Dueling Democrats Ignore, Ignite the Angry Brown Voter

As he watched tonight’s broadcast of the Democratic Debate at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), Antonio Gonzalez didn’t much like what he saw and heard. “I’m pissed off at all of them” he said. “I’m mad.”

Like the growing number of Latinos disgusted with increasing discrimination that a majority (54%) say they experience mostly because of anti-immigrant racism, Gonzalez is dismayed at, how, for example, the top candidates responded to the ‘Yes or No’ question about drivers licenses for immigrants: Clinton “No”, Edwards “No” and Obama “Yes, but…”

“They’re all retreating from positions of principle on immigration” he said.

That such dismay exists so early among some Latino voters even in places like the Latino-heavy Democratic citadel of Los Angeles, should concern the candidates and their party. But coming from Gonzalez, whose organization, the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, has launched an unprecedented $10 million, 400 city drive to register and mobilize 500,000 new Latino voters by next year’s election, such dismay should inspire fear of a new voting block: the Angry Brown Voter.

Like the Pentagon, the Democrats need Latinos desperately. And like many a returning Iraq war veteran, Latino veterans of the immigration wars grow impatient with both parties.

If you listened closely tonight, you could hear echoes of the voter bloc that will, in the long term, counterbalance the weakening pull of the angry white voter. The only Nevadan of Latino extraction who got to ask a question, UNLV student, George Ambriz, used his opportunity to finger debate CNN’s Lou Dobbs for “insinuating” a “linkage” between terrorism and security and immigration. “No terrorist threat has come from our southern border” he said before asking, “Are they (terrorism and immigration) “intrinsically related issues”?

Combined with the Democrats’ rightward turn on immigration, such questioning from an Angry Brown Voter bodes ill for a Democratic party that touted its decision to bring the debate –and a much-anticipated early primary- to Nevada as part of its efforts to be more inclusive of Latinos.

And recent developments beyond the UNLV campus also signal the coming of the still very young (the average Latino is 26) Angry Brown Voter. From Washington to local Congressional districts, the candidates and their party are starting to hear loudly and more frequently from a group the Democrats seem to take for granted.

In response to what they perceive as DCCC Chair Rahm Emmanuel’s cowardice on immigration, local groups in his district have taken out English, Spanish and Korean language ads in local media. The ads ask, “Why is Congressman Emanuel Betraying our Friends and Families?”. Last Thursday, Members of the usually pretty loyal (and quiet) Hispanic Caucus held up debate on an important tax bill and engaged in an angry confrontation with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md. The Latino legislators were incensed at the support among some 36 of their fellow Democrats for a Republican motion many Hispanic Caucus members found very offensive. Venerated Chicano scholar and activist, Rudy Acuna, has even started circulating email messages across the country in which he asks whether Latinos should consider joining a third party. “They are pandering to Lou Dobbs. Why should we support a party that has sold out our interests?” asks Acuna.

How Latinos answer Acuna’s question has relevance in the age of the slim electoral victory. Latino-heavy swing states like Nevada, Florida, Colorado and others may well determine next year’s election. Not listening to the Angry Brown Voter may mean another Republican Red Congress - and Presidency.

IMMIGRATION DEBATE RAGING IN HIGH TECH LABS

A couple of recent stories this week highlight how the immigration debate has given rise to both “reactionary” and pro-immigrant positions within the very immigrant-heavy high tech industry. This story titled “State of the Engineer: Immigration–The reactionary side of engineering” from the EE Times, a major electronics industry publication, makes clear that the country’s labs are hardly hermetically-sealed off from the greater ills of the larger society. A survey conducted by EE Times found that,

“On immigration, only 21.2 percent of respondents agreed with the idea of allowing an unlimited number of foreign engineers and technical professionals to work in America, and to work here without being asked to leave after a prescribed period of time (see chart below).

The remainder expressed the belief that either the number of foreign engineers should be restricted, or their time in America be restricted or both.”

