121 years later, many Venetians still do not work only eight hours a day. They work many more hours a day and more than 40 hours a week without extra compensation.
Many others in our community do not have a job or a steady income. Some do not even have a home. And health care is not the human right it should be.
Thank you Longshore Union for leading the way. The struggle continues.
Filed under Labor
Dear Beachhead,
The SB 1818 Implementing Ordinance is an issue that brings together voters from all economic levels. It also re-invigorates community busting tactics from developers. I am pleased to see that District 11 Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, along with Hahn, LaBonge, and Zine voted against this ordinance.
By passing the measure, our other elected officials are telling us that density must increase and that increasing the height of buildings and cutting back on parking is the way to do it.
Over the history of Los Angeles it has been shown that inland areas suffer from loss of air quality. That’s why we have the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). It does not make sense to fund SCAQMD and then increase the density of the area that sucks up all the oxygen coming in on the prevailing winds from the ocean.
Thank you for calling attention to another half-baked idea that’s made its way into law.
DeDe Audet
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Venice Days
Dear Beachhead,
Your coverage of the recent LAPD raids on Oakwood homes and the community protests that followed took me back a few decades to 1970.
Then, too, the LAPD descended on Oakwood. Its Metro Squad sent dozens of cars to terrorize the neighborhood, tires screeching, sirens blaring, bearing officers waving their guns about. Those found walking on the streets were rounded up willy-nilly and many of them were hauled off to jail, nearly all on ill-founded charges. Raids on dozens of homes terrified grandmothers and mothers and the little children in their care. Then, too, there were community protest meetings, where the police clumsily sought to defend the indefensible. You can still read all about it in back issues of the Beachhead.
That was almost 40 years ago, but, as they say, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
As a neighborhood legal services lawyer, I was an advocate for the community at those long-ago protest meetings and apparently not too popular with the police. Soon after, officers from the Venice station told one of the legal services secretaries, as she left work one evening, “We’re going to get that prick Peter Young.” The only African-American in our office, she found this exchange with the police sufficiently threatening that she asked for and got a transfer from our office.
Well, I’m still around despite various harassments from law enforcement over the years. More important, so are the good people of Oakwood. I have a feeling they’ll still be around in another 40 years, no matter what.
And we all know who the pricks are. They’re still proving it, harassing the poor and the innocent, frightening the defenseless and still trying to convince us that what amounts to yet another effort to rid Oakwood of poor people and people of color is a necessary part of the war on drugs.
Peter Young
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Asbestos at 5 Rose Avenue
Dear Editor,
Please investigate the continuing saga at 5 Rose Avenue. The new owners are beginning removal of asbestos acoustic ceiling in all room and corridors June 12. Oceanview LLC, the new owner, is moving the tenants to other apartments on other floors during this 22-day process. Formaldehyde was used years ago as a sealant with the asbestos. Many of us here at 5 Rose have chronic asthma and don’t want to die because of the release of these toxic chemicals. After speaking with asbestos and toxic material experts, we have learned that the 22 days in the same building is extremely harmful and could cause us death. Oceanview does not want to pay to relocate us out of the building, and has not received an approval from the Department of Health. It takes at least 3 weeks after removal of asbestos to “settle” the air and there are no guarantees that the spores have been compressed, contained and removed.
Please respond and help us anyway you can. We are desperate to stay alive and safe.
–Diamond Li
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Vandalism on Pacific Avenue
Dear Beachhead,
As I parked my car a few minutes before midnight on Pacific Avenue, between Venice and Washington Blvds. last night, I saw three white youths, two male, one female, ambling along, one man really really weaving… and then this one steps into a doorway.
I can no longer see him from my car. After a few minutes, he quietly ambles out, weaving as much as before, only now he carries a white object the size of a soccer ball.
After they are down the sidewalk a ways, I get out of my car, and go to the doorway where I saw him. The light fixture is there no more, instead a series of wires are hanging out.
I call 911. I called them again about 15 minutes later. They did come about 45 minutes later.
My point to them had been that if they came soon, they would have caught these three with the evidence.
About one month ago, someone had their license plates stolen here.
About two weeks ago, I had my rear window wipers yanked off.
All the time, we find bags of food/trash, bottles, etc. just dropped on the sidewalk in front of our homes…or actually into the flowers of our gardens.
We live in a beautiful community. The occasional tourists come here, from wherever, they may come because of the beauty, the fun, the history, and personal reasons.
