UPCOMING EVENTS, May 14 and 15

the graduates
OSHA GRADUATES at a previous celebration
OSHA graduates 2016
OSHA graduates 2016

Saturday, May 14, 2016, the recent graduates of CoFiA’s OSHA program are invited to attend a graduation celebration at the home of Carmita Sanchez-Fong, 205 Grand Avenue, in Leonia. Graduates will receive their official cards certifying that they successfully completed the 2016 training program. These cards are very important for workers, letting employers and other workers know that they are eligible for protection if they are injured on the job. CoFiA members and friends are honored to participate in this exciting event. A light supper will be served, and the event will begin at 4:30 p.m. All are welcome–if you would like to participate please send an email to marbwhite@aol.com or to info@communityoffriendsinaction.org.

Another opportunity for celebration is offered by CoFiA member Pastor Janet Blair, at her church, Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, 941 Slocum Avenue, in Ridgefield. The event is a multicultural service at 4:30 p.m. and will be presented in Korean, Spanish, and English, and all are welcome. To RSVP please contact Pastor Blair at blairjem@cs.com. CoFiA has a special relationship with the church not only because Pastor Blair is a member of the CoFiA Board, but also because we have been invited to use the church several times for beginning and advanced OSHA training programs.

Palisades Park Health Fair

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Sayda Tuanama, Angelica Martinez, and Palisades Park Mayor James Rotundo
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CoFiA staff and members at the Health Fair

Every year the Community of Friends in Action is invited to participate in the Palisades Park Health Fair. This year we were represented by CoFiA staff members Angelica Martinez and Sayda Tuanama, as well as members Ellen Presley, Margaret White and others. We were warmly welcomed by staff from the Palisades Park Health Department Paula Murphy, Health Department nurse, and Branka Lulic, administrator.
We also had the opportunity to meet Palisades Park Mayor, James Rotundo.

Children in attendance enjoyed the gifts of special small bracelets that Angelica designed and created, and pulseras from MayaMam Weavers which we distributed. We also donated an apron from MayaMam which was included in the very popular rally which is held annually.

CoFiA is grateful for this opportunity to make the health services of Palisades Park and Bergen County better known to the Hispanic and other immigrant community. Since immigrants without documents are not eligible to receive most publicly funded social services, it is especially important for them to know about other services that are available. Health issues are especially difficult for people who are struggling to get by with very little income, and both preventive and curative treatments often are last in the order of priorities. The Palisades Park Health Department has worked closely with CoFiA to provide education on health issues through our Monday lunch program; and is always available to our social services coordinator for assistance with particular situations.

Marchers take demands to government

In Guatemala, marchers from three sectors of the country arrived in the capital city on Friday, April 22–Earth Day–at the end of an 11 day walk called the March for Water, Mother Earth, Territory and Life.  The March was called by the Social and Popular Assembly, a federation of 80 organizations created during the protests against systemic corruption in the country in 2015 which resulted in the resignations of the President and Vice President, both of whom are currently on trial for corruption.

Thousands of members of indigenous peoples groups participated in the March. These communities suffered most in the long U.S.- supported “civil war” in Guatemala, forcing many people to flee.  Many are currently living in the U.S. or are the children and grandchildren of those refugees. Since they were never granted asylum or received as refugees, they have lived here for decades without papers, and many children and grandchildren are U.S. citizens

This is what has led to the U.S. President’s creation of the DREAM Act, (DACA–Deferred Action for Children) and DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents) which is currently the subject of a suit being argued before the Supreme Court.

 

The current protests in Guatemala are denouncing the invasion of the country by U.S. and global business which is diverting the rivers and polluting the rivers and the sea, for the production of soft drinks (like Coca Cola), bottled water, and creation of dams to produce electricity.  Also devastating to the country is the importation of African palms for oil, rubber industries, coffee, and other industries.  In all of these local workers are hired at desperation wages, and profits are shared with corrupt local officials and with owners of shares in international companies.

Photos and information adapted from various Guatemalan sources, including Asemblea Popular y Social, Prensa Latin News Agency, LaHora, Daniel Pascual Hernandez, and others.  CoFiA apologizes for any misinformation that may appear. 

