May
21
9:00 a.m.09:00

ONLINE: Occupational Health and Human Rights

We warmly invite everyone to learn more about international solidarity, the ongoing struggle of Honduran maquila workers, and the Bill of Health at the Workplace they are promoting. It is crucial to analyze and elevate the working population's situation in relation to the proposed 'Law on Health at Workplace' and foster an international dialogue between trade unions and grassroots organizations to drive the creation of decent, dignified jobs in the Americas.

This international conference aims to raise awareness about workers' challenges, explore the current legal framework, and discuss the bill the Honduran Women's Collective CODEMUH is advocating to improve the Honduran Labour legislation on Occupational Health. The event will also present British Columbia's legal framework on the matter.

CODEMUH (The Honduran Women's Collective) supports maquila workers in Honduras who have long faced workplace violations of their human and labour rights. In addition to offering health and legal assistance, community empowerment, and systematization of occupational health issues, CODEMUH recognizes the urgent need for a strong and thorough legal framework that fulfills the goals of the Labour Code of 1959. These changes are essential for improving conditions in the maquila sector and strengthening the rights and well-being of all workers across the country.

CoDevelopment Canada (CoDev) is a solidarity organization working for social justice and global education in the Americas. Since the 1990s, we have partnered with CODEMUH and other women's collectives in Central America. Through the Canadian–Central American partnerships built through CoDev, working-class people have developed strong links of friendship and solidarity, which has allowed the sustainability of projects to improve the organization of workers, especially the most marginalized.  

Now more than ever, strengthening alliances between social movements across the Americas is essential. This event aims to empower the working class with vital knowledge and raise awareness among trade union leaders and policymakers about the legal and policy gaps that undermine the right to comprehensive occupational health services and safe work conditions. Canadian unions are collaborating in solidarity and supporting the work advancing effective public policies that ensure job stability, social security, and the prevention of occupational hazards for all workers.

Jobs yes, But with dignity!

Presented by CODEMUH and CoDevelopment Canada. Sponsored by CUPE BC and the BCGEU.

English and Spanish translation will be available.

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Honduras

  • Maria Luisa Regalado (Coordinator of CODEMUH)

  • Florencia Quesada (CODEMUH)

  • Dr. Luis Manuel Pérez Pantoja (University Xochimilco, cdmx)

  • Deputy Silvia Ayala (Nacional Congress of Honduras)  

  • Trade union representative from SITRAMEDHYS

Canada

  • CUPE BC  Chair of International Solidarity Committee

  • BCGEU Chair of International Solidarity Committee

  • BCGEU Occupational Health & Safety Staff

  • BCFED Occupational Health & Safety Staff.

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May
28
7:00 p.m.19:00

Xinka Women Urge Respect for Indigenous Self-Determination in Guatemala

Join us for a powerful and timely series of events featuring two Xinka Indigenous women leaders from Guatemala, who will be visiting Vancouver and Victoria during the week of May 26, 2025. These leaders are at the forefront of a historic, court-ordered consultation process regarding the future of Pan American Silver’s Escobal silver mine in southern Guatemala—a process that has been ongoing for nearly seven years.​

Despite facing numerous obstacles—including harassment, threats, and the tragic assassination of leader Noé Gómez Barrera—the Xinka Parliament remains steadfast in its commitment to self-determination and environmental justice. The consultation process, mandated by Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, has been marred by interference from Pan American Silver and local authorities, who have attempted to undermine the process through disinformation campaigns and unauthorized activities.​

During these events, the Xinka leaders will share their community’s experiences, the challenges they have faced, and their hopes for a future where Indigenous rights are respected and upheld. This is an opportunity to learn about the resilience of the Xinka people and their ongoing struggle for justice and dignity.

SPONSORS: Mining Justice Alliance, Café Justicia, BC Casa, CoDevelopment Canada, Victoria Peace Coalition, Victoria Central America Support Committee, MiningWatch Canada, Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network, Earthworks, Institute for Policy Studies - Global Economy Program, UBC Latin American Studies Program, APG – American Policies Group, Kairos BC, and the Latin American Network Student Association.

 

Interpretation Services: Simultaneous interpretation will be available in both English and Spanish to ensure accessibility for all attendees. ​

Refreshments: Complimentary coffee and a selection of light snacks will be provided.

