The September Issue of el participante is now being distributed. This issue features several issues relating to the emerging controversy over the presence of the ROTC on Columbia's campus, as well as articles dealing with activism and politics in general. The alternative Core Curriculum for radicals goes back to the origins of American radicalism in the writings of Thomas Skidmore, a critic of inequality during the era of the Workingmen's parties in the 1830s.
Volume 1, Issue 4 features:
Yadira Alvarez
Summer Experience: National Mobilization Against Sweatshops
Paco Martin Del Campo
Black Panther, Brown Beret Speak at Panel
Iliana Feliz and Johanna Ocaña
Lucha: Committed to Struggle
Wyatt Ford
Th e Myth of the G.I. Bill
Olivia Rosane
9/11, Service and the War
Rudi Batzell
Responses to the ROTC
Malena Arnaud
Th e Poverty of Micro-credit
Thomas Skidmore
Core: The Rights of Man to Property
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Volume 1, Issue 4
Thursday, September 4, 2008
War in Georgia - War in Iraq
Salon has an excellent article by Juan Cole emphasizing how George W. Bush and the American invasion and occupation of Iraq set the stage for Putin to have a free hand intervening in Georgia. Indeed, the precedent of the United Nations sanctioning the American occupation as an established fact indicated to the world that those with power could use it, even in ways that violated international law, and if successful, the institutions of international relations would cloak this violations in a veil of legitimacy. The article is definitely worth a read.
Immigrant Detainee Dies while in US Custody
A man from Hong Kong, Hiu Lui Ng, died while imprisoned for overstaying his visa. The American state and police do not just brutalize Latinos and Blacks along the borders and in our cities, all who are poor, weak, and defensless are subject to be swept up. Hiu Lui Ng should be remember with other casualties like Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo.
John McCain calls Vietnamese 'Gooks' - Racism in the Campaign
And why has Obama's supposed "arrogance" become such a feature of Republican attacks? As Terry M. Neal writes, "when Camp McCain says he's arrogant, they're playing to those who think he's another black man who doesn't know his place" In other words, arrogant is the the new uppity.
Open Letter to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund
Association of Raza Educators
Summer 2008
Dear Hispanic Scholarship Fund,
The Association of Raza Educators (A.R.E.) applauds your efforts at providing scholarships to Hispanic students across the country. We recognize the pre-eminent role the Hispanic Scholarship Fund plays as one of the major funding sources available to students seeking higher education in the Hispanic community. As educators, we share in your dream of "doubl[ing] the rate of Hispanics earning a college degree" and by means of various community-based efforts, we also seek to ensure that dream is realized. Unfortunately, many otherwise qualified students, through no fault of their own, are currently excluded from your scholarship fund by virtue of their citizenship status. The Association of Raza Educators implores you: open your scholarships to all students of Hispanic descent regardless of citizenship.
There are an estimated 65,000 undocumented students that graduate from U.S. high schools each year, the bulk of whom have lived in the country for more than five years and are of Hispanic descent. Federal funds are denied to them, as are the majority of private scholarships. Moreover, under your current application requirements, these Hispanic students, despite being in desperate need of funding, are ineligible for your scholarships. Undocumented students are, however, permitted to attend colleges and universities and are doing so in increasing numbers. Usually they support themselves by working long hours in low-wage industries, demonstrating the very same hard work ethic and determination to succeed that has been a source of pride to Hispanics for generations.
In spite of such formidable barriers and numerous difficulties, we have observed in our own classrooms that many of our brightest and most hardworking students come from the ranks of the undocumented. Under current conditions, namely increasing animosity toward the Hispanic immigrant community in general, and a paucity of any source of funding for higher education for which such students may qualify in particular, denial of private scholarships such as those provided by HSF, is paramount to denial of higher education and the benefits that such education brings to those fortunate enough to pursue and achieve it. While we recognize that it may be legal to deny noncitizens access to such scholarships, exclusion of these students is not only morally objectionable but harmful to the Hispanic and American community as well.
And here is the rest of it.
Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, continue to comprise a significant percentage of the Hispanic community in this country. As one of the leading organizations serving Hispanics, HSF cannot ignore the pivotal issue of immigration and its impact on Hispanic families and students. The federal government has not passed comprehensive immigration reform for over a decade. The process of naturalization has only become more onerous with current waiting periods lasting longer than 15 years for families already in process. In thousands of Hispanic homes across the country, families are split across citizenship lines where husbands and wives, parents and children, even brothers and sisters, may fall on either side. Recent immigration debates highlight the grim reality that passage of a more humane immigration policy is a remote possibility. While local and national politicians fail to resolve myriad immigration problems, tens of thousands of Hispanic youth, educated and living in this country, are falling through the cracks.
While the path to citizenship continues to be fraught with obstacles, the path to higher education should not be. As a private organization, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund not only has the power, but the responsibility to take leadership on this issue and provide industrious and persevering, undocumented Hispanic students with the tools and opportunities to realize for themselves the three-fold dream that we all share: an advanced education for Hispanics that "transforms" the individual, while benefiting the Hispanic community in general, and finally "strengthen[ing]" this nation as a whole.
Since the inclusion of undocumented students clearly meets these goals, the Association of Raza Educators beseeches the Hispanic Scholarship Fund to lift your current citizenship requirements and open your scholarships to all Hispanic students eligible to attend colleges and universities in this country. Only by integrating all members of the Hispanic community, will HSF truly be on the path to fulfilling its momentous and urgent mission.
Sincerely,
—Association of Raza Educators
To endorse this campaign email: razaeducators@aol.com
For information: 626-617-0401, or online at www.razaeducators.org
Endorsing Organizations: SURGE, California State University, Los Angeles; Student Advocates for Higher Education, San Jose State University; Dreamers in Action Standing, Fresno State University; AB540 Student Group, UC San Diego; Student Immigrant Movement, Massachusetts; Comité de Mujeres, Patricia Marin; T4SJ, San Francisco, Calif.; NYCoRE, New York; AMAE, Calif.; FUEL, California State University, Long Beach; Espiritu de Nuestro Futuro, California State University, Dominguez Hills; LULAC, Los Angeles and Orange County; Mothers for Justice, Santa Monica, Calif.; Children of Chiapas Foundation, Los Angeles, Calif.; Willie C. Velasquez Institute, East Los Angeles, Calif.; Community Coalition, South Los Angeles, Calif.; FCR, Frente Contra Las Redadas, South Central Los Angeles, Calif.
Summer 2008
