07 Aug 2018
News Permalink

Veterans For Peace 33rd Annual Convention, August 22-26th.

August 7, 2018

Veterans For Peace is excited to be coming to St. Paul for their 33rd Annual Convention, August 22-26th.
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/2018-annual-convention

This year’s theme is Reclaim Armistice Day – End All Wars! The Twin Cities VFP chapter has done an excellent job working with the National Office staff and the Board of Directors to bring together a great convention. For years, the Twin Cities chapter has been one of the strongest chapters ringing the bells to  “Reclaim Armistice Day.” They introduced the first ever resolution in support of Armistice Day in 2008.

The VFP convention will be held 100 years after the armistice that ended the horrific carnage of World War I, and 90 years after the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the international agreement in which countries promised not to use war to resolve “disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them.  Frank Kellogg, who was a Minnesota senator before becoming U.S. Secretary of State, co-authored the pact with French Foreign Minister
Briand in 1928, for which the two men were awarded the 1929 Nobel Peace Prize.  It is fitting then that the VFP Convention will be held on Kellogg Avenue, the location of the St. Paul InterContinental, a union hotel owned by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

The weekend of plenaries and workshops will begin with a plenary on Indigenous History and the Discovery Doctrine.  The Twin Cities are home to the inspiring Indigenous Youth Ceremonial Mentoring Society, who recently traveled to the Vatican to advocate for the abolishment of the Discovery Doctrine.             

We are honored to have Christine Ahn, founder and International Coordinator of Women Cross DMZ, as our banquet speaker on Saturday evening.  Christine Ahn, has  traveled many times to Korea, bringing women from all over the world to meet with women in both the North and the South of Korea. Women Cross DMZ has had a real impact on building support in Korea and the U.S. for peace and disarmament on the Korean Peninsula.            

Many women will play leading roles at the VFP convention. Aida Touma-Sliman, a well-known Palestinian journalist and member of the Israeli Knesset will speak on Friday morning about the new apartheid law in Israel.  Medea Benjamin will address the danger of a U.S. war on Iran. Colonel Ann Wright will report on her experience with the Freedom Flotilla, currently headed to Gaza.  Former National Lawyers Guild president Marjorie Cohn will be joined by Phyllis
Bennis and Ellen Barfield on a plenary discussion about the potential for working within the United Nations.  Becky Leuning will facilitate a mini-plenary on the Crisis at the Border, and U.S. Policy in Latin America, to include Nellie Jo David, Tohono O’odham, environmental justice activist, and Daira Quinone, Afro-Colombian singer and human rights activist.               

Throughout the weekend we will hear speakers on a range of issues from VFP campaigns and projects, like the Korea Peace Campaign, Save Our VA and updates from the Veterans Peace Team.  We are also honored to have activist leaders from coalition partners from various
organizations like About Face: Veterans Against War and CodePink.

Iraq war veteran and GI resister Camilo Mejia will speak about U.S. intervention in his home
country, Nicaragua, as well as in Venezuela. Iranian-American veteran Bahman Azad will speak about U.S. intervention throughout the Middle East.             

There will also be time to enjoy one another and listen to some good music!  On Thursday evening, we will enjoy a two-hour Mississippi riverboat cruise on the Anson Northrup replete with tempting finger food and music by Ali Washington.  Ali is “a refreshing twist on the soulful sounds of classic Motown and today’s Pop and R&B” and is a local legend!  On Saturday night after the banquet, we will be dancing up a storm to music by a great local DJ.           

At our closing plenary on Sunday, we will say our “peace” with a commemoration of the signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact for world peace 90 years ago. Author, blogger and activist David Swanson and local peace activists from VFP and from Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) will participate in the commemoration.

We can’t wait to see you in St. Paul!  As we said, you really won’t want to miss
it.   Please register now, if you haven’t already done so.            

END ALL WARS!

07 Aug 2018
Events, Videos Permalink

Harvest of Empire Screening and Discussion

August 7, 2018

Sunday, August 12th 12-4 PM
CSU Channel Islands, El Dorado Hall
Map / Location: http://maps.csuci.edu/?id=502#!m/189832

I would like to let you all know about an event held by a Ventura County group – Educators Doing Justice.  We will be screening Harvest of Empire, a documentary about the US’s interventions in Latin America, followed by a discussion of the documentary.  We will also be looking at AB 699, which requires school districts to have a contingency plan if they are approached by ICE, and giving information about how to support the undocumented and immigrant community in our schools. In light of the migrant crisis and all that is happening at the Southern Border, we feel that it is important to educate ourselves and the community about how the US economic and political interventions has caused the instability forcing many people in Central America and Mexico to flee for their lives.  

