"I'm with Ida!": Syracuse Common Council Budget Hearing

My Testimony to the Syracuse Common Council (Wednesday, May 3rd, 2012)
City Hall—Syracuse, NY

Good evening. My name is Risa Cantu C’DeBaca.  I am 28 year old student at Syracuse University, a worker, an educator of children and teens with special needs, and a local community activist.  My husband Adam and I have lived in Syracuse for three years and currently live in the Lower Comstock area, near the university.

Although we have lived here for three years now, it was only until I became involved in the Occupy Syracuse movement that I had learned about the Ida Benderson Senior Center and its closing in early fall of last year. I have had the wonderful opportunity to get to know many of the seniors affected by the closing of the center by being involved with the Ida Benderson Senior Action Group since early November of 2011. We meet every Friday at Plymouth Church and the seniors meet for various events around the community to maintain the special relationships they formed at the Ida Benderson Center.

Many of these seniors had been going to the center for decades and have been dedicated workers, teachers, parents, and proud citizens of the Greater Syracuse community. It’s essential for all of us to remember that one day most of us will be and/or are seniors—and that they must not be forgotten.

That is why I urge you Common Council, to please consider putting a new senior center in the new budget. A senior center that is accessible for Syracuse seniors…one that is safe, clean, inviting, and entertaining.

I want to thank you for your time. A special thanks to Councilman Nader Maroun who has consistently been supportive of the Ida Benderson Senior Action Group. Thank you.

May Day 2012 (Syracuse, NY)

My May Day 2012 Speech

Mic Check! MIC CHECK!

Repeat after me in Spanish…

“El pueblo, unido…jamás será vencido!

The people, united…will never be defeated!

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Risa Cantu C’DeBaca. I am an SU student, a worker and educator, and a local activist—speaking on behalf of the Syracuse ANSWER Coalition and P.S.L.

It’s great to see such a lively, passionate crowd of people coming together in Syracuse for May Day and in solidarity with workers all around the world. I just have a few words to share with ya’ll about why workers and activists must work together to fight in the anti-racist struggle.

The U.S capitalist system was built on the backs of all workers of the 99%, but it is essential to understand how people of color and immigrants have been exploited to the highest degree in this age of mass incarceration or modern-day slavery, extreme racial profiling, and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Por ejemplo (for example)…

The Obama administration has deported more immigrants than any other U.S. President! Why criminalize people who contribute so much to this country—workers who contribute so much to this country—while Wall Street and transnational corporations that control our government are the real root of the problem.

Although our white brothers and sisters experience being exploited in the workplace, police brutality, and face discrimination for their gender and/or sexuality…black and brown bodies are constantly hyper-surveillanced, instantly criminalized, and are disproportionately affected by the violent, racist, police state we live in!

It is an injustice that workers are discouraged to speak out against low wages, abuse, and layoffs—that they are discouraged from even organizing. Whether it be organizing in unions or just simply organizing. It’s time for us to take the streets and make demands because as workers we truly hold the power to make real changes!

¡Otro mundo es possible! Another world is possible!

Ain’t no power like the power of the people, cause the power of the people don’t stop…say what?!