Peace Action… the nation's largest
grassroots peace network with chapters
and affiliates in 30 states. We organize
our grassroots network to place pressure
on Congress /Administration through
write-in campaigns, internet actions,
citizen lobbying and direct action.
Through a close relationship with
progressive members of Congress,
we play a key role in devising strategies
to move forward peace legislation, and,
as a leading member of United for Peace
and Justice and the Win Without War
coalition, we lend our expertise and large
network to achieving common goals.
Real change comes from the bottom up.
We are committed to educating and
organizing at the grassroots level.
Together, we have
the power to be
the change we wish
to see in the world.
grassroots peace network with chapters
and affiliates in 30 states. We organize
our grassroots network to place pressure
on Congress /Administration through
write-in campaigns, internet actions,
citizen lobbying and direct action.
Through a close relationship with
progressive members of Congress,
we play a key role in devising strategies
to move forward peace legislation, and,
as a leading member of United for Peace
and Justice and the Win Without War
coalition, we lend our expertise and large
network to achieving common goals.
Real change comes from the bottom up.
We are committed to educating and
organizing at the grassroots level.
Together, we have
the power to be
the change we wish
to see in the world.
U.S. Military Deaths (Afghanistan) 796 U.S. Military Wounded (Afghanistan) 2046 U.S. Military Deaths (Iraq) 4338 U.S. Military Wounded (Iraq) 31493 Excess Iraqi deaths 655000 ENTER www.costofwar.com |
| PEACE ACTION YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO AFFILIATE people@paytown.org |
| Together, we have the power to change the world. Support Peace and Social Justice. |
| for a sane world |
Those who cast the votes decide
nothing. Those who count the votes
decide everything.” —Josef Stalin
”Fascism should rightly be called
corporatism as it is a merger of state
and corporate power,”
—Benito Mussolini
”Behind the ostensible government sits
enthroned an invisible government
owing no allegiance and
acknowledging no responsibility to
the people. To destroy this invisible
government, to befoul the unholy
alliance between corrupt business
and corrupt politics is the first task
of the statesmanship of the day.” —
Theodore Roosevelt ,1906
Only because our elections have
become so dependent on television
and its emphatic emptiness, could a
man of such sublime and complacent
ignorance assume the highest office in
the land. --(I lost the author of this one
that I found on the ‘net. I think it was
Mark Crispin Miller.)
Former Senator William Fullbright
succinctly expressed
the type of leadership
we need: “The age of warrior kings
and of warrior presidents has passed
The nuclear age calls for a different
kind of leadership, a leadership
of intellect, judgment,
tolerance and rationality,
a leadership committed
to human values, to world peace,
and to the improvement
of the human condition.
The attributes upon which we must
draw are the human attributes
of compassion and common sense,
of intellect and creative imagination,
and of empathy and understanding
between cultures.” —Mark Crispin
Miller(author of Bush Dyslexicon)
”I am a firm believer in the people.
If given the truth, they can be
depended upon to meet any
national crisis. The great point is to
bring them the real facts.” -
Abraham Lincoln
| It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.” - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1908 |
| "Loyalty to country, always. Loyalty to the government, when it deserves it." Mark Twain |
| REP. Robert F. Hagan (D) District 60 77 S. High St 11th Floor Columbus, OH 43215-6111 (614) 466-9435 |
| Governor Ted Strickland Riffe Center, 30th Floor 77 South High Street Columbus, OH 43215-6108 (614) 466-3555 Fax: (614) 466-9354 |
| Speak Out!! Congressman Tim Ryan 222 Cannon Office Building Wash, DC 20515 Toll Free: 1-800-856-4152 Office: 202-225-5261 Fax: 202-225-3719 |
| Click on image below to hear Neil Young's song 'Living with War.' |
| Sen. George Voinovich (R- OH) 202-224-3353 FAX 202-228-1382 http://voinovich.senate.gov Sen. Sherrod Brown (D- OH) 202-224-2315 FAX 202-228-6321 http://brown.senate.gov |
| IF YOU WANT IT.. JOHN LENNON |
| To thine own self be true and it shall follow as the night to the day that thou canst not be false to any man __Shakespeare |
| TELL CONGRESS TO END THE WAR! Program this number into your cell phone. Call your Senators and Representative one time a week until this war is ended! CAPITAL OPERATOR 1-800-828-0498 |
| HOW THESE FIGURES WERE DETERMINED Current military” includes Dept. of Defense ($653 billion), the military portion from other departments ($150 billion), and an additional $162 billion to supplement the Budget’s misleading and vast underestimate of only $38 billion for the “war on terror.” “Past military” represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt.* These figures are from an analysis of detailed tables in the “Analytical Perspectives” book of the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2009. The figures are federal funds, which do not include trust funds — such as Social Security — that are raised and spent separately from income taxes. What you pay (or don’t pay) by April 15, 2008, goes to the federal funds portion of the budget. The government practice of combining trust and federal funds began during the Vietnam War, thus making the human needs portion of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller |
ENTER
| Soldier's Heart OUR MISSION: Soldier’s Heart is a veterans’ return and healing project addressing the emotional and spiritual needs of veterans, their families and communities. Soldier’s Heart promotes and guides community-based efforts to heal the effects of war based on strategies presented in “War and the Soul”. Soldier’s Heart 500 Federal St., Suite 303 Troy, NY 12180 518.274.0501 |
| The key to healing, says psychotherapist Ed Tick, is in how we understand PTSD. In war’s overwhelming violence the true self flees and can become lost for life. War and the Soul will change the way we think about war, for veterans and for all those who love and want to help... how to make the wounded soul whole again. When this work is achieved, PTSD vanishes and the veteran can truly return home. |
| Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. |
| War Is Sin by Chris Hedges The crisis faced by combat veterans returning from war is not simply a profound struggle with trauma and alienation. It is often, for those who can slice through the suffering to self-awareness, an existential crisis. War exposes the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves. It rips open the hypocrisy of our religions and secular institutions. Those who return from war have learned something which is often incomprehensible to those who have stayed home. We are not a virtuous nation. God and fate have not blessed us above others. Victory is not assured. War is neither glorious nor noble. And we carry within us the capacity for evil we ascribe to those we fight. Those who return to speak this truth, such as members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, are our contemporary prophets. But like all prophets they are condemned and ignored for their courage. They struggle, in a culture awash in lies, to tell what few have the fortitude to digest. They know that what we are taught in school, in worship, by the press, through the entertainment industry and at home, that the melding of the state's rhetoric with the rhetoric of religion, is empty and false. The words these prophets speak are painful. We, as a nation, prefer to listen to those who speak from the patriotic script. We prefer to hear ourselves exalted. If veterans speak of terrible wounds visible and invisible, of lies told to make them kill, of evil committed in our name, we fill our ears with wax. Not our boys, we say, not them, bred in our homes, endowed with goodness and decency. For if it is easy for them to murder, what about us? And so it is simpler and more comfortable not to hear. We do not listen to the angry words that cascade forth from their lips, wishing only that they would calm down, be reasonable, get some help, and go away. We, the deformed, brand our prophets as madmen. We cast them into the desert. And this is why so many veterans are estranged and enraged. This is why so many succumb to suicide or addictions. War comes wrapped in patriotic slogans, calls for sacrifice, honor and heroism and promises of glory. It comes wrapped in the claims of divine providence. It is what a grateful nation asks of its children. It is what is right and just. It is waged to make the nation and the world a better place, to cleanse evil. War is touted as the ultimate test of manhood, where the young can find out what they are made of. War, from a distance, seems noble. It gives us comrades and power and a chance to play a small bit in the great drama of history. It promises to give us an identity as a warrior, a patriot, as long as we go along with the myth, the one the war-makers need to wage wars and the defense contractors need to increase their profits. But up close war is a soulless void. War is about barbarity, perversion and pain, an unchecked orgy of death. Human decency and tenderness are crushed. Those who make war work overtime to reduce love to smut, and all human beings become objects, pawns to use or kill. The noise, the stench, the fear, the scenes of eviscerated bodies and bloated corpses, the cries of the wounded, all combine to spin those in combat into another universe. In this moral void, naively blessed by secular and religious institutions at home, the hypocrisy of our social conventions, our strict adherence to moral precepts, come unglued. War, for all its horror, has the power to strip away the trivial and the banal, the empty chatter and foolish obsessions that fill our days. It lets us see, although the cost is tremendous. The Rev. William P. Mahedy, who was a Catholic chaplain in Vietnam, tells of a soldier, a former altar boy, in his book "Out of the Night: The Spiritual Journey of Vietnam Vets," who says to him: "Hey, Chaplain ... how come it's a sin to hop into bed with a mama-san but it's okay to blow away gooks out in the bush?" "Consider the question that he& I were forced to confront on that day in a jungle clearing," Mahedy writes. "How is it that a Christian can, with a clear conscience, spend a year in a war zone killing people and yet place his soul in jeopardy by spending a few minutes with a prostitute? If the New Testament prohibitions of sexual misconduct are to be stringently interpreted, why, then, are Jesus' injunctions against violence not binding in the same way? In other words, what does the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill' really mean?" Military chaplains, a majority of whom are evangelical Christians, defend the life of the unborn, tout America as a Christian nation and eagerly bless the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as holy crusades. The hollowness of their morality, the staggering disconnect between the values they claim to promote, is ripped open in war. There is a difference between killing someone who is trying to kill you and taking the life of someone who does not have the power to harm you. The first is killing. The second is murder. But in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the enemy is elusive and rarely seen, murder occurs far more often than killing. Families are massacred in airstrikes. Children are gunned down in blistering suppressing fire laid down in neighborhoods after an improvised explosive device goes off near a convoy. Artillery shells obliterate homes. And no one stops to look. The dead and maimed are left behind. The utter failure of nearly all our religious institutions-whose texts are unequivocal about murder-to address the essence of war has rendered them useless. These institutions have little or nothing to say in wartime because the god they worship is a false god, one that promises victory to those who obey the law and believe in the manifest destiny of the nation. We all have the capacity to commit evil. It takes little to unleash it. For those of us who have been to war this is the awful knowledge that is hardest to digest, the knowledge that the line between the victims and the victimizers is razor-thin, that human beings find a perverse delight in destruction and death, and that few can resist the pull. At best, most of us become silent accomplices. Wars may have to be fought to ensure survival, but they are always tragic. They always bring to the surface the worst elements of any society, those who have a penchant for violence and a lust for absolute power. They turn the moral order upside down. It was the criminal class that first organized the defense of Sarajevo. When these goons were not manning roadblocks to hold off the besieging Bosnian Serb army they were looting, raping and killing the Serb residents in the city. And those politicians who speak of war as an instrument of power, those who wage war but do not know its reality, those powerful statesmen-the Henry Kissingers, Robert McNamaras, Donald Rumsfelds, the Dick Cheneys-those who treat war as part of the great game of nations, are as amoral as the religious stooges who assist them. And when the wars are over what they have to say to us in their thick memoirs about war is also hollow, vacant and useless. The young soldiers and Marines do not plan or organize the war. They do not seek to justify it or explain its causes. They are taught to believe. The symbols of the nation and religion are interwoven. The will of God becomes the will of the nation. This trust is forever shattered for many in war. Soldiers in combat see the myth used to send them to war implode. They see that war is not clean or neat or noble, but venal and frightening. They see into war's essence, which is death. War is always about betrayal. It is about betrayal of the young by the old, of cynics by idealists, and of soldiers and Marines by politicians. Society's institutions, including our religious institutions, which mold us into compliant citizens, are unmasked. This betrayal is so deep that many never find their way back to faith in the nation or in any god. They nurse a self-destructive anger and resentment, understandable and justified, but also crippling. Ask a combat veteran struggling to piece his or her life together about God and watch the raw vitriol and pain pour out. They have seen into the corrupt heart of America, into the emptiness of its most sacred institutions, into our staggering hypocrisy, and those of us who refuse to heed their words become complicit in the evil they denounce. © 2009 TruthDig.com |
