Carmencita Chie Abad

Carmencita "Chie" Abad speaks from personal experience about the hardships endured by millions of workers in sweatshops around the world. Chie spent six years as a garment worker on the Pacific island of Saipan, a U.S. territory. She endured wretched conditions, frequently working 14-hour shifts in order to meet arbitrary production quotas for her employer, the Sako Corporation, which made clothes for the Gap and other retailers. When she tried to organize a union, Chie was met by fierce resistance from management and eventually lost her job. She now lives in the U.S., where she educates Americans about the inhumane factory conditions occurring worldwide, including on U.S. soil. Chie was instrumental in forcing 26 major retailers to settle a lawsuit in September 2002 to improve conditions in Saipan. Her story is an inspiring example of how people can win if they stand up for their rights and the leadership she offers from her years as of organizing within the anti-sweatshop is empowering.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Chie, please contact her at chie@globalexchange.org or (650)-992-1728!

• Sweatshops and the Global Economy
• Sweatshop Labor in the Garment Industry
• Tour of Sweatshops in San Francisco's Mission District

Rae Abileah is a national organizer with CODEPINK Women for Peace. She connects CODEPINK's national campaigns with the grassroots women's movement for peace, and brings organizing resources to local activists who work creatively to stop the war in Iraq from over 200 small towns and cities around the country, and many places around the world. Rae has also organized actions and workshops about deceptive tactics used by military recruiters and how to inform students and parents of their rights and the realities of joining the military today.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Rae, please email her at codepink.rae@gmail.com!

• US Occupation of Iraq
• Women and Activism
• Linking Domestic and Global Violence
• Counter Military Recruitment

Dr. A.A. Akom is one of the most important emerging voices on anti-racism, environmental justice, and educational equity in the United States. He is a powerful speaker with a unique ability to connect with diverse audiences. A writer, activist, and educator, he has spoken on numerous college and high school campuses including UC Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Texas, as well as in the heart of the prison industrial complex at San Quentin and in San Francisco County Jails. A Freirian teacher, an organic intellectual, and a health activist, Akom has provided anti-racism trainings and engaged in collaborative consulting projects with several large urban and suburban districts nationwide, as welll as with public health organizations, community-based organizations, around the world. As one of America's leading experts on health inequality and educational equity, Akom's research examines common urban challenges including: health disparities, educational equity, affordable housing, environmental racism, and unequal access to high quality food markets, transit, and open space. His work offers comprehensive solutions and inspirational models for two of America's biggest social problems—environmental degradation and educational under-achievement. His unique way of addressing race, class, gender and other axes of social difference not only serve to rejuvenate hope, but also create new frameworks for reducing health and educational disparities in our classrooms and communities.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Dr. Akom, please email him at AAAkom@gmail.com!

• Building Green and Orange Pathways Out of Poverty
• Health Inequality, Educational Equity, and the Role of Youth in Building the Green Economy
• Youth Empowerment and Student Activism
• Environmental Justice, Human Rights, and Creating Sustainable Communities, Cities, and Schools

16 year-old Afnan Al-Hashimi, of Iraqi decent, began speaking publicly at the age of 12. She has been speaking out against the U.S. neoconservative administration's illegal occupation of Iraq and has also denounced the biased American foreign policies in the Middle East. In October 2006, she received the prestigious CIC Community service Award in recognition of her ongoing efforts in speaking up against the atrocities committed against Muslim nations.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Afnan, please email her at afnana@sympatico.ca!

• Inside Iraq: Accounts from an Iraqi Refugee
• Iraq & US Foreign Policy

Huwaida Arraf is a first generation Palestinian-American born and raised in Detroit, MI. In Spring 2000, Huwaida served as Program Coordinator in Jerusalem with Seeds of Peace. With other Palestinian and international activists, she co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in April, 2001, a Palestinian-led movement of Palestinian and international activists and community organizations working to raise awareness of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. Last summer, Huwaida traveled to Lebanon and helped coordinate civilian relief efforts and accompaniment for returning refugees to South Lebanon, directly challenging Israel's attack against the people of Lebanon.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Huwaida, please contact her at huwaida.arraf@gmail.com or (202)-294-8813!

• Civil Resistance in Lebanon
• International Solidarity Movement
• Palestine and International Law

Carlos Arredondo learned his son Lcpl. Alexander Arredondo, was killed in action in An Najaf, Iraq on August 25, 2004. It was Alex' second tour of duty. When advised of his son's death, Carlos, due to anguish and grief, set afire a USMC van and burned himself in the process. These images were broadcast worldwide and resonated for many as the ultimate anguish of a father having lost his son in war. Carlos has appeared on Spanish and English speaking radio and television throughout the US and internationally.

Mélida Arredondo is Carlos' wife and Alexander step-mom. She has supported her family through the tragedies of Alexander's death as well as Carlos' burn related injuries. She has been active in reaching out to the USMC on the details of Alex' death as well as finding both economic and professional support for her family and herself. She recently has had several articles printed in Boston local papers on the impacts of the war on military families.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with the Arredondos please contact them at melida_arredondo@yahoo.com or 617-323-5623!

Bama Athreya

Bama Athreya discusses East Asian political issues from three perspectives: government policy, academic analysis, and personal experience. She worked as a U.S. Embassy official in Indonesia from 1992 to 1994. Later, she returned to Indonesia to live and work with factory workers. She eventually joined the AFL-CIO as Field Office Director in Cambodia, where she ran trade union education programs for the country's first independent unions. Ms. Athreya is now a program associate with the International Labor Rights Fund in Washington, D.C., where she does research and advocacy work on the social impacts of global trade, and directs a new project on China.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Bama, please contact her at bama.athreya@ilrf.org or (202)-247-4100!

• Workers Rights in Cambodia, Indonesia, and China
• Social Impacts of Global Trade
• Cocoa and Cotton Industry and Child Labor
• Working Women's Rights

David Bacon is a writer and photojournalist on issues of labor, immigration and international trade. He is an associate editor at Pacific News Service, and writes for TruthOut, The Nation, The American Prospect, The Progressive, LA Weekly, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. He hosts a half-hour weekly radio show on labor, immigration and the global economy on KPFA-FM. He recently completed a photodocumentary project sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, Communities Without Borders. In his latest project, Living Under the Trees, Bacon is photographing and interviewing indigenous Mexican migrants working in California's fields. He is currently also documenting popular resistance to war and attacks on immigrant labor and civil rights.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with David, please email him at dbacon@igc.apc.org!

• Immigration and Free Trade
• Photojournalism
• Guest-Worker Programs

Leslie Balog has lived the past 20 years in Cuba and worked at the island's international radio station. She has been arranging Cuba tours for Global Exchange since l993. She has also worked in the San Francisco Bay Area as an immigration and tenant's rights attorney.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Leslie, please email her at leslie@globalexchange.org!

Anna Baltzer

Anna Baltzer is a 28-year-old Jewish American Columbia graduate, Fulbright scholar, and the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. She is a three-time volunteer with the International Women's Peace Service, where she documented human rights abuses in the West Bank and supported the nonviolent movement against the Occupation. She has spent most of the past few years in Palestine or on tour with her book, Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Anna, please contact her through http://annainthemiddleeast.com!

• Palestine Occupation
• Israeli Activism
• Censorship
• 1948 Nakba
• Nonviolent Resistance

Khalil Bendib is the janitor -- or minesweeper -- of political cartooning in America. Potentially explosive issues avoided by other cartoonists, such as racial injustice, labor and class struggles, U.S. imperialism, environmental degradation, the scapegoating of Muslims and Arabs and the complicity of our Orwellian media are all grist to his mill. Through Minuteman Media News Service, Bendib's award-winning cartoons are distributed to over 1,700 small and mid-size newspapers natiowide.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Khalil, please contact him at kbendib@sbcglobal.net or (510)-558-0945!

• Political Cartooning
• Media Censorship
• Issues in the Middle East/North Africa
• Post 9/11: U.S. Muslims and Identity in a Big Brother State

Medea Benjamin, Founding Director of the human rights group Global Exchange, has struggled for social justice and human rights in Asia, the Americas, and Africa for over 25 years. She helped shine the national spotlight on US sweatshops overseas, derail the plans of the World Trade Organization and promote "fair trade" over "free trade." Ever since the tragic events of 9/11, Medea has been organizing against a violent response. She traveled several times to Afghanistan, including with a delegation of 9/11 families, to highlight civilian casualties caused by the US invasion. She is a leading activist in the peace movement and helped bring together the groups forming the coalition United for Peace and Justice. In October 2002, Medea made national news for interrupting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as he pitched his plans for war against Iraq to Congress. After the invasion, Medea traveled several times to Iraq to organize the Occupation Watch International Center in Baghdad. Medea also co-founded Code Pink, a women's peace group that has been organizing creative actions against the occupation of Iraq. In 2005, Medea organized a delegation of US military families who lost loved ones in Iraq to the Iraqi/Jordanian border to bring a shipment of humanitarian aid for the people of Falluja. In 2005 Medea was nominated as one of 1,000 exceptional women from around the world to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She is also the author/editor of several books, including Stop the Next War Now.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Medea, please email her at medea@globalexchange.org!

