For our second year in a row, the DC weather for Get on the Bus (GOTB) was

better than predicted. By our rally at the end of the day, the high 60s and sun

were warming up our orange jump suits and had brought loads of tourists to

Lafayette Park. This year’s co-coordinators of GOTB were Carla Boccella and

Dana Watters.

The day started at the Service Employees Union International, which offered us

a beautiful meeting area at no charge. The musical group, Leify Green Conspir-

acy, Continue on pg. 6...

GET ON THE BUS DC YEAR TWO Claudia Vandermade

On January 11th, I brought a bus of 56 people

to D.C. to participate in the National Day of

Action Against Guantanamo. It was a huge

undertaking, and I never could have done it

without support from the Amnesty Mid-Atlantic

Region’s terrific staff and volunteer leaders. AI

offered to pay for half of the cost of chartering

a bus if I could fill it with at least 50 people,

and I immediately set off to secure

travelers! My principal agreed to ex-

cuse the absences of students who

participated in the rally, and I handed

out letters to students’ parents with

information about the rally in history

Cont. on pg. 6

Group Corner - Pittsburgh CAPA High School

April 2012 Issue

AIUSA.ORG | Amnesty International Mid Atlantic Regional Planning Group (RPG) | Published three times a year

THE CANDLE Amnesty International Mid Atlantic Region Newsletter 50 YEARS

Get On the Bus DC

Group Corner: CAPA High School

Tech Corner GOB 2

Syria 2

Death Penalty 3

MARO News 4

Jamnesty 4

Guantanamo 5

Calendar 7

THIS ISSUE

May 5, 6:30 pm Art Fundraiser

May 19, 7:30pm: Education Un-

der Fire: film screening, VA

(NoVa)

May 21, 11am: Petition to White

House

June 23: 13th Annual NoVA Pic-

nic

June 24, 1pm: Day of Action

Against Torture

August 11: Leadership Training

November 10-11: Regional Con-

ference, VA (NoVa)

See pg 7 for more details

LOOKING FORWARD

Jordana Rosenfeld

and consulates to ignore us," said Farrar.

But many cities have no consulates or

embassies, but every activist was still

able to access the consulates and em-

bassies--by phone, fax, email and where

they have it, Facebook pages and Twit-

ter. Virtual Activism is an easy way for

people everywhere to pressure govern-

ments to end human rights abuses."

Hope you were able to join Get On The

Bus DC or participate by taking action

online.

At each rally-point tweets marked in the

bus packet were used to spread the word

over the internet. We also took pictures

and uploaded them to Twitter and Face-

book using hashtag #GetOnTheBusDC

and the national hashtag, #gotb12.

Starting last year during Get On The Bus

DC's inaugural run, the GOTB planning

team came up with the concept of Virtual

Activism. "The idea came to us working on

two fronts: getting Embassy staffers' atten-

tion as we make noise outside, and inside

with phones ringing off the hook and fax

machines running out of paper" said Becky

Farrar, GOTB Planning Committee lead.

Through social networks, GOTB's first Vir-

tual Activism went international. Activists

from as far off as Poland called and faxed.

Embassy faxes were shutting down and

phone lines were busy all day. "Virtual Ac-

tivism makes it far harder for embassies

Syrians Right of Peaceful Protest

Tech Corner GOTB Social Media

Fredericksburg MD group in GOTB #2

Twitter:

@GetOnTheBusDC

Facebook.com/

GetOnTheBusDC

AmnestyGOTBDC.t

umblr.com

gotbdc.org

PAGE 2

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Candlelight vigil for Syria

March 6, 2012. Our Washington, DC lo-

cal group members organized a solidarity

rally for the people of Syria. More than

100 people participated in the rally that

generated many petition signatures calling

on Russia to help stop the killing in Syria

and hold the Assad regime accountable.

Thanks to MARO volunteer leaders Maha

Hilal and Darakshan Raja for leading the

effort. The following week, MARO staff

members organized another Syrian soli-

darity rally in front of the Russian Embas-

sy on March 18, calling on Russia to use

its influence to stop the bloodshed in Syr-

ia.

Death Penalty - Maryland

HR Education Service Corps

Amnesty activists rally against the death penalty in Maryland

Get On The Bus #2 DC

Amnesty activists from across Maryland

can be proud of the state’s death penalty

abolition campaign over the past year.

Despite a discouraging finish to this year’s

Maryland legislative session, repeal is still

a foreseeable goal. The House Judiciary

committee in March failed to call the bill to

a vote, although a majority of legislators on

the floor of the General Assembly are pre-

pared to repeal the state’s racist, arbitrary,

unfair and wasteful capital punishment sys-

tem. We have the votes; 2013 will be our

year!

