Democracy for New Mexico

Heads Up: Health Action NM Legislative Panel Meets 1/5

From Terri Holland:
Health Action NM is presenting their 2006 Legislative Panel Meeting tomorrow, January 5th from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM at the Continuing Ed Building on University at Indian School NE in the main building.  "Legislative Priorities for the January 2006 Session" will feature the following panel speakers:

Sandra Penn, MD: Health Care for All Campaign;

Representative Danice Picraux: Chair, Interim Health & Human Services Committee-Health Issues;

Senator SueWilson Beffort: Member, Interim Health & Human Service Committee-Health Issues

Senator Linda Lopez: Chair, Welfare Reform Committee-Child Care Issues;

Ruth Hoffman: Director, Lutheran Office Governmental Affairs-Tax Reform Issues; NM Voices for Children-Medicaid Issues

Health Action NM is working for a statewide health care system that...

• Puts control into the hands of health care consumers based upon their medical needs and not on corporate or personal profit.
• Is publicly regulated to assure responsiveness to patient's needs and wishes.
• Provides easily understood health plans with meaningful grievance procedures to resolve health care disputes and protect patient's rights.

For further information, please call Mandy Pino at 292-3721, daytime calls only.

IWW Centenary Art Show Opens This Friday

IWW Centenary Art Show Grand Opening
Friday, January 6
6:00 - 10:00 PM
929-1/2 4th Street SW, Out Ch’Yonda Performance Space
Barelas Neighborhood, Albuquerque
Celebrating 100 years of Revolutionary Unionism

Two unique art exhibitions that celebrate more than 100 years of revolutionary labor history and working class culture open in Albuquerque on Friday, January 6th. The event will include speakers, food, poetry and breakdancers.

The shows tell stories of the first 100 years of the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the I.W.W. or the Wobblies, a radical labor union which has struggled for a multiracial, radical labor movement made up of all workers, including "unskilled" workers shunned by the AFL-CIO. IWW members have created a vast amount of poetry, music, and artwork to inspire workers to take action and reflecting their struggles.

Speakers include:
Carlos Cansino, a longtime Xicano revolutionary and land grant activist; Bob Anderson, an ex-steel worker organizing against militarism; CJ Levine, a restraunt worker and IWW organizer; Danny Solis, a poet and musician; Fred Mahinafarahmand, a carpenter fighting for his job at UNM; and Aztatl, a Xicano poet, artist and activist.

Featuring:
Yours for the OBU: Radical Wobbly Traditions in the art of Carlos Cortez, Koyokuikatl and Dylan Miner (local)

The Traveling Wobbly Show:
With artwork by Sue Coe, Fly, Seth Tobocman, Peter Kuper, Trina Robbins, Josh MacPhee, Nicole Schulman, Mike Alewitz, Susan Simensky Bietila, Sabrina Jones, Mike Konopacki, Harvey Pekar, Spain Rodriguez, and others.

The Traveling Wobbly Show has been on a yearlong tour though the United States and parts of Canada. The curator of the exhibit, Paul Buhle, has recently edited a stunning full color book titled "WOBBLIES!  A Comic Book History of the IWW." Local wobblies will be there to answer any questions and will have a literature table.

Question? Call 331-6132 or email abq@iww.org. To contact the performance space for information on future hours you can see the exhibit call 385-5634.

(Click on image above for larger image. Click link in Coming Events section on right side of this page for flyer.)

www.campesinocollective.org
www.iww.org

2006 Celebration to Honor Progressive Community in Santa Fe

From People for Peace:
Please mark your calendar to honor social change groups in Santa Fe, and the nearby community, and to celebrate the 15th anniversay of the political community People for Peace.

The event will be Wednesday, January 4 in the Unitarian Church Fellowship Room, at the corner of Galisteo and Barcelona Street, Santa Fe, beginning at 7 PM. Meeting breaks at 9:15 PM for fabulous cake.  "Let them eat cake!"

We need your help to pass this invitation to others about this annual gathering at the New Year of our growing and vibrant progressive community in Santa Fe and elsewhere.  Thank you!

Since January 1, 1991, we have been a political  community that seeks to integrate action, support, study  --  "the hand, the heart, and mind."

