Hyde Amendment & Health Care; Immigration Reform

UPDATED: To listen to this edition of the Subversity show, click here: .

Last night the U.S. House of Representatives passed historic legislation to provide health-care coverage for millions of uninsured Americans. What's behind Obama's executive order enforcing the Hyde Amendment that barred federal funding of abortion?

And over the weekend, thousands rallied for immigration reform. What's the view on the ground about immigration reform and the legacy of Bush-era immigration raids?

For the next edition of Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, we bring you two dispatches from Making Contact, the National Radio Project's program on topical issues.

1. ‘Hyde-ing’ the Right to Choose: While lawmakers in Washington mull over the nuts and bolts of health care reform, advocates are concerned that a woman’s fundamental right to reproductive health services is endangered. On this edition, Stupak, the Hyde Amendment, and religion. We take a look at some of the threats to abortion access, more than thirty-five years after Roe V. Wade legalized a woman’s right to have an abortion.

Featuring:

Stephanie Poggi, National Network of Abortion Funds Executive Director; Jenny, shares her story about having an abortion; Jon O’Brien, Catholics for Choice President; Guadalupe Rodriguez, ACCESS/Women’s Health Rights Coalition Program & Public Policy Director. This Making Contact program was funded in part by the Mary Wohlford Foundation.

URL: http://www.radioproject.org/2010/01/hyde-ing-the-right-to-choose/.

2. Immigration Reforms, How a Broken System Breaks Communities:
If there’s one thing to be said about the U.S. immigration system, it’s that there’s universal support for change. But when it comes to answers, the viewpoints are all over the map. Congress is planning to make some changes in 2010, but in the meantime, state and federal immigration laws remain confusing and are sporadically enforced. On this edition, we go to two communities sorting through the aftermath of Bush-era federal immigration raids, and to Los Angeles, where American Apparel became the first test case of the Obama administration’s new approach to workplace hiring violations. This Making Contact program was funded in part by spot.us, a community supported journalism project.

Featuring:

Andrea, Las Americas store manager; Angelica Olmedo & Eber Eleria, Howard Industries workers arrested in Laurel Raid; Bill Deutch, Catholic Charities & Hispanic ministries bi-lingual counselor; Meyer, kosher grocery store owner; Mark Grey, University of Iowa Anthropology professor and co-author of ‘Postville: Surviving Diversity in Small-town America’; Scott, Agriprocessors employee; Former Agriprocessors workers; Michelle Devlin, University of Iowa Public Health professor and co-author of ‘Postville: Surviving Diversity in Small-town America’; Maryn Olsen, Postville Response Coalition coordinator; Bill Chandler, Mississippi Immigrant’s Rights Alliance Executive Director; Noami Perez, Maricela Perez & Sergio, laid-off American Apparel workers; Roberto Suro, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Professor; Peter Schey, American Apparel attorney and Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law Foundation Executive Director; Natalia Garcia, UCLA Downtown Labor Center Administrative Assistant; Anonymous, unidentified Fake ID salesman in MacArthur Park.

URL: http://www.radioproject.org/2010/01/immigration-reforms/.

Subversity airs today (22 March 2010) from 9-10 a.m. on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, California, and is simulcast via kuci.org.

Suspicious Activity Reporting Goes National

PRA's Tom Cincotta speaks at CAIR forum on Suspicious Activity Reporting. Photograph © Daniel C. Tsang, 2010. UPDATED: To listen to this edition of the Subversity show, click here: .

Ratting on your neighbors or anyone looking "out of place" -- such as Middle Easterners taking photographs at Orange County Airport -- will be how John Q. Public will be able to help authorities spot "terrorists".

That is the chilling message given at a packed, evening forum in Anaheim last Wednesday at the offices of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of Los Angeles, the activist group, which heard from several Muslim young men reported for "suspicious" behavior -- including a then-UCI student who was dropping of British leftwing Member of Parliament George Galloway at SNA, after the MP spoke at UCI. The student was later contacted by authorities about why he was taking photographs at the Orange County Airport. Galloway had posed for the student's camera at SNA.

On KUCI's Subversity program this Monday morning, we air talks at the forum given by Tom Cincotta, who heads a project at the Political Research Associates (PRA), researching threats to privacy in the war on terrorism, and Peter Bibring, the expert on police practices at the ACLU of Southern California. Bibring has been researching the LAPD's protoype for citizen reporting -- iReport -- on the LAPD's I-Watch web site. PRA is issuing a research report, Platform for Prejudice(s), later this week tracing Suspicious Activities Reporting and its use in the various anti-terrorism centers set up across the United States.

Chairing the CAIR forum was Ameena Mirza Qazi, CAIR deputy executive director and its staff attorney.

The show airs from 9-10 a.m. on KUCI, 88.9 fm in Orange County and is simulcast via kuci.org.

