A very important dialogue between Johan Galtung and Amy Goodman entitled “Peace, Justice, Empire, and Occupation.” Johan Galtung is a Norwegian sociologist and is considered to be one of the founding fathers of peace and conflict studies; he has published more than 1000 articles, 100 books, and was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize in 1987. Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now! This dialogue is sponsored by the Envision Peace Museum, American Friends Service Committee, and others.

Join us at 6:30 PM on Monday April 9 at Amherst Town Hall in front of the Amherst Select Board to support a proposed town bylaw (Article 29 on the Amherst Town Warrant) to protect immigrants and to stop the Federal Government’s “Secure Communities” Program

MONDAY, APRIL 9th at the Amherst Town Hall, 2nd Floor
• 6:30-6:45 PM: opportunity to give public comments
• 8:15-8:45 PM (roughly): Article 29 formally presented before the Amherst Select Board
*** Come to a meeting in between the above 2 agenda items from 7:00-8:15 PM at Amherst Town Hall, 1st floor, for supporters of Article 29 to plan outreach to Amherst Town Meeting Members

In May 2012, the Amherst Town Meeting (a 250-member governance body for the town) will vote on a first-of-its-kind proposed bylaw that would take a step in preventing Federal Immigration authorities from tasking the Amherst police department in the enforcement of federal immigration policies. These policies already cause millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States to live in constant fear and isolation.

What’s especially alarming for Massachusetts is that the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security has stated its intention to force all local law enforcement agencies to assist federal authorities in enforcing federal immigration policy by 2013, using a program called “Secure Communities” or S-Comm, which was started under the Bush Administration. Until now, the program has been voluntary, and states like Massachusetts, Illinois, and New York have opted out, while states like Arizona have opted in.

Despite objections from many local police agencies that don’t want to enforce federal immigration policy, because of the fissure of trust with their local residents that would result, “Homeland Security” has stated its intention to integrate the criminal data it regularly receives from local law enforcement agencies with federal immigration databases. Cities like Northampton and Springfield have also passed resolutions to opt out of the program, but these responses have assumed this federal program would remain voluntary. This bylaw is a lawful, legal mechanism to challenge S-Comm when it becomes mandatory.

Learn more about S-Comm and how this bylaw will help to protect immigrants living in Amherst by reading about it here: http://www.preservingcivilrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Bylaw-Information-Sheet.pdf

Your participation in showing the Amherst Select Board that Amherst deserves better than S-Comm is crucial. On Monday April 9, 2012 at the Amherst Town Hall, the Amherst Select Board will meet to decide whether or not to recommend a proposed bylaw change on the Amherst Town Meeting Warrant for 2012. Ultimately, the Amherst Town Meeting, which begins its multiple spring sessions on April 30, 2012, will decide on this after receiving the Select Board’s recommendation.

Please come and encourage others to come! We want the Select Board to give us a positive recommendation going into the Town Meeting. We expect the S-Comm issue to be discussed starting at about 8:15 PM on the 2nd floor of Town Hall (as one of numerous topics on their agenda). There is also a public comment period from 6:30-6:45 PM where the public has an opportunity to address the select board. If you want to speak about how S-Comm affects you, or know others that would speak about this, let us know (you can email jnapolitano@afsc.org).

In between the public comment period and the formal presentation in front of the Select Board, we will hold a strategy meeting for Article 29 supporters about how we can reach out to Amherst Town Meeting members to encourage them to support this measure. Anyone who supports this initiative is invited to attend that meeting, which will take place at 6:30 PM on the first floor of the Town Hall. The agenda will begin with a very brief review of the plan for presenting before the Select Board later that evening. Second, we will discuss the key arguments that we need to make to Town Meeting members to win their support. Finally, we will discuss who can contact whom in the outreach leading up to when town meeting begins.

Do you want to be involved in direct action? Want to train on how to engage in civil disobedience?

Join Paki Wieland and Jeff Napolitano for a civil disobedience training on February 25, from 9am to 4pm, in Northampton.

The training is free to all (donations graciously accepted), but we ask that you register below so that we can get a sense of the number of participants.

Check out the Facebook event here!

The resolution is a rejection of the (NDAA), signed by President Obama on December 31st. The NDAA allows the indefinite detention of any personaccused of a “belligerent act” without charge or trial, including American citizens. This resolution sends a strong message to the federal government that such civil rights violations are intolerable.

If passed, Northampton would be the first municipality in Massachusetts to pass a resolution of this nature. Join us in the City Council chambers at 7pm!

Welcoming

11:30 - Workshops (click to see workshop details)
(by Community Action | Out Now | Western MA Jobs with Justice | Pioneer Valley Climate Action | Youth Action Coalition)

12:30 PM – Lunch

1:30 – Remarks and Panel Introduction

1:45 – Panel on Youth Organizing
With Professor John Bracey, Kalimah Dunwell, and Manissa McCleave Maharawal

3 – Closing Performance: Who Da Funk It?

