Baldwin Park Round Two
A lesson in movement building and keeping the peace by any means necessary

A report from a volunteer security person

There was a lot riding on the event that happened this last Saturday, June 25th. There was much more activity going on aside from the presence of the Minutemen/SOS in Baldwin Park. More than simply protesting the Minutemen/SOS was our effort to coordinate our own event, our own protest, build our own movement and to support the local organizers from the Baldwin Park community in their own struggle.


Within our own demonstration, which was surrounded and contained by an army of police and separated from the Minutemen/SOS camp by approximately 100 yards we had to be alert for anything that would disrupt the event and allow the police (who were armed to the teeth with assault rifles and much more) to repress our cultural protest and our growing movement. We understand well from the experience of the Chicano Movement that repression on behalf of the police is almost always instigated by “protesters” amongst the people, whether they are paid police agents or just plain idiots who don’t know what they are doing. We also understand that repression on behalf of the state has been effective in destroying movements and the people’s fighting spirit and morale, especially when organizations are not in a position to respond to repression in an effective manner, either by legal or other means. So as organizers of the event, and especially as security personnel for the event, we had to keep the peace by all means in order for this movement to grow and to keep the men, women and children who attended from being hurt, beaten or gassed by the police.


Errors and Lessons from Baldwin Park 1
Due to the number of people who participated and the lack of security for the event, Baldwin Park 1 was a free for all event. Certain organizations who attended broke unity with the event and split the demonstrations into two factions. People left the permitted protest area to confront the Minutemen/SOS face to face and ultimately put the entire event at risk of being called an “unlawful assembly” and repressed by the police. Known agent provocateurs such as Frank “Mohammed” Martinez, dressed in Muslim garb were a part of this crowd and eventually, some unknown person threw a water bottle at the opposing side. This and other undisciplined acts compromised the whole event, but luckily, there was no further response either by the police or the Minutemen/SOS. Our concern here is not so much for the safety of the Minutemen/SOS, or a “fear” of the police and their guns (which any unarmed person in their right minds should have some fear of, especially if you’re Mexican or African), but for the working-class people from the community who brought their babies and their children with them. Our concern is for these people who have never come out to protest anything before, who are outraged enough to begin to take a political stance at this particular moment and who we need to protect in order so that they can come out again to the next meeting or other political function. Our concern is for the future of a movement we are trying to build which is the only means we have to deal with people like the Minutemen and the bigger problems we have and will continue to have once they leave the scene.


Having learned from the errors of the first Baldwin Park demonstration, the organizers of Baldwin Park Round Two made the efforts to prevent these situations from arising again. In order to create a more comfortable environment for the community to participate, the protest was organized as a cultural event with live music, teatro and piñatas. It was agreed that since these Minutemen/SOS fear or hate our culture, or languages and our history so much, we would counter-protest them with our culture, our languages and our history. This would be an alternative to just yelling and screaming at the Minutemen. A security team was formed with the combined efforts of the Harmony Keepers and Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo along with others and a permitted protest area was designated and announced to everyone with the cautionary note stating that should anyone, or any group protest outside of the designated area, they would be on their own and would no longer be a part of the organized protest and if they were to leave the area, they were not to not be allowed to re-enter our demonstration. In other words, if they were going to create a confrontation with the police, they would deal with it themselves and would not bring the community along with them.


Having set the terms for how the protest was going to take place, the event had gone much calmer and smoother than the previous one and allowed for a clear line to be drawn between a disciplined and organized demonstration versus any other type of demonstration which only invites for agent provocateurs to do their thing. As the culture and art took their place in the event and took the focus away from the Minutemen a few incidents took place which tested the emotions and the discipline of the organizers and the protesters. On a few occasions, Minutemen and SOS members deliberately walked either through the permitted protest area or very near by the area, occasionally animating the crowd. Our security team was on the scene to tell the police about these intruders and to calm down the crowd in order to avoid confrontations.


