People of Faith CT

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO END THE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WARS AND OCCUPATIONS

NATIONAL ANTIWAR CONFERENCE – WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT?
 

KICK OFF  ORGANIZING FOR INTERNATIONAL PROTEST AT G-20 SUMMIT PITTSBURGH SEPTEMBER 24-25,  2009
INITIATE  PLANNING FOR FIRST NATIONAL ACTIONS TO PROTEST ESCALATION OF  AFGHANISTAN WAR IN  OCTOBER

JULY 10-12, 2009
La Roche College
Pittsburgh, PA

Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan-Palestine-Iran
Money for  Human Needs, Not for War and Bailouts to Corporations and the  Banks.

End the Wars and Occupations – Bring the Troops Home Now!

SPEAKERS AND WORKSHOP PRESENTERS include:

There can be no other explanation
except that Heaven must have needed
to dance.

Michael, for five decades,
The way you made us feel
You really turned us on
You knocked us off our feet.
Our lonely days were gone

Now that heaven and earth's seven continents
are dancing to the beat of the Primal Force,
all we can sing is:

Keep on with the force, don't
Don't stop till you get enough!
Keep on with the force, don't
Don't stop till you get enough!

We just can't stop loving you.

Introducing Greater Than AIDS, a national movement to mobilize Black Americans in response to AIDS and promote specific calls-to-action to prevent and reduce the further spread of HIV.
 
Greater Than AIDS inspires hope and promotes the possibility of change in the AIDS epidemic facing Black America through the united actions of individuals, families and communities. The campaign stresses six specific actions: being informed; using condoms; getting tested--and treated, as needed; speaking openly; acting with respect; and getting involved.
 
"We have a stake in one another... what binds us together is GREATER THAN what drives us apart... if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done..."

Barack Obama, December 1, 2006 (World AIDS Day)
 
LEARN MORE
Stay up-to-date with information about the campaign, media partners, press releases, and more!
 
VISIT THE CAMPAIGN
Visit our interactive online space to get information about HIV/AIDS, learn about upcoming events, find a local testing center, connect with others, and make your voice heard!
 
SPREAD THE WORD
Help to promote the campaign by downloading banner ads, finding us on Facebook, and sharing the campaign with others.
 
Greater Than AIDS is a campaign of the Black AIDS Media Partnership (BAMP), a sustained commitment among major U.S. media companies to work together to address AIDS in Black America. The Kaiser Family Foundation is providing day-to-day management for BAMP, with technical support from the Black AIDS Institute, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and a number of major civil society partners. The campaign is organized in collaboration with Act Against AIDS, a multi-year effort by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help refocus national attention on the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States.

Join members of the Bridgeport community, the UFCW and PriceRite employees on Wednesday, July 1st to demand that employees have the right to choose if they want to join a union.

The rally will be held from 11am-3pm at the PriceRite grocery store at 164 Boston Ave. in Bridgeport CT.

PriceRite is a very profitable company which utilizes scare tactics, threats and the politics of fear to inhibit workers from exercising their right to organize a union. The employees of PriceRite's sister company, ShopRite, chose to form a union and have seen tremendous increases in their standards of living. Despite the corporate propaganda, ShopRite is still very profitable and able to offer competitive prices to consumers.

You can learn more about the workers struggle and the upcoming actions by visiting: www.wakefernunitedworkers.org

by Mazin Qumsiyeh

Those who still had any illusions that peace is possible with a racist Zionist ideology should just look at reality.  Benjamin Netanyahu’s “speech” recently illustrates the litany of lies, distortions, and demands made that can only remind one of speeches by European colonial generals who gave similar speeches after committing massacres and genocides in Africa and Asia.  It shows that there is no Israeli left or right since their differences are merely cosmetic (both now agree to solve the problem of having too many Palestinians remaining on the coveted land by creating a castrated entity for them called a “state” while denying us all basic rights.

Netanyahu says he does not want to rule over Palestinians but merely wants to keep our stolen lands and want to control their airspace, water, entry and exit and otherwise relegate us to Bantustans in order to achieve the illusory security for him and the other colonizers/occupiers.  To him this is all the “Land of Israel” and yet he recognizes there are some people who remain “here” and who while having no right to their own lands, can be tolerated as long as a) they accept that the ethnic cleansing in which 530 Palestinian villages and towns were completely depopulated was legitimate (i.e. that is what is meant by accepting Israel as “a Jewish state”), that Palestinian rejection of colonization and occupation was an abnormal phenomenon and illegitimate (that is what he means by accepting no right of self-defense for the native people), and that any Palestinians allowed to continue to live in the “land of Israel” would do so as servants and subservient to the Jewish chosen people (economic peace, no Palestinian self defense or any semblance of sovereignty).

Netanyahu avoided all the vocabulary that would indicate any semblance of possibility of peace: Palestinian sovereignty/freedom, ending the occupation, complying with International law, obeying UN resolutions, respecting Palestinian rights (including rights of refugees), ending colonial settler activities, ending home demolitions, giving freedom of movement etc. Instead he cited irrelevancies (like the peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan (forgetting to mention that there is a dramatic difference since Israel sits on top of Palestine) and (like Obama) forgot to recognize that Palestinians are the ones who need security after 61 years of massacres and ethnic cleansing.

How do we fix an $8 billion budget gap?

With drastic cuts to nursing homes, job training programs, libraries and healthcare?

