by Garrett McAuliffe

Edith Corral hold a placard asking for full rights for all immigrants. (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)

The Mission’s modest zócalo, surrounding the descent to BART at 24th and Mission, brimmed with determination and solidarity as representatives from local and national organizations, political candidates and others gathered to support immigrants’ rights as part of the National Day of Action.

The rally, held in the early afternoon on Oct. 12, brought more than a dozen groups together to unite around this common cause, with the specific message to stop raids and deportations, while also providing a platform to promote related political and social justice issues.

Voices and music rose out into the Sunday afternoon din, as close to 200 supporters and onlookers congregated for the event.

A number of speakers addressed the buzzing crowd, in Spanish and English, drawing attention to the perceived injustice faced by immigrants in our country as well as workers throughout the world. The rally included a strong socialist presence, with at least four leftist organizations setting up booths to spread their message of worker support and solidarity.

Thirty cities across our hemisphere participated in the event, celebrating “El Día del Immigrante” and calling for a moratorium on raids.

With the large number of socialist organizations involved, much of the crowd chatter revolved around the current fi nancial crisis and the belief that relief to the system would come from the backs of working class people. Correspondingly, a number of speakers expanded upon the theme of improved rights for immigrants to call for solidarity among workers throughout the country and around the world.

Unity remained a common theme throughout, with the need to rally together, rather than become blinkered by more narrowly-focused issues, on the tip of many tongues.

But there seemed to be little dialogue between the groups present – most speakers seemed intent on rousing the crowd with the issue of the day, then returning to their specific focus or political pitch.

However, a meeting to discuss immigrant rights among many of the organizations involved was scheduled for the following evening.

Other than a speech from one of the former El Balazo workers currently under threat of deportation after a raid earlier in the summer on a number of the restaurant’s local branches, there was a noted lack in numbers from the community under discussion.

“There aren’t many immigrants here – are they afraid they’re going to get raided?” quipped Cindy Sheehan, one of a handful of politicians in attendance locally seeking office during the November election.

by Felicia Mello

Salvador Duran

As the national economic crisis continued to affect banks everywhere, a San Francisco credit union celebrated the grand opening of its new Mission Street location Friday, offering an alternative source of low-cost loans and financial services for the area’s working class and immigrant residents.

City Treasurer José Cisneros and other community leaders turned out to honor the 2,000-member Mission SF Federal Credit Union, the only non-profit, community-owned financial institution in a neighborhood where half of residents have no bank account or credit history.

“In troubled times, people need a strong partner in managing their money and making their households more successful,” said Cisneros. “Credit unions are owned by their members and they can offer smaller loans at much smaller rates.”

At Mission SF, customers receive personal attention in their native language, said credit union CEO Salvador Durán. Unlike at traditional banks, any money invested in the credit union stays in the community.

“When someone applies for a loan here, it’s not a computer program that decides,” said Durán. “I read every application, and I talk to each person and try to help them.”

Leidy Sanabria (left) and Jessica Lozoya, members of the personnel at Mission SF Federal Credit Union. (Photo by Marvin Ramírez)

Durán gave the example of a 65-year-old Nicaraguan woman who survived on SocialSecurity and needed a small loan to pay expenses. While a mainstream bank might have turned her down, Durán talked to her and discovered that her sons in Miami sent her regular money orders. Based on that information, he was able to approve the loan.

Since 1971, the credit union made its home in a small third-story office that was not visible from the street. The new location at 3269 Mission Street, made possible by a grant from partner Patelco Credit Union, has attracted more customers. Since its doors opened in February, the number of new members joining each month has doubled.

Roberto Alfaro, a service provider at the Mission Community Response Network, brought one of his clients to the credit union Friday to open his first bank account.

“I bank here because it’s in the Mission District, it’s homegrown,” said Alfaro. “I’m trying to reinvest in the community.”

The credit union’s small size means it cannot offer some services provided by larger banks, like online banking. But it provides something equally valuable, said Cisneros: an alternative to the predatory payday lenders that proliferate on Mission Street.

“A lot of folks think that if they need $300 fast, they have no other option than to go to a payday lender, where they might have to pay 300 percent interest,” said Cisneros.

Such lenders cost the community an estimated $2 million in fees each year. While a $300 loan from a payday lender could end up costing close to $800 with fees, the same loan from the credit union would not cost more than $400, according to credit union staff.

MissionSF also offers free financial counseling through its affiliated non-profit, MissionSF Community Financial Center. Kids under 18 can join their own separate youth credit union, run entirely by teenage volunteers.

Sabrina Rabaneh, 11, joined the youth credit union when she was 4 and has already saved $1000 for college. She is now the credit union’s youngest volunteer, working to recruit other youth members.

“I think it’s really good for young people who have to earn money for important stuff like college,” she said. “My family thought it was weird when I started to work here but now they see it’s good for my future.”

­

by the El Reportero’s news services

Carlos Fernando Chamorro

Carlos Fernando Chamorro, son of Nicaragua’s former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-97) and former editor in chief of Sandinista newspaper Barricada, was served a search warrant to search the Communication Research Center, Cinco’s facilities in Managua, that he rans, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008.

According to Associated Press, Chamorro, says that all charges against him and Cinco are part of persecution toward those who criticize the government of Nicaragua’s current President Daniel Ortega. He said the charges against him were not specified.

Energy reforms in Mexico Senate agenda

An energy reform about to be discussed at the Senate is causing great expectation in Mexican political circles.

According to legislative sources, in the next few days seven laws should be voted to transform the state Petroleros Mexicanos, after consensus was reached in the high chamber of the House of Representatives.

This Saturday, 11 of 19 senators that, indistinctively, make up the commissions of legislative studies and energy in the Senate met with the goal of advancing to make a fi nal decision on the topic.

However, the outlook seems tense because of the silence that has prevailed in the talks held in the Senate.

“It’s very grave to negotiate giving our backs to the Mexican people in something that is decisive for our future,” said former senator Manuel Bartlett.

For the member of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) there is an interest to approve the bill in a very fast manner which will mean the privatization of the industry.

PT edges municipal elections; Serra and PMDB boost presidential hopes

President Lula da Silva’s popularity helped candidates from his Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) to win six state capitals, as well as many small and medium-sized cities, in the first round of municipal elections on Oct. 5. But Lula’s support was not enough to earn the PT an outright victory in Brazil’s largest – and richest – city of São Paulo, where state governor José Serra, of the opposition Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB), is likely to see an allied mayor win the second round vote at the end of the month – boosting his chances of winning Brazil’s presidency in 2010.

Latin American markets buck global trend

Latin America’s two biggest stockmarkets, Brazil and Mexico, fell by much less than US markets on Oct. 9. International investors may have finished their selling in the most liquid Latin American markets. Brazil, especially, looks well placed to profi t if the world economy performs in 2009 in line with the forecasts in the IMF’s World Economic Outlook rather than collapsing, as stockmarkets around the world are suggesting.

Bolivia pulls back from the brink

The tensions resulting from the Aug. 10 recall vote which saw both President Evo Morales and the opposition prefects confi rmed in power [RA-09-08] exploded last month with some of the worst violence to afflict Bolivia in recent years, culminating in a massacre in Pando which left at least 18 dead. Precipitating an emergency summit of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) which saw an overwhelming show of support for Morales, the shocking events forced the opposition prefects to attend talks regarding the issues behind the dispute – the new constitution, autonomy and the redistribution of gas (IDH) revenues. However, negotiations refused to yield any positive result.

(Latin News, Associated Press, and Prensa Latina contributed to this report).

by José de la Isla

WASHINGTON, D.C.— At a key moment during her Oct. 2 vice presidential debate with Sen.Joe Biden, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin looked straight into the TV camera and said, “Well, the nice thing about running with John McCain is I can assure you he doesn’t tell one thing to one group and then turns around and tells something else to another group.” She was referring to the financial “bail-out plan’’ which had failed in the House of Representatives.

The Senate passed a proposal the afternoon of the debate and the House later approved the measure.

But the bailout bill was not the one where the truth has been stretched like a rubber band.

McCain championed an immigration reform bill in the Senate with Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) in 2006 that went down in flames.

This January he told CNN he would not support his own bill if he became president.

Then he told Tim Russert later the same month on “Meet the Press” he would sign it.

Now we know he can contradict himself in English. But does McCain currently have one position in Spanish and another in English when it comes to immigration?

Consistently, studies show from 60 to 75 percent of the population want some kind of reform. About a quarter don’t want a resolution by way of “amnesty,” which includes a path to legalization.

The Republican platform doesn’t give McCain much wiggle room to bring the majority view into the fold. He has a problem in the critically important New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Florida, swing states where pro-immigration-reform Latino voters will determine the outcome.

In a TV interview last month with Univisión anchor Jorge Ramos (conducted in English, but aired using Spanish voice-overs for that network’s audience) McCain said he favored a step-by-step process to “apply and achieve citizenship.” He stated he favors a “path to citizenship” for about 10 million people who should pay a fine and wait their turn in line after other immigrants. He prefaced, “My position is very clear.”

“Amnesty,” the GOP convention platform scornfully labels it, in very clear English.

Referring to his original Senate proposal on Univisión, McCain interjected, “By the way, Senator Obama tried to kill it.” He was referring to proposed amendments to eliminate a guest worker program from the bill.

That was the message to a Spanish-language audience in late September. Just days later, by Oct. 1, the McCain Palin campaign was promoting a new Spanish TV ad accusing Obama “and his allies in Congress” of fi ghting for “poison pill amendments to kill the immigration reform compromise.” The ad was for airing in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, all swing states.

Back in 2006, McCain was thanking fellow senators Brownback, Lieberman, Graham, Salazar, Martinez, Obama and DeWine for working to move his comprehensive immigration bill “successfully intact through the legislative process.”

His new Spanish campaign ad, entitled “Fraudulent,” clearly paints McCain as the reformer and Obama as a deceiver. “They’ve said no to us long enough,” the ad closes. “This election, let’s tell them no.”

In North Carolina, where the campaign to “get tough with illegal immigrants” showcases a grand total of 112 students spread through the state’s 58 community colleges, McCain’s campaign issued a statement opposing the amnesty or benefi ts for undocumented immigrants.

Campaigning there, Barack Obama said he favored undocumented students’ ­rights to attend, a position consistent with his stand on immigration reform.

So did McCain mean what Jorge Ramos’ audience heard him say in Spanish?

Or is the Straight Talk Express delivering the real John McCain in English?

And, oh yes, did Sarah Palin fact-check what she believes before looking into the camera and proving John M.