Cesar Chavez Day March

 

Sacramento: MLK March

 

 

Sacramento: The 42^nd Annual “March for the Dream" Walk will take place on MLK Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 15. Registration is free—no charge to participate! Free transportation back to City College is available if you cannot walk the entire route. Visit the MLK Walk website to learn more and register. 

California Poor People's Campaign.,

Upcoming meetings

We’re going to Sacramento! Mobilization meeting  Saturday Jan. 20, 12pm | RSVP SEIU 721 building (1545 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles) Los Angeles is getting organized to go to Sacramento on March 2 as part of a national day of action that will take place in 30 states. We are calling for all hands on deck to organize this effort collectively—help with outreach, transportation, media and more is needed. Our March 2 actions will call politicians to account for allowing policies of violence to continue. We will demand they stop making concessions for the wealthy while leaving families and children to die in poverty.   Lunch and English/Spanish interpretation will be provided. Don’t forget to fill out this formand let us know you’ll be there.   Statewide organizing meetings Wednesdays, 6:30pm | RSVP Help us organize for the March 2 rally in Sacramento and other 2024 efforts. You’ll meet activists from around the state and take part in mobilizing our communities for these historic actions. It’s a place to lend a hand and to learn from one another. Drop in any Wednesday.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 2023.

 

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

by Peter Dreier.

"50 Years After the March on Washington, What Would MLK March For Today?" Washington Post, August 22, 2013.   The March on Washington, where King delivered his great "I Have a Dream" speech, took place on August 28, 1963.  I wrote this article in 2013 to celebrate the march's 50th anniversary.  If he were alive today, King would be fighting for the same causes - peace, women's reproductive health, affordable housing, desegregation, immigrant rights, gun control, and others.  

 Asante-Muhammad and Chuck Collins, "We Still Have a Dream," Sun-Sentinel, August 27, 2023   Black Americans have endured the unendurable for too long. Sixty years after the famed March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his landmark “I Have a Dream” speech, African Americans are on a path where it will take 500 more years to reach economic equality.  Our country has taken significant steps towards racial equity since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s. But growing income and wealth inequality over the last four decades has supercharged historic racial wealth disparities, slowing and even reversing some of those gains. Sixty years without substantially narrowing the Black-white wealth divide is a policy failure. But just as federal policy helped create the racial wealth gap, it can also help close it. The op-ed column by Asante-Muhammad and Chuck Collins is a summary of their report, "Still A Dream: Black Economic Inequality 60 Years After the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," which looks in detail at the state of that racial and wealth divide and recommends policy reforms that would substantially narrow it within one to two generations.

Peter Dreier. 2023.

 

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/march-on-washington-for-jobs-and-freedom-2021

 

 

Join the March

 

Join the March for Farm Worker Justice

 Our August 3 to 26 peregrinacion has followed the same route as our historic 1966 Cesar Chavez-led march. Our goal is to convince Governor Gavin Newsom to sign #AB2183 (Stone), the United Farm Workers’ bill making it easier for farm workers to vote in a union election free from intimidation by grower foremen, supervisors and farm labor contractors.

An incredible group of 19 permanent farm worker peregrinos have marched the entire length of the peregrinacion. They have given up wages, time with their family, and the comfort and security of their home to march in temperatures frequently exceeding 100 degrees.

The journey has been pretty incredible. Last Saturday, Martin Luther King III joined us on the march. His father, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stood in solidarity with Cesar Chavez during tough times in the 1960s. That afternoon, 1,000 supporters greeted us in Stockton during 104-degree heat. UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta was there inspiring the crowd.

Community enthusiasm across the state has built as hundreds greeted our marchers along the route and joined end-of-day rallies in valley farm towns. Local committees in each town which our march has passed through have provided food, water, cold drinks, shoes and other supplies, plus housing. Nurses tended to marchers. Supporters from near and far turned up to hand out water, drinks, popsicles and food as the peregrinos passed by. 

It’s been beautiful to see the youth out supporting us as our march has moved through the Central Valley. Our eyes tear up as a new generation is activated to honor the past and mobilize for the future.

CA Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar measure last September. What’s different this year is increased public support, including solid backing by the California labor movement under its new leader, Lorena Gonzalez, as well as union, religious, and community leaders, activists and organizations.

Please come and be a part of this historic event. If are not able to be there in person, you can still join us virtually. Many options, including the ones above, can be found at ufw.org/camarch.

PS: Please share this event on Facebook & Twitter. 

March for Our Lives

This weekend, students will join together at March For Our Lives in Washington, D.C., and in sibling marches across the country. It takes a lot of courage to stand up to Congress and state legislatures to demand measures that will protect them at their schools and in their communities.

March 5- Education Rally in Sacramento

On March 5th, to top off a week of action around student debt, tens of thousands of students and allies will march on the capitals of California and New York, demanding relief from the shackles imposed by being thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt. Can you join students in Sacramento or Albany to show solidarity for higher education and demand relief for those struggling with student debt?

