Category Archives: North America

600+ Campaign Nonviolence Events Across USA Next Week!

. .DISARMAMENT & SECURITY. .

A press advisory from Common Dreams (abridged)

. . . As the American presidential election enters its final stretch, Campaign Nonviolence seeks to forge a culture of peace and nonviolence during a year of mounting violence in America and abroad through a multitude of grassroots activism during the week of Sept. 18-26, marking International Peace Day on Sept. 21. More than 600 actions, events, marches and demonstrations in a diverse array of cities and towns are planned in each of the 50 states as well as more than a dozen foreign countries. Campaign Nonviolence began in 2014 with 230 events; 371 were staged last year. . .

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For a current listing of what now number 583 actions—including states and cities, descriptions, organizations and contact information—visit:
http://www.paceebene.org/programs/campaign-nonviolence/campaign-nonviolence-week-of-actions/ (scroll to bottom of page)

Here are highlights from a sampling of events:

—Catholic priest Father Mike Pfleger will lead thousands on a Friday night march targeting the carnage from firearms in the Southside of Chicago, starting at the famous Saint Sabina Church. Many relatives of those shot dead in recent months will join the march. (3000 people have been shot in Chicago since January 1st of this year.)

—June Eisley, a retired person in Wilmington, Delaware, organized a Campaign Nonviolence march two years ago, which unexpectedly drew 1000 people and addressed all the issues of violence. Now she and her friends have organized 37 events in five Delaware cities—from art exhibits, marches and walkabouts to meditation sessions, health screenings and film presentations. (see: www.peaceweekdelaware.org). “We started as a march for a culture of peace and nonviolence,” she said, “and became a state-wide movement for a culture of peace and nonviolence.”

—Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina have declared a “week of nonviolence”—16 events thus far—to combat gun violence, racism, Islamophobia, poverty, environmental destruction and support for war. On Sept. 21, people of faith and conscience will come together for a 12-noon vigil in downtown Raleigh followed by a news conference to detail their week of events, including regional nonviolence trainings. They will put on a “Campaign Nonviolence Triangle Area Peace Festival” on Sept. 24 featuring an interfaith Walk for Peace to raise awareness about love, truth, peace and nonviolence for everyone in the Triangle area. Each of the cities has declared Sept. 18-24 “Campaign Nonviolence North Carolina Week.”

—Hundreds will gather on Sept. 23-25 at American University in Washington, D.C. for a sold out national conference entitled “World Beyond War” and featuring former U.S. Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney, film director Oliver Stone and Campaign Nonviolence organizer and co-founder Rev. John Dear. Participants will gather outside the Pentagon at 9 a.m. on Sept. 26 for a national anti-war protest, demanding that billions of dollars in military spending go instead to healthcare, jobs, education and food of the poor—not for more bombs and wars. (See: www.worldbeyondwar.org)

—The Utah Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons will host its third annual “Beat the Bomb!” picnic and rally on Sept. 23 in Salt Lake City’s Liberty Park, bringing together people from all parts of the community

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Question for this article:

The peace movement in the United States, What are its strengths and weaknesses?

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—Residents will assemble in Boise, Idaho for a walk through town calling for an end to the death penalty in that state.

—In Coral Springs, Florida, young people will plant trees for peace and stage a silent peace walk calling for an end to war.

—Eureka, California will feature a candlelight vigil for peace and an end to racism, poverty and environmental degradation outside the Humboldt County Court House.

—Honolulu, Hawaii will hold an interfaith peace service featuring traditional Hawaiian music and prayers.

—Activists will walk through Los Angeles neighborhoods to campaign for the upcoming statewide vote on whether to abolish the death penalty.

—In Fremont, Michigan, people will march during a community harvest parade against war, poverty, racism, environmental destruction and all forms of violence, demanding a new culture and state of nonviolence.

—A weeklong effort in Wyckoff, New Jersey is being organized to welcome immigrants into the homes of neighbors for food and hospitality as a way to break down barriers and build a new inclusive culture of nonviolence.

—Taos, New Mexico will hold a daylong workshop and march for young people against climate change.

—People from Las Vegas, Nevada will gather in the desert at Creech Air Force Base, center for all U.S. drone warfare, to call for an end to drone bombings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Syria, and to demand nonviolent methods for conflict resolution.

—San Antonio, Texas will host a lecture and discussion on gun violence by a leading authority.

—Fond du Lac, Wisconsin will hold a daylong workshop on racism, how to confront it and creating a more welcoming, just and equal society.

