Youth of Color get more Cancer

In minority neighborhood, kids' risk of cancer soars

By Howard Witt
Tribune senior correspondent
July 29, 2007

HOUSTON - Like so many of their poor and working-class Hispanic neighbors, Rosario Marroquin's family settled in the southeast Houston neighborhood of Manchester a generation ago because the clapboard houses were cheap, the streets were safe, transportation was convenient and downtown was only 20 minutes away.

It was an ideal neighborhood, except for the coughing spells, the nosebleeds, the burning odors and the acrid smoke.

Marroquin's family, like most everyone else in the neighborhood, did their best to ignore all that, because few could afford to move anywhere else. And they tried not to notice the dozens of oil refineries, petrochemical plants and waste disposal sites expanding all around them, their towering smokestacks and huge storage tanks lining the Houston Ship Channel, the city's principal outlet to the sea.

But then the cancers started to appear. First the neighbor in back, then another across the street, then a boy down the block. And finally, in 2003, Marroquin's son, Valentin, came down with leukemia at age 6.

The reality of living in the city's most toxic industrial zone -- in the middle of the largest concentration of petrochemical plants in the United States -- grew inescapable.

"The factories say they were here first, and I understand that," said Marroquin, 27, an apartment leasing agent who has lived in Manchester her whole life. "I understand that we need all this industry for our nation's economy. But when you look at the pain of a child in the hospital, why can't these plants do something better, invest more money in pollution controls?"

That is a question that Houston officials, environmental activists and neighborhood residents are grappling with in the wake of an alarming public health study released this year by the University of Texas School of Public Health. The study showed that children living within 2 miles of the heavily industrialized Houston Ship Channel, like Valentin Marroquin, have a 56 percent greater risk of contracting acute lymphocytic leukemia than children living farther away -- a risk that epidemiologists found was associated with some of the toxic pollutants released by petrochemical plants in the area.


A national trend

But such health risks are not just a local issue. Some environmental experts say the affected Houston neighborhoods, which are more than 90 percent Hispanic, illustrate a discriminatory national trend they call "environmental racism" in which hazardous polluting industries are routinely located closer to minority neighborhoods than white ones.

"All communities are not created equal," said Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, who has been documenting racial and environmental disparities for more than 20 years. "If a community is low-income and comprised mostly of people of color, it generally gets more than its fair share of those things that people don't want."

For example, one analysis of data collected by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, conducted by The Associated Press in 2005, found that blacks are 79 percent more likely than whites to live in neighborhoods where industrial pollution is suspected of posing the greatest health danger.

Another study, released by Bullard in March, ranked the top 10 metropolitan areas in the U.S. with the largest number of minorities living in neighborhoods that contain hazardous waste facilities. Houston was second, behind only Los Angeles, featuring 10 such neighborhoods where the total population is more than 78 percent minority. (Chicago ranked fifth, with nine neighborhoods containing hazardous waste facilities where the total minority population is nearly 72 percent.)

The very concept of environmental racism is vigorously disputed by officials of the petrochemical industry, who say that in many cases, the plants were there long before residential neighborhoods grew up around them.

"The petrochemical facilities in the Houston Ship Channel region were established during World War II in areas that were very unpopulated at that time," said Christina Wisdom, general counsel for the Texas Chemical Council, an industry trade association. "There is no evidence that industry has intentionally targeted those neighborhoods, and frankly, it's not true."

But environmental justice activists say that communities like Manchester end up hosting so many refineries, petrochemical plants and other hazardous industries largely as a function of economics and politics.

The presence of such industrial sites in a neighborhood sharply depresses residential property values, which attracts families earning the lowest incomes. And the presence of low-income families, many of them minorities who often lack political clout, in turn makes it easier for hazardous industries to locate or expand nearby without opposition.

That is particularly true in Manchester, which the Census Bureau puts at 25,174, but which local residents say is larger because of the presence of uncounted illegal immigrants.

"It's very easy for industry and the politicians to wear down these communities because they don't believe they have a right to anything better, and many people are afraid to come forward and complain," said Rosalia Guerrero-Luera, community outreach coordinator for Mothers for Clean Air, a Houston environmental group. "But it isn't like this is a normal problem and it will just smell for a little while. This will affect these children living here for their whole lives."

"Normal" for children in Manchester means an elementary school where the principal routinely locks the children inside to "shelter in place" when the air outside grows too foul, and a new neighborhood high school built a few hundred yards from the flaming smokestacks of a petrochemical plant.

Yet fighting the toxic health threats along the Houston Ship Channel is made even harder by the fact that most of the industrial plants are not breaking any state or federal pollution laws. Neither the federal EPA nor the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has established emissions limits for many of the toxic air pollutants, such as benzene and butadiene, that are released by the refineries and chemical plants in the area and that epidemiologists suspect are causing the increased cancer rates.

