MAYAN CALENDAR NEWS: TONY HERRERA'S ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIMIENTO FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM...
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Carlos Perez
Feb 23, 2010, 4:41:28 PM2/23/10
to Movimiento Marzo
MAYAN CALENDAR NEWS: TONY HERRERA'S ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIMIENTO FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM...
Hello all,
With all due respect to everyone involved I wish to weigh in on the critique of the analysis provided by Javier as well.
I believe the major points were already made by several authors speaking about a superficial overview of and failure to go deeper into the dynamics of this movement and present a truly objective assessment of where things are at.
I wish to point out a little observed aspect of this discussion. Namely, who is being given the label of "mass movement"? What we are witnessing today is a 2010 version of what the Democratic Party did in 2006 when it sideswiped a genuine grassroots movement that was boiling over all across the country.
At that time it took the form of all these "Somos America", "We are America" groups and "coalitions" that were supposedly mass based and reflective of the community. Its mission was to counter the new grassroots leadership that had come into being in its own right without the assistance nor need for millions of dollars in non-profit money, paid staff and organizers and had taken the leadership of the struggle. It was a true "from the bottom up" movement that could not be contained.
The full impact of this move could not be fully appreciated until all the dust had settled and one could see the strategy being employed. What was that strategy? Simple! Launch a massive short term organizing campaign and set into motion all the Democratic Party front groups and people. Send your "best" organizers in all the hot spots to wrestle control and create "coalitions" whose primary function was to engage in massive voter registration including massive citizenship campaigns aimed at that segment of the immigrant community ready to join the voting population.
Who was Somos America nationally composed of? Well, let's see...There was SEIU (Service Employees International Union), there was UNITE HERE! (Laundry and hotel works). There was the UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers), of course NCLR (National Council of La Raza), "Change to Win Coalition" (a break away of unions from the AFL-CIO led by the SEIU). The backbone of it all was the NAOC (The new American Organizing Campaign) which was the umbrella under which all these "Somos" groups operated, even though most of their membership never actually knew this. The orders were coming from Washington. That's where the orders for the April 10th, 2006 marches across the country came from. In fact in the first days of their treachery, their web site listed one of the "leaders" of the local Somos America group as their contact person for Arizona. That "Somos" leader was a paid SEIU organizer brought in for that purpose. Their web site claimed that THEY (NAOC) were the organizers of the April 24th, 2006 march here in Arizona. They later cleaned it up when the National somos group got their own web site up.
These were the same people who for the most part were trying to ram "Kennedy/McCain" , "Hegel/Martinez" , "Gutierrez/Flake" , and so on down our throats. Their mouthpieces constantly extolled the benefit of rallying around these bills. At every turn the movement resisted.
In 2007, NAOC changed their name to CCIR (Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform).
Here is their board of directors:
* Deepak Bhargava, Center for Community Change
* Cecilia Muñoz, National Council of La Raza
* Frank Sharry, National Immigration Forum
* Chung-Wha Hong, New York Immigration Coalition
* Eliseo Medina, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
* Tom Snyder, UNITE HERE
These are the same groups that composed the national Somos America group. What a coincidence! Do you think they are all tied to the Democratic Party? I don't think it takes a fortune teller to deduce it.
Their strategy went in three basic stages:
1) Wrestle the leadership of the INDEPENDENT mass movement that was on the rise. How? By seeming to join it in order to gain credibility with the grassroots leadership forces while actually undermining them with the objective of setting up "NEW" coalitions that "represented" the community. Here in Arizona you could see the players in motion, jockeying for position. It was a good opportunity to observe the power and resourcefulness that the Democratic Party could muster when it felt threatened. High paid organizers, big money marketing and publicity campaigns, drawing in the unions under their control to devote organizers, time and resources, moving them around the country as the situation demanded it, etc., etc.
2) Engage in massive voter registration campaigns. Remember the national slogan for these "Somos" groups? "Today we march, tomorrow we vote". The Democratic Party set the stage for this and you could see all the citizenship classes and voter registration going on like mad. That's all you heard over the community airwaves. I don't have the figures on how many were registered in the year following the Great marches across the country, but if someone did the research I'm sure they could bear out my point.
3) Use the momentum built up in 2006 to break the Republican stranglehold and put a Democrat in the White House and gain control of the congress. I won't go into the betrayal the American people went through with that maneuver, let alone our community for now. But the point is, that was the objective all along.
