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According to Obama Global Capitalism Is an ‘Abstraction,’ Not Worth Protesting

1 Oct

September 29, 2009

Alternet, Huffington Post, Common Dreams, ZNet

crowded_streetOn the eve of the G-20 summit last week, President Barack Obama gave a long interview to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in which he said that even during his days as a community organizer in Chicago he was never a big fan of mass protests.

With the clear intention of discouraging those who might join the looming demonstrations against the G-20, Obama explained that he was always a believer that “focusing on concrete, local, immediate issues that have an impact on people’s lives is what really makes a difference; and that having protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally is not really going to make much of a difference.”

While I personally never jumped on the Obama bandwagon, such a flippant dismissal of protest by the president is disappointing nevertheless, and slightly reminiscent of how his predecessor wrote off the millions who took to the streets before the invasion of Iraq.

Post-Gazette columnist Tony Norman noted in response: “Of course, Mr. Obama’s answer would be news to those who marched in countless civil rights, women’s rights and anti-war demonstrations over the decades. It would also be news to those who filled stadiums to hear candidate Obama’s stump speeches in 2008.”

Not surprisingly, his remarks were also not well received by the protesters who had arrived in Pittsburgh.

“You have revealed the real Obama!” Clarence Thomas, a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said during a rally demanding new jobs programs, according to the Wall Street Journal. He said the president’s statement was “very, very disrespectful” to the civil rights and other social movements.

For all of his flaws, Obama is clearly an intelligent person who must have known better.

It would not have taken an incredible investigative feat to discover that the protesters descending upon Pittsburgh were doing so for very “concrete” reasons that touch their daily lives in very real ways.

They came to advocate for greater assistance for everyday people during these tough economic times, for more serious government action on global warming ahead of the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, and for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have already taken such a staggering human and financial toll.

In fact, as a general rule of thumb, most people — whether they are diehard activists or not — don’t normally travel great distances to face ominous riot police firing rubber bullets, pepper spray and deafening sound cannons, unless they have been deeply, personally affected the issues being protested.

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Nonviolence: Past, Present, Future

11 May

May 11, 2009

KBOO 90.7

Today, I was on the “Old Mole Variety Hour” on KBOO 90.7 FM, a great listener-supported community radio station in Portland, Oregon to talk about the history and potential of nonviolence around the world. To listen to the segment, click here.

The Dawn of Robot Wars

17 Apr

April 17, 2009 issue

The Indypendent, WIN Magazine, Huffington Post, Common Dreams, ZNet. Also published as an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Australian Financial Review. Syndicated by Featurewell.com.

With little public scrutiny, robotics is quickly revolutionizing not only how war is fought, but who fights in war. While the U.S. military first began to experiment with remote-controlled weapons during World War I, the Pentagon had no robots on the ground when it invaded Iraq in 2003, and only a handful of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the air. Today, according to P.W. Singer, author of Wired for War and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the U.S. military has some 7,000 UAVs in operation – more than double the number of manned aircraft in its arsenal -  and more than 12,000 robots on the ground in Iraq alone.

Predator drones armed with laser-guided Hellfire missiles have regularly bombed Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, and their use is skyrocketing. In 2008, 71 Predators flew 138,404 combat hours – a 94 percent increase over the year before, according to a recent presentation by U.S. Air Force Col. Eric Mathewson. And over the last year, drones flown largely by the CIA have launched missile attacks inside Pakistan more than 40 times. Rather than reconsider this deadly policy, President Obama has become an enthusiastic backer. Since his inauguration, he has authorized 11 such attacks that have collectively killed over 145 people, many of them civilians, and sparked large protests within Pakistan.

UAVs are also increasingly being used inside the United States. The Department of Homeland Security has deployed unarmed drones to monitor the borders with Mexico and Canada. Police departments in Los Angeles, Houston and Miami have been testing drones for surveillance purposes in their cities. And according to the Washington Post, activists have even reported seeing insect-sized spy drones at antiwar rallies in Washington and New York.