"In the absence of federal ambient air standards for toxics, states are allowed to set their own," said Elena Marks, director of health and environmental policy for the city of Houston. "Many states have done that. Texas has not."

Frustrated by the state's refusal to set and enforce new pollution limits, Houston Mayor Bill White wants to fill the void by expanding the city's nuisance laws to impose stiff fines on industrial plants that do not reduce their toxic emissions.

"Nobody should have the right to chemically alter air they don't own, breathed by other people, in a way that poses significant health risks," said White, a popular Democrat who is running uncontested for his third two-year term.


Industries fight back

But White faces strong opposition from the petrochemical industry, whose leaders point to progress they have made in recent years in voluntarily reducing emissions of some carcinogens. And state and regional officials question Houston's jurisdictional right to regulate the plants, some located just outside the city's borders.

As a compromise -- and a way to avoid what would likely be years of legal challenges to any new ordinance -- White agreed to the formation of an industry-government commission to study more voluntary emissions reductions. The commission is due to issue its report soon, but White warns that he will resurrect his proposed ordinance if the voluntary plan lacks teeth.

Dan Wolterman, president of Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital and chairman of the commission, said the group has discovered through its research that reducing toxic emissions, though expensive, is well within the technological capabilities of the plants.

"It's very clear if you look at best practices by these same organizations that they have some better emissions results elsewhere in other states," Wolterman said. "So we asked them, what would it take to get the Houston region to the place where you would do here what you do elsewhere?"

Rosario Marroquin, for one, says she's not going to wait around to find out.

Valentin, who is now 10, is in remission after intensive chemotherapy for his leukemia. But his mother worries that every time the boy and his young siblings drink water from a tap in their home or breathe the air outside, they face dire risks.

"We have to get out," said Marroquin. "We are not going to be able to afford it, but we have to leave. I don't want the tiniest particle triggering his leukemia again."

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hwitt@tribune.com

Residents join in social activism

San Antonio Express-News
Michelle Mondo

George Valdez often has wondered what it takes to be a social activist. The first U.S. Social Forum this month gave him a close-up look.

Valdez had bought a house near the former Kelly AFB that sits on land he now believes is contaminated.

"I didn't believe (other neighbors) when they first told me, but then they showed me tests," he said, referring to long-term environmental studies of soil and underground water samples at the former air logistics center.

Valdez, 49, said that once he became influenced by the Kelly AFB environmental testing, it changed his way of thinking. He joined the ranks of the socially active on the South Side.
That's why he also joined 50 other San Antonians who recently took part in the People's Freedom Caravan that traveled to Atlanta to participate in the inaugural U.S. Social Forum. The Southwest Workers' Union — a local grass-roots, membership-based group — helped to organize the trip.

The Caravan left San Antonio on June 24 and traveled five days, visiting several cities along the way until it joined approximately 10,000 other social activists in Atlanta for the Forum on June 28-30.

The event brought together political activists from across the nation and around the world to discuss immigration, climate change, poverty, trade agreements and social inequality, according to its Web site.

It was the first Forum of that size that Valdez and several others on the trip had attended.
"Everyone had their struggles," Valdez said. "It was eye-opening; it was mind-boggling; it was a lot of things."

The Forum was a first-time trip for Marsha Womack, 18, who never had been outside of Texas. Womack said she decided to get involved because she thinks young people need to make their voices heard. The immigration debate is one of the topics she wanted to learn about on the trip.
But Womack said she learned much more.

"The caravan was awesome — I loved it," Womack said. "Going to all those places and helping all those people, it's really cool."

But it also left her feeling that much more needs to be done.

"When we went to New Orleans to clean up the projects, I couldn't believe that place was still like that after two years. It's like the government hasn't done anything to move people back in there."

Another surprise for Womack was the support the volunteers got when they arrived in the various cities, including Jackson, Miss. While in Jackson, the group protested at a local Wal-Mart.

"In Mississippi, there were 400 of us there, and I didn't know that there were so many protesting around the world or in the United States," she said.

For Eulogio Contreras Jr., social activism has been a passion since he was young. His father fought for Chicano rights while Contreras was growing up. Contreras said he feels it's his duty to continue that fight, especially now that immigration is being debated.

"When we were having a discussion on (immigration) in Atlanta, we found out the reform bill had been turned down and there were mixed emotions," Contreras said. "There are two points of views, and it's kind of sad because now you have a division between the same race saying some wanted it but others did not. Now it's dividing people instead of uniting them."

He said, on one hand, the trip to Atlanta reinvigorated his passion for social activism. But on the other, it saddened him.