It wasn't to organize and empower our community. It wasn't to identify and train new leadership to insure the future of our movement. It was pure and simple, a maneuver to control the political power in this country, end of story. Our community was the convenient pawn that was used to make this possible.
How do we know this?
Simple! Look around and see what was left in the wake of this strategic move. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! WE are actually in worse shape at the grassroots and organizational level than before the betrayal. Oh sure. We have a few of the remaining Somos's here and there. But the Democratic Party quickly abandoned them once they had fulfilled their mission.
The community is not more organized as a result of these actions; we do not have a larger pool of developed leadership as a result of these actions. If they had any other intentions for them, it would be evident because they would have maintained the momentum; they would have poured into these efforts permanent resources so that they would become true fighting organizations in defense of our community. Instead they have been left to fend for themselves, mere shadows of what they were. Now that they were no longer needed, they were put out to dry and flounder. Their national web site no longer comes up in a Google search.
That is how Obama got elected. It was a slick move to kill two birds with one stone. First: Stop the independent mass, grassroots immigrant movement in its tracks, bringing it under control of the Democratic Party and Second: lay the groundwork for taking back the political landscape. Brilliant! It was an excellent example of strategy and tactics in its sophistication, implementation and follow through. It should serve as a lesson as to the nature of the political enemies that are aligned against our community. You know the ones. They wave the flag of community empowerment in order to stop true community empowerment.
FAST FORWARD TO 2010:
Now we don't have a national "Somos America" group "leading" the struggle (if we can call it that). Now it's the "Reform Immigration for America" group. And guess what the Texas conference Javier Rodriguez refers to is called? You guessed it! "Reform immigration for Texas" of course! How original!! And if you do a search for "reform immigration for" on the Internet a few more will pop up named for different states. I found one in Michigan called, you guessed it! "Reform immigration for Michigan". Sounds like "Somos America" all over again.
Here is the leading paragraph from the national "Reform" group's web site speaking on its "NEW" campaign to get "Comprehensive Immigration Reform":
REFORM IMMIGRATION FOR AMERICA LAUNCHES MASSIVE 2010 NATIONWIDE KICKOFF
MORE THAN 100 EVENTS PART OF MAJOR NATIONWIDE MOBILIZATION
Washington D.C. –
This week, the Reform Immigration FOR America campaign has begun a major escalation of its efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2010 with more than 100 events in 28 states. Starting January 10th, Reform Immigration FOR America launched actions, town halls, marches, rallies, and vigils to demonstrate that the American people want comprehensive immigration reform this year. (http://reformimmigr ationforamerica. org/blog/ press-release/ 2768/)
And guess who some of the major players are at the national level? You guessed it!
They are:
Ali Noorani, the Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum
Janet Murguia, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
Eliseo Medina, Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
And where are these people based? You guessed it! Washington! Where are the shots being called? You guessed it! Washington!!
Furthermore, their membership list (http://reformimmigr ationforamerica. org/blog/ about/organizati ons/), reveals a host of non-profit organizations of all types from Labor unions to community advocacy groups.
These for the most part are not "grass roots", they are paid efforts, financed by one or another corporate sponsor. This is not a knock against their mission or work. I am simply making the point that this is hardly grassroots leadership and these are hardly grassroots efforts. These represent the Non-profit service provider sector and their political allies. To repeat, this is not to slander their intentions, only to emphasize that our community is hardly represented amongst them.
So, what does this mean?
First off, let's establish the fact that this is NOT a true grassroots movement. It is a fabricated one from the top down, just like the "Somos America" maneuver was. I don't mean that the grassroots and / or their leadership aren't involved. I mean that they are not calling the shots. They are being played and used to give credibility to this latest maneuver and as a "show of force" in marches, demonstrations, letter writing campaigns, etc.
Let's also establish that we are seeing the same level of power play that the Democratic Party let loose on our community back in 2006. What we are witnessing is the opening stage of a three part strategy aimed at passing "Comprehensive immigration reform" (whatever THAT means).
How?
1) By saturating our community and the broader American communities at large with massive propaganda campaigns aimed at putting "comprehensive immigration reform" on their minds. By fabricating a "mass movement" so that congress and the president can feel pressured to pass immigration reform (oh, don't forget "comprehensive" ). By de-emphasizing content in favor of form, the debate over WHAT exactly will get passed is left off of the table in favor of "Let's just get something passed / anything!" Hence, if you support our immigrant brothers and sisters, you will support "comprehensive immigration reform". Don't ask questions or for details, just support it! The plan calls for giving the illusion of a swelling, grassroots movement. Not unlike the right wing "tea party" moves that gave the illusion of swelling mass resistance to Obama.
