[act-ma] 11/16 Reception/Celebration at encuentro 5 (Friday)

[Suren Moodliar]

Finally! Our long-deferred—but exceptionally important —reception &
fundraiser marking encuentro 5's first full year of operation is happening.
So please join, Kim, Kaveri, Jason, Susie, Sandra and Suren and the
organizations resident at encuentro 5 this coming Friday, November 16, 2007,
from 7:00 p.m. till late as we review past actions, preview coming events
and ongoing campaigns. [Please visit http://www.encuentro5.org/donor.htm to
support the project and see http://www.encuentro5.org.contact.htm  for
directions, transportation & parking (if you *must* drive).]

For those of you wondering what took so long, all we can offer is that we
postponed the fundraiser for the best of reasons: working on the successful
October 27, 2007, National Day of Action against the War in
Iraq<http://mail.google.com/a/fairjobs.org/?ui=1&view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#o27>.
In addition, we are active in supporting pro-immigrant work, preparing
our
Color of Water Campaign<http://mail.google.com/a/fairjobs.org/?ui=1&view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#CoW>
, deepening encuentro 5
<http://mail.google.com/a/fairjobs.org/?ui=1&view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#e5>,
and preparing  for a public event with the provocative Greg
Wilpert<http://mail.google.com/a/fairjobs.org/?ui=1&view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#gw>,
author of a recent book, *Changing Venezuela by Taking Power*. **

October 27: with upwards of a 100,000 people marching against the war around
the country, New England contributed its 10th! That right, 10,000 people, in
the estimation of the Boston Police Department, braved rain and wind to
demand an immediate end to the war in Iraq. Mass Global Action was a proud
and active contributor to the effort. Per our mission, we helped build the
action by focusing on the networking, logistical and organizing aspects of
the action. While our activists have definite perspectives on the
ideological and framing aspects of the event, we chose not to take strong
positions on programming, wording of demands and calls to action. Instead,
we saw a larger prize: the building of trust across New England antiwar
organizations. The payoff now is the creation of New England
United<http://mail.google.com/a/fairjobs.org/?ui=1&view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#neu>.*
So it was that, for the price of a modest wedding, thousands came to Boston
Common to join with tens of thousands more around the country in demanding
an immediate end to the war in Iraq.

As we look ahead together with partners in the antiwar movement, we are also
mindful of the other base-building and social justice projects to which we
are committed. Right now that means:

Moving our "Color of Water" project into its public and campaign phase on
December 1, 2007. Over the last year we researched the inequalities in water
cutoffs to residents in the City of Boston, we briefed allied organizations
and are in the process of strategizing with them about how we can change
things. A beta version of the project website is available at
http://water.massglobalaction.org. Right now it is useful for the latest
news articles and links on water; over the next month we will radically
improve its resource role and add our first "Color of Water" report. At this
stage we are directing it at fellow organizers, later it will be overhauled
for a broader public education function.  With water making headlines from
the California to Georgia and Florida, with warnings about low water levels
in the Great Lakes and the threat that global warming-driven increases is
sea-levels may harm freshwater aquifers in the northeast, water is truly a
national concern.

Building encuentro 5 as a movement resource-i.e. continuing the current
role-by expanding the number of resident organizations and improving the
physical and aesthetic aspect o the space. (See
http://www.massglobalaction.org for a report on e5's first year.) Feel free
to drop by and chat with us. .       Maintaining our relationships with and
contributions to the Boston May Day Coalition, the Jamaica Plain Rapid
Response Network, the Latin American & Caribbean Coalition and other migrant
worker-related organizations. Of course, our antiwar work will continue,
this time with a sharper focus on grassroots efficacy and longer term
collaborations between the different strands of the movement. In that vein,
we are pleased that Iraq Veterans Against the War recently chose to house
their Boston office at encuentro 5.

On another note, we are extremely proud to host a conversation with Greg
Wilpert, author of the Verso Press-published, *Changing Venezuela by Taking
Power<http://www.versobooks.com/books/tuvwxyz/w-titles/wilpert_g_venezuela.shtml/>
*. Supportive, but critical, and optimistic, but realistic, Wilpert provides
a sober assessment of the challenges facing the Bolivarian experiment. He
concludes that it is recuperative of the "utopian energies" that once fueled
the left, and one of the "best beacons of hope." The evening event takes
place on Saturday, December 15, 2007, at  encuentro 5; it too will follow
the talk-discussion-reception format so often used at our events. The
suggested donation is $10 ($5 for e5/MGA members, students and
low-income/unemployed workers). Nobody will be turned away for lack of
funds. Tickets will be available online by Wednesday, 11/14/07 at
http://www.encuentro5.org.



-------------------------

* Its next meeting is tomorrow (Sunday, 11/11/07), from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. at
encuentro 5. For more information, see
http://www.NewEnglandUnited.org<http://www.newenglandunited.org/>.




-- 

----------------------------------------------------------
Suren Moodliar
Telephones: 617-482-6300 (wk); 617-482-7300 (fax); 617-968-0880 (cell)
Projects: encuentro 5 & fair employment
Address: 33 Harrison Ave, 5th floor, Boston, MA 02111
Websites: www.massglobalaction.org; www.fairjobs.org; www.encuentro5.org

Visit: www.reclaimingtheivorytower.org for a handbook on organizing and
strategizing!
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