Speakers Honor King, Gandhi, Chavez at Central Oregon Community College

By Kele Sammons, The Broadside

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Beginning January 22 and continuing over the coming weeks, Central Oregon Community College will be hosting a number of guest lectures and films to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Cesar Chavez.

David Bacon, award-winning author and documentary photographer, was the first to speak at Hitchcock Hall, Jan. 22 to a standing room only crowd. Bacon is noted for his documentation of the plight of migrant workers. "Illegal People? Globalization, Migration and the Criminalization of Immigrants" showcased U.S. trade policy and its influence on the rest of the world’s workers.

According to Bacon, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which went into effect Jan. 1, 1994, is responsible for “uprooting and displacing Mexican people” by lowering the price of corn so low that Mexican farmers could not compete with the U.S. without subsidies. “When people lose their jobs, they have to do something to support their families,” said Bacon.

Bacon went on to discuss the criminalization of immigrants by focusing on their inability to obtain social security cards. Every employee in the Unites States is required to present a social security number to employers. However, there are an estimated twelve million workers that can’t get a social security number because they can’t show legal status. They “must have a social security to get jobs. No alternatives.” So many migrant workers are forced to make up, borrow or pay for social security numbers. Bacon said that immigrants have paid $56 billion into the social security fund and will “never collect benefits on that money.” Also, by using a fake number, migrant workers are breaking federal law punishable by up to five years in prison and deportation. Bacon suggested that the U.S. give every worker a social security number and to stop criminalizing workers.

Sarah Zobrist, a social science major at COCC, said “we need to work together” and that being “treated like criminals is not right.”

Betsy Fontaine of Powell Butte said, “I’ve had the pleasure of working with immigrant folks and they are the hardest working people I’ve seen.”

So what can the U.S. do to fix the problem besides putting up fences that don’t keep people out? Bacon suggests “help those people who don’t want to migrate.” To do this the U.S. must change trade agreements that push people’s incomes down. Make crossing the border easier for workers because the U.S. and Mexico are economically dependent on each other. The purpose of checkpoints is to “obstruct passage instead of facilitate…We are never going back to a world where people live their whole lives in the same place they were born,” said Bacon. “As citizens of the world everyone should have the right to move around the world.”

Amongst the attendees were a group of middle-schoolers from Westside Village Magnet school. Rebecca Easton, a teacher, said that the students were part of the Spanish Club and had been focusing on issues relative to the Latino community. Last year the club travelled around Oregon and had the opportunity to speak with migrant workers and discuss their concerns. “They’re really learning the language,” said Eston.

Betsy Lamb, an activist in Bend, will be participating in the Migrant Trail Walk, May 20-31. Here, interested parties can trace the migrant journey from Oaxaca to southern Arizona. For more information go to witnessforpeace.org. Lamb participates in a weekly peace vigil every Friday night between 4:30 and 5:30 on the corner of Wall and Greenwood. Lamb works diligently to help immigrants who have been rounded up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and removed from their families. “Living conditions at these privately owned federal detention centers are horrible” and mothers of small children have no idea where their husbands have been taken and are “too afraid to ask.”

Sponsors of the King – Gandhi – Chavez Season of Nonviolence include COCC’s Multicultural Center, Office of Student Life, Diversity Committee, Native American Program, Nancy R. Chandler Visiting Scholar Program and ASCOCC; Jobs with Justice and Central Oregon Labor Council AFL-CIO.   The next lecture will be held Tuesday, Feb. 3, 6:30 pm at Hitchcock Auditorium. The speaker will be Agnes Baker Pilgrim, a Takelma Siletz spokesperson for the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers.