Ending Corporate Governance & co-globalizing gaia's children Archive of noteworthy events This is an archive of past events and news pertaining to ending corporate governance and co-globalizing our single human family.

2005

• Dec 2-4: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Portland, Oregon - contact: David Delk, daviddelk-afd [at] peoplepc [dot] com, (503) 232 5495, (503) 242 4200
  
  
  
  
• Nov 4-6: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA - contact: Stacey Schmader, info[at]celdf[dot]org, 717-709-0457
  
  
  
  
• Oct 21-23: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Boston College, Brookline, MA, Website: Massachusetts Democracy School - contact: Adam Sacks, adam [at] constitution411 [dot] org, 781-674-2339
  
  
  
  
• Oct 10-12: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Anchorage, Alaska, Website: Alaska Democracy School - contact: Mark Masteller, m.masteller [at] acat [dot] org, (907) 373-0909
  
  
  
  
• Oct 1-8: International Keep Space for Peace Week - Stop the Militarization of Space

  Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space The people of Hiroshima, Japan understand the impact modern warfare can have. Sixty years ago the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on their city. The A-bomb dome is a reminder to all that creating a new arms race in space will have catastrophic consequences on earth. Honor the memory of those who perished in the past by helping to prevent the next arms race. Please join our week of local actions.

  
  
  
  
• Sep 30-Oct 2: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Montrose, Colorado, Colorado Democracy School - contact: Kevin Williams, montrose [at] worc [dot] org, (970) 323-6849
  
  
  
  
• Sep 24-26: School of Living - Anniversary Gathering
  Heathcote Community, Freeland, Maryland
  The School of Living is an educational organization dedicated to learning and teaching the philosophy, practices and principles of living that are self-empowering for individuals within the general aim of establishing decentralized, ecologically-sound, self-governed and humane communities. SoL's area of study touches on every aspect of people and society. Historically we have played a pivotal role in movements supporting: organic agriculture, consumer rights, cooperatives and worker owned businesses, tax abolition, geonomics, appropriate technology, neighborhood and community rights and control. Today SoL is actively engaged in: community land trust, intentional community support, permaculture, ecological use of resources, human scale and local self reliance, appropriate technology, alternative education, consensus decision making, non-exploitive banking, and alternative currency. In June, The School of Living will be celebrating its long involvement in these diverse areas of sustainability and healthy living with a gathering that will feature workshops that address many topics including:

  Hands-On	Historical/Intellectual	Creative
  Green Building Tour Natural Building Weed Walk with Grace Cooking with Wild Foods Sweat Lodge Ceremony Cranial Sacral Therapy Canning Vegetables Organic Gardening & Tour Sustainability, Fire & Cogeneration	Community Land Trust Alternative Education Georgist Movement Alternative Currency History of the School of Living Introduction to Permaculture SOL Land Trust slide show History of a CSA History of the Institute for Community Economics	Dance Deep Ecology and Art Self-Portraits Mandalas Making Poems World Drumming and Percussion Circle World Music Group Sing/Dances of the Universe

  
  
  
  
• William Blum's Speaking Engagements
  Author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (1995),
  Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (2000),
  West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Political Memoir (2002)
  • September 22-24: Paris, France
    International Conference on Humanitarian Law
  • October: Ottawa, Canada
  
  
  
  
• Sep 16-18: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Flagstaff, Arizona, Northern Arizona University Democracy School - contact: Sandra Lubarsky, Sandra.Lubarsky [at] NAU [dot] EDU, (928) 523-2382
  
  
  
  
• Sep 2-4: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA - contact: Stacey Schmader, info[at]celdf[dot]org, 717-709-0457
  
  
  
  
• Aug 15-21: Think Outside the Bomb, National Youth Conference on Nuclear Issues
  University of California, Santa Barbara
  Young organizers who work either directly or indirectly on nuclear issues are invited to participate in the gathering. Prospective applicants include, but are not limited to, young activists who are: resisting increasing militarism in their schools; opposing the storage of nuclear waste in their neighborhoods; and/or implementing sustainable energy practices in their homes, churches/mosques/synagogues, and/or universities. It is our goal for participants to leave the gathering with a deepened understanding of nuclear issues; inspiration to continue their activism; expanded social and professional networks; an approach to fundraising based upon compassion; and a supply of organizing resources.
            Participants will be asked to develop and present an action plan during the gathering. Facilitators will support participants in conceptualizing and writing their plans. Similarly, facilitators will help participants implement their plans immediately following the gathering. Examples of such support include: mentorship; skills training; internship and fellowship positions; regional gatherings; conference calls; and funding prospects.
  
  
  
  
• Aug 7-15: 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, Venezuela, 2005
  For Peace and Solidarity, We Struggle Against Imperialism and War
  The official Homepage of the Festival is: www.caracas2005.info
  The World Festival of Youth and Students is an international gathering of young people from every region of the world who come together in the spirit of peace and international solidarity. The festival movement started after the events of World War II when young people swore to never again allow fascism to take hold and spread. The first festival was held in Prague in 1947 and since then it has become an important event for radical and progressive youth featuring cultural exhibitions, performances, workshops, panel discussions, intramural sports events, parties, demonstrations, marches and much more. The festival offers a chance to learn about the struggles and cultures of young people from around the world. One exciting feature of the festival is the clubhouse, which is organized by region and offers each delegation an opportunity to display information, materials and artwork from their country to share with other delegations. The festival also offers a space for dialogue and exchange between delegates; both in formal settings like workshops and panels and in informal settings like over a meal or at a party.
            The 16th World Festival of Youth and Students will be held in Caracas, Venezuela in August of 2005. It is expected that over 10,000 youth from over 100 countries around the world will travel to Caracas to participate in the festival. This year, given the current state of the world and the particularly destructive and illegal behavior of the US government towards not only Iraq but towards countries around the world, the theme of For Peace and Solidarity, We Struggle Against Imperialism and War is of particular importance. This festival will allow us a chance to show that young people in the U.S. do not agree with George Bush and his policies and that we too believe in and struggle for a more just, peaceful world.
            While the focus of the festival is the building of friendship and international solidarity among the worlds youth, each festival offers the opportunity to highlight the struggles and experiences of the host country and region. Throughout Latin America, popular struggles for social and economic justice have grown increasingly strong and militant and the festival will give us an opportunity to learn more about the movements for change that are spreading all across the region. As you probably know, Venezuela has been a hotbed of resistance and popular organizing against US imperialism and intervention. The political process in Venezuela, known as the Bolivarian Revolution, was born out of a popular, mass movement of workers, indigenous peoples, women and youth to fight for social and economic justice for the people of Venezuela. Throughout the organizing process for the festival, and in Caracas, we will have a chance to learn more about the history of this struggle in Venezuela and some of the advances of the Bolivarian Revolution including literacy campaigns, social programs, and economic reforms to benefit poor and working class Venezuelans.
  
  
  
  
• Aug 6-9: No More Hiroshimas! No More Nagasakis! National Days of Remembrance and Action 1945-2005
  
  August 6 and 9, 2005 mark the 60th anniversaries of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Join with people at four central US nuclear weapons sites in major actions calling for an end to the development and production of nuclear warheads. Activities will recognize the devastation caused by nuclear weapons and memorialize the many victims of bomb production at every step – from uranium mining to design, to production, to testing and use. Join the global majority to say NO! to militarism, war and oppression, and YES! to nonviolence, justice and a more secure world for all.
            In Japanese culture, the 60th birthday holds a particular cultural significance in celebrating long life. In this 60th year since the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the greatest gift to the hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombings) and to the world would be to reaffirm life by immediately initiating negotiations for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Here is what you can do:

  1. Attend a major action on August 6 at one of the core nuclear weapons sites in California, Nevada, New Mexico and Tennessee (see specific site info below). Be sure to share the information and bring others with you!
  2. Organize or participate in a candlelight vigil at the City Hall in your community on August 9.
  3. Download, copy and distribute the August 6 and 9 National Days of Remembrance and Action flyer to your friends, family, networks and/or members of your organization and encourage them to get involved!
  4. Print the August 6 and 9 National Days of Remembrance and Action Postcard to distribute to members of your organization or at events. For more information, please contact Carah Ong at cong@napf.org or (202) 543-4100, ext. 105.

