The InterReligious Task Force on Central America and Colombia (sometimes referred to as InterReligious Task Force on Central America or IRTF) was founded in 1980 as a response to President Ronald Reagan’s efforts to containing the spread of communism in Central America. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, IRTF is a far-left advocacy group raising support for left-wing activism in Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador and campaigning for expanded immigration from those countries. [1]
Present Activities
In October 2009, IRTF joined with organizations associated with the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization to protest the U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan. [2]
In 2015, IRTF joined the Alliance for Fair Food in protesting the restaurant food chain Wendy’s over farm labor issues. [3] The boycott of Wendy’s started when the restaurant chain did not sign onto the Fair Food Program. [4] The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a left-wing farm labor organizing group, started the Fair Food Program. [5]
In 2017, IRTF signed a letter to the U.S. Congress and the U.S. State Department asking that all military aid to the country of Honduras be suspended amid a dispute over the outcome of the country’s presidential election despite years of violence ravaging the country. [6]
Each year the IRTF holds an annual Social Justice Teach-In to cover issues like anti-Trump classes, Union organizing, and community organizing. [7] According to IRTF’s website attendees can learn about anti-militarism, exploited labor solidarity, LGBTQ solidarity, Fair Trade, and Afro-descendant and Indigenous Solidarity. [8]
In 2018, IRTF signed onto a letter in objection to President Donald Trump’s proposed parade to honor the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. [9]
IRTF took part in a protest opposing prospective U.S. military intervention against the Communist Cuban-aligned socialist regime in Venezuela. The demonstrations took place in 150 cities across the United States that included groups like the All African Revolutionary Party, Black Alliance for Peace, Democratic Socialists of America, Fight for Im/migrants and Refugees Everywhere, Green Party, International Action Center, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Workers World Party and United National Antiwar Coalition. [10]
In May of 2019, IRTF signed a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) asking that Congress provide permanent resident status and a pathway to “eventual citizenship” to certain illegal immigrants and to beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure status. [11]
People
The InterReligious Task Force is co-directed by Chrissy Stonebraker-Martinez and Brian Stefan-Szittai and based out of Cleveland, Ohio. Stone-Braker blames the United States for the violence and migration crisis occurring in Latin America and that the U.S. treats migrants like “animals, lock them up and deport them back.” [12]
In 2016, Stefan-Szittai worked with the Greater Cleveland Civil and Human Rights Coalition on how to protest the 2016 Republican National Convention held in that city. [13] That same year IRTF signed onto a letter to the Cleveland City Council calling for the Cleveland Police to be “demilitarized” and for a “prompt post-convention demilitarization and decommissioning of equipment” used by the Cleveland Police. [14]
Funding
The InterReligious Task Force on Central America and Colombia is funded by the United Methodist Church,[15] the Cleveland Colectivo,[16] the Greater Cleveland Community Shares,[17] the Max and Anna Levinson Foundation,[18] and Community of Saint Peter. [19]