The initiative petition has become a permanent feature of the California political scene, and this year's election is no exception. In an odd twist, however, two initiatives heavily backed by conservative forces seem to be spurring a coalition of immigrant and labor voters that could prove a lasting presence. PNS Associate Editor, David Bacon, writes widely on immigration and labor issues.

LOS ANGELES -- Two unrelated initiatives on California's June 2 ballot are beginning to create a unified opposition that could prove more potent than any immediate win or loss. The real prize is shaping up to be the sympathies of the state's new immigrant majorities, more and more of whom are signing up to vote.

Proposition 226 would require unions to obtain the signature of each member before spending dues for political purposes. Proposition 227 would replace bilingual education with English immersion unless an individual student's parents object.

Opponents of both measures shared the platform at recent anti-226 rallies in Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. "The demographics of the state's population are making many of us see a connection between the two initiatives," explains Maria Abadesco, who coordinates the Labor-Neighbor campaign for the Alameda County Central Labor Council. "Attacks on immigrants are increasingly attacks against our members. And if unions lose their ability to organize political campaigns, which is what Prop 226 will do, it will be much harder to defeat anti-immigrant legislation."

"I don't think we can win either one of these campaigns by itself," adds Freddy Tejada, a community organizer for the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights. "Our only hope is to use the strength of each one to reinforce the other."

Tejada expects "tens of thousands of new immigrant citizens to vote in June." His organization has registered hundreds of voters each week for the past two years at INS swearing-in ceremonies,

The surge in new citizen voters -- linked to the powerful get out the vote machinery and fund raising capability of organized labor -- could mark a radical shift in voting patterns. The possibility is not lost on conservative strategists whose successful campaigns -- from Prop 187 to anti-affirmative action 209 -- have played on voter fears.

That may be why Tejada's group was barred from registering voters at INS ceremonies in early April. A few weeks later, the Northern California Coalition and the Los Angeles based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights released reports documenting extreme delays on the part of the INS -- the agency currently has a backlog of over 1.7 million people, none of whom can vote until they are sworn in.

"We believe the INS is feeling the pressure of Republican politicians," charges Tejada. "They fear immigrants have been motivated to become citizens just to vote against people like Pete Wilson and propositions like 187 and 227."

For more than a year, Republicans have sought an indictment of Nativo Lopez and the Hermanidad Nacional Mexicana in southern California for allegedly including non citizens in a widespread campaign to register new citizens to vote. That new citizen vote provided the margin of victory in 1996 for Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat who defeated "B-1 Bob" Dornan in the heart of Republican stronghold Orange County. No charges were ever filed, and the investigation was closed late last year.

The importance of new citizen voters clearly boosts the spirits of many seasoned activists -- but it is also reviving a bitter debate over how to defeat conservative initiatives. UC Journalism professor Lydia Chavez, author of The Color Bind (UC Press), which documents the failed campaign against Proposition 209, believes the anti-affirmative action measure won largely because the opposition failed to use television advertising effectively to reach mainstream voters, and because the public was confused about the opposition's message.

From the first, she argues, polling data made it clear that only one message -- "mend it - don't end it" -- resonated with the general public. "But for reasons, some of which are still unclear, the opposition campaign just didn't get it together to concentrate...let alone mount a top-down campaign with a positive message."

Others argue that such an approach would play into the racist assumptions underlying such initiatives. Immigration and affirmative action are both socially positive, they say, while the initiatives scapegoat immigrants, minorities and women for problems rising from social and economic inequality.

The debate continues, says Kenneth Burt, political director of the California Federation of Teachers. He warns that the new citizen vote can't be taken for granted with recent polls showing large percentages of voter support for 227, as well as 226, even among Latinos.

Whatever happens with these two initiatives, Burt believes the real challenge "is to come out of these campaigns with more activists.... That core of activists was an important factor in the victory of Gil Cadillo's campaign for State Senate in Los Angeles a few months ago. We had the power of labor, the power of immigrants, a few elected officials, and we beat the machine. Eventually, California campaigns will look like what we did there."