Jason Cato at Abriendo Brecha: Talks About ICE & Neoliberalism

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PANELS ON IMMIGRATION & BORDERS

ICE-OUT: Stopping US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Collusion with Local Law Enforcement
* Jason Cato, Austin Immigrants Rights Coalition, UT Austin, Anthropology
* Caroline Keating-Guerra, Austin Immigrants Rights Coalition
* Andrea Guttin, Austin Immigrants Rights Coalition
* Patty Zavala, Austin Immigrants Rights Coalition
* John Reyes, Austin Immigrants Rights Coalition

Asian Culture Room
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2010

For the full Briendo Brecha Event, visit:
http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/abriendobrecha/index.html

Patricia Zavala at Abriendo Brecha VII - Talks About ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement)

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Seventh Annual Activist Scholarship Conference at the University of Texas at Austin

Abriendo Brecha is an annual conference at the University of Texas at Austin dedicated to activist scholarship; i.e. research and creative intellectual work in alignment with communities, organizations, movements and networks working for social justice. Abriendo Brecha VII calls for a renewed discussion on the meanings and practices of activist scholarship, particularly as it relates to the challenges of the present moment. Some themes for this years conference include: Race and Inequality throughout the Americas; Environmental Justice Movements; and The Global Economic Crisis. This years conference will consist of a mixed format that includes panels, workshops, poster presentations, performances and film. Featured speakers and artists include:

- Iris MoralesActivist, filmmaker and former leading member of the Young Lords Party. (Keynote) Thursday, 5pm, Santa Rita Room

- Omi Osun Olomo/Joni JonesDirector, John. L. Warfield Center for African & African American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. (Keynote). Friday, 12pm, Santa Rita Room

- Javier AuyeroLozano Long Professor of Latin American Sociology, University of Texas at Austin. Friday, 2pm, Texas Union Theater

- Alejandro Cerdasociologist at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana de México, Unidad Xochimilco; expert on autonomy in Zapatista municipailites in Chiapas. Saturday, 4pm, Chicano Culture Room

- Eli Efi former front man and founder of the politically charged Brazilian rap group DMN. Friday, 5pm, Texas Union Theater

- Hilda KurtzAssociate Professor of Geography, University of Georgia. Friday, 2pm, Texas Union Theater

- Loira Limbal (aka DJ Laylo)Hiphop artist, co-producer of award winning documentary Estilo Hip Hop. Friday, 5pm, Texas Union Theater

- Adrienne PineAssistant professor of Anthropology, American University, and author of Working Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras. Saturday, 4pm, Chicano Culture Room

- Max RameauCommunity organizer, writer and leader of Miamis Take Back the Land. Saturday, 4pm, Chicano Culture Room

- Alvaro Reyespost-doctoral fellow, Department of Geography, Duke University. Friday, 2pm, Texas Union Theater

- Julie Sze Associate Professor of American Studies, founding director of the Environmental Justice Project for UC Davis John Muir Institute for the Environment. Saturday, 2pm, Texas Union Theater.

Sponsored by: Division of Diversity and Community Engagement (DDCE) Community Engagement Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Cosponsors: Center for Asian American Studies, Center for Mexican American Studies, Center for Womens and Gender Studies, College of Liberal Arts, John L. Warfield Center for African & African American Studies, Mexican Center, Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies.

Full conference program visit: www.utexas.edu/diversity/abriendobrecha

Dignity not Detention, National Campaign Launch, San Antonio, Immigration Issues, ICE, Immigration Customs Enforcement, Local Police, Human RIghts

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Immigrants in the U.S. are detained in a secretive web of 350 private, federal, state and local jails and prisons, at an annual cost of $1.7 billion to taxpayers. Over 80% of detained immigrants go through the immigration system with no lawyer. Many are denied their fair day in court owing to mandatory and arbitrary detention laws and policies that severely limit judicial discretion. While detained, immigrants face horrific conditions of confinement, including mistreatment by guards, solitary confinement, the denial of medical attention and limited or no access to their families, lawyers and the outside world. Last year ICE announced plans to reform the immigration detention system, yet to date, there is little evidence of change.

