Tidbits - March 5, 2015 - Chicago torture site; unions; Netanyahu, Israel, Iran; Gaza; Ferguson, Racism - Today; and more...

Reader Comments - Chicago torture site; Unions Show New Creativity, Militancy; Assault on Women; Netanyahu, Boehner, Israel, Iran, U.S. war policy; Gaza, Settlers; Racial Bias Among Ferguson Police; Truth and Reconciliation; Lynching in America; Social Security Crisis?; Tax High Incomes, Solve State Funding Crisis; Greece: Portugal Cut Addiction Rates in Half; Militarized Future; Announcements - New York events

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Tidbits - Reader Comments and Announcements - March 5, 2015,Portside

Re: Chicago 'black site': former US justice officials call for Homan Square inquiry

This story is beyond scary, if one exists in Chicago what's to say several others can't be in other states by their police dept.

Gina Woody
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Sadly, this is probably only one of many such "Black Sites" in our police state. Calling Mr. Pinochet...

Karin Conover-Lewis
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Under Attack, Unions Show New Creativity and Militancy
(posting on Portside Labor)

About time, I would sure rather go down swing than meekly submit to those that have no respect for the people.

James Stevens
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Instead of simply protesting, mourning, and working for repeal of right-to-work laws, we need to demand that unions' freedom to represent only their members be included in, or follow passage of, such legislation.

Such a move may

  1. Draw members from among those workers who don't really oppose union membership but are happy to freeload;
  2. Rid unions of the obligation to expend resources on truly hostile workers; and
  3. Expose the proponents of r-to-wk for what they really are -- opponents of worker organization. 

No doubt most of these legislators will oppose members-only representation, but a legal strategy may also be developed whereby a member or members object to their dues money being spent on behalf of non-members. A chief r-to-wk proponent has told me that he'd have no objection to member-only representation (which of course causes me some worry about the idea).

Jim Young
Harrisburg, PA

Re: Laws that Decimate Unions May be Inevitable. Here's How Labor Can Survive
(posting on Portside Labor)

Break the anti-union laws. Only way we will survive. We need huge "Sympathy" or Solidarity strikes which are, illegal. We need to occupy workplaces, the tactic that built the CIO, and of course, this tactic is illegal. We need to blockade roads to stop scabs. Illegal. General strikes? Illegal. Mass pickets after court-injunctions limiting pickets... illegal. All the effective tactics are illegal. Any labor leader preaching legality is a just setting him or herself up for retirement and damning the labor movement to irrelevance. Time to take up prison solidarity and up it to an unprecedented level. Or just die away as a movement, as an institution.

Jeff Booth
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: State Lawmakers Launch Concerted Assault on Women's Rights

What say you candidate Hillary Clinton? I am cynically believing Clinton will try to moderate with compromise and leave these women increasingly vulnerable to this creeping movement to drastically curtail women's reproduction rights. Your thoughts. Certainly the GOP will be far more supportive of these new state laws to prohibit abortions in almost all cases.

Larry Aaronson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Netanyahu's Speech: Mansplaining Iran to Obama

Netanyahu does, indeed, seem to be the villain here.   Shame on him and Shame on John Boehner.  He and Boehner are WAR HUNGRY.  And Netanyahu doesn't care if American lives are lost for "his political" sake.  What an ASSHOLE!  I think, President Obama should cut off financial and military support to Israel now.   Netanyahu has become the War Criminal the Iranians portray him to be.  And, his government's expansion of settlements into the West Bank is unconscionable!  Israel is the new Nazi Germany . . . what a sad and despicable commentary.

Randy Hurst
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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The only reason Iran is in these negotiations is that it really and truly hasn't, isn't and won't build nuclear weapons. Israel is the only nuclear armed power in the region.

Michael Munk

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"If you take out Saddam, Saddam's regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region." ~ Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu urging the US to invade Iraq in 2002.

Richard Zayas
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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You would never know from yesterday's speech by Netanyahu that the only country in the Middle East that possesses nuclear weapons, a decided military advantage over its neighbors, and a long record of state organized violence against nearby states and peoples, is Israel. Critics of Netanyahu correctly say he offers no alternative to the diplomatic initiative of the Obama administration in its talks with the Iranian government, but that is true only up to a point. For if you follow the logic of what he is saying, the alternative, even if unspoken, is clear: war against, and regime change in, Iran. But Netanyahu, knowing full well the war weariness of the American people and wanting to derail the current negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, wasn't about to make this admission before Congress and the American people. He's a right wing demagogue and liar for sure, but he's no fool.

