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On Democracy Now! this morning, Noam Chomsky was asked what he's
advise Obama to do now (on domestic policy):<br>
"I would tell him to do what FDR did when big business was
opposed to him. Help organize, stimulate public opposition and put
through a serious populist program, which can be done. Stimulate the
economy. Don’t give away everything to financiers. Push through real
health reform. The health reform that was pushed through may be a
slight improvement but it leaves some major problems untouched. If
you’re worried about the deficit, pay attention to the fact that it
is almost all attributable to military spending and this totally
dysfunctional health program."<br>
<b><i><br>
<u>AWARE On The Air</u></i></b><u> tonight at 10pm, ch. 6,
brings you <br>
</u><i><br>
Ron Szoke on Demons<br>
<br>
Glenn Greenwald on American media<br>
</i><u><br>
Which is worse? We exhort, you decide.<br>
</u><br>
Our program is presented by members & friends of AWARE, the
Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of Champaign-Urbana, a local peace group
- and brought to you by the good people at Urbana Public Television
<br>
<br>
Each week we bring you a video magazine about the US government's
wars, notably the invasion & occupation of the Middle East, from
Palestine to Pakistan -- and of the opposition to them, both locally
and nationally, from American citizens like us who are appalled at
the government's betrayal of our democratic principles.<br>
<br>
Today is November 30th - as we open the book of slaughter and
forgetting, we find that on this day<br>
# in 1786 - the year before our supposedly-in-force constitution was
written - Peter Leopold I of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of
Tuscany, promulgated a penal reform making his country the first
state to abolish the death penalty: consequently, today is
commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day;<br>
# in 1886 – on the 100th anniversary of the abolition of the death
penalty in Tuscany, France celebrated the occasion by having the
Folies Bergère stages its first revue, suggesting perhaps the
fundamental unseriousness of major governments; and <br>
# in 1999 – in Seattle, Washington, protests against the World Trade
Organization meeting by anti-globalization protesters catch police
unprepared and force the cancellation of opening ceremonies.
[Alexander Cockburn of counterpunch.org suggests that the US ruling
class can be taken by surprise about once every twenty years...] <br>
***<br>
<br>
<u><b>Anti-War Anti-Racism Calendar for 30 November 2010<br>
Recent and upcoming events on the local scene, from <br>
last Sunday's AWARE meeting and the AWARE mailing lists, <br>
</b></u><i><a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:peace@lists.chambana.net"><peace@lists.chambana.net></a> and
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net"><peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net></a>.<br>
(Thanks to MOA Karen Medina.) <br>
</i>***<br>
<i><br>
Let the dead of November rest!<br>
For us the living there's quite enough to do.<br>
For these are not those who have awakened<br>
and have imagined themselves perpetrators of the same thing.<br>
Neither written-off nor tax-free is the profit<br>
from the debts for which I am responsible.<br>
--from Guenter Grass, <u>Novemberland<br>
</u></i><br>
***<br>
RECENT EVENTS:<br>
==============<br>
*Friday-Sunday, 19-21 November. Fort Benning, Georgia (USA).<br>
School of the Americas Watch annual "Nonviolent Direct Action to
Close the SOA/WHINSEC" -- a combat training school for Latin
American soldiers. The SOA - "the School of Assassins," has left a
trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates
have returned. Graduates have consistently used their skills to wage
a war against their own people. <br>
The demonstration is usually a peaceful affair; this year
following the SOA Watch rally, human rights activists brought their
nonviolent witness to close the SOA into the street leading onto the
military base. The activists briefly shut down the road with a large
sign that said, "Stop: This is the End of the Road for the SOA": a
dozen people were arrested, and others charged, including the
90-year old Jesuit priest Bill Brennan. When the rally participants
tried to leave the vigil area, the police blocked off all exit
points. After a few minutes, the police allowed people to leave on
the sidewalk, only to follow them, indiscriminately arresting people
who had neither committed any crimes nor engaged in civil
disobedience. Among those arrested was the RT America TV crew, who
was filming the police misconduct and bystanders. See
<<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.SOAW.org">www.SOAW.org</a>>. <br>
<br>
*Thursday 25 November is the national holiday of Thanksgiving. Forty
years ago, an American writer recalled another Thanksgiving. He
wrote about "Colonel Joseph Bellas, commanding officer of a hospital
in Vietnam where soldiers boycotted Thanksgiving dinner in protest
against the war: ‘They’re young, they’re idealistic and don’t like
man’s inhumanity to man. As they get older they will become wiser
and more tolerant’ [said the good colonel]. If a majority of the
American people will, indeed, ignore resultant atrocities and
support [the US government] policy of pursuing a war without
discernible end, then this segment of American society may be
subjected to domestic repression of a sort that is not without
precedent in American history. [SEE AWAREIST DAVID GREEN'S LETTER IN
THE N-G TODAY.]<br>
<br>
*Tuesday 30 November 30, 7-9:30pm. Department of African American
Studies,<br>
1201 West Nevada Street, U. A panel discussion: "Race, the Tea
Party, the U.S.'s Hard Shift to the Right." (We'll discuss it here
next week.)<br>
<br>
UPCOMING EVENTS:<br>
=================<br>
*Wednesday 1 December, 5:30pm. Greg Hall, Room 217<br>
A public forum: "The Recession is over...FOR WHOM?"<br>
"What is really happening with the economy? What are the real
solutions to our economic woes? And how can we fight for those kinds
of solutions? Come to a public forum to discuss these questions.
Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization. For more
information, call 415-713-6260 or email
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:iso.champaign@gmail.com"><iso.champaign@gmail.com></a>."<br>
<br>
*Wednesday 1 December, 6pm. Champaign Public Library, 200 West Green
Street, C<br>
Workshop: "Finding Affordable Health Care: Local Programs &
Resources." This workshop will focus on local resources, programs
and clinics providing affordable health care and dental care for
low-income and uninsured residents of our community. Now that health
reform has become law, there is much work to be done to explain the
law to consumers and to the community.<br>
<br>
*Thursday 2 December, 5:30pm. University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright Street
C.<br>
A film by ZHANG CHI, "The Shaft" (Dixia de Tiankong) [part of the
Y's Global Lens 2010 film series]. In three intertwined stories, a
father, son and daughter fight to hold onto hope and family as they
face the harsh realities of life in a poor western Chinese mining
town <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.globalfilm.org/lens10/the_shaft.htm"><http://www.globalfilm.org/lens10/the_shaft.htm></a>. Free
and open to everyone.<br>
<br>
*Saturday 4 December, 7:30am-1pm. Lincoln Square, U.<br>
AWARE table at the indoor Farmer's Market. We have peace calendars
for 2011. If you would like to work the table, contact <slevy
@illinois.edu>.<br>
<br>
*Saturday 4 December, 2-4pm. Main & Neil Sts., Champaign<br>
AWARE's monthly peace demonstration, "The Main Event." Bring a sign
or use one of ours; we'll hand out information about the war to
motorists and passers-by.<br>
<br>
*Sunday 5 December, 3:30pm. Krannert Center for the Performing
Arts, UIUC.<br>
A 1950’s themed cocktail party. Hosts will be collecting donations
for the Eastern Illinois Foodbank. Admission is free and kids are
welcome!<br>
<br>
*Monday 6 December, 6pm. St. Jude Catholic Worker House, 317 S.
Randolph St., C.<br>
Potluck and roundtable. We'll watch "Money as Debt," an animated
short film that gives the history of currency, banking, and our
government's "fractional reserve system:" the creation of money
through citizens' debt<br>
<br>
*Thursday 9 December, 5:30pm. University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright St.,
C.<br>
A film by OLIVER HERMANUS, "Shirley Adams" [part of the Y's Global
Lens 2010 film series]. In the depressed Cape Town neighborhood of
Cape Flats, a single mother contemplates her fate and cautiously
accepts the help of an overeager social worker as she struggles to
care for her paraplegic and suicidal son
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.globalfilm.org/lens10/shirley_adams.htm"><http://www.globalfilm.org/lens10/shirley_adams.htm></a>. Free and
open to everyone!<br>
<br>
*Thursday 16 December. The presidential mansion, "The White House,"
Washington, DC.<br>
Veteran-led civil resistance to the wars. Activists and veterans
will march to the White House, refuse to move, demand an immediate
end to U.S. wars, whether conducted by occupation troops, drones or
proxy, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Palestine. Groups
being led by Veterans for Peace will nonviolently refuse to leave
the White House, willing to be dragged away and arrested for peace.
They will carry forward a flame of resistance to the war machine
that will not diminish as we place themselves, as Mario Savio said,
"upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the
apparatus" and we will make it stop. See
<<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.stopthesewars.org">www.stopthesewars.org</a>>. <br>
<br>
***<br>
AWARE is happy to provide anti-war speakers and discussion leaders
for local events. See our Facebook page, our website at
<anti-war.net>, or write <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:cge@shout.net"><cge@shout.net></a>. AWARE is an
independent organization that works with other political groups and
parties opposed to US war, but it is not a member of them.<br>
<br>
###<br>
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