Medea Benjamin's Blog, page 11

We Are A Movement of Movements

by Rivera Sun

 

This piece was written for our contemporary myriad movements,

but it is particularly poignant in regards to the Wave Of Action,

which is attempting to tap into the incredible creativity around the

globe. As events, actions, and images are being crafted, remember to

look for opportunities to strategically collaborate with one another.

We can increase our strength by working together not only in name,

but in coordinated actions. Such is the case in the natural ecosystems

of the Earth, and so it is for emergent movements such as ours.

Thank you.

I feel like shaking everyone and saying, don’t you get it? We don’t

need a Movement of Movements – we are a movement of movements.

My friends, we have been trapped in old dominant paradigm

thinking. We have been steeped in warmongering, hierarchical,

competitive, control-based mindsets since birth. We think we are

lacking something, or that we’re ineffectual at organizing, or we’re

failing. We call for a Movement of Movements, like the War to End

All Wars, a rallying cry that will amass the allies on the edge of the

battlefield so we can massacre our enemies.

It makes me want to laugh – and cry.

We want to name, label, categorize, and control the emergent

phenomenon of this revolutionary resistance. We want to take the

wild flurry of activity that is erupting on a thousand fronts and turn

it into an army for change. We want to call it something because then

we can control it. This is what our lineage of science and religion

has taught us: if we give it a name, it is ours. If we trademark the

Movement, we can capitalize on it. If we organize it all in one place,

we can make it work to what we consider its highest potential.

We need to let go. We need to surrender to this very large

phenomenon and join with it. We need to trust each other, the causes,

and the organic, emergent nature of what is happening . . . this is

revolutionary. This is a way of participation that is radical in our

society.

The long history of invasion, conquest, genocide, wars of aggression,

and abuse of people and the planet has indoctrinated us in false

beliefs that we must organize everything in order to survive. But these

old patterns of competition and control are a worldview perpetuated

by the wealthy elite, who profit from such mentalities at our expense.

To this end, they have abused the theories and philosophies of the

Judeo-Christian God and Darwin, alike. They school us in fear-

based, violent mindsets to ensure that we will never pose a serious

threat to their dominance. If we do not emancipate our minds from

their worldview, we will remain blind to the greatest strengths of our

movements.

Building a Movement of Movements seems to be the logical,

strongest, and wisest approach to breaking our opponents’ power, but

our real strength may lie in our myriad movements. The empowered

elite are fighting us on all fronts. We have them surrounded on

all sides. Our plethora of issues distracts them, divides them, and

weakens their centralized position. They sit in the fortress of wealth

and power, staring wild-eyed into the living, breathing, diverse jungle

of opposition. There is nothing they would like more than to see us

assemble all of our strength in one place and march down the road to

their fortress. Then they could destroy us in one swoop. So, from the

balustrades of their socio-political system, they taunt us and mock us,

calling us disorganized and inefficient.

We are not disorganized. We are organized differently.

“We are the ivy crawling up the buildings, the moss breaking down

the bricks, and the dandelions shooting up in the sidewalks. We’re

as vast as the planet and as microscopic as infectious disease. The

Dandelion Insurrection isn’t a handful of radicals. It’s all of Life

itself!” – from The Dandelion Insurrection

We must learn to look at the interconnections of our myriad causes

and wage struggle through collaboration, not control. Our causes are

not at odds with each other, nor do they need unification under one

name or coordination from a central command. Instead, we need to

collaborate strategically, using our diversity of issues as our strength.

If we look at the overlapping issues of health, economy, jobs, peace,

surveillance, education, energy, housing, environment, democracy,

and so on, we will see that every movement is working to replace

destructive, corrupt systems with constructive, life-supporting,

sustainable alternatives. Our strength lies in our inherent unity, not

in the label attached to it. Our only weakness is in our uncertainty . . .

and the fact that we remain unaware of the power of our situation.

We can tap into the collective and coordinated strength of our many

movements by learning to strategically collaborate with one another.

A few key elements of such an approach are:

• 1) Celebrate other’s achievements; the success of one cause is the

success of the whole.

• 2) Support each other’s efforts through solidarity, encouragement,

resources, media campaigns, etc.

• 3) Take time to analyze the interconnections of the movements.

Search for untapped strengths and sources of support. Identify

pivot points of change and opportunities for other movements

to help sway a critical element of your own movement.

• 4) Talk with each other. Find out how your efforts overlap and look

for opportunities for strategic collaboration.

Our movements are revolutionary; their manner of collaborative,

horizontal organization is the most natural, organic system on

Earth. We terrify the empowered elite because we reflect, in our

very structure, the most powerful force on the planet: Life. In what

they call our disorganization, we embody the natural systems that

the patriarchal, Puritanical European colonizers have been trying to

repress and control for thousands of years. Our movements are as

frightening to them as a liberated woman, or the pagan religions of

old Europe that succumbed to the first invasion of the mentality that

now engulfs the empowered elite around the globe. We are organic

and uncontrollable . . . and we are, ultimately, unstoppable.

