Article

November 19, 2019

Servin’ em up

Among the bum rush for the 2020 Democratic Party nomination bid, Latinx, Chicanx workers should be reminded that Julián Castro isn’t their friend, nor does he represents their class interests. The Democratic Party along with Republicans are parties of the bosses that hold up workers in a circus and spectacle of blackmail every few years, exchanging one mask for the other. Nowadays the mask has dropped, for the true ugly face of American capitalism is embodied in the Trump administration and that makes Democrats worried. In such a racist climate, workers must unite against the system as a whole cause if they do not, no matter what social movement for change that will exist–every 4 years it stops and dies at the ballot box for the Democrats. ¡Cuidado Compa!

November 17, 2019

by Justin Akers Chacón

Chicago Boys del Siglo 21: ¿Cómo piensa el enemigo del pueblo Chilenx?

Esta semana tuve la oportunidad a último minuto de asistir a una charla sobre las protestas en Chile, en nada más ni nada menos, que la Universidad de Chicago. No sabía exactamente con qué me iba a encontrar, pero lo que descubrí fue algo más siniestro de lo que me había imaginado. Una sala llena de tecnócratas- Chicago Boys del siglo 21- analizando las protestas en Chile. Casi llamaron a seguridad, una señora sentada a mi lado se quejó porque yo ‘gesticulaba’ mucho cuando hablaba, y hasta me acusaron de machista y ‘violentar’ a una abogada Chilena de ojos azules, por interrumpirla cuando hablaba puras mentiras. Pero al fin, me quedé en la sala con el propósito de reportar sobre cómo el enemigo del pueblo Chilenx piensa.

November 17, 2019

by Justin Akers Chacón

“We are at the beginning of the end of neoliberalism in Chile”

We can say that, in effect, the Chilean ruling classes really sold the image of a “Chilean Jaguar” as an indisputable model of economic growth for Latin America. President Sebastián Piñera even spoke of an “oasis of stability” in Latin American. Less than a week after these remarks, we witnessed the beginning of an unprecedented mobilization and then the president declared on television that: “the country is at war”. In reality, behind this showcase of “modern” and neoliberal Chile we find some of the deepest social inequalities in the world and especially in Latin America. The violence of capitalism applied since 1973 with the dictatorship and after 1975 with the “neoliberal turn” brought about by the Chicago Boys, was continued after the 1990s under the various democratic governments.

November 17, 2019

by Blas Reies

Lecciones del golpe de estado en Bolivia

Lo que está ocurriendo en Bolivia es un golpe de estado por las fuerzas racistas, derechistas y fascistas de ese país. Estas son fuerzas que están trabajando para facilitar los intentos de los imperialistas angloamericanos para explotar los recursos del país.

Este golpe de estado es una amenaza para los campesinos, obreros, pobres, las mujeres, y la gente indígena de Bolivia. Es indiscutible que los programas sociales que implementó el gobierno de Evo Morales sí mejoraron la vida de esta gente. Por ejemplo, ha disminuido por mucho el porcentaje de personas que vive en la pobreza, ha disminuido el nivel de desigualdad económica, ha introducido el sistema teleférico de transito público en La Paz, ha construido nuevas carreteras, y les ha dado bonos a los sectores más vulnerables de la sociedad.

October 20, 2019

by Justin Akers Chacón

The Anti-Migrant International

In early December of 2017 the Trump Administration officially withdrew the United States from the UN Global Pact on Migration, claiming the 2016 accord “undermine[s] the sovereign right of the United States to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders.” The aligned governments of Israel, Hungary, Poland, Australia, Austria, and several other countries followed suit in withdrawing their support, or by publicly repudiating the agreement. Rightwing parties in Germany, France, Italy and Denmark also vocalized their opposition, pledging to withdraw once in power.

October 20, 2019

by Justin Akers Chacón

Rent control rebels

The Tenant’s Union arose from the need to avoid further displacement in low-income communities. I have been a community organizer for more than 15 years in City Heights (a community in San Diego). City Heights is a predominantly immigrant, multicultural, and low-income community. I began organizing alongside 300 other parents to improve the schools for our children, including providing access to bilingual education. Through this work, I learned that there were a lot of problems with housing, and we began to focus on this issue as well as living conditions are highly connected to school dropout.

October 20, 2019

by Héctor Rivera

Towards a new history of Black-Latinx solidarity

Paul Ortiz’s book An African American and Latinx History of the United States (2018), is a refreshing work that has opened broader vistas of the possible by recovering a wealthy history of Black and Latinx resistance. I hope to highlight important takeaways for those of us looking for a compass and to convince readers of puntorojo to engage with and expand on our people’s history outlined in the book. As I will outline below, the book allowed me to discover a proud history of Black-Brown of solidarity that shows that we are at our strongest who our struggles are united. It also provided inspiration to wage this fight in the present and I hope that it can do the same for others.

I came to An African American and Latinx History of the United States with the desire to understand Ortiz’s premise for an American history centered on the combined struggles African Americans and Latinx peoples. In this respect, the book did not disappoint, and like Howard Zinn’s classic, the historical breadth and solidarity-based ethos of Ortiz’s work is comparable. However, Ortiz’s book goes beyond the bounds of a traditional national history as the title might imply.

October 20, 2019

by Blas Reies

La situación mexicana en los Estados Unidos

La intención de este artículo es dar una breve mirada a la vida de las y los mexicanos en Estados Unidos actualmente. También se darán a conocer algunos aspectos de la vida de otros grupos en EE. UU., tales como las personas Latinas como conjunto, personas centroamericanas, negras, blancas y asiáticas. No me adentraré en detalle acerca de muchos aspectos pero espero poder hacerlo en futuros artículos. Ojalá que los siguientes hechos puedan plantear preguntas que lleven a discusiones fructíferas.

September 6, 2019

by Héctor Reyes

U.S. imperialism in the Americas: the function of colonialism and racism, and how they are different

If you live in the U.S. and are not indigenous to it, you live on stolen land.

Frequently, racism and colonialism are used as substitutes for each other. The technical term for this type of conflation is metonym, as Chickasaw Nation scholar Jodi A. Byrd asserts. I want to argue that the currently popular use of the terms racism and colonialism as interchangeable qualities among social justice activists, and even academics, is not only inappropriate, but that their frequent conflation is the result of more than simple expediency.

The failure to recognize that colonialism is structurally different than and not just another manifestation of racism does irreparable damage to the victims of colonialism. In the specific context of colonialism, failure to recognize colonialism as a continuing crime of erasure and dispossession, the liberal prescriptions of inclusion and civil rights exacerbate the harms of colonialism.

September 6, 2019

by Héctor Rivera

The women’s movement reverberates across Mexico

Once again, the women’s movement has been making headlines across Mexico. This time after a militant protest shocked the media and the political establishment. On August 12, images of angry women destroying the glass windows of a police station were broadcast by mainstream media outlets and shared widely on social media. The media sought to sensationalize the protests and to mobilize public opinion against an insurgent feminist movement.

The protests came about after a series of reports which accused police officers of raping a teenage woman in the Azcapotzalco neighborhood of Mexico City. Upon hearing of this police rape, many other cases came to light and feminist collectives called for a national day of protest which took place on August 15. The protest resonated across Mexico and saw demonstrations and actions in large and small cities outside the capital.

The protesters were even more enraged after the new Morenista mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, called the women provocateurs arguing that their actions sought to provoke the use of force by the police. However, the popular indignation in the movement, and the large protest on the 15 of August forced Sheinbaum to apologize to the women’s collectives and forced the city government to publicly re- commit to reduce violence and rapes against women in Mexico City.