GRI Annual Report for Pdf File

ANNUAL REPORT 2004 Action for Global Justice grassrootsonline.org Grassroots International promotes global justice through partnerships with social change organizations. We work to advance political, economic and social rights and support development alternatives through grantmaking, education and advocacy. Letter from the Chair At Grassroots International we stubbornly believe that a new, more just world is coming soon.We are committed to helping our partners fulfill their dreams of living lives free from hunger and political persecution. The challenges our partners face are dire, from deadly floods and political violence in Haiti to occupation and a shattered economy in Palestine. But even with those challenges, this is an exciting time to be an activist. Through meetings like the World Social Forum, international assemblies like the Via Campesina and new, independent media, these movements are no longer struggling in isolation in their own countries.They are working together to share strategies, to show solidarity and to find solutions.We are proud of our role in finding new ways for these groups to work together. In the spring of 2004, we supported a journalist from Brazil’s progressive newspaper Brasil de Fato on a trip to Palestine, where he reported on the struggles of Palestinian farmers to resist land confiscations. In July, we helped bring activists from Palestine and Latin America to the Boston Social Forum.While they were here, they didn’t just talk to the progressive activists gathered at the Forum.They reached out to Boston’s immigrant communities to talk about the parallels between the immigrants’ struggles here and the situation in the Global South. Grassroots has also begun to form a new kind of partnership, supporting groups like the Via Campesina that work not in a specific country area, but around the world to help local groups organize and fight for access to land and clean water and for food sovereignty. We’re also doing more to unite the people here at home who share our values. In the last year, we have expanded our public education work, reaching out to hundreds of activists, donors, students, people of faith, and other communities around the country. Our electronic community has grown too, sharing our partners’ points of view with thousands every month. In 2005 we will be launching an exciting new Resource Rights initiative that will draw on our long-standing relationships with rural grassroots social movements while we also build new partnerships and alliances around the world. Even in these trying times for international social justice fundraising, we have been fortunate to find supporters who share our vision. In 2004 Grassroots International completed an ambitious, $1 million Global Justice Fund.This money, along with more than $2 million in activist-advised funds that we received, will help Grassroots International and our partners carry us all, step by step, to a more just place. We look forward to having you join us on that journey. Shalini Nataraj Chair of the Board Resource Rights for All The International Movement to Protect Land and Water Rights: A Global Solution for a Global Challenge For the past two decades, Grassroots International has built its program on relationships with social movements and progressive We believe that organizations in specific countries. Our long-standing relationships with these groups has made it clear that access to certain access to land for fundamental resources—like clean water and arable land—are absolutely fundamental to their struggles for independent food production development and self-determination. and clean water It is also clear that it’s no longer possible to look at our partners’ work in isolation. Globalization means that the political are fundamental and economic forces that leave people thirsty in Haiti also affect access to land for food production in Brazil. It also means that the human rights. lessons our partners have learned fighting for their rights in Brazil are invaluable to our partners in Haiti. While we continue to support local, community based organizations in Brazil, Haiti, Mexico and Palestine, our new Resource Rights for All Initiative allows us to work outside the boundaries of specific country programs, participating in and empowering the broad multi-national movement that has evolved to fight for resource rights. Our efforts will include strengthening international land and water rights alliances and international advocacy campaigns on resource rights issues. In 2004 we approved our first grant for this kind of cross-border project work to the Via Campesina, an international network of peasant, fisherfolk, landless worker and indigenous move- Maria Aguiar ments. Our grant will support an education program that will provide technical rural development and community organizing skills to campesinos throughout Central America. The Resource Rights for All Initiative will provide education, communications and advocacy support to help create new spaces for action and new connec- tions between the local and international elements of this vibrant movement for resource rights. Large scale hydro-electric dam projects would take away this Oaxacan community’s access to water. Voices from the Grassroots Sharing the Spirit of Social Justice Our partners—people from some of the poorest, most embattled corners of the world—are among the most pow- erfully inspirational women and men in the world. One of the most exciting aspects of our work is having the opportu- nity to meet these people, to hear their stories, and to share their insights with our supporters and allies. Our outreach and communication work is based on the idea of building community.We have developed long-term Jake Miller relationships with existing communities like neighborhood, Using commercial activist, and faith-based groups.We developed a popular education images to make a social justice collage at curriculum on a just peace in the Middle East for the Unitarian a Grassroots workshop. Universalists for Justice in the Middle East and worked with a Boston- area Jewish congregation to establish a link to a Kindergarten in the West Bank that is a project of our partner, the Rural Women’s Development Society (RWDS). In addition to building deep relationships with existing groups, we also reach out to a broader coalition of people who share our values and support our mission, and we seek to open a dialogue with people who don’t agree. In some cases we are able to bring our partners to the U.S. to tell their stories for themselves. Last summer, we brought representatives of the Palestinian Democracy and Workers Rights Center (DWRC) and Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST) to talk at the Boston Social Forum, a regional gathering of progressive activists. Our partners, staff and board members have appeared at conferences, given speeches, and been on television and radio shows.We have also written articles, opinion pieces and analysis for newspapers, magazines, online news portals and policy journals. You can find an It is particularly thrilling to see the stories of our partners inspiring archive of our curricula a spirit of social justice in the next generation of activists. Last spring a and other educational materials, articles and group of elementary and middle school students in Oak Park, Forest essays, along with Park and Chicago, Illinois developed a school project on the art, history information about and culture of Haiti. For part of their project, they used Grassroots scheduling workshops International educational material on the Creole Pig Repopulation and speakers online project of the National Congress of Papaye Peasant Movement at grassrootsonline.org/ (MPKNP). In addition to producing works of art that were exhibited resources_main.html. in the main branch of the Chicago Public Library, they raised hundreds of dollars to support the re-introduction of the Creole pig. Grassroots International Annual Report 2004 Brazil Program By the beginning of 2004 the camps were affiliated with the early promise of Brazil’s first MST.The MST leadership Worker’s Party president, Luiz decided to end a period of rel- Inácio “Lula” da Silva, had ative quiet and resumed their The people, dimmed. Newspapers reported protests and land occupations. together, staggering increases in unem- In November, following a ployment and sluggish eco- conference organized by a are like a pool nomic growth. Meanwhile, coalition of 44 rural organiza- of wisdom. promised social programs and tions, more than 10,000 people agrarian reform were stalled by marched to the headquarters of When you a divided coalition government. the Central Bank of Brazil to Social movements and rural emphasize that the people still share that development organizations, like expected the popularly elected wisdom, the Grassroots International partners government to make good on Pólo Sindical and the Landless promised social justice and pool gets deeper. Worker’s Movement (MST), agrarian reforms. Jaime Cardoso, had to make difficult decisions a landless worker, said,“It is the Paulo de Marck, MST Organizer about how to balance negotia- duty of every Brazilian to come tion with the government and protest these economic policies direct action to press for much and demand agrarian reform. needed changes. We will return as many times During 2002, immediately as it takes, even as our sandals after the Lula victory, hundreds are wearing thin.” of thousands of landless rural Our partners are also tak- Clark Taylor families flocked to roadside ing practical steps to improve camps to await settlement based lives in their communities.The on Lula’s campaign promises. MST continues to build schools, But the Worker’s Party, without agricultural cooperatives and a legislative majority, did not new, thriving communities and have the power to enact aggres- the Association in Settlement sive reforms. Areas in Maranhão (ASSEMA) By April 2004, the families maintains a dried fruit process- were tiring of living under ing facility to enable rural for- black plastic tents on the side est workers to earn a dignified of the road.

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