[pjw] RSVP/ PJW UPDATE: Our July newsletter & July 24 quarterly meeting

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello PJW supporters

Below is the text of the July 1 PJW UPDATE, our twice-a-year newsletter 
that many of you should have received via snail mail recently.

Our summer quarterly meeting is coming up two weeks from this Saturday-- 
on July 24 via conference call. Please write back if you would like the 
call in information. Let us know if calling long distance is a barrier; 
our conference line also allows computer access similar to Zoom.

People in our project groups, general PJW members/supporter and the board 
meet at these events to keep up to date. We begin with an 
informal discussion at noon with a meeting from 12:30-2:15 PM.

You can find the laid out version online
  http://www.pjw.info/supporters/pjwupdate0721.pdf .

It has been password protected with the phrase
GeoPeace
(note the capital letters).

Please let us know if you have any questions, and if you plan to attend 
the meeting.

Thanks!

dan handelman
secretary
peace and justice works


Peace and Justice Works UPDATE July 1, 2021

Peace and Justice Works members, volunteers, and supporters:

Join us for the
PJW SUMMER QUARTERLY MEETING
Saturday, July 24, 2021 
12 noon (conversation); 12:30 PM (meeting)
*Conference call- contact us for info*

We welcome you to join Peace and Justice Works for our 30th (!) summer 
quarterly meeting on Saturday, July 24. Due to the still-unstable COVID 
pandemic, we will hold this meeting as a conference call. We're hoping our 
fall meeting will be in person! We will start with casual conversation at 
12 noon (eat lunch "together apart" if you like), followed by the business 
meeting from 12:30-2:15 PM. Please RSVP to get the conference call 
information.

The proposed agenda includes:

--updates on Affinity Group work (Copwatch, Iraq, other);

--financial and office update, fund-raising, volunteer outreach;

--set Fall Quarterly meeting.

Membership is not required to attend a quarterly meeting... call in and 
find out what we're up to!

Iraq Affinity Group Hosts

Friday Rallies, David Swanson, Looks to August/September Events

The Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group (IAG) continues to educate 
around US foreign policies connected to military violence. Since late 
March 2020, we've continued to be the hosts of the weekly Friday Rally for 
Peace and Justice at 5 PM at SW Yamhill and Broadway, originated by 
Portland Peaceful Response Coalition in November 2001. We used the Friday 
rallies for special events around the 18th anniversary of the US invasion 
of Iraq in March and the strange coalescence of US May Day "big ticket" 
items on April 30.

On June 24, we hosted a livestream event with World BEYOND War Executive 
Director David Swanson. He talked about how military madness might be 
leading us to another World War, the dangers of drones, and connections 
between militarism and climate change. Watch the video at 
https://youtube.com/peaceandjusticeworks.

The IAG is supporting this year's Hiroshima/Nagasaki memorial, which is 
slated to be mostly an online event on Friday, August 6 at 6 PM. Current 
plans include having a handful of people downtown at the Japanese American 
Historical Plaza to transmit this sacred annual remembrance to people 
watching on their devices. More at oregonpsr.org. We're also making plans 
to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, including a special Friday Rally on 
September 10. We will share details on email and the web; to join our 
email list, write to iraq at pjw.info.

In big war and peace news, the US will remove most of its troops from 
Afghanistan this summer. Donald Trump's deadline of May 1 was set back to 
September 11 by Joe Biden, who in late June said he was leaving over 25% 
of the troops to "guard the US embassy." There are also negotiations for 
the US to remove its remaining 2500 troops from Iraq. IAG meetings have 
moved to the Tuesday between the 9th and 15th of each month-- please join 
us!

Portland Copwatch Continues Campaigns Against Police Spying, For 
Accountability

Our police accountability project group Portland Copwatch (PCW) continues 
its work analyzing and critiquing police actions and policies, as the 
ongoing movement for Black Lives has made some progress after the 2020 
uprisings but much remains to be done. The City of Portland was found out 
of compliance with the 2012 US Department of Justice Settlement Agreement 
calling for them to use less force. PCW continues to have a "eat at the 
table" with the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and 
Police Reform. A hearing on the case is expected in federal court in 
August.

PCW has also continued working with community allies on monitoring the 
City's negotiations with the Portland Police Association over their 
collective bargaining contract, which began in January. In June, the PPA 
announced they were done with alternating between private and public 
meetings and took the process into closed-door mediation. We also play a 
key role in coordinating the campaign against the Bureau's cooperation 
with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. Several groups held a live 
watch party during the Annual Report on the JTTF held in January. For more 
info, see http://www.portlandcopwatch.org.

While continuing to monitor the current oversight system (the 
"Independent" Police Review and its Citizen Review Committee), PCW has 
been given a seat on the City's 20-person Commission to design the new 
system voted into existence last November. The original timeline predicted 
the new Board would be in place by mid-2022; with the Commission required 
to work for 18 months, it's more likely to start up in mid-2023.

There are too many developments to cover here; for more on police issues 
read our thrice-a-year newsletter, the People's Police Report. Back issues 
are on the website. The September issue will report on the officer 
indicted for hitting a protestor in the head and the subsequent 
resignation of the entire Rapid Response Team. While we haven't been out 
copwatching during the pandemic, we continue to take misconduct reports by 
text or voicemail on our incident report line (503-321-5120).

Local, National and International Peace-- It's All Connected

During the May bombings which took the lives of 10 times more Palestinians 
than Israelis, the people of Palestine expressed that support had 
increased in part due to the racial justice movement sparked by the 
Minneapolis Police murder of George Floyd. Connecting local and 
international violence used to enforce state power is what PJW is all 
about. Each week at the Friday rally we to talk about US foreign policy, 
including Israel/Palestine, local police and how money spent on militarism 
could be used to fund human needs and fix the environment.

Now in our 30th year, we continue to make this all-volunteer organization 
run on a relatively small budget, now close to $15,000 a year. If you are 
able, please donate to help us keep doing our work. Mail a check/money 
order to PO Box 42456/Portland, OR 97242 or donate online via Network for 
Good, where you can also set up recurring donations. You can also become a 
voting member by donating a $20-45 sliding scale fee, or give 4 hours of 
volunteer time per year flagged for membership. Most of the Board has been 
in the office volunteering during the pandemic to keep the organization 
humming. As restrictions lift, we likely will have more volunteer 
opportunities, so let us know if you want to help; you can call or text 
the office at 503-236-3065.

In the meantime, spread the word that we don't want our elected leaders 
using violence to resolve conflicts. Thanks for all you do for a better 
world!