1-08-08, 10:10 am

Being a young, educated, politically active Chicano today is difficult. I often feel isolated and like the victim of racial prejudice, even among family and like-minded colleagues and other activists. People discriminate against me on a daily basis (E.g., sales clerks usually do not ask me if I need help. Instead, they ignore me or look at me with suspicion.), family support is often times marginal (My father laughs when I call myself 'Chicano.'), and I don't entirely trust many of my like-minded colleagues or fellow activists because I'm afraid they won't support me in a time of political need.

I was reminded of all this recently with a trip home to Fresno, CA to visit my family for the holidays. For those that don't know, for Latino/a and other minority and working class communities living in Fresno, CA, Fresno is hell on earth. OK, well, maybe not hell on earth, but maybe hell in California. Fresno, CA is located in the heart of the agricultural rich San Joaquin Central Valley (The Central Valley supplies one-quarter of America's food.), which puts it around 200 miles north of Los Angeles and 175 miles south of Sacramento. (If this doesn't help one visualize, just know that Fresno is nearly in the dead center of California.) With a population of around 480,000, Fresno is a sizeable city. Indeed, it is the largest city in the Central Valley. But like nearly all Central Valley towns, being traditionally tied to agricultural and becoming increasingly dependent on low-paying service sector jobs, inequality, poverty and high levels of unemployment are immense problems. In fact, traditionally, the unemployment rate in Fresno is double digits.

Currently, the unemployment rate is 8% and the poverty rate is an abysmal 28%. That more than doubles the national poverty rate of 12% and places Fresno #4 among the top ten cities with the highest rates of poverty, placing it just below poverty plagued Detroit which is #3 with 30%. Living as we do in a racist society, this of course disproportionately impacts Latinos/as and Blacks. Regarding unemployment, Latinos/as and Blacks in Fresno are experiencing a 15% and 19% unemployment rate respectively. Whites, in contrast, are at 6.5%.

Where there is economic growth and jobs in Fresno, it is completely one-sided, taking place as it does in the northern, more affluent, Whiter side of town. There housing and commercial construction has been booming. For miles, large, two-story homes expand the landscape (There is plenty of open, undeveloped land.) and strip malls, restaurants, bars, fitness centers and tanning salons nestle nearby. With some exaggeration, to sum up what Fresno looks like as a whole, large trucks and SUVs (many of them lifted) crowd the wide, flat roads, restaurants (corporate chains) are ubiquitous (Rumor has it that Fresno has the most restaurants per capita in the nation.), local sports, both college and high-school, reign supreme and people notice if you miss church on Sunday. Minus the large Latino/a population, I've never been to the South, but I can't imagine much of it being very different. Oh, I almost forgot to mention. Fresno and the surrounding cities/towns have a number of white supremacist, skinhead gangs and KKK chapters too. Skinheads are bold and feel comfortable enough to put 'skinhead' stickers or decals on their big, lifted Chevy or Ford trucks.

All this is really a reflection of how conservative, pro-corporate, corrupt and, yes, racist the local elite are in Fresno. White corporate/business interests (specifically, local land developers and the real estate and construction industry) effectively control the economic and political life of the city. Their representatives and fellow members on the city council pass policies that allow them to live comfortably in their affluent suburban and/or million dollar homes while they slash the living standards of minority and working class people and lay siege to their communities. Yes, lay siege. In Fresno, local law enforcement takes a military style approach in dealing with crime that poverty produces in minority/poor communities.

In their dealings with local Latino/a and Black gangs in particular, the local elites view it as their own war on terrorism, or their own Iraqi occupation if you will. Local Fresno City Council member Jerry Duncan recently said, 'Make no mistake about it. They [gangs] are terrorists and they are as much terrorists as those people in Iraq that are blowing up innocent people.' The mayor of Fresno, Alan Autry, reiterated this view by saying, 'The connection with the war on terror and the war against gangs at home is not a spin. It is a very real connection.' And similar to our national government's approach to the terrorists in Iraq, the Fresno elite's plan is to 'eliminate' them.