Also, the so called “socialists” had decided, for reasons only known to them, to demonstrate on the other side of the taped area which separated the permitted area of protest from the non-permitted area. All they needed to do was step a few feet to the right in order to be in the permitted area, but again, for reasons only known to them, they chose to be on their own and disunite with the cultural demonstration. Their first attempt to gather a crowd and animate the few people from the community who joined them did not last long, especially after our security team warned the people that anyone on the other side of the tape was not in a permitted area of protest and were on their own. They again went back to the main area where the cultural demonstration was taking place to get some more people, and marched back to the same un-permitted location. This time they had a few more people with them. At first the police did not seem to react to this situation, so we did not make a big deal out of it either. But then it became apparent that the police had called for back up, so once again, we announced to them that anyone on the other side of the tape was not in the permitted protest area, that these actions would only provoke a police confrontation and all they needed to do was be on the other side of the yellow tape to do the same thing they were doing, but without putting people at risk. Apparently, most of the people there weren’t ready for a confrontation with the police, so the “socialists” were left by themselves. They eventually left.

One final provocation took place which could only be summed up as a clear attempt to sabotage the demonstration and provoke a violent confrontation, and not between us and the Minutemen, but between us and the police. A Minutemen/SOS supporter had again walked nearby our protest area, at a time when the event was at its peak in terms of the number of people who were in attendance. This blue-eyed white male bearing a large American flag hanging from a stick quietly walked by the crowd of angry Chicanos and stood next to the police in the same un-permitted area of protest where the “socialists” had been an hour or so earlier. He did not say a thing, he just walked by, and stood in one place long enough for the angry young Chicanos to gather around him and get even angrier. Our security team had been escorting him out in order to prevent a provocation, but since at this point he wasn’t leaving, and the police weren’t doing anything about it, we had formed a circle around him. This Minutemen/SOS supporter stood right next to a line of police, so that if someone would have thrown an object, or tried to push or hit him, the police were right there to come down on the people.


One of our security members began to inform the crowd with a bullhorn that they must calm down and get behind the yellow line. The security person informed everyone about how this idiotic person was clearly there to provoke an incident and cause for the police to get involved. People then hesitantly began to back away, while the rest of the security team began to tell the rest of the crowd to move back.


Then a fully armed platoon of police dressed in riot gear, donning assault rifles, shotguns and hand guns, arrived and placed this person under arrest. They could have easily taken this person across the police barricade and carried him away without any further hassles, but they chose to parade him back along side of the area where the main event was taking place. The angry crowd of Chicanos, Mexicanos and other protestors followed the police and the security team quickly formed a buffer between the rifle yielding police and the angry crowd. This was an intense moment, especially being in the middle of it all, for as you looked to your right, you literally saw assault rifles and police with their fingers on the triggers almost in your face, and on the other side the emotional crowd of Chicanos and Mexicanos who could barely contain their anger. We had to maintain the peace at all costs. The European-American was eventually taken away and the security team was quick to sum up this action as a provocation by this individual and the state. The crowd was informed in English and Spanish how important it was for us to remain peaceful and disciplined, and that this person was only trying to create an incident in which the police would have a reason to end the event and keep it from being successful.

This incident was what tested the character, the organization and the discipline of the entire event and we met the challenge successfully. This is where the victory occurred on Saturday, that we were able to maintain the peace and discipline by any means in order for our people to struggle another day. The biggest enemy we faced on Saturday was not the Minutemen, nor the SOS, nor even the colonial state. The hardest enemy to deal with is the internal enemy, our lack of organization, our lack of discipline and our lack of willingness to unite with other forces who struggle for the same cause and which keeps us from getting our shit together and which allows for the state to do their job that much easier. We succeeded in building and controlling our own movement.

Ricardo
MUDP

The European-American was eventually taken away and the security team was quick to sum up this action as a provocation by this individual and the state.

At least the AMERICAN who threw nothing at anyone, police included, is a tax-paying citizen, whereas the protesting illegals on the other side, with the gaul to hoist a mexican rag on American soil, are breaking the law just being here.

Walk down an American City street, with an American Flag..and that made the blood boil of the young chicano's...? Am i missing something here..

> It is now a crime to walk down an American
> City street, with an American Flag

That's the typical IQ of an SOS/MM clown right there, folks.

You talking to me? Calling me a clown? How poignant coming from you. Is this your way of a propitious answer to a serious question? Insulting someone you do not know, to leverage some kind of hegemony over me? Can you not answer the question Fred? It is a simple question and I'll rephrase it for you just this one time.

Is it now a crime for senior citizens, and any other citizen, to peacefully demostrate against the statements of others without a group of people throwing bottled water and screaming in their faces?

Can an American citizen who has served in ww2 and born in the Southland carry the Flag of his Nation without the threat of physical violence?

Clown? I could sink to your level and demostrate a wrath of justifible insults upon you that would make you shrivel but I am a better Clown than you...

Answer the question..

Peace.

Hey Fred and Fed Up... break it up or take it outside. Personal attacks get us nowhere...

SSSSSSSSSSSSS!

i agree with ricardo thats exaclty what happened, but thanks to the harmony keepers for there good work, next time we will be more and more organized!

Baldwin Park 2: Statement of a Harmony Keeper

In Honor of All of you who made Baldwin Park 2 a unified and potent expression of the heart and will of our People .

Dear Sisters and Brothers;

As a member of the Aztlan Mexica Nation Harmony Circle – the Harmony Keepers – I want to thank all of you whose thoughtfulness, focus, spirit and power made Baldwin Park 2 a unified and potent expression of the heart and will of our People -- and we want to thank all of you who helped invoke and defend of the spirit of the land. Tlazocamati.

We came to Baldwin Park 2 embracing the spirit of the young Tongva medicine woman – Toypurinah – who united her people at a time when their ceremonies were threatened by the invading Spanish, and who led them to rise up in defense of their land of their self-determination.

We honor all who do likewise.

We are the red shirt people. You have seen us at Baldwin Park 1 and 2, and at Garden Grove, and at other batallas where the spirit and future of our people is in the balance.

You might have thought of us as “security.” But we are, in reality, something other than that.

We are a warrior society – an akicita, to use the term of the plains Indians – and our task is to safeguard the ceremonies and traditions, the cultural integrity of our Peoples.

Our outlook is indigenous, our leadership is indigenous and our practices are indigenous.

We come to keep Harmony – our work is an extension of the purposes of our indigenous elders and spiritual leaders. All indigenous ceremony is focused on Harmony. Our task is simple – to assure that the balance and power in the ceremony – as led by the spiritual guardians of this land - remains undisturbed. We do so by keeping harmony in the environment in which the ceremony is taking place.

Such work requires, first of all, a will and an ability to extend oneself to respect all those present. It requires a consciousness of the subtleties of the energies of people, of the environment and of events. To keep the harmony one must be attuned to it.

Our approach is, simply put, not European. It does not reduce to “security” - we are not security guards protecting anyone’s property.

We do our work, not for the hatred of our enemies, but for the love of our People.

We consciously and at a very practical and direct level follow the leadership of indigenous elders and of the traditions that have been maintained in the face of over 500 years of genocide aimed at destroying those traditions.

The traditions are strong.

They have withstood every effort to eradicate them. Our purpose is to ensure their continuation. As Tia Oros of the Zuni people has pointed out, “Indigenous peoples of the Americas live on intimate terms with the shadow of terrorism.”

In their “Basic Call to Consciousness: The Hau De No Sau Nee Message to the Western World,” the “Iroquois” people make it very clear: “The Indo-Europeans attacked every aspect of North America with unparalleled zeal. The Native people were ruthlessly destroyed because they were an unassimilable element to the civilizations of the West”

They tell us that Spirituality is the Highest Form of Political Consciousness.

