Steve Bloom wrote:

June 11, 2002

At an informal dinner gathering last week activists
from more than a dozen
organizations in the NYC area began kicking around
the idea of what
peace/anti-war forces should do in this city to mark
the first anniversary
of September 11. It became clear to us that this was
the kind of question
where a broad consultation with many groups and
constituencies was
essential, and we decided to work toward a meeting
which could initiate such
a process. The date of Thursday, June 20, seemed
like a good one, with no
conflicts that we were aware of.

Consulting with others in the week since we discover
that many have, indeed,
been thinking about what needs to be done in NYC in
September, and it does
seem likely that a reasonably broad consultative
meeting could take place on
June 20. However, we also discovered one potential
scheduling conflict. The
"Not In Our Name" organization (NION), which has
been circulating a "pledge
of resistance" also has a meeting scheduled for that
night, part of a
regular series of Thursday evening meetings.

We have initiated a discussion about how to deal
with this scheduling
difficulty with the people organizing the NION
meeting. However, even if we
end up with two meetings on the same evening we
think it is important not to
wait, to at least begin the broader consultation
process we envision. We
know that June 20 is a reasonable date for many, and
whatever date we pick
in NYC there will be scheduling difficulties for
someone. It will simply be
necessary for both meetings to proceed with full
awareness that another
process is also going on, and that coordination and
further consultation
will be necessary if we are going to achieve the
broad consensus and
collective action we need. So we are asking that
folks plan to attend on
June 20, at 6:30 pm (place to be announced).

Although this process is open to all, the concept is
not necessarily to
build June 20 as a mass meeting, attended by all
activists, but rather to
conceive it as a representative gathering, involving
a range of
constituences and organizations, to begin a process
of discussion and
consultation which we hope will lead to a concensus
about what to do on or
around September 11. The sooner we come together to
begin planning this
event, the broader/more inclusive it can be and the
more time we will have
to organize it and publicize it.

Your input is essential if we are going to help
define our common interests
and plan an action which reflects that interest.
Please plan for someone
from your organization/constituency to be there. And
urge others to do the
same.