Instead of codifying our movements under one name, we must

learn to recognize who and what we are. We are a movement of

movements, a great multiplicity of motion. We are a thousand points

of light. We are Life, itself.

 

Author/Actress Rivera Sun is a co-founder of the Love-In-Action

Network, a co-host on Occupy Radio, and, in addition to her

new novel, The Dandelion Insurrection, she is also the author of

nine plays, a book of poetry, and her debut novel, Steam Drills,

Treadmills, and Shooting Stars, which celebrates everyday heroes

who meet the challenges of climate change with compassion, spirit,

and strength. www.riverasun.com

This essay was inspired by a group of women during a Women

Weaving the World discussion. Many thanks to all of them for the

deep reflections, but particularly to Kathe Schaaf who spoke of

the movement of movements in an eye-opening way. Learn more

about Women Weaving the World here.

Israeli Apartheid Week Events

February 20, 2014

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. The aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement.

This year Israeli Apartheid Week is taking place from February 24-March 2, it is a series of events including rallies, lectures, cultural performances, film screenings, and boycott Israel actions. (Don’t forget to join us March 2nd at Boycott AIPAC! We will be protesting at the AIPAC policy conference at the Washington DC Convention Center from 8:30am-8:30pm with a special event from 2-4, so stop by for any part of the day!)

Here are some the events happening across DMV campuses for IAW:

 American University

Monday 2/24: Talk on Gaza with Eva Bartlett at 6 pm in 104 Ward Building

Tuesday 2/25: Film Screening of “Salt of This Sea” at 7:30 pm in 1 Ward Building

Wednesday 2/26: Discussion on the Academic Boycott with American Studies Association member at 5:30 pm in 1 Ward Building

Thursday 2/27: Panel Discussion on South Africa, Apartheid Israel, and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement at 8 pm in 1 Ward Building

Friday 2/28: Poetry Performance and Q & A with Remi Kanazi at 7 pm in 3 Mary Gradon Center.

 

George Mason University

Monday 2/24: Why Academics Should Boycott Israel with Steven Salaita at 7:15 pm in Johnson Center room D.

Tuesday 2/25: Israel’s New Racism: David Sheen on African Refugees in Israel at 8 pm in Johnson Center room A.

Wednesday 2/26: Cultural Resistance to Apartheid: A Roundtable Discussion at 7:30 pm.

Thursday 2/27: Understanding Apartheid with Tony Samara at 8 pm in Johnson Center room E.

 

University of Maryland

Monday 2/24: Spring 2014 General Body Meeting at 6 pm in room 1226 of the Juan Ramon Jimenez building.

Tueday 2/25: The Wall Must Fall at 11 am at the McKeldin Mall Sundial.

Thursday 2/27: The Crisis in Yarmouk at 6:30 pm in room 1224 of the Juan Ramon Jimenez building.

 

Georgetown University

Tuesday 2/25: Why Boycott?: The Palestinian Call for Non-Violent Action Against Israeli Apartheid with ASA member Steven Salaita at 7 pm in room 111 St. Mary’s building.

Wednesday 2/26: African Asylum Seekers and the Crisis of Israeli Nationalism dinner and debriefing with journalist David Sheen at 7pm in room 398 Walsh building.

Thursday 2/27: Screening of 5 Broken Cameras at 7 pm in room 103 of the Edward Bunn Intercultural Center building.

Letter to Pakistani Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani

February 15, 2014

His Excellency Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani

Pakistani Embassy

Washington DC

Dear His Excellency Ambassador Jilani,

We are writing to you on a matter of great urgency regarding the disappearance of Kareem Khan, a drone strike victim who was scheduled to appear before various European Parliaments in the coming week. He was seized in the early hours of 5 February 2014 from his home in Rawalpindi by 15-20 armed men, some of whom were wearing Pakistani police uniforms. A 34-member US delegation met with Mr. Khan when we visited Pakistan in October 2012 and consider him a friend.We are most concerned about his safety.

His disappearance comes just over a week before his visit to various European Parliaments, and, therefore, has raised real concern that his disappearance may in some way be related to his visit. We sincerely hope this is not the case. He was due to give testimony about a drone strike that killed both his son, Zaenullah, and his brother Asif Iqbal, which occurred on New Year’s Eve of 2009. This case has obvious United States implications, as Mr Khan was a victim of the United States’ program of drone strikes that killed his son and brother.

We therefore respectfully request that you raise this issue at the highest levels in Pakistan and that Mr. Khan’s disappearance is investigated as a matter of urgency. We are confident that your swift intervention will result in Karim’s immediate release.

 

We look forward to hearing back from you and thank you kindly for your attention to this urgent matter.

Yours sincerely,

Medea Benjamin                                                                                 Tighe Barry

Cofounder, Code Pink: Women for Peace                                     Global Exchange

Tel 415-235-6517

Love Letters to the NSA

Dear NSA,

This is awkward. All these years, you’ve been a secret admirer and I never knew it! You’ve kept track of my phone calls, my emails; all of my communications, but now that Ed Snowden finally spilled the beans about how you feel about me . . . well, I hate to say it and break your heart, but I’m not interested.

What were you thinking? There’s a thin line between devotion and obsession -you’ve crossed it. If you’re so fascinated by me, how come you never sent flowers on my birthday, hmm? Or took me to a nice restaurant?

When Ed first told me how you followed my every move, I’ll admit, I was flattered. You’re so powerful, so well-funded, you’ve got that whole James Bond spy thing going for you . . . and me? I’m just an overly intellectual, opinionated, activist-type, who is concerned with saving the world. Of course, that’s probably the basis of your attraction; you also want to save the world. But listen, we really should get together over coffee sometime because I don’t think we’re using those words the same way.

Next I thought that, since I’m not that pretty compared to the supermodels and movie stars you can spy on afterhours, you must be interested in me for my work. After all, I did write this novel, The Dandelion Insurrection, which depicts the American people in nonviolent struggle against the tyranny of the corporate-political collusion. You’re not expressly mentioned by name, but that section that talks about the fingers of the government crawled across the land . . . yeah, well, that was inspired by you.

But then Ed Snowden told me that it’s not my novel or my activism work. The truth is, I’m nothing special to you. You’re spying on everyone, all around the world. I’m just one among the billions. That’s harsh. But honestly, the way you’re spying on people all around the world is such a turn off. I’m a Leo, which means, buddy, that I am the show-stopper, the one-and-only, the center of the Universe – and your wandering, globetrotting, scrutinizing eye is not amusing to yours truly.

As for your mass data collection addiction . . . if information were food, you’d be an obese, compulsive eater with a thyroid problem.

Look, I’m sure the 30-40,000 employees that work for you are probably very nice, voyeuristic introverts with delusions of James Bond grandeur. I bet there’s not a day that goes by where they don’t count their blessings for their sizable and steady paychecks in this terrible economy. For many of them, it’s got to be a dream job: computers, hacking, encryption, decryption, inventing software, breaking the law – and all for a great cause! They get to fight terrorists from the comfort and safety of a computer screen instead of kicking down doors in whatever Middle Eastern nation our insane politicians have decided to invade.

But with all due respect, no amount of surveillance is going to save us from the ramifications of our nation’s warmongering ways. Our carnal lust for domination and destruction is creating enemies faster than beans make farts!

People around the world hate America not because they are insane, extremist, violence-prone psychopaths; people hate America because we are the most avaricious, aggressive, overly militarized bully on the face of the planet. We invade countries to fund our military-industrial complex. We drop Napalm, Agent Orange, depleted uranium, white phosphorous on civilians, bomb wedding parties with drones, stage secret CIA coups to depose democratically elected leaders, finance death squads, steal oil fields and opium markets, inflict destructive capitalism on the global economy, enslave third world nations to debt, and threaten the human species with extinction while dogmatically clinging to a religious fanaticism that denies climate change because it conveniently allows the fossil fuels industry to rake in the profits!

What did you expect the world to do, send us a love letter?

Let me tell you a secret that you clearly have not wiretapped yet: the way to prevent terrorism is to treat our brothers and sisters around the world with respect, withdraw our military presence, apologize for our illegal acts of aggression, stop causing climate change, feed the starving children, and get a grip on reality. Healthy relationships require listening, compassion, generosity, sensitivity, and yes, privacy.

So stop it. Stop the voyeurism. It’s not preventing terrorists – only peace, equality, and justice will do that.

Respectfully, I must break your heart. We’re all wrong for each other. You’re into spying, secrecy, and silent, distant obsession. And I’m a Leo. I want my admirers to come out of the closet, shower me with roses, croon like Frank Sinatra, dance like Fred Astaire, do the dishes, and massage my back.

Our one-sided relationship has got to end. You need therapy. You need a life. You need a restraining order from the Supreme Court.

With love,

Rivera Sun

P.S. I know you’re royally pissed off at Ed Snowden for telling me about all this, but stop threatening his life, would you? Just suck it up, call him, tell him you made a mistake, you’ve mended your ways, your mass surveillance days are done, and you’ve even got a Congressional Medal of Honor waiting for him. Oh, and I recommend doing all that before he gets a Nobel Prize. Thanks.

