CFOW Newsletter
December 30, 2019
Hello All – Eighteen years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, there may be hope for an end to the fighting. On Sunday the Taliban Council agreed to a 10-day nationwide ceasefire, raising that possibility that a peace agreement with the United States could be signed. Progress in the peace negotiations comes just weeks after the publication in the Washington Post of thousands of pages of secret US government reports on the war revealed that for many years US military officials have known that the US was losing the war, information that was kept from Congress and the public. Widely compared to the Pentagon Papers of the Vietnam War, the "Afghanistan Papers" utterly discredit the 18-year US project in Afghanistan. Together, these two factors – the Papers and the peace negotiations – may be the breakthrough to peace that we have been waiting/working for.
Shortly after the Washington Post published the Afghanistan Papers, US Rep. and our congressman Eliot Engel announced that his Foreign Affairs Committee would hold hearings on the Afghanistan Papers in January. These hearings could be comparable to the historic Vietnam War hearings held by Senator William Fulbright in 1966; or they could be a superficial rehash of what we already know all too well. There is much about the war we do not know, and which the government officials responsible for the Afghanistan Papers do know and have not told us. Simply in terms of basic information, the Trump people have been refusing to report on battlefield casualties or missions, civilian casualties, desertions of Afghan soldiers, and similar basics in war reporting. Of particular interest would be information on US bombing and drone strikes, which appear to be increasing; and to know how many civilians have been killed in the process. The Afghanistan Papers' main revelations were the interviews the Inspector's staff held with high-ranking military officials, most of whom reported the war was going badly. Rep. Engel could invite these and other officials to testify about whether their views were expressed up the military chain of command, and who kept this information secret from Congress and the public. And much more. And so now and in the coming weeks CFOW will encourage Rep. Engel's constituents to demand that he hold extensive and in-depth hearings on the Afghanistan War, focusing on how the war was prolonged and how peace can be achieved. To start off, please call Rep. Engel at 202-225-2464 to inquire when the Afghanistan Papers hearing will be held, and to express your concern that hearings cover the full extent of the war – from President Bush through President Obama and now to President Trump. Thanks!
Some useful/illuminating reading about the Afghanistan Papers
We Have Just Been Handed the Pentagon Papers of Our Generation
By Danny Sjursen, The Nation [December 13, 2019]
---- Earlier this week, we learned that our leaders also knew the war was a fiasco, doomed to fail. But, unlike many of us, they chose not to speak out. Instead, as The Washington Post revealed in a series of stunning articles based on what it has labeled the Afghanistan Papers—a trove of previously classified documents that it is calling a "secret history of the war"—dozens of consecutive generals and senior US officials had repeatedly lied about, omitted, and obfuscated the facts to give an illusion of progress in that war. … The Afghanistan Papers don't try to answer these bigger questions, and perhaps they can't, but their significance is nonetheless profound. At 2,000 pages, they are nothing less than the Pentagon Papers of my generation. … In a real republic, these papers would be explosive, triggering investigations, denunciations, and serious policy conversations. The Senate would hold a lengthy inquest, such as the Fulbright hearings on Vietnam or the Church Committee on CIA abuses, in addition to producing substantive reports similar to the 9/11 commission or the McCain/Feinstein CIA torture report. But I'm skeptical. If this Afghan disclosure doesn't generate thorough investigation and accountability, can the concerned citizenry ever again count on Congress? Probably not. [Read More]
News Notes
Yesterday's CFOW holiday party was, as always, lots of fun and a happy reunion. To see some pictures of the stalwarts in song, go here and here.
The new issue of the socialist magazine Jacobin has a nice interview with CFOW friend, Peekskill City Council member, and DSA activist Vanessa Agudelo: "We're Creating a Society That's Better for All of Us Together." [Link]
The United States of Incarceration. Read a New York Times story about the 5 million children who have a parent in prison. And this Twitter video about jailed immigrants was posted on our Facebook page yesterday; horrible. The Intercept has an interesting review about the history of "illegal" immigration – "Immigration Detention Is Part of Mass Incarceration: The Case for Abolishing ICE and Everything Else" [Link].
One of the forces distorting our democracy is the inability of millions of people to vote. Part of this is due to the purging of voter rolls. While dead people and people who have left town should be removed from voter lists, in too many places the process is used to remove thousands of actual voters – especially low-income people – from the registration lists. The New York Times recently reported on the purges on Georgia, and CNN recently reported on the purge in Wisconsin. The Brennan Center for Justice released a study Thursday showing that 17 million Americans were dropped from voter rolls between 2016 and 2018—almost four million more than the number purged between 2006 and 2008. [Link].
Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Minn) published a hard-hitting holiday statement last week, "Trump's holiday menu: handouts for billionaires, hunger for the poor." Noting that 100 of the Fortune 500 companies pay no taxes, the statement focuses Trump's cuts in food stamps, housing and childcare cuts, and other attacks on the supposed "safety-net" for low-income people in Vermont and Minneapolis. Billions are taken from the poor, while the rich get tax cuts for Christmas. Read more here. For some shocking (really?) details about the tax cuts, go here.
Continuing with the same theme, income inequality increased substantially in 2019, as "the world's 500 richest people gained $1.2 trillion in wealth in 2019," and "In the U.S., the richest 0.1% control a bigger share of the pie than at any time since 1929." [Link] According to an analysis in Bloomberg, the net worth of the world's richest 500 people increased by 25 percent last year, and the S&P stock market average gained 29 percent. (Thus, a stock portfolio of $1 million would increase in value by $290,000 over the last year.) This does not happen by blind luck: An illuminating article in today's New York Times shows "How Big Companies Won New Tax Breaks From the Trump Administration" following the tax law revisions of 2017. To keep up with this topic, I recommend https://inequality.org/, a project of The Institute for Policy Studies.
Finally, Democracy Now! spent the hour last Thursday with Michael Moore, talking about impeachment and prospects (not good, say Michael) for the future. See the program here.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our rallies are usually about war or the climate crisis, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's immigration policies are often targeted, depending on current events. Also, we (usually) have a general meeting on the first Saturday afternoon of each month. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. And if you would like to support our work by making a contribution, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Rewards!
Yesterday's CFOW holiday party featured some group singing, led by Jenny Murphy and Joe Kaminsky. As a Bostonian, my favorite tune of the afternoon was "Charlie on the MTA," written to support a leftish mayoral campaign in 1949, but made famous by the Kingston Trio in 1959. As with so much of mainstream Americana, the slightest inquiry reveals the hidden hand of peaceniks and progressives, in this case, the authors of the song, Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes, true stalwarts. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
SOME INTERESTING/ILLUMINATING FEATURED ESSAYS
At Christmas, Let's Remember the Children Who Live in Fear of Our Killer Drones.
By Elise Swain and Jon Schwartz, The Intercept [December 25, 2019]
---- The movie "Love Actually" has some good advice: At Christmas, you tell the truth. It's the perfect day to be honest about what you've done in the past year, what that says about who you are, and what it means about where you're heading. So, let's tell the truth about America. The truth is that, through a worldwide drone war we commenced two decades ago, we've invented a new form of terror for millions of people across the world. The truth is that we continued to escalate this war in 2019, yet there's no way to say exactly how much, because the U.S. government refuses to tell its citizens the basic facts about it. The truth is that the best sources of information on this war are two underfunded outfits — the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Airwars — that aren't even based in the United States. The truth is that these journalists can't be sure which airstrikes are being carried out by drones and which by conventional manned aircraft. The truth is that our drone war is like some undersea leviathan, the nature and size of which we can only guess at when parts of it briefly surface. The truth that is our fleet of killer drones is likely aloft on Christmas Day, right now, circling endlessly as intelligence analysts decide whether to pronounce a death sentence on people thousands of miles away. The truth is that, as we open presents, these death machines might as well — for all the space they occupy in our consciousness — not exist at all. The truth is that there have been six Democratic presidential debates this year, and during these six debates, the number of times our worldwide drone war was debated is zero. [Read More]
Bernie Is the Candidate Who Can Beat Trump. Here's Why.
By Meagan Day and Matt Karp, Jacobin Magazine [December 2019]
---- In the race for the Democratic nomination, one figure towers above the field: the large, misshapen form of President Donald Trump. … Across the primary campaign, Bernie Sanders and many of his supporters have argued that it is not enough to defeat Trump: we need to organize to transform the abysmal economic conditions that produced Trump, too. This is all very true. But in the meantime, there are elections to win. America simply cannot afford another Trump victory at the polls, or another four years of rapacious right-wing government. To prevent this nightmare, we must convince anxious voters that Sanders can and will throttle Trump in a general election. … The truth is that Democrats genuinely like Bernie: he has the highest favorability rating in the primary field, and among Democratic voters who prioritize "issues" — that is, what a president might actually try to do in office — Sanders leads the pack. Yet among the Democrats most concerned with beating Trump, Sanders currently trails. A hostile party establishment and an unfriendly media appear to have convinced many voters that Sanders is "too extreme" or "too far left" to win a general election. … But this primary season, anxious Democrats should trust their guts. It turns out that the candidate they like best, Bernie Sanders, is also the candidate with the best chance to knock Trump out of the White House. [Read More] For another optimistic analysis of the Sanders polling data, go here.