"It was exhausting," he said. "We visited the (Lower Ninth Ward) in the aftermath of Katrina and that really had an impact on me personally. What really got to me was a little girl stating she had no home, and her tears.

"It was more of a sad trip to realize what has happened to a lot of people in this nation. Poverty-wise, it was everywhere."

FEATURE: Roots of Change East Side Community Garden

Blossoming gardens cultivate interest in plants, neighborhood

Web Posted: 07/20/2007 09:53 PM CDT

(Lisa Krantz/Express-News)

David Gil, 15, with the Youth Leadership Organization, picks tomatoes in the Roots of Change Community Garden on East Commerce Street.

Jennifer Lloyd
Express-News Staff Writer

Inside the Roots of Change Community Garden, Lara Cushing plucks a tart grape off the vine and pops it into her mouth with satisfaction. For the moment she seems to have forgotten the road construction racket from East Commerce Street and the mosquitoes biting her bare legs.

Cushing, like many urban community gardeners, has learned to survive the trials of man and nature in order to reap the benefits.

In addition to a few grapes, the benefits on this day include a fat yellow sunflower, several overgrown cucumbers, a white plastic bucket filled with red-orange tomatoes and a palpable sense of camaraderie.

Cushing isn't alone in her enjoyment of this verdant space tucked behind the Southwest Workers' Union. Cushing, environmental justice coordinator for the union, says about a hundred people have joined in the gardening efforts since construction began in February. And 14 or so other garden groups across the city have cropped up with a similar aim: growing a feeling of community alongside a few edibles. But many of the newcomers have been blighted this year by over-abundant rainfall, little sun and construction woes.

Roots of change

These gardens are by no means a first for San Antonio. During the world wars, Texans were encouraged to plant victory gardens to grow their own produce so more commercially sourced food would be available to the troops. Now, modern horticulturalists are implementing gardening styles as diverse as the plants they propagate, from flower and vegetable basics to children's education and environmental friendliness.

The Roots of Change garden, for instance, is meant to model a form of "green" land development and provide organic food to area residents and union members.

"You can't really buy organic on this side of town ... and then it's usually out of the price range of most of our members," Cushing says.

A couple of union members and youths have been inspired to do a little backyard gardening of their own. Cushing says such gardens can provide a sense of food security if a family's budget grows tight at the end of the month.

"It's just kind of empowering to know you can grow your own food and help sustain your family," Cushing says.

The gardeners also give youths a lesson about the earthy origins of prepackaged delights.

"They didn't know what a tomato plant looked like or that the onion is the part that grows under the ground," Cushing says. But, she adds, "People get it pretty quick. We've had like 3-year-olds planting seeds."

Diana Lopez, an 18-year-old environmental justice organizer with the union, grew a green thumb fast. At first, she didn't know the difference between perennials and annuals. Now, she's educating other youngsters about the garden and is planning to plant some tomatoes of her own at home. Lopez's efforts were recently rewarded with a $500 community grant from the media company Plum and nonprofit Do Something.

Cultivate and motivate

Many community garden groups have found an ally in the Bexar Land Trust. Though the larger purpose of the nonprofit is to preserve Bexar County's landscape and natural resources, the organization launched a community garden pilot program last summer. The nonprofit selected four garden proposals and began assisting them through the early stages of development.

"Community gardens: everyone thinks 'gardening' but the emphasis should be on 'community' because that's what makes it happen," says Angela Hartsell, Bexar Land Trust's community gardens coordinator. "A garden is an everyday kind of maintenance thing. The garden isn't going to happen by itself."

For a variety of reasons, some of the gardens are still toiling toward their first crop of plants. At the Southwest Community Garden on Clegg Drive, construction of a new community center that will share the site has slowed the gardeners' progress, says Hartsell. At the Garden of St. Therese behind the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower, finding sunshine and developing a community commitment have been bigger challenges.

"Normally, this time of year I'd be biting my nails worrying about the sun toasting (the plants)," says Magdalena Alvarado, programs director for the restoration and community programs office at the basilica.

Alvarado may be staring at six anemic vegetable beds on the 1-acre lot, but she's envisioning something quite different — olive trees, pathways, a meditative space, and maybe someday, a farmers' market.

Changing demographics in the area around Kentucky Avenue has made finding a spectrum of participants more challenging, says Alvarado.

"We have an aging church population and a lot of immigrant families," says Alvarado.

But the demographics also reinforce her belief that a community garden is needed. Along with helping area residents move toward better nutrition and away from the dangers of diabetes and heart disease, she also hopes the project brings greater sociability.

"(Gardening) brings the neighbors together and breaks down barriers," says Alvarado. "There's something very basic about working alongside of somebody and producing something out of the dirt and sharing."

Horti-culture

Similarly, a connection to people and nature inspired the San Antonio Garden Organization to start work on a weed-filled lot along South Presa Street.

"There is this sort of cycle that we, as modern Americans, have sort of lost our understanding of," says garden coordinator Benjamin Lynn. "Eating your own food, I think you gain an extraordinary understanding of the natural processes."

Lynn and his fellow gardeners are using environmentally friendly tactics to make the most of their plot.

"We're trying to keep it as salvaged as possible," says garden coordinator Skyler Saucedo, referring to the decomposing railroad ties used to create hexagon-shaped beds and the old doors modified into a germination station. "We're trying to be somewhat conscious about our consumption and what we waste. And it's cheaper."

Local architect Darryl Ohlenbusch lent them the property for a few years in hopes of squeezing several harvests out of the land before he develops it. So the group of about 25 recently got to work crafting a design, gathering bags of seeds and preparing the area for growth.

During a Saturday morning work session, Lynn leans over and judiciously plucks a weed from within one of four hexagon plots. It's a small effort on a lot still filled with grass, but it's a start nevertheless.

"Corn kills" says metro health

As most of the southwest section of San Antonio sits atop a toxic soup of chemicals from pesticides to heavy metals to hydrocarbon (oil) products, the always 'insightful' SA Metropolitan Health Dept is looking to validate its claim that people's food, and thus their culture, make them sick.

Numerous studies have been unable to deny that excessive amount of liver cancer in the community. The toxic plume is full of PCE and TCE, solvents proven over and over again to cause liver cancer, in even the tiniest of amounts. But intent on blaming people instead of pollutants, MetroHealth is launching an investigation into a fungus that grows on corn. There is no evidence that this is linked to liver cancer.

Since the beginning of the struggle against Kelly Air Force Base, Fernando Guerra, the director has not been shy to point out that he believes people are sick because "they eat too many beans and tortillas and are lazy." Now he is spending tax-payer dollars to try to use flawed science to justify his racism.

So drink that TCE-poisoned water, because according to the health department its popcorn and tacos that are giving you cancer. YOU are at fault, not the air force and its chemicals.

****************************************************************

"Toxic Triangle": Liver Cancer Study Results Released

Last Update: Jul 18, 2007 6:23 PM WOAI

Posted By: Maritza Nunez,

There have been years of questions, but so far, no answers. Hundreds of people have died from liver cancer in communities surrounding the former Kelly Air Force Base. Now, health leaders say they are no closer to finding out why people are dying.

Purple crosses dot this modest neighborhood near the old Kelly Air Force Base, sometimes called the "toxic triangle." They represent people who have died, some of them suffered from liver cancer.

Many who still live here believe chemical contamination from Kelly is to blame.

In response to those critics, Dr. Fernando Guerra of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department says, "We have to certainly try to gather as much evidence as we can to give them reassurance and that's what we've tried to do."

Last year, the health department looked for any link between the high rate of liver cancer here and the contamination at Kelly.

The results of that study were released Wednesday and Dr. Guerra says there is no direct link between the two.

"You can't make any conclusions that there are attributable excess cases of liver cancer to contamination or to living in that community," says Dr. Guerra.

He tells News 4 WOAI only a handful of people participated in the study and there wasn't enough evidence to prove that contamination made people in that area sick.

"There was not any clustering, for example, where you see suddenly in a clearly defined area that you have any number of cases that may be related to [contamination]. That didn't occur."

The Metropolitan Health Department has already started work on a new study. This one will examine the diets of people who live near Kelly.

Researchers from Texas A&M and Texas Tech Universities will look at a possible link between corn tortillas and liver cancer.

March for Health and Justice

Sat. 14, 2007 six years after the closing of the Kelly AFB, residents marched to demand health and justice in their community.


Liver Cancer in the South side of San Antonio is higher than other parts of the city. The purple crosses and ribbons represent the struggle and deaths in this community. With no clean up plan, these neighboors took over the sidewalks and chanted "Move Kelly Get Out the Way, We Want Clean Up and We Want It Today" all the way to the entrence of the former Kelly AFB now Port San Antonio.



TCE is a chemical used by the former ABF. Many of the Kelly workers came in direct contact with this deadly chemical. Now a toxic plume of chemicals underlines most homes in the area.

Young Workers Demand Equal Pay

Posted by Ashley Gwilliam at 2:40 PM, 07.11.2007

The youth of the Southwest Workers Union gathered at the Bill Miller Bar-B-Q on the corner of S. Santa Rosa Avenue and W. Durango Boulevard at 10:30 a.m. this morning to protest the company for shortchanging their employees on San Antonio's south, east and west sides.

