Baltimore Activist Alert - Nov. 6-8, 2013

28] Protest BGE rate hikes – Nov. 6 29] "In the Time of Butterflies" – Nov. 6 30] Film “The Other Son” – Nov. 6 31] “The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement” – Nov. 6 32] EPA Listening Sessions about carbon pollution from power plants – Nov. 7 33] Remember Virginia Dorsey – Nov. 7 & 8 34] “From the Mines to the Streets” – Nov. 7 35] “Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace” – Nov. 7 36] Peace Forum – Nov. 7 37] Maryland Crossroads 2013 – Nov. 7 38] Rally for Paid Sick Days and Raising the Minimum Wage – Nov. 8 ------ 28] – The Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly is calling Group Calls for Protest and Picket Line Tonight to Oppose BGE’s Rate Hike from 6 to 6:45 PM at the War Memorial Building, 101 N. Gay St., Baltimore 21202. Call 410-218-4835. The Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly and the “We Deserve Better” Workers Assembly are outraged that a multi-billion dollar corporation like BGE could come and ask for a rate hike at a time when food stamps have been cut, joblessness and low wages continue and poverty is on the rise. Besides the protest, the group will present a written statement to the Public Service Commission during tonight’s hearings. Lee Patterson, a formerly homeless government worker, stated, “My daughter has four children, $57 has been cut from her meager monthly food stamp allowance which means fewer meals for her kids. Now people like herself and many others who are barely getting by are expected to be gouged even more deeply by BGE. Heat and light should be a right!” 29] – "In the Time of Butterflies:"a Lecture and Reading by Julia Alvarez, author and native of the Dominican Republic, she will read from her novel. The story is a fictional account of her lone surviving sister of the Mirable clan during the last days of Trujillo's in the Dominican Republic. The lecture will take place at Notre Dame's LeClerc Auditorium on Wed., Nov. 6 at 7 PM. Call 410-532-3174. 30] – See a screening of “The Other Son” on Wed., Nov. 6 from 7:30 to 10 PM at ICC Auditorium, Georgetown University, 37th & O Sts. NW, WDC 20037. As he prepares to join the Israeli army for his national service, Joseph discovers he is not his parents’ biological son, but that he was inadvertently switched at birth with Yassin, the son of a Palestinian family from the West Bank. This revelation turns the lives of these two families upside-down, forcing them to reassess their respective identities, their values and their beliefs. Go to https://hoyalink.georgetown.edu/organization/jstreetugeorgetown/calendar/details/313633. 31] – On Wed., Nov. 6 at 7:30 PM at Busboys and Poets, 14th and V Sts. NW, Teaching for Change's Busboys and Poets books welcomes Bob Moses and Taylor Branch to discuss Branch's latest book, “The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement.” Branch has identified eighteen essential moments from the Civil Rights Movement, and providing selections from his trilogy, has placed each moment in historical context with a newly written introduction. The captivating result is a slender but comprehensive view of America in the turbulent, transformative 1960s. Bob Moses runs the Algebra Project, based on the belief that mathematics literacy in today's information age is as important to educational access and citizenship for inner city and rural poor middle and high school students as the right to vote was to political access and citizenship for sharecroppers and day laborers in Mississippi in the 1960s. Go to http://busboysandpoets.com/events/event/author-talk-by-bob-moses-and-taylor-branch. 32] – On Thurs., Nov. 7 from 9 AM to 8 PM at the EPA Headquarters, William Jefferson Clinton East Building, 1201 Constitution Ave. NW. The EPA is hosting listening sessions to gauge support for taking action to limit carbon pollution from power plants. This summer, President Obama committed the U.S. to be a global leader on curbing climate disruption and proposed that we start by limiting carbon pollution from power plants. Currently, there are no limits on the amount of carbon pollution spewed into the air by power plants. It's time to change that. There will be strong opposition to these new limits from the fossil fuel industry, so show your support for bold action to address climate disruption. RSVP at http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageServer?pagename=event_FLD_DC_CarbonListeningSession. 