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This week on Uprising —

• Immigration reform is debated in Congress while hundreds of thousands march in cities across the US against HR 4437.
• Argentina commemorates the 30th anniversary of the start of the “Dirty War”
• Peabody Energy Threatens Hopi and Navajo Drinking Water Supplies.
• Plus Empire Notes and the Black Commentator

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HR 4437: A View from Washington DC
GUEST: Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum

The US Senate is set to debate immigration reform in the next few days. Last December, the House passed H.R. 4437, the “Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act sponsored by Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner. A version of HR 4437 is being reviewed by Senator Arlen Specter and his Judiciary Committee. Meanwhile, 30,000 people rallied in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 23rd to protest the harsh immigration measures being considered by Congress. It was called “A Day without Latinos.” Sensenbrenner responded to the march calling it “an impressive show of force.” According to a press release from his office, “the best way to help illegal aliens is by stopping illegal immigration.” Two weeks earlier hundreds of thousands marched in Chicago and more recently thousands converged on Washington DC to demand humane immigration policies.

“If 2005 was the Year of the Minutemen, 2006 is becoming the Year of Immigrants Rising.” That’s the opening line of an editorial by my next guest Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum based in Washington DC. He joins us to share his assessment on immigration issues nationwide.

Organizers of Los Angeles March Discuss Strategies

GUESTS: Suyon Yi, Director of Special Projects at NAKASEC, Pedro Holguin, MeCha student at Cal Poly Pomona

Spurred by the success of various demonstrations in cities across the country, Los Angeles organizers hope to out-do Chicago and Milwaukee. On Saturday, March 25th, a mass mobilization in downtown Los Angeles expects over 300,000 people. Organizers with the coalition against HR4437 hope to make the weekend march the largest pro-immigrant demonstration in recent history.

Black Commentator on Funds for Iraq and New Orleans
Glen Ford, co-publisher of The Black Commentator

The Black Commentator is an online political magazine bringing you commentary, analysis and investigation from a black perspective. Today’s commentary is called “Transcontinental theft from Baghdad to New Orleans.”

The Black Commentator is online at www.blackcommentator.com.

30th Anniversary of Military Coup in Argentina
GUESTS: Marie Trigona, journalist and participant in the Direct Action and Video Alario Collective, Alicia Kozameh, Argentine writer and former political prisoner under the dictatorship.

March 24th 2006 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the right-wing military coup in Argentina that began a 7 year so-called “Dirty War.” On March 23rd, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner announced that all military archives relating to the “Dirty War,” will be opened to the public. A week earlier, 10,000 people gathered outside the home of former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla where he is currently under house arrest.

30 years ago on March 24th 1976, the junta of General Jorge Rafael Videla, Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, and Air Force Brigadier Orlando Ramon Agosti deposed and arrested then President Isabel Peron. Videla was designated President soon after and headed the regime’s so-called “National Process of Reorganization,” that reigned from 1976 to 1983. The “Proceso,” as it came to be known included systematic state terror campaigns that claimed the lives of some 30,000 people. The Spanish term, desaparecidos, denoting those who had been “disappeared,” by the regime sadly became Argentina’s unique contribution to the lexicon of terror. In the lead up to this anniversary, human rights groups in Argentina have been organizing a variety of events to commemorate the victims of the regime.

I spoke with Alicia Kozameh, Argentine writer and former political prisoner under the dictatorship, and Marie Trigona, journalist and participant in the Direct Action and Video Alario Collective, the day of the 30th anniversary. Alicia joined me in studio while Marie spoke from Argentina.

Peabody Threatens Hopi, Navajo Drinking Water
GUEST: Vernon Masayesva, Black Mesa Trust

The giant coal mining corporation, Peabody Energy, has put in a bid to increase its use of water at the Black Mesa mine in Northeastern Arizona. The move threatens the main drinking water source for many Hopi and Navajo people in the region. The US government claims that Peabody’s groundwater pumping is within legal limits established to these water supplies. But the Natural Resources Defense Council has just uncovered new data contradicting that claim. In a new report called “Drawdown: An Update on Groundwater Mining on Black Mesa,” the NRDC shows that the Navajo Aquifer is in decline and that decades of industrial pumping already have caused the aquifer material harm. This conclusion is based on the US government’s own criteria.

For more information visit www.blackmesatrust.org and www.nrdc.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Children of a culture born in a water-rich environment, we have never really learned how important water is to us. We understand it, but we do not respect it.” — William Ashworth, Nor Any Drop to Drink, 1982