Saturday, June 10, 2017

In Boston-Black Lives Matter Vigil June 15th

Come to the next monthly 
Dorchester Standout for Black Lives
Thursday June 15, 5:30-6:30 PM 
(and the third Thursday of every month)
at Ashmont T station plaza

Come to the next monthly Dorchester Standout for Black Lives
Thursday June 15, 2017, 5:30-6:30 PM (and the third Thursday of every month)  at Ashmont T station plaza

We will hold a big banner saying “We Believe that Black Lives Matter” and Black Lives Matter signs (including about a variety of issues that impact Black lives), and hand out fliers to pedestrians and drivers stopped at red lights. Please join us; all are welcome!
Remaining dates this spring and summer are:
June 15, July 20, August 17, and September 21. Kelley kelready@msn.com or Becky, beckyp44@verizon.net, or call Dorchester People for Peace 617-282-3783

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In Cambridge, Ma -Forum on the Right to Boycott and Support Palestinian Rights

United for Justice with Peace
To  markin  
1 attachment

Forum on the Right to Boycott and Support Palestinian Rights

 

When: Saturday, June 10, 2017, 10:30 am to 1:00 pm
Where: Central Square Library • 45 Pearl Street • Cambridge
We will continue to boycott for justice until...
As anticipated, legislation has now been filed which aims to penalize supporters of BDS in Massachusetts. This legislation (S.1689 /H.1685), deceptively titled “An Act Prohibiting Discrimination in State Contracts,” is in fact a dangerous attempt to restrict our right to use boycotts to advocate for Palestinian human rights.
The legislation pretends to be anti-discrimination, but a substantial paper-trail shows that in fact it is part of a national effort to penalize supporters of BDS. During this era of Trump-inspired efforts to curtail our rights, it is especially important to block this legislation.
The time for action is here! The legislation is now in committee and we do not know when a hearing will be scheduled. We are mobilizing grassroots opposition to the bill, as this is the best way to stop it. An anti-BDS bill in Maryland was just blocked in just this way.
Join us at this forum on Anti-BDS legislation at the Central Square branch of Cambridge Public Library to discuss the bill and plans to fight it.
Click here or here to learn more about why 100 MA groups are defending the right to boycott.
Take action and call Committee Chairs Rep. Peter Kocot (617-722-2140) and Sen. Walter Timilty (617-722-1643)to ask them to OPPOSE “An Act Prohibiting Discrimination in State Contracts” (S.1689 /H.1685).
Sponsors: Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace (Boston), Massachusetts Peace Action
Upcoming Events: 
Forum on the Right to Boycott and Support Palestinian RightsSaturday, June 10, 2017 - 10:30amCentral Square LibraryCambridge
Ban the Bomb! Celebrating Sister Megan Rice’s Activism, In support of the Women’s March to Ban the Bomb: NYCSunday, June 11, 2017 - 4:00pmAll Saints ParishBrookline
Stolen Generations: Rally and March Against Israeli OccupationMonday, June 12, 2017 - 6:00pmCambridge City HallCambridge
UNAC 2017 national conference (United National Antiwar Coalition)Friday, June 16, 2017 - 4:00pmGreater Richmond Convention CenterRichmond
Women's March to Ban the Bomb -- New York CitySaturday, June 17, 2017 - 12:30pmOutside Bryant ParkNew York City
Watertown Citizens for Peace annual meeting and potluckSunday, June 18, 2017 - 5:30pmAuditorium at the apartments at Coolidge SchoolWatertown
China, Trump and the WorldThursday, June 22, 2017 - 7:00pmCenter for Marxist EducationCambridge
Film screening: "National Bird: Drone Wars"Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - 7:00pmCambridge Library, Central SquareCambridge
Newsletter: 
UJP
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In Cambridge, Ma- 6/12 Stolen Generations: Rally and March Against Israeli Occupation (Correction)

Charlie Welch via Act-MA
To  act-ma@act-ma.org  
Sorry I had a typo in the last version this is the correct information.

Stolen Generations: Rally and March Against Israeli Occupation

*When:* Monday, June 12, 2017, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
*Where: * Cambridge City Hall • Cambridge

*STOLEN GENERATIONS*

After 50 years of Israeli occupation, Palestinians should be free. As
of June 2017, Palestinian men, women and children have endured 50 years
of military occupation of their lands in Gaza, the West Bank, East
Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, as well as an ongoing siege and
blockade of Gaza. Since the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has systematically
colonized Palestinian lands and established hundreds of illegal
settlements, off-limits to Palestinians. Israel has forced hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians from their homes and subjected these victims
to harsh conditions in refugee camps and exile. Here’s a taste of what
Israel has done with over $230 billion of your tax dollars:

• Demolished over 48,000 Palestinian homes and related structures in the
West Bank and Gaza.

