hope. Yet, reality explains to us that Obama is a neo-colonialist front who is being used by White Power imperialism, precisely because of his skin color, as a way to advance the interests of capitalism, cover-up the racist nature of Ameri ca's capitalist/imperialist social, political and economic system, and to rescue it from its current crisis. This is why the African People's Socialist Party (an African liberation organization with members in the United States, Africa, and Europe) explained the Obama factor as, "The fact that the U.S. bourgeoisie [rich people] had to chose an African in the form of Barack Obama as its primary agent is testimony to the dept of the crisis of imperialism in general, but especially of U.S. imperialism." If Obama represented the interests of the oppressed people inside of the United States, Unión del Barrio would openly campaign for our community to support him. However, the history of the Democratic Party (as it relates to Africans and Raza inside of the US) and of Obama's voting record as a U.S. Senator, clearly shows us, that we, as working class people, have no reason to vote for Obama or ANY Democrat, regardless of the color of their skin. To understand our position, one must consider that Obama has voted for: 1. Increased spending for ICE/Migra Border patrolled, surveillance, technology. 2. The extension of the Wall of Death aka the US/Mexican border wall. 3. The renewal of the PATRIOT ACT. 4. Increased spending for the terrorist war against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. 5. Billions for the bailout of the criminals and thieves who run the major banks and corporations. THE ALTERNATIVE IS POWER TO THE PEOPLE! As a revolutionary orga nization that believes in self-determination and the liberation of all the peoples of our continent, we cannot support Barack Obama, a candidate whose party has openly and viciously attacked the Bolivarian Revolution, Presidents Hugo Chavez, Raul Castro, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa and other democratically elected presidents in Latin America. If Antonio Villaraigosa, Bill Richardson, or any of "Hispanic" were running for President under the Democratic Party, Unión del Barrio would also urge the Raza community NOT to vote for them either! Our political analysis is not based on skin color. We are a principled and materialist (organize based on real and concrete conditions) organization who will only support a political party who represents the social, political and economic interests of the masses of the people, not the corporate elite. Our position should not be construed as a personal attack against Barack Obama. We clearly understand that it is the corporations, who have provided his campaign with hundreds of millions of dollars, who are the real "behind the scenes" decision makers. We have seen that since he became the official candidate for the Democratic Party that he has noticeably shifted his rhetoric further to the right to appease his white liberal fan base and the corporations that are continuing to fund his campaign. In conclusion, we can not support the bankrupt slogan "vote for the lesser of the two evils". We will not vote for a party that represents the interests of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, WAMU, Lehman Brothers...etc. We will only support a candidate and a party that is committed to bringing about the changes that our people and all oppressed people so desperately need. As Malcolm X stated in his speech The Ballot Or The Bullet, "You put them [Democrats and Republicans] first and they put you last…you are a political chump!" Our struggle is stop our community from being used as political chumps. What is the alternative? We believe that we need to build independent community organizations upon which a revolutionary party of the poor and working class can be built. This party will be made up of skilled and "un-skilled" laborers, students, men, women, young people, elders, progressive professionals and intellectuals, musicians, prisoners, artists…etc. A party that will fight for Power to the People, no matter what capitalist representative is in the White House. This is the type of party that Unión del Barrio is fully committed to building and we invite all honest forces to join our ranks! ¡Hasta La Victoria-Siempre! ¡Venceremos! --------------------- National Conference and Summit INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL AND LOCAL POLITICS: THE ALTERNATIVE TO THE U.S. TWO-PARTY SYSTEM Saturday October 25, 2008 Oxnard Community College Organized by Union del Barrio-Oxnard Hosted by MEChA de Oxnard College For more information contact=2 0Union del Barrio-Oxnard Summit 2008 at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *This Summit and Conference is part of the Campaign for Dignity* ¡Ni Demócratas, Ni Republicanos!; ¡Solo el Pueblo Organizado Vencerá! --------- End of Forwarded Message-------- [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
