Racial, Economic, Environmental Justice – & Stop the War Crimes
716-332-3904 716-931-3520 8/14/18
Dear Friends,
Many thanks for all of you who came out to honor Frank Gage yesterday. Being the “Alt-imate” Activist for Peace that he was (an award he received from the WNY Peace Center – as well as the Peace Education Award), Frank would be glad you came out for his family and community. Frank’s family requested donations be made in Frank’s honor to the WNY Peace Center. (wnypeace.org; or snail mail to 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY 14209).
Frank would also thank you, as we do, for coming to the Indigenous Peoples Day on Thursday, August 9, where we focused on the Seventh Generation and a NuclearFree Future! Nya weh to the Indigenous Women’s Initiatives, who lead organize this fantastic event every year.
There are a lot of events this week, many centering on Racial Justice and the very criminal injustice system. Don’t miss our Racial Justice Taskforce Meeting, Sunday August 19, 1-2:30pm at WNYPC, 1272 Delaware (one week earlier than its usual week because of the Elmwood Festival). See more at wnypeace.org – either our calendar for more details and events, or the rest of the weekly update post!
And remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCAST
MONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio or
streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu or
http://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/.
#UniteTheStruggles #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver #LoveisLoveBUF
Below are
– more event listings (see also calendar & facebook page);
– Taskforce items and campaigns; and
– regularly scheduled events – all in that order.
And be sure to go to wnypeace.org/calendar for more event listings – there’s plenty more and additions are frequent! …..
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. #UnitetheStruggles !
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love. #loveisloveBUF <3
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EVENT LISTINGS
Justice & Opportunity, Open Buffalo
August 16 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Come out to help work on justice & opportunity issues, including especially criminal justice issues. At the Rafi Greene CAO Masten Resource Center, 1423 Fillmore Ave, Buffalo. Socializing at 5:30, mtg starts at 6pm.
North Buffalo Flashlight Walk
August 17 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Created last year in direct response to the happenings in Charlottesville, Virginia, this year’s event will start at PS 66, North Park Academy (780 Parkside Ave, Buffalo, New York 14216). Join neighbors, friends and family for a walk together around beautiful North Buffalo. Organized by Unite By Night. Unite by Night is a local nonprofit startup […]
BUFFALO TRANSIT RIDERS UNITED Aug 18th, 2018 from 1 to 2:30 PM
August 18 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Buffalo Transit Riders United Aug 18th, 2018 from 1 to 2:30 PM Niagara Branch Library280 Porter Ave, Buffalo, NY 14201 Accessible by Routes 5, 22, and 40 Together we have the power to make real change now! Join BTRU our Next meeting: Aug 18th, 2018 .from 1 to 2:30 PM Niagara Branch Library 280 Porter Ave,
Racial Justice Taskforce
August 19 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Regular monthly meeting. Agenda items include Kenmore public schools, draft proposal to name new police headquarters for Officer Obertean, __your item here___. At WNYPC/NRC bldg, 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, entrance & pkg round back of building.
