Local Immigrant Activists Denounce Opposition’s Tactics

Local Immigrant Activists Denounce Opposition’s Tactics
By Mike Rhodes

The Fresno Bee, in a front page story last Thursday (May 29, 2008), claimed mayoral candidate Henry T. Perea would “benefit from $750,000" that a “West Hollywood-based pro-labor political action committee” would use to help get him elected. The next day The Bee denounced Perea in an editorial saying “there’s a reason special-interest groups put money into a race - they want something from their investment.” The “special interest” group The Bee is critical of is Strengthening Our Lives (SOL), a statewide group conducting a voter registration and get out the vote campaign in Southeast Fresno. SOL supports current City Council member and Democrat Henry Perea. The Bee supports Republican Ashley Swearengin. In fact, all of the candidates The Bee is supporting - for mayor, City Council, and the Board of Supervisors are Republicans.

Salvador “Chava” Bustamante, Northern California Director of SOL, spoke at a Press Conference today (May 31) and denounced The Bee for their attack on Perea and SOL. Bustamante said “It is a shame that The Fresno Bee who is so interested in talking about this issue is not here today. We denounce the tactics that the opposition is using in this campaign and we also want to set the record straight about who we are and what we do.”

Bustamante says that the local SOL campaign has hired about two dozen workers to do “old-style person to person politics.” He said they have spent something like $50,000 - $60,000 on the campaign, nowhere near the $750,000 claimed by The Bee.

At the Press Conference, Bustamante said “SOL’s campaign is new and unique. It is dedicated to helping regular folks - hard working humble Latino immigrants take part in politics, often for the first time. SOL’s walkers have the opportunity to have their voices heard - increasing voter turnout after years of its steady decline.

Eugenia Melesio, also speaking at the Press Conference, said “on the one hand it is too bad about all of this controversy, but on the other hand it makes me happy because it shows, by their reaction that they are afraid of us and what we are doing.”

Bustamante said that “unlike other PAC’s (Political Action Committees) that use their money to send attack pieces, we use our money to hire hard working people to go into the community and talk to our neighbors about the issues that are important to us. In Fresno, one of the big issues is clean air, we want to have a community where our children can grow and live without having to get sick all the time. We want to live in a city where we have safe streets and more after school programs. That is the kind of community we want and that is what this campaign is about.”

SOL is a partnership of progressive labor, faith and community organizations dedicated to increasing the civic participation of California’s immigrant communities. You can find out more by going to: http://www.sol-california.com and http://www.youtube.com/user/SOLCALI

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