2009 Pastors for Peace Cuba Caravan Report Back in Seaside

Description: On Sunday December 6th at 3 pm, at the Peace Resource Center in Seaside, located at 1364 Fremont Blvd, 3 members of the Watsonville Brown Berets will share a slide show presentation as well as personal reports and testimonials about their experiences with the 2009 Pastors for Peace 20th annual Caravan to Cuba. The Caravan is a nonviolent direct action that brings literally tons and tons of aid to the island nation in open and direct defiance of the US embargo and travel ban against the island nation. Rob Erlich, Eden Fabian, and Sandino Gomez all went with the caravan this past July and spent 9 days in Cuba during the 50th anniversary celebrations. They visited numerous Cuban institutions like schools, organic gardens, community and cultural centers, clinics, research centers, and more during their time there. They will share these experiences and more during the presentation. The presentation will be followed by a Q and A, and merchandise to support the project will be available for sale.

For more info please see:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/30/18630893.php

http://www.pastorsforpeace.org

Fidel with the leadership of Pastors for Peace in their cool tshirts!

Say NO to Escalation in Afganistan

Description: Please join us  as we gather together on Wed. Dec. 2nd from 3 – 5 pm to protest the escalation in Afghanistan.  Bring signs, banners, warm wear clothes, and be prepared to stand witness together!  Invite your friends, family, coworkers and others and pass the word on to your lists and social networks.

We’ll be in front of the Military recruitment center in Capitola, located at 2121 41st Ave at the corner of Clares St.

This Vigil and Rally is sponsored by many caring members of the Peace Movement of Santa Cruz County

for more info, email:
jharwood@elgatito.com or meadowwolf@baymoon.com
Start Time: 3:00pm
Date: 2009-12-02
End Time: 5:00 pm

Title: RCNV Movie Night “A Hero’s Journey”
Location: RCNV
Link out: Click here
Description: This documentery film, featured in the 2008 Santa Cruz Film Festival (then titled Where the Sun Rises), reveals the world’s newest nation to the world for the very first time. The current Prime Minister — and first President — of East Timor, Xanana Gusmao, and film crews travel the breadth of the nation across its rugged landscapes.

Throughout the film, Gusmao engages with people in remote villages, many of whom were victims or witnesses of massacres in 1999 when thousands of Timorese were killed. These massacres followed the successful vote for independence from foreign occupation in a U.N.-backed referendum.

This film is about the fight to build a new nation from ashes, and against poverty, incompetence, corruption and hatred. It is a story about the courageous journey from war and sacrifice to forgiveness and reconciliation. A trailer can be seen at http://www.luxlucis.sg/index2.htm.

In 2004 HOPE Orphanage in East Timor (Timor-Leste) became the home of 24 children whose parents were killed in the 1999 massacres. There is no adoption in Timor-Leste, and the children — now 31 — live together as an extended family. While their basic needs are provided for, they live in poverty.

A three-minute movie of the orphanage can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7rjCrrWFRA. The orphanage depends on private donations to operate. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, please send an email to jean_a_olson@yahoo.com
Start Time: 7:30
Date: 2009-11-30

Five of our friends from Santa Cruz have returned safely from their journey to the West Bank and Jerusalem in an Olive Harvest delegation with  Inter-Faith Peace Builders.

Check back for reports and presentations from the group in the local area.  Here is an article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel about the delegation:

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_13888255#

Title: Militarization and Resistance in Honduras – An Eye-witness Account
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 7:30p.m.
At the Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway (near Ocean St.)
Link out: Click here
Description:
Patty Adams is one of two US citizens working with the DC-based Quixote Center and the Hemispheric Social Alliance to coordinate a permanent international presence in post-coup Honduras. Since the June 28 coup, civil society resistance has been vibrant, nonviolent, and tenaciously persistent, even in the face of violent repression. Come hear Patty speak about life under the Honduran coup regime, the goals of the grassroots social movements, and what U.S. citizens and other internationals can do to support Hondurans’ struggle for democracy. The event is free; donations accepted.

Co-sponsored by IF, Resource Center for Nonviolence, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Santa Cruz Cuba Caravan, Redwood Nonviolence Community
Information: 831.426.6537.

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Patty Adams has over a decade of involvement in nonviolent direct action and global justice activism/campaigns, including 8 years in Central America where she coordinated dozens of international delegations. She is an experienced nonviolence trainer, and she has worked in trauma healing and transformation.

The Honduras Accompaniment Project was organized in response to the call from popular movement groups in Honduras, especially the National Front of Resistance to the Coup (El Frente), for ongoing presence, support, accompaniment, and information gathering and dissemination. Her visit to Santa Cruz will come on the heels of leading the seventh post-coup international delegation to Honduras. Additional delegations are being planned for late October and beyond. These delegations have accompanied marches in an attempt to diminish the risk of violence, documented violent repression of popular protests throughout the country, used that documentation in advocacy work with national and international power-holders to hold them accountable, and shared information with the public at large to overcome the media blackout on the protests and on the severity of the ongoing political crisis in Honduras. Some additional work that is emerging in response to social movement appeals includes providing resources, training and support in active nonviolence and its applications in Honduras.