Hear an audio excerpt of Medea:

Click here to listen.

• Ending the War in Iraq
• Stop the Next War Now
• CODEPINK: Women for Peace
• Building a Global Movement for Peace and Justice

Shannon Biggs is the Director of the Local Green Economy program at Global Exchange. She recently co-authored a book, Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grass Roots. Shannon holds a Masters in Economics/Politics of Empire and Post Colonialism from the London School of Economics, and a BS in International Relations from San Francisco State University. Her current work focuses on assisting communities confronted by corporate harms to enact binding laws that place the rights of communities and nature above the claimed legal "rights" of corporations.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Shannon, please email her at shannon@globalexchange.org!

• Busting the myth of “bigger is better”--the real economics of local and green
• Is “localization” the antidote to economic globalization, climate change and other ills?
• Organizing models for local citizen control and local legislation
• Fundraising 101: the basics in fundraising for social change

Beth Bird is a documentary filmmaker, whose work engages vital contemporary social-issues such as globalization, popular resistance, and local community empowerment, drawing attention to and putting a human face on struggles for social justice. Her first feature-length film, "Everyone Their Grain Of Sand" (2005), won the 2005 Jury Award for Best Documentary at its U.S. premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival and many other awards. In her film "Everyone Their Grain of Sand", Bird documents the struggle that border-town Maclovio Rojas has been facing in its relentless efforts to have access to basic human rights, like water and education.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Beth, please contact her at erbphoenix@aol.com!

• USA-Mexico Border
• Global Economy and Fair Trade
• Water Privatization

Andrea Buffa is nationally recognized anti-war and media activist. Currently she works as the Campaigns Director at Global Exchange and does anti-war activism with the women's peace group CODEPINK. As the executive director of Media Alliance from 1997 to 2001, she was a leader in the campaign to take back the Pacifica Radio Network from corporate hijackers. In 2002, while at Global Exchange, she helped found United for Peace and Justice, the largest peace coalition in the United States, was its co-chair for one year, and also served on its steering committee. In January 2004, she led a fact-finding delegation to Iraq to understand the impact of the US war and occupation on the Iraqi people.

• What’s wrong with the US media system and what you can do to change it
• Organizing and activism 101
• How to get media attention for the issues you care about
• Fair Trade chocolate and coffee
• The Iraq war and strategies for the peace movement

Xiomara Castro is a Salvadoran-American who has been involved in the social change movement from a very young age, initially fighting to end the U.S. military intervention in El Salvador and later working for immigrant and farmworkers' rights in the U.S. She has worked as a farmworker union organizer in the Northwest, aiding refugees in gaining healthcare and legal services in the Southwest, and most recently engaging youth around the country as a grassroots educator in California and along the US/Mexico Border.

Xiomara is currently involved in coordinating Art in Action, a youth leadership training program that incorporates Arts and Social Justice activism. At the camp she facilitates the "Linking the Issues", Anti-Oppression, and Street Art/Giant Puppet making workshops. In "Linking the Issues," Xiomara touches on methods of connecting global justice issues to domestic civil and human rights issues in the United States. By linking the roots of global injustice and talking about issues such as Racism, Environmental Injustice, Militarism and Corporate Globalization, youth are able to connect and relate problems they face and struggles they are involved in with people's struggles for justice around the world.

• US/Mexico Border: Militarization, Free Trade, Immigration and Human Rights
• How Corporate Globalization Affects Local Communities
• Environmental Justice
• Student and Youth Activism
• Anti-Oppression

Alli Chagi-Starr is the Art and Events Director for Reclaim the Future at Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland. She is a founder of Art in Action Youth Leadership Program, Dancers Without Borders, Another World is Possible Road Shows and the twelve-year-old Radical Performance Fest. Chagi-Starr was the co-founder of Art and Revolution, a national movement of artist-activists that helped revitalize social movements from 1996-2001. Her essays appear in Democratizing the Global Economy, Global Uprising, Voices from the WTO, The Political Edge and How to Stop the Next War Now. She offers workshops and consultation on arts activism, cultural organizing and anti-racist strategies for movement-building, and has presented at Bioneers, the Esalen Institute, and at dozens of conferences and educational institutions across the United States and Canada. She is currently writing, "Movements for Mass Movements: Creative Tools for Changemakers."

• Challenging Racism and Oppression in our Communities
• Making Dances that Matter: Movement Theater for the Streets
• Arts Activism: The Power of Images and Creativity in our Movements for Social Justice

Global Exchange chapters offer a great opportunity for you to think globally and ACT LOCALLY! Join others to organize events and actions, build people-to-people ties with those around you, promote the alternatives, and work together for a more just and peaceful society!

Check out Join a Chapter for more information!

• Organizing Meetings
• House Parties
• Speaking Events
• Campaign Actions
• Film Screenings

Ariel Clay graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in International Relations with a focus on Fair Trade in Latin American countries. Ariel has a passion for human rights and artistic preservation. She began her work with Global Exchange as an intern in the Fair Trade campaigns department, working on a large campaign for Fair Trade cocoa against World's Finest Chocolate. Now, she works as Assistant Manager of the Global Exchange Fair Trade Store in San Francisco. Ariel is combining retail experience she has had at high end boutiques to her Fair Trade experience here at Global Exchange to create a new cache for Fair Trade products and encourage ethical consumerism.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Ariel, please contact her at atariel@globalexchange.org!

• Fair Trade

Described by The New York Times as the "Paul Revere of globalization's woes," Dr. Kevin Danaher's analytical expertise, sense of humor and blunt eloquence make him an exceptionally dynamic speaker. Dr. Kevin Danaher is a co-founder of Global Exchange (1988), founder and Executive Co-Producer of the Green Festivals (2001), and Executive Director of the Global Citizen Center (2004). Dr. Danaher has spoken at universities and for community organizations throughout the U.S. He conducts workshops on issues ranging from the dynamics of the global economy to how we can replace the power of transnational corporations with local green economy networks. A longtime critic of the so-called "free trade" agenda, Dr. Danaher explains how we must work with other countries to reduce poverty and inequality if we want the cooperation of the world's people in ending terrorism. Dr. Danaher is the author and/or editor of numerous books, including his latest, "Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grass Roots".

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Kevin, please contact him at Kevin@globalexchange.org, Hope@globalexchange.org or call him at (415)-255-7296!

• Building the Green Economy
• People's Globalization vs. Elite Globalization

Noah Dillard, a native of Maine, has worked internationally with grassroots struggles for economic and ecological justice in Palestine, Colombia, and Mexico, as well as with tradition Navajo elders in Black Mesa, AZ. He has spent significant time participating and organizing direct action and violence intervention in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, training and coordinating for the International Solidarity Movement, as well as in Colombia with highly threatened campesino and indigenous communities in the midst of a brutal land rights struggle. Noah is currently working with the Beehive Design Collective, a radical political arts and education collective in downeast Maine as an organizer and popular educator. Noah has a background in community organizing, direct action training, public speaking and ecological research.

• Colombia and Non-violent Resistence
• Palestine and Non-violent Resistence
• Campesino and Indigenous Land Rights Struggles
• The Devastating Effects of Free Trade and US Foreign Policy, i.e. Plan Colombia, Military Aid to Colombia, Fumigations, and the so called Drug War
• Beehive Design Collective, radical political arts and popular education

Tex Dworkin is an active participant in the Fair Trade movement, both as an independent Fair Trade Consultant and Director of Marketing for Global Exchange, an international human rights organization. Over 8 years ago, believing in the power of business enterprise as a tool for social change, Tex's passion for socially conscious business drew her to the Fair Trade movement where she worked as the Manager of the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store. Since then, she has traveled to various parts of the world on direct buying trips, delegations, and educational speaking tours. Tex's work in Fair Trade, e-commerce, and cause-based marketing continues to inspire her to act on behalf of the expanding socially conscious consumer movement. She has served on a multitude of business advisory boards, and is currently on the Fair Trade Resource Network Board of Directors and the Fair Trade Federation Fundraising Committee.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Tex, please email her at tex@globalexchange.org!

• Fair Trade
• Business Enterprise as a Tool for Social Change
• Ethical Consumption/Consumerism
• Socially Responsible Business

Zein El-Amine is a longtime DC community activist and regular contributor to Left Turn magazine (www.leftturn.org). Zein was born and raised in Lebanon and most of his immediate family was recently evacuated from there. He is now a member the newly formed Coalition for Justice and Accountability—a DC based group of Arab Americans, African Americans and Jewish American activists who are focusing on grassroots education and action to deal with the most current attack on Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories. He has recently launched an effort to hold regional town hall meetings on this crisis in DC, Maryland and Virginia.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Zein, please contact him at zelamine@gmail.com!

