Calendar

June is Torture Awareness Month - and First-Wednesday Vigils are taking off!

Witness Against Torture (WAT) is holding the forever prisoners in Guantanamo in our hearts by holding vigils in our local communities on the first Wednesday of every month, but especially in June -- Torture Awareness Month. 

We (WAT) join Andy Worthington and the U.K. Guantanamo Network, which began standing before Parliament in London last September.  Now WAT and the Close Guantanamo Coalition are in Mexico City, New York City, Los  Angeles, Raleigh NC, Washington DC and a growing number of other cities and towns.  

So on June 7, haul out your signs -- and your jump suit if you have one -- and head down to your town square.  Print out flyers about Guantanamo and the Guantanamo Survivors Fund.  Call the local media and invite them to come out.  Send pictures and the story of your vigil to to WAT and to Andy.  Celebrate with us whether you're one or many!

Times June 7:

Washington DC:  Noon - 1 PM ET

New York, NY: 5 - 6 PM ET

Detroit, MI: 4 - 4:30 PM ET

Minneapolis, MN: 5 - 6 PM CT

London, UK: 1 - 3 PM GMT

More June Torture Awareness Month Events

• Jun 26-27, 9 to 5, in Washington DC:  Advocacy Days on Capitol Hill by Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition Intl
• Jun 26 online: Conversation with Survivors (details coming soon, Guantanamo Survivors Fund)
• Jun 26, 4 to 6, in Raleigh NC: Vigil at Aero Contractors 
• Watch your email and social media for more events as the weeks unfold

Se les invita al

Baile Latine: Ritmos de Latinoamérica (Rhythms of Latin America)

¿Cuándo? / When?

Saturday, June 10, 2023, 8-11:30pm

¿Dónde? / Where?

Franklin Circle Church Hall

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland 44113

ubicado detrás del Hospital Luterano

   located behind Lutheran Hospital on the Near West Side

la iglesia tiene parqueadero y se puede estacionar en la calle Fulton

   parking in church lot and along Fulton Rd

¿Por qué? / Why?

Nos divertiremos después de tres años de eventos solo en zoom. Necesitamos tomarnos un tiempo para celebrar esta maravillosa comunidad de apoyo que compartimos.

To cut loose and have fun after three years of zoom-only events and hard work on human rights issues impacting people in Latin America and structural injustice issues here.  We need to take time out to celebrate this wonderful community of support that we share.

¿Quiénes? / Who?

Comida y Refrescos / Snacks & Refreshments

pasa bocas (hors d’oeuvres) + refrescos típicos de centroamérica (soft drinks)

SPONSORS can fill out the google form here, or download the attached pdf. 

BOLETO de ADMISION / TICKETS $15 , $25

$25 advance tickets at https://tinyurl.com/2023BaileLatine 

se incluye: pasa bocas, refrescos típicos, presentaciónes de baile, lecciones de baile

   (includes hors d’oeuvres, soft drinks, dance performances, dance lessons)

Group tickets/ Descuento para Grupos

Siéntense juntos en mesa para 8. Compre 7 boletos y el 8 es gratis.

(Sit together at a table of 8. Buy 7 tickets and the 8th is free!)

Habrá muchos bailes en grupo, así que no es necesario traer pareja de baile.

   There will be plenty of group dancing, so no need to bring a dance partner.

$15 advance tickets boletos para baile abierto solamente, entrada después de las 9:30pm

   for open dancing only ; admission after 9:30pm

Los boletos de admisión cuestan $5 más en la puerta.

  Tickets are $5 more at the door.

Mayor información: 216 961 0003 .   2023BaileLatine.eventbrite.com

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank were created after World War II by the victors at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. Dominated by the US, both institutions were from the beginning meant to further imperialism. While the IMF became the world’s monetary police and financial gatekeeper from the get go, the World Bank’s early years mainly focused on reconstructing war-torn Western Europe and Japan. A few years later, the World Bank shifted its focus to “developing” the Global South. By the 1970s the Bank proclaimed its mission was to reduce poverty.

