Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN) and the Autonomous University of Social Movements (AUSM) are excited to offer speaking events on a virtual platform with our compañerxs in Mexico who bring invaluable perspectives from their numerous years of experience in community and social movement organizing. In this unprecedented time of crisis, organizing against injustice has necessarily been taking on new forms. It remains as important as ever that we express our solidarity by actively carving out creative paths for voices from these powerful anti-capitalist struggles to continue sowing the seeds for our own transformative dialogues and reflective actions as we build new collective realities together.
If you would like to bring a speaker to your classroom (virtually), please email us at speakingtours@ausm.community or fill out the online request here:
Currently Scheduled Virtual Events
La actualidad de lxs trabajadorxs en México:
El capitalismo en cifras y sus repercusiones
A virtual speaking event (IN SPANISH)
MONDAY, APRIL 26th 2021
1:30pm-3:00pm CENTRAL TIME
(11:30am-1pm PDT / 12:30pm-2pm MDT / 2:30pm-4pm EDT)
Join us on Monday, April 26th with members of the Center for Multidisciplinary Analysis (CAM) in the Department of Economics at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. As we approach International Workers’ Day this year, CAM will provide us with an expanded view of the harsh reality of capitalism in Mexico according to the numbers. Throughout the past forty years, CAM has developed an extensive process of analysis to be able to bring into view both direct and indirect connections between neoliberal systems and the true socioeconomic situation of working-class people at the foundation of society, especially in Mexico and Latin America. Now they will share with us the most up-to-date figures, taking into account the added complexity of a whole year in a pandemic.
We offer this virtual event free of charge.
Acompáñanos el lunes, 26 de abril, con integrantes del Centro de Análisis Multidisciplinario (CAM) de la Facultad de Economía de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) en la Ciudad de México. Mientras nos acercamos al Día Internacional de lxs Trabajadorxs de este año, CAM nos brindará una vista amplia de la brutal realidad del capitalismo en México según los números. Durante los últimos cuarenta años, CAM ha desarrollado un extenso proceso de análisis para poder evidenciar las conexiones directas e indirectas entre sistemas neoliberales y la verdadera situación socioeconómica de la gente obrera a la base de la sociedad, especialmente en México y Latinoamérica. Ahora nos compartirán las cifras más actualizadas, tomando en cuenta la complejidad aumentada de todo un año en pandemia. Ofrecemos este evento virtual sin costo alguno.
Mariana Hernández Burg – AUSM | (English speaker)
Drawing from more than 20 years of experience in community organizing and popular education, Mariana has developed crucial perspectives applicable to the realities facing indigenous communities in Mexico under the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who, despite projecting a progressive image, has maintained and even intensified threats against their autonomy and self-determination through militarization and mega development projects. Professor Hernández shares valuable insight and analysis from grassroots struggles against these neoliberal schemes and in defense of the land. She is currently the head professor of AUSM’s Chiapas program.
Luz Rivera Martínez – CNUC | (Spanish speaker)
Luz and campesin@ families in Tlaxcala, Mexico—land of the maíz tortilla—organize to demand government accountability, defend family farms, resist the use of GMO seeds, and build inspiring, community-based autonomous projects aligned with the anti-neoliberal goals of the Zapatistas’ Sixth Declaration. Having established the Consejo Nacional Urbano Campesino (CNUC) in the early 1990s to coordinate resistance to the impending North American Free Trade Agreement, Luz brings over 25 years of experience with CNUC organizing outside the electoral system and resisting genetically modified corn while protecting millennia-old varieties.
Sergio Pacheco – Tlanezi Calli | (Spanish speaker)
Sergio shares indispensable wisdom and criticality from his almost 25 years of experience organizing for housing rights in working class communities in one of the most populous cities in the world. Emerging from the government’s inadequate response to the devastating effects of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, Tlanezi Calli (House of the Dawn – in Nahuatl) was founded in 1995 to rebuild both affordable housing and the tejido social (social fabric) of Iztapalapa. With weekly assemblies, collective work projects, urban gardening plots, a health clinic, and after-school tutoring – just to mention a few – Sergio and his compañer@s engage in powerful autonomous community building to achieve Vida Digna (Dignified Life).
Juan López Intzín – FrayBa | (Spanish speaker)
Juan is a Maya Tseltal scholar and sociologist from the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. He holds degrees from the Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. Juan is a human rights defender with the FrayBa Human Rights Center. He accompanies indigenous peoples fighting for their rights as autonomous, self-determining communities. Juan’s personal, collective, and scholarly work draws attention to the venomous exploitation of human beings and nature in the name of capitalism and commodification as well as the continued, though violently silenced, wisdom of alternative paradigms based in ancient Mayan values of love and collectivity.
