Tuesday, July 12, 2011

[SDCPJ] Monday July 25 - Early Reminder: MAJOR SDCPJ planning session

Save this date and ATTEND:  The next San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice meeting, Monday July 25, 7:00 PM at the Church of the Brethren -
 
We will be planning for a MAJOR October event in San Diego; this event will raise hell about not only the perpetual wars STILL being waged, but also all the threads of injustice and inequity woven into the war/empire economy and political structure.  "At long last, sir, have you no sense of decency?"  That verbal indictment of Joseph McCarthy decades ago applies a thousand-fold today to
  • perpetual wars for profit
  • horrible apartied in Palestine
  • domestic war on the American middle class
  • destruction of health and welfare safety nets
AND MORE -
 
Come with us on July 25 to make sure this event represents YOU

Monday, July 11, 2011

[SDCPJ] This Wed 7/13! Mixer for Friendship Park: Today's Renewed Vision

The PRC is one of the leadership groups of the "Friends of Friendship Park" and has participated in planning this upcoming mixer about the park... See info below. Please direct questions/RSVP to: fofpark@gmail.com

Help spread the word! And hope to see you Wed!
Mariah

----

Upcoming "Open House/Mixer" Event
Friendship Park: Today's Renewed Vision
July 13th, 2011, from 7:30-10pm

Location: 3RDSPACE at 4610 Park Blvd., San Diego, CA 92116
Come to University Heights for our friendly Mixer!!
* LEARN about the past, present and future of Friendship Park...
    - Presentation on the History of the park
    - The tale of the bi-national garden
    - Architect James Brown's expanded TED Talk on the new design
* CELEBRATE security at our border through friendship and unity
* DISCOVER how you can renew Pat Nixon's original vision at Friendship Park

Please RSVP to: fofpark@gmail.com
Download the flyer at www.friendshippark.org

Sunday, July 10, 2011

[SDCPJ] Konica 7150 Photocopier available at Al-Awda

Dear all

We have a Konica 7150 photocopier which is in need of repair or is of use
for spare parts. The large photocopier is currently at the Awda Center in
Carlsbad and we would like to give it away to anyone who may be interested
on a first come first serve basis. So, if you or someone you know (who may
work with or service photocopy machines) are interested in taking this
photocopier from the Awda Center, please contact us as soon as possible so
we may arrange for pick up.

Many thanks for your help with this.

Zahi


_______________________________________________
Sdcpj mailing list
Sdcpj@lists.quantumimagery.com
http://lists.quantumimagery.com/listinfo.cgi/sdcpj-quantumimagery.com

[SDCPJ] FREE BRADLEY MANNING CONTINGENT IN SD PRIDE PARADE!

On Saturday, July 16th, San Diego supporters of Bradley Manning will be marching with The San Diego Alliance 

for Marriage Equality (S.A.M.E.) who last September joined with fifteen other local progressive organizations to 

rally and call for the immediate release of the alleged Wikileaks whistleblower. Last August, members of S.A.M.E. 

were arrested in an act of civil disobedience when they refused to leave the County Clerk's Office until marriage 

licenses were issued to the LGBT activists and their partners. S.A.M.E. is calling for the charges against these 

"Equality 9" as well as Pfc. Manning to be dropped and insist that all parties are being persecuted for standing 

against systemic injustice and committing crimes of conscience.


The Parade route will begin for all contingents at 11am at Normal St and University Ave. We will march for 

about 1.5 miles and the route ends at Balboa Park at 6th ave. We ask that you get to Normal St and University 

Ave early around 8:30/9am. If you are driving, you can park your car at the Naval Hospital Parking lot on Park 

Ave and President's Way. Shuttles will be provided for you and drop you off at Normal St. Our contingent 

number is 66.


The annual San Diego LGBT Pride Parade is the 5th largest in the United States attracting 150,000

 cheering spectators. The Pride Parade is the best attended and largest single day event in San 

Diego. Join us and share your Pride and solidarity with LGBT queeroes  Bradley Manning & S.A.M.E!

Friday, July 8, 2011

[SDCPJ] Photos - Let Them Sale to Gaza

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boplication/sets/72157627026501745/

Peace Up,
Michael Gomel

Thursday, July 7, 2011

[SDCPJ] U.S. Boat to Gaza / Freedom Flotilla / Emergency Response ~ announcement for July 7th, 2011

U.S. Boat to Gaza / Freedom Flotilla ~

San Diego Emergency Response Coordinating Committee


Announcement for July 7th, 2011

----

Friends of justice,


Following a proxy attack by the Greek government, the volunteers on the U.S. Boat to Gaza are returning home to continue to fight for Palestinian rights.

The remainder of the flotilla continues its campaign to leave Greek waters and proceed to Gaza. In addition, there will be a "fly-in" at Israel's Ben Gurion airport of activists openly stating their intent to travel to Palestine.

While it is too late to support the U.S. Boat to Gaza, we believe it is time for some sort of response and media outreach.

We have called a press conference for 1:00pm, Friday, July 8, at the Federal Building in downtown San Diego (880 Front Street / Front and Broadway). Please join us at the press conference if you are able.

We are not calling for a demonstration at this time, but those of you who can be at the press conference to show support for the Flotilla and for the Palestinian people, we invite you to stand with us and bring your signs.

---

We are making this announcement to keep you all informed of recent developments surrounding the Flotilla and our plans for a response. Stay tuned to these channels for more information as the situation develops.

Just after we had finally made plans to proceed with a local response to the attack-by-proxy on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, we received the July 6th update from that group informing us that the activists were going home and that the boat would not sail. Needless to say, we were disappointed. But this does not change the facts about the occupation of Palestine and the strangling blockade and collective punishment of Gaza.

