Calendar

• Second Tuesday of Every Month Shop for Peace at the Cleveland Food Co-op

  On the second Tuesday of each month you can benefit Cleveland Peace Action, Women Speak Out for Peace & Justice and InterReligious Task Force, simply by doing something we all have to do. Grocery shopping. The Co-Op will generously donate a portion of your total to the three organizations. All you need to do is mention one of the organizations to the cashier when you check out.

  The Food Co-op is located at 11702 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.
  Hours:
  Monday - Saturday 9am-8pm
  Sunday 10am-6pm.
  Call the Co-op at (216) 791-3890 or go to www.clevelandfoodcoop.org for more information on the wonderful things the Food Co-op has to offer.
  Equal Exchange coffee—fair trade, organic, and shade grown—is offered at the Co-op. Ask for it!

  Shop for Peace at the Cleveland Food Co-op Flyer

• Saturday, March 6 International Women's Day: Forum on Women and Militarism

  Held at Kan Zaman, 1616 W. 25th St., Cleveland 44113 (at the corner of Franklin Blvd)
  Info: 216.231.4245
  International Women's Day has its roots in the organizing of women garment workers in New York, dating back to the 1850s. After organizing campaigns, marches, and repression from the police, the succeeded in establishing their first union in 1857. From then on, March 8 marked annual marches in the streets, most notably in 1908 when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. International Women's Day was officially established in 1910 during the first international women's conference in Copenhagen. That same month, over 140 garment works were tragically killed by a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. On the eve of World War I in 1913, women throughout Europe held peace rallies on March 8. Commemorations continue today.

  Schedule:
  1pm: lunch
  1:45pm: welcome; presentation of Ione Biggs award
  2pm: panel on women and militarism
  3pm: entertainment (music, poetry)

• Tuesday, March 9 Shop for Peace at the Cleveland Food Co-op

  On the second Tuesday of each month you can benefit Cleveland Peace Action, Women Speak Out for Peace & Justice and InterReligious Task Force, simply by doing something we all have to do. Grocery shopping. The Co-Op will generously donate a portion of your total to the three organizations. All you need to do is mention one of the organizations to the cashier when you check out.

  The Food Co-op is located at 11702 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.
  Hours:
  Monday - Saturday 9am-8pm
  Sunday 10am-6pm.
  Call the Co-op at (216) 791-3890 or go to www.clevelandfoodcoop.org for more information on the wonderful things the Food Co-op has to offer.
  Equal Exchange coffee—fair trade, organic, and shade grown—is offered at the Co-op. Ask for it!

  Shop for Peace at the Cleveland Food Co-op Flyer

• Tuesday, March 9 Dine Out for Peace at Sarava

  5-10pm, 13225 Shaker Square - Cleveland, OH
  Benefit for IRTF, Peace Action, and Women Speak Out for Peace and Justice
  Sarava's expoert chefs have created a cross-cultural menu that features an array of small bites, encouraging diners to discover new taste sensations in a relaxing, fun environment. Say, "I'm with Dine Out for Peace!" and 15% of your purchase will benefit the peace groups. www.SergiosCleveland.com

• Saturday, March 13 IRTF phone-a-thon: just one day this year!

  9am-5pm - Volunteers needed.
  Once a year we try to call everyone on our mailing list and ask them to recommit to IRTF's human rights mission with their time and/or money. We do the phone calling from Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, 1468 W. 25th St., Cleveland (venue to be confiremd). Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry is located on the Near West Side (Ohio City) in the first block of W. 25th St. south of Detroit Ave. Food, orientation, and script will be provided. We can use up to 8 volunteers per 3-hour shift.

  Pleae call or email to schedule a shift: Sarah@IRTFcleveland.org or 216.961.0003

  Since we only call people on our mailing list and mostly leave messages, this is easy calling—but important.
  Please think about helping out.
  Thanks.

• Thursday, March 18th Information Session about Intercultural Teen Delegation to Nicaragua

  6-8 PM at the IRTF Office (3606 Bridge Avenue, 44113)
  Enjoy a light dinner and learn the basics about this unique opportunity to experience the reality of Central American rural living, work on a community project, live with a Nicaraguan family, and receive training to become a teenager for social change. The IRTF/Witness for Peace Teen Delegation to Nicaragua is an opportunity for Cleveland area high school students to join with others from around the U.S. to learn about the impacts of U.S. policies on the people of Nicaragua. Eligible to rising 10th graders up to graduating high school seniors who seek to learn about life in Nicaragua and impacts of U.S. policies and global economics. Spanish knowledge is helpful but not required.

