Women’s Solidarity March 2pm City Hall #StillResisting Wkend; >1.5k attending, incl comm leaders, elected officials

Written by Victoria Ross on January 21, 2018. Posted in Latin American Solidarity, Resist Militarism!, Talking Peace News, Urgent Appeal

Dear Friends! 716-332-3904; 716-931-3520 1/20/18

The #StillResisting Weekend is in full swing!! We’re so grateful to our 35 cosponsors who have promoted the events such that we now have over 1,000 signed up for the Sunday Women’s Solidarity March!! #wepersistBUF!!

The big event is the 2pm Pre-Luminaries; with the March at 2:30 (leaving fairly quickly) as we keep moving – Andare! We shall overcome – with the community women leaders leading – and some men! Thanks-Giving, Music, More – below!! Or for those of you who prefer, you can go to our website calendar.
#powertothepolls as we #unitethestruggles

Lots of great events and important happening this week (+info below) –
– Mon, A Cancer Vaccine – Cuba/Bflo 7pm Canisius Col Sci Lounge

– Mon, Interfaith Climate Justice Community, Special Guest, St. Joe’s Univ Church, Main
– Tues, Unmasking NYS’s Living Chamber of Death, 11-1pm Rafi Greene Center
– Thurs, Truth Commission on Poverty 6-8pm, At SEIU1199 Main St Office, 2421 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14214. POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN!!!

Hasta pronto!

POWER WITH !!!! NOT POWER OVER!!!!
#StillResisting Weekend ******

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*Sun, 1/21:
– Sign-Making Party for Women’s Solidarity March, Noon-1:30pm, WNYPC/NRC, 1272 Delaware, 14209 (entrance & pkg round back). Materials supplied! You bring the creativity *& humor! ($5 suggested)

– Women’s Solidarity March. Starting at Buffalo City Hall Steps
– 2pm Pre-Event Pre-Luminaries, with a Gnonyoh from Jill Yagwoneest Clause, Tuskarora; and Songs from the Women’s Resistence Revivial Chorus with Drea D’Nur and ensemble.
– 2:30pm; We gather, connect, and march!! Get information and inspiration at stops related to current issues and campaigns – e.g. women’s rights, voting rights, the vitally important Poor People’s Campaign – tba to 4pm. #wepersistBUF. Go to wnypeace.org/womens-solidarity-march/
or facebook.com/WSM and say your coming! 1.5K currently!

Below are
– more event listings (see also calendar & facebook page);
– Taskforce items and campaigns; and
– regularly scheduled events – all in that order. And be sure to go to wnypeace.org/calendar for more event listings – there’s plenty more and additions are frequent! …..

NOTE: WNY Peace Center Membership Fling (Bringing in the Spring) Sat February 17, 3pm, WNYPC/NRC, 1272 Delaware (entrance & parking round back). All are welcome! (tho only members vote). Review the No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting and #UnitetheStruggles.

Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love. #loveisloveBUF <3

We’ll have a diverse group leading the way, as we know diversity is our strength, power with instead of power over is our principle, and Truth and Love is our Spirit.

We’re so grateful to our wonderful co-sponsors! – (and speakers! see below): Activists of Buffalo, Bee Social, Buffalo for Freedom, Buffalo AntiRacism Coalition Official; @Buffalo Parent-Teacher Organization (BPTO), Burning Books; Buffalo Democratic Socialists of America, Citizen Coalition for Wildlife and Environment, Food For All, Indigenous Women’s Initiatives, Interfaith Peace Network of WNY, Liberty Union Progressives, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, NYCLU Western Regional Office, Open Buffalo, Partnership for the Public Good,Pax Christi WNY (Pax Christi), Peacejam Buffalo, Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York Action Fund, Prisoners Are People Too, Inc., @Puerto Rican Committee for Community Justice, Rise Collaborative, Riverside Salem Environmental Cottage, Science Demands Action – Buffalo March for Science, Sierra Club Niagara Chapter, Sister District for Western New York, a NYPAN Chapter, StandUp WNY, Stronger Together WNY, Corp., Temple Beth Zion, UB School of Social Work, Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo, Veterans For Peace VFP 128, We Are Women Warriors, @WNY Coalition of Peace-Justice-Nonviolence Advocates (Peace, Justice & Nonviolence Festival and Walk 2017). Currently 35 and counting ….

to 3:45pm. #wepersistBUF.
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Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-4pm. Jim Anderson & Vicki Ross co-hosting. Re #StillResisting Weekend; Cancer Vaccine; ending solitary confinement in NYS, more – call in!

Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu or http://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/.

– LASC 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm Coffeehouse: A Cancer Vaccine: Btwn Cuba and Buffalo. At Canisius College Science Hall Lounge, with PeaceAction Canisius Col cosponsoring. (L.A.S.C. (the Latin American Solidarity Committee) is task-force of the WNY Peace Center.)

– Interfaith Climate Justice Community meeting, St Joe’s Univ Parish, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm. Guest Presenter: Rev. Peter Cook, Executive Director, NYS Council of Churches, re the Divest NY campaign and moving to 100% renewables.
Tues, 1/23
– Unmasking NYS’s Living Chamber of Death, 11-1pm. Come see a newly-built replica solitary confinement cell, the 23-hour-a-day home of 4,000 New Yorkers, get the feeling of isolation, and learn about this abuse of human rights and how we can stop it. Opening Program will be followed by the exhibit’s being open to the public to experience. At the Rafi Greene Center (1423 Fillmore).

Thurs, 1/25
Truth Commission on Poverty. 6-8pm. At SEIU1199 Main St Office, 2421 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14214. Come out to hear – or testify. Hear from people directly impacted by poverty and related injustices, direct service providers, advocates, faith leaders, and policy experts reflect on these questions. Part of the **POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN**!! More to follow!

For more events on the WNYPC calendar go to wnypeace.org!

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CAMPAIGNS

ECONOMIC JUSTICE TASKFORCE

Please call our state senators and ask them to support The New York Health Act, the bill to guarantee health care to all New Yorkers, passed the NY State Assembly for the third consecutive year in 2017. Call now to help #PassNYHealth in the State Senate. Contact info is on our website
wnypeace.org/governmental-contact-info/). Learn more nyhcampaign.org

Truth Commission on Poverty. 6-8pm. At SEIU1199 Main St Office, 2421 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14214. Come out to hear – or testify. Hear from people directly impacted by poverty and related injustices, direct service providers, advocates, faith leaders, and policy experts reflect on these questions. Part of the **POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN**!! More to follow!
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EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS TASKFORCE PEACEJAM will be starting up again, at Lafayette HS Community School on Saturday 27 January! Stay tuned!
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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE
Action Alert re Stone Dam Road Pipeline: go to wnypeace.org/environmental-justice/

GENDER JUSTICE TASKFORCE

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 TASKFORCE

Calls are still needed to your NYS Assembly Members to ask them to support NYS ASSEMBLY Bill #4050. The GreenLight NY program restores access to drivers’ licenses to all community members, to avoid abusive immigration enforcement. For more info, please see Dec 11 online presentation mentioned above or go to
https://www.facebook.com/GreenLightNY/; Green Light Petition

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.

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LATIN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE (LASC)

Great thanks to the many people throughout New York State who rallied and made visits to state legislators in Albany, on Jan. 17th. Rural and Migrant Ministries of NYS continues to lead this vital effort to right an outrage of effective slavery. We would appreciate it if you would call or e-mail your state senators and especially Senator Jacobs–jacobs@nysenate.gov, 518-455-3240 and Senator Ortt–ortt@nysenate.gov,, 518-455-2024. Those 2 senators have consistently voted against farm workers legislation. I would suggest you do this on Jan. 17th. Thank you for your support and hopefully we will get legislation that will get economic justice to farm workers. Thanks, Wayne Alt

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Witness For Peace has sent out travel opportunities to Latin American Countries. LASC will support interested people financially if they are interested in going. Delegations will be going to between January and June to: Colombia, Cuba, Honduras and Mexico. For more info, go to www.witnessforpeace.org or elise@witnessforpeace.org or 202-547-6112
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Stand with Sen. Sanders: Rebuild Puerto Rico
The situation is still dire in Puerto Rico. Please go to the link below to see what you can do to Stand with Puerto Rico (and Sen Sanders).

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/sanders_puerto_rico?t=8&akid=26241%2E8770573%2Evra5l7

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As you know, people desperately need our help because of the devastation caused by “natural” disasters (read fossil-fuel-burning-generated Climate Catastrophe). 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!!
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From Our Friend the renown film-maker Bill Jungels:
Forgive me in advance. I’ve never done an email like this before and probably never will again.

If you would like to make some kind of Holiday offering that really might make a difference to poor Maya campesinos in Chiapas I recommend these people in need who live very close to my friends in Chenalhó, Chiapas.

A humanitarian crisis occurred when paramilitaries from Chenalhó killed a person from the next door township of Chalchihuitan over old land disputes between the two townships. Paramilitaries then closed the roads while 5000 people fled their homes in fear of another massacre of the innocent like the one that occurred in Acteal Chenalhó at about this time of year in 1997. Some of the paramilitaries are said to be the same who took part in that massacre. People are out in the mountains and unprotected in the cold winter nights and without food. At least nine have died. Caritas, a trusted organization in San Cristobal, is coordinating donations and aid. Our friend Christine Eber has set up a way to donate through weaving-for-justice.org This is an organization whose normal work is organizing volunteers to sell the weavings of women from Chiapas here in the US and return all of the proceeds to them. All donations will be sent by her through Western Union to Caritas. The Caritas web site bank transfer information does not function from the US and so we have had to resort to Western Union, which charges only $7 for a transfer.

Our organization, Latin America Solidarity Committee of the WNY Peace Center www.lascwny.org has already sent donations to Caritas, but now an easier way to contribute on line through Weaving for Justice exists. I can vouch for the integrity of all involved.

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

Father Marcelo who is quoted in the article is a fearless, incorruptible Tsotsil Maya priest who has visited those hiding in the mountains multiple times. He appears in my recent documentary Maya Faces in a Smoking Mirror. mayafaces.com

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

Thanks,

bill

RACIAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE

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 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall_of_silence).

Each Police District has a Chief and Community Police Meeting. We encourage people to go to them and communicate freely on issues of concern. A District is scheduled for Jan 19. At 1847 South Park Ave.

More above, on the calendar, and to follow.
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RESIST MILITARISM! TASKFORCE

Victories in DeWitt Town Court!!! A number of actions had charges dismissed, including for lack of speedy ajudicaation! See upstatedroneaction.org for full info.

Nuclear annihilation ‘one tantrum away’, Nobel peace prize winner warns Australian-founded International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons urges support for UN treaty banning them:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/11/nuclear-annihilation-one-tantrum-away-nobel-peace-prize-winner-warns

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.

And lastly, please sign on to Credo Action’s Stop Police Militarization petition here.

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REGULARLY SCHEDULED EVENTS in the One Movement, One Struggle

Riverside-Salem UCC/DC Sunday. Followed by potluck. Sundays, 4-7pm. Environmental Cottage, 3449 West River Road, Grand Island. 1/21 – program is Women’s Solidarity March!! See above

Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu or http://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/.

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!!

Interfaith Peace Network
1^st and 3^rd Thursdays of the month, breakfast pot-luck 8-9:30am, NRC, 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY 14209 (entrance and parking round back).

Environmental Justice Taskforce
Protest the Shipments of VERY Dangerous Radioactive Liquid from Canada.
Fridays 2-3pm, Front Park, Buffalo. Email Charley Bowman renewableenergy@wnypeace.org with your phone number for him to call and let you know whether (weather 😉 the vigil will take place that particular Friday. Or just show up and bring your own sign if you’re not sure others will be there!!

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. Specially invited for #StillResisting weekend!! Signs also available. (and you don’t need to be a woman or dress in black 😉

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More listings on website (wnypeace.org) and in previous email posts.
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(Sorry for occasional delays!)

Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org.
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love. We shall overcome!!