Download a flyer to build the demonstration on your campus, in your union, or in your neighborhood. Call CTUP at 860 478 5300 for a speaker who can explain what is behind Washington’s endless wars and occupations.
Feb. 6, 2010 www.NewEnglandUnited.org <http://www.newenglandunited.org/>
NEU Antiwar Conference Draws Large Numbers
An overflow crowd of 400 antiwar activists from New England and New York attended the second annual New England United Antiwar Conference on Saturday, January 30 in Cambridge. The conference featured highly qualified speakers and workshop presenters on a wide range of topics, drawing participants from all age groups and a broad range of activist organizations.
Numerous reports from activists who attended indicate the conference was a huge success, a sign that the antiwar movement is entering a resurgence of momentum and enthusiasm. This reflects increasing awareness about the steadily expanding scope of endless wars and foreign occupations, and the use of the “War on Terror” to discourage dissent, and to justify the growing presence of American troops around the world.
The first panel started at 11:00 AM with the auditorium filled to capacity. “The Drive Towards Empire and Endless War,” facilitated by Chris Gauvreau from Connecticut United for Peace, featured speakers Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report and Black is Back; Adaner Usmani, Action for a Progressive Pakistan; Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space; and Ashley Smith, Editorial Board, International Socialist Review.
Conference participants then attended one of five packed workshops:
* War in Latin America led by Omar Sierra of the Venezuelan Consulate; Antoine del Castro Rio of Colombia Polo Democrático; members of Proyecto Hondureno
* Domestic Costs of War led by Jon Flanders of Troy NY Labor Council and Nellie Bailey of Harlem Tenants Council
* In Our Lifetimes! Obama, the NPT and the International Struggle for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons led by Joe Gerson of American Friends Service Committee
* Resistance within the Military: The Renewed Struggles Against U.S. Imperialism led by Priscilla Loundes of March Forward!, Ryan Henowitz, vet; Herb Hoffman of Maine VFP
* Student Organizing led by Wes Strong of CT Students Against the War
After a short break for lunch, the conference resumed with a panel on “Debunking the War on Terror.” Facilitated by Lisa Savage, CODEPINK Maine Local Coordinator, the panel featured Salma Abu Ayyash, Palestinian activist; Pardiss Kebriaei, Guantanamo Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights; Danny Schechter, , Journalist and Executive Editor of MediaChannel.org; and Peter Dale Scott, author of The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, & the Future of America speaking via teleconference from California.
Workshops in the second round were also packed. Both Latin America in the first session and Haiti in the second overflowed their rooms and were relocated to the auditorium.
* Aid Not Occupation: Who’s Killing Haiti? led by Ashley Smith; Joseue Renaud, psychologist and Chair, New England Human Rights Org. Over $400 was raised to help send a team of Haitian psychologists and social workers from Boston to help traumatized children.
* Global Warming and War led by Ted Glick of Climate Crisis Coalition; Maggie Zhou of Secure Green Future, a project of Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities
* Israel as Apartheid State with Nancy Murray, Gaza Freedom March, Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights & Sarah Roche-Mahdi, CODEPINK
* Covert and False Flag Operations and 9/11: Pretext for the Continuing War on Terror led by Paul Zarembka, Professor of Political Economy SUNY Buffalo; and Barrie Zwicker, editor of Global Outlook
* Cutting War Spending 25%, Funding Jobs and Neighborhoods led by Mike Prokosch of Dorchester People for Peace
The last session of the conference was an organizing session facilitated by Mark Stahl from the RI Mobilization Committee to Stop War and Occupation. The March 20 antiwar action in DC was addressed by Marilyn Levin, a national co-coordinator for the National Assembly and member of Boston United for Justice with Peace and the Palestine Task Force; Emily Macmillan, organizer for the ANSWER coalition and a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation; Chris Garaffa, organizer for the ANSWER coalition and a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation; and Chris Gauvreau, of the administrative committee of the National Assembly and Connecticut United for Peace.
The second campaign, ending the siege of Gaza, featured remarks by Sarah Roche-Mahdi, a coordinator of Code Pink Greater Boston who has participated in several Code Pink peace delegations including the Gaza Freedom March. The third campaign, redirecting military spending in support of human needs, featured Mike Prokosch, a member of Dorchester People for Peace and United for Justice with Peace’s 25% task force; and Mark Roman, from BringOurWarDollarsHome.org in Maine.
There was a social following the conference at Bertucci’s restaurant in Cambridge.
Here is a link to a set of photographs of the conference: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lsavage3/sets/72157623239684885/
NEW ENGLAND UNITED
Regional Antiwar Network General Meeting
SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1-5 PM
Round Top Center at Beneficent Church
300 Weybosset Street, Downtown Providence RI
OPENING DISCUSSION ON
Pirates of the Caribbean:
A Brief History of US Intervention in the Region
Free & Open to the Public | Light Refreshments Will Be Served
PLUS AN ANTIWAR ORGANIZING SESSION ON
www.NewEnglandUnited.org <http://www.newenglandunited.org/>
NewEnglandUnitedOutreach@gmail.com | 508-653-5534
–
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “massaction-boston” group.
To post to this group, send email to massaction-boston@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to massaction-boston+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/massaction-boston?hl=en.