We are in accord with them.

And the traditions teach us self-reliance. We rely on the spiritual powers, on the awareness of our People, and on ourselves.

We do not in any case rely on the powers of the state, or on the police powers of the colonizer to protect us. Five hundred years of genocide points clearly to the reality that we cannot, under any circumstance, depend on our oppressor for our well being, much less our liberation or rights to self determination.

Our purpose has never been and will never be to “tell the police about...intruders and to calm down the crowd in order to avoid confrontations.”

Finally, while we sought to avoid any situation in which riot police might be brought down on our people in a situation in which our children were present, we respect all forms of struggle, and those who engage in them. There were strong and heartfelt reasons why our people cheered and saluted the bravery of our returning warriors that day in Baldwin Park.

We respect all of you who came with good hearts, and recognize that, in the end, everything worked together, weaving a whole, in the way of nature, that comprised a ceremony of depth and dimension, one that honored the land and the ways of all our peoples.

In the Spirit of Toypurina,
A Harmony Keeper

Author: A Harmony Keeper

Hey! Great! We managed to keep from degrading into a pack of wild animals.

Yay for our side!

Douchebags...all o' ya'

ISO statement about BPII

Please circulate the statement below to any concerned groups and individuals in the anti-Minutement/SOS movement. We hope that we can get past this episode and continue the urgent work ahead of us, together.

In solidarity,
The LA ISO, along with friends
______________________________________

Los Angeles ISO statement regarding the May 28th Coalition “Letter of Resignation” and other attacks on the ISO’s role in the anti-SOS/Minutemen Movement

• The International Socialist Organization (ISO), side by side with other groups and individuals in California, Arizona, Texas, will continue to organize against the Minutemen Project, Save Our State (SOS), the Border Patrol Auxiliary, and any far right racist group that tries to bring their terror into our communities.
o We are working with numerous others mobilzing for Campo on July 16th (at least) and for San Diego County September 16 and beyond.
o We stand with the basic points of unity that began to take shape at the May 28th summit in Riverside, La Tierra es de Todos. The Southern California Human Rights Network along with brothers and sisters in Orange County circulated the following DRAFT, proposals for a few of them – they’ve developed a total of 9 or so points so far, including ACTIVE support for targets of police repression and brutality. (We highlight these three points of unity since they relate most directly to the purpose of this statement. These and other points of unity need to be drafted and discussed publicly.)

"We believe that no human is illegal and oppose the criminalization, dehumanization, and exploitation of migrants, immigrants and or economic and political refugees, by means of media, legislation, ideology, rhetoric, etc. [This] includes augmenting border patrol units, commissioning other law enforcement agencies to work in conjunction with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and [includes] such policies as the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and other policies that
exploit the indigenous, peasantry, and environments of countries abroad."

"We believe in, embrace, support and celebrate cultural diversity and therefore will protect all human, civil and political rights, which empowers our incessant struggle for justice; therefore, we will outreach to and toil with all individuals and social sectors, regardless of age, race, gender, social economic status, creed, sexual preference, disability, citizenship status and or nationality."

"We respect the autonomy of each individual, organization and community in the coalition, nevertheless we understand the strategic and practical necessity for unity and collective action; therefore we stand in solidarity to take action against any
attacks on our humanity and will respect the decisions made by the communal coalition and its processes while respecting the ideologies, politics and practices of others. We also encourage individuals to join organizations to become socially active in the struggle for equality, and against racism, fascism, and oppression."

• The charges against the ISO raised by a few groups and individuals in the “Letter of Resignation” sent to members of the coalition and posted on indymedia are based on inaccuracies and distortions about the decisions of the Baldwin Park committee. We don’t place ourselves, as individuals and as members of an organization, above criticism. But we will not be painted with the brush of other groups’ undisciplined actions and we will call out slander for what it is.

