Published on Portside (https://portside.org)
Stiglitz: A Fair Solution to the Greek Debt
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/greece-eurozone-austerity-reform-by-joseph-e--stiglitz-2015-02
Joseph Stiglitz
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Project Syndicate
NEW YORK – When the euro crisis began a half-decade ago, Keynesian economists predicted that the austerity that was being imposed on Greece and the other crisis countries would fail. It would stifle growth and increase unemployment – and even fail to decrease the debt-to-GDP ratio. Others – in the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and a few universities – talked of expansionary contractions. But even the International Monetary Fund argued that contractions, such as cutbacks in government spending, were just that – contractionary.
We hardly needed another test. Austerity had failed repeatedly, from its early use under US President Herbert Hoover, which turned the stock-market crash into the Great Depression, to the IMF “programs” imposed on East Asia and Latin America in recent decades. And yet when Greece got into trouble, it was tried again.
Greece largely succeeded in following the dictate set by the “troika” (the European Commission, the ECB, and the IMF): it converted a primary budget deficit into a primary surplus. But the contraction in government spending has been predictably devastating: 25% unemployment, a 22% fall in GDP since 2009, and a 35% increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio. And now, with the anti-austerity Syriza party’s overwhelming election victory, Greek voters have declared that they have had enough.
So, what is to be done? First, let us be clear: Greece could be blamed for its troubles if it were the only country where the troika’s medicine failed miserably. But Spain had a surplus and a low debt ratio before the crisis, and it, too, is in depression. What is needed is not structural reform within Greece and Spain so much as structural reform of the eurozone’s design and a fundamental rethinking of the policy frameworks that have resulted in the monetary union’s spectacularly bad performance.
Greece has also once again reminded us of how badly the world needs a debt-restructuring framework. Excessive debt caused not only the 2008 crisis, but also the East Asia crisis in the 1990s and the Latin American crisis in the 1980s. It continues to cause untold suffering in the US, where millions of homeowners have lost their homes, and is now threatening millions more in Poland and elsewhere who took out loans in Swiss francs.
Given the amount of distress brought about by excessive debt, one might well ask why individuals and countries have repeatedly put themselves into this situation. After all, such debts are contracts – that is, voluntary agreements – so creditors are just as responsible for them as debtors. In fact, creditors arguably are more responsible: typically, they are sophisticated financial institutions, whereas borrowers frequently are far less attuned to market vicissitudes and the risks associated with different contractual arrangements. Indeed, we know that US banks actually preyed on their borrowers, taking advantage of their lack of financial sophistication.
Every (advanced) country has realized that making capitalism work requires giving individuals a fresh start. The debtors’ prisons of the nineteenth century were a failure – inhumane and not exactly helping to ensure repayment. What did help was to provide better incentives for good lending, by making creditors more responsible for the consequences of their decisions.
At the international level, we have not yet created an orderly process for giving countries a fresh start. Since even before the 2008 crisis, the United Nations, with the support of almost all of the developing and emerging countries, has been seeking to create such a framework. But the US has been adamantly opposed; perhaps it wants to reinstitute debtor prisons for over indebted countries’ officials (if so, space may be opening up at Guantánamo Bay).
The idea of bringing back debtors’ prisons may seem far-fetched, but it resonates with current talk of moral hazard and accountability. There is a fear that if Greece is allowed to restructure its debt, it will simply get itself into trouble again, as will others.
This is sheer nonsense. Does anyone in their right mind think that any country would willingly put itself through what Greece has gone through, just to get a free ride from its creditors? If there is a moral hazard, it is on the part of the lenders – especially in the private sector – who have been bailed out repeatedly. If Europe has allowed these debts to move from the private sector to the public sector – a well-established pattern over the past half-century – it is Europe, not Greece, that should bear the consequences. Indeed, Greece’s current plight, including the massive run-up in the debt ratio, is largely the fault of the misguided troika programs foisted on it.
So it is not debt restructuring, but its absence, that is “immoral.” There is nothing particularly special about the dilemmas that Greece faces today; many countries have been in the same position. What makes Greece’s problems more difficult to address is the structure of the eurozone: monetary union implies that member states cannot devalue their way out of trouble, yet the modicum of European solidarity that must accompany this loss of policy flexibility simply is not there.
Seventy years ago, at the end of World War II, the Allies recognized that Germany must be given a fresh start. They understood that Hitler’s rise had much to do with the unemployment (not the inflation) that resulted from imposing more debt on Germany at the end of World War I. The Allies did not take into account the foolishness with which the debts had been accumulated or talk about the costs that Germany had imposed on others. Instead, they not only forgave the debts; they actually provided aid, and the Allied troops stationed in Germany provided a further fiscal stimulus.
When companies go bankrupt, a debt-equity swap is a fair and efficient solution. The analogous approach for Greece is to convert its current bonds into GDP-linked bonds. If Greece does well, its creditors will receive more of their money; if it does not, they will get less. Both sides would then have a powerful incentive to pursue pro-growth policies.
Seldom do democratic elections give as clear a message as that in Greece. If Europe says no to Greek voters’ demand for a change of course, it is saying that democracy is of no importance, at least when it comes to economics. Why not just shut down democracy, as Newfoundland effectively did when it entered into receivership before World War II?
One hopes that those who understand the economics of debt and austerity, and who believe in democracy and humane values, will prevail. Whether they will remains to be seen.
Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics and University Professor at Columbia University, was Chairman of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers and served as Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. His most recent book, co-authored with Bruce Greenwald, is Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress.
Source URL: https://portside.org/2015-02-07/stiglitz-fair-solution-greek-debt
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Folly of US "War on Terror" Looms as Jordan and ISIS Exchange Executions
commondreams.org/news/2015/02/04/folly-us-war-terror-looms-jordan-and-isis-exchange-executions
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
Folly of US "War on Terror" Looms as Jordan and ISIS Exchange Executions
Jordan moved quickly to avenge the murder of Lt. Moaz al Kasasbeh whose execution by Islamic State was made public Tuesday. But the current cycle of violence and war in the Middle East, say observers, is deeply rooted in U.S. foreign policy decisions that reach back to U.S. invasion of Iraq and beyond.
Jon Queally, staff writer
Jordanians gathered in the capitol city of Amman to mourn the death of Lt. Moaz al Kasasbeh, a pilot in the nation's air force, who was executed by ISIS militants this week. (Photo: AFP)
The Jordanian government has confirmed the execution of two jailed Iraqis, both accused of being jihadist militants who planned or participated in attacks within Jordan, in retaliation for the execution by the Islamic State of a captured Jordanian pilot whose death was shown in a video released Tuesday.
"What killed Kassasbeh was not Islam. What killed him are the new dynamics of globalisation and transnational violence that have consumed the Middle East and the Islamic world, unleashed by the 2003 Iraq war and the 2011 Syrian civil war." —Asst. Prof. Ibrahim al-Marashi
According to McClatchy:
Jordanian state television said one of the executed prisoners was Sajida al Rishawi, the 44-year-old Iraqi woman whose release the Islamic State had demanded in return for the life of a Japanese hostage killed last week. The other was Ziad al-Karbouli, a jihadist who once worked with Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the Jordanian who founded al Qaida in Iraq, the organization that was the precursor to the Islamic State.
Government spokesman Mohammed al Momani announced in Amman that the two prisoners had been executed at dawn. Both Karbouli and Rishawi had been in prison for nearly a decade.
Jordan had announced that it would move quickly to avenge the murder of Lt. Moaz al Kasasbeh whose horrific execution was made public Tuesday by an Islamic State video that showed him being led to a cage in the desert, doused with gasoline and set alight.
The Guardian adds:
The fate of Kasasbeh – a member of a large tribe that forms the backbone of support for the country’s Hashemite monarchy – has gripped Jordan for weeks and some Jordanians have criticised King Abdullah for embroiling them in the US-led alliance that they say will provoke a militant backlash.
Some analysts believe Amman could now escalate its involvement in the campaign against Islamic State, which has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria, Jordan’s neighbours to the north and east. US officials told Reuters on Tuesday the killing of Kasasbeh would likely harden Jordan’s position as a member of the coalition against Islamic State.
Though many Jordanians have expressed criticism against the nation's monarchy government for participating in the U.S.-led war on the Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL), analysts vary on their assessment about how the execution of the pilot, who was burned alive, will shift public sentiment and impact the overall war which has ensnared the Middle East.
Several observers have taken the opportunity of these latest developments to reflect on how the mindset and tactics employed in what has become known as the "global war on terror" or (GWOT)—spearhead by the U.S. military—are inextricably linked to what is commonly referred to as the "barbarism" and "savagery" of non-state militant actors like ISIS.
In a post published on The Intercept on Wednesday, journalist and columnist Glenn Greenwald explores how the ritualistic condemnation of ISIS—who he acknowledges is a group "indescribably nihilistic and morally grotesque"—also serves the purpose of obfuscating the inherent violence and depravity of the military campaign that the U.S. has waged in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere over the last twelve or more years. After documenting numerous incidents in which the U.S. military's use of drones, hellfire missiles, white phosphorous, and other weaponry that have resulted in the maiming and death of countless civilians, including many who were "burned alive," Greenwald writes:
One could plausibly maintain that there is a different moral calculus involved in (a) burning a helpless captive to death as opposed to (b) recklessly or even deliberately burning civilians to death in areas that one is bombing with weapons purposely designed to incinerate human beings, often with the maximum possible pain. That’s the moral principle that makes torture specially heinous: sadistically inflicting pain and suffering on a helpless detainee is a unique form of barbarity.
But there is nonetheless something quite obfuscating about this beloved ritual of denouncing the unique barbarism of ISIS. It is true that ISIS seems to have embraced a goal – a strategy – of being incomparably savage, inhumane and morally repugnant. That the group is indescribably nihilistic and morally grotesque is beyond debate.
That’s exactly what makes the intensity of these repeated denunciation rituals somewhat confounding. Everyone decent, by definition, fully understands that ISIS is repellent and savage. While it’s understandable that being forced to watch the savagery on video prompts strong emotions (although, again, hiding savagery does not in fact make it less savage), it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the ritualistic expressed revulsion has a definitive utility.
And writing for Al-Jazeera English, Ibrahim al-Marashi, an assistant history professor at California State University, puts the latest tit-for-tat violence between Jordan and ISIS within a historical context—rooted in the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003—that speaks to the growing and worrying way in which the cycle of violence and acts of terrorism and aggression (including by states, aspiring states, and non-state actors) have created and fostered the current situation:
To recap, a Jordanian, [Abu Musab] al-Zarqawi moved from Jordan to Afghanistan to Iraq in 2001, set up a terrorist group that killed thousands of Iraqis, and dispatched Iraqis to Jordan in 2005 to kill Jordanians and a prominent Syrian director. A Jordanian pilot, sent to combat a transnational terrorist group in Syria and Iraq is killed in 2015 by that very group established by a fellow Jordanian.
What killed Kassasbeh was not Islam. What killed him are the new dynamics of globalisation and transnational violence that have consumed the Middle East and the Islamic world, unleashed by the 2003 Iraq war and the 2011 Syrian civil war.
While sympathies to ISIL might have existed among elements in Jordan's society, this execution will most likely strengthen Jordanian resolve in combating this group. In the impoverished Jordanian town of
Maan, support for ISIL has been vocal and explicit, with inhabitants of the town flying ISIL's flag.
Kassasbeh's death will most likely harden Jordanian resolve and eliminate any public sympathy for ISIL. However, Jordan is now at a critical juncture. A heavy handed response by the Jordanian state against Maan in light of Kassasbeh's execution might have the inverse effect of dissipating any sympathy for the pilot's death, and spur some of its citizens to join ISIL.
How the Jordanian security forces and the state will react after the death of its pilot will have ramifications for its long-term security. Jordan has announced
it has executed Rishawi
in response to Kassasbeh's death. As I wrote in response to Obama's State of the Union
speech, state-sanctioned violence in response to non-state actor violence will continue to produce an endless cycle of violence if not coupled with addressing the conditions - unemployment, humiliation, lack in governance - that produce terrorism in the first place.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
Folly of US "War on Terror" Looms as Jordan and ISIS Exchange Executions
Jordan moved quickly to avenge the murder of Lt. Moaz al Kasasbeh whose execution by Islamic State was made public Tuesday. But the current cycle of violence and war in the Middle East, say observers, is deeply rooted in U.S. foreign policy decisions that reach back to U.S. invasion of Iraq and beyond.
Jon Queally, staff writer
Jordanians gathered in the capitol city of Amman to mourn the death of Lt. Moaz al Kasasbeh, a pilot in the nation's air force, who was executed by ISIS militants this week. (Photo: AFP)
The Jordanian government has confirmed the execution of two jailed Iraqis, both accused of being jihadist militants who planned or participated in attacks within Jordan, in retaliation for the execution by the Islamic State of a captured Jordanian pilot whose death was shown in a video released Tuesday.
"What killed Kassasbeh was not Islam. What killed him are the new dynamics of globalisation and transnational violence that have consumed the Middle East and the Islamic world, unleashed by the 2003 Iraq war and the 2011 Syrian civil war." —Asst. Prof. Ibrahim al-Marashi
According to McClatchy:
Jordanian state television said one of the executed prisoners was Sajida al Rishawi, the 44-year-old Iraqi woman whose release the Islamic State had demanded in return for the life of a Japanese hostage killed last week. The other was Ziad al-Karbouli, a jihadist who once worked with Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the Jordanian who founded al Qaida in Iraq, the organization that was the precursor to the Islamic State.
Government spokesman Mohammed al Momani announced in Amman that the two prisoners had been executed at dawn. Both Karbouli and Rishawi had been in prison for nearly a decade.
Jordan had announced that it would move quickly to avenge the murder of Lt. Moaz al Kasasbeh whose horrific execution was made public Tuesday by an Islamic State video that showed him being led to a cage in the desert, doused with gasoline and set alight.
The Guardian adds:
The fate of Kasasbeh – a member of a large tribe that forms the backbone of support for the country’s Hashemite monarchy – has gripped Jordan for weeks and some Jordanians have criticised King Abdullah for embroiling them in the US-led alliance that they say will provoke a militant backlash.
Some analysts believe Amman could now escalate its involvement in the campaign against Islamic State, which has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria, Jordan’s neighbours to the north and east. US officials told Reuters on Tuesday the killing of Kasasbeh would likely harden Jordan’s position as a member of the coalition against Islamic State.
Though many Jordanians have expressed criticism against the nation's monarchy government for participating in the U.S.-led war on the Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL), analysts vary on their assessment about how the execution of the pilot, who was burned alive, will shift public sentiment and impact the overall war which has ensnared the Middle East.
Several observers have taken the opportunity of these latest developments to reflect on how the mindset and tactics employed in what has become known as the "global war on terror" or (GWOT)—spearhead by the U.S. military—are inextricably linked to what is commonly referred to as the "barbarism" and "savagery" of non-state militant actors like ISIS.
In a post published on The Intercept on Wednesday, journalist and columnist Glenn Greenwald explores how the ritualistic condemnation of ISIS—who he acknowledges is a group "indescribably nihilistic and morally grotesque"—also serves the purpose of obfuscating the inherent violence and depravity of the military campaign that the U.S. has waged in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere over the last twelve or more years. After documenting numerous incidents in which the U.S. military's use of drones, hellfire missiles, white phosphorous, and other weaponry that have resulted in the maiming and death of countless civilians, including many who were "burned alive," Greenwald writes:
One could plausibly maintain that there is a different moral calculus involved in (a) burning a helpless captive to death as opposed to (b) recklessly or even deliberately burning civilians to death in areas that one is bombing with weapons purposely designed to incinerate human beings, often with the maximum possible pain. That’s the moral principle that makes torture specially heinous: sadistically inflicting pain and suffering on a helpless detainee is a unique form of barbarity.
But there is nonetheless something quite obfuscating about this beloved ritual of denouncing the unique barbarism of ISIS. It is true that ISIS seems to have embraced a goal – a strategy – of being incomparably savage, inhumane and morally repugnant. That the group is indescribably nihilistic and morally grotesque is beyond debate.
That’s exactly what makes the intensity of these repeated denunciation rituals somewhat confounding. Everyone decent, by definition, fully understands that ISIS is repellent and savage. While it’s understandable that being forced to watch the savagery on video prompts strong emotions (although, again, hiding savagery does not in fact make it less savage), it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the ritualistic expressed revulsion has a definitive utility.
And writing for Al-Jazeera English, Ibrahim al-Marashi, an assistant history professor at California State University, puts the latest tit-for-tat violence between Jordan and ISIS within a historical context—rooted in the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003—that speaks to the growing and worrying way in which the cycle of violence and acts of terrorism and aggression (including by states, aspiring states, and non-state actors) have created and fostered the current situation:
To recap, a Jordanian, [Abu Musab] al-Zarqawi moved from Jordan to Afghanistan to Iraq in 2001, set up a terrorist group that killed thousands of Iraqis, and dispatched Iraqis to Jordan in 2005 to kill Jordanians and a prominent Syrian director. A Jordanian pilot, sent to combat a transnational terrorist group in Syria and Iraq is killed in 2015 by that very group established by a fellow Jordanian.
What killed Kassasbeh was not Islam. What killed him are the new dynamics of globalisation and transnational violence that have consumed the Middle East and the Islamic world, unleashed by the 2003 Iraq war and the 2011 Syrian civil war.
While sympathies to ISIL might have existed among elements in Jordan's society, this execution will most likely strengthen Jordanian resolve in combating this group. In the impoverished Jordanian town of
Maan, support for ISIL has been vocal and explicit, with inhabitants of the town flying ISIL's flag.