But like the larger society, the countries labs are also home to many immigrants, an incresing number of whom find themselves having to raise their voices and placards in defense of their very existence. In another article published in today’s AP, I found this quote by a migrant tech worker particularly revealing of the future,

“I’ve never held a banner before, but I don’t know what else to do,” said Gopal Chauhan, a high-tech employee who has been waiting seven years for a green card. “We usually have better things to do, like invent the next iPod.”

And, in another quote illustrating how the Republican and, increasingly, Democrat short-term strategy of bashing migrants will result in economic blowback in the long-term, the the article states,

“The Indian and Chinese economies are being fed right now with people who get tired of waiting and go home,” Bhatia said.

The technological, scientific and immigration chickens are already coming home to roost.

NEW TREND: “ONSHORING” TURNING U.S. INTO MAQUILA ECONOMY

For many months now, I’ve been noticing several reports about domestic and foreign companies investing in the US because it’s as cheap as doing so in what used to be called the “third world”. Take this story in the LA Times about “onshoring”, a trend describing how U.S. & foreign firms are opening production facilities not just at the border, but in places like the deep South, rural areas and suburbs across the country. Common sense and neoliberal economics tell us why: because its as cheap or cheaper than places like India or China for them to do so.

The story goes on to describe how low wages (as in union-unfriendly “right to work” states) and cheap real estate are enticing companies like bomber-builder Northrop Grumman and Accenture to invest in rural areas like Corsicana, Texas and the Umatilla Indian reservation in Oregon. Locating in these parts of the U.S. has become a cost-cutting measure designed to improve their positions vis a vis global competitors.

But even global competitors from countries formerly designated “third world” (refers more to regions than entire countries now) like India, where Bangalore-based Wipro technologies has just outsourced work to Atlanta are taking advantage of the economic decline of the majority in this country. A weak dollar and a fast-strengthening rupee and yuan (China) make it easier for outsourcer countries to reciprocate by outsourcing to the US. This article in PC World magazine and this one in the NYT make the same and other points about the maquilization of large swaths of increasingly cheap U.S. real estate. But, instead of telling us abut the devaluation of our work, property and existence, too many media simply adopt uncriticially the buzz words, the phraseology of corporate PR flaks who define many “trends”.

This “trend” inn particular has as much to do with the anti-Latino, anti-immigrant moment, but neither right-wingers nor most mainstream “immigrant rights advocates” mention it either.

Some of us might want to think about or mention this next time we come across a local Minutemen or other angry, mostly white anti-immigrant workers (see this story I wrote about whites and globalization) abandoned by big capital that once promised them good paying work for a lifetime. Immigrants have little to do with the investment portfolios of global corporations whose decisions determine who does and doesn’t work where and for how cheap. Lou Dobbs Manichean populism (ie; hate trade, blame immigrants) shows that he understands this. Though he does so in a warped, racist way, he does not shy away from talking about the the fact of open borders or the abandonment of US workers.

We, on the other hand, ignore the maquilization of the US economy at our own peril.

VICENTE FOX PROMOTING (TOP-DOWN) OPEN BORDERS / INTEGRATION?

During this interview with Larry King, former Mexican President Vicente Fox appears to advocate open borders, albeit a top-down version lead by hemispheric and global elite interests:

Such statements promoting Fox’s rather garishly titled new book, Revolution of Hope, are causing the Bush Administration to cringe as they issue statements clarifying that they don’t “think that that’s something we’re actively considering.” Fox and the Bush are giving Lou Dobbs and former Swift Boater-turned closed border activist, Jerome Corsi even more fodder for their futile efforts to build Fortress America.

This should be watched, especially by those of us lacking any vision beyond the border walls. This causes me to ask “If Vicente Fox and Lou Dobbs have positions about this, what is the ‘progressive position’ with regard to regional integration?” Is there an alternative to the top down or closed border vision? Though we’ve not yet articulated such an alternative, at least some of us are shortcircuiting Fox and others efforts to give credibility to the continuation of the top-down politica that’s ruined so many lives, including that of murdered New York media activist, Brad Will, and Mexican activists repressed by Fox and his successor, Felipe Calderon.