  August 6 and 9 National Days of Remembrance and Action are coordinated by: Abolition Now!, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Nevada Desert Experience, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Pax Christi New Mexico, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Tri-Valley CAREs, United for Peace and Justice, and Western States Legal Foundation.
  Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, California
  "Seeds of Change" ─ celebrate the vision of a nuclear free world with music, a dinner rally and candlelight march.
  Where: William Payne Park, 5800 Patterson Pass Rd. Livermore, CA
  When: Saturday, August 6, 2005, 5 pm
  Initial co-sponsors include: American Friends Service Committee, California Peace Action, Green Party California, Livermore Conversion Project, the Northern California Communist Party, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Peace and Freedom Party, Peace Fresno, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CAREs), Veterans for Peace San Francisco Chapter 69, Western States Legal Foundation, Women"s International League for Peace and Freedom and Women for Peace.
  Contact: Tara Dorabji, Tri-Valley CAREs, tara@trivalleycares.org, (925) 443-7148, www.trivalleycares.org.
  Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab, New Mexico
  "Hiroshima, 60 Years: It Started Here -- Let's Stop It Here!" – teach-in, sunflower pageant, workshops, music, candle ritual, meditation, and more.
  Where: Ashley Pond Park in Los Alamos, NM
  When: Saturday, August 6, 2005, 8:30 am to 10:00 pm
  Initial endorsing organizations include: Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Los Alamos Study Group, Pax Christi New Mexico, Upaya Zen Center and the local chapter of Veterans for Peace.
  Contact: Los Alamos Study Group, (505) 265-1200, www.lasg.org; Pax Christi New Mexico, (505) 870-2275, www.paxchristinewmexico.org; and Upaya Zen Center, Joan Halifax, (505) 986-8182, www.upaya.org.
  Nevada Test Site, Nevada
  "Many Stories, One Vision for a Nuclear Free World" ─ conference, speakers and public witness including storytelling, nonviolence trainings, liturgy, music, performance, workshops and nonviolent direct action.
  Where: University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the Nevada (Nuclear) Test Site
  When: August 4-7, 2005
  Sponsored by: Nevada Desert Experience and Pax Christi USA; Co-sponsored by: Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Citizen Alert, Episcopal Peace Fellowship, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service, Physicians for Social Responsibility (L.A.) and Western States Legal Foundation. Western Shoshone are supporting the action.
  Contact: Nevada Desert Experience, (702) 646-4814, nde_youth@peacenet.org, www.nevadadesertexperience.org and www.paxchristiusa.org.
  Y-12 Nuclear Facility, Tennessee
  "Stop the Bombs!" ─ remembrance/names ceremony; peace march, rally and direct action; and peace lantern ceremony.
  When: Saturday, August 6, 2005, all day
  Where: Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge, TN
  Contact: Ralph Hutchison, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, orep@earthlink.net, (865) 483-8202, www.stopthebombs.org.
  Initial Co-Sponsors Include: Cumberland Center for Justice and Peace; Footprints for Peace; Justice, Peace, Integrity of Creation—Diocese of East Tennessee; Nipponzan Myohoji—Atlanta Dojo; Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance; Pax Christi—Memphis; Pax Christi—Michigan; Presentation Sisters; Sisters of Charity, Cincinnati; Sisters of the Precious Blood, Dayton; and Women"s Action for New Directions, Michigan.
  August 9, 2005: Remember the Bombing of Nagasaki
  We are calling for candlelight vigils to be held at City Halls in communities across the country. In addition, we encourage people to organize readings, lantern lighting ceremonies, shadow projects and more. In support of the Mayors for Peace, we are calling on local groups to invite their Mayors to participate in the vigils and read out proclamations.
  Contact: Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, wslf@earthlink.net, (510) 839-5877, www.wslfweb.org
  
  
  
  
• Aug 5-7: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Austin, Texas, Website: Austin Democracy School - contact: Sheril Smith, sherilsmith [at] ev1 [dot] net, (512) 468-2131 (cell)
  
  
  
  
• Jul 29-31: Community Organizing for Deep Democracy Retreat
  Presented by the California Center for Community Democracy (CCCD) & Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County (DUHC)
  This full weekend workshop will help participants effectively organize in their own communities to reclaim citizen sovereignty and will offer tangible strategies for actions that we can collectively take to get our democracy back from corporations. This three-day event will challenge the deep assumptions that we all hold about what it means to live in a democracy and what the proper role of the corporation is. We will draw on history as well as current events to illustrate the changing role of the corporation over time and how seriously our past people's struggles have taken the concept of democracy. The event will be tailored to meet the needs of the participants based on pre-event feedback. This event is open to participants from all over the country.
  
  
  
  
• Jul 15-17: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Spokane, Washington, Spokane Democracy School - contact: Kate Koch, katekoch [at] excite [dot] com, (509) 835-5211
  
  
  
  
• Jun 24-26: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA, - contact: Stacey Schmader, info [at] celdf [dot] org, (717) 709-0457
  
  
  
  
• Jun 21: Watching Big Brother Watch Us: Immigrants and Citizens Together
  Renee Saucedo and Riva Enteen, SF Gray Panther General Meeting
  Unitarian-Universalist Center, Fireside Room, 1187 Franklin St (betw. Geary & O' Farrell)
  This is a crucial time for civil liberties and human rights. Immigrants are being threatened by:

  • Minutemen, armed border vigilantes whom the US Congress has feted (see Comments from CIRC Members on Minutemen, 4/27/05 & Report from the Immigration Reform Caucus Urges Troops Sent to Border, 5/23/05) and Schwarzenegger has invited to California (Border stance inflames Capitol, 4/30/05), and is already planning action in California (Border vigil planned for California, 5/19/05).
  • The 71 member US Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus issued at widely-publicized 33 page report praising the Minutemen and calling for the governors of Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico to get federal funding to deploy 36,000 National Guard Troops along the US-Mexico border (Put the Guard on the border and stop illegal immigration, 6/2/05 & Report urges troops sent to border, 5/23/05).
  • The Real ID Act, making it virtually impossible for states to issue drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants, and moving the US closer to a national ID card (Coming Soon: National ID Cards? Recently passed Real ID Act undermines civil rights, critics charge, 5/31/05 & Big Brother Police State one step closer, 6/1/05 & Senate approves electronic ID card bill, 5/10/05)
  • New laws making political asylum extremely difficult (REAL ID Endangers People Fleeing Persecution)
  • Federal laws discouraging immigrants from using using health facilities, and
  • State laws barring undocumented immigrants from receiving health or any other state services, and criminalizing state employees who fail to report undocumented immigrants.

  Citizens are being threatened by:

  • Administration moves to sneak through the perpetuation of provisions of the USA Patriot act that are due to expire at the end of this year (Senate Gives FBI More Patriot Act Power, 6/8/05), and even expand it Open door on Patriot Act, 6/3/05),
  • Government exercises in integrating its police, security, and intelligence forces to achieve massive roundups, such as the recent Operation Falcon, where over 10,000 were arrested nationwide over a short period of time (US Marshals, local police stage nationwide mass arrests, 4/16/05 & Operation FALCON, & Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales Announces Arrests of More Than 10,000 Fugitives Through Operation Falcon, 4/14/05), including over 145 in Northern California (SAN FRANCISCO - 146 area fugitives caught in dragnet, 4/15/05) over half in San Francisco (National sweep nets 10,000 fugitives, 4/15/05)
  • Reports of renewed grand jury subpoenas of political activists nationally and in the Bay Area (Federal Investigators and Your Rights - How can grand juries make people go to jail?, SF: Emergency Grand Jury Teach-In, 5/31/05 & Emergency Grand Jury Teach-in, 5/31/05 & Just say NO to grand jury attack on the anti-war movement - Don't Talk!, 2/9/04). Under provisions of the Patriot Act not due to sunset, information obtained from grand juries can be given to the CIA. (Civil Liberties in a Time of Crisis)

  Our speakers will talk about the implications of these threats, what we can do to fight them, and give examples of how people are already organizing against them. See story, pics and video of recent SF demonstration for immigrant rights. Read more about the Patriot Act, and provisions due to expire this year.
  
  
  
  
• May 21: Please join us for Peace
  Kathy Kelly speaks at Vandenberg Space Command, 1pm at main gate
  Guest speakers Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness and Bill Sultzman of Citizens for Peace in Space. Sponsored by the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and endorsed by California Peace Action, Code Pink Women for Peace and War Resister's League.
            
  
  
  
  
• May 1-4: Mayors for Peace: the Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons
  
  1 May: March and Public Rally for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Future
  Many US and international anti-nuclear-weapon and anti-war organizations are sponsoring this great public demonstration. The President of Mayors for Peace will address the rally. Mayors will join the line of march to Central Park which starts in the UN area.
  2 May: Official Opening of the 2005 NPT Review Conference and President's Reception
  Foreign Ministers will speak in the General Debate of the opening session of the Review Conference. Mayors who have registered with the Mayors for Peace delegation will be able to attend as observers. Mayors for Peace will arrange consultations with Ministers. That evening, the President of the Review Conference will host a reception.
  3 May: Mayors Conference at the United Nations and Gala Reception
  The Mayors Conference is an all-day event. The UN Secretary General, the IAEA Director General, and Foreign Ministers have been invited to address the luncheon session. Sister Cities International is co-organizing the morning session; the Abolition Now! Campaign is co-organizing the afternoon session. That evening, the "Back to the Garden Arts Initiative" will be launched at a reception for mayors and diplomats also attended by some of the major performing artists who will participate in the July 25th rock concert at Madison Square Garden and visual artists who will contribute to the 2005-2010 world-tour fine art exhibition.
  May 4: Meeting with Parliamentarians and NGO Presentation to Review Conference
  A luncheon meeting co-organized by the Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament and Mayors for Peace will explore the potential for collaborative efforts. The Review Conference will hold a plenary session to hear from Non-Governmental Organizations. Several members of Mayors for Peace will be among the presenters. Other mayors may wish to express solidarity by attending this session as well. (Since the Governments have not yet agreed upon the Conference's agenda, it is still not known whether this NGO session will be held in the morning or afternoon.)
  
  
  
  
• May 1: National disarmament demonstration in support of Mayors for Peace Emergency Campaign and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference
            The May 1st demonstration will precede a month-long meeting of world governments at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to discuss the fate of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a treaty in which nuclear weapons states -- United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, and France -- agreed to eliminate their nuclear weapons arsenals. The Bush regime continues to manipulate the treaty by vehemently demanding disarmament from other countries, while expanding US production and development of nuclear weapons. The United States used nuclear weapons as an excuse for war in Iraq. Will North Korea and Iran be next?
            United in our opposition to the growing threat of nuclear war, and the use of nuclear weapons as a pretext for war, we must mobilize now and demand the full and rapid implementation of the promise for nuclear disarmament. We'll be joined by a delegation of mayors from around the world, as they deliver the call for nuclear disarmament, on behalf of millions of people, to the United Nations. Mayors will lead marches to the rally site on May 1st. Join a mayor from your region in a march on May 1st.
  Global Disarmament Starts at Home - It's Time to Disarm America
  The continued possession of thousands of nuclear weapons by the existing nuclear weapons states, together with the US policy of preventive war and its push to modernize its nuclear arsenal, provide arguments for other countries to develop nuclear weapons of their own.
  Nuclear Weapons Threaten Everyone's Security
  Nuclear weapons remain the most dangerous of all weapons, the only ones that can destroy civilization in a day. We need to redefine security in human and ecological terms, rather than military ones: food, shelter, clean air and water, jobs, healthcare and education. This kind of security is universal.
  