Recent AUSM Live and Interactive Virtual Events
LA LUCHA SIGUE Y SIGUE EL MES DE LA MUJER
Monday, March 29th 2021
5pm-6:30pm CENTRAL TIME
(3pm-4:30pm PDT / 4pm-5:30pm MDT / 6pm-7:30pm EDT)
Acompáñanos el lunes, 29 de marzo, para otro simposio interactivo con diálogo crítico y profundo, esta vez entre nuestras compañeras Luz Rivera Martínez del Consejo Nacional Urbano y Campesino (CNUC) en Tlaxcala, México; Isa y Ceci del Centro Autónomo de Albany Park, Chicago; Verónica Diz de la Editorial Madreselva en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina; y con Elvira y Arlen de Brigada Callejera en la Ciudad de México. Mientras seguimos celebrando y reflexionando sobre el Día Internacional de la Mujer de este año, estas compañeras ampliarán nuestra profundidad de análisis en el trasfondo de su experiencia extensa en la lucha, expandiendo sobre las diferentes dimensiones de la diversidad en las luchas de las mujeres dentro del contexto mayor del trabajo organizativo y los movimientos sociales desde un prisma anticapitalista. Ofrecemos este evento virtual sin costo alguno.
RUMBO AL DÍA INTERNACIONAL DE LA MUJER
SATURDAY, MARCH 6th 2021
7pm-8:30pm CENTRAL TIME
(5pm-6:30pm PST / 6pm-7:30pm MST / 8pm-9:30pm EST)
Acompáñanos el sábado, 6 de marzo, para un simposio interactivo con diálogo crítico y profundo entre nuestras compañeras de Mujeres que luchan CDMX (parte de la Red Universitaria Anticapitalista) y Como mujeres que somos de Xochitlanezi, una cooperativa de vivienda autónoma en la Ciudad de México. Mientras nos acercamos al Día Internacional de la Mujer de este año, estos colectivos analizarán las diferentes dimensiones de la diversidad en las luchas de las mujeres dentro del contexto mayor del trabajo organizativo y los movimientos sociales en México desde un prisma anticapitalista. Ofrecemos este evento virtual sin costo alguno.
Iniquity: How court systems, attorneys, and legal aid organizations
cheated homeowners in foreclosure
by Kelli Dudley
A virtual book presentation and dialogue session with the author!
MONDAY, MARCH 1st 2021
5pm-6:30pm CENTRAL TIME
(3pm-4:30pm PST / 4pm-5:30pm MST / 6pm-7:30pm EST)
As a new attorney, Kelli Dudley thought saving a few homes would be easy. Plunging into Chicago’s legal system revealed many forces determined to deprive homeowners of their homes without due process. Kelli found a legal system hostile to anyone wanting to provide help to homeowners. In a readable, plain language format, she tells her story, setting forth the lengths to which those in power went to preserve their own status and to deprive others of their homes and their civil rights. During her dynamic career as a fair housing attorney and law professor, Kelli has assisted many homeowners at no cost or reasonable cost, offering free presentations to community groups throughout the foreclosure crisis. Now retired, she continues to help people sue fair housing violators. Most recently, she was a supervisory attorney in the Covid-related Lockout Program of Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing.
Kelli Dudley is a charismatic presenter and truly captivating storyteller. Please don’t miss this exciting opportunity to engage with her directly at this free event (in English) on Monday, March 1st!
Please check out Kelli’s website and pick up a copy of her book: http://www.kellidudley.com
Friday, February 19th 2021
1pm-2:30pm CENTRAL TIME
(11am-12:30pm PST / 12pm-1:30pm MST / 2pm-3:30pm EST)
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WEEK 2020
AUSM Study Abroad Drop-In Dialogue Sessions
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17th AND WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18th
2pm-4pm CENTRAL TIME
(12pm-2pm PST / 1pm-3pm MST / 3pm-5pm EST)
Critical Symposium (in Spanish)
with experienced social movement organizers from Mexico:
Nuevas identidades en los movimientos sociales
a 110 años de la revolución mexicana
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20th
2pm-3:30pm CENTRAL TIME
(12pm-1:30pm PST / 1pm-2:30pm MST / 3pm-4:30pm EST)
We were joined by Mariana Hernández Burg, Luz Rivera Martínez, and Sergio Pacheco all together for this exclusive virtual event, in an in-depth charla on Friday, November 20th. On the 110th anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution, AUSM Professor Angélica Muñoz López moderated this dynamic dialogue. Together they considered the complex identities woven throughout community and social movement organizing and solidarity-building in the diverse Mexican realities that have enriched and been enriched by each of their involvement over the past 20-25 years. Event participants sent us their questions in advance and helped guide the discussion. The hour and a half flew by in a flash and we look forward to welcoming our compañerxs back for more virtual events soon!
PAST VIRTUAL EVENTS 2020
September 21st 1pm CST | Mariana Hernández Burg – AUSM | (presentation in English)
September 29th 11am CST | Luz Rivera Martínez – CNUC | (presentation in Spanish)
October 8th 5pm CST | Sergio Pacheco – Tlanezi Calli | (presentation in Spanish)
October 12th 6pm CST | Juan López Intzín – FrayBa | (presentation in Spanish)