[Peace] Anti-war calendar and minutes of 4/20/03 AWARE meeting

Tue Apr 22 22:52:13 CDT 2003

(My apologies for not getting this out sooner after the Sunday meeting -
I'll do better in the future =8-)

Anti-War Calendar:

April 23 (Wednesday): Speaker: Paul Schroeder, Professor Emeritus of History
and Political Science. Topic: "How to Think about Foreign Policy with the
Aid of History - and How We Are Not Doing It". 4PM, University YMCA.

April 24 (Thursday):  As part of PRC's "Day of Action Against the War",
after their weekly noon-1PM anti-war picket at the Alma Mater, PRC will be
tabling on the quad from 1PM - 4PM. They requested to sell our "No War"
buttons (this was granted) and offered to table AWARE literature as well.

April 24 (Thursday): Also sponsored by PRC, a movie showing at the Illinois
Disciples Foundation, 2nd floor at 7PM: "War at Home" - award-winning
documentary looking at the emergence, successes and lessons of the Vietnam
War protest movement at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. See
http://www.frif.com/cat97/t-z/the_war_.html for a review.

April 24 (Thursday):  (NOTE: THIS IS AN EVENT DESERVING OF VOCAL DISSENT AND
LEAFLETTING - contact Mike Simon at msimon at uiuc.edu if you're interested in
attending). Live speaker event:  Robert Tracinski, "The Peace Process War:
How the 'Peace Movement' Created Modern Terrorism"  7:30pm, 151 Loomis Lab
(Directions: north-east corner of Green and Goodwin)

April 26 (Saturday): TWO AWARE street demonstrations. The long-established
"Prospect for Peace" demonstration at Prospect and Marketview (2-4PM) and
also a NEW alternative concurrent demonstration at Neil St. and Marketview.

April 28 (Monday): UIUC Chancellor forum: "The Nation and International
Conflict:  Impacts on the Community, World,  Country and Individual".
Session 3: "Impacts on the Country". See http://www.oc.uiuc.edu/oc/forum/

April 29 (Tuesday): UIUC Chancellor forum: "The Nation and International
Conflict:  Impacts on the Community, World,  Country and Individual".
Session 4: "Impacts on the Individual". Again, see
http://www.oc.uiuc.edu/oc/forum/
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Meeting minutes:

Attendance: 30

Facilitator: Jeff Sowers

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cultural presentation: 5 minutes of Syrian music by Mike Simon
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presentation by Assata Zerai of the Black Radical Congress

She discussed the BRC in general and their anti-war effort in particular.

Some facts:

Assata moved to the area last August
BRC is almost 5 years old
National office is in New York with chapters in several other cities
including Chicago
web site: www.blackradicalcongress.org
BRC is starting to organize locally

handout: BRC's statement against the war
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Carl: news
- recent Arab summit calling for quick pullout of US from Iraq
- chemical weapons in Iraq (or lack thereof)
- Eagleburger comment on impeaching Bush if Syria is invaded
- US wants to use 4 military bases in Iraq
- NYT and Wash. Post: dueling articles trumpeting Rumsfelds' power
- NYT disparages anti-war movement
- recent poll: majority of Americans oppose pre-emptive attacks
- Greg Palast, Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore high in NYT bestseller list
- US seeking to keep UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq
- (more - hopefully Carl will post his usual report)
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Matt Reichel of Student Peace Action:

Matt promoted the Chancellor's forum: "The Nation and International
Conflict:  Impacts on the Community, World,  Country and Individual".

http://www.oc.uiuc.edu/oc/forum/

Events are scheduled for 4/21, 4/22, 4/28 and 4/29

Matt also announced a "die-in" SPA event for noon 4/21 on the quad

Matt also announced (and requested sponsorship for) SPA's 4/28 anti-war
rally at noon on the Quad: "Operation American Freedom: Democracy NOT
Empire". Speakers include Danielle Chynoweth and Joe Moore, who sponsored
successful anti-war resolutions in Urbana and Chicago, respectively. AWARE
sponsorship was granted without objection.
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Events of the past week:

Robert reported on the poorly attended student Republican pro-war event
Andrea noted a recent mailing by Carle which apparently disclosed that U.S.
administration officials have the right to access your health records (!).
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AWARE post-war strategy discussion:

Robert: Let's involve VVAW.
Al: Noted possible parallels between what happened after end of Vietnam war
and what may happen now.
Andrea: Suggested direct consumer action to avoid enriching corporations
which supported the war (e.g. banks).
Mort: Let's start thinking about forming an election strategy - focusing on
getting those responsible out of office.
Carl: Suggested there's plenty to do - perhaps we should just continue to do
what we individually feel is necessary.
Joe: Both political parties failed us - let's work towards development of a
viable third party.
Lois: Suggested putting some energy into existing election reform movements
Carl: In general, continue our focus on foreign policy issues and, at the
moment, educate people about the virtues of supporting UN presence in Iraq
instead of the existing US presence.
Robert: Leftist rhetoric in education efforts can be off-putting to those
who aren't leftist themselves.
Ricky: Focus on education outreach about Iraq, deteriorating situation in
Afghanistan, and other possible future attacks via the Prospect
demonstration, developing the Speaker's Bureau and building on our list of
contacts to grow the movement.
Carol: Promote alternative media to help people educate themselves. Also
emphasize positive, hopeful effect of our events to counter demoralization
in the wake of the war.
Karis: Promote direct action to cut funding for war (e.g. refusing to pay
phone bill federal excise tax). (ed. note: this is already addressed by the
AWARE War Tax Resistance working group).
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Gabe: Finance report
current balance: $1861.91
recent income:
$225 from music/performance benefit
$100 Prospect
$53 meeting

We are short on "No War" buttons - Gabe will order more
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Robert: Suggested a working group for a caravan to the VVAW Memorial Day
event in Chicago
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Working group: Prospect for Peace (Ricky):
attendance: about 60 - we did fill the available space in our usual spot

incident: a passing driver apparently gave the pro-war demonstrators the
finger, and they responded by assaulting his car, breaking a window. The
police, somehow, were slow to notice this (there was a stalled truck
blocking traffic at the time, though).

incident: a journalism student trying to cover the pro-war folks was
harassed and repelled by them and then warned to stay away from them by
police (!). She was very upset. IMC coverage of this was suggested.

Hecklers seem to be getting a little worse.

We should continue to make calls to let people know we're still out there
and to promote the alternative demonstration event on Neil St.

Discussion:
Al: Said he was very happy that the concurrent Neil St. demonstration is
scheduled for next Saturday.
Others (Mort, Carl, Ricky) expressed disappointment that people were shying
away due to the counter-demonstrator nuisance and encouraged people to stick
with Prospect, but also supported the addition of the Neil St. event.
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Working group: Town Meeting (Mort)

There was a meeting of the working group last Monday

Mark Thompson was contacted and was enthusiastic about participating

Brant Hansen of WDWS turned us down on moderating. Other options are being
pursued.

The format is still being debated
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Working group: Socializing for peace (Ryan)
little interest in Pool/Bowling. Other, more outdoorsy options are being
considered.
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Working group: Literature (Ricky and others)
Progress being made on two new documents:

handouts:
Iraq War: Results and Ramifications
This Is What "Liberation" Looks Like
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