There’s a better choice for Connecticut.

We can’t balance the budget on the backs of middle class and working poor families.
Let’s protect vital public services by raising the income tax on the very wealthy and closing corporate tax loopholes.

Economic Crisis Facts:

• Middle and Low-income families in Connecticut pay over 10% of their income in state and local taxes.
• The wealthiest 1% of Connecticut families pay less than 5% of their income in state and local taxes.
• Connecticut spends over $300 million on corporate tax credits.
• We only collects 37% of corporate taxes and gives back the other 63% in tax credits.
• Income inequality has increased more in Connecticut than in any other state.
• Between 2001 and 2007 wages for the average Connecticut worker declined – and that was before the current recession even started.
• Every state in the U.S. saw a decline in employer-sponsored health insurance between 2001 and 2008.

The Better Choices Plan:

The Better Choices for Connecticut plan raises revenue to maintain the high quality services we all depend on without devastating cuts by raising new revenue:

• An income taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents making over $250,000 per year.
• Closing corporate tax loopholes.
• Reducing subsidies to the entertainment industry
• Increased taxes on alcohol and tobacco
• A penny increase in the sales tax

We would also help working families and small businesses by implementing a state earning income tax credit and a new small business property tax credit.

The rest of the budget gap would be filled in the state’s rainy day fund and the Federal stimulus package.

CALL YOUR STATE SENATOR Today:
Call (860) 240-8600

Learn more or get involved:
http://www.BetterChoicesForCT.org

Download flyers below:

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Julia Ward Howe is today best known as the writer of the Battle Hymn
of the Republic. She was married to Samuel Gridley Howe, educator of
the blind, who was also active in abolitionism and other reforms.

Julia Ward Howe published poetry, plays and travel books, as well as many
articles. A Unitarian, she was part of the larger circle of
Transcendentalists, though not a core member. She became
active in the women's rights movement later in life, playing a
prominent role in several suffrage organizations and in women's clubs.
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_howe_julia_ward.htm

Hartford Courant Editorial
May 30, 2009
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-transgender-lew-protec...

Connecticut has done a good job of protecting its residents from discrimination in employment, education, housing, public accommodations and credit. But one small group of people has been left out of specific statutory protection. The legislature should rectify the omission by adding the phrase "gender identity or expression" to anti-discrimination laws.

This could be done yet this session by amendment. A bill to add that language received a public hearing but was not voted out of committee.

The term "transgender" covers a wide variety of people, including transsexuals, who alter their gender through surgery or other means; cross-dressers; and people born with ambiguous genitalia. Legislation would give the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities the authority to investigate complaints of discrimination against them and to order appropriate remedies if discrimination if found.

Thirteen states, including Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island, have such protection for their transgender residents, as do hundreds of municipalities, private-sector companies and colleges and universities.

Connecticut should join them. All residents should be able to live safely and have equal opportunities.

Host:     WHCPJ - West Hartford Citizens for Peace&Justice
Type:     Causes - Fundraiser

Date:     Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Time:     6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:     St. James Episcopal Church (West Hartford Center)
Street:     1019 Farmington Avenue
City/Town:     West Hartford, CT
    
Phone:     8602328993
Email:     fwoodiel at yahoo.com

Katrina Browne discovers that her forefathers were the largest slave-trading family in US history. The film follows Browne and nine members of her family on a remarkable journey, coming face-to-face with the history and legacy of New England’s hidden enterprise.

From 1769-1820 ,the DeWolf family trafficked in human beings, sailing ships from Bristol RI to West Africa with rum to trade for African men, women and children. Captives were taken to DeWolf-owned plantations in Cuba . Sugar and molasses were brought from Cuba to rum distilleries in Bristol. This “Triangle Trade” drove the New England economy with slavery existing in the North for over 200 years.

Moderated Discussion will follow the film.

Free, light refreshments will be available.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103936480880

Download flyer below:

I am a Christian and I teach at a Catholic University in the occupied West Bank but I doubt the Pope will hear views of people like me. His trip is scripted by the Israeli foreign ministry, itself under a direction of a Russian racist who lives in an illegal colonial settlement on the land of the Bethlehem District, the birthplace of Jesus.  We do not know if he will ask Israel privately to end the occupation but it is likely his visit is dominated by the usual politics of history (and Jewish-Catholic issues).  We do know that the Pope’s visit is looked at as a big PR success for Israel as it legitimizes the state of apartheid and the mistaken notion that Zionists represent “the Jewish people”.  As the Pope stands next to war criminals like Shimon Peres and Binyamin Netanyahu, he utters words of contrition and friendliness to “the Jewish people”.  Jesus would not stand next to the murderous Herod and utter such words.  Jesus would be with the poor (in this case the people of Gaza would be a perfect target group, like the lepers of his time).  The Pope at least should meet with more decent Jews like Ezra Nawi, a peace activist who stood up to the demolition of poor Palestinian homes near illegal colonial settlements and was arrested by occupation soldiers who were laughing about the demolition of homes (Must see video at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/06/israel-human-rights-... Help to free him is needed.).  Or he could meet with the Israeli artists who declared in 2002: "If the state of Israel aspires to perceive itself as a democracy, it should abandon once and for all, any legal and ideological foundation of religious, ethnic, and demographic discrimination.  The state of Israel should strive to become the state of all its citizens.  We call for the annulment of all laws that make Israel an apartheid state, including the Jewish law of return in its present form"