Call Today; Silver’s last day Thurs; Gail Walker on Cuba Fri; Juneteenth wkend
716-332-3904 5/28/19 wnypeace.org
Dear Friends,
The West Side Community Day is doubling for the WNY Peace Center as an opportunity to celebrate and appreciate Silver Light on her last day as assistant director. Please come see her and thank her on June 13th, at 4 p.m. on Auburn and Grant Sts. Many thanks, Silver, for all your help and work. We will miss you!
Please join us June 14th to hear Gail Walker, Executive Director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, speak on U.S. – Cuba relations. The talk will take place at 7:00pm at the Pilgrim St. Luke’s Sanctuary Church, 335 Richmond Avenue, Buffalo.
Gail Walker is the daughter of IFCO founder Rev. Lucius Walker, and a force for peace and healthy international relations and communities in her own right. Ms. Walker’s work – leading IFCO delegations to Cuba and Central America, combined with years as a journalist communications professional – gives her tremendous knowledge and understanding of the countries as well as the need for normal civilized relations between our countries. She comes as the guest of the WNY Peace Center and our Latin American Solidarity Committee. Ms. Walker will be leading the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan leaving the US for Mexico City on June 22, and then on to Havana.
Two caravanistas from Buffalo will be joining 30+ others from across the United States and Canada on the 30th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba. By circumventing the embargo, bringing in material aid, and challenging the administration’s travel restrictions, Victoria Ross and Marie Schuster of the WNY Peace Center endorse: “Love is Our License, Cuba is our Friend,” a slogan of the IFCO Caravan.
Juneteenth is this weekend! It takes place in MLK Park, on Fillmore and Best streets, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is an American holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas, and more generally the emancipation of enslaved African Americans throughout the former Confederate States of America.
The 2-day celebration in Buffalo includes a parade, arts and culture stages, vendors, classes, demonstrations and interactive, fun events.
The African Heritage Food Co-Op has acquired 238 Carlton Ave due to an anonymous donor. Now they are stabilizing it and beginning the build out. If you would like to help to bring healthy food access and options to the Fruit belt neighborhood, call 716-573-1844 or email ahfcinfo@gmail.com to donate. The Co-Op currently has other open locations in Buffalo and Niagara Falls for your shopping enjoyment! Visit myahfc.com for more information. Also, https://www.facebook.com/ahfcbuffalo/
There will be a public hearing on the Erie County Corrections Specialist Advisory Board June 13th. Please join us there to speak, listen or show your support. More information on the law can be found here:
We need calls and emails to the Governor and legislative leaders urging them to pass the Climate and Community Protection Act, the strongest climate bill possible before the session ends. If you can’t go on the trip to Albany on Tues, 6/11, please call. Especially today, we need calls and emails.
Contact Info:
Governor Cuomo: 518474-8390;
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie: 518-455-3791; Speaker@nyassembly.gov
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, (518) 455-2585; scousins@nysenate.gov
Assembly Environmental Chair Steve Engelbright – 518-455-4804; EngleS@nyassembly.gov
Senate Environmental Chair Todd Kaminsky – 518-455-3401; kaminsky@nysenate.gov
(More contact info at wnypeace.org/organizing-in-WNY
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.
Events this week:
PeaceJam Leaders (afterschool group; 8-14 yr olds)
June 11 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
At the Rafi Greene CAO Masten Resource Center, 1423 Fillmore Ave, Buffalo 14211. Come be part of an exciting new PeaceJam leaders group for 8-14-year-olds. PeaceJam is national and international, with 13 Nobel laureates on the Board who all had major impact on the curriculum. The group is working on Animal Rights.
SURJ General Meeting
June 11 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
At Gonzalez-Soto Branch of the Library, 280 Porter Ave, near Prospect and D’Youville College. This month’s SURJ (Showing up for Racial Justice) general meeting will focus on Erie County’s prisons, and in particular the downtown Holding Center, where at least 24 people have died.
