WESPAC Foundation

Dear, Nada Khandar,

Director of WESPAC Foundation

Acknowledging your commitment and your organization' s work on environmental issues and climate change, I want to invite you to participate in the Peoples' World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth's Rights to be held from 20th to 22nd April 2010 in Cochabamba, Bolivia.This conference is called by Bolivian President Evo Morales, as a response to the faliure on climate change negotiations in Copenhagen with the following objectives:

1) To analyze the structural and systemic causes that drive climate change and to propose radical measures to ensure the well-being of all humanity in harmony with nature

2) To discuss and agree on the project of a Universal Declaration of Mother Earth Rights

3) To agree on proposals for new commitments to the Kyoto Protocol and projects for a COP Decision under the United Nations Framework for Climate Change that will guide future actions in those countries that are engaged with life during climate change negotiations and in all United Nations scenarios, related to:

- Climate debt

- Climate change migrants-refugees

-Emission reductions

-Adaptation

-Technology transfer

-Finance

-Forest and Climate Change

-Shared Vision

-Indigenous Peoples

4) To work on the organization of the Peoples' World Referendum on Climate Change

5) To analyze and develop an action plan to advance the establishment of a Climate Justice Tribunal

6) To define strategies for action and mobilization to defend life from Climate Change and to defend Mother Earth's Rights.

visit the website www.cmpcc.org.

For aditional information, we would like to encorage you to visit the conference website www.cmpcc.org. and make an adhesion to our call in the website This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Finally, please help us to difuse this call far and wide.

People in the United States interested in participating in this event should contact Carla Esposito, Bolivian Mission to the United Nations, Tel 212 682 8132.

With the highest considerations,
Carla Espósito
Permanent Mission to the Unated Nations
Tel 212 682 8132

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Friends,

We are sending this message to 1) update you on the status of the Cortlandt Diversity Task Force as it existed last year, 2) let you know about local anti-racism and anti-discrimination initiatives, and 3) invite your participation in a collective learning process that we can translate into constructive social action.

 

All members of the Cortlandt Diversity Task Force have declined reappointment to that body. The Journal News carried a short piece about this in yesterday's paper . After working for over eighteen months - meeting often twice a month - we lost confidence in the Town's good faith effort to implement the recommendations of the Task Force. Their behaviors have not been commensurate with their words, the results reflecting a lack of awareness and action that we consider intolerable. This loss of confidence is further based on a lack of response from the Town while the Task Force was active and our inability to gain approval to be in direct contact with the community.

 

We recognize that for elected Town officials priorities are often directed toward promoting and supporting events that help foster a positive Town image. We were not interested in promoting "feel good" events, rather, we see the need for deeper and sustained approaches.

 

Over two years ago we had a cross burning in our community. People who understand the implications and ramifications of that act are not ready to simply feel good about this community; work must be done to help prevent something like this from happening again.

 

Former members of the Diversity Task Force are joining with other individuals and organizations to redirect our efforts and begin again. We invite you to join us and hope to create a broad collaboration toward a common goal. We will work without external constraints, limited only by our own abilities and resources.

 

Our critical starting point will be to educate ourselves about the roots and dynamics of racism, and all of our roles in it. Then, to understand how the roots of racism set the stage for other forms of discrimination and intolerance in our communities, and keep us from effectively working together. We hope to open up a dialogue that can help us understand where we come from, articulate what sort of community we want to be, and collaborate on what our new choices might be so we can help create it.

 

We plan to attend the March "Undoing Racism/Community Organizing" workshop offered by the Anti-Racist Alliance and The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. The workshop flyer is attached and we invite you to join us. This will be an important opportunity for our education and for building a common base of understanding from which we can constructively move forward. We will also work with recommendations outlined in the attached report.

 

We have started building relationships for this collaboration with:

~ PAPA, the Peekskill Area Pastors Association (http://www.pastorsofpeekskill.org/);

~ WESPAC Foundation (http://wespac.org/);

~ The Anti-Racist Alliance (http://antiracistalliance.com/); and

~ The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond (http://www.pisab.org/).

