October Justice for José Antonio Elena
Rodriguez—Murdered by Border Patrol Agent Lonnie Swartz Five Years Ago Oct. 10,
2012
*********
Oct. 9; 5-6 pm:Border Patrol Victims Network Street Action in Tucson—meet at corner 4th Ave and 4th
St.
6-9 pm—Noche Cultural organized by BPVN at La Indita
Restaurant xx address starting with
presentation by Maria and Joe Garcia on the historic visit by the Zapatista
Subcomandante Marcos to Magdalena, Sonora in Oct. 2007, updates on José
Antonio’s case and other, then live music by Jamiz, Rebeca Cartes, and Ted
Warmbrand.
**********
Oct. 10—Five Year Anniversary Vigil for José Antonio
in Ambos Nogales
4-5 pm—Vigil at corner of
Grand and Crawford, downtown Nogales, Sonora (1 block from port of entry)
5 pm—mass at Catholic Church
in Nogales, Sonora just south of border on Obregon St
6 pm—procession from Catholic
Church to José Antonio’s cross
7 pm—Vigil at José Antonio’s
cross on Calle Internaciónal by Border Wall (about 4 blocks west along border
wall after crossing border. Folks can also participate from the U.S. side of
the wall.)
******
late Oct.—trial begins in Tucson for Border Patrol
agent Lonnie Swartz (see BPVN facebook page for details or call 520-400-7625)
This 3 minute video shows the crowd getting tear gassed by police and the armed groups present outside the convention center.
On Aug. 22, 2017 Donald Trump held a "rally" inside the Phoenix Convention Center. Outside thousands of protestors peacefully conducted their action until police opened fire on them with tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets. The Hobo Dispatch was there to witness the action as shown in this short video.
Dwight Metzger of the Gloo Factory at Ground Zero just before getting tear gassed
Also of note were the presence of two armed militia factions, one pro-Trump and for the first time I'm aware of an anti-Trump armed group showed up. Finally the video shows Dwight Metzger of Tucson's Gloo Factory who showed up with his peace supplies, etc. booth and bravely set up at ground zero of the protest. When police began gassing the crowd Dwight and his coworkers had to flee but fortunately they were able to recover their supplies later.
The Southern Arizona Militia outside the Phoenix Convention Center
"Something must be done, and it must be done now!" Professor Kurt Huber, member of White Rose Resistance Group. Executed by Germany's Nazi Regime in 1943
“...why
do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly
and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one
day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanized state system
presided over by criminals and drunks? Is your spirit already so crushed
by abuse that you forget it is your right - or rather, your moral duty -
to eliminate this system?”
The victory at Standing Rock, North Dakota over the Dakota Access Pipeline has set the stage for struggle for the future. Never have the stakes been higher--with climate change accelerating at a shocking and devastating pace and the world's great superpower, the U.S.A, poised to rape Mother Earth and push savage capitalism to new extremes. At Standing Rock Water Protectors comprised of Native Americans and supporters risked life and limb and emerged victorious. While fortunately no lives were lost serious and disabling injury did occur. Thanks to all those water protectors for your sacrifice.
Over the coming months and years the Hobo Dispatch will try to cover the struggles that must be fought. Here in this text-only edition we share the words of Noam Chomsky, Harry Belafonte, and Danny Glover thanks to the wonderful coverage provided by "Democracy Now" (democracynow.org)
"A Victory at Standing Rock, For Now" By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan,Dec. 8, 2016
The Dakota Access Pipeline has been stopped, at least for now. The
Standing Rock Sioux Nation and thousands of native and non-native allies
won a remarkable and unexpected victory Sunday. Word came down that the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had denied a permit for the pipeline
owner, Energy Transfer Partners, to drill underneath the Missouri River,
and that a full environmental-impact study would be launched.
