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Friday, September 11, 2015
Free Chelsea Manning Now!
Against Nuclear Weapons In Space (On Earth Too!)
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August 24, 2015
Dear Friends: I am writing to you from the Asia-Pacific following our very successful 23rd annual Global Network (GN) space organizing conference in Kyoto, Japan. The meeting exceeded our expectations in every way. We had our largest overseas delegation ever as activists from India, Nepal, Germany, Sicily, England, Malaysia, Czech Republic, South Korea, Japan, Sweden, and the US attended. Thanks again to the many of you who donated to our travel fund to help us offer support to our board members. (I should also note that some GN members also first visited Okinawa on this trip, where people have been engaging in daily protests against an American military base for 10 years, including the most recent opposition to the construction of a new Marine Corp air base, which is despoiling pristine Oura Bay.) The highlight of our Kyoto conference was our three-hour bus drive to the Ukawa village in northern Kyoto prefecture where the Pentagon recently deployed a ‘missile defense’ X-Band radar aimed at China and Russia. We presented the beleaguered village committee with our annual Peace in Space Award and promised them they were not alone in their fight to resist the X-band radar. Already they’ve seen the disruption of their local culture by the American GI’s assigned to the base. The fishing and farming village will surely become a prime target as Obama continues to ‘pivot’ 60% of US military forces into the Asia Pacific region. Despite Pentagon reassurances, the Ukawa villagers are deeply worried about the health effects from the radar just as are the residents on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and citizens in other locations around the world where the US has deployed similar missile defense (MD) radars. No legitimate health studies have ever been made public that measure the true human impacts of electromagnetic radiation waves. The villagers took us to the base where we stood by the barbed wire fences with banners proclaiming our opposition to MD. American soldiers stood on the other side of the fence armed with machine guns, walkie-talkies, and cameras. Some arrogantly laughed at us. In our final morning of meetings at the GN Kyoto conference we made plans for Keep Space for Peace Week (October 3-10). We hope your community will be able to participate in this international week of activities by organizing a local event. Please let us know what you plan to do. Following Kyoto many of our GN leaders made the trip together on the bullet train to Hiroshima. Economics Professor Atsushi Fujioka who is on our GN board of directors and hosted the Kyoto conference led us. In the days leading up to August 6 we participated in Hiroshima meetings where delegates from around the world shared stories about the struggles against US military bases in their local communities. Many of these bases are now expanding due to the US pivot—thus the environmental bootprint from these war bases is growing as more airfields, ports-of-call, and barracks are needed for US troops. Struggles in Okinawa, Jeju Island, Guam, Philippines, and many other places in the region are heating up as local citizens demand US bases be removed—not expanded. I was fortunate to be invited to speak at the concluding rally of the World Conference Against Atomic & Hydrogen Bombs in Hiroshima on August 6 before 5,500 people from around the world. I reported that US deployments of MD surrounding Russia and China were in fact a death blow to nuclear disarmament as long as Washington insists on gaining the advantage of the shield after a first-strike sword is thrust at either of those nations. The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with Russia had outlawed MD systems, but since George W. Bush withdrew the US from that important agreement the Pentagon has been working at a feverish pace to encircle Russia and China with these destabilizing systems. I next traveled to South Korea. There I participated in a conference in Seoul, which outlined the reality of US base expansion across their nation. Korea still remains divided and officially in a state of war, as the Korean armistice of 1953 has never led to a formal peace treaty. At the Seoul conference I spoke about Washington’s ground-based and sea-based MD deployments throughout South Korea, including on Jeju Island where the Navy base nears completion. Just in recent days the US Navy Admiral assigned to South Korea publicly declared that the Navy was eager to use the new Jeju Island base to port warships being assigned to the region. These deployments on Jeju would put American warships right smack in the middle of the Yellow Sea shipping lanes that China utilizes to import 80% of its resources, particularly oil, to run its economy. Following the conference I had the great honor to speak at a protest on August 15 before more than 10,000 people on the 70th anniversary of Korean liberation from imperial Japan. After my participation in the Seoul events I went to Jeju Island where I have eagerly joined the daily protests at the front gate of the Navy base now being completed in Gangjeong village. The eight-year protest movement on Jeju is a cry out to the American people to take notice of what our government is doing in our name. The arrogant US plan to expand military operations in the Asia-Pacific is hugely expensive and absolutely destabilizing to world peace. NATO is signing up Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand as ‘partners’ and the European-based alliance is making its move to become the primary global military arm of corporate capitalism. Any nation that does not surrender its sovereignty to US-NATO is being threatened with regime change. Russia and China have other ideas and have formed a counter-alliance as we literally stand on the possible brink of WW III. The membership of the Global Network is working hard to help build a much-needed international movement for peace to counter these dangerous moves toward war. It will indeed take a surging global movement to avert this hyper-warfare insanity coming out of Washington-London-Brussels. We don’t have much time. I have concluded all my talks during this trip with the following words that I’d like to share with you as well. We do have a common problem on our planet today and that is climate change and growing global poverty. Sadly at this important moment the US, Japanese, and South Korean governments continue to waste our national resources on war preparations when our countries should be working together to prepare to deal with the reality of climate change. We should be converting the military industrial complex in our countries to build solar, wind, rail, and tidal power systems. We should be using our resources to help those small Pacific island nations that are the first to face rising sea levels. We must demand our governments move from confrontation to global cooperation. We have no other choice if we hope to survive. Nothing is more important than all of us working together to make sure that the future generations have a chance to live on our fragile Mother Earth. Please help us to continue this important work to build a movement at home and abroad for peace and justice.
Speaking August 15 at the
rally and march in Seoul attended by more than 10,000
people.
During GN conference we traveled to stand
with Ukawa villagers near Kyoto to protest the new Pentagon ‘missile defense’
radar base.
In peace, Coordinator PS If you’d like to make a secure online donation to the Global Network using your credit card just go to our website at www.space4peace.org and use the green Donate Now button. Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 652 Brunswick, ME 04011 (207) 443-9502globalnet@mindspring.com www.space4peace.org http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog) |
Navy Trying to Kill Gangjeong Village
Navy Trying to Kill Gangjeong Village
I was invited to come to Jeju City today to appear on live radio show for 20 minutes at 6:00 pm. As we were preparing to leave Gangjeong village we looked into the sky as a formation of Navy Blue Angel war planes came screaming over the village. For the next 15 or so minutes they went back and forth directly over Gangjeong doing various stunts. One of the stunts brought the planes very low in an ear splitting maneuver.
The Navy was sending a message to Gangjeong village. The message was loud and clear. "We own you now. Your village will become a war base. There is nothing you can do. We will project power against China from Jeju Island. You'd better get used to the idea." This is the way the US military empire thinks and the way they treat people who stand in their way.
Just before we went on the air for the radio interview we learned that the Navy was demanding that Gangjeong villagers pay $20 million (USD) in fines for disruption of construction operations on the base now nearing completion. Some activists believe that the Ministry of Defense in Seoul is actually controlled by the Samsung corporation which is the lead contractor for the Navy base construction operation. Just as in the US, where Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and General Dynamics control our government, the Park administration inside the Blue House in Seoul is actually the pawn of corporate interests.
By demanding this outrageous amount of funds from a small fishing and farming community the South Korean puppet government is saying that democracy does not actually exist anymore. In a true democratic nation people who protest oppressive government policies are not fined and driven into poverty - especially an entire village. What was the crime of Gangjeong? They wanted to protect the environment, sacred Gureombi rock, the offshore endangered soft coral forests, the water, the sea life and more. The villagers wanted to protect their way of life - their 500-year old culture.
I've learned that only South Korea and Japan have this kind of punishing policy that obviously smacks of fascism. The government of South Korea is controlled by corporations and Washington. How can they claim in Seoul to be a democracy and then turn around and treat citizens this way? How can the government claim they need a Navy base to defend the people and then attack the people who use non-violent protest to challenge the destruction of their village?
