Int’l Day of Action for Yemen; Stop Line 3; WNYPC Q1 Meeting

Sunday, January 24^th, 2021

We trust you are reading this after tonight’s Bills game (hopefully celebrating a good outcome!). We hope you are feeling a bit revitalized this week with Trump now (finally) out of office and nuclear weapons becoming officially illegal under international law.  However, we know there is still plenty of work ahead of us – including some very important initiatives this week.

Tomorrow is “World Says No to War on Yemen” Global Day of Action. People around the world are called upon to protest – just says after the U.S. presidential inauguration and one day before Saudi Arabia’s ‘Davos in the Desert’ Future Investment Initiative.

• Join the Stop the War Coalition, CODEPINK, Action Corps, Yemeni Alliance Committee, and other partner organizations/groups on Zoom and/or Facebook at 2pm EST for the livestreamed international rally. Hear from Dr. Cornel West, Danny Glover, Jeremy Corbyn, Aisha Jumaan, and other guest speakers to discuss the crisis in Yemen and actions that can be taken to stop the war. Use this action toolkit to participate and promote this important cause! #YemenCantWait

• If you missed last week’s Talking Peace live-taping, you can catch it airing on WBNY 91.3 FM tomorrow at 1pm. ED Vicki was joined by Aisha Jumaan, President of the Yemen Relief & Reconstruction Foundation, and Kawthar Abdulla, Leader Organizer, Yemeni Alliance Committee’s NYC Chapter. Tune in for a discussion on the current situation in Yemen and the involvement of external actors – including, especially, the US; personal stories and current needs; tomorrow’s International Day of Action, and what you can do to help!

On Tuesday at 6:30pm EST, join Winona LaDuke, Co-founder of Honor the Earth as she speaks about the fight to stop Line 3 and a just transition from the current fossil fuel economy. Line 3 is a proposed pipeline expansion to bring nearly a million barrels of tar sands per day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. It was proposed in 2014 by Enbridge, a Canadian pipeline company responsible for the largest inland oil spill in the US. Enbridge seeks to build a new pipeline corridor through untouched wetlands and the treaty territory of Anishinaabe peoples, through the Mississippi River headwaters to the shore of Lake Superior. For more details and how to register, see below.

Lastly, we’d like to remind you that the WNY Peace Center’s first 2021 Quarterly Membership Meeting is just one week away! We will look back at 2020 – with an overview of some our successes, plus plans for this year. We have some important announcements, so please plan to join us on Zoom (full details below).

Please see details and much more – including special and regularly scheduled events this week (LASC planning meeting  tomorrow!) – plus campaigns, fundraisers, and more at wnypeace.org, on our Facebook page, Twitter (@wnypeace), and Instagram (@wnypeace)!

Peace, thanks, solidarity, and yes – love!

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

‘Talking Peace’ taping on FB Live

On FB Live. Hosted by WNYPC Executive Director, Vicki Ross. So graciously taped by Think Twice Radio: Home of the Future!

First hour: featuring Clare Grady on

• Epiphany
• Catholic Workers/Plowshares
• Witness Against Torture
• Kings Bay Plowshares 7, nuclear weapons (including Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons)

Second hour: Agnes Williams, Seneca, Indigenous Women’s Initiatives; with Clare Grady

• Nuclear Waste/West Valley clean-up
• UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN DRIP)
• Prior Free & Informed Consent (to land use, etc)
• Environmental Justice/Care for Mother Earth
• People and the Planet

Webinar: Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin on The Green New Deal

Webinar – register here. Philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky and economist Robert Pollin will discuss their new book about the climate crisis. 

Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal, confronts humanity’s greatest challenge. The disastrous consequences of unchecked climate change are well known – from huge stretches of land becoming uninhabitable to failing crops and devastating wildfires. Humanity must stop burning fossil fuels within the next thirty years. But to succeed it must also take on the misguided fear that economic calamity and unemployment are consequences of a greener economy. The authors argue that there is a solution, which will raise living standards and protect livelihoods, and it is the Green New Deal.

Join them in conversation with Maya Goodfellow as they discuss how these compelling ideas can be achieved politically, and what we as individuals can do to help transform our societies and economies. They will also be answering your questions.

Noam Chomsky, one of the world’s leading intellectuals, has been a voice for the progressive left throughout his career. Critical of the Vietnam War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he is widely recognized for his contributions to the human sciences and his anti-imperialist writing and activism.

Robert Pollin is professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and founding co-director of its Political Economy Research Institute. This event is part of a series to mark the Guardian’s 2020 climate pledge.