Ithaca College

  In July IC Politics professor Patricia Rodriguez led a delegation of eleven community members from Ithaca, Syracuse and Cortland (and one from Washington, D.C.) to Cajibío, Colombia to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of a “sister community” relationship with the Movimiento Campesino de Cajibío (Campesino Movement of Cajibío, MCC).  During the 2014 Latino Heritage Month, Ithaca and Cortland participants in the delegation will share the extraordinary work of the MCC at their report back, Alternatives to Exploitation and War: Solidarity Economies and Communities, on Wednesday, September 17, 7-9pm. This event, which is free and open to the public, will be on the second floor of First Unitarian Society of Ithaca’s Annex, 208 E. Buffalo St. Refreshments will be served.

A documentary film, Fighting for Truth, Justice and Reparations, produced by IC graduate Caroline Podraza, will premiere at this event to launch a Central New York campaign in solidarity with the victims of two massacres, which claimed the lives of fourteen campesinos (small farmers) in 2000 and 2001 in the municipality of Cajibio.  Retired IC Politics professor Beth Harris writes, “Since campesinos in Colombia continue to face extreme violence as they defend their land from confiscation by multi-national corporations and armed actors, this campaign will also highlight the ongoing struggle of Colombian nonviolence activists against impunity.”

Colombian courts have failed to provide any accountability for the massacres of campesinos in Cajibio, which has driven the victims’ families, with the support of the MCC, to bring their cases to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. The trailer for Fighting for Truth, Justice and Reparations, produced by delegation member and Ithaca College graduate, Caroline Podraza, is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wy01h4e-CQ&feature=youtu.be.

The CNY sister communities are raising funds to bring two women leaders from Cajibio to Central New York for a speaking tour centered around human rights and the path-breaking local, regional and national-level work of the MCC on Nov. 18-20, 2014.

Professor Rodriguez will share the significance of the Cajibio sister community in the organization of a national agrarian summit in Colombia, which intends to insert small farmers into new participatory processes for the creation of national agrarian policies that address their concerns. For the first time in Colombia’s history, a national agrarian strike in April 2014 culminated in a Presidential decree recognizing campesino associations as central to national land policy development.  

Professor Rodriguez explains, “We think it is important not only to share with our local communities and lend support to the non-violent activism of Colombians, but also local CNY residents struggling to protect their communities.” Reed Steberger, who is an organizer with the Tompkins County Climate Commission and Earthjustice, will discuss the significance of this delegation for developing relationships across races and classes as a foundation for solutions, locally and globally, to the climate crisis. Reed will also address the importance of MCC’s work as a model for “self-education concerning transnational grassroots struggles for climate and social justice.”

At the heart of the sister community relationship of Cortland, Ithaca and Syracuse to the campesino movement in Cajibio are the sharing of seeds, knowledge concerning sustainable farming practices, music and art.  Professor Colleen Kattau, who is a founding member of the sister community project, and delegation member Beth Harris will talk about the importance of the gift of seeds during this tenth anniversary visit and of strengthening our solidarity ties.  Professor Kattau and delegation members Carlos Gutierrez and IC student Anthony Zaun-Lokos deepened sister community bonds with their music throughout this visit.  During the report back, their music will also express the intimacy of solidarity between communities living in different continents and sharing a common struggle for justice, economic and environmental sustainability, and dignity in the face of globalized exploitation.

Co-sponsors for Alternatives to Exploitation and War include: IC- Politics Department and Latin American Studies; CNY-Cajibío Sister Communities; CNY-Colombia Support Network; Veterans - Fellowship of Reconciliation; Multicultural Resource Center; Justice and Peace Ministry-Catholic Charities of the Finger Lakes; Amnesty International Group 73, Ithaca; CUSLAR (Committee on US-Latin America Relations); Democratic Socialists of America- Ithaca; Tompkins County Workers’ Center; and Latino Civic Association.

Please see: http://events.ithaca.edu/event/alternatives_to_exploitation_and_war_report_back_from_cny_delegation_to_cajibio_colombia#.