Grass-roots organizing, nonviolent direct action and leadership from
front-line indigenous people succeeded in stopping the $3.8 billion,
1,200-mile pipeline in its tracks. As water protectors celebrated in the frozen camps, one question
loomed: What will happen when Donald Trump takes over the presidency in
six short weeks? “Finally, for the first time in history, over centuries, somebody is
listening to us,” Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault
II told us on Democracy Now! hours after hearing the news. “We’ve been
talking about this with the Corps of Engineers for almost two years now,
and we’ve been letting them know that we had problems with this
pipeline, because it not only threatens our water, it threatens our
heritage, it threatens our culture, it threatens our environment.” Bitter cold weather has descended over the region, making life in the
resistance camps even more difficult. Over the long Thanksgiving
weekend, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier and his deputies, along
with a multijurisdictional array of paramilitarized police and National
Guard, unleashed an arsenal of pepper spray, concussion grenades, tear
gas, rubber bullets and, in the freezing cold, water cannons. North Dakota’s outgoing Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple, along with Sheriff Kirchmeier and Energy Transfer Partners CEO
Kelcy Warren, shares responsibility for the unbridled police and
private-security-company violence that has rained down upon the pipeline
resisters for months. A week before the permit denial, Dalrymple
declared a state of emergency, saying, “Winter conditions have the
potential to endanger human life.” In response, the Standing Rock Sioux
tribe wrote, “The Governor of North Dakota and Sheriff of Morton County
are relative newcomers [here]. It is understandable they would be
concerned about severe winter weather.” Former Vice President Al Gore,
commenting a week later, said the use of water cannons in cold weather
was “inhumane,” and called the pipeline itself “an atrocity.” While Dalrymple threatened to forcibly evict the thousands of
peaceful water protectors, troops of a different sort were massing to
defend them. U.S. military veterans were responding to a call from
tribal elders to come defend the camp. Veterans Stand for Standing Rock
were traveling to the camps to form a human shield around the
protectors. Over 2,000 veterans made the journey, under the leadership
of veteran Wes Clark Jr. If his name sounds familiar, it might be
because of his father, Wesley Clark Sr., the retired four-star general
who was the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO and later ran for president. After the announcement denying the easement to drill under the
Missouri River, Wes Clark Jr. spoke at a ceremony at Standing Rock: “We
came. We fought you. We took your land. We signed treaties that we
broke. ... We’ve hurt you in so many ways. And we’ve come to say that we
are sorry, we are at your service, and we beg for your forgiveness.” Standing Rock Tribal Chairman David Archambault told us, “The
pipeline is not going to move ahead. The campers that are there can now
enjoy the winter with their families at home.” Many in the camps remain
skeptical, like U.S. veteran Remy, a native of the Navajo Nation, who
has been at Standing Rock for almost six months. “Until the project has
ended, we are not planning to go anywhere," he said on Democracy Now! Donald Trump supports the pipeline, and could very well scuttle the
Obama administration’s decision to deny the permit. According to
financial-disclosure statements, Trump has held between $500,000 and $1
million invested in the pipeline, although a Trump spokesperson claims
he has since sold his shares. Trump has nominated Oklahoma Attorney
General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
Congressman Keith Ellison said the nominee “denies climate change and is
beholden to fossil-fuel companies. Scott Pruitt has pledged to roll
back environmental protections and go to bat for multibillion-dollar oil
and gas companies.” Last September, Lakota water protector Olowan Martinez locked herself
to an excavator that was being used for pipeline construction. She was
arrested and spent a week in jail. When we asked her how long she was
planning on staying at the camps. She told us, “Until we know for sure
that this black snake is dead.” Cold weather, police violence and government promises won’t deter these water protectors.
Trump's Victory Recalls Memories of Hitler & Fascism's Spread Across Europe
And for the young people among you, a special word: You’ll be facing
problems that have never arisen in the 200,000 years of human
history—hard, demanding problems. It’s a burden that you can’t ignore.
And we’ll all—you, in particular, and all the rest of us—will have to be
in there struggling hard to save the human species from a pretty grim
fate.
Well, my wife and I happened to be in Europe on November 8th, that
fateful day, in fact, in Barcelona, where we watched the results come
in. Now, that had special personal resonance for me. The first article I
wrote, or at least that I can remember, was in February 1939 at the—it
was about the fall of Barcelona to Franco’s fascist forces. And the
article, which I’m sure it was not very memorable, was about the
apparently inexorable spread of fascism over Europe and maybe the whole
world. I’m old enough to have been able to listen to Hitler’s speeches,
the Nuremberg rallies, not understanding the words, but the tone and the
reaction of the crowd was enough to leave indelible memories. And
watching those results come in did arouse some pretty unpleasant
memories, along with what is happening in Europe now, which, in many
ways, is pretty frightening, as well.
