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NEWS & REPORTS
    
May 2006
Center for Global Justice Newsletter #6
It has been some months since our last Newsletter. There is a lot of exciting news to catch up on from the Center for Global Justice. But we’ll give you a brief summary of what’s been going on so you can get an overview.
ANOTHER WORLD IS NECESSARY: JUSTICE, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, SOVEREIGNTY
Plans are moving ahead for our July 19-26 Workshop. After the May 1 deadline for paper proposals, the Program Committee will get busy fashioning them into what promises to be a stimulating week of discussions and field trips. Watch for details in late May.
Meanwhile, the good news is that we have changed the conference to the Hotel Quinta Loreto. With far less expensive accommodations than Hotel Real de Minas, the Quinta is nevertheless very comfortable and charming, as those of you who have stayed there in past years will attest. A double room is 480 pesos (about $43 usd), a single 390 pesos (about $35 usd). We think many of you who might have been scared away by the rates at de Minas will welcome this change. Check our website for details. Workshop sessions will be held in the nearby Biblioteca Publica.
MAY DAY SOLIDARITY WITH IMMIGRANTS
On May 1 San Miguel de Allende will see a massive demonstration in support of immigrant rights in the U.S. Being organized by the Center’s Mexican friends, foreigners living in SMA have been invited to join in an expression of solidarity. We are also circulating a petition to the U.S. Congress calling for a more humane immigration policy.
SUMMER INTERNS
The Center has received 10 applications from students wishing to participate in our Summer Internship program. Interns will spend June 19 to July 14 doing social investigations of the impact of NAFTA on women in the campo, causes and effects of migrations, problems of water, and prospects for cooperative development. If you have a student who might be interested in this unique opportunity, have them get in touch with Beatriz at info@globaljusticecenter.org pronto, as we are now making final selections.
SNOWBIRD SYMPOSIUM
January, February and March are high season in San Miguel de Allende as tourists from the northern states and Canada come here to escape the cold. We call them snowbirds. During this season the Center put on a series of public programs on a variety of social issues. We did at least one talk and one film each week, for a total of 33 events. Almost all of them had full or near full houses, with a total of 1800 participants! We had wonderfully intelligent, probing discussions –a testament to the progressive character of the people who visit SMA. We have been showered with praise for this series and many are taking the discussion back to their communities at home.
TRIPS TO THE CAMPO
New this year the Center has organized field trips to the countryside to dialogue with campesinos about the problems they face and how they cope with them. These site visits have been real eye openers for many who seldom have had contact with this part of Mexican reality. We are hoping that the communities will develop projects that the Center might be able to help with.
REVOLVING LOAN FUND
The Center has established a Revolving Loan Fund for worker owned and democratically controlled cooperatives. This fall it gave its first loan of 50,000 pesos (about $5,000 usd) to a group of 20 cooperatives in the state of Hidalgo . Invited by the co-ops' "Integradora" to see their progress, a van full of Center folks drove to Hidalgo in March, toured the co-ops -- peaches, tomatoes, and chilis, among other crops -- and enjoyed a splendid barbecue afterwards. We hope to return this July with our Workshop participants.
FUNDRAISING
In February we held our First Annual Dinner/Dance Fundraiser. It brought together many from our local community of supporters for an enjoyable evening of socializing. Since then we have also received a number of $500 donations from supporters and the Michael P. Wein Charitable Foundation, based in SMA. We are very grateful to all donors and remind you that contributions are tax deductible in the U.S. and should be made to Research Associates Foundation, Inc. Also, please note we would welcome some guidance from an experienced fundraiser.
MEMBERSHIP
After some difficulties with our database, we launched a membership drive in March to convert the Center's many friends into regular members. We are also asking long-time volunteers and all participants in our past conferences to join. The response so far is very heartening. Members get the Directory listing their specialties in order to pool resources, and they get a vote on policy and leadership. We are aiming to establish a critical number of reliable, committed members, each paying $120 usd yearly. This will allow us to keep the doors open while maintaining our independence of the foundations, whose agendas rarely coincide with ours. (We are happy for foundation support of projects, mind you.) If YOU have not joined yet, please go to our website www.globaljusticecenter.org, press "Membership" and follow the instructions. Welcome aboard! Your feelings of
political paralysis should subside in direct proportion to your involvement!
ATENCION COLUMNS
The Center has a regular column in Atencion, the local English language newspaper. Many of the columns are of general interest so we put them on our website. In particular, Bob Stone and Betsy Bowman have a series of excellent articles on the solidarity economy in Latin America. It is based on their trip this past winter to Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. You can find it and much more at http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/news.htm . We also have some good articles on immigration issues at http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/studygroups/mexstudies.htm .
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