work for social justice

Hi. I’m a sophomore in high school in NY. And my homeroom is the social justice homeroom. Since the school year just, we have not some much, but we have been planning. We want to do some fundraising of course, trying to get the word out about these issues.

We have already visited the United Nations and are trying to plan trips to Washington D.C. and such. Our teacher has introduced us to some great sites such as freethechildren.com and giveyour10.com that give us ways to help people that are facing social justice issues such as child labor and human trafficking, women and children’s negligence of education, health care, etc.

I was wondering what people from other parts of the world are doing. All replies are welcome.

is to post things on my FB profile. It seems too easy in a way, but also it is potentially reaching 200+ people, and some of the things I’ve posted, other people have reposted, so it’s a great way to get the word out. I’m currently putting a lot of articles about our health care system and calls for action.

One caught my eye that a couple of friends are doing, ‘16 Days of Protest Against Gender Violence’.

Peruvian indigenous groups desperately trying to protect the Amazon have been massacred (dozens shot, burned, bodies dropped from helicopters) in recent days by their country’s armed forces. They had been peacefully protesting the current administration’s having pushed through legislation allowing intensive mining, logging and large-scale farming in the rainforest.

I just signed a petition urging President Alan García to immediately cease the suppression of indigenous protests, to suspend laws that open up the Amazon to extractive industries, and to engage in a genuine dialogue with the indigenous groups.

These indigenous groups are on the frontline of the struggle to protect our earth. Let’s stand with them and call on President Alan Garcia (who is widely known to be sensitive to his international reputation) to immediately stop the violence and open up dialogue. Click below to sign the urgent global petition.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/peru_stop_violence/98.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

More than 70 percent of the Peruvian Amazon is now up for grabs. Giant oil and gas companies, like the Anglo-French Perenco and the North Americans ConocoPhillips and Talisman Energy, have already pledged multibillion-dollar investments in the region. These extractive industries have a very poor record of bringing benefits to local people and preserving the environment in developing countries – which is why indigenous groups are asking for internationally recognized rights to consultation on the new laws.

For decades the world and indigenous peoples have watched as extractive industries devastated the rainforest that is home to some and a vital treasure to us all (some climate scientists call the Amazon the “lungs of the planet” – breathing in the carbon emissions that cause global warming, and “exhaling” oxygen).

Sources:

1. Civilians and police killed: Human rights lawyers accuse the government of a cover-up, BBC, 10 June:
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8092453.stm
2. Civil Society Condemns Massacre of Indigenous People in Peru, 8 June:
   http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/765/en/global_witness_condems_violence_in_peru
3. On Peru’s rift over economic policy and the controversial free trade agreement with the US, Reuters, 9 June:
   http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN09374943
4. Research Article: Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples, M. Finer et al.:
   http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0002932
5. Oil companies “should withdras” as Peru “faces its Tiananmen,” Survival International, 8 June:
   http://www.survival-international.org/news/4640
6. Peru’s Amazon oil deals denounced, BBC News, 3 February:
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6326741.stm

Also, photos of the horrific violence, & videotaped testimony in Spanish, are available here:
http://peruanista.blogspot.com/2009/06/update-on-peru-crisis-new-video-proves.html

“A big lie.” That’s what Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations called a UN report that “over 1 million people are at life-threatening risk” due to the government of Sudan’s decision to expel 13 aid groups.

But we know the truth: there is a dire crisis in Darfur. We can’t wait another day for bold, agenda-setting leadership. That’s why I have added my voice to a letter from the Darfur activist community calling on President Obama to take bold action for the people of Darfur, and I hope you will too.

http://action.savedarfur.org/campaign/jointletter

If we can get 50,000 signatures on the open letter by midnight tonight [Thursday May 21], the Save Darfur Coalition will bring copies to the White House during the March for Darfur on Friday. So don’t delay—this could have a big impact!

The rainy season in Darfur is coming soon, and it will only make matters worse for those at risk without the aid groups. We must help the groups get access to Darfur again.

On Thursday, President Obama released memos that describe, in horrific detail, the torture techniques authorized by the Bush administration.

So far there has been no accountability for the architects of Bush’s torture program. We need a full investigation and real consequences for those responsible – it’s the only way to keep this from happening again.

I signed a petition urging Attorney General Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the Bush-era torture program. Please sign too, at the link below.

http://pol.moveon.org/torture/

Dear Senator Burris:

I am one of your constituents, and my plea to you today is to resign. The people of Illinois have had more than enough lies and half-truths. You have now given five different accounts of your contacts with persons close to former governor Blagojevich prior to your Senate appointments. We need a senator who is simply forthright and doesn’t hedge the truth.

Sincerely,
RuthG

this international Avaaz.org petition for a ceasefire in Gaza:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/98.php?cl_tf_sign=1

As the international community debates and delays, civilians are dying by the day (around 1,000 now, many of them children). The top UN official in Gaza says, “There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized.” Yet our efforts really can make a difference—Israel’s own foreign minister admits that international pressure, if intense enough, could ensure a ceasefire.

On this day of your life, dear friend, I believe God wants you to know…

....that you best serve humanity by getting out of the
coffee shop and the bookstore and into the street.

The world awaits your contribution; your city, your
town, your neighbor, your friend awaits that help
from you that will make everything easier. There is
more that you can do than you know. Just get out
there and look for it.

Of course, you already know that life is not about
what comes to you, but what comes through you.
So now decide to make this the year that this idea
manifests itself at the highest level ever.

I did some volunteer work for Moveon. I went with a small group of people to the 61st Street Farmer’s Market, and gathered signatures from people and took pictures of people holding up a sign that said “I stand by Barack Obama on (health care, ending the Iraq war, etc.).. Whatever issue they felt was important to them.

We were asked to stop (nicely) by the program manager because there we weren’t supposed to do political work on the market grounds, but people asked us if they could go outside with us and sign the petition and get their picture taken.

It turned out to be a fun day. I look forward to doing more volunteering.

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges that he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder.

Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field, according to a federal criminal complaint. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper’s editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democratic governor was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.

Otherwise, Blagojevich considered appointing himself. The affidavit said that as late as Nov. 3, he told his deputy governor that if “they’re not going to offer me anything of value I might as well take it.”

Illinois government is shamefully corrupt. Our previous governor was convicted on corruption charges & is still serving time. I wonder what I could do to support clean government.

Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is pretty cool. (EDIT: Oops, I obviously wanted to promote him, calling him “attorney general”!)