[Peace-discuss] AWARE minutes for 11/25/2007 (long but entertaining, I hope)

[Stuart Levy]

First, upcoming events (some mentioned at the meeting, others gathered later):

    Dave Zirin talk -- Wed 11/28 7:30pm, 319 Gregory Hall, details below

    AWARE Presents meeting -- schedule now set for
	Thu 12/6, 7pm, Kruse home, 2007 George Huff Dr.

    Raad Ismail (who is Iraqi) to speak on "Understanding Iraq"
	at an upcoming meeting of the Campus Anti-war Network:
	7pm Tuesday, 12/4, room 194 Lincoln Hall.

and now...


AWARE minutes for 11/25/2007

Durl facilitated, Stuart took notes.  18 people attended.
(Action items marked with ***'s).

News of the Week (some snippets from Carl's and others' comments):

- US is 'lowering the bar' in Iraq, pushing for more achievable goals --
      no oil-sharing.  Some in Iraqi parliament 'didn't want to renew
      the US mandate'.

- National Security Council report on Afghanistan:
  US troops winning tactically, but they fear strategic failure:
	Taliban returning to places they'd been driven out of,
	already control majority of Afghanistan.
	Karzais' gov't seen as too weak to effect change.

- Musharraf 'rapidly losing support of PK middle class'

- Michael OHanlon (Brookings Inst.) and Frederick Kagan (Heritage Fdn.),
	"We need to think about our military options in Afghanistan"

- Israel (effectively) shipping weapons to Mahmoud Abbas --
	'looking for a Palestinian jailor for Palestinians'

- Econonomist Joseph Stiglitz:  "The Greenspan mess will produce a US recession"

- Pentagon playing chicken:
	"Layoff notices begin by Christmas unless congress approves funding"

- Archbishop of Canterbury: US is the 'worst imperialist',
	wielding its power in a way worse than Britain did during its
	imperial times

- Australia: John Howard is out!  Kevin Rudd is prime minister-elect,
	promising to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq
	(and into Afghanistan?), and to sign Kyoto treaty.

- Guardian says that US is supporting tribal groups in Pakistan,
	setting up what would seem to be School of America East

- New US military command in Africa, AFRICOM, seems to be a
	'new[?] effort to extract African resources under guise of
	helping African development'

- Truthout.org article on zillions of private contractors like Blackwater
   [is this the article?]
      http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112007T.shtml
      Baghdad Bonanza / The top 100 private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan
   Comments:
    If you don't trust your own army, you can hire Blackwater!
    Can you hire blackwater to defend yourself against the US military?


=================================================

Working groups 

Financial report
    $50 to ISO for Dave Zirin's "Welcome to the Terrordome" talk 11/28

    Emergency flyer copies -- Notes&Quotes, who give us a good price,
	was closed for Thanksgiving weekend (but is open again now).

    $99 (!) from 11/24 indoor Farmer's Market 

    $2024 balance


Main Event 
   Coming this Sat 12/1, 2-4pm, usual Main & Neil
	Jan and Durl won't be here -- who can bring the banner/signs?
	Durl will call Ricky; Shara offers to bring them if Ricky can't.

  ***
   Flyer?
	Something on the troops -- suicide rate, desertions,
	    not home for Christmas, ...
	Karen and Carl will put one together & send to peace-discuss.


  ***
   12/15 2-4pm Special North Prospect protest
	in the old N. Prospect place, the Lowe's/Slot&Wing/etc. end of the
	N. Prospect strip.  Not good for flyering -- turn lanes on both sides.

	Close Lincoln Square Market booth early that day, maybe 1pm.


Indoor Market at Lincoln Square
   Nice to see people from out of town.
   Karen's old HS teacher warmly approves.
   One woman bought (one of everything?).
   Was busy until 1pm but nothing much afterward, says Dave H. --
	wouldn't lose much to close early on 12/15.
   
   Calendars are sold out!  Can we get more?
	They're more expensive now - and it'd take a week.
	Not sure whether this was resolved.

   Pamela passed out lots of the free Iraq War / Wrong Way stickers --
	Tim Johnson didn't want one, but almost everyone else did.
	Johnson walked by but didn't stop...  gave us a dirty look...

   Linda W: Lots of copies of Declaration of Independence copies passed out!

   Karen M. - Older couple asked when our meetings are, but we 
	didn't have any of the aware leaflets left.

	CEG - let's do that as part of making flyers for the weekend

AWARE Presents
    Maybe next meet first week of December
	[later set for Dec. 6th, 7pm]

Counter-recruitment
   [This week, the IL High School Athletic Association meets were held
    on the UofI campus, and the National Guard was there to recruit.
    AWARE people attended to counter-recruit: some outside (?) holding signs,
    others inside (the "tent city") passing out leaflets on realities of
    life in the military, and on alternatives to military service.]

