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Militarization

APEC Summit Brings More US Troops To Perú Amid National Strike

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Perú 2024, the annual meeting of the APEC Forum leaders, will be held from 10 to 16 November 2024 in various parts of the country. Among the confirmed attendees is Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , but noticeable absentees include Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, in what would be days after the US elections. APEC brings together 21 different countries in the Asia Pacific to “promote free trade” through the region, but only 11 have confirmed attendance, according to La Republica.

Is NATO Taking Over The Pacific?

As the United States increases its military confrontation with China through new military bases on Guam and the Philippines and more land, sea and air exercises with countries in the Asia-Pacific, the world’s largest naval war exercises are going to be held in the mid-Pacific from June 26 to August 2, 2024-and NATO is in the middle of it. 29 countries are participating in the 2024 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval war practice that will bring 40 ships, 3 submarines, over 150 aircraft, 14 national land forces and 25,000 personnel to the island of Oahu and the waters off Hawaii. Incredibly, one-third of the countries bringing ships, submarines and aircraft to the middle of the Pacific are not from Asia and the Pacific, but are from Europe--all members of the North ATLANTIC Treaty Organization (NATO).

The Center Of Gravity Is Tilting To The South

When the countries of the Global North, led by the United States, demanded that the countries of the Global South adopt the North Atlantic Treaty Organization position on the war in Ukraine (namely to isolate Russia), they refused, accusing the West of double standards. Numerous leaders have since pointed to the Global North’s weakening credibility, signaling a new mood in the Global South. These changes are shaped, on the one hand, by the Global North’s loss of economic power alongside its increasing militarization and, on the other, by the Global South’s growing political demand for sovereignty and economic development.

The US Military’s Real Intentions In Ecuador

History repeats itself. For centuries, the United States has sought ways to intervene in Latin America to strengthen its military presence and dominance in the region whenever a country is in crisis. And it is happening again. The current security crisis in Ecuador is presented as an opportunity for the United States to deepen its military presence in the Andean country.  Under the guise of “contributing together to a safer and more stable region,” Washington announced on January 12 that it was sending the head of the Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, and other senior counter-narcotics and diplomatic officials to Ecuador to discuss with the government of President Daniel Noboa how to combat organized crime.

Unease Over New Zealand Overtures To US Military Presence In The Pacific

Whangarei,New Zealand - Recent reports from New Zealand’s security state have sparked protest after all but suggesting the country join the U.S.-led AUKUS military alliance, a move that would reverse years of New Zealand’s independent foreign and defence policy and put it on a collision course with China. Ex-Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark lamented the loss of what would remain of the country’s military sovereignty. Clark blasted an “orchestrated campaign” by defence and security officials to join the U.S., Britain and Australia in AUKUS. In a Twitter thread, she said the government was “abandoning its capacity to think for itself and is instead cutting & pasting from Five Eyes partners.”

How Swedish Love For The US Turned Deadly

Generally speaking, Swedes really love the US. And I don’t just mean, oh we love the Brad Pitt movies and the whimsical images of Sunset Blvd (which by the way is way less whimsical in real life). No, I mean that Swedes really love the whole propagandized packaged-with-a-bloody-bow-on-top United States. There are more than a few cowboy-themed bars and restaurants in Stockholm. Hell, there’s even a TGI Friday’s. Some stores aim to peddle only American goods, which ultimately means they sell pop-tarts and peanut butter. Younger Swedes will adopt US slang, folding it into their Swedish sentences as awkwardly as one might try to fit a TGI Friday’s into a cobblestone and tree-lined promenade.

Cutting The Ties Between Higher Education And The Military

This episode of Nonviolence Radio welcomes @hellaJinsella from the UK peace organization, DeMilitarise Education, or dED. Jinsella has been actively working to raise awareness about the ties between higher education and the military. As these relationships have not generally been made public, military funding, and the accompanying environmental degradation the arms industry entails, has been able to thrive within universities without sustained challenge. DeMilitarise Education seeks to bring these connections to light. To this end, it has set up a database which tracks schools’ ties with the military and arms companies to be used as a tool to pressure the universities to break these damaging ties.