About 25 protestors proudly displayed signs markered with demands of equal pay for all, as they handed out green flyer's titled "The tea isn't so sweet at the infamous Bill Miller...". The flyer said the restaurant's employees on the east, south and west sides of town receive starting pay of $6.50 to $7.50 an hour, while employees on the north side of town receive starting pay from $8 to $9 an hour.

The SWU said the difference in pay is linked to the north side of town as being predominately Caucasian and the east, south and west sides largely consisting of Mexican Americans and/or African Americans.

At 11:00 a.m. the protestors marched inside restaurant's dining area and cheered in unison for equal rights. The three female employees behind the counter and the customers dining in looked bewildered. Some people smiled in amusement, while others kept eating.

Two on lookers said they were annoyed by the disruptive display.

"Nobody needs to do this," a female customer said, "If you don't like your job, go find another one. We're just trying to eat."

The protestors passed out more flyers with a list of demands for equal pay and asked restaurant customers to sign the back of the page if they agreed with them. The signed flyers are to be distributed to Bill Millers personnel.

Shortly after the protestors left to demonstrate at another restaurant location, a police officer appeared on the scene. Management refused to comment, but they appeared suprised by the demonstration.

Sandra Garcia, SWU member, said she wanted to put a campaign together when her intern who worked at the barbeque restaurant told her that employees on the north side of town were being paid more to do the same work.

"I called every Bill Millers in the city, asking what they would start me out at as an employee," Garcia said. "I saw disparity."

Fifty-four of the Texas chain's 67 restaurants are located in the San Antonio area.

According to the company's Website, Bill Miller Bar-B-Q prides itself in offering more than minimum wage to all its employees and strives to hire only above average people.

Although unscientific, the data from Garcia's phone survey will surely have many San Antonians asking Mr. Miller exactly what consititues being "above average" when it comes to pay.

from SA Current

**********************************************
TAKE ACTION!!

SEND A FAX LETTER TO BILL MILLERS DEMANDING JUSTICE FOR YOUNG WORKERS!!!

BILL MILLER MAIN OFFICE
Phone: (210) 225-4461
Fax: (210) 302-1533
Web: Contact

BILL MILLER PERSONNEL DEPT.
Fax: (210) 302-1512
Web: Contact

COMPLIMENTS / COMPLAINTS / SUGGESTIONS
Fax: (210) 302-1533

OR WRITE US AT:
Bill Miller Bar-B-Q, Inc.
P.O. Box 839925
San Antonio, Texas 78283-3925

Our Demands

• Just Wages for workers at every location starting at $9.00

• An end to discrimination against youth of color

• Equal pay for equal work across the city

Rechazo total a persecuciones

Protestan por la muerte de inmigrantes

Univision Television Group

Univision Online y Agencias
12 de julio 2007

SAN ANTONIO- Manifestantes salieron hoy a las calles para hacer sentir sus voces en torno a la fatal persecución del pasado martes, cuando tres inmigrantes perdieron la vida. Consideran que la policía expuso a los indocumentados cuando elevó la velocidad a 100 millas por hora. Ahora, indignados, piden que las autoridades disminuyan la velocidad o lo hagan desde helicópteros.

Ola de agresiones

El fracaso de la reforma migratoria parece haber traído consigo una ola de persecuciones y redadas en todo el país. San Antonio no escapa a esta situación y muchos hispanos claman porque este tipo de actividades se detengan y en el peor escenario, si la medida es actuar "entonces que lo hagan a baja velocidad".

	Video
		Protestas por muerte de inmigrantes

Tres personas murieron y 12 fueron hospitalizadas, cuando la camioneta deportiva que llevaba a por lo menos 19 inmigrantes indocumentados se estrelló tras una persecución a alta velocidad.

La persecución comenzó en Natalia, a unos 48 kilómetros (30 millas) al suroeste de San Antonio, y prosiguió por San Antonio a eso de las 2.00 de la madrugada, expresó el sargento de la policía Gabe Trevino.

Video
	Fatal persecución

Como el oficial de Natalia estaba persiguiendo solo a la camioneta Ford Excursion, otros dos patrulleros de San Antonio se le unieron en la búsqueda, que superó los 160 kilómetros por hora (100 millas por hora) al ingresar en la ciudad.

Una de las cubiertas de la SUV se reventó, y la camioneta dio varios vuelcos, despidiendo a sus ocupantes. Al menos dos huyeron a pie antes de ser detenidos por agentes que llegaron al lugar en un helicóptero de la policía, dijo Trevino.

En general la policía de San Antonio no participa en persecuciones de alta velocidad porque pueden ser muy peligrosas, pero una vez que el patrullero de Natalia ingresó a San Antonio, un supervisor autorizó la ayuda de la policía local, manifestó Trevino.

"No lo íbamos a dejar solo", dijo.

