HELEN JUNG – Fifty people arrested during Occupy Portland protests two years ago are entitled to jury trials even though prosecutors downgraded the misdemeanor charges to violations with no threat of a jail sentence, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Category: What’s Happening In the Movement
Nez Perce Refuse to Allow Oil Processing Equipment to Cross Their Land
KIRK JOHNSON – The Nez Perce Indians, who have called the empty spaces and rushing rivers of Lapwai, Idaho, home for thousands of years, were drawn into the national brawl over the future of energy last month when they tried to stop a giant load of oil-processing equipment from coming through their lands.
U.S. Plans Nuclear Missile Tests Around International Day of Peace and UN High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament
NUCLEAR AGE PEACE FOUNDATION – Two dates this month have special significance to those who want to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons: the International Day of Peace (September 21) and the UN High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament (September 26). Instead of honoring the significance of these dates and working in good faith to achieve nuclear disarmament, the United States has chosen to schedule two tests of its Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile on September 22 and September 26.
Israeli Activists Replace Threatening Military Signs with Messages of Peace and Resistance
HAGGAI MATAR – For several years now, all roads branching off of major Israeli-controlled West Bank highways and taking drivers towards Palestinian villages and cities, have been dominated by the presence of red trilingual warning signs. . . . On Saturday, July 13, 2013, a group of Israeli women went on a road trip to replace these threatening signs with more inviting texts.
Connecting Globally, Acting Locally for a More Peaceful and Just Future
PETER DECCY – For 68 years the peace movement has worked to insure nuclear weapons will never be used in war again. Worldwide solidarity of peace movements is increasingly possible and is more and more necessary in the work for peace so war will have no place to take root, so the wealth of nations is directed to creating a better world for its citizens and not spent on preparations for its destruction.
Nonviolent Blockaders Shut Down U.S./German Bomber Base
JOHN LAFORGE – On August 11, more than 750 people converged at Buchel Air Force Base — the largest joint U.S./German Luftwaffe air base — to condemn the retention of 20 U.S. nuclear weapons, in open violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In a show of popular rebellion 150 hearty war resisters blockaded all nine base entrances for 24 hours.
Bradley Manning Wins Peace Prize
DAVID SWANSON – U.S. whistleblower and international hero Bradley Manning has just been awarded the 2013 Sean MacBride Peace Award by the International Peace Bureau, itself a former recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, for which Manning is a nominee this year.
Santa Monica Passes West Coast’s First Rights of Nature Ordinance
INTERVIEW BY SIMON DAVIS-COHEN – Santa Monica recently passed an ordinance that elevates its right to enforce its Sustainable City Plan, rights to clean air, water and soil, and the rights of nature above corporate entities’ privileges and powers. The interview is a written conversation between Read the Dirt editor Simon Davis-Cohen and Linda Sheehan, Executive Director of Earth Law Center and advocate of the Santa Monica Sustainability Rights Ordinance.
Bradley Manning Cleared of ‘Aiding the Enemy’ But Guilty of Most Other Charges
ED PILKINGTON – While Bradley Manning, the source of the massive WikiLeaks trove of secret disclosures, was cleared of the charge of ‘Aiding the Enemy,’ he faces a possible maximum sentence of 136 years in military jail after he was convicted of most other charges on which he stood trial.
Together We Drew The Line
DAVID OSBORN – Saturday (July 27, 2013) we drew the line. Some 800 people came together from across the region including Vancouver (WA), the Tri-Cities, Astoria, Eugene, Bellingham, Vancouver (BC), Seattle, Portland and Hood River to demonstrate our unity in opposition to the oil, coal and gas terminals proposed throughout the Northwest and our commitment to take action such that none shall pass through our region.
Three Oregon Counties See Petitions To Ban Genetically Modified Crops
CASSANDRA PROFITA – Activists are trying to ban genetically modified crops in Lane County through an initiative on the May 2014 ballot. Eugene-based Support Local Food Rights filed an initial petition on Wednesday, The Register-Guard reports. Lane is now the third county in Oregon to receive a petition to put the issue to a vote.
Dramatic Rise in the Number of Homicides Drives Reduction in World Peace
INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMICS AND PEACE – A dramatic rise in the number of homicides and more countries, 59, increasing their military expenditure as a percentage of GDP were the key drivers in making the world a less peaceful place, according to the 2013 Global Peace Index (GPI) released today.
How Germany Is Getting to 100 Percent Renewable Energy
THOMAS HEDGES – There is no debate on climate change in Germany. The temperature for the past 10 months has been three degrees above average and we’re again on course for the warmest year on record. There’s no dispute among Germans as to whether this change is man-made, or that we contribute to it and need to stop accelerating the process.
