activist

UPDATE:

No one has responded, so we are obliged to try to do this ourselves. We run into many problems in terms of development and implementation (internationalization, theme integration, etc). We still need help. On theming we have two themes selected and we try to merge them, to get the best out of both. Please write me if you think you can assist. Thanks for reading.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

There are no financial resources available for this work (i.e., there is no money). We look for volunteers. We ourselves are volunteers. Your contribution will be acknowledged, of course (if you wish), and we can provide letters of recommendation if needed. Your main reward, like ours, is a lighter conscience, knowing that you did something for the benefit of human rights and justice worldwide, and specifically for Iraqi victims. We believe that the protection and promotion of human rights is a duty that rests on the shoulders of all of us; that all of us should use whatever skills we have, in part at least, towards that end. Please read the posting in full and you will see that volunteering for this project would be a good use of your skills, and your time, for an initiative that could have a real world impact. Thank you for listening.

To all Drupal enthusiasts and experts:

I am involved in an initiative to hold accountable US and UK leaders for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Iraq, including 2.5 million excess Iraqi deaths since 1990 and the displacement of 4.7 million more.

After nearly two years of planning, and several months of organisation and writing, last week we filed in Spain, at the Audiencia Nacional under laws of universal jurisdiction, a legal case naming four US presidents and four UK prime ministers. You can read our press release here.

This case is a historic step forward in the struggle for justice for Iraq, and by extension in the struggle for human rights against colonial and imperial crimes worldwide. If allowed to be a precedent, what happened in Iraq could happen elsewhere.

Where Drupal comes in
Around 18 months ago I posted a request for assistance in these forums (see here). As our initiative was getting underway, I could see immediately the potential of Drupal for online collaboration and social network building.

We are currently developing "Equality Central" with the goal of establishing a clearinghouse for all events, organizations, campaigns, resources for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) equal rights and justice movement. We have "buy-in" from major grassroots organizations in California and have built a beta website. We need Drupal developers and designers who can help develop the website. We are focusing on California, but this could become the national, grassroots hub for LGBTQ activism.

Please let me know if you are interested.

Dear Drupal users,

I am looking for short, medium and long-term programming / development assistance for an international initiative soon-to-be-launched aimed at prosecuting the United States, its leaders and allies, on charges of the crime of genocide in Iraq.

The new initiative is currently being built offline. It already needs significant volunteer resources, particularly in establishing capacity to provide content in Arabic and Spanish as well as English. There are also significant security considerations that need expert input.

Howdy,

This spring I've been building a drupal website, and although I've talked with a couple folks in the Portland group, I haven't put it out here on the group list, so here it is - http://www.pdxpeace.org

The PDX Peace site is for a new coalition of peace/antiwar/social justice groups and individuals in Portland, formed during the organizing of the peace rally/march on 4/18/07 on the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. We're gearing up the website to be a resource for community organizing.

A priority right now is integrating CiviCRM as a organizing database - connected to the login - and be able to collect information from people while they are signing up - I somehow can't seem to manage getting a form from CiviCRM showing up in the registration page (instead of the webform we have now to 'join').

Other obvious 'to-do' items might be using OG for action groups, or use of views/cck, or Panel views for better organized front page items. I'm currently running this site on shared dreamhost server, but but thinking about getting it on an environment that might be better for running civicrm (bryght?).

Any comments, suggestions, ideas/tips or best practices for community organizing drupal websites, would be much appreciated. And if anyone is interested in helping out with the nuts and bolts of CiviCRM or pointing to the right place for information would be helpful.

Kia ora all,

Some time ago I created a project called Enzyme. (www.enzyme.org.nz) I was originally using Php-Nuke and I had an idea. I had recently gotten more involved in activism and saw a need for a community website. I hadn't come across Indymedia yet, but when I did I recognise the limitations of the Indymedia concept (it's a grassroots open-publishing news website) for what I wanted to do. I wanted to create an online community portal. I had many discussions with myself and others over the limitations of the internet for activist groups and the New Zealand activist context and eventually the project ended up becoming a free webhosting project. It's gone through many variations and half-pie designs etc, but fundamentally it's main purpose has been fullfilled.