—Memphis, Tennessee will host an evening in conjunction with the Black Lives Matter movement featuring Rev. William Barber, head of the NAACP of North Carolina and a national voice for racial justice.

“People are sick and tired of poverty, racism, police brutality, mass incarceration, hand gun violence, drone warfare, perpetual war, corporate greed, nuclear weapons, executions and environmental destruction,” said Catholic priest Rev. John Dear, a key organizer of the Sept. 18-26 movement for nonviolence and a nationally known peace activist, author of 35 books and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. “People everywhere want new leadership in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez, with a new vision for a culture of nonviolence, where we can all live in peace with justice, and be a force of good in the world—not a force of greed, war and environmental destruction. Dr. King and Cesar Chavez upheld a national and global vision of nonviolence. This month, people are taking to the streets by the thousands to demand that vision comes true. They are telling us that they are going to keep marching until this country shifts beyond its current state as presented by the media and the political candidates, and toward something new—a true nonviolent democracy where everyone lives in justice and peace” . . .

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

USA: World Beyond War conference

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Leah Bolger, WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom)

World Beyond War is planning a big event in Washington, D.C., to be held at American University, September 23-25, just after the International Day of Peace. The conference, “No War 2016: Real Security, Without Terrorism,” is being co-sponsored by WILPF US and will be addressed by International WILPF President Kozue Akibayashi.

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The event will feature sessions on many topics, a few of which are:

Strategies to End War
Ending War and Patriarchy
Remaking the Mass Media for Peace
Capitalism and Transition to Peace Economy
The Racism of War
Abolishing Nuclear Weapons
Changing War Culture to Peace Culture

Question for this article:

The peace movement in the United States, What are its strengths and weaknesses?

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In addition to Dr. Akibayashi, some of the featured speakers include:

Odile Hugonot Haber
Dennis Kucinich
Kathy Kelly
Alice Slater
David Swanson
David Hartsough
Medea Benjamin
Bill Fletcher Jr.
Peter Kuznick

Please watch the video of 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire encouraging people to join World Beyond War and to attend the conference. . .

The price for registration is on a sliding scale, starting at $25 (for students and those on low income). Registration includes meals and a copy of the second edition of the World Beyond War publication, “A Global Security System: An Alternative to War.” To register and for more information about the conference, including the agenda, a complete list of the sessions, speakers, and more, please go to the World Beyond War website and/or contact Leah Bolger, at leahbolger@comcast.net or 541-207-7761.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

USA: Standoff at Standing Rock: Even Attack Dogs Can’t Stop the Native American Resistance

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan from Democracy Now (reprinted under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works)

The Missouri River, the longest river in North America, has for thousands of years provided the water necessary for life to the region’s original inhabitants. To this day, millions of people rely on the Missouri for clean drinking water. Now, a petroleum pipeline, called the Dakota Access Pipeline, is being built, threatening the river. A movement has grown to block the pipeline, led by Native American tribes that have lived along the banks of the Missouri from time immemorial. Members of the Dakota and Lakota nations from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation established a camp at the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers, about 50 miles south of Bismarck, North Dakota. They declare themselves “protectors, not protesters.” Last Saturday, as they attempted to face down massive bulldozers on their ancient burial sites, the pipeline security guards attacked the mostly Native American protectors with dogs and pepper spray as they resisted the $3.8 billion pipeline’s construction, fighting for clean water, protection of sacred ground and an end to our fossil-fuel economy.

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Video at Standing Rock

Standing Rock Sioux set up the first resistance encampment in April, calling it Sacred Stone. Now there are four camps with more than 1,000 people, mostly from Native American tribes in the U.S. and Canada. “Water is Life” is the mantra of this nonviolent struggle against the pipeline that is being built to carry crude oil from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to Illinois.

Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day. Together with Laura Gottesdiener and John Hamilton of “Democracy Now!,” we spent the morning filming interviews. That afternoon, delegations walked down the road to plant their tribal flags in the path of the proposed pipeline. Many were shocked to see large bulldozers actively carving up the land on Labor Day weekend.

Hundreds of people, mostly Native Americans, lined the route, yelling for the destruction to stop. A group of women began shaking the ranch fencing, and without much effort it fell over. The land defenders began pouring through. Several young men from the camp arrived on horseback.

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Questions for this article

Indigenous peoples, Are they the true guardians of nature?

