TOM CONWAY – New York enacted its version of the workplace poster law, written with USW members’ input, on January 1, 2023. Union members continue working to advance similar legislation in Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, and other states.
Author: Oregon PeaceWorks
The Nord Stream-Andromeda Cover Up
SCOTT RITTER – The German government’s crude effort to manufacture an alternative narrative regarding who attacked the Nord Stream pipeline fails the smell test — in short, it stinks. The holes in this story are such that even the most gifted screenwriters could not turn this Andromeda tale of changing history into something remotely believable. In short, Gene Roddenberry would not be impressed.
When Sanctions Work, and When They Don’t
DEREK ROYDEN – The way sanctions have all too often been used for the past 30 years against weaker nations has been cruel and ineffective, mainly hurting ordinary people who have little control over those that rule them. Sanctions that work are a scalpel, not a broadaxe.
Cyclists Now Outnumber Motorists In City Of London
CARLTON REID – Cyclists are now the “single largest vehicular mode counted during peak times on City streets,” says a report to the transportation committee of the City of London Corporation, the municipal governing body of London’s square mile.
We Need Another President Kennedy to Avert a Nuclear Catastrophe
DENNIS KUCINICH – President Kennedy held firm for a peaceful outcome in the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a result, Russia removed its missiles from Cuba. The U.S. removed its then-secret nuclear missile base from Turkey and made a commitment not to invade Cuba. Some believe that to fight is to show strength. America’s doctrine of ‘Peace through Strength’ is an invitation to war. Transformed, ‘Strength through Peace’ emphasizes restraint and inner fortitude, which Kennedy demonstrated at a moment of peril. We need another President Kennedy, with the grace, the inner strength and the intelligence to guide us from our contemporary dangerous encounter with potential nuclear catastrophe … to peace. America and the world are more at risk than ever from the threat of nuclear annihilation brought about through mentalities of greed and hubris.
Agrivoltaics: The Farm-to-Solar Trend That Can Help Accelerate the Renewable Energy Transition
TINA CASEY – Using the same land for the production of both agriculture and solar energy is a win-win for the climate and farmers.
The Tragic U.S. Choice to Prioritize War Over Peacemaking
MEDEA BENJAMIN and NICOLAS J. S. DAVIES – The United States keeps spreading violence and chaos across the world. If we want to stop our rulers from marching us toward nuclear war, climate catastrophe and mass extinction, we had better take off our blinders and start insisting on policies that reflect our best instincts and our common interests, instead of the interests of the warmongers and merchants of death who profit from war.
The World Bank and the BRICS Bank Have New Leaders and Different Outlooks
VIJAY PRASHAD – Ajay Banga will come to the World Bank, whose office is in Washington, D.C., from the world of international corporations. Dilma Rousseff, meanwhile, comes to the BRICS Bank with a different resume. Her political career began in the democratic fight against the 21-year military dictatorship (1964-1985) that was inflicted on Brazil by the United States and its allies.
Nature Corrects Itself … Through Us
RIVERA SUN – Nature’s way of correcting itself right now is embodied by the students walking out of school on Fridays, pleading with older generations to take action to ensure their future. Nature is correcting itself through climate scientists publishing well-documented facts about this crisis. Or through activists blocking pipelines or pushing universities and retirement funds to divest from fossil fuels. Earth is speaking through city councils declaring climate emergencies, churches switching to solar and wind, businesses cleaning up their act, and much more.
20 Years After Catastrophe in Iraq, the War Apologists Still Dominate U.S. Foreign Policy
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL – The price for failing to hold the perpetrators of the Iraq War debacle accountable is that their worldview still dominates America’s national security establishment.
The Simple Reason Why the U.S. Wants ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ of the Earth
ROGER MCKENZIE – Imagine the uproar if China or Russia—or any other country for that matter—said it aimed to exercise military control over land, sea, air, and space to protect its interests and investments. This amazingly has been the stated United States policy since 1997. Full spectrum dominance, as the doctrine is known, is the reason the United States behaves the way that it does on the international stage.
A Big Deal: China’s Middle East Diplomatic Coup
MEL GURTOV – United States policy should be based on common security in the Middle East, social justice, and peace.
How Indigenous Land Management Practices Are a Blueprint for Climate-Resilient Agriculture
DANIEL ROSS – If aggressive commercial agriculture exacerbates the climate crisis, are there key lessons to be learned from Indigenous land management practices that can help to restore environmental balance?
Maine State Senator Tells the Truth About the Ukraine War
ERIC BRAKEY – In his final point about a Maine joint resolution supporting the United States’ continued stance on the war in Ukraine, Eric Brakey concludes: This resolution should be demanding that Secretary of State Antony Blinken go to Geneva and sit down for peace talks with both Russian and Ukrainian leaders to resolve this border dispute, broker a peace, end the war, end the famine, end the energy crisis, and take the very real threat of nuclear annihilation off the table. That is what this body should be calling for: peace, not war!
Deepening Tensions on the Korean Peninsula Demand New Thinking in Washington
MEL GURTOV – The new game in town should be engagement of North Korea through reduced reliance on threat and greater reliance on confidence building and arms control.
How Long Will Gun Rights Trump Humans’ Right to Live?
SHAWNEE BALDWIN – The sight of bloodied shoes still haunts me and I was not even there that day. The images from December 14, 2012 still induce grief. Newtown parents recalling the day picks a scab off a wound that wasn’t even inflicted on me. And this is just one of many gun violence incidents plaguing our country. Guns only have one purpose – to maim, kill, or forever horribly alter the life of another. They must be regulated far more than they are now.
Mad As Hell; Not Gonna Take It!
BRAD WOLF – Being fully human means resisting death in all its forms. It means peacemaking. We have hope because we have the power to nonviolently resist, and that is a remarkable power. When exercised properly, it not only shivers the state, but affirms all of life.
Protecting Our Elections is Our Protection Against Religion’s Dark Side
BOB TOPPER – We should be happy that we are a secular nation and work to keep it that way. Yet, in their effort to undermine faith in our democracy, the right often and forcefully complains that we have lost our way, that liberalism and diversity have weakened the country. They say that our government is incompetent, that our scientists can’t be trusted, that our children are being brainwashed, that religious liberty is under attack, that our elections are fraudulent; the list seems endless. They are a very unhappy crowd who want the rest of the country to join them in their misery.
The Urbanity of Evil: 20 Years After the Invasion of Iraq
NORMAN SOLOMON – Vast quantities of lies from top U.S. government officials led up to the Iraq invasion. Now, marking its 20th anniversary, the same media outlets that eagerly boosted those lies are offering retrospectives. Don’t expect them to shed light on the most difficult truths, including their own complicity in pushing for war. What propelled the United States to start the war on Iraq in March 2003 were dynamics of media and politics that are still very much with us today.
What Florida Doesn’t Want You to Know About Its Book Bans
JODI PICOULT – In the brilliant words of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, books create windows through which kids can escape and mirrors in which they can find themselves. We want you to stand in solidarity with us, the writers who create these books. Because we’ve seen, historically, what the next chapter looks like when we don’t speak out against book challenges… and that story does not end well.
How to build a progressive movement in a polarized country
GEORGE LAKEY – Many assume that polarization is a barrier to making change, but history shows otherwise. By learning what worked in previous periods of polarization, we can observe a clear roadmap to transformation.
The Military and the Debt Limit: Stiffing Taxpayers When the Bill Comes Due
TOM H. HASTINGS – It is long past time to really pare down the DoD budget. We should not have sophisticated weaponry all over the Earth, under the seas, and in space while families are living in tents in the snow on sidewalks and while health care is still not available to all. Can we unite for peace and prosperity?
Why News of Population Decline and Economic Slowdown Isn’t Necessarily a Bad Thing
RICHARD HEINBERG – Sure, the end of economic expansion and population growth is a challenging prospect. But it’s not nearly as daunting as the crisis we are setting up for ourselves if we continue to destroy nature through wasteful consumption and pollution. China’s slowdown is a welcome opportunity for global leaders and policymakers to get our priorities straight and set ourselves on a path of sustainable happiness and well-being.
