Honor the California Cesar Chavez Holiday on 3/30/09 –
Close all schools, gov't offices and workplaces!

Win the Right of Undocumented Students to
Receive Financial Aid to Attend College — Pass the Dream Act!

Make the Chávez Holiday a National Holiday

No Second-Class Treatment of immigrant, Latina/o, black
or other minority communities

GET YOUR SCHOOL TO HOLD AN ASSEMBLY OR EVENT IN RECOGNITION OF THE CHAVEZ HOLIDAY FOCUSED ON THE FIGHT TO WIN THE DREAM ACT!

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Add a post below or send a message to let us know about your local event or celebration for Chavez Day
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DOWNLOAD THE FLYER:
http://www.bamn.com/doc/2009/090221-chavez-flyer.pdf
DOWNLOAD THE CHAVEZ DAY PETITION:
http://www.bamn.com/mysp/chavez_petition_english.pdf [English]
http://www.bamn.com/mysp/chavez_petition_spanish.pdf [Spanish]
DOWNLOAD THE DREAM ACT PETITION:
http://www.bamn.com/dreamactpetition.asp


Now that we have cast aside the last eight years of racist right-wing government rule, it is the time to advance our agenda for the dignity and equal treatment of the Latina/o and immigrant communities. Monday, March 30, 2009, the César Chávez Birthday Holiday, is our day to do this. This is our moment to lift the Latina/o and immigrant communities from invisibility just like César Chávez and the farmworkers did. This year, tens of thousands of undocumented students across the country will be unjustly banned from receiving financial aid and therefore denied the opportunity to attend college and pursue their dreams. President Barack Obama has made clear his support for a federal and California Dream Act which, if enacted, would change this. Marching on the Chávez Holiday, we can take an important step in our fight against the racist second-class treatment of the Latina/o and immigrant communities.

The families of undocumented students pay taxes and make an enormous contribution to our nation's economy and prosperity, yet their sons and daughters face the same kind of discrimination that young black students experienced in the old Jim Crow south. Undocumented students are unjustifiably denied equal educational opportunities and assigned to permanent second-class status. Fighting for the Dream Act on the Chávez Holiday is the best way we could honor the memory of César Chávez. Undocumented students across America who graduate high school know that, from the moment they walk across the stage, they will not have the same opportunity to go to college as their classmates, even if they are the valedictorian of their class. It is unfair and unjust to ask undocumented students to accept a situation in which their dreams are deferred because of something they could not control and cannot change—which side of the border they were born on. Having the Dream Act signed into law will establish the principle that undocumented students are the peers and equals of every other young person in California and that their right to develop their full potential will be honored and respected in this nation.

The fight for the César Chávez Birthday Holiday

In 2000, Antonio Villaraigosa, now mayor of Los Angeles, sponsored and secured a California law which made March 31st, César Chávez’s birthday, a school and public workers holiday throughout the state of California meant to be honored in the same manner as President's Day or Martin Luther King Day. As a result, across the state, many public workers get the day off in recognition of the holiday. San Francisco and Oakland public schools as well as many colleges and universities across California close during the holiday.

However, the majority of predominantly Latina/o school districts in California, including LAUSD, San Jose, and Sacramento, do little to nothing to honor the holiday. The vast majority of public schools, colleges and universities in our state hold no celebrations to honor his legacy, no school-wide assemblies to teach the young people of our state about his importance to the history of our nation. All of this, despite the fact that the law urges schools to close and hold school-wide assemblies in honor of the holiday. Across the country, the César Chávez Holiday is barely even recognized. Chavez’s birthday must become an occasion to struggle for the proper recognition of the contributions of the Latina/o and immigrant communities in California and around the country.

César Chávez was the most persistent Latina/o civil rights leader of the 20th century. His name is synonymous with the struggle of the Latina/o and immigrant communities for equality, justice, and respect. The civil rights and union movement he led lifted Mexican-American and other immigrant workers from invisibility and turned our communities into a powerful force for freedom in this society. Across the country, streets, schools, parks, and other public institutions have been named in his honor. Murals emblazoned on buildings pay tribute to his memory and the movement he led. Yet young people, in particular in California, are deprived of any real knowledge of him or the struggles he led.

Building the Young Leaders of the New Civil Rights Movement in California and Across the Country

The purpose of our education must be to learn about who we are, how we can express our creativity and talents, and about the society we live in and how we can change it for the better. Our education would be improved immeasurably if we attended schools which treated us and our communities with respect and refused to accept maintaining Latina/o invisibility. Instead of holding boring and demeaning assemblies to lecture us on bad attendance or poor test scores, we need school administrators prepared to hold assemblies on how we can successfully struggle to end the forced segregation and racism which deform our opportunities to learn and go to college. We need assemblies which give us the collective opportunity to learn how we can successfully struggle to win our rights and equality. In this new era of hope and optimism, LAUSD should direct all LAUSD schools to hold assemblies in recognition of the Chávez Holiday, just as they directed staff in LAUSD to make it possible for students to see President Obama’s inauguration.

