Amnesty International USA Group 4 of Seattle

Join us for our monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 6, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm in the den at the Mosaic Coffee House, 4401 2nd Ave NE. First half hour is letter writing and socializing. Meeting starts at 7 pm.

In honor of World Press Freedom Day, some of our writing actions at the beginning of the meeting will be for journalists.

On May 23, AIUSA and allies are planning Close Guantanamo rallies nationwide. Do we want to do one here? We also have petitions for the event.

The 25th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crack down in China is coming June 4. In addition to a local event (details still unknown), AIUSA is asking for videos to the Tiananmen Mothers from people born in 1989 by May 9 and there will also be a social media campaign anyone can take part it.

We will also be having out annual booth at the Fremont Solstice Fair in June.

Other topics or events you want to discuss? Agenda is open to additions!

The Mosaic Coffee House is a nonprofit coffee house located in Seattle First Church (behind the Dick’s Drive In on 45th Street in the Wallingford Neighborhood).

The Mosaic’s website: http://www.mosaiccoffeehouse.org/

Join us for our monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 1, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm in the den at the Mosaic Coffee House, 4401 2nd Ave NE. First half hour is letter writing and socializing. Meeting starts at 7 pm.

It may be a light meeting and we’re open for agenda items.

We will feature Amnesty’s Urgent Action Network, including signing up, action sheets and possibly hand writing some letters if we have time.

Ways to get involved with our local group, including suggestions for our Area Coordinator Larry Ebersole is another possible discussion. Suggestions (descriptions posted in full below) include Media Watch and Response, Case Coordinator for Individual at Risk/Communities at Risk and Prisoner of Conscience, and a Human Rights Book Club.

Human rights books are another possible topic of discussion (with or without a plan for a book club/reading group). Read any good human rights books lately? Share with the group!

Upcoming events for April include AIUSA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Chicago, “I am Troy Davis: The Human Impact of the Death Penalty” event (see previous post) and Lobby Day.

The Mosaic Coffee House is a nonprofit coffee house located in Seattle First Church (behind the Dick’s Drive In on 45th Street in the Wallingford Neighborhood).

The Mosaic’s website: http://www.mosaiccoffeehouse.org/

——————————————————————————–

Working Groups for Local Group 4 Message:

Dear Local Group 4 and friends;

I am often asked by guests to a Local Group meeting, how “can we become more active” (engaged with the advocacy work of AIUSA Local Group 4 of Seattle).

Here are a few ways that can be self-directed with advising on request from both bigger AIUSA, as well, Area Coordinator – Larry E.

Available ways to become involved in developing and working within Group 4 of Seattle:

1) Media Watch and Response:
Open to new and less new participants. Review the media in the Puget Sound, and reply to human rights topics via letter to editor, and more.
Requirements: Interest and willingness. Although this is self-directed advocacy within the structures of both Local, Regional, and “big” AIUSA, Larry E. will also be available to advise anyone with questions that can arise.

2) Case Coordinator for Individual at Risk/Communities at Risk and Prisoner of Conscience:
Work with the national AIUSA to locate the next Group 4 Individual/Prisoner of Conscience. This is a long term project, and will overlap with the larger Group 4; one or two people can initiate this important advocacy work.

3) Human Rights Book Club:
AI Canada has started such a project, and sends out a suggested read, as well, action suggestions. One way to be involved in simply to join this effort. Requirements: willingness to read in English language. Optional requirement: share actions and/or book ideas with the larger Group 4.

4) What are your ideas?
How would you write your own volunteer job description to do advocacy within AIUSA Local Group 4? Please do so! Then share it. This is a cooperative adventure. I strive to include “all voices” –

Thanks.

Larry (Ebersole)
Meeting Facilitator AIUSA Local Group 4 of Seattle
AIUSA Area Coordinator in WA
My email: wordheath@gmail.com

Join us for our monthly meeting on Tuesday, March 4, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm in the den at the Mosaic Coffee House, 4401 2nd Ave NE. First half hour is letter writing and socializing. Meeting starts at 7 pm.

Agenda still in the works (and feel free to bring thoughts and ideas). So far:

International Women’s Day is March 8, and Amnesty has several petitions for us to sign and other possible actions. Several petitions/potential actions and a discussion of human rights in Sri Lanka as well.  Possibly an Iranian New Year card action, if there is an update or last year’s is still relevant.

The Mosaic Coffee House is a nonprofit coffee house located in Seattle First Church (behind the Dick’s Drive In on 45th Street in the Wallingford Neighborhood).

The Mosaic’s website: http://www.mosaiccoffeehouse.org/

Join us for our monthly meeting on Tuesday, January 7, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm in the den at the Mosaic Coffee House, 4401 2nd Ave NE. First half hour is letter writing and socializing. Meeting starts at 7 pm.

We’ll be making plans for this year, including deciding what events we want to fund and have the volunteer power take part in (Fremont Solstice Fair, Pride and/or what else). What do you want to do – for events, group meetings and actions? Let us know!

The Mosaic Coffee House is a nonprofit coffee house located in Seattle First Church (behind the Dick’s Drive In on 45th Street in the Wallingford Neighborhood).

The Mosaic’s website: http://www.mosaiccoffeehouse.org/

Join us for our monthly meeting on Tuesday, December 3, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm in the den at the Mosaic Coffee House, 4401 2nd Ave NE. First half hour is letter writing and socializing. Meeting starts at 7 pm.

We’ll have updates from recent events, including a report back from AI’s Western Regional Conference in LA and a meeting in Seattle with AIUSA’s new Executive Director, Steven Hawkins. Also Jen Marlowe‘s recent book reading of I Am Troy Davis at Elliott Bay Books. Likely other topics include Guantanamo and drones (with a possible collaboration with the UW Amnesty group).

Upcoming events include the City of Seattle’s Human Rights Day event (Tues. Dec. 10, 7:30 – 8:40 pm, Town Hall) and our own Human Rights Day write-a-thon (Sun. Dec. 15, 2:30 – 4:30 pm at the U District Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe).

The Mosaic Coffee House is a nonprofit coffee house located in Seattle First Church (behind the Dick’s Drive In on 45th Street in the Wallingford Neighborhood).

The Mosaic’s website: http://www.mosaiccoffeehouse.org/

Due to conflicts with other events, there will be no monthly meeting Tues. Nov. 5 for AI Group 4. Stay tuned for upcoming events, including our annual Write for Rights write-a-thon, likely at the Chaco Canyon Cafe in the U District again, in early Dec.

One of the Tuesday night events, copied and posted below, is the We Stand With Howard Zinn event at UW, co-sponsored by the AI-UW group:

 Tuesday, November 5th – 6PM

UW – Savery Hall room 264

In honor of historian Howard Zinn and all the people’s history he celebrated in his work, on Tuesday November 5, scholars and activists will take part in a Read-in of Zinn’s work on the campus of Purdue University and on campuses across the nation. The day marks the birthday of another fighter for social justice — Indiana-born labor activist and prominent socialist, Eugene Debs.

The idea for the event was sparked when the Associated Press reported that the current Purdue University President Mitch Daniels, in 2010 as Governor of Indiana, tried to censor and ban Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” from Indiana schools. When the news became a national scandal, many students, faculty, and citizens of Indiana had expressed deep concern over the news that the President of one of our great public universities would have attempted such censorship. ‘The Zinn Read-in Committee’ envisions the event to be a commemoration of academic freedom and a declaration of anti-censorship. Find out more here

The event will also symbolize the ongoing fightback in the United States against the privatization of public education, attacks on teachers and teachers unions, and the need for real democracy in both schools and curriculum. Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States is an important text for understanding the history of underrepresented populations; the fight for the right to teach this history is never separate from the fight to improve the material lives of students, teachers, minorities and workers around the world.

Here at the University of Washington we will be sharing readings from Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History, as well as learning about the history of censorship here at UW.

If you would like to speak about the importance of academic freedom, or do a reading from Howard Zinn or other relevant texts, please let us know.

UW Students, Faculty, Departments, and Student Organizations who want to show your support for Purdue Faculty you can find our Solidarity Letter Here

This Event is being co-sponsored by UW International Socialist Organization, SUPER (Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights) UW, Disorientation UW and UW Amnesty International, Third Wave Feminists UW

Facebook event page for We Stand With Howard Zinn at UW: https://www.facebook.com/events/241099539379532/