Category Take Action

Nov 19 2017

“Cold War Truth Commission” Event: Saturday, December 9, 2017 10AM-8PM in Los Angeles

“Are you now or have you ever been”…discounted and ridiculed for your ideals and activism, or called a “Red” or a “Communist” or a “Socialist” in order to intimidate and discredit your ideas or your solutions to today’s domestic or international problems?…You are not alone. In fact, you are part of a 150 year-long drama of U.S. red-bating, illegality, and anti-communist hysteria. A history, that if understood, can help us unravel and understand both today’s domestic and international events.
Come spend the day while we film putting “The Cold War on Trial!” Scholars and citizen testimonials will help us learn the history of the Cold War, and its relevance to U.S. political corruption and to today’s global chaos…Robert Scheer will be our Keynote Speaker. Distinguished panelists on: CIA-backed global interventions of the Cold War; McCarthyism and the crushing of labor and the left in the U.S.; the Cold War nuclear legacy; Hollywood and the blacklist; the “Red Scare” of the 1930’s; and the red-baiting of social activists as far back as 1850! Please contact us if you are interested in tabling or in providing citizen testimonial. https://www.facebook.com/events/1447719891973195/

We’re putting the Cold War on trial…

Saturday December 9, 2017

10am – 8pm

Pico Union Project
Distinguished Panelists
+ Citizen Testimonials
KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
ROBER SCHEER, TRUTHDIG

We consider the Cold War to be our nation’s 3rd, and as-of-yet,unspoken crime, after the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of African peoples. Our mission is to begin exposing U.S. crimes of the Cold War, and to show how today’s foreign and domestic violence and injustice are intimately tied up in the historic perpetration of the Cold War.

“I think it’s a great idea! Ideologically, it’s right on.”

–Oliver Stone on the Cold War Truth Commission

FB page: coldwartruthcommission2017 #coldwartruthcommission

 

Proposed endorsements:Veterans for Peace, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, Witness for Peace Southwest, Party for Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER Coalition LA, National Network on Cuba, Green Party of Los Angeles, Berners United, Long Breach Progressive Alliance, CODEPINK, Random Lengths News, LB Progressive Alliance, Rosenberg Fund
Nov 3 2017

“Across the Americas” Nov 4th Event Program – Join Us!

Across the Americas: A Toolkit for Change – Sponsored by Witness for Peace Southwest

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Saturday November 4th, 2017 – 2 – 6pm, L.A. Workers Center, 1251 S. St. Andrews Place, Los Angeles, CA 90019

2:00pm -2:15pm – Registration and Refreshments

2:15pm – 2:30pm – “Across the Americas: A Toolkit for Change”, Latin American and Caribbean struggles for self-determination and sovereignty in context by Witness for Peace Southwest. How can we strengthen our movements against US economic, political and social aggression? How can we build solidarity between grassroots movements across the Americas, Diasporas and other migrations? How can we be accountable to movements across Latin America and the Caribbean from our community spaces in the US?

2:35pm – 3:05pm – “Demanding Nature: How natural resource issues and climate change are pushing social change in Latin America” – workshop facilitated by Rachel Brunhke, high school educator and Witness for Peace Southwest Regional Board Member  

3:05pm – 3:15pm – Announcements and icebreaker – WFP Mexico International Team 2017 Report on Mexican grassroots movements in Oaxaca, roots of migration, organized resistance to US economic models and US solidarity from team members Saraí Jiménez and Laura Krasovitzky

3:15pm -3:45pm – “Cuba: Impacts of US Foreign Policy on Cuba” – presentation with Lee Schlenker and Cat Walker, Witness for Peace International Team Members in Cuba w/ Q&A moderated by Malia Everette, founder of  socially responsible travel company Altruvistas and Southwest Regional Board Member

3:50pm – 4:50pm – Documentary screening of “Berta Vive!” with Honduran filmmaker Katia Lara, the documentary follows the life and work of Berta Caceres, Lenca indigenous leader of Honduras and co-founder of the Civic Council of Indigenous and Popular Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), in the wake of Berta’s assassination March 2016 w/ Q&A moderated by Melissa Cox, WFP National Delegations Coordinator, long-time filmmaker and former WFP International Team member in Colombia.

