Resource Center for Nonviolence

Blood and Oil- Film Benefit for People Power

Description: In honor of Memorial day this year, let’s remember that many soldiers are dying over a dependence on foreign oil, and that we can support them by using less of it.

Tuesday, May 31, 7:00PM
Del Mar Theatre 1124 Pacific Avenue (downtown Santa Cruz)
$5-$10 suggested donation

**Free valet bike parking will be provided by People Power right in front of the theater on Pacific Avenue.**

Also, Thursday June 2nd,  8 pm
At the Brown Beret Bike Shack, 555 Main St.
Free Showing of the Film to help celebrate Bike Shack’s 5th anniversary.

“Our military policy and our energy policy have become intertwined. They have become one and the same… And if we continue to rely on military force to solve our resource needs, we’re in for a very bloody and dangerous and painful century indeed.”
– Michael Klare in Blood and Oil
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–”Blood and Oil is an indispensable primer on the role of oil in driving US military policy. Every peace activist, every environmental activist, and every concerned citizen should see this film for the perspective it provides on how to free the US and the world of our addiction to oil.”
– William Hartung, New America Foundation

The film shows how concerns about oil have been at the core of American foreign policy for more than 60 years, rendering our energy and military policies virtually indistinguishable. “Blood and Oil” calls for a radical rethinking of U.S. energy policy, warning that unless we change direction, we will be drawn into one oil war after another as depletion of the world\’s petroleum supplies accelerates. Come join us and get re-inspired to end these wars while also honoring our servicemen and women by not sacrificing them in vain and greed.

Co-sponsored by the Resource Center for Nonviolence. The screening is underwritten by the Green Station, Nickelodeon Theatres, Inc., and the City of Santa Cruz Redevelopment Agency. All proceeds go to People Power\’s ongoing educational efforts for sustainable transportation. FMI: (831) 425-0665, info@peoplepowersc.org

Ellie Foster

In loving memory of Ellie Foster

who died on April 27, 2011 in Santa Cruz, California. An activist, humanitarian, and dedicated advocate for peace and justice, Ellie was known and loved by many in and beyond the Santa Cruz community.

Ellie was a lifelong Quaker, pacifist, and peace activist. In the early 1960s, Herb and Ellie started the Santa Cruz Friends Meeting. In the 1980s, Ellie was the local director of Witness for Peace, and she was involved in direct nonviolent action in Nicaragua.

She participated in many other nonviolent activist movements, including serving as co-founder and member of the Santa Cruz Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and as a member of the Salt and Pepper Shakers Affinity Group during the Lawrence Livermore anti-nuclear action in 1983. Most recently Ellie performed with the Raging Grannies.

Memorial services for Ellie Foster will be held Saturday May 28, 3p.m. at the Santa Cruz Quaker Meeting (225 Rooney St, Santa Cruz). A potluck will follow. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Resource Center for Nonviolence: (Memo- in memory of Ellie Foster) 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA 95060; or American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102 (or online as gift in honor of a loved one: http://afsc.org/). Notes or cards may be sent c/o Herb Foster, 118 Myles Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.

For more information: 831-423-1626

Photo by Takao Takahara, visiting scholar at Monterey Institute of International Studies from Japan, who interviewed the Fosters on March 22, 2011 in their home in Santa Cruz. Takao is researching the peace work of Earle and Akie Reynolds, also long-time Santa Cruz residents and Quaker peace activists.

May 20, 7:00p.m.: Nonviolence Resistance and the Current Crisis in Mexico, with Pietro Ameglio, at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz.  Dessert and coffee will be served starting at 7:00p.m.; Presentation 7:30p.m.  For more info, contact Anita Heckman at (831) 423-1626×101.

Who is Pietro Ameglio? Pietro Ameglio of Mexico has worked for more than two decades promoting active nonviolence in Latin America. A university lecturer, popular educator and author of a book on Gandhian nonviolence, Pietro is a key figure in an emerging nonviolence movement in Mexico, offering new hope against uncontrolled drug violence and increasing militarization. He was one of the founders of the Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ) in Mexico. SERPAJ is a Latin American organization working in 10 countries to promote human rights, social justice and nonviolent culture and struggle. Pietro founded the group Serpaj Morelos, which was honored with the Pfeffer International Peace Prize in 2008.  Pietro has a deep, faith-based commitment to social justice and a deep grasp of Gandhian nonviolence.

Over the past four years, the drug violence in Mexico has claimed the lives of close to 40,000 people. In January 2011, Pietro played a key role in a public demonstration and fast in Juarez, the most violent city in Mexico. He wrote:

“We are in the midst of a tragic war not of our making – the Mexican government declared war against organized crime, and we know that violence generates violence. The saying of Gandhi is more than ever applicable here: ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.’”

