dicksonr
Colombia Solidarity Work
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January 6, 2012, 10:56 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized
Filed under: Uncategorized
Dear Friends and Family,Merry Christmas, Happy New Year’s, and Happy Hanukkah!! As most of you know, I’m still living in Medellin, Colombia (almost three years now in Colombia) and I imagine most of you are wondering what exactly I’m up to now. Good question!! I actually need your help! Keep reading….—————————————————————————————————————————————–By forwarding this e-mail to your contacts, you are already helping hugely. Thank you for your interest and contribution! Please read entire email carefully.I am not just asking for monetary donations, but also for your time in reading articles (attachments are articles I’ve written recently on Colombia), help in getting other organizations and people involved, translations, and publishing journalism articles. Spread the word. Educate yourself and others.Chicago area Invite: Please come to a fun, family-friendly educational event on mining in Colombia that I am hosting at Maya Essence 4357 N. Lincoln on Sunday, January 15th! (Will send email confirming the hour soon). Short documentary screening on the current Gold Rush in Colombia, short documentary on the Red de Hermandad, and a discussion and Q and A about what’s going in Colombia, maybe some dancing and music, and info about what you can do to get involved!—————————————————————————————————————————————–Here’s what I’ve been doing:For most of this year I’ve been involved with the Red de Hermandad and Solidaridad con Colombia (Brotherhood and Solidarity Network with Colombia). For info on RedHer in English, go here. It’s an international network of organizations, many of which are Colombian, but also European, Argentine, Ecuadorian, Canadian, as well as from other countries, that are against the inequalities and injustices brought about by neoliberalism and world monopoly capitalism, and working many fronts (political, social, economic, ecological, environmental, communications) to fight it. It’s an internationalist agenda, that shows by working together and across borders we are better equipped to fight against oppression (But as equals, not as one country dictating policy and economic resources for another, which is the landscape of many international NGOs these days). RedHer (Red de Hermandad) has an international campaign called the Campaign Against Dispossession, that has been focusing primarily in Colombia on the role of multinational companies in mining and hydroelectric projects (one of the biggest current causers of displacement, these two industries are growing exponentially in the Colombian countryside). This year we started an investigation team in Antioquia, and are investigating the connections between the Colombian government and their policies, the multinationals and economic interests, the violence, and subsequent dispossession of Colombian civil society, through loss of rights and land and economic sovereignty. The idea is to synthesize the information we find and bring it to the communities affected — through popular education and relationships with the communities, we can help them to organize themselves, as opposed to organizing in the international and national spheres at NGO and governmental levels, to affect policy change, in which frequently other people are still imposing their ideas and interests on communities.I’m also writing for a Colombian newspaper, Periferia Prensa Alternativa (one of the most widely known progressive print newspapers in the country, although still with surprisingly little funding) . Periferia is 7 year-old newspaper that believes in popular communication, and that communication can be a fundamental tool in social, economic, and political transformation. Worried about the omnipotent and consolidated power of the mass media and their alliance with authoritarian political power, Perifieria is a monthly print newspaper with collaborators across the country that tell their stories, stories of the “periphery” of society, with the goal of transmitting their stories to the periphery as well, to help construct collective identity and struggle. We are also currently interested in starting an “internationalist” column, so if anyone is interested in submitting the occasional article about their struggle at home, please do (Periferia can do the translations). Some of my articles have been translated to English, please see attachments below and read one (but not all of them have been published. If you would like to publish one of these articles on your website, blog, etc…, please let me know!!). This year, Periferia plans to broaden its international relationships with other communicators and activists, start a radio program to reach low-income neighborhoods and rural communities, and hold communications workshops in underprivileged communities to help start news collectives.Part of what makes me believe so much in these two causes is that we aren’t just being critical of and denouncing governmental and international policies, but we areworking towards alternatives, different forms of communication and education, and of economic organization with a focus in community identity and local production. With that in mind, I would like to ask for those who can give it, a donation to one of these projects. Periferia will also be sponsoring me (with money I raise that is) to go to an Investigative Reporters and Editors (www.ire.org) workshop in Missouri next week, to get some important skills to help with my investigative journalism skills. Attached is their recommendation and letter of support for me to attend the IRE training, certification of the work I’m doing, and tax ID number for tax write-offs (in Spanish and translated to English as well).So please donate what you can afford, and feel free to specify to what: RedHer Campaign Against Dispossession, Periferia Alternative Press, or IRE workshop for Rachel. Grassroots causes like these need your help the most, and generally use the small amount of money they have the most effectively.The total cost of the IRE workshop is $700. The cost of a Periferia radio program is $200 a month. The cost of a single communications workshop in a neighborhood in Colombia is $50-$100. The cost of a journalist writing an article for Periferia that involves travel is $150 or more. The cost of making a popular education booklet for the Campaign against Dispossession to distribute in ten communities is $2500. You decide what you can donate and to what cause.Donate to Colombia Solidarity Work!! Pay online with credit card or mail check to arrive before January 18th:Rachel Dickson(re: Colombia Solidarity Work)2504 W. Hutchinson St.Chicago, IL 60618If you want more info about these projects, or want to get involved (writing, publishing, translating, etc..) or have organizational contacts that would be helpful, please write back and let us know!!
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