“Cultivating Compassion in Your Community” Conference
June 13th @ 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Network of Religious Communities Appreciation Dinner
June 13 @ 6:00 pm
Come celebrate religious diversity and stellar members of various houses of worship and faith traditions. At Samuel’s Grand Manor. Contact 716-882-4793 for tickets.
Public Hearing on Erie County Corrections Specialist Advisory Board
June 13 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Old County Hall, 92 Franklin Street, 4th Floor in the City of Buffalo, New York. Open to the public. Sign up to speak, or go to listen, show your support and be in solidarity.
LASC talk: Gail Walker, Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization
June 14 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Pilgrim St. Luke’s UUC, 335 Richmond Ave (at Utica St.), Buffalo, NY. The WNY Peace Center’s Latin American Solidarity Committee will host Gail Walker, daughter of Rev. Lucius Walker, founder of Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization
Juneteenth of Buffalo Celebration
June 15 @ 11:00 am – 8:00 pm
MLK Park, Fillmore and Best Sts., Buffalo, NY. (Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is an American holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas, and more generally the emancipation of enslaved African Americans throughout the former Confederate States of America.) Come on out for music, community activism, great vendors (good food, great clothes, musical instruments, more!) to one of the top 3 Juneteenth celebrations in the country!
More events on the calendar and the previous weekly news.
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love
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. This week, recognizing/remembering our Fathers.
Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-4pm. Call-in show! Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu. Upcoming on Racial Justice & Environmental Justice.
Buffalo Supports Standing Rock Water Protectors/Nekanesakt. Indigenous support group/allies. Tuesdays, 6:30-8pm. At Burning Books, 420 Connecticut 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, 1stand 3rdThursdays, 9:15am at 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY 14209 entrance and parking round back.) Breakfast potluck, planning/publicizing, & discussion.
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)
Of note: West African Drumming Sundays, 12-2pm, Little Africa Culture Club, 356 S. Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY.
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
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More listings on calendar and in previous email posts.
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Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org.
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.
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Below are
– more event listings (see also calendar & facebook page);
– Taskforce items and campaigns; and
– regularly scheduled events – all in that order.
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COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
* ECONOMIC JUSTICE
The WNY PPC meets 2nd Mondays, 6pm at Raqs Solidarity, 322 Amherst St., Buffalo, NY.
Upcoming Events:
PPC Monthly Meeting, 6/10, 6-8pm, Raqs Solidarity, 322 Amherst St. (just west of Grant St.)
PPC Moral Congress, Washington, D.C., June 17-19. Poorpeoplescampaign.org. *** Please support the NYS Delegation to the congress by donating – bit.ly/NYSCONGRESS. *** Thank you.
Visit us on facebook to stay up to date on events. https://www.facebook.com/wnypoorpeoplescmpgn
Please continue to support the Poor People’s Campaign. The Poor People’s Campaign confronts the four evils of poverty, racism, militarism, and ecological devastation, as well as the distorted moral narrative of this country. 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.
Other Economic Justice information:
Community members are looking for your support for the Securing Wages Earned Against Theft (SWEAT) bill– A486/S2844! The ask: to call legislators to say you support the SWEAT bill, bill number A486/S2844.Right now, when workers win wage theft cases in court, it is legal for employers to hide their assets so that the workers can’t collect. For example, check out this front-page article about a worker who is owed over $300k but can’t collect a dime. The SWEAT bill would allow workers to freeze their bosses’ assets at the start of a wage theft case, so that if they win in court, they can collect the money they are owed. Visit sweatnys.org for more information.
* EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS
Our PeaceJam Leaders After School program began on Tuesday, April 9 and continues on Tuesdays through 6/25, 3-5pm (except when school is out) at the CAO Rafi Green Center, 1423 Fillmore Avenue, Buffalo, NY. Parents are welcome to register their children for this program. wnypeace.org.
New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act (aka DASA or The Dignity Act) seeks to provide the State’s public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying on school property, a school bus and/or at a school function. More information at: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/dignityact/
BOE Meetings
Board of Education meetings begin at 5:30 pm and are held in room 801 at City Hall, unless a venue change is previously announced. These sessions are open to the public. A schedule of upcoming board of education meetings can be found at https://www.buffaloschools.org/Page/85931.
