Veterans for Peace
continues to support Occupy Oakland
Statement from VfP, East Bay Chapter 162
The members of Veterans for Peace, East Bay Chapter 162, have been watching the increasing repression against the Occupy Movement here in Oakland, CA, which has included repeated use of chemical agents, concussion grenades, and other "less lethal" weapons, as well as beatings. Several persons, including military veterans, have been seriously injured by the police. There have also been mass arrests: on October 25, 2011 of about seventy Occupiers, and on January 28, 2012 of over four hundred Occupiers.
This repression sounds chillingly like those occurring in so many 3rd world dictatorships which our government routinely castigates for human rights abuse. Incredibly, it's happening here in Oakland, a city where we either live, work and shop, or at least attend movies & cultural events. Among the arrestees are friends and neighbors, people we know personally. Some are veterans.
We note that the supposedly "unbiased" mainstream media have chosen to spin these events into a propaganda attack against Occupy Oakland. For many Vietnam Era veterans this is déjà vu, recalling that antiwar veterans who protested during the 1960s and 1970s were likewise often subjected to grossly distorted media reportage.
Occupy Oakland deserves respect. By empowering the powerless, the movement has restored dignity to the downtrodden. That was made clear on Nov 2nd, the first general strike in the US since 1946, which strike also took place in Oakland, and again during the West Coast Port Shutdown of Dec 12th. Those actions inspired rank-and-file trade unionists in other cities, notably in Longview, WA, where dockworkers who'd been on the picket line for half a year were energized to continue their struggle. This month we received news that the Longview dockworkers have won; Occupy Oakland, along with other Occupys, played a significant role in that victory.
Any movement as ambitious as Occupy is certain to make mistakes and go to excesses. Examples would be the breaking of windows on Nov 2nd and the burning of the flag on Jan 28th. Fortunately, it is the nature of Occupy to be self-correcting, by continuing to discuss tactics and strategies both at the General Assembly and in small informal groups. We're confident that an ever increasingly effective Occupy movement will emerge from these ongoing discussions.
We strongly express our support for Occupy Oakland, as we have in the past. The men and women of Occupy represent our hope for the future, a well placed hope, we believe, and we commend them on their firm stand in the face of brutal repression and their courageous defense of our First Amendment rights.
Veterans for Peace
East Bay Chapter #162
February 26, 2012
*** ***
List of included statements:
ON THE PEPPER SPRAYING OF STUDENTS AT UC DAVIS
Statement passed by the East Bay Chapter of Vets for Peace
December 2011
STATEMENT ON THE WOUNDING OF SCOTT OLSEN
National Office of Veterans for Peace
October 26, 2011
AT LAST, AN OCCUPATION WE CAN BELIEVE IN!
Statement in Support of Occupy Wall Street
Veterans for Peace. East Bay Chapter #162
September 28, 2011
STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF WISCONSIN WORKERS
National Office, Veterans for Peace
February 23, 2011
STATEMENT FROM VETERANS FOR PEACE
REGARDING CURRENT EVENTS IN NORTHERN AFRICA
January 30, 2011
CALL TO ACTION: TAKE A STAND FOR PEACE.
Originally Published in the Veterans for Peace Newsletter
Fall, 2010
*** ***
ON THE PEPPER SPRAYING OF STUDENTS AT UC DAVIS
Statement passed by the East Bay Chapter of Vets for Peace, December 2011.
The recent beatings and pepper spraying of non-violent students at UC Berkeley and UC Davis come as no surprise to those familiar with the sordid relationship between the administration of the University of California and the most violent institutions of American society. The University has been complicit in every criminal war the United States has fought, from the Cold War to the "War on Terror," from Vietnam to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the impending war on Iran
The connections between the UC administration and the 1% are many. Every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal, including the "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" that vaporized the civilian inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, were designed at one of two nuclear weapons labs run by the University of California: Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore. The legal architect of the Bush torture regime, John Yoo, continues to teach at the UC Berkeley Law School, in spite of protests by students, faculty, and the general public. One of the UC Regents, Billionaire Richard C. Blum, held a controlling interest in two military contractors, URS Corporation and Perini Corporation, when they received over $1.5 billion in appropriations supervised and supported by his wife, Senator Dianne Feinstein. Exposure of this connection by the LA Times in early 2007 led to a major scandal, but no serious investigation or prosecution given the political power of the Feinstein-Blum axis, and did not prevent the University administration from establishing a new building, the "Blum Center for Developing Economies," in 2010.
