PeaceJournal.org

January 22, 2008

Valley peacemaker gets GCC award

by Diana Broncaccio Gazette Contributing Writer
http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storytmp.cfm?id_no=77302

GREENFIELD - A local woman who devoted 16 years to Traprock Peace Center and a group of eighth-graders who wrote their own music about the civil rights movement were award-winners at this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. observance ceremony at Greenfield Community College. (more…)

Traveling Light
by Kathy Kelly
December 6, 2007

Traveling with as light a load as possible is something I long for during long stretches away from home. I routinely discard paperwork and periodicals, “recycle” gifts and give away clothing. But, here in Amman, Jordan, when a ten year-old Iraqi girl named Nauras gave me a camera, I quickly put it in the envelope where I keep my money, confident it would survive my next purge. (more…)

 Camilo Mejia, Chair of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War, gave his personal reflections on confronting the US empire at the Midwest Socialist Conference. The Midwest Socialist Conference was hosted at the University of Illinois of Chicago from November 3-4, 2007. It was one of the regional socialist conferences taking place that weekend across the country. 

For more information, see:

Socialist Worker

Iraq Veterans Against the War

Video © 2007 Charles Jenks; all rights reserved

Charles Peterson, student from the University of Massachusetts, gave this workshop on “Afghanistan, Islamophobia and the War on Terror” at the Campus Antiwar Network’s 5th Anniversary Summit at the University of Wisconsin/Madison from October 19-21. (23:42 minutes)

Delegates and guests from more than 20 schools across the country converged at the University of Wisconsin-Madison October 19-21 for the Fifth Anniversary Summit of the Campus Antiwar Network. Opening remarks from New Left Review editor Tariq Ali kicked off the weekend. Educational and organizational workshops and discussions on Saturday culminated with the evening plenary featuring Camilo Mejía, chairman-elect of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War.  On Sunday, resolutions and points of unity were debated and decided in the voting portion of the summit.

For more information on the Summit and the Campus Antiwar Network, see www.campusantiwar.net

More video is coming: the evening key note speech by Camilo Mejia, chair elect of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War, with Liam Madden, president of the Boston chapter of IVAW. See www.ivaw.org for more information.

Video © 2007 Charles Jenks; all rights reserved. Contact: charles@peacejournal.org. This video may be embedded in other websites for non-profit use, with attribution. Please let me know if you use it.

Iraq Veterans Against the War members Kelly Dougherty, Garett Reppenhagen, Camilo Mejía, Chanan Suárez Diaz and Martin Smith spoke on IVAW’s strategy to end the war against Iraq at the Socialism 2007 conference in Chicago on June 16.These talks started off a 2-part, 3 hour Roundtable - Iraq: the Soldiers’ Rebellion - by IVAW veterans. All recounted their personal stories of their military experience and how they became part of the veterans’ antiwar movement. Kelly Dougherty, Executive Director of IVAW and a co-founder, gave a slide presentation on IVAW’s strategy to end the war, based on IVAW’s “Consent Theory of Power.” This video clearly shows IVAW’s theory and practice for ending this tragic war by weakening support by the military, as well as other pillars of support, such as the public, Congress and the media.We’ve started with 5 videos of the main speakers, with videos of two commentators, Helen Redmond and Ashley Smith (International Socialist Organization).All websites are invited to embed these videos on their sites. We’d appreciate it if sites would simply let us know that they are embedding the videos. If any sites have difficulty embedding the code, we’d be happy to help you trouble shoot problems. Contact: charles@peacejournal.org

Kelly Dougherty (20:42 minutes)

 Garett Reppenhagen (11:42 minutes) 

 Camilo Mejia (17:53 minutes)

 Chanan Suárez Diaz (17:37) 

Martin Smith (13:17 minutes)

Helen Redmond on the trauma of war (3:40)

Ashley SMith on how to end the war against Iraq (4:53) Learn more about the Socialism 2007 conference and see conference coverage with coverage of the Confronting Empire plenary session.The conference was sponsored by:International Socialist ReviewHaymarket BooksSocialist WorkerObrero SocialistaInternational Socialist OrganizationCenter for Economic Research and Social ChangeVideo recorded and edited by Charles JenksVideo © 2007 Charles Jenks; all rights reserved

David Cline - Friend of Peace, RIP

Cindy Sheehan

“We are not the first group to call for impeachment. We have decided to add our voice to the call. All the reasons given for the invasion have shown themselves to be half-truths or misleading. The conflict continues to drag on taking the lives of our soldiers and innocent Iraqis. It is clear that George Bush does not intend to change course in an effort to right this great wrong. He has had enough time in his second term to begin a shift and he has not. It is time to remove him from office.” David Cline, then President of the VFP, March ‘05 (more…)

Open Letter to Progressive Opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

from the Columbia Coalition Against the War

As Columbia only very recently announced, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be speaking in Roone Arledge auditorium this Monday.

