Global Exchange Gift Membership Package

We all have our own ideas on what the Holidays are all about. Family. Laughter. Good will.

Corporate greed and commercialization? They certainly don’t make the list.

It’s time to take back the Holidays.

The true meaning of the season cannot be packaged in a box. Instead of taking part in the corporate craziness, why not get the loved ones on your list something that brings them the true meaning of the holiday season?

A Global Exchange Gift of Membership is the perfect gift! You can give the gift of Fair Trade, peace, justice, people power, and human rights. You pick the gift and we’ll take care of the rest.

6 Gift Memberships to choose from:

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When your family and friends unwrap their Global Exchange Gift Membership, they will join a compassionate community of dedicated activists working for peace, justice and human rights.

We’ll send out the membership card and gift package, plus keep your recipient in the loop about Global Exchange programs and events with our newsletter and e-mail action alerts.

Order your gifts by December 14th at midnight to guarantee delivery by December 24th 2012.

Wishing you joy, justice, and peace this Holiday Season!

Now to set the mood, here’s a little poem written by Global Exchange Generation for Justice member Andy Klase:

Click on the poem to see larger version on Facebook

P.S. If you live in the Bay Area or DC, please be sure to join us for our Fair Trade Store holiday event on December 6 from 5pm – 8pm. Shop for all your Fair Trade gifts, meet our staff, and if you’re a member double your discount (20% for one night only.)

October 5, 2012

An Open Letter In Support Of the Tar Sands Blockade

Dear Friends,

As we write, our friends with the Tar Sands Blockade are blocking construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline in the woods of Texas. For the past six months they have built a movement of climate activists, rural landowners, Texans, Oklahomans and people from all over the country to fiercely resist it. For two weeks, they have captured the imagination of the world with a daring tree- sit and bold ground actions near Winnsboro, TX that have delayed TransCanada’s operations.

TransCanada has responded by allowing its employees to operate their heavy machines with reckless disregard for the safety of protestors and tree-sitters. Police have responded with brutal means such as pepper-spray and Tasers against peaceful protestors. Prosecutors have responded with elevated charges.

It is clear what is at stake. NASA’s leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen has called the Keystone XL pipeline, “a fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet.” If all the carbon stored in the Canadian tar sands is released into the earth’s atmosphere it will mean “game over” for the planet.

In 2011, we saw the Tar Sands Action galvanize environmental and social justice communities in an unprecedented show of unity during the sit-ins in front of the White House. Every day members of Indigenous communities, faith communities, labor communities, anti-mountaintop removal movements, anti-fracking movements and many more stepped forward and put their bodies on the line in solidarity. In the year since, we have witnessed people from the Lakota nation in South Dakota and from Moscow, Idaho putting their bodies in roads and highways blocking large transport trucks carrying oil refining equipment to develop further tar sands extraction. Now, the Tar Sands Blockade has taken the next logical step confronting climate change.

If we are determined to prevent the pursuit of extreme energy from destroying our communities, natural systems and climate, then peaceful, yet confrontational, protests like the Tar Sands Blockade are necessary actions for change.

Let us be clear: there is not an inch of daylight in between us and those blocking construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas. We stand with them as we’ve stood with those fighting mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, those defending old growth forests in Cascadia and those challenging nuclear power across this country.

We stand in solidarity with those who stand up for us all.

Sincerely,

Alliance for Appalachia
Alliance of Community Trainers (ACT)
Center for Biological Diversity
Communities for a Better Environment
Community to Community
Council of Canadians
Energy Action Coalition
Friends of the Earth U.S.
Forest Ethics
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives
Global Exchange
Global Justice Ecology Project
Grassroots Global Justice
Greenpeace Canada
Greenpeace U.S.A.
Indigenous Environmental Network
Missourians for Empowerment and Reform (MORE)
Movement Generation
Occupy the Pipeline
Peaceful Uprising
Platform
Radical Action for Mountain Peoples’ Survival (RAMPS)
Rainforest Action Network
Rising Tide North America
Ruckus Society
Sierra Club
smartMeme Strategy & Training Project
Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards
UK Tar Sands Network
350.org

For more information, visit the Tar Sands Blockade on Facebook  and here.

To sign onto the letter, please email contact (at) risingtidenorthamerica (dot) org

USCaravana: this gorgeous personal journal recorded day by day memories, and includes videos of reflections and events in English.

Caravan for Peace: this site was updated daily, with photos, transcriptions of Javier Sicilia’s talks and videos from each stop on the Caravan.