The University of California was founded by the people of California in 1868 to provide quality, tuition-free education for the people, the 99%. Over time, and with pubic support, the University grew into a world-class University. The California Master Plan for Higher Education, adopted in 1960, established the three systems of higher education in California-the University of California, the California State University, and the Community Collage system-with the mission of providing quality, affordable higher education to the people of California. That mission has been severely compromised and dismantled by successive politicians and university administrations in California.
Veterans for Peace applauds the efforts of Occupy Cal, on behalf of the people of California, to take back their University from the 1%. Their example inspires us all to "rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter-but beautiful-struggle for a new world," in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King further tells us, "The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history."
*** ***
STATEMENT ON THE WOUNDING OF SCOTT OLSEN
National Office of Veterans for Peace
October 26, 2011
Veteran For Peace member, Scott Olsen, a Marine Corps veteran twice deployed to Iraq, is in hospital now in stable but serious condition with a fractured skull, struck by a police projectile fired into a crowd in downtown Oakland, California in the early morning hours of today. Other people were injured in the assault and many were arrested after Oakland police in riot gear were ordered to evict people encamped in the ongoing "Occupy Oakland" movement. Olsen is also a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
VFP members are involved with dozens of these local "occupy movement" encampments and we support them fully. In Boston, for example, our members, wearing VFP shirts and carrying VFP flags, stood between a line of police and the encampment, urging police to "join the 99%" and not evict the protesters. In that case, several of our members were banged and bruised when the police decided instead to carry out their eviction orders.
In Oakland, last night, a similar thing happened, according to VFP Chapter 69 member and Navy veteran, Joshua Sheperd, who said he went to downtown Oakland "to see if, as a VFP member, I could help still the anger...to be between the police and the protesters...it seemed unconscionable to me that the police use the cover of darkness like that to do what they were doing." Fortunately, he was not injured in the police assault that left Olsen with a fractured skull
As with virtually every example of the occupy movement across the country, those encamped were conducting themselves peacefully beforehand, protesting current economic, social and environmental conditions in the U.S. brought about by decades of corporate control, a criminal financial industry and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that are driving the U.S. global empire into bankruptcy. These "occupy movement" participants are telling us something we need very desperately to hear. They should be listened to, not arrested and brutalized.
Police in the majority of cities are acting with restraint and humanity towards the encampments, but Veterans For Peace will not be deterred by police who choose to use brutal tactics. In fact, as happens with repression everywhere, more people join the cause. We do believe that the rank and file police officers are part of the 99%, the overwhelming majority of Americans who are suffering at the hands of an intolerable system. Layoffs and cutbacks in city after city prove that we must join together to demand justice for all.
We send our very best to Scott Olsen and his family and wish him a speedy recovery to health.
We shall not be moved.
*** ***
AT LAST, AN OCCUPATION WE CAN BELIEVE IN!
Statement in Support of Occupy Wall Street
Veterans for Peace. East Bay Chapter #162
September 28, 2011
Several months ago, on February 23, the National Office of Veterans for Peace issued a statement in support of the workers in Wisconsin stating, in part: "We know too well that militarism and empire are central causes of the economic tragedies that have robbed millions of Americans of their livelihoods, health and homes.... We are learning now that Iraq and Afghanistan are not the only places blighted by empire's violence. Every working-class neighborhood in our country sinks further into economic serfdom and the violence that is poverty.... We don't just want our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, we want a better life for the many. We want security-the kind of security that can only come when we don't have to worry about being thrown out of our jobs and our homes. We want the security that comes with health care for everyone. We want education for all. And we want the rest of that better life that we can win only when we can control the appetites of the few."
In this spirit, Veterans for Peace East Bay Chapter #162 stands in solidarity with the activists participating in Occupy Wall Street, now in its second week. Nearly 45 years ago, in his "Beyond Vietnam" speech Dr. Martin Luther King observed the "war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit" and that "we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values," without which "the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
The hundreds of activists participating in Occupy Wall Street, will soon be joined by thousands more in occupations of Washington D.C. and other cities protesting the decade long war in the Middle East. In confronting Wall Street and the Pentagon in the spirit of Dr. King, they deserve our support and the support of all people in America and around the world
***
STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF WISCONSIN WORKERS
National Office, Veterans for Peace
February 23, 2011
With a name like "Veterans For Peace," it's a fair question to ask if we should make statements supporting union members battling government offensives in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
The VFP national leadership and, we believe, the overwhelming majority of our members think the answer is yes. We know too well that militarism and empire are central causes of the economic tragedies that have robbed millions of Americans of their livelihoods, health and homes. Those tragedies are now being played out at statehouses across the country.