Join People for Peace for their monthly meeting, every first  Wednesday, in the Unitarian  Church
library,  107  E. Barcelona Street in Santa Fe, from 7 to 9 PM. Call about seminars on third  or fourth Wednesdays. A seminar on Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" will be held Wednesday, February 15, followed by a Spring Series  of Seminars  on the Writings  of Mahatma Gandhi.

For information  about the anniversary  meeting, our regular meeting, and seminars,  call  983-3906 or email lhibbs@cybermesa.com.

Denish Fundraiser Thursday at Albuquerque's Slate Street Cafe

You Are Invited
To a Reception
In support of the Re-Election of
Lt. Governor Diane Denish

Hosted By
Samantha Adams, Shannon Bacon, John Blair,
Jason Bousliman, Elissa Breitbard, Ted & Sara Bonnell
Sonya Carrasco-Trujillo, Chris Cervini, Brian Colon,
Cristy Carbon Gaul, Claire Dudley,
Alicia Feil, John Fitzpatrick, George Heidke,
Jessie Keefe, Kathy Love, Lori Martinez, Doug Peterson,
Michael Puelle, Laura Sanchez, Westly Wellborn

Thursday, December 15, 2005
5:30 – 7:00 PM

At
Slate Street Café
515 Slate Street NE
Albuquerque

Suggested Contribution: $25
Individual, Corporate, Partnership, and PAC Contributions Accepted

RSVP to Steve Fitzer
(505) 270-4079 or sfitzer@dianedenish.com

Join Call on Alito's America Today

From Alito's America and the Center for American Progress:
President Bush has nominated Samuel Alito, a judge with a long record of judicial extremism, to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been the crucial moderate voice and swing vote on the Supreme Court. The Alito’ s America campaign is bringing CNN commentator Paul Begala together with other experts and writers to discuss the dangers of Judge Alito and his right-wing ideology to the future of all Americans.

Joining Begala will be prominent progressive bloggers Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft and Judd Legum of ThinkProgress, as well as David Halperin, the director of Campus Progress and a senior VP at the Center for American Progress.

Our guests will discuss Samuel Alito’s long history of judicial extremism, the implications his nomination holds for the rights of Americans, and strategies for progressives.

Alito’s America Conference Call
Wednesday, Dec 14
1:00 PM MST
Call Number: (888) 665-1701
Conference ID: 3461465

The Alito’s America campaign is a project of Campus Progress (www.campusprogress.org/) and the American Progress Action Fund (www.AmericanProgressAction.org). The campaign includes a website, www.AlitosAmerica.org, with information about Judge Alito’s record and a 90-second video unlike anything else produced in Washington, DC. The campaign also includes a Photo Petition, campus speaking events, and other grassroots activities.

Callers are encouraged to ask questions following brief remarks by:

• Paul Begala, the “voice from the left” on CNN’s The Situation Room
• Jeralyn Merritt, Creator and Principal Author, TalkLeft
• David Halperin, Director, Campus Progress, and Senior Vice President, Center for American Progress
• Judd Legum, Editor, ThinkProgress, and Research Director, Center for American Progress

We will also discuss developments in the Alito’s America campaign. Please take a look at the site, watch the ad, and join the call.

ACTION ALERT REMINDER: Election Reform Task Force This Wednesday

An important meeting of the Legislative Election Reform Task Force will be held Wednesday, December 14, at 9:00 AM, in Room 322 of the Santa Fe Roundhouse. Citizens should gather at the Roundhouse East entrance at 8:30 AM for a pre-meeting.

A large attendance is essential to emphasize the importance of this issue with voters. If you can possibly make it up to Santa Fe Wednesday morning for this last meeting of the Task Force, please do. Here's a special message from Terry Riley about all this:

Hello fellow activists,

We had a fantastic start last year with the action at the legislature on the election reform legislation.  Many of us were instrumental in pushing that through the legislature.  The success was from a coalition of several groups.

I have continued to work on election reform after the legislature finished by attending the Legislative Interim Election Reform Task Force monthly meetings.  Paul Stokes and I attended almost every meeting, not as members, but in the audience.  We feel that a lot of things have changed since the beginning of the 2005 legislature and a lot of those changes have been extremely good.  We have come to a point where the thoughts of the committee have to coalesce into legislation for the upcoming 2006 session.  The ugly reality of partisan politics is surfacing and what looked so hopeful is now not looking so good. 

I believe that a fantastic opportunity has presented itself.  I have seen how the legislature was encouraged to do the right thing last year by activism.  I believe that this can be the greatest year in New Mexico politics but this will only come about with action and commitment from citizens.  We all dream of writing a letter to the editor that forces the politicians to do what we believe is the right thing.  One opinion or one vote does not often bring about that kind of change.  Big changes should be of and about what the majority of the citizens want.  The way for the politicians to see what the citizens want is to petition. 

With time short and no money to support a statewide petition drive, that option is not real.  An alternative is demonstration.  The larger the demonstration, the more attention it will receive.  In today's political arena demonstrators are largely dismissed as radicals, nuts, and unemployed.  A demonstration that can work is one that is held in the chambers of the legislature, one that is measured, dignified, and organized.  What I am asking is for as many people as possible to attend the December 14th meeting of the Legislative Interim Election Reform Task Force.  The meeting starts at 9 AM and will go to at least 3:30 PM.  It is held in the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.  This will make a statement to the committee, and thereby to the New Mexico State Legislature, that we-the-people know what we want and that we expect the Legislature to act in our behalf. 

The legislation on the paper ballot issue that passed last year was weakened in the final writing.  The first reference in the law refers to a Voter Verifiable Paper Trail.  In fact, the law refers to paper trail and then to paper ballot.  That possible confusion can seriously weaken the law.  The legislation that passed also poorly defined how an audit should be performed and what the action should be when an irregularity is discovered.  This can be corrected easily enough and these problems have been discussed by the task force.  Attendance by a large number of citizens at the Legislative Interim Task Force on Election Reform will show all of the legislators of the state that there a lot of people who feel strongly that true election reform needs to be enacted now!

I would like to ask for every person who can to come on December 14th and to be there before 8:30 AM.  The task force meetings have typically started with everyone in the audience standing and giving their name and which county they come from and possibly which organization they represent.  A large turnout may prohibit this but having very LARGE nametags or signs, which include your county will be important.  The message needs to be that we INSIST on voter verifiable paper ballots, optical scan voting machines, and correction of the audit provisions to include a structured recount up to the entire state in the event that the sample finds an error rate above the rate of error defined by the current law.  I realize that the last part of that sounded long and confusing.  Do not worry, the task force members know exactly what we are talking about.

Please contact people if you need a ride, find a way to join us.  Feel free to send this announcement to anybody that you feel would like to attend and to work with us toward honest and accurate elections.  This action will remind our politicians that we are watching and we want fair and accurate elections and that we will accept nothing less.

Thank you,
Terry Riley
Terryactivist@aol.com
899-6275

Rally at Nob Hill Saturday for Workers' Rights

From Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO:
All this week, all over the country, people are speaking out for the right to form unions and bargain for a better life. Unions and our allies are holding rallies, marches, town hall meetings and more in honor of International Human Rights Day.

This Dec. 10 is the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which lists the fundamental human freedoms, including the right of workers to form unions. But in America, that fundamental freedom is at risk. Workers are routinely harassed and even fired for participating in union activities. That’s why we are engaging in a massive, nationwide mobilization effort all this week in honor of International Human Rights Day.

In Albuquerque:
Rally March: 12/10/2005, 11:30 AM - 
Sponsor: New Mexico Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
Location: Nob Hill Business District
Description: Attend the March and Rally to support locally owned businesses and products. March assemblles at 11:30 AM at Washington and Central. Rally begins at noon with featured speakers and entertainment!! Contact Daniel Rivera, (505) 262-2629, dannyed@att.net

You can also take action right now by signing our Petition to Restore Human Rights for America’s Workers. State your commitment to our freedom to form unions as a fundamental human right. Click here to sign our petition. Click here to find an event near you.

Join ACORN & UFCW for a Candle Light Vigil for Wal-Mart Workers

From ACORN and UFCW:

What:  WakeUpWalMart supporters and many local activists will be meeting at this Wal-Mart for an hour-long candle light vigil. Please come and join us. Similar vigils will be held all over the nation.

