A Movement Rises in Arizona
by Jordan Flaherty / July 29th,
2010
Three months ago, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
signed into law the
notorious SB 1070, a bill that put her state at the forefront of a
movement to intensify the criminalization of undocumented immigrants.
Since then activists have responded through legal challenges,
political lobbying, grassroots organizing and mass mobilizations. More
than a hundred thousand people from across Arizona marched on the state
capitol on May 29. Today, hundreds more have pledged to risk arrest
through nonviolent direct action. These are the public manifestations of
an inspiring and widespread struggle happening in this state. The
organizations leading this fight offer a vision for people around the US
concerned with human rights.
A Rogue State
Yesterday, Federal District Court Judge Susan Bolton issued a
preliminary injunction against sections of Arizona law SB 1070, which is
scheduled to go into effect today. The judge put a hold on some of the
most outrageous parts of the bill, such as language that mandates racial
profiling by officers. However, Judge Bolton left much of the rest of
the law intact, including sections that specifically target day
laborers.
For Arizona activists, the legal ruling represents – at best – a
small respite. “It’s not a victory, it’s a relief,” says Pablo Alvarado
of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). “We’re putting a
band aid on a wound.”
Alvarado and the organizers with NDLON are part of a broad network of
national organizations and volunteers who have joined with local
organizers to fight not just against this unjust law, but also against a
general climate of anti-immigrant hatred. “Arizona is a rogue state,”
says Alvarado. “We’re going to use every single means that we have at
our disposal to fight back.”
Puente Arizona, a Phoenix-based organization that describes itself as
a human rights movement working to “resurrect our humanity,” has formed
Barrio Defense Committees in neighborhoods across the city. Emulating
the structure of groups founded by popular movements in El Salvador, the
community-based structure works to both serve basic needs, and also
build consciousness and help bring people together. According to Puente
activist Diana Perez Ramirez, the committees host regular “know your
rights” trainings and ESL classes, and are organizing “Copwatch”
projects. “We ask the community to unite and organize themselves,” says
Ramirez. “And we are just there to support that.” More than one thousand
people have joined these neighborhood organizations so far, with more
joining every day.
Puente has made use of volunteers from across the US, utilizing
national support to help with local organizing, and initiating direct
action with the support of out of town allies like the Ruckus Society,
Catalyst Project, and various chapters of Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS). They have issued calls to action including a Human Rights
Summer (modeled after the civil rights movements’ Freedom Summer) and
“30 Days for Human Rights,” a month of actions culminating today, the
day SB 1070 will become law.
Just after midnight, as the law took effect, the first protest of the
day began, as nearly 80 people blocked the intersection at the entrance
to the town of Guadelupe, a small (one square mile) Native American and
Hispanic community just outside of Phoenix. The town has a long history
of struggle against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has been
one of the main public faces of SB 1070, and most of the protesters (and
all of the organizers) were from the community. Holding signs declaring
their opposition to the new law and leading chants against police
brutality, activists declared that Arpaio’s officers are not welcome in
their town. The stand off against police lasted more than an hour,
before protest leaders in consultation with the town’s mayor decided to
open the intersection. Several more actions are planned for today.
Working Proactively
The Repeal Coalition, a Flagstaff- and Phoenix-based grassroots
immigrants-rights organization, was formed in 2007. The group came
together because they saw a vacuum in the immigrants’ rights movement in
Arizona. “Some of the left here were not being very audacious,”
explains Luis Fernandez of the Repeal Coalition. “The positions in the
public debate ranged from ‘kick them all out,’ to ‘get their labor and
then kick them out.’” The Repeal Coalition has staked out a position of
calling for the elimination of all anti immigration laws, declaring, “We
fight for the right for people to live, love, and work wherever they
please.” With this call, says Fernandez, “Now we have a real debate.”
When the coalition was founded, organizers brought in labor activists
to advise them on how to build an organization along similar models to
those that have built strong unions, utilizing house calls, neighborhood
mapping, and group meetings. Although they are an all-volunteer group
with little to no funding, they have developed a structure that has
initiated large protests and provided direct service, and they are now
strategizing more ways to take direct action in the post SB 1070 era.
Fernandez says that this struggle is ultimately about overcoming fear
and moving from reaction to proactive action. “We’ve been in a crisis
in Arizona for a long time,” he explains. “Even if SB 1070 weren’t
implemented, it wouldn’t matter. The political crisis would continue.”
To address this crisis, Fernandez believes organizations must build
unity across race and class. “Traditionally in America, when the working
class starts suffering, instead of connecting together and looking
upwards at the cause of the problem, they look sideways or downwards for
who to blame.” Most importantly, he believes activists must take action
to seize the initiative.
In this vision, he has been inspired by young organizers working on
the federal DREAM ACT, a federal law that creates a path to citizenship
for undocumented youth. “They came to Arizona and said, ‘we’re
undocumented and we’re going to commit acts of civil disobedience.’” At
first, Repeal Coalition members tried to talk them out of this action,
but the youth explained, “We are going to lose our fear because it is
the fear of being arrested or the fear of being deported that fuels the
inability of political action.” The bravery and vision of these youth
has inspired Fernandez to continue to search for new and bold ways to
take action, rather than just continually respond to right wing attacks.
“We need to set the agenda,” explains Fernandez. “We have to say, ‘No,
you’re going to react to us.’”
Despite a range of tactics and philosophies, one thing organizers
here have in common is a dedication to exporting the lessons of their
struggle. While Arizona’s law is the first and most draconian, similar
laws are pending across the country. And during this current national
economic crisis, more and more politicians have found that they can
score political points by demonizing immigrants. “The last two months
we’ve had a lot of people calling us asking what they can do to help
Arizona,” says Fernandez. “We say, organize in your own town. You don’t
have to come to Arizona because Arizona is coming to you.”
Jordan Flaherty is a journalist based in New
Orleans and an editor of Left Turn Magazine.
He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a
national audience and his reporting on post-Katrina New Orleans has been
published and broadcast in outlets including Die Zeit (in Germany), Clarin (in
Argentina), Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, and Democracy Now!. He can be reached at:
[email protected]. Read other articles by Jordan, or visit Jordan's
website.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/a-movement-rises-in-arizona/#more-20132
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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