  
  
  
• Apr 29-30: Full Spectrum Resistance - an International Space Organizing Conference
  New York City, Global Network 13th Annual International Conference
  Keynote speaker: Dr. Michio Kaku (Henry Semat Professorship in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York. His most popular and best selling books include Hyperspace and Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century.) This event will be held at the Musicians Union Hall Local #802 (322 W. 48th St) in New York City and will run from 1-9 pm. Advance registration will be necessary. The GN conference is being co-sponsored by Abolition 2000 Network.
            On Sunday, May 1 there will an international disarmament rally planned by Abolition 2000 and United for Peace & Justice in Central Park calling for the rapid implementation of the promise of nuclear disarmament.
  
  
  
  
  
• Apr 22-24: Hiroshima/Nagasaki2005: Memories & Visions
  Tufts University, Greater Boston Area, Massachusetts
  This conference includes the Global Hibakusha Film Festival. Speakers include former World Court Vice President Christopher Weeramantry (wrote one of the most important decisions in the World Court ruling on the use and threatened use of nuclear weapons), Hiroshima and Nagasaki Hibakusha (A-bomb witnesses/survivors), and others.
  
  
  
  
• Apr 18-22: Building Democracy, Participation and Peace by Peaceful Means: Strategies and Actions for Social Transformation and Nonviolent Struggle - Learning from and Building Local and Global Movements
  Transcend - A Peace and Development Organisation for Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means
  Romanian Peace Institute, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
  An Invitation to democracy struggles, social justice movements, women's organisations, students, unions, human rights workers, peace activists, and people's movements from across the world!
            In the aftermath of Madrid, September 11th, the war on Afghanistan, the war on Iraq, and the wars of terrorism, non-violent transformations in Ukraine, Georgia and Bolivia, and people's struggles for social justice, democracy, and humanrights in their communities and world-wide, Building Democracy, Participation and Peace by Peaceful Means is a practical, concrete course exploring the dynamics and methods of nonviolent mobilisation and conflict transformation.
            Building Democracy, Participation and Peace by Peaceful Means is intended as a meeting point and in-depth, intensive training programme for those engaged in nonviolent movements and social struggles for people's and community rights, democratisation, peace, and social justice, drawing upon the inspiration and lessons learned from people's movements and struggles around the world over the past 50 years. From the People's Power movement in the Philippines to the non-violent revolutions in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and the overthrow of political apartheid in South Africa to the Living Democracy Movement in India, the Assembly of the Poor in Thailand, the Landless Movement in Brazil, struggles for democracy in Georgia and Ukraine, and the World Social Forum, Building Democracy will draw the lessons and experiences from the history of nonviolence in practice.
            Ideal for community workers and people working for human rights and struggling against violence in all its forms, Building Democracy will bring together social justice and human rights activists, social workers and organisers, and peace organisations and movements from around the world creating a space for sharing of experiences and training in skills and methods for practice - for local and global struggles - learning from the legacy of non-violent movements from all continents, and weaving together and strengthening a global network of committed social activists and non-violent practitioners.
            For individuals, communities, and organisations working to actively engage to develop constructive programmes to overcome violence and injustice in our communities and globally Building Democracy is part of the broader movement to show another world is possible, if we work to build it.
            Across the world communities are mobilising to address the issues and challenges facing them - from domestic violence and rape to social injustice, exploitation of the environment, repression and denial of human rights, exploitation of labour, and violent conflict - searching for ways to overcome violence in all its forms. From social justice movements to democratic struggles against political, economic, and military authoritarianism and interventions, people's power - the power of communities to resist violence and to actively unite together to transform our social, political and economic systems - is growing. Networks, linking people within and across communities world-wide, are being formed, linking theory and practice, action and reflection, and a commitment to be the change we want to see.
            Building Democracy is a practical hands-on training which will address the concrete challenges and issues facing movements, drawing upon experiences and practice around the world in how we develop our strategies, visions and actions, mobilise to engage people, and work in our communities and together. The programme will be devoted to developing methods and strategies for empowerment, mobilisation, transformation, nonviolence, strategy and building of movements. In addition to helping to intensively train and support participants in gaining experience which will be practical and useful for them in their daily work and communities, the programme will weave together a network of practitioners across continents.
            Throughout the 20th century non-violence was used as an effective tool for strengthening democratic movements and overthrowing violent, dictatorial and colonial regimes. The focus of this training programme will be on the large scale use of non-violent means to transform and overcome direct and structural violence in conflicts within our countries and globally. Drawing upon experiences from around the world, Building Democracy will help practitioners, organisations, movements and scholars to weave together a cohesive view and understanding of the methods, strategies, tools, legacy and contributions of non-violent struggles in the 20th, and 21st centuries, challenges facing us in the world today, and means to work for non-violence and conflict transformation by peaceful means, building social, economic, political and civil democracy and people's power in our own communities and internationally.
            Throughout the five-day workshop and training will be an intensive, participatory and dynamic experience, helping to develop further concrete skills, tools and knowledge for committed social activists, community workers, peace and nonviolence workers and practitioners.
  
  
  
  
• Apr 8-10: Music for Peace Project 2005
  New York and Worlwide
  The Music for Peace Project is an unprecedented global effort to fill the world with music as a call for peace. Through the simultaneous performance of a vast number of concerts worldwide bringing popular and media attention to international peace efforts while building a global community of active, socially conscious artists.
  
  
  
  
• April 8-9: Hope & Hard Work: Another America is Possible-Peace & Justice Conference Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachussetts
  
  Keynote speaker: Phyllis Bennis,
  Featured Speakers: Bob Borosage, Nancy Murray, Ken Oye, and Jessica Walker-Beaumont. More than 20 workshops will be held.
            This will be the fourth New England-wide peace and justice conference organized by the American Friends Service Committee since the September 11 attacks provided the Bush Administration with the opening to pursue its wars and the remaking of the U.S. to impose its "Arrangement for the 21st Century." The conference is being organized to provide essential background information and to encourage organizing to challenge Bush Administration priorities: the war in Iraq and expanding the empire; privatization focusing on Social Security and national budget priorities; trade - especially the Central America Free Trade Agreement; and its assault on our civil liberties and constitutionally guaranteed rights. Registration is $30, $20 for students and people with limited incomes. For more information, call AFSC at 617-661-6130.
  
  
  
  
• Mar 22: Great Decisions 2005: The U.S. and Global Poverty - Alternatives to Globalization
  John Cavanagh, World Affairs Council, 11:30 check-in, 12 noon program
  2 Sutter Street, 2nd Floor Reception Room, San Francisco, California
  John Cavanagh is President of the International Forum on Globalization and Director of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. He is co-editor (with Jerry Mander) of the recent IFG book, Alternatives to Economic Globalization: A Better World is Possible.
            United States foreign economic policy plays a pivotal role in global poverty, with key decisions being made in 2005 that could help or harm efforts to address the crisis in poor nations. As the Washington Consensus is loudly rejected in places like Latin America; Brazil is uniting with India, China, South Africa and others to challenge U.S. proposals to promote economic development. At the World Trade Organization (WTO), the U.S. is clashing with poor nations over new rules for agriculture trade, which will impact millions of the poorest people who survive by farming. Also on the table are new rules for outsourcing, migrant workers, access to essential medicines, food security, and the very right of poor nations to determine their own path of economic development. As global civil society steps up its efforts to influence these decisions, the IFG's new book is being discussed in key capitals around the world as a basis to advance alternatives to today's global economic regime. John Cavanagh, co-editor of the IFG's, Alternatives to Economic Globalization: A Better World Is Possible (published by Berrett-Koehler), will outline the significant decisions the U.S. faces in 2005 to confront global poverty, and the alternative policies that will provide an equitable and sustainable future for people and the planet.
  
  To reserve tickets: 415-293-4600, e-mail: registration[at]wacsf[dot]org, www.itsyourworld.org
  
  
  
  
• Mar 19-20: Local/national demonstrations and activities on the second anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.
  
  United for Peace and American Friends Service Committee
  
  
  
  
• Mar 13-May 2: International Peace Walk-In Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Nuclear Bombing of Hiroshima
  Oak Ridge, Tennessee - New York
  An international group will walk to the United Nations remembering Hiroshima, Maralinga, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, uranium mines, waste sites, depleted uranium weaponry, and the urgent danger we face with increased nuclear proliferation. This walk will visit the mayors of the cities along their route. They will ask these cities to join the Program to Promote the Solidarity of Cities toward the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons which was proposed by the mayor of Hiroshima then in 1982. The cities that join this effort will join the ranks of the European parliament and the U.S. Conference of Mayors both of which have passed resolutions supporting efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. The walk is sponsored by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, FootPrints for Peace, International Peace Pilgrimage, Nipponzan Myohoji and the Mayors for Peace Campaign.
            For schedule and other information, contact Jim Toren at 513-403-6698 or footprintsforpeace[at]fuse[dot]net

2004

• Oct 16: National Million Worker March
  Washington D.C.
  The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 10, recently passed a resolution proposing a million worker march on Washington in 2004. This mobilization is being proposed in response to the attacks upon working families in America and the millions of jobs lost during the Bush administration and with the complicity of Congress. The working class has not suffered such hardships since the Great Depression.
            We are encouraging everyone to have the attached resolution adopted by your membership or organization. We are also asking that your organization start a Million Workers March Committee to mobilize organized/unorganized labor and our community and religious allies in your area, ultimately merging with a National Committee to be formed at a later date.
            The Bush Administration and Congress's focus of placing the acquisition of capital and the quest for profits above the needs of working people is undermining the economic security of working people and the nation as a whole.
            Now is the time for organized/unorganized labor, the interfaith and community organizations to show solidarity and demand that all elected officials address the needs of working people. As working class people, we know more than any others the difficulties and limitations we face both in our communities and workplaces. We shall therefore be representing ourselves during this march, independent from all politicians, while putting forward to the entire country, our program for the betterment of America's majority working population.
  
