This Week:

Quote of the Week

A Few Ways to Help Stop the War

Help Stop the Recruiting of Kids for War

Greetings,

Do we have an "anti-war movement" in the United States?  Well, you could sit around trying to answer that question, or you could do some of the things I suggest in this issue.  All I know is that, if enough people actually decide to DO something in an ORGANIZED way, then we WILL have a movement, and we won't have to spend any time thinking about that stupid question I just asked.  That's why this issue is all about doing something.  And there'll be more next week. 

'Nuff said.

Nygaard

"Quote" of the Week:

This week's "Quote" is from Immanuel Wallerstein, from an August 15th commentary entitled "The U.S. Has Lost the Iraq War."  First Wallerstein says that "poor George Bush is now faced with the vigil of Cindy Sheehan.  She is a 48-year-old mother of a soldier who was killed in Iraq a year ago.  Incensed by Bush's statement that the U.S. soldiers died in a 'noble cause,' she decided to go to Crawford, Texas, and ask to see the president so that he could explain to her for what 'noble cause' her son died."

I guess that could have been part of the "Quote" of the Week, but that honor is reserved for this paragraph, which concludes Wallerstein's commentary:

"Bush won't see [Sheehan] because he knows there is nothing that he can say to her.  Seeing her is a losing proposition. But so is not seeing her.  The pressure to withdraw from Iraq is now becoming mainstream. It is not because the U.S. public shares the view that the U.S. is an imperialist power in Iraq. It is because there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.  Or rather there is a light, the light an acerbic Canadian cartoonist for the Calgary Sun drew recently.  He shows a U.S. soldier in a dark tunnel approaching someone to whose body is attached an array of explosives. The light comes from the match he is holding to the wick that will cause them to explode. In the month following the attacks in London and the high level of U.S. deaths in Iraq, this is the light that the U.S. public is beginning to see. They want out.  Bush is caught in an insoluble dilemma.  The war is lost."

To read the entire commentary (and you can receive regular commentaries by email for free!) go to http://fbc.binghamton.edu/commentr.htm

A Few Ways to Help Stop the War

Although my "Quote" of the Week has Immanuel Wallerstein saying that "The war is lost," that's not actually true yet.  Still, there are many positive things that you can do - or that you can encourage your union, or seniors' group, or solidarity group, or whatever group you may be in, to do - to help make the end of this war a reality.  Here are a few of them.

Start, Join, Or Support an Anti-War Group

Nothing happens unless people are organized.  So, what that means is that it is crucial that you are a part of a group.  As an individual, you can start a group to do work to stop the war.  Your group (maybe it's just two good friends and you!) can educate yourselves and do public education, organize events, hold a weekly vigil on the nearest freeway overpass or at the mall, sponsor letter-writing evenings, raise funds for other peace groups, and on and on.  Go ahead.  Do it. You have plenty of ideas!

Don't want to start a group?  You could also join a group that is already organized or is organizing to stop the war.  In a neighborhood near you, I'll bet there is a peace group already up and running.  I know of at least 17 peace and/or anti-war and/or anti-imperialist groups that meet within five miles of my house in Minneapolis, for instance.  There are at least 11 more in St. Paul.  And there are at least 19 more in small towns throughout Minnesota, from tiny Hawley, MN (pop. 2000) to Mankato, Duluth, and St. Cloud.  I know this because I looked at national list from the website of United For Peace and Justice.  To find a group in your state or town, go to http://www.unitedforpeace.org/   and click on "Groups."  If you can't form or join a group, you can donate money, or encourage your kids to go to some of their meetings.  It could change your life, or their life.  And it will help to end this criminal war.

