Intensive English workshops in Valladolid

Intensive English workshops in Granada

Intensive English workshops in Valladolid

Intensive English workshops in Madrid

On The CATHOLIC WORKER’s Farm

We started our trip towards London at 3:30 am. Judith drove us to the airport. The first two days we were on the Catholic Worker farm.

Catholic Worker communities remain committed to non-violence, voluntary poverty, prayer and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry and forsaken.

Catholic workers continue to protest injustice, war, racism and violence of all forms.
We had a talk with Scott, the person who set up the farm to host and provide assistance to homeless asylum seekers. During the year, there are volunteers helping Scott on the farm. In 9 years, 400 women have lived there. The way they help the women is by fixing their papers, loving them, and giving them a home, which they share and help to run, together with Scott and the volunteers.
The days we were on the farm we felt very welcomed, grateful and peaceful. The farm is located in the country next to a lake and surrounded by fruit trees and green lawn.
We've been able to learn a testimonial of love, sharing all what you have and solidarity.

Los Protagonistas de la Marcha

Ayer los jóvenes de Camino Juvenil Solidario recibieron, sin lugar a dudas, el apoyo más importante que puede haber tenido la Marcha por la Solidaridad 2014. Los verdaderos protagonistas de esta Marcha, niños esclavos de las fábricas de ladrillo en Mirpurkhas Sindh –Pakistán– a través de BLLF (Frente de Liberación de Trabajo Esclavo) Societies, nos enviaban estas fotos sosteniendo sus pancartas. Algunas en inglés y otras en Urdú, dicen: QUEREMOS EDUCACIÓN y LA EDUCACIÓN ES NUESTRO DERECHO. Estos son sus lemas.

A través de estas pancartas, sus voces se unen a las de los jóvenes que desde el lunes 14 vienen recorriendo las calles de España. Estas fotos le ponen rostro a las 400 millones de razones para marchar. Queremos que las mismas sean el motor para seguir andando, para que muchos más se unan a la Marcha durante los próximos días y para que ésta no termine con el Acto principal del 26 de julio en Puerta del Sol. ¡Qué marchar por el fin del paro y la esclavitud infantil sea el camino a andar en nuestra vida!

Este es el email que los jóvenes de CJS han recibido con las fotos:

Hope you are doing well and the March in Spain is going well. Please find attached pictures from children working on Brik Lins in Mirpurkhas Sindh. These pictures are sent by Bonded Labor Liberation Front society Mirpurkhas in solidarity with the March in Spain by youth of SAIN.
The placard in Urdu language says 'Education is our Right'.

Best Regards

Atiqa
Nation Project Coordinator
BLLF societies

Espero que estéis bien y que la Marcha en España esté yendo bien. Adjuntas, encontraréis las fotos de los chicos trabajando en las fábricas de ladrillo de Mirpurkhas Sindh. Estas fotos son enviadas por las Sociedades del Frente de Liberación de Trabajo Esclavo en Mirpurkhas en solidaridad con la Marcha de los jóvenes en España.
La pancarta dice en Urdu: "La Educación es Nuestro Derecho"
Un saludo
Atika
Coordinador Nacional de Proyectos
Sociedades del Frente de Liberación de Trabajo Esclavo  

Pincha en MÁS INFORMACIÓN para ver el resto de las fotos:

"2014 March for Solidarity" Prayer

Lord, you are our source of solidarity and friendship, Lord who never fail us:

 We thank you for all those who have walked and fought against all slavery, reflecting the hope that comes from you.

Help us to grow in hunger and thirst for Justice, and learn to stand up for you in front of the powerful.

May we see you in every unemployed person, in every child slave, in every immigrant, in every impoverished person, in every suffering human being.  

Give us strength to walk together for peace, truth and brotherhood and to overcome selfishness that prevents us from being brothers and sisters.

Help us to listen, not to complain, to extend our hand to those left behind and to seek to be humble.

May this 2014 March for Solidarity be a step forward in the great March of mankind toward you, solidarity and freedom.

Through Jesus Chris our Lord

Holy Mary,

Pray for us.

2014 SOLIDARITY MARCH is just around the corner

2014 SOLIDARITY MARCH

Against Unemployment and Child Salvery

From 13 to 26 July

At the beginning of the 21st century, millions of child slaves in the world are exploited in many varied forms:

-       Children harvesting our food
-         Children manufacturing our goods
-         Children in mines
-         Child soldiers
-         Sexually exploited children
-         Children murdered for trafficking in human organs

More than 400 million children exploited as slaves!

By being deprived of their childhood, right to play and to education, they are being deprived of their lives.

It is child slavery. It is not child labour

In parallel to this outrageous fact, there are more than 1,600 million unemployed people in the world.