 

We thank these organizations and Rev. David Billings for their guidance and support, and we invite you to join us, as an individual or organization working on anti-racism and issues of social equity.

 

If you are interested in this work, please let us know by replying with your contact information. Also, please indicate if you would like to participate in leading and coordinating activities. We will call a meeting of leaders soon to discuss how to proceed.

 

We hope you will join us.

 

Clarissa Beyah-Taylor

Tracy Breneman

Rev. Michael Champion

Jim Edler

Garrison Jackson

 

attached:

Cortlandt Diversity Task Force report

"Undoing Racism/Community Organizing" workshop flyer

 

--
Cortlandt Peekskill Anti-Racism
in collaboration with:
~ PAPA, the Peekskill Area Pastors Association (http://www.pastorsofpeekskill.org/)
~ WESPAC Foundation (http://wespac.org/)
~ The Anti-Racist Alliance (http://antiracistalliance.com/)
~ The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond (http://www.pisab.org/)
~ (hoping to add other organizations)

If you received this message as a forward and would like to receive future messages from this group, send us your contact information and we will add you to the list. If you received a message directly from This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and prefer not to receive messages from this group, let us know and we will remove your address.

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Hello! I arrived safely back in New Rochelle last night, Monday, January 4 from the Gaza Freedom March. I believe that Felice is staying in Amsterdam on an extended visit and that Mirene has gone elsewhere and will return separately.
Wow! What an experience! Too bad we did not make it all the way to Gaza, but what went on in Cairo was amazing, thrilling, challenging, energizing, surprising, scarey and sometimes frustrating! My big regret is that because of the many disruptions to our plans and the great confusion at times, I was not able to spend a lot of the time with fellow activists from Westchester and colleagues from the War Resisters League. We were often separated and had to find other/new friends to spend the activities with.
The spontaneous daily actions we organized on the streets of Cairo were fantastic! And often frightening! And very illegal! Despite the attempts by the Egyptian officials to prevent the local people from witnessing our protests, the everyday Egyptians DID SEE WHAT WE WERE DOING! There were many passersby, both pedestrian and vehicular, and they waved, saluted, cheered, held up the peace sign with their fingers, and shouted chants along with us! I think the local Egyptians got a real kick out of seeing so many Internationals daring to challenge the authorities with public protests; I think it gave them genuine inspiration.
The three of us who travelled on the adventure are waiting to share our experiences, reports and insights with all of you, and we want to hear from you about what it looked like to you in Westchester, what went on locally at support actions (e.g. White Plains Railroad Station) and we are interested in seeing the (local) media coverage. In Cairo, there were color photos of our protests on the front pages of all the newspapers, both Arabic and English. We know that international media coverage was universal!
I plan to attend the local Westchester Middle East Committee Meeting Monday January 11, 7pm at WESPAC-White Plains. See you all there!
I will also attend a local New York City Chapter Meeting of the War Resisters League, Wednesday January 6 and give an informal report.
There will be a big official report back on the trip at the Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan, Thursday January 21, in the evening. Hope people can attend.

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Room for rent in my house. $400/month, everything included. There is room to park a car; it's a 20 min walk from the North White Plains train station and a 10 minute walk to the bus. No smokers. It is available as of Dec 15, 2009: (914)428-8276 home or (914)282-5468 cell. Martha

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From WESPAC member Karen Hall:

Her apartment is available January 1st, 2010.
Here's the link:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/sub/1470159130.html

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Good morning everyone,

I am writing to share the good news that WESPAC's Friends of Turtle Island (the Native American term for the Western Hemisphere) is starting off the Fall renewed and re-energized.

Friends of Turtle Island would like to send Jalal Sabur and Surya Peterson to attend an important Treaty Gathering of the Sioux Nation in South Dakota in the middle of September. They will be traveling to Lower Brule in South Dakota to attend the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association Conference on Treaty Issues. The organization does not have a website but its Chairperson is Ron His Horse, Chair of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation.

