Activism

From Rocky Anderson

Over the last two weeks, High Road for Human Rights has collected thousands of signatures on our letter to every member of Congress and the President-elect calling for an end to torture and a restoration of the rule of law.

As we prepare the letter for mailing, you have another opportunity to add your name, alongside the names of thousands of other American citizens, in calling for prompt, meaningful and deliberate change to American policy.

When someone asks "What did you do?," what will you say? Will you look back and regret not taking a stand? Click here to add your name to this important call for accountability and responsible governance.

HELP RESTORE WHAT IS BEST ABOUT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Help restore our Constitution.
Help restore the rule of law. [1]
Help restore our nation’s system of checks and balances.
Help restore our nation’s commitment to our long-term treaty obligations,

College Students: Host the Backbone Campaign's Procession for the Future on Your Campus this Spring!

The Backbone Campaign's Procession for the Future parade consists of over 20 giant puppets, icons and colorful banners. The Procession stands out and communicates that We the People are taking the lead, that progressive solutions are attainable for a beautiful future, and that being part of the movement is loads of fun.

The draft Spring '09 tour schedule is:
Tempe, AZ Feb. 28 - March 1
Albuquerque, NM - March 3
Boulder, CO- March 5-8
Austin, TX - March 12-14
?Gainesville, FL - March 18-21?
Atlanta, GA -March 25-28
Raleigh-Durham, NC - April 1-4
New York, NY - April 8-11
Hartford, CT - April 13-14
Boston, MA - April 16-18
Amherst, MA - April 22-25
Madison, WI - April 29-May 1
Chicago, IL - or - Minneapolis-St Paul - May 6-9

By Ron Moore, DC Special Interests Examiner

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act can take solace in the fact that the U.S. liberation of the Iraqi people did not include the freedom to organize. Since 2003, dozens of union activists trying to build a new labor movement for Iraq have been kidnapped and killed. The most infamous instance was the brutal murder of union leader Hadi Saleh, gunned down in Baghdad in January 2005. He had just returned with other Iraqi labor leaders from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) World Congress in Miyazaki, Japan, the first time Iraqi unions had ever participated in this gathering of the world’s trade unions. These assassinations and kidnappings are ongoing. No Iraqi labor federation is immune, and no Iraqi workplace is safe.

Now the General Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq is planning to hold an International Labor Conference in Iraq February 13-14, 2009.READ THE REST.

By Alison Fast

I just returned from Israel and the West Bank where Chandler and I learned about the many sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, making it all the more poignant what is happening now upon our return.

In an effort to bring some balance to the one-sided reporting of matters, since the U.S. is such a staunch ally of Israel, we feel it is really important to give Palestinians in Gaza & West Bank a voice at this moment.

By Dan DeWalt

“Shall the voters of the town of ___________request the Vermont legislature to:

1. Recognize that the 2% of our New England region's power grid supply that is
provided by Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant can be replaced with a
combination of local, renewable electricity and efficiency measures, along with the
purchase of hydro generated electricity, and excess power already in the New
England electricity market;

2. Given the viable alternatives and the risks posed by continued operation, ensure
that Vermont Yankee will cease operation in March 2012, after having completed its
40 year design life by not granting approval for operation of the plant after that date
and by not determining that further operation will promote the general welfare;

3. Hold the Entergy Corporation, which purchased Vermont Yankee in 2002,
responsible to fully fund the plant's clean-up and decommissioning when the reactor

Sent in by Christine Black

1. Summary

With the Gaza death toll exceeding 400, the Islamic Human Rights
Commission calls on campaigners to send letters to the President of the United Nations General Assembly, to urge the U.N. General Assembly to establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI).

2. Background

After five days of consecutive bombardment of Gaza, and an
ever-increasing death toll, demonstrators all over the world are calling for an end to the massacre. Campaigners are urged to continue attending demonstrations and boycotting Israel, and are now asked to send letters to the President of the U.N. General Assembly, urging for the long-overdue establishment of an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI), under U.N. Charter Article 22.

On the topic of Israel's current attack on Gaza, Archibishop Desmond
Tutu said on Sunday:

"In the context of total aerial supremacy, in which one side in a
conflict deploys lethal aircraft against opponents with no means of

Watch the ad and sign the petition HERE.

By David Swanson

Here's a response I just sent to an Email that I and a hundred other peace activists received proposing greater unity:

I think the more that peace organizations can work together the better. And I think the greater unity that can be built around a global day of mass mobilization on the model of Feb 15, 2003, the better.

