US

There Is No Future In War: Youth Manifesto

September 13, 2014 Ben Norton, Tyra Walker, Anastasia Taylor, Alli McCracken, Colleen Moore, Jes Grobman, Ashley Lopez , www.codepink.salsalabs.com Organize! Manifesto, Peace, US, Wars and Militarism

We, the youth of the United States of America, oppose war. We oppose war not because we don’t care about the rest of the world; we oppose war precisely because we do. We oppose war not because we don’t care about our security; we oppose war precisely because we do. We oppose war not because we don’t care about our troops; we oppose war precisely because we do. We oppose war not because we aren’t concerned with our future; we oppose war precisely because we do. There is no future in war. We, the youth of America, are taking a stand against war and reclaiming our future. War does not work. Period.

Huge New Israeli Settlement Condemned By US And UK

September 2, 2014 Peter Beaumont, www.theguardian.com Educate! Hamas, Israel, Palestine, US

The UK and US governments have criticised, in unusually strong language, Israel's decision to approve one of the largest appropriations of Palestinian land for settlement in recent decades. The UK foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said he deplored the move as "particularly ill-judged". However, Israel's economics minister, Naftali Bennett, who visited the Gush Etzion settlement in the occupied West Bank on Monday, applauded Sunday's decision as an "appropriate Zionist response to murder". Bennett said: "What we did yesterday was a display of Zionism. Building is our answer to murder." The settlement affects nearly 400 hectares (1,000 acres) at Gvaot near Bethlehem, which have been designated as state land, as opposed to land privately owned by Palestinians, clearing the way for the potential Israeli building. Israel's announcement comes after an apparently concerted effort by some of its officials and politicians to use the kidnap and murder of three religious students earlier this summer to justify the expropriation. The direct link between the murder of the three students, which shocked Israeli society, and the announcement suggests the move was designed in part as a punitive measure.

Iraq Escalation: Troops Headed Back To Fallujah

August 16, 2014 Jason Ditz, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Foreign Policy, Iraq, ISIS, US, Wars and Militarism

Having ditched the Yazidi rescue pretext for the new US war in Iraq, after discovering there weren’t really many Yazidis to rescue in the first place, the US has reportedly set its sights on the Anbar Province, site of some of the bloodiest US battles during the previous occupation. In an interview with Reuters, Anbar Governor Ahmed Khalaf al-Dulaimi confirmed meetings with US diplomats and senior military officials, and secured a promise of not only air strikes against ISIS holdings in the province, but a military presence on the ground. “No date was decided but it will be very soon and there will be a presence for the Americans in the western area,” Dulaimi confirmed. ISIS controls materially all of the Anbar Province at this point. Anbar was the first major territorial gain for ISIS in Iraq, way back in January when they seized Fallujah and Ramadi, the main cities in the province. Since then, they’ve expanded, and were believed to have recently taken the Haditha Dam, one of the last sites outside their control in the province.

Jewish Support For Israel Fades In United States

August 16, 2014 Sarah Posner, www.religiondispatches.org Educate! Gaza, Israel, Jewish, US

Three weeks ago, a group of young American Jews gathered outside the New York offices of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the umbrella organization founded in the 1950s and which claims to speak for a consensus of the American Jewish community. The young Jews outside, though, were challenging that organization’s claim to speak in their name. They read aloud the names of Palestinians and Israelis killed in the latest military escalation between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and they recited the Mourner’s Kaddish. A few days later, the group delivered a letter to the Conference’s CEO, Malcolm Hoenlein, demanding “that the Conference of Presidents join our call to stop the war on Gaza, end the occupation, and forge a path forward for freedom and dignity for all people in Israel and Palestine.” Nine activists were arrested for civil disobedience. Hoenlein called the protest “very insignificant” and the protesters “Jewish kids who are misguided.” Known as #IfNotNow (a use of the well-known words of the first century rabbinical sage Hillel), the group is made up of Jewish activists, some of whom are veterans of J Street, the inside-the-beltway advocacy group launched in 2008 that describes itself as “the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans.”

