Daniel Ellsberg and Rachel Maddow to Headline ACLU of Massachusetts Membership Conference

BOSTON – More than 300 people from Cape Cod to the Berkshires will attend the first annual membership conference of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, this Saturday, January 26 at Bentley College in Waltham. The conference theme is “Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties.”

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Amid 2008 Election Season, Gathering Will Focus on
“Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties”

BOSTON – More than 300 people from Cape Cod to the Berkshires will attend the first annual membership conference of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, this Saturday, January 26 at Bentley College in Waltham. The conference theme is “Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties.”

Speakers include Daniel Ellsberg, a writer, activist, and former U.S. military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers in 1971, and Rachel Maddow, the Air America host and frequent commentator on networks such as MSNBC, CNN, and LOGO. Ellsberg will speak on “2008 and Beyond: What Will it Take to End the Abuse of Power?” Maddow’s speech is entitled, “Don’t Wait for November ’08!”

• The conference also features ten workshops:
• Moving Beyond the War on Drugs;
• Confronting the Surveillance Society: Real ID, NSA Spying, Warrantless Wiretapping, and Fusion Centers;
• Torture, Rendition and Guantánamo;
• Next Steps for LGBT Rights;
• Freedom of Speech and Association in the Post 9/11 World;
• Racial, Ethnic & Religious Profiling in the Post 9/11 World;
• Ensuring Reproductive Freedom;
• Which Way Forward for the Immigrant Rights Movement
• Blogging for Civil Liberties; and
• Building and Sustaining Strong Student Groups.

“Many of us concerned about the abuses of power we’ve seen in our country in recent years are focused on the 2008 elections. That’s important, but for our conference this year, we’ve chosen to focus on specific issues and what individual people can do about them,” said Carol Rose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “The erosion of our civil liberties has been so severe that it is unlikely that the next president and Congress alone will be able to undo the damage. We need the sustained involvement of concerned, committed citizens, and that is what the ACLU is working to develop.”

More information about the work of the ACLU of Massachusetts is available online at: www.aclum.org