  
  
  
• Oct 14-17: Alternatives to Globalization: a Better World is Possible.
  Northwest Social Forum and International Forum on Globalization
  Seattle, Washington
             Please Join the International Forum on Globalization as we host the opening event of the Northwest Social Forum in Seattle, Washington and launch the new edition of our book, Alternatives to Globalization: a Better World is Possible. The Northwest Social Forum will convene to unite social movements and discuss alternatives to corporate globalization which we can all implement today.
            The Forum also marks the five-year anniversary of the "Battle of Seattle" and turns our attention to the better world that we all know is possible.
            The IFG panel event will include: Maude Barlow (Council of Canadians, Canada), Walden Bello (Focus on the Global South, Thailand), John Cavanagh (Institute for Policy Studies, U.S.), Tony Clarke (Polaris Institute, Canada), Martin Khor (Third World Network, Malaysia), Jerry Mander (International Forum on Globalization, U.S.), Vandana Shiva (Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India), Lori Wallach (Public Citizen, U.S.) and others.
  
  
  
  
• Oct 14-17: Global Women's Gathering
  Indigenous and Western Women Align Their Wisdom
  Menla Mountain Retreat & Conference Center, Phoenicia, New York
            In these times of unprecedented change and challenge, when the Earth herself is endangered, who can we turn to for guidance and healing? It is our women elders who keep the wisdom that can heal us, our communities and our planet. Our indigenous women elders hold the wisdom born of their own lives lived close to the Earth and the wisdom that has been passed down through generations by the women who came before them. They know about such times as these, times of dramatic Earth changes and governmental upheavals, and they know the Earth-based ways that can sustain us through them. Through their lives they show us how to face chaos with faith. Through their ways they teach us how to stay in balance while the whole world is shaking.
            The Global Women's Gathering will bring indigenous women elders from around the world together with western women elders who have challenged the limitations of our social system and helped to deepen our relationship with the feminine. These rich and varied sources of wisdom will join together for three days of conversation and sharing about healing, sustainability, and sovereignty for all people. They will address the critical question of how to forge a unified alliance between all the Earth's peoples in the interests of life and peace.
            Our Bwiti elder, Bernadette Rebienot, has said that the women in Gabon regularly gather together in the forest to share their visions and to pray for world peace and the well being of their people. In Gabon, "When the grandmothers speak, the President listens."
            It is our intention that through this Gathering we can gather all the individual expressions of all these women into one voice, and begin to raise this voice, a voice that is both grounded in the wisdom of our original people and fueled by the inspiration and action of our western women leaders. Surely such a voice must be heard.
            The gathering will begin on Thursday evening with an opening talk from Wilma Mankiller. At that time we will meet the indigenous women from around the world who will be participating in our program during the next three days. Friday our indigenous Grandmothers will share more about their roles in their communities which will include a discussion of traditional ways and their importance in our culture. Saturday's morning program will be modeled on a traditional town hall meeting. The event will highlight the indigenous women as well as noted women from Western culture including; Carol Mosley Braun,Teresa Hale, Tenzin Palmo, Gloria Steinem, Louisah Teish and Alice Walker. This session will focus on women's roles and responsibilities in helping sustain the planet, and how we can best make our voices heard. The session also will invite questions and comments from the audience.
            The program Saturday afternoon will include seven breakout sessions on:

  1. Oppression: The Damage and the Healing
  2. Sacred Relations: Maintaining the Earth's Balance
  3. Women's Wisdom
  4. Traditional Health Systems and Knowledge
  5. Creating the Bridge between Traditional and Modern Medicine
  6. Aging: Honoring Our Elders
  7. Preserving and Regenerating Original Culture: The Return to Sustainable Community

            Each session will be facilitated by a collaboration of the indigenous grandmothers and western women elders. Sunday each group will present a summary of the discussions from the breakout sessions and a proclamation for action, which will be discussed with the entire audience. Sunday afternoon the Global Women's Gathering will close.
            This gathering is open to men as well as women.
  
  
  
  
• Oct 11: Unplug America - give Mother Earth a rest
  One People - One Earth invites you on a pilgrimage to Onondaga Lake
  Onondaga Lake Park Liverpool, New York, USA
  Peace Pilgrims from The Four Directions will meet on the shore of Onondaga Lake where Peace was made on Earth. Onondaga is a Sacred Lake where The Peacemaker planted The Tree of Peace and taught The Great Law of Peace.

  • 8am - walk for peace
    People for Peace Parade
    international - interfaith - interspecies - interdependence led by walkers from Four Directions featuring all our relations - flags of all nations - people of all ages - hearts and hands for peace - in traditional costumes - sustainable technology for sensible living: solar power - wind power - biodiesel - ecofriendly vehicles - permaculture - community forestry - ecological literacy
  • 1pm - Interfaith Ceremony at Onondaga Lake Park
    Drums for Peace, Thanksgiving, Water Ceremony, Fire Ceremony, Interfaith Prayer, Wisdom from an Elder, Peacemaker Awards
  • 3pm - The Path of Peace - artistic performance at Long Branch Park
    Rituals to Renew the Earth - Building Green Communities
  • 5pm - Cultural Festival along the northwest shore
    Food - Music - Dance - Games - Storytelling - Speakers - Exhibits - featuring "Chattin' with The Mother"

  sponsored by partners in peace - Children of the Sun www.onepeopleoneearth.org, The Earth Renewal & Restoration Alliance championtrees[at]msn[dot]com, 518-477-6100
  The Sacred Circle - First Organizing Meeting - Sunday, March 21, 2004 - Liverpool, New York
  
  
  
  
  
• Oct 1-3: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Boston College, Boston, MA

  Dates and Locations of upcoming Democracy Schools

  Focusing on a systemic historical and legal analysis of corporate power and democracy, this three-day experience is designed to help activists more effectively and fundamentally challenge corporate power, rather than simply organize corporation by corporation and harm by harm. The School is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Pennock, a 17 year old Berks County, Pennsylvania boy who died in 1995 after being exposed to land applied sewage sludge. His parents, Antoinette and Russell Pennock, travel the state seeking an end to that practice of sludge disposal -- from which waste management corporations reap massive profits from hauling and spreading sludge on farmland. This program is conceived, designed, and run by The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and the Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy.
  Friday

  • Arrival of Attendees
  • Dinner
  • Introductions of Attendees
  • Discussion:
    • "What is Our Concept of Democracy?"
    • "What is Our History of Regulatory Activism?"
    • "Does Our Work Vindicate Our Concept of Democracy?"
  • How We Got Here: A Brief Overview of the School and the Evolution of POCLAD/CELDF
  Saturday
  • The Historical Role and Nature of Corporations in the United States
    • The Role of Corporate Charters
    • The Conferral of Corporate Constitutional Rights
  • A History of Peoples' Movements in the United States
    • The American Revolution
    • The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution
    • The Anti-Federalists
    • The Populists
    • The Abolitionists and the Fourteenth Amendment
    • Womens' Rights and the Nineteenth Amendment
    • The Labor Movement
  • What Have We Learned from These Movements?
    • Common Theories, Strategies, and Actions
      • Theory of the Constitution
      • Theory of the Corporation
      • Theory of Democracy
    • Building on the Lessons of Prior Movements
  • Building New Models of Organizing
    • The "Single Issue: Model: From Reframing to Winning
      • Driving into Local Governing Arenas
        • Challenging and Contesting Corporations
        • Contesting Government Actions Empowering Corporations to Usurp Community Control From Reframing to Drawing the Corporate Response To Building New Constituencies To Winning
    • Altering the Odds: Directly Challenging Corporate Rights
      • The Porter and Licking Township, Clarion County Experience: Using Law to Eliminate Legal Privileges Claimed by Corporations
  Sunday
  • Building the Connections Amongst All Single Issues
    • Our History of Collaterally Challenging Illegitimate Corporate Authority
  • Breakout: Reframing Single Issues by Rethinking Several Issues
    • An Exploration of Jurisdictions and Arenas
    • Other Constituencies
    • Critical Mass: Doing it Together and Building a Movement
  • This is the Work: Groups Across the United States Applying New Models
  • Discussion: How Do We Make Real the Promises of Democracy?
  
  
  
  
• William Blum's Speaking Engagements
  Author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (1995),
  Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (2000),
  West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Political Memoir (2002)
  • September 7, 2004: Washington University, St. Louis
    A forum/debate about US foreign policy, 4:45 to 6:45 pm
  • October 1, 2004: Syracuse University, New York
    Grant Auditorium in the Law Building, 7pm
    Further information: Carrie Grogan, 315-443-2718
  • October 4, 2004: Elon College, North Carolina
    Whitley Auditorium, 7:30pm
    Further information: Ginger Bulla, 336-278-5565
  
  
  
  
• Sep 23: Screening and Panel Discussion of In the Light of Reverence
  2-5pm, the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington D.C.
  An afternoon screening of In the Light of Reverence and a panel discussion with Native American leaders will be presented during the week of the opening of Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, in Washington D.C., in association with Spirit: The Seventh Fire, a theatrical celebration of American Indian history and identity. The screening and panel discussion will be held from 2 to 5:00 PM on Thursday, September 23, 2004 in the tent stage of Spirit: The Seventh Fire, on the Mall in the 14th Street Center Panel near the Washington Monument. Admission is free. The event is co-sponsored by American University's Center for Social Media.
            The documentary portrays the struggles of three Native American communities to protect their sacred sites at Devils Tower, Wyoming, Mt. Shasta in California, and the Four Corners area of the Southwest. The panel will include Anishinaabeg author/activist Winona LaDuke, Professor Henrietta Mann, Southern Cheyenne, Endowed Chair, Center for Native American Studies, Montana State University at Bozeman, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the new Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Oren Lyons, Nation Council of Chiefs of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy and Professor of American Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Caleen Sisk-Franco, Keeper of the Ceremonies for the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, of Redding, California. The panel will be moderated by Christopher McLeod, Director of the Sacred Land Film Project and Director/Producer of In the Light of Reverence.
            The event will precede the evening performance of Spirit: The Seventh Fire, which is produced by the musician and artist Peter Buffett. For performance times and ticket information for Spirit: The Seventh Fire, please visit www.spirit7thfire.com. For information about In the Light of Reverence please visit www.sacredland.org.
  
