Sunday, November 05, 2017

VFP eNews: Poor Peoples Campaign, New Chapter in Baja and Armistice Day!

 
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Reclaim 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.  
Veterans For Peace calls for the observance of Veterans Day to be in keeping with the holiday’s original intent as Armistice Day, to be “a day to be 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 re-name 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.
Check out our website for some ideas! Let us know what you have planned here!

The Gathering: The War Economy Is Killing Our Nation's Spirit

Veterans For Peace member Matthew Hoh will join Bishop William J. Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove on Sunday, Nov. 5 at The Gathering to discuss the War Economy.  
When: Sunday, November 5th, 6 p.m. (EST)

Where: ONLINE or Raleigh, North Carolina
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The United States spends more money on war than on programs to house, feed, provide health care for the people. Although we call our veterans the nation’s heroes, we fail to provide them and their families with adequate pay, quality health care, and other needed supports to prepare and return from war.
As people of faith and moral conscience, we denounce war-mongering and efforts to create more conflict and division within and between nations, and demand that our legislators support programs that combat this resource inequality and instead promote the life and livelihood of all human beings.
Please tweet and share these amazing "Peace" memes the Poor People's Campaign created!  (Here and Here)  Don't forget to tag @VFPNational when you tweet!
Be sure to keep your eye out for other events surrounding the Poor People's Campaign!

Help Send U.S. Deported Veterans to SOAW Encuentro

Can you help us get our Deported Veterans group to the border?  It is critical that their voices be heard at the SOAW Border Encuentro.  We are hoping to have enough travel funds to support as many as can attend.  Can you help us raise $4,000?
SOAW strives to expose, denounce, and end US militarization, oppressive US policies and other forms of state violence in the Americas.  Some of our VFP members have been deported under these ugly polices and continue to be directly affected by the U.S.' refusal to extend citizenship to those who have fought in our military.

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Meet the VFP members going on the Third Okinawa Solidarity Delegation

This December, Veterans For Peace will deploy our third and largest Okinawa Solidarity Delegation (14 members) to join the Okinawan people’s resistance to U.S. military base expansion into what has been a pristine environment – Oura Bay at Henoko. Stopping the base construction at Henoko will demonstrate to the world that people working together in solidarity for common cause can stand victorious against even the most powerful military and governmental forces. Each week leading up to the delegation, each member will publish a written testimony.
Enya Anderson
"To live in peace begins with having peace within. We all must understand that we all share the same world. What affects our neighbors also directly affects us. What we say and do needs to educate and demonstrate our values as humans on this planet. This trip to Okinawa will hopefully be the first of many trips ahead to further educate myself and demonstrate my ethics and values. This trip will enable me to educate others with information of what is happening in the world today.
Each day we live is a day of opportunity to make changes in our own lives and in the lives of others, which creates positive change in the world we live in. Obtaining peace may seem to be a difficult task, but the simplicity of peace is just a matter of understanding that you are your neighbor and your neighbor is you. Most important, know that you are of the earth and will return to the earth--so treat it right. Through peace we can have a better world."
The delegation members are: Monisha Rios, Mike Hanes, Will Griffin, Ellen Davidson, Bruce Gagnon, Pete Doktor, Adrienne Kinney, Hanayo Ota (filmmaker), Miho Aida, Russell Wray, Miles Megaciph, Enya Anderson, Ken Mayers and Tarak Kauff

Join VFP At SOA Watch Border Encuentro

VFP enthusiastically supports 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.
SOAW strives to expose, denounce, and end US militarization, oppressive US policies and other forms of state violence in the Americas.  Often these Latin American political and economic policies are directly linked to forced displacement, increased violence, and militarized borders.  And as we call attention to the militarization of the border and Latin America, we also call for an end to state-sponsored terrorism and violence against our communities inside the United States.
We stand with organizations and movements working for justice and peace throughout the Americas.  There is no wall or border that can deter the solidarity of the people!

Request a Bundle of Newsletters! 

