Calendar

IRTFDonate – use this code and Equal Exchange donates 10% of your purchase to IRTF

We’re excited to announce that Equal Exchange will be donating a portion of their sales to IRTF when you shop their online store. 

To shop Equal Exchange click here. Find organic and fairly traded coffees, teas, chocolate, cocoa, nuts, dried fruits, and even olive oil—all from small farmer co-ops, available by the case for stocking up.

Promo code:  IRTFDonate . Enter this code when you check out and Equal Exchange will donate 10% of your purchase back to IRTF!

Equal Exchange was founded as a solidarity organization in 1986 to support small farmers in Nicaragua by importing their coffee despite the US embargo.  Forty years later, this worker-owned co-op continues to prove that a more democratic food system is possible.

To shop Equal Exchange click here

On 1/24/26, federal agents horrifically shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who cared for veterans, in the Eat Street neighborhood of south Minneapolis after brutally beating him in front of witnesses.

Enough is enough. Exercising our Constitutional right to document and record ICE and other federal agents is more important than ever. This call will give you the tools to exercise your rights in a moment when federal agents are terrorizing our communities and using excessive force.

Join our call, Eyes on Ice: Document and Record on Thursday, February 5th, 2026 at 8:00 pm ET. RSVP for Link.

We will cover the latest updates on ICE and CBP's out-of-control and dangerous operations. We will talk through rights when documenting and recording law enforcement encounters, and how you can continue to take action.

to register click here

Hello Ohio College and University Peace & Conflict Studies Programs/Centers and related programs:

Thanks to our host JCU, we will be able to bring together Ohio College and University Departments and Centers that focus on peace, justice, and conflict transformation for the 2026 Annual OPCSN Conference!  This conference asks participants to focus on how we strengthen democracy through civic engagement as a form of peacebuilding by addressing the following questions:

• How can we build bridges through participation in local governance and local nonprofits/non-governmental organizations, engaging our diverse multicultural, economic, faith-based, and social interests with understanding and civility?
• How can we envision more just, inclusive, and diverse communities?
• Civic engagement and peacebuilding may also include how we prepare our students and communities to engage in dialogue across differences, build media literacy, enhance understanding, and support a healthy democracy.  

Agenda

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

Coffee/tea/welcome and display tables w/student posters related work and/or the various universities programs

Question:

• Do you represent a college or university that has a peace or conflict studies related program or center?  Display tables during this time are offered at no charge for you.  Please contact us at the email noted below to reserve your spot!
• Do you or your students have work you want to share about enhancing democracy through peacebuilding?  Please email us at the contact email below so we can reserve a table for you/your students!

10:30 - 11:40AM

Welcome & Opening Panel: Strengthening Democracy through Civic Engagement & Peacebuilding  

Panelists: John Carroll University (Center for Service Learning & Social Action), Ohio State University (Divided Community Project), + Examples from the field!

11:45 - 1:15PM

Working Lunch - Guests will be invited to sit at tables based on their interest

+
 

OPCSN Members Networking Luncheon

1:15PM - 4:30PM

Workshops - We are inviting all of Ohio's colleges and universities (and their partner organizations) to either be on a panel, present a 1.5 hour session on their work, or a 3 hour skill building session.  

Who:  

• Anyone is welcome.
• Presentations focused on the work of Ohio Colleges/Universities - faculty, staff, admin and students & Community organizations doing this work in Ohio on a related topic

Cost (includes attendance, light breakfast and lunch)

• $35 Attendees not associated with an Ohio College/University that wish to attend 
• $25 per person (Ohio College/Universities w/peace/conflict studies programs - faculty/staff/admin.)
• $10 for each Ohio college student

Conference Registration Link - https://givepul.se/37ri1k  
 

Questions?  Email Jen at OPCSN at Ohiopcsn@gmail.com

OPCSN Website -   https://ohiopeaceandconflict.org/ 

Learn how to spot ICE vehicles, what to take notes on as an observer, and how to report a sighting.

Learn how to protect immigrants from ICE through strategies that include observing, documenting, and providing aid. You'll learn legal options, how to be safe, and how to be part of a community-wide defense network. 

Organizer: Cleveland Heights 4 Immigrant Rights. Contact: ClvHts4ImmigrantRights@gmail.com

to register click here

source: World Beyond War https://worldbeyondwar.org/ 

We call on individuals and organizations around the world to join the Global Days of Action to #CloseBases on February 21-23, 2026, by organizing events at military base sites or other locations near you.

Military bases, especially foreign ones — current and sought — generate wars. The United States has used its bases in Latin America and the Caribbean to attack Venezuela, while threatening to take over Greenland to build more bases there. Iran is bordered by seven nations with U.S. bases. The nations to the south and east of China are packed with U.S. bases, as is Europe, as is Israel. Africa has foreign bases from several empires. Russia is making more use of its bases in Belarus.

On February 23, 1903, the United States took over Guantanamo from Cuba. It has never restored it. People across Latin America have used this date to organize events opposing bases, militarism, and the Monroe Doctrine. We made it a global day of action for the first time in 2025. We’re expanding our second annual collection of events to include the February 21-22 weekend.

What you can do: Use our resources to easily plan a local educational or activist event of any kind: a panel, a protest, an art display, a banner-drop, a sit-in, a press conference, a film screening, a rally, a march.

1. Bases often perpetuate colonialism, removing Indigenous people from their lands. From Panama to Guam to Puerto Rico to Okinawa to dozens of other locations across the world, militaries have taken valuable land from local populations, often pushing out Indigenous people in the process, without their consent and without reparations. For example, the entire population of the Chagos Islands was forcibly removed from the island of Diego Garcia by the UK so that it could be leased to the U.S. for an airbase.
2. Bases cost an exorbitant amount of $$. The cost of U.S. foreign military bases alone is estimated at $80 billion a year, money that could be better spent on healthcare, education, renewable energy, and so much more.
3. Bases exacerbate environmental damage and the climate crisis. Military emissions are exempted from climate agreements, like the Kyoto Protocol. The construction of bases has caused irreparable ecological damage, such as the destruction of coral reefs and the environment for endangered species in Henoko, Okinawa. Furthermore, it is well documented at hundreds of sites around the world that military bases leach toxic so-called “forever chemicals” (PFAS/PFOS) into local water supplies, which has had devastating health consequences for nearby communities.
4. Bases can have violent and harmful impacts on local communities.
   Militaries have a notorious legacy of sexual violence, including kidnapping, rape, and murders of women and girls in nearby communities. Yet troops stationed at foreign bases are often afforded impunity for their crimes due to Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) with the so-called “host” country. Bases can also bring a rise in property taxes and inflation in areas surrounding them which has been known to push locals out.
5. Bases heighten tensions and provoke war-making. The presence of hundreds of thousands of troops, massive arsenals, and thousands of aircraft, tanks, and ships in every corner of the globe facilitates war-making and promotes an arms race. Additionally, bases make locations into targets for attack. And foreign bases implicate countries in the crimes of foreign militaries.

to register click here

Join NEO Workercenter on March 20th

"We’d love for you to be there so that you can get to know a bit about us and learn about our work! Join us at The Elliot, to enjoy a variety show featuring local talent, a silent auction and drinks available for purchase. Please note -- a meal will not be provided at the event."

to register click here

JOIN US AT THE FREE STAMP ON MARCH 28TH FOR THE THIRD TIME TO MAKE SURE THAT FASCISTS KNOW THEIR PLACE.

On March 28 we'll take to the streets, ready to bring millions of new allies along with us to declare, in one voice: NO thugs terrorizing our neighborhoods. NO troop deployments in our streets. NO imperial wars of conquest. NO KINGS.

Our movement is only getting bigger and stronger. “NO KINGS” is more than just a slogan—it’s the foundation our nation was built upon. Born in the streets, carried by millions in chants and on posters, it echoes from city blocks to rural town squares, uniting people across this country to fight dictatorship together.

The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings, and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty. Grow our movement and join us.

https://www.mobilize.us/opalmissionvote/event/893355/