No to U.S. Death Wall and Attacks on Immigrants

Stand Together To Defend The Rights Of All

Organizations of all kinds are -preparing to use International Migrants Day, December 18, as a time to step up their defense of rights. Unions, civil rights groups and others are joining those active in defending immigrants to advance their call for an end to the criminalization of immigrants and an end to militarization of the border. Over the past few months, various joint actions have taken place at the border to demonstrate the unity of the peoples and their common struggle to defend the rights of all.

The Death Wall at the U.S. border with Mexico is a main target for the peoples’ outrage and anger. The Wall, which Congress recently voted to extend another 700 miles, has served to increase the deaths of families, including many women and children, who are dieing while crossing the border. The increased militarization of the border has also meant that peoples on both sides are being criminalized and profiled. Anyone the government “suspects” “might be” an immigrant, or a “terrorist,” is stopped, questioned and possibly detained and/or deported. Far from promoting the friendship defended by the peoples, the government is striving to whip up hysteria, claiming the borders and peoples living there are the source of terrorism. Government actions show readily that it is the government that is terrorizing the peoples and striving to criminalize resistance.

The federal government is increasing efforts to use the military against civilians inside the U.S. and to force local police to arbitrarily and illegally question people concerning their immigration status, something only federal immigration officials can do. Alongside its Death Wall, a system of cameras, unmanned aerial drones and other surveillance is being installed. Military monopoly Boeing has secured the initial contract, valued at $6 billion and likely to be more.

While increasing use of force, detentions and deportations, the government refuses to meet the rights of migrant workers. The peoples are demanding immediate legal -status for all undocumented immigrants. They are demanding that the rights of the workers be protected and that government meet its responsibility to do so. They are also rejecting government efforts to split the workers, dividing them by the amount of time they have been in the country, as well as by creating a growing pool of workers subject to the worst abuse and conditions, who can be deported if they open their mouths. Everyone has the right to be, to organize, to join together to defend rights.

The massive actions on May Day 2005 made clear that No One is Illegal and No One Will Be Silenced. These demonstrations millions strong showed that workers are not accepting the notion that some are “legal” and others “illegal,” that some have some rights and others have none. December 18, as well as May Day 2006, will be utilized to strengthen this stand of the people.

The peoples’ vision is one of fraternal unity and mutual benefit and respect for the rights and well-being of all. It runs directly counter to current U.S. efforts to annex Mexico and Canada as a means to further enslave the workers of all three countries and secure world supremacy.

The Death Wall, is a part of this effort by the U.S., with current priorities specifically designed to provide surveillance and security for construction of a massive super-corridor running from Mexico, through the U.S. and into Canada. It is to serve a North America of the Monopolies against the peoples. We say No! Another World is Possible, a world that guarantees the rights of all the peoples.

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December 18, 2006

Call To Action For International Migrants Day

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Following a year of unprecedented mobilizations for immigrant rights, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) invites you to culminate the year with a bangand send a loud message to the new Congress by organizing and supporting events to - celebrate International Migrants Day and to reaffirm our commitment to the rights of all immigrants.

This year has been a particularly significant year in the struggle for immigrant rights. In recognition of the accomplishments by immigrant communities, and the challenges ahead of us, NNIRR is calling on organizations and individuals around the country to commemorate this year’s International Migrants Day with a local event or action highlighting one or more of the following struggles:

Ending the militarization and impunity at the US-Mexico border and interior enforcement: The US government has converted the US-Mexico border region into a de-constitutionalized zone, where communities and immigrants are racially profiled and subjected to unconstitutional detentions and deportations. In addition to the hundreds of miles of walls and other barriers at the border, Congress recently approved 700 more miles of additional walls, electronic surveillance and the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to police the border. These border control policies and immigration law enforcement, being implemented with impunity, have only served to force migrants into more remote, desolate and dangerous border zones to cross, resulting in hundreds of deaths every year and countless others permanently lost. The recent Border Social Forum which included participants from diverse communities on both sides of the US-Mexico border, denounced the militarization of the border as “an authoritarian and racist act that criminalized migrants and forces them to risk their lives to enter the US, which further provokes divisions and violence between US citizens and immigrants.”

The anti-immigrant legislative proposals in Congress: While some have applauded the shift in power within Congress by the recent mid-term elections, we are reminded that both Democrats and Republicans widely supported legislative proposals in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, which would criminalize immigrants through intensified border enforcement and mechanisms to extend interior enforcement as well. Furthermore, the seemingly “best” of these proposals contained guest-worker provisions that would sustain an underclass of migrant workers and ensure that they remain a pool of cheap, disposable labor for use and abuse by large corporations.

