The Nicaraguan Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo (ATC) of the international movement La Via Campesina and Friends of the ATC are pleased to announce their “Small Farmers Cool the Planet!” speaking tour to the greater San Francisco Bay Area, February 1-9, 2018.

On this tour, the ATC’s Marlen Sanchez and Dionys Melgara will be meeting with allies in academia, grassroots organizations, and solidarity groups. They will be speaking and exchanging on the importance of La Via Campesina and other social movements pushing for food sovereignty in response to neoliberal capitalist policies that destroy Mother Earth and communities of peasants, indigenous peoples, and people of color around the world. Agroecology, grounded in ancestral knowledge, native seeds, and horizontal learning exchanges, is what can achieve food sovereignty and cool the planet. This is exactly why one of La Via Campesina’s slogans is “Small Farmers Cool the Planet!”

In addition to promoting social movements like La Via Campesina, on this tour Friends of the ATC will be mobilizing to put a stop to the horribly unjust Nicaragua Investment Conditionality (NICA) Act just introduced into the US Senate, and building awareness about the recent stolen elections in Honduras. Internationalist solidarity is the foundation of our movement.
TOUR SCHEDULE

February 1 (Thursday): Berkeley

Public Talk: Thursday 2/1, 4pm-6pm, UC Berkeley Morgan Lounge, located near North East Corner of UC Berkeley accessible from Hearst 0- first walkway east of Oxford or via the road – roundabout that goes East from Oxford -0 first walkway to the north. (Organized by Agroecologists at UC Berkeley, SOCLA-North America, Task Force on the Americas, and Nicaragua Center for Community Action)
February 2 (Friday): Davis

Public Talk: Friday 2/2, UC Davis campus, 3pm, room number TBA
February 3 (Saturday): Sacramento

Public Talk: Saturday 2/3, 4pm-6pm, Southside Cohousing Commons, 5th & T Streets, Sacramento (Organized by Sacramento Action for Latin America)
Facebook event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/172247663544959/
February 6 (Tuesday): Santa Cruz

Potluck with apprentices and students, Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems student farm
Class Presentation (open to the public): Tuesday 2/6, Land Dispossession and Grassroots Movements with Estelí Jimenez Soto, 3:20pm-4:55pm, UC Santa Cruz campus Stevenson Academy Room 175
February 7 (Wednesday): East Bay

Interviews and meetings with allies (To set up a meeting, please email info@friendsatc.org)
February 8 (Thursday): San Francisco

Public Talk: Thursday 2/8, 12:20pm-2pm, SF State campus HUM 281 – IR Briefing Room (Organized by SF State and Task Force on the Americas)
Class Presentation (open to the public): Thursday 2/8, Latina/o Community Organizing with Felix Kury, 5pm-6:30pm, SF State campus Burke Hall Room 210 (Organized by SF State and Task Force on the Americas)