Five additional members of the Maryland

House of Delegates signed on as cospon-

sors of this year’s repeal bill, bringing the

total number of cosponsors to 66 in the

House and 19 in the Senate. Over 100 ac-

tivists attended the rally and lobby night in

Annapolis on MLK Day. We launched an

Amnesty International death penalty repeal

account on Twitter and a Facebook page.

More than 3,500 people signed an online

petition to their state legislators and Gov.

O’Malley. We called more than 2,400 activ-

ists across the state, mobilizing them to

contact their state legislators.

Thanks to everyone who participated in

this year’s campaign, Amnesty’s two

State Death Penalty Abolition Coordina-

tors (SDPACs) in Maryland will continue

to build momentum at the grassroots lev-

el this summer and fall and on through

the 2013 legislative session.

Fan MARO’s MD death penalty abolition

campaign via Facebook (Amnesty Inter-

national – Maryland Death Penalty Aboli-

tion Group) and follow us on Twitter

(AIEndMDDP), contact SDPACs: Andrea

Hall andreainrockville@yahoo.com or

Kevin Scruggs kev-

in.a.scruggs@gmail.com

Page 3

“We have

the votes;

2013 will

be our

year!”

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Hanna Caldwell, HRESC Coordinator

has five schools participating and our

facilitators are in 7 classrooms. This

semester included three separate train-

ing and check-in days in our attempt to

make sure the group stays connected

to Amnesty International priorities.

Another exciting addition this year is

that Field Organizer, Julie Southwell,

visited four of the HRESC schools to

talk to the students about starting

their own Amnesty group and joining

Get On The Bus DC. The students

were given AIUSA materials, Get On

The Bus pins and fliers, and had the

opportunity to learn about activism

first-hand.

HRESC contact is Hanna Caldwell at

johanna.emilie@gmail.com

Andrea Hall

MARO News

Julie Southwell is the newest addition to

the MARO office. Julie started as the Field

Organizer for DC, Delaware, and Pennsyl-

vania on January 17th 2012. Julie worked

in Boston for Women's Action for New Di-

rections, which focuses on military spend-

ing, nuclear disarmament, the wars in Iraq

and Afghanistan, and electing more wom-

en to office. Before working at Women’s

Action, she spent three years working the

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In

Training program. She holds a Masters

degree in Middle Eastern Studies from the

School of Oriental and African Studies in

London and an undergraduate degree in

history and political science from SUNY

Albany.

Julie has already made two visits to Penn-

sylvania where she has gotten to meet with

groups from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia.

Julie has also been hard at work joining

coalitions in Delaware and arranging

speaking engagements at the University

of Delaware to ramp up AI's presence.

Julie has visited countless DC group

meetings, hired a new Student Area Co-

ordinator, and is most excited about at-

tending Get On The Bus.

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“Our suc-

cess

grows

each

year ”

Jamnesty at Madison

Jamnesty 101

Zara Saponja

Page 4

Jamnesty incorporates Amnesty’s human rights efforts with art and music. I am lucky to

belong one of the most active schools in Virginia: James Madison High School. Our

group is very inspiring and passionate making each Jamnesty event memorable. Having

sponsored five successfully, we are skilled at Jamnesty extravaganza! Working with

school calendars can be a challenge, so we try to get our date secured early – up to a

year in advance. Two months prior we hold auditions for the musical acts and work on

the specifics: speakers, AI T-shirts, posters and other AI materials as well as all the other

things to put the event together.

We make assignments for such tasks as advertising, set-up etc… and we all help out

where needed in the end. Above all else, our sponsors Ryan Douds and Andrea Jones

really help and inspire us! Our sponsors work hand-in-hand with students to make our

club a special and important part of the school and we are truly thankful to have such

amazing sponsors. Jamnesty would not be possible without them.

Our success grows each year. The $3 tickets sell out fast. Everyone is invited, and peo-

ple of all ages come together for a magical night to fight for human rights. We set up

tables around the edges of the room where we offer petitions and people can write let-

ters. We also have Amnesty brochures and buttons available.

Try Jamnesty at your school! I’d be glad to give you more pointers, and the MARO field

organizers can help as well. Contact us at: aiusama@aiusa.org

GUANTAMO ANNIVERSARY

AGM 2012

On January 11, 2012 hundreds of Amnesty

activists from around the country rallied at

the White House to mark ten years since

the first detainees arrived at the detention

facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Youth activists from 15 MARO student

groups, including over 40 people from

Charlottesville High School and 60 from

Pittsburgh, joined members of nine MARO

local groups and others from around the

country for the inspiring day of action.

Led by a group of 171 people in orange

jumpsuits and black hoods--representing

the number of detainees currently being

held--a human chain of over 800 people

stretched over five city blocks as the pro-

cession marched across DC to demon-

strate in front of the Supreme Court. They

demanded an end to indefinite detention

and other human rights abuses perpetu-

ated at Guantanamo. Be sure to join us

for follow up actions for Guantanamo rally

on June 24 at the White House!

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Thanks to all our members from the Mighty Mid-Atlantic

Region that made it to our AGM in Denver! Highlights in-

cluded the opening welcome speech by Suzanne Nossel,

our new executive director, followed by keynote addresses

by Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Saeah Shroud--three

American hikers who were imprisoned in Iran.

The meeting also featured an informative and inspiring ple-

nary session on the theme of the meeting: “Rising Up: De-

manding Our Rights, Claiming Our Future” with Max Berger

of the Occupy Movement and Asmaa Mahfouz, the Egyp-

tian activist who spearheaded the Tahir Square Revolution.

Participants also participated in an Immigration Rights rally

in front of the Colorado State Capitol to affirm that immi-

grant rights are human rights and that state legislations

respect immigrant rights. On Saturday, MARO activists

met up for a networking pizza dinner. Thank you for being

part of it and participating!! Page 5

GOTB Rally Lafayette Park

Guantanamo

rally

June 24

at the White

House!

Jordana Rosenfeld makes a flag for the GOTB Filep Karma action

GOTB DC #2

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“A Chinese

television

station cov-

ered the

GOTB rally

at the Phil-

ippine Em-

bassy ”

Page 6

Cont. from page 1… GOTB DC

set a great tone as they warmed up activists at the beginning of the speaker’s

panel. Emira Woods, the co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute

for Policy Studies started off with an energetic message for young people about

the value of their human rights work. We also listened to Col. Morris Davis

describe his view of Guantanamo Military Commissions; he served there as the

U.S. Chief Prosecutor for two years before resigning due to his objection to the

use of evidence obtained by torture. Other speakers included a number of stu-

dent leaders and Amnesty staff members.

More than 100 activists then divided into two groups to rally at the Zimbabwe

and Iraq embassies, then headed to home and the big orange Amnesty tent at

Dupont Circle. After lunch the China/Tibet action featured a silent group of pro-

testers, with hands over their mouths, forming a circle around the Dupont foun-

tain as the larger group marched around the broad circle yelling for the release

of filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen.

The Indonesian Embassy staff, who are accustomed to our monthly rallies for

Filep Karma, must have noticed our increased size and volume on the 27th.

Students performed a short piece of street theatre depicting Filep’s arrest, which

erupted into chants for his release.

The group split again for actions at the Philippines and DRC embassies, which

included coverage at the Philippines by a Chinese television station. After a

water break with chants at a park on Connecticut Avenue, activists continued to

Lafayette Park to demand that the U.S. either charge Shaker Aamer, or release

him from Guantanamo Bay.

Cont pg. 1 Pittsburgh CAPA High School

and English classes at school. I was also sure to reach out to Pittsburgh’s colleges and

universities, local groups, and the larger social justice community to fill the bus and

reach the most people.

To finance the other half of the bus, travelers were encouraged to pay for their seat on

a sliding scale from $10-$25, depending on what they could afford. Ultimately, enough

money was raised and enough activists signed up, and we set off for D.C. early in the

morning on January 11th. The rally was a fun and empowering experience, and I can’t

wait to return with students to attend Get on the Bus-D.C. on April 27th!

Amnesty International Mid-Atlantic Region

600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE 5th Floor Washington, DC 20003 Phone: 202 544-0200 | 1-866-A-REGION Fax: 202 546-7142 aiusama@aiusa.org The Mid-Atlantic Region:

April 2012 Issue

POSTAGE

Amnesty International Mid-Atlantic Region

NEWSLETTER NON-PROFIT MAIL

May 19, 7:30pm: Education Under Fire: film screening and panel. At Northern VA Baha'i Center in

Sterling, VA

May 21, 11am: Petition delivery for Maher Arar at the White House

June 23: 13th Annual NoVA Picnic, featuring the Judy Patterson Memorial Croquet Tournament

June 24, 1pm: Day of Action Against Torture: Rally at the Capitol, march to the White House

August 11: Leadership Training at MARO

November 10-11: Regional Conference, Northern Virginia

Information at facebook.com/AmnestyMARO