Letter from Efren via Helen

Dear Friends,

It is with great pleasure that I announce to you I have received
official notice from prison administrators that my public hearing has
been scheduled for Thursday, December 4, 2008.

I was grateful to receive the news, and am happy to share it with
family, friends and supporters who have fought long and hard to help
me arrive at this moment. We have all worked diligently to one day
witness this day become a reality. It is a culmination of our
collective spirit, ideas, energies, vision, and evidence of our
unwavering determination to pursue justice.

My mother cried when I shared the news with her. She was elated about
the prospect that I could be released as early as the Christmas
holiday or within the next couple of months. She witnessed my arrest
as a 15-year-old boy in the kitchen of our home on March 15, 1989 and
painfully observed as I was paraded away in handcuffs to a waiting
police car.

For almost 20 years my mother and others have traveled across the
state to visit me caged in prisons. Sometimes the visits have
occurred in contact visiting rooms, other times in small booths behind
glass partitions that separated us from contact altogether. My mother
now prays for the day she will be able to see me walk out of prison
without handcuffs — a free citizen for the first time in my life as a
35-year-old adult.

After the public hearing has been held the Parole Board will make a
recommendation to the Governor supporting or opposing my commutation
request. Upon receipt of the Parole Board recommendation the Governor
will deliberate over the matter and render a final decision about my
release.

The urgency of this phase of our campaign for justice can not be
underscored enough. It is imperative that we closely coordinate our
efforts and continue working to maximize our efficacy. This is the
most important opportunity to have my freedom restored — and perhaps
the final one — I may ever receive.

Only 34 days remain for us to launch the strongest phase of our
campaign yet. Within these days are the seeds of my potential
release. The manner in which we cultivate these seeds could determine
the final outcome of my public hearing and future.

Please take a few moments to download the attachment to this message
and print out as many copies as you can. Ask people to sign them and
please personally mail the letters in groups of 10 or 20 letters at a
time in large envelopes to the Parole Board. This will ensure as many
letters as possible are mailed.

Hundreds of support letters have been mailed to the Parole Board and
hundreds of support postcards continue to be mailed to the Governor's
office. We are doing a remarkable job with this aspect of our effort
and I want to encourage you to please continue doing it.

The next phase of our campaign will include organizing as many people
possible to attend the public hearing to express their support on my
behalf. In the next week I will be sending you more information about
the location and time of the hearing so everyone can begin their
preparations.

This is extremely important. We can expect that members of the
victim's family in the case and the prosecutor's office is going to
encourage opposition to show up at the hearing. Therefore, it is
imperative that we make a strong show of support and be well-
represented. We do not want to underestimate the number of people who
may appear expressing opposition to my release.

On a very personal note, I am asking all of you to please pray for
Helen's father, George, and our family. Recently George suffered a
heart attack and he has been hospitalized for two weeks. This week we
learned that George now has extensive irreparable heart damage.
Doctors have offered very discouraging news about his future.

I am hopeful that we will be successful with my campaign for freedom
so I can spend time with George while it is still possible. Time is
not on his side right now. Your prayers and thoughts would be very
much appreciated during this difficult time.

I am confident everyone will do the best they can to answer this
urgent call to action and impassioned appeal. Thank you for your
continued support, and thank you for helping me stay strong and
determined to never acquiesce to injustice. The source of our
strength lies in our collective effort.

In Solidarity,

Efrén Paredes, Jr.

Support Efren Paredes' Public Hearing - DECEMBER 4th

Hello Everyone--

With great joy , I would like to let yall know that EFREN's Public Hearing has been set for DECEMBER 4th!!!

This is what we've been waiting for everyone! Let's show our SUPPORT

More Info, in terms of organizing and transportation, will be sent out through the CLU list serve.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ADDED PLEASE SEND ME YOUR NAME AND EMAIL.

GRACIAS!!!

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For more information check out the Free Efren Paredes Campaign here.

