The two largest business groups in Wisconsin hope to get more companies in the state to try to sell products to the U.S. military. The groups began their push with Democrat Joe Biden as president, and say it will continue when Republican Donald Trump is back in the White House.
Some big firms in Wisconsin already sell a lot to the military. For example, the Oshkosh Corporation’s tactical and combat vehicles, Fincantieri naval ships built in Marinette, and Fairbanks Morse ship engines made in Beloit.
But as of last year, defense contracts still only made up 1.2% of Wisconsin’s gross domestic product — ranking 41stamong the states. Others note Wisconsin is only 30thper capita in contributions to the defense-industrial base.
Some business executives would like to improve those rankings, given Wisconsin’s relatively strong manufacturing might.
One of those executives is Bill Berrien.
On a balcony above the shop floor at Pindel Global Precision Inc., in New Berlin, company CEO Berrien points to some of his workers attending to about 35 computer-controlled machines that are each about the size of a pickup truck.
“A lot of these machines are running automatically, and a machinist is monitoring the process of several machines. And they’re using troubleshooting and critical thinking skills to make sure the parts those machines are making are meeting the customers’ expectations, as well as the company’s expectations," Berrien explains.
Berrien’s firm, known as a contract manufacturer, has sold some of those mostly-small, metal parts to companies that make military firearms, or ammunition, and other parts to the space and aerospace industries.
Berrien also has another role these days. He’s vice chair of the Wisconsin Defense Industry Council — a recently announced collaboration between the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC.)
Berrien says the groups aim to use the state’s history of manufacturing to create a cluster of defense businesses here.
“How do we both encourage and help companies supply directly to the Department of Defense. Probably even the bigger opportunity is how do we connect them with defense primes outside of the state who need component manufacturers and subsystem manufacturers in printed circuit boards and such that can be manufactured here," Berrien says.
Berrien explains that a defense prime is a larger primary manufacturer. That includes older firms like Boeing, Lockheed or Raytheon, but also newer high-tech firms like Anduril Industries.Fortune Magazinereports Anduril’s executive chairperson has met with President-elect Trump on transforming the nation’s defense.
If Wisconsin firms can out-compete those in other states, and deal with the red tape that often can make supplying the federal government a headache, that could indeed lead to more good-paying jobs in Wisconsin.
But longtime Milwaukee-area peace activist Jim Carpenter of Peace Action Wisconsin takes a dim view of making more products used in the military.
“Yes, people are making money and profit on war. But we should be making profit on producing things that actually solve human needs. We need housing. We need pipes that are not lead-based. We need better housing. We need people helping older people live in their homes," Carpenter tells WUWM.
Carpenter says better diplomacy, by stressing everyone is part of the human race, is the way to solve conflict.
Chuck Quirmbach
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WUWM
Milwaukee peace activists gather for the 44th U.N. International Day of Peace, in September.
Last week, President Biden announced a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. If that agreement continues to mostly hold, Biden says he’s even optimistic about a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
On the other hand, tensions have increased in the war between Ukraine and Russia with the recent launching of longer-range missiles.
Dale Kooyenga of the MMAC says there’s nothing wrong with contributing to a strong U.S. military trying to prevent war.
“I think the Wisconsin values, especially in the manufacturing community, is they want to be part of that defense. They want to be part of the good guys. They want to be part of the fight. So, I think they want the business. But I think they also love their country and they love our values and want to be part of defending their freedom," Kooyenga tells WUWM.
Asked about Trump winning the presidential election this fall, the Wisconsin Defense Industry Council replies that its mission doesn’t change, no matter who’s in office.
Global Solidarity for Peace in Palestine Coalition, November 3, 2024
A webinar with, among others:
Raji Sourani,General Director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights; Coordinator of the Palestinian legal team representing victims before the international Crimimal Court; a member of the South African Legal team in the Genocide case before the International court of justice.