Kassasbeh's death will most likely harden Jordanian resolve and eliminate any public sympathy for ISIL. However, Jordan is now at a critical juncture. A heavy handed response by the Jordanian state against Maan in light of Kassasbeh's execution might have the inverse effect of dissipating any sympathy for the pilot's death, and spur some of its citizens to join ISIL.
How the Jordanian security forces and the state will react after the death of its pilot will have ramifications for its long-term security. Jordan has announced
it has executed Rishawi
in response to Kassasbeh's death. As I wrote in response to Obama's State of the Union
speech, state-sanctioned violence in response to non-state actor violence will continue to produce an endless cycle of violence if not coupled with addressing the conditions - unemployment, humiliation, lack in governance - that produce terrorism in the first place.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
Feb. 6 Silent Vigil, potluck and DVD showing of They Killed sister Dorothy/A Tale of Two Movies
There is usually a silent peace vigil on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings, outside the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. The Feb. 6 vigil will remind us that War Is Not the Answer and that there is the need to stop torture, and prosecute the torturers. Following the vigil, there will be a potluck dinner and a DVD screening.
The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee of Homewood and Stony Run Meetings and Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility are continuing the FILM & SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS DVD SERIES. After dinner at 3107 N. Charles St., around 7:15 PM, a DVD will be shown with a discussion to follow. There is no charge, and refreshments will be available. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at Verizon.net.
The series theme is CAN WE SAVE THE PLANET??? See “They Killed Sister Dorothy.”
Film Review
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
They Killed Sister Dorothy, Directed by Daniel Junge
On February 12, 2005, a 74-year-old American-born missionary, Sister Dorothy Stang, was murdered in the Brazilian Amazon. She had been working on behalf of the peasant farmers in the area teaching them sustainable farming techniques. Among the poor, she was seen as an angel, but the powerful ranchers, rainforest loggers, and other advocates of Brazilian "progress" saw her as a troublemaker and a hindrance to their profit-making ventures.
Daniel Junge, a documentarian who specializes in social justice films, focuses on the trial of the two men who were present when she was killed, a middle-man, and two wealthy landowners accused of funding the murder. According to the Catholic Church's Land Pastoral, a group monitoring land violence in Brazil, as many as 800 settlers, union members, and priests have been killed in the Para area of Brazil in land disputes in the last 30 years. Martin Sheen narrates this documentary.
Sister Dorothy's youngest brother, David, also a missionary, goes to Brazil for the trial and provides a brief overview of her life, ministry, and love of the rainforest, which is disappearing at a rate of 20 square miles every day. The trial was important to many poor people since Sister Dorothy was seen as a leader in the movement for sustainable development on a level akin to Chico Mendes, the rubber tapper who was killed in 1988. The man who shot her admits doing so and is given a 28-year sentence.
But the real interest of David Stang and the other Catholic sisters and friends of Dorothy is whether the court will convict and sentence the two rich and powerful ranchers on charges of paying to have her killed. In order to deflect attention from one of these accused men, their attorney paints an outrageous picture of the nun as a person who advocated violence and was used as a tool for American imperialism. Although that rancher is sentenced to 30 years in prison, the other doesn't come to trial. At the end of the documentary, Sheen states that the imprisoned rancher was later retried and acquitted on charges of ordering the killing of Sister Dorothy.
Short clips of Sister Dorothy speaking to the peasants and advocating for change before the authorities reveal a woman with an open heart, a ready smile, and deep compassion. It's obvious why she was so loved and is now so missed in this community. But her spirit lives on in those still committed to saving the rainforest and promoting sustainable farming in the region.
On Behalf Of David Swanson
Thursday, February 05, 2015 11:41 AM
A Tale of Two Movies
By John Reuwer, MD, Adjunct Professor, Conflict Resolution, Saint Michael’s College
http://worldbeyondwar.org/tale-two-movies/
As a student and teacher of nonviolent action, I was disheartened last week to wake up and read of the box office success of what I thought was yet another shoot-em-up action film, the American Sniper, while the same day noting that a film about my field, Selma, though successful, was not even in the same ballpark with the money. It made me wonder why, so I went to see them.
These movies tell the story of two American heroes, the most lethal sniper in American military history, Christopher Kyle, and the most remembered name in the US civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. We are presented with two very different kinds of heroes, by many accounts both played accurately by their actors.
What makes these men heroes? They both loved their country, and both saw their country in trouble. King saw people of color being shut out from the American dream, and brutalized when they stepped up to claim it. Kyle saw a threat from the Middle East as he heard news of terrorist attacks and watched as the World Trade Towers fell. Both men were willing to risk their lives in dramatic ways, fighting battle after battle over many years to make things right.
Beyond these things, these men were very different in the way they saw what was wrong in the world and how they should make it better.
The movie depiction of Kyle’s formative years relevant to his heroism, besides establishing him as a hunter with good aim, is a lesson from his father about the three kinds of people in the world: the sheep, the wolves, and the sheep dogs whose job it is to protect the sheep. He clearly sees himself as the sheep dog through the movie, and everyone else becomes a sheep or a wolf, mostly devoid of humanity or personality. His world is black and white, and his mission is clear – kill anyone who appears to be threatening his buddies, regardless of age, gender, or the impossible situation in which they find themselves.
In Selma, we don’t get King’s background, but his mission is clear – overturn the obstacles to blacks’ voting in Alabama. The difference in his view of the world is that it is not so black and white. He knows that each human being is capable of good and evil ( a point ironically made in Sniper by one of Kyle’s soldiers who had become disgusted with the war). King’s mission is to change wrong behavior, not the people doing it.
In Kyle’s world, there is a clear line between “us” and “them”, repeatedly referring to “them” as “savages”. “Our” killing is justified and good, “theirs” is bad. Evil can be banished by killing those doing it. In King’s world, “we” and “they” are all children of God, no matter how abhorrent the behavior. Killing is out of the question; his genius is in finding more humane ways of changing evil behavior.
So which hero has the more accurate view of life? That is something that each of us must decide. I look at the aftermath for evidence. Immediately I am saddened that both men were killed in their prime by presumably unstable men with guns. Beyond that, the contrast is stark.
King won the battle for Selma, among other victories that made life for blacks in America more tolerable, and led to 50 years of painfully slow and not even close to complete, but mostly peaceful progress toward equality. I cannot help but think that had he been of Kyle’s mindset, we might have had another civil war, or perhaps even a second American genocide. Instead he called for unity and equality among Americans, and for love to be the nation’s guiding principle. Most importantly, he demonstrated the power of extremely active nonviolence to confront and defeat some of the most entrenched hatred in our history.
On the other hand, the mess in Iraq is worse than ever. Many of the places Kyle and his buddies fought so hard for in the film, are now in the hands of ISIS, despite a trillion dollars spent, hundreds of thousand Iraqis and 4500 American soldiers dead, and our VA system left to care for tens of thousands of maimed and many more psychologically traumatized veterans. Never mind that no one in Iraq had anything to do with the attacks on New York on 9/11.
Unlike Kyle’s apparent black and white picture of good and evil, American Sniper is anything but black and white. It shows the horror of war, the difficulty of deciding who dies in their own country at the hands of foreigners, the physical wounds and PTSD of the combatants, the suffering of their families, and the contradictions between saving and destroying that are inherent to war.
Having seen these two excellent films, I am hopeful that Sniper’s popularity shows not a love of simplistic killing, but Americans’ willingness to wrestle with the tough issues of our time. My wish is that nonviolent action would attract the same attention, so that more folks could better understand the powerful alternatives to the misery of endless war.
--
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio.
Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
Sign up for occasional important activist alerts here http://davidswanson.org/signup
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee of Homewood and Stony Run Meetings and Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility are continuing the FILM & SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS DVD SERIES. After dinner at 3107 N. Charles St., around 7:15 PM, a DVD will be shown with a discussion to follow. There is no charge, and refreshments will be available. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at Verizon.net.
The series theme is CAN WE SAVE THE PLANET??? See “They Killed Sister Dorothy.”
Film Review
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
They Killed Sister Dorothy, Directed by Daniel Junge
On February 12, 2005, a 74-year-old American-born missionary, Sister Dorothy Stang, was murdered in the Brazilian Amazon. She had been working on behalf of the peasant farmers in the area teaching them sustainable farming techniques. Among the poor, she was seen as an angel, but the powerful ranchers, rainforest loggers, and other advocates of Brazilian "progress" saw her as a troublemaker and a hindrance to their profit-making ventures.
Daniel Junge, a documentarian who specializes in social justice films, focuses on the trial of the two men who were present when she was killed, a middle-man, and two wealthy landowners accused of funding the murder. According to the Catholic Church's Land Pastoral, a group monitoring land violence in Brazil, as many as 800 settlers, union members, and priests have been killed in the Para area of Brazil in land disputes in the last 30 years. Martin Sheen narrates this documentary.
Sister Dorothy's youngest brother, David, also a missionary, goes to Brazil for the trial and provides a brief overview of her life, ministry, and love of the rainforest, which is disappearing at a rate of 20 square miles every day. The trial was important to many poor people since Sister Dorothy was seen as a leader in the movement for sustainable development on a level akin to Chico Mendes, the rubber tapper who was killed in 1988. The man who shot her admits doing so and is given a 28-year sentence.
But the real interest of David Stang and the other Catholic sisters and friends of Dorothy is whether the court will convict and sentence the two rich and powerful ranchers on charges of paying to have her killed. In order to deflect attention from one of these accused men, their attorney paints an outrageous picture of the nun as a person who advocated violence and was used as a tool for American imperialism. Although that rancher is sentenced to 30 years in prison, the other doesn't come to trial. At the end of the documentary, Sheen states that the imprisoned rancher was later retried and acquitted on charges of ordering the killing of Sister Dorothy.
Short clips of Sister Dorothy speaking to the peasants and advocating for change before the authorities reveal a woman with an open heart, a ready smile, and deep compassion. It's obvious why she was so loved and is now so missed in this community. But her spirit lives on in those still committed to saving the rainforest and promoting sustainable farming in the region.
On Behalf Of David Swanson
Thursday, February 05, 2015 11:41 AM
A Tale of Two Movies
By John Reuwer, MD, Adjunct Professor, Conflict Resolution, Saint Michael’s College
http://worldbeyondwar.org/tale-two-movies/
As a student and teacher of nonviolent action, I was disheartened last week to wake up and read of the box office success of what I thought was yet another shoot-em-up action film, the American Sniper, while the same day noting that a film about my field, Selma, though successful, was not even in the same ballpark with the money. It made me wonder why, so I went to see them.
These movies tell the story of two American heroes, the most lethal sniper in American military history, Christopher Kyle, and the most remembered name in the US civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. We are presented with two very different kinds of heroes, by many accounts both played accurately by their actors.
What makes these men heroes? They both loved their country, and both saw their country in trouble. King saw people of color being shut out from the American dream, and brutalized when they stepped up to claim it. Kyle saw a threat from the Middle East as he heard news of terrorist attacks and watched as the World Trade Towers fell. Both men were willing to risk their lives in dramatic ways, fighting battle after battle over many years to make things right.
Beyond these things, these men were very different in the way they saw what was wrong in the world and how they should make it better.
The movie depiction of Kyle’s formative years relevant to his heroism, besides establishing him as a hunter with good aim, is a lesson from his father about the three kinds of people in the world: the sheep, the wolves, and the sheep dogs whose job it is to protect the sheep. He clearly sees himself as the sheep dog through the movie, and everyone else becomes a sheep or a wolf, mostly devoid of humanity or personality. His world is black and white, and his mission is clear – kill anyone who appears to be threatening his buddies, regardless of age, gender, or the impossible situation in which they find themselves.
In Selma, we don’t get King’s background, but his mission is clear – overturn the obstacles to blacks’ voting in Alabama. The difference in his view of the world is that it is not so black and white. He knows that each human being is capable of good and evil ( a point ironically made in Sniper by one of Kyle’s soldiers who had become disgusted with the war). King’s mission is to change wrong behavior, not the people doing it.
In Kyle’s world, there is a clear line between “us” and “them”, repeatedly referring to “them” as “savages”. “Our” killing is justified and good, “theirs” is bad. Evil can be banished by killing those doing it. In King’s world, “we” and “they” are all children of God, no matter how abhorrent the behavior. Killing is out of the question; his genius is in finding more humane ways of changing evil behavior.
So which hero has the more accurate view of life? That is something that each of us must decide. I look at the aftermath for evidence. Immediately I am saddened that both men were killed in their prime by presumably unstable men with guns. Beyond that, the contrast is stark.
King won the battle for Selma, among other victories that made life for blacks in America more tolerable, and led to 50 years of painfully slow and not even close to complete, but mostly peaceful progress toward equality. I cannot help but think that had he been of Kyle’s mindset, we might have had another civil war, or perhaps even a second American genocide. Instead he called for unity and equality among Americans, and for love to be the nation’s guiding principle. Most importantly, he demonstrated the power of extremely active nonviolence to confront and defeat some of the most entrenched hatred in our history.
On the other hand, the mess in Iraq is worse than ever. Many of the places Kyle and his buddies fought so hard for in the film, are now in the hands of ISIS, despite a trillion dollars spent, hundreds of thousand Iraqis and 4500 American soldiers dead, and our VA system left to care for tens of thousands of maimed and many more psychologically traumatized veterans. Never mind that no one in Iraq had anything to do with the attacks on New York on 9/11.
Unlike Kyle’s apparent black and white picture of good and evil, American Sniper is anything but black and white. It shows the horror of war, the difficulty of deciding who dies in their own country at the hands of foreigners, the physical wounds and PTSD of the combatants, the suffering of their families, and the contradictions between saving and destroying that are inherent to war.
Having seen these two excellent films, I am hopeful that Sniper’s popularity shows not a love of simplistic killing, but Americans’ willingness to wrestle with the tough issues of our time. My wish is that nonviolent action would attract the same attention, so that more folks could better understand the powerful alternatives to the misery of endless war.
--
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio.
Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
Sign up for occasional important activist alerts here http://davidswanson.org/signup
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
B is for Billion: What Military Cuts?
commondreams.org/views/2015/02/02/b-billion-what-military-cuts
Monday, February 02, 2015
B is for Billion: What Military Cuts?
Raed Jarrar
A U.S. Army helicopter taking off from Forward Operating Base Shindand, Afghanistan, Oct. 3, 2012. (Photo: DoD/public domain)
This week we’ll hear proposals to massively increase military spending in the face of last year’s outcries about “draconian” cuts to our defense budget and criticism of “out of control” spending on public services. But don’t be fooled by the hyperbole. In fact, our military budget, still at historically unprecedented highs, was cut by less than one percent last year. The president’s proposed FY16 budget again preserves our outsized military spending while continuing a long, dangerous trend of underfunding human needs.
I might describe cuts that will displace thousands of children from Head Start programs as ugly, or cuts to low-income families already struggling to survive as brutal. And cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that might send millions of kids to bed hungry could be described as draconian. But the military spending cuts that we’ve had so far are as gentle and easy as cuts come. A better grasp on how much our government is actually spending on the military might be the first step to an honest debate about our spending priorities.
It’s hard to follow the money, even for those of us who study the budget process. For example, the original cuts slated for military spending under the Budget Control Act in FY14 amounted to around $56 billion. However, there was a $20.3 billion reduction in cuts through the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, then another $20 billion of non-war funding that was requested by the Pentagon, and an additional $10.8 billion from a Congressional war funding account (read slush fund) to cover regular military expenses. The final Pentagon reduction: $3.6 billion.
Is that a big cut? Not to an overall military budget of well over half a trillion dollars annually, a mindboggling amount that represents nearly half of the entire world’s military spending. But the money we spend on the military in the name of security becomes even more astounding when you consider what we’re not willing to invest federal dollars in.
I recently started attending meetings with other community members to discuss the U.S. non-military budget, and the newly imposed cuts in this sequestration era. In my first meeting, the chair began listing the millions of dollars in cuts on the table to several domestic human needs programs. “Excuse me,” I said. “Didn't you mean billions with a B?” Everyone laughed and said it would be a dream for even $1 billion to be spent on any of the programs being discussed.
It’s hard for most of us to understand the difference between a million and a billion. But think about it this way: a million minutes ago it was March of 2013. A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Jesus. What a difference a letter makes!
Not many Americans realize that the vast majority of the U.S. discretionary budget goes to military spending. This is the spending that Congress has authority to determine every year -- a good indicator of our priorities as a nation. Although the official Pentagon budget in 2015 is “only” $495 billion, the actual budget for all Pentagon expenses is $645 billion. If we add the cost of nuclear weapons (usually classified under the Department of Energy) the total is around $665 billion, which is more than 57 percent of this year’s discretionary spending. The rest -- less than 43 percent -- will cover a broad set of public services, including education, environmental protection, job training, scientific research, transportation, economic development, and a bunch of low-income assistance programs.
No sticker shock yet? Wait until you hear about our so-called “National Security Budget.” When you add the Pentagon expenses to all the other money we spend on veteran’s affairs, non-Department of Defense national security, and the share of interest on our national debt attributed to military spending, the number in 2015 is $1,009.5 billion. That is one trillion – with a “t” -- and 9 billion bucks. It looks like this: $1,009,000,000,000.
Meanwhile, since 2011, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have scrambled to add billions back to the military budget, even as they’ve cut a further $87 billion – a staggering 15 percent – from regular non-defense discretionary spending. These programs are now in the fifth year of an austerity drive that is a true security crisis.
I’ll leave you with this: While a million seconds adds up to less than two weeks, a trillion seconds ago is almost 32,000 years to date. This is right around the time Neanderthals were discussing their national security (no offense to creationists).