  
  
  
• Jul 11-16: XV International AIDS Conference
  Bangkok Thailand
  In keeping with the Conference Theme Access for All, portions of the Conference will be available for viewing on the Internet at no cost and with no registration. Extensive coverage of Conference news and events will also be available through the Conference website.
  
  
  
  
• Jul 9-10 + Jul 23-24: Polyface Farm Intensive Discovery Seminars
  The 2004 Acres U.S.A. Conference
  Swoope, Virginia (just south of Staunton in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley)
  Acres U.S.A. works with industry leaders and pioneers of sustainable agriculture. Learn from these pros how you can turn your farm into a healthy, profitable enterprise.
            Join the Salatin family and a select group of innovative farmers for two days of intensive learning, great food, and hands-on discovery. World-renowned for agricultural models that offer profit, productivity, and pleasure, Joel Salatin, the rest of the family, and apprentices immerse themselves in the people and problems coming to this unique learning experience. Limited to 30 attendees per session. Cost $500. Articles by Joel Salatin:

  • Family Friendly Farming - Creating a Farm Life Your Children Will Treasure, June 2000
  • Balance Sheet Switcheroo, November 2002
  • Balance: Stability for Your Life & Farm, April 2002
  • Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal, September 2003
  • Industry vs. Biology - Taking on the Ethics of Industrial Agriculture, November 1999
  • `Sound Science' Is Killing Us, April 2004
  • The State of the Eco-Union, May 2003
  • ... and a Reader Toolbox goldmine of other articles
  
  
  
  
• Jul 4: Energy Independence Day
  Energy Independence Day Campaign
  
  The Energy Independence Day Campaign is open to all tribes and local governments willing to commit to producing or promoting the purchase of utility scale renewable energy for sale into the national transmission grid. Local Governments and Tribes can participate through endorsement of the Declaration of Energy Independence, educational and promotional outreach, conservation and energy efficiency, and/or green energy purchases. "By encouraging local businesses and households to purchase tribally-generated renewable energy and/or `green tags', participating local governments can achieve some or all of their emission reduction goals consistent with their communities' global warming reduction strategy" according to Susan Ode, Outreach Director for the U.S. Cities for Climate Protection, program of the ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, US office in Berkeley, California.
  
  
  
  
• Jun 26-27: Common Society Gathering
  The Pathfinder Partnership invites you to Experience the Experiment
  
  CATALYST LEADERS:

  • Sharif Abdullah, Director of The Commonway Institute, "Creating a World that Works for All"
    
  • James O'Dea, President of The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) "Science, Healing and Spiritual Activism"
  • The Pathfinding Partnership Invites You To "Experience the Experiment" We invite you to join us in a great undertaking.

  In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson dispatched a group of explorers on a quest for the Northwest Passage to the Pacific. This June, exactly 200 years later, a group of Pathfinders will set off on a quest for a "pacific future," A World that Truly Works for ALL. The journey now as then begins in St. Louis.
            Four years ago we held the first Pathfinding Conference here in the "mound city". Sharif Abdullah invited over 150 participants from over half the states in this country and several foreign countries to begin to Create a World that Works for All. This year we will give you a personal experience of the Commons that makes CSM St. Louis a diverse and unique cultural incubator for the explorers of the 21st Century.

  THE COMMONS: An Experiment in Human Ecology

  "There are plenty of excuses to be in the Commons, from the coffee to the books to the movies. I may bring my knives to be sharpened, my laundry to be cleaned, my muscles to be exercised, my brain to be stimulated, my heart to be uplifted. I may have come to attend a meeting, spend time at the crafts center, work in one of the many micro enterprises& or go to the Commons Bank, to exchange dollars for Commons Credits . . . the Commons is the place where community develops itself. The Commons is the means by which capital (physical, economic, social, and spiritual) is fed into the community. We don't exactly know where we are going, but we know that the Commons will help us get there..."

  from the book Creating a World That Works For All by Sharif Abdullah

            We are not waiting for our future to happen -- we are inventing it as we go along!! Come learn about our efforts in changing the way we think about consciousness, economics and politics. Come learn with us how to:

  • Fund community activities by pooling community resources
  • Support local activities by diverting the money that flows to global corporations
  • Develop governance structures (local politics) that support personal and community empowerment
  • Generate energy at the local level, and create local distribution networks to get "off the Grid"
  • Reduce our dependence -- on everything!

  We don't have all the answers. We do, however, have some tantalizing questions and enticing experiments. A Common Society is a practical movement to a realistic future. "We are about to do what has never been done in human history! We are creating a global human society . . . based on our deepest wisdom traditions and our highest vision for the future . . . A COMMON SOCIETY . . . an idea whose time has come."
  
  
  
  
• Jun 25-27: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Immaculate Heart of Mary Retreat and Conference Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico

  weekends held at Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
  June 25-27 (deadline for registration is June 1)
  September 3-5 (deadline for registration is August 20)
  November 5-7 (deadline for registration is October 20)

  Focusing on a systemic historical and legal analysis of corporate power and democracy, this three-day experience is designed to help activists more effectively and fundamentally challenge corporate power, rather than simply organize corporation by corporation and harm by harm. The School is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Pennock, a 17 year old Berks County, Pennsylvania boy who died in 1995 after being exposed to land applied sewage sludge. His parents, Antoinette and Russell Pennock, travel the state seeking an end to that practice of sludge disposal -- from which waste management corporations reap massive profits from hauling and spreading sludge on farmland. This program is conceived, designed, and run by The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and the Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy.
  Friday

  • Arrival of Attendees
  • Dinner
  • Introductions of Attendees
  • Discussion:
    • "What is Our Concept of Democracy?"
    • "What is Our History of Regulatory Activism?"
    • "Does Our Work Vindicate Our Concept of Democracy?"
  • How We Got Here: A Brief Overview of the School and the Evolution of POCLAD/CELDF
  Saturday
  • The Historical Role and Nature of Corporations in the United States
    • The Role of Corporate Charters
    • The Conferral of Corporate Constitutional Rights
  • A History of Peoples' Movements in the United States
    • The American Revolution
    • The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution
    • The Anti-Federalists
    • The Populists
    • The Abolitionists and the Fourteenth Amendment
    • Womens' Rights and the Nineteenth Amendment
    • The Labor Movement
  • What Have We Learned from These Movements?
    • Common Theories, Strategies, and Actions
      • Theory of the Constitution
      • Theory of the Corporation
      • Theory of Democracy
    • Building on the Lessons of Prior Movements
  • Building New Models of Organizing
    • The "Single Issue: Model: From Reframing to Winning
      • Driving into Local Governing Arenas
        • Challenging and Contesting Corporations
        • Contesting Government Actions Empowering Corporations to Usurp Community Control From Reframing to Drawing the Corporate Response To Building New Constituencies To Winning
    • Altering the Odds: Directly Challenging Corporate Rights
      • The Porter and Licking Township, Clarion County Experience: Using Law to Eliminate Legal Privileges Claimed by Corporations
  Sunday
  • Building the Connections Amongst All Single Issues
    • Our History of Collaterally Challenging Illegitimate Corporate Authority
  • Breakout: Reframing Single Issues by Rethinking Several Issues
    • An Exploration of Jurisdictions and Arenas
    • Other Constituencies
    • Critical Mass: Doing it Together and Building a Movement
  • This is the Work: Groups Across the United States Applying New Models
  • Discussion: How Do We Make Real the Promises of Democracy?
  
  
  
  
• Jun 25-27: Stopping War Where It Begins - Strengthening the Movement Opposing the Militarization of Youth
  The National Network Opposing Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)
  is sponsoring a gathering of counter-recruitment activists in Philadelphia
  The gathering, open to all who work against the militarization of young people, will focus on strengthening the network that was formed at the "Stopping War Where It Begins: Organizing Against Militarism in Our Schools" conference that took place in June 2003. Time will be devoted to:

  • Discussing the status of the network, briefing new members, and electing a steering committee;
  • Strategizing about how to improve the effectiveness of U.S. counter-recruitment work, locally and nationally;
  • Making an inventory of existing counter-recruitment resources and identifying other resources that are needed.
  • "Training-the-trainer" sessions for experienced counter-recruitment activists;
  • Caucus and regional discussions;
  • An evening devoted to issues of LGBTQ people and the military.

  For more information, to get involved in planning and publicity for the conference, or to learn how your organization can endorse NNOMY, please contact the following. Registration details forthcoming.

  National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth
  c/o American Friends Service Committee
  1501 Cherry Street
  Philadelphia, PA 19102
  Email: NNOMY[at]afsc[dot]org
  Phone: 215-241-7176
  Web: www.youthandthemilitary.org
  
  
  
  
• Jun 25-27: Local Currencies in the 21st Century
  Understanding Money, Building Local Economies, Renewing Community
  International Conference organized & presented by the E.F. Schumacher Society
  Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
  Co-sponsors include The Nation, Acres USA, Resurgence, Orion, Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures, World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, E Magazine, In Business, and Dollars & Sense. In addition, a host of prestigious and pioneering organizations are supporting the conference including Co-op America, BALLE, Investor's Circle, Chelsea Green Publishing, Institute for Local Self Reliance, NOFA Mass, Center for Community Futures, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, New Economics Foundation, and theHawthorne Valley Association, the ACCESS Foundation, Community Information Resource Center, Ithaca HOURS, Maine Time Dollar Network, and the Time Dollar Institute.
            In addition to a stellar cast of keynote speakers, the conference will feature workshop presenters from all over the world. Confirmed presenters include Bernard Lietaer, Margrit Kennedy, David Boyle, Edgar Cahn, Richard Douthwaite, Thomas Greco, Michael Linton, Mary-Beth Raddon, Michael Shuman, Dwarko Sundrani, and Susan Witt.
            Renowned folk singer, Pete Seeger will be performing Sunday evening at the Local Food Fest, a closing cookout with festivities to celebrate and honor local and family farmers.
  
