Peace/Justice Events/Actions in Helena, November 13 – November 23...  FRIDAY, November 15, 5:30pm: Rolling Jubilee - Debt Cancellation Announcement/Celebration by Strike Debt Helena MT

[Francis Kromkowski]

 

v FRIDAY, November 15, 5:30pm: Rolling Jubilee - Debt Cancellation Announcement by Strike Debt Helena MT – You are Invited to a Celebration with Cake and Dialogue  at Plymouth Congregational Church, corner of Winnie & Oakes.  

Sponsored by Strike Debt Helena MT -- a Helena Economic Justice Group Working on Debt – in cooperation with the Rolling Jubilee Project of the national Strike Debt Organization, http://strikedebt.org/.

Strike Debt Helena MT: “Even those of us who don't have staggering debt are still affected and deeply moved by the injustices and suffering of our sisters and brothers in deep debt due to the unfair and exploitative practices of Wall Street banks and greedy corporations. Our Strike Debt work in Helena can help to end this and begin a new day.”

Strike Debt Helena MT is a Helena grassroots action group founded in the spring of 2013, working for economic justice and debt solutions for the 99%, bringing people together to promote creative community remedies for the debt problems we face as individuals, families, and as a community.  Contact: Phone: 406-459-1348.  Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Strike-Debt-Helena-MT-Helena-Economic-Justice-Group-Working-on-Debt/181532472002490) E-mail: strikedeb...@gmail.com. Strike Debt Helena MT is a local Chapter of Strike Debt: and is an offshoot of Occupy Helena.

Strike Debt’s Rolling Jubilee project announces that it has just abolished $13.5 million in medical debt - http://strikedebt.org/rjupdate3 Celebrations on November 15th To celebrate the latest round of the jubilee debt cancellations, we’re holding events in several cities on or around this Friday, November 15th, the one year anniversary of the Rolling Jubilee.  Join your friends and neighbors in these areas: Helena, Montana—November 15 New York—November 15 Austin—November 15 Portland, Oregon - Nov 23rd San Francisco - Nov 23rd Thousands of people are better off today Strike Debt is pleased to announce that, with your participation, we have purchased and abolished $13.5 million in medical debt, affecting 2,693 individuals across 45 states and Puerto Rico. These debts ranged from $50 to over $200,000, including several accounts over $100K. These individuals will no longer have to pay this debt.  To date, the Rolling Jubilee has raised over $600,000 and abolished $14.7 million in debt across four separate purchases.  Every penny spent has gone towards the process of buying and abolishing debt. Read Rolling Jubilee’s accounting report for details. Find your town on these maps of where the Rolling Jubilee just abolished medical debts (Map one and Map two) What’s next? The Rolling Jubilee is a tactic for raising awareness of the fact that debts are sold for pennies on the dollar on the secondary market. This means that lenders are perfectly willing to write your debts off; they’re just not willing to write them off to you. Simply buying more debt is not going to solve the problem. For ways you can take action against debt, look at our new, regularly updated list of resources: http://strikedebt.org/act The solution is collective action Debt is so devastating because it is treated as an individual burden. As the saying goes: "If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem." If we band together and force them to deal with us as a group, rather than as individuals, we’re the ones who have the power. Helping to build that collective strength is the primary goal of Strike Debt. If you'd like to help, email in...@strikedebt.org Join us as we build new forms of collective power and create a world where our debts are to our friends, our families, and our communities, not Wall Street. Spread the word on social media - http://rollingjubilee.org/#tweet   Join Strike Debt Helena in its 2nd SUNDAY DEBT AND JUSTICE DIALOGUES – Gatherings began November 10th – Next: December 8, January 12 -- 9:15AM, Red Atlas coffee shop, Lundy Center on Euclid Avenue Strike Debt Helena MT (a Helena Economic Justice Group Working on Debt) held Debt Crisis Workshops in Helena in August (8/22/13: Housing Debt), September (9/19/13: Student Debt), and October (10/10/113: Medical Debt). Strike Debt Helena MT began a series of 2nd Sunday Debt and Justice Dialogues on November 10 –- informal, old-fashioned face-to-face gatherings in which we can all gladly listen and gladly speak. The goal of the 2nd Sunday Debt and Justice Dialogues will be offering moral support, self-help resources we have collected for various types of debt, continued networking, dialogue on current concerns, and of course work on possible solutions. Please join us for the fun. Yes, the debt resistance/economic justice movement is fun! You are not alone. You are not a loan! We ARE joining together.

Philip Berrigan:

"Change your heart, your life, your community, the system -- in that order."

Berrigan's answer to a question -- "How do we change the world?" -- put to him in 1976 when he came to Helena. http://www.jonahhouse.org/archive/phil.htm

v TODAY: November 13, 7pm: Film -- A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet at Helena College Lecture Hall, Room 125, 1115 North Roberts Street

The Northern Plains Resource Council (NPRC, www.northernplains.org

www.northernplains.org ) and the Montana Environmental Information Center (MEIC, www.meic.org are sponsoring a free screening of "A Fierce Green Fire," a film that explores the history of environmental Activism. 

·        “A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet comes from fiilmmaker Mark Kitchell, and is narrated by Robert Redford, Ashley Judd, Van Jones, Isabel Allende, and Meryl Streep. The film tells vivid stories of grassroots and global activism spanning five decades -- from halting dams in the Grand Canyon to battling 20,000 tons of toxic waste a Love Canal; from Greenpeace saving the whales to Chico Mendes and the rubbertappers saving the Amazon; from climate change to the promise of transforming our civilization.

·        A discussion will precede the film, and MEIC and NPRC staff will be present. A trailer is online at <http://www.afiercegreenfire.com/trailer.html>

·        You can RSVP on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/events/221525758016297/

Main Sponsors: Northern Plains Resource Council and Montana Environmental Information Center.  Co-Sponsors: Montana Conservation Voters Education Fund, Montana Audubon, AERO- Alternative Energy Resources Organization, Montana Sierra Club

v SATURDAY, November 16, 4:00 to 5:30: Dances of Universal Peace at Covenant  Methodist Church, 2330 East Broadway

·        Soup and fellowship afterward.

·        All dances taught; many traditions represented:  Christian, Buddhist,

Islamic, Universal

·        Questions:  Call Charlotte 449-2993

 

v Comments are due by November 18: This is YOUR chance! No coal exports! Say NO to Arch Coal's Export Facility in Washington State! Action Request from the Montana Environmental Information Center (MEIC, www.meic.org).

Arch Coal has submitted an application in the State of Washington for a permit to build a massive coal export facility, and we need your help to convince Washington to say NO!

St. Louis, Missouri-based Arch Coal wants to strip mine the tranquil Otter Creek valley in Montana and ship the coal to China. For this scheme to work, Arch needs to receive a permit to build a coal port shipping facility in Longview, Washington. This is your official chance to say HELL NO to Arch Coal’s dirty coal port.
 

 

As the United States transitions from dirty coal plants to clean and renewable energy sources, coal companies have decided to export coal to Asian markets in order to maintain their profits. More west coast coal ports are essential for companies like Arch Coal to export to countries like China and Korea.
 
Exporting Montana’s coal will cause air and water pollution, destruction of wildlife habitat, and traffic congestion and public safety concerns from increased train traffic. It will require the condemnation of private property to build the Tongue River Railroad, and most importantly, it will escalate climate change. We already have clean, affordable, and renewable alternatives that create thousands of jobs across Montana. We don’t need this destructive project.

Please take action TODAY, and say NO to Arch Coal’s dirty coal port!

 

Want to comment directly? You can send comments to comm...@millenniumbulkeiswa.gov, and include “Docket number 2013-19738: Comment on scope of EIS for Millennium Bulk Terminals Longview LLC Coal Export Terminal” in the subject line. You can find more information on the EIS process here. 
 

Thank you for all that you do to fight climate change!

MEIC is a nonprofit environmental advocate for clean water and a healthy environment for all Montanans. It was founded in 1973 to protect and restore Montana's natural environment. Visit our website at www.meic.org.

 

v THURSDAY, November 21, 7pm: Global Industrial Capitalism and Threats to the Environment -- A talk by David Barsamian: Founder and Director of Alternative Radio, the independent weekly audio series based in Boulder, Colorado.

Sponsors:  Helena Service for Peace and Justice and Strike Debt Helena MT

Location: St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 512 Logan

Info: E-mail Helena...@gamil.com or call 443-0843.

 

Barsamian writes: “Sure we have Earth Day, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Environmental Protection Agency. Still, the

threat to our environment is acute and growing. The majority of solutions on offer, from driving a hybrid, to recycling plastic, to using efficient light bulbs, focus on individual lifestyle choices of mostly privileged people. But the scale of the crisis requires a far deeper and fundamental transformation. As global warming accelerates, carbon-fueled industrial capitalism is systemically incapable of making the necessary radical changes to protect the planet. Its insatiable appetite for profits precludes it from doing so. It is time to think about a different economic

system.

 

David Barsamian is the award-winning founder and director of Alternative Radio, the independent weekly audio series based in Boulder, Colorado. One of America's most wide-ranging and respected independent journalists, David Barsamian has altered the media landscape with his radio programs and books with Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, Howard Zinn, Edward Said, Arundhati Roy and other s. His most recent books are Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism with Richard Wolff and Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and The New Challenges to U.S. Empire with Noam Chomsky. He is winner of the Media Education Award, the ACLU's Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism, and the Cultural Freedom

Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. The Institute for Alternative Journalism named him one of its Top Ten Media Heroes.

 

v Saturday, November 23: Multi-Organization Otter Creek Campaign Planning Session. Meeting to craft a statewide strategy for defeating the Otter Creek Coal Mine. Location AND TIME to be determined.

·        Meeting (by invitation) to craft a statewide strategy for defeating the Otter Creek Coal Mine.

·        Location and time to be determined.

·        Contact Nick Engelfried, nicke.a...@gmail.com, of the Blue Sky Campaign and Coal Export Action for additional information.

.

 

 

Helena SERPAJ : Helena Service for Peace and Justice/SERPAJ – Founded  October 4, 1990

… We, the people of the Helena Service for Peace and Justice, are a community of persons

                committed to working nonviolently for peace, justice and ecological responsibility.

  Because we are people with hope,

we have organized ourselves as a grassroots community of peace and justice workers.

  Our hope is grounded in the truth that peace, justice and nonviolent living are possible …    

 (from the Helena SERPAJ statement of purpose, on–line at https://www.facebook.com/HelenaSERPAJ and http://forusa.org/groups/affiliate-groups/helena-service-for-peace-justice

§  Helena SERPAJ is on-line:

o   Helena SERPAJ (e-mail: Helena...@gmail.com)  has a Facebook page that can be used for announcements and comments -- https://www.facebook.com/HelenaSERPAJ

o   Helena SERPAJ is  (since1994) a local affiliate of the FOR (Fellowship of Reconciliation) since 1994 has an FOR website: http://forusa.org/groups/affiliate-groups/helena-service-for-peace-justice  

 

§  If you would like to be removed from the Helena SERPAJ Mailing list, all you need to do is send a brief e-mail with “remove” in the Subject heading to Helena...@gmail.com

 

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 9044 (20131113) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com