• We believe, as did the organizing committee in Baldwin Park, in a democratic, inclusive movement able to bring together folks of all kinds of backgrounds and perspectives on how we build an effective fight against racist terror.

• We do not claim “leadership” of the movement. We like everyone else have much to learn, experience to share, and debates to hold, about what will create the most effective and strongest possible movement against the racist right.

• Nor do we automatically recognize self-proclaimed “leaders” as representing “the community.” Everyone involved in the movement is part of the leadership, whether a seasoned activist or a newly radicalizing student. Democratic organizing, not imposed
leadership, will be most effective in involving the largest number of people in struggle as possible.

• This written response will no doubt generate new charges, or variations on the old ones, launched and “debated” in the undemocratic setting of email and indymedia posts. But our real response is our continued work to mobilize as many people as possible
for action and involvement – on July 16 in Campo and in San Diego in September.

• The accusations themselves stand in a long tradition of red-baiting and race-baiting. If we successfully prove our point against one charge, only new ones will emerge.
o Red-baiting is rooted in the accusation that socialists and the left are not “legitimate” parts of movements against oppression, presumably because we have our own agenda. Race-baiting is the claim that whites or “Europeans” cannot be a legitimate part of
the movement, presumably because we’ll “colonize” it.

• Oppression and violence are not new, neither is resistance to them. What is new is the potential in people’s desire for action – against the SOS and Minutemen, but also against Schwarzenegger and the attacks on working people generally.

• We in the ISO are fighting for a world without borders where the shared interests of ordinary people against ruling classes everywhere form the basis of the international struggle for genuine democracy and liberation. We call that international socialism, not
as it has been, but as we think it can be.

THE CHARGES
We feel that the most significant accusations against the ISO are twofold – that we “disrespected the community of Baldwin Park” and that we acted undemocratically with respect to the coalition and the Baldwin Park organizing committee. They are pretty
much summarized in the following passages from the resignation letter:

"The organizations that broke the political agreements of June 12th and 22nd showed a complete lack of respect to the local organizing committee of Baldwin Park. Those same organizations that are part of the coalition had been at local and regional meetings and
were aware that the Baldwin Park event would be of cultural and pacific character; without confrontation."

And…

"We also want to make mention that their behavior was disrespectful of the local community…[and that they] do not represent the social base of the migrant
community that are under attack by the racists."

The two charges are related, of course, but it’s worth taking them separately.

DID THE ISO DISRESPECT THE COMMUNITY OF BALDWIN PARK?
During Baldwin Park I, it was the people from the community of Baldwin park who took the lead in confronting the racists, as was the case with the communities of Garden Grove, Fallbrook, and Alhambra, as well as in other communities targeted by the racists. Members of the Baldwin Park organizing committee from Baldwin Park talked about how they were on the frontlines of Baldwin Park I, how great it was to be there, and how they have been to confrontations that didn’t invite violence.

It is nothing but pure condescension and real disrespect to the people of Baldwin Park to suggest that direct confrontation at any of these actions including on June 25 is the result of outsiders and instigators, or that such confrontation is “against their wishes,” or that the ISO’s “disrespect” was to “lead the community” away from the permitted rally.

The ISO had in fact participated on a regular basis in the local organizing committee of Baldwin Park. The ISO and others have also, since before the first Baldwin Park action, worked in the community, advertising the SOS’s plans, talking with people about the issues, and about the best ways to respond. This is one way we try to show respect.

Our experiences in the community and the events at Baldwin Park I, and the fact that the majority of people present on June 25 took part in BOTH the counter-protest and the celebration, shows that many in the “social base” of the migrant community and those in solidarity with their struggles want to directly confront and face the racists. Not all feel
empowered only by “turning their backs on the racists.”

The community is multi-faceted, as was the ultimate event agreed upon by the organizers and actually experienced on June 25.