FREE ADMISSION: Please register to let us know you are coming!

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Annual Solidarity & Fundraising Dinner
Jun
7
5:00 p.m.17:00

Annual Solidarity & Fundraising Dinner

Solidarity, now more than ever!

CoDevelopment Canada invites you to join us
on Saturday, June 7, 2025, for OUR 40th
Annual Solidarity & Fundraising Dinner.

Stand with us as we celebrate 40 years of building partnerships between like-minded organizations in Canada and Latin America, partnerships that foster learning, social change, and community empowerment.

CoDev’s Annual Solidarity Dinner has earned a reputation as an evening where you can enjoy the company of good friends and have fun while supporting an important local solidarity organization. More info coming soon!

We are honoured to work with our partners, donors, and members and hope that you will continue to support us. Tables for ten guests are $950.00 each, and individual tickets are $100.00. Tax receipts provided.

We are always available to assist you with purchasing or paying for your ticket, including by cheque. Do not hesitate to reach out to us via email at jcramer@codev.org or by phone at +1 (604) 708 1495. We are here to help you and would be glad to hear from you! 

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS FROM THE FUNDRAISING DINNER 2024

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE FUNDRAISING DINNER 2023

We look forward to seeing you at the fundraising dinner and celebrating continued solidarity with Latin America!

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Apr
28
to May 4

Invitation to May Day Celebration in Havana

  • Google Calendar ICS

CoDev invites Canadian working people and Cuba's allies, especially union members, to participate in the celebration of May Day in Havana, April 28 to May 4, 2025.

Thousands of workers and union delegations from around the world travel to Cuba to celebrate May Day, also known as International Workers' Day. This date commemorates the Haymarket Incident, during which police injured and killed workers advocating for the eight-hour workday. While an eight-hour shift is now the norm in many places, it is the result of the collective action of workers who fought for this right.

May Day is celebrated globally, but it holds special significance in Cuba, symbolizing not only labor rights but also the affirmation of the right to self-determination and independence. The principle of labor rights as basic human rights has come at a great cost, as Cuba has endured 60 years of a commercial embargo imposed by the U.S. that has isolated the country from essential goods.

Contact us if you want to learn more and be part of the world’s largest workers’ rights celebration, and show your solidarity for justice in Cuba. View or save the flyer below for more details including the estimated cost.

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Apr
16
6:30 p.m.18:30

Pueblos en Camino: What Peace Are We Talking About?

Join us for an inspiring, critical and thought-provoking conversation with two remarkable speakers whose work spans decades of social activism, and community building in Colombia. Vilma Rocío Almendra Quiguanás and Manuel Rozental Klinger will share their experiences from the Mother of the Forests, Kauca.

Both speakers provide valuable perspectives on how some community processes persevere in increasingly adverse conditions to build peace, while others, previously very strong, are being co-opted.

Wednesday, April 16 at St. James Community Square (room 104)
3214 W 10th Ave, Vancouver.

6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
(Optional) admission by donation to Pueblos en Camino
Presented by CoDevelopment Canada

English-Spanish interpretation will be provided.

Notes from the speakers

Since the signing of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP, the various regions of the country are gradually and dramatically consolidating as Autonomous Criminal Territories. The presence of armed groups is expanding in a context of total war between these groups -including the armed forces of the state - in such a way that the territorial dominion of some of these structures is expanding, while in other regions there is a coexistence or a dispute in open war between them. All of this has been clearly documented by organizations that monitor the armed conflict.

This conversation will explain how the so-called “Peace Agreements” were not only not complied with by the government, but also how the enormous international and national resources destined for their implementation were stolen by the state, how social leaders, including the signatories of the agreements and the demobilized, were systematically assassinated and massacred, and how the social reform projects with programs and resources for the communities have been largely unfulfilled.

A dramatic example of this is the Illicit Crop Substitution program. While the communities destroyed coca and marijuana crops from which they obtained their livelihoods, state institutions used this as a propaganda tool, suspending and stealing pending aid and support, which led the communities, encouraged by armed groups, to replant and increase the areas planted with these crops. Since the agreements, drug trafficking, as well as extractivism, were strengthened, involving from the grassroots to the elites, companies and groups of national and international legal power in all areas. This explains the social outbursts of 2019 and 2021, brutally repressed.

