global justice

* New community club/coffeehouse at e5 invites you for a warm gathering! *

Sunday, December 27, 7:00 p.m. Good food, music, and dynamite documentaries from around the rebellious globe. We will explore some 20th century US propaganda through cartoons and magazine advertisements and counter-images of resistance art of the time. (It was also rumoured there will be a mini chess tournament...) Relax, enjoy the evening, make new connections for the new year, and support MESA's last stretch before the opening in January. This gathering will be a mini-fundraiser, with dinner plates at a sliding scale donation of $7 - $12 and drinks at $2-$3. Come join us!  Last time at MESA's... (read more).

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)

How to Launch a Transition Town/Transition Initiative in Your Community

Saturday & Sunday, November 21 - 22, 2009, Starting at 9:00 a.m. The Transition Network and Transition US (www.transitionus.org) are offering the two-day Training for Transition course as developed by Naresh Giangrande and Sophy Banks of the Transition Network in Totnes, England (www.transitiontowns.org). The course is an in-depth experiential introduction to Transition for those considering bringing Transition to their community. It meets the training requirement for local initiating groups to become an internationally-recognized Transition Town.

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."

Saturday, November 7, 2009, 6:30 p.m. Mexico-US Solidarity Network invites you to join us for a discussion of popular education in Zapatista indigenous communities and the role of urban academics as resources in constructing an autonomous education system.

Patricia Hernández, a sociologist specializing in education & gender, has worked since 2001 with indigenous communities to develop their primary and secondary schools, following a model of "autonomous education." She worked intensively with indigenous teachers—called "education promoters" (promoter@s)—to develop the secondary school for indigenous children living in the Zona Selva Tzeltal. Local leaders, who oversaw the project, wanted the community's demands for land, food, peace, justice and democracy to serve as the content for classes on history, language and mathematics.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 6:30 p.m.Join us for a discussion to explore the following questions: What is the G-20? What kinds of policy decisions or economic strategies come out of G-20 summits? How do these policies and decisions affect our communities and our lives? What needs to be done to build a stronger, more democratic economy from the bottom up? We hope to have a speaking panel, TBD. Contact A New Way Forward Boston for more information or sign up for the Boston ANWF Google Group.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. Activists in solidarity with Peruvian indigenous struggles for sovereignty will be meeting to prepare posters and banners for the 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, June 17, 2009, protest outside the Peruvian consulate in Boston.

The Indigenist provides background information on this struggle.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Tecschange recently donated 5 computers to an all-volunteer community cultural association based in one of the poorest urban neighborhoods of Maputo, Mozambique. Peter Young, a (former) Tecschange volunteer living in Maputo will talk about the project and how it is benefiting the community of Mafalala.