---

Here are some of the relevant details that we have received regarding the U.S. Boat to Gaza:


  1. "The Greek government's willingness to serve as the enforcer of Israeli's naval blockade of Gaza made it impossible for this journey to happen. But the creative and determined spirit of this team of committed activists could not be stopped or silenced... They attempted to set sail knowing it might lead to a confrontation with the Greek authorities; they stood by the boat's captain when he was arrested and jailed; several people held a hunger strike; everyone marched and rallied with other flotilla activists and with the people of Athens in their own struggle for economic justice...." [2]

  2. The boat's captain, John Klusmire, had a hearing on Tuesday. He was released from jail, where he had been since Saturday morning. The charges against him were not dropped. [2]

  3. All of the hunger strikers who had been detained by police have been released.

  4. The U.S. boat, The Audacity of Hope, remains under the control of the Greek authorities.



Regarding the other ships in the flotilla...

  1. Several other boats are still being detained in Greece (the "Greek Boat to Gaza", the Greek/Swedish/Norwegian passenger boat Juliano, the Spanish boat Guernica, and the Canadian boat, Tahrir). [2]

  2. The Irish-owned Saoirse, is currently undergoing repairs at a Turkish port after its propeller was damaged in what activists claim as "sabotage" by Israel. [4,12]

  3. The French passenger boat, the Dignite/Karameh, is at sea in international waters, moving slowly toward Gaza, in case any other boats in the Flotilla are able to sail and catch up. [2,4]

---

We believe that the U.S. State Department effectively gave a "green light" to the Greek authorities to prevent the flotilla from sailing, and to Israel to attack the flotilla. Indeed, based on a credible source, Ray McGovern described the attitude of the Obama administration thusly: "[They] would be happy if something happened to us. [They are] perfectly willing to have the cold corpses of activists shown on American TV." [10]

Whereas the U.S. State Department is effectively welcoming attacks upon its citizens and refusing to defend their right to travel in international waters, and whereas the U.S. Congress continues to use our tax dollars to fund the illegal and inhuman occupation of Palestine and the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, we feel we must respond and bring this gross hypocrisy to the attention of the American people.

---

Please stay tuned for further updates and directives. There is at least one vessel making its way toward Gaza. There is also a "fly-in" planned for Friday at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv as the start of a week of solidarity actions. [11]

We believe there may be events in the course of the next week that warrant a full response, including a protest/demonstration.



"It is justice and respect that I want the world to dust off and put - without delay, and with tenderness - back on the head of the Palestinian child. It will be imperfect justice and respect because the injustice and disrespect have been so severe. But I believe we are right to try." --Alice Walker, passenger of the Audacity of Hope



sources:

[1] http://ustogaza.org/

[2] http://ustogaza.org/latest/july-6th-update-from-the-u-s-boat-to-gaza/

[3] http://gazafreedommarch.org/cms/en/flotilla.aspx

[4] http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hbiMLHGjXqjCKq2AriDRzUWQ-XHA?docId=CNG.62875ee35cc28aa30725ee1bfd4cfbde.31

[5] http://imeu.net/

[6] http://imeu.net/news/article0021156.shtml / http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/gaza-flotillas-have-made-a-difference-1.833577

[7] http://blog.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/the-freedom-flotilla-civil-disobedience-and-government-collusion/

[8] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/05/welcome-to-palestine-israel

[9] http://imeu.net/news/article0021149.shtml / http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=402478

[10] http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/19-2

[11] http://mondoweiss.net/2011/06/challenging-israeli-apartheid-starting-at-ben-gurion-airport.html

[12] http://ustogaza.org/latest/sabotage-of-m-v-saoirse-in-turkey-an-act-of-international-terrorism/

[13] http://alicewalkersgarden.com/blog/

[SDCPJ] Southern California's Palestine Picnic Day!

 
 
JOIN THE ARAB COMMUNITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
 
For The Fifth Annual
 
PALESTINE PICNIC DAY!!
 
SUNDAY July 17, 2011, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
Food served
: 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm
 
El Dorado East Regional Park, Golden Grove, 7550 East Spring Street, Long Beach, CA 90815
 
 
ALL WELCOME!
 
 
 
 
Picnic Menu
Hot off-the-grill beef and chicken kebab, hummus, falafel, salad, beverages, coffee, fruit, soft drinks, water and more!
 
 
Games for Adults and Children
Volleyball, Soccer, Backgammon, Prizes,
Fun and Free Face Painting for the Kids and more!!!
 
 
Music, Dabke!!
 

Come spend a nice summer afternoon and evening with the Arab community and our friends!
 
 
Suggested Donation: Adult $10 Child $5 per food plate
 
Sponsorship
We welcome sponsorship to help underwrite costs associated with the picnic.
Sponsors will be recognized at the picnic unless requested otherwise.
To submit your sponsorship donation, please go to http://al-awdacal.org/pic5sponsor.html
 
We welcome donations of bottled water, other beverages and deserts, plus raffle prizes. Please contact info@al-awdacal.org in advance
 
Directions
Exit from 605 at Spring Street; Take Park entrance on right side off Spring St; Follow main road toward Train Ride; Go Under Wardlow Bridge and take left at fork in road (away from Train Ride); Enter Parking at 1st picnic area on right.

Parking
City of Long Beach $7 per car all day parking at the park. 
 
Supported by
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition Southern California Chapters; Palestinian American Women's Association of Southern California; Palestine Children's Relief Fund; Students for Justice in Palestine at San Diego State University; Beir Zeit Society; US Omen; Friends of Sabeel Los Angeles; Committee for a Democratic Palestine; International Action Center Los Angeles; The Syrian American Council; Bethlehem Association; House of Palestine; El Bireh Society; Arab American Friends of Nazareth; CAIR-LA; Access California; Arabic Culture & Entertainment (ACE) of Southern California; and others. Additionally members and organizers of the Libyan, Tunisian, Egyptian, Jordanian, and Lebanese Arab American Communities of Southern California among others will be joining us.
 