  
  
  
• Jun 8-10: The Other Economic Summit (TOES) Savannah '04 Program
  The Progressive Club, Savannah Georgia
  
  TOES (The OTHER Economic Summit) is an international forum for the presentation, discussion and advocacy of the economic ideas and practices upon which a more just and sustainable society can be built -- "an economics as if people mattered," as E.F. Schumacher put it. TOES is a truly voluntary movement without paid staff or infrastructure (except what it can beg, borrow or steal from established institutions with which those most active in TOES are associated). TOES reconstitutes itself every seven years in response to the G8 Summit. We invite everyone to participate, to make a presentation on any topic that is important to them -- so long as they focus on the economics of it. Your presentation can be a paper, panel, roundtable discussion, workshop, musical interlude or other creative contributions to the conference program. Please send a short abstract (no-more than 100 words) to Trent Schroyer tschroye[at]warwick[dot]net and Susan Hunt hunt[at]ee[dot]upenn[dot]edu indicating in the subject line "TOES Program Abstract". The following is a list of confirmed participants arranged by topic in a hypothetical program structure. We invite additions to the program.
  GLOBALIZATION AND EMPIRE

  • Dr. Walter Wink, Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City, author of Engaging the Powers.
  • John W. Spellman, Professor of Asian Studies, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada.
  • Frederique Apffel Marglin, Dept. of Anthropology, Smith College. PRATEC video, alternative ways of being in the world, critiques of modernity, critique of science and the hegemony of its worldview.
  • Jurgen Brauer (invited), Augusta State University in Georgia, and Board Member of ECAAR - Economists Allied for Arms Reduction.
  • Shulamith Koenig, PDHRE, People's Movement for Human Rights Education.

  REVITALIZING THE GLOBAL COMMONS: CULTURE, POLITICS, ECONOMICS, ENVIRONMENT

  • Trent Schroyer, Director, Institute for Environmental Studies, Ramapo College of New Jersey.
  • Ward Morehouse, CIPA, POCLAD.
  • CULTURE: Carolyn Oppenheim (invited), working with Pete Seeger.
  • ENVIRONMENT: Susan Hunt: Poster session on "Sustainable Mali."
  • SMITH, Jeffery J. and the GEORGISTS.
  • Stephen Zarlenga, American Monetary Institute.
  • Margy Betz and colleagues, SCAD. "What Savannah Means to Us."

  CORPORATIONS, LAW AND DEMOCRACY

  • Kim Brooks, Queen's University Faculty of Law, Kingston, Ontario This presentation examines whether the allegations of a corporate tax race to the bottom have any foundations, and if they do, whether there's anything governments can do to preserve the corporate tax.
  • Ward Morehouse, Co-founder POCLAD (Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy)
  • Jim Price, POCLAD and Sierra club, based in Birmingham.

  LABOR RIGHTS

  • Christoph H. Stefes, Ph.D, Comparative European & Post-Soviet Studies, University of Colorado at Denver. European labor unions' responses to the European Union and to the emergence of the Single Market.
  • Jean L. Pyle, Ph.D., Senior Associate, Center for Women & Work Globalization has contributed to increases in types of work (sex work, domestic service, and low-wage production) that are gendered, span the globe, and increasingly involve the migration or trafficking of women. Examining these work categories simultaneously reveals
    that they have grown substantially as a result of the processes of globalization and major changes in the structure of power internationally.
  • Dan Everett, Computer Science Dept, University of Georgia. The global labor market in services: to what extent is 'offshoring' jobs like computer programming a real crisis [it looks like one to a lot of people working in the field]. An overview of proposals to regulate labor markets to stop the race to the bottom in labor costs.
  • Eric A. Schutz, Professor & Chair, Economics Department, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL. The living-wage movement (especially here in the "right to work" southeast U.S., the successes and failures of the movement, its meaning and implications in the context of the "anti-globalization" movement, etc., etc.).

  BREAKING THE CHAINS OF THIRD WORLD DEBT

  • Facilitated by Jubilee USA Network. Contacts: Marie Clarke Brill, National Coordinator, Jubilee USA, and Neil Watkins, Jubilee USA:
  • Debt Basics: Breaking the Chains of International Debt.
    Countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are paying more in service on old debts than they receive in new loans, aid or investment. Come learn about the origins of the debt crisis, the impact of the debt on the most impoverished people of the world, the programs associated with debt relief and restructuring, and the role of the G8 and the latest in the global work for debt cancellation.
  • Don't Owe! Odious and Illegitimate Debt.
    Learn how people in countries like Iraq, South Africa, Congo, Argentina and the Philippines are paying the bill for their own oppression and what you can do to support legislative initiatives to change these policies.
  • Putting Faith in Practice: Jubilee Congregations.
    Learn how to take the work for debt cancellation and economic justice to your congregation. This workshop will describe the simple and profound Jubilee Congregations program and will provide tools and training to help you engage your congregation in effective learning and action. One of the issues addressed will be how to link the local priorities of your congregation to international issues of globalization.
  
  
  
  
• Jun 8-10: International Festival for Peace and Civil Liberties
  G8 2004: Savannah, Georgia USA
  Sponsored by the National Coalition to Repeal the USA Patriot Act
  
  From June 8-10, 2004 the G8 Summit will be held on Sea Island, Georgia. Journalists and others will be on the mainland in Savannah, Georgia. We are inviting people to participate in a `Peace & Civil Liberties' Festival and Concert on Tuesday night, June 8, 2004. This rally will demand an end to the illegal occupation of Iraq, Repeal of the USA PATRIOT Act, Homeland Security Act and Executive Orders that violate civil liberties. We will have a concert with many artists. We wish to include you in the planning of this event. If you can help, please contact me at:
            National Coalition to Repeal the USA Patriot Act
            Kellie Gasink
            912.238.4489
            www.repealnow.com
  
  
  
  
• Jun 4-6: RadFest 2004 Midwest Social Forum, 20th Anniversary
  Aurora University, George Williams Lake Geneva Camupus, Wisconsin
  The Havens Center seeks to promote progressive social and political change through engagement with the activist community in Madison and beyond. The principal vehicle for this effort is RadFest, an annual conference for progressive activists and academics held the weekend after Memorial Day. The central goal of the conference is to provide an opportunity for progressive activists and academics to come together to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, strengthen networks, and devise strategies for progressive social, economic, and political change. In recent years, the
            The conference program is primarily devoted to workshops and panels addressing a wide array of social, economic, and political topics. At RadFest 2003, for example, there were nearly forty workshops and panels, covering such topics as The Anti-War Movement, The State of Black Politics, Media Reform, Palestine/Israel, Race and Education, The Assault on Civil Liberties, USA Patriot Art, New Movements in Communities of Color, Health Care Reform, Community Organizing, Participatory Democracy, Race and Incarceration, Electoral Reform, High School Student Activism, Government and Corporate Propaganda, Labor Rights, Latin American Social Movements, Sister Cities, Tax Reform, Urban Energy Cooperative Development, A Future for Socialism?, Stopping the U.S. War on the Poor, Lessons of the Sixties for Today, and more than a dozen others.
  
  
  
  
• May 14: Lobby Day Against the Military Draft
  Lobbying for Conscience Sake organized in conjunction with Center on Conscience & War, National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, Veterans for Peace, Mennonite Central Committee - Washington Office, Church of the Brethren, United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, and Pax Christi USA
  Washington, D.C.
  
  
  This lobby day is an opportunity for people of conscience to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill. Come to Washington, DC to meet with congressional staff or meet locally at your representative's district office. The day will be focused on educating Congress about conscientious objection and how any military draft is not a viable option. During this time when the United States military is stretched thin across the globe in various military campaigns, there are talks about the administration considering a draft. Now is the time to make our voices heard, to let Congress know that WE DO NOT WANT A DRAFT.
            See Also: Military Draft: A Sleeping Giant Stirs, February 2004
  
  
  
  
• May 6: POCLAD/CIPA 50/10 Anniversary Celebration
  6:00 PM, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave, New York
  This is What Democracy Sounds Like - 50/10 Anniversary Celebration:
  the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD) at 10 and
  the Council for International and Public Affairs (CIPA) at 50.
            Anniversary Celebration Concert Starring Work 'o the Weavers With Special Guest Pete Seeger and Introducing the Project on Folk Music and the Public Domain.
            Today, we live in a new era of repression of ideas challenging corporate rule and the right to self-governance. To experience a musical message of democratic values, come hear Work 'o the Weavers - four talented musicians who tell the Weavers' story with the same songs that made the Weavers so popular four decades ago, connecting that message to our present day struggles. Explore a musical moment in the never-ending struggle for free expression when the folk music group, The Weavers, were blacklisted in the 1950's for their political views. However, Pete Seeger and the other Weavers were not so easily silenced. As television and radio cut the Weavers off from commercial audiences, they sought and found new audiences on college campuses and concert halls. In a dramatic evening in the early 60s, they filled Carnegie Hall with their immensely popular ballads celebrating dissent and political freedom. The 50/10 Anniversary Concert is a once in a life time opportunity to support POCLAD and CIPA!
            In one short decade, POCLAD has contributed more than any other voice in this country to increasing awareness of the connections between corporate power, never intended corporate constitutional "rights", the increasing difficulty of we the people to govern ourselves, and the steps required to achieve authentic democratic self-governance.
            Through speaking engagements, conferences, books, pamphlets, hundreds of "Rethinking the Corporation, Rethinking Democracy" workshops, and the POCLAD newsletter, By What Authority, we've changed the conversation, the way people think, and the way they examine their work. Ten years ago, no one was talking about the ill-gotten property rights of corporations or the problem of "corporate personhood." Now these are known among many activists and even within segments of the media.
            Over the last half century, CIPA, the fiscal agent for POCLAD, has been similarly engaged in challenging conventional thinking on a wide range of human rights and other public issues and building links with popular movements around the world seeking to resist corporate rule and strengthen democratic values. A major vehicle in increasing public understanding has been the Council's publishing arm, The Apex Press.
            Over the next 10 years, both organizations plan more strategically to translate our ideas and knowledge into practice by working with groups to assert the rights human beings should have to be in charge of our lives. That's what democracy should be like! Please be a part of our gala celebration.
            In solidarity,
            Ward Morehouse, Judi Rizzi, Virginia Rasmussen, Jim Price, Mike Ferner, Greg Coleridge
  CIPA/ POCLAD 50/10 Anniversary Organizing Committee
  
  
  
  
• May 6: Drug War Crimes - The Consequences of Prohibition
  Co-sponsored by The Independent Institute and the Drug Policy Alliance
  Reception: 6:30 pm | Program: 7:00 pm
  The Independent Institute Conference Center
  100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA
  Regular Admission: $15.00 per person; Members, $10.00. Contact: Ushma Multani. RSVP: 510-632-1366 X119
            Jeffrey A. Miron - Boston University Professor of Economics and author of the new book, Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition. His articles on Drug Policy have appeared in Social Research, Boston Globe and the London Observer. He received his Ph. D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
            Joseph D. McNamara - Research Fellow, Hoover Institution. Former Chief of Police, San Jose, CA and Kansas City, MO. He has published articles in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and other publications. He has been a commentator for NPR and has appeared on Meet the Press, Good Morning America, Sixty Minutes, and other programs.
            Each year, the U.S. government spends over $30 billion on the drug war and arrests more than 1.5 million people on drug-related charges. Currently more than 318,000 people are behind bars in the U.S. for drug violations -- more than the number of people incarcerated for all crimes in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain combined. Have current drug laws deterred drug abuse and reduced crime? What are the real costs of this country's war on drugs? Is there a link between the homicide rate and the amount of resources given to drug prohibition? Please join us as Boston University economist Jeffrey Miron and former San Jose police chief, Joseph McNamara, examine these questions and explore real alternatives to America's "War on Drugs."
  
  
  
  
• William Blum's Speaking Engagements
  Author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (1995),
  Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (2000),
  West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Political Memoir (2002)
  • Mar 24: Georgetown University, 7pm
    Washington, DC
  • Mar 30: Wilmington, Delaware, 7:30pm
  • Apr 15: Plymouth State College, 7 pm
    Plymouth, New Hampshire
  • April 23: IMO Hall (International Muslim Organization)
    65 Rexdale Blvd., Toronto, Canada
    6:45 pm - documentary: "Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War"
    8 pm - break for prayer and/or coffee
    8:30 pm - I speak for about 40-45 minutes, followed by Q&A
    Books will be sold and signed
    Contact: Tariq Nasim, 416-803-2600
  
  
  
  
• Mar 27-28: The Atomic Film Festival
  Cinemareno, A Year-Round Festival of Films, Nevada Museum of Art
  CINEMARENO is a non-profit film society founded for the purpose of promoting the art of motion pictures in Northern Nevada. Screenings throughout the year showcase new independent films and videos, along with a selection of obscure films and classic movies. CINEMARENO proudly offers an alternative to current Hollywood fare, bringing to Reno films that you are unlikely to see anywhere else.
  
  

  Saturday 11:30 am	PLUTONIUM CIRCUS (1995) - This hilarious documentary looks at the PanTex nuclear weapons factory near Amarillo, Texas and the zany folks that live and work in and around it. Directed by George Ratliff, 73 mins.
  Saturday 1:00 pm	THE DAY AFTER TRINITY (1980) - Oscar-nominated documentary provides a haunting journey through the dawn of the nuclear age. An incisive history of the Manhattan Project and the man behind it, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Directed by Jon Else, 89 mins.
  Saturday 3:00 pm	ATOMIC CAFE (1982) - At once funny, sobering and shocking, this brilliant compilation of propaganda films, atomic test films and newsreel footage provides an entertaining overview of the atomic age and the pervasive anxiety it created in cold-war America. 88 mins.
  Saturday 5:00 pm	ON THE BEACH (1959) - 45th Anniversary screening. Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins and Fred Astaire star in Stanley Kramer's powerful and haunting adaptation of Nevil Shute's best-selling novel about Australians living out their remaining days after the rest of the world has destroyed itself from nuclear war. In wide-screen CinemaScope format, 134 mins.
  Sunday 11:30 am	MELTDOWN AT THREE MILE ISLAND (1999) (Free) - A riveting documentary that details the events of March 28, 1979 when the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history occurred at a power plant in Pennsylvania. 60 mins. Full-festival pass holders get priority seating.
  Sunday 1:00 pm	THE CHINA SYNDROME (1979) - 25th Anniversary screening. Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas star in this suspenseful story of a nuclear power plant accident. Eerily, it accurately foreshadowed the events at Three Mile Island, which occurred only 12 days after the film premiered in March 1979. In wide-screen format, 121 mins.
  Sunday 3:30 pm	PANIC IN YEAR ZERO (1962) - Ray Milland directed and starred in this rare 1962 cult classic. An apocalyptic tale of survival about a family escaping a nuclear attack on Los Angeles. With Jean Hagen and Frankie Avalon. In wide-screen CinemaScope format, 92 mins.
  Sunday 5:30 pm	DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) - 40th Anniversary screening. Arguably the greatest black comedy ever made, Stanley Kubrick's cold-war classic is the ultimate satire of the nuclear age, a perfect spoof of political and military insanity that gets funnier with each viewing. With Peter Sellers, Sterling Hayden and George C. Scott. In wide-screen format, 93 mins.

  
  
  
  
• Mar 28: Shays Rides Again: Ending Corporate Rule
  7pm, The Unitarian Universalist Society of Northampton and Florence, 220 Main Street, Northampton
  Four speakers from the national steering of Committee of Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy, (POCLAD) will explore how the growing "rights" of corporations undermine our Constitutional rights and democracy, and how we can fight back together, shaping all of our diverse issues as activists and citizens.
            A community dialog will follow. This event is sponsored by Western Mass Committee on Corporations & Democracy, a new grassroots organization promoting a just and sustainable future through education and peaceful action (and the social justice committee of the U-U society, the Western Mass AFSC, Media Education Foundation and Arise for Social Justice.)
            For more information, call 413 - 585 - 8173. To join our ongoing dialogue send an email with your name to fedup203[at]yahoo[dot]com and put "subscribe" in the subject line.
  
  About us: The Western Mass Committee on Corporations & Democracy is a grassroots organization dedicated to stripping corporations of the rights of citizens (that they have usurped in the law) through education and peaceful action. We are part of a growing nation-wide movement to build real democracy in America.
            The four POCLAD speakers include: Greg Coleridge, Karen Coulter, Jane Anne Morris, and Ward Morehouse, who has recently moved to the Pioneer Valley. For background, see "Taking On the System - How Corporate Personhood Threatens Democracy".
            Shays Rebellion, 1786-87, was the first populist uprising after the American Revolution, when WESTERN MASS poor people and farmers revolted against the looming corporate interests in the new country taking their land for debt.
            Corporations today still derail democracy and ravage the planet in quest of shareholder value. They are in the water we drink, and the air we breathe. They have used their massive wealth to block democratic change in agriculture, energy, transportation, health care, manufacturing and social spending for far too long. They bankroll our elections, write our laws and set our agendas at home and abroad. Their worldview saturates our media, our schools and children's dreams. It doesn't have to be this way. Come join us to explore how we can fight back.
            It's 218 years later, but the spirit of Shays Rebellion has never been more important to revive than now. Please join us for an evening planned to get your revolutionary juices flowing.
            In the days of Shays, as now, corporate interests used their power against ordinary citizens. Daniel Shays, from Pelham, organized poor farmers from the Connecticut Valley to shut down the courts that were sending them to debtors prison on behalf of big Boston banks. Many of the farmers were veterans who had trudged home from the Revolution "with not a single month's pay" in their pockets, but only worthless government certificates.
            Just a few years after Shays Rebellion, the Constitution was adopted to protect bankers, landowners & merchants. We've been living with big government protecting those business interests ever since.
  
  
  
  
• Mar 27-30: Shut Down the School of Assassins
  Come to Washington to tell Congress Not in Our Name, Not With Our Tax Dollars
  Mobilize to Shut Down the SOA/WHISC
  The Pentagon lobbies hard to keep SOA money flowing. At taxpayers' expense, the Army operates a huge PR campaign that is directed at Congress. We are countering their attempts with grassroots power.
            A vote on the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation is comming up in the U.S. Congress in the summer of 2004! It is our job to make sure that enough Representatives will be on board to vote against the school. Hold your Representative accountable.
            The SOA Watch Spring Mobilization will also include trainings, skill-shares, street theatre, social and educational events. Check back soon for more information.
            Spread the word! Download the Spring Mobilization Flier. Make plans to come to Washington, DC from March 27-30, 2004 and organize others to join you.
  
  
  
  
• Mar 26-28: International Inquiry into 9-11, Phase One
  San Francisco, California
  We, who question the official narrative of September 11, 2001, and question the path the U.S. government has chosen in its wake, believe a public inquiry -- asking who, what, how, when and why -- into those events is vitally necessary. Evidence suggests that September 11, 2001 was a special operation designed to terrorize Americans into silent conformity, to legitimize the crushing of dissent throughout the world, and to gain public support for imperial wars. Our hope is to disempower "the war game" once and for all, by exposing the criminal actions of those in power who committed crimes against humanity to advance that power.
  
