[Peace] Plan of Action (fwd)

[Matt Reichel]

	If I was in town to attend the AWARE meeting starting about now, I
would push for helping in the following agenda. My feeling is that NOW is
the time to actually act on the "anti-racism" part of the name.
	Hate speech is NOT protected by the first amendment; It reduces
rather than furthers liberty.


	cheers,
	matt





---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 16:02:02 -0600
From: lray <lray at students.uiuc.edu>
To: acjacksn at uiuc.edu, akagan at uiuc.edu, ammoura at uiuc.edu, brooke at shout.net,
     choudry at uiuc.edu, dbhargis at uiuc.edu, kelange at uiuc.edu, lianalan at uiuc.edu,
     rdidehba at uiuc.edu, shalabi at uiuc.edu, skassali at uiuc.edu, v-kann at uiuc.edu
Cc: a-assad at uiuc.edu, alheeti at uiuc.edu, cortez at uiuc.edu, fawdhawi at yahoo.com,
     hadeelassali at yahoo.com, jamusa at ziplip.com, jfoote at uiuc.edu, lray at uiuc.edu,
     m-quest at riseup.net, r-ahmed at ziplip.com, reichel at uiuc.edu, tc-shaw at uiuc.edu,
     vouma at uic.edu
Subject: Plan of Action

PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY to all organizations and people that might be
interested in getting involved in these actions.

As you may already be aware, several organizations on campus have been working
hard the past few days to organize several protests for the week after
Thanksgiving, in response to the racist ads published recently by the DI. We
are protesting not only the racism and ignorant stereotypes promoted by
countless DI articles, pictures, and ads, but also the obvious racist
environment on campus that allows our student newspaper to feel that it is
acceptable to publish in this way. Accordingly, the Democratic Solidarity
Committee has met and discussed what type of multi-organizational,
multi-cultural response could take place on this campus. The following is what
DSC would like to see happen:

Tuesday, December 3rd
--Protest on the Quad, from 11:45am to 1 or 1:30pm. This would include
students/community members standing at the south patio of the Union, holding
posters that denounce the racist environment on this campus, and possibly some
chanting. If possible, we would like to reserve sound equipment from the Union
so that we can have a few speakers from different organizations. Even if we
can't get sound equipment, we do have access to bullhorns. Literature would
also be passed out.

Wednesday, December 4th
--Protest, starting at the Quad around 1pm, with speakers, chanting, and folks
holding signs. This would be followed by a march to the DI offices at 1st and
Green, where a picket/sit-in would be held. Protesters would chant during the
march. There would be a few speakers in front of the DI offices (via
bullhorns), and demands would be placed to the DI (such demands could include,
but are not limited to: 1. Stop publishing the ads immediately; 2. a public
apology). We can take this as far as we want to, with a sit-in at the offices
until the DI staff gives in to our demands, or we could just leave it at a
picket outside the office. DSC would like to see this be the largest protest
that week; press releases would be sent to all local media as well as media in
Chicago. We want to bring pressure on not only the DI for its blatant racism
but also the administration for doing so little to help change the environment
on campus.

Thursday, December 5th
--Protest similar to Tuesday's, with a few different speakers; same time
frame.

--An awareness concert that night somewhere on campus (i.e. Courtyard Cafe,
YMCA), with performers from UC HipHop (already confirmed). This would be a
free concert to raise awareness about various issues, from racism to
oppression to the Israel/Palestine conflict.

We have already spoken with several folks who would like to speak at the
protests, but we still need a few more speakers from a wide range of student
organizations. We'd like to set up an organizing meeting for Monday, Dec. 2nd
(tentative time 8 or 9pm), location TBA, so that all the various orgs that
want to get involved can come out, give input on what they'd like to see
happen and how they would like to take part. The important thing is getting as
many folks out as possible, because this issue affects so many of us.

These stand to be very impactful actions for our campus. We are all in this
struggle together, fighting against racism and oppression; now is the time to
act out against it. We will no longer be silenced by the administration or
those close-minded folks on campus who believe that hate and racism, in any
form, is acceptable. Please respond to this email if you or your organization
would like to get involved.

Democratic Solidarity Committee
www.uofidivest.org

******************************************************************************
The Democratic Solidarity Committee is a multi-racial, multi-cultural, secular
organization leading the Divest from Israel campaign on the UIUC campus.
While we are a part of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, we are also in
solidarity with all oppressed peoples around the globe.  We are an anti-racist
and anti-imperialist organization founded on the principles of equality,
democracy, and justice.