RompeVientos tv (click on the ‘caravana por la paz en Estados Unido’s banner): this internet tv channel produced 7 video programs in Spanish.

Also, be sure to check out beautiful photos from the Caravan on the Caravan for Peace Flickr feed.

Take Action! Have you signed the petition to tell President Obama that you don’t want greedy gun merchants selling assault weapons, built for war, into our communities where they are then used to massacre tens of thousands of innocent people on both sides of the border? Watch this video: U.S. Guns: The Awful, Shocking Truth!

Sign the petition.

The Caravan for Peace consists of two full size buses carrying the caravanistas across the United States and, to date, one RV.

The RV looks funny tailing the buses wrapped with the Caravan for Peace banner and the Movimiento Por la Paz dove that has become iconic to the movement, because it’s one of those CruiseAmerica vans that clog campgrounds and National Parks every summer and are typically viewed as greedy, gas guzzling monsters contributing to climate change.

The buses make sense. The Caravan for Peace is itself meant to be a spectacle – our branding is visible and proud and at each rest stop or restaurant we offload and talk to anyone and everyone about our travel and our mission. The victims from Mexico spend time together, with U.S. riders and Mexicans and U.S. media, giving lots of time for coverage. Their solidarity with each other grows each day and people’s good-night hugs grow stronger when we get split up into home stays.

But even I’ve been thinking – an RV? Really?

I boarded our RV monster at 5am today (Wednesday) and for the next 10 hours en route from El Paso to Laredo, TX I’ve thought very carefully about its service to the Caravan for Peace.  As I’m part of the Committee in charge of the overall finances, I need to be mindful about it’s cost versus benefit to the Caravan. Can we keep it? Should we keep it?

Firstly, it’s used as a ‘peace room’. Organizers meet en route and review the day’s agenda, make changes to the schedule, come up with new ideas for actions as we approach cities and pieces fall into place (look out, Houston!). Reviews are also done of the previous days, so that we are sure to take our new experiences forward.

Javier Sicilia giving a mobile interview

For example, this morning we talked about the City Council meeting in El Paso yesterday, thought through the presentations by Javier and  Ruben Garcia of Annunciation House, and agreed we can be a little more clever in our messaging at the next opportunity to speak to elected officials.

Second, it acts as Javier’s mobile interview room. There is never a moment – even while we are en route – without a reporter around and the RV acts as a quiet(ish) place to conduct an interview. After addressing the crowd in El Paso on Monday night, Javier was swarmed by reporters and could barely make it back to the RV.

Third, over and above the organizing and the planning, we organizers are learning too.

Gas pump for the RV!

This morning Oscar Chacon of National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC) in Chicago talked through his vision of the Caravan ‘planting a seed’ for the future of successful progressive organizing, building on his decades of experience organizing immigrant Latino communities. Roberto Lovato of Presente.org supported our media strategy planning, advising on the delicate line to tell victims’ stories, but not exploit the story for the purpose of ‘getting the hit’. He later, and somewhat privately, takes Javier aside and records an interview with him about his poetry. And Janice Gallagher – an amazing woman leading most of the logistical planning for the Movimiento por la Paz continues to blaze our path forward, modeling calm and dedicated organizing.

So, I’m not sure. Do we keep this beast, which does provide a decent mobile meeting and interview space, and some solace between city stops? We’ll see.

TAKE ACTION!

Follow the Caravan on…

• Twitter: @CaravanaUSA
• Facebook: Facebook.com/Caravan4Peace
• Hashtag: #Caravan4Peace #CaravanaUSA
• Caravan for Peace website:  caravanforpeace.org
• Global Exchange People-to-People blog: Caravan Road Reports or Subscribe via RSS to receive new posts automatically

CARAVAN PHOTOS

Check out Caravan photos from the road…

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/globalexchange
Facebook: Southern California photos. South-West photos. Texas photos.

Lend Your Support: Donations are still being accepted to help fund this important trip. Will you give?

Welcoming the Caravan to El Paso!

Global Exchange Executive Director Carleen Pickard has joined the Caravan for Peace!

I arrived Monday night to the main square in El Paso and thought ‘oh no, we’ve double booked the plaza for the Caravan for Peace arrival!’ as Mexican rock blasted through the empty downtown streets at 8:30pm. When I arrived to la Placita it turned out that the party atmosphere was for the Caravan’s arrival, pleasing the few hundred people that had gathered with banners of bienvenidos, candles, pan dulce and hot chocolate.

