National Mobillization to Stop War on North Korea
Veterans For Peace is proud to join in with a new campaign led by Women Cross DMZ and includes CODEPINK: Women For Peace and United for Peace and Justice for anational mobilization next month.
The U.S. and North Korea are on a dangerous path towards a military confrontation that could kill millions and engulf the world in a nuclear holocaust. It's time for U.S. peace movemnt to mobilize opposition to Trump's saber rattling and demand a diplomatic solution.
To bring the peace movement up to speed, we are hosting a series of online teach-ins on the historical roots of this conflict and what we must do now to avert war.
This educational series will culminate with a week of action November 6-11, including teach-ins, visits to local congressional offices and protests. For more infomration contact: info@womencrossdmz.org
The upcoming webinars are:
ECONOMIC WARFARE ON NORTH KOREA: Impact of Sanctions on North Korean People. Wednesday October 18th, 2017
7:00PM EST 4:00PM PT
ON THE BRINK OF WAR: PEACE ACTIVISTS IN SOUTH KOREA AND JAPAN RESPOND Wednesday October 25th, 2017
7:00PM EST 4:00PM PT LETS TALK: CONCRETE ASKS FOR CONGRESS TO STOP US WAR ON NORTH KOREA Wednesday Nov 1 7:00PM EST 4:00PM PT |
Saturday, October 14, 2017
November 1-National Mobillization to Stop War on North Korea
From Veterans For Peace On November 11th-Armistice Day
From Veterans For Peace On November 11th-Armistice Day
Armistice Day
Veterans For Peace calls on all members and all peace-loving people to take a stand for peace this Armistice (aka Veterans Day), Saturday November 11. We call for nationally coordinated local actions to demand diplomacy not war with North Korea, and the abolition of nuclear weapons and war. Veterans For Peace joins with the wider peace movement for actions before and after November 11th.
In 2017, ninety-nine years after the end of World War I, “the war to end war”, the world finds itself on the brink of a nuclear war, again. The threat of a horrific nuclear exchange is possibly higher than it has ever been. The President of the United States Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea - DPRK), going so far as to say, while speaking to the U.N., that the U.S. will “totally destroy” the country. North Korea has also caused great alarm with its own threats, while testing long-range missiles and nuclear bombs. Twitter confrontations and saber rattling have only served to escalate tensions.
The road to war is a slippery slope on which one misstep can lead to the beginning of catastrophic war. Even the use of conventional weapons would lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Millions will die if there is a nuclear exchange. Such horrific acts of violence can spread like a virus and easily lead to further global instability and a new world war. The people of North and South Korea should not face the possibility of horrible killings and destruction that they experienced during the 1950-53 period in the Korean War. The people of the world must speak out and act together to demand peace.
Veterans For Peace calls for the observance of November 11 to be in keeping with the holiday’s original intent as Armistice Day, to be “a day dedicated to the cause of world peace," as it was celebrated at the ending of World War I when the world came together to recognize the need for lasting peace. After World War II, the U.S. Congress decided to rebrand November 11 as Veterans Day. Honoring the warriors quickly morphed into honoring the military and glorifying war. Armistice Day, as a result, has been flipped from a day for peace into a day for displays of militarism.
This year with a rise of hate and fear around the world it is as urgent as ever to ring the bells of peace. We in the U.S. must press our government to end reckless rhetoric and military interventions that endanger the entire world.
Instead of celebrating militarism, we want to celebrate peace and all of humanity. We demand an end to all forms of hate, patriarchy and white supremacy and we call for unity, fair treatment under the law and equality for all. We call for a tearing down of walls between borders and people. We call for an end to all hostilities at home and around the globe.
Today the U.S. has a president who says diplomacy with North Korea is a waste of time. Diplomacy is in fact the only hope, no matter the cost. War is the immoral and tragic waste. The world has said it before and is saying it again now. NO to WAR!
