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Peace Movement

To Prevent Or Stop Wars: What Can Peace Movements Do?

May 3, 2017 René Wadlow, www.transcend.org
By René Wadlow for TRANSCEND Media Service - 1 May 2017 – Christine Schweitzer, the current chair of the War Resisters’ International and very involved with the Balkans Peace Team during the 1980s Yugoslav wars, has written a useful analysis of peace organizations opposition to government military policy, basically using secondary sources. There is a good bibliography on nonviolent protests with numerous references to works in German which may be less known to FOR readers. She focuses on opposition within the USA to the war in Vietnam and the two wars in Iraq (1991) and (2003). There is also a chapter on the peace movement opposition to US government aid to the Contras of Nicaragua. She does not deal with the movements that sought a ban of certain types of weapons, cluster munitions, land mines, drones nor efforts to control nuclear weapons (the Freeze) nor “Ban the Bomb” whose renewed effort is underway at the UN General Assembly these days. The book does not go into a description of socio-economic conditions which may be a cause – or at least an important factor – in armed conflicts. Thus one has to know already something of economic conditions...

Where Is The Peace Movement When We Really Need It?

April 29, 2017 Ethan Young, www.indypendent.org ,
By Ethan Young for The Indypendent - We now live under a regime that sees catastrophic war moves as a handy distraction from its endless failures. The boundaries between the executive branch, corporations, finance and the military are fast losing substance. We stand by in horror as they play chicken with the world from Syria to Russia to North Korea. A mass peace movement is urgently needed but still a long way away. Why? There are a number of “common sense” reasons that have been floating around the left for decades. There is a long-held belief that ending the draft removed the life-or-death motivation that revived anti-interventionism beyond all expectations during the Vietnam war. Continued sympathy for the Democratic Party is also blamed for the lack of protest over the war moves of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. However, what is extraordinary about the U.S. peace movement is not that it receded, but that it emerged at all during the 1960s, affecting the national culture and posing lasting problems for both dominant parties. This mini-enlightenment marked a shift in national consensus from ardently pro-military to anti-intervention, with elements of pacifism and persistent anti-fascism that were defining features of the emerging counterculture.

Obituary: Minneapolis Pacifist Went To Prison Three Times Opposing War

April 23, 2017 Randy Furst, www.startribune.com , , ,
By Randy Furst for the Star Tribune. In the early 1950s, during the onset of the Korean War, he and his brothers Joel, Paul and Sid refused to register for the draft and were convicted in federal court and sent to prison. Someone registered them, according to his daughter, so when they got out of prison, they received a military call-up notice. They refused to show up for induction, were convicted again and sent to prison a second time. “He used to say to me, ‘One person doing something is better than a thousand people doing nothing,’ ” she recalled. “He never gave up on trying to educate and raise people’s consciousness.”

The Peace Movement And Resistance In Dark Times

December 11, 2016 Joseph Gerson, www.truth-out.org , ,
By Joseph Gerson for Truthout. Let me begin by celebrating the people across the country who didn't roll over and play dead when Donald Trump said he wanted to deport up to 3 million undocumented "criminal immigrants" who he imagines are among us. We weren't silent when his advisor urged the creation of a Muslim registry, or in the face of the reckless rhetoric of tearing up the Iran nuclear deal. Didn't we take hope when people spontaneously came out into the streets? Raise your hand if you took hope from the Hamilton cast pressing Vice-President-elect Mike Pence to defend our diversity and rights. And weren't we encouraged when mayors and governors pledged to enforce our sanctuary cities and states? Friends, what we do in the coming weeks will be important -- continuing to set down moral markers, illuminating the threats to our nation and rallying for what could be the most important struggle for the soul and identity of this nation since the Civil War. What we do in this period can strengthen the backbones of our congressional and state legislative representatives, opinion-makers and people at the grassroots to defend our Constitution, our rights and to oppose Trumpian militarism.

Trump Silver Lining: People Are Organizing

December 11, 2016 Peter Bergel, www.peaceworker.org ,
By Peter Bergel for Peaceworker. Here’s a specific suggestion, recently offered by a friend: as Donald Trump follows his inauguration on January 20 with 100 days of revealing to us what his administration’s agenda is going to be, let us begin 100 Days of Peace and Justice during which we reveal what our agenda is going to be. Never in the history of the world has there been a leader who was able to govern without the cooperation – or at least the acquiescence – of the governed. Let us make it clear that we will only accept governance that meets our needs and aspirations. Under the umbrella of 100 Days of Peace and Justice we can speak with a unified voice on all the issues we care about by demonstrating what we want and resisting what we do not want. Initiate projects that fire your enthusiasm and refuse cooperation with those that do not represent you. No overall coordination is required. As the overused slogan says: Just do it.

What Could Unite A Larger Peace Movement? Oh, This!