On 13^th July, the Christian Cultural Movement and Solidarity Youth Path start the march they are organizing against these evils and hundreds of people will be marching throughout Spain for 15 days to culminate the march with performances and different actions in Puerta del Sol, Madrid, on 26^th July.

During these 15 days there will be thousands of meetings; thousands of shared efforts which will let us experience solidarity and which will help us think of the next steps to take so that a whole generation of young people can discover the path of solidarity.

Scott, from the Catholic Worker, supporting 2014 Solidarity March

Scott Albrecht, from the Catholic Worker, who together with his family has been running a farm on the outskirts of London to provide a home for homeless women and their children for more than 20 years now (more than 300 have found a safe haven during this time) and who is a lifelong committed activist against wars worldwide, has recorded a video to commemorate 16th Child Slavery and recall Iqbal Masih’s murder.

He also expressed his support to 2014 Solidarity March against Unemployment and Child Slavery. Thank you, dear friend, for your words!

Scott Albrecht, del Trabajador Católico, quien junto con su familia en una granja en las afueras de Londres ha estado ofreciendo un hogar a mujeres desamparadas y sus hijos por más de 20 años (más de 300 han encontrado un refugio seguro durante este tiempo) y que es un activista entregado a la lucha contra las guerras del mundo, ha grabado un vídeo para conmemorar el 16 de Abril como Día Internacional contra la Esclavitud Infantil y recordar el asesinato de Iqbal Masih. 

También expresó su apoyo a la Marcha por la Solidaridad de 2014 contra el Paro y la Esclavitud Infantil. ¡Gracias, querido amigo, por tus palabras!

Joining our Prayers for the End of Child Slavery

At Newman House (London), the Catholic Chaplaincy to London universities, 2 educators and 2 girls of SYP-CJS (Solidarity Youth Path-Camino Juvenil Solidario) with Fr. Wang, Sister Carolyn and one student, after having talked about Iqbal Masih, child slavery and 2014 Solidarity March. They are also praying for the end of child slavery and for our March, and especially did so on 16 April, International Day against Child Slavery.

International Day against Child Slavery: Why April 16?

16 April: International Day against Child Slavery

16 April at 19:30: Demonstration in Puerta del Sol 

Saturday 12 April at 11:00: Gathering in Puerta del Sol

Solidarity culture dissemination from 11:00 to 20:00.

Art, music, drama and reading of a statement every one hour and a half.

Join us in this solidarity struggle!

On April 16th 1995, Easter Sunday, Iqbal Masih was assassinated. In memory of Iqbal, symbol of the 400 million child slaves, we vindicate April 16th as International Day Against Child Slavery.

Iqbal was a 12-year-old Pakistani boy, a Catholic in a Muslim majority country. He worked as a slave child from the age of 4 for local textile mafias. Along with other children who were trade unionists, he achieved his freedom and began an associated struggle to release millions of child slaves worldwide. This gave him international recognition, and thus he spoke before parliaments and universities in North America and Europe, denouncing the responsibility that the inhabitants of the North have for the misery of children in the South.

When he received an award in Boston he said he would not use the money to build a dinning-hall but to build a school. His intention was to become a lawyer and continue the struggle for the rights of children. Such an affront to the mafia could not be forgiven, and on his return, he was assassinated on Easter Sunday 1995. His death revealed to the world the plight of more than 400 million children living under diverse forms of slavery.

Nineteen years later, the torch lit by the little fighter is being taken up worldwide and events and initiatives to abolish child slavery and to have April 16th declared as International Day Against Child Slavery spring up everywhere.

The Pakistani textile mafia murdered him at age 12 because he had denounced them abroad “Do not buy carpets made by child slaves!” he said in Boston when he received an award for this fight.

He laid down his life for exposing the causes of this crime.

For further information, read:  Dossier on Child Slavery

Las Patronas: Mexican Women's Group Aiding Migrants

Norma Romero Vázquez, director of Las Patronas,

receives National Human Rights Award from
President Enrique Peña Nieto

Norma Romero Vázquez, member of Las Patronas—a group of women who work in support of migrants who cross Mexico on their way to the United States—regrets how “Mexico has become fractured,” marked “by violence, impunity, apathy, discrimination, and by the lack of real opportunity.”

Upon receiving the National Prize for Human Rights from the hands of President Enrique Peña Nieto, the activist maintained that “rather than advancing, we have deteriorated, because the idea of progress sustained by taking advantage of those who have less is nothing more than a violation of human rights.”

On Thursday afternoon Romero Vázquez received a medal, acknowledgment, and a cash prize for her work helping undocumented migrants. 

