Minutes of General Meeting
February 4, 2010

A general meeting for USC4P&J was held at the Café della Pace near Piazza Navona on February 4, 2010. Attending were Anna, Becky, David, Gene, Greg, Gretchen, Ilona, Maria Chiara, Patrick, Peter, and Stephanie. Anna chaired the meeting and Gretchen took the minutes.

1) The first item on the agenda was a discussion about the winter season of the ‘Eyes Wide Open' film series, including the proposed schedule and possible presenters. The group was in general agreement with the schedule, with the series starting on February 18, and commended the film committee with enthusiastic applause for its hard work in identifying a wide variety of diverse and interesting films. However, one important change was proposed: to show one of Howard Zinn's films in his honor to mark his recent death.

[Note: Howard Zinn was an activist, an historian, an academic rebel, a leader of civil disobedience, and the author of the landmark book, A People's History of the United States. He died on January 27, 2010. He said, in one of his last interviews, that he would like to be remembered “for introducing a different way of thinking about the world, about war, about human rights, about equality” and “for getting more people to realize that the power ultimately rests in people themselves”…. He wanted to be known as “somebody who gave people a feeling of hope and power that they didn't have before”.]

Following is an excerpt from an article by Bob Herbert in the NYT:

“Howard Zinn: A Radical Treasure”

I always wondered why Howard Zinn was considered a radical. (He called himself a radical.) He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he found it. What was so radical about believing that workers should get a fair shake on the job, that corporations have too much power over our lives and much too much influence with the government, that wars are so murderously destructive that alternatives to warfare should be found, that blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities should have the same rights as whites, that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet?... He was a treasure and an inspiration. That he was considered radical says way more about this society than it does about him.

The film proposed was “Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train” (2004), an account of his life as a nonviolent social protester, starring Zinn and Matt Damon, if it could be located. (According to Stephanie, the film gets 96% approval on the Rotten Tomato Meter!) (FYI – Becky was able to download it – it will launch the winter series on February 18.)

There was also discussion about the need to always have a film on Afghanistan, given the current US war there and our group's opposition to the war, but there was a general consensus that we should show a variety of diverse and good topical films, with the emphasis on quality, and not be limited by a prescribed list.

2) The second agenda item was a draft letter to the Italian group, Tavola della Pace, about their Peace March from Perugia to Assisi in May. In their appeal for groups to join them in this March for Peace, there is not one mention of the war in Afghanistan, and especially not of Italy's or the US's involvement. Patrick was very concerned about this lacuna and drafted a strong critical letter. He sought the group's approval to send it to Tavola. [Note: Tavola is a mixed group of Italian peace activists, many of whom are civic administrators and associations, church and Scout groups, and so on.

There was considerable discussion about the following: the current lull in Italy in grassroots organizing for peace (Stephanie); the US troops in Pakistan (Greg); about Berlusconi; about Obama, too, becoming ‘Bush-heavy' as opposed to ‘Bush-lite' according to some; and so on.

As for the letter itself, Maria Chiara agreed to modify the language to make it less ‘aggressive'. Then there was a discussion about whether to make it a ‘closed' letter, sent only to the group as an appeal, or ‘open' one, thus more provocative. The agreed compromise was to send it to Tavola only but to make it an open letter if there was no response from Tavola in a week. There was also discussion about whether to circulate it to Italian peace groups (US Citizens Against War, Florence, has already signed on), with no decision taken.

Patrick did suggest that any of us could participate in their Peace March on May 16, whatever the outcome of the letter.

3) Action for Peace, a coalition of Italian groups focusing on Palestine is currently redefining their mission and structure. Anna noted that US4P&J has been participating as a member of the umbrella group but we are not very active. The question was put to the group as to whether we wanted to be more active. The consensus was that we should stay on their mailing list but don't have the resources for further involvement.

4) The US health care debate consumed a lot of attention, given the recent State of the Union Address by President Barack Obama and the loss of the Senate seat in MA to the Republicans, in part over health care. Marilee had drafted a message for which she sought the group's endorsement prior to sending it out to the membership. She had also proposed either a FAX BLAST or a PHONE IN. After considerable discussion about the health care debate in the US, the group eagerly endorsed Marilee's initiative, asked her to send us a list of web links for contacting our Congress people on Health Care. It was noted that individuals should feel free to take action on their own (by sending to the members mailing list.) on issues like this that need urgent response.

5) Another topic was the current attention being given to immigration in Italy. Becky mentioned the manifesto prepared by Sergio Gaudio. Gretchen noted that Roberto Saviano has come out vocally against the mafia for causing the problems for immigrants in southern Italy, including a manifesto in the New York Times. We all agreed to endorse the manifesto, and Becky said that she would look further into the planned March 1 immigrant workers' strike.

6) We returned to the discussion of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, noting the planned protest march on March 20 in Washington DC to mark the launch of the Iraq War on March 19 date in 2003, but focusing on the war and occupation of Afghanistan. We should urge that we GET OUT OF IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN with ALL troops by August 2011, not just combat troops, as currently proposed by the Obama administration. Greg agreed to take the lead, on organizing a parallel protest in Rome, including making contacts with the Italian groups, urging members of USC4P&J to show up, and so on. Stephanie, Becky and Patrick agreed to help him.

7) We briefly discussed the Guantanamo Principle, that is, the Obama administration's decision NOT to let go some of the Guantanamo prisoners, nor to try them, as they are “too dangerous release and thus keep them in indefinite detention. Greg argued forcefully that these prisoners should be given their Constitutional right to a trial in a civilian court, not military, or be let go. He asked the group if there was anything we could do. It was noted that Amnesty International Italy would already have taken action on the anniversary in January. It was decided that we would include this topic in the March 20 protest given the secret prisons in Afghanistan.

8) The subject of military spending was mentioned briefly near the end of the meeting. It was agreed that we would add it to the list for the March 20 protest and that Greg, who raised the issue, would take the lead on including it.

9) A topic that was not discussed, as time was short, was trafficking, especially of women. It was agreed that we could raise it in connection with the film on April 22, entitled “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”. Gretchen will lead that discussion and mentioned, as a great resource, the newly published book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn called “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide”. It was even proposed to turn the film event into a fundraiser for one of the organizations mentioned in the book, e.g. Women for Women International, or for a local Rome-based organization, e.g. The Grandmother Project.

10) Other topics: The Haiti earthquake was opened for discussion but the group quickly concluded that others were already contributing financially to help victims. There was not enough time to discuss the recent Supreme Court ruling about unlimited corporate spending on elections, nor did we get to a discussion about whether we should press the Senate to abolish the filibuster.

Next general meeting: date to be announced. Join our mailing list for updates.

Top