Dangerous Ideas

I just saw this on a mailing list I’m on. Anti-choice activists gather annually on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade to protest a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. Reproductive freedom activists also stage a demonstration at this time, and are calling out for anyone who believes in the cause to join participate:

Defend Reproductive Freedom, Rally/ March Sat. Jan. 19, San Francisco

Please join community members and activists at the “Forward– Not Back! Reproductive Justice for All!” rally and march to counterprotest the anti-abortion “Walk for Life– West Coast.” Spread the word:

Resist the religious right! Protest their anti-choice march with a vibrant reproductive rights presence on the 35th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade! Saturday, January 19th, 2008. Assemble at Justin Herman Plaza, Market and Embarcadero streets in San Francisco at 10:30am.

This will be the 4th year that 10,000 right wingers will be bussed in to San Francisco for their annual “Walk for Life– West Coast.” Organizers of the “Walk for Life” want to strip women of their rights to a safe and legal abortion.

We need YOU to participate in forming a counter-demonstration by joining the January 19th Coalition. Your ideas, energy and outreach are urgently needed.

We demand: free, accessible abortion on demand; no forced sterilization; health care; pre- and post-natal care and childcare for all; safe and accessible contraceptives; the end of discrimination of GLBTQI and queer communities; sexual freedom and quality sex education.

The next January 19th Coalition meetings are Wednesday January 9th and Wednesday January 16th from 7:00-8:30pm at New Valencia Hall, 625 Larkin Street, Suite 202, San Francisco (a few blocks from Civic Center BART and on the Muni lines 19 and 31).

For more information, please call (415) 864-1278 or email the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights at bacorrinfo@gmail.com. Or check out www.bacorr.org. Everyone is welcome.

If you can’t make a meeting just show up at 10:30am on 1/19/08, Justin Herman Plaza, SF.

From CPA:

Dear Allies,

Tomorrow, Thurs. Nov. 15! Please join us in supporting the Parc Hong Kong workers in their first public protest. We will start promptly at 11 am and end by 11:45 am, so please try to arrive by 10:30 or 10:45.

thank you for your support!

Shaw San Liu Worker Organizing Center Chinese Progressive Association

“Parc Hong Kong” Immigrant Restaurant Workers Protest Wage Theft,

Seek up to 3 Months Backwages

Rally and Press Conference

11:00 am, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007

San Francisco City Hall Steps

On Thurs., Nov. 15, “Parc Hong Kong” restaurant workers are standing up to protest wage theft and demand justice.

Join Chinese immigrant restaurant workers, community supporters and members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors at a rally on Thurs. Nov. 15, from 11 am to 12 pm.

They will protest wage theft of up to 3 months backwages owed, demand that the employer pay all back wages and penalties, and call upon the city government to enforce labor laws in San Francisco.

The Parc Hong Kong Story

Over 40 Chinese immigrant workers are owed up to 3 months of wages (estimated total over $100,00) from the Parc Hong Kong restaurant, a dim sum and seafood restaurant in the Richmond district. Many are new immigrants who did not get a penny for their work.

Time and time again, the employer has offered workers bounced checks instead of paying their wages. In August they shut their doors and have resisted efforts by federal, state and city labor departments to reclaim workers wages.

At the press event, Parc Hong Kong workers will deliver wage claims forms totaling over $100,000 to OLSE and give testimony to the injustice they have experienced. Join us to tell Parc Hong Kong and other irresponsible restaurant owners that the elected leadership and community will not tolerate further wage theft in San Francisco!

For more information, please contact Shaw San Liu at (415) 391-6986 ext. 313 or reply to shawsan at_ cpasf _dot org.

Sorry about the last minute notice, but there’s a vigil this evening for Ruby Rodriguez, who was murdered in San Francisco one week ago today. The press release mentions two other murders of transwomen of color in the past six months just in the Bay Area, which is a crazy high number.

