BY JIM ALTENBERG
SAN FRANCISCO - Working people in California pushed back
a serious attack on political and trade union rights by
turning down Proposition 226 in the June 2 elections. By a
53 percent margin, voters defeated the ballot measure, which
challenged the right of trade unions to give money to
election campaigns. The measure aimed to forbid trade unions
from using dues money for "political contributions" - for
candidates, political parties, and ballot
initiatives - without the written authorization of each
member of a given union. The law would have drawn the
employers and the government directly into the political and
financial affairs of trade unions. Proposition 226 also
contained a series of reactionary restrictions on campaign
contributions from so-called "foreign nationals," including
immigrant workers. The $17 million public campaign waged by
union officials against 226 rarely mentioned this section.
For months, polls indicated that Proposition 226 was widely backed, including among unionists and other workers. Over the past few weeks, however, support for the measure eroded as working people began to get a better picture of its meaning and who was promoting it.
A measure aimed at banning bilingual education programs in California public schools, Proposition 227, passed by a wide margin in the June 2 balloting. Under Proposition 227, bilingual programs would be shut down. Children deemed not proficient in English would be placed in one-year "immersion" courses in English, after which they would return to their studies at whatever grade level they were at. The measure would make any exception to this setup difficult to obtain, and it allows for lawsuits against teachers and school officials who use Spanish, Chinese, or other languages in their teaching.
The measure's supporters promoted 227 by saying it would
ensure that immigrant children could learn English and
therefore, have access to better jobs in future years. Its
main sponsor, Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley software capitalist,
tried to distance himself and the attack on bilingual
education from open opponents of the rights of Latinos and
immigrants. The measure gained 61 percent of the vote,
including 37 percent of Latino voters surveyed by a CNN/Los
Angeles Times exit poll. A lawsuit challenging 227 as a
violation of the Constitution's equal protection guarantees
as well as federal civil rights and education statutes was
filed in federal court in San Francisco June 3.
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