Ann Wright(born 1947) is a retired United States Army colonel and retired U.S. State Department official, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. Wright was also a passenger on the Challenger 1, which along with the Mavi Marmara, was part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
Ms. Amal Siam,Director of Women Affairs Center (WAC): Born in the Gaza Strip into a Palestinian refugee family who was uprooted from its hometown during the 1948 Nakba.
Leo Gabriel,a journalist and anthropologist, Leo is part of the Prague Spring II network and a member of the IC of the World Social Forum.
David Swanson isan author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director ofWorld BEYOND Warand campaign coordinator forRootsAction.org.
Kathy Kellyis board president of World BEYOND War. From 2022 to the present, she has co-coordinated the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal.
“The crime of all crimes.” That is how the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda declared genocide in the final judgment of Prosecutor v. Akayesu, the case against the mayor of Taba, Rwanda for crimes against humanity. Today, that crime repeats itself as UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese painfully details in her latest report.
Albanese joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to break down her report and present the indisputable evidence that Israel is actively committing a genocide of the Palestinian people.
“The acts of killing, the mass killing, the infliction of psychological and physical torture, the devastation, the creation of conditions of life that would not allow the people in Gaza to live, from the destruction of hospitals, the mass force displacement and the mass homelessness while people were being bombed daily, and the starvation—how can we read these acts in isolation?” Albanese asks.
The UN Special Rapporteur clearly outlines the steps and conditions required to meet the classification of genocide, and in the case of Gaza, it’s undeniable. Albanese tells Hedges, “What is relevant in order to establish that there is genocide is not just the intent behind these crimes, enunciated in Article II of the Genocide Convention; it’s the overall intent, specific intent, to destroy the people—the group as a whole, or in part, as such. And what is the group here? It's the Palestinians.”
The student encampment at UWM ended but the fight goes on, with SDS and some students facing down disciplinary threats for new statements and actions. We talk about the ongoing fight against the genocide, the university’s oppression, and a bit on student power and student rights. And the Democrats.
Vijay Prashad, "Authoritarianism and Hyper-Imperialism"
Korean American Peace Fund's Times Square Korea Peace Video Campaign
To commemorate the 71st anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement, the Korean American Peace Forum (KAPF) is broadcasting a video message calling for peace on the large electronic billboards in New York City's Times Square. The video is running from Monday, July 22nd through Sunday, July 28th, airing approximately 480 times per day for a total of 1680 minutes (28 hours).
The 30-second video will convey messages emphasizing (1) The need for a formal peace agreement (2) A declaration to end the Korean War (3) The urgency of ending the 71-year-old ceasefire.
The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness within American society about the ongoing tensions on the Korean peninsula and the importance of resolving the Korean War. KAPF aims to garner public interest and support for peace initiatives. This Times Square video campaign is planned to be an annual event for KAPF to advocate for peace in Korea.
If you are going to be in NYC, please record the video and share it on social media!
Watch the YouTube recording below and click "like" to show your support.
From next Monday, KAPF will contact the 435 legislators in the U.S. Congress and 300 assembly members in South Korea with the peace messages. Please share the video widely. Many thanks
Today, the US is rapidly intensifying its aggression in Korea—and most people in the US are totally in the dark about what’s happening. Last year, the US military conducted 200 days of war games in Korea. And in just a few weeks, the US will hold a nuclear war exercise in Korea.
jeffsachs#jeffreysachs#interview Jeffrey Sachs is a well-known American economist, academic, and public policy analyst who has made significant contributions to the fields of sustainable development and economic development. He has held various prestigious positions throughout his career, including serving as the director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and as a special advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals. Sachs has authored numerous books and articles on topics related to economics, poverty reduction, and sustainable development.
People's Conference for Palestine
We convened in Detroit, at the People’s Conference for Palestine, with over 3,500 people from across North America, and tens of thousands of people online. At this conference, we fundraised over $200,000 to rebuild Gaza and to support our people in Gaza, who have paid and continue to pay the ultimate sacrifice for liberation – and we know this is only a drop in the ocean of what we can and should do.
