Major Events
8/6-8 15th annual Doctors for Global Health General Assembly. Atlanta (www.dghonline.org).
11/18 Latin America Solidarity Coalition at Ft. Benning, GA. Conference to examine current and proposed strategies to oppose US militarism and anti-democracy campaigns and the militarization of our communities. Goal: To come out of the conference with movement-wide strategies and campaigns that we can take back to our organizations, bases, and communities.
11/18-21 Close the SOA! SOA Watch Annual Vigil. Columbus, GA (Ft. Benning).
Spring 2011 Latin America Solidarity Coalition (5th Conference - see article, above) and SOA Watch are mobilizing for a massive gathering in Washington, DC, to lobby Congress on many issues, including shutting down the SOA/WHINSEC.
Campaigns
- Free The Cuban Five. A June 2 press conference revealed new evidence uncovered by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five that the US Government has covertly paid tens of thousands of dollars to Miami journalists working for major media outlets who, during the federal government's politically-charged Miami prosecution, published often incendiary stories about Cuba and the five Cubans. (www.freethecubanfive.org).
- Haiti: End the Debt (quixote.org/haiti-reborn or www.jubileeusa.org/haiti.html).
- El Salvador: Demanding that Pacific Rim Mining Corporation drop its lawsuit against El Salvador and withdraw plans for a deadly gold mine (www.cispes.org; www.rightsaction.org).
- Also, see two NED articles, above.
Job Opening
National Organizer SOA Watch, Washington (hvoss@soaw.org).
Books
- The Flowering of the Prophetic Word in the Americas: Unmasking US imperialism and religious fundamentalismby Philip E. Wheaton, EPICA, 2010.
- La Agresión Permanente ("The Permanent Aggression"), by Eva Golinger and Jean-Guy Allard. Looks at the US history of "democracy promotion", focusing on USAID, NED and the CIA and links between them and other organizations including the Inter-American Press Association and Human Rights Watch.
- Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia’s challenge to globalization. Edited by Jim Shultz and Melissa Crane Draper. eyewitness account of Bolivia's decade-long rebellion against globalization imposed from abroad. ISBN 9780520256996.
- Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin Americaby Benjamin Dangl. AK Press. 2010.
Videos/Movies
“Tocar y Luchar: To Play and To Fight.” The story of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra System - an incredible network of hundreds of orchestras formed within most of Venezuela’s towns and villages http://www.tocaryluchar.com/en/film.html.
“The 800 Mile Wall” A powerful documentary highlighting the construction of the new walls along the US-Mexico border as well as the effect on migrants trying to cross into the US. www.800milewall.org/
“People to People,” a documentary about the Pastors for Peace (PFP) Friendshipment Caravans to Cuba, mixing archival footage with video from the 2008 Caravan to Cuba and including recent interviews to tell the story of PFP and the Latin American School of
Medicine in Havana, Cuba. (www.ifconews.,org).
Special Reports
- Making the Grade? The Group of 20’s Commitments to the World’s Poorest. New analysis shows shockingly slow progress on the G20’s already meager goals to help the most impoverished. See HERE
- “Undermining Guate”, by Rachel Small, a follow-up to a photo-essay about “Gang rapes, forced evictions & the endless nightmare of nickel mining in Guatemala”, published on Rights Action’s listserv, May 27. Go to THIS LINK
Travel (see Codes below)
Argentina: 7/24-8/1 (CGE Indigenous people lead); 8/4-14 (GX Building economic justice from below).
Bolivia: 7/10-19 (GX Changes with Morales vs. neoliberalism)
Border: 9/3-6 (GX Immigration, labor, environment).
Brazil: 12/27-1/4 (GX New Year’s in Rio).
Colombia: 7/14-27 (CPT Peacemakers Team); 7/16-26 (WP Appalachia and Colombia: the people behind the coal); 7/24-8/2 (WP Military bases, human rights, free trade); 8/7-17 (WP Magdalena Region, corporate abuse, military repression, displaced persons); 8/10-18 (AGJ with WP The Resistance); 10/13-26 (CPT Peacemaker team women/s movement).
Costa Rica: 7/21-30 (GX Ecotourism, sustainability, the Caribbean coast); 11/20-29 (GX Ecotourism, sustainabiality, the N. Pacific coast).
Cuba: 7/17-31 (GX with Food First sustainability, food sovereignty); 7/18-28 (WP Professional educators’ research delegation); 9/1-16 (GX music, dance, culture); 9/12-27 (GX food security, culinary arts); 10/1-10 (GX wetlands, coasts, forests protected); 10/2-12 (GX economics); 11/3-12 (GX health care, althernative healing); ll/12-21 (GX sustainable agriculture, urban gardens); 11/19-29 (GX education from pre-school to PhD); 12/27-1/5 (GX New Years in Havana).
Ecuador: 12/27 – ¼ (GX New Years on the equator).
El Salvador: 8/1-8 (CGE Central America, past and present, for educators; 11/28-12/5 (Internatioanl Partners in Mission, immersion, 30th anniversary of the assassination of four American churchwomen).
Guatemala: 7/10-18 (CGE Education for decolonization: professional development seminar).
Honduras: 8/10-18 (WP Continuing the Resistance).
Mexico: 7/12-22 (WP Roots of immigration: trade, privatization, resistance); 7/23-30 (WP Oaxaca and the Arizona border, roots of immigration);8/4-12 (GX Chiapas, indigenous land rights, bio-diversity); 12//27-1/4 (GX Chiapas, Anniversary of NAFTA, the Zapatistas).
Nicaragua: 7/10-19 (GX fair trade, alternatives to neoliberalism); 7/13-27 (WP Inter-cultural teen delegation).
Peru: 7/8-19 (GX Sustainability, art, mysticism).
Venezuela: 7/19-8/2 (AGJ Food sovereignty study tour, social movements); 8/14-24 (GX A new vision for the Americas); 10/20-30 (GX A new vision for the Americas).
CODES:
CGE: Center for Global Education, Augsburg College. 612-330-1159; www.globaled@augsburg.edu.
CPT: Christian Peacemaker Teams. 773-277-0253; www.cpt.org.
GATE: Global Awareness Through Experience. 608-791-5283, www.gate-travel.org.
GX: Global Exchange. 415-255-7296, www.globalexchange.org/countries/Americas.
RA: Rights Action, 860-352-2448, www.rightsaction.org.
WP: Witness for Peace. 202-547-6112, www.witnessforpeace.org,