In Iraq, there are at least 22 different unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) in operation. While they are used primarily for reconnaissance and to help soldiers defuse roadside bombs, the first armed ground robot was deployed south of Baghdad in May 2007. The Special Weapons Observation Remote Direct-Action System, or SWORDS, stands three feet tall and rolls on two tank treads. It’s currently fitted with an M249 machine gun that can be swapped for other powerful weapons and controlled with a modified laptop. More sophisticated UGVs – such as the MAARS and the one-ton Gladiator -  are currently being developed and tested and will likely see combat in the near future.

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Shut it Down

5 Mar

Winter 2009

WIN Magazine

bookcover_previewWitness Against Torture:
The Campaign to Shut Down Guantánamo
Edited by Anna Brown, Matthew Daloisio, Michael Foley, Patrick Stanley, and Matthew Vogel
Yellow Bike Press, 2008, 164 pages, $15–$25

As the history books are written, few words or places will symbolize the Bush years more than “torture” or Guantánamo. While much of the country has seemed to ignore―or at least remain quiet about―these horrors, not everyone has been silent.

Inspired by the nonviolent tradition of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker, a group of 25 activists calling themselves Witness Against Torture (WAT) embarked on an unprecedented 50-mile march in December 2005 to the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Although they were unable to visit the inmates as they’d hoped, the group came closer than any civilians had and took a meaningful stand for human dignity.

Upon returning to the United States, WAT activists launched a creative campaign to bring the plight of those at Guantánamo directly to the halls of power. They organized major demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience in New York City and Washington, D.C., helping spark and then fuel a worldwide movement to shut down the nightmarish offshore penal colony and ban torture.

Witness Against Torture: A Campaign to Shut Down Guantánamo was clearly a labor of love, put together by these activists to chronicle this grassroots movement, educate the wider public about the issue, and inspire more people of conscience to take action. The book is chronologically ordered and contains a collection of personal reflections on the actions by participants, court statements by the protesters, press releases, photos, posters, flyers, and even an hour-long DVD that effectively transports the reader to the streets, courtrooms, and jail cells where the group’s witness has led them.

Throughout this concise volume are the heartbreaking stories and words of prisoners at Guantánamo, passionate pleas for justice by their lawyers, and excerpts from various fact-filled reports on the detainees that will undoubtedly be useful for anyone trying to articulate why the prison is an abomination.

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Boats Break the Siege of Gaza

28 Feb

by Eric Stoner and Bryan Farrell

November 2008 issue

Z Magazine

When Israel began imposing economic sanctions and withholding taxes from the occupied territories in response to Hamas’s electoral victory over the ruling Fatah party two years ago, a group of human rights activists from around the globe gathered to discuss what they could do to ease the plight of the Palestinian people. The events of the next year, however, would be what truly informed their course of action.

finallygoingAlthough the elections had been deemed free and fair by international monitors, the US moved to secure Israel’s position – according to a recent Vanity Fair exposé – by masterminding a Fatah coup attempt. But portions of the plan were leaked to a Jordanian newspaper and Hamas moved to preempt the overthrow by seizing total control of the Gaza Strip.

As retribution, Israel tightened the siege on Gaza by closing its borders and severely restricting the free flow of electricity, food, fuel, medicines, and other goods into the territory. This has led to the virtual collapse of Gaza’s economy, forcing its 1.5 million inhabitants to rely almost exclusively on international aid and live in what is regularly called the world’s largest “open-air prison.”

Given this dire situation, the activists decided to dub their group the “Free Gaza Movement,” and set their goal as breaking the siege of Gaza. They would accomplish this feat by sailing boats from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to Gaza’s port, which no international vessel had freely entered or exited since 1967. After raising more than $250,000 by giving small presentations at churches, mosques and synagogues, and reaching out to family, friends, and supporters, they were finally ready to put their plans into motion last summer.

