[Peace-discuss] and we should reach out to the Iranian community here

[Robert Naiman]

one more thing. there is a substantial Iranian community here. the annual
Norouz (new year's) celebration draws several hundred people. there is the
Persian Cultural Association. We should start reaching out to them. there
are several folks in the Econ dept. i'll start there.


On 4/21/06, Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks for thinking of this, Carl-
>
> One historical note first :-)  When AWARE planned and
> held its "evening-the-attack-begins" protest at the
> start of the Iraq war, it was at the corner of
> University and State in Champaign (West Side Park).
> The idea was visibility, which would normally be
> excellent there at the time it was planned.
>
> However, what occurred was that a Champaign policeman,
> apparently on his own, blocked off University Ave from
> Lynn to State (its one-way there) and told protestors
> as well as reporters who arrived, "It's over.  You
> missed it."  There was a storm gathering (yes, yes,
> but I mean a meteorological one), and he claimed the
> event had been called off.  No amount of reasoning
> with him would convince him that the protest was still
> on or that there was no need to block off the road
> (espcially if the protest was, allegedly, off),
> including when (I) made a show of running down the
> sidewalk to the gathering protest to double-check with
> the main organizer Jeff Sowers and running back to
> report to the cop car.
>
> The cop just grinned at (me) and repeated, "I'm
> telling you, we're with you guys."  In the end Jeff
> had to complain to his supervisor, parked across the
> street from our protest in a plain car, and the cop
> then promptly unblocked the road.  We will never know
> how many people or how much press we missed during the
> hour or so this took, let alone how many passersby.
>
> Of course the highest traffic-count area in town
> overall, is Prospect around I-74.  It's not as
> accessible as downtown, of course, nor as kid-friendly
> or generally conducive to rallying.  It would
> certainly irk Thompson, tho :-)
>
> The other spot that has something to recommend it is
> One Main, of course.  Wasn't a possibility last time,
> easy, open, folks are used to going there and some
> might just show up in desperation even if they don't
> get the word of any plans we might make.  I'm not sure
> what traffic is like there at 5-6 pm???
>
> Of course the Courthouse is good, too, and it does
> have some symbolic value.  And everybody knows where
> it is, even if they've never been to a protest, which
> is not true of One Main.  Vine is heavily trafficked
> during the rush-minute, and the area is open and
> denuded enough that visibility is good to Vine.  Good
> rallying possibilities there.
>
> I think we should check in with PRC, CU Citizens, etc.
> on this.  Presumably there is time, and the checking
> is good organizing in itself.  Let this be a
> joint-ownership thing.  AWARE began its life as a call
> for coalition; let's go there again.  I volunteer for
> this.
>
> I also think we should have a short handout ready on
> why attacking Iran is illegal, immoral and stupid.
> Who can do it?
>
> I can do press if folks want.
>
> In the meantime we should also be making new signs,
> writing letters to the editor, probably a public
> square piece ... should we investigate whether anyone
> is doing  "Don't Attack Iran" yard signs like before?
> What else?
>
> Ricky
>
> --- Robert Naiman  <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Maybe the federal courthouse in Urbana deserves a
> > second look.
> >
> > - it's centrally located, at least in terms of
> > urbana
> > - everybody knows where it is
> > - it's easy to get to by bus or bicycle
> > - mobbing it, perhaps even shutting it down for a
> > while, wouldn't
> > inconvenience the broad public
> > - it symbolizes "justice"
> > - but also suggests "prison"
> > - we'd get to deal with the urbana police, which i
> > personally prefer to
> > dealing with the champaign police. such a protest in
> > urbana might well
> > involve e.g. former council members, so the urbana
> > police might think twice
> > about manhandling people.
> >
> >
> > On 4/21/06, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Contemplating the remarkable complacency with
> > which people
> > > seem to be regarding the plans of the madmen
> > running our
> > > government for an attack on Iran -- an attack
> > contrary to the
> > > US Constitution (even the War Powers Resolution
> > doesn't
> > > justify it), the UN Charter (Article 51), and the
> > Nuremberg
> > > principles (on the grounds of which we hanged
> > Germans leaders
> > > after WWII) -- I began to think, Suppose an attack
> > is
> > > announced: where do we assemble in this town to
> > protest?
> > >
> > > We have no obvious public square.  (Our democracy
> > is so
> > > eviscerated that here the phrase refers to a radio
> > program.)
> > > The places that symbolize the federal government
> > are in the
> > > federal city, Washington, or in its neighborhood
> > (the
> > > Pentagon), so perhaps the thing to do is to flood
> > that city.
> > > There seems little sense in demonstrating locally
> > at places
> > > associated with state or local government.
> > >
> > > I could think of four places that might represent
> > the federal
> > > government in Champaign-Urbana:
> > >        --the joint military recruiting office at
> > 1615 W.
> > >        Springfield Ave. Champaign;
> > >        --the federal court house at 201 S. Vine
> > Urbana;
> > >        --the FBI office at 116 N. Chestnut
> > Champaign; and
> > >        --our Congressional representative's office
> > at 2004
> > >        Fox Drive Champaign.
> > >
> > > Of the four, only Johnson's office seems a
> > reasonable
> > > possibility, and it's (no doubt purposely) out of
> > the way.
> > > Downtown [sic] Champaign or Urbana (perhaps by the
> > IMC) seem
> > > fairly pointless.  Maybe the UI quad is the best
> > place to
> > > exercise our "right ... peaceably to assemble, and
> > to petition
> > > the Government for a redress of grievances" in
> > such an event.
> > > But it seems a bit silly.  Thoughts?   --CGE
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Peace-discuss mailing list
> > > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> > >
> >
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > RN
> > > _______________________________________________
> > Peace-discuss mailing list
> > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> >
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> >
>
>
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--
RN
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