2) Because speed and stealth are fundamental to this strategy, no time for community grass roots based debate can be allowed because that would be too time consuming not to mention open the door for resistance if details are open for debate. It is essential to NOT ALLOW debate but to create momentum. Therefore paid campaign organizers and paid staffs of non-profits engaged in this maneuver will focus on the message, "let's get it passed and we can improve it later" as has already been critiqued. To re-emphasize, their strategy depends on "ramming" it down our throats "for our own good". Forums and community meetings will be controlled to minimize debate and recruit new "sheep" to get on board. Anyone who doesn't endorse "comprehensive immigration reform" will be labeled as anti-immigrant or blasted for "creating disunity".
3) An alliance with corporate industry will be solidified and a major lobbying push will be carried at the highest of political levels leveraging the "grassroots" mobilizations as "proof" of the American public's desire to see immigration reform passed.
UNDERLYING FACTORS BEHIND THIS TYPE OF PUSH FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM
It is important to bear in mind that immigration reform is essential for the survival of US industry as it is projected that its aging workforce will reach the point of non-replacement between 2015 and 2020. The permanent presence of immigrant labor is a new feature of the US workforce that is both non-negotiable nor avoidable.
This means that the upper hand is actually in the hands of the immigrant community as it represents the life blood of the system as we know it today. Therefore it is in the interest of corporate America to have that labor available on demand under terms most favorable. That is why whatever reform bill that goes through will NOT MAKE it if it is not based on some form of temporary worker program. It is one thing to be idealist about this point and hope it to not be so and quite another to prepare so that it does not become so.
This demands that our side have a developed strategy, no less effective and sophisticated as those that have been employed against us and our community. This then demands that we leave behind the period of "old style" reactive strategies or on the opposite end, appendages of the dominant "reform" Party and build that independent movement able to organize, resist and win.
HOW this is to be done is a discussion for a meeting of minds where those who truly represent the grassroots interests make the bold move to break with the past and forge unity around a strategy to win and not a strategy of protest or puppets of political parties.
As always, we are open to debate over WHAT TO DO as we have for at least the past three years when we began our efforts to stimulate this type of discussion and debate. What will keep this from being an exercise in intellectual gymnastics will be if those of us who are on the same page regarding this, make the move to meet for the purpose of walking away united on a plan of action for now and for the foreseeable future.
CONCLUSIONS:
While I acknowledge Javier's "gift of gab", his analysis, even his admittedly superficial one is fundamentally flawed as if we take it on face value, then "victory" is all but assured. The question is "victory" for whom?
There is too much at stake and too much effort to lose if we allow ourselves and the rest of our movement to become stooges to the Democratic Party. While to some this may sound like blasphemy, there comes a time when one has to cut one's losses. That time is far overdue and the need to revive and rebuild a true independent grassroots movement is more than evident.
The multi-sector, multi-class unity that is forged must be on equal terms and equal ground with mutual respect and consideration for our community. Lacking that, we are being called upon to submit to a maneuver in our people's name and without their regard. This is totally unacceptable! !
Equally important is the need to prepare our community for the blows that are coming, the worst of which has yet to be seen. This includes the building of strong alliances with the US citizenry, work that under our present methodology and strategic direction has not even made it on the radar screen.
To speak of "Endgame" is no longer a source of ridicule as it once was because the failure to take the warnings seriously has become all too clear for even the most skeptical of activists engaged in our struggle. We have effectively lost three years to idealist hopes that this couldn't be happening. For these people, to continue operating in the same fashion without making major, radical adjustments to their strategic thinking is to play right into the hands of those who would see us in chains from one generation to the next.
If something doesn't work, stop doing it and try something new!!!
It was with great disappointment that we watched NAIR sink into an information exchange network instead of a viable, independent national network of leadership capable of moving our struggle forward both politically and organizationally.
We were right there, at a point that almost spelled the shift into a new strategic period for our struggle. One in which our leadership nationally had united on a sound set of starting principles and was at the brink of consolidating itself organizationally. And then, it was subverted by leadership elements that were content to leave NAIR as an informational network. What a loss!! What a back stab!!! We never regained the momentum despite all the "nice", "politically correct" actions the NAIR network engaged in.
It was an error that may just have cost us the war. Three years have slipped away and we are no closer to having that goal. Don't you think it's time to leave this period behind us?
To anyone who wants to take another route, we say "let's talk".
In solidarity,
Tony Herrera
Unidos en Arizona
With all due respect to everyone involved I wish to weigh in on the critique of the analysis provided by Javier as well.
I believe the major points were already made by several authors speaking about a superficial overview of and failure to go deeper into the dynamics of this movement and present a truly objective assessment of where things are at.
I wish to point out a little observed aspect of this discussion. Namely, who is being given the label of "mass movement"? What we are witnessing today is a 2010 version of what the Democratic Party did in 2006 when it sideswiped a genuine grassroots movement that was boiling over all across the country.
At that time it took the form of all these "Somos America", "We are America" groups and "coalitions" that were supposedly mass based and reflective of the community. Its mission was to counter the new grassroots leadership that had come into being in its own right without the assistance nor need for millions of dollars in non-profit money, paid staff and organizers and had taken the leadership of the struggle. It was a true "from the bottom up" movement that could not be contained.
The full impact of this move could not be fully appreciated until all the dust had settled and one could see the strategy being employed. What was that strategy? Simple! Launch a massive short term organizing campaign and set into motion all the Democratic Party front groups and people. Send your "best" organizers in all the hot spots to wrestle control and create "coalitions" whose primary function was to engage in massive voter registration including massive citizenship campaigns aimed at that segment of the immigrant community ready to join the voting population.
Who was Somos America nationally composed of? Well, let's see...There was SEIU (Service Employees International Union), there was UNITE HERE! (Laundry and hotel works). There was the UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers), of course NCLR (National Council of La Raza), "Change to Win Coalition" (a break away of unions from the AFL-CIO led by the SEIU). The backbone of it all was the NAOC (The new American Organizing Campaign) which was the umbrella under which all these "Somos" groups operated, even though most of their membership never actually knew this. The orders were coming from Washington. That's where the orders for the April 10th, 2006 marches across the country came from. In fact in the first days of their treachery, their web site listed one of the "leaders" of the local Somos America group as their contact person for Arizona. That "Somos" leader was a paid SEIU organizer brought in for that purpose. Their web site claimed that THEY (NAOC) were the organizers of the April 24th, 2006 march here in Arizona. They later cleaned it up when the National somos group got their own web site up.
These were the same people who for the most part were trying to ram "Kennedy/McCain" , "Hegel/Martinez" , "Gutierrez/Flake" , and so on down our throats. Their mouthpieces constantly extolled the benefit of rallying around these bills. At every turn the movement resisted.
In 2007, NAOC changed their name to CCIR (Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform).
Here is their board of directors:
* Deepak Bhargava, Center for Community Change
* Cecilia Muñoz, National Council of La Raza
* Frank Sharry, National Immigration Forum
* Chung-Wha Hong, New York Immigration Coalition
* Eliseo Medina, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
* Tom Snyder, UNITE HERE
These are the same groups that composed the national Somos America group. What a coincidence! Do you think they are all tied to the Democratic Party? I don't think it takes a fortune teller to deduce it.
Their strategy went in three basic stages:
1) Wrestle the leadership of the INDEPENDENT mass movement that was on the rise. How? By seeming to join it in order to gain credibility with the grassroots leadership forces while actually undermining them with the objective of setting up "NEW" coalitions that "represented" the community. Here in Arizona you could see the players in motion, jockeying for position. It was a good opportunity to observe the power and resourcefulness that the Democratic Party could muster when it felt threatened. High paid organizers, big money marketing and publicity campaigns, drawing in the unions under their control to devote organizers, time and resources, moving them around the country as the situation demanded it, etc., etc.
2) Engage in massive voter registration campaigns. Remember the national slogan for these "Somos" groups? "Today we march, tomorrow we vote". The Democratic Party set the stage for this and you could see all the citizenship classes and voter registration going on like mad. That's all you heard over the community airwaves. I don't have the figures on how many were registered in the year following the Great marches across the country, but if someone did the research I'm sure they could bear out my point.
3) Use the momentum built up in 2006 to break the Republican stranglehold and put a Democrat in the White House and gain control of the congress. I won't go into the betrayal the American people went through with that maneuver, let alone our community for now. But the point is, that was the objective all along.
It wasn't to organize and empower our community. It wasn't to identify and train new leadership to insure the future of our movement. It was pure and simple, a maneuver to control the political power in this country, end of story. Our community was the convenient pawn that was used to make this possible.
