Veterans For Peace Weekly E-Letter

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	Friday, December 11, 2015 VFP Issues Press Release In Response to President Obama's Speech This Week VFP is calling on the President to: Make diplomacy the number one priority with all interested parties and without pre-conditions. Stop the airstrikes because the Sunni leaders and militia, who President Obama acknowledges must be persuaded to break with ISIL, see the U.S. as acting as the air force for the Kurds and Shia against Sunnis. Bombing Sunnis will not help mend this relationship. Stop the slippery slope of sending troops to the fight. Stop sending more weapons that fuel the conflict, killing more civilians and ignoring human rights violations committed by “allies.” Initiate a new effort at building a broad diplomatic solution in the United Nations to use diplomatic and financial pressure to stop countries from financing and arming ISIL and other fighters in Syria. An arms embargo on all sides should be on the long-term agenda. Massively increase humanitarian efforts through the UN and any other means. The United States should welcome more refugees from Syria and other war torn nations, and should donate generously to United Nations refugee resettlement programs.  <Full Press Release> Back to Top Election Results Available Next Week Ballots have been counted by volunteers of the St Louis Chapter 61.  Because of the delay of members receiving his/her ballot, we are extending publishing the final count until next week to allow time for all ballots to be received. A special blast will be sent with the election results. Back to Top VFP Jeju Island Delegation Update There are numerous articles w/pictures about VFP's presence in Korea.   The police were happy to see the delegation leave.  Islanders received the delegation warmly and their solidarity with local residents who are opposing a U.S. Navy deep water port was appreciated. The Korean left, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist resistance has been very strong in Jeju for many years, decades, and they have suffered for it, much like the Palestinians. The delegation had a great deal of respect for the deep experience of people,  met and earned much from them. Photos courtesy of Ellen Davidson: https://picasaweb.google.com/106906066409718302863/JejuIsland12515 https://picasaweb.google.com/106906066409718302863/JejuIsland12615 Back to Top Contact Your Member of Congress and Tell Them:  No Riders on the Federal Budget! Congress has extended its deadline to pass a federal budget until Wed, Dec 16.  We can use these days to insist we want a bill with NO policy riders refusing entry to Syrian refugees and other right wing agendas. Even without the riders, this is not a budget we want.  It still heavily prioritizes military spending over human needs.  There are real alternatives.  One good example is the "People's Budget" which is proposed each year by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Tell your Representative and Senators you want a clean budget bill.  No riders de-funding! Congressional Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Find your Member of Congress Back to Top Travel Opportunities for Activists VFP January, 2016 Cuba Tour Sold Out! We will lead one final tour to the island in March 2016. Here is the March itinerary. http://cubaexplorer.com/tours/jrv/ We take just 15 people, providing an intimate chance to get to know the Cuban people and our fellow veterans Our tours are led by VFP member and Cuban documentary film maker Jim Ryerson, who has been to the island more than 25 times. jim@travelingman.net 323-436-5223 Location Sponsored by Dates Contact Cuba Code Pink Feb 2016 Visit the Code Pink website Việt Nam Việt Nam's  Hoa Binh (Peace) Chapter 160 Mar 14- 30, 2016 For more information, please email Nadya Williams Cuba Code Pink May 2016 Visit the Code Pink website Palestine Interfaith Peacebuilders May 21 - Jun 1 2016 For more information email esiegel@ifpb.org Columbia Witness for Peace Jul 20-30, 2016 For more information email or call:  Patrick Bonner:  323-563-7940  pkbonner@earthlink.net Palestine Interfaith Peacebuilders Jul 16- 29 2016 For more information email esiegel@ifpb.org Palestine Interfaith Peacebuilders Oct   24-Nov     6 2016 For more information email esiegel@ifpb.org Back to Top		In This Issue: VFP Issues Press Release In Response to President Obama's Speech This Week Election Results Available Next Week VFP Jeju Island Delegation Update Contact Your Member of Congress and Tell Them:  No Riders on the budget bill! Travel Opportunities for Activists Consider a Lifetime Membership in VFP We Need Your Story of Why You Are a Veteran For Peace! VFP 2016 Annual Spring Tour to Viet Nam Member/Chapter Highlights Save the Dates:  Upcoming VFP Endorsed Actions/Events Consider a Lifetime Membership in VFP If you are not a LIFETIME member, please consider becoming one. Perhaps you have a deserving member in your chapter, a family member, or a veteran who is not yet a member whom you would like to honor with a LIFETIME membership. As LIFETIME members we are bound together with the 30-year history of VFP and to LIFETIME members who have gone before us and those yet to come. Signup Online for a Lifetime Membership If you need additional information, contact Doug Zachary by email doug@veteransforpeace.org or by phone (Home 512-549-3530 or Cell 512-629-3812) for more information. Back to Top We Need Your Story of Why You Are a Veteran For Peace! The personal story of a Veterans For Peace member is the most powerful tool we have to educate others on the reality of war. If you are a current member, help us by sending: Why you are part of VFP, written in first person About 200 words A photo of yourself (minimum 200 pixels) Back to Top VFP 2016 Annual Spring Tour to Viet Nam Dates of travel:  Mar 14 - Mar 30, 2016 Each year since 2012, members of Việt Nam's Hoa Binh (Peace) Chapter 160 of Veterans For Peace invite up to 20 veterans, non-veterans, spouses & peace activists to come to Việt Nam for an insider's 2-week tour. The Hoa Binh chapter is the first & only overseas VFP chapter of American veterans living in Việt Nam! The mission of the tour is to address the legacies of America’s war, as well as visit a beautiful country & form lasting ties of friendship & peace.  For more information, email Nadya Williams @ nadyanomad@gmail.com Back to Top Member/Chapter Highlights VFP-UK members throw down their medals on Downing Street this week.  <Watch video> Gary Butterfield and Gil Field, members of the San Diego Chapter 91 along with two local high school students sought out homeless veterans with little or no sleeping gear to hand out sleeping bags.  Chapter 91 call their efforts, Compassion Campaign. Read the high school student's reactions to the experience.   Back to Top Save the Dates:  Upcoming VFP Endorsed Actions/Events Dec 12 - Memorial Service for Michael Clift in San Diego, CA Dec 16 - Book Reading: We Gotta Get Out of This Place in Madison WI Dec 24 - Anniversary of Christmas Truce of 1914 Jan 18, 2016 - MLK Day Mar 27- April 2, 2016 - Shut Down Creech AFB Apr 15 - GDAMS (Global Day Against Military Spending) Apr 22 - Earth Day May 14-21, 2016 - Sam's 5th Annual Ride for Peace, Raleigh, NC to Washington, DC May 30 — Memorial Day (Observed) Aug 11-15, 2016 - VFP Annual Convention at Clark Kerr campus of University of California Berkeley, CA Sep 21—International Day of Peace Nov 11 - Armistice Day Back to Top Did you know? In 2005, the Dallas convention was most notable for the launching of Cindy Sheehan and Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas.
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We Won't Give Up the Fight!