This will have to go to court but the courts are ultimately under the control the the same corrupt corporate state. When the Navy demands that the village must pay $20 million in fines that means every man, woman and child owes that debt. It means they would be naked without any land after the court would take all they owned. This is nothing more than an illegal and immoral attempt to finish off Gangjeong village. Every living and breathing human being on this planet should be outraged at this crime against the human rights of the people in Gangjeong village.
After the US directed April 3 massacre on Jeju Island soon after WW II was over a new program was put into place called the 'Involvement System'. This meant that anyone who was labeled a communist by the US run puppet government could get no job and would have no future. It also meant that any family member would suffer the same fate. This demand for $20 million by the Navy is an attempt to reinstate this 'Involvement System' once again. The only way out for a person is to commit suicide.
I am told that the South Korean regime is using this same punitive program to go after striking auto workers on the mainland and other activists around the nation. The decision has been made to kill democracy in South Korea. We are seeing the same method of operation in Japan today as the right-wing government kills their peaceful constitution against popular will. We see the same system in Okinawa as the people demand US bases there be closed. We see the same system underway inside Ukraine where Washington has installed a puppet government.
For those out there sitting on the fence this is the time to wake up and see the writing on the wall. Democracy is being drowned globally by corporate capitalism.
Who will be next?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog)
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog)
UKRAINE CRISIS:Origins of Conflict and Prospects for Peace
Growth of Ukraine as part of Russian Empire and as an
independent country
UKRAINE CRISIS:
Presentation by Paul Christensen, who has studied social movement
politics in Russia and the Soviet Union. Professor Christensen has conducted
research in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. A discussion will
follow. |
 Endorsed
by: Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, Mass
Peace Action, Veterans For Peace - Chapter 9, United for Justice with Peace,
American Friends Service Committee (Boston), Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom, Watertown Citizens for
Peace |
|
Full color version Black & White version
Upcoming Events:
| Bread and Roses Heritage Festival | Monday, September 7, 2015 - 11:30am | Campagnone Common | Lawrence | |
| Ending Mass Incarceration and the School to Prison Pipeline | Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 6:00pm | Congregation Lion of Judah Church | Boston |  |
| Ukraine Crisis: Origins of Conflict and Prospects for Peace | Sunday, September 27, 2015 - 7:00pm | Eliot Church, U.C.C. | Newton Corner |
Important Mumia Abu Jamal Update -The Voice Of The Voiceless
Please
see below message from Mumia’s lawyers circulated by Prison Radio. On 4
September, Mumia's cell was searched and his property packed up in his absence,
a violation of prison procedures. There are suspicions the prison authorities
intend to transfer him away from family and other supporters; a move could
jeopardize his already fragile health. Mumia is still being denied the medical
treatment he needs by prison authorities.
Write
or call to urge the PA Department of Corrections (DOC) to act in Mumia’s best
interests and refrain from transferring him. Press the DOC to give Mumia, and
the 10,000 other PA Prisoners with Hepatitis C, the cure they need.