On June 8th, we will come together from across the country and surround the White House. Wearing red, and raising our demands high, we will show the world that we are the red line. We demand an immediate ceasefire, an immediate end to the siege on Gaza, the freedom for all Palestinian prisoners, and an end to the occupation of Palestine.
With hosts Gary Grass and Peace Action WI Steering Committee member Babette Grunow
A ceasefire resolution was passed om March 21, 2024, by the Milwaukee County Board though is was not as complete as the original resolution described by Supervisor Ron Clancy. And unfortunately most of the press does not mention Ron Clancy or Steven Shea the two supervisors who sponsored the original resolution for a ceasefire that brought the issue to the table.
Representatives from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Muslim Student Association (center) accept the MLK Social Justice Award from organizing committee members Lauren Cross (left) and Jarret English (right).
If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and seek justice for Palestinians, say those who knew him personally.
“He would say violence does not solve any problem, that violence begets violence and revenge begets revenge,” said Rev. Joe Ellwanger of Milwaukee, who worked with Dr. King. “The answer to the tensions between Palestine and Israel cannot be solved militarily. They have to be decided by negotiation with the lens of justice for both sides.
“Even though Dr. King did support the right of Israel to exist, he did not and would not support Israel’s colonial method of taking land away from the Palestinians,” he said.
Ellwanger spoke Jan. 15 at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Milwaukee among a panel of elders who knew and worked with Dr. King. The panel discussion was part of Milwaukee Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Coalition’s 23rd celebration of King’s birthday.
Rev. Joseph Ellwanger (second from left) worked with Dr. King in the 1960s on protests in Birmingham and the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. He spoke with panelists Reuben Harpole, Joyce Ellwanger and Peggy Kendrigan.
Ellwanger, a retired Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor, served an all-Black congregation in Birmingham, Alabama from 1958 to 1967. (He later served a racially integrated congregation in Milwaukee until his retirement in 2001.)
In 1963, Ellwanger worked with King on the Central Committee of the Birmingham Demonstrations carried out by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and in 1965 on the voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama.
“I led a march of 72 white Alabamians in solidarity with the Voting Rights Movement on the day before Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965,” Ellwanger explained, “and then participated in the last stage of the Selma to Montgomery March.”
Program organizing committee members Jarret English and Lauryn Cross served as emcees.
Remember the radical MLK
The purpose of Milwaukee Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Coalition’s annual ceremony is to remember the radical Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said coalition co-founder Julie Enslow of Shorewood.
“It’s the more radical King we are honoring, the King who was murdered because he was against the war in Vietnam, and against racism, poverty and materialism in this country,” she said last week in an interview with the Wisconsin Muslim Journal. His radical views contributed to King being among the most-hated people in America, according to a 1968 Harris poll.
“My partner George Martin, our friend Brian Verdin and I founded this coalition back in 2001 because we felt the messages of Dr. King had become so watered down after his birthday became a government-sanctioned holiday. It was the ‘I Have a Dream’ King that was celebrated. Nobody talked about King’s message on what he called the ‘great evils’ of racism, extreme materialism and militarism.
“Dr. King is too important a revolutionary figure to be made so nice and palatable.”
Panelists Reuben Harpole, Rev. Joseph and Joyce Ellwanger, Brian Verdin (standing) and Peggy Kendrigan shared thoughts about how Dr. King would respond to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Milwaukee Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Coalition has grown to include 33 organizations today. They are: Casa Maria Catholic Worker, Veterans for Peace, Greater Milwaukee Green Party, Injured Workers Center, Peace Action Wisconsin, Voces de la Frontera, Summer of Peace, Welfare Warriors, Milwaukee Branch Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Progressive Democrats of America in Milwaukee County, WAVE (Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort), Marquette University Center for Peacemaking, Milwaukee Justice Coalition, Wisconsin Conference of Branches NAACP, 350 Milwaukee, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Fight For 15, St. Francis Church, Catholics for Peace and Justice, Riverwest Neighborhood Association, Mothers for Justice, Rid Racism Milwaukee, Milwaukee Turners, True Skool, Central United Methodist Church, Urban Underground, We Got This, We Care Wisconsin, Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, The Poor People’s Campaign, Milwaukee Anti-War Committee and the Milwaukee Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba.