Geneva, Bid To Shame US Over Killings

August 15, 2014 Massoud Hayoun, www.america.aljazeera.com Organize! Human Rights, police brutality, UN, US

As outraged residents of Ferguson, Missouri continue to protest a police shooting that left unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown dead, Ron Davis – the father of another slain black teen in Jacksonville, Florida – is aiming to shame the United States before the United Nations for what he says are murders committed with impunity against young black men. Davis' bid comes amid efforts in Ferguson to build a more-than-a-century-old civil rights movement in response to Brown's killing that community leaders say never took hold in the Greater St. Louis area. At the 85th meeting of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday and Thursday, Davis hopes to pressure Washington to bolster efforts to stop the phenomenon of what he and the United States Human Rights Network (USHRN), the NGO backing him, call “the criminalization of race” in America. The U.S. will be forced at the meeting to answer questions from Davis and the international community in what the American Civil Liberties Union told the press Wednesday was a singular opportunity to hold Washington accountable.

Obama Unleashes US Imperialism To Loot Africa

August 7, 2014 John Feffer, www.fpif.org Educate! Africa, Foreign Policy, Imperialism, US

President Obama is definitely “into” Africa. As much as possible in a world riven by multiple crises, the president has made the continent a focus of his policymaking. Turning his own Kenyan heritage into a personal bridge to the region, he has visited Africa three times as president – in 2009, 2011, and 2013. He has touted his administration’s multi-billion initiatives such as Power Africa to bring electricity to millions of homes, a fellowship program for young African leaders, and the continuation of efforts to fight HIV-AIDS and other infectious diseases. At a time when criticism is mounting about the way the president is handling the rest of the world, Africa is shaping up to be Obama’s major play for a legacy. This week, to better position this effort, Obama welcomed delegations from 51 African countries to Washington for an unprecedented summit. As part of its press blitz, the White House released a fact sheet that detailed all the State Department’s high-profile programs including support for democracy in Nigeria, an expansion of civil society activity in Liberia, and an open government initiative in Sierra Leone. Many of these initiatives are indeed admirable, and I can imagine State Department staffers grumbling that the media focus on Ebola and Boko Haram has left no space for these more upbeat stories.

US Practicing For Military Conflicts With China, WW II Like Invasion?

August 1, 2014 Conn Hallinan, www.original.antiwar.com Educate! China, Foreign Policy, Japan, US, Wars and Militarism

The past six months have seen an incredible ratcheting up of tensions in the East and South China Seas, where the world’s three largest economies – China, the United States, and Japan – are caught up in an increasingly tangled web of territorial disputes, competing alliances, and historical grievances. In February, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry assured Japan that the Americans would defend Japan in case of a military confrontation between Tokyo and Beijing. That same month, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert said the Philippines could count on American support if there were a clash with China in the South China Sea. In early May, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces practiced “retaking” islands of the Amami Group near Okinawa in a not-so-subtle challenge to China over the ownership of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. That same week, U.S. and Philippine forces held joint war games, while President Barack Obama promised “ironclad” support against “aggressive” neighbors interested in “changing the status quo” in Asia. Since then, the competing claims have only escalated. In mid-May, China challenged Japanese ownership of Okinawa, stating it did “not belong to Japan,” challenging Tokyo and indirectly calling into question the presence of huge U.S. bases on the island.

US-Supported Firing Missiles In Ukraine?

July 30, 2014 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Educate! Journalism, Mass Media, Russia, Ukraine, US

One day after the U.S. government accused Russia of betraying a signature treaty by test-firing a medium-range ballistic missile, questions are mounting on Tuesday over whether the Ukrainian Army has actually fired short-range ballistic missiles at rebel-held areas in the east of the country. [A U.S. official] said it is not clear if the United States will show satellite imagery of the Ukrainian firings "because these are the good guys." —CNN reportWith no mention of potential civilian casualties, CNN reported on Tuesday that according to three U.S. officials, in the past 48 hours the Ukrainian military had fired several short-range ballistic missiles "into areas controlled by Russian separatists." CNN reports: One U.S. official said so far, there has been no reaction from Russia. A second official said it is not clear if the United States will show satellite imagery of the Ukrainian firings "because these are the good guys." Another of the U.S. officials called the firings "an escalation, but Ukraine has a right to defend itself." So far, the Ukrainian government has not publicly acknowledged the missile firings. CNN is seeking a comment from Kiev. While U.S. officials say they don't think pro-Russian rebels have used ballistic missiles, they remain concerned about how Russia might respond.

