Category Archives: Peace

Are You Ready? Remembering Alexander Cockburn | June 6, 1941 – July 21, 2012

Alex CockburnRadical journalist and author Alexander Cockburn, who passed away July 21, 2012, was celebrated at a memorial in New York last September attended by (among others) Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali and the extended Cockburn family. Laura Flanders has put together a very nice tribute video from the memorial.  It includes many of the Kopkind extended family like Kevin Alexander Gray, JoAnn Wypijewski, Najla Said and some great pictures.

Leave a comment

Filed under 1ST LOOK | KAG on Video, Actions | Events, American Politics, American Progressive Politics, Friends & Comrades, Human Rights, Palestine | Israel, Peace, The Press, Uncategorized, Work of Comrades

“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” | Martin Luther King, Jr.

Delivered 3 April 1968, Mason Temple [Church of God in Christ Headquarters], Memphis, Tennessee

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It’s always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good about you. And Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world.

I’m delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world.

As you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of picking a general and panoramic view of the whole human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, “Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?” — I would take my mental flight by Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn’t stop there. I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality.

But I wouldn’t stop there. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn’t stop there. I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of man. But I wouldn’t stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for whom I’m named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg.

But I wouldn’t stop there. I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation.

I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but “fear itself.” But I wouldn’t stop there.

Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, “If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy.” Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under American Culture, American History, American Politics, American Progressive Politics, Black Culture | United States, Black Politics, Civil Rights, Historic Black Politics & Figures, Historic Photos - People, Peace, Political Ideology, Protest, Work of Comrades

F.B.I. Searches Antiwar Activists’ Homes | Walter Lippmann

 
[CubaNews] October 05, 2010

Dear Friends –
 
Please read this note carefully, and, if you agree with the thrust of what it’s saying, copy and post it to any other lists where you can.
 
Thanks in advance.
 
The Grand Jury is being convened in Chicago tomorrow. All the help we can generate to protest this can only be helpful.
 
Last week, activists in many US cities joined in public protests against FBI raids targetting anti-war activists in several mid-western cities. I joined something like 100 people here at the Federal Building in downtown L.A. on Tuesday evening, along with a broad representation of left activists. Here’s a report from that demonstration:
 
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs3105.html  This extremely important story has been largely, but not entirely blanked out of the national media. Amy Goodman covered it in an extensive way on DEMOCRACY NOW, and the left and alternative press has given good coverage, but the dominant corporate media has given it minimal play.
 
Though people who are active specifically around Cuba weren’t targeted THIS time, we must always keep in mind that Washington, which has sponsored or turned a blind eye to terrorist attacks against Cuba, has characterized Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism”. This has a wide array of consequences, not least of which is that anyone who wishes to bring about normalization of US relations with Cuba, and end to the US blockade, or takes a stand politically in favor of the Cuban Revolution could be targeted just as were the folks in the Mid-West. They have had their homes invaded, their property seized, and been called before the grand jury tomorrow in Chicago.
 
Fidel Castro has been writing about Colombia and about the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in recent years, and most recently just a few days ago.
 
Recall the recent Colombian government attack on a key FARC base, which resulted in the death of its military commander. President Obama publicly congratulated the Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, for a job well done.
Thus the timing of these raids, at a time when protest against US foreign policy is urgently needed, underscores the importance of the right to protest here in the United States. Similarly, the removal of Piedad Cordoba from her Colombian Senate seat, BANNED FROM OFFICE FOR EIGHTEEN YEARS, though no criminal charges have been filed against her, should help everyone to understand the importance of democratic rights broadly. Her constituents have thus been denied political representation, just by decision of some official of the Colombian government.
 
 Fidel Castro: Piedad Cordoba and Her Fight for Peace
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/reflexiones/2010/ing/c300910i.html
 
 
PRI’S “THE WORLD: Colombian senator “collaborated” with FARC
By The World ⋅ October 4, 2010

http://www.theworld.org/2010/10/04/colombian-senator-collaborated-with-farc/
 
The Committee to Stop FBI Repression, uniting diverse voices opposed to the raids and the threats to the civil liberties of all, has been formed and has called a range of actions demanding and end to the attacks. Several items will follow this one. All make essentially the same point: An injury to one is an injury to all. Stop the raids, end the repression, and file no charges. It’s not illegal to protests US foreign policy.  While the US government says it’s trying to bring democracy to the world, it’s actively working to thwart the expression of democratic rights here
in these United States of America.
 
When I called the White House, I spoke, after a very short wait, with a volunteer who said she would take my comment, but not my name, and see to it that the President receives notice of the expression of opinion. Let’s hope many call.
 
The Grand Jury convenes in Chicago tomorrow, so the more who call, the more can public opposition be made manifest. This could help press the government to draw back.

WALTER LIPPMANN
    Los Angeles, California
    Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
   
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/

    “Cuba – Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo”

Leave a comment

Filed under American Progressive Politics, anti-war, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Latin America and The Caribbean, Middle East, Obama Administration, Palestine | Israel, Peace, Protest, The Obama Administration, Work of Comrades

Jaribu Hill | Obama, Afghanistan, War

 “You retire when we’re free. You retire when there’s no war left that our children are going to fight. You retire when everybody has health care and a hospital bed when they get sick. You retire when every prop up dictator is crushed. You retire when every glossy, pedigree, trickster, even if it happens to be the newest president, you retire when all of them are checked, and exposed. That’s when retirement comes…”

Jaribu Hill, Exec. Dir. of the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights speaking on the panel “Perpetual War or Rule of Law?” October 17, 2009 at The National Lawyers Guild Law for the People 2009 Convention in Seattle.

Leave a comment

Filed under American Progressive Politics, anti-war, Black Politics, Feminist Leaders, Friends & Comrades, Middle East, NOLA, Obama Administration, Peace, Political Ideology, The Obama Administration, white supremacy

Dec 1 and 2 Afghanistan War Protests!

Protests on Dec 1st and 2nd, the day of and after the Obama announcement to escalate Afghanistan, are continuing to proliferate. 

See below for the protest near you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://demdan.org/actions/?id=3563 – White House, DC

http://ny4cg.org/actions/index.php?id=3568 – West Point, NY http://ny4cg.org/actions/?id=3590 – NYC

http://mapjen.org/actions/?id=3567 – Boston, MA
http://demdan.org/actions/?id=3570 – Baltimore, MD http://paactionnetwork.org/announcements/?id=708 – Philadelphia, PA
http://calaction.org/announcements/?id=704 – Berkeley, CA
http://calaction.org/announcements/?id=673 – San Francisco, CA
http://calaction.org/actions/?id=3575 – Los Angeles, CA http://icjpe.org/actions/index.php?id=3413 – Chicago, IL
http://wiscaction.org/actions/?id=3533 – Madison, WI http://wiscaction.org/announcements/?id=696 – Milwaukee, WI
http://michiganpeacenetwork.org/announcements/?id=701 – Detroit, MI                                                                                                                              http://michiganpeacenetwork.org/actions/?id=3443 – Saginaw, MI                                                                             

http://ncactionnet.org/actions/?id=3597 – Charlotte, NC
http://ncactionnet.org/actions/?id=3592 – Chapel Hill, NC
http://ncactionnet.org/announcements/?id=689 – Greensboro, NC

http://gpjn.org/actions/?id=3593 – Atlanta, GA
http://vpan.org/announcements/?id=703 – Richmond, VA
http://ohiopeacenetwork.org/actions/?id=3600 – Cleveland, OH
http://cnpjs.org/announcements/?id=710 – Denver, CO http://mpjen.org/actions/?id=3481 – Maine (Bangor & Portland)
http://cripjen.org/announcements/?id=692 – RI & CT (Hartford, New Haven, Prov)

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Actions, Actions | Events, American History, American Politics, American Progressive Politics, anti-war, Middle East, Obama Administration, Peace, Protest, The Obama Administration, white supremacy