Activism

We protest the G-8 and NATO, but not Bilderberg.  Why?

Do you have to be xenophobic, paranoid, isolationist, or libertarian to protest a secretive gathering of over 100 billionaires, industrialists, media barons, and politicians working to shape our public sphere, or has the left dropped the ball?  Is it time for Occupy to step in?

From May 31 to June 3, 2012, at the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles Hotel, in Chantilly, Va., the Bilderberg Group is expected to gather behind closed doors.  This exclusive club will rent the entire hotel, encircle it with armed guards, and keep everyone far away, including the media -- except for those special members of the media who will take part but never report a word of what goes on.

Wikipedia calls Bilderberg: "an annual, unofficial, invitation-only conference of approximately 120 to 140 guests from North America and Western Europe, most of whom are people of influence. About one-third are from government and politics, and two-thirds from finance, industry, labour, education and communications. Meetings are closed to the public."

Bilderberg calls itself: "leading citizens on both sides of the Atlantic that Western Europe and North America" who hold "regular, off-the-record discussions" of "common problems - from trade to jobs, from monetary policy to investment, from ecological challenges to the task of promoting international security. . . . There usually are about 120 participants of whom about two-thirds come from Europe and the balance from North America. About one-third is from government and politics, and two-thirds from finance, industry, labour, education and communications."

Does this group of "leading citizens" look representative of the people's interests? 

Bilderberg says this was its agenda four years ago:

* Cyber-terrorism
* A Nuclear-Free World
* Managing Financial Turbulence
* US Foreign Policy Without Change
* How Serious Are the Threats on Our Economies
* Islam in Europe
* Africa
* Afghanistan, Challenge for the West
* Iran-Pakistan
* A Look at the Future
* The Mounting Threat of Protectionism
* Russia
* After Bush: The Future of US-EU Relations
* Current Affairs: US Elections

Scholars have credited Bilderberg with significant influence in all sorts of disastrous policies from NAFTA to the current push for war with Iran.

One analysis comes from Andrew Kakabadse, a management professor at the UK's Cranfield University:

"There is no conspiracy in Kakabadse's eyes, as Bilderberg has no formal influence whatsoever. 'On the other hand, it has the most tremendous influence since it shapes opinions at the highest levels. Bilderberg is for leaders what the annual medical conference is for doctors. In the latter, certain delegates are more active than others and at some stage the prevailing medical thinking is driven in one particular direction. These regular meetings shape the way the dominant medical theory and practice develops, to the point that the way things are going feels normal and nobody asks for the alternative to the dominant medical paradigms anymore.' The same can be said for world leadership, Kakabadse argues.

"British journalist Jon Ronson, who was invited to a conference by Bilderberg organisers, described the relationship between conference organisers and aspiring political leaders in attendance: 'They'll get an up-and-coming politician who they think may be president or prime minister one day, and as globalist industrialist leaders who believe that politics shouldn't be in the hands of politicians, they try and influence them with wise words in the corridors outside sessions.' Kakabadse calls this process 'smart power'. The shaping of the prevailing opinions amongst the world's leading decision-makers is 'so smart that people don't even know that they are being led', he says. 'In the end, they don't even realise that there are alternative questions to be asked.'"

Is this healthy for democracy?

Or is there a desperate need here for somebody to be mic checked?

We’re putting the focus on the victims of the US/NATO wars all week!  Let's keep up the momentum: Spread the word and invite your friends to come along, learn about the crimes of NATO and get involved in the movement to put them to a stop.  We are inviting people everywhere to contribute the names of victims of NATO violence, using the hashtag #NATOvictims. We will recite the names as part of a Memorial for the Victims of US/NATO Wars on May 21, the second day of the NATO Summit. Stay tuned for more details of the event -- to be released shortly.

