NORMAN SOLOMON – With Amy Klobuchar now on Joe Biden’s short list for vice president, the gruesome killing of George Floyd has refocused attention on Klobuchar’s history of racial injustice.
Category: May 2020
Faith Groups In 14 Countries Divest From Fossil Fuels
BRIAN ROEWE – A total of 42 faith organizations from 14 countries pledged to divest from fossil fuel companies or avoid such investments in the future. Organizers said it represents the largest joint divestment announcement by faith communities to date.
Abolition 2000 Denounces White House Discussions to Resume Nuclear Testing
ABOLITION 2000 PRESS RELEASE – The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons on May 23 unanimously adopted a statement condemning recent reports of White House discussions to resume nuclear weapons testing.
One Activist’s Memorial Day Memory
TOM H. HASTINGS – To me, Memorial Day will always be a peace holiday. It should commemorate the hundreds of millions who did not die from thermonuclear warfare this year. May we be so lucky until next Memorial Day.
The Four Horsemen of the Modern Apocalypse
ANDREW MOSS – Albrecht Durer’s woodcut, “The Four Horsemen” (1498), which represents scripture’s Four Horsemen — conquest, war and violence, famine, and death, continues to startle, displaying the horsemen’s combined energies, and inspires thought about the collective energies of our own apocalyptic horsemen: economic oppression, racism, militarism, and environmental injustice.
Citing Financial Cost of Pandemic, House Liberals Demand Cut in Military Spending
MIKE DEBONIS – Twenty-nine of the House’s most liberal Democratic members called Tuesday for a cut in military spending in the yearly national defense authorization bill — a declaration, they said, that is meant to focus federal resources on the coronavirus pandemic.
Comparing Responses to Ebola and COVID Reveals Trump’s Mismanagement
CAROLINE HURLEY – Security, claim peace scientists, is the experience and expectation of well-being. Analyzing management of the major 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa is instructive given Covid 19’s global rampage. Despite internal UN dysfunction, especially the veto system pitting members at cross-purposes, that organization proved its worth.
The Established Order Has Never Been Weaker – Movements Need to get to Work
CAM FENTON – All around the globe, governments are starting to move forward with reopening plans that lift some degree of COVID-19 social distancing. With that comes talk of recovery and rebuilding. While some of the attention is on green stimulus and a range of progressive demands for just and equitable recoveries, the only way we can win any such advances is through movements that are prepared to take on the fight.
Oregon Department of Agriculture Considers Permitting New Mega-Dairy, Easterday Farms, While Small Dairy Farmers Dump Milk
STAND UP TO FACTORY FARMS (Press Release) – Stand Up To Factory Farms, a broad coalition of environmental, food safety, family farming, and animal welfare organizations fighting to protect Oregon from mega-dairies, calls on Governor Brown and the Oregon Department of Agriculture to protect small dairy farmers during the COVID-19 outbreak and enact a mega-dairy moratorium on new and expanding dairies.
Corporations Will Not Save Us: The Sham of Corporate Social Responsibility
ROBERT REICH – American corporations are sacrificing workers and communities as never before in order to further boost runaway profits and unprecedented CEO pay. And not even a tragic pandemic is changing that.
Oregon Steps Up Food Resources During Hunger Crisis
ERIC TEGETHOFF – The new coronavirus outbreak is devastating the economy and leading to surges in hungry people. Oregon Food Bank is stepping up to meet the challenge and believes we can emerge stronger from this crisis.
Can We Achieve Nuclear Adulthood?
ROBERT kOEHLER – In the linear world of geopolitics, militarism and mysteriously determined “national interest†rule and security means — though it is never put this way — playing games with Armageddon. This is called realism. And those who claim to be realists never — ever, ever — allow a word like “disarmament†into the conversation, much less into the realm of political choice.
We Honor What We Value–Entertainers Over Saviors
RALPH NADER – For long-term fighters for justice, up against cruel or reckless corporations and their political toadies, there are few accolades, almost no recognition, and no citizen Hall of Fame.
‘Sadness’ and Disbelief From a World Missing American Leadership
KATRIN BENNHOLD – The coronavirus pandemic is shaking bedrock assumptions about U.S. exceptionalism. This is perhaps the first global crisis in more than a century where no one is even looking for Washington to lead.
Bernie Sanders: Big Changes Are Needed in This Land
BERNIE SANDERS – On this May Day 2020, I wanted to give you an overview of what working people are going through in this country and throughout the world and where we need to go from here.
How can Nations Best Prepare to Face a Pandemic or Climate Crisis?
GEORGE LAKEY – People trust a system that reliably supports security, solidarity and individual freedom to make major life choices. They learn that trust — or don’t — through how well the system comes through for them. The contrast between Nordics and Americans these days reveals their contrasting systems.