Ongoing Contributions of UdB to the Movimiento

There are numerous significant contributions that Unión del Barrio has made to the liberation struggle during these past three decades. This is a partial list:

• In broad ideological terms, Unión del Barrio has maintained an historical and political world-view that provides a direct link for our present struggle to reach back to the Chicano movement of the 60s and 70s, to liberation struggles in Centroamérica and Sudamérica, to the Mexican revolution of 1910, to the wars for independence of the 1800s, and to ongoing indigenous resistance struggles extending back to 1492. In other words, UdB provides our communities in the present with an option for contributing to the more than 500 year struggle of Nuestra América to liberate ourselves from colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism.
• During the decade of the 1980′s UdB was central (along with several other organizations) to keeping alive the militant politics of raza self-determination, and therefore providing a connection and historical bridge between the last period of struggle (the Chicano Power Period) and the present struggle. This was of particular importance because the work UdB was doing during this time tapped in to the collective cultural memory of political struggle accumulated during the Chicano Movement to provide information and experiences so that new activists would not have to “reinvent the wheel.”
• Over time, Unión del Barrio upheld the understanding that the objectives and demands of the Chicano Power Period (1965 to 1975) were justified and correct, and represented something that our movement should continue to struggle for. We therefore contributed to the defeat of revisionists who during the 1980s and 1990s attempted to down-play or even totally negate the political importance and historical significance of the Chicano Movement.
• Unión del Barrio contributed greatly to the struggle against neocolonialism, which for years had gone unchallenged, posing as leadership for our communities. Included in this struggle was our critique of “narrow nationalism,” which celebrated the rise of a few brown faces in establishment politics, and lacked any progressive or revolutionary content within its perspective.
• As part of our efforts to help rebuild the Chicano Movement, Unión del Barrio was central to overturning the influence that opportunist white left organizations had over the Chicano Mexicano Movement. Part of this struggle was to expose the fact that they were not really socialist nor communist, and that the road to building a classless society, free of capitalist exploitation, was in large part to be found in the leading role of revolutionary, national liberation struggles, and the unity of colonially oppressed people here and around the world.
• Unión del Barrio clearly contributed to the building of a progressive national movement. In 1989 we were central to the founding and continuity of the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, as well as the organizing of numerous national unity conferences.
• Unión del Barrio has continuously upheld the understanding that only through organization and accountability can we advance as a people. This organizational seriousness, in combination with our consistent work on urgent issues such as youth violence, the prison industry, la Mujer and anti-imperialist solidarity, have put forward a model of political maturity, organization, experience, and accountability which has been extremely lacking within our movement.
• Finally, over the last decade Unión del Barrio has been the leading force within numerous extremely important and historical campaigns throughout Southern California: the Marriott and Hyatt Housekeeper campaigns; seven independent electoral campaigns in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Oxnard, California; the ongoing campaign against Migra/ICE repression; the struggle against police brutality and so-called “gang injunctions”; the campaign to get the Border Patrol off public transportation, and the work in support of our peoples struggles south of the political border – México, Centroamérica and Sudamérica.

Now, more than ever before, the history, collective experience, and political maturity of our organization represent the fundamental elements necessary to advance as an organization to the next level and consolidate UdB as a revolutionary party for raza liberation.

¡Hasta La Victoria – Siempre!