 
For further information, call
Janan 619-228-5380, Mazen 323-350-0000, Amani 805-390-6480 or Lulu 760-408-2222
www.al-awdacal.org
 
 

Sunday, July 3, 2011

[SDCPJ] Socioeconomic effects of climate change

 Extreme weather from Texas to Somalia may indicate that a new era of climate war is upon us. Just this month, massive floods have shut down two nuclear power facilities in Nebraska. In New Mexico, the nation's top nuclear weapons lab in Los Alamos is being threatened by an uncontrolled wildfire. Meanwhile, the United Nations warns the Horn of Africa is facing its worst drought in 60 years, affecting more than 10 million in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. We speak with award-winning journalist Christian Parenti who argues in his new book that global warming is leading to social and environmental catastrophe. "The weather associated with climate change, extreme weather such as the drought, punctuated by flooding in East Africa, punctuated by flooding in East Africa, is adding to this.Climate change very often doesn't just look bad weather, it looks like ethnic violence or religious violence or banditry or civil war," says Parenti.
 
Christian Parenti, contributing editor at the Nation. Author of several books, most recently "Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence."

 

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, from Texas to Somalia, much of the world is experiencing extreme weather this year. Here in the United States a top climate scientist said this past spring had some of the most extreme weather the country has seen in the past century with epic floods, massive wildfires, drought and deadly tornadoes. Just this month, massive floods have shut down two nuclear plants in Nebraska and New Mexico, the nations top nuclear weapons lab at Los Alamos is being threatened by an uncontrolled wildfire. Meanwhile the United Nations is warning that a the Horn of Africa is facing its worst drought in 60 years. The drought has affected more than 10 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda.

AMY GOODMAN: Award winning author, journalist Christian Parenti has just come out with a book that examines the effects of climate change on the most vulnerable populations in the world from Africa to Asia to Latin America. Christian Parenti joins us now in studio to talk about his new book, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. Christian welcome to Democracy Now! Let's start with the title, Tropic of Chaos.

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: Well, it refers to the space between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, the countries where you see the most extreme effects of climate change kicking in, but where you find vulnerable populations, people who live close to the land or the sea and have a minimal margin of error when bad weather strikes. But also these are countries and economies that have been ravaged by the Cold War and neoliberal economic restructuring.

From 1945 to 1990 the U.N. said there were 150 or so armed conflicts that killed 20 million people, displaced 15 million, 16 million were wounded. That all happened in the "global south" in this belt of states. And so now that's where climate change is kicking in and that was also the same terrain where the last 30 years of IMF and World Bank-backed structural adjustment of privatization, deregulation of economies, cutting state support for farmers and fishermen — that program affected those states most intensely.

And now the weather associated with climate change, extreme weather such as the drought, punctuated by flooding in East Africa, is adding to this. And there's this catastrophic convergence and climate change, the argument of the book is that climate change is very often, doesn't just look like bad weather, it looks like ethnic violence or religious violence or banditry or civil war.

JUAN GONZALEZ: You start the book with a chapter titled "Who killed Ekaru Loruman?" in Kenya. Who was he and what was your conclusion as to who killed him?

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: Ekaru Loruman was a Turkana pastoralist in northwest Kenya in the Rift Valley and he had been killed the day before in a cattle raid. So, I asked, who killed him? On one level, a neighbor killed him, someone from the Pokot tribe who was trying to steal his cattle. And he was at a water hole which was close to their territory because of this intense drought, and that was forcing the herds to concentrate around water holes because there was enough grazing elsewhere. But then also why weren't there other water holes? Partly because of neoliberalism. The Kenyan government has stripped away its support for farmers and herders. And why was the raid so violent? Why was he killed with an AK-47? Why was this traditional pattern of cattle raiding, why did it look more like low-intensity conflict?

That is in part the result of the Cold War, where there were all these proxy fights in the "global south" that led to, among other things, state failure in Somalia. And now that whole region is full of cheap guns. There was a moment of state failure in Uganda and weapons were looted there. So, he was killed by climate change as it is articulated by these other pre-existing crises. Around the world, I found in doing this research, examples of that where climate change is a direct cause of violence or sometimes an indirect cause of violence. You look at many violent conflicts and there is frequently a climatological aspect, not the primary thing, but an increasingly important aspect.

JUAN GONZALEZ: You also point out in the book, you have several chapters devoted to how the U.S. government and the Pentagon particularly is responding at the same time that the Bush administration was denying climate change, the Pentagon was preparing for it.

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: The Pentagon, particularly around 2007, was putting out these reports and think tanks around them, realizing they were going to be called upon to respond to this problem. To their credit the armed services take climate change seriously, which is more than you can say for, say the GOP leadership in the House. And what they see again and again is not so much a future of interstate conflict, but of irregular warfare within states, social breakdown, increased banditry, mass migration. They realize they're going to be called upon to respond to these low intensity conflicts and these civil wars, so front and center in their program of response is counterinsurgency.

This goes by different names — small wars, low-intensity conflict, counter insurgency. This is as part of the War on Terror become very important to U.S. foreign policy and I'm critical of that one, because I don't think it will work. I don't think it's moral. But also, counterinsurgency, if you look at its record, what it does to societies is very damaging. Because the object is the population rather than territory, it leaves societies fragmented and vulnerable.

You see in Central America, as you guys have reported, societies that were the front lines of counterinsurgency in the 70's and 80's are now as violent as they were during war, but it's a crime wave which the direct result of the legacy of counterinsurgency. An interesting fact, in World War I, 5% of casualties were civilians. World War II, it was 50%, by Vietnam it was 80% now it's up to 90%.

The — anyway, this is what is proposed as a way of managing the problem, and I think it won't work and it will make societies even less capable of adapting to the extreme weather and the necessary economic changes that they have to develop.

AMY GOODMAN: The Tropic of Chaos is Christian Parenti's book, Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. When we come back from break we'll have Christian take us on a tour of the countries he visited and the way climate is changing there and what is happening to people in the most vulnerable countries.