More information on Buffalo Public Schools can be found at https://www.buffaloschools.org.
* 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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Call Cuomo and Legislative Leaders to Demand CCPA
We need calls and emails to the Governor and legislative leaders urging them to pass the Climate and Community Protection Act, the strongest climate bill possible before the session ends. If you can’t go on the trip to Albany on Tues, 6/11, please call:
General message: We need NY to enact the Climate and Community Protection Act strongest climate change agenda possible. We should move to 100% clean renewable energy for all sources including transportation and buildings as fast as possible, with a target date of 2030. We need to halt new fossil fuel projects. We need to support a Just Transition and commit 40% of climate funds to disadvantaged communities. We need enforceable detailed climate plans at the state and local levels, with two-year benchmarks and annual review and updates. We need to give citizens the right to sue to enforce the climate plans.
Other issues that could be addressed are a halt to nukes, a state carbon tax and public ownership of the energy system.
Contact Info:
Governor Cuomo: 518474-8390;
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie: 518-455-3791; Speaker@nyassembly.gov
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, (518) 455-2585; scousins@nysenate.gov
Assembly Environmental Chair Steve Engelbright – 518-455-4804; EngleS@nyassembly.gov
Senate Environmental Chair Todd Kaminsky – 518-455-3401; kaminsky@nysenate.gov
(More contact info at wnypeace.org/organizing-in-WNY
– NAPL/Northern Access Pipeline (proposed to take fracked gas from PA through WNY) is looming again, as the fossil-fuel-profiteers never give up!! However, si, se puede! See https://niagarasierraclub.com/issues/northern-access-pipeline/northern-access-pipeline-information/ for more info.
* 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
(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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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. Of note, Assemblyman Sean Ryan voted against it. Please let him know how you feel about that (716) 885-9630.
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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
Latin American Solidarity Committee website: http://www.lascwny.org/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/LASC-wny/143873822377380/
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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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Other Latin American Solidarity news:
Invest in the children of farmworkers! A donor has agreed to match gifts given through Rural and Migrant Ministry board members through the end of the year. Contact the Rural and Migrant Ministry for more details. www.ruralmigrantministry.org.
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.
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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
Monthly meetings announced on our website calendar. Stay tuned.
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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.
We are glad that Mayor Brown has made marijuana arrests the lowest law enforcement priorty, so people are no longer being arrested for small amounts of marijuana! Thank you, Mayor Brown!! This will go a long way to improving racial justice!
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!
Resist Militarism! Meetings are 3rd Wednesdays of the month at Tipico Coffee, 7pm.
(Future dates unless otherwise stated: 5/15, 6/19, 7/17, 8/21, 9/18, 10/16, 11/20, 12/18.)
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Stand Up for Global Peace
The world is facing a 25-year peak in violent conflict. It is the main cause of human suffering today – trapping millions of civilians in conflict and uprooting 66 million people from their homes. According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, violence containment costs the world $14.3 trillion each year. There must be another way.
Over the past two years, a coalition of peacebuilding, humanitarian, and faith-based organizations have drafted a bill that would address the root causes of violence and fragility. The resulting legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate as the Global Fragility Act (H.R. 1580/S.727). This bill would require the U.S. government – in collaboration with civil society – to develop a 10 year strategy to enhance stability and to reduce violence and fragility around the world.
We know that too much foreign assistance and Pentagon spending is spent on treating the symptoms of violence instead of its causes. By passing this law, the U.S. will be able to more effectively prevent violence around the world and reduce its enormous cost on families.
Today, hundreds of faith advocates will lift up the Global Fragility Act as part of their lobby day ask for the annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days. It is important for YOU to add your voice as well. Together, we CAN build a more Just and Peaceful World for All!
Take action today to support the Global Fragility Act of 2019! https://p2a.co/Mc4rH0c
For more information:
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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/. Also https://www.facebook.com/Kingsbayplowshares/.
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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