Border Solidarity Action: Festival de Liberacion

by Janssen King & Cecilia Chavez

Some Albuquerque and Santa Fe activists attended a Border Summit in December in Tucson, Arizona. Out of the summit arose the idea of a Border Solidarity Action.

The idea has taken off and is actually happening, which is very exciting.

Groups and com-munities from San Francisco, San Diego/Tijuana, Los Angeles, Las Cruces, El Paso/Juarez, Tucson and Montreal, Quebec and more will all be participating!

This coin-cides with the anti-FTAA movement as well <www.stopftaa.org>. Every aspect of life is impacted on some level by international economic agreements.

Borders are only used to segregate, block-ade and exploit people around the world. This international non-violent action will address serious issues such as environmental pollution and racism, militari-zation of the U.S. borders, and immigration policy while demand-ing that human rights be recognized and respected.

We are building community and resistance.

Top 10 Problems with the U.S./Mexico Border

10. Militarization of the Border:

In the past few years, the harsh atmosphere on the U.S./Mexico border has killed over 600 unarmed border migrants, and U.S. government surveillance of the border has violated civil and human rights.

9. NAFTA Sweatshops:

Safety violations, international child labor laws, union busting, and the multinational maquidoras have violated a multitude of regu-lations and worker's rights. Profit is the driving force; people are the disposable fuel.

8. Environmental Pollution:

U.S. corporations have been shipping toxic trash to the third world, including Mexico. There are nuclear waste dumps and polluting industrial plants near poor residential areas all along the border. These environmental threats and jeopardize the health and well being of communities on both sides of the border.

7. Narco-Traffic:

Need we say more?

6. Exploitation of Migrants:

Most undocumented immigrants are exploited by unscrupulous people who charge large amounts of money to smuggle people across the border in dangerous conditions; sometimes they never arrive. Migrants risk their lives to come to the U.S. to earn a decent living; they deserve just and humane working conditions.

5. Oppression of Indigenous Communities:

Militarization has caused many indigenous communities to be destroyed, forcing people to go to cities and to cross the border in search of work.

4. Migrant Farm Workers:

Many farm workers who work to harvest the world's foods scarcely have enough to feed their own families. U.S. immigration policy and law does not reflect the reality of these communities.

3. Crimes against Women and Humanity:

Every year thousands of tourists go south of the border to exploit women for fun. In the past few years in Ciudad Juarez, several hundred women, most of whom worked in maquidoras, have been raped, killed or are missing.

2. Multinational Forces Steal-ing and Destroying the Natural Resources of the Global South:

All in the name of profit at whatever cost to the environment and to human beings.