Stop Anti-Immigrant Legislation in the General Assembly

State-wide effort underway to stop anti-immigrant legislation in the General Assembly

Virginia United Against Oppression says it aims to stop "all out assault" on undocumented people and workers in the Commonwealth.

A new group called Virginia United Against Oppression has formed a statewide campaign in Virginia to fight racist anti-immigration and anti-worker rights legislation in the General Assembly.  The group has organizers statewide building a campaign against the "massive attack on all people living in Virginia."

You can visit the website for Virginia United Against Oppression at http://virginiaunitedagainstoppression.wordpress.com/ or visit them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Virginia-United-Against-Oppression/146569948730890.

Several anti-immigrant bills are expected to move through the short session of the General Assembly over the next two weeks, ostensibly to get them to the floor before public opposition is increased.  A similar process exists for the bills pertaining to workers rights.

Activists and citizens are mobilizing across the state to bring attention to these issues pointing out that:

• The bills are a full scale attack on undocumented people in Virginia, turning state police and all public employees into immigration enforcement officers, denying services and education to immigrants, and encouraging racial profiling.
• Along with legislation designed to limit workers abilities to file workers compensation claims, legislators will also be moving to embed Virginia's "right to work" laws in the state constitution, laws that already exist as statute, but harder to repeal if added to the constitution.  In addition, another constitutional change is being proposed adding language that mandates a "secret ballot" when workers try to form unions and leaves the decision of how and when a union forms in the hands of business owners rather than employees.

For a full list of the bills being opposed, or supported, by Virginia United Against Oppression please visit http://virginiaunitedagainstoppression.wordpress.com/the-bills/.

Virginia United Against Oppression is mobilizing people statewide in a variety of ways and plans on directly lobbying legislators, educating the public, and rallying all Virginians, documented or not, to take a stand against what they say is racist and xenophobic fear mongering made into law.  Organizers point to the widespread outrage expressed over similar legislation last year in Arizona, and plan to beat legislators to the punch in Virginia.

Organizers are encouraging anyone interested in the issues to take action and to contact them for ideas and cooperation.

For more information, or to schedule an interview, contact:

Brandon Collins
(434) 249-3312
brandoncollins@comcast.net

Some more reasons to oppose racist legislation in Virginia:

• Having state police enforce federal immigration laws will be a burden on Virginia taxpayers; all public employees will be "deputized" as immigration officials, detracting from their ability to do their jobs.
• Public employees should not be forced to turn in people seeking assistance; refusal to do so puts public employees at risk of job loss and loss of conscience.
• Localities should always be aware and witness immigration enforcement in their communities, eliminating this opens the door to great abuses.
• Immigrants awaiting deportation are often detained for months, sometimes for a year, in jail cells normally reserved for criminals.  This is a great expense for taxpayers if we add to these numbers while simultaneously creating profits for private prison contractors.  Beyond the tax issue, putting more people in jail for "crimes" that are misdemeanors is a human rights catastrophe.
• No human being is illegal.  Virginia should welcome immigrants not put them in prison simply for existing.
• Social services and education for immigrants are not a drain on our society, rather, it makes for a safer society when the needs of all people are met.
• Further, many undocumented people pay into the tax system but do not file returns, thus paying more into the system than other low income citizens.
• The nation's eyes will be on Virginia.  We should not pass racist legislation when the rest of the country is appalled by racism.  Virginia's tourism industry could be severely impacted under a boycott such as has been seen in Arizona.
• Immigration is a federal issue, and should remain a federal issue.  US trade policy is the main driver of migration to the United States.
• Workers should have a right to decide how and when they form unions.
• "Secret ballots" on the surface sound fair, however, by not allowing union sign-up or card check, the law puts the control and timing of union organizing into the hands of employers rather than employees, who could still opt for a secret ballot system but by their own decision rather than the employer.
• Since "card check" isn't allowed anyways, the only reason to put this language into the state constitution is to negate any federal laws on the matter such as the Employee Free Choice Act.
• Virginia's "right to work" laws are already Virginia statute.  Putting them into the state constitution makes it harder to repeal these laws in the future.
• Both constitutional issues bolster the stated goal of some state officials in Virginia and around the country to change the US Constitution to allow states to ignore federal laws whenever they want.
• People deserve to work in a safe environment.  When accidents happen, workers should be able to be compensated for their injuries. The new legislation will shorten the time allowed for workers to file claims, limit what qualifies to receive compensation (including secondary injuries), and makes it harder for employees to defend themselves in the filing process.

There are 3 bills ("Good Bills for Workers") relating to workers rights that can be supported:

• Workers should not be discriminated against because of sexual orientation or preference, including state workers.
• Workers compensation should cover all injuries on the job, including brain injury.

Buy Nothing Day - What Will You Do?

November 26, the day after Thanksgiving, is traditionally a day where corporate dominance over our lives is asserted and our complicity in consumer capitalism is encouraged and expected. Known as Black Friday, consumers/citizens are prodded by media and business to flood stores en masse to start the holiday shopping season.

Buy Nothing Day is the resistance to this! A symbol of resistance to a symbol of consumer capitalism, ecological devastation, and neo-liberalism. Use this day as a start on reducing your consumption and ending participation in corporate expectations of you.

