RIP Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn, historian, political activist and author of the People’s History of the United States, has died.  He was traveling in California last week and succumbed to a heart attack at age 87.  Here is an article from the Boston Globe:

Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87

“He’s made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture,” Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, said tonight. “He’s changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can’t think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Rest in peace Howard Zinn.  Your words and actions and examples will live forever.

Rethinking Afghanistan: Sign the Petition

Sign the petition online

Father Roy Bourgeois and SOA Watch Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Father Roy Bourgeois and SOA Watch Nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize

Father Roy Bourgeois, MM, and School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) have been nominated for one of the most prestigious
awards in the world – the Nobel Peace Prize – for their sustained faithful nonviolent witness against the disappearances, torture, and
murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians (peasants, community and union organizers, clerics, missionaries, educators, and health
workers) by foreign military personnel trained by the U.S. military at U.S. taxpayer expense at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning,
Georgia.

The candidacy of Father Roy and SOA Watch for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize has been officially submitted to the Nobel Committee in Oslo,
Norway by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. The official announcement was made by AFSC
representative John Meyer on Sunday, November 22 at 9am at the gates of Fort Benning (home of the School of the Americas) during the annual
November vigil to close the SOA.

“We are deeply honored, and deeply humbled, to be nominated for this prize for peace,” commented Bourgeois, a Vietnam veteran,
Purple Heart recipient and a Catholic priest, who helped found SOA Watch.  “This nomination is a recognition of the work of the thousands struggling against militarism across the Americas.”

SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement that works through creative protest and resistance, legislative and grassroots media work
to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America, to close the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for
Security Cooperation) and to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy that institutions like the SOA/ WHINSEC represent.

This weekend, SOA Watch is gathering by the thousands at the gates of Ft. Benning to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the killings of
14-year-old Celia Ramos, her mother Elba Ramos, and the six Jesuit priests she worked with at the Central American University in San
Salvador in November 1989. Human rights defenders from Colombia and Bertha Oliva, founder of human rights organization COFADEH, Committee
of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras, which has been actively resisting the SOA graduate-led coup as part of the
resistance front.

FIVE TORTURE PROTESTERS ARRESTED AT FORT HUACHUCA

More than 150 people rallied against torture on Sunday, November 15,
at Len Roberts Park in Sierra Vista, Arizona. After listening to
speakers and music, the group carried signs and candles remembering
the victims of torture in a one mile procession to the main gate of
Ft. Huachuca, home of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center where
interrogators are trained.  Along the way, names of people killed as a
result of torture were called out, and the group responded with
³Presente!².  The procession stopped at the office of CACI, a private
military contractor implicated in the abuse of Iraqi detainees.

Soon after the protesters arrived at the gate, five people, including
two Roman Catholic priests, crossed the street and entered the base
with a message for military personnel and civilian employees.  They
carried a statement (below) opposing the cruel treatment and abuse of
detainees from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and calling for the
civilian oversight of all military interrogation practices.  The
statement also condemned the use of armed drones in warfare.

October 17th anti-war Actions

Greens around the country will be taking the Green Party Peace Message to the streets in a national day of action to protest US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

Taken from the GPUS National Discussion List:

OHIO:
The ‘Green Party Stands for PEACE’ will be the sign that will be carried at the peace vigil in Dayton next Saturday. We asking Green National Committee Delegates and party members to participate in some action or event on Saturday, October 17th. Some cities have active coalitions who are mobilizing. But in most cities and towns there may not be any organized effort. In those areas you may want to plan some event or action either in coalition with other groups or as the Green Party. In Dayton, we are planning 2 street vigils/protests. A small action will be better than none.

We hope to have a follow up to Oct. 17 th. with a conference call to talk about the party’s roll in the peace movement and how we can move things forward. We believe peace education and direct actions go hand in hand.

COLORADO:
The GPCO is participating in:

8 Years in Afghanistan: The Human Cost

Join us for Eyes Wide Open, the Human Cost of War, As there are
commemorations all around the world to mark this chilling anniversary, we will be participating in Denver with the Eyes Wide Open Exhibit

Saturday, October 17, 2009
9 am – 2pm

At noon there will be a special remembrance of lives lost in Afghanistan and Iraq, both civilian and military.

The location is the public space between the library and the art museum in downtown Denver. 10 W 14th Ave Parkway

MICHIGAN:
North Country Greens will be having a small action at the post office in Marquette,Michigan on October 17th with signs against the wars and slogans such as “Health Care not Warfare – Green Party.” (We spent September focusing on vigiling for HR 676.) Not muchfoot traffic for leafletting, but lots of car traffic at the intersection to see our signs and two Green Party green banners.

October 17th is an opportunity to get “peace” and “Green Party” connected in folks’ minds, and to point out that both the Democrats and Republicans are war parties, despite
Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. Even small actions are important. Let’s do it, Greens!

