[Peace-discuss] World Can't Wait: Fresh Wave of Protest Amid New Govt. Threats
Stuart Levy
salevy at illinois.edu
Tue Aug 21 20:42:04 UTC 2012
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: {Disarmed} Fresh Wave of Protest Amid New Govt. Threats
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 16:34:07 -0400
From: Debra Sweet, World Can't Wait <debrasweet at worldcantwait.org>
Reply-To: <debrasweet at worldcantwait.net>
To: <aware at anti-war.net>
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=zwucL%2BeTkQCHQFPzznUvN39Io%2FtsTMKF>
*/The World Can't Wait
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Bring Resistance Forward Fund Drive
*August 28-September 3*
$2,000 is needed to bring the message to the DNC
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=O%2BHBSQXfn9MsH9xbdinXX39Io%2FtsTMKF>:
stop the unjust targeted killings, drone war, endless occupation and
indefinite detention of the "war on terror." No matter where you are you
can make this possible. Everyone who wants to see an end to the crimes
this government is wreaking worldwide has a role to play. Save the
dates, contact your friends, think about what you can give (consider
pooling donations from others in your area), or plan a Labor Day Weekend
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Dear Aware,
We are so glad to report a wave of principled actions in opposition to
US wars and the prosecution of Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, and Julian
Assange. Iraq Veterans took the lead Thursday in calling for nationwide
actions
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=8nueg%2Fa7Mdkp6%2B55lEuB4n9Io%2FtsTMKF>
at Obama headquarters on Thursday September 6 in support of Bradley
Manning.
I'm also calling your attention to a very serious development
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=BcO0QbRCCBB4tB%2B9LoPO9n9Io%2FtsTMKF>
in the Obama administration's support of indefinite detention provisions
in the National Defense Authorization Act. Please sign the statement
below
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Qeq1CcfNIvexOm91gECU3H9Io%2FtsTMKF>
and be counted in standing against this repressive law.
Veterans & Activists Occupy Obama Campaign HQ in Oakland in
Support of Bradley Manning
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=8%2FSSH07OkCw7dZU7Y36BNn9Io%2FtsTMKF>
Vets protest for Manning Oakland
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=KNt1q4uPTHlmRgVIqV76k39Io%2FtsTMKF>
View press and photos from the August 16th protests
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=QjpboKxohXeBapPHhMm8UX9Io%2FtsTMKF>
/From the SF Chapter of World Can't Wait/:
It’s time to step it up for Bradley Manning as his case nears trial, and
on August 16 actions supporting Bradley Manning up and down the West
Coast brought out several hundred protesters, with military veterans at
the heart of each demonstration and/or occupation. Six people were
arrested occupying Obama campaign headquarters in Oakland, and another
six for the same action in Portland. Other protests were in Los Angeles,
Las Vegas, and Seattle.
Hands Off Ecuador and Assange!
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=MyLMk5xXrarfG6aiCpwh039Io%2FtsTMKF>
Assange Ecuador protest
/From the //NYC Chapter//of World Can't Wait:/
On Thursday August 16, as news broke that Ecuador was giving political
asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, World Can't Wait in NYC
quickly put together a plan to demonstrate support for this brave
decision. About 12-15 people who understand significance of Wikileaks
got together in front of the Ecuadorian Consulate with signs supporting
the courageous stand of the Ecuadorian government: "small country -
high ethics - big heart," "hands off Ecuador and Assange," and "thanks
for standing up for law and morality."
Protesting drones Chicago
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=hzJzlZR2qjTCpqI8KNojsH9Io%2FtsTMKF>Chicago
Comes Out to Air and Water Show to Protest Criminal U.S. Wars and
Drone Warfare
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=maoUmhWpvpDaiXtNUSklZn9Io%2FtsTMKF>
/From the //Chicago Chapter of World Can't Wait
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=rGj2ik%2BSrC8bgdQSRGibD39Io%2FtsTMKF>/
On Saturday August 18, among the crowds and the roaring aircraft at the
annual Air and Water Show on the shores of Lake Michigan, about 50
Chicagoans from various organizations stepped up to counter the
glorification of illegitimate and immoral U.S. wars and the advanced
weaponry used to perpetrate them. Drone warfare and the thousands of
innocent civilians killed by drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and
Somalia were a special focus of the protesters.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Call To Stand Together To Oppose The Obama Administration’s
Dangerous Assault On Fundamental Rights
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=KmBX%2BrnQwY91sQs1onDfE39Io%2FtsTMKF>
/From //OpposeRepressionNDAA.net
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=JnpQWmz8G%2F07fsUBltapcn9Io%2FtsTMKF>/
The administration of Barack Obama, which had promised to put an end to
torture and other outrages committed by the Bush Administration, is in
fact putting into place a dangerous system of repression and control.
This is a serious assault
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ViUM2S1Dmyx4RPIBPz7rC39Io%2FtsTMKF>on
fundamental rights, and it must be answered not with silence and
complicity but with heightened awareness and more determined opposition.
The record of the Obama Administration is a chilling one. President
Obama has preserved Bush’s rendition program, which relies upon torture,
and has extended the Patriot Act. His Administration has adopted a
quasi-official assassination policy, complete with secret “kill lists”
reviewed by the President, which Attorney General Holder has brazenly
asserted meets Constitutional standards of due process. In the 2010 case
of /Holder v HLP/ [Humanitarian Law Project], the Obama administration
successfully argued before the courts that the “crime” of “material
support” to “terrorists” be broadened to include merely speaking with
and advising (even on some legal matters) any group designated by the
government as terrorist. The ruling has already been applied to
pro-Palestinian activists and endangers many others, including prominent
public intellectuals, as well as groups upholding or advocating
fundamental social change
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=mjSbUGG9hphqlpLc0Xk%2Fdn9Io%2FtsTMKF>.
