Saturday, March 04, 2017

Veterans For Peace At Standing Rock -Stand In Solidarity With Standing Rock On March 10th

Veterans For Peace At Standing Rock -Stand In Solidarity With Standing Rock On March 10th


Members of Veterans For Peace have joined in solidarity with thousands of people who have traveled to Standing Rock, North Dakota to stand with our Indigenous sisters and brothers in opposing the construction of an oil pipeline by the Dakota Access company that threatens drinking water and sacred burial grounds. Veterans For Peace will continue to support this effort. As veterans, we see the connections between greed, racism, violence and environmental destruction in our own communities, and war and militarism abroad. We strive to achieve "Peace at Home and Peace Abroad” as a lens through which we view our mission.
We believe the Standing Rock action is consistent with our philosophy and approach to help build a more just, peaceful and sustainable world. Read our full statement supporting Standing Rock resistance, our Thanksgiving statement and our statement supporting the Dec 4th Victory at Standing Rock.
If you are a Veterans For Peace member, please upload your pictures to our VFP at Standing Rock shared album!

Take Action For Standing Rock

Just a few days ago the Trump Administration and the Army moved to approve the easement for Energy Transfer Partners to drill under Lake Oahe on the Missouri River and build the Dakota Access Pipeline through Native land at Standing Rock, despite threats to the environment and the likely contamination of drinking water for millions of people living near the Missouri River. They also suspended a 14-day waiting period which means that the drilling could already be starting.
Leaders at Standing Rock are calling for solidarity actions around the country and around the globe to protest the recent order and for a large demonstration on Washington on March 10. Here's how you can take action, today!

Native Nations March on Washington: March 10th

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Indigenous grassroots leaders call on our allies across the United States and around the world to peacefully March on Washington DC. We ask that you rise in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of the world whose rights protect Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth) for the future generations of all.
Standing Rock and Native Nations will lead a march in prayer and action in Washington D.C. on March 10th 2017.
If you are planning on going to Standing Rock or the March on Washington, please let us know by filling out this form.
Contact: Brian Trautman, 518-390-8250, trautman@veteransforpeace.org


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Stand With Standing Rock



Veterans For Peace- VFP eNews: March for Standing Rock, Updates on VFP in Palestine -Build The Resistance!

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Take Action For Standing Rock

Leaders at Standing Rock are calling for solidarity actions around the country and around the globe to protest the recent order and for a large demonstration on Washington on March 10.
Check out our Standing Rock page for ways to take action!From the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Indigenous grassroots leaders:
We call on our allies across the United States and around the world to peacefully March on Washington DC. We ask that you rise in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of the world whose rights protect Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth) for the future generations of all.
Standing Rock and Native Nations will lead a march in prayer and action in Washington D.C. on March 10th 2017.

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VFP-ROCK and VFP Hawai'i Deliver Letter to Japanese Consulate

Today (3/2/17) representatives of HOA, Veterans for Peace, Hawai`i Peace & Justice, Amnesty International & Women?s Voices, Women Speak met with the Consul of Defense at the Japan Consulate in Honolulu and issued the following statement:
A coalition of concerned people within Hawai`i, including the NPOs the Hawai`i Okinawa Alliance (HOA), Veterans for Peace and Hawai`i Peace & Justice are alarmed about the use of force and arbitrary arrests of non-violent peace activists, such as Hiroji Yamashiro, while exercising their human right of peaceful assemblage in Okinawa. We are concerned by the mandated military base construction in Henoko and corresponding helipads at Takae that precipitated Okinawan citizens to assemble in the first place.

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Veterans For Peace Delegation to Palestine: Week 2

Veterans For Peace delegation spent six hours at the Tent of Nations, a private farm on a hilltop overlooking the village of Na-Haleen, on the outskirts of Bethlehem. The village is surrounded by hilltops, all but one of which are occupied by illegal Israeli settlements, the exception being the farm, known to locals as “Daher’s Vineyard.”  The farm was started in 1916 by the Nassar family, which has deeds signed by Ottoman authorities at its founding, and subsequently by British Authorities during the protectorate and by the Jordanian authorities in the Transjordan period. We were greeted by Daher Nassar, a grandson of the founder, one of three brothers who continue to operate the farm.

