BRAZIL 2008
Social justice - environment - culture

August 3 - 17, 2008

This summer we will build solidarity ties with Brazilian social movements while experiencing the uplifting Brazilian environment and learning about grassroots projects.

Click here for event flyer (PDF document)

Click here for delegation website

Click here for delegation application form (Word document)

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Witness for Peace
Delegation to Colombia:

Bilateral Free Trade Agreement,
Human Rights, and Military Repression

August 24-September 3, 2008

Right now, the US government is working to push a free-trade agreement with Colombia, which would further jeopardize the rights of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. These communities are calling on the support from U.S. citizens to spread the word about the situation and help call for respect for their rights. On this delegation, participants will learn about Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities struggle for territory, culture and environment, meet with communities organizing resistance to current military and free trade policies, and talk with a wide range of Colombians including community leaders, displaced persons and human rights advocates. Delegates will also learn ways to educate and advocate to U.S. citizens and policy makers about the situation in Colombia.

 

Applications Due July 1st with $150 deposit

For more information please contact:

Katie Varatta

Katievaratta@yahoo.com    

8th Day Center for Justice  

312.641.5151

or

Erin Cox

ErinCox_xu03@yahoo.com

8th Day Center for Justice

312.641.5151

Click here for trip flyer (PDF document)

Venezuela
August 9-19, 2008
Delegation

Experience the energy, hope, and creativity
of the Bolivarian Revolution!

The 10-day delegation will be led by Lisa Sullivan, who has lived in Venezuela for 20 years and is the Latin America Coordinator for School of the Americas Watch.

Cost: The cost for the ten-day trip is $1350, which includes hotels, all meals, in-country transportation, translation, reading materials, and honoraria for host communities, speakers and organizations. It does not include airfare to and from Venezuela.

For more information, please contact:

Dale Sorensen, 415/924-3227 or geodale1@earthlink.net
Co-sponsors: Task Force on the Americas, SOA Watch, Venezuela Solidarity Network

Click here for trip flyer (PDF document)

Click here for trip application (Word document)

BOLIVIA
SOCIAL MOVEMENT
DEMOCRACY

SEPTEMBER 12-22, 2008

As Evo Morales begins his third year as president of Bolivia and his MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) political party and followers clamor for change from the neo-liberal, Western economic model to a pluri-cultural, indigenous focused regime. The social movements which brought Morales to power are also taking on renewed significance themselves.

     Beginning in the state of Santa Cruz, we will meet with the main opposition to Morales and hear about land use and ownership issues and the autonomy movement. In the western highlands and Cochabamba we’ll recall the Water War of 2000 and meet with coca growers in the nearby Chapare region. In La Paz we’ll meet with government and MAS party leaders, experts and activists.

Some highlights:

·  Meet internationally acclaimed author, Domitila Chungra, who wrote, “Let Me Speak” a testimony of a woman of the Bolivian mines.

·  Visit to the Chapare with Leonida Zurita, Senator and MAS official and tour a coca farm.

·  Meet with Ministers and other members of the government.

·  Learn about the role of USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives and NED funded projects.

Meet local leaders with the committee to extradite Goni (President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada)

·  Visit a monkey preserve in the Charpare

·  Travel to the incredibly beautiful Yungas, the other coca-growing region

Trip Leader:

     The Task Force is honored to have as our guide Georg Ann Potter, author and researcher on the “War on Drugs”, economic globalization and the poor, and peasant women’s movements in Bolivia. She is currently an advisor to the Six Coca Federations in Bolivia and lives in Cochabamba.

·  Cost:

     $1400 includes hotels, most meals and all in-country travel (at least one flight), honorariums to social movement speakers and groups. It does not include: international airfare, Bolivian visa or the required Yellow Fever vaccination. Partial scholarships considered.

For more information call:  Dale Sorensen, 415/924-3227 or email geodale1@earthlink.net.

Click here for delegation flyer (Word document)

Click here for trip application form (Word document)