  
  
• Mar 20: The World Still Says No to War
  Global Day of Action on 1-yr anniversary of Iraq War
  Momentum is building around the world for the Global Day of Action against War and Occupation on March 20, the one-year anniversary of the U.S. bombing and invasion of Iraq. People on every continent will take to the streets to say YES to peace and NO to pre-emptive war and occupation. Joining with growing numbers of military families and soldiers, we will call for an end to the occupation of Iraq and Bush's militaristic foreign policies, and highlight the linkages between the occupations of Iraq and Palestine. March 20 will be the first time the world's "other superpower," as The New York Times described us, will take center stage since February 15, when more than 15 million people across the globe expressed their opposition to Bush's looming war on Iraq.
            In the United States, there will be a massive protest in New York City plus dozens of local and regional demonstrations across the country.
            Politically, the U.S. protests will also take on the domestic impact of Bush's foreign policies -- what some people call "the war at home." We will express the growing opposition to the USA PATRIOT Act, which has authorized political arrests, indefinite detentions, domestic spying, and religious and racial profiling. We will call for an end to the mass detentions and deportations of innocent immigrants in the name of fighting terrorism. We will say no to massive military spending amidst vast cuts in vital domestic social and economic programs.
  
  
  
  
• Mar 19-21: The Money Crunch - Complementary Currency Solutions
  Naropa University, Boulder Colorado
  Co-sponsored by The ACCESS Foundation by The ACCESS Foundation (Alliance of Complementary Currencies Enabling Sustainable Societies), with Randy Petersen, Bernard Lietaer, Stephan Brunnhuber, Thomas Greco, Luca Fantacci, Sergio Lub, Edgar Cahn, Octavia Allis, Greg Berry, Arthur Brock, Christine Gray, Victor Grey, Anita Halcyon, Joel Hodroff, Christian Isquierdo, and Dr. Alec Tsoucatos.
            In times of growing economic uncertainty when budgets are being cut for vital social services, there are now new monetary innovations working in over 5,000 communities around the globe that are resolving a diverse array of social and economic issues such as education, elderly care, unemployment and ecological sustainability.
            Complementary currencies do not replace, but rather complement the national monetary system and facilitate exchange within communities. They connect unmet needs with unused resources and serve to strengthen relationships among community members.
            This workshop will explore this diverse and emerging field with presentations on existing complementary systems both for communities and businesses; examining of the psychological and spiritual framework of money, along with providing practical tools, technological innovations and information on how to get a currency started.
  
  
  
  
• Jan 30 - Feb 1: The Daniel Pennock Democracy School
  "Why Democratic Self-Government is Impossible When Corporations Wield
  Constitutional Rights Against Communities to Deny The Rights of People"
  Immaculate Heart of Mary Retreat and Conference Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico

  weekends held at Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
  February 20-22 (deadline for registration is February 10)
  April 23-25 (deadline for registration is April 10)
  June 25-27 (deadline for registration is June 1)
  September 3-5 (deadline for registration is August 20)
  November 5-7 (deadline for registration is October 20)

  Focusing on a systemic historical and legal analysis of corporate power and democracy, this three-day experience is designed to help activists more effectively and fundamentally challenge corporate power, rather than simply organize corporation by corporation and harm by harm. The School is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Pennock, a 17 year old Berks County, Pennsylvania boy who died in 1995 after being exposed to land applied sewage sludge. His parents, Antoinette and Russell Pennock, travel the state seeking an end to that practice of sludge disposal -- from which waste management corporations reap massive profits from hauling and spreading sludge on farmland. This program is conceived, designed, and run by The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and the Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy.

  Friday

  • Arrival of Attendees
  • Dinner
  • Introductions of Attendees
  • Discussion:
    • "What is Our Concept of Democracy?"
    • "What is Our History of Regulatory Activism?"
    • "Does Our Work Vindicate Our Concept of Democracy?"
  • How We Got Here: A Brief Overview of the School and the Evolution of POCLAD/CELDF

  Saturday

  • The Historical Role and Nature of Corporations in the United States
    • The Role of Corporate Charters
    • The Conferral of Corporate Constitutional Rights
  • A History of Peoples' Movements in the United States
    • The American Revolution
    • The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution
    • The Anti-Federalists
    • The Populists
    • The Abolitionists and the Fourteenth Amendment
    • Womens' Rights and the Nineteenth Amendment
    • The Labor Movement
  • What Have We Learned from These Movements?
    • Common Theories, Strategies, and Actions
      • Theory of the Constitution
      • Theory of the Corporation
      • Theory of Democracy
    • Building on the Lessons of Prior Movements
  • Building New Models of Organizing
    • The "Single Issue: Model: From Reframing to Winning
      • Driving into Local Governing Arenas
        • Challenging and Contesting Corporations
        • Contesting Government Actions Empowering Corporations to Usurp Community Control From Reframing to Drawing the Corporate Response To Building New Constituencies To Winning
    • Altering the Odds: Directly Challenging Corporate Rights
      • The Porter and Licking Township, Clarion County Experience: Using Law to Eliminate Legal Privileges Claimed by Corporations

  Sunday

  • Building the Connections Amongst All Single Issues
    • Our History of Collaterally Challenging Illegitimate Corporate Authority
  • Breakout: Reframing Single Issues by Rethinking Several Issues
    • An Exploration of Jurisdictions and Arenas
    • Other Constituencies
    • Critical Mass: Doing it Together and Building a Movement
  • This is the Work: Groups Across the United States Applying New Models
  • Discussion: How Do We Make Real the Promises of Democracy?
  
  
  
  
• Jan 25-27: Three Minutes to Midnight
  NPRI Symposium on the Impending Threat of Nuclear War
  Washington DC at the Omni Shoreham Hotel
  
  
  The Cold War is Over.
  The Nuclear Threat is Not.
  
  Twelve years after the end of the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia each maintain 2500 nuclear bombs on tenuous hair trigger alert. This chilling reality and other critical nuclear issues will be examined in-depth at the Nuclear Policy Research Institute's groundbreaking symposium. Join scientists, policy-makers, military and medical experts from around the world for three days of analysis, insight and strategy.

  Topics:

  • The risk of accidental nuclear exchange by United States and Russia,
  • The risk of terrorist intrusion into U.S. or Russian early warning systems
  • Proliferation to Pakistan, India, Israel, Iran, North Korea and other nations,
  • The "Second Manhattan Project" -- "Stockpile Stewardship Program"
  • Science, business and the military roles in the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

2003

• Nov 23-29: International Anti-Food Irradiation Week
  Milford Square, Pennsylvania
  
  
  A major assault on our Mother Earth is taking place in our Lenape homelands of eastern Pennsylvania. This is a call for action on the part of everyone who is able. This is a call to ceremony. In Milford Township, just west of Quakertown, Pennsylvania, CFC Logistics (Clemens Family Corp.), is attempting to operate a nuclear irradiation plant. This facility would irradiate meat and other foods that would then go out to stores, schools and restaurants, etc. This has been done mostly in secret. This is your special invitation and request for support in protecting this sacred land. A time to stand as one people, one voice, for our Mother Earth. If we stand for nothing we will fall for anything!
  
  
  
  
• Nov 22-23: Vigil and Nonviolent Civil Resistance at School of the Americas
  Fort Benning, Georgia
  
  
  Join thousands from across the Americas from November 22-23, 2003 at the gates of the U.S. military base Fort Benning in Georgia to stand in Solidarity with the victims of the School of Assassins and to speak out against terror and violence. Engage in nonviolent direct action to make your voice heard, to close the SOA/WHISC, and to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy. Fort Benning is home of the notorious School of the Americas (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), where the US trains the military muscle that enforces the corporate agenda throughout Latin America.
  
  U.S. policy in Latin America has but one purpose: to supress dissent and to consolidate wealth and power for the corporate elite. The purpose of the School of the Americas/WHISC has been and continues to be the development, training, and support of military brutality--including torture, murder, assassination, and terrorism--to enforce that policy. SOA graduates are linked to almost every major human rights violation in Latin America since the school's inception over 50 years ago. SOA graduates continue to cause suffering throughout Latin America.
  
  There can be no healing and reconciliation without truth, an apology and reparations to the thousands who suffered from SOA violence and oppressive U.S. foreign policy. We will gather at the gates of Fort Benning and demand justice for the martyrs and for the thousands who continue to suffer the brutal consequences of the combat training at the SOA/WHISC. More and more people throughout the hemisphere are standing up to demand justice: no more murder in our name! The SOA/WHISC has to close its doors for good and oppressive U.S. foreign policy must be transformed into an agenda that honors and supports life, including humans, everywhere on the globe.
  
  
  
  
• Nov 21-23: Four Decades Of Deceit; JFK-MLK-RFK - Why?
  COPA 2003 Annual Regional Meeting, Dallas, TX, November 21-23
  The Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA, founded in 1994) will be holding a regional meeting in Dallas from November 21-23 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the 35th year after the murders of Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  
  Speakers will include Senator Arlen Specter, Jim Lesar, Mark Lane, Joan Mellen, Robert Tannenbaum, Bruce Feinman, Judge John Tunheim, Tom Samoluk on videoconference from simultaneous conference at the Wecht Institute of Forensic Law and Science at Duquesne University. Dallas speakers will include: Howard Jones, author of The Death of a Generation; Dick Russell, author of The Man Who Knew Too Much; Paris Flammonde, author of The Kennedy Conspiracy; Jim Koepke, author of Chasing Ghosts; Joe Biel, expert on Jim Garrison's case; John Johnston, author of Flight from Dallas; Bill Kelly, on a new JFK Grand Jury; Dave Starks, expert on Gerald Posner and counter-critics; John Judge - the JFK Assassination Records Act and release of records; former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Dick Gregory, author of Callus on my Soul, T. Carter, eyewitness.
  
  
  
  
• PDF: Nov 20-23: Solving the Great American Murder Mystery
  A National Symposium on the 40th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination
  Co-Sponsors: Allegheny County Coroner's Office, Allegheny General Hospital, Coalition on Political Assassinations, Pittsburgh Institute of Legal Medicine, The Last Hurrah Bookshop
  The Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law
  Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania