Assumption’s newspaper talks about how awesome jackie and couscous are: http://media.www.leprovoc.com/media/storage/paper453/news/2007/10/31/NewsStories/Sargent.Strives.To.Raise.Awareness.Of.Social.Injustice-3072377.shtml

And the Worcester Telegram & Gazette has a couple quotes from Couscous member Chris Kessing about the recent peace march in Boston: http://www.telegram.com/article/20071028/NEWS/710280440/1101

We had members present representing the different groups Students Advocating Change, Justice League, WoGan, Green Worcester, Worcester Local First, and Peaceworks.

• We have a social justice BBQ/ hang out planned for tomorrow (Sunday) @ Elm Park. It starts at 1pm. Food, music, hula hoops, social justice. So come on down- feel free to bring food and or games if you wish!

• Voter Registration - We now have possession of over 1,000 voter registration forms. If you need more forms, you can either contact me or go on down to City Hall and pick up a bunch. We plan on having these registration forms available at our events, going around to dorms to sign people up, and putting them in Campus Centers too. We’ll be handing out info about the candidates too.

•  More brainstorming on what we’ll be up to this year
  

• Step it up 2
• Fair Trade Fair with vendors
• Worcester Local First campaign (promotes local businesses)
• Peace actions with SDS
• Voter Drive
• Renewable Energy Certificates for the Colleges (which we’ll talk more about next time)

This was a short meeting due to an event that was happening right after (Food Justice!)

So if you’re free tomorrow, come on down to Elm Park around 1pm for our Cous-cous Extravaganza!

Sunday, Aug 26–Over a hundred students and activists from Massachusetts and Rhode Island rallied against police brutality in North Providence, RI. The rally was prompted by an incident that occurred on August 11, 2007 where activists claim police crossed the line into brutality when they broke up a peaceful labor march by injuring and arresting a 22-year-old student activist. During the August 11 labor march Alex Svoboda, a Rhode Island student, had her leg broken by the police and is still in recovery. Since her arrest she has undergone three separate surgeries and is awaiting yet another. As a result of the violent arrest, friends of Alex, fellow students, and labor organizers held a rally against police brutality only a few blocks from where the incident originally occurred. The organizers claim the charges against her are unwarranted and are calling on the mayor and the police department to to drop all charges against Svoboda. Activists have also demanded a formal apology from the city and compensation for her medical expenses. Among the group of over a hundred at the rally were students from various universities and colleges in Worcester, including WPI, Clark, UMass Medical School, and Assumption College.

Svoboda had her leg broken and was arrested while participating in the peaceful march intended to pressure a local restaurant to withdraw its investments in Dragonland Trading Inc. Dragonland is a New York-based company that has been exposed to be operating a factory under sweatshop conditions. The owner of the local restaurant has since announced that the restaurant has discontinued business with Dragonland.

According to first hand reports, during the August 11 march, police officers made an announcement that the protesters must move from the street to the sidewalk. As the marchers were moving to the sidewalk, three police officers tackled Svoboda to the ground, breaking her leg. When fellow protesters tried to call attention to her injury, they were shouted down by the police officers. Officers then used a chemical spray on one woman who was attempting to tell the police about Svoboda’s injuries. After her arrest, Svoboda was immediately taken to the hospital. The marchers remained peaceful and continued on the planned route. No additional arrests were made.

Svoboda was initially charged with three felony assault charges (on officers), one misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace, and one charge of resisting arrest. When speaking about the incident, Alex’s father, Scott Svoboda, said “The charges are bogus and my wife, Jan Enstrom and I have retained excellent legal council for Alex. Our main goal is a healthy recovery and as for the court. We will not settle for anything less than all charges being dropped or acquittal.” He went on to say, “The main point is that Alexandra is a peaceful and sensitive young lady who would never ‘attack’ any officer and eyewitness and photos back this up… We have and have had federal, state and county law officers in our family and Alex would never attack an officer. Period.”

The August 22 rally was organized by the Providence Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the two organizations who helped organize the original labor march. The carpool from Worcester was organized by the Consortium of United Students, a Worcester-based cross-campus progressive activist group.

The rally featured a short speech from students from Brown University, some words of encouragement from two former employees of Dragonland Trading Inc., and a representative from Svoboda’s family read a letter of support from Alex’s father. The rally originally included a plan for a march to city hall. Rally organizers changed the plan after receiving thinly veiled threats of further violence from the mayor and the chief of police. Despite the organizer’s clear intentions to remain peaceful, police were out in full force at the rally. No arrests were made at the rally. The SDS and IWW say they will continue to pressure the mayor and police department to drop all charges against Alex Svoboda.

Thursday’s meeting brought more than 20(!) representatives from WPI, Assumption, Worcester State, Clark, as well as members from the Worcester Community. The specific groups represented were Students Advocating Change (AC), Environmental Club (AC), Justice League (WPI), Global Awareness of Environmental Activity-GAEA (WPI), Worcester Vegan Society, Environmental Advocacy Group (WSC), Worcester Global Action Network-WoGAN (Clark), Peaceworks (Clark), Clark Sustainability Initiative, a candidate for city councilor, and residents of Worcester.