Author/Actress Rivera Sun is a co-founder of the Love-In-Action Network, a co-host on Occupy Radio, and, in addition to her new novel, The Dandelion Insurrection, she is also the author of nine plays, a book of poetry, and her debut novel, Steam Drills, Treadmills, and Shooting Stars, which celebrates everyday heroes who meet the challenges of climate change with compassion, spirit, and strength. http://

www.risingsundancetheater.com/wpblog/

Occupy Radio’s “Love Letters to the NSA” Listen to the podcast: http://

occupythemedia.podomatic.com/entry/2014-02-12T23_47_08-08_00

Featuring: Jill Stein, President of the Green Shadow Cabinet, Bruche Schneier, Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers of Popular Resistance, Cindy Sheehan, The Metta Center for Nonviolence’s Hope Tank, Pancho Ramos Stierle, Sister Mary Pendergast of the Sisters of Mercy, Keith McHenry of Food Not Bombs, Susan Rubin, Beau Hodai of DBA Press, Sue Sierralupe of Occupy Medical, Janet Wilson of Occupy the Roads, and

Stephan Schwartz of the Schwartz Report.

Father of Pakistani Drone Victim Kidnapped by Pakistani State

February 11, 2014

by Medea Benjamin

In October 2012, I was with a CODEPINK delegation in Pakistan meeting families impacted by US drone strikes. Kareem Khan, a journalist from the tribal area of Waziristan, told us the heartbreaking story of a drone strike that killed his son and brother. Since then, Khan has been seeking justice through the Pakistani courts and organizing other drone strike victims. On February 10, he planned to fly to Europe for meetings with German, Dutch and British parliamentarians to discuss the negative impact drones are having on Pakistan. But days before his trip, in the early hours of the morning on February 5, he was kidnapped from his home in Rawalpindi by 15-20 men in police uniform and plain clothes. He has not been seen since.

Terrified, Khan’s wife said the men did not disclose their identities and refused to say why her husband was being taken away.

Khan’s tragic story began on December 31, 2009. He had been working as a journalist in the capital, Islamabad, leaving his family back home in Waziristan. On New Year’s Eve, he got an urgent call from his family: their home had just been struck by a US drone, and three people were dead; Kahn’s 18 year-old son Zahinullah,  his brother Asif Iqbal and a visiting stonemason who was working on the village mosque.

The news reports alleged that the target of the strike had been a Taliban commander, Haji Omar, but Khan insisted that Haji Omar was nowhere near the village that night. Khan also told us that the same Taliban commander had been reported dead several times by the media. “How many times could the same man be killed?,” Khan asked.

Khan’s son had just graduated from high school, and his brother was a teacher at the local school. Khan’s brother taught his students that education was far more powerful than weapons. The drone strike that killed their teacher taught the students a very different lesson.

Khan was the first family member of a drone victim to take the issue into the Pakistani courts. With the help of human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar, he sent a legal notice to the American Embassy in Islamabad, detailing the wrongful deaths and accusing the CIA of grossly violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Speaking outside a police station after he had lodged a legal complaint, Khan asked that Jonathan Banks, the CIA station chief in Islamabad, be forbidden from leaving Pakistan until he answered to the charges against him. (While CIA agents’ identities are secret, Banks’ name had been revealed in the local press.) While the accusation against Banks made headlines in Pakistan, the CIA chief was allowed to flee the country. But in the ensuing months, Khan organized other families of victims and jointly, they have been pressing their cases in several lawsuits now pending in Pakistani courts.

Khan has obviously been an embarrassment to the US government, which is responsible for the drone strikes. And it has put the Pakistani government in an uncomfortable position. On the one hand the Pakistani government—from Prime Minister Zardari to the legislature—has come out publicly against the US use of drones. But Pakistan is heavily dependent on US aid and the government has been unwilling to bring charges against the US in international bodies or send an irrefutable rebuke by shooting down a US drone.

Given the political backroom deals that have obviously been going on between the US and Pakistan, Khan took great risks by speaking out.  “Kareem Khan is not only a victim, but an important voice for all other civilians killed and injured by US drone strikes,” said Khan’s lawyer Shahzad Akbar, who is also Director of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights. “Why are Pakistani officials so scared of Kareem and his work that they felt the need to abduct him in an effort to silence his efforts?”

How tragically ironic that someone whose loved ones have been killed by a CIA drone program condemned by the Pakistani government has now been abducted by that very government. Pakistanis we have talked to say this could only happen on orders from the United States, which did not want Khan speaking out in Europe against US policy.

“We are extremely worried about Kareem Khan, a gentle, warm man who opened up his heart to us when we were in Pakistan,” said Alli McCracken, who was on the CODEPINK delegation. “We have launched a campaign to free him, flooding the Pakistani Embassy and State Department with calls.” You can add your voice to the call to free Kareem Kahn by signing this petition, which will be hand-delivered to Pakistani and US government officials.