But, whatever their reasons, from wherever they come, whatever their age, my question to them, and particularly to the three who stole the door lamp last night is: why can you not just enjoy this wonderful place and leave it as beautiful as you found it?
Cristina Rojas CdA
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Doggies Doo, Owners Don’t
Dear Beachhead,
I am an avid pedestrian. I love walking around neighborhoods, alleys and the beachward streets that run throughout Venice and local Pacific California communities.
However, I have a pet peeve. More often than I’d like to share, I have been idyllically looking at a lovely little hummingbird exploring flowers, or studying the tropical vegetation of this region, or admiring the architecture of a cute little bungalow, when I look down just in time (or sometimes NOT!) to keep my heel from stepping right into a fresh pile of rank dog-doo. How disgusting,and unhygienic, not to mention ILLEGAL to leave behind! (And this is not to suggest arresting some little Pomeranian poochie or big Great Dane – it’s not the canine’s fault! It’s their nature to go outside. It’s the OWNER who is disregarding the safety and cleanliness of the streets and the welfare of their neighborhood).
I have noticed that certain blocks of Venice are particularly suspect: Windward Avenue on both sides, from Rialto down to the Post Office (poor Dr. John!) has several poops along it, everytime I park and walk it, which is often enough to have noticed this unsavory trend.
People, people! Does humanity have to be REMINDED to do the right thing now? Where did common decency go? And what about knowing and obeying laws that actually make sense?
And futhermore, many people, especially kids and surfers, walk BAREFOOT in these areas. Shouldn’t the streets be clean enough to not have to worry about filth between the toes, diseases of the feet, stepping on glass or sidestepping on rotting trash?!
Let’s have some class and care for the wellbeing of our neighborhoods,without anyone having to pass a law to make us do it. How about being HUMANE beings, not just human beings.
Sincerely, Rebecca Moore Frey
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The RV Controversy – 1
Dear Beachhead,
In your April 2008 issue, I read with interest Mr. Bret Pikey’s lengthy discussion concerning his alleged “lawful right” to park his RV on any street in Venice with immunity?
Mr. Pikey suggests that he had engaged in an “enormous amount of research” regarding his choice (purchase and selection of RV) before he made it and, to that extent, when he was contacted by a LAPD officer about sleeping overnight in the motor home, he challenged the legal and constitutional right to make that warning.
It would appear that our good friend, Mr. Pikey, did not do a complete, comprehensive or thorough legal research prior to acquiring his RV. For example, LAMC Ordinance #85.02, which provides that it is “unlawful for any person to use a vehicle parked or standing on a City street as a “living quarter” either overnight…day by day…or otherwise…” Simply stated, long before Mr. Pikey purchased his RV, he should have been aware that, although it is lawful to park a motor vehicle up to 72 hours before it is considered abandoned, nonetheless, if you sleep in the motor vehicle overnight, you are indeed violating a City Law, and you will be subject to the possibility of prosecution for a Misdemeanor and, in turn, of possibly having your vehicle towed and impounded.
LAMC Ordinance #80.73.2 permits the City to impound or remove a vehicle if it remains unattended or parked for more than 72 hours.
It would appear that most habitual RV residents have strategically found spots throughout Venice where they park their vehicle for several days and, then, near the “deadline”, move it to another location.
Mr. Pikey suggests that there is no significant difference between a studio or an apartment and his RV, which is totally self-contained with a toilet, a shower and cooking facility. However, an apartment owner must comply with zoning, building and safety laws, is subject to inspection by the Health Department and, of course must maintain the premises in a habitable condition. Likewise, the owner must pay property taxes. There is no such requirement attending the ownership and use of a RV.
Again, there is no absolute lawful or constitutional right for any person occupying or using a RV as a permanent or semi-permanent residence to simply identify a location on a Venice street and, thereafter, declare that this is their new domicile.
As the Beachhead has pointed out over the last several months, the response to an invasion by Campers and RV’s has been the application by many residents to obtain a special “Overnight Parking District” permit. Sooner, rather than later, you will see on every street signs posted which prohibit parking from 2am to 6am. Yes, residents will be able to purchase for $15 per year a “special permit” allowing them to park their vehicles near their home.
I agree that there are far too many “yuppies” invading Venice: however, the answer is not to engage in an unlawful inhabiting and parking of our Campers or RVs on public street. Yes, I reiterate that the streets throughout Venice are dedicated to the public at large. It is designed to allow access to our area and, from time to time, permit parking areas for our residents.
