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UU World reports from the annual General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. Click here for a comprehensive guide to our 2011 General Assembly coverage.
The three Actions of Immediate Witness adopted by the 2011 General Assembly were published on the UUA website two weeks ago, but I forgot to provide direct links at the time. Here are the social witness resolutions by petition that delegates approved in Charlotte:
Protest Representative Peter King’s Hearings on “Muslim Radicalization” (blog coverage)
Support [...]
After impassioned debate on the future of Actions of Immediate Witness at Unitarian Universalist Association General Assemblies, delegates overwhelmingly voted in favor of a bylaw amendment that would eliminate AIWs at the 2012 Justice GA in Phoenix. The amendment also reconstitutes AIWs with the 2013 GA, reducing the allowable number of AIWs to three from six.
An amendment that would have eliminated AIWs from the GA agenda with no provision to restore them failed. It was the first of the two AIW amendments under consideration by the delegates. It needed a two-thirds majority of delegates to pass. However, 508 voted in favor and 406 delegates voted against, short of the two-thirds needed.
Continue reading Delegates vote to eliminate AIWs at 2012 Justice GA
Action of Immediate Witness 3, calling for an end to U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, failed to gain approval of two-thirds of GA delegates Sunday. A similar measure was rejected last year as [...]
Delegates adopted Action of Immediate Witness 2, “Support Southern California Supermarket Workers’ Struggle for Decent Wages and Benefits.”
Rick Rhoads, delegate from the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica, Calif., spoke in favor of the AIW, reporting that workers were nearing a massive strike in response to severe cuts in their wages and benefits. “These workers are showing us the way,” he said. “This is a national issue.”
Speakers against the AIW did not agree, saying it was too localized an issue to merit an AIW from the entire association.
Continue reading Approved: AIW supports California supermarket workers
GA delegates approved Action of Immediate Witness 1, “Protest Rep. Peter King’s Hearings on Muslim Radicalization,” Sunday morning after a lengthy debate on an amendment that would have added language about religious stereotyping. The author of that amendment withdrew it before a vote, however, and that opened the way for the vote on the whole AIW. [...]
Delegates adopted Action of Immediate Witness 4, which opposes the U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC. That decision, according to the AIW, “enshrined corporations as persons and equated money with speech.” The AIW urges member congregations to sign the resolution for The People’s Rights Amendment proposed at freespeechforpeople.org. It also asks people to encourage their Congressional representatives to sponsor such a resolution in opposition to the Supreme Court decision.
The close vote, which required a two-third majority, had to be counted twice. But after the second vote, Moderator Gini Courter said that it clearly passed.
Continue reading Approved: AIW opposes corporate personhood
The two proposed bylaw amendments that would affect Actions of Immediate Witness (AIWs) came out of the mini-assembly on Thursday afternoon without substantial changes, according to Greg Boyd, who moderated the mini-assembly session at the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly in Charlotte, N.C.
The proposed bylaw amendments concerning AIWs will both come before General Assembly on Sunday [...]
Saturday’s “CSW Alert,” the daily General Assembly social witness business update that delegates will receive as they enter the plenary hall Saturday morning, includes the text of four proposed Actions of Immediate Witness. The Commission on Social Witness could have brought additional proposed AIWs to the Saturday morning plenary, from which delegates could have [...]
The Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees met in Charlotte, N.C., today for the first of two days of meetings before the start of the 2011 General Assembly.
The board discussed the best ways to explain to GA delegates several proposed changes in governance and social witness. A proposal to reduce the size of the UUA board from 26 to 14 members, for example, is up for a vote by delegates this year because it will provide better efficiency and more diversity, trustees said, not because it will save money, although it may do that as well. (See UU World‘s earlier coverage of the proposal to reduce the size of the board: April 25, 2011; March 14, 2011; January 25, 2010.)
Two other proposals will alter the practice of spending time at each GA creating and voting on social justice statements called Actions of Immediate Witness (AIWs). Several trustees said they deeply respect people who work on creating the AIWs, but they do not believe that using time at GA to create and vote on them is the best use of delegates’ time.
Continue reading Trustees prepare to make case for smaller board
Here are the final texts of the Actions of Immediate Witness, business resolutions, and responsive resolutions adopted by the UUA’s 2010 General Assembly.
Actions of Immediate Witness
Clean Up the Clean Energy Bill
Gulf Coast Environmental and Economic Justice 2010
Oppose Anti-Immigrant Measures at the State Level (Arizona Law SB 1070 and the Like) [...]
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