Rights Action SPEAKERS - WINTER 2011
2011 IS A GOOD YEAR TO WORK
FOR DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, JUSTICE & ENVIRONMENTAL SANITY
IN GUATEMALA & HONDURAS
From January - May, 2011, Annie Bird & Grahame Russell (Rights Action co-directors since 1995) are available for speaking engagements in Canada and USA, showing slides and documentaries, and speaking about:
- the pro-democracy, anti-military coup movement in Honduras, and its implications for the Americas;
- indigenous and community resistance to environmental and health harms and other human rights violations caused by gold and nickel mining (Goldcorp Inc. in Guatemala & Honduras; HudBay Minerals in Guatemala; Pacific Rim in El Salvador), hydro-electric dams (the infamous Chixoy dam in Guatemala; the pending Xalala dam in Guatemala) and other mega-"development" businesses;
- on-going struggles in Guatemala to achieve justice for the genocide, massacres and disappearances of the 1970s, 80s and 90s;
- widespread community-based work and struggle for "another world is possible and necessary".
Grahame and Annie will focus particular attention on:
- how "northern actors" - the USA and Canadian governments, businesses, investors, the World Bank, etc. - sometimes contribute to and benefit from the unjust economic model and resultant exploitation and poverty, environmental harms, and repression; and
- how North Americans can get more involved in these and other struggles to help achieve "another world is possible and necessary".
RIGHTS ACTION (www.rightsaction.org)
Originally founded in 1983, Rights Action is a not-for-profit organization with tax charitable status in the US and Canada. The Canadian Rights Action Foundation, founded in 1999, is independent from and works in conjunction with Rights Action (USA). Since 1995, Rights Action has been funding and working to eliminate poverty and impunity and the underlying causes of poverty and impunity in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as in Chiapas (Mexico), Salvador and Haiti. We directly fund and work with community-based development, environmental, disaster relief and human rights organizations. In 2010, we sent over $715,000 to our community-based partner organizations. We also educate about and are involved in activism aimed at critically understanding and changing unjust north-south, global economic, military and political relationships.
CO-DIRECTORS SINCE 1995
ANNIE BIRD - an American - lives in Washington DC with her husband and 3 children. She is a graduate of George Washington University (international development issues and Latin American history). With Rights Action since 1995, she opened the Rights Action office in 1997 in Guatemala City, and lived and worked there to 2009. Annie's work took her all over Honduras and Guatemala, as well as to Chiapas and El Salvador. Annie speaks and publishes regularly about the wide range of issues referred to above.
GRAHAME RUSSELL - a Canadian - lives in Connecticut with his two children. He is a graduate of the University of Guelph (Latin American studies) and the Faculty of Law, Ottawa University. From 1984-1995, Grahame worked with a range of development, environmental and human rights solidarity and NGO groups in Mexico and Central America, living for 8 years in the region. With Rights Action since 1995, Grahame's work has taken him throughout Guatemala, Honduras, Chiapas and Oaxaca, as well as to El Salvador and Haiti. Grahame speaks and publishes regularly about the wide range of issues referred to above. He is the author of: "The Never Ending" (1992) and "Code Z59.5: There is Only One People Here" (2010).
INTERESTED IN HOSTING EVENT?
Is your organization, educational or religious institution, union, etc., interested in hosting education events in your community? CONTACT: Grahame Russell (info@rightsaction.org, 860-352-2448) and Annie Bird (annie@rightsaction.org, 202-680-3002).
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