	Video
		Mexicano murió en persecución policial

El conductor de la camioneta de origen cubano, fue detenido y podría ser acusado de homicidio, señaló Trevino. La mayoría de los indocumentados a bordo son de nacionalidad guatemalteca y el Consulado mexicano confirmó que dos compatriotas estuvieron involucrados en el accidente, uno falleció y otro continúa en el hospital, en condición crítica.

Get Ready to MARCH

March for Health & Justice targets Kelly Air Force Base contamination

Community takes to the streets for a clean-up and with concerns over the plan for more “trains, planes, and trucks

Saturday, July 14^th - 10AM

March starts at St. John Berchmans Church

1147 Cupples (at Weir)

Rally 12 Noon

Port San Antonio main entrance (General Hudnell)

The community will march into the main entrance of Port San Antonio (formerly Kelly Air Force Base) Saturday on the 6^th anniversary of the closure of Kelly to highlight that though the Base has closed its legacy of contamination remains. Residents will tie purple ribbons with the names of cancer victims inscribed on them to highlight the health epidemic in the community.

Marchers will then bring their voices to the doorstep of the Port San Antonio, which continues to bring further noise and pollution and completely excludes the community from decisions over the redevelopment of Kelly. The March will conclude near the office of U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who continues to push for the redevelopment of other bases in San Antonio but has failed her community by not addressing the remediation of Kelly.

Residents are taking to the streets for:

1. An active remediation of TCE underlying homes that will clean up the plume, clean up the fumes. Recent studies show TCE causes cancer at levels lower than previously thought and the Kelly community suffers from elevated rates of liver, breast, and other cancer as well as leukemia and kidney disorders. TCE can volatilize, coming up through the soil and accumulating in people’s homes.

2. The transformation of Leon Creek into a hike & bike park. Toxins from Kelly & Lachland continue to seep into Leon Creek, where the water, sediment, and fish are highly contaminated with PCBs, heavy metals, pesticides, and other dangerous chemicals. The Air Force has no remediation plan for Leon Creek, which instead of a community asset, continues to pose an exposure risk to swimmers and fishers.

3. An end to the blasting of the community. Boeing continues to point its engines at the community directly adjacent to Port SA while running tests, subjecting residents to noise loud enough to shake houses late at night (testing often occurs after 11pm). Marchers say “no” to the expansion of rail, airplane, and truck traffic that will bring even more noise, air pollution, and threats of derailments.

# # #

Youth got some BEEF with BILL MILLER!

In San Antonio TX there are 47 family owned restaurants who for years now have paid workers (mainly youth) low wages for the same work in colored parts of the city than in richer developed parts. The Youth Leadership Organization took on the task of researching the injustices of Bill Miller BBQ towards minority youth who work there.

Wednesday July 11, 2007 was the official kick off date to the campaign for equal pay for equal work in Bill Miller BBQ Restaurants. In the south side and west side which mainly reside Mexican American People the starting pay is only $6.50 and on the north rich white neighborhood it is $9.00 hr.

Down Town & West Side


When confronted, the PR person for the company plainly confessed to the crime.
“Well those youth should drive to the north side to get a higher pay” – she said.

The youth interns, along with the SWU staff, went to protest at three different restaurants in three different parts of the city. In each protest a customer commented on their experience in working there or they agreed to take our demands to the manager, because they have no comment boxes.

We will keep standing up and empowering workers until the Miller Family caves and everyone is paid equally for equal work no matter where you live.

****************************************************************************
From SA Express News

Union representing young workers protests Bill Miller wages

Web Posted: 07/11/2007 12:50 PM CDT

Melissa S. Monroe
Express-News Business Writer

Chanting, "Equal pay!" and holding signs, about 15 volunteers from a youth union held a rally outside of Bill Miller Bar B-Q headquarters downtown trying to get the company's attention about pay inequity.

They say workers on the South, East and West sides of San Antonio get paid less than workers on the North Side. North Side workers get paid about $9 an hour, compared with around $6 an hour in other parts of the city, they said.

"Out of about 2,000 of Bill Miller workers, I'd say about 1,000 to 1,500 get paid less. It's mostly the restaurants on the East, South and West Sides," said Monica Garcia, a youth coordinator of the Southwest Workers Union Youth Leadership Organization.

She said the issue came to their attention from one of their youth interns who worked at the restaurant, and from talking with employees.

The majority of the workers who get less pay are between the ages of 16 to 25, according to the group.

At the Bill Miller on Durango Blvd near the Alamodome, its sign says starting pay is $8 an hour.

But a worker inside, who didn't want to be named, said the company just raised the wage to $8 from $7. She said she was told they get paid less because it's harder for the North Side Bill Miller restaurants to keep employees because of intense competition from other employers.