VOICE Buffalo Criminal Justice Taskforce
August 21 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
At Voice Buffalo Offices, Tri-Main Bldg, 2495 Main Street, Suite #547, Buffalo, NY 14214. Come to help work on India Cummings case (in which the Commission of Corrections Medical Review Board determined to be a homicide based on extreme medical neglect), bail reform, drastic improvements needed at the Erie County Holding Center
The Radical King Book Club Meeting
August 22 @ 12:00 am
At WNY Peace Center/NRC Bldg, 1272 Delaware Ave (entrance & pkg round back of bldg) Join The Radical King Book Club Meeting to discuss the book The Radical King by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Author), Cornel West (Editor) “The radical King was a democratic socialist who sided with poor and working people in the class struggle taking place in
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TASKFORCES
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Economic Justice Taskforce
BUFFALO TRANSIT RIDERS UNITED Aug 18th, 2018 from 1 to 2:30 PM
August 18 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Buffalo Transit Riders United Aug 18th, 2018 from 1 to 2:30 PM Niagara Branch Library280 Porter Ave, Buffalo, NY 14201 Accessible by Routes 5, 22, and 40 Together we have the power to make real change now! Join BTRU our Next meeting: Aug 18th, 2018 .from 1 to 2:30 PM Niagara Branch Library 280 Porter Ave,
EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS TASKFORCE
PeaceJam at Elmwood Festival
Sat, August 25, 3pm. Come on out with children and youth for a special PeaceJam session at the Elmwood Festival For the Arts. The session, held at the Kids’ Tent, will include a drum circle, as well as inspiration, education and action.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE
No Nuclear Waste over the Peace Bridge
Aug 17 and every Friday @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Join us every Friday from 2 PM to 3 PM at the corner of Busti Ave and Vermont St. in Buffalo NY. Vigil against the shipment of high level LIQUID radioactive spent fuel from Chalk River Ontario to Aiken South Carolina. If any of it spills out, it will be next to impossible to clean.
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Note: Save the Date – Sept 8 for a big Climate Justice Event!!
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Action Alert re Stone Dam Road Pipeline: go to wnypeace.org/environmental-justice/
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GENDER JUSTICE TASKFORCE
If you believe that discrimination against all women should be eliminated, please support enacting the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in the city of Buffalo. Follow this link for more information: https://cities4cedaw-buffalo.org/ and contact your district’s councilperson to urge them to support this ordinance too.
Darius G. Pridgen- Ellicott District- 716-851-4980
Christopher P. Scanlon- South District- 716-851-5169
David A. Rivera- Niagara District- 716-851-5125
Joel P. Feroleto- Delaware District- 716-851-5155
Richard A. Fontana- Lovejoy District- 716-851- 5151
David A. Franczyk- Fillmore District- 716-851-4138
Joseph Golombek, Jr.- North District- 716-851-5116
Ulysees O. Wingo, Sr.- Masten District- 716-851-5145
Rasheed Wyatt- University District- 716-851-5165
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IMMIGRANT & REFUGEE JUSTICE TASKFORCE
Vigil for Victims of ICE Terror
Thursdays, 5-6pm, ICE building on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa. Bring your signs and spirit of Solidarity. We will not stay silent! #EndICETerror #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE
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Calls are still needed to your NYS Assembly Members to ask them to support NYS ASSEMBLY Bill #4050. IF SEAN RYAN IS YOUR ASSEMBLYPERSON, PLEASE CALL HIM! 716-885-9630! ALSO CO CLERK MICKEY KEARNS (716) 858-8785.
The GreenLight NY program restores access to drivers’ licenses to all community members, to avoid abusive immigration enforcement. For more info, please come out to above mentioned event, or go to
https://www.facebook.com/GreenLightNY/; Green Light Petition
Vive la Casa, shelter for people awaiting documents and/or sanctuary, still desperately needs personal hygiene products and of course, CASH.
jrchc.org/vive
(Checks to Jericho Road/VIVE) 50 Wyoming St., Buffalo, NY 14211, 892-4354.
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LATIN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE (LASC)
Vigil for Victims of ICE Terror
Thursdays, 5-6pm, ICE building on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa. Bring your signs and spirit of Solidarity. We will not stay silent! #EndICETerror #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE
Venezuela Sanctions Petition
After the attempted assassination of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, your help is requested. Please sign the petition to end US and Canadian sanctions: https://afgj.salsalabs.org/campaigntoendusandcanadasanctionsagainstvenezuela/index.html. The civilians and general populations are the ones to pay for this kind of foreign policy. The US government needs to stop penalizing the common people and destabilizing other countries. Please sign and share. Many thanks to Shontae Cannon-Buckley for her work on this issue!
| Stand with Sen. Sanders: Rebuild Puerto Rico The situation is still dire in Puerto Rico. Please go to the link below to see what you can do to Stand with Puerto Rico (and Sen Sanders). |
| https://act.credoaction.com/sign/sanders_puerto_rico?t=8&akid=26241%2E8770573%2Evra5l7 |
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As you know, people desperately need our help because of the continuing devastation caused by “natural” disasters (read fossil-fuel-burning-generated Climate Catastrophe) as well as other factors. You can contribute as follows:
Puerto Rico—Go to hispanicheritagewny.org for a full report on ways to help.
