Open Letter
to the
Major League Baseball Players Association
Major League Baseball Club Owners
Fans of the Major League Baseball Teams
National and International Community
From:
Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio
Phoenix, AZ
O’odham Nations Territories
July 4, 2011
BOYCOTT and PROTEST
Of
MLBA All-Stars Game
Phoenix, July 12, 2011
Good greetings to all. We are a community alliance of families, communities, organizations, and individuals that represent the most affected constituencies of the pogrom of persecution known as AZ SB1070, and the Obama Policy of immigration enforcement known as ENDGAME. We are Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio (Committees in Defense of the Barrio). We raise our voices to you as our relatives, as our heroes and as role models to our youth to consider the implications and consequences of your participation in the 2011 MLBA All-Stars Game in Phoenix.
We have made our position clear since the beginnings of our collective campaign in 2009 to address the inhuman, discriminatory, and unjust state and federal policies that officialize state sanctioned racism as result of the AZ SB1070 legislation. We have always stated as a matter of principle that our community sanctions in the form of targeted boycotts of the financial accomplices to the injustice of AZ SB170 would not be removed until AZ SB1070 is completely dismantled and rejected as law and policy in Arizona. From this position we have never wavered and today we reiterate our call to confront the moral crisis of the present reality in Arizona:
· In spite of a partial injunction that came as a result of the federal lawsuit against SB1070, community members testify to the fact that the criminalization of the community is in fact in full effect and worsening. Since SB1070 was signed last year, Arizona has undergone the most blatant and abusive patterns of discriminatory policing involving state sanctioned racial profiling, under the guise of "immigration enforcement” normalizing a systematic pogrom of persecution based on racial profiling and discriminatory police enforcement policies.
· Further, the blatant collusion between the private prison industry and elected officials in the both law enforcement and the state legislature, along with financial institutions that are profiteering off of the persecution of the community signals the degeneration of our core values as a society that should uphold the basic principles of Human Rights.
· In Arizona we endure crime suppression sweeps by the Maricopa Sheriff’s office and suffer a climate of militarization of the entire society as a whole, epitomized by AZ SB 1070 and now being exported to other states, producing the Gestapo effect of the federal Secure Communities program implemented via 287(g) Agreements as an “uber police” force resulting in the degeneration of democratic society in favor of a dangerous slide towards fascism.
· We have seen individuals such as Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick make large financial contributions to the supporters of AZ SB170 without community accountability. We have been victims of the collusion between shadow government entities such as the Mormon Caucus at the Arizona State Legislature and firms such as the Corrections Corporation of America, who along with financial institutions and investors such as Wells Fargo Bank, deliver lucrative contracts and services to the private prison industry at the expense of our public services, such as education and public health.
· October 12, 1492: The inherent injustice which frames the overarching economic exploitation of our labor via the campaigns of criminalization mentioned is driven by the international trade policies of colonization among the government states of North America via the NAFTA (Canada-US-Mexico) regime, a system that gives preferential treatment for the extractive industries of the US and Canada to exploit the natural resources and labor of our peoples and territories with no consideration for our Human Rights or Proprietary Rights as Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala. In light of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the General Assembly on September 13, 2007 these policies must be denounced and rectified as violations of our collective Right of Self Determination as Indigenous Peoples, equal to all other Peoples.
· We have not seen President Obama deliver the mandate to the US Justice Department to PROSECUTE Maricopa County Sheriff J. Arpaio for violations of Civil Rights in light of accusations of violations delivered by our Community Indictment of January 15, 2010. (18 U.S.C. § 241, Section 241: Conspiracy against rights; and 18 U.S.C. § 242 Section 242: Deprivation of rights under color of law)
In view of the above, and with respect, we ask of you once again to reconsider the message we share with you now. We are committed to realize justice for our families and communities. Join with us, once again. Many of the players of the MLBA are our close community relatives by history, family, culture and tradition. These are the inherent and humanizing systems of value that we must defend, in good faith with our responsibilities to each other and the future generations of Mother Earth.
That we may complement our efforts in a spirit of mutual respect and dialogue, we now ask for you to honor our HUELGA del PUEBLO – STRIKE OUT AZ SB1070 Boycott by:
· Make a Public Response to the issues addressed in this message
· Agree to meet face to face with the Comités de Defensa del Barrio in Phoenix to dialogue on a long range proactive strategy in response to the ongoing Human Rights crisis in Arizona.
Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio
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