Gray Panthers June General Meeting
Immigration & BVHP Redevelopment
We began the June 20 general meeting with a super sing-along led by a delegation of Raging Grannies, with such songs as War’s not the Way, My Boys (to the tune of Anchors Aweigh).
Next came two rousing talks by immigration rights activist Renee Saucedo and BayView publisher and activist Willie Ratcliff.
Renee urged us to join the fight against both the House and Senate immigration bills, since both are racist, punitive, family-destroying, ethnic-cleansing laws that violate everyone who cares about social justice. Touted as the more liberal bill, the Senate did little to improve on the House bill, and it adds a guest worker program that creates an underclass of workers with few rights, thus weakening the entire labor movement. Renee hopes we will participate in demonstrations in San Francisco on July 15 and Labor Day, and that we will put pressure on Pelosi, Boxer and Feinstein to kill both bills.
Willie also talked about an ethnic cleansing measure—the redevelopment plan for Bayview Hunters Point recently passed by the Board of Supervisors, a plan that puts community development in the hands of a virtually self-governing redevelopment agency beholden to big corporations. Some community members fear the plan will drive out an estimated 34,000 people living in the predominantly black neighborhood, replacing them with upscale condos and Starbucks cafes designed for biotechnocrats coming to work in Mission Bay.
Defend Bayview Hunters Point, the grassroots coalition opposing the Redevelopment Agency’s plan, wants local control of redevelopment by residents of Bayview Hunters Point. They have asked our help in gathering signatures for a petition which would place on the November ballot a measure repealing the BVHP Redevelopment Plan. They believe that if the ballot measure qualifies, the Supervisors who supported it (four voted against) would be forced to reconsider.
Petitions
and information are available at the office or at www.DefendBayviewHuntersPoint.com,
or by calling the coalition at 415-262-0357.
SF
Gray Panthers Statement on Immigration
Summary of
Senate Bill S. 2611 and commentary
Gray
Panthers at May Day march for immigrant rights and solidarity
Gray
Panthers at March 27 and April 10 Immigrant Right Marches
Gray Panthers at demonstration against Redevelopment of Bayview Hunters Point