Ok, folks. First grassroots ACTION ALERT OF THE YEAR 2008.
Please modify/use it as you would like to forward and post this in
useful locations. Let us know offline that you’ve posted it to
encourage us!!!
January 22, 2008
Hey activists:
Happy MLK Day!!! Bless his memory and his work.
We are Friends of Brad Will, part of a coalition organizing against
Plan Mexico. Friends of Brad WIll was formed by us - friends and family
of the u.s. journalist who was murdered by Mexican government officials
in Oaxaca Mexico in October 2006. Brad was murdered while reporting on
the teachers strike and social movement to end corruption which emerged
from it. Despite a U.S. journalist being killed by Mexican Government
officials in the middle of the day - an incident with numerous
witnesses and which Brad caught on his own camera
(http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19485) - there has been no
prosecution of those murdered and the government of Mexico has been
protecting the murderers and claiming activists killed Brad.
As many of you know the Bush Administration secretly negotiated with
Mexican President Calderon to expand the ‘drug war’ into Mexico. The
outcome of these negotiations is Plan Mexico.
Stopping Plan Mexico has been named by the Center for International
Policy as one of the top three challenges to protect/defend attempts to
build more just and peaceful societies in Latin America. They write
that it is among “[t]hree challenges [which] come to mind, not because
they are the most transcendent, but because they are viable and
reasonable—and we cannot conceive of a constructive and coherent policy
in the hemisphere without these first steps. In November, the United
Steelworkers declared their opposition to Plan Mexico. Last week, they
demanded Congressional hearings to ensure that the widespread
opposition to Plan Mexico registered with the Democratic Congress.
Friends of Brad Will have been organizing to stop Plan Mexico and need
you to take action to stop Plan Mexico.
Action Steps (please let us know when you’ll be sending out this action
alert so we can issue ours simultaneously)
We are asking activists to call relevant U.S. committee chairs to
demand accountability for Brad’s murder and the murder of many teachers
and their supporters to precede any provision of U.S. taxpayer-funded
lethal aid to the corrupt and brutal Mexican security forces and
government.
Plan Mexico must be made fully public and there must be hearings.
(Engel and Lantos have held hearings only inviting witnesses who were
supportive of the security plan).
Reforms to the Mexican judiciary and police must precede any lethal aid
being given to these corrupt institutions.
Call relevant Congress members to urge that they take a strong position
against Plan Mexico:
Congress member Elliot Engel (Chair of Western Hemispheric Affairs
Subcommittee): 202-225-2464
Congress member Tom Lantos (Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee):
202-225-3531
Congress member Nita Lowey (Chair of Foreign Operations
Subcommittee):202-225-6506
Also - if you have time - please call the offices of candidates for
President to urge that they take a strong position against Plan Mexico:
Senator Hillary Clinton: 212-688-6262
fmr. Senator Edwards: 919 636-3131
Congressman Kucinich: 202-225-5871
Senator Barack Obama: 202-224-2854
If you can make an appointment and meet with these representatives,
that would be very powerful. And if you have activist relatives or
friends ask them to make these calls too!
Thanks.
Robert
Robert Jereski
Congressional Liaison
Friends of Brad Will (NYC-Chapter)
www.friendsofbradwill.org
Lobbying/Meeting suggestions (contact Friends of Brad Will if you would
like support for your lobbying efforts):
Give Engel/Lowey/Lantos’s local office a call and say you’d like to
meet w/her/him or their respective foreign policy staffer.
Get a folder and make a few copies of articles about Plan Mexico and a
statement from the Steelworkers against it. Also a copy of the action
alert on friendsofbradwill targeting lantos (w/his face on it).
Whatever else you can put in there that seems important (some Amnesty
reports on corruption/abuse in Mexico have been particularly damning).
Ask whether they are satisfied with the investigation of U.S.
journalist Brad Will’s murder by the mexican authorities.
Tell them that Bush’s negotiation of plan mexico to give $ and weapons
to the unaccountable mexican police/military is exactly the wrong
signal to give the Mexican Government after a year during which they’ve
refused to arrest and put on trial those seen killing a u.s.
journalist.
Why should it matter that these were police offices and the mayor of a
town who killed him? These members of institutions Bush wants to
support w/’drug war’ money should not be above the law.
Tell them we expect them to be out front of this issue, showing
leadership and making sure other Democrats recognize:
i. Accountability for the murder of a u.s. journalist must precede any
u.s. taxpayer funded military aid/weaponry/training;
ii. The security initiative - Plan Mexico - is part of a failed ‘drug
war’ policy which will spread violence w/out addressing demand. Its
contents should be MADE PUBLIC and it should be introduced as a
stand-alone bill and voted on on its own merits;
iii. Reforms of the Mexican judiciary and police should precede any
lethal aid; otherwise, Bush would be gambling w/people’s lives.
Show us an end to impunity and corruption - the arrest and conviction
of Brad Will’s murderers. Then we’ll consider supporting providing
lethal aid.
January 16, 2008 11:07 AM Eastern Time
News From USW: USW Seeks Hearings After Mexican Police Attack Mine
Workers
Steelworkers President Questions $1.4 Billion Security Funding Package
PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–News From USW: The United Steelworkers
(USW) today called for congressional hearings on President George W.
Bush’s proposed “Merida Initiative” to provide $1.4 billion to Mexican
security forces after federal and state police attacked striking
workers at Grupo Mexico’s Cananea copper mine in Sonora, where ten
union members were injured. A thousand federal police are now occupying
the mine and the surrounding area.
In a letter to Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, and Rep. David Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee, USW International President Leo W. Gerard urged both
committees to convene hearings on labor rights violations in Mexico as
part of their examination of the administration’s funding request; that
they develop specific labor rights benchmarks that Mexico must meet in
order to receive funding; and that the entire funding package be
directed toward strengthening human rights and the rule of law.
“The attack on the Cananea miners is just the most recent in a series
of repressive actions by the Mexican government,” Gerard wrote. “The
Calderón administration’s flagrant violations of workers’ fundamental
rights to organize and bargain and its continuing use of security
forces to assault unarmed workers, raise serious questions about the
desirability of providing Mexico with additional security funding.”
Gerard pointed out that the USW is second to none in defending our
nation’s security, but added that our security is best preserved by
defending human rights before lambasting the Mexican government for its
unnecessary brutality in trying to repress the striking workers.
“Mexico cannot be allowed to violate workers’ human rights with
impunity under the pretense of securing borders and combating
narco-trafficking,” he said.
The USW represents 850,000 workers in the United States and Canada
employed in the metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and
other industries as well as the service and public sectors.
Note to Editors: There should be an accent over the “o” in “Calderón”
above.
Contacts
USW
Tony Montana, 412-562-2592
ge di Google
