The July 2020 Community Alliance newspaper
Here are the links for the articles in the July 2020 Community Alliance newspaper. The content for all of our articles is available on our website. Our plan to restart printing a newspaper and again distributing it in the community – we will do as soon as it is safe. Perhaps as early as August.
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July 2020 articles and photos:
Black Lives Matter and the City of Fresno Work Together with A Proclamation and Street Painting
Over four hundred people came out to downtown Fresno June 18 to paint “Black Lives Matter” in twenty foot tall letters on P Street where it passes in front of City Hall. The event was the result of conversations between DJ Kay Rich, a local African-American celebrity, and the City Manager. They floated the idea on Instagram and the response was. . .
Read more:
Hundreds March in Support of Black Lives Matter
Several hundred marchers met at Saint Rest Baptist Church in West Fresno June 6 to promote the message of Black Lives Matter in a peaceful manner. They marched over a mile to a rally on the grounds of the. . .
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Justice Denied. . .
We’ve all heard the common adage and legal maxim, “justice delayed is justice denied,” right? It means, so long as justice is put on hold, it really is injustice, plain and simple.
And, what is injustice? What is justice denied? Well, it’s kind of like death—a living death.
Read more:
From Slave Patrols to Police Departments
On June 25, the Fresno City Council voted 5-1 to fund Advance Peace in its 2020–21 budget. Advanced Peace brings a community-based program to Fresno and will work to decrease homicides. The City Council allocated at least $125,000 yearly, but no more than $300,000, with yearly renewals for three years based on. . .
Read more:
Strong Protest Against Police Brutality in Fresno
The Unitarian Church of Fresno held a vigil for allies Friday evening, June 5 in remembrance of George Floyd and against police violence. About three hundred people came, making a socially distanced line that went along Alluvial Avenue for the equivalent of five blocks. The protest around Floyd’s murder. . .
Read more:
The Dangers of a Dyer-Run Fresno
On March 3, Super Tuesday, the city of Fresno held its local election. The high-profile mayoral race to replace Lee Brand—who announced last May he would not seek reelection—pitted former Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer, a Republican, against the progressive prosecutor Andrew Janz.
By March 11, the final vote count called the race. . .
Read more:
BLM Approves Oil Drilling in Carrizo Plain
The Bureau of Land Management recently approved a new oil well and pipeline in Carrizo Plain National Monument. The oil well hasn’t operated for nearly 20 years and was slated to be abandoned. Environmental advocates say oil drilling violates. . .
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Why Oliver Baines Shouldn’t Head Fresno Police Reform
Newly engaged Fresno activists young and old are about to get a fundamental lesson in local politics. That’s because their efforts to radically alter the nature and scope of policing in this city’s historically redlined neighborhoods are being undermined by. . .
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Air District Fails Audit
For years, San Joaquin Valley clean air activists have railed against the local air district program of emission reduction credits (ERCs). This program allows new polluting projects to mitigate their emissions by purchasing credits from projects that have voluntarily shut down in the past.
Local frustration came to a head when a dirty new coal-burning power plant. . .
Read more:
Alex Vavoulis Left an Enduring Legacy
Alex Vavoulis, the man who launched radio station KFCF in Fresno among many other achievements, died June 9 at the age of 95. He was a proud Greek-American who grew up in New York, served in World War II, then after his return went to college, earning a Ph.D. in chemistry.
It was at Fresno State College in 1968 that chemistry professor Alex Vavoulis began his lifelong devotion to free speech, civil liberties and human rights. Vavoulis and like-minded scholars formed the Fresno Free College Foundation. . .
Read more:
Nursing Homes Unsafe during Pandemic?
The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the plight of U.S. seniors, who have been disproportionately infected and killed by the disease.
Eight out of 10 Covid deaths in the United States are seniors aged 65 or older, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. Up to 70% of Covid hospitalizations. . .
Read more:
U.S. Sanctions Imposed on International Court at The Hague
On June 11, 2020, President Donald Trump declared a “state of emergency.” Not about the pandemic. Not about racist violence by the police and the ultra-right. Not even about the fact that about 20% of the U.S. working population is currently unemployed. No, the emergency was the arrival of human rights investigators from the Netherlands.
Read more:
Border and Racism Issues
There are two issues to address. They are closely related. First, we must realize that it is U.S. policies and direct interventions that have produced violent unstable conditions in Mexico and most of Central America. Also, it is necessary to consider that anti-Mexican bias and hate crimes have a long history in the United States, and that all Brown people coming from the south are “Mexican” for purposes of discrimination and being targets of violence.
Read more:
Finding Good in Horrible
In a way that we never foresaw, this nation has been shaken to its bones—to its graveyards—with the convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the killing of a Black man. Seemingly unrelated, It is arguably the pent-up energy of the pandemic shutdown that awakened this nation to the notion that there. . .
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Where Is the Freedom in This Land?
Why was this country formed, this country called United States? Did not
the founders seek their freedom and their independence from a king
who ruled its people with an iron fist? Was not this country formed for independence from repression and from oligarchical control?
Was not the founders’ former government “destructive of these ends”
of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”?
Read more:
Raisin City Water-Faucet
There is a well,
a submersible-pump,
pressure-tank and archaic
brass-faucet
on the end of a steel-pipe
sticking out of the ground
at the south extremity
of Raisin City Park,
a triangular fragment of land
at South Henderson Road,
Read more:
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Several grassroots community groups have pages in this month’s Community Alliance Newspaper.
Fresno Center for Nonviolence – July 2020
By FCNV
We honor and celebrate the 150th year (2019-2020) of Gandhi’s birth the principles of peace and nonviolence sustained by those who are a part of the global struggle for freedom and justice.
Read More:
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – July 2020
Normally we meet on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 7 PM, at Fresno Center for Nonviolence, 1584 N Van Ness. This meeting is open to all. There will be no in-person meeting this month. We have been meeting online on the appointed day and time – watch your email for announcement and link or call-in number! If you have no email, contact Teresa or Leni by phone for the information.
Read more:
Dolores Huerta Foundation – July 2020
On May 30th, 2020, civil rights activist and labor leader Dolores Huerta celebrated her 90th birthday with an online fundraiser called ¡Sí Se Puede! at 90 which raised over $400,000 for the Dolores Huerta Foundation’s Covid-19 relief efforts for immigrant, low-income, and farmworker communities that are being disproportionately affected by the global pandemic. Over 55,000 people have tuned in to watch the event since it aired. The success and the line-up of special guests of the event reflected the great rippling effect Dolores’ activism and life has had on the world.
Read more:
And, in our Spanish language section this month, we have:
Frontera y Racismo
Por Leni Reeves
Hay dos asuntos al que tenemos que dirigirnos. Son relacionados directamente. Primero, hay que darnos cuenta que son las políticas y intervenciones directas de los EEUU que han producido condiciones inestables y violentas en México y la mayor parte de Centroamérica. También es necesario tomar en cuenta que discriminación y crímenes de odio contra los mexicanos tienen historia larga en los EEUU, y, desde el punto de vista de los que nos discriminen y ataquen, todos los que cruzan frontera desde el sur son “mexicanos.”
Lee mas:
México: Impacto de la Pandemia en Trabajadores Informales
Por Eduardo Stanley
El Covid-19 está afectando dramáticamente a nuestra sociedad, no solo por los altos niveles de contagios y muertes sino también por sus efectos en la economía.
En México está afectando de manera grave a los trabajadores informales que representan el 53% de la totalidad de los trabajadores del país.
Lee mas:
El Ciclo de Protestas y el “Empezar de Nuevo”
Por Sunita Sohrabji
La pandemia COVID 19, que ha dominado las noticias durante gran parte de 2020, quedó relegada a un segundo plano la pasada semana, cuando los EE.UU. volvieron su espíritu colectivo al tema de la brutalidad policial contra los hombres afroamericanos.
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Esclavitud y Brutalidad Policíaca. Condiciones Preexistentes
Por Francisco Duarte
La frase “condición preexistente” suele limitarnos a pensar en algún seguro de salud que se hará difícil y caro de obtener. La verdad es que en lo social, económico y hasta genético vivimos bajo la influencia de condiciones que nos dictan posibilidades y limitaciones. La mortalidad variante del Covid-19, las manifestaciones a nivel mundial en contra de la violencia racista, más los efectos del Covi-19 son resultados de condiciones preexistentes en la naturaleza y la sociedad.
Lee mas:
¿Cómo Construir un Futuro Más Equitativo Después del Covid-19?
Por Jenny Manrique
Una generación de gente joven blanca se ha tomado las calles en el medio de una pandemia para protestar no solo por la muerte del afroamericano George Floyd a manos de la policía, sino por el racismo estructural y todo tipo de inequidades en la sociedad estadounidense. El hashtag #LasVidasdelosNegrosImportan, se ha convertido en un movimiento internacional, y los llamados a reducir recursos para la policía e invertirlos en programas sociales de salud mental y apoyo comunitario, tienen fuerte eco en varios sectores políticos federales y locales.
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