What will you do this Buy Nothing Day? The Socialist Party of Central Virginia is asking everyone reading this to participate in some way in the myriad of activities planned.

First off- don't buy anything on Nov. 26! Make sure you send us an e-mail before that day, or the day of, to let us know how you plan to participate.

Here are some ideas:

1. Don’t buy anything!
2. Attend, or help organize, a free store: Nov. 26- Really Really Free Market, Really Really Free Speech Zone, and Really Really Free Movie 1p.m.-8p.m. Random Row Bookstore, 315 West Main St., Charlottesville, VA. Nov. 27- Noon-3 p.m. Monroe Park, Richmond, VA.
3. Organize a gift making party or workshop- reuse goods for art!
4. Post about Buy Nothing Day on Facebook.
5. Write and call your friends and family and ask them not to buy anything on Nov. 26.
6. Visit a shopping mall and don’t purchase anything; tell shoppers to hurry up and start buying because we have a planet to consume!
7. Zombie shoppers- get some friends to dress like zombies and wander around the mall with empty shopping bags.
8. Cut up your credit cards. Offer to cut up other people’s credit cards- set up a stand at a mall, “Free Debt Reduction,” and bring scissors to cut up cards.
9. Bike or walk to work.
10. Pack a lunch for work- Thanksgiving leftovers anyone?
11. Puppet or street theater at a Wal-Mart, or other big box store, or mall.
12. Research a particularly vicious corporation and hand out fliers to shoppers at their stores.

So, what are you doing for Buy Nothing Day? Please post your ideas below and let us know!

The Bird May Die

By Gary Shaw

Editor's Note: In 2009, Patrick Wilson, a reporter for the Virginian Pilot, contacted several SP-CVA members for interviews, etc. This was Mr. Shaw's response to Mr. Wilson (Wilson's resulting article being "Socialists Say Their True Beliefs Are Being Misconstrued"). The title, "The Bird May Die," was gleaned by myself from the body of Mr. Shaw's article, as it had none.

Author's Note: This was the original write-up for the Virginian Pilot article. It must have been too much truth for them, or, if published as is, Frank Batten would have battened down their hatches.

After looking up the true meaning of the word "socialist," I went on to research what the ideological, or world, view differences really were. "It's all about the money," so they say: who gets it, who deserves it. But a nagging question was "the massive debt." If our country is trillions of dollars in debt, then who exactly is in debt to whom... and why? I am a member of the Socialist Party USA, and have served as a seated delegate at the Party's National Convention; but like many members, have primary concerns. Mine is political economy.

The common people believe anything you tell them; the politicians play the term for advantage. If a socialist ever makes it into office, he is labeled an "Independent." This is the way we are told there is no alternative but the lesser of two evils.

Obama, a socialist? Certainly not. The "moderate" line has been drifting right for decades. The public is swayed by what they are going to get in the short term. We are racing into a brick wall. The question now is how hard does it have to be? Climate change, continued division of the rich and poor, exhaustion of natural resources: these are real. What in politics do we have now?

Two wings of the same bird, yet the bird cannot fly,
I call you to reason to ask yourself why?
They call the bird an Eagle, supposed to soar in the sky,
Yet there'll be a season the bird may well die.

Today we hear the word more, probably as a result of desperately grasping Republicans, warning the people that we are headed (with Obama) down the slippery slope towards - what amounts to - the "failed Soviet system." Rubbish.

Socialism is not an easy subject to understand, otherwise we would all be socialists. I wish we had more time to discuss what you actually need to spread "our gospel."

There must be a distinction between the neo-liberal agenda and that of Capitalism as a system. There are those who believe that the neo-liberal model needs adjustment; however, the basic adherence to Capitalism as an economic base must be addressed as well. Our president, as a Democrat (and not a socialist), believes our solution to the current economic conundrum is to work within the system of so-called "free enterprise" and world trade. Unfortunately, these lie at the core of the problem. To satisfy those who are in control of the current system (i.e. the major stakeholders- shareholders [Wall St.], the military-industrial complex, the media [Murdock, Turner, et al.], and others) only limited reforms within their worldview are authorized. Socialists are committed to an overhaul of the current system so that people's lives are under their own control, and they are the owners of the means of production, rather than just participants under "representation" (which we all know is not real). We believe in full-employment for those who are willing to work, not a mass of available workers in a reserve army pool of labor. Obama believes that we can tinker with a system which still favors the rights of the employer over the employed. The employed, although at the bottom of the Ponzi scheme structure of the economy, are still the entire support structure of all money-makers above them. The workers are not capitalists. To be a capitalist requires reaping the benefits of those workers who "work for you," so to speak.

The term "socialist" has become an epitaph, a term to be used among the dead. In light of the fallen Soviet Union, a bad taste has been left in the mouth of post-Cold War warriors: "Socialism [sic] has failed, and there is no alternative to the capitalist system which has triumphed [also sic]." Too many times our natural progression (invention is the mother of necessity) towards socialism, has been characterized in light of earlier experimental failures. Let it be known that there are so-called "mixed economies" (e.g. Scandinavia) which in part incorporate both economic systems. However, they are not socialist. The fact that they do succeed as Western European economies does not mean that they have incorporated that which is necessary to ensure full equality and services to their citizens. It may be instructive to look to the new South American Model (read ALBA [Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean]) to understand the possible future of other developing countries.