This intention to “shatter” the agreement, as the ultra-right openly promised and did, led to a worsening of the living conditions of the communities and an aggravation of violence practically throughout the national territory. The situation today is much worse than before the signing of the agreement for the peoples, given the multiplication of armed groups. Most of these groups have joined organized crime and extractivism networks aimed at controlling territories and populations that live under constant extortion and terror.

The enormous resources and wealth (nature and labor) are linked to an economic network of capitalism in its most recent phase, generating enormous profits and value transfers to elites and the North.  In fact, this process of territorial criminalization involves public offices, electoral processes, state contracts from the barrios to the highest levels of the state. Total war and mafias, could describe the process in the making and ongoing today.

All this takes place in the context of centuries of extreme right-wing governance, state corruption, protection of economic neoliberalism, refusal to address the root causes of social insecurity and violence. This consolidated Colombia, under the control and guidance of U.S. foreign policies, not only as its strongest ally in the region, but established it as the “Genocidal Democracy” described by Father Javier Giraldo.

The Petro government's Total Peace Project faces this context and dynamics, hence its limitations, stagnation and ongoing deterioration.  This bet faces both a State consolidated for dispossession and tyranny, as well as privileged elites it serves, whose power has not been touched. The economic model untouched in the peace negotiations and an economy that articulates and coordinates the legal with the illegal, both exploiting peoples and territories and sustained by mafia structures of terror and war. Put bluntly, the armed groups and their counterparts in legal and illegal capital, national and transnational, are not interested in a negotiated solution.

Vilma and Manuel hope to emphasize both how this is lived and suffered in the territories and how this relates to the national and global context. In addition, state institutions have forced many communities into marginalization, pushing young people into delinquency.

In reality, peace was not negotiated or agreed but a ceasefire between state armed groups and the insurgency with a condition imposed by President Santos: “The model is not negotiable”. This model is the cause of the war. It is pending to move from a “Country of the Owners without Peoples” to a “Country of the Peoples without Owners”.

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CoDev's 2024 Annual General Meeting
Sep
11
6:00 p.m.18:00

CoDev's 2024 Annual General Meeting

JOIN US WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11th, FOR OUR 2024 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.

It's a great opportunity to meet our dedicated staff and gain insights into the successes and challenges our partners in Latin America are facing.

This year's AGM will be held in person in Room 1A at the British Columbia Teachers Federation -

( 550 W 6th Ave #100, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4P2).

Soon, our members will receive the detailed agenda, registration information, voting information, and documentation.

CoDev members will elect new and returning board members, approve the 2023-2024 fiscal audited financial statements, and appoint auditors for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

Click here if you're interested in becoming a member or renewing your membership to participate in the event and cast your vote.

We hope to see you there!

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CoDev's 6th International Solidarity Conference
May
4
9:00 a.m.09:00

CoDev's 6th International Solidarity Conference

CoDev’s International Solidarity Conference is back after four years!

At CoDev’s 6th International Solidarity Conference: Connecting Activists for Global Justice, on May 4th, 2024, unions and international solidarity activists will share, exchange, and strategize around movement-building, organizing, and international solidarity for local and global liberation.

Lunch and refreshments included.

 SAVE THE DATE AND JOIN US!

When: Saturday, May 4th, 2024, 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM (registration starts at 8:30 am)

Where: BCGEU Lower Mainland Area Office 2920 Virtual Way #130, Vancouver

Registration Fee: $60, including catered lunch and refreshments throughout the day.

Registration deadline: Sunday, April 28, 2024, 11:59 PM PT

Registration Contact: Jeffrey Cramer, CoDevelopment Canada, jcramer@codev.org, 604-708-1495, ext. 5

special guest

Neydi Yassmine Juracán Morales

National Coordinator of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) in Guatemala

Neydi is a Kakchiquel Maya woman and the National Coordinator of Guatemala's Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), representing over 50,000 campesino (small farming) families. Neydi is the CCDA’s coffee program coordinator and the CCDA’s representative on the International Land Coalition, a global alliance of farmers and indigenous organizations. 

