NEWS & REPORTS

Who We Are and What Are Our Goals

By Betsy Bowman and Cliff Durand

In 2003, retired Philosophy professors Bob Stone and Cliff Durand and former French professor Betsy Bowman moved to San Miguel. Continuing our previous work of researching the world we live in, teaching about what we’ve learned, putting together people and groups of people who, through mutual assistance, can improve and enhance the life prospects of all, we founded the Center for Global Justice.

Because we refuse to accept a world where the vast majority of people suffer hunger and want, where the vast majority of people have little or no control over their lives, where the vast majority of people live in fear of aggression, we agree with Margaret Mead who said, “Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. In fact, that is the only thing that ever has.”

Two of the main projects of the Center for Global Justice/El Centro para la Justicia Global was our founding conference in 2004 on Economic Alternatives to Globalization; the 2005 conference, July 27-Aug. 3, will be on the topic of Women and Globalization.

We recognize that we live in a transitional historical moment. An old social order is striving to extend itself in a desperate effort to survive, while around the world, peoples who no longer find such an order humanly viable, yearn for a new world. We are caught between an old dying order and a new one trying to give birth to itself.

Everywhere around the world, on the global as well as the local levels, progressive social movements are struggling for social justice against corporate rule, inequality, sexism, racism, environmental destruction, poverty and war. Mobilizing a rising tide of people of all ages, many nationalities and social identities, classes, faiths, etc. the social movements of our time are raising the consciousness of men and women in both the First and Third Worlds. They are finding that the existing social order neither meets their interests nor is consonant with their image of the kind of society in which they wish to live. Their protest is not only a radical rejection of what exists but also an expression of faith that another world is possible.

Such a moment as this cries out for the committed engagement of intellectuals. What is required is no less than bold, transformative thinking in service to the emancipatory projects of our social movements.

So what are we doing concretely? Over the winter, we sponsored a series of lectures and movies to teach about the world we live in. We learned that it’s not a very pretty place. We also sponsored a Mexico study group (in English) for those interested in learning more about Mexican history and society. Now we are sponsoring a study group on globalization (in English). In the fall, we hope to sponsor a study group on globalization in Spanish. We also are hosting a series of discussions about organizing an organic food coop here in SMA. Inevitably, other problems enter into this discussion – the local water problem and alternative energy sources. In July, we will be collaborating with a local group, El Collectivo Cultural Ixquinapan, on events concerning the US embargo of Cuba.

Longer range goals include sponsoring a revolving loan fund to supplement resources of local cooperatives. We also envision sponsoring a fair trade store – a store of clothes, baskets, toys, and other artesanal products made by cooperatives as well as an organic food coop. It might also have a cooperative café – an exploitation free zone in which people can have a cup of fair trade coffee, purchase exploitation free clothes and other items made by cooperatives, and organic, exploitation free food grown by cooperatives.

You can learn more about these endeavors by calling the Center for Global Justice at 415 150-0025, or you can stop by our office Mon.-Fri, from 10AM to 1PM, at Calzada de la Luz, 42, Colonia Centro.