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For all Zapatista supporters, we have delicious Zapatista coffee available at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice. We are asking for a donation of $10 for a half-kilo bag, whole bean only. This coffee was hand carried from Chiapas and donations will go to fund Zapatista community based efforts.

Dear members, for years the Peace Center's membership fee has remained the same. Starting in January, 2008, the basic individual/family fee will go up to $36 per year.

LESS THAN 10 CENTS A DAY FOR PEACE!

For the last one and a half years, a small group of peoplehave pledged $10.00 per month to be used for staff health needs. We would like to expand the group and build up the account. To contribute, call Suzanne at 505-268-9557 and leave a message. Thanks.

Five groups participated in a co-organized, door-to-door light bulb exchange on Saturday, October 20. During the day-long campaign, volunteers exchanged energy efficient compact florescent light bulbs for standard incandescent light bulbs at no direct cost to the recipient (PNM provided the bulbs). Altogether the five groups replaced more than 1,100 bulbs. A university area coalition made up of the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, UNM Sustain! and the University Heights (neighborhood) Association was one of the five groups. The eighteen volunteers from the three university area organizations replaced 360 light bulbs in 106 households. According to the Sierra Club, the 1,100 new bulbs will save 880,000 pounds of CO2 emissions over the old bulbs.

Danny Hernandez, danny@swcp.com

The Los Alamos Study Group is having a series of weekly public breakfast seminar and discussion meetings ending next April in both Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The overall theme of these seminars will be Dimensions of the Global Crisis: Responses and Renewal. We hope to alternate each week between factual aspects of the unfolding crisis (which is a crisis for New Mexico in particular) on the one hand, and our political response to it on the other. Everybody is invited. The Albuquerque meetings will be held Wednesday mornings at the Mennonite Church, 1300 Girard NE. There will be no meeting on December 26. The Santa Fe meetings will be held Thursday mornings at the United Church of Santa Fe, 1804 Arroyo Chamiso. There will be no meeting on December 27. Meetings will begin at 7:25 am and end at 8:45 am (please be prompt!). Coffee, tea, and a light breakfast will be provided. There is no cost - provided there are enough donations to cover the modest expenses. We'll pass the hat. Info: 505-265-1200.

Hogans are named 'the sacred place.' Help fund a traditional hogan for a respected Navajo elder who chooses to live in the way of the ancestors and needs help to build this wonderful eco/green home. A few people are raising money for this life-affrming project. We also need a small, efficient woodstove for cooking and heat. We need the funds asap, before winter. Info: Rose Buffalo, 232-7873.

Cuba/Venezuela/Mexico/North America Labor Conference - IV, December, 7,8 and 9. ¡La lucha obrera no tiene fronteras! The workers' struggle has no borders! US/Cuba Labor Exchange • P.O. BOX 39188 • Redford, MI 48239 • Phone/Fax: (313) 561-8330 • Email: laborexchange@aol.com

A committee has formed to create a New Mexico GI Rights Hotline and to provide information to members of the military about discharges, grievance and complaint procedures, etc. If you are looking for a way to really "support our troops," call 505-247-9694.

Peace Conference in Santa Fe

I want to commend Dorie Bunting for her thoughtprovoking article in P&J's October newsletter regarding the peace conference in Santa Fe. She raised the question whether it was right for the core peace movement to boycott or ignore the conference, or whether we should have tried harder to establish a dialogue and find common ground.

As she stated, there were unpalatable aspects to the financing and 'show' aspects of the conference. Many were rightfully indignant that their many years of slow, hard and steady work around issues of peace and nuclear disarmament (with meager back-up funds) were being ignored.

But Dorie is right. Peace is too big an issue to pass up any opportunity to find new allies and recruit around common goals. We can not always do just what feels good to us. We have to think 'outside the box.' If we do not connect with wider audiences, who may not agree with us on everything, we will not be able to achieve our priority goals of ending the terrible war in Iraq, bringing the troops home, restoring Iraq's sovereignty, preventing a new war with Iran, and nuclear disarmament.

Let us make a new start. Whatever voices are raised for peace, without questioning their motivation, we should welcome them.

Let us not forget that we now have a powerful ally in the national AFL-CIO ad the New Mexico Federation of Labor, which have come out opposing the war in Iraq. Together with all of the growing numbers of those who oppose the war in their own way, we can win.

Rose Shaw

Cucharitas para Lomas began as a small project working in solidarity with the women of Juárez. We are very satisfied with the results that our one year project accomplished: Solidarity with Paula Flores, mother of one of the many victims of femicide in Ciudad Juárez, and her organization Fundación Maria Sagrario. The project provided educational and kitchen supplies for the Maria Sagrario pre-school and helped build workshop space for the Fundación, where the women meet and learn occupational skills.

All of this was made possible with the help of several groups, teachers, students, musicians, poets, and you.

We will continue to support the efforts of mothers and organizations working on achieving justice for the women and girls killed and disappeared in Juárez and Chihuahua. For more info please go to abqpeaceandjustice.org and under 'Center Projects' click on 'Women of Juárez,' or call Cecilia at 505-268 9557.

Thanks to all who assisted, supported and worked for the Cucharitas para Lomas Project.