History: Spring 2008 Programming
CALA Calendar 6/1-6/7
visit CALA at: http://www.calamadison.org
CALA EVENTS
Tuesday, June 3rd
co-sponsored by the Dane-Andres Eloy Blanco Sistering Alliance, Community Action on Latin America, Just Coffee and the UW-Madison Department of Latin America Caribbean and Iberian Studies.
7 pm at UW Memorial Union, listed as "Latin American Studies Lecture" in the TITU (Today in the Union)
Wisconsin and Venezuela, Sisters!
Kick-off meeting for the Dane Andres Eloy Blanco Sistering Alliance. Join members of the Dane County cooperative community, Latin America solidarity activists and friends of Venezuela to learn more about the municipality of Andres Eloy Blanco in Venezuela and begin building our sistering relation.
Tuesday, June 3rd
co-sponsored by Peregrine Forum and Community Action on Latin America
7 pm at Dardanelles Restaurant (1851 Monroe St)
State of Siege
Screening of Costa Gavras's classic film "State of Siege" (1972)--based on the 1970 Tupamaros guerrillas' kidnapping of a U.S. official then advising the Uruguayan regime on torture of political opponents, more info 442-8399
Monday, April 7th, 7 pm at Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative, 426 W. Gilman St
The Fire and the Word
A History of the Zapatista Movement
book presentation by author Gloria Muñoz Ramírez
sponsored by: CALA, LACIS and MEChA
In 1983, a small group of Mexicans traveled to the Lacandón jungle in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, with the dream of organizing a national revolution. For the next ten years they lived with the indigenous Mayan communities there, listening, learning and blending with them. This was the beginning of the Zapatista movement, which made its dramatic public debut on January 1, 1994, when thousands of armed indigenous people occupied seven Chiapas towns and declared war on the Mexican government. Their demands—not just for the oppressed and poverty-stricken indigenous communities, but for all Mexicans—were clear: equality, democracy, liberty, justice, independence, employment, land, food, housing, health, education and peace.
The Fire and the Word tells the story of the Zapatista movement, from its clandestine birth in the jungle of Chiapas, to its impact on Mexico and its ongoing influence around the world. Gloria Muñoz lived for years in remote Mayan villages and interviewed some of the group’s organizers. Their first-person accounts are woven throughout the text, along with reportage and contextual history.
Play (28 min) or download (7MB) an interview with Gloria Muñoz on Third World View on WORT.
Campaign EZLN: The Fire and the Word.
Radio Zapatista is an alternative radio collective reporting on struggles inspired by zapatismo in Mexico, the US, and the world.
Thursday, April 3rd, 6 pm at A Room of One's Own Feminist Bookstore 307 W. Johnson St
Sowing Seeds of Resistance
Colombia Flower Unions, US Policy and the Struggle for Dignity
a talk by: Dora Acero, Colombian Flower Worker
sponsored by: CALA and LACIS
A perfect example of Colombia’s complicated and painful truth is found in the flower
industry. While we in the United States enjoy the beauty of store-bought flowers for
special occasions; anniversaries, graduations, and birthdays; the Colombian flower
growers are being exploited on a daily basis by giant US corporations. The United
States is a primary destination of cut-flowers produced in Colombia. The Dole Food
Company specifically is the largest exporter of these flowers.
become a Grassroots flower industry investigator on facebook http://apps.facebook.com/causes/45801
if you already have the causes application go to search causes and type “flower investigator”
Friday April 4th
sponsored by the Student Labor Action Coalition, the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project and Community Action on Latin America
7 pm at the UW Campus, check TITU
the struggle for corporate accountability at the Hermosa Factory
In 2005,the workers at the Hermosa factory were told they no longer had a job and wouldn’t be paid the money they had earned. The factory where they made sports apparel was closed and reopened under a different name. For almost 3 years, the Hermosa workers have been denied fair compensation and are suspected to be on a black list that prevents them from being hired at another plant. The web of contracting and outsourcing has provided an excuse for apparel companies and administrators to shun responsibility in this matter. Join us as we shed light on the dealings of the college apparel licensing process. flyer (pdf)
Featuring Scott Nova executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC)
and Kate McCormack of the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project
Friday March 28
Hosted by Community Action on Latin America, Family Farm Defenders and Just Coffee
7:00pm - 11:55pm at Just Coffee Coop 1129 E Wilson St
a block from the intersection of Williamson and Ingersoll
film starts at 7:30 and goes until 8:30
Film Screening and Party: "Oaxaca, the Power of the Commune"
The success of the people of Oaxaca taking over radio and television was encouraging and exciting! The film is a brilliant visual narrative describing the uprising and popular assembly that emerged from the teachers struggle in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico between may-November 2006. The story is told by the activists and militants involved. Provides a close-up understanding of the meaning and passion of working peoples struggle." Director Carlos Broun will be present to talk about the film and answer questions.
Please join us!
Sister County Strategy Building Discussion for
Dane County, Wisconsin and Andres Eloy Blanco, Venezuela
Tuesday, March 25th 7:00pm
122 State St. Room 401
We seek ideas and suggestions that will ensure this sister-county proposal is adopted by our county supervisors. We invite those of you who can share your experiences with sister-city resolutions and those who wish to participate in building this important connection between our community and the people of Andres Eloy Blanco.
You will find below the press release circulated last month, describing the nature of the Venezuelan region and the benefits this relationship may bring. If you have questions or concerns, PLEASE CONTACT (re: the meeting) Charity Schmidt, Community Action on Latin America at Ph. (608) 334-6370 email: cschmidt2@wisc.edu or (re: the resolution) Ashok Kumar, Dane County Supervisor, District 5 Ph. (608) 843-0615 email: arkumarzona@gmail.com.
Hope to see you there,
The Dane-Andres Eloy Blanco Sister-County Action Coalition (DASAC)
Tuesday, February 12
co-sponsored by the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project and CALA
7 pm at Rainbow Bookstore - 436 W. Gilman St, right off State St.
the "Citizens, not terrorists" campaign continues
13 leaders of the Salvadoran social movement have been charged with Acts of Terrorism under a law modeled after the U.S.A Patriot Act. Each faces up to 60 years in prison for participating in peaceful activities against water privatization in Suchitoto, El Salvador on July 2, 2007. Join us for an update as well as screening of a news film covering this struggle.
For more information visit www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org and www.mascp.org
WCCN presents and CALA co-sponsors
Tuesday, February 26th
Turning Back the Clock:
Do women's rights have a place in the new Sandinista era?
6:00 pm at A Room of One's Own(307 W. Johnson St)
The tide of anti-feminist sentiment is rising in Nicaragua supported largely by extreme right-wing religious non-governmental organizations, and to the dismay of many on the political left, the Nicaraguan government. At the center of the controversy is the debate of a women's right to a "therapeutic abortion", or an abortion deemed medically necessary and performed when the life of the mother is endangered. Therapeutic abortion was banned in Nicaragua in 2006, following a presidential campaign which saw the forces of the right and the "left" converge in an effort to gain the support of conservative religious constituencies.
Violeta Delgado and Yamileth Mejia are two of nine Nicaraguan feminists being targeted in a new campaign to repress the Nicaraguan women's movement. They have dedicated their lives to the defense of women against violence, but are now faced with defending themselves as threats of prison loom.
Join the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua (WCCN) in welcoming Delgado and Mejia to Madison as they tour the United States in an effort to mobilize support against and raise awareness about the politically motivated case that may soon send them to court.
Co-sponsored by Community Action on Latin America (CALA)
PDF Flyer
PDF Flyer