CISPES informa...

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Solidarity Friends,

After a tumultuous summer challenging the Salvadoran government’s efforts to implement the Bush Administration-inspired “anti-terrorism” law, CISPES is going full force with a successful October “week of action” while gearing up for our biggest fall tour in years. But we need your support to make that tour happen! Click here to help cover tour travel costs.
From October 6-13 CISPES committees held actions around the country, including in Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York, San Francisco (photo at left), Boston, Seattle and Olympia. These actions, mostly at Salvadoran consulates, demanded that 13 the protesters arrested in the town of Suchitoto last July for protesting water privatization be cleared of all charges, that the anti-terrorism law be overturned, and that plans towards privatization of water be halted. Check out all the media coverage of the actions.
In the wake of those actions, CISPES is hosting not one but TWO speakers for a national grassroots tour of the U.S. this November. Josefina Lazo (photo at right), a leader of the National Vendors Movement, and Ricardo Calderon, a union leader from the Salvadoran Union Front (FSS), will criss-cross the country this fall as part of the “We are NOT Terrorists – Organizing is Democracy!” tour. CISPES is proud to host these two amazing social movement leaders, and you can find out more about both of them on our webpage here. Josefina will conclude her tour in Ft. Benning, Georgia, where she will speak at the gates of the School of the Americas about the effort to close the new International Law Enforcement Academy in El Salvador (more info about the SOA vigil here, and about the ILEA here.)
Bringing compañeros and compañeras from El Salvador is not cheap, however, and right now we need your support to be able to buy the remaining plane tickets for Josefina and Ricardo’s tours. Please consider donating securely to CISPES through Paypal here. [You can also contact us about donating frequent flyer miles – find out more here.]
If you live in any of the cities where the CISPES tour stops please contact the local chapter (most of the contact info for local chapters can be found here.) Come out and support vibrant Latin American social movements as they continue the tide of change in the continent, towards a more just and humane world. Si se puede!
Burke Stansbury, CISPES director
PS: If you’re in the DC area, join CISPES and thousands of people this weekend in protesting the policies of the IMF and World Bank (October 19-21.) More information at www.octoberrebellion.org