Category Archives: North America

USA: People’s Congress of Resistance

…. HUMAN RIGHTS ….

Announcement by the People’s Congress of Resistance

In the face of the assault waged against working class and poor communities and the environment by the Trump Administration a grassroots People’s Congress of Resistance will convene in Washington, D.C. on September 16 and 17, 2017.

The People’s Congress of Resistance will be the voice of the people – an expression of direct democracy of those who are left out and kept out of the Congress of plutocrats.

Real representatives

The People’s Congress of Resistance will bring together grassroots resisters from every part of the country. Delegates will come from

* the now impoverished and hollowed-out industrial communities of the Midwest;

* immigrant families being ripped apart by ICE raids

* African American communities that are being devastated by unemployment, poverty, gentrification, and police violence

* towns of devastated Appalachia where jobs left but millions of opioid pills were simultaneously pumped in by profit-driven pharmaceutical companies

* The Native community, on the frontline in the fight for Mother Earth, and in defense of Native sovereignty and self-determination

* educators and parents struggling to improve rather than destroy public education

* activists fighting to defend the lives and core rights of women

* environmental and community activists fighting to stop fracking and the corporate destruction of the planet

* LGBTQ organizers fighting back against bigotry

* health care workers and advocates who are demanding a Single-Payer national health program

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Questions related to this article:

The post-election fightback for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

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* the Muslim-American community which is being demonized and targeted by hate crimes and hatred

* organizers who have been fighting the Military-Industrial Complex as a self-perpetuating monster that incentivizes more and more wars and allows the biggest corporations to loot the national treasury under the pretext of national security.

This is the People’s Congress of Resistance that will meet on September 16 and 17 at the Blackburn Center at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

A platform and an action plan

The People’s Congress of Resistance will meet in large plenary sessions and in smaller break-out meetings.

It will chart a path of nationwide grassroots resistance and mobilization to defeat Trump’s reactionary program of unrestrained capitalism. This path will draw on the experiences of the grassroots, amplifying the voices and spreading the tactics of those who are already fighting back to defend their communities.

The People’s Congress of Resistance will also project its own platform and vision of what America should be if it is to be a society truly devoted to fundamental social and political rights.

That is a society that places political and economic power in the hands of “We, The People” rather than the plutocrats. Each individual needs not just the right to vote for politicians who serve the rich, but the rights to a job or basic income, health care, housing and education.

An independent path

The People’s Congress of Resistance will represent the real resistance, the grassroots. Trump’s reactionary agenda constitutes a fearsome assault against the rights and needs of the people.

But we also reject the Democratic Party elites, in Congress and outside, who have refused to fight the right-wing during the past decades and have instead embraced the wretched policies of neoliberal capitalism that have devastated communities and left one of every two Americans living in or near poverty while allowing the top one-tenth of 1 percent of Americans to own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.

History has shown that change comes from the bottom up, it comes from the dedication and determination and resolve of the grassroots. As we learned from the great Frederick Douglass: power concedes nothing without struggle! The People’s Congress of Resistance will be convened in that spirit and in that tradition.

HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

USA: Israel-Palestine statement by the Mennonites takes a ‘third way’

. .DISARMAMENT & SECURITY. ,

An article from the Mennonite World Review

Mennonite Church USA delegates on July 6 overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Israel-Palestine, confessing “our own complicity in this web of violence, injustice and suffering” and vowing “concrete steps to address these wrongs.”

At the first business session of the denominational convention, the statement received 98 percent support, with 10 dissenting votes in a delegate body of about 550.


Anita Kehr, representing Western District Conference, speaks during open discussion time on the Israel-Palestine resolution. — Vada Snider for MWR

“Seeking Peace in Israel and Palestine” takes what supporters call a “third way,” opposing the Israeli military occupation while taking a stand against anti-Semitism and affirming the need to build stronger relationships with Jewish communities.

In 2015, delegates tabled an earlier version of the resolution, asking that it be rewritten and brought back in two years.

This time, delegates commended the statement as a humble call for justice that recognizes “the legacy of Jewish suffering is intertwined with the suffering of Palestinians.”

“I feel the resolution is a faithful response to conflict in that region,” said Heidi Regier Kreider, representing Western District Conference. “I believe it allows us to reach out to Jewish and Palestinian communities and be consistent in our call to be peace people.”

Regarding the movement known as BDS — boycott, divestment, sanctions — the resolution aims to offer a unique Mennonite position. It urges avoiding “the purchase of products associated with acts of violence or policies of military occupation.” It does not call for a boycott of all Israeli goods or for academic or cultural boycotts.

The resolution asks the financial agency Everence to convene representatives of Mennonite organizations to “review investment practices for the purpose of withdrawing investments from companies that are profiting from the occupation.”

It urges all church members to review their investments in a similar way.

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Question related to this article:

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

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Making confessions

“[W]e confess and lament the ways we have supported the military occupation, which has grievously harmed and traumatized the Palestinian people and has not served the well-being and long-term security of Israelis,” the resolution states.

Specific points of confession include “embracing or tolerating Zionist theology,” accepting negative stereotypes of Palestinians based on “anti-Muslim and anti-Arab biases” and contributing tax dollars to military aid to Israel.

The resolution does not endorse either a one-state or two-state solution in Israeli-Palestine. “We hear a call from both Jews and Palestinians,” it says, “to have a state . . . that protects their unique cultures, civil rights, freedoms, security and dignity.”

Delegates overwhelmingly expressed support.

Emily Hedrick of Lima Mennonite Church in Ohio said she had been “looking for a peace witness in this generation,” which has not faced a military draft, “and I see that in this resolution.”

Ryan Ahlgrim of Richmond, Va., said the resolution was already forming Mennonite Church USA in a positive way by making members intentional about not being anti-Semitic and about caring for Palestinians.

Among concerns expressed, Tim Bentch of Souderton, Pa., felt the statement’s call to end the occupation was “political rhetoric” that hindered the ability of Israelis to hear what the statement is saying.