Promoting principles of justice and equality for immigrants: Migrant communities are not just fighting back in resistance. They have been promoting principles of justice and equality in various ways and will be doing that even more vehemently in the coming year. NNIRR be developing an extensive National Dialogue on the US-Mexico Border (building from this year’s Emergency National Border Tour), mobilizing around the United Nations’ proposal to organize a Permanent Forum on Migration and Development to ensure that migrant community voices from around the world will be strongly represented, and launching a National Campaign for Justice and Equality to change the nature and framework for comprehensive immigration reform.

For more information, contact:

Colin Rajah; 510-465-1984 x306; crajah@nnirr.org

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U.S. Wall of Death

Secure Fence Act of 2006

The Secure Fence Act of 2006 (HR 6061) continues U.S. militarization of the borders, while also facilitating the development of a North America of the Monopolies. The bill was signed into law by President George Bush on October 26, 2006. The provides increased authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to “take all actions the Secretary determines necessary and appropriate to achieve and maintain operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States. This control is to include, but is not limited to, “systematic surveillance of the international land and maritime borders of the United States through more effective use of personnel and technology, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, ground-based sensors, satellites, radar coverage and cameras.” It also includes “physical infrastructure enhancement,” the death wall.

Operational control is “the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics and other contraband.”

The Bush administration is well-known for using such authority in the U.S. war of terrorism to use unmanned drones to assassinate “suspected” terrorists, conduct mass detentions without charges, utilize the military against civilians, and more. The executive has also used such authority to eliminate wage and other labor laws as well as environmental protections. The bill does not prevent such actions and indeed opens the way for them.

The act also mandates the “construction of fencing and security improvements” in specific border areas. Two initial areas are targeted as priorities. One is mainly along the Arizona border, beginning 10 miles west of Calexico California and extending to 10 miles east of the Douglas, Arizona crossing. Fencing for this section — two layers thick, with “the installation of additional physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors” — is to be completed by May 30, 2008. An “interlocking surveillance camera system is to be in place by May 30 2007.

The second priority is given to Laredo, Texas, with fencing and surveillance to be built 15 miles northwest of the Laredo crossing to 15 miles southeast of the crossing. Laredo is the U.S. border city where the super-corridor being constructed enters the U.S. The super-corridor is expected to go from the Mexican port of Lazaro -Cardenas, through Texas, up through Duluth, -Minnesota and into Canada. It is to be four football fields wide (400 yards) and will include a ten-lane limited access (mainly trucks) highway, rail lines, gas and oil pipelines. Construction is expected to begin next year. The super-corridor is an important part of overall U.S. plans to fully annex Canada and Mexico and create an integrated North America of the Monopolies.

Consistent with this, the Secure Fence Act also requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a “study on the feasibility of a state-of-the-art infrastructure security system along the northern international land and maritime border,” including the necessity for such a system, its implementation and economic impact. An initial report is due the end of December and a final report within one year.

Under the Bush regime, funding for “border security” has more than doubled—from $4.6 billion in 2001 to $10.4 billion this year; the number of Border Patrol agents has increased from about 9,000 to more than 12,000; thousands of National Guard troops have been deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border; more than 6 million people have been deported; and mass detention centers are being built.

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Adopted by the UN General Assembly

UN Resolution for International Migrant Rights Day

Proclamation of 18 December as International Migrants Day

The General Assembly,

Taking note of Economic and Social Council decision 2000/288 of 28 July 2000,

Considering that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind, in particular as to race, color or national origin,

Taking into account the large and increasing number of migrants in the world,

Encouraged by the increasing interest of the international community in the effective and full protection of the human rights of all migrants, and underlining the need to make further efforts to ensure respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants,

1. Decides to proclaim 18 December International Migrants Day;

2. Invites Member States, as well as intergovernmental and non- governmental organizations, to observe International Migrants Day, through, inter alia, the dissemination of information on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of migrants, the sharing of experience and the design of actions to ensure their protection;

3. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of all Governments and appropriate intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

81st plenary meeting, December 4, 2000

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Border Social Forum Final Declaration

Border Forum Calls for Collective Action to Defend Rights

The Border Social Forum took place in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in October. The Forum brought together organizations and activist from the Americas and particularly from the border regions of the U.S. and Mexico. It was organized in the spirit of the world Social Forums, with the theme of Another World is Possible! Numerous delegations of indigenous peoples, farmers, workers, social, political and environmental activists and many more converged to denounce the U.S. militarization of the border and repressive laws while putting forward their demands for rights.