Domestic pain is linked inextricably with far greater suffering wreaked by war. Empire has snuffed out over a million Iraqi and Afghan lives along with more than 6,000 of our young men and women. The people of this nation have poured over a trillion dollars into those wars and those who profit from them are prepared to spend much more, unless we stop them in their tracks.
"Unless we stop them in their tracks..." A year ago, that sentiment would have been only a rhetorical cry in the wilderness, but the courageous people across northern Africa are showing us what can be done. Like them, however, the first thing we must do is decide when we've had enough.
Is it enough to know that since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Wisconsin taxpayers alone have paid for those two wars, over 18 billion dollars, compared to an estimated state budget deficit this year of about two billion dollars?
Is it enough to know that what we've spent on these two wars would provide $8,000 annual scholarships for four years for every college-age person in Wisconsin?
Is it enough to know that wars for Empire have forever taken more than 100 young men and women from Wisconsin and left more than 750 wounded?
Forty-four years ago next month, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke in New York's Riverside Church, giving what many believe was his greatest speech, "Beyond Vietnam." In it, he called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." We are learning now that Iraq and Afghanistan are not the only places blighted by empire's violence. Every working-class neighborhood in our country sinks further into economic serfdom and the violence that is poverty.
In that same speech, Dr. King observed that, "This war is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy-and-laymen-concerned committees for the next generation...We will be marching...and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life."
Members of Veterans For Peace are heartsick that we continue organizing antiwar committees and "attending rallies without end." We don't just want our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, we want a better life for the many. We want security - the kind of security that can only come when we don't have to worry about being thrown out of our jobs and our homes. We want the security that comes with health care for everyone. We want education for all. And we want the rest of that better life that we can win only when we can control the appetites of the few.
Veterans For Peace knows we cannot do this by ourselves. The peace movement, even in its mightiest manifestation, cannot by itself end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, much less get America out of the business of empire.
To do that requires that we take the reins of government out of the hands of the few and place them in the hands of the many.
To do that we need each other! We need to be true to our chants in the streets: "NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!" And we need to organize campaigns like VFP's "How's the War Economy Working for You?" to find the allies we need and who need us.
In 1988, who would have thought that within two years, statues of Lenin would start toppling across Russia? Last summer, who would have that within a year, dictators would topple across northern Africa?
We must learn from those historic moments and join together, so that a year from now people will point to Wisconsin and say, "This is where we decided we had enough!
National Office
Veterans for Peace
*** ***
STATEMENT FROM VETERANS FOR PEACE
REGARDING CURRENT EVENTS IN NORTHERN AFRICA
January 30, 2011
Events unfolding in Tunisia and Egypt hold much hope for the people of that region and indeed the entire world. What do those events show us?
The demonstrations are succeeding because in the main people are relying on the power of nonviolence. People are demonstrating nonviolently and young troops are refusing to violently stop them.
Two weeks ago, few people thought the events in Tunisia and Egypt could ever happen but they are happening.
In northern Africa, the words of Victor Hugo have come to life. "There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea whose time has come."
There is absolutely no reason Victor Hugo's words can't come to life in our own country.
A clear majority of U.S. troops and U.S. residents oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but few believe we can bring the killing to a swift conclusion.
If a small percentage of U.S. troops refused to fight and an even smaller percentage of U.S. residents halted business as usual by simply staying home from work and school, the killing would end.
Anyone who thinks Hugo's words are only a dream today in Egypt or America should be aware of what has already come to pass in Egypt, as in so many other places since then.
In Egypt, grassroots organizing during World War I led to a demand, only two days after the November 11 armistice in 1918, for a meeting to discuss independence with the head of the British forces that had occupied Egypt for 36 years.
The British refused, but the growing movement refused to back down. When four of its leaders were arrested in March, 1919 trying to represent Egypt at the Versailles Treaty talks, people began a general uprising.
All social classes participated. Organizers adopted as their symbol the "Crescent and the Cross," uniting majority Muslims and minority Coptic Christians. Within a week Egypt was economically paralyzed by strikes of every sort. The protests were mainly nonviolent in the cities but when the British tried to suppress the demonstrations violently, 800 Egyptians and nearly 30 British soldiers were killed by that summer.
Years later, Egyptian women chose March 16 as Women's Day because on that day in 1919, 300 women demonstrators led by Hoda Sha'arawi denounced British occupation and Hameida Khalil became the first woman to give her life for independence.
This mostly nonviolent revolution forced the British to recognize limited Egyptian independence in 1922. The following year, Egyptians adopted a new constitution.
Since the 1978 Camp David "Peace Accords," the U.S. has given Egypt over $50 billion in military aid, plus forgiving $7 billion in military debt for Egypt's support in the 1990 Persian Gulf War. The U.S. has a huge responsibility to see that Egypt does not use the weapons we gave it to crush a democratic movement.
