Human Rights Day, #WomensWave and Worker’s Rights
716-332-3904 12/11/18
Dear Friends,
We hope that everyone had an awesome and transformative Human Rights Day! Everyday is Human Rights Day for those working towards this goal. It is important, though, to take time to specifically acknowledge this day, so we’re hoping that you tuned in to our weekly radio show, Talking Peace, Mondays 1-3pm on WBNY, and that we all found ways to be the change we want to see in the world.
Much love to everyone who rallied yesterday for workers’ rights at New Era Cap Co. We must continue to put people and planet over profits and exploitation.
Planning is under way for the Women’s March! Please tell people to mark their calendars! Also, visit wnypeace.org to stay tuned, and please contact us if you would like to be a part of the planning process! This is certainly a community effort, as we come together to plan how we are focusing our efforts in solidarity with women everywhere.
Many great events this week! We’re thankful for everyone’s continued efforts to create change. Soon!
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
THIS WEEK:
Play: Free Fred Brown!
December 11 @ 7:00 pm
At PS 19, Native American Magnet School, 97 West Delevan, Buffalo. A play about community, justice, and self-determination by Ujima & Co. Open community performance. Directed by the renown Lorna C. Hill. Don’t miss it!
Annual Prison Package Project (packing: 10am-1pm; 6pm-done 😉
December 14 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
At Blessed Trinity Church, 317 Leroy Ave., Buffalo; Friday, 12/14, both 10am-1pm and then 6:00 pm-finished. Please join us as we pack over 2000 Christmas gifts for the men and women who will be incarcerated at Wende C.F. and Albion C.F. over the holidays.
Stop the NAPL – Public Awareness Action
December 15 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
At Bidwell & Elmwood, Buffalo. Rally and public info event. NYS denied permits for NAPL, but FERC over-ruled and National Fuel is pushing to build the pipeline (which would transport NG from PA to Canada).
Racial Justice Taskforce
December 16 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
At The Little Africa Cultural Club, 356 South Elmwood (parking in back, off Tupper west of Elmwood; African flags in window). Regular planning meeting – all are welcome.
Christmas In the Woods
December 16 @ 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
At Riverside Salem Environmental Cottage, 3449 West River Rd (btwn Whitehaven & Bedell Rds), Grand Island, NY 14072. A Carol Sing & Potluck. With Nan Hoffman, Joe Tumino, Kathy de Loughry – and all of us!
LASC Annual Holiday Get-together and Idea Sharing
December 17 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
At El Buen Amigo, 114 Elmwood Ave. (near Allen), Buffalo. Treats to share and like minded people to trade ideas with; some short informal presentations on topics ranging from immigration to indigenous rights and LASC’s work in providing dental services in Southern Mexico. But mostly just good fellowship and trying to spread a little joy.
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. All are welcome. No program on Dec 23.
Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-4pm. Call-in show! Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu. Dec. 24 Special Weather & Environment Hour, followed by J. Chamberlain’s Poetry.
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 4-5:30pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All are welcome. Please bring signs.
Interfaith Peace Network 9:15am 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month, at 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY 14209 entrance and parking round back.) Breakfast potluck, planning/publicizing, & discussion. Special session 12/20 with presentation on the the Afghan Peace Volunteers by Vicki Ross, IPN Consultant & WNYPC Director, who just visited them in September.
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. Signs welcome and also usually available.
Stop The Violence Coalition – 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month; 6pm, United Way Building, Delaware and Summer Sts.
Women In Black – Nonviolence vigil, Bidwell and Elmwood. Saturdays, Noon-1pm. Signs also available. (and you don’t need to be a woman or dress in black)
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More listings on calendar (wnypeace.org) and in previous email posts.
To subscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “subscribe” in subject line.
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Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org.
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
The time is now, and we are the people we’ve been waiting for.
And remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCASTMONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio or streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu.
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. Stay tuned for information on future events and ways to get involved. Also, visit and join the Poor People’s Campaign online: www.poorpeoplescampaign.org and on facebook (locally, statewide and nationally): Poor People’s Campaign WNY, NYS Poor People’s Campaign, Poor People’s Campaign.
* EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS
Mark your calendars: **Human Rights Day, UN-declared: December 10.**
* ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Two big victories!!: Judge’s put a halt to two terrible proposed pipelines:
– Keystone Pipeline (proposed for entire North-South in Central US); and
– NAPL/Northern Access Pipeline (proposed to take fracked gas from PA through WNY).
We are overjoyed, yet ever-vigilant. Join us for:
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.
Action Alert re Stone Dam Road Pipeline: go to wnypeace.org/environmental-justice/
* GENDER JUSTICE
Save the Date: January 20, 2019 WOMEN’S MARCH – BUFFALO/WNY. Niagara Square. 1:30pm. Call 716-332-3904 to get involved as a co-sponsor.
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
(Note all-male Common Council – symptomatic of issues!)
* 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.
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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
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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.
* LATIN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY
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
* PRISONERS’ 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 JUSTICE
RACIAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE MEETING: Sunday, December 16, 1pm at Little Africa, 352 South Elmwood (btwn Trinity and Tupper), Buffalo, NY. Parking also round back (off Tupper).
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.
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!
Meetings are 3rd Wednesdays of the month at Tipico Coffee, 7pm.
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 our 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, please do so.
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