SOUTH CAROLINA AFL-CIO
Post Office Box 39 * Swansea, S.C. 29160 *
(803) 798-8300 * Toll free 866-798-8300 * FAX (803) 798-2231 *
E-Mail: scaflcio@bellsouth.net
———-
Resolution in Support of a Labor-Sponsored March on Washington
WHEREAS in the aftermath of the Massachusetts special senatorial election, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued a statement declaring, “It’s time to organize and mobilize as never before to make every elected or aspiring leader PROVE he or she will create the jobs we need in an economy we need with the healthcare we need. I know we are the people who can mobilize a massive army to force elected leaders to deliver;” and
WHEREAS despite the so-called economic recovery, the economic crisis for working people has continued unabated, with growing unemployment and underemployment, rising home foreclosures and evictions, and the underfunding of public education and vitally needed social services; and
WHEREAS the government has bestowed billions of bailout dollars on the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed created this economic crisis and who are rewarding those responsible with obscene gigantic bonuses; and
WHEREAS the labor movement’s legislative priorities — a massive program for jobs, true universal healthcare, and enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act — are all in great peril; and
WHEREAS while the government has no problem allocating a trillion dollars for two wars thousands of miles away, it has not committed funds critically needed to put America back to work, with healthcare and quality education for all; and
WHEREAS right wing, anti-labor forces, such as the Tea Bag movement, have brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets to advance their reactionary demands; and
WHEREAS there is a growing movement within the House of Labor to counter the right-wing offensive against workers’ living standards with our own massive mobilization; and
WHEREAS various union bodies, including the South Bay Labor Council (CA), acting on a resolution submitted by Plumbers and Fitters Local 393, Troy Area Labor Council (NY), and the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, have adopted resolutions calling upon the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a Solidarity Day III March on Washington D.C. in the spring of 2010 to demand jobs, healthcare, housing, full funding for public education and social services, and peace; now therefore be it
RESOLVED that the South Carolina AFL-CIO joins with our brothers and sisters in calling for a labor-sponsored march on Washington for jobs, peace and justice, which would have the capability of mobilizing the kind of massive army Brother Trumka spoke of; and be it finally
RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the AFL-CIO and to Change to Win.
(Adopted by the SC AFL-CIO Executive Board - February 2nd, 2010)
********************
Initial list of endorsers of Call for a Labor-Sponsored
Demonstration in Washington for Jobs, Peace and Justice
- South Carolina State AFL-CIO
- San Francisco Labor Council
- South Bay Labor Council (San Jose, Calif.)
- San Mateo Central Labor Council
- Hartford (CT) Central Labor Council
- Troy (NY) Central Labor Council
- AFT Local 1021 (Los Angeles)
- Executive Council, AFT Missouri
- California Peace and Freedom Party
- Harlem Tenants Council
- Harlem Antiwar Coalition
- Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice
- Ohio State Labor Party
- Railroad Workers United
- Painters and Dry Wall workers Local 93 (Bay Area)
- Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report)
- Donna Smith, American SiCKO, American Patients United
- Harry Kelber (Labor Educator)
- Sharon Black (Organizer, Bail Out the People Movement)
- Monadel Herzallah (Arab American Union Members Council)
- Andy Griggs (UTLA member)
- Don Bechler (chair, Single Payer Now!)
- Larry Duncan (Labor Beat-Chicago)
- Allan Fisher (AFT 2121)
- Fred Hirsch (South Bay Labor Council)
- Jerry Gordon (Ohio State Labor Party)
- Bill Balderston (Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice)
WERC Interim National Committee Members:
- Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Gulf Coast Reconstruction activist
- Alan Benjamin,* Executive Committee member, San Francisco Labor Council
- Mike Carano, Progressive Democrats of America
- Colia Clark, Veteran, Civil Rights Movement
- Donna Dewitt*, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO
- Pat Gowens, National organizer, Welfare Warriors
- Bill Leumer,* International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 853 (ret.)
- Luis Magaña, Coordinator, Organization of Farmworkers of California (OTAC)
- Cynthia McKinney, Former Member of Congress, 2009 Green Party presidential candidate
- Jack Rasmus, Economist, Professor at St. Mary’s College
- Al Rojas, Coordinator, Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior
- Marc Rich, United Teachers of Los Angeles
- Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star mother, antiwar activist
- Clarence Thomas, Member, ILWU Local 10
- Mark Vorpahl*, SEIU Local 49, Portland, OR
- Nancy Wohlforth*, Co-Pres., Pride at Work/AFL-CIO, Vice Pres.,California Federation of Labor
(* titles & org. for id. only)
* * * * *
Yemen and The Militarization of Strategic Waterways
Securing US Control of Socotra Island and the Gulf of Aden
By Michel Chossudovsky
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17460
—————————————————————————————
UK Socialist Worker
Jan. 13, 2010 David Whitehouse, A New Front in America’s Global War
also Simon Assaf, Cnflict in Yemen was caused by imperialism, Dec. 19, 2009
————————-
John Pilger, in the Guardian
—————————————————————————————————-
See classic text by the once progressive Fred Halliday, Arabia Without Sheiks, c. 1974, there is a new edtiion as well.–about the upsurge that led to the Marxist govt in the south,
U.S. Attempts to Erase Haitian Nationhood <http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/us-attempts-erase-haitian-nationhood>
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
What’s behind the intervention into Afghanistan and Pakistan?
1. Check out Pepe Escobar’s articles on “Pipelanistan.”
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175050
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175071
2. Read Tariq Ali, The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power (New York: Scribner, 2008)
3. Read Adaner Usmani, http://www.solidarity-us.org/current/node/2606 .
4. Read Feminism and War: Confronting US Imperialism (London: Zed Books, 2008)
5. Read Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA , Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (New York: Penguin Books, 2004)