When: Sunday, December 11, 2005 at 3:00 PM
Where: Store #2008, 2701 Carlisle Blvd NE, Albuquerque

For more information, contact Matthew Henderson at ACORN: 242-7411. Click for flyer.

Reminder: Don't Miss NM RAIN Forum With Lt. Gov., Legislators, Councilor Heinrich Tonight in ABQ

The "Living Faith" forum hosted by NM R.A.I.N  (NM Religious Alliance for Inclusion and Non-Discrimination) will serve as the second major step in allowing people of faith, the LGBT community and members of New Mexico’s progressive community to take back "religion" from the extremist right. "We will no longer sit silent in the face of the injustice occurring in New Mexico and the United States. The Bible should not be manipulated for political gain and numerous groups are mobilizing to take our faith back from those who have used it unjustly," stated Reverend Lee Albertson.  This forum will have a lively and informative explanation of the Bible in a nonliteral, contextual view and provide hundreds of activists the tools necessary to advocate for inclusion and counter the religious right.

The forum to be held on December 8 from 7-8:15 PM at St. Michael and All Angels Church in Albuquerque (601 Montaño Rd., NW) will have a presentation on Scripture and LGBT, personal testimonies of violation of basic rights suffered by members and family of the LGBT community, a federal/state legislative update and a interactive panel discussion composed of Lt. Governor Diane Denish, Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, Representative Danice Picraux, Senator Jerry Ortiz Y Pino, Senator Linda Lopez and Albuquerque City Councilor Martin Heinrich.

"We must take back the religious agenda.  By taking the Bible seriously but not literally, by judging the holiness of human relationships by the criteria of love and commitment, we will encourage our elected officials to believe that they too can be religious and pro-LBGT.  And more importantly, we can convince them that they have a strong religious pro-LGBT constituency that from now on will be active and taken seriously" stated Reverend Brian Taylor.

NM R.A.I.N believes that it is imperative for elected officials to know that those who support inclusion and nondiscrimination have the support of hundreds of thousands of individuals of faith.  These are members of every faith denomination who have sat quietly believing that rational debate would win over the misinformation and hate filled rhetoric that has dominated the past two elections.  These citizens believe in justice, God and the rights of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender community.  NM R.A.I.N has become the faith entity for mobilization and political action.  “It gives up hope and vigor to know that our elected officials are willing to stand with us and do what is just and what is right,” stated NM RAIN Board Member Ellen Novak.

New Mexico R.A.I.N. (Religious Alliance for Inclusion and Non-Discrimination) was formed out of the exclusionary and hate filled debate that dominated the last US Presidential Election.  A single religious position has dominated media attention and leaders of NM’s faith communities are expressing a different point of view: the belief that faith and religion is based on 4 major tenets:  Tradition, Scripture, Reason and Experience and not discrimination and exclusion.

"As people of faith we believe that all people are created in the image of  God - as such, legislation and actions that attempt to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation are a desecration of God.  Our message is that God loves all people.  As such, I have faith that our elected officials will not allow themselves to be swayed by theologies of hatred and segregation, but  rather they will come to find a faith buoyed by the belief that every human being is capable of living and loving with holiness" stated Rabbi Joe Black.

The organization has membership from throughout the state and includes lay and ordained members.  The forum will be held at St. Michaels and All Angels Church (601 Montaño Rd., NW)  in Albuquerque on December 8th, 2005 from 7-8:15 p.m.  Overflow parking will be available 1 block east of St. Michaels on the north side of Montaño.

For More Information Contact:
Ellen Novak RAIN Co-Chair               
Rev. Lee Albertson, RAIN Co-Chair (505) 265-5749
Rabbi Joe Black (505) 883-1818
Rev. Brian Taylor (505) 345-8147
NMRAIN@MAIL.CO

Celebrate Freedom at ACLU of NM Foundation Annual Dinner

ACLU of New Mexico Foundation
Bill of Rights Dinner
Friday, December 9, 2005
Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town
(Formerly Old Town Sheraton)
800 Rio Grande Blvd. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87104
Cash bar at 6:00 PM
Dinner at 7:00 PM

Download a pdf of the brochure. Visit the ACLU website for more information.