For 23 years, the coalition has hosted a program on Dr. King’s birthday to “recognize elders in Milwaukee who knew, met or worked with Dr. King when he was alive and to recognize groups in the community who are working in the nonviolent spirit of Dr. King on issues of justice,” Enslow said.
The panel of elders at this year’s event “all agreed there is no question Dr. King would be speaking out loud and clear against the genocide in Gaza,” she added.
Despite frigid weather, about 200 people attended the ceremony. “In the past, it’s been standing-room only,” Enslow said. After the program, those gathered usually march to the Martin Luther King Jr. statue in the 1700 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, where people are invited to speak at an open mic, “but this year was just too cold so we canceled the march,” she said.
About 200 people attended the celebration of the radical Martin Luther King Jr. at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Milwaukee.
In his footsteps
“This year we wanted to recognize groups working to stop the genocide in Gaza,” Enslow said. “The groups we honored have taken the lead in large rallies and educational events. And, of all the events I have attended, I’ve never heard anything antisemitic. What they have said has been anti-Zionist, as well it should be, but nothing antisemitic at all.”
“The Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition has really stepped forward to help organize rallies and education events,” Enslow said. Likewise, Jewish Voice for Peace-Milwaukee “has played a leadership role in organizing, and its members always stand up front and speak at protests.”
Enslow said she was especially pleased to include student organizations among those recognized, including the University of Wisconsin’s Muslim Student Association, Students for Justice in Palestine and Students for a Democratic Society-Milwaukee. “Having elders speak about their experiences with Dr. King and young people working in his spirit was very meaningful,” she said.
Receiving the award for MMWC, its founder Janan Najeeb took the opportunity to note the ceremony was taking place one day after the 100th day of Israel’s war on Gaza. “Let’s be clear. This is not a war between Hamas and Israel,” said Najeeb, a Palestinian American. “This is not a war between Gaza and Israel. This is the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Janan Najeeb spoke on behalf of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition.
“On this day, I want to commemorate the 100,000 Palestinian civilians, mainly women and children, who have either been massacred or injured or are missing. Yet, the president of the United States marked the day by crying for the Israeli hostages as if Palestinians don’t matter, as if they’re not human beings.”
Representatives from UWM’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (center) accept the MLK Justice Award from organizing committee members Lauryn Cross (left) and Jarret English (right).
Yet, Najeeb remains an optimist, she said. “The eyes of the world are now wide open. Unless you live under a rock, the entire world knows what is happening and Israel will eventually pay the moral price and self-disintegrate because injustice cannot continue.
“I also want to note the historical and moral stand of South Africa,” she said. “Like South Africans, Palestinians suffer from a system of racist apartheid, so their words matter … Don’t despair. Justice is just around the corner.”
Receiving the award for Jewish Voice for Peace-Milwaukee, its co-founder Jodi Melamed, Ph.D., said, “Zionism is not Judaism. Zionism is militarism; Zionism is racism; it is extreme materialism—the evils Dr. King spoke about. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.”
She called on Israel and the United States to “stop weaponizing antisemitism to kill Palestinians.”
Jodi Melamed accepts the MLK Justice Award for Jewish Voice for Peace – Milwaukee.
King’s lessons for today
“Dr. King famously said, ‘War is not the answer,’” Ellwanger noted. “Exactly one year before he was assassinated, he delivered his famous speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. In it, Dr. King delineated reasons for his opposition to the war, many of which could be applied to Israel’s military bombardment of Gaza.
