SFJ has voted unanimously to endorse the United Students Coalition in their bid for De Anza’s Student Body government.

This was not an easy decision, as many of us have friends in the other electoral blocs. But we are convinced that United Students is the most diverse, will be the most accountable to student opinion, and act most diligently to change things for the benefit of students and workers, out of the available choices. Our confidence in them is not based on the showmanship of their campaign, but a longstanding working relationship in which they have proved themselves as capable and democratic leaders.

DASB was once a progressive force through which students were empowered and positive changes at De Anza accomplished. Without the past alliance of SFJ, MSA and MEChA in DASB, the Intercultural Studies Department might no longer exist. In the past couple years, however, due to the lull in activity by the progressive clubs, student empowerment through DASB has not been the case - student government has been dominated by business majors, motivated primarily by the chance to get a nice position on their transfer applications, and they have squandered the student government’s $1 million annual budget. The United Students, on the other hand, have a sincere desire to improve student life at De Anza College by putting their time and the school budget to the service of the student body as a whole.

Please take a moment out of your time this week (Monday, May 12th-Friday, May 16th) to vote for all of the United Students candidates during DASB elections. The stakes are high - this vote will determine whether we have an activist or a self-interested DASB for the entire next year!

The slate is as follows:

#3 David Hinault - President

#3 Yoon Minn Lai - Executive Vice President

Patrick Ahrens - Student Trustee

#20 Mohammad Shirazi - VP of Diversity and Events

#27 Anna Shevchenko - VP of Student Services

#17 Alan Okida - VP of Marketing

#7 Roger Arce - VP of Budget and Finance

#15 Robin Claasen - VP of Administration

#12 Andrei Fomenko - VP of Student Rights

#46 Amir Pourshafiee - Senator

#30 Emma Cruz-Montoya - Senator

#45 Jeff Noon - Senator

#37 Vijay Veeramachaneni - Senator

http://blip.tv/file/884631much thanks to La Voz!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROvkUXv8DJE

From 1:00-1:40 you can see SFJ representing. Thanks De-Bug!

De Anza on Thursday, May 1st will be the site of a rally with campus workers, student artists and speakers, faculty members, a guest DJ and an open mic. We will be gathering at 10:50 AM around the L Quad fountain. Those of us who are able will then bus/carpool to downtown San Jose for the annual march, which is at 3:00 (we’ll be leaving campus at 2:00). We demand an end to the slave-like “illegal” status of millions of American workers, to the occupations of foreign countries, the rape of the environment, economic attacks on students and workers, ethnic cleansing in New Orleans, and the brutalization of poor people in the United States.

We invite any and all students, faculty, staff and community members to join us and let their voices be heard. If you, your club, union or some other organization would like to speak/perform at the rally at De Anza, please contact us on this website so we can get you on the lineup!

Get your class to march and stand in solidarity with us! Bring your friends! Help us publicize and organize this event! Join Students for Justice!

History of International Workers’ Day:
On Tuesday May 4th 1886, the fourth day of a strike for the eight-hour day which had begun May 1st, Chicago police attempted to disperse a crowd of striking workers. Police spies planned to set off a bomb and blame it on the strikers, but they clumsily set off the explosives early and one of them was killed. The police then began firing wildly into the crowd, many of them accidentally shooting each other. Seven police officers and an unknown number of civilians were killed, almost all of them by police bullets.

The violence was blamed on eight anarchists who had organized the rally. None of them were linked to the bombing or violence, but since they believed in a revolution, four of them were executed by hanging - for thought crimes.

Since then, May 1st has been a day of international protest by the workers’ movement in order to demand workers’ rights, workers’ power, and an end to imperialist wars. It became almost forgotten in the USA, the country of its origin, for some time, and was replaced by “Labor Day” so as to cut US workers off from our brothers and sisters around the world.

Thanks to the efforts of the immigrants’ rights movement and rank-and-file union workers, May Day is finally making a comeback in the United States!

Hey everyone, I’m going to be bringing the website down on Sunday night. It shouldn’t be too long, but it’ll happen around midnight - 2am.

I’ll be updating the front page, and the  forum as well. If you have any suggestions please feel free and reply.

An article recommended by Rich Wood about Youth Activism.

Here is a short excerpt:

I just got back from a two-week campus speaking tour during which I had the privilege of hanging out in a women’s center at a Catholic college, eating bad Mexican food with Mennonite feminists, and chatting with aspiring writers and activists at a college in which half the students are the first in their families to experience higher education. I heard the stories of transgender youth in Kansas City, jocks with food addictions in Jacksonville, and student organizers who are too overwhelmed to address all the world’s problems in Connecticut.

When my plane finally landed with a resounding bump at LaGuardia, I felt totally inspired by the earnest enthusiasm that beamed out of almost every student I encountered — and also terrified that the university system is sucking the life out of them. At the risk of biting the hand that feeds me (I am usually paid to speak, in part, by student organizations and women’s centers), I have to attest that the institutionalization of activism on college campuses seems to be a key culprit in the absence of visible youth movements in this country.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/20/5339/

10 Days That Shook Olympia

For 10 days, anti-war activists in Olympia, Washington have slowed down and for two different periods of 12 hours or more, stopped the flow of military weapons and military cargo that were unloaded from a Navy ship that had returned from Iraq. For 24 hours a day, we have used a variety of tactics and actions. They have included sitting in front of trucks carrying Stryker vehicles and other military equipment from leaving the Port of Olympia, building barricades on the roads where these military vehicles were traveling, anti-war demonstrations through the streets of Olympia and vigils, downtown. A hearing was held at City Hall, last Sunday, November 11th, 2007 to document the excessive police force used against people who participated in these actions. We testified at the Olympia City Council and at a hearing of the elected Port Commissioners demanding that they take a stand opposing the U.S. war against Iraq by not letting our Port be used to transport war supplies. About 500 people have taken part in some or all of these protests.

From http://www.counterpunch.com/bohmer11152007.html

Peter Bohmer has been opposing the imperial actions of the United States since the 1960s. He is a longtime member of the faculty at The Evergreen state College in Olympia, WA

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