Major Events
November 18-20, Fort Benning, Columbus, GA. “Stand Up For Dignity and Justice, Solidarity and Self-Determination.” Shut down the SOA/WHINSEC and resist US militarization. (Hendrik Voss, www.soaw.org, 202-425-5128).
Campaigns
- “Joining Hands to Break the Chains of Debt.” To convince the G20 to establish an international bankruptcy court that will be fair and transparent in considering unjust debt. Donations matched up to $15,000. Jubilee USA (Eric LeCompte, coord@jubileeusa.org. )
- Haiti: Withdraw all military personnel from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), “an unjustified and immoral military occupation” responsible for “a dense pattern of human rights violations, and the violation of Haitians’ political rights.” (Hendrick Voss, SOAW, 202-234-3440.)
- Help Guatemalans (Mayan Qeqchi communities) to stop Canadian mining companies that clear their land and force their evictions (Rights Action, 860-352-2448, info@rightsaction.org).
- Free the Cuban 5. Online petition campaign to tell President Obama to let René González return to Cuba (www.freethefive.org) and pressure the US government to release the remaining four from prolonged, unjustified imprisonment (www.thecuban5.org).
Books
The Journey of a Tzotzil-Maya Woman of Chiapas, Mexico, co-authored by Christine Eber and "Antonia," a Tzotzil-Maya woman from Chenalho, Chiapas. "Antonia" has been instrumental in founding several weaving cooperatives and in the Zapatista and progressive Catholic movements in highland Chiapas. Royalties will go to "Antonia" to help support her family and continue her work for social justice. $36.85 if you order directly from the website: http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/ebejou.html.
Guest Workers and Resistance to U.S. Corporate Despotism, by Immanuel Ness, 2011, 231 pp. $25, Paperback. Exposes the corporate structures behind exploitative migrant labor programs and shows how worker migration and guest worker programs weaken the power of labor in both sending and receiving countries.
Let Me Speak! A Bolivian Woman Miner’s Revolutionary Life, by Domitila Barrios de Chungara. First published in 1978, this is a classic piece of working class oral history. Benjamin Dangl says, “The life experiences of Bolivian mining activist Domitila Barrios de Chungara traverse some of the most important and tumultuous events in 20th century Bolivian history. Her account of this life in this book offers a view from the trenches of militant, leftist organizing within the country labor movements and beyond.” Available from: http://www.akpress.org/2006/items/letmespeak.
DVD: After I Pick the Fruit, a documentary by Nancy Ghertner. 93 minutes including the credits. Follows the lives of five immigrant farmworker women over a ten-year period as they labor in the apple orchards and fields of rural western New York, migrate seasonally to Florida, raise their families, and try to hide from the Bush-era immigration raids that were conducted in response to 9/11. Filmed in New York, Florida, and Mexico, this intimate, bittersweet, feature-length film illuminates a community that is nearly invisible to most Americans, and will change the way you look at our national ‘immigration problem. After I Pick the Fruit will donate the proceeds from DVD sales and speaker awards to support women and their families through projects at FLSNY, WARE, and RMM in upstate NY. http://www.afteripickthefruit.com/
Video: The Deadliest Place in the World for a Journalist. Mini-documentary on the Honduran journalists that have watched15 colleagues assassinated in nineteen months under the Lobo regime. http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=7432
Job Opening: Coordinator of the Honduras Accompaniment Project, based in Honduras, and part of the Friendship Office of the Americas (Jennifer Atlee or Tom Lowden, jennya@friendshipamericas.org.)
Travel
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COLOMBIA: 11/11, date tba. (CPT churches delegation; 2/3-13, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, US policy, the confict zone). (Colombia@presbypeacefellowship.org).
CUBA: 1/14-24 (WP Arts and Culture delegation. 2/4-12 (CGE people and Politics)
GUATEMALA: 1/7-14 (RA Role of US and Canada in mining, biofuels and militarization.);1/13-22 (CGE Peace, Justice and the People Who Make It Happen;
HONDURAS and GUATEMALA: 3/10-17 (RA corporate mining and dams vs. the people, 30th anniversary of the Rio Negro massacres).
MEXICO: 6/25-7/3 (CGE 2012 Elections: Democracy and the Fight for Social Justice).
Please visit websites of organizations below to find current list of delegations.
CODES:
AGJ: Alliance for Global Justice, 202-544-9355, afgj@afgj.org, www.afgj.org.
BL: BorderLinks, 520-628-8263, education@borderlinks.org, www.borderlinks.org.
CGE: Center for Global Education, Augsburg College. 612-330-1159; globaled@augsburg.edu.
CISPES: Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador. www.cispes.org; rebecca@cispes.org.
CPT: Christian Peacemaker Teams, PO Box 6508, Chicago, IL 60680. 773-277-0291, delegations@cpt.org, www.cpt.org.
FS: Food Sovereignty. Tanya at tkerssen@foodfirst.org; (510) 654-4400, ext. 223
GATE: Global Awareness Through Experience. 608-791-5283 or www.gate-travel.org.
GX: Global Exchange. 415.255.7296. http://globalexchange.org/countries/americas.
RA: Rights Action, www.info@rightsaction.org.
SOAW: School of the Americas Watch. 202-234-3440; www.soaw.org/delegations.
WP: Witness for Peace. 202-547-6112. www.witnessforpeace.org.
TFA: Task Force of the Americas. 415-924-3227, www.mitfamericas.org.