<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri">It's cold and it's wet! That's why we'll welcome you to our warm offices and event space, encuentro 5 at 33 Harrison Ave, 5th floor, Boston, MA 02111 at 7:00
p.m.</font></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">Please see below for the details:</div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"></font> </div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri">Finally! Our long-deferred—but exceptionally important<span dir="rtl"></span></font><span lang="HE" dir="rtl"> <span dir="rtl"></span>—</span><font face="Calibri">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 </font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.encuentro5.org/donor.htm" target="_blank">
<font face="Calibri" color="#800080">http://www.encuentro5.org/donor.htm </font></a><font face="Calibri">to support the project and see </font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.encuentro5.org.contact.htm/" target="_blank">
<font face="Calibri" color="#0000ff">http://www.encuentro5.org<span></span> .contact.htm</font></a><font face="Calibri"> <span> </span>for directions, transportation & parking (if you <i>must</i> drive).]</font></div>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri">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,
</font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://mail.google.com/a/fairjobs.org/?ui=1&view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#o27" target="_blank"><font face="Calibri" color="#0000ff">National Day of Action against the War in Iraq
</font></a><font face="Calibri">. In addition, we are active in supporting pro-immigrant work, preparing our </font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://mail.google.com/a/fairjobs.org/?ui=1&view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#CoW" target="_blank">
<font face="Calibri" color="#0000ff">Color of Water Campaign</font></a><font face="Calibri">,<span></span> </font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://mail.google.com/a/fairjobs.org/?ui=1&view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#e5" target="_blank">
<font face="Calibri" color="#0000ff">deepening encuentro 5 </font></a><font face="Calibri">, and preparing<span> </span>for a public event with the </font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://mail.google.com/a/fairjobs.org/?ui=1&view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#gw" target="_blank">
<font face="Calibri" color="#0000ff">provocative Greg Wilpert</font></a><font face="Calibri">, author of a recent book, <i>Changing Venezuela by Taking Power</i>. <i></i></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><a name="1163f6a0a593159a_1162b85ae7555cf5_1162b82719fb44df_o27"><font face="Calibri">October 27</font></a><font face="Calibri">: 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
<span></span> </font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://mail.google.com/a/fairjobs.org/?ui=1&view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#neu" target="_blank"><font face="Calibri" color="#0000ff">
New England United </font></a><font face="Calibri">.* 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.
<span></span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri">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:
</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri">Moving our "</font><a name="1163f6a0a593159a_1162b85ae7555cf5_1162b82719fb44df_CoW"><font face="Calibri">Color of Water</font></a><font face="Calibri">" 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
</font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://water.massglobalaction.org/" target="_blank"><font face="Calibri" color="#800080">http://water.massglobalaction.org</font></a><font face="Calibri">
. 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.
<span> </span>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.
<span></span> </font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri">Building </font><a name="1163f6a0a593159a_1162b85ae7555cf5_1162b82719fb44df_e5"><font face="Calibri">encuentro 5</font></a><font face="Calibri"> 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 <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.massglobalaction.org/" target="_blank">
<span></span>http://www.massglobalaction.org</a> for a report on e5's first year.) Feel free to drop by and chat with us. . <span> </span>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.
</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><a name="1163f6a0a593159a_1162b85ae7555cf5_1162b82719fb44df_gw"><font face="Calibri">On another note</font></a><font face="Calibri">, we are extremely proud to host a conversation with Greg Wilpert, author of the Verso Press-published,
<i><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.versobooks.com/books/tuvwxyz/w-titles/wilpert_g_venezuela.shtml/" target="_blank"><font color="#800080">Changing Venezuela by Taking Power</font>
</a></i>. 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
<span> <span></span> </span>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 soon at
<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.encuentro5.org/ven" target="_blank">http://www.encuentro5.org/ven</a>. </font></p>-- <br><br>----------------------------------------------------------
<br>Suren Moodliar<br>Telephones: 617-482-6300 (wk); 617-482-7300 (fax); 617-968-0880 (cell)<br>Projects: encuentro 5 & fair employment<br>Address: 33 Harrison Ave, 5th floor, Boston, MA 02111<br>Websites: <a href="http://www.massglobalaction.org">
www.massglobalaction.org</a>; <a href="http://www.fairjobs.org">www.fairjobs.org</a>; <a href="http://www.encuentro5.org">www.encuentro5.org</a><br><br>Visit: <a href="http://www.reclaimingtheivorytower.org">www.reclaimingtheivorytower.org
</a> for a handbook on organizing and strategizing!