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The bulldozers retreated, but the security guards attempted to repel the land defenders, unleashing at least half a dozen vicious dogs, who bit both people and horses. One dog had blood dripping from its mouth and nose. Undeterred, the dog’s handler continued to push the dog into the crowd. The guards pepper-sprayed the protesters, punched and tackled them. Vicious dogs like mastiffs have been used to attack indigenous peoples in the Americas since the time of Christopher Columbus and the Spanish conquistadors who followed him. In the end, the violent Dakota Access guards were forced back.

This section of the pipeline path contained archeological sites, including Lakota/Dakota burial grounds. The tribe had supplied the locations of the sites in a court filing just the day before, seeking a temporary halt to construction to fully investigate them. With those locations in hand, the Dakota Access Pipeline crew literally plowed ahead. Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault told us on the “Democracy Now!” news hour: “They were using the dogs as a deadly weapon. … They knew something was going to happen when they leapfrogged over 15 miles of undisturbed land to destroy our sacred sites … they were prepared. They hired a company that had guard dogs, and then they came in, and then they waited. And it was —by the time we saw what was going on, it was too late. Everything was destroyed. They desecrated our ancestral gravesites. They just destroyed prayer sites.”

At the camp, we interviewed Winona LaDuke, an Ojibwe leader from the White Earth Nation in northern Minnesota. She recently led a campaign that succeeded in blocking another pipeline that threatened the White Earth’s territory. She commented on North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s support of suppression of the Standing Rock protests: “You are not George Wallace, and this is not Alabama. This is 2016, and you don’t get to treat Indians like you have for those last hundred years. We’re done.”

The battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline is being waged as a renewed assertion of indigenous rights and sovereignty, as a fight to protect clean water, but, most importantly, as part of the global struggle to combat climate change and break from dependence on fossil fuels. At the Sacred Stone, Red Warrior and other camps at the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers, the protectors are there to stay, and their numbers are growing daily.

North America, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Snowden: Best Film of the Year

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

A review by David Swanson

Snowden is the most entertaining, informing, and important film you are likely to see this year.

It’s the true story of an awakening. It traces the path of Edward Snowden’s career in the U.S. military, the CIA, the NSA, and at various contractors thereof. It also traces the path of Edward Snowden’s agonizingly slow awakening to the possibility that the U.S. government might sometimes be wrong, corrupt, or criminal. And of course the film takes us through Snowden’s courageous and principled act of whistleblowing.

Snowden
Trailer for film

We see in the film countless colleagues of Snowden’s who knew much of what he knew and did not blow the whistle. We see a few help him and others appreciate him. But they themselves do nothing. Snowden is one of the exceptions. Other exceptions who preceded him and show up in the film include William Binney, Ed Loomis, Kirk Wiebe, and Thomas Drake. Most people are not like these men. Most people obey illegal orders without ever making a peep.

And yet, what strikes me about Snowden and many other whistleblowers I’ve met or learned about, is how long it took them, and the fact that what brought them around was not an event they objected to but a change in their thinking. U.S. officials who’ve been part of dozens of wars and coups and outrages for decades will decide that the latest war is too much, and they’ll bail out, resign publicly, and become an activist. Why now? Why not then, or then, or then, or that other time?

These whistleblowers — and Snowden is no exception — are not passive or submissive early in their careers. They’re enthusiastic true believers. They want to spy and bomb and kill for the good of the world. When they find out that’s not what’s happening, they go public for the good of the world. There is that consistency to their actions. The question, then, is how smart, dedicated young people come to believe that militarism and secrecy and abusive power are noble pursuits.

Oliver Stone’s Ed Snowden begins as a “smart conservative.” But the only smart thing we see about him is his computer skills. We never hear him articulate some smart political point of view that happens to be “conservative.” His taste in books includes Ayn Rand, hardly an indication of intelligence. But on the computers, Snowden is a genius. And on that basis his career advances.

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Question(s) related to this article:

What are some good films and videos that promote a culture of peace?

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Snowden has doubts about the legality of warrantless spying, but believes his CIA instructor’s ludicrous defense. Later, Snowden has such concerns about CIA cruelty he witnesses that he resigns. Yet, at the same time, he believes that presidential candidate Barack Obama will undo the damage and set things right.

How does one explain such obtuseness in a genius? Obama’s statements making perfectly clear that the wars and outrages would roll on were publicly available. I found them with ordinary search engines, needing no assistance from the NSA.

Snowden resigned, but he didn’t leave. He started working for contractors. He came to learn that a program he’d created was being used to assist in lawless and reckless, not to mention murderous, drone murders. That wasn’t enough.

He came to learn that the U.S. government was lawlessly spying on the whole world and spying more on the United States than on Russia. (Why spying on Russia was OK we aren’t told.) But that, too, wasn’t enough.

He came to learn that the U.S. was spying on its allies and enemies alike, even inserting malware into allies’ infrastructure in order to be able to destroy things and kill people should some country cease to be an ally someday. That, too, was not enough.

Snowden went on believing that the United States was the greatest country on earth. He went on calling his work “counter cyber” and “counter spying” as if only non-Americans can do spying or cyber-warfare, while the United States just tries to gently counter such acts. In fact, Snowden risked his life, refraining from taking medication he needed, so that he could continue doing that work. He defended such recklessness as justified by the need to stop Chinese hackers from stealing billions of dollars from the U.S. government. Apart from the question of which Chinese hackers did that, what did Snowden imagine it was costing U.S. taxpayers to fund the military?

Snowden’s career rolled on. But Edward Snowden’s brilliant mind was catching up with reality and at some point overtook it. And then there was no question that he would do what needed to be done. Just as he designed computer programs nobody else could, and that nobody else even thought to try, now he designed a whistleblowing maneuver that would not be stopped as others had.

Consequently, we must be grateful that good and decent people sometimes start out believing Orwellian tales. Dull, cowardly, and servile people never blow whistles.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, North America

Film: “Command and Control”

.DISARMAMENT & SECURITY.
 
from Joseph Gerson, American Friends Service Committee
 
     I am writing to urge you to see and to promote the new film, “Command and Control” which will be released across the country in the coming weeks. The 90-minute documentary thriller focuses on the 1980 nuclear armed Titan II missile accident in Damascus, Arkansas, which threatened death and destruction across much of the Midwest.  With references to other nuclear weapons accidents, the film provides a wakeup call to the little discussed mortal dangers that U.S. nuclear accidents pose to the U.S. (and other) people.

Gerson
film trailer

 The film was co-produced and co-written by Eric Schlosser, author of the book Command and Control and Robert Kenner, who has two Academy Award nominations and two Emmys under his belt. 

     Watching the film, I was reminded of Schlosser’s testimonies at the Nayarit and Vienna International Conferences on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons, which left me and others profoundly shaken.  I also found myself thinking that one of the best things a number of us may have done, lo these many years ago, may have been our roles in preventing Boston, New York and San Francisco harbors from being transformed into nuclear weapons bases.

       While the promotional material that follows here has been developed for a mass audience, I found the interviews with those responsible for the 1980 accident  and those who sacrificed their lives in the futile effort to prevent it uterrly compelling. And, if nothing else in the film sobers you, the Pauline conversions of former Sandia Lab officials, and former Secretary of Defense Brown’s testimony that “accidents were not unusual in the defense department…there must have been several every day” certainly will. Not that Brown was terribly concerned!

   A schedule of the film showings and the press kit material with url links follows below, and the film is slated to be shown on PBS, though we don’t have those dates yet.

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Question related to this article:

Can we abolish all nuclear weapons?

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     In addition to encouraging people to see the film, ticket lines will be great places for leafletting. And, when the film is shown on PBS, we can organize house parties to views and discuss the film and to launch activities, from pressing to end spending for the new generation of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, to getting signatures on the Hibakusha petition, and planning steps to win Don’t Bank on the Bomb resolutions.

   One final note:  The film does not explicitly advocate nuclear weapons abolition. That said, given Schlosser’s closing remarks that every machine that has ever been made breaks down, working for abolition is the logical conclusion that almost everyone should take from the film.

     See the film, and remember Joe Hill’s final words: “Don’t mourn. Organize!”
 
Press Kit:

Photos, synopsis and trailer are available for download here. 

Screenings:

Find an updates list of theatrical, festival and impact screenings here. 
Cities include: New York, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, San Diego

 
Synopsis:

A chilling nightmare plays out at a Titan II missile complex in Arkansas in September, 1980. A worker accidentally drops a socket, puncturing the fuel tank of an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead in our arsenal, an incident which ignites a series of feverish efforts to avoid a deadly disaster. Directed by Robert Kenner (FOOD, INC.) and based on the critically acclaimed book by Eric Schlosser (FAST FOOD NATION), COMMAND AND CONTROL is a minute-by-minute account of this long-hidden story. Putting a camera where there was no camera that night, Kenner brings this nonfiction thriller to life with stunning original footage shot in a decommissioned Titan II missile silo. Eyewitness accounts — from the man who dropped the socket, to the man who designed the warhead, to the Secretary of Defense— chronicle nine hours of terror that prevented an explosion 600 times more powerful than Hiroshima.
 