See Ken Mayer's full reflection "Walking the Talk of Nonviolence"
See more about the delegation's time during week two!
If you missed week one, make sure to check that out too!

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Project Renew Featured in a New Article!

VFP Member, Chuck Searcy was invited by the editors of The VVA Veteran, publication of Vietnam Veterans of America, to submit an article reviewing the history of mine action efforts in Viet Nam, including the role of American veterans and U.S. veterans organizations.
"For most Americans, the Vietnam War ended in 1975. But for too many Vietnamese, the war didn’t end then. They continued to suffer death, injury, and lifetime disabilities from munitions that remained on the surface or just under the soil. These weapons posed a constant danger to unsuspecting residents throughout the country—but especially along the former demilitarized zone.
In 2001, when Project RENEW was launched, Quang Tri Province had been experiencing sixty to eighty accidents involving unexploded ordnance (UXO) every year since the war ended. Vietnam’s Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs reported that more than 100,000 Vietnamese had been killed or injured nationwide by bombs and mines."

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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!

Peace In Our Times Winter Edition Available for Download!

The Winter Edition of the PIOT is sold out but is now available for download!
Peace In Our Times is a Veterans For Peace publication.  It is a great outreach tool and getting the message of peace out! 
Order your spring edition to make sure you don't miss out when it's available.

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Minneapolis VFP Chapter at Standing Rock


Four members of Veterans For Peace Chapter 27 in Minneapolis drove to Standing Rock Indian Reservation on February 21 to stand in solidarity with First Nation People, environmental activists and other veterans and help out.
We were met by police at a road block just south of the Oceti Sacowin Camp on HWY 1806 Tuesday afternoon and asked what we we're going to do down the road. I told them that we came to visit some friends and VFP member Barry Riesch mentioned that we also came to work at camp. We were told we couldn't proceed on that public road unless we consented to a vehicle check. Apparently it's against the law in certain North Dakota neighborhoods to drive around with a tent in the trunk.

VFP Member, Freeman Hobs Allan, Reflects on Standing Rock

"Cheyenne River camp, sits on a hill south of Cannonball River. On this hill are the "standing rocks", very ancient boulders polished by glacier and incised with small pictographs. A sacred place to the Lakota of these immense prairies. As we raised out first large fallback tent on Feb 16 to house COS refugees, a stunning bald eagle flew over, skimming these rocks and blessing our work."
Highlight: At 72, Freeman was the oldest vet on site!

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Do You Have a Great Resource?

We want to hear from you!
We are hoping to include a helpful resource in our weekly VFP E-News   Do you have a  resource that you have found useful in your work for peace?  A great movie?  Good guides to build organizing skills?  Let us know! 
Please send Resources that can be accessed online or are available to folks across the country.

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In This Issue:

Take Action for Standing Rock

Petition: Fund People's Needs, Not Trump's Military Greed

VFP-ROCK and VFP Hawai'i Deliver Letter to Japanese Consulate

Save the Date!  VFP Annual Convention!

Veterans For Peace Delegation to Palestine: Week 2

Veterans For Peace: Healing and Inspiring Through Music

50th Anniversary of "Beyond Vietnam" Speech

Project Renew Featured in a New Article!

Shut Down Creech in April 2017!

Drone Resisters from Big Books Action at Hancock Airbase Acquitted

Get Your VFP Hoodie!

