UNAC: NATO/G8 protest update & UNAC conference

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New developments with the NATO and G8 protests in Chicago

UNAC Conference is next weekend



      1.   New developments with the NATO and G8 protests in Chicago



      As you may know, the G8 summit meeting has been move from Chicago to Camp David.  NATO will still meet in Chicago but the NATO meeting will not start till May 20.  As a result we have changed our major mass demonstration from May 19 to May 20.  If you have started organizing transportation to Chicago in May please take note and change you transportation arrangement accordingly.  If you have not yet started organizing transportation, it is time to start now.  



      CANG8 and UNAC view the move of the G8 summit as a victory.  We attribute it to the plans that we have made for demonstrations and the publicity that has been generated.  Please click below to see the press release from CANG8 in response to the changes.



      http://nepajac.org/cang8press.htm



      CANG8 in Chicago held a press conference on Thursday, March 16 to respond to the changes.



      On Friday, March 16 our full-page ad in support of our right to protest appeared in the Chicago Sun times and 13 Chicago suburban papers.  To see the ad with many of the signers click below.



      http://nepajac.org/SunTimesad.pdf 



      The ad was signed by people from 15 different countries and hundreds from the U.S.  Many of the signers appear on the ad and full list can be found at the UNAC web site: www.UNACpeace.org.



      The People’s Summit: Organizing is also underway for the People’s Summit, which will be held at the Occupy Chicago indoor headquarters on May 12 and 13.  A call has gone out for workshop proposals.  Please see the link below for the workshop call and preliminary schedule.



      http://nepajac.org/peoplessummit.htm 


     


      2.    UNAC conference is Next weekend.



      The UNAC conference to be held in Stamford, CT on March 23 - 25 is shaping up to be a major movement event.  Besides the incredible list of presenters and workshops (see the schedule below) it will be the place to discuss the recent developments in Afghanistan, the response to the move towards war with Iran and Syria, the future of the occupation movement, response to attacks against the Muslim community and how to build for a massive response to NATO and the G8 when they come to Chicago in May.  Please join us.   


      Click here to register for the conference

      Click here for hotel reservations
      (room rates have been reduced to $89 per night. If you want to look for someone to share a room with, email to [email protected] indicating so)

      If you want to come with to the conference but your finances are limited, please fill out the registration form above and let us know if the comment field and we will do are best to help you get to the conference. 

      UNAC Conference Schedule


      Friday, March 23, 2012


      Registration—4:30 pm to 9:00 pm


      8:00 pm – 9:45 pm--Opening Panel: The Shifting Strategies of Empire


      Chair: Joe Lombardo, Co-Chair UNAC

      David Swanson, War is a Crime.org

      Col. Ann Wright, Dissent: Voices of Conscience 

      Andrew Murray, UK Trade Unions Congress General Council 

      Bernadette Ellorin, BAYAN (Philippines)

      Abayomi Azikiwe, Pan Africa Newswire

      Kazem Azin; Solidarity Iran 

      Adaner Usmani, Labor Party of Pakistan 

      Ahmed Shawki, Egypt Solidarity Campaign

      Xiomara de Zelaya, Presidential candidate, Honduras.

      UNAC CC meeting: 10:00 pm - 11:00 pm


      Meeting Rooms available for groups preparing workshops, formulating resolution, etc. until 11:00 pm

      Saturday, March 24, 2012

      Registration opens at 7:00 am.

      8:30 am – 9:00 pm—Welcome: International Greetings, UNAC Report and Conference Process 


      Marilyn Levin, UNAC Co-Chair.


      9:00 am - 10:00 am—Panel: The NATO/G8 Summits: Our Response to their Agenda of War and Austerity 


      Chair: Pat Hunt, Chicago Peace Action, Chicago CANG8

      Joe Iosbaker, Chicago United National Antiwar Coalition

      Ashley Smith, UNAC Administrative Committee

      Margaret Kimberly, Black Agenda Report

      Leah Bolger, Veterans for Peace

      Monami Maulik, Desis Rising Up and Moving

      Medea Benjamin, Code Pink

      Leili Kashani, Center for Constitutional Rights

      Sara Flounders, International Action Center.