Finally, there’s the question of danger, and the possibility of disrespect in that context. Two points on this:

1) The Baldwin Park community meetings featured ongoing discussion about the fact that there were going to be a substantial amount of people from Baldwin Park and beyond who want to directly confront the racists. The committee voted to support their efforts and encourage them to be organized rather than random. The ISO worked in this spirit, though we’re only one of many organized groups that took part. As at Alhambra the week before and at Baldwin Park I, the ISO tried to assist in an organized, non-violent, and
with regard to the police non-provocative, protest against racists.

2) We need to learn from each other on this, in a spirit of common struggle and openly. But we’re convinced that the real danger comes from racist street thugs organizing and from the police that protect them, from vigilantes being praised by politicians, from politicians and their war machine that intends to scoop youth out of the barrio into their wars and occupations. Our strength against danger is solidarity and common, concrete, diverse, action.

DID THE ISO ACT UNDEMOCRATICALLY TOWARD THE COALITION OR THE BALDWIN PARK ORGANIZING COMMITTEE?
Here’s the real charge, but the claims of anti-democratic behavior are complete distortions and untrue.

Here’s the inaccuracy – really a distortion – that the letter launches into life:

"[A] representative from Baldwin Park attended a Los Angeles meeting 3 days before the event to clarify that his community (Baldwin Park) wished to have a cultural event."

And the already-quoted:

"Those same organizations that are part of the coalition had been at local and regional meetings and were aware that the Baldwin Park event would be of cultural and pacific character; without confrontation."

The truth of the matter (acknowledged by the letter in some places, but not others) is this:

Whether or not to work in solidarity with those who wished to directly confront the racists was debated and discussed deeply and seriously over many meetings of the Baldwin Park community members. The community members voted, unanimously voted, to support and work in solidarity with the people who wanted to directly confront the racists. The community members were concerned that the confrontations remain non-violent and so it was encouraged that those who wanted to confront make every effort to work together in an organized fashion in order to ensure that no one from our side was injured or arrested.

Some members of the committee personally did not support confrontation. However, the full committee democratically voted more than once that it would support ALL forms of protest. This commitment has been reflected in the committee’s support for those arrested and brutalized by the cops on June 25.

Peaceful confrontation was never against the agreement reached by the coalition, rather it was a part of the agreement. On the morning of June 25, a few groups established a line between legitimate and illegitimate protest. THIS was the undemocratic act.

Other statements in the letter and elsewhere also accused the ISO of “recruiting people to leave the cultural celebration,” and “bringing the community along with them.” Any one on the ground that day could see clearly that people were taking part in both events of their own accord. As was agreed upon in the Baldwin Park committee meeting, there were going to be two different kinds of protesting that day. The ISO’s involvement here, along with other groups that day, was to help organize those who wanted to protest in an
effort to help make the protest as successful and organized as possible. How were the actions of the “security team” not exactly the same kind of “recruitment”?

TO END
The ISO takes democracy in our movements extremely seriously – anti-democratic maneuvers plague and weaken many of our movements, not least the anti-war
movement, but also now the anti-Minutemen/SOS movement.

We have to create this democracy, and there aren’t many models in today’s societies.

We’re sure the ISO does not hold all the answers on this. We’re also sure, though, that the attacks on the ISO (and by extension others on the left) by a few members of the May 28th coalition can do nothing but weaken and demobilize the movement against racism and national oppression. We in the ISO wish to turn pointing fingers into linked arms for the struggle for liberation in our lifetime.

In common struggle for a world without borders,
LA ISO

Author: Sin Fronteras
Link:
Posted: Saturday July 09, 2005 04:04 PM
[ignore Sin Fronteras]
[read more Sin Fronteras]
[add Sin Fronteras to my favorites]
[search for Sin Fronteras on Google]
melt2001us@yahoo.com

add your comments

que chiiiiiin a su __________ !!! ya lo regaron, it's too late.