In testament to the fact that there ain't no power like the power of the people 'cause the power of the people won't stop, a broad coalition of Mile High City organizations soudly defeated Initiative 300 with 70% of voters casting a whopping "NO."

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition statement on the victory:
CIRC Celebrates Defeat of I-300, Vehicle Impound!

From the Denver Post:
Denver voters drive off vehicle-impoundment initiative

President Obama announced the official end of the HIV Travel and Immigration Ban

Dear Coloradans For Immigrant Rights!
Today, President Obama announced the end of the discriminatory US HIV Travel Ban.
Starting in 2010, people living with HIV will no longer be barred from entering the United States — no longer turned away at our borders, no longer forced to hide their condition and interrupt medical treatment, no longer treated by our government with contempt.
Said President Obama today:
Twenty-two years ago, in a decision rooted in fear rather than fact, the United States instituted a travel ban on entry into the country for people living with HIV/AIDS. Now, we talk about reducing the stigma of this disease — yet we've treated a visitor living with it as a threat. We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic — yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from HIV from entering our own country. If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it. And that's why, on Monday my administration will publish a final rule that eliminates the travel ban effective just after the New Year.
PHR has been at the forefront of the movement to end the HIV travel ban. Thousands of you wrote moving comments to the Centers for Disease Control, urging them to end the ban.
Today, your persistence and passion paid off. Comments like this one, from a PHR member in Boston, made a difference:
In my roles with an international NGO, a US university recognized world-wide, and one of the top 10 US teaching-hospitals, I work with people around the world who are fighting HIV/AIDS daily. Many of these brave and selfless health care workers are themselves infected with HIV — but that should in no way limit their ability to visit the US and learn from others working in this field.
We can’t thank you enough for taking action to protect the health, dignity and human rights of people living with AIDS worldwide. We are celebrating here in Cambridge — we hope you will also take a moment to celebrate and to recognize the fact that your advocacy to uplift human rights made this day possible.
In solidarity and celebration,
The staff of Physicians for Human Rights

Youth organizers know what's up.

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Reflections of Solidarity-What Do Justice and Loving Kindness Mean?

Week Six Reflection
In this week's reflection, Pastor Matt Converse of Ault, CO explains what Micah 6:8 means to him by unpacking the meanings of loving kindness and justice.

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does
the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to
walk humbly with your God?

To read Pastor Converse's reflection What Does Justice Mean?, go to the shrine and light your candle. No registration is necessary to leave a candle or a comment.

In last Week's Reflection, Seeing that of God in our Neighbors, Danielle Short explored how to overcome barriers to seeing that of God in immigrants and how the call to See that of God in Our Neighbors contributes to our own spiritual development. Daniel Short is a Quaker and former Director of the Human Rights Program at the American Friends Service Committee.

Celebrating a victory while continuing to call on Chipotle...

East Coast Growers and Packers -- one of Florida's largest tomato growers -- has agreed to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and food industry leaders to implement the CIW'S Fair Food agreements, including the penny-per-pound raise to harvesters, supply chain transparency, and a stringent code of conduct! This is a major victory in the Campaign for Fair Food and for all of us in Denver who have been working in solidarity with the CIW. In many ways it represents the culmination of the over 15 years of struggle by the CIW -- what may very well be a turning point in Florida farm labor power relations.

This major breakthrough was made possible by the growing purchasing power that the CIW in alliance with consumers nationwide have marshaled behind the principles of the Campaign for Fair Food -- the more than 65,000 restaurants across the country represented by Yum! Brands, McDonalds, Burger King, and Subway that are now committed to buying from growers that work with the CIW to implement the penny per pound wage increase, code of conduct, and farmworker participation in the monitoring system. Ultimately it was the collective purchasing power of those food industry giants that broke the two-year old logjam created by the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange's resistance to the CIW's campaign.Furthermore, thanks to the CIW's Fair Food agreements, these companies will be working in partnership with the farmworkers of the CIW in a transparent manner in order to ensure that the farmworkers are receiving the wage increase and that the code of conduct is being followed.


Chipotle, however...


Last week, before the agreement with East Coast could be made public by the CIW or any of the other parties involved, Chipotle issued a press release claiming the agreement as the product of its labors alone.

Chipotle, rather than make a transparent, formal commitment to work with the CIW to implement a real code of conduct and the penny per pound wage increase, has seized instead on this latest news in an effort to score cheap public relations points. Indeed the only thing transparent about Chipotle's surprise press release was the brazenness of their decision to take sole credit for something it couldn't have accomplished on its own in a million years.

Just do the math.

Total market share of companies in formal agreements with the CIW, agreements that commit those companies to buying from any participating grower: over 65,000 restaurants.

Chipotle: 830

While Chipotle may have been involved in a multi-party process that brought about the East Coast decision, there is no disputing the fact that Chipotle was -- by far -- the smallest piece of the puzzle. And yet, Chipotle was the only company to jump out alone and shout from the highest mountain, "Look what I did!"

Looks like someone might have been a little too eager to wash over the public relations mess left behind by the "Food, Inc." fiasco. Unfortunately, no amount of grandstanding can substitute for real reform.

To be clear: Chipotle still has not signed an agreement with the CIW to pay the penny per pound and has not agreed to work with them to implement a code of conduct which would guarantee farmworkers the ability to participate in the protection of their own rights. There is no way for the CIW to verify that Chipotle is even paying the penny per pound, as there is no agreement on regular reporting or transparency.

East Coast's agreement to work with the CIW is something we should celebrate -- while we continue to call on Chipotle to do the right thing. (See the CIW website for all the latest. See the Denver Fair Food blog for background on the Chipotle campaign.)