“The arc of the moral universe is long,
but it bends toward justice.
—
Martin Luther King Jr.”



Join the ARC community in welcoming back friends who have recently
traveled to Palestine, Egypt & Israel. Peter Sporn worked with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and Physicians for Human
Rights-Israel, while Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Ali Abunimah
participated in last month's Gaza Freedom March.
Guests will
be sharing their gut-wrenching and inspiring stories and welcoming
conversation about their trips and our role as international solidarity
workers.
ARC Potlucks are a chance at taking pause and breaking
bread on a regular basis- to check in with each other, to sustain
ourselves. To set the table for building relationships and putting
together perspectives. We hope you'll be able to join us!
Sunday, February 7
2-5pm
At Chicago ACTS
1400 W. Hubbard Street
Please RSVP & let us know if you can bring a dish, drink or dessert by clicking here: http://bit.ly/7TdpOe
Please Forward!
Contact planners: info@arc109.org. Find us on Facebook. Find the Facebook Event Page.
You can catch a replay of 'The Fierce Urgency of Now: Healthcare and Human Rights for All' on CAN TV. It will run on Thursday, October 29th at 12:00PM on Channel 21.

Why has the debate over health care reform involved partisan politicians, media pundits, corporate interests, and hired agitators rather than the people? Why has the single payer option been demonized on the right, the media, and even the liberal establishment? How does the broader crisis in health care in this country – clinic closings, epidemics of disease related to inequality and inaccessibility to care, indifference to wellness in our schools, our public services, the military – relate to the unwillingness to address growing economic gaps in our society and the abdication of public authority for the sake of private concerns? How can the United States learn from other communities about how to deliver care, promote wellness, and affirm the public interest, in order to achieve human rights, here and around the world?
Guest Speakers include:
Vijay PrashadThe event will include a multimedia presentation on the state of the
moment, a presentation on local to international contexts by invited
speakers, and end with a Town Hall inviting Chicago folks on the ground
and YOU to collectively reflect on, digest, and connect how the current struggle over
health care-- the debates, the longings, the mobs, the industry, the
government-- feeds off and illuminates the deeper social and political
crisis we face.
Please forward widely!
Contact planners: info@arc109.org. Find us on Facebook. Find the Facebook Event Page. Access Living is an accessible space. If you have specific needs to be
able to participate, don't hesitate to ask. ARC09 is all volunteers -
folks always welcome to help out! Event posters & t-shirts will be
available for donation to help defray the space costs. If you'd like to
share healthcare related art and/or literature at the event, please let
us know!
Nadia
Hijab is director of Development Analysis and Communication Services,
and an independent consultant to the United Nations and other
international organizations on gender, human rights, and human
development.
Long-term violence reduction strategies are to be found in the social fabric of our communities and not in our criminal justice system. Our criminal justice system is reactive and is not built to be proactive, i.e., they respond to violence and for the most part do not prevent violence. Prevention plays out in our ability to educate, employ, and assist community members in dealing with issues in their life before they rise to the level of the criminal justice system. By the time the criminal justice system intercedes, victimization has already usually occurred that could have potentially been avoided through the commitment of adequate social and community resources.
Anyone who pays even a minimal amount of attention to the Chicago media is constantly bombarded with evidence of our society’s failures. This week is different in that we have proof of the fallout of a past failure (the shooting of a mentally disturbed homeless man in the loop) mixed with a forecast of what is to come based on decisions currently made by our political leaders (the closing of numerous area mental health clinics).
Read the full post here.
Here are some photos from our May 2nd gathering. Sorry for the delay in sharing these with you all!
Thanks so much to everyone for coming to the ARC09 Movement Summit. Your kind words and encouragements are really appreciated.
The event brought together over 300 folks from Chicago and beyond and took place at Little Village Lawndale High School on May 2nd. The ARC09 Movement Summit included panel sessions, breakouts, an arts exhibition, resource fair, and words from local artists FM Supreme and King Keith.
The goal of the summit was to build relationships, sharpen our analysis, and promote collaborations and connections across the broad swath of social justice issues and organizations.