The union is supposed to be meeting with Bill Miller's executives about the issue, Garcia said.

Bill Miller officials haven't returned calls for comment.

• Univision video
  

More news from the People's Freedom Caravan

"We can change the world, we can we can. We're the People's Freedom Caravan."

• Democracy Now! with Monique Harden, Nearly Two Years After Katrina, Gulf Coast Residents Fighting Environmental Neglect, Privatization
• Gulf Watch: Grassroots Activists to Visit NOLA on way to U.S. Social Forum
• Houston IndyMedia: Change the World
• New Mexico Blog Radio: Freedom Caravan works to bridge Democracy Gap
• YES! Magazine
• MySA blog: postcards home - a youth perspective
  
• SWOP
  
• Picture gallery
  
• Video blog: traveling with caravan

see previous posts for lots more

Brown Berets featured

Today's Brown Berets advocate for immigrants

Web Posted: 06/30/2007 07:38 PM CDT

Elaine Ayala
Express-News Staff Writer
They don't look very imposing. One of them walks with a cane. Another helps his wife sell Avon. Several are grandfathers, and their newest recruit is just 10.

They looked different once — young, strong, angry, U.S. versions of Che Guevara.

They are the Brown Berets.

Once a paramilitary group, the Brown Berets grew out of the Chicano movement of the 1960s to combat educational inequality, police brutality and the disproportionate number of Latinos on the front lines of Vietnam.

Dressed in brown gabardine pants, khaki jackets, black boots, dark sunglasses and the signature brown beret, they looked forbidding as the Chicano movement's vanguard, at times clashing with police and guardsmen. Several were killed in the Los Angeles Moratorium Riots of 1970, which also claimed the life of Hispanic journalist Ruben Salazar. The Berets' most radical factions called for the return of Aztlán, scaring mainstream culture.

Today's Berets in San Antonio range in age from 10 to 65, are mostly male and are based on the city's South Side. In the late '60s and '70s, there were at least two chapters in town, though it's hard to know how many members there were.

Elsewhere, Berets are mostly high school and college students. San Antonio's dozen or so members are led by movement veterans with an old-school mentality.

On the Web

• Fight Back!: Young Chicano Revolutionaries • Brown Beretes at Wikipedia • BrownBerets.org • Watsonville Brown BErets

They're still angry, but their outrage is set in a vastly different age of activism. They're concerned about immigration reform and the rights of immigrants. Many of them wear buttons that say "No Child Left Behind Bars," for those being held in federal facilities.

They're concerned about a host of issues, including gangs, creating more educational opportunities for youth, how school boards operate and contamination near the former Kelly AFB that they believe is making residents sick.

"We figured we can do something more," said Robert Alvarado, who at 65 is the Brown Berets' ambassador and oldest member. "For the children, que crescan with liberty and justice for all."

Berets still view themselves as paramilitary, wearing red patches on their berets that read "Carnalismo," or brotherhood, with images of two brown hands clasped in front of the United Farm Workers' eagle.

"It's red because of all the blood that was shed de todos los Mexicanos in las guerras and gang fights," said Victor San Miguel, 62, a former prime minister of the organization in San Antonio at the height of the group's membership. He initiated chapters in Austin, Houston, Dallas, Odessa, Lubbock and McAllen.

Brown Berets don't carry weapons anymore (as some did in the 1970s) but still perform security duties. These days, they uniformly say their weapon is intelligence.

They frequent school board, neighborhood association and other meetings, making their voices heard, and they work closely with groups such as the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Southwest Workers Union, among others.

Pockets of Berets have resurfaced throughout the United States, and several attempts have been made to reorganize a national organization, but most of the groups operate independently.

Locally, their wives and mothers are "community angels" who support their cause.

Berets have become a familiar, almost nostalgic presence at the Martin Luther King and César Chávez marches.

"People ask us to take photos with their children and grandchildren," San Miguel said. "It makes me feel good, especially how the kids respond to us, and that's one thing we can't do is fail those kids."

One of their most critical issues is the detention of immigrant children in what they describe as the prisonlike T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center north of Austin.

Rights groups sued federal officials on behalf of those children, and a lawsuit heads to trial next month.

"A prison is a prison. I should know," said San Miguel, a one-time gang member who served time for drug possession. "I'm a very hard man, but it broke my heart."

In the '60s and '70s, Berets were drawn from such backgrounds. Some people viewed them with fear, and the group's history acknowledges the influences of the Black Panthers, Malcolm X and the American Indian Movement.

"I guess there were two images coming through," said Diana Montejano, a Palo Alto College instructor who was a Beret more than 30 years ago. "One saw us as rogues, or the gangster type.

"But there was so many areas where we were loved," she said.