Laila El-Haddad

Laila El-Haddad is a freelance Palestinian journalist and writer based between the United States and the Gaza Strip. She spent the past three years in Gaza reporting for the Aljazeera Satellite Channel's english language website (now known as Aljazeera International) and Pacifica Radio's Free Speech Radio news. Her work is also frequently found in the Guardian Unlimited, the BBC World Service, the Electronic Intifada, Le Monde Diplomatique, and the New Statesman. Laila is also the author of the blog Raising Yousuf (www.a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com), where she writes about the trials and tribulations of motherhood under occupation.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Laila, please contact her at laila.elhaddad@gmail.com!

Mike Ergo

Mike Ergo grew up in Walnut Creek and graduated from Northgate High School. Mike enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on May 11th, 2001 (his senior year in high school). After being stationed in Iraq twice, Mike was honorably discharged in July of 2005. Through research and soul searching, Mike has concluded that the war in Iraq is not noble or just and that it has claimed too many American and Iraqi lives, while taking advantage of the patriotism of the youth of America.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Mike please email him at mike.ergo@gmail.com!

• The Realities of the Iraq War

Jodie Evans has worked on behalf of community, social-justice, environmental, and political causes for more than thirty years. In October 2002, Jodie co-founded CODEPINK with Medea Benjamin. CODEPINK is a women's peace group that has been organizing creative actions against the war and occupation of Iraq. Jodie co-edited CODEPINK's new book, "Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism" -- a powerful and diverse collection of essays from the peace movement's most dynamic voices. In June 2000, Jodie co-created the first Dubrovnik Peace Conference. From 1973 to 1982, Jodie worked on the campaigns of California governor Jerry Brown, served as his director of administration and ran his campaign for president in 1991. She also oversaw the Office of Appropriate Technology, ushering in breakthroughs in wind and solar energy. In the early 1990s Jodie opened the first environmental department store, Terra Verde. A mother of three, Jodie serves on the boards of numerous non-profits and is a harpist, gardener, and potter when not working to end war.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Jodie, please contact her at jodieevans@gmail.com or (310)-827-3046.

• CODEPINK: Women for Peace

Anyone interested in socially responsible international travel will find Malía Everette especially compelling. Since 1997, Malia Everette has been the Director of Global Exchange's popular and rapidly expanding Reality Tours program. During her tenure at Reality Tours she has overseen the growth and development of alternative travel programs, study seminars and fact finding human rights delegations to 30 countries around the world. From the US, to Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean, Malia promotes in-depth experiential education and socially responsible travel as an alternative to the type of "sun and fun" tourism that often results in cultural homogenization. She has years of experience pioneering cultural and educational exchanges that truly build "people to people ties". Malia believes in the power of travel as a transformative tool for education and social change and sees how the Reality Tours alumni pool of over 20,000 have become citizen diplomats as well as proponents for sane US foreign and economic policy. Malia has facilitated many tours around the world focusing on international relations, human rights, political economy, sustainable development, women's issues and the resilience of indigenous cultures.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Malia please contact her at malia@globalexchange.org or (415)-255-7296!

• Socially Responsible Travel
• Humanitarian Aid Delegation for Iraq
• U.S./Cuba Relations
• Bio-Imperialism and Food Security
• Alternative Models of Development

Delvis Fernández-Levy, president and founder of the Cuba American Alliance Education Fund, Inc., will discuss the debilitating effects that the U.S. embargo has had on Cuban citizens from a humanitarian and ethical perspective. His presentation will assess the embargo from a moral standpoint and will emphasize how this perspective succeeds in de-politicizing thedebate. He will also address the Cuba Food and Medicine Security Act of 1999, which would enable Cuba to effectively receive medicine and food supplies.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Delvis, please contact him at caaef@hughes.net or (815)-627-1959!

• Realities of the Embargo of Cuba

Vivien Feyer is a psychologist, educator, mediator and peace activist. Vivien trains and coaches community mediators and promotes direct person-to-person, heart-to-heart communication between adversaries and across borders. In 1981, she founded the fair trade import company, PARADISO: JEWELS OF BALI. Most recently, Vivien has traveled to Iraq and Iran as a citizen diplomat. Through photography and drawing, Vivien has collected a visual representation of her travels and has been presenting her experience throughout the US.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Vivien, please contact her at vivfeyer@gmail.com!

• US & Iranian Relations
• Alternative Conflict Resolution
• Medical Aid
• Women and War

As Global Exchange's Fair Trade Cocoa Campaigner, Adrienne reaches out to chocolate lovers and chocolate makers alike to help create a world in which we are all free to enjoy guilt-free chocolate. Adrienne also campaigns for conflict-free diamonds and was part of the Global Exchange-coordinated coalition for Sweatfree legislation in San Francisco.

Adrienne has engaged in advocacy toward both corporations and government to create a flourishing international economy at home and abroad that is truly the catalyst for promoting democracy and human rights, protecting the environment, securing peace, and ending poverty. Adrienne has worked for diverse human rights and environmental advocacy organizations, as well as leaders in the field of green business such as Co-op America and Calvert Group. Her area of expertise is the impact of commodities, both extractive and agricultural, on local communities, particularly indigenous people.

Adrienne has studied at Oxford University's Refugee Studies Programme, UC Davis Martin Luther King Hall School of Law, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where her Fields of Study were Development Economics and Environmental Policy. Adrienne is also the co-host of Terra Verde, the weekly environmental radio program on KPFA in Northern California

If you want to plan a speaking event with Adrienne, please contact her at adrienne@globalexchange.org or (415)-508-5732!

Mike Fox and Sílvia Leindecker

Sílvia Leindecker is a Brazilian documentary film maker, a philosopher and independent photographer who has shot for the Spanish news agency EFE, Germany's Politik magazine, and numerous independent projects, advertisement and film productions. Michael Fox is a freelance journalist, translator, reporter and documentary film maker based in South America. He is a former staff reporter for Venezuelanlaysis, a radio correspondant for Free Speech Radio News, and his articles have been published with Yes Magazine, Earth Island Journal, NACLA and The Nation online. Last year, Michael and Sílvia helped to co-found the internet Radio Venezuela en Vivo, which broadcasted live coverage from Venezuela's Constitutional Reform Referendum. Based in between Venezuela and Brazil, Michael and Sílvia have for many years been researching and covering the growth in the region's participatory democracy- cooperatives, Brazil's participatory budgeting and Venezuela's communal councils. Michael's and Sílvia's first full length documentary film "Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas" is set to be released in September 2008. It takes viewers across the Americas to attempt to answer one of the most important questions of our time: What is Democracy?

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Mike Fox or Silvia Leindecker, please email them at estretiomeio@gmail.com, mike@beyondelections.com or call at 415-508-5732!

• Venezuela en Vivo
• Participatory Democracy and Cooperatives in Venezuela and Brazil
• Brazil's participatory budgeting and Venezuela's communal councils
• Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas

Dawn Fraser is an avid Caribbean-American educator, activist, spoken word artist, speaker and cultural agent. Dawn has worked on an array of political and social issues which primarily affect low-income and minority communities.

Dawn explores creative ways to utilize music and dance to transform democracy and generate collective action. By focusing on concepts of innovation, entrepreneurship, political race and leadership, Dawn explores both the formal and informal means to harness the power of culture.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Dawn, please email her at dawnfraser@post.harvard.edu!

• Cultural Arts, Community Building and Strategies that Inspire Action
• New Media Strategies to Promote Arts Activism

Stephen Funk is a veteran who was the first public conscientious objector to the war in Iraq and served six months in military prison. At the time, he stated: "I refuse to surrender my dignity, I refuse to kill... the military demands obedience, but I will not obey". He spoke out to provoke others in service to rethink their moral duty, and to encourage young people to think twice before enlisting in the military. Now that Stephen has been discharged from the Marine Corps he continues his peace work. He is an active member of Iraq Veterans Against the War since 2004, and Vets4Vets, a non-partisan veterans peer support organization dedicated to helping Iraq and Afghanistan era veterans. He is currently an undergraduate student at Stanford University, majoring in International Relations, and interning with Global Exchange.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Stephen, please email him at bayarea@ivaw.org!

• Truth in Recruiting
• Discrimination in the military

Faith Gemmill, a Pit River/ Wintu and Neets'aii Gwich'in Athabascan from Arctic Village, Alaska, is the current outreach coordinator for REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands). Faith previously worked on behalf of the Gwich'in Nation for over ten years as a representative, public spokesperson and Gwich'in Steering Committee staff to address the potential human health and cultural impacts of proposed oil development and production of the birthplace and nursery of the Porcupine Caribou Herd which is located within the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Faith continues as a public spokesperson, press and tribal liaison and human rights advocate. Faith is a current field representative of the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC). In this capacity Faith has represented the Gwich'in Nation within appropriate mechanisms of the United Nations to advocate for the recognition of Gwich'in human rights as well as work for the rights and recognition of Indigenous Peoples. Faith also serves on the advisory board of Honor the Earth.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Faith, please email her at redoil1@acsalaska.net!