[music]

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest is Christian Parenti, contributing editor a The Nation magazine, author of a number of books, his most recent has just been published it's called, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. He has a cover story in The Nation magazine Pakistan: One Year After the Floods. "When extreme weather hits amid extreme poverty, escape becomes nearly impossible." Start there, Christian.

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: I was in Pakistan about a month ago, looking at the effect of the floods which began last summer. One thing I was surprised to see was that a lot of people who had been displaced by the floods were refusing to leave the refugee camps that they were in now because they did not want to go to these landlords. The flood revealed to me one of the underlying problems in Pakistan, which helps explain why it's such a violent place. There's an ethnic insurgency, there's a religious insurgency, there's a massive crime wave. These peasants would say we'd rather stay in these aid camps even as they cut off aid. They were protesting for the right to stay. The cops would attack them because they didn't want to go back to the countryside where they would fall into debt to these landlords who have private prisons and treat them really as bonded servants. This is an example of how climate change works through other problems. It exacerbates pre-existing problems. The floods in Pakistan have primed yet another set of social problems. Where I was in Sindh there's no insurgency, but it was a very badly hit area for the flood. Just north of it in the Punjab, the Taliban are actually moving in there. You can imagine what the long-term effects of these floods would be in terms of those types of politics. Where I was in Sindh what you saw was mostly a rise of banditry and perhaps an incipient ethnic rebellion developing.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Talk about some of the other countries that part of the world — Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, that you also write about.

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: Yeah in Kyrgyzstan it's not on many people's radar here, but last spring, 2010, you might remember that there were these ethnic riots between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz that left the capital in ruins and the government called for Russian troops to come in and the Russians very wisely said, no we're not going to do that. When you dig in to what that story is it's not just a bunch of hatred between people.

Kyrgyzstan gets 90% of its electricity from hydroelectric, they have these series of old Soviet dams. It has been suffering like Pakistan, like Afghanistan, like India, one of the worst droughts in living memory. So, the water level in these dams was half of what it should be. The government started rationing power as a result. Then comes the driest, coldest of winter on record, and herds are dying, pensioners are freezing to death. Industry has to shut down because there is not enough power, unemployment soars. Then comes the spring.

The President decides he wants to privatize the utility company, so he jacks the utility tariff by 100% and promises to jack it up 100% more after that and that's what leads to these protests that then devolve in to this ethnic rioting between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz. So, there's a very clear, but attenuated
displaced through other issues, displaced through bad governance and neoliberalism. There's this clear link to climatological crisis in the region.

In Afghanistan, that's where I kind of came up with the idea for this book. I was reporting on the poppy economy, the heroin economy, and I asked the farmers, "why are you growing this illegal crop that the government and NATO come after you for growing." One reason they would give is that it's drought resistant. Which was actually the first I'd heard of this drought. And then they kept repeating that year after year as I would do other stories on this. Turns out Afghanistan is suffering the worst drought in living memory that coincides with the U.S. occupation there and the Afghan government and the NATO forces attack poppy as part of their counterinsurgency strategy and nation-building strategy. The Taliban defend poppy.

The farmers grow poppy because it uses one-fifth the amount of water that wheat uses. So, along with the ethnic issues for young Pashtun men, who join the Taliban and the religious ideology, there's also a very material motive for the young recruits to the Taliban that is rooted in climate change, which is that the only way that they can survive is to grow poppy. One of these armed forces says we'll protect as you do that the other one says we're going to eradicate your fields. So, that's not the cause of the war, but it's an important factor and an increasingly important factor in why it drags on and on and on and why there's such a social crisis in Afghanistan that expresses itself as war.

JUAN GONZALEZ: So in effect in many of these instances that you're talking about, what climate change is actually doing is almost like turbocharging or being the fuel to the existing conflict, making them far worse than anyone envisioned that they would be, existing class conflicts or disparities that exist in the nation?

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: Exactly, the Pentagon refers to it as a threat multiplier, which it sort of is. Speaking of the Pentagon, I was making a point earlier about counterinsurgency, the strange thing is that conventional warfare is associated with increased social solidarity. Not that I am for conventional warfare, but during the bombing of London, during the blitz, people came together, out of that kind of comes social democracy in England.

Counter insurgency, on the other hand, leaves societies divided because the civil society is the battlefield. The government forces, or the occupying forces inevitably create paramilitary forces that are manned by criminals, that involve smuggling, it involves all sorts of criminality that is a genie that once the war is over and the mission completed is impossible to put back in the bottle. So, counterinsurgency as a response to climate change or a form of global management by the United States and rich countries essentially seeds the world with problems, that can range from crime waves to social breakdown.

AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this month, more than 3000 participants from 180 countries gathered in Bonn, in Germany to lay the foundation for the upcoming U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa. Tove Ryding headed the Greenpeace delegation at the talks.

TOVE RYDING: It's easy for politicians to respond after a catastrophe has happened than to show and be proactive, to actually try to prevent the catastrophe before they happen. And that's the essence of what we need in these negotiations, we need proactive politicians who actually take the opportunities to solve this problem before we end up in a climate disaster. After all, what we're talking about here is actually millions of green jobs. It's to transform our societies to energy systems that are safe, that are stable, and that are based on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Tove Ryding of Greenpeace, Christian Parenti, in Bonn, Germany, recently talking about what has to be done.

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: Unfortunately, the international climate talks due to the U.S. have really stalled out. What's necessary to deal with climate change and to avoid a future of warfare and social breakdown — is both adaptation, because we're locked in for climate change even under the best case scenario, and mitigation. So, key facts that I'm sure all your listeners are, I'm sure, aware of that after 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere we enter a danger zone where there's potentially self fueling climate change. We're now at 390 parts per million in the atmosphere. So, even if the world economy ceased operating tomorrow there's going to be climate change kicking in and disrupting society over the next coming decades and we need to adapt to that. War and banditry are a form of negative adaptation. Counterinsurgency, building borders that's a form of militarized adaptation.