Support the 4-day 'Fast for Out Future'

Join Chicanos y Latinos Unidos (CLU) and Efrén Paredes, Jr./Tlecoz
Huitzil for a four day fast November 1, 2008 to November 5, 2008 in
solidarity with the fasters currently participating in the Fast for
Our Future in Los Angeles. Due to the recent raids and deportations
affecting our community here in the Lansing/East Lansing community, we
will fast on only water for four days. Plan of Action (Subject to
changes/additions): -Saturday November 1, 2008 -meet at 12:00 a.m.
1:00 a.m. in el Centro de la Raza for a small ceremony to begin the
fast. -People will be there all day until 8pm -12 (noon) press
conference: your presence is extremely important for support -Sunday
November 2, 2008 -9am - Morning talk for the fasters to share their
experiences so far -Fasters will be in el Centro de la Raza most of
the day Sunday until about 6pm at which time most fasters will be
going to the Dia de los Muertos event at the median on Grand River and
Abbott Sympathizers of our cause are going to b able to visit/interact
with the fasters. We are trying to raise awareness of how I.C.E.
operatives are resorting to Gestapo tactics to arrest and detain
people, of the disturbing lack of remorse from I.C.E. and the American
government by the actions of detainment and transport of the arrested
to jails like criminals of society How can you help: 1.) Join the
fast: Contact Xavier Gonzalez if you want to join so that we can put
your name on the official press release. gonza365@msu.edu or (956) 739
- 5264. 2.) Donate $5 per person fasting to help fundraise for
affected families. 3.) Sign the pledge and spread the word about the
pledge: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5586/t/3595/signUp.jsp?key=422
4.) Come to El Centro de la Raza to show your support for the fasters
5.) Bring water to those fasting


The following information is from the Fast for Our Future web site at
http://www.fastforourfuture.com. Please read the information and visit
the link to sign the Pledge.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Over 100 people are engaging in a hunger strike to mobilize 1,000,000
people to sign the Pledge to vote and take action for immigrant
rights. On October 15th, 21 days before the 2008 election, immigrants,
movement leaders, day laborers, faith leaders, student leaders,
grassroots organizers, musicians and artists, and people of conscience
rose out of fear and began one of the largest hunger strikes in
American history. "The Fast for our Future" set up a permanent
encampment at La Placita Olvera (or Olvera Street Plaza), the historic
heart of Los Angeles, for the duration of the hunger strike. In the
same spirit as César Chávez and Mohandas K. Gandhi, our shared
sacrifice and commitment to the Immigrant Rights Movement will inspire
a historic mobilization of Latino, immigrant, and pro-immigrant rights
voters. We must remember the I.C.E. raids, those detained and
deported, the families torn apart, the dreams deferred. We must
remember the marches, the walkouts, the boycotts, and the promise we
made: "Hoy Marchamos, Mañana Votamos." In 2006 we marched in millions
for our rights. On November 4th we will vote in unprecedented numbers.
Be 1 of 1,000,000 to vote and take action for immigrant rights. Sign
the Pledge to demand an end to the I.C.E. raids and respect for
immigrant rights across the country: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5586/t/3595/signUp.jsp?key=422

Will the Youth Vote Swing This Election?

Original article By Cora Currier on The Nation.

October 17, 2008

As state deadlines pass, voter registration numbers are reaching record highs. The Associated Press estimated last week that nationwide there have been more than 9 million new registrations in the past six months, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans four to one. Get-out-the-vote groups that target young people are reporting unprecedented numbers of young voters added to the rolls. This week Rock the Vote, one of the largest nonpartisan GOTV organizations, surpassed 2.3 million registrations this election cycle.

"The numbers are staggering," said Andy Karsch, director of Rock the Vote's bus project, which has been touring around the country since September. Through its bus tour, Rock the Vote has secured more than 1 million new registrants in the past month alone. The Obama campaign would not give out specifics on the number of voters it had registered through its outreach effort, Vote for Change, but Chris Hughes, the campaign's director of online organizing, said that the website had been "hugely successful; it surpassed all our expectations. Almost everyone who came to the website followed through with the whole registration process." On a local level, a group called New Era Colorado has registered more than 11,000 voters, according to executive director Steve Fenberg. "The registration levels are enormous in Colorado," he said. "There's an excitement on the ground I've never seen before."

