The Youth are not the Future, they are the Present

I did post coverage on the Students' Protest against Raids by Ice, but I was left with recordings of speeches by our revered elder sister, Elizabeth "Betita" Martínez, and, albeit young, already veteran activist and lawyer, Renee Saucedo and a young community activist running for the SF School Board, Barbara "Bobbi" Lopez, I decided to share these recordings with the people who couldn't make it to this awesome Youth / Student organized and led march.

 

In addition, there were so many wonderful pictures taken by very talented people like ~Bradley and Kevin Barnard at IndyMedia, that I have placed them for display below.

 

I felt both privileged and not surprised at the respect and deference our young ones exhibited for their elders, at 61, I was so gratified to see that the Torch of Freedom in this gargantuan struggle, was not passed on to the next generation of Activists / Leaders, rather, it was claimed and taken by our children so that "La Lucha" For our Gente ontinues.

 

The picture above-left says it all - The Youth are not the Future, they are the Present, indeed they are - Amen!

 

Aurora

 

Elizabeth "Betita" Martínez is a widely known Chicana writer, activist, and lecturer. Now director of the Institute for Multiracial Justice in San Franciso, she has published several books, most recently - De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century (1998)

500 years of Chicano History in Pictures (1976) -- The Youngest Revolution: A Personal Report on Cuba (1969) -- Letters from Mississippi (1964) -- Table of Contents from El Grito del Norte (1966-1972) -- Martinez, Elizabeth "Betita" What is White Supremacy? (1998) -- Martinez, Elizabeth "Betita" A view from New Mexico: recollections of the movimiento left Monthly Review (2002) -- Martinez, Elizabeth "Betita" Raza Protest A Day of Lies and Hate, (1998)

Listen to Betita's comments:

 

Barbara Lopez: For the last eight years, Barbara Lopez has been an advocate for immigrant and working families, representing families in special education and discipline hearings. She started at La Raza Centro Legal, where she was the coordinator of the Youth Law Project providing assistance to families in educational matters, spear-heading efforts with to give workshops to parents in youth in schools across the district.

Currently, she works with immigrant parents at La Voz Latina,an organization she founded several years ago within the Tenderloin Housing Clinic to give parent empowerment workshops, support parent engagement at school sites and work on parent-led community campaigns

Listen to Bobbi's comments:

 

Renee Saucedo is an organizer, an activist and a lawyer who has played a prominent role in this country's immigrant rights movement at all levels. She has led various immigrant rights organizations and has participated in numerous community campaigns related to the rights of undocumented immigrants, immigrant workers and poor people, generally. She founded INS WATCH, a grassroots organization that resists INS enforcement, facilitated immigrant organizing around Welfare Reform, and helped push for San Francisco being declared an "INS Raid-Free Zone."

RENEE SAUCEDO is an attorney and organizer with La Raza Centro Legal and the San Francisco Day Labor Program who believes that --We must continue to fight for legalization as the solution, not guest-worker programs. Temporary-worker programs are inherently exploitative, and they weaken the labor and workers' rights movements. They only benefit the bosses who want a constant source of cheap, exploitable labor.

Instead, we should support immigration proposals that strengthen family unification, protect workers' rights and make residency easy to obtain.

Listen to Renee's comments:

 

"Bay Area Youth Protest ICE Oct. 31st, 2008 in SF; Call for an Immediate End to All Raids" At IndyMedia by ~Bradley and,
"ICE PROTEST in San Francisco on Halloween 2008" At IndyMedia by - Kevin Barnard from http://barnardgraphics.com