Above: Thousands of Unionists and others rally against Schwarzenegger's attacks upon education and labor.

Schwarzenegger is on the run as thousands of angry people protest his policies favoring corporations and the wealthy while shafting most citizens. An extraordinary groundswell of resistance is occurring as Schwarzenegger engages in a desperate attempt to shore up support by appealing to the neo-fascist right, as epitomized by his recent statements of support for anti-immigrant vigilantes.
All to no avail, as his numbers continue to dive in polls and previously-mesmerized Californians continue to wake up and fight back.

His latest move is to support several ballot measures that wiould deprive unions, the largest organized force composed of ordinary citizens, of their right to expend funds on campaigns intended to influence legislative and electoral struggles. Arnold apparently thinks that his own True Lies should be able to monopolize the airwaves with no response from those he is attacking.

Simultaneously, he is attempting to pass a proposition making teachers' salaries dependent upon performance on standardized tests, a move that would penalize teachers who have chosen to serve the disadvantaged, creating even more inequity as money shifts even more toward wealthier districts, and teachers flee the profession for more rewarding employment, while those remaining are forced to "teach to the test," a sure recipe for destroying pedagogy and dumbing down the entire teaching profession.

At this event, I saw college professors, grade school teachers, school service workers, students and other concerned citizens out together and united around their common goal of defending education. And, I saw people of all races and nationalities coming together as well in defense of their rights. This is not just a protest, but a very hopeful MOVEMENT that is coming together.

In Los Angeles, this new movement is threatening to dovetail with the African-American / Latino / Liberal / Labor alliance that recently swept Antonio Villaraigosa into the mayor's office. In fact, members of ACORN, the community organization / network founded by legendary organizer Anthony Thigpenn, who put together the African-American / Latino alliance that helped to power Villaraigosa's campaign, were quite prominent and visible at this event.

We are getting stronger, we are getting smarter, we are getting TOGETHER, and we are getting IT TOGETHER, and through our actions we are EDUCATING the people of this state to think for themselves. Education is the foundation of democracy, and an educated people will be the downfall of the California's wannabe ubermensch, Schwarzenegger, and his indecent ballot propositions.

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I never believed that a corporation was a person until I met this shady figure at the demonstration

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Arnold Schwarzenneger is a horrible governor, if we can even call him that! I can complain because I did vote and it WASN'T for him. Can't anyone see that actors like him cannot be taken seriously?? He acted his way into office and now even the people that voted for him are protesting against him. EDUCATION should be a priority.

He believes that because of our deficit, education should suffer the most. Evidently, this is the stupidest governor we have ever had.

Kudos to those protesting. We will fight back and we will win. If we have to take him out of office, so be it.

Californians, we are smarter than he is. So awkward how he is supporting the anti-immigrant vigilantes, when HE came to the U.S. illegally, and still he can't pronounce words correctly. Arnold, YOU are an immigrant, you should watch what you say because our nation was built on immigration, and if it weren't for it, you wouldn't be in office!

There is more public protest and outrage toward Arnold than Davis.

Arnold is speaking at Santa Monica Collge June 14th.

I can hardly wait.

The socialist pigs never saw the rise of Arnold coming. Good.

SOMEONE has to make the hard choices that will balance this State's budget, before it turns into another aztlan shithole.

The fucking mexicans can't run their own country and American 'Hispanics' sure as hell won't be able to govern properly here.

BTW, imagine the nerve of socialist government school teachers begging for more pay when year after year morons who still can't read, write or do math after 12 years of liberal indoctrination are unleashed on society. Outrageous.

goosestepper: "imagine the nerve of socialist government school teachers begging for more pay when year after year morons who still can't read, write or do math after 12 years of liberal indoctrination are unleashed on society."


....well, you should have studied harder.

Obviously I DID study harder. I even know how to use a library. Ever been in one of those?

That's why I'm a self-reliant free-thinker and not a liberal dumbass slave to emotions.

brownshirt: "I even know how to use a library."

WOW...I'm IMPRESSED...you know how to use a LIBRARY!!!

...next you'll tell me you know your ABC's and can count to ten!

Khmer Rouge Killer: ...next you'll tell me you know your ABC's and can count to ten!

I also know my ABC's and can count to a hundred, even blindfolded!

...y'know, most people take books home from the library to READ them, not to BURN them...

...just in case you were wondering....

The "socialist pigs" didn't like him all along. They told people not to vote for him.

Moderates need to listen to the leftists more.

(In this situation, it's more about S reneging on a budget balancing deal. Education voluntarily tightened their belts, to support the cause. Now, S isn't restoring their budgets.)

I almost feel guilty about using the epithet 'socialist pig.' Almost. 1) Too many loon-leftists accuse all who oppose their views of being nazis, when there have been no nazis for 60 years now, barring a few subnormals here and there. Name-calling and adhominem attacks versus workable ideas is why the left is imploding today. 2) I don't care for people who WANT government to have total control over people's lives, no matter how 'benevolent' they seem (and don't they always seem "nice"...at first). Socialists want to make a deal with this devil based on an erroneous assumption that people are basically good. When a socialist government suddenly decides one day to seize your house and all your belongings they do, and no one can stop them. That kind of absolute power is not worth fighting for, only fighting against. Arnold has to clean up the wreckage of the financial typhoon left by liberals, a herculean task. The truth is the schools are getting more money now than ever before. They're bitching because they want some insane percentage of revenue for schools and want it to stay as high whether the economy is good or not. For the crappy quality of their output, they're not worth it at any cost.

First of all, I would like to know if the person who posted the following remark consciously considers himself to be a racist:

"The fucking mexicans can't run their own country and American 'Hispanics' sure as hell won't be able to govern properly here."