 

The footage from the conference will be edited to make presentations to other Indigenous nations in the Western Hemisphere so that more Indigenous voices are heard in regards to treaty law and environmental conservation.

With permission from the elders, Jalal will film portions of the meeting that will be shared with other First Nations people both in North and South America so that more Indigenous voices are heard in regards to treaty law and environmental conservation. This will be the beginning of a sustained WESPAC initiative for the foreseeable future.

I had very much wanted to travel with them but my schedule at this time does not permit me to leave the office for four days.

I am writing to ask you two things: first if you have frequent flier mileage that you would be willing to donate to either Surya or Jalal so that they can attend this gathering. The airfare right now to Sioux Falls, SD is $650 minimum round trip.

Second, if you would be willing to make an outright contribution to help them with travel and accomodation while they are there. A contribution of any amount would be most appreciated: $10, $20, and so forth. You can make the contribution right now on our website with paypal http://www.wespac.org and tag it "Friends of Turtle Island"

With gratitude and appreciation,

Nada

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Dear Editor:

I read Ethan Bronner's article with interest. Palestinians non-violent protests against the Israeli occupation of their land, though frequent, are rarely covered in the mainstream press. However, Mr. Bronner was careful to state Israeli claims that the marches are not as non-violent as claimed, and that 3 soldiers were badly enough injured to have left the army. Unfortunately he omitted another important statistic -- in the same period of time, the Israeli army has killed x people in these demonstrations, and injured many, many more. The Israeli army does not rely on non-lethal weapons alone. Live ammunition has been fired, and tear gas canisters have been fired point blank at demonstrators. As a result, in just two examples, Basem Abu Rahme, a 29 year old resident of Bil'in, was shot with a tear gas canister and suffered chest wounds that killed him, and American Tristan Anderson, who participated in anti-wall protests in Nil'in, has been left brain dead after being shot with a tear gas canister. 18 Palestinians have been killed in non-violent protests against the wall since its construction began in 2004. 7 of them were children under the age of 16. Most were shot with live ammunition.

These statistics are important not just for humanitarian reasons. They make it clear that Israel meets Palestinian non-violent protest with deadly force. What course would you recommend for an occupied people to assert their rights? Non-violence, as a form of political protest, is successful when it arouses the conscience of others. If the New York Times fails to make clear the price Palestinians pay for non-violent protest, it is complicit in eliminating non-violence as a political tactic.

Thank you,

Felice Gelman

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WESPAC Membership Letter

August 19, 2009

Dear WESPAC Foundation friends and members,

I am really pleased to announce that WESPAC is moving ahead with lots of ideas, programming and action for the year ahead. We are committed to strengthening the capacity of the organization, and we need your input in this important process.

We have decided to start a monthly WESPAC Poetry Cafe, the first Friday of every month. These gatherings will be a space to meet each other, socialize, support our precious organizing center and celebrate achievements together on a regular basis. Our kick off poetry cafe will be Friday, September 4th at 7pm in Pleasantville, where we will spend an evening listening to the poetry of Lynn Beville, Mirene Ghossein and Geoff Smith. Come prepared to offer a $10 contribution to the space; of course no one turned away. If you would like to perform at upcoming coffee houses or poetry evenings, please contact the office.

That same weekend, we are celebrating the birthday of Surya Peterson at a social gathering in Ardsley on Monday, September 7th. It is the 6th Annual Anti-Racist Alliance Brunch where we kick off the Autumn season with friends and social justice organizers and activists. You are welcome to stop by anytime from 10am to 4pm that day with a small food offering for the table of friendship. Contributions will be accepted and shared for the work of both WESPAC and the Anti-Racist Alliance. Please RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you plan to attend. Directions will be e-mailed to you. Also please note that WESPAC is fully supporting the symposium on September 21 aimed at reducing racial disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare system. Please visit EndRacialDisproportionality.com for all details.