The Deafening Silence of Intellectuals in the Face of Growing Global Conflicts
BOAVENTURA DE SOUSA SANTOS – Intellectuals do not have a monopoly on culture, on values, or on truth, much less on the meanings attributed to any one of these “domains of the spirit,” as they used to be termed. But intellectuals should also not shrink from denouncing what they see as destructive of culture, values, and truth, notably when such destruction claims to be carried out in the name of these “domains of spirit.”
Don’t be Misled: “Wokeness” Means “Kindness”
JONATHAN KLATE – “Wokeness” is what folks on the political right love to declare themselves as being against these days. But, what is it, really, that they oppose?
The Ninth Anniversary of the Ukraine War
JEFFREY D. SACHS – We are not at the 1-year anniversary of the war, as the Western governments and media claim. This is the 9-year anniversary of the war. And that makes a big difference.
Possible Coup Taking Shape in Israel
MEL GURTOV – Israel has always been touted as America’s most reliable friend in the Middle East, a bastion of democracy in a region dominated by autocracies. Now that picture is fraying as the far-right coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes power.
War in Ukraine and ICBMs: The Untold Story
NORMAN SOLOMON – With sky-high tensions between the world’s two nuclear superpowers, the chances of ICBMs starting a nuclear conflagration have increased as American and Russian forces face off in close proximity.
The Case for Diplomacy in Ukraine
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL and JAMES W. CARDEN – At this juncture, with Russia at the start of a new offensive in Ukraine, vanden Heuvel and Carden believe diplomatic engagement is the only moral and realistic policy available to President Biden and his advisors.
Trouble in town? Send in the Maroon People Instead of the Police
MELINDA BURRELL – The Mediation Response Unit (MRU) of Dayton, Ohio, is helping people understand, among other benefits, that they don’t need to use violence in a dispute, or call the police, or threaten attorneys. Another way is frequently a far better response. Often police are called for a disturbance but cannot do anything because it is a civil, rather than criminal, complaint.
Cuba Is Not a State Sponsor of Terrorism
NOAM CHOMSKY and VIJAY PRASHAD – For two years, the Biden administration has maintained Trump’s vindictive policy, one that punishes Cuba not for terrorism but for the promotion of peace. But Biden can remove Cuba from this list with a stroke of his pen.
Shah-ddy Workmanship: How the US Undermined Democracy in Iran
HALEY MORROW and TOM H. HASTINGS – Since the US was the most significant actor in deposing the democratically elected Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, and then installing Shah, Iranians knew he was a “puppet of the non-Muslim West.” While few Americans know or remember that our country ended democracy and installed a dictatorship in Iran, virtually no Iranians have forgotten. If anything, that is the sad strength of the theocracy–they blame all Iranian problems on “The Great Satan” (the US).
A Realistic ‘Energy Transition’ Is to Get Better at Using Less of It
RICHARD HEINBERG – My aim is not to discourage people working toward an energy transition, but to insist that we develop a realistic plan for energy descent, rather than insisting on foolish dreams of eternal consumer abundance by means other than fossil fuels. Currently, politically rooted insistence on continued economic growth is discouraging truth-telling and serious planning for how to live well with less.
How Books Can Be Used to Build Up America or to Divide It
TOM CONWAY – Citizens, teachers and other union members harness the power of the written word to unify and bolster their hometowns, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis opts to weaponize books in an attempt to divide and dominate.
State of the Union Address Shows Us Reality and Surreality
DR. TOM H. HASTINGS – I hope the vast majority of us are paying enough attention to get serious about upholding what is good and helpful for us. The devils are hyperactive in the details but, as we heard and saw, they reveal to all of us what they are willing to do if we are at all apathetic about it. As Edmund Burke reminded us, all that is necessary for evil to triumph is good people do nothing.
Don’t Give Up on the UN
GARY B. OSTROWER – A world organization with the ability to prevent war makes more sense than a narrow and nationalistic commitment to traditional sovereignty. In that case, the UN may begin to live up to its original promise.