U.S. Accused Of Forcing EU To Accept Tar Sands Oil

July 19, 2014 Carey L. Biron, www.ipsnews.net Educate! Canada, European Union (EU), Free Trade Agreements, Tar Sands, TTIP, US

Newly publicised internal documents suggest that U.S. negotiators are working to permanently block a landmark regulatory proposal in the European Union aimed at addressing climate change, and instead to force European countries to import particularly dirty forms of oil. Environmentalists, working off of documents released through open government requests, say U.S. trade representatives are responding to frustrations voiced by the oil and gas industry here. This week, U.S. and E.U. officials are in Brussels for the sixth round of talks towards what would be the world’s largest free-trade area, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). “These documents show that the U.S. is simply not interested in an open, transparent [negotiation] process.” -- Bill Waren “These documents show that the U.S. is simply not interested in an open, transparent [negotiation] process,” Bill Waren, a senior trade analyst with Friends of the Earth U.S., a watchdog group, told IPS. “Rather, U.S. representatives have been lobbying on the [E.U. regulatory proposal] in a way that reflects the interests of Chevron, ExxonMobil and others.” The oil industry has repeatedly expressed concern over the European Union’s potential tightening of regulations around transport fuel emissions, first proposed in 2009 for what’s known as the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD). Yet according to a report released Thursday by Friends of the Earth Europe, the sector now appears to have convinced the U.S. government to work to permanently block the implementation of this standard.

Wikileaks Cables: Ukraine Elected “Our Ukraine Insider”

June 30, 2014 SCG News, www.readersupportednews.org Educate! coup, Politics, Ukraine, US, Wikileaks

There's not much point in staging a coup if you don't influence who is placed in power in the aftermath. Of course in order for a puppet government to be effective, they can't be perceived as such. You wouldn't want the natives to get restless would you? The evidence that the U.S. was behind the toppling of the Ukrainian government early this year is so overwhelming at this point that the subject really isn't up for debate, however initially it was unclear how the election of Petro Poroshenko fit in. The ecstatic response by Washington when he was declared the winner, and their unbending support in spite of his ongoing military assault against civilians in the east, made it clear that he was the chosen one, but the paper trail wasn't immediately obvious. As it turns out, the evidence that Poroshenko is in the pocket of the U.S. State Department has been available all this time, you just had to know where to find it. In a classified diplomatic cable from 2006 released by Wikileaks.org, U.S. officials refer to Poroshenko as "Our Ukraine (OU) insider Petro Poroshenko". A separate cable also released by Wikileaks makes it clear that the U.S. government was considered Poroshenko corrupt.

UN: Detroit Violating Human Rights

June 26, 2014 AFP, www.yahoo.com Educate! Detroit, Human Rights, UN, US, Water

UN rights experts on Wednesday slammed struggling US city Detroit for violating the basic human rights of its citizens by disconnecting thousands of people from water services over unpaid bills. Cash-strapped Detroit, which last July became the largest US city to ever file for bankruptcy protection, has recently begun disconnecting water services on a large scale, for all households that have not paid bills for two months, the three experts said in a statement. The birthplace of the US auto industry has accelerated the process since early June, with around 3,000 customers cut off each week, and some 30,000 households expected to be disconnected from water services over the next few months, they said. "Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights," they insisted. "The households which suffered unjustified disconnections must be immediately reconnected," they said.

Education Reform: Lessons From The U.S. On What Not To Do

June 8, 2014 Rachel Brickner, www.rabble.ca Create! Education, Inequality, Privatization, Reform, US

The Minister's Panel on Education has challenged Nova Scotians to "get involved" and help "effect change in the education system." Public schools are among our most important democratic institutions, so the call for public input is a welcome one. If the Minister's panel really wants to effect positive change in Nova Scotia's public schools, it's worth paying serious attention to what is and isn't working in other contexts. Efforts to reform education in the United States provide a number of examples of what not to do. Since the 1980s, policy-makers have looked at U.S. schools, especially those in urban areas, and seen an educational system in crisis. Although this view is contested, a coalition of education "reformers" has spent the past 25 years promoting changes to education policy that emphasize three broad pillars: choice, increased standards and accountability. First, reformers advocate giving parents more choice in where they can send their children to school. School choice policies have led to an expansion of charter schools, which are publicly funded, but privately managed, and voucher programs, which give parents a tax credit toward tuition at a private or religious school. In principle, this competition would improve public education by forcing poorly performing schools to improve or face closure, while rewarding successful schools with more students and funding.

US Healthcare System Increasing Profits For Wealthy

June 3, 2014 Donna Smith, www.commondreams.org Educate! Affordable Care Act, Health Care, US

It has been nine days since I updated my numbers of health care dead and broke. Who noticed? Well, I am sure the dead and the broke did. The profit-first, greedy health care system in the U.S. continues its march toward ever increasing profits for those who are already wealthy. Disclaimer: I am not against being wealthy, making money or enjoying whatever the finer things in life are to each person. I rather like money and having enough of it not to worry about paying the bills. I do object to profiting off the suffering of others or as a friend of mine used to describe it, "bartering human life for money." And our health care system has become so dysfunctional that most of us just accept that we must wade through the mess in order to receive the care needed. For the past several years, I have fought to change this system to an improved and expanded Medicare for all for life system. Fighting this fight has been enlightening in that even within the social justice movements their is a sort of hierarchy of power, wealth and leadership, and sometimes those powers and leaders are distracted.

International Report Ranks US Poorly For Treatment Of Workers

May 30, 2014 Kevin Short, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! US, Worker Rights and Jobs, Worker's Rights

Where are the worst places on the planet to be a worker? A new report by the International Trade Union Confederation, an umbrella organization of unions around the world, sheds light on the state of workers' rights across 139 countries. For its 2014 Global Rights Index, the ITUC evaluated 97 different workers' rights metrics like the ability to join unions, access to legal protections and due process, and freedom from violent conditions. The group ranks each country on a scale of 1 (the best protections) to 5 (the worst protections). The study found that in at least 35 countries, workers have been arrested or imprisoned "as a tactic to resist demands for democratic rights, decent wages, safer working conditions and secure jobs." In a minimum of nine countries, murder and disappearance are regularly used to intimidate workers. Denmark was the only country in the world to achieve a perfect score, meaning that the nation abides by all 97 indicators of workers' rights. The U.S., embarrassingly, scored a 4, indicating "systematic violations" and "serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers."

US Tried To Stop Allende Before He Was Elected

May 30, 2014 HNN, www.hnn.us Educate! Allende, Chile, CIA, History, US

Covert U.S. planning to block the democratic election of Salvador Allende in Chile began weeks before his September 4, 1970, victory, according to just declassified minutes of an August 19, 1970, meeting of the high-level interagency committee known as the Special Review Group, chaired by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. "Kissinger asked that the plan be as precise as possible and include what orders would be given September 5, to whom, and in what way," as the summary recorded Kissinger's instructions to CIA Director Richard Helms. "Kissinger said we should present to the President an action plan to prevent [the Chilean Congress from ratifying] an Allende victoryâ€¦and noted that the President may decide to move even if we do not recommend it." The document is one of a compendium of some 366 records released by the State Department as part of its Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series. The much-delayed collection, titled "Chile: 1969-1973," addresses Richard Nixon's and Kissinger's efforts to destabilize the democratically elected Socialist government of Salvador Allende, and the U.S.-supported coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power in 1973. The controversial volume was edited by two former officials of the State Department's Office of the Historian, James Siekmeier and James McElveen.

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