UUSC to Partner with Local Anti-Genocide Activists in Portland, Ore.

UUSC raised the Drumbeat for Darfur at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Portland, Ore. Over 6,000 people attended, making this GA the second largest ever. It took place June 18-25, 2007.

Through a series of workshops, experiences for booth visitors, and advocacy actions, GA attendees supported UUSC’s work to bring peace and justice for Darfur. For the first time at GA, UUSC held a special day-long advocacy training workshop, to train participants to become Drumbeat for Darfur activists.

UUSC also presented our major social action leadership awards and recognized four outstanding representatives for their exemplary work. All were honored at UUSC’s annual meeting and celebration, held June 22.

Author/activist Frances Moore Lappé, Sudanese scholar/activist Omer Ismail, and Rev. Marilyn Sewell and Kate Lore of First Unitarian Church of Portland, Ore., were among the workshop presenters. They spoke on a range of topics, but touched on a few related points: Not only is it important that we do something about the genocide in Darfur, it is imperative that we act.

“These times call us to action,” said Sewell, during her presentation entitled, “How to Build Spirituality into Social Justice Work.” “We have to shake some cages.”

UUSC members and supporters responded to the call for justice with their pens and their feet. More than 600 signed letters to the International Olympic Committee calling for China – which will host the 2008 Olympic Games – to use its leverage with Sudan to persuade the Khartoum regime to end the genocide. Many also visited “Kalma Camp,” a mock Darfuri refugee tent erected in the UUSC booth area. UU youth attended a special “pizza party with a purpose” to learn more about what they can do for Darfur.

UUSC’s GA activities were capped by a community rally held on Sunday, June 24. The cameras of KGW-TV, Portland’s NBC affiliate, captured the spectacle of nearly 100 UUs marching from the convention center to the rally site. The four-block procession was led by two UUSC staff bearing lit torches, as marchers chanted “China break your silence, help end the violence!”

On arriving at the rally site, the torchbearers ceremonially lit a single torch placed before the speakers’ podium, to symbolize the major focus of Darfur advocacy in the coming year – compelling China to use its influence to help bring the Olympic ideals of friendship and peace to the people of Darfur.

The crowd stood steadfast as rain clouds gathered to listen to Holocaust survivor Alter Wiener recount the horrors of his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. Wiener, author of From a Name to a Number: A Holocaust Survivor’s Autobiography, was followed by UUSC President and CEO Charlie Clements, who made an impassioned appeal for the audience to keep the pressure up on Sudan, for them to engage in protest that endures.

The rally was co-organized by UUSC and Portland-area anti-genocide activists, led by Marty Foner of the local Amnesty International chapter, Katie-Jay Scott of the Portland Coalition for Genocide Awareness, and Emily Gottfried of the American Jewish Committee. Also contributing was Gabriel Stauring, who leads Camp Darfur, a traveling recreation of refugee camps that engages participants in interactive learning. Camp Darfur’s line of tents documented the Armenian, Cambodian, and Rwandan genocides, stopping at Darfur to broadcast the message: “Not on Our Watch!”