MEETING OF PEACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE/MULTIRACIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEES

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Present:  Peggy Rhoads, Cathie Gentile, Roberta Frye, Joan Verdon, Mike Monte, Diana Spears, Marguerite Spears, James Witker, Nora Hamilton.

1.  UUA Justice General Assembly.  The focus of the General Assembly was the immigration issue.  Among the
highlights of the meeting:  reaction to the Supreme Court decision, which rejected several elements of Arizona’s anti-immigrant legislation (SB1070) but upheld the controversial provision enabling police officers to request documents of those they pick up if they have a “reasonable suspicion” that they are undocumented; workshops on how to counter anti-immigration legislation as well as a panel in which Rick Rhoads participated and discussed UUSM support for the grocery workers’ strike and the Carwasheros campaign; and a demonstration on Saturday in front of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Tent City Jail where immigrants are being held prior to
trial.  The participants also heard stories of the experiences of some of those jailed, including a woman who had been handcuffed to her bed while giving childbirth.  The workshops and other events at the assembly can be seen at the UUA website: www.uua.org.  On August 26, the church service will be dedicated to the assembly.  There will be a meeting to prepare for this ahead of time.

Cathie mentioned that Marshall Wong, who heads an L.A. County organization investigating hate crimes, said that African Americans are the major victims of hate crimes in Arizona.

2.  UU Legislative Ministry.  Cathie Gentile is the UUSM liaison with the legislative ministry, which is active on several issues, including the Human Right to Water campaign, Secure Communities, and the anti-death penalty
referendum that will be on the California ballot in November.  The Legislative Ministry has advocacy offices in Sacramento and Southern California; Kathleen McGregor is the UULM representative from Pasadena. Mike Monte has offered to be the UULM representative for the Human Right to Water campaign. Cathie will follow up
with Garland Allen regarding his possible involvement in representing the anti-death penalty initiative.
Peggy pointed out that CLUE has been very effective in this campaign.  At the same time, it is important to remain active to see that government agencies keep their promises.  She also pointed out that there are coupons available for discounts at Bonus carwash.

James agreed to video some of the carwash workers and make their stories available for the new UUSM website.  Rick had also brought up the possibility of showing the film Salt of the Earth, about mineworkers in Arizona, in connection with the carwash campaign.

4.  The New Jim Crow Discussion.  Peggy noted that several members had attended the three meetings of a workshop on Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow and that there are plans to continue the discussion in the fall, probably beginning in late September.  She suggested that those who have not done so try to read the book, at least the introduction, where she lays out her contention that the mass incarceration of African
Americans represents a third stage of the caste system that has characterized race relations in the United States, beginning with slavery, and followed by the Jim Crow laws in the southern U.S. states, and the concluding chapter, in which she goes into how to organize around the issue.  Most of the rest of the book provides supporting research and evidence for her argument.  In terms of organizing, she argues that a mass movement is needed, involving all types of people.

Related to this issue, Peggy has been attending monthly meetings of a group at the Church in Ocean Park which was organized as a result of a racial incident at Santa Monica high school targeting an African American
student which was followed by the failure of the administration to acknowledge the incident or even notify the mother, Victoria Gray, who found out about it from a neighbor.  The group has expanded its activities beyond responding to the incident (as well as others) at SAMOHI to incorporate other issues and has formed various committees.  Peggy is on the committee dealing with the issue of mass incarceration.  The meetings take place on the second Sunday evening of each month.

5.  Medicare for All.  Roberta, Peggy and Joan attended a meeting of the California Nurses’ Association on their efforts to get Medicare for all in the state of California.  At present they are trying to raise awareness through a petition requesting Medicare for all; copies of the petition were passed around at the meeting and will be available at the Faith-in Action table.  It was noted that Single Payer Health Care legislation passed the California legislature twice but was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.  There will probably be a new initiative, but it will not be as easy to pass today – hence the need to raise awareness and mobilize widespread support for the measure.  Among those promoting the measure is Health Access, headed by Anthony Wright.  Other possible ways of promoting the campaign at UUSM would be a showing of Michael Moore’s documentary “Sicko” and of getting someone from the California Nurses’ Association to speak on the issue.

6.  New Business:  the Mexico-US Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity.  The caravan is part of a program to protest the current war on drugs in Mexico and the violence associated with it, and will be coming to the United States in August and September. Mexico has been a major center of drug production and trafficking for several years.  In December 2006, the new government of Felipe Calderon mobilized the Mexican military to fight against the drug cartels; however the militarization of the drug war has been accompanied by a massive escalation of violence, which has resulted in at least 50,000 people killed in the past six years.

The Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity was initiated last year by Javier Sicilia, a Mexican poet, whose son was killed as a result of drug violence.  The caravan has traveled throughout Mexico, mobilizing other victims of violence and their relatives as well as those sympathetic to search for new solutions to the drug crisis.  It is now coming to the United States because the U.S. is directly implicated in the drug issue in several ways:  it is the major market for drugs coming from Mexico; it is a major source of weapons flowing into Mexico which in turn have been directly responsible for much of the violence of the drug war; U.S. banks are responsible for laundering drug funds; and U.S. aid to Mexico has been primarily to the military and has reinforced the militarization of the drug war, which many see as an important factor in the growth of violence.  The caravan is calling for 1) alternatives to drug prohibition; 2) an end to arms smuggling, due in large part to lax U.S. gun control laws; 3) a crack down on money laundering; 4) an end to U.S. assistance to the Mexican military; and 5)
protection of the rights of immigrants, many of whom have allegedly been displaced by the violence in Mexico.

The caravan will be in Los Angeles August 13-14.  The sponsors are looking for support from progressive groups and organizations.  Nora will look into what kinds of support they need and report to the committees.  In the meantime, there is additional information on the caravan, its sponsors, schedules, etc at the Global Exchange (globalexchange.org) and Latin American Working Group (lawg.org) websites.