MEDIA ADVISORY
April 3, 2008

Contact: Nancy Mancias, (415) 342-6409, nancy@globalexchange.org

Suzanne Joi (510) 540-7007

WHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: Thursday April 3, 2008 12:00pm
WHERE: Anna's Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way Berkeley, CA 94704
SPEAKERS: Anna De Leon, Anna’s Jazz Island; Carolyn Gravely, Global Exchange Store; Paul Chin, La Pena Cultural Center; Andrea Ali, Guerilla Café; Russell Bass, Café de la Paz

A new association called Berkeley Businesses for Peace is being launched to support the city’s mandate to resolve disputes through diplomacy, not war. With national attacks on Berkeley, including by pro-war forces calling for a boycott of the city, businesses are coming together to reaffirm their pride in Berkeley as a City for Peace. The association is being launched by over 30 businesses, ranging from restaurants and cafes to book stores and copy centers.

Membership benefits include listing in a new national website (www.businessesforpeace.org) that will encourage people to support these establishments, window decals, participation in a special Buy Berkeley days, and the Summer of Hope festival that will take place in Berkeley this July.

“I was born and raised in Berkeley, and I have always been proud that Berkeley is on the forefront of progressive change from recycling to opposition to war,” says Andrea Ali of Guerilla Café, one of the first members of the Association. “Also, my father was born in Iraq and I have many family members there, so I have a very personal reason to want to see an end to the war.”

“I think peace starts from within, both personally and within the local community. So we, as businesses, need to come together to strengthen our community and then spread our model to the rest of country,” says Carolyn Gravely from the Global Exchange Fair Trade Store. “That’s why this new association is so exciting to me.”