Several groups are coordinating events throughout the Bay Area to raise public awareness and support for nonviolence efforts in Mexico. Pietro’s engagements currently include:

May 14, 7 p.m.: IF Latin America Dinner, a fund raising event for Pietro’s work. 160 Sunflower Lane, Watsonville. For reservations or more information, email if.officemgr(at)gmail.com

May 16, 6 pm: Presentation at Monterey Institute for International Studies. For information please contact Pushpa Iyer at (831) 647-7104 or pushpa.iyer(at)miis.edu

May 17 and 18: Presentations in San Francisco (with Global Exchange and Fellowship of Reconciliation) and East Bay (with Fellowship of Reconciliation and Metta Center for Nonviolence) : venues and times TBA. For more information contact John Lindsay-Poland at johnpl(at)forusa.org

May 19, 7 pm: Short Brown Beret Meeting, 8 pm presentation by Pietro: Presentation at Watsonville Brown Berets Bike Shack. Contact Sandino Gomez at sandinista(at)freakreadio.org

May 20, 7 pm: Presentation at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz.   Dessert and coffee will be served. Contact Anita Heckman at (831) 423-1626.

The Bay Area groups coordinating Pietro Ameglio’s events include IF and the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz; Fellowship of Reconciliation and Global Exchange in San Francisco; and the Metta Center for Nonviolence

CLICK HERE for a media advisory about the days events!

Title: Press conference: Halt Cuts to Education and Social Services!

Location: Bay Tree Bookstore, UCSC. Date: Thursday, May 19, 12:00 noon

Description: Please join us for a press event at UC Santa Cruz on Thursday, May 19th at noon at the Bay Tree Bookstore.

This is one of dozens events that have been coordinated across the state over the last several weeks calling for an extension of current state revenues and a halt to further cuts to education and social services. The State has already made close to $13 billion in cuts, and if state legislators do not move to extend current revenues the state would have to cut an addition $13 billion.

In addition to the press event we will have laptops available to send a message directly to your legislator calling for an end to cuts to education. Feel free to contact Jared Rivera with any questions at jrivera@seiucal.org.

By Mike Rotkin
Appeared in the 5/1/11 edition of the Santa Cruz Sentinel

———–

An opinion piece that appeared in the Sentinel two Sundays ago raises concerns about “an undercurrent of anti-Semitism in Santa Cruz.” The author explicitly targets the Resource Center for Nonviolence RCNV as contributing to this ostensible problem.

Let me begin by saying that I am not affiliated with the RCNV. I have attended several of their events over the years, occasionally donated money to them, and am friends with several of their staff. I also am Jewish, and although not a religious person, I have deep cultural roots in the Jewish community. Members of my family were exterminated in the Holocaust, my father was a leader in the Jewish community in Washington, D.C., and I identify as a Jew. As someone who grew up in a community where we were the only Jewish family among 300 households, I know a little about anti-Semitism.

I also wish that everyone commenting on the situation in the Middle East offered views that were balanced, offered only accurate information, and, perhaps most importantly to me, did not make the mistake of conflating their views on Israel with Jews in general. However, there are several fundamental problems with this opinion piece.

First, several of the events and individuals that are criticized in the piece have no relationship to the RCNV. There is not room in the brief space of my response to name every inaccuracy I found, but a few examples: The letters about Helen Thomas, whatever their merit, were written by individuals who have no relationship to the RCNV, its programs or staff. The one referenced letter that was written by someone who volunteers at the RCNV, but does not work there or speak for the center, raised questions about a foreign worker rather than Palestinians being responsible for the murder of a Jewish family in the West Bank. It is not anti-Semitic to observe that not every Jewish family murdered in the West Bank must have been killed by Palestinians. This is, apparently, one of the leads being followed by Israeli police.

Scott Kennedy is criticized for attending a meeting at the U.N. with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the author fails to point out that it was not to support Ahmadinejad’s frequently insane comments, but rather to ask critical questions about Iran’s nuclear program, treatment of women and minorities, and other human rights abuses.

The writer describes a discussion group on the Middle East sponsored by the RCNV in which he had participated and then attributes anti-Semitic quotes to several unnamed participants. As a result of little investigation, I found that nobody else who participated in the group can remember these quotes or anything like them being expressed.

The article criticizes the RCNV for sponsoring two speakers whom the author feels are outside the boundaries of civil and rational discourse. One of them, about whom I happen to share the author’s assessment, Imam Abdul Malik, who claims Jews bombed the World Trade Center, was not sponsored or in any way supported or endorsed by the RCNV.

The other, Norman Finkelstein, a serious scholar, gave a talk that I attended. I was extremely impressed with his documentation of all of his arguments. I felt that many in the audience who had come expecting to gather evidence of an irrational, “self-hating Jew” were pleasantly surprised to hear cogent and persuasive arguments about non-democratic elements of Israeli society and what Finkelstein feels is a self-defeating foreign policy for both Israel and the United States.

The author of this opinion piece has every right to express his views, but he makes exactly the mistake that he urges others to avoid — conflating any criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. I am glad that the RCNV continues to encourage critical discussion and activism about the Middle East, and I see no evidence that they have contributed to anti-Semitism or any other breach of reasonable civil discourse in their work.

Mike Rotkin is a former five-time mayor of Santa Cruz.