The Illinois Green Party plans to hold a state membership meeting on the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus this Saturday, Sept. 24, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The meeting will be held in the Mississippi Room at the SIUC Student Center, followed by a fundraising dinner at Hunan Restaurant, 710 E. Main St. in Carbondale, starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the dinner are $30 or $15 for persons of low income.

Although some of the meeting will be devoted to party business, both the meeting and the dinner are open to the general public. Members especially encourage the public to attend presentations on the Green Party principles of social justice, ecological wisdom and nonviolence, beginning at 11:45 a.m.

"Stand Up for Social Justice!," a panel on the issues of police violence, criminal justice reform and environmental justice is set from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Speakers on the panel include Father Joseph A. Brown, professor of Africana Studies at SIU and longtime community advocate for nonviolence, Ajamu Baraka (via Skype), Green Party candidate for Vice-President and founding executive director of the US Human Rights Network, and David Pittman, of the Peoria NAACP Environmental Justice campaign.

"Stand Up for Our Environment!," a panel on human-caused climate change, dimensions of the crisis and solutions is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Speakers scheduled to appear are Sheldon Schafer, former director of the Peoria Riverfront Museum planetarium and climate scientist, Paula Bradshaw, Green Party candidate for Congress and environmentalist and Brent Ritzel, solar industry advocate, representative of the Solutions Project.

"Stand Up for Peace!," a presentation on "the inconvenient truth about U.S. foreign policy," is set for 2:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

Rich Whitney, former Green Party candidate for Governor, civil rights attorney and longtime advocate for peace will give the presentation.

More information on the meeting may be found at http://www.ilgp.org/ilgp_2016_fall_membership_meeting.