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SOLIDARITY NEEDED: MMIW 5/5

**Trigger warning**** Gender based violence.

Dear community,

May 5th is the national awareness day for Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women (#MMIW). There are other # such as MMIWG2S for Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women, Girl, Two Spirit fam. Both fight for the same cause but there are tremendous work done with MMIW so this # is more widely used.

An event UCSB American Indian Student Association (@ucsbaisa) and UCSB Multicultrual Center (@ucsbmcc) co-hosted:

Join the MCC and the Peer Mentors from the American Indian Cultural Resource Center on May 5th, the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. This event will feature an informational session about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People Crisis, followed by a vigil and time of collective mourning. Learn about what the #MMIWG2S crisis is, how it affects Native people, and what you can do to combat this issue.

In anticipation for this event, we ask that you show solidarity by changing your profile picture on Instagram to the second photo of this post, a red handprint on a black background. The red handprint is a symbol of the MMIW crisis. We hope that this will allow us to raise awareness through social media for this event as well as the other Missing and Murdered Indigenous women crisis.

Resources AISA and MCC provided were:
https://oknaav.org/media
https://www.facebook.com/mmiwusa/

Here I share the infographic posts from Instagram @indigenousrising. Posts can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_z-2ZPjV3R/

Here is their message/caption:

Swipe Left for #WhyWeWearRed

May 5th is National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Awareness Day. Today and everyday we honor our stolen relatives.

Scientific data has confirmed what Indigenous peoples have long spoken out about, violence against our land brings violence to our people.

And we know that when extractive industries are working near our communities, such as pipeline man camps, without our consent we see increased violence and human trafficking.

Today we not only honor our stolen relatives but we promise to protect our peoples and land every day until there are no more stolen sisters. . 📸: Nedahness Rose Greene @nedahnessgreene
#mmiw #mmiwg2s #indigenousfeminism #grassrootsfeminism #nomorestolensisters #nokxl #noline3 #shutdownthetarsands

https://www.braveheartsociety.org/
https://www.sovereign-bodies.org/
https://www.csvanw.org/mmiw/

Please consider learning more about this issue and how our different struggles are different but very much connected. Please support and help raise awareness of this crisis.

Thank you all.

A peak from the presentation:

a slide from the presentation from UCSB AISA.

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DONATION NEEDED: Immediate Support for Grassroots Communities in Brazil and Colombia Fighting COVID-19

Dear community members,

Our very own Professor Alves from UCSB Black Studies Department has reached out for help. Please see the message below!

Greetings:

Solidarity is needed!

As we all know, the coronavirus pandemic is devastating black communities around the African Diaspora. Haiti has only 60 ventilators for its 11 million inhabitants; in the overcrowded favelas of Brazil, the Black population is disproportionately dying due to the lack of access to healthcare while seeing their living conditions deteriorating even further. In Colombia, the Black population is struggling with extreme poverty, unemployment and target assassinations as paramilitary groups take advantage of the quarantine to kill black and Indigenous social activists.

As our grieving communities mourn the loved ones and struggle to provide basic means of subsistence to those most in need, we join their effort in an international call to protect Black lives. This is an urgent call for your donation (any contribution) through this platform to assist black communities in Brazil and Colombia to purchase food, hygiene, and cleaning supplies.

Asociacion de Mujeres Negras “El Chontaduro:” You can make your contribution to this Black women’s black grassroots here

https://armatuvaca.com/vaca/Cx130139Qmt42124

Uneafro: You can make your contribution to Black communities in Brazil here  

https://benfeitoria.com/Covid19Brazil

Now is the time to bridge what we have learned in the classroom with concrete action toward racial and social justice. We hope we can count on you. If you are unable to make a donation through the provided links and still want to contribute, you may contact our Brazilian ( +55 11 94759-2723 ) and Colombian (+57 310 7080254) grassroots through Whatsup. For further information about this campaign, you may also contact me through the email jaimealves@ucsb.edu

Let’s stand together to beat coronavirus and structural racism!

Stay home, stay healthy, stay In solidarity!

Jaime Alves

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SIGN THE PETITION: UC & CSU: Protect Workers Rights, Livelihood and Lives!

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/uc-csu-protect-workers-rights-livelihood-and-lives/

UC and CSU workers NEED your help in this crisis!!
Here is their petition message below:

The UC & CSU systems have made good progress in protecting jobs and pay during the first months of the coronavirus health and safety crisis. UC approved 128 hours of paid administrative leave for workers unable to work due to a health issue, being quarantined or school or daycare closures, and 256 hours were approved by CSU. More recently, UC pledged no layoffs through June 30, 2020.

These programs will need to be expanded given that this crisis and the economic repercussions are likely to last much longer. Together, UC and CSU employ more Californians than almost any other employer and provide vital education, research, and health care services. One of the best and fastest way to insure the long-term economic stability and health of our communities is to stand firm on the commitment to avoid layoffs. Furthermore, as long as shelter-in-place mandates remain in place in California, the UC and CSU need to extend paid administrative leave benefits to staff until they are lifted. We urge UC and CSU to provide every opportunity to employees to work — with all appropriate safety measures — through telework, flexible schedules, reassignments, re-deployments, etc. We are ALL essential workers!

For those who still cannot work safely because they are sick, quarantined, at high risk, caring for children due to school closures, or for any other COVID-19-related reason, the UC must ensure that workers will not suffer layoffs, curtailments, or other loss of pay and benefits as a result of this pandemic.

We, the undersigned workers, students and supporters, demand that the UC and CSU protect workers’ rights, livelihood and lives to avoid further damage and crisis to families and our communities caused by the COVID-19 health crisis. Extend paid administrative leave benefits to staff until stay-at-home orders are lifted. Expand the number of employees allowed to work from home UC and the CSU must prevent layoffs, protect safety, income and jobs for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath.

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SIGN THE PETITION: Land is Sacred: Stand With the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe!!

SIGN THE PETITION:
https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/stand-with-the-mashpee?bucket=&source=facebook-share-button&time=1586446340&utm_campaign=&utm_source=facebook&share=5ea5410f-7463-4fe9-ae03-c7553deaaa38

Background info!
https://time.com/5812813/mashpee-wampanoag-revoking-reservation-status/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/31/trump-administration-revokes-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-reservation-status

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INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES UNDER WATER IN THE AMAZON – PLEASE DONATE

Family and friends,

Last summer, I received the immense privilege and opportunity to study abroad in Ecuador for five weeks. I stayed with the indigenous community, Sarayaku, who live along the Bobonaza River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Sarayaku Community has taught me countless lessons on resistance, solidarity, and community, through their fight against oil extraction and the neoliberal government of Ecuador. This morning, I was saddened to hear about the extreme flooding that occurred in their territory, destroying their homes, crops, animals, and even the school that is crucial to their traditional ecological knowledge. Sarayaku is seeing the impacts of ALREADY occurring climate change during the middle of a pandemic. This is a clear example of how communities that contribute the least to climate change are being disproportionately affected by the adverse consequences of years of exploitation and extraction in the “Global South”.

Today, amongst this climate crisis and pandemic, I believe it is time to turn those powerful lessons I learned into actions. If you have the capacity to donate please follow the link to a gofundme page organized by Nina Gualinga, an indigenous climate activist from Sarayaku. If you are facing financial strains, there are other ways to show solidarity. You can help by spreading the word amongst friends, loved ones, and strangers. Please share this link widely!

We cannot let the Sarayaku community go unheard, especially when their entire being is about protecting Mother Earth for you, for me, for all of us. They are stewards of the Earth, their unwavering love for their environment is what guarantees this world a future. Now, it is time we return their kindness and guarantee a future for them and their loved ones during these unprecedented times.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/indigenous-communities-flooding-amazon?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

– March 18, 2020
– Written by Diana Garcia, Co-Chair of EJA 2019/20

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Oppose the Delta Conveyance Tunnel Project!

Public comment ends 4/17 5PM PST!! This is our time to make a change. Public comments are so important and they actually truly make a difference.

You can develop your own letter or we have a sample letter here for you to send!

MORE COMPREHENSIVE INFO ON HERE: http://www.restorethedelta.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Final-Save-the-SF-Bay-Delta-HandOut-combined-with-A-Better-Solution.pdf

Email to DeltaConveyanceScoping@water.ca.gov

SUBJECT: Request to Seriously Reconsider the Delta Conveyance Tunnel Project

BODY:

Dear the California Department of Water Resources,

—greetings—

My name is [______] and I am an [___any type of affiliation you would like to share if you want___]. I am writing this email in strong opposition to the Delta Conveyance project. This damaging project should be terminated immediately as its construction and operation will drive the Chinook Salmon to extinction, with over a hundred species following, devastating the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, local fisheries, and the beautiful ecosystem we currently have and need. 

This tunnel project will have a tremendous impact on the livelihood and culture of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, a matrilineal Wintu-speaking community who are indigenous to the Winnemem, or McCloud River. The Chinook Salmon are an essential part of the cultural traditions of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, who takes care of the Salmon’s land and is deeply and spiritually connected to the Chinook Salmon (Julie Bongers).

“As native people, we rely on the river and the salmon as part of our traditional heritage. We cannot afford to let anything further erode our river systems,” testified Robbins, an advisor for Water Protectors Club (fishsniffer.com)

As the Department of Water Resources, it is to your mission to protect these natural resources, water, river, Salmon, and listen and learn from the communities most impacted by your proposed project.

Moreover, the environmental disruption to the region will be irreversible as even just the construction and operation of the tunnel will “degrade the water quality for Delta farms, subsist-ence anglers, providers of urban drinking water (including Stockton, Antioch, and other cities), residents playing and swimming in Delta channels, and an increase in deadly toxic algal blooms” (Restore the Delta, Impact Report).

Restore the Delta put together a report detailing the impacts of this Proposed Water Project named The Fate of the Delta.  The report stated “[the tunnel project] will impact human uses of water for farms, subsistence fishing, urban drinking water supplies, and urban water rates, each of which will place disproportionate, undue burdens on Delta EJ communities” (Restore the Delta, Impact Report). It is the Department of Water Resource’s responsibility to serve communities with non-toxic and pure water, not risk residents life with algea blooms.

Finally, this project will endanger the Chinook salmon, which is a keystone species that for a millennia have been providing nutrients for the soils and nourishing a hundred species that depended on them (Julie Bongers).

Some of the species that depend on the Chinook Salmon are: Black bears, Grizzly Bears, and American badgers, Water shrews, Ringtail cats and Long-tailed weasels, Harbor seals, Great blue herons, and Great egrets, Bald eagles, orcas, and ravens, wolves, North American River otters, ermine, fox, martens, bobcats, ducks, pumas, ‘coons, and sharks (California Mammals). These species are crucial to California wildlife and waterways, without them the biodiversity of California will plummet and drive more extinction.

The delta tunnel will heavily contribute towards the extinction of Chinook salmon, most importantly, last year, only 0.1% of the salmon came back! Much of the species living in the area require salmon to continue living and therefore their extinction will change the ecosystem in the region. The species that depend on the Salmons are all currently starving.

Please reconsider this project as its irreversible damages will be detrimental to the ecosystems in the Sacramento Region, McCloud River, Trinity River, and the Delta. We understand that we are currently in a PANDEMIC and you also have other people to take care of, which is why we need this project to HALT immediately because it concerns the well-being of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, especially so during this time. Please protect your people in California, especially the most vulnerable. 

Respectfully, 

—

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Delta/Fuel Incident

 ****Trigger Warning: Environmental Racism, Environmental Injustice****

Delta Air Lines Flight 89 Dumps Fuel on Communities of East LA

On January 14th, 2020 a Delta Airlines Boeing 777 jet bound for Shanghai from LAX airport experienced technical difficulties regarding its engine. In response, its pilot decided to employ an emergency fuel release of about a thousand gallons to reach a safe landing weight back at LAX. This action was done so at the great cost of communities in the nearby areas who found themselves in a rain of jet fuel without any warning. Six school campuses were affected, as well as neighborhoods east of LAX from Pico Rivera to Cudahy, Lynwood, Compton & South Central. About sixty people received medical attention, as jet fuel is extremely toxic and coated both children and adults. Victims reported drenching their clothes, flesh, mouth, nose and eyes which in turn caused severe irritation, sickness and nausea, not to mention emotional distress.

