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.
Click the horizontal bars in the upper left corner of the video player to see a menu of all videos in this playlist. Most of the videos are livestreams.
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Jack Gilroy, President, Veterans for Peace, Chapter 90
We all miss our old pal and peace activist, Stu Naismith. Grandson of the founder of the game of basketball (Rev. James Naismith), Stu was the driving force to establish a Veterans for Peace chapter in Broome County. Chapter 90 Broome County came together in 2002 and we’ve been active ever since.
Stu would have been with us ringing the large bell of the First Congregationalist Church on November 11, Armistice Day. Stu would have approved of us going back to Armistice Day, a celebration of peace, of laying down of weapons of destruction and planning for no more war, rather than a Veterans Day with praise for warriors.
When folks questioned why so many Americans seem to celebrate war and warriors and have little regard for people in foreign lands where we bomb, invade and kill Stu answered by placing his hand over his heart: “It’s what one has in his heart…it’s all about heart” said Stu.
Veterans for Peace members are people of heart. We wonder why so many intelligent people in our culture seem to lack heart? Why, for example is there such little regard for brothers and sisters outside of our protected, wealthy culture of the United States of America? Are we stuck in the old adage “the only good Indian is a dead Indian”? Or unable to shake off our roots of racial hate and exploitation of black Americans? Why is there such little ‘heart’ for Muslims in our culture? Why have we so little heart for the millions of Muslims who have suffered so since our invasion of Iraq in 2003?
Peggy Naismith, Stu’s widow, was one of several members of Veterans for Peace who rang the large ground based bell at First Congregationalist Church on the Front St side in Binghamton. We tried to do 11 rings for 11/11/11…the end of hostilities to the Great War…the peace signed at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, November 11, 1918.
Rev Art Suggs with the help of Doug and Judy Gardner opened up the living room of First Congregational and we were treated to coffee and pastry and homemade vegetarian soup by Cecily O’Neil. It was a warm refuge from the coldest day so far this fall of 2017.— and a good get-together as we waited for our main feature, a 1PM graveyard ceremony and a parade we were told we could not be part of.
Part of our conversation prior to the parade focused on Europeans and how they wonder why Americans are so callous toward Iraqi and Afghan people. A United Kingdom and Germany study (by Physicians for Social Responsibility) of American awareness of Iraqis killed since the 2003 invasion revealed that most Americans believed about 9,000 or so Iraqis were killed. Conservative statistics start at 500,000 Iraqis killed and go to beyond a million plus dead resulting in our invasion and occupation of Iraq.
We asked Rev. Art Suggs if he would allow Veterans for Peace to place a symbolic Iraqi and American graveyard on the lawn of First Congregationalist Church. It would illustrate deaths since our 2003 invasion of Iraq. He took the plan to his congregation and they approved of it.
We purchased tombstone materials and in the living room of John Patterson and Cecily O’Neil and with the help of Hannah Sprout, a high school student, cut 101 styrofoam tombstones. 100 for Iraqis based on 500,000 dead and 1 for Americans based on United States official count of 4520 dead.
At 1Pm on November 11th, Armistice Day, we set the ‘tombstones’ into the Main St lawn of First Congregationalist Church. 100 for Iraqis and one lone US flag covered stone.
Art Suggs spoke with eloquence of his own story as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. His daily assignment by the US government for refusing to train to kill was to bury American soldiers in his Midwest metropolis city…”it was almost daily work” said Art.
Rev. Gary Doupe spoke of nonviolence and lead us in prayer from his Methodist Prayer book held dearly since his childhood.
Chuck Heyn of Calicoon, NY told of his 15 months as a combat medic in Vietnam. Chuck spoke from the heart. His emotion struck us all. We were moved in mind, heart and soul.
Jim Trainor of Endicott spoke of his two tours of duty in the US Army including Special Forces. Jim, now a social worker in Binghamton has found time over the years to see through the lies of militarism and the accepting culture.
Ed Kinane of Syracuse spoke of the 174th Attack Wing in Syracuse where extrajudicial killing of Afghan people takes place right up road from Binghamton. Ed himself told of being in Iraq before, during and after the invasion of Iraq by US forces.
Jim Clune, a CO during the Vietnam War tied in the economic robbing of Americans and people around the world. Jim, who had visited Iraq between the two United States wars there spoke of his observations while there and the decades of treachery of US policy in Iraq.
Bill Paccone of Brackney, Pennsylvania spoke of his military service in Korea, his knowledge of the awful destruction we left in North Korea 1950-53 and the growing danger of nuclear war with shocking instability in leadership of both nations.