Higher education has historically been a vital component of the American Dream, and yet, for more and more Americans, going to college is out of reach.Student debt has officially topped credit card debt in the US, and total loans outstanding will hit $1 trillion for the first time in history during the next few months.² This year, campuses in states around the country will face even more cuts -- in Pennsylvania, for example, the Governor has proposed 20% more in cuts to public universities. In California, the cost of attending a University of California has nearly tripled in the last decade.³

Why We March- Save Our Schools

Monty Neil:My organization, FairTest, also endorsed Save Our Schools. True, in time more specifics are needed, but the most fundamental task is to save our schools from the education ‘deformers’ who have decided that tests (the standards don’t really matter except for the tests) and punishments are the core of a ‘solution’ to the very real problem that too many students do leave school not having learned enough to be effective citizens. It is a destructive ‘solution.’
California Rally and  March
Saturday, July 30, 11am-3pm
State Capitol Building
1315 10th Street, SacramentoJoin other Californians on the Capitol steps to support public education. Sponsored by California supporters of the Save Our Schools March, National Call to Action .

Finland, by contrast, decided to build a system based on having high-quality teachers who would be prepared well (not a BA and short training course, a la TFA), engage in ongoing shared professional learning, and be largely in charge of the shape of schooling. They have brief national standards, but those are not imposed through tests. Finland does far better than the US, which chose a disastrous detour through testland. Finland also has a child poverty rate under 5% while the US is now well over 20%. Finland is more homogeneous, but has growing numbers of immigrant students (15% if memory serves) with 43 different languages. But of course US poverty is an ‘excuse’ to the deformers, who have managed to simultaneously promote damaging education ideas while deflecting attention from massive poverty.

There are many reasons why the basic framework, the paradigm, of federal and state laws and policies must be changed – I use the US failures and Finnish success simply to highlight how a different approach has produced markedly different results, though the underlying social structures and poverty also matter.

Save our Schools March in Sacramento

By Duane Campbell

In addition to the extended public funding crisis caused by the Great Recession, parents, teachers  and families from around the country say they are fed up with so-called “reform” policies that falsely label more than 80% of U.S. public schools as failures.  A  coalition of individuals and organizations is mobilizing for a national day of action in support of public schools. 
  
On Saturday, July 30, 2011, thousands of people will gather at the White House in Washington, DC, in Sacramento,  and at locations around the nation for   “Save Our Schools” marches.   The  events are being organized by a network of teachers, parents and community activists. 
  You can contact the march efforts and locate your regional demonstration at  http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org,

 
“For too long, public school stakeholders have been treated like second class citizens in our own communities,” said Sabrina Stevens Shupe, a former Colorado teacher, who is a member of the March’s organizing committee. “Teachers’ knowledge has been dismissed because we are falsely presumed to be self-interested and incompetent.  Students and parents who vocally oppose the disruption and destruction of their schools are often entirely ignored.  At the same time, ideologues with little to no experience in public schools have made misguided decisions that devastate educational quality and equal opportunity.”

California Rally & March
Saturday, July 30, 11am-3pm
State Capitol Building
1315 10th Street, Sacramento
Join other Californians on the Capitol steps to support public education. Sponsored by California supporters of the Save Our Schools March, National Call to Action & the Student CTA. 
  

Save Our Schools March- Sacramento

March in Sacramento.  July 30.  State Capitol.
California Rally & March
Saturday, July 30, 11am-3pm
State Capitol Building
1315 10th Street, Sacramento

Join other Californians on the Capitol steps to support public education. Sponsored by California supporters of the Save Our Schools March, National Call to Action & the Student CTA.

Save Our Schools- Sacramento

TEACHERS, PARENTS GEAR UP FOR JULY 30 SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH ON D.C.,
ALLIED ACTIONS AROUND THE NATION
  

Educators and families from around the country say they are fed up with so-called “reform” policies that falsely label more than 80% of U.S. public schools as failures. To counter what they call unfair attacks on teachers and public education, a growing coalition of individuals and organizations is mobilizing for a national day of action in support of public schools. 
  
On Saturday, July 30, 2011, thousands of people will gather at the White House in Washington, DC and at locations around the nation to express their desire to reclaim the right to determine the path of education reform in their own communities. The “Save Our Schools” March and allied events are being organized by a network of teachers, parents and community activists. 
  
“For too long, public school stakeholders have been treated like second class citizens in our own communities,” said Sabrina Stevens Shupe, a former Colorado teacher, who is a member of the March’s organizing committee. “Teachers’ knowledge has been dismissed because we are falsely presumed to be self-interested and incompetent.  Students and parents who vocally oppose the disruption and destruction of their schools are often entirely ignored.  At the same time, ideologues with little to no experience in public schools have made misguided decisions that devastate educational quality and equal opportunity.” 
  
