Friends,
As part of the call by the War Industries Resistance Network, about 30 of us protested on April 21 against Lockheed Martin and its tax-payer funded weapons contracts. For example, one of its bombs was used by Saudi Arabia to kill at least 40 Yemeni children traveling on a bus. More details of the protest in Bethesda, Maryland will be forthcoming.
Members of Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland and Maryland Peace Action will join a demonstration at Northrop Grumman at 793 Elkridge Landing Road, Linthicum, Maryland on Earth Day, April 22, at 3 PM. Let me know if you can join us in a protest against this military contractor, which has received the largest amount of tax dollars to work on nuclear weapons.
President Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons in its invasion of Ukraine has created the most tense nuclear weapons crisis since 1962 when Russia installed nuclear weapons in Cuba. Unfortunately, President Biden is using the invasion of Ukraine to release an outrageous military budget. And the figure for the nuclear weapons arsenal is $50.9 billion, This is a $7.7 billion increase from last year’s proposed budget.
Biden’s budget includes $5 billion for the B 21 long range strike bomber made by Northrop Grumman, which is also capable of deploying nuclear and conventional weapons. The budget includes $3.6 billion for a Ground Based Strategic Deterrent. That system is a replacement for aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) that are located in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming. The ICBM is the land component of the nuclear triad the Biden budget proposal referenced. The GBSD would ensure that these missiles remain deployed in U.S. states for another 50 years.
In 2020, Northrop Grumman was awarded a $13.3 billion engineering and manufacturing development contract for the U.S. military’s next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile system for the Air Force. That program is projected to be worth up to $85 billion. The ICBMs increase the chances of a catastrophic accident or miscalculation because they are kept on high alert at all times, and hundreds of them would be launched with a single order. Once launched, they cannot be recalled.
If you are interested in joining Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland on April 22, contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net. We will be doing carpooling to meet at a fast food restaurant across form the Northrop Grumman site. Kagiso, Max
Ukrainian Officials
Call for Humanitarian Corridor in Last Mariupol Holdout
Civilians walk through a
destroyed neighborhood in Eastern Mariupol that has recently come under control
of Russian / pro-Russian forces on April 14, 2022.MAXIMILIAN CLARKE / SOPA
IMAGES / LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES
April
21, 2022
Ukrainian officials
made urgent appeals Thursday for a humanitarian corridor to allow around 1,000
trapped civilians, including children, to safely escape Mariupol as Russian
forces surrounded a steel plant that is believed to be Ukraine’s final holdout
in the strategic port city.
Declaring that his forces
have secured the “liberation” of Mariupol — where Ukrainian officials say at
least 20,000 people have been killed — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops not to storm the steel
plant but to “block it off so that a fly can’t get in.”
Around 2,000 Ukrainian
fighters remain holed up in the Azovstal metallurgical plant along with
civilians, and the fighters have rejected Russia’s calls for a complete
surrender. Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boychenko, has accused Russia of committing “war crimes”
and “genocide” in its efforts to seize control of the city.
Iryna Vereshchuk,
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, called on Russian forces to allow the
establishment of a humanitarian corridor to let civilians and wounded soldiers
escape the plant.
“There are now about 1,000
civilians and 500 wounded soldiers. They all need to be removed from Azovstal
today,” said Vereshchuk. “I call on world leaders and the international
community to focus their efforts on Azovstal now… This is a key point and a key
moment for the humanitarian effort.”
Late Wednesday, Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be willing to negotiate the
exchange of Russian prisoners of war for Ukrainian civilians trapped in
Mariupol, much of which has been reduced to rubble by near-constant Russian
bombardment. Attempts to establish ceasefires in Mariupol have repeatedly
collapsed, making it difficult to evacuate civilians and deliver humanitarian
aid to the besieged city.
Zelenskyy said the Russian
side has not agreed to the proposed exchange.
“The situation in Mariupol
is deteriorating,” Zelenskyy warned. “As far as I know, there are about a
thousand civilians behind our guys in Mariupol, including children and women.”
“We are ready for the sake
of our people — both military and civilian — for any format of exchange,” Zelenskyy
added. “And whether I like it or not, in the course of the remaining three
years that the people have given me, I am ready to hold a dialogue with the
president of Russia on the end of the war.”
As the Associated
Press noted Thursday, the “scale of suffering” in
Mariupol “has made it a worldwide focal point, and its definitive fall would
deprive Ukraine of a vital port, complete a land bridge between Russia and the
Crimean Peninsula, and free up Russian troops to move elsewhere in the Donbas.”
Diplomatic talks to end
Russia’s weeks-long war have been ongoing for weeks but have yet to produce a
breakthrough as Moscow ramps up its assault on eastern Ukraine. Russia’s
delegation has reportedly sent its Ukrainian counterpart a new “draft
document” outlining Moscow’s demands, but it’s not clear how the
document differs from previous proposals or whether Ukraine will find it
acceptable.
Earlier this week, United
Nations Secretary-General António Guterres sent
separate letters to Zelenskyy and Putin requesting meetings
with the two leaders in their respective capitals, an effort aimed at advancing
peace talks. Zelenskyy has also offered to meet with Putin directly, but the
Russian president has not accepted.
More than 5 million people
have fled Ukraine in the nearly two months since Russia launched its full-scale
invasion, according to the U.N., and millions more
have been internally displaced.
Stéphane Dujarric, a
spokesperson for Guterres, said Wednesday that “at this time of great peril and
consequence,” the secretary-general “would like to discuss urgent steps to
bring about peace in Ukraine and the future of multilateralism based on the
charter of the United Nations and international law.”
This piece was reprinted by
Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form
without permission or license from the source.
Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams. Follow him on Twitter: @johnsonjakep.
Donations can be sent
to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206,
Baltimore, MD 21212. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at]
comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
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