Baltimore Activist Alert - April 12 - 13, 20017

23] Project for Fundraising for Scholarships --- Apr. 12

24] A Fair Budget --- Apr. 12

25] Airport Workers March for Equality – Apr. 12

26] "The Gender of Nuclear Necropolitics" – Apr. 12

27] Stop Assault on Yemen – Apr. 12

28] Baltimore City Taxpayers Night – Apr. 12

29] D.C. Volunteer Environmental Action Party – Apr. 12

30] See documentary “Good Ol' Freda” – Apr. 12

31] Fast to End Corporate War Profiteering – Apr. 13

32] Town hall with Rep. John Sarbanes – Apr. 13

33] Remembering Paul Leventhal – Apr. 13

34] Environmental Justice in the Trump Era – Apr. 13

35] People's Budget Forum – Apr. 13

36] “Direct Action: Protest & The Reinvention of American Radicalism” – Apr. 13

37] Equity in Arts – Apr. 13

-----

23] – There is a project for fundraising for scholarships, hosted by Riva Refuge, Inc., 830 Heather Ridge Dr., Suite M, Frederick 21702, which continues through Sat., Apr. 15 at 10 PM. Tickets are  Available at https://www.facebook.com/events/913083082127705/?active_tab=about.

24] -- Pack the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Budget Hearing at the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, WDC, on Wed., Apr. 12 at 9 AM.  This call is made by Black Lives Matter DC.  Fight to fully fund the NEAR act.  Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/1703896666303838/?active_tab=about.

25] -- Airport Workers March for Equality at Gravelly Point Park, near National Airport, WDC, on Wed., Apr. 12 starting at 3 PM, hosted by Unite Here Local 23.  Then march to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.  Lowest wage at DC airports for workers at companies supplying food + beverages to airlines is $8.20.  The D.C. airports living wage requirement is $14.27.  Airline profits in 2016 was $35 billion. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/913984258743626/.

26] –  On Wed., Apr. 12 at 4:15 PM in Mattin 162 on JHU’s Homewood Campus, hear from WGS Distinguished Visiting Professor Gabriele Schwab who will present the second lecture in her series "Radical Ghosts: Haunted Ecologies and Nuclear Necropolitics." This lecture is titled "The Gender of Nuclear Necropolitics."

The lectures will explore the manifold legacies of the Manhattan Project in textual and visual representations of nuclear disaster sites generated by nuclear war, nuclear accidents and the storage of nuclear waste.  Such sites include the contaminated nuclear borderlands of the American Southwest, Pine Ridge and the Second Wounded Knee, Hiroshima after the Bomb, Hanford, Chernobyl and Fukushima.  Focusing on subjectivity, community, and a nuclear ecology of mind, Radioactive Ghosts explores the emergence and production of gendered and racialized nuclear subjectivities as well as communal and trans-species relationships.  It analyzes issues such as radioactive colonization and environmental racism, epistemologies of deceit, haunting from the future, psychic toxicity, phantasms of the mutant body, male phantasies and war machines, and, more generally, the transgenerational nuclear trauma that marks individuals, communities and cultures alike.

27] -- Stop Assault on Yemen at the Saudi Arabian Embassy, 601 New Hampshire Ave. NW, WDC 20037, on Wed., Apr. 12 from 4:30 to 6 PM. Join CODEPINK at this protest against US supported Saudi bombings that are contributing to the ongoing war in Yemen!  Go to http://www.codepink.org/splash?splash=1.

28] –   Let the Baltimore City Board of Estimates know what you think about our city's budget priorities by attending Baltimore City Taxpayers Night on Wed., Apr. 12 from 6 to 8 PM at the War Memorial Building, 101 N Gay St.  Mayor Catherine Pugh recently released her preliminary budget for the 2018 Fiscal year. It includes increased funding for both schools and police, a small property tax cut, and reinstatement of the city’s red light camera program.  At the Board of Estimates City Taxpayers Night, participants can visit booths set up by various city agencies to see how your money is being spent. Citizens will also get the chance to speak before the Board of Estimates on issues of concern to them.  The Board of Estimates consists of the Council President, Mayor, Comptroller, Director of Public Works, and the City Solicitor.  Go to http://www.cphabaltimore.org/2017/04/attend-baltimore-city-taxpayers-night/?mc_cid=b13d69635c&mc_eid=0a20fdb824.

29] – The D.C. Volunteer Environmental Action Party is happening at 322 4th St. NE, WDC, on Wed., Apr. 12 from 6 to 8 PM.  All the local and national events in April offer amazing opportunities to grow the campaign! Earth Day events, The Scientists’ March and the People’s Climate March are all coming up in a few weeks. These marches need your help to make the most of all this action spreading the word about DC's #1 climate campaign.  Come to the volunteer phone banking and creative poster-making party, and this is your chance to meet other passionate climate champs in DC who are ready to roll up their sleeves for fun and strategic actions that move the City Council to pass the country's strongest law for climate protection. CCAN, you and fellow climate champions, bring a friend with you.

30] – See a screening of the acclaimed documentary “Good Ol' Freda,” as part of the Charm City Film Series, on Wed., Apr. 12 at 6:30 PM at the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W. Franklin St., Baltimore 21201.  Freda Kelly was just a shy Liverpudlian teenager when she was asked to work for a local band hoping to make it big. Though she had no concept of how far they would go, Freda had faith in The Beatles from the beginning, and The Beatles had faith in her. History notes that The Beatles were together for 10 years, but Freda worked for them for 11. Many people came in and out of the band's circle as they grew to international stardom, but Freda remained a staple because of her unfaltering loyalty and dedication. 

Complementary beverages and pizza will be available, but a donation is requested. A discussion will follow the screening.  RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Charm-City-Film-Series/events/233726233/.

31] – Fast for Yemen on Thurs., Apr. 13.  U.S. - backed Saudi strikes on Yemen have caused tens of thousands of deaths and a humanitarian crisis. Two-thirds of the population require food assistance and every ten minutes a Yemeni child dies from hunger and lack of medical facilities.  Tell Trump not to approve another $390 million in arms sales to Saudi Arabia!  On April 10, a group of dedicated activists began a week-long fast in solidarity with the people of Yemen and hold a vigil at the Isaiah Wall across from the United Nations. On April 13, join their fast for the day. Contact Paki Wieland at pakiwieland@gmail.com.

End Corporate War Profiteering at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, WDC, on Thurs., Apr. 13 at noon. Peacemakers are fasting for a week at the Isaiah Wall at the United Nations in New York to raise a cry against the bombing and starving of the children of Yemen.  Go to http://vcnv.org/2017/03/14/yemenis-endure-worlds-largest-rapidly-worseni. Code Pink and others in D.C. are supporting the fast by rallying at the White House to demand a stop to the sale of military weapons to Saudi Arabia by companies such as General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin. Contact Paki Wieland at (413) 695-1877 or pakiwieland@gmail.com.

32] -- Attend a town hall with Rep. John Sarbanes on Thurs., Apr. 13 at 11 AM hosted by the Praisner Community Recreation Center, Burtonsville, MD 20866.  Citizens must stand up and stop the normalization of Trump and his sadistic agenda. RSVP to have your voice heard about concerns you have in your community --. https://www.resistancerecess.com/event/resistance-aprilrecess/10590/signup/?akid=180961.8595732.RPXlUc&zip=&source=.

33] –On Thurs., Apr. 13 from 11 AM to 3 PM, the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project is hosting "Remembering Paul Leventhal: Nuclear Lessons for a New Administration," with four speakers at the LBJ Washington Center, Greyhound Suite #290, 1100 New York Ave. NW, WDC 20005-3934. RSVP https://www.eventbrite.com/e/remembering-paul-leventhal-nuclear-lessons-for-a-new-administration-tickets-3238166142.

34] – Amazon Watch invites you to a "Green Bag" presentation: Accountability and Persistence The Fight for Environmental Justice in the Trump Era, a discussion with Adrienne Hollis, Lisa Anne Hamilton, and Michael K. Dorsey on Thurs., Apr. 13 from 12:30  to 2 PM at the Amazon Watch / CIEL Conference Room, 1350 Connecticut Ave. NW, #1100, WDC.  Within the first 70 days of taking office, the Trump administration has promised to undo climate rules, including the Clean Power Plan, and cut the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by one third. Significantly reducing the agency that monitors and enforces clean air and water rules will be most detrimental to the nearly 60% of low income and communities of color that live near or adjacent to the largest sources of pollution.

   Furthermore, rolling back U.S. emissions-reduction policies casts doubts about whether the United States will fail to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement to the detriment of low-lying island nations that will suffer the most from severe weather impacts caused by rapidly increasing global temperatures. Global efforts to transition away from fossil fuels advance despite U.S. policies that retreat from commitments to reduce the largest sources of harmful pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. Adrienne, Lisa, and Michael will discuss how environmental, energy, and climate justice advocates are engaged to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, fight for innovative approaches to energy access, and hold the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions accountable.

Hollis is the Director of Federal Policy at WE ACT for Environmental Justice in its Washington, DC Federal Policy Office. Hamilton is the Director of Climate and Energy for the Center for International Environmental Law based in their Washington, DC office. Dorsey is a recognized expert on global energy, environment, finance and sustainability matters, and is a Senior Program Officer for Sustainability at the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

35] – Mayor Bowser will release her budget and the Council will soon begin work on it.  Budgets are moral documents and now more than ever, it’s critical that the DC budget reflects the needs and priorities of the families that live and work here.  What’s included in the budget will go a long way towards determining the future of the District. . Come to the People's Budget Forum at the Excel Academy Public Charter School, 2501 Martin Luther King Ave. SE, WDC, on Thurs., Apr. 13 from 6 to 9 PM.  This is your opportunity to learn what’s in the budget and to make sure it reflects your values. From affordable housing, to good jobs, and protecting vulnerable families, the budget will reflect the District’s priorities.  Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/1850357288556025/?notif_t=plan_user_joined&notif_id=1490993750291277.

36] – The book “Direct Action: Protest & The Reinvention of American Radicalism” will be discussed at the Potters House, 1658 Columbia Rd. NW, WDC, on Thurs., Apr. 13 at- 7 PM.  As people take to the streets in record numbers to resist the presidency of Donald Trump, L.A. Kauffman’s timely, trenchant history of protest offers unique insights into how past movements have won victories in times of crisis and backlash and how they can be most effective today.   This deeply researched account, twenty-five years in the making, traces the evolution of disruptive protest since the Sixties to tell a larger story about the reshaping of the American left. Kauffman, a longtime grassroots organizer, examines how movements from ACT UP to Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter have used disruptive tactics to catalyze change despite long odds. Kauffman's lively and elegant history is propelled by hundreds of candid interviews conducted over a span of decades. Direct Action showcases the voices of key players in an array of movements – environmentalist, anti-nuclear, anti-apartheid, feminist, LGBTQ, anti-globalization, racial-justice, anti-war, and more – across an era when American politics shifted to the right, and a constellation of decentralized issue- and identity-based movements supplanted the older ideal of a single, unified left.  RSVP via //www.facebook.com/events/1467883313243568/.

37] – Get Tickets for Toward Equity in the Arts on Thurs., Apr. 13 at 7 PM at the Walters, 600 N. Charles St., Baltimore. A free advance registration is requested.  Join in a conversation with Jess Solomon (Art in Praxis), Sheila Gaskins (ART-PART’HEID), and Darryl Ratcliff (Michelada Think Tank) about equity in the arts. This talk will examine how race and class have impacted access and inclusion practices for funding, promotion, and exhibition opportunities in the arts, and will look at efforts to improve equity in these areas.  Jonothan Gray and Chelsea Gilmer (Baltimore Urban Debate League) will open the evening with performances of their spoken word poetry. The annual lecture is held in honor of the Walters’ founding Director of Education, Ted Low, and focuses on an important current topic in the museum field. Go to https://thewalters.org/boxoffice/tickets5.aspx?e=4735.

To be continued.

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-323-1607; 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