1984_11 The Daily Collegian November 1984

              L»VQ««a
Editorial
Coors company boycott continues
Despite Coors' promises to invest millions in
Latino and Black businesses, Chicano and Black
community organizations and labor unions have
. pledged to continue the boycott of Coors. Coors
has promised in a cash settlement with the National
Association For The Advancement of Colored
People (N.A.A.C.P.) and other Black groups to
spend $325 million on Black businesses over the
next five years, increase Black employment at the
brewery and to grant some distributionaries to
Blacks. This includes-Coors having several million
dollars of operating capital on deposit in Black-
owned banks, and to spend $8.8 million this year in
buying advertisement in Black controlled media.
Coors' similar settlement with a few Latino
groups, including the American G.I. Forum, prom¬
ises that eight percent of sales will go towards hiring
a Hispanic vice—president,increasing Latino em¬
ployees and increasing Latino distributionaries.
Coors will also make contributions'to Latino edu¬
cational groups, increase contracting with Latino
suppliers and insurer, and increase advertising in
Spanish—language media.
Chicano and Black activists involved in the
Coors boycott which began in 1966, states that the
motives behind these settlements are no secret.
Coors has been trying to "buy their way" into Chi¬
cano and Black communities for several years, and
has now found a few Black and Latino opportunists
to undermind the^uccessful Coors boycott.
The racist and right—wing actions of Coors can¬
not be masked by settlements that will only benefit
a thin layer of the Black and Latino community.
The issues behind the boycott, including William
Coors' remark in February 1984 that Black people
"lack the intellectual capacity to succeed," and*
more importantly on going contributions to right-
wing groups such as the Heritage Foundation,
which has recommended to Reagan devastating
cutbacks in social services and educational pro¬
grams, have not been settled. For the community
labor activists, the struggle continues. Our dignity
cannot be bought. We shall not sell our community
for personal gain. The boycott of Coors shall con¬
tinue as long as the anti—women and anti—people
activity of Coors continues.
Jerry Gonzalez
S.E.I.U. LOCAL 250
Former M.E.Ch.A.
chairperson
pss&l.
Letters to La Voz
Proposition 36    Propsition 41
Howard Jarvis. a Reagan Re¬
publican, has spent S2 million to
place Proposition 36 on the November
ballot. Jarvis has appealed to voters
to "Save Proposition 13." Only
recently have state and local govern¬
ments stabilized Prop 13's devastating
effects. Jarvis has said to vote on
Proposition 36 before "They double
your taxes." He also purports to
create tax reform in California.
H owever. the truth is that Proposition
36 will once again create a tax shift.
not reform. With Proposition 36.
the majority of property owners will
receive a tax increase. At the same
time. Proposition 36 will cut $1.3
billion in state and local revenue
causing a devastating impact on
essential services. Schools, including
colleges and universities, will suffer
over $750 million in revenue losses.
Thousands of jobs in the city,
county, and state services will be
eliminated including public trans¬
portation, mental health, and other
social services.
Renters will receive no benefits.
Students and workers stand to lose
: thf ""»i, 'f Proposition 36 passes.
That is why a solid coalition of
labor, student, professional, and
community organizations have united
to defeat Proposition 36.
WE STRpNGLY URGE YOU
TO VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION
Jerry Gonzalez
Assemblyman Ross Johnson, (R)-
Fullerton. author of Proposition 41
must believe that the old, disabled
and young children do not deserve
the human rights that the more
abled bodied deserve. His proposi¬
tion, if passed^ would cut aid to the
old by cost-sharing. Old people
would have to make the choice either
to pay for food or medicine. Pro¬
position 41 would affect over 700.000
people and 60 percent of Medi—Cal
funds that pay for medical care for
this group. If Proposition 41 passes
more than 250,000 aged and disabled
people will have to live on as little as
$292 per month to qualify for Medi-
Cal.
Foster care would be cut by 50
percent. This means that over 27,000
abused and neglected children can¬
not be placed in safe homes. In Cali¬
fornia one out of four children, at
one point or another, benefit from
AFDC (Aid to Families with De¬
pendent Children). If Proposition
41 passes this will affect 1,000,000
children.
Training for employment or op¬
portunities to get a formal education
for women heads of households will
be eliminated if Proposition 41
passes. What type of future would
the children of these women have? Is
Mr. Johnson trying to hurt those
who can least defend themselves?
Mr. Johnson prxrm'ises welfare re¬
form by cutting aid from those who
need it the most but this is far from
reform. Taxes will not be lowered, in
fact the cuts that will occur at the
state and federal level will have to be
subsidized at the local level. Please
join those who will vote no on Pro¬
position 41 at the polls. November 6.
Lily Martinez
Regional Coordinator of
Californians Against Prop. 41
Former M.E.Ch.A chairperson
Reagan's
Budget
Reagan's military budget is $1.6
trillion. Reagan has allocated more
of our tax dollars to the military in
the last 4 years than what {he U.S.
spent in World War II, the Korean
War, and Vietnam War. How much
is a $1.6 trillion military budget? If
you have to get a million dollars a
day since Jesus Christ was bom
which was„20fJO^eaK_agoo'ou
would have $74 billion short of half
of todays military budget. That is
ridiculous and unnecessary!
Get Reagan out of offme and stgp
the inflation on the military budget.
M.E.Ch.A
\
Ralph Gonzalez
Education
In the area of education the
Republicans say they are for a good
and basic education for all people.
Yet the Republican governor of this
state has cut education to colleges
and universities which resulted in a
13_16% reduction of students ser¬
vices in the C.S.U. system. Nowwe
have children learning the golden
rule on an empty stomach. One
might say it is just a few anyway, but
most people are not hungry. Go tell
that to the Chicano and Latino
children in the Fresno Unified
School District who have been found j
taking their meager Federal f Qundedj
lunches home to feed their younger;
brothers and sisters at dinner tin*:
The fact is that the Republic**
allow this to happen a'nd throng]
fheir policies they promote this. TJ»l
is shameful, embarrassing and «*H
cially disrespectful to the childrenML
force them to do this because of Ur*B
ill economy. Also the Republ^B
platform does not deal with the 50*B
nation—wide Latino and Chics*™
high school dropout rate. Locally
the past 10 yrs. the Chicano st"*
population at C.S.U.F. has inct
OTry-by-sHew-hundred.-We _ _
more progress. Republicans SjjB
absolutely establishing higher edW
cation for the rich.    ,
Rick ChacotB
DEAR STUDENTS:
- Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano
d e Aztlan—MECH A—is a Chicano
student organization dedicated to
the political, economic, educational,
and social improvement ofthe Chicano
community. We*nope you will take a
few minutes of your time to consider
how you can help in this effort.
The political activities of MECH A
are important and necessary. MECH A
has long been the advocate for equal
rights, Chicano Student represent-
at ion, Chicano student funding, and
against racism. But political act¬
ivities is only one side of MECHA.
MECH A has two standing com¬
mittees: The Chicano Youth Con¬
ference and Semana de la Raza.
The Chicano Youth Conference is
an educational and cultural event
which has been held annually at
California State University, Fresno,
for the past eleven years. The Chic¬
ano Youth Conference is organized
by MECHA students.
The purpose ofthe Chicano Youth
Conference is to recruit, encourage,
motivate, and serve as a tool towards
gaining more knowledge about higher
education. In regards to our heritage,
the Chicano Youth Conference serves
to instill pride and cultural awareness
among our Chicani* youth.
The CYC is a one-day event in
which various educational and cult¬
ural activities take place. The con¬
ference is free to all students who
attend. Approximately 1600 students
from over seventy high schools
throughout California attend.
A variety of career and general
interest workshops are given during
the day. There is also a College Fair,
where the students can receive in¬
formation about various colleges,
universities, and community service
organizations.
The Twelfth Annual Chicano
Youth Conference will be held during
the Christmas break, in January.
Semana de La Raza celebrates the
battle of May 5, 1862 (Cinco de
Mayo) in which Mexican forces under
President Benito Juarez defeated a
French army and established self-
determination for the country.
Semana de La Raza is a time of
celebration and reflection of what
liberation is and the price one has to
pay for it. It is also a reminder that
we must make a commitment to
continue the struggle for equality
and freedom for all people.
The purpose of Semana de La
Raza is to learn about the history of
the Chicano, and to provide Calif¬
ornia State University, Fresno, and
the community with an opportunity
to learn about major current issues
faced by the Chicano. Issues range
from education to health, ano from
feminism to politics.
An additional purpose is to pro¬
vide CSU, Fresno and the com¬
munity with an opportunity to
visually define the Chicano experi¬
ence through films, theatre, dance,
music, art exhibits and poetry pre¬
sentations.
MECHA has a long history tied
to the roots of the Chicano Move¬
ment. MECHA evolved from a
number of Chicano student organ¬
izations, such as the Mexican-Amer¬
ican Student Association (MASA),
and the United Mexican-American
Students (UMAS). These organiza¬
tions were active on college campuses
in the late sixties. In 1969, students,
faculty and community activists met
at a conference at the University of
Santa Barbara for the purpose of
developing a plan for the Chicano
community. It was at this conference
that ME1 Plan de Santa Barbara,"
was developed to ensure an equal
educational opportunity. This edu¬
cational opportunity would allow
Chicanos to return to the community
to organize and educate against the
struggle of racism and discrimin¬
ation.
MECHA has been involved and
has participated in many issues, in¬
cluding the walk-outs or "blow¬
outs," in the early seventies involving
thousands of Chicano students
against racial discrimination in
schools. MECHA was also active in
the 1970 Chicano Moratorium in
which 25000 Chicanos marched in
Los Angeles against, U.S. in¬
volvement in the Vietnam War and
the Draft. (19 percent ofthe casual¬
ties or dead were Chicano, this is an
overrepresentation of the general
Latino population of 5.3%). Mecha
played a major role on the develop¬
ment of the Educational Oppor¬
tunity Program and La Raza Studies.
MECHA also led the protests against
the Bakke decision which was a
racist attack on affirmative action in
Universities.
Presently MECHA continues to
participate in many causes for justice
and equality such as the Coors boy¬
cott, the stuggle against social service
cuts that effect our community, the
fight against student financial aid
• cuts, student budget cuts and the
U.S. involvement in Central Amer¬
ica.
MECHA would like to invite you
to join our organization. We under¬
stand how busy students can get
during the school year, but we must
insure the educational opportunities
for our younger brothers and sisters
and our people as a whole just as
previous Chicano students did for
us. We know that you will find
MECH A interesting and educational.
We ask you to contribute to the
movement of the people.
If you are interested in coming to
the regular MECHA meetings here
is the schedule:
MECHA—Thureday 12*30-2-00p.m.
CYC—Thursday 5:00-7*00 p.m.
Semana—Tuesday 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Since ramente,