| Social Justice and Peace Studies Websites Resource List Sorted Alphabetically Whenever possible the descriptions of the following resources have been taken directly from their source. This list is by no means exhaustive. Suggestions for additions can be sent to people@paytown.org Adbusters: Adbusters offers incisive philosophical articles as well as activist commentary from around the world addressing issues ranging from genetically modified foods to media concentration. In addition, our annual social marketing campaigns like Buy Nothing Day and TV Turnoff Week have made us an important activist networking group. Ultimately, though, Adbusters is an ecological magazine, dedicated to examining the relationship between human beings and their physical and mental environment. We want a world in which the economy and ecology resonate in balance. We try to coax people from spectator to participant in this quest. We want folks to get mad about corporate disinformation, injustices in the global economy, and any industry that pollutes our physical or mental commons.www.adbusters.org Alternatives: Alternatives meets the needs and responds to the demands of progressive Canadians, and tries to create a more equitable and sustainable country for all. Through innovative and comprehensive programming, we will continue building our base, so that the alternatives we propose, truly mirror the expectations of all Canadians. www.alternatives.ca Alternet: AlterNet's online magazine provides a mix of news, opinion and investigative journalism on subjects ranging from the environment, the drug war, technology and cultural trends to policy debate, sexual politics and health issues. The AlterNet article database includes more than 7,000 stories from over 200 sources. A nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and alternative journalism. www.alternet.org Amnesty International: Amnesty promotes awareness of the full range of human rights. It takes direct action to free prisoners of conscience, ensure fair trials for political prisoners, abolish the death penalty and torture, and end political killings and "disappearances." Amnesty's 1.4 million supporters include 55,000 across Canada. Amnesty Canada is known for its youth program and online human rights activism. www.amnesty.ca www.usc.uwo.ca/clubs/amnesty Antiwar.com: From a lone protest against the NATO-crats' brutal war against Serbia, to a website dedicated to fighting interventionism on every front -- building an international movement against the would-be overlords of a "New World Order." www.antiwar.com Ashoka Canada: This global non-profit organization invests in social entrepreneurs - people with the creativity to envision better ways to address persistent social problems ... and the skill and determination to make it happen. Ashoka has helped more than 1,100 social entrepreneurs in 42 countries by providing needs-based financing, connections to an international network of peers, and an array of non-financial services. In 2002, Ashoka is looking to invest in its first Canadian Fellows. www.ashoka.org Campaign for Labor Rights: mobilizes grassroots support throughout the United States to promote economic and social justice by campaigning to end labor rights violations around the world. CLR educates about, and advocates against, the underlying causes of the global sweatshop. Its campaign strategies are designed in collaboration with workers struggling to gain the right to organize, the right to earn a living wage in a clean, safe work environment, and the right to bargain collectively with their bosses. CLR's goal is to empower workers. http://campaignforlaborrights.org/ Catalyst Centre: This non-profit worker co-op promotes innovative learning, popular education, research and community development to advance positive social change. Their Website features an online bookstore with hard-to-find texts in popular education. www.catalystcentre.ca Catholic New Times: This publication is available in the King's Library. Catholic New Times is Canada’s award-winning faith and social justice journal. Our examination of Canadian and world issues is rooted in the spirit of Vatican II and the radical liberating message of the Gospel. We value our independence as it allows us to offer a unique perspective in the Canadian and world church. www.catholicnewtimes.org Catholic Social Teaching Documents: This web site hosts a number of very detailed documents from the last 100 years that have to do with catholic social teachings. www.osjspm.org/cst/index.html Catholic Worker Movement: The Catholic Worker Movement, founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933, is grounded in a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person. Catholic Worker communities are committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and forsaken. Catholic Workers continue to protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms. www.catholicworker.org Center for Social Concerns: Rooted in the Gospel and Catholic social tradition, the Center for Social Concerns of the University of Notre Dame creates formative educational and service experiences in collaboration with diverse partners, calling us all to action for a more just and humane world. http://centerforsocialconcerns.nd.edu/ Centre for Social Justice: We are committed to working for change in partnership with various social movements and recognize that effective change requires the active participation of all sectors of our community. There is an on-going interest in working strategically to narrow the gap between rich and poor, challenging the corporate domination of Canadian politics, and pressing for policy changes that promote economic and social justice. www.socialjustice.org Center of Concern: Since 1971, the Center of Concern has offered moral vision and provided effective leadership in the struggle to end hunger, poverty, environmental decline, and injustice in the United States and around the world. Our goal is to provide individuals and organizations with basic tools to address universal injustices. We provide reliable information and analysis on development issues, practical alternatives to current development policies and practices, suggestions for personal action, and faith reflections on this work for justice. www.coc.org Christian Peacemaker Teams: (CPT) organized, nonviolent alternative to war and other forms of lethal inter-group conflict. provides organizational support to persons committed to faith-based nonviolent alternatives in situations where lethal conflict is an immediate reality or is supported by public policy. CPT seeks to enlist the response of the whole church in conscientious objection to war, and the development of nonviolent institutions, skills and training for intervention in conflict situations. www.cpt.org Common Dreams: Common Dreams is a national non-profit citizens' organization working to bring progressive Americans together to promote progressive visions for America's future. Founded in 1997, we are committed to being on the cutting-edge of using the internet as a political organizing tool - and creating new models for internet activism. www.commondreams.org Corporate Watch: supports grass-root and direct activism against large corporations, particularly multinationals. Our approach is to investigate, corporate structures and the system that supports them more broadly, rather than solely criticizing the individual companies for bad behavior. We are committed to ending the ecological and social destruction wrought by the corporate profit motive. www.corpwatch.org Democracy Now! a national, listener-sponsored public radio and TV show online, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the country. A national news show committed to bringing the voices of the marginalized to the airwaves on issues ranging from the global to the local. It brings to life the ideas and voices of some of the best minds of this generation (and previous ones), including activists, muckrakers, visionaries, artists, risk-takers, academics and "just folks" who share a commitment to truth, democracy, justice, diversity, equality and peace. www.democracynow.org Development and Peace: the official international development agency of the Canadian Catholic Church. It is a membership-based organization founded in 1967 by Canada's bishops, laity and clergy to fight poverty in developing countries and to promote greater international justice. Inspired by Gospel values, particularly "the preferential option for the poor," the goals of Development and Peace are to support initiatives by Third World people to take control of their lives and to educate Canadians about North-South issues. www.devp.org Just Youth Development and Peace at: http://youth.devp.org/ Enough Anti-consumerism Campaign: To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, states should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption. Enough takes a critical look at consumption, poverty and the planet. www.enough.org.uk Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR): Advocating for greater diversity in the press and scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. As an anti-censorship organization, we expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. www.fair.org Feminist Majority Foundation: The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), which was founded in 1987, is a cutting edge organization dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health, and non-violence. In all spheres, FMF utilizes research and action to empower women economically, socially, and politically. Our organization believes that feminists - both women and men, girls and boys - are the majority, but this majority must be empowered. www.feminist.org Food Not Bombs News: believes that society and government should value human life over material wealth. Many of the problems in the world stem from this simple crisis in values. By giving away food to people in need in public places, we directly dramatize the level of hunger in this country and the surplus of food being wasted. We also call attention to the failures of this society to support those within it while funding the forces of war and violence, including the police. We are committed to the use of non-violent direct action to change society. It is by working today to create sustainable institutions that prefigure the kind of society we want to live in, and that build a vital and caring movement for progressive social change. www.fnbnews.org Free the Children: an international network of children helping children at a local, national and international level through representation, leadership and action. It was founded by Craig Kielburger in 1995, when he was 12 years old. The primary goal of the organization is not only to free children from poverty and exploitation, but to also free children and young people from the idea that they are powerless to bring about positive social change and to improve the lives of their peers. www.freethechildren.com Friends of the Earth International: a federation of autonomous environmental organizations from all over the world. Our members, in 66 countries, campaign on the most urgent environmental and social issues of our day, while simultaneously catalyzing a shift toward sustainable societies. www.foei.org Global Education Network: consists of teachers, students, and members of the Community at large who believe that teaching and learning must integrate the interdependency of the social, economic, environmental, and political aspects of our world. As citizens of the world we have responsibilities towards our global community; a global education approach to teaching focuses on the students' place in the world community. Globally aware students will be more inclined to take responsible action to change their world for the better of all. To that end, we are creating an on-line directory of resources to be used in any curriculum area at any level. www.global-ed.org Global Trade Watch (GTW): Promotes democracy by challenging corporate globalization, arguing that the current globalization model is neither a random inevitability nor “free trade.” Our work seeks to make the measurable outcomes of this model accessible to the public, press, and policy-makers, while