We also recommend:
Mutual Aid Community Soup Kitchens Paypal address: cdpecpr@gmail.com run by Giovanni Roberto, friend of MaryAnne Grady Flores (UpstateDroneAction.org and Puerto Rico activist].
The Mariafund.org is another fund governed by many grassroots community groups.
Cuba—Alliance for Global Justice/Irma Relief, 418 W. 145th St.. New York, NY 10031 (for tax deductible). Not tax deductible, IFCO/Irma Relief (same address) Phone: 212-926-5757 Please give generously – the situations continue to be terrible for many!!
Chenalhó, Chiapas—Humanitarian crisis
This article in the National Catholic reporter gives a brief overview of the situation.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/enough-deaths-mexican-clergy-reiterate-chiapas-crisis
If you would like to help, go to weaving-for-justice.org
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PRISONER’S RIGHTS TASKFORCE
Wednesdays 4-5:30pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All are welcome. Please bring signs.
Please join us in promoting the H.A.L.T. Solitary Confinement campaign. Please call your State Senators and ask them to cosponsor and vote for the bills S. 4784. (You can also thank the representatives who passed it in the Assembly!)
Other Ways you can help:
Sign the petition to support the HALT Solitary Confinement Act: https://goo.gl/HLwqbK
Encourage your organization to endorse the HALT Solitary Confinement Act: https://goo.gl/forms/FM2F6DZAcPZp1co32
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RACIAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE
Justice & Opportunity, Open Buffalo
August 16 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Come out to help work on justice & opportunity issues, including especially criminal justice issues. At the Rafi Greene CAO Masten Resource Center, 1423 Fillmore Ave, Buffalo. Socializing at 5:30, mtg starts at 6pm.
Racial Justice Taskforce Meeting
August 19 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Please join us at the WNY Peace Center (NRC Bldg, 1272 Delaware Ave; entrance & pkg round back of bldg) to work on: racism and harassment in Kenmore Public Schools; attending Community Police District meetings (5 districts, monthly); petition to name new police headquarters for Officer Edward Obertean (killed working to stop the KKK almost 100 years ago!); our Better Policing Campaign; and ___ your suggestion here ____.
VOICE Buffalo Criminal Justice Taskforce
August 21 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
At Voice Buffalo Offices, Tri-Main Bldg, 2495 Main Street, Suite #547, Buffalo, NY 14214. Come to help work on India Cummings case (in which the Commission of Corrections Medical Review Board determined to be a homicide based on extreme medical neglect), bail reform, drastic improvements needed at the Erie County Holding Center
The Radical King Book Club Meeting
August 22 @ 12:00 am
At WNY Peace Center/NRC Bldg, 1272 Delaware Ave (entrance & pkg round back of bldg) Join The Radical King Book Club Meeting to discuss the book The Radical King by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Author), Cornel West (Editor) “The radical King was a democratic socialist who sided with poor and working people in the class struggle,” per Rev. Dr. West.
THE CARIOL HORNE WHISTLEBLOWER FUND
The Western New York Peace Center has created a fund for the purpose of supporting police officers who face reprisals from their department from choosing to strictly uphold their oath to protect and serve the community. gofundme.com/cariol-horne-whistleblower-fund. The Peace Center has named this fund after Cariol Horne who saved the life of a citizen, but was fired just prior to earning her 20-year pension. Our goal is to encourage good police officers in following their moral conscience if and when it conflicts with the infamous blue wall of silence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall_of_silence
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Join the #BuffaloLLEP movement. It’s easy.
Join the hundreds of Buffalonians who make up the #BuffaloLLEP movement, asking Mayor Byron Brown to make low-level marijuana arrests Buffalo’s lowest level enforcement priority (LLEP).
People across the U.S. recognize what a destructive failure the 40-year “war on drugs” has been. In Buffalo, the news hasn’t sunken in yet, though, as those living in communities of color & low-income areas are still disproportionately targeted by law enforcement for marijuana arrests. Join the #BuffaloLLEP movement to stop these unfair & harmful enforcement tactics!
Learn more.
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Each Police District has a Chief and Community Police Meeting. We encourage people to go to them and communicate freely on issues of concern. See wnypeace.org calendar for listings, and/or call your District and ask when & where the next Chief and Community Police Meeting will be held.
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RESIST MILITARISM! TASKFORCE
Know about the King’s Bay Plowshares? 7 courageous and compassionate Catholic Workers who went to largest submarine base in the world Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in St. Mary’s, Georgia on April 4th, 2018. They went to make real the prophet Isaiah’s command to “beat swords into plowshares”. Read their story at https://www.kingsbayplowshares7.org/ . Donate, help us organize on their behalf, and agitate and pray for their acquittal. They face very serious charges of up to a decade of prison time, just for reminding our government of the illegal and foolhardy nature of our nuclear weaponry.
Please call your Senators and Congresspersons to urge them to
–vote in favor and cosponsor if possible Senator Markey’s Bill # 200 and House Bill, Rep Lieu # 669, to Restrict First Strike with Nuclear Weapons.
–support House Resolution 922 to define presidential wars not declared by Congress as impeachable offenses. These wars include wars of co-belligerency such as the US role in the atrocities in Yemen.
If you’d prefer to send an email to your senators, you can do so here.
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Our tax dollars are funding massive civilian casualties and the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The U.S. military is providing midair refueling to warplanes, sharing intelligence for targeting assistance, and selling U.S. bombs to the aggressors. U.S.-supported airstrikes target schools, hospitals, and water and sanitation infrastructure. As a result, millions of Yemeni people are on the brink of starvation and are facing the fastest-growing cholera crisis ever documented.
Every day that the war on Yemen continues, America is complicit in aiding war crimes. Call your U.S. Senators today at 1-833-786-7927 and urge them to stop fueling war on Yemen!
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REGULARLY SCHEDULED EVENTS in the One Movement, One Struggle
Riverside-Salem UCC/DC – Progressive program followed by potluck. Sundays, 4-7pm. Environmental Cottage, 3449 West River Road, Grand Island. Session on Bob Dylan.
Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-4pm. Call-in show! Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu or http://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/.
Buffalo Supports Standing Rock Water Protectors/Nekanesakt. Indigenous support group/allies. 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month, 6:30-8pm. At Burning Books, 420 CT Ave. All are welcome!!
Prisoners’ Rights Taskforce. Wednesdays 4-5pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All are welcome. Please bring signs.
Interfaith Peace Network
Next meeting 9:15am, Thurs, Sept 6, at NRC, 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY 14209 (entrance and parking round back).
Vigil for Victims of ICE Terror
Thursdays, 5-6pm, ICE building on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa. Bring your signs and spirit of Solidarity. We will not stay silent! #EndICETerror #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE
Environmental Justice Taskforce
Vigil to Protest the Shipments of VERY Dangerous Radioactive Liquid from Canada coming over the Peace Bridge. Fridays 2-3pm, Front Park at Vermont & Busti, Buffalo. Sign welcome and also usually available.
Fridays – 1st and 3rd of the month; 6pm: Stop The Violence Coalition,
United Way Building, Delaware and Summer Sts.
Saturdays, Noon-1pm: Women In Black. Nonviolence vigil, Bidwell and Elmwood. Signs also available. (and you don’t need to be a woman or dress in black 😉 Special gathering starting at 11am to honor and celebrate Iris Alexander.
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More listings on website (wnypeace.org) and in previous email posts.
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Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org.
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love. We shall overcome!!