{news} Fw: AFSC Community Calendar 7-6-05
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----- Original Message -----
From: AFSC Connecticut
To: edubrule at sbcglobal.net
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 4:01 PM
Subject: AFSC Community Calendar 7-6-05
American Friends Service Committee Connecticut
Community Calendar 7-6-05
Friends,
Please find our regular CT Area Community Calendar of events below.
We have the opportunity this Thursday, July 7th, to meet with Congressman John Larson to discuss the Iraq War.
At this time we are finally begining to see some political winds shift against the continued war and occupation of Iraq (see Medea Benjamin's article at bottom), this is an important opportunity to make our voices heard to Bring Our Troops Home Now.
The public forum will be held at West Hartford Town Hall, 50 South Main Street from 7-9pm. I am pasting Congressman Larson's invitation below. I hope you can make it.
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Dear Constituent:
As frustration with our present course in Iraq increases, I am writing to invite you to another town hall meeting on Thursday evening, July 7. The meeting will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the West Hartford Town Hall.
Recent polls have revealed that public support for the war in Iraq is eroding and that the majority of Americans support withdrawing some or all of our 140,000 troops. Meanwhile, members of Congress have stepped up calls for a timetable or a clearly-defined exit
strategy.
In response, I wish to talk about the direction we should be taking in Iraq with residents of the First District. The effects and costs of our establishing a free and democratic state in Iraq will reverberate well into future, not only for the soldiers fighting there and their families but our nation as a whole.
So please join me to share your thoughts on this critical issue.
For more information, please call (860) 278-8888.
Sincerely,
John Larson
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Wednesday, July 6th
Friendship Caravan to Cuba Comes to Hartford
Fundraising event
6-8:30pm
Central Baptist Church
457 Main St., Hartford, CT
Come to a special evening of food, music, fun, solidarity and fellowship as the Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba welcomes the 16th Friendshipment Caravanistas on their trip from Canada to Mexico, and then on to Cuba. The US embargo of Cuba causes shortages of food, medicine and other important supplies for eleven million people. This embargo is an immoral policy that uses hunger and disease as political weapons. This will be the sixteenth time that Pastors for Peace has organized a Friendshipment challenge to this attack upon the people of Cuba.
Admission: $10/ children $5
$25 sponsor/$100 patron/$400 caravanista
Material aid will be collected at the event. Please consider bringing school supplies, vitamins, or powdered milk. For more information call: 860.688.5418 or email: ecoalitiononcuba at yahoo.com
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THURSDAY, JULY 7
7 - 9 p.m.
The War in IRAQ
A Town Hall Forum
With CONGRESSMAN JOHN LARSON
Town Hall Auditorium
50 South Main Street,
West Hartford
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Tuesday, July 12th
Support Immigrant Rights
Waterbury, 6:00pm
Exact location TBA
At 6:30 PM at the American Legion (62 Bunker Hill Road) in Oakville (Watertown-Waterbury) the CT Citizens for Immigration Control group will be having their third meeting. Their guest speaker will be Michael Cutler, a former INS agent.
It is essential that supporters of immigrant rights mobilize against the CCIC at their third "public meeting." They have chosen a location -- Oakville -- where they expect to draw more support AND less opposition. Labor, immigrant and civil rights activists in that neck of the woods will need to consider how best to respond. July 12 could be the strongest turnout yet to oppose the CCIC.
Marshals Training Sunday, July 10th 6pm Waterbury (place TBA)
For more information contact The American Friends Service Committee at 860.523.1534
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Hartbeat Ensemble: Hartford's Theater For Active Change Presents:
Middle School
Summer Theater Program
For Youth
Ages 11-13
This five-day summer program will teach youth the exciting art of playmaking in the spirit of Augusto Boal's "Forum" and "Playback" Theater.