Well, the reaction to November 8th in Europe was disbelief, shock,
horror. It was captured pretty eloquently in the—on the front cover of
the major German weekly, Der Spiegel. It depicted a caricature
of Donald Trump presented as a meteor hurtling towards Earth, mouth
open, ready to swallow it up. And the top headline read "Das Ende Der Welt!"
"The End of the World." Small letters below, "as we have known it."
There might be some truth to that concern, even if not exactly in the
manner in which the artist, the authors, the others who echoed that
conception, had in mind.
It had to do with other events that were taking place right at the
same time, November 8th, events that I think were a lot more important
than the ones that have captured the attention of the world in such an
astonishing fashion, events that were taking place in Morocco,
Marrakech, Morocco. There was a conference there of 200 countries, the
so-called COP 22. Their goal at this
conference was to implement the rather vague promises and commitments of
the preceding international conference on global warming, COP
21 in Paris in December 2015, which had in fact been left vague for
reasons not unrelated to what happened on November 8th here.
"Welcome to the Fourth Reich": Legendary Actor Harry Belafonte on the Election of Donald Trump, Democracy Now Dec. 6, 2016
AMYGOODMAN: We turn to the legendary musician and actor Harry Belafonte, who was also speaking at Democracy Now!'s
20th anniversary celebration. For more than half a century, Belafonte
has been deeply involved in the fight for social justice. One of Dr.
Martin Luther King's closest confidants, he held organize the March on
Washington in 1963. Harry Belafonte spoke last night at Riverside
Church, the same location where Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King came out
against the Vietnam War a year before his death. In 1967, he spoke.
HARRYBELAFONTE:
In a few weeks from now, if there is a platform on which I will be
privileged to stand and speak, my opening remarks will probably be
something like "Welcome to the Fourth Reich." I was talking with a
comrade recently. He was a victim of the Third Reich. He was a victim of
the great Holocaust and what happened to the Jewish people during the
reign of Hitler. And all my life I have committed myself to making sure
that here, this country, not for the want of effort, but I and so many
others would be forever committed to the idea that America will remain
an open and a free and a democratic society. With each cycle, those
thoughts become a bit dimmed. Now, I think, more than ever, we are in
need of Democracy Now!
I’m just at the threshold of my 90th year, and I had often—who said
that? I never thought I’d live this long, but to be able to share an
evening with Danny Glover, and certainly with Noam Chomsky, for whom I
have great affection and deep respect, that I can kind of dance out of
here feeling like, well, I did it all. But, in a way, each time it was
done, we kind of figured it was the last time we would have to do it.
During a lifetime of Paul Robeson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dr. W.E.B. Du
Bois, those who mentored me and guided me and inspired me, that I should
have lived long enough to be able to stand here and once again say
thanks to all my colleagues, to all of my comrades, to all of the people
who have sacrificed so greatly to make this nation whole—we are looking
upon a curious time. But I think it’s a time that should be used as an
opportunity to know that we have to make a much bigger difference than
we’ve made up to now. We should not let the current state of affairs
dull the fact that all that we have done was worthless. Nothing could be
further from the truth.
On Monday night, actor
and activist Danny Glover spoke at Democracy Now!’s 20th anniversary at
Riverside Church—the very same place where civil rights leader Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. gave his historic speech against the Vietnam War
in 1967. As Danny Glover addressed more than 2,000 people, he called on
the crowd and the country to organize once again in the spirit of Martin
Luther King.
Actor & Activist Danny Glover: We Must Organize in the Spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. Democracy Now, Dec. 6, 2016
AMYGOODMAN: The actor, director, activist Danny Glover also spoke Monday night, referencing Dr. King’s address.
DANNYGLOVER:
I would be remiss if I would stand on this stage without mentioning one
of the great moments on this stage nearly 50 years ago, when a young
minister, a liberation theologist, a—one of the most extraordinary human
beings of this century, any century, stepped here and, with all his
consciousness, with all the pain it took, denounced the war in
Vietnam—Dr. Martin Luther King, on this stage—knowing that he spoke for
his heart and his consciousness, knowing that he was doing something
that he was going to be vilified. Yet he spoke up.