A number of students and student organizations have already announced plans for a protest rally the same day. We are not among them. We do not endorse Ahmadinejad or his views, many of which are inexcusable.

However, as opponents of a US military strike against Iran, we have serious concerns with the content of some of the hostility that has been expressed to his presence, and specifically with the planned protest. (more…)

From Socialist Worker

ALAN MAASS reports on the successful struggle to save Kenneth Foster.

IN AN inspiring victory for the anti-death penalty struggle, Kenneth Foster Jr. won clemency August 30, hours before he was scheduled to be executed in Texas’ death chamber.

For more than 10 years, politicians, prosecutors and judges at every level failed Kenneth. They all agreed that he should be put to death, even though everyone acknowledges he never killed anyone.

The only reason Kenneth is alive today is because he and his supporters refused to stop fighting. They exposed the injustices surrounding his case and forced the political and media establishment to pay attention. As Kenneth’s lawyer Keith Hampton put it, “Extra-legal means work.” (more…)

RANGEL SHUTS THE DOOR ON KENNETH FOSTER

by Ben Davis

August 28, 2008

Barring a miracle – and miracles are in short order on Texas’ death row – Kenneth Foster is likely to die Thursday. The battle around his case has been a heroic one. Kenneth’s horrifying story of being condemned to death on a misapplication of an already draconian legal monstrosity – Texas’ “Law of Parties,” which enshrines guilt by association – as well as his own clear-eyed and articulate work telling his story and speaking out for others, have won him a host of supporters.

Foremost, of course, there is his family, including his heartbreakingly articulate daughter Nydesha – who has never touched her father, and now may never do so. There is the Coalition to Save Kenneth Foster, a group of activists who have rallied to his defense. There is also the New York hip-hop collective the Welfare Poets, and Kenneth’s wife, the Dutch hip-hop artist Jav’lin, who dedicated the moving song Walk With Me on the Poets’ Cruel and Unusual Punishment CD to her husband’s struggle to live. Mumia Abu-Jamal, from his own death row confinement, wrote in solidarity, while Amnesty International called the case “a new low for Texas” – and that is low indeed. (more…)

We Shouldn’t Be Causing This
by Kathy Kelly
Amman, Jordan
August 22, 2007

Here in Amman, Jordan, a British teenager, Sonia, age 12, recently spent four days interviewing and befriending Iraqi youngsters close to her in age. She wanted to learn, firsthand, about the experiences of Iraqi youngsters who have fled war and violence in their home country.

A versatile and talented child, Sonia loves to play the trumpet and perform classical Indian dances, the latter being somewhat unusual for a Muslim girl. When she was eight years old, shortly before the U.S. and the U.K. attacked Iraq, she wrote a poem urging respect for the rights of Iraqi children whose lives and hopes would be destroyed by war. The poem reached many people, intensifying efforts of peace activists to stop the war before it started. Sonia continued her efforts on behalf of Iraqi children, even founding an organization called “Children Against War.” (www.j-n-v.org/Action/Appeal_Children_Against_War_delegation_July_2007.htm - 36k)

In the spring of 2007, she asked her mother if she could raise money through music and dance performances, to pay for a trip to Amman, so that she could film Iraqi children speaking for themselves. After talking it over with other peace activists, her mother agreed to accompany Sonia, and so, last week, they arrived here for a four day trip. (more…)

GET TO WORK!
By Kathy Kelly
Amman, Jordan
August 12, 2007

“GET A JOB!” These three words are very familiar to activists bearing signs calling for an end to war, whether standing on street corners, walking along highways, holding vigils, or nonviolently occupying the offices of elected representatives. Listen to the activists, and you’ll often hear, “We’re doing our job. We’re trying.”

I’m convinced that our work must always have one foot placed in nonviolent resistance to the forces that design and wage wars, with the other foot standing among people who bear the physical and mental affliction caused by these forces. Today, I’m thinking especially about two young women who found themselves in nightmare circumstances because, in their view, they simply wanted to have a job. (more…)

She Stands At Every Door
By Kathy Kelly
Amman, Jordan
August 6, 2007

At a small, informal school in the basement of a church in Amman, many strings of colorful paper cranes bedeck walls and windows. The school serves children whose families have fled Iraq. Older children who come to the school understand the significance of the crane birds. Claudia Lefko, of Northampton, MA, who helped initiate the school, told them Sadako’s story. The Japanese child survived the bombing of Hiroshima, but suffered from radiation sickness. In a Japanese hospital, she wanted to fold 1,000 origami crane birds, believing that by doing so she could be granted a special wish: hers was that no other child would ever suffer as she did. Sadako died before completing the task she’d set for herself, but Japanese children then folded many thousands more cranes, and the story has been told for decades in innumerable places, making the delicate paper cranes a symbol for peace throughout the world. (more…)

The Slide
Cindy Sheehan

Day 11 of our Journey for Humanity and Accountability
found our caravan group at the Charlottesville, VA
home of David Swanson who is director of
AfterDowningStreet.org. I got to know David after my
group Gold Star Families for Peace became one of the
first organizations to sign on to ADS when the memos
were exposed on May 1, 2005. That collaboration led to
what I thought was going to be the downfall of BushCo:
the fact that on July 23, 2001, there was a secret
meeting at 10 Downing Street that pretty much said
that the invasion of Iraq was a foregone conclusion
and the intelligence was going to have to be “fixed”
around the policy of pre-emptive invasion. (more…)

Torture is a War Crime
Journey for Humanity and Accountability
Day 5
Cindy Sheehan

Today our Journey took us to Ft. Benning, Ga, where
the cancer of the School of Americas (WINSEC) is
housed. I have written on torture before and I believe
that BushCo’s policy of imprisoning people without
their basic due process and torturing them is one of
the grossest breeches of international and American
law and one of the overriding reasons that they should
be impeached.

The School of Torture has graduated many egregious
violators of human rights like Panamanian drug lord,
U.S. CIA employee, and Bush family friend (until he
became an enemy), Manuel Noriega. If there is one
issue that should unite Americans it should be against
torture. Incredibly, we still have neighbors in our
communities who believe that torture is correct,
humane and valuable. However to say torture is “wrong”
is like saying the sky is blue. Torture is inherently
wrong. Torture is pure evil. Torture is an
abomination. Torture is disordered and demented.
Torture is sick, sick, sick! (more…)

Summer of Love ‘07
On a Journey for Humanity
Cindy Sheehan

The other day I came out of my short retirement due to
yet another Bush flagrant abuse of power. We decided
that we would walk from Atlanta to DC to gather a
people’s movement for humanity. The longer BushCo are
in office the less chance we have of recovering the
heart and soul of our nation, saving our soldiers and
the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, and saving the
planet from corporate and individual waste and
pollution. Impeachment, removal from office, and in a
perfect world: incarceration for the criminals against
humanity, are urgent and necessary steps that need to
be taken today. (more…)

[July 3, 2007 note by Cindy: Since I sent out the last piece, the Rev’s hearing has been postponed for a month…so our walk will be starting on July 10th from Camp Casey…details TBA.]

Call Out the Instigator
Cindy Sheehan

Call out the Instigator
Because there’s something in the air
We got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution’s here
You know it’s right!
Thunderclap Newman

I’m not backing off. I tried to remove myself from the
political realm of the US, what BushCo is turning into
an Evil Empire, but the blatant audacity of George
commuting Scooter’s sentence (he’s not ruling out a
full pardon —and you know he will) has dragged me
kicking and screaming back in. I can’t sit back and
let this BushCo drag our country further down into the
murky quagmire of Fascism and violence, taking the
rest of the world with them! (more…)

CONGRESS CAN STILL FOLLOW THE LIBBY OIL TRAIL

By Nick Mottern, Director, ConsumersforPeace.org

The first famous obstruction of justice in which Scooter Libby was involved came at the end of the Clinton presidency when Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, the notorious international criminal who has made billions from illegal oil trading.

One can argue that Clinton pardoned Rich expecting some financial benefit, but it is quite likely that the pardon also protected Rich associates, probably including oil people. The pardon stopped Federal investigation and prosecution of Rich and so very likely benefited powerful people inside and outside the U.S. (more…)

How to Destroy an African-American City in Thirty Three Steps – Lessons from Katrina

By Bill Quigley. Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach Bill at Quigley@loyno.edu

Step One. Delay. If there is one word that sums up the way to destroy an African-American city after a disaster, that word is DELAY. If you are in doubt about any of the following steps – just remember to delay and you will probably be doing the right thing.

Step Two. When a disaster is coming, do not arrange a public evacuation. Rely only on individual resources. People with cars and money for hotels will leave. The elderly, the disabled and the poor will not be able to leave. Most of those without cars – 25% of households of New Orleans, overwhelmingly African-Americans – will not be able to leave. Most of the working poor, overwhelmingly African-American, will not be able to leave. Many will then permanently accuse the victims who were left behind of creating their own human disaster because of their own poor planning. It is critical to start by having people blame the victims for their own problems. (more…)

Turn, Turn, Turn
Cindy Sheehan

To everything there is a season.
A time for war, a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes, Hebrew Scriptures

I wish I could say I thought of something profound as
I saw the president and his wife’s picture on that
billboard on Hwy 317 in my rear view mirror on my way
out of Crawford today. I will be back for the final
weekend farewell to Camp Casey on July 6th, but I
won’t be back as the owner of property there, or as a
leader of the American peace movement. (more…)

Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan: We need you now more than ever

from the Campus Antiwar Network

We remember first hearing about you standing up to Bush in Crawford, Texas with admiration and hope. Just months before he had been re-elected, not because the majority of people supported the war, but because John Kerry offered us nothing for which to vote. He provided no alternative to the neocon strategy of more war and barbarism.

Instead, you did. (more…)