Location-Obama Campaign Headquarters, 130 E. Randolph, Prudential 1 Plaza, moving to the Canadian Consulate (Prudential Plaza 2 ), United Kingdom Consulate (400 N. Michigan Suite 1300), and German Consulate (676 N. Michigan, Suite 3200 )

Noon, Thursday, March 17, 2012 

Chicago, IL— On Thursday at noon, CODEPINK: Women for Peace, The World Can’t Wait, Veterans for Peace and other groups associated with the NATO protests will attempt to present letters expressing our outrage about NATO operations and our demand an end to military operations, particularly drone operations, to four NATO countries:  the United States, Canada, Germany and the UK. They will also bring visual representations of the civilians killed by NATO forces. "We are outraged by the numbers of innocents killed in NATO/US wars, and will we focus on their stories," says Debra Sweet of The World Can't Wait.  

"As NATO meets in Chicago, it is important to remind member states of NATO of the extraordinary violence of NATO and their responsibility for these civilian deaths," says retired Colonel Ann Wright.  Of the 28 NATO countries, 18 have consulates in Chicago (Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece Germany, Italy, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom). The peace activists have chosen to visit the Consulates of Canada, the UK and Germany since all three nations still have troops in Afghanistan and have been key US allies in initiating and continuing the Afghan war.

In the past ten years, NATO and US military operations have caused tens of thousands of civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Both the British and US militaries have caused numerous civilian deaths by drone attack, and under President Obama, the CIA has killed over 3000 persons in the undeclared war on Pakistan, 65 persons in the undeclared war on Yemen, including the targeted assassinations of four American citizens.   Additionally, a NATO helicopter attack on a Pakistani Army border unit killed Pakistani 24 soldiers in September, 2011. 

By Oliver Pichardo
English 101, Research Paper

What is it about war that we like so much? Always on the news the war propaganda is heard. How is it possible that there is so much suffering in America and around the world? Who is to blame? It goes without saying that the media is supposed to tell the truth. Why are the American people so unwilling to listen to the truth? What is it about the truth that America fears?

By Yana Kunichoff, Truthout | Interview

The coming NATO summit and its protest counterpart in Chicago is full of symbolism: the stand-off between the 1 percent and the 99 percent in a city where that division is becoming ever more clear. But it's also been full of on-the-ground organizing to bring out communities of color, arguments around the role of the Democratic Party and (still ongoing) legal battles for permits to march within sight and sound of the summit.

Truthout sat down with Andy Thayer and Joe Iosbaker, two organizers who have been up to their elbows in press releases, meetings and messaging since it was announced that Chicago would be hosting the summit, to ask them why they will be protesting NATO.

Thayer was dubbed "the protest king" by NBC Chicago and his attempts to get protest permits over the years and acting as a gay rights and anti-war activist have taken him into court against the city about 18 times.

Meanwhile, Iosbaker has also dealt with legal issues related to his political action. In the fall of 2010, he was one of several anti-war activists in the Midwest whose homes were raided by the FBI on suspicion of working with groups in Colombia and the Middle East.

Together, they've placed themselves in the thick of organizing against the coming NATO summits in Chicago. Truthout sat down with them after one of their organizing meetings for CANG8, a coalition of groups and individuals against the summit. In this conversation, the organizers discuss how NATO has impacted organizing in Chicago, why the left is abandoning the Democrats and what Chicago's 1 percent just didn't see coming.

Yana Kunichoff: Why are you protesting the NATO summits?

Andy Thayer: NATO is, in the words of Dr. King, the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today and that to me is the first thing that you have to bear in mind with NATO. It's NATO's war in Afghanistan, the longest ever war in American history and it is NATO countries that are doing the done strikes in Yemen which have now reached the same awful level as in Pakistan. NATO is responsible for 70% of world military expenditure. Any number of other issues that we might be involved in, or other people might be involved in, are directly impacted by that. I mean, we live in a city that has had half of its mental health clinics closed. We live in a city that has had its public transit system reduced a couple of years ago. We live in a city where the student-teacher ratios are not what they should be, where there is a $700 million budget deficit looming for 2013 just in the Department of Education here. And so all of these issues that are seemingly disparate are very much connected with NATO.

I think this is why we have been very successful in getting people from other movements involved in this protests against NATO and its wars because, for example, when Occupy first started out it was dealing very narrowly with economic issues. But you can't have a situation when homes are foreclosed and expect to deal with it when you have 60% of the federal budget going to military.