Go to Washington on September 24th

If it is a bit too much right now to join or form a group, how about a visit to the nation's capital? Attending a huge national demonstration can be a life-changing experience if you haven't ever done it before.  It's hard to describe, but that first visceral, physical experience of being among tens of thousands of kindred spirits gathering at the heart of the most powerful nation in the history of the world... well, just do it and see for yourself.  The conversations you'll have, the people you'll meet, the things you'll hear and see, and the pure energy - it's all very hard to describe.  Everyone should do this once in their life, if not 50 times.

The point of a "demonstration," after all, is to "demonstrate" the level of support for or opposition to something.  On September 24th, 25th, and 26th in Washington DC. there will be a great opportunity to demonstrate the size and scope of the building opposition to the so-called "war" in Iraq (More accurately, the criminal occupation of Iraq.)  You can help.

I'm very happy that the two major national anti-war coalitions - United For Peace and Justice, and International A.N.S.W.E.R.(Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) - have decided to join forces for this mobilization (I was one of the signers of the "Call for Unity" that went out last month).  The two groups will be organized under their own banners and slogans and will have their own literature for the September 24th  demonstration, and that is because, while they both oppose the U.S. occupation of Iraq in the strongest terms, their underlying philosophies and the nature of their objections are somewhat different.

UFPJ is organizing under this set of demands:

END THE WAR ON IRAQ:  BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
Leave No Military Bases Behind; End the Looting of Iraq; Stop the Torture; Stop Bankrupting Our Communities; No Military Recruitment in Our Schools.

The ANSWER Coalition is organizing under this set of demands:

END COLONIAL OCCUPATION: IRAQ, PALESTINE, HAITI...
Bring the Troops Home Now;
Support the Palestinian People's Right of Return;
Military Recruiters Out of Our Schools and Communities;
Stop the Racist, Anti-Immigrant and Anti-Labor Offensive at Home;
U.S. Out of the Philippines;
U.S. Out of Puerto Rico;
Stop the Threats Against Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea.

As you can see, the sets of demands are distinct, and there is a variety of reasons for that.   But the important thing at the moment is that the two coalitions have decided to join forces on the 24th of September.  You can march under whichever banner fits best with your own philosophy.  If you want to know more about the analyses of the two groups, here's where to go:

UFPJ statement:  http://unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3072
ANSWER statement:  http://answer.pephost.org/site/DocServer?docID=142

You could choose to go only to the March and Rally at Noon on Saturday, September 24th or you could stay in town a couple of days for these events:

*  After the march and rally on Saturday, Sept. 24 there will be the "Operation Ceasefire Concert," with acts like The Coup, Bouncing Souls, Steve Earle, Thievery Corporation, and more.  This concert is free.

*  At 6:00 p.m. on Sunday the 25th, on the Washington Monument Grounds, there will be an Interfaith "Tent Revival" for Peace and Justice, with Danny Glover as Master of Ceremonies.  This is sponsored by "an interfaith coalition of religious leaders, faith communities, institutions, organizations, and lay leaders committed to peace and justice."

There will also be a Grassroots Training session on Sunday.  If you want to learn more about this,  you'll have to contact United for Peace and Justice.

*  On Monday, Sept. 26 there will be both a Grassroots Congressional Lobby Day and a Mass Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Disobedience.

You can learn all about this stuff - including how to register your group, get training, updates on the actions, and more - at the websites of the two coalitions: http://www.internationalanswer.org/ and http://www.unitedforpeace.org/

Buses are being chartered to take people to Washington even as we speak.  You can get to DC and back to Minneapolis for as little as $125.00.  In the Twin Cities, visit the Anti-War Committee ( http://www.antiwarcommittee.org/ ) or Women Against Military Madness (http://www.worldwidewamm.org/ ) One of the groups in your area is also chartering buses, I'll bet.  If you can't go, you can make a donation to enable someone else to go; scholarship funds are being collected.

