[Peace] Anti-war calendar and minutes of 06/01/03 AWARE meeting

[Randall Cotton]

Anti-War Calendar:

June 7 (Saturday): AWARE tabling at Urbana Farmer's Market at Lincoln Square
8AM to noon.

>>> NOTE: <<< Help at Farmer's Market is earnestly requested! David needs
folks to come at 10AM (and stay till noon) to relieve those on the first
shift (8AM to 10AM). Contact David at davegreen48 at yahoo.com to help out.

June 6-8 (Friday-Sunday) United for Peace and Justice Nationwide Anti-War
Conference in Chicago. Randall Cotton and Robert Dunn will attend as voting
delegates for AWARE. For more information, see:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/conference

June 8 (Sunday): AWARE's weekly meeting 5-7PM at the IMC (Independent Media
Center - 218 W. Main, Urbana).

June 20 (Friday) Lori's first court date, 9AM. Those who wish to support
Lori's legal fight are asked to attend.

July 4 (Friday) AWARE participation in July 4th parade

July 18-26 (Friday-Saturday) possible AWARE tabling at Champaign County Fair

late August - possible AWARE tabling at Urbana Sweet Corn Festival

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

attendance: 20

facilitating: David

Video Presentation (Randall) :  Two excerpts from "The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart"

(Some comedy relief after 3 or 4 weeks of pretty heavy stuff in my videos)

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" is a surprisingly subversive political
satire and interview program in the form of a comedy show. It has a
decidedly progressive bent and is non-partisan, taking shots at both
republicans at democrats. It also relentlessly lampoons the Bush
administration and the war in Iraq. The show always begins with a "fake
news" segment called "Headlines". Think of Saturday Night Live's "Weekend
Update" on steroids, but much more progressive and informed (and much
funnier). That's generally the best part of the show and that's what I
excerpted. Later in the show, Stewart interviews a guest (and the range
spans the gamut here of celebrities and political pols, from Susan Sarandon
to William Kristol). The interviews are hit-or-miss and some of the guests
are just pure entertainment celebrities, but personally, I always try to
catch "Headlines" at the start of every show (10PM and midnight, Comedy
Central, Monday through Thursday).

For more info, see:

http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/

Which currently has a clip on-line that includes what I showed at AWARE (on
Christine Todd Whitman/Ari Fleisher)
---------------------------------------------
news of the week (unfortunately, without Carl)

among topics mentioned:

Susan: Scott Simon, host of NPR's "Weekend Edition Saturday" had an essay
last Saturday in which he downplayed the importance of finding WMD in Iraq
by highlighting the number of deaths in Iraq due to Saddam's regime (without
any context or qualification) and then claiming that Saddam's regime
*itself* was the "largest weapon of mass destruction in Iraq".

(ed. note: The audio clip of this essay is available on the web at a Scott
Simon NPR web page:

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/iraq2003/simon_essays.html

Robert: Ariel Sharon actually used the word "occupation" in language that
strangely appeared rather dovish (ed. note: the odd, indeed surreal, quote
was:

"I think the idea that it is possible to continue keeping 3.5 million
Palestinians under occupation - yes it is occupation, you might not like the
word, but what is happening is occupation - is bad for Israel, and bad for
the Palestinians, and bad for the Israeli economy."

A pertinent article that covered the facts on this from Israel's
(left-leaning) Ha'aretz newspaper:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=297236

David: Sharon quickly backpedaled, twisting the meaning of the word
"occupation"  to refer to the Palestinian people, not Palestinian land. (ed.
note: A description of this backtrack and a summary of the current state of
affairs on this issue is at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5385-2003Jun2.html

(ed. note: By the way, here is a correction to last week's "news of the
week". I had made the following statement in my comments:

"Resistance against the "Road Map" is growing within the Israeli government,
despite Sharon's recent statements in support of it and despite the
Knesset's reluctant and qualified approval."

However, Sharon's government (his cabinet of twenty-some ministers) were the
ones who gave it reluctant and qualified approval, not the Knesset, Israel's
representative legislative body, who did not vote on the matter.)

Randall: The national conference originally called for the end of last month
to choose interim Iraq leaders, then postponed to July by Paul Bremer has
now been scrapped entirely by Bremer. The U.S. will instead now hand-pick
Iraqis who will apparently remain subservient to U.S. military or other
officials. An article covering this is at:

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq-protest.html

100,000+ G8 protestors took to the streets in Geneva and Lausanne, but far
away from the actual G8 summit in Evian. There was violence and extensive
damage from a tiny minority, plus strong police reaction. (ed. note A fairly
objective report appears at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,969545,00.html

The damage and violence is emphasized in the following NY Times report:

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-group-summit-prot
ests.html

Susan: mentioned a Tariq Ali article in Counterpunch (ed. note: comment was
made on this article, but I didn't take good enough notes to recall. Perhaps
the article she mentioned is the following, entitled "Re-Colonizing Iraq":

http://www.counterpunch.org/tariq05302003.html

The Fallujah attack which killed two US military was mentioned (ed. note: NY
Times article on this at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/28/international/worldspecial/28IRAQ.html

Also, here's another report on a more recent attack in Baghdad:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/02/international/worldspecial/02IRAQ.html

An exceptional Guardian article on how Afghanistan is being abandoned by the
west was mentioned (ed. note: The article is almost certainly the following
Observer article by Peter Oborne (the Observer is a part of the Guardian):

http://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,962905,00.html

David: Mentioned a front-page Tribune article on how women in Iraq are
becoming more oppressed after the war, a reversal of what happened in Iraq.

Rich: Mentioned that a recent poll showed 8 out of 10 Americans thought the
purpose of the Iraq war was to remove weapons of mass destruction and
another 2 out of 10 thought the purpose was to liberate the country from
Hussein's regime.

Lisa: Bush's tax bill was signed into law.

Lisa: FCC vote on Monday (ed. note: this, of course, went as expected and
the massive media deregulation was approved).

--------------------------------
Events of the past week:

Noam Chomsky was interviewed for 3 hours on C-SPAN2. David recorded it. The
interview was to be replayed on C-SPAN2 later Sunday.
--------------------------------
Working Groups:

Farmer's Market (David): Weather was lousy - cold and windy. Things were
blowing away. Closed up early.

CO (Conscientious Objector) (Mike): Also tried to table at Farmer's Market
with little success due to the weather. Handout at meeting: A cover letter
from the US government included with "guidelines" sent to high schools
instructing them about the requirement (included in the "No Child Left
Behind Act") which obligates them to send the name, address and telephone
number of juniors and seniors to military recruiters. The cover letter is
signed by the Secretary of Education (Rod Paige) and the Secretary of
Defense (Donald Rumsfeld). Some choice quotes:

On recruiting: "For some of our students, this may be the best opportunity
they have to get a college education".

On military service: "we can attest to the excellent educational
opportunities the military affords"

Also, Mike has been researching the "Troops to Teachers" program, which
gives cash awards to encourage veterans to become teachers in "high needs"
schools. This could be interpreted as an attempt to reinforce what many view
as a "poverty draft" in the US. Mike recently posted an informative note
about this to the peace-discuss mailing list. To subscribe to peace-discuss,
go to:

http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss

P4P (Prospect for Peace) (Ricky): Windy and chilly, but 27 people showed at
our last organized protest for the time being. We've hosted many hundreds of
individual demonstrators over a 7 month period. Ricky was subsequently
applauded and mention was made of the importance of previous organizers
Susan and Kim.

Town Meeting (Linda): Another meeting took place with WILL that went very
well. The event is now set for July 2nd at the Champaign Public Library.
WILL will advertise and plan for attendance of 100. The length will
tentatively be 60-90 minutes. There will probably be 3 different airings.
The theme of the event is "America the Beautiful: Freedom and Security post
9-11. The tentative format is 6-8 panelists, including one from the UofI
Library School, one from UofI Law School, perhaps Mark Thompson (the
counter-protest organizer), perhaps Brant Hansen (of WDWS), perhaps the
Champaign police chief. WILL is choosing all panelists and requested that
AWARE provide one. Much discussion ensued:

panelist suggestion: Stephen Hartnett (Assistant Professor, UofI)

AWARE panelist suggestion: Matt Murray (AWARE-member and librarian)

suggestion: Muslim or Muslim-affiliated panelist

panelist suggestion: Leigh Estabrook (Professor, UofI)

suggestion: Perhaps Irfan Ahmad of CIMIC (Central Illinois Mosque and
Islamic Center) could advise on Muslim panelist

suggestion: If we don't submit an AWARE person as a panelist, then perhaps
we could propose someone from the affected community instead.

suggestion: Others at the University that may be have advice on panelists:
Earl Kellogg (Associate Provost for International Affairs, UofI), Ivor
Emmanuel (Director, International Student Affairs, UofI)

suggestion: Perhaps it would be a good idea to find a way to publicize the
existing direct resistance to the Patriot Act (ed. note: such as the "Civil
Liberties Safe Zone" movement (see
http://www.bordc.org/OtherLocalEfforts.htm )

Financial Report (Linda): current balance: $1629.41, printed report passed
around.

July 4th Parade (Ricky): The theme is "Education: A cornerstone
of freedom". The idea arrived at has one big simple message (for those that
just glance at us or when we're passing by quickly) and some smaller, more
sophisticated messages (for those who take the trouble to look in detail or
when we're moving slowly, or stopped, on the route)

Big simple message: A tank pointed at a schoolhouse with a very simple,
visible slogan such as "More Military $ = Education Cuts"

Smaller, more sophisticated messages: Point out what's missing in our
educations (especially regarding our own history), perhaps with puppets of
radical US historic figures ignored or under-represented (or misrepresented)
in textbooks. Also, to exhort folks to question things (ed. note: including
our administration, hopefully =8-), perhaps based on the slogan "What is
more powerful than a question?"

We still need a flatbed trailer (preferably a big version of what's commonly
called a "hay wagon" - completely flat top, up a few feet off the ground -
like what we had last year). Of course, we'd also need a truck to pull it.
Please help if you can in securing this for us while the working group
follows leads on this as well.

There is a mandatory June 18th parade meeting that someone must attend.

A short July 4th working group meeting was held after the main meeting.

NPR Underwriting (Lisa):  WILL details: a 15-second spot is $12-$15 each
time. The spot must be descriptive, not a call to action. Perhaps we should

do this around pledge time instead of pledging individually. One possible
disadvantage - contributing this way may not make you a "member". Lisa noted
she will be gone for several weeks in the very near future.

A short meeting for NPR Underwriting was held after the main meeting.
---------------------------------------------
Announcements/Upcoming Events:

United for Peace and Justice National Conference (Randall): Will be
attending this conference in Chicago June 6-8. UFPJ is the nationwide
coalition of hundreds of anti-war organizations that organized the US
component of the huge worldwide anti-war protests back on Feb. 15 (500,000
in NY, 250,000 in SF, 10 million worldwide). Will attend in hopes of
supporting UFPJ's effort to band anti-war groups together nationwide,
creating ties between AWARE and other anti-war groups and also to perhaps
get ideas for the possible local anti-war/progressive conference this fall.

I (Randall) inquired to see whether there was any reservation to me
representing AWARE as a delegate (and voting on action proposals, for a
"unity statement" for UFPJ, for UFPJ leadership, etc.). None was expressed.
AWARE funding for this was proposed (which I was originally going to cover
entirely myself). I reminded folks that if another AWARE member comes along
and rooms with me, then UFPJ covers the entire cost of the room. Robert
volunteered to accompany me. Then, AWARE approved covering the remaining
cost (registration for two - $50) without reservation/objection.

I (Randall) plan to provide a full report on the conference once I return.
---------------------------------------------
New proposals:

New fund-raising idea (Jan & Durl): "Peace Not War" is a 2-CD compilation of
protest music that has already raised over $30,000 for UK peace groups. The
CD is now being released in America to support the US peace movement.
Artists include: Ani DiFranco, Public Enemy, Billy Bragg, Midnight Oil,
Chumbawamba, Yo La Tango and more. Details: 25 double-CDs per box at
$125/box, which can be sold for $375 total ($5 cost per double-CD pack, each
sold at $15). All agreed this was a great idea and AWARE will proceed with
this, though there was some question as to whether we would be allowed to
sell these at the Farmer's Market. (ed. note: for full details, see the
Peace Not War website at:

www.peace-not-war.org

Request for help with ads in "The Paper" (Linda): Linda requested help with
placing ads in "The Paper" - we will likely run other low-cost ads in "The
Paper" soon, but Linda needs folks to pitch in with this. Contact
veganlinda at yahoo.com .

AWARE and Anti-Racism (Muata): Muata's initial impression of AWARE was that
we were half-and-half Anti-War and Anti-Racism, but he has found AWARE's
Anti-Racism effort wanting.

Linda: There was a meeting regarding this some time back, but without a
report or follow-up

Robert: We should take the initiative to make contacts within the black
community

Linda: There have been prior attempts to do so, but the response from those
contacted was less than enthusiastic

Muata: Perhaps if I (as an African-American) was the contact, the response
would be better

Al: We do have excellent relations with the local Muslim community

Phil: Perhaps this is just an issue of "critical mass" within AWARE

Ricky: Noted that the "Anti-Racism" portion of our name may have originally
been intended in the context of "racist wars"

David: It is true that we are not an organization like NAACP. Our
anti-racist activism has been in support of Arabs and Muslims in the
third-world and at home in the context of war.

Linda: Suggested another meeting on this be planned next Sunday (ed. note:
Linda has already started planning this meeting - to get involved, contact
her at veganlinda at yahoo.com )

(end)