Medea Benjamin is cofounder of www.codepink.org and author of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. 

Salt and Terror in Afghanistan

by Kathy Kelly

February 5, 2014

Two weeks ago in a room in Kabul, Afghanistan, I joined several dozen people, working seamstresses, some college students, socially engaged teenagers and a few visiting internationals like myself, to discuss world hunger. Our emphasis was not exclusively on their own country’s worsening hunger problems.  The Afghan Peace Volunteers, in whose home we were meeting, draw strength from looking beyond their own very real struggles.

With us was Hakim, a medical doctor who spent six years working as a public health specialist in the central highlands of Afghanistan and, prior to that, among refugees in Quetta, Pakistan.  He helped us understand conditions that lead to food shortages and taught us about diseases, such as kwashiorkor and marasmus, which are caused by insufficient protein or general malnutrition.

We looked at UN figures about hunger in Afghanistan which show malnutrition rates rising by 50% or more compared with 2012. The malnutrition ward at Helmand Province’s Bost Hospital has been admitting 200 children a month for severe, acute malnutrition — four times more than in January 2012.

A recent New York Times article about the worsening hunger crisis described an encounter with a mother and child in an Afghan hospital: “In another bed is Fatima, less than a year old, who is so severely malnourished that her heart is failing, and the doctors expect that she will soon die unless her father is able to find money to take her to Kabul for surgery. The girl’s face bears a perpetual look of utter terror, and she rarely stops crying.”

Photos of Fatima and other children in the ward accompanied the article. In our room in Kabul, Hakim projected the photos on the wall. They were painful to see and so were the nods of comprehension from Afghans all too familiar with the agonies of poverty in a time of war.

As children grow, they need iodine to enable proper brain development.  According to a UNICEF/GAIN report, “iodine deficiency is the most prevalent cause of brain damage worldwide.  It is easily preventable, and through ongoing targeted interventions, can be eliminated.” As recently as 2009 we learned that 70% of Afghan children faced an iodine deficiency.

Universal Salt Iodization (USI) is recognized as a simple, safe and cost-effective measure in addressing iodine deficiency. The World Bank reports that it costs $.05 per child, per year.

In 2012, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) announced a four-year project which aimed to reach nearly half of Afghanistan’s population – 15 million Afghans – with fortified foods. Their strategy was to add vitamins and minerals such as iron, zinc, folic acid, Vitamin B-12 and Vitamin A to wheat flour, vegetable oil and ghee, and also to fortify salt with iodine.  The project costs 6.4 million dollars.

The sums of money required to fund delivery of iodine and fortified foods to malnourished Afghan children should be compared, I believe, to the sums of money that the Pentagon’s insatiable appetite for war-making has required of U.S. people.

The price tag for supplying iodized salt to one child for one year is 5 cents.

The cost of maintaining one U.S. soldier has recently risen to 2.1. million dollars per year.  The amount of money spent to keep three U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in 2014 could almost cover the cost of a four year program to deliver fortified foods to 15 million Afghan people.

Maj. Gen. Kurt J. Stein, who is overseeing the drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, has referred to the operation as “the largest retrograde mission in history.”  The mission will cost as much as $6 billion.

Over the past decade, spin doctors for U.S. military spending have suggested that Afghanistan needs the U.S. troop presence and U.S. non-military spending to protect the interests of women and children.

It’s true that non-military aid to Afghanistan, sent by the U.S. since 2002, now approaches 100 billion dollars.

Several articles on Afghanistan’s worsening hunger crisis, appearing in the Western press, prompt readers to ask how Afghanistan could be receiving vast sums of non-military aid and yet still struggle with severe acute malnourishment among children under age five.

However, a 2013 quarterly report to Congress submitted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan shows that, of the nearly $100 billion spent on wartime reconstruction, 97 billion has been spent on counter-narcotics, security, “governance/development” and “oversight and operations.”  No more than $3 billion, a hundred dollars per Afghan person, were used for “humanitarian” projects – to help keep thirty million Afghans alive through twelve years of U.S. war and occupation.

Funds have been available for tanks, guns, bullets, helicopters, missiles, weaponized drones, drone surveillance, Joint Special Operations task forces, bases, airstrips, prisons, and truck delivered supplies for tens of thousands of troops. But funds are in short supply for children too weak to cry who are battling for their lives while wasting away.

A whole generation of Afghans and other people around the developing world see the true results of Westerners’ self-righteous claim for the need to keep civilians “safe” through war.  They see the terror, entirely justified, filling Fatima’s eyes in her hospital bed.

In that room in Kabul, as my friends learned about the stark realities of hunger — and among them, I know, were some who worry about hunger in their own families — I could see a rejection both of panic and of revenge in the eyes of the people around me. Their steady thoughtfulness was an inspiration.