 

National March for Water, Mother Earth nears end

Marcha por el Agua avanza hacia la capital
Photo courtesy of LaHora

The National March for Water, Mother Earth, the Land and Life in Guatemala is continuing to its April 22 conclusion in Guatemala City. Amazingly, this movement of thousands of people demanding the end to pollution of water throughout the country is receiving little notice in the United States.  Yet it is U.S. and global companies that are polluting the water, misappropriating the land and displacing the indigenous people who have long lived there. Please spread the word!

Thank you, volunteers

Volunteers gathered at Vitale's in Teaneck
Volunteers gathered at Vitale’s

A lively group of CoFiA volunteers gathered at Vitale’s restaurant in Teaneck for an end-of-lunch-season get together.  This group turns up faithfully every Monday between November and April, providing a hot lunch to the workers who may not have jobs that day.  Many of those pictured here also provide other services including wage theft collection, ESL instruction, helping to organize workers for participation in rallies and other activities, and providing individual services for those in need.  And we have a good time as well!

 

CoFiA at the Jersey City rally for DAPA and DACA

Bacileo at the rally
Bacileo at the rally
Demonstrating in Jersey City
Demonstrating in Jersey City

The Community of Friends in Action was represented by several members at the rally in Jersey City on Sunday, April 17, calling attention to the opening of the case on DACA and DAPA before the U.S. Supreme Court today, April 18, 2016.  Following the rally a number of people left by bus to participate in an action in front of the Supremem Court Building in Washington, D.C.  The rally was organized by the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, of which CoFiA is a member, and other groups.

Berta Caceres, human rights activist, murdered

http://www.grassrootsonline.org/news/blog/international-womens-day-%E2%80%93-celebrating-life-berta-c%C3%A1ceres

Berta Caceres, a human rights and environment activist from Honduras, was murdered in her home on Thursday, March 3.  Caceres had been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her opposition to one of Central America’s biggest hydropower projects, four dams in the Gualcarque river basin.  The campaign she led held up the project, which is being built by a local firm with the backing of international engineering and finance companies.  It also prompted the withdrawal of China’s Sinhydro and the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation.

In the weeks leading up to the assassination Caceres and other participants were confronted by the army, police, local mayor and employees of the dam company.  Between 2010 and 2014, 101 campaigners were killed in Honduras, many from indigenous communities who resisted development projects or the encroachment of farms.

In spite of these murders in nearby Honduras, the peasants in Guatemala continue their march.

Please let us know if you see notices about the March for Water in any U.S. press, local or national.  Send a note to info@communityoffriendsinaction.org.

Information adapted from The Guardian, March 3, 2016 and Grassroots International, April 18, 2016. 

 

 

 

 

The March for Water Continues

Guatemalans from all around the country continue their long walk to Guatemala City where they will denounce pollution, the diversion of rivers, the negative impact on the marine ecosystem and the misappropriation of water by large companies dedicated to monoculture, production of soft drinks, bottled water, hydroelectric power, mining and tourism.  The March for Water, Mother Earth, Land and Life takes place at a time marked by criminalization, persecution and prosecution of community leaders in the legitimate defense of human rights of their peoples.

Water is surely a human right, yet all over the world this right is being attacked by coalitions of big business and big government.  We in the U.S. can learn from the marchers–indigenous people who have been abused for generations, but who still gather the strength to organize and defend themselves.

The Marchers aim to come together in Guatemala City on April 22, 2016

National March for Water, Mother Earth in Guatemala

 

Members of nearly 80 organizations that make up the Social and People’s Assembly have been marching since April 11, 2016, for Water, Mother Earth, the Land and Life in Guatemala. The purpose of the marchers is to denounce pollution, the diversion of rivers, the negative impact on the marine ecosystem and the misappropriation of water by large companies dedicated to monoculture, production of soft drinks (among them Coca Cola), bottled water, hydroelectric, mining and tourism

They also demand the state to recover the waters contaminated by the actions of extractive industries or damaged by the expansion of sugar cane plantations, oil palm, rubber, coffee and other industries. These extractive industries in Guatemala represent the main cause of forced displacement.

These protests in Guatemala are occurring at the same time the U.S. is trying to deport thousands of people who have suffered this displacement and have come to the U.S. trying to find work that will allow them to support their families back home. Many U.S. politicians are promoting anti-immigrant positions in their campaigns.

Based in part on articles in Prensa Latina News Agency, the Peasant Unity Committee web site, and other sources