News

May 2008

Wow! It's been almost two weeks since May Day 2008, and it is exciting to watch the news roll in from around the country about different events that happened that day. There were marches and rallies all around the country, in cities big and small, and in the end, we imagine that hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their allies will have taken to the streets once again to protest the deportation policies of our current government, to manifest the important contributions of the immigrant community to our society, and to publicly state their presence and importance to our communities.

We've read that there were events in over 200 towns and cities across the country. While it is by no means an exhaustive list, here are some of the places we heard about:

Madison, WI * Milwaukee, WI * Las Vegas, NV * Los Angeles, CA * Chicago, IL New York City, NY * Oakland, CA * San Francisco, CA * Houston, TX * Dallas, TX * Miami, FL * Watsonville, CA * San Jose, CA * Tuscon, AZ * Washington D.C. * Santa Rosa, CA * St. Paul, MN * Seattle, WA * Salem, OR * Manchester, NH * Reno, NV * San Antonio, TX * Boston, MA * Atlanta, GA * Bellingham, WA * Bloomington, IL * Pittsburgh, PA * Amherst, MA * Morristown, NJ * Bridgeton, NJ * Kennett Square, PA

Pretty impressive eh? Although turnout was down in most places from rallies and marches in years past, the overall total effect is still impressive. There is still a drive and movement willing to fight for justice, for equality, for dignity for ALL people in this country, including immigrants, despite the intimidation tactics employed by I.C.E. and opinion pieces published in several Spanish language newspapers that stated that such marches were unnecessary and could have been the cause of I.C.E. activities from the past few years.

We have some photos up on the CATA Myspace page and the our Facebook page Now we have a bunch on the website too! Just click on the photo below!


So, here are a few articles:

Immigrant Rally Tiny but Vocal (Bridgeton, NJ)
Immigration Reform Advocates March, but Movement has lost Steam
Thousands Rally in May Day Effort for Immigration Reform
Immigrant rights activists join protests nationwide
Immigrant Rally Shrouded by Fear (St. Paul, MN)
Thousands March for Immigrants Rights (in L.A.)

April 10, 2008

Guess what? It's almost May 1st, which means that the planning around here as begun for activities for May 1st, International Workers' Day.

As we have for the past two years, we are organizing activities in Kennett Square, PA and in Bridgeton, NJ. We are waiting to get our permits officially from the City officials in both places, but are tentatively planning a march and rally in Kennett, and a rally in Bridgeton. If anyone is interested in volunteering, we could use some folks to help out with: Photography, Videography, Interpretation, and maybe in some other capacities. If you would be interested in volunteering, please get in touch with Jessica (NJ) at catanj@aol.com or Serafina (PA) at serafina@kwunion.org.

Also, for New Jersey folks! This Saturday, April 12, 2008, EarthShare of NJ, a federation of local environmental organizations in New Jersey and of which CATA is a member organization, will be holding a fundraiser, Earth Share Celebrates New Jersey, in New Egypt, NJ. For more information, please click on the image below:


And lastly, on March 27, 2009 Maya Wiley led a webinar for the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation to discuss Structural Racism and the Food System. Find out more about how the food we eat, and the agricultural system that delivers it to our plate, is shaped by and contributes to racialized inequity in out society. 

www.centerforsocialinclusion.org

March 14,2008

Check it out! Farmworker Awareness Week is coming up from March 31-April 4, 2008! Click on the image for more information!

March 10, 2008



EarthShare of NJ, a federation of local environmental organizations in New Jersey and of which CATA is a member organization, will be holding a fundraiser, Earth Share Celebrates New Jersey, on Saturday, April 12, 2008 in New Egypt, NJ. Click on the image for more information!

January 2008

Over the past several years, CATA has worked on (and participated in) a few short documentaries. Over the past few months, we’ve been learning how to get small clips of them onto google video, and hopefully eventually onto the website!

I won’t put all the clips in the body of this email, but I will put one...Last January we painted a mural in Moroleón, Guanajuato, México – the hometown area for many of the mushroom workers in Kennett Square. We produced a short documentary (12 minutes) that talks about why we decided to paint a mural and the mural itself. This is a short montage of the painting of the mural (and it has really fun music!)

Mural Documentary Clip HERE!

The rest of the videos we have uploaded so far can be found by following the same link to google video.

If anyone would like us to come and present one of the videos, please invite us!

¡Viva la Lucha!

November 26, 2007

Immigration continues to be a major topic of debate, and one that continues to get kicked in the gut despite the sensible, realistic, pragmatic solutions that have been offered up to our current immigration debacle. Of course, comprehensive immigration reform was completely denied over the summer. At the end of September, even the widely supported DREAM Act, which would offer an opportunity to immigrant students

Over the past several months, you have received a few emails from us, asking you to contact your Senators and Representatives about the AgJobs bill. Given the failure of comprehensive immigration reform, many of the farmworker organizations around the country joined together in a coordinated effort to advocate strongly for the AgJobs bill, which Senator Diane Feinstein from California has been helping with strongly. During the first week of October, we took a group from Pennsylvania and New Jersey down to D.C. to meet up with other farmworkers from around the country and spent 3 days visiting our legislators. Senator Feinstein was working to include the bill with the Farm Bill, but eventually decided that it would not support the passage of the bill to do so. The Farm Bill debate this year was particularly strong, and there was more discussion than there has been in many years over what the agricultural policy of our country should be. At the end, the bill looked pretty similar to past Farm Bills, but there seems to be growing interest in promoting a different agricultural policy in our country. There is a particularly interesting editorial, published in the New York Times, Weed it and Reap.

The overall atmosphere for any kind of immigration reform looks pretty dim right now. Even the DREAM Act, which has significant bi-partisan support was defeated in October. However, we will continue pushing for AgJobs along with other farmworker organizations from around the country. We are collecting organizational signatures for a letter to our Congressmen. If you’d like to sign on in support of AgJobs, send us an email at catanj@aol.com.

Change is in the air. Our office and community meeting space in Kennett Square, PA has temporarily closed. Our lease was terminated, and we are currently in flux, but sort of living at the Kennett Friends Meeting House temporarily while we figure out our next steps. I am sure that we will be in touch with you to let you know how you can help! But for now, know that you can continue to leave messages for us at 610-444-9696 and email us at catakennettsq@yahoo.com

CATA continues to look for opportunities and possibilities of advancing immigrant rights’ locally and on the state level. Over the summer, Nelson Carrasquillo, CATA’s Executive Director, was named to Governor Corzine’s Blue Ribbon Immigration Panel. The Immigration Panel is holding their first Public Hearing on December 10, 2007 in order to gather information that will aid them in making their recommendations to Governor Corzine. I have attached the fliers for this event, both in Spanish and in English, to this email.

We continue to work to build our capacity as an organization, and to work with other grassroots organizations from our area, as well as around the country. In addition to working with farmworker organizations, CATA was involved in bringing together a diverse group of grassroots organizations in the Tri-State region (PA, DE, and NJ). At the beginning of November, the Tri-State Social Forum held their second Grassroots Gathering, where we focused specifically on the challenges to building membership and community leadership. It was a productive time of sharing and dialogue. We hope to continue meeting, growing and building together.

Please, feel free to contact us at catanj@aol.com with your thoughts and ideas!

¡Viva la Lucha!

August 8, 2007

Finally we have finished putting together our Summer 2007 newsletter. It contains a lot of exciting information, including:

• Updates on the pilot of the Agricultural Justice Project (you may have heard that the project has its' own website now located at www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org),
• Updates on local organizing work that has been happening in Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
• All you ever wanted to know and more on the Immigration reform,
• and more!

July 20, 2007

Lots of new things around here. Here are a few snapshots of what is going on:

1. Last week CATA filed a lawsuit against the city of Bridgeton for billing us for police overtime for the May Day March. After the march, they sent us a bill for $1,500, even though they knew in advance that we would fight such a bill.
   