• The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
• Human Rights and Oil
• Indigenous Peoples and the Environment

John Gibler is a Global Exchange human rights fellow in Mexico who has been covering social movements since January 1st, 2006. He has reported on the ground from the Zapatistas Other Campaign, the massive protests against electoral fraud in Mexico City, and the civil disobedience uprising in Oaxaca. His writing and photographs have appeared in Z Magazine, ZNet, In These Times, Left Turn, The Indypendent, New Politics, Narco News, UpsideDownWorld.com, and other independent media. He has reported for Flashpoints on KPFA, Democracy Now!, KPFK, and WBAI. He has also reported from Oaxaca for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the international edition of the Miami Herald. Before moving to Mexico, Gibler worked for various human rights and social justice organizations in Mexico, Peru, and California. He reported on environmental justice issues and water privatization in California for Public Citizen, Terrain Magazine, ColorLines, the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, the Journal on Race, Poverty and the Environment and other independent media.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with John, please email his at john.gibler@gmail.com!

• The May 4th massive police raid in San Salvador Atenco.
• The Uprising in Oaxaca
• The Zapatista Other Campaign
• THe Massive Protest Against Electoral Fraud

Eva Golinger is a Venezuelan-American attorney and author of the best-selling books, "The Chávez Code" (2005) and "Bush vs. Chávez: Washington's War on Venezuela" (2006). Since 2003, Eva has been investigating, analyzing and writing about US intervention in Venezuela using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain information about the US Government's efforts over the past few years to destabilize Hugo Chávez's presidency. Through the FOIA, she has uncovered more than US$50 million in financing to anti-Chávez groups from the U.S. government since 2001 and in October 2004, she obtained top-secret documents from the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act, demonstrating prior knowledge and complicity in the coup. Since then, she has continued to receive more declassified documents under the FOIA and she has published two books in five languages (English, Spanish, French, German and Italian) on the subject of US Intervention in Venezuela, with particular emphasis on use of the National Endowment for Democracy and the USAID to fund opposition activities, penetrate civil society and undermine Venezuela's democratic revolution. Ms. Golinger's work has been covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsday, Chicago Tribune, International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and other major media around the world. She has also appeared on CNN, BBC, PBS, NPR, Australia's "Dateline", Swedish, French and Greek television, and is a featured analyst on several major documentaries about Venezuela, including "Venezuela Rising" (Nuestra America Productions, 2006). She currently resides in Caracas, Venezuela and writes as a columnist for several national newspapers and hosts a weekly radio program on national Venezuelan radio. She also frequently appears on one of Venezuela's most popular political programs on television, "la Hojilla".

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Eva, please email her at evagolinger@hotmail.com or evagolinger@gmail.com!

• US Intervention in Venezuela • CIA penetration and actions in Venezuela
• The Bush Administration’s Role in the 2002 coup d’etat against President Chávez
• The National Endowment for Democracy and a tool of undermining democracies around the world (How US Taxpayer Dollars are used for Regime Change)
• Media Manipulation and Psychological Warfare
• How to use the Freedom of Information Act to Uncover and Denounce US Aggression and Illegal Activities
• The Venezuela Revolution and Social Transformation
• The New Venezuelan Constitution

Susan Greene of Break the Silence Mural Project traveled to the West Bank of Occupied Palestine to create a four-story mural in coordination with Palestinian youth and artists. Susan lived and painted at the Ibdaa Guest House in Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. The mural was designed and painted by Palestinian youth and artists, Americans and American Jews. Susan is available to present slides and video of the powerful art created and speak about what daily life is like living in the Occupied Territories. The focus of each presentation is determined by the context of the event however the general themes are daily life for Palestinians under the military occupation, its relationship to the community mural project, history of the region and implications for art and activism.

• Break the Silence Mural and Arts Project in Palestine
• Daily Life for Palestinians Under Military Occupation
• Art and Activism

Narcisa Gualinga is a Kichwa leader from the Autonomous Territory of the Original Kichwa Nation of Sarayaku (TAYJA-SARUTA) in the Ecuadorian Amazon, which has opposed oil extraction and the Argentine oil company CGC since they entered Sarayaku territory in 1996. Narcisa was one of the original presidents and coordinators of the Sarayaku Organization of Women, and currently forms an integral part of the organizational process of the community through her roles as a political representative, and both mother and wife to subsequent presidents of the Nation of Sarayaku. In 1992, she participated in the historic March for Indigenous Peoples' Rights, for the recognition of territorial rights of the indigenous peoples of Pastaza province. Narcisa has never had the opportunity to learn to read nor write, and she has never studied. Yet her conviction and experience have been fundamental to providing understanding and political orientation to her community. She has a long history of defending the environment in the Amazon and of shaping her people's role in the proper development of the planet.

Marisa Handler

Marisa Handler is on a national tour with her new book, Loyal to the Sky. A vivid mix of personal memoir and political reportage, she combines the story of her own coming-of age in apartheid South Africa with a fascinating inside look at the global justice movement. She has worked as an activist with numerous organizations, including Direct Action to Stop the War, United for Peace and Justice, and the Tikkun Community, where she was National Organizer. Her Orion story was nominated for the Society of Environmental Journalists' Best Environmental Writing award.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Marisa, please contact her at marisahandler@gmail.com or (415)-939-2084!

John Harrington

Making money and supporting social justice are not mutually exclusive. With personal charisma and energy, John Harrington makes socially responsible investing fascinating and immediate. Mr.Harrington is President and CEO of a highly successful investment company whose clients are concerned with social as well as financial criteria. He is also Manager of Global Partners, LLC, a social venture fund. He has been President and Chair of the Board of Working Assets Management Company as well as Progressive Asset Management, has held several investment consulting positions for the State of California, and is a key figure in numerous San Francisco Bay Area nonprofits. He has been a leader in the socially responsible investment movement for over thirty years, and was a key architect of the divestment movement against the apartheid government in South Africa.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with John, please email him at john@harringtoninvestments.com!

Hear an audio excerpt of John:

Click here to listen.

• Socially Responsible Investing
• Economic Globalization
• Economic Development in South Africa

Zakiya Harris is a California native, who has been working as an artist, educator and activist for the past 10 years. Currently she is the Regional Director of the San Francisco Green Festival. In 2003, she became the lead trainer at the DJ Project. In 2007, she co-founded "Grind for the Green," which engages youth of color in the burgeoning green economy. The program was heralded for its innovation and produced the 1st Solar Powered Hip-Hop Music Concert in San Francisco. Some of her recent achievements include receiving the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights Future Leaders award and becoming a Fellow in the Green For All Academy.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Zakiya, please email her at zakiya@globalexchange.org!

Mary Anne Hitt

Mary Anne Hitt is the executive director of Appalachian Voices, a nonprofit organization that brings people together to solve the environmental problems having the greatest impact on the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. The organization works with communities across Appalachia to tackle two major causes of climate change: mountaintop removal coal mining and the construction of new coal-fired power plants. She grew up in the mountains of east Tennessee, just outside Gatlinburg and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Mary Anne, please email her at maryanne.hitt@sierraclub.org!

• Climate Change
• Mountain Top Removal and Coal-fired Fuel Plants in the Appalachian Mountains

Mike moved to the US a year ago and works for Global Exchange as their Independence from Oil campaign director. Since coming down to the states Mike has co-organized 4 national days of action, launched a campaign to "Save Hockey -- Fight Climate Change" and co-created the Oil Addicts Anonymous and the Oil Enforcement Agency. He works to end America's addiction to oil, stop the runaway global climate crisis, separate oil from state Separate Oil from State and put a complete moratorium on Alberta tar sands development.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Mike, please contact him at mhudema@greenpeace.org or (780)-432-5409!

• Corporate Campaigning: How to Take on the Big Boys and Win
• Oil Addiction: How to Admit the Addiction and Get Some Help
• Sustainable Transportation
• Creative Activism: Big Wins with Small Resources.
• Youth Initiatives and Climate Change
• Non-Violent Direct Action, Action Climbing and Blockades
• Tarsands: the Blackhole of North America.

This speaking tour explores Israeli and Palestinian experiences of 1948, the creation of the Palestinian refugee crisis and the role of the right of return in any just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

• Israel, Palestine and the Right of Return

Driven by economic inequality, thwarted by ill-conceived US border policy, and the harsh conditions of the Sonoran Desert, more than 2000 men, women, and children have died trying to cross the Mexican border into the United States since 1998. No More Deaths works to provide water, food, and medical assistance to migrants walking through the most deadly portions of the Arizona desert; to monitor US operations on the border and work to change US policy; and to bring the plight of migrants to public attention.

Volunteers spend months in the Arizona Sonora desert providing lifesaving humanitarian assistance to migrants. To their speaking engagements, they bring on-the-ground stories about the real impacts of U.S. immigration and trade policy.

• The Humanitarian Cost of the US-Mexico Border.
• Distributing Humanitarian Aid in the Borderlands
• Free Trade and Immigration

Deborah James is the is the Director of International Programs of Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC, an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. Deborah was most recently the Director of the WTO Program at Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, where she organized global campaigns to stop the expansion of the WTO with the global network Our World Is Not for Sale. Deborah was previously the Global Economy Director at Global Exchange, where she worked for over a decade to democratize the global economy. There she played a key role in the hemispheric movement to stop the expansion of NAFTA to the rest of Latin America through the Free Trade Area of the Americas. At Global Exchange, Deborah successfully improved the lives of coffee farmers in developing countries by organizing consumer pressure that led Starbucks and Procter & Gamble to purchase Fair Trade Certified coffee. This work grew out of her advocacy for a living wage and better working conditions for Nike and GAP workers and her promotion of Fair Trade chocolate to end child slavery in the Ivory Coast. Her outstanding public education efforts have distinguished Deborah as an exceptional leader who can strategically attack high-level corporate giants and multilateral trade agreements while inspiring the public by effectively promoting the visionary alternatives of Fair Trade. In 2004, Deborah served as the first Executive Director of the Venezuela Information Office in Washington, DC, an organization that reframed public debate of the exciting progressive social transformation happening under Hugo Chávez's leadership and successfully shifted US foreign policy towards Venezuela. In 2000, Deborah was part of the largest foreign elections monitoring team in Mexico, and has also observed elections in Venezuela and Florida in 2004. She has led over 20 human rights, democracy, Fair Trade, and women's delegations to Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Haiti, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela since 1994. Deborah was a representative to the United Nations World Conference on Women in 1995 in China; part of the first American delegation to Afghanistan after the US bombing in November of 2001; and a representative to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa in 2002.

• Global Resistance to the World Trade Organization
• Venezuelan Democracy, Development, and Latin American Regional Integration
• Challenging Corporate Globalization

Antonia Juhasz is a policy-analyst, author and activist living in San Francisco. She is a Fellow at Oil Change International and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. Juhasz is author of The Bu$h Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time. Juhasz's new book, The Tyranny of Oil: the World's Most Powerful Industry, and What we Must do to Stop It, will be released by HarperCollins Publishers in September 2008. Juhasz is an expert on all aspects of international trade and finance policy with a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University, a Bachelors Degree in Public Policy from Brown University, experience as a Legislative Assistant to two United States Members of Congress, and over ten years of work in the field. She is a passionate writer and speaker who conveys complex information in a manner that is both accessible and motivational to others.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Antonia, please email her at antoniajuhasz@gmail.com or tyrannyofoil@gmail.com!

• The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time
• Corporate Globalization and the War on Iraq
• Global water privatization and commodification
• The San Francisco Anti-War/Peace Movement
• Challenging corporate globalization in all its evil forms

Brandon Knight is the Mid-West Independence from Oil Campus Organizer at Global Exchange. Brandon has studied Transportation Economics and Environmental Economics and Policy at Michigan State University. He has worked in the energy efficiency and renewable energy field for over 2 years with non-profits and with MSU Campus Office of Sustainability. Brandon is now using his experience to help students organize to improve the fuel-efficiency of university vehicles and to develop transportation alternatives as part of the Campus Climate Challenge.

• Climate Change and Environmental Justice
• Transportation Policy
• Student Activism/Campus Organizing

Ko Ko Lay, an exile Burmese activist currently in the United States, continues struggling for peace, social justice and political change for Burma. While a final year philosophy student, he was one of the student leaders who organized a popular people's uprising in Burma on August 8, 1988. On September 18, 1988, the Burmese military brutally crushed the nationwide peaceful demonstrations and took power. More than 3,000 students and civilians were killed and thousands of activists were arrested and tortured by the Burmese military regime. Consequently, more than 10,000 students left Burma and formed All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) on the Thai Burma border after the military regime coup. Ko Ko Lay was elected as a member of the Central Executive Committee of ABSDF and served as a Secretary of Information. After his two terms of service in ABSDF, he decided to continue his studies and migrated to the U.S. Ko Ko has achieved a degree in Photography and Industrial Design at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and is currently pursuing a Masters degree at SFSU in Social Change Design and Conflict Resolution with an emphasis in International Conflicts. He is a founder of Open Students Network for Burma at SFSU and is also serving his second term as a member of the Strategic Coordinating Committee, the only worldwide Burmese coalition group including the National Coalition Government of Union of Burma and National Council of Burma. Through sharing his first-hand personal experiences and knowledge of Burma, Ko Ko helps raise awareness about the Burmese student movements, the struggle for democracy, human rights issues and the consequences of oil production in Burma.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with KoKo, please contact him at kokophoto@yahoo.com or (415)203-0541!

• Anti-Dictatorship, Democracy, Human Rights and Social Justice Movements in Burma
• Consequences of Militarism in Burma
• Impacts of Oil Production in Burma

Ted Lewis has worked with Mexican Human Rights and Democracy organizations for two decades. He led hundreds of international observers covering eight Mexican Presidential and regional elections since 1994. He also organized hundreds of international volunteers that accompanied Mexican human rights observers and communities threatened by Army and paramilitary actions. He coordinated the publication of Always Near, Always Far: The Armed Forces in Mexico, a groundbreaking publication that gave a platform to dissident generals from Mexico's Army as well as critical voices from Mexican civil society.

Since 2006, Ted has led a project to highlight the causes of economic conditions in Mexico drive excessive migration and disadvantage workers throughout North America. In 2008, he edited The Right to Stay Home: Alternatives to Mass Displacement and Forced Migration in North America, a collection of essays critiquing both Mexican and U.S. economic and immigration policies. To read this report online visit: www.globalexchange.org/the-right-to-stay-home.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Ted please email him at ted@globalexchange.org!

• Militarization in Mexico and the U.S. Connection
• Why We Must Leave Iraq

Born and raised in Oakland, California, Ariel Luckey is a hip hop theater artist whose community and performance work dances in the crossroads of education, art and activism. Ariel's lyrical language and political vision have inspired and transformed audiences from the streets of Seattle's WTO demonstration to Cafe Cantante in Havana, Cuba to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York. As a father, friend and activist, Ariel makes connections between issues, communities, and movements to build alliances for social and environmental justice.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Ariel, please contact him at skylight@arielluckey.com or 510-287-6406!

• Poetry for People Power: The Pen, The Mic and The Movement
• Acting Out Change: Theatre of the Oppressed for Collective Liberation
• ToxiCity: Art and Organizing for Environmental Justice (Part One)
• New World Water: Art and Organizing for Environmental Justice (Part Two)
• Ancestry in Progress: Connecting Our Family Histories to Our Global Future
• Free Land: Unearthing the Legacy of Manifest Destiny and White Privilege thru Hip Hop Theatre

Nancy L. Mancias works for the Global Exchange Peace Campaign and is the assistant to the cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK Women for Peace, Medea Benjamin. She is a key organizer in the San Francisco anti-war community and supports Iraq war resisters in the US and Canada. Nancy is a theatre arts professional and is on the Board of Directors for Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco's oldest alternative art space.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Nancy, please email her at nancymancias@earthlink.net!

• CODEPINK Women for Peace
• Supporting Iraq War Resisters

Jason Mark is the coauthor (with Kevin Danaher and Shannon Biggs) of the new book Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots (PoliPointPress). His new book charts the efforts of local communities to create a more ecologically sustainable and socially responsible economy. The book tells the stories of people who have successfully grown urban farms; built wind power projects; fought toxic polluters; created networks of locally owned enterprises; established worker coops; and founded businesses that place people and the planet before short-term profit. The book is an inspiring "greenprint" for how, together, we can realize a more safe and humane society. Mark is the co-manager of Alemany Farm (www.alemanyfarm.org), a 4.5-acre farm in the middle of San Francisco. Alemany Farm uses organic fruit and vegetable cultivation to give "at-risk" youth meaningful job training and to educate the public about our reliance on natural systems. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the human rights group Global Exchange. Mark holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from Georgetown University.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Jason, please contact him at jasondovemark@gmail.com or (415)-641-5396!

• Connecting the Peace and Environmental Movements in Order to Break Our Addiction to Oil
• Citizen Challenges to Corporate Power
• No Blood or Oil: Breaking America’s Petroleum Addiction
• Corporations and “Free Trade”: The REAL Agenda Behind the WTO and FTAA
• Connecting the Global Peace and Global Justice Movements
• International Observation of the US Elections
• Organic Agriculture

Carlos Martinez is the current Global Exchange Venezuela Program Director in Caracas. He has worked with Global Exchange in various capacities since 2004. Outside of coordinating political and educational delegations to Venezuela he has contributed analytical articles to Monthly Review Zine, Venezuelanalysis.com, and Common Dreams.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Carlos, please email him at carlos@globalexchange.org!

