Author: Gloria Monti <[log in to unmask]> Date: 12/10/94 10:37 AM [Editor's note: This message was submitted to SCREEN-L by the "Author" noted above, and not by Jeremy Butler ([log in to unmask]).] Please, read & sign. This is very important. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 10 Dec 94 09:49:00 EST From: GROVER FURR <[log in to unmask]> To: godard <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: MLA Resolution vs Proposition 187 Here it is! Thanks so much for helping in this way. Please ask everyone to forward support for the resolution (MLA members) to me, at [log in to unmask], by Dec. 24. Sincerely, Grover Furr Resolution in Opposition to Proposition 187 WHEREAS the recently-passed ballot California initiative called Proposition 187 has called for the denial of public education--at the primary, secondary, junior college, college, and university levels--to undocumented workers and their children; and WHEREAS public school teachers have been required to help verify the citizenship status of their students, in effect to serve as INS agents; and WHEREAS Proposition 187 was passed in an election year characterized by an alarmingly xenophobic and racist atmosphere in which undocumented workers became scapegoats for the economic problems facing California's working people, even though immigrant workers, both undocumented and documented, continue to be a mainstay of California's economy; and WHEREAS the dangerously fascistic implications of Proposition 187 are revealed by the fact that the "Save Our State" movement backing Proposition 187 was funded in significant part by the Pioneer Foundation, a group that has since the 1930s been committed to demonstrating the genetic inferiority of African- American and other nonwhite peoples; and WHEREAS the Modern Language Association is committed to extending education to all segments of the US population and is unalterably opposed to all forms of xenophobic and racist ideology and practice; BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Modern Language Association condemns the denial of public education to undocumented workers and their children in California and takes steps to publicize this condemnation; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the MLA urges present and future public school teachers not to cooperate with the State request to verify the legality of their students' immigration status; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the MLA refuses to hold any meetings or conventions in California until such a time as the anti- immigrant provisions of Proposition 187 are repealed. We the undersigned members of the MLA, urge that the above resolution be discussed and passed at the 1994 Convention. NAME (Print/Signature) DEPT/INSTITUTION 1. ___________________________________________________________ 2. ___________________________________________________________ (over for additional signatures)