*** ***
CALL TO ACTION: TAKE A STAND FOR PEACE.
Originally Published in the Veterans for Peace Newsletter
Fall, 2010
During the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King called our government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." True then-and even more so today.
A few years before that, in 1964 Mario Savio made his great speech at Berkeley at the end he says, "There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"
There are children being orphaned, maimed or killed everyday, in our name, with our tax dollars there are soldiers and civilians dying or being maimed for life, in order to generate profits for the most odious imperialistic corporate war machine ever, again in our name. How long are we going to let this go on? Until it is too late, until this destructive machine destroys all of us and the planet to boot?
Wikileaks has revealed the documented horror of U.S. war-making, beyond what any of us imagined. It's time veterans and others express our resistance directly and powerfully by putting ourselves on the line, once again-honestly, courageously and without one drop of apology for doing so. It is not we who are the murderers, torturers or pillagers of the earth.
Profit and power-hungry warmongers are destroying everything we hold dear and sacred.
In the early thirties, WW1 vets descended on Washington, D.C., to demand their promised bonuses, it being the depths of the Depression. General Douglas MacArthur and his sidekick Dwight Eisenhower disregarded President Herbert Hoover's order and burned their encampment down and drove the vets out of town at bayonet point.
We are today's bonus marchers, and we're coming to claim our bonus-PEACE.
Join activist veterans marching in solidarity to the White House, refusing to move, demanding the end of U.S. wars, which includes U.S. support-financial and tactical-for the Israeli war machine as well.
If we can gather enough courageous souls, nonviolently refusing to leave the White House, willing to be dragged away and arrested if necessary, we will send a message that will be seen worldwide. "End these wars - now!" We will carry forward a flame of resistance to the war machine that will not diminish as we effectively begin to place ourselves, as Mario Savio said, "upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus." and we will make it stop.
We believe that the power of courageous, committed people is greater than that of corporate warmongers. But we will only see our power when we use it collectively, when we stand together.
With courage, persistence, boldness and numbers, we can eventually make this monstrous war machine grind to a halt, so that our children and all children everywhere can grow up in a peaceful world.
Join us at the White House on December 16th!
For a world in peace,
Nic Abramson, Veterans For Peace
Elliott Adams, Past President, Veterans For Peace
Laurie Arbeiter, Activist Response Team
Ken Ashe, Veterans For Peace
Ellen Barfield, Veterans For Peace
Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder, CODEPINK for Peace
Frida Berrigan, War Resisters League
Bruce Berry, Veterans For Peace
Leah Bolger, Veterans For Peace
Elaine Brower, Anti-war Military Mom and World Can't Wait
Scott Camil, Veterans For Peace
Ross Caputi, Justice For Fallujah Project
Kim Carlyle, Veterans For Peace
Armen Chakerian, Coalition to Stop the $30 Billion to Israel
Matthis Chiroux, Iraq War Resister Veteran
Gerry Condon, Veterans For Peace
Will Covert, Veterans For Peace
Dave Culver, Veterans For Peace
Matt Daloisio, Witness Against Torture
Ellen Davidson, War Resisters League
Mike Ferner, President, Veterans For Peace
Nate Goldshlag, Veterans For Peace
Clare Hanrahan, War Crimes Times
Mike Hearington, Veterans For Peace
Mark Johnson, Executive Director. Fellowship of Reconciliation
Tarak Kauff, Veterans For Peace
Kathy Kelly, Voices For Creative Nonviolence
Sandy Kelson, Veterans For Peace
Ron Kovic, Vietnam War veteran and author of Born on the Fourth of July
Joel Kovel, Veterans For Peace
Erik Lobo, Veterans For Peace
Joe Lombardo, United National Antiwar Committee
Ken Mayers, Veterans For Peace
Nancy Munger, Co-President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Fred Nagel, Veterans For Peace
Pat O'Brien, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Bill Perry, Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Vito Piccininno, Veterans For Peace
Mike Prysner, Co-Founder, March Forward
Ward Reilly, Veterans For Peace
Laura Roskos, Co-President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Cindy Sheehan, Founder, Peace of the Action
David Swanson, author
Debra Sweet, National Director, World Can't Wait
Debbie Tolson, Veterans For Peace
Mike Tork, Veterans For Peace
Hart Viges, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Father Louie Vitale, SOA Watch
Jay Wenk, Veterans For Peace
Linda Wiener, Veterans For Peace
Diane Wilson, Veterans For Peace
Col. Ann Wright, Veterans For Peace
Doug Zachary, Veterans For Peace
Statement from VfP, East Bay Chapter 162
The members of Veterans for Peace, East Bay Chapter 162, have been watching the increasing repression against the Occupy Movement here in Oakland, CA, which has included repeated use of chemical agents, concussion grenades, and other "less lethal" weapons, as well as beatings. Several persons, including military veterans, have been seriously injured by the police. There have also been mass arrests: on October 25, 2011 of about seventy Occupiers, and on January 28, 2012 of over four hundred Occupiers.
This repression sounds chillingly like those occurring in so many 3rd world dictatorships which our government routinely castigates for human rights abuse. Incredibly, it's happening here in Oakland, a city where we either live, work and shop, or at least attend movies & cultural events. Among the arrestees are friends and neighbors, people we know personally. Some are veterans.
We note that the supposedly "unbiased" mainstream media have chosen to spin these events into a propaganda attack against Occupy Oakland. For many Vietnam Era veterans this is déjà vu, recalling that antiwar veterans who protested during the 1960s and 1970s were likewise often subjected to grossly distorted media reportage.
Occupy Oakland deserves respect. By empowering the powerless, the movement has restored dignity to the downtrodden. That was made clear on Nov 2nd, the first general strike in the US since 1946, which strike also took place in Oakland, and again during the West Coast Port Shutdown of Dec 12th. Those actions inspired rank-and-file trade unionists in other cities, notably in Longview, WA, where dockworkers who'd been on the picket line for half a year were energized to continue their struggle. This month we received news that the Longview dockworkers have won; Occupy Oakland, along with other Occupys, played a significant role in that victory.
Any movement as ambitious as Occupy is certain to make mistakes and go to excesses. Examples would be the breaking of windows on Nov 2nd and the burning of the flag on Jan 28th. Fortunately, it is the nature of Occupy to be self-correcting, by continuing to discuss tactics and strategies both at the General Assembly and in small informal groups. We're confident that an ever increasingly effective Occupy movement will emerge from these ongoing discussions.
We strongly express our support for Occupy Oakland, as we have in the past. The men and women of Occupy represent our hope for the future, a well placed hope, we believe, and we commend them on their firm stand in the face of brutal repression and their courageous defense of our First Amendment rights.
Veterans for Peace
East Bay Chapter #162
February 26, 2012
*** ***
List of included statements:
ON THE PEPPER SPRAYING OF STUDENTS AT UC DAVIS
Statement passed by the East Bay Chapter of Vets for Peace
December 2011
STATEMENT ON THE WOUNDING OF SCOTT OLSEN
National Office of Veterans for Peace
October 26, 2011
AT LAST, AN OCCUPATION WE CAN BELIEVE IN!
Statement in Support of Occupy Wall Street
Veterans for Peace. East Bay Chapter #162
September 28, 2011
STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF WISCONSIN WORKERS
National Office, Veterans for Peace
February 23, 2011
STATEMENT FROM VETERANS FOR PEACE
REGARDING CURRENT EVENTS IN NORTHERN AFRICA
January 30, 2011
CALL TO ACTION: TAKE A STAND FOR PEACE.
Originally Published in the Veterans for Peace Newsletter
Fall, 2010
*** ***
ON THE PEPPER SPRAYING OF STUDENTS AT UC DAVIS
Statement passed by the East Bay Chapter of Vets for Peace, December 2011.
The recent beatings and pepper spraying of non-violent students at UC Berkeley and UC Davis come as no surprise to those familiar with the sordid relationship between the administration of the University of California and the most violent institutions of American society. The University has been complicit in every criminal war the United States has fought, from the Cold War to the "War on Terror," from Vietnam to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the impending war on Iran
The connections between the UC administration and the 1% are many. Every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal, including the "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" that vaporized the civilian inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, were designed at one of two nuclear weapons labs run by the University of California: Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore. The legal architect of the Bush torture regime, John Yoo, continues to teach at the UC Berkeley Law School, in spite of protests by students, faculty, and the general public. One of the UC Regents, Billionaire Richard C. Blum, held a controlling interest in two military contractors, URS Corporation and Perini Corporation, when they received over $1.5 billion in appropriations supervised and supported by his wife, Senator Dianne Feinstein. Exposure of this connection by the LA Times in early 2007 led to a major scandal, but no serious investigation or prosecution given the political power of the Feinstein-Blum axis, and did not prevent the University administration from establishing a new building, the "Blum Center for Developing Economies," in 2010.
