Roy Bourgeois is an American activist, a laicized Roman Catholic priest, and the founder of the human rights group School of the Americas Watch. He is the 1994 recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award and the 2011 recipient of the American Peace Award and also has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
THREE DAYS OF ACTION
at the Saudi and US Missions to the UN
New York City, November 6 , 7, 8 2018
The US-financed Saudi-led war is in its fourth year. The UN says:
60% of the population, 18 million people, are food insecure,
4 million people do not know how they will obtain their next meal,
56% of the population, 16 million people, do not have regular access to basic health care,
55% of the population, 16 million people, do not have regular access to safe water,
9 million children and women are acutely malnourished.
“Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
Howie Hawkins Says Green Party is the Progressive Choice in November
NY Times: Planet is Doomed; Solution - Vote Green
Howie Hawkins, a retired Teamster from Syracuse, kicked off his general election campaign in Binghamton today by saying he was Plan B for the 500,000 people who voted for Nixon last week as well as for other voters who think Cuomo is liberal.
Hawkins was joined by Green Comptroller candidate Mark Dunlea, who wants to divest the state pension fund from fossil fuels, as well as increase budget transparency and cut down on public corruption.
“Cuomo cannot solve the simplest of problems, like finding one day for federal, state, and local primaries or making sure that children are not exposed to lead contamination, a huge problem is many of our communities. When he can’t solve problems like this, there is no way that Cuomo can solve climate change and income inequality,” said Hawkins.
Hawkins vowed to end the culture of corruption that dominates the State Capitol, with two of the Governor’s top aides being convicted for corruption, including a case involving the Buffalo Billion. Joe Percoco was sentenced to 6 years in prison for corruption including the CPV power plant (whose permit Hawkins wants vacated). Over 50 New York State officials have been convicted or forced to resign since 2000 for improper activities.
Hawkins plans to appeal to progressives who voted for Nixon, Williams, and Teachout in the recent primary. He called on them to support the Green gubernatorial ticket of Hawkins and Jia Lee, as well as Michael Sussman for Attorney General and Mark Dunlea for Comptroller. Hawkins said that the Green candidates are veteran activists who come out of progressive movements and are the most qualified for their offices.
With an increasing number of scientists, government bodies, and the media warning that the future of human civilization is imperiled by accelerating global warming and climate change, the Green Party wants New York to set a goal of 100% clean energy by 2030.
“The NY Times Magazine recently argued that most life on the planet is probably doomed due to the inability of politicians to set aside partisan bickering to launch an emergency mobilization to avoid the worse of climate change. The clear solution is to vote in the Green Party because we are committed to doing what is needed to avoid climate chaos,” stated Mark Dunlea, the Green Party candidate for State Comptroller who wants the state to divest its pension fund from fossil fuels.
“The good news is that we largely know how to move to 100% clean energy while creating millions of jobs, cutting deaths from air pollution, and lowering energy costs. All we need is the political will to act and the Greens have that in abundance,” added Dunlea.
“Nixon urging Cuomo to get behind the Climate and Community Protection Act, which the state Assembly has passed three times, is ironic because it mostly codifies Cuomo’s own energy policy. We need to fight for passage of the New York Off Fossil Fuels Act, a plan for 100% clean energy by 2030, with the same sharp focus we had on the fracking ban in 2014,” Hawkins added.
Hawkins, who is campaigning as an eco-socialist, said that now that the primary is over, there needs to be a much more open discussion about what being a progressive means in New York rather than the narrow debate during the Democratic Party primaries.
“While I certainly agree we need to end the Trump presidency as soon as possible, the gubernatorial election needs to focus on real solutions for New York’s problems,” added Hawkins.
Hawkins proposes four regional debates (NYC Metro area, Capital District, Central NY and Western NY), each focused on a topic: The Economy, Government Reform, The Environment and Climate, and Social Policy, including education, health care, criminal justice, and civil rights.
Hawkins and the Greens support the single-payer NY Health Act and a range of ethics and criminal justice reforms, including ranked-choice voting and proportional representation, full public campaign finance based on the Clean Money system used in Arizona and Maine, term limits, bail abolition, speedy trial, marijuana legalization, and Sanctuary State policies to protect immigrants .
One issue where Hawkins disagreed with both Nixon and Cuomo was the Governor’s property tax cap, which has done nothing to reduce sky-high local property taxes but has prevented local governments from funding needed services and improvements. Nixon wants to tweak the tax cap. Cuomo and Molinaro want to make it permanent. Hawkins wants to repeal it and instead have the state pay for its unfunded mandates and restore revenue sharing with local governments to 8% of state revenues so local governments can cut regressive property taxes.
To provide every child a good education, New York should fully fund and desegregate its schools, which are the most segregated in the country. Hawkins and Lee, a leader in the Opt Out movement, also want to scrap high-stakes testing to evaluate teachers, schools, and students. The Greens charge that the real goal of such testing is to attack teachers and put high-poverty schools into receivership and then privatization into charter schools.
On the housing affordability crisis, Hawkins said, “Universal rent control is pointless without repealing the Urstadt Law to give cities home rule on their rent regulations. We also have to radically expand quality public housing to provide affordable housing options for all.”
