Group Category: Workers’ Rights

Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment. Slow Food was founded in 1989 to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes, and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

Corporations have their lobbyists. The people need advocates too. Public Citizen serves as the people’s voice in the nation’s capital and works to empower people to make their government serve their rights and needs. Since its founding in 1971, Public Citizen has worked to ensure that all Americans are represented in the halls of power and has successfully challenged the abusive practices of the pharmaceutical, nuclear, and automobile industries, among many others.

Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement, or Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), is a mass social movement formed by rural workers and others working toward land reform and greater social equality in rural areas. MST was born from the various independent struggles for land that rural workers were mounting in Brazil at the end of the 1970s and became a national movement in 1984. Over more than two decades, MST has carried out more than 2,500 land occupations, resulting in the settlement of 370,000 families on 7.5 million hectares of land.

The Hope Bus is a grassroots movement that works towards a world without mass dismissals and precarious work. Recognizing that neoliberal policies have led to increased polarization between rich and poor, and confronting the great disparities in how workers and owners experience economic downturns, the Hope Bus is supporting the struggle of Hanjin Heavy Industries workers, who have attracted the attention of Korean society.

Called one of the county’s “most established food think tanks” by the New York Times, Food First is a “people’s” think-and-do tank. Our mission is to end the injustices that cause hunger. We believe a world free of hunger will only be possible if farmers and communities take back control of the food systems presently dominated by transnational agri-foods industries through the formation and mobilization of social movements.

Focus on the Global South is an activist research, policy analysis, and advocacy organization working regionally and internationally in countries such as Thailand, Philippines, and India. Focus on the Global South works on stopping corporate globalization and supporting and building alternatives that promote economic justice, food sovereignty, and environmental protection.

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) was founded in November 1991 to support genuine self-determination and human rights for the people of East Timor, and change in U.S. foreign policy. ETAN organizes to hold perpetrators of crimes against humanity and war crimes accountable. The network also works to restrict security assistance to Indonesia, partially as a response to the U.S.-backed Indonesian government’s invasion of East Timor.

The Congolese Initiative for Peace and Justice (ICPJ) is an organization that aims to help establish peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through protecting human rights and upholding justice. ICPJ was founded in November 2002 to strengthen the ability of people on the ground to defend human rights and to promote peace and justice in a nonviolent struggle against impunity.

The Center for Economic Research and Social Change (CERSC) is dedicated to fostering a better understanding of today’s world, and to helping put forward a vision of a better future. The Center’s central goal is education. By highlighting alternative voices, especially those that have been pushed to the margins, CERSC hopes to raise awareness of injustice and the many grassroots efforts to right these wrongs. The Center’s projects include the book publisher Haymarket Books, the International Socialist Review (ISR) magazine, and the annual Socialism educational conference.

Founded in 1975, The Brecht Forum is a cultural and educational center for people who are working for social justice, equality, and a new culture that puts human needs first. Through its programs and events, the Brecht Forum brings people together across social and cultural boundaries and artistic and academic disciplines to promote critical analysis, creative thinking, collaborative projects, and networking in an independent community-level environment.