Peace, Environment, Immigrants Rights and Prison Abolition
716-332-3904 9/26/18
Friends,
It has been an awesome week for peace! Many thanks to all who came out to the Peace Justice Nonviolence Assembly on Thursday and the International Day of Peace celebration on Friday! We continue to #unitethestruggles.
Also, a big kudos to all who attended the 1st Prison Abolition WNY Conference! It was a huge success, as much collaboration and solution-making was found there. If you would like more information on how to get involved, please contact the Buffalo Anti-Racism Coalition.
This week there are more opportunities to come together in collaboration and work towards justice.
EVENT LISTINGS
An Evening with Aviva Chomsky. September 27 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm. Trinity Church of Buffalo, 371 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202. Aviva Chomsky is a scholar of Latin American Studies who will speak on issues of immigration and labor. Some of her books include “Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal,” and “They Take Our Jobs! And Twenty Other Myths About Immigration.”
14th Annual WNY Environmental Summit – “We are all Partners in Change”. September 29 @ 8:30 am – 12:00 pm. Daemen College Student Center (4380 Main St.,Amherst). Keynote by Erie County Executive, Mark Poloncarz: “Climate Action & Sustainability, 25+ organizations with tables and panel discussion on “Local Success Stories and How to Create your Own”. Free to the public.
Football, Food and Fun(draiser)!! A Tailgate for Clean Air. September 30 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Buffalo Iron Works, 49 Illinois Street, Buffalo, NY. Tickets are $22 pre-sale, $25 at the door.
Our Damaged Democracy: Can We Fix It? October 1 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site, 641 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202. Join us for what is certain to be a lively discussion, inspired by Our Damaged Democracy: We the People Must Act, the recent book by Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove
The time is now, and we are the people we’ve been waiting for.
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.
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.
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* COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
ECONOMIC JUSTICE Please continue to support the Poor People’s Campaign. Current focus: Voter Registration and empowerment. Voter Registration, most Mondays and Thursdays, 5:15pm – 7:30pm. Next Voter Registration canvass: Thursday, Sept. 27, 5:15 pm, Delavan-Grider Community Center, 877 East Delavan Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215.
EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
No Nuclear Waste over the Peace Bridge
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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Action Alert re Stone Dam Road Pipeline: go to wnypeace.org/environmental-justice/
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GENDER JUSTICE
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 *IMMIGRANT & REFUGEE JUSTICE
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 PetitionVive 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)On the fourth Monday of each month during the school year, LASC and WNY Peace Center host a Peace Coffeehouse: hear first-hand accounts of peace actions locally and away, and connect with the community and with activists.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!___ 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* PRISONER’S RIGHTS
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*
RACIAL JUSTICETHE 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 ___
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. ___ 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.*
RESIST MILITARISM!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!********
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 orhttp://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/. This week with Jim Anderson, Ahmad Nieves, and Vicki Ross; on Economic Justice and more.
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 Special meeting: moved to join with Jericho Road Community Health Center to celebrate their Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at their new location – at 1021 Broadway in Buffalo. (Oct 4 meeting will move back to regular time and place: 9:15am at 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 ?
*********** More listings on website (wnypeace.org) and in previous email posts. To subscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “subscribe” in subject line. To unsubscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “unsubscribe” in subject line.
(Sorry for occasional delays!)
Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org. Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love. We shall overcome!!