Please remember to dream beyond the walls of civilized discourse.

R

BEHIND THE RAIDS, A STATE IN CRISIS- INTERVIEW ON PACIFICA’S UPRISING RADIO

Had the pleasure of being harassed into getting up at 6am to do this Uprising Radio Show interview on LA’s KPFK. Dynamic and wicked smart host, Aura Bogado, got me to talk about stuff I’ve not yet published about how the “immigration problem” is as much about the crisis of the state as it is about immigrants. Heady but important stuff about analysis and strategy in the immigration ebate. Check it out. I shared some research & thinking I’ll not be publishing til early next year. Thanks to Aura and crew for the opportunity to share in Los, my former home.

BROWN WATERS, CLEAR WATERS RUN DEEP AT LATINO CONGRESO

This week’s Latino Congreso taught me that, from Maywood, California to the Bronx and Cochabamba, Bolivia, brown people are drinking brown water. I also learned about the deepening wells of of elite fear beneath racist metaphors like “brown tide rising” used to describe the political ascent of Latinos across the continent.

But what struck me most was how problems like the dirty brown water are giving rise to a political clarity and unified vision unprecedented in the annals of hemispheric history. Like the oceans and subterrenean waterways that have always united us beneath the surface, political agendas from the Canadian border to Patagonia are starting to flow from the same source: the pursuit of justice.

I heard this from 22 year-old Latino Congreso delegate Karen Linares. After looking at a thick, rusted pipe and a bottle of brown water used as part of the presentation by a South LA activist on a panel about “Water Justice”, very smiley Salvadoran-Mexican college student Linares got a serious look about her. “The L.A. river water running by my house is full of filth. I saw the same brown water in El Salvador. In Tijuana you see the sewage trickling down the dirt roads.” Asked whether a and what, if any, connection existed between what she saw in her neighborhood and in her parent’s homelands the rather “shy” (ie; “You should talk to my friend cuz this is my first event and she knows more”) answered, “Clear water runs upward where the money runs. Brown water runs down where poor brown people are.” In listening to Linares’ “shy” brilliance one hears the political music of the spheres, the hemispheres being written.

The beauty I found running through the Congreso was in how the line connecting Linares’ issues and consciousness to the rest of the continent is growing. “I look at the facial expressions here and I see meetings I’ve been to in America Latina” said Bernardo Alvarez, the US Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela who also attended the Congreso as part of a large Latin American contingent. “I listen to the issues they discuss and they are the same issues: housing, employment, the environment, women’s issues, community development and others. We support the agenda in Latin America and we support the Latino agenda in the United States.”

Though not yet concluded, the Latino Congreso has already managed to channel the insurgent energies of its more than 1,500 delegates towards the development of a broad, inclusive and different Latino agenda that brings together and connects many issues. For example, members unanimously passed a resolution calling on the US to stop signing trade agreements they believe are one of the primary causes of immigration. Also connecting several issues, Oscar Chacón, Executive Director of the National Association of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, a National Congreso convener said “NAFTA has been the main cause for more than 1.3 million Mexican campesinos to lose their livelihoods. Not surprisingly, the number of Mexicans who have emigrated to the United States rose 60 percent in the first six years after NAFTA,” adding “We can only resolve immigration issues by addressing the bigger question of what is forcing so many people to emigrate in the first place. The first step is to stop expanding the same agricultural rules of NAFTA to Peru and other Latin American nations.”

Chacón and other Congreso delegates also passed resolutions around such “non traditional” Latin issues as Renewable Energy, Farm Bill Reform, Production, Ocean Management , Green Schools and many others. And, of course, they also addressed the very continental issue of how to turn brown water into clear water - and clear continental thought. Have a a clarisimo day

R

LATINO CONGRESO: NOT JUST ANOTHER CORPORATE, PENTAGON-SPONSORED LOVE FIESTA

For the next few days, I’ll be in Los Angeles blogging from, speaking at the Latino Congreso. This 5-day convergence of Latino leaders and activists from across the US is an important new political expression of the Latino community, one that tilts to the left of the usual corporate, National Council of La Raza-like corporate & Pentagon-sponsored love fiestas that pass for Latino political gatherings these days.