• Venezuela

Cynthia McKinney served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003, and from 2005 to 2007, representing Georgia's 4th Congressional District. Cynthia's debut into public office came in 1988 when she was elected to the Georgia State Legislature. In 1992, Cynthia made history when she became the first African American woman to represent Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives. While in Congress, she brought hundreds of millions of dollars back to her constituents and fought so that underrepresented communities could finally have sensitive representation at all levels of government. Cynthia became known as a voice for the voiceless. She served on the House International Relations Committee for 10 years where she was the highest-ranking Democrat on the Human Rights Subcommittee. Cynthia won recognition as an outspoken leader for human rights, an ardent advocate for peace, and a determined worker for justice. After a redistricting battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court, Cynthia was forced out of the district that first elected her to Congress, but despite this she managed to win re-election in 1994 and also in 1996, 1998 and 2000. In 2002, she lost the primary election, in 2004 she regained her seat, but in 2006 she again lost the primary election when Republicans voted in the Democratic Primary to oust Cynthia using a tactic called "crossover" voting. McKinney has been featured in a full-length documentary titled American Blackout. She has became a household name in Georgia and in many states across America, as well as in many countries around the globe. She has spoken all over the United States and many places all over the world because she is nationally and internationally recognized for her tireless voice on behalf of justice. She has a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California and a Masters of Art in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Cynthia, please email her at hq2600@gmail.com or mckinney.cynthia@gmail.com!

Pamela Montanaro

Pamela Montanaro, M.S., coordinated the nation-wide "Freedom to Travel to Cuba" Campaign for six years, on behalf of Global Exchange and a network of fifty other U.S. civil liberties, human rights, humanitarian, academic, environmental, and solidarity organizations.

She is also a co-founder of the Eco Cuba Exchange Campaign of Global Exchange, promoting interchange between U.S. and Cuban environmental scientists.

Pamela Montanaro is available to speak about:

• Eco Cuba Exchange: the extraordinary struggles and successes of Cuba's environmental scientists in Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development and how U.S. environmentalists can support them and learn from their experiences;
  
  
• Freedom to Travel to Cuba Campaign: how U.S. citizens can get involved in the struggle for our right to travel to Cuba, the only country in the world to which we, as U.S. citizens, are denied our constitutional right to travel.
  
  Diana Morrison

  Joining the ARmy at the age of 17, Diana Morrison served on active duty at Ft. Hood, Texas as an MP for three years. After leaving active duty, Diana remained in the reserves until 1994, completing her eight-year commitment with the military.

  She joined the California Army National Guard in 1996 as an MP and was deployed three times, each for the duration of one year: Operation Joint Endeavor (in the Bosnia conflict), Operation Noble Eagle (post 9/11 homeland defense), and Operation Iraqi Freedom (in Iraq). In Iraq, Diana ratated from escorting convoys that patrolled roads, looking for improvised explosive devices, to providing security for logisitics sites and the Baghdad airport. She is now studying art at CalState East Bay.

  • Counter-recruitment
  • Women in the military
  
  
  Luis Gilberto Murillo Urrutia

  Luis Gilberto Murillo is the former governor of Chocó, the poorest state in Colombia. His hard fought victory as one of the youngest Colombians to win a gubernatorial election was the result of his tireless organizing efforts around the environment and issues related to the ancestral lands of the Afro-Colombian and indigenous populations of Colombia. During his tenure as governor, Sr. Murillo became one of the most recognizable Afro-Colombian figures in the country, and won praises from the national media for his creative proposals to protect the environment and fight poverty. His outspoken advocacy for his people and similar voiceless groups led to his kidnapping, repeated death threats and his eventual exile to the U.S. He continues to speak out against human rights abuses by the Colombian military and rightwing paramilitary groups, and against U.S. military funding that only exacerbates the conflict and could mire the U.S. in Colombia's tragic civil war. Sr. Murillo speaks in favor of peace, reconciliation, full democracy and social inclusion in Colombia.

  • Plan Colombia
  • Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Struggles in Colombia
  • Human Rights in Colombia
  • Colombian Alternatives to US Militarism
  
  
  Ben Namakin

  Ben Namakin, born in 1980, grew up on the Pacific islands of Kiribati and Micronesia. Since 2002, he has worked as an Environmental Educator with the Conservation Society of Pohnpei where his work includes taking on the issue of climate change and initiatives such as the Youth-to-Youth in Environmental Education and Awareness Program, and an array of other successful outreach initiatives. Namakin has taught a summer course on climate change and its implications for island systems at the College of Micronesia. He has produced footage showing sea level rise, coastal erosion and other changes on island systems. His footage of the split of Deketik Island from sea flooding was shown during the United Nations 2005 Climate Change Conference COP11/MOP1 in Montreal, Canada. Namakin was selected as the only Pacific Islander to join the Beyond Kyoto/It's Us! International Youths at the Youth Summit and Youth Delegation to the United Nations 2005 Climate Change Conference. He participated in making the International Youth Declaration "Our Climate, Our Challenge, Our Future" and was one of five youth speakers who addressed the 10,000 delegates in a plenary at the COP11/MOP1. Namakin continues to collaborate with the Beyond Kyoto youths to share information on possible actions to stop climate change, research climate change impacts in the Pacific, and raise awareness about the issue.
  
  Valerie Orth

  A long-time grassroots organizer, Valerie Orth most recently led a diverse coalition to successfully pass the nation's strongest anti-sweatshop law, and sparked campaigns in numerous other cities. Valerie continues to build the movement as an economic justice workshop leader, the chair of San Francisco's Advisory Group on Sweatfree Purchasing enforcement and a touring singer-songwriter (www.myspace.com/vlomusic ). She now offers unique and interactive presentations, combining musical performance and social justice.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Valerie, please email her at valerie@valerieorth.com !

  • Make Your City Sweatfree!
  • Fair Trade Campaigning
  • Organizing in Your Community
  • Feminism and Music
  
  
  Pablo Paredes

  Pablo Paredes is an Iraq war resistor and Naval veteran who in 2004 refused to deploy to Iraq. His subsequent court martial sentenced him to three months of hard labor. Since his actions in 2004, Paredes has been a strong voice in the anti-war movement, especially among Latino resistors.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event Pablo, please contact him at pablopare@gmail.com or (510)-465-1617!

  • Counter-recruitment
  • Stop the war in Iraq
  
  
  Alex Patico

  Alex is an international education & training consultant. He served in the Peace Corps in Iran, has been an advisor to Iranians for International Cooperation and was a co-founder of the National Iranian American Council and of the Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (US affiliate), and a member of the Orthodox [Christian] Peace Fellowship. He holds a master's degree in cross-cultural training and has worked for thirty years on international exchanges and training. He lives near Washington, DC.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Alex, you can contact him at alexpatico@aol.com or (443)-623-6219!

  • Iran
  • US/Iran Relations
  
  
  Rosina Philippe

  Rosina Philippe is a lifetime resident of coastal Louisiana, and an advocate for preservation of traditional cultural and heritage practices. A grassroots activist, she has partnered with leaders from other communities along with faith-based and non-profit organizations to work for sustainability of marginalized traditional family fishers. Rosina has traveled to both the East and West coast to study and build network partnerships to address issues of Fair Trade Marketing, Racial Injustice, Economic Instability, and Coastal Restoration. She is vocal on the issue of recognizing accountability, and identifying contributing factors and entities in relation to these issues. A firm believer that people, facing similar problems, through informed education and information sharing have the power to affect positive long-term changes, and retake charge of their own destinies.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Rosina, please contact her at rpatakapa@yahoo.com or (304) 266-9047!
  
  Miguel Pickard

  Currently on tour with Carleen Pickard, Hector Sanchez, and Manuel Pérez Rocha, Miguel Pickard is the co-founder of the Center for Economic and Political Investigation for Community Action (CIEPAC) in San Cristóbal, Chiapas, México. At CIEPAC, Miguel is involved in a number of research topics that are of particular concern to the grassroots groups in Chiapas (free-trade agreements, the SPPNA, the mining companies, resource use and preservations by the indigenous peoples), and in preparing educational materials based on these topics.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Miguel, please email him at mpickard@correo.unam.mx!

  • Impacts of NAFTA on Mexico
  • The Push and Pull of Free Trade and Immigration
  • Security and Prosperity Partnership
  
  
  Runway Peace Project

  The latest initiative of the Women of Color Resource Center, Runway Peace Project (RPP), organizes pro-peace, anti-war fashion shows across the nation. Looking for a way to raise awareness about militarism, gender, occupation and what we can do about it? Host a fashion show & educate your community ...with style! RPP is a multimedia toolkit that examines the powerful influence of U.S. militarism on popular culture. RPP brings together designers, performers and activists in a powerful expression of resistance and hope.

