Saturday, March 25, 2017

VFP eNews: Take Action April 4th, Free Issa, Apply for Delegation to Cuba

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50th Anniversary of Beyond Vietnam Speech: Sign Up for the ThunderClap!

April 4, 2017 will be the 50th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.  In confronting the deeply rooted racism,  militarism and materialism of the United States,  Dr. King described the United States as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the reading of Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech, we are asking local VFP chapters to organize speech-reading events.

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Pivot Toward War: US Missile Defense & the Weaponization of Space 

Veterans For Peace member Will Griffin created a video about the Organizing Conference & Protest April 7-9, 2017 in Huntsville, Alabama.

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Veterans For Peace Delegation to Cuba

Veterans For Peace is excited to be leading a delegation to Cuba May 2nd-9th!  VFP is dedicated to challenging US military bases around the world.  VFP members continue to speak out against the U.S torture program, specially demanding the closure of Guantanamo Bay Prison.
As part of these efforts, VFP will lead a delegation to Cuba from May 2nd-9th, 2017 to attend the Fifth International Seminar on Peace and Abolition of Foreign Military Bases that will be held in Guantanamo, Cuba May 4-6, 2017.
As a part of the conference, we will visit an overlook to see into the US Guantanamo Bay military base where the prison in which torture of prisoners has occurred.
If you are interested in joining the delegation, please e-mail Casey Stinemetz casey@veteransforpeace.org or call the national office at 314-725-6005.  The delegation will have a maximum of 15 delegates.

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Golden Rule and Chapter 13 Hosting Internships for Two Youth

Net admission proceeds and donations at this show will go toward scholarships to send two local young people on internships aboard the Veterans for Peace sailing ship, Golden Rule, where they will develop sailing, teamwork and peacekeeping skills. The participating youth will be selected through the Nonviolence Legacy Project.
Also just a reminder that The VFP Golden Rule Project is accepting applications for captains and crew.  The Crew Selection Committee will begin meeting in January.  If you are interested in joining the crew to San Diego or on the Gulf Coast, whether for a week or a month, please let us know.  Experience is preferred, but intrepid novices may also apply.  Click here for the application.

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Shut Down Creech in April 2017!

Join actvists April 23 - April 29, 2017 at Creech Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Nevada for a 2nd national mobilization of nonviolent resistance to shut down killer drone operations in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan,Yemen, Somalia and everywhere.
In the last two years we had nearly 150 activists each year join us from 20 different states across the country, including over 50 veterans. In a very successful resistance action, we were able to interrupt business as usual for nearly an hour, with 34 activists ultimately arrested. Let's make SHUT DOWN CREECH 2017 an even more powerful stance against illegal drone killing. Please join us, and help spread the word. Together we are PEACE!

Bay Area Forum Addresses Question of US-Russia Relations

On Saturday March 11, over 125 people came out to hear a blockbuster lineup of speakers addressing the question “US-Russia Relations: Where Are We Headed?”

Veteran for Peace member Ray McGovern gave the keynote address. He talked about the decline in US-Russia relations over the past three years. McGovern described how upset neoconservatives were when Obama worked with Russians to avoid launching war on Syria. Since that time, there has been a steady drumbeat of anti-Russia news and accusations leading to the current new cold war.

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Shop VFP! No Drones! Organizer Bundle

10 'End Drone Warfare' buttons and 10 'Ban Killer Drones' stickers.
Package includes VFP statement of purpose cards and other VFP materials.

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New Autobiography on Charles Liteky Published

On July 29, 1986, Charles J. Liteky placed the Congressional Medal of Honor he received for his service in Vietnam at the base of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. In his posthumously published autobiography, Renunciation, Mr. Liteky explains his reason for returning this award at a significant time in his life as he was taking the next step in his personal pilgrimage from a Roman Catholic priest, military chaplain and Vietnam hawk to a civilian warrior for peace.
Read the reviews of the book, which feature many VFP Members!

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In This Issue:

50th Anniversary of Beyond Vietnam Speech: Sign Up For the ThunderClap!

Petition: No Troops in Syria

Pivot Toward War: US Missile Defense & Weaponization of Space Conference

Save the Date!  VFP Annual Convention!

VFP Delegation to Cuba

VFP Endorses FreeIssa Campaign

DC Chapter Deliver Letters to Asian Pacific American Caucus

Golden Rule and Chapter 13 Host Fundraiser for Two Youth Internships

Shut Down Creech in April 2017!

Bay Area Forum Addresses US-Russia Relations

VFP Member, Mike Hastie: "My Lai Massacre, 49 Years Later"

ShopVFP: No Drones! Bundle

New Book on Charlie Liteky Published

Save the Dates: Upcoming Events

Petition: Stand with @RepBarbaraLee: No to U.S. Ground Troops in Syria

Sign this petition today from Just Foreign Policy:
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) has introduced a bipartisan bill to block additional U.S. forces from being sent into Syria. [1] H.R. 1473 prohibits the Department of Defense from funding any attempt by the administration to expand our presence in Syria by putting U.S. combat boots on the ground. Under the bill, the Pentagon would be prohibited from using funds to send troops to Syria for ground combat operations, award a contract to a private security firm for ground activity or otherwise establish or maintain a presence of U.S. troops or a private security contractor in Syria.

Save the Date!  VFP Annual Convention

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.
Tabling/ Registration begin on Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Workshops will be held on Thu/Fri (Aug 10-11th)
Saturday - business meeting/banquet
Sunday:  Late concert
More details to follow!
National office contact is Shelly Rockett

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VFP Endorses Free Issa Campaign

Palestinian activist Issa Amro, who has been recognized as a Human Rights Defender by the European Union and the United Nations, is undergoing Israeli military trial1 on 18 charges dating all the way back to 2010.
Mr. Amro’s case is an example of widespread targeting of human rights activists using old and exaggerated charges in a military court system whose conviction rate for Palestinians is over 99%.
As civil and human rights advocates and faith groups, we ask that you call on the Israeli government to drop the politically-motivated charges against Issa Amro and allow him to continue his important work of protecting human rights in Palestine.
P.S.  The recent VFP delegation to Palestine had the opportunity to meet Issa Amro. Read Matt Hoh's reflection that was recently published in Mondoweiss.

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DC Chapter Deliver Letters to Asian Pacific American Caucus (APAC)

On March 2 and 3 Veterans For Peace DC chapter members delivered letters addressed to congressional leaders on the Asian Pacific American Caucus (APAC), asking for their support in getting the US government to eliminate the Takae helipads and stop construction on the new Henoko base.
It would be very much in the US’s interest to resolve this issue by abandoning this boondoggle project, and to utilize other options for the 1st Marine Air Wing- preferably to the continental US where some communities are protesting military sequestration in their regions, or failing that, to request that the Japanese Government find a more equitable location somewhere in Japan proper, upon a community that welcomes them.
Reqd the Full Report and Download the full letter and send a version to your congressional leader!

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VFP Member, Mike Hastie: "My Lai Massacre, 49 Years Later"

Former Peace Club members who served as interns

This Thursday, March 16th, 2017, will mark the 49th anniversary of the infamous My Lai Massacre, where American soldiers murdered over 500 unarmed Vietnamese women, children and old men.  
Veterans For Peace member, Mike Hastie, recently had a piece published on CounterPunch.
"March 16, 2017, was the 49th anniversary of the My Lai Massacre, located in Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam. It was Saturday morning, March 16, 1968, when approximately 115 U.S. Army soldiers of the Americal Division’s Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, landed in helicopters just outside the village of My Lai 4. Over the course of the next four hours, these American soldiers, and their Military High Command, who were flying overhead in helicopters observing the massacre, took part in a horror show far beyond the human imagination. They took the term, “War Crimes,” and added a butcher shop to the equation of morbid extermination. In essence, they became a U.S. version of the final solution. They committed an act of barbarity that would redefine the war in Vietnam. It would take years to decipher what happened that day, as denial is the elixir that protects us from experiencing national shame. It is these two words, “National Shame,” that continues to hide the truth of what really happened in Southeast Asia."

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Save the Dates: Upcoming Events

April 2 - Deadline for applying to VFP Delegation to Cuba
April 23 - Earth Day: Exposing the Environmental Costs of War
April 29 - Peoples Climate Movement March in Washington D.C.
May 1 - May Day
May 29 - Memorial Day
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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WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

To Survive, the Democratic Party Needs to Stand Up to Wall Street and Global Corporations
If Democrats want to retake government, they will need to do more than be the party that isn’t as bad as Trump, starting with closing the wealth gap…  For years, the Democratic Party chose to overlook these tough realities: Wages are low and stagnant. Jobs are outsourced. Drug prices and insurance premiums rise, and students take on a lifetime of debt just to have a shot at a decent job. Wall Street banks get bailed out when risky bets fail, and millions of ordinary Americans are punished with job losses and foreclosures for a financial crisis they didn’t cause. Meanwhile, virtually all the wealth generated by a recovering economy goes to the top 1 percent. The severe inequality that results from these lopsided policies fuels frustration and the nihilism that led to the election of Donald Trump.  The Democratic Party has fallen short by not taking on the structural causes of this crisis: an economy that favors big corporations and global capitalism. The party also has failed to step up to the climate crisis, which requires a radically different sort of economic recovery, and to the crisis of racial exclusion.  More

WILL KEITH ELLISON MOVE THE DEMOCRATS LEFT?
Ellison is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the putative left-wing answer to the brinksmen of the Freedom Caucus on the right, and he was an early and fervent supporter of Sanders’s Presidential campaign. Like Sanders, he consistently opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal sought by the Obama White House in its final two years which was attacked by populists in both parties. (President Donald Trump recently withdrew the U.S. from the T.P.P.) Ellison announced his candidacy for the D.N.C. chairmanship six days after the Presidential election. Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, predictably endorsed him—but so did establishment figures, such as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, and his predecessor, Harry Reid…   Meanwhile, the turmoil of Trump’s first month as President has alternately panicked and emboldened the Democratic base. The activist surge on the left, most spectacularly demonstrated at the Women’s March, in Washington, D.C., and in other major cities, and during protests at nearly a dozen airports after the executive order to temporarily ban people from seven majority-Muslim countries, has stoked a conviction that the Party must be more forceful in combatting Trump. Democrats in the Senate have been conspicuously more strident in their opposition to his Cabinet nominees in the days since the airport protests.   More  

http://www.truthdig.com/images/made/images/cartoonuploads/LuckovichLibertyBRB_1000_361_262.jpgIn Trump’s White House, It’s the Billionaires vs. the Bombardiers
How do we make sense of the apparent chaos in the Trump White House, with the president saying something one day and his top officials insisting otherwise the very next? There is, of course, the unstable personality of the president himself, and the fact that he has yet to install a complete cadre of senior policy-makers. But I believe there’s a deeper, more structural explanation for the chaos. Swirling around Trump and fighting 
for supremacy are two powerful factions: the billionaires, who seek maximum opportunity for elite enrichment, and the bombardiers—political ideologues who seek to bring down the existing world order and establish a new one in their preferred image. So long as these two competing factions continue to enjoy Trump’s patronage, we can expect continuing reversals in the weeks and months to come… The bombardiers may share some illiberal values with the billionaire class, but they have a fundamentally different worldview. For them, economic enrichment is less important than prevailing in what they view as an epic struggle between the “Judeo-Christian West” and the non-Western (especially Islamic) world—a “clash of civilizations,” as the late political scientist Samuel Huntington put it. This group includes senior White House strategist Steve Bannon, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, and immigration and security adviser Sebastian Gorka. For the bombardiers, capitalism has been corrupted by global elites who put multinationalism and free trade above national sovereignty and the struggle against Islam.   More


*   *   *   *
NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong

The Misuse of American Military Power and The Middle East in Chaos
The standard triumphalist version of the last 100 or so years of our history might go something like this: in the twentieth century, the United States repeatedly intervened, just in the nick of time, to save the feeble Old World from militarism, fascism, and then, in the Cold War, communism.  It did indeed save the day in three global wars and might have lived happily ever after as the world’s “sole superpower” if not for the sudden emergence of a new menace.  Seemingly out of nowhere, “Islamo-fascists” shattered American complacence with a sneak attack reminiscent of Pearl Harbor.  Collectively the people asked: Why do they hate us?  Of course, there was no time to really reflect, so the government simply got to work, taking the fight to our new “medieval” enemies on their own turf.  It’s admittedly been a long, hard slog, but what choice did our leaders have?  Better, after all, to fight them in Baghdad than Brooklyn.  What if, however, this foundational narrative is not just flawed but little short of delusional? Alternative accounts lead to wholly divergent conclusions and are more likely to inform prudent policy in the Middle East.  More

Poll: Majority Of Americans Are Worried About War
Thirty-six percent of Americans, according to the poll, would say they are “very worried” that the United States will become engaged in a major war in the next four years. Thirty percent were somewhat worried, 25 percent were not too worried, 8 percent were not at all worried and 2 percent had no answer… NBC News noted, in a write-up of poll results, some interesting splits in friendliness toward Russia: Republicans and Republican-leaning respondents were split on their stance (50 percent call it an ally/friendly, 49 percent say unfriendly/enemy) while their Democratic and Democratic-leaning counterparts thought overwhelmingly – 75 percent – that it was unfriendly/enemy. Finally, Americans are split on the military’s effectiveness in fighting terrorism: 47 percent of respondents said “using overwhelming military force is the best way to defeat terrorism.” Forty-nine percent said “relying too much on military force creates hatred that leads to more terrorism.” Four percent had no answer.  More

Image result for syria peace cartoonSIGN PETITION SUPPORTING
'Stop Arming Terrorists Act' H.R. 608
United for Peace and Justice has joined with the U.S. Peace Council, Veterans for Peace and several other national peace organizations to initiate a public campaign in support of Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s (D-Hawaii) STOP ARMING TERRORISTS ACT (H.R. 608), which she originally introduced to the Congress on December 8, 2016.
Please sign the petition urging support for the Stop Arming Terrorists Act.
H.R. 608 is a bipartisan bill, which has been co-sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vermont), Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-North Carolina), and Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Florida).
The Stop Arming Terrorists Act (H.R.6504) has only 5 co-sponsors, none from Massachusetts

The West’s Moral Hypocrisy on Yemen
Only a few months ago, interventionists were demanding a militant response by Washington to what George Soros branded “a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions” — the killing of “hundreds of people” by Russian and Syrian government bombing of rebel-held neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo.  Leon Wieseltier, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former New Republic editor, was denouncing the Obama administration as “a bystander to the greatest atrocity of our time,” asserting that its failure to “act against evil in Aleppo” was like tolerating “the evil in Auschwitz.”  How strange, then, that so many of the same “humanitarian” voices have been so quiet of late about the continued killing of many more innocent people in Yemen, where tens of thousands of civilians have died and 12 million people face famine. More than a thousand children die each week from preventable diseases related to malnutrition and systematic attacks on the country’s food infrastructure by a Saudi-led military coalition, which aims to impose a regime friendly to Riyadh over the whole country.  More

Russia and the West: A NEW COLD WAR?
Not since the days of Ronald Reagan has Russia played such a prominent role in US political life. After Donald Trump’s shock victory – greeted in the Russian parliament with cheers and champagne – came accusations of Russian meddling in the US electoral process, followed in January by the leak of a dossier claiming that the Russian authorities had accumulated (even more) compromising information on Trump. More recently there have been alarms over the Kremlin’s connections with and possible influence on the incoming secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, and Trump’s now ex-national security adviser, Michael Flynn. The rhetoric emanating from US politicians and media commentators too seems to be drawn from another era…  All this makes it hard to shake the feeling that we are living through a deranged re-run of the Cold War. Of course, the idea of a reprise of the superpower stand-off that dominated the 20th century has been in the air more or less since the actual Cold War ended, the stuff of countless think-tank briefings and film plots. But it has gained particular force over the last decade or so, supplying a readymade framework for understanding the mounting tensions between Russia and the West.  More

Why We Must Oppose the Kremlin-Baiting Against Trump
The bipartisan, nearly full-political-spectrum tsunami of factually unverified allegations that President Trump has been sedi-
tiously “compromised” by the Kremlin, with scarcely any nonpartisan pushback from influential political or media sources, is deeply alarming. Begun by the Clinton campaign in mid-2016, and exemplified now by New York Times columnists (who write of a “Trump-Putin regime” in Washington), strident MSNBC hosts, and unbalanced CNN commentators, the practice is growing into a latter-day McCarthyite hysteria. Such politically malignant practices should be deplored wherever they appear, whether on the part of conservatives, liberals, or progressives…  The allegations are driven by political forces with various agendas: the Hillary Clinton wing of the Democratic Party, which wants to maintain its grip on the party by insisting that she didn’t lose the election but that it was stolen by Russian President Vladimir Putin for Trump; by enemies of Trump’s proposed détente with Russia, who want to discredit both him and Putin; and by Republicans and Democrats stunned that Trump essentially ran and won without either party, thereby threatening the established two-party system.   More

Donald Trump’s Remarks Signal He Could Start a New Nuclear Arms Race
Donald Trump’s declaration on Thursday that “if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack,” flew in the face of decades of U.S. efforts to negotiate cautious, mutual reductions in nuclear arsenals around the world.  Trump’s comments to Reuters essentially invited other nuclear powers to escalate their capabilities, and has the potential to set off a new nuclear arms race…  The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Congress ratified in 1970, requires the U.S. to pursue the “cessation” of a nuclear arms race between superpowers, and to take steps towards mutual disarmament. The whole idea was to end the nuclear arms race forever… “The US has certainly not ‘fallen behind on nuclear weapon capability,” wrote Hans Kristensen, a nuclear expert at the Federation of American Scientists, in an email to The Intercept. “It is already ‘at the top of the pack’ and has the most capable nuclear forces in the world backed up by overwhelming conventional forces.”  More

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From Socialist Alternative-Boston Mayor Walsh - Don't punish workers and students!

Socialist Alternative
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Make May 1st a Day of Conscience against Trump!
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Make May 1st a Day of Conscience in Boston!

 
27% of Boston residents are immigrants. Those immigrants, who are our friends, family and neighbors, are faced with the threat of mass deportations by Trump. On May 1st, there will be national and local protests to defend immigrants against Trump's attacks.
Mayor Walsh has recently promised to protect immigrants in the city and in the schools. Many Boston students are children of immigrants and want to do everything they can to for against their friends and families. However, when students last protested en masse against attacks on their schools during the 2016 budget cuts, the city encouraged teachers to punish them and mark them absent. They should not be punished for standing up to defend themselves, friends and families and their teachers should be allowed to join them!
Want to Fight Trump?
Join the Socialists!

Boston@SocialistAlternative.org
Facebook.com/BostonSocialists
www.SocialistAlternative.org
 
Strike and protest actions can take different forms.

Organize in your union for strike action, build for a walkout at your school, take the day off, call in sick, leave early with your co-workers, or participate in protests in your area.
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