Hi, dear Friends! We are postponing the Women’s March – Buffalo/WNY due to expected bad weather (snow and extreme wind chill, especially in the Square). Safety first!! We are about alleviating suffering, not causing it!
The Women’s March is an outgrowth of the work we’ve been doing all along, and this year more than ever, we’d already planned to keep the momentum going throughout the year, with
discussions of controversial subjects (including the nature of the Women’s Movement – how it is now and how we want to improve it);
ongoing work on our local goals
and of course – the actual Women’s March, being postponed to a date to be determined.
We appreciate you all so much, and of course we’ll keep working together!! Looking forward to our next ….
Our Women’s Equity (unisex) T-shirts are available in time for the Women’s March! (full picture available inside post). T-shirts will be available as membership gifts, or on a sliding scale of $15-25 for those who are already members. We will have them available for purchase or pickup at our Poster-Making party, right before the march, Sunday, 1/20/19, 12-1pm, WNY Peace Center, 1272 Delaware Avenue, parking and entrance at the back of the building.
Women’s March-Buffalo/WNY 2019 is this Sunday! There will be a traditional indigenous thanksgiving (Gnohnyoh) at 1:15pm at Niagara Square. The rally will begin at 1:30pm. The march will follow. Visit wnypeace.org for more information. We are asking everyone to bundle up, and put your health and safety first. We anticipate that we will have a shorter rally and march due to the weather. Please stay tuned to wnypeace.org for any changes to the march, but we anticipate that we will STILL BE MARCHING! Many have asked why we’re having the march on Sunday, and that is to complement and not replace the national march, which is very important. The national march in Washington, D.C. and the march in Seneca Falls will occur on Saturday, January 19. We lift up women’s rights everywhere, and our local goals that WNY planning committee has developed as well! See you Sunday!
There will be a Women’s March-Buffalo/WNY press conference at City Hall/Niagara Square, this Thursday, 1/17/19 at 12noon. See you there.
The Poor People’s Campaign of WNY presents And The Beat Goes On – the Poor People’s Campaign 51 Years Later, a cultural arts and education event at Raqs Solidarity, 322 Amherst St., this Wednesday, 1/16/19, 6-8 pm. All are welcome.
Partnership for the Public Good will unveil its 2019 Community Agenda this Friday, 1/18/19, 2pm, at the Frank E. Merriweather library, 1324 Jefferson Avenue, Buffalo, NY.
The Indigenous People’s March will also occur on Friday, January 18, 2019 at LaSalle Park. This is a sister march to the annual Indigenous People’s March in Washington, D.C.
Join us after the Women’s March for a commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Kleinhans Music Hall, 6pm. Free and open to the public.
More events on the website. wnypeace.org.
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love
#WOMENSWAVE
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
We are proud and grateful to Charley for putting himself on the line – again – pushing the envelope to protest Guantanamo, Torture and the war on Yemen. He was arrested with 4 others for bannering on the Supreme Court steps. See the press release below for more info.
Charley was held overnight in a very cold cell, with his belt taken away, and appeared in court the following day. After appearing in court, he was taken elsewhere, his personal belonging returned and – no bail, charges, or subsequent appearance needed.
We are grateful to Charley, the other arrestees – including those risking arrest at a sit-in at Sen. McConnelll’s office – and the other activists and organizers, including Kathy Kelly and Brian Terrell of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, the whole Witness Against Torture team, and WNYPC members Tom Casey (chair – Pax Christi WNY; Veterans for Peace #128); and Martin Gugino (Latin American Solidarity Committee treasurer). Another small victory in the struggle. #UnitetheStruggles.
Buffalonian Arrested for Bannering on the Supreme Court Steps at “Stop Torture” protest
Activists Participate in weeklong fast calling on the U.S. to Stop Support for the Murderous War in Yemen and Close the Prison Camp at Guantanamo. On January 9, 2019, five human rights activists, including Dr. Charley Bowman, WNY Peace Center Board Member and past director (and Chair of the WNYPC Environmental Justice Taskforce), were arrested while bannering on the Supreme Court steps, protesting all forms of torture. Their banner stated: “We Target. We Torture. We Terrify,” followed by the question “Who Are We?”
Joining them were dozens of protesters who formed a tableau to denounce US-backed war on Yemen and call for closure of Guantanamo.
Alongside the banner, 36 children’s bookbags were scattered atop bloodied shrouds. Each backpack bore the name of a Yemeni child killed on August 9, 2019 when a Saudi warplane dropped a Lockheed Martin 500 lb. laser guided bomb on their school bus. Remembering the nine prisoners who died in Guantanamo, activists clad in jumpsuits and hoods laid down on bloodied shrouds, across from the backpacks.
The backpacks will be coming to Buffalo for a future protest.
While Supreme Court security guards handcuffed those holding the banner, supporters sang:
“Know where you stand. No more war. Know where you stand and stand there.”
Activists gathered for a week of fasting and action that marks January 11, the seventeenth year since Muslim men have been imprisoned in Guantanamo. “The misery of Muslim people continues,” said Dr. Maha Hilal after reading the names of the Yemeni children being commemorated along with the names of nine Muslim men who have died in Guantanamo.
Below
Photo caption: Witness Against Torture
activists demonstrate at Supreme Court
Photo credits (both): Steve Pavey Witness Against Torture activists demonstrate at the Supreme Court.jpeg