John
Wetzel, Secretary of Corrections, Pennsylvania Phone: (717) 728-2573
John Kerestes, Superintendent, SCI-Mahanoy prison: Phone: (570) 773-2158
John Kerestes, Superintendent, SCI-Mahanoy prison: Phone: (570) 773-2158
From: Noelle
Hanrahan [mailto:prisonradio=gmail.com@mail56.wdc01.mcdlv.net] On Behalf Of Noelle Hanrahan
Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2015 3:49 PM
Subject: Mumia's Lawyers on Medical Update
Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2015 3:49 PM
Subject: Mumia's Lawyers on Medical Update
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Socialist Alternative public meeting at Emerson College
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Next
DPP Membership Meeting
Monday,
September 14:
6:30-8:30pm,
Vietnamese-American Center, 42 Charles St. (Near Fields Corner T station,
Parking lot available at VACC). This meeting will focus on Summer Reports and
planning for Fall Projects, including the DPP Retreat. Here are some
highlights:
Local
Politics:
National Social
Issues:
International
Events:
DPP Organization /
Infrastructure:
Announcements
*
* * *
MANTRA
FOR 9/11: Fourteen Years Later
Fourteen
years of wars, interventions, assassinations, torture, kidnappings, black sites,
the growth of the American national security state to monumental proportions,
and the spread of Islamic extremism across much of the Greater Middle East and
Africa. Fourteen years of astronomical expense, bombing campaigns galore, and a
military-first foreign policy of repeated defeats, disappointments, and disasters. Fourteen
years of a culture of fear in America, of endless alarms and warnings, as
well as dire predictions of terrorist attacks. Fourteen years of the burial of
American democracy (or rather its recreation as a billionaire’s playground and a
source of spectacle and entertainment but not governance)… Fourteen years later,
don’t you find it improbable that Washington’s post-9/11 policies in the Middle
East helped lead to the establishment of the Islamic State’s
“caliphate” in parts of fractured Iraq and Syria and to a movement of almost
unparalleled extremism that has successfully “franchised” itself out from Libya to Nigeria to Afghanistan? If, on September 12, 2001, you had predicted such
a possibility, who wouldn’t have thought you mad? … Fourteen years later, isn’t it possible to think of 9/11 as
a mass grave into which significant aspects of American life as we knew it have
been shoveled? More
US
Gov’t Agents Involved In Almost Every Major Terror Plot Since
9/11
Since
9/11, agencies like the FBI have been tasked with preventing the next terrorist
attack. However, in their zeal to catch terrorists before they strike, they’ve
created more terrorist plots than any actual terror groups… The FBI is
responsible for more terrorism plots in the United States than any other
organization. More than al-Qaida, more than al-Shabaab, more than the Islamic
State. According to Aaronson, “The FBI is much better at creating terrorists
than it is at catching terrorists.” In the 14 years since the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, Aaronson said there have only been about six actual domestic terrorist
incidents, including the Boston Marathon bombing and a handful of failed
incidents. By contrast, he said the FBI has arrested dozens for “material
support” of terrorism, usually impoverished or mentally ill Muslim-Americans who
were convinced to take part in terrorist plots by high-paid undercover
informants. More
*
* * *
Everyone
must know by now that the Iran Agreement is certain to go into effect, now that Senate Democrats have
(somewhat surprisingly!) held firm and denied the opponents of the deal to bring
a resolution of disapproval to the floor. Only four Democratic senators
(Schumer of NY, Menendez of NJ. Cardin of Maryland, and Manchin of W.VA.) stood
with the unanimous Republicans in opposing the agreement. In the House, Republican extremists are planning a more complicated
response, which will have no effect on the actual agreement. In our state, the
two senators voted with the rest of the Democrats against cloture;
Representatives Neal and Keating have now declared support, making our delegation
unanimously for the agreement (with Capuano technically only “leaning” but sure
to vote for the deal).
More
disturbing is the anti-Iranian (and pro-Israel) rhetoric universally expressed
by agreement supporters, which will limit the possibilities of real detent with
Iran and a lessening of tensions in the Middle East – while flooding the region
with ever more US armaments. Some Democrats may also be planning to support a
resolution to “strengthen” the agreement that will contain “poison pills” to possibly derail it.
House
GOP disapproves of Iran deal in symbolic vote
In
an anticlimactic end to the acrimonious debate in Congress over the Iran nuclear
deal, the House voted against the agreement Friday -- a largely symbolic move
that won’t prevent the pact from taking effect next week. The 162-269 vote
against the accord between Obama, Iran and five other nations will have little
practical effect beyond putting House lawmakers on the record, because a day
earlier Senate Democrats blocked an attempt to scuttle the pact… Before the
vote, House lawmakers passed two resolutions rebuking Obama on the deal. The
first accuses Obama of violating a congressional review law by failing to give
Congress access to documents from an independent nuclear watchdog agency and
Iran. Republicans have said they are unwilling to support the larger nuclear
deal without having access to information in those so-called "side-deals,” which
the administration says are unrelated to the nuclear deal. The second measure,
which
 was
passed mostly along party lines, would prevent Obama from lifting any sanctions
against Iran. Neither measure is likely to make it to Obama’s desk for a
signature. More
Pro-Israel
Group Suffers Stinging Political Defeat
The loss has raised
difficult questions about the future of Aipac, a group formed in 1951 just a few
years after the birth of Israel. Aipac has long drawn its political potency from
its reservoirs of loyalty among members of both parties, but that bipartisan
veneer all but vanished in recent weeks as the debate over the Iran deal became
increasingly bitter… Aipac now faces a debate within its ranks about how to
respond to the defeat, whether by exacting a political price from lawmakers —
all of them Democrats — who defied its wishes and supported the Iran deal, or
moving swiftly to mend fences with lawmakers and White House officials angered
by the group’s efforts to kill the deal… “That poses a real challenge to an
organization that absolutely requires bipartisanship to maintain its resilience
and strength.” More
The
Iran Deal and the End of the Israel Lobby
The
miscalculations by opponents of the Iran deal began with a poor grasp of public
opinion. They imagined they could foment a broad public backlash, and opponents
frequently, and triumphantly, cited opinion polls showing more respondents
disapproved than approved of the Iran deal. But the results of these polls
varied widely. Small changes in wording produced wildly varying results,
reflecting the fact that few people knew or cared much about the issue. Turning
a foreign-policy issue with no immediate salience to American security — even a
nuclear-armed Iran, a worst-case scenario, would not involve an attack on
Americans at home or abroad — into an issue Americans would actively care about
was never realistic… Over the last 15 years, the foreign-policy debate in Israel
has moved steadily rightward. (In the last election, left-of-center Israeli
parties relied on domestic issues, rather than appealing for territorial
compromise.) The Israeli right favors either permanent occupation of the West
Bank, or an occupation that lasts until such time as the Palestinians produce a
pro-Zionist government, which is functionally the same thing. That perspective
has become increasingly coterminous with the American “pro-Israel” view. At last
year’s AIPAC conference, some 65 percent of the attendees were Republican. That skewed
perspective has pushed the American Jewish establishment to the right of
American Jewry as a whole. More
Slaughtering the
Truth and the False Choice of War on Iran
Even outspoken
supporters of the nuclear
deal signed between Iran and the P5+1 (the US, UK, France, China,
Russia and Germany) rely on myriad entrenched
myths and falsehoods about Iran's nuclear program to make their case. For
instance, the constant claim that the agreement "prevents Iran from building a
nuclear weapon" is a facile talking point that assumes an Iranian drive for a
bomb that has never actually existed… In essence, even the deal's own
supporters buy into ahistorical, Netanyahu-inspired narratives of malevolent Iranian intent and prepare their appeals from there. Unfortunately, this is unsurprising and a direct
result of the consistent failure of both the media and policymakers to present
accurate information. More
Iran's 'Nuclear
Ambitions' Go Unquestioned in Coverage of Iran Deal Momentum
As Democratic
senators declared their support for the deal struck between Iran and six world
powers–an agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action–corporate
media coverage of this momentum is leaving out at least one crucial detail: the
lack of evidence that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb… Reporters Carl
Hulse and David Herszenhorn could have pointed out, as James Risen and Mark
Mazzetti did on the Times‘ front page three years ago (2/24/12; FAIR.org, 2/9/15), that “American intelligence analysts continue to
believe that there is no hard evidence that Iran has decided to build a nuclear