If you need tabling materials or VFP promo items for Armistice Day, please e-mail casey@veteransforpeace.org! No matter what action you decide to take, please let us know so we can promote the work that you're doing.
Take Action - Here are some ideas! Let us know what you have planned here!
- Join together with others for local actions (peace march, rally, vigils) to call for No War on North Korea. March in the Veterans Day Parade with signs calling for “No More Korean War; From Armistice to Peace Treaty with N. Korea; End the Korean War Now; Yes to Talks, No to Bombings, etc.
- Sign this Urgent Petition to Presidents Trump & Moon: “Negotiate don’t escalate”
- Partner with local peace groups to hold an event (forum, film showing, etc.) in honor of Armistice Day.
- Ring bells at 11am on November 11th, as was done at the end of World War One. (Approach churches and ask them to ring bells at 11am on November 11th)
- Support SOAW Border Encuentro. This year's theme "Tear Down The Walls, Build Up The People." Please join us, November 10-12, and many other peace and justice groups on the border.
- Write an op-ed or letter to the editor. Please send to casey@veteransforpeace.orgfor inclusion on our website
- Share Your Vision of Peace! Submit a 10–20 second video illustrating your vision of peace. When you create your video, please state your name and city/state and complete the following sentence: "As a veteran, I believe peace is possible when _______________."
- Take action on Twitter! Use these sample tweets:
- I will be celebrating #VeteransDay as a day dedicated to peace #ArmisticeDay @VFPNational
- Veterans will ring 11 bells this year to remember #ArmisticeDay, a day of #Peace @VFPNational
The cost of the next-generation destroyers being built at Bath Iron Works is skyrocketing.
- The cost of the next-generation destroyers being built at Bath Iron Works is skyrocketing.A new report to Congress this week found that the cost of the three Zumwalt-class destroyers has increased 43 percentsince the third and final ship in the class was procured. The first two ships cost $9.14 billion with the third anticipated at $3.73 billion, according to the Congressional Research Office. The total cost has risen by nearly $4 billion since 2009.
Leslie Manning
Once Again On The - 75th Anniversary Of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman’s “Casablanca” -
Once Again On The - 75th
Anniversary (2017) Of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman’s “Casablanca” -
By Bart Webber
I have spent much ink this
year starting almost at the beginning of the year writing about the classic
black and white film Casablanca a staple
at every retro-film locale including the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts
where I first saw it with a “hot date” back in the late 1960s. A date who did not
mind going on a cheap date (hell the admission was about a dollar maybe two) when
I told her what we would be seeing. (Somehow she had asked her mother about the
film and so was intrigued about this hot on-screen romance during wartime
between Rick and Ilsa.) That movie coupled with a quick after film stop at equally
cheap Harvard Square Hayes Bickford for coffee (always an iffy proposition depending
on when the stuff was brewed also iffy) and some kind of pastry that had been
sitting on the stainless steel dessert shelves for who knows how long got me away
without having to call “dutch treat.” Got me as well another six months of very
nice dates so my memories of that gorgeous film with the six million quotable
and unforgettable lines from “play it again, Sam” (Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa
request to Humphrey Bogart Rick’s main
entertainment provider Dooley Wilson to play the sentimental As Time Goes By) to “We will always have
Paris” (when Rick responds to Ilsa’s bewilderment that he is letting her take
that last plane to Lisbon with those wicked letters of transit provided him to her
husband Czech liberation leader Victor Laszlo so he can continue to do his work against the
night-takers running the world in those days) are still pristine.
