AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Medea Benjamin: Taking on the Military Industrial Complex: The “Launch” of the Massachusetts Raytheon Anti-War Campaign Thursday, September 27 @ 7pm Cambridge Friends Center, 5 Longfellow Park (off Brattle Street coming out of Harvard Square, Cambridge)

Medea Benjamin: Taking on the Military Industrial Complex:

The “Launch” of the Massachusetts Raytheon Anti-War Campaign

Thursday, September 27 @ 7pm

Cambridge Friends Center, 5 Longfellow Park (off Brattle Street coming out of Harvard Square, Cambridge)

Come hear one of the U.S.’ most prominent war analysts, anti-war speakers, and activists give us insight into ongoing U.S. wars and what we can do about them. Medea Benjamin is co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace. Her latest book is Inside Iran; The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran; it aims to re-educate the American public to prevent a war with Iran.

Medea will analyze our ongoing wars and outline a new strategy for stopping these wars focused on divestment from war contractors and the financial institutions that back them.

Hear about our new Raytheon Anti-War Campaign to oppose the Saudi-U.S. war in Yemen and U.S./Saudi/Israeli sanctions and threats of war against Iran. Raytheon is the largest war contractor in Massachusetts which provides various forms of critical support to the Saudi military – including the weapons and bombs inflicting a catastrophe on Yemen and its people.

Sponsored by Veterans for Peace/ Smedley Butler chapter; Massachusetts Peace Action, Friends Meeting at Cambridge/Peace and Social Concerns Committee; American Friends Service Committee

For Information: MAPA, 617-354-2169, info@masspeaceaction.org; Paul Shannon 617-623-5288

Supporters of the Raytheon Anti-war Campaign protest Raytheon’s support for the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen at the Raytheon facility in Cambridge on August 20

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Pardon Reality Winner!

On June 3, 2017, NSA contractor Reality Leigh Winner was arrested and charged under the Espionage Act for allegedly providing a media organization with a top-secret document that analyzed information about alleged Russian online intrusions into a U.S. election.

Winner has now been sentenced to five years in prison, the longest sentence ever given in federal court for leaking information to the media.

Several months before Winner's arrest, the FBI’s then-Director James Comey told President Trump that he was (in the words of a subsequent Comey memo) “eager to find leakers and would like to nail one to the door as a message.” Meanwhile, politically connected and high-level government officials continue to leak without consequence, or selectively declassify material to advance their own interests.

Click here to demand that this injustice be undone and to Pardon Reality

Find out more about Reality Winner

Friday, September 21, 2018

When Old Pete Ruled The House-With Banjo Man Pete Seeger In Mind

CD Review

By Zack James

Pete Seeger: headlines, footnotes and-a collection of topical songs, Pete Seeger, Smithsonian/Folkways, 1999

“You know you are wrong Seth about that first time we heard folk music, Woody Guthrie folk music in Mr. Lawrence’s music class back in seventh grade at old Jeramiah Holton Junior High,” Phil Larkin told one Seth Garth former old time music critic for the now long gone The Eye. Paid music critic a not unimportant point back in the day when alternative newspapers like The Eye survived and flopped on the sweat of unpaid unrequited volunteer labor and today too when the social media are flooded with citizen critics by the barrelful and everybody claims some expertise. Paid or not though Seth had called up Phil to verify what his fellow folk aficionado Jack Callahan and more recently drinking partner at the Erie Grille had told him when he had called upon Jack to refresh his memory about the first time he/they had heard a Woody Guthrie song. Jack had told Seth about the time that Mr. Lawrence had tried to unsuccessfully ween the class away from their undying devotion to the jail-break rock and roll music that was sweeping up youth nation just then. Then being the late 1950s. Seth had accepted what Jack said because he was after all a fellow aficionado, even if Seth had had to shoehorn him into the genre at the beginning and because he knew that Jack would not spread word around that Seth was not totally on top of every bit of arcane folk music lore around.

So it was a reputation thing Seth was worried about even these many years later. He had mentioned Jack and his conversation at the Eire to Phil in passing one afternoon and Phil had said he would think about any possible earlier listening. This was important since Seth had become very cautious about using any information not fully verified ever since early on in his journalistic career he had made the cardinal error of not checking out hearsay and rumor fully. He was berated by his tough editor for that mishap. Never again. So he was using his double check method on this question since he had been asked to write an unpaid article about the old folk days for the prestigious American Folk Song Review.

