Nonviolent Resistance

http://startlovingusforcesiraniraq.blogspot.com

From Joy First:

MARCH OF THE DEAD: GRIM REMINDER OF COST OF WAR AS CONGRESS BEGINS NEW SESSION

MADISON, WI – As Congress begins its 111th session in Washington, DC on January 6, activists in Madison will participate in the March of the Dead in solidarity with similar marches in Washington, DC, New Orleans, and other places around the country.

As we watch the carnage unfolding in Gaza, as we continue to hear about innocent people dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are painfully reminded of the necessity of citizen action, of the need to speak out against our government’s policies. We are reminded that our representatives in Congress are not following the will of the people in bringing to an end the terror of war that continues throughout the world.

By David Zeiger

It is with deep, deep sadness that I am writing to tell you of the death of Tom Barnard. Tom suffered a massive heart attack on Sunday, December 27. He was 60 years old.

I met Tom while filming Sir! No Sir! in what I later learned was a typical “Tom” way. I’ll never forget the email I got out of the blue from this guy I had never heard of, telling me simply that he had been part of an extremely significant group that had to be part of this film. They had never told their story publicly, and in fact had been threatened with prosecution for treason if they ever did. I was certainly intrigued, and soon Tom and I were friends.

Several months and a couple of failed attempts later, I found myself in a house with Tom and three other courageous, exemplary members of the WORMS–We Openly Resist Military Stupidity.

By Daily Record Editorial Advisory Board

The revelations about the Maryland State Police’s activities surveilling, infiltrating, keeping files on, and sharing information about political dissidents have been unsettling, and demand a legislative response.

Here is what we know so far:

* In October 2003, Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, an anti-Iraq War group, staged a protest at Fort Meade ; in the course of civil disobedience, five of the group were arrested. Two of them were tried; during discovery, documents revealed that a “ Baltimore Intel Unit” had monitored the group as they gathered at American Friends Service Committee offices for a protest in July 2004.

By Dave Lindorff

The deafening silence from American government officials and from the US media regarding the criminal Israeli assault against civilians in Israel’s ghetto of Gaza, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are trapped every bit as brutally as were the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, is beyond unconscionable.

` As Israeli shells and bombs and rockets rain down on university buildings, clearly marked ambulances, and homes, it has to be pointed out that much of the ammunition being used, as well as the planes that are delivering this death and mayhem, are provided by the United States and by American taxpayers—with no strings attached.

By David Swanson

Congress will be greeted on day 1 this year by a march of war dead on Capitol Hill.

The word epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning to manifest or to show. In Christian tradition the Feast of Epiphany is celebrated on January 6th, marking the day when the three wise men from three foreign lands visited the baby Jesus, the last of the 12 days of Christmas. Epiphany is also used to mean a sudden realization, comprehension, or inspiration.

This January 6th may be the 12th day of Christmas, but it is also the 1st day of Congress. I encourage you to join those of us who plan to greet Congress with a March of the Dead, making manifest and showing to those responsible the hidden meaning of wars in three foreign lands: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Perhaps a few members of Congress will even have an epiphany.

by Linda Milazzo

For years since the United States invaded Iraq, I've witnessed countless photo and video images of innocent civilians - men, women, teens and children - being rudely and aggressively threatened by hired uniformed militants (mostly men), wielding guns. I've seen these images from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Haiti, Palestine, and more. Whether they be armed American military threatening Iraqis, armed Israeli soldiers threatening Palestinians, or armed Ethiopian troops threatening Somalis, the images have always disturbed me. There's an inherent injustice to such blatant imbalance of power. An injustice I suffered recently myself.

The oddity here is that unlike those less fortunate innocents in war zones who faced the guns of hired aggressors, I was not in a war zone when I faced mine. I wasn't even in a high crime zone. I was in a gentle middle class suburb, where my aggressor, an armed Brinks, Inc. security guard, was in full combat-mode performing his non war-zone duty. My aggressor more typified the machismo of a Blackwater guard than the demeanor of community-minded Brinks, when he flailed his loaded gun at me, as though he'd done it often before. My armed Brinks aggressor was not merely disrespectful. He was downright hostile and dangerous. He treated me as his enemy and freely showed me his force.

Here's how it happened:

By James B. Meadow, Rocky Mountain News

In a stark, geometrically precise courtroom that is all about sharp angles, fluorescent lighting, narrow windows and a pervasive mechanical hum, the roundish crusader with the crop of curly brown hair and wrinkled khakis, sport coat and tie is turning on his laptop, preparing to do whatever he can to shrink the Army and end war.

Soon, his client, a U.S. soldier named David Penta is brought in, shackled hand and foot, ready to be court-martialed for "desertion with the intent to shirk hazardous duty," ready to see how many months the Army will punish him. He is not fighting the charge. Actually, he's embracing it.

