Thursday, September 28, 2006

Teachers/Parents build SF People's Organization 9/30 and Teachers 4 Social Justice gather on 10/14; Urgent Solidarity Call for Oaxacan Teachers

As I fly off to Phoenix for an urban schools/immigrant students gathering of educators today, hundreds of San Francisco grassroots and labor activists will be uniting for the 2nd Annual SF People's Organization convention on Saturday September 30 at St. Mary's Cathedral.
Teachers for Social Justice organizers Jeremiah Jeffries and Karen Zapata and parent leader Sandra Fewer have organized an excellent hands-on workshop for the gathering on Saturday:
State of Public Education Forum--From Thought to Policy
The workshop will include strategizing on how to build a movement to change our school system and concrete things folks can do today to fight for educational justice; and a useful case study of our Jan. 2002 SFUSD Racial Justice/Educational Equity policy which requires annual 'Equity' Reports among other requirements which I drafted with the help of Tammy Johnson of the Applied Research Center, folks from Californians for Justice and local activists like Jeremiah and Karen from many local grassroots groups in 2001.

In 2 short weeks T4SJ will be holding our 6th annual educator’s conference "Teaching for Social Justice: From Moments to Movement on October 14th at San Francisco's Mission High School.
Highlights include a keynote by Wade Nobles and a session on how we can support the Oaxacan Teachers' struggle.

Activist filmmaker Jill Freidberg just sent an Urgent Solidarity Call for Oaxaca - please do what you can to support our brothers and sisters in Mexico

At the federal level in Mexico, the current discourse signals an imminent arrival of Federal Police Forces in Oaxaca. The feds claim that, if federal forces are sent to Oaxaca, they will only maintain a presence on the outskirts of the city, to "ensure civilian safety."
However, it is widely known that local PRI-sympathizing groups can be mobilized to provoke a confrontation with the sectors of civil society partiapting in the popular movement, which would justify the entrance of the federal police.
If the federal police enter Oaxaca, it will be a blood bath...
Please call or send faxes and emails to President Fox and to Secretary of Interior Affairs, Carlos Abascal, demanding the immediate withdrawal of threats to send police forces into Oaxaca, and the immediate resignation of Oaxacan governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.
Write in Spanish. Write in English. Just write, or call, or both.
Get down to your local Mexican consulate or embassy. Make a lot of
noise. Spend the night out front if you have to.
President Vicente Fox:
Email: vicente fox quesadda

Fax: 011-52-55-52-77-23-76
Phone: 011-52-55-27-89-11-00
Sec. of Internal Affairs, Carlos Abascal
Tel: 011-52-55-50-93-34-00
Email: carlos abascal

No comments: