Coffee Hour 11/12 - Honduran Teachers Resist
Saturday, November 12
10:00 - 11:45 am
La Conexión de las Américas
3019 Minnehaha Avenue, Suite 20
Minneapolis, MN 55406
Since the military coup in June of 2009 and especially since Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo came to power in January 2010, the public education system of Honduras has been under fire. The government has stolen $1 million from the teacher’s pension fund and is attempting to privatize their education system, even with 60% of its population living in poverty. The Honduran teachers unions have been at the forefront of the resistance, fighting back with massive strikes and demonstrations in the face of brutal police and military assaults. The government has declared it illegal for the unions to strike, suspended over 5,000 teachers, and murdered, jailed and beaten activists. The human rights infractions continue to the present.
In May of 2011 a group of teachers launched a hunger strike for more than 30 days in protest of the teachers’ suspension, and demanding back pay owed to 6 thousand teachers, the return of funds to the teachers’ pension, and an end to the privatization of public education. Our speaker today will be one of these heroic activists - Yanina Parada.
Watch this excellent report from The Real News: “Honduran Teachers Get Shock Treatment”.
*Although the level of repression in Honduras is extraordinary due to the miltary coup, the campaign for privatization and to destroy teachers’ unions is ongoing In the United States and many other countries. People to people - teacher to teacher solidarity is urgently needed at an international level.
Yanina Parada is a member of two of the most active national teachers’ organizations in Honduras, COPEMH (Colegio de Profesores de Educacion Media de Honduras) and also the Colegio de Pedagogos de Honduras (COLPEDAGOGOSH). She is a leader in the Tegucigalpa teachers’ movement. After the coup in 2009 she was harassed and threatened and human rights organizations filed a complaint on her behalf with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. She was one of the 305 teachers suspended by the government in the spring of 2011 because of their participation in massive protests in March across the country. She has been active in the National Front of Popular Resistance since it was formed shortly after the coup d’e’tat of June 28, 2009.
For more information contact: Hands Off Honduras or handsoffhonduras@gmail.com
This presentation will be in Spanish with English translation.
This event is free of charge, but donations are gladly accepted. Thanks to Glaciers Cafe for the donation of coffee and muffins!
