Baltimore Activist Alert - November 8 -10, 2016

16] United Workers seeks volunteers at the polls – Nov. 8

17] Sharon Black for City Council President looking for POLL WORKERS – Nov. 8

18] Peace in the Korean Peninsula – Nov. 8

19] Election Debrief -- Nov. 9

20] Teach-in on the Alt Right – Nov. 9

21] Free screening of “Neurotypical” -- Nov. 9

22] Keeping Chemical Weapons Out of the Hands of Terrorists – Nov. 10

23] Negotiating Nuclear Security – Nov. 10

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16] – United Workers need volunteers to work the polls on Election Day to pass out literature on Question J - the Affordable Housing Trust Fund ballot. Email todd@unitedworkers.org to volunteer.

17] -- Sharon Black for City Council President is looking for POLL WORKERS on Election Day.  Text or call 410-218-4835 to volunteer at the polls.  You can stay for a few hours or the day. 

18] – On Tues., Nov. 8 from 1 to 2:30 PM, Robert Gallucci, Georgetown University, will tackle From Kuala Lumpur with Love--A Road to Peace in the Korean Peninsula, “ in the Kennedy Caucus Room (SR-325),  Russell Office Building, 2 Constitution Ave. NE, WDC 20002. The event is sponsored by the ICAS Liberty Foundation. Visit http://www.vice.com/read/exclusive-foia-fbi-accidental-drone-strike-killing-of-an-american-v23n8.

19] – Election Debrief: Next Steps for the Progressive Movement will be hosted by the Institute for Policy Studies, 1301 Connecticut Ave. NW, 6th Floor, WDC, on  Wed., Nov. 9 from 12:30 to 2 PM.  Come to a forum of leaders in the progressive movement sharing fresh perspectives about next steps for action for the next four years and beyond. The election is over. Racism, xenophobia, corporate greed, climate change, inequities and inequality – too name just a few challenges – are still with us.

Join an informed and dynamic panel and be a participating audience member in an interaction. Panelists are Steve Cobble, Progressive Democrats of America Co-founder and IPS Associate Fellow; Flavia Jimenez, Advancement Project Senior Attorney and Project Director of Immigrant Justice; Alan Barber, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) Director of Domestic Policy; Jonathan Hutto, Prince George’s County Maryland People’s Coalition Coordinator; and Phyllis Bennis, IPS New Internationalism Director and IPS Fellow.  The evening will be moderated by John Cavanagh, Director of IPS. RSVP at http://act.ips-dc.org/site/Calendar?id=100762&view=Detail.

A Vision of an Inclusive Economy in the Age of Pope Francis and Recurring Financial Crisis and A Religious View Towards Building an Economic System that Protects the Vulnerable and Promotes Universal Prosperity on Wed., Nov. 9 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at Heritage Hall, Father O’Connell Hall, Catholic University of America, 620 Michigan Ave. NE, WDC 20064. In the wake of the global financial crisis, international institutions are focusing on crisis prevention and addressing inequality. While there is broad agreement on the causes of these world-wide problems, solutions continue to be debated. Pope Francis, during his 2015 address to the United Nations, was specific in the need to resolve debt and financial crisis through predictable processes and policies. For twenty years the Catholic Church and most major faith groups advocated for a "Jubilee" and raised awareness on the impact of financial crisis on the most vulnerable. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi's lecture explores what it means to build an inclusive financial system and address the structural causes of extreme poverty. His comments will reflect on how tax, trade and debt policies can and should address these issues.

RSVP to Darby Finch at policy@jubileeusa.org or (202) 783-3566 x106. The sponsors are Office of International Justice and Peace of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic University of America Institute for Policy Research and Jubilee USA.

20] – On Wed., Nov. 9 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, come to a teach-in, in preparation for the upcoming NPI protest (an "Alt Right" Fascist hate group who meets in DC). The teach-in will be held at the Woodridge Library, 180o1 Hamlin St. NE, WDC 20018, will be about fascism, racism, and resistance; and the night will end with a dance party.