Day in and day out, a group of 14 people, including her, give food and water to foreign migrants who travel hanging on to The Beast—the cargo train—when they pass through Amatián, Veracruz. She also deplored how, in reality, migrants are not considered as people, “but as merchandise that can be exchanged, negotiated, and eliminated without thought.”

Philadelpian Mill Children March Against Child Exploitation

According to the 1900 U.S. Census, at the turn of the century in states like Alabama, the official percentage of male child slavery was close to 60%. Moreover, a contemporary New York Times article reported that due to deliberate employer underestimation, the number of child “workers” was most likely between 2 and 3 million. As the children of the wealthy were receiving ever more education, with many, consequently, taking until twenty-six and twenty-eight to enter into their professions, the children of the working class were increasingly being sought as cheap labor for sweatshops.

In 1903, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, a prominent socialist and labor organizer, traveled to Kensington, a neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time, between 75,000 and 125,000 textile workers were striking for better pay and a fifty-five-hour workweek. According to Mother Jones, at least ten thousand of the strikers were children.

Mother Jones was distraught by the condition of the children she met. Some were missing fingers and thumbs, others were missing entire hands, and many looked malnourished. Though state law prohibited children from working before the age of twelve, the law was poorly enforced and mothers routinely lied about the ages of their children because they were in desperate need of income and many had husbands who had been killed or maimed in the mines. According to these mothers, “it was a question of starvation or perjury.”

It Is Not Child Labour, It Is Child Slavery

JUSTICE IN NORTH-SOUTH RELATIONS
Iqbal Masih: Pakistani child slave
murdered for fighting child slavery,
16 April: International Day against Child Slavery

In this century, we can still witness one of the most shameful situations of our time: there are 400 million enslaved children between 4 and 14 years old around the world, 165 million are under 5. Wars, prostitution, labour exploitation, starvation, ill-treatment… are the normal day for millions of children. Children’s exploitation continues increasing (it is multiplied in the impoverished South and it reappears in the enriched North) as a consequence of international trade, the technological monopoly, the passivity and cynicism of international organisms worldwide, economic policies imposed by international financial institutions and their complicity with governments who favour multinational companies.

The 16 April of 1995, a Pakistani boy called Iqbal Mashi, Catholic committed fighter at the Bonded Labour Liberation Front of Pakistan was murdered at the age of 12 by the mafia of carpets after receiving many threats for having closed companies in which all the workers were young slaves. His example spread internationally; he was awarded a prize in Stockholm and Boston and dedicated the money to opening a school; he stated his intention to become a lawyer to continue fighting against child slavery.

In memory of Iqbal, a symbol of 400 million child slaves, we demand the 16 April be commemorated as the International Day against Child Slavery.

Motion proposal download

What Destroys the Human Being?

Mahatma Gandhi was asked: 

what are the factors that can destroy the human being?

This is what he actually replied:

There are seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.

“Life has shown me that people are courteous if I am courteous; people are sad if I am sad; people love me if I love them; people are mean if I hate them; people smile if I smile; people scowl if I am scowling; that the world is happy if I am happy; that people get mad if I am mad; that people are grateful if I show gratitude. Life is like a mirror; if I smile, the mirror returns the smile. The same attitude I have towards life is what life will have towards me.

“He who wishes to be loved, must love first.”

Christmas Solidarity Marches

The Christian Cultural Movement, SAIn Political Party, and Youth Solidarity Path, invite you to join more than 30 solidarity marches organised throughout the month of December in Spain and Latin America, with the purpose of representing the voice of the impoverished in the streets and of emphasising that hunger and other attacks on human life can be eradicated if the political will exists.

Extracted from: solidaridad.net

Every day, more than 100,000 people -half of them children- die of hunger

Campaingn for Justice in North-South Relations
AGAINST THE CAUSES OF HUNGER,
UNEMPLOYMENT AND CHILD SLAVERY
Thou Shalt Not Kill (God)

“HUNGER IS THE MAIN POLITICAL PROBLEM OF HUMANITY”

More than 2,500 million people in the world live on less than 1.50 euros a day, and 90% of the world’s population owns only 17% of its wealth. As a result, the economic North has built walls and fences along their borders with poorer nations in an attempt to fence in hunger. Along these borders, violence and death await the millions of migrants who try to cross through Central America, across the Strait of Gibraltar, into Melilla, or over to Lampedusa.

Amidst the reorganisation of the imperialist economic system (or “crisis” as they call it), the world’s wealth has increased, while hunger has multiplied and the gap between rich and poor has grown. And as the richest 10% owns 83% of the world’s total wealth, the 3 biggest fortunes are equal to the GDP of the 48 poorest countries.

But yet again, the media machine of the First World would love to convince us that climate change is the main cause of hunger, tens of thousands of deaths, and the suffering of millions of families affected by the illness, loss of homes, famine and drought after typhoons or hurricanes.