Minutes:

• How to get people involved in Cous-cous and aware of these important issues

• Step 1, Beginning of the year club fairs at each of the schools. We are preparing a Disorientation Guide to Worcester for new students, as well as fact sheets about Cous-cous. Dante is getting us Voter Registration forms so we can register people to vote as well (they probably won’t make it on time for WPI’s fair)–please sign yourself up for these time slots!

• What do we want our 4 major events to be this year brainstorm

• social justice themed festival, or potluck/bbq at local park
• get students to register to vote (students have a huge impact—there are 25k college kids in the consortium could really sway election)
• campus shuttle-use it more and promote it a lot! Work to extend hours
• WSC has been holding the Environmental Research Conference annually combines academics and advocacy we could get involved in that
• get students off campus, ASAP- compiling monthly calendar for Worcester students include as many events as possible– featuring things/events to do [Currently working on first Dis-orientation guide, which you got the e-mail about earlier check out this new video from COWC showing what Worcester has to offer- I like their approach! http://www.cowc.org/node/130
• get middle school and/or high school students involved with the environment
• benefit concerts
• get people more involved in Worcester as a city
• have an event in the Spring involving different environmental groups/colleges MA-wide
• a fair trade fair—Assumption had an incredibly successful one last Spring with local environmentally friendly and fair trade vendors, live music, free t-shirts and tie dyeing, lots of information on fair trade and sweatshops
• social justice awareness month, where each school has a couple events of their choosing getting students aware of important social justice issues
• we didn’t get around to discussing this, but next meeting we will, because they’re great ideas: getting a grant from the Sierra Club, Renewable Energy Certificates for the Colleges, and encouraging the consortium to purchase environmentally preferable products

• Cous-cous Affiliating with SDS- Students for a Democratic Society

• Basically the same mission as Cous-cous, but on a much larger scale- there are chapters all over the US

• See it more as a support network, where we help each other out. they’re not telling us what to do with our organization and we remain autonomous

• Announcements

• Critical Mass bike ride 8/31
• Step It Up 2 11/3— 3 days before the general election will be a forum/debate with the candidates for city councilor in Worcester to see who will take a real leadership role in regards to global warming if you would like more info or to help plan it, e-mail Dante at
• Environmental Conference at UMASS Dartmouth Oct. 19 & 20th Contact Steph at snc06 [a t] hampshire.edu for more details
• Peace March in Boston 10/27 visit http://www.justicewithpeace.org for more info
• SDS march against Police Brutality in North Providence 08/26, visit their facebook page for more info, or send out an e-mail to the couscous list if you’re looking to carpool there
• Worcester Vegan Society Potluck 9/2 1pm, e-mail Stephen at sjdunnejr [ a t] yahoo.com or Marie at mjarvis@wpi.edu for more information, or you can visit http://www.worcestervegans.org/
• Someone mentioned the Worcester Activist Wiki. Here’s the link: http://www.worcesteractivist.org/wiki/Category:Organization

• Next meeting

• Sept 6th, Clark U, University Center

• What you can do

• Send us fun things to do in Worcester
• Sign up to help out at the Activities Fair
• Register to vote (if you need a form, e-mail jackie and she’ll get you one)
• Our first event is 9/10, will send out more information on that later

Worcester’s very own Consortium Of United Students (aka Cous-cous) is holding its August meeting this coming Thursday! And it’s a vegan pizza party! It’s at 7PM at Boomers (93 Highland St). You should come!

What’s Cous-cous?
The Consortium of United Students is a Worcester-based cross-campus student activist group. Cous-cous looks to build cohesion among the students of the Worcester College Consortium. We bring together progressive student groups for discussion and action on social issues. Come by yourself or as a representative of your favorite activist group!

What’d we do last year? We…

• …held a hunger strike in solidarity with the students of Purdue University who were looking to get sweatshop goods off their campus (during finals, no less)

• …helped organize Worcester Step It Up 2007, an environmental celebration and call to action

• …had informational tables at different campuses and organized events about sweatshops

• …pushed for our schools to join the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), a program that ensures that our college apparel does not come from sweatshops

• …helped organize a student contingent in one of the largest peace marches in Worcester’s recent history

• …held a demonstration at the office of Congressperson Jim McGovern to call attention to the civil liberty infringements of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA)

• …had representatives speak about student activism on prominent radio and television talk shows in the Worcester area and beyond

• …worked with various Worcester-based student groups to build a network of Worcester student activists

When’s the pizza party?

We’re meeting this Thursday, August 16th @ 7pm at Boomers for a vegan pizza party! Bring $5 for your food & drinks. Boomers is located right next to Tortilla Sams on 93 Highland St in Worcester. Near WPI. Come!

What are we going to do at the meeting?

We are going to figure out…