Claudia Lefko
The Claudia Lefko exhibit opening has been postponed. The exhibit was shipped out on the 11th and should arrive sometime soon, but no confirmed date is set. Her lecture is still to be on the scheduled date as planned, however.

Save the Arctic Visit savethearctic.com, a link just recently added to the big list in the left column of the page. This page is devoted to the preservation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, which is continually being threatened by pushes for oil drilling in the Senate.

AU Minutes for February 3
In case you've lost your email containing the latest AU minutes, I will start uploading the minutes to the website in plain text format. Here are the minutes for February 3rd: Feb 3 2002 minutes.

Claudia Lefko
AU is bringing Claudia Lefko to speak on her experience initiating an art exchange between preschool students from the US and children in Iraq. Her talk will also cover the sanctions on Iraq, her experience as a teacher and activist, and more. An exhibit of work from children who participated in the art exchange will be held in the Horn Gallery. The exhibit will have its opening from 5:00-7:00pm on Monday, February 11th and will continue to be in the Horn until February 22. Claudia Lefko's lecture will be held in Higley Auditorium on Monday, February 18th at 7:30.

Art Exchange
The Kenyon student group Snack Pack, which is dedicated to providing after-school activities to children in Mt. Vernon every week, has gathered drawings from several students who attend the weekly program and is collaborating with AU and Claudia Lefko to participate in another art exchange with children from Iraq.

John Byrd
Around 20 students from Kenyon went to a Columbus rally in front of Governor Taft's house to call for clemency for John Byrd. John Byrd is accused of having killed a convenience store clerk despite much evidence that points to another man--John Brewer--who has repeatedly signed affadavits claiming responsibility for the murder. For more detailed information on the Byrd case, check out the following websites:
·http://www.state.oh.us/opd/byrd/john.htm
·http://www.otse.org/ohioinfo.html

New Yahoogroup
If you haven't already done so, sign on to the new AU Yahoogroup by filling in the blank in the left column with your email address. Alternately, you can send an email to activistsunited-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. In either case, you will afterward be sent a confirmation email to which you must reply in order to finalize your subscription to the group. Our intent in using a Yahoogroup is to avoid the difficulties of an ever-changing dis-list and having to email to a number of email addresses. The Yahoogroup allows emailing of articles and any other emails to only one address, and all who are subscribed to it will thus receive the email. Over time the current dis-list will be phased out, but we will still continue to use it for some time.

Philadelphia Cop at Mumia Rally (click to enlarge)

Six Kenyon students recently traveled to Philadelphia to participate in a march and rally for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is "celebrating" twenty years of imprisonment on Pennsylvania's death row. Several French nationals, including a senator, the deputy mayor of Paris, a Paris city councilperson, and several mayors of smaller cities attended and spoke at the event. Also present was the daughter of revolutionary writer Frantz Fanon. Mumia was recently awarded honorary citizenship of Paris, an honor last bestowed upon Pablo Picasso thirty years ago.

The peaceful march turned violent when, according to police, a protester punched a bystander. No witnesses have corroborated this story, and in fact many witnesses claimed that the bystander instigated the physical confrontation and the protester did not respond with violence. In any event, police attacked the march and much chaos ensued. Above is a photo of the confrontation that started the melee - notice that the central police officer is pointing a revolver at the crowd of observers. Witnesses say he held the gun to the protester's head and then pointed it 180 degrees around the crowd. The officer on the left is making a fist with one hand while holding the protester (whose hands are raised in surrender) by the hair.

The entire event was alarming and disappointing. Eight protesters were arrested and two were hospitalized, but no Kenyon students were injured or arrested. Once our photos come back, we'll make them available to the entire campus. Thank you for your concern.

More info is available at refuse and resist, and these two iacenter websites: maj_1201photos and maj 1201. (We have not been able to locate the one article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer.)

Ok, so I (Pablo) will take personal responsibility for the lateness of this update. Sorry. So here's what AU's up to lately:

Pam Africa: ROSSE HALL | 7PM | NOV 6 | 2001
Come see Pam Africa, member of the MOVE organization, speak about various issues. MOVE was a group which began in the early 70's in Philadelphia, and held a philosophy which advocated revolution, respect for life, natural living, and open criticism of the system. The police continually harassed MOVE members, and held the house under siege in 1978 and in 1985, when the house was bombed by a police helicopter. Check out our Website of the Week in the left column for more information about MOVE. We will also soon have a display in Olin Library to give even more information.

Several AU members recently went to a rally in Cincinnati on Oct. 22 for the National Day of Protest against Police Brutality. We have various recordings of speakings and the march itself, some of which may be put up on this site eventually.

AU is currently working on certain structural issues to be taken care of once all of our Pam Africa work is done. Part of this involves attempting to make a working discussion-based mailing list for AU members to speak with each other throughout the week and prepare for meetings ahead of time. This is also part of a larger effort to make sure AU is kept decentralized and reflects the opinions and actions of all members of the group as best it can.

Our meetings are still on Sunday nights at 9:15 at the Horn Gallery. Anyone with any interest is welcome.

Here are some pictures from the anti-FTAA rally we attended in Columbus on April 20th (click the thumbnails for the larger versions):

AU is joining other activist groups from around Ohio in Columbus for a protest along high street. For more information on this protest, check out stopftaa.org a20.org.

AU is attending an anti-death penalty rally in Columbus, Ohio this Saturday from 3:00-5:00 pm. Sponsored by Ohioans To Stop Executions this rally is described at protest.net:
Save a Life - J. D. Scott - the first African American man to be executied in Ohio Since Capital punishment was re-instated! Scheduled to be executed April 17, 2001. The issue of RACE and the Death Penalty in Ohio. Help us speak out against the death penalty. Bring bullhorns and signs.

We are meeting on Saturday. Anyone who needs a ride should email hookj@kenyon.edu.

Author of Corporations are Gonna Get Your Momma to Speak at Kenyon.

Kevin Danaher's Latest Book

Global Exchange promises that co-founder Danaher will offer grassroots ways to respond to the global economic forces. Kevin not only provides a detailed analysis of what is wrong, but he also gives inspiring examples of what we can do to make things right. As part of Global Exchange's continuing efforts to plug people into ongoing activist work, Kevin will bring books and literature related to the talks. Kevin is also very experienced at media interviews and will be available to do as many as requested. Kevin is offering any combination of the following three topics:

1.      Fifty Years is Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and the IMF: Exploring the themes of Kevin's book, this talk argues how the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, by controlling hundreds of billions of dollars and setting the policy agenda in developing countries, keep developing economies open to corporate penetration, but promote policies that destroy the environment and undermine the standard of living for the majority.
2.      Corporations are Gonna Get Your Mama: Globalization and the Downsizing of the American Dream: Based on Kevin's latest book, this talk focuses on the negative effects of globalization in the US, explaining how corporate globalization is exporting US jobs, bankrupting our government, undermining democratic principles, and destroying our environment.
3.      Corporate Accountability and the Alternative Economy: how corporate globalization is driven by the need to turn nature into money and find the cheapest labor. As an alternative, grassroots globalization is being built by community-based organizations linking across their boundaries.

Check out his bio at the global exchange website.

Black Panther Party Founder Bobby Seale will be speaking in Rosse Hall at 7:00 PM on February 20, 2001.

Bobby Seale

In his own words, "I'm Bobby Seale. The old cripple-foot Revolutionary Humanist. For the younger generation, many older friends say to me, and will tell you, that I'm some kind of sixties Black Panther ICON! No, No! I'm not a "Panther" sports figure. That's right! I'm the same Bobby Seale who was the founding Chairman of the Black Panther Party [BPP] in October 1966. The National organizer of 5,000 plus people in the BPP chapters and branches across the USA while my buddy, the other co-founder, Huey P. Newton, sit in jail as a political prisoner.

In sixties protest movement history [that most profound 20th century era], I am the same guy who cursed out Judge, Julius Hoffman for six weeks, for violating my sixth amendment rights [my Lawyer was in the hospital], in the Federal court room in 1969, at the GREAT CHICAGO EIGHT CONSPIRACY TRIAL. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Reubin joyfully said, to be indicted in that case "...is the academy award of protest." It was! I am the guy with the TEN POINT PROGRAM sixties organization. Huey and I picked up guns, legally, for self defense. Why? Because those avericious-racist bastards, who we use to call "...the pig power structure!" were then brutalizing and murdering peaceful demonstrators, Black and White, Native Americans, Asian, Chicano and other Hispanic peoples. Many were killed. 

For Native Americans, et., al, that was nothing new. In a five year period there were more than two thousand arrest of BPP MEMBERS across the USA. Did you know we won over ninety-five percent of all our political courtroom cases. No one tells you these and a thousand other facts. That's why I created this site. What was the real BPP-sixties movement about beyond the lies and distortions? The coalition politics? The shoot outs? The massive demonstrations, political trials and political campaigns? Who was Angela Davis, the Chicago Seven, The New York 21, Fred Hampton & Mark Clark,  Stew & Judy Albert of  People's PARK at UC Berkeley, Kathleen Cleaver and her former husband Eldridge Cleaver who just died may 1st 1998? Who are and how many sixties-protest movement political prisoners are there today, still incarcerated?"

Take the Black Panther Photo tour at BobbySeale.com.