Driven by Reagan-Thatcher neoliberalism, both institutions launched structural adjustment loans that required borrower countries to adopt austerity measures such as downsizing and privatizing public services, making them unaffordable to the poor. Both international financial institutions plunged countries, especially in the Global South, into debt crises and extracted wealth for the global capitalist class. They complement US/NATO military interventions in enacting modern-day colonialism.

Learn about the institutions and the harm these institutions caused throughout history in an one hour long webinar by the Massachusetts Peace Action.

Presenters:

Elaine Zuckerman completed graduate studies in political economy at Beijing University during the last few years of the anti-imperialist Cultural Revolution. When China joined the World Bank in 1980, Elaine also joined as an economist on environmental and rural projects in China. Meanwhile the Bank unfolded structural adjustment loans (SALs), leading Elaine to create the first Bank program calling to end SALs’ harmful impacts, especially on women. In 2000, she left the World Bank to found Gender Action, an advocacy campaign holding International Financial Institutions (IFIs) accountable for harmful gender and climate impacts. Gender Action challenges IFIs’ corporate-driven paradigm.

Ben Norton is an investigative journalist and analyst. He is the founder and editor of Geopolitical Economy Report, and is based in Latin America.

Register now at https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwucuCtrTwtE91o65rpTG7cLnWXlGE...

Introduction to Issues Affecting Farm Workers

Farm workers are among the poorest workers in the U.S. Hazardous conditions are routine and include pesticide exposure, heat stress, lack of shade, and more. Farm workers across the country are risking their health and safety for low wages. To turn around the unjust agricultural system, farm workers are organizing to change their inhumane working and living conditions.

Join us for a webinar on June 12th at 2 p.m. (EST) to learn more about issues affecting farm workers and how you can be an ally. The webinar will be offered in English and Spanish.

Register now at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvb81I7zXQBykMzjkZPANtAnS-pht5...

Dear Peacemaking Colleague,

What does it mean to decolonize land, peoples, bodies, minds, spirits…? 

Whether we are discussing native Americans in the United States, Palestinians in the occupied territories, natural resources in Africa and Latin America or global climate collapse, the implications of colonization have manifested themselves in countless places around the world stretching back many centuries — all of which are rooted in Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s triple evils of racism, militarism and materialism. 

The King and Breaking Silence coalition invites you to join us on June 14th as we discuss decolonization through numerous lenses. Please register by clicking the "REGISTER HERE" button below. 

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkce-trjkqE9zvqT5XBYZcHbejQOt...

Webinar Series: Reimagining Peace and Security in Latin America and the Caribbean

You're invited to join World BEYOND War, United4Change Center (U4C), the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association (RPAA), and Peace First for a 5-Part Webinar Series Focused on Reimaging Peace and Security in Latin America & the Caribbean.

The series will provide spaces for reflection and dialogue, feature leading experts from the region, and connect, train, and support young leaders to carry out high-impact peace projects aimed at addressing urgent community needs on the ground.

What. World BEYOND War (WBW) is teaming up with United4Change Center (U4C), the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association (RPFAA), and Peace First to launch a new webinar series on “Reimaging Peace and Security in Latin America”. The purpose of the webinar series is to co-create spaces for bringing in the voices and experiences of peacebuilders working, living, or studying in Central America, South America, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean. Its goal is to elicit reflection, discussion, and action specific to promoting peace and challenging war.

The webinar series will comprise five webinars, one every month from April to July 2023, followed by a final webinar in September 2023.

Webinars 1, 2, and 3 will explore three broad strategies for ending war and establishing a just and sustainable peace: demilitarizing security, managing conflicts without violence, and creating a culture of peace, as outlined in ‘A Global Security System: An Alternative to War (AGSS). (See below). Each webinar will feature three prominent speakers with expertise in the topic in question and use break-out rooms and other forms of digital technology to support learning and sharing in real-time.

