ADD THIS PAGE! GET MOVEMENT UPDATES! This page is run by BAMN to organize the new youth-led, mass struggle for immigrant rights. Also add the BAMN page. BAMN stands for the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary
Help Organize! Fight for the California DREAM Act!
Use FACEBOOK AND MYSPACE. Add this page, make it one of your Top Friends, and change your profile "Name" so that it says "March in Sacramento Sept. 26 for the Dream Act!" Post this MYSPACE BULLETIN to all your friends! If you see a picture, look at the SOURCE CODE. (On Internet Explorer and Firefox, it's under the "View" menu under "Source" or "Page Source")
To reserve a seat on a bus to Sacramento, and for help with organizing, contact BAMN!
Northern California: (510) 502-9072
Southern California: (323) 317-7675
Spanish speaking: (313) 675-5915
On Myspace, ADD Myspace.com/ChavezDayOfAction
Organize a contingent from your area. Use the FLYER and POSTER below to get the word out. Use the PETITION (#3 below) as a sign-up sheet for the march. Teachers and students: organize a field trip from your school. Use this SAMPLE FIELD TRIP PROPOSAL. Get unions, churches, community groups, and other organizations to sponsor or co-sponsor buses to Sacramento. Charge a voluntary bus fee to help recover the costs. Call local bus companies to get bus quotes. Students: use this SAMPLE STUDENTS' PERMISSION SLIP to get the day off. Contact BAMN to form a chapter and get help. Use the following tools to get the word out:
Circulate the petition! Gather a bunch of signatures, fax them to the Governor, and organize a press event presenting the petitions to a local representative of the Governor in your area. The petition is also a great tool for organizing for the statewide march and local actions, by collecting contact information in your area. Call BAMN for help:
Sign the ONLINE PETITION. Forward the URL to everyone you know! The signatures will go to California BAMN and be sent to the Governor.
Get your student government, school club, union, community group, school board, or other organization to endorse the petition. Contact BAMN (see #1 above) to add a new endorser to our growing list, which we will post on this website and publicize to the press and the Governor.
Organize an event in your area! Hold a school rally, march, or teach-in as part of the Statewide Week of Education & Action! Contact BAMN for help.
Spread the campaign nationwide! Send us a picture with your name and city and we'll add it!
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Wear a brown armband for Latina/o equality and freedom.
Wear a brown armband to honor the César Chávez Holiday.
Wear a brown armband for full rights for all immigrants.
Wear a brown armband to declare your state a sanctuary state.
Wear a brown armband to stop the raids.
If any administrators give you hassle, show them this Supreme Court case defending your free speech rights.
Find strips of brown material (cloth, ribbon, etc). Get your fellow students, co-workers, family, and neighbors to wear them. Put it on your arm. Wear it on your backpack. Spread the word. This is a symbol of anti-racist unity across the country.
MAKE CALIFORNIA A SANCTUARY STATE!
A society whose state resources are expended to break up families and tear mothers and fathers out of the hands of their children must be saved from its own moral depravity.
Millions of immigrants work, live and go to school under a cloud of fear every day in California - fear that federal immigration officers will drag off one of the people they love. The rank inhumanity of that policy is becoming clear to more people. The mainstream media has begun to tell the real story of families being split up and torn apart by the raids. Churches across the country have joined the sanctuary movement.
More and more municipalities throughout California have recognized officially what is increasingly obvious to millions of people: immigrants, irrespective of official status, play an integral, indispensable and overwhelmingly positive part in our state, and in our nation economically and socially. The cities across California and across the country that have officially declared themselves as sanctuary cities are simply recognizing a practical reality of modern economic life. The new civil rights movement stands at the front of the effort to achieve sanctuary status for cities and states all over. Our movement and organization stands at the front of the effort to stop the anti-immigrant raids.
People who are a contributing part of the society are citizens, regardless of where they come from, what forms they have filled out, or what government office they have waited in. The attack on Mexican and other Latin American immigrants is just bigotry and racism. The corrosive effect of having a section of people in a society with separate, unequal and inferior legal rights is unacceptable. The new immigrant rights and civil rights movement will fight and defeat any attempt to impose an inferior double standard of rights on immigrants.
We demand full and equal rights for all immigrants. We demand an end to the raids. We demand that California become a sanctuary state.
Circulate the PETITION to make California a sanctuary state. Present the petition to your local government, school board, etc. Mail copies to: BAMN / P.O. Box 76137 / Los Angeles, CA 90076
Get your city council, union, student government, church, to take a stand for California to become a sanctuary state.
Build the movement!
Join or affiliate to BAMN!
FIGHT FOR THE CÉSAR CHÁVEZ HOLIDAY!
We felt our strength and power when we walked out and marched for our freedom and dignity. It was because of our actions that the racist law HR4437 was eliminated. This year we will keep fighting. We are not going to accept any second-class treatment any longer! The César Chávez holiday has been ignored for seven years now and treated as inferior. We all know and understand that the Chávez holiday represents the struggle for immigrant rights and Latino equality in this nation. By ignoring the Chávez holiday, the school districts are ignoring us, our struggle for equality and our dignity, and that must end now! Whether they want to close down the schools to honor the Chávez holiday or not, we are closing them and forcing everyone to recognize our Movement and honor the Chávez holiday!
CIRCULATE THE PETITION to Honor California's César Chávez Holiday!
Download the PETITION ( EnglishSpanish ) and get it filled out at your school, church, or neighborhood to Honor the César Chávez Holiday. It’s a great way to organize in the schools, and to get lists of people and their contact info. Show the petitions to your school board and the media, and mail a copy to BAMN at the address below.
Send petitions to: BAMN
P.O. Box 76137
Los Angeles, CA 90076
BAMN Movie: "Our Rising Strength" Build the New Integrated Youth-Led Civil Rights Movement!
BAMN interview on Democracy Now!
High school students walked out across the nation on May 1st to fight for immigrant rights and for decent, quality education in our schools. Student walkout organizers from the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), reported on their school walkouts to independent media center Democracy Now!.
You can WATCH or READ THE TRANSCRIPT of the news program at Democracy Now!. Click "Watch 128/256K stream" and advance the video to 28:24 to watch the BAMN interview.
Spanish-language news clip of May 1, 2007 walkouts and marches in L.A. (Univision)
Some English-language news coverage of May 1, 2007
Univision News Report on Walkouts for César Chávez Holiday March 30, 2007:
Oakland Walkout for César Chávez Holiday Mar. 29, 2007! - camera footage
DALLAS, TX:
This great news clip from DALLAS on March 28, 2006 shows students storming Dallas City Hall, and, predictably, frightened warnings from media and establishment leaders. (Choose the video called "Students Walk Out, Protest For Second Day") Video NBC5 Dallas
ESCONDIDO, CA:
Watch this video of students walking out in Escondido, CA! (near San Diego) NBCSanDiego.com
FRESNO, CA: See this great photo report about the Fresno, CA walkouts! About 500 rallied downtown on March 27, 2006. The movement grew so quickly that by the next day more than 6,000 walked out and rallied downtown!
HUNTINGTON PARK, CA: Watch this extended-length helicopter video (pick the 2nd video in the row) of hundreds of Huntington Park, CA students walking out and getting students at other schools to join them! These walkouts took place on Friday, March 24, 2006 and helped spark the new civil rights movement! (pick the 2nd video in the row)
JOIN BAMN! Build the New Civil Rights Movement! Add BAMN at the BAMN Myspace site! Click here:
And visit the BAMN.COM site!
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) BAMN.com Myspace.com/nationalbamn
Northern CA: 510.501.2435 Southern CA: 323.317.7675 East Coast: 313.645.9360
Mailing address:
BAMN
P.O. Box 76137
Los Angeles, CA 90076
Win the Right of Undocumented Students to Receive Financial Aid for College!
Demand that Governor Schwarzenegger Sign the California DREAM Act Now!
No More Separate and Unequal Educational Opportunities for Latina/os and Immigrants!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2008
Statewide March and Rally in Sacramento
10AM: Gather and MARCH from Cesar Chavez Park (10th & J St.)
12PM: RALLY at the Capitol (west steps, intersection of Capitol Mall and 10th St.)
MARCH ENDORSERS INCLUDE:
BAMN, Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, MALDEF, AFT 2279 (Sacramento City College professors), and many more! (full list below)
On Friday, September 26, 2008, students from across the state will march in Sacramento to the West Steps of the Capitol to call on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the California Dream Act, SB 1301 (Cedillo). If enacted, the California Dream Act would make campus-based financial aid programs available to undocumented California students. Its passage would affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of poor and deserving students without papers who have the legal right to an education, but cannot attend college because they are discriminatorily denied access to state financial aid.
The families of undocumented students pay taxes and make an enormous contribution to California's economy and prosperity, yet their sons and daughters face the same kind of discrimination that young black students experienced in the old Jim Crow south. Undocumented students are unjustifiably denied equal educational opportunities and assigned to permanent second class status.
Every undocumented student who graduates from a California high school knows that from the moment they walk across the stage they will not have the same opportunity to go to college as their classmates, even if they are the valedictorian of their class. It is unfair and unjust to ask undocumented students to accept a situation in which their dreams are deferred because of something they could not control and cannot change—which side of the border they were born on. Having the Dream Act signed into law will establish the principle that undocumented students are the peers and equals of every other young person in California and that their right to develop their full potential will be honored and respected in this state.
BAMN and other rally organizers are inviting Senator Obama to address the Sacramento rally in order to turn his message of hope into reality for so many deserving young people in California. At a similar moment last year, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called on Governor Schwarzenegger to sign the California Dream Act. In 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill on the last day on which he could act. Senator Obama has also spoken out in favor of the passage of a Federal Dream Act.
For the past 15 years, California has been a backwater for the civil rights of Latina/o, black, and immigrant people. Today, we have the opportunity to turn that era around. With the nation poised to elect the first black president, and the right to gay marriage upheld in our state, this is the time to turn a corner in California to end the Jim Crow practices of denying undocumented students their equal right to go to college.
Partial list of supporters of the Sept. 26 March and the California Dream Act:
BAMN
MALDEF - Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Tom Bates, Mayor of Berkeley
MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, Sacramento State
AFT 2279 (Sacramento/Los Rios Community College professors)
Sacramento Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), Sacramento & San Francisco
Diablo Valley College Latino Student Alliance
Diablo Valley College Dream Club
Diablo Valley College Puente
Diablo Valley College Democrats
Los Medanos College La Raza Club, DVC
Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity Inc. (DVC)
Oakland Education Association (OEA)
Noel Gallo, Oakland School Board Director
Chris Dobbins, Oakland School Board Director
St. Cornelius Church, Richmond
St. Isabel Church, Los Angeles
Immigration Law Society (UCLA Law School)
Chicano Consortium, Sacramento
Glaziers Union Local 718
Peace and Justice Committee, St. Mary Magdalene Church, Berkeley
El Puente Program, Merritt Middle College
Joan Hollinger, Professor of Law, UC-Berkeley
Nancy Lemon, Professor of Law, UC-Berkeley
Other supporters of the California Dream Act:
California State PTA
UNITE HERE
The California Student Aid Commission (CSAC)
University of California (UC) Board of Regents
California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees
California Community College Board of Governors
Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU)
Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF)
Asian Pacific American Legal Center of S. California
Los Angeles Unified School District
California Federation of Teachers
California Faculty Association
Associated Students Inc., California
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
Los Angeles Area and San Francisco Chambers of Commerce
California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
South Bay Labor Council
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
A great shift is occurring in our nation. The outcome of the national election is still months away, and yet something much greater has already changed: we have changed. Our generation is gleaming with optimism and excitement. For the millions of young people asserting political demands for the first time, what began as opposition to the Iraq war has grown into a declaration of hope for becoming a nation no longer separated along lines of gender and race. It took only a few months for our generation to brush aside old notions that once seemed invincible. Yesterday’s view was that a fundamental change for the better would have to wait until some indefinite point in the future; today’s view is that such a change is really possible now.
This swift change of views has arrived at an important moment for our nation. Now is the time to remove all the barriers of race and gender that deform opportunity in our nation. UCLA, UC Berkeley and the other elite campuses around the country have been moving backwards since they have implemented state bans on affirmative action programs, against the interest of the student body on these campuses and of Latina/o, black and Native American students. While our generation has distinguished itself for breaking the racial and gender barriers to the American presidency, college campuses in California and other places in the country have experienced a fortification of those barriers against minorities and women gaining a college degree. At UCLA and UC Berkeley the enforcement of Proposition 209 has driven down underrepresented minority enrollment to the token levels that existed forty years ago. We cannot accept these conditions any longer, not in the face of a generation so eager to do away with the old social divisions.
Our generation needs a voice to speak for our own interests and aspirations. Our demands for progress need to be heaerd beyond the vote tallies in primary caucuses – we need to be heard here and now. In this state. On this campus. Everywhere. We need our own leaders, and we need to BE leaders ourselves. We are the leaders of our generation. Join us and work to change our society today.
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
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» Put a banner on your page, post a bulletin, a blog, put us in your top friends, etc. Get the word out! » Want to help out even more? Become a volunteer. Work on organizing, promoting, whatever you do best! (read blog) » Check out our website! NYCProimmigrationProtest. co. nr
As a friend, I invite you to listen to originally produced music on my profile(my beats with shock rap)...if you choose to go "on the journey":P feedback would be much appreciated =). If not it's still good.....at least we're friendz!! =)
Gracias amiga! We are honored to be included among your friends. May there be ✇ PEACE ✇ and JUSTICE and LAND for all Indigenous Peoples. And may there be no more campaigns of terror and genocide in the states of CHIAPAS and OAXACA, Mexico. Please hold our cause in your heart!
PHOTO OF ENDANGERED TRIQUI PEOPLE OF OAXACA, MEXICO
Here's another pic to add. San Jose,Ca-- May 1st'06. I'm lovin' the movement & even more that it's bein' brought by someone at our generation. Thas rare. Keep fighting...
We felt our strength and power when we walked out and marched for our freedom and dignity. It was because of our actions that the racist law HR4437 was eliminated. This year we will keep fighting. We are not going to accept any second-class treatment any longer! The César Chávez holiday has been ignored for seven years now and treated as inferior. We all know and understand that the Chávez holiday represents the struggle for immigrant rights and Latino equality in this nation. By ignoring the Chávez holiday, the school districts are ignoring us, our struggle for equality and our dignity, and that must end now! Whether they want to close down the schools to honor the Chávez holiday or not, we are closing them and forcing everyone to recognize our Movement and honor the Chávez holiday!
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