Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
August 3, 2020
Hello All – "April is the cruelest month," wrote the poet T. S. Eliot. But when it comes to war, perhaps the honor goes to August. The First World War broke out in August 1914. The war destroyed three empires, killed 20 million people, and prepared the way for the influenza epidemic that killed 50 million more. A stupid war, fought for no discernable purpose, like the wars now raging in Africa or threatening the Middle East or the South China Sea.
The USA had no role in starting World War I; we were just getting our feet wet in mass slaughter. Our "August" came in 1945, when President Truman ("the buck stops here") ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). Scholars today, along with the documentary evidence, make it clear that there was no "military" reason to use the Bomb, as the American leadership expected Japan to surrender when Russia entered the war against Japan, which happened on schedule on August 8th. Based on a reading of the available evidence, it appears that Truman and his Secretary of State James Byrnes deliberately prolonged the fighting into the summer of 1945, rather than accept a Japanese conditional surrender. Their motive was to use the Bomb before the war ended, not to coerce Japan, but to show Russia and the world that the USA now possessed a super weapon that they would not hesitate to use on civilians. (For some thoughts on "why the atomic bombing of Hiroshima would be illegal today," go here.)
For many years, news reporting and other information about the effects of the atomic bomb were suppressed, both in Japan and the USA. An official campaign of disinformation was launched to persuade Americans that "we" had no choice but to use the Bomb to prevent many American deaths. (This was false, and was known to be false by the propaganda producers – among them, the Deep Thinkers at Harvard.) – And many years later it was learned that the Americans actually had documentary footage of the effects of the Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, confiscated from a Japanese film crew and buried "for safety" deep in the archives. This Democracy Now! segment from 15 years ago tells the story of how the film was made, then lost, and then found by a Columbia University film historian; you can see the 15-minute film here.
Nineteen years later the Curse of August struck again, this time in Vietnam in what is known as the "Tonkin Gulf Incident." In 1964, there were 23,000 US troops in South