Texas

Protests Hit Mass Detention Of Immigrant Children In Texas Tent Camp

October 2, 2018 Bill Van Auken, Wsws.org Resist! Children, Class Struggle, Detention Centers, Immigration, Protests, Texas, Undocumented

Scores of protesters gathered outside the Tornillo border crossing about 35 miles southeast of El Paso, Texas over the weekend to protest the mass incarceration of immigrant children there in a barren tent camp in the desert on the Mexican border. The demonstrators demanded the immediate release of the children as well as that of their parents. The protest came amid reports that over 1,600 children have been relocated to the camp as part of a brutal immigration policy involving what amounts to midnight raids on shelters and foster care homes throughout the country. Children are literally being dragged from their beds in the middle of the night without warning in order to prevent them from escaping, according to a report Sunday by the New York Times.

The Texas Counter-Revolution Of 1836

July 10, 2018 By Richard D. Vogel, Mronline.org Educate! Colonialism, History, Nationalism, Revolution, Texas

Leaders on both the Anglo and the Mexican sides of the conflict in northern Mexico knew that the future of slavery was the issue at hand. Stephen F. Austin, the Missouri expatriate who arranged for Anglo immigration to Mexico in 1821, encouraged migration from the U.S. with generous land grants for heads of households, their wives, and children. Simultaneously he, himself a slave owner, promoted the extension of slavery from the southern U.S. into Coahuila y Tejas by granting 80 additional acres for every slave that immigrants brought with them.

Protesters March On Texas Tent City To Oppose Family Separations

June 18, 2018 Por Willa Frej, Huffingtonpost.com.mx Resist! Detention Centers, Immigration, Protests, Texas, Undocumented

A Texas tent city constructed last week to shelter migrant children became a protest site Sunday as crowds marched to oppose the separation of immigrant families at the border. More than 200 children are being housed in the makeshift tent structure built in Tornillo, Tex., according to Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.), who organized Sunday’s protest. Protesters braved the Texas heat, carrying signs featuring slogans like, “Don’t use children to get your wall,” “Fight ignorance, not immigrants,” and “This is how the Holocaust started,” the El Paso Times reported. “We’re wanting to make sure that everyone in this country knows what is happening here, in their name, in Tornillo, where kids have traveled 2,000 miles, some alone, some with their parents, are being held in detention camps, tent cities that have just been constructed over the course of this last week,” O’Rourke said.

Austin Police Cadets Expose Training To View Public As Cockroaches

May 4, 2018 Staff, Thedailysheeple.com Educate! Police, Police State, Repression, Texas

Several cadets have quit and exposed the Austin police department in Texas for training cops to think of the public as cockroaches they are at war with. Rather than training cops to protect and serve, Austin PD appears to want an entire elite class of warriors who view the public as less than human. According to a group of 10 former Austin Police Department recruits who wanted to become peace officers, just like the military, the Austin PD is training “warriors” instead of “guardians.” Although this should hardly come as a surprise because the Supreme Court has already declared that cops don’t have to protect or “guard” you at all. They are to follow orders, extort (and sometimes flat out steal) money for their department, and enforce laws that are often tyrannical and the very definition of a human rights violation.

Wind Farming Creating Jobs and Building New Economy in Texas

April 17, 2018 Meera Subramanian, Insideclimatenews.org Create! Climate Change, Texas, Wind

All along the straight-shot roads of Nolan County in West Texas, wind turbines soar over endless acres of farms, the landscape either heavy with cotton ready to harvest or flushed green with the start of winter wheat. The turbines rise from expanses of ranches, where black Angus beef cattle gaze placidly at the horizon. Here and there are abandoned farmhouses dating to the 1880s, when this land was first settled and water windmills were first erected. Occasionally a few pump jacks bob their metallic heads, vestiges of a once-booming oil industry still satiating an endless thirst. Every industry creates an ecosystem around it. If the wind turbines that sprouted in West Texas were huge steel trees, spinning sleek carbon-fiber blades 100 feet in length, then the wind farms—including Roscoe Wind Project and Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, some of the largest in the world—were their forest.

Austin Becomes 1st City In Texas To Mandate Paid Sick Leave

February 17, 2018 Philip Jankowski, Statesman.com Create! Austin, Cities, Class Struggle, Texas, Workers Rights and Jobs

The Austin City Council voted early Friday to make paid sick leave a mandatory requirement for all non-government employers, making Austin the first city in Texas to regulate sick leave. The highly anticipated vote came after more than 200 people testified at City Hall, with a large majority in favor of the ordinance. It passed 9-2 with council members Ora Houston and Ellen Troxclair against. “For me, so much of this is about widening inequality and our fight against it,” said Council Member Greg Casar, the author and lead proponent of the ordinance. The vote was greeted with thunderous applause and singing as the council adopted a compromise ordinance Casar offered Thursday that addressed many concerns brought forward by Council Member Jimmy Flannigan and others earlier this week.