Rick Sprout of Binghamton praised the event we were having and urged greater solidarity of local peace and justice groups. Rick, a leader of the Green Party urged folks to come to the Bundy for a film presented by Peace Action’s Alan Jones with a focus on the main reason Costa Rica has been voted such a peaceful place to live.
Dick Keough of Syracuse, an Army veteran whose military service led him to the priesthood told of how he was converted to nonviolence in the military when told in bayonet practice to scream "Kill” as he plunged his bayonet into an ‘enemy’.
There was no time for an open microphone as the parade approached. Some of the men in red uniforms and carry guns screamed some obscene comments our way but our purpose was not to engage them. We simply stepped into the tail end of the parade and walked (we don’t march anymore) to the court house without incident.
Next Armistice Day of 2018, we hope to be at the United Nations for an international gathering of Veterans for Peace.
Khawla Hammad has been a stateless refugee in Lebanon for 69 years. At the age of sixteen, she was expelled from her village of Kabri, in Palestine. Now she is 84 years old, and and still a refugee in Lebanon, with no citizenship in any country at all. Israel expelled most of the population in 1948, and has prevented them from returning to their homes. Kabri and hundreds of other towns and villages were levelled to the ground, a crime that Palestinians call al-Nakba (the Catastrophe).
But Israel did not stop there. It repeatedly attacked Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, killing three of Khawla's children among many others. Before the Nakba, Khawla's father also lost his life as a Palestinian freedom fighter. Khawla has a message that she wants to bring to North America. So does 23-year-old Palestinian refugee, journalist and translator Amena Elashkar, whom many of you know from the 2016 Nakba Tour. She and her parents were born as stateless refugees in Lebanon and have never lived in their own country.
Khawla and Amena have a different message from other Palestinians. They are not living under Israeli occupation. Israel does not allow them to visit their homes, much less live there. As exiles, they have a different perspective from Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the part of Palestine that became Israel.
This video is basically the livestreamed footage (almost no editing) of the 9/25/17 anti-drone protest at Hancock Drone Base, Syracuse, NY area, but in higher resolution.
Hancock Reaper Drone Base Entrance Blocked by Huge Dollar Signs Dripping with Blood
7 Arrested Delivering War Crimes Indictment to Hancock Reaper Drone Base
Seven members of the grassroots group Upstate Drone Action once again were arrested as they delivered a citizen’s war crime indictment to the chain of command at Hancock Air Force Base. Upstate Drone Action also placed a huge dollar sign [$] dripping with “blood” in the main entrance way to the base. The six-foot high dollar sign dramatizes what the group believes determines the many overseas wars the Pentagon/CIA engages in: corporate greed.
Hancock AFB, near Syracuse, N.Y. hosts the 174th Attack [sic] Wing of the NY National Guard. The 174th is one of two Reaper drone Attack Wings in NYS. Piloted from Hancock, the MQ9 Reaper drone is an unmanned, satellite-directed assassin flown over Afghanistan. CIA also uses such airborne robots for its clandestine, illegal, lethal missions over Northwest Pakistan and other majority-Islamic nations and oil lands.
According to “LIVING UNDER DRONES: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians from US Practices in Pakistan,” published by Stanford University and New York University Law Schools, such missions are responsible for the deaths of many hundreds of noncombatants, including women and children, in that region.
According to Julienne Oldfield, “The Hancock Reaper terrorizes whole communities, generating desperate refugees.” Mark Scibilia-Carver adds that “U.S. taxpayers fund this terrorism keeping the pot boiling and creating enormous ill will toward the United States – instead of funding health, education and infrastructure here."
Today’s action at Hancock’s main gate is simply one episode in Upstate Drone Action’s persistent nonviolent campaign to expose Reaper drone war crimes. Since 2010 there have been some 200 anti-Reaper arrests at Hancock in about a dozen such street theater actions. These have resulted in extreme bails, maximum fines, Orders of Protection, and incarcerations…as well as some acquittals.
Those arrested: Ann Tiffany, Syracuse….Dan Burgevin, Trumansburg, NY….Ed Kinane, Syracuse….Harry Murray, Rochester….Julienne Oldfield, Syracuse….Mark Scibilia-Carver, Trumansburg, NY….Rae Kramer, Syracuse.
Call NY Governor Cuomo to tell him to shut the CPV Valley Energy Project down: 518-474-8390
From the Organizers:
The 650 MW Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) Valley Energy Project is now under construction in Orange County, New York, despite an ongoing and expanded federal criminal investigation, one guilty plea, and felony bribery charges against a company executive and close aides to Governor Cuomo, Joseph Percoco and Todd Howe. State agencies have ignored growing public concerns with fracked gas infrastructure, even as reports and studies by medical associations tell us it is not safe. Now, prominent experts advise that environmental degradation and long-term climate impacts of this project warrant emergency intervention by the state.
They will be joined by former Congressman Dennis Kucinich who called for an investigation months before indictments were announced and actor James Cromwell, who vowed to go to jail to defend against the catastrophic climate and public health impacts recently identified by the scientists.
Who:
Dr. Robert Howarth, Cornell University Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology focusing on the greenhouse gas footprint of methane from natural gas.
Read the EPA Memorandum to which Dr. Howarth refers at 14:40 in the video.
Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, shale gas extraction expert and Cornell University Professor of Engineering
Dennis Kucinich, Former U.S. Congressman and advocate for impacted residents
James Cromwell, Academy Nominated Actor and member of the Wawayanda Six
Keith Schue, engineer and technical advisor for Otsego 2000
Pramilla Malick, Chair, Protect Orange County, 2016 Democratic Candidate for 42nd State Senate District
Valeria Gheorghiu, Sussman and Associates, Attorney for the Wawayanda Six
George Billard, Sullivan County Residents Against Millennium
The upper playlist is the edited videos. The lower playlist is the livestreams. The edited videos are higher resolution, have somewhat better audio, and omit housekeeping announcements and other delays.
To see a list of included videos, click the playlist icon in the upper left corner of each playlist.
This is a panel from the 2017 Left Forum, held June 2 - 4 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. The conference theme was "The Resistance."
From the Organizers:
Questions, challenges and oppositions confront the economic system today more than at any time in the last 70 years. Millions now see capitalism as a major cause of the problems/crises activating social movements. An alliance among capitalism’s victims, critics and those social movements is emerging. This plenary will explore the ways and means to develop that alliance into a major political force for change.
Moderator:
Bhaskar Sunkara is the founding editor and publisher of Jacobin. Panelists:
Christian Parenti recently joined the Economics Program at John Jay College as an associate professor. His books include Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence (2011); The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq, (2004); The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America from Slavery to the War on Terror (2002); and Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis (2000/second edition 2008). He has reported extensively from Afghanistan, Iraq, and various parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America for The Nation, Fortune, The London Review Books, The New York Times, and other publications.
Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University (1967-1969) and at the City College of the City University of New York (1969-1973). In 1994, he was a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Paris (France), I (Sorbonne). Wolff was also regular lecturer at the Brecht Forum in New York City.
Karina Garcia is a Chicana organizer and educator originally from southern California, and the daughter of working-class Mexican immigrants. She works as a reproductive justice trainer, traveling around the country to help Latina activists fight for reproductive health, rights and justice. As a student activist Karina led a campaign to confront and shut down the anti-immigrant fascist Minutemen Project on her campus and nationwide, founding the group Lucha. As a NYC high school math teacher, she organized students and coworkers to protest against budget cuts, the Iraq war, police brutality and anti-immigrant laws. She is a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a founder of the Justice Center en el Barrio and a board member of Damayan Migrant Workers Association.
Paul Sliker is a media consultant and political and economic justice organizer who has advised several world-renowned economists, institutions, and non-fiction authors. He was on the operations team of Team Bernie NY, which became an umbrella organization for many volunteer-run groups throughout New York City. Paul is currently an editor and commentator at DemocracyAtWork.Info, the Chair of the Politics Committee and a member of the Coordinating Committee at Democracy at Work - New York (D@WNY). Democracy at Work 501(c)3 is a non-profit that advocates for worker cooperatives and democratic workplaces as a key path to a stronger, democratic economic system.
Tascha Van Auken co-founded (in July 2015 )the grassroots group Team Bernie NY, which became an umbrella group for the many volunteer-run groups throughout New York City. Team Bernie NY focused specifically on field work, contacting voters and identifying supporters for the nine months prior to campaign staff arriving in NYC. Grassroots groups successfully identified over 49,000 Bernie supporters by the time the campaign landed in NY for the primary. Tascha is currently a part of The Electoral Working Group for the NYC chapter of DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), and is focused specifically on helping the field team build the structure necessary to scale and win local elections.
This is a panel from the 2017 Left Forum, held June 2 - 4 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. The conference theme was "The Resistance."
From the Organizers:
Activists, community organizers and grassroots leaders have vowed to continue to demonstrate against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline adjacent to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Acting on an order from president Trump, the Army Corps of Engineers said it would grant the easement that Energy Transfer Partners needs to finish the final stretch of the pipeline. It also canceled an environmental review the Corps said it would undertake while President Barack Obama was still in office. Some might say the resistance fight was lost!
This plenary attempts to answer the following questions; did or does resistance alone work towards the ultimate goal of social change? Women seemed to be at the forefront of the Standing Rock struggle, are women rising up and taking the lead in our social struggles? The Women's March in January 2017 saw massive protests around the country and around the world. On March 8, women from 30 countries participated in the Women's Strike; organization for a May Day general strike is building on that momentum. Could this be a sign of things to come? Do we need more than resistance? What are the lessons learned? How can we build a global movement of resistance which brings together movements fighting similar issues and eventually leads to a new society?
Moderator:
Felipe Coronel, known asImmortal Technique, is a recording artist, filmmaker, writer, and activist. Hailing from Peru, by way of Harlem, New York, he is one of the highest selling independent artists putting forth a combination of globally themed revolutionary music with a gritty reality based street Hip-Hop. Not only is he an artist, but also a human rights advocate having traveled to places like Haiti & Afghanistan to provide relief through various non-profits. He has also participated in several teaching workshops for adult prisons and juvenile facilities. As the President of Viper Records, with 4 full studio albums, 3 mixtapes, with over 250,000 records sold, he has the Hip-Hop community highly anticipating his 5th studio album, The Middle Passage.
Panelists:
Tithi Bhattacharya teaches South Asian history at Purdue University. She is a long time activist for Palestine and writes extensively on Marxism and gender. She is a national organizer for the International Women's Strike.
Cinzia Arruzza teaches philosophy at the New School in NYC and she is a feminist and socialist activist. She is the author of Dangerous Liaisons. The Marriages and Divorces of Marxism and Feminism (2013) and she was one of the national organizers of the International Women's Strike on March 8th.
L.A. Kauffman is the author of Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism. She has spent more than thirty years immersed in radical movements as a participant, strategist, journalist, and observer. Kauffman was the mobilizing coordinator for the huge New York protests against the Iraq War in 2003-04. Her writings on American radicalism and social movement history have been published in The Nation, n+1, The Baffler, and many other outlets.
Madonna Thunder Hawk is a member of the Oohenumpa band of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and is grandmother to a generation of Native American activists. She was an original member of the American Indian Movement, a co-founder of Women of All Red Nations (WARN), and is currently the Lakota People's Law Project's principal organizer and Tribal Liaison. Madonna has been featured in several documentary films including the recent PBS series We Shall Remain. Through her work, Madonna builds alliances and support for Child Welfare among South Dakota's tribal leaders and communities.
Nancy Romer is a climate and food justice activist. She was professor of psychology at Brooklyn College for 42 years and was active in anti-racist, feminist, union and anti-war organizing at CUNY. She was a founder of the Brooklyn Food Coalition and has travelled extensively and written about peasant and agricultural movements, in South America, Central America, the Indian subcontinent and the US. She learned first hand how agribusiness and the financialilzation of food, land and water have destroyed peasant farms and communities and has contributed to climate change through mass deforestation. She travelled to Standing Rock in November working in one of the many cooking tents. She serves on the New York Steering Committee of the April 29th DC March for Climate, Jobs and Justice and an active member of the Environmental Justice Committee of Professional Staff Congress-CUNY (AFT #2334), She is a recently retired TIAA investor and active in the TIAA anti-Land Grabs and Deforestation campaign.
This is a panel from Left Forum 2017, held June 2 - 4 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. The conference theme was "The Resistance."
From the Organizers:
The converging crises of fascism, endless war, climate change, mass migrations, and economic/racial/gender oppression create unprecedented urgency for united, radical action – in the street and in the voting booth. At previous Left Forums – and over the past many decades – progressives have debated the merits of working to “reform” the Democratic Party versus building a united independent radical political front.
Chris Hedges is an author, critic and was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio. He is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy, the Triumph of Spectacle and War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He writes an online column for Truthdig.
Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange. She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 40 years. Described as "one of America's most committed -- and most effective -- fighters for human rights" by New York Newsday, and "one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement" by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide. She received numerous prices, including: the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Peace Prize by the US Peace Memorial, the Gandhi Peace Award, and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Award. She is a former economist and nutritionist with the United Nations and World Health Organization.
Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party 2016 Presidential Candidate
Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Her Freedom Rider column appears weekly in Black Agenda Report, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City
Linda Thompson, Left Elect (Not actually a panelist, but she said a few words at the end.)
Note: The Left Forum asked me to film and stream their nightly plenaries, and with only 20 minutes between the scheduled end of this panel and the start of the next plenary, I was unable to stay to the end. If I had I would have missed the start of the plenary. As it turned out I was able to film the presentations, missing only the Q&A.
You can see a complete, if somewhat glitchy, livestream of this panel here.