Help Stop the Recruiting of Kids for War

The decision to sign up for the military is an HUGE one (we have an "all volunteer" military, you know).  While anyone should have the right to make the informed decision to join the armed forces, the recruiting of kids in the schools has to stop.  Columnist Bob Herbert of the New York Times spelled out a part of the reason why in his column of August 22nd: 

"[T]he military and its harried recruiters are preying more and more on youngsters who are especially vulnerable and impressionable, and they're doing it by creating a patently false impression of what life in the wartime military is like.  The youngsters recruited most relentlessly are those from small towns, rural areas and impoverished urban neighborhoods. They are kids who are not well-to-do, and who don't have much of a plan for their future. The military, with its uniforms, its slick ads and its video games, can look very good to these unsophisticated youngsters."

As an example of how vulnerable our kids are, there is a provision in the No Child Left Behind Act that requires school districts to provide the Pentagon the names, addresses and phone numbers of EVERY student in EVERY public school.  Families can choose to "opt out" of the ID provision, but nobody knows about it.

Leave My Child Alone! is "a family privacy campaign to protect our high school students from unwanted military recruiting."  They do all kinds of stuff, including helping people to "opt out" from their school's list.  Find them at http://www.leavemychildalone.org/

There are other groups working on counter-recruitment.  Too many to list them all, in fact, but  I'll give a few of them here.  Counter-recruitment work is important not only to the kids who might be susceptible to the pitches, but also because it is a great way to talk about the reality of war, imperialism, the role of the military in society, and everything else. Please learn about, support, or join one of the following groups.  They all need money and energy, and all are part of what I am getting more comfortable calling an "anti-war MOVEMENT."

Groups on the Front Lines

I have a soft spot in my heart for the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO), since they counseled me back in 1972 when we still had a draft and I turned 18, making me draftable (my number was low, so I didn't have to go to Canada).  They started in 1948, and they're still at it.  They have a special "Military Out of Our Schools" program, and you can sign up for their monthly newsletter.  Visit them at http://www.objector.org

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) was founded by Quakers in 1917, and they're still run by Quakers.  They now have a special "Youth and Militarism" program.  Check it out athttp://www.afsc.org/youthmil/   They also have a traveling exhibition called "Eyes wide open" that focuses "on the human cost of the Iraq War."  It will be here in the Twin Cities at the end of September, and possibly coming to your area as it travels around the country.  Learn more (and help out) at http://www.afsc.org/eyes/

A group that's been around even longer than AFSC is the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR).  They started in 1914, attempting to stop the outbreak of war in Europe.  Now they have (among many other projects) a campaign called the "I Will Not Kill" campaign, which is "an effort to educate youth about the reality of war and their rights to say 'no' to killing."  They're at http://www.forusa.org/

The War Resisters League was organized in 1923 by men and women who had opposed WWI (there were a lot of them!).  They've done good work ever since, and now they have a"Youth and Countermilitarism Program" with lots of good materials and information.  Find them at: http://www.warresisters.org/youth/

The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) has a lot of good stuff, but especially useful is a listing of counter-recruitment organizations all over the country.  Find one near you at http://www.youthandthemilitary.org/orgs.htm

If you know someone in the military who is having a hard time - or if you are that someone! - be aware of the G.I. Rights Hotline.  They provide information to servicemembers about military discharges, grievance and complaint procedures, and other civil rights.  They're at  http://girights.objector.org/

Even though they are based in California, I just have to mention "Latinos Against the War in Iraq," because their organizing has spread far beyond their home base.  Find them at  http://www.latinoscontralaguerra.org/

Another great source for counter-recruitment flyers, brochures, and other  information in English and Spanish is the Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (Project YANO) http://www.projectyano.org/

Guerrero Azteca is committed to "Teaching our youth that peace is a better path to continue a higher education and military service is not the best option to attain higher education."  Find their bilingual website at http://www.guerreroazteca.org/portada.html

OK, now I feel bad because that's all the space I am going to give to this, and I know that there are many, many more excellent counter-recruitment groups that I could mention.  But that's the way it goes.  This list will get you started.