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The Activists' Watch

January 26 - February 9, 2024

Turning the embers into a bonfire
Calendar section

Upcoming Activist Events:
January 26, 2024


Jan. 26, 2024, 4:00 pm Democracy Friday Rally outside the Federal Building from 4 to 5 pm (we cancel if it’s below 40).
contact [email protected]

Jan. 27, 2024, 9:00 am Volunteer Work Day, Ivy Creek Natural Area invasive plant and debris removal or trail maintenance

Jan. 29, 2024, 7:00 am Appalachians Against Pipelines, numerous actions, https://www.aapsolidarity.org/plan-solidarity-actions

Jan. 29, 2024 7 pm Staunton Organizing meeting, contact [email protected]

Jan. 30, 2024, 7:00 am Appalachians Against Pipelines, numerous actions, https://www.aapsolidarity.org/plan-solidarity-actions

Jan. 30, 2024, 7:45 am Water & conservation Lobby Days in Richmond , https://engage.vcnva.org/event/2024-water-and-conservation-lobby-day/e538976

Jan. 31, 2024 Appalachians Against Pipelines, numerous actions, https://www.aapsolidarity.org/plan-solidarity-actions

Jan. 31, 2024, 7:45 am Water & conservation Lobby Days in Richmond , https://engage.vcnva.org/event/2024-water-and-conservation-lobby-day/e538976

Feb. 5, 2024, 7 pm Staunton Organizing meeting, contact [email protected]

Feb. 6, 2024, 8 am Action for Affordable Energy, RSVP Richmond lobby

Feb. 6, 2024, 9:30 am Third Act, along with other partner organizations, will be doing sit-ins at the Department of Energy.
These actions are focused on getting the DOE to stop approving Liquified Natural Gas facilities in the Gulf. Want to know
more about why this is so critical? https://grist.org/energy/louisiana-liquified-natural-gas-terminal-lng-gulf-coast/.
No need to engage in civil disobedience – there are lots of roles for folks.

Feb. 7, 2024, 9:30 am Third Act, along with other partner organizations, will be doing sit-ins at the Department of Energy.
These actions are focused on getting the DOE to stop approving Liquefied Natural Gas facilities in the Gulf. Want to know more about why this is so critical. No need
to engage in civil disobedience – there are lots of roles for folks.

Feb. 8, 6:30 pm, Charlottesville Police Civilian Oversight Board. livestreamed via Boxcast at this URL: https://boxcast.tv/channel/vabajtzezuyv3iclkx1a

Feb. 9, 4:30 pm, Democracy Friday demonstration, Virginians for Democracy, Federal Courthouse, info from [email protected]

DISCLAIMER: The absence of events from a particular faction does not indicate that a slanted perspective exists in Activists Guide. It means that we are not notified of the event. There is no selection of events. If we were notified of an event by an organization that appears in Activists’ Guide Directory of Organizations the entry will appear in the AG Calendar.

Activists’ Guide Directory of Organizations is reviewed at six-month intervals to ensure its accuracy.

ACTIVE ACTIVISTS
IT WORKS!!!!!!

FROM MICHAEL STONE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VIRGINIANS FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY

“We are confident that the newly elected General Assembly has a comfortable majority of legislators in the House of Delegates and state Senate in favor of death penalty abolition. There is no chance that this new General Assembly would vote to reinstate the death penalty for the next four years.
As a result, the VADP board of directors has decided to sunset the organization by the end of February 2024 and rely on its legislative allies, especially Justice Forward Virginia, to defend our abolition victory in future years.

Ben & Jerry’s Calls for Ceasefire; 100+ Mennonites Arrested for Protesting Gaza War on Capitol

Ben & Jerry’s has joined calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Ben & Jerry’s board chair Anuradha Mittal said in an interview with the Financial Times the ice cream company has long stood by the principle of peace.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, some 130 Mennonite protesters were arrested during a peaceful sit-in in the Cannon House Office Building. Demonstrators sang hymns and chanted “Let Gaza live!”
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/1/17/headlines/ben_jerrys_calls_for_ceasefire_100_mennonites_arrested_for_protesting_gaza_war_on_capitol

Huge crowd takes to the streets of D.C. in Massive Rejection of Biden’s Genocide in Gaza

Yesterday’s (Saturday 1/13) National March for Gaza was a historic success, bringing 400,000 people into the streets of Washington D.C. The ANSWER Coalition was proud to be the National Partner for this action that was called by the American Muslim Task Force for Palestine. The resounding turnout increased the growing pressure on the White House to end its participation in the genocide against Gaza.
https://twitter.com/answercoalition/status/1746315961584546247?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

March for Gaza rally draws thousands to D.C. on Saturday (January 13) https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/13/march-for-gaza-dc-rally-israel-hamas-war/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/us/ann-arbor-school-board-gaza-israel.html

Takin’ to the :
More than 525,000 workers in the United States walked off the job in 2023, according to Bloomberg Law’s database of work stoppages, making it one of the three biggest strike years since 1990. Many of those strikes led to big concessions from employers, such as the landmark deal reached by the UAW in October.
Employers agreed to pay more for workers because of a historically tight labor market, meaning it proved more economical to boost wages and benefits than to try to find new workers or risk losing current ones.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/30/2023-strikes-workers-american-wages-labor/



San Francisco; Bridgeport, CT; Albany Are Latest U.S. Municipalities to Pass Ceasefire Resolutions

Academics for Peace, a grassroots group of Israeli American and Jewish American scholars, has released a petition with over 2,000 signatories, including five Nobel laureates, calling on the U.S. to lead negotiations on an immediate ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange, and getting humanitarian aid to Gaza. Academics for Peace writes, “75 years of displacement, 56 years of occupation, and 16 years of blockade have generated an ever-worsening spiral of violence that can only be stopped with a political solution.”
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a resolution calling for a sustained ceasefire in Gaza. It’s the latest municipality to call for a ceasefire even as the U.S. government refuses to do so. Last week, Bridgeport became the first city in Connecticut to adopt such a measure, and the Albany Common Council also approved a ceasefire resolution.
****
As in former years, Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice (CCPJ) has moved on multiple fronts to raise public awareness of the implications of giving kids toys that may ingrain and glorify militarism at an early age. Hundreds saw our signs on the morning of December 2 as they drove to and from Wal-Mart on route 29 north of Charlottesville. Hundreds more hear our radio spots, which raise the issue in more searchingly than a placard can. And thousands this month will drive or stop in traffic near the handsome CCPJ sign, where Hydraulic Road meets the 250 bypass, encouraging the giving of creative and peaceful presents this holiday season.

****

325 Arrested for Shutting Down Bridges and Tunnel in Manhattan Calling for Gaza Ceasefire

HeadlineJan 09, 2024

LET’S SING IT, JOHN

Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Say you want a revolution
We better get on right away

Well you get on your feet
And into the street

https://genius.com/John-lennon-power-to-the-people-lyrics

It ain’t just here:

Canada Requires Peace Groups to Support War If They Want Charitable Status


In Canada, we in the United States like to think, peace must be more acceptable. Canada’s military spending is 3% of that in the U.S. in absolute dollars, and 27% per capita. Yet in Canada, if you make a donation to the global World BEYOND War, the money will go to the same good cause, but the money will not be tax deductible. You’ll have to pay into the Canadian government just as before. More of your taxes will go to non-military projects simply because that’s what the Canadian government does with its money. But one of the things it does is fund a bureaucracy that has made it impossible to get charitable status in Canada for any nonprofit organization seeking to change the way people think for the better, or for the worse, or in some neutral manner. To be a charity, you have to be engaged in the work of making sure nothing changes in the way people think. Like a good corporate media outlet promoting the views of it’s owners 24/7, you must avoid having any point of view whatsoever (other than the point of view of those in power, which doesn’t count).
(...more)
Courtesy of
https://worldbeyondwar.org/canada-requires-peace-groups-to-support-war-if-they-want-charitable-status/

Don’t let them walk alone

join the Active Activists

Image Credit: Alexa B Wilkinson

Here in New York, at least 325 protesters were arrested Monday morning when they blocked the entrances to three major bridges and a tunnel in Manhattan. Demonstrators were calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Mon: “I’m part of a large group of people who are shutting down downtown Manhattan. We’re taking four sites. We’re taking Brooklyn Bridge, where we are now, Williamsburg Bridge, Manhattan Bridge and the Holland Tunnel, in solidarity with Palestine and against the war in Gaza. … We’re hoping that with this action we can inspire others to keep agitating, keep escalating and keep disrupting until we have like shown that we will not stop until the U.S. supports a permanent ceasefire.”
Organizers of the protest included Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestinian Youth Movement and Democratic Socialists of America.

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/1/9/headlines/325_arrested_for_shutting_down_bridges_and_tunnel_in_manhattan_calling_for_gaza_ceasefire
Image Credit: X / @AlonLeeGreen

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of people took part in Israel’s largest peace rally since Israel began attacking Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack. Protesters called for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages still held in Gaza. This is Alon-Lee Green of the Jewish-Arab peace coalition Standing Together.
Alon-Lee Green: “We are here to say ...
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/29/headlines/hundreds_rally_in_tel_aviv_in_largest_peace_rally_since_october_7
New Year’s celebrations took place as protesters against the Israel-Hamas war staged demonstrations in Midtown Manhattan.
New Year’s Eve in Times Square.Credit...Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times

updated Jan. 1, 2024, 1:57 a.m. ET
Hundreds of thousands of people crowded into Times Square on Sunday night to ring in the New Year, amid heightened security and scattered demonstrations in Midtown Manhattan over the Israel-Hamas war.
Across town at Grand Central Terminal, a small flash-mob of about 30 protesters unfurled Palestinian flags as midnight struck, tossing balloons the colors of the flag — red, green, black and white — and chanting, “Cease-fire now!”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/31/nyregion/times-square-new-years-eve.html
Men stopped for several minutes of prayers in Union Square as they joined hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters who marched from mid-Manhattan on New Year’s Eve.Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times



Pro-Palestine Protests Disrupt Rose Bowl & JFK Airport

HeadlineJan 02, 2024
Protests against Israel’s war on Gaza are continuing. Here in New York, a caravan of cars with Palestinian flags blocked traffic headed to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday. Meanwhile, in Pasadena, California, protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza briefly halted the Rose Bowl Parade.
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/1/2/headlines/pro_palestine_protests_disrupt_rose_bowl_jfk_airport

DISCLAIMER: The absence of events from a particular faction does not indicate that a slanted perspective exists in Activists Guide. It means that we are not notified of the event. There is no selection of events. If we were notified of an event by an organization that appears in Activists’ Guide Directory of Organizations the entry will appear in the AG Calendar.

Activists’ Guide Directory of Organizations is reviewed at six-month intervals to ensure its accuracy.
FROM CAROL HEDRICK, ORGANIZER OF ANTI-DEATH PENALTY VIGILS

Some new priorities are requiring my time and attention for the foreseeable future, so I'm sorry to say I won't be organizing the anti-death penalty events anymore.

If any of you would like to step into that role, it would be my pleasure to walk you through the small amount of advertising and follow-up that I did for each event. And of course, you'll also inherit my two huge anti-death penalty signs : )

FYI: Oklahoma's next execution is scheduled for February 1st; it's that of James Ryder. Last summer, Mr. Ryder was examined by Barry Crown PhD who diagnosed him with "Schizophrenic Spectrum Disorder".

“'In terms familiar to the law, Mr. Ryder is insane,' Crown wrote. 'His mental power has been wholly obliterated. He is unable to comprehend or process, in any fashion, the reason he is to be executed and that the execution is imminent.'"

Remember - Democracy is not a spectator sport.

What Happened?

On January 20, 2021 Emmett Hill’s boyhood home was declared to be an historic landmark by Chicago City Council.

Today's Quote


"Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.”

Phyllis Diller
Quote

OUR MISSION STATEMENT:

Activists’ Guide is a community bulletin board which publicizes events sponsored by “boots on the ground” organizations.

Entries may be made to the AG’s calendar by any organization whose actions attempt to create a more just, equitable, non-violent world.

The stance taken by a particular organization/government is not considered. We are not a megaphone for one side or the other.
All folk are encouraged to support non-profit organizations with financial gifts. It is an opportunity to support vital facets of a caring society. Remember us, Please forward your donation to:
Activists' Guide
PO Box 173
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The Activists' Guide is a website designed to facilitate communication between activist organizations and individuals. Its readership is worldwide. Subscriptions are available at no charge via Activists' Guide (www.activistsguide.org).
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