Panic and revenge among far more prosperous people in the U.S. helped to drive the U.S. into a war waged against one of the poorest countries in the world. Yet, my Afghan friends, who’ve borne the brunt of war, long to rise above vengeance and narrow self-interest.

They wish to pursue a peace that includes ending hunger.

Kathy Kelly, Kathy@vcnv.org, co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org). For more information about The Afghan Peace Volunteers, visit ourjourneytosmile.com   

Action Needed Today to Stop Anti-Boycott Bill in State Assembly

The New York State Senate has passed a resolution that would prohibit public universities and colleges from using any taxpayer money on groups that support boycott of Israeli institutions.  Since the American Studies Association (ASA) has voted to boycott, this resolution targets them and would establish a dangerous precedent that may be used to silence debate and opposition on other controversial issues.  The resolution is being fast tracked through three committees today and could even have a full Assembly vote by the end of today!  Tell representatives in the Assembly that you do not support this bill and you especially oppose it being fast tracked without public hearings on the matter.

Three key members of the Assembly need to hear from as many people as possible, and these calls need to be made today:

If you can only make one call, call the office of Deborah Glick, the chair of the Higher Education Committee: 518-455-4841.  If her phone is busy, try again.  You can also send her an email!

If you can make a second call, call Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver:518-455-3791. If his phone is busy, try again. You can also send him an email

And if you can make a third call, call Herman “Denny” Farrell, the chair of the Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee: 518-455-5491. If his phone is busy, try again. You can also send him an email 

If you would like to learn more about this issue, here are talking points and background information.

 

xox,

CODEPINK NYC

جوهانسن تختار صوداستريم على أوكسفام: كودبنك ومنظمات حقوق إنسان أخرى تحيي إنتصار حملة المقاطعة

بيان صحفي

٣١ يناير ٢٠١٣

للتواصل:

 ٨٥٢٩-٢٣٤-٦٤٦ nancy@stolenbeauty.org  نانسي كريكويان، منظمة لكودبينك

٥٦٩٢-٥٧٥-٨٦٠ alli@codepink.org  آلي مكراكين منظمة كودبنك

جوهانسن تختار صوداستريم على أوكسفام: كودبنك ومنظمات حقوق إنسان أخرى تحيي إنتصار حملة المقاطعة

بعد حملة منسقة بين منظمة كودبينك و الحملة الأمريكية لإنهاء الاحتلال الإسرائيلي ومنظمة عدالة في نيويورك ومجموعة صوت يهودي للسلام وتحالف بوسطن لحقوق الفلسطينيين وشبكة الجالية الفلسطينية في الولايات المتحدة ومنظمات حقوق إنسان أخرى، أنهت منظمة أوكسفام الدولية الخيرية لمكافحة الفقر وسفيرتها الدولية سكارلت جوهانسن علاقتهما على إثر خلاف بينهما حول مسألة بضائع المستوطنات الإسرائيلية غير القانونية. قررت سكارلت جوهانسن مواصلة دورها الجديد بإعتبارها المتحدثة الرسمية لشركة صوداستريم الإسرائيلية المقام مصنعها الرئيسي في مستوطنة إسرائيلية غير قانونية على أراضي الضفة الغربية.

بدأ تسليط الضوء على حملة المقاطعة ضد شركة صوداستريم لإنتهاكها القانون الدولي من خلال وسائل الإعلام الرئيسية عند إنضمام سكارلت جوهانسن لشركة صوداستريم. تظهر سكارلت جوهانسن في إعلان لصوداستريم من المقرر بثه خلال المباراة النهائية في دوري كرة القدم الأمريكية .حشد نشطاء الدفاع عن حقوق الإنسان الفلسطينية بسرعة على وسائل الاعلام الاجتماعية مثل ثندركلاب وتويتر وفيسبوك وتمبلر لنشر مطالبتهم لتخلي سكارلت جوهانسن عن منصبها مع صوداستريم أو تخلي أوكسفام عن جوهانسن. إنتشرت صور تم التلاعب بها تظهر سكارلت جوهانسن تحتسي المشروبات الغازية التي تنتجها شركة صوداستريم على خلفية الاحتلال الإسرائيلي.

علقت نانسي كريكويان من منظمة كودبينك “نحن ممتنين لإتخاذ كل من أوكسفام وسكارلت جوانسن توجهات مختلفة. موقف أوكسفام واضح ضد تجارة الاستيطان الإسرائيلي وتعاون سكارلت جوهانسن مع صوداستريم المستفيدة ماديا من الإحتلال جعل علاقتهما غير قابلة للدعم” . وأضافت “نحن نتطلع إلى فرص توزيع المنشورات التعليمية في مناسبات سكارلت جوهانسن العامة”.