How do we know this?
Simple! Look around and see what was left in the wake of this strategic move. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! WE are actually in worse shape at the grassroots and organizational level than before the betrayal. Oh sure. We have a few of the remaining Somos's here and there. But the Democratic Party quickly abandoned them once they had fulfilled their mission.
The community is not more organized as a result of these actions; we do not have a larger pool of developed leadership as a result of these actions. If they had any other intentions for them, it would be evident because they would have maintained the momentum; they would have poured into these efforts permanent resources so that they would become true fighting organizations in defense of our community. Instead they have been left to fend for themselves, mere shadows of what they were. Now that they were no longer needed, they were put out to dry and flounder. Their national web site no longer comes up in a Google search.
That is how Obama got elected. It was a slick move to kill two birds with one stone. First: Stop the independent mass, grassroots immigrant movement in its tracks, bringing it under control of the Democratic Party and Second: lay the groundwork for taking back the political landscape. Brilliant! It was an excellent example of strategy and tactics in its sophistication, implementation and follow through. It should serve as a lesson as to the nature of the political enemies that are aligned against our community. You know the ones. They wave the flag of community empowerment in order to stop true community empowerment.
FAST FORWARD TO 2010:
Now we don't have a national "Somos America" group "leading" the struggle (if we can call it that). Now it's the "Reform Immigration for America" group. And guess what the Texas conference Javier Rodriguez refers to is called? You guessed it! "Reform immigration for Texas" of course! How original!! And if you do a search for "reform immigration for" on the Internet a few more will pop up named for different states. I found one in Michigan called, you guessed it! "Reform immigration for Michigan". Sounds like "Somos America" all over again.
Here is the leading paragraph from the national "Reform" group's web site speaking on its "NEW" campaign to get "Comprehensive Immigration Reform":
REFORM IMMIGRATION FOR AMERICA LAUNCHES MASSIVE 2010 NATIONWIDE KICKOFF
MORE THAN 100 EVENTS PART OF MAJOR NATIONWIDE MOBILIZATION
Washington D.C. –
This week, the Reform Immigration FOR America campaign has begun a major escalation of its efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2010 with more than 100 events in 28 states. Starting January 10th, Reform Immigration FOR America launched actions, town halls, marches, rallies, and vigils to demonstrate that the American people want comprehensive immigration reform this year. (http://reformimmigr ationforamerica. org/blog/ press-release/ 2768/)
And guess who some of the major players are at the national level? You guessed it!
They are:
Ali Noorani, the Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum
Janet Murguia, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
Eliseo Medina, Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
And where are these people based? You guessed it! Washington! Where are the shots being called? You guessed it! Washington!!
Furthermore, their membership list (http://reformimmigr ationforamerica. org/blog/ about/organizati ons/), reveals a host of non-profit organizations of all types from Labor unions to community advocacy groups.
These for the most part are not "grass roots", they are paid efforts, financed by one or another corporate sponsor. This is not a knock against their mission or work. I am simply making the point that this is hardly grassroots leadership and these are hardly grassroots efforts. These represent the Non-profit service provider sector and their political allies. To repeat, this is not to slander their intentions, only to emphasize that our community is hardly represented amongst them.
So, what does this mean?
First off, let's establish the fact that this is NOT a true grassroots movement. It is a fabricated one from the top down, just like the "Somos America" maneuver was. I don't mean that the grassroots and / or their leadership aren't involved. I mean that they are not calling the shots. They are being played and used to give credibility to this latest maneuver and as a "show of force" in marches, demonstrations, letter writing campaigns, etc.
Let's also establish that we are seeing the same level of power play that the Democratic Party let loose on our community back in 2006. What we are witnessing is the opening stage of a three part strategy aimed at passing "Comprehensive immigration reform" (whatever THAT means).
How?
1) By saturating our community and the broader American communities at large with massive propaganda campaigns aimed at putting "comprehensive immigration reform" on their minds. By fabricating a "mass movement" so that congress and the president can feel pressured to pass immigration reform (oh, don't forget "comprehensive" ). By de-emphasizing content in favor of form, the debate over WHAT exactly will get passed is left off of the table in favor of "Let's just get something passed / anything!" Hence, if you support our immigrant brothers and sisters, you will support "comprehensive immigration reform". Don't ask questions or for details, just support it! The plan calls for giving the illusion of a swelling, grassroots movement. Not unlike the right wing "tea party" moves that gave the illusion of swelling mass resistance to Obama.