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

USA: Teachers in High-Need Schools Share Why They Do What They Do

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

Excerpts from The Education Trust Edition 132

We’ve asked educators across the country who teach in schools that serve large percentages of students of color and students from low-income families why they choose those assignments. What brings them back to the particular demands of these classrooms, year after year? Strong school leadership, networks of supportive colleagues, and the genuine opportunity to have a say in schoolwide decisions.

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Click on image to enlarge

Here are four of the responses:

LETTING STUDENTS TAKE THE LEAD by Matthew Stensrud

Last school year, our principal invited me to take part in instructional rounds — an observation-based approach to better understand the learning occurring in our Title I elementary school. The reason? To determine why our school was having difficulty meeting various benchmarks on the end-of-year assessments.
The goal of rounds is to identify a problem of practice through brief observations of teachers, collect anecdotal evidence, and review this evidence to determine solution-
Reminding ourselves that students from low-income households are capable of higher-level thinking was the first step toward addressing this, and creating assignments that demand those higher levels was the next.

CATCHING BUTTERFLIES by Brooke Haycock

Each year, in alarming numbers, and with alarming predictability, they leave. Some, swept out in a cloud of dust and suspension records. Some, fall out through the loose weave of the safety nets educators hoped would hold them. Others exit on their own, seeing more opportunities outside the school walls than within.

Too often, they are cast as the very problems. The data points that drag schools down, the disciplinary actions, the truancy numbers, the failure rates, the call-outs, the walk-outs, the kick-outs.
These students are telling us in every way they know how that our schools are not working for them. And they are exactly the young people from whom we need to be seeking advice about how to draw them back in.
Lessons emerging from students and educators in schools like these have much to contribute to the conversation about how to support and meaningfully engage students, and to provide students — particularly those struggling in our current schools — what they need to take flight.

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Question for this article:

What is the relation between peace and education?

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MY WORK IS AS DIVERSE AS MY STUDENTS by Rebecca Friedman

When I’m asked, “So, you’re a teacher; what do you teach?” I invariably reply, “Students.”

Here — in my once comfortably suburban, middle class, Western Washington school district, which now cushions the impacts of gentrification, faces the rise of the suburban poor, and welcomes ever-evolving immigrant communities — I’m allowed to be more than a Spanish and ELL teacher. I’m allowed to be a teacher of students.
When my school sought staff for a 15-hour credit retrieval course during school vacations, I was allowed to design curriculum for low-performing students to access ideas of epistemology, philosophy, decision-making, ethics, evolution, and interpretation of data. I told them: “You’re here because you’ve failed a course; I’m here because I know you can learn the hard stuff, and because you deserve more than just a work packet. We’re here to get us to graduation and beyond.”

I teach where I teach to be reminded that I have a choice: I could be a teacher who romanticizes the struggles of poverty, racial adversity, immigration, and countless other factors … or I could be a teacher who teaches students.
My choice is clear.

WE ALL GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR COLLEAGUES by Meredith Hughes

Last year was a tough one — so tough, in fact, I applied for other jobs mid-year. I had moved school districts from south Arlington, Virginia, to the east end of Henrico County (outside Richmond), and I didn’t think I could do it. I had seen tough classes in south Arlington but this was a different kind of tough: Students blurted out throughout each lesson. Kids walked around the room, kicking desks or walls and yelling in anger. But as I was applying to other jobs, I began thinking about my students (sounds ridiculous to write that) — how could I leave them in the middle of the year? My students need structure and routine, and change is hard for them. As difficult as last year had been, I reminded myself that I am doing this job to help exactly these kinds of kids — the ones who do not have stability at home, the ones who come to school for structure. I am here to provide a safe, comfortable, and fun learning environment. And so, with support from my co-workers, I worked to figure out how to make my room less chaotic. I met with my grade-level team, as well as others, to talk about behavior management ideas — some even offered to stop by to check in on certain students. My admin team and I brainstormed ideas to better utilize school resources. And I came in some mornings to little notes of encouragement from the PE teacher across the hall. I never felt like I was alone, and slowly, but surely, we got to a good place. I am proud to say I am staying on this year. In fact, I have requested to follow my kiddos to third grade — because I want them to transition into their first testing grade with ease.
(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, North America

Peace Activist Kathy Kelly Heads to Prison for Protesting U.S. Drone War

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article and video from Democracy Now

Peace activist Kathy Kelly is about to begin a three-month prison sentence for protesting the U.S. drone war at a military base in Missouri earlier this year. Kelly, along with another activist, was arrested after offering bread and an indictment against drone warfare. Kelly is the co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare.

