Stop Big Oil. Strengthen Our Democracy. End the Wars. Create Jobs. Save the Planet.

Posted on March 9, 2011 by
Power Without Petroleum (PWP) is an important campaign, launched by the Brave New Foundation.  As you might know, this is the organization that brought us the excellent Rethink Afghanistan campaign and film.
There are two outstanding short videos that I want to share with you, created by the PWP campaign.  The first video is called, “Stuck on Stupid: Big Oil Says NO To Green Jobs.”  In this three-minute video, we learn that, if Congress supports it, we could create, in the next few years, 110,000 new jobs in the field of solar energy. The video indicates the numerous types of jobs that would be created.  These would include, for example, jobs for sheet metal workers and jobs for civil engineers, if we construct wind farms and expand our systems of mass transit.  The video points out that we could create 185,000 new wind energy jobs.  In fact, the video notes, over the next twenty years, we could create over 37,000,000 renewable energy jobs.
Of course, to accomplish all this, we need Continue reading →
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Wisconsin Would Be The First Domino – We Are All Wisconsinites

Posted on February 27, 2011 by
The crisis in Wisconsin has the potential to drastically diminish the rights, salaries, and working conditions of Americans throughout the country.  Whether they are public employees, private sector employees, union members, or non-union workers, America’s working families will suffer if the conservative efforts in Wisconsin are successful.
Public-sector employees are entitled to collective bargaining rights, as we all are.  This is essential to a healthy democracy. The accomplishments of labor unions Continue reading →
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Barbara Lee & Bernie Sanders: War in Afghanistan & War on the Middle Class

Posted on February 17, 2011 by
Earlier this week, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D- CA) submitted a proposal to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), asking the DNC to pass a resolution “Supporting Ending the War in Afghanistan and Transferring the Funding to Job Creation, other Crucial Domestic Priorities and Deficit Reduction.”  Also, recently, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called for an end to “The War on the Middle Class.”  Both wars, of course, must be ended; and the two are certainly related.
The war in Afghanistan, fiscal issues aside, is immoral and illegal.  We need to begin the process of bringing the troops home.  We need to complete the withdrawal as quickly as possible.  The war is wrong. It is also severely draining our country of the resources we need to create jobs, to transition to the use of sustainable and safe energy, to rebuild our infrastructure, and to reduce the federal deficit.
Congresswoman Lee’s resolution before the DNC states that “the mounting costs of the war in Afghanistan, now totaling over $100 billion a year, have constrained efforts to invest in job creation and in strengthening our country and our economy.” It asserts that “a diplomatic solution in Afghanistan that emphasizes economic development, political reconciliation and inclusion, the engagement of regional and global stakeholders, and the safeguarding of basic human rights is essential to ensure long-term stability in Afghanistan and the surrounding region.”  The resolution calls for Continue reading →
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Tom Hayden on “The Long War;” Sign up for Tom’s Free Online School of Activism

Posted on February 10, 2011 by
Long-time antiwar activist Tom Hayden recently taught the first of four sessions in his School of Activism.  The session was both informative and inspiring.  Tom describes this series as a “workshop on the long war and our future.”  He explained that the long war is projected to last fifty to eighty years.  He described it as “a war against Muslims in many countries.”  He discussed what can be viewed as “a sequence of wars in the context of the long war.”  He said that we must end the long war.  He said that it does not make us safer, that the wars are “strangling our ability to invest in our domestic priorities,” and could lead the country to being pushed “farther to the right and into a deeper national security state.”
Tom told us, “The long war … requires a long peace movement.”  When speaking of local peace activists that he has met, across the country, he says Continue reading →
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End the Wars! Move the Money! And A Video: Mike Zweig on Democracy Now

Posted on January 31, 2011 by

Code Pink Says Bring Our War Dollars Home

I support the national “Move the Money Campaign.” The campaign calls for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a substantial reduction in the military budget.  It calls for the monies saved to be used to fund our needs here at home.  I believe that it is essential, however, to emphasize that these wars must be ended, not simply for fiscal reasons.  If the wars were not costly, and if our economy were not in such a terrible state, the wars would still be wrong and should still be ended.

Simply put, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are both illegal and immoral.  There are, no doubt, many reasons for these wars.  Corporate and imperial influence, I believe, are two of the factors that fuel these wars.  It is notable that Continue reading →

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