John Sigler

John Sigler's Affiliations

The following is a partial list of organizations, projects, and initiatives that John Sigler is, or has been, affiliated with. It includes professional groups, activist formations, assorted projects, as well as employers and business associations. If you have any questions of comments, please feel free to contact him.

Organizations: Writing and Journalism

• Member: National Writer's Union, UAW Local 1981 - As both a freelance writer and a strong support of organized labor, John Sigler is a member of the National Writer's Union: "...the trade union for freelance and contract writers: journalists, book authors, business and technical writers, web content providers, and poets. With the combined strength of nearly 2,000 members in 16 chapters nationwide, and with the support of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), the Union works to defend the rights and improve the economic and working conditions of all writers."
• Member: KGNU Independent Community Radio - KGNU represents the vanguard of independent socially responsive media in the Denver/Boulder area. Featuring an array of progressive programs such as Democracy Now!, Free Speech Radio News, Alternative Radio and CounterSpin; KGNU is absolutely indispensable for both the creators and consumers of independent non-corporate news and information in the Denver/Boulder area.
• Member: American Civil Liberties Union - Though this entry could be placed below under activism and John Sigler supports most of their positions, their energetic defense of the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press is specifically relevant for all writers in the United States or working in the US market. John Sigler is a card carrying member primarily affiliated via the ACLU of Colorado
• Member: Freelancers Union - "Freelancers Union is a national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that represents the needs and concerns of America’s growing independent workforce through advocacy, information and service. Independent workers—freelancers, consultants, independent contractors, temps, part-timers, contingent employees and the self-employed—currently make up about 30% of the nation’s workforce."
• Member: MediaRights: Media That Matters - "MediaRights is a project of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Arts Engine, Inc., an organization committed to producing, distributing and promoting independent media of consequence."
• Member: Freelance Writing Organization - Int'l - "Our system contains a vast variety of authoritative writing resources inside a searchable database. ... We have over 11,000 registered members using our resources. Our system offers writers of all genres a free resource database, our much acclaimed and recognized monthly Inkwell Newswatch (IN) Writing and Literary Ezine for Writers, our newsletter Writers Site News!, plus internal site links. This site is packed with writing resource materials saving you tons of Internet searching."
• Member: Mathaba News Agency - "Mathaba is a news agency and an online news network. ... The space here would be too small to give justice to our vision, needless to say it is of a world very different from where we are now. A world of peace, freedom and social justice. At Mathaba we provide an example that people can be united in their goals while maintaining healthy differences of culture, nationality and opinion. We encourage the search for alternative solutions to obtain advanced human rights and freedom, and to evolve those ideas into concrete living works that benefit humanity."
• Member: One World - "OneWorld is a global information network developed to support communication media of the people, by the people and for the people — everywhere. Its goal is to help build a more just, global society, through its partnership community. OneWorld encourages people to discover their power — power to speak, connect, and make a difference — by providing access to information, and enabling connections between hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of people around the world."

Organizations: Activism

• Coordinator: Colorado Palestine Solidarity Campaign - John Sigler is the primary coordinator for the CPSC, which is a spin off of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace. The CPSC has never served as a membership organization, instead being an ad hoc campaign that works to promote pro-Palestine activism in Colorado regardless of who is organizing it. In that CPSC is also a member of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation he is also active in that national organization. He attended the 2006 Coordinator's Conference in Dearborn, Michigan as well as the "The World Says No to Israeli Occupation!" mobilization of June 2007 in Washington DC.
• Organizer: Maintain Educational Standards in Colorado - This initiative was spearheaded by John Sigler after several Colorado legislators began pushing for the Christian-Creationist theology of "Intelligent Design" to be taught in Colorado's public schools. In conjunction with a number of other initiatives in Colorado - in particular Colorado Citizens for Science and the Colorado Evolution Response Team - the Evangelical "Intelligent Design" advocates stopped their attempts to bring their theology into the classrooms of Colorado.
• Member: Green Party of Colorado - John Sigler is a member of the Green Party primarily involved via the Metro Denver Greens.
• Member: Idealist.Org - "Idealist is a project of Action Without Borders, a nonprofit organization founded in 1995 with offices in the United States and Argentina. Idealist is an interactive site where people and organizations can exchange resources and ideas, locate opportunities and supporters, and take steps toward building a world where all people can lead free and dignified lives."
• Member: Culture Jammers Network (Adbusters) - "We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century."
• Former Member: International Socialist Organization - Though no longer a member of the formal ISO, he remains strongly sympathetic with virtually of their positions, a subscriber to the International Socialist Review and a fan of many titles sold by Haymarket Books. John Sigler attended the "Socialism 2004" conference sponsored by the ISO in Chicago.

