"Corporations and Democracy" looks at disarmament and the defense industry

On the July 9 edition of "Corporations and Democracy" radio, hosts Steve Scalmanini and Annie Esposito talked about nuclear disarmament with Jacqueline Cabasso, executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation in Oakland, and an internationally-known expert on nuclear disarmament. Jacqueline deconstructed Obama's recent statements on nuclear weapons, discussed the corporatization of nukes and warned that while progress has been made on reducing numbers of weapons, there are still more than enough of them out there to destroy civilization.

You can listen or download the show on our radio page, here.

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Bruce Gagnon on weapons and nukes in space, Jeju Island, and the corporatization of the US military

Bruce Gagnon, co-founder and coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, recently toured the northwest, where he spoke to David Delk, AfD co-chair and host of the Portland OR chapter's show Populist Dialogues.

Bruce and David talked about the US military industrial complex, which now serves as a "resource extraction service" for global corporatism. The need to control gas and oil resources--including access to oil by China--is driving US military expansion in Asia, while space technologies developed by taxpayer dollars are now being seen as a means for private corporations to generate wealth by mining planets and asteroids.

You can watch Bruce's wide-ranging, fascinating, and frightening report here, and learn how to rebroadcast this show on your local public access station here. If your station would prefer receiving shows on dvd, please email the Alliance for Democracy office.

  In addition to hosting Bruce on Populist Dialogues, Alliance for Democracy joined several organizations in sponsoring Bruce and South Korean artist and peace activist Gillchun Koh at a demonstration at the Seattle South Korean Consulate.

The protest targeted the naval base currently under construction on Jeju Island, South Korea. This naval base is unnecessary, a drain on our economy, will destabilize both US and South Korean relations with China, and will put the people of Jeju Island at risk as a strategic target. We're posting a short history of the resistance to the base construction and commentary containing some good reasons for bringing this project to a halt. We've excerpted them from writing by Leonard Eiger, coordinator of Puget Sound Nuclear Weapon Free Zone. 

 The April 3 Massacre

30,000 people murdered!!! Jeju Island is known as the "Island of World Peace," a name that does not begin to tell the story of the Island's extensive history of conflict, occupation, repression and genocide. The most horrific episode in this history began in 1948 when the South Korean military and national police hunted down and slaughtered approximately 30,000 people. The U.S., which was the occupying power at the time, did nothing to stop what is now known as the April 3 massacre.

Why did the government do such a horrific thing? 1948 was a tumultuous time of establishing two governments in Korea. The people of Jeju Island rose up to protest the long-term division of the nation by boycotting the elections that were occurring in Seoul. For this they were branded as Communists, and the terror began.

For decades following, public discussion of the April 3 massacre was ruthlessly repressed. Following democratization, the slow and painful process of fact finding and truth telling began, and continues today. In 2003, South Korean President Noh Moo Hyun travelled to Jeju Island and officially apologized.

History Repeats Itself 

Now, over 60 years after the April 3 massacre the people of Jeju Island are once again protesting. This time they are protesting the U.S. Missile Defense System and a provocative new naval base being built on their island.

Why? If you look at a map of Jeju Island, you can see that it lies about 500 kilometers West of China. This military base is intended to project force towards China and to provide a forward operating installation in the event of a military conflict between the U.S. and China. For five years, South Korean activists have been protesting the plans for the new naval base on Jeju Island. During that time the response by the South Korean police and military has become more heavy-handed and brutal. Col. Anne Wright (former United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department) reported that earlier this month "police broke arms of activists who had locked arms inside PCV pipes, beat up activists and threw them from kayaks."

A Global Context
(Excerpt from article by Noam Chomsky and Matthew Hoey)
The last thing the world needs is a military confrontation between the U.S. and China. On that dreaded eventuality, there is no need to elaborate. In terms of its implications, what is now taking place on Jeju island counts as one of the most critical struggles against a potentially devastating war in Asia, and the deeply-rooted institutional structures that are driving the world towards even more bitter conflict than is raging in all too many places today.

It is important to become aware of what is happening on Jeju Island and to find ways to help the residents to prevent this very dangerous and destructive project. The consequences of losing the struggle to prevent the base construction might impact not only Asia but the United States and the rest of the world as well. The project is naturally seen by China as a threat to its national security. At the very least, it is likely to trigger confrontation and an arms race between South Korea and China, with the U.S. almost inevitably drawn in.

The immediate threat is to Jeju Island civilians, whose home was recently described in a South Korean daily as “the spearhead of the country’s defense line,” a line recklessly located approximately 500km from China. We need not speculate about how the U.S. would react were China doing something similar near its coast.

For more information:
Save Jeju Island website
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space

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AfD signs onto letter requesting end to war funding

Alliance for Democracy has joined other organizations in signing on to a letter from United for Peace asking members of the congressional Progressive Caucus to amend the Defense Appropriation bill to eliminate funding for the war in Afghanistan, and to vote against the bill as a whole.

Your group may still be able to sign on to this letter--see this link for more info.

Dear Progressive Caucus member,

We write to you at a time of great peril for our nation. With an economy teetering and an exorbitantly expensive, protracted military engagement in Afghanistan, Congress has been asked once again to prioritize military spending over domestic needs with a total bill of $648.7 billion for the next fiscal year. A decade of war has brought us no closer to success in Afghanistan, where fewer than 100 Al Qaeda fighters remain.

The American people have grown weary of hearing that there is not enough money for schools, jobs, health care or housing yet always enough funding for wars. The US Conference of Mayors overwhelmingly passed a resolution to end the wars and bring the money home, amplifying the voices of their constituents.

The FY 2012 Defense Appropriations bill not only allocates $530 billion for the Pentagon, it also includes $118 billion to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that the Obama Administration has clearly decided to continue the war in Afghanistan until at least 2014, the reasons to object are stronger than ever.

What values does the appropriation of $118 billion more for war suggest to the American people and the rest of the world, while at the same time the government is closing libraries and firehouses, laying off public servants and teachers, denying care to the sick and elderly, and abandoning quality education for children?

We note that the content of the proposed FY 2012 Defense Appropriations bill is directly at odds with the important principles, expressed in the CPC People's Budget, introduced earlier this year.

We therefore urge that the Progressive Caucus and its individual members support an amendment to the FY 2012 Defense Appropriations bill, which strikes out the funding to continue the war in Afghanistan and that the Caucus vote against the bill as a whole.

By signing below, we express our commitment to supporting the Progressive Caucus in its efforts to redirect our national priorities away from militarism and towards social justice here at home.

Respectfully submitted,

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AfD National Council member on war, health care, and the central issue of corporate personhood

AfD national council member Rick Staggenborg, MD, who is also founder of Soldiers for Peace International, speaks to Dan Shea, of Veterans for Peace chapter 72 in Portland, OR, about corporate personhood and the sorry state of democracy, especially as it affects veterans.

Rick has formed a new national work group for Veterans for Peace on the abolition of corporate personhood and will ask to introduce a resolution at this year's VFP national convention in Portland, OR calling for an amendment to restore constitutional rights to people. Chapter 72 has scheduled discussion of the issue and the work group at their next meeting.

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Kindness, generosity, (oil) and bombing Libya

As the UN, the US, and some NATO and EU countries debate some kind of military involvement in Libya, David Swanson points out that it is non-violent resistance that has the better success rate for toppling dictatorships.

Meanwhile, Pepe Escobar explains why diplomats and government are so sympathetic to a democratic uprising (hint--it's trading at $105 a barrel). If proponents of nonviolent solidarity invested $146.3 million in candidate funding, perhaps so many activists wouldn't be quite so worried about another oil war.

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"If I Had a Trillion Dollars"

The American Friends Service Committee's program on Education and Advocacy for Iraq and Afghanistan writes:

We've reached the end of the submission phase for the If I Had a Trillion Dollars Youth Video Contest staged by AFSC and The National Priorities Project. The project engaged over 30 groups of youth (13 – 23 years old) from around the country. We received 46 videos identifying how the $1 Trillion spent on the wars could be better spent.

A panel of judges will be considering comments left on our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/IHTDVideos). So, take a look and comment on the work, and encourage your networks to do the same. Simply forward this message.

Contest winners will go to Washington DC where public events and a congressional briefing will be organized to show the videos.

Background Information and Toolkit for the Contest here!

Thanks for taking a look and helping us spread the word. You will be inspired and impressed.

(Here's just one of the great videos submitted!)

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Today's the day to check out War is a Lie

David Swanson's new book, War is a Lie, is out today and there is a campaign to bump it up the Amazon sales lists to #1.Why not support a worthy author and the common wealth by buying a copy for your local library? You can read all about it at www.warisalie.org.

From the website: War is a Lie is a thorough refutation of every major argument used to justify wars, drawing on evidence from numerous past wars, with a focus on those wars that have been most widely defended as just and good. This is a handbook of sorts, a manual to be used in debunking future lies before future wars have a chance to begin.

“David Swanson despises war and lying, and unmasks them both with rare intelligence. I learn something new on every page.” — Jeff Cohen, founder of FAIR and author of Cable News Confidential.

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July 26-28: National call-in days to oppose war funding

A coalition of peace, political, labor, and faith groups are asking constituents to make a call to their representatives over the next three days to ask that they oppose a White House request for an addition $33.5 billion in funding for the war in Afghanistan. For more info, see the UFPJ website.

The toll-free call-in number is 1-888-493-5443.

The latest funding request comes without a time-table for withdrawal or a coherent strategy for success. Meanwhile, leaked war logs (best reporting here), detail the costs on the ground, to civilians and military personnel alike, shattering the illusion of "a good war" and an easy victory.

We're gaining ground in getting Congress to change its view on the war, as well. Three weeks ago, 162 House members supported a time table for withdrawal, and 100 members supported Rep. Barbara Lee's amendment to use war funds for security only and to begin troop withdrawal. If your rep was one of the supporters, a call is a good time to say thanks, and urge him or her to hold the line through the upcoming election season.

Be part of the mobilization. Make the call, turn up the volume, and end the war.

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