The Life and Legacy of Berta Cáceres

By Beverly Bell,
Founder of Other Worlds

I began writing a eulogy for Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores years ago, though she died only last week. Berta was assassinated by Honduran government-backed death squads on March 3. Like many who knew and worked with her, I was aware that this fighter for indigenous peoples’ power; for control over their own territories; for women’s and LGBTQ rights; for authentic democracy; for the well-being of Pachamama; for an end to tyranny by transnational capital; and for an end to US empire was not destined to die of old age. She spoke too much truth to too much power.

Honduran Indigenous Leader Berta Cáceres Assassinated, Won Goldman Environmental Prize

Friday, March 4, 2016 via Democracy Now!

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SOAW statement (3/3/16): "..the General Coordinator of COPINH (Consejo Civico de Organizaciones Populares e Indigenas de Honduras), Berta Caceres was assassinated in her hometown of La Esperanza, Intibuca. At least two individuals broke down the door of the house where Berta was staying for the evening in the Residencial La Líbano, shot and killed her. COPINH is urgently responding to this tragic situation.
Berta Cáceres is one of the leading indigenous activists in Honduras. She spent her life fighting in defense of indigenous rights, particularly to land and natural resources."

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According to Global Witness, Honduras has become the deadliest country in the world for environmentalists. Between 2010 and 2014, 101 environmental campaigners were killed in the country.

In 2015 Berta Cáceres won the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s leading environmental award. In awarding the prize, the Goldman Prize committee said, “In a country with growing socioeconomic inequality and human rights violations, Berta Cáceres rallied the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam.”

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(DN! 3/8/16): "At the time of her assassination, Cáceres was with Gustavo Castro Soto, another well-known environmental campaigner and coordinator of Friends of the Earth Mexico. He witnessed the shooting and sustained two bullet wounds. Now, human rights activists say the Honduran government is detaining Castro without cause and refusing him permission to return to his native Mexico."

About a project that began with the question “do artists need art school?”

Radical and Alternative Pedagogies Discussion (02.28.2016 @ The Public School)

Join an ongoing discussion and research project that began with the question “do artists need art school?”

Since October 2015, a group has met regularly to feel and think our way around alternative pedagogies, and research contemporary and historical models for community-based education. (Including the *PLM’s La Escuela Racionalista and La Casa del Obrero Internacional, both of which operated a century ago nearby today's Public School location).

With a mid-term goal of hosting a ‘tabling day’ for the many rad-ped / alt-ped groups and organizations Southern California hosts, we’re currently in process of compiling information on local contemporary alternative practices.

Please bring your thoughts to the conversation, and ideas for projects to include and envision.

Past questions raised:
– Can existing institutional practices be reformed for greater diversity and inclusivity?
– Are new structures of engagement necessary?
– What do our local and broader communities need?
– How are recent alternative projects addressing the question?
– How viable are these projects and alternatives?
– What are strategies that can be applied locally?

Some additional writings / readings we have found helpful:

• The Future - Art Degree Optional, by Janet Owen Driggs, Nancy Popp 
• Will Art School Adjuncts Organize? by Janet Owen Driggs and Robby Herbst
• Dismantling Art School, by Nancy Popp
• The Neoliberal Arts, by William Deresewicz
• Speculative Capitalism by Matias Viegener
• Ultra-Red Workbook No. 5: Protocols for a School of Echoes
• How One of America's Last Free Colleges Screwed it's Students and Betrayed it's Legacy, by Felix Salmon
• How is the Artist or Writer to Function (Survive and Produce) in the Community, Outside of Institutions? by Sesshu Foster