1. Monday, March 6, 6 p.m., monthly meeting of Columbia Peace Coalition, Peace Nook. Please join us to add your input and help shape our local efforts; 

 

2. Tuesday, March 7, “Forum Venezuela,” 7 p.m, Ellis Library Auditorium on the MU Campus, screening of the award-winning documentary "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," which offers a first hand look at the aborted coup that attempted to unseat Venezuela's democratically elected president Hugo Chavez, followed by a panel discussion;

 

3. Monday, March 6, at 7:30 pm, "Colombia--The Other War for Oil". Daniel Kovalik, a labor lawyer for the United Steelworkers who's done extensive legal and human rights work in Colombia, will speak in the Reynolds Alumni Center Ballroom I; 

 

4. Buy Citgo gas, support Venezuela and democracy in South America. A reminder of the national buy-cott;

 

5. Sunday, March 19th "Stop the War—Exit Now!", 2 p.m. rally, Courthouse Square, downtown Columbia (rain site: Boone Commission Chambers). Make your commitment today;

6. Showing appreciation for Noam Chomsky. Our friend Ibtisam Barakat is trying to coordinate expressions of appreciation that can be passed on to Prof. Chomsky, who delivered a compelling critique of U.S. foreign policy and its purported campaign for democracy abroad. You are welcome to share your thoughts of thanks for the work.

 

 

For items 2-9 above, see further details below…..   

 

2) Forum Venezuela—Tuesday, March 7.  The Columbia Peace Coalition is holding an educational forum on the situation in Venezuela 7 p.m., next Tuesday in Ellis Library Auditorium on the MU Campus. This event will feature a screening of the award-winning documentary "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," which offers a first hand look at the aborted coup that attempted to unseat Venezuela's democratically elected president Hugo Chavez. Following this there will be a panel discussion led by Tony Pecinovsky, Kaveh Razani and Daniel Soetaert who recently attended the World Youth Festival in Venezuela.

 

Tony Pecinovsky and Kaveh Razani will also be guests on PW Director Mark Haim's Evening Edition from 6-7 p.m. that evening on 89.5 KOPN.

 

3) Colombia—“The Other War for Oil”:  The MU Peace Studies Program is hosting Daniel Kovalik, a labor lawyer for the United Steelworkers who's done extensive legal and human rights work in Colombia. He will be giving a talk Monday, March 6, at 7:30 pm in the Reynolds Alumni Center Ballroom I. 

 

More on Colombia and Daniel Kovalik:

Union lawsuit against Coke marks unusual effort to aid labor in Colombia

(April 29, 2003, article by Jeffrey Cohan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Staff Writer)

 

On Dec. 5, 1996, paramilitary gunmen entered a Coca-Cola bottling plant in northwestern Colombia and asked for 36-year-old Isidro Gil, a labor union leader who was trying to win a contract for the workers there.

 

They found him. Then they shot him seven times.

 

Javier Correa, left, president of Colombia's Sinaltrainal labor union, and Daniel Kovalik, an attorney for the United Steelworkers of America, during their meeting earlier this month. (Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette)

 

Seven years later, a Pittsburgh labor lawyer is representing Gil's estate and suing two of the Coca-Cola Co.'s Colombian bottlers in an American court seeking redress.

 

It's a novel attempt to bring the American justice system to bear on human rights violators in Colombia, where more than 1,800 union leaders have been murdered over the past dozen years.

 

It's also an attention-getting effort to punish Coke, which was dismissed as a defendant March 31, and put multinational corporations on notice that they could be dragged into U.S. courts if they appear to condone violence to break unions in the developing world.

 

"We view the lawsuit as quite crucial to the struggle to bring peace to Colombia," said Daniel Kovalik, an attorney for the United Steelworkers of America, which has lent his services to the plaintiffs' legal team.

 

Kovalik and his clients, all affiliated with Colombia's Sinaltrainal labor union, got a taste of both victory and defeat in a March 31 ruling in the case, which is being heard in Miami.

 

Federal Judge Jose E. Martinez allowed the case to go forward against two Coca-Cola bottlers: Bebidas y Alimentos and Panamerican Beverages, but not against Coke itself, saying the company does not set labor policies at independently owned bottling plants. Kovalik's team has asked Martinez to reconsider. So have the bottlers, who want the case thrown out altogether.

