[Freedom archives news] The Spirit of Viet Nam - Your ongoing support is absolutely essential for us to continue our work

[Freedom Archives Events]

Dear Friends, *DONATE HERE!* 
<https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=33005>

We started 2015 with much to inspire us, having recently celebrated our 
15^th anniversary.

Shortly after our celebration, we started organizing for the 40^th 
anniversary of the Viet Nam victory, April 30th of this year. We helped 
organize a May 2^nd teach-in at MetWest High School in Oakland, entitled 
“The Spirit of Viet Nam is Stronger than US Bombs.” Close to 200 people 
participated in the day-long intergenerational and anti-imperialist 
event which connected the legacy of the Vietnamese victory to challenges 
facing our communities today.We worked along with youth groups from the 
Asian diaspora, veterans, and others, as part of the Viet Nam Victory 
Coalition.

As you may know, the Vietnamese national liberation struggle moved the 
entire world and was one of the most important historical events of the 
20th century. The people’s war, reaching a peak in the Tet Offensive of 
1968, demonstrated that a united people, even in a poor and 
underdeveloped nation, could defeat the most powerful military and 
economic power on earth. In an era when national liberation struggles 
surged in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the struggle and example of 
the Vietnamese people catalyzed strong solidarity movements around the 
world and inside the US. The movement against the war in Viet Nam in the 
US was inextricably tied to the early anti-imperialism of the civil 
rights/Black liberation movement, and many other movements of the 1960s 
and 1970s.

As part of the Viet Nam tribute, we launched an educational web page 
(http://www.freedomarchives.org/Viet%20Nam.html) featuring significant 
audio clips, many from the Archives, an interactive timeline with some 
short videos, an article by Ho Chi Minh on lynching in the US, written 
in 1924, and an interview with General Vo Nguyen Giap. We think this 
Viet Nam resource is unique and well worth taking some time to explore. 
Teachers have used these materials to teach about the actual history of 
Viet Nam, as opposed to the massive and intensifying myth-making of the 
US government and military.

*Illuminating Hidden History*

We’re hard at work on an exciting documentary video project focusing on 
the Chican@ movement, its student martyrs and Aztlan land struggles. 
We’ve been gathering video interviews and historical footage about the 
Chican@/Mexican@ struggle in Colorado and New Mexico. In May of 2014, we 
were honored to attend and document an important and moving “Symbols of 
Resistance” gathering in Colorado, to commemorate the 40th anniversary 
of “los seis de Boulder” (six young Chican@ activists killed in two car 
bombings during the height of student and community protest in 1974) and 
three other activist martyrs from the same period.

Three of us returned for a second trip, this time to southern Colorado 
and northern New Mexico, where we conducted additional in-depth 
interviews with leading activists. You can view a short piece on the 
land taken back and the creation of a school in Tierra Amarilla on our 
blogsite 
(http://blog.freedomarchives.org/the-youth-brigades-at-tierra-amarilla/). Thanks 
to your support and some small grants from Common Counsel, the Peace 
Development Fund, People’s Life Fund, the Puffin Foundation, and the 
Sparkplug Foundation, we are beginning to put this documentary together. 
Check out a trailer compiled from footage shot at the May, 2014 
gathering on our vimeo site at https://vimeo.com/108259968

*Youth Will Be Served*

Our internship program continues to attract vibrant and talented young 
people who contribute to the Archives as they do their own projects and 
productions. This May, one of our interns is graduating from Mission 
High School and is heading for San Francisco State University, and two 
interns from the last fall are graduating from the University of San 
Francisco. We are very proud of their accomplishments, both inside and 
outside the Archives, and wish them the best.

You can follow our weekly and monthly activities using social media. 
We’re on the web, facebook, twitter, maintain a blog, and host a vimeo 
page—all of which can be used to keep updated on our events and current 
news, and learn about new materials constantly being added to the Archives.

*Your Support Is Crucial*

Your ongoing support is absolutely essential to our ability to continue 
our work. Your help makes possible all the educational work we do: the 
internship program, the audio and video documentaries and books, the 
online resources and digital search site, and our outreach efforts from 
our Mission district community out to the nation and the world. Most 
importantly, your help ensures that this resource will be able to serve 
generations to come.

Please consider sending us a donation. You can also contribute on-line 
or become a monthly sustainer.THANK YOU!


*DONATE HERE!* <https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=33005>

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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