There are also positive forms of adaptation that I found in the book. In northeast Brazil, this is almost like if it didn't exist you'd want to invent it. The Movimento Trabalhadores of the landless people's movement in Brazil, which has been, as listeners to the show will know, very successful in redistributing land to the landless in Brazil, I found it a place where they — there was a community that on one side of a road they owned land and on another side of a road they were occupying land from an absentee Italian rancher. On the land they owned, where they had rights, they were adapting new agro-ecological forestry methods, real low-tech drip irrigation, not using pesticides, not using fertilizer, restoring the soil. On the side of the road where they didn't own land, where they were operating with greater risk, they used traditional mainstream methods of clearing the land, burning it, planting mono-crops, using pesticides and they were a bit embarrassed about this because they were very proud of this green adaptive farming they were using, but they explained we cannot invest the five years it takes to get this up and running with these ecological methods if we don't have the right to this land. That's a perfect example of how adaptation is social justice. People in the Global South are not going to be able to come up with new technologies and new economic forms of organization that can work with this extreme climate if there isn't at the center of that agenda social justice and redistribution of wealth, inside countries and globally and also redistribution of technology and capital.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Christian, I want to ask you about the negative adaptation in places like the United States. You also deal a lot with, in the book, you travel to Mexico and the U.S./Mexico border and the huge wall going up. Earlier this week the rising star of the Tea Party Movement, Minnesota Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann, launched her bid for the 2012 presidential nomination. Bachmann and other Republicans are strong supporters of Senate Bill 1070, Arizona's anti-immigrant law She and other Republicans are strong supporters of Senate Bill 1070, Arizona's anti-immigrant law that empowers state and local enforcement to stop, question, and arrest whoever they suspect may be an undocumented immigrant. Here is what Bachmann said about Senate Bill 1070 in an interview with All Patriots Media back in May, 2010.

MICHELE BACHMANN: What's Arizona supposed to do? The federal government has fallen down on its job. It has failed to secure the borders, failed to protect the people of Arizona. When you have innocent Americans people being killed on their ranches and in their homes, when you have Phoenix, the kidnap capital of the United States? I applaud Arizona for having to do whatever they can to keep their people safe.

JUAN GONZALEZ: That was Michele Bachmann. This whole idea of what has to be done to keep your people safe from the hordes coming over?

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: You see in these anti-immigrant elements of the right in the Southwest the potential for a kind of green fascism. There are some of them that even make an environmental argument about immigration, and I think that that response is very dangerous. One of the reasons people are leaving their homes in Latin America and coming to the U.S. is because of climate change. The other reasons are the history of U.S. military intervention and support for states that have engaged in counterinsurgency and the U.S. support for a neoliberal economic restructuring.

In Juarez, I found numerous examples of people that I would consider climate refugees. One guy was a fisherman from Michoacán. He ended up at the border. When I met him he's sitting on the Rio Grande looking at the U.S. He's been deported, he's saying I really don't want to get involved in the drug trade, but that's like the only thing I can do here if I can't get back into the U.S.

His plight began in the late 90's during an El Niño event when warm water came up and there was toxic algae plume that drove away the fish. You think, why would a small fisherman not be able to sustain one bad season? Part of the answer is NAFTA had basically gutted all the old supports that Mexican government had for small fishermen. There were no more cooperatives and cheap loans, so he had to go into debt privately. He then lost his boat and migrated north and ended up in the U.S., and was kicked out of there. And then found himself like many other people in Juarez where one way he could survive would be to get involved in the drug trade.

Similar examples in, with some Tarahumarac indigenous people who were driven off their land by a combination of drought and debt and deforestation. So, Michele Bachmann's vision of militarizing the border is incredibly dangerous and the future projections for migration are intense. The U.N. says that possibly 10 times as many people could be on the move by the middle of the century as today. So we have to start looking at forms
of adaptation to keep people on the land, to keep people productive in their home countries.

AMY GOODMAN: This question follows from Facebook, from Dale Rodriguez on our Facebook page. He says "Is there any way people like me can really do anything to affect positive change in the climate wars? I only ask," he says, "because it seems as if the public is taken out of the conversation and the conversation is only between the government and big big corporate interests."

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: Yeah well, we have to empower the social movements that exist to insert a third element, which is society and social movements. They are actions planned in August, in D.C., around opposing tar-sands and the pipelines that would go to the tar-sands. This is one very simple easy point of purchase. If those incredibly filthy fuels are brought on line, the emissions would be so enormous that it could wipe out all other efforts at mitigation. So, there's something that people can plug into. There's good groups like Greenpeace, Sierra Club, 350.org that are organizing around this. Also, a key thing is the campaign against coal. We have to shut down coal mining. There can't be any new coal plants and we have to take old coal plants offline.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you have any hope in the climate conference, the U.N. talk that's going to take place in South Africa, in the "global south", Kumi Naidoo is there, head of Greenpeace, from South Africa, well known anti-apartheid activist, combining these two struggles?

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: I maintain hope yes, but Obama's record on this stuff has been really appalling. I think that the U.S. is not — I don't think, in the next few years — going to play a particularly positive role, so we have to be realistic about that. i still maintain hope that the rest of the world can push this agenda of redistributing capital and technology to help people adapt. I end the book with a couple of very concrete simple things that could be done without getting the Republicans to go along, without allocating new money. The federal government and state governments, in this country, constitute about one-third of GDP. If they were serious about clean purchasing of buying only clean electricity, only electric vehicles, that would be positive in and of itself it would reduce emissions, but it would indirectly help creating economies of scale for clean technology, and when those technologies are cheap enough, then they'll be adaptation throughout the private sector.

AMY GOODMAN: We're going to do part two with you after the show.


Creative Commons License The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

[SDCPJ] Happy 4th – Feeling Economically Independent?

As you enjoy the fireworks, think about this: All of us U.S. taxpayers are crushed by the cost of the American overseas military empire. The true taxpayer cost of Iraq and Afghanistan alone: $4 trillion (see below).  And this does not include Libya, or the over 400 U.S. military bases spread over the world outside the U.S. 

