[Peace] Anti-war calendar and minutes of 4/27/03 AWARE meeting

[Randall Cotton]

Anti-War Calendar:

April 28 (Monday): Student Peace Action (SPA) will hold their "Operation
American Freedom" rally Monday, April 28 noon on the north quad. Speakers
include: Joseph Moore - Chicago alderman who led the Chicago City Council to
pass an anti-war resolution.  Danielle Chynoweth - Urbana City Council
member who introduced Urbana's anti-war resolution. Daria Roithmayr - UIUC
Law Professor knowledgeable on the current state of Academic Freedoms. Ali
Ammoura - UIUC student, member of the MSA, and an ISG member when the ISG
anti-war resolution passed.

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/

May 1 (Thursday):  Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative (PRC) weekly
noon-1PM anti-war picket at the Alma Mater.

May 1 (Thursday): Community Interfaith Dialogue: Faith & Reconciliation. 7PM
at Parkland College Room D244. Sponsored by several groups including Hillel
Foundation and Central Illinois Mosque and Islamic Center (CIMIC).

May 3 (Saturday): Two AWARE street demonstrations. The long-established
"Prospect for Peace" demonstration at Prospect and Marketview (2-4PM) and
also the alternative concurrent demonstration at Neil St. and Marketview.

May 3 (Saturday): Vegan pot-luck at Linda Evans' place 5:30PM (305 Calvin,
Savoy).

May 4 (Sunday): AWARE Non-violence working group will show excerpts from "A
Force more Powerful", the 1999 documentary on the history and power of
non-violence, followed by discussion. 4-5PM at the IMC (Independent Media
Center), 218 W. Main Urbana, immediately preceding the AWARE meeting. (ed.
note: See a review on this film at
http://adfilmworks.com/siff2000/forcepowerful.html . This film was also the
basis for an expanded 3 hour PBS documentary program by the same name now
showing on PBS YOU - Direct TV channel 377, Dish Network channel 9402).

May 4 (Sunday): AWARE's weekly meeting 5-7PM at the IMC (Independent Media
Center - 218 W. Main, Urbana).

October 7 (Tuesday): Noam Chomsky apparently coming to Illinois at ISU. More
info later.
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Meeting minutes:

Attendance: 21

Facilitator: Carol  Inskeep
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Sandra Ahten: Presentation on local alternative media

Sandra first became involved with alternative media with The Optimist (later
rename The Octopus, later renamed CU Cityview).

Currently, she's involved with both WEFT and the Public I

Sandra could be considered AWARE's informal advocate/spokesperson at WEFT

Sandra encouraged AWARE folks to become WEFT members and, in particular, to
become WEFT "Associates" by contributing $40 a year, attending Associates
meetings and volunteering (details are at
http://www.weftfm.org/station/associates ). WEFT "Associate" status is
important because this allows you to vote for members of both the "Board of
Directors" and the "Programming Committee". These two groups collectively
have authority over all programming decisions. The "Programming Committee",
in particular, approves and schedules new shows. If AWARE folks are
interested in effecting an increase in public affairs programming on WEFT,
this is the road to take (of course you could also start your own show as
well).

Sandra also reminded folks that the Public I has NO RESTRICTION on content
and encourages folks to submit whatever ideas they wish.

Sandra also noted that the Independent Media Center website (www.ucimc.org)
gets over 1000 hits a day and really deserves more posts (reminding folks
that posts don't have to be in the form of news articles - merely posing
questions can foster a great deal of quality response)

Sandra described how "The Paper" was recently born as a for-profit community
weekly with the purchased resources of the now defunct "CU Cityview" weekly.

Finally, Sandra encouraged people to write letters and guest commentaries
for the News-Gazette, Daily Illini, etc.
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Carl (news of the week):
theme of the week: WMD doesn't really matter anyway
- report: US tripling size of WMD search effort
- report: US administration sources concerned about lack of WMD evidence
- LA Times: reports internal administration infighting due to WMD conundrum
- millions demonstrated in Karbala "no to Saddam", "no to USA", "no to
tyranny", "no to Israel"
- UK Independent: scathing front page article on WMD issue "So where are
they, Mr. Blair?"
- front page NY Times report (by Judith Miller) - U.S. claims mysterious
unnamed "Iraqi Scientist" affirms everything the administration wishes for
(cooperation with Al Qaeda, destruction of WMD as troops invaded, Iraq moved
WMD to Syria, etc.)
- foreign press report: Children under 15 being imprisoned at Guantanamo,
later confirmed by US military.
- NY Times: Guantanamo prisoners consists mostly of "nobodies" or "presumed
nobodies" - only small number are Al Qaeda
- Kofi Annan referred to US as "occupying power", drawing ire from
administration
- U.S. forces arrest self-proclaimed mayor of Baghdad
- Curious talk at Kansas State University by Ashleigh Banfield, MSNBC
reporter, who expressed unmistakably progressive views on war coverage and
Middle-East issues. (comment: Similar war coverage views also expressed
recently by Ted Koppel in a National Press Club interview covered by
C-SPAN - ed. note: Koppel  reveals he had and continues to have clear
reservations about the war as well).
- U.S. administration moving to set up military tribunals staffed by Iraqis
- Wolfowitz hand-picking Iraqi folks for reconstruction work, employed by
defense contractor SAIC
- U.S. administration now prepping public for lack of WMD evidence
- Enron tainted Army Secretary Thomas White canned by Rumsfeld
- North Korea once again ratcheting up nuclear threat, says it possesses
actual weapon
- $9 billion aid package to Israel set to be signed this week
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Events of the past week:

Robert/Randall: SPA "die in" on the quad went well - one hour in length,
blocking north quad sidewalk. Some static from Union regarding "Free Speech
Zone".

