Chilean Student Movement and City Life Vida Urbana, group fighting foreclosures, evictions, are recipients of prestigious Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award by Institute for Policy Studies

October 11, 2012
Washington DC awards ceremony will feature Danny Glover, Camila Vallejo. Event will include music, poetry, food, open bar.
What: 36^th annual awards ceremony in Washington DC
When: Monday, Oct 17, 2012, 5:30 PM – 9 PM ET
Where: Carnegie Institution, 1530 P St NW, Washington DC
Who: Institute for Policy Studies; Danny Glover, actor; Camila Vallejo, President, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH); Noam Titelman, President, Santiago Catholic University Student Federation; Curdina Hill, Executive Director, City Life Vida Urbana; Steve Meacham, Organizing Coordinator, City Life Vida Urbana.
Washington DC – The Institute for Policy Studies is holding its 36^th annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards on Wednesday, October 17. Winners of the prestigious award this year are: City Life Vida Urbana, a group working to halt foreclosures and evictions in Boston, Massachusetts; and the Chilean Student Movement (Confederación de Estudiantes Chilenos), a movement that has filled Chilean streets with protests and called for democracy in post-Pinochet Chile. Representatives of the Chilean Student Movement include Camila Vallejo, called “The World’s Most Glamorous Revolutionary” by The New York Times and a “Hard-Left Heartthrob” by Newsweek Magazine. Actor Danny Glover will be presenting awards via teleconference.
A press briefing with Chilean student leaders will occur, Wed, 10/17, 11:30 AM, in the conference room of the Institute for Policy Studies, 1112 16^th St NW, Washington DC. A simultaneous livestream of the briefing and press conference call will also occur. To join the press conference call, dial (661) 673-8600 and enter the access code 570102. The briefing will proceed in English.
City Life Vida Urbana is a Boston-based bilingual community organization that has fought for racial, social, and economic justice and gender equality for 28 years. In response to the devastating impact of the foreclosure crisis on communities in Boston, they launched the Post-Foreclosure Eviction Defense campaign to help keep people facing foreclosure in their homes. Victories won by hundreds of organized families are building public and political pressure, which in turn is driving legislative reform and sparking similar campaigns across the region.
For over a year, the Chilean Student Movement has turned that country upside down, demanding the right to free universal education. They have rallied hundreds of thousands into the streets and breathed life into that democracy. Accepting the award on behalf of this movement are student leaders Camila Vallejo and Noam Titelman.
The Chilean student representatives will also participate in a speaking tour facilitated by the institute during their visit to the United States. From Monday, October 15, through Thursday, October 18, Vallejo and Titelman will meet with student groups at New York University and City University of New York in New York City, American University in Washington DC, and Harvard University in Boston.
The Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award is a celebrated award with a long history. On September 21, 1976, agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet detonated a car bomb that killed IPS colleagues Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean diplomat and director of the Institute's Transnational Institute, and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, an IPS development associate, in Washington DC. Each year in October, the Institute for Policy Studies hosts the annual human rights award in the names of Letelier and Moffitt to honor these fallen colleagues while celebrating new heroes of the human rights movement from the United States and Chile.
The Letelier-Moffit Human Rights Award Ceremony is being hosted in Washington DC on Wednesday, October 17, at 5:30 PM, by the Institute for Policy Studies.
** For a press pass to attend the Letelier-Moffit Human Rights Award Ceremony, please contact Lacy MacAuley, lacy@ips-dc.org **
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Institute for Policy Studies (IPS-DC.org) is a community of public scholars and organizers linking peace, justice, and the environment in the U.S. and globally. We work with social movements to promote true democracy and challenge concentrated wealth, corporate influence, and military power. Next year IPS will celebrate its 50^th year of turning ideas into action.