Register for CAGJ's Rise Up! Summer School 2021

Cultivating Care, Growing Movements

CAGJ’s Rise Up! Summer School is a free 3-month political education and leadership development program, where we create space to collectively develop tools and analysis to strengthen the global food sovereignty movement. This year, we will dig into the root of movement building — creating more space for joy! — beginning with these guiding questions:

How and why do we build grassroots power? What does it mean to be part of a social movement?
How do we organize ourselves in ways that sustain us all better than the extractive and exploitative systems under which we currently live?
As we build solidarity with struggles for justice, healing, and sovereignty, how do we always find our way back to, in the words of bell hooks, “love as the practice of freedom”?

We will situate our conversations in food systems, in the work of our partners with whom we have cultivated solidarity, and in strengthening the grassroots, global movement for Food Sovereignty.

Space is limited. Register to reserve your spot!

TUES June 22, 6 - 8 PM PDT

Zine Launch Party & Monthly Food Justice Project Meeting

Join us for a joyful celebration of all the work, love, and life that has gone into the creation of CAGJ's third edition of Our Food, Our Right Zine. We will be joined by many of the contributing artists and organizing collective members to celebrate the publication and reflect on what this collection of stories means to us as we move farther away from 2020, still holding tight to all the lessons. Live music, read alouds, and more would delight in your presence! Register to receive the Zoom link.

Note that Summer School will take the place of FJP meetings in July & August. Regular meetings will resume in the Fall, on the 3rd Tues/month!

TUES June 29, 7 - 8PM PDT

Webinar Panel: Washington Food Chain Workers' Struggle for Food Sovereignty
Join CAGJ’s Rise Up! Summer School Launch! A conversation featuring:

Got Green
UFCW Local 21
Familias Unidas por la Justicia
Community to Community
Block Corporate Salmon/Uprooted & Rising

As part of our opening session of Rise Up! Summer School, we will illustrate CAGJ’s solidarity organizing model by bringing together our Food Justice Project campaign partners. Our panelists will draw the connection between local and global struggles for food justice and food sovereignty, and share ways grassroots movements can organize in alignment with the world we want to build.

Open to all: please register to receive the Zoom link.

CAGJ Seeking Volunteer Treasurer

Join CAGJ's Steering Committee!
Looking for a way to support one of your favorite organizations in a crucial way, with a few hours of volunteer work per month? Look no further! The Treasurer is the chief financial officer of the organization, accountable to the Steering Committee. We ask for a minimum one-year commitment. The purpose of this volunteer position is to safeguard CAGJ funds and assure that they are spent in a financially responsible manner, consistent with the policies and budgets of the Steering Committee. Read the full job description, and contact [email protected] if you are interested!

Save the Date & Get Involved: SAT Oct 9, 6PM PDT

CAGJ's 15th Annual SLEE Gala & 20th Anniversary Party

Join us for our 15th Strengthening Local Economies Everywhere! Gala with Raj Patel giving the keynote: “Is This What Democracy Looks Like?: A Tale of Two Seattles”. We are planning for a virtual gathering, but will assess the possitbility of an indoor event as we get closer to the Fall. How you can help:

Sponsor SLEE!
Be a Table Captain and invite your friends!
Donate goods, services and experiences to the Silent Auction
Intern with CAGJ this summer to get experience organizing Food Justice events! Learn how to apply.

Interested? Please email our SLEE Coordinator, Lisa Colligan: [email protected]

TAKE ACTION

FRI June 4, 8:30 - 9:30PM PDT

Candlelight Vigil: Mourning Past and Future Lives Lost to COVID-19 Worldwide

Join the National Week of Action for Global Vaccine Access

Please join us for a solemn vigil remembering those who have died of COVID-19 and calling for the global access to vaccines and treatments that’s needed to save millions of lives and help end the pandemic. An emergency waiver of “Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights” (TRIPS) at the World Trade Organization is a critical first step to enabling vaccines and treatments to be produced in as many places as possible as quickly as possible.

The WTO will be making life-or-death decisions about the TRIPS waiver at an upcoming meeting on June 8. Prior to that crucial moment, please join us at a candlelight vigil and sign up names of your loved ones lost to COVID-19 here: https://tinyurl.com/62ub8whp.

Location: Westlake Center (401 Pine St., Seattle, WA 98101)

Other info: Please feel free to bring a picture of your loved one or another visual appropriate for a vigil.

Safety Protocols: Please wear a mask and observe social distancing.

Share the Facebook event.

Oppose the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021

Write to Your Representative in Solidarity with FUJ & C2C

This bill, which was first introduced in 2019, creates a limited and complicated path to legal status for farmworkers, expands an already exploitative H-2A program without necessary oversight, and unfairly makes the E-Verify system mandatory for the entire agricultural industry. While farmworkers desperately need stronger protection, including the right to organize and access to legal status, this bill is not the answer. The proposed bill does nothing to address the root causes of labor exploitation that farmworkers face on a daily basis and would ultimately make conditions even more difficult for farm workers across the country. That is why many farmworker organizations and respected national food justice, labor, and immigrant rights groups across the country are opposing this bill, including our partners, Community to Community and Familias Unidas por las Justicia. Send a letter via The Action Network.

Sign Up for Clean Greens' CSA Box

16 weeks, June 19th - October

Clean Greens has been a partner and donor to CAGJ’s SLEE dinner for many years. Please support them by signing up for their weekly produce box (also known as Community Supported Agriculture)! More info.

Subscribe to CAGJ's Youtube Channel

Help us to reach 100 subscribers!
We need 100 subscribers to correct our URL! Subscribe to stay up to date with webinar recordings and more. Click here.