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Video of interview with Kathy Kelly

TRANSCRIPT – This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Kathy Kelly, in addition to U.S. troops staying, 11,000 troops staying, and participating not only in Operation Resolute Support, but fighting themselves directly, they’ll be supported by bombers, drones. You participated in a drone strike, and you’re headed home to Chicago, then to prison. Talk about this drone strike and why you chose to get arrested.

KATHY KELLY: Well, I think it’s a good time to be very uncompromising with regard to the United States’ wars. These wars are murderous. The wars are killing civilians, as has been happening in the United States’ wars since World War II. Now 90 percent of the people killed in wars are civilians. And this is true certainly with the drone strikes. The Reprieve organization has said that for every one person who is selected as a target for assassination, 28 civilians are killed. And even just three nights ago, there was another targeted assassination in which they hit two homes in the Logar province, and six people were wounded, four people were killed, all of them civilians.

And so, I crossed a line at Whiteman Air Force Base. A squadron operates weaponized drones over Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been an epicenter of drone warfare. And a good symbol for people in Afghanistan is breaking bread. I carried a loaf of bread and a letter, wanting to talk to the commandant. We thought it was important to know how many people were killed by Whiteman Air Force Base on that day.

AMY GOODMAN: Where is Whiteman?

KATHY KELLY: That’s in Knob Noster, Missouri.

AMY GOODMAN: And what’s its relationship with Afghanistan?

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Question for this article:

Drones (unmanned bombers), Should they be outlawed?

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KATHY KELLY: Well, the weaponized drones are flown—once they’re airborne, they’re operated entirely by people in United States Air National Guard bases and air bases. And so, Whiteman Air Force Base won’t disclose, neither will the CIA disclose, information about the results of these killings, but this is what people in the United States need to know. We have a First Amendment right to seek redress of grievance. And having been in Afghanistan, living with young people who are too frightened to go back to visit their own relatives, who see for themselves a future that could be a prolonged, exacerbated warfare, there is a grievance, and we wanted to bring that to the commandant at that particular base.

AMY GOODMAN: I said you participated in a strike; I meant to say in a drone protest. So, exactly what was the action you engaged in?

KATHY KELLY: Well, I think I stepped one or two steps over a line. And—

AMY GOODMAN: Holding a loaf of bread and an indictment?

KATHY KELLY: And so the military prosecutor said, “Your Honor, Ms. Kelly is in grave need, great need, of rehabilitation.” But I think it’s a—this is an important time to connect these oppressive issues. You know, while we’re spending $1 trillion on warfare in Afghanistan and looking at another $120 billion that will be spent—the Pentagon wants $57 billion for this year alone—we’re squandering needed resources. We’re undermining the possibility of solving extremely serious problems that we’re moving into.

AMY GOODMAN: How long will you be going to prison for?

KATHY KELLY: Three months.

AMY GOODMAN: Where?

KATHY KELLY: Well, I don’t know yet. The Bureau of Prisons will tell me where I’m to be put, probably at the end of January.

AMY GOODMAN: How many times have you gone to prison for protesting war?

KATHY KELLY: Well, this will be my third time in a federal—well, no, fourth time in a federal prison. And I’ve been jailed in various county jails and other kinds of lockups more times than I can count.

AMY GOODMAN: Kathy Kelly, I want to thank you very much for being with us—

KATHY KELLY: Thank you, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: —co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare, just returned from Kabul, Afghanistan. We’ll link your recent piece, “Obama Extends War in Afghanistan: The implications for U.S. democracy aren’t reassuring.” And, Matt Aikins, please stay with us. I want to talk about your latest piece looking at Afghanistan; the piece is “Afghanistan: The Making of a Narco State.” Stay with us.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

USA: Culture of Peace Commission: Compiling Ashland’s ‘Community Peacebuilders’ network

. .DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION. .