“Israeli settlers in the West Bank, who just take over Palestinian farms, bulldozing their houses and olive orchards, is reminiscent of the way European settlers took over the land here in the United States and just kept pushing indigenous people onto reservations,” Ellwanger said in an interview. “King would not approve of the settlers who do this with impunity.
“Not all Israelis approve of this,” Ellwanger added. “The Zionists are the ones who say all the land of Palestine belongs to Israel.”
Brian Verdin (left) looks on as Julie Enslow (right) speaks at the 23rd Annual MLK Day Justice Celebration. Verdin, Enslow and Enslow’s late partner George Martin founded the coalition that organizes the program and award ceremony.
At the ceremony, “we also read a statement Dr. King made about Palestine when he was alive, as reported by Mother Jones magazine,” Enslow said. It said:
“In the summer of 1967, King was planning a trip to Israel. But just before his planned arrival, Israel launched the Six-Day War against Egypt, Syria and Jordan, gaining territory and killing thousands. Israel would lay claim to the entirety of Jerusalem and seize control of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and the Sinai peninsula; eventually returning Sinai to Egypt after a peace treaty was signed in 1979.
‘… I think for the ultimate peace and security of the situation it will probably be necessary for Israel to give up this conquered territory because to hold on to it will only exacerbate the tensions and deepen the bitterness of the Arabs.’
“This powerful insight reveals King’s belief in what was key to achieving peace in the Middle East.”
Jamilah Arabiyat, president of the Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Enslow also noted King’s daughter Bernice recently posted a response on the social media platform X to comedian Amy Schumer, who on Oct. 30 posted a video clip of Martin Luther King Jr. speaking in support of Israel and denouncing antisemitism.
Bernice King wrote:
“Amy: Certainly, my father was against antisemitism, as am I. He also believed militarism (along with racism and poverty) to be among the interconnected Triple Evils. I am certain he would call for Israel’s bombing of Palestinians to cease, for hostages to be released and for us to work for true peace, which includes justice.
“He said, ‘Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.’ We have much to correct.”
Andre Lee Ellis
Jamie Kellicut, Community Engagement and Indigenous Affairs Director for H.I.R. Wellness with a group of students
Reuben Harpole
Joyce Ellwanger
Singer Pansy William, saxophonist Mike Arndt and pianist David Nunley provided music for the event.
Video of Milwaukee Veterans for Peace Armistice Day 2023 program
Here is a video of our 2023 Armistice Day program, for your viewing pleasure.
The drums of US/NATO war against China are getting louder and louder, even as the war in Ukraine continues. We are led to believe that China may “invade” Taiwan at the same time that we officially affirm that Taiwan is a province of China. The US sends arms, advisors, and officials to Taiwan, escalates its military encirclement of China, enacts sanctions against China, and conducts continuous propaganda about the supposed threat that China presents to world security. We are being sold a war with China that could lead to nuclear annihilation. How did we get to this point? What are the forces at work and who profits from all this? This webinar will address these questions from the perspective that US imperialism aims to dominate the world and all its resources to the benefit of its capitalist ruling class. Presenters: Carl Zha was born in China, grew up in China and the United States, and is a Cal Tech graduate. He is the host of the Silk and Steel Podcast focusing on China, history, culture and politics. Christian Sorensen is an author and researcher focusing on the corporations that profit from war. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he is the author of the book Understanding the War Industry. His work is available at warindustrymuster.com. His substack, launching August 1st, is thebusinessofwar.substack.com.
Sept 30 Stand for Peace
We are rapidly approaching a point of no return with Russia, we should sit down and talk while we still can.
Live from Center Street Days, we start with Sara and Remy from the Milwaukee Antiwar Committee, talking about local organizing efforts for peace, and then we talk with Jill about stopping Enbridge's dangerous plan to move oil and gas from Canada to Canada via Wisconsin.
