[Peace-discuss] What, then...

Fri Apr 21 11:13:12 CDT 2006

Yes, building a coalition now is a great idea.  I'd be happy to be point of
contact for the Mennonites and other religious groups that we've done things
with in the past.

If there is a march, we might want it to go right next to the News Gazette,
so they won't have to leave their building to report on it. :)

However, I'm wondering if an after-the-fact march really does anything.  In
the end, the only thing that matters is whether Johnson/Durbin/Obama stand
up to their constitutional responsibilities.  How do we get their and their
staff's attention?  A pre-emptive march of 5,000-10,000 people, where at the
end each person sends a postcard to their offices?  I think if a march is
going to actually effect change, it has to be truly enormous and new, and
isn't seen as the "same old protesters doing the same old protests".

Dan

  _____  

From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Robert Naiman

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 10:48 AM
To: Ricky Baldwin
Cc: peace discuss
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] What, then...

Another historical note: when the first iraq war started, there was a march
from then rep terry bruce's office in downtown champaign to the quad, which
involved about 1000 people. we could march from the quad to johnson's office
or the reverse -- the trip down florida/kirby would be fairly high
visibility, especially around kirby/neil. 

check in with other groups: excellent idea. I can check in with IDF/PRC.

perhaps we could do a joint statement to tim johnson now, like the one
organized by the friends meeting on iraq.

handout: i would be happy to work on this. i nominate ricky to assist me.

letters: let's get started on this right away.

commondreams has "attack iran? no" stickers for $5, cheaper in bulk.
www.commondreams.org.

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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