Mike: "Students for Defense of America" teach-in with Fred Gottheil and
others. About 35 in attendance.
(ed. note: Racism strongly refuted by Mike in a Daily Illini "Friday Forum"
http://dailyillini.com/apr03/apr25/opinions/stories/letter01.shtml
and responded to by Fred Gottheil himself:
http://www.dailyillini.com/apr03/apr28/opinions/stories/letter02.shtml
another response:
http://www.dailyillini.com/apr03/apr29/opinions/stories/letter05.shtml)

"Students for Defense of America" lecture by Robert Tracinski:
Used objectivist/individualist philosophy in a twisted justification of his
premise that the peace movement causes terrorism.
(ed. note: about 40 in attendance, Daily Illini article:
http://www.dailyillini.com/apr03/apr28/news/stories/news_story06.shtml)

Peter: Physicians for Social Responsibility forum with Doug Rokke on campus
went well.

Carl: Reported on the 2 campus Chancellor forums which occurred last week -
some good points, some bad points.

Carol: Party for Meredith was wonderful success - many calls for similar
parties =8-)
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Gabe: Financial Report
AWARE funds stand at 2331.91
P4P income: $33.50

In passing, Sandra mentioned $500 seed money would be needed for a new
Postcards for Peace run if we chose to do that again. This project, where
local artist work is made into postcards which are then sold to benefit
AWARE, provided around $3500 last time around.
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Working group reports:

Mike: Tuesday (ed. note: this was today) the AWARE CO/WTR working group will
table at Urbana High School with various anti-militarism messages. Future
possible efforts include leafleting to publicize opt-out procedure for the
"No Child Left Behind Act" provision which allows US military to get
information on high school students for recruiting purposes.

Ricky: Prospect demonstration attendance around 40. This still compares
favorably to the period before the ramp-up to the Iraq war. Apparently, the
counter protestors will have their last event next Saturday. Pseudo
working-group proposal: Picnic on Prospect sometime in the future.

Ryan: New  Neil St. demonstration went well - about 15 people. The
environment has some plus sides (notably no nearby businesses that might
complain or interfere), though leafleting may be a problem because of
smooth-flowing traffic.

Mort/Carol: Town Meeting project update: Format converging on brief
presentation by both sides, followed by questions. Ideas for possible
moderators: David Inge, Tracy Parsons. Ideas for anti-war speakers: Imani
Bazell, Mohammed Al-Heeti, Joe Miller (VVAW). Attempts (by Jeff) to discuss
further with Mark Thompson while at P4P met with interference by pro-war
demonstrators. Venue is not finalized as of yet. Discussion ensued:

 Carl: suggested Roaa Al-Heeti as a speaker, suggested conducting this at
WILL studios
 Robert: had concerns about overzealous pro-war folks attending to disturb
or intimidate. Mort responded that heavy publicity/attendance would reduce
this possibility.
 Lisa: Concerned about the event becoming AWARE vs. Mark Thompson. Also
wondered whether the phrase "town meeting" was appropriate to describe the
event, especially since AWARE (one of the opposing sides) is organizing it.

Robert: Introduced the idea of a fall peace conference where related
progressive organizations (SPA, PRC, AWARE, TFPJ, Greens, IMC) would gather
to discuss ideas and strategies and how to unify and work together better.
Carl and Lois responded that they (and others?) have already been discussing
an idea along those lines for an event tentatively scheduled for Sep. 6
which would include brief presentations on history, politics, etc.

Lois: (as a tangent to the above discussion) introduced the idea of bringing
Ray Hanania to town (ed. note - Ray is a prominent Palestinian-American
journalist, author and comedian based in Chicago - see www.hanania.com) and
it was suggested that he may be under consideration for the Fall season of
University YMCA's Friday Forums. Lois will follow up.

Ricky: Literature. Two new pieces still undergoing revision. Carl noted that
he has the box of existing literature in his possession as he'll be tabling
at the campus forum events Monday/Tuesday.

Linda: Has details on advertising rates in "The Paper". In ensuing
discussion, there was positive reaction to the idea of arranging low-cost
recurring weekly advertisement in this new publication. Carl spoke in favor
of supporting this publication on principle (adding a disclaimer that he
will be writing a paid column for it).

Linda: Speaker's Bureau. Linda plans to call a meeting for this working
group sometime soon.
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