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‘Obscene Monument to War’ Returns to NYC

28 Feb

October 27, 2008 issue

The Indypendent; Also published in Fall 2008 Issue of WIN Magazine

2907488465_a9be5de264While hundreds gathered to welcome the return of the U.S.S. Intrepid to its west Manhattan pier Oct. 2, not everyone present was there to celebrate. More than a dozen peace activists carried banners and handed out fliers along the waterfront to protest what one demonstrator called “an obscene monument to war.”

The Intrepid, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, set sail in 1943 during World War II, and was deployed during the Korean and Vietnam wars. In the 1960s, it was used as a support vessel in two NASA space missions. Decommissioned in 1974 after years of service, the ship has served as a military and space museum at Pier 86 since 1982.

Nearly two years ago, the warship was hauled to Bayonne, N.J., and then to Staten Island for extensive repairs and renovation. Despite being a privately run enterprise, virtually every cent of the estimated $60 million to fund the overhaul of both the aircraft carrier and the dilapidated pier was paid for by federal, state and local governments. Before it was all over, the cost of the project ballooned to $120 million.

“I’m appalled that my taxes are being used for this. It’s outrageous and offensive,” said Jim Moschella, a member of Brooklyn for Peace who was at the demonstration.

Paying for these repairs, however, does not mark the first or the only time taxpayer dollars have been allocated for the museum. Back in 1982, the Intrepid Foundation received a $4.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to supplement the more than $120 million in private funds to establish the museum.

“The public money used to renovate and rehab what is essentially a war propaganda museum could be better spent on many things, particularly given the last week in this country,” argued Matt Daloisio, a member of the New York Catholic Worker, alluding to the risk of foreclosure faced by millions of homeowners due to the recent financial crisis.

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Living by the Sword

28 Feb

September 19, 2007

Huffington Post

swords_into_plowsharesIn the United States, where the vast majority of the population (82 percent according to a recent Newsweek poll) identify themselves as Christians, one of the most important steps we can all take to ending not only the war in Iraq, but all war, is to remind people of faith at every turn how radical and nonviolent their God truly is.

One of the many stories that could be mentioned in this regard comes at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. Just before Jesus was capitally punished by the Roman Empire, he gave his followers an unequivocal lesson about violence that we can ill afford to ignore today.

When the authorities came to arrest Jesus, the apostle Peter did what most of us would do under similar circumstances. He drew his sword in defense of the life of his friend and teacher — who he also believed was the Son of God — and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his ear.

For Christians still wedded to the just war theory, a more “just cause” for the use of violence in all of history is hard to imagine.

Jesus responded, however, not with approval, but by emphasizing once again the centrality of love, even for the enemy, to his teachings. He rebuked Peter, saying: “Put your sword back in its sheath, for all who take the sword shall perish by the sword.”

The key word there is “all.” Jesus was not only condemning Peter’s violence in that moment some two thousand years ago, but explicitly issuing a warning to anyone, anywhere who chooses violence.

This story should make Christians in this country uncomfortable, because no other nation is currently taking up the sword with more zeal or recklessly wielding it around the world than our own.

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Why Pay for War?

28 Feb

by Eric Stoner and Bryan Farrell

April 17, 2007

ZNet

visualize-taxWhen millions took to the streets across the U.S. and around the world on February 15, 2003, in the largest global demonstration for peace in history, President Bush brushed it off with ease. To let this influence his decision to attack Iraq, he quipped, would be “like saying I’m going to decide policy based upon a focus group.”

Such has been the administration’s disdainful response to every antiwar protest since, and the bloody occupation of Iraq rages on.

With tax day upon us, those fighting for peace should ponder another hardliner’s words. “Let them march all they want to,” Reagan’s Secretary of State Alexander Haig reportedly said in 1982, after a massive rally for nuclear disarmament in New York, adding: “as long as they continue to pay their taxes.”

