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Sharing
Struggles and Sharing Dreams: A Network News Interview with Members of the
Immigrant Rights Working Group |
Rosa
Perea, Arnoldo Mireles Human Rights Center, Chicago, IL
What
opportunities does the World Conference Against Racism bring for your
organization? Work
around the World Conference is a great opportunity to build new
relationships. Locally, we are building a coalition of people working on the
issues through outreach to youth and other agencies. Internationally, we hope
it will be an opportunity to ink our issues with others. What
are you doing locally to get ready for the conference? We
have scheduled twenty-four hours of training for the human rights center
members and local residents. Trainings will cover topics like ‘what are human
rights?,’ ‘what and where are the United Nations,’ as well as immigrant
rights, leadership vision and development, how to organize campaigns, and how
to talk to the media about what we are doing. We’ll also hold a community
forum and press conference as part of the National Week of Action in August. Going
to South Africa is really expensive. We are selling hot meals during lunch
hours, and making tamales in order to go. Local churches have donated new and
used items, sold during sidewalk sales. What
outcomes do you expect from the conference? I’m
scared about going all the way to South Africa – I’m more of a person who
stays in my own community. But other than that, I get really hyped up when I
see people fighting for the same things we are, that we share common ground.
We are also going to report back to our community when we return. If we are
going to spend money and effort to get there, we need to bring something
back, to have our community commit to something. Eric Tang, Committee Against
Anti-Asian Violence, New York, NY What
opportunities does the World Conference Against Racism bring for your
organization? We are relatively new to the international terrain. We
believe that the conference is an opportunity to strengthen our participation
locally, develop links nationally, and begin to forge connections
internationally. We want to bring the voice of the Asian American movement
– of Asian radicalism in the U.S. – to the conference. This is a movement
that understands how racial oppression is at the core of U.S. democracy. It
is also a movement that understands the ways in which the particular racial
oppression of Asians in the U.S. is always linked to the international
politics. What
are you doing locally to get ready for the conference? Many
of our members are undocumented immigrants and/or survivors of the racist
criminal justice system, and are therefore at risk if they attempt to leave
the U.S. and travel to South Africa. Our communities also lack the resources
to travel. That’s why we are mobilizing around the World Conference locally. We are
working with Third World Within, a network of NYC-based organizations of
color, to hold Racial Justice Day 2001 on August 31st, to run
parallel to the World Conference. This day will include a tribunal on U.S.
white supremacy and racial violence. Third World Within has already convened
two forums: Racism in the Movement, Race, Color, Caste, and Class Within, and
one on U.S. military war crimes in the Third World. What
outcomes do you expect from the conference? We
want to strengthen a global movement that recognizes the international nature
of the issues we work on. For example, the legacies of U.S. and western
colonialism in Southeast Asia are inscribed in the struggles of Vietnamese
and Cambodian refugees living in urban poverty in the U.S. Or the way in
which today’s low-wage Asian immigrant labor in “global cities” of the west
function as an extension of the low-wage labor found in the free trade zones
of Asia. We are drawn to Durban to make these connections apparent on an
international scale. Glory
Kilanko, Women Watch Afrika, Atlanta, GA
What
opportunities does the World Conference Against Racism bring for your
organization? We aim
to link African women’s concerns in the United States with that of women in
their native countries, along with global concerns on the elimination of all
forms of racial discrimination. The World Conference Against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance is an opportunity to link
with both national and international human rights organizations to come up
with practical measures to abolish racial discrimination. What
are you doing locally to get ready for the conference? WWA
has conducted a number of awareness programs on racism and other forms of
intolerance within the African refugee and immigrant community in Atlanta in
preparation for the conference, in order to come up with a position paper to
be presented at the forum. We are also collaborating with a number of U.S.
grassroots human rights organizations. In
Atlanta, WWA is working on a program called “Steps to Eradicate Racial
Discrimination Among Youth in Schools,” and at the African regional level, we
are mobilizing against all forms of discriminatory laws against women and
girls. We have participated in a number of conferences and hosted workshops
and presentations at forums such as the Southern Human Rights Organizer’s
conference and the conference of the Women’s Commissions for Refugee Women
and Children. We also organized a community awareness event called “African
Women and the World Conference Against Racism: A Look at Gender Inequality.” What
outcomes do you expect from the conference? WWA
hopes to be part of the African women’s movement advocating for the
interpretation of the conference resolution in each country’s domestic law
for effective implementation. We
have also been organizing a number of youth activities in preparation for the
conference. We hope to employ a youth director to coordinate all our youth
activities from now and beyond South Africa, for the effective implementation
of the conference outcome, and necessary follow-ups. The better the youth,
the better the society, particularly in the area of social change. Somos Un
Pueblo Unido, Albuquerque, NM
What opportunities does the World
Conference Against Racism bring for your organization? The
World Conference is a timely opportunity for New Mexico to be counted in
national and international dialogues about immigrant rights, and for our
local community to be exposed to the context in which many of our problems
are engendered. The marginalization that immigrants experience in New Mexico
as a result of institutional racism and xenophobia is not unique, it is
shared by poor migrants across the globe. We live common struggles – and
dreams. What
are you doing locally to get ready for the conference? We’ve
designed a series of events this summer where we will gather testimonies
about immigrants’ rights abuses in our state and also inform the public about
World Conference objectives. In August, we will sponsor a public hearing
inviting immigrants to give testimony about their experiences. We’ll hold
community dialogues about racism and xenophobia, and compile a report to
distribute to local immigrants, lawmakers, teachers, service providers, and
media. We have also organized a community education campaign about racism and
xenophobia here in New Mexico using the World Conference as a backdrop. What
outcomes do you expect from the conference? The
conference will provide the forum to unite our voices with those of other
migrants’ rights activists from all over the world. We chose to take part in
the Immigrant Rights Working Group because one of our primary goals is to
make information about migration within a global context accessible to our
immigrant communities. A solid understanding about international migration
issues and its effect on our local communities is a tool immigrants can use
to advocate for the welfare of their families here at home. |