An article by Will Sears in Ashland Daily Tidings (abridged)

. . . Every city and village on earth has individuals and organizations that work at the local level to promote the social order, health and sustainability of their communities. The Rogue Valley is especially blessed with a huge number of such individuals, businesses and organizations that, each in their own way and throughout all sectors of our local society, are already contributing to some aspect of transforming our current culture into one of justice, interconnectedness and peace. That richness, relative to our small population, makes Ashland the perfect place to begin to consciously create a model for a local Culture of Peace that just might spread throughout the world.

Ashland

Global organizations related to the United Nations and the International Cities of Peace are watching us with interest and encouragement as we endeavor to become the first city on earth to consciously and systematically create an overarching local culture of peace. We are being seen as a valuable case study as we deliberately create templates for use in other cities.

Toward this end and among several other programs, the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission (ACPC) has created the Community Peacebuilders Network. This is an as-yet small but constantly growing listing of all of those local groups and individuals, from all sectors of our community, that have already decided to join us, and each other, in this adventure. Each has described in their own words how the work they do contributes to an overall culture of peace in our local area. They are each listed under one of the broad cultural categories of “Business,” “Education,” “Food /Habitat,” “Arts/Culture,” Religion /Spirituality,” “Health /Science,” Legal /Social,” “Environment” or “Multi-sector.” We also have a category for “Individuals” who are working toward peace in some way.

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Questions for this article:

How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?

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This listing serves to acknowledge the important and often unnoticed work that is being done in our community that moves us toward a better world. It invites and encourages collaboration. It further serves to inspire us all as we realize that we are not alone, that our work is part of a much larger movement sharing an overall common purpose that could potentially change the world.

Another purpose of this listing is to help us to see how we are all contributing to a culture of peace in some way. Farmers and restaurants that foster environmental stewardship, businesses that treat their employees and customers fairly and respectfully, churches that work to promote unity and eliminate bias are all contributing to the peaceful, cooperative health of our society.

As we move forward the ACPC will begin to host periodic conferences aimed at inspiring communication about elements in our community that can be improved and encouraging collaborative solutions as we work toward our goal of creating an interconnected web of peace, justice, sustainability and inclusion in our local area.

The Community Peacebuilders Network is currently viewable on our ACPC website (ashlandcpc.org). You, your business, or your organization are invited and encouraged to be included in this list by filling out a form which you will also find on our website under “join the movement.”

Please do join us as we work together to stitch a seamless new culture of peace that works for us all. Help us to build a model of a single city and its surroundings working together to make a better world from the grassroots up. Help us to create a replicable example for the rest of the world to follow.

At long last, we and the people of the world seem ready!

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North America

Canada: World Social Forum: a success despite the low turnout

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An article from Métro (translated by CPNN)

We expected 50 000, but it was rather 35 000 people who participated in the World Social Forum (WSF) 2016, which ended Sunday in Montreal. Organizers estimate however that the event is a success. According to the co-ordinator Carminda Mac Lorin, visa applications from hundreds of international guests were refused or delayed which has undoubtedly contributed to the low number, as compared to 60 000 people in 2013 in Tunis and 155 000 in Porto Alegre in 2005.

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Barely a hundred people attended the closing ceremony of the World Social Forum on Sunday at Jarry Park. Photo by Mario Beauregard / Metro

“These refusals were ultimately positive, because they have made it possible to make public a subject we do not talk about enough: the issues of international mobility, closure of borders, and refugees,” said Mrs. Mac Lorin, who conducted a debriefing meeting on Sunday with the International Council of the WSF.

The organizers are also proud of the diversity of countries represented by the participants (125), and the variety of topics covered in the forum. “The people who were involved at the forum put forward many initiatives they are going to implement, whether in relation to the status of women, indigenous rights, demilitarization or the fight against violations of human rights by mining companies, “expressed Mrs. Mac Lorin. During the week, about 70 concrete action plans have been adopted and made public Monday.

“We saw that there are practical collective solutions to global issues. I was able to build links that will result in something. “- Ramiro Lopez, Colombian activist

Mrs. Mac Lorin also welcomed the strong contribution of young people in the event. This also impressed Raymonde Maisonneuve, a participating member of the religious congregation of the Holy Cross Sisters. “To a great extent, it was managed and presented by youth. It’s amazing. This is the future “, welcomed Ms Maisonneuve, who yesterday attended the WSF closing ceremony at Jarry Park.

It lacked atmosphere in the park on Sunday, where only a hundred people attended the ceremony. To some participants who were there, it was like the rest of the week. “I was expecting huge crowds at our demonstration, but that was not the case. In addition, various activities were very scattered, “said Marie Guerda Saint-Fort, a citizen of Haiti.

Several participants, however, were satisfied with the exchange of ideas which resulted from the WSF. “The issues that affect the entire planet, such as mining, oil and food safety, we addressed them,” said Ramiro Lopez, an activist who paid his way to come from Colombia.

In the same vein, the WSF international council is satisfied that such a space of convergence is always needed and that it will be back soon in another corner of the world.

(Click here for the original article in French)

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The city of Montreal hosts the 12th World Social Forum

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An article by Hassan EL AMRI for Agence Marocaine de Presse (translated by CPNN)

Following up the previous forum in the Tunisian capital Tunis, in March 2015, the Canadian city of Montreal is welcoming, from 9 to 14 August, the 12th edition of the World Social Forum (WSF). The forum will have a very diverse program, consisting of more than 1,300 activities presented as part of its anti-globalization theme.

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(Click on photo to enlarge)

Organized under the motto “Another world is necessary. Together we can make it possible “, the WSF in Montreal will make history this year as the first such event to be held in a country of the northern hemisphere. Since its inception in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001, the Forum has been held exclusively in the South (Latin America, Asia and Africa).

Despite only 15,000 people registered before the start of the conclave, the organizers of the Montreal edition are optimistic to achieve their goal of 50,000 participants from 120 countries, as agents of change to bridge the North-South divide, to exchange ideas, make their claims, initiatives and action plans and give birth to a positive momentum for change: Think globally, act locally.

The organizing committee has expressed their displeasure with Canadian immigration authorities because they have refused to issue entry visas to Canada for hundreds of participants and guests. This refusal particularly affects the countries of Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. It adds to the inability of others o come because of financial reasons, especially with the high cost that characterizes the metropolis in full summer season.

Despite these obstacles, the Committee has not lost hope and insists on making this WSF 2016 an open meeting place for reflective thinking and debate of ideas, formulation of proposals and free exchange of experiences in order to achieve efficient action by actors and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and imperialism, and to build an inclusive global society and egalitarian.

The committee members said at a news conference Monday that the WSF in Montreal aims to promote a convergence of solutions and energies to construct a globalization that is more inclusive, and to transform the Canadian metropolis during those few days into a meeting place for social movements, self-expression alternatives, citizens’ exchanges, artistic events and concrete commitments.

The WSF 2016 also aims they believe to be a space for the development of networks of actions that promote social economy, international solidarity, social and environmental justice, participatory democracy and the recognition of equal dignity for all.

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(Click here for the original article in French)

Question for this article:

World Social Forums, Advancing the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace?

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The various sites and venues of the Forum will allow local and foreign participants to engage in a genuine debate for an inclusive and mobilizing society with proposals for tomorrow’s world, where the slogan is the change based on civic engagement, plural and positive, which gives life to the initiatives and solutions of social actors.

The Montreal Forum will begin Tuesday afternoon with a festive anti-globalization march in the center of the metropolis. It aims to mobilize around social issues that affect all citizens of the planet, and to celebrate reconciliation and solidarity between peoples, while the weekend will be marked by presentations of practical solutions of projects in the short or long term.

During the conclave, 13 major themes have been selected after a collaborative process which aims to enable participants to better identify issues of interest and importance to them. These, include: ”

– “economic, social and solidarity alternatives against the capitalist crisis”;

– the “democratization of knowledge and communication rights”;

– the “culture of peace and struggle for justice and demilitarization”;

– “defense of the rights of nature and environmental justice”;

– “migration and citizenship without borders”;

– “democracy, social movements and citizens”;

– the “struggle against the dictatorship of finance and the sharing of resources.”

– the “world of work against neoliberalism”;

– “cultural, artistic and philosophical expressions for another possible world”;

– “global struggle and international solidarity”;

– “human and social rights, dignity and struggle against inequality;

– and “struggles against racism, xenophobia, patriarchy and fundamentalism. ”

Furthermore, the WSF 2016 will be punctuated by 22 major conferences which will aim to raise awareness of the current challenges and stimulate citizen engagement on issues as diverse as climate change, socioeconomic inequalities, racism and discrimination, the impact of international finance, indigenous struggles, labor and feminist, education and the place of youth.

Following up on the forums in Latin America, Asia and Africa, the participants in Canada want to counterbalance the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland. In addition to denouncing economic globalization and the neoliberal model, they will also think about how to change the world today, including the provision of solutions and practical alternatives for a better, more just, egalitarian world with respect for human being, nature and the planet.

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