When the 2 buses arrived, the worn and bleary eyed caravaneros walked through an aisle of supporters and treated to a beautiful ceremony. Representatives from Border Network for Human Rights communities presented the Caravan with:

Javier Sicilia giving testimony to El Paso Council.

• a symbol of Human Rights from East El Paso County;
• a symbol of Justice from Mission Valley;
• a symbol of Respect from Mission Valley;
• a symbol of Peace from Southern Dona Ana County;
• a symbol of Liberty from Las Cruces; and
• a symbol of Dignity from North of Las Cruces.

Tuesday morning

We rose early, boarded our buses and sat in the audience as the City Hall council heard a resolution presented by Ruben Garcia of Annunciation House and other El Paso community members. Read into the record by Councilwoman Susie Byrd, the resolution calls on El Paso to endorse a voluntary Code of Conduct for gun sales developed by mayors across the U.S. (for more info on the problems with lax gun laws, watch ‘U.S. Guns: the Awful, Shocking Truth’), discuss drug policy, money laundering and prioritize human rights.

The Caravan outside the El Paso DEA offices.

With the support of more than 50 victims of the War on Drugs in the room, many holding photos of their loved ones, dead or missing family members, Javier Sicilia spoke in favour of the resolution and appealed to the Council by stating, “The United States helped create this war, so that’s why we come to you today to help us create peace.” Despite challenges from 2 community members about the resolution’s language concerning U.S. citizens’ right to bear arms and clarification about the resolution’s intent of a discussion on drug policy, the El Paso City Council passed the resolution with 7 votes in favour and 1 abstention.

Tuesday afternoon

We protested at the DEA offices, and over lunch victims met with members of the Border Network for Human Rights, and later Javier Sicilia spoke at the University of Texas – El Paso campus.

Annunciation House with names of victims of the War on Drugs projected onto it.

After a symbolic community signing of the voluntary Code of Conduct for firearm sales in the same la Placita the Caravan was welcomed to last night, we marched to the immigrant support center Annunciation House for a closing vigil. Names of the victims of the drug war were projected onto the side of the Annunciation building, while classical music played.

It was astounding to spend 35 minutes watching hundreds of names reach upwards with classical music playing through the streets as everyone sat in silence. I believe each of us re-committed our pledge to impact the dialogue in the United States on the war on Drugs as our El Paso hosts wished us well as we travel eastwards across Texas tomorrow morning.

Watch the names projected onto the Annunciation House:

TAKE ACTION!

Follow the Caravan on…

• Twitter: @CaravanaUSA
• Facebook: Facebook.com/Caravan4Peace
• Hashtag: #Caravan4Peace #CaravanaUSA
• Caravan for Peace website:  caravanforpeace.org
• Global Exchange People-to-People blog: Caravan Road Reports or Subscribe via RSS to receive new posts automatically

CARAVAN PHOTOS

Check out Caravan photos from the road…

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/globalexchange
Facebook: Southern California photos. South-West photos.

Lend Your Support: Donations are still being accepted to help fund this important trip. Will you give?

Knowing about how the global economy works is key. In 1999 Global Exchange worked with hundreds of national and international groups and organizing spaces to mobilize tens of thousands of nonviolent protesters to converge and challenge the WTO in Seattle. This now-legendary meeting and protest has become known as “The Battle in Seattle” and inspired generations of activists to fight for a better global and local economy, better planet, and better conditions for workers and the global citizenry.

The first “Most Wanted” list appeared shortly after the Battle in Seattle and was intended to check the power of corporations—and provide a tool for citizens around the world to do it. The list included such odious offenders as Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin and Nestlé to illustrate that corporations are responsible for assassination and torture, kidnapping, environmental degradation, huge campaign donations, violently repressing political rights, releasing toxins into pristine environments, destroying homes, discrimination, and causing widespread health problems.

The 2012 “Most Wanted” list is updated to include some of the world’s worst (and current) corporate abusers including Bank of America, Chevron, Monsanto, Pacific Rim and TransCanada. Now we need you to take action!

This list of “MOST WANTED” corporate criminals:

• Gives you information about the abusive behavior of this year’s worst corporations;
• Tells you who is responsible;
• Provides resources aboutd how to connect with and support people who are doing something about it.

TAKE ACTION!

We encourage you to learn about Global Exchange’s Elect Democracy campaign,  Community Rights and Mexico programs and consider joining a Reality Tour to a country impacted by atrocious corporate practices. Everything we do is aimed at building people power, not corporate power.

The more you know, the less these corporations can continue their abuses out of public eyesight: so share this information with your friends, get on the phone with the CEOs themselves, and exercise your rights as a global citizen and consumer today.