  Read more information on the Delegation
  Flyer for the Intercultural Teen Delegation to Nicaragua

• Friday-Monday, March 19-22 Ecumenical Advocacy Days - Washington, DC

  The theme for this years conference will be:
  "A Place to Call Home: Immigrants, Refugees, and Displaced Peoples"
  For more information: http://advocacydays.org/

• Sunday, March 21 Labor Leaders from Latin America

  UAW Local 1005, 5615 Chevrolet Blvd., Parma.
  A tour of trade union leaders from five countries (Cuba, Honduras, Venezuela and others) will feature presentations and discussions on issues that affect all workers—heath, education, environment, and the economic crisis. With a spirit of solidarity, we'll enrich our knowledge and seek new solutions to the challenges that confront workers worldwide.

  When they speak in Cleveland March 21 we will have a rare opportunity to learn about the struggles our sisters and brothers to the south of us are engaged in. Although their wages are much, much lower than ours, in many ways their issues are the same: the bosses want to cut their wages, eliminate their jobs, and bust their unions. In some countries union people have been beaten, tortured, fired and murdered.

  This exchange of stories, ideas and working class solidarity between workers of the Americas is needed in today's global economy. Please spread the word in your unions and to your religious and community groups about this important gathering.

  Sponsors: Inter-Religious Task Force on Central America, Jobs with Justice, Peoples' Fightback Center,

  This labor movement of "our Americas" will tour New York, Boston, Washington DC, Raleigh, Pittburgh, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. Mark your calendar and stay tuned for more info on time and venue.

  For more information: 216-531-5188; clevesolidaritytour@gmail.com

• Thursday and Friday, March 25 & 26 The Wind Journeys

  a film from Colombia
  Presented by InterReligious Task Force on Central America and the Cleveland International Film Festival
  http://clevelandfilm.org/festival/films/2010/wind-journeys

  "This is the story of a journey," Colombian director Ciro Guerra begins. "A journey towards the beginning, towards the spirit. Towards our soul. For centuries, we've asked ourselves: what keeps us apart? Now it is time to ask what brings us together." In THE WIND JOURNEYS, Ignacio Carrillo is a juglar, a wandering accordian player who has spent his life traversing northern Colombia. Legend has it that Ignacio's accordian master once beat the devil in a competition called a piqueria. The devil took revenge by putting a curse on his instrument so that whoever plays it will remain a juglar forever. Tired of wandering and fiercely determined to return his inherited accordian to the maestro, Ignacio sets off. A stubborn teenager named Fermin, who dreams of being a juglar like Ignacio, follows him. Their journey takes them from Majagual, Sucre, to Taroa, beyond the Guajira desert; on their way they experience the wild diversity of the land and the Caribbean culture. Ignacio and Fermin come across voodoo drummers in the forest and Arhuaca Indians in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They witness a machete fight on a bridge and cockfights in ramshackle huts. And everywhere they go, music brings people together. (In Spanish with subtitles) – B.B.

  Director: Ciro Guerra. 117 minutes.
  Screen times at Tower City Cinemas
  Thursday, March 25, 9:15pm
  Friday, March 26, 4:25pm

  For discount tickets, contact IRTF at 216.961.0003 or sarah@irtfcleveland.org
  See the full schedule of films at www.ClevelandFilm.org

• Saturday and Sunday, March 27 & 28 Bananas!

  a film from Nicaragua
  Presented by InterReligious Task Force on Central America and the Cleveland International Film Festival
  http://clevelandfilm.org/festival/films/2010/bananas

  Juan "Accidentes" Dominguez is hot on the trail of a case. A Southern California personal injury lawyer who advertises on L.A. buses, Dominguez’s new mission is to force an American corporation to take responsibility for its actions outside U.S. borders. That corporation is the Dole Food Company, and this is a legal battle over Dole’s use of the pesticide Nemagon, a DBCP-based compound banned in the U.S. since 1979. Dominguez flies to Nicaragua to represent 12 of the 10,000 Dole banana workers who claim they were sickened by the chemical. Chinandega, Nicaragua is an ecological nightmare. Nemagon, typically mixed with water and sprayed over plantations where the workers live, has left its mark everywhere. Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten’s "David and Goliath" story has caused people around the world to go BANANAS!*. Citing defamation, Dole attempted to stop screenings of his film at the Los Angeles Film Festival. This caused a backlash in the Swedish Parliament and with the International Federation of Journalists. Swedish hamburger chain Max even stopped selling Dole fruit salad. Gertten uses interviews and documentation of court trials to peel away the facts behind the ground-breaking case, which will determine how multinational businesses may treat workers in the future. (In English and Spanish with subtitles)

