My apologies for not being clear and perhaps creating a misunderstanding.
I wish to see no reduction in either the Green Party or AWARE, but do see a need for an issue group on foreign policy for all elected representatives.
I would rather that issue group be made up of members of AWARE than others who are less apt to support our views. I also think that disseminating information on public television, and at the market, demos, etc. are good, but they still rely upon the people coming to us, rather than us going to them, and we never reach those in power. Yes, the people have the power, but we don't see many of them utilizing it with mass movements in the streets as they should, so the next step might be personally delivering information to our representatives, especially those issues coming up for a vote. That is exactly what the corporate interests hires lobbyists to do.
My suggestion was to those of us who don't have fulltime jobs, to add this onto what we do with the Greens and AWARE, given we do the research and possess the information, its just a matter of coordinating with those elected representatives we believe might be influenced, and knowing when a vote might be taking place.
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 12:31:13 -0500
To: salevy at illinois.edu
CC: Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net; karenaram at hotmail.com
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Issue Groups
From: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
No, and the local Green party shouldn’t be reduced to AWARE.
AWARE’s remit has always been US war policy and its attendant racism - especially Israeli apartheid (which the US supports because of the usefulness of Israel as a ‘stationary aircraft carrier') and Islamophobia (which the US uses despite the world’s leading fundamentalist Islamic state being second only to Israel as a US client).
The Green party has broader if related goals, well-discussed over the last generation - with various conclusions reached:
"The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) is a green political party in the United States founded in 1984 as a federation of state green parties. With its founding, the Green Party of the United States became the primary national Green organization in that country, eclipsing the Greens/Green Party USA, which emphasized non-electoral movement building. The Association of State Green Parties (ASGP), a forerunner organization, first gained widespread public attention during Ralph Nader's Presidential run. At the state legislature level the party had several members elected, including in California, Maine and Arkansas. A number of Greens around the United States hold positions on the municipal level, including on school boards, city councils and as mayors. The party promotes environmentalism and social justice with policy principles in nonviolence, grassroots democracy and participatory democracy, etc…” [wikipedia]
On Jul 6, 2015, at 11:38 AM, Stuart Levy via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
Carl,
Are you suggesting that AWARE, as an issue group, would be better
off disbanding and joining our efforts with the Green Party?
On 7/6/15 11:03 AM, C. G. Estabrook via
Peace-discuss wrote:
We should be clear what "we don't need a political
party, we need issue groups” means today in C-U.
The Urbana Liberals (for lack of a better term) are
deathly afraid that the reconstitution of the Prairie Greens as
a political party will mean that it will offer candidates for
the seats currently occupied by Scott Bennet and Carol Ammons.
And of course it should. Once those two refused to
vote against the pro-war pro-racism SB1761, promoted by the
Israel lobby, it was clear that the PGreens (and AWARE) can’t
support them and be consistent with their principles. Bennet
& Ammons will "go along to get along" with the neoliberal
(and neocon) domination of the major parties, rather than oppose
them.
But if a political party can be turned away from
what political parties do - run candidates - the threat is
averted. “Issue groups” don’t run candidates. —CGE
On Jul 5, 2015, at 3:14 PM, Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com> wrote:
David Green, please send me your email address as
for some reason it has disappeared from my address book.
Obviously someone doesn't want us talking. :)
Good article, appropriate.
When Stuart made his comment at our Piketty group meeting
last week, to the effect that "we don't need a political
party, we need issue groups." It perked my interest and I
wrote to him after, asking what he was referring to
because I thought it a good idea if in relation to
"advisory" to our representatives, using the Carol Ammons
abstention of the BDS bill proposed, as an example of why
we need this.
Stuart said he was actually just referring to AWARE and
CUCPJ, Sierra Club, etc. In discussion by phone with him
yesterday, I again raised the issue, saying that while I
do think we need a political party to unify, though
supporting good candidates of other parties is necessary,
nonetheless perhaps advisories from within the
constituencies of representatives is valuable. Stuart
replied that Carol already has some but that we can
discuss it.
I am in particular referring to a "foreign policy"
advisory group, made up of the four of us, because I
recognize that many of our representatives are focused on
domestic issues, and there is as Karen M. L. pointed out
last week, a lot of negotiations, and compromises taking
place.
My own experience is that real democracy relies upon many
people being involved to counteract the "wealthy
lobbyists" and the party platform pressure, so perhaps
this is something we can and should consider.
If one of us is not interested then please suggest someone
you think would be worthy and interested.
