Spring events begin today...!

Karim Amer, Egypt FREED

Thanks to Ismail & Cylvanna for coming out in this cold day to begin our Spring/Summer/Fall tradition: The Human Rights Table.. Stop by the table and give these young activists a needed warm support in Downtown Amherst.... ...... Thanks also extended to Tamador, Yusra, Ismail, Ibrahim, Cylvana, Martha & Irwin, Ismail Farah, Nigel, Ester, who signed up to organize one of our Human Rights Information Table @ the Farmers market this Summer... Let's continue the human rights festival...

Speaking at Human Rights Events

The Sudan's human rights week concluded yesterday by a presentation @ Springfield Collge's annual AADERT conference on Africa. The well-prepared PPP (thanks to Jamie Sullivan) highlighted the role of solidarity in supporting the student human rights Girifna movement in Sudan and how W. Mass Darfur Coalition , Smith STAND , and AI-128advocated on their behalf in Western Massachusetts. Special thanks to Fanny Rothschild and Jessica DiPietro for organizing and hanging the Darfur Exhibit at the School of Human Services. We heard a lot of good feedback and comments on the children's drawings yesterday at the AADERT conference. The presentation took place at the new Students Campus by the Springfield College lake.

Upcoming panel on Sudan: The STAND chapter @ UMASS is organizing a panel on the future of South Sudan next week and our coordinator, mohamed elgadi, will be speaking on the human rights challenges that are facing the new country. Location, Date & Time: It will be @ 7pm on Thursday, April 14, 2011, in the Campus Center Room 911.

Human Rights in Sudan@ Springfield College

Our Amnesty capter in amherst is joining Western Massachusetts Darfur Coalition, and Smith Stand org in a series of activities in support to the human rights in Sudan, a major focus for the three groups. On Sat 4/2 a reception will be held for the opening of the Darfur Children Exhibit @ the School of Human Services in Springfield College. Our sister org, Darfur Alert Coalition, who brought the Children's drawings to the world introduced it on their website "These heart-rending drawings were created by children in the Kalma camp in South Darfur -- the very camp attacked by government forces this week. The drawings were done in 2004, the result of an impromptu gesture by Dr. Jerry Ehrlich, a New Jersey pediatrician who went to Darfur that year with Doctors Without Borders. While there, Dr. Jerry gave children paper and crayons and encouraged them to draw. Pictures quickly flooded back to him. Some showed flowers, sunshine and tranquil village life. Others, though, graphically portray the horrors these innocents survived. Scenes of bloodshed, bombings, and lives ripped asunder stare back at us with the directness and honesty of the child's eye." On Sat 4/9 the rally for Sudan will continue by a presentation at the annual conference of Africa, African-American, Development, Education, Research and Training Institute ( AADERTI ). The paper, which is mainly put together by Jamie Sullivan, STAND coordinator at Smith college is titled: Building Global Solidarity: U.S. Activists STAND with Sudanese Girifna Students

Our Chapter Addresses Solidarity Rally with Egypt/Sudan

Over 400 activists showed their support to the Egyptian Intifada and other countries of Middle East and Sudan..

For more that 2 hrs the rally continued from UMASS to Amherst College in a bad freezing rain, sleet and ice...

Our local Chapter of Amnesty International was among another 10 groups and orgs who sponsored and planned the rally. We got a chance to have our voice heard to the media and announced the good news that our adopted Egyptian Priosoner of Conscience, Karim Amer, was released and actually is blogging now again from Tahrir Square in Cairo.

See this video on MassLive that reflects part of our Chapter Coordinator's speech, Mohamed Elgadi "I believe a strong movement like this — civil disobedience, like what's happening in the streets of Cairo, and Sudan, and Yemen and Tunisia — is going to be victorious," Dr. Mohamed Elgadi, the coordinator for Amnesty International Amherst, told the crowd."

One of the favorite slogans chanted today at the rally was this one "From the Nile to the sea, Egypt, Egypt will be free"

Our Chapter Sponsors Thomas Paine Day

Martha and Irwin Spiegelman, our active members were among the core group planned this event.
Here is the flyer of Thomas Paine Day
[[Robert Meeropol is the principal speaker on Saturday afternoon, January 29, as part of the annual Thomas Paine birthday observance at Jones Library, Amherst. His topic is "WikiLeaks, the Espionage Act of 1917, and the Trial of the Rosenbergs ." Meeropol, founder and executive director of the Rosenberg Fund for Children, is an attorney and a political and social activist. The younger of the two sons of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, he was six years old in 1953 when they were executed. He is author of a memoir, An Execution in the Family, One Son's Journey. The Thomas Paine event, on the anniversary of his birth in 1737, is the 17th annual Paine Day held in Amherst . It is organized by the local branch of Thomas Paine Friends, Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes recognition of the great author-patriot-humanitarian, whose enduring pamphlet, Common Sense, called for independence and democratic government. The program starts at 1 pm with the first hour remembering Thomas Paine as probably the first whistle-blower in America for his role in the Silas Deane Affair, in 1779.

At 2 pm , Bill Newman, advocate with ACLU of Massachusetts and radio host, will introduce Robert Meeropol, and following the talk there will be open discussion. Musical selections by Sarah McKee and Tom Neilson, plus birthday cake, will round off the afternoon. Besides Thomas Paine Friends, co-sponsors are American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Amherst Democratic Town Committee, Amnesty International-Group 128 and the local chapters of Women In Black and the Green-Rainbow Party. Admission is free and all are welcome. ]]
The event was well attended (standing only) and our Chapter had information table on the side...

thanks to our young member Ismail for helping to set up the table...

From 2010 Blog

These are some glimpses of our events and activities in 2010, for more detailed info refer to our old Blog: http://www.ai-amherst.blogspot.com/

Thanks to all who made the Fundraiser Tag Sale a successful event that netted us over $500 in 5 hours! This is a good net revenue especially in this difficult economic time... Again like in last year's Tag Sale, books sold very good (thanks for the good titles our dear member Nigel and others picked @ the Amherst Book Recycling Ctr). The low price strategy attracted more students, major customers at any Tag sale in the begining of the school year.... Petitions/information table was another success and donation put in the Stamps jar was over $3... We forgot this year to have Greeting Cards available on the table to write and mail to our POC, Karim Amer (sorry Karim, we hope to send you one when you are free, soon Inshalla!). Thanks to our elected State legislators, Rep Ellen Story and Senator Stan Rosenberg for continuing to show their commitment to human rights and support to Amnesty International. Both legislators gave powerful speech and saluted Amnesty International on its 50th Anniversary, and the 32 anniversary of the local chapter

Amnesty Chant by Yosra & Kassandra Holyoke High School, MA Sign-up @ the Amnesty desk (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap) And if you do we will handle the rest (clap x5) Free some prisoners because it's right (clap x5) And if you do it will make their lives (clap x5)

Ester, Ismail, and Cylvanna during one of the Group-128 activities in downtown Amherst. In the last meeting of the Chapter, the Chilean-American member Ester Orellana, updated the group on the hunger strike of the Mapuche political prisoners in Chile. "Since the 12th July 31 Mapuche political prisoners have been on hunger strike in the Chilean prisons of Concepcion, Temuco, Valdivia, Angol and Lebu. The political prisoners are demanding the right to a fair legal process, the application of an objective and impartial system of justice and, in particular, the abolition of the anti-terrorist law." For more information on this urgent case see this link www.mapuche.info/?kat=8&sida=788

Our Summer Events.. After our longer-than-usual 'hypernation' we woke up and quickly took back our usual spot in downtown Amherst @ the Farmers market and our famous banner took its usual place in the Center of Amherst. Clipboards and petitions travelled around the market's customers and the 'word of human rights floated around' as we say... We will be having 2 events each month until Dec 10... we had 2 successful tabling events in June and one. so far, in July... Come a join our campaign on behalf of many human rights defenders... come and sign petition to free the courageous Burmese Aung San Suu Kyi , and the Ethiopian opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa.

Birtukan and Aung were both released at the end of last year 2010

New URL for our Chapter

Due to difficulty to access the account of the previous weblog of this Chapter a new URL was created ...www. AmnestyAmherst.blogspot.com is our new URL address
Pls take note and share this within network of activists

I have strong suspicion that this development has to do with the Sudanese regime's recent crackdown on human rights activists especially those reporting violations of the regime.

mohamed elgadi
Cooridnator,
Group-128