Unions Buoyant as 1.27 Million French Protest Pension Reform
ELAINE GANLEY, JADE LE DELEY and JOHN LEICESTER – An estimated 1.27 million people took to the streets of French cities, towns and villages on January 31, according to the Interior Ministry, in new massive protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age by two years.
A Victory for Abolitionists: ICE-Run Immigration Prison Shuts Down Today
ADRIANNA TORRES-GARCIA and JASMINE RIVERA – It took nearly a decade of exposing the patterns of abuse and neglect at the facility in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
What Determines the Success of Movements Today?
CATHY ROGERS – Building on the recommendations of other movement strategists, new research from the Social Change Lab offers key insights into the factors that lead to protest wins.
Diplomatic Cables Prove Top U.S. Officials Knew They Were Crossing Russia’s Red Lines on NATO Expansion
BRANKO MARCETIC – A review of the public record and dozens of diplomatic cables made publicly available via WikiLeaks show that U.S. officials were aware, or were directly told over the span of years, that expanding NATO was viewed by Russian officials well beyond Putin as a major threat and provocation; that expanding it to Ukraine was a particularly bright red line for Moscow; that such action would inflame and empower hawkish, nationalist parts of the Russian political spectrum; and that it could ultimately lead to war.
And Now They Want to Arm Our Children?
ROB OKUN – We can have a country, if we launch a sustained nationwide, nonviolent movement to end the scourge of gun violence.
Movement to stop Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ calls for support after police kill forest defender
ZANE MCNEILL – “The struggle that is playing out in Atlanta is a contest for the future. It will determine whether those who come after us inherit an inhabitable Earth or a police state nightmare … The forest defenders are trying to create a better world for all of us. We owe it to the people of Atlanta and to future generations everywhere to support them.”
The U.S. Foreign Policy Establishment Proves in Ukraine That It Forgot the Lessons of Vietnam
JAMES W. CARDEN – The wariness and suspicion of unnecessary and unsupportable foreign interventions which, albeit all-too-temporarily, stemmed from the “Vietnam Syndrome” is today utterly absent in the corridors of power in Joe Biden’s Washington. The Vietnam Syndrome is indeed kicked: Dead and buried. But we may soon regret its passing.
‘No miracles needed’: Prof Mark Jacobson on how wind, sun and water can power the world
DAMIAN CARRINGTON – The influential academic, Prof. Mark Jacobson, says renewables alone can halt climate crisis, with technologies such as carbon capture expensive wastes of time.
Are We on the Verge of Civil War II?
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – Martin Luther King, in 1964, warned of the escalation of violence and its consequences when he delivered his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, pointing out to the world that: “. . . in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. . . . Violence ends up defeating itself.” Verge of Civil War II? Consider the signs.
Celebrate the 2nd Anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
KARY LOVE – We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Such a time is now. Become part of human progress. Call, write, use this time creatively to end the threat to creation.
The Myth of the “Moderate Republican” — and Why It’s So Dangerous
NORMAN SOLOMON and JEFF COHEN – Applying adjectives like “moderate” to congressional Republicans is much worse than merely bad word choices. Our language “becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish,” George Orwell wrote, “but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” And dangerous ones.
Public Libraries Continue to Thrive Despite Defunding and Privatization Attacks
APRIL M. SHORT – Efforts by governments and cities across the nation to defund the public library indicate a misunderstanding of the essential role that libraries play.
Become a “Vehicle” for the Shift to Nonviolence
SUSAN BEAVER THOMPSON – Let us each become a “vehicle” for a monumental shift toward a more evolved way to manage our conflicts. Though a challenging endeavor, Peace on Earth is possible… and it’s coming. Since Susan Thompson’s first peace journalism trek in 2013, much has changed. People are waking up, becoming engaged and taking action for what they believe. The soil is ripe for pioneering peace activists and peace journalists to rock the world.
Why I’m Going to Jail In Germany Instead of Paying Fines
JOHN LAFORGE – Refusing to pay fines for nonviolent resistance to nuclear war preparations is, from John LaForge’s position of privilege, also an act of solidarity with the poor, the undocumented, and the outcasts who often don’t have resources or connections enough to purchase their way out of pre-trial detention or incarceration for minor offenses.