The number of newly registered Democrats eclipses Bush's margins of victory in swing states like Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. In North Carolina Democrats have registered twice as many voters as Republicans, helping to put the state in play. A big reason is the number of new young voters, 18- to 29-year-olds who favor Obama by upwards of twenty points.

In Virginia, once a Republican bastion, the State Board of Elections had received 306,000 new voter registration applications by the end of September: 42 percent of them were from people younger than 25. In Pennsylvania the number of registered Democrats has increased by about 13 percent, thanks in part to heavy targeting of the state's large college population. Since many states' deadlines still haven't passed, the exact percentage of new registrants nationally who are under 30 won't be clear until after the election. Historically, new registrants tend to be younger, and both campaigns and nonpartisan efforts have overwhelmingly targeted the demographic.

Of course, registration is only part of the puzzle--getting voters to the polls is the ultimate goal. Yet the registration numbers thus far bode well for November. According to the US Census Bureau, only 49 percent of people ages 18 to 29 voted in 2004, but 81 percent of those who were registered voted. Even among 18- to-21-year-olds, all new voters based on their age, roughly 80 percent of registrants voted. These rates of participation among registered young voters could spell a record high turnout in terms of raw numbers this election cycle.

What's more, organizers are pointing to a number of factors that may indicate that there's real substance behind all the talk of young voters this year. For one, youth turnout rose in the 2004 and 2006 elections, and it doubled and tripled in some states' primaries in 2008, compared with 2000.

There are also the technological advancements that have served as vital communication tools in getting people registered and to the polls. GOTV groups like Rock the Vote are finding that the number of people they reach has expanded exponentially thanks to peer-to-peer networking tools like Facebook and Twitter. The Nation's Ari Melber has reported extensively on the Obama campaign's effective use of new technology to reach voters, such as utilizing text messaging and their own networking site MyBO.

"All this targeting and talk is having an effect," Fenberg said of his experience on the ground in Colorado. "People are plugged in, and we're seeing more excitement than ever."

Karsch said Rock the Vote's staff has felt the same kind of excitement. "I'd be shocked if there wasn't an unprecedented turnout," he said. "This is a transitional election, and people want to be a part of it." If the registration numbers are any indication, new young voters could change the game come November.

Call for submissions (and positions) open for Lansing magazine

We're writing to tell you about the upcoming issue of Amplifx Magazine, coming out this November. Amplifx is a Lansing-based community organization and magazine that focuses on issues of equality, social justice, environmentalism, community empowerment and solidarity/coalition building. It is published bi-monthly on recycled paper with soy ink, and prints locally generated textual, visual and creative work, including poetry, short fiction/non-fiction, photography, graphic design, comics, op ed pieces, reviews, journalistic articles, and more.

The theme for the next issue is creative responses that communities have had or can have to the need for social change. Examples of this might include creation of alternative economies, media justice movements, sharing of local resources, interdependence and building of sustainable initiatives. We are actively looking for submissions that consider this theme. If you have writing, artwork, thoughts/contributions, please send them our way at submit@amplifx.org. All submissions are due by November 1st.

Amplifx Magazine is always accepting submissions on a rolling basis, even if they do not directly relate to the theme of the issue. Also, Amplifx Magazine shares a network of syndicated content with several other Campus Progress/Center for American Progress sponsored publications in the country. If your submission is published, there is potential for it to be republished or picked up by magazines at other universities, which increases readership/distribution for your writing and artwork.

For more ways to get involved with Amplifx, visit our "Get Involved" webpage at http://amplifx.org/involved.html. We are currently looking for interested persons to help out with magazine production (staff writers, graphic and web designers, bloggers, illustrators) and distribution, coalition building with local social justice groups, outreach efforts such as planning community art showcases, skillshares and workshops, and general publicity and fundraising. If any of these appeal to you, or if you'd like to discuss options for contributing, please feel free to contact us at info@amplifx.org.

Our weekly meetings are on Sundays at 3pm at Gone Wired. They are run democratically and are open to the public, and you are always welcome at them!