March 4, 2010 Rally at UC Irvine

Russell Curry ("Sonny Boy") rallies crowd to "Put your fist in the sky" at March 4 rally at UC Irvine. Photograph © Daniel C. Tsang. UPDATED: To listen to this edition of the Subversity show, click here: .

On March 4, 2010, UC Irvine erupted in a day of lively protest actions as students, faculty and unionized staff joined their comrades across the state and the nation in protesting the privatization of education. At UCI a spirited group of speakers rallied hundreds at a rally at the flagpole, followed by crowds of protesters marching across campus, into Langson Library, and the Gateway Commonjavascript:void(0)s by mid afternoon, ending in a smaller crowd gathered on the lawn outside Aldrich Hall, the scene of a sit-in the previous week.

On today's edition of Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, we air speeches from the March 4 rally at UC Irvine, as a document of UCI activism reaching a new scale.
The show airs 9-10 a.m. on KUCI, 88.9 fm in Orange County, California, and is simulcast via kuci.org.

See also: Democratize Education: Taking Control of Our Education blog.

A Look Back at a Tumultous Week (UCI Sit-in...); Iranian Women Agitate

After sit-in, UCI protesters outside Aldrich Hall with pink citations for "failure to disperse." Photo © Daniel C. Tsang 2010. UPDATED: To listen to audio of our interview with Irvine activists Ryan Davis (with citations in photo), Russell Curry and Samiyyah Tillman, click here: . To listen to audio of our interview with Iranian activist Sussan, click here: .

Irvine -- On the next edition of Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, we look back at a tumultous week, not just at UC Irvine but also across the UCs. At UC Irvine, the arrest of 17 protesters sitting in at the administration building, seeking "in-sourcing" of service workers accompanied by a large action outside raised the stakes in advance of a state-wide March 4, 2010 movement against the privatization of education in California. A protest blog argues: "Yesterday the dumpsters, Tomorrow the World!".

We'll talk with UC Irvine protesters who give their take on what's happening and their long list of demands. Some protesters believe that with UC Regents and UC Student Association endorsing the March 4 actions, the struggle has been co-opted. We'll discuss that.

In part 2 of the show, we'll talk with an activist who has been trying to organize Iranian women in advance of International Women's Day in Iran. We talk with:

Sussan, who is is part of the March 8 Women’s Organization (Iran-Afghanistan), living in exile in Europe: In the late 1970s Sussan lived in the US and was part of the Iranian student movement against the brutal US-backed Shah of Iran. She returned to Iran after the Shah’s overthrow and took part in the struggle against the Khomeini regime. She and her family were imprisoned and tortured for their political activity and her husband was executed by the Islamic regime. See a recent statement by the March 8 Women's Organization (Iran-Afghanistan), March in Support of Women Warriors in Streets of Tehran. She was last on Subversity last year.

The International Women's Day Coalition is organizing a march and rally in Westwood on Saturday, March 6th, aiming to break open a spirit of resistance to the horrors committed against women throughout the world, and led by the slogan: Break the Chains! Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution.

The shows airs Monday 1 March 2010 at 9 a.m. on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, Calif., and is simulcast via kuci.org. Show host is Daniel C. Tsang.

UCI Student Affairs Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez on 1st Amendment & Student Activism

Manuel Gomez in his plush office. Photo © Daniel C. Tsang, 2010. UPDATED: To listen to audio, click here: .

Irvine -- In a broad look back at his student activism days (when he hung the Black Flag of anarchism in his apartment), UCI Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez, in the wake of growing controversy over the student disruption of the talk earlier this month of the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, and the arrests of 12 students, discusses the First Amendment on campus, and states that UCI's Muslim Student Union will not be kicked off campus. He also states that images on student protest blogs of UCI Police taking down leaflets announcing protest events is "disturbing," but he is waiting for students to file formal complaints with his office.

Gomez says he grew up in a poverty-stricken "barrio" in Santa Ana and was active in various struggles in his student days, including fighting police abuse. He says he understands the passion and quest among young people for opposing oppression: "I understand it in my bone." His verdict on his protesting past: It was wrong to distrust people over 30. We also discuss cooptation.

In "Imagining the Future: Cultivating Civility in a Field of Discontent," Gomez focuses on the situation at UCI as tensions were addressed in the wake of the Zionist Organization of America's initial complaint to the U.S. Office of Civil Rights over the alleged mistreatment of Jewish students. ZOA has since also claimed UCI students solicited donations for Hamas during a talk at UCI of British Member of Parliament George Galloway.

In the article, written for Change Magazine, as well as on Subversity, Gomez argues that hate speech has been upheld by the courts as allowed under the First Amendment. The ZOA more recently has called for a boycott of UCI in terms of donations and enrollment.

