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Friday, November 15, 2002 |
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"War is not an answer to human conflict any more than cannibalism is to human hunger."
- - Bruce Kent, International Peace Bureau President (http://www.ipb.org)
RHINO HERE:
Last month Former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and eight others were named as defendants in two first-of-their-kind class action lawsuits for allegedly covering up medical records without which veterans of atomic, biological, and chemical warfare testing cannot receive needed medical and other benefits. Over 400,000 veterans, their families, and the Vietnam Veterans of America allege an ongoing cover-up by US officials to conceal personal medical records that would allow them to seek proper benefits from the VA for long-term health effects of the government's testing of weapons of mass destruction. For full details on the case, go to:
http://www.shawpittman.com/feature.nsf
On Monday, the UK Guardian published an article on the meeting last week in Florence, Italy of 40,000 intellectuals, students, ecological & social activists, people representing the poorest & most marginalized, radical economists, concerned individuals, humanitarians, artists, culturalists, churches, scientists and land workers from an array of non-government groups and grassroots social movements. Entitled, "Another Europe is Possible" many social movements and groups active in the demonstrations in Seattle, Genoa, Prague, London and a dozen other cities over the past 3 years against the IMF and the WTO set out to show they could propose specific change and not just oppose what's happening in the world. As the conference approached its finale, the 40,000 were joined by hundreds of thousands of people marching through the streets. See the article at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1111-05.htm
And the next mass demonstration against the war is being planned for Washington, D.C. on the Martin Luther King Jr. anniversary weekend. January 18 - 19, 2003. Tens of thousands are expected to participate in mass protests honoring Dr. King and his legacy by opposing another criminal war - - this time not in Vietnam, but in the Middle East - and by demanding the hundreds of billions of dollars earmarked for war be spent on jobs, education, housing, health care and human needs. For more info, go to:
http://www.internationalanswer.org
And below the line today, a report on last weekend's Greenfestival in San Francisco organized by Global Exchange, Co-op America, and Bioneers, with sponsoring partners Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, the New Dimensions Foundation, Alice Radio 97.3, The SF Bay Guardian, Mother Jones magazine, Natural Home magazine, Body and Soul magazine, and the Utne Reader. The report is written by an old friend, Michael Traugot. It's a longer piece than I normally put in the blog but I thought it worthwhile.
8:38:31 AM 
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by Michael Traugot
...There were over 200 exhibitors/vendors, all "alternative, green, sustainable" businesses or nonprofits, including graduate schools and publishers, and over 50 speakers...presenters/workshop lineup included Ben Cohen (Ben and Jerry's, Truemajority.org), author/activist Starhawk, John Robbins (Diet for a New Planet), Amy Goodman (Democracy Now), Hazel Henderson, Fritjof Capra, Alexander Cockburn, Alisa Gravitz (Co-op America), Peter Camejo (Green candidate for Gov in CA, and a socially responsible investor), as well as Medea Benjamin and Kevin Danaher, founders and directors of Global Exchange, and lots and lots of other well-known and revered authors and activists. This was a heavy meeting of the minds, as had been planned, but it exceeded expectations.
There seemed to be two main overarching themes: stop this planned war on Iraq and the rest of the world; and build the alternative to a corporate WTO-dominated world. As Kevin put it, we need to replace the dominant corporate culture of money values, violence as a means of getting what you want, and "God is on our side," with a culture of life values (peace, justice, compassion), nonviolence as a means of getting what you want, and "God does not take sides."...
Ben Cohen started Trumajority.org, one of the web sites that was so effective in enabling people to speak their minds to our congresspeople regarding Bush's war plans and other public issues. Cohen's thinking reflects the work of Paul Ray, the "Cultural Creatives" man, who also presented. Ray discovered after decades of doing public opinion surveys that there are 50 million Americans, about 25% of the voting-age population, who ALREADY AGREE about such issues as the environment, peace, and social justice, but have not acted together as a political force because most of us were not aware how many of us there are. Ray wrote Cultural Creatives to inform us of that and help us get together. And that was Cohen's strategy in the Truemajority campaign: rather than trying to educate those who are not convinced, concentrate on enabling those who already agree but don't act.
(Cohen cited polling information that consistently shows the American people are actually ahead of the politicians on issues such as the environment, social justice, nuclear disarmament, but since the politicians are not responsive, people don't know what to do next.) The results have been tremendous so far, the barrage of participatory letters, calls, emails and faxes that have made such a difference so far in slowing Bush down. At the end of Ben's presentation, he invited people to come forward and sign up with Truemajority, to receive regular bulletins and send email faxes. To my surprise, much of the audience of several hundred moved forward to do just that. I'd have figured people who had bothered to come would already have been signed up: the fact that so many weren't suggests that Truemajority and the others (moveon, voice4change, etc) may have only scratched the surface. Ben said Truemajority was currently trying to reach college students and people who don't vote. Cultural Creatives, UNITE!
Ben's theme is that business is now the most powerful force in society. It used to be religion (e.g. the medieval church), then it was States (nations), and now it is business (some would call it a transnational corporate takeover). Business now controls society, government, the media. The question then is, how to get corporations to be more responsible to the rest of us? How to integrate social concerns into everyday business activity? We as consumers and political participants-and participate we must-have a lot of power to influence that, if we make use of it. Ben pointed out that for $10 billion per year investment, the US could eliminate the need for ANY oil from the Middle East! He presented a budgetary chart using stacks of oreo cookies to represent expenditures ("I'm a dessert kind of guy," he said). Ben said that for him, business has a spiritual aspect; you support your community as you support your business. We need to measure our strength not by how many people we can kill but how many we care for.
The other theme-stopping the war, directly standing up to the powers that be, re-taking political power-was also well-represented. The largest crowds I saw-standing room only in large areas-were for Starhawk and for radio reporter Amy Goodman of Democracy Now (creating truly public media and influencing existing media was a strong subtheme of the festival). Starhawk and others are starting to do nonviolent direct action training for the public, out in the open. Her flier reads in part: "Emergency Responses to the Start of War, Powell and Market 5:00 pm rally and march; 9:00 am next business day: SHUT IT DOWN!. Meet at South Side of market at Main near Embarcadero BART." She means, Shut the city down, or at least the downtown business district. There are also calls for nonviolent direct action from other groups in this area . . . people are getting ready.
The overall understanding seemed to be that 1) the alternatives are here, ready to go (e.g., San Francisco Toyota was invited, and had hybrid and electric cars on site. Kevin said that some people had asked him, "Why Toyota, a big transnational?" and his answer was, "Because Toyota has announced that by 2012 they will ONLY sell hybrid, electric, and hydrogen cars-NO CONVENTIONAL ENGINES!!"; 2) the alternatives are being delayed by lack of public understanding of how available they are and by our underestimation of how strong we are, as well as by bad legislation; 3) we need to take political and economic power through concerted action; 4) right now is a VERY dangerous time for the world, RIGHT NOW is the time to step out and not be intimidated and save us from destruction. But we ARE strong and we CAN do it!!!
Kevin said his idea of the Greenfestival was...to bring together the anti corporate globalization forces with the green business people to talk about problems & solutions....Kevin's closing address was about the answer to the WTO, which he said was in the process of writing a "new constitution" for the world, putting commerce firmly in control of the world, without participation from most of the people in the world, and without our consent. His prescription for fighting this: local networks & local legislation favoring local, eco-friendly, socially just businesses. These would be seen as "restrictions on free trade" by the WTO, but we'll have to defy them...
Relevant websites:
http://www.globalexchange.org
http://www.coopamerica.org
http://www.bioneers.org
http://www.truemajority.org
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8:32:34 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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