[Peace-discuss] AWARE flyer from eight years ago

[Karen Aram]

I think we need not one but two demo’s/fliers this month, only the bravest will be out today.

Today, the flyer constructed as is by Carl reflects current events, there is real fear by many people, of war with Russia before Trump takes power.

However, we do need to do something before Trump takes power as well, pertaining to his upcoming administration. I suggest a demo. on or before the 20th. In the seventies we referred to it as a “Counter Inaugural”, the below document could be used as a template for the incoming Trump administration, as Stuart suggests.

On Jan 7, 2017, at 05:30, Stuart Levy via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:

Here's another flyer from eight years ago (December, 2008).   As Obama did then, Trump now needs a protest movement.

=============================================================
        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.
==========================================

On 1/7/17 7:13 AM, Ricky Baldwin via Peace-discuss wrote:
It is interesting to note that this flyer from the Bush-Obama transition nowhere mentions Bush, who started the specific wars in question (at least in their most recent form) and includes specific calls to action (phone numbers, etc.) to reach the president-elect, yet the new flyer for the Obama-Trump transition seemingly can't let go of beating up Obama for his crimes and hardly mentions Trump hypocrisy in any equivalent way or specifically calls on people to petition their government.

An effective flyer would not only challenge and inform (agitate and educate) but tap into thoughts and feelings in its intended audience to move people into action (organize).  I hope the goal is always to encourage resistance and opposition to war and racism and not simply to attack and distinguish oneself from people with whom one may disagree.

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On Fri, Jan 6, 2017 at 11:47 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss
<peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net><mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
Here’s a flyer that AWARE distributed eight years ago, as Bush was leaving office.


U.S. WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST:  AFGHANISTAN

Some people think that Barack Obama is poised for an historic presidency that could unite this country and lead us to a better future.  He has talked of ending wars and negotiating diplomatically with world leaders.  Earlier this year he said, "I don't want to just end the war, I want to end the mindset that got us into war."  This talk and these positions gave us some hope for peace in the world and an end to the millions of killings.  And millions of our people voted for Obama.

Just recently, though, he spoke of sending a surge of tens of thousands of troops into Afghanistan.  Whoa!  We already have more than 30,000 U.S. troops there, in addition to more than 140,000 troops and maybe 50,000 mercenaries in 17 permanent bases in Iraq.  And we will never "win" the war in Iraq, nor the one in Afghanistan.  How can we not have learned at least that much?  How can we kill one more person, one more old man, one more woman, one more child?  And how can we stand losing even one more of our young men and women?  And did you know that the recent U.S. military death count in Afghanistan exceeds that in Iraq?

Obama has made major appointments of people who have supported the wars and the killings; these evoke serious concerns.  He must defy the War Party and the corporate interests surrounding him, and pay homage to the millions of Americans who want real change -- and the ones who voted for him and made him president.

That which we do not resist, we may be forced to accept.  Millions of us want the wars to stop -- recent surveys suggest as many as 70%-80%.  Then anti-war movement needs to move immediately to oppose this shift of the "central front" of the fraudulent "war on terror" to Afghanistan.  We must not be silent and let the "surge" of American troops into Afghanistan become a reality.

The U.S. "war on terror," which began after the crimes of September 11, 2001, was not just a campaign against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and Osama bin Laden, but a broad global war to control Afghanistan and to the keep the U.S. the global superpower with permanent domination over the Middle East.  It will be fought the same way that the war in Iraq is being fought, where most of he people killed are civilians.  There is no such thing as a good war on terror -- as Benjamin Franklin wrote on another September 11, in 1773,

"After much occasion to consider the folly and mischiefs of a state of warfare, and the little or no advantage obtained even by those nations who have conducted it with the most success, I have been apt to think that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or a bad peace."

We must show the people in the Middle East and in the world that in the U.S. there is a difference between the people and the government.  And we must stand up and show our government that the great majority of us do not agree with more war.

Silence and passivity don't work. We can't wait and see. The "surge" must be stopped before it is started.  We must be visible, and we must be heard.  Our world does not need any more war.

We can write letters and make phone calls now -- right now!  Obama (and Bush) needs to hear from us (202.456.1111) -- perhaps we can remind him of his desire to "end the war [and] end the mindset that got us into war."  Congressman Johnson needs to hear from us (202.224.3121), and Senator Durbin needs to hear from us (202.224.3121), and any other person whom we can tell needs to hear from us.  And we can all write and make phone calls...

###

{This comment, by Linda Weber, was cablecast on AWARE on the Air on 23 December 2008.
The program, presented by members and friends of the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort
of Champaign-Urbana, is seen every Tuesday at 10:00pm on cable channel 6.}






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