BY JIM ALTENBERG
SACRAMENTO, California - Wide ranging political discussion ran through the workshops, meetings, and in the corridors of the Radisson Hotel here April 16-19, where a thousand students, teachers, and other mainly young Chicanos and Latinos gathered for the 24th annual conference of the National Association for Chicana/Chicano Studies (NACCS).

For many of the participants, the conference was an opportunity to discuss the political activity they had recently taken part in, from the large April 13 United Farm Workers demonstration in Watsonville, California; to "La Marcha," last summer's march from Sacramento to San Diego in defense of affirmative action; to protests against attacks on Chicano studies and affirmative action on campuses and high schools throughout the country. Others had been at the march for immigrants' rights in Washington D.C. last October 12, and at rallies, meetings, and school walkouts protesting the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in California.

Some had been involved in other meetings of Chicano activists and youth held over the past few months, including national and regional conferences of the Chicano student movement MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán). Two students from DQ University, a Chicano and Native American college in the Sacramento Valley, said they were sponsoring a conference the weekend of April 26. Another is set for the same weekend at Stanislaus State University in Turlock, California.

Conference organizers reported that 77 percent of the participants came from California - with most of the others coming from other West Coast campuses and towns. A group of 45 students came from DePaul University in Chicago. Three- quarters of the participants were college and high school students.

Conference workshops took up the history of the Chicano movement; Chicano art and culture; allies of Chicanos in the struggle; U.S. government policies regarding immigration, welfare, racism, and education. A notable feature of the conference was the active participation of young Chicanas, and the numerous workshops and discussions on feminism and its relation to the struggle against national oppression. There were also workshops on gay and lesbian rights.

Throughout the conference, discussion around socialism and its relation to the Chicano struggle came up. At a well- attended workshop entitled "The Politics of the Chicano Movement Revisited," panelist Ernesto Vigil pointed out that red-baiting, which had once plagued the Chicano movement, was now less pervasive, and an open discussion and study of Marxism could be carried out. He went on to say that the roots of poverty, oppression, and environmental destruction lay in the profit system of capitalism. Vigil, a Denver activist, had been a leader of the Crusade for Justice, an influential Chicano organization in the 1970s.

Socialists at the conference sold 73 books and 13 subscriptions to the Militant newspaper. Best selling titles included Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, by Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin, Che Guevara's Socialism and Man in Cuba, and The Politics of Chicano Liberation, which reviews the history and political lessons of the Chicano movement of the 1960s and '70s. A meeting was held at the conference to build the World Festival of Youth and Students, set for August in Havana, Cuba.

Special guests at the conference were Nadine and Patsy Córdoba from Vaughn, New Mexico, a small town south of Albuquerque. Both teachers, who are sisters, were suspended from teaching their class at Vaughn high school for incorporating Chicano studies into their curriculum. The school district superintendent also barred students from participating in the student group MEChA, which was sponsored by the Córdovas. Twenty-three of the district's 68 students in grades 7-12 had been members of that club. Nadine and Patsy Córdoba are now fighting to maintain their teaching positions.

As part of the NACCS conference, around 350 participants marched to the state capitol April 17 to protest the attacks on Chicanos, immigrants, and youth in California. Speakers and signs carried by marchers called for an end to the anti- immigrant Proposition 187, defense of affirmative action and Chicano studies programs, opposition to reactionary "welfare reform" schemes and police brutality faced by Chicanos throughout the state and country.

One rally participant reported that Sacramento cops had killed a Mexican man at his home in front of his family a few days before. He was there because he didn't believe the police story that the man was a big-time drug dealer. Marchers were also joined at the capitol by a group of Irish solidarity activists, who were well-received by the Chicano youth present.  
 
 
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