  • Militarization and Gender
  
  
  Manuel Pérez Rocha

  Manuel Pérez Rocha is an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. where he directs an advocacy and research project on "the Security and Prosperity Partnership and the NAFTA Plus Agenda." Manuel works in coordination with the Alliance for Responsible Trade in the United States and is a member of the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC). He has worked for more than a decade with Mexican and international civil society organizations and networks including the Hemispheric Social Alliance and Oxfam International doing advocacy work for fair economic relations among countries, particularly for trade with justice.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Manuel, he can be contacted at manuel@ips-dc.org or (240)-838-6623!

  • Impacts of NAFTA on Mexico
  • The Push and Pull of Free Trade and Immigration
  • Security and Prosperity Partnership
  
  
  Raul Quinones-Rosado

  Raul Quinones-Rosado, PhD, is the author of "Consiousness-in-Action: Toward an Integral Psychology of Liberation & Transformation". Dr. Quinones-Rosado works within various comunities-of-stuggle in Puerto Rico and the United States, to support those commited to personal chnge and social transformatin. He is co-founder of ile, inc. which is an organization commited to anti-oppression community organizing and Latino leadership development. Raul currently directs c-Intergral, a core service of ile, through which he teaches, counsels and trains others in the principles and practices of consiousness-in-action.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Raul, please email him at raulqr@consciousness-in-action.com!

  • An Integral Model of Well-Being and Development
  • The forces that Hinder in the Matrix of Domination
  • Disrupting the Cyclone of Oppression & Reactivity
  • Intergral Liberation & Transformation Praxis
  
  
  Malik Rahim

  Malik Rahim, born and raised in New Orleans' Algiers neighborhood, has worked as an organizer for decades around housing and prison issues. During Hurricane Katrina, Malik stayed to assist the community and has been speaking out about racism and the failures of government exposed by the Katrina disaster. To counter the powerful corporate forces trying to control the rebuilding, Malik has founded Rebuild Green to work with community-based organizations efforts to advance social justice and environmental sustainability. Malik states that "By focusing on green building technology, renewable energy, mass transit systems, and green community development that empowers local people to take control of their local resources, the rebuilding of New Orleans can take our city from being a symbol of disaster to being a prototype sustainable city of the future. "
  
  Nina Rizzo

  Nina Rizzo is the California Freedom from Oil Campus Organizer at Global Exchange. She studied Geography as well as Conservation and Resource Studies at UC Berkeley. She organized for the recent sweatfree and climate campaigns for the University of California; uses these experiences to work with students and other organizations to get climate and sustainable transportation policies and programs in order to address the climate crisis.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Nina, please email her at nina@globalexchange.org or narizzo@gmail.com!

  • Global Warming and Sustainable Transportation
  • Student Activism/Campus Organizing
  • Oil and Human Rights
  
  
  Maryam Roberts

  Maryam Roberts is the Peace & Solidarity Program Director at the Women of Color Resource Center in Oakland, CA. She comes from years of experience organizing and educating on peace and social justice issues. She is currently working with a group of women of color veterans to help build their leadership and voices in the peace movement. She is passionate about engaging young communities of color on issues of militarism, race, gender and power, helping them to find alternatives to the military. Her current initiative is the Runway Peace Project, an organizing kit for pro-peace, anti-war fashion shows nationwide. The project looks at how militarism influences popular culture, through the lens of fashion, asking the question, "What's so hip about wearing camo?" Formerly with Global Exchange, Maryam produced speaking tours of military family members like Fernando Suarez del Solar, who lost his son in the Iraq occupation, and Iraq war veterans like Sean O'Neill, and resisters Camilo Mejia and Pablo Paredes. She is also co-founder of Art in Action Youth Leadership Program (www.artinactioncamp.org). Utilizing her passion for photography and writing, she directed the Art in Action Digital Storytelling program in 2006, as a powerful way for young people to share their stories digitally through writing & photography.

  • Linking the Issues for Youth - Recruitment & Alternatives
  • Art in Action - Finding Our Voices Through Art
  • Runway Peace Project
  • Women of Color: Building Peace in a Militarized Society
  
  
  Josh Ruebner

  Josh Ruebner is the Grassroots Advocacy Coordinator with the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a nonsectarian coalition of more than 75 grassroots organizations working to promote a US foreign policy supportive of a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After graduate school, Ruebner worked on Capitol Hill as an Analyst in Middle East Affairs for Congressional Research Service (CRS), a nonpartisan government agency providing Members of Congress with information and analysis. Since leaving government service, Ruebner has focused on providing peace activists with access to and influence on Capital Hill.

  • How to Influence Your Members of Congress: An Interactive Training Workshop
  
  
  Enrique Salmón

  Enrique Salmón (pronounced sahl-móhn), is a Rarámuri (Tarahumara). He feels indigenous cultural concepts of the natural world are only part of a complex and sophisticated understanding of landscapes and biocultural diversity, and he has dedicated his studies to Ethnobiology and Traditional Ecological Knowledge in order to better understand his own and other cultural perceptions of culture, landscapes, and place. Dr. Salmon's recent studies have led him to seriously consider the connections between Climate Change and Indigenous traditional foodways. In order to maintain the sustainable food producing capacities of many landscapes to produce wild and cultivated foods and livestock is to secure a future for the land and people. Increasingly, the scientific majority agrees that Global Warming will negatively impact the planet's ability to feed exponential human population growth. As a result, we need to look to places of hope and resilience for solutions to how to adapt to these Earth Changes and continue to feed human populations. Indigenous homelands are regions noticing the effects of Global Warming, but also able to possibly offer solutions.

  • Cultivating Resilience: Indigenous Solutions to Climate Change
  • Ethnobiology of Native North America
  • Ethnobotany of the Greater Southwest
  • Poisonous Plants that Heal
  • Bioculturally Diverse Regions as Refuges of Hope and Resilience
  • The Language and Library of Indigenous Ecological Knowledge
  
  
  Hector Sanchez

  Currently on tour with Carleen Pickard and Manuel Perez Rocha, Hector Sánchez is the Policy Education Coordinator for Global Exchange's Mexico Program. He represents the program in Washington, D.C., where he coordinates efforts to inform and organize legislators and key organizations in support of new priorities on trade and immigration. Hector has over 10 years of policy, research and community organizing experience in the education, government, and non-profit sectors. During the five years prior to joining Global Exchange in the summer of 2007, Hector worked at Education Trust where he developed and led an initiative to improve public education for this country's immigrant and Latino community.

  • The Push and Pull of Free Trade and Immigration
  • Effective Lobbying Around Trade
  
  
  Renee Maria Saucedo

  Renee Maria Saucedo is a vocal advocate for immigrant rights in California. Since 1991 she has worked with La Raza Centro Legal as an employment attorney and a youth law attorney. She also advocates for progressive policies in the educational and juvenile justice systems. Ms. Saucedo works within the legal system and at the grassroots level, fostering coalitions between diverse community groups to more effectively combat poverty, advocate for health care, and halt dehumanizing INS raids. She is involved with a wide variety of nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area and has received several awards for excellence in community service.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Renee, please contact her at renee@lrcl.org or (415)-553-3404!

  • Youth and Immigration
  • Immigrant Rights and INS Abuses
  • Activism Amongst Women of Color
  • Welfare Reform
  • Report back from Oaxaca
  
  
  Dave Snyder

  Dave Snyder is a long-time organizer and advocate for socially just transportation and land-use policies. Currently, he serves as Transportation Policy Director for San Francisco Planning + Urban Research(SPUR). Previously, he was the director of program development for the Thunderhead Alliance, the national coalition of state and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations, where he researched and shared best practices in bicycle and pedestrian planning and advocacy. Prior to that, he served as executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition from 1991 to 2002, building the organization from a handful of members to a powerhouse of 4,500. He then founded Transportation for a Livable City and served as its chief executive for two years. He received a Bachelor of Arts in politics, magna cum laude, from St. Andrews Presbyterian College. He rides his bike for most trips, including when he should probably walk and enjoy the sights and sounds of the sidewalk.
  
  Gillian Sorensen

  Gillian Martin Sorensen, formerly the Assistant Secretary-General for Ex-ternal Relations, now Senior Advisor at the United Nations Foundation, is a national advocate on matters related to the United Nations and the United States-United Nations relationship, addressing audiences as diverse as Rotary International and the Air Force Academy; university students; staff and Members of Congress; journalists and leaders of civil society.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Gillian, she can be contacted at jewing@unfoundation.org!

