Global Women Leaders to Appear in New York City, Receive Award in Boston
Press release 9/10/2013
Press release 9/10/2013
When: Saturday, September 28, 3:30-5pm. Followed by Grassroots International 30th Anniversary Celebration
Members of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) showed off their creativity, singing voices and solidarity in a special 30th anniversary message to Grassroots International. In it they recognize what the partnership has meant for them in their struggles in the Amazonian region and throughout the country.
Obrigado, MAB!
Grassroots International is honoring four extraordinary women for their vibrant activism and leadership at a special event on September 28. This includes two Boston-area Community Partners, as well as two global leaders working to secure human rights and dignity for all. All four award recipients epitomize the organization’s values.
As part of our commitment to connecting US activists and philanthropists with global struggles for human rights, Grassroots International seeks to honor those who have made a significant contribution to the struggle for global justice and sustainable development.
Please tell us about your nominee!
You can either click here to access the online nomination form, or download the attachment below. If completing the paper version, please return the completed form to Grassroots International, 179 Boylston Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. All nominations need to be received by March 1, 2013 to be considered.
Awardees will be honored at Grassroots International's 30th annviersary event in Boston on September 28, 2013.
This summer, a group of Grassroots International supporters and allies participated in a delegation to Pernambuco, Brazil. There they saw first-hand the resilient and powerful work of the Landless Workers Movement, the Movement of People Affected by Dams, and the Via Campesina. Along the way, delegates talked with with small farmers, families living in encampments waiting for land, and indigenous communities working to protect their ancestral lands from the incursion of impending dams.
Below is a blog from Peggy Newell, one of the delegates and a Grassroots International supporter, offering her reflections on the journey.
Traveling to Not That Brazil, by Peggy Newell
In order to fix the broken food system, we need to de-colonize our minds. What do I mean about "de-colonize"? To understand that, do this short exercise. What comes to your mind, when you hear the word “Agriculture?” Is it a tree, a head of lettuce or vast endless fields somewhere in the US Midwest?
If the first thing came to your mind was a vast field of a single crop (such as endless rows of corn), you are certainly not alone. For decades, both consumers and farmers have been educated to think of agriculture as an industry of monocrops. The end of small, integrated farm plots (i.e. real food) coincided with the advent of industrial agriculture and the launch of the “Green Revolution.”
April 17 commemorates the International Day of Peasants’ Struggle for land, water, food and justice.
Grassroots International and U.S. Friends of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (FMST) are delighted to host Ana Justo, from the Florestan Fernandes National School of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), a Grassroots International partner and a member of the Via Campesina. She will be speaking Thursday, July 8 at Encuentro 5 in Boston at 6 p.m. Click here for more information.
Ana Justo has been a lead organizer of Brazil's Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST) for 23 of its 25 years. The largest social movement in Latin America, the MST has 1.5 million members in 23 out 27 Brazilian states.Grassroots International recently supported a delegation of Haitian social movements to attend the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit. This diverse group represented several of our partners and allies on the ground in Haiti and offered them a unique networking and educational platform.
Doudou Pierre, representing our partner the National Congress of the Papaye Peasant Movement and our close ally, the National Haitian Network for Food Security and Food Sovereignty, recently told us that the experience changed his perception of the U.S.Grassroots International partner Aldo Gonzalez from the Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca (UNOSJO) joined us in the San Francisco Bay Area at the end of January for a week of meetings, conferences and public events. UNOSJO is an indigenous-led organization working with Zapotec communities to build local autonomy and to increase food security in the Juarez mountains of northern Oaxaca, Mexico.
For some, October 12th is commemorated as the day that Christopher Columbus "discovered" the Americas. For many more, it marked the beginning of over 500 years of foreign domination, cultural destruction and systematic exploitation. Over the last 15 years, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has perpetuated that tragic history.
Join with other justice-minded people to use this October 12th to push for the renegotiation and replacement of NAFTA and forge a new history based on mutual respect, human rights, and dignity.
Grassroots International's amazing on-line auction is now open!
You can bid on beautiful artwork and crafts from around the world, tickets to events, vacation get-aways, professional services, and much more. This is a great way to shop for the holidays, buy something special and support Grassroots International at the same time.
Grassroots International works to create a just and sustainable world by building alliances with progressive movements. We provide grants to our Global South partners and join them in advocating for social change. Our primary focus is on land, water and food as human rights and nourishing the political struggle necessary to achieve these rights.
Grassroots International hosts Inaugurating Real Change: an evening of envisioning global justice on November 15, 2008, as Grassroots International celebrates its 25th Anniversary. The event features Grassroots International partners from the Via Campesina, a keynote address by Frances Moore Lappé, music by Sol y Canto, and much more.
Inaugurating Real Change
November 15, 2008
Cambridge, MA
(Washburn Hall, Episcopal Divinity School, on the corner of Brattle and Mason Streets near Harvard Square)
Tickets are available online (www.GrassrootsOnline.org/25) for $75 ($25 student, low-income)
Grassroots International and U.S. Friends of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (FMST) are delighted to host Luis Antonio Pasquetti, from the National Committee of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), a member of Via Campesina, during his tour in the United States.
Thursday, November 1st
7:00pm
FREE
First Church in Jamaica Plain
Unitarian Universalist Sanctuary
6 Eliot St (Across from the Monument)
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts 02130
In 2006 an energized electorate seemed poised to reassert ownership of the democratic process. Since the elections, however, polls show that citizens confidence in government has resumed its downward trend. Far from waning, disillusion and disengagement continue to spread.
Why is this happening, and how can we stop it?