A nice gift just arrived in the mail — the book, “The Oxford Handbook of Sociology for Social Justice, “ that includes one of my articles, “Participatory Research, Popular Education, and Action for Social Change.” Continue reading
Intersectional Organizing and Educational Justice Movements: Strategies for Cross-Movement Solidarities
Published: March 11, 2021 • By Mark Warren, Andrew King, Bianca Ortiz-Wythe, Patricio Belloy, Jose Zapata Calderon, Pam Martinez
This article explores intersectional organizing as a strategy to create solidarity across issues, organizations and communities to build a more united educational justice movement. By intersectional organizing, we mean an organizing strategy that centers the experiences and leadership of people who are affected by multiple forms of oppression. Organizers believe that intersectional organizing can support greater cross-movement solidarity especially when combined with other processes, including building deep relationships, developing conscious leadership with shared understandings of systemic oppression through political education, and building trust through demonstrated long-term commitments to solidarity in practice.
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This article provides a nuanced discussion of the work community organizers do with parents and young people of color dedicated to educational justice. Offering intersectional organizing as a strategy for building a united educational justice movement, the authors highlight the possibilities for creating cross-movement solidarity.
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Jose Zapata Calderon Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Chicano/a and Latino/a Studies 1050 North Mills Avenue Claremont, CA 91711-6101 (909) 952-1640 Jose_Calderon@pitzer.edu Website: www.josezcalderon.com
On behalf of the Latino and Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valley, I write to strongly support the SB-54 Compliance Ordinance that is currently being proposed by the ICE Out of Pomona Coalition and currently under consideration by the city council.
In previous years, our Latino and Latina Roundtable has collaborated with city council members and officials on issues that directly affect the rights of our Latino/a community and our diverse communities. As a result, as part of coalition efforts, we have been able to find common ground in supporting the rights of our immigrant and refugee families. As part of these efforts, Pomona became a national model for how to work with coalitions in developing a center for day laborers. In recognizing how immigrant families were being affected by checkpoints, the council took the lead in making important changes to the conducting of these checkpoints. In the course of this action, the council openly supported the passage of a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license. In carrying out these actions, the council has ensured the rights, not only of the majority Latino community, but a large sector who are immigrants of all nationalities.
Now, with the introduction of the SB 54 Compliance Ordinance, the council is once again being asked to take the lead in being an example as to how SB 54 can be implemented on a local level. This request comes at a time when our immigrant communities are facing some of the deepest attacks on human rights in history. With the present administration doing away with Temporary Protective Status status for refugees from Nicaragua, Haiti, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, there is the reality that this status may not be renewed for 265,00 immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador who have been here for decades. We personally know families who live in Pomona who are being affected by these policies. We also know many DACA recipients from Pomona who are facing the reality that DACA may be terminated on March 5.
Under these conditions, the Pomona City Council can take the lead in supporting the intent of the California Values Act and ensure support for our vulnerable communities. This issue is very important to our membership that includes immigrants and the families of immigrants. We are fully in support of this ordinance and urge your unanimous approval.
Sincerely,
Jose Calderon, President of the Latino and Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valley
By Jose Zapata Calderon
POSTED: 09/06/13, 11:05 AM PDT | Read this article in the Daily Bulletin
The Daily Bulletin editorial “Economic injustice in Pomona” (Sept. 5) is on the right track in proposing solutions to the growing street violence in the city that include the creation of a climate where community residents have some trust in their city officials and where Pomona becomes “a city of opportunity.” Continue reading