The final declaration included calls to oppose the U.S. Wall of Death along the border and to reject criminalization of immigrants. It declared that “water is a human right and we commit to fight in order to prevent its privatization.” Participants demanded that “the World Trade Organization and the Free Trade Agreements be done away with,” and called for support for the struggles of farmers. It concluded by urging all to take the path of collective action to “open new pathways towards participation, communication, mobilization and struggle. We will converge through action with the movements of all of the regional, national and continental fora that together make up this marvelous human reality – rich, diverse, creative and plural – that is the World Social Forum. With everything that we do, with all that we bring to bear, with all that we dream, we will assuredly build another world for all human beings, and all living things, one without borders.”

We reprint below excerpts from the final declaration. For more information see www.forosocialfronterizo.com

* * *

We the women, men, youth, Indigenous Peoples and Nations, social organizations, unions, farmers, promoters of human rights and defenders of environmental justice in the border states of Mexico and the United States, and many more, have gathered in this border space to assert our will to do away with borders.

We are part of the formidable force of struggle and hope that came about throughout the world with the initial World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in 2001. The World Social Forum is part of a social movement against the neo liberal agenda, the modern form of colonialism and imperialism. We are citizens of the planet and as such we are the bearers of a set of economic, social, political, cultural and environmental rights, which all in authority must uphold equally for all people regardless of our age, gender, social class, ethnicity or migratory status.

Here, from this place of gathering we would like first and foremost to call public attention to a series of offenses, abuses and threats

• We denounce the femicide and daily violence against women throughout this region as a manifestation of a sexist and exploiting culture brought about by those who command the model of industrialization, the brutal urban development and the depredation that has been imposed on this border.

• We denounce the construction of the Wall of Death by the war mongering and authoritarian government of George W. Bush. Walls are symbols of supremacy by the dominant powers: they are projects to divide and isolate exploited peoples from resources necessary for their survival, and to expel them from their lands…

• We denounce the classist and racist character of the delayed, timid, limited and petty reaction by the authorities of both Mexico and the United

States, respectively, in dealing with the families and individuals devastated by Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans region of Louisiana and the victims of the flooding last summer in the region of Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua.

• We denounce the actions of multinational agribusiness corporations and those governments that support them, and of the multilateral organizations such as the World Trade Organization, and we denounce the free trade agreements that attempt to do away with the food sovereignty of nations and peoples.

• We denounce the militarization of the US-Mexico border as an authoritarian and racist act that criminalizes migrants and forces them to risk their lives to enter the US, and which provokes divisions and violence between US citizens and immigrants.

• We denounce the multiple forms of exploitation to which thousands are subjected to by the companies, the authorities and the anti-democratic unions that do not defend the rights of these workers.

• We denounce the destruction of nature, the desertification, the depletion of the water reserves, the forests, the land, and biodiversity due to the predatory and patriarchal acts of the capitalist system.

• We denounce the North American Alliance for Security and Prosperity and the Panama Puebla Plan as the most recent mechanisms put in place to consolidate the neoliberal project in North America. We shall continue to oppose these with all the strength of the united people.

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Border Social Forum Action

United Action at Juárez-El Paso International Bridge

Indymedia Chiapas, Mexico

To the cry of “Oaxaca is not a military barracks, get the army out,” hundreds of people, led by Subcomandante Marcos, took over the Lerdo de Tejada international bridge, which connects Ciudad Juárez to El Paso, Texas. Around 10 o’clock in the morning, November 4, members of the Other Campaign, surrounded by a large police contingent, arrived at the site to speak out against the government of [Governor of Oaxaca, Mexico] Ulises Ruiz and the repression being carried out against the people of Oaxaca (see Voice of Revolution, November 6). They advanced to the highest part of the bridge while members of “the Other Campaign on the Other Side” did the same on the other side, chanting in chorus, “we are a people without borders.”

“Today we have come here to unite the struggles of the south with the struggles of the north,” said a representative from the Union of People on the Border. “Here on the border, there are people resisting the exploitation, and the wall of death, because we are not criminals or terrorists, we are working people. We want them to leave the border knowing that we will not give up, that we will continue fighting for land, liberty and justice.”

Together, members of organizations such as the Association of Migrant Workers, the Mexico Solidarity Network, the Chicano/Chicana Student Movement of Aztlán and the Neighborhood Justice Movement announced that they would construct a barricade on the bridge, just like the hundreds of barricades with which the people of Oaxaca are continuing to give the world a lesson in dignity. A barricade like those that have now come to symbolize the struggle that “created an echo that whipped the winds up into a hurricane.”

María Eugenia López, a student from El Paso, then spoke: “I am originally from Oaxaca, my family is one of the many that has been exiled by the government. But we are in the struggle because my people have taught me that the struggle exists everywhere.”

Also present were members of Indymedia New York, “where there have been many tears shed by the friends of Brad Will,” (killed by paramilitary forces in Oaxaca). They came to say, “we have lost our brother. In his last moments he was on the ground with the people of Oaxaca. Brad risked his life so that the injustices and repression would be known. Brad lost his life helping to build a dream. While we are mourning his death, we also celebrate his life and the decision he made.”

The day was also dedicated to demanding the return of political prisoners who have “disappeared.” Mr. Ernesto Ontiveros, father of Víctor Hugo Ontiveros Gómez, spoke on behalf of the families of the disappeared, saying his son was “one of the 196 who have disappeared since 1993 for knowing about government collusion with drug traffickers. There are 196 known to have disappeared, and more whose names have not been registered out of fear. We spoke with Zedillo, and got nothing, then with [Mexican President Vincente] Fox and again got nothing, no one has surfaced, either dead or alive.”

Delegate Zero was next to speak, and he said, “We have come here to symbolically close this international bridge in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca and also to protest a series of injustices that we have seen here in Ciudad Juárez, throughout the state of Chihuahua, and along the entire northern border, which we have traversed from Tijuana to arrive here.”

While the Zapatista spokesperson was speaking, a contingent from Homeland Security joined armed police and police in riot gear on the Texas side of the bridge and a Customs and Border Patrol helicopter hovered low above the bridge in a clear act of intimidation. The helicopter would hover above the group of Homeland Security officials and police and then circle around them as protesters directed their words of opposition upwards and Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos continued:

“We have seen that the wall the Bush Administration is building, with the cooperation of the Fox Administration, is only a wall to kill our people; as the wall of the river and the wall of the desert are joining together, now there is this wall. Our compatriots who are crossing over to work, not to do anything bad, are being treated as if they were terrorists. We have also seen, here, in Ciudad Juárez that there is no justice, as young women are killed and nobody is found guilty and it is beginning to seem more and more that the governments of Juárez and Chihuahua are complicit in this.

“We have come here to tell Oaxaca that its people are not alone,” he reiterated, “we have come here to tell them that Chihuahua, Juárez, El Paso, the entire country and even Texas stand with them in their struggle.

“As the Other Campaign we do not recognize this border; we consider our compañeros on the other side of the border to be part of Mexico, part of us, our own blood. And our struggle does not even recognize that helicopter or this line or that flag up above. We recognize that Mexico does not start here on this line but rather much deeper, where each one of our compatriots is struggling and working.

“Compañeros and compañeras from the other side, there is no other side, it is one and the same. Those who are on the other side are those who are in that helicopter and in the White House and together, from below, we are going to make them all fall. This is what we are proposing, that in our country, which does not recognize this border, things are run from below.”

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16th Ibero-American Summit On Migration And Development

Address by Vice President of the Cuban Council of State

The 16th Ibero-American Summit took place November 3-5 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Its main theme was migration and development. The 22 Ibero-American The theme of this weekend’s summit was migration and development. The Ibero-American countries include Spain, the second-biggest recipient of Latin American migrants after the United States. The 22 Ibero-American countries are Andorra, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela. We reprint below the statement by Carlos Lage Davila, the Vice-President of the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba.

***

Excellencies,

Emigration is a right that must be respected. It is unfair and cruel to be forced to emigrate and leave homeland and family behind in order to provide food, healthcare and education to your children.

Sending remittances to family back home is a noble act which should be facilitated but it is humiliating for a country to have to depend on this money. The fact that rich countries are adopting ever more restrictive, abusive and xenophobic measures on emigration is morally unacceptable.

The wall on the Mexican border and the immigrant hunts that take place there are proof, if any were needed, of the contempt that the powerful feel towards all those who are not as powerful, even if these governments are their allies.

Alongside this form of emigration is another which is just as shocking. Doctors, computer programmers, teachers, nurses and other professionals and technicians are encouraged to migrate to rich countries, and are offered wages and conditions unavailable to them in our countries. For them there are no walls or forced returns, on the contrary, there are plans and programs in place to lure them. Around 240,000 Latin American university graduates migrated last year. Training these professionals costs no less than 5 billion dollars. We should be paid compensation and I propose that we make this demand.

These émigrés, whose rights we justly defend, are a consequence of the plundering, exploitation and unequal distribution of wealth. Nothing will stop this migration as long as there is underdevelopment and poverty, as long as the current neoliberal economic policies are imposed on the countries of the South, and as long as the current international economic order remains unchanged.

I want to make something perfectly clear. In most underdeveloped countries there is no political will or economic or human interest to change this situation. The opulent and spendthrift North uses immigrants while discriminating against them. The South is providing raw material to the North, while serving as a kind of warehouse from where they get all their resources, from mineral supplies to human talent.

Just one example that confirms this: the Millennium aims and goals, which represent nothing more than a modest palliative for the problems currently endured by underdeveloped countries, will not be fulfilled. The developed world did not have any intention of providing the minimum financial aid asked of them and billions of people continue to live without access to food, healthcare or education.

Spending on arms and wars now exceeds one trillion dollars; another trillion is spent on commercial publicity, which in the case of medication, for example, means that the price is multiplied by up to ten times; the debt still hasn’t been cancelled and the official development assistance is subject to an increasing number of conditions: advisers coming from the North must live in luxury, purchases must be made in donor countries, and less and less cooperation is given to healthcare and education while more and more is given to the struggle against drug trafficking and for good governance and human rights advice.

Instead of trying to change the current situation, the United States issues certificates on “good conduct regarding migration”. Good conduct means letting the professionals migrate, restricting the emigration of non-professionals and accepting back those undesirable to them, after these have taken a postgraduate course in lawbreaking on the streets and in the jails of the United States.

The United States, which depended and still depends so much on immigrants for their economic development, and the European Union, which has been a great source of emigrants in its time, are now the greatest persecutors of immigrants in the world, and apply the most restrictive policies.

The free exchange of commodities that the developed world wants to impose and the free flow of capital that it demands are nothing but a snare if they are not accompanied by the free passage of people. In this regard, and in others, the hypocrisy and double standards of the world in which we live are laid bare.

The issue of migration in Cuba deserves a special mention. A Latin American who goes to live in the United States is an immigrant but if Cuban this person is labeled a political exile fleeing the communist regime.

A Latin American must wait in his or her country for a permit to migrate to the United States. If this person is an illegal immigrant, they are returned, but if this person is Cuban, once in the United States, they are immediately granted residency and work, and after one year they automatically receive permanent residency, in compliance with the Cuban Adjustment Act.

The Bush administration cancelled migration talks, once again limited remittances to a total of $300 every three months and imposed travel restrictions that allow Cuban immigrants to travel to Cuba only once every three years and that to visit only parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren or siblings; that is, to Mr. Bush, a cousin or aunt is not a family member.

The United States government offers shelter and impunity in their country to terrorists who have committed murder and hijacked boats and planes in order to migrate; it restricts legal emigration while encouraging illegal emigration in order to use this as propaganda against Cuba, heedless of the fact that countless people have lost their lives in the Florida Straits.

This policy, enforced for decades, seeks to eventually promote a massive exodus which can be used to intensify the anti-Cuban campaign and, ultimately, serve as a pretext for military aggression.

A program financed by the United States government is aimed at luring Cuban doctors and other healthcare specialists who are rendering important services in various countries, but they are coming up against the iron will of the new generation of professionals trained by the Revolution and our solidarity programs will not be stopped.

In hardly two years, Operation Miracle has helped over 450 thousand people from Latin America and the Caribbean to recuperate their vision, and all these services have been provided free of charge. By now, conditions have been created to operate on one million people every year.

Even though our country’s own resources would not suffice to provide these services, if imperialism succeeded in its offensive against Cuba’s economic resources, the capacity would be removed to perform eye surgery on one million Latin American and Caribbean people during 2007. Such figure does not include operated Cubans whose number this year is almost 100 thousand.

The new concepts applied to the massive and urgent training of physicians, from Latin America and elsewhere in the world, will make it possible to have, in a rather short time, over 10 thousand new doctors annually, who will not practice private medicine but will take healthcare to and preserve the lives of millions of people.

Today, cooperation in the field of health enables Cuba, and increasingly Bolivia and Venezuela, to ensure all of its citizens, without exemption, medical care of excellence provided free of charge.

At this moment, 2,400,000 Latin Americans from 11 countries are no longer illiterates and thousands of Cuban specialists work as sport instructors. Although blockaded and harassed, Cuba has never surrendered, and the countries of Latin America can always count on Cuba to fight for their rights which, as we know, will not be handed to us on a plate.

Thank you very much.

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16th Ibero-American Summit

Remittances No Substitute for Sound Development Policies

- Darío Montero, Inter Press Service, November 5, 2006 -

Immigrants have a right to send remittances to their families in their countries of origin, and this fast-growing flow of funds must not be seen as a replacement for foreign development aid, according to the final declaration signed by the leaders meeting this weekend in the Ibero-American summit in Uruguay.

The presidents’ statement thus indicates that the need for solid growth policies in developing countries is not reduced by the existence of large flows of remittances, which have become the second largest source of external funding for developing countries after foreign direct investment (FDI), and which now surpass official development assistance from the rich world.

In 2005, global remittances amounted to $167 billion, although unregistered remittances could represent an additional 50 percent, according to the World Bank. The region that receives the largest share is Latin America and the Caribbean, which took in $48.3 billion in 2005.

Article 12 of the final statement states that remittances must not be classified as official development aid (ODA), since they are private financial flows based on “family solidarity” and the right of every human being to attend to the support and welfare of others. The declaration, dubbed the “Montevideo Commitment,” says this right must be recognized and safeguarded, like that of recipients to receive such funds.

The theme of this weekend’s summit was migration and development -- a pertinent issue given that the Ibero-American countries include Spain, the second-biggest recipient of Latin American migrants after the United States, and the source of $4.85 billion in expatriate remittances last year, according to Spain’s Central Bank. [...]

In their final declaration, the leaders also agreed not to enact coercive legislation or administrative measures that would undermine the right of migrants to send money home to their families.

Morocco, which receives the greatest flow of migrant remittances from Spain, is followed by Ecuador, one of the Latin American countries most heavily dependent on such funds. Last year, Ecuador received a record $2.26 billion, nearly 40 percent sent home by immigrants living in Spain.

But the world’s top recipient of remittances is Mexico, with nearly $22 billion a year, reports the World Bank, which places Colombia in ninth place, with $3.8 billion, and Brazil in 11th place, with $3.5 billion.

Another leading recipient of remittances in Latin America is the Dominican Republic, with $2.7 billion last year, 59 percent of which was sent home from the United States and 30 percent from Spain.

The Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador reported that remittances, which mainly come from the United States, totaled $2.8 billion in 2005 and are expected to climb to $3.3 billion this year. A new World Bank report, Close to Home: The Development Impact of Remittances in Latin America, says that total represented 15 percent of El Salvador’s gross domestic product (GDP), while local authorities report that it is equivalent to nearly 80 percent of the national budget.

The World Bank pointed to the heavy dependence of Central America and the Caribbean on remittances, noting that such funds represent 53 percent of GDP in Haiti, 17 percent in Jamaica, and 16 percent in Honduras. Uruguay received $106 million last year, nearly one percent of GDP, from the 440,000 Uruguayans living abroad (nearly 14 percent of the population). [...]

The Uruguay-based NGO Social Watch stated in its 2006 report, presented in late October ahead of the Ibero-American summit, that the amount sent home by Latin American migrants is similar to what they would have earned in their countries of origin if they had stayed.

Immigrants send between 10 and 20 percent of their income to their families back home, and the rest remains in the industrialized countries where they live and work, says the report. At the same time, countries in this region bear the costs of losing a significant portion of their young people of working-age, as well as the cost of brain drain, especially in the Southern Cone countries of Latin America. [...]

Social Watch stated that while remittances can temporarily alleviate poverty, they cannot replace policies that foment production, employment and economic growth, and that combat exclusion and inequality.

The Uruguayan NGO said that migrant remittances are mainly used by families to cover basic expenses like food, rent, clothing and healthcare, while a mere five percent goes into productive endeavors.

Social Watch suggests following the example of Mexico, with its 3 X 1 Citizen Initiative program, a co-financing mechanism in which every dollar that “hometown” associations of migrants channel into development projects is matched by a dollar from each level of government: federal, state and municipal.

The Ibero-American leaders echoed that demand, stating in the “Montevideo Commitment” that they will foment the use of remittances in productive and investment activities that benefit migrants’ home communities. The summit also underscored the high cost of sending remittances through money transfer companies -- an issue that has been discussed for years, but that no government has specifically tackled so far. “Commissions currently range from five to seven percent,” said Portillo.

The Montevideo Commitment says it is necessary to facilitate the transfer of remittances, reducing their cost and guaranteeing access to banking services.

The Uruguayan government has announced a new policy on the transfer of remittances. Portillo reported that the Banco de la Republica (the largest state-owned bank) would adopt a system that would offer significantly lower costs than those charged by the international companies that carry out such transfers. Spain appears to be moving in the same direction, encouraging the banking system to provide low-cost money wire services, in order to allow migrants to avoid private money transfer agencies.

Ibero-American Secretary-General Enrique Iglesias said all of these initiatives should translate into “concrete actions,” in order to keep summit meetings like the one in Montevideo from being mere “social gatherings” of presidents

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Main Convergence at Fort Benning

Actions to Close the School of the Assassins in 10 Countries

An estimated 22,000 people converged on Forth Benning, Georgia on November 19, demanding that the School of the Assassins (SOA) be closed and that the U.S. end its torture and militarization of the peoples of the Americas. The action was larger than last year’s record attendance, as the peoples step up their rejection of U.S. militarism and aggression worldwide. Youth and students joined union, immigrant rights, religious and peace groups from throughout the Americas. This year they were joined by a large contingent of anti-war veterans, a delegation of grandmothers more than 1,000 strong and a large contingent of civil rights activists who marched from Selma, Alabama to Fort Benning. Together the protesters emphasized that there is One Humanity! One Struggle!

The Close the SOA action is marked by its solemn funeral procession, with everyone carrying a cross with the name of one of those killed or disappeared, as well is for its festival of life, using puppetistas, large displays and banners, drumming, music, and civil disobedience. The grandmothers wore white handkerchiefs in the same tradition as the Madres de Plaza de Mayo of Argentina, paying tribute to the fallen and disappeared of the Americas. They spoke for all in saying in condemning the SOA, saying “Imagine the gentle wisdom of one thousand caregivers taking action to stop the teaching of counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Imagine the power of one thousand change-makers saying NO to the perpetuation of crimes against humanity, especially against indigenous communities and children.” The women were joined by numerous torture survivors spoke out, as did union activists. The actions made clear “that our drums are not the drums of war and destruction but drums of joy and liberation.”

As part of this year’s demonstration 16 activists crossed the fence onto the Ft. Benning military base. They defied unjust laws blocking political speech on military bases and demanded justice and accountability from the military for its massacres, torture and training of death-squads. The 16 came from states across the country, including, Florida, Kentucky and West Virginia; Indiana and Missouri; Arizona and California. They include students, teachers, a farmer, two grandmothers, a pastor and peace activists.

The 16 were arraigned in federal court on charges of unlawful entry. Fifteen of the 16 arrested were released after bail money ($500 - $1,000/per person) was posted. One person decided to remain in prison, awaiting trial. She is being held at Muscogee County Jail in Columbus, Georgia. The 16 will appear in federal court in Columbus on January 29, 2007 to put the SOA itself on trial.

While record numbers attended the annual demonstration at the gates of Fort Benning, thousands more gathered at protests and vigils throughout the Americas. -Coordinated actions protesting US militarism and calling for the closure of the SOA took place in -Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Paraguay and Peru, as well as in Ireland, and Canada.

SOA Watch reports: “The Chilean human rights group Kamarikun organized a vigil to close the SOA in Santiago. The Movement of Christians for Peace with Justice and Dignity organized vigils at four key sites emblematic of US militarism: the US-leased air base in Manta, Ecuador; and the capital cities of Paraguay, El Salvador and Colombia. In Ecuador, actions were organized in Quito, Ibarra, Ambato and Tulcan. In Colombia, in addition to Bogota, there were actions for Medellin (Antioquia), Cali (Valle del Cauca), Popayan (Cauca), Sogamoso (Boyaca), Neiva (Huila) and Barrancabermeja (Santander), where 1,000 women dressed in black commemorated the victims of militarism in the region.”

As one activist and torture survivor from Argentina said, saluting the Ft. Benning protest, “We need to meet and know each other, because we are all part of one big and important struggle, a struggle for life, a struggle to share resources and to live in peace without these terrible criminals. I think we are going to win! Yes, we are going to win!”

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Youth Must Rely On Their Own Efforts and Thinking

The Youth Stand Opposed to War and Repression

Youth Discussion Group

As a response to the demands of the people to stop wars of aggression the youth have stepped up their efforts to strengthen their collective and rely on their own thinking as they stand against war and fascism. All across the country and abroad, war, repression and fascism leave the youth vulnerable to attack. By strengthening their collective and organizing to rely on their own thinking the youth are equipped to combat war and fascism and affirm their role in society.