We are also scheduling regular WESPAC Members meetings, where members can discuss and share the work that they are doing, connect with others, learn what other WESPAC members are working on, and coordinate their work in the different issue areas: economic justice, racial justice, militarism, environment, war and occupation both at home and abroad. Our next membership meeting will take place on Monday, August 24th at 6pm in our Pleasantville space. Please come at 5pm to help with phone banking.

The board has decided that it is way over due to thank those WESPAC members who have been consistently sending in automated pledges every month to help sustain the organization. We will thank these members at a social in Ardsley on Sunday, September 20th. If you are interested in serving on the board of directors, this would be a good time for you to mingle with the board, learn about board functions and expectations, and decide if you would like to present yourself as a candidate for the board at the Annual Meeting of Members which will take place on Monday evening, October 26th at 7pm at our Pleasantville office. Only members who are in good standing for the past two years (2009 and 2010) will be allowed to vote at this Annual Meeting.

At our August 4th members meeting, interest was expressed in planning a WESPAC Fall Retreat where members can get to know each other better, share skills and spend time on WESPAC organizational work. Five people have expressed interest in serving on a committee to plan this retreat that will be open to all members. If you have ideas and would like to get involved, please contact the office.

It is important for all of you to know that this year the Memorial United Methodist Church will be running the Fair Trade Festival on December 5th at the church. WESPAC's role will be to organize a follow up to the Lower Hudson Valley Social Forum at the church that same day. We will continue to highlight the organizing going on locally on a wide range of issues and we will help support the fair trade festival by bringing lots of people to the church. This past March, 250 people attended the social forum, thanks to the hard work of Antoinette, Jalal, Roger and several others.

Jalal and Roger recently offered a media workshop entitled "Westchester Media Rapid Response Network" at the WESPAC space that was attended by people representing a range of issues and interests. The outcome of the workshop was the creation of a network of people that are able to support each other in the local media as issues arise in the community dealing with an area that we are working on. The purpose of the Rapid Response Network is to strengthen our ability as activists to respond to local media coverage of key issues. We have people who have committed to reading the local papers every day and who will forward relevant articles to those who are working on the issues covered by the article. If you would like to join this network, please contact Roger at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

In other good news, Nada is organizing a Fall Lecture Series on Wednesday evenings that WESPAC and Pace University are co-sponsoring. The first presentation will take place on Wednesday, September 30th at 7pm with Felice, Daniel, Ceil and Tom talking about their recent trip to Gaza. Palestinian artist Lailati Nar has been invited to share some of her art work with us that same evening. Also, Nada's article on challenging institutional racism (available on our website www.wespac.org ) has received wide circulation and feedback. All WESPAC members are encouraged to sign up for the Undoing Racism workshop scheduled for October 1, 2 and 3 at Fordham University in White Plains. For all details please visit the http://antiracistalliance.com .

We need your support to sustain our work, our meeting space and staff. Please renew your membership at this time. The board is suggesting that starting on September 1, 2009, $100 a year is appropriate for dues, or a monthly pledge of $10 a month that you can set up as an automated check with your bank. The dues for 2008/2009 up to August 31st remain unchanged at $45. Please take the time to review if you are up-to-date on your membership dues.

If you are a senior citizen, on fixed income, a student or low-income/unemployed, membership dues will be $50 a year. We are happy to accept volunteer hours in exchange for monetary dues. We need help with mailings, an online newsletter, website work, phone banking, fundraising, office maintenance work and more. We are happy to accept 20 volunteer hours a year in exchange for dues, or a combination of dues and volunteer hours. For those of you who live outside of New York, we have a special "associate" membership category. Membership dues for this category are set at a minimum of $25 per year.

Please also help the board with its strategic planning process by filling in the questionnaire on the back of this page and returning it with your membership check. The questionnaire is also on our website and can be returned to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We deeply appreciate your input, ideas, enthusiasm, energy, and support and we hope that together we can create spaces to strengthen our justice work on many different levels.

For a stronger WESPAC,

Khusro Elley

Chairperson

WESPAC Foundation Board

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Hello everyone,

I wanted to send an update about yesterday's membership meeting, what was discussed and next steps.

