Monday, March 25, 2013

e, Boston, March 17, 2013
Joan LivingstonJoan Livingston·20 videos
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Published on Mar 19, 2013
The third annual "alternative people's" parade hosted by chapter 9 (the Smedley D. Butler Brigade) of Veterans for Peace in South Boston: this inclusive event is the alternative to a St. Patrick's Day Parade that has excluded peace groups as well as members of LGBTQ groups since the 1990s. This year's participants also included veterans and others from all over New England, as well as a large range of local-regional labor groups, faith communities, and others working for social, economic, and climate justice, including Occupy. Participants were treated to the music of 6 different bands and performances by members of the Bread and Puppet Theater. Themes ranged from blocking the Keystone XL pipeline to freeing Bradley Manning, and ending all wars of occupation ("support the troops: bring them home!").
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    • Melodeego2003
      Melodeego2003 3 days ago
      so happy we got to be a part of this parade this year. Awesome day, beginning to end. Love that you made sure that every group got a moment in here, too.
      ·
    • Elodie Baloney
      Elodie Baloney 3 days ago
      DUDE IN THE FIRST PICTURE IN THE ONE IN THE WHITE COAT BEHIND THE GUY IN THE BLUE PATRIOTS COAT!!!!!
      ·
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    Iraq Veterans Against the WarSupport Our Work: Donate Now
    Smedleys & Samanthas,
    Here is a notice from IVAW. Please try and attend if possible.
    Pat

    Join us for two events marking the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

    Yesterday Iraq Veterans Against the War launched an initiative with Iraqi civil society organizations to hold our government accountable for the enduring human rights impacts of their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Representatives from IVAW and the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq will be in the Boston area next week to discuss their historic joint initiative at two events:

    Event #1: For Us, The Wars Aren't Over: The Right to Heal Initiative

    Tuesday, March 26
    7:00 - 9:00 PM
    Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Room 2012
    Speakers:
    Yanar Mohammed, President, Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI)
    Ms. Mohammed is the founder of OWFI, a nongovernmental organization that promotes women's rights and interests in Iraq. She will speak about OWFI's work in an Iraqi town near a U.S. military base that has seen dramatic increases in the incidence of birth defects, cancers, and other severe health ailments.
    Matthew Howard, Communications Coordinator, Iraq Veterans Against the War
    Matt served two tours in Iraq with the Marine Corps as a helicopter mechanic. He will discuss the costs of war for U.S. service members and veterans, particularly the obstacles that prevent too many from receiving proper medical and mental health care. IVAW and its subcommittee, Afghanistan Veterans Against the War, have advocated for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and for reparations to Iraqis for the costs of war.
    Pamela Spees, Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
    Ms. Spees will discuss CCR's role as a support player in the Right to Heal's collaborative project to ensure the U.S. takes concrete steps for health care, accountability, and reparations.
    Moderator: Deborah Alejandra Popowski, Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
    Dinner will be served.

    Event #2: House Party to benefit Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq

    Wednesday, March 27
    7:00 - 9:00 PM
    Hosted by Nancy Goldner
    111 Perkins Street, Apt. 200
    Jamaicaway Tower, 20th floor
    Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
    Enjoy a chance to talk informally with the Iraq Veterans Against the War national staff,
    Matt Howard, Coomunications Coordinator and Amadee Braxton, Director of Development.
    We will share a message from Yanar Mohammed, President of Organiztion of Women's Freedom in Iraq, as she will not be able to attend this event.
    Refreshments will be served.
    Please bring your checkbook, credit card, or cash. Donations will be split 50/50 between IVAW and OWFI.
    If driving, there is parking at the building, which is the last driveway on the Right before the Intersecton of Jamaicaway and Perkins St. Street parking is also available.
    By public transportation, location is accessible by #39 bus, stops at Perkins St; Green Line E to last stop (a short walk up South Huntington to Perkins, turn right to Buillding).
    We hope you can join us for one or both of these events.
    See you there!
    In Solidarity,
    Matt and Amadee
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    The World Can't Wait
    Stop the Crimes of Your Government    		 Donate | Local Chapters | Store | Previous Newsletters

    Talk to you tonight!

    On the phone
    TONIGHT March 21
    10pm Eastern / 7pm
    Pacific
    Register for dial-in info
    Cindy
    Join us for a conference call with Cindy Sheehan on the 10th anniversary of the US War on Iraq & her latest project: Tour de Peace.

    David Swanson writes:
    “Between April 4 and July 3, the entire country (and the other 96% of humanity too) is invited to join in a bicycle ride from California to Washington, D.C. You can     join as a bicycler or as a sponsor.

    Continue reading...
    After we talk to Cindy, a representative of Witness Against Torture (    witnesstorture.org) will join us to discuss the huge hunger strike happening right now at Guantanamo and our response to it.

    Register for the call.
    DONATE
    Alfred,

    First, from the Guantanamo lawyers, news came last month of the outrage from prisoners over a new regime of searches and confiscation of family photographs and reading material. We've been hearing for weeks now of a mass hunger strike, not only because of the insults and deprivation of the few connections they have with loved ones, but mainly because the prisoners are "buried alive" with no way to leave the illegitmate prison, even if they have been cleared for release years ago.

    Candace Gorman, who gave up much of her practice in Chicago to represent men in GTMO,     wrote yesterday that flights to GTMO have been suspended and asks whether that is
    “Just to make sure that our clients do not have the benefit of attorneys the new powers to be at Guantanamo have ruled that the planes that most of us take to and from Gitmo can no longer fly to the base. Perhaps it is because they don't want us reporting on the hunger strike as Jim White over at emptywheel suggests here. Perhaps it is part of the year long struggle we have been having with the powers to be in which they tried to rewrite the protective order making it so that many of the attorneys could only visit the base at the discretion of the military....I covered that story here.

    Or maybe it is simply because Obama has given up on closing the base and hopes that if we attorneys (and reporters) have enough trouble getting there maybe the coverage of Guantanamo will disappear. IT WONT. We have not put in this much time to just go quietly into the night.....Carol Rosenberg has more     here...”
    In a piece in Harper's on another subject, a passing statement to the effect that everyone knows Guantanamo won't close until all the prisoners have died, stopped me cold. Will we allow this?
    Witness Against Torture protest
    Witness Against Torture contacted us yesterday with a plan for mass protest, and a support hunger strike. There are ALL KINDS of ways you can help focus public attention — and thereby force the government to back off on these measures at GTMO. I urge you to join us.

    HUNGER STRIKE AT GUANTANAMO: Emergency Response & Call to Action

    Learn more:

    The Price for Protesting War at U.S. Military Academy

    ProtestersSix anti-war activists and leaders, aged 30 through 75 were sentenced on March 19 to eight hours “community service,” and $125 court costs for a disorderly conduct conviction arising from a protest 300 people made December 1, 2009, when Obama announced, inside the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a huge expansion of US troops to Afghanistan.
    Elaine Brower, Matthis Chiroux, Tarak Kauff, Alison Beth Levy, and Richie Marini agreed to serve the time, washing Highland Falls, NY, ambulances and police cars, and pay the fee. Beverly Rice asked that she be able to send funds instead to the National Lawyers Guild, and when that was denied, she took jail time, on the basis of conscience. Her sentence was ten days at the Orange County jail, where she was taken immediately. The sheriff says Bev, 75, will be released early.

    The case had gone on for more than 3 years. After one of two disorderly conduct convictions was overturned on a pro se appeal, a new judge delayed sentencing because court records were “lost” in Hurricane Irene. He then forced the defendants to appear two more times with an attorney before sentencing. The courtroom in Highland Falls was packed with mostly young people charged with traffic and other violations, at least one in an Army uniform. Everyone listened quietly as most of the defendants made pre-sentence statements to the judge.

    Elaine Brower said she had been outside the gate at West Point to “petition my government” to stop the war. “My son did ten years in the Marine Corps, two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He has done horrible things” as part of the U.S. war on those countries. She said “I am seeing that injustice in the eyes of my son who is emotionally wounded.”

    Elaine went on to say that “we have no recourse” to get the government’s attention except our legally permitted right to assemble. “They keep sending young men and women to kill. We protested at West Point when Bush was president, and we had to be there when Obama expanded the war on Afghanistan. And we’ll be here when the next president invades a sovereign nation. Humanity and the planet come first. Crimes are crimes, no matter who does them.”

    Richie Marini’s     statement included:
    The United States has an incredibly violent history as we stand here today on land acquired through Genocidal means and can claim title to the only country to ever use an atomic weapon of mass destruction against another. The United States government continues down this trajectory of violence today with it’s use of torture, extraordinary rendition and drones that murder innocent civilians every day. It commits these violent acts to sustain itself by creating new markets, obtaining resources and enslaving people into it’s system in order to prevent itself from collapsing at the expense of innocent lives abroad…

    Despite the penalties imposed upon me here today I will continue to work effortlessly to organize the citizens of Highland Falls and elsewhere to put stop the crimes of this government. As an Humanitarian, this is the greatest service that I can do for the citizens of Highland Falls, the United States, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere…     Read more
    BevBev Rice said she would not apologize for the protest:
    A total of 2177 American soldiers have been killed during the eleven years we have been fighting in Afghanistan.

    1230 have been killed since we were arrested three years ago? How many more have been wounded? How many more have been sent home suffering emotional and mental illnesses? Consider, 22 veterans commit suicide each day! Consider also the sorrowful loss for the family and friends of our dead and wounded soldiers. I consider these each and every day.
    I am proud to have been involved in the protest, and to have participated in the defense of the West Point Six. We need more people willing to speak the truth, and put themselves on the line to stop the crimes of our government.

    Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait
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