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Call for a Rally: End the Israeli Siege, End the
Occupation!
April 27, 12 noon
Vancouver Art Gallery, Georgia Street, Vancouver
Showing its contempt for world public opinion, the Israeli regime continues its siege
against the Palestinian people. This latest bloody offensive has, in twelve days left
hundreds of Palestinians dead and hundreds and perhaps thousands more subject to arbitrary
arrest and detention. While U.S.-made weapons continue to maim and kill, U.S. politicians
continue their double-talk aimed at supporting Israel’s repression and occupation. Bush
just recently called for the “Arab world to condemn terrorism”, meaning that he wants the
region’s governments to condemn the Palestinian resistance. The people of the Arab world
are indeed rising up to condemn Israel’s state terrorism, as hundreds of thousands have
taken to the streets of Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey among others.
End the Siege Against the Palestinians Now!
End the Occupation!
For further information
(604)974-0993 ext.2733,
send email to Palsolidarity@yahoo.com
Ths call for action is presented by The Palestine Solidarity Group.
Actions Local and International: May Day
Mobilization for Immigrant Justice
May 1
Washington D.C.
In the wake of the historic Supreme Court decision (which it had previously upheld)
removing the labour rights of undocumented immigrant workers. The National Coalition for
Dignity and Amnesty for Immigrants is calling a nationwide mobilization for immigrant
worker justice on May 1. Delegations from 23 states will converge on Washington, DC to
overwhelm Congress with their F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Act; legislative proposal for immigrant
legalization. Simultaneously, hundreds of activists across the country will visit their
local Congressional offices, and convene for a speak-out in front of the U.S. Capitol.
While President Bush has just returned from a trip to Mexico and Central America where he
discussed immigration policy. Immigrants are scared of the programs he will push on
Capitol Hill after his six month blitzkrieg of an anti-labor, pro-war agenda. Under this
program, immigrant workers are assigned a boss by the federal government and they
- cannot change jobs legally,
- do not have the right to vote or a means to gain citizenship,
- do not have the right to form unions, and
- can be deported and prevented from returning to this country at the will of their
employer.
The battle for immigrant rights has never been at a more critical moment. The
Supreme Court decided recently that employers have impunity to fire undocumented workers
with no questions asked for union activity or any other reason. This decision is a
devastating blow to all undocumented workers’ ability to organize for their rights. It
makes undocumented workers even more attractive and vulnerable to employers, who already
intentionally recruit them for their exploitability.
-Submitted by Baldemar Velasquez President Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO.
SINGLE PARENTED KIDS SPEAK OUT!
May 1 + May 12
Before the dawn of feminism, children have been protesting against being separated from
their parents. Thru video documentation, Moms on the Drive, hope to capture their dilemmas
and experiences. Interviews of kids parented by single parents, their thoughts and
concerns! Currently moms on the drive are fighting against the cuts that affect single
parents working in solidarity with other groups. See The Premier of the film at the May
Day Cabaret! Also showing at the May 12 "Caution: Moms at Work"
gathering.
"Listen to Mother" action.
May 11
All over B.C.
Calling all women to take their ironing boards, pots & pans and clothes lines to the
streets or workplace. Out of the kitchens and into the streets to talk to your neighbours
about the mess the provincial government has made and to work community by community to
decide how to iron it out. Use the ironing board for your table, the pots & pans to get
attention and the clothes line for the issues.Have fun and adapt it to your neighbourhood.
Let us know what you do so we can share it.
Call or email us for an info package on the impact of the cuts on health, on women,
seniors, lesbians, gays, transgendered and bisexuals, students, aboriginal people as well
as on hydro, ICBC, water issues. If you have information which you can give us on issues,
posters that you are willing to share with women throughout the province we will need 100
copies of what ever you can share for the packages we are making up. For more info call
Women Against Campbells Cuts (WACC)at WE*ACT (Women Elders in Action) 604-6848171 or email
ssummit@411seniors.bc.ca or HEU Women's
Committee at 604-456-7017.
Medicare Forum
May 1, 10 AM - 12 noon
411 Senior's Centre, 411 Dusmuir Street, Vancouver
The Seniors Network BC, Women Elders in Action (WEAct), and “Seniors on Guard for
Medicare” will be sponsoring a Mayworks forum on May 15 as part of The National
Information Day to Maintain healthcare. This will take place at the 411 Seniors’ Centre
in Vancouver and will be followed by a walk to the Provincial Offices at Robson Square.
The aim is to allow seniors and others to openly discuss the critical threats to the
Canadian Health Care Programs, the Provincial role, and the role of citizens in fighting
to preserve and expand these services in the public system. Then they will take the
message to the Provincial Government.
Anti-Referendum Direct Actions
The visible minority community organizations issued the following joint statement: Dear
fellow British Columbians: For more than 500 years, aboriginal peoples on this continent
and in this province specifically have been subjected to and continue to be victimized by
the cruelties of colonization and racism. Like the aboriginal communities, various visible
minority have also been subjected to racism and racial discrimination and continue to
experience its harmful effects. The treaty process while not perfect could provide us with
an opportunity for reconciliation with aboriginal peoples. Through working together, we
could seek social justice, fair economic opportunity, human dignity, and respect. Fair,
transparent, honestly negotiated treaties could serve to provide a basis for the
reconciliation and restorative the justice we all seek. Finalized treaties could provide
the framework for certainty and confidence in our future together. At every turn, our
highest courts in this country have sided with aboriginal peoples when they have asserted
their rights and the courts consistently confirm that negotiating treaties is the best and
most effective route to resolution. However, the referendum now under way in this province
will only serve to deny us this opportunity at reconciliation. Why? First of all, it is
immoral, and we submit it is racist, to use the referendum process to question the
fundamental rights of aboriginal peoples. It is an affront to human dignity to aboriginal
peoples and every British Columbian. Secondly, the questions in the treaty process are
misleading and biased in order to further the government’s agenda of division and
scapegoating. Finally, the referendum serves to produce confusion and needlessly extend
uncertainty in our province. For all these reasons, we urge our fellow British Columbians
to boycott this referendum. Do not vote but DO make your protest count. Sign the outside
ballot envelope and send your ballot unopened to an aboriginal group such as: Vancouver
Aboriginal Friendship Centre 1607 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5L 1S7
Uts’am /Witness
Summer 2002 Ceremony and Camping Weekend
The Squamish Nation, through the RoundHouse Community Centre, is extending
an invitation to the public to camp within their Northern territory every weekend during
June and July to learn about their land, way of life and important ecological issues that
affect us all. All witness participants will be exposed to a broad range of ideas from
Witness facilitators who include members of the Squamish nation, performance artists,
mountaineers, ecologists and community activists. In addition to the workshops there is
generally lots of time for fun around the camp fire and hikes in the wilderness each
weekend. Put more info contact the Roundhouse at 713-1800.
DONT MISS :
Uts’am Witness Project benefit Evening: Visions of a Changing Planet
With Shel Neufield, members of the Squamish nation and Witness Project :
Shel Neufield
blend of live acoustic guitar performance and projected photographs, from glacier to old
growth forest, will highlight Sims Creek and Squamish watershed where Witness hosts summer
camping weekends.
May 16 ,7:30 PM
The Vancouver East Cultural Centre
1894 Venables St. Vancouver
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