This is from CUAV’s (Community United Against Violence) press release, which I saw on APIQWTC:

Community Mourns Murder of Latina Transgender Woman —————————————-

Requests Attendance at Vigil to Demand Change

San Francisco, California (March 22, 2007) – A Nicaraguan transgender woman, Ruby Rodriguez, 24 years old, was murdered on Friday, March 16, 2007. Her body was found on the corner of Cesar Chavez and Indiana Streets in the Mission District of San Francisco. The murder is currently under investigation by the San Francisco Police Department. Community United Against Violence (CUAV), EL-LA, San Francisco LGBT Community Center, TRANS Project, allies, and community members will hold a community vigil in her honor on Friday, March 23, 2007 at 6:00PM, on the corner of 24th Street and Mission Street in the Mission District.

Organizers request that the community bring a white candle to the vigil. There will also be an additional altar set up on Cesar Chavez and Indiana Street, and community members are encouraged to bring flowers, photographs, cards and good wishes to this site. Let us not forget Ruby. She was an exceptional woman who was intent on improving her life. Ruby participated in various support groups and language classes, and idolized Chicana singer Selena.

This murder comes at the heels of at least two other violent deaths of transgender women of color in the San Francisco Bay Area over the past six months. Transgender people, particularly low-income transgender women of color, are disproportionately poor, homeless, criminalized and imprisoned as a result of systemic discrimination in our daily attempts to access safe housing, healthcare, employment, and education. Unfortunately, Ruby’s murder is not an exception, but an everyday fear for many transgender people who are targeted and brutalized by institutions and society at large. Our communities mourn Ruby’s death and ask for a renewed commitment to real safety for transgender communities. It is vital that the Mayor’s Office, the San Francisco Police Department, and the District Attorney’s Office work to end the cycles of criminalization, poverty, and violence in transgender communities and communities of color.

Please direct any questions about the vigil to Tina D’Elia or Alexandra Byerly. If anyone has any information regarding Ruby’s murder, please contact Inspector Karen Lynch at (415) 553-1388 or Inspector Tom Cleary at (415) 553-9569 of the SFPD Homicide Unit.

The next protest against Monster Cable is this Wed., Feb. 21, 2007, at Union Square (San Francisco). Among others, you can see Hei Gu (Chinese drumming group) there with big red drums. From CPA’s Justice for Monster Cable Workers blog (slightly reformatted for clarity; I think this must have been pasted from another medium):

Weekly Boycott Action

Chinese New Year’s, But No Red Envelope for Workers

Wed., Feb. 21, 12 pm - 1:30 pm

Meeting at Union Square, dowtown San Francisco

Come spend your lunchtime with laid-off workers, community allies and musicians!

BOYCOTT MONSTER CABLE! After months of protests and no progress with Monster Cable, laid-off workers have launched a boycott of Monster Cable products. Support the boycott and Monster Cable laid-off workers in their demands that the company:

• Provide us with a just and fair compensation package which recognizes our years of service
• Contribute to a Community Transition Fund to support laid-off workers in vocational training and job development

Just in time for the holidays, Monster Cable laid off employees and outsourced their jobs overseas. These employees have worked for Monster Cable for years and are mostly immigrants. The Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) is organizing a protest to crash their holiday party at 1 p.m. Friday (today!). Details from their mailing (reformatted):

MONSTER CABLE’S HOLIDAY PARTY ACTION! FRI, DEC 22ND AT 1 PM IN BRISBANE —————————————-

Last weekend, over 100 laid-off Monster Cable workers and their community supporters held a press conference and holiday march for justice, delivering candy canes to major electronics retailers who carry Monster Cable Products, such as Circuit City, Cambridge SoundWorks and Guitar City for them to call on CEO Noel Lee’s “holiday spirit” to fairly resolve the concerns of laid-off workers. Thank you for all that came out - but its not over, we need YOUR help for our next important action before Christmas.

Noel Lee, the CEO, is having a holiday party at his factory in Brisbane this Friday, December 22nd at 1 pm and we want to crash it! Since Monster Cable Stole the workers’ Christmas, its time to crash his Christmas party. It will be FUN! In the holiday spirit, we will sing Chinese and English Christmas carols and give a nice Christmas gift and card to Noel Lee!