      10:00 am – 10:30 am—Voting on Conference Rules; Introduction of Action Plan and Major Resolutions

      Marilyn Levin, UNAC Co-Chair

      Jeff Mackler, Northern California UNAC.


      Raging Grannies Perform


      10: 45 am -12:15 pm—Workshop Series One


      12: 30 pm – 1:45 pm—Lunch with Panel: The War at Home on the Black Community: Mass Incarceration, Unemployment, Stop and Frisk

      Chair: Ana Edwards, Virginia Defenders

      Jack Bryant, President Stamford CT NAACP

      Dr. Khalilah Brown-Dean, author, Once Convicted, Forever Doomed: Race, Ex-Felon Disenfranchisement, and Fractured Citizenship 

      Glen Ford, Executive Director of Black Agenda Report

      Nellie Bailey, Occupy Harlem

      Bruce A. Dixon, Managing Editor, Black Agenda Report; State Committee member; Georgia Green Party

      Larry Holmes, Occupy 4 Jobs

      Jasiri X, Hip Hop artist.


      1:45 pm – 3:45 pm—Plenary Session


      4:00 pm – 5:30 pm—Workshop Series Two


      5:45 pm – 7:15—Workshop Series Three


      7:30 pm - 9:30 pm—Dinner with Panel: Islamophobia, the Attack on Civil Liberties, and the War on Workers 


      Chair: Chris Gauvreau, UNAC Administrative Committee

      Anthony Arnove, Co-editor with Howard Zinn, Voices of a People’s History of the United States

      Imam Talib Abdurrashid, President of Muslim Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York

      Meredith Aby, Committee to Stop FBI Repression

      Teresa Gutierrez, May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights

      Clarence Thomas, Oakland ILWU Local 10

      Mike Fuqua, Longview Striker, member of ILWU Local 21

      Scott Olsen, Iraq Veteran’s Against the War, injured by police at Occupy Oakland

      Jeff Mackler, Northern California UNAC

      Lamis Deek, Al-Awda New York

      Gamelyn Oduardo, a leader of Puerto Rican Student Strike

      George Friday, National Field Organizer, Bill of Rights Defense Committee

      Cyrus McGoldrick, NYC Council on American Islamic Relations

      James Yee, former chaplain at Guantanamo

      Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, Muslim Peace Coalition.

      After Dinner Performances: Chris Nauman, Jasiri X

      Sunday, March 25, 2012 

      9:00 am – 11:00 am—Plenary Session. 

      11:00 am – 11:40 am—Victims of Political Repression Speakout

      Chair: Judy Bello, Hancock 38

      Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal 

      Ralph Poynter, Lynne Stewart Defense Committee

      Nathan Fuller, Bradley Manning Support Network

      Mariano Cordoso, Central Connecticut State University

      Representative, Yale Muslim Student Association

      Sarah Martin, Committee to Stop FBI Repression

      Steve Downs, Project SALAM

      11: 40 am. Break for picking up bag lunches.

      12:00 pm -1:15 pm—Plenary Panel: Global Economic Meltdown, Warming, and War. 


      Chair: Nada Khader, WESPAC

      Bill McKibben, editor, The Global Warming Reader and architect of the successful XL pipeline campaign

      Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World 

      Richard Wolff, author, Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It.

      1: 30 pm – 3:00 pm—Workshop Series Four

      3: 15 pm - 4:15 pm—NATO G8 Protest Organizing Session

      Chair: Pete Shell, UNAC Administrative Committee 

      4:15 pm - 4:30 pm—Closing Remarks

      Joe Lombardo, Co-Chair UNAC

      WORKSHOPS UNAC CONFERENCE 2012 


           SATURDAY, MARCH 24

            SESSION 1 10:45 AM-12:15 PM
           
           SATURDAY, MARCH 24

            SESSION 2 4:00 PM-5:30 PM
           
           SATURDAY, MARCH 24

            SESSION 3 5:45 PM-7:15 PM
           
            1
           All Out for May 1st Mobilization
           1
           Afghanistan After Ten Years of Occupation
           1
           Egypt, One Year After the Revolution: Where is the Struggle Headed?
           
            2
           Antiwar Strategies in Black Community Organizations
           2
           Defeating Africom and NATO: Building Solidarity with Africa in the Struggle Against Imperialism 
           2
           End the Occupation of Haiti
           
            3
           Crisis in Asia: US Geopolitical Strategy & Intervention in the Asia-Pacific Region
           3
           Honduras: The Struggle for Land, Democracy & Sovereignty
           3
           From Egypt to NYC: “Anti-Radicalization” Laws, Surveillance, the War on Terror Industrial Complex, NDAA & How We Fight Back
           
            4
           Democratizing Money: Banking in the Public Interest
           4
           Iran: Solidarity, Not Intervention
           4
           Influencing the Electoral Conversation from a Peace & Justice Perspective 
           
            5
           Faith-Based Organizing for Nonviolent Resistance
           5
           Linking Endless War & Econ. Crisis: Bring Our War $$Home
           5
           Music & Songs to Move the Movement
           
            6
           Honduran Immigrants Chat with Xiomara De Zela. Topic: Election in 2013! (Private Session)
           6
           No Torture! No Indefinite Detention
           6
           No Nukes: Nuclear Power, Weapons & War
           
            7
           MuslimPeace Coalition Meeting (Private)
           7
           Occupy Movement, Labor & Community Struggles: A Fruitful Collaboration
           7
           Propaganda & Communications on Permanent War
           
            8
           NATO & G-8: Two Arms of American Empire
           8
           Palestine: Strategies for Liberation
           8
           Social Struggles in Colombia: Analyzing the Role of Colombian Student Strike & Union Movement 
           
            9
           Negotiating Peace: What US Might Do for Colombia
           9
           Search for Human Rights & Justice in South Asia
           9
           Targeting Iran: The Truth Behind the Hype
           
            10
           Occupying the Military Industrial Complex
           10
           Taking Back Our Schools - Guide for H.S. Counter-Recruitment
           10
           Understanding & Organizing Against Expanding Wars & Repression in Yemen, Pakistan, Bahrain
           
            11
           Prisons: The New Torture Machines
           11
           The Economy, Unemployment & the Military: Alternatives to Save Our Country & the Jobless
           11
           Veterans Peace Teams - Defending Occupations
           
            12
           U.S. Geopolitical Nuclear Weapons in Europe & Outer Space & Campaigns for Withdrawal
           12
           What War? US Turns from War on Iraq to Permanent Occupation
           12
           We Are Not Your Soldiers: Stop Militarization of Our H.S. Campuses 
           
            13
           Women, Peace, and Security
           13
           
           13
           
           




           SUNDAY, MARCH 25

            SESSION 4 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
           
            1
           A Criminal Assault: Hydrofracking 
           
            2
           Border Militarization, War, and Resistance in the U.S. & Europe: Migrant Workers Rising Globally
           
            3
           Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions – Join Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance to Occupation
           
            4
           Campus Fightback: International Student Resistance to the Economic Crisis and War
           
            5
           Climate Change Related Conflicts in South Asia
           
            6
           Confronting Robotic (Drone) Warfare at Hancock AFNG Base
           
            7
           Contradictions of the Imperialists' Agenda for Full Spectrum Dominance
           
            8
           Iran: Analyzing the West's Politico-Economic Warfare
           
            9
           Labor Against Austerity & War
           
            10
           Law as a Weapon of War
           
            11
           Lessons from the Past & Now: Activist Strategies for Ending Warfare & Converting from a War Economy
           
            12
           Rethinking Pakistan: People's Struggle & War on Terror
           



      To register for the conference, click here.

      To register for a table at the conference, click here.


      Sleeping room reservations. Hotel rooms have been reduced to $89 dollars. If there are more than one in the room, you can split the price.

      Go directly to the special convention page put up by the hotel. Click here.

      http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/groups/personalized/B/BDRSTHF-UNA-20120320/index.jhtml. 

      To submit a resolution for the conference voting sessions, please sent it to [email protected]. Put "Conference Resolution" in the subject line of the email

      To submit a proposal for a workshop, please click here. 


     



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