Check out the Congreso’s website and see for yourself a Latino event that (fasten your seat belts) actually talks about stuff like the environment, the Iraq war, criminal justice and US relations to América Latina (several ambassadors and other hemispheric actors will be there too) to name a few (yes, U.S., we do think about more than stealing jobs & hubcaps, marching madly and stuffing ourselves wild with tacos & Budweiser).

Will try to be a digital fly on the wall and bring you interviews with some of the luminary and, yes, handsome (cuz we are) Latina(o)s and Latinoamericana(o)s I run across. I’ll also test rumors heard at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project about the possibility of intelligent life in the Latino universe (”rumors” cuz the Roswell secret of our intelligence means no other media in the U.S. allows we aliens to think publicly). Much more to come on this breaking story.

VIVA! GONZALES, GOVERNMENT AND GOD KICK OFF HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH. VIVA!

(Department of Defense poster celebrating Hispanic Heritage)

Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations began this week with a chorus of local, national and even other-worldly figures participating in some of the hundreds of inaugural events held across the country. The September 15th to October 15th celebrations began thanks to Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, who had originally called for “Hispanic Heritage Week” (Republican Ronald Reagan made it a month-long celebration).

While Johnson was signing into law the official celebration of Latinos in 1968, he also signed documents authorizing the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program or “COINTELPRO” to give another big government abrazo (embrace) to the growing chorus of dissident Latino voices. Cesar Chavez, student groups, the Brown Berets, the Young Lords and those who yelled “Viva!” during the “Walkout” in Los Angeles were but a few of those greeted by COINTELPRO during that first year of Hispanic Heritage. Viva!

Not to be outdone during this year’s celebration, Walmart, whose 154,000 Latino employees make it the country’s largest single private sector employer of Latinos, announced that it too would sing the praises of “Hispanics” by “incorporating Hispanic product features in categories such as food, home, toys, and health and beauty aids” (NEWSFLASH: PBS superstar and kiddy icon Dora the Explorer will not be shouting her usual “Viva”’s at this year’s celebrations due to unhealthy levels of toxic chemicals she and Walmart contracted in Chinese factories). The global giant is also celebrating by continuing its efforts to guarantee that its Hispanic workers can proudly yell “Viva!” without the burden of labor rights. Viva!

For his part, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales used the occasion to bid farewell while also celebrating our “founding ideals and our enduring values of faith, family, and freedom”. During a Hispanic Heritage celebration held at Bolling Air Force Base in the District of Colombia, Gonzales dazzled his captive audience of military personnel with stories of his motivations in the good fight, “….every time I see a glimmer of the evil man can do, I see the defenders of liberty, truth, and justice who stand ready to fight it.” The glimmer of Hispanic pride that hung over the military base was especially bright when Gonzales declared, “Over the past two and a half years, I have seen tyranny, dishonesty, corruption and depravity of types I never thought possible” And then, as if embodying the very spirit of (19)68 that inspired Johnson to raise up Hispanics, a choked up Gonzales added, “I have seen things I didn’t know man was incapable of.” Super VIVA! VIVA! VIVA!

And, in keeping with the theme of Hispanic goodness in the service of the nation, President Bush used his proclamation launching Hispanic Heritage to honor Hispanic military service, “In times of great consequence, they have answered the call to defend America as members of our Armed Forces.” Vivisimo!

Lastly, PBS and filmmaker Ken Burns will do their part in the celebrations by launching his epic “War” documentary in the middle of Hispanic Heritage month. Burns, whose hundreds of hours of American history in previous films contained few to no depictions of Latinos, decided to honor the more than 500,000 servicepeople of Hispanic descent who either served, died or were missing in action during WWII by dedicating a full 28 minutes of footage to them in his 15 hour film!

Viva Hispanic Pride! Viva Hispanic Amigos! Viva Hispanic Heritage!