VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project

Posted Sun, 04/25/2010 - 10:35pm

To view on-line http://www.vtmigrantfarmworkersolidarity.org/node/63

1) Show your solidarity with Arizona: Oppose Legalized Racial Profiling. Support Immigrant Rights

2) Updates from our Vermont's Silenced Voices Project http://www.vtmigrantfarmworkersolidarity.org/taxonomy/term/1

3) Vermont Educators: New Resources to Help You Bring the Stories of Migration and Globalization into the Classroom.
http://www.vtmigrantfarmworkersolidarity.org/node/45

4) Contact us at vtmfsp@gmail.com to help organize or host a viewing of our soon to be released documentary film about the life and death of VT migrant farmworker José Obeth Santis Cruz who was killed in a tragic farming accident on December 22, 2009 (http://www.vtmigrantfarmworkersolidarity.org/node/31). In this film José Obeth’s family, friends and community in Chiapas, Mexico reflect on the causes, effects and their experiences of migration.

1) Show your solidarity with Arizona: Todos Somos Arizona. Oppose Legalized Racial Profiling and Support Immigrant Rights

On this May day, the VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project calls upon Vermonters to stand in solidarity with the Tuscon May 1st Coalition and Derechos Humanos. Please take a moment to show your solidarity by taking 4 actions below.

The Tucson May 1st Coalition and la Coalicion de Derechos Humanos invite the communities of Arizona and of this country to join forces on this historic day as we bear witness to the most serious attacks to our civil and human rights - to our own humanity. We make a call for resistance in our collective fight for liberty and justice for all.

On May Day 2010, in Tucson, Arizona, our community that has consistently fought against the federal government's use of Arizona as the laboratory for initiatives, policies, and laws, that are anti-immigrant, anti-human, will embrace the mantra that has come from hundreds of calls from across the country, TODOS SOMOS ARIZONA.

This dramatic show of unity and support opens the opportunity to understand that SB1070 was not born overnight, but rather the direct and intended result of mid-90's border enforcement strategies, known as Operation Gatekeeper, Operation Hold the Line, Operation Rio Grande, and here in Arizona, Operation Safeguard. Building an unprecedented military-type enforcement infrastructure, these strategies have intentionally funneled most migrants through Arizona's southern border. By diverting more than half of all migrants that had traditionally crossed through California and Texas into a very conservative state where the federal and local governments own most of the border land (thereby avoiding the community fight-back that occurred along the border in Texas), the stage was set for the eventual passing of SB1070.

More information about Todos Somos Arizona Mobilization:
http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/

Take 4 Actions
http://www.nnirr.org/action/index.php?op=read&id=317&type=0

2) Check out our updates from our Vermont's Silenced Voices Project http://www.vtmigrantfarmworkersolidarity.org/taxonomy/term/1

Here in Vermont, our response to the national immigration debates is to continue to raise local awareness by sharing migrant farmworkers' experiences in their own words. The Vermont's Silent Voices Project seeks to amplify the silenced voices of migrant farmworkers in Vermont in order to raise awareness about the experiences, needs, and hopes of some of the approximately 2,000 migrant farmworkers who have come to the aid of Vermont dairy farms in crisis. We hope to engage Vermonters in a much needed dialogue to work for more socially and economically just communities for ALL of those living and working in VT. For more of Vermont's Silenced Voices Project go to: http://vtmigrantfarmworkersolidarity.org/taxonomy/term/1.

3) Vermont Educators: New Resources to Help You Bring the Stories of Migration and Globalization into the Classroom.
http://www.vtmigrantfarmworkersolidarity.org/node/45

Below are some suggestions of resources that help teachers bring the stories of migrant farmworkers into their classrooms. Let us know if we can be of further help: vtmfsp@gmail.com

VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project’s Video and Audio:
http://www.vtmigrantfarmworkersolidarity.org/taxonomy/term/1

The Golden Cage audio interviews and photos documenting the life of migrant farmworkers and dairy farmers in VT:
http://goldencageproject.org/

Under the Cloak of Darkness is an on-line documentary film that documents the life of Vermont’s migrant farmworkers and dairy farmers.
http://bjornjackson.com/

Warning: Border Under Construction is a VT made documentary that explores the reorganization and regulation of life on the VT/Canada border and its repercussions for ordinary people.
http://www.borderunderconstruction.com/index.htm

UPROOTED: Refugees of the Global Economy is a compelling documentary about how the global economy has forced people to leave their home countries.
http://www.nnirr.org/get/get_video.html

The Roots of Migration is an on-line documentary film that explores the important question: why do so many people migrate to the United States from Mexico and what are the impacts on communities in Mexico?
http://www.witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=758

Bringing Globalization Home is an article that gives suggestions for high school teachers to bring the issues of globalization and migration into your classroom.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/21_01/glob211.shtml

These short on-line PBS NOW Videos document the Coalition of Immokalee Workers from Florida who have waged impressive and successful struggles against modern day slavery in US agriculture and their multi-faceted campaigns have successfully challenged food giants Taco Bell, McDonald’s and Burger King.

http://www.pbs.org/now/youramerica/videos.html?i=2

http://www.pbs.org/now/society/ciw.html

This on-line video shows the work of CATA, a New Jersey based migrant farmworker organization working to empower and educate farmworkers so that they are able to make informed decisions regarding the best course of action for their interests.
http://www.cata-farmworkers.org/english%20pages/video.htm

This NPR audio interview about Privatization of Immigrant Detention Centers exposes life once a migrant farmworker is detained and the push for profit-driven detention centers.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121248709

2009 Amnesty International Report on US Detention System
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/25/jailed_without_justice_new_report_on

This video covers the May 2007 Nation Wide Marches for Immigrant Rights:
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/5/2/may_day_2007_hundreds_of_thousands

Never Done: Farm Life in Vermont looks back at VT agriculture through oral history stories with VT farmers.
http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/shop/audio.html