San Diego Free Press

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SDFP Editors Debate To Publish or Not to Publish a Submission

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An open letter from Dr. Fredi Avalos generates discussion on SDFP’s role in critiquing the Left and movement building

black_and_white_by_augenweide-d5d64rbBy San Diego Free Press Editorial Board

How do we reconcile our differences on the Left to more effectively fight a common enemy?

The San Diego Free Press does not publish every work that is submitted. The four daily editors determine whether a submission meets our criteria for quality of writing and compatibility with our mission of providing grassroots news and progressive views.

There have been a few times when we have declined to publish articles that were articulate and authored by respected members of the SDFP community of contributors and readers. When this occurs, it is a result of discussion and a final vote of the full editorial board, in which the majority position is reflected and the contributor is advised of our decision.

A fellow board member asked us to consider an open letter from Fredi Avalos, an adjunct professor at California State University San Marcos, directed toward Mickey Kasparian, president of UFCW Local 135 and president of the San Diego and Imperial Valley Counties Labor Council.

The letter expresses her anger and deep disappointment over the failed mayoral bid of Democratic Councilwoman Olga Diaz in Escondido. While Avalos points out a number of causes for Diaz’ loss, she focuses on the role that Kasparian played in that election. The letter is published in its entirety below.

The decision to publish the letter is a reflection of a compromise hammered out at our most recent editorial board meeting. We agreed to publish the letter and to provide transparency to our readers about our internal debate on the issue.

The parameters of the debate were broad, encompassing the specific and situational as well as the historical. There were a number of compelling reasons given for publishing the letter. It met our basic standards for publication and therefore shouldn’t be treated differently than other submissions that we routinely publish.

SDFP also has a responsibility to call out the insensitivity directed toward the Latino immigrant rights community and demand an end to it.

There were also compelling reasons for not publishing the letter. SDFP provides a much needed infrastructure for movement building on the Left. Is there a benefit in publishing the conflicts within and among the communities of interest on the Left, including labor, which has been the historical backbone of progressive politics?

Some of us felt that there isn’t a benefit from publishing these conflicts in a public space that includes readers who are hostile to the Left and are actively involved in subverting efforts to unify its diverse elements. Full throated discussions about those conflicts needs to take place and should be carried out among the actual stakeholders.

A great deal of work goes into the ongoing publication of the San Diego Free Press. Beyond what readers see on the page are seven editors with deep personal convictions who share a common vision and don’t always agree upon how to achieve that vision. There are times like this when the editorial process leading to what you see on the page becomes an important part of the story.

 

Open Letter to Mickey Kasparian
President of UFCW Local 135 and President of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council

 Dear Mickey:

 What side are you on?

My father was a union man and I am union man’s daughter. Memories of my youth are filled with heated discussions about union politics in my parents’ living room. A former professional boxer he, and his union brothers, taught me that institutions are complicated entities that should never be romanticized and that blind loyalty would leave us all in the dark.

 I write this open letter to you in his memory and in the name of those men now all deceased whose memories also inspire this message. They taught me that we must find the courage to speak truth to power and injustice from whatever corner it emerges.

Today, I question the power you, as president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 135 have to destroy and compromise elections in the City of Escondido.

Some have called you a “king maker.” I say the emperor has no clothes.

You owe the young Latino population of North County and their families an apology.
Your decision to spend hundreds of dollars in mailers attacking Olga Diaz who was running for mayor of Escondido was much more than just an ill-advised attack on a fellow Democrat and union supporter. It was also a crushing blow to a city and a region riven by racial tension. Diaz was the first Latina mayoral candidate in Escondido in over 150 years.

What you failed to consider is what was at stake for Latinos who live in Escondido and in the entire North County region. Latinos have been targeted and maligned in Escondido, a city that has made no apologies for its anti-Latino and anti-union policies. In Escondido and in other North County cities, Latinos make up 50% or nearly 50% of the population.

 Over the last few years, we have endured an invasion of white supremacists and Minutemen who often with the tacit approval of law enforcement, have tried to silence and harass us. The social and economic divisions between the white and the growing Latino population are deep and unequal.

We cannot afford to have a man who controls a powerful union destroy what so many have worked so hard to build. You also serve on the Democratic Party’s Central Committee and yet you stood in opposition to a woman and fellow Democrat, who has restored a sense of hope and inclusion to a beleaguered Latino population.