Websites: Collaborative Efforts

• "Jewish Friends of Palestine" - Originally created in 2002, the Jewish Friends of Palestine website represents one of the oldest and longest established pro-Palestinian Jewish websites on the Internet. The goal of the website is to provide a comprehensive database of other Jewish organizations, individuals, and initiatives that support basic human rights for the Palestinian people. The collection includes progressive Zionists, non-Zionists, and Jewish anti-Zionists.
• "Americans for Chavez" - This is the website of the Denver-based Circulo Bolivariano Internacional (International Bolivarian Circle) "Chief Tierra Blanca" in solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution currently underway in Venezuela. John Sigler also administrates the Americans for Chavez MySpace site.
• "Colorado Palestine Solidarity Campaign Action" and "Colorado Palestine Solidarity Campaign News & Views - These are the sites of the Colorado Palestine Solidarity Campaign (see Activist groups above). Originally set up as an ad hoc successor to the old CPSC website (http://palestineday.eccmei.net), John Sigler maintains these pages for the CPSC today.
• "Online One State Bibliography Project" - As it becomes steadily more apparent that there will be no viable separation of Israelis and Palestinians within Mandatory Palestine (Israel Proper & the Occupied Palestinian Territories), the de facto reality of one state "between the River and the Sea" is becoming recognized as such. This online resource provides a comprehensive list of articles and papers discussing one state in Israel/Palestine: supporting it, opposing it, and just related to it.
• "Move United Nations Headquarters to Geneva" - This now defunct online initiative sought to have the headquarters of the United Nations moved from New York to Geneva to protest U.S. violations of international law. The project ceased to exist in 2005, but the website is recorded in the Internet Archive: Move United Nations Headquarters to Geneva!

Websites: John Sigler's Personal Efforts

• "International Islamic Response" - This online archive was created within weeks of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States to record the response to these attacks by Islamic world. With the sole exceptions of Iraq (then under sanctions and Saddam Hussein) and Afghanistan (then under the Taliban), the entire Islamic world rallied in support of the United States and extended offers of assistance across the board. Although this initial goodwill was squandered by the Bush administration, this online archive remains to document the goodwill expressed in the immediate wake of the terrorist attacks. In the years since, this archive has been useful in countering Islamophobic charges thrown at various states by the Rightists.
• "Why Would the United States Attack Iran?" - A website against US military action toward the Islamic Republic of Iran and arguing that the Israel Lobby in the United States is the primary driving force behind the push for war.
• "Deport-A-Commie.Com" - Something of a joke website based on those Rightists that constantly insist that Left activists like John Sigler leave the United States. Based upon this premise, this website is designed to permit those making this demand to "put their money where their mouth is" and help John Sigler leave the country.
• "American Peace" - This now defunct website was a chronology of US military engagements and interventions from independence (1776) to 2003. This site served as a primary source for Adbusters #53 "Hope and Memory" and also inspired the short lived collaboration between John Sigler, Joshua Levin, and Zoltan Grossman: the US Militarism Database project. The "American Peace" website is recorded in the Internet Archive.

Business and Employment

• Employment: Compliance Specialist - John Sigler was employed by Fiserv Investment Support Services from June 2000 to June 2008, ending his employment as a Compliance Specialist. This particular division of the Fiserv Corporation was sold in late 2007 and John Sigler chose to move on as opposed to applying to the successor corporations.
• Managing Partner: Internet Activist, LLC - Based in Denver, Colorado, this partnership was developed to promote local activist initiatives as well as a series of websites either set-up independently by John Sigler or in collaboration with others. The partnership was dissolved in 2008.
• Managing Partner: Andalus Graphics, LLC - Purchased from a Sudanese resident who chose to move back to Africa, this local printing business specialized in small printing and graphic design for the local immigrant community, especially Arabs and East Indians. This represents the only "failed" business that John Sigler has ever been in involved with and was dissolved amicably between all partners in 2006.
• Managing Partner: JCS3TMB, LLC - Based in Denver, Colorado, this partnership was developed for the online business operated by the local Bolivarian Circle 'Chief Tierra Blanca' also known as "Americans for Chavez. This partnership was dissolved at the end of 2007.
• Employment: Pressman - John Sigler worked as a offset press operator from July 1996 to December 2000 operating both AB Dick and Heidelberg offset printing presses for Signal Graphics Printing in Denver, Colorado.