emphasizing that if the results are not acceptable, then the model can and must be changed or replaced. GTW works on an array of globalization issues, including health and safety, environmental protection, economic justice, and democratic, accountable governance. www.citizen.org/trade Greenpeace Canada: Greenpeace is an independently funded organization that works to protect the environment. We challenge government and industry to halt harmful practices by negotiating solutions, conducting scientific research, introducing clean alternatives, carrying out peaceful acts of civil disobedience and educating and engaging the public. www. greenpeace.ca Greenpeace International is found at: www.greenpeace.org Halifax Initiative: Halifax Initiative is a Canadian coalition of development, environment, faith, rights and labour groups. Our goal is to contribute to the fundamental transformation of the international financial system and its institutions to achieve poverty eradication, environmental sustainability and the equitable re-distribution of wealth. http://halifaxinitiative.org/ Human Rights Watch: dedicated to protecting the human rights around the world. works to end abuses, including summary executions, torture, arbitrary detention, restrictions on the freedom of expression, association, assembly and religion, violations of due process, and discrimination on racial, gender, ethnic and religious grounds. www.hrw.org Independent Media Centres: International: www.indymedia.org or Ontario: http://ontario.indymedia.org/ The Independent Media Center is a grassroots organization committed to using media production and distribution as a tool for promoting social and economic justice. It is our goal to further the self-determination of people under-represented in media production and content, and to illuminate and analyze local and global issues that impact ecosystems, communities and individuals. We seek to generate alternatives to the biases inherent in the corporate media controlled by profit, and to identify and create positive models for a sustainable and equitable society. To link to the Seattle Media Center click here. International Centre For Human Rights and Democratic Development: The ICHRDD organization is a Canadian institution with an international mandate. It is an independent organization, which promotes, advocates and defends the democratic and human rights set out in the International Bill of Human Rights. In cooperation with civil society and governments in Canada and abroad, Rights & Democracy initiates and supports programs to strengthen laws and democratic institutions, principally in developing countries. Rights & Democracy focuses its work on four thematic priorities: Democratic Development, Women's Rights, the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Globalization and Human Rights. www.ichrdd.ca International Forum on Globalization: The International Forum on Globalization advocates equitable, democratic, and ecologically sustainable economics. It is formed in response to the present worldwide drive toward a globalized economic system dominated by supranational corporate trade and banking institutions that are not accountable to democratic processes or national governments. These current trends toward globalization are neither historically inevitable nor desirable. www.ifg.org Institute for Global Communications: four major social justice web sites, Peacenet, Womensnet, Econet and Anti- Racismnet. IGC shares the vision to actively promote change toward a healthy society, one which is founded on principals of social justice, broadly shared economic opportunity, a robust democratic process, and sustainable environmental practices. The Mission is to advance the work of progressive organizations and individuals for peace, justice, economic opportunity, human rights, democracy and sustainable environmental practices through strategic use of online technologies. www.igc.org Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice: The Jesuit Centre, through social faith, promotes ecological, economic, and political justice. The Centre engages in spiritual exercises, social analysis, research, public education, pastoral ministry, policy advocacy and action on issues of justice as they affect Canada and the world. www.jesuits.ca/justicecr/Default.htm Leaders Today: Dedicated to helping young people realize their fullest potential through leadership education and development using innovative, youth inspired curriculum. Administers workshops around the world, holds annual leadership training academies, facilitator training programs and college prep courses in Toronto. It also organizes amazing overseas volunteer spring break and summer trips to Nicaragua, India, Kenya and Thailand. www.leaderstoday.com Maquila Solidarity Network: A Canadian network promoting solidarity with groups in Mexico, Central America, and Asia organizing in Maquiladora factories and export processing zones to improve conditions and win a living wage. In a global economy it is essential that groups in the North and South work together for employment with dignity, fair wages and working conditions, and healthy workplaces and communities. www.maquilasolidarity.org McSpotlight: dedicated to compiling and disseminating factual, accurate, up-to-date information about the workings, policies and practices of the McDonald's Corporation and all they stand for. The Network also highlights opposition to McDonald's and other transnational companies. Issues discussed are: employment, nutrition, environment, advertisement and animals. Under the link ‘Beyond McDonalds’ there is a great wealth of information about multinationals and there unjust actions around the world. This web site is also a good link to other sites encouraging social justice. www.mcspotlight.org Media Channel: On Media Channel, you will find original news, opinions and reports. You will also have access to hundreds of media issues organizations from all points on the globe. These include media watch groups, university journalism departments, professional organizations, anti-censorship monitors, and trade publications. This supersite is a reading room, a research center, and a meeting place for everyone with an interest in the media. www.mediachannel.org Michael Moore: Author of “Globalize This” and “Stupid White Men,” and Director of "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore has put up this web site in order to inform people about social justice issues. This is a very enjoyable web site that provides in-depth analysis into big business and undemocratic government. www.michaelmoore.com Mobilization For Global Justice: a coalition of progressive organizations and individuals dedicated to combating corporate globalization. We organize demonstrations, educational, and outreach events against the WTO, IMF, World Bank, and FTAA among others. www.mob4glob.ca Monthly Review: The first issue of Monthly Review appeared in 1949 with an article by Albert Einstein titled, "Why Socialism?" In the decades since, MR has proven to be one of the most respected voices of the left due to the consistent quality of their articles, reviews, and analysis. Their website includes articles from recent issues as well as an archive and sample chapters from their books. www.monthlyreview.org Mothers Are Women: This Canadian-based feminist support and advocacy group seeks equality, choice and recognition for mothers doing unpaid work. MAW mothers believe that the work of caring for our children, our families (however we define them) and our communities must be recognized and valued. www.mothersarewomen.com New Internationalist: New Internationalist exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless in both rich and poor nations; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary if the basic material and spiritual needs of all are to be met. www.newint.org To link directly to the NI back issues and the NI mega keyword index click here. Octopus Books: Providing a space for people to access books on social justice issues, to obtain alternative news and information and to articulate a better vision of the future. This is a really excellent site for finding relevant books to Social Justice and Peace Studies. www.octopusbooks.org Office for Social Justice: Changing people’s hearts and challenging corporate structures on behalf of social justice. They believe that the Christian faith requires a personal commitment to work actively for a more just world. www.osjspm.org One World: We are acutely aware of the injustices and unnecessary suffering in the world. Our aim is to bear witness to this injustice and to help people shed whatever light they can on it. But we don't see injustice and suffering as somehow 'belonging' to just one part of the world: they can be found everywhere. That's why we carry features about the way people are disempowered and marginalized in the "developed" as well as the "developing" world. www.oneworld.org One World Global Education Programs: This organization determines to help North Americans discover that their lives are interconnected with those of developing nations by immersion living and working among the Third World poor. www. oneworlded.com Oxfam Canada: Oxfam Canada is an international development agency committed to the equitable distribution of wealth and power through fundamental social change. We work in relationships of solidarity and partnership to eradicate poverty, underdevelopment and powerlessness. Oxfam Canada is engaged in a development process which recognizes the imperative of social justice, a sustainable environment and the equality of all people. www.oxfam.ca Pax Christi: Pax Christi International is a non-profit, non-governmental Catholic peace movement that began in France at the end of World War II. Today, it is comprised of autonomous national sections, local groups, and affiliated organisations spread over 30 countries and 5 continents, with over 60,000 members worldwide. The movement works in all areas of peace but has a specific focus on demilitarisation, security and arms trade, development and human rights, and ecology. www.paxchristi.net People's Movement for Human Rights Education: (PDHRE-International) a non-profit, international service organization that works directly and indirectly with its network of affiliates — primarily women's and social justice organizations — to develop and advance pedagogies for human rights education relevant to people's daily lives in the context of their struggles for social and economic justice and democracy. www.pdhre.org Probe International: exposes the environmental, social, and economic effects of Canada's aid and trade abroad, revealing the devastating effects of our international projects. We monitor and expose the devastating effects of projects financed by Canadian tax dollars through international financial institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and through bilateral agencies like the Canadian International Development Agency and the Export Development Corporation. These national and international agencies have financed the world's worst environmental, social and economic disasters in the name of aid and trade. www.probeinternational.org Project Censored: The Primary Objective is to explore and publicize the extent of censorship in our society by locating stories about significant issues of which the public should be aware, but is not, for one reason or another. Thereby, the project hopes to stimulate responsible journalists to provide more mass media coverage of those issues and to encourage the general public to demand mass media coverage of those issues or to seek information from other sources. www.projectcensored.org Project Plowshares: Our mission , rooted in the faith commitment to seek peace , is to carry out research, analysis, dialogue, and public education on peace and security issues to advance our understanding and knowledge of the roots and causes of armed conflict, and the measures and policies that are conducive to achieving a more peaceful world. www. ploughshares.ca Polaris Institute: As its stated objective, Polaris is designed to enable citizen movements to re-skill and re-tool themselves to fight for democratic social change in an age of corporate driven globalization. Essentially, the Institute works with citizen movements in developing the kinds of strategies and tactics required to unmask and challenge the corporate power that is the driving force behind governments concerning public policy making on economic, social and environmental issues. www. polarisinstitute.org Program on Law, Corporations and Democracy: We are thirteen activists who have spent the last several years researching corporate, labor and legal histories, rethinking our past organizing strategies and talking with people about democracy movements. We work in the tradition of people's struggles to replace illegitimate and tyrannical institutions with democratic ones that disperse, rather than concentrate, wealth and power. www.poclad.org Rabble.ca: Rabble.ca will interest all those who are looking for alternatives to mainstream media. We hope to reflect the energy of the exciting democracy movement emerging around the world. At the same time, Rabble will be building on the strengths of the diverse movements for equality and social justice that have contributed so much over the years. Finally, this is a place where the creative spirit of our enormously talented cultural communities will be celebrated. www.rabble.ca Rainforest Action Network: works to protect the Earth's rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots organizing, and nonviolent direct action. www.ran.org Reclaim The Streets: We are about taking back public space from the enclosed private arena. It’s about reclaiming the streets as public inclusive space from the private exclusive use of the car. But we believe in this as a broader principle, taking back those things which have been enclosed within capitalist circulation and returning them to collective use as a commons. www.reclaimthestreets.net Resource Center of the Americas: a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization that enables U.S. citizens to join the struggle for peace, justice and human rights across the hemisphere. This group publishes periodicals, has excellent labor/education workshops and resources (pertaining to the global economy) and more. www.americas.org Ruckus Society: The Ruckus Society provides environmental and human rights organizers with the tools, training, and support needed to achieve their goals. Working with a broad range of communities, organizations, and movements - from high school students to professional organizations - Ruckus facilitates the sharing of information and expertise that strengthens the capacity to change our relationship with the environment and each other. www.ruckus.org Salt of the Earth: your on-line resource for social justice: This is an on-line Christian resource for social action. It is a journal reviewing Catholic social teaching and parish-based organizing for social justice. This online archive includes a selection of some of our finest feature stories on the pressing social issues of our times and what you and your community can do about them. http://salt.claretianpubs.org/ Save the Children: Save the Children was founded on 19th May 1919. Working in over 100 countries across the globe and comprising 30 organizations, Save the Children is the largest independent movement for children. Save the Children is leading the fight towards making a reality of a world which respects and values each child, which listens to children and learns and where all children have hope and opportunity. www.savethechildren.net Scarboro Missions: Scarboro Missions is a Canadian society of Catholic priests and laity. Motivated by the Spirit, we dedicate ourselves to the person, teaching and mission of Jesus Christ. This is an active community that publishes a magazine every month in which ideas and writings about social justice can be found. www.scarboromissions.ca School of the Americas Watch: an independent organization that seeks to close the US Army School of the Americas, through vigils and fasts, demonstrations and nonviolent protest, as well as media and legislative work. www.soaw.org Social Edge, The : We're a monthly online social justice and faith magazine. Our goal is to provide our readers with a vibrant mix of articles, columns, commentary, editorials, book reviews, and interviews usually not found in the mainstream news media. As a journal of faith we're ecumenical in outlook. Although we follow the Catholic Church closely, we're interested in matters connected to other Christian churches and faiths. Whatever issues we address, we'll be searching and broadening our scope, unwilling to settle for easy answers. www.thesocialedge.com Social Justice Committee: committed to recognizing the root, global causes of poverty, social injustice, and environmental degradation; recognizing the links among the above problems, global corporate and financial institutions, and governments in the North and South; educating the public about these issues; and focusing on proactive, long-term action, while at the same time undertaking vital reactive, short-term action. This is also where you find the Upstream Journal on human rights, international development and global justice. www.s-j-c.net Sojourners A Christian ministry proclaiming and practicing the biblical call to integrate spiritual renewal and social justice. In our lives and in our work, we seek to be guided by the biblical principles of justice, mercy, and humility. www.sojo.net Solidarity: working for a society based on human need and democratic collective decision-making in our communities and workplaces. We want to end capitalism and the exploitation, discrimination and hierarchy that characterizes such a profit-driven system. We are committed to building a society that rejects racism, sexism, and homophobia. www.igc.org/solidarity/ South End Press: Publishing books that encourage critical thinking and constructive action on the key political, cultural, social, economic, and ecological issues shaping life in the United States and in the world, giving expression to a wide diversity of democratic social movements and providing an alternative to the products of corporate publishing. www.southendpress.org Ten Thousand Villages: provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. www.tenthousandvillages.org Third World Network: an independent non-profit international network of organizations and individuals involved in issues relating to development, the Third World and North- South issues. Its objectives are to conduct research on economic, social and environmental issues pertaining to the South; to publish books and magazines; to organize and participate in seminars; and to provide a platform representing broadly Southern interests and perspectives at international for a such as the UN conferences and processes. www.twnside.org.sg Transnational Institute: In the spirit of public scholarship, and aligned to no political party, TNI seeks to create and promote international co-operation in analyzing and finding possible solutions to such global problems as militarism and conflict, poverty and marginalization, social injustice and environmental degradation. www.tni.org UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the most comprehensive collection of translations of the Universal Declaration, adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 Dec 1948. www.unhchr.ch/udhr Video Activist Network: an informal association of activists and politically conscious artists using video to support social, economic and environmental justice campaigns. www.videoactivism.org Whispered Media: The corporate-owned media is increasingly producing news coverage that lacks substance and truth. Now is the time for the grassroots movements to reclaim our history and our vision and create our own media. To this end, Whispered Media was founded as a collective that promotes the use of video, and other media tools, in progressive grassroots movements. www.whisperedmedia.org Women's Human Rights Resources: The purpose of the Women's Human Rights Resources Web Site is to provide reliable and diverse information on international women's human rights via the Internet. www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/diana Women Watch: Women Watch is a gateway to the information and resources on the promotion of gender equality throughout the United Nations system. It is a joint United Nations project which was created in March 1997 to provide internet space for global gender equality issues and to support implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The website also now provides information on the outcomes of, as well as efforts to incorporate gender perspectives into, follow-up to global conferences, such as the International Conference on Financing for Development, the World Summit on Ageing, the Children's Summit and the World Summit on Sustainable Development. www.un.org/womenwatch Working TV: We are primarily a labour show, focusing on union issues. This derives from our original mandate: to counter the marginalization and censorship of labour by mainstream television broadcasters, with labour positive programming produced by working people, for working people. As the years have gone by, we have been producing more and more programming on broader community, political and social justice issues. www.workingtv.com World Organization Against Torture: is the largest international coalition of NGOs fighting against torture, summary executions, forced disappearances and all other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in order to preserve Human Rights. It has at its disposal a network, SOS Torture, consisting of some 240 non-governmental organisations which act as sources of information. Its urgent interventions reach daily more than 90,000 governmental and intergovernmental institutions, non-governmental associations, pressure and interest groups. www.omct.org World Revolution: Than idea for a new, global grassroots social movement for progressive social change. It aims to resolve in a definitive and comprehensive manner the major social problems of our world and our era. Major issue areas of the World Revolution include: peace, human rights, the environment, and world poverty. www.worldrevolution.org World Social Forum Website: The World Social Forum is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Mankind and between it and the Earth. www.forumsocialmundial.org.br Znet: ZNet intends to become a community of mutually supportive actors in the struggle to make the world a better place for human beings and other living things. It focuses largely, though not exclusively, on issues of class, race, gender, political power, ecology, and international relations as they affect people throughout the world and mainly in the U.S. ZNet presents analyses, but also vision. It provides diagnosis but also prescription. www.zmag.org |
| “Of course the people don’t want war... that is understood. But voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That’s easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. ” -HERMANN GOERING, at the Nuremberg Trials |
| FALLOUT: COMING HOME FROM THE WAR IN IRAQ Watch the full film now Enter IRAQ FALLOUT.COM |
| Documentary made by Eva Lowery of Peace Takes Courage.com |
| Ten Key Values of the Green Party 1. GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY Every human being deserves a say in the decisions that affect their lives and not be subject to the will of another. Therefore, we will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. We will also work to create new types of political organizations which expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the decision-making process. 2. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY All persons should have the rights and opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment. We must consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers such as racism and class oppression, sexism and homophobia, ageism and disability, which act to deny fair treatment and equal justice under the law. 3. ECOLOGICAL WISDOM Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society which utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must practice agriculture which replenishes the soil; move to an energy efficient economy; and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems. 4. NON-VIOLENCE It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to society’ s current patterns of violence. We will work to demilitarize, and eliminate weapons of mass destruction, without being naive about the intentions of other governments. We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of others who are in helpless situations. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace. 5. DECENTRALIZATION Centralization of wealth and power contributes to social and economic injustice, environmental destruction and militarization. Therefore, we support a restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system which is controlled by and mostly benefits the powerful few, o a democratic, less bureaucratic system. Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local level, while assuring that civil rights are protected for all. 6. COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMICS AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE We recognize it is essential to create a vibrant and sustainable economic system, one that can create jobs and provide a decent standard of living for all people while maintaining a healthy ecological balance. A successful economic system will offer meaningful work with dignity, while paying a “living wage” which reflects the real value of a person’s work. Local communities must look to economic development that assures protection of the environment and workers’ rights; broad citizen participation in planning; and enhancement of our “quality of life.” We support independently owned and operated companies which are socially responsible, as well as co- operatives and public enterprises that distribute resources and control to more people through democratic participation. 7. FEMINISM AND GENDER EQUITY We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics. We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as equity between the sexes, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with moral conscience. We should remember that the process that determines our decisions and actions is just as important as achieving the outcome we want. 8. RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY We believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across these lines. We believe that the many diverse elements of society should be reflected in our organizations and decision-making bodies, and we support the leadership of people who have been traditionally closed out of leadership roles. We acknowledge and encourage respect for other life forms than our own and the preservation of biodiversity. 9. PERSONAL AND GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY We encourage individuals to act to improve their personal well- being and, at the same time, to enhance ecological balance and social harmony. We seek to join with people and organizations around the world to foster peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet. 10. FUTURE FOCUS AND SUSTAINABILITY Our actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or “unmaking” all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival. We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that economic development, new technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations who will inherit the results of our actions. |
