Friday National Day of Action, Human Rights Crisis for Immigrants/Refugees
716-332-3904 7/9/19 wnypeace.org
Dear Friends,
Please join us July 12th for Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to end Human Detention Camps, a few different local gatherings as part of a national effort to bring together thousands of people of conscience across the country to protest the inhumane conditions faced by refugees at our borders and at holding centers, particularly children. There are at least 3 local events: at 7 pm Near the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia; at 8 pm at Bidwell & Elmwood; and also at 8 pm at North Presbyterian Church (front lawn if not raining), 300 North Forest Rd, Amherst. At 9 pm, there’ll be a candlelight silent vigil as in locations around the world.
Our training with Kairos Blanket Training is now open to all members! Please sign up! Kairos Blanket Training, on July 13th, is an interactive lesson in history. The participants are guided by Indigenous Elders as well as trained facilitators who take on the roles of European explorers and settlers. The training is $30 with possible scholarships available. Contact Nate Buckley at 716 881 079. In the conclusion of the event, participants can discuss and ask questions. You can view the website here: https://www.kairosblanketexercise.org/ . A video can also be viewed on the event here: https://www.kairosblanketexercise.org/about/#history .
Also, Camp Peaceprints will be running in July! Camp Peaceprints in Buffalo uses the arts and educational experiences to get its participants involved in social justice and peacemaking, while still having fun. The camp will run for its 12th year from July 15 to 26. The camp is for children aged 8 to 13. We are still accepting applications for camp! Drivers are needed for Tuesdays and especially Fridays camp for the swimming field trips!
Consider endorsing the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign. It is a global campaign which highlights actions that individuals and organizations can take to cut nuclear weapons budgets, end investments (by their city, university, religious institution, bank, pension fund or government) in nuclear weapons, and shift these budgets and investments to peace and sustainability. To endorse the campaign, please send your supporting quote plus a photo of
yourself to Move the Nuclear Weapons Money <info@nuclearweaponsmoney.org?subject=Endorsing%20quote%20for%20Move%20the%20Nuclear%20Weapons%20Money%20campaign>*. We will turn your quote into a meme for social media use.
Also, the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan has returned without problems at the border!
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.
Events this week:
Interfaith Peace Network
July 11 @ 9:30 am – 11:00 pm
At the Network of Religious Communities Bldg, 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo (entrance & parking round back behind bldg). Come for potluck breakfast, planning, and sharing info on initiatives and events for/from the various faith communities and our larger community.
Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Detention Camps
July 12 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Peaceful gatherings as part of a national effort to bring together thousands of people of conscience across the country to protest the inhumane conditions faced by refugees at our borders and at holding centers, particularly children. There are (at least) three local events: (at 7pm) Near the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY. 7-9pm.(at 8pm) At Bidwell & Elmwood, 8pm. Please bring signs and more. (at 8pm) At North Presbyterian Church (front lawn if not raining), 300 North Forest Rd, Amherst. At 9pm, there’ll be a candlelight silent vigil as in locations around the world.
No War on Iran
July 13 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Join Buffalo Antiwar against yet another US war for oil in Iran. At Lafayette Square (on Main by train tracks/recruiting station(s)). Buffalo Antiwar is a coalition of activist representatives from Workers World/Buffalo IAC, Erie County Green Party, BB of USFSP, Buffalo DSA, Veterans for Peace and the WNY Peace Center.
Blanket Training
July 13 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Now open to all members. An interactive history lesson with trained facilitators and Indigenous Elders, using blankets to represent the land of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. If you are interested in having such a training for your group, please let us know! 716-332-3904
Camp Peaceprints
July 15 @ 10:00 am – July 19 @ 3:00 pm
CAMP PEACEPRINTS is a summer camp designed to introduce youth to social justice, while providing them with peaceful conflict resolution skills and exposure to a broader community. It is a two-week long alternative education program for participants ages 8 – 13, with older youth serving as Youth Assistants, running Monday through Friday, 10am – 3pm.
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:
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
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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The CCPA was passed!
– 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 was passed!
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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 priority, 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: 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: Global Fragility Act
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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 athttps://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.
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.