END THE OCCPATION assembles September in St. Louie

Phyllis Bennis, Hatem Bazian headline conference

Excerpt, editing by Carolyn Bennett

2012 END THE OCCUPATION September 21-23, 2012, 11th Annual National Organizers’ Conference at St. Louis University

Bennis and Bazian

Well-known Bay-Area academic, human rights activist credentialed in Philosophy and Islamic Studies (doctorate, University of California-Berkeley), Hatem Bazian is founder of the UC Berkeley-based Center for the Study and Documentation of Islamophobia, a research unit dedicated to the systematic study of ‘Othering’ Islam and Muslims.

Dr. Hatem Bazian is co-founder and Academic Affairs Chair at Zaytuna College, the first Muslim Liberal Arts College in the United States; and senior lecturer in the University of California-Berkeley’s Departments of Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies and teaches courses on Islamic Law and Society, Islam in America: Communities and Institutions, De-Constructing Islamophobia and Othering of Islam, Religious Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies.

The Palestinian-American academic is also visiting Professor in Religious Studies at Saint Mary's College of California and adviser to the Religion, Politics and Globalization Center at UC Berkeley.

Bazian has played a significant role in many human and civil rights movements in the Bay Area, nationally and internationally including: the defense of affirmative action in California; the Americans with Disabilities Act; the anti-apartheid and anti-globalization movements; and Central American solidarity.

Phyllis Bennis is a veteran writer, analyst, and activist on Middle East and UN issues and currently serves as an adviser to several top UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues. She is well-known for her most recent books 

Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's UN (2000)
Before & After: US Foreign Policy and the September 11th Crisis (2003)
[U.S. Policy and the War on Terrorism, 2nd ed.]
Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy U.S. Power (2006)

Primers:

Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (2009)
Ending the Iraq War (2009);
Understanding the U.S.-Iran Crisis (2009)
Ending the U.S. War in Afghanistan (2010).

Phyllis Bennis also directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and is a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. In 2001 she helped found and remains on the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation. She works closely with the United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalition; co-chairs the UN-based International Coordinating Network on Palestine; and since 2002, she has played an active role in the growing global peace movement.

End the Occupation’s 11th Annual National Organizers’ Conference meets this year at St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri

September 21-23, 2012, offers “an opportunity for member groups and activists from across the country to come together and strengthen efforts to end U.S. support of Israeli occupation and apartheid policies toward Palestinians,” say the conveners.

With nearly 380 member groups now within the End the Occupation coalition, the conference offers “a great opportunity for strategizing, networking and sharing achievements and struggles.”

2012 END THE OCCUPATION September 21-23, 2012

11th Annual National Organizers’ Conference at St. Louis University

END THE OCCUPATION Conference lineup

Speakers

Hatem Bazian, Chairman of American Muslims for Palestine

Phyllis Bennis, Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies

Topics and workshops

Impact of Arab Uprisings on Organizing to Challenge U.S. Policy Toward Palestine/Israel

Building on Successful Church and Corporation Divestment Campaigns

Consumer Boycotts

Campus Activism

Academic and Cultural Boycott Initiatives

Organizing and Coalition Building

Member Group Workshops

Background: St. Louie (St. Louis, Missouri)

The St. Louis Blues originated here in the 1950s. The music (associated with jump blues, ragtime and piano blues) is described as a type of blues that is usually more piano-based than other forms of the blues. The typical band is comprised of a small number of singers, a pianist and a few other musical instruments (e.g., drums and bass, used primarily for rhythm)

Today, St. Louis is said to be known for its symphony orchestra (and of course its Gateway Arch), the second oldest U.S. civic orchestra and one of the major classical musical ensembles in the United States.

 

St. Louis (/seɪnt ˈluːɪs/, French: Saint-Louis or St-Louis, [sɛ̃ lwi]) is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri (United States) and is the second-largest city in the state (population of 318,069 in July 2011).  St. Louis was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) population of 2,812,896 is the 18th-largest in the United States. The Greater St. Louis combined statistical area (CSA) population of 2,878,255 is the 16th-largest CSA in the country, the fourth-largest in the Midwest. The Greater St. Louis area is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri.

St. Louis’s Gateway Arch, designed by Eero Saarinen, is among the state's spectacularly diverse architectural styles. Local crafts once practiced by pioneers out of necessity (quilting, woodworking, basketry, and pottery) are flourishing again, not only because of their artistic merit, but also because of tourists’ interest in traditions.

Modernist poet T.S. Eliot was born and raised in St. Louis (later settled in England). Mark Twain remains Missouri’s most distinguished literary figure: world renowned for his immortalization of mid-19th-century life in Hannibal, Missouri, and along the Mississippi River. Twentieth-century folklorist Vance Randolph, born in Pittsburg, Kansas, illuminated many of the traditions and ways of the Ozark Mountains.

So ... CHORUS

"Meet me in St. Louis, Louis,
Meet me at the fair,
Don't tell me the lights are shining
Any place but there..."

Sources and notes

http://www.co.st-louis.mo.us/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatem_Bazian

http://www.hatembazian.com/

http://www.ips-dc.org/staff/phyllis

2012 END THE OCCUPATION September 21-23, 2012, 11th Annual National Organizers’ Conference at St. Louis University, Detailed program information to be posted as it becomes available. With questions, contact Ramah Kudaimi at membership@endtheoccupation.org if you have any questions. 

RSVP on Facebook and follow @US_Campaign on Twitter to get updates

http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=403

Britannica and Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_blues_(music)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louie

Thomas Stearns Eliot (T.S.), b. September 26, 1888, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.; d. January 4, 1965, London, England

Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens), b. November 30, 1835, Florida, Missouri, U.S.; d. April 21, 1910, Redding, Connecticut)

“Meet Me in St. Louis”

Lyrics sung by Judy Garland
Written by Martin, Hugh/Blane, Ralph
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/judy_garland/meet_me_in_st_louis.html

Excerpt from a version of St. Louie (Louis) Blues 

I hate to see that evenin’ sun go down/I hate to see that evenin’ sun go down/ Cause my baby has left this town. 

If I'm feelin’ tomorrow, just like I feel today/If I'm feelin’ tomorrow like I feel today/I’ll pack my trunk and make my get-away.… 

I’ve got the St. Louis blues, just as blue as I can be… 

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/St-Louis-Blues-lyrics-Cab-Calloway/474A986AD0F87C5E48256C230009884D

Images
The Gateway Arch, 200 Washington Avenue: “The nation’s tallest monument at 630 feet, the Gateway Arch has beckoned visitors for more than 40 years with its iconic, awe-inspiring shape. The vision of renowned architect Eero Saarinen, the Gateway Arch commemorates Thomas Jefferson and St. Louis’ role in the westward expansion of the United States.” http://www.gatewayarch.com/experience/the-gateway-arch/

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