| A CHANGE IS GOING TO COME |
| The Inspiration Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world. |
| IVAW Member Victor Agosto Refuses Deployment to Afghanistan "It’s a matter of what I’m willing to live with," U.S. Army Specialist Victor Agosto , who refused orders to deploy to Afghanistan.. "I’m not willing to participate in this occupation, knowing it is completely wrong." Agosto, who returned from a 13-month deployment to Iraq in November 2007, is based at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. While in Iraq, Agosto never left his base, located in northern Iraq. "I never had any traumatic exper- iences, never fired my weapon," Agosto told IPS in a phone interview. "I mostly worked in information technology, working on computers and keeping the network functioning well. But it was in Iraq that I turned against the occupations. Through my reading, and watching what was going on, I started to feel very guilty." Agosto added, "What I did there, I know I contributed to death and human suffering. It’s hard to quantify how much I caused, but I know I contributed to it." Having served three years and nine months in the U.S. Army, Agosto was to complete his contract and be discharged on Aug. 3. But due to his excellent record of service and accrued leave, he was to be released the end of June. Nevertheless, due to the stop-loss programme, the Army decided to deploy him to Afghanistan anyway. Stop-loss is a programme the military uses to keep soldiers enlisted beyond the terms of their contracts. Since Sep. 11, 2001, more than 140,000 troops have had tours extended by stop-loss. A copy of his Counseling Form from the Army reads, "You will deploy in support of OEF [Operation Enduring Freedom] on or about [XXXXX] with 57th ESB. This is a direct order from your Company Commander CPT Michael J. Pederson." Agosto posted copies of the Counseling Statements issued by the Army on his Facebook page. Counseling Statements outline actions taken by the Army to discipline Agosto for his refusal to obey a direct order from his company commander. On one of them, dated May 1, Agosto’s written statement appears: "There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect." In another, dated May 18, he wrote: "I will not obey any orders I deem to be immoral or illegal." On that day, Agosto was ordered to get his medical records in preparation to deploy to Afghanistan. He refused to do so. The Army threatened to take punitive measures, but Agosto wrote on the Counseling Statement, "I am not going to Afghanistan. I will not take part in SRP [Sealift Readiness Programme]." If Agosto continues to refuse orders, he almost assuredly will face court martial, and likely jail time. When IPS asked Agosto if he is willing to take whatever consequences the Army is prepared to mete out, he replied, "Yes. I’m fully prepared for this. I have concluded that the wars [in Iraq and Afghanistan] are not going to be ended by politicians or people at the top. They are not responsive to the people, they are responsive to corporate America." Agosto added, "The only way to make them responsive to the needs of the people is if soldiers won’t fight their wars, and if soldiers won’t fight their wars, the wars won’t happen. I hope I’m setting an example for other soldiers." Agosto has overtly refused to follow any order that has anything to do with his taking an action that would support the occupation of Afghanistan. For a time, according to Agosto, he was given simple orders to clean the motor pool, or pull weeds. "They switched that recently," he told IPS, "I’ve continued to be fairly defiant, so on Tuesday I have to meet with Trial Defense Services, which then begins the process of getting an Article 15, which is movement towards being court-martialed, if these reprimands continue." "If I take the Article 15, I’ll take a reduction in rank and pay. I don’t’ know what is going to happen. I agreed to sweep the motor pool and pull weeds, but nothing else that I feel directly supports the war. I’m not going to follow orders I’m not comfortable with." Agosto’s case is not unique. The group Courage to Resist, based in Oakland, California, actively engages in assisting soldiers who refuse to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan. "Although the efforts of Courage to Resist are primarily focused on supporting public GI resisters, the organization also strives to provide political, emotional, and material support to all military objectors critical of our government's current policies of empire," reads a portion of the group's mission statement. IPS spoke with Adam Szyper-Seibert, an office manager and counselor with Courage to Resist. "Currently we are actively supporting over 50 military resisters like Victor Agosto," Szyper-Seibert told IPS, "They are all over the world, including André Shepherd in Germany, and several people in Canada. We are getting five to six calls a week just about the IRR [Individual Ready Reserve] recall alone." U.S. Army Specialist André Shepherd, who went AWOL after serving in Iraq, has applied for asylum in Germany after refusing military service because he is morally opposed to the occupation of Iraq. The IRR is composed of former military personnel who still have time remaining on their enlistment agreements but have returned to civilian life. They are eligible to be called up in "states of emergency." The Army is currently undertaking the largest IRR recall since 2004, despite the recent inauguration of a so-called anti-war president. Szyper-Seibert said that the number of soldiers contacting Courage to Resist has been increasing dramatically in the last year, and particularly in recent months. "The number of soldiers contacting us is increasing," he explained, "With five to six IRR’s contacting us a week, plus others going absent without leave [AWOL], the numbers are all climbing, as compared to a year ago. Since May 2008, we’ve had a 200 percent jump in how many soldiers are contacting us."According to Courage to Resist, there have been at least 15,000 IRR call-ups since Sep. 11, 2001, for deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Sgt. Travis Bishop, who served 14 months in Baghdad and is also stationed at Fort Hood, recently went AWOL when his unit deployed to Afghanistan. Like Agosto, Bishop feels it is immoral for him to deploy to support an occupation he morally opposes. "I love my country, but I believe that this particular war is unjust, unconstitutional and a total abuse of our nation’s power and influence," Bishop’s blog reads, "And so, in the next few days, I will be speaking with my lawyer, and taking actions that will more than likely result in my discharge from the military, and possible jail time... and I am prepared to live with that." The reason he made this decision is addressed in his blog. "My father said, ‘Do only what you can live with, because every morning you have to look at your face in the mirror when you shave. Ten years from now, you’ll still be shaving the same face. " If I had deployed to Afghanistan, I don’t think I would have been able to look into another mirror again." |
| YOU are the visitor in 2009-2010 |
| TO SEND EASY PRE-WRITTEN MESSAGES THAT SPEAK FOR YOU ON KEY ISSUES AND LEGISLATION, GO TO www.peace-action.org or to Friends Committee on National Legislation, www.capwiz.com/fconl/home |
| ”If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." -- Samuel Adams |
TruthDig.com The Truth Alone Will Not Set You Free by Chris Hedges The ability of the corporate state to pacify the country by extending credit and providing cheap manufactured goods to the masses is gone. The pernicious idea that democracy lies in the choice between competing brands and the freedom to accumulate vast sums of personal wealth at the expense of others has collapsed. The conflation of freedom with the free market has been exposed as a sham. The travails of the poor are rapidly becoming the travails of the middle class, especially as unemployment insurance runs out and people get a taste of Bill Clinton's draconian welfare reform. Class warfare, once buried under the happy illusion that we're all going to enter an age of prosperity with unfettered capitalism, is returning with a vengeance. Our economic crisis-despite the corporate media circus around the death of Michael Jackson or Gov. Mark Sanford's marital infidelity or the outfits of Sacha Baron Cohen's latest incarnation, Brüno-barrels forward. And this crisis will lead to a period of profound political turmoil and change. Those who care about the plight of the working class and the poor must begin to mobilize quickly or we will lose our last opportunity to save our embattled democracy. The most important struggle will be to wrest the organs of communication from corporations that use mass media to demonize movements of social change and empower proto-fascist movements such as the Christian right. American culture-or cultures, for we once had distinct regional cultures-was systematically destroyed in the 20th century by corporations. These corporations used mass communication, as well as an understanding of the human subconscious, to turn consumption into an inner compulsion. Old values of thrift, regional identity that had its own iconography, aesthetic expression and history, diverse immigrant traditions, self-sufficiency, a press that was decentralized to provide citizens with a voice in their communities were all destroyed to create mass, corporate culture. New desires and habits were implanted by corporate advertisers to replace the old. Individual frustrations and discontents could be solved, corporate culture assured us, through the wonders of consumerism and cultural homogenization. American culture, or cultures, was replaced with junk culture and junk politics. And now, standing on the ash heap, we survey the ruins. The very slogans of advertising and mass culture have become the idiom of common expression, robbing us of the language to make sense of the destruction. We confuse the manufactured commodity culture with American culture. How do we recover what was lost? How do we reclaim the culture that was destroyed by corporations? How do we fight back now that the consumer culture has fallen into a state of decay? What can we do to reverse the cannibalization of government and the national economy by the corporations? All periods of profound change occur in a crisis. It was a crisis that brought us the New Deal, now largely dismantled by the corporate state. It was also a crisis that gave the world Adolf Hitler and Slobodan Milosevic. We can go in either direction. Events move at the speed of light when societies and cultural assumptions break down. There are powerful forces, which have no commitment to the open society, ready to seize the moment to snuff out the last vestiges of democratic egalitarianism. Our bankrupt liberalism, which naively believes that Barack Obama is the antidote to our permanent war economy and Wall Street fraud, will either rise from its coma or be rolled over by an organized corporate elite and their right-wing lap dogs. The corporate domination of the airwaves, of most print publications and an increasing number of Internet sites means we will have to search, and search quickly, for alternative forms of communication to thwart the rise of totalitarian capitalism. Stuart Ewen, whose books "Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture" and "PR: A Social History of Spin" chronicle how corporate propaganda deformed American culture and pushed populism to the margins of American society, argues that we have a fleeting chance to save the country. I fervently hope he is right. He attacks the ideology of "objectivity and balance" that has corrupted news, saying that it falsely evokes the scales of justice. He describes the curriculum at most journalism schools as "poison." " ‘Balance and objectivity' creates an idea where both sides are balanced," he said when I spoke to him by phone. "In certain ways it mirrors the two-party system, the notion that if you are going to have a Democrat speak you need to have a Republican speak. It offers the phantom of objectivity. It creates the notion that the universe of discourse is limited to two positions. Issues become black or white. They are not seen as complex with a multitude of factors." Ewen argues that the forces for social change-look at any lengthy and turgid human rights report-have forgotten that rhetoric is as important as fact. Corporate and government propaganda, aimed to sway emotions, rarely uses facts to sell its positions. And because progressives have lost the gift of rhetoric, which was once a staple of a university education, because they naively believe in the Enlightenment ideal that facts alone can move people toward justice, they are largely helpless. "Effective communication requires not simply an