Author: GPAX

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The Notion Of Strategic Nonviolence Has Little To Do With Pacifism

Tom H Hastings

via GPAX Facebook Dec. 1, 2017

I love teaching. And when I teach peace, I enjoy the pushback from some passionate students, one of whom posted yesterday that he really thought peace was impossible and that we need to listen to those, like Ward Churchill, who advocate violent uprising. I riposted (with gratitude to the great researchers like Erica Chenoweth):

Yeah, Churchill is a true poseur, and an inadequate analyst. The only thing less effective than violent insurgency is terrorism, at least by all the available and robust research. The notion of strategic nonviolence has little to do with pacifism and everything to do with choosing disciplined people power to obtain desired changes in policies all the way up to and including regime change.

For the research summation in a TED talk:

For the peer-reviewed research: https://www.belfercenter.org/…/IS3301_pp007-044_Stephan_Che…

For the data set: https://www.du.edu/korb…/sie/research/chenow_navco_data.html

For the updated data set (I was one of the research professors helping code on this part of it): https://www.du.edu/…/…/documents/data/navco_2-0_codebook.pdf

The testosterone-poisoned romantic addiction to violence is exactly what gives us destructive, environmentally disastrous bloody wasteful conflict. Churchill called the 9.11.01 terrorists “gallant combat warriors.” His poor thinking has been a seriously destructive factor in limiting, if not rendering essentially ineffective, the anti-predatory globalization campaigns of the 1990s. Jacking up the resistance and provoking it to violence is exactly what the state wants. Violent insurgency wins 26 percent of the time; nonviolent insurgency wins 53 percent of the time. In other words, in the toughest struggles of all–regime change–nonviolent resistance is twice as effective, wins twice as often, and has far far far lower costs in blood, environmental impacts, and treasure.

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Stop Fueling War Petition

http://act.mpowerchange.org/sign/congress-stop-fueling-war-yemen/

The small nation of Yemen is facing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises—and it’s being fueled by U.S. policies and taxpayer dollars.1

The three-year conflict in Yemen has been a deadly battle between rebel groups and a Saudi-led U.S.-backed coalition supporting the previously established government.

And coupled with Trump’s Muslim Ban—preventing those fleeing for safety from entering the country—Yemenis are being doubly victimized by U.S. policies.

There’s a resolution in the House that has been sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna—H. Con. Res. 81. It would direct Trump to end support for Saudi-led hostilities in Yemen, but it needs more sponsors and support. Add your name here and tell your representative in Congress to sign on and #StopFuelingTheWarInYemen.

While the players in this war are complex, one thing is plain and simple: the destruction has been horrifying for the Yemeni people.

Already the Middle East’s poorest country, Yemen is now suffering from widespread cholera and famine, with nowhere to turn for help. Doctors and nurses are working tirelessly, while sanitation workers and civil servants have gone without pay for months.3

More than 50,000 children are expected to die by the end of the year.4

International aid agencies are desperately trying to enter the country to deliver food and medicine to the Yemeni people, but the Saudi-led coalition has denied them entry by blockading major ports in the country.5

And with our taxpayer dollars going to support the Saudi-led campaign, we need to hold our representatives accountable for the suffering that it’s causing the Yemeni people.

We’re calling on members of Congress to co-sponsor H. Con. Res. 81 and stop fueling the war in Yemen. The resolution won’t be debated and voted on until it has enough support. Will you sign and ask your representative to add their name?

The Saudi-led air strikes have destroyed much of the major infrastructure in Yemen—including airports, sewage facilities, and hospitals. The U.S. military aids the bombing campaign by refilling the tanks of Saudi warplanes—literally fueling the strikes that have killed thousands and left millions more in a dire state of sickness and starvation.

In fact, the U.S. support for the bombing of Yemen is so vast that the military itself has trouble keeping track of which missions it’s aiding.6

The countless violations of international law and the creation of one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world wouldn’t be possible without the U.S. military’s complicity in providing technical, logistical, and other support for the Saudi-led coalition.

The only way to stop Trump from giving even more help to the Saudis for their destructive campaign is for Congress to stand up and act. Sign today and tell your representative to support H. Con. Res. 81.

In solidarity,
Ahlam Said via MPower Change

P.S. Like the Yemeni Alliance Committe page on Facebook to keep up with the latest updates on the campaign to end the war on Yemen

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AFL-CIO, War Is Not The Answer, 2017 Convention Res. 50

From Rich Whitney, GPAX Co-Chair

This received almost no corporate media coverage, but I think it is significant that the AFL-CIO now advocates that “workers and our unions promote a foreign policy independent of the political interests and foreign policy of Wall Street and corporate America . . . . that the AFL-CIO promotes and advocates for a foreign policy based on international solidarity of all workers, mutual respect of all nations and national sovereignty, and calls upon the president and Congress to make war truly the last resort in our country’s foreign relations.”

https://uslaboragainstwar.org/Article/78279/afl-cio-2017-convention-resolution-50-war-is-not-the-answer

Resolution 50: War Is Not the Answer
 

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WHEREAS, in 2005, the AFL-CIO Convention passed a historic resolution calling for the rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and an end to the country’s occupation; and

