NEWS & REPORTS

April 2005
Center for Global Justice Newsletter #5

MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN

During these first eight months of its existence, the Center for Global Justice has been getting itself organized, establishing a resource base here in San Miguel de Allende, and developing programs for the coming year. It’s been a lot of work, but the Center has significant momentum. We have working committees, an office, a staff and volunteers, and a couple projects under way, including plans for the July 27-August 3 conference on Women and Globalization.

To sustain this momentum, we also need financial resources. That’s why we are launching a spring membership campaign. We are asking you to support the work of the Center for Global Justice by a monthly membership pledge of $10. This will give the Center a regular stream of income so we can plan a budget. $10 a month isn’t very much, but some of you may not be able to afford even that, and so a smaller amount would still be welcome. Others can do more than $10. Whatever you can afford will be appreciated and put to good use. Just 60 monthly $10 memberships will cover our office and staff overhead.

Larger lump sum donations are also welcome. They are tax deductible in the U.S. under our 501 (c) (3) status with IRS.

There are three convenient methods for payment:

1. The most convenient method is to have your bank direct deposit your monthly payments into the Center account. Just tell your bank to send it to account number 003924482361 in Bank of America. The bank’s routing # is 052001633.

2. Or from the US you can mail your checks to the Research Associates Foundation, c/o Border Crossings, 413 Interamerica, No. 1 BC-2323, Laredo TX 78045. From Canada and elsewhere you can mail them directly to Research Associates Foundation, c/o Border Crossings, 57A Mesones, San Miguel de Allende GTO, 37700 Mexico.

3. Another option is to make secure payments using your credit card through our website at www.GlobalJusticeCenter.org

However you do it, your support will help put the Center for Global
Justice on a sound financial footing so we can continue to move
forward.

SNOWBIRD SYMPOSIUM

The Center has concluded a very successful series of 20 public events. Called the Snowbird Symposium, we brought to English-speaking visitors and residents of San Miguel de Allende lectures, panels and films on a variety of social and political issues. The series ran from late December to mid March, the high season in this popular winter vacation town.

Lecturers included Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange, Cliff DuRand, Betsy Bowman and Sandra Bartky of the Center as well as anthropologist Luis Berruecos, law professor Mark Kruger, activist Bob Alpern, and poet Lynette Seator. Especially popular were the panels and public forums we had on the eve of Bush’s inauguration and the second anniversaries of the world-wide anti-war protests and invasion of Iraq.

But the documentary films we screened were the most popular of all. Standing room only audiences required us to schedule second showings of films like “Hijacking Catastrophy: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire” and “Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy”. Every film was followed by vigorous discussion which revealed a deep dis-ease with the direction Bush is taking the U.S. People are clearly looking for a way out of the present morass.

50 YEARS OF FOREIGNERS IN SAN MIGUEL

Also very successful were two public programs sponsored by the Center that focused on the history of foreigners in this bi-cultural city, a city that has experienced influxes of World War II GIs coming to study art, beatniks and hippies, political refugees from McCarthyism, Nixonism, Reagonism and now Bushism, retirees and real estate developers. These migrations have given San Miguel de Allende a distinctive cosmopolitan flavor with a definite progressive coloration. But a deep cultural divide has also opened up between the 5% of the population who are foreigners and the remaining 95% who are Mexicans. This divide, as well as the economic effects of real estate speculation, have become matters of growing concern.

Under the leadership of Holly Yasui, the Center has launched a 50 Years of Foreigners in SMA project. Utilizing oral histories of elderly residents and research in public records and private archives, this project aims to retrieve the history of the impact of this aspect of globalization on this otherwise conservative colonial town. The hope is to produce a book as well as a video/DVD that will record this complex history. We are looking for funding sources to carry through the project. Any suggestions? If you would like to see the reports on this project to date, click here to go to the News section.

ATENCIÓN

The Center now has a regular column in the local newspaper, Atención. Called “A Better World”, the column will bring the Center’s alterglobalist vision to issues of local concern. If you would like an e-mail subscription to the column, contact BobStone@igc.org, as he is coordinating it.

BUILDING MEXICAN LINKS

In its continuing efforts to link up with Mexican organizations, the Center has recently visited two interesting groups. Bob, Betsy, Julie and Cliff spent an afternoon talking with a group of activist women who have been fighting to block a sanitary landfill near their town of Apaseo El Grande. Although the government has spent millions of pesos constructing the landfill, so far these militant women have been able to prevent its opening by road blockages and mobilizing the local community. Calling themselves la Liga de Unidad Socialista, they are thinking globally and acting locally. The leaders, Rosa Maria Moreno Hernandez, Angelica Jimenez and others are all unmarried, saying if they had husbands they would not be able to be so politically active. For an article on their struggle, contact Cliff@GlobalJusticeCenter.edu.

The Center also visited CEDESA, Centro de Desarrollo Agropecuario, in nearby Dolores Hidalgo. This is a center that helps rural communities form cooperatives and educates them to practice sustainable agriculture so that campesinos don’t have to leave the land to work in the cities or El Norte. Opposed to neo-liberalism, CEDESA promotes human development within families and communities in a just economy. As director Lucha Rivera said, “the social function of land is not to make a profit, it is to make food.” For our report on CEDESA contact ebowman@igc.org.

WOMEN AND GLOBALIZATION CONFERENCE

The Program Committee is reviewing over 75 paper proposals for our July 27-August 3 conference on “Women and Globalization.” This promises to be an intensive seven days with participants from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as North America. In addition to numerous concurrent sessions, plenary sessions are planned on such topics as “Globalization and Its Effects on Women”, “Transnational Feminism”, “Women’s Activism Against Corporate Globalization”, and “Globalization, the Environment and Women”. Watch for program details soon.

Complete program and conference papers will be posted on the Center website in both Spanish and English. Plan now to join us for this stimulating event by registering on-line.

GLOBAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

Another gathering of interest is the annual conference of the Global Studies Association. The theme this year is “Crosscurrents of Global Social Justice: Class, Gender and Race”. It is being held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville May 13-15, 2005. The GSA is also co-sponsoring our conference on Women and Globalization and we encourage you to attend their conference as well. GSA is the professional association of academics working on globalization issues. For conference information visit their website at www.net4dem.org/mayglobal/