The University of California was founded by the people of California in 1868 to provide quality, tuition-free education for the people, the 99%. Over time, and with pubic support, the University grew into a world-class University. The California Master Plan for Higher Education, adopted in 1960, established the three systems of higher education in California-the University of California, the California State University, and the Community Collage system-with the mission of providing quality, affordable higher education to the people of California. That mission has been severely compromised and dismantled by successive politicians and university administrations in California.
Veterans for Peace applauds the efforts of Occupy Cal, on behalf of the people of California, to take back their University from the 1%. Their example inspires us all to "rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter-but beautiful-struggle for a new world," in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King further tells us, "The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history."
*** ***
STATEMENT ON THE WOUNDING OF SCOTT OLSEN
National Office of Veterans for Peace
October 26, 2011
Veteran For Peace member, Scott Olsen, a Marine Corps veteran twice deployed to Iraq, is in hospital now in stable but serious condition with a fractured skull, struck by a police projectile fired into a crowd in downtown Oakland, California in the early morning hours of today. Other people were injured in the assault and many were arrested after Oakland police in riot gear were ordered to evict people encamped in the ongoing "Occupy Oakland" movement. Olsen is also a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
VFP members are involved with dozens of these local "occupy movement" encampments and we support them fully. In Boston, for example, our members, wearing VFP shirts and carrying VFP flags, stood between a line of police and the encampment, urging police to "join the 99%" and not evict the protesters. In that case, several of our members were banged and bruised when the police decided instead to carry out their eviction orders.
In Oakland, last night, a similar thing happened, according to VFP Chapter 69 member and Navy veteran, Joshua Sheperd, who said he went to downtown Oakland "to see if, as a VFP member, I could help still the anger...to be between the police and the protesters...it seemed unconscionable to me that the police use the cover of darkness like that to do what they were doing." Fortunately, he was not injured in the police assault that left Olsen with a fractured skull
As with virtually every example of the occupy movement across the country, those encamped were conducting themselves peacefully beforehand, protesting current economic, social and environmental conditions in the U.S. brought about by decades of corporate control, a criminal financial industry and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that are driving the U.S. global empire into bankruptcy. These "occupy movement" participants are telling us something we need very desperately to hear. They should be listened to, not arrested and brutalized.
Police in the majority of cities are acting with restraint and humanity towards the encampments, but Veterans For Peace will not be deterred by police who choose to use brutal tactics. In fact, as happens with repression everywhere, more people join the cause. We do believe that the rank and file police officers are part of the 99%, the overwhelming majority of Americans who are suffering at the hands of an intolerable system. Layoffs and cutbacks in city after city prove that we must join together to demand justice for all.
We send our very best to Scott Olsen and his family and wish him a speedy recovery to health.
We shall not be moved.
*** ***
AT LAST, AN OCCUPATION WE CAN BELIEVE IN!
Statement in Support of Occupy Wall Street
Veterans for Peace. East Bay Chapter #162
September 28, 2011
Several months ago, on February 23, the National Office of Veterans for Peace issued a statement in support of the workers in Wisconsin stating, in part: "We know too well that militarism and empire are central causes of the economic tragedies that have robbed millions of Americans of their livelihoods, health and homes.... We are learning now that Iraq and Afghanistan are not the only places blighted by empire's violence. Every working-class neighborhood in our country sinks further into economic serfdom and the violence that is poverty.... We don't just want our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, we want a better life for the many. We want security-the kind of security that can only come when we don't have to worry about being thrown out of our jobs and our homes. We want the security that comes with health care for everyone. We want education for all. And we want the rest of that better life that we can win only when we can control the appetites of the few."
In this spirit, Veterans for Peace East Bay Chapter #162 stands in solidarity with the activists participating in Occupy Wall Street, now in its second week. Nearly 45 years ago, in his "Beyond Vietnam" speech Dr. Martin Luther King observed the "war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit" and that "we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values," without which "the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
The hundreds of activists participating in Occupy Wall Street, will soon be joined by thousands more in occupations of Washington D.C. and other cities protesting the decade long war in the Middle East. In confronting Wall Street and the Pentagon in the spirit of Dr. King, they deserve our support and the support of all people in America and around the world
***
STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF WISCONSIN WORKERS
National Office, Veterans for Peace
February 23, 2011
With a name like "Veterans For Peace," it's a fair question to ask if we should make statements supporting union members battling government offensives in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
The VFP national leadership and, we believe, the overwhelming majority of our members think the answer is yes. We know too well that militarism and empire are central causes of the economic tragedies that have robbed millions of Americans of their livelihoods, health and homes. Those tragedies are now being played out at statehouses across the country.
Domestic pain is linked inextricably with far greater suffering wreaked by war. Empire has snuffed out over a million Iraqi and Afghan lives along with more than 6,000 of our young men and women. The people of this nation have poured over a trillion dollars into those wars and those who profit from them are prepared to spend much more, unless we stop them in their tracks.
"Unless we stop them in their tracks..." A year ago, that sentiment would have been only a rhetorical cry in the wilderness, but the courageous people across northern Africa are showing us what can be done. Like them, however, the first thing we must do is decide when we've had enough.
Is it enough to know that since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Wisconsin taxpayers alone have paid for those two wars, over 18 billion dollars, compared to an estimated state budget deficit this year of about two billion dollars?
Is it enough to know that what we've spent on these two wars would provide $8,000 annual scholarships for four years for every college-age person in Wisconsin?
Is it enough to know that wars for Empire have forever taken more than 100 young men and women from Wisconsin and left more than 750 wounded?
Forty-four years ago next month, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke in New York's Riverside Church, giving what many believe was his greatest speech, "Beyond Vietnam." In it, he called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." We are learning now that Iraq and Afghanistan are not the only places blighted by empire's violence. Every working-class neighborhood in our country sinks further into economic serfdom and the violence that is poverty.
In that same speech, Dr. King observed that, "This war is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy-and-laymen-concerned committees for the next generation...We will be marching...and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life."
Members of Veterans For Peace are heartsick that we continue organizing antiwar committees and "attending rallies without end." We don't just want our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, we want a better life for the many. We want security - the kind of security that can only come when we don't have to worry about being thrown out of our jobs and our homes. We want the security that comes with health care for everyone. We want education for all. And we want the rest of that better life that we can win only when we can control the appetites of the few.
Veterans For Peace knows we cannot do this by ourselves. The peace movement, even in its mightiest manifestation, cannot by itself end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, much less get America out of the business of empire.
To do that requires that we take the reins of government out of the hands of the few and place them in the hands of the many.
To do that we need each other! We need to be true to our chants in the streets: "NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!" And we need to organize campaigns like VFP's "How's the War Economy Working for You?" to find the allies we need and who need us.
In 1988, who would have thought that within two years, statues of Lenin would start toppling across Russia? Last summer, who would have that within a year, dictators would topple across northern Africa?
We must learn from those historic moments and join together, so that a year from now people will point to Wisconsin and say, "This is where we decided we had enough!
National Office
Veterans for Peace
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STATEMENT FROM VETERANS FOR PEACE
REGARDING CURRENT EVENTS IN NORTHERN AFRICA
January 30, 2011
Events unfolding in Tunisia and Egypt hold much hope for the people of that region and indeed the entire world. What do those events show us?
The demonstrations are succeeding because in the main people are relying on the power of nonviolence. People are demonstrating nonviolently and young troops are refusing to violently stop them.
Two weeks ago, few people thought the events in Tunisia and Egypt could ever happen but they are happening.
In northern Africa, the words of Victor Hugo have come to life. "There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea whose time has come."
There is absolutely no reason Victor Hugo's words can't come to life in our own country.
A clear majority of U.S. troops and U.S. residents oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but few believe we can bring the killing to a swift conclusion.
If a small percentage of U.S. troops refused to fight and an even smaller percentage of U.S. residents halted business as usual by simply staying home from work and school, the killing would end.
Anyone who thinks Hugo's words are only a dream today in Egypt or America should be aware of what has already come to pass in Egypt, as in so many other places since then.
In Egypt, grassroots organizing during World War I led to a demand, only two days after the November 11 armistice in 1918, for a meeting to discuss independence with the head of the British forces that had occupied Egypt for 36 years.
The British refused, but the growing movement refused to back down. When four of its leaders were arrested in March, 1919 trying to represent Egypt at the Versailles Treaty talks, people began a general uprising.
All social classes participated. Organizers adopted as their symbol the "Crescent and the Cross," uniting majority Muslims and minority Coptic Christians. Within a week Egypt was economically paralyzed by strikes of every sort. The protests were mainly nonviolent in the cities but when the British tried to suppress the demonstrations violently, 800 Egyptians and nearly 30 British soldiers were killed by that summer.
Years later, Egyptian women chose March 16 as Women's Day because on that day in 1919, 300 women demonstrators led by Hoda Sha'arawi denounced British occupation and Hameida Khalil became the first woman to give her life for independence.
This mostly nonviolent revolution forced the British to recognize limited Egyptian independence in 1922. The following year, Egyptians adopted a new constitution.
Since the 1978 Camp David "Peace Accords," the U.S. has given Egypt over $50 billion in military aid, plus forgiving $7 billion in military debt for Egypt's support in the 1990 Persian Gulf War. The U.S. has a huge responsibility to see that Egypt does not use the weapons we gave it to crush a democratic movement.
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CALL TO ACTION: TAKE A STAND FOR PEACE.
Originally Published in the Veterans for Peace Newsletter
Fall, 2010
During the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King called our government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." True then-and even more so today.
A few years before that, in 1964 Mario Savio made his great speech at Berkeley at the end he says, "There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"
There are children being orphaned, maimed or killed everyday, in our name, with our tax dollars there are soldiers and civilians dying or being maimed for life, in order to generate profits for the most odious imperialistic corporate war machine ever, again in our name. How long are we going to let this go on? Until it is too late, until this destructive machine destroys all of us and the planet to boot?
Wikileaks has revealed the documented horror of U.S. war-making, beyond what any of us imagined. It's time veterans and others express our resistance directly and powerfully by putting ourselves on the line, once again-honestly, courageously and without one drop of apology for doing so. It is not we who are the murderers, torturers or pillagers of the earth.
Profit and power-hungry warmongers are destroying everything we hold dear and sacred.
In the early thirties, WW1 vets descended on Washington, D.C., to demand their promised bonuses, it being the depths of the Depression. General Douglas MacArthur and his sidekick Dwight Eisenhower disregarded President Herbert Hoover's order and burned their encampment down and drove the vets out of town at bayonet point.
We are today's bonus marchers, and we're coming to claim our bonus-PEACE.
Join activist veterans marching in solidarity to the White House, refusing to move, demanding the end of U.S. wars, which includes U.S. support-financial and tactical-for the Israeli war machine as well.
If we can gather enough courageous souls, nonviolently refusing to leave the White House, willing to be dragged away and arrested if necessary, we will send a message that will be seen worldwide. "End these wars - now!" We will carry forward a flame of resistance to the war machine that will not diminish as we effectively begin to place ourselves, as Mario Savio said, "upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus." and we will make it stop.
We believe that the power of courageous, committed people is greater than that of corporate warmongers. But we will only see our power when we use it collectively, when we stand together.
With courage, persistence, boldness and numbers, we can eventually make this monstrous war machine grind to a halt, so that our children and all children everywhere can grow up in a peaceful world.
Join us at the White House on December 16th!
For a world in peace,
Nic Abramson, Veterans For Peace
Elliott Adams, Past President, Veterans For Peace
Laurie Arbeiter, Activist Response Team
Ken Ashe, Veterans For Peace
Ellen Barfield, Veterans For Peace
Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder, CODEPINK for Peace
Frida Berrigan, War Resisters League
Bruce Berry, Veterans For Peace
Leah Bolger, Veterans For Peace
Elaine Brower, Anti-war Military Mom and World Can't Wait
Scott Camil, Veterans For Peace
Ross Caputi, Justice For Fallujah Project
Kim Carlyle, Veterans For Peace
Armen Chakerian, Coalition to Stop the $30 Billion to Israel
Matthis Chiroux, Iraq War Resister Veteran
Gerry Condon, Veterans For Peace
Will Covert, Veterans For Peace
Dave Culver, Veterans For Peace
Matt Daloisio, Witness Against Torture
Ellen Davidson, War Resisters League
Mike Ferner, President, Veterans For Peace
Nate Goldshlag, Veterans For Peace
Clare Hanrahan, War Crimes Times
Mike Hearington, Veterans For Peace
Mark Johnson, Executive Director. Fellowship of Reconciliation
Tarak Kauff, Veterans For Peace
Kathy Kelly, Voices For Creative Nonviolence
Sandy Kelson, Veterans For Peace
Ron Kovic, Vietnam War veteran and author of Born on the Fourth of July
Joel Kovel, Veterans For Peace
Erik Lobo, Veterans For Peace
Joe Lombardo, United National Antiwar Committee
Ken Mayers, Veterans For Peace
Nancy Munger, Co-President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Fred Nagel, Veterans For Peace
Pat O'Brien, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Bill Perry, Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Vito Piccininno, Veterans For Peace
Mike Prysner, Co-Founder, March Forward
Ward Reilly, Veterans For Peace
Laura Roskos, Co-President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Cindy Sheehan, Founder, Peace of the Action
David Swanson, author
Debra Sweet, National Director, World Can't Wait
Debbie Tolson, Veterans For Peace
Mike Tork, Veterans For Peace
Hart Viges, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Father Louie Vitale, SOA Watch
Jay Wenk, Veterans For Peace
Linda Wiener, Veterans For Peace
Diane Wilson, Veterans For Peace
Col. Ann Wright, Veterans For Peace
Doug Zachary, Veterans For Peace