We know the holidays are near and that everyone is very busy this time of the year, but this is the final action before Christmas. Please make it to this important action, details are below: >

• Date: Friday, December 22, 2006
• Time: 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
• Place: Meet at Bayshore Blvd & Geneva Ave (in Daly City near Brisbane) - we will shuttle people over to the location - Please Call 510-449-1172 if you arrive later.

BACKGROUND On Oct. 20, 2006, Monster Cable Products, Inc. laid off over 120 production workers from their Brisbane facility, outsourcing their jobs to low-wage labor overseas to increase profits. The company is a highly profitable company which sells high end audiovisual cables, home theater equipment, etc. The laid-off workers are mostly monolingual middle-aged Chinese, Vietnamese, Latino, and Eastern European immigrants who worked an average of over 8 years and as many as 20 years for the company. Laid off workers want a just severance as with previous laid off workers and want the company to address their long term unemployment issues by contributing to a Community-Worker Transition Fund. Last year alone, Monster Cable’s estimated sales were over $300 million dollars.

*MAJOR RETAILERS THAT CARRY MONSTER PRODUCTS*

• Best Buy
• Home Depot
• Radio Shack
• Frys Electronics
• CompUSA
• Target
• Circuit City
• Cambridge SoundWorks
• Guitar Center
• Apple Store

The new year looks like it’s going to be bringing long lines. Matier and Ross report that Bay Area bridge tolls are increasing, and a lot of people are going to be surprised. This will be a bummer for people used to paying $3 going through the tolls, but it’ll be bad for everyone since it’ll probably slow traffic down considerably. FasTrak users will get a discount and will get to wait a little less, so if you drive over any Bay Area Bridges, now’s a good time to get FasTrak if you don’t already have it. And, of course, take BART when you can.

I was at yesterday’s May Day march in San Francisco. Quite a turnout! And a very different demographic than the ones against the Iraq war (although, of course, there’s noticeable overlap). I marched with a group of Chinese immigrants and children of Chinese immigrants, including some friends from CJWP. I also met my friend Thu at Civic Center – that was an interesting challenge!

Here’s a photo of marchers (from my cell phone camera):

!Photo of march for immigrant rights.

I read a few news articles after the march. It sounds like several businesses were affected, including a few that had to close down operations. Hopefully, this will ultimately result in positive change, such as HR 4437 being replaced with something saner (e.g., something that’s not as crazy as deporting 11 million people or charging teachers as criminals because their students might be undocumented immigrants). Of course, there’s always danger of backlash. And, in an election year, some politicians may be using some pretty weird logic in coming up with their positions.

Two different groups will be reporting back on the World Social Forum the next two weeks. I heard about the first one from Gaba, and it’s a World Social Forum report back from the perspective of community media. Details:

!Another Latin America is Possible!
March 4th @ 4 p.m.
3030b 16th street (at Mission)
San Francisco, CA 94103

Presenters: WANDA DABKOSKA, Third World Majority; ANDREA QUIJADA, Young Women United; GABA, Indymedia; PETRI DISH, Prometheus Radio Project; SYDNEY LEVY, Media Alliance; MIC, KPFA Radio

Includes video screening: Puente Llaguno de Angel Palacios about the coup d’etat against Chavez in 2002

The following Friday, several East Bay groups will be doing their World Social Forum report back in Chinatown. This will

Another World *IS* Possible!
Friday, March 10th, 2006, 6-8 PM
Asian Resource Center Lobby
310-8th Street in Chinatown (downtown Oakland)
Close to 12th St./City Center BART station

Sponsored by the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Filipinos for Affirmative Action (FAA), the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR), the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA) and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC).

Planned Parenthood Golden Gate is sponsoring an event tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 21) to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

In addition to acknowledge how far we’ve come since 1973, it also stands in contrast to another event the same day. From the PPGG Web site:

On the same day, the 2nd annual “Walk for Life” will be in town. As you may recall, last year PPGG took the lead in organizing a response. This year, we hope to counter their presence with a positive event that will help push our movement forward and allow us to reclaim the moral highground and not amplify the message of our anti-choice visitors. Allowing women to control their own bodies and futures is the only moral choice and we are proud that San Francisco and the Bay Area know this to be true. Please join us.