VIEW FROM THE HILL - #8; March 2, 2006 A Monthly E-mail Update Highlander Research and Education Center www.highlandercenter.org >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--< CONTENTS 1. Ensuring Faith in Our Democracy: Renewing and Restoring the Voting Rights Act 2. Update on Federal Immigration Legislation 3. "No Human Being is Illegal" - A Community Rally for Human/Immigrant Rights 4. Interpreting for Social Justice 5. Highlander Social Change Workshops >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--< 1. ENSURING FAITH IN OUR DEMOCRACY: RENEWING AND RESTORING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT "Ensuring Faith in Our Democracy: Renewing and Restoring the VRA," an evening of workshops to train advocates for renewal of the Voting Rights Act, will be held on Friday, March 3rd, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. at Fisk University in Nashville. Passed in 1965 at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the Voting Rights Act protects the rights of minorities to participate in the political process. However, key provisions of the act will expire in 2007 unless they are reauthorized. Highlander has been working since last year to help build support for reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act. In December, staff from Highlander, the African American Human Rights Foundation, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Women's Division of the United Methodist Church met to create popular education tools to help people learn about the history and importance of the act. The upcoming workshop is another step in this process, training advocates to work for reauthorization of the act in their own communities. The workshop is sponsored by Highlander, the Interfaith Alliance, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Leadership Conference on Human Rights Education Fund, the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University, the African American Human Rights Foundation, and the Racial Justice Office, General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church. For more information about the workshop and the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, see our Web site, www.highlandercenter.org. To learn more about Highlander's work on the reauthorization of the act, contact Tufara Waller Muhammad at tufara@highlandercenter.org. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--< 2. UPDATE ON FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LEGISLATION In the next few days, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin debating an initial proposal drafted by its chairman, Arlen Specter (R-PA). The Specter proposal offers undocumented immigrants temporary work visas. But like the Sensenbrenner-King bill (HR 4437) passed last year by the House of Representatives, it also makes being an undocumented immigrant a criminal offense, and its definition of "alien smuggling," while not as severe as HR 4437, is still overly broad. Immigrant rights advocates are concerned about both the Sensenbrenner bill and the Specter proposal. They are also carefully watching Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), who has announced that he will introduce his own bill on March 27th if the Judiciary Committee does not move an immigration bill by then or if the bill is not strong enough. Advocates believe that Frist would likely introduce a "Sensenbrenner-type bill." For more information about pending immigration legislation and other immigrant issues, see http://www.highlandercenter.org/r- immigration.asp. Please check this page regularly for updates and suggestions for how you can influence this important legislative debate. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--< 3. "NO HUMAN BEING IS ILLEGAL" - A COMMUNITY RALLY FOR HUMAN/IMMIGRANT RIGHTS On February 18th, nearly 100 people braved snow and cold to gather at the UNITE HERE! union hall in Knoxville to support immigrant rights and protest anti-immigrant legislation pending in Congress. The rally was Knoxville's first immigrant rights rally, and in the current anti-immigrant climate the broad support it garnered from immigrant and non-immigrant communities made an important statement. Participants and speakers were united in their opposition to the Sensenbrenner-King bill (H.R.4437), which would make being an undocumented immigrant a criminal offense, and which would also criminalize all those who help undocumented immigrants, even unknowingly. (See above for more on the status of federal immigration legislation.) Amelia Perez, a participant from Houston, Texas in Highlander's immigrant leadership training (INDELI), was among the featured speakers at the rally. Other INDELI participants led movement songs. For some of the participants, it was their first such rally and provided a positive hands-on experience for using the skills they are learning in the training program. The event was significant for Knoxville, and also helped foster immigrant organizing around east Tennessee. Throughout the country, immigrants and allies are organizing rallies, vigils, fasts, marches, congressional visits, and work stoppages calling for just immigration reform and speaking against draconian immigration proposals. To find out about activities going on around the country, go to: http://www.cirnow.org/content/en/calendar.htm. The rally was organized by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and sponsored by Alianza del Pueblo, Bridge, the Catholic Hispanic Ministry, Highlander, Jobs with Justice, Justice-Peace-Integrity of Creation, the Latino Task Force, and the Race Relations Center. Plans are underway for an immigrant rights march in Knoxville on March 18th. Details will be posted on our Web site, www.highlandercenter.org, as soon as they are available. Pictures from the February rally are also available on our site. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--< 4. INTERPRETING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE; FEBRUARY 10-12 Nine activists from throughout the region united at a snow- covered Highlander Center February 10-12 for the "Interpreting for Social Justice" workshop. Sponsored by our Multilingual Capacity Building program, the workshop was created to support social justice interpreters in the Southeast and Appalachia working with immigrant communities and to encourage local leadership through the democratic use of language as a movement- building tool. Participants shared experiences in the field which highlighted the need for trained social justice interpreters who are not only bilingual, but who also appreciate the power dynamics involved in providing a voice to those oppressed by language inaccessibility. To meet this end, workshop attendees conducted a power analysis and discussed struggles in their home communities in which interpretation could be used to even the playing field. Participants also engaged in simultaneous and consecutive interpretation to practice their skills, and discussed the physiological and mental processes involved as one interprets. Those in attendance also benefited from a group brainstorming session on organizing multilingual spaces and bringing together multilingual communities to address common challenges. The success of the workshop and the new connections with participants have the MLCB staff excited and energized for our upcoming Interpreting for Social Justice workshop May 5-7. The roster has filled up quickly, but space is still available for five or fewer applicants. If interested or for more information, contact Elizabeth Wright or Roberto Tijerina at 865-933-3443. Elizabeth and Roberto can also be reached by e-mail at ehwright@utk.edu or roberto@highlandercenter.org. Pictures from the workshop are available on our Web site, www.highlandercenter.org. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--< 5. HIGHLANDER SOCIAL CHANGE WORKSHOPS; MARCH 17-19 AND OCT. 13-15, 2006 We're happy to announce that the March 17-19 Social Change workshop is full. We hope that anyone who has not yet contacted us about attending the workshop will be able to join us at the October 13-15 session instead. We're looking forward to the March session and will provide a report in the next issue of View from the Hill. For more information about the workshops, and an application form, see our Web site, www.highlandercenter.org. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--< To unsubscribe from this e-mail list, or to add someone new, send an e-mail to hrec@highlandercenter.org. Past issues of View from the Hill are available online at www.highlandercenter.org/n-view.asp. To make an online contribution to Highlander, go to our Web site: www.highlandercenter.org, and click on the "Donate Now" button. Highlander Research and Education Center 1959 Highlander Way New Market, TN 37820 Phone: (865)-933-3443 Fax: (865) 933-3424 www.highlandercenter.org