Events

Full Circle Fair, 7/28-29, Blue Hill, ME; Come celebrate community radio with WERU at our biggest party & fundraising event of the year! 2 stages of music & speakers over 2 full days! A chem-free, family event (no pets, please), happening rain or shine featuring hundreds of vendors including artists, crafters, a wide variety foods & non-profit exhibitors; other features include a labyrinth, an open mic, a secondhand fashion show, open drum jams, & workshops; for more information, visit www.weru.org [5]

Walk For A Nuclear Free Future, 8/5-8/9, Hiroshima Day to Nagasaki Day, send off in Middlebury, Vermont ending in Burlington; focus on stopping a twenty year license extension for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant & opposing the refurbishing & building of nuclear weapons. Co-sponsors include: Citizens Awareness Network, www.nukebusters.org [6], & the Buddhist order of Nipponzan Myohoji; info: Hattie Nestel; 978/249-6224, Hattieshalom@verizon.net [7]

Camp Casey, Maine; 10 days of protests to coincide with President Bush's visit to the family estate in Kennebunkport, ME. Dave Rovics concert, 8/24; Stop the War, Start a Revolution rally & protest march, 8/25, featuring the Indigo Girls & Cindy Sheehan; a convergence of anti-war, environment , labor, & social justice movements in solidarity, proclaiming the need for systemic change in this country to break the cycle of endless war. Free camping; Info: www.kportprotest.org [8], email: jamillaelshafei@yahoo.com [9]

Gatherings

Street Soccer USA Organizing Conference, 7/20-22; Charlotte, NC; if you have been intrigued by the Homeless World cup, or curious about starting a homeless street soccer team of your own, come join us; the conference will teach organizations how to start & maintain a team, & will go over the rules & regulations for street soccer & what's in store for the Homeless USA Cup in the spring of 2008; for more info contact Laura Thompson Osuri, Street Sense, 202/347-2006; www.homelesssoccer.org [10]

As the Powers Fall: Sustaining Our Faith & One Another as Empire Crumbles, 7/23-28, Berea, KY; This Baptist Peace Fellowship Peace Camp is a week of challenge & sustenance, gathering & nurture, training & fun, community & learning, protest & art, music & worship, a week to renew your focus, your energy, your work, your spirit; Rev. LeDayne McLeese Polaski, BPFNA, 4800 Wedgewood Dr, Charlotte NC 28210, 704/521-6051; www.bpfna.org [11]

Global War & Global Warming: A Faith & Resistance Retreat to Remember & Repent & Renounce the Weapons & Mindset of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, 8/5-9; Washington, DC; The focus will be on building community, practicing nonviolence, & engaging in public witness against the atrocities of war -- at the Pentagon, the White House & elsewhere. Prayer & Reflection sessions are inherent to the process of the retreat. Simple meals & sleeping bag space will be provided. If you need a bed, let us know & we'll do what we can to accommodate you. There will be a program for children. Please let us know if you can be with us; Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, 502 Rock Creek Church Rd. NW Washington DC 20010; 202/882-9649; artlaffin@hotmail.com [12]; www.jonahhouse.org [13]

Northeast Organic Farming Association Summer Conference; 8/10-12, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA; Keynote by Bill McKibben, initiator of Step it Up 2007 day of action, 8/10, 150 workshops on organic growing, sustainable building, activism, & spirituality, including a mini-conference on Agriculture Justice & Domestic Fair Trade in the Northeast.

Twin Oaks Women's Gathering: Women Celebrating Ourselves in Community, 8/24-26; Louisa, VA; Dance, movement, drumming, camping, swimming, workshops, creative activities, sweats, mud pit, fun, singing, music; register by 8/1 so we can organize a great gathering! Sliding scale fee, $40-140; Women's Gathering, Twin Oaks, 138 Twin Oaks Rd, Louisa VA 23093; www.twinoaks.org/community/women [14]

Highlander Center 75th Anniversary Conference, 8/31-9/2; New Market, TN; celebrating 75 years of education and training for social justice and human rights. Educational institutes, 8/31, on popular education, participatory research, cultural organizing, multilingual capacity building, and communications for change. Benefit concert 9/1 featuring Ani DiFranco, Bernice Johnson Reagon & Toshi Reagon, & more. Can't attend? Hold a Highlander 75th anniversary house party; 865/933-3443, coleman@highlandercenter.org [15], www.highlandercenter.org [16]