The Climate Crisis Escalated in 2019. So Did the Climate Justice Movement.
By Sharon Zhang, Truthout [December 29, 2019]
---- 2019 is slated to be the second-warmest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This means that, come year's end, all of the top 10 warmest recorded years will have happened in the last two decades. The climate is worsening as we speak, and the years we have left to prevent even more catastrophic change are flying by. But there is something that sets this year apart, and it's not just because of the ever-worsening climate disasters. 2019 marked a renaissance for the climate movement. For the first time, the climate crisis became a top issue for registered Democrats, likely in part due to the newly widespread discussion of the Green New Deal (which every major news outlet covered in some way), and the hard work of climate activists. … As we approach a vital election year, this list is a reminder of how far we came on climate in 2019 — and how far we have to go. [Read More] Also very interesting imo is this article from Waging Nonviolence put up last April: "Why desperation could be the key to tackling climate change" by Cam Fenton [Link].
A Year in Review: Will 2020 Be a Game Changer in Palestine?
By Ramzy Beroud, Middle East Monitor [December 27, 2019]
---- This has been a defining year for Palestine and Israel. Despite the usual political stagnation of the Palestinian leadership, two factors contributed to making 2019 particularly eventful and, looking ahead, consequential as well: The unprecedented political power struggle in Israel, and the total US retreat from its own self-proclaimed role as an "honest peace broker". Since his first day in office, US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to embrace fully the right-wing agenda of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Although the process started earlier, 2019 has witnessed the complete collapse of traditional US foreign policy which was, for nearly three decades, predicated on the principle of a negotiated political solution. … In some ways, 2019 did indeed prove to be a game-changer in Palestine and Israel. It is the year when the Israeli government managed to achieve total and unconditional US support, while the Palestinian leadership was left largely isolated and incapable of formulating an alternative agenda. However, while Israel persists in its prolonged political crisis and as the international community is still unable or, perhaps, unwilling, to play a more fundamental role in ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine, 2020 promises to be equally tumultuous and challenging. [Read More]
Americans are ready for a different approach to nuclear weapons
By Lawrence Wittner December 23, 2019
---- Although today's public protests against nuclear weapons can't compare to the major antinuclear upheavals of past decades, there are clear indications that most Americans reject the Trump administration's nuclear weapons policies. Since entering office in 2017, the Trump administration has withdrawn the United States from the nuclear agreement with Iran, scrapped the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, and apparently abandoned plans to renew the New START Treaty with Russia. After an overwhelming majority of the world's nations agreed on a landmark UN Treaty on the Prohibitions of Nuclear Weapons in July 2017, the Trump administration quickly announced that it would never sign the treaty. The only nuclear arms control measure that the Trump administration has pursued ― an agreement by North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program ― appears to have collapsed, at least in part because the Trump administration badly mishandled the negotiations. Moreover, the Trump administration has not only failed to follow the nuclear arms control and disarmament policies of its Democratic and Republican predecessors, but has plunged into a renewed nuclear arms race with other nations by championing a $1.7 trillion program to refurbish the entire U.S. nuclear weapons complex. Perhaps most alarming, it has again and again publicly threatened to initiate a nuclear war. These policies are quite out of line with U.S. public opinion. [Read More]
Our History
The Confederation as the Commune of Communes
By Debbie Bookchin and Sixtine van Outryve, Roar Magazine [December 2019]
---- In 1936, at the apex of the Spanish Revolution, hundreds of Spanish villages, towns, neighborhoods and factories had organized themselves into collectives in which local residents made decisions about labor and the distribution of resources. For a splendid few months, these workers' and peasant assemblies and their committees took charge of nearly one third of Spain. They help to organize every aspect of political and social life: agricultural production, local administration, munitions and how to feed their people. While each community had a great degree of autonomy, they also cooperated informally, sometimes holding general assemblies that covered more than 1,000 families across 15,000 square kilometers. Like the French revolutionaries of the sectional assemblies of 1793 and the Paris Commune of 1871, which called for a nationwide Commune of Communes, the fiercely democratic anarchists of Spain understood that to maintain their autonomy, any decision-making body had to be directly accountable to the communities from which they derived their power. These popular assemblies and their empowerment of ordinary people were coordinated through an important process: confederation, also known as confederalism. By coordinating collective will through a confederal council, the confederation allows for the organization of political life over a large territory and a large population in a directly democratic way. [Read More]
