If you are unable to make the trip to Fort Benning, Georgia, for the annual SOA protest this weekend, please join the solidarity vigil in NYC on Sunday, November 20. The vigil will begin at 1pm in Union Square.

We will remember the many victims of violence in
Latin America and around the world. The vigil is held in November in memory of the six Jesuits, their
housekeeper, and her daughter who were killed by SOA graduates in in El Salvador November
16, 1989. We will also remember Archbishop Oscar Romero and Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel, 25 years after their murders by SOA graduates.

Before the vigil, all are welcome to join the 10:15 a.m. Mass at the
Church of the Nativity (44 2nd Ave between 2nd and 3rd Sts). This Mass will be
in Spanish.

Following the Mass, at approximately 11:15 a.m., the procession will go
to Washington Square, St. Francis Xavier Church, and then Union
Square, reflecting on the stations of the cross and the stories of these martyrs along the way.

NYC SOA Vigil
Sunday, November 20, 1pm
Union Square, NYC
For more info, please contact Brendan Moloney, 781-718-6368.

Action alert from CISPES: The International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) is a U.S.-funded police training school that is slated to open in El Salvador. The agreement to build the school has already been signed and the pilot project is underway, despite the opposition of the Salvadoran social movement and the FMLN party.

The U.S. State Department has remained secretive about plans for the ILEA, refusing to release the English text (the Spanish version can be downloaded at www.cispes.org/ilea). The long history of U.S.-supported repression in El Salvador—through military aid and training at the Georgia-based School of the Americas (SOA)—is grim, and many Salvadorans recognize the ILEA as the latest attempt to exert U.S. military dominance over the entire region.

TAKE ACTION!

1. Send a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding that the State Department repeal its plans to build the ILEA in El Salvador (see CISPES’ sample letter). You can fax letters to (202) 647-2283 or mail them to 2201 C Street, NW Room 7226, Washington, DC 20520.

2. Join CISPES in the campaign to stop repression and US intervention in El Salvador. For more information, check out CISPES.org.

3. Come to the protest against the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia, on November 19.

Don’t miss Luis Wilfredo Berr�os, labor leader and legal adviser to El Salvador’s SUTTEL telecommunications union, on WBAI tonight at 7pm. The accomplished organizer’s NYC tour will end with tomorrow’s human rights panel at NYU School of Law.

For more information, please contact NYC CISPES at newyorkcispes@mindspring.com or 646-245-9931.

Monday, November 14, 7pm
WBAI interview on Building Bridges: Your Community Labor Report with Mimi Rosenberg
99.5 FM or listen online at WBAI.org

Tuesday, November 15, 5pm
NYU School of Law human rights panel along with Marvin Dames (former police chief in the Bahamas) and Henrique Salas-Romer (former governor of the second-largest state in Venezuela)
Furman Hall, 245 Sullivan St (at W 3rd St), Room 214

Subway: A, C, E, B, D, F, V to W 4th St

Celebrate an evening of tribute to the music of talented late singer-songwriter Jolie Rickman (Sing it Down: Songs to Close the SOA), a dedicated SOA Watch and CISPES activist, with special guests  Pamela Means, Colleen Kattau, Coatlicue Theatre Company, Charlie King, Sprout Guy, PMN singers, and poets Betsy Andrews and Sean Thomas Dougherty.

Saturday, November 12, 8pm
The People’s Voice Cafe
Workman’s Circle Bldg (wheelchair accessible)
45 E 33rd St (between Park and Madison)
$10 at door

Luis Wilfredo Berr�os, labor leader and legal adviser to El Salvador’s SUTTEL telecommunications union, will be in NYC this coming week to talk about his union’s resistance to the privatization that is bankrupting El Salvador’s public services, such as education, clean water, and basic health care.

Berr�os is also an organizer with Bloque Popular Social�a dynamic grassroots movement of workers, students, campesinos, teachers and more that resists the exploitation and violent repression of the U.S.-supported right-wing ARENA government.

He will speak at Iglesia San Romero de las Am�ricas on Sunday, then will hit the radio waves on Monday night for an interview with WBAI’s Mimi Rosenberg. Finally, on Tuesday evening, he will take part in the NYU School of Law’s Human Rights Panel. For more information, please contact NYC CISPES at newyorkcispes@mindspring.com or 646-245-9931.

Sunday, November 13, 11:30am�1:30pm
Talk at Iglesia San Romero de las Am�ricas
2410 Amsterdam Ave at 180th St, 4th floor (Subway: 1 to 181st St)

Monday, November 14, 7pm
WBAI interview on Building Bridges: Your Community Labor Report with Mimi
Rosenberg
99.5 FM or listen online at WBAI.org

Tuesday, November 15, 5pm
NYU School of Law: Human Rights Panel along with Marvin Dames (former police chief in the Bahamas) and Henrique Salas-Romer (former governor of the second-largest state in Venezuela)

NYC SOA
Watch will hold an informational meeting on Thursday, November 10 about the trip to Fort Benning, Georgia, to participate in the annual
Vigil to Close the SOA. It’s less than two weeks away! There are still spots left for the van trip to Georgia, but space is limited, so contact us now. For more information, call Andy at (201) 207-1493 or Bernie at (212) 316-6435.

If you are
unable to attend, you can make a donation to defray the cost of the trip for
those going. Call Andy for more information. You can also write a letter to
your local newspaper publicizing the Vigil, and tell your congressmember to
support H.R. 1217, which would cut funding for the SOA and investigate its record.

SOAW NYC Vigil Meeting
Thursday, November 10 at
7 p.m.
St. Mary’s Church
521 W 126th
St, between Broadway and Amsterdam
Subway:
1 to 125th St