33] – The United Workers organization is deeply saddened by the death of Veronica Dorsey: leader, organizer, scholar, teacher, and friend. Her sudden death is not only a tragic loss for her beloved family and friends, but for the United Workers and the larger movement to end poverty. In 2007, Veronica was introduced to the United Workers through the Living Wages Campaign at Camden Yards, where she was working as a cleaner making poverty wages. Veronica was more than a recognizable face and powerful voice within the United Workers, she was a Poverty Scholar. She was the first leader to graduate from the Poverty Scholars and New Organizers Program, a three-year intense leadership development program, designed to not only develop the hard skills of community organizing, but the analytical skills and study needed to understand what we’re up against. Her viewing will take place on Thurs., Nov. 7 from 3:30 to 7 PM at Estep Brothers Funeral Home, 1300 Eutaw Place, Baltimore 21217. The funeral will be on Fri., Nov. 8 at Pleasant Hope Baptist Church, 430 E Belvedere Ave., Baltimore 21212. The wake is at 10:30 AM with the service at 11 AM. In lieu of flowers, her family is asking people to make a donation to the United Workers, PO Box 41547, Baltimore 21203. Visit www.unitedworkers.org. 34] – On Thurs., Nov. 7 from 6:30 to 8 PM at Busboys & Poets, 2021 14th St. NW, join IPS' Drug Policy Project et al. when author and activist Felix Muruchi will be visiting the U.S. to talk about Bolivia’s current process of change, indigenous rights and the joint book he co-authored with Linda Farthing. “From the Mines to the Streets” draws on the life of Muruchi to depict the greater forces at play in Bolivia and elsewhere in South America during the last half of the twentieth century. It traces Félix from his birth in an indigenous family in 1946, just after the abolition of bonded labor, through the next sixty years of Bolivia's turbulent history. As a teenager, Félix followed his father into the tin mines before serving a compulsory year in the military, during which he witnessed the 1964 coup d'état that plunged the country into eighteen years of military rule. He returned to work in the mines, where he quickly rose to become a union leader. The reward for his activism was imprisonment, torture, and exile. After he came home, he participated actively in the struggles against neoliberal governments, which led in 2006—the year of his sixtieth birthday—to the inauguration of Evo Morales as Bolivia's first indigenous president. Go to http://www.ips-dc.org/events/author_event_from_the_mines_to_the_streets_a_bolivian_activists_life. 35] – Verso published Josh Ruebner’s first book, “Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace.” You're invited to attend an upcoming book talk and signing on Thurs., Nov.7 at Johns Hopkins University, Gilman Hall, Room 50, 3400 N Charles St., Baltimore 21218, from 7 to 9 PM. It is sponsored by Hopkins Students for Justice in Palestine. RSVP and spread the word about the event on Facebook. The $3.1 billion in military aid to Israel in the 2014 budget means the average individual taxpayer will be giving Israel $21.29 in weapons this year. The US Campaign TO END THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION aims to change U.S. policies that sustain Israel's 46-year occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and that deny equal rights for all. RSVP at 202-332-0994 or at USCAMPAIGN@ENDTHEOCCUPATION.ORG or at WWW.ENDTHEOCCUPATION.ORG. Ruebner is the National Advocacy Director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. 36] – On Thurs., Nov. 7 from 7 to 8:30 PM, Little Friends for Peace invite you to a Peace Forum at the Perry School Community Center, 128 M St. NW, WDC. The circle discussion is about the past, present, and future of peacemaking. Snacks will be provided! RSVP to MJ Park at mjpeace@gmail.com or 240-838-4549. 37] – Maryland Crossroads 2013 continues on Thurs., Nov. 7 in a Silver Spring Tour Stop from 7:30 to 9 PM at the Silver Spring Civic Center, 1 Veterans Pl., Silver Spring 20910. Say "Clean Energy, Not Cove Point! Dominion Resources is proposing a massive industrial plan to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) out of Cove Point, on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland. The plan would expand fracking for gas across our region. And it's one of the worst things our state could do for global warming. RSVP to join the Maryland Crossroads 2013 tour stop in Silver Spring at http://org.salsalabs.com/o/423/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=80895. 38] – There is a Rally for Paid Sick Days and Raising the Minimum Wage on Fri., Nov. 8 at 9 AM at the Wilson Building, 1350 Penn. Ave. NW. Join the Paid Sick Days for All Coalition and Respect DC for a rally to pressure the DC Councilmembers to pass a bill NOW to raise the minimum wage, the tipped minimum wage and extend access to paid sick days to all workers in the District. See https://www.facebook.com/events/206783189502755/. To be continued. Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/. "The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs