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What's Next: A Case
for Ax
Boycotts!
PHOENIX (By Jon Garrido, Hispanic News) May 10,
2006 30 years ago I lived in Tucson. I had just come
out of the University of Arizona and began work for the City of Tucson as a city
planner. I left Tucson seven years later to take the job offer from the City of
El Paso where I become the executive director of economic development. The
promotions for me in Tucson came easy for I was a "super Mexican."
The city had a Hispanic city manager and Hispanics
shared a common joke in order to be promoted, we had to be a "super Mexican"
because the manager did not want to appear partial to other Hispanics.
One day I sat down for lunch
with my two best friends: Alfred Dicochea and Rudy Gallegos. They talked to each
other about the difficulty they encountered being promoted and drew me into the
conversation by asking, "Jon, what do you think we should do?"
After a considerable pause I
responded, "I have no idea." We went on to finish lunch.
A few days later I headed to
the old Carnegie library in downtown Tucson and walked the stacks looking for
something that would just reach out to me. I found a book written by a man named Saul Alinsky. He wrote about a model he used successfully in growing a movement.
The Alinsky model to build a
movement is to always choose the biggest battle that could be won for each
victory would double membership. The secret was picking the battle. It had to be
the biggest battle that could be won for any defeat would work the other way and
reduce membership.
I used this model
successfully and proceeded to organize all city Hispanic employees and then went
on to pick up county and state employees. We built a power machine that when I
left two years later, we had a thousand members.
The No 4437 marches have
been absolutely electrifying. Each march victory has built on the last to build
a movement.
Some may find this hard to
accept but Congressman James Sensenbrenner can be credited for some of this
success.
When I marched along in the
middle of thousands, I was amazed to the magnitude of young teenagers marching.
The concern their parents may become felons energized their participation.
These young people are the
future of Hispanics in America but to achieve institutional change in America
they have to vote. Registering voters has always been a priority for some
organizations and I have always respected the
William C. Velasquez Institute, a research and
policy arm of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.
There are those that
advocate our next step should be Voter registration. I agree but this will
not change anything in the short term. Maybe 25 years out, Hispanics will bring
abut
change using the voting booth. There are exceptions. California has succeeded
but Arizona has not. Voting is dismal in Arizona.
This is not to say voter
registration should not be pursued but not as a determent. If we voted as other
groups do then it would work. But we do not vote.
It comes down to marketing.
When Hispanic teenagers came to realize their parents were going be made felons,
they came out of the woodwork.
We need to make sure every
prospective Hispanic registers to vote but even more important, just registering
to vote will accomplish absolutely nothing if they do not go the polls to vote.
Time now for a reality check.
The 2004 national Hispanic vote was a meager
6%. Today, there are three United States Hispanic senators and a handful of
congressional representatives. This in itself is significant but we are 30 years
away from becoming a power house in the United States Congress.
The United States has a double edge sword that
with along with the US Constitution provides us our civil rights but the double
edge sword is also a detriment to our progress.
One of America's
landmark cases is the one that established the legal principle of one man, one
vote.
In Arizona, the Hispanic population is upwards
of 35%. This includes all Hispanics including undocumented who are not eligible
to vote. Thus the percentage of Hispanics eligible to vote is closer to 15%.
Then with only a 20% voter turn out, you do the math.
There are brown faces everywhere in Arizona as
compared to when I was a kid growing up here but to make institutional change at
the voting booth, we are challenged by a monumental task. As absolute numbers of the
Hispanic population grow in Arizona, there is parallel migration relocating to
Arizona from the mid West and California that mirrors Hispanic growth in
absolute numbers but there is
a significant difference: Mid Westerners and Californians are baby boomers who
vote.
This needs to stressed again: They vote.
The area where I was born and raised in
Superior to the lower point of a triangle being Florence to the third corner
being Apache Junction was home only to jackrabbits, a few javelinas and even
fewer mule deer. Today, there are close to a million building units now being
master planned for this triangle. All will be settled by baby boomers from the
mid west and California. Again these people vote. Other areas include north
Scottsdale, the Sun Cities and the Sun Lake communities.
We may elect Hispanics to the Arizona State
legislature but the real power comes from the majority party and their appointment
of committee chairpersons. This is where legislation is forged. It will be 30 years
before we become a majority party in either house in the Arizona State
legislature.
There are those who challenge my conclusions
but they offer no statistical documentation only wishful thinking. One need only
look at the current crop of anti Hispanic Arizona policy makers in congress (JD
Hayworth and Jon Kyl), the state
legislature, the county attorney, the Maricopa County sheriff, and the Phoenix
mayor. All peas in the same pod.
Thus if we can not win at the ballot box then
we have to explore other alternatives.
The May 1 boycott was a step in the right
direction; however, it did not accomplish institutional change. It may have
energize those that participated and this is honorable and worth the effort but
if the strategy was to make institutional change, then the impact was
negligible.
It was compared to a snowstorm. People bought the
day before or the day after.
In the national polls, we lost about 10 points.
It energized California but in Washington DC,
it backfired and it is Washington DC where laws are made, not California.
What is next then? A new general boycott would be
wasted energy. A new march energizes our people but does nothing to influence
Congress.
Albert Einstein once said the definition of an
idiot is one who tries the same thing over and over and each time expects
different results.
I for one am not an idiot. I think all should
thank the May 1 organizers for the energy and solidarity displayed on the
streets. This in itself has value but now we must challenge the results and
throw away pride of authorship. All need to look for the next action to move the movement
forward.
The bottom line is we have a fiduciary
responsibility to protect the undocumented.
Back to
Saul Alinsky,
I think a specific boycott that can be measured
should now become our next action.
The entire world now knows the
name James Sensenbrenner as the author of 4437.
The next step is to have
Ax KC groups wear the Ax KC t-shirts and pass out brochures identifying Kimberly Clark
products and recommend substitute products at food stores across the USA and Latin America.
We could send a packet of
brochures to each group in the USA and Latin America or put up one flyer on our
website where it could be downloaded by anyone anywhere in the Americas.
This is what we are working
on. Establishing groups across the USA and Latin America and choosing a date so
we can all do this together.
This Ax boycott can be
measured and tell the world, if anyone does harm to Hispanics, we will use the $1 Trillion annual purchasing power of
Hispanics in the USA plus purchasing in Latin America to protect Hispanics.
Imagine if we were to bring down Kimberly
Clark? There are some who have written wanting to verify James Sensenbrenner is
a major stock holder in Kimberly Clark. When the director of corporate affairs
called me to ask me to stop the Kimberly Clark boycott by stating Sensenbrenner
is like all other stock holders, I asked how much he owned and I was told they
would have to research it.
Today, the amount of stock ownership
Sensenbrenner owns is academic. I for one do not care if he owns all the stock
or if he only owns one share.
To me the issue is not that he is a stock
holder, rather that it was he who authored 4437 promoting the criminalization of
the 12 million undocumented as felons and building the iron wall at the
USA/Mexico border.
Little did he realize making the undocumented
felons would be his undoing for it was this that energized all those kids.
The only viable alternative
to "what's next" is a specific boycott that brings everyone to understand
when anyone tries to bring harm to the Hispanic community, a specific boycott is
triggered to counter the anti Hispanic force.
Time now for a specific boycott. Time now for
us to boycott Kimberly
Clark and then go on to AOL, CNN and Lou Dobbs, General Motors, Proctor and
Gamble and Albertsons who now pursue the Hispanic market by collaborating with
CNN.
I believe the Kimberly Clark boycott should be
the next battle using the Alinsky model. It will be huge and we can win.
On May 4, I sent this email to Kimberly Clark:
We are receptive to negotiating a settlement
with Kimberly Clark. These are our requirements:
-
James Sensenbrenner becomes one of the US
Congressman appointed by the Speaker of the House to the 4437 Conference
Committee and Congressman Sensenbrenner take the lead in having the
Conference Committee approve amnesty for all undocumented in the United
States.
-
Kimberly Clark donates $100 million to the
Ax foundation and each year thereafter, indexed by the CPI. Said funds
to be used as an endowment to fund
free immigration
processing services in all major cities leading to United States
Citizenship.
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An apology from Sensenbrenner for the
polarization he has caused in the United States calling for the
undocumented to be charged as felons.
Jon
Garrido
www.Hispanic.cc
602.244.1000
You can blow out a
candle, but you can't blow out a fire!
"In the end, we will
remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
Hispanic News, ranked
number 4 by Google of 67 million websites, is the largest daily publication of
news articles and editorials of interest to Hispanics in the USA and Latin
America.
Jon Garrido is owner
and CEO of Hispanic News and Chairman of the AX Board and executive director.
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