Neo-liberal regimes throughout Latin America, driven by resurgent mass social movements with Indigenous organizations in key roles, have been discredited and toppled. In the decade beginning 1996, Ecuador had ten presidents in as many years, demonstrating the power of mass movements.

President Rafael Correa was first elected in 2006 with strong Indigenous support, and then re-elected in 2009 in an unprecedented first round victory on a platform of 21st century socialism. Under his leadership, Ecuador joined the explicitly socialist ALBA (Latin American Bolivarian Alliance) with Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, and others challenging US leadership in the hemisphere. Yet, Ecuador remains reliant on extractive industries and on large agribusiness as instruments of national development, producing inevitable strains with the popular movement, especially with Indigenous organizations.

A $5-10 donation is requested. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

For more information call 415/924-3227 or go to www.mitfamericas.org.

As a Coalition in Solidarity with Latin America we condemn the U.S. bases in Colombia, U.S. political intervention in Latin America as well as the process of militarization in Haiti. That is why we support the March 20th demonstration against the wars and we say:

Money for Healthcare, Jobs and Education! Not for Wars!

We decided to produce educational information about the cost of war for the people living in the U.S. and to show them how this is connected with all the economic problems they are facing today in their lives. Below you can see how the government is spending your taxes money and you can make the judgment yourself:

Download English flier here.

Download Spanish flier here.

Fault Lines’ Avi Lewis reports on polarization and power in the Americas  October 28, 2009

Honduras 100 Days of Resistance- Part 2

Fault Lines’ Avi Lewis reports on polarization and power in the Americas  October 29, 09

• Get the people of Port-au-Prince clean water, food, and medical treatment now.
• Allow President Aristide to return to Haiti from forced exile in South Africa
• Respect Haiti. Do not criminalize people who need water, food and medical help.
• End the foreign military occupation of Haiti.

Join Haiti Action Committee and Congresswoman Barbara Lee to stand with the people of Haiti in this tragic hour.

Three million people are homeless, untold thousands are dead.  With their own hands, Haitians are heroically digging out friends and relatives from the rubble left by the devastating earthquake, showing once again their resilience, determination and courage in the face of disaster.

Days after the earthquake, the United Nations admits it has fed only 8000 people.  With thousands of U.S. troops headed to Haiti, it is clear that the U.S. and UN are more concerned with “securing” Haiti than with feeding and housing people. Millions of dollars worth of food and medicine sits on the tarmac at the airport in Port-au-Prince while the poorest communities remain without aid.

In a scene reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina, 10,000 people have sought refuge in the Aristide Foundation, near the airport in Port-au-Prince.  Over fifty doctors are there, yet no medical supplies or food has arrived.

This is a time to aid grassroots organizations that have always been there for the people.  This is a time to return President Aristide to Haiti.

We remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Contribute to Haiti relief through the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund at www.haitiaction.net.

For more information, see www.haitisolidarity.net

In June of 2004, I went to Haiti with two other members of the Haiti Action Committee.  We were there to investigate the effects of the political earthquake in which the democratically elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been overthrown by a coup orchestrated by the United States, France and Canada.

What we saw still resonates.  Hundreds of families who had had to flee their homes in the face of repression, thousands of grass roots activists in prison because of their association with Aristide’s Lavalas movement, literacy projects and schools destroyed, community-based activists forced into exile, Haiti returned to elite control in the name of “stability” and “security.”

We also saw the beginnings of the United Nations occupation, labeled “peacekeeping” by UN (Minustah) authorities, but clearly seen by the popular movement as the beginning of an international take-over of Haiti.

The coup devastated Haiti.  It shattered the promises of a truly democratic period in Haitian history.  It interrupted a process of building schools (more schools were built under Lavalas governments than had been built in all of Haitian history), establishing health clinics and parks in the poorest communities, support for literacy efforts among women, , respect for the indigenous religion of Vodou, and a commitment to the development of Haitian agriculture in the face of the flooding of Haitian markets by U.S. goods.

Six years later, here we are.  Fanmi Lavalas, the most popular political party in Haiti, has been banned from participating in elections, with the full support of the United States.  The Preval government has tailored its policies to what the United States demands, rather than to what the people need. There is a deep fissure between the people and the official government, a deep gap between the occupied and the occupiers.

Yes, the earthquake was a violent natural disaster, presenting overwhelming challenges to any government or any aid responders.  Yet, it is clear that this natural disaster—just like that of Hurricane Katrina — is compounded by a political failure, the continuation of generations  of assaults against Haiti, and – in particular – a brutal UN/US occupation that has brought to a grinding halt the promise of the Aristide years.

Now we watch the U.S. gear up for a massive military operation in Haiti, while people die due to lack of medicine, or starve while food supplies sit on the airport tarmac.  We see the pictures of families digging their relatives out of the rubble, with no aid in sight despite the presence of 9000 UN troops.  We read the usual racist slurs against Haitians, called “scavengers” or “looters” when, after days of no assistance, they look for food and water in abandoned homes. We read that the problems of Haiti are rooted in “their culture and religious beliefs,” rather than in the harsh realities of colonialism and occupation.  We hear CNN reports of a field hospital being ordered out of a community for “security reasons” by the United Nations, even in the face of wounded and dying people. And we read that Doctors Without Borders cargo planes were denied landing space in Port-au-Prince by U.S. military authorities.

This is a time to respect the resiliency and courage of the Haitian people.  It is a time for aid, not charity, for solidarity not a U.S. military take-over.  And it is a time to return President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to his homeland.

Please support community-based organizers in Haiti who are working day and night to get aid to the people.  Please contribute to Haiti Emergency Relief Fund at www.haitiaction.net

44,000 electrical workers in Central Mexico have been locked out of their jobs since October 10, 2009, when the government of Felipe Calderon, who was imposed by fraud in the July 2006 presidential election, closed the public utility co. Luz y Fuerza del Centro with the aim of privatizing this nationalized corporation and destroying the powerful and militant Mexican Electrical Workers Union (Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas, or SME).

Learn first hand from one of the central leaders of this union, Brother Humberto Montes de Oca, about this struggle which is being waged by these courageous workers and their union — with the support of hundreds of thousands who have taken to the streets for more than three months to protest the closing of Luz y Fuerza and the attack on the SME.

Learn about the history of this union and how it has spearheaded the resistance movement across Mexico against NAFTA, privatization, union-busting and the entire corporate neoliberal agenda.

And learn what you can do to help this resistance struggle — which is our struggle!

The 10-day Bay Area tour is sponsored by the San Francisco Labor Council and is being supported by scores of local unions and community organizations.

To learn more about the tour and where Brother Montes de Oca will be appearing at public forums, fundraisers and union and community membership meetings, please call 415-513-5393

labor donated/2010

San Francisco Labor Council Educational Event about Mexican Electricians’ Union Struggle
Mexican Electrical Workers Locked Out!

The right wing Mexican government has militarily occupied power plants in Mexico City to lock out thousands of electrical workers for four months in an effort to break their union and privatize Mexican energy to sell to transnational corporations.

Mon., Jan. 25

6 p.m.

Plumbers’ Hall, 1621 Market Street

free – everyone welcome

Sponsored by the San Francisco Labor Council and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement – SF

For more information, contact Karl Kramer at 415-513-5393