Webinars 4 and 5 shift the focus from education to action. We’ll move from learning about the three broad strategies for ending war and establishing a just and sustainable peace, addressed in previous webinars, towards the development of peacebuilding interventions that focus on how these strategies can be used and adapted in practice to improve the prospects for peace and security on-the-ground.

●     Webinar 4 includes an online training session aimed at building the capacity of young people around peace projects and project management. This training session will feed into the development of youth-led peace projects.

●     Webinar 5 provides young people with a platform to present the processes and outcomes of their youth-led peace projects to a wide, international, audience.

The webinar series has been designed to allow for a blend of reflection, dialogue, and action specific to promoting peace. There will be ample time for Q&A.  

When: The webinar series will be held for 1.5 hours each month, for 4 months on Wednesdays, from April 19 to July 19, and the final webinar will be in September.

Where: Zoom (details to be shared upon registration). Register below.

Why: Latin America is among the world’s most violent regions, with one of the highest homicide rates around the globe, and a long history of armed conflict. In this webinar series, we’ll talk with leading experts about the challenges and opportunities for building sustainable peace in Latin America. We’ll showcase successful stories of peacebuilding efforts from the region. And we’ll explore ways of working together more effectively to build the peace movement in Latin America.

At the core of the webinar series is a call to action, a belief in the importance of engaging participants in learning that leads to action, with the goal of taking what they learned to make direct positive impacts on issues of war, inequality and peace.

Who is the webinar series for? The series is for everyone interested in or working on peace and security issues, especially in Latin America. In particular, it is for young people, and those working with them, who are interested in applying what they will learn in the webinar series to take action to promote peace via youth-led peace projects. On a broader level, the series may also appeal to others working on pro-peace and anti-war issues in different parts of the world.

The webinar series promises to be a fun, educational, and empowering experience with lots of opportunities to network and build community in support of peace.

Everyone registered for the webinar series will receive PDF, ePub, and/or mobi (kindle) versions of two books which will provide additional reading to those who want to go beyond what was covered in the webinar series.

●     The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace it With (Swanson, 2023)

●     A Global Security System: An Alternative to War (AGSS) (World BEYOND War, 2020).

Click here to register and find out more information – in English!

Haga clic aquí para registrarse y obtener más información, ¡en español!

Clique aqui para se inscrever e saber mais informações – em português

·    Webinar 1: Demilitarizing Security, Wednesday, April 19, 2023, 6 – 8 pm ET
·    Webinar 2: Managing Conflict without Violence, Wednesday, May 24, 2023, 6 – 8 pm ET
·    Webinar 3: Creating a Culture of Peace, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, 6 – 8 pm ET
·    Webinar 4: Youth-led Action for Peace, Wednesday, July 19, 2023, 6 – 8 pm ET
·    Webinar 5: Showcase of Youth-Led Initiatives, Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 6 – 8 pm ET
 

Let's support and spotlight the work of individuals and organisations engaged in peace and security issues in Latin America and the Caribbean: Register here!
 

See you soon.

World BEYOND War (WBW)
United4Change Center (U4C)
Peace First
Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association (RPFAA)

Human Rights, dignity and land: A call from the mining and farming communities of Northeast Antioquia

The mining and peasant communities of Northeast Antioqueño fear a new escalation of violence by different armed groups in their territory. The lack of implementation of the Peace Agreements signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -FARC- in 2016 has created an environment without guarantees for establishing a comprehensive and lasting peace. Faced with the panorama of abandonment, the communities that walk in resistance, accompanied by the Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace of Northeast Antioqueño – CAHUCOPANA, weave alternatives to war and build paths to move towards peace with social justice.

In this delegation, you will share with communities and grassroots organizations that resist violence and oppression, building peace day by day. You will hear directly about their commitment to a dignified life based on respect for Human Rights, and you will be able to discover how you can be part of the change. (You will also learn to sleep in a hammock and scare away mosquitoes). It will be a transformative learning experience.

Join this delegation to get to know and support these peace-building communities in solidarity.

Sign up for the delegation at: https://cpt.org/delegations/colombia