Not surprisingly, Netanyahu's speech received the vigorous and craven support of the Republican majority in Congress (by the way, elections matter), who are more than ready (along with some Congressional Democrats) to send U.S. soldiers into harm's way in order to crush Iran and reassert, after a series of humiliating defeats, U.S. military (and political and economic) domination of the Middle East. Now if this motley crew was Netanyahu's only supporters it wouldn't be an insurmountable problem in terms of the present negotiations, but what complicates matters is that there are, politically speaking, good people in Congress and elsewhere who buy into the notion that Israel, which again has not even a remotely close military adversary in the region, faces an "existential threat" from Iran. A Big Lie!

Last word: citizen action is crucial to stop this madness. We have to appeal to the common sense and interests of the American people to support the current negotiations and to express their unequivocal opposition to a new war in the Middle East.

Sam Webb

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Cultures of Resistance

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Here's a brief reply I wrote to a pro-Netanyahu letter in our local Beaver County Times this AM

Netanyahu's path requires serious military attacks on Iran leading to an overthrow of its government for one neutral toward Israel. It is profoundly unrealistic and dangerous, both for Israel and us, and he wants to drag us into it. No thanks.

Iran is a country of some 77 million people, currently encircled by a dozen US-aligned military bases. But it has a powerful and sophisticated military with dedicated soldiers. It can easily shut down the Persian Gulf oil lanes and take out US carriers with its own cruise missiles

In short, all options that call for going to war with Iran are delusional and harmful to everyone's interest.

Best to set them aside, and resolve differences through nonviolent means, in keeping with the UN Charter and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

One final note: What's not being stressed is that Israel is a nuclear power, but hides the fact because it doesn't want to be part of any treaties regulating or limiting nuclear weapons. And we are paying $3 Billion a year for all of it. Time to cut off the money. That will bring Israel to its senses, and drop a policy requiring endless war and occupation.

Carl Davidson

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He is the worlds greatest threat to Judaism.

Burt Cohen
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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This article demonstrates the really remarkable "empire language" that should not be used unless in a well-researched article looking at the use of the language.  The unfortunate use of the term "mullah" and Great Satan, are hugely loaded words which powerfully blind the unwary reader to their unconscious influence.  

"Mullah"  has a long and sordid history as shorthand for what western imperialists saw as the irrational, emotional, unreasonable responses to western invasion.  The "mad mullahs" in Egypt, the Sudan, Libyan, Afghanistan, SW Asia and now Iran are trotted out to portray the savage, barbaric, emotional, and so forth" reactions of the lesser nations.  The fact that this "discourse" in Western culture blinds us from any real approach or understanding of the people we are vilifying as a strong discourse will (see Edward Said).

When starting students in history I ask them to look at these prejudgements  by reading short excerpts from a small but useful text on Thinking Critically about US history.  The excerpts cover the same event over the period from the late 1800's to the 1980's  in the best-selling college textbook of its period.  The questions center upon image and the matter of language controlling our conscious awareness through our unconscious reactions.   One of the most important questions is when do the Native Americans begin to have names.  In other words, why in many accounts of European encounters when Native American names are known are they not used.  The students become quickly alert to question and look more carefully at the dehumanizing process.  

So I ask, why does the author of this article fall into such a degrading process.  The Iranian Supreme Council have names.  They are not dumb, deaf, and blind.  In fact, they are highly educated reasoning men.  An Ayatollah has spent many years studying, thinking, and making decisions that do not have to agree with each other but can be still binding.  The Assembly is elected democratically.  

The Iranian Revolution like all revolutions, had a powerful impetus to free the society from the oppressive regime of the Shah.  And amazingly enough every revolution I've ever studied unites for freedom and then the problem becomes the structure of freedom.  Iranians are reasoning and intelligent.  They care about their nation deeply.  They worry about their children.  They highly value education.  They had more women elected to the Assembly than we had in the Congress in the same time period.  It is a complex, extraordinary society which managed by the sagacity of its leaders to avoid the poisonous fate of being a colony of the West. And  Iranian Twelver Shiism is probably the most flexible, astute branch of Shiism and is able to respond thoughtfully and responsibly in crises.   

It sickens me that the problem on the whole is not Iran but our blind, inflexible ignorance of the rest of the world's aspirations for dignity and freedom.  A strong discourse makes it impossible to think beyond the power of the discourse.  But there are always weak discourses which may over time erode that power.  Starting with care in our language is one of them.

Rosalyn Ashby

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Not since Ariel Sharon has such arrogance been openly displayed out of Tel Aviv.

Randall J. Sherman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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spread the word on this one---- Netanyahu's position has already lead to disaster throughout the region

Martha Bragin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Leaked Cables Show Netanyahu's Iran Bomb Claim Contradicted by Mossad

And what's with the Acme bomb illustration? Why the Israelis elected this guy again after his 90s term as Prime Minister was cut short by corruption sandals has always been a mystery to me. And where's Wile E Coyote?

Felice Sage
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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The world needs peace with Iran. Who does this guy think he is? George W. Bush?

Brian Duplisea
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I didn't hear a solution in Netanyahu's latest emotional appeal. Would he have U.S. troops mount up and march again into the lands of Islam to dismantle Iran's nuclear efforts and shed American blood for Israel's peace of mind? Exactly what is in it for us?

Allen Barrett
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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More weapons of mass destruction? I am for Israel but I am against how congress went around the administration to have him speak. Israel is 2 weeks away from an election. Anything that appears to show U.S. favoritism between their candidates is wrong and unheard of. If anything invitation to speak should have been to whoever wins their election.

Lonnie Smith
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Interesting read. The thing that I can't get away from, even as dovish as I am, is the rhetoric from Iran and so many others in the region that Israel does not have the right to exist.

Lainie Glaser Levin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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That's definitely a concern, but it really has not much, if anything, to do with the point of this article. Netanyahu panders to Israel's right wing the same way our GOP politicians pander to ours. Invoking fear is the name of the game.

Judith Schmidt
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Gaza in Ruins After Receiving Only 5% of Pledged Reconstruction Funds

Israel is responsible for the occupation of Palestine and the economic embargo of Gaza and is in violation of the Geneva Conventions. They have turned Gaza into a concentration camp of captives. Prosecute Netanyahu for war crimes. Support the Boycott Divest and Sanction movement against the occupation.

John Jernegan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Israel's Peace Now: Illegal Settlements Designed to Make Two-State Solution Impossible

the two state solution is in reality the legitimization of the racist state of israel .....the two state solution is what american indians have on their prisoner of war camps erroneously now called "reservations" where they live as beggars upon their own lands.....this is not a new idea....and it always has been a failed system of oppression for the indigenous of america....political, economic, health and educational oppression....stealing of children.....and other forms of genocide....learn from history what the two state solution really is before you fully endorse it.....

Rolland Mousseaux
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Please Boycott REMAX!! Tell them selling stolen land and developments is not ethical Canadian business practice...or morally acceptable.

Areti Spiropoulos
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Muslims Supporting Jews

I think this deserves attention, not just from the left, but don't know who else to mail to

Alice Freund

Oslo - 1,000 Muslims Encircle Synagogue To Support Jews
February 21, 2015
Vos Iz Neias (What's News? - The Voice of the Orthodox Jewish Community)

More than 1,000 people formed a "ring of peace" around the Norwegian capital's synagogue, an initiative taken by young Muslims in Norway after a series of attacks against Jews in Europe, in Oslo, Saturday, Feb. 21 2015. Norway's Chief Rabbi Michael Melchior sang the traditional Jewish end of Shabaat song outside the Oslo synagogue before a large crowd holding hands.
AP Photo / Hakon Mosvold Larsen / NTB Scanpix // Vos Iz Neias


Re: Justice Dept. Review Finds Pattern of Racial Bias Among Ferguson Police

Abel Da Barber

[thanks to the photographer-artist Abel Da Barber for posting this on Portside's Facebook page]

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Some prosecutions are in order.

Jenny Kastner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Truth and Reconciliation Is Coming to America From the Grassroots

Bishop Desmond Tutu presiding over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings

Can we get reparations--or at least some free grief counseling? I swear, the ills that we've suffered is caused from the mental anguished heaped on us for literally centuries. I'm surprised we survived in the numbers that we did. Now we need a cure for all the ills that plagued us for centuries.

Musashi Miyamoto
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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We have a long way to go in this country. Racial hatred and intolerance still runs deep.