It's about time for us to mind our Ms, Bs, and Ts and bring our budget priorities into the 21st century.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Raed Jarrar is policy impact coordinator in the Washington, D.C., office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization working to build peace with justice in the U.S. and around the world.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
Monday, February 02, 2015
B is for Billion: What Military Cuts?
Raed Jarrar
A U.S. Army helicopter taking off from Forward Operating Base Shindand, Afghanistan, Oct. 3, 2012. (Photo: DoD/public domain)
This week we’ll hear proposals to massively increase military spending in the face of last year’s outcries about “draconian” cuts to our defense budget and criticism of “out of control” spending on public services. But don’t be fooled by the hyperbole. In fact, our military budget, still at historically unprecedented highs, was cut by less than one percent last year. The president’s proposed FY16 budget again preserves our outsized military spending while continuing a long, dangerous trend of underfunding human needs.
I might describe cuts that will displace thousands of children from Head Start programs as ugly, or cuts to low-income families already struggling to survive as brutal. And cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that might send millions of kids to bed hungry could be described as draconian. But the military spending cuts that we’ve had so far are as gentle and easy as cuts come. A better grasp on how much our government is actually spending on the military might be the first step to an honest debate about our spending priorities.
It’s hard to follow the money, even for those of us who study the budget process. For example, the original cuts slated for military spending under the Budget Control Act in FY14 amounted to around $56 billion. However, there was a $20.3 billion reduction in cuts through the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, then another $20 billion of non-war funding that was requested by the Pentagon, and an additional $10.8 billion from a Congressional war funding account (read slush fund) to cover regular military expenses. The final Pentagon reduction: $3.6 billion.
Is that a big cut? Not to an overall military budget of well over half a trillion dollars annually, a mindboggling amount that represents nearly half of the entire world’s military spending. But the money we spend on the military in the name of security becomes even more astounding when you consider what we’re not willing to invest federal dollars in.
I recently started attending meetings with other community members to discuss the U.S. non-military budget, and the newly imposed cuts in this sequestration era. In my first meeting, the chair began listing the millions of dollars in cuts on the table to several domestic human needs programs. “Excuse me,” I said. “Didn't you mean billions with a B?” Everyone laughed and said it would be a dream for even $1 billion to be spent on any of the programs being discussed.
It’s hard for most of us to understand the difference between a million and a billion. But think about it this way: a million minutes ago it was March of 2013. A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Jesus. What a difference a letter makes!
Not many Americans realize that the vast majority of the U.S. discretionary budget goes to military spending. This is the spending that Congress has authority to determine every year -- a good indicator of our priorities as a nation. Although the official Pentagon budget in 2015 is “only” $495 billion, the actual budget for all Pentagon expenses is $645 billion. If we add the cost of nuclear weapons (usually classified under the Department of Energy) the total is around $665 billion, which is more than 57 percent of this year’s discretionary spending. The rest -- less than 43 percent -- will cover a broad set of public services, including education, environmental protection, job training, scientific research, transportation, economic development, and a bunch of low-income assistance programs.
No sticker shock yet? Wait until you hear about our so-called “National Security Budget.” When you add the Pentagon expenses to all the other money we spend on veteran’s affairs, non-Department of Defense national security, and the share of interest on our national debt attributed to military spending, the number in 2015 is $1,009.5 billion. That is one trillion – with a “t” -- and 9 billion bucks. It looks like this: $1,009,000,000,000.
Meanwhile, since 2011, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have scrambled to add billions back to the military budget, even as they’ve cut a further $87 billion – a staggering 15 percent – from regular non-defense discretionary spending. These programs are now in the fifth year of an austerity drive that is a true security crisis.
I’ll leave you with this: While a million seconds adds up to less than two weeks, a trillion seconds ago is almost 32,000 years to date. This is right around the time Neanderthals were discussing their national security (no offense to creationists).
It's about time for us to mind our Ms, Bs, and Ts and bring our budget priorities into the 21st century.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Raed Jarrar is policy impact coordinator in the Washington, D.C., office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization working to build peace with justice in the U.S. and around the world.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
Friday, February 6, 2015
Baltimore Activist Alert - February 6 - 13, 2015
30] Vigil for peace at White House – Feb. 6
31] Protest at Skanska – Feb. 6
32] Silent Peace Vigil – Feb. 6
33] Film THEY SHOT SISTER DOROTHY – Feb. 6
34] “Solidarity 2: Home is Not a Commodity” show – Feb. 6
35] FREE ANGELA & ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS – Feb. 6 & 8
36] Celebrate the Cuban Five – Feb. 6
37] Nuclear Zero – Feb. 6
38] Ballroom Dancing – Feb. 6
39] Support affordable housing – Feb. 7
40] "Earth Story, Our Story: Climate Change Calls Us to Heal Ourselves and the World” – Feb. 7
41] My Relationship With Conflict – Feb. 7
42] West Chester, PA demo – Feb. 7
43] Anti-drone Walk – Feb. 7
44] Interfaith Coalition Religion/Spirituality Discussion – Feb. 7
45] Peace Concert – Feb. 7
46] Civil rights – Feb. 8
47] See “Blood Fruit” – Feb. 8
48] Poetry at Red Emma’s – Feb. 8
49] Pentagon Vigil – Feb. 9
50] Marc Steiner on WEAA – Feb. 9 – Feb. 13
51] Hearing to protect local coastlines from the dangers of oil and gas drilling – Feb. 9
52] Community meeting of restaurant workers – Feb. 9
53] "A Visit to Tehran: Outlook for U.S.-Iran Relations" – Feb. 9
54] Fracking is a disaster – Feb. 9
55] Pledge of Resistance/FOC meeting – Feb. 9
56] Witness for Peace is leading a delegation Cuba -- Feb. 13 through Feb. 23
57] PSR-National is hiring a Climate Organizer
58] Sign up with Washington Peace Center
59] Join Fund Our Communities
60] Donate books, videos, DVDs and records
61] Do you need any book shelves?
62] Join Global Zero campaign
63] War Is Not the Answer signs for sale
64] Join Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil
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30] – On Fri., Feb. 6 from noon to 1 PM, join the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in a vigil urging the powers that be to abolish war and torture, to disarm all weapons, to end indefinite detention, to close Guantanamo, to establish justice for all and help create the Beloved Community! The vigil takes place at the White House on Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Contact Art @ artlaffin@hotmail.com or at 202-360-6416.
31] – Protest at Skanska, 1776 Wilson Blvd., Arlington on Fri., Feb. 6 from 4 to 5:30 PM. Join DC Stampede to #StormSkanska! The University of Washington (UW) plans to build a new animal lab that will imprison thousands of dogs, cats, mice, rabbits and other defenseless animals. DC Stampede is joining the national campaign against UW's Animal Research and Care Facility. This protest will put pressure on Skanska, the multinational construction company that is contracted to build the lab, to back out of its contract with the University of Washington so that the lab will never be built. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/640758239362247/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited.
32] – There is usually a silent peace vigil on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings, outside the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. The Feb. 6 vigil will remind us that War Is Not the Answer and that there is the need to stop torture, and prosecute the torturers. Following the vigil, there will be a potluck dinner and a DVD screening.
33] – The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee of Homewood and Stony Run Meetings and Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility are continuing the FILM & SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS DVD SERIES. After dinner at 3107 N. Charles St., around 7:15 PM, a DVD will be shown with a discussion to follow. There is no charge, and refreshments will be available. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at Verizon.net.
The series theme is CAN WE SAVE THE PLANET??? On Fri., Feb. 6, see “They Killed Sister Dorothy,” directed by Daniel Junge. On Feb. 12, 2005, a 74-year-old USA-born missionary, Sister Dorothy Stang, was murdered in the Brazilian Amazon. She had been working on behalf of the peasant farmers in the area teaching them sustainable farming techniques. Among the poor, she was seen as an angel, but the powerful ranchers, rainforest loggers, and other advocates of Brazilian "progress" saw her as a troublemaker and a hindrance to their profit-making ventures. Junge, a documentarian who specializes in social justice films, focuses on the trial of the men who were present when she was killed, a middle-man, and two wealthy landowners accused of funding the murder. According to the Catholic Church's Land Pastoral, a group monitoring land violence in Brazil, as many as 800 settlers, union members, and priests have been killed in the Para area of Brazil in land disputes in the last 30 years. Martin Sheen narrates this documentary.
34] – ONE DC resource organizer and photographer, Dominic T. Moulden, are partnering to host the upcoming photography exhibit “Solidarity 2: Home is Not a Commodity” show to provide a worldwide look (South Africa, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.) at the idea of home and the universal human right to accessible housing. Dominic brings these topics to his home city of Baltimore, where he invites us to join an ongoing conversation and fight for universal access to fair housing.
The show opening & artist talk takes place on Fri., Feb. 6 from 6 to 8 PM at MICA PLACE, 814 North Collington Ave., Baltimore. There is a workshop & art conversation on Sat., Feb. 21 from 3 to 5 PM, and then an Open Mic Ova East from 5 to 7 PM. This will close the show. Contact Allison Duggan at 443-415-1047 or aduggan@mica.edu.
35] – There is a First-Friday Free Large Screen Film Series at the Peace Center of Delaware County, 1001 Old Sproul Road, Springfield, PA 19064. On Fri., Feb. 6 at 7 PM see FREE ANGELA & ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS [2013]. How did a young African-American college professor at UCLA become a fugitive on the FBI's Most Wanted list and political prisoner during the social turbulence of nearly a half century ago? This acclaimed documentary by award-winning film maker, Shola Lynch, tells the story of Angela Davis...revolutionary scholar, philosopher, activist icon, African-American feminist. The film features interviews with Angela Davis as well as eyewitnesses to her trial and imprisonment, life and teaching, then and now.
You may know the name of Angela Davis and her struggle for racial justice. But do you really know her whole story and its relevance for today? Doors open at 6:30 PM for light refreshments. There will be a short after-film discussion. Go to http://www.delcopeacecenter.org/ or call 610-544-1818. The film series is co-sponsored by the Brandywine Peace Community.
On Sun., Feb. 8 at 4:30 PM there is the Brandywine Peace Community Monthly Potluck Supper/Program at the University Lutheran Church, 3637 Chestnut St., Phila., 19104. Bring a main dish, salad, or dessert to share. At 5:30 PM the program begins with another Large-Screen showing of FREE ANGELA & ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS. After the film, there will be a discussion. To get to the University Lutheran Church, go to www.septa.com. Call Brandywine Peace Community at 610-544-1818 or go to www.brandywinepeace.com/events.
36] – Go to the Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Road NW, WDC, on Fri., Feb. 6 from 7 to 9:30 PM, the Institute for Policy Studies joins with the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 to Raise Up A New Era in U.S. Cuba Relations. Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Antonio Guerrero have finally been reunited with their loved ones in Cuba.
On December 17, President Obama and President Raul Castro made an historic decision to change the path of the relations between the two countries. Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez were already in Cuba after serving their complete sentences. Enjoy music and poetry, food and drinks. Go to http://www.ips-dc.org/events/celebration-d-c-return-cuban-5/.
37] – On Fri., Feb. 6 at 7:30 PM at Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, 503 Rock Creek Church Rd. NW, WDC 20010, hear from Marie Dennis who will tackle Gathering Momentum Toward Nuclear Zero. She is co-president of Pax Christi International, and the former director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; member of Assisi Community. “Nuclear deterrence and the threat of mutually assured destruction cannot be the basis for an ethics of … peaceful coexistence among peoples and states.” (Pope Francis, Dec. 7, 2014)
In landmark cases filed in the International Court of Justice and a U.S. Federal District Court, the Marshall Islands, itself a U.S. nuclear weapons testing ground, is making a powerful claim that the nine nuclear-armed nations have failed to comply with their obligations, under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and customary international law, to pursue negotiations for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.
Thanks to the Marshall Islands legal action and to three major conferences focused on the humanitarian consequences of a nuclear exchange – as well as to the persistent efforts of Ploughshares activists, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and so many others, the discussion about nuclear disarmament has been reframed. As the NPT Review Conference approaches in April/May 2015, the focus is shifting from national security strategy and stability to what the detonation of these weapons would do to humans and to the earth. At the same time, “Cold War” rhetoric is pointing to rattling of the nuclear saber by Russia, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, as well as to threats of proliferation.
Pax Christi International filed an amicus brief in support of the Marshall Islands lawsuit against the U.S. government. Pax Christi member organizations are deeply involved at every level in nuclear disarmament efforts, including in the leadership of ICAN and Abolition 2000. Please come for an update and discussion -- action toward nuclear zero will be crucial in the coming months. Contact the Catholic Worker at 202-882-9649 or artlaffin@hotmail.com.
38] – There is an opportunity to participate in ballroom dancing, usually every Friday of the month, in the JHU ROTC Bldg. at 8 PM. Turn south on San Martin Dr. from the intersection of Univ. Parkway and 39th St. Drive on campus by taking the third left turn. The next dance will be Feb. 6. Call Dave Greene at 410-599-3725.
39] – Get over to Calvary Baptist Church, 755 8th St. NW, WDC 20001, on Sat., Feb. 7 from 9:30 AM to noon, support affordable housing. Housing for All DC believes everyone deserves a decent, safe home they can afford here. See https://www.facebook.com/events/654402988011005/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited.
40] – From 10 AM to 2 PM catch "Earth Story, Our Story: Climate Change Calls Us to Heal Ourselves and the World" with Charles Eisenstein, who will headline a climate change program and workshop at Central Baptist Church, 106 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne, PA 19087. At 1 PM, after a free lunch, there will be one-hour breakout sessions on Transition Towns, Local Food, Soil, Militarism & the Environment, and Divestment. Register and enjoy coffee at 9:15 AM, and make a donation. This event is endorsed by host of groups, including the Brandywine Peace Community. See www.charleseisenstein.net. RSVP to Jane Dugdale at 610-527-4170.
41] –My Relationship With Conflict With Tarek Abuata is a workshop for everyone on Sat., Feb. 7 from 10 AM to 6 PM at Clay Pots, 1635 W. Pratt St., Baltimore 21223. There is a fee of $25, and one can register at 410-233-1133 or claypotsad@gmail.com. With 12 years of nonviolence work in Palestine/Israel, Tarek Abuata has created a nonviolence curriculum based on MLK’s movement and organizing nonviolent actions.
42] – Each Saturday, 11 AM – 1 PM, Chester County Peace Movement holds a peace vigil in West Chester in front of the Chester County Courthouse, High & Market Sts. Go to www.ccpeace.org. Email ccpeacemovement@aol.com.
43] – On Sat., Feb. 7 from noon to 1 PM, join the Center City Anti-War/Anti-Drone Silent Death Walk/Vigil. Gather at 12th & Market Sts. Wear back. Signs and white masks will be provided. RSVP to Marge Van Cleef at 203-804-3013.
44] – On Sat., Feb. 7 from 4 to 5:30 PM, the first meeting of the Montgomery County Interfaith Coalition (MCIC) Religion/Spirituality Discussion Salon will be in SPK Room A of the Juanita E. Thornton/Shepherd Park branch of the D.C. Public Library, 7420 Georgia Ave. NW, WDC 20012. The library is about a mile from the Silver Spring Metro stop on the east side of the Red Line. For those taking Metro, arrangements can be made to have you picked up at the station. RSVP to mcicmd@gmail.com.
45] -- Women In black Baltimore are hosting a Peace Concert on Sat., Feb.7 at 7 PM at the War Memorial Plaza, 101 Gay St., Baltimore 21202. To get tickets, go to www.eventbritecom.
46] – Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W. Franklin St., Suite 102, Baltimore 21201-4661, meets on Sundays, and generally there is a speaker and discussion from 10:30 AM to noon. On Feb. 8, the platform address is “A Segregated Baltimore: Reflections of 1950–1960” by James M. Griffin, physical therapist and Civil Rights Activist. When the Supreme Court struck down school segregation in 1954, James Griffin was wrapping up his military service prior to enrolling at Johnson C. Smith University (Charlotte, N.C.) and before continuing on to Boston’s Sargeant College for his degree in physical therapy, thereby becoming the first African-American licensed to practice in the state of Maryland. More importantly, however, he was becoming a major activist in the civil rights struggle here in Baltimore, particularly in the area of public accommodations, public education and in community organization. His efforts as an appointee to the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners (1968-1974) and as chairman of Baltimore CORE (Congress of Racial Equality, 1963-69) led to major changes in the city. Other appointments included Board member of Baltimore City Model City Agency and a gubernatorial appointment as Equal Opportunity Specialist for the State of Maryland. He led demonstrations against injustice and racial segregation. He will share his recollections of this momentous period in the history of Baltimore. Call 410-581-2322 or email ask@bmorethical.org.
47] – The Goethe-Institut, 812 7th St. NW, WDC, is showing a documentary on Sun., Feb. 8 from 4:30 to 6 PM, as part of the Capital Irish Film Festival. See “Blood Fruit,” which is about Irish Labor Solidarity. In July 1984, the action taken by one young Irish shop cashier changed the face of the South African anti-apartheid movement around the world. Mary Manning, a Dunnes Stores checkout girl, refused to sell two Outspan grapefruits under direction from her union in support of the anti-apartheid struggle. She and ten supporters were suspended and a strike ensued. The film is directed by Sinead O'Brian who will be at the screening. See a preview at http://vimeo.com/99725636. Tickets can be had at http://bit.ly/solastix.
48] – On Sun., Feb. 8 at 7 PM @ Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201, a poetry/spoken word open mic hosted by Analysis and featuring Gayle Danley! The evening will continue until 9:45 PM with the mic list opening at 6:30 PM. Call 443-602-7585. Go to http://www.redemmas.org.
49] -- There is a weekly Pentagon Peace Vigil from 7 to 8 AM on Mondays, since 1987, outside the Pentagon Metro stop. The next vigil is Mon., Feb. 9, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-882-9649. The vigil will be outside the Pentagon's south Metro entrance and in the designated "protest zone" behind bicycle fences across from the entrance to the Metro. By Metro, take Yellow Line and get out at the "Pentagon" stop. Do not go to the Pentagon City stop! Go up south escalators and turn left and walk across to protest area. By car from D.C. area, take 395 South and get off at Exit 8A-Pentagon South Parking. Take slight right onto S. Rotary Rd. at end of ramp and right on S. Fern St. Then take left onto Army Navy Dr. You can "pay to park" on Army Navy Dr., and there is meter parking one block on right on Eads St. Payment for both of these spots begin at 8 AM. No cameras are allowed on Pentagon grounds. Restrooms are located inside Marriott Residence Inn on corner of S. Fern and Army Navy Dr.
50] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Friday from 10 AM to noon on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, or online at www.weaa.org. The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by email to steinershow@gmail.com. All shows are also available as podcasts at www.steinershow.org.
51] – Go to the Embassy Suites Washington D.C., Convention Center, 900 10th St. NW, WDC 20001, on Mon., Feb. 9 from 2 to 7 PM for a hearing on protecting our local coastlines from the dangers of oil and gas drilling? Attend the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management hearing and tell BOEM to protect our local Mid-Atlantic coastlines. Tell regulators you don't want a Deepwater Horizon on the East Coast! There will be a rally at 1 PM. RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/1401751623460052/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular.
52] – On Mon., Feb. 9 from 2 to 4 PM at 1100 Florida Ave. NW, WDC, come to the monthly community meeting of restaurant workers! Grab some snacks and/or a drink and learn about the campaign to raise the wages for all restaurant workers. Strategize about the ballot initiative that would raise the minimum wage for all workers. ROC-DC will provide the snacks and drink! RSVP to jeremiah@rocunited or call 240-772-1356.
53] – On Mon., Feb. 9 at 2 PM, former Rep. Jim Slattery (KS) will address "A Visit to Tehran: Outlook for U.S.-Iran Relations" at the Atlantic Council, 12th Floor, 1030 15th St. NW, WDC. Register at http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/events/upcoming-events/registration/a08i0000012FMTCAA4.
54] – As part of the Sustainable Speaker Series, Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald will address The Real Cost of Fracking; How America's shale-gas boom is threatening our families, pets and food on Mon., Feb. 9 at 6:30 PM in the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Branch, Wheeler Auditorium, 400 Cathedral St., Baltimore 21201. Bamberger, a veterinarian, and Oswald, a pharmacologist, show how hydraulic fracturing endangers the environment and harms people, pets, and livestock. They reveal the harrowing experiences of small farmers who have lost their animals and their livelihoods and of rural families whose property values have plummeted as their towns have been invaded by drillers. Bamberger is the author of two books on first aid for cats and dogs. Oswald is a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell University. They serve on the advisory board of Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers of Healthy Energy. Email bgw@baltimoregreenworks.com.
55] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets on Mondays at 7:30 PM, and the meetings take place at Max’s residence. The next meeting will be on Mon., Feb. 9. The proposed agenda will include anti-drone activities, including getting a resolution passed in Baltimore’s City Council, protesting Colin Powell, lobbying in Annapolis, a march from the EPA to the Pentagon and “From Mississippi to Ferguson.” Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net.
56] – Witness for Peace is leading a delegation Cuba: The Good Food Revolution: Strengthening Community Through Sustainable Agriculture from Feb. 13 through Feb. 23. The delegation coordinator is Kristin Stuchis, and she can be reached at 218-340-8079 or kstuchis@gmail.com.
57] – PSR-National is hiring a Climate Organizer for the D.C. office. This person will help build the “Climate Health Action Teams,” a new program through which members learn about renewable energy and energy efficiency – including their benefits to health – and take monthly actions to push their states to choose clean renewables and energy efficiency as the way to reduce carbon emissions under the Clean Power Plan.
PSR is looking for an energetic organizer with hands-on experience who can use communication tools (phone, email, Skype, webinars…) to engage and motivate members. Knowledge of climate change, health and/or energy issues is a must. Please send resume, cover letter, and writing sample to bgottlieb@psr.org with "Climate Organizer" in the subject line. The recruitment process is open until the position is filled.
58] -- The Washington Peace Center has a progressive calendar & activist alert! Consider signing up to receive its weekly email: info@washingtonpeacecenter.org.
59] -- Fund Our Communities campaign is a grass roots movement to get support from local organizations and communities to work together with their local and state elected officials to pressure Congresspersons and senators to join with Congresspersons Barney Frank and Ron Paul, who have endorsed a 25% cut to the federal military budget. Bring home the savings to state and county governments to meet the local needs which are under tremendous budget pressures. Go to www.OurFunds.org.
60] -- If you would like to get rid of books, videos, DVDs or records, contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net.
61] -- Can you use any book shelves? Contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net.
62] -- Join an extraordinary global campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons: http://www.globalzero.org/sign-declaration. A growing group of leaders around the world is calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and a majority of the global public agrees. This is an historic window of opportunity. With momentum already building in favor of Zero, a major show of support from people around the world could tip the balance. When it comes to nuclear weapons, one is one too many.
63] -- WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER signs from Friends Committee on National Legislation are again for sale at $5. To purchase a sign, call Max at 410-366-1637.
64] – A Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil takes place every day in Lafayette Park, 1601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 24 hours a day, since June 3, 1981. Go to http://prop1.org; call 202-682-4282.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.
"One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better" - Daniel Berrigan
31] Protest at Skanska – Feb. 6
32] Silent Peace Vigil – Feb. 6
33] Film THEY SHOT SISTER DOROTHY – Feb. 6
34] “Solidarity 2: Home is Not a Commodity” show – Feb. 6
35] FREE ANGELA & ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS – Feb. 6 & 8
36] Celebrate the Cuban Five – Feb. 6
37] Nuclear Zero – Feb. 6
38] Ballroom Dancing – Feb. 6
39] Support affordable housing – Feb. 7
40] "Earth Story, Our Story: Climate Change Calls Us to Heal Ourselves and the World” – Feb. 7
41] My Relationship With Conflict – Feb. 7
42] West Chester, PA demo – Feb. 7
43] Anti-drone Walk – Feb. 7
44] Interfaith Coalition Religion/Spirituality Discussion – Feb. 7
45] Peace Concert – Feb. 7
46] Civil rights – Feb. 8
47] See “Blood Fruit” – Feb. 8
48] Poetry at Red Emma’s – Feb. 8
49] Pentagon Vigil – Feb. 9
50] Marc Steiner on WEAA – Feb. 9 – Feb. 13
51] Hearing to protect local coastlines from the dangers of oil and gas drilling – Feb. 9
52] Community meeting of restaurant workers – Feb. 9
53] "A Visit to Tehran: Outlook for U.S.-Iran Relations" – Feb. 9
54] Fracking is a disaster – Feb. 9
55] Pledge of Resistance/FOC meeting – Feb. 9
56] Witness for Peace is leading a delegation Cuba -- Feb. 13 through Feb. 23
57] PSR-National is hiring a Climate Organizer
58] Sign up with Washington Peace Center
59] Join Fund Our Communities
60] Donate books, videos, DVDs and records
61] Do you need any book shelves?
62] Join Global Zero campaign
63] War Is Not the Answer signs for sale
64] Join Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil
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30] – On Fri., Feb. 6 from noon to 1 PM, join the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in a vigil urging the powers that be to abolish war and torture, to disarm all weapons, to end indefinite detention, to close Guantanamo, to establish justice for all and help create the Beloved Community! The vigil takes place at the White House on Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Contact Art @ artlaffin@hotmail.com or at 202-360-6416.
31] – Protest at Skanska, 1776 Wilson Blvd., Arlington on Fri., Feb. 6 from 4 to 5:30 PM. Join DC Stampede to #StormSkanska! The University of Washington (UW) plans to build a new animal lab that will imprison thousands of dogs, cats, mice, rabbits and other defenseless animals. DC Stampede is joining the national campaign against UW's Animal Research and Care Facility. This protest will put pressure on Skanska, the multinational construction company that is contracted to build the lab, to back out of its contract with the University of Washington so that the lab will never be built. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/640758239362247/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited.
32] – There is usually a silent peace vigil on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings, outside the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. The Feb. 6 vigil will remind us that War Is Not the Answer and that there is the need to stop torture, and prosecute the torturers. Following the vigil, there will be a potluck dinner and a DVD screening.
33] – The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee of Homewood and Stony Run Meetings and Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility are continuing the FILM & SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS DVD SERIES. After dinner at 3107 N. Charles St., around 7:15 PM, a DVD will be shown with a discussion to follow. There is no charge, and refreshments will be available. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at Verizon.net.
The series theme is CAN WE SAVE THE PLANET??? On Fri., Feb. 6, see “They Killed Sister Dorothy,” directed by Daniel Junge. On Feb. 12, 2005, a 74-year-old USA-born missionary, Sister Dorothy Stang, was murdered in the Brazilian Amazon. She had been working on behalf of the peasant farmers in the area teaching them sustainable farming techniques. Among the poor, she was seen as an angel, but the powerful ranchers, rainforest loggers, and other advocates of Brazilian "progress" saw her as a troublemaker and a hindrance to their profit-making ventures. Junge, a documentarian who specializes in social justice films, focuses on the trial of the men who were present when she was killed, a middle-man, and two wealthy landowners accused of funding the murder. According to the Catholic Church's Land Pastoral, a group monitoring land violence in Brazil, as many as 800 settlers, union members, and priests have been killed in the Para area of Brazil in land disputes in the last 30 years. Martin Sheen narrates this documentary.
34] – ONE DC resource organizer and photographer, Dominic T. Moulden, are partnering to host the upcoming photography exhibit “Solidarity 2: Home is Not a Commodity” show to provide a worldwide look (South Africa, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.) at the idea of home and the universal human right to accessible housing. Dominic brings these topics to his home city of Baltimore, where he invites us to join an ongoing conversation and fight for universal access to fair housing.
The show opening & artist talk takes place on Fri., Feb. 6 from 6 to 8 PM at MICA PLACE, 814 North Collington Ave., Baltimore. There is a workshop & art conversation on Sat., Feb. 21 from 3 to 5 PM, and then an Open Mic Ova East from 5 to 7 PM. This will close the show. Contact Allison Duggan at 443-415-1047 or aduggan@mica.edu.
35] – There is a First-Friday Free Large Screen Film Series at the Peace Center of Delaware County, 1001 Old Sproul Road, Springfield, PA 19064. On Fri., Feb. 6 at 7 PM see FREE ANGELA & ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS [2013]. How did a young African-American college professor at UCLA become a fugitive on the FBI's Most Wanted list and political prisoner during the social turbulence of nearly a half century ago? This acclaimed documentary by award-winning film maker, Shola Lynch, tells the story of Angela Davis...revolutionary scholar, philosopher, activist icon, African-American feminist. The film features interviews with Angela Davis as well as eyewitnesses to her trial and imprisonment, life and teaching, then and now.
You may know the name of Angela Davis and her struggle for racial justice. But do you really know her whole story and its relevance for today? Doors open at 6:30 PM for light refreshments. There will be a short after-film discussion. Go to http://www.delcopeacecenter.org/ or call 610-544-1818. The film series is co-sponsored by the Brandywine Peace Community.
On Sun., Feb. 8 at 4:30 PM there is the Brandywine Peace Community Monthly Potluck Supper/Program at the University Lutheran Church, 3637 Chestnut St., Phila., 19104. Bring a main dish, salad, or dessert to share. At 5:30 PM the program begins with another Large-Screen showing of FREE ANGELA & ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS. After the film, there will be a discussion. To get to the University Lutheran Church, go to www.septa.com. Call Brandywine Peace Community at 610-544-1818 or go to www.brandywinepeace.com/events.
36] – Go to the Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Road NW, WDC, on Fri., Feb. 6 from 7 to 9:30 PM, the Institute for Policy Studies joins with the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 to Raise Up A New Era in U.S. Cuba Relations. Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Antonio Guerrero have finally been reunited with their loved ones in Cuba.
On December 17, President Obama and President Raul Castro made an historic decision to change the path of the relations between the two countries. Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez were already in Cuba after serving their complete sentences. Enjoy music and poetry, food and drinks. Go to http://www.ips-dc.org/events/celebration-d-c-return-cuban-5/.
37] – On Fri., Feb. 6 at 7:30 PM at Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, 503 Rock Creek Church Rd. NW, WDC 20010, hear from Marie Dennis who will tackle Gathering Momentum Toward Nuclear Zero. She is co-president of Pax Christi International, and the former director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; member of Assisi Community. “Nuclear deterrence and the threat of mutually assured destruction cannot be the basis for an ethics of … peaceful coexistence among peoples and states.” (Pope Francis, Dec. 7, 2014)
In landmark cases filed in the International Court of Justice and a U.S. Federal District Court, the Marshall Islands, itself a U.S. nuclear weapons testing ground, is making a powerful claim that the nine nuclear-armed nations have failed to comply with their obligations, under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and customary international law, to pursue negotiations for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.
Thanks to the Marshall Islands legal action and to three major conferences focused on the humanitarian consequences of a nuclear exchange – as well as to the persistent efforts of Ploughshares activists, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and so many others, the discussion about nuclear disarmament has been reframed. As the NPT Review Conference approaches in April/May 2015, the focus is shifting from national security strategy and stability to what the detonation of these weapons would do to humans and to the earth. At the same time, “Cold War” rhetoric is pointing to rattling of the nuclear saber by Russia, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, as well as to threats of proliferation.
Pax Christi International filed an amicus brief in support of the Marshall Islands lawsuit against the U.S. government. Pax Christi member organizations are deeply involved at every level in nuclear disarmament efforts, including in the leadership of ICAN and Abolition 2000. Please come for an update and discussion -- action toward nuclear zero will be crucial in the coming months. Contact the Catholic Worker at 202-882-9649 or artlaffin@hotmail.com.
38] – There is an opportunity to participate in ballroom dancing, usually every Friday of the month, in the JHU ROTC Bldg. at 8 PM. Turn south on San Martin Dr. from the intersection of Univ. Parkway and 39th St. Drive on campus by taking the third left turn. The next dance will be Feb. 6. Call Dave Greene at 410-599-3725.
39] – Get over to Calvary Baptist Church, 755 8th St. NW, WDC 20001, on Sat., Feb. 7 from 9:30 AM to noon, support affordable housing. Housing for All DC believes everyone deserves a decent, safe home they can afford here. See https://www.facebook.com/events/654402988011005/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited.
40] – From 10 AM to 2 PM catch "Earth Story, Our Story: Climate Change Calls Us to Heal Ourselves and the World" with Charles Eisenstein, who will headline a climate change program and workshop at Central Baptist Church, 106 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne, PA 19087. At 1 PM, after a free lunch, there will be one-hour breakout sessions on Transition Towns, Local Food, Soil, Militarism & the Environment, and Divestment. Register and enjoy coffee at 9:15 AM, and make a donation. This event is endorsed by host of groups, including the Brandywine Peace Community. See www.charleseisenstein.net. RSVP to Jane Dugdale at 610-527-4170.
41] –My Relationship With Conflict With Tarek Abuata is a workshop for everyone on Sat., Feb. 7 from 10 AM to 6 PM at Clay Pots, 1635 W. Pratt St., Baltimore 21223. There is a fee of $25, and one can register at 410-233-1133 or claypotsad@gmail.com. With 12 years of nonviolence work in Palestine/Israel, Tarek Abuata has created a nonviolence curriculum based on MLK’s movement and organizing nonviolent actions.
42] – Each Saturday, 11 AM – 1 PM, Chester County Peace Movement holds a peace vigil in West Chester in front of the Chester County Courthouse, High & Market Sts. Go to www.ccpeace.org. Email ccpeacemovement@aol.com.
43] – On Sat., Feb. 7 from noon to 1 PM, join the Center City Anti-War/Anti-Drone Silent Death Walk/Vigil. Gather at 12th & Market Sts. Wear back. Signs and white masks will be provided. RSVP to Marge Van Cleef at 203-804-3013.
44] – On Sat., Feb. 7 from 4 to 5:30 PM, the first meeting of the Montgomery County Interfaith Coalition (MCIC) Religion/Spirituality Discussion Salon will be in SPK Room A of the Juanita E. Thornton/Shepherd Park branch of the D.C. Public Library, 7420 Georgia Ave. NW, WDC 20012. The library is about a mile from the Silver Spring Metro stop on the east side of the Red Line. For those taking Metro, arrangements can be made to have you picked up at the station. RSVP to mcicmd@gmail.com.
45] -- Women In black Baltimore are hosting a Peace Concert on Sat., Feb.7 at 7 PM at the War Memorial Plaza, 101 Gay St., Baltimore 21202. To get tickets, go to www.eventbritecom.
46] – Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W. Franklin St., Suite 102, Baltimore 21201-4661, meets on Sundays, and generally there is a speaker and discussion from 10:30 AM to noon. On Feb. 8, the platform address is “A Segregated Baltimore: Reflections of 1950–1960” by James M. Griffin, physical therapist and Civil Rights Activist. When the Supreme Court struck down school segregation in 1954, James Griffin was wrapping up his military service prior to enrolling at Johnson C. Smith University (Charlotte, N.C.) and before continuing on to Boston’s Sargeant College for his degree in physical therapy, thereby becoming the first African-American licensed to practice in the state of Maryland. More importantly, however, he was becoming a major activist in the civil rights struggle here in Baltimore, particularly in the area of public accommodations, public education and in community organization. His efforts as an appointee to the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners (1968-1974) and as chairman of Baltimore CORE (Congress of Racial Equality, 1963-69) led to major changes in the city. Other appointments included Board member of Baltimore City Model City Agency and a gubernatorial appointment as Equal Opportunity Specialist for the State of Maryland. He led demonstrations against injustice and racial segregation. He will share his recollections of this momentous period in the history of Baltimore. Call 410-581-2322 or email ask@bmorethical.org.
