JOIN ME in SONG: Friday, Feb. 12, 3pm TAKE BACK OUR CITY at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Dear Friends,

I would like to invite you all to join me at the Welcoming Rally on
this Friday afternoon to reclaim community priorities! We will
demonstrate that we are not all supporters of the Olympics (which has
become a corporate consumerist bonanza, and a one billion dollar
security fiasco! Did you know you can build 20,000 houses for the cost
of the security for this event?!)

I will be present and singing with a choir. There will be two hundred
(plus) of us singing songs of freedom and celebration in four part
harmony. Lots of the songs are easy to sing, and you are invited to
walk along with us. Sing along, or just surround yourself with our
sound. I believe that within our choir and extending outwards into the
march and to the world, our peace will be a powerful force to be
reckoned with!

Look for the choir in the North West corner of the Art Gallery plaza.

In solidarity and creativity!

~RedSara

ps. contact me if you want ideas for safety and preparedness for the
weeks ahead.

- please post widely -

TAKE BACK OUR CITY:
'Welcome' the 2010 Olympic Torch with Free Games, Free Food and Free Speech!
We are community groups, service providers, artists, citizens,
activists and educators united by a social justice critique of the
Games.

* Friday, February 12, 2010, 3pm
* Vancouver Art Gallery (Georgia Street, between Howe and Hornby)

Join us in a public festival at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 3pm
followed by a march to protest the opening ceremonies of the 2010
Olympics at BC Place Stadium.  As the Winter Games begin, we will show
the world the negative impacts of the Olympic industry and celebrate
our communities with our own games and entertainment.

* The 2010 Welcoming Committee supports the participation of parents
and caregivers. Childcare arrangements and registration at:
http://www.facebook.com/l/7bd7a;2010welcoming.wordpress.com/details

While City and Olympic officials try to turn our city into a sanitized
corporate image, we experience:

*  At least 15,000 police, soldiers, spies and security forces with a
one billion dollar budget,
*  Increasing homelessness, poverty, while the rich get richer,
*  Union-busting and public services cutbacks with a $6 billion Olympic budget,
*  Threats to civil liberties and crackdowns on visible poverty,
*  Corporate sponsors engaged in arms manufacturing, human rights
abuses, and the environmentally destructive Alberta Tar Sands,
*  Exploitation of unceded Indigenous land and resources,
*  Major environmental damage to build the 'Green Games,'
And all of this disregarding public priorities.

Public space has been turned over to the Games but the community has
fought back and preserved our rights to protest.  Now is your chance
to Stand Up, Be Counted and Take Back Our City!

Organized by the 2010 Welcoming Committee: community groups, service
providers, activists and educators united by a social justice critique
of the Games.

Contact:  2010welcoming@resist.ca
Visit:  http://www.facebook.com/l/7bd7a;2010welcoming.wordpress.com

The 2010 Welcoming Committee is endorsed by:
2010 Watch, Alliance for People's Health, Anti-Poverty Committee,
Bridgeview Community Action Group, Building Bridges Human Rights –
Vancouver, Bus Riders' Union, Check your Head, Citywide Housing
Coalition, Colour Connected Against Racism – UBC, Co-op Radio Bulland
Awaaz, Co-op Radio The Rational, Community Olympics Watch, Council of
Canadians – National, Council of Canadians – Delta/Richmond Chapter,
Council of Canadians- Vancouver/Burnaby Chapter, Council of Senior
Citizens Organizations – Sunshine Coast Chapter, DTES Community Arts
Network, DTES Power of Women Group, East Van Abolitionists, Ethical
Environmental Consulting, Federation of Iranian Refugees, Food not
Bombs – Vancouver, Freedom Socialist Party, Friends of Women in the
Middle East Society, http://www.facebook.com/l/7bd7a;GatewaySucks.org,
Impact of the Olympics on Communities Coalition, Indigenous Action
Movement, Industrial Workers of the World, Iran Solidarity, Justicia 4
Migrant Workers, Latin America Connexions Collective,
http://www.facebook.com/l/7bd7a;no2010.com, No 2010 Victoria, No One
Is Illegal – Vancouver,
http://www.facebook.com/l/7bd7a;OilSandsTruth.org, Olympic Resistance
Network, Pink Resistance, Poverty Olympics, Progressive Nepali Forum
in Americas, Siraat Collective,  Progressive Nepali Forum in Americas,
Simon Fraser University Public Research Interest Group, Social Justice
Centre – UBC, Solidarity Notes Labour Choir,
http://www.facebook.com/l/7bd7a;StopWar.ca, Streams of Justice,
Student Christian Movement – UBC, subMedia, Surrey Urban Youth
Project, Teaching Support Staff Union Social Justice Committee, UBC
Network of Sri Lankan Law Students, Vancouver Action, Vancouver Status
of Women,  VANDU Womyn's Group, Warrior Publications, West End Wild
Animal Alliance, Whister Watch, Workers Communist Party of Iran, and
Work Less Party.