Community Members Defy El Cajon Ordinance Against Feeding Homeless

December 1, 2017 Bella Ross, thedailyaztec.com Resist! Community, Homelessness, Legislation, Texas

By Bella Ross for The Daily Aztec - “We call it ‘Break the Ban,’” said Mark Lane, a 1989 San Diego State alumnus and the primary organizer of the event. On Oct. 27, the city of El Cajon passed an ordinance prohibiting “food-sharing” events in public spaces, including city parks. Lane said members of anywhere between 30 and 40 organizations came out with the goal of standing against the ordinance. “The goal, number one, is to get them to overturn the ban because it’s a discriminatory ban and it’s a ridiculous ban,” Lane said. According to a news release from the city, the ban on food sharing was in response to the growing Hepatitis A outbreak — an outbreak that is concentrated among the homeless population. “With the trolley system, the homeless population is pretty transient, so it flows throughout the entire city area,” El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells said. “People that were homeless in San Diego today might be homeless in El Cajon tomorrow.” The mayor said there have been a concerning number of Hepatitis A cases in El Cajon. “All we’re saying is, if you have a feeding program that’s going on in the parks, we’d rather you did that in a kitchen and not in the parks because the people that feed people in the parks don’t have food handlers permits and they’re putting boxes of food on the ground.,” Wells said.

Texas City: No Harvey Relief If Applicants Boycott Israel

October 21, 2017 Emma Fiala, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! BDS, Hurricane Harvey, Israel, Natural Disasters, Texas

By Emma Fiala for Mint Press News - DICKINSON, TX — The town of Dickinson, Texas is home to just over 20,000 people, an annual crawfish festival, and one of the most absurd requirements for disaster relief imaginable. The town recently made non-support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign a condition for receiving hurricane aid. How can a small town like Dickinson put forth such a gratuitous disaster relief requirement? In this case, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree — Dickinson is simply following in the footsteps of the entire state of Texas. Recently, Texas banned any contractor who supports the BDS campaign from receiving state funds. In the opinion of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies. Despite the head-scratching nature of that claim, at least to many critics in- and out-of-state, House Bill 89 was signed into law in July. The bill specifies that the state may enter into a contract with a business only if that business does not boycott Israel. The bill also takes the extra step of specifying that businesses must “not boycott Israel during the term of the contract” either. The legislation also prohibits the state from entering into a contract with a business that refuses to buy products made in Israeli settlements — settlements that are illegally located on Palestinian land.

Texas Is Flooded Because Our Democracy Is, Too

September 7, 2017 Basav Sen, www.otherwords.org Create! Democracy, Floods, Texas

By Basav Sen for Other Words - Our culture of legalized bribery makes climate disasters more likely, but there's an alternative. “It’s flooding down in Texas,” goes the old song. “All of the telephone lines are down.” With apologies to Stevie Ray Vaughan, there’s a lot more down in Texas than telephone lines now. Power lines are down, homes are destroyed, and cities sit underwater. Dozens have died. For me, this is personal. I worried intensely about friends and family in Houston and Corpus Christi. Thankfully all are safe, but it’s been jarring to see photos of places I know underwater. Every time I check the news I recognize familiar places from the long drive from Houston to Corpus I’ve made numerous times. There’s another unforgettable sight I often recall from that drive. In Taft, Texas, as you’re nearing Corpus — a major refinery town — over the horizon comes a huge wind farm. What does this juxtaposition of refineries and wind farms have to do with the tragedy of Hurricane Harvey?

Why Are The Crucial Questions About Hurricane Harvey Not Being Asked?

September 2, 2017 George Monbiot, www.theguardian.com Educate! Hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Natural Disasters, Texas

By George Monbiot for The Guardian - This is a manmade climate-related disaster. To ignore this ensures our greatest challenge goes unanswered and helps push the world towards catastrophe. It is not only Donald Trump’s government that censors the discussion of climate change; it is the entire body of polite opinion. This is why, though the links are clear and obvious, most reports on Hurricane Harvey have made no mention of the human contribution to it. In 2016 the US elected a president who believes that human-driven global warming is a hoax. It was the hottest year on record, in which the US was hammered by a series of climate-related disasters. Yet the total combined coverage for the entire year on the evening and Sunday news programmes on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News amounted to 50 minutes. Our greatest predicament, the issue that will define our lives, has been blotted from the public’s mind. This is not an accident. But nor (with the exception of Fox News) is it likely to be a matter of policy. It reflects a deeply ingrained and scarcely conscious self-censorship. Reporters and editors ignore the subject because they have an instinct for avoiding trouble.