White Ribbon Day: Inviting Men to Come Off the Sidelines
ROB OKUN – What about men who are trying to do the right thing? That was the thought I had the other day after hearing what was intended as an innocuous joke. “If you took a vote on which is the better gender,†a female friend said, “men would come in second.â€
Stop the Monsanto Protection Act
TWILIGHT GREENAWAY – It’s that exciting time of the year again when the Senate and House Appropriations Committees gets together to hash out the annual agriculture budget. I know, right? Really fun stuff.
This year, in addition to the usual underfunding of legislation that could make the food system more sustainable, the appropriations process has become especially charged, thanks to a one-paragraph addition called the “farmer assurance provision.â€
Give Peace a Dance Slated for March 23
PETER BERGEL – The best peace party in Oregon, Give Peace a Dance, will shake, rattle and roll Salem’s Grand Ballroom (187 High St. NE) from 6-11 p.m. on March 23rd. The event features superb entertainment, silent and oral auctions, delicious food and a no-host bar. The event benefits Oregon PeaceWorks, a statewide peace, justice and sustainability organization based in Salem.
FBI Documents Reveal Secret Nationwide Occupy Monitoring
THE PARTNERSHIP FOR CIVIL JUSTICE FUND – FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund(PCJF) pursuant to the PCJF’s Freedom of Information Act demands reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat even though the agency acknowledges in documents that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence†at occupy protests.
35 Years in Prison for Embarrassing H-Bomb Guards?
JOHN LAFORGE – Risking your personal freedom for a worthy cause is as American as apple pie. But nonviolently putting your life at risk in defense of others is so rare that the actor is sometimes dismissed as crazy. Some people think the Transform Now Plowshares activists were crazy for sneaking into a nuclear weapons factory — the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. — in order to make a direct, unequivocal and crystal clear demand for an end to the expensive, poisonous, criminal and delusional self-destructiveness of building nuclear bombs.
Power of One: Ronny Edry Creates Israel ♥ Iran Image
REV. JIM HETZER – An Israeli graphic designer overhead a conversation at a grocery in Tel Aviv between the owner and a customer. The owner said that soon Iran would send 10,000 missiles to rain down on Israel. The customer said it would be 10,000 missiles a day. The Israeli graphic designer is named Ronny Edry. He has heard this kind of story over and over for the last 10 years. He felt that he needed to do something to help the situation.
Peace Village Brings Peace Education to Youth in 10 States and Haiti
KEN MCCORMACK – The tragedy at Newtown is driving a debate over gun control. Gun control is critical. But there is also a need for basic change in our culture of violence. To this end, the Oregon-based Peace Village, Inc. (PV) is taking the message of nonviolence directly to children.
First City in U.S. Passes Resolution Against Drones
DAVID SWANSON – Shortly after 11 p.m. on Monday, February 4th, the City Council of Charlottesville, Va., passed what is believed to be the first anti-drone resolution in the country. According to my notes, and verifiable soon on the City Council’s website, the resolution reads:
Nuclear Weapons Waste in Your Water Bottle, Hip Replacement, Baby’s Toys, Jungle Gym?
JOHN LAFORGE – Even the deregulation-happy Wall St. Journal sounded shocked: “The Department of Energy is proposing to allow the sale of tons of scrap metal from government nuclear sites — an attempt to reduce waste that critics say could lead to radiation-tainted belt buckles, surgical implants and other consumer products.â€
How Americans Think About Nuclear Weapons – What You Need to Know to Communicate Successfully
RETHINK MEDIA – The public has conflicted opinions about nuclear weapons. They don’t like them, but they see them as necessary and essential. They like the idea of eliminating them, but don’t see that as realistic. The challenge is to build public confidence in a process of reductions.
Carol Bragg’s Fast for a ‘Revolution in Values’
KEN BUTIGAN – The December 14 rampage that claimed the lives of 28 people, including 20 children, in Newtown, Conn., has prompted a vigorous new debate on gun violence in the United States and the emergence of a spate of legislative proposals that the president and Congress may broach sometime this year. While policies designed to outlaw or control guns are needed now more than ever, for many of us these efforts must be rooted in a larger imperative: coming to grips with the culture of violence that makes this kind of tragedy possible and seeing our way clear to an alternative.
Court Rules Peace Activists Can Sue the U.S. Military for Infiltration
NATHAN TEMPEY – In a potentially precedent-setting decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that a Guild lawyer’s challenge to military spying on peace activists can proceed. The ruling marks the first time a court has affirmed people’s ability to sue the military for violating their First and Fourth Amendment rights.
The Trifecta of Civil Resistance: Unity, Planning, Discipline
HARDY MERRIMAN – If we accept the axiom that in politics “power is never given, it is always taken,†the conclusion necessarily is that historic nonviolent movements were successful because, somehow, they wielded power that was greater than that of their opponents.
