Along with United for Justice with Peace, Suffolk University’s Government Department is co-sponsoring “Peace and Justice: Ending the Endless War and Occupations” this Saturday in the Donahue building. The day-long event on the peace movement is intended to reflect the past decade.
“[John Berg] and I have talked about a number of issues together and thought it would be a good idea to bring a conference to Suffolk for students and staff,” said Cole Harrison, communication director of Massachusetts Peace Actions. “This is a good time to reflect the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and of our group, United for Justice with Peace. We’ve never really done a conference like this before, and people will be traveling in from all parts of New England.”
Keynote speaker Noam Chomsky will cover 2011 from Egypt to Libya: “Triumph and Turmoil I the Arab World.” Guest speakers include Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, former US Attorney Colonel Ann Wright, Will Hopkins of New Hampshire Peace Action, IVAW and VfP, and Michael McPhearson, national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice.
Spoken about will be the Gaza Flotilla and Palestine, the crisis and youth today and connecting to the war at home.
“We want speakers to speak to different aspects of issues and address countries like Afghanistan,” said Harrison.
“This is a conference, not just a series of speakers,” said John Berg, a Government Department professor.
Berg said attendees will be broken up into seven workshops on different topics related to the speaker sessions. “They will be good [to expand on] international issues with different points of view.”
These workshops will be take place in classrooms from 12 to 1 p.m., between the morning and afternoon portions of the conference. Eric Fields of Fund Our Communities/ Cut Military Spending 25 percent campaign and Paul Shannon of the Majority Agenda Project and Fund Our Communities Not War will present “Bringing the Troops and War Dollars Home.”
Hopkins will discuss youth and the crisis, Max Elbaum of the War Times will conduct “The Long War: working for peace against an empire in decline,” McPhearson and Enid Eckstein (1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East) take on building labor and peace movement cooperation, and Guntram Mueller (Mass. Peace Action and UJP Nuclear Abolition Task Force) and Junko Kayashige (Hiroshima A-Bomb survivor and artist) will educate on the intertwined dangers of nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
Harrison and Kelly will lead “Afghanistan: The US must change course” along with Ali Pinschmidt (Community Supported Film). Wright and Alice Rothchild, of American Jews for a Just Peace have the “Palestine: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions- The Time Has Come” workshop.
“[The government department] has consulted with [United for Justice with peace] about topics; we had a voice in that and making this opportunity available for our students,” said Berg.
“Students can dig a lot deeper into why we have these wars and what’s going on in these countries,” said Harrison. “Plus the political impacts on the U.S. and their consequences.”
Harrison specifically believes Hopkins’ discussion workshop on the crisis and youth today will be useful to students.
The event is free for Suffolk University students and staff with Suffolk ID, and is open to the public for $15.