Update: audio of the conference
Audio of my talk is here, starting shortly after the 17-minute mark. When video of the talk or the rest of the conference is online, I’ll post that as well.
Original Post:
This weekend, beginning tomorrow night, the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) is hosting a peace conference in Stamford, CT (just 45 minutes from Grand Central Station, NYC), to bring together major groups working to end war, imperialism, poverty, and social injustice.
I’ll be speaking briefly on a Sunday morning panel called “Victims of Political Repression Speak Out.” Representing the Bradley Manning Support Network, I’ll discuss the material PFC Manning is alleged to have leaked, why he shouldn’t be on trial in the first place, and how the military is railroading his court proceedings to make a chilling example of him.
The conference will be livestreamed here: http://cprmetro.blogspot.com/
Below is a schedule of speakers, panels, and workshops. Come if you can, or check out the livestream!
UNAC Conference Schedule
Friday, March 23, 2012
Registration—4:30 pm to 9:00 pm
8:00 pm – 9:45 pm–Opening Panel: The Shifting Strategies of Empire
Chair: Joe Lombardo, Co-Chair UNAC
David Swanson, War is a Crime.org
Col. Ann Wright, Dissent: Voices of Conscience
Andrew Murray, UK Trade Unions Congress General Council
Bernadette Ellorin, BAYAN (Philippines)
Abayomi Azikiwe, Pan Africa Newswire
Kazem Azin; Solidarity Iran
Adaner Usmani, Labor Party of Pakistan
Ahmed Shawki, Egypt Solidarity Campaign
Xiomara de Zelaya, Presidential candidate, Honduras.
UNAC CC meeting: 10:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Meeting Rooms available for groups preparing workshops, formulating resolution, etc. until 11:00 pm
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Registration opens at 7:00 am.
8:30 am – 9:00 pm—Welcome: International Greetings, UNAC Report and Conference Process
Marilyn Levin, UNAC Co-Chair.
9:00 am – 10:00 am—Panel: The NATO/G8 Summits: Our Response to their Agenda of War and Austerity
Chair: Pat Hunt, Chicago Peace Action, Chicago CANG8
Joe Iosbaker, Chicago United National Antiwar Coalition
Ashley Smith, UNAC Administrative Committee
Margaret Kimberly, Black Agenda Report
Leah Bolger, Veterans for Peace
Monami Maulik, Desis Rising Up and Moving
Medea Benjamin, Code Pink
Leili Kashani, Center for Constitutional Rights
Sara Flounders, International Action Center.
10:00 am – 10:30 am—Voting on Conference Rules; Introduction of Action Plan and Major Resolutions
Marilyn Levin, UNAC Co-Chair
Jeff Mackler, Northern California UNAC.
Raging Grannies Perform
10: 45 am -12:15 pm—Workshop Series One
12: 30 pm – 1:45 pm—Lunch with Panel: The War at Home on the Black Community: Mass Incarceration, Unemployment, Stop and Frisk
Chair: Ana Edwards, Virginia Defenders
Jack Bryant, President Stamford CT NAACP
Dr. Khalilah Brown-Dean, author, Once Convicted, Forever Doomed: Race, Ex-Felon Disenfranchisement, and Fractured Citizenship
Glen Ford, Executive Director of Black Agenda Report
Nellie Bailey, Occupy Harlem
Bruce A. Dixon, Managing Editor, Black Agenda Report; State Committee member; Georgia Green Party
Larry Holmes, Occupy 4 Jobs
Jasiri X, Hip Hop artist.
1:45 pm – 3:45 pm—Plenary Session
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm—Workshop Series Two
5:45 pm – 7:15—Workshop Series Three
7:30 pm – 9:30 pm—Dinner with Panel: Islamophobia, the Attack on Civil Liberties, and the War on Workers
Chair: Chris Gauvreau, UNAC Administrative Committee
Anthony Arnove, Co-editor with Howard Zinn, Voices of a People’s History of the United States
Imam Talib Abdurrashid, President of Muslim Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York
Meredith Aby, Committee to Stop FBI Repression
Teresa Gutierrez, May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights
Clarence Thomas, Oakland ILWU Local 10
Mike Fuqua, Longview Striker, member of ILWU Local 21
Scott Olsen, Iraq Veteran’s Against the War, injured by police at Occupy Oakland
Jeff Mackler, Northern California UNAC
Lamis Deek, Al-Awda New York
Gamelyn Oduardo, a leader of Puerto Rican Student Strike
George Friday, National Field Organizer, Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Cyrus McGoldrick, NYC Council on American Islamic Relations
James Yee, former chaplain at Guantanamo
Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, Muslim Peace Coalition.
After Dinner Performances: Chris Nauman, Jasiri X
Sunday, March 25, 2012
9:00 am – 11:00 am—Plenary Session.
11:00 am – 11:40 am—Victims of Political Repression Speakout
Chair: Judy Bello, Hancock 38
Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Ralph Poynter, Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
Nathan Fuller, Bradley Manning Support Network
Mariano Cordoso, Central Connecticut State University
Representative, Yale Muslim Student Association
Sarah Martin, Committee to Stop FBI Repression
Steve Downs, Project SALAM
11: 40 am. Break for picking up bag lunches.
12:00 pm -1:15 pm—Plenary Panel: Global Economic Meltdown, Warming, and War.
Chair: Nada Khader, WESPAC
Bill McKibben, editor, The Global Warming Reader and architect of the successful XL pipeline campaign
Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World
Richard Wolff, author, Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It.
1: 30 pm – 3:00 pm—Workshop Series Four
3: 15 pm – 4:15 pm—NATO G8 Protest Organizing Session
Chair: Pete Shell, UNAC Administrative Committee
4:15 pm – 4:30 pm—Closing Remarks
Joe Lombardo, Co-Chair UNAC
Nathan Fuller 