Speakers may include Aaron Goggans, of Black Lives Matter DC, Walda Katz-Fishman of Howard University, Mike Stark of the International Socialist Organization, and Scott Green of the DC Anti-fascist Coalition. Trump’s rise has given voice to a brutal side of the US population. It’s emboldened the racist violence that oppresses people of color, divides us from each other, and keeps us from making a common fight for freedom and equity. These same forces have also been felt in Europe with the rise of anti-immigrant policy, racist politicians, and new hate groups. Trumpism is powered by groups like the National Policy Institute (NPI), a white nationalist “think-tank” that has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They will be holding their white supremacist conference in DC the weekend of November 18th-20th, 2016. A coalition of activists will be protesting in the streets.

NPI is one of the worst. Richard Spencer, who coined the term “Alt Right” and heads the group, calls for "peaceful ethnic cleansing" in order to protect European culture, and forced sterilization to reverse the "degenerative" effect of a growing "non-white population." Spencer was banned from visiting the United Kingdom and arrested in Hungary for his Nazi-like views. NPI has been trying to influence the US conservative movement, and has been energized by the Trump candidacy. NPI openly supports Trump, Trumpism, and the racism, white supremacy, sexism, and Islamophobia that goes with it.

2015 saw a 14% increase in hate groups according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. These haters love Trump, and all the terrible things he has said about Mexicans, women, Muslims, and others. Members of hate groups have terrorized, like in the racist Immanuel AME killings in Charleston, South Carolina, anti-Jewish killings in Olathe, Kansas, sexist killings at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and other tragedies that have occurred just within this last year.

We call upon all people of conscience to oppose this abusive racism, white supremacy, sexism, and Islamophobia. Many more people wish to resist racism rather than spread it. Organized, we can challenge hate groups before they grow. Visit httpso://www.facebook.com/events/213287129107888/?notif_t=plan_user_invited&notif_id=1478568658226030.

21] – See a free screening of “Neurotypical” [directed by Adam Larsen, 2013,  52 minutes] on Wed., Nov. 9 at 6:30 PM at the Congress Hotel, first floor, 306 W. Franklin St., Baltimore 21204.  The film is always on the 2nd Wednesday of each month, same time and place.  This event is a collaboration with the award-winning documentary series Point of View, from the Public Broadcasting Service. Go to www.pbs.org/pov. RSVPs are appreciated but not mandatory--http://www.meetup.com/Charm-City-Film-Series/events/233725806/. “Neurotypical” is a rare film among documentaries about autism. It relates the experiences of this neurological condition from the point of view of autistics themselves. Via the worlds of 4-year-old Violet, teenager Nicholas and middle-aged wife and mother Paula, along with provocative interviews with other autistics, the film recounts the challenges they face living among “normal” people–whom many of them call “neurotypicals.”

But the film goes further, revealing the wide spectrum of autism and the creative adaptations people use to “pass” in the normal world. It throws a searching, often comic light on what defines the “normal” mind and calls attention to the subject of neurodiversity as an urgent and multi-layered issue within the 21st-century civil rights debate. Autistics have hardly ever been heard like this. Says one, “I look at neurotypical life and I’m sorry, I really don’t want to be one of you.”

22] – On Thurs., Nov. 10 from 9:30 to 11:30 AM, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) will host "Keeping Chemical Weapons Out of the Hands of Terrorists," with five speakers at CSIS, 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW, WDC. Go to https://www.csis.org/events/keeping-chemical-weapons-out-hands-terrorists.

23] – On Thurs., Nov. 10 from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, Linton Brooks, chief negotiator for START I and II; James Goodby, former Ambassador to Finland; and Thomas Graham, led U.S. effort to extend the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, will discuss "Negotiating Nuclear Security: A Practitioner's Perspective" at the National Defense University, Abraham Lincoln Hall, Room 1119, 300 Fifth Ave. SW, Fort McNair, WDC. RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/negotiating-nuclear-security-a-practitioners-perspective-tickets-28536307865?ref=enivtefor001&invite=MTA5NTcyOTAvRGF2aWRAZmNubC5vcmcvMA%3D%3D&utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inviteformalv2&utm_term=eventpage.

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