Looking forward to hearing from you and working with you,
Peace
The Amplifx Staff.

Opportunity for Students of Color fighting for Social Justice

I want to share with you some information about a scholarship program
for students of color who are interested in fighting for social justice.
This program is for sophomores and juniors at four year colleges or
universities. We place them on one of our organizing drives for 10
weeks during the summer. The program is designed to expose students to
as much of the labor movement as possible. They are paired with a
mentor who helps them through the summer. A couple days of the program
are spent at Harvard University where we either orient the students to
the program at the beginning of the summer or debrief them at the end.
We cover all transportation costs, housing and provide a rental car.
Students receive a stipend of $4000 and up to $5000 in scholarship money
from the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). Below is the link for our
webpage. If you know of any students that qualify for this program
please pass this information to them. I can also send you brochures if
you're interested.

click here for more info

Philip Allen
Education Coordinator
Education Dept, AFSCME
202-429-1025
202-429-5088 (fax)

the slacker uprising and revolution?

Armed with underwear and ramen noodles the youth of America are set to overthrow the failed system! They will wait no longer, they will sit no more and they will apathetically listen to no one but Barack Obama anymore. Young people are fed up, that is for certain, but to what extent and will their record numbers in the polls really revolutionize American political life?

Michael Moore recently released his fifth major film, Slacker Uprising and is giving it out for free (download from site).

"Slacker Uprising" takes place in the wake of "Fahrenheit 9/11," during the run-up to the 2004 election, as I traveled for 42 days across America, visiting 62 cities in a failed attempt to remove George W. Bush from office. My goal was to help turn out a record number of young voters and others who had never voted before. (That part was a success. Young adults voted in greater numbers than in any election since 18-year-olds were given the right to vote. And the youth vote was the only age group that John Kerry won.)

While this may have been a failed experiment in mobilizing young people to actually effect change, we may be able to see some of the results in this year's election combined with a number of other factors. In the primaries, the youth vote was very strong - more young people than ever before voted in the primaries. This coming election there are so many young people registered and registering to vote that I would not be surprised to see the youth vote carry some regions. With the candidates picked and running through the mud, the real question becomes: is voting really the most effective way to make change? Is voting for one man or the other really going to show us a reversal in American political action?

At the end of the movie trailer, Michael Moore says, ". . . the young people of America, you're the ones who are gunna do it, you're leading the revolution."

Getting young people out to vote will not show us a different America. Granted this is a great chance to get more young people involved in civic and community action, but the chances are slim if the movement only works through ramen and registering. The opportunities for long-term engagement need to be offered if young people are going to really make change in this country. The young people of today are hardly prepared to lead a revolution in America. If we look back to the 60s and 70s (an era of high political stakes, massive movement building, and student protest) we can see a different type of young person.

Today young people are tucked away, sheltered, and left unaware of the wide world outside. In the 60s you had students who were raised by parents affected by crises, they were first generation at college, they were raised in the steel mill, they were right up close to the issues of the day. Not to mention they were raised during the build up of a very active time with the Civil Rights Movement coming to a peak and that morphing into a number of other issues. Students during that time were able to get involved because they felt marginalized even with their middle class college backgrounds. Today, students are also marginalized and excluded, but young people cling to a apathetic stance as opposed to an involved one. This may be a result of our upbringing. The best student movement examples come from Berkley California with the Free Speech Movement (FSM). What resulted as the FSM moved from Civil Rights to Free Speech to ending the Vietnam War to spurring a counter culture, was a split thinking. One track that led people to think that the students were dirty hippies who were bad for challenging the status quo. The other track led people to romanticize fighting the man and rioting against the system. This romanticizing has led many people to try to recreate movements of the past.

Probably one of the most detrimental results of the 60s and 70s student activist era was the institutionalizing of campus activism. In a documentary that I viewed about the FSM it was clear to see this new mode of control take place as students were allowed to 'table' on campus. Now in order to take any action on campus you have to register, open a student account if you plan to raise money, file your planned events, get proper security if it is a large event, and jump through any number of hoops to be approved to engage in activism. In December 2007, Matt Birkhold wrote on student power and activism,

". . .colleges want to make sure that students do not get too radical and recreate the late 60s. To accomplish this, they monitor everything student groups do. When student groups get too radical or begin to question university policies, they typically lose university support. Because students want to get their message out, they create flyers that will be approved by the university. Unfortunately, this is too big of a compromise because all the time students spend getting flyers approved could be spent organizing or studying. By continuing with university approved activism students are giving up a great deal of power and giving the university far too much. This must be seen as both a diversion and a way to absorb radicalism."

University administrations learned from the past so that events of that era could never be repeated. Student activism has been boxed in and so most students wouldn't even imagine some of the most effective actions to make change on their campuses. To quote FSM leader Mario Savio,

"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!

The idea of ungovernability is how real change occurs, when something is ground to a halt it is forced to engage that which is preventing it from continuing. This was a tactic used throughout the 60s and 70s as well as during actions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Making the townships ungovernable was how the black majority was able to force change.

In light of this, Universities have created a sterile vacuum for student action within the campus setting. For one example, during the 80s on Michigan State University's (MSU) campus students took over the administration building to demand a more diverse faculty. This was effective because it ground the university to a halt. All money was moved in and out of the administration building. Since they took over on pay day, and for a prolonged time after, the finances of the university were shutdown. Sadly, these movements were phenomenas, after negotiations were entered and actions were said to be taken - the follow up was gone because the movement has dissipated. Piecemeal outcomes were won for a long and often violent movement building. As Nelson Mandela noted, the oppressor defines the nature of the struggle. When Reagan had the national guard corral and gas students at a peaceful rally at Berkley, that marked the end of a long period of highly involved student activism.

Yesterday, Barack Obama came to speak at MSU's campus as the most recent presidential election draws ever closer. The student turnout was incredible, Obama's speech the usual, but still good. However the whole time I couldn't help but think about how sterile an environment this was for student activism and political involvement. Everyone is corralled into a small area, the police are everywhere, no signs are allowed, and the politician isn't there to talk to you. He is there to deliver sound bites to the press and media, your concerns are not that important. It almost felt like a day wasted on youth - get out of class, skip this, miss work - to hear a presidential candidate deliver My vote in Michigan as far as the Presidential election is concerned does not matter. Right, it is unimportant, since we have a winner take all system and McCain is pulling his campaign out of Michigan, Barack Obama will take the state and I won't even have to vote. This is where it is important to remind people that there is more than one man to vote for this election (and not even voting per say). I am a strong proponent of involvement in local politics because that is all that really matters.

And so back to the idea of a Slacker Uprising, we have a long way to come if we are going to have a mass movement of students. They may be going to the polls, but we need students running in the city councils, volunteering in their neighborhoods, taking action for their local environment, and caring for their communities. The opportunity and threat present in the 60s is not here today. The average college student is not going to jump into a rally because they see no need to. I agree with Michael Moore on one thing and that is the belief that it will be young people who make the greatest change in America. I firmly believe that young people are the key to social change. This can be evidenced by the 60s and 70s, and even today. I see its potential, but I am not sure that just engaging young people to vote is the best way. There needs to be a more comprehensive knowledge of how things are before involvement will lead to a revolution of sorts. We cannot seek to recreate the past, we need to learn and develop new tactics, we need to research how our power as students and young people can best make change. Birkhold reminds us that, "Students have power; they just have to learn how to use it."

Is participation to perpetuate an extremely flawed structure better than choosing rather to engage people and work for a justice deferred by that structure? The one decision here is the power in your right (or left) hand on election day - will you only check a box (fill a bubble, etc.), or will you help ideas become more than paper promises?

Previously posted on the Young People For Blog.

Free Efren Event!

Maria Zavala, Xicana activist and active Lansing community member,will present on the Efren Paredes Jr case.

A case in which an innocent 15 year old Latino honor role student was given 3 life sentences for a crime he did not commit.

Come learn about Juvenile life sentences without parole, the injustices in the prison and justice system.

FYI! Efren is going to call us from Prison at the event!