Author: David Swanson

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By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 7, 2024

We generally accept that if you do a census and only count the people who answer their doors you miss some people, and that you can calculate an estimate that reliably gets closer to reality than the list of people who answer their doors. Of course it will get closer, the more information you can gather. But those insisting that people who do not answer their doors be treated as not existing are widely understood, not as principled fact checkers, read more

I had a great time on the Terry Lee Show in Charlottesville VA — I come on about 14 minutes in.
—David Swanson

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 3, 2024

A new book called Morningside: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre And The Struggle For An American City’s Soul by Aran Shetterly provides a detailed examination, in historical context, of a largely forgotten incident in which KKK and Nazi shooters (some of them veterans of the war on Vietnam), with the complicity of local and federal “law enforcement,” shot at black people in Greensboro, North Carolina, killing five, wounding many, read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 3, 2024
Remarks to Global Peace Summit’s Round Table Conference, October 3, 2024

One obvious step would be for the U.S. government to restore funding of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency). For five reasons.

1. It’s pocket change compared to what the U.S. is spending on militarism — not trillions or hundreds of billions but merely $100 million or so — (Note that the U.S. military spent over $200 million on a public relations stunt of pretending it could build a port to deliver aid by ship to people its weapons and assistance were denying aid by land or air).
2. Various Israeli officials have explicitly stated that they are trying to starve people.
3. The excuse for cutting off the funding a year ago was one of numerous pieces of Israeli propaganda that ought not to have been grounds for cutting off anything if true and as far as anyone knows was made up like so much of the rest of it.
4. UNRWA immediately fired the people accused and later fired more besides.
5. All the other countries that had obeyed the sick Israeli-U.S. demand have since restored funding.

But funding relief to people being bombed and shot and blockaded is of little value if it can’t get to them and if they’re still being killed. Months ago we saw stories of aid being dropped into the sea, resulting in drownings of desperate read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 1, 2024

David Swanson is Executive Director of World BEYOND War.

The Israeli government has been dragging Western weapons and militaries into wars for far too long, putting all of the world — and its global institutions — at risk. The move into Lebanon, creating more dead, injured, traumatized, and homeless already in huge numbers ought to snap some war supporters out of their trance.

The danger of a catastrophic read more

By Pacifist Barricade, October 1, 2024

We have the distinct honor of having with us today one of the most serious, dedicated, and steadfast opponents of war in the U.S.

A prominent activist, David Swanson co-founded the website After Downing Street (now WarIsACrime.org), centered on the U.S. congressional inquiry into the Downing Street memo. His activism extended to launching a campaign aimed at impeaching President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, notably through the now-defunct read more

By Rotary, World BEYOND War, September 29, 2024

Rotary and World BEYOND War have together been offering an online course called Ending War 101. You can take it here: https://worldbeyondwar.org/endingwar101. In this video, WBW Executive Director David Swanson discusses what can be done with Rotary members who have taken the course.

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 28, 2024

Without a handful of nations — and principally one nation — arming the world to the teeth, we wouldn’t have wars, or at least not wars that looked like these horrors that we do have and that risk nuclear apocalypse. Most wars have identical weapons on both sides and almost nothing rational or sensible, and almost nothing honest ever said, about the entire enterprise.

Without the long-running predictable and predicted and protested efforts read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 25, 2024
Remarks at #NOWAR2024

We’ve heard a lot over the past few days about the damage foreign bases do and the good work people do to prevent them or close them. World BEYOND War works with our chapters, affiliates, and friends around the world on campaigns against bases. And we work globally to provide resources to these campaigns. The headquarters for getting informed and getting involved is worldbeyondwar.org/bases read more