Register for World On Your Plate (Fri/Sat @Daemen); and more

716-332-3904      10/8/19                  wnypeace.org

Dear Friends,

Thanks to the many who came out for the Erie County Holding Center (ECHC) Vigil on Wednesday at 4-6pm in front of the ECHC, on Delaware between Church & Eagle. We of course invite you again this week – and to the many regularly scheduled events (see below) such as the Thursday 5-6pm End ICE Terror vigils in front of the Delaware North Building where ICE has local offices. Please bring signs – and determination for real change to systemic violence and racism!

Please register now for the World On Your Plate Conference! The conference, at Daemen College on Fri & Sat, Oct 11-12, is a great opportunity to learn more about food, food politics, and our current issues, with great food and equally great company! Don’t miss it. The conference is free to students, and the low price is also accompanied by scholarships as needed.

We will be hosting a workshop, “Biodiversity, Onenes, and the 99%,” that will be an eye-opener for many, based on info gleaned from environmental activist Dr. Vandana Shiva and her Women’s Biodiversity Conference that Vicki Ross (WNYPC Director) attended in India. Student Valerie Juang will assist. Come see us there.

More news on our 52nd Annual Dinner – besides Medea Benjamin of CodePink as keynote; and WNY Resistance Revival Chorus getting the Alt-imate Activist Award, we will also be giving Valentino Dixon the Emerging Leaders Award! As most of you know, Valentino was just released when exonerated after 27 years of outrageous, unjust incarceration. Tickets are available on our website!

We also hope you can donate items for the basket raffle and silent auction! Please contact us at info@wnypeace.org, and/or call the office 716-332-3904. The dinner is a main source of support for our operations. We appreciate you, your membership, and all your support – needed now more than ever. This is not a practice round – our political, economic, and social issues need the WNYPC principles and spirit. Another world is possible!

Please also make a quick call to your congressperson at 202-224-3121 (or go to our Get Involved drop-down menu, Gov’t Contacts) and urge your House Representative to co-sponsor H. Res. (House Resolution) 152: Calling for a formal end to the Korean War. The Korean War — now 70 years-old — is the longest continuing US conflict in the world. It’s time to end it, and we need your help!

Please join our Friends of Democracy Now! campaign. To keep it on WBNY, we must raise funds. Please contribute to WNYPC – online or with a check sent (and made out) to WNY Peace Center, 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14209, and write in the memo line: Friends of Democracy Now! (or in a note with the online submission). Truth-telling is needed, and Democracy Now! is the one to do it!

And of course, tune in to DEMOCRACY NOW! BROADCAST Live MONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. or streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu.

Please go to our website (wnypeace.org) calendar for plenty more listings, campaigns in the website posts, and info on our facebook page.

Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.

#Unite!     #OneLove
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Events this week:

No More Deaths! – Vigil at Erie Co Holding Center

Weds, Oct 2 @ 4:00 pm – 6 pm

Please join with the WNYPC’s Prisoners’ Rights Taskforce at this regular Wednesday vigil at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). Sheriff Howard is (yet another) elected official who needs to be impeached. Come ahead – All are welcome. Grieving families will be joining us, and people with related lived experience are more than welcome! Please, too, bring signs. Cosponsored by Brothers Doing Better, Buffalo AntiRacism Coalition (BARC), Prisoners Are People Too, and more in process.

Erie Co Leg: Public Safety Committee

October 10 @ 5:30 pm

At Old County Hall, Franklin St between Church & Eagle, 4th Fl (legislative session room). On the agenda is the new Corrections Advisory Board.

World On Your Plate – Restore The Earth!

October 11 @ 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm

16th Annual Conference focusing on food, nutrition, the environment, farming and politics. More at http://www.worldonyourplate.org/ Friday, October 11th, 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. and Saturday October 12th, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Daemen College, Wick Student Center, 4380 Main Street, Amherst, NY 14226 Tickets include all meals and activities. Pre-Registered Fri. & Sat. or Sat Only: $35 | Fri. Only 10$ | At Door Add 5$
students pre-registered & with ID are free.

 

 REGULARLY SCHEDULED EVENTS in the One Struggle, One Vision, One Love:

Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-3pm. Call-in show with Vicki Ross hosting. Also streaming on-line at wbny.buffalostate.edu.

Postcard Tuesdays –9:30-11am, at the Daily Planet Café on Hertel Avenue, just east of Starin. Come to write your viewpoints on current issues to your Congressional reps and various bank presidents about current injustices.  Organized by StandUpWNY (writing materials/postcards provided).

Buffalo Nekanesakt. Indigenous support group/allies. 1st & 3rd Tuesdays, 6:30-8pm. At Burning Books, 420 Connecticut Ave. All are welcome!! Reading group for the Great Law of Peace meets on the last Tuesday of the month.

Prisoners’ Rights Taskforce – Wednesdays 4-6pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All are welcome. Please bring signs.

Resist Militarism! Taskforce – regular monthly planning meeting third Weds of the month, at Isaías González-Soto Branch  (formerly Niagara Branch) Library, 280 Porter Ave, Buffalo 14201;  5-6:30pm.

Interfaith Peace Network, 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month, 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 (@250) Delaware and Chippewa. Bring your signs and spirit of Solidarity. We will not stay silent! #EndICETerror #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE #CLOSETHECAMPS #NeverAgainIsNow

Buffalo Youth Climate Strike – all are welcome 2-3pm at Niagara Square for a youth-led rally to stand up for People and the Planet, and radical change to mitigate and avert climate catastrophe. Bring signs! See you there! This week runs 2-5pm (see above!)

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: Little Africa Culture Club, 356 S. Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY. African Drumming Sundays, 12-2pm.

We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver

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More listings on calendar and in previous email posts.

To subscribe, go to http://wnypeace.org/wp/weekly-news-sign-up/ or 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.

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 Poor People’s Campaign meets 2nd Mondays, 6pm at Raqs Solidarity, 322 Amherst St., Buffalo, NY.

The UAW strike at General Motors is entering its third week, and workers on the line need our support. After abruptly canceling workers’ health coverage when the strike began, GM was pressured into reinstating it. Now we need to keep the pressure on GM to reach a fair contract. GM pays its CEO Mary Barra $22 million a year –  240 times their average worker – and the company brought in $35 billion in North America in the last 3 years. It can afford to meet workers’ demands for better pay and benefits and to keep plants open.

Show your support at any of these Western New York picket locations:

Tonawanda Engine New York 2995 River Rd

Buffalo, NY 14207

Lockport Components

200 Upper Mountain Rd

Lockport, NY 14094



* 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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Two courageous activists were arrested for their work to prevent the outrageously destructive DAPL pipeline. Check it out Here: https://theintercept.com/2019/10/04/dakota-access-pipeline-sabotage/
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Action Alert re Stone Dam Road Pipeline: go to wnypeace.org/environmental-justice/

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– 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! SeeNorthern Access Pipeline Information for more info.

* 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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Vive la Casa, shelter for people awaiting documents and/or sanctuary, still desperately needs personal hygiene products and of course, CASH. The recent large influx of refugees has put the facility under real stress. Please give generously.

jrchc.org/vive

(Checks to Jericho Road/VIVE) 50 Wyoming St., Buffalo, NY 14211, 892-4354.

* LATIN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY

Peace Coffeehouse: The Journey of Puerto Rico, a colony of the USA

October 28 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Speaker Alberto O. Cappas (Poet, Writer, Publisher, and Community Activist. Co-publisher of the  Buffalo Latino Village) on colonialism, Puerto Rico and the current political climate. 7pm-9pm Oct. 28, at Canisius College – Science Hall convenient parking on Main near Delavan sponsored by Peace Action-Canisius, and www.lascwny.org/ and WNY Peace Center http://wnypeace.org/  Free and open to the public
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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!

– Cuba—IFCO/Irma Relief (same address) Phone: 212-926-5757. Please give generously – the situations continue to be terrible for many!!

-Chenalhó, Chiapas—

If you would like to provide much-needed help, go to weaving-for-justice.org

* PRISONERS’ RIGHTS

VIGIL Wednesdays 4-6pm – Too Many Deaths! Too much brutality! Weekly protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All are welcome. Malpractice and maltreatment under the current administration. Deaths at Erie Co Holding Center now at least 26 over Sheriff Howard’s tenure – outrageous!! Please bring signs. Vigil with concerned citizens as well as family members of victims of the maltreatment perpetuated in this system.

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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! Joint Meetings with Veterans For Peace #128, are 3rd Wednesdays of the month, 5-6:30pm at At Isaías González-Soto Branch Library (formerly Niagara Branch Library, 280 Porter Ave, Buffalo 14201).

(Future dates unless otherwise stated: 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.
Their trial in Georgia will start on October 21 – all are welcome! Check out the above websites for more info.

Please call our Senators and Congresspersons to urge them to make sure that the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act includes the amendments passed by the House to . . .

repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.

prohibit military force in or against Iran.

support an end to the Korean War.

prohibit support to and participation in the war on Yemen.

prohibit the sale of air-to-ground munitions, used in the conflict in Yemen, to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

prohibit funds from the Special Defense Acquisition Fund to aid Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates if such assistance could be used to conduct or continue hostilities in Yemen.

prohibit funding the transfer of weapons to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates under the emergency authority of the Arms Export Control Act.

prohibit funding for missiles noncompliant with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

support extending the New START Treaty, and prohibit the use of funds to withdraw from New START.

require that the U.S. military provide Congress with the cost and the national security benefits of every foreign military base or foreign military operation.

require the EPA to designate all PFAS (chemicals with which military bases poison ground water) as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.

require the EPA to revise the list of toxic pollutants under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to include PFAS.

prohibit DoD funding to house any foreign nationals who are in the custody of and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

study potential cost savings with respect to the nuclear security enterprise and force structure.

study cost increases for the W80-4 nuclear warhead life extension program and prevent $185 million from being obligated or expended until the study is completed.

prohibit the use of funds for an exhibition or parade of military forces and hardware.

prohibit the use of funds from being obligated or expended at properties owned by the President or that bear his name.

amend the current statutory prohibition on members of Congress contracting with the federal government to include the President, Vice President, and any Cabinet member.

codify a Department of Defense policy to report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System service members who are prohibited from purchasing firearms.

If you’d prefer to send an email to your senators, please do so.

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#Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver


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More listings on calendar 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 delays!)

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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Si, se puede! We shall overcome. #UnitetheStruggles

Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.