Alliance for Peaceful Action

The Alliance for Peaceful Action (APA) is a campus organization that intends to raise awareness and support for human rights all over the world.

Goals

• Create a tolerant and respectful world community, starting at Knox and their local communities
• Embrace all nationalities, religions, ethnic backgrounds, genders, and cultures
• Have compassion toward others and value every human life
• Stand in solidarity against oppression and violence perpetrated by any group or indvidual

Past events

• The Fair Trade Fair, a week of events promoting fair trade and making it available throughout the campus. To learn more about fair trade, visit www.fairtradefederation.org. Fairly traded items sold by APA in the past include:
  • earrings, necklaces, and other jewelry
  • chocolate
  • cheese and breads
  • coffee beans
• Human rights protests in Washington D.C., Chicago, and the Jericho Movement in New York, an annual march for the rights of political prisoners.
• Bringing speakers to campus such as Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the Weather Underground, and Keith McHenry, one of the founders of Food Not Bombs. To watch Bill Ayers' speech, visit http://www.theknoxstudent.com/newsroom/article/live-stream-bill-ayers/.

The club also held a symposium during the 2008-2009 school year that focused on skill-sharing between campus clubs (such as plant-potting, zine-making, and letter-writing to political prisoners).

APA strives against apathy in the student body and in the world and also tries to be sustainable in what they do for the campus.

In realizing that change in the world cannot happen before change at home, members of APA raise awareness of political, social, and human rights issues on campus in hopes that students will spread that awareness at home.

APA meetings are held every week in the Human Rights Center and are open to all Knox students.