Mr. Pikey and I do agree that Councilperson Bill Rosendahl should aggressively secure safe and proper locations for the campers and RVs either at the unused land at Playa Vista, Lincoln Place, beach parking lots, the Veteran’s Administration or unused land at LAX. I agree that living together means that we ought to respect each other’s lawful rights and engaging in illegal trespass or the habitual violation of our laws is certainly not neighborly.
Michael Millman
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My Cat Cause
Dear Beachhead,
I just have to get this off my somewhat flat chest! Why is there so much abuse and neglect of animals in our world!? I am focused on cats. There are no “stray” cats – no smart cat would “stray”from food and love – There are abandoned, unwanted cats everywhere, just like homeless people. There seems to be an urban myth – “somebody will find the cat you dumped and give it a great new home” well a freaked out, starving lost cat, isn’t going to approach humans for help,rather, they hide. They are far more likely to be taunted, chased, trapped than street adopted.
My point? STOP DUMPING CATS! Feed the cats who need help. Take tame ones home with you, show them some love, we are all being tested, do we have the capacity to care for others besides ourselves? Cats can show unconditional love for us and it should go both ways. Volunteer to help rescue groups, make others aware of the problem. If I hear once more, “stop feeding them and they will leave,” I’ll get sick! Nobody likes to miss a meal! Have a heart.
Kitty Bratton
P.S. If anyone wants to contribute to my cat feeding cause, it would be very much appreciated. I feed 20 cats.
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The RV Controversy – 2
Dear Beachhead,
There is a New Hunting Season in Venice California and the Duck is called RV.
RVs are under attack by Overnight Parking Districts (OPDs), a new Oversized Vehicle Permit parking law, and the Venice Neighborhood Council, Homeless Parking Program. The RVs belong to Mobile Venice Residents (MRVs) that have families, who are seniors, disabled, veterans, and people just trying to survive. Some of the RVers were born and raised in Venice. Others have been in Venice for many years. Many of the Rvers work in Venice, their kids go to school in Venice, and they are unable to replace the affordable housing they lost here in Venice (such as those living in Lincoln Place Apartments). These people are members of this community.
Law enforcement and vigilante homeowners harass the Mobile Residents of Venice. Many have been already driven out Venice or have lost their vehicles form being towed after they get tons of tickets they are unable to pay.
Now, because of these ordinances coming into effect, the Mobile Residents of Venice, members of our community – will be completely swept away to who knows where. And who cares? They are just viewed as “Deadbeats” and criminals who do not deserve to keep their pets or children, who do not deserve a car to go to work in, and who should be put in RV concentration camps somewhere far away from the selfish housed people of Venice who want this to be a closed (anti)community.
The rest of us in Venice need to do something to stop this, because when duck season is over for RVs, you may be next. Also, these permits cost money, have restrictions, and are very inconvenient for everyone. Please call or email the Venice City Council Deputy, Arturo Pena at (213) 473-7016 Arturo.Pina@lacity.org and our City Council person, Bill Rosendahl at (213)-473-7011 Councilman.Rosendahl@lacity.org
Lilly
Filed under Letters
Well I’ve had my hands deep in the belly of the earth, not so steamy as in the molten source of Pele’s tears, but I’ve been pulling taro, Hawai’ian kalo, from stream fed ponds in the sacred heart of Waipio Valley, where eons ago now extinct tropical birds first welcomed Polynesian outrigger canoes navigating by Arcturus, or Holekule’a, the Star of Gladness. This incarnation’s arrival on a now defunct airline, (gas prices, who’s huffing?), landed me in a heated G.M.O. debate, some corporate-minded scientists at the University of Hilo having the audacity to suggest genetically engineering kalo, one of the strongest plants in Creation and along with fresh fish, sweet potato, coconut, bananas, and seaweed, the foundation of hawai’ian agriculture, just to, you know, own some gene patents/stock for the future. This trip I became even more aware of the ongoing effects of the Conquest, the Invasion, Contact, the Genocide, if you may, and what the Hawai’ian peoples have had to suffer to keep their culture alive, going from a population numbering in the hundred of thousands to under 5,000 today. Yes, I learned the sorrowful details of the 1893 Overthrow of the Monarchy under Queen Lili ‘uokalani, as the corporate masters of the day, including good ol’ Sanford B. Dole, destroyed a flourishing ingenious agricultural system worthy of the gods and goddesses, flexing military might to dispose the Queen and establish superfiendish sugarcane and pineapple plantations and devastating cattle ranches island wide. Of course, the wholesale deforestation of her fragrant sandalwood trees was the first intentional blow…….I remember, and I cry for the forests of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, home to the Goddess of Hula, Laka, beloved sister of Pele. My admiration for Hula is boundless, an oral tradition of the tribe’s evolving art, music, dance, and storytelling all woven as reverent prayer, a potent invocation to and from thee above, sacred knowledge in the key of How to Live as a Soul in a human form. Hollywood’s demeaning version of the Hula and the capitalization of everything “Hawai’Ian” leading up to today’s resort mentality is another example of corporate beastiality.