Michael Crosby of Champaign-Urbana, Ill., said the statement had already opened up new inter­faith conversations in his ongoing meetings with a local imam and a rabbi.

Two endorsements

Delegates heard endorsements of the resolution from a Jew and a Palestinian.
Rabbi Brant Rosen, representing the Rabbinical Council of Jewish Voices for Peace, read a statement from the council noting that “within North American Jewish communities, there is a growing desire to end our silence over Israel’s oppressive occupation of Palestine.”

Brant said that as “a Jew and rabbi and a person of conscience” he was deeply impressed with the resolution.

Alex Awad, a Palestinian Christian who has served as a pastor and professor in Israel-Palestine, told of speaking at numerous Mennonite events and visiting in Mennonite homes. He urged support for the resolution and said Christian leaders throughout the Holy Land, where Christianity is in danger of dying out, would be among those who affirm it.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

U.S. Conference of Mayors Opposes Military-Heavy Trump Budget

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from World Beyond War (abbreviated)

The U.S. Conference of Mayors on Monday [June 26] unanimously passed three resolutions opposing the military-heavy Trump budget proposal, urging Congress to move funding out of the military and into human and environmental needs rather than the reverse.

The three resolutions are numbers 59 and 60 found on this page.

and number 79 found on this page.

“We are very excited that the entire US Conference of Mayors, from major metropoles such as New York City and Los Angeles to small rural townships, understand that the resources being sucked up by the Pentagon to wage endless wars overseas should be used to address our crumbling infrastructure, the climate crisis and poverty at home and abroad. Congress and the Trump administration should listen to these mayors, as they reflect the needs and hopes of their constituents, not the greed of corporate donors,” said Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK.

“The Peace Council applauds the resolve of major city mayors to dramatically cut the U.S. military budget and to take the funds saved to provide money for jobs, education, housing, transportation, seniors, youth, rebuild our roads, bridges, public transportation much more,” said Henry Lowendorf of the US Peace Council. “The mayors understand how pouring the wealth of our great country into building war machines and waging wars around the globe does not make us more secure. To the contrary, this gigantic military budget is strangling our country and the many unnecessary wars only generate death, destruction and enemies. We fully support the mayors’ call both for inviting the public and city leaders to hearings expressing on how funds saved by cutting the Pentagon budget can be used in our cities and for passing resolutions to our members of Congress demanding that they respond to cities to begin prioritizing the needs of our residents over war profiteering.”

“These three resolutions should be read carefully by every member of Congress,” said David Swanson, director of World Beyond War. “These are the considered statements of the mayors of this country, as prompted by the citizens of numerous cities that moved their city councils to pass similar resolutions and their mayors to support these.”

Information on a campaign to pass resolutions through city councils, and those that have been passed thus far, can be found here: http://worldbeyondwar.org/resolution

Over 20,000 people signed a petition similar to Resolution 59 here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/un-trump-the-budget

Resolution 59 was introduced by the mayor of Ithaca, NY, and had been passed by that city. . . [click here for the resolution]

Resolution 60 was introduced by the Mayor of New Haven, CT, and had been passed by that city. . . . [click here for the resolution]

Sponsors of Resolution 79 were:

The Honorable T.M. ‘Frank’ Franklin Cownie, Mayor of Des Moines
The Honorable Alex B. Morse III, Mayor of Holyoke
The Honorable Ardell F. Brede, Mayor of Rochester
The Honorable Chris Koos, Mayor of Normal
The Honorable Denny Doyle, Mayor of Beaverton
The Honorable Frank C. Ortis, Mayor of Pembroke Pines
The Honorable Geraldine ‘Jeri’ Muoio Ph.D., Mayor of West Palm Beach
The Honorable Helene Schneider, Mayor of Santa Barbara
The Honorable John Dickert, Mayor of Racine
The Honorable John Heilman, Mayor of West Hollywood
The Honorable Libby Schaaf, Mayor of Oakland
The Honorable Lucy Vinis, Mayor of Eugene
The Honorable Mark Stodola, Mayor of Little Rock
The Honorable Nan Whaley, Mayor of Dayton
The Honorable Patrick L. Wojahn, Mayor of College Park
The Honorable Paul R. Soglin, Mayor of Madison
The Honorable Pauline Russo Cutter, Mayor of San Leandro
The Honorable Roy D. Buol, Mayor of Dubuque
The Honorable Salvatore J. Panto Jr., Mayor of Easton

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Questions for this article:

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

The post-election fightback for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

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The resolution recognized some of the cities that have passed resolutions:

“The United States Conference of Mayors welcomes resolutions adopted by cities including New Haven, CT, Charlottesville, VA, Evanston, IL, New London, NH, and West Hollywood, CA urging Congress to cut military spending and redirect funding to meet human and environmental needs.”

It further resolved (at least as drafted; there were slight modifications):

“NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) calls on the United States Government, as an urgent priority, to do everything in his power to lower nuclear tensions though intense diplomatic efforts with Russia, China, North Korea and other nuclear-armed states and their allies, and to work with Russia to dramatically reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles; and

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors welcomes the historic negotiations currently underway in the United Nations, involving most of the world’s countries, on a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading to their total elimination; and

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors deeply regrets that the United States and the other nuclear-armed states are boycotting these negotiations; and

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors calls on the United States to support the ban treaty negotiations as a major step towards negotiation of a comprehensive agreement on the achievement and permanent maintenance of a world free of nuclear arms, and to initiate, in good faith, multilateral negotiations to verifiably eliminate nuclear weapons within a timebound framework; and

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors welcomes the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017, introduced in both houses of Congress, that would prohibit the President from launching a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war by Congress; and

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors calls for the Administration’s new Nuclear Posture Review to reaffirm the stated U.S. goal of the elimination of nuclear weapons, to lessen U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons, and to recommend measures to reduce nuclear risks, such as de-alerting, improving lines of communication with other nuclear-armed states, and ending nuclear sharing, in which Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Turkey host U.S. nuclear bombs; and

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors calls on the President and Congress to reduce nuclear weapons spending to the minimum necessary to assure the safety and security of the existing weapons as they await disablement and dismantlement; and . . .