Campaigns

Keep Space for Peace Week, 10/4-13; Is this the world we want? Satellites, giant radomes, radar installations watching for military targets everywhere? Cruise missiles, weapons in space, global strike capability & "Full Spectrum Dominance" from US bases around the globe? The Bush administration is now moving forward with plans to deploy "missile defense" interceptors in Poland & space warfare radar in the Czech Republic. Join us in an international week of protest to stop the militarization of space, by organizing a local event in your community during October 4-13. Help us prevent the next arms race. Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, POB 652, Brunswick ME 04011; 207/443-9502; www.space4peace.orgOpportunities [17]

The Local Community Radio Act of 2007 (HR.2802) will open up our airwaves to more low-power FM radio stations across the country. Passing the bill will bring more diversity of views & music to your radio dial, & re-connect communities to a medium that has been largely overrun by massive corporate conglomerates. Please tell your members of Congress to support the Local Community Radio Act of 2007; for more information visit www.freepress.org [18]

Support Deb Mayer, a teacher for 22 years, who was fired for saying to her middle school class that she believes "we should seek peaceful solutions before going to war." The Federal judge in her initial trial ruled against her, maintaining that teachers do not have the right to free speech when acting in their roles as employees of a school system; Deb Mayer now needs help with legal fees as she attempts to have this important case heard by the Supreme Court. Contributions to Deb Mayer's legal fund can be made to Teach Peace, 302 Walnut Street B, Madison, WI 53726

Opportunities

Non-Denominational Social Justice Sunday School; Community Church of Boston; free for youth (ages 7-14) & their families, every Sunday starting 9/9; the Justice School will encourage youth & children to search for their own truths through games, art, skits, books, music; many social justice activist guests; 565 Boylston Street, Boston, MA in Copley Square; Info: 617/266-6710, jooyoung@commchurch.org [19], www.thejusticeschool.org [20]

SPIN Academy, 8/15-19, Northern California; a retreat for organizers, activists, & advocates with a strong interest in strengthening the communications work of their nonprofit organizations; apply by 7/11 at www.spinproject.org/Acad07Resources [21]

Transform your Classroom; Facing History & Ourselves offers programs to help you renew your commitment to growing & learning, & bring content & methodology into your classroom that will engage & transform your students; with the online seminar Holocaust & Human Behavior, gain full access to our in-depth professional development services, curricular resources, & ongoing support to educators in the areas of history, social studies, & English language arts. By using the Holocaust as a case study, we raise profound moral questions about the consequences of our actions & our beliefs, & Facing History teachers help their students make connections between history & the moral choices they make every day. Learn more & apply for enrollment at www.facinghistory.org/onlineseminar [22]

Resources

Justice Ignited: The Dynamics of Backfire, by Brian Martin; $27.95 pb; Martin, an Australian activist & peace researcher, examines how attacks can backfire on attackers, & how activists can use an understanding of the dynamics of backfire to counter injustices; Rowman & Littlefield; www.rowman.com [23]

Wabanaki: A New Dawn (DVD) available for showing to community groups, students, religious groups, & others. Originally released on video in 1995, the film shows how Maine's four tribes are surviving, primarily through using their cultural & spiritual uniqueness in the face of western lifestyles & culture. Maine's native people still face the same challenges they did in the mid-1990's, when the film was first released. Contact Maine Indian-Tribal State Commission, 207/394-2045; mitsced@midmaine.com [24]; www.mitsc.org [25].

Trade & War: An Online Slide Show Calling for a New Course in Colombia; We need to spread the word that US aid & trade should alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Colombia, not support a military solution to problems arising from political, social, & economic inequalities. The American Friends Service Committee has produced an audio slide show at www.tradeandwar.org [26], with supporting information on how to tell Congress to vote "NO" on the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement & stop funding military aid to Colombia.

Interfaith Building & Community Revitalization Initiative is now offering the Spring 2007 issue of the IPCR Newsletter (34 pp) which includes the Spring 2007 "Building Caring Communities" Questionnaire (60 questions). To receive a free copy, contact Stefan Pasti, 703/209-2093; stefanpasti@ipcri.net [27]; IPCR, POB 223561, Chantilly VA 20153; www.ipcri.net [28]