avatar: how not to do solidarity

There have been several stories about "the real avatar" story. The video here is another example - the ritual held by the women starting at minute 4 is a striking way to try to get the mining company and the Colombian military out of their lands. Also love this image of Palestinians in a protest dressed like the Avatar characters. Lets keep using the movie to bring more attention to the real thing! Haven't seen the movie yet? It's both a powerful expose of the evils of empire, and then falls into all sorts of colonial white supremacist saviour traps. A study in how not to do solidarity. But still well worth seeing. I mean, hey, Evo Morales and Starhawk like it. The Vatican doesn't. Do you need more than that?

solidarity sounds good

fantastic action today in Vancouver. one of many! I had great fun dancing in a salsa rueda at the big No Olympics on Stolen Native land protest. We had great tshirts that in front said we celebrate ... and on the back said either: homes for all, quality public education, using less and living more, climate justice. Basically all the things we wish some of these billions and billions of dollars were being put towards. Great coverage of the resistance at vancouver.mediacoop.ca

charity vs. solidarity

from an article in Canada's major paper, the Globe and Mail, by Rick Salutin

"Outside responses to the Haiti earthquake have come with smug side helpings of superiority and self-congratulation. The New York Times's David Brooks described Haitian culture as “progress-resistant” and prescribed “intrusive paternalism,” as if Haiti hasn't had 200 years of that. ...

This is the perennial underside of charity and generosity: a chance to feel simultaneously kind and morally superior while reinforcing the relations between those who have power and those who don't. Plus a component of taking vicarious pleasure, in a quasi porn-like way, in the misery of others. I'm thinking here of the insatiable news programming and the repeated requests by interviewers to “Tell us how you feel.” "

Yes! So how does solidarity do stories, do feelings, differently? My sense of it is that we don't poke and prod for how do you feel, but we do mourn together. Not mourn FOR you, but mourn with you. And ideally that inspires us to struggle with you to change the screwed up racist world system that led to this disaster. gauze not guns! US army out!

(image from the guardian.co.uk)

Empathy will save us in the end?

Jeremy Rifkin has a new book out called 'the Empathic Civilization'. I haven't read the book, but he published an interesting article in the Huffington Post which appears to be a summary of his main arguments. It's a bit grandiose. Empathy is going to save us from geopolitics and connect us to Mother Earth. That would be lovely, but I'm skeptical. Empathy can often go awry. As in, "Oh I know just what you're feeling". No you don't. And you don't have to usurp my experience to feel our common humanity. To be moved. Moved into walking with me, struggling with me. Still, the article is well worth the quick read.

Maya Lin - Unchopping a Tree from What is Missing? Foundation on Vimeo.

A beautiful video by Maya Lin, the designer of the Vietnam war memorial in DC. It uses this what if it happened here trope that is common in appeals for solidarity. If the bombing were in San Francisco instead of Baghdad, these are the blocks that would have been bombed sort of thing. I suppose this is an appeal for empathy as a way to build solidarity, but instead of really asking us to walk in their shoes, imagining going there, it's an attempt to see how their shoes don't fit us at all, but instead seem unthinkable here.

The bummer about this video is that it the small print at the bottom of the vimeo page suggests that carbon offsets are an answer and that you should contribute to conservation international, one of my least favorite BINGOs (big international NGOs), given their history of not working well with native folks in Guatemala and other places. Ah well. Maybe that says something about how far this sort of empathy takes you.

the price of silence

a great video. check out who sings the line "my heart goes out to little Mohammed, who just lost both of his parents in a bomb blast in Baghdad."

hip-hop solidarity

This fantastic video by Rebel Diaz tells about HIJOS in Guatemala's fantastic success at keeping memory and dignity alive. For two years now they've shut down the armed forces day parade and instead held marches in memory of the 50,000 killed in the war (largely by the army). For much more on the story of that, with great photos, see this post at mimundo. Rebel Diaz was at the last vigil to close the SOA. They're amazing, check them out.

the voices of those who aren't supposed to be able speak, to be heard.

A video about Amnesty's misison. I wonder if most of the folks depicted in this video would really be likely Amnesty activists. My sense is that most Amnesty activism has traditionally gone from North to South, though the US office of AI is now focusing on campaigns inside the US. I was bummed that this meant they were no longer working on Colombia, since the situation there is so hideously impacted by US military aid, but I do get the impulse.

seeing unity before (but while) seeing difference

My fabulous yoga teacher, Christine, spoke in class recently about the importance of seeing unity before (but while) seeing difference.



I was reminded of that message when I saw this short video, which has very cool effects, but much less cool sponsorship announced at the end - it was paid for by Coke! Was THIS why the official Copenhagen meetings were so hopeless? One reason of many, but I do find it depressing that major corporations are trying to tap into and make money off of feelings of solidarity.
I find much more hope in the connection weaving and movement building that happened at the people's climate summit, Klimaforum, held nearby.

accompaniers do a public witness in London

CPT accompanies a small community in Colombia called Las Pavas. (I recently posted a video a CPTer took of a resident of Las Pavas singing about their displacement) These 123 families have been illegally forced out of their homes and away from their lands by Daabon Organics, a palm oil company that, what do you know, is a major supplier of palm oil for the Body Shop. CPT is pressuring the Body Shop to pressure Daabon to give these folks their land back, since obviously this does not meet the Body Shop's goals or image. The above video is of an action they did at Body Shops in London during a CPT training. It's interesting that they label this a "public witness" (as opposed to the witnessing they are doing IN Las Pavas - not sure what they would call that). The Body Shop is saying that they are working on getting a third party assessment of what is happening in Las Pavas. Apparently they don't consider the documentation that CPT has given them to be "third party", which is frustrating. It raises the question, how can accompaniers both work with communities, but be seen as enough of an outsider for their witnessing to have greater weight?