47] – The Goethe-Institut, 812 7th St. NW, WDC, is showing a documentary on Sun., Feb. 8 from 4:30 to 6 PM, as part of the Capital Irish Film Festival. See “Blood Fruit,” which is about Irish Labor Solidarity. In July 1984, the action taken by one young Irish shop cashier changed the face of the South African anti-apartheid movement around the world. Mary Manning, a Dunnes Stores checkout girl, refused to sell two Outspan grapefruits under direction from her union in support of the anti-apartheid struggle. She and ten supporters were suspended and a strike ensued. The film is directed by Sinead O'Brian who will be at the screening. See a preview at http://vimeo.com/99725636. Tickets can be had at http://bit.ly/solastix.
48] – On Sun., Feb. 8 at 7 PM @ Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201, a poetry/spoken word open mic hosted by Analysis and featuring Gayle Danley! The evening will continue until 9:45 PM with the mic list opening at 6:30 PM. Call 443-602-7585. Go to http://www.redemmas.org.
49] -- There is a weekly Pentagon Peace Vigil from 7 to 8 AM on Mondays, since 1987, outside the Pentagon Metro stop. The next vigil is Mon., Feb. 9, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-882-9649. The vigil will be outside the Pentagon's south Metro entrance and in the designated "protest zone" behind bicycle fences across from the entrance to the Metro. By Metro, take Yellow Line and get out at the "Pentagon" stop. Do not go to the Pentagon City stop! Go up south escalators and turn left and walk across to protest area. By car from D.C. area, take 395 South and get off at Exit 8A-Pentagon South Parking. Take slight right onto S. Rotary Rd. at end of ramp and right on S. Fern St. Then take left onto Army Navy Dr. You can "pay to park" on Army Navy Dr., and there is meter parking one block on right on Eads St. Payment for both of these spots begin at 8 AM. No cameras are allowed on Pentagon grounds. Restrooms are located inside Marriott Residence Inn on corner of S. Fern and Army Navy Dr.
50] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Friday from 10 AM to noon on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, or online at www.weaa.org. The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by email to steinershow@gmail.com. All shows are also available as podcasts at www.steinershow.org.
51] – Go to the Embassy Suites Washington D.C., Convention Center, 900 10th St. NW, WDC 20001, on Mon., Feb. 9 from 2 to 7 PM for a hearing on protecting our local coastlines from the dangers of oil and gas drilling? Attend the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management hearing and tell BOEM to protect our local Mid-Atlantic coastlines. Tell regulators you don't want a Deepwater Horizon on the East Coast! There will be a rally at 1 PM. RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/1401751623460052/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular.
52] – On Mon., Feb. 9 from 2 to 4 PM at 1100 Florida Ave. NW, WDC, come to the monthly community meeting of restaurant workers! Grab some snacks and/or a drink and learn about the campaign to raise the wages for all restaurant workers. Strategize about the ballot initiative that would raise the minimum wage for all workers. ROC-DC will provide the snacks and drink! RSVP to jeremiah@rocunited or call 240-772-1356.
53] – On Mon., Feb. 9 at 2 PM, former Rep. Jim Slattery (KS) will address "A Visit to Tehran: Outlook for U.S.-Iran Relations" at the Atlantic Council, 12th Floor, 1030 15th St. NW, WDC. Register at http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/events/upcoming-events/registration/a08i0000012FMTCAA4.
54] – As part of the Sustainable Speaker Series, Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald will address The Real Cost of Fracking; How America's shale-gas boom is threatening our families, pets and food on Mon., Feb. 9 at 6:30 PM in the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Branch, Wheeler Auditorium, 400 Cathedral St., Baltimore 21201. Bamberger, a veterinarian, and Oswald, a pharmacologist, show how hydraulic fracturing endangers the environment and harms people, pets, and livestock. They reveal the harrowing experiences of small farmers who have lost their animals and their livelihoods and of rural families whose property values have plummeted as their towns have been invaded by drillers. Bamberger is the author of two books on first aid for cats and dogs. Oswald is a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell University. They serve on the advisory board of Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers of Healthy Energy. Email bgw@baltimoregreenworks.com.
55] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets on Mondays at 7:30 PM, and the meetings take place at Max’s residence. The next meeting will be on Mon., Feb. 9. The proposed agenda will include anti-drone activities, including getting a resolution passed in Baltimore’s City Council, protesting Colin Powell, lobbying in Annapolis, a march from the EPA to the Pentagon and “From Mississippi to Ferguson.” Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net.
56] – Witness for Peace is leading a delegation Cuba: The Good Food Revolution: Strengthening Community Through Sustainable Agriculture from Feb. 13 through Feb. 23. The delegation coordinator is Kristin Stuchis, and she can be reached at 218-340-8079 or kstuchis@gmail.com.
57] – PSR-National is hiring a Climate Organizer for the D.C. office. This person will help build the “Climate Health Action Teams,” a new program through which members learn about renewable energy and energy efficiency – including their benefits to health – and take monthly actions to push their states to choose clean renewables and energy efficiency as the way to reduce carbon emissions under the Clean Power Plan.
PSR is looking for an energetic organizer with hands-on experience who can use communication tools (phone, email, Skype, webinars…) to engage and motivate members. Knowledge of climate change, health and/or energy issues is a must. Please send resume, cover letter, and writing sample to bgottlieb@psr.org with "Climate Organizer" in the subject line. The recruitment process is open until the position is filled.
58] -- The Washington Peace Center has a progressive calendar & activist alert! Consider signing up to receive its weekly email: info@washingtonpeacecenter.org.
59] -- Fund Our Communities campaign is a grass roots movement to get support from local organizations and communities to work together with their local and state elected officials to pressure Congresspersons and senators to join with Congresspersons Barney Frank and Ron Paul, who have endorsed a 25% cut to the federal military budget. Bring home the savings to state and county governments to meet the local needs which are under tremendous budget pressures. Go to www.OurFunds.org.
60] -- If you would like to get rid of books, videos, DVDs or records, contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net.
61] -- Can you use any book shelves? Contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net.
62] -- Join an extraordinary global campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons: http://www.globalzero.org/sign-declaration. A growing group of leaders around the world is calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and a majority of the global public agrees. This is an historic window of opportunity. With momentum already building in favor of Zero, a major show of support from people around the world could tip the balance. When it comes to nuclear weapons, one is one too many.
63] -- WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER signs from Friends Committee on National Legislation are again for sale at $5. To purchase a sign, call Max at 410-366-1637.
64] – A Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil takes place every day in Lafayette Park, 1601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 24 hours a day, since June 3, 1981. Go to http://prop1.org; call 202-682-4282.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.
"One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better" - Daniel Berrigan
The Key That Is the Saudi Kingdom
Friday, February 06, 2015 12:50 AM
The Key That Is the Saudi Kingdom
By David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/content/key-saudi-kingdom
Was the United States compelled to attack Afghanistan and Iraq by the events of September 11, 2001?
A key to answering that rather enormous question may lie in the secrets that the U.S. government is keeping about Saudi Arabia.
Some have long claimed that what looked like a crime on 9/11 was actually an act of war necessitating the response that has brought violence to an entire region and to this day has U.S. troops killing and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Could diplomacy and the rule of law have been used instead? Could suspects have been brought to trial? Could terrorism have been reduced rather than increased? The argument for those possibilities is strengthened by the fact that the United States has not chosen to attack Saudi Arabia, whose government is probably the region's leading beheader and leading funder of violence.
But what does Saudi Arabia have to do with 9/11? Well, every account of the hijackers has most of them as Saudi. And there are 28 pages of a 9/11 Commission report that President George W. Bush ordered classified 13 years ago.
Senate Intelligence Committee former chair Bob Graham calls Saudi Arabia "a co-conspirator in 911," and insists that the 28 pages back up that claim and should be made public.
Philip Zelikow, chair of the 9/11 Commission, has noted the "likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to Al Qaeda."
Zacarias Moussaoui, a former al Qaeda member, has claimed that prominent members of Saudi Arabia's royal family were major donors to al Qaeda in the late 1990s and that he discussed a plan to shoot down Air Force One using a Stinger missile with a staff member at the Saudi Embassy in Washington.
Al Qaeda donors, according to Moussaoui, included Prince Turki al-Faisal, then the Saudi intelligence chief; Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States; Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a prominent billionaire investor; and many of the country's leading clerics.
Bombing and invading Iraq has been a horrible policy. Supporting and arming Saudi Arabia is a horrible policy. Confirming Saudi Arabia's role in funding al Qaeda should not become an excuse to bomb Saudi Arabia (of which there's no danger) or for bigotry against Americans of Saudi origin (for which there's no justification).
Rather, confirming that the Saudi government allowed and quite possibly participated in funneling money to al Qaeda should wake everyone up to the fact that wars are optional, not necessary. It might also help us question Saudi pressure on the U.S. government to attack new places: Syria and Iran. And it might increase support for cutting off the flow of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia -- a government that takes no second place to ISIS in brutality.
I've often heard that if we could prove that there weren't really any hijackers on 9/11 all support for wars would vanish. One of many hurdles I'm unable to leap to arrive at that position is this one: Why would you invent hijackers to justify a war on Iraq but make the hijackers almost all be Saudi?
However, I think there's a variation that works. If you could prove that Saudi Arabia had more to do with 9/11 than Afghanistan (which had very little to do with it) or Iraq (which had nothing to do with it), then you could point out the U.S. government's incredible but very real restraint as it chooses peace with Saudi Arabia.
Then a fundamental point would become obvious: War is not something the U.S. government is forced into, but something it chooses.
That's the key, because if it can choose war with Iran or Syria or Russia, it can also choose peace.
--
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio.
Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
Sign up for occasional important activist alerts here http://davidswanson.org/signup
Sign up for articles or press releases here http://davidswanson.org/lists
This email may be unlawfully collected, held, and read by the NSA which violates our freedoms using the justification of immoral, illegal wars absurdly described as being somehow for freedom.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
The Key That Is the Saudi Kingdom
By David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/content/key-saudi-kingdom
Was the United States compelled to attack Afghanistan and Iraq by the events of September 11, 2001?
A key to answering that rather enormous question may lie in the secrets that the U.S. government is keeping about Saudi Arabia.
Some have long claimed that what looked like a crime on 9/11 was actually an act of war necessitating the response that has brought violence to an entire region and to this day has U.S. troops killing and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Could diplomacy and the rule of law have been used instead? Could suspects have been brought to trial? Could terrorism have been reduced rather than increased? The argument for those possibilities is strengthened by the fact that the United States has not chosen to attack Saudi Arabia, whose government is probably the region's leading beheader and leading funder of violence.
But what does Saudi Arabia have to do with 9/11? Well, every account of the hijackers has most of them as Saudi. And there are 28 pages of a 9/11 Commission report that President George W. Bush ordered classified 13 years ago.
Senate Intelligence Committee former chair Bob Graham calls Saudi Arabia "a co-conspirator in 911," and insists that the 28 pages back up that claim and should be made public.
Philip Zelikow, chair of the 9/11 Commission, has noted the "likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to Al Qaeda."
Zacarias Moussaoui, a former al Qaeda member, has claimed that prominent members of Saudi Arabia's royal family were major donors to al Qaeda in the late 1990s and that he discussed a plan to shoot down Air Force One using a Stinger missile with a staff member at the Saudi Embassy in Washington.
Al Qaeda donors, according to Moussaoui, included Prince Turki al-Faisal, then the Saudi intelligence chief; Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States; Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a prominent billionaire investor; and many of the country's leading clerics.
Bombing and invading Iraq has been a horrible policy. Supporting and arming Saudi Arabia is a horrible policy. Confirming Saudi Arabia's role in funding al Qaeda should not become an excuse to bomb Saudi Arabia (of which there's no danger) or for bigotry against Americans of Saudi origin (for which there's no justification).
Rather, confirming that the Saudi government allowed and quite possibly participated in funneling money to al Qaeda should wake everyone up to the fact that wars are optional, not necessary. It might also help us question Saudi pressure on the U.S. government to attack new places: Syria and Iran. And it might increase support for cutting off the flow of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia -- a government that takes no second place to ISIS in brutality.
I've often heard that if we could prove that there weren't really any hijackers on 9/11 all support for wars would vanish. One of many hurdles I'm unable to leap to arrive at that position is this one: Why would you invent hijackers to justify a war on Iraq but make the hijackers almost all be Saudi?
However, I think there's a variation that works. If you could prove that Saudi Arabia had more to do with 9/11 than Afghanistan (which had very little to do with it) or Iraq (which had nothing to do with it), then you could point out the U.S. government's incredible but very real restraint as it chooses peace with Saudi Arabia.
Then a fundamental point would become obvious: War is not something the U.S. government is forced into, but something it chooses.
That's the key, because if it can choose war with Iran or Syria or Russia, it can also choose peace.
--
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio.
Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
Sign up for occasional important activist alerts here http://davidswanson.org/signup
Sign up for articles or press releases here http://davidswanson.org/lists
This email may be unlawfully collected, held, and read by the NSA which violates our freedoms using the justification of immoral, illegal wars absurdly described as being somehow for freedom.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
In Latest Vindication of Snowden, Court Rules UK Mass Surveillance Illegal
commondreams.org/news/2015/02/06/latest-vindication-snowden-court-rules-uk-mass-surveillance-illegal
Friday, February 06, 2015
In Latest Vindication of Snowden, Court Rules UK Mass Surveillance Illegal
'We must not allow agencies to continue justifying mass surveillance programmes using secret interpretations of secret laws,' said Privacy International director Eric King.
Nadia Prupis, staff writer
In the latest vindication of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, a U.K. ruled on Friday that the British government violated human rights law by failing to safeguard some aspects of its intelligence-sharing operations until December 2014.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal found that the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) accessed information obtained by the National Security Agency (NSA) without sufficient oversight, violating Articles 8 and 10 of the European convention on human rights. According to Reuters, "
The tribunal's concern, addressed in the new ruling, was that until details of how GCHQ and the NSA shared data were made public in the course of the court proceedings, the legal safeguards provided by British law were being side-stepped."
The Guardian adds, "The ruling appears to suggest that aspects of the operations were illegal for at least seven years—between 2007, when the Prism intercept [program] was introduced, and 2014."
Article 8 guarantees the right to privacy; Article 10 protects free expression.
"For far too long, intelligence agencies like GCHQ and NSA have acted like they are above the law," said Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, one of the human rights groups that brought the case to the IPT. "Today’s decision confirms to the public what many have said all along—over the past decade, GCHQ and the NSA have been engaged in an illegal mass surveillance sharing program that has affected millions of people around the world."
The New York Times reports:
Although privacy campaigners claimed the decision as a victory, many experts said the British and American intelligence agencies would continue to share information obtained with electronic surveillance, even if they had to slightly alter their techniques to comply with human rights law.
Named in the decision (pdf) were the NSA's controversial PRISM program, which whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 as the invasive spying operations being conducted on U.S. citizens.
Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, who reported on Snowden's document leak, tweeted on Friday:
Why did Edward Snowden have to make us aware of all this? Would have been so much better if we remained ignorant http://t.co/CrKCvLHziV
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 6, 2015
"We must not allow agencies to continue justifying mass surveillance programmes using secret interpretations of secret laws," King continued. "The world owes Edward Snowden a great debt for blowing the whistle, and today’s decision is a vindication of his actions."
IPT's decision marks the first time that the highly-secretive court has ever ruled against any of the U.K.'s intelligence services in its entire 15-year existence.
During IPT hearings in 2014, Matthew Ryder, a lawyer for civil rights group Liberty, charged that intelligence agencies were building vast databases from unlawfully obtained emails and other communications.
However, the IPT ruled in December last year that British and American intelligence agencies had brought their oversight policies in line with European law, and could continue sharing information legally.
A GCHQ spokesperson did not address the IPT's new ruling in a statement on Friday, focusing only on the court's December decision which allowed the agency to continue its spying operations. "We are pleased that the court has once again ruled that the U.K.’s bulk interception regime is fully lawful," the spokesperson said. "By its nature, much of GCHQ’s work must remain secret. But we are working with the rest of government to improve public understanding about what we do."
The privacy and human rights groups who brought the case against GCHQ to the IPT last year have also appealed that ruling.
"After a decade and a half of siding with the Government, it is welcome that the IPT is beginning to hold our spies to account," said Cori Crider, director of legal charity Reprieve. "But stark problems with the UK's surveillance system remain: for years the government has written itself a blank cheque to eavesdrop on confidential communications between lawyers and clients – even in cases where the Government itself is in the dock. This is totally unfair and undermines the core premise of our legal system."
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France will hear the appeal by the end of the year at the earliest. It will potentially allow citizens who believe they were targeted by surveillance programs before December 2014 to petition the court for the information that has been collected about them.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
Friday, February 06, 2015
In Latest Vindication of Snowden, Court Rules UK Mass Surveillance Illegal
'We must not allow agencies to continue justifying mass surveillance programmes using secret interpretations of secret laws,' said Privacy International director Eric King.
Nadia Prupis, staff writer
In the latest vindication of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, a U.K. ruled on Friday that the British government violated human rights law by failing to safeguard some aspects of its intelligence-sharing operations until December 2014.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal found that the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) accessed information obtained by the National Security Agency (NSA) without sufficient oversight, violating Articles 8 and 10 of the European convention on human rights. According to Reuters, "
The tribunal's concern, addressed in the new ruling, was that until details of how GCHQ and the NSA shared data were made public in the course of the court proceedings, the legal safeguards provided by British law were being side-stepped."