Elizabeth Kiland
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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The Cross and the Lynching Tree
by James H. Cone

A landmark in the conversation about race and religion in America.

Mark E Stanger
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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TY for posting ! Don' t wait for another unfortunate tragedy ~ ~ ACT NOW ~ ~ let's ALL say, NEVER AGAIN I'm from Kingston, NY, TOO . . . IMPT. Issues shall not be swept under the RUG . . . What's Happening 2015 in OUR Cities, Folks ?

Brenda Waldemar
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Portside.PortsideLabor

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The problem is that we are being swamped with Roundup politicians and herbicide police actions. Hard to sustain grassroots support, but once it does finally achieve sufficient mass, there are going to be some exploding heads

Chris West
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Silence allows denial, denial allows the evil secrets to be perpetuated. The time is now to heal our country with the truth. Racial hatred is a sickness, and sickness can be healed. We are one.

Leslie Kaufmann Chin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: New Study--Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror

We have a Holocaust Museum in our nation's capitol, but not a Slavery Museum - I'd say that we still have some processing to do. Slavery, lynchings, racism - all horrible, painful stuff that we can't continue to sweep under the rug. (I'm not against the Holocaust Museum by the way).

Shawna McKellar
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Not easy-peasy when so much of Congress includes representatives of areas (mostly South) that want to pretend slavery was no big deal. Somewhat analogous to Holocaust deniers.

Charles Berthold
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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If we had a real Congress it would pass a bill requiring there to be a museum of slavery in every town in which one or more lynchings occurred that included newspaper accounts, photos and other historical artifacts regarding those local lynchings, as well as the history of slavery in the area. It wouldn't be hard. Pass a bill authorizing some funding to help defray the cost of establishing the museums, give the communities two years from the date of passage of the act to submit conceptual plans for the museum, given them four years from the date of receipt to complete the museum, and tie the disbursement of further federal funds (including funds distributed through the states) to completion, opening, and continued operation of the museum. Easy-peasey.

Jonathan Tucker
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I do not believe the total number of lynching's is correct....When a slave was murdered prior to the Civil war, nothing was done or reported (much like killing a horse or cow). After the Civil War, battle harden Southerners returned to their upside down destroyed world ("Gone with the Wind").....Many, Many freed blacks were simply murdered and no one reported it......If God keeps records as most Christians believe, than the number he has is probably 50 - 60,000 or more.

William Muse
Posted on Portside's Facebook page


Re: The Real Social Security Crisis Is Income Inequality

Eliminating the cap on social security payments is key to a future of generalized security. The current cap at $118K means persons earning $5 million only pay into social security on the first $118K

Marc Batko
Posted on Portside's Facebook page


Re: Taxing Top Incomes at the Same Rate as the Middle Class Could Fund Critical State Priorities-Including Education, Infrastructure, and Public Pensions

Here's the answer to the economic crisis. Just saying. It's not too awfully difficult to figure out the solution. Enacting it however opens up a whole new set of problems, mainly the realization that those who benefit from this disparity are the ones with the authority to change it. So what incentive do they have to do so?

Aaron Childers
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Inequality could be significantly lessened, if there were the political will to do it.

Roderick Stackelberg
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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If the top one percent were taxed at the same rate as the middle 20 percent, states and localities would raise $68 billion per year. Similarly, if the top 20 percent paid the same as the middle 20 percent, states and localities would generate $128 billion each year.

Sandy Stenoff
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: The Bitter Wisconsin Cold Warmed by a Moscow Breeze

thanks, folks for posting the piece about Wis and Putin

all the best from the coldest,

paul buhle

Re: Wrong-Way Obama?

Mary LaVonne Avery
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Whatever financial interests do, in the next elections in the United States and Canada, the public needs to start questioning what an economy is for. Globalization has created an economy for large multinational corporations and banks, but is doing nothing for people. These organizations have made great wealth, instituted part-time, occasional jobs, and their political lackeys have deregulated everything so that enormous wealth has passed  from the public sector to the private sector; the gap between rich and poor has widened a lot, and most people are totally insecure. The educational and health standards have dropped and democratic standards are lower as corporations buy up elections.

This is not good enough. And not only is it leading to another depression, but in the absence of work on climate change it is leading to the destruction of the planet. Not surprisingly issues like religious extremism and military ventures are currently a smokescreen for the real problem, which is growing economic inequality that affects everyone but the superrich. Inequality also erodes democracy itself.

So it makes no sense.

Only people who have courage and are motivated can begin to raise the basic questions of what kind of society do we want and how will we achieve it? Political change is one way to achieve change. Setting up an alternative economy is another part of the answer, and people can do that with small businesses, local food production, boycotting large companies etc. People need work and community based work is a start. Don't blame consumers; you can't buy if you have little or no money. It is the huge companies and banks and their greed that has brought on this crisis.

Laurel MacDowell

Re: Reading The Greek Deal Correctly

Did Greece capitulate to European powers? Prof. James K Galbraith, who also happens to be an adviser to the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, shares his perspectives...

Greece Now Positioned to Negotiate a New Loan Agreement

The Greek Debt and the German Acquiescence

Naim Karim
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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The first steps, against the relentless opposition of all those who have gained enormously and plan to gain more from this crisis, are the hardest ones. SYRIZA will stay in power only if it stays "clean" and if, at the same time, it starts and finishes the long-awaited house-cleaning process.

George Polyzoides
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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How is it that none of the 'lists' of countries with oppositions movements includes Italy and the M5S?

Pete Healey
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Get out of the eu and bring back the drachma

Diane Lane-Hymans
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Portugal Cut Addiction Rates in Half by Connecting Drug Users With Communities Instead of Jailing Them

true, HHS report here in America says continual social service support and safety net had higher success rate than jailing chronic abusers...

Tina Beelel
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Would not even be considered in U.S.,too much money at stake.

Frank Nelson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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But we don't like "communities"; we like jails. Populism loves punishment and to the extent the oligarchs allow, we are a populist paradise.

William Cutlip
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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we make them crazy, throw them out on the street and murder them by cop for being alive.

Elizabeth Massera
Posted on Portside's Facebook pager

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That's way too a advanced for a country like the USA. It would destroy a large sector of pursuing profit at any cost...

Geoff Rudolph
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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It would be a good example for us to follow but to many greedy people with influence are making money from prisons and drugs. The legal system is rolling in drug dough.

Ken Sr Carter
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Hope you can provide this link on American Sniper if you haven't already:

Strung out in Tanzania
A pioneering methadone program treats addicts in Dar es Salaam, where cheap heroin is abundant
by Sarika Bansal
March 3, 2015
Al Jazeera America

Jeanne Lenzer

Re: China's Grand Vision of New Silk Roads Across Eurasia

The extent and complexity of China's myriad transformations barely filter into the American media. Stories in the U.S. tend to emphasize the country's "shrinking" economy, or its role as a military "threat" to Washington and the world. The U.S. media has a China fever, which results in typically feverish reports that don't take the pulse of the country or its leaders. In the process, so much is missed, including the vast scope of China's plans for the future.

William Gary Iannaccone
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Re: Desertec - The Renewable Energy Grab

So this the future solar energy.

Millie Ayala
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: The U.S. is Heading Into a Heavily Militarized Future

Will Americans tolerate an occupying army in the name of 'security'?

And this is SO bad for America! The cost in both Freedoms and Tax Dollars is unbearable to this American.

Ricky Grubb
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Disheartening Report on Recent US Attacks in Syria

A couple of months ago, great fanfare was made that ISIS/ISIL had been routed from the Syrian town of Kobani. This morning's look-back report revealed devastating information not previously reported.  The town is totally in rubble.  Not one building remains standing.  US bombs and drone strikes hit and demolished every structure, vehicle, and equipment in Kobani.  Not one of the towns' many thousand residents remain.  Information has been withheld from the US public of both Kobani's total destruction and the number of civilians killed in the onslaught (collateral damage).  Tens of thousands fled across the border to Turkey, where they get minimal if any aid. The refugees are not Turks and cannot remain.  Where will the hoards go and what will happen to them.  There is no US plan to rebuild the destroyed town, nor any assurance of permanent aid to the lives that are forever lost.

The saddest fact is:  Kobani is only one town in the vast territory occupied by ISIS/ISIL in Iraq and Syria.  The only plan currently to be implemented by the US -- to be further accelerated following the upcoming vote of Congress to "authorize use of military force (AUMF)" -- is more of the same, seemingly throughout the Islamic world.

To date, neither the Administration nor the media seem concerned that obvious questions are not being asked nor have answers been presented:  When will this (unjustified) war end ?  How will it end ?  What is victory ?  How will it be known when "victory" has been achieved ?  What will happen to the cities, towns, villages already destroyed and yet to be destroyed by unchallenged US air power ?  If to be rebuilt, who will rebuild and who will pay for the rebuilding ?  What will happen to the millions of innocent people forced from their homes and villages with nowhere to return to ?

The Bush-Cheney US military misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq will cost US taxpayers appx $3 Trillion (not Billions, Trillions -- big difference).  It should be noted that the total revenue collected by the US Treasury in FY 2014 was $3,01 Trillion -- about what it will cost to payoff already expended debts from the 14-year Afghanistan / Iraq fiasco.  On top of the existing humongous debt, how much more will US taxpayers have to pay for eliminating and rebuilding the destroyed Islamic world ?

Is there some positive information here that we're missing.????

James E Vann
Oakland, California
Former National Co-Chair, NCIPA (National Committee for Independent Political Action)
Long time local political and community activist

Book Talk - When Tenants Claimed the City @ Tamiment - New York - March 11

Join us for a book talk with Roberta Gold, Professor of History and American Studies at Fordham University.

Wednesday March 11 at 6:00 PM

Tamiment Library
(Tenth Floor, 70 Washington Square South).

She will be discussing her new book When Tenants Claimed the City: The Struggle for Citizenship in New York City Housing (University of Illinois, 2014).

The talk is cosponsored by both the Tamiment Library and the Center for the United States and the Cold War. Copies of When Tenants Claimed the City will be on sale before and after the discussion.

You can RSVP by calling 212-992-9018 or emailing us at RSVP.Bobst@NYU.edu.

Learn more about Tamiment's other events here:

Making Connections. Building Movements. Peace and Planet Mobilization

Thursday, March 12 -- 7:00pm - 9:00pm

All Souls Church
1157 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10075

The Peace and Planet movement building efforts are focused on 5 broad issue areas that are inextricably linked.

1. Nuclear disarmament
2. Peace both at home and abroad
3. Move the Money from the Pentagon to human needs
4. Halt and reverse climate change. NO to nuclear power
5. Racial equity, economic justice and the demilitarization of police forces

Panelists will explore the connections between these areas as well as concrete examples of building a broader movement for peace, justice, and sustainability.

After the panel, we will form into breakout groups to discuss our current mobilization efforts for the weekend of April 24th-26th, and opportunities for your organization to be involved.

Speakers:

  • Sumumba Sobukwe - Founder and co-creator of Occu-Evolve, which is currently among the longest running and last active groups within the Occupy Wall Street Movement and is Chair of the Occupy For Justice (Because) Black Lives Matter Committee.
  • Amy Miller - Campaigner at 350.org ,working to end investments of city and state pension funds in fossil fuel companies and reinvest in a just and sustainable future. Her organizing includes local and national election campaigns; advocacy for health care reform and other progressive issues. Amy is originally from California, and previously worked in non-profit arts administration and clinical psychology.
  • Joseph Gerson - Co-convener of the Peace and Planet Mobilization and author of Empire and the Bomb: How the U.S. uses nuclear weapons to dominate the world, and With Hiroshima Eyes: Atomic war, nuclear extortion, and moral imagination.
  • Jim Anderson - President of Peace Action New York State, a combat veteran, a radio program host in Buffalo, and a life-long movement activist for peace and justice.
  • Martha Cameron - Longtime activist around the issues of war and peace, social justice, and the environment. She is currently cochair of the Climate Action committee of Brooklyn For Peace.

Book Talk -  American Gandhi: A.J. Muste and the History of Radicalism in the Twentieth Century - New York - March 19

 

David McReynolds and the New York City War Resisters League and the A.J. Muste Institute are pleased to announce that Leilah Danielson, author of American Gandhi: A.J. Muste and the History of Radicalism in the Twentieth Century (Penn Press 2014) will give a talk and book signing at:

Thursday, March 19 at 8 p.m.

Mary House
Catholic Worker
55 East 3rd St
Manhattan

The book traces Muste's evolving political and religious views over the course of his long career in the labor movement, the left, and the peace movement, while also charting the rise and fall of American progressivism over the course of the twentieth century. Michael Kazin, historian and editor of Dissent magazine calls it a 'first rate study' and historian Doug Rossinow describes it as "a major work in the history of twentieth century American radicalism.