Marcy Winograd is a peace activist with Code Pink and the Progressive Democrats of America, and she's with us to talk about the National defense Authorization Act and Biden's decision to send internationally banned cluster munitions to Ukraine. Good show!
Here is my new song and video, linked below, opposing US military drone warfare. It's called Killer Drones. I hope you find it useful and inspiring. All the best!
The United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel, responsible for military fiascos, hundreds of thousands of deaths and war crimes in the Middle East, are now plotting to attack Iran.
Matt Taibbi on military spending
Author of Hate Inc. Matt Taibbi weighs in on Ukraine's first lady pleading the US for more weapons for the war-torn country.
NYCAN rejects the falsehoods of nuclear survivability as propagated in NYC’s Office of Emergency Management’s PSA, issued on July 11 2022. “Get inside, stay inside and stay tuned” represents a total lack of understanding of what thermonuclear weapons mean and how a single modern nuclear weapon would instantaneously and radically destroy our beloved city, killing millions of New Yorkers in seconds, making any preparedness or rescue effort an utter fantasy. For an expert assessment of what happens when a nuclear bomb explodes over a dense urban area, see this video issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
On Wed, Jul 20, 2022 at 5:27 PM Daniel Ellsberg <[email protected]> wrote:
Good, fast work! Yes, we shouldn't let this obscenity go by without protest like this.
One caveat: All the pictures are from either Hiroshima or Nagasaki, which were not hit with 800 KT but with 13KT or 20 KT respectively. The accompanying text doesn't point this out! (The pictures don't really differ--in fact, the reality doesn't differ, except for radiation sickness, from what LeMay's 300 bombers did to Tokyo on March 9-10 with incendiaries, no atomic weapons). Pictures of what metropolitan New Yorkers would experience from a thermonuclear weapon would, unhappily, look very different.
Tune in to Code Pink Radio every Thursday for robust conversation with global grassroots peacemakers, from Yemen to Venezuela to Iran to right here in the U.S.
Email [email protected] to sign up to broadcast CODEPINK Radio, a weekly 55-minute show on progressive foreign policy and demilitarization.
From Massachusetts Peace Action
NATO: Dangerous, Obsolete, and Aggressive: A Reportback
Streamed live on Jul 7, 2022NATO and the international militarization associated with it provoked the confrontation with Russia. That resulted in the largest protests in many years at a NATO summit, as 30,000 people marched in Madrid on June 26 changing “No to NATO” in many different languages. Commitments to disarmament and international cooperation united the thousands of participants who marched through the streets of Madrid in the great heat. Left-wing National, European and international, radical left-wing groups were represented as well as peace organizations, women’s groups, solidarity organizations and environmental organizations, including Friday For Future, all with clear anti-militaristic statements. Three U.S. peace activists who were there will report back on the anti-NATO protests and on the Peace Summit and Counter Summit in Madrid, which took place on June 24 and 25. Political differences within the anti-NATO forces in Madrid were too deep to agree on a unified counter summit, and this will be explained by our panelists. Joseph Gerson is president of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament, and Common Security, vice president of the International Peace Bureau, and a member of Massachusetts Peace Action’s board of directors. He lives in Watertown. Paki Wieland is active with Codepink and is Congressional District 2 captain for Massachusetts Peace Action. She lives in Greenfield. Ann Wright is a retired US Army Colonel and former US diplomat, who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. She has devoted herself to antiwar activism ever since, and is a resident of Hawaii.
Harry Targ is a Peace Action WI Steering Committee member, and emeritus professor of political science at Purdue University, where he taught foreign policy, US–Latin American relations, international political economy, and topics on labor studies. He blogs at Diary of a Heartland Radical
The only solution to end war in Ukraine is a ceasefire, withdrawal of Russian troops, agreement not to expand NATO further, renegotiation of lapsed arms treaties. and establishment of Ukraine as a neutral country.
Whitehouse Comments: 202-456-1111
US Senate Switchboard: 202-224-3121
US House of Representatives Switchboard: 202-225-1904
Stand with Alice Walker: Anti-Zionism is NOT Anti-Semitism!
View the recent webinar with Alice Walker, Chris Hedge and Susan Abulhawa
As censorship is becoming the norm in the United States, Alice Walker, who is a friend of UNAC, a human rights fighter, antiwar activist, feminist and world-renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple had been invited and then disinvited to the Bay Area Book Festival. This was done because of her consistent stand in support of Palestinian rights. This they claim is anti-semitism. A petition was created with 60 initial signers of authors and activists then signed by thousands of others. The festival did not allow Alice Walker to speak
Video that shows the conflict of interest and pro-war bias of the media by tying the talking heads on corporate media to the defense contactors they are connected to.
Kevin Martin of national Peace Action interview with longtime progressive activist Heather Gray aired last evening on WRFG (Radio Free Georgia!). Interview begins about five minutes in. A lot on Ukraine but also touched on most of our issues. Thanks to Joe Cicero of our Development staff for making the connection via a longtime member of ours.
REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM is the definitive discourse with Noam Chomsky, widely regarded as the most important intellectual alive, on the defining characteristic of our time - the deliberate concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a select few. Through interviews filmed over four years, Chomsky unpacks the principles that have brought us to the crossroads of historically unprecedented inequality - tracing a half-century of policies designed to favor the most wealthy at the expense of the majority - while also looking back on his own life of activism and political participation. Profoundly personal and thought provoking, Chomsky provides penetrating insight into what may well be the lasting legacy of our time - the death of the middle class and swan song of functioning democracy. A potent reminder that power ultimately rests in the hands of the governed, REQUIEM is required viewing for all who maintain hope in a shared stake in the future.
Vietnam veteran Mark Foreman of Milwaukee Veterans for Peace Chapter 102 and Peace Action WI tells his tremendous story of conscience, entrapment, horror, spirituality and purpose.
Mobilization Against Militarism- Fly Kites not Drones! No F-35 Killer Jets in Wisconsin!
Peace Action WI was in Madison on 9/11/21 for this demo. Peace Action member, Joyce Ellwanger, brought 35 kites to give to children and gave out flyers on the dollar and human cost of the wars in Afghanistan and a "Fly Kites not Drones" banner.
We gathered in front of Senator Tammy Baldwin's office in Madison. We read a letter we had mailed her with the four following demands,
• Lowering the 2022 spending from the 2021 present military budget of 740 billion dollars, over 60% of the total US discretionary budget. It is against our values when the Department of Defense gets more of our taxpayer dollars than all the other departments of our government, education, health, housing, State, etc. combined.
• Withdrawing your advocacy and support for the F-35 being based in Madison. This plane, a major polluter of the environment, air, water and noise, is considered by many military experts a “boondoggle”, too big to fail. Madison and Wisconsin residents have made it clear they do not want it.
• Stop supporting increased funding to the largest industrial polluter in the world, the US military. In a world on the brink of climate destruction, we must lessen our support for major polluters. War is nonsustainable and only leads to more wars with destruction to continue.
• Supporting more jobs in education, clean energy and health care over military jobs. We know that “1 billion in military spending creates approximately 11,200 jobs, compared with 26,700 in education,16,800 in clean energy, and 17,200 in health care.” https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/economic/economy/employment
Friends, my video in partnership with Susan Ruggles, 'The Dove Of Peace':
created in solidarity with those urging thorough, impartial investigation, diplomacy, negotiation, the hard, rewarding work of peace-making, instead of the disastrous rush to war, leading to the ongoing catastrophes in Iraq and elsewhere.
This is the 8th Ruggles/Taylor co-creation, all aspiring to contribute something positive to very difficult challenges around social justice, environmental, pro-peace, and related concerns.
Chuck Quirmbach/WUWM
https://www.codepink.org/radio
Peace Action member Bob Graf
