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The IVAW Convention Was a Huge Success!By Marty WebsterVVAW National Coordinator's Barry Romo and Marty Webster attended this year's IVAW annual convention, held at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas from July 8-11. Over 100 members and allies were in attendance. VVAW members Bill Perry and Ward Reilly were also in attendance. The 2010 Rise Together Convention weekend was a huge success!
The evening before the convention there was a protest outside the gate of Fort Hood which was covered by the Killeen Daily Herald. Members of the Fort Hood chapter--Jeff Grant, Michael Kern, Eric Jasinski, Victor Agosto, Kyle Wesolowski, Jake Wade--and Under the Hood Cafe Manager Cindy Thomas also organized GI outreach on and off base. The meeting was called to order on Friday morning by Board Chair Geoff Millard. He offered opening remarks that highlighted IVAW's history of resistance and growth. Marty Webster brought greetings from Vietnam Veterans Against the War and congratulated IVAW for a well run convention and how impressed he was with the overall maturing of the organization. He spoke in depth about the legacy of the Vietnam veteran and how this legacy will always be a part of IVAW. The VA Health Care panel, moderated by Board Co-Chair Adrienne Kinne, featured VVAW's mental health provider Hans Buwalda and Paul Sullivan, Executive Director of Veterans for Common Sense. The Reparations panel featured Caitlin Brown of Iraqi Health Now, Aaron Hughes of the Field Organizing Team, and Antonia Juhasz of the Chevron Program at Global Exchange, moderated by Geoff Millard. The panels were followed by workshops covering VA benefits, gender and the military, organizing military families, corporate campaigns against oil companies, truth in recruiting, and developing a grassroots legislative agenda. Marty Webster, VVAW; Deborah Forter, MFSO; and Denis Lane, VFP were appointed to the IVAW Advisory Board as the official representatives of their respective organizations. Ann Wright, Todd Ensign, Phyllis Bennis, Daniel Ellsberg and Ward Reilly were also appointed. Antonia Juhasz, Phyllis Bennis, Deborah Forter, Marty Webster and Ann Wright attended an inaugural meeting at the convention chaired by Antonia Juhasz.
At night we had the opportunity to connect with local activists who are part of the Third Coast Activist resource center. Special thanks to Professor Robert Jensen and the Mamas of Color Rising for their hospitality and the amazing meal. Saturday started out with a report from the IVAW Field Organizing Team (FOT) followed by a panel on Iraq and Afghanistan. The panel, moderated by NE Field Organizer Chantelle Bateman, included Raed Jarrar, Iraq Consultant with the American Friends Service Committee, Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, Ann Wright of Veterans For Peace, Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, and Tod Ensign of Citizen Soldier. The FOT also led a workshop on building a GI and Veterans Bill of Rights campaign. A second workshop was led on war resistance titled "Ripping the Military a New Back Door." In the afternoon, IVAW members discussed three important resolutions. The first, proposed by Victor Agosto, called for an end to the siege of Gaza by the Israeli military and government with support from the US. The second, proposed by Adrienne Kinne, was in support of immigrant rights and in opposition to SB 1070, the controversial Arizona bill. The third, proposed by TJ Buonomo, was a call for prosecution of the Bush administration for war crimes. All three resolutions passed. IVAW also voted in a new Board of Directors. Cameron White, Adrienne Kinne. Sara Beining, Jeff Key, Robynn Murray, Garett Reppenhagen, Jeremy Stainthorp-Berggren, Joyce Wagner, TJ Buonomo, Robin Long, and Logan Mehl-Laituri. In the evening, everyone traveled to the Under the Hood Café for a night of music and socializing with active duty personnel. $3500 was raised for the coffee house and testimonies were heard from troops and military families. Once again on behalf of VVAW congratulations to IVAW for hosting the 2010 Rise Together Convention. Marty Webster is a VVAW National Coordinator.
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