As we think about the moments ahead and the work that we have to do,
the history that we must—it’s imperative that we make, we have to think
about those moments and use all our courage, every bit of it, whether
it’s in the service of finding the truth and finding those stories,
where those who feel that they are lost within their own country here
and can only turn to the far right in everything else—so, where we have
to do and where we’re going to have to go, and not simply just preaching
to our choir, to our constituency, is farther than we’ve ever wanted to
reach and understand. We have all the technology in the world. We have
every single thing available to us. But organizing, taking ourselves
serious about that and doing the work we need to do, wherever it is, is
going to take something from our hearts. It’s going to take something
deep from our hearts.
So, as we move forward and we realize the work we have to do, Noam
Chomsky talked about the opportunities that we have within—right here,
at this moment. We look at the demographics, talks about the ways in
which we can use what has happened as a platform to build, to create, to
imagine and continue to imagine. That’s our responsibility right now.
At 70 years old or at seven years old, at 90 years old or whatever we
are, we have to take that on. And certainly, we come armed with the
information that Democracy Now! has provided us through the
journey that they’ve taken us on, learning lessons, finding new ways in
which we can employ those lessons, use those lessons in our own work, in
our own moment. And we are here to celebrate, but at the same time to
move forward more fiercely, more courageously than ever before. Thank
you.
VIDEOS OF SCHOOL GROUPS VISITING Rancho Peñasco in Oct. 2016 (above) and a school group hiking (below) Videos de escuelas visitando el Rancho in Oct. 2016 (arriba) y otro grupo en 2015 (abajo)
Animals are a big part of life on the Ranch. Los animales son gran parte de la vida en el rancho.
A visit to the Peñasco museum is a must with the Sala Mestiza and Sala Indigena. Una visita al museo de Peñasco.
Wenceslao Monroy is the director of all activities at Rancho El Peñasco. Wenceslao Monroy dirige todas las activadades en el Rancho Peñasco.
HISTORIC EVENT AT THE RANCHO EL PENASCO IN 2007. Un evento historico en el rancho en 2007 O’odham Host Zapatistas North American Regional Conference. (Los O'odham reciban a los Zapatistas en el Rancho El Peñasco)
Zapatistas Welcome Indigenous from Alaska, Canada, Northern Mexico
and The United States to the North American Regional Conference, Oct. 8
-- 9, 2007
By Brenda Norrell Special to The Narco News Bulletin
August 16, 2007
MAGDALENA DE KINO, Sonora, Mexico
– Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatistas will return to the U.S and
Mexico border region to host a subsidiary conference prior to the
Intercontinental Indigenous Summit in Pueblo Yaqui, to support
Indigenous struggles for their land and liberty.
O’odham with Marcos Photo D.R. 2007 Brenda Norrell
The
Magdalena gathering in the north, Oct. 8 – 9, will be one of four
regional gatherings during the month of October, with three other
regional conferences to be held in Oaxaca, Oct. 4—5, Atlapulco, Oct. 6
–7 and Michaocan, Oct. 6 – 7, 2007. Those regional Indigenous gatherings
precede the Intercontinental Indigenous Summit in Yaqui Pueblo near
Obregon, to be held Oct. 11—14.
O’odham in Mexico Lt. Gov. Jose Garcia welcomed all to the gathering
at Rancho el Penasco, the eco-tourism site south of Magdalena, where
Marcos and the Zapatistas met with Mexico’s northern Indigenous tribes
during 2006 and 2007.
“This is an opportunity for Indigenous everywhere to come together and get to know one another better,” Garcia said, after the EZLN made the official announcement Aug. 15. “People can come together and learn more about the Zapatistas.”
Garcia said while the Zapatista struggle is well known in southern
Mexico, tribes in the northern part of Mexico still want to learn more.