But I also think that there are advantages to having lots of organizations, there are many effective tactics other than mass mobilization, and the main reasons we do not have peace have less to do with unity and more to do with our combined failure to strategically organize sufficient pressure in the appropriate places.

After five days of citizen voting at President-elect Obama's Change.gov website, the top-ranked question seeks a non-partisan Special Prosecutor to investigate the crimes of the Bush Administration:

"Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor - ideally Patrick Fitzgerald - to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?" -Bob Fertik, New York City

The second round of questions began on December 30. As of January 4, nearly 4 million votes had been cast for over 63,000 questions. The first round of questions ended on December 15 with nearly 1 million votes cast for over 10,000 questions.

Click for more from Coleen Rowley.

by Linda Milazzo

I don't believe in god. I never have. I don't believe in religions. I study them, but I don't practice them. I try to understand them to be sensitive to the beliefs and traditions of others, and to attempt to appreciate the motivations behind religious thought and deed. But they are irrelevant to living my life.

Long ago as a freshman at CUNY's Queens College I was introduced to Taoism. Taoism began in ancient China as a religion, then morphed into a dogma free/deity free philosophy. Since my late teens I've tried hard to apply MY understanding of my Tao to my life. I have the freedom to choose my own path and not judge the paths of others. But since I have freedom of opinion, I fall prey to judge. I try not to. But I do.

Through the Tao, I'm both a peacemaker and a warrior since Taoism couples with the art of self-defense. I understand my right to protect myself when needed, and to protect the defenseless when they need me. Since I'm by nature protective, it suits my sensibilities to aid the weak, where I fancy myself absurdly as inordinately strong.

By Dave Lindorff

The deafening silence from American government officials and from the US media regarding the criminal Israeli assault against civilians in Israel’s ghetto of Gaza, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are trapped every bit as brutally as were the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, is beyond unconscionable.

` As Israeli shells and bombs and rockets rain down on university buildings, clearly marked ambulances, and homes, it has to be pointed out that much of the ammunition being used, as well as the planes that are delivering this death and mayhem, are provided by the United States and by American taxpayers—with no strings attached.

By David Swanson

Congress will be greeted on day 1 this year by a march of war dead on Capitol Hill.

The word epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning to manifest or to show. In Christian tradition the Feast of Epiphany is celebrated on January 6th, marking the day when the three wise men from three foreign lands visited the baby Jesus, the last of the 12 days of Christmas. Epiphany is also used to mean a sudden realization, comprehension, or inspiration.

This January 6th may be the 12th day of Christmas, but it is also the 1st day of Congress. I encourage you to join those of us who plan to greet Congress with a March of the Dead, making manifest and showing to those responsible the hidden meaning of wars in three foreign lands: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Perhaps a few members of Congress will even have an epiphany.

By David Swanson

New Year's resolutions come in a lot of shapes and sizes. I don't think New Year's 2009 is a year to aim low. So, I'm resolving to create peace on earth. And I intend to follow through. The catch, of course, is that unless a couple of million other people make the same resolution and really commit to it, then I will have been a liar.

I do think just a couple of million people would be enough, especially if they are heavily concentrated in the United States, and the closer to Washington, D.C., the better. I think it will be easy to spread the word and reach two million people who want peace. I think we could find them without even setting foot outside Washington, D.C. The question is one of commitment, time, energy, and resources. Do you just want peace or are you willing to endure some inconvenience and unpleasantness to get it?

“From the people who put you in office”
By Mike Ferner

Determined to keep President-elect Barack Obama true to his promise of change, peace and economic justice activists kick off an 18-day outdoor vigil January 1, four blocks from the Illinois Senator’s home in Chicago.

Camp Hope, headquartered in the Windy City’s Drexel Square Park, seeks to have Obama swiftly enact eight initiatives on issues he supported during his campaign.

A Thursday, 1:00 pm news conference will feature ministers, a Chicago City Alderman, a 25 year-old father facing deportation after living in the U.S. for 17 years and the mother of Tomas Young, a paraplegic Iraq war veteran featured in the movie, “Body of War.”

The Dignity, a Free Gaza boat on a mission of mercy to besieged Gaza, is being attacked by the Israeli Navy in international waters. The Dignity has been surrounded by at least half-a-dozen Israeli warships. They are firing live ammunition around the Dignity, and one of the warships has rammed the civilian craft causing an unknown amount of damage. Contrary to international maritime law, the Israelis are actively preventing the Dignity from approaching Gaza or finding safe haven in either Egypt or Lebanon. Instead, the Israeli navy is demanding that the Dignity return to Cyprus - despite the fact that the ship does not carry enough fuel to do so. Fortunately, no one aboard the ship has yet been seriously injured.