Thread: Golden Gate Minutemen starting groups in Northern California

If some of you in Northern California would like to keep in touch, the East Bay Coalition for Border Security has been keeping each other posted on local events. We've started back about the time of the demonstrations back in March.

Recently we became affiliated with the Minuteman Project founded and head up by Jim Gilchrist. We are the Golden Gate Chapter and are going by the name, "Golden Gate Minutemen".

We have a pretty good core group that has come together in Fremont for meetings and rallies. We also have been attending local political meetings, supporting candidates for election. handing out flags and flyer's at The Forth of July Parade and many other actions.

Some of our members have been traveling some distance to get to meetings and rallies. We have recently been working on establishing some new groups in the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area. We have started a group in Redwood City and one in Castro Valley. We have been hoping that we can get some groups organized like we had in scouts when we were kids. We hope to have many smaller groups working together like patrols, then we could all come together like a troop for meetings, rallies and other events. I see no reason to limit ourselves to the bay area. We have a membership list going and may be able to help others find each other locally. If our group can help you get your own group started let us know. We have a pretty good team that may be able to come to your area and guide you on getting started. We may also be able to get you in contact with others that may help. MCDC is also working on helping others get started.

This is basically how our contact list works. We have different levels of email notification. We also have a phone list.

We've had some trouble with the International Socialist Organization in the past so we had to tighten up our mailing list.

The newest form of contact is the Golden Gate Minutemen Yahoo Group. We are new at it and are still exploring ways to use it. To get on it you need to get through one of our members, USAdave, to be approved. He needs to have been to a rallies with you or know you in some way as to feel secure in sharing the information that is posted there. The Yahoo group makes it possible for members to mass email the other members with information, plus it has a calendar of upcoming events.

We also have a list of members that are contacted the old fashioned way. By email. We have a secure list and a not so secure list.

If you want to get on one of them contact us at the www.goldengateminutemen.com

StokeyBob

Minutemen form new chapter in Castro Valley
By Rachel Cohen, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:03/18/2007 06:45:11 AM PDT

CASTRO VALLEY — By a nearly unanimous vote, about 25 people agreed Saturday on Castro Valley Minutemen as the name of the newest chapter of the Golden Gate Minutemen at their first meeting.
"It's about national security," organizer Mary Washington of Fremont wrote on a board to summarize their concerns about illegal immigration.

Spokesman Charles Birkman said there were 40,000 minutemen before last year's first national immigration march on May 1, which promoted granting amnesty to illegal immigrants. After that, there were more than 80,000.

"What we're seeing now is the beginning of a reform movement," he said.

The Castro Valley group first assembled Feb. 24 for a rally at Redwood Road and Castro Valley Boulevard, which drew about 50 supporters, as well as a crowd of counterprotesters from the Castro Valley Progressives.

Saturday's meeting at the Castro Valley Library was mainly informational, though there were a handful of protesters outside. Part of the national Minutemen Project, the Golden Gate Minutemen is a political network with chapters in Redwood City and Fremont and seed groups in Alameda and Pleasanton. Minutemen got their name from border watchmen who, like a Neighborhood Watch group, stop people crossing the border by engaging them in conversation until law enforcement arrives.

"There's no one in the Bay Area that wants to come speak out against immigration, because they're afraid of being called racist," Birkman said. "A lot of people don't want to come to these meetings because they're afraid they might lose their job, and that gives way to paranoia."

Birkman pushed for finding a "friendly magistrate" who would adopt an initiative similar to those passed by about three dozen cities, which deny permits to businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

Scott Rodrigues, who volunteered to be the group's vice president, said, "Neither (political) party is willing to take on this immigration issue."

Those who volunteered to fill leadership positions for the next three months were Dave Latur of Hayward, president, and Bill Santora, handling security.

Like any politically active organization, Saturday's group had a range of opinions.

Dale Harder of Castro Valley, who visited both sides at the February rally, mentioned the impact illegal immigration has had on government services.

"The school and sewage systems can't keep up with the demands," he said.

Locally, the group was concerned about a proposal before the Hayward City Council to build a hiring center building for day laborers.

"We've become fat, dumb and happy," said Steve Kauzlarich. "I think the people who are collecting Social Security should be obligated to get in and do something to fill the jobs that Americans won't fill."

Everyone agreed to bring two people to the next meeting, March 27 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Castro Valley Library.

The next rally will be April 21 from noon to 2 p.m. on the corner of Castro Valley Boulevard and Redwood Road.

For more information, visit http://www.EastBayCoalitionforBorderSecurity.com.


http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyrevie ... ci_5465427