O’odham elder Elena Garcia greets Marcos and Comandantes Photo D.R. 2007 Brenda Norrell
Marcos and Comandantes in Magdalena, Sonora
In the state of Sonora, south of the Arizona border, the Zapatistas
were greeted by O’odham in Mexico, Lt. Gov. Jose Garcia, wife Maria and
mother Elena Garcia. The delegation stayed at the ecotourism center
south of Magdalena, Rancho el Penasco, Casa de Ecoturismo, where the
Other Campaign stayed in October during the listening session with
O’odham. During their overnight stay, Zapatistas rested and enjoyed
meals of chicken mole, Sonoran tepary beans and dried beef.
Marcos invited the public to the gathering at Rancho el Penasco,
Casa de Ecoturismo, 11 kilometers south of Magdalena on the highway to
Hermosillo, on Sunday, April 22, 2007, to hear the announcement about
the Intercontinental gathering to be held in the fall of 2007 in
northwestern Mexico. Magdalena is a one and one-half hour drive south of
Nogales, Arizona. News reporter Brenda Norrell can be reached at brendanorrell@gmail.com
Making recycled paper in the foto above and in the video below kindergarden students from Hermosillo enjoy an excursion to the ranch. Haciendo papel reciclado en la foto arriba y en el video abajo alumnos de Hermosillo visitando el rancho.
Videos above and below take you on a tour of Rancho El Peñasco including seeing the interior of the Hostal which offers fine accomadations for the visitor. Los videos arriba y abajo te lleva a un tour completo del rancho incluyendo en interior del hostal que brinda hospedaje para el visitante.
El Profesor Manuel Robles Flores en el Museo Regional del Valle de Juárez que fundó hace 57 años. Professor Robles in the museum he founded 57 years ago.
Gran luchador por la justicia social, el medioambiente, maestro, amante de animales-- quien llegó al Valle de Juárez hace decadas donde transformó su comunidad de San Agustín. El Valle de Juárez que ha sufrido la pesadilla de violencia, tiene la rafaga de luz y esperanza del legado de la vida del Profesor Manuel Robles Flores.
Great fighter for social justice, the environment, teacher, animal lover--who arrived in the Juárez Valley decades ago where he transformed San Agustín. The Juarez Valley that has suffered the living nightmare of violence, has the brilliant light and hope from the legacy of the life of Professor Manuel Robles Flores.
El programa para el evento en Agosto 2016 para celebrar la vida del Profesor Robles. The program of the event in August 2016 to celebrate the life of Professor Robles.
Comparte este
artículo utilizando los íconos que aparecen en la página. La
reproducción de este contenido sin autorización previa está prohibida
The location of the museum in San Agustín in the Juarez Valley
EL VIDEO ABAJO tiene fotos del evento celebrando la vida del Profesor Robles, con fotos de la lucha en contra del basurero nuclear de Sierra Blanca, TX, donde se destacó la participación del Profe Robles. THE VIDEO BELOW is a slideshow of photos from the event celebrating the life of Professor Robles, and includes photos from the struggle against the nuclear waste dump in Sierra Blanca, TX, Profe Robles led the opposition against the dump in Mexico.
Comparte este
artículo utilizando los íconos que aparecen en la página. La
reproducción de este contenido sin autorización previa está prohibida
Comparte este
artículo utilizando los íconos que aparecen en la página. La
reproducción de este contenido sin autorización previa está prohibida
Comparte este
artículo utilizando los íconos que aparecen en la página. La
reproducción de este contenido sin autorización previa está prohibida
Comparte este
artículo utilizando los íconos que aparecen en la página. La
reproducción de este contenido sin autorización previa está prohibida
Una manta honrando el Profe Robles hecho por los exbraceros de Juárez. El Profe Robles se reune con ellos cada Domingo en el monumento de Juárez para seguir en la lucha por la justicia. A banner honoring Profe Robles made by the former braceros (temporary farm workers in the U.S.) of Juarez. Profe Robles meets with them every Sunday in Juarez.
VIDEOS DE LAS CELEBRACIONES ANUALES DEL ANIVERSARIO DEL TRIUNFO EN CONTRA DEL BASUREREO DE SIERRA BLANCA, TEXAS. VIDEOS OF CELEBRATIONS OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SIERRA BLANCA, TX NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP VICTORY
El VIDEO ARRIBA DA LA HISTORIA DE LA LUCHA DE SIERRA BLANCA. THE VIDEO ABOVE PROVIDES THE HISTORY OF THE SIERRA BLANCA STRUGGLE.
ENTREVISTA CON EL PROFE ROBLES EN 2011. INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR ROBLES IN 2011
Comparte este
artículo utilizando los íconos que aparecen en la página. La
reproducción de este contenido sin autorización previa está prohibida
Rio Sonora residents and miners union local 65 members protesting at the Agua Prieta-Douglas AZ border (residentes del Rio Sonora y miembros del Sindicato Minero Naciónal Sección 65 protestando en la frontera entre Agua Prieta y Douglas, AZ)
"Between Aug. 6 and 7, 2014, about 11 million
gallons of copper sulfate acid solution spilled from Cananea’s
Buenavista del Cobre mine into the Bacanuchi River, a tributary of the
Sonora River. The San Pedro River runs north from Cananea, about 25
miles from the Arizona border, while the Sonora River flows south. The
spill contaminated the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers and left more than
25,000 people in seven counties without water.
Mexican
officials called it their country’s worst mining spill in recent
history. And then it got worse. More than a month after the spill, heavy
rains from Hurricane Odile caused the dams to overflow and the river to
swell, soaking nearby fields with toxic water. The crops are ruined and the people don’t know if they’ll be able to grow on their land again." ("Livelihoods washed away by toxic spill in Sonora" by Perla Trevizo, AZ Daily Star Oct. 4, 2014) Click here to read the full article by Perla Trevizo quoted above in the Arizona Daily Star
"Un año después, la vida en el Río Sonora no es lo que era" por Perla Trevizo, del Arizona Daily Star
Un
año después del devastador derrame de una mina en México, Estados
Unidos enfrenta su propia tragedia por los millones de galones de aguas
residuales que desembocaron en un afluente del Río Animas en Colorado.
El
6 de agosto de 2014, 11 millones de galones de una solución de sulfato
de cobre se derramó de un estanque de contención y contaminó los ríos
Bacanuchi y Sonora, afectando la vida de más de 22 mil sonorenses a unos
40 km de la frontera con Arizona.
El
agua contaminada generada por la mina al esparcir ácido sulfúrico sobre
pilas de mineral triturado se envió a un estanque de retención que se
rompió, dijo Ann Maest, jefe de científicos de E-Tech International, una
organización no lucrativa con base en Nuevo México que ofrece apoyo
ambiental técnico a comunidades en países poco industrializados. EL ENLACE PARA LEER TODO EL ARTICULO
Children and adults along the Rio Sonora have suffered numerous and serious health effects after the spill due to heavy metals and other toxins. Many have died. The only clinic opened in the area to attend to victims of the disaster has been closed.
Niños y Adultos en las comunidades del Rio Sonora han sufrido muchos efectos negativos despues del derrame toxico con metales pesados y otras sustancias tóxicas. Muchos han muerto. La unica clinica que fue instalada en la zona para atender las víctimas del desastre ha sido cerrada.
The protest at the US-Mexico border in Agua Prieta. (La protesta en la frontera EE.UU./MX)
"Grupo Mexico, Assasin"
"Grupo México, owner of the owner of the Buenavista del Cobre copper mine in Cananea, is the largest mining company in Mexico and one of the
top copper producers in the world. Through its subsidiaries it operates
13 mines in Mexico, Peru and the United States. The company owns
Tucson-based Asarco LLC, which operates the Silver Bell mine near
Marana, the Mission mine near Sahuarita, the Ray mine near Kearny and a
smelter in Hayden. Although its mines also generate zinc, gold,
silver and molybdenum, copper is king. In 2013, Grupo Mexico mines
produced almost 800,000 tons of copper and the company reported a net
profit of $1.8 billion off $9.3 billion in total sales." (AZ Daily Star, Oct. 4, 2014)
Protesting outside the water wells fields used by Grupo Mexico to supply the mine with water (protestando afuera de los pozos que usa Grupo México para suminstrar la mina con agua.)
"Unlikely allies: Mexican miners and farmers unite over toxic spill" by David Bacon, Aljazeera America April 15, 2015)
"CANANEA, Mexico — The pipes have gone silent. Gone is the hum of water
flowing through them to the world’s second-largest copper mine, just
south of the U.S. border. Instead, in the normally empty desert here,
tents and buses line the highway. Dust and smoke from cooking fires fill
the air while hundreds of people listen to speeches and discuss the
day’s events.