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors calls on the President and Congress to reverse federal spending priorities and to redirect funds currently allocated to nuclear weapons and unwarranted military spending to restore full funding for Community Block Development Grants and the Environmental Protection Agency, to create jobs by rebuilding our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, and to ensure basic human services for all, including education, environmental protection, food assistance, housing and health care,

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors urges all U.S. mayors to join Mayors for Peace in order to help reach the goal of 10,000 member cities by 2020, and encourages U.S. member cities to get actively involved by establishing sister city relationships with cities in other nuclear-armed nations, and by taking action at the municipal level to raise public awareness of the humanitarian and financial costs of nuclear weapons, the growing dangers of wars among nuclear-armed states, and the urgent need for good faith U.S. participation in negotiating the global elimination of nuclear weapons.”

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North America

USA: United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) conference

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from Popular Resistance

We just returned from the weekend-long United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) conference in Richmond, VA. This is the fourth UNAC conference since its founding in 2010 to create a vibrant and active anti-war movement in the United States that opposes all wars. The theme this year was stopping the wars at home and abroad in recognition that we can’t end one without ending the others, that they have common roots and that it will take a large, broad-based and diverse movement of movements to succeed.


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Speakers at the conference ranged from people who are fighting for domestic issues – such as a $15/hour minimum wage and an end to racist police brutality and ICE raids – to people who traveled from or represented countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Korea, the Philippines, the Congo, Iran, Syria, Colombia and Venezuela, which are some of the many countries under attack by US imperialism. At the end of the conference, participants marched to an area of Richmond called Shockoe Bottom, which is an African cemetery close to a site that was a central hub for the slave trade, to rally with activists with the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality who are fighting to protect the land from gentrification and preserve it as a park.

The War at Home

The “US Way of War” – a brutal form of war that requires the total destruction of populations, targets the most vulnerable and wipes out their access to basic necessities such as food and water – has raged since settlers first stepped foot on the land that is now the United States and brutalized the Indigenous Peoples in order to take their lands and resources to build wealth for the colonizers and their home countries using the slave labor of Africans and indentured servants. The US Way of War continues in the same form today on both domestic and foreign land.

There are daily reminders of the war at home, which overwhelmingly targets people of color, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ people, the poor and workers. Over 1,000 civilians are killed by police, security personnel or vigilantes every year in the US. Black young men are nine times more likely to be victims than any other group, but, as in the case of Philando Castile, few of the killers are held accountable. Despite clear evidence that Castile was murdered by Officer Jeromino Yanez in front of his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter during a traffic stop, Yanez was acquitted this week. Within hours of the verdict, thousands of local residents marched against the injustice and some shut down a major highway.

Black Lives Matter Chicago and other community groups filed a lawsuit this week asking for federal oversight of their police. They accuse the mayor of trying to cut a backroom deal with the Department of Justice to water down oversight of the police after a DoJ investigation “found widespread constitutional violations by the Chicago Police Department.” And recently, though Take Em Down NoLa was successful, after years of efforts, at removing several confederate statues in New Orleans, structural racism is still rampant in the school and law enforcement systems. Ashana Bigard explains, a DoJ investigation found “98.6 percent of all children arrested by the New Orleans Police Department for ‘serious offenses’ were black.”

Ralph Poynter, the widower of the great attorney-activist Lynne Stewart, spoke at the UNAC conference about the many political prisoners who have been jailed in the US for decades. He described the organizing efforts to release Stewart and the public sympathy that she was given, in part, for being a white woman. There are many people who deserve equal organizing efforts, such as Major Tillery who, after 33 years, is appealing his murder conviction. Indeed, many from the black freedom struggle of decades past remain imprisoned. Let us not forget them.

And the Trump administration is ramping up deportations. This week, ICE Director Thomas Homan asked Congress “for more than a billion dollars to expand ICE’s capacity to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.” Homan also indicated that he would increase deportations, saying “‘no population of persons’ in the country illegally is safe from deportation.” In this interview, Ingrid Latorre describes how the Sanctuary Movement is working to protect immigrants.

Juneteenth is a Time to End the War at Home

Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when black slaves in Texas learned they were freed – two and one-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, is a little known holiday that is being celebrated this year through efforts to end racial disparities on many fronts of struggle. A coalition of organizations is working to raise awareness of the injustice of cash bail in the US. They raised over a million dollars and are using that to bail out black fathers and “black LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming people, who are overrepresented in jails and prisons and are likely to experience abuse while incarcerated.”

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Question related to this article:

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

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Other groups are organizing in cities across the country to “Take Back the Land” and call for reparations after centuries of oppression. They write:

“We are a people who have been enslaved and dispossessed as a result of the oppressive, exploitative, extractive system of colonialism and white supremacy. In this system, our labor and its products have been forcefully taken from us for generations, for the accumulation of wealth by others. This extraction of wealth – from our labor, and from the land – formed the financial basis of the modern globalized world economy and has led to compounded exploitation and social alienation of Black people to this day.”

Jessicah Pierre explains that despite more than 150 years of ‘freedom’, black people still have a long way to go. A report called “The Ever Growing Gap” found that if we continue on the current path, “black families would have to work another 228 years to amass the amount of wealth white families already hold today.”

Wealth inequality is growing globally. Paul Bucheit explains that the five richest men in the world have almost the same wealth as the bottom 50% of the world’s population, which means each one of them has the wealth of 750 million people. Bucheit also explains that they didn’t earn it, they effectively stole it. More and more, we view the US as a kleptocracy. One idea to recapture that lost wealth and share it more equally is a Citizen’s Wealth Fund . Stewart Lansley writes that they “operate like a giant community-owned unit trust, giving all citizens an equal stake in a part of the economy.”

