What follows is an important contribution to the immigration policy debate written in March 2013 by Dr. Rodolfo Acuña. A scholar, activist, and prolific author, Acuña is a professor emeritus at California State University at Northridge. The founding chair of CSUN’s Chicano/a Studies department, he has worked with educators, students, and community members in the… Read more »
immigrant rights
Freedom Socialist Letters to the editor
STOP DEPORTATIONS Palestinian American feminist targeted Rasmea Odeh is a 66-year-old Palestinian American woman, well known and admired for organizing literacy and domestic violence prevention programs for the Arab community in the Chicago area. On the morning of Oct. 22, 2013, Department of Homeland Security agents dragged her from her home — for “immigration fraud.”… Read more »
Freedom Socialist editorial — Without a country: Haitian-Dominicans
In the Dominican Republic (DR), Haitian immigrants and their children have labored on sugarcane plantations for generations, working for low pay in appalling conditions. In September 2013, the country’s highest court rewarded them for their service to the economy by stripping a quarter million of them of their citizenship. The court found that children of… Read more »
Dateline Australia: Military-style operation launched against refugees
In 2010, Ranjini, a Tamil mother fleeing genocide in Sri Lanka, won refugee status in Australia and settled in Melbourne. Two years later, she and her two young boys were abruptly placed in detention by immigration authorities. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had deemed her a security risk. The spy agency gives no reasons… Read more »
Freedom Socialist Book Review: We Need New Names, by NoViolet Bulawayo
We Need New Names, by NoViolet Bulawayo, is much more than a coming of age story. It’s a tale of savage colonialism, of local tyrants and unremitting droughts and rains, of the shattering pain of having to leave because all things are falling apart. It’s the story of one girl’s unique trajectory that shares common… Read more »
From LA to D.C., young activists take up civil disobedience for immigrant rights
Fresh winds are blowing for immigrant rights, thanks largely to the energy and determination of young activists. Angered by record deportations under President Obama and the refusal of Congress to pass humane reform legislation, they are pushing for change with vibrant acts of civil disobedience. Their protests range from fasts and risky border crossings to… Read more »
Freedom Socialist opinion: Time for action, no time to lament
My granny was a single mom with nine children ranging from pre-teen to their 30’s by the time I came along. Mom was also on her own, with me. They rented a house and together supported the family. Grandma, the expert cook, with her food stand in El Mercado de San Martin, a small city… Read more »
Freedom Socialist Letters to the Editor, April 2014
GREAT REVIEW Antidote to immigrant bashing Thank you for reviewing NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names [Vol. 35, No. 1]. I might not have come across this novel and I now plan to read it. The far-right has made immigrants the subject of some of its most vicious and racist hate speech. After some twenty… Read more »
Freedom Socialist editorial — Immigrants strike to challenge detentions
Across the United States a battle rages to win justice for undocumented immigrants, with the latest salvo fired by hunger strikers at immigration detention centers. The strike began on March 7 by 750 detainees in Tacoma, Wash., and has since spread to a center in Conroe, Texas. Like undocumented youth who blockaded busses carrying deportees,… Read more »
Berry pickers win big!
Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent union at Sakuma Bros farm, sued for wage theft and won an $850,000 settlement. A huge victory! The farmworkers union also got family housing reinstated. These two wins have been a shot-in-the-arm to gaining a first contract. Support the struggle at www.boycottsakumaberries.com.
