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January 3, 2008
Dear PRC Supporters,
Happy New Year's!
We want to inform you of some
changes that will be occurring to the PRC web
site, email, and list serves. As you may know,
the Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative
(PRC) is currently not active. As part of this,
we will be moving the PRC web site to the Illinois
Disciples Foundation web site, where the PRC
is a program. The Illinois Disciples Foundation
is a peace with justice campus ministry and
non-profit organization located on the University
of Illinois campus. For more information on
the IDF, please visit http://www.prairienet.org/idf.
You can find the new PRC site
at:
http://www.prairienet.org/idf/prcweb/index.html
Please pardon our dust as we continue
to move over all of the files as it has not
been completed yet.
We will also no longer be using
this list serve (prc-l@prairienet.org) for updates
and announcements. If you are interested in
getting similar emails, you can subscribe to
the IDF email announcement list. It is a low-traffic
list, much like this one. You can subscribe
to this at:
1) http://www.prairienet.org/idf/idfmaillist.html
2) https://mail.prairienet.org/mailman/listinfo/idf-l
Finally, the PRC email account
(prc@prairienet.org) will no longer be active.
If you would like to contact us in regards to
the PRC, please send your correspondence to
idf@prairienet.org.
We expect the accounts to be deactivated
in the next two weeks.
In the last year, we have seen
great social justice victories with the removal
of "Chief Illiniwek" from the University
of Illinois. And yet we have seen great struggles
arise and flourish that require our constant
attention and activity with the U.S.-led war
in Iraq, amongst other issues.
As Howard Zinn wrote, "If
we remember those times and places—and
there are so many—where people have behaved
magnificently, this gives us the energy to act,
and at least the possibility of sending this
spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we
don't have to wait for some grand utopian future.
The future is an infinite succession of presents,
and to live now as we think human beings should
live, in defiance of all that is bad around
us, is itself a marvelous victory."
We call on you to carry on our
work for social justice and we thank you for
all of your support!
In solidarity,
The PRC
Click
here to be redirected to the new page.
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Feb. 16, 2007
Univ. of Illinois Ends The Use of The "Chief":
Anti-"Chief" Org. Sees Victory of Grassroots
Action
On the morning of Friday, February 16th,
University of Illinois Board chairman Lawrence Eppley
announced the end of the racist “Chief Illiniwek”
tradition. The “Chief” has served as the
symbol and mascot of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign for eighty years. In 1989, a grassroots
movement began for the complete elimination of the
inappropriate tradition and the use of race-based
imagery. After a long struggle, both the University’s
academic and athletic credentials were challenged
for carrying on such a tradition. Most recently, the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) put
the University of a short list of schools who could
not host post-season tournaments due to the NCAA’s
restrictions on the use of Native American imagery.
Sept 6,
2006
Anti-"Chief" Update and Call to Action!
The fall semester's anti-"Chief"
activities will be kicked off tomorrow (9/7) at the
University of Illinois Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting
on our campus in Urbana-Champaign. This is the THIRD
meeting of the BOT since the National Collegiate Athletic
Association's (NCAA) Executive Committee denied U
of I's appeal regarding "Chief Illiniwek"
on April 28, 2006. Despite the NCAA ruling, the issue
of the "Chief" has yet again been left off
of the BOT's meeting agenda.
July 12, 2006
Anti-"Chief" Update and Action Alert
On Thursday, the University of Illinois
Board of Trustees (BOT) will be meeting at UIC. This
is the second meeting of the BOT since the National
Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Executive
Committee denied U of I's appeal regarding "Chief
Illiniwek" on April 28, 2006. Despite the NCAA
ruling, the issue of the "Chief" has yet
again been left off of the BOT's meeting agenda.
July 12, 2006
Check out the new Dis-Orientation!
May 11,
2006
Recap of "The National Case to Impeach President
George Bush, Jr."
On March 28th 2006 the Progressive Resource/Action
Cooperative hosted Francis A. Boyle as he spoke about
the case to impeach President George Bush Jr. Seventy
people from the Champaign-Urbana college and community
area came to here him speak in Gregory Hall on Wright
street.
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| Anti-"Chief" |
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UIUC's official mascot and symbol, "Chief Illiniwek" is a racist representation of Native people created by non-Natives for the halftime entertainment and profit of non-Native people. It undermines Native peoples' right to self-determination by appropriating sacred aspects of Native political and religious culture. The "Chief's" performance is just as offensive to Native Americans as the Little Black Sambo and Amos & Andy stereotypes are to African American people. By mocking Native culture, the UI sets a dangerous precedent for racist representation of all other social and ethnic groups targeted for oppression
After 16 years of organizing efforts to eliminate
"Chief Illiniwek," the University of Illinois
Board of Trustees has yet to take decisive action
to remove this stereotype of Native peoples from our
campus and community.
However, as a result of YOUR efforts to educate the public about this issue and advocate for the "Chief's" removal, many members of the Board are now talking about "when" (not "if") the "Chief" will be eliminated. |
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| Anti-War |
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The Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative (PRC)
has long been involved in movements in opposition
to indiscriminate killing and in support of self-determination
for all people (for instance, Afghanistan, Palestine,
Central America, and Bosnia). Therefore, the PRC,
as an organization with a long history of struggling
for peace with justice, is outraged by the zeal with
which the U.S. government, led by George W. Bush,
is pursuing another war with Iraq.
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| About PRC |
The Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative (PRC) was
multi-issue, multi-tactical activist organization committed
to peace with social justice. We are students, faculty
and community residents working to promote human rights,
democracy, and self-determination for all people. The
PRC was a member of the Coalition
Against Coke Contracts (CACC) and the Central
Illinois Jobs with Justice chapter. The PRC was a
program of the Illinois
Disciples Foundation, a pioneering peace with
justice campus ministry and non-profit organization.
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