This plantón, or occupation, which began on March 18, has shut
down most operations at the Cananea mine, which consumes huge
quantities of water pumped from 49 wells across the desert in order to
extract copper concentrate from crushed ore. Many of the people involved in the plantón are miners who have been on strike since 2008,
when they walked out because of dangerous working conditions. Two years
later, the government brought in 3,000 federal police, drove miners
from the gates and occupied the town. Since then Cananea has been
operated by contracted laborers recruited from distant parts of the
country. But the strike has continued, as miners struggle to survive in
this small mountain town where the mine is virtually the only source of
work. Now, for the first time in five years, the mine is again paralyzed.
This time, strikers didn’t stop its operation by themselves. Half the
people with them are farmers — residents of the Rio Sonora Valley, angry
over a toxic spill that upended their lives last August, causing health problems and economic devastation. People in the towns along the river used to have little involvement
with the miners, but the spill gave them common ground. This alliance
between miners and angry farmers also includes a U.S. union, the United Steel Workers.
Together they are challenging the Mexican government’s fundamental rule
for economic growth — that workers’ rights and environmental
protections must be subordinate to the needs of corporate investors." Click here to read the rest of David Bacon's article quoted above, "Unlikely allies: Mexican miners and farmers unite over toxic spill"
SOLIDARITY FOREVER! One of the striking Cananea miners with a Steelworkers shirt given to him by Arizona miners. International Solidarity has been an important part of the miners' long struggle. A representative of Tucson Jobs with Justice attended the Aug. 6, 2016 anniversary in Cananea. (Los Steelworkers Sindicato de AZ y Tucson Trabajos con Justicia han participado en solidaridad trans-fronteriza con las luchas en Cananea y el Rio Sonora)
A view of Cananea's historic city center and the mine in the background. (La vista del centro histórico de Cananea con la mina en el fondo)
A monument in Cananea----where the Mexican Revolution started in 1906 with the represion of miners. Un monumento en Cananea donde comenzó la revolución mexicana en 1906 con la represión de mineros.
The office of National Miner's Union Local 65. La oficina del sindicato de mineros sección 65.
left to right (izquierda a la derecha): Dr. Reina Castro, professor of marine biology at the University of Sonora (profesora de biología marina en la universidad de Sonora) ; Antonio Garcia of the United Front of the Rio Sonora (Frente Unida del Rio Sonora), and Sergio Tolano, general secretary of local 65 of the miner's union (secretario general del sindicato de mineros sección 65)
photo above: The delivery of a letter at the U.S/MX border in Agua Prieta, Sonora, to President Barack Obama from residents of the Rio Sonora asking for humanitarian aid and for the U.S. to boycott Grupo México (Entregando una carta al presidente Obama pidiendo apoyo humanitario para los damnificados y un boicoteo de productos de Grupo México)
The delegation of Rio Sonora residents and miners protest outside "Los Patos" where Grupo México has it's fresh water wells and where a larger protest and encampment shut down some mine operations in 2015. (La protesta en Los Patos donde Grupo México tiene los pozos para sacar el agua limpia para uso en la mina--en 2015 un plantón de residentes del Rio Sonora y mineros provocó que la mina cerrará una parte de su producción por una temporada.)
AQUI HAY REPORTAJES QUE SALIERON EN MX SOBRE EL SEGUNDO ANIVERSARIO DEL DERRAME TOXICO DE CANANEA CON EXCELENTES VIDEOS! y otras noticias
THE WEBSITE "Proyecto Resilencia Desatada" (Resistance Unleashed) IS THE PLACE TO GO IF YOU WANT TO GET INVOLVED IN CROSS BORDER SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE STRUGGLING FOR JUSTICE ON THE RIO SONORA!LA PAGINA "PROYECTO RESILENCIA DESATADA" ES EL LUGAR PARA CONSEGUIR TODA LA INFORMACION ACTUALIZADA SOBRE LA LUCHA DE LOS RESIDENTES DEL RIO SONORA Y LA SOLIDARIDAD TRANS-FRONTERIZA Y COMO INVOLUCRARSE.