Ending the Wars Abroad

It would be impossible to discuss all of the wars abroad in this one newsletter (our Memorial Day newsletter discusses war further), but it is important that people in the US understand how the US Way of War is being waged around the world and its domestic impacts. Much of that was discussed at the UNAC conference, which you can watch here. Here are a few items that we suggest checking out.

This week on Clearing the FOG, we spoke with FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley and journalist Max Blumenthal about “Russiagate” and the way it is being used to trick progressives into supporting conflict with Russia. We also recommend watching Oliver Stone’s series of interviews with Vladimir Putin, even though the government and even Rolling Stone urge you not to watch these excellent interviews. Abby Martin of The Empire Files traveled to Venezuela to witness the protests firsthand and the violence being perpetrated by the right wing opposition that is funded by the US. And as President Trump sheds more of his responsibilities as Commander in Chief and hands them to generals such as Masterson and Mattis, who wants to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan, it is important to read this excellent analysis, “Afghanistan: From Soviet Occupation to American ‘Liberation“, by Nauman Sadiq.

At present, more than 130 countries are negotiating a treaty at the United Nations that would prohibit all nuclear weapons. The US, which holds the largest nuclear arsenal, is not participating but North Korea is. Diana Johnstone writes that the dangerous belief at the Pentagon is that in a nuclear war, the US “would prevail.”Will the rest of the world be able to prevent a nuclear war? A positive sign was the “Woman Ban the Bomb” marches that took place in more than 170 cities worldwide.

It’s up to us as people to organize a peace movement in our communities. People’s Organization for Progress in Newark, New Jersey and their allies are one example of what we can be doing. They are proposing monthly actions that educate the public about the connection between the wars at home and abroad.

Kevin Zeese spoke at the opening plenary of the UNAC conference about Moral Injury that is done to an individual and to a people who engage in war. He closes with this thought:

“If we do not awaken the US government and change course from a destructive military power to an exceptional humanitarian culture aiding billions who suffer – a heavy price will be paid. We should expect it.

Our job is to turn moral injury into moral outrage and transform the United States into an exceptional humanitarian nation that is a member of the community of nations that lifts people up, rather than creates chaos and insecurity around the world.”

There are opportunities right now to organize for peace in your community no matter what issue you work on. Let’s understand that the wars at home cannot end if we do not also end the wars abroad. As we build this movement of movements, let’s remember this fact and include the abolition of war and the creation of a peace economy in our list of demands.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

U.S. Conference of Mayors to Vote on Resolution to Move Money from the Military to Human and Environmental Needs

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from World Beyond War

New Haven, CT, Charlottesville, VA, Montgomery County, MD, Evanston, IL (see page 14 of linked document), New London, NH, and Ithaca, NY, have passed resolutions opposing the Trump budget’s moving of money from everything else to the military, urging that money be moved in the opposite direction.


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Those passed by Ithaca and New Haven will be voted on by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Ask your mayor to contact the U.S. Conference of Mayors now to endorse resolutions #59 and #60.

Your town or city or county can also go ahead and pass its own. For more tips and sample materials from Ithaca, NY, click here.

You can also watch/listen to this webinar done with Code Pink and U.S. Peace Council.

Steps you can take:

Contact mary@worldbeyondwar.org to ask for help

Form a coalition of local groups concerned about the cuts, the military increase, or both

Find out how to speak publicly at local government meetings and how to submit a proposal or get one on the agenda for a vote; or ask council members/ aldermen / supervisors to sponsor it.

Collect organizations’ or prominent people’s or lots of people’s names on a petition

Hold rallies, press conferences

Write op-eds, letters, go on radio, tv

Use http://costofwar.com to calculate local trade-offs

(continued in right column)

Questions for this article:

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

(continued from left column)

Make use of this petition signed by many prominent people and over 20,000 people total

Revise the draft below:

Resolution Proposed for __________, ___

Whereas President Trump has proposed to move $54 billion from human and environmental spending at home and abroad to military spending[i], bringing military spending to well over 60% of federal discretionary spending[ii],

Whereas polling has found the U.S. public to favor a $41 billion reduction in military spending, a $94 billion gap away from President Trump’s proposal,

Whereas part of helping alleviate the refugee crisis should be ending, not escalating, wars that create refugees[iii],

Whereas President Trump himself admits that the enormous military spending of the past 16 years has been disastrous and made us less safe, not safer[iv],

Whereas fractions of the proposed military budget could provide free, top-quality education from pre-school through college[v], end hunger and starvation on earth[vi], convert the U.S. to clean energy[vii], provide clean drinking water everywhere it’s needed on the planet[viii], build fast trains between all major U.S. cities[ix], and double non-military U.S. foreign aid rather than cutting it[x],

Whereas even 121 retired U.S. generals have written a letter opposing cutting foreign aid[xi],

Whereas a December 2014 Gallup poll of 65 nations found that the United States was far and away the country considered the largest threat to peace in the world[xii],

Whereas a United States responsible for providing clean drinking water, schools, medicine, and solar panels to others would be more secure and face far less hostility around the world,

Whereas our environmental and human needs are desperate and urgent,

Whereas the military is itself the greatest consumer of petroleum we have[xiii],

Whereas economists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have documented that military spending is an economic drain rather than a jobs program[xiv],

Be it therefore resolved that the ____________ of ___________, ________, urges the United States Congress to move our tax dollars in exactly the opposite direction proposed by the President, from militarism to human and environmental needs.