understanding of the facts, but how those facts will take place in the public mind," Ewen said. "When Gustave Le Bon says it is not the facts in and of themselves which make a point but the way in which the facts take place, the way in which they come to attention, he is right." The emergence of corporate and government public relations, which drew on the studies of mass psychology by Sigmund Freud and others after World War I, found its bible in Walter Lippmann's book"Public Opinion," a manual for the power elite's shaping of popular sentiments. Lippmann argued that the key to leadership in the modern age would depend on the ability to manipulate "symbols which assemble emotions after they have been detached from their ideas." The public mind could be mastered, he wrote, through an "intensification of feeling and a degradation of significance." These corporate forces, schooled by Woodrow Wilson's vast Committee for Public Information, which sold World War I to the public, learned how to skillfully mobilize and manipulate the emotional responses of the public. The control of the airwaves and domination through corporate advertising of most publications restricted news to reporting facts, to "objectivity and balance," while the real power to persuade and dominate a public remained under corporate and governmental control. Ewen argues that pamphlet-eering, which played a major role in the 17th & 18th centuries in shaping the public mind, recognized that "the human mind is not left brain or right brain, that it is not divided by reason which is good and emotion which is bad." He argues that the forces of social reform, those organs that support a search for truth and self-criticism, have mistakenly shunned emotion and rhetoric because they have been used so powerfully within modern society to disseminate lies and manipulate public opinion. But this refusal to appeal to emotion means "we gave up the ghost and accepted the idea that human beings are these divided selves, binary systems between emotion and reason, and that emotion gets you into trouble and reason is what leads you forward. This is not true." The public is bombarded with carefully crafted images meant to confuse propaganda with ideology and knowledge with how we feel. Human rights and labor groups, investigative journalists, consumer watchdog organizations and advocacy agencies have, in the face of this manipulation, inundated the public sphere with reports and facts. But facts alone, Ewen says, make little difference. And as we search for alternative ways to communicate in a time of crisis we must also communicate in new forms. We must appeal to emotion as well as to reason. The power of this appeal to emotion is evidenced in the photographs of Jacob Riis, a New York journalist, who with a team of assistants at the end of the 19th century initiated urban-reform photography. His stark portraits of the filth and squalor of urban slums awakened the conscience of a nation. The photographer Lewis Hine, at the turn of the 20th century, and Walker Evans during the Great Depression did the same thing for the working class, along with writers such as Upton Sinclair and James Agee. It is a recovery of this style, one that turns the abstraction of fact into a human flesh and one that is not afraid of emotion and passion, which will permit us to counter the force of corporate propaganda. We may know that fossil fuels are destroying our ecosystem. We may be able to cite the statistics. But the oil and natural gas industry continues its flagrant rape of the planet. It is able to do this because of the money it uses to control legislation and a massive advertising campaign that paints the oil and natural gas industry as part of the solution. A group called EnergyTomorrow.org, for example, has been running a series of television ads. One ad features an attractive, middle-aged woman in a black pantsuit-an actor named Brooke Alexander who once worked as the host of "WorldBeat" on CNN and for Fox News. Alexander walks around a blue screen studio that becomes digital renditions of American life. She argues, before each image, that oil and natural gas are critical to providing not only energy needs but health care and jobs. "It is almost like they are taking the most optimistic visions of what the stimulus package could do and saying this is what the development of oil and natural gas will bring about," Ewen said. "If you go to the Web site there is a lot of sophisticated stuff you can play around with. As each ad closes you see in the lower right-hand corner in very small letters API, the American Petroleum Institute, the lobbying group for ExxonMobil and all the other big oil companies. For the average viewer there is nothing in the ad to indicate this is being produced by the oil industry." The modern world, as Kafka predicted, has become a world where the irrational has become rational, where lies become true. And facts alone will be powerless to thwart the mendacity spun out through billions of dollars in corporate advertising, lobbying and control of traditional sources of information. We will have to descend into the world of the forgotten, to write, photograph, paint, sing, act, blog, video and film with anger and honesty that have been blunted by the parameters of traditional journalism. The lines between artists, social activists and journalists have to be erased. These lines diminish the power of reform, justice and an understanding of the truth. And it is for this purpose that these lines are there. "As a writer part of what you are aiming for is to present things in ways that will resonate with people, which will give voice to feelings and concerns, feelings that may not be fully verbalized," Ewen said. "You can't do that simply by providing them with data. One of the major problems of the present is that those structures designed to promote a progressive agenda are antediluvian." Corporate ideology, embodied in neoconservatism, has seeped into the attitudes of most self-described liberals. It champions unfettered capitalism and globalization as eternal. This is the classic tactic that power elites use to maintain themselves. The loss of historical memory, which "balanced and objective" journalism promotes, has only contributed to this fantasy. But the fantasy, despite the desperate raiding of taxpayer funds to keep the corporate system alive, is now coming undone. The lie is being exposed. And the corporate state is running scared. "It is very important for people like us to think about ways to present the issues, whether we are talking about the banking crisis, health care or housing and homelessness," Ewen said. "We have to think about presenting these issues in ways that are two steps ahead of the media rather than two steps behind. That is not something we should view as an impossible task. It is a very possible task. There is evidence of how possible that task is, especially if you look at the development of the underground press in the 1960s. The underground press, which started cropping up all over the country, was not a marginal phenomenon. It leeched into the society. It developed an approach to news and communication that was 10 steps ahead of the mainstream media. The proof is that even as it declined, so many structures that were innovated by the underground press, things like The Whole Earth Catalogue, began to affect and inform the stylistic presentation of mainstream media." "I am not a prophet," Ewen said. "All I can do is look at historical precedence and figure out the extent we can learn from it. This is not about looking backwards. If you can't see the past you can't see the future. If you can't see the relationship between the present and the past you can't understand where the present might go. Who controls the past controls the present, who controls the present controls the future, as George Orwell said. This is a succinct explanation of the ways in which power functions." "Read ‘The Gettysburg Address,' " Ewen said. "Read Frederick Douglass' autobiography or his newspaper. Read ‘The Communist Manifesto.' Read Darwin's ‘Descent of Man.' All of these things are filled with an understanding that communicating ideas and producing forms of public communication that empower people, rather than disempowering people, relies on an integrated understanding of who the public is and what it might be. We have a lot to learn from the history of rhetoric. We need to think about where we are going. We need to think about what 21st century pamphleteering might be. We need to think about the ways in which the rediscovery of rhetoric- not lying, but rhetoric in its more conventional sense- can affect what we do. We need to look at those historical antecedents where interventions happened that stepped ahead of the news. And to some extent this is happening. We have the freest and most open public sphere since the village square." The battle ahead will be fought outside the journalistic mainstream, he said. The old forms of journalism are dying or have sold their soul to corporate manip- ulation and celebrity culture. We must now wed fact to rhetoric. We must appeal to reason and emotion. We must not be afraid to openly take sides, to speak, photograph or write on behalf of the disempowered. And, Ewen believes, we have a chance in the coming crisis to succeed. "Pessimism is never useful," he said. "Realism is useful, under- standing the forces that are at play. To quote Antonio Gramsci, ‘pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.' " © 2009 TruthDig.com Chris Hedges writes a regular column for Truthdig.com. Hedges graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He is the author of many books, including: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, What Every Person Should Know About War, and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. His most recent book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, will be out in July, but is available for pre-order. |
| "In theological terms, war is sin," writes Mahedy. "This has nothing to do with whether a particular war is justified or whether isolated incidents in a soldier's war were right or wrong. The point is that war as a human enterprise is a matter of sin. It is a form of hatred for one's fellow human beings. It produces alienation from others and nihilism, and it ultimately represents a turning away from God." |
| Chris Hedges writes a regular column for Truthdig.com Hedges graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He is the author of many books, including: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, What Every Person Should Know About War, and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. His most recent book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, is now available |
| Peace activist and promoter has new cause: saving house By Guy D’Astolfo Vindicator Sept 17, '09 Like the house she lives in on Wick Park, Therese Joseph is a keystone of her community, standing against the prevailing current. Joseph (formerly Powell) owns the grand, turret-crowned home at 204 Broadway. It’s on a street of old mansions that, for the most part, have fallen into disrepair as the neighborhood declined. Her spacious home serves as the headquarters for Peace Action — Youngstown. It’s the local chapter of Peace Action for a Sane World, which is the nation’s largest grassroots organization for peace and social-justice causes. She is co- chairwoman of the chapter. Joseph has lived in the house since 1989, restoring it with the help of the North Side Coalition. In the past 20 years, the structure has hosted countless political gatherings, neighborhood watch meetings and concerts. But Joseph is in danger of losing the house. She took out a loan in recent years, using the house’s equity as collateral to finance a failed business venture with her then-husband. Now she faces foreclosure and must raise $20,000 within 60-90 days. Toward that end, she has organized several fundraisers, including a performance by the burlesque troupe Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad at the Lemon Grove in August. She also has lined up a concert by legendary Akron jazz-rockers The Numbers Bands this Saturday at The Youngstown Club. Over the past two decades, Joseph has promoted about 400 concerts at various Youngstown venues, including the Maennerchor, Cedars Lounge, and the former Pyatt Street Downunder and Inner Works Coffee House (both of which she used to own), as well as at her Wick Park home, which has been dubbed Peace House. “Music is one of the main ways people connect,” she said, noting it’s also a way to get people involved in the cause for peace. But Saturday’s concert will be her last for a while, as she must devote her attention to saving Peace House.. During a reporter’s 90-minute visit to Joseph’s eclectically filled home this week, the phone repeatedly rang. “I provide rides to the store for about seven people in the neighborhood, people who don’t have cars,” she said. Visitors also stopped in on community business. “People know I have connections and can do things for them,” she said. Joseph wants to stay put and continue her work. “I’ve lived through the worst years of this neighborhood, and I’d like to be here when it gets better,” she said. But first she must find a way out of her jam. Ray Nakley of Youngstown, also a member of Peace Action, has been a colleague of Joseph’s for decades. He said Joseph is “a unique individual. It’s a clich , but she really is a special person. She has kept Peace Action together for years by opening her home to it. There are many of us who remember and appreciate everything she’s done over the years. “She’s an extremely generous person,” he continued. “She appreciates and tries to promote the arts and has a passion for the most important things, like living in peace and appreciating human talents.” Judith Szabo, president of Art Youngstown, said Joseph, who is a board member of the group, “has been a keystone of the arts and entertainment in the Youngstown community for many, many years.” Joseph does a number of things for income, including freelance graphic-art work and costuming for theater companies. Racks of vintage costumes occupy one of her house’s large rooms. But if she can first satisfy her bank debt, Joseph wants to reinvent her house into a business. She would like to take on a partner or investor — one who appreciates music, old houses and city neighborhoods — who can help her turn the house into a business, perhaps a salon for thinkers and musicians. Doing so would also keep the house out of the hands of an absentee landlord, she said. Joseph cringed at the thought of seeing it subdivided into apartments. Joseph will hold a sale at her home, beginning October 2 Costumes, vintage record albums, collectibles and assorted kitsch are available. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., but Joseph recommends calling first — (330) 747-5404 — or e-mailing her at therese@paytown.org |