Hawkins noted that the income share going to the top 1% has grown from 12% in 1980 to 31% today. He called for progressively graduated tax brackets on multi-millionaire incomes and retaining, rather than rebating, the stock transfer tax. “The 1% can afford to contribute more. We need to fund a Green New Deal to revitalize public sector services and infrastructure, which are the public avenues that private commerce needs to thrive,” Hawkins said.
Dunlea added that “we need a Green to watch the green. We need to end the practice of the two parties treating the public treasury as their private piggy bank.” Dunlea said that the Comptroller needs to more aggressively review state contracts to stop corruption, especially contracts going to those making campaign donations. He also supports a host of budget transparency reforms.
Laila Hasan is a Palestinian from a village in the Hebron District in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. She is the co-founder of the Women in Hebron embroidery and sewing cooperative.
Laila will tell of some of the obstacles Women in Hebron faced when they opened a shop in Hebron's Old City at the height of the second intifada. She will also share stories of life in the villages around Hebron.
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Every August for the past twenty summers, the National Kateri Shrine in Fonda, NY has played host to the Kateri Peace Conference. Year after year, this mid summer "meeting at the edge of the woods" has offered the Capital District an opportunity to explore and to find a way forward through the tangled and ever entwining paths of racism, militarism and excessive materialism to the noble and sustainable ground of peace and justice.
August after August, folks who care deeply about a just society have gathered to listen, to share and to learn in a day of personal reflection and commitment to fulfilling the dream of truth, justice and equality. Every meeting of this twenty year quest has been punctuated by a deep concern for the world, tempered by insight and inspiration for envisioning, walking and working towards what it could be. There has always been joy and celebration in finding companionship and community, a source of sustenance for the challenges on the road ahead.
Kateri 2018 promises to provide another milestone on this continuing journey. Anchored in the realities of the geopolitical moment, our conference will invite both presenters and participants to vision both greater clarity and purpose regarding " the now" in the " tides of the affairs of men”.
This year’s speakers are renowned for their courage in embracing the journey, seeking truth, and acting with compassion and an unbridled fierceness to stop the killing of the US war machine. We will continue this work seeking peace with justice, ending war, exploring nonviolent love in action and ways toward economic equality.
One of the constants of the Kateri Peace Conference is our willingness to embrace change and experiment with programming. Our hope has always been to reach out and engage the community as broadly and deeply as possible while providing a rich opportunity for feeding joy and a spirit of celebration.
Download the audio: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/98519 Clare Grady is one of seven Catholic plowshares activists who entered Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in St. Mary’s, Georgia on April 4th, 2018. They went to make real the prophet Isaiah’s command to “beat swords into plowshares”.
The seven chose to act on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who devoted his life to addressing what he called the “triple evils of militarism, racism and materialism.” Carrying hammers and baby bottles of their own blood, the seven attempted to convert weapons of mass destruction. They hoped to call attention to the ways in which nuclear weapons kill every day, by their mere existence and maintenance.
Kings Bay Naval base opened in 1979 as the Navy’s Atlantic Ocean Trident port. It is the largest nuclear submarine base in the world. There are six ballistic missile subs and two guided missile subs based at Kings Bay.
The activists went to three sites on the base: The SWFLANT administration building, the D5 Missile monument installation and the nuclear weapons storage bunkers. The activists used crime scene tape, hammers and hung banners reading: “The ultimate logic of racism is genocide - Dr. Martin Luther King”, “The ultimate logic of Trident is omnicide” and “Nuclear weapons: illegal / immoral.” They also brought an indictment charging the U.S. government for crimes against peace.
The activists at the nuclear weapons storage bunkers were Elizabeth McAlister, 78, of Jonah House, Baltimore; Fr. Steve Kelly SJ, 69, of the Bay Area, California; and Carmen Trotta, 55, of the New York Catholic Worker.
At the Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic Administration building were Clare Grady, 59, of the Ithaca Catholic Worker; and Martha Hennessy, 62, of the New York Catholic Worker.
At the Trident D5 monuments were Mark Colville, 55, of the Amistad Catholic Worker, New Haven, Connecticut; and Patrick O’Neill, 61, of the Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker, Garner, North Carolina.
This is the latest of 100 similar actions around the world beginning in 1980 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
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Since March 2015, a Saudi-Emirati led coalition has relied on U.S. support and participation in its airstrikes and blockade against Yemen.
Barrages of bombardment targeting civilian infrastructure, plus a paralyzing air, sea and water blockade have exacerbated suffering as Yemenis face near-famine conditions and widespread diseases, including cholera.
Author, speaker, peace activist, and Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org), a campaign to end U.S. military and economic wars.
Music by Colleen Kattau: http://colleenkattau.com Introductions by Rev. Frederick D. Daley and Aly Wane.
Event sponsored by the Beyond War and Militarism committee of the Syracuse Peace Council and CNY Solidarity Coalition.
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The Conference on U.S. Foreign Military Bases was held January 12 - 14, 2018 in Baltimore, MD.
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