Neydi and her ancestors originate from the Altiplano (Highlands) of Guatemala. A participant of the Political Training School of the CCDA, Neydi has trained Indigenous youth in the Guatemalan departments of Quiche and Coban. In 2010, Neydi and her family fled Guatemala amidst death threats targeting her family for their political activism and temporarily resided in Vancouver, Canada.  While in Canada, Neydi engaged in public outreach to raise consciousness around Guatemala's political and social realities. Neydi has participated in a Small Farmer to Small Farmer Exchange, where she exchanged with other small farmers from around the world on food sovereignty and the defence and recovery of territory. More recently, Neydi participated as an alternative voice at COP28, where she centred the experiences of Indigenous Peoples and campesinos waging a struggle for food sovereignty and land defence and recovery.

 Neydi is a youth activist who plays a central role in Guatemala's Indigenous-led struggle for land defence, recuperation, and food sovereignty. Through her ongoing efforts to amplify the work, knowledge, and vision of the CCDA and of Indigenous-led social movements, more broadly, Neydi has demonstrated the capacity and commitment to building spaces and opportunities for learning, teaching, and exchange, as well as solidarity-based relationships between allied popular struggles across the globe. Neydi is a strong, informed, and engaging speaker and activist with a profile and expertise that resonates with land and water defenders, climate justice activists, food knowledge keepers, international solidarity activists, community organizers, cultivators of international cooperation, and those interested in lending to the struggle for social, economic, and environmental justice.

Just after midnight on January 15, 2024, Guatemala’s new anti-corruption president was inaugurated despite months of relentless political oppression preceded by almost five years of attacks waged against democratic institutions. The CCDA was one of many Indigenous-led organizations and governments that formed the frontline of the pro-democracy movement that pressed the outgoing administration to respect the vote of the people and Peoples and organized and mobilized to build international pressure to amplify the calls for a peaceful democratic transition.

About ISC 2024: Connecting Activists for Social Justice

We believe that international solidarity should be a core component of any union’s strategic plan to make the world a better place for workers.

Join other union members and representatives from local, provincial, and national union international solidarity and global justice committees to share experiences and practices and discuss new strategies for international solidarity work.

ISC 2024 will include interactive workshops, small-group discussions, keynote presentation, and panel around important themes, such as how to make international solidarity meaningful to your members and central to your union’s vision, engaging youth, planning action-oriented campaigns, and identifying where solidarity committees from different unions can collaborate.

ISC 2024 provides a space for more-experienced solidarity activists to share experiences and insight and continue learning, and for emerging solidarity activists to learn and share their perspectives and the ways in which they are advancing international solidarity work. Practical in scope, ISC 2024 is designed to equip participants with proven tools and concrete ideas for building international solidarity in their unions.

CoDev works to strengthen the community of union-based international solidarity activists in B.C. Please encourage your members and staff to participate in this exciting opportunity to acquire concrete tools for action. We look forward to seeing you there!

Event Programme:

8:30am       Registration

9am             Event  Opening

Group Activity

                      Panel: Building International Solidarity in the Labour Movement

  • Moderator: Larry Kuehn, former Director of International Solidarity and former President of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation

  • Panelist: Andrea Duncan, Co-Chair, International Solidarity Committee, B.C. General Employees’ Union

  • Panelist: Luc Allaire, Director of International Relations, Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) [Quebec Labour Congress]

  • Panelist: Trevor Davies, Secretary Treasurer, Canadian Union of Public Employees - B.C. (CUPE BC)

                      Small Group Discussions, Activity                                

                                             Break

                      Keynote: Neydi Juracan of the CCDA

Discussion

                                            Catered Lunch and Networking

                    Workshop: Unionists as Internationalists: How to Build Class Consciousness in the Union for International Solidarity , facilitated by

  • Nadia Santoro, Organizer, Health Sciences Association of BC

  • Nadia Revelo, Director of Human and Labour Rights Program, CoDevelopment Canada

                                            Break

                 Workshop: Building Union Structures and Practices for Engaging Union Members Around  International Solidarity, facilitated by

  • Annie Ohana, International Solidarity Committee member, B.C. Teachers’ Federation

  • Karen Andrews, International Solidarity Committee member, B.C. Teachers’ Federation

                    Report back, campaign action, and next steps

4:30pm      Event Conclusion

*Detailed programme will be posted online and emailed to registrants in mid-April 2024

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