           The Los Angeles Unified School District acted relatively quickly, cleaning over twenty schools overnight. Thankfully, as of right now after treatment there has been no hospitalizations and because of dissipation of VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds), there are no more cases anticipated. Furthermore, the Federal Aviation Administration is currently conducting an investigation, as releasing fuel on the communities is not within protocol guidelines. However, there have been major complaints of lack of civic engagement despite Delta representative Dana Debel who vowed commitment to doing so on behalf of the airline.

           As of January 20, four teachers from Park Avenue Elementary School in Cudahy – Lisette Barajas, Laura Guzman, Mariana de la Torre, and Anabel Sampierio, are filing a lawsuit against Delta Airlines for negligence and damages. The plaintiffs allege that the engine problem was detected prior to take off and should have prevented the incident from occurring in the first place. This incident demonstrates a clear example of environmental injustice, as demographics who live in close proximity to LAX include high concentrations of low income and people of color. The latinx community makes up 96% of Cudahy’s population. These people are exposed to disproportionately high levels of pollutants in noise, air and water oftentimes because they cannot afford to live elsewhere. Meanwhile, wealthier neighborhoods near LAX can afford the utilities to combat these challenges. Money plays an active role in who is protected and who is left to fend for themselves, and this inequality is highlighted by this case. Class and race play a role as well, which qualifies this case as an issue of environmental racism as well. This same elementary school was closed for 8 months in 1989 and 1990 when an odd substance oozed up from underground. It was later discovered that the school had been built on top of a former city dump. This area has been historically and consistently impacted by environmental injustices that continue to go unrecognized. 

           If you feel compelled to support victims of this horrific incident and help hold Delta Airlines accountable for their actions, campus organization MUJER de UCSB  has provided the flyer below in which you may voice your concerns.

Written by Cambria Wilson, Publicity Chair. Jan 28th, 2020.

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History of Environmental Justice

One of the most comprehensive readings defining Environmental Justice is through the works of First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held in 1991.

PDF version: Principles-of-Environmental-JusticeDownload

WE, THE PEOPLE OF COLOR, gathered together at this multinational People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, to begin to build a national and international movement of all peoples of color to fight the destruction and taking of our lands and communities, do hereby re-establish our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our Mother Earth; to respect and celebrate each of our cultures, languages and beliefs about the natural world and our roles in healing ourselves; to ensure environmental justice; to promote economic alternatives which would contribute to the development of environmentally safe livelihoods; and, to secure our political, economic and cultural liberation that has been denied for over 500 years of colonization and oppression, resulting in the poisoning of our communities and land and the genocide of our peoples, do affirm and adopt these Principles of Environmental Justice:

1) Environmental Justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction.

2) Environmental Justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.

3) Environmental Justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.

4) Environmental Justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food.

5) Environmental Justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural and environmental selfdetermination of all peoples.

6) Environmental Justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production.

7) Environmental Justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decisionmaking, including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.

8) Environmental Justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe and healthy work environment without being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.

9) Environmental Justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health care.

10) Environmental Justice considers governmental acts of environmental injustice a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.

11) Environmental Justice must recognize a special legal and natural relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government through treaties, agreements, compacts, and covenants affirming sovereignty and self-determination.

12) Environmental Justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our communities, and provided fair access for all to the full range of resources.

13) Environmental Justice calls for the strict enforcement of principles of informed consent, and a halt to the testing of experimental reproductive and medical procedures and vaccinations on people of color.

14) Environmental Justice opposes the destructive operations of multi-national corporations.

15) Environmental Justice opposes military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms.

16) Environmental Justice calls for the education of present and future generations which emphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.

17) Environmental Justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth’s resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to ensure the health of the natural world for present and future generations.

More info on environmental justice and environmental racism can be found online at www.ejnet.org/ej/ Delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held on October 24-27, 1991, in Washington DC, drafted and adopted these 17 principles of Environmental Justice. Since then, the Principles have served as a defining document for the growing grassroots movement for environmental justice.

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