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Third in the series from the Executive Committee 

Summary of Major Changes

In the spring of 2010, the Executive Committee undertook a major revision of the MALCS bylaws, the first revision since 1991. Since that time, the Executive Committee has visited and revisited drafts, taking care to deliberate thoughtfully on the document that sets out the organizational structures and practices of MALCS. It is important to note that during our deliberations, we made every effort to be mindful of our organizational history. At the same time, we worked hard to understand changes in the broader cultural environment that might impact how an organization like ours operates.

What follows is a summary of major changes that the MALCS Executive Committee is recommending for the organization’s bylaws. The section headings below correspond with the draft that is being circulated for consideration. Under each heading, we provide a description of changes that differ significantly from the previous version of the bylaws. A draft of the proposed bylaws follows this summary.

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Please help distribute widely to your communities.
All the best,
Anna Guevarra
Assistant Professor, Asian American Studies and Sociology
University of Illinois at Chicago
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**For press inquiries, please contact feministdelegation@gmail.com

Between June 14 and June 23, 2011, a delegation of 11 scholars, activists, and artists visited occupied Palestine. As indigenous and women of color feminists involved in multiple social justice struggles, we sought to affirm our association with the growing international movement for a free Palestine. We wanted to see for ourselves the conditions under which Palestinian people live and struggle against what we can now confidently name as the Israeli project of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. Each and every one of us—including those members of our delegation who grew up in the Jim Crow South, in apartheid South Africa, and on Indian reservations in the U.S.—was shocked by what we saw. In this statement we describe some of our experiences and issue an urgent call to others who share our commitment to racial justice, equality, and freedom.

During our short stay in Palestine, we met with academics, students, youth, leaders of civic organizations, elected officials, trade unionists, political leaders, artists, and civil society activists, as well as residents of refugee camps and villages that have been recently attacked by Israeli soldiers and settlers. Everyone we encountered—in Nablus, Awarta, Balata, Jerusalem, Hebron, Dheisheh, Bethlehem, Birzeit, Ramallah, Um el-Fahem, and Haifa—asked us to tell the truth about life under occupation and about their unwavering commitment to a free Palestine. We were deeply impressed by people’s insistence on the linkages between the movement for a free Palestine and struggles for justice throughout the world; as Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted throughout his life, “Justice is indivisible. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

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