Join Detention Watch Network as we launch our National Campaign Dignity, Not Detention: Preserving Human Rights and Restoring Justice which calls for an end to detention expansion nationally. Our demands:

We are demanding that President Obama take immediate action to

prevent human rights abuses in detention centers.

We are demanding that Congress restore due process to the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws and guarantee that every person has the right to a fair day in court.

We are demanding that the U.S. government put an end to the arbitrary detention of more than 300,000 people and start using cost-saving alternatives.

The campaign will include local site fights against detention expansion in Arizona, Georgia and Texas that underscore the impact of national detention policy on local communities. For more information, visit http://www.dignitynotdetention.org

On Feb. 25th, coordinated actions in support of the national campaign are taking place in cities across the country in cities including Gainesville (GA), Phoenix, San Antonio, New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles.

In Texas:

Bob Libal, Grassroots Leadership/TUFF

512-971-0487, blibal@grassrootsleadership.org

**Texas Event on Facebook: http://bit.ly/a9tp9M **

Location: San Antonio ICE Headquarters

Ali Abunimah from Gaza to Freedom: Future Scenarios for Palestine/Israel

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The University of Texas Palestine Solidarity Committee Presents - Ali Abunimah from Gaza to Freedom: Future Scenarios for Palestine/Israel

Ali Abunimah is one of the most dynamic and well-informed speakers on Palestine. He is the Executive Director of The Electronic Intifada and a writer and commentator on Middle East and Arab-American affairs. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Financial Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Jordan Times, Lebanon's Daily Star and Ha'aretz, among others. He is frequent guest on local, national and international radio and television, including public radio and television, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, the BBC and many others. Abunimah lectures frequently at colleges in the United States. He received his BA from Princeton University and MA from the University of Chicago. Abunimah travels often to the Middle East and is a full-time researcher in social policy at the University of Chicago. His first book, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, was published in 2007 and makes a compelling case for a one-state solution based on legal equality for Israelis and Palestinians.

Check him out on twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/avinunu

Q & A with Ali Abunimah from Gaza to Freedom: Future Scenarios for Palestine/Israel

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The University of Texas Palestine Solidarity Committee Presents - Ali Abunimah from Gaza to Freedom: Future Scenarios for Palestine/Israel

Ali Abunimah is one of the most dynamic and well-informed speakers on Palestine. He is the Executive Director of The Electronic Intifada and a writer and commentator on Middle East and Arab-American affairs. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Financial Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Jordan Times, Lebanon's Daily Star and Ha'aretz, among others. He is frequent guest on local, national and international radio and television, including public radio and television, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, the BBC and many others. Abunimah lectures frequently at colleges in the United States. He received his BA from Princeton University and MA from the University of Chicago. Abunimah travels often to the Middle East and is a full-time researcher in social policy at the University of Chicago. His first book, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, was published in 2007 and makes a compelling case for a one-state solution based on legal equality for Israelis and Palestinians.

Check him out on twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/avinunu

The Problem is Civil Obedience - Howard Zinn 1971-2007

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Public reenactment of a speech given by author and activist Howard Zinn at a peace rally on Boston Common on May 5, 1971. Zinn defends the use of civil disobedience to protest the war in Vietnam and calls on Congress to impeach the president and vice president of the United States for the high crime of waging war on the people of Southeast Asia. Matthew Floyd Miller, a New York-based actor delivered the speech on location in Boston on July 14, 2007.

Introduction & Points of Unity - Escalate the Peace!

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Neither sleet nor drizzle deterred a scheduled antiwar rally on the Texas State University (TSU) Campus in San Marcos on Wednesday, February 10. In the courtyard of the LBJ Amphitheatre, speakers used bullhorns to talk about Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Palestine under a banner that read, Escalate the Peace!

The rally was organized by two TSU student organizations, the Campus Antiwar Movement to End the Occupations (CAMEO) and the Progressive Bobcats Union (PBU).

Speakers included Rev. Jim Rigby from St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Austin and Bobby Whittenberg, an antiwar activist who was deployed to Iraq as a Marine. Courtney Glenn, one of the rally organizers, read a poem about returning soldiers. Caitlin Eaves spoke about Yemen. Liz Welch read a passage from Howard Zinn about why we should never lose hope.