bomb.” Or quoted, as Seymour Hersh did (New Yorker, 6/6/11), longtime IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei’s statement
that he had not seen “a shred of evidence” that Iran was trying to weaponize its
uranium. Or at least included, as basic balance, the fact that Iran had
consistently maintained that it has no intention of building a nuclear weapon
(FAIR.org, 9/30/13). More
 Netanyahu Makes Quick
Pivot From Loss on Iran Deal
In the week
since it became clear that Congress would not block the Iranian nuclear deal he loathes,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has largely toned down his rhetoric on the issue and
pivoted to others… David Horovitz, the editor of The Times of Israel news
site, observed, “He is not particularly interested in playing up the fact
that a deal he bitterly opposed is going through.” Mr. Horovitz added, “Although
he’s not saying that the cause is lost, if he hammers away at the same level, he
reminds everybody that it’s been lost.” …The stinging loss on Iran may actually
remove a headache for Mr. Netanyahu, as many American leaders are wary of
seeming to pile on by pressuring him on Palestinian statehood. More
Israeli officials:
Netanyahu's fight against Iran deal not a failure
The senior
officials claimed that Netanyahu's campaign against the deal led many Americans
to understand the need for increased U.S. aid to Israel. "There is great
support for the Israeli position, both from American public opinion and from
Congress," officials said, adding that the American mindset believes that
Israeli is an ally and Iran is a terror-enabling state. "Even those Americans
backing the deal say that the U.S. should further strengthen its relationship
and alliance with Israel." More
Clinton
Wraps Last-Minute Endorsement of Iran Deal with Hawkish Threats of Military
Force
Though
she endorsed the deal, which seeks to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear
weapon by forcing controls onto the country's nuclear energy program, Clinton
vowed that she would do so with skepticism and—as many have pointed out—an eye
on a military alternative.
"The
outcome of the deal in Congress is no longer in much doubt," she said, speaking
at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., "so we've got to start looking
ahead as to what's next: enforcing the deal, deter Iran and its proxies, and
strengthening our allies," which was largely in reference to neighboring Israel…
If elected, Clinton vowed to "deepen America's unshakeable commitment to
Israel's security" by "guaranteeing Israel's qualitative military edge" in the
Middle East. To do so, she said she would strengthen their missile defense
system, and increase military support and intelligence sharing.
More
Will
American Weapons Flood Middle East After Iran Deal?
The
region is about to enter a new arms race fueled by U.S. efforts to reassure
Israel and various Sunni countries that feel threatened by the Shi’ite Islamist
government in Tehran. Indeed, American defense companies are already signing
billion-dollar deals that will support this new push — a reality that Iranian
officials are beginning to understand. “This is one of the U.S. policies that we
think is wrong,” a senior Iranian official told reporters during a recent
briefing in New York. “If the United States wants tranquility to prevail… why is
it adding to the arsenal there?” …The Obama administration is already reaching
out to regional players to begin discussing post-deal security arrangements.
Israeli officials, still consumed in their fight against the deal in Congress,
have thus far refused to participate in post-deal security discussions with the
administration. But they are expected to do so once the agreement gets the
congressional green light… The Obama administration has already approved massive
arms sales programs to Saudi Arabia and other regional players. These include a
major contract for upgrading the Saudi navy, a massive $1 billion arms deal to
replenish Saudi munitions used up in its war against the Iranian-backed Houthi
rebels in Yemen, and sales of helicopters and radar systems.
More
Sending MOPs and
Bombers to Israel: Big Mistake
Over the past
week, the failure of the opponents of the Iran nuclear deal to kill it in
Congress has become a foregone conclusion. With that in mind, advocates of war
with Iran have adopted a new idea: giving Israel the means to attack Iran on its
own, without US assistance. The thinking goes that the Israelis, unhindered by
Obama’s fecklessness, will have the wherewithal to do what needs to be done…
Sending strategic bombers to Israel is a bad idea. It’s bad enough that the
Israelis probably won’t take them. But it could get even worse if they decided
to make a go of it… In recent days, the idea has
proliferated. A Washington Post op-ed by Dennis Ross and David Petraeus on
August 25 reiterated Deptula’s proposal. Walter Reich, former director of the US
Holocaust Museum, recommended that President Obama guarantee Israeli access to
Massive Ordnance Penetrators
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