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Whatcom Peace & Justice Center
May 2008 Calendar
WhatcomPJC.org

IN THE NEWS:

SEATTLE PI:
WPJC executive director Marie Marchand’s guest column in the Seattle Post-Intelligenser, April 28: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/360664_firstperson28.html

THE WESTERN FRONT:
Article on WWU students’ mock occupation in Red Square and panel discussion:
http://westernfrontonline.net/200804299946/news/mock-occupation-aims-to-show-western-students-realities-of-war/

TRUTHOUT:
Washington Senator Patty Murray challenged the VA in regard lying about the number of veteran suicide attempts citing internal e-mails that put the number at 12,000 a year when the department was publicly saying it was fewer than 800: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042608A.shtml

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
The Whatcom Peace & Justice Center will be hosting Open Houses on some Saturdays throughout the Spring and Summer from 10-2pm to coincide with the Farmer’s Market. If you are interested in helping out with these, please contact Marie at 734-0217. Thanks!

SUMMER PEACE ACTIVIST TRAINING FOR HIGH SCHOOLERS:

Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Abe Keller Peace Education Fund are offering Peace Activist Traineeships for high school sophomores and juniors. The program runs July 7-31 and will include a social action project. Youth will work with experienced organizers and earn $8/hr. Applications due no later than Friday, May 23, 2008. Apply at www.wwfor.org or contact (206) 789-5565.

EVENTS:

Thursday May 1: Join WWU staff, faculty, and students in Red Square 11:30-12:00 to honor US soldiers and Iraqis killed in Iraq. We remember and honor them by simply reading their names; and our gathering witnesses to the daily on-going killings in this war. April has been the deadliest month since September with 44 US soldiers killed. The number of Iraqis killed is unknown, but is estimated at 1 million.

Thursday May 1: IMMIGRANT SOLIDARITY MARCH hosted by Community to Community. Gathering at 5:30pm at Maritime Heritage Park, 1600 "C" Street. The march begins at 6:00pm to a 6:15pm rally at the County Courthouse. We will march at 6:30 pm to Cornwall park for a 7:00pm program featuring speakers and a community meal.

Co-Sponsors include Unitarian Fellowship Social Justice Committee, Whatcom Human

Rights Task Force, Whatcom Rainbow Coalition, and Whatcom Peace and Justice Center.


Thursday May 1- Candle Light vigil in Red Square in remembrance of the Holocaust 8-9pm, candles and beverages provided.

Friday May 2: CASCAID Peace & Justice Conference. KEYNOTE SPEAKER Dr. Manning Marable presents Race, Crime, and Justice at 7pm in the Viking Union Multi-Purpose Room. FREE and open to the public. This evening event is preceded by two workshop sessions beginning at 4pm in the Communications Facility, with registration at 3:30pm.

Prolific author and race relations scholar, Dr. Manning Marable is Professor of Public Affairs, Political Science, History and African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York City. He was founding director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, one of the nation’s most prestigious centers of scholarship on the black American experience.

Saturday May 3: CASCAID Peace & Justice Conference. Day Two at WWU’s Communications Facility. Registration begins at 9:30am. The day includes three workshop sessions addressing over 25 social justice issues. Lunch available. For more information, visit http://www.wwucascaid.org/ or call Korry Harvey at 360.650.6529.

Wednesday May 7: Shafqat Hussain, a PhD student at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Department of Anthropology at Yale University, presents “Protecting the snow leopard and enhancing farmers’ livelihoods.” World Issues Forum, 12-1:30pm in Fairhaven College Auditorium. Shafqat Hussain will address the effectiveness of a people’s first approach in protecting endangered wildlife and factors that jeopardize their efforts, and how PSL demonstrates that nature conservation is inherently tied to political and social forces.

Thursday May 8 thru Saturday May 10: Found Peace: A Mother's Day Collection by Carolyn McCarthy, 8pm at The Firehouse Performing Arts Center, 1314 Harris Avenue. Tickets $10 in advance/$15 at the door. Available at the Community Food Coop and Village Books. Saturday's show will be ASL interpreted by Lori Abrams & Kathleen Morris. Questions? Call 647-0741 or visit www.carolynmcc.com. This theatre performance includes letters home to mom from a US soldier stationed in Iraq performed by WWU Prof. Rich Brown.

Saturday May 10: Donate your bike to the African Bike Project. All bikes accepted, regardless of their condition or size (no tricycles). Volunteers needed to collect and prepare bikes for shipment. 9am-1pm, 3232 Laurelwood, Bellingham. For more information, call Charles at 393-7262. The main form of transportation in Ghana is walking; the lucky ride bikes.

Saturday May 10: Amy Englesberg’s Piano Recital at the Firehouse Performing Arts Center at 3:30pm. Amy has been a board member of the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center since June 2006 and is an outstanding activist and event organizer at Ferndale High School. The public is welcome to attend. Thanks, Amy!
Saturday May 10: Al-Nakba Coalition commemorates sixty years of Palestinian resistance with a day of cultural expression at Seattle Central Community College, outdoors at the South Plaza (near the northwest corner of Broadway and E. Pine) and indoors in room BE 1110, 12-4pm. This free event will showcase the Palestinian heritage and culture and celebrate Palestinian resistance with traditional arts and crafts, folk music, handicrafts, dabka dancing, poetry reading, photography exhibit, and food. Sponsored by Al-Nakba Coalition. Info@nakba60th-seattle.org.

