Note: We met at Yale Park but were disrupted by Loren. He sort of apologized while saying he wasn’t sorry and that he didn’t realize whose car he had smashed. He asked to be forgiven. Sayrah responded by saying she would always acknowledge him if she saw him, but that he was not welcome to attend GAs since he has acted violently many times and it makes it unsafe. He got angry and walked away, showing his fist to her face. He sat on a bench and began yelling “fuck you”. Per ideas at the last GA of how to respond to Loren, Sayrah suggested the group leave and meet elsewhere. By the time the group agreed and stood up to move, Loren came back and threatened everyone, saying he was going to punch them. Everyone walked away and Loren followed Sean with threats, then went to John with threats. John responded that our group is nonviolent and he was acting violently and that is why he can’t be at GAs. John observed this seemed to de-escalate Loren and he walked away a little. Everyone got in Sayrah’s car and they moved the GA.
Announcements
Cesar Chavez
Today is Cesar Chavez’s birthday. Two upcoming events this week to celebrate:
Thursday April 4th 6-8pm at the NHCC: There will be a one hour film about the farm-worker movement followed by a panel with a local labor leader, a minimum wage campaign organizer, a DREAM Activist, and an immigrant clergy member. Free.
Saturday April 6th 10:30am-3pm NHCC: Marcha y fiesta to educate, celebrate and continue the struggle for farmworkers. Special guest Dolores Huerta, now 84 yrs old, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with Cesar. Free concerts with Ivon Ulibarri y Cafe Mocha and B-Side Players, kids activities, dancing, food for sale.
More info at cesarchaveznm.org
May Day Planning
Group met this past Wed. at O’Neill’s and 2 new people joined in planning. Humorous theme incorporating zombies and “dying for a living wage”. Sienna and Bill plan to make giant puppets. May Day is Wed. May 1st and activities will be in the International District starting at 5pm. Next planning meeting is Tues. April 9th 6:30pm at Bandito’s Hideout on Central across from UNM. Local union Intl. Workers of the World want to join in planning. Sean suggests we invite ABQ Critical Mass and the MEChAs from UNM & CNM as they have a more radical approach to immigration issues.
April 27th Medicine for the People
Working group is regularly meeting to plan this 2nd annual event at the Endorphin Power Co. in the Intl. District to provide free healthcare and alternative healthcare. Lots of volunteers are needed. A list of volunteer tasks is right here. Help at the end (around 6pm onward) would be especially appreciated since clean-up can take hours and will go faster with more people.
Students for Justice in Palestine
Sean attended SJP mtg. Danya of SJP attended to the MEChA national conference where the representatives voted to encourage chapters to work with and support SJP groups. Sayrah noted similarities, explaining plight of Palestinians who get deported to Israeli prison if they lose status in the US, as well as special immigration laws for all Arab immigrants and Arab Americans with ancestors in 22 Arab countries, as well as root causes of migration for Mexicans and Arabs.
There will be no Mock Wall this year but SJP is organizing a Israeli Apartheid Week. They will show 2 films: Slingshot Hip Hop and 5 Broken Cameras. Also they are organizing a workshop called “Palestine 101” for allied student groups (MEChA, ALOT, KIVA, etc.) wanting to learn more about Palestinian issues, and hopefully start a series of sessions so can learn about each other’s subjects.
Sayrah asks what came of the meeting at the Peace & Justice Center about their stance on the occupation of Palestine? No one knows if the P&J board has met and reviewed notes from that meeting.
Los Jardines Institute
We discussed at our GA last Sunday that we’d like to volunteer as a group at Los Jardines Institute (803 La Vega SW) a community based farm/education/environmental justice/racial justice center in the South Valley. Proposal to volunteer 4 hrs a month to start, possibly on Saturday mornings. There is a monthly banned book group meeting on Saturdays there too. We would want to start in April and get more people in (un)Occupy ABQ interested to see if we can commit time.
May 14th speaker Arun Gupta
We agreed at last GA that we would organize a simple gathering to hear him speak since he’s in town about his reporting of the Occupy Wall St movement nationally. Sayrah still needs to reserve the P&J Center that night for his talk. He is trying to find Wal-Mart workers to interview about their working conditions but having a hard time getting interviews, even though they will be anonymous. Anyone know Wal-Mart workers? We talked about the problem of Wal-Mart and its corporate welfare. Maybe we should target them on May Day.
Future GAs
Its possible Loren will violently disrupt future GAs so we discussed if there were other places to have GAs as a Plan B. We’d like to stay on the bus line in a visible place around Rt 66 if possible. Maybe in the International District? We’ll think about parks or spaces to have as a Plan B. Today we moved to the patio at Satellite across from Yale Park.
