Minutes for September 2021 meeting

 Wednesday, 15 September 2021 (via Zoom)

In attendance: Jeff, Barbara, Bob, April, Struan, Bill, Brendan, Heather

Greetings and Personal Updates

Members gave updates on their activities since last meeting.

We continued to discuss format and venues of future meetings. We agreed that there is value in continued to meet via Zoom every other month, as it allows members who live at a distance to continue to participate in our group activities.

Public meetings will be announced on our social media accounts.

Jeff suggested that each month a member volunteer to summarize a major AIUSA campaign. Bob volunteered to speak about the Ending Gun Violence campaign at the October meeting. Jeff also suggested that members review a film, podcast, magazine article, etc., at our meetings. 

Barbara spoke briefly about Banned Books Week actions (September 21 to October 2). During this period, Amnesty International draws attention to people around the world who have been imprisoned, threatened, or murdered because of their writing, art, or other published work. AIUSA is highlighting the cases of six authors and has provided online petitions for each of them: https://www.amnestyusa.org/banned-books-2021/

Actions

• "Release All Peaceful Protestors" (Cuba: UA 88.21)
• "Activist Jailed for Anti-President T-Shirts" (Nigeria: UA 89.21)
• "Human Rights Defenders Remain in Detention" (Belarus: UA 85.21)
• "Opposition Politicians Tried by Special Court" (Egypt: UA 107.19)
• "Peaceful Activists Released on Bail" (Democratic Republic of Congo: UA 74.21)

Next meeting (online): Wednesday, 20 October 2021, 7:30 p.m.