In Cambridge-Building Sustainable Security Conference

Building Sustainable Security

Building Sustainable Security

Saturday, November 21, 2015 • 9:00 am to 5:30 pm

Harvard Law School • Wasserstein Hall

Confirmed Speakers
Noam Chomsky MIT Institute Professor, author, Because We Say So	Michael McPhearson Executive Director, Veterans For Peace	Harris Gruman RaiseUp Massachusetts; SEIU	Carl Williams American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts	Cassandra Bensahih Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement (EPOCA)
Barbara Madeloni Masachusetts Teachers Association (MTA)	Susan Redlich 350 Massachusetts divestment core team	Jimmy Tingle Humor for Humanity	Will Hopkins New Hampshire Peace Action

In the name of national security, our coun­try's policies  are caus­ing multiple, sys­temic cri­ses.  These include cli­mate ca­tas­trophe, ex­treme inequality, con­stant wars, deep-seated racism, mass incar­ceration, and a militarized cul­ture.
Only large social movements can remove these barriers to genuine security and construct a society based on Sustainable Security.
This conference will explore three pillars of sustainable national and world security:

• A fairly-shared global prosperity based on economic, social, and racial justice
• Emergency action to address climate change and build a new, fossil-fuel-free energy system
• A Foreign Policy for All based on even-handed diplomacy, ending our disastrous military interventions, abolition of nuclear weapons, and reclaiming war resources for the urgent needs that face our world

Join Us! in this effort to strategize, collaborate and mobilize for effective action together.  
 

Conference Program (subject to change)

8:30 Registration, Coffee, Literature Tables
9:30 Program Starts
Social Movements for Sustainable Security

Harris Gruman SEIU / RaiseUp Massachusetts

Carl Williams American Civil Liberties Union 

Susan Redlich 350MA, divestment core team 

Cassandra Bensahih Jobs Not Jails and Ex-Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement (EPOCA) 

Barbara Madeloni President, Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA)

Sustainable Security and Peace

Noam Chomsky Institute Professor Emeritus, MIT

Michael McPhearson Executive Director, Veterans for Peace

 
International Workshops Tentative topics

Ukraine and a New Cold War with Russia?

Nuclear Weapons and National Security?

Dealing with Climate and War Refugees

Technology, NSA and the National Security State

Storm in the Middle East: Iran Deal, ISIS War, Syria, Yemen

Links Between US Foreign Policy, Inequality, and Climate Change

The U.S. & China: Dangers & Alternatives to Military & Economic Containment

What’s at Stake in the Paris Climate Talks

From despair to empowerment--an experiential workshop

 
Lunch
Struggling for Sustainable Security: Connecting the Movements

The People’s Budget

Movement Building from the Street Up

Impacting Elections: Bird-Dogging the Presidential Candidates.   Roleplay : Will Hopkins, New Hampshire Peace Action; Arnie Alpert, AFSC; Jimmy Tingle, Humor for Humanity

 
Domestic Workshops Tentative topics

A Green Economy for Massachusetts

Black Lives Matter

Alternatives to Violence, At Home and Abroad

Jobs Not Jails

RaiseUp and the Fair Share Millionaire’s Tax

Build Housing, Not Bombs

 

Networking Reception


More information  

Contact Massachusetts Peace Action, info@masspeaceaction.org, 617-354-2169, for information.  
Members $25 • Non-Members $35  • Students/Low Income $10  • Lunch Included.   Register Now

What is Sustainable Security?

The 2016 elections are  bearing down on us. Whether we are working for social justice or peace or combatting climate change or racism, this election will impact our issues and our organizing.
It’s long past time for us to mobilize for real human security and well-being.
The banner of national security has been co-opted by charlatans of all stripes to wreak constant war on people we don’t know, to strip away our freedoms, to undermine our movements for justice, and to hand over our world and our futures to an extractive corporate elite.
Our country has participated in policies that have erected the three greatest barriers to true national security-- catastrophic climate change; constant war and a culture that nurtures war; and growing inequality that destroys democracy and feeds poverty, racism and mass incarceration as a way of life.
Only large social movements of ordinary people committed both to taking down these barriers and to constructing a society based on a shared vision can save us.
This conference will seek to identify new pillars upon which the real security of our country and our world must be based: saving our living planet from climate devastation; peace and nonviolent conflict resolution; dignified work, economic security, a place to call home; and the struggle against racism.
We work to build a renewable energy system, to rapidly cut carbon emissions and to stop the poisoning of our water, air and soil.
We work for the abolition of nuclear weapons, to stop the death and destruction of the conventional wars in which our nation has played a leading role, and to reclaim the vast resources wasted on militarism for our people’s and the world’s urgent needs.
We work for a fairly shared global prosperity and to end social, economic and racial injustice.
Promising efforts to organize for change have fallen short of what the crisis demands.  Millions of Americans share our concerns, but we are divided at the very time when we need to work together. As the problems escalate, there doesn’t seem to be the time or capacity to build the larger, more powerful movement that is required.
This conference will focus on solutions, actions, and capacity building using the frame of “real security” to activate more people and enable us to develop both stronger ties among our efforts and more effective actions