CAGJ NEWS & ANALYSIS

Yes! Magazine: The Push for A Peoples' Vaccine Gains International Momentum

CAGJ's Gates Foundation Action Featured in Article by Member Erika Lundahl

CAGJ recently joined forces with the Coalition of Seattle Indian-Americans, Socialist Alternative, and Washington Fair Trade Coalition to organize a rally at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to call out Gates' role in impeding global access to vaccines, and to demand the Biden Administration end pharmaceutical monopoly protections. A few days later, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the US would indeed support the TRIPS waiver! Thank you to CAGJ member Erika Lundahl for sharing her music at the rally, and featuring our action in this article with Yes! Read more about CAGJ's organizing for global vaccine access.

Seattle Met: Environmental Justice Arrives in Washington State Law

HEAL Act Passes in WA!

We salute all of our partners who worked hard to get this legislation passed! “Last month, Washington policymakers passed the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act, a landmark bill that would require six state agencies to embed environmental justice into their strategic plans. In principle, environmental justice aims to ensure all people receive equal protection from environmental harm and an equal voice in laws that govern where they work and live. In action, policies seeking environmental justice combat existing inequalities. Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color already experience higher rates of chemical and sound pollution (think: highways, power plants, toxic waste disposal), both in Washington and at the national level. The HEAL Act will combat this by asking communities directly: How can our actions support you? How can we minimize adverse effects?” Read the full article.

New York Times: Why Billionaires Like Bill Gates Can't Fix the Problems They Helped Create

By Dr. Linsey McGoey, Author of "No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy"

“Asking Bill Gates to fix inequality is like asking an arsonist to hose down your house after he just set it on fire. Philanthropists might have the deep pockets to fund the fire engine and water hose, but the money is coming from making our houses unlivable in the first place.” Read the full article.

AquaBounty Baits Philadelphia as Test Subjects for Their First US Sale of Unlawfully Approved Genetically Engineered Salmon

Uprooted & Rising #BlockCorporateSalmon Press Release

Unconsenting Philadelphians will soon unknowingly be eating the first genetically engineered animal to be released in US markets for human consumption. AquaBounty Technologies (NASDAQ: AQB) is planning its first commercial scale harvest of genetically engineered (GE/GMO) salmon this month, and is partnering with Samuels & Son, a regional seafood distributor headquartered in Philadelphia, to bring this controversial product to eaters’ plates. Read the full press release.

Watch: Seeding Sovereignty in Occupied Palestine

A Growing Culture: Hunger for Justice Series
Since 1948, Palestine has faced militarized occupation by Israel. This has stripped generations of Palestinians of their rights to land, water, food, and dignified livelihoods. Millions of Palestinians are food insecure and without water access. Watch the recording.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

SAT June 5, 9am - 4pm PDT
The Living Breath of wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ | Indigenous Food Virtual Symposium
"Food is Resistance!" The University of Washington's American Indian Studies Department co-sponsors this annual symposium, which brings people together to share knowledge on topics such as traditional foods, plants and medicines; environmental and food justice; food sovereignty/security; health and wellness; and treaty rights. This event serves to foster dialogue and build collaborative networks as we, Native peoples, strive to sustain our cultural food practices and preserve our healthy relationships with the land, water, and all living things. Register here. See here for more info.

SAT June 5- TUES June 8
Treaty People Gathering: Rise, Protect, Stop Line 3
We rise together for treaties. We rise together for climate. We rise together for our water. We rise together for one another. As Enbridge builds Line 3 through Anishinaabe treaty land and the Mississippi Headwaters, we continue to stand strong in our resistance.

We will not stand by and watch a fossil fuel corporation line its pockets as so much is destroyed, producing oil we don’t need. On June 5-8, we will gather in Northern Minnesota to put our bodies on the line, to stop construction and tell the world that the days of tar sands pipelines are over. Only a major, nonviolent uprising - including direct action - will propel this issue to the top of the nation’s consciousness and force Biden to act. We are rising. Join us.

Interested? Sign up using the form. Questions? Learn more. Ready to come to the front lines now? Join us.

SAT June 5, 7pm PDT
Climate Justice Documentary Screening & Discussion: The Race to Save the World
Your ticket will support the Indigenous-led Protectors of the Salish Sea and Green Buildings Now (GBN), a project founded by four local activists to remove fossil fuels from buildings at the BIPOC-led South Beacon Hill Resilience Hub. You can watch the trailer here and buy a $10 ticket here to see the film. With the ticket you can view the film on demand. Register here for FACT's free panel discussion on Saturday, June 5, at 7 p.m. Some of the activists profiled in the movie will participate.

SAT June 19, 1pm PDT
Juneteenth Freedom March and Peoples’ Assembly: Get your knees off our necks!
Family friendly freedom festival and Black equity demonstration. Justice for stolen lives. Stop Jim Crow apartheid in Seattle, Martin Luther King County. Sponsored and organized by King County Equity Now & Africa Town Seattle. Meet at 22nd & Madison.
Sign-up to VOLUNTEER for this historic event! Tap in at [email protected] and make your email subject line "Juneteenth Event Volunteer.”

June 9, June 16, June 22; Afternoons
Equal Exchange June Speaker Series
For 35 years Equal Exchange has been doing things differently. By working with small-scale farmers organized democratically, being structured as a worker-owned cooperative, and connecting consumers like you directly to your food we have proven through our success that an alternative trade model is possible. We have not done this alone, we have made many friends along the way and this Virtual Speaker Series is celebrating our solidarity network.

We are excited to introduce three exceptional individuals to this community.

June 9: Migration, Climate Change, and Fair Trade: How are Farmers Faring in 2021?

June 16: Global solidarity in 2021: Can it meet today's crises of climate change, pandemic and massive migration?

June 22: Building the Alternative Trade Economy With Allies in Challenging Times