• Stolen over 586,000 acres of Palestinian land in the West Bank.

• Colonized the West Bank with over 600,000 Jewish settlers in direct
violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

• Established an apartheid legal system with civil courts for Jewish
settlers and separate military courts for 4.5 million Palestinians, who
are subjected to indefinite detentions.

Now is the time to *escalate campaigns *in support of the Palestinian
struggle for freedom, justice, and equality. 2017 not only marks 50
years occupation. It has also been *10 years* since *Israel’s blockade
of Gaza*; *70 years* since the *Nakba and ethnic cleansing of
Palestine* began following the partition of the land against the will of
the indigenous people; and *100 years* since the *Balfour Declaration*,
which set the stage for the Zionist movement to colonize Palestine and
later to establish a Jewish state.

Cosponsored by: Palestine Advocacy Project, Mass Against HP, Jewish
Voice for Peace Boston, United for Justice with Peace as part of a
nationally coordinated actions called by the US Campaign for Palestinian
rights.

Tell People 50 Years of Israel Occupation is Enough. Celebrate the
Steadfastness Dignity and victory of the hunger strikers. Rally
Cambridge City Hall 5pm Monday June 5. A New

Generation of Palestinian Leaders is Emerging come here them speak.
AT 5:45pm we will march to Harvard sq.

Please sign up on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1967462893474636
<https://www.facebook.com/events/1967462893474636> Rally are
organized all over the world, your voice and feet are needed to
make the statement : ENOUGH!

​

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Poised to Win! The Fight For $15 In Minneapolis

Socialist Alternative
To    
Minneapolis is poised to be the first midwestern city to pass a $15/hr minimum wage!

In three short years, the fight for $15 in Minneapolis has gone from an isolated call from the far left to the central slogan of the Minneapolis labor and progressive movement in the 2017 city elections. Socialist Alternative was the first to popularize the demand for $15 in Minneapolis through our mass door-knocking for our 2013 city council campaign in Ward 9, which came within 229 votes of winning.
“This is a huge victory for many of us who have been working on this for years,” said city council member Alondra Cano after the vote. “And it’s no secret that this movement started in Ward 9 with people like Ty Moore, Ginger Jentzen, and [CTUL leader] Veronica Mendez-Moore.
One of the key leaders of the fight for $15 in Minneapolis, Socialist Alternative member and 15 Now’s Executive Director, Ginger Jentzen, is also running for City Council this year! Ginger’s campaign is about building a political alternative in Minneapolis, independent of the Democratic Party, with an unapologetic program based on working people’s needs, and refusing donations from corporate executives and big developers. Ginger also pledges to take only the average wage of a worker in her neighborhood, donating the rest of the $80,000/year salary City Council members pay themselves towards building social movements.
But we should be clear - big business and their billionaire owners will spend whatever it takes to stop a fighter for working families like Ginger from winning. They don’t want leaders capable of building movements like $15/hr, affordable housing, and taxing the rich upsetting politics as usual in the back rooms of City Hall and the boardrooms of the Chamber of Commerce.
That’s why we need support from working people across the country to build the political revolution in Minneapolis!
Many of you supported the fight for $15/hr in Minneapolis last year, and it paid off. Let’s build off that momentum!
The proposal Ginger helped win is a crucial victory for workers. The ordinance does not include a lower minimum wage for tipped workers, a carve-out that the restaurant lobby had pushed hard for in recent months. But the proposal grants some of the richest corporations in the country a 5 year phase-in - and McDonald’s and Target don’t need 5 years to end poverty wages! In another worrying carve-out, the council agreed to a lower 90-day “training wage” for workers under 20 years old.
Despite the long phase-in and other concessions, this minimum wage ordinance, if passed, would represent possibly the biggest victory for the left and labor movement in the Twin Cities in decades. In an era of rising inequality, a $15/hr minimum wage would raise wages for 71,000 Minneapolis workers and, according to a new study, will put an estimated $140 million a year into the pockets of workers. Has any other city policy resulted in as large a transfer of wealth from big business to workers in Minneapolis history?
Especially for women and workers of color, who remain concentrated in low-wage jobs, a victory for $15 will represent a major step forward, providing a big boost to the wider fight against Minnesota’s worst-in-the-nation racial inequities. If Minneapolis becomes the first major non-coastal U.S. city to pass $15, it will open the doors to victories across the midwest, which has been decimated by the economic crisis.
2017 City Council Elections
The call for a $15 minimum wage, alongside other demands for racial equity reforms, has emerged as a central dividing line in the hotly contested 2017 Minneapolis City Council races. Business-backed Democrats in City Hall faced growing pressure from insurgent Berniecrat challengers, fueling record turnout in the Democratic Party caucuses this spring. In the end, most of the conservatives on City Council either lost Democratic Party endorsement outright, or were blocked from getting the endorsement by pro-$15 left challengers.
Within this wider political polarization in city politics, Ginger Jentzen’s Ward 3 city council campaign stands out. Much like Kshama Sawant’s socialist campaigns in Seattle, Jentzen’s campaign is having a city-wide impact by acting as a platform to provide a voice and political lead for movement organizers.
With Socialist Alternative as the core activist base, Jentzen’s campaign has won support from broader forces including the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Communication Workers of America, and the Twin Cities Democratic Socialist of America. However, most unions and progressive forces remain tied to the Democratic Party despite the entire experience of the $15 fight pointing to the need for independent left politics.
The powerful grassroots upsurge that has nearly won $15/hr shows the potential to build an entirely new type of politics in Minneapolis. The momentum behind the Ginger Jentzen campaign in Ward 3 is rooted in the unapologetic demand that Minneapolis meet the needs of working people by radically changing its political priorities. A victory for $15 will show that we can build a powerful left alternative to throw out corporate politics as usual.
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VFP eNews:Convention Updates, Power to Peace Festival 6/9/2017 5:55 PM Veterans For Peace