[i] “Trump to Seek $54 Billion Increase in Military Spending,” The New York Times, February 27, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/us/politics/trump-budget-military.html?_r=0

[ii] This does not include another 6% for the discretionary portion of veterans’ care. For a breakdown of discretionary spending in the 2015 budget from the National Priorities Project, see https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spending-united-states

[iii] “43 Million People Kicked Out of Their Homes,” World Beyond War, http://worldbeyondwar.org/43-million-people-kicked-homes / “Europe’s Refugee Crisis Was Made in America,” The Nation, https://www.thenation.com/article/europes-refugee-crisis-was-made-in-america

[iv] On February 27, 2017, Trump said, “Almost 17 years of fighting in the Middle East . . . $6 trillion we’ve spent in the Middle East . . . and we’re nowhere, actually if you think about it we’re less than nowhere, the Middle East is far worse than it was 16, 17 years ago, there’s not even a contest . . . we have a hornet’s nest . . . .” http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/02/27/trump_we_spent_6_trillion_in_middle_east_and_we_are_less_than_nowhere_far_worse_than_16_years_ago.html

[v] “Free College: We Can Afford It,” The Washington Post, May 1, 2012, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/free-college-we-can-afford-it/2012/05/01/gIQAeFeltT_story.html?utm_term=.9cc6fea3d693

[vi] “The World Only Needs 30 Billion Dollars a Year to Eradicate the Scourge of Hunger,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000853/index.html

[vii] “Clean Energy Transition Is A $25 Trillion Free Lunch,” Clean Technica, https://cleantechnica.com/2015/11/03/clean-energy-transition-is-a-25-trillion-free-lunch / See also: http://www.solutionaryrail.org

[viii] “Clean Water for a Healthy World,” UN Environment Program, http://www.unwater.org/wwd10/downloads/WWD2010_LOWRES_BROCHURE_EN.pdf

[ix] “Cost of High Speed Rail in China One Third Lower than in Other Countries,” The World Bank, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/07/10/cost-of-high-speed-rail-in-china-one-third-lower-than-in-other-countries

[x] Non-military U.S. foreign aid is approximately $25 billion, meaning that President Trump would need to cut it by over 200% to find the $54 billion he proposes to add to military spending

[xi] Letter to Congressional leaders, February 27, 2017, http://www.usglc.org/downloads/2017/02/FY18_International_Affairs_Budget_House_Senate.pdf

[xii] See http://www.wingia.com/en/services/about_the_end_of_year_survey/global_results/7/33

[xiii] “Fight Climate Change, Not Wars,” Naomi Klein, http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2009/12/fight-climate-change-not-wars

[xiv] “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities: 2011 Update,” Political Economy Research Institute, https://www.peri.umass.edu/publication/item/449-the-u-s-employment-effects-of-military-and-domestic-spending-priorities-2011-update

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North America

U.S. Conference of Mayors to Vote on Resolution to Move Money from the Military to Human and Environmental Needs

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from World Beyond War

New Haven, CT, Charlottesville, VA, Montgomery County, MD, Evanston, IL (see page 14 of linked document), New London, NH, and Ithaca, NY, have passed resolutions opposing the Trump budget’s moving of money from everything else to the military, urging that money be moved in the opposite direction.

Those passed by Ithaca and New Haven will be voted on by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Ask your mayor to contact the U.S. Conference of Mayors now to endorse resolutions #59 and #60.

Your town or city or county can also go ahead and pass its own. For more tips and sample materials from Ithaca, NY, click here.

You can also watch/listen to this webinar done with Code Pink and U.S. Peace Council.

Steps you can take:

Contact mary@worldbeyondwar.org to ask for help

Form a coalition of local groups concerned about the cuts, the military increase, or both

Find out how to speak publicly at local government meetings and how to submit a proposal or get one on the agenda for a vote; or ask council members/ aldermen / supervisors to sponsor it.

Collect organizations’ or prominent people’s or lots of people’s names on a petition

Hold rallies, press conferences

Write op-eds, letters, go on radio, tv

Use http://costofwar.com to calculate local trade-offs

Make use of this petition signed by many prominent people and over 20,000 people total

Revise the draft below:

Resolution Proposed for __________, ___

Whereas President Trump has proposed to move $54 billion from human and environmental spending at home and abroad to military spending[i], bringing military spending to well over 60% of federal discretionary spending[ii],

Whereas polling has found the U.S. public to favor a $41 billion reduction in military spending, a $94 billion gap away from President Trump’s proposal,

Whereas part of helping alleviate the refugee crisis should be ending, not escalating, wars that create refugees[iii],

Whereas President Trump himself admits that the enormous military spending of the past 16 years has been disastrous and made us less safe, not safer[iv],

Whereas fractions of the proposed military budget could provide free, top-quality education from pre-school through college[v], end hunger and starvation on earth[vi], convert the U.S. to clean energy[vii], provide clean drinking water everywhere it’s needed on the planet[viii], build fast trains between all major U.S. cities[ix], and double non-military U.S. foreign aid rather than cutting it[x],

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Questions for this article:

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

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Whereas even 121 retired U.S. generals have written a letter opposing cutting foreign aid[xi],

Whereas a December 2014 Gallup poll of 65 nations found that the United States was far and away the country considered the largest threat to peace in the world[xii],

Whereas a United States responsible for providing clean drinking water, schools, medicine, and solar panels to others would be more secure and face far less hostility around the world,

Whereas our environmental and human needs are desperate and urgent,

Whereas the military is itself the greatest consumer of petroleum we have[xiii],

Whereas economists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have documented that military spending is an economic drain rather than a jobs program[xiv],

Be it therefore resolved that the ____________ of ___________, ________, urges the United States Congress to move our tax dollars in exactly the opposite direction proposed by the President, from militarism to human and environmental needs.

[i] “Trump to Seek $54 Billion Increase in Military Spending,” The New York Times, February 27, 2017

[ii] This does not include another 6% for the discretionary portion of veterans’ care. For a breakdown of discretionary spending in the 2015 budget, see the National Priorities Project

[iii] “43 Million People Kicked Out of Their Homes,” World Beyond War, and “Europe’s Refugee Crisis Was Made in America,” The Nation

[iv] On February 27, 2017, Trump said, “Almost 17 years of fighting in the Middle East . . . $6 trillion we’ve spent in the Middle East . . . and we’re nowhere, actually if you think about it we’re less than nowhere, the Middle East is far worse than it was 16, 17 years ago, there’s not even a contest . . . we have a hornet’s nest . . . .” quoted in Realclearpolitics.