See which corporations made the list.

Javier Sicila and Mexico Program Director Ted Lewis in front of the CA state capital.

As the California state Senate opened on Monday May 14, Senators Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) and Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) welcomed Javier Sicilia to the capital in Sacramento and recognized Javier’s work in a State Resolution. The Resolution states:

“[T]herefore, be it resolved by Senator Y. Yee, Ph.D., and Senator Kevin de León, that they take great pleasure in meeting Javier Sicilia upon his visit to California, commend him on his illustrious record of accomplishments and extend best wishes for every success in the future.”

Javier addressed the Senate and asked Mexico Program Director Ted Lewis to read his statement:

“Good Day. I appreciate the recognition of the Senate and am thankful to Senators Leland Yee and Kevin de León for their support. But I wish I were not here.

Nothing can bring back my son or staunch the grief of those who have loved the more than 60,000 murdered and 20,000 disappeared in six years of violence in my country. No one can return a parent to more than eight-thousand orphans. Nevertheless, thank you for helping shine a light on the atrocious violence that is killing our youth, tearing our society apart, and devouring our already weak and corrupted institutions.

You, our powerful neighbor, consume tens of billions in illegal drugs every years even while spending other billions on a drug prohibition regime that criminalizes millions in your country and leaves tens of thousand of dead in ours. And so many of the dead are killed by guns smuggled into our country by the tens of thousands after being “legally purchased” at guns stores and shows.

This summer a Caravan from San Diego to Washington DC will pierce the silence that allows this horror to continue. We invite you and all people of good conscience to join and support us. No one else should lose a child, parent, sister, or brother to this senseless violence. Thank you.”

Javier then requested a moment of silence in recognition of the tens of thousands of victims and their families in Mexico.

CA Governor Jerry Brown met with Javier Sicilia.

Governor Jerry Brown also met with Javier before the event at the Senate and asked questions related to the discovery of 49 headless bodies near the northern industrial city of Monterrey, Mexico and listened intently to the demands of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity – the movement of victims families.

The Caravan, to be led by victims of Mexico’s atrocious war and their partners in pain north of the border will cross the border from Tijuana to San Diego on August 12 and arrive in Washington DC in early September.

The Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity invites North Americans from all backgrounds, walks of life, and a rainbow of communities to join them their cross-country cry for peace, justice and dignity.

This initiative seeks to promote dialogue with American civil society and its government regarding: the need to stop gun trafficking; the need to debate alternatives to drug prohibition; the need for better tools to combat money laundering; and the need to promote bilateral cooperation in human rights and human security in two priority areas: promotion of civil society and safety, as well as protection and safety for migrants.

Please join part or all of this caravan if you can. Meet us along the route. And even if you can’t go on the road you can support Global Exchange to make the caravan a success.

Sign up for our Mexico News email list to get the latest updates about the Caravan.

Javier Sicilia with Juan Mora, from DePaul University in Chicago

Javier Sicilia’s message to the audiences of four public events in Chicago, IL was clear and powerful;

“In 1994 subcomandante Marcos introduced the Zapatistas to the world, declaring Mexican President Salinas’ signing of NAFTA opened ‘the gates of hell’ for Mexico, and now Mexico is living in that hell.”

He begins every speech quoting terrifying statistics: Since 2006, there are 60,000 Mexicans dead, 20,000 Mexicans disappeared and 250,000 Mexicans displaced from their homes, all a result of a drug war launched by a deaf and dumb government. And there is no end in sight. More than 98% of homicides committed in Mexico are never resolved. He brings home the message that if anyone in the audience decided to kill someone in Mexico, there would be less than 2% chance of ever being held accountable.

The cost of the war reflected in these numbers has grown inexorably since last year when the respected poet announced to an adoring Mexican public that he was putting aside his poetry to protest the government’s complicity with organized crime and inexcusable inaction in investigating the deaths of those killed in drug war related violence.

Altar outside of the Municipal Palace in Cuernavaca Morelos, with names and pictures of drug war related victims

Javier’s son Juan Francisco was murdered along with six friends on a fateful night in March of 2011 in Temixco, Morelos. Suddenly, Javier –who had long been active in Mexico’s cultural and political life — became the voice for a movement led by people who are simply called ‘las victimas’.

He is emphatic that the statistics don’t convey the real picture. He says that the face of the person who suffered ‘one death’ or ‘one disappearance’ is one person who had a character, a personality and merits justice. One death represents a family torn apart in grief. The fact that more than 98% of the time those seeking answers from authorities get no satisfaction adds to their pain and misery. One disappeared person represents a family consumed with fear and unanswered questions. One displaced family lives in constant upheaval and suffering. In short, the statistics are overwhelming but even one is too many.