Texas Republicans Helped Chemical Plant That Exploded Lobby Against Safety Rules

September 1, 2017 David Sirota, www.ibtimes.com Educate! Chemicals, Congress, Texas

By David Sirota, Alex Kotch, Jay Cassano, and Josh Keefe for IBT - The French company that says its Houston-area chemical plant is spewing "noxious" smoke — and may explode — successfully pressed federal regulators to delay new regulations designed to improve safety procedures at chemical plants, according to federal records reviewed by International Business Times. The rules, which were set to go into effect this year, were halted by the Trump administration after a furious lobbying campaign by plant owner Arkema and its affiliated trade association, the American Chemistry Council, which represents a chemical industry that has poured tens of millions of dollars into federal elections. The effort to stop the chemical plant safety rules was backed by top Texas Republican lawmakers, who have received big campaign donations from chemical industry donors. Representatives from Arkema Americas and the American Chemistry Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In 2013, a West, Texas, chemical plant explosion killed 15 people, prompting the Obama administration to try to raise chemical plant safety standards (investigators later found the explosion was caused deliberately).

Louisiana’s “Cajun Navy” Just Arrived In Texas To Rescue People From Floods

August 30, 2017 Carey Wedler, www.activistpost.com Create! Aid, Hurricane, Natural Disasters, Texas

By Carey Wedler for Activist Post - Though FEMA plans to play a large role in disaster relief efforts as Hurricane Harvey continues to inundate Texas, a volunteer group is stepping in to help their fellow humans — and it’s not the first time they’ve taken action. The Cajun Navy first came into existence with 30 people and 23 rescue vessels during Hurricane Katrina and grew even larger amid severe flooding in Louisiana in 2016. The Guardian reported that last year — using social media — the group of hunters and fishermen were able to locate stranded residents and rescue them with their boats. Their missions were all the more vital amid the government’s failure to adequately take care of victims and provide housing and relief. For example, Julie Ralph of St. Francisville, Louisiana, turned to Amazon, creating a page to accept donations of basic supplies. Ralph said that as the floodwaters cleared and rescue operations turned into recovery operations, the Cajun Navy became the Cajun Army. As she said last September: As it stands, the boots on the ground are the Cajun Army, and anyone who can be summoned through Facebook or Twitter by people sharing how bad things are to get people to come over and help.

Texas Senators Want Hurricane Harvey Disaster Declaration

August 29, 2017 Larry McShane, www.nydailynews.com Educate! Congress, Hurricane, Natural Disasters, Texas

By Larry McShane for Daily News - In the House, all but one Republican representative from the Lone Star State opposed the aid bills for Sandy. Republican leaders in the House actually delayed a vote on the multi-billion dollar aid program in early 2013, adjourning a January session for weeks as storm victims twisted in the wind. Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.) at the time described the behavior of his GOP colleagues as “disgraceful,” noting most of the opponents came from states that had previously received disaster aid. Cornyn and Cruz were among the 39 Republican senators to oppose the package, along with 179 GOP members of the house. Republican senators further delayed the vote by trying to offset the aid with budget cuts.

White Texas Cop Caught On Video Harassing Black Man For Mowing Grass

July 28, 2017 D.L. Chandler, www.hiphopwired.com Educate! Police, Police abuse, Racism, Texas

By D.L. Chandler for HIp Hip Wired - There have been conflicting reports about Gipson’s age and name, with some outlets reporting as both 18 and 19. The Houston Chronicle piece referenced above states Gipson is 21. Gipson’s video was published to YouTube Tuesday (July 25) and has since gone viral. The outlet did further digging and discovered that Gipson, who resides in Houston, had an outstanding charge from 2015, and two pending charges dating back to April related to offering false information to police. An attorney from Philadelphia flew into Houston this week to meet with Gipson and the family. In a YouCaring fundraising page description, Gipson explained the situation from his perspective. The crowdfunding campaign is aimed to help expand his lawn mowing business and has raised $6,500 thus far. The page also features images of Gipson and his brothers, along with bite marks from a K-9 unit he claimed was set to attack him inside his home.

Incredible Quinceañera Protest At Texas Capitol Against Vile Anti-Immigrant Law

July 21, 2017 Rafi Schwartz, www.fusion.kinja.com Resist! Immigration, Law, Legislation, Protests, Texas, Youth, Youth Activism

By Rafi Schwartz for Fusion - On Wednesday, a group of 15 teenage girls, dressed in brightly colored gowns, stood in front of the Texas State Capitol to participate in one of Latin American culture’s most cherished traditions: the quinceañera. But this quinceañera was more than simply a coming-of-age celebration. Instead, it was a public protest against one of the most viciously anti-immigrant pieces of legislation in Texas’ recent history: SB4, the so-called “sanctuary cities bill.” SB4—which essentially forces Texas cities to comply with federal immigration law enforcement actions—has been one of the state’s most hotly contested pieces of legislation all year, drawing comparisons to Arizona’s infamous “papers please” law, and prompting massive protests. Dubbed “Quinceañera at the Capitol,” the protest was organized by Latino advocacy group Jolt, which describes itself on Facebook as a “Texas-based multi-issue organization that builds the political power and influence of Latinos in our democracy.”

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