Too often, attending school feels more like a prison sentence than an opportunity to learn. We languish in overcrowded, run-down schools without the resources we need to succeed. Learning should be exciting and joyous. The schemes of politicians and well-paid educators to "improve" our education—mayoral takeovers, charters, small schools, academies, and stripping us of our right to self-expression by putting us in uniforms—have all failed. Simple, obvious, and cheap solutions like showing us respect, treating us with dignity, listening to our concerns and building up our pride and self-worth through events like celebrating the Chávez holiday are never put into practice. It is clear that the powers-that-be fear our asserting our power and improving our lives more than they fear our failing.

We deserve better.

We demand school-wide assemblies for the Chávez Holiday so that we can learn about how the determination of ordinary people like us can change history. We demand the opportunity to celebrate who we are. We need to experience the pride we feel when the contributions of the Latina/o and immigrant communities are recognized by ourselves and others. We want the schools we attend—from the teachers on up to the school district superintendent and Board members—to show in action that they truly believe in our ability to succeed. Holding school-wide assemblies for the Chávez Holiday and closing schools to recognize the César Chávez Birthday Holiday is an easy way for the district to make that declaration. We want the César Chávez Holiday to be recognized in the same way that President's Day and Martin Luther King Day are recognized. This demand is not complicated or hard to meet. We can win it, if we fight.

Our generation needs a voice to speak for our own interests and aspirations. Our demands for progress need to be heard beyond the vote tallies in the presidential election—we need to be heard here and now. In this state. Everywhere. We need our own leaders, and we need to BE leaders, ourselves. That is why the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) exists. We are the leaders of our generation. Join BAMN and march for equality, dignity, and respect on the César Chávez Birthday Holiday!

Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary
http://www.bamn.com


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Organize!
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Fight for the Chávez Holiday and the DREAM Act!
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Take Action!
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Building up toward March 30, 2009, we need to get our schools to hold assemblies to honor the Cesar Chavez Holiday where the fight to win the Dream Act is highlighted, get our local school boards to close schools and get cities to close government offices for the holiday.

Here's a list of things you can do:

Contact a BAMN organizer and we'll help:
Southern California: 323.317.7675
Northern California: 510.502.9072


1.
Use FACEBOOK and MYSPACE

Invite all your friends to join this
FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=21893309981

Here are the MYSPACE PAGE and MYSPACE BULLETIN!:
Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/chavezdayofaction
Myspace bulletin: http://www.bamn.com/doc/2009/20090221-bulletin.txt
(If you see a picture, look at the SOURCE CODE. On Internet Explorer and Firefox, it's under the "View" menu under "Source" or "Page Source")

2.
Circulate the Chavez Holiday and Dream Act petition, and get out the flyer! Immediately get a group of students to help you. Hold a meeting and form a group. Invite all interested student organizations to join the effort. Set a goal of how many signatures you think you should get. Sit down with your team and read the petition out loud and have discussion about what you should say to get people to sign it. The petitions will be your way of spreading the word about the holiday and organizing the strength of the students to win the holiday. The success of the day will depend on how many students know about the holiday. You will have to talk to them to get them to sign it.

DOWNLOAD THE CHAVEZ DAY PETITION:
http://www.bamn.com/mysp/chavez_petition_english.pdf [English]
http://www.bamn.com/mysp/chavez_petition_spanish.pdf [Spanish]

DOWNLOAD THE DREAM ACT PETITION:
http://www.bamn.com/dreamactpetition.asp

DOWNLOAD THE FLYER:
http://www.bamn.com/doc/2009/090221-chavez-flyer.pdf

Mail a copy of completed petitions to BAMN at:
BAMN
PO Box 76137
Los Angeles, CA 90076

3.
Get School-Wide assemblies held in your school in recognition of the holiday! Do this immediately as well. The assemblies are important to make happen. It will raise the prominence of the holiday itself. Work with teachers and student organizations in getting your school to hold an assembly for the holiday. Use the petition signatures you have gathered to show how much support there is at your school.

If you face resistance about the assembly the petitions will be important to organize the strength of the students. Circulate the petition whether you get resistance or not.

4.
Make classroom announcements with the petitions!
If public speaking makes you nervous, that's ok! Being a leader means overcoming fear. Prepare what you will say. You can get a lot more signatures faster this way, and spread the word faster as well.

5.
Download the flyer, make copies, pass it out while making your class announcements, pass it out all over school, show your family and friends and organize for the holiday!

DOWNLOAD THE FLYER:
http://www.bamn.com/doc/2009/090221-chavez-flyer.pdf

6.
Get organizations involved!
Contact school clubs, community groups, unions (including teachers' unions), churches, etc...Get them to endorse the Cesar Chavez Holiday and help organize.

Use this SAMPLE RESOLUTION [http://www.bamn.com/doc/2007/chavez_resolution.pdf] or THIS RESOLUTION [http://www.bamn.com/mysp/cft_resolution.pdf] passed by the California Federation of Teachers to get organizations, school boards, city councils, unions and other groups to endorse the Chavez Holiday. Just change the particulars in the resolutions to fit your school or city.

7.
Contact BAMN. Let us know what you are doing and if you have any questions.
Southern California: 323.317.7675
Northern California: 510.502.9072


www.BAMN.com



Start organizing now for...

May 1st Day of Action
Boycott Schools - March and Rally

* Fight for the Dream Act -
Win the Right of Undocumented Students
to Receive Financial Aid

* Stop the Raids and Deportations

* No More Second Class Treatment of
Latina/o and Immigrant Communities