George Paz Martin
Template:TOCnestleft George Paz Martin is a three term, National Co-Chair of United for Peace & Justice (UFPJ). He was Program Director of Peace Action Wisconsin for eight years.
Martin is a leader in both the World Social Forum and the World Peace Council. He is a former Black Panther and current Green Party USA leader.[1]
Activism
George Paz Martin is a member of the Green Party of the United States International Committee and a founding member of the party's Black Caucus. He is a former two-term co-chair of both the Wisconsin and Greater Milwaukee Green Parties. Martin serves as Program Director of Peace Action Wisconsin, and initiated the Milwaukee Bring the Troops Home Referendum Campaign and the Wisconsin Peace Voter Campaign. Martin also serves as National Co-Chair of United for Peace & Justice (UFPJ), the U.S.s largest peace coalition with more than 1,400 organizations. He visited Iraq in 2004 on a fact-finding mission where he personally witnessed the plight of the Iraqi people and U.S. troops
At the close of 2006, Martin was given a Lifetime Peacemaker Award by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, and was honored on December 6th in the U.S. House of Representatives in a statement read by Gwen Moore, Representative to Congress from the 4th Congressional district. Martin has appeared on every major U.S. television network, C-Span, CNN, BBC and Democracy Now to speak against the War in Iraq, as well as countless radio and television stations around the world.[2]
International
Internationally, Martin works through the World Social Forum (WSF) for social justice, international solidarity, gender equality, peace, and defense of the environment. He was a speaker at the '04 WSF in Italy and at the '05 WSF in Brazil where his speech against the War in Iraq was broadcast to more than 350 TV and radio stations across the U.S. At the '06 WSF in Venezuela, he was part of an international peace delegation that met with President Hugo Chavez, and he addressed the Global Greens Youth Conference prior to attending the '07 WSF in Nairobi.[3]
In Iraq in 2004, on a fact-finding mission for UFPJ, he and others met with and listened to the Iraqi people and our US troops. George Martin speaks across the U.S. and around the world on the “Reality of Iraq” at events, rallies, universities, and conferences and in the media on every major U.S. television network, C-Span, CNN, BBC and Democracy Now along with countless radio and television around the world.
Internationally, Martin worked on peace and global justice in Italy in 2004 with “Reclaiming Our United Nations” and in British Columbia in 2006 with the World Peace Conference. He has worked in collaboration with peace movements of other countries at World Social Forums in Brazil in 2005, Venezuela in 2006 and Kenya in 2007 where he was spokesperson for the Anti-War Assembly of 50 countries.
More recently, he spoke at the Stop War Middle East Conference in London in 2007, and in 2008; at the World Peace Council in Caracas, the 40th Anniversary of the 1968 Revolution in Athens, and at the International Conference on Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in Commemoration with Anniversary of the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Yokasuka, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.[4]
MLK connection
At 16 years of age, Martin was 10 feet away from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during his "I Have a Dream"speech. That was his "coming of age" as an activist in the Civil Rights movement, the Black Panther Party and the War on Poverty. By 25 years of age, Martin had served on community boards of directors in the areas of housing, healthcare, credit unions, youth development, employment and training. He has also served as staff, consultant, steering committee or board member to more than 100 community-based organizations and as a consultant to U.S. corporations and the U.S. Departments of Health and Labor.[5]
Veteran work
For the past 18 years, Martin has served the homeless, especially homeless veterans, primarily as a volunteer and also as staff and consultant to community based organizations and both the state and federal governments in developing, fundraising and operating both facilities and programs. He continues that work as a volunteer leader in Wisconsin Stand Down, a biannual event bringing hundreds of homeless veterans off the streets of Milwaukee for holistic services, including Iraq War veterans.[6]
Peace Action
Martin serves on the Peace Action Board of Directors, as of March 17, 2010.[1]
United for Peace and Justice
In 2005 and Dec 2008 George Martin, Milwaukee Coalition for a Just Peace was voted onto the Steering Committee for United for Peace and Justice. [7]. [8]
Open Letter to Obama on Iran
In 2008 George Martin, Co-Chair, United for Peace & Justice, WI signed an online petition “A Open Letter to Barack Obama on Iran”.[9]
US Social Forum National Planning Committee
Contact Sheet for the National Planning Committee of the U.S. Social Forum, Detroit 2010. Original April 09, 2009, Updated February 23, 2010.
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 Board of Directors
- ↑ , Green party Speakers bureau bio, accessed Jan 5, 2012
- ↑ , Green party Speakers bureau bio, accessed Jan 5, 2012
- ↑ Cleveland Peace Action, December - 2008 Volume 4, Issue 5]
- ↑ , Green party Speakers bureau bio, accessed Jan 5, 2012
- ↑ , Green party Speakers bureau bio, accessed Jan 5, 2012
- ↑ http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=1874
- ↑ http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?list=type&type=16
- ↑ Open Letter to Obama on Iran