3:15 – Closing Remarks

AFSC Martin Luther King Day Celebration from Northampton Community Television

Our Liberation: Theatre of the Oppressed
Organization: Out Now! – QuEST
Facilitator Chiino Rios and Forrest Evans
We will engage with the “isms” – racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, classism, xenophobia, and sexism, among others.  But we don’t stop there – together with the audience, we create solutions to everyday instances of oppression.   In this workshop, the audience becomes actors too (we call everyone ‘spect-actors’).  The workshop becomes a sort of dress rehearsal for real life – where participants discover and then perform ways to interrupt and intervene in oppressive situations.  We invite everyone to share in this intergenerational workshop.

I Have A Zine…: Peaceful Propaganda
Organization: Youth Action Coalition
Facilitators Katie Richardson & Synphany
In this workshop we’ll explore MLK’s message through image making. We’ll briefly look at historical examples of media advancing social movements in peaceful but provocative ways, and discuss how lessons from the past can inform our thinking about art making as a social justice practice today.  Then we’ll get creative and collaborate to make a zine (low tech, collaged and handwritten mini magazine with a message) together using these ideas, and our own inspirations and dreams of liberation. (Ages 12+)

Environmental Justice Workshop
Organization: Pioneer Valley Climate Action
Facilitator: John Berkowitz
We’ll hear from many local young people about their campaigns and actions to stop climate change, shut down the Mt. Tom Coal plant in Holyoke and the proposed biomass plant in Springfield, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant at the top of the valley, and other environmental and clean energy issues.

Got Union? It’s Good for You
Organization: Western MA Jobs with Justice
Facilitator: Jon Weissman
47 years ago, Dr. King told a union convention: “When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over our nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society.” This workshop will explore this idea both as our history and as something for us to do: get yourself a union for the good of society.

MLK Expressions Booth
Organization: Community Action
Facilitator: Emily Shea
This is a funky workshop! Expressing diversity is important! Come join us and explore different ways we honor each other and our uniqueness.  We’ll use video cameras, cameras and art! This workshop is for all ages, but is especially targeted for youth! Choose this workshop if you are creative and like something more hands on!

Yesterday (Monday, November 21st) over 350 folks marched in downtown Springfield to the Bank of America demanding an end to ALL no-fault evictions after foreclosure and loan modifications with principal reduction to the current market value. The march was organized by Springfield No One Leaves/!Nade se Mude!, a community organization that helps former owners and tenants stay in their homes after foreclosure.* People came from all over the Northeast including, Boston, Hartford, Worcester, Chelsea, Northampton, Amherst, Pittsfield and more. And of course, Springfield represented in big numbers! Protestors marched down Main Street with signs, banners and raucous chants, stopping twice to demand that banks stop foreclosing and reduce principal and that the Sheriff and banks stop all no-fault evictions after foreclosure!

The march ended at the downtown branch of Bank of America where 15 protesters chose to risk arrest by sitting in at the bank. They sit-in blocked the doors and occupied other spaces inside the bank in an attempt to prevent others from leaving until banks gave into the demands. Inside they used the “people’s mic” to communicate the groups demands to the bank, before chanting along with the crowd outside. The police were called and arrested the group now being called (with tongue firmly in cheek) “the Bank of America 15.”

*AFSC was not the primary organizers of the rally/march, although we are a coalition member of the Springfield No One Leaves Coalition.

The “Bank of America 15″

They were released last night (Monday) at 10:00pm from the Springfield Police Station on Pearl Street, after spending the day in custody. Their arraignment was held this morning at the Springfield Court House, where they were represented by the esteemed Attorney Luke Ryan from the National Lawyers Guild and Attorney Linda Thompson. Their sole charge of criminal trespass was converted into a civil infraction, which is to be addressed through $100 fine or 8 hours of community service. All arrested have agreed to do community service.

Media Coverage

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/22/headlines/15_arrested_at_bank_of_america_anti_foreclosure_sit_in

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/15_cited_for_trespassing_following_occupy_anti-foreclosure_springfield_protest.html

http://activistnews.blogspot.com/2011/11/15-cited-for-trespassing-following.html

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1877759/WAMC.New.England.News/Protestors.Arrested..At.Bank.Of.America.Office.In.Springfield

http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/hampden/am-news-headlines-11-22-11

http://www.cbs3springfield.com/story/16092854/occupy-protest-hits-downtown-springfield

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-protests-massachusettstre7al03w-20111121,0,7287180.story

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/21/police-arrest-15-at-massachusetts-foreclosure-protest/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk9vktgoh2g&feature=youtu.be

http://www.nepr.net/news/bank-protests-come-springfield

http://www.wggb.com/2011/11/21/police-arrest-15-in-springfield-protest/