[JNV] Invite a speaker to your peace group

[Justice Not Vengeance]

[A] 13 - 17 November, around the UK: 'Battlefields Without Borders: Iraqis
in Crisis' speaking tour. Invite Legendary US Peace Activist Kathy Kelly
to Speak to Your Local Group.
[B]  14 - 28 November, around the UK: 'Hands Off Iraqi Oil' speaking tour:
invite a speaker to come and talk to your local group.

*********************************************
[A] 13 - 17 NOVEMBER: 'BATTLEFIELDS WITHOUT BORDERS: IRAQIS IN CRISIS'
SPEAKING
TOUR. INVITE LEGENDARY US PEACE ACTIVIST KATHY KELLY TO SPEAK TO YOUR
LOCAL GROUP -
SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS.

Legendary US peace activist Kathy Kelly will be in the UK this November,
speaking to groups around the UK about war, resistance and Iraq's refugee
crisis.

BACKGROUND
Kathy - who recently returned from four months spent living amongst Iraqi
refugees in Jordan and Syria - is the co-founder Voices in the Wilderness US,
which sent scores of sanctions-breaking delegations to Iraq during the 90s
and
early 2000s, and is now co-ordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence
(www.vcnv.org). She has visited Iraq twenty six times since 1991, and
lived in
Baghdad during the 2003 Shock and Awe attack and invasion.

She has also helped organize, and participated in, nonviolent direct action
teams in Haiti (summer of 1994), Bosnia (December, 1992, August, 1993) and
Iraq
(Gulf Peace Team, 1991). In April of 2002, she was among the first
internationals to visit the Jenin camp in the West Bank.

In 1988 she was sentenced to one year in prison for planting corn on nuclear
missile silo sites, and served nine months of the sentence in a Lexington, KY
maximum security prison. In the spring of 2004, she served three months at
Pekin federal prison for crossing the line as part of an ongoing effort to
close an army military combat training school at Fort Benning, GA.

In 2000 the American Friends Service Committee nominated her for the Nobel
Peace Prize.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO INVITE KATHY TO COME AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP then please
e-mail gabriel@voices.netuxo.co.uk or leave a message on 0845 458 2564.

Please specify:

* which group you are from
* the likely size of the meeting etc... the better
* any date preferences / dates to avoid during 13 - 17 November
* your e-mail and phone number

Deadline for requests is 6pm, Thursday 11th October.

**********************************************************
[B] 14 - 28 NOVEMBER: 'HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL' SPEAKING TOUR.
INVITE A SPEAKER TO TALK TO YOUR LOCAL GROUP.
www.HandsOffIraqiOil.org

"The Hands Off Iraqi Oil campaign is on the front lines of the global battle
against disaster capitalism" - Naomi Klein, author 'No Logo' and 'The Shock
Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism'

TO INVITE A SPEAKER: contact gabriel@voices.netuxo.co.uk or 0845 458 2564.
Deadline for invitations: 6pm, Friday 12th October.

In September, Iraqi civil society and the global anti-war movement scored a
major victory against the occupation's oil privatisation agenda, when Iraq's
Parliament failed to pass a draft oil law in time for General Petraeus'
report
to Congress.

If passed, the law - which was written in secret under intense pressure from
the US/UK governments, the IMF, and Big Oil - would have allowed
multinational oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon to take the primary
role in developing Iraq's oilfields, under contracts of up to 30 years.

Passing the law was one of Bush's "benchmarks". However, despite massive the
military and political violence of the occupation, and relentless pressure
from Washington, a combination of  grassroots opposition (from the Iraqi oil
unions) and internal conflict (within the Iraqi Government) has derailed the
law, at
least temporarily. Nonetheless, Iraq's oil ministry is now saying that it
hopes to sign contracts with foreign firms, law or no law, and with Iraq
still
under
foreign occupation.

IRAQ'S FUTURE IS BEING STOLEN. ITS PEOPLE NEED OUR SUPPORT.

Big Oil - with US/UK assistance - is, in effect, trying to force
privatisation on the Iraqi people. Indeed, according to a recent poll, 63%
of Iraqis believe that Iraq's oil should be developed and produced by Iraqi
public sector companies, rather than foreign companies.

To build the campaign to stop the theft - including a national day of action
early next year - 'Hands Off Iraqi Oil' is organising a whirlwind UK
speaking tour, to take place during the last two weeks in November.

Speakers include GREG MUTTITT (Platform) - author of 'Crude Designs: The
Rip-off of Iraq's Oil Wealth' (www.crudedesigns.org), and one of the world's
leading experts on oil and Iraq - and renowned activist and journalist EWA
JASIEWICZ, recently returned from the 'Iraq Petroleum 2007' conference in
Dubai.

In 2003 Ewa spent 9 months living in occupied Iraq, working with the Iraqi
oil
workers union and she is the co-founder of the union's UK support committee
'Naftana' (see www.basraoilunion.org).

INVITE A SPEAKER
To invite a speaker to come and talk to your group, please e-mail
gabriel@voices.netuxo.co.uk or telephone 0845 458 2564.

Please specify:

* which group you are from
* the likely size of the meeting etc... the better
* any date preferences / dates to avoid during 14 - 28 November
* your e-mail and phone number

Deadline for invitations: 6pm, Friday 12th October.

For more information and background see www.HandsOffIraqiOil.org

"We call on all people who want peace and organisations which opposed the
war to help us in our struggle" - Hassan Juma'a Awad al-Asadi, President of
the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions