Now that we’ve raised the minimum wage in Michigan, the next step is to roll out this victory to the whole country. Here’s an action alert from the national Let Justice Roll Campaign

Read the rest of this entry »

Here at ICPJ we rely on donated office supplies and we do our best to use them up.

That keeps our costs down, but it also makes for some creaky chairs, wobbly tables, and stained carpets. If you’ve got any of the following lying around, we’ll be more than happy to put them to good use. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Gregory Fox, we have photos of the ICPJ 40th Anniversary Celebration.

Also online are photos from the ICPJ archives.

Enjoy!

Those of you who were at the ICPJ 40th Anniverasry celebration had the opportunity to see the Power Point slideshow of ICPJ’s history.

As promised, we’ve put this slideshow online so you can review the faces and events that have made our work for peace and justice so enduring and inspiring.

You can downlownload the slideshow here, but let me warn you, it’s a big file–over 41 megabytes.  This will take a while to download even if you have a highspeed connection.

If you don’t have powerpoint on your computer, you can download a viewer for Windows or Macinotosh to let you see the slideshow.

Sharpen your skills as an activist while working for peace with justice as a summer intern with the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice. Part-time internships are available for undergraduate and students, with the opportunity to learn skills in event organizing, media outreach, lobbying, and nonprofit administration. Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice works justice-minded with people of faith and secular peacemakers to educate and mobilize to build a better world. Please send cover letter and resume to Chuck Warpehoski at chuck@icpj.net.
Read the rest of this entry »

Quick Success Brings Raise Campaign to a Close

On Tuesday, March 28, Governor Jennifer Granholm will be signing the minimum wage bill into law. This is a great victory for all of us who have been working to raise the wage in Michigan. This also marks the end of this phase of the Michigan Needs a Raise ballot drive and an end to ICPJ’s involvement with the campaign.

Due to your efforts, the Michigan legislature is doing something it hasn’t done in nine years - raise the minimum wage. Due to your efforts, nearly 400,000 workers in the state of Michigan will get a raise.

This is a great success for Michigan workers. However, ICPJ will continue to work for economic justice. ICPJ will keep striving for a minimum wage that is indexed for inflation and covers tipped workers. Furthermore, ICPJ will continue to work to ensure that our government’s budget does not prioritize the wealth of a few at the expense of millions of poor and hunger people.

ICPJ and Michigan Needs a Raise want to thank all of you who paved the way for this victory. Thank you to those who collected signatures and to those who organized others around this initiative. We wouldn’t have succeeded in raising the wage without your support.

If you still have petitions, we ask that you please return those to ICPJ.

If you are interested in joining ICPJ as we continue to struggle for economic justice, please contact us at info@icpj.net or at (734) 663-1870.

I’ve just heard about this rally coming up on April 1st to defend affirmative action. April Fools Day is a great chance to say “don’t be fooled” by the so-called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s some great social and political films coming up at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. I for one hope to make tomorrow’s film “Lost film fest”.

 Read the rest of this entry »

Longtime ICPJ member Nancy Williams recently had an “Other Voices” peice published in the Ann Arbor News about faith voices calling for hope, justice, action.

Not only is it a good essay, but it has a nice mention of ICPJ’s 40th Anniversary keynote speaker, Jack Nelson Pallmeyer.

Read the rest of this entry »

WILL U.S. REDUCE TERRORISM BY STARVING PALESTINIANS?

OR SHOULD IT BE FUNDING GRASS-ROOTS PEACE EFFORTS?

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Now before Congress is a bill (H.R. 4681 ) that would cut off all US financial aid to the Palestinian people, even to non-governmental humanitarian organizations and even to the office of peace-seeker President Abbas, because Hamas won the recent election.

The bill provides for the possibility that President Bush could make exceptions for humanitarian reasons, but the Administration has already demanded that the Palestinian Authority repay millions of dollars the US has already given it.

The bill and the Bush Administration are responding to the official Hamas platform, which calls for the abolition of Israel as a separate state, and to past Hamas behavior, which has included terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians inside Israel. Just about every voice in the “official” American Jewish community has urged the passage of this bill. At a recent national convention of the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, only stalwart independent-minded Leonard (Leibl) Fein warned this might be unwise.

This draconic bill is rooted either in revenge or in the politics of the iron fist, not in an effort to seek justice by just means. (”Tzedek tzedek tirdof. Justice, justice shall you seek.” [Deut. 16: 20] Why “justice” twice? “Seek just goals by just methods.) And like most efforts at vengeance or the iron fist, it will almost certainly make matters worse.

Read the rest of this entry »