Why I bought a one-way ticket for Oct. 6

by Chuck Kaufman

There are iconic moments in the movement for justice and peace when, if you are not a participant, you regret it forever. My first was May Day 1971 when we shut down Washington, DC protesting the Vietnam War. I missed being with a million people in New York in September 1982 protesting nuclear war, and I missed the November 1999 WTO protest in Seattle. But I did participate, and earned my first arrest, in March of 1990 on the 10th anniversary of Archbishop Romero’s assassination. I also participated in the April 2000 IMF/World Bank protest in DC and a year later the Summit of the Americas protest in Quebec City where the Free Trade Area of the Americas was born and died. And, of course, I participated in all the national anti-war protests for the past 10 years beginning with the formation of the ANSWER Coalition three days after Sept. 11, 2001, especially the two largest – Jan. 18, 2003 in DC and Feb. 15 in New York.

The anti-war movement was never able to assemble the numbers it did prior to the invasion of Iraq after President Bush ignored the popular will and invaded Iraq based on lies.  Sectors of the movement demobilized to work in the pro-war Kerry campaign of 2004 and again for the Obama campaign in 2008, leaving the anti-war movement marginalized.

So why should Oct. 6, 2011, with its ambitious plan to start a permanent occupation of Freedom Plaza near the White House, be any different?

Maybe it won’t be. Maybe it will show that we’re still not angry enough. Maybe it will show that Euro-Americans are still too comfortable.

But maybe it will be the beginning of something new. I’m feeling that something different is in the air; the first sudden gust of wind announcing the hurricane to follow. A few days ago, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said that labor is going to ditch the Democrats in the run-up to 2012. He said, “We’re going to use a lot of our money to build structures that work for working people. You’re going to see us give less money to build structures for others, and more of our money will be used to build our own structure.” Hallelujah. I joked on Facebook that Trumka’s speech was the true epicenter of the recent East Coast earthquake.

October 6 could be the beginning of a paradigm shift in which the anti-war movement too divorces itself from the Democratic Party and determines to build popular movement structures that will have to be taken into account by whichever party is in power. President Obama may have made a serious mistake when he raised so many people to the mountain top of hope only to throw them under the bus after he got elected. As the social movements of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil have proven, it is possible to take power peacefully, by mobilizing smart and by mobilizing relentlessly to confront the corporatacracy and its morally bankrupt political parties.

I bought a one-way ticket to Washington, DC for Oct. 6 in the hope that we are done with voting for the lesser of two evils; that we are done with expecting salvation from the servants of our corporate ruling class.

It may not happen. Our movements may yet be too co-opted. But, man, would I regret if forever if I had booked a return flight to my home in Tucson, Arizona for Oct. 9 and it turned out that those who stayed founded a new age without me.

Chuck Kaufman is National Co-Coordinator of the Alliance for Global Justice. He lived in Washington, DC for 38 years but now lives and works from Tucson, AZ.

Souce:

http://october2011.org/blogs/margaret-flowers/why-i-bought-1-way-ticket-oct-6

It Can Be Done. Now is the Time.

Americans Can Stop the Corporate Machine and Create a New World

More than 2600 have been arrested for dissent since 2009.  Here ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern is arrested at a speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in February, 2011.

by Kevin Zeese

October2011.org seeks to Stop the Machine and Create a New World. It can be done. Indeed, it must be done and now is the time to do it. The thousands who have joined October2011.org know the challenges we face but we also know that the disastrous direction the country is going is unacceptable. We have seen that the normal tools--elections, lobbying and education--do not work. The U.S. is facing a crisis on many fronts--economic, environmental and in foreign relations--and the government does not respond or even makes things worse.

We certainly understand the despair, lost hope and discouragement that many Americans feel about the U.S. political system. The system seems designed to make change impossible. We also see the power and sophistication of the corporate propaganda media machine. But, we also see people in the United States seeing through the propaganda, understanding the truth and getting angry. In every rebellion around the world that has occurred in the last year--from Egypt to Spain--the view that it can't be done, the people will not rise up would have been the belief of 95% of the population before it happened. Predicting the future is not as easy as it looks. There is a lot of evidence that the time may be right for an American Awakening. The past is not always the future.

The organizers of October2011.org are well aware of the challenges we face and aware of the power of the U.S. police forces to stamp out dissent. We have faced them before. We are developing contingency plans to deal with those issues. And, we know if the police remove us on the first day, October 6, we will come back in the days that follow with even more people. We will not give up. Indeed, in Spain on the first day, the police cleared out a few hundred people, and then they came back two days later with thousands more and stayed for a month. They continue to pressure the government with their indignant independent movement demanding real, fundamental change starting with real democracy, not the phony two party charade they encounter in Spain as we also do in the United States.

October2011.org is a peoples led effort. The people who have signed up are doing their part: Spreading the word; Urging their friends and families to come; And, coming themselves. We all know we cannot let business as usual continue -- it is literally killing us and others, degrading the environment, destroying the middle class and creating massive transfers of wealth to the richest 1%.

One thing that stops many from doing anything is fear of failure. We don't fear failure.October2011.org will be a success. The issue is what level of success will it be? That is up to you, dear reader. If you see the misdirection of the country, do not despair, join us. Unified with confidence in our power we cannot be stopped.

There are always people who say "it can't be done." If the human species lived by that credo we'd still be living in caves and not growing our own food. Africans would still be slaves in the United States. Women would not be allowed to vote. All of these changes became inevitable after seeming impossible. Indeed, change is inevitable. Our economy is collapsing and government is dysfunctional. This cannot continue. Change will occur. It is our job to direct it to a better world.

People involved in this effort have been organizing for years, some for decades. Some of the leaders, including me, organized events where 130+ were arrested in December and 110+ in March protesting the wars. Many were part of organizing demonstrations of tens of thousands of people. This event builds on years of organizing, not just demonstrations but organizations. It is not an event coming out of nowhere or disconnected from other organizing work. And, none of us see this event as the final event that will solve all the problems the United States is facing.

We see October2011.org as another event building an independent movement. This event is not about "instant"gratification, it is about persistent, well-informed citizen action that demands an end to war and domination by concentrated corporate interests.

Kevin Zeese, Daniel Ellsberg, and Ann Wright in December

In December I worked with some of the leaders of Veterans for Peace and other organizations to protest the wars. We knew when we organized this event we would be building to something like October2011.org -- we called it building a "culture of resistance". At this event, Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent and author Chris Hedges, made a clarion call for resistance, large and small, against corporatism and militarism: "Hope will only come now when we physically defy the violence of the state. All who resist, all who are here today keep hope alive. All who succumb to fear, despair, and apathy become an enemy of hope. They become in their passivity agencies of injustice."

The people of the United States are showing they are ready to revolt against the tyranny of corporate power. October2011.org is not alone in organizing a revolt against corporatism and militarism. We are part of a rising tide of Americans who have had enough. If the corporate media covered what was going on in the U.S. this time would be seen as one where the country is in revolt. The corporate media does not cover the culture of resistance because they know that if Americans knew they were not alone they would be empowered to do more.

Here's a snapshot of America in Revolt. There are many more examples - big revolts in Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan against austerity and challenges to union rights. There are many other revolts being planned that are bigger than the ones listed below. October2011.org may be timed exactly right, it may be the zeitgeist moment where the people of the United States are ready to stand up against the corporate-state and demand real change; demand that the peoples necessities come before the profits of campaign donors. Here are some examples of Americans revolting against the status quo, some you may have heard of, but I doubt you have been aware of all of them: Peace protesters have been out all over the country demanding an end to the war. On the anniversary of the Iraq War a protest was held in Washington, DC:

Those who favor transparency in government, oppose war crimes, oppose abuse of prisoners and want to see a fair justice system have been protesting for Bradley Manning, the alleged Wikileaker. After this protest at Quantico, Manning was removed from solitary confinement and placed in more appropriate pre-trial conditions:

And, outrageous police force did not prevent the success of the Free Bradley Manning Movement:

Wall Street has been a particular target of U.S. protest. Banksters were protested on April 15th as we became aware that the nation's biggest banks, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase were not paying any taxes:

and

Some are showing they can even mount successful protests by themselves, see this Los Angeles Bank of America protest, U.S. Uncut, a new protest movement organized bottom up has resulted in hundreds of protests against the banks. Here is one example of many, US Uncut vs. Boston Bank of America:

You can see more at U.S. Uncut.

National People's Action has mounted some of the most effective protests against banks and the austerity being caused by Wall Street:  They have also been very effective in pushing over the issue of property foreclosures and holding banks accountable.

Many are angry about the foreclosure crisis which is taking people out of their homes, resulting in vacant buildings undermining neighborhoods and families living in the streets. See these California foreclosure protests which led to 22 arrests.

Some have even camped out in public parks to protest austerity measures. This protest, Bloombergville, camped out in Union Square in New York City protesting the austerity budget of Mayor Bloomberg.

Students are protesting lots of actions being taken against them in the name of austerity and budget cuts. Students in Arizona took over their school board when they tried to cut the Mexican American Studies program.

Students in Detroit took over a high school the government was closing, a high school for pregnant girls that was having excellent educational outcomes:

The group By Any Means Necessary described the destruction of public education and why people are protesting in this video:

College students have protested around the country over massive tuition hikes, once again caused by austerity budget and deficit spending. Here are some examples, among many, Rutgers' students sit-in president's office:

Berkeley students protest tuition increase:

and a report on protests by students across the country:

While the media put a spotlight on the Tea Party, magnifying their protests beyond their real size, they also ignored nationwide protests against the health insurance industry as Obama pushed health care reform that further entrenched insurance domination of health care. The reason the Tea Party was covered by the corporate media was because their message was consistent with the insurance industry, keep government out of health care, leave it to the market. Those who challenged corporatism were ignored by the corporate media - but they were protesting across the country. The National Mobilization for Health Care shows many of the videos and tells the stories of health care protests at insurance companies throughout the country where more than 1,000 signed up to risk arrest to stop insurance domination of health care.

and

and

You can see videos and report of health care actions all over the country here.

The issue of climate change has been manipulated by the media to make it look like the science is unclear and the people oppose dealing with the urgent issue of climate change. In fact, many Americans are standing up. Tim DeChristopher, who will be sentenced on Tuesday, July 26th for stopping the illegal leasing of public lands to the oil and gas industry, stands out as an important resister. Here he is being hugged and sung to by supporters after being found guilty of fraud in oil lease purchase.

Tim gave a powerful, impromptu speech after the guilty verdict where he explained the strength of unity - why we must work together and support each other to make real change.

DeChristopher is not alone. Here are climate protesters taking over the Department of Interior earlier this year:

resulting in some being arrested.

And more on the arrests here.

Related to climate change is the continued dependence of the United States on coal. The fact is the U.S. could have a carbon-free/nuclear-free energy economy by 2035, instead the U.S. continues to allow mountain tops to be removed to mine coal. Many Americans are speaking out and opposing this practice. At this flower show mountaintop removal protesters criticized PNC Bank for their support of coal, 2011:

and here is a protest in West Virginia:

Earlier this year opponents of Mountain Top removal conducted an inspiring 50 mile march up Blair Mountain:

People in the United States also see the human rights violations of big business, especially the mistreatment of workers and the sucking out of dollars from local communities. Here hundreds of students march on Ohio State to kick out human rights violator Sodexo:

Others include  this event in Washington, DC last week:

These are a few among many, many more examples of America in revolt. Multiple protests are occurring every week. America is in revolt and October2011.org is seeking to bring all of these concerns together. October 6 ,the beginning of the occupation of Freedom Plaza, is the beginning of 11 years of war in Afghanistan and the first week of the new federal fiscal year that will make austerity spending - for everything except war - a reality. Every issue will be affected by this new budget and the link between war spending and austerity will become evident to all.
October2011.org seeks to unite Americans who recognize the need to end corporatism and militarism.

Already enough people have signed up and many more have told us they are coming without signing up so that we know October2011.org will be a success. The only question is how successful. When we announced October2011.org we published an article History is knocking! Now that we have been organizing this event for two months, there is no doubt history is in fact knocking. October2011.org will be an event of historic significance.

We know that out of this event will come more actions - just like a splash creates ripples; mass resistance will create more resistance. As Wikileaks says, "Courage is contagious." We want to make as big a splash as possible so that the impact is long-lasting and an independent political movement builds so it cannot be ignored. If you would like to see a turning point in history be part of October2011.org. Join us in spreading the word, reaching out to all Americans and making the turnout as large and as strong as possible.

Kevin Zeese is on the steering committee of October2011.org and directs It's Our Economy.

More Lost By the Second

Refugee Camp, photo by Jacob George

by Kathy Kelly

  

It’s a bit odd to me that with my sense of geographical direction I’m ever regarded as a leader to guide groups in foreign travel. I’m recalling a steaming hot night in Lahore, Pakistan when Josh Brollier and I, having enjoyed a lengthy dinner with Lahore University students, needed to head back to the guest lodgings graciously provided us by a headmaster of the Garrison School for Boys. We had boarded a rickshaw, but the driver had soon become terribly lost and with my spotty sense of direction and my complete ignorance of Urdu, I couldn't be any help. My cell phone was out of juice, and I was uncertain anyway of the needed phone number. I bumped and jostled in the back seat of the rickshaw, next to Josh, as we embarked on a nightmare of travel over unpaved, rutted roads in dizzying traffic until finally the rickshaw driver spotted a sign belonging to our school - the wrong campus, we all knew - and eager to unload us, roused the inhabitants and hustled us and our bags into the street before moving on.

We stood inside the gate, staring blankly at a family that had been sound asleep on cots in the courtyard. In no time, the father of the family scooped up his two children, gently moving them to the cot he shared with his wife so that Josh and I would have a cot on which to sit. Then he and his spouse disappeared into their humble living quarters. He reappeared with a fan and an extension cord, wanting to give us some relief from the blistering night heat. His wife emerged carrying a glass of tea for each of us. They didn’t know us from Adam’s house cat, but they were treating us as family - the celebrated but always astonishing hospitality that we'd encountered in the region so many times before. Eventually, we established with our host that we were indeed at the wrong campus, upon which he called the family that had been nervously waiting for our errant selves.

This courtyard scene of startling hospitality would return to my mind when we all learned of the U.S. Joint Special Operations (JSO) Force night raid in the Nangarhar province, on May 12, 2011. No matter which side of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border you are on, suffocating hot temperatures prevail day and night during these hot months. It’s normal for people to sleep in their courtyards. How could anyone living in the region not know this? Yet the U.S. JSO forces that came in the middle of the night to the home of a 12 year old girl, Nilofer, who had been asleep on her cot in the courtyard, began their raid by throwing a grenade into the courtyard, landing at Nilofer's head. She died instantly. Nilofer’s uncle raced into the courtyard. He worked with the Afghan Local Police, and they had told him not to join that night’s patrol because he didn’t know much about the village they would go to, so he had instead gone to his brother’s home. When he heard the grenade explode, he may well have presumed the Taliban were attacking the home. U.S. troops killed him as soon as they saw him. Later, NATO issued an apology.

“The raids occur ‘every night. We are very much miserable,’ said Roshanak Wardak, a doctor and a former member of the national Parliament." I am reading a McClatchy news report, dated August 8th of this year. "Residents of the Tangi Valley area, in eastern Wardak Province, about 60 miles southwest of Kabul, issued similar complaints about the night raids in their vicinity, charging that they have killed civilians, disrupted their lives and fueled popular support for the Taliban.”

Imagine it. People in an Afghan village pass sleepless nights, anxious that their home might be targeted by a U.S. led night raid. Villagers are enraged when they hear stories of elders and imams being roughed up and detained, of wives and children being killed, of belongings stolen and property destroyed. Increasingly, the U.S. military battles against the so-called insurgency are creating a stronger resistance as more Afghans grow determined to fight back.

In Helmand province, in Nad Ali, the district governor told a New York Times reporter one incident in the spiral of violence: a NATO foot patrol came under fire from a family home on August 5th, 2011, killing one soldier and wounding an Afghan interpreter. The NATO troops called in an airstrike. NATO is now investigating a report that the airstrike killed eight civilians, seven of them children. “The home belonged to Mullah Abdul Hadi, 50, a local imam who Afghan officials say was helping the Taliban,” said Mr. Shamlani. “He was killed along with one of his two wives and his seven children, all younger than 7 years old.”

People in Nad Ali are expected to embrace closer relations with the United States and its troops after the deaths at our hands of seven children, children they knew aged one to seven, who had committed no crime.

Now comes the U.S. determination to seal a “Strategic Partnership Declaration” with its client Afghan government. Many in that country (and this one) expect such an agreement to allow the U.S. to establish permanent military bases, a permanent occupation presence that will provoke resistance groups there to declare perpetual war.

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, a group of young people dedicated to ending wars and inequalities in their country, write in their August 9th statement: “The US-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Declaration will perpetuate ‘terrorism’ and bring it to everyone’s doorsteps: “The ‘partnership’ will allow permanent joint US-Afghanistan military bases to launch and project hard power. The ‘extreme’ Taliban will conveniently ‘use’ these bases as a stand-alone reason for their ‘holy jihad.’ We cannot forget that one of Osama Bin Laden’s reasons for attacking the US on September 11th was the presence of US military bases in Saudi Arabia. ... This Strategic Partnership Declaration will kill any chance for our madness to slow down and our violence to calm down. … It will doom ordinary Americans and Afghans to permanent terrorism. … Why can’t we quiet our nerves, look deep inside humanity, and begin healing?”  

Everyone wants to be safe, but I think of the Lahore family taking us into their sleeping courtyard and their home that night, knowing nothing of these crazy Americans who had been dropped on their doorstep. We had woken them up but they chose to stay awake and take care of us. Americans seem to respond to our endless wake-up calls from Afghanistan by just going, every time, back to sleep, rather than work to make the situation better.  I think of the night raids, families being woken up to sudden horror somewhere every night in the region, children killed sleeping in our efforts to make ourselves more safe (among other motives), and an ever escalating conflict arising from the violence.  

We are startlingly, terrifyingly lost, and we’re getting ever more so. If we see a sign here in the darkness, an opportunity to make contact with the people around us, we should take it gratefully. The letter from my Afghan Youth friends is another sign for me that we do not belong in the Afghan home forever, occupying it at gunpoint. However groggily we may have awakened or reawakened to this dreadful situation and our role in it, we must act now to free our Afghan hosts of their overstaying guests, and get the U.S. safely back to where it should be.

Kathy Kelly (Kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence.  A Voices delegation is presently visiting, in Kabul, with The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.

Both groups are helping organize for the October 6, 2011 “Stop the Machine! Create a New World!” campaign to end wars.

APOCALYPSE or REVOLUTION

by Eric Schechter

Read this insightful essay by clicking this link.
http://leftymathprof.wordpress.com/long_essay/