[v] “Free College: We Can Afford It,” The Washington Post, May 1, 2012

[vi] “The World Only Needs 30 Billion Dollars a Year to Eradicate the Scourge of Hunger,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

[vii] “Clean Energy Transition Is A $25 Trillion Free Lunch,” Clean Technica. See also: solutionaryrail

[viii] “Clean Water for a Healthy World,” UN Environment Program

[ix] “Cost of High Speed Rail in China One Third Lower than in Other Countries,” The World Bank

[x] Non-military U.S. foreign aid is approximately $25 billion, meaning that President Trump would need to cut it by over 200% to find the $54 billion he proposes to add to military spending

[xi] Letter to Congressional leaders, February 27, 2017

[xii] See survey results

[xiii] “Fight Climate Change, Not Wars,” Naomi Klein

[xiv] “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities: 2011 Update,” Political Economy Research Institute

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North America

USA: A Call to Mobilize the Nation through 2018

…. HUMAN RIGHTS ….

An article by Rev. John Dear, published by Pace e Bene

While the media and the nation sit transfixed over the Trump scandals and attacks on democracy, those of us who work for justice and peace know that we have to keep working, resisting, and mobilizing people across the country if we are going to have the social, economic and political transformation we need for our survival.

In other words, we’ve only just begun. Instead of giving up, giving in, or throwing in the towel, instead of sitting glued to the tube, we’re going forward. The campaign for a new culture of nonviolence is on!

No, you may say, it’s too much, I need to take a break from the news, from the movement, from the struggle. There’s nothing we can do, anyway. We can’t make a difference. I give up.

That is not only not helpful, it’s simply not true. We have more power than we realize. If we mobilize together and resist, we can prevent injustices, wars and other horrors from occurring. Doing nothing because we are overwhelmed or too dispirited is not helpful to anyone and certainly not the poor, the victims of our wars, or Mother Earth. It’s also not helpful to ourselves. For the sake of our own humanity, our own integrity, our own sanity, we need to carry on the struggle now more than ever, with boldness, creativity and steadfast nonviolence.

To this end, my friends and I at Campaign Nonviolence have issued a new call inviting people to commit themselves to the struggle over the next eighteen months, from now through the Congressional elections of November, 2018, to building a movement of movements that connects the dots of violence and injustice for a groundswell of activism, organizing, marches, demonstrations, and political conversion we’ve not yet seen.

“The time has come for us to pool our nonviolent power to resist the tragedy we face and to signal, once and for all, our determination to build a world of peace, racial justice, economic equality, and a healthy planet for all,” the statement begins. “We call on you—and all people everywhere—to join us in training for nonviolent action, in creating community for nonviolent action, and in taking nonviolent action in this challenging time.”

This call to mobilize over the next eighteen months is not just an electoral strategy, we insist. What we want is “a referendum for a nonviolent future.”

Campaign Nonviolence proposes the following concrete steps:

First, join the September 16-24, 2017 national week of action, where over 1000 marches and rallies calling for an end to war, racism, poverty and environmental destruction and for a new culture of peace and nonviolence will take place across the nation covering all fifty states. (Register your event here!)

Second, take a nonviolence training and then organize nonviolence trainings in your community. We all need to brush up on our nonviolence, and these trainings offer principles and methods for nonviolent strategies and guidance and the hand’s on help of role-playing and practicing your nonviolent response. (Look for trainings and trainers on the Nonviolence Training Hub co-sponsored by Campaign Nonviolence and Pace e Bene at www.nonviolencetraininghub.org

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Questions related to this article:

The post-election fightback for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

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Third, form and join an affinity group. We are in deep water these days, and we cannot sustain our nonviolent resistance or build a movement on our own; we need one another. We encourage everyone to form or join an affinity group of just 5 to 10 people where you can support one another for public action, study nonviolence, reflect on the current situation and envision a way forward. Affinity groups have long played a part in our movements. In Latin America, where they are called “base communities,” they are practically a requirement for survival.

Fourth, join the Nonviolent Cities project and announce your city as a “Nonviolent City.” Based on the ground-breaking work of “Nonviolent Carbondale,” Illinois, the Nonviolent Cities project supports local leaders around the country who are envisioning their community as a city of nonviolence. With over forty cities currently exploring this vision, Campaign Nonviolence calls upon activists, organizers, students and religious and political leaders to use this tool as a way to organize locally, resist injustice, end violence, and set a new path for your community to one day become a culture of peace and nonviolence.

Fifth, plan a local or regional gathering or conference in the Spring, 2018, to build for the fall convergence, help spread the word, and mobilize the groundswell of public action. We encourage everyone everywhere to organize your own day-long planning sessions or retreats next spring so that we can stay focused on the task of movement building.

Sixth, mobilize thousands of local public actions across the nation during the Campaign Nonviolence national week of action next September 15-23, 2018, as well as come to Washington, D.C. for the Campaign Nonviolence Convergence, where we will cover nonviolence training, a day of lobbying for justice and disarmament on Capitol Hill, and a silent march from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial to the White House. With the impending mid-term Congressional elections, we will call for a referendum for a nonviolent future.

“We are in new territory, and things will likely get worse before they get better,” our call declares. But they will definitely get worse if we all do not think big, take bold action, envision a new future, and join together across every divide in an unprecedented historic movement. We need to commit ourselves now to redoubling our efforts over these next eighteen months, to mobilize like never before. In the past, if we were peaceful people, we now also have to become activists. If we were activists, now we have to become organizers. We all have to step up to the plate in new mature ways and meet this time head on with boldness, love and determination.

