SWOP history

The following are selected past activities of the SouthWest Organizing project.

1981 - SWOP is founded by community activists to build a strong grassroots organization in the Southwest.

1984 - SWOP conducts its first Albuquerque Project Vote voter registration drive. SWOP efforts have since registered over 30,000 New Mexicans as voters. The organization also surveys several neighborhoods as part of this drive.

1985 - SWOP works with the El Buen Samaritano United Methodist Church to survey Albuquerque's Sawmill, Old Town, and Wells Park neighborhoods. In response to this survey, we conduct voter registration drives, organize a neighborhood cleanup, and organize cultural activities for neighborhood residents. The survey also leads to the establishment of a new after school child care program in the area.

1985 - SWOP organizes a visit to New Mexico by representatives of the Association of Nicaraguan Women.

1985-'87 - SWOP works with residents and neighborhood associations in the South Broadway area to develop a comprehensive community development plan and initiate the United South Broadway Corporation to address local housing needs. ·

1986 - SWOP and residents from Albuquerque's Sawmill neighborhood form the Sawmill Advisory Council. We begin an organizing drive against Ponderosa Products Inc., a local particleboard manufacturer which forces the company to reduce noise levels, dangerous air pollution, and to clean up contaminated groundwater.

1987 - SWOP and Mountainview residents form the Mountainview Advisory Council. The groups oversee Kirtland Air Force Base's investigation of groundwater contamination in the Mountainview community. Eventually these parties will sign the first ever agreement by grassroots organizations and the military on environmental oversight. SWOP and the Advisory Council also force government agencies to provide sewer and water services at low cost, and prevent the building of garbage transfer stations and a private prison in the neighborhood.

1988-'89 - A SWOP campaign in the Sawmill and Wells Park neighborhoods forces Neighborhood Housing Services to provide more affordable home improvement loans to area residents, and to increase its oversight of the rehab work being done by construction companies contracted by the agency.

1988 - SWOP works with community residents to develop its Community Environmental Bill of Rights, which lays out basic principles for environmental justice. The Bill of Rights was endorsed by Congressman Steve Schiff, present NM Attorney General Tom Udall and the Bernalillo County Commission.

1988 - SWOP conducts the Africa Peace Tour in New Mexico, which includes presentations to Albuquerque and Santa Fe community groups by people from Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, Namibia, and Senegal.

1988 - SWOP and the Southwest Research and Information Center hold a statewide conference on water issues. Participants at the conference form the Water Information Network, which continues to address water rights issues and protection of the environment in New Mexico.

1989 - SWOP, the National Council of Churches, and the New Mexico conference of Churches conduct the Interdenominational Hearings on Toxics in Minority Communities, bringing together religious leadership throughout the state to document testimony of people poisoned by industry in their community or workplace.

1990 - SWOP supports strikers at the Medite of New Mexico plant in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The company was responsible for worker health and safety regulations and environmental regulations. Although the company fired 52 strikers, the fired strikers continued to work with SWOP to force the company to clean up its act.

1990 - SWOP supports residents of the Sunland Park community in southern New Mexico to force the closure of a poisonous medical waste incinerator. SWOP continues to work with residents to fight a landfill owned by the same company.

1990 - SWOP forms the CARE Coalition with other Albuquerque organizations. The coalition fights to force Betawest Corporation to provide jobs promised to Albuquerque's pocket of poverty neighborhoods in exchange for a grant provided by the City. Betawest did not fulfill its agreement and was forced to compensate the community.

1990 - SWOP hosts the Regional Activist Dialogue, which brings together activists from eight southwestern states. Out of the event, the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice is formed. Today the network consists of 70 organizations in the Southwest and northern states of Mexico fighting for environmental and economic justice.

1991 - SWOP forms the Peoples' Emergency Response Committee which gathers over 7500 signatures in Albuquerque to prevent the Department of Energy from dumping radioactive wastes into the sewer system. The City Council formed a study group who drafted a strict ordinance controlling the discharge of radioactive wastes.

1991 - SWOP publishes 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures - an update of 450 years...the popular bilingual history book. Over 15,000 copies have been sold of the new version. A video ¡Viva la Causa! and teachers kit are also now available.

1992-'93 - SWOP plays a major role in organizing the New Mexico NAFTA Coalition to fight the free trade agreement with Mexico. The group includes community, labor and human rights organizations from throughout the state and helps educate thousands of New Mexicans on U.S. - Mexico trade issues.

1992-'93 - A SWOP campaign in the Albuquerque South Valley results in water testing for Pajarito area residents, the provision of emergency water supplies, and increased awareness of water issues. A voter registration drive results in a high turnout in school bond elections, and speeds up the construction of the new Pajarito Elementary School.

1993 - SWOP begins to question corporate welfare given to Intel Corporation, one of the most profitable companies in the world. SWOP publishes a book called Intel Inside New Mexico, which documents the massive handouts given to Intel.

1993-'94 - SWOP works with the Santa Barbara/Martineztown community to stop the planned construction of the Federal Courthouse in this historic Albuquerque community. A July victory celebration concluded over a year long organizing campaign.

1995 - SWOP forces the Bernalillo County District Attorney to release Victor and Gloria Hernandez. The couple was traveling from Mexico and was involved in a car accident in which their son was killed. The DA prosecuted them for the death of their son although he had never prosecuted similar cases before. SWOP also raised issues of selective prosecution in the case of Gordon House, a Native American who was tried three times by the DA for an accident in which 4 people were killed. House was finally put in jail for 25 years. SWOP organized public support to have Gordon released pending his appeal.

1996 - SWOP holds landmark series of meetings with Intel Corporation. The meetings last for one year and are facilitated by New Mexico Senate Pro Tempore Manny Aragon. The meetings are a vehicle to learn more about Intel's expansion into New Mexico. SWOP develops an analysis and recommendations to the company and the State Legislature.

1996 - SWOP organizes the Recuerda a César Chávez Campaign, which pressures Albuquerque's City Council to rename one of the City's major streets Avenida César Chávez. ·

1996 - Following door-to-door voter registration and surveying of residents in the area, SWOP works with North Valley residents to form the group "Common Ground," to address issues relating to traffic safety and planning.

1996 - SWOP youth program "Jóvenes Unidos" develop cultural work including writing songs, music and performing plays. In 1997 they produce their first audiocassette of their original and other popular music.

1997 - SWOP's "Jóvenes Unidos" begins a campaign to obtain greater protections for youth who frequent area malls, as well as to do away with practices which discriminate against young people of color.

1998 - SWOP begins work in the Albuquerque's Pajarito Mesa, home to Mexican-American families who have bought undeveloped land, they have no electricity, natural gas, water or sewer service. They have been working with the county to deal with these problems.

1998 - Controversy arises around plans for Tiguex park’s Cuarto Centenario Memorial, which would include a statue in honor of Spanish Conqueror, Juan de Oñate. The Hispanic Anti-Defamation League fights to place most of the focus of the memorial on Oñate. SWOP, with Native American and other organizations, fight to honor as little as possible the butcher who ordered the feet cut off of at least 24 men from Acoma Pueblo during his rule as conquistador in New Mexico. The City Council decides to back the memorial by mid-1999, however the memorial would be “free of the suggestion of dominance between cultures” - a victory because it would not be only about Oñate.

1998 - Bilingual Education is attacked in Albuquerque. When Linda Chavez with the “Center for Equal Opportunity” sues to get rid of bilingual education in the Albuquerque Public Schools, SWOP is among organizations that join the lawsuit as defendant intervenors. The goal is not only to keep bilingual education in our schools, but also to improve it. The movement to try to eliminate bilingual education - a way to express and learn about our culture - is one being fought all over the country. After passionate fighting and protests, the court throws out Chavez’ case and rules in favor of the defendants.

1999 - SWOP continues the fight against anti-youth policies and the criminalization of youth. Much emphasis is placed around anti-youth legislation. Youth target such legislation through meetings with state officials, protests, and rallies.

1999 – SWOP representatives go to Seattle to join 60,000 people to stop the World Trade Organization.

2000 - Renew America gave SWOP another National Award for Environmental Sustainability. SWOP was selected this year as one of the best of Renew America’s honorees over the past ten years. In our campaign to impact Albuquerque’s proposed Industrial Revenue Bond (IRB) for Philips Semiconductor, we won financial concessions for the City of Albuquerque. More importantly, SWOP’s organizing work around corporate abuses of IRBs has finally prompted the City Council to call for an official review of the IRB program.

2000 - A theater critic for the Albuquerque Journal ranked our youths’ presentation of ‘La Víctima’ as one of the 12 best local plays in 2000.

2000 - Residents of Pajarito Mesa have achieved a greater level of organization, having formed their own semi-governmental Pajarito Mesa Mutual Domestic Water Users Association, which will establish a community water system.

2000 – July 2000 a delegation visits SWOP from Costa Rica to discuss their concerns on the Costa Rican Intel plant and how they can organize around their concerns.

2001 - SWOP began an education campaign on the Free Trade Area of the Americas, forming a coalition of 20 local labor and community organizations that organized several educational public activities and actions.

2001 - SWOP Youth successfully lobbied the Albuquerque School Board to limit the arming school guards during school hours.

2002 - SWOP begins work with Grassroots Global Justice, an alliance of U.S. grassroots organizations, to connect global issues to our local communities. Through this work we send a delegation to the World Social Forum for the next four years.

2002 - SWOP members get arrested in effort to block the construction of a road through the Petroglyph National Monument, a sacred site to indigenous communities.

2002 - The Pajarito Mesa community received a $500,000 grant from the USDA to construct a community well.

2002 - Residents of Corrales worked with SWOP to purchase a state-of-the-art FTIR to monitor the air pollution of Intel.

2003 - When Philips Semiconductor closed their Albuquerque plant, the City of Albuquerque received millions of dollars back from the company in accordance with the “claw-back” provision in their Industrial Revenue Bond.

2003 - SWOP undertakes an ambitious base building campaign, referred to as the ‘5700 Plan.’

2003 - SWOP founder Jeanne Gauna passed away.

2004 - The Pajarito Mesa community won a special use permit from Bernalillo County to construct a community well. The residents also successfully prevented the expansion of a landfill on the Mesa that would threaten the environmental health of the community.

2004 - SWOP registers over 2500 people to vote, with a focus on youth.

2004 - SWOP helped plan the New Mexico Environment Department EJ listening sessions held in four communities. Input gathered from these sessions informed the development of an environmental justice legislative bill, called the New Mexico Healthy Communities Act.

2005 - SWOP celebrates our 25th Anniversary of working to empower our communities to realize racial and gender equality and social and economic justice..

2005 - SWOP youth held the first Graffiti Battle at the State Capitol with over 100 youth. This event was part of a months long successful campaign to defeat a Statewide Youth Curfew.

2005 - SWOP worked with a broad coalition to pass a Clean Election Reform bill

2005 - Governor Richardson signed an executive order on environmental justice due to the work of SWOP and allies.

2006 – SWOP hosts our 25th Anniversary Celebration and Banquet.

2006 – SWOP joins 2000 supporters of immigrant rights at annual Cesar Chavez march and rally.

2006 – SWOP works with many organizations and students on National Day of Action activities that draws thousands of Albuquerquens to the streets in support of immigrant rights.