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Heads of Killing, Lying, and Spying Under Fire at Senate Intelligence Hearing

By Cayman Kai

In the midst of bipartisan bashing of Edward Snowden in a Senate intelligence hearing on January 29, some stood up for truth in the face of repeated lies and evasion from head intelligence chiefs.

Before the hearing began, activists from CODEPINK stood up holding signs reading ‘Stop – Killing, Lying, Spying’ and called for the firing of James Clapper, Director of Central Intelligence, John Brennan, Director of the CIA, and James Comey, Director of the FBI.

A number of senators, including Barbara Mikulski (D – MD), and Susan Collins (R – ME), participated in slamming Snowden. They claimed Snowden has done “great damage” in the words of Collins. Although Mikulski and Collins were beyond certain of the “damage” Snowden has caused, they seem unsure of what his first name is; Mikulski called him “Eric,” while Collins referred to him as “Edwin.”

Senator Martin Heinrich (D – NM) started a shift in criticism from Edward to John Brennan, Director of the CIA. “I just want to publicly note my continued disappointment of how the CIA under your leadership has chosen to engage and interact with this committee especially as it relates to the committee’s study of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program.” Heinrich pointed to previous “inaccurate public statements,” and attempts to “thwart public oversight.” He then called for the committee to declassify the 6,300-word study so “the public may judge for themselves.”

Senator Wyden (D – OR) continued nailing the intelligence chiefs. “The men and women of America’s intelligence agencies…deserve to have leadership that is trusted by the American people. That trust has been seriously undermined by senior officials’ reckless reliance on secret interpretations of the law…[and] years of misleading and deceptive statements the senior officials made to the American people… [which] hid bad policy choices and violations of the liberties of the American people.” He then listed a number of occasions when officials had recently publicly lied about data collection. Last year, Clapper lied to Wyden when he asked whether intelligence agencies were collecting data on Americans. Wyden also requested direct answers to questions he has asked repeatedly without answers, such as whether Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Service Act has been used to conduct warrantless searches on U.S. citizens. He demanded Clapper give him an answer within 30 days.

Obama has recently called for reforms to the NSA, but how can the American people have any faith given the track record of the current intelligence chiefs? As Wyden has pointed out, they have repeatedly lied, yet despite being caught red-handed, they are still in office. Perhaps Obama’s reforms should also call for the resignation of these liars, echoing CODEPINK’s call at the beginning of the hearing.

Ironically, the same day that intelligence chiefs and a handful of senators criticized Snowden for endangering America, two Norwegian politicians nominated Snowden for a Nobel Peace Prize. To be called a “traitor” by Clapper, a proven liar, must translate in truth to “a real American hero.” We ought to demand the positions of these killers, liars, and spiers be replaced by true patriots like Edward Snowden.

 

Cayman Kai is currently an intern at the CODEPINK Washington, DC office. She is a sophomore at Northeastern University in Boston majoring in International Affairs and Political Science.

No Seat For Syrian Women at the Peace Talks

by Medea Benjamin

The talks in Syria began today, with the Syrian government and opposition exchanging accusations and invectives. Missing was the voice of nonviolent civilians, especially women, even through they have been trying for months to have a seat at the table. “When we talk about women at the table, the men see them as the tablecloth,” said Hibaaq Osman, an NGO leader who has been working with Syrian women and pushing for their inclusion. “The future of Syria should not exclusively be decided by those who carry guns.”

Syrian women have suffered immensely throughout the conflict. The estimated 100,000 killed so far includes not just men, but thousands of women and children. Women activists have been detained as part of government crackdowns on the rebel opposition and have been raped and tortured in detention. An investigation by the Women’s Media Center tracked reports of rape and deliberate, politically-motivated attacks on women. When a soldier in the Free Syrian Army was captured by government forces, women from his family were brought to the prison and raped in front of him. In another sickening story, three sisters recounted how a group of Syrian army soldiers broke into their house in Homs, tied up their father and brother, raped the three women in front of them, and then opened their legs and burned their vaginas with cigarettes, saying “You want freedom? This is your freedom.”There have also been reports of women and children being used as human shields or hostages by armed groups.

In areas controlled by the fundamentalist rebel groups, extremists have imposed oppressive rules on women and girls, reversing freedoms of movement, expression and other rights women had previously exercised. In some cases, women and girls have been prevented from working, going to school or just leaving their homes without a male guardian, even to flee violence. Human Rights Watch has reported that some extremist Islamist groups in northern Syria, such as Jabhat al-Nusra, the Nusra Front, and the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), are imposing strict and discriminatory rules on women and girls, such as requiring them to wear headscarves and full-length robes, limiting their ability to carry out essential daily activities, to move freely in public or to attend school.

