"As we think globally and act locally, we must also think locally and act globally."

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March 1, 2022


** Meet a Progressive: Global Solidarity Starts at Home, with Grahame Russell
"As we think globally and act locally, we must also think locally and act globally."

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** By Cyril Mychalejko, February 19, 2022
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Grahame Russell is, since 1995, director of Rights Action. I first met Grahame back in 2005 while researching and reporting on an article I wrote about an environmentally devastating World Bank mining project ([link removed]) that was violating Guatemalan Indigenous communities’ rights.

Afterward, he then invited me to join his organization on a human rights delegation to the communities I was writing about from abroad to learn first-hand about the Indigenous resistance to the mining project. I took up his offer and wrote a follow-up article.

Chilling Gold Fever in Guatemala
Indigenous resistance to Canada's Glamis gains momentum
by CYRIL MYCHALEJKO ([link removed])
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Since then, Grahame and I have been very good friends and colleagues, and we have collaborated on media and solidarity projects over the years. Grahame recently co-edited with Catherine Nolin the book “Testimonio: Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala” ([link removed]).

Cyril Mychalejko (@cmychalejko):
Honored to contribute an essay to "Testimonio: Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala", published by @readBTLbooks. Amazing contributors include: @RightsAction @cnolin @HeatherGies @mimundo_org @Sandra_Cuffe ... #BucksCounty #PA01 tinyurl.com/erbsmfzf
What inspired you to start working for progressive social change?

Let me clarify from the outset that when I repeat below the phrase “issues of human inequalities and injustices,” I am referring to systemic exploitation and poverty, both inside nations and between nations; systemic racism and the resulting inequalities and violences, inside and between nations; gender-based discriminations and violences; environmental contaminations and devastations which are, by definition, inside and between nations; illegal wars, interventions and militarism across the planet.

Now, to the first question: Before moving to the US later in life, I grew up in Canada. I had a healthy childhood, with little exposure to the systemic inequalities and injustices, violences and wars that characterize, in many ways, the global human community.

It was not until I went to study Spanish in Mexico City in my early 20s, that I was exposed, for the first time, to some of these inequalities and injustices. I began to understand that, in most ways, the inequalities result from exploitations and injustices, that the sufferings of some are, in complex but direct ways, linked to the wealth accumulations and well-being of others.

I began to understand, as Susan Sontag wrote, that: "Our privileges are located on the same map as their sufferings, and may - in ways we prefer not to imagine - be linked to their sufferings. As the wealth of some may imply the destitution of others."

This first “transformative” trip to Mexico set me on a different path in my university studies. I spent much of the next few years “unlearning” much of what I had come to understand and believe to be true, and began learning a more honest understanding of history and of the contemporary reality in which we live together as humans on this planet.

In my studies and personal readings, I came to agree with the thinking of people like Eduardo Galeano, that: “The history of the underdevelopment of Latin America makes up the history of the development of world capitalism. Our defeat was always implicit in another’s victory; our wealth has always generated our poverty, in order to feed the prosperity of others.”

I began to agree with people like Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor who argue that “you cannot have untold, obscene wealth unless you have untold, obscene poverty. That is the law of capitalism.”

Over the years, I came to understand that when I work to help remedy these inequalities and injustices, I am not working to remedy the problems and sufferings “of others,” but rather that I am personally implicated in the systems of inequalities and injustices, and I am also working to take responsibility for transforming political, legal, economic systems that I live and exist within.

I share this comment from Lilla Watson: "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time.... But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

What do you identify as the top issues progressives must confront locally, nationally and globally?

“Local to national to global issues”
After decades of work, education, and activism – living in Canada, the US and different countries in Central America, I believe that one of the great challenges we face as humans is to understand that most of the issues of inequalities and injustices we confront and seek to remedy are not “national” issues, but rather “local to national to global issues” all at the same time.

While our individual lives play themselves out locally, and much of our work and activism to seek positive change and transformation occurs locally, the underlying causes of the many overlapping inequalities and injustices are deeply historical in nature and are “local-to-national-to-global” at the same time.

The unjust, unequal nation state system itself is part of the fundamental problems of inequalities and injustices. This is true historically, over the past 500+ years of western European imperialism, colonialism and settler colonialism throughout much of the world. And it remains true today.

As we think globally and act locally, we must also think locally and act globally.

Media and information
Beyond understanding our issues of inequalities and injustices as local-to-national-to-global issues across the planet, another major challenge to working on these issues is related to information and media. Historic and on-going uses and abuses of information are very much part of the issues of injustices and inequalities.

Long ago, Malcolm X said: “If you are not careful, the press will have you hating the people being repressed and loving the people doing the repressing.”

There are no easy solutions to this, but I say to anyone who takes seriously issues of human inequalities and injustices, you must be critically aware of how these issues are represented and oftentimes mis-represented in our media outlets, history books, political speech and education institutions. In your work and activism, you must actively take on issues of mis-representation and mis-reporting.

What types of organizing and projects are you working on right now?

The work I do with Rights Action is a small part of work, education and activism going on across the planet responding to and trying to remedy the overlapping systemic inequalities and injustices.

Working mainly in Honduras and Guatemala, Rights Action does two main things. Firstly, we fund and support justice struggles for crimes against humanity and human rights violations. In Guatemala today, there are numerous courageous crimes against humanity trials seeking justice for genocides, massacres, disappearances and other crimes committed by the Guatemalan military regimes of the 1970s and 1980s that were funded, armed, trained and supported by the US government.

Rights Action funds and supports Indigenous lead struggles in defense of land and territory, the environment and human rights. Most of these community lead struggles are resisting harms, human rights violations and often deadly violence caused by different sectors of the unjust global economy: mining company operations; hydro-electric dams; for-export production of African palm, sugarcane and bananas; global tourism industry; ‘sweatshop’ garment factories.