Another recent controversy is the flying of test C-17s in a flight pattern 300 feet over the entire island. People living below, are just civilians in an ongoing war to them, with as much rights as the next freestanding target practice. The people do have a voice, however, and one hears many strange prophecies in the wind. There is a magic mana of instant wish manifestation at play, if your desires are aligned with the will of Creation Love. Give it some thought, indeed.
Hawai’i is very nearly Heaven. And some say where “God” will come down and draw the line. I adore being part of this Great Mystery, so close. I’ve seen and heard things beyond my wildest dreams… camping on Mahu-Kona, in February, I awoke to the roaring of humpback whales only yards from shore. A yawing of soul rendering proportions, I assure you. Aren’t we all just floating on the gracious back of mama honu, the sea turtle of cosmic eternity? Doesn’t the rainbow guru in the clouds appear to show us we are all One, and fade to remind us of our fragility!!!
The rainbow children of Hawai’i are as diverse as the exotic fruits I’ve tasted here – mangosteen (the queen of all fruits), durian, longan (dragon’s eye), chocolate sapote, soursop, poha berries, and my fave, cacao. I’ve cracked open the wild red bulbous seed pods of cacao to suck the nectariffic sweetness around the medicinally bitter purple bean. I’ve also harvested coffee cherries, sucked their sweetness, removed the parchment covering, and roasted the bean in a corn popper for my own delicious cup of brew!
Attending a benefit for the Farmer’s Union the other night, we munched organic micro greens before viewing Roundup Ready Nation, a film charting Monsanto’s history as Contaminator’s of the Free World, and, sadly, our hopes for the future. From enlightened scientists testimonies we realized the genes inherent in genetically modified foods attach to our already fully viable genes and, shall we say, bluntly, attack them into unrecognizable chaotic disorders, (i.e. cancer, diabetes, immune deficiency). Hawai’i, like Cuba, can lead the way in the revolutionary move to organic sustainability, with an island’s unique perspectives on vulnerability, as the metaphor holds, we are none of us islands, there is no separation in what we do to one another and our home. The key to sovereignty, true independence, is sustainability, and that is precisely why the oppressors attack food systems of the people to subjugate them, recall the buffalo slaughters, anyone?
Hawai’i is seeded with the key starpower/ people’s solution to free ourselves from this impending doom. It is called Aloha Spirit, quite simply caring about others as much as we care about ourselves, and sharing all resources with care. We must heal the heart of the corporate psychopath now, by replacing its insane emotions of greed and power with true Aloha and Malama ‘Aina, love for the land. Be careful of what you are wishing for.
–Erica Snowlake
Filed under International
Murderer Still at Large
A $50,000 reward for information on the murder of Nathan Alan Morgan is now in force. Councilmember Bill Rosendahl’s motion for the reward was endorsed by the L.A. City Council in April.
The Beachhead has recently viewed a videotape caught by a surveillance camera at the Fenmar Apartments near the murder scene. The grainy video, recorded around 11pm, shows a man brutally beating another man who lies on the walk. As the beating progresses, at least five other figures run up and watch. Two of them appear to be women.
LAPD Detective Joe Lumbreras is not sure if video is, in fact, a depiction of the murder. He told the Beachhead that the tape may be just another random beating on the boardwalk, and not related to Morgan’s murder.
This seems somewhat improbable. The coincidence of Morgan’s murder and the beating depicted in the tape at virtually the same time and place, makes it seem that the tape should not be too easily dismissed as evidence.
Detective Lumbreras said one person had been detained for questioning. That person has since been released.
Meanwhile, at least three shots rang out on the beach on the evening of April 24, prompting calls to the Beachhead, and presumably to the police, from already jittery residents.
Anyone with information on this brutal murder should call Detective Lumbreras at 310-482-6313.
Filed under Crime/Police
“A smart crosswalk is an additional warning for the driver,” said Blorfroshan. “We still want the pedestrian to look at the cars, not the signal,” he added.
DOT has set of guidelines for installing a smart crosswalk, which include the number of cars and pedestrians, visibility, etc.
However, DOT is still removing crosswalks which they feel are not warranted. Blorfroshan says they will post a notice asking for input before removing the crosswalk.
The city has initially said a smart crosswalk was not needed at AKB and Rialto. It reversed itself after Bunny Lua, of The Green House, offered to pay for the installation. DOT turned her down, but conducted a new study, which showed the smart crosswalk was needed.
The crossing at Rialto is dangerous due to a sharp curve in Abbot Kinney Blvd and because of the increased “cut-through” traffic from commuters speeding to get home.
If you know of a location where a smart crosswalk, or even a dumb crosswalk is needed, you can make a request by emailing DOT at ladot.westerndistrict@lacity.org or by calling 310-575-8138.
Filed under Traffic/Parking
The Los Angeles City Council voted on April 8 to take $1.7 million from a Venice trust fund to pay for four projects in the community.
The $1.7 million is coming from the Venice Surplus Property Fund which is funded by the proceeds from the sale of city-owned lots in Venice. Until Councilmember Cindy Miscikowski came along, the funds could only be spent on capital improvements in Venice. She diluted the terms of withdrawal of funds to include any projects in Venice.
The April 8 motion, initiated by Miscikowski’s successor, Bill Rosendahl, passed the city council, which is hungry for money to cover its budget deficit, by 15-0. It stated that the $800,000 was “to cover design and construction of urgently needed metered parking in Venice’s central business district.”
The other parts covered in the motion were:
• $600,000 for constructing a new bike path on the beach;
• $250,000 for a new skate park on the Damson Oil site on the beach;
• $75,000 for a vague and controversial purpose: “to prepare and process coastal development permit applications to the California Coastal Commission for overnight parking districts in the coastal zone sections of Venice.”
Rosendahl went ahead with the parking meter expenditure despite an email campaign against it by several Venice community leaders. Requests for a financial accounting of the Surplus Property Fund have also been ignored.
Appeals can, and probably will, be made to the California Coastal Commission.
Filed under Development/Gentrification, Politics
Where there are no elected officers, only a chairperson and secretary elected at each monthly meeting.
In the 1970s and 80s, Venice had such an organization. It was the Town Council. It was independent and fiercely Venetian. It was a forum where everyone in town could come, listen to their neighbors and come to a consensus about the burning issues of the day (which are much like today’s issues).
Be a part of history and a new day for Venice, just by showing up.
7:30 PM, Friday, May 23
United Methodist Church Auditorium
2210 Lincoln Blvd.
Delicious Vegetarian meal served at 7pm
Donation $5 – No one refused food.
Filed under Events
In the 1800’s, Mexico underwent a series of wars, bringing about political changes which affected Mexico’s government for yet another century.
Only 26 years later, young Mexico was invaded by the United States, under the political doctrine of Manifest Destiny, established by President James Monroe. The United States declared war on Mexico, because in Texas the Americans brought slaves into Mexican lands and Mexico had no slavery in 1846. The Mexican American War lasted two years. No one won. There was a treaty made, where Mexico ceded the Southwest to the United States, in exchange for the promise of no more invasions. This is when Mexico became the “amigo”country. The present borders are the international borders agreed upon in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848. Mexico had yet another challenge in the 1800’s: To pay back the loans it took from foreign powers to help pay for the War of Independence and war against the United States capitalist imperialist forces.
In Europe, Napoleon III (nephew to Napoleon I), had already established his French army as superior to all countries in Europe. He decided to conquer “Mexique.” His country was owed some money, and he sent a small army to collect. The French troops with bayonets, disembarked off the coast of Veracruz,on the Gulf of Mexico. They arrived in Puebla on May 5,1862. Their mission was to take two fortresses, Loreto and Guadalupe. There were many weapons and cannons at those fortresses.
The townspeople of Puebla fought the French troops, until the Mexican troops arrived. This battle is remembered as Cinco de Mayo.
The French lost the first battle, occupied Mexico repressively for seven years, and lost their last battle as well. Mexico’s democratic president was once again reinstituted in the Palace of Chapultepec. The president was Don Benito Juarez. A lawyer and major law reformist, who has been compared to Abraham Lincoln. Benito’s famous motto is “El Respeto al Derecho Ajeno es la Paz.” (Respect for Others’ Rights is Peace).
Filed under History, International, Labor
A French army invaded Mexico by surprise. The people rose up in a civil militia and helped to defeat the French attack on the town of Puebla. It was the first time the French army had been defeated in 50 years. Today it is a day to celebrate culture and history with family and friends. A day to enjoy music, dance,food and art for everyone around the world.
Feliz 5 de Mayo!
–Maria Elena Montano
Filed under History, International
Mexico City – “The Adelitas have arrived/To defend our oil/Whoever wants to give it to the foreigners/Will get the shit kicked out of him!” yodeled the brigades of women pouring onto the esplanade of the Mexican senate to protest a petroleum privatization measure President Felipe Calderón insists is not a petroleum privatization measure and which he sent on to the Senate for fast-track ratification at the tag end of the winter-spring session this April.
The Broad Progressive Front, the legislative coalition that also leads a popular movement opposed to the proposed reform of the country’s energy sector, ended a 16-day take-over of the Mexican Congress on April 25.
The FAP claimed to have achieved three objectives through its occupation of the Congress. First, it had prevented the Calderón government from rushing the bills through Congress. Second, it has won an agreement to a 71-day debate over the proposed legislation. Third, it had alerted Mexican society to the dangers inherent in the proposed legislation.
Fear of a Secret Vote
The hullabaloo, which has been brewing for months, exploded when rumors circulated that Calderón’s right-wing PAN party and allies in the once-ruling (71 years) PRI had cooked up a secret vote approving the privatization measure – such covert maneuvering is called an “albazo” or “madruguete” here, a pre-dawn ruse to approve legislation in the dark when there is significant opposition, often behind locked doors and military and police barricades. Seizing the podiums in both houses of congress and the timely arrival of the Adelitas prevented a madruguete and derailed Calderón’s plans to fast-track the privatization of PEMEX.
Under the President’s “energy reform” package, building and operating refineries and pipelines will be opened up to the private sector – 37 out of PEMEX’s 41 divisions would be subject to partial privatization. One example: a modified form of “risk” contract, which relegates a percentage of the petroleum brought in to the private driller, and which is outlawed under Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution, would become the law of the land.
In an analysis anti-privatizers label “catastrophic” which Calderón sent on to congress to back up his initiative, the President pinned salvation of PEMEX on deep water (“aguas profundas”) drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that would necessitate the “association” of private capital.
The Adelitas
Mexico’s petroleum industry was expropriated from an array of oil companies known collectively as the “Seven Sisters” in March 1938 by then-President Lazaro Cardenas, an act that remains a paragon of revolutionary nationalism throughout Latin America. But down the decades, PEMEX has subcontracted out important parts of its structure – the Exploration or PEP division in particular – to transnational drillers and service corporations like Halliburton, now its number one subcontractor, that suck billions of dollar in profits from Mexican oil each year.
The appearance of the Adelitas and their male counterparts (“Los Adelitos”) is the latest gamble by the left populist leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) who many Mexicans feel was defrauded out of the presidency by Calderón in tainted 2006 elections, to monkey wrench the right-wing government’s plans to return PEMEX to the contemporary version of the Seven Sisters. The PAN was indeed founded in 1939 to oppose Cárdenas’s nationalization of the oil industry.
Organized by neighborhoods and by workplaces, the Adelita brigades are the lineal descendants of the groups of anguished AMLO supporters who came together after the stolen 2006 election in a seven-week sit-in that shut down the capital’s main thoroughfares. At last count, there were 41 registered brigades – 28 Adelitas and 13 Adelitos, about 50,000 citizens in all. Operating in shifts, 13,000 “brigadistas” have been encamped off and on for a week in front of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
Passive Resistance: Not One Window Broken
The creation of so large a citizens’ army pledged to carry out civil disobedience to prevent the passage of legislation it thinks detrimental to the republic is unprecedented in Mexico’s political history. As thousands sat down in the street to block the automobiles of PAN and PRI senators from entering the precinct, AMLO, who often cites Dr. King and Gandhi as role models, urged non-violence: “not one window broken, not one stone thrown.”
“Tienen miedo porque no tenemos miedo!” the Adelitas sang back in a call and response that is always a feature of López Obrador’s mobilizations, “They are frightened because we are not afraid.”
Similar brigades, led by women, have invaded local congresses outside of Mexico City and one band of activists closed Acapulco’s busy airport last week. Shutting down Mexico City’s Benito Juárez International Airport is the Adelitas’ ultimate threat.
The Adelitas, like most of the weapons in AMLO’s arsenal, are drawn from Mexico’s revolutionary history. Las Adelitas were “soldaderas” or women soldiers who fought shoulder to shoulder with the men in Pancho Villa’s “División del Norte” (Northern Division) during the 1910-1919 revolution. With their long skirts, broad sombreros, bandoleers strung across their chests, and toting .22 carbines, the Adelitas were emblematic of the many courageous women who participated in that epic struggle. The first Adelita is thought to have been Adelita Velarde, a nurse from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
Fighting ASPAN
AMLO’s crusade has not been confined to one house of congress. On April 8, when the President sprung his initiative on the legislature, FAP members stormed the tribune in the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico’s version of the U.S. House of Representatives) while lawmakers were preparing to grant Calderón permission to travel to New Orleans for the April 21-22 summit of the ASPAN (The North American Security and Prosperity Agreement) – Mexican presidents must solicit congress for permission to travel.
ASPAN is a corollary of NAFTA that projects North American security and energy integration and Calderón was eager to attend the summit with the re-privatization of Mexican oil in hand.
Suddenly, the FAPOs unfurled a 60-foot banner that announced Congress had been closed (“Clausurado”) and cast it over the entire presidium, trapping president Ruth Zavaleta, who occupies Nancy Pelosi’s position in the Mexican house, in its folds. Struggling to free herself of the fabric, Zavaleta reappeared with her gavel in hand but the ensuing chaos prevented her from calling for a vote on the President’s travel arrangements.
Days later, the tribune was still draped in the banner and FAP deputies had chained shut the doors of the chamber and moved the desks of the PAN legislators to the podium to barricade themselves from attempts to take it back.
Media Spots: AMLO = Hitler
Despite a vicious anti-AMLO media blitz – or perhaps because of it – Lopez Obrador remains the only figure on the Mexican political stage who is able to convoke tens of thousands of supporters, often with virtually no notice.
Although Calderón’s scam to fast track privatization through congress was blunted by the Adelitas and the FAPs, the PAN and the PRI – the latter a repository of seven decades of dirty tricks – still have plenty of room in which to connive. Now the PRI, seconded by Calderón’s right-wing minions, proposes an uninterrupted 50 day “national” debate to be restricted to the two houses of congress with a congressional vote by mid-summer. Calderón’s initiative can only pass if at least half of the PRI’s 120-vote delegation goes along with the game.
Even if the privatization measure eventually passes, the legislation is bound to wind up in the Mexican Supreme Court the moment it clears congress. Ironically, the Supreme Court was the instrument by which Cárdenas nationalized the oil industry in the first place.
Demanding a Debate and Referendum
Meanwhile, López Obrador’s people are clamoring for a very different kind of debate, one that would unfold over the next four months – 120 days – and be conducted inside and outside congress in every state and municipality in the country with the prospect of a national referendum in the fall to decide the issue – one poll has 62% of those questioned opposed to the privatization of Mexico’s oil. Such grassroots decision-making would be a revolutionary strophe here in the land of the “albazo” and the “madruguete.”
Out on the esplanade of the Senate, the Adelitas were shaking their boodies to “La Cumbia del Petrolio.” There were enough pink “gorras” (baseball caps), pink hankies, and pink parasols that read “Defend Our Oil” to make Code Pink blush. Brigadista Berta Robledo, a nurse about to retire from the National Pediatric Hospital, hugged a blade of shade under the punishing mid-day sun.
“Are you tired, compañeras?” the compañera with the bullhorn asked and Berta came to her feet with a loud “No!” “Sure the sun is hot but so what?” she responded to a gringo reporter’s stupid question, “the sun can’t stop us, the rain can’t stop us, the cold can’t stop us and you know why? Because we are right! We are fighting for our oil and for our country. This is the resistance. We don’t get tired.”
John Ross is at home in the belly of the Monstruo writing a book about the belly of the Monstruo.
Filed under International, Women