27 people attended the meeting last night where we had a lively discussion about the proposal to develop two classes of members. Many people were uncomfortable with the idea of a participating member versus voting member, so it looks like the board may keep the By Laws as they stand and make adjustments to basic membership definitions, developing a system whereby students, seniors, unemployed and low income can offer volunteer hours in lieu of membership dues or some combination of monetary contribution and personal hours dedicated towards helping build the infrastructure of the organization. Participation on an "issue" oriented committee would not count as volunteer hours for membership. Volunteer hours in the context of fulfilling membership requirements would include activities that help build the infrastructure of WESPAC (newsletter, fundraising committee, membership committee, office painting and clean up, mailings etc)

The next WESPAC members meeting (a new name for what used to be the Administrative Committee) will take place on Monday, August 24th at 6pm in Pleasantville. Members are welcome to come at 5pm that same day to help with phone banking.

WESPAC is starting up a Coffee House series the first Friday of the month, starting September 4th with readings by Geoff and Lynn from their own poetry. Later in the Fall, we will host a dance party with DJ and other ideas have also been proposed. More input is welcome if you have ideas.

WESPAC will honor those giving monthly pledges at a social in Ardsley on Sunday, September 20th. Members who are interested in serving on WESPAC's Board of Directors are encouraged to attend this social to learn more about board functions and expectations.

Four people have expressed an interest in planning a WESPAC Fall Retreat where folks can get to know each other better, organize skill shares workshops and spend time on WESPAC's organizational development and focus areas.

This year, the Memorial United Methodist Church will be running the fair trade festival on Saturday, December 5th. WESPAC's role will be organizing a Lower Hudson Valley Social Forum follow up in the church on the same day to continue highlighting the organizing going on locally on a wide range of issues and to help support the fair trade festival by bringing lots of people to the church. This past March, 250 people attended the social forum, thanks to the hard work of Antoinette, Jalal, Roger and several others.

Roger and Jalal recently hosted a media workshop at WESPAC that was very well presented and produced a "Westchester Rapid Response Network". Roger will send more information shortly.

Nada is organizing a Fall Lecture Series on Wednesday evenings that WESPAC and Pace University are co-sponsoring. Dates and topics will be forthcoming. Also, the article on challenging institutional racism has received wide circulation and feedback. The School of the Americas Watch and WRL have contacted WESPAC asking permission to re-publish in their own publications. All WESPAC members are encouraged to sign up for the Undoing Racism workshop scheduled for October 1, 2 and 3 at Fordham University. For all details please visit the http://antiracistalliance.com

There will be a WESPAC mailing on August 19th and 20th in Pleasantville from 9am to 2pm. All are welcome if available.

If you have ideas for the WESPAC Coffee House series or would like more details on any of this, please feel free to call us up.

I will be out of the office all of next week. Jalal will be taking calls on my behalf. Thanks to all who came last night and for your valuable input, energy, ideas and enthusiasm. We really appreciate it,

Nada Khader
Executive Director
WESPAC Foundation
www.wespac.org
914 449-6514

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I concur with Sandy. I could even see participation in the full Undoing Racism Workshop becoming a requirement for Board membership. This workshop, which I attended many times and to which I constantly recruited people to attend, proved very important to me and our networks in the work I did prior to arriving in White Plains -- focusing on the dismantling of national and international racism. I am enthused by Nada's article and hope it generates a lot of support for the Peoples' Institute and that it represents the direction the WESPAC Foundation will actually go. This journey for WESPAC will take a lot of work.

Rev. Joe Agne

On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 3:39 PM, Sandra BERNABEI wrote:

I would highly highly recommend that we all participate in an Undoing Racism Workshop.
Many of us describe the experience as putting on corrective lenses and seeing things clearly for the first time. As someone who has reviewed the workshop many many times, I will say that it has been the most transformative and humanizing work I have ever engaged in.
The AntiRacist Alliance organizes one workshop per month in our area. I invite the entire WESPAC family to attend.
Peace,
Sandy

Sandy Bernabei
www.antiracistalliance.com

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