Through the brilliant work of Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan in their book, Why Civil Resistance Works, we know that nonviolent strategies for social change are twice as effective as violent ones, that when people gather together to do the impossible through nonviolent movements, positive change usually occurs.

But we also know this: movements which activate 3.5% of the population are very likely to succeed. For us, that means 12 million people. I believe we can do that. Over the course of the next eighteen months, we can build an unprecedented movement of movements to challenge the violence of our country and lay new groundwork for a culture of peace and nonviolence.

“A culture of nonviolence is not an unattainable dream,” Pope Francis wrote last month in his open letter to Chicago, “but a path that has produced decisive results. The consistent practice of nonviolence has broken barriers, bound wounds, healed nations.”

I hope we can all spread the vision, continue to build up our grassroots movement of nonviolence, and mobilize the nation not just for steadfast resistance but the long haul transformation into a new culture of nonviolence.

To read the full text of the call click here!

HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

Brooklyn, US: Forum: One Struggle, Many Fronts: No Nukes, War, Wall or Warming

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An announcement from Massachusetts Peace Action

Join One Struggle, Many Fronts forum on June 18th [at 110 Schermerhorn St, Brooklyn, NY] to stand united against nuclear arms, the arms race & the use of nuclear weapons. The tide is shifting: we stand with the Women’s March to Ban the Bomb which takes place on June 17th and the UN conference negotiating a treaty to ban nuclear weapons (June 15th to July 7th) to say: no to war, no to nukes, no to warming, and no to walls.

This conference will highlight the impact of nuclear arms on the diverse communities and the importance of making the connections with justice, environmental and peace issues and movements. There will be opportunities for networking and conversation! The conference will cover:

1. Survivors Resist: Humanitarian Consequences
Moderator: Sally Jones (Peace Action Fund NYS)

Speakers: Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A & H Bomb Sufferers’), Iram Ali (MoveOn), Kathy Sanchez – TEWA Women United, Indigenous elder (awaiting confirmation)

2. Nuclear Arms: Causes, Effects and Movements Against
Moderator: Jackie Cabasso (Western States Legal Foundation)
Speakers: Vincent Intondi (Author of African-Americans Against the Bomb), Any Lichterman (Western States Legal Foundation), Sharon Dolev (Israeli Disarmament Movement)

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Question related to this article:

Can we abolish all nuclear weapons?

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3. Organizing for Nuclear Disarmament: Youth in the Lead
Moderator: Jim Anderson (Peace Action New York State, Citizen Action)
Speakers: Marzhan Nurzhan (Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Kazakhstan), Kate Alexander (Peace Action New York State), Marzhan Nurzhan – Kazakhstan. PNND Coordinator for CIS countries, Abolition 2000 Youth Working Group, Takae Hironaka (Hiroshima Democratic Youth League and 3rd generation Hibakusha), Amplify youth organizer (to be confirmed)

4. Ban Treaty and Beyond
Moderator: Joseph Gerson (American Friends Service Committee)

Speakers: Hiroshi Takai (Gensuikyo), John Burroughs (Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy), Alyn Ware (Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament)

Contact jgerson@afsc.org for more information.

Peace and Planet website: www.peaceandplanet.org

Women’s March to Ban the Bomb website: www.womenbanthebomb.org

Reaching Critical Will website (with calendar of events around UN treaty negotiations): www.reachingcriticalwill.org/

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

USA: Peoples Climate March a Huge Success: Final Count: 200,000+ March in D.C. for Climate, Jobs and Justice

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

A press release from Peoples Climate Movement

Organizers are heralding today’s Peoples Climate March as a huge success, with over 200,000 people participating in Washington, D.C., and tens of thousands more taking part at over 370 sister marches across the country. Sister marches took place on Saturday across the world including in Japan, the Philippines, New Zealand, Uganda, Kenya, Germany, Greece, United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, and more.


Scene from video on Common Dreams website

In the United States, tens of thousands more took to the streets at hundreds of events in nearly all 50 states, from the town of Dutch Harbor in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to the streets of Miami, Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago and other major American cities. Early counts estimated that more than 50,000 people took place nationwide.

“This march grew out of the relationship building among some of the country’s most important progressive organizations and movements,” said Paul Getsos, National Coordinator for the Peoples Climate Movement. “In 2014, the march was planned as a singular moment to pressure global leaders to act on climate change. There was a simple demand – act. This march was planned before the election as a strategic moment to continue to build power to move our leaders to act on climate while creating family-sustaining jobs, investing in frontline and indigenous communities and protecting workers who will be impacted by the transition to a new clean and renewable energy economy.”

In Washington, the march topped 200,000 people at it’s peak, far outpacing the National Park Service’s permitted space for 100,000 people. The march extended for over 20 blocks down Pennsylvania, with tens of thousands more surging along the mall to push back on the Trump administration’s policies and stand up for “climate, jobs and justice.”

“The solidarity that exists between all of us is the key to having a strong, fair economy and a clean, safe environment,” said Kim Glas, Executive Director, BlueGreen Alliance. “We can tackle climate change in a way that will ensure all Americans have the opportunity to prosper with quality jobs and live in neighborhoods where they can breathe their air and drink their water. Together we will build a clean economy that leaves no one behind.”

The day’s activities in D.C. began at sunrise with a water ceremony led by Indigenous peoples at the Capitol Reflecting Pool. Participants included Cheyenne River Sioux tribal members who traveled 1,536 miles by bus from Eagle Bend, SD to attend the ceremonies.

At an opening press conference, representatives from front line communities spoke about the impact that climate change and pollution were already having on their lives and called out the Trump administration for worsening the crisis. They called for a new renewable energy economy that created good paying, union jobs, and prioritized low-income and people of color communities.

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Question for this article:

Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

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The march began at 12:30 PM EDT and was led by young people of color from Washington, D.C. and Indigenous leaders from across the country. Tens of thousands of marchers headed up Pennsylvania Avenue in creatively named contingents, like “Protectors of Justice,” “Reshapers of Power,” and “Many Struggles, One Home.”