Bush’s proposed federal budget for 2008 requested $645 billion for national defense, including the $142 billion supplemental to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even this enormous figure could be considered incomplete, as Winslow Wheeler, a defense analyst at the Center for Defense Information, has pointed out, because it does not factor in among other things the cost of the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Veterans Affairs, military aid to allies, or “the share of annual payments on the interest of the national debt that can be attributed to the Defense Department.”

To the taxpayer, these numbers mean that at a bare minimum over half of every tax dollar that Congress has control over through the appropriations process – also known as the discretionary budget – will go to the current wars or for maintaining the military establishment. 

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King’s Prophetic Call for Peace

28 Feb

April 5, 2007

TomPaine.com, and a shorter op-ed version was published in: Topeka Capital Journal, KS; Hereford Brand, TX; Northwest Arkansas Times, AK; Asheville Citizen-Times, NC; Portland Observer, OR; Newberg Graphic, OR; Morris Sun Tribune, MN; Daily Globe, MN. Distributed by Minuteman Media.

mlkjr-vietnam-riverside

Forty years ago this week, on April 4, 1967, and a year to the day before his tragic assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to the pulpit of New York’s Riverside Church to deliver one of the most controversial speeches of his life.
 
Entitled ” Beyond Vietnam,”  the address was King’s first public antiwar speech, and he gave it only after much trepidation and prayer. Believing that silence in the face of injustice is in fact complicity with evil, King wrote in his autobiography that, “The time had come—indeed it was past due—when I had to disavow and dissociate myself from those who in the name of peace burn, maim and kill.”
 
As anticipated, King was roundly criticized at the time for straying from civil rights, not only by the mainstream media, but also by allies such as the NAACP. “It was a low period in my life,” he wrote. “I could hardly open a newspaper.”
 
Now, however, history has vindicated the truths that King so bravely spoke that day, and his testimony is rightfully seen as a prophetic masterpiece.
 
While still mesmerizing, listening to the speech today can also be somewhat disconcerting. It painfully reveals how little has changed and how politicians, both then and now, use the same rhetorical devices to scare the public into supporting misguided policies. By simply swapping the word ” Iraq” for “Vietnam,” and “terrorism” for “communism” King’s speech could be given today, with little need for editing.
 
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The First 9/11 Starred Gandhi

27 Feb

September 10, 2006

Peoria Journal Star, IL; Topeka Capital Journal, KS; Northwest Arkansas Times, AK, Daily Globe, MN, Progressive Populist, IA. Common Dreams. Distributed by Minuteman Media.

gandhi_bigWhile most Americans associate September 11th with violence, in one of history’s great coincidences, that date also marks the centennial of one of the most significant steps in humanity’s long quest for peace.  

On September 11, 1906, 3,000 people, mostly Indians, packed the old Empire Theater in Johannesburg, South Africa. They came to protest a draft of the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance that would require that every Indian over the age of 8 be fingerprinted and carry a registration card. Moreover, the law stipulated that the police could enter the home of any Indian at their discretion and fine, imprison or even deport those found without proper identification.  

A young lawyer, Mohandas K. Gandhi, took the stage to explain a resolution that he had helped draft that pledged that no Indian would cooperate with the proposed law if it passed. In the heat of the moment, one of the speakers following Gandhi vowed “in the name of God” that he would never comply with the degrading law and urged everyone present to do the same. 

Being a deeply religious man, Gandhi was startled. Not knowing what he was going to say, but feeling compelled to explain the gravity of invoking God in such an oath, he rose again to address the audience. 

“It is not at all impossible that we might have to endure every hardship that we can imagine” without resorting to violence, Gandhi warned. The crowd sat in solemn silence. While “everyone must only search his own heart” about taking the vow, Gandhi announced that there was only one course open to him: “to die but not submit to the law.” Nevertheless, Gandhi was an optimist. “I can boldly declare, and with certainty,” he assured, “that so long as there is even a handful of men true to their pledge, there can be one end to the struggle, and that is victory.” 

Awestruck by the eloquence and power of Gandhi’s words, all present in the theater that fateful afternoon stood together with their hands raised and took an oath of nonviolent resistance.  

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