Our first shipment of donated goods will be this morning, with more deliveries planned for tomorrow. Info on continuing efforts is provided, also info on Chainbreaker Collective’s community organizing launch, a panel tonight on Housing as a Human Right, and New Energy Economy’s petition to oppose PNM’s nuclear acquisition plans. We provide a list of all co-petitioners.

Chainbreaker Launches Community Education and Organizing Campaign Focused on Santa Fe University of Art & Design

Thursday, April 25th from 5:30 to 8:00: Chainbreaker Collective Presents. Housing Is a Human Right Panel @ Santa Fe Art Institute. This is the second in a series of panels that are part of the education and organizing phase of Chainbraker Collective’s campaign focused on the Santa Fe University of Art & Design.. The 64 acre property is being redeveloped by the City and Chainbreaker and allies are seeking to ensure that input from impacted neighborhoods play a central role in the design. Tonight’s panel includes: Ruby Lopez, Chainbreaker member; Hank Hughes, New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness; and Serge Martinez, University of New Mexico Law Clinic.  Chainbreaker will serve dinner from 5:30-6pm followed by the panel and Q&A.

Santa Fe is in the process of deciding what to do with the 64 acre city-owned property of the former Santa Fe University of Art and Design (SFUAD). Efforts last year to engage community members did not result in equitable engagement. Acknowledging that the City’s outreach efforts needed augmentation with a particular focus on equity, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for an augmentation to the community engagement process. . Chainbreaker members lead the organizing efforts to support that resolution and the organization committed itself to follow through with the promise to engage directly affected community members. Last week, Chainbreaker launched a campaign that represents the first steps toward fulfilling that promise.

Chainbreaker has organized an alliance of service providers, community members, arts organizations, social justice groups and housing providers to design a comprehensive community engagement campaign that will ensure that the people who are most impacted b Santa Fe’s Housing and Equity Crisis will be centered in the development process. Alliance members include: NM Coalition to End Homelessness, Health Equity Partnership, EarthCare, LifeLink, St. Elizabeth’s Shelter, Adelante, Little Globe, Communities in Schools, Need and Deed, Somos Un Pueblo Unido, NM Dreamers in Action, and more (Retake is proud to be one of the “and more”!  Together, Chainbreaker and partners can create a plan for the property that sets a new precedent for how our city grows. The People’s Plan will be the first step toward Respecting the Land, Healing Our People and Transforming our Future. This campaign, the people and the process will truly represent the Heart of Santa Fe!

Chainbreaker will be posting information about the separate upcoming events as they arise, please look out for them and in the meantime,  For more information, or to get involved, call us at 505-989-3858. Check out Chainbreaker’s social media at: FACEBOOK TWITTER and INSTAGRAM.  Retake will also keep you posted.

Santa Fe Not to House Asylum Seekers:  Continued Campaign to Generate Contribution of Cash and Goods for Refugees–Driver Needed TODAY to Help Empty an Overflowing Room at NEE–Details Follow

Santa Fe plans to begin housing asylum seekers were derailed yesterday after discussions with the Mayors of Las Cruces and Albuquerque and with private organizations coordinating current refugee relocation efforts. As explained yesterday, the current system finds Annunciation House in El Paso as the clearinghouse for thousands of ICE-released asylum seekers. Those asylum seekers have been “sponsored” by communities and individuals throughout the US.  From Annunciation House, these refugees are transported to other hub cities where they are housed temporarily until transit to their sponsor community can be arranged.

In an interview with the Santa Fe New Mexican, Mayor Webber explained:  “Since we are not an originator of Greyhound or other commercial buses, our help bringing them here and then sending them back to Albuquerque really is not an efficient or effective use of our community resources,” he said.  He went on to say that Santa Fe’s role would be to provide contributions of funding and needed clothing and supplies.

As yet, no “official” city plan has been announced for where people can donate goods and supplies so, Retake Our Democracy and New Energy Economy will continue to collaborate with the drop off place being New Energy Economy’s office at 343 E. Alameda in Santa Fe. Volunteer drivers will be picking up the goods collected thus far and taken to Catholic Charities in ABQ beginning today and tomorrow. We have filled a room with goods thanks to the generosity of all of you.  The photo at left was taken early yesterday.  Given that this is looking like a long-term project, we will need more drivers willing to take things to ABQ. So if you are able to help with this, please write to me and I will keep a list of drivers and their availability. Please write to me at paul@retakeourdemocracy.org.

In conversation with the coordinator at Catholic Charities, she stressed how important it is to donate only goods and supplies listed on the “wish list,” as it requires scarce volunteer  time to sort through and redirect things not needed by the asylum seekers. She reported having people arrive with roller skates and clothing and shoes suited for people 6′ 6″ neither of which is needed. Retake has developed a web page with a list of needed supplies that will be updated frequently. 

Click here for the most current information on how you can support asylum seekers and Santa Fe immigrants.

It is also the best place to find dates and times of drop offs and updates on how you can help with this challenge and with supporting local agencies who are working with immigrants settled here in Santa Fe, many for years and decades, who are being arrested and deported by ICE. Please share a link to this page with others and on social media. There are thousands of asylum seekers in Las Cruces and ABQ with no end in sight. The link also provides information on how you can make financial contributions to support organizations facilitating asylum seekers transit to their sponsor communities and ways to contribute to Santa Fe agencies supporting our immigrant community which is under constant threat from ICE.

“They [Santa Fe immigrant residents] have recently been subjected to a series of I-9 raids by [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents in our hotels and in our hospitality industry,” he said, referring to audits of government forms that verify a worker’s identity and employment authorization. “These people who are having their papers checked are being victimized just as much as the asylum-seekers are.” Webber said ICE agents are rounding up immigrants working in Santa Fe and deporting them.

“These are people who have been living here for a long time and have been very constructive and contributing members of our community,” he said. “We should never lose sight of the people who are residents and members of our community now and recognize that they are also being subjected to the ICE agents’ raids.”

Click here to find the most recent information available on how you can help refugees here in Santa Fe and all along their route from ICE to sponsoring communities.

New Energy Economy and Co-Petitioners File Opposition to PNM Plan for Ratepayers to Buy Nuclear Power

Joint Petitioners Many of the Petitioner Organizations, and their constituent members, are retail service customers of PNM and are affected by PNM’s retail service rates. Other Petitioner Organizations, and their constituent members, are organized to oppose uranium mining, milling and the generation of nuclear electricity, and/or are consumer advocates and care about PNM’s continuously rising electric rates, and/or are advocates of clean renewable energy and/or are or have been or will be impacted by pollution, toxic contamination and radioactive waste.

Evidence of PNM’s long-term energy plans were offered up by one of our supporters, Natalia Kravikov:   “PNM published a generation projection page in their January Annual 2019 report on their website with 31-34% nuclear generation projected through 2035 and closure of their last coal fired plant 2031. So I take this to mean yes- nukes indefinitely.”  New Energy and the co=petitioners below have joined together to oppose PNM’s plan to purchase 10% of the equity in Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station.  While some enviro organizations failed to join the effort, the list below is an impressive list of grassroots environmental organizations. Check out the list, provided below in alphabetical order. We will keep you posted on hearing dates and times and other ways you can support the campaign.

• Daniel Earnest Tso, Navajo Nation Council Delegate
• New Energy Economy: was founded in 2004 to build a renewable energy future for the health, environment, and economy of New Mexico.
• Citizens for Fair Rates and the Environment (CFRE): is a Silver Citybased association of PNM ratepayers advocating for a speedy transition to environmentally sane renewable energy resources at fair market rates (i.e., rates that are just and reasonable for ratepayers).
• The Climate Change Leadership Institute (CCLI): is a non profit organization dedicated to phasing out greenhouse gas emissions and empowering community through the ethics of conservation, the adoption of clean energy and the act of taking responsibility as a civil society.
• Concerned Citizens of Wagon Mound & Mora County: is an organization that has spent over 19 years educating, organizing and bringing meaningful participation and legal action into waste water rights, and oil and gas issues in Mora County. The organization also works on food justice issues coordinating a community garden and a farm-to- table project in the Wagon Mound Public Schools.
• Dooda (NO) Desert Rock: is a grassroots advocacy organization that opposed the construction of a large mine-mouth, coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Reservation near Shiprock and the Four Corners. “Dooda” means “no” or “absolutely not” in Navajo. Since the successful opposition to that plant the organization works to block extractive industry initiatives that violate the rights of Mother Earth, all living creatures, the environment and the Five Fingered Peoples. The organization mobilizes and educates Navajos and their supporters to protect the environment.
• Earth Care: is an organization dedicated to educating and empowering youth and families in northern New Mexico to create healthy, just, and sustainable communities.
• Food & Water Watch: is an advocacy organization that uses scientific research to promote the grassroots movement to protect our drinking water and
  environment.
• Hispano Round Table de Nuevo México: seeks advancement of education, employment, economic development, environmental justice, civil rights, and social justice for Hispanic Americans.
• Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE): is a community-based organization located at Santa Clara Pueblo that addresses environmental and health issues and promotes sustainability and traditional life ways.
• Honor the Earth: is a twenty-year old organization dedicated to creating awareness and support for Native environmental issues and developing needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities.
• Indigenous Life Ways, Inc.: is an indigenous-focused organization that facilitates opportunities for individuals and community groups to utilize traditional knowledge, ceremonies, and a deep understanding of our communities to continue the preservation of indigenous culture and our sacred sites; engages proactively toward climate adaptation; cultivates sustainable development; and builds individual and community capacity.
• The Institute for Local Self-Reliance: is an organization that supports the creation of economic systems that embody democratic values. The organization’s Energy Democracy program works to expand clean, dispersed energy generation and increase local ownership.
• The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the oldest surviving Latino civil rights organization in the U.S. It was established on February 17, 1929, in Corpus Christi, Texas, largely by Hispanic veterans of World War I who sought to end ethnic discrimination against Latinos in the United States. LULAC has active councils in many states, and a professional staff, including in New Mexico. The Board of LULAC supports this litigation.
• Los Jardines Institute: Spanning 70 years of combined organizing experience in New Mexico, nationally and internationally, the Institute provides opportunities for social, environmental and economic justice organizing, and education. Los Jardines is committed to building a multi-cultural, multi-generational movement and privileges traditional, land-based ways of knowing in the places where we “live, work, play, pray, and go to school.”
• Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE): is an organization representing uranium impacted communities in New Mexico, that works to restore and protect the natural and cultural environment and to develop and strengthen sustainable ways of working and living that promote public health and well being.
• Physicians for Social Responsibility-NM: is a chapter of the largest
  physician-led organization (50,000 members nationwide) working to protect the
  public from threats of nuclear proliferation, climate change, environmental toxins,
  and other threats to global survival.
• Renewable Taos: is a grassroots organization dedicated to promoting and facilitating a full transition to renewable energy and energy efficiency in Taos County and our surrounding region.
• Retake Our Democracy: is an all volunteer, 501-c-4 organization whose goal is to make it easier for people to effectively raise their voices, to advocate for social, racial, economic, gender, and climate justice, and to advocate for legislation, policies, and candidates who place people and the planet over profit.
• Rio Arriba Concerned Citizens (RACC): is an entirely grassroots volunteer effort. The organization’s mission is to protect the public health, land, air, and water of the Rio Chama Watershed, Rio Arriba County, and the State of New Mexico, and to promote sustainable development through education, collaborative planning, job creation, and community involvement. RACC joins this joint petition opposing PNM’s purchase of Palo Verde nuclear leases on the basis that ratepayers will be put at risk for significant debt for decommissioning. Further, nuclear energy, with burgeoning waste disposal risk, still not solved for more than 40 years, poses significant potential threats and outsized burdens to ratepayers.
• Securing Economic and Energy Democracy (SEED) of Southwest New Mexico: is an organization that works to create regional economic and environmental security, justice and resilience by controlling and generating renewable energy and maintaining a cleaner, greener region.
• The Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum (SIUF): is made up of members primarily from the Navajo, Havasupai, Zuni, Yaqui, Dakota Sioux, Ute, and Hopi Tribes and Laguna and Acoma Pueblos and is focused on the environmental and health impacts of uranium development in the Grants Mineral Belt on indigenous peoples. SIUF promotes the wise and practical uses o renewable energy such as solar, wind, and tidal and the pursuit of soft energy paths and applications based on traditional ecological knowledge and practices.
• Student Advocacy Union NM: is a youth organization that brings high school students from around Santa Fe and surrounding areas together to share, discuss, and organize around issues like climate change, immigration rights, and gun control.
• Taos United/Taoseños Unidos: is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization of 520 local community activists working for a fair and just democracy, human rights, environmental stewardship and the welfare of our community.
• Tewa Women United: is a collective of tribal women in the Tewa homelands of Northern New Mexico dedicated to the promotion of educational, social and benevolent purposes, especially for ending violence against Native Women, Mother Earth, and to promote peace in New Mexico.
• WildEarth Guardians: is an advocacy organization that protects and restores the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West.

Categories: Personal & Collective Action, Social & Racial Justice & Immigration Reform

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