Join us for the

2017 Luncheon

to learn about the intersectional organizing work of the

Feminist Antimilitarist Network in Colombia

from

Carol Rojas

. The Colombia Peace Accords, while a step toward peace, face many challenges.  There is an urgent need to rebuild the community and collective ties broken by war. Seeking to build historical memory is also a necessary step in constructing a political project to make the transition as a country to a plural, broad, and diverse democracy, where women can be political protagonists and not victims. To construct peace in Colombia in this difficult time, the Network uses popular education to promote demilitarization and the eradication of systems of oppression based on sex, class, and race.



Click

here

for a brief autobiography of Carol Rojas


.


Date: October 24


Time: 12 noon – 2:00pm


Place: Old St. Patrick’s Catholic Parish Hall, 700 W. Adams, Chicago  60661


Cost: $60 ($54 for members), $25 student/low income, free for Luncheon volunteers (please email

mmckenna@crln.org

to volunteer).


Tickets: Order tickets at

http://bit.ly/crln1024

or by contacting Sharon Hunter-Smith at

shunter-smith@crln.org

and mailing in a check (CRLN, 4750 N. Sheridan Rd., #429, Chicago, IL  60640-5078.


Sponsored by the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America in partnership with the Feminist Antimilitarist Network and Witness for Peace.

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Join us! Únase a nosotrxs!


Travel with CRLN to the border, November 10-12!



SOA BORDER CONVERGENCE & ENCUENTRO 2017

CRLN will again take a delegation to Tucson and Sonora, AZ, and Nogales, MX, to participate in the US-Mexico Border Convergence, co-sponsored by SOA Watch. We reserved a block of hotel rooms and will arrange to rent a van for transportation between the cities in which activities will happen.

Scholarships are available!

This border mobilization is one more way to fight for the closure of the School of the Americas, and to work towards a world that is free of suffering and violence. We cannot forget that many of our immigrant brothers, sisters, and siblings are survivors of U.S.-sponsored atrocities in Latin America.

Join us!

Coordinate with CRLN to join or have your community join human rights activists, torture survivors, union workers, veterans, community organizers, migrants, faith communities, students and educators from across the Americas.


Will you go with us this year to call for an end to U.S. militarization, economic exploitation, and political intervention in Latin America and on the border?

Activities include a vigil at Eloy Detention Center, a vigil to close the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, a march to the border wall, forums and workshops, concerts, and more!

See below for details and a schedule.

To coordinate with us and join CRLN on the border, contact our Immigration Organizer, Cinthya Rodriguez at

crodriguez@crln.org

or 773-964-6252.


Interested in joining in the U.S.-Mexico Border Convergence this year?



REGISTER HERE & JOIN CRLN’S DELEGATION


SOA Watch Demands:

  • An end to U.S. economic, military and political intervention in Latin America and the closure of the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC)

  • Demilitarization and divestment of the borders

  • An end to the racist systems of oppression that criminalize and kill migrants, refugees and communities of color

  • Respect, dignity, justice and the right to self-determination of communities

  • An end to Plan Mérida and the Alliance for Prosperity


Weekend Program:


Friday, November 10 – Tucson, Arizona

8:00am     Welcome &

Registration

11:15am   Community Lunch Gathering

12:30pm   Forums & Workshops

4:00pm     Caravan to Eloy Detention Center

5:00pm     Vigil at Eloy Detention Center

9:00pm     Evening Concert


Saturday, November 11 – Nogales, Sonora/Arizona

8:00am     Welcome &

Registration

8:15am     Gathering for March

9:00am     Veteran-led March to the Border Wall

11:00am   Community Lunch Gathering

12:30pm   Forums & Workshops

5:30pm     Social Gathering

8:00pm     Evening Concert


Sunday, November 12 – Nogales, Sonora/Arizona

8:00am     Blessing

9:00am     Puppetistas!

10:00am   Speakers & Musicians

11:15am

No Más, No More

Litany

11:45am

Presentes

1:00pm     Encuentro Closing

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TRUST ACT Victory a Great First Step! Faith Communities Must Continue to Resist Criminalization


The TRUST Act is the strongest bill of its kind in the US. It protects the Fourth Amendment for ALL people. At a time when immigrant communities are under unprecedented attack by aggressive threats of deportation, by an agency that is out of control, by threats to end important protections such as DACA and Temporary Protected Status, the TRUST Act is a great first step, a solid foundation to start addressing the criminalization of immigrants and communities of color in our state. – Mony Ruiz-Velasco, ED of the West Suburban Action Project (PASO)

This week, CRLN joined our partners and conveners of the Welcoming IL Coalition in celebration of the signing of the TRUST Act by Governor Rauner. We are honored to have been a part of this campaign, a truly grassroots effort led by community members and local organizations. For months, directly-affected communities put pressure on the State of IL to take real steps to provide sanctuary protections for all.


This campaign was successful in demanding that local police cannot comply with immigration detainers or warrants not issued by a judge. Under the TRUST Act, local police also cannot stop, search, or arrest anyone based on their immigration or citizenship status.

As people of faith, we are called to uplift and honor the demands of immigrant communities and communities of color. We must continue to act in beloved solidarity to continue to resist the rhetoric and practices that dictate protections for some directly-affected communities and not all.

During the signing of the TRUST Act, Governor Rauner stated that he is a pro-immigration legislator. Our work as faith communities is to remind legislators that the work of being ‘pro-immigration’ also requires a critical analysis of violent ICE and law enforcement practices, both in IL and throughout the U.S. We must publicly denounce the dehumanizing conditions that are a result of the mass criminalization of immigrants and communities of color.


We lift up a vision of sanctuary and immigrant justice that holds government institutions accountable to the dignity and respect that immigrant communities, predominantly of color, deserve. We affirm that the lives of our immigrant brothers, sisters, and siblings are more valuable than how much money they can contribute to the economy or their criminal record.

Join us in continuing the fight for #Sanctuary4All in the state of Illinois. La lucha sigue!


To learn more about our immigrant justice work in the Chicagoland area or to join our



Nov. delegation to the SOA Watch Border Convergence



, please contact our Immigration Organizer at

crodriguez@crln.org


__


Suggested Readings:


ICIRR Press Release: ‘TRUST Act Signed into Law in Illinois’


‘Why You Should Stop Using the Term Dreamer’

by Jorge Rivas


‘What Do I Need to Know if the DACA Program Ends?’

by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center

Read More

CRLN Statement on DACA Rescission: “President Trump Moved By Racism & Xenophobia”



It is a shame that President Trump was moved by racism and xenophobia to put an end to the DACA Program, leaving 800,000 young people and their communities in uncertainty. Those DACAmented individuals contribute in ways that go without saying to our beloved community. We are in solidarity with our DACA siblings and we will continue to fight with them for meaningful access to justice and opportunities to obtain legal status and legal protection for immigrants. We will continue to call attention to the connections between the attacks on DACA, local ICE abuses, and the overall picture of how much money Congress appropriates to the detention and deportations machine

.”

Claudia Lucero, Executive Director

Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

#ProtectionForAll #Sanctuary4ALL #Faith4DACA

What you need to know //

Lo que necesitas saber (en español)





Read More


CRLN Fall Events


September 10, 2017, 3pm: Meet Donaldo Zuniga

director of the

COMAL network

, an organization comprised of rural communities in

Honduras

that work to promote fair and sustainable agriculture and marketing. Donaldo is in Chicago to discuss social movements, economic solidarity, food sovereignty and human rights. Click

here

for more information. RSVP to Sharon at the CRLN office, 773-293-2964, 773-293-3680, or

shunter-smith@crln.org

for location, public transportation and parking information.


September 23, 2017, 1-5pm: Pedal for Peace

30

th

annual bike-a-thon to

raise funds for health, education, legal aid, and community organizing efforts

in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Chicago. For more information, click

here

. To register as an individual or as part of a team, click

here

. Organizing together transnationally, we can cooperate in making healthcare, education, legal aid, and affordable housing available to more people.

October 9-10, 2017: Alex Escobar Prado

activist, educator, and member of the Guatemalan environmental justice organization Youth Organized in Defense of Life (JODVID). Born out of the struggle for community self-determination and resistance to Tahoe Resources’ Escobal silver mine in southeastern Guatemala, JODVID uses the arts and popular education to mobilize youth in local and regional movements to protect the environment and defend territory. Event times and places are in process of confirmation; information will be posted

here

.


October 24, 2017, 12-2pm: CRLN Annual Luncheon “Constructing Peace in Colombia: A Feminist Vision”

Speaker: Carol Rojas, Feminist Antimilitarist Network

The Colombia Peace Accords, while a step toward peace, face many challenges. Illegally armed groups have escalated attacks against social movement leaders. People displaced by violence lack work, education and healthcare and continue to suffer the psychological effects of war.  To build the peace in Colombia in this difficult time, the Feminist Antimilitarist Network uses popular education to promote demilitarization and the eradication of systems of oppression based on sex, class and race. They believe that this transformation of communities supports the construction of peace. For more information and a link to order tickets, visit our website at

http://bit.ly/CRLNpeace

.

Read More

Launching the Campaign to End the Gang Database & #Faith4DACA in DC!

Last Thursday, CRLN joined OCAD, BYP100, Mijente, and other organizations as a part of the coalition to Expand Sanctuary in Chicago to call for an end to the gang database in Chicago. The campaign, calling for a review of Chicago policies to strengthen protections for those targeted by Trump administration, began focusing on expanding the Welcoming City Ordinance, Chicago’s Sanctuary city policy, to be consistent with respecting all immigrant’s constitutional rights and requiring a warrant for all police interaction with immigration enforcement. However, despite support from the ACLU of Illinois and dozens of immigrant rights and civil rights organizations in Chicago, the Mayor and City Council have failed to make the necessary changes to Chicago’s ordinance.

A few days later, Claudia Lucero, Executive Director of CRLN,

joins faith leaders from throughout the country in D.C.

to rally in support of defending DACA. As a part of today’s delegation,

CRLN joined prophetic witnesses from many regions

to call on Congress to defend DACA, while at the same time fighting for protections for all immigrants, voting no to billions of dollars to expand the immigration enforcement machine, and call for accountability from local ICE offices.


Today and everyday, we  learn from and take the lead from our DACAmented & UnDACAmented immigrant siblings:



To all those that ask how to help and who say they stand with us:

The continued attacks affect

our

daily lives in tangible, material ways. We organize because our lives are completely political. We live the struggle, because this country has denied our humanity due to the circumstances of our births. When we step out to recharge, we are doing so to come back stronger leaders.

No immigrant should have to meet any criteria to gain your support.

Our humanity is enough to garner solidarity.

We do not need your “solidarity” if it means throwing us and our families under the bus for personal or political gain or providing a resume of contributions we’ve made to the country to garner support. We do not need your solidarity if it defends white supremacy. We do not need your solidarity if you are not centering our lives, our struggles, and our voices.

It is time for a new kind of solidarity.


To be an accomplice, start by asking yourself:

  1. Will you set up human chain blockade if they try to deport one of us?

  2. Will you slash the tires of a law enforcement vehicle when they try to come for us?

  3. Will you help us post bail if we or another undocumented community member is apprehended?

  4. Will you move aside and offer your seat on a immigration panel to an actual immigrant?

  5. Will you hire undocumented workers ?

  6. Will you fight against the forced migration that gentrification inherently creates?

  7. Will you provide shelter and sanctuary to immigrants fighting deportation orders?

  8. Will you finally shatter any notion that the American Dream is something real?

  9. Will you demand that the shadow economies we have built become decriminalized?

  10. Will you listen to us, and follow our lead?

We are the protagonists of our own story. It is not yours to tell. Offer donations, scholarships, jobs, and political connections to get resources and to stop deportations.

Whatever the next steps may be, let’s make sure to learn from the movement lessons of the past and lead with our heads held high. We have been here before. It is up to us to decide what our future will be.

Sincerely,

Immigrant Womxn of Color”

Additional information on what you need to know now that DACA is ending is available in

English

and

Spanish

.

Please visit ICIRR’s

Events page

for a listing of upcoming DACA information sessions and workshops.

Please visit ICIRR’s

Protection page

for links to legal, mental health, and other community resources.

You can text “DACA” to (630) 524-4106 to get more information regarding legal and community resources near you.

Read More



Wednesday, September 27th from 7-9PM @ Hairpins Arts Center in Logan Square.

Come learn about how Chicagoans are enacting our own visions of community care and safety.

The Mayor’s Office “One Chicago” campaign seeks to unify City residents and show support for “immigrant and refugee communities most affected by recent federal policies.” Yet, in Chicago, arrests and policing at the hands of abusive police and immigration agents continue to endanger communities and place immigrants in deportation proceedings. As we continue to hear city officials speak loudly about Chicago as a ‘sanctuary city,’ many community organizations and coalitions have rallied and organized to show that the bar for sanctuary has been set way too low.

Community organizations and coalitions continue to put pressure on the City while expanding Sanctuary from below, desde abajo. Sanctuary spaces are not simply given by the City, but actively organized and defended by the community. This talk will introduce some of these community advocates while familiarizing the audience with the movement of Sancturary from below, desde abajo.


This talk is provided by a partner organization and activated by art. Professional storytellers set the stage for discussion, and artist Juan-Carlos Perez completes each event by leading a group artmaking project to build continuity and connect ideas as the month progresses.


This talk is part of LATINxARTS a four-week long program at Hairpin Arts Center featuring exclusively latino/a/x artists. September 15th – October 15th features “Eye Level” an art exhibition curated by JGV/WAR featuring installations by Andrea Peralas and Jose Resendiz, as well as free workshops, discussions, and performances. All events are free to the public – and all donations made at the door or online will go to the artists involved!


See the full line-up at

www.hairpinartscenter.org

!

Read More


One of the best stories from the 30th Annual Pedal for Peace Bike-a-thon on September 23, 2017, came from the efforts of Joaquin Vazquez (bottom left of photo), who set himself the goal of raising $250 and succeeded in doubling that amount! Along the way, he educated his principal, his teacher, and his school about why it was so important to fund the projects he was supporting. You can watch a video of one of his presentations

here

.

66 people registered to bike and/or fundraise. Together, we raised $18,354 for projects designed to develop people’s capacity to improve the quality of life in their communities through education, health care, land reclamation, deportation defense and affordable housing!

Several people attended who were present almost every year of the event since its beginning: Martha Blumer, Gary Cozette, Dan Dale. A looping retrospective of photos from past events ran on a computer at the registration table. 30 years of event t-shirts were displayed on clothesline, and Tricia Black prepared a photo display from participating groups of their projects.
More photos on the next page:














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CRLN will provide Chicago area venues for the annual NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala) Fall Speaking Tour. This year’s tour features Alex Escobar Prado, activist, educator, and member of the Guatemalan environmental justice organization Youth Organized in Defense of Life (JODVID). Born out of the struggle for community self-determination and resistance to Tahoe Resources’ Escobal silver mine in southeastern Guatemala, JODVID uses the arts and popular education to mobilize youth in local and regional movements to protect the environment and defend territory. The group was founded in 2015 following the murder of 16-year-old Topacio Reynoso, a local artist and vocal opponent to mining activities in the area.

The tour will be a unique opportunity to learn about the essential role that Guatemalan youth play in building movements for social justice and liberation, and to hear firsthand accounts of the environmental and community impacts of mining in Guatemala. The tour will also create an opportunity for direct exchange with youth activists in the U.S. fighting for social justice in their communities.

Here is a schedule of his speaking engagements (all are open to the public):


Group

Date

Time

Location
DePaul University 10/9/2017 4:20 – 5:50 pm Arts & Letters Hall, Rm. 306

2315 N. Kenmore Ave.

Chicago 60614

DePaul University 10/9/2017 7:30 – 8:30 pm

(please do not enter classroom until 7:30—class will be in session)

College of Education

2247 N. Halsted, Rm. LL105

Chicago, IL  60614

(Room is in basement – press “A” button on elevator)

DePaul University 10/10/2017 9:45 – 11:10am Arts & Letters Hall, Rm. 101

2315 N. Kenmore Ave.

Chicago, IL  60614

“Worldview “ 10/10/2017 2:00 pm WBEZ, Navy Pier

Show will be taped and broadcast at a later date.

North Park University 10/10/2017 4:00 pm Collaboratory for Urban and

Intercultural Learning

Caroline Hall

3225 W. Foster

Chicago, IL  60625

University Church 10/10/2017 7:30 pm 5655 S. University Ave.

Chicago 60637

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The Chicago Religous Leadership Network on Latin America is a proud supporter of the #NoCopAcademy campaign!


Schools for kids, not cops.

We are committed to working towards a faithful vision of sanctuary for all. We believe in investing in communities and divesting from the system of policing in Chicago that criminalizes immigrant communities & communities of color. As Mayor Rahm Emanuel seeks to spend $95 million dollars to build a new police academy, we join the fight to make sure that money reaches our community organizations, programs, schools, hospitals, affordable housing, and more. We are united by our diverse faiths which call us to demand community care and safety for all! #NoCopAcademy

“Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to spend $95 million to build a Police & Fire training center in West Garfield Park.  The city’s quiet unveiling suggests they are trying to avoid public scrutiny of this latest spending scheme, but we will not be robbed of our resources quietly.  We refuse any expansion of policing in Chicago, and demand accountability for decades of violence.  We will fight for funding for our communities, and support each other in building genuine community safety in the face of escalating attacks.” —


#NoCopAcademy



Spread the word! Download, print, fold and share a mini zine (



english



/



español



) to learn more.



Tell your Alderperson to vote NO



on the approval of the Land Acquisition at 4301 W. Chicago when it​ ​comes​ ​for​ ​a​ ​vote.




To connect with CRLN on this campaign please contact our Immigration Organizer at

crodriguez@crln.org

.

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