We Won't Give Up the Fight!

 

See the many photos with this report at   http://space4peace.blogspot.jp/2015/12/we-wont-give-up-fight.html 

 

We were up early yesterday morning and on the road to Camp Schwab where there was a 6:00 am gate blockage against the early construction work on the proposed Marine airfield twin-runways that will be plunked down in pristine Oura Bay.

 

Our Veterans For Peace delegation was warmly received by the more than 100 Okinawan citizens who were already gathering in front of the gate when we arrived.  Many of them were elderly and protest leaders had them chanting and singing even before the sun rose.  We were given tiny folding seats in the front row of the festive crowd and we tied our banners to thin plastic poles that held aloft a blue tarp used to protect from the rain and sun.

 

Just after 7:00 am the Japanese police (from Tokyo and boarding in an expensive ritzy resort nearby) began hauling the gate blockers away one by one.  Our VFP contingent locked arms and spread out flat on the ground.  We were the last to be taken but were carried away just like the rest of the folks.  They stowed us in a make shift holding pen behind a couple police buses and after about 15 minutes let us go once the gate was cleared for the waiting construction vehicles.

 

The Okinawan peace activists quickly moved down the road a bit to the main base gate and proceeded to sit in the road blocking that one.  Police pushed enough people aside to open one lane so cars could leave the base and again our VFP crew was positioned in the front row so the many American GI's leaving the base could not miss our white faces and VFP attire.  I saw one Marine give us the thumps up as his car left the base.

 

One 87 year old woman we met at the gate told us her story - she was burned severely by American flamethrowers during the 1945 US invasion of Okinawa.  A US military officer once told her, "Killing is my business."  She had fire in her eyes and is much adored by the protest crowd.

 

We were next loaded up and driven an hour further north to Takae where even another US base is located.  This one is called the northern drill area for jungle warfare where three kinds of helicopters are being deployed (including the controversial Osprey which has often crashed).  This area is a subtropical forest and mountain area that the military has used since Vietnam for jungle training.  Sixty percent of Okinawa's drinking water comes from this region.  It was only in recent years that the small local village called Higashi (population 150) learned that the US had tested Agent Orange in the surrounding forest during the Vietnam years.  Dow Chemical (which manufactured Agent Orange) drums were uncovered in the area.  The locals tried to get the water tested but US forces interfered with that process.  Fox and turtles in the area have been found with deformities.

 

We jumped back on our bus and returned to Camp Schwab just in time for what is called "Henoko University" which was a group of about 50 folks again blocking the construction gate.  We were invited to join them and each of us were asked to tell a bit about our time in the military.  I talked about my own conversion from a young militarist to a peace activist largely because of the protests at Travis AFB in California where I was stationed and the impact of those regular vigils on the GI's inside the base.  I suggested that they are touching more hearts than they could ever imagine and that the sparks from their non-violent protests are causing many inside the base gates to open their minds and debate the issues.  So keep protesting!

 

At 5:00 pm we arrived in Nago City to meet with Mayor Inamine who a few of us from VFP had met in Washington last year when Okinawan leaders traveled to DC to lobby against the Henoko runway project.  Mayor Inamine stood by a huge map of the city on his office wall and pointed out four areas where he is using his powers to block requests for base expansion operations.  He reported that 80% of the people in Okinawa are opposed to US bases and that he and the current Gov. Onaga were elected because of their opposition.  The mayor reported that Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Washington were trying to drown Okinawan citizens demands - it's a classic power struggle which is now before Japan's Supreme Court for resolution.  The question: Can Tokyo overrule local elected officials who are implementing the will of the people?

 

Mayor Inamine also reported that Japan is paying for the Marine runway that is proposed to be built on top of Oura Bay.  Just like the South Korean government is paying for the Navy base on Jeju Island - the US is now forcing 'host governments' to pay for greater shares of Pentagon military operations in various countries.  This then allows Washington to say that the conflict between local citizens in South Korea or Japan is a 'domestic issue' and that the US really can't get involved.  Total bullshit.

 

The mayor told us that "We don't want to take the part of victimizers in a war.  During the Vietnam War US bombers took off from here.  It so offended us."  He also stated what we heard from our other meeting with the mayor of Yomitan Village two days ago - "Okinawa does not prosper from US bases.  Less than 5% of our island income comes from bases.  The new runway has a flight path that would go directly over a popular tourist resort that attracts 200,000 people each year.  If the Henoko runway gets built they won't come back anymore."

 

Already we can see that from top-to-bottom the people of Okinawa are in serious revolt against the US military empire.  It's days are numbered.  Ordinary citizens are blocking base gates - city mayors and the governor of the island are using every legal means at their disposal to block base expansions.  The media on Okinawa is covering the story practically every day on the front page.  The right-wing Abe government in Tokyo is getting hammered in Okinawa.  In Japan citizens are allowed to designate which of the nation's 47 prefectures (states) they want their taxes sent to.  Many people in Japan, in solidarity with Okinawa, are designating their taxes be sent to the struggling people in Okinawa.

 

It makes our VFP delegation furious to see the abuse the people of Okinawa are daily getting from Tokyo and Washington.  The people keep telling us they will never give up - we heard the same words on Jeju Island.  The folks on Okinawa understand what real war means.  The memory of the 1945 US invasion that killed one out of every four people on Okinawa is seared into their consciousness.  They understand that US bases on their island make them a target once again.

 

The people here also keep saying that they are tired of war and they realize that they must fight hard to make sure it does not destroy their beautiful island home once again. We keep telling them that they are not alone - we are all in this one together.

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/  (blog)

Happy Birthday CHELSEA MANNING! -Free her now!-Support all whistleblowers!