07 Aug 2018
Events, Films & Documentaries Permalink

Tickets now available for family movie night. Join us for “Black Panther” in San Diego

August 7, 2018

Family Movie Night featuring “Black Panther” 

Friday, 8/24 at 6:30 p.m.

 

Location: GI Midway Museum
910 N Harbor Dr, San Diego, CA 92101

In this Marvel Studios’ 2018 smash hit, Black Panther defends Wakanda, a technologically advanced country in Africa that has hidden itself away from the rest of the world. Now, he must face a dissident who wants to sell the country’s natural resources to fund an uprising. Pre-show activities will take place in the museum’s hanger bay. Enjoy music, red carpet photo opportunities, resource tables, and more. 

 

Be a Back-to-School Hero

The festival will be conducting a back-to-school supply drive for military connected youth and schools. Be a hero to military youth by equipping them for academic success. Each attendee that brings a donated item (valued at $10+) will receive a free popcorn.

Requested Items:

  • spiral notebooks (wide or college ruled)
  • notebook filler paper (wide or college ruled)
  • 1 ½” or 2” binders
  • subject folders or tab dividers
  • pencil box or pouch
  • markers / colored pencils
  • blue or black ink pens
  • pencils (8 pk)
  • erasers
  • pencil sharpeners
  • glue sticks

 

The GI Film Festival runs August 25-30 and features five days of compelling and inspiring films including documentaries, shorts, major productions, local films, and more. Screenings will be held at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park and UltraStar Cinemas at Hazard Center. 

More Information: http://gifilmfestivalsd.org/2018/films/family-movie-night-featuring-black-panther/
General admission begins at $10 / $8 for KPBS members, veterans, and current service members.

21 Jul 2018
Blog, Costs of War Permalink

S. Brian Willson forwards letter from Nicarauga

July 21, 2018

This is a very good assessment of the orchestrated coup in Nicaragua. The author is a Gringo who lives in Managua working at the Ben Linder house who happens to be stuck in Granada because we are under siege by many thugs armed I am sure with help of the US. We hope that the OAS soon will agree to come to Nicaragua to facilitate a true (non-church) dialogue and peace process. Granada will need some kind of physical intervention to corral the many armed thugs. The neighbors have barricaded our own neighborhood for protection from them in their unlicensed vehicles. – Brian Willson
Read More: http://popularresistance.org

21 Jul 2018
Films & Documentaries Permalink

Who Are These Russians? A 6 minute film by Regis Tremblay

July 21, 2018

This is the first of several interviews I made while in Russia, entitled, “Who Are These Russians”. I am also working on a short film about this second trip to Russia.Tatyana is a 19 year old university student fromTaganrog, Russia which is about 18 miles from Donbass. Donbass has been under attack by the Ukrainian military.She was one of the English-speaking volunteers who assisted some 200 foreign guests invited to participate in the March of the Immortal Regiment on May
9th.Tatyana is one of several young Russians I interviewed while in Russia from May 7th-May 21st of this year. Listen to what she has to say about America,
Russian desire to be friends with America, and their hope for peace and not war. She also speaks about President Putin.I am quite confident that if more
Americans could visit Russia, we would discover that they are just like us. They do not want war. They want to be friends with us, and nearly all said they would love to
visit America. Citizen diplomacy is much more effective than that practiced by our government.

 

19 Jul 2018
Actions & Marches, Commentary, Costs of War, News Permalink

Hundreds Arrested Nationwide as Poor People’s Campaign Demands End to the “War Economy”

July 19, 2018

“We have a long history of wars against other people, mostly people of color, around the world. It’s time we stopped calling it the Defense Department and started calling it what it is:
the Department of War.”

In its demands unveiled last month, the Poor People’s Campaign called for “a reallocation of resources from the military budget to education, healthcare, jobs, and green infrastructure needs, and strengthening a Veterans Administration system that must remain public.” (Photo: Poor People’s Campaign/Twitter)

 

—By  Jake Johnson, staff writer | Common Dreams

Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s warning that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom,” the Poor People’s Campaign launched its third week of action in cities nationwide on Tuesday with the aim of confronting the American war economy, which pours resources that could be used to provide healthcare and food to the poor at home into the killing of innocents aboad.