  Director: Fredrik Gertten, 80 minutes, USA/Nicaragua/Sweden
  Screen times at Tower City Cinemas
  Saturday, March 27, 2:15pm
  Sunday, March 28, 4:30pm

  For discount tickets, contact IRTF at 216.961.0003 or sarah@irtfcleveland.org
  See the full schedule of films at www.ClevelandFilm.org

• Tuesday, April 6 Dine Out for Peace - 56 West

  16300 Detroit Ave., Lakewood
  Hours: 4:30pm - 2:30am
  Benefit for IRTF, Peace Action, and Women Speak Out for Peace and Justice

  Enjoy burgers, sandwiches, exotic salads, or build your own $10 big plate with main course, salad and a side.
  Say, "I'm with Dine Out for Peace!" and 15% of your purchase will benefit the peace groups.
  Good for take-out, dine-in, and bar.

  56 West Website

• Tuesday, April 13 Shop for Peace at the Cleveland Food Co-op

  On the second Tuesday of each month you can benefit Cleveland Peace Action, Women Speak Out for Peace & Justice and InterReligious Task Force, simply by doing something we all have to do. Grocery shopping. The Co-Op will generously donate a portion of your total to the three organizations. All you need to do is mention one of the organizations to the cashier when you check out.

  The Food Co-op is located at 11702 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.
  Hours:
  Monday - Saturday 9am-8pm
  Sunday 10am-6pm.
  Call the Co-op at (216) 791-3890 or go to www.clevelandfoodcoop.org for more information on the wonderful things the Food Co-op has to offer.
  Equal Exchange coffee—fair trade, organic, and shade grown—is offered at the Co-op. Ask for it!

  Shop for Peace at the Cleveland Food Co-op Flyer

• Friday-Monday, April 16-19 Days of Prayer and Action for Peace in Colombia

  http://www.PeaceInColombia.org/

• Thursday, April 29 Ohioans to Stop Executions presents At the Death House Door Film and discussion

  River's Edge, St. Joseph's Center, 3430 Rocky River Dr., Cleveland, OH 44111.
  http://www.ifc.com/atthedeathhousedoor/about-the-show.php

• Tuesday, May 11 Shop for Peace at the Cleveland Food Co-op

  On the second Tuesday of each month you can benefit Cleveland Peace Action, Women Speak Out for Peace & Justice and InterReligious Task Force, simply by doing something we all have to do. Grocery shopping. The Co-Op will generously donate a portion of your total to the three organizations. All you need to do is mention one of the organizations to the cashier when you check out.

  The Food Co-op is located at 11702 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.
  Hours:
  Monday - Saturday 9am-8pm
  Sunday 10am-6pm.
  Call the Co-op at (216) 791-3890 or go to www.clevelandfoodcoop.org for more information on the wonderful things the Food Co-op has to offer.
  Equal Exchange coffee—fair trade, organic, and shade grown—is offered at the Co-op. Ask for it!

  Shop for Peace at the Cleveland Food Co-op Flyer

• July 13-27 Intercultural Teen Delegation to Nicaragua

  Join this unique opportunity to experience the reality of Central American rural living, work on a community project, live with a Nicaraguan family, and receive training to become a teenager for social change.

  The IRTF/Witness for Peace Teen Delegation to Nicaragua is an opportunity for Cleveland area high school students to join with others from around the U.S. to learn about the impacts of U.S. policies on the people of Nicaragua.

  • Tour a MAQUILADORA (assembly-for-export factory) and speak with management about LABOR RIGHTS & FOREIGN INVESTMENT
  • Speak with representatives from the U.S. EMBASSY
  • Visit SCHOOLS AND HEALTH CENTERS and meet with community leaders
  • ENJOY the beautiful lakes, mountains and beaches of Nicaragua
  • Spend four days living and working with NICARAGUAN FAMILIES in rural communities
  • Learn about the crushing impacts of World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies on the Nicaraguan people and the STRUGGLE FOR DEBT RELIEF
  • Receive training in how to BE A TEENAGER FOR SOCIAL CHANGE!

  WHO IS ELIGIBLE? Rising 10th graders to graduating high school seniors who seek to learn about life in Nicaragua and impacts of U.S. policies and global economics. Spanish knowledge is helpful but not required.

  COST: $1100, plus round-trip airfare from Cleveland to Managua. Orientation, meals, in-country transport are included. IRTF can help with fundraising ideas!

  INFORMATION SESSIONS: All interested teens must attend one of the informational sessions, February 17th or March 18th. Parents are encouraged to attend as well.

  Flyer for the Intercultural Teen Delegation to Nicaragua