November 5, 2016 David Swanson, www.davidswanson.org
By David Swanson for Let's Try Democracy - In a time of division and disagreement, when people who all agree on something important sometimes spend more time bickering with each other than working on their collective cause, is it possible to craft an agenda that brings them together and adds to their numbers? It turns out, somewhat to my surprise, the answer is yes.

Why Campaigns, Not Protests, Get The Goods

October 30, 2016 George Lakey, www.wagingnonviolence.org , , ,
By George Lakey for Waging Nonviolence. In order to build the kind of power that creates change you need a direct action campaign that harnesses a series of actions into an escalating sequence. Millions of Americans have participated in the past half-century in such campaigns: bus boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins, the Fight for $15, farmworkers, campus divestment campaigns on South African apartheid and fossil fuels, strikes against corporations, impeding mountaintop removal coal mining, blocking the U.S. plan to invade Nicaragua, preventing the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline. Despite this, most Americans don’t understand the difference between a protest and a campaign. Campaigns are very different from protests because they are built for sustainability and escalation. The United States has its own legacy of powerful campaigns and a pool of hard-won skills in our population. It’s time to retire one-off protests, and step up to wins that can lay the foundation of a living revolution.

Crises In Peace Movement? Need To Make Our Voices Heard

July 27, 2016 Harry Targ, www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com
By Harry Targ for Diary of a Heartland Radical - I have been a member of a grassroots peace group for 25 years. We mobilized a teach-in and other activities against Gulf War One, had daily demonstrations against the bombing of Serbia, mobilized panels and demonstrations against the lead up to and perpetuation of the brutal war in Iraq, worked with Palestinian solidarity groups, and marched against proposed bombing of Syria in 2013. Our numbers have peaked and ebbed over this long period. Currently membership is less than ten, although many former and current members have been involved in a variety of other campaigns

What A 21st-Century Peace Movement Looks Like

July 12, 2016 Alice Slater, www.thenation.com
By By Alice Slater for The Nation - As President Obama flew to a NATO Summit meeting in Warsaw this weekend to plan and develop new ways for this rusty Cold War alliance to extend its reach and power in Europe and Asia, issuing new calls for billions more in funds to enhance their saber rattling war games and expansion to the Russian border, New York peace groups organized a Say-No-to-NATO rally in Times Square as European activists demonstrated in protest in Warsaw.

Peace Activist, Poet and Writer, Daniel Berrigan Dead At 94

May 1, 2016 Variety of Sources, www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
From a variety of sources on the death of Daniel Berrigan: We are bereft. We are so sad. We are aching and wrung out. Our bodies are tired as Dan’s was—after a hip fracture, repeated infections, prolonged frailty. And we are so grateful: for the excellent and conscientious care Dan received at Murray Weigel, for his long life and considerable gifts, for his grace in each of our lives, for his courage and witness and prodigious vocabulary. Dan taught us that every person is a miracle, every person has a story, every person is worthy of respect.

White House Peace Vigil Will Keep Going, Activist Vows

February 8, 2016 John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us , , ,
By John Zangas for DC Media Group - The future of the longest-running peace protest in the U.S. recently came into question when its co-founder, Concepcion Picciotto, passed away on January 25. Picciotto was largely responsible for keeping the anti-nuclear vigil in front of the White House going since its beginning in August 1981. Long dreaded, her death is mourned by supporters and fellow volunteers who have kept the peace vigil going for 34 years. Her absence also creates a practical problem: how to cover the long shifts she put in every day through all kinds of weather.

The Forgotten Movement To Stop The Terror Wars After 9/11

February 4, 2016 Tom Engelhardt, www.tomdispatch.com , ,
By Tom Engelhardt for Tom Dispatch - Who even remembers the moment in mid-February 2003, almost 13 years ago, when millions of people across this country and the planet turned out in an antiwar moment unique in history? It was aimed at stopping a conflict that had yet to begin. Those demonstrators, myself included, were trying to put pressure on the administration of George W. Bush not to do what its top officials so visibly, desperately wanted to do: invade Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, garrison it for decades to come, and turn that country into an American gas station.

A Strategy For Antiwar Organizing

December 20, 2015 David Grosser, www.solidarity-us.org , , ,
By David Grosser for Solidarity. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the various national antiwar coalitions have occasionally mobilized up to one to two million people (one to two percent of the current antiwar public) to attend national protest actions. Impressive as that was, it was insufficient during the Bush years to seriously challenge the government’s conduct of the Iraq war. The movement had promising beginnings, but it lacked staying power. Recent turnouts have not come close to those of the early years of the Iraq occupation. Throughout the Bush era, participation continually declined, despite temporary up-ticks. And as public mobilization dwindled, so did the morale and energy of rank-and-file antiwar activists.
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