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CALENDAR OF EVENTS

South American Mapuche art exhibit and presentation

Colorful pencil drawings by Juana Calfunao, a Mapuche Lonko (indigenous community chief in Chile), are on exhibit at La Peña Community Center Theater, 3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, from February 3 through 28. Since 2006 the artist has been a political prisoner in Chile as a result of her struggle to reclaim her community's ancestral lands from control of logging corporations.

On Sunday, February 28, there will be a reception from 3:30 to 4:30 PM followed by a presentation with photos and a film documenting the repression of the Mapuche people. This event is a fundraiser to benefit the Mapuche resistance movement.

This project is sponsored by the Task Force on the Americas, whose members visited the Mapuche community in October 2009 and observed first hand the injustices to which these brave people are subjected. A $5-10 donation is requested. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

Event flyer (PDF)

Haiti Report Back & Fundraiser

Having returned from Haiti just four days before the catastrophic earthquake, members of the Task Force on the Americas will discuss the years of US intervention and devastating neo-liberal policies that preceded this latest disaster. They will share their findings based on interviews with more than 70 people.

The presentation is scheduled for Friday, February 12 at 7:30 PM at the First United Methodist Church, 9 Ross Valley Drive (at Fourth Street), San Rafael. Proceeds will benefit the SOPUDEP School. The school educates over 500 students from the poor neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince free of charge and provides many with their only meal of the day. Since the disaster the school is housing an emergency medical clinic staffed by Haitian and Cuban doctors.

The venue is wheelchair accessible. For more information: 415/924-3227 or mitf@igc.org.

Event flyer (PDF)

Influence of Social Movements in Ecuador

Task Force on the Americas' member Roger Harris will give a PowerPoint presentation on Ecuador followed by a discussion. Mr. Harris will speak on Friday, March 5, 7:30 PM at the First United Methodist Church, 9 Ross Valley Drive (at Fourth Street), San Rafael.

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.

Event flyer (PDF)

Bay Area Activist Returns from Honduras

After five months in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Andrés Contéris, Latin America correspondent for FSTV’s Democracy Now! and KPFA’s Flashpoints, is back. On Wednesday, March 10, at 7 PM Andrés will be at Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street (between 15th and 16th Streets), San Francisco. He will describe his 5-month internment with President Zelaya and the state of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP).

This event is a fundraiser for an upcoming delegation to Honduras. Mr. Conteris will discuss proposed meetings with the popular resistance movement and human rights groups, visits with political prisoners and threatened communities, and plans to document human rights abuses.

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

Event flyer (PDF)

Archive of previous events (beginning in 2009)

Updated February 08, 2010