Hoisting signs that read “The War Economy Is Immoral” and “Ban Killer Drones,” demonstrators gathered at the capitol buildings of New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and several other states to denounce a militaristic system that profits “every time a bomb is dropped on innocent people.”

READ MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/

19 Jul 2018
Commentary, News Permalink

The Coming Collapse, Chris Hedges

July 19, 2018

Trump has tapped into the hatred that huge segments of the American public have for a political and economic system that has betrayed them. He may be inept, degenerate, dishonest and a narcissist, but he adeptly ridicules the system they despise. His cruel and demeaning taunts directed at government agencies, laws and the established elites resonate with people for whom these agencies, laws and elites have become hostile forces. And for many who see no shift in the political landscape to alleviate their suffering, Trump’s cruelty and invective are at least cathartic.

An economy reliant on debt for its growth causes our interest rate to jump to 28 percent when we are late on a credit card payment. It is why our wages are stagnant or have declined in real terms—if we earned a sustainable income we would not have to borrow money to survive. It is why a university education, houses, medical bills and utilities cost so much. The system is designed so we can never free ourselves from debt.

However, the next financial crash, as Prins points out in her book “Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World,” won’t be like the last one. This is because, as she says, “there is no Plan B.” Interest rates can’t go any lower. There has been no growth in the real economy. The next time, there will be no way out. Once the economy crashes and the rage across the country explodes into a firestorm, the political freaks will appear, ones that will make Trump look sagacious and benign.
READ MORE

17 Jul 2018
Action Alerts, environment, Health, Heathcare, Veterans Issues Permalink

Burn Pits: the Agent Orange of our generation?

July 17, 2018

—FROM  http://iava.org/take-action/

A Marine watching civilian firefighters control a burn pit at Camp Fallujah in 2007. Marine Corps photo
http://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-human-cost-of-the-militarys-toxic-burn-pits-d9111eb3e2cc

For Post-9/11 veterans, burn pits could be our generation’s Agent Orange. Burn pits were a common way to get rid of waste in Iraq and Afghanistan and we have seen a widespread trend in health symptoms associated with this toxic exposures. To determine a link between these exposures and illnesses, we need research, but the VA’s Burn Pit Registry is not well-known.

IAVA has partnered with U.S. Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and Brian Mast (R-FL) – U.S. Army Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, respectively, who have introduced legislation to direct the Department of Defense (DoD) to include in periodic health assessments and during military separations an evaluation of whether a servicemember has been exposed to open burn pits or toxic airborne chemicals. If they report being exposed, they will be enrolled in the Burn Pit Registry unless they opt out.

Ask your Senators and House Member to cosponsor and work to pass Burn Pits Accountability Act (S. 3181/H.R. 5671) to increase DoD accountability for exposures by our servicemembers to burn pits and airborne toxins.
CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE TO YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES.

 

 

 

MORE INFORMATION

Current and Historical Uses of Burn Pits in the Military

Natural and effective treatments for Gulf War Syndrome and exposure to burn pits

Medium.com Articles

Thousands of Iraq, Afghan war vets sickened after working at ‘burn pits’

Support Burn Pit Legislation

17 Jul 2018
Uncategorized Permalink

Veterans Condemn Israeli Slaughter of Unarmed Palestinian Protesters

July 17, 2018

—FROM VETERANSFORPEACE.ORG
Israel receives $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid every year, making it the largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance. U.S. laws, such as the “Leahy Law,” the Arms Export Control Act, and the Foreign Assistance Act, are supposed to prevent U.S. weapons from being used by other countries to commit human rights violations.Countries that violate these laws are subject to penalties, including a cut-off of additional weapons. Furthermore, the opening of the embassy in Jerusalem flies in the face of diplomacy and creates a massive roadblock on a path to peace.  It is outrageous that our government continues to uphold  and further such actions. Israel must be held accountable for its actions!
More Information

05 Jul 2018
Costs of War, Families of Veterans, Veterans Speak Out, Videos, Vietnam Permalink

Veterans Return to Vietnam Marking 50th Anniversary Massacre

July 5, 2018

A group of Vietnam War veterans and peace activists travel back to Vietnam to mark the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre. Juan González & Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) speak with three members of the delegation: Vietnam veteran Paul Cox; Susan Schnall, former Navy nurse who was court-martialed for opposing the Vietnam War; and longtime activist Ron Carver.
http://truthout.org

Content Warning: This video contains graphic footage of the Vietnam War.