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The letter threatened arrest and prosecution of all
participants of the demonstration.

It also threatened to ban all participants from the ABQ
Uptown shopping center.

The demonstration organizers were advised by Q Uptown in the
letter to “post a cancellation of this event on each and every medium that had
been used to promote it. ”

“We will be having the demonstration promptly at 9am, ”
organizer Jeanne Pahls said. “We
have a right to freedom of speech and Apple has a responsibility to treat its
customers with honesty and respect.
It has a responsibility to behave in a conscientious manner with regard
to taxes, treating its customers equally, treating its employees fairly and
earning its money in an ethical manner.

Ms Pahls learned in January that Apple “reregisters phones,
no questions asked” when her phone was stolen. She learned that Apple does not report the serial numbers of
used phones it reregisters to the police.
(Albuquerque pawn shops do report the serial numbers of their phones to
the police in order to facilitate the recovery of stolen iPhones.) She learned in March that Apple had
sold her a used phone and told her it was a new one.

When she approached Apple, she received no response. Now a demonstration has been organized
and she and other demonstrators have been threatened with arrest.

Apple has a history of unethical behavior: child labor,
slave labor, forcing workers to work with dangerous chemicals without proper
protective equipment.

Saying that two million formal jobs had been created since 2007, Calderon added that the job record was the “second highest period of formal employment generation” in his country’s recorded history. Further, the Mexican leader argued that had it not been for the inconvenient problem of the post-2008 economic crisis, Mexico would have undergone its biggest employment surge ever.

Although recent job gains have been registered in sectors like the auto industry, some observers and analysts are far less impressed by the employment trends.

In its 2012 Employment Outlook, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) noted that while Mexico’s official unemployment rate of 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2012 was lower than the 5.8 percent registered at the height of the crisis in the third quarter of 2009, the latest jobless numbers are still more than one percent higher than they were prior to the crisis.

Importantly, young people experience unemployment at about twice the rate of the overall average, according to the OECD. Other issues, including the “high incidence of informal employment,” remain troubling concerns, the international organization contended.

Numbering in the millions, the legions of informal workers who sell everything from gum to flowers to maps are not enrolled in the social security system, don´t pay taxes and don’t enjoy benefits like sick days. Across Mexico, informal workers cram the sidewalks, jam the beaches and ham it up on the buses and metro systems. All to eat another day.

Receiving some play in the Mexican media, the OECD report also reveals that the average amount of time Mexican workers annually spent on their job grew from 2,242 hours in 2010 to 2,250 in 2011.

As for income, real salary growth in Mexico came in at 0.8 percent last year, lagging behind Chile at 2.5 percent and Brazil at 1.4 percent, the OECD reported.

In an interview with Frontera NorteSur, representatives of a leading Mexican labor advocacy organization also questioned the direction of employment trends and spotlighted the continued lack of basic rights possessed by many-if not most-workers. Felipe Burgueno, Guadalajara staff member of Cereal, said the increased use of outsourcing and temp workers characterizes many new jobs. “There is a lot of unemployment and more and more abuses like temporary contracts, as employers take advantage of the situation,” Burgueno said.

According to the labor rights activist, a production model based on precarious employment circumstances, low wages and the absence of free union association is unlikely to change with the coming political transition. “People still don’t realize the gravity of these problems,” Burgeuno added.

As an illustration of the problems confronting Mexican labor, Cereal staffer Sagrario Gutierrez spoke at some length about the electronics giant Foxconn and its two industrial sites in and around Ciudad Juarez, including the huge complex at San-Jeronimo/Santa Teresa on the border of Chihuahua and New Mexico.

On a recent visit to the border city, Gutierrez heard Foxconn workers complain about robberies on transport buses, successive temporary contracts, lack of union representation and retaliation for organizing or discussing better job assignments and pay.

“When (Foxconn) finds out that workers are organizing around any problem they have, they disperse them,” Gutierrez said. “They fire them or send them to different work areas and shifts.”

A member of the Electronics Industry Code of Conduct, Foxconn has written policies against retaliation and in support of free association.

According to the Taiwan-based firm’s website, audits are performed to ensure compliance with company and industry standards. Foxconn pledges to “uphold the human rights of workers, and to treat them with dignity and respect as understood by the international community and appropriate laws and regulations…”

But in Ciudad Juarez, labor rights are also compromised by the so-called narco war and the overall climate of violence that makes workers afraid to take a stand, Gutierrez said, adding that the city’s non-governmental organizations have largely withdrawn from direct organizing of factory workers because of threats and real fears of violence.

Gutierrez said Foxconn workers in Ciudad Juarez start making 78 pesos each day, or approximately six bucks, and then advance to 98 pesos after three months on the job. The pay is increased to 105-110 pesos after six months, she said. In comparison, electronic workers in Guadalajara average 116 pesos a day, even though the cost of living is higher in Ciudad Juarez, according to Cereal staff members.

The rising cost of living is a critical issue for Mexican workers. Cited in the daily La Jornada, the most recent study from the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Center for Multidisciplinary Analysis reported that the number of low-income workers increased during the last two years, with about half the country’s labor force, or about 21,300,000 workers, now earning in the neighborhood of ten dollars a day.

Many working families have “stopped buying with the same frequency and quantity various products, including meat, milk, eggs and other basics,” the authors of the report wrote.

Languishing in the Mexican Congress, a controversial labor reform is likely to be among the first matters tackled by the new crop of legislators when they convene in September, according to Cereal’s Felipe Burgueno. For the labor advocacy group, the right of free union representation is unmet in Mexico.

An ominous sign, Burgueno said, was the recent closure of the independent Worker Action Center in Puebla state, after staff suffered death threats and kidnapping.

Burgueno predicted the political transition will likely reinforce the power of the CTM and other unions affiliated with the PRI, reaffirming the old corporatist model in which the demands of workers are subservient to the government agenda. “They will ratify their priorities,” Burgueno said, “and their control over workers’ unions.”

For its part, the OECD urged Mexico to enact “measures to promote access to more jobs and better conditions for under-represented groups,” as well as to increase incentives for enrolling more workers in the social security system. Additionally, the OECD called for strengthening the enforcement capacities of labor inspectors and tax collectors.

-Kent Paterson

Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S. -Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico

For a free electronic subscription: e-mail fnsnews@nmsu.edu

Transforming the Nuclear Narrative – A Global Call To Action

journeysantafe presents a conversation with Michelle Victoria from Nuke Free Now and Jay Coghan, Executive Director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, with Moderator Joni Arends, Executive Director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety

Michelle Victoria from the Nuke Free Now organization  discusses August 4th to 6th events planned in northern New Mexico to raise awareness of the true costs and consequences of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons production, and the threat to the health of our communities and all that we hold sacred.
The event is a joint effort of Occupy Santa Fe, Occupy New Mexico, NukeWatch, Pax Christi, Veterans for Peace-Santa Fe
and other organizations.
Together Nuke Free wants to catalyze universal disarmament and the closing down of nuclear power plants, to clean up the pollution and contamination, and create life-affirming work, justice and peace! Nuke Free Now believes that nuclear weapons and nuclear power are the ultimate forms of violence.
In response, Nuke Free is creating this global call to action and weekend of events in both the spirit and the practice of complete nonviolence.

The mission of this group is to raise awareness of the true costs and consequences of nuclear weapons production, nuclear energy, & corporate profiteering. We are transforming the nuclear narrative and inspiring a life-affirming future.

July 29, Sunday, 11 am
at Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse
202 Galisteo Street
988-4226

Water Quality & Concerns In Surface and Groundwater, And What To Do About It
With Joni Arends, the Executive Director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety  presenetd by journeysantafe

Joni will present an overview of the July 26 & 27 Communities for Clean Water “Runoff, Risk and Community Empowerment: Your Role in Cleanup at LANL” Conference at Northern New Mexico College about waste cleanup at LANL, stormwater and our health. More details to follow. Confreence speakers include Dr. Camilla Bustamante and Dr. Michael Barcelona. Please mark your calendars!