Consistent with a military styled response, local law enforcement plans on utilizing all key elements viewed as essential to subjugating and/or pacifying the local minority population: technology, repression and political cooptation or incorporation. The use of technology takes the form of modern day surveillance and tracking equipment. While there are some legal obstacles, law enforcement's intention is to use both portable and fixed cameras and Global Positioning System devices in minority and poor communities and on known gang members, in order to track and limit their movement. Repression is taking the form of a stronger police presence on the streets (MORE police in NEW police cars) and the regular use of sweeps and raids by specially trained anti-gang forces. These raids have literally taken the form of heavily armed policeman entering apartment complexes and questioning and detaining anyone, mostly young men of color, suspected of being a gang member. In regard to political cooptation, local minority leaders and groups like churches are being cajoled into participating. For example, there are plans to have 'farewell to gangs' celebrations. So, for racial minorities in Fresno, there are dilapidated schools and poor job prospects, but plenty of opportunities to experience police repression, harassment and incarceration. This in a city where racial minorities make up over half the population (53%)! What a damning, modern day example of political and economic disenfranchisement and disempowerment if there ever was one!

Not Just Bad PR

It's important to understand that calling gangs 'terrorists' is deliberate and not just rhetorical flourish or the result of conceptual confusion on the part of the Fresno elite. Indeed, it is the domestic side of the agenda or world view the federal government or, more specifically, the Bush Administration is pushing throughout the rest of the world. As Antonia Juhasz eloquently describes in her book The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time, the Bush Agenda consists of building and insuring American economic, political and military domination throughout the world. In the twisted and psychotic minds of the Bush Administration and their supporters, this is supposed to bring world peace and prosperity and not just personal enrichment for themselves. The reality for the majority of people around the world is far from peaceful and void of prosperity, however. As we see in Iraq, developing countries are having their economies forcibly opened up to American corporations and investors with the use of American military force, or the threat of it, to do so. Politically speaking, any resistance, opposition, barriers and/or undesirable by-products (like crime that poverty breeds), become synonymous with terrorism and/or subverting Democracy and subject to elimination. In this framework, Al-Qaeda is of course considered a threat, but so are peace activists, socialists, drug lords and even gangs. In Latin America, the U.S. military itself makes this perspective perfectly clear.

According to General Bantz Craddock, the current General in charge of the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), a Pentagon department specifically made to craft and implement U.S. military policy in Latin America, the region is 'held hostage' by 'the transnational terrorist, the narco-terrorist, the Islamic radical fundraiser and recruiter, the illicit trafficker, the money launderer, the kidnapper, [and] the gang member [emphasis added].' Politically incapable from militarily invading a Latin American country and overthrowing its government (Latin Americans across the continent would rally against the Imperialist Yankee), the U.S. government has had to rely on their more traditional Latin American approach. In Latin America, the U.S. 'encourages' Latin American governments to eliminate threats themselves. Encouragement takes the form of aid, the training of Latin American military forces and the selling of U.S. military weapons, and, even though it's in conflict with the desires of Latin American governments themselves and basic democratic practice, Washington is also encouraging them to use their militaries for domestic policing and repression.

Having trouble convincing the region that there is a bona fide terrorist threat, however, the Bush Administration and its supporters throughout the American establishment, including the American media, run fabricated stories of Islamic terrorists operating in the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este. And in an attempt to undermine/discredit the socialist president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, adherents of the Bush Agenda allege that Hezbollah is operating inside the country. As General Craddock recently admitted at a House Armed Services Committee meeting, however, the Pentagon has 'not detected Islamic terrorist cells' anywhere in Latin America. (For more information on the Bush Agenda in Latin America, see Grandin's excellent article here.

Aside from some substantial setbacks and legal obstacles, however, the Bush Agenda continues to press forward. Iraq continues to burn from such disastrous policies, as does most of Latin America and most minority filled, working class towns like Fresno. With this in mind, the war on terrorism is clearly a war on the poor and people of color everywhere. Bush is certainly imperialism/colonialism personified, but regardless of the electoral and legislative pressures they face, the Democratic Congress is culpable too, as are most of the Democratic presidential hopefuls and Ron Paul. It's not good enough to be progressive on one issue or one area (E.g. Against the war abroad, but in support of the war at home, or vice versa). Both wars need to be stopped now.

--Mike Lucio is a pseudonym used by a California Community College Political Science Instructor. He's using a false name because very few people, besides his family and homeboys, have his back. You can reach him at