Veterans For Peace
To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  
If you'd like to view this email in a Web browser, please click here.

1st Annual Power to Peace Festival

Friday, Aug 11,  2017
  • Doors at 6pm w/ revolutionary sounds from Chicago's own DJ Dapper
  • Performances begin at 7pm
  • 7 artists of diverse genres including the Jazz Songstress Maggie Brown
  • 1 Poetry circle
  • 1 Intermission w/ sounds from DJ Dapper
Pricing:

 Convention attendees - $25
 General Admission - $45
 VIP Admission - $125
 Unemployed Vets Admission: Free
*Just a reminder that the concert is NOT included in the price of registration.

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Veterans For Peace 2017 Resolutions

Every summer members of VFP are given the opportunity to shape organization policy by submitting resolutions that are reviewed and voted on by the membership. Resolutions approved in previous years can be viewed at our Master Index.

For the yearly resolution process, this starts approximately 90 days before the start of the annual VFP Convention when resolutions start to be accepted and close 30 days prior to the start of the pre-Convention Board of Directors meeting. For 2017 the first day resolutions could be submitted was May 1st and the deadline for submission is July 9th.

Check out this helpful note of tips from Bob Krzewinski – VFP Resolutions Committee Chair

¡Presente! Bill Distler

Long-time activist and peace vet Bill Distler passed away on Monday, June 5. Bill was a founding member of Chapter 111 in Bellingham, Wa.  Gene Marx wrote a tribute published locally in Washington.
Bill Distler was my friend, and it will never feel right to think of him in the past tense. He died much too soon this week, succumbing to glioblastoma in his sleep. It was the first time I had ever seen him at peace.

This 70-year-old peace vet entrapped me in his web of anti-war activism a dozen years ago. As alter egos, we shared the same guilt and moral injury, cringing when we were thanked for our service. After all, we didn’t serve, we were used. We were also two Vietnam vets that became great listeners. In one of our first conversations he relived the fear and confusion that shredded his point man Willie Earl Granger in the hedgerows near Cu Chi Base Camp, Vietnam. I didn’t deserve to hear that avowal but he needed a sounding board. It wouldn’t be the last time, for either of us.

Have You Uploaded Your Memorial Day Pictures?

So many of chapters around the country participated in amazing Memorial day actions and programs!
Please make sure to upload them to our shared google photo album!

Updates from the Golden Rule!'

