Monday, March 31, 2008

The Hidden Story behind Immigration

Please join us for a talk on "The Hidden Story behind Immigration" at the Walpole Public Library on Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30 PM. The two speakers are Lisa Fuller and Laura Embree-Lowry. Lisa is the chapter coordinator for Boston Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). Laura has worked as a filmmaker since 2002, documenting popular social movements through oral histories. Her work with the People’s History of Texas has included projects on labor struggles, a cooperative underground press and Chilean solidarity organizing. Laura is currently an active member of CISPES, and along with Lisa she is organizing locally to support the Salvadoran popular movement and self-determination in El Salvador.

The talk will focus on the underlying causes of immigration, and use the circumstances in El Salvador as a model. Seven hundred people flee El Salvador every day. One third of all Salvadorans on earth live in the United States. El Salvador has been the playground for policies conceived of and instituted by the United States. Free trade, privatization and sweatshops overrun the country and concentrate wealth in the hands of the Salvadoran elite and their transnational business partners. Popular movements to change the system are met with brutal repression and violence that is sanctioned and funded by the U.S.

The economic situation today is worse than in the 1970’s, when it led to a bloody 12 year civil war. Migration is a means of survival for Salvadorans. And migration equals profits for big business. This is the hidden side of the “immigration problem” that politicians and the corporate media don’t mention.

Next Peace Vigil: Saturday, April 5, 2008 from 10:00 to 11:00 AM on the Walpole Common across from the Post Office.

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