Event
2025 Liberation Lab: Chaos or Community
March 22, 2025

IRTF initiated our annual Social Justice Teach-In (aka Liberation Lab) in 1999. This spring, in particular, we feel a great need to call together justice-minded folks who are committed to human rights, liberation, and respect and dignity for all people.

Every year for the past 25 years, this event has been an informative and inter-generational day of community building and education for high school and college students and other community members seeking ways to take positive action for social justice. 

This year we will have panels on:
- Choosing Liberation over Nationalism
- Embodied Sanctuary
- Wisdom from the Future: Lessons from Student Organizers
 
SKILLS TRAINING SESSIONS
-Know Your Rights
-Legal Oberserver training
-De-escalation training
 
The ticket price also includes a delicious lunch! 
 
 
 
 
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Event
Equal Exchange Book Club!
April 16, 2025 to May 7, 2025

Equal Exchange invites you to their Book Club Meet-ups:

Join us for an engaging discussion of the Coffee Barons chapter from Austin Frerick’s book, where we will explore the impact of multinational corporations on the global coffee industry. In this session, we’ll dive into how these powerful “coffee barons” manipulate prices, exploit farmers, and perpetuate inequality within the coffee supply chain. 
 
As an independent coffee company, Equal Exchange stands in stark contrast to these monopolistic systems. Together, we’ll reflect on the ways Frerick’s analysis of the coffee industry relates to our mission to create more equitable, sustainable, and fair trade practices. We’ll think through how Equal Exchange’s model—focused on direct relationships with farmers, cooperatives, and ethical sourcing—challenges these corporate giants and promotes a more just food system. This will be an opportunity for us to connect, learn, and discuss how we can continue to support positive change in the coffee industry. We look forward to your insights and hope to see you there!
 

Coffee Barons: Wednesday, April 16th on Zoom
7:00pm Eastern | 6:00pm Central | 4:00pm Pacific

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Event
War and the Environment: One Course to Address Two Existential Threats
March 24, 2025 to May 4, 2025

“Climate change is the defining issue of our time and now is the defining moment to do something about it.” (António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations).

War and the Environment is a six-week online course that features six core modules, three interactive Zoom sessions, and a strong emphasis on reflective practice, collaborative learning, and community building throughout. As the world races to prevent climate collapse, finding solutions to today’s unprecedented socio-ecological challenges has never been more urgent. While discussions on climate change continue, it is crucial to address the elephant in the room—war. The call to end war is not just about peace and security: it is essential for the survival and flourishing of humanity and the planet.

As wars, preparations for wars, and environmental destruction escalate—and much of the focus remains on human conflict—it is vital to better understand and respond to the far-reaching impacts of war and militarism on people, all living beings, and the planet. This course empowers you to do just that. By doing so, it also addresses a question of central importance to everyone—how can we live together in more sustainable and peaceful ways? This is the most pressing challenge of our time; everything else is secondary.

 

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Event
A Community Forum: Honoring The Life and Work of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 5, 2025

Join Racial Equity Buddies for a powerful community gathering honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through music, discussion, and action. The program includes live gospel music, a panel on Dr. King’s unfinished work, interactive breakout sessions, and a closing drum circle to inspire collective action. A continental breakfast will be served from 10 - 10:30 AM as part of the program.

Register here: https://sites.google.com/view/racialequitybuddiesofgreatercl/home

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Event
Northeast Ohio Worker Center annual fundraiser: Bread + Roses Variety Show
March 28, 2025

Show your support for fair work in Northeast Ohio an attend the annual fundraiser of the Northeast Ohio Worker Center!

Get to know them and learn more about their imporant work. Join them at The Elliot, to enjoy a variety show featuring local talent, a silent auction and drinks available for purchase. 

By attending the event you will be helping to raise funds for the Northeast Ohio Worker Center. The dollars raised for this event will help to pay for things like staff time to conduct wage theft intakes, connect workers to agencies and legal services so that they can get the money they are owed, and conduct community outreach.

Get your Tickets here: https://actionnetwork.org/ticketed_events/neowc-2025-bread-and-roses-variety-show-fundraiser/

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Event
St. Romero Day Prayer Service
March 24, 2025

Join the Diocese of Cleveland Mission Office and COAR Peace Mission in celebrating the legacy of St. Oscar Romero, along with our brothers and sisters who work to further that legacy at our Cleveland Latin American Mission parishes, at COAR, and beyond. Oscar Arnulfo Romero was assassinated by US-trained and ffunded personnel on March 24, 1980. Several months later, four missioners from the US were also killed by US-trained and funded security personnel: Jean Donovan and Sister Dorothy Kazel from Cleveland, OH, along with Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford. We remember all the martyrs of El Salvador, including the 70,000 cilivians, killed in the 1980s. ¡presente! 

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News Article
Economic Sanctions: A Root Cause of Migration
March 3, 2025
 
One of the most common tools of US foreign policy are economic sanctions. At the same time there is overwhelming  evidence that migration1 is driven in large part by adverse economic conditions and that sanctions can have severe, harmful economic and humanitarian consequences for civilians in targeted countries.
 
The cases of Cuba and Venezuela demonstrate this relationship clearly: The imposition or tightening of sanctions by the US government have, in recent years, fueled economic crises that in turn have led to record migratory outflows.
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News Article
30 year jail sentence for one of the assassins of Berta Caceres, killed March 2, 2016 in Honduras
February 26, 2025
The honduran human rights and environmental activist Berta Cáceres was assassinated on the morning of March 3 in 2016.
 
Now, after many years of waiting, the full bench of the Honduran Supreme Court of Justice has confirmed the conviction of Sergio Ramón Rodríguez Orellana, ratifying his guilt of aggravated murder for the role he had in Cáceres assasination. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
 
Sergio Rodríguez is part of the criminal structure that has terrorized the Lenca community of Río Blanco since 2013, with the intention of imposing the illegal Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, for the economic benefit of the Atala Zablah family.
 
 
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News Article
ICE raids, deportation flights, Petro pushes back, Rubio visits Central America, femicide in Argentina, and more
February 1, 2025
As a result of a new federal policy that lifted a ban on immigration raids in “sensitive places” like schools, churches, and hospitals, school attendance has dropped and more families are attending church services through Zoom.
Widespread ICE raids were carried out in Chicago on Sunday and New York City on Tuesday, in addition to smaller raids in Phoenix, Atlanta, San Diego, Miami, and other cities across the country.
 
Local governments have in many cases been successful in refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officials, and local communities have held “know-your-rights” trainings, which makes the work of the federal officials much more difficult.
ICE raids in Aurora and Colorado were called off due to media leaks and the ongoing organizing of activists.
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News Article
Honduras: Will there be justice for the military killing of Isy Obed Murillo? That was aided and abetted by impunity and corruption of U.S. and Canada
January 15, 2025
The so-called “democratic allies” of the U.S. and the Canadian government in Honduras are involved in drug-smuggling operations, importing cocaine in the U.S., the killing of Isy Obed Murillo during a protest and more.
 
Several key leaders of the military-backed Narco-Regimes that ruled Honduras for 23 years had to face trials because of their crimes.
 
It is impossible to overstate how much violence, destruction and harm the U.S. and Canadian-backed Narco-Regimes did to the Honduran people and society and all of its government and State institutions from 2009-2022, yet the U.S. and canadian government had no problem cooperating with them for their own profit.
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