For immediate release 
May 7, 2012

Debra Sweet, World Can’t Wait Director, will receive the 2012 American Humanist Association’s (AHA) Humanist Heroine Award. The award will be presented at the AHA national conference on June 9 in New Orleans and is a joint presentation of the AHA and its Feminist Caucus. Since 1982, this award is given annually to women who promote and advance the ideals of human rights and gender justice using a non-theological approach. Past awardees have included Judy Norsigian, Robin Morgan, Julia Sweeney and Amy Goodman.

For Immediate Release
April 24, 2012
Contact:  Steve Yip 917 868 6007 Elaine Brower 917 520 0767

When:      Monday, April 30
Press Conference 8:45 am; Trial 9:30 am
       
Where:     Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, 100 Centre Street, on street, trial Room 506
               
What:       Dr. Cornel West and Carl Dix, leaders of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and 18 others to be tried for disorderly conduct arrests protesting NYPD “Stop and Frisk”
 
New York NY – On Monday, April 30, 20 protesters will stand trial on disorderly conduct charges in the first mass trial of Occupy Wall Street-related arrests stemming from an October 21, 2011 non-violent civil disobedience protest of “stop and frisk” policy at the NYPD 28th Precinct in Harlem. 

Welcome to a special broadcast by Project Censored on Pacifica Radio. Join Mickey Huff, along with co-hosts Dr. Peter Phillips; Dr. Andy Roth, the associate director of Project Censored; and Abby Martin of Media Roots. Today's special program is "Brought to Justice"? -- The Indefinite Detention and Targeted Killing of the Rule of Law. Joining us will be investigative journalist Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files and co-director of Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo; Pardiss Kebriaei, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who has represented a number of the men detained at Guantanamo and is also counsel in Al-Aulaqi v. Obama, which concerns targeted killings by the executive in zones outside of armed conflict. We will also have music and commentary from one of the most notable political folk musicians of our time, the one and only David Rovics. We hear from Dr. Almerindo Ojeda, professor of linguistics and director of the Guantánamo Testimonials Project at University of California, Davis; and we round out today’s special with Stephanie Tang of World Can’t Wait.

PRESS ADVISORY
February 13, 2012

Contact:  Elaine Brower, 917-520-0767 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST MILITARY RECRUITMENT! 

When: Wednesday, February 15th, 12:00 noon
Where: Rally at BMCC, 199 Chambers Street
             Then march to military recruitment centers on Chambers St.
Why: There are four military recruitment centers within two blocks of Borough of Manhattan Community College and Stuyvesant High School

New York NY – On Wednesday, February 15th activists from Occupy Wall Street, We Are Not Your Soldiers, World Can’t Wait, CodePink, Veterans for Peace, NY War Resisters League, Grandmothers Against the War and Washington Heights Counter Recruitment will rally at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers Street.
 
Elaine Brower, military mom and project coordinator of We Are Not Your Soldiers says, “We want no recruiting centers within 10 blocks of schools!  The recruiters are preying on our youth.  We call for a public debate with the recruiters.”

Protesting Possible War Against Iran (Agence France-Press)

Posted February 4, 2012

Hundreds of protesters demonstrated Saturday in New York and pacifist groups took to the streets in dozens of other US and Canadian cities in a “Day of Mass Action” against a possible war with Iran.

About 500 protesters gathered in Manhattan’s Times Square and marched to the headquarters of the US mission to the United Nations and to the Israeli consulate.

“No war, no sanctions, no intervention, no assassinations,” read a banner leading the march.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Elaine Brower   917-520-0767  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

February 4 International Day of Action: NO U.S. War on Iran

78 locations Begin New Antiwar Movement Against Sanctions, Attack on Iran

When:  Saturday, February 4, 2012 see locations here and here

New York, NY: Sixty peace and civil rights groups will gather in almost 80 cities, primarily in the U.S. and Canada tomorrow to oppose moves by the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government to wage war on Iran.

A statement by the February 4 coalition, whose demands are, “No war, no sanctions, no intervention, no assassinations,” says, “The U.S. has authorized harsh economic sanctions that could literally destroy and devastate the lives of millions of Iranian civilians. In addition to the sanctions, there have been targeted assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and a U.S. surveillance drone was discovered in violation of Iranian sovereignty and airspace.”

KHON-2 Honolulu:

The group has a permit to gather at Old Stadium park ahead of Saturday's march.

"In the spirit of the whole occupy movement happening across the country a place where people can come down and discuss politics networking sit down share some food have some water sit in the shade sing some songs play some drums make some signs you name it,"says Liz Rees, World Can't Wait.

Protestors will march toward the Hale Koa hotel where President Obama and the first lady will be hosting a dinner for the world leaders.

The group expects several hundred protestors to turn out for the march.

By Doug Moe

I heard about Clint Eastwood's new film, "J. Edgar," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the late FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and right away I thought of Debra Sweet.

Debra grew up a block south of me on Woodside Terrace. She graduated from West High in 1969. A year later, near the end of Hoover's life, she had an encounter with Hoover and his boss, President Richard Nixon, that made headlines around the world.

The episode prompted a memo from Hoover, in which the FBI director noted that Sweet was from "Madison, Wisconsin, which ought to have made us stop, look and listen."

Sweet was 19 then. She's 60 now, living in New York City. When I reached her by phone one morning last week, and asked if she intended on seeing Eastwood's Hoover movie, Sweet said, "I probably should."

It may be hard for her to find time. All these years later, she's still making waves. On Oct. 21 Sweet was arrested in Harlem with a group that included the civil rights activist Cornel West. They were protesting the New York City Police Department's "stop and frisk" policy.

When we spoke last week, Sweet was operating on little sleep, having spent the night helping people get out of jail after yet another "stop and frisk" protest, this one in Brooklyn, where Debra lives.

by Ryan Devereaux

The police officer wanted him to dance. "Do the chicken noodle soup for me," he said. The officer claimed it was the only way he'd let John Hector go.

It was supposed to be a joke, but Hector didn't find it funny. After all, he and his friend were handcuffed in full view of the public. The pair were driving to get some food when they were pulled over by the police, who then forced them to sit on the kerb with their hands bound. They were never arrested, let alone charged with a crime. That's because they hadn't committed one. They were simply caught in an NYPD stop-and-frisk operation.

RT: Cornel West arrested at 'Stop and Frisk' protest in New York

BET.com: Activists Seek to End NYPD’s Stop and Frisk Program

CBS NYC: Protesters Rally In Harlem Against NYPD’s Stop And Frisk Strategy

The Atlantic Wire: Cornel West Arrested at 'Stop And Frisk' Protests

Gothamist: Cornel West, Other Occupy Wall Street Protesters Arrested By NYPD