In June, 2022 North Star Fund invited and hosted Black, Brown, and Indigenous movement leaders from Chile for a transnational organizing exchange with our grantees.
Why does transnational organizing matter?
Why does transnational organizing matter? And why should we care? The United States has played a devastating role for the economies of developing countries and yet the people of these countries understand that the common thread in our shared struggles is capitalism. We can build powerful connections when we come together in the streets and in community.
The origin of these local events was PRIMERA, an award-winning documentary film that chronicles the 2019 Chilean uprising that paved the way for a new constitution written by a plurality of women and indigenous communities and going before the people of Chile for approval in fall 2022.
The film documents how a student- and working-class-led movement rose up against neoliberal policies that date back to Pinochet’s dictatorship–all sparked by an increase in the metro fare in Santiago. They realized that the fight against injustice was not something that could be done in silos, instead they needed a fight where every single person was involved across issues.
They based their organizing on the idea that every issue needed to be supported by other activists and the most important, everyone needed to understand that “solo el pueblo ayuda al pueblo” (“only the people can help the people”).
Similar to our communities here in New York state, marginalized communities have been stripped of their economic and political power – this is why we support community organizing abroad as well as here at home.
Their stop in New York was part of a national tour of communities in the United States where other grassroots organizers were eager to be in dialogue with them.
Our New York City and Hudson Valley Events
El Encuentro was a five-day series that took place in both New York City and the Hudson Valley. The series included film screenings and workshops led by frontline Chilean activists. The workshops in NYC and Hudson Valley centered narrative change, mutual aid, coalition-building, and the experiences of Black and Indigenous women in Chile.
During these sessions we were reminded that the fight for justice requires sacrifice. The activists from the Global South who came described risking their lives in the streets to achieve structural change.
Our Thanks
At North Star Fund we value partnerships like this one with the activists connected to PRIMERA that allow us to honor our connections to our international community.
Our thanks to:
- May Day Space for hosting events in New York City and Action Lab for event hosting in the Hudson Valley.
- Partners for Dignity and Rights and New York Foundation for their support as co-sponsors
- The team of interpreters that enabled us to offer these events primarily in Spanish.
We are committed to continuing to bring more of this programming to our grantee and donor community in the year ahead!
Learn More
You can learn more on transnational organizing with some of these resources:
- Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano
- Who Killed Berta Cáceres? by Nina Lakhani
- Voces Inocentes, a film by Luis Mandoki
- The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World by Vijay Prashad
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