"They transformed the street thug into a young man involved in his community," said associate Professor Ernesto Chávez of the University of Texas at El Paso. They became "crusaders for their own communities."

Last year, the HBO movie "Walkout" offered a glimpse of that history and the group's start as a Los Angeles County-sponsored student group called Young Citizens for Community Action, later Young Chicanos for Community Action.

The group was renamed the Brown Berets in part because police referred to them that way. "One of the founders said people just starting calling us that, and they changed their name," Chávez said.

Berets once were poised for violence, San Miguel says, but only in self-defense. "I've never known any Berets to use a gun."

In retrospect, some of their actions were more humorous than threatening, he adds.

"We chased the Communist Party out of some trailers they took over there at Jacinto (Treviño) College," one of at least two Chicano schools established in the 1960s by Chicano students.

Who were the communists?

"They were Mexicanos como nosotros (Mexicans like us)," he said, recalling the small band of Chicano youths whose act of defiance quickly deflated. They left when the Berets showed up.

Another time, San Miguel was among a small group of Berets that raised the Mexican flag on the grounds of the state Capitol, describing it as a spur-of-the-moment, undefined symbolic move.

San Miguel said "an old white man" walking past quelled a situation that could have escalated. "He asked us to take it down after we left," and they did.

Encounters with police had an altogether different edge, even in San Antonio.

"It was terrible. They had no respect for Chicanos," Alvarado said of run-ins with police. "They would stop you and take the beret as a souvenir."

"(Berets would) get arrested, and they always found drugs in the car when they were finished," he said.

Today, police are more likely to view Berets as safety patrols who assist them during marches, the Berets say.

San Antonio Police Department spokesman Sgt. Gabe Treviño said: "If there's any organization in the field, we're more than willing to work with them. (Police) Chief (William) McManus is committed to all sorts of organizations, them not excluded."

Brown Berets believe there's a new need for them, especially as they watch news footage of police handling protesters, "and the Minutemen on the border threatening immigrants," Alvarado said. "The government is letting them do whatever they want."

Their goals remain "to serve our people in every way possible, to observe the conditions in our barrios and organize for appropriate action," San Miguel said.

The idealism of the '60s movement is still the heart of their philosophy.

"They became famous because of education," said Chávez, author of "Mi Raza Primero!: Nationalism, Identity and Insurgency in the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles, 1966-1978."

Berets today are focused on issues that resonate in the community, Chávez says. "It's about children, the family and future."

News from Walmart Action

Living Wage Protest at Clinton Wal-Mart

by Kate Royals
Photo by Kate Royals
July 3, 2007

Several grass-roots organizations joined together on Tuesday in front of the Clinton Wal-Mart on Highway 80 to rally in support of a living wage. The group, comprised of members of the People’s Freedom Caravan, protested against low wages and a lack of health coverage for Wal-Mart employees.

The People’s Freedom Caravan, according to member Jill Johnston, is comprised of “75 plus organizations from the South and Southwest fighting to bridge what we call the ‘democracy divide.’”

The 75 organizations range from immigrant rights groups to workers’ rights groups. Additionally, film crews from Spain, Germany and Japan were present at the rally shooting footage to include in documentaries.

The caravan will stop in 11 cities to highlight various issues of social justice. The buses, which began their trip in New Mexico, stopped in Clinton on their way to Atlanta, where the first ever United States Social Forum was held last weekend.

Caravan converges in Bayou Liberty

Social reform groups gather for crab boil on Bayou Liberty

Jerome Troullier, left, Bill Pierre, and Malcolm Pichon prepare crabs Monday afternoon for a big crab boil at the site of St. Genevieve Church on Bayou Liberty. The crab boil was to welcome the People's Freedom Caravan, which will join Moving Forward Gulf Coast Inc. in attending a conference on social justice in Atlanta. (Staff Photos by Erik Sanzenbach)

By Erik Sanzenbach

St. Tammany News

Members of Moving Forward Gulf Coast Inc., St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Genevieve Church and the Creoles Sans Limites welcomed about 200 people from California recently with a real Louisiana tradition - a crab boil.

The Californians are traveling in a series of buses called the People's Freedom Caravan and are on their way to the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta.

The crab boil was held on the grounds of St. Genevieve Church on the banks of Bayou Liberty.

Besides friendship and a good time, the crab boil was a way for people working for social justice around the country to get together, network and map out plans on how to improve the lives of Americans.

Residents of the area will join the People's Freedom Caravan to attend the forum, which will focus on plans to reform governments and leadership in the country. The U.S. Social Forum is a large gathering of progressive, grassroots organizations and faith-based ministries that network to help improve the quality of lives of Americans.

Moving Forward Gulf Coast Inc. is a non-profit organization based in Louisiana that was founded to help local families rebuild lives and homes on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.