Veterans Quit DeSantis’ Florida State Guard Over Militia-Style Training

When the first recruiting class of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new Florida State Guard showed up for training last month, they had varied experiences and expectations. Over 30 days in June, teenagers out of high school and retired military veterans came to Camp Blanding, the National Guard base near Jacksonville. Many were told they would volunteer for a revived State Guard with a nonmilitary mission: help Floridians in times of need or disaster. Instead, the state’s National Guard trained the volunteers for combat. Khakis and polos were replaced by camouflaged uniforms. Volunteers assured they could keep their facial hair were ordered to shave.

Atlanta’s Attack On Cop City Protesters Should Be A Warning To Us All

The ongoing attack on the network of environmental and abolitionist activists in Atlanta should make all people concerned with the right to protest, the future of the environment and the rise of militarized police forces take notice. At 5 am on June 6, after over 200 community members had spoken against moving forward with the facility, the Atlanta City Council voted to allocate $31 million in public funds toward construction of a militarized police training center dubbed “Cop City.” This was the most recent development in a fierce and violent struggle over police expansion and forest preservation in Georgia, and has repercussions well beyond the state.

Atlanta Is Already A ‘Cop City’; This Is Why The Fight Is Intensifying

I’ve lived in Atlanta for my entire life. I tried to leave a few times, but l always somehow made my way back. I’ve never felt the sense of community that I feel here anywhere else. It’s a Black city, steeped in southern hospitality. That means that we’ll find a way to help each other, even if we don’t have the resources. It’s a community of deep creativity, a city of hustlers and artists with a culture of Blackness that people from other places often can’t understand. But it’s also a place where the gap between the rich and the poor is painfully clear. That gap is marked by the presence of police in low-income Black neighborhoods like mine.

Students Protest US Militarization Of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea - Students of Mt Hagen Technical College (HATECO) in Western Highlands Province staged a protest march to stop the signing of Defence Cooperation Agreement between PNG and the United States. Giving the same reasons, the University of Papua New Guinea, the University of Technology and the University of Goroka have all conducted protest marches demanding the Prime Minister James Marape not to sign the deal until and unless the citizens are fully aware of what is entailed in the document. Mt Hagen City was crowded yesterday with vehicles as hundreds of students and people marched around the city demanding the government not to sign the pact.

Organize A Stop Cop City Solidarity Action

The organizing against Cop City continues. Over 70% of Atlanta residents do not want it. For years, the city residents have been outspoken in opposition, filling city halls, organizing tree sits, contacting every level of government. In response the Georgia State Police murdered a land defender, Tortuguita in January, and have since charged over 40 people with domestic terrorism. Georgia police have responded with overwhelming and disproportionate violence. We know that this state repression will only grow with a huge influx of police into the majority Black city, and that cops from all over will be trained at this $90 million dollar facility. We need to stop Cop City.

The ‘American Plan’ 2.0

In the late 1980s, after the Feb. 7, 1986 fall of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, Washington began to implement in earnest its neo-liberal “structural adjustment” of Haiti. “Structural adjustment” is simply an economist’s euphemism for crushing austerity cuts, comprised of firing thousands of state workers, sale and closure of state enterprises, the dramatic lowering of tariffs, and the slashing of social programs. Journalist Michael Massing deftly described the havoc that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID or simply AID) brought to Haiti in late 1987 in the New York Review of Books.

Cop City Aims To Transform Police Into A Paramilitary Force

Atlanta, Georgia, with the support of the police force, banks and corporations, is trying to build a paramilitary police base in the Weelaunie Forest on 300 acres that was promised as a recreation space to the majority-black community living nearby. The base will be used to house police from across the nation and internationally to train them in urban warfare. The local community is largely opposed to it. They have been using traditional tactics of education, demonstrations and holding space through an occupation of the forest. This has all been met with state repression - violence, the murder of a 26-year old forest defender, arrests and felony terrorism charges. Kamau Franklin, of Community Movement Builders, speaks about the efforts to stop Cop City and why it represents the next level in the escalation of the militarization of police that will impact all of us. A week of action is currently underway.

‘Stop Cop City’ Week Of Action Begins In Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia – Atlanta-area forest defenders, community activists and their allies from around the country and the world are initiating a ‘week of action’ against a proposed ‘Cop City’ urban warfare campus and a movie industry facility that would demolish much of the largest urban forest in the country. The upcoming week of protests and direct actions comes less than two months after Georgia State Patrol shot and killed Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán in suspicious circumstances at a defense encampment near the proposed site on January 18, 2023. The week of action is kicking off with a rally at Gresham Park, with a music festival scheduled for the rest of the weekend.

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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