Rep. Peter DeFazio is going to try to remove the appropriations rider through an amendment, with a vote expected the week of July 23rd.

Now, Monsanto has slipped a similar provision into the House version of the Farm Bill.

In addition to eliminating judicial review, this even more dangerous provision would also stop the EPA from regulating new and expanded uses of pesticides (often caused by the introduction of new herbicide-resistant GMO crops) and require the USDA to make the approval of new genetically engineered crops easier and faster.

Please contact your Member of Congress today to get this free pass for Monsanto out of the House Farm Bill.

Organic Consumers Association

http://www.organicconsumers.org/

“In a town full of terrific poets, it’s an honor to be selected and to join the lineage of the poets who have preceded me—Arthur Sze, Valerie Martinez, and Joan Logghe,” stated Davis. “I hope to live up to the high standards they’ve set for promoting the art of poetry and serving the community of Santa Fe.”
Davis is the author of three chapbooks and three full-length collections of poetry, Preliminary Report (Copper Canyon Press, 2010); Scrimmage of Appetite (University of Akron Press, 1995), for which he was honored with a Lannan Literary Award in Poetry; and Dangerous Amusements (Ontario Review Press, 1987), for which he received a G.E. Younger Writers Award and the Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poets Prize from the Academy of American Poets. Davis has also received two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a Lannan Residency, and a fellowship to The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. In addition to poetry, he has written and published short stories, reviews, essays, and parodies. Davis has served as Writing Program Coordinator for the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, edited the literary journals CutBank, Shank- painter and Countermeasures: A Magazine of Poetry & Ideas, and taught at the College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe University of Art & Design, and Salisbury University in Maryland. He is currently Chair of the Creative Writing Department at the Institute of American Indian Arts, where he has taught since 1990.
Through the Poet Laureate program, the city wishes to enhance the presence of the literary arts in Santa Fe and create a focal point for their expression. The program raises awareness of the power of poetry and the spoken word while celebrating the spirit and unique culture of the city and its people. A key component of the program is the promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration through the literary arts.  The Poet Laureate receives an annual honorarium of up to $5,000.

“We have lived in this area for many years, contributing to the local economy and paying taxes. Like most families, we want a better future for our children,” said Veronica Perez, a spokesperson for Families United for Justice a recently formed group of immigrants and allies in Farmington. “We used to live in peace, but in the last year, many of our families have been victims of racial profiling and discrimination as result of the collaboration between the local law enforcement, jail and immigration officials. We live in constant fear and no longer feel safe calling the police. How is that good for public safety?”

Somos also submitted a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and its Office for Civil Rights claiming that local DWI checkpoints have become de facto immigration checkpoints. The complaint stated “It is our understanding that ICE should not be conducting immigration checkpoints beyond 100 miles from the border and local law enforcement shouldn’t be questioning individuals about immigration status at a DWI checkpoint, the purpose of which is to prevent and apprehend drunk drivers.” For copy of complaint, click here.

The complaint also alleged that area ICE agents were disregarding ICE’s own policies by placing ICE Detainers an individuals in order to hold them at the San Juan County Detention Center despite these individuals not having been arrested for a criminal violation and at the County’s expense.

“We are working with these brave community members in Farmington to stand up for civil rights and public safety,” said Rayos Burciaga, Board Member of Somos Un Pueblo Unido. “Based on eye witness accounts, it seems that ICE agents are colluding with local law enforcement officials and the local jail to racially profile individuals and violate their constitutional rights. New Mexico is better than that.”

“My parishioners deserve to live without fear and intimidation,” said Father Vigil, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Farmington. “We live in a country where due process rights should be respected. We should be integrating Latino families, not separating children from their parents.”