WEBSITE COMPILED AND MAINTAINED BY THERESE FRANCES JOSEPH POWELL THERESE@PAYTOWN.ORG |
| WRL ESTIMATES A TOTAL OF $200 BILLION WILL BE AUTHORIZED TO BE SPENT IN fy2009 |
| ENTER PEACE ACTION Y-TOWN PROGRESSIVE'S past issues OCT,'06 1989-2007 |
| Another Big Bail Out...the Truth About the House Health Care Bill By ROSE ANN DeMORO Nov 10, 2009 Of all the torrent of words that followed House passage of its version of healthcare reform legislation in early November, perhaps the most misleading were those comparing it to enactment of Social Security and Medicare. Sadly no. Social Security and Medicare were both federal programs guaranteeing respectively pensions and health care for our nation's seniors, paid for and administered by the federal government with public oversight and public accountability. While the House bill, and its Senate counterpart, do have several important reform components, along with many weaknesses, neither one comes close to the guarantees and the expansion of health and income security provided by Social Security or Medicare. By contrast, if the central premise of Social Security and Medicare was a federal guarantee of health and retirement security, the main provision of the bills in Congress is a mandate requiring most Americans without health coverage to buy private insurance. In other words, the principle beneficiary is not Americans' health, but the bottom line of the insurance industry which stands to harvest tens of billions of dollars in additional profits ordered by the federal government. Or as Rep. Eric Massa of New York put it on the eve of the House vote, "at the highest level, this bill will enshrine in law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry, period." Further, while Social Security and Medicare, two of the most important reforms in American history, were both significant expansions of public protection, the House bill actually reduces public protection for a substantial segment of the population, women, with its unconscionable rollback of reproductive rights in the anti-abortion amendment. Why then so much cheerleading by many progressive and liberal legislators, columnists, and activists? * Passage of the bill was a clear defeat for the Republican opposition and those on the right who have so mischaracterized what boils down to modest reform that looks more like a "robust" version of the Medicare prescription drug benefit or the state children's health initiative. * Proponents of the bill, starting in the White House and running through the Democratic leadership in Congress, with the assistance and support of many in labor and liberal and progressive constituency groups, have so lowered expectations on healthcare reform that with eyes wide shut they can call this a sweeping victory. To be sure there are commendable provisions in the House bill that bear note. Among the most important are: Expansion of Medicaid to millions of low income adults. Reduction of the "doughnut hole" in the Medicare drug coverage law making drug costs more affordable for many seniors. Increased federal funding for community health programs, such as home visits for nurses and social workers to low income families. Additional regulation of the insurance industry, mostly targeted to people who are presently without coverage rather than those with existing health plans. Those include limits on insurers ability to drop sick enrollees or refuse to sell policies to people with prior health problems, extending the age that dependent children can be on their parents' plan, and repeal of the anti-trust exemption for insurers. Extending the same health benefit tax benefits available to married couples to domestic partners. A progressive tax to help pay the bill through a surcharge on wealthy earners and required contributions from large employers, in sharp contrast with the Senate proposal to tax health benefits on misnamed "Cadillac" plans, comprehensive coverage available to many union members, for example. But the acclaim now flowing from some quarters would have been better deserved had these provisions been enacted on their own -- not accompanied by the many shortcomings of the legislation. To cite a few: Healthcare will remain unaffordable for many Americans. The bill does not do nearly enough to control skyrocketing insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospital costs. Indeed, by various estimates, with no effective limits on the insurance industry's price gouging, out-of-pocket costs for premiums, deductibles and other fees by some estimates with eat up from 15 to 19 percent of family incomes by several accounts. No meaningful reform of the rampant insurance denials of medical treatment the insurers don't want to pay for. Little assistance for individuals and families who presently have employer-sponsored health plans and face frequent erosion of their coverage and health security. No help for the healthcare cost-shifting from employers to employees. Minimal expansion of consumer choice. The much debated public plan option will be available only to about 2 percent of people under age 65, mostly those now not covered who buy insurance on their own (it may or may not be expanded in 2015). Further, no additional plan options for those in the many markets dominated by one or two private plans, and no additional choice of doctor or hospital within existing plans. The new limits on abortion extended to poor women. Ultimately, the combination of the mandate to buy insurance, federal subsidies to low income families to purchase private plans, failure to adequately control insurance prices or crack down on the abuse of insurance denials make the House bill -- and its Senate counterpart -- look a lot like a massive bailout for the private insurance industry. Don't be misled by the howling from insurance industry which has been spending some $1.4 million a day to steer the direction of legislation. They would have preferred the status quo, but will be more than happy to count the increased revenues coming their way. As Rep. Dennis Kucinich said on the House floor, "we cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem." While some people will have improved access, the final accounting will be an even firmer private insurance grip on our healthcare system, with the U.S. remaining the only industrialized nation which barters our health for private profit. Months ago, the Obama administration pre-determined this outcome by ruling out the most comprehensive, most cost effective, most humane reform, single payer, or an expanded and improved Medicare for all. Single payer proponents were shut out of White House forums, blocked from most hearings in the Senate, and single payer amendments stripped from the final House bill. Yet, through grassroots pressure, single-payer advocates forced consideration by the House of an improved Medicare for all until the very end. But nurses and other single payer proponents who have heroically fought for this reform for years will continue the campaign, next in the Senate, where single payer amendments are expected to be introduced. The scene will also shift to state capitols, where vibrant single payer movements remain active and will escalate. Proponents of comprehensive reform will never be silent, and never stop working for the real change we most desperately need. Rose Ann DeMoro is executive director of the California Nurses Association. |
What Are We
Fighting For in
Afghanistan?
Country Joe, Kenny
Rogers and Obama
By DAVE LINDORFF
November 3, 2009 Country Joe McDonald
said it best in his iconic "Fixin' to Die" Rag:
"Oh, it's one, two, three, what are we
fightin' for? Don't ask me. I don't give a
damn." In fact, we were fighting for nothing
in Vietnam. It was a war that started out
because the US didn't want the Commies to
win a battle in the so-called Cold War, and
even though it was on the farthest side of
the world, in a poor nation of peasants,
even though they had been struggling to
throw off colonialism for years and we had
simply become the new colonists, no
president dared to admit the obvious--we
had no business being there, and all the
killing and dying had no point.
Afghanistan is the same thing all over
again. We "got in" surreptitiously for the
same reason. Russia had helped organize a
coup to take over what passed for a
"central government" and had found itself
mired in a brutal war of occupation, and the
US had begun, back in the '70s, organizing
and providing arms to the forces fighting
the Russians, not because Afghanistan--a
country even more remote and
meaningless in terms of US interests or
security than Vietnam--had any importance
but because it was a way to "stick it to" the
Russians in the waning days of the Cold
War. But things have a way of coming back
to bite you, and the folks we armed turned
out not to like us very much either. So when
we helped set up the foreign fighters--
mostly Arab volunteers--in Afghanistan, we
set up a force of people who saw us, in
their home countries, as the oppressor and
backer of vile and corrupt regimes back
home. It was only a matter of time before
they began turning their attentions to us.
When 9-11 happened, we went after these
people in Afghanistan, and the government
of the Taliban, which we had formerly
helped to power. In short order, what we
managed to do was substitute ourselves
for the Russians.
What are we fighting for in Afghanistan?
Don't ask me. I don't give a damn. And
neither do most Americans. For a while,
Afghanistan was the "good war" in many
Americans' minds, because they bought
the lie that conquering Afghanistan was
necessary to defend the US from terrorism.
Of course that was silly. Terrorists don't
need countries. They are as mobile as a
nuclear submarine or a flu virus. But once
you put large numbers of troops in a foreign
country and have them storming around
shooting up the place, and once you start
bombing the crap out of villages and killing
people indiscriminately, you create a new
situation where you become the occupier.
So here we are, fighting another war that
makes no sense, has no purpose, and has
no end. Good war? Necessary war? What a
joke!
What are we fighting for in Afghanistan?
Don't ask us. We don't give a damn. And yet
President Obama is now on track to add
more troops--maybe 20,000, maybe 40,000.
Hell his general on the ground, Gen. Stanley
McCrystal, is asking for as much as 80,000,
which would put the total up to what it is in
Iraq, where we're still bogged down in an
occupation quagmire.
That's where Kenny Rogers song "The
Gambler" comes in. "You've got to know
when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
know when to walk away, know when to
run."
We had a chance to walk away from
Afghanistan back in 2001. The Al Qaeda
forces had been routed, the Taliban
government had collapsed, and people in
much of the country of Afghanistan, who
had been largely spared any violence
during the American attacks, were largely
grateful at having the yoke of
fundamentalism lifted off their backs. But
the US didn't leave. A low-level war
continued. More and more innocent people
were killed, or arrested and stuffed into a
concentration camp and torture hell-hole at
Bagram Airbase outside Kabul, or shipped
off to the other hell-holes in Guantanamo
Bay or other CIA secret sites. And the
Taliban were able to regroup and reposition
themselves as saviors of the nation. Now
the US is cast as the occupier. We can't
just "walk away" anymore. We have to
"fold 'em" and "run."
Will Obama have the sense of a gambler
with a bad hand? So far the signs are not
good that he will. We are now in the
position of having 70,000 US troops, soon to
be closer to 100,000 troops, fighting, killing
and dying in a country run by a corrupt, vote-
stealing leader whose brother has long
been known to be a leading profiteer in the
global opium/heroin trade, in which
Afghanistan has become the world leader
(80-90 percent of the market) and,
according to the New York Times, for eight
years and counting a paid CIA asset in
charge of a nation-wide death squad that is
working on contract for The Agency. Polls
show that most Afghanis, understandably,
want the US out of their country. Wouldn't
you?
