Mission Statement
We are GEOGRAPHY 495, an innovative fourth-year seminar in the Department of Geography at UBC taught by Dr. Juanita Sundberg. The course explores the politics of North-South solidarity in theory and practice using Community Service Learning models that join theory with experience and thought with action. The curriculum addresses solidarity on a theoretical level by exploring how solidarity is conceptualized, accomplished, and practiced in and by movements and activists in the America. Every year the class tries to collaborate with a justice group with connections to Latin America.
Now in 2013, Geography 495 is collaborating with the group BC CASA, a solidarity group connected with a coffee co-op in Guatemala called the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA). The group lobbies the Canadian and Guatemalan governments and sponsors visits by Guatemalan and Canadian activists. Our goal vis-a-vis BC CASA this year is to help them raise enough money to bring a second member for their visit in March, in order to train and prepare members for future success of this social justice movement. We are planning events that will allow the group to talk on behalf of their progress in Guatemala and to educate students here at UBC about the connections that exist between Canada and Guatemala.
This is a great opportunity for students to actively engage and experience the dynamics of North/South solidarity bridge-making, and what this actually means in practice. Thus, the seminar is structured to link Canada and its students with Latin American Human Rights movements. A disturbing amount of activists peacefully protesting were arrested, tortured, disappeared, or murdered throughout Latin America in the past fifty-plus years. Uniting in solidarity with these groups is extremely important because often these activists need safe places to go to when they face violent and often heavily militarized opposition. Through international solidarity networking, individuals in geographies of struggle can gain support from elsewhere. Struggles can be aided by networking through bringing awareness of conflicts to the public here in Canada, through more people putting pressure on officials to hold purpetators accountable, and even through providing direct ground level efforts.