The Guardian adds, "The ruling appears to suggest that aspects of the operations were illegal for at least seven years—between 2007, when the Prism intercept [program] was introduced, and 2014."
Article 8 guarantees the right to privacy; Article 10 protects free expression.
"For far too long, intelligence agencies like GCHQ and NSA have acted like they are above the law," said Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, one of the human rights groups that brought the case to the IPT. "Today’s decision confirms to the public what many have said all along—over the past decade, GCHQ and the NSA have been engaged in an illegal mass surveillance sharing program that has affected millions of people around the world."
The New York Times reports:
Although privacy campaigners claimed the decision as a victory, many experts said the British and American intelligence agencies would continue to share information obtained with electronic surveillance, even if they had to slightly alter their techniques to comply with human rights law.
Named in the decision (pdf) were the NSA's controversial PRISM program, which whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 as the invasive spying operations being conducted on U.S. citizens.
Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, who reported on Snowden's document leak, tweeted on Friday:
Why did Edward Snowden have to make us aware of all this? Would have been so much better if we remained ignorant http://t.co/CrKCvLHziV
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 6, 2015
"We must not allow agencies to continue justifying mass surveillance programmes using secret interpretations of secret laws," King continued. "The world owes Edward Snowden a great debt for blowing the whistle, and today’s decision is a vindication of his actions."
IPT's decision marks the first time that the highly-secretive court has ever ruled against any of the U.K.'s intelligence services in its entire 15-year existence.
During IPT hearings in 2014, Matthew Ryder, a lawyer for civil rights group Liberty, charged that intelligence agencies were building vast databases from unlawfully obtained emails and other communications.
However, the IPT ruled in December last year that British and American intelligence agencies had brought their oversight policies in line with European law, and could continue sharing information legally.
A GCHQ spokesperson did not address the IPT's new ruling in a statement on Friday, focusing only on the court's December decision which allowed the agency to continue its spying operations. "We are pleased that the court has once again ruled that the U.K.’s bulk interception regime is fully lawful," the spokesperson said. "By its nature, much of GCHQ’s work must remain secret. But we are working with the rest of government to improve public understanding about what we do."
The privacy and human rights groups who brought the case against GCHQ to the IPT last year have also appealed that ruling.
"After a decade and a half of siding with the Government, it is welcome that the IPT is beginning to hold our spies to account," said Cori Crider, director of legal charity Reprieve. "But stark problems with the UK's surveillance system remain: for years the government has written itself a blank cheque to eavesdrop on confidential communications between lawyers and clients – even in cases where the Government itself is in the dock. This is totally unfair and undermines the core premise of our legal system."
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France will hear the appeal by the end of the year at the earliest. It will potentially allow citizens who believe they were targeted by surveillance programs before December 2014 to petition the court for the information that has been collected about them.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Baltimore Activist Alert February 3 – 6, 2015
Baltimore Activist Alert February 3 – 6, 2015
"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center.
Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski [at] verizon.net.
1] Books, buttons & stickers
2] Web site for info on federal legislation
3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists
4] Buy coffee through HoCoFoLa
5] How can middle school students get involved?
6] Selfies for Daksh Sood
7] Yemen, a success? – Feb. 3
8] Annual Environmental Legislative Summit -- Feb. 3
9] No JHU Drone Research -- Feb. 3
10] Book talk THE AGE OF DIGNITY – Feb. 3
11] Film "The Man Who Saved the World" -- Feb. 3
12] What Does Arab, Desi, and Muslim solidarity look like for #BlackLivesMatter? – Feb. 3
13] Black Lives Matter – Feb. 3
14] Book “Black Labor White Wealth: The Search for Economic Justice” – Feb. 3
15] Egyptian blogger to speak – Feb. 4
16] “Energy Security in the Caribbean: Unique Challenges” – Feb. 4
17] The Role of the U.S. Churches in the BDS Movement – Feb. 4
18] See the Dalai Lama film – Feb. 4
19] Nonviolence training – Feb. 4
20] Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly Monthly Organizing Meeting – Feb. 4
21] Johann Hari presents “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs” - Feb. 4
22] Protest Colin Powell – Feb. 4
23] Stop the Exelon-Pepco merger – Feb. 5
24] Phone bank for Housing for All Rally – Feb. 5
25] From Mississippi to Ferguson – Feb. 5
26] Book talk “Letters to My Black Sons” – Feb. 5
27] Fight for Net Neutrality – Feb. 5 - 6
28] Silent peace vigil -- Feb. 6
29] See the film AMERICAN GUN -- Feb. 6
----
1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available. “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Donate your books to Max. Call him at 410-366-1637.
2] – To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/. Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.
3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed. It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq. To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to mobuszewski at Verizon dot net. Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.
THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR actions and related information and is open to any interested person to subscribe. It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing. To join the NOTICES List, send an email message to mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.
4] – You can help safeguard human rights and fragile ecosystems through your purchase of HOCOFOLA Café Quetzal. Bags of ground coffee or whole beans can be ordered by mailing in an order form. Also note organic cocoa and sugar are for sale. For more details and to download the order form, go to http://friendsoflatinamerica.typepad.com/hocofola/2010/02/hocofola-cafe-quetzal-order-form-2010.html. The coffee comes in one-pound bags.
Fill out the form and mail it with a check made out to HOCOFOLA on or before the second week of the month. Be sure you indicate ground or beans for each type of coffee ordered. Send it to Francine Sheppard at 5639B, Harpers Farm Rd., Columbia 21044. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up. Contact Francine at 410-992-7679 or FrancineMSW@aol.com.
5] – I spoke at the Crossroads Public Charter School recently. And a school representative asked how middle school students can be involved in social justice issues. If you have any ideas, let Max know at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.
6] – Selfies for Daksh Sood: Next steps for reuniting a 3-year-old child, barred from Canada, with his Ottawa parents. Canada has barred a 3-year-old child from ever living in Canada with his Ottawa parents, all due to an honest error in immigration paperwork. Over 6,000 people have signed a petition calling for Daksh Sood to be allowed into Canada to live with his parents. Sign at https://www.change.org/p/citizenship-and-immigration-minister-chris-alexander-allow-3-year-old-daksh-to-live-in-canada-with-his-parents?just_created=true.
If you have children of any age, why not take a picture of yourself with them holding the following sign: Kids Need Their Parents, Bring Daksh Sood to Canada. Post your picture on your own Facebook page with a link to this petition https://www.change.org/p/citizenship-and-immigration-minister-chris-alexander-allow-3-year-old-daksh-to-live-in-canada-with-his-parents?just_created=true.
Email your picture to Immigration Minister Chris Alexander (Minister@cic.gc.ca, Chris.Alexander@parl.gc.ca) and Prime Minister Stephen Harper (stephen.harper@parl.gc.ca), and blind copy the Rural Refugee Rights Network (tasc@web.ca). Cut and paste the text of the petition at https://www.change.org/p/citizenship-and-immigration-minister-chris-alexander-allow-3-year-old-daksh-to-live-in-canada-with-his-parents?just_created=true and add your names at the bottom, along with additional comments you feel moved to include. Be polite in your comments, as they all reflect on the family!
In Subject Line of your email, mention something about supporting Daksh Sood, your city, etc. (i.e. I'm in Toronto and support Daksh Sood, Kids Need Their Parents or Bring Daksh Sood Home to Canada, Family Reunification is Critical!) Email tasc@web.ca. Matthew Behrens, Rural Refugee Rights Network, can also be reached at 613-267-3998 or http://rrrncanada.blogspot.ca./.
7] – Get over to Georgetown University, 3700 O St. NW, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, WDC, on Tues., Feb. 3 at 12:30 PM. Last September, in announcing military operations against ISIS/ISIL, President Obama referred to Yemen as a US policy success, to the bafflement of many within and outside the country at the time. The jury was still out on our drone-dependent security/CT operations, the economy was in disarray and the political transition - a relative bright spot - was dimming. Recent events call the September judgment into even more question. What is really happening, and what does it mean for the US, the region, and the Yemenis? Go to http://guevents.georgetown.edu/event/yemen_-_if_this_is_a_policy_success_what_does_failure_look_like_with_ambasssador_barbara_bodine#.VMpfRNLF9Fs%20.
8] – The 2015 General Assembly started with many new elected officials, and a brand new administration. In this time of transition it's up to us to make sure our environmental values are heard in Annapolis. Join Maryland League of Conservation Voters and its environmental partners for the 21st Annual Environmental Legislative Summit on Tues., Feb. 3 from 4 to 6 PM at the Miller Conference Room, Miller Senate Building, 11 Bladen St., Annapolis, MD 21401. Learn about the environmental agenda for the next 4 years. Maryland has made tremendous strides and become a national leader on environmental issues. And while Maryland is not immune to the nation’s tough economic times, we have stayed the course to protect what is important to us: a legacy to pass on to future generations that ensures that all Marylanders have access to clean air, clean water, and unpolluted lands. RSVP at https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/288/personal2.asp?formid=meetedfund&c=4458971.
Work diligently for babies, bees and the Bay by introducing the Pollinator Protection Act. The growing and widespread use of toxic neonicotinoid pesticides is a major contributor to the alarming decline of honey bees. This poses a serious threat to our food supply, wildlife and to human health. The Pollinator Protection Act will label nursery plants treated with these toxic, bee-killing pesticides and will restrict their consumer use. RSVP at https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/288/personal2.asp?formid=meetedfund&c=4860735.
9] – Vigil to say "No Drone Research at JHU" each Tuesday at 33rd & North Charles Sts. Join this ongoing vigil on Feb. 3 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Call Max at 410-366-1637.
10] – Join Sarita, executive director, Jobs With Justice, and co-director, Caring Across Generations, on Tues., Feb. 3 at 6:15 PM in a celebration of the release of “The Age of Dignity,” a wonderful new book written by my good friend and Caring Across Generations co-director Ai-jen Poo. John Cavanaugh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies, will join us at Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th St. NW, WDC 20009, to discuss the changes we need in our culture and public policy for all people to age with dignity, independence and choice. Use the U Street Metro Station (Green/Yellow Lines). RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/caring-across-america-busboys-and-poets-tickets-15444869019.
11] -- See a screening and discussion of "The Man Who Saved the World," hosted by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, 1212 Van Munching Hall (Tyser Auditorium), College Park, MD on Tues., Feb. 3 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cissm-special-event-screening-and-discussion-of-the-man-who-saved-the-world-tickets-15376708148.
12] – Go to the Washington Peace Center, 1525 Newton St., WDC, on Tues., Feb. 3 at 6:30 PM to hear What Does Arab, Desi, and Muslim solidarity look like for #BlackLivesMatter? Every 28 hours, a Black person in America is murdered at the hands of the state. This form of systemic violence is deeply interconnected to structural racism, and the larger devaluation of Black lives. The recent events from Ferguson to NYC have galvanized individuals who want to move from being passive allies to active allies in solidarity with eradicating structural racism and oppression. This workshop will be facilitated by Darakshan Raja, Program Manager, Washington Peace Center and Khadija Mehter with the DC Campaign Against Police Brutality. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/416637231835095/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular&fref=nf.
13] – Beyond the Classroom at U of MD, 1102 South Campus Commons, Building 1, College Park, will host on Tues., Feb. 3 at 7 PM a talk with D.C. #BlackLivesMatter Activists. In August 1964, activist Dave Dennis gave the eulogy at the funeral of James Chaney, a black civil rights worker who was killed in Mississippi at the start of the Freedom Summer. Dennis refused to make the typical eulogy and instead gave an emotional call to get angry and organize, "I don’t grieve for James Chaney. He lived a fuller life than many of us will ever live. He’s got his freedom, and we’re still fighting for ours. I’m sick and tired of going to the funerals of black men who have been murdered by white men...I’ve got vengeance in my heart tonight, and I ask you to feel angry with me. I’m sick and tired, and I ask you to be sick and tired with me." His eulogy, sparked by tragedy, marked a turning point of the Freedom Summer, mobilizing sharecroppers, domestic workers, and ordinary black Mississippians to join the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
In August 2014, the death of Michael Brown, Jr. at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri sparked nationwide protests around police brutality as a symptom of larger racial justice issues that plague communities of color every day. D.C. has seen sustained protests since August, and #DCFerguson is the grassroots, community group that has emerged and shaped the local response around ending "Jump-Out" Squads by police, addressing economic justice, and unequivocally demanding that Black Lives Matter. #DCFerguson has marched, rallied, staged die-ins, and teach-ins. On Feb. 3, three of the young organizers will share their stories of what inspired them to take action and discuss the strategies, tactics, and goals for the movement locally and nationally. See https://www.facebook.com/events/926604874030762/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited.
14] – At the Emergence Community Arts Collective, 733 Euclid St. NW, WDC 20001 on Tues., Feb. 3 at 7 PM, the National Black United Front is holding a Sankofa Study Circle. Discuss the book “Black Labor White Wealth: The Search for Economic Justice” by Dr. Claud Anderson. Continue to build a Black Economic Base. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/418364994997646/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited.
15] – On Wed., Feb. 4 at noon at the Kay Spiritual Life Center Lounge, American University, WDC, hear from Maikel Nabil, a political activist and blogger known for promoting liberal and democratic values in Egypt, who campaigned for peaceful relations between Egypt and Israel. He received the first Freedom Award in 2011 from the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY), was chosen as the Honorary Writer of the year 2012 by the mideastyouth.com, and was considered among the best Egyptian bloggers by The Daily Beast in January 2013. RSVP at KLSC@AMERICAN.EDU, and go to www.american.edu/ocl/kay.
16] – On Wed., Feb. 4 from noon to 5 PM, as a follow-up to the Vice President’s Caribbean Energy Security Summit, the American Security Project, 1100 New York Ave. NW, 7th Floor West Tower, WDC, will host a conference -- “Energy Security in the Caribbean: Unique Challenges.” The conference will examine the problems faced by the islands--energy insecurity, affordability, and availability. Uniquely, the islands in the Caribbean have few indigenous fossil fuel resources, so virtually all of their energy needs are met by imported fuel oil, the price of which can make or break the government’s budget. See http://www.americansecurityproject.org/event/conference-energy-security-in-the-caribbean-unique-challenges/.
17] – The Palestine Center, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, WDC 20037, will host a discussion on the Role of the U.S. Churches in the BDS Movement on Wed., Feb. 4 from 1 to 2 PM. Spiritual groups have often been at the frontlines of human rights movements in the U.S. In recent years there have been dramatic positions taken by faith-based groups such as the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the United Church of Christ and the U.S. Mennonite Church, to divest from corporations that aid the Israeli occupation and contribute to human rights abuses against Palestinians. The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Divestment is hosting a panel to look at the role and significance of the churches in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the origins of this role, their landmark achievements, and challenges along the way. Panelists include Philip Farah of the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace and David Wildman of the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Ministries. RSVP at http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/EventDetails/i/50110/pid/897.
18] – The Dalai Lama will be in Washington for the premiere of “Dalai Lama Awakening,” a documentary narrated by Harrison Ford, at the Angelika Pop-Up Cinema, Union Market, at 6:30 PM on Wed., Feb. 4. Go to www.DalaiLamaFilm.com. The evening will include a Q&A with director Khashyar Darvich.
19] – The Washington Peace Center, 1525 Newton St. NW, WDC, on Wed., Feb. 4 at 7 PM, is continuing its Nonviolent Direct Action training. Roll up your sleeves and delve deeper into some of the staples for nonviolent action: campaigning and strategy. Rosa Lozano and Noor Mir will go through some staples for nonviolent strategizing: brainstorming, power analyses, goal-setting and envisioning, and some of those long-term planning tools that any movement-builder should have a firm grasp on. You'll leave with a better sense of how to push your campaign forward, establish clear goals, messaging and methods of communication, and manage group dynamics across various identities and backgrounds. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/808338375904740/.
20] – The Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly Monthly Organizing Meeting is happening on Wed., Feb. 4 from 7 to 8:30 PM at 2011 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21218. Call 443-221-3775.
21] –Johann Hari presents Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs on Wed., Feb. 4 at 7:30 PM @ Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the prohibition of drugs, Hari set off on an epic three-year, 30,000-mile journey into the drug war to uncover its secrets – and he found that there is a startling gap between what we have been told and what is really going on. The book tells the story of this war through the stories of people Hari met or learned about on his long journey - from Baltimore girl Billie Holiday, who he reveals was stalked and killed by the founder of the war on drugs; to a transsexual crack dealer in Brooklyn; to a Baltimore cop who saw what the drug war is really all about; to the only country to ever legalize all drugs, from cannabis to crack, with remarkable results. Call 443-602-7585. Go to http://www.redemmas.org.
22] – Retired Gen. Colin Powell will be speaking on Wed., Feb. 4 at 8 PM at Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium, 1021 Dulaney Valley Rd., Towson 21286, as part of the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Visiting Professorship Series. The son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell was born in Harlem in 1937 and was raised in the South Bronx. He later became the 65th secretary of state and the first African American to hold the position. His talk, entitled “Diplomacy: Persuasion, Trust, and Values” is an insult to all of us who protested the Iraq War. So the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore will protest outside from 7:15 to 8 PM. RSVP to Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at Verizon dot net. If you choose to go inside to protest, there is a $10 general admission. On February 5, 2003, Powell made a presentation at the United Nations claiming Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction as a prelude to the invasion. The hypocrite actually opposed the war.