4:50pm – 5:00pm – Announcements and icebreaker – WFP Colombia International Team 2017 Report on Colombian grassroots movements, US based solidarity and recent civic strike in Afro-Colombian and Indigenous majority territory in Buenaventura, Colombian Pacific Coast from team members Gilberto Villaseñor and Samantha Wherry

5:00pm – 5:30pm – “Resistance to State Repression and Corporate Privatization in the Context of Honduran 2017 National Elections” and congressional updates on HR 1299 Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act with Bryan Rogers, WFP International team member in Honduras

5:35pm – 6:05pm – “People’s Power and Participatory Democracy in Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution: Solidarity in Times of US Intervention”– Robin Garcia, Ph.D candidate at Claremont Graduate University in Cultural Studies and WFP Southwest regional board member and Jeanette Charles, WFP Southwest Regional Organizer and Decolonial Delegations Program Coordinator

6:10pm – 6:15pm – “Across the Americas: A Toolkit for Change” closing

6:15pm – 10:00pm – Dia de los Muertos Celebration: conversation, dinner, dance, music and food

WFP invites all community members and participants to partake in the LA Workers Center’s annual Dia de los Muertos celebration honoring ancestors from across the Americas, African Diaspora and Indigenous nations. There will be a variety of community food vendors with traditional dishes for sale accompanied by live musical acts, dance and follow-up conversation with our event speakers and workshop facilitators.

Sep 26 2017

“Por las Américas: Un kit de herramientas para la transformación” – Evento de Acción Permanente por la Paz – 4 de noviembre

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2:00pm – 6:00pm, talleres y presentaciones
6:00pm – 8:00pm, cena y música
Sábdo 4 de noviembre 2017

La Casa Roja – 1251 S. St. Andrews Place – Los Angeles, CA 90019

Está listx para una revolución? Quiere aprender de otros movimientos a nivel local e internacional? Acción Permamente por la Paz estará organizando un día de actividades, talleres, intercambios y foros sobre las luchas populares por las Américas. Nuestros equipos internacionales, miebros de la mesa directiva y aliadxs presentarán sobre las luchas de los pueblos indígenas, afro-descendientes, mujeres, jovenes, trabajadorxs, campesinxs y otros movimientos en Cuba, Colombia, Haití, Honduras, México y Venezuela entre otros. 

Analizaremos como nuestras comunidades en Los Ángeles y la región (California, Arizona y Nuevo México) están moblizandose en diferentes frentes desde la lucha para enfrentar el cambio climático, la lucha por los derechos migrantes, la violencia del estado y la brutalidad policiaca. Aprenderemos de las luchas a favor de las dietas saludables y decoloniales, recuperación de tierras y derechos humanos. 

Todxs saldarán del evento con más información y más “herramientas” para construir un movimiento dinamico e inovador en contra de las violaciones de derechos humanos que estamos enfrentando en todas nuestras comunidades. 

Donación sugerida para la conferencia: $10, para la cena: $10, para ambas actividades $15. Nadie será rechazadx por falta de fondos. 

Habrá cuidado de ninxs por pedido. Evento bilingue. 

Rifa, libros y artesanía a la venta!!!!

Para más información: jeanette@witnessforpeace.org o southwestwfp@gmail.com or call 805-669- VIVA (8482)

Website: http://www.wfpsw.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WFPSW

Sep 26 2017

Join WFPSW for “Across the Americas: A Toolkit for Change” this November 4th

 

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2:00pm – 6:00pm, Workshops
6:00pm – 8:00pm, Dinner and Music
Saturday November 4th, 2017
The Red House
1251 S. St. Andrews Place
Los Angeles, CA 90019

Ready for a revolution? Want to learn from other movements organizing locally and internationally? Join Witness for Peace Southwest for an afternoon of discussions, presentations and engaging workshops on grassroots organizing across the Americas. Our international teams, board members and allies will present on current issues facing Indigenous, African-Descendants, women, youth, workers, farmers and other communities in Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Venezuela and more.

We will also look at how our communities in Los Angeles and the greater region (California, Arizona and New Mexico) are organizing in the areas of climate change, immigration rights, against state sanctioned violence ad police brutality, and in favor of decolonial and healthy diets, farming and land rights among others. Everyone will leave with more information, more “tools” to build a dynamic and innovative movement against the onslaught of human rights violations being committed against our communities across borders.

