East Los Angeles, CA – The streets here were filled with Chicanas and Chicanos of all ages on Aug. 26 to commemorate the Chicana/o people's struggle for liberation and self-determination. Aug. 29 marked the 30th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium.

Aug. 29 is a day to commemorate the 500-plus years of Chicana/o people's struggle. It has been a constant battle of resistance. It reminds the world that we have always been at war, from the invasion and attempted conquest by the Spaniards, followed by the Manifest Destiny plan of the United States, through the Mexican-American War that took away our lands.

We became wage slaves for capitalism.

Our ancestor's families became the wage slaves and suffered brutal exploitation – picking crops they couldn't afford to buy with what they got paid. On top of labor exploitation, these same families suffered a thousand abuses, including tuberculosis and other poverty-caused diseases – just like native peoples who were exterminated by illnesses brought by the western societies.

During the U.S. war in Vietnam, huge numbers of Chicanos were drafted. We went from the fields or unemployment lines, straight to the front lines as infantry. Mexicanos were recruited by offering them citizenship. They were killed in the so-called “War for Democracy” in Vietnam. It was a false citizenship. Chicanos and Mexicanos came back home to suffer wage exploitation or no jobs at all. Chicana's labor was demeaned, after they had been worked to death to maintain the country's war supplies.

In recent years, the type of work Chicana/os, Blacks, Filipinos and Native Americans are forced to do has changed, because of the new industries, but the exploitation has not changed.

What was fought for in the 60's and 70's was quickly lost with the coming of Reagan. No health care, along with welfare cuts, continues to plague communities of color. The current political system has brought new oppressive conditions for Chicana/os and Mexicana/os. We are facing attacks against every member of our families.

With Proposition 187, poverty diseases have returned, as its aim was no health care for the “undocumented”. It goes on, with Proposition 184, “Three Strikes You're Out”, for the adult Chicana/os; Proposition 209 for the dismantling of Affirmative Action to keep us out of education; Proposition 227 abolishing Bilingual Education to get rid of our language and culture, aimed at our children; and Proposition 21, “Baby-Three Strikes You're Out”, aimed to incarcerate our Chicana/o youth. Now youth are brutalized by police as we were by the marines during war times. The police represent the state at home as the army represents the state in the wars abroad.

The use of the propositions maintains these conditions by creating the idea that people of color are not deserving of basic services, without looking at how we sustain the country with our blood and sweat. The Chicanas of the last generation worked traditionally male jobs, contributing labor to the economy. Now as Chicana/os are going to be the majority of the nation, Chicanas are also the targeted to be among the poorest of women because of Welfare Reform.

The political system is a disguised war tactic. Today we are still under the repressive state. Manifest Destiny still exists, as the U.S. has its eye on the other half of Mexico. It has never stopped trying to take the rest of the land. They have continued to exploit and oppress the nation of Mexico through North American Free Trade Agreement – depriving the nation of its self-determination. The U.S. government supports the Mexican government in its attempt to suppress the indigenous nations like Chiapas.

The Chicana/o Moratorium reminds us that not much has changed as we continue at war. It took us 20 years to make some gains, and, in just a little over a decade – half the time it took to fight for them – the gains were gone.

Our second generation hasn't even gotten a taste of the hard struggle of the first generation. The journalist Ruben Salazar was to publish the realities of the Chicana/o peoples thirty years ago and was killed so that he wouldn't expose these realities. He was silenced. Many others have been too.

On Aug. 26, 2000 we marched again to show that our history is alive in the struggle of today. Even though our nation is brutally exploited and oppressed, we have been able to survive and fight.

Uphold the right to self-determination and liberation for the Chicana/o Mexicana/o people.

#EastLosAngelesCA #AntiwarMovement #Analysis #ChicanoLatino #Proposition21 #ChicanoMoratorium #proposition187

Overcrowded and old inner city schools, lack of resources and support for teachers, high push-out rates, and forced racist standardized testing. Combine this with the destruction of bilingual education and the push by profit driven business interests to take over the LAUSD. The LAUSD continues to use race and class biased testing.

Rank and file teachers have organized a movement to stop standardized testing in the schools. Efforts to dismantle standardized testing have intensified in the past months. The New Raza Left has taken up this issue as part of its campaign against the injustice of the U.S. educational system.

The Coalition for Educational Justice has specifically confronted the school district. Known as standardized testing or Stanford 9 testing, these exams are being used to judge students ability, but in reality they do not demonstrate anything about a student's ability, or what a student has learned in his or her class during the year.

These exams have been designed and are composed of questions that are racist and elitist. By nature they exclude a large portion of the Chicano/a, Latino/a, African American, Indigenous and Asian population. The exams are only given in English, which means that a student who is academically advanced but still developing English as a second language will not receive a high grade. That student is then judged as though they didn't have abilities, instead of saying that the exam's grading system in not valid, because it is testing how much English someone does or does not know, instead of their academic level. The language and terms are also not at the students level, and the content of the questions reflect stereotypes offensive to cultures that are not Anglo.

In addition, the educational situation is getting worse because some teachers feel forced to teach to the standardized test instead of teaching material that the students actually need. Some state officials are talking about paying bonuses to teachers that reach the prescribed grade levels for the state standardized tests. The bonus system creates an environment of capitalist greed and individualism among teachers, who will then compete rather than cooperate. The state then takes away the validity of the teachers' studies and knowledge of how to best help our students.

It would be better if they focused on pressuring, criticizing and suggesting ways of testing which do not focus on whether or not a student has had time to learn and process academic material from each grade. By nature the Stanford 9 and other standardized tests are designed for students from minority groups and schools not to succeed, so they can then say that they are less intelligent and don't try enough.

The educational system has failed the oppressed nations from the beginning with the purpose of keeping the working class oppressed. This – standardized testing in the schools – is the model and the excuse for maintaining a working class that cannot question the educational system or the system in general, and then keep one or more nations oppressed.

Join with us to organize for a better education and struggle for a society with real justice and democracy. Call us at (323) 266-1408 to participate in our next activity.

For Self-Determination!

#LosAngelesCA #ImmigrantRights #News #ChicanoLatino #Proposition21 #CoalitionForEducationalJustice #LAUSD

East Los Angeles, CA – The campaign to defeat Proposition 21, the war on youth ballot initiative, climaxed with a statewide week of rage, and protests led by young people. Thousands of L.A. youth protested by walking out of school, and marching through the middle of East Los Angeles, chanting, “Schools not Jails!”

The New Raza Left organized a spirited, disciplined, multinational protest march to the L.A. County Central Jail on February 26. The purpose was to educate and mobilize against Proposition 21 and other police attacks. To the beat of drums, chanting, “Educate Don't Incarcerate!” protestors held a rally right in front of the central jail.

Various youth speakers denounced the racist attacks against African American and Chicano/Latino youth. They called for continuing the effort to build a grassroots poor people's movement for justice and real freedom. Others spoke out against the poor conditions students and teachers suffer in the L.A. City schools, and the large amount of money spent to build more prisons and not schools. The march ended in downtown L.A. by blocking traffic.

Activists Sum-up Struggle

Proposition 21 passed due to the turnout of more conservative voters who came to vote for proposition 22 (anti-same-sex marriage) and for Proposition 21. Governor Davis, a moderate Democrat, gave his support to Proposition 21. The Chicano upper class was weak in its opposition to the measure, and some gave their outright backing – like Henry Cisneros, CEO of Univison, who did Public Service Announcements supporting 21.

In summing up this campaign, we saw that we cannot rely on liberal electoral politics and tactics. These were prioritized by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Californians for Youth.

The New Raza Left and Youth Organizing Communities (YOC) relied on independent grassroots organizing, community outreach, and mass actions such as rallies and marches with a left perspective, critical of capitalist conditions.

We linked Proposition 21 to the other oppressive conditions people of color face the U.S. We know we must build our own militant movement uniting the community, youth and working-class poor people. We have no illusions of change within the current system. We are fighting for a fundamental change of this society, where the riches produced will be for the benefit of all people, not just the elite few rich who run this country and plunder the world's peoples and resources.

Road Ahead

In our summation of this campaign, we discussed taking up a campaign for educational justice, to fight for better resources for teachers and students, better conditions and wages, and the reinstatement of bi-lingual education. We also discussed fighting to expose the racist, brutal LAPD Ramparts Division, and its attacks against the Central American community in the Pico Union area.

We also want to continue to build honest, concrete relationships with organizations and people who work and struggle for justice, freedom, self-determination and revolutionary change.

Call (323) 266-1408 for more information.

Carlos Montes is a member of New Raza Left.

#EastLosAngelesCA #Commentary #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Proposition21 #NewRazaLeft #YouthOrganizingCommunities

The kick-off conference was spirited and energetic. During lunch, La Paz rapped, and Yaotz from Aztlan Underground shared spoken word. In a moving speech, a veteran activist, who visits youth serving life terms, said these young people would never experience life or love.

Participants were students from high schools and colleges, teachers, and organizers from the East LA community. Everyone participated in group discussions led by the young people.

The main action plans coming out of the conference include: a mass march to unite the Black and Chicano community, a vigil at juvenile hall, youth teach-ins, and a cultural concert against Proposition 21. All this with the purpose of building a big mass movement to defeat the proposition.

The New Raza Left-LA co-sponsored the event with other groups that formed the ELA Coalition Against Proposition 21. The conference was one of the many events and actions taking place through out California to fight the racist attacks.

Proposition 21 is sponsored by California's former Republican Governor, Pete Wilson, and his racist gang. Youth of color are incarcerated at a higher rate than white youth. The Juvenile Crime Initiative will allow for the prosecution of teens, as young as 14 years old, to be tried in adult courts. It would remove the “confidentiality rule,” which restricts access to juvenile court records.

Proposition 21 is another attack against Black and Chicano people, specifically our youth. The high spirit, energy, and plans of the conference will help to organize and mobilize the thousands of people needed to defeat Proposition 21. We know that only by organizing our community, can we defeat the proposition. The unity of new young activists and our veteran fighters will assure the continuation of our fight for Self-Determination for the Chicano People in Aztlan!

#LosAngelesCA #ImmigrantRights #News #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Proposition21 #AntiRacism #NewRazaLeft #Aztlan