2) Because speed and stealth are fundamental to this strategy, no time for community grass roots based debate can be allowed because that would be too time consuming not to mention open the door for resistance if details are open for debate. It is essential to NOT ALLOW debate but to create momentum. Therefore paid campaign organizers and paid staffs of non-profits engaged in this maneuver will focus on the message, "let's get it passed and we can improve it later" as has already been critiqued. To re-emphasize, their strategy depends on "ramming" it down our throats "for our own good". Forums and community meetings will be controlled to minimize debate and recruit new "sheep" to get on board. Anyone who doesn't endorse "comprehensive immigration reform" will be labeled as anti-immigrant or blasted for "creating disunity".
3) An alliance with corporate industry will be solidified and a major lobbying push will be carried at the highest of political levels leveraging the "grassroots" mobilizations as "proof" of the American public's desire to see immigration reform passed.
UNDERLYING FACTORS BEHIND THIS TYPE OF PUSH FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM
It is important to bear in mind that immigration reform is essential for the survival of US industry as it is projected that its aging workforce will reach the point of non-replacement between 2015 and 2020. The permanent presence of immigrant labor is a new feature of the US workforce that is both non-negotiable nor avoidable.
This means that the upper hand is actually in the hands of the immigrant community as it represents the life blood of the system as we know it today. Therefore it is in the interest of corporate America to have that labor available on demand under terms most favorable. That is why whatever reform bill that goes through will NOT MAKE it if it is not based on some form of temporary worker program. It is one thing to be idealist about this point and hope it to not be so and quite another to prepare so that it does not become so.
This demands that our side have a developed strategy, no less effective and sophisticated as those that have been employed against us and our community. This then demands that we leave behind the period of "old style" reactive strategies or on the opposite end, appendages of the dominant "reform" Party and build that independent movement able to organize, resist and win.
HOW this is to be done is a discussion for a meeting of minds where those who truly represent the grassroots interests make the bold move to break with the past and forge unity around a strategy to win and not a strategy of protest or puppets of political parties.
As always, we are open to debate over WHAT TO DO as we have for at least the past three years when we began our efforts to stimulate this type of discussion and debate. What will keep this from being an exercise in intellectual gymnastics will be if those of us who are on the same page regarding this, make the move to meet for the purpose of walking away united on a plan of action for now and for the foreseeable future.
CONCLUSIONS:
While I acknowledge Javier's "gift of gab", his analysis, even his admittedly superficial one is fundamentally flawed as if we take it on face value, then "victory" is all but assured. The question is "victory" for whom?
There is too much at stake and too much effort to lose if we allow ourselves and the rest of our movement to become stooges to the Democratic Party. While to some this may sound like blasphemy, there comes a time when one has to cut one's losses. That time is far overdue and the need to revive and rebuild a true independent grassroots movement is more than evident.
The multi-sector, multi-class unity that is forged must be on equal terms and equal ground with mutual respect and consideration for our community. Lacking that, we are being called upon to submit to a maneuver in our people's name and without their regard. This is totally unacceptable! !
Equally important is the need to prepare our community for the blows that are coming, the worst of which has yet to be seen. This includes the building of strong alliances with the US citizenry, work that under our present methodology and strategic direction has not even made it on the radar screen.
To speak of "Endgame" is no longer a source of ridicule as it once was because the failure to take the warnings seriously has become all too clear for even the most skeptical of activists engaged in our struggle. We have effectively lost three years to idealist hopes that this couldn't be happening. For these people, to continue operating in the same fashion without making major, radical adjustments to their strategic thinking is to play right into the hands of those who would see us in chains from one generation to the next.
If something doesn't work, stop doing it and try something new!!!
It was with great disappointment that we watched NAIR sink into an information exchange network instead of a viable, independent national network of leadership capable of moving our struggle forward both politically and organizationally.
We were right there, at a point that almost spelled the shift into a new strategic period for our struggle. One in which our leadership nationally had united on a sound set of starting principles and was at the brink of consolidating itself organizationally. And then, it was subverted by leadership elements that were content to leave NAIR as an informational network. What a loss!! What a back stab!!! We never regained the momentum despite all the "nice", "politically correct" actions the NAIR network engaged in.
It was an error that may just have cost us the war. Three years have slipped away and we are no closer to having that goal. Don't you think it's time to leave this period behind us?
To anyone who wants to take another route, we say "let's talk".
In solidarity,
Tony Herrera
Unidos en Arizona
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