Across the U.S. people are rejecting war and repression and are demanding an end to U.S. wars abroad and to withdraw all the troops. This sentiment was expressed during the recent elections by the stands of the anti-war candidates, the pledges by the people to vote anti-war and against all aggressive wars, and the demonstrations that took place on -Election Day.

As part of their work to end the war, members of the Youth Discussion Group leafleted at their schools to encourage their classmates to join in the anti-war action at the University at Buffalo on Election Day.

Youth discussed that it has been made clear and evident that the Democrats, who now retain a majority in the House and Senate, are going to continue to fund the war, despite the popular will of the people. However, there is also great evidence that the resistance to imperialist war and repression is growing, not diminishing. This resistance can be found across the country and abroad, in the Iraqi and Afghanistani resistance to U.S. imperialism and occupation, as well as from the ranks of the military itself, with soldiers refusing to serve and those serving demanding a withdrawal of troops.

The events of the past few weeks, as well as recent developments were the topics of discussion among the organizing youth. The discussion focused on some major themes which are of great importance for the youth to take up as an act of finding out for themselves. There was much discussion on what rights human beings have in society, whether as civilians or as part of the military.

Another subject that was brought out was the need to defend established norms and principles against forces that sought to wreck and ignore them. The specific principles that were talked about regarded the right of nations to self-determination as well as the peoples’ right to conscience. It was brought out that many of these principles, such as those against war crimes and genocide were formulated from the experience of the victory over fascism during the Second World War.

In beginning to address these various issues, discussion made clear that further investigation and inquiry into these norms and principles would be of great importance. Investigation would serve as a way of informing ourselves, to become active and conscience, as well as to strengthen the organizing work on the basis of the youth relying on and developing their own thinking.

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UCLA Students, Parents, and Faculty Protest

Condemn Government Profiling and Criminalization of Youth

On November 17, more than 400 -students, staff, faculty, and parents held a demonstration on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus to condemn government profiling and criminalization of youth. Police brutality attacked 23-year-old UCLA student Mustafa Tabatabainejad, who had been studying in the library. Despite being identified by his fellow students and acting to meet police requests to leave, he was grabbed and repeatedly tasered by campus police. Police claimed force was necessary because the student did not show his ID and did not leave as quickly as they demanded. Students r ejected this, saying the police were using racist profiling to target Middle Eastern students (Mustafa is an American of Iranian descent).

The rally was organized by a united force of 50 student organizations. Students led those in attendance in chants including, “UCPD [University of California Police Department], you disgust me,” “one, two, three, do not taser me.” Protesters opposed police impunity and demanded that the guilty be punished, from the top down. When protesters marched to the UCPD station, officers refused to apologize, closed down the station, locked the doors, turned off the lights, and dressed in riot gear.

UCLA has a policy of randomly and arbitrarily checking IDs and it is regularly used to harass and criminalize the youth simply for being on campus, particularly at night. In this case, around 11:15pm on November 14, campus police demanded that Mustafa show his ID. He refused as he thought he had been targeted on a racist basis. Soon after, when he gathered his belongings and was about to leave, police officers grabbed him by the arm. When he told them to get off him, that he was a student, studying, they tasered him. Police tasered him 5 times, despite him also telling them he had a medical condition.

Mustafa resisted the brutality, screaming and yelling while being tasered, “Here’s your Patriot Act; here’s your abuse of power!” At one point he was on the floor, and the police officers continuously shouted at him to get up, and when he could not, they tasered him again. Mustafa was again stunned with the taser when he was already handcuffed.

Campus police also threatened to taser the many angry and appalled students trying to defend Mustafa and calling on the police to stop. They identified him as a student but police continued their attack.

Taser guns use a crippling shock, with one stun capable of immobilizing someone for 5-15 minutes. Amnesty International reported that 61 people died from the use of tasers in 2005, and in the past five years more than 200 have died. Five stuns on one youth are excessive.

Immediately after the attack, several students began to contact local news outlets, informing them of the attack. They wrote an e-mail to UCLA Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams as well. The entire attack was captured on video by a student and has already been seen by more than 300,000 people on YouTube.com.

The campus newspaper The Daily Bruin has received hundreds of letters from concerned parents and community members opposing the police actions. In addition, a lawsuit charging police with excessive force and profiling has been launched. Numerous individuals and organizations, including many student groups, are demanding an independent investigation into the police crimes and are demanding that the guilty be punished, from top to bottom.

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