   After quoting to the press that it was a “baseless” and “frivolous” lawsuit, they offered to cancel the bill if we would settle the lawsuit. The settlement was finalized at the beginning of this week. Bridgeton agreed to not charge CATA for future free speech activities, but reserved the right to create an ordinance regulating such activity. We reserved the right to sue them over it if it is prohibitive to the practice of free speech.
   
   You can read our joint press release with the ACLU and a few articles on the CATA Publications page.
   
   
2. Last week, staff person, Richard Mandelbaum, traveled to Belgium this week to participate in the Global Forum on Migration and Development as part of the NGO Committee on Migration. You can read a copy of the position statement they drafted to present to the Forum participants HERE.
   
   
3. This month, the Agricultural Justice Project will make history by piloting a food label that verifies fairness for farmers and farmworkers alike.
   
   The AJP is a non-profit initiative to create a fair and equitable food system through the development of social justice standards for organic and sustainable agriculture.
   
   You can read the entire Press Release and check out the Agricultural Justice Project Website.
   
   
4. CATA has been involved over the last few years in supporting the organizing efforts of a group of immigrants from San Isidro Aloapam, Oaxaca, a community which has been struggling over the last 20+ years to preserve a communally owned forest. Recent events threaten the integrity of the forest and the human rights of San Isidro residents. Read more...

June 29, 2007

Yesterday the bill for comprehensive immigration reform died on the Senate Floor. As an organization of migrant and immigrant workers, CATA is deeply disappointed that the Senate was not able to reach a resolution to reform our immigration laws.

We are not under any illusions; this proposal was not everything that the immigrant community needed. It did not offer amnesty, which is what we believe that is appropriate and necessary. However, the proposal did offer an opportunity, albeit a highly punitive one, for some people, including farmworkers, to obtain a legal status. We are disappointed because we know that the leadership of this country has tabled an important discussion for an undetermined amount of time, and that we may be waiting for at least another year and a half until after the Presidential elections of 2008 for the topic to be discussed again.

In the meantime, the issues of work place abuses, ICE raids and deportations, etc will continue and could become more acute as states and communities attempt to grapple with such an overwhelming issue that requires a federal response. More than twelve million people waited for our federal government to offer up a recognition of the work and contributions that they make to the economy, to the society.

We are still waiting.

June 1, 2007

We've added a new dimension to our website that we wanted to share with you all! There is now a link on the side bar that says "Articles, Studies, etc". We will be working to update the website weekly with articles and studies that are relevant to the topics that we work here at CATA. So far there are articles and analysis of the immigration proposals, articles about sustainable agriculture, workers' rights, and human rights. In the future, we will try to provide current information on pesticides, housing issues, and more! We hope that you will find it useful to find information here on our website about these issues. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to email us!

Under the link, "CATA Publications", you will continue to find our newsletters, reports that we publish, as well as news articles covering our own events.

Thanks!

May 2007

Many thanks for all those who helped make the May Day Marches in both Bridgeton and Kennett Square successful. Despite the fear that has been instilled in the community throughout the last several months from immigration raids and persecution, more than 200 workers and supporters turned out to each March.

We'd like to especially thank PhilaPOSH for helping to organize a caravan of folks from Philly who participated in the Kennett March, as well as Voices Without Borders who organized a group from Wilmington, DE.

In Bridgeton, we are thankful for the participation of the Pentecostal and Missionary Church and Carl's Corner Community Fellowship who helped organize participants, Legal Services of New Jersey for organizing legal observers, South Jersey Legal Services and Rural Opportunities Inc. for providing information and water, Ollin Yolitzli Calmecac for performing, and CommunitY Organizing Collective for helping to take pictures and provide security for the march.

On another note, there has been a lot of activity over the last two weeks around immigration. While we have yet to complete our own analysis of the bill, it has definitely sparked a lot of debate on both sides of the table.
Here is a sampling of articles: