[WSF-Discuss] America Social Forum, Call Out for Interest

[CACIM]

*America Social Forum, Call Out for Interest*

Published by Patricia <http://www.psacbc.com/author/editor/> September 9th,
2008 in International
Solidarity<http://www.psacbc.com/categories/social-justice-fund/international-solidarity/>,
Social Justice Fund <http://www.psacbc.com/categories/social-justice-fund/>



@
http://www.psacbc.com/2008/09/09/america-social-forum-call-out-for-interest/

America Social Forum, October 7-12, 2008 in Guatemala.

Are you interested and active in international solidarity and social justice
issues? The PSAC B.C., with the help of the PSAC Social Justice Fund, has
recently been given the opportunity to sponsor a member as part of
CoDevelopment Canada's delegation to the 3rd America Social Forum in
Guatemala. The trip will take place from October 6-14, 2008.

CoDevelopment Canada (CoDev) is a Vancouver-based international development
organization that facilitates links between Canadian labour and social
organizations and their counterparts in Latin America. Approximately half of
CoDev's partnerships are with Latin American teachers' unions. The focus of
this work has been on promoting gender equity and women's leadership in
unions, strengthening teachers' unions' abilities to conduct research and
generate proposals for alternative democratic education reform, and the
improvement and democratization of classroom teaching practices. For more
information on CoDev, please visit their website.

The America Social Forum (ASF) is part of the bigger family of the World
Social Forum. The following information is taken from the ASF website,
further information can be found there.

*The 3rd ASF will allow peoples from across the continent to come together
in this region, which has lived through heroic struggles throughout its past
and recent history, so as to demonstrate solidarity, and to better
understand the alternatives that have arisen here in the face of war,
destruction, fear, and the perverse legacy of forms of violence displaying
the most ferocious examples of militarized neoliberalism, including
femicide.*

*The 3rd ASF will embrace the range of struggles, proposals, and experiences
that have been strengthened, renewed or emerging over this rich period of
common searching that has been taking place across the continent. It will
stimulate stronger interconnections and aim to create more effective spaces
for self-guided construction of shared platforms for emancipation.*

*The 3rd ASF will take place in Guatemala with the collaboration of social
movements, indigenous peoples, academic groups and a range of committed
sectors from this country and from across Mesoamerica. At the same time the
presence of groups from across the continent will further stimulate and
enrich these alliances.*

*Objectives of the 3rd America Social Forum:
1. To further strengthen interconnections between struggles, experiences and
critical perspectives across regions of the Americas, among collective
subjects that are resisting the neoliberal order and making change.
2. To foster the knowledge and practices, ancestral and new, that support
alternatives; and independent critical thought in order to comprehend the
strategies of domination as well as those for change.
3. To build greater solidarity with expressions of resistance in
Mesoamerica.
4. To provide a broad space for building a shared agenda and platforms for
emancipation among peoples of the continent and of the world (end of
excerpt).*

*There will also be an opportunity to meet the Mayan community
representatives who play a central role in* the resistance to mining in
Guatemala. They will be front and centre at the Social Forum, and it is
important for members to have an opportunity to hear their message and
concerns, vis-a-vis Canadian mining operations.

The PSAC member selected must commit to:
- writing a report for an article on the Forum for distribution to PSAC
members
- making a presentation to the PSAC B.C. Council and/or other PSAC body
- organizing one follow-up activity involving international solidarity
issues

To be eligible to apply you should support international solidarity and
equality issues and be a member of the PSAC. Please send your interest in
attending to Kay Sinclair in the B.C. REVP's office at sinclak at psac.com or
by fax at (604) 430-0194 *by midnight, Saturday, September 13th*, with a
paragraph of 400 words or less describing your international solidarity
perspective or philosophy; any involvement in PSAC international solidarity,
equality, or social justice activities; any community international
solidarity, equality, or social justice activities; any PSAC union
involvement; and why you are interested in attending.

Please also provide your contact information and your membership number and
please also indicate whether you identify as a member of an equity group,
i.e. woman; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender; aboriginal; racially
visible; or a member with a disability (this is optional.)
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