Tonight! Antiwar Activist Candidate Aimee Allison's First Debate in Oakland

Monday, Feb 28th at 7:30 pm
Lakeshore Ave. Baptist Church
3534 Lakeshore Ave.

Below is a "Synopsis" about Aimee and her campaign.

SYNOPSIS

Over the years, Aimee has been able to stay centered in values/beliefs that many of us share and has regularly demonstrated the kind of backbone we wish more politicians could.

Attracted by the army's offer of education, she enlisted as a combat medic in order to be able to afford college. The first Gulf War inspired Aimee to clarity as a conscientious objector (see
http://www.objector.org/articles/allison.html and also the documentary Blood Makes the Grass Grow). That's when she met Wilson Riles whose mayoral campaign would be one of Aimee's introduction to Oakland city politics.

She has also continued to do work counseling military resisters and doing counter-recruitment work. Recently, as a lead organizer for the Defense Committee of Stephen Funk, Aimee worked closely with Out Against the War, Asian Pacific Islander Coalition Against War, and Veterans for Peace. (see http://www.catholicpeacefellowship.org/sopII4/sop3.htm and
http://www.objector.org/ccco/inthenews/funkco.html).

When Aimee got out of the military she worked four years as a high
school social studies teacher in Redwood City (Sequoia High School) teaching students mostly from Mixoacan and some from mainland China and the Philippines. During the 187 struggle, she helped -- in part as Latino Student Advisor-- to facilitate student organizing of immigrant rights walkouts and credits the teacher's union there for avoiding getting fired.

When Oakland Greens (who later enthusiastically endorsed her
candidacy) asked her how she would be held accountable if elected
(aka how can we trust you not to turn into one of THEM). She gave
the normal (fine) answers about attending regular meetings with
community and political groups in the district but only after first
sharing: "For the last few years, I've been trying to understand how
that happens. I think a big part of that is that current council
members often seem to be planning the next leg of their political
career. Careerism seems to be a problem."