Social Movements for Social Justice Film Series

Film Series for first half of the semester

This semester, Students for a Democratic Society will be hosting a film series looking at social justice movements, From Texas to Cali to the Occupied Territories. These screenings take place in the University Center of the University of Houston. All screenings are free and will continue with more films after spring break.

Thursday Feb 11th 7pm in the Caspian Room of the UC The Least of These

Detention of immigrant children in a former medium-security prison in Texas leads to controversy when three activist attorneys discover troubling conditions at the facility. This compelling documentary film explores the role – and limits – of community activism, and considers how American rights and values apply to the least powerful among us.

Monday Feb 22nd 7pm in the Pacific Room of the UC Bilin Habibti (Bil’in my love)

Bil;in is a community facing division by the Israeli security wall: more than half of the village is about to be absorbed by a neighboring Jewish settlement. The villagers confront the Israeli army with creative, weekly demonstrations and direct actions. The army replies with arrests, teargas and bullets. Armed with a camera, the Israeli director Pollak comes to Bil’in as an activist. During his stay, Bil’in turns into the symbol of resistance against the “safety fence” and the Israeli occupation. A film that demonstrates that a different middle east is possible; that the conflict can be transformed by solidarity between Palestinians and Israelis

Thursday March 4th 7pm in the Caspian Room of the UC Short films on the struggle to defend Education in California and elsewhere.

As people throughout the country struggle under the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the Regents of the University of California voted to raise tuition 32%. March 4th is a national day of action to defend education, and we will be watching films about the struggles of students, staff and faculty to defend public education.

First SDS meeting of 2010

Students for a Democratic Society is getting in gear for the new Year. This is going to be our first business meeting of the year and we would love for you to join us.

SDS at UH is planning to focus on 3 areas of work (but we are always interested in other topics too)

Ending War and Occupation: Raising awareness and building movements to end militarism and the occupations of Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Immigrant rights: We want to continue to challange the inhumane immigrant detention policies of ICE, as well as support the DREAM act and possibly build an immigrant rights coalition on campus.

Education Rights: We want to build for the March 4th day of action to defend education (http://www.defendeducation.org/) and fight the escalating costs of getting higher education.

We are also hosting a film series this semester about these issues and others. We should have a schedule out soon.

We have a lot on our plates and would love your help! These meetings will be weekly on Wednesdays at 6pm, almost always in the Caspian room.

International day of the Migrant celebrated protesting Houston Processing Center

Happy Internernational Day of the Migrant!

Students for a Democratic Society and others picked the Houston Processing Center to protest the raids of Mambos restaurants and detaining 33 restaurant workers on suspected immigration violations, on Dec 2nd. The location of the Houston Processing Center is important, as the first private prison in the United States. Private companies operate dozens of detention centers for immigrants across the nation [map].

About 2 dozen protesters gathered on Greens Road and walked a picket line with chants about immigrant rights including; “What do we want? Immigrant Right! How do we get it? Melt the ICE!” “Immigrantes, Escucha, estamos en su lucha” “Immigration is not a crime, why are people doing time?” and “Ariba, Abajo, migra al carajo!” We had a powerful soundsystem that may very well have permeated the thick concrete walls of the detention center. People spoke and sang songs, we did interviews with television reporters, and we then marched to the other side of the facility.

Stop the Raids!

The south side of the facility is the visitor entrance, where during specified hours people can visit their loved ones locked up in the detention center. We sang and chanted more, and then called it a day and left. There was discussion of possibly making vigils at the detention center a monthly event, as well as discussion of upcoming work being done to support Comprehensive Immigration Reform, that may help fix the broken immigration system, which separates families and allows companies like the Corrections Corporation of America to profit off of human misery.

More Photos on Houston Indymedia

Report by Gloria in Workers World: Houston actions support immigrant workers

Dec 18th: Observe international day of the migrant

Stop the Raids!

What: Protest! Free the Mambo 31!
Date: Friday, December 18, 2009
Time: 10:00am – 1:00pm
Location: Houston Processing Center – 5520 Greens Road

This event is endorsed by: Students for a Democratic Society at UH, La Raza Justice Movement, International Action Center, CRECEN/America Para Tod@s, Houston Interfaith Worker Justice Center, doscentavos.net, Brother Jesse Blog, ournewanahuac.net

International Migrants Day is an international day observed on December 18th as International Migrants Day appointed by the General Assembly of United Nations on 4 December 2000 taking into account the large and increasing number of migrants in the world. On 18 December, 1990, the General Assembly adopted the international convention on the protection of the rights of migrant workers and members of their families.

This day is observed in many countries, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations through the dissemination of information on human rights and fundamental freedoms of migrants, and through sharing of experiences and the design of actions to ensure the protection of migrants. [Background: United Nations | Wikipedia]

Facebook Event | Flier on Houston Indymedia as PDF

SDS at UH turns a year old!

It was one year ago today that the University of Houston Students for a Democratic Society Chapter hosted our first organizational meeting. This image is the flier for the meeting and here’s the announcement for our first meeting on Dec 2nd of 2008 In the year that we’ve been around we’ve done a bunch of totally awesome stuff.

Since then we’re mobilized to protest the detention of immigrant children at the T Don Hutto Detention Center, hosted educational events opposing war and occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, Protested the coup in Honduras, Created a resource guide for folks trying to find out whats radical in Houston, and worked to opposed the 287(g) program from allowing HPD and Harris county to racially profile and enforce immigration law and joined the protests opposing the dishonest bigotry of the Genocide Awareness Project.

We have a bunch of stuff in the planning stages for 2010, hope you can join and support us!

Houston SDS on the Radio

SDSers got up early on Thursday morning to chat with John McNamara and George Reiter, the hosts of Thresholds radio program on KPFT 90.1fm, and both professors at the University of Houston.

If you want to listen to us talk and try to remember what SDS has been up too, take a listen here.

Highlights include John telling stories about right wing homophobes firing the faculty sponsor of SDS in 1969 and Mark Rudd wearing drag to get on campus at UH in order to evade the restraining order that the administration had placed on his speaking on campus, as well as RoB forgetting how our national structure works. Thanks to George and John for hosting us!

Off our campus! Off our bodies! Students confront anti-choice “Genocide Awareness Project”

My Body, My Rights

This Monday morning the “Genocide Awareness Project” set up a disgusting and dishonest display in Butler Plaza in front of the MD Anderson library in the heart of the University of Houston Campus. The Genocide Awareness Project is put on by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform their website (which is full of pictures and videos of aborted fetuses, and is also somewhat transparent in posting Tax returns which indicate that the only 4 compensated staff people are men) which is a California based non-profit organization that travels the country putting up photos of aborted fetuses.

They describe themselves as follows:

The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) is a traveling photo-mural exhibit which compares the contemporary genocide of abortion to historically recognized forms of genocide.

So, they have photos of dead prisoners at a Nazi concentration camp, and a black man hung from a tree surrounded by white folks in the US South and a picture of an aborted fetus, with the caption “ungentile, unwhite, unborn.” This is a gross distortion of what genocide means, a falsehood designed to provoke emotional responses.

Genocide is defined by international law as:

“intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”

A woman deciding to terminate a pregnancy is totally and fundamentally different from a government or group attempting to exterminate an entire national or ethnic group.

In our experiences talking and protesting the anti-choice activists that were present, very few of them were willing to defend this egregious misuse of the term genocide. When pressed, many stated they opposed abortion but were unable and unwilling to defend the proposed parallel of Fascism and the Holocaust and a woman’s right to choose.

Some additions to the GAP banners

Opposition to this display began immediately both by organized groups and independent students. Students hung clothes hangers (to symbolize the way many women rely on dangerous methods of abortion when safe and legal ways are prohibited) and posted notes on the banners that GAP had set up on campus Monday morning. The brand new Student Feminist Organization mobilized students and brought signs, but the overwhelming amount of folks who stopped to argue with the GAP people and protest were women and men who have no organizational affiliation but were repulsed by the GAP display.

Handing out clothes hangers

Many SDSers came to support the protest on Monday, and after our screening of Life in Occupied Palestine on Monday night we decided to mobilize who we could to protest these anti-choice fundamentalists. Tuesday at noon we brought signs and clothes hangars, some labeled “You will need this when abortion becomes illegal” that we attempted to hand out to students and provoke discussions of the impacts it would have on women if abortion was made illegal.

Dozens of us spent more than 3 hours debating, talking to passers by and chanting, Chants included: “Not the Church, not the State, Women must decide their fate,” “A fetus is not a baby, a woman is not an incubator” and “Off our campus, Off our bodies.”

While it is disappointing and disgusting to see this propaganda presentation on our campus (we heard rumors it was sold to the dean of students as an “art exhibit”), we were delighted to see a diverse cross section of UH students join and start protests against these bigots, many skipping classes to stick around.

SFO Represent!

Check out the Student Feminist Organization at UH on Facebook.
We are peaceful, pro-choice feminist organization that hopes to inspire humanity to recognize and abolish all inequality between men and women.

We encourage you to read the flier SFO produced for the event, which illustrates the need for safe and legal abortion services.

News Links
Tuesday story in the Daily Cougar
El Gato: Abortion Protests Ignite Student Emotions
Houston Indymedia Feature

More Photos on Houston Indymedia:
From Tuesday
From Wednesday

Nov 16th Screening of Life in Occupied Palestine and presentation by Sahar Abusada

Monday November 16 at 7 pm, Students for a Democratic Society will be presenting the film “Life in Occupied Palestine” and hosting Houston activist Sahar Abusada.

The Film is based on the presentations of Anna Baltzer a Jewish American human rights and Palestine solidarity activist, based on her visits to occupied Palestine.

Sahar Abusada will present her experiences working to help the Palestinian people, including working with Palestinians for Peace and Democracy providing aid to the people of Gaza, and the solidarity movement in general.

The event will be held in the UC underground, World Affairs Lounge (that’s the area with all the flags). Refreshments will be served!

Please invite your friends to the Facebook event as well.

Nov 12th Screening of Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan

November 12th at 7pm SDS will be hosting a screening of the film Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan, in the Honors College in room 212s.

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan featured testimony from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.

This four-day event brought together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan – and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists gave context to the testimony. These panels covered everything from the history of the GI resistance movement to the fight for veterans’ health benefits and support. More info from Iraq Veterans Against the War

Facebook Event invite your friends!

Despite overwhelming opposition, Harris County commissioners court approves 287g agreement

Speaking truth to power. Power does not listen.

We want to thank all the folks that came out on Tuesday to show opposition to racial profiling by Houston law enforcement and stand up for immigrant communities. Despite packing the meeting room with opponents of the program, and the vast majority of speakers opposing the program, the commisioners voted 4 to 1 to join this program. Judge Ed Emmet, Jerry Eversol, Steve Radack, and El Franco Lee (who as commissioner for precinct 1 represents the University of Houston) voted in favor of the program. Only Sylvia Garcia voted against the program.

The event was relatively well covered by local media (in that they talked about it on tv, not that they put it in context or examined the racist and bad public policy behind the program), check out these stories:

ABC 13 coverage (this one has a poll on if you support 287g. Vote no!)

NBC Chanel 2 coverage

Fox Houston coverage

Chanel 39 CW coverage

Houston Chronicle (the version in the printed edition has a quote from Eric of SDS!)

Houston Press Hair Balls Blog (by Liana Lopez of the Nuestra Palabra crew)

The Daily Cougar’s coverage

Photos from 287g vote and protest at County Commissioners Office on Houston Indymedia

Local and regional groups fighting 287g and for immigrant rights, including SDS, are meeting today and are going to be working on developing strategies to try and document the impact this will have on Houston families, the expenses this will place on Harris County at a time when they are cutting social services, and the likely increase in racial profiling that will result.

In Irving Texas, when the local police entered into a CAP agreement (a similar program to 287g that gives access to immigration records in their city jail) with ICE in 2006, arrest records have shown an increase in arrests of Latinos for petty offenses. The University of California at Berkley Law School wrote a report [download pdf] that exposes the expansion of racial profiling that took place once they reached an agreement with ICE.