[Peace] peace and justice events in April 2012 that I know about so far

[Karen Medina]

[Below is a list of peace and justice events that I know about for the
month of April 2012. I find this list very heartening. There are
people like you who care and are out there to change injustice into
justice. We need each other like never before. -karen medina]

"Countering Torture"
Sunday, April 1 / ACLU brunch
11 AM
12:15 PM - business meeting and speaker
Milo's Restaurant / 2870 S. Philo Rd., Urbana, Illinois
The speaker is a black activist lawyer, Standish Willis, who
spearheaded taking the Jon Burge case of police torture in Chicago to
the United Nations.
To make reservations: http://www.aclu-cu.org/reserve.htm


Film: "Office Space" (1999)
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
7pm
100 Gregory Hall /  810 South Wright Street Urbana, IL
 This comedy, written and directed by Mike Judge, has become a cult
classic for its rendition of life in the cubicles of corporate
America. Ever wanted to take a baseball bat to the copy machine? Turns
out you weren't the only one...

Blacks in Latin America
Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012
7pm Gregory Hall, room 112


“The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic History from Below”
Marcus Rediker (Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History,
Department of History, University of Pittsburgh)
[Moderator: Robert Morrissey (Department of History, UI)]
Thursday, April 5, 2012
7:35 p.m.
I Hotel and Conference Center, Ballroom BC
1900 South First Street, Champaign
This event is free and open to the public.
[This is the keynote address for a spring symposium called "Empires
from Below" April 5-6, 2012 organized by the Illinois Program for
Research in the Humanities. -
http://www.iprh.illinois.edu/news/empire/default.aspx ]


The Making of a Successful Multilateral Environmental Agreement:
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and its
Montreal Protocol
Friday, April 6, 2012
12 noon
YMCA Friday Forum / 1001 South Wright Street | Champaign, Illinois
Sotiria Koloutsou-Vakakis, Lecturer and Research Scientist, Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois
This lecture invites you to think and discuss on a number of
questions, such as: How are multilateral environmental agreements
(MEAs) made? How does that affect their success? What is the yardstick
for measuring MEA success? Why is the Montreal Protocol an
effectiveness outlier among numerous MEAs of doubtful effectiveness?
Why is it so hard to transfer the lessons learned from the Montreal
Protocol to other MEAs?

Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Mass incarceration reading group meeting
at the IMC, 202 S. Broadway, Urbana, Illinois / the zine room downstairs

Occupy Lunch
Saturday, April 7 at 12:30pm
Location: West Side Park, Champaign (the park between University and
Church / State and Elm)

monthly anti-war demonstration / Occupy a Street Corner
Saturday, April 7 at 2pm to 4pm
Location: corner of Main St and Neil St, Champaign

Township Meetings in Illinois
April 10, 2012

Annual Town Meeting / City of Champaign Township
April 10, 2012 ,
7pm
City of Champaign City Building
            City Council Chambers
            First Floor, East Wing
            102 North Neil Street
            Champaign, IL  61820

Annual Town Meeting / Cunningham Township Meeting in Urbana
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
[6pm? 8pm?]
City of Urbana
400 South Vine Street

Invisible War | Sexual Assault Awareness Month Film Screening
Thursday, April 12 at 7:30am
Location: Allen Hall's Main Lounge | 1005 W. Gregory Drive Urbana, IL 61820

Debts and Deficits: Combating Recession in the U.S., Latin America, and Eurozone
Friday, April 13
12 Noon
YMCA Friday Forum / 1001 South Wright Street | Champaign, IL
Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Mark Weisbrot offers a look at how each of the major regional world
economies is fairing through the current economic recession as well as
the approaches implemented to stop it.  Who has the best plan and will
it be enough?

Scott Walker (Wisconsin Governor who does not believe in collective
bargaining) is visiting Springfield, Illinois on Tuesday, April 17
He was invited by the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce to their
"Employer Action Day"
[Walker, who faces a recall election, may also be the focus of a
federal corruption investigation and is responsible for spearheading
the Wisconsin effort that destroyed worker rights]
All of this begs the question, "Is this what Illinois business leaders
want?"  We can’t answer that question. We can say that we in the labor
movement won’t sit idly by.

Tuesday, April 17 7pm "Last Train Home" (2009), 66 Library
  This award-winning documentary focuses on the everyday struggles of
Chinese factory workers and their families. The film, which follows a
single family, tells the story of working people - according to Roger
Ebert - "like stunning, grieving fiction."

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels visits Champaign, Illinois
[The Champaign County Republican Party has announced that Indiana
Governor Mitch Daniels will headline their annual Lincoln Day Dinner
at 7:00pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at the Hilton Garden Conference
Center in Champaign.]
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Again, the labor movement won't sit idly by.
* In the 2005 session of the General Assembly, Daniels and
Republicans, with some Democrat support, successfully enacted a voter
registration law that required voters to show a government issued
photo ID before they could be permitted to vote. The law was the first
of its kind in the United States, and many civil rights organizations,
like the ACLU, opposed the bill saying it would unfairly impact
minorities, poor, and elderly voters who may be unable to afford an ID
or may be physically unable to apply for an ID.
* In February, 2011, Republican legislators attempted to pass a right
to work bill in the Indiana House of Representatives. The bill would
have made it illegal for employees to be required to join a workers'
union. Republicans argued that it would help the state attract new
employers. Unable to prevent the measure from passing, Democratic
legislators fled the state to deny the body quorum while several
hundred protesters staged demonstrations at the capital.
* In May 2011, the state ended all funding for Planned Parenthood and
all other health service providers who offered abortion services.
* On May 10 Daniels signed into law two immigration bills; one denying
in-state tuition prices to illegal immigrants and another creating
fines for employers that employed illegal immigrants. Several
protestors, at least five of whom were illegal immigrants, were
arrested while protesting the law at the statehouse when they broke
into Daniels' office after being denied a meeting. Student leaders
called for their release, while some state legislators called for
their deportation.
* On March 4, 2009, Daniels signed into law a bill which allowed the
state to mandate the use of syngas through coal gasification
technology

21st Annual C-U CROP Hunger Walk
April 22
www.churchworldservice.org/site/TR/2012SpringCROPHungerWalk/TR-Spring2012?px=1150362&pg=personal&fr_id=14242