If you do not consider yourself to be racist, then you are deluded.

To explain it piece by piece: You start from the premise that Mexico is badly governed (as compared to what?). You then conclude that all persons of Mexican descent (even if born in the U.S.) are categorically (one must presume, genetically) incapable of governing "properly."

Now, there was a time when Germany was *very* badly governed (I'm talking about the Third Reich - hopefully you would agree that that was not good governance?). Would you conclude from that that all Germans were categorically incapable of good governance?

As another example, the U.S. currently has a Federal debt on the order of the annual GNP. Some would say that that is evidence of bad goverance here. Would you conclude from that that citizens of the U.S. are categorically incapable of good governance?

So, you have made a dismissive and negative generalization about an entire people based upon their ethnicity. But, there are other groups, including your own, about which similar things could be said, but you have not said them, and probably would not agree with them.

Therefore, your generalization is not rational, and so you clearly have other reasons for making it, and I submit to you that those reasons include racial hatred. That is undoubtedly why the Minutemen, for example, are focused upon immigration from Mexico and not from European countries.

There are probably some profound psychological issues underlying your racism, and you might want to ask yourself what they might be. Possibly, a failure to form relationships with others around a positive basis (e.g., such as teachers and students have) has caused you to seek out hatred of "the other" as a negative basis for relating to other members of your own racial group having similar psychological handicaps to your own. Or, maybe you are an insecure person who has experienced a lot of negativity (possibly from a parent) and need to disparage others in order to feel better about yourself. You are the only one who can discover this and deal with it. You will not be a healthy and whole person until you do so.

Your statements also exhibit a pattern that is called "blaming the victim." For example, many of the problems of Central America result from U.S. policies, but you do not acknowledge that, instead blaming the people of those nations who have suffered under those policies.

Another example of this is your remarks about the school system. California's schools used to be among the best in the nation, but now they are among the worst. You blame teachers for this, without looking at other factors, such as the economic well-being of the student population, government funding of the schools, and so on. And, you propose no solutions at all, but simply declare that teachers should receive less pay because they are supposedly undeserving.

The job of teachers has been made much harder by these other factors. I know several teachers who have paid large sums out of pocket for supplies that are not available in the classrooms. Class sizes have increased, as well. And yet, you blame the teachers, even though they, along wth students, have been victims of these other changes.

Given this irrational viewpoint, it is hardly surprising that your proposed responses to the school crisis have no relationship to the problem at hand. How will giving teachers less pay improve the quality of our schools? You exhibit no interest in that question at all. You presently do not seem to be considering this complex social problem in a constructive manner.

These things are so obvious to most people on these lists that they do not bother to state them. Instead, they just get angry at you. You are probably used to that, but no doubt you blame your critics instead of considering your own behavior.

As human beings we are all capable of change, and I hope that you will reconsider your attitudes and seek out ways to relate more constructively with those around you. This could open up a world to you with many possibilities that are not presently within your reach.

Socialists aren't out to seize houses.

The only time that seems to happen lately is in eminent domain situations, when some big business in cahoots with the local government buy up houses to build some idiotic shopping mall. Usually, they go after the poor people (as usual), and the people making the money are the landlords.

The budget mess was largely the result of the energy crisis. That wasn't a liberal thing. It was created by a bipartisan effort to turn energy into a free market -- it was a neoliberal capitalist thing. The experiment failed, Enron got off with little retribution, and the people are left paying the tab, as usual. Will we ever learn?

Due to the crisis, it became obvious that Davis was on his way out. The right wing brought out Schwartzennegger as their ringer. The guy smells like a Democrat, because he's not a white-haired San Diegan... people were fooled.

Everyone had to reduce their budgets, but implicit in any belt tightening is the idea that your budget will be restored, with all the scheduled increases, some time when the budget is doing better. The budgets haven't been restored to their expected levels.

When you're in a polticial fight, you always demand more than you should get. Then you can negotiate. That's all the CTA and the other unions are doing. They need to threathen the governer's power to get their budget restored.

This was a very significant labor / left event involving thousands of people. I can understand wanting to highlight coverage of the confrontation with the Minutemen, but please keep the thousands of organized working people who attended this event in perspective as compared to the hundreds attending the Minuteman protest. Also, consider that this event was a major diss to Arnold, who is the most prominent supporter of the Minutemen.

What I'm saying is that there may be a certain bias at Indymedia toward angry confrontational protests to the extent that iimportant, positive, potentially WINNING movements of people acting as an organized force around specific, positive goals, are overlooked, and the lack of focus on this event just might be a sign of that in action. Both types of actions have their place and neither one nor the other should be disregarded.

This article has now fallen off the front page and placing it (and the additional photos by Marcus) on the center column would give it the attention and emphasis that the event deserves.

Thanks.

This was a very significant labor / left event involving thousands of people. I can understand wanting to highlight coverage of the confrontation with the Minutemen, but please keep the thousands of organized working people who attended this event in perspective as compared to the hundreds attending the Minuteman protest. Also, consider that this event was a major diss to Arnold, who is the most prominent supporter of the Minutemen.

What I'm saying is that there may be a certain bias at Indymedia toward angry confrontational protests to the extent that iimportant, positive, potentially WINNING movements of people acting as an organized force around specific, positive goals, are overlooked, and the lack of focus on this event just might be a sign of that in action. Both types of actions have their place and neither one nor the other should be disregarded.

This article has now fallen off the front page and placing it (and the additional photos by Marcus) on the center column would give it the attention and emphasis that the event deserves.

Thanks.

(Note: First post apparently did not go through so re-posted. Apologies if both eventually show up).