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2015
16:54:17 +0000
To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
CC: davidwilson44444 at gmail.com
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fw: Review of the 4th of July
Parade
From: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
On Sunday,
July 5, 2015 9:16 AM, Christopher Evans <caevans2 at hotmail.com>
wrote:
WHAT'S THE
FREQUENCY, KENNETH?
by Local Yocal
CHAMPAIGN
COUNTY- We all get it. On
the Fourth of July, we give
thanks for the heroic
sacrifices our soldiers have
made to protect our freedom.
You can't argue with that
lullaby.
Still,...
watching the soldiers in
uniform wave at us during
the parade, it's hard to
muster any pride over the
10-year adventures into Iraq
and Afghanistan. Can anyone
point to the accomplishments
Iraq and Afghanistan have
been? The 9-11 terrorists
appear to have spawned an
Orwellian endless war
draining our treasury of
trillions of precious tax
dollars that could have been
our healthcare, jobs, and
infrastructure. The enemies
shift to keep the thing
stoked. We're fighting the
Taliban, right? Or is it Al
Queda? No wait, there's a
new Super Team now, right?
It's called Isis? Or is it
Isle?
We honor those
who serve and protect, who
don't mind showing off the
fancy equipment our tax
dollars paid for. The
armored trucks, the
confident police officer
performing amazing circles
on his motorcycle while
wailing his siren, the
all-white color guard
marching handsomely down the
street with shiney
old-fashioned rifles still
carries the allure of a
simpler, bygone day when
we're no. 1.
You cannot wave
at a politician without a
smirk of disbelief that all
is well. The fifth largest
economy in the United
States, the nineteenth
largest economy in the
entire world; which is
Illinois, is about to have
its government shut down
because the Governor wants
to reduce worker's
compensation. It was fitting
that the giant air balloon
floats sponsored by two of
the big-money-bag entities
in town, The
News-Gazette and
Busey Bank,...deflated
during the parade route and
the cute, lovable character
sagged and fell over.
An economic sign
of things to come?
Champaign County
has a significant number of
its citizens living in
poverty. The Illinois
Statistical Analysis Center
lists Champaign County as
having 40,484 people living
at or below the poverty line
in 2013, putting our poverty
rate the third highest in a
state of 102 counties.
Watching the sweating kids
of the high school marching
bands, the mind wanders to
the fearful prospect of what
the job market is like for a
high school graduate. Or how
much money you need to pay
tuition, room, and books for
those qualified to attend a
college.
The die has been
cast. Champaign County is
selling its land to
out-of-town investors to
build the real estate (using
out-of-town employees)
needed for a new wave of
wealthy international
students attending the
prestigious university.
Locals need not apply.
And here is
where the police step in.
Protecting the precious
campus from the invaders to
the North of University
Avenue has been perfected
for decades now at The
Police Training Institute
that our police resemble a
military unit. Police have
adopted racial profiling
enforcement of The Drug
War. Cameras
will be on and every move
will be tracked. The court system
punishes poor and
African-Americans swiftly
and heavily as possible.
Police are
soldiers now. Anything can
happen. Dylann Roof and
Adam Lanza have proved
that beyond a reasonable
doubt. The parade was
probably discussed as a
possible target, so no
police walked the parade.
There were no friendly
appearances from Sheriff
Walsh, Chief Cobb or Chief
Connolly. They were
probably stationed at a
designated command central
headquarters coordinating
crowd patrol.
It's hard to look
at police nowadays in the
midst of this year's round
of publicity regarding
police behavior. Across
the 18,000 police
departments nationwide, 3
citizens are killed every
day by the police. Most of
the slain people are
unarmed, most are
African-American. We have
The Toto Kaiyewu Slaying,
and The Kiwane Carrington
Murder to remind us how
jumpy police have become
toward African-Americans.
The police presence at the
parade tests your faith as
to whether these guys are
really on our side. Like
wishing Big Bird was real,
you want to hope police
are the good guys. Another
newspaper arrives to say
different.
Fourth of July
in Champaign County, (as
will be the case with the
Champaign County Fair,) is a
stark reminder that this is
a segregated culture and
those in charge with money
will decide what our culture
will be. Few churches
entered a float in the
parade, few civic clubs, and
fewer still were grassroots
movements of people
advocating for a better
America. The parade leaned
toward a show of force.
A four year-old
walked off the curb and
joined the parade with the
Green Party.
A flicker of
hope remained.
_______________________________________________
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