 

While some get tax breaks, the overwhelming majority of us taxpayers face generations of paying for this military empire.  This, while domestically, we are becoming a third-world nation.  How is this possible?  Those very few getting rich from war are pulling the strings of what should be our federal government. 

 

So happy 4thend the U.S. Overseas Military Empire. 

 

*************

U.S. Wars in Projected to Cost Nearly $4 Trillion With Hundreds of Thousands Dead (http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/30/headlines)

A new report is estimating the true cost of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will end up being approximately $4 trillion — far more than the Bush or Obama administrations have acknowledged. The report also estimates between 224,000 and 258,000 people have died directly from warfare, including 125,000 civilians in Iraq. Brown University professor Catherine Lutz is the co-director of the "Costs of War" report.

Catherine Lutz, Co-Director of report and professor at Brown University: "Three of the key things that we've found is that the numbers of people who died in this war are much higher than the American public realizes. There have been many, many deaths in military and civilian sectors that haven't been adequately counted or recognized, so we've tried to put that all together. Second thing we found is that the financial costs are also much higher than people recognize, because people have been focusing overly much on the Pentagon's special allocation for the wars and they haven't been looking at things like the interest payment on the debt that was incurred in order to raise that money. They haven't been looking at future obligated costs to veterans for their healthcare ... and a number of other parts of the budget that have to be counted to say what this war cost." 

Thursday, June 30, 2011

[SDCPJ] Fw: [isn] War Resisters Inject Truth into Military Recruitment by Eleanor J. Bader

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----- Original Message -----
From: <a.beltran@ymail.com>
Cc: "recipient list not shown:"
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 4:34 AM
Subject: [isn] War Resisters Inject Truth into Military Recruitment by
Eleanor J. Bader


> On The Issues Magazine
>
> The Progressive Woman's Magazine Summer 2011:
>
> War Resisters Inject Truth into Military Recruitment
>
> by Eleanor J. Bader
>
> ***
>
> War Resisters Inject Truth into Military Recruitment
>
> by Eleanor J. Bader
>
> The setting changes but the scene does not: Men and women in crisply
> pressed uniforms enter public high schools across the country and cajole
> the teenagers they meet into signing on the dotted line to serve Uncle
> Sam.
>
> Thanks to Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, recruiters
> from the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy have the same
> access to secondary school students as college recruiters or potential
> employers.
>
> This, in concert with mandatory Selective Service registration for all
> 18-year-old males and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
> [ASVAB] exam that is given to nearly three-quarters of a million high
> school juniors and seniors each year, has prompted many domestic peace
> activists to organize opposition to the militarization of youth.
>
> They advocate "truth-in-recruiting," arguing that lofty promises made at
> the time of enlistment -- extensive travel, scholarships or an easy route
> to U.S. citizenship -- often fail to materialize once service begins.
>
> ©Elise Engler
>
> What's more, these peace activists say that they are paying particular
> attention to female recruits, warning them of potential pitfalls: The
> risks associated with wartime service even in "non-combat" positions, as
> well as the too-common experience of sexual harassment and assault by unit
> supervisors and peers.
>
> Little-Known Facts
>
> The War Resisters League, an 88-year-old national group with more than 25
> chapters across the U.S., targets students and, when possible, tables at
> schools to provide little-known facts about the military: One in four
> soldiers gets a less than honorable discharge, making them ineligible for
> college money; nearly one-third of females seeking health care from the
> Veteran's Administration report experiencing a rape or attempted rape
> while conscripted.
>
> "Up until the economic recession began, the military had a hard time
> finding recruits," says Kimber Heinz, National Organizing Director of the
> War Resisters League. "But now the military is not only meeting its quota,
> it's a de facto jobs program and you have recruiters preying on students
> who can no longer afford college or find work."
>
> One of its brochures, Know Before You Go, offers this information for
> those thinking of signing up: "The military contract states, 'Laws and
> regulations that govern military personnel may change without notice. Such
> changes may affect pay, benefits, and responsibilities as a member of the
> Armed Forces regardless of the provisions of the enlistment document.'"
>
> In other words, beware: Even though a recruit has signed a contract, the
> terms can be modified at the military's discretion. "We let people know
> that if we're at war a recruit can be stop-lossed and might end up on
> multiple tours," Heinz continues. "The recruit has no control over this.
> We always remind people that the military is the only job where if the
> worker quits, he or she goes to jail."
>
> The organization also provides data on what it means to be a conscientious
> objector and outlines the penalties for failing to register for Selective
> Service. Other truth-in-recruiting messages are also hammered. For one,
> despite promises to the contrary, Heinz reports that skills learned in the
> military are rarely transferable to the civilian world. "We make it clear
> that many, many people come out of the military traumatized or disabled,"
> Heinz continues. "We ask people to think about what it means to be an
> occupier of someone else's land and we try to get people to consider
> whether they'll be able to live with killing someone or seeing someone
> killed." It's a heavy message, and it is repeated by more than 75 local
> organizations throughout the 50 states. Joanne Sheehan is an adult
> advisor to YouthPeace, a student-led social justice group at the Norwich
> Free Academy, a public, regional high school in eastern Connecticut. Since
> 1998 YouthPeace has raised issues including military recruitment and
> Islamophobia with the student body.
>
> Students Can Opt-Out For the past seven years, members have also
> coordinated an annual opt-out campaign to inform students that the law
> allows them to request that their contact information be withheld from
> recruiters. "Schools typically send student names, addresses, and phone
> numbers to the military in October, so we have about a month once school
> starts to publicize the opt-out provision," Sheehan says. "A few years ago
> we pushed the superintendent to put information about opting-out in the
> first paragraph of a letter that is sent to parents at the beginning of
> the year. We want to be sure they understand that their children don't
> need to provide data to recruiters, that it's something they can opt-out
> of." In some schools recruiters have free rein in the hallways The peace
> groups also broach a broader anti-militarist agenda, even in places like
> San Diego with a heavy military presence and 110,000 military employees.
> There, the school board recently voted to ban students enrolled in the
> Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps [J-ROTC] from taking in-school
> marksmanship classes. "Fifteen of the 18 high schools in San Diego have
> ROTC. One of them, Lincoln, was temporarily closed for rehabbing and when
> we saw the plan for the renovation, we saw that it included a firing
> range. We brought this to the community's attention and formed the
> Education Not Arms Coalition," says Rick Jahnkow, coordinator of Youth and
> Non-Military Opportunities, known as Project YANO. The consensus, Jahnkow
> says, was to focus on ending gun classes rather than campaigning against
> ROTC more generally because group participants felt an anti-ROTC campaign
> would fail. Education Not Arms pointed to the pervasive gun violence
> already plaguing the Lincoln area and denounced planned cutbacks in
> Advanced Placement classes needed by college-bound pupils. The efforts
> paid off: The school board ended all in-school gun training. Boosted by
> this victory, Project YANO and Education Not Arms next turned their
> attention to school-based recruiters. In late 2010 San Diego activists
> succeeded in restricting recruiters to two school visits per year, similar
> to policies in New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco
> and Oakland. As a result, recruiters must schedule specific times to meet
> with potential conscripts and cannot disrupt "normal school activities."
>
> "In some schools the recruiters eat lunch with the kids, hang out and
> chill in the parking lot, and have free rein in the hallways," says Pat
> Elder of Maryland's PeaceAction Montgomery. "In most places, what they get
> to do depends on the principal. I've seen schools where male recruiters
> are always around, playing one-on-one basketball with kids who don't have
> fathers." This scenario led New York City's Youth Activists-Youth Allies
> Network to monitor recruiters to ensure that they obey the regulations
> that circumscribe their access to individual students.
>
> This scenario led New York City's Youth Activists-Youth Allies Network to
> monitor recruiters to ensure that they obey the regulations that
> circumscribe their access to individual students. YA-YA Network staff --
> all but one of whom are between 15 and 19 -- also lead workshops about
> U.S. foreign policy and the costs of war and militarism.
>
> "Several years ago I asked participants what their peers thought about the
> wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," says YA-YA advisor Amy Wagner. "The wars
> were not very present for them. I talked about how during the Vietnam War
> when you turned on your TV you always heard the number of dead soldiers.
> They thought about this and concluded that facts were being hidden from
> them on purpose. They did a lot of research and the result was a short
> video now up on YouTube, called The War Will Not Be Televised. Terms can
> be modified at the military's discretion
>
> The YA-YA Network is presently focused on making sure that schools abide
> by regulations that mandate that a school staff person be appointed to
> provide guidance on military recruitment in each high school.
>
> "We first want to investigate and see if this is being done," Wagner says.
> "If not, why not. If it is, we want to know where these people are getting
> their info and who's training them. We want to give students the
> information they are entitled to so that they fully understand their range
> of options."
>
> Indeed, it is this idea of options that propels organizing against
> militarism. Take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test, a
> four-hour recruiting tool used in nearly 12,000 high schools nationwide.
>
> To date, Maryland is the only state to require schools to select a
> provision that stops student scores from being sent directly to
> recruiters. "Look, if you take even moderate Democrats and sit them down
> and ask them who they think should give student data to the military --
> mom and dad or the Pentagon – they'll all support parental decision
> making," says Pat Elder of PeaceAction Montgomery.
>
> They want students to understand that becoming a soldier is not
> necessarily the best way to show personal strength or valor. "A lot of
> people want to be tough and powerful, so they enlist," says the War
> Resisters League's Kimber Heinz. "They ultimately learn that enlisting is
> not a good way to test how strong they are."
>
> Eleanor Bader is a freelance writer, teacher, and activist. She writes for
> The Brooklyn Rail, The L Magazine, RHRealitycheck.org, and other
> progressive and feminist publications.
>
> http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/2011summer/2011summer_bader.php
>
>
> ***
>
>>> War Resisters Inject Truth into Military Recruitment>> by Eleanor J.
>>> Bader June 20, 2011>> On The Issues Magazine>>
>>> http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/2011summer/2011summer_bader.php>>
>
> This scenario led New York City's Youth Activists-Youth> Allies Network to
> monitor recruiters to ensure that> they obey the regulations that
> circumscribe their> access to individual students.>> YA-YA Network
> staff -- all but one of whom are between> 15 and 19 -- also lead workshops
> about U.S. foreign> policy and the costs of war and militarism. "Several>
> years ago I asked participants what their peers thought> about the wars in
> Iraq and Afghanistan," says YA-YA> advisor Amy Wagner. "The wars were not
> very present for> them. I talked about how during the Vietnam War when>
> you turned on your TV you always heard the number of> dead soldiers. They
> thought about this and concluded> that facts were being hidden from them
> on purpose. They> did a lot of research and the result was a short video>
> now up on YouTube, called The War Will Not Be> Televised.>> The YA-YA
> Network is presently focused on making sure> that schools abide by
> regulations that mandate that a> school staff person be appointed to
> provide guidance on> military recruitment in each high school. "We first>
> want to investigate and see if this is being done,"> Wagner says. "If not,
> why not. If it is, we want to> know where these people are getting their
> info and> who's training them. We want to give students the> information
> they are entitled to so that they fully> understand their range of
> options.">> Indeed, it is this idea of options that propels> organizing
> against militarism. Take the Armed Services> Vocational Aptitude Battery
> test, a four-hour> recruiting tool used in nearly 12,000 high schools>
> nationwide. To date, Maryland is the only state to> require schools to
> select a provision that stops> student scores from being sent directly to
> recruiters.>> "Look, if you take even moderate Democrats and sit them>
> down and ask them who they think should give student> data to the
> military -- mom and dad or the Pentagon -> they'll all support parental
> decision making," says Pat> Elder of PeaceAction Montgomery.>> They want
> students to understand that becoming a> soldier is not necessarily the
> best way to show> personal strength or valor. "A lot of people want to be>
> tough and powerful, so they enlist," says the War> Resisters League's
> Kimber Heinz. "They ultimately learn> that enlisting is not a good way to
> test how strong> they are.">‬______________________________


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


**NEW Activist Tools from Immigrant Solidarity Network!**

http://www.ActivistVideo.org
An Activist-Run Video Sharing Page!