We have extra newsletters from Summer 2017. These are great tool for spreading the word and make a great addition to your VFP table when you're out at local farmers markets, community fairs, and other events. 
This issue includes:
  • Prospects for Peace
  • Privatization of the VA
  • VFP To Consider International Veterans Conference in 2018
  • VFP Chapter Reports
  • Why Veterans For Peace joined the Fight of the Natives at Standing Rock
  • An Update of the Iraq Water Project
  • Book Reviews
  • Poetry
In This Issue:

U.S. People's Peace Treaty with Korea

Alarmed by the threat of a nuclear war between the U.S. and North Korea, Veterans For Peace and other concerned U.S. peace groups have come together to send an open message to Washington and Pyongyang that we are strongly opposed to any resumption of the horrific Korean War. What we want is a peace treaty to finally end the lingering Korean War!
Inspired by the Vietnam-era People’s Peace Treaty, we have initiated a People’s Peace Treaty with North Korea, to raise awareness about the past U.S. policy toward North Korea, and to send a clear message that we, the people of the U.S., do not want another war with North Korea. 
And don't forget to take action on Armistice Day!
The People's Treaty was drafted in collaboration with representatives from Veterans For Peace,Women Cross DMZ, United for Peace & Justice, Code Pink, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Western States Legal Foundation, World Beyond War, and Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security

VFP Welcomes our Newest Chapter:  Sgt Barrios Memorial Chapter #986 in Baja Mexico

Welcome to the newest chapter of Veterans For Peace! Make sure to give them a like and send them a note of welcome!
Tomorrow they are having their dedication as a new VFP Chapter!
"The Unified U.S. Deported Veterans - Playas Barracks invites you to join us for the dedication of our new Veterans For Peace Chapter #986 the “Sgt. Barrios Memorial Chapter” in honor of our fallen brother Sgt.Hector Barrios U.S. Army Vietnam veteran. We will be building an altar at the office for our deceased deported veteran brothers and we will also dedicate our new VFP Chapter as the Veterans For Peace Sgt. Barrios memorial Chapter #986 of Baja California, Mexico. Join us as we will be remembering and honoring the lives of our fellow deported veterans that have died before returning home to the U.S., the country they served and defended."
Don't forget to send a note of welcome!

Activist Inspires: Bruce Gagnon

VFP Board Member Will Griffin started a new series on The Peace Report where he highlights the work of inspiring activists.
Bruce Gagnon has been a VFP member since the early 1990s. He dedicated the first "Activist Inspires" to him.

Legislative Action: Stop War on Yemen

“American-made bombs - – dropped by American-made planes, refueled by American military forces – - have created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. [It has] … plunged millions to the brink of starvation, and sparked a cholera outbreak that kills another Yemeni nearly every hour.”
Yemen poses NO threat to our national security. Yet OUR government has helped fund the Saudi-led war that has killed 10,000 innocent Yemenis. There is a resolution in congress right now to stop this insanity.  The Huffington Post, Democracy Now and the New York Times have published articles this week.

WHAT CAN WE DO TO STOP IT? CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IMMEDIATELY.
  1. THANK your Congressperson, IF s/he is one of the brave ____ that has already urged an end to this war. (List of them is attached: “Supportive Representatives.”)
  2.  If your Representative is not on the “Supportive Representatives” list, ask her/him to VOTE FOR THE KHANNA/MASSIE RESOLUTION TO STOP FUNDING THE SAUDI-LED WAR ON YEMEN.  (HCR 81).
  3. Read the Talking Points,  for your phone call. They give:
    • A two sentence explanation of this life-saving Resolution
    • An overview of the tragic war our government is funding.

7th Annual VFP Trip to Vietnam

Join us for a 50-year look back at 1968 – the Tet Offensive, Khe Sanh, My Lai – as we travel through Viet Nam, north to south. For the seventh year, Viet Nam's Hoa Binh (Peace) Chapter 160 of Veterans For Peace (VFP) will host a two-week insider tour of a former war-torn country that is now a nation of peace and beauty – Viet Nam. The land is beautiful, the beaches, white sand, and palm trees are inviting, the mountains rugged and resilient – as are the people. The Vietnamese will welcome us with warm embraces and generous spirits. Join VFP for a truly memorable tour, the second experience of a lifetime for Vietnam veterans – and a much better one this time!

Shop VFP! Holiday Cards

Spread the message of peace this holiday season with VFP's Peace On Earth card!
Each purchase includes 10 5x7" cards and 10 envelopes. Only $15!

Front: Peace On Earth
Inside: Happy Holidays, Wishing you a year of peace and joy
Back: Peace Is Possible
Nov 11- Armistice Day

Nov 10-13 - SOAW Convergence in Tucson, AZ
Dec 10 - Human Rights Day
Dec 24 - Anniversary of the Christmas Truce (1914)
2018
July 9-10 - NO to NATO Counter Summit, Brussels, Belgium
Aug 23-26 - 2018 VFP National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota
Sept 19-21 - 2nd Annual Conference in Havana, Cuba on "Realities and Challenges of Being a Zone of Peace in Latin America and the Caribbean"

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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Russiagate Indictments: Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Reality Winner?

 
stand with reality winner
indictments
Russiagate Indictments: Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Reality Winner?
If there was any doubt left that Reality Winner is being singled out for severe mistreatment by her prosecutors, this week’s indictments against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates should put that to rest.
Paul Manafort and Rick Gates are charged, among other things, with “Conspiracy Against The United States”. Their offenses against the United States, and the harm they did, are spelled out in great detail -- they were paid millions of dollars by a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party to lobby the U.S. government on its behalf. They lied about acting on behalf of foreign interests and about receiving the payments. They then laundered the money to hide its source and avoid paying taxes. And Federal prosecutors recommended that the men merely be placed on house arrest.
Meanwhile, Reality’s prosecutors argued, with a straight face, that her life savings of $30,000 and a short vacation to Belize earlier this year makes her a “flight risk,” and that two or three sentences from her private conversations are proof that she “hates America” and is a “danger to the community”, requiring her to be held in jail.
Manafort and Gates are charged with doing clear, explicit, quantifiable harm to the United States. Manafort had three passports, travelled using a fake name, and did business with multiple countries notorious for acting as tax shelters. He spent more than Reality’s entire life savings in illicit, laundered money at a single Florida art gallery, and the only imposition on his freedom is an ankle bracelet.
All of this is already an outrageous injustice. But what makes it so much worse is that Reality’s alleged “crime” is exposing to the public details of the conspiracy that led to the charges against Manafort and Gates in the first place.
Read the rest of the article here.
TAKE ACTION: Help get Reality's name back in the news. Send a letter or an email to your favorite news outlet and ask them to give Reality the fair hearing she deserves, and send us a copy of your letter atconnect@standwithreality.org.
STAND WITH REALITY WINNER ~ PATRIOT & ALLEGED WHISTLEBLOWERc/o Courage to Resist, 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610 ~ 510-488-3559
standwithreality.org ~ facebook.com/standwithreality
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*****Yes, You Had Better Shake, Rattle And Roll That Thing-With Big Joe Turner In Mind

*****Yes, You Had Better Shake, Rattle And Roll That Thing-With Big Joe Turner In Mind
























From The Pen Of Bart Webber


 


In the old days, the old days meaning around the turn of the century, the 20th century let’s make it clear, when the songs of the people, of Mister’s plantation miseries and his kindred sharecropper rip-off woes were just starting to be weaned off of the old time religion gospel high heaven Jehovah savior be with us poor and despised hymn book provided by Master’s so-called good wishes a man could speak of more mundane things and not be damned (or a woman either but that would come later when the female blues-belters came to prominence in the small towns of the South, you know the infinite number of Smith’s including Queen bee Bessie).


 


Yes it took a while to undo that wretched thing dropped down on the planation by Master’s devious methods way back when, when he took the forbears from out of Africa, pushed the Middle Passage and then robbed man, woman and child by placing you know the damn Christian yoke around every neck to add insult to injury, slavery times injury as if Master’s whip was not enough. You know got the precious brethren of the light to get behind that compulsion to testify, to call yourself own truth self a sinner against some forlorn god who was not listening as the more savvy of the brethren figured out, figured out fast come rebellion time, come time to stand up and cross the lines to the Union side with what you had on your back or what you could grab from Master’s ill-provisioned shack. That damn music that accompanied the psalms to consider yourself "saved." We know how hard it was to not see the new dispensation, the new secular worldview as some of the devil’s work, the devil’s work, the devil’s music in some households all the way up to rock and roll  and not just in some Baptist-tinged folks but hardy white dirt poor Catholic believers too.


 


The music of the folk had come down from the muddy swamps, down from Mister’s sweated plantation field, down from the stinking turpentine factories and bloody sawmills and in place of praise the lord, lord save us, lord lead us to the promise land began to speak of some rascal like Mister Joe Turner (not the Joe Turner of the title above but mentioned below but a ne’er-do-well who came and stole whatever could be stolen) began of speaking of hard, hard drinking, hard lovin’ maybe with your best gal's friend if it came right down to the core, maybe flipping the bird on you and running around all flouncy with your best friend, maybe some hard-hearted "do this do that" woman on your mind, yeah, the old birth of  the blues days, the blue being nothing but a good woman or man on your mind anyway, around the turn of the 20th century and you can check this out if you want to and not take my word for it a black guy, a rascally black guy of no known home, a drifter, maybe a hobo for all I know, and who knows what else named Joe Turner held forth among the folk. Old Joe would come around the share-cropper down South neighborhoods and steal whatever was not nailed down, including your woman, which depending on how you were feeling might be a blessing and if you in a spooning mood might be a curse on that bastard's head. Then Joe Turner would leave and move on to the next settlement and go about his plundering ways. Oh sure like lots of blues and old country music as it got passed on in the oral traditions there were as many versions of the saga as there were singers everybody adding their own touch. But it was always old Joe Turner doing the sinning and scratching for whatever he could scratch for. 


 


But for the most part the story line about old ne’er-do-well Joe Turner rang very similar over time. So Joe Turner got his grizzly old self put into song out in the Saturday juke joints, out in the back woods sneak cabin with no electricity, maybe no instruments worthy of the name either, some old beat to perdition Sears catalogue order guitar, hell, maybe just some wire between two nails if times were tough or that Sears model was in hock at some Mister’s pawnshop, out in places like the Mississippi Delta where more legends were formed than you could shake a stick, got sanctified (the once church gospel holy amen kind just didn’t do the job when a man had the thirst) on old  Willie’s liquor, white lightning home-made liquor got to working, and some guy, maybe not the best singer if you asked around but a guy who could put words together to tell a story, a blues story, and that guy with a scratch guitar would put some verses together and the crowd would egg him on. Make the tale taller as the night went until everybody petered out and that song was left for the next guy to embellish.


 


By most accounts old Joe was bad man, a very bad man, bad mojo man, bad medicine as the folk call what ails but can't be fixed just short of as bad as Mister’s plantation foremen where those juke joint listeners worked sunup to sundown six days a week or just short of as bad as the enforcers of Mister James Crow’s go here, not there, do this not that, move here not there laws seven days a week. Yeah, Joe was bad alright once he got his wanting habits on, although I have heard at least one recording from the Lomaxes who went all over the South in the 1930s and 1940s trying to record everything they could out in the back country where Joe Turner was something like a combination Santa Claus and Robin Hood. Hell, maybe he was and some guy who lost his woman to wily Joe just got sore and bad mouthed him. Passed that bad mouth on and the next guy who lost his woman to somebody pinned the rap on Joe, Joe Turner, yeah it was that old rascal that did her in, turned her against her hard-working ever-loving man. Stranger things have happened.


 


In any case the Joe Turner, make that Big Joe, Turner I want to mention here as far as I know only stole the show when he got up on the bandstand and played the role of “godfather” of rock and roll. Yeah, that is what I want to talk about, about how one song, and specifically the place of Big Joe and one song, Shake Rattle and Roll in the rock pantheon. No question Big Joe and his snapping beat has a place in the history of rhythm and blues which is one of the musical forbear strands of rock and roll. The question is whether Shake is also the first serious effort to define rock and roll. If you look at the YouTube version of Big Joe be-bopping away with his guitar player doing some flinty stuff and that sax player searching for that high white note and Big Joe snapping away being  very suggestive about who should shake and what she should shake you can make a very strong case for that place. Add in that Bill Haley, Jerry Lee, and Elvis among others in the rock pantheon covered the song successfully and that would seem to clinch the matter.      


 


In 2004, the fiftieth anniversary of the debut of Shake by Big Joe, there had been considerable talk and writing again as there is on such occasions by some knowledgeable rock critics about whether Shake was the foundational song of rock. That controversy brought back to my mind the arguments that me and my corner boys who hung out in front of Jimmy Jack’s Diner in Carver, a town about thirty miles south of Boston, had on some nothing better to do Friday nights during high school (meaning girl-less, dough-less or both nights). I was the primary guy who argued for Big Joe and Shake giving that be-bop guitar and that wailing sexy sax work as my reasoning while Jimmy Jenkins swore that Ike Turner’s frantic piano-driven and screeching sax Rocket 88 (done under an alias of the Delta Cats apparently for contract reasons a not uncommon practice when something good came up but you would not have been able to do it under the label you were contracted to) was the be-bop beginning and Sam Lowell, odd-ball Sam Lowell dug deep into his record collection, really his parents' record collection which was filled mainly with folk music and the blues edge played off that to find Elmore James’ Look On Yonder Wall. And the other corner boys like our leader Frankie Riley lined up accordingly (nobody else came up with any others so it was those three).


Funny thing Frankie and most everybody else except I think Fritz Taylor who sided with Jimmy Jenkins sided with me and Big Joe. The funny part being that several years ago with the advent of YouTube I started to listen to the old stuff as it became available on-line and now I firmly believe that Ike’s Rocket 88 beats out Shake for the honor of the be-bop daddy of rock and roll. As for the old time Joe Turner, done come and gone, well, he will have to wait in line like the rest of us if he wants his say. What do you think of that?


 

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From Socialist Alternative

Socialist Alternative
To  Al  
Socialist Alternative candidate Ginger Jentzen’s campaign has broken records for grassroots fundraising and put issues like rent control and taxing the rich on the agenda in Minneapolis. But with only 3 days left until election day on November 7, big business and the Democratic Party establishment are coming out in full force to attack Ginger. Can you donate $50 right now to #CancelOutThePAC money that’s trying to buy the election in favor of big business?
Friends,
Did you see that Ginger Jentzen made national news again, with a feature in The Nation?
John Nichols writes about how “A Socialist Thanks the Local Paper for Not Endorsing Her:”
“In Jentzen’s [Ward] 3 City Council race, the Star Tribune praised the three contenders it was recommending—including candidates backed by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) and Green parties. Then a curt final line noted: “The other candidate in the race is Ginger Jentzen, 32, the Socialist Alternative Party candidate and rent-control advocate.” (Read the full editorial here.)
In fact, Jentzen is a high-profile activist in the community who served as the executive director of 15 Now, a grassroots campaign that championed enactment of the city’s groundbreaking $15-an-hour minimum-wage law. (The weekly City Pages newspaper describes her as “the face of the movement to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15” and says of her council run that, “much to the chagrin of Minneapolis’ reigning power structure, she just might win.”)
Jentzen is an anti-establishment candidate. She is not running with the backing of the DFL, which has dominated local politics for decades, and she’s certainly not a favorite of the Republican Party. But she is backed by the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Minnesota State Council of the Communications Workers of America, the United Transportation Union’s Minnesota Legislative Board, Democratic Socialists of America, and the Twin Cities branch of Our Revolution.”
The Jentzen campaign is highlighting all those endorsements.
The campaign is also highlighting its biggest non-endorsement.
“We’re proud to be the only campaign not endorsed by the billionaire-owned Star Tribune,” announced the Socialist Alternative candidate’s website after the Star Tribune ran what the campaign terms an “Anybody But Ginger” editorial.
This Minneapolis City Council election is one of thousands of local contests in cities, villages, and towns across the country this fall. But, as with the 2013 Seattle City Council race that saw the election of Socialist Alternative candidate Kshama Sawant,this one could send a powerful signal regarding the ability of anti-establishment candidates who embrace “the S word” to upset the traditional political calculus—and the traditional media calculus.”
Read the full article here.
Electing Ginger to Minneapolis City Council Ward 3 will demonstrate that it’s possible to run viable campaigns that don’t take a dime from big business and the super rich, and that fight unapologetically in the interests of working people.
But Ginger’s campaign is under attack. A corporate PAC called “Minneapolis Works!” is sending out daily mailers in Ward 3, all with the aim of stopping Ginger from winning a seat for working people in City Hall.
We need your help to #CancelOutThePac and raise $5,000 this weekend to print a final round of literature that counters their lies. Every dollar counts. Can you donate $5, $50, $500 - whatever you can - to send a socialist to City Hall?
Contribute

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