human rights

Lessons from Organizer and Strategist Peter Van Delft

Thursday, February 21, 2013, 7:00 p.m. At no previous point in its history has the situation of the labor movement been more dire. At the same time, new waves of immigrant and community organizing and the rise of middle-class activism may signal renewal for the movement that brought dignity to millions of workers. This event helps as look forward by first looking back on Peter's 4 decades of service to the labor movement.

About Peter: A longtime activist and a third-generation socialist, Peter Van Delft has spent more than forty years in the labor movement. Following World War II he attended the University of California at Berkeley where he earned an M.A. in Anthropology and where he was involved in activities leading to increased admissions and support for low income and students of color.

Until his retirement Peter was a Vice President of New York based, 30,000 member, District 65. Earlier, he had been a member of the National Maritime Union and of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Thursday, March 29th, 2012, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Lillian Holloway MD grew up in West Philadelphia. She worked as a certified nursing assistant before deciding to go to medical school. She graduated from the Latin American School of Medicine, Havana, Cuba in 2009. She is currently a resident in Family Practice and an MPH candidate at University of Illinois Hospitals in Chicago.

An Evening with Gamelyn Oduardo - A Strike Organizer

Saturday, March 17th, 2012, 7:30 p.m. Join us for an evening with Gamelyn Oduardo. Last spring, students at the University of Puerto Rico waged a militant, ten-month strike fending off devastating cuts, tuition hikes, and privatization schemes. As a strike leader and law student, Oduardo served on the student coordinating committee for the strike at the Rio Piedras campus in the united effort to defend students against the attacks on public education. He is coming to share his experiences and draw from the Boston occupy movement as we defend our rights and communities. 

Friday, February 3, 2012, 5:00 p.m. El Movimiento hosts a screening of "Knowledge is Power: The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975." For more information and to plug in, contact Fernando, fjrodriguez787 [at] gmail [dot] com or call 857-222-9203. $5.00 suggested donation. See full page (click on title above) for a short preview.

Sunday, January 14, 2012, 1:00 p.m. Raed Jarrar is an Iraqi-Palestinian architect, blogger and political analyst who was in Iraq during the U.S. invasion in 2003 and has recentlyreturned from another trip. He is a former AFSC and Peace Action staff person who provided constant briefings to peace activists throughout the war as well as working with Congressman Delahunt's office to develop opposition to the war in Congress.  He collected his and his family's blog posts into The Iraq War Blog, An Iraqi Family's Inside View of the First Year of the Occupation, published as a book in 2008.

This event is organized by OCCUPY BOSTON - FREE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY

Thursday, November 4, 2010, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. José Brito formerly worked at the Cerrejon mine in Colombia. He is a trade unionist representing thousands of workers at giant surface strip-mines. The Drummond and Cerejon mines produce 90% of Colombian coal exports. These help fire Massachusetts' Salem and Somerset electrical generating plants in addition to other generating stations in the United States.

April 25th to April 30th, 2010 (At encuentro 5, Lucy Parson's Center, & Haley House) Leading up to the MayDay 2010 rallies and marches, join us across the city for six days of movies and discussion on the topics of workers' struggle, immigration, history, political analysis, and alternatives. Featuring an exhibit of Justice Artwork at encuentro 5 from local worker-run cooperative Red Sun Press!

Festival Schedule (read more):

Saturday, February 13, 2010, 6:00 p.m. Join Victor Wallis and Sylvia Escarcega in a discussion concerning the potential political and ethical contributions of indigenous thought and social movements to building alternatives to capitalism. Victor's paper, "Beyond 'Green Capitalism'" recently published in Monthly Review (61:9, February, 2010) provides a starting point for the conversation. In it, he notes the connection between the present economic recession, the crisis-ridden character of capitalist economy and the ecological limits to the capitalist growth model. But he goes on to observe that most of the world is still caught up in capitalist institutions and does not yet recognize the link between socialism and ecologically appropriate responses. He finds hope and examples in the Global South, insurgent socialism and indigenous resistance.

Friday, March 5, 2010, 8:00 p.m. [Updated flyers attached] Join  Paul Baker Hernandez (from Nicaragua), Sergio Reyes, Dave Scandurra & The Excited People, The Grass Gypsys.

Paul Baker Hernandez - Eco-Minstrel performing Songs of Loveliness and Courage

Paul has invaded Queen Elizabeth II’s private castle heading a posse of bishops and other church leaders protesting nuclear weapons, confronted popes with protest songs for global justice, joined Hollywood stars on Central American picket lines in Los Angeles, and helped fight off death squads attacking Salvadoran exiles right in the heart of the USA.

He now lives in Nicaragua where he has founded Echoes of Silence, a network of “artists with broken nails” who support community health, education, ecological and cultural projects, and with whom he continues to write irreverent songs about cell phones, dictators, Starbucks, and more.

Thursday, February 4, 2010, 7:00 p.m. In the face of a deepening economic crisis and continuing brutal raids on immigrant workers and their communities, this event brings together union workers, immigrant organizers and community activists. It is part of the campaign by the Boston May Day Committee and its affiliates to unite workers across sector and borders. Join the conversation and help build toward May Day 2010!

Visit BostonMayDay.org for more information 

A Discussion with Aarti Shahani, Mizue Aizeki & Joe Nevins

Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 5:30 p.m. Immigration reform will soon be on the national legislative agenda. All options on the table punish immigrants for global economic and policy failures. To consider the different bills, in particular the one that many progressives may offer critical support--HR 4321 aka the Guiterrez Bill--three important thinkers, Aarti Shahani (founder of Families for Freedom), Mizue Aizeki and Joseph Nevins (most recently authors of Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid) will join us for an early evening conversation and light dinner.

See here for summaries: 1. from the Immigration Policy Institute (this is an Adobe Acrobat [PDF] file)

Saturday, November 21, 2009, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. Join South African social movement activist from the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.

South Africa will be on the global stage as host of the 2010 World Cup. Yet, with one of the world's highest rates of economic inequality and social protest, it is likely that the country's glaring contradictions and its militant poor, perhaps more so than the "beautiful game," will be center stage next summer.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 7:00 p.m. "My name is Martha Lucia Giraldo Villano and I was born on June 22, 1978 in Cauca, Colombia. I am the daughter of José Orlando Giraldo, a small-scale farmer who was the victim of an extrajudicial killing by the National Army. In my country, there have been many extrajudicial killings that are also categorized as false positives (the killing of innocent civilians to pass them off as guerrillas killed in combat within the context of Colombia's armed conflict). The execution of my father is an example of a 'false-positive' murder."

"I am part of the Victims of State Crimes Movement. Along with other victims, we work together on organizing and training in order to demand our rights to truth, justice and reparation."