The Golden Rule is about to leave Humboldt Bay on her third peace voyage in as many years.  We will be heading down the California coast to San Francisco Bay, up the river to Sacramento, and back down the coast, making 14 stops before arriving in San Diego on August 25.  The historic 34-foot ketch is sailing for a nuclear-free world.  This year, in particular, we are building support for the United Nations Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons.  The UN General Assembly is expected to overwhelmingly approve the treaty in early July, despite opposition from the U.S. and other nuclear powers.
THERE ARE STILL SPOTS AVAILABLE FOR CREW, if you’re interested – contact Project Manager Helen Jaccard at Helen.Jaccard@gmail.com, or call her at 206-992-6364.

VFP In the News!


In This Issue:

VFP Annual Convention in Chicago!

The VFP Annual Convention is titled "Education Not Militarization" and will be held in Chicago, Aug 9-13 at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.

Workshops will be held on Thu/Fri (Aug 10-11th)
Wednesday:  President's Reception/Poetry Reading
Thursday:  Panel Discussion - Education Not Militarization
Friday: Power to Peace Festival at VIC Theatre - Doors open at 6pm
Saturday: Business meeting/banquet
Sunday: March thru Downtown Chicago
             Jackson Browne concert @ Copernicus Theatre

Registration is Now Open!  Please register for the conference

Visit the Award page to nominate an individual or chapter for a VFP award.  Awards will be presented at the Saturday banquet. 

Need help creating and/or editing your ad for the program book , email Becky @ becky.pdx@gmail.com

Thanks to all who submitted a workshop application.  Applications are in the review process.  All applicants will be notified by June 30, 2017.

Calling all poets!  Sign up here to read your poetry on Wednesday, Aug 9th.  Questions regarding submissions should be directed to John Spitzberg.

Need assistance getting to the convention?
Post Cold War Veterans -  Sign up here.
All others - Sign up here.

Please Check Out the New Details on the Website!  New information is added weekly!

National office contact is Shelly Rockett

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Tell Congress: Block Arms Sales to Countries with Records of Human Rights Abuses

Human rights groups and activists have long criticized U.S. arms sales to countries with known human rights abuses, including outcry that helped block a sale of precision missiles to Saudi Arabia.8 Saudi Arabia remains one of the highest volume customers of American weaponry.
It is up to Congress to rein in this administration and make sure that we stop giving human rights abusers the tools they need to kill.
Sign the Petition Now!

Veterans For Peace United Nations Representative

We are currently considering adding another Veterans For Peace UN Representative.  This year though, we have the possibility of including an excellent new Rep slotted in now, which has always been possible. Quite properly though, he does not want to just be handed the position. He wants others to have a chance too. 

Serving as a representative for VFP to the Department of Public
Information (DPI) includes
  • informal apprenticeship with Ellen Barfield who has served as the Head VFP Rep to the UN for over a decade
  • learn what relating to the UN includes and how to navigate the UN
  • attending the NGO briefings the DPI holds about once a month at UN HQ in New York City September through June (usually occur on Thursday mornings)
  • attend UN events as able
  • writing short reports about what you attend.
  • Potentially too, the UN Reps can create a VFP-sponsored Thursday
  • morning briefing, and run for a position on the DPI Executive Committee.

Right now the position also includes working to help organize an international veterans conference, probably in NYC with one plenary at the UN, which is tentatively scheduled for around Armistice Day 2018, the 100th anniversary of the end of "The War to End All Wars".

Please send an e-mail to Ellen Barfield expressing your interest and how you feel you would best represent VFP in the UN, and your residence, by Monday 19 June.

She will send the applications on to the other current VFP UN Reps, Executive Director Michael McPhearson, President Barry Ladendorf, and Colonel Ann Wright.

This group will make a choice by the end of June or early July.

This term will run through the end of the year, but many VFP UN Reps serve for several years as interested. Thank you for your interest. 

Save the Dates: Upcoming Events

June 5-10 - 50th Anniversary of the Occupation Of the West Bank and Gaza.  US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Week of Actions
June 13 - Paths to Building Peace with N. Korea in Washington D.C.
June 17 - Women's March to Ban the Bomb - NYC (Check for Sister City Marches in Your City!)
Aug 9-13 - VFP Annual Convention-"Education Not Militarization", Chicago, IL.  There will be a concert the evening of the 13th, so plan to stay the evening of the 13th!  More details to follow soon!
Veterans For Peace, 1404 N. Broadway, St. Louis, MO 63102

Veterans For Peace appreciates your tax-exempt donations.
We also encourage you to join our ranks.


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