23] -- Stop the Exelon-Pepco merger by taking action on Thurs., Feb. 5 at 10:30 AM against the country's largest nuclear power utility, Exelon, 750 Pratt St, Baltimore. As the Maryland Public Service Commission enters its last week of accepting public comments, join Public Citizen, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, PowerDC and people from across Maryland, D.C. and Delaware at a rally to show the widespread public opposition to this merger.
RSVP at http://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12674. A takeover by Exelon of Pepco would be a disaster for ratepayers and for the growth of renewable energy in our region. It would saddle us with the burden of Exelon's uneconomic, dangerous reactors and radioactive waste for generations. We can't let it happen. Go to www.nirs.org.
24] – On Thurs., Feb. 5 at 5:30 PM, do phone banking with CNHED at WeWork Wonder Bread Factory, 641 S St. NW, WDC, to invite supporters to the upcoming Housing for All Rally. The rally is the big opportunity to show city officials (including Mayor Bowser) the power the people represent. Visit http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5483/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=72978%20.
25] – "From Mississippi to Ferguson, Lessons Learned, the Road Ahead" is happening on Thurs., Feb. 5 at 7 PM at Pleasant Hope Baptist Church, 430 E. Belvedere Ave., Baltimore 21212. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and refreshments will be available. Tie in lessons from SNCC tactics of the 1960s to today's upsurge against police violence and injustice. The speakers, Larry Rubin and Courtney Mercado, have been/are deeply involved in today's struggles and their history. The Charm City Labor Chorus will enhance our program through song. RSVP to Cindy at 443-275-1095.
26] – Karsonya Whitehead will read from her book Letters to My Black Sons”on Thurs., Feb. 5 at 7:30 PM @ Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201. “Dear boys: I found out today that I was going to be a mommy. It took some time for me to believe this because there is nothing that I have done in my life that has prepared me for this moment. I am not sure if I can be the mommy that you deserve to have. How can I mother you when I have not been able to mother myself? How can I give you the tools to survive this brutal world when I have not been able to craft these tools to save myself? How can I stand up for you when my whole life has been spent trying so hard to stand up for myself? I am not perfect. I am flawed. And now, I am pregnant.” And so begins Karsonya Wise Whitehead’s poignant and heart-wrenching letters to her sons. For fourteen years, she has been charting every step of their development, from the womb through their toddler years and now as teenage boys. She has used their lives as a lens through which to examine and deconstruct the world. From her fears about 9-11 to her conversations with them about the protests in Ferguson, every moment allows the reader to have unique insight into what it means to be a black mother raising black boys in a race-conscious, post-racial America. Call 443-602-7585. Go to http://www.redemmas.org.
27] – From Thurs., Feb. 5 at 8 PM through Fri., Feb. 6 at 1 AM, learn about the fight for net neutrality at Marx Café, 3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW, WDC. You can help ensure an open Internet for all. Grab some dinner or drinks and listen to DJ Diaspora, playing her all-vinyl mix of broken beat, deep house, electronic and African and Latin beats. See https://soundcloud.com/dia-spora/goddamn. Donations to Popular Resistance are appreciated, but all are welcome. Check out www.Popularresistance.org for more on net neutrality. See https://www.facebook.com/events/1481039328853701/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited.
28] – There is usually a silent peace vigil on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings, outside the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. The Feb. 6 vigil will remind us that War Is Not the Answer and that there is the need to stop torture, and prosecute the torturers. Following the vigil, there will be a potluck dinner and a DVD screening.
29] – The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee of Homewood and Stony Run Meetings and Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility are continuing the FILM & SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS DVD SERIES. After dinner at 3107 N. Charles St., around 7:15 PM, a DVD will be shown with a discussion to follow. There is no charge, and refreshments will be available. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at Verizon.net.
The series theme is CAN WE SAVE THE PLANET??? See AMERICAN GUN [USA, 2005]. The film centers around three stories dealing with the results of gun use. One story is about an inner city school principal, Forest Whitaker, in Chicago, who threatens one of his most promising students with expulsion after catching him with a handgun. In Oregon, a single mother, Marcia Gay Harden, tries to protect her son, after a Columbine-like massacre. Finally, an A student at the University of Virginia, Linda Cardellini, who works at her family's gun shop gets a gun after his best friend’s near rape at a fraternity house. Also starring are Donald Sutherland, Amanda Seyfried and Tony Goldwyn. The screenplay was written by Steven Bagatourian and Aric Avelino, and directed by Avelino in his debut. The film was influenced by stories about how students brought guns to school, not necessarily to use them, but as protection because of the dangerous neighborhoods they live in or have to walk through.
To be continued.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center.
Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski [at] verizon.net.
1] Books, buttons & stickers
2] Web site for info on federal legislation
3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists
4] Buy coffee through HoCoFoLa
5] How can middle school students get involved?
6] Selfies for Daksh Sood
7] Yemen, a success? – Feb. 3
8] Annual Environmental Legislative Summit -- Feb. 3
9] No JHU Drone Research -- Feb. 3
10] Book talk THE AGE OF DIGNITY – Feb. 3
11] Film "The Man Who Saved the World" -- Feb. 3
12] What Does Arab, Desi, and Muslim solidarity look like for #BlackLivesMatter? – Feb. 3
13] Black Lives Matter – Feb. 3
14] Book “Black Labor White Wealth: The Search for Economic Justice” – Feb. 3
15] Egyptian blogger to speak – Feb. 4
16] “Energy Security in the Caribbean: Unique Challenges” – Feb. 4
17] The Role of the U.S. Churches in the BDS Movement – Feb. 4
18] See the Dalai Lama film – Feb. 4
19] Nonviolence training – Feb. 4
20] Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly Monthly Organizing Meeting – Feb. 4
21] Johann Hari presents “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs” - Feb. 4
22] Protest Colin Powell – Feb. 4
23] Stop the Exelon-Pepco merger – Feb. 5
24] Phone bank for Housing for All Rally – Feb. 5
25] From Mississippi to Ferguson – Feb. 5
26] Book talk “Letters to My Black Sons” – Feb. 5
27] Fight for Net Neutrality – Feb. 5 - 6
28] Silent peace vigil -- Feb. 6
29] See the film AMERICAN GUN -- Feb. 6
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1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available. “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Donate your books to Max. Call him at 410-366-1637.
2] – To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/. Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.
3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed. It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq. To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to mobuszewski at Verizon dot net. Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.
THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR actions and related information and is open to any interested person to subscribe. It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing. To join the NOTICES List, send an email message to mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.
4] – You can help safeguard human rights and fragile ecosystems through your purchase of HOCOFOLA Café Quetzal. Bags of ground coffee or whole beans can be ordered by mailing in an order form. Also note organic cocoa and sugar are for sale. For more details and to download the order form, go to http://friendsoflatinamerica.typepad.com/hocofola/2010/02/hocofola-cafe-quetzal-order-form-2010.html. The coffee comes in one-pound bags.
Fill out the form and mail it with a check made out to HOCOFOLA on or before the second week of the month. Be sure you indicate ground or beans for each type of coffee ordered. Send it to Francine Sheppard at 5639B, Harpers Farm Rd., Columbia 21044. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up. Contact Francine at 410-992-7679 or FrancineMSW@aol.com.
5] – I spoke at the Crossroads Public Charter School recently. And a school representative asked how middle school students can be involved in social justice issues. If you have any ideas, let Max know at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.
6] – Selfies for Daksh Sood: Next steps for reuniting a 3-year-old child, barred from Canada, with his Ottawa parents. Canada has barred a 3-year-old child from ever living in Canada with his Ottawa parents, all due to an honest error in immigration paperwork. Over 6,000 people have signed a petition calling for Daksh Sood to be allowed into Canada to live with his parents. Sign at https://www.change.org/p/citizenship-and-immigration-minister-chris-alexander-allow-3-year-old-daksh-to-live-in-canada-with-his-parents?just_created=true.
If you have children of any age, why not take a picture of yourself with them holding the following sign: Kids Need Their Parents, Bring Daksh Sood to Canada. Post your picture on your own Facebook page with a link to this petition https://www.change.org/p/citizenship-and-immigration-minister-chris-alexander-allow-3-year-old-daksh-to-live-in-canada-with-his-parents?just_created=true.
Email your picture to Immigration Minister Chris Alexander (Minister@cic.gc.ca, Chris.Alexander@parl.gc.ca) and Prime Minister Stephen Harper (stephen.harper@parl.gc.ca), and blind copy the Rural Refugee Rights Network (tasc@web.ca). Cut and paste the text of the petition at https://www.change.org/p/citizenship-and-immigration-minister-chris-alexander-allow-3-year-old-daksh-to-live-in-canada-with-his-parents?just_created=true and add your names at the bottom, along with additional comments you feel moved to include. Be polite in your comments, as they all reflect on the family!
In Subject Line of your email, mention something about supporting Daksh Sood, your city, etc. (i.e. I'm in Toronto and support Daksh Sood, Kids Need Their Parents or Bring Daksh Sood Home to Canada, Family Reunification is Critical!) Email tasc@web.ca. Matthew Behrens, Rural Refugee Rights Network, can also be reached at 613-267-3998 or http://rrrncanada.blogspot.ca./.
7] – Get over to Georgetown University, 3700 O St. NW, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, WDC, on Tues., Feb. 3 at 12:30 PM. Last September, in announcing military operations against ISIS/ISIL, President Obama referred to Yemen as a US policy success, to the bafflement of many within and outside the country at the time. The jury was still out on our drone-dependent security/CT operations, the economy was in disarray and the political transition - a relative bright spot - was dimming. Recent events call the September judgment into even more question. What is really happening, and what does it mean for the US, the region, and the Yemenis? Go to http://guevents.georgetown.edu/event/yemen_-_if_this_is_a_policy_success_what_does_failure_look_like_with_ambasssador_barbara_bodine#.VMpfRNLF9Fs%20.
8] – The 2015 General Assembly started with many new elected officials, and a brand new administration. In this time of transition it's up to us to make sure our environmental values are heard in Annapolis. Join Maryland League of Conservation Voters and its environmental partners for the 21st Annual Environmental Legislative Summit on Tues., Feb. 3 from 4 to 6 PM at the Miller Conference Room, Miller Senate Building, 11 Bladen St., Annapolis, MD 21401. Learn about the environmental agenda for the next 4 years. Maryland has made tremendous strides and become a national leader on environmental issues. And while Maryland is not immune to the nation’s tough economic times, we have stayed the course to protect what is important to us: a legacy to pass on to future generations that ensures that all Marylanders have access to clean air, clean water, and unpolluted lands. RSVP at https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/288/personal2.asp?formid=meetedfund&c=4458971.
Work diligently for babies, bees and the Bay by introducing the Pollinator Protection Act. The growing and widespread use of toxic neonicotinoid pesticides is a major contributor to the alarming decline of honey bees. This poses a serious threat to our food supply, wildlife and to human health. The Pollinator Protection Act will label nursery plants treated with these toxic, bee-killing pesticides and will restrict their consumer use. RSVP at https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/288/personal2.asp?formid=meetedfund&c=4860735.
9] – Vigil to say "No Drone Research at JHU" each Tuesday at 33rd & North Charles Sts. Join this ongoing vigil on Feb. 3 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Call Max at 410-366-1637.
10] – Join Sarita, executive director, Jobs With Justice, and co-director, Caring Across Generations, on Tues., Feb. 3 at 6:15 PM in a celebration of the release of “The Age of Dignity,” a wonderful new book written by my good friend and Caring Across Generations co-director Ai-jen Poo. John Cavanaugh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies, will join us at Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th St. NW, WDC 20009, to discuss the changes we need in our culture and public policy for all people to age with dignity, independence and choice. Use the U Street Metro Station (Green/Yellow Lines). RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/caring-across-america-busboys-and-poets-tickets-15444869019.
11] -- See a screening and discussion of "The Man Who Saved the World," hosted by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, 1212 Van Munching Hall (Tyser Auditorium), College Park, MD on Tues., Feb. 3 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cissm-special-event-screening-and-discussion-of-the-man-who-saved-the-world-tickets-15376708148.
12] – Go to the Washington Peace Center, 1525 Newton St., WDC, on Tues., Feb. 3 at 6:30 PM to hear What Does Arab, Desi, and Muslim solidarity look like for #BlackLivesMatter? Every 28 hours, a Black person in America is murdered at the hands of the state. This form of systemic violence is deeply interconnected to structural racism, and the larger devaluation of Black lives. The recent events from Ferguson to NYC have galvanized individuals who want to move from being passive allies to active allies in solidarity with eradicating structural racism and oppression. This workshop will be facilitated by Darakshan Raja, Program Manager, Washington Peace Center and Khadija Mehter with the DC Campaign Against Police Brutality. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/416637231835095/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular&fref=nf.
13] – Beyond the Classroom at U of MD, 1102 South Campus Commons, Building 1, College Park, will host on Tues., Feb. 3 at 7 PM a talk with D.C. #BlackLivesMatter Activists. In August 1964, activist Dave Dennis gave the eulogy at the funeral of James Chaney, a black civil rights worker who was killed in Mississippi at the start of the Freedom Summer. Dennis refused to make the typical eulogy and instead gave an emotional call to get angry and organize, "I don’t grieve for James Chaney. He lived a fuller life than many of us will ever live. He’s got his freedom, and we’re still fighting for ours. I’m sick and tired of going to the funerals of black men who have been murdered by white men...I’ve got vengeance in my heart tonight, and I ask you to feel angry with me. I’m sick and tired, and I ask you to be sick and tired with me." His eulogy, sparked by tragedy, marked a turning point of the Freedom Summer, mobilizing sharecroppers, domestic workers, and ordinary black Mississippians to join the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
In August 2014, the death of Michael Brown, Jr. at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri sparked nationwide protests around police brutality as a symptom of larger racial justice issues that plague communities of color every day. D.C. has seen sustained protests since August, and #DCFerguson is the grassroots, community group that has emerged and shaped the local response around ending "Jump-Out" Squads by police, addressing economic justice, and unequivocally demanding that Black Lives Matter. #DCFerguson has marched, rallied, staged die-ins, and teach-ins. On Feb. 3, three of the young organizers will share their stories of what inspired them to take action and discuss the strategies, tactics, and goals for the movement locally and nationally. See https://www.facebook.com/events/926604874030762/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited.
14] – At the Emergence Community Arts Collective, 733 Euclid St. NW, WDC 20001 on Tues., Feb. 3 at 7 PM, the National Black United Front is holding a Sankofa Study Circle. Discuss the book “Black Labor White Wealth: The Search for Economic Justice” by Dr. Claud Anderson. Continue to build a Black Economic Base. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/418364994997646/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited.
15] – On Wed., Feb. 4 at noon at the Kay Spiritual Life Center Lounge, American University, WDC, hear from Maikel Nabil, a political activist and blogger known for promoting liberal and democratic values in Egypt, who campaigned for peaceful relations between Egypt and Israel. He received the first Freedom Award in 2011 from the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY), was chosen as the Honorary Writer of the year 2012 by the mideastyouth.com, and was considered among the best Egyptian bloggers by The Daily Beast in January 2013. RSVP at KLSC@AMERICAN.EDU, and go to www.american.edu/ocl/kay.
16] – On Wed., Feb. 4 from noon to 5 PM, as a follow-up to the Vice President’s Caribbean Energy Security Summit, the American Security Project, 1100 New York Ave. NW, 7th Floor West Tower, WDC, will host a conference -- “Energy Security in the Caribbean: Unique Challenges.” The conference will examine the problems faced by the islands--energy insecurity, affordability, and availability. Uniquely, the islands in the Caribbean have few indigenous fossil fuel resources, so virtually all of their energy needs are met by imported fuel oil, the price of which can make or break the government’s budget. See http://www.americansecurityproject.org/event/conference-energy-security-in-the-caribbean-unique-challenges/.
17] – The Palestine Center, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, WDC 20037, will host a discussion on the Role of the U.S. Churches in the BDS Movement on Wed., Feb. 4 from 1 to 2 PM. Spiritual groups have often been at the frontlines of human rights movements in the U.S. In recent years there have been dramatic positions taken by faith-based groups such as the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the United Church of Christ and the U.S. Mennonite Church, to divest from corporations that aid the Israeli occupation and contribute to human rights abuses against Palestinians. The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Divestment is hosting a panel to look at the role and significance of the churches in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the origins of this role, their landmark achievements, and challenges along the way. Panelists include Philip Farah of the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace and David Wildman of the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Ministries. RSVP at http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/EventDetails/i/50110/pid/897.
18] – The Dalai Lama will be in Washington for the premiere of “Dalai Lama Awakening,” a documentary narrated by Harrison Ford, at the Angelika Pop-Up Cinema, Union Market, at 6:30 PM on Wed., Feb. 4. Go to www.DalaiLamaFilm.com. The evening will include a Q&A with director Khashyar Darvich.
19] – The Washington Peace Center, 1525 Newton St. NW, WDC, on Wed., Feb. 4 at 7 PM, is continuing its Nonviolent Direct Action training. Roll up your sleeves and delve deeper into some of the staples for nonviolent action: campaigning and strategy. Rosa Lozano and Noor Mir will go through some staples for nonviolent strategizing: brainstorming, power analyses, goal-setting and envisioning, and some of those long-term planning tools that any movement-builder should have a firm grasp on. You'll leave with a better sense of how to push your campaign forward, establish clear goals, messaging and methods of communication, and manage group dynamics across various identities and backgrounds. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/808338375904740/.
20] – The Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly Monthly Organizing Meeting is happening on Wed., Feb. 4 from 7 to 8:30 PM at 2011 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21218. Call 443-221-3775.