I am not the only one
who is crazy for this movie since I am enclosing a link to an interview done by
Terry Gross on her Fresh Air show on
NPR with film historian Noah Isenberg on the making of the classic Hollywood film in
his new book, We'll Always Have Casablanca. " Needless to say when I get my greedy little hands on that item I
will be reviewing it in this space. This guy has me beaten six ways to Sunday
with what he knows about that film. Kudos.
http://www.npr.org/2017/10/11/557101633/75-years-later-a-look-at-the-life-legend-and-afterlife-of-casablanca
The Golden Age Of The B-Film Noir- Lloyd Bridges’ “The Big Deadly Game” (1954)
The Golden Age Of The B-Film Noir- Lloyd Bridges’ “The Big Deadly Game” (1954)
DVD Review
By Film Editor Emeritus Sam Lowell
The Big Deadly Game, starring Lloyd Bridges (Jeff’s father okay when he needed dough I guess and hit the bricks in London and Spain), Simone Silva, Hammer Productions, 1954
Recently in a review of the British film Terror Street (distributed in Britain as 36 Hours) and subsequently another British entry The Black Glove (distributed in Britain as Face The Music probably a better title since it involved a well-known trumpet player turning from searching for that high white note everybody in his profession is looking for to amateur private detective once a lady friend is murdered and he looked for all the world like the natural fall guy) I noted that long time readers of this space know, or should be presumed to know, of my long-standing love affair with film noir. Since any attentive reader will note this is my third such review of B-film noirs in the last period I still have the bug.
I went on to mention some of the details to my introduction to the classic age of film noir in this country in the age of black and white film in the 1940s and 1950s when I would sneak over to the now long gone and replaced by condos Strand Theater in growing up town North Adamsville and spent a long double feature Saturday afternoon watching complete with a stretched out bag of popcorn (or I think it is safe to say it now since the statute of limitation on the “crime” must surely have passed snuck in candy bars bought at Harold’s Variety Store on the way to the theater) some then current production from Hollywood or some throwback from the 1940s which Mister Cadger, the affable owner who readily saw that I was an aficionado who would pepper him with questions about when such and such a noir was to be featured would let me sneak in for kid’s ticket prices long after I reached the adult price stage at twelve I think it was, would show in retrospective to cut down on expenses in tough times by avoiding having to pay for first –run movies all the time. (And once told me to my embarrassment that he made more money on the re-runs than first runs and even more money on the captive audience buying popcorn and candy bars-I wonder if he knew my scam.
I mentioned in passing as well that on infrequent occasions I would attend a nighttime showing (paying full price after age twelve since parents were presumed to have the money to spring for full prices) with my parents if my strict Irish Catholic mother (strict on the mortal sin punishment for what turned out to have been minor or venial sins after letting my older brothers, four count them, four get away with murder and assorted acts of mayhem) thought the film passed the Legion of Decency standard that we had to stand up and take a yearly vow to uphold and I could under the plotline without fainting (or getting “aroused” by the fetching femmes).
What I did not mention although long time readers should be aware of this as well was that when I found some run of films that had a similar background I would “run the table” on the efforts. Say a run of Raymond Chandler film adaptations of his Phillip Marlowe crime novels or Dashiell Hammett’s seemingly endless The Thin Man series. That “run the table” idea is the case with a recently obtained cache of British-centered 1950s film noirs put out by the Hammer Production Company as they tried to cash in on the popularity of the genre for the British market (and the relatively cheap price of production in England). That Terror Street mentioned at the beginning had been the first review in this series (each DVD by the way contains two films the second film Danger On The Wings in that DVD not worthy of review) and now the film under review under review the overblown if ominously titled The Big Deadly Game (distributed in England, Britain, Great Britain, United Kingdom or whatever that isle calls itself these Brexit days as the innocuous Third Party Risk is the third such effort. On the basis of these four viewings (remember one didn’t make the film noir aficionado cut so that tells you something right away) I will have to admit they are clearly B-productions none of them would make anything but a second or third tier rating.
After all as mentioned before in that first review look what they were up against. For example who could forget up on that big screen for all the candid world to see a sadder but wiser seen it all, heard it all Humphrey Bogart at the end of The Maltese Falcon telling all who would listen that he, he Sam Spade, no stranger to the seamy side and cutting corners, had had to send femme fatale Mary Astor his snow white flame over, sent her to the big step-off once she spilled too much blood, left a trail of corpses, for the stuff of dreams over some damn bird. Or cleft-chinned barrel-chested Robert Mitchum keeping himself out of trouble in some dink town as a respectable citizen including snagging a girl next door sweetie but knowing he was doomed, out of luck, and had cashed his check for his seedy past taking a few odd bullets from his former femme fatale trigger-happy girlfriend Jane Greer once she knew he had double-crossed her to the coppers in Out Of The Past. Ditto watching the horror on smart guy gangster Eddie Mars face after being outsmarted because he had sent a small time grafter to his doom when prime private detective Phillip Marlowe, spending the whole film trying to do the right thing for an old man with a couple of wild daughters, ordered him out the door to face the rooty-toot-toot of his own gunsels who expected Marlowe to be coming out in The Big Sleep. How about song and dance man Dick Powell turning Raymond Chandler private eye helping big galoot Moose Malone trying to find his Velma and getting nothing but grief and a few stray conks on the head chasing Claire Trevor down when she didn’t want to be found having moved uptown with the swells in Murder, My Sweet. Those were some of the beautiful and still beautiful classics whose lines you can almost hear anytime you mention the words film noir.
In the old days before I retired I always liked to sketch out a film’s plotline to give the reader the “skinny” on what the action was so that he or she could see where I was leading them. I will continue that old tradition here (as I did with Terror Street and The Black Glove and will do in future Hammer Production vehicles to be reviewed over the coming period) to make my point about the lesser production values of the Hammer products. Lloyd Bridges is a music guy (not a trumpeter which might have given him some juices but some kind of second-string composer) who is in Spain on holiday as they say in England, Britain, the United Kingdom, or whatever when he runs into an old war buddy who seems to be in trouble. And he is since he winds up dead, very dead, for some unknown transgression. Seems that this war buddy had run afoul of an international smuggling ring centered in Spain and run by some mal hombres from the look of them and had to pay the price for his treason. Naturally clean-cut good guy Lloyd figures out what was what and the bad guys fell down, fell down hard once he put the hammer to them. Vaya con dios mal hombres.
That is the gist of the main crime story but what this one really was about if you looked at time spent on the subject was his romance with this Spanish senorita, played by Simone Silva, who was running a dance school, a folkloric dance school teaching the ninas how to do the old time dances and doing a pretty good job of it. So between bouts of fighting crime Lloyd was keeping company with his coy mistress.
Better that Terror Street but not as good as The Black Glove although it can’t get pass that Blue Gardenia second tier in the film noir pantheon. Sorry Hammer.
Out In The Riverdale Drive-In Night-With 007 Jame Bond’s “Doctor No” (1962) In Mind-A Film Review
Out In The Riverdale Drive-In Night-With 007 Jame Bond’s “Doctor No” (1962) In Mind-A Film Review
DVD Review
By Special Guest Film Critic Bart Webber
Doctor No, starring Sean Connery, Ursala Andress, 1962
Hey, me, Bart Webber, I was the guy with the car my father’s passed down 1956 Chevy (two-toned with the classic fins that people today are ready to die if they have enough dough to grab one at some high-priced automobile auction). Usually that would mean nothing except that recently Sam Lowell, the now retired film critic in this space, called me up one night after watching, or rather re-watching after a fifty-five year hiatus, the film adaptation of Ian Fleming’s 007 James Bond thriller, Doctor No (1962) the first of what would appear to be an endless number of sequels and asked me to do a review (after he sent over the DVD for me to watch). See Sam, the Scribe, Jack, Frankie, Alex and I watched that film the first time in my car, in that 1956 Chevy two-toned, cherry red and white, at the now long gone and converted to an open air park along the river Riverdale Drive-In. (For those who don’t know what a drive-in is or are too lazy to look it up on Wikipedia that was an open air place where you went in a car to see movies on a big screen and heard through a speaker places athwart the driver’s side care window, usually a double feature and cartoon with intermissions in between to stock up on food and drink from the refreshment stand at night, the first feature starting at dusk so sometimes hard to see). A cheap way for a family or more importantly in the time frame I am speaking of cheap date with lots of promise at least starting out of foggy car windows before the night was over (and an inability to tell mother what the plot of the movie had been about.
