Resistance Rising Tour w/ Holy! Holy! Holy!, Young O'odham United Through Health, & O'odham Solidarity Across Borders this Tuesday in Tempe!

We're excited for a couple of events coming up next week as Holy! Holy! Holy!'s Resistance Rising tour arrives for a couple of different gatherings in the valley, including one that we're hosting at ASU's main campus on Tuesday. If you read my buddy P.I.'s piece on the tour last week (check it out if you haven't yet), you have a good idea of what the HHH! folks plan to bring to the table, however we're pleased to announce some additions to this Tuesday's line-up. We're excited to have two groups of indigenous people join the line up to speak on the ongoing efforts to resist the colonialism of the occupied O'odham lands we are on.

The first addition comes from some younger people from the Tohono O'odham nation in southern Arizona who are hard at work on restoring strength to the people through food sovereignty. Since 2008 Young O'odham United Through Health (YOUTH) has been active in sharing traditional food and farming practices to empower Tohono O'odham youth, as well as organizing music and cultural events showcasing the talents of O'odham youth. Two of the youth mentors involved in the program will be making the trip up to Tempe to speak on the struggles and success they've experienced in building youth social, mental, and physical well being.

We're pleased to announce that our second addition to the bill comes is our comrades from the O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective (OSABC), a grouping of Phoenix-area based Akimel O'odham and Tohono O'odham youth who are pushing the struggle against the colonialism of their traditional lands. OSABC will be sharing their experiences with the struggle against colonialism and settler privilege in our movements, and what this means for the broader fight against the systems of exploitation, dispossession, and control.

The YOUTH project and OSABC are truly complementary examples illustrating that the struggle against colonialism is not simply an offensive- but also a mission to nurture, uplift, and prepare the future generations for the tasks ahead.

So once again, we have the night kicking off with a presentation from H!H!H! (along with selections of Franklin Lopez's new film end:civ), is followed by YOUTH's talk on food sovereignty and O'odham youth empowerment, and we'll close out with OSABC speaking on resisting the colonialism in our political movements and from those in power.



The Resistance Rising tour featuring Holy! Holy! Holy!, YOUTH, and OSABC will be held this coming Tuesday, November 23, in room 105 of Armstrong Hall (Sandra Day O'Conner College of Law) , at the ASU main campus in Tempe. Armstrong Hall is located on the southwest corner of McAllister Ave. & Terrace Rd. on the eastside of campus.

For those driving to the presentation there is a visitor parking garage just north of Armstrong hall on McAllister Ave. & Tyler St., all parking is free at this garage if you leave after 7 PM (payment is on exit), so you won't have to pay if you decide to park there for our event. The presentation will begin at 7PM, we have the room open for seating at 6:30, so it's a good idea to stop by with a little time to spare because we will be starting promptly at 7.

This event is free, but we are requesting that people donate money if they can to help cover the travel costs of our speakers.



Finally: Don't forget that Holy! Holy! Holy! is a real live band too, and some friends of ours have organized a live show the next night (8 PM Wednesday, the 24th) at Conspire (5th st. and Garfield) in downtown Phoenix featuring H!H!H! along with Di Nigumim, Travis James, Daryl Sherrer , and DxBx. I'm sure there will be a few other surprises as well, so please support both wonderful events this week in the valley!


No thanks, No giving! No border patrol on O'odham land!

Some thoughts on SB1070 & civil disobedience

by Jon Riley

Solidarity to the 40 Tucson High students who walked out of class, and to the 9 students arrested at the state capitol yesterday!

Our hats are off to all the youth who took courageous acts today, it is inspiring to see resistance to SB1070, a piece of legislation that has passed the Arizona Legislature, and is waiting for final approval this week by Governor Brewer. This bill was drafted by the notorious anti-immigrant bigot, and state senator, Russell Pearce. Pearce continues to push for legislation that could take Arizona back to something that would only resemble the worst days of the segregation south. In essence, if SB1070 is passed, the state of Arizona will have state sanctioned racial profiling, white supremacists like Pearce are counting on this bill to intimidate much of the Hispanic population so that they would move out of state. This is state sanctioned ethnic cleansing. This one's a game changer.

This wasn't lost upon the nine people who chained themselves to doors at the state capitol today, the most dramatic escalation taken by those in power was met with a response from those below. More than a symbolic gesture, maybe more of a declaration, the immigrant movement in Phoenix took a big step forward today, birthing a civil disobedience campaign that will organize against and oppose the continuing racist assault.


We see this attack on immigrants and communities of color in the cities mirrored in the century old border controls and movement restrictions that the Tohono O'odham people continue to resist on their traditional homeland. Just to travel home, from a village on one side of the border to a village on the other side becomes a life or death situation. IDs are mandatory, profiling is a daily occurrence, the agents of state have their finger on the trigger guard and their eyes on you. How much different will anywhere else be in Arizona if this bill passes? This picture will become more clear everywhere, as the city cop checks for "papers" in Mesa, the border patrol agent in Sells mans a checkpoint, and ICE agents conduct workplace raids in Flagstaff. The struggles that have been isolated, or hidden to each other for too long are finding each other now, only as the attack on human freedom and dignity becomes total.

Lately, we at PCWC have had a saying about this bill, that if is signed into law it will be "the end of politics," this is the end of the debate as far as we're concerned. Unlike a conflict in politics, there's no debate with the law, should we hold onto the illusion that the voice of struggle holds sway in the police station, courtroom, capitol, mayor's office, or white house?

To be sure, this is a dark time, terror lingers on across Arizona these nights, and surely worse will come. Not all is lost though, and these words from a Greek comrade may be of use in these desperate times. "Action dries your tears," he said, and there's always a place for action in our lives.



DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST THE SB1070 9!
DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST THE ARPAIO 5!
BROADEN THE SOCIAL STRUGGLE!