  • US and UN
  • Human Rights and Current Affairs
  • Civil Society
  • Women
  • Future of the UN and UN Reform
  • UN and Faith-based Organizations
  
  
  Omoyele Sowore

  Omoyele Sowore is a Nigerian who has spent the last 15 years working to promote human rights and democracy in Nigeria, and to stop the militarization and violence that multinational oil companies have brought to his country. In 1989, he took part in student demonstrations protesting the conditions of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of $120 million to be used for a Nigerian oil pipeline -- the IMF loan conditions were to reduce the number of universities in the country from 28 to just 5. In 1992 at University of Lagos, Sowore led 2,000 students in protest against Nigeria's notorious kleptocracy. Police opened fire, killing seven. Sowore was arrested, interrogated and beaten, but he refused to back down in his struggle for decent education in his country. He's been imprisoned eight times and tortured, but he remains committed. "We've had supposed democracy for six and a half years and people still can't eat,' he says. 'Who has benefited? There's no basic health care. We don't have running water. We don't have electricity, no basic education...Shell and Chevron are among the biggest corporations in the world and they have benefited only a few people, the clique that runs the country. The Niger Delta area is polluted, occupied and heavily militarized. People get killed on behalf of the major oil companies everyday, that cannot be right."

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Omeleye, please contact him at sowore@hotmail.com or (347)-489-3765!

  • Oil Exploration, Human Rights & Global Governance
  • Youth empowerment & Student Activism
  • A Call for Peace: The Non-Violent Struggle for Human Rights and Justice in Nigeria
  • Oil & Human Rights in Nigeria: A Voice from the Frontlines
  
  
  Fernando Suarez del Solar

  On March 27, 2003, Fernando lost his son Jesus when he stepped on a US cluster bomb while fighting in Iraq. Since then, Fernando has been traveling around the country speaking out against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. In December he traveled to Iraq with Global Exchange and a group of military families to listen to the needs and desires of the Iraqi people, and returned home to meet with congress people, UN officials and the media to call for the withdrawal of US troops. Fernando is also an active member of Military Families Speak Out www.mfso.org.

  "Mr. Suarez himself is a new kind of American hero," says UC San Diego professor Jorge Mariscal. "He considers himself an ordinary citizen compelled to expose—without bitterness—the lies and injustices perpetrated by the Bush administration in its war in Iraq. His most immediate goals are to assist immigrant families who have children returning from war and to educate Latino youth about how they can create a better world. Undaunted by the pain of his loss and the obstacles that confront him, Fernando Suarez del Solar continues his journey for peace. He has no doubt that his son Jesus would be proud of him."

  Fernando founded his own counter-recruitment organization, Proyecto Guerrero Azteca, http://www.guerreroazteca.org/, which aims to bring a message of peace and justice to sectors of the population which have historically lacked information about vital social issues in our society.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Fernando, please email his at fvsuarez2000@yahoo.com.mx!

  • Countering Military Recruitment of Youth
  • Iraq Under U.S. Occupation
  • Voice of Peace
  
  
  Unconditional Theatre

  Unconditional Theatre interviews activists and shares their stories onstage. Most recently, they went to Crawford, TX, to speak with people on all sides of the Camp Casey anti-war protests. Previously, they interviewed campaign volunteers who traveled to swing states during the 2004 election. Members of the company portray a series of surprising activists who stepped out of their comfort zones to get involved, including military veterans, religious progressives and first-time protesters, in order to demystify political activism and inspire people to take action. The troupe also facilitates workshops on door-to-door canvassing and reaching across the political divide.

  • Stories of Activism
  • Anti-Military Recruitment
  • Door-to-Door Canvassing
  • Reaching Across the Political Divide
  
  
  Walter Turner

  Walter Turner brings a comprehensive knowledge of African history and current events to his talks on South Africa and U.S.-Africa foreign relations. Mr. Turner is a Professor of History and Ethnic Studies at the College of Marin and Chair of the Department. He is the President of the Board of Directors for several San Francisco Bay Area nonprofits, including Sound Vision, Global Exchange, and the Institute for a New South Africa, which provides local government skills training for South African citizens. He also produces and hosts the popular Pacifica Radio program "Africa Today," which airs weekly on KPFA in Berkeley, California. He has assisted human rights projects around the world, working closely with political prisoners and sustainable community development.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Walter, please email him at wintersnfall@hotmail.com!

  • Africa and the African Diaspora
  • South African History and Current Events
  • U.S.-Africa Foreign Relations
  
  
  Iraq War Veterans

  Iraq Veterans have first-hand knowledge of the occupation of Iraq. Their voices are unique, poignant and bridge divides across the political spectrum. The actions the Iraq Veterans are taking to end the occupation are inspiring and the leadership, strength and courage they offer to the peace movement invaluable. Youth throughout the country, especially low-income youth and youth of color, are being targeted by recruiters and they deserve to hear the truth from Iraq Veterans before they make a decision about joining the military.

  • The Occupation of Iraq: A Veterans Perspective
  • Lies My Recruiters Told Me Before I Joined
  • Counter-Recruitment
  
  
  Dahlia Wasfi, MD

  Dr. Dahlia Wasfi was born in 1971 and spent her early childhood in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, until she returned with her family to the United States in 1977. Dr. Wasfi graduated from Swarthmore College in 1993 with a B.A. in Biology, and in 1997 graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In February/March of 2004, after years of separation, Wasfi visited Iraq to see her family in Basrah and Baghdad. She journeyed to Iraq again for a 3-month visit in 2006. Based on her experiences, she is speaking out against the negative impact of the U.S. invasion on the Iraqi people and the need to end the occupation.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Dahlia, please contact her at info@liberalthis.com and write "Speaking Request" in the subject line.

  • The Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq & Need for Withdrawal of U.S. Troops
  • The Sanctions' Impacts on Iraq's Medical System
  • The Human Toll of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
  • Depleted Uranium: Iraqi & U.S. Victims
  • Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Iraqi & U.S. Victims
  • Blind Patriotism: A Thin Veil for Racism
  • Status of Healthcare in Iraq Today
  
  
  Ann Wright

  Mary Ann Wright has been a career military woman, a State Department diplomat, and for the past few years, an influential spokesperson in the anti-war movement. She remained in the Army for 13 years in active duty, with another 16 years in the Army reserves, retiring as a Colonel. On March 13, 2003, the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, Col.. Ann Wright sent a letter of resignation to then Secretary of State Colin Powell believing that without the authorization of the UN Security Council it would be a disaster. Since resigning, patriotism for Ann Wright has been as an anti-war activist. She helped organize Camp Casey, she has been arrested five times in the past year for protesting Bush's policies, and has referred to herself cheerfully as a "felon for peace". This retired Army Colonel has also recently been temporarily banned not only from two military bases for placing postcards there about a showing of the documentary "Sir, No Sir", but from the US Capitol area and the National Press Club, for voicing opinions and questions concerning Bush's policies and the Iraq war. Her upcoming book coauthored with Susan Dixon, "Dissent: Voices of Conscience", highlights the stories of those in the Bush administration and other governments who have had the courage to speak out. It will be published in November, 2007 by Koa Books.

  If you would like to plan a speaking event with Ann, please contact her through her website at www.voicesofconscience.com!

  • Anti-War in Iraq
  
  
  Ray Ybarra

  Ray Ybarra is a human rights activist, writer, filmmaker, photographer, and public speaker. Ybarra co-wrote and co-produced the award-winning documentary, "Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border," was instrumental in bringing about a major civil rights lawsuit against one of the vigilantes, and created and coordinated the Legal Observer Project during the Minutemen's operations. In addition, Ybarra spent a year volunteering at a migrant center in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico assisting with cleaning, preparing food, and conducting human rights discussions amongst the migrants. Ybarra graduated from Stanford Law School in 2007.

  • Immigration
  • The Humanitarian Crisis on the Border
  • Vigilantism
  • How Average Citizens can help stop the Humanitarian Crisis on the Border
  
  
  Stephen Zunes

  Stephen Zunes, a long time peace and human rights activist, has emerged as one of the most forceful and articulate critics of U.S. policy in the Middle East. He is a professor of Politics and chair of the Middle Eastern Program at the University of San Francisco and serves as a senior analyst for the Foreign Policy in Focus Project. He is the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press) and scores of articles regarding the Persian Gulf, Israel/Palestine, Western Sahara, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, terrorism and Islamic movements. Dr. Zunes has made frequent visits to the Middle East, where he has met with top government officials, academics, journalists and opposition leaders.

  If you want to plan a speaking event with Stephen, please contact him at zunes@usfca.edu!

  • U.S. Middle East Policy
  • The Power of Nonviolent Action
  • Strengthening the Movement for Peace and Justice the Middle East
  
  
  Reports back from
  around the World

  Wondering what's going on in the rest of the world? Invite a speaker who recently returned from traveling with Global Exchange to tell you about the reality on the ground in a different country. Global Exchange Reality Tours organizes trips to over 30 countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Our tours provide individuals the opportunity to understand issues beyond what is communicated by the mass media and gain a new vantage point from which to view and affect US foreign policy. Travelers are linked with activists and organizations from around the globe who are working toward positive change. The participants from these tours return with a new body of knowledge and a desire to share it with people here in the United States. Invite one to your community!

  • What's going on in the rest of the world!