GPUS Endorses October 17 actions

The Green Party of Ohio has voted to endorse the October 17, 2009 peace
actions being called by the National Assembly to End the Iraq and
Afghanistan Wars and Occupations.

October 17 Local and Regional Actions (www.NatAssembly.org)

October has several dates with significance for the peace movement.
October, 2009 will mark the eighth year of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and
seven years since Congress passed the resolution authorizing war against
Iraq. In addition, October commemorates the 40th anniversary of the
Vietnam Moratorium that brought hundreds of thousands into the streets to
protest the war.Designate October 17 as a day for mass rallies, marches,
coordinated local and regional demonstrations and other forms of protest
with unequivocal antiwar demands:Immediately and unconditionally
withdrawal all U.S. troops, military personnel, bases, contractors and
mercenaries from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan!End U.S. support for the
Israeli occupation of Palestine! End to the siege against Gaza!U.S. hands
off Iran and North Korea!Self-determination for all oppressed nations and
peoples!End war crimes, including torture!

Motivation

We insist on the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S.
troops, military personnel, bases, contractors and mercenaries from Iraq,
Afghanistan and Pakistan. We demand an immediate end to all U.S. support
for the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the ongoing siege against Gaza
and the Palestinian people. We oppose sanctions,threats of war, and
attacks against Iran, North Korea, Somalia, or any other nation, whose
right to self-determination is under assault by Washington’s aggressive
drive for hegemony. We strongly oppose interference in the internal
affairs of these countries, as well as Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and any
other nation targeted by the U.S. government for political
destabilization. The lopsided vote by the U.S. House of Representatives –
368-60 – on May 14, 2009 approving the Obama administration’s request for
$97 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan
and the Senate’s follow-up vote on June 18, 2009 approving by a 91-5
majority $105.9 billion for the same purpose make clear the bipartisan
support for continuation of the wars and occupations. It also underscores
why an independent, unified, mass action antiwar movement is needed now
more than ever. We support without equivocation the right of all oppressed
nations and peoples to self-determination, whether in the Middle East or
in other parts of the world, such as Haiti.

We stand in solidarity with working people, their unions and allies, and
so we demand that the trillions being spent on wars and the military be
diverted to the support of homeowners, the opening of plants to create new
green jobs instead of seeing them shut down, and preventing the slashing
of urgently needed social programs.

References

http://www.natassembly.org/

Shoes at Bush

YOU TUBE from DC SHOE BUSH actions of 1/19

Venezuela Reinstates Free Home Heating Oil for Poor in US

By: Tyler Bridges, McClatchy Newspapers Source: Truthout Published: 01.07.2009

The Venezuelan government reversed course Wednesday, announcing that its U.S. oil subsidiary would continue to provide free home heating oil to poor Americans two days after the government announced that the program had been suspended.

Critics of President Hugo Chavez had pummeled him since Monday for suspending a program that he had milked for its maximum publicity as a champion of the poor, even in the U.S.

In the wake of Monday’s announced halt, analysts had predicted this was only the first of Chavez’s ambitious foreign assistance programs that would disappear, given the sharp drop in oil prices and the Venezuelan government’s dependence on oil export income.

Venezuelan government officials wasted no time in reinstating the program, which saved about 180,000 U.S. households around $260 apiece in 2008. That covered about one month’s heating bill.

Read the entire article: www.truthout.org/010809N

Torture on Trial

The Torture on Trial Protest at Ft. Huachuca in mid-November was held in tandem with the Close the School of the Americas Vigil.  Ft. Huachuca, located 70 miles southeast of Tucson, Arizona, houses the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School (USAICS). Ft. Huachuca has a long history of complicity in U.S. crimes of torture.  Read the website for more info on Ft. Huachuca and the event itself.

Three people were arrested (each is linked to their respective statements)
Sr. Megan Rice, 78, from Las Vegas, Nevada
Fr. Louie Vitale, 76, from Oakland, California
Dennis Duvall, 66, from Prescott, Arizona

See the photo gallery of the Ft. Huachuca Protest here.

The Sanctuary of Presente

This poem was created by Kenneth Kennon in Arizona, organizer of the Ft. Huachuca event, sister action to the Close the School of the Americas vigil:

The Sanctuary of Presente

by Kenneth Kennon

The fence was transformed

Once again

Into an unseasonable sacred space

A sanctuary of nonviolence

By the power of the spirit

Festooned on chain-links and barbed wire

White crosses and stars hung

Carrying names of the disappeared

Their holy images

And banners with messages of hope

This quiet metamorphosis

Emerged from simple acts of many hands

As tears welled

Names rang through stately wood

Of brillant and falling leaves of autumn

In solemn preparation

Of a joyous spring

Presente