JUSTICIA PARA BERTA

JUNE 15: #JUSTICEFORBERTA GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION  On May 20-24 2016, Grassroots Global Justice and the South West Organizing Project, SWOP, co-hosted our very first Feminist Organizing School in Albuquerque, New Mexico! Over 40 people from 17 organizations around the country participated in the school, grounded in the spirit of slain indigenous feminist environmental activist, Berta Cáceres. #FOS2016 started with an action by SWOP targeting Governor Susana Martinez for her anti-poor and anti-immigrant policies over the last 5 years. GGJ also co-commissioned a Berta Caceres mural by Jennifer Lynn Correa at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice. The #FOS2016 was rooted in participants’ lived experience with gender and gender oppressions. Participants delved into the intersections of patriarchy, white supremacy and imperialism and explored these themes from a multi-gendered perspective. Questions of what kind of feminisms participants want to build in the US were central. The school sparked interest in starting new World March of Women branches and solidified the commitment to gender justice work.  See tweets and photos from the school by looking up #FOS2016 on twitter! #reclaimingfeminisms #grassrootsfeminisms Next Wednesday on June 15, 2016, our first action coming out of the #FOS2016 will be to join with the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and thousands around the world to say #JusticiaParaBerta in a global day of action! Join us in New York City at 12pm at the Honduran Consulate: 225 W 36th St.  https://www.facebook.com/events/1897800743780119/ COPINH Call to Action and worldwide actions: https://www.facebook.com/events/482138155315119/ SIGN THE #JUSTICE4BERTA PETITION HERE AND SPREAD THE WORD! Berta Cáceres, a Lenca woman, was one of the leading organizers for indigenous land rights in Honduras. Over 20 years ago, she co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, or COPINH, a grassroots organization of workers, women, Indigenous people and campesinos. Cáceres was leading the campaign to defeat one of Central America's biggest hydropower projects, the Agua Zarca Dam in the Gualcarque River basin. Berta was murdered on March 3, 2016, gunned down in her own home, because of her fearless and tireless work against the repressive Honduran state and the extractive industries that were destroying her ancestral land and waters. On June 15th, we will stand together to honor Berta's life, her work as a mother, a feminist, an environmental activist, a human rights defender, an Indigenous leader, and her fight for everyone's right to be happy. Our movements in the US have an important role to play in holding the US accountable for ongoing support of the military regime that took power in the 2009 coup, leading to this wave of violent repression against popular movements. The US State Department is still sending military aid and training to the Honduran government and supporting the impunity of this government, which has impeded the investigation into Berta’s murder. While the Honduran government has arrested several people in connection with her murder, Berta’s family is still being shut out of the investigation process. Our support is still needed, more than ever, to keep the pressure on. Join the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and the World March of Women- US chapter in continuing to call on the State Department to stop aid and training to the Honduran military, to support the family’s call for the independent investigators led by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and to demand the immediate and definitive end to the construction of the Agua Zarca Dam by Desarrollos Energéticos S.A, or DESA, who are implicated in the assassination of Berta Cáceres.