Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Aimee Allison: Oakland City Council candidate speaks against recruitment
Aimee Allison has come a long way from the 17-year-old kid at Antioch High who joined the Army Reserves to get an education. The 35-year-old Stanford graduate and Green Party candidate for Oakland’s District 2 write-in election (to replace a councilmember who quit) spoke at a recent Berkeley High military recruitment teach-in, explaining how she joined the Army.
“Aimee, you can do whatever you want to do in life,” she recalls the recruiter saying. One of six children, her parents could not afford to send her to college. “I wanted to go so bad, I was desperate to find a way, any way to go to college.”
So she became an army medic and was in the Army Reserves for several years. As a student in education at Stanford, she came to realize the extent to which she opposed war and won conscientious objector status during the first Gulf War. She’s been counseling others on how to do that ever since and, at the teach-in, urged students who don’t want to go into the military to explore other options for funding their education.
“When I was 17, nobody asked me to think about what it would be like to leave my family, go into training, put on the battle-dress fatigues, and shoot M-16s and kill. Realize that you have rights.”
The issue of a draft is becoming critical, she told the students. “Many people believe that the question isn’t if there’s going to be a draft, but how it’s going to be implemented, … You have rights; there are those of us who will support you whatever you decide to do.”
And the question isn’t just for men. Addressing the young women in the audience, she said: “If you think the draft will not target you, I think that you are mistaken.”
She told students that it isn’t too early to start preparing a file of their anti-war participation, if they feel strongly against war.
“Maybe you’ve seen pictures of soldiers who have been killed in Iraq. They look just like you. Young men and women of different races from different parts of the country,” she said.
Making a name for herself in the anti-war community — and taking a strong anti-war stand in her run for Oakland City Council — Allison also spoke at the March 19 rally in San Francisco marking the second anniversary of the war in Iraq.
“We cannot end this war without the soldiers joining us,” she said, proposing that cities become a sanctuary for those who refuse to fight.
Speaking out more strongly at the rally than in the high school auditorium, Allison took aim at military recruiters. “We need to get the blood-sucking recruiters off our campuses,” she said.
Nine candidates are running for the District 2 seat vacated by Danny Wan, who said the $60,000 council salary was insufficient to help him care for his aging parents. He reportedly earns twice that amount in his new Port-of-Oakland job.
The election will be held by mail. Registered voters will receive ballots between April 18 and May 7 and must return them by 8 p.m. on May 17. District 2 nearly circles Lake Merritt and includes Chinatown.
This is an abbreviated version of a story that first appeared in the Berkeley Daily Planet. Email Judith Scherr at jescherr22 [at] earthlink.net.
Read More
http://www.sfbayview.com/041305/aimeeallison041305.shtml
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
I find the other article at that URL even more interesting, "Oakland is falling in love with Aimee" -- especially the last half of the article -- so here it is!!
She has a real chance of winning election to the City Council -- check out her website at: http://www.AimeeAllison.org -- then contact the campaign and volunteer!! (Also, she's holding a party with Matt Gonzalez, Peter Camejo, Wilson Riles, and Renee Saucedo this coming Friday in Oakland -- see her website for details!).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sfbayview.com/041305/aimeeallison041305.shtml
Oakland is falling in love with Aimee
The Sierra Club and the Oakland Teachers Association both announced Friday they are endorsing Aimee Allison’s campaign for Oakland City Council in District 2.
“The Sierra Club has endorsed Aimee to be our strong environmental voice at City Hall,” said Steve Bloom, Sierra Club state executive board member. “She is the only candidate highlighting the poor air quality in Oakland’s public school and proposing concrete solutions to improve health conditions.”
“Aimee is a strong advocate of the union’s fight to stop school closures and improved teacher’s benefits,” added Jesse Muldoon, OEA site representative for Roosevelt Middle School. “She is the independent voice we need in city government to help us fight Schwarzenegger’s attempts to dismantle public education in Oakland.”
Aimee, whose name means beloved in French, is capturing Oakland’s heart for her courageous stands. She has even condemned the use of public money to build a Wal-Mart in East Oakland.
The only City Council candidate to attend a recent forum at the ILWU Local 6 Union Hall, she spoke passionately to an overflow crowd about the importance of using taxpayers’ money to promote community based development – not corporate welfare – and the need to reign in the Port’s commercial aspirations.
“Three months before the Wal-Mart project appeared, the City Council passed a ‘no big box’ ordinance on public lands,” continued Allison. “Then they allow the Port to get around this ordnance by using its private commercial real estate division to sell off public assets to large developers like Simeon.”
The fact that Simeon received a $10 million loan from municipal coffers to build Wal-Mart, in a sweetheart deal with no public input, has outraged many Oakland residents.
“Our public schools are bankrupt, the city has a $30 million budget deficit, and we lack adequate affordable housing,” Allison said. “City government should persuade the Port Authority to act as a good neighbor by paying its fair share – instead of selling off Oakland’s assets to the highest bidder.”
“I have proudly endorsed our Sister Aimee Allison for the Oakland City Council District 2 seat, and have been doing some precinct walking for her campaign,” says Brother Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at. “Sister Aimee is a strong, independent woman of African ancestry, a good friend and a supporter of the issues that our community has been struggling to achieve for many years.
“Over the years, she has not only courageously stood up against the abusers in the U.S. military and killing industry but fought for key local issues as well. She is a past teacher in the colonized PEOPLE’s school district of Oakland that the abusers of power are seeking to ‘privatize’ and turn into another for-profit corporation. Most importantly, Sister Aimee is calling for the PEOPLE’s Port of Oakland to be fully accountable to the true owners of that valuable property, and begin releasing its BILLIONS in profits each year for the benefit of the residents of Oakland.
“I strongly encourage each of you to talk to Sister Aimee, consider endorsing her platform for change, and work to get her elected this May. We need a strong, independent, visionary Black voice in the Oakland City Council.”
Aimee, a member of the Green Party, has also been endorsed by Wilson Riles, former Oakland City council member; Matt Gonzalez, former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; SF Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi; Clarence Thomas, executive board member of ILWU Local 10; Willie Ratcliff, publisher of the Bay View newspaper; and many more.
“I joined the Green Party after reading their platform and talking it over with my friend Wilson Riles,” she explains. “I decided I could not run for City Council as a Democrat. I cannot support a party that is pro-war, has sold its soul to corporate America, and is no longer concerned with working class people.”
She has a real chance of winning election to the City Council -- check out her website at: http://www.AimeeAllison.org -- then contact the campaign and volunteer!! (Also, she's holding a party with Matt Gonzalez, Peter Camejo, Wilson Riles, and Renee Saucedo this coming Friday in Oakland -- see her website for details!).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sfbayview.com/041305/aimeeallison041305.shtml
Oakland is falling in love with Aimee
The Sierra Club and the Oakland Teachers Association both announced Friday they are endorsing Aimee Allison’s campaign for Oakland City Council in District 2.
“The Sierra Club has endorsed Aimee to be our strong environmental voice at City Hall,” said Steve Bloom, Sierra Club state executive board member. “She is the only candidate highlighting the poor air quality in Oakland’s public school and proposing concrete solutions to improve health conditions.”
“Aimee is a strong advocate of the union’s fight to stop school closures and improved teacher’s benefits,” added Jesse Muldoon, OEA site representative for Roosevelt Middle School. “She is the independent voice we need in city government to help us fight Schwarzenegger’s attempts to dismantle public education in Oakland.”
Aimee, whose name means beloved in French, is capturing Oakland’s heart for her courageous stands. She has even condemned the use of public money to build a Wal-Mart in East Oakland.
The only City Council candidate to attend a recent forum at the ILWU Local 6 Union Hall, she spoke passionately to an overflow crowd about the importance of using taxpayers’ money to promote community based development – not corporate welfare – and the need to reign in the Port’s commercial aspirations.
“Three months before the Wal-Mart project appeared, the City Council passed a ‘no big box’ ordinance on public lands,” continued Allison. “Then they allow the Port to get around this ordnance by using its private commercial real estate division to sell off public assets to large developers like Simeon.”
The fact that Simeon received a $10 million loan from municipal coffers to build Wal-Mart, in a sweetheart deal with no public input, has outraged many Oakland residents.
“Our public schools are bankrupt, the city has a $30 million budget deficit, and we lack adequate affordable housing,” Allison said. “City government should persuade the Port Authority to act as a good neighbor by paying its fair share – instead of selling off Oakland’s assets to the highest bidder.”
“I have proudly endorsed our Sister Aimee Allison for the Oakland City Council District 2 seat, and have been doing some precinct walking for her campaign,” says Brother Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at. “Sister Aimee is a strong, independent woman of African ancestry, a good friend and a supporter of the issues that our community has been struggling to achieve for many years.
“Over the years, she has not only courageously stood up against the abusers in the U.S. military and killing industry but fought for key local issues as well. She is a past teacher in the colonized PEOPLE’s school district of Oakland that the abusers of power are seeking to ‘privatize’ and turn into another for-profit corporation. Most importantly, Sister Aimee is calling for the PEOPLE’s Port of Oakland to be fully accountable to the true owners of that valuable property, and begin releasing its BILLIONS in profits each year for the benefit of the residents of Oakland.
“I strongly encourage each of you to talk to Sister Aimee, consider endorsing her platform for change, and work to get her elected this May. We need a strong, independent, visionary Black voice in the Oakland City Council.”
Aimee, a member of the Green Party, has also been endorsed by Wilson Riles, former Oakland City council member; Matt Gonzalez, former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; SF Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi; Clarence Thomas, executive board member of ILWU Local 10; Willie Ratcliff, publisher of the Bay View newspaper; and many more.
“I joined the Green Party after reading their platform and talking it over with my friend Wilson Riles,” she explains. “I decided I could not run for City Council as a Democrat. I cannot support a party that is pro-war, has sold its soul to corporate America, and is no longer concerned with working class people.”
For more information:
http://www.AimeeAllison.org
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$190.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network