Addressing high-stakes “accountability” policies, such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, Florida businesswoman and parent advocate Rita Solnet explained, “A decade of NCLB's incessant focus on high-stakes tests narrowed curriculum in many schools. Each new initiative ratcheting up the stakes behind these tests, has resulted in the abandonment of the very children NCLB sought to serve. NCLB has not improved overall achievement, and it has diminished the quality of teaching and learning. We must reverse this wrong-headed direction.” 

Save Our Schools March

On Friday, March 18, Rethinking Schools editors Bob Peterson and Stan Karp will be featured in a 90-minute web "teach-in" designed to build this summer's Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action. The webinar begins at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/5pm Pacific time and is open to the first 100 people who sign up here:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RethinkingSchoolsWebinar
This event is part of a series of web discussions with supporters of the National Call to Action leading to coordinated events around the country and a march in Washington, D.C. on July 30. The July events are built around four demands:

• Equitable funding for all public school communities
• End to high stakes testing for student, teacher, and school evaluation
• Curriculum developed for and by local school communities
• Teacher and community leadership in forming public education policies

For more info, visit the SOS March web site, www.saveourschoolsmarch.org

March for California's Future reaches Sacramento

Over 8,000 teachers and other public workers  demonstrated in support of  the March for California’s Future  at the State Capitol in Sacramento on April 21.  Eight  marchers  walked over 300 miles in 48 days to demand that schools and public services be adequately funded.   California Federation of Teachers President Marty Hittelman said, since 1992, the top 1% of California income earners – people who average $1.6 million per year, have doubled their share of the state’s income from 13 percent to 25%.  At the same time, this group has had its income tax rates reduced.

Revenue shortages in California have led to the lay off of some 14,000 teachers, school closures, and cuts in social services.   Lost tax revenue due to loopholes for the rich and large corporations is costing the state’s general fund billions.  For example, California does not have a law to tax oil companies for taking oil from the ground, a major source of revenue for Alaska and Texas.
Unfortunately the Sacramento Bee hardly covered this.  One photo and a paragraph. Less information than given here. But the thousands were there.  It had rained earlier in the day so I guess the Bee did not want their reporters to get wet.  Instead, they sat inside the capitol and covered politicians. This was among the three major labor/education marches this Spring.
Update.  On April 23, the Bee had a second photo and two more paragraphs on page a-3.  I guess two paragraphs one day, and two paragraphs the next makes a story? Or, perhaps it shows that news coverage begins when you go inside the Capitol building, not outside.

Education Activists need a strategy beyond marches

By Randy Shaw

Mass protests last week against school funding cuts and tuition hikes spoke powerfully about California’s misplaced priorities. As occurred with campus protests last fall, the media gave overwhelmingly sympathetic coverage (other than to the self-indulgent group who blocked an Oakland freeway, diverting television coverage away from legitimate protests). But activists’ strategy for achieving their goals is far from clear.

There is no measure on the November 2010 ballot that raises significant new money for education. Activists can use mass action to pressure legislators and the Governor to redirect excessive spending on prisons and other wasteful programs to education, but there is no chance this year of getting enough Republicans to win the necessary 2/3 legislative votes. It appears activists need a three-part strategy; pass a November ballot measure ending the 2/3 vote requirement, continue building a movement to force a new Governor and Legislature to hike the vehicular license fee in 2011, and at the same time prepare a game-changing ballot measure for 2012 that ensures adequate education funding once and for all.

The students, teachers, school employees, labor unions and parents who organized the tremendously successful March 4 statewide education protests achieved what they set out to do: bring the education crisis to newspaper front pages, and the lead stories on television, radio and online news. I cannot recall ever previously seeing such a broad one-day event around education in California, as event organizers brought together an extraordinarily diverse coalition.

Now this budding movement must go from highlighting the problem to solving it. And with California’s economy still in the dumps and the 2/3 vote requirement still in effect, this will not be easy.

Chavez March Saturday

The annual Cesar Chavez Day march.
A WORKER’S RIGHT TO ORGANIZE!
When: Saturday March 28, 2009
Where: Southside Park 6th and "T" Street @ 10:00 am
Arriving: César Chávez Park @ 11:30 am approximately
Free Rapid Transit. All day bus & Light rail tickets
Come and Celebrate César Chávez’s life and legacy by carrying on the tradition in marching
for struggling families, fair wages, working conditions and workers rights, enactment of both
the Employee Free Choice Act, and the Dream Act, Jobs Now!, Immigration Reform for all,
End the War!, and No to State furloughs & LAYOFFS! Now is the time when we must unite
under the umbrella of solidarity. Join us on March 28th, bring your family, friends, your signs,
banners & posters.
“SÍ SE PUEDE!” – “YES WE CAN!”
“UNITY IN OUR COMMUNITY!”
For More Info: (916) 446-3021 or nadm916@aol.com
SACRAMENTO CHAPTER