Come to the New School Graduate Faculty Building on 65 5th Avenue
(in Manhattan; any train to Union Square)

Students of the New School University, from the Radical Student Union and SDS, along with supporters from universities including NYU, Hunter College, City College of NY, CUNY Graduate Center, Rutgers University and Borough of Manhattan Community College, are currently occupying the New School Graduate Faculty Building (65 5th Avenue in Manhattan - @14th Street).

Right now, between 250 and 300 students are occupying the building, and there are several hundred students in front, chanting "War criminal Kerry, resign!" Organizers are asking anyone who can to come out now to support the students.

For updates on the occupation, see http://www.newschoolinexile.com or NY Indymedia.

By Sarah Lazare

Pasted below is a letter of support for 100 Israeli youth currently
refusing to join the military. The letter is from U.S. military
servicepeople who have refused to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is for publication on December 18, the day of international solidarity with Israeli military objectors. I am sharing this with you because I think it is a powerful show of global solidarity amongst military resisters standing against unjust war and occupation. Please pass this around, and please let me know if there are any U.S. war resisters who are not listed as signatories but would like to be - it is not too late to sign. For more information about the Israeli resisters, please visit: http://december18th.org

The letter:

We are U.S. military servicemembers and veterans who have refused or
are currently refusing to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We stand in solidarity with the Israeli Shministim (Hebrew for 12th

By Eve Tetaz

As was anticipated Judge Morin sentenced us to five days in jail(suspended as the prosecutor didn't think it was worth the expense to jail us), 6 mos. probation, and a heavy fine. He then allowed us to give our sentencing statements. After I gave mine, I told him that I would refuse probation and would not pay the fine. (Last time I refused, I was sent to jail.) Each of my codefendents gave his or her statement followed by the same refusal. After the last defendant spoke, the Judge gave a new ruling, as follows:

None of us would be required to be on probation, none of us has to pay a fine, and all of us were sentenced to one day in jail already served because we had spend the night and a day in jail waiting for arraignment.

It is apparent to me, that Judge Morin was moved to change his ruling because of the justice of our actions. I think I can speak for the others when I say, "We will not be silent." We will continue to speak truth to power.

By Dave Lindorff

When Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi heaved his two shoes at the head of President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, he did something that the White House press corps should have done years ago.

Amy Goodman's Democracy Now TV show incorrectly stated that all 15 of the IVAW "Hempstead 15" Escaped Charges today. That is incorrect. Mike Spinnato, & James Gilligan had excused absence, and Geoff Millard had an unfortunate incident, which made him an hour late, and the Judge refused to grant Geoff the "Deal" everybody else got. She rescheduled him for January 27th, which is the first day he is scheduled to teach in his new job, in Buffalo, NY, a 12 hour Train Ride from Hempstead.

WHO: The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore was formed for individuals willing to engage in nonviolent civil resistance to first prevent and later to protest the war in Iraq. It is affiliated with several national peace groups, including the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR] and United For Peace & Justice.

NCNR organized a theatrical event on March 12 inside the gallery of the U.S. Senate. Three members of the Baltimore Pledge, Maria Allwine, Ellen Barfield and Max Obuszewski, joined with Tim Chadwick, Joy First, Judith Kelly, Art Landis, Linda LeTendre, Manijeh Saba and Eve Tetaz as the Ghosts of the Iraq War.

DEMOCRACY NOW!

A US soldier who went absent without leave a year and a half ago to avoid returning to Iraq has applied for asylum in Germany. Specialist Andre Shepherd served in Iraq between September 2004 and February 2005 as an Apache helicopter mechanic. When his unit was called up to return to Iraq in early 2007, he went AWOL to avoid redeployment, calling the war "illegal." He lived underground in Germany for a year and a half before applying for asylum two weeks ago. We speak with Shepherd in his first international broadcast interview.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/12/exclusiveawol_us_soldier_seeks_as...

André Shepherd, a U.S. resister who is seeking asylum in Germany, will be on, as will Elsa Rassbach talking about the U.S. bases in Germany and the anti-NATO campaign.

Is it time to get arrested to send an urgent message about preserving the health and well-being of the next 50 generations to warm the planet? Two of America’s leading men of letters, Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben, have written an urgent open letter to all Americans saying “yes”: JOIN THEM.

By Dave Lindorff

` We workers of America, white collar, pink collar, blue collar, and no collar at all, have just gotten a wonderful example of the power of having a union. It’s an example that should have every unorganized employee in America looking for a union organizer.

With the recession deepening, it’s clear that major layoffs are in store, and that employers are going to be putting the squeeze on employees, even if they don’t drop them. Individually, workers have little leverage in such a situation.