“When our communities are most threatened by climate; the solutions we build must allow us to have control of our resources and the energy we produce in an equitable and truly democratic way,” said Angela Adrar, Executive Director, Climate Justice Alliance. “They must create meaningful work that allows people to grow and develop to their fullest capacity. They must allow us to retain culture and traditions from our ancestors and give us the freedom of self-determination we so deserve so that we can thrive. This does not come easy and it must come with resistance and visionary opposition. Our existence depends on it.”

Art played a central role in the organizing of the mobilization and was on full display during the march. Dozens of giant parachute banners filled the streets, while puppets danced overhead. Some contingents carried sunflowers, a symbol of the climate justice community, while others simply raised their fists in resistance.

By 2:00 PM EDT, organizers had succeeded in their goal of completely surrounding the White House. Marchers sat down in the streets in a silent sit-in to recognize the damage caused by the Trump administration over the last 100 days and those who are losing their lives to the climate crisis.

They then created a movement heartbeat, tapping out a rhythm on their chests while drummers kept the time. The heartbeat was meant to show that while march participants came from many different backgrounds and communities, their hearts beat as one. It was a heartbeat of resistance, one that began with the Women’s March and will continue through the Peoples Climate March to May Day and beyond.

“Six months ago, my kids woke up to half a foot of water in our living room,” said Cherri Foytlin, director of BOLD Louisiana and spokesperson for the Indigenous Environmental Network. “Now, Trump wants to open up the Gulf Coast to even more offshore drilling. But we have a message for him: we are not afraid, and we will not stop fighting. With 100 and 500 year storms now coming every year, we are fighting for our lives.”

After the heartbeat, marchers rose up with a collective roar and continued down to the Washington Monument for a closing rally. Speakers at the rally celebrated the success of the day, while many marchers gathered in “Circles of Resistance,” some set up around their parachute banners, to talk about how to continue to build their movement.

As of 3:30 PM EDT in the afternoon, crowds of people still remained at the Monument while marches continued to take place across the country. The Peoples Climate Movement, a coalition of over 900 organizations representing many of the major social justice, labor and environmental groups in the country, has pledged to keep the momentum going after Saturday, from supporting the May Day marches on Monday to organizing at the local level.

“Today’s actions are not for one day or one week or one year,” said Getsos. “We are a movement that is getting stronger everyday for our families, our communities and our planet. To change everything, we need everyone.”

North America, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

USA; Panel discussion on news and a ‘culture of peace’

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article by John Darling for the Ashland Tidings

In a time of alternate facts, public bullying and intense polarization of our public life, how can we use the media to foster a culture of peace, rather than violence? That’s the question addressed Monday by a panel at Southern Oregon University called “Cultivating a Culture of Peace in an Era of Trump: What’s the Media’s Role?”


Photo by John Carling
Click on the image to enlarge

Citing the “unprecedented antagonism of the Trump administration to media,” Jeff Golden, producer of “Immense Possibilities” on Southern Oregon Public TV, said our challenges didn’t start Jan. 20, because, years ago, much of the media abandoned its role in public service and became driven by profit.

This trend greatly increases the need for independent media, he notes, and much of it can flower on the internet.

“We’d be in much deeper trouble than we are now if not for independent media. Our challenge is very deep,” he said.

In the process, the journalist who supports a culture of peace “may not appear very peaceful. Journalists have to be combative and warriors for our own rights. You’ll do a more valuable job building a culture of peace than those who want to lie down.”

David Wick, executive director of Ashland Culture of Peace Commission, agreed, noting, “We’re not saying ‘let’s all just be peaceful.’ There always will be conflict, but peace is a powerful force. It’s not just sitting by the river on Lullaby Lane.”

The discussion is part of Independent Media Week, now in its 13th year. Sponsors include KSKQ Community Radio, the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission, Southern Oregon Jobs With Justice and the UN Club of SOU.

Its goals include “transforming attitudes, behaviors and institutions (for) harmonious relationships, (especially now) when the information landscape has been roiled by new national leadership.” It’s theme this week is “A well-informed citizenry is a cornerstone of democracy.”

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Question(s) related to this article:

Free flow of information, How is it important for a culture of peace?

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Hannah Jones, editor of SOU’s The Siskiyou newspaper, says the election “totally polarized us” leading her to “feel like a watchdog against someone who told us we’re wrong. We report the verifiable truth. It’s so easy to attack each other but that gets us in a culture of war and hate. People say journalism is dying, but it mustn’t.”

Several panelists referred to the slogan, “Speak truth to power,” coined by Bayard Rustin, a leader for social justice, nonviolence and gay rights, in 1942.

Journalists cyclically get too cozy with the powerful and begin to trust their sources too much, as happened with the widely liked Secretary of State Colin Powell as he claimed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, said Jason Houk of Southern Oregon Jobs With Justice.

Jones responded with, “You can’t have peace without the truth.”

Seeking to avoid conflict has often led to the opposite of a culture of peace, added Golden, noting the mainstream media “failed in its job” by accepting the official story that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, thus leading to a huge war.

“They didn’t want to be in conflict with President Bush,” he said, “and the results are there to see.”

Media are deeply self-examining now, as they were taught to be objective and balance opinions, said Golden, however, what do they do when faced with lies — and that the supposedly balancing point-of-view is comprised of alternate facts? And should journalists use the word “liar?”

David Adams, coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network, and a creator of the Culture of Peace movement (speaking via a video link from New Haven, Conn.), said the trend is that more and more people, informed by media, want democracy and oppose war. However, the state has come to “monopolize the culture of war and use media as a weapon … while they create incidents (of conflict) to convince people they have to have war.”

Daily Tidings Editor Bert Etling, a member of the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission, cited the “hurricane” in Washington, advocating actions “opposite of the culture of peace,” fragmenting and setting religions against each other, and trying to frame media and politics as an “us vs them … degrading what the media says … and the value of the information.”

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, North America