“In the past year, I have witnessed the devastating effects of this country’s broken immigration system and the violation of immigrants’ civil rights in the Farmington community,” said Iris Calderon, an immigration attorney from the Calderon Law Firm based in Albuquerque. “US citizen children are separated from their fathers only for failing to provide evidence of legal status at a DWI checkpoint. DREAMers have been put into deportation proceedings for speeding tickets and other minor traffic violations. When the civil rights of immigrants are violated, the consequences are dire.”

Residents also complained that the Farmington, Bloomfield, and Aztec Police Departments, as well as the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department, do not have written policies and complaint forms that are updated and compliant with the bias-based policing ban, as is required by the 2009 law.

“These agencies need to take the community’s concerns about racial profiling more seriously,” added Perez, “It’s the only way that trust can be restored.”

Please come to any of the events near Tularosa, Church Rock, San Antonio, or Los Alamos this weekend (as applicable). Those four towns have events and Trinity House in Albuquerque has Mass on Saturday night if you can’t make it to Tularosa that evening. The one i’m most familiar with is @ LANL on Monday…

Trinity Nuclear Abolition (TNA) will hold a peace vigil in front of the main sign at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on Monday July 16th at the corner of Diamond and West Jemez. The focus of this demonstration is to call for clean up of radioactive contamination in the area, and for an end to nuclearism at LANL. The demonstration will be held from 11:00am to 1:00pm… TNA is supporting the hunger strike initiated by former Los Alamos resident Alaric Balibrera, beginning on “New Mexico Nuclear Disasters Day” (July 16th; the Church Rock uranium spill of 1979 and the Trinity pollution of 1945) and ending on “Hiroshima Day” (August 6th). The demands of this 22-day hunger strike are listed at NukeFreeNow.org

Our full news release is here: http://tna.lovarchy.org/NEWSagain/R60.html

Lovarchy, Marcus for TNA

http://www.tna.lovarchy.org/nucleardisasters.html http://www.grass-roots-press.com/2012/03/22/forgotten-children-are-runnin-out-of-time-in-tularosa-basin http://masecoalition.org http://nukefreenow.org/?page_id=107

There are now two other hunger strikers who will be striking with Alaric for the entire time or until their demands are met, and at least fifteen other hunger strikers who will strike for shorter periods between July 16th and August 6th. To learn more, to read their demands, or to join the strike go to:
www.nukefreenow.org <http://www.nukefreenow.org>  and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hunger-Strike-Los-Alamos-August-2012/310869175590442?ref=ts

On Sunday July 15th we will gather together at 8pm, outside the Santa Fe Roundhouse, for a potluck dinner of commemoration and peace. Please join us – bring food and drink to share, and bring your prayers and commitment for a peaceful, nuke-free world.

On Monday July 16th the hunger strike will begin when Alaric and others will join the annual Trinity Day vigil organized by Trinity Nuclear Abolitionists outside the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The vigil will last from 11am until 1pm, and Alaric will remain in Los Alamos for the rest of the day. Please join us there at the beginning of this courageous undertaking and stand with the vigil as we remember what took place 67 years ago.

Also on Monday July 16th, you are invited to the opening of a portal for the Los Alamos Peace Project at the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos, from 1pm to 5pm.

The Los Alamos Peace Project will be mounting a large panel as part of the public comment space located inside the Museum. This icon to inspire world peace is a response to the destructive force that was unleashed that fateful morning 67 years ago. You are invited to come to the museum between 1pm and 5pm to view this installation and to help ground the power of the intention of the Los Alamos Peace Project in Los Alamos by writing a comment in the visitor’s book. Inspired by the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, the installation uses the transformative power of art and icon, the power of truth and love, to redirect consciousness.

Finally, if you would like to support the hunger strike by helping drive Alaric from Santa Fe to Los Alamos and by sitting with him for any time during the strike, please contact info@nukefreenow.org