Webinars: News & Updates

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz will be joined in conversation with Detroit-based activist and writer Frank Joyce. Q and A with the audience will follow. Program is free and open to the public. The eye-opening and transformative new book from the author of An Indigenous People’s History of the United States will challenge what you believe about U.S. history. An essential text for the twenty-first century, Not “A Nation of Immigrants” charges that it’s time to stop perpetuating simplistic and ahistorical fantasies and embrace the true, complex and often sobering history of these United States.

Join Equal Exchange and for a conversation with Santiago Paz Lopez, Export Manager of Coop Norandino in Peru. Santiago will be in Boston to attend the annual (but first since 2019) gathering of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). He will join us via Zoom to share more about the current reality for coffee farmers who have endured the pandemic as well as ongoing challenges with the climate crisis. After this unique and timely presentation we will open the virtual session to questions from participants.

From the late 1800’s, the United States has been destabilizing countries in Central America, including Honduras, through political, corporate, and military intervention. With the victory of Xiomara Castro, the first woman head of state in Honduras, in the elections of November 28 2021, the country experienced a historic step forward for the popular resistance that coalesced after the 2009 coup. Still, there are many uphill battles in the struggle for justice and dignity for the people of Honduras. In this four-part webinar series, we will be looking at how corruption, land dispossession, environmental degradation, and systemic human rights abuses are the consequences of neoliberal (global free-market capitalist) policies and the legacy of U.S. imperialism. We at Honduras Solidarity Network and the InterReligious Task Force on Central America and Colombia invite you to join this series to gain a deeper understanding around these issues, as well as what can be done by people living in the Global North to show solidarity.

April 4, 2022 is the 54th anniversary of Rev. Dr. King’s assassination, and the 55th anniversary of his historic "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech delivered at The Riverside Church in New York City. This speech went beyond civil rights to condemn militarism, racism, and extreme materialism, enforced by a culture of violence, as the source of the ills that plague U.S. society. This speech stands as one of Rev. Dr. King’s greatest accomplishments. Join thousands of people nationwide for a very special virtual event that will evoke Rev. Dr. King’s prophetic lessons, ground ourselves in these timeless truths, and keep his words alive by using them to guide our thoughts and actions.

Our next open meeting is March 24th from 12:00 - 1:00pm ET on zoom.  This is a great meeting to attend if you'd like to learn more about the Northeast Ohio Worker Center and would like to start getting more involved!  We will be introducing you to the new members of our first board, providing an overview of our committee work for 2022, and updating yall on the Guardians for Fair Work campaign. And on March 30th, the Guardians for Fair Work are hosting a community meeting at Cornucopia Place. The purpose of this meeting will be to build support for the campaign and lift up our experiences as workers while sharing a meal. We'd love to have you join us in-person at Cornucopia Place!  See the attached flyer for additional details. 

The COAR Peace Mission invites you to their St. Romero Day Prayer Service

Continuing in the annual tradition of celebrating our favorite fruit, the one that launched it all, we're kicking off Banana Month next week. This year we're providing more opportunities to connect with the unique Equal Exchange Banana supply chain and learn more about Fairtrade, small-scale farmer cooperatives.

We will be connecting the supply chain and hope you will join us! In this webinar we will hear from some of the important people whose work brings bananas to your stores and countertops. We'll hear about their day-to-day growing, harvesting, managing, and ripening, and about how they pivoted their businesses amidst pandemic challenges. 

This year’s “Water & War” festival from March 15-22, 2022 explores the intersection of militarism & water, survival & resistance, in the lead-up to World Water Day on March 22. A unique mix of films explores this theme, from PFAS pollution on a military base in Michigan and the infamous Red Hill fuel leak in Hawai’i poisoning groundwater, to Syrian war refugees fleeing violent conflict by boat to Europe and the story of the assassination of Honduran Indigenous water activist Berta Cáceres.

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement at age seventeen has proved to be so successful that U.S. and Israeli imperialist and Zionist leaders have lobbied states in the U.S. and the federal government to enact anti-boycott laws. Ohio is one of those states that has limited constitutionally protected Free Speech. Panelists include Dr Nahida Halaby Gordon (CWRU), Dr mazin Qumsiyeh (Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities), Terry J. Lodge (Ohio Free Speech Coalition) and Eric Reisnick (Ohio Free Speech Coalition, Jewish Voice For Peace Cleveland)