But the night I am talking about was not such a cheap date night although as usual with the gang who hung around Tonio’s Pizza Parlor some dreams of girls and foggy car windows entered into it. But mainly we were there that night to see this Doctor No film because the Scribe (the late Peter Paul Markin who was the guy who had more zany ideas than anybody else) had, as usual read the Ian Fleming book and had heard that this guy Sean Connery who was playing the lead character 007 James Bond was very cool. Who am I kidding we went because we also heard through that same Scribe that this cool chick Ursala Andress was going to be running around half-naked in some scenes. Hey we were sixteen, maybe seventeen years old, without dough, and most of the time dateless because of the no dough so what did you expect. If we ran into some real live girls at the refreshment stand so much the better.
So that was where the car deal came in (and sometimes I think I got to be in the Tonio crowd because I was the only one with a car and I am sure that was the Scribe’s motivation but he is no longer around to confirm the truth of that statement. Here is how the thing played out that night and many other drive-in nights. This little con courtesy of the Scribe who was a combination saint, brain and con artist all wrapped into one explosive package. He figured out, or maybe I had better say he had heard about this scam to get into the drive-in cheap. Since those of us who lived in the Acre section of North Adamsville where Tonio’s was located were always hard pressed for dough we would listen to any scheme that would get us what we wanted. In those days before I think the drive-in theater owners got wise and started charging by the carload there used to be individual admissions. To get around this problem the Scribe suggested that a few of us, maybe three of the six who went that night hide on the floor of the back seat and in the trunk of car. That way we would only have to pay for three admissions and would have money enough for some stuff at the refreshment stand (and give us reason to go there to check out the girls. This idea always worked and I have often wondered why until one day I figured out that the ticket-taker could have given a fuck about who was in the car all he or she cared about was moving the line of cars forward.
See though the Acre girls would do the same thing although maybe they wouldn’t throw somebody in the trunk. Beautiful right and that is where the boy-girl mingle would get started and wind up at the refreshment stand. Needless to say single daters didn’t do this, at least I never did on cheap date night. Needless to say as well that we Acre kids, boys and girls alike, had our own meeting section far away from the parents with their young kids (conversely what young parents would subject their sweet charges to the bombast of high school mad monks and sisters).
Frankly I don’t remember what happened on the boy-girl front that night because I was enthralled by the film. I had always liked action adventure films so this was like catnip to me. Funny after a fifty-five hiatus this one unlike a couple of other later Sean Connery-starring Bond vehicles that I have watched, re-watched, does not seem dated. Certainly the theme of good guys battling evil genius bad guys who want to take over the world is as fresh as today’s headlines.
Here’s the play as Sam Lowell always likes to say when he is giving his take on the plotline. A British intelligence agent in Jamaica is missing and presumed dead and government paid killer agent James Bond, Sean Connery’s role is sent to find out why and why as well why there is some interference with the booming American rocket program then in its early stages. Once landed Bond is on the case and finds out that some serious skullduggery is happening in an off-shore island by the nefarious evil genius bad guy Doctor No and his minions. So Bond has to see what is what on that island. As it turned out this No was some kind of nuclear physics freak who had associated himself with a criminal syndicate first in Tong China and later the nefarious SPECTRE international crime organization. While discovery all this information about what was being produced on the island up pops this Honey, really a honey, nothing but a fox as we used to say played by Ursala Andress who looked just fine in skimpy bathing suits. While this pair were are playing footsies they were captured by Doctor No’s security apparatus. Bond and Honey took a beating for a while but in time-honored good guy tradition the bad guys must take a fall-and they do. No is no more. At the end Bond and Honey make their getaway on a small craft and that was that.
So you can see why I was involved in the film to the exclusion of checking out the girls at the refreshment stand that night. When we left we only had four guys since Jack and Frankie had hit pay-dirt with a couple of girls who said they were bored by the movie and had only come because their girlfriends needed to fill up their car for that cheapjack caper at the admission booth. Nice, right.
From Protest to Resistance: On the 50th Anniversary of the October 1967 March on the Pentagon
- October 20-21 EventLearn more and register to attend this event in Washington, DC
From Protest to Resistance:On the 50th Anniversary of the October 1967 March on the Pentagon
The October 1967 March on the Pentagon was a landmark event in the history of the US peace movement. Not only was it one of the largest gatherings to oppose the Vietnam War up to that time, it was also notable for its escalation of tactics from protest to mass resistance. Over 600 activists were arrested on October 21 in both planned and spontaneous acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, signaling a new strategy for anti-war organizing. Interaction between protestors and soldiers lay the groundwork for both confrontation and engagement.During twenty-four hours in Washington, DC, we will remember and reflect on the significance of that action and the overall impact of the peace movement on ending the Vietnam War, as well as on lessons for today‘s resistance.FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 20 - 5-7 PMGather at the Pentagon for a commemorative vigil on US responsibility for the legacies of war: land mines, unexploded ordnance, Agent Orange, forced relocations of rural people, and on the struggles of veterans.
Featured will be Peter Yarrow of the legendary folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, performers at the 1967 rally at the Lincoln Memorial, draft resisters whose cards were turned into the Justice Department on the same date fifty years ago, and advocates of taking responsibility for war legacies.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 – ALL DAYAn all-day gathering at the Western Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, in four sessions:
1) Understanding the Historical Context
What was happening in Vietnam and in the peace movement; public opinion about the war; in the White House; in the Pentagon; and internationally;2) Recalling the Event
The many moving parts of the demonstration, from the rally at the Lincoln Memorial and the counterculture's "levitation" of the Pentagon, to the sit in on the steps and detention at Occoquan; what actually took place and who was there; an opportunity to share personal experiences. *3) The Impact of the Pentagon March and the Antiwar Movement
The effect of the 1967 march and of a multi-faceted peace movement on the war and on US politics, culture and society; the emergence of a GI movement and its relation to civilian activists.4) The PBS Series and Unlearned LessonsThe 18 hour documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick is creating a new national memory of the war. Did it get the history right and give fair treatment to the role of the anti-war movement of civilians, serving military and veterans? What lessons were conveyed for current and future US military conflicts and opposition to them?Post Gathering Commemorative Walk to Vietnam Veterans WallAfter the conference, we'll conclude with a walk from the church to the nearby Vietnam Wall and Lincoln Memorial, paying tribute to all who were victims of a tragically unnecessary war.We hope you will come and help spread the word about this history rich and moving program. Be sure to contact us as soon as possible if you were part of, or strongly affected by, October 21, 1967, so we can incorporate your experience in the commemoration.* Daniel Ellsberg will share his experience by video of beginning the day in the peace march and ending it at his office in the Pentagon watching the occupation of the steps alongside Secretary of Defense McNamara.
EVENT SPONSORSThe event is organized by the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee (VPCC).Co-sponsors for the event include: Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia (PISA) of George Washington University, Historians for Peace and Democracy, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars/Critical Asian Studies, Fund for Reconciliation and Development, Veterans For Peace, and The Norman Mailer Society.HOUSING INFORMATION > (PDF)
REGISTER FOR THE EVENTEveryone is welcome to attend.
Cost for the two-day event is $25+ $10 for lunch on Saturday
Click below to register on New York Charities site.
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