The good thing about the protest about NATO is that it's finally bringing together "separate movements." Back in the 60's and early 70's, all these movements were considered part and parcel of one general struggle of the 99% against the 1%. And I'm really happy to see Palestinian activists working with environmentalist working with LGBTQ folks. If we're going to just talk about why to protest against NATO we could be here all day.

Joe Iosbaker: I agree with everything that Andy said. My general view of NATO is that NATO is an extension of U.S. foreign policy. You know, we live in the heart of an Empire. I remember when September 11 happened and there were so many people in this country who were shocked that there was anger at America from countries that had suffered either our direct rule or allies of ours, like you know, Israel's occupation of Palestine. The United States, without NATO originally although they now are involved in it, went into Iraq where over the course of a decade, over a million Iraqis lost their lives directly as a result of the war and occupation. The U.S. and NATO have attacked Libya, we are still threatening Syria, we have bombed Somalia in addition to Yemen and Pakistan, we have special forces inside of Syria ... We have, I've lost count, 40 or 50 or 60 [military] bases. We have troops in Africa for the time ever, in Uganda, and we are threatening several other countries in Central Africa. And that's just what we have done in the last decade.

If you go back to the 1960's and 50's or before the Unites States has had one intervention and bloody war or another against the people of the poor countries of the world for over a century. You ask why do we protest NATO, well those of us who've realized this, we have a responsibility to speak out. That NATO and the G8; who most people in Chicago have never even heard of, have now become topics of dinner table conversations means we have an opportunity and it's thrilling to be organizing the coalition that we have. That includes community groups, that includes, you know, anti-war groups, that includes Occupy, that includes the unions. It's a tremendous opportunity, it's a historic opportunity. It's going to be a historic protest.

READ THE REST AT TRUTHOUT.

Reviewed by David M. Kinchen

http://www.huntingtonnews.net/31693

Lawrence S. Wittner is the author of scholarly works on the peace movement and nuclear disarmament but, as he recounts in his memoir "Working for Peace and Justice: Memoirs of an Activist Intellectual" (University of Tennessee Press, 288 pages, $29.95) he was denied tenure at Vassar University in the 1960s because of his activism. There could have been other reasons, including anti-Semitism toward a secular Jew from Brooklyn at a school that educated a goodly portion of the nation's WASP American princesses.

In a lively departure from his scholarly works, Wittner tells the story of a man who combined teaching and activism -- an often toxic combination in the eyes of university administrators. I first became aware of Wittner when my friend and fellow Midwesterner Tom Hastings of the PeaceVoice program at Portland State University, Portland, OR, sent me commentaries by Wittner. I was delighted to edit these op-eds and see them through publication in www.huntingtonnews.net. While I don't always agree with Wittner's views -- I don't think it's the job of an editor to always agree with contributors -- I sensed that his contributions enriched our news magazine site.

A middle class kid from Brooklyn and later Long Island, Wittner rejected his mother's advice to attend nearby Brooklyn College. Instead, he opted for the prestigious Ivy League Columbia College in Manhattan, the alma mater (when it was called Kings College) of Alexander Hamilton, where he switched his major from English to history. Despite a lifelong stammering problem, he blossomed at Columbia, making friends that lasted a lifetime and learning that he was destined for a life in academia.

By Dave Lindorff

A new trove of heavily redacted documents provided by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) on behalf of filmmaker Michael Moore and the National Lawyers Guild makes it increasingly evident that there was and is a nationally coordinated campaign to disrupt and crush the Occupy Movement.

June 7, 2012

6:00 p.m.

Random Row Books
315 West Main Street  Charlottesville, VA 22902
(434) 295-2493

Free - Open to Public

Sign up and share on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/events/236695063101384

Ray McGovern will speak on the topic: 

The United States, Israel, and Iran

Ray McGovern worked as a CIA analyst from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Ronald Reagan’s most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985.

In January 2003, McGovern helped create Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) to expose the way intelligence was being falsified to “justify” war on Iraq. On the afternoon of the day (Feb. 5, 2003) Secretary of State Colin Powell misled the UN Security Council on Iraq, VIPS sent an urgent memorandum to President George W. Bush, in which VIPS gave Powell a C minus for content. 

On March 2, 2006, McGovern returned the Intelligence Commendation Medallion given him at retirement for “especially meritorious service,” explaining, “I do not want to be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture.” 

On May 4, 2006, in Atlanta, McGovern made national news by confronting Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on live TV with pointed questions like: “Why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary and that has caused these kinds of casualties?”

Ray’s opinion pieces have appeared in many leading newspapers in the United States and abroad.  He has debated at the Oxford Forum and appeared on Charlie Rose, The Newshour, CNN, and numerous other TV & radio programs and documentaries. Ray has lectured to a wide variety of audiences.

Ray leads the “Speaking Truth to Power” section of Tell the Word, an expression of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington.  He also teaches at its Servant Leadership School.

NATO representatives will meet with members of the largest anti-NATO protest group next week for an unprecedented one-hour public debate, NBC Chicago has exclusively learned.

Word of the strategic gesture toward the protesters came Wednesday afternoon from NATO's secretary-general following his meeting with the president at the White House.

"Our public diplomacy people are reaching out to these groups," said Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "They will organize some meetings where there will be a possibility to exchange views.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 17 at -- in a bit of irony -- the Pritzker Military Library.

"We get to have a public forum where we are able to convince our fellow residents of this city just how bad and nasty an institution NATO is," said Andy Thayer, an organizer of the Coalition Against the NATO / G8 War & Poverty Agenda.

Thayer and other protesters take issue with the money spent on NATO operations and its occupations in sovereign lands, and he said he hopes the public demonstrations and next week's dialogue will enlighten more people to NATO's actions.

"I would argue that most people in this country, when they get to know the facts about what NATO is ... and what NATO does to places like Afghanistan, they would agree that this is not something that should be supported, that our city should not be supporting the NATO Summit," Thayer said.

During "Chicago Week" at NATO Headquarters in Brussels in March, there may have been a preview of how NATO representatives will respond.

Upon being told of the protest slogan that "NATO is the war machine of the one percent," U.S. Ambassador Ivo Daalder rejected the notion, saying he believes NATO's true mission is sometimes misunderstood.

"I wouldn't regard NATO as a war machine for any percent," he said at the time. "What NATO is is an organization that brings together 28 countries."

The summit is May 20 and 21.

photos by Koh, Gill-Chun.

 On the morning of May 9, the group demonstrated in front of the Consulate General of South Korea in San Francisco.  The peaceful protest focused attention to the damage being done to the environment and to the peaceful spirit of Jeju Island. They were joined by Jeju Island artist Koh, Gill-Chun.

 The demonstrators held up signs and banners including one stating “Free Dr. Song”, with a photo of the injured activist, which the people passing by were shocked to see.  Almost all the people who stopped to ask questions knew nothing about what is going on in Jeju Island.

 At the end of the two-hour demonstration, a representative group of 5 people entered the consulate to try and meet with the Consul General but were told by the receptionist that neither the Consul General nor any of his staff were in the building.  When asked where they were or when they were returning, they were told that it was a secret.

Stop the Drone War Weekend @ Fordham & Radio City

Protest When Obama Gives Barnard Commencement Address.  Protest the ongoing, escalating and spreading wars!  The commencement starts at 12:30.    It will be held on the South Lawn of the Columbia campus. Meet outside the gates at 116th Street and Broadway.  Sponsored by War Criminals Watch, World Can't Wait and Occupy Harlem.  Contact warcriminalswatch@worldcantwait.org

When: 5/14/2012

By Dave Lindorff

The Senate is currently deadlocked on taking action to prevent the interest on new Stafford guaranteed student loans from rising on July 1 from 3.4% to 6.8%, with Democrats saying they want to “pay for” keeping the current “lower” 3.4% rate by closing a loophole that allows some wealthy people to avoid paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, while Republicans want to “pay for” keeping the lower rate by eliminating a fund for preventative health care in the 2010 health care reform law.

But what is all this nonsense about “paying for” a supposedly “lower” interest rate of 3.4%?

UPDATE: from Ellen Barfield:

WASHINGTON, D.C.:

May 8, 2012, Washington, D.C., Summit on Military Sexual Violence
http://truthandjusticesummit.org

May 11, 2012, Kids Sue Government for Warming the Globe: Pack the Court
http://www.facebook.com/events/202436433204186

May 19, 2012, David Swanson speaking in Rockville, Md., with Peace Action Montgomery
http://peaceactionmc.org

CHICAGO:

May 12-13, People's Summit
http://peoplessummitchicago.org

May 17-19, Voices for Creative Nonviolence events and reunion.
http://vcnv.org

May 18-19, NATO-Free Future.
http://natofreefuture.org

May 18-20, National War Tax Resistance Gathering and Coordinating Committee Meeting
http://nwtrcc.org/gatheringMay2012.php

May 18: National Nurses United Rally,
11 a.m.  March leaving from Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers,
12:15 p.m.  Rally at Daley Plaza, Washington & Dearborn.
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/pages/1177

May 19: David Swanson speaking
http://icjpe.org/calendar/2012/May/19/Author-David-Swanson-speaks-on-Lifting-the-Shadow-of-War

May 20: Coalition Against NATO-G8 Poverty Agenda (CANG8) Rally at Noon
http://cang8.org

and March
http://g8protest.org

We have worked out a 10% discount with AMTRAK for anyone traveling to the Chicago demonstration on May 20. You can use this discount to travel to and from Chicago on an AMTRAK train from anywhere in the country during the period from May 17 to May 23. To get the special rate, you need to make a reservation and give them the “Convention fare code number of X50K-949.” If they ask you what organization you are from, it is UNAC. AMTRAK fares go up the closer it gets to the day of departure. So, to get the lowest fare, it is best to reserve a seat as soon as possible. There are other discounts for seniors and youth that may be cheaper.

ELSEWHERE:

May 18, 2012 Frederick, Md., Occupy G-8 People's Summit
http://itsoureconomy.us/occupy-g8-peoples-summit

May 19, 2012, UK Protest NATO
http://stopwar.org.uk

May 24, 2012, David Swanson in Richmond, Va.

June 16, 2012, New York, N.Y., Protest NYPD Abuse and Targeting of Muslims

July 4, 2012, Philadelphia, 99% Convention
http://the99declaration.org

July 14, 2012, Wisconsin, Peacestock.
http://peacestockvfp.org

July 16, 2012, David Swanson at Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville, Va.
http://rutherford.org

August 8-12, 2012, Miami, Fla., Veterans for Peace Convention.
http://veteransforpeace.org

EVERYWHERE:

September 17, 2012, Occupy Monsanto
http://occupy-monsanto.com

Let's protest NATO on May 20th in Chicago but celebrate France!

After his election to the French presidency on Sunday, Francois Hollande wasted no time in following through on one of his highest-profile campaign pledges.

Hollande's communications director, Manuel Valls, confirmed to the Telegraph on Monday that France will "announce the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan between now and the end of the year." The announcement will take place at the NATO summit being held in Chicago on May 20 and 21.

Leesburg, VA

Sam, Joe and Fred pedaled out Greenpeace Lane from Elaine’s farm under balmy skies this morning, heading for the Lincoln Friends Meeting House, only 16 miles north.  But the hills were daunting, and thunderheads rolled in from the west.  By 11:00am they were riding in a good rain.  When they rounded the corner riding up the hill into Lincoln, they were met by a chorus of cheers from the Quakers lining the porch of the longest continuous Friends Meeting House in Virginia.

Thanks to our musician friend Andrew McKnight and photographer Sarah Huntington, the Quakers turned out to welcome Sam’s Ride for Peace.  After the rain passed, and after cookies and lemonade and well wishes, Sam led the riders a short distance to the Lincoln Elementary School.  All the kids and teachers were turned out in the parking lot to greet the riders.

Sam spoke to the children about how important they are to be advocates for Peace.  Sarah took some great photos of the mass of school children, teachers, and peace riders which we will be posting soon.

Andrew led Sam, Joe and Fred to Magnolias Restaurant for lunch in Purcellville.  Aidan’s bike was still in the shop, but Sam’s grandson Billy Janke arrived from Raleigh, and the four riders set out on the Washington & Old Dominion Bike Trail for Leesburg.

More to come.