   IHSA -- 7 people on Friday, including 5 HS students, says Shara.
	We were only there until ~2pm -- ran out of (about 300) flyers!
	Just stayed on the corner, didn't approach National Guard.
	Though one Nat. Guard person gave us dirty looks,
	most people at their booth seemed friendly --
	civil greetings on both sides.

	One passing guy: 'my friend got screwed over by recruiters'.
	Another wanted to bring a friend any information they could,
	in hopes of keeping the friend from signing up.

    (Report on Democracy Now of a man being asked to return $4000 of his
     signing bonus for having not served enough time -- though he
     was severely wounded in action, losing a hand and an eye, or something!
     This was later called 'a mistake' -- would it have been that if it
     hadn't been made public?)

    Dave H. -- reports of people being discharged less-than-honorably
	in order to deny them benefits

    Jan K. -- News-Gazette published a report, written by a recruiter
	    in Maryland(!), on how military is finding it hard to recruit,
	    how ministers are less inclined to encourage young people to 
	    sign up, etc.  Why did they have to go so far, are there no
	    local stories to be told?
	
	    Recruiters respond to fear (what'll happen to me if I'm sent to
	    Iraq, etc.), with statistics: look how *few* soldiers are hurt
	    or killed.  And besides, look how much worse things were in
	    World War I!

        
    Karen M suggests writing a local opinion piece / letter-to-editor
	   about recruiting

    Gave away 300 flyers Friday, about another 200 Saturday,
	plus more from Colleen Cook -- alternatives to military service:
		how to seek support for college, etc. 

    Saturday at IHSA was a very different story from Friday.
    Some remarkable conversations -- I'm trying to transcribe them here.

    On Sat, Durl flyered outside Nat Guard space -- testing the waters.
	Recruiters took some, responded 'it's a pack of lies'.
	- What lies?
	-- Saying of promises by recruiters that 'not all of them are kept'.
	  We (three recruiters here) take great care not to
	  misrepresent military policy.
	  And, *we* bought this space -- you don't have the *right* to be
	      here to flyer.

	- How much did National Guard pay for the booth?
	--   (they didn't want to answer)
	- It's taxpayers' money, isn't it?

	-- Call my commanding officer.  But since we paid for it,
	     you're supposed to flyer only on sidewalks, not in tent city.

        - We have a letter from Chancellor Herman -- we have the right
	     to flyer.  Call Roy Akre, of UofI police, who knows all this.
	   
	-- No, I'm not calling UofI police, I'm calling Champaign police.
	- Why?  It's UofI territory.
	-- We only work with Champaign police.  They have jurisdiction.

        In about 10 minutes, two squad cars showed up.
	    (more arrived later -- there were about 5 cars at some points)

	Meg, Janet, Roger, [and others] were there nearby.
	   Officer [Swartz] talked with leader of Guard for ~10 minutes
	    then came over.  "I need to talk with your group, where are they?"

	- We're all over.     ... Durl gathered them up ...

        --Swartz: Yes, you have right to flyer in tent city.  But police
		received a phone call that you're disturbing the peace.
		If we receive another phone call you'll be asked to leave.

	- Who called?  What sort of harassment?
		If someone's just offended, would that be harassment?
		Could you tell us what we did?
	--Swartz: No.  You're being argumentative.  If someone calls and
		says there's harassment, police have to respond.
		
	- Look at these people.  Do they look as though they'd be
		disturbing the peace?  Please stay and watch us.
        -- I can't do that.  I have a busy beat.

        Meg asked the officer for his name and number. He gave it.

	-- What are your names?
		D-U-R-L  K-R-U-S-E.  
	     asked birthdates, weights, ...  Durl doesn't know whether others
	     gave their names too.

	Janet: gave her name but couldn't answer
	    Policeman was combative, not interested at all in
		what we have to say.

        Dave H: were they Champaign police?
	   - Yes, no UofI police were present.

		Champaign police never come to campus ... except ...
		  they did so at last year's IHSA too.

	Durl will call UofI police [Roy Akre] and ask whether they
	   were contacted by Champaign Police.  
	
	BobI: could you call UofI police and complain that the
	       Champaign police were harassing *you* within *their*
	       jurisdiction?  

        Janet W:
	    Policeman said he had received *two* complaints.
	    She asked him whether he could say what the harassment had been.
	    And if the National Guard offends *me*, could *I* complain?
	    The policeman shrugged this off -- apparently it was a
	    ridiculous question.  
	[Stuart thinks this is important -- he should have taken it seriously.
	 Not doing so is a clear sign of selective enforcement,
	 as if it weren't clear enough already.]


    Shara:
	We had a cool IVAW banner at IHSA -- Nathan and Meg held it up,
	right beside the trailer.  We weren't just flyering, but opposition.
	Another banner read, "You can't be all you can be if you're dead."

    Karen:
	On Friday, National Guard was playing some grim-sounding metal music,
	with lyrics like "Suicidal", or "Like Broken Glass"


  ***
    Dave likes the idea of a workshop on how to confront/talk with the police.
	Maybe jointly with CUCPJ?  
	Who would do it?  ACLU?

    Carl: Invite Champaign police to have their people come speak too.
	e.g. If you're asked for ID, how much must you give?
	What counts as harassment?

    Durl will contact the police and ask.

    Roger: should commander of Guard have called the Champaign Police?
	Is that the image that they want, as part of recruiting
	    kids at a state function?
	If US Military stands for American values, Free Speech, Civil Liberties,
	then what are they doing calling the police on peaceful
	law-abiding leafletters?

    Linda: if there were a picture of this, could caption it
	"Join the army and eliminate free speech"!

    A student from Urbana High asked whether there were more flyers
	like those handed out at IHSA, "What Families Need to Know
	about Military Rceruiting in High Schools and Colleges",
	or C. Cook's alternatives to military service leaflet.
	We had some left -- he took those, will bring them to Urbana High.

====
Student Groups
   Is CAN doing anything for 12/1 protest?
	- They agreed to cosponsor.
	- Eric heard that CAN wants Students Justice in Palestine to join them.

   CAN: author Dave Zirin to speak on 11/28, 7:30, Gregory Hall room 319, on
	"Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports",
	his new book:
     http://www.haymarketbooks.org/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Haymarket&Product_Code=UHPWTTT
   (or see an interview with the authors at)
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jscVDSVgL_Q


Iran
   Dave: 8 of 1000 foreign fighters captured in Iraq come from Iran.
   (If Iran is involved in fighting in Iraq, they don't seem to be
   sending many people...)
   

Anti-torture
   The woman in Saudi Arabia who was gang-raped, and rode in a car with
   an unrelated man, is going to get 200 lashes -- likely amounting
   to a death sentence.  

   US spokesperson's commented, "the rest of the world would find
   that shocking".  Well, yes.
   Hillary Clinton, to her credit, said "Bush needs to take a stand on this".

Blackwater
   Roger: Grand Jury: Probably only 5 of the 17 guards fired shots --
	eliminating 2/3rds of Blackwater participants, so maybe they're
	only 1/3 culpable.

   "The Wheels of Justice Move Slowly" -- this case may be around for
   awhile yet.  When's the election?

Old Business
   *** Katy Zatsick -- $100 honorarium proposed last week --
	accepted by the group.  Jan may wait a few days before sending it;
	DVDs of the Mother's Response to War presentations are being made
	from the recording, and she'd like to send her one of those too.

   Dec 15th protest.
	Anything special to do?
	Can't flyer -- it's all turn lanes out there.
	*** Need to put together an e-mail release.

   [The Kruses] looked over the potential protest site in Potomac,
	45minutes' drive away.
	Funeral home is best place to stand.
	Theirs was the only car going down the street -- not a busy place.

Events of past week

   Commondreams article,
      http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/20/5375/
   on reaction to group students at Jr./Sr. High School in Cocoa Beach, FL
   who began wearing shirts supporting peace, putting posters on their
   lockers, etc.  Other students turned nasty, and so did the school
   administration.


   Health Care protest at Carle on University Ave, Tuesday 11/20
	Grandpa had an appointment -- had to walk over overpass,
	where some Carle staff were looking down, surprised.
	"There's all our friends down there."
	"What are they doing?" "Protesting!"
	"What for?" "Better health care."

     The doors were locked, with glaring security guards.
     CCHCC people (Claudia Lenhoff, ...) prepared a Thanksgiving card,
     but weren't allowed in to present it.

     Complaints from Carle (message to staff?) that the protest
     "disrupted patient care".  It wasn't clear how -- 
     most patients didn't even know what was going on!

     One patient who tried to enter while the protest was going on
     was blocked at first, but protestors assured the guards that
     the patient wasn't with them, and the person was admitted.

  ***
    Shara: The Uni High Activism Club is trying to get speakers on
	health care and suggestions for topics -- might be done at
	Channing Murray Foundation.  Know anyone?