The public events were co-sponsored by the National Museum of Mexican Art, UIC (Latin American and Latino Studies Program), DePaul University and The Resurrection Project and well attended by students, activists and members of the Latino community in Chicago. In each speech Javier repeated the urgent demands of the Mexico-based Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity – the organization of victims that came together last year to declare Estámos hasta la Madre/We Are Fed Up (with the drug war) – to the Mexican and US governments. The Pacto Nacional (link in Spanish) was signed May 12, 2011 with the following demands:

• End the drug war, a failure of tragic proportions;
• End the easy access to high-powered weapons that facilitates weapons smuggling;
• Crack down on those who help criminal enterprises by laundering money;
• Defend the human security and dignity of immigrants;
• End US support for the militarization of Mexico.

Mothers of disappeared victims, criticizing the government’s inaction to investigate their missing loved ones

In Mexico, the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity is campaigning for approval of the Ley de Victimas this week. This law would place new responsibility on the government to investigate drug war related crimes and provides a fund for impacted families.

Carrying the voices of las victimas to the United States, Javier is widening the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity’s profile and building support for a US Peace Caravan this summer (link in Spanish). Javier and the Caravan will cross the United States in cars, buses, and RVs joined by victims of drug war related violence from Mexico, supporters, activists and journalists. The Caravan will stop at key cities along the route for public conferences, demonstrations and meetings with key local leaders.

TAKE ACTION!

• For more information about Javier Sicilia’s speaking events in the USA, click here.
• For more information about the US Peace Caravan, click here.

Kevin in his new SF DOE office!

On Feb 6 we asked Global Exchange members and supporters to wish Kevin Danaher well at his new position with the San Francisco Department of the Environment as the Outreach and Communications Program Manager.

As one of the co-founders of Global Exchange in 1988, Kevin Danaher has inspired, educated and moved to action thousands in the US and around the world. It’s an amazing opportunity, and we’ve no doubt that he’ll take the Department to new heights, greening and bettering this already fabulous city. As Kevin said to staff and board, “I look forward to working together to take our global values revolution to the next level.”

On Feb 15, 2012 Global Exchange staff visited Kevin Danaher’s new offices at the San Francisco Department of the Environment, to pass a long a collection of well wishes and love from Global Exchange supporters around the country. See a short video of the delivery and watch his thank you back to everyone that signed.

Kevin remains on our board of directors, and has retained an office where he continues to collaborate with Global Exchange whenever he is able. From fighting corporate bullies head-on to spearheading the US’ largest ‘party with a purpose’ with the Green Festivals, Kevin’s vision, leadership, and charismatic presence are close to the heart of who we all are and what we do at Global Exchange. And he has also become one of our valued GEMS: a Global Exchange Monthly Sustainer.

Kevin remains an integral member of the Green Festivals team (in New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in 2012!) as well. In his own words, “My paycheck will come from a different institution, and my main desk will be in a different place, but my heart and wild ideas will always reside with my baby, Global Exchange.”

Thanks to everyone who signed the card. Here’s what Kevin had to say about it:

Take part in the Human Rights Award People’s Choice Contest, and help us honor the human rights heroes who are making a difference – whether they’re in your neighborhood or halfway around the world! Join us in shining a spotlight on those unsung heroes working for peace, justice, and sustainability. 

It’s easy. Just log on to Global Exchange’s Human Rights Awards website, and nominate and vote for YOUR Human Rights Hero/Heroine. The last day to nominate and vote is March 19, 2012.

Your nominations and votes help determine who will win Global Exchange’s People’s Choice Award and take home $1,000 to use towards their important work.

Javier Sicilia (left) delivering speech at 2011 Global Exchange Human Rights Awards

Last year’s People’s Choice winner is Javier Sicilia, who was recently named one of TIME magazine’s People of the Year!

You nominate. You vote. You decide.

This award means a great deal to the winners, and this honor is an important way to strengthen the efforts of their work. Past People’s Choice honorees include Mexican Poet/Activist Javier Sicilia and Cambodian human rights activist Mu Sochua. Help us choose the 2012 Honoree.

What are you waiting for? It’s easy and free! Log on to www.HumanRightsAward.org.

The power to choose this year’s People’s Choice Award winner is in your hands. Help us celebrate everyday human rights hero(s) and heroine(s).