The most recent expansion of dangerous and illegitimate government
authority is the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This
law grants
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=5o6QEy91GgwERV%2F9ySzHVX9Io%2FtsTMKF>to
any U.S. president the power to detain any person, including U.S.
citizens, indefinitely and without charge or trial, for the alleged
crime of associating with a broad and vague category of people, which
could include people who have nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks or
with terrorism in general.
The pattern is disturbingly clear: not just a continuation but a further
leap in the draconian measures taken by the Bush administration—under
the pretext of the open-ended, so-called War on Terror—to detain
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=tkhSKlt3Uso39J%2FelUMrwn9Io%2FtsTMKF>,
torture, and assassinate…not just a continuation but a further leap in
measures to restrict and criminalize dissent and opposition to the
status quo.
This must not go unanswered—nor be allowed to continue
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=BGvaaqaA%2FiqYtfKZrohIU39Io%2FtsTMKF>to
grow increasingly worse. In opposing these repressive moves, it is
imperative that people not allow anyone, or any one group, to be singled
out or targeted for repression. In this regard, the lawsuit /Hedges et
al. v Obama et al./ that is challenging ominous provisions of the NDAA
is quite salient. On May 16, a federal district court ruled in favor of
the plaintiffs and issued a temporary injunction blocking the government
from implementing Section 1021 of this law. But insinuated into this
mainly positive ruling is a reference to the Revolutionary Communist
Party, USA and its Chairman Bob Avakian which is an erroneous and
potentially harmful characterization that could be used as a pretext to
criminalize what is constitutionally protected freedom of speech and
association and potentially sweep the RCP and its Chairman into a
category of organizations identified by the government as terrorist.
Those of us signing this statement cannot speak for the RCP and indeed
have various levels of familiarity with and a variety of views on its
philosophical and political principles and objectives. But we do not
countenance—and recognize as very dangerous—the designation by the
powers-that-be of groups as politically “acceptable” and “unacceptable.”
History teaches, by negative and positive example, that we must stand
against attempts to divide progressive
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Ze4h0XWebCyJZO7W8bZGhH9Io%2FtsTMKF>,
radical, and revolutionary forces along any such lines.
In this there are very important lessons to be drawn from the
self-critical summation by Pastor Martin Niemoeller of his experience
when confronted with the heightening repression carried out by the Nazi
regime in Germany during the 1930s:
“First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I
wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I
wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak out because I was a
Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak out for
me.”
The signatories of this statement call on people to step forward and
stand together to oppose the assault on dissent and the moves to
restrict and criminalize oppositional speech, association, and political
activity, which are being carried out by the Obama Administration and
which continue and expand dangerous precedents and mechanisms which can
also be utilized by any future Administration.
*Initial Signatories*
*Elliott Adams*, Veterans For Peace, past President, Creating a Culture
of Peace, Secretary
*Rafael C. Angulo*, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Southern
California School of Social Work
*Jane Bark**
*Fr. Luis Barrios**, Co-Executive Director, Interreligious Foundation
for Community Organization-IFCO
*Deb Bazell**
*Toby Blomé**, Bay Area CodePink
*Leah Bolger*, President, Veterans For Peace
*Maure Briggs-Carrington**
*Robert Cliver**, History professor
*Daniel Costa*, ACLU
*Peter Coyote*, Actor, Writer, politically engaged human
*Daniel Ellsberg**
*Larry Everest**, /Revolution/ correspondent, author
*Sharon Gadberry**
*Ann Fagan Ginger**, Author, human rights attorney (ret.)
*Lyn Hejinian*, Poet and Professor, Department of English, University of
California, Berkeley
*Dave Heller**
*George Homanich**, Binghamton, NY
*Mickey Huff*, Director, Project Censored/Media Freedom Foundation
*John Hutnyk*, Professor, Goldsmiths College, University of London
*Chuck Kaufman*, Executive Director, Alliance for Global Justice
*C. Clark Kissinger*, Revolution Books, NYC
*Jim Lafferty*, Director, National Lawyers Guild, LA
*Linda LeTendre*, Saratoga Peace Alliance
*Raymond Lotta*, /Revolution/ newspaper, advocate of Bob Avakian’s new
synthesis of communism
*Bob Meola*, Courage to Resist, War Resisters League
*Theresa Nona**
*Jon Olsen**, Green Party
*Scott Olsen*, Iraq Veterans Against the War
*Art Persyko*, SF99% Coalition
*Peter Phillips*, President, Project Censored/Media Freedom Foundation
*Michael D. Rectenwald*, Ph.D., Professor, Liberal Studies/Global
Liberal Studies, NYU
*Walter Riley*, Activist, Attorney
*Stephen Rohde*, Civil liberties attorney and author
*Candice Rowse*r, Hunter College CUNY
*Marc Sapir*, MD
*Saratoga Peace Alliance**
*Carole Seligman**, Co-Editor, /Socialist Viewpoint//
/*Cindy Sheehan**
*Michael Steven Smith**, National Lawyers Guild and Center for
Constitutional Rights
*Carol Strickman*, Attorney
*Debra Sweet*, Director, World Can't Wait
View larger list of signatories and sign this statement at
OpposeRepressionNDAA.net
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=M5W%2BwcrHirCxCxsIlMQ5m39Io%2FtsTMKF>
Debra Sweet <mailto:debrasweet at worldcantwait.org>, Director, The World
Can't Wait
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