Witness for Peace (WFP) is a politically independent, nationwide grassroots organization of people committed to nonviolence and led by faith and conscience. Witness for Peace’s mission is to support peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing U.S. policies and corporate practices that contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean. WFP was founded in 1983 as the US backed Contra War in Nicaragua was underway.

WFP organizes: international delegations to document human rights abuses ties to US government funding and US corporate practices; speaker’s tours across the country with grassroots voices from Latin America and the Caribbean; hosts local events and solidarity gatherings and, collaborates on congressional work to shape US policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Suggested donation $10 for conference, $10 Dinner or $15 for both. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Child care available upon request. Bilingual event.

Raffle, books and artesania for sale!

For more information and to rsvp email: jeanette@witnessforpeace.org or southwestwfp@gmail.com or call 805-669- VIVA (8482)

Website: http://www.wfpsw.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WFPSW

 

 

 

Dec 26 2016

In the Spirit of Giving, support WFPSW

 

Dear WFPSW supporter,

Mil gracias. Thank you so much for your accompaniment, contribution to and unwavering solidarity with Witness for Peace Southwest (WfPSW) and our partners throughout Latin America. As WfPSW Regional Organizer I am very excited to share the work we have done this last year. As we begin 2017, we ask for your continued support at this critical time for solidarity across movements in the US, Latin America and the world.

I write you from Central America, Honduras specifically. Here, over the last two years, I have accompanied an unique process with WFP to launch our international program. For us, and our partners, it has been a difficult yet beautiful and necessary struggle to make this happen.  We currently have two international team members on the ground and have organized four delegations in the last year opening opportunities for US based organizers, people of conscious and other interested individuals to engage with Honduran indigenous, African descendants, women, youth and union leaders among others. Next year, WFPSW will host two delegations to Honduras: Radical Organizing Across Difference (March 17th-26th) and The Fight for Reparations (June 25th-July 7th).

I began as WfPSW RO late summer 2015. Since then, I have worked alongside our international teams, national staff, national and regional board members as well as with our grassroots membership to re-build our region from our 2014-2015 hiatus. At WFPSW, we look to take down the walls that divide our peoples, challenge policies that repress our communities and build just, humane societies.

Throughout the year, we have hosted several events from our 2016 inaugural dinner with report backs from Cuba, Venezuela, Honduras, Colombia and Mexico in addition to participating in initiatives against US militarism and occupation such as International Peace week in San Pedro, California. We have also supported campaigns in solidarity with greater Cuba-US relations and commemorative events honoring the people’s driven Cuban Revolution.

Since the spring, our region has also supported larger cross-organizational campaigns for justice. The assassination of Berta Cáceres on March 3rd devastated millions across the globe. We have continued to accompany the Lenca people even more and have campaigned in favor of the Berta Cáceres and Human Rights in Honduras Act (HR 5474) calling for US military divestment in Honduras – similar congressional demands have not been made since the late ‘80s.

Over the summer, we have added one new member to our growing regional  board: Robin Garcia, long-time activist originally from Los Angeles, California. Robin’s work spans across the Americas where she has dedicated her time to working in grassroots journalism and alternative media such as teleSUR and working with Venezuela’s multimedia movement. Robin started in July and we look forward to building more with her in the future.

In the fall, we organized an impressive five state, 11 city tour with two young Venezuelan queer organizers: Maria Gabriela del Pilar Blanco and Paola Martucci Gomez. They witnessed firsthand the harsh realities facing Black and Brown communities across the greater US West region and shared their tales of triumph with the Bolivarian Revolution. Moreover, they gave their own accounts of the challenges currently facing the revolutionary process including: a violent opposition bloc, international media manipulation, economic blockade, sharp drop in global oil prices and the truest hurdle of all, building XXIst century socialism. Their talks were beyond inspiring and engaged autonomous community spaces, universities and grassroots organizations in needed conversations about imagining, creating and sustaining alternatives.

While we are uncertain what the political and economic future holds for our communities and our countries, here at Witness for Peace Southwest, we are certain that our commitment to social justice and solidarity must not waver. Now, more than ever, we depend on your continued support in all facets of our organizing.

We hope to see you on our delegations in Honduras, Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia next year!