21] –Johann Hari presents Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs on Wed., Feb. 4 at 7:30 PM @ Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the prohibition of drugs, Hari set off on an epic three-year, 30,000-mile journey into the drug war to uncover its secrets – and he found that there is a startling gap between what we have been told and what is really going on. The book tells the story of this war through the stories of people Hari met or learned about on his long journey - from Baltimore girl Billie Holiday, who he reveals was stalked and killed by the founder of the war on drugs; to a transsexual crack dealer in Brooklyn; to a Baltimore cop who saw what the drug war is really all about; to the only country to ever legalize all drugs, from cannabis to crack, with remarkable results. Call 443-602-7585. Go to http://www.redemmas.org.
22] – Retired Gen. Colin Powell will be speaking on Wed., Feb. 4 at 8 PM at Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium, 1021 Dulaney Valley Rd., Towson 21286, as part of the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Visiting Professorship Series. The son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell was born in Harlem in 1937 and was raised in the South Bronx. He later became the 65th secretary of state and the first African American to hold the position. His talk, entitled “Diplomacy: Persuasion, Trust, and Values” is an insult to all of us who protested the Iraq War. So the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore will protest outside from 7:15 to 8 PM. RSVP to Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at Verizon dot net. If you choose to go inside to protest, there is a $10 general admission. On February 5, 2003, Powell made a presentation at the United Nations claiming Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction as a prelude to the invasion. The hypocrite actually opposed the war.
23] -- Stop the Exelon-Pepco merger by taking action on Thurs., Feb. 5 at 10:30 AM against the country's largest nuclear power utility, Exelon, 750 Pratt St, Baltimore. As the Maryland Public Service Commission enters its last week of accepting public comments, join Public Citizen, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, PowerDC and people from across Maryland, D.C. and Delaware at a rally to show the widespread public opposition to this merger.
RSVP at http://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12674. A takeover by Exelon of Pepco would be a disaster for ratepayers and for the growth of renewable energy in our region. It would saddle us with the burden of Exelon's uneconomic, dangerous reactors and radioactive waste for generations. We can't let it happen. Go to www.nirs.org.
24] – On Thurs., Feb. 5 at 5:30 PM, do phone banking with CNHED at WeWork Wonder Bread Factory, 641 S St. NW, WDC, to invite supporters to the upcoming Housing for All Rally. The rally is the big opportunity to show city officials (including Mayor Bowser) the power the people represent. Visit http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5483/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=72978%20.
25] – "From Mississippi to Ferguson, Lessons Learned, the Road Ahead" is happening on Thurs., Feb. 5 at 7 PM at Pleasant Hope Baptist Church, 430 E. Belvedere Ave., Baltimore 21212. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and refreshments will be available. Tie in lessons from SNCC tactics of the 1960s to today's upsurge against police violence and injustice. The speakers, Larry Rubin and Courtney Mercado, have been/are deeply involved in today's struggles and their history. The Charm City Labor Chorus will enhance our program through song. RSVP to Cindy at 443-275-1095.
26] – Karsonya Whitehead will read from her book Letters to My Black Sons”on Thurs., Feb. 5 at 7:30 PM @ Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201. “Dear boys: I found out today that I was going to be a mommy. It took some time for me to believe this because there is nothing that I have done in my life that has prepared me for this moment. I am not sure if I can be the mommy that you deserve to have. How can I mother you when I have not been able to mother myself? How can I give you the tools to survive this brutal world when I have not been able to craft these tools to save myself? How can I stand up for you when my whole life has been spent trying so hard to stand up for myself? I am not perfect. I am flawed. And now, I am pregnant.” And so begins Karsonya Wise Whitehead’s poignant and heart-wrenching letters to her sons. For fourteen years, she has been charting every step of their development, from the womb through their toddler years and now as teenage boys. She has used their lives as a lens through which to examine and deconstruct the world. From her fears about 9-11 to her conversations with them about the protests in Ferguson, every moment allows the reader to have unique insight into what it means to be a black mother raising black boys in a race-conscious, post-racial America. Call 443-602-7585. Go to http://www.redemmas.org.
27] – From Thurs., Feb. 5 at 8 PM through Fri., Feb. 6 at 1 AM, learn about the fight for net neutrality at Marx Café, 3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW, WDC. You can help ensure an open Internet for all. Grab some dinner or drinks and listen to DJ Diaspora, playing her all-vinyl mix of broken beat, deep house, electronic and African and Latin beats. See https://soundcloud.com/dia-spora/goddamn. Donations to Popular Resistance are appreciated, but all are welcome. Check out www.Popularresistance.org for more on net neutrality. See https://www.facebook.com/events/1481039328853701/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited.
28] – There is usually a silent peace vigil on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings, outside the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. The Feb. 6 vigil will remind us that War Is Not the Answer and that there is the need to stop torture, and prosecute the torturers. Following the vigil, there will be a potluck dinner and a DVD screening.
29] – The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee of Homewood and Stony Run Meetings and Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility are continuing the FILM & SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS DVD SERIES. After dinner at 3107 N. Charles St., around 7:15 PM, a DVD will be shown with a discussion to follow. There is no charge, and refreshments will be available. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at Verizon.net.
The series theme is CAN WE SAVE THE PLANET??? See AMERICAN GUN [USA, 2005]. The film centers around three stories dealing with the results of gun use. One story is about an inner city school principal, Forest Whitaker, in Chicago, who threatens one of his most promising students with expulsion after catching him with a handgun. In Oregon, a single mother, Marcia Gay Harden, tries to protect her son, after a Columbine-like massacre. Finally, an A student at the University of Virginia, Linda Cardellini, who works at her family's gun shop gets a gun after his best friend’s near rape at a fraternity house. Also starring are Donald Sutherland, Amanda Seyfried and Tony Goldwyn. The screenplay was written by Steven Bagatourian and Aric Avelino, and directed by Avelino in his debut. The film was influenced by stories about how students brought guns to school, not necessarily to use them, but as protection because of the dangerous neighborhoods they live in or have to walk through.
To be continued.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
American Sniper Proves Obama's Politics Beat Cheney's
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/28338-american-sniper-proves-obamas-politics-beat-cheneys
Bradley Cooper plays 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle. (photo: Warner Bros.)
American Sniper Proves Obama's Politics Beat Cheney's
By Frank Rich, New York Magazine
30 January 15
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich talks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week: the American Sniper debate and the Koch brothers' bankrolling of the Republican Party.
lint Eastwood's American Sniper just completed its second weekend as the No. 1 movie in the country, and, with the attendant controversy drawing in the likes of Michael Moore, Newt Gingrich, John McCain (not to mention Howard Dean, Seth Rogen, and even Noam Chomsky), it looks to be one of the rare war movies that is both a commercial success and a political flashpoint. Why has American Sniper created such a storm when so many other Iraq and Afghanistan war movies have not?
The tumult surrounding American Sniper is in many ways more interesting than the film itself. Its record-shattering box-office performance — not only crushing all previous Iraq War films but also all of its Oscar competitors — is a testament to brilliant under-the-radar marketing by Warner Bros., a vacuum of mainstream entertainment for red-state cineplex audiences not exactly pining to see Birdman or The Grand Budapest Hotel, the steady ascent of Bradley Cooper, and the passing of time since the height of the Iraq War, from which America officially withdrew more than three years ago. Plus, Chris Kyle’s story is powerful, whatever one’s moral judgment about his wartime role as a sharpshooter, even if it is somewhat clunkily and repetitively told by Eastwood. Would that this movie were as taut as Million Dollar Baby and as moving as Flags of Our Fathers, the World War II film that is in some ways Sniper’s thematic companion piece in the Eastwood canon.
Of course, the political debate is boosting the box office further; people want to see what all of the shouting is about. But that controversy says more about knee-jerk ideology than it does about what’s actually in the film. Sniper is not the unalloyed glorification of wartime carnage some on the left claim it to be, nor the flat-out endorsement of “good old traditional American values” claimed by Rush Limbaugh. And much of the debate is just flat-out ridiculous. Both Chomsky and McCain have opined at length about American Sniper even as they both freely conceded they hadn’t bothered to see it.
I’m second to no one in my outrage about the Iraq War, but I would hardly call this film an endorsement of that war; it’s an endorsement of the Americans who volunteered to fight it. If anything, Sniper is the very opposite of a recruiting poster for further American military adventures in the Middle East. The Iraqis are xenophobically and all but uniformly presented as duplicitous, indistinguishable “savages” (in Kyle’s lingo) unworthy of American sacrifice. The war is presented as a quagmire with nothing that can be called “victory” in the offing. The soldiers who fought the war, Kyle included, are seen as returning home in various forms of mutilation, physical and psychological, to an inadequate support system. That’s why it’s no surprise that Jane Fonda has praised Sniper: In some ways it does resemble her Vietnam film Coming Home.
And in this sense the film is where the country is politically, at least as far as present and future military engagement goes — far closer to Barack Obama than Dick Cheney. Eastwood’s performance with a chair may have done nothing for Mitt Romney, but American Sniper is more of a boost for the anti-interventionist foreign policy of Rand Paul than the unreconstructed neo-con hawkishness of most of Paul’s erstwhile Republican opponents, Romney included.
Meanwhile, if liberals want to find a movie celebrating a real-life war hero that’s really worth getting angry about, I nominate The Imitation Game. As Christian Caryl writes in a definitive takedown in the New York Review of Books, the filmmakers’ fictionalization of the genius British code-breaker Alan Turing “managed to transform the real Turing, vivacious and forceful, into just the sort of mythological gay man, whiney and weak, that homophobes love to hate.” It’s rather incredible that a gay-rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign, is lending its imprimatur to this movie for its Oscar campaign.
At their annual winter retreat, the Koch brothers revealed that they plan to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, which essentially gives them the resources of a third major political party. (The Times notes that in the 2012 cycle the Republican National Committee and its congressional committees spent $657 million combined; the Kochs spent just under $400 million.) Now that the Kochs may be more powerful than the Republican Party, what can we expect from the candidates?
Those who take the Kochs’ money are going to have to dance to their tune — as they would to that of any big donor. And the crazy truth is that the GOP base is so far right that the Kochs may actually make the party “more moderate,” as Daniel Schulman of Mother Jones argued last year. Keep in mind that “moderate” is a relative term. The Kochs believe that what’s good for Koch Industries is good for the USA. So they want to eliminate any tax they can, gut government regulations (especially environmental regulations that impinge on their gas and petrochemical businesses), crush unions, “privatize” Social Security and most other government social programs, and fund climate-change denial.
But they are also libertarians more or less. David Koch is a self-described “social liberal” who has endorsed gay marriage, marijuana legalization, and presumably favors abortion rights. He was cool to the Iraq War and is in favor of cutting defense spending. Such stands put him at odds with at least two of the GOP presidential hopefuls (Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio) who turned up at the Kochs’ Rancho Mirage retreat last weekend seeking their favor and cash.
Earlier this week, Politico published a detailed look at the internal plans for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. They note that almost all of the top positions have been filled, except for communications director. If you were interviewing candidates for the position, what would you be looking for?
This is a tall order. Left to her own devices, Hillary Clinton is something of a gaffe machine, particularly when it comes to her defensive efforts to portray herself as an economic populist and deflect talk about her buckraking on the speaking circuit. Her book-tour claim that she left the White House “dead broke” proved not to be a one-off. “Don’t let anybody tell you it’s corporations and business that create jobs,” she said nonsensically when appearing at a forum with Elizabeth Warren in October. This is déjà 2008 all over again. It doesn’t help, either, that she hates the press, with the apparent exception of Rupert Murdoch, whom she continues to court, according to a Times report this week.
The lead of the Politico article is buried in its very last paragraph, where it’s noted that the “next critical task” for the Clinton campaign is “developing her message.” Indeed! What Hillary Clinton actually stands for beyond party boilerplate — and, more pointedly, what she would actually want to do as president — is the question that remains unanswered. Until it is, it doesn’t matter who is put in charge of communicating it.
© 2015 Reader Supported News
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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
Bradley Cooper plays 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle. (photo: Warner Bros.)
American Sniper Proves Obama's Politics Beat Cheney's
By Frank Rich, New York Magazine
30 January 15
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich talks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week: the American Sniper debate and the Koch brothers' bankrolling of the Republican Party.
lint Eastwood's American Sniper just completed its second weekend as the No. 1 movie in the country, and, with the attendant controversy drawing in the likes of Michael Moore, Newt Gingrich, John McCain (not to mention Howard Dean, Seth Rogen, and even Noam Chomsky), it looks to be one of the rare war movies that is both a commercial success and a political flashpoint. Why has American Sniper created such a storm when so many other Iraq and Afghanistan war movies have not?
The tumult surrounding American Sniper is in many ways more interesting than the film itself. Its record-shattering box-office performance — not only crushing all previous Iraq War films but also all of its Oscar competitors — is a testament to brilliant under-the-radar marketing by Warner Bros., a vacuum of mainstream entertainment for red-state cineplex audiences not exactly pining to see Birdman or The Grand Budapest Hotel, the steady ascent of Bradley Cooper, and the passing of time since the height of the Iraq War, from which America officially withdrew more than three years ago. Plus, Chris Kyle’s story is powerful, whatever one’s moral judgment about his wartime role as a sharpshooter, even if it is somewhat clunkily and repetitively told by Eastwood. Would that this movie were as taut as Million Dollar Baby and as moving as Flags of Our Fathers, the World War II film that is in some ways Sniper’s thematic companion piece in the Eastwood canon.
Of course, the political debate is boosting the box office further; people want to see what all of the shouting is about. But that controversy says more about knee-jerk ideology than it does about what’s actually in the film. Sniper is not the unalloyed glorification of wartime carnage some on the left claim it to be, nor the flat-out endorsement of “good old traditional American values” claimed by Rush Limbaugh. And much of the debate is just flat-out ridiculous. Both Chomsky and McCain have opined at length about American Sniper even as they both freely conceded they hadn’t bothered to see it.
I’m second to no one in my outrage about the Iraq War, but I would hardly call this film an endorsement of that war; it’s an endorsement of the Americans who volunteered to fight it. If anything, Sniper is the very opposite of a recruiting poster for further American military adventures in the Middle East. The Iraqis are xenophobically and all but uniformly presented as duplicitous, indistinguishable “savages” (in Kyle’s lingo) unworthy of American sacrifice. The war is presented as a quagmire with nothing that can be called “victory” in the offing. The soldiers who fought the war, Kyle included, are seen as returning home in various forms of mutilation, physical and psychological, to an inadequate support system. That’s why it’s no surprise that Jane Fonda has praised Sniper: In some ways it does resemble her Vietnam film Coming Home.
And in this sense the film is where the country is politically, at least as far as present and future military engagement goes — far closer to Barack Obama than Dick Cheney. Eastwood’s performance with a chair may have done nothing for Mitt Romney, but American Sniper is more of a boost for the anti-interventionist foreign policy of Rand Paul than the unreconstructed neo-con hawkishness of most of Paul’s erstwhile Republican opponents, Romney included.
Meanwhile, if liberals want to find a movie celebrating a real-life war hero that’s really worth getting angry about, I nominate The Imitation Game. As Christian Caryl writes in a definitive takedown in the New York Review of Books, the filmmakers’ fictionalization of the genius British code-breaker Alan Turing “managed to transform the real Turing, vivacious and forceful, into just the sort of mythological gay man, whiney and weak, that homophobes love to hate.” It’s rather incredible that a gay-rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign, is lending its imprimatur to this movie for its Oscar campaign.
At their annual winter retreat, the Koch brothers revealed that they plan to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, which essentially gives them the resources of a third major political party. (The Times notes that in the 2012 cycle the Republican National Committee and its congressional committees spent $657 million combined; the Kochs spent just under $400 million.) Now that the Kochs may be more powerful than the Republican Party, what can we expect from the candidates?
Those who take the Kochs’ money are going to have to dance to their tune — as they would to that of any big donor. And the crazy truth is that the GOP base is so far right that the Kochs may actually make the party “more moderate,” as Daniel Schulman of Mother Jones argued last year. Keep in mind that “moderate” is a relative term. The Kochs believe that what’s good for Koch Industries is good for the USA. So they want to eliminate any tax they can, gut government regulations (especially environmental regulations that impinge on their gas and petrochemical businesses), crush unions, “privatize” Social Security and most other government social programs, and fund climate-change denial.
But they are also libertarians more or less. David Koch is a self-described “social liberal” who has endorsed gay marriage, marijuana legalization, and presumably favors abortion rights. He was cool to the Iraq War and is in favor of cutting defense spending. Such stands put him at odds with at least two of the GOP presidential hopefuls (Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio) who turned up at the Kochs’ Rancho Mirage retreat last weekend seeking their favor and cash.
Earlier this week, Politico published a detailed look at the internal plans for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. They note that almost all of the top positions have been filled, except for communications director. If you were interviewing candidates for the position, what would you be looking for?
This is a tall order. Left to her own devices, Hillary Clinton is something of a gaffe machine, particularly when it comes to her defensive efforts to portray herself as an economic populist and deflect talk about her buckraking on the speaking circuit. Her book-tour claim that she left the White House “dead broke” proved not to be a one-off. “Don’t let anybody tell you it’s corporations and business that create jobs,” she said nonsensically when appearing at a forum with Elizabeth Warren in October. This is déjà 2008 all over again. It doesn’t help, either, that she hates the press, with the apparent exception of Rupert Murdoch, whom she continues to court, according to a Times report this week.
The lead of the Politico article is buried in its very last paragraph, where it’s noted that the “next critical task” for the Clinton campaign is “developing her message.” Indeed! What Hillary Clinton actually stands for beyond party boilerplate — and, more pointedly, what she would actually want to do as president — is the question that remains unanswered. Until it is, it doesn’t matter who is put in charge of communicating it.
© 2015 Reader Supported News
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.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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