[Peace] Anti-war calendar and minutes of 5/18/03 AWARE meeting

[Randall Cotton]

Anti-War Calendar:

May 21 (Wednesday): Fourth of July working group initial meeting. Ricky Baldwin's house, 8:15PM. 606
W. White St., Champaign.

May 24 (Saturday): AWARE tabling at Urbana Farmer's Market at Lincoln Square starting 8AM.

May 24 (Saturday): AWARE's long-established "Prospect for Peace" demonstration at Prospect and
Marketview (2-4PM). This is the second-to-last organized Prospect for Peace event for the summer.
May 31 will be the last organized event (demonstrations may still occur spontaneously during the
summer, just without AWARE organizers, AWARE's stock of signs, etc.) It's anticipated that regular
AWARE-organized demonstrations may start up again in the fall.

May 25 (Sunday): AWARE's weekly meeting 5-7PM at the IMC (Independent Media Center - 218 W. Main,
Urbana).

June 6-8 (Friday-Sunday) United for Peace and Justice Nationwide Anti-War Conference in Chicago.
AWARE may attend.

June 20 (Friday) Lori's first court date, 9AM. Support Lori's legal fight by attending (more info
below in meeting minutes).

June 20-22 (Friday-Sunday) AWARE tabling at Taste of Champaign-Urbana, West Side Park, Champaign

July 4 (Friday) AWARE participation in July 4th parade (planning starts this Wednesday - see above
for details)

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

attendance: around 20

facilitating: Jeff

video presentation (Randall): 10 minute excerpt from "Iraq Post-Saddam: A Whole New Set of Rules"

This production of ZDF (German public television), broadcast by DW-TV (German Deutsche-Welle
government-subsidized international television) and rebroadcast on Worldlink TV (where I taped it),
is a 30-minute documentary travelogue that provides an objective, independent "man in the street"
snapshot account of what's happening in Iraq right now, from Kirkuk in the north to Basra in the
south. The first 10 minutes were shown at the beginning of the meeting, and the rest was shown after
the meeting to those interested.

About Worldlink TV: This is the first national network offering a global perspective on news,
current events and culture, presenting viewpoints seldom covered in the U.S. media. It's
non-commercial and funded by grants, large donors and individual viewer contributions. Worldlink TV
is available in ALL programming packages on Dish Network and DirecTV digital satellite
systems.Worldlink TV is channel 9410 on Dish Network and channel 375 on DirecTV. For more
information on Worldlink TV, see:

   http://www.worldlinktv.com/

---------------------------------------------
news of the week (Carl)

Due to time constraints (daughter graduating this weekend), Carl substituted a reading of an
exceptional article in "Counterpunch", by editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, for his
usual news summary.

The article is particularly notable as a comprehensive recap of the historical details tying
together the decade-plus neo-conservative effort to invade Iraq with the current players in the Bush
Administration (Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Woolsey, etc.).

The article is not yet available on the web, but Carl says he will try to post it to the
peace-discuss list.
--------------------------------
Events of the past week:

Party 4 Peace (Lisa): Party was a rousing success. Many, many attending. Tons of food, music and
fun. Lisa was applauded (literally =8-).

Lori's legal fight (Lori): Lori first apologized in person for reacting the way she did at the P4P
incident back on May 3 and indicated she felt bad about how it may reflect on AWARE. Though she did
not physically attack the pro-war woman taking close-up photos and provoking her, she did grab her
camera and try to destroy it (apparently without success). The charge she's fighting, however, is
"resisting arrest". All witnesses agree she wasn't resisting (and that the cops didn't even announce
who they were when they tackled her from behind anyway). Lori now has a lawyer recommended by the
ACLU who has agreed to take her case for a flat fee of $250. The lawyer feels the charge was
inappropriate and is optimistic about defending against it. Lori's first court date (where she will
enter a plea) is June 20 at 9AM. She requested that folks help out by attending at the court date to
demonstrate that people are concerned and are watching. All present unanimously approved without
objection that AWARE cover the $250 legal fee for Lori.

   Ensuing discussion:

   Carol suggested we think about creating a policy (perhaps even a separate fund) to deal with
future incidents like this.

   Robert wondered aloud whether the AWARE MAP (Mutual Assistance Pact) would cover (or could be
extended to cover) such incidents.

   Al volunteered to convene the MAP committee to discuss this

St. Louis activist oppression (Lisa): Lisa made note of the recent "pre-emptive" arrests and
harassment of innocent activists and activist organizations last Friday, immediately preceding the
"World Agricultural Forum" this past weekend. Interestingly enough, building code violations were
used both as a pretext and as a threat in the attacks. Much detail, including St. Louis
Post-Dispatch articles and references are at the UC IMC web site:

www.ucimc.org
--------------------------------
Working groups:

Farmer's Market (Jeff): Went well. Peter, Gabe, Dave and Jeff participated. $53 in contributions
were raised. Buttons, bumper stickers and literature was passed out. A canopy was purchased to fend
off bad weather.  Signup sheet for next week was passed out. There was a call for a volunteer to
transport the collection of necessary "stuff" to and from Lincoln Square each week (table, posters,
canopy, etc.) David volunteered for the month of
June.

Prospect for Peace (Ricky): Attendance same as last week (about 13). Again, pleasantly uneventful
and this time not even a single stray counterprotestor. About 150 copies of literature were passed
out. Two more formally organized P4P events left.

Conscientious Objector (Mike): Will also table in parallel at Farmer's Market. Next week: Mike,
Avram and perhaps another. CO group may contact Quaker and Mennonite organizations.

Town meeting (John): Contact was made with Station Manager of WILL, Dan Simeone regarding the idea
of a public forum discussion on AM 580. Dan liked the idea. though he mentioned the station was
strapped for cash and personnel. Next step is to contact the Program Director, Jay Pearce. Many
mentioned that Kim Kranich, who is active in AWARE, works at WILL and might be of some help.

Speaker's Bureau (Linda): Speakers Bureau listing is now revised and up-to-date. It's now ready for
tabling and other distribution. Linda also called for ideas on new speakers.

Literature (Peter): Peter has finalized his new tri-fold pamphlet on Labor issues related to Iraq
Reconstruction and copies were tabled at Farmer's Market. Peter passed out copies to all interested
and asked for further feedback/suggestions.

   In ensuing discussion, it came to light that Kinko's on Sixth offers discounts to University
RSO's (Registered Student Organizations). AWARE does have RSO status.

Finance Report (Linda): Current balance is $2030.81. New account statement format was passed around.
Linda may move the account from Busey to save account charges.

Fourth of July (Ricky): This new working group will meet this week to start brainstorming for
AWARE's Fourth of July participation, which is essentially required due to this year's official
parade theme "Education: A Cornerstone of Freedom". First meeting at Ricky's house - 606 W.
Illinois, Champaign on May 21 at 8:15PM.

  Ensuing discussion:

  Lisa: Said we probably ought to be very "careful" with what we do at the parade this year.

  Randall: We should decide early on whether we want to be provocative or not.

  Adrienne: Having participated in last year's event and having discussed it with many parade
spectators since then, it's clear to her that last year's message was largely lost on people (even
progressive folks) because it was just too subtle. Our message this year should be simple and clear.
---------------------------
Upcoming Events/Announcements/Misc.

Randall: Is there still some danger of losing RSO status if we don't act soon?
Mike: It turns out that the pertinent University offices are open all summer, so we have the summer
to renew.

Are there any new updates of the web site?
Randall: I hope to begin updating this week.

Are there any new developments on tabling at Taste of Champaign/Urbana?
Linda: Will have a report next week.

(end)