===================================================================
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights!

webpage: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org
e-mail: info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org
New York: (212)330-8172
Los Angeles: (213)403-0131
Washington D.C.: (202)595-8990


Please consider making a donation to the important work of National
Immigrant Solidarity Network

Send check pay to:
National Immigrant Solidarity Network/AFGJ

and mail to:
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
P.O. Box 751
South Pasadena, CA 91031-0751
(All donations are tax deductible)


*to join the immigrant Solidarity Network daily news litserv, send e-mail
to: isn-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
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*a monthly ISN monthly Action Alert! listserv, go to webpage
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Immigrant Rights!
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[SDCPJ] U.S. Boat to Gaza - San Diego's Emergency Response Rally!

U.S. BOAT TO GAZA


Emergency Response Plans

In late June, a U.S. flagged ship called The Audacity of Hope will join the 2nd Freedom Flotilla - Stay Human as people from 22 nations set sail to Gaza challenging the Israeli naval blockade. Though the flotilla has the right under international law to do exactly what it is doing and has made abundantly clear its commitment to nonviolence, the government of Israel has publicly stated that they are prepared to act illegally and violently and take severe, even potentially life-threatening, action against the boats and their passengers.

The U.S. Boat to Gaza organizing committee urges people throughout this country to plan now for Emergency Response actions. The power of such actions will be the number of cities they are held in and the numbers of people who participate. Now is the time to start planning.


The San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice will hold an EMERGENCY RESPONSE RALLY from 4-7pm the day following any attack by Israel on the Freedom Flotilla.  Gather at the Federal Bldg., 880 Front Street, downtown San Diego.


Emergency Response Rally for the Freedom Flotilla

When:  from 4-7pm the day FOLLOWING an attack by Israel on the Flotilla

Where:  San Diego Federal Building, 880 Front Street




--
Lynn
San Diego Military Counseling Project
www.sdmcp.org

Saturday, June 18, 2011

[SDCPJ] Join in community and labor coalition

Dear Peace and Justice activist

Join us in a Community-Labor Coalition with the San Diego Labor Council.  The Labor Council is holding an economic summit at the end of August near Labor Day, and is reaching out to community groups, organizations, and individuals.

I'm trying to organize the "community" part of this coalition - which is just a couple of weeks old.

Please let me know if you and/or your organization is interested. Send me an email or phone call (619-962-4804) if you'd like to discuss this or if you have any questions.

 I think it's great that our local San Diego and Imperial County Labor Council is currently headed by a progressive person, Lorena Gonzales, and that the Council sees a significant priority to align with community groups.

So, please let me know.

Frank Gormlie, Editor and Publisher, OB Rag

Friday, June 17, 2011

[SDCPJ] Fw: Know Your Rights with the Police Workshop / Sus Derechos con La Policia Taller

 
----- Original Message -----
From: A Carter
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 8:33 PM
Subject: Know Your Rights with the Police Workshop / Sus Derechos con La Policia Taller

Please distribute widely. We will have Spanish interpretation for this workshop.

If you would like to see the full schedule or more details about the National Lawyer's Guild Conference that this is a part of, please visit: www.sandiegonlg.org.


 


[SDCPJ] Activist Summit - Mon, June 20 - 7PM - Activist San Diego's 12th Anniversary General Meeting


 Activist San Diego's 12th Anniversary

MONDAY, June 20th at 7 PM

General Meeting and Activist Summit

For the last 12 years Activist San Diego has sought to be an information, communications and mobilization hub for left-progressives in the border region. From humble beginnings and a big vision ASD set out to be a catalyst for more grassroots activism and to grow the movement for social change.  All of what we accomplished was thanks to you and the Network for Social Justice; organizations and individuals willing to unite for common cause.

Celebrate the past, Prepare for the future!

ASD wants you to be part of our next stage of development and is calling on activists of all stripes to help us envision the next 12 years. 

ASD has an impressive record of having initiated or co-sponsored 375+ community events, forums, rallies, campaigns, teach-ins, workshops, educationals and speakers (including Michael Moore, Greg Palast, Amy Goodman).  We sustained a weekly email newsletter, the Activist Update, for 550 issues. ASD and the PRC initiated the SD Coalition for Peace and Justice. The Activist Film Series showed more than 100 films in the community. ASD purchased and maintained the Activist Center and provided community meeting space, a housing coop and office space for many emerging non-profits including: TranscenDance Youth Arts Project, SD Military Counseling Project, Fernando Suarez's Guerrero Azteca Peace Project, (Salvadorean Women's Coop), Just Garments,  City Heights Free Skool, Bike Kitchen, Collective Memory Project, Activist Youth of SD and several other initiatives. 

Most recently ASD landed a Construction Permit from the FCC to launch a new 'full-power" FM, listener-supported, educational radio station to be run by the SD Community Radio Project!


Nevertheless ASD is a long way from being able to transform the political landscape in San Diego County -- that is why we need your vision and your help.

Join us for a change!  June's General meeting will be:

1-part Celebration of our accomplishments (Add your 30-60 second blurb from the floor).

1-part Introduction and election of our new board members; come cheer them on.

1-part Activist Summit to rethink ASD's future, done in the style of the Peace Cafe (small tables followed by collective presentations).

 

Snacks and tabling opportunities will be available

MONDAY, June 20th at 7 PM

Joyce Beers Community Center

in Hillcrest (4065 Vermont St. San Diego, CA 92103).

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join us!

For more information call:  619-871-9354 cell, office 619-528-8383 Info@ActivistSanDiego.org



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