 

The lawsuit alleges that Bebidas y Alimentos conspired with a right-wing paramilitary army to murder Gil and break the Sinaltrainal union at the company's bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia. It says the plant operates "under the control and authority" of Coca-Cola.

 

A Coca-Cola spokeswoman declined comment. But the company calls the allegations "false" and "baseless" on its Web site, which goes on to say, "Because Colombia is in such turmoil, the Coca-Cola Co. and its local bottling partners have prioritized the safety and security of all employees and labor union officials."

 

4) . Buy Citgo gas: Support Venezuela and democracy in South America. It’s been several months since the Mid-MO FOR sent out word last about Citgo, so we thought it merited sending out a copy of this reminder, recently forwarded to us…

Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor.¹ The money you pay to Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela - not Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. "Citgo is not just another oil company," says Citgo CEO Felix Rodriguez. "With Venezuela's state oil company, of which we are a subsidiary, we share a broad social mission."

And this winter Citgo is helping out less fortunate U.S. citizens too. You already may have seen the headlines about how Citgo, unlike every other oil company in the U.S., is making cut-rate heating oil available to struggling families in the Northeast. The Energy Department predicts a nearly 26 percent jump in heating costs this winter compared with last year,² and despite a year of record oil company profits, the country's heating oil assistance fund is falling behind.³

Citgo has stepped in to help out. They're selling heating oil at discounted rates to poorer communities in Massachusetts, Chicago, the Bronx, NY, and working on deals to keep low-income homes in Rhode Island and Vermont warm, too. So while you're out on the road this month, you can help some fellow Americans in this nation and elsewhere by filling your tank with Venezuelan gas. Here's a link to find the nearest one of the 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the U.S.:

Find the Citgo station closest to your home address.

Naturally, if you can get where you're going without a car, do so. And we'll continue to work for a country with more renewable energy options. Check out the following for more information…

¹ Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!  

² "Poor get chilly federal reception," USA Today, 12/15/2005. 

³ "OUT IN THE COLD: How Much LIHEAP Funding Will Be Needed to Protect Beneficiaries from Rising Energy Prices?" Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.  

 

5) "Stop the War—Exit Now!" Rally, 2 p.m., Sunday, March 19^th, Courthouse Sq. in downtown Columbia (rain site: Boone Commission Chambers).

 

The Columbia Peace Coalition is joining peace groups across the nation holding events to mark the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion and call for an end to the war. This is a real opportunity to make a powerful statement by demonstrating the breadth and depth of our opposition to the war. The Peace Coalition has set a goal of getting at least 500 people out to this event. If 1179 tickets to see Noam Chomsky were gone in just two and a half days, it seem like our community has at least this many people who care enough about ending the war to spend an hour or an hour and a half at a rally.

 

Make your commitment today! We are asking each of you to attend. Moreover, we are asking each of you to become an organizer, inviting friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, fellow students, etc., to join you in attending. You can either sign up via our website by clicking the link   http://peaceworks.missouri.org/StoptheWarExitNowCommitForm.html

 

Other Ways to help out.  We are currently working to paint 500 signs, 250 "Stop the War" and 250 "Exit Now." We have stencils, poster board, paint and brushes. We need more volunteers to help. We also have more than 2,000 leaflets inviting folks to come out on 3/19 printed for distribution. We invite you to stop by the Peace Nook and pick up a stack to distribute at your house of worship, at school, at your workplace, to friends, etc. We have plenty to share and will gladly print more if needed. Call the Nook at 875-0539 for more information.

 

 

 6) Showing Appreciation for Noam Chomsky

 

Our friend Ibtisam Barakat has contacted us looking for expressions of appreciation that can be passed on to Prof. Noam Chomsky. She has asked us to pass this on to all on our list who saw Chomsky or heard his talk on the radio, saying in part:

 

You can write whatever you like. Some have suggested, however, to tell him a few words about how his words, presence, brave thinking, or his life of activism, has moved, touched, or inspired you.. Perhaps the more personal your words, the better.. from one human being to another.. not from an ordinary person to an icon or anything like that.. just from one person fighting for liberation of our minds and hearts and the healing of the world, to another who does the same..  And please include your first and last names under your paragraph of appreciation.

 

Please send your Chomsky appreciation to me right away while Chomsky's words are fresh in your memory..... To make this project doable, I would like to set the date of 3/15 as the last day for completing this tiny project. Kindly help me turn this into a reality..

 

I thank you, and I wish you a beautiful day.   Ibtisam Barakat e-mail to   ibarakat@coin.org