Complimentary to our direct community support work, Rights Action works to connect the ‘local-to-national-to-global dots’, carrying out education and activism work in the US and Canada addressing how our governments, companies and investors often contribute directly to and benefit from human rights violations, repression, environmental harms, exploitation, corruption and impunity in these countries.

Currently, Rights Action is funding and supporting both on-going crimes against humanity trials in Guatemala, and numerous community defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala resisting the corruption and impunity, harms and violence of these different sectors of the global economy.
How can folks get engaged and involved?

I think the first step is for each person to situate themselves in the context of our global human order. Understand where she or he came from; understand his or her place in our local-to-global systems of inequalities and injustices – these overlapping and intertwined systems so characterized by race, gender, religion, the economic class system, and the unequal nation state system.

One’s starting point for all engagement begins with locating oneself in history and currently, in our deeply inter-connected global human community.

From there, each person finds what issues are most important to them – addressing and remedying inequalities and injustices related to the environment, or related to global wars and militarism, or the exploitative economic system and resultant poverty, or to race and gender-based discriminations and violences.

Once one has this clarity about their place in the global human community and what they are moved to get involved in, then one reaches out near and far to find people and organizations working the same issues. More often than not, in the year 2022, one will soon find communities of like-minded people doing the work and activism that you want to be involved with, and you find your way to connect with those people and organizations.

In this personal decision-making process, I believe it fundamental to keep in mind that generally speaking these are not local or national issues, but are ‘local-to-national-to-global issues’ at the same time.

Once one is engaged in work and activism to address the issues that are important to you, keep in mind, as Noam Chomsky said, that "There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: search for understanding, education, organization, action ... and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future."

Take to heart what Howard Zinn wrote in “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A personal history of our times”:

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

Which journalists, writers, podcasts, and publications do you turn to for information and inspiration?

Following on what I wrote above, I urge North Americans to seek out and regularly listen to, watch, read “alternative,” independent media outlets. The more one does this, the more one will begin to question the role of the establishment, mainstream media outlets on a wide range of issues. It is not a question of pretending that “mainstream” media is always wrong or mis-leading, and ‘alternative’ media always right.

Rather, by shifting steadily to alternative, independent media sources, one begins to get a deeper understanding of the power and sometimes dangers of media and information outlets in representing or mis-representing a wide range of issues.

Here I provide but a few sources. I found in my life that the more I listened to alternative, independent sources of media and political debate and discussion, the more they lead me to finding yet other important media outlets and voices to listen to and learn from.

Alternative Radio is a weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to public radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and beyond. AR provides information, analyses, and views that are frequently ignored or distorted in corporate media.
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Democracy Now produces a daily news hour, including breaking news and in-depth interviews with people on the front lines of the world’s most pressing issues. You’ll hear a diversity of voices speaking for themselves, providing a provocative perspective on global events.
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The Breach. “Canada’s establishment media won’t tell it like it is — or how it could be. National newspapers are owned by billionaires or hedge funds. The CBC has become afraid of its own shadow. They not only misrepresent our most pressing issues, but they leave people hopeless about ever changing them. The Breach is our response — an independent media outlet producing critical journalism to help map a just, viable future. We provide a platform for voices you won’t often find in the establishment media and investigations, analysis and video content about the crises of racism, inequality, colonialism, and climate breakdown.”
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Canadaland is a news site and podcast network funded by its audience. “Our primary focus is on Canadian media, news, current affairs, and politics. Our podcasts get over 100,000 downloads per week.”
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New columnist Cyril Mychalejko (@cmychalejko) invites you to help build the Bucks County Progressive (@BucksCoBeacon) into a reader-supported, popular, and participatory media outlet that acts as a catalyst for community organizing, action, and progressive change. bit.ly/3opWkd0

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Rights Action (US & Canada)
Since 1995, Rights Action funds land and environment defense struggles in Guatemala and Honduras. We fund justice and human rights defense struggles. We provide emergency and climate disaster relief funds (Covid19, hurricanes, victims of repression, etc.).

At the same time, Rights Action works to hold accountable the U.S. and Canadian governments, multi-national companies, investors and banks (World Bank, etc.) that help cause and profit from exploitation and poverty, repression and human rights violations, environmental harms, corruption and impunity in Honduras and Guatemala.

Act / Stir up the pot / Chip away
Keep sending copies of Rights Action information (and that of other solidarity groups/ NGOs) to family, friends, your networks, politicians and media, asking: ‘Why do our governments, companies and investment firms help cause, benefit from and turn a blind eye to poverty, repression and violence, environmental and health harms?’
* U.S. Senate: [link removed]
* U.S. House: [link removed]
* Canadian Parliament: [link removed]

Follow work of and get involved with other solidarity/NGO groups
* Honduras Now: [link removed]
* Honduras Solidarity Network: www.hondurassolidarity.org
* Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective: www.solidaritycollective.org
* Friendship Office of the Americas: [link removed] ([link removed])
* NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with People of Guatemala): www.nisgua.org
* GHRC (Guatemalan Human Rights Commission): www.ghrc-usa.org
* Breaking the Silence: www.breakingthesilenceblog.com
* CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with People of El Salvador): www.cispes.org
* Peace Brigades International: [link removed] ([link removed])
* Mining Watch Canada: www.miningwatch.ca
* Mining Injustice Solidarity Network: [link removed] ([link removed])
* Mining Justice Alliance: [link removed] ([link removed])
* Common Frontiers Canada: www.commonfrontiers.ca
* Alliance for Global Justice: www.afgj.org
* CODEPINK: www.codepink.org
* School of Americas Watch: www.soaw.org

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To support the work and justice struggles of the communities we support:
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* Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8

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