Phil continued the conversation by telling Seth, “Tell that jackass Jack Callahan didn’t he remember that in fourth grade Miss (now Ms.) Winot had played This Land Is Your Land on that old cranky record player of hers in order to teach us some kind of civics lesson, taught us that we were part of a great continental experiment. Remember that she had played the Weavers’ cover of that song with Pete Seeger doing that big bass voice thing and some other guy whose name I don’t remember was booming out the baritone and Ronnie Gilbert who just passed away was doing a big time soprano thing.” Jesus, Seth thought to himself Phil was right, right as rain. The two spoke of a few other non-music issues and then they both hung up.

That was not the end of it for Seth though, not for his article anyway. See Phil’s mentioning of the name Pete Seeger had sent a chill down his spine. Pete Seeger, and only Pete Seeger had been the reason that he had been ever cautious about sources. Back in 1965 he (and Jack and Jack’s then girlfriend now wife, Kathy, and he thought Mary Shea was his date) had attended the Newport Folk Festival that summer. That was the summer that Bob Dylan exploded the traditional folk universe by introducing the electric guitar into some of his songs. Did so on the stage the final night of the festival to boos and applause. Seth had been working his very first job as a free-lancer for the East Coast Other, another of the million small publications starting up and falling trying to find a niche in the print universe (free-lancer by the way since the usually cash-stripped publication had nobody else going to the concert so Seth got the assignment).

Here is where Seth had gotten into trouble though. He had a friend, a sound man friend who worked at the Club 47 in Cambridge who was doing duty at that job for the festival. A couple of days later he had run into the guy in Harvard Square and had asked Seth if he knew what had happened on the stage the night Dylan went electric. The guy swore that Pete Seeger had at some point pulled the plug on Dylan in disgust at taking folk music out into the common trough of rock and roll. Seth could hardly believe his ears-this was the hook that he would run his story on. In the event he put this hearsay into his article. No big deal, right. Just something to spice up the piece. The article was published with that information in it. No problem for a while. About a month later he was called into Larry Jeffers office, the editor of the East Coast Other then and shown a personal letter to the publication from Pete Seeger disclaiming the whole story about pulling the plug on Dylan and was looking for a retraction. Seth immediately went to the Club 47 to check with the sound man. It turned out that the sound man had not actually seen Pete pull the plug but had heard about the story from one of Dylan’s sidemen. The newspaper issued a retraction and Seth had egg all over his face.

The whole story of whether Pete Seeger pulled the plug or not on Dylan became part of the urban legend of the folk scene and still has devotees on both sides of the dispute long after Pete is dead and Dylan in out on another leg of his never-ending tour. But you can bet six two and even that one Seth Garth will be checking sources to see if Miss (now Ms.) Winot was the original proponent of Woody Guthrie’s music. Enough said.

In Honor Of Troy Davis On The Seventh Anniversary Of His Execution By The State Of Georgia

In Honor Of Troy Davis On The Seventh Anniversary Of His Execution By The State Of Georgia

Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears."

last lines from The Lonseome Death Of Hattie Carroll, another case of an injustice against black people. - Bob Dylan, 1963

Markin comment (posted September 22, 2011):

Look, after almost half a century of fighting every kind of progressive political struggle I have no Pollyanna-ish notion that in our fight for a “newer world” most of the time we are “tilting at windmills.” Even a cursory look at the history of our struggles brings that hard fact home. However some defeats in the class struggle, particularly the struggle to abolish the barbaric, racist death penalty in the United States, hit home harder than others. For some time now the fight to stop the execution of Troy Davis has galvanized this abolition movement into action. His callous execution by the State of Georgia, despite an international mobilization to stop the execution and grant him freedom, is such a defeat.

On the question of the death penalty, moreover, we do not grant the state the right to judicially murder the innocent or the guilty. But clearly Brother Davis was innocent. We will also not forget that hard fact. And we will not forget Brother Davis’ dignity and demeanor as he faced what he knew was a deck stacked against him. And, most importantly, we will not forgot to honor Brother Davis the best way we can by redoubling our efforts to abolition the racist, barbaric death penalty everywhere, for all time. Forward.