HUNGER IS NOT A PROBLEM RELATED TO FOOD PRODUCTION, NOR OVERPOPULATION, NOR CLIMATE CHANGE, BUT OF PLANNED, SYSTEMATIC ROBBERY.

Five Quotes by Nelson Mandela

Some quotes by Nelson  Mandela to reflect upon:

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We Can’t Forget Malala… We Can’t Forget Iqbal… We Can’t Forget There Are 400 Million Child Slaves Who Don’t Receive Education

The assassination attempt on 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai has put her situation in the spotlight. But she’s not the first, writes Dr Ekaterina Yahyaoui.

Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for the right to an education.

Dr Ekaterina Yahyaoui writes: DO YOU KNOW who Iqbal Masih is? And do you know who Malala Yousafzai is? I believe the majority of you would say no to the first question and wonder why they should know this name. The majority of readers will know the story about Malala, a 14-year-old girl from Pakistan shot by the Taliban last week for her activism for girls’ right to education.

However, both cases are very similar in many regards. Iqbal, like Malala, comes from Pakistan. Iqbal’s name became known in western countries when he was a ten-year-old boy. You know about Malala because she started talking about girls’ rights to education and her diary was published on the BBC Urdu blog when she was eleven.  The attempt was made to assassinate Malala when she was fourteen. An attempt to assassinate Iqbal was made when he was twelve.

And this attempt was successful. Iqbal died at the age of twelve. We all hope that Malala will survive, but why did I recall Iqbal when I heard about Malala’s case?

Iqbal had not had a chance to go to a school. He came from a very poor family which sold him into the carpet industry when he was four.  Together with other children, he spent days working very fine looms on hand-made carpets in slave-like conditions. For instance, children were undernourished so that they would not grow and have small fine fingers required for making good quality fine carpets. Once Iqbal managed to escape he was able to mobilise public opinion not only in Pakistan, but most importantly in the West, including the USA. Malala’s activism also goes beyond Pakistani borders and reportedly she made appeals to the West and the USA.

Children’s Fight for Justice

Many children were set free as a result of Iqbal’s fight. They were able to go to school. Iqbal became famous and the carpet industry became less profitable.

Jan Satyagraha, 2012

Five years after Janadesh –their first 350-km-foot march involving 25,000 people who demanded rights on their lands, once more, the landless peasants of the Ekta Parishad Union met in Gwalior, India, to march to Delhi.  The march started on October 2, 2012, and arrived in Delhi on October 29, 2012. They needed 70,000 participants to demand new rights over land, water and natural resources. But, millions in Indian villages would hear the message. There were also many support activities in Europe and the rest of the world with local marches, meals, conferences and meetings.

We have often heard the cry we learned from Gandhi: JAI JAGAT! Victory for the world! But what is this victory? The agreement reached in Agra? The million land titles given to Adivasis (tribal people) since 2008? Or standing, walking, and facing the holders of power, without hatred or contempt but with determination?

These landless' peasants of Ekta Parishad with their leader Rajagopal on one side and on other, the Indian state and its government, all contributed to this victory, without violence and with respect.

It was hard for everyone; this victory could not be taken for granted. Victory against fear, indifference, poverty, and the inevitable fatigue is a daily task.

Janadesh March, Jan Satyagraha March and the twenty years of Ekta Parishad’s nonviolent struggle do not only mean the million property titles distributed to Adivasis since 2008 but much more than that, the transformation of Adivasis’ lives, opening doors to a dignified life, joyous awakening and the return of their confidence.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman's Life in Slavery

Harriet Ross was born into slavery in 1819 or 1820, in Dorchester County, Maryland. Given the names of her two parents, both held in slavery, she was of purely African ancestry. She was raised under harsh conditions, and subjected to whippings even as a small child. At the age of 12 she was seriously injured by a blow to the head, inflicted by a white overseer for refusing to assist in tying up a man who had attempted escape.

At the age of 25, she married John Tubman, a free African American. Five years later, fearing she would be sold South, she made her escape.

Her Escape to Freedom in Canada

Tubman was given a piece of paper by a white neighbor with two names, and told how to find the first house on her path to freedom. At the first house she was put into a wagon, covered with a sack, and driven to her next destination.

Following the route to Pennsylvania, she initially settled in Philadelphia, where she met William Still, the Philadelphia Stationmaster on the Underground Railroad. With the assistance of Still, and other members of the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society, she learned about the workings of the UGRR.

In 1851 she began relocating members of her family to St. Catharines, (Ontario) Canada West. North Street in St. Catharines remained her base of operations until 1857. While there she worked at various activities to save to finance her activities as a Conductor on the UGRR, and attended the Salem Chapel BME Church on Geneva Street.