Two Sessions
Session One: July 11th - 15th
Session Two: August 22nd - 26th
Scholarships Available
Call for more information 860-548-9144
Also -
Overnight Summer Theater Program
For Youth
Ages 14-19
This five-day program is designed to give teenagers the best theatrical training available
through ensemble building games, movement exercises, and improvisation. Participants will live on a 56-acre farm in Voluntown, CT while creating and producing a one-act
play, in the spirit of Augusto Boal's social change theater.
August 1st - 5th
Scholarships Available
Call for more information 860-548-9144
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Thursday, July 14th
Hartford Stage
"Rose"
7:30pm show
9:oopm Post-show discussion (free)
"Rose," showing at Hartford Stage from July 7-17th, is the story of a Holocaust survivor. A panel discussion will follow the July 14th show with Rabbi Robert Sternberg, Director of the Hatikvah Holocaust Resource and Education Center in Springfield, Massachusetts and Holocaust survivor Agnes Vertes, a Weston Connecticut documentary filmmaker and President of Child Survivors of Connecticut. The discussion will be free and open to the public. Rush tickets for the performance are available 2 hours before the show for 1/2 price, if mentioned at the Box Office. Standing room only tickets are also available for 1/2 price if the show is sold-out. Regular tickets are $25-$45. Tickets are not needed for the afterwards discussion.
For more info about the performance or the discussion contact the Hartford Stage box office at 860-527-5151
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Monday, July 18th
6:00pm
Good Jobs and Living Wages in Manchester
St. Bridget's Church Cafeteria
80 Main Street
Manchester, CT
Meet the candidates, raise issues about good jobs and living wages, hold our elected officials accountable. For more information, please call Erin at Working Families at 860-456-1170.
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Saturday, July 23
7:30 p.m.
Bolivia - Venezuela - Cuba
Charter Oak Cultural Center
Hartford, CT
The possibility of revolutionary change is under discussion all over Latin America.
Join us for a discussion of these exciting events and their meaning for socialist activists in the United States.
In Bolivia, a general strike and popular upsurge demanding the nationalization of hydrocarbons without indemnification has toppled the Mesas government. Tin workers have raised the idea that only a workers and farmers government can solve Bolivia's crisis.
In Venezuela, the Chavez government has begun a program of worker self-management of sectors threatened with de-capitalization by runaway owners. Chavez is openly talking of a socialist future for his country.
Cuban leader Celia Hart has opened a continent-wide discussion of the Stalinist betrayals that led to the destruction of workers democracy and the reintroduction of capitalism in the Soviet Union and China. Her theoretical contributions to the new stage of struggle in Latin America are shaking up political thought from Venezuela to New York.
Speakers: George Saunders, Labor Standard Gerry Foley, Socialist Action
Sponsored by CT Friends of Socialist Action, Socialist Action, and Labor Standard. For more information, call 860-478-5300.
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Friday, July 29
7:15 to 9:30 PM
Art Space Gallery
Hope Out Loud Coffeehouse
555 Asylum Avenue, Hartford
(Diagonally across from Union Place bus and train station)
Good music, performance and spoken word - good company.
Free speech encouraged. Children bring your parents.
The Fourth Annual HOPE OUT LOUD Peace and Music Festival is coming to Hartford on September 11th, 2005.
Begin the celebration early with an evening providing
inspiration for renewal and recommitment as we all HOPE OUT LOUD that a peaceful world is possible.
Come to the Coffeehouse on July 29th to learn more about HOPE OUT LOUD IV -
how to volunteer, have a table or discover what the Festival is all about.
Suggested donation $ 5 - everyone is welcome.
Directions and more information - call (860) 523-1534. Free parking in rear.
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SAVE THE DATE:
Wednesday, August 3rd
7 p.m., New Haven
Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Voters' Right Act
This is sponsored by a broad based coalition including ACLU, CT AFL-CIO 35, COUNCIL, AMISTAD COMMMITTEE, CORD, DEMOCRACY WORKS, LOCALS 34-35, HERE-UNITE, and others. Venue will be announced shortly.
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Saturday, August 6th
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembrance Day
Riverside Park
5:00pm Potluck Picnic
7:00pm Speakers and Vigil
This August join us to support an end to nuclear war in honor of those who suffered from U.S. nuclear attacks sixty years ago.
This remembrance will take place the evening of August 6th, at Riverside Park, off of Jennings road. More detailed information to come soon.
For more information contact: Joseph Wasserman: 860.561.1897
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August 27th
Alternatives to Military Recruitment Workshop
Free and Open to the Public
Hartford Area
Place/Time TBA
Light refreshments served
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 contains a little-known provision that threatens the federal funding of any school refusing to turn over all students' personal contact information to military recruiters upon demand. Students and parents have complained of multiple, harassing phone calls from recruiters as well as uninvited recruiters who come to their houses. For many young people in our community, military service is offered as the only viable opportunity for financial aid and job training.
We seek to provide students with information about additional opportunities to further their educational and career goals by offering Alternatives to the Military. As we have seen by the military's inability to meet recruitment goals this year, more and more young people are seeking opportunities outside of military service.
This workshop will provide skills training and resources for participants to provide Alternatives to Military Service to students in local Connecticut schools.
For more information contact: American Friends Service Committee at 860.523.1534
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Sunday, September 11th
Hope Out Loud IV
1pm at Bushnell Park
Hartford, CT
Free and open to the public
A rally, a concert, a festival, a playground, a celebration, a remembrance, a day providing inspiration for renewal and recommitment.
Now in its 4th Year, the Hope Out Loud Peace and Music Festival began as a response to 9/11: a shared call for peaceful, sustainable resolution of conflict in our towns and in our world through equity and social justice.
We invite you as an individual and/or organization to join us - we are currently seeking organizational sponsors and volunteers. If you are interested in having an organization table at the event, or would like to lend a hand prior to or on the day of the event please call AFSC for more information.
For more information, or to reserve a table call AFSC, 860.523.1534
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SEPTEMBER 24-26
Sat., 9/24 - Massive March, Rally & Festival
Sun., 9/25 - Interfaith Service, Grassroots Training
Mon., 9/26 - Lobby Day, Mass Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Disobedience
END THE WAR ON IRAQ - BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
Leave no bases behind - End the corporate occupation of Iraq
Stop bankrupting our communities - No military recruitment in our schools
We will be organizing transportation from Connecticut to Washington D.C. Call AFSC for more information 860.523.1534
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Published on Monday, June 20, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
June 2005: Phase II of the Anti-War Movement
by Medea Benjamin
For the history books, mark down June 2005 as the moment the US movement against the occupation of Iraq got its second wind. In June, the US public became solidly anti-war, Bush's approval rating took a nosedive, and a significant number of Congresspeople started to call for an exit strategy. This marks a seismic shift from just one month ago, when Congress overwhelmingly passed another $82 billion for war-with only 44 members of the House and not one Senator dissenting.
The continued violence in Iraq, the daily deaths of US soldiers, and the non-stop drain of financial resources has finally moved the anti-war sentiment from a much-maligned minority position to a mainstream one. A Gallup poll June 6-8 found that 6 in 10 Americans advocated a partial or full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and for the first time, a majority said they would be upset with the president if he decided to send more troops. An Associated Press poll showed only 41% approved of Bush's handling of Iraq. With such negative perceptions of the war and 2006 midterm elections approaching, an increasing number of elected officials have finally started to listen to the public and push for an exit strategy.
Thursday, June 16 was a snapshot of just how much the ground has shifted. The day started off with a press conference of strange bedfellows announcing the first bi-partisan Congressional resolution calling for an exit strategy. Appearing together before the press were two liberal Democrats-Dennis Kucinich from Ohio and Neil Abercrombie from Hawaii-with Republican libertarian Ron Paul from Texas and even more astonishing, conservative Republican Walter Jones from North Carolina-the very same congressman who pushed the House cafeterias to scrap "French fries" from the menu and serve up "freedom fries."
Their new resolution, with a counterpart in the Senate introduced by Russ Feingold, calls on George Bush to announce a withdrawal timetable by the end of the year and start bringing American troops home by October 1, 2006. It has no end date for full withdrawal, and has a longer timeline for initiating the pull-out than many of us would have liked, but it's as far as the Republicans were willing to go and it's certainly a step in the right direction. Rep. Kucinich called it "the beginning of the end of the war in Iraq."
Giving Rep. Kucinich's remark more punch is the fact that on the very same day, Congresswoman Maxine Waters from California announced the formation of a new Congressional Caucus succinctly labeled the "Out of Iraq" Caucus, with 41 members already signed on. "We can no longer keep quiet waiting for our Party to speak out against this war," she said in her press release. "The American people are expecting us to provide leadership to end this war and bring our troops home." The Caucus plans to coordinate Congressional anti-war activities, including legislative strategies, press events, liaison with national peace groups, and support for families and veterans against the war.
Thursday also marked a step forward for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who represents the solidly anti-war district of San Francisco but has refused to take leadership against the war. On Thursday she introduced an amendment to the 2006 defense spending measure that would require Bush to report to Congress within 30 days on his criteria for bringing troops home. While defeated, it got an impressive 200 votes.
But the real hero of the day was Rep. John Conyers Jr., the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, who made history on Thursday by holding a hearing on the scandalous Downing Street memo and then hand-delivering to the White House over 560,000 signatures of American citizens demanding answers to critical questions raised by the memo.
The Republicans forced Rep. Conyers to hold the hearing in a cramped basement room, and much of the mainstream press either ignored or belittled his efforts. But Rep. Conyers has tapped a wellspring of support from an angry public that sees the Downing Street memo as the smoking gun proving that the Bush administration was determined to go to war back in July 2002 and "fixed" the intelligence to fit the policy.
The witnesses at the hearing included constitutional lawyer John C. Bonifaz, who said that if the documents were proven to be true, the president may have violated a federal law against misleading Congress, and his actions would be grounds for impeachment. Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq, said the memo confirmed that "the leadership of this country rushed us into an illegal invasion of another sovereign country on prefabricated and cherry-picked intelligence." She chided Congress for handing its responsibility to declare war over to the president, and said that a full investigation into the Downing Street Memo would be a "good beginning for Congress to redeem itself for abandoning the Constitution and the American people."
Two dozen Congresspeople showed up at various times during the hearing to show their support. Afterwards, Conyers and seven other representatives hand-delivered two huge stacks of petitions to the White House, and then joined a spirited rally organized by Code Pink and Progressive Democrats of American on behalf of the coalition AfterDowningStreet.org.
Before an enthusiastic crowd of about 800 people, Rep. Conyers and the other representatives vowed to continue to push for the truth, for accountability and for an end to the war.
It was quite a day, and all of us left with a renewed sense of possibilities and responsibilities. The peace movement, demoralized after the unsuccessful efforts to both stop the war and get George Bush out of office, must lift itself out of the doldrums and into the streets and the corridors of power. We must push our representatives to sign on to the new legislation, keep demanding an investigation into the Downing Street Memo, and pressure the media to cover these new developments in a serious, respectful way. We should march in July 4 parades with the "Bring the Troops Home" message, reinvigorate our local vigils, step up the counter-recruitment efforts that are making it so difficult for the military to get enough new soldiers for this war. And the next big anti-war mobilization scheduled for September 24 in Washington DC, coupled with lobbying on September 26, must be huge.
We've got new momentum. Now let's ride the wave.
Medea Benjamin (medea at globalexchange.org), cofounder of CODEPINK and Global Exchange, is co-editor of the new book Stop the Next War Now.
AFSC Connecticut
56 Arbor Street
Hartford, CT 06106
tel: 860.523.1534
fax: 860.523.1705
kho at afsc.org Visit AFSC CT Online
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