Minuteman Project in Ventura County (Thousand Oaks)

Racists not welcome!
Down with the Minutemen!

The Minuteman Project, Inc. claims to be a "civil Vigilence Operation" which performs "the job congress won't do"; it is an all-volunteer private vigilante outfit which patrols the border with Mexico acting in the name of "national sovereignty", claiming to be simple "patriots" protecting American jobs, American culture, and the American Dream from what, in their eyes, is a total invasion by Latino migrants, Salvadorean gangs, and other "invasive vermin".
On the one hand it is an armed security agency which supplements the duties carried out by the INS; wielding rifles, patrolling by land, air, and sea, attempting to construct walls and fences, illegally detaining families and individuals by exercising the right of "citizens arrest."On the wider front, it is a propaganda organization which wages this war of ideas through the press. Members and sympathizers have used the Los Angeles Times Opinion/Editorial columns, outspokenly racist talk radio and TV News (AM KFI 640, MSNBC, Fox News), and the internet to spread their message.

Through such outlets, day in and day out, we hear the constant drumbeat which attempts to blame working-class Latino families (primarily Mexicans) for the problems facing Blacks and European-derived workers. Day in, day out, we see the "Immigrant Invasion" issue race neck and neck alongside "the War on Terror" as the greater threat to the "American Way of Life". In the eyes of groups such as the Minutemen, the two causes are inseperable: the migrant drywaller from Guadalajara = a terrorist!

In Ventura County we find that local congressman Elton Gallegly, Governor (Austrian wetback) Schwarzenegger, Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, and the whole of the Republican Party apparatus support the same "solutions" which the Minutemen propose: Mass deportations, drastic cutbacks on social spending, the wholesale uprooting of a large latino population, and new laws which would make it a crime to not report illegal immigrant neighbors, friends, and relatives. The Democratic party has shown that it would rather not touch such a "hot" issue, proving that it would sooner go with the flow rather than offend those who seek to scapegoat migrants for each and every social problem.

In truth, the underlying factor behind Latino immigration is the fact that the Latin-American economies lie in ruins due to the unequal relationship it has with the United States; the history of Latin America is one of the wholesale looting of natural resources and human labor at the hands of American corporations. When the national sovereignty of the Latino peoples was asserted, the US resorted to military means to remove this threat to their neo-colonialist program. This took such forms as forcefully removing democratically-elected governments from power, suppressing popular movements and trade unions, and slaughtering civilians in the cities and villages by the thousands. The US intervention took many forms: The ARENA party and death-squads in El Salvador; the Opus Dei, dirty wars, and PAN in Mexico; Batista, Somosa, Pinochet.

When military dictatorship proved to be inefficient, the US government demanded (through such agreements as NAFTA, World Bank/IMF policies) that the governments of Latin America dismantle their public works programs: the national treasures such as railways, social welfare programs, and some of the world's healthiest oil-fields were gorged upon by the patriots of Wall Street and a handful of Latin American gangsters... this criminal pattern has resulted in the loss of industrial infrastructure, jobs, and the standard of living all across the Latin America! This pattern has led to the supposed immigrant "crisis".

The Latin-American community is historically ingrained in the social fabric of Southern California: this is evident in the names of streets, cities, and is glaringly obvious in the schools, workplaces, churches, and jobsites across the County of Ventura. Previous generations of Mexican-Americans built this county, and first-generation immigrants continue to build it alongside workers of all ethnic backgrounds. No person is "illegal" based on the fact that they want better lives for themselves or their families!

The Minutemen deny this, and place all of the blame on the Latino population as a whole. Until the government resorts to fierce measures to "resolve" this "problem", the Minutemen promise to build themselves up as a paramilitary force and racist-populist movement which will terrorize migrants and circulate fascist and xenophobic rhetoric until such ends are achieved. The Minutemen have grown and continue to attract everyone from crusty geriatrics to young white supremacists and neo-nazis.

Jim Gilchrist is the founder of the Minuteman Project (,Inc.). An outspokenly racist demogogue, Gilchrist has tried to run for the US House of Representatives and finished at 3rd place - a presidential campaign in 2008 is currently under consideration. He is currently promoting his book, co-written by racist Denver Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO), "Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders".
Borders bookstores have been hosting this promotional book-signing tour, effectively signing onto the anti-immigrant crusade!

We cannot allow them to push the idea that our enemies are fellow workers whose struggle to make ends meet and live in peace is shared by all.
We cannot allow them to scapegoat our communities for the consequences of our government's policies which lead to recession, war, and unemployment.
We cannot allow them to agitate for the removal of the thousands who pay taxes, toil on the fields in Oxnard and Filmore, and work in the factories, warehouses, and small business of Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, and Camarillo.
We will not allow them to strut through our communities on this racist warpath
we will make them feel unwelcome and alien
May 1, 2006 was just one battle - the Minutemen must be stopped wherever they open their mouths.
No tolerance for racist scum - An injury to one is an injury to all!

Down with Gilchrist - Down with HR 4437 - Shame on Borders (if you can think of a good play on the word "Borders" It'd be awesome)

Borders books,
125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd.
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
September 25, 2006 7:00 PM