WHEREAS, in 2011, the AFL-CIO Executive Council declared that American troops must be brought home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and that the militarization of our foreign policy has proven to be a costly mistake; it is time to invest at home; and

WHEREAS, now 75% of Americans believe the “result of the war in Iraq was not worth the loss of American lives and other costs”; and

WHEREAS, the eventual cost to taxpayers for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars will top $4 trillion; and

WHEREAS, since 2001 the United States has used military force in numerous countries, leading to the death of an untold number of civilians, the destruction of infrastructure, a massive number of refugees and the destabilizing of sovereign nations–—there are now military threats directed against Iran and North Korea, with a potential death toll in either country in the millions and which, in the case of North Korea in particular, involve the threat of nuclear war; and

WHEREAS, while the United States ranks first by far in military spending, it ranks 7th in literacy, 20th in education, 25th in infrastructure quality, 37th in quality of health care, 31st in life expectancy, and 56th in infant mortality; and

WHEREAS, 6,831 United States military personnel have died in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and about one million have been injured. There are over 39,000 homeless military veterans; on any night, more than 1.4 million are at high risk of homelessness, of which 9% are women, and 20 military veterans/active duty military take their own lives each day; and

WHEREAS, it is vital that the workers and our unions promote a foreign policy independent of the political interests and foreign policy of Wall Street and corporate America;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the AFL-CIO promotes and advocates for a foreign policy based on international solidarity of all workers, mutual respect of all nations and national sovereignty, and calls upon the president and Congress to make war truly the last resort in our country’s foreign relations, and that we seek peace and reconciliation wherever possible; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the AFL-CIO calls upon the president and Congress to bring the war dollars home and make our priority as a nation rebuilding this country’s crumbling infrastructure, creating millions of living wage jobs and addressing human needs such as education, health care, housing, retirement security and jobs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the AFL-CIO will advocate for the necessary federal funding to meet the needs of veterans by providing them comprehensive services for health care, housing, education and employment, and to establish outreach to at-risk veterans who may not be availing themselves of existing programs.

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Jacqui Deveneau wins award from Peace Action Maine

Maine-Peace-Worker.jpg

Earlier this week Jacqui Deveneau was awarded the Peace Action Maine Peace Worker’s Award. Her prepared remarks are below.

22852050_10212872118270855_868231596441873825_n.jpgI am very moved to receive this award. When I moved back to Maine in 2002 the first organization I signed up with was the Green Party which is no surprise to you all. But right after that I was walking down by Monument Square and ran into a group of Peace activists collecting signatures for Nuclear Disarmament that was a nation wide petition. I hung out with these folks the rest of their time there and at the end when it was time to leave, Greg Field, who I grew to know and admire greatly as the director of PAM at that point, turned to me and asked if I would be the one to take this on! And that is how I got involved with PAM. So many wonderful people, many are in this room worked with me back then.

There are many stories I could share with you, but I think the best is the Noam Chomsky one. In 2010, Beth Streeter came to a meeting and said that she met the woman who was Noam Chomsky’s left hand person and that he was looking to come to Maine to do an event and so I was asked if I might help put together an event with him. It was decided a fundraiser around our yearly Peace Supper at the Woodsford Congregational Church would fit the bill. So myself and Brad Cummings who worked in the office got to work myself taking phone reservations and Brad putting them [I thought] into the data base. 700 people! So the project was that we could only seat 300 for the supper. So we had to get through the supper and that program and get 300 people up into the sanctuary from the church basement where the supper was and then check in the other 400.

Well, we got to the church and only half of the room was set up, we were in the mean time doing the check ins outside, so as I was going to tackle the fact of only half the room being set up, someone came to me from outside and said that all these people were checking in and their names were not there. So I had to run outside where I quickly realized that Brad must not have been saving some of the entries because I sat there while he was entering them so I knew he had. But as I was about to have a melt down as I knew I had to get back inside to attend to the set up, when I went in the door it was all set!! Yes, that is the beauty of this wonderful Peace community that I am part of. People just took charge and got it done.

The moving folks up to the sanctuary in a timely manner to get them settled and the other 400 in and get Noam to the front of the church all to start in time was a feat that to this day I do not know how we did it. It was one of those things that if it worked I would be crowned queen of organizing, but if I didn’t I would have 700 people very unhappy with me. Again the fact that we made it work was because of so many wonderful Peace folks, including those I call my Peace troops, the VFP who helped hold back the crowds when I needed! I have brought with me and many of you may have seen on the way in the picture of me getting Noam to the front of the church, I call it my Peace wedding, I sent a copy to Noam and he agreed.

It was after that event that I was hired on to run the PAM office form 2010 to 2012 which was the most perfect job for me that I have ever had in my life. To be paid to do Peace work! So I won’t go on, but I just want to say that there are so many of you who have continued this work, doing more actively then me at this point. I just went to the closing ceremony of the 2017 Peace Walk with so many wonderful folks. So I thank you all for never giving up against all odds and to the new young folks stepping up, as I said to the Peace Youth group I ran into at a rally in Boston, I am so glad you are here, I am so tired! And in closing I want to say that I sure hope Loukie is looking down on tonight because I think she might like that I got this award. I miss her so much. Thank you.