Organic Seed Growers Take Monsanto to Court
JIM GERRITSEN – WASHINGTON, DC – November 23, 2012 – On November 21, 2012, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., announced that it would hear the Appeal of Dismissal inOrganic Seed Growers and Trade Association et al v. Monsanto at 10am on Thursday, January 10, 2013. The landmark organic community lawsuit was originally filed in Federal District Court, Southern District of New York, in March 2011.
Message from Sen. Merkley About Military Spending
JEFF MERKLEY – This letter is a reply from Sen. Jeff Merkley to PeaceWorker Editor Peter Bergel in response to Bergel’s request that Merkley support major cuts to the military budget during the upcoming “fiscal cliff†debate, rather than allow cuts to social security, medicare, or other remaining components of the safety net. Let’s hold Merkley to this encouraging approach.
Time for Obama to Break His Silence About Climate Change
TED GLICK – When did this silence begin? A piece in last week’s Guardian newspaper reminded me of how far back it goes, to a meeting the White House organized for leaders of environmental groups in March of 2009 at the Old Executive Office building next to the White House. At the meeting, according to the Guardian, aides to Obama made it clear that they did not plan to talk much about climate and wanted their supporters to do the same.
Milestone: 1/4 of the Way to Revoking Corporate Personhood
PETER SCHURMAN – With victories on Nov. 6th in statewide votes in Montana and Colorado, both by nearly three-to-one margins, we’re now one quarter of the way to amending the U.S. Constitution to overturn Citizens United. This a huge milestone, one we could not have achieved without your help, along with the help of many friends and allied organizations, including Common Cause, which led the way on the Montana and Colorado victories with our support, as well as People for the American Way, Public Citizen, U.S. PIRG, Move to Amend, Ben & Jerry’s, RootsAction, the American Sustainable Business Council, Auburn Seminary, Avaaz, Credo, unPAC, and SignOn.org.
The Battle Against Big Energy’s Rush to Ruin Our Planet
DARYL HANNAH – “That’s all happened when you raise the temperature of the earth one degree,” says author Bill McKibben, “[t]he temperature will go up four degrees, maybe five, unless we get off coal and gas and oil very quickly.” Additional temperature rises could compromise our safety and cause incalculable damage from a large number of billion-dollar disasters in coming years – if we don’t address our emissions, insist upon an appropriate climate policy and curtail the rogue fossil fuel industry.
Enviros Sue to Boot Miners From National Forest
ERIN MCAULEY – Medford, Ore. (CN) – Environmentalists claim that the U.S. Forest Service should have known better than to allow precious metal mining in waterways in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest that are home to a threatened species of wild coho salmon without first consulting with wildlife experts.
Plans to Ship Coal to China Face a Hurdle: The West Coast
PHILIP BUMP – Coal companies are in a bit of a bind. Well, a few binds, really, but let’s just focus on one at a time, shall we? Demand for their product domestically has dropped significantly of late, as prices of natural gas have remained low. But demand remains high overseas: In Europe, certainly, but particularly in Asia. So if you are running a coal company (which, if you are: Hello!), there’s an obvious solution. Take all that coal and ship it to China and India. Or maybe it’s not that easy.
Veterans Among Those Arrested Protesting Drones
VETERANS FOR PEACE – Once again nonviolent protesters of U.S. drone wars have been arrested at the gates of Hancock Air Field in New York State. Thursday morning, 19 people blocked the three gates to the base for a period of hours beginning at 8 a.m. Eventually, the front gate was opened after 11 people were arrested.
Nun Breaches Security at N-Weapon Site
ANNIE SNIDER – Armed only with flashlights and bolt cutters, Sister Megan Gillespie Rice, Michael Walli and Gregory Boertje-Obed broke through three fences and painted pacifist slogans on the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge, Tenn., before voluntarily surrendering to a guard who had not even seen them, according to a report
Nine Nobel Peace Laureates Call on NBC to Cancel “Stars Earn Stripes”
ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU – “Stars Earn Stripes†is not just another reality show. Hosted by retired four-star general Wesley Clark, the program pairs minor celebrities with US military personnel and puts them through simulated military training, including some live fire drills and helicopter drops. The official NBC website for the show touts “the fast-paced competition†as “pay[ing] homage to the men and women who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces and our first-responder services.â€
Soft Necks Will Not Be Slaughtered: Applying Nonviolence in a Hard Situation
HAKIM and KATHY KELLY – Abdulhai remembers his father being killed by the Taliban. “Anyone who takes up a weapon in revenge, whether the Talib or any other, is acting like the Talibs who murdered my father,†he says, in a matter of fact way. “The solution does not lie in taking revenge, but in people coming together like the people of Egypt to defend themselves in a nonviolent way.â€
Catholic Activists Breach Tennessee Nuclear Weapons Plant in Protest
JOSHUA J. MCELWEE – Three Catholics broke into a guarded nuclear weapons complex in Tennessee on Saturday in an act of civil disobedience and made their way outside of its most secure facilities before they were arrested. The three, an 82-year-old religious sister and two middle-aged men connected with the Catholic Worker movement, were able to enter the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge early Saturday before a guard found them outside the complex’s storage facility for bomb-grade uranium.