A hand doesn't get much worse than that.
It's time to fold and run.
If we don't get the hell out of Afghanistan,
then we'll all be singing Country Joe's song,
but with modified lyrics (which I just
premiered at a solo performance at a fund-
raising dinner last week in Philadelphia for
the local chapter of Veterans for Peace):
Come on all you young women and men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself into a terrible jam,
Way off yonder in Afghanistan.
You ain't got a job, so pick up a gun!
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun!
All you folks in the National Guard,
You won't be protecting your back yard.
We may have floods and hurricanes here,
But you'll be dodging bullets in the desert
there.
But if that's not what you signed up for,
We'll send you there a few times more!
General McCrystal, jump right in!
Your big chance has come again.
The VC whupped us back in '74,
But now you can show some Muslims what-
for,And maybe even earn you a medal or
three,Sittin' at your desk in DC.
Chorus:
Oh it's one, two, three what are we fightin'
for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn.
Next stop's Afghanistan.
And it's five, six, seven, open up the Pearly
Gates. Ain't no time to wonder why.
Whoopee! We're all bound to die!
Come on mothers, here's the plan,
Send your son off to Afghanistan.
Come on fathers, it's all cool,
Send a daughter off to Ka-Bool.
And if they die, they come home free,
And nobody has to see.
chorus
Okay Wall Street, here's the deal:
Middle East oil is yours to steal.
Afghani blood, American too, is being shed
now Just for you!
And you can charge whatever you dare,
Cuz Washington don't care.
chorus
Bush and Obama, you've done your best,
You've made the Middle East into one sweet
mess!
But that's okay, there's still a plan:
To divert attention just bomb Iran!
And if that seems a bit unwise,
Well hell, you've got the Nobel Prize!
Chorus:
And it's one, two, three, what are we
fightin' for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop's...
Pakistan?
Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based
journalist and columnist. His latest book is
“The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s
Press, 2006 and now available in
paperback). He can be reached at
dlindorff@mindspring.com
| "Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now" See the Movie- It's Time to ACT! Friends, It's the #1 question I'm constantly asked after people see my movie: "OK -- so NOW what can I DO?!" You want something to do? Well, you've come to the right place! 'Cause I got 15 things you and I can do right now to fight back and try to fix this very broken system. Here they are: FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY: 1. Declare a moratorium on all home evictions. Not one more family should be thrown out of their home. The banks must adjust their monthly mortgage payments to be in line with what people's homes are now truly worth -- and what they can afford. Also, it must be stated by law: If you lose your job, you cannot be tossed out of your home. 2. Congress must join the civilized world and expand Medicare For All Americans. A single, nonprofit source must run a universal health care system that covers everyone. Medical bills are now the #1 cause of bankruptcies and evictions in this country. Medicare For All will end this misery. The bill to make this happen is H.R. 3200 -- but this bill is worthless without the amendment from Rep. Anthony Weiner that will bring us closer to the real bill that should be passed: H.R. 676. You must call AND write your members of Congress and demand that they support this amendment, no compromises allowed. 3. Demand publicly-funded elections and a prohibition on elected officials leaving office and becoming lobbyists. Yes, those very members of Congress who solicit and receive millions of dollars from wealthy interests must vote to remove ALL money from our electoral and legislative process. Tell your members of Congress they must support campaign finance bill H.R.1826. 4. Each of the 50 states must create a state-owned public bank like they have in North Dakota. Then congress MUST reinstate all the strict pre-Reagan regulations on all commercial banks, investment firms, insurance companies -- and all the other industries that have been savaged by deregulation: Airlines, the food industry, pharmaceutical companies -- you name it. If a company's primary motive to exist is to make a profit, then it needs a set of stringent rules to live by -- and the first rule is "Do no harm." The second rule: The question must always be asked -- "Is this for the common good?" (Click here for some info about the state- owned Bank of North Dakota.) 5. Save this fragile planet and declare that all the energy resources above and beneath the ground are owned collectively by all of us. Just like they do it in Sarah Palin's socialist Alaska. We only have a few decades of oil left. The public must be the owners and landlords of the natural resources and energy that exists within our borders or we will descend further into corporate anarchy. And when it comes to burning fossil fuels to transport ourselves, we must cease using the internal combustion engine and instruct our auto/transportation companies to rehire our skilled workforce and build mass transit (clean buses, light rail, subways, bullet trains, etc.) and new cars that don't contribute to climate change. (For more on this, here's a proposal I wrote in December.) Demand that General Motors' de facto chairman, Barack Obama, issue a JFK man- on-the-moon-style challenge to turn our country into a nation of trains and buses and subways. For Pete's sake, people, we were the ones who invented (or perfected) these damn things in the first place!! FIVE THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT LISTEN TO US: 1. Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four brief calls: One to the President (202-456-1414), one to your Congressperson (202-224- 3121) and one to each of your two Senators (202-224-3121). Take just one minute on each of these calls to let them know how you expect them to vote on a particular issue. Let them know you will have no hesitation voting for a primary opponent -- or even a candidate from another party -- if they don't do our bidding. Trust me, they will listen. And if you really want to drop an anvil on them, send them a snail mail letter! 2. Take over your local Democratic Party. Remember how much fun you had with all those friends and neighbors working together to get Barack Obama elected? YOU DID THE IMPOSSIBLE. It's time to re-up! Get everyone back together and go to the monthly meeting of your town or county Democratic Party -- and become the majority that runs it! There will not be many in attendance and they will either be happy or in shock that you and the Obama Revolution have entered the room looking like you mean business. President Obama's agenda will never happen without mass grass roots action -- and he won't feel encouraged to do the right thing if no one has his back, whether it's to stand with him, or push him in the right direction. When you become the local Democratic Party, send me a group photo and I'll post it on website. 3. Recruit someone to run for office who can win in your local elections next year -- or, better yet, consider running for office yourself! You don't have to settle for the incumbent who always expects to win. You can be our next representative! Don't believe it can happen? Check out these examples of regular citizens who got elected: State Senator Deb Simpson, California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall, Tempe, Arizona City Councilman Corey Woods, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Chris Danou, and Washington State Representative Larry Seaquist. The list goes on and on -- and you should be on it! 4. Show up. Picket the local branch of a big bank that took the bailout money. Hold vigils and marches. Consider civil disobedience. Those town hall meetings are open to you, too (and there's more of us than there are of them!). Make some noise, have some fun, get on the local news. Place "Capitalism Did This" signs on empty foreclosed homes, closed down businesses, crumbling schools and infrastructure. (You can download them from my website.) 5. Start your own media. You. Just you (or you and a couple friends). The mainstream media is owned by corporate America and, with few exceptions, it will never tell the whole truth -- so you have to do it! Start a blog! Start a website of real local news (here's an example: The Michigan Messenger). Tweet your friends and use Facebook to let them know what they need to do politically. The daily papers are dying. If you don't fill that void, who will? FIVE THINGS WE SHOULD DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR LOVED ONES UNTIL WE GET THROUGH THIS MESS: 1. Take your money out of your bank if it took bailout money and place it in a locally- owned bank or, preferably, a credit union. 2. Get rid of all your credit cards but one -- the kind where you have to pay up at the end of the month or you lose your card. 3. Do not invest in the stock market. If you have any extra cash, put it away in a savings account or, if you can, pay down on your mortgage so you can own your home as soon as possible. You can also buy very safe government savings bonds or T-bills. Or just buy your mother some flowers. 4. Unionize your workplace so that you and your coworkers have a say in how your business is run. Here's how to do it (more info here). Nothing is more American than democracy, and democracy shouldn't be checked at the door when you enter your workplace. Another way to Americanize your workplace is to turn your business into a worker-owned cooperative. You are not a wage slave. You are a free person, and you giving up eight hours of your life every day to someone else is to be properly compensated and respected. 5. Take care of yourself and your family. Sorry to go all Oprah on you, but she's right: Find a place of peace in your life and make the choice to be around people who are not full of negativity and cynicism. Look for those who nurture and love. Turn off the TV and the Blackberry and go for a 30-minute walk every day. Eat fruits and vegetables and cut down on anything that has sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour or too much sodium (salt) in it (and, as Michael Pollan says, "Eat (real) food, not too much, mostly plants"). Get seven hours of sleep each night and take the time to read a book a month. I know this sounds like I've turned into your grandma, but, dammit, take a good hard look at Granny -- she's fit, she's rested and she knows the names of both of her U. S. Senators without having to Google them. We might do well to listen to her. If we don't put our own "oxygen mask" on first (as they say on the airplane), we will be of no use to the rest of the nation in enacting any of this action plan! I'm sure there are many other ideas you can come up with on how we can build this movement. Get creative. Think outside the politics-as-usual box. BE SUBVERSIVE! Think of that local action no one else has tried. Behave as if your life depended on it. Be bold! Try doing something with reckless abandon. It may just liberate you and your community and your nation. And when you act, send me your stories, your photos and your video -- and be sure to post your ideas in the comments beneath this letter on my site so they can be shared with millions. C'mon people -- we can do this! I expect nothing less of all of you, my true and trusted fellow travelers! Yours, Michael Moore MMFlint@aol.com MichaelMoore.com UPDATE: My position that a single-payer system is the only solution to the health care crisis remains the same. I do not support H.R. 3200 unless it includes Rep. Anthony Weiner's amendment, which would essentially gut H.R. 3200 and replace it with Rep. John Conyers Jr.'s H.R. 676. In July, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised Rep. Weiner an up or down vote on his amendment before the end of the year. At that moment this became our best chance for a single-payer, universal health care plan for all. In the heat of the health care debate, strategies change from day to day, but as it stands right now, Rep. Weiner's amendment to H.R. 3200 is the best chance we have at achieving a single- payer system in the U.S. This is the same position held by the foremost activist groups for a single-payer health care plan: Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, and Healthcare-NOW! Let's ride his Trojan horse out of this mess. Write your congress members to demand that they support Rep. Weiner’s amendment. One thing remains clear: No health care system will be safe until every for-profit insurance company has been removed from it. |
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