Happy Birthday CHELSEA MANNING! Free her now! Support all whistleblowers!
So far, 11 ACTIONS IN 6 COUNTRIES... Canada, Germany, Ireland, Romania, UK, US... Let us know if you have an action where you are   Mainz 11 Dec - Letter writing to Prisoners of Peace Berlin 12 Dec - Solidarity with Chelsea at Disruptive Network Lab Detroit 12 Dec - Birthday celebration Bucharest 17 Dec - Celebration at University Square London 17 Dec - Speak out at Trafalgar Sq Oakland 17 Dec - Speak out, music, card signing at Omni Common Crescent 17 Dec - Celebration in Chelsea's hometown! Philadelphia 19 Dec - Letter writing and celebration Boston 19 Dec - Birthday Vigil for Chelsea Manning Vancouver 19 Dec - Info table and petitioning Dublin For details contact: admin@afri.ie Chelsea Manning will be 28 years old on this day.  She is the trans woman whistleblower, US soldier, Grand Marshal at San Francisco Pride 2014, who leaked hundreds of thousands of documents to Wikileaks exposing the truth about US, UK and other governments’ war crimes and corruption in Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Israel & the Palestinian Authority, Peru, Venezuela . . .  In doing so, she helped save many lives.  Chelsea was Imprisoned in 2010 and held for months under torturous conditions; in August 2013 she was sentenced to 35 years. From prison Chelsea has written against the police killings of young people of colour in the US, and in support of immigrants and refugees – including queer and transgender people. An appeal to quash Chelsea Manning’s conviction is being put forward by her legal team and will be announced in late 2015 or early 2016.  We must get her out! Sign the petition for Obama to pardon Chelsea. Donations to her legal fund are needed also.For more info: Chelsea Manning Support Network Despite mass protest, the UK Parliament has just voted to bomb Syria (see Payday’s letter here).  Whistleblowers like Chelsea and now former US drone operators have blown the whistle on the killing of civilians during bombing. We have a responsibility to defend all whistleblowers who are persecuted for telling the truth about murder and war crimes, rape, torture, neglect, underfunding, starvation wages, corruption . . .  in the military, prison, detention centres, police, hospitals, care homes, and every institution.
Support Whistleblowers	Julian Assange		Eileen Chubb			Edward Snowden
Dallas 6				Drones Whistleblowers
Queer Strike UK: +44 (0) 20 7482 2496  US: 001 415-626 4114		Payday   www.refusingtokill.net UK: +44 (0)20 7267 8698 US: 001 215 848 1120

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Socialist Alternative, by leading the re-election campaign of Kshama Sawant

A Frank Jackman disclaimer:

I place some material in this space which I believe may be of interest to the radical public that I do not necessarily agree with or support. One of the worst aspects of the old New Left back in the 1970s as many turned to Marxism after about fifty other theories did not work out was the freezing out political debate with other opponents on the Left to try to clarify the pressing issues of the day. Those jackboot theories, mainly centered on some student-based movements that were somehow to bring down the beast without a struggle for state power, were theories that I earnestly adhered to sometimes more than one at the same time. Nevertheless by our exclusionism we were replicating the worst habits of the old Old Left (those who came of political age and fought the great class battles of the 1930s when kept their generation above water for a long time but which now despite the importance of studying have run out of steam). That freezing out , more times than I care to mention including my own behavior a few times, included physical exclusion and intimidation. I have since come to believe that the fight around programs and politics is what makes us different, and more interesting. The mix of ideas, personalities and programs, will sort themselves out in the furnace of the revolution as they have done in the past. 

Off-hand, as I have mentioned before, I think it would be easier, infinitely easier, to fight for the socialist revolution straight up than some of the “remedies” provided by the commentators in these various blogs and other networking media. But part of that struggle for the socialist revolution is to sort out the “real” stuff from the fluff as we struggle for that more just world that animates our efforts. So read on. 

Socialist Alternative, by leading the re-election campaign of Kshama Sawant and the fight for $15, has begun to build the political movement to take on the billionaire class.  Become a $20/month donor to sustain the movement! LET'S BUILD THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION AGAINST THE BILLIONAIRE CLASS!   "The world is changing. People across the US are fed up with corporate politics, and millions are discussing socialist ideas. We need to seize this opportunity and organize a socialist movement of thousands of activists throughout the country.  - Socialist Alternative's Seattle city Councilmember Kshama Sawant From the Black Lives Matter movement to the growing call for $15, there's a revolt breaking out against Wall Street and the endemic inequality and racism generated by its system. Bernie Sanders is introducing a whole new generation of young people to the ideas of socialism and the need to build movements against corporate hegemony. In 2016, Socialist Alternative is supporting Bernie Sanders' challenge to pro-corporate, anti-$15, pro-war Hillary Clinton.  We'll be initiating or joining protests and actions to strengthen his challenge to corporate domination of politics. In 2016, we're continuing the battle for a $15 across the country, campaigning against sexism, homophobia, environmental devastation, rising tuition, student debt and skyrocketing rents. Socialist Alternative, by leading the re-election campaign of Kshama Sawant and the fight for $15, has begun to build the political movement to take on the billionaire class. We have a tremendous opportunity to build the socialist progressive movement. From California to Florida, Socialist Alternative has been flooded with hundreds of people interested in getting involved in our movement.  But we don't have the resources to handle the level of interest. We need to hire organizers to build new chapters of Socialist Alternative throughout the country. We also need to increase the circulation of our newspaper and website to further spread our socialist analysis, lessons from our victories, and skillful tactics to arm the youth and working people moving into struggle. Can we count you in?

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