UCI has also sent disciplinary letters to the 8 UCI students arrested, including MSU President Mohamed Abdelgany, a first step in campus administrative proceedings.

In response, the various Muslim activist groups, including the Muslim Public Affairs Council, have called on UCI allow "free speech" for protesters.

Gomez's interview is being aired this morning on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, California, at 9 am (simulcast via kuci.org). He is interviewed by Subversity host Daniel C. Tsang.

UCI Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky on the First Amendment

Erwin Chemerinsky, left, with students after his talk. Photograph © Daniel C. Tsang 2010. UPDATED with audio link: To listen to audio, click here: .

Erwin Chemerinsky, the founding dean of the new UCI School of Law, February 11, 2010 talked at UC Irvine about the First Amendment in the wake of the shouting down of the recent lecture at UCI by the Israeli Ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren and the arrests of the students involved.

Chemerinksy's talk, previously scheduled, happened several days after the Oren lecture, in a larger lecture hall to accommodate the crowd of mostly students who packed the room.

As a public service, KUCI's Subversity program airs Chemerinsky's entire talk and the subsequent Q and A session. The show airs today (15 February 2010), airing 9-10 a.m. on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, California, and simulcast via kuci.org.

Meanwhile, student activists have rallied to urge support for the 11 students (3 from UC Riverside, 8 from UCI) arrested by UCI Police, asking why they had to be arrested. One statement circulating among activists suggests making these points to UCI Chancellor Michael Drake and to the UCI Dean of Students, who would be imposing any administrative sanctions on the UCI students, including potential expulsion:

· It was unjust to arrest students for simply having the courage to
stand up and speak out against a man responsible for propagating the
deaths of thousands of innocent people.
· Civil disobedience has historically played an instrumental role in
the civil rights movement in America the eventually ensured equality
and human rights for all minorities.
· Michael Oren is a representative of a state that is condemned by
more UN Human Rights Council resolutions than all other countries in
the world, and he should not be honored at UC Irvine.

The statement said "we will not support an educational
institution that threatens to punish its’ students with suspension and
expulsion for standing up for their principles."


Supporters of the arrested students have started a Facebook page, "Drop All Charges Against the Eleven", which as of this morning has 4,657 members.

Meanwhile the controversy has again enraged the Jewish community, with Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie, who heads the Rabbinical Council of Orange Council, even suggesting that Chancellor Drake consider expelling the students. [An earlier version incorrectly attributed a call for ending donations to UCI to Rabbi Elierzrie; but another group has formally called for that.] At the same time, the Muslim Public Affairs Council weighed in, calling for an investigation into the arrests.

Sexual Minorities to March in Little Saigon Tet Parade

Gina Masequesmay. Photo from CSUN web-site. UPDATED with audio links: To listen to audio, click here: .

In a historic first, Vietnamese American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered [LGBT] plan to march as part of Little Saigon's Tet parade this coming Saturday, Lunar New Year Eve. While they have marched in Orange County before (at the OC Pride march in Irvine) and in San Jose and San Francisco, this is the first time they plan a march in the heartland of the overseas Vietnamese community in the U.S.

On KUCI's Subversity show Monday 8 February 2010, at 9 a.m., we talk with CSU Northridge scholar Gina Masequesmay
about queer life within the Vietnamese American communities. The CSU sociologist did her Ph.D dissertation at UCLA in 2001 on one of the groups marching, Ô-Môi, which came out with a zine in 2005. She is the lead co-editor of a new collection of essays, Embodying Asian/American Sexualities (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009).

Four groups plan to join together in this march, according to march organizers, embracing "marriage equality" in the context of the Prop. 8 controversy.

Song That Radio is a grass-root organization which has the dual task of operating a radio program to focus on enhancing community awareness of LGBT issues, with the aim to create social change in attitude towards LGBT people and to organize social and political events that advocate, support and empower the Vietnamese-American LGBT community by increasing LGBT visibility and inclusiveness. Its goal is to improve the quality of life of Vietnamese LGBT people by reducing and eliminating the disparities within the Vietnamese-American community in dealing with LGBT issues.

Ô-Môi is a support group for lesbians, bisexual women, and transgender of Vietnamese descent. Its goal is to provide a support and resource space for queer, female Vietnamese to come out and network.

Gay Vietnamese Alliance provides a safe and supportive environment for gay, bisexual, and transgendered men of Vietnamese descent from all over the world to network, voice issues, promote wellness and foster leadership.

The Vietnamese Lesbian and Bisexual women Network and Friends is a support network of women, young and old alike, who provide support to Vietnamese women who are questioning their identities or simply proud to be lesbians or bisexual women.

The Subversity show airs on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, and is simulcast via http://kuci.org. Podcasts are available later.

The march is slated to begin after 9:30 a.m. Saturday 13 February 2010 at Bolsa and Magnolia in Westminster, California.