San Jose: March Against The Wars in Iraq and In Our Communities

Barrio Defense Committee
Contact: Quetzaoceloaciua, (408) 885-9785

For Immediate Press Release

MARCH AGAINST THE WARS IN IRAK AND
IN OUR COMMUNITIES

Rally and March on Sunday, March 26, 2006, from 10:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Rally at the Mexican Heritage Plaza (Alum Rock and King) and ending at Backesto Park
(13th and Empire) in San Jose, California

The Barrio Defense Committee is a community organization that defends the democratic
rights of la Raza (indigenous peoples) and is organizing a March in the community in
solidarity with the initiation of Fernando Suarez del Solar, father of Jesus Suarez
del Solar who died in Irak, various conscientious objectors from our communities and
the statewide caravan that will arrive in San Jose, California on March 26, 2006.

The Barrio Defense Committee is holding a Rally at 10:00 a.m. while the caravan
marches through the eastside streets. The Rally will address the burning issues in
our community that are of great concern.

1. La Raza make up 12% of the population but yet 21% of the Raza soldiers in Irak
have died. Yet, as they participate in this unjust war are killing Iraqui people in
their own homeland, an experience and key reason why the U.S. government treats
Mexicans in this country with inequities since the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

2. Military recruiters swarm in our communities and school grounds promising our
children better educational and economic opportunities in the military because our
children do not see a future with the acute poverty we are held under; with the
educational inequalities; with the police killings and brutality we are faced with;
and with the massive imprisonment that is also taking a toll on our communities.

3. As working people, we never see any of the resources in our communities that we
so desperately need and produce. There is no massive economic development to
alleviate the misery in which we live in. We are working people that are involved
in industries that the general population will not engage in but also as working
people we are maintaining and enriching this economy, with or without documents.

The policy of the U.S. government to resolve the impoverished conditions of the
African, indigenous communities, Asian communities and poor people in general, has
been the policy of police containment. Example being, criminalizing the communities
with propositions such as the HR 4437 that will impose a felony on anyone that has
contact with undocumented people. Thus dividing our communities and producing more
prisons at the expense of our people. This is the domestic war that we face.