We want to make a stop in your community during our next speaker’s tour!

And, as always, your continued financial support is received in the deepest of gratitude and greatest appreciation. Make a donation today! Become a sustaining donor!

Every contribution makes a difference, from $5 to $100. Make a donation once a month or one time.

You can make your tax-deductible donations via our PayPal account using the following email address: southwestwfp@gmail.com or mail a check to Witness for Peace Southwest @ PO Box 1781 Ojai, CA 93024.

In solidarity, peace and justice,

Jeanette

WfPSW Regional Organizer: jcharles.wfpsw@gmail.com & wfpsw@witnessforpeace.org, 805.669.VIVA (8482)

Dec 12 2016

2017 Delegations Announcement, Part 1 (+ flyers)

Join Witness for Peace Southwest on two delegations in 2017 to Honduras! Look out soon for additional announcements for delegations to Cuba and other locations across Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Radical Organizing Across Difference: Alternative Spring Break in Honduras

March 17th -26th 2017, Delegation Flyer

The Honduran resistance movement makes up a wide variety of grassroots organizations that are committed to creating alternatives in their country. African descendants, indigenous, women, students, union workers, alternative media outlets and other sectors of Honduran society have taken a courageous stand against the 2009 coup, corruption, impunity and injustice. Their organizing spans generations and their determination to build a more just and equitable society is inspiring.

Across movements and difference, Hondurans have come together to defend their country from state violence and corporate exploitation, their right to life and their right to sovereignty. Join Witness for Peace on an alternative spring break delegation to learn more about grassroots struggles as well as strengthen the links between U.S. organizing and Central American realities.

This delegation will:

● Meet with representatives of grassroots delegations across a variety of organizing sectors.

● Learn about the ways different groups have built coalitions across movements and the country to defend their livelihood and to build their people’s power.

● Develop a better understanding and strategize based on first-hand narratives how our communities can stand in solidarity with the Honduran people in their fight against state repression and corporate exploitation.

Cost: $1000 plus airfare from U.S. (Deposit $150 due by January 15th, 2017) Payment due February 20th, 2017). Delegation fee covers all meals, lodging, interpreters, and transportation within Honduras, along with extensive reading and activist tools. Fundraising support and scholarships may be available.

Contact: WFP Southwest Regional Organizer, Jeanette Charles at jcharles.wfpsw@gmail.com or 805-669-VIVA with questions

To apply visit: http://www.witnessforpeace.org/delegations

 

The Fight for Reparations in Honduras

June 25-July 5, 2017, Delegation Flyer

Descendants of the African Diaspora as well as Indigenous peoples across the Caribbean and the continental Americas have historically fought to repair the colonial and imperial wrongs perpetrated against their nations for centuries. In Honduras, the Garifuna, an Afro-indigenous people, have won two unprecedented cases at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in defense of their ancestral rights to land, inherent rights to cultural preservation and their livelihood. These landmark cases have resulted in clear demands for the Honduran state to guarantee the return of all the Garinagu ancestral territories and financial restitution. As Black and Indigenous movements in the US give rise to a new era of organizing, it is a critical time to reflect on shared resistance histories and exchange strategies.

The delegation will:

● Meet with representatives of Honduran Garifuna and Indigenous organizations such as the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH)

● Learn about the inspiring organizing and power that Honduran Garifuna and other indigenous movements have generated through their struggles, amidst oppression by state and economic forces

● Develop a better understanding, from first-hand experience on the ground, of how our communities and organizations stateside can be in solidarity with Honduran grassroots movements and build our own campaigns for reparations

Cost: $1000 plus airfare from U.S. (Deposit $150 due by April 30th, 2016). Full payment due May 20th, 2016. Delegation fee covers all meals, lodging, interpreters, and transportation within Honduras, along with extensive reading and activist tools. Fundraising support and scholarships may be available.

Contact: WFP Southwest Regional Organizer, Jeanette Charles at jcharles.wfpsw@gmail.com or 805-669-VIVA with questions

To apply visit: http://www.witnessforpeace.org/delegations

Witness for Peace (WFP) is a politically independent, grassroots organization. We are people committed to nonviolence and led by faith and conscience. Our mission is to support peace, justice, and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing U.S. policies and corporate practices that contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean.