[Peace-discuss] What AWARE calls on Obama & Congress to do...

Fri Dec 5 02:56:54 CST 2008

I second that. I think we should involve students as well and I willingly volunteer to get student groups on board and participating, including student political performance artists, spoken-word poets, and others.

Rachel

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:31:41 -0600
>From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>  
>Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] What AWARE calls on Obama & Congress to do...  
>To: Stuart Levy <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu>
>Cc: peace-discuss at anti-war.net
>
>This is a great place to start.  Perhaps we should arrange a public meeting, say 
>at one of the libraries, with press coverage, on what we're calling on the new 
>administration to do.
>
>We could "kick it old-style" -- i.e., like a teach-in.  Use this document as a 
>basis -- copies to all who attend -- with comments by a group of speakers from 
>political groups, religious groups, even academics...
>
>We shouldn't let this work go to waste in the miasma of Obamism...  --CGE
>
>
>Stuart Levy wrote:
>> Here's another draft, following input from lots of you.
>> It's a little long (77 lines where I wanted 66), and of course
>> leaves a lot out, but I did want some sort of introduction explaining
>> why on earth we even bother to say all this now.
>> 
>> You might cringe at the heading; if you see a better one,
>> please let me know.  I do think it's important to appeal to all those
>> (many, many!) people who see the new Administration as representing
>> a chance for improvement, so using Obama's own rhetoric seemed appropriate.
>> 
>> =============================================================
>> 	    AWARE calls on the Obama administration
>> 	      to live up to the promise of change
>> 
>> Do we need to do this?  Shouldn't we just wait and see what he does?  No!
>> There's a great deal of power and trillions of dollars of money at stake in
>> keeping things as they are, from the military industry, the new "security"
>> industry, the media industry, the oil industry, the banking industry, from many
>> sorts of powerful constituencies.  They speak with confidence, calling Obama's
>> Bush- and Clinton-era appointments "pragmatic" and "non-ideological".
>> 
>> Beware of such labels: "pragmatism" implies not questioning assumptions, such as the
>> assumption that the US has an inalienable right to use military force anywhere in
>> the world, that major changes to the way we use energy or provide health care are
>> just not feasible, that "free market" practices serve our people well, that erosion
>> of civil liberties and use of torture are regrettable but necessary.  That's why...
>> 
>> 		 Obama Needs a Protest Movement [*]
>> 
>> Obama is being compared with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who brought in the New Deal,
>> the fruits of which (Social Security, labor protections, infrastructure creation, ...)
>> we still depend on.  But as Frances Fox Piven[*] and others argue, FDR didn't and
>> wouldn't have done it alone: "mass protests [...] forced him to make choices he
>> would otherwise have avoided [...] the rise of protest movements forced the new
>> president and the Democratic Congress to become bold reformers."
>> 
>> Obama and the Congress need our pressure now to resist pressure from our opponents,
>> who are not waiting.  We must call on the Administration to carry out the best of
>> Obama's promises, and to do other things which he has not promised.  Join us [**],
>> join other groups, act on your own, but act.  Write letters to the editor, to the new
>> Administration, to Congress.  Make signs and demonstrate.  Talk with your neighbors.
>> 
>> Some things AWARE [**] calls on the new Administration and Congress to do:
>> 
>>   - Withdraw from Iraq *all* US troops, *and* all military contractors.
>>     The Iraqi Parliament agreed to a 2011 deadline, but don't wait.
>>     Make it plain that the US will keep no military bases there.
>> 
>>   - End the war in Afghanistan.  As in Iraq, our invasion violates international law;
>>     and as in Iraq, our violent presence there only strengthens our opponents.  Even
>>     our own military have acknowledged that military means will not suffice in
>>     Afghanistan.  Encourage the Afghan government's efforts to negotiate with the
>>     Taliban, including all who are willing to talk.
>> 
>>   - Cease illegal and counterproductive incursions into Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, ...
>> 
>>   - Renew US efforts to resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including dismantling
>>     West Bank settlements.  Support the 2002 Arab League offer for peace in exchange
>>     for a return to the 1967 borders and agreement on refugee status.  Negotiate with
>>     Hamas (as 64% of Israelis support doing) -- they won free and fair elections.
>> 
>>   - Put our vast military spending, including our own weapons of mass destruction,
>>     on the table for cuts.
>> 
>>   - Close Guantanamo Bay, and end use of torture, as promised, and promptly.
>> 
>>   - Whether by prosecution of those who created and justified the policies, or by a
>>     Truth Commission, ensure that the world and the US people know we understand that
>>     wars of aggression, torture and arbitrary imprisonment are never acceptable.
>> 
>>   - Talk with Iran, as promised, without preconditions.  Reestablish US diplomatic
>>     representation.  Make clear that the US will accept a peaceful Iranian nuclear power
>>     program under international supervision.  Seek Iran's help in resolving Middle East
>>     conflicts, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, and Lebanon.
>> 
>>   - Rethink our policies toward Central America and Latin America.  End our
>>     long-running, counterproductive embargo against Cuba, and open a dialog
>>     with the Cuban government.   Repair relations with Venezuela and Bolivia,
>>     including restoring Bolivia's preferential access to US markets.
>> 
>>   - Repudiate the Bush Administration's signing statements, and the whole notion
>>     that a President can override laws by fiat.  Stop this terrible precedent now.
>> 
>> [*]  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/piven
>>      Article by Frances Fox Piven's in the Dec. 1, 2008 issue of The Nation
>> 
>> [**] http://www.anti-war.net/   AWARE meets every Sunday at 5PM in the basement
>>      of the Independent Media Center, Broadway & Elm, Urbana.
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