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THE OBJECTOR
a magazine of conscience and resistance
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CCCO Board
- Marlena Gangi
- Brian Johns
- Marc Liggin
- Cesar Lopez
- Cynthia McKinney
- Michael Simmons
Staff members are also members of the board.
CCCO Staff
CCCO Sponsors
- Robert C. Aldridge
- Edward Asner
- Joan Baez
- Norma Becker
- Jello Biafra: check out Jello's record label Alternative Tentacles
- Hon. Julian Bond
- Fmr Supervisor Harry Britt
- Prof. Noam Chomsky
- Dave Dellinger
- Ronald V. Dellums
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- David Harris
- Erik Larsen
- Holly Near
- Grace Paley
- Prof. Charles L. Schwartz
CCCO Staff Biographies
Nico Amador is an organizer and trainer from San Diego, California. As a student at UC Santa Barbara he began working on issues of anti-militarism in response to the invasion of Afghanistan and the war on Iraq. In 2003 he planned a statewide conference to mobilize students of color to explore strategies for protesting U.S. military actions in the Middle East and initiated a local campaign to educate high school students on the reality of military service. As a Freeman Fellow with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Nico worked on programs to promote human rights in Colombia and to expand the I Will Not Kill Campaign for Conscientious Objection on the west coast. Nico has also organized on issues related to economic justice, immigrant rights, access to education and decreasing dependency on prisons and policing. As a trainer he has with the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), the United States Student Association and Training for Change, leading numerous workshops on nonviolence, anti-oppression, organizing skills and youth leadership development.
A native of Berkeley, CA, Wendy grew up in the East Bay. Raised by a social activist mom, Wendy began her social justice work at an early age with the civil rights movement, NAACP and Berkeley-based anti-Vietnam war and free-speech groups.
As a member of the Black Panther Party, she helped raise funds, and assisted in organizing community responses to police brutality and merchant racism in Oakland and San Francisco. From the late 1970’s to 1991, Wendy championed the rights of working class people as a union activist, organizer, shop steward and staff person with H.E.R.E. Local 2 and SEIU Local 250 in San Francisco and SEIU Local 22 in Sacramento, CA. During the mid-1980’s, Wendy traveled to the Philippines, where she saw first hand the relationship between the U$ military and the oppression of women, poor people and people of color.
While attending Merritt College to pursue a degree in Labor Studies, she founded the International Solidarity and Action Committee (ISAAC). Later, during Gulf War I, Wendy joined with other peace and social justice activists in forming African Americans Against Bush’s War, to organize the Black community’s resistance to America’s war against the people of Iraq, and provide assistance to Conscientious Objectors of color in the Bay Area. In 2003, after reading Walter Mosley’s "What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace", Wendy decided to focus her anti-oppression work more directly against militarism.
As a black, woman–identified feminist, who daily confronts the interconnectedness of systems of oppression, Wendy has been a tireless and effective advocate for progressive social change. During the past twelve years, she has raised funds for rape and sexual assault prevention, environmental groups, feminist health collectives, youth development organizations, domestic violence shelters, free-speech radio, and LGBT civil rights organizations. Wendy joined the staff of CCCO as our Development Program Coordinator in July 2004.
Elaine was born in San Leandro California and grew up mostly in the East Bay. As a transfer student at the University of California Santa Barbara, Elaine became an active member and organizer of many student led groups like Queer Student Union and Queer People of Color. Most of her activist work on campus focused on anti-oppression, non-violence, and decolonization specifically within the queer people of color community. In 2006, as a staff member of UCSB's Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, Elaine became an intricate part of starting the first Youth Advocacy and Leadership Institute, which empowered queer high school youth through workshops on anti-oppression and organizing skills. In 2007 Elaine was a co-facilitator at the Queer Pin@y Conference at UC Davis. This decolonization workshop broke down the history and the effects of Western colonization specifically within the Philippine Islands and its people. Elaine is truly excited to be the newest addition to the CCCO family and to be a part of an organization that is led by a progressive mission and backed by a fierce staff and board.
Kevin Ramirez was born in Hong Kong and spent much of his childhood growing up overseas. Kevin has seen firsthand the legacy of colonialism in countries like Cameroon, Burma, and Sri Lanka. Kevin noticed a big difference between societies when he compared the life he experienced when living in West Germany and Australia. Kevin has also seen the result of military intrusion while living in South Korea where he lived on an Army base for a year. While living in Cambodia, Kevin truly felt the tremendous devastation that is the reality of war. Walking among the graves at the Cheong Ek killing fields, and through the hallways of the Tuol Sleng torture center, Kevin made a decision to work for peace and against war and violence of any kind.
Kevin continued his higher education in Massachusetts, graduating from Hampshire College in 1996. After spending eight years in the United States Kevin understood the interwoven struggle of Third World people abroad and within the U.S. Kevin made his thesis film entitled 'Legacy: the Symbols of Genocide', based upon the actions of Lord Jeffrey Amherst and the legacy he left behind.
Kevin is an experienced photographer who used to teach photography to classes of Latino youth as a tool for empowerment and self-discipline. Kevin believes in using the visual arts and music to bring the message of anti-militarism to the youth of today. |