Additional Markin comment posted September 23, 2011:

No question the execution on September 21, 2011 by the State of Georgia of Troy Anthony Davis hit me, and not me alone, hard. For just a brief moment that night, when he was granted a temporary stay pending a last minute appeal before the United States Supreme Court just minutes before his 7:00 PM execution, I thought that we might have achieved a thimbleful of justice in this wicked old world. But it was not to be and so we battle on. Troy Davis shall now be honored in our pantheon along with the Haymarket Martyrs, Sacco and Vanzetti, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and others. While Brother Davis may have not been a hard politico like the others just mentioned his fight to abolish the death penalty for himself and for future Troys places him in that company. Honor Troy Davis- Fight To The Finish Against The Barbaric Racist Death Penalty!

VFPeNews: International Peace Day Veterans For Peace

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Thursday, September 20th

International Peace Day

We know that the UN has presented challenges towards achieving a JUST peace. However, as veterans we know that peace is not achieved in the moments before a conflict, and the price of "peace" after war are countless lives lost, survivors scarred, civil society in tatters and resources wasted. A JUST peace is found by building communities that meet human needs. We are all too familiar that injustices felt through poverty, racial inequality, religious bigotry, collapsing inner cities and infrastructures, lack of universal health care, climate change and quality education contribute to war and insecurity.
If we want to abolish war we must help our fellow citizens here at home see the same connections. We need to understand that dropping more bombs, killing innocent civilians and resorting to military solutions is robbing the world's children of health care, education and meaningful jobs to build a safer and more secure future. We believe that as people see and understand this connection, they will stand up with us against war. We can then work together to put in place the building blocks necessary to build a sustainable and peaceful future.
To that end, we call upon our members, fellow veterans, supporters and greater communities to move beyond talk of ending conflict, and instead adopt and implement practices that build peace at home and abroad.
Read our entire statement and check out our action page

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How Grassroots Activists Made Peace with North Korea Possible

Great article detailing the work of the Korea Peace Network, a coaltion that Veterans For Peace is a member.
"Amid the clamor and saber-rattling, however, a steady, persistent grassroots peace movement is working hard to counter the negativity. By influencing stakeholders behind the scenes, building new coalitions and reframing the narrative to promote negotiation as a difficult but worthwhile process, this movement has risen above “fire and fury” to chart the way toward lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Among the most important developments for the peace movement in the last year is the formation of broad coalitions. According to international scholar-activist Simone Chun, 2018 marked “the first time we saw a formidable, sustaining coalition with major American peace activists and the Korean activist communities.”
These coalitions have allowed actors to coordinate strategically in pushing for clear goals, like a formal declaration ending the Korean War and sustained diplomacy on a path to peace. These coalitions have also been key in elevating a range of voices, particularly those of Koreans, women and people of color, who have often been marginalized from the mainstream policy debates in Washington D.C."
Read the whole article
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Albuquerque Chapter passes Resolution to Save Our VA

On Thursday September 13, the United Veterans Council of New Mexico passed a resolution against the privatization of the Veterans Administration medical services.The resolution was introduced by the delegate from The Donald & Sally-Alice Thompson Chapter 63 of Veterans For Peace of Albuquerque and was approved without opposition.
Charles Powell sent in this reflection about the process of getting the resolution passed--which includes a great history of building a relationship with other veteran's organizations in Albuquerque.
"The United Veterans Council hosts events at the memorial, the major ones are on Memorial Day and Veterans Day each year. There was a period, although our VFP Chapter was a bona fide, dues paying member of the council, when our suggestions for program and speakers and requests to table were flatly rejected. They deemed us "too political." So we were relegated to the sidewalk outside the memorial grounds, where they even tried unsuccessfully to get the police to remove us.
Finally, with the help of the NM American Civil Liberties Union, we convinced them that a city entity cannot discriminate for political reasons. Since being compelled to admit us, relations have steadily improved. We attend monthly UVC meetings, our chapter helps maintain the roses on the grounds, and we help staff the visitors center, wearing our VFP t-shirts and caps and flying our flag . In recent years, on Veterans Day at the 11th hour, we have rung the Armistice bell to begin the program."
Read the Resolution and the rest of Charles' reflection!

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San Diego VFP new "Just Don't Go" Mobile Billboard

San Diego Veterans For Peace new "Just Don't Go" Mobile Billboard On Display Thursday, September 20th, 2018 from 4-6 PM
As part of its ongoing five year educational "Just Don't Go" outreach program, the San Diego Veterans For Peace have obtained a mobile billboard which will be driving around greater San Diego for the next week.
Read their press release!

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#LETTERSTOTHEWARMACHINE

The Women's March on the Pentagon encourages all those opposed to endless war to write #LettersToTheWarMachine, during our "Why I Oppose War" campaign.
The Pentagon's lust for endless war takes a heavy toll on the daily lives and the future of all people across the globe in a large variety of ways. It is a misconception that only those in war torn countries are impacted by the U.S. War Machine. Unfortunately, thanks to the ever expanding U.S. military budget and the Pentagon's lust for war, no corner of the planet is untouched from the War Machine's reach.
It is also a misconception that we can't do anything about this terrible reality. #LettersToTheWarMachine is an opportunity for you to speak your mind, to express your frustration, your anger and your grief, in writing. Writing down your thoughts becomes your plan of action. Your words peer up from the page and demand action from the reader. Expressing these emotions and demands clears your mind and readies you for the fight ahead, the fight against the War Machine.
Letters sent to use as part of this campaign will be featured on the Women's March website and many will be read aloud on October 21st at the Pentagon's fortress gates during the Women's March on the Pentagon.
Send Your Letter!

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New Veterans Organizing Institute Announced!

Beyond the Choir launched the Veterans Organizing Institute (VOI) in January 2016. In the Institute’s inaugural year they trained 63 veterans in organizing and campaigning skills, holding training in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. The program is run by veterans
They are now accepting applications for their next training, scheduled for Dec 6-9, 2018 in Phoenix, AZ. The VOI is for progressive veterans involved in social change, or who are looking to get involved.
"We are living in a moment of unprecedented political flux with growing instability both at home and abroad. Our communities are increasingly under attack both from established political forces and rising right-wing extremists. Yet this is also a moment of tremendous opportunity as growing powerful social movements have created a new wave of civic engagement. Against this backdrop, we believe veterans leadership and action has never been more important."
Find out more!

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#NoWar2018

World Beyond War is having their annual #NoWar2018 in Toronto this weekend!(Details here.)
Here is a note from them on how to tune in:
"We’ll be live streaming most of #NoWar2018 via our Facebook page!
Tune in this Thurday and Friday evenings and Saturday.
Each of the plenary sessions will “go live” a few minutes prior to the scheduled time (see conference schedule).
We will also be livestreaming the pre-conference book talk with Medea Benjamin on Thursday 9/20 from 6:00pm-8:00pm Eastern."

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In This Issue:

International Peace Day

Not One Emmy for Ken Burns and “The Vietnam War”
How Grassroots Activists Made Peace with North Korea Possible
Leave No One Behind: Keeping Our Promise to Deported Veterans
Albuquerque Chapter passes Resolution to Save Our VA

Marching Against the End of the World: Disarm Trident
San Diego VFP new "Just Don't Go" Mobile Billboard
New Peace In Our Times Available for Order

#LETTERSTOTHEWARMACHINE

International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases

New Veterans Organizing Institute Announced!
Keep Space for Peace Week
#NoWar2018
ICYMI: In Case You Missed It
Upcoming Events

Not One Emmy for Ken Burns and “The Vietnam War”

Veterans For Peace Full Disclosure has been actively working on a campaign to educate and inform the public on the true costs of the Viet Nam War. They have used the recent documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick as a catalyst to point out all the pieces that have been left out. One of the successful tactics they used was to put a full page ad in Variety, a magazine geared towards Hollywood.
"The organization Veterans for Peace (VFP) published personal responses to Burns’s series by a few of its members, some of them Vietnam veterans. Unlike most of the U.S. veterans interviewed by Burns and Novick, these Vietnam veterans were highly critical of what their military had done to the people of Vietnam. And they were highly critical of the dishonesty and the lack of moral vision they perceived in Burns’s filmmaking."
Read this great article that details how their campaign took shape!
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Leave No One Behind: Keeping Our Promise to Deported Veterans

Veterans For Peace member Alfredo Figueroa is heading up a project titled "Leave No Man Behind: Keeping our Promise to Deported Veterans". Alfredo is a OIF and OEF combat veteran that recently graduated from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He recently was granted the Judith Lee Stronach price, which allows him to work with veterans that have been deported. He is also on the board of Veterans For Peace's Deported Veteran Advocacy Project.
He is currently doing workshops around the Bay area but is available to come to local communities to talk about his project.
Alfredo is based in California and can be contacted via email to set up a potential workshop. His email is: alfredo.figueroa01@berkeley.edu
Click her for more info, a bio on Alfredo and how you can help!
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Marching Against the End of the World: Disarm Trident

Unfortunately, all of the nuclear weapons states boycotted the Treaty negotiations, and in the United States, politicians, the media, as well as the Church are completely silent about it. So, the message of the Plowshares movement continues to move through the land—if governments won't disarm, the people must. Molly Rush, one of the original Plowshares 8, later wrote that as she hammered on the warhead nose cone she "put a hole in one and a dent in another. And, I thought, these things are as vulnerable as we are, and we can undo what has been done."
Read the Entire Piece
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New Peace In Our Times Available for Order

A note from the PIOT team:
We’re very excited about the fall issue of Peace in Our Times. Two great lead stories that you can see on the front page – one by Vietnam veteran and wilderness advocate Doug Peacock on the de-listing of grizzlies from the Endangered Species Act and what that means not only for the grizzles, but also for the threats to our land and water. In ‘Why I’m going to Ireland ...’ David Swanson writes brilliantly about the importance of the upcoming global conference in Dublin against U.S./NATO military bases. This issue is filled with compelling, well-written articles and dramatic pictures about the urgent state of affairs in the United States and the world.
Articles include

Chris Wright on the wave of young socialists winning Democratic primaries
Jane Regan on immigration and its root causes
Howard Machtinger on why combatting white privilege is in everyone's interest
Col. Ann Wright on the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Daniel Borgstrom on why no one, including John McCain, should be called a war hero
Kathie Ragsdale on a federal suit challenging U.S. corruption in Iraq

Plus pieces by Alice Kurima Newberry, Gideon Levy, Marjorie Cohn, Dave Zirin, Denny Riley, Brittany Ramos DeBarros, Miko Peled, Ellen Barfield, and others.
To be sure you don’t miss out on this very important issue please place your order before September 21. Those of you with annual subscriptions please check to see that it has not run out.
Order Now!
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International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases

Global Campaign Against US/NATO Military Bases is Organizing a 3-day International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases on November 16-18, 2018, at the Library Hall, Dublin, Ireland. It will be live streamed for the international audience.
The conference will feature international experts. Several expert panels will discuss the economic, political, environmental and health costs and impact of US/NATO military bases in various regions of the world, including Central and South America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.
The Conference is jointly organized by Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) and Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases (USA), and is endorsed by the sponsoring organizations of the International Campaign.
Make sure to register now! If you are Veterans For Peace member and attending the conference, please contact colleen@veteransforpeace.org
Recently the Canadian Peace Congress (CPCon), the U.S. Peace Council (USPC) and the Mexican Movement for Peace and Development (MOMPADE) held their fourth Trilateral Meeting on September 13, 2018 in Moca, Dominican Republic in conjunction with the Hemispheric Peace Conference of the World Peace Council and its affiliates on this continent. Upon the conclusion of their meeting, the delegations of the three organizations issued the following statement:
"The participants express grave concern that the accelerated drive to militarization, aggression and war threatens the very future of humanity, and call for urgent measures to stop and reverse the arms race, to sharply reduce bloated military budgets and to redirect these funds to peaceful and socially useful purposes to raise wages and living standards, improve social programs and protect our environment. Urgent efforts are required to prevent the modernization of nuclear arsenals, to ban the militarization of outer space, and to move in the direction of general and comprehensive disarmament, including the ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons"
Read the Entire Statement
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Keep Space for Peace Week

Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space is planning their International Week of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space for Oct. 6-13th.
They now have a list of actions up and encourage you to take action in your local community!
Check out this list of actions, resources and contact information

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