Olga Diaz and her candidacy was much more than just a mayoral race. It is the culmination of years of struggle to finally establish a foothold and political presence in a region that some have called Mississippi with palm trees.

For the first time, young people became energized and worked tirelessly for her campaign. This election was about a new vision for their future.

Your attack ads helped to elect Sam Abed, the notorious anti-union candidate that Olga Diaz was trying to beat. He has been a strong supporter of ill-fated policies that have targeted Latino residents in his city. Abed has made it clear that he wants unions and their influence out of Escondido. Abed despises unions and worker’s rights.

Did your decision to try and destroy Diaz’s campaign benefit the union brothers and sisters you serve? The answer is no. Did your decision to spend hundreds of dollars from union coffers help to secure more union jobs in Escondido? The answer again is no.

It appears that you do not like anyone, particularly young Latinas, who refuse to pay you homage. You may be thinking you take no prisoners. But, Mickey, the prisoners you take are the Latino population of Escondido who continue to exist under the dictates of a racist and unjust city council.

For this reason, I must ask again: What side are you on, Mickey?

In truth, you have already answered the question. Please in the name of the many men and woman on whose backs the labor union was forged, stay out of the way of a new generation of Latino men and women who are no longer afraid to speak their truth to political parties, religious leaders, and powerful union men like you.

You may have won the battle in Escondido but, the war will be won by the growing legion of young Latinos who, like the great Mexican Revolutionary,Emiliano Zapata, would rather die on their feet then live on their knees.

Fredi Avalos, Ph.D.
Director of the Difficult Dialogues Project of North County and Local Educator

Staff

Staff

Comments

  3. The good work done by the progressive labor movement can be hindered by wayward leadership. We knew when we had a friend in Walter Reuther U.A.W. and when we didn’t in Jimmy Hoffa Teamsters. Sometimes power corrupts….we need to focus on the future and a good start would be for Mickey to apologize to Olga Diaz and the to the Latino Community of Escondido that continues to fight for justice!

  4. Mickey has lost touch with what his job really is. His narcissistic approach to what he does causes more harm than good. Mickey has jumped the shark. It’s time.

  5. Dear San Diego Free Press:

    Thank you for publishing Dr. Avalos commentary. It is honest, heartfelt and accurate and deserves to be read by visitors to your website.

    And I agree: the “left” and “labor” are not as completely unified for progressive, universal rights and opportunities for all people- as much as we might want to believe that is the case.

    Labor has been, and continues to be, just as weighted with contradictions and discrimination against non-white, non-male workers as the rest of our culture. I know this from the experience of working in union-represented but white-male dominated professions at various times in my own career, including with building trades and SEIU.

    Today, I’m a college professor and an AFT member- still in a union! But too often, I still see the vestiges of white, male privilege in the labor community and leadership. Maybe not so much in my woman-dominated teaching profession, but often, and clearly, in many others.

    So- thanks, Professor Avalos. I suspect you and I have much in common, and I respect your open letter describing a situation that, sadly, hasn’t changed much in the 30+ years since I first became a member of a labor union.

  6. The Democratic Party has a lot of things to discuss. Among them, what is it that we actually believe in and stand for. I am so glad that SDFP has decided that the only way to get to an open, equal and just society is to have open and fair discussion.

    I am not well enough informed to have an opinion about the Escondido mayoral election. I would like to hear why it was deemed more important to spend labor’s money to defeat Ms. Diaz than to help elect Sarah Boot or Carol Kim.

    Those are the kinds of choices that are being made and it would be good to know the deep and abiding values and principles that inform such decisions, Since many Dems seem intent to attack Sherri Lightner, in ways that seem to me to be counterproductive, maybe it would also be worth discussing how we allowed ourselves to be put in such a vulnerable position. If, for example Sarah Boot in CD2 had been able to change 700 votes it could have changed the outcome of the election and made it impossible for the Republicans to pick the Council President.

  7. I had avoided discussing Democratic party internal politics, but agree with Linda P: Democrats need to address how they will work to provide support for non-traditional candidates in a more honest, transparent way, at every level of representation.

    If Democrats and Labor can’t agree on ways to elect people who represent gender, racial, ethnic, socio-economic and cultural diversity- who will? The Lincoln Club?

    The current battle over Dem Party Chairmanship will be illustrative of how these discussions get played out: how does SDCDP leadership work in ways that reflect the broader community, not only in stated goals, but in actions and accomplishments?

  8. I agree with the sentiment that the letter should have been published, but it would have been nice to have a little backgrounder on the situation. It would also be nice to ask Mr. Kasparian to respond to get his side of the story. It was an excellent letter, but I can’t judge the merits of the case without getting a neutral party’s and perhaps an opposing party’s views.

    • Kasparian told Olga Diaz not to vote in favor of a 99 Cent Store moving into a vacant building in Escondido. She did. He told her she’d regret it. During her mayoral election the UFCW, under his direction, paid for two mailers attacking her for the 99 Cent Store vote and for one related to her support of opening up a golf course to developers. Diaz’s opponent Sam Abed is notoriously anti-union and anti-immigrant. Kasparian attacking Diaz did nothing to help the UFCW. In fact it helped the anti-union Abed win reelection (though some feel she would have lost anyway). For Kasparian to go out of his way to attack someone who has been a stalwart in the fight against Latino bigotry in North County and in the process help someone who is anti-union has upset a lot of people within the immigrant rights community and many within labor who are afraid to stand up to him. He could have withheld UFCW support but instead he chose to be a jerk .

      • How did Mickey Kasparian get where he is?
        How did Sherry Lightener where she is?
        Can we live better without them?

  9. very interesting. we are new to the area and just beginning to understand some of the politics of the area. it is deeply disconcerting to see latinos minimized. if the dems don’t smarten up and include minorities and women in the conversation, they are no different than the other party. as a progressive, i am about ready to abandon the dems and go independent. if this party is not progressive, it is not for me. i am done voting for someone who is the lesser of two evils. i will vote, even by write in, for the candidate i would like to see do the jobs. thanks for publishing that letter. i stand with the empowerment and election of women and latinos. i am a 62 year old life long dem and a former union member. i am fed up.

  10. I applaud the open letter and hope this will help move Union Management into a more positive and progressive view of Women. Women are the creative members of our species the givers of life, nurturers of the future whose vision is forward looking, positive and bent on finding resolution for our problems. The time has always been right to have women lead. Stop the paternalistic short sighted view of those men who can’t see beyond their personal interests.
    J.David

  11. thank you j.david for recognizing the paternalistic (read that as bullying) nature here. we do not need the overpowering and destruction of people by a union boss who does not care for her vote. Let me address a couple of basic issues here.

    Politicians have far fewer decisions to make than they think they do. their job is to represent their constituency, yet how many poll their constituents in regards to each issue they need to vote on. you see, the only decision they can legitimately make, is how to make a fair poll. The constituents, not their elected officials, get to make the decisions. a representative gets to vote on BEHALF of the people, not independently.

    Secondly, as a life long union member, i can say that supporting labor has meant at times fighting corruption in our own ranks. corrupt, forceful union bosses have no place in today’s society. unions should not be represented by people who bully those who stand with union members, especially workers in protected classes. the only people those union bosses represent are THUGS.

    Thirdly, elected officials do not compromise, cooperate or collaborate to bring about useful legislation much anymore. those should be the hallmarks of their work styles. We need to stop electing people that can’t have a conversation and come up with a consensus.

    And lastly, it is imperative that a progressive agenda is authored and presented. if the dems don’t embrace it, let’s form a new party. we can call it the EVOLUTION REVOLUTION. any takers?

  12. While it is undoubtedly good to publish this letter, I agree with John Lawrence that the right thing to do here would have been to invite a contribution from an opposing view (there are plenty of people who have been calling Fredi out on her slanders against Mickey).

    And, while it is worth airing these disputes in public, I do wish the editors would have either asked for some supporting evidence or the removal of the following passage: “It appears that you do not like anyone, particularly young Latinas, who refuse to pay you homage.” This is nothing short of slanderous toward Mickey, and is offered without any shred of evidence. We can foster debate on the left and still reject the use of ad homenim attacks.

  13. Actually, Ricardo the only folks who have “called me out” are you and two other women on facebook. I have received overwhelming support for the letter and the questions it raises. While I appreciate the dialogue, and I agree that Kasparian should be invited to respond to my questions, asking that my letter be censored because it asks some hard hitting but fair questions, is inconcionable.

    I stand by my letter and the issues it raises. I look forward to further open dialogue on this matter.
    Sincerely, Dr. Fredi Avalos

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