The humanitarian crisis is acute. Some 4 million Syrians have been internally displaced. Food and access to it is so restricted in some of the military-contested areas that children are dying from starvation. “There are children who are eating roots and leaves off the trees,” said Kefah Ali Deeb of the National Coordination Committee for the Forces of Democratic Change. “Believe me; this is not my imagination. There is more suffering than you could imagine.”

Syrians desperate to escape the war have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, sometimes arriving by the thousands in a single day. Some three million Syrians are now refugees, over 80% of them women and children. Large numbers of women whose husbands have been killed or are off fighting have suddenly become heads of their households, but bereft of resources to care for their children. Relief agencies and host countries are overwhelmed by the numbers and the need. And although the refugees living abroad are spared the immediate impact of the fighting, many are unfortunately still subjected to violence, sexual assault, and abysmal living conditions.

According to a U.N. Women study, child marriages and domestic violence are on the rise among refugee families. As refugees grow more destitute, parents are more inclined to pull their daughters out of schools or marry them off at younger ages in exchange for dowries. Early marriage is seen as a way to ensure that daughters are cared for and fed, and to generate scarce income for the family. But girls sold into marriage are extremely vulnerable to abuse, lose opportunities for education and risk serious health hazards of early pregnancy.

Some refugee women have been forced into prostitution by their families, under the cover of short-term marriage arrangements. Women and girls sold into marriage are sometimes abandoned or sold again to brothels or traffickers, where their abuse and exploitation only worsens.

Syrian women, many of whom were involved in the initial pro-democracy, nonviolent uprising against Bashar al-Assad, have been risking their lives to address the humanitarian crisis—distributing humanitarian aid, monitoring human rights and providing emergency help. Syrian women have brokered local ceasefires to enable aid to get through. While the fighting has raged around them, women have continued to organize, build civil society groups and train themselves to play a role in designing a unified, democratic Syria.

These women have repeatedly called on the international community to include their voices in peace efforts. From January 11-13, 2014, 47 Syrian women gathered under the auspices of UN Women to hash out their positions. “We cannot remain silent regarding events unfolding in Syria, such as daily death, massive destruction, starvation, displacement of hundreds of thousands of Syrian families in Syria and abroad, the spread of terror and violence, ongoing detentions, acts of kidnapping, destruction of infrastructure and the spread of diseases, particularly among children,” said Syrian activist Kefah Ali Deeb at a UN press conference.

The women called for the effective participation of women in all negotiating teams and committees in a proportion of no less than 30%. They called for senior gender experts to be fully integrated into the UN mediation team. “We want there be a meaningful participation of women in the entire political process, including in the formation of the transitional governing body, the constitutional drafting committee, the drafting of the election law, mechanisms of transitional justice, the local administration and local committees for civil peace,” said Syrian activist Delsha Ayo at a UN press conference.

The women are desperate to deal with the immediate human catastrophe. “Large numbers of women have been arrested, kidnapped or disappeared. They include our families, our friends, our colleagues,” said Kefah Ali Deeb, activist and member of National Coordination Committee for the Forces of Democratic Change. “We must get the detainees released from prison and break the sieges that are driving stranded populations to starvation.”

But they are also looking down the road, and many have been working on principles for a new constitution. “We have been watching what happened in Tunisia and Egypt and Libya and there are a lot of lessons to prepare ourselves,” said Sabah Alhallak, the women’s coordinator for the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs. They insist that any eventual constitution guarantee women’s equality and penalize all forms of discrimination and violence against women.

While Lakhdar Brahimi has met with the women several times and has encouraged their participation as observers, he has not agreed to grant them an official role. Unfortunately, even at the peace table, the men with guns will continue to have the loudest voices.

In response, the groups CODEPINK, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), MADRE, Karama and the Nobel Women’s Initiative are gathering at the talks under the banner of “Women Lead to Peace” to support Syrian women. The day before the official talks begin, they will hold a Women’s Summit with women from former conflict zones such as Bosnia, Liberia, Guatemala and Ireland speaking about their experiences of transitioning from war to peace. Syrian women and humanitarian aid workers will share their stories and experiences of life in Syria and refugee camps. There will then be a modeling of the negotiations: a look at what the official peace talks could and should look like. On January 22, the women will stage a peace rally outside the official talks. You can sign their petition to the international community and watch the Summit.

The Syrian women and their global allies understand that the Syria crisis is so deep and complex that it will take a long time to end the fighting and even longer to rebuild, but they see no other option. “We are lawyers, engineers and professors; we are housewives, nurses and other medical professionals; we are 50 percent of society and we are determined to stop the war,” said Rafif Jouejati, director of FREE-Syria (the Foundation to Restore Equality and Education in Syria). “If Geneva II fails, then we will keep going to make Geneva III, IV or V work. We will keep pushing the men who are making war until they make peace.”