Zinn Fund Request for Proposals

Minneapolis VFP Chapter at Standing Rock

VFP Member, Freeman Hobs Allan, Reflects on Standing Rock

Vicki Ryder: "What True Defense is About"

Save the Dates: Upcoming Events


Petition: Fund People's Needs, Not Trump's Military Greed

Trump’s misdirected White House is putting military profiteering before public needs and putting future generations at risk. Trump’s proposed budget would slash social services that we depend on to raise the military budget by 10%. The United States already spends more on its military than the next 7 countries combined." Sign the United for Peace and Justice petition to call for funds to be spent on human needs here at home, not military and war-making abroad.
Sign the petition! Tell Democrats and Republicans in Congress that we value and support a system that prioritizes public needs over wars and corporate profiteers.


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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Veterans For Peace: Healing and Inspiring Through Music

A Short film by Chris Smiley, (who is currently traveling with the VFP Delegation in Palestine) recently made this short film.

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50th Anniversary of Beyond Vietnam Speech

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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Drone Resisters from Big Books Action at Hancock Airbase Acquitted

Veterans For Peace member Ed Kinane and three others were recently acquitted from an action they participated in March of 2015, where they brought some books to block the front gate at Hancock Air National Guard Base. The United Nations Charter, Living Under Drones, Dirty Wars and You Never Die Twice.
Ed Kinane told the jury in clear and powerful language about his time living in Iraq during the war and about the terror sown by drones.

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Zinn Fund Request for Proposals!

The Howard Zinn Fund for Peace and Justice was founded to support grass-roots projects that make demonstrated changes for greater peace and justice.

The Howard Zinn Fund for Peace and Justice seeks proposals from VFP Chapters and members working on bold new approaches to resisting the causes of war. While we are open to funding any project which fits the VFP mission, we are particularly interested in working with chapters to:
  • Increase diversity of membership and build new coalitions at the chapter level,
  • Resist fossil fuel projects at a local level,
  • Promote reconciliation and reparations for war crimes.
We will fund projects not related to the above items, and we do not want to dissuade any chapter or national member with a good idea and a plan of action from applying.

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Get Your VFP Hoodie!


Show your VFP pride at winter actions, events, and meetings!
Front: VFP Logo
Back: Eisenhower Quote -"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

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Vicki Ryder: "What True Defense is About"

Letter to the Editor by Vicki Ryder of Tri-Cities VFP (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill in North Carolina), Chapter 157.  The original letter was printed in the Durham Herald-Sun.
"Throwing money at the Pentagon, as we have been doing for years, won't protect us from the dangers we face as our infrastructure crumbles, as affordable health care moves beyond reach for more and more of us, as hate crimes rise, and as our sources of clean air and clean water are jeopardized by fossil fuel profiteers. Nor will the Pentagon defend our Constitutional rights or protect us from militarized police and private security forces who turn their weapons on those who stand against injustice, as they are doing at Standing Rock today."

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Save the Dates: Upcoming Events

March 11 - Half Day VFP Retreat in Nashville: contact Joey Kingjbkranger@aol.com
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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Why We Should Strike on May Day

 
 

Why We Should Strike on May Day

Since Inauguration Day, millions of people have taken to the streets to fight against Donald Trump’s right-wing agenda. Yet the president is continuing his attacks.

In the last week alone more than six hundred immigrants have been rounded up by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Here in Seattle, the administration appears to be using their illegal detention of a twenty-three-year-old father, Daniel Ramirez Medina, as some sort of bigoted “test” of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

This is only a small taste of what’s likely to come with Trump promising to deport millions. ICE is likely at some stage to start full-scale workplace raids.

It will not be enough to play defense. As millions ask “what will it take to stop Trump?”, a discussion about strike action has been rapidly developing. The 
chaos” we created at the nation’s airports gives a hint of what’s possible. In spite of the protests being rapidly pulled together protesters won the immediate release of detained immigrants and even pushed sections of big business into coming out against Trump and his Muslim ban.

Donate $25 today to send a clear message to Trump and the Billionaires’ that you stand with immigrants by building the largest protest and strike actions on March 8th and May 1st.

But we need to think deeply about where our strength lies and how to create disruption on an even greater scale. Working people have enormous potential power to shut down the profits of big business by taking action in their workplaces like slowdowns, sickouts, and strikes.

Last week, many organizers of the January women’s marches, joined by Angela Davis and others, called for a women’s strike on March 8 (International Women’s Day), to escalate the fight against Trump and build on the massive January 21 marches.

If the big women’s organizations, like Planned Parenthood, were to join in this call it could have a profound impact by bringing hundreds of thousands again on the streets and this time tapping into the strategic potential of mass workplace action. Unfortunately, the leadership of many of these organizations are often 
too timid due to their political outlook and ties to the Democratic Party establishment. In many cases it will take serious pressure from below to overcome this barrier.

March 8 can be a springboard to even larger protests and strike action across the country on May 1, International Workers’ Day. Historically “May Day” has been a global day of mass working class action. Immigrants restored the tradition of May Day to the United States in 2006, when they organized rallies of millions and hundreds of thousands went on strike as part of the “Day Without an Immigrant” in response to brutal Republican attacks.

The rapid pace of events may make May 1 seem a long way off, but we will need that time to organize a huge nationwide action which unites immigrants, women, union members, the Black Lives Matter movement, environmentalists, and all those threatened by Trump.

Let’s use the coming weeks to begin planning for workplace actions as well a mass peaceful civil disobedience that shuts down highways, airports, and other key infrastructure. Students can organize walkouts in their schools to send a powerful message that youth reject Trump’s racism and misogyny.

The participation of the labor movement would need to be central to this effort. With a clear lead from the union leadership millions of workers would eagerly respond. One day public-sector general strikes in key urban centers around the nation would be possible. Unfortunately, despite the attacks Trump is preparing against unions including national “right to work” (for less) legislation, 
some labor leaders believe they can try and appease Trump rather than going all out to build resistance. Other union and progressive leaders hope to be saved by the 2018 or 2020 elections, but we cannot wait two years to defend ourselves. Others will point to the undemocratic restrictions in American labor law.

But rank-and-file pressure can drive home the idea that May Day actions have more potential to change the parameters of US politics than decades of insider lobbying. Talk of strike action is already bubbling up within the labor movement. Last week, the Seattle Education Association passed a resolution for the Washington Education Association, the National Education Association, and other AFL-CIO unions to call on their affiliates for a one-day nationwide strike on May 1.

Two days later, the board of directors of the Minnesota Nurses Association passed a similar resolution, this one calling for “an intense discussion about workplace education and information meetings and protest action on May Day, May 1st 2017, including a discussion within the AFL-CIO about a call for a nationwide strike that day.”

Rank-and-file union members and left labor leaders should rapidly move to bring resolutions and make the case within their own unions for May 1 strike action.

Without a union it is of course much harder for workers to strike. We should appeal to everybody to support this strike and join in where it is possible to do so. We want the largest possible show of force, while keeping in mind that such actions would be too risky for some workers to take part in.

This is a long battle and we are just starting to get organized. Let’s use March 8 and May 1 to build our strength and lay the basis for even stronger actions that allow for larger numbers of workers to strike.


Donate $25 today to send a clear message to Trump and the Billionaires’ that you stand with immigrants by building the largest protest and strike actions on March 8th and May 1st.

Our strength is in numbers and organization. We can protect each other best against retaliation from our bosses by organizing our co-workers to join with us and building widespread support in our communities.

Where there is no formal strike or any union, other forms of workplace action can include using individual sick days or vacation days, organizing for a lunch-time meeting of your co-workers, or possibly leaving work early to join protests (
as happened in Poland last October).

We will not defeat Trump in one day alone. But a nationwide strike on May Day would, without a doubt, represent an enormous step forward for our movement.

Let’s seize the time and make this May Day a turning point in the struggle to bring down this dangerous administration and put forward the type of politics than can challenge the rule of the billionaire class.
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