[Peace-discuss] AWARE meeting business

[Carl G. Estabrook]

Gentles:

I'll be inadvertently absent from tonight's meeting, and I wanted to  
offer a reflection from yesterday's demo.

When I'm carrying a sign saying "Stop the War!" and people ask, "What  
war?", the administration is having real success in its attempt to  
soft-pedal the ongoing and expanding US war in the Greater Middle East  
and Africa. The mendacity of hope - i.e., "Obama got us out of Iraq  
and now he's getting us out of Afghanistan!" - is succeeding, as  
political Big Lies often do.

I think our flyers should include a primer on the war, to counter the  
all-too-successful 'narrative' the government offers.   Perhaps a  
basic flyer, one side devoted to the real nature of a war in the  
interest only of the 1% - and the other devoted to the real nature of  
government economic programs, also of course finally in the interest  
only of the 1%, despite palliatives (Obamacare, stimulus)...

It might be time for a general statement like that from AWARE,  
especially one that would note our common concerns with Occupy.

I'll work on  a draft and post it for discussion, with the hope that  
we can have it ready for the June demo - and for display on the FM  
table.

--CGE

P.S. - I've got several copies of the following tomes to put out on  
the table next week:

	"Occupy," by Noam Chomsky (Occupied Media Pamphlet Series)
	("Easy to read, affordable, loaded with photos and practical advice  
for activists, 'Occupy' is another vital contribution from Chomsky to  
the literature of defiance and protest, and a red-hot rallying call to  
forge a better, more egalitarian future....[an] excellent read."— 
Alternet)

	"Making the Future: Occupations, Interventions, Empire and  
Resistance," by Noam Chomsky (City Lights Open Media)
  	("'Making the Future' presents more than fifty concise and  
persuasively argued commentaries on U.S. politics and policies,  
written between 2007 and 2011. Taken together, Chomsky's essays  
present a powerful counter-narrative to official accounts of the major  
political events of the past four years: the wars in Afghanistan and  
Iraq; the U.S. presidential race; the ascendancy of China; Latin  
America's leftward turn; the threat of nuclear proliferation in Iran  
and North Korea; Israel's invasion of Gaza and expansion of  
settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank; developments in climate  
change; the world financial crisis; the Arab Spring; the assassination  
of Osama bin Laden; and the Occupy protests. Laced throughout his  
critiques are expressions of commitment to democracy and the power of  
popular struggles. 'Progressive legislation and social welfare,'  
writes Chomsky, 'have been won by popular struggles, not gifts from  
above. Those struggles follow a cycle of success and setback. They  
must be waged every day, not just once every four years, always with  
the goal of creating a genuinely responsive democratic society, from  
the voting booth to the workplace.' 'Making the Future' is a follow-up  
to 'Interventions,'  published by City Lights in 2007 and banned from  
Guantánamo Bay by U.S. military censors. Both books are drawn from  
articles Chomsky has been writing regularly for the New York Times  
Syndicate, but which go largely ignored by newspapers in the United  
States...")

And I'm considering whether to order some copies of the following.  
Opinions?

	"Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion," by Jeffrey St.  
Clair (Editor), Joshua Frank (Editor), Kevin Alexander Gray  
(Contributor), Kathy Kelly (Contributor), Ralph Nader (Contributor) et  
al.
  	("Those who feel that like lemmings they are being led over a cliff  
would be well-advised not to read this book. They may discover that  
they are right."—Noam Chomsky. “The writers assembled here hit hard,  
with accuracy, and do not pull punches."—Marcus Rediker, author of  
'The Slave Ship: A Human History.'
Jeffrey St. Clair is co-editor of CounterPunch, author of 'Born Under  
a Bad Sky' and 'Been Brown So Long it Looked Green to Me,' and co- 
author of 'Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press.'
Joshua Frank is an environmental journalist and co-editor of 'Red  
State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland.' His  
investigative reports and columns appear in CounterPunch, Chicago Sun- 
Times, Common Dreams, and AlterNet.)