Summary of a meeting held this past week with organizations that participated in the organizing of the Baldwin Park 2 event.
On June 30th, a meeting was held with the
organizations that were a part of organizing the June
25th event in Baldwin Park. The following is a
summary of that meeting from the participants
involved.
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At last night's Los Angeles Regional meeting of the
May 28th Coalition the following occurred. The Comite
Pro Democracia en Mexico brought accusations against
Javier Rodriguez of being an infiltrator. They
presented many legal documents which they say proved
that Javier Rodriguez is a man with ties to the FBI,
CIA, DEA and what used to be the INS (now Department
of Homeland Security). After bringing up these
accusations in front of everyone, Javier Rodriguez
said that those accusations had "nothing to do with
anything" and that they were simply accusations with
no backing.
A motion was made to expel Javier Rodriguez from the
meeting and the results were as follows:
To REMOVE him: 15 votes.
To allow him to STAY at the meeting/coalition: 5
votes.
Abstentions: 1 vote (his organization)
Even after the vote, Javier Rodriguez refused to
leave.
We would like to state that we did not attend the
meeting to create division and that we are NOT leaving
the coalition because of infiltrators such as Javier
Rodriguez.
We attended that meeting and we send out this document
that was read out loud at the meeting to make it
publicly known that we CANNOT work with certain
organizations within the May 28th Coalition on THIS
issue of the SOS/Minutemen/migration. Those
organizations will not respect a democratic process in
coalitions and they have been
the ones creating division in our coalition work. We
are resigning from the coalition for POLITICAL
reasons. This does not mean that in the future we
cannot work together on other issues such as the war
in Iraq...etc.
We will continue to organize against the
SOS/Minutemen/Migra/racists...etc and invite ALL of
you who can work within a coalition process to
continue working with us. We know that you will see
that the organizations who are signing this letter are
the ones who have been the most disciplined, organized
and representative of our
people's struggle. We are currently planning the next
meeting and invite all of you to attend.
If you have any questions or would like to continue
working on this issue with us, please feel free to
contact us.
Email us at: FrenteLA@yahoo.com or Lacomite@aol.com
or call us at: (323) 860-9870
The organizations below met to analyze the events that
occurred during the June 25th event in Baldwin Park.
We have concluded with the following:
1. During the event, several organizations that form
part of the May 28 Coalition disrespected the
political agreements that were agreed upon at the
summit that took place at the UCLA Labor Center on
June 12, 2005. The decision that came out of the
Actions committee was that we as the May 28th
coalition would respect the decision of the community
of Baldwin Park in regards to the type of event that
they would organize.
On June 22, 2005 at the Los Angeles regional meeting
some organizations stated “they should be held
accountable to a bad decision”.
2. On June 25th at the “La Reconquista” event,
organized by the Committee in Defense of Danzas
Indigenas, members of those same organizations were
there recruiting people to leave the cultural
celebration in order to confront the SOS/Minutemen.
This went entirely against the agreement reached by
the coalition.
By acting out and such an individualistic manner,
these organizations broke the agreements of the
coalition and disrespected the local wishes of the
Baldwin Park community of having a cultural event to
denounce the racists.
We are not against militant politics or strategy,
however we respected and supported the decision of the
compas of Baldwin Park to protest utilizing our
people’s power of culture. We are a cultured and hard
working people.
Due to the aforementioned reasons we declare the
following:
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.
In addition, 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. Regardless, various
organizations decided to push their own agenda for the
day of the event, rupturing the unity of the
coalition.
We also want to make mention that their behavior was
disrespectful to the local community, we also want to
make mention that the organizations that broke the
agreement do not represent the social base of the
migrant community that are under attack by the
racists.
Due to the aforementioned reasons we declare the
following:
1. WE resign immediately from the May 28 Coalition
2. WE have formed a new coalition under the following
principles of unity:
a. WE will respect the political agreements of this
coalition and those taken from other organizations;
fundamental elements of this new coalition will be
discipline and ethics.
b. WE will respect the decisions made by the local
organizations of the host communities.
c. WE will utilize diverse tactics to struggle and
defend our community and all migrant communities.
Artistic and spiritual tactics will be used when
appropriate.
d. The political leadership will be representative of
the social base of the groups most affected.
Fraternally,
Los Angeles, CA June 29 2005
Alianza Nueva Nacion (Guatemala-LA)
Chicano Moratorium Committee
Comite en Defensa de Danzas Indigenas-Baldwin Park
Comite Pro Democracia en Mexico
Comité on Raza Rights of Oxnard
Danza Cuatemoc
Frente Indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales
Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional
(Nicaragua-LA)
Frente Latinoamericano
Frente Unido de Los Pueblos de Las Americas (FUPA)
Harmony Keepers
MEChA de Fullerton College
MEChA de San Diego State University
Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa Del Pueblo
Movimiento de Liberacion Naciona
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambo Social
Raza Graduate Student Association of UCLA
Raza Rights Coalition of San Diego
Red Ciudadana Salvadoreña en el Exterior
Suplemento Comunitario- KPFK
Union Del Barrio
Original: Summary Meeting on BP June 25th