Interestingly, rather than asking folks to write letters to the Body Shop CPT is asking folks to do actions similar to this one at your local Body Shop store. They have posted fliers you can use and more background info on Las Pavas here. Maybe even just doing three actions like this is more effective than the 100 emails they might generate?

solidarity as a chain reaction?

solidarity in Uruguay

Thanks to Analía for the link to this video, for the campaign to annul the impunity law in Uruguay. Sadly they recently lost by 48%. So close! There is some hope now that the courts might act. Here's hoping. I am so inspired, yet again, by the strength and solidarity of hij@s shown in this video.

speaking truth to power

I've posted here before about Martha Giraldo and her family's very brave struggle to tell the truth about how the Colombian army killed her father, a campesino, and dressed him up to look like a "combat kill" (a so called false positive, a fake guerilla killed in combat death). As my previous posts recount, they have used video to tell their story in a powerful way that is an inspiring example for others to follow.

It was an honor for me to interpret for Martha at the Witness for Peace Colombia teach-in that happens the day before the vigil to close the School of the Americas, and to walk with her holding a banner with her father's name and photo during the funeral march held on the second day of the vigil. Martha has incredible energy and courage and is not only regularly going to court for the case against her father's killers (even after her uncle was shot in the head on the way to court), but after work organizes with other families that have faced similar losses. She brought photos of others who have been killed, like her father, and asked friends to hold them up around her as she spoke on stage (see video) in front of the main gates of Fort Benning, as we shut down the entrance to the School of the Americas.

Martha continues to be under serious death threats. Please hold her in your heart, your prayers, send her strength, however you think of these things. May we all hold each other in this struggle for justice for us all.

You can also more prosaically take a minute to send this quick click letter for her protection. Thanks.

vigil to close the School of the Americas

I am headed to the vigil this week! Proud to be part of the largest event against US Empire inside the belly of the beast.

Again we will be providing simultaneous interpretation of the entire outdoor and much of the indoor program into Spanish. We also hope this year to stream some of our interpretation online, and I'll let you know here if and where we get that set up. Wish us luck for getting that working!

If you can't make it this year you can support our work, and this powerful and important movement, by making a donation. We have a slim $1,000 budget for the interpreting, but even covering that is hard, so every bit helps - even $5 would be great, and really, it feels great to know you're a part of this. To do this go to the SOA Watch site and click the donate button on the upper right.

You can also support our team next weekend by doing last minute press release translations into Spanish from home (let me know if you are up for this).

And one last way you could be a part of this work is with suggestions and clean up of our very old glossary of terms.

video taken by accompanier

here is another video not about but by an accompanier. A non-musical description of this community's struggle is here, in another accompanier blog.

new peace brigades videos (1)

There's suddenly a bunch of new videos out about accompaniment. This one profiles my friend Jacob! It's fantastic. The best short intro to "what accompaniers do" that I've seen.

New video by/about the Nonviolent Peaceforce

One of the interesting things about the nonviolent peaceforce is that they recruit from around the world and have half, or it seems often more, people of color on their teams. Frustratingly this video does not mention this, or how this changes the dynamics of accompaniment. Rather less surprisingly they also don't mention the recent kidnapping of one of their (person of color) team members in Mindanao. Umar Jaleel was kindapped from February to June of 2009.

storytelling for solidarity

Right after I was bemoaning the lack of accompaniment blogs one such blog really took off! The slideshow above is only one small bit of many days of fabulous storytelling about this truly inspiring minga (mobilization/work action). The links to the other days of minga entries are on the right on that blog - well worth checking out! This kind of storytelling not only weaves our connections, but can help us hold each other - it moves us to take actions with and for each other, for our safety and well being. Fantastic work!

where have all the accompanier bloggers gone?

I have a blogroll on the sidebar of blogs by folks serving as international protective accompaniers in Colombia, but blog posting has been verrry slow lately! Some of the folks who set up these blogs have left the country, but I've left their blogs here because their old posts are still fantastic. But some I know are still in the country, and seem to have just lost steam. Come on guys! Your story telling work is so important!

I truly believe much of the safety in solidarity is built through stories. Working (far too slowly) on a chapter of the dissertation about this. But meanwhile, hoping people will post more and wondering if there are new blogs out there of new accompaniers that I don't know about? If so, please let me know. Would also be happy to start a section of blogs of accompaniers in other countries, so if you know of any of those, would love those links. Meanwhile, the three most active blogs from accompaniers in Colombia these days are here, here and here.

The cute kid pic with this post is of kids in the peace community of San Jose, from Moira's latest post. which she also got published in alternative media! fantastic! Many many of the other posts I've been reading by accompaniers could do double duty like this, but accompaniers also shouldn't feel like a blog post has to be this gelled or coherent. Even scattered images and impressions do great work to help us not there with you keep feeling connected. Keep writing! It really does great work for building solidarity, and increasing safety.

shopping while black re-enactment

A re-enactment not meant to foster solidarity, but point out how little of it there is. Thanks to Jason Woods for this one!