Nuclear Disarmament Action Buried by Massacre News
JOHN LAFORGE – James Holmes was in court Mon., July 30, in Aurora, Colorado, charged with 142 counts of murder, etc. The whole world knows of this initial hearing for the alleged murderer/terrorist because every detail of Holmes’ life is now regularly put at the top of TV and radio news shows and above the fold in every newspaper. Someone kills a lot of people and the media swarms.Not so if your action was a peaceful attempt to prevent massacres.
U.S. Government Receives “Warmonger of the Year” Award
PORTLAND PEACE AND JUSTICE WORKS – On Saturday, July 22, in a hotly contested race, the United States Government was named “Warmonger of the Year” by a group of Portlanders, winning 30% of the 311 votes cast. The contest was held at the 20th anniversary event of local group Peace and Justice Works (PJW), which also included as nominees the U.S. Military, the Portland Police Bureau, War Profiteers/”Contractors,” and Drones.
Groups Propose Clean Energy Agenda for U.S.
MICHAEL MARIOTTE – Fed up with the undue influence of the energy companies, utilities, lobbyists and other interests that are making it impossible for Washington to move forward decisively in achieving America’s clean energy future, Nuclear Information and Resource Service and 35 other citizen organizations with more than 1.1 million combined members are joining forces to advance a nine-point “American Clean Energy Agenda†and to push for a serious renewable energy agenda no matter who is the next President or which party controls Congress.
Philadelphia City Council Adopts Resolution to Redirect Military Spending
JANE DUGDALE – Philadelphia City Council, by a vote of 15-2, passed – on June 21 – a resolution “calling on the U.S. Congress to bring all U.S. troops home from Afghanistan, to take the funds saved by that action and by significantly cutting the Pentagon budget, and to use that money to fund education, public and private sector family-sustaining job creation, special protections for military sector workers, environmental and infrastructure restoration, care for veterans and their families, and human services that our cities and states so desperately need.”
U.S. Conference of Mayors Adopts Strong New Mayors for Peace Resolution
JACKIE CABASSO – At the close of its 80th annual meeting in Orlando Florida, on June 16, 2012, the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) unanimously adopted a strong, comprehensive, new Mayors for Peace resolution: “Calling for U.S. Leadership in Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and Redirection of Nuclear Weapons Spending to Meet the Urgent Needs of Cities.”
Take Action to Scuttle Latest Trade Scam
MELINDA ST. LOUIS – Together, we have cracked open the crypt hiding Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “free trade†negotiations, but TPP talks continue in extreme secrecy. While some members of Congress have begun to take notice, we need to sound a much louder alarm.
Don’t Believe the NATO Hype: Alternatives Exist to War, Economic Crises
DR. JOSEPH GERSON -Beyond this hysteria, peace, labor and immigrant rights activists and scholars are gathering in Chicago for the May 18-19 Counter-Summit for Peace and Economic Justice, to present the case against NATO-driven militarism.
99% Spring Disrupts Verizon Shareholder Meeting Six Times
DAVE JOHNSON- The highly-profitable company Verizon — the 16th largest corporation in America — is asking its workers for givebacks amounting to as much as $20,000 each, while tripling the compensation of CEO Lowell McAdam from $7.2 million to $23.1 million. The company made $22.5 billion in profits over the past four years while paying its top five executives $283 million over that period. Because of this the company has earned the nickname “Verigreedy.”
Tea Party and Occupy Share Some Similarities
JOHN DARLING – Tea Party and Occupy supporters found that they have many similarities at a forum in Southern Oregon. In their first public outing together, Tea Party and Occupy backers — and an audience of 200 — found a lot of common ground. They agreed that corporations, lobbyists, the military and the federal government have a huge amount of power, are “bought,” and aren’t very responsive to the needs of the average person.
Why the 99% Spring?
GEORGE GOEHL – We live in an America where more than 46 million Americans live below the poverty level. This is the highest poverty rate since the Census Bureau began publishing such figures.
Occupy Wall Street May Be Changing Wall Street Firms
KHADEEJA SAFDAR – The majority of marketing and communications executives at financial services firms said that Occupy Wall Street has impacted their business, according to a study…
Congress Needs to Hear No Iran War Message NOW
REBECCA GRIFFIN – Tell your representative and senators to oppose bills that bring us closer to war with Iran, and to support diplomacy.