Tuesday May 13: Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty, 7-9pm. Author Mark Winne will read from his book at the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship 1708 'I' St. Light refreshments will be served. "Closing the Food Gap reveals the chasm between the two food systems of America-the one for the poor and the one for everyone else. Mark Winne offers compelling solutions for making local, organic, and highly nutritious food available to everyone." - Dr. Jane Goodall. Sponsored by Community to Community Development and Small Potatoes Gleaning Project.

Wednesday May 14: “Energy Policy and Economic Transition: exploring South America and Central Asia through personal interviews” presented by Michaela Rollins and Devin Malone, Learning Adventure Grant Recipients, 12-1:30pm, World Issues Forum at Fairhaven College Auditorium. Michaela and Devin pursued two different interviewing projects in Tajikistan and South America with political leaders on energy policy, as well as with "persons on the street" about life in Bolivia; and women of all ages to investigate how economic transition has altered their opportunities and livelihoods.

Friday May 16: BIKE TO WORK AND SCHOOL DAY!

Wednesday May 21: Ben Muller, Professor of International Relations and Critical Security Studies at Simon Fraser University presents on “ILLIBERAL PRACTICES OF LIBERAL REGIMES: REFLECTIONS ON THE STATUS OF ETHICS, LAW & JUSTICE AFTER 9/11” at 12-1:30pm, World Issues Forum, Fairhaven College Auditorium. A puzzle that persists for many academics and activists is how it is possible for liberal democratic states to act in illiberal manners. Liberalism claims to offer the most robust restraints on sovereign power, and yet, liberal government also offers the most fundamental and enduring extensions of state power into the full range of life. How do we conceptualize questions of justice, ethics, and law in contemporary security practices?

Thursday May 22: The Whatcom Peace & Justice hosts a party to celebrate two wonderful accomplishments. During the week of April 21st, WWU students who are members of the Guerrilla Theater Activist Club and Students for a Democratic Society held four days of events about which they created a short documentary. We will celebrate their campus activism and watch their video. This is also a “Welcome Home” party for Iraq Vet Ash Woolson who is finishing up his three-month peace walk across Japan. He accompanied Buddhist monks, activists from around the world, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathi in this incredible effort to save Article 15 of the Japanese Constitution, which is being threatened. Potluck begins at 6:30pm, program at 7pm, dancing and socializing follows. For more info call 734-0217.

Monday May 26: Veterans for Peace Memorial Day ‘Arlington Northwest’ observance at Peace Arch Park on the US/Canada border in Blaine, WA, runs from 9am-6pm with a Memorial Ceremony at 2pm. This is a powerful visual event that honors all fallen US soldiers. To find out how to get involved in the planning or set-up, visit http://www.vfp111.org/.

Wednesday May 28: Wendy Call presents “Fishermen, Housewives, Teachers and Transvestites: Social Movements in Oaxaca, Mexico” 12-1:30pm, World Issues Forum, Fairhaven College Auditorium. In 2006, a burgeoning social movement in Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca jumped into international headlines. Their grassroots organizing continues in spite of severe repression by the state and federal governments. In this slideshow and talk, Wendy Call will discuss the development of Oaxaca’s current social movement, and how it inspired the Zapatistas in Chiapas and other groups throughout the world.

Saturday May 31: Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) Northwest will make its voice heard with Winter Soldier Northwest at Town Hall in Seattle, Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street, 12 Noon. Come here eye witness testimony of veterans who have served in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Northwest event will be followed by a rally and march. For more information, contact Seattle@IVAW.org. To watch testimony from the national Winter Soldier event that took place last March, visit www.IVAW.org.

ONGOING MEETINGS & ACTIVITIES:

Rainbow Coalition meets the first Saturday of every at 10am at the ReStore. For more info call Dotty at 733-4146.

Amnesty International meeting at the Public Market (next to Tube Time at Cornwall and York) the last Thursday of every month 6:30 PM.

Peace Vigil gathers every Friday afternoon in front of the Federal Building at Cornwall and Magnolia from 4-5pm. Join the Peace Zone afterwards for announcements and discussion at The Mount Bakery Restaurant, 308 W. Champion Street.

Veterans for Peace meets every third Friday at 6:00 PM, 1220 N. Forest Street. Veterans and non-Veterans invited. Call (360) 961-4999 for details.

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This calendar is a service of the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center (PO Box 2444, Bellingham, WA 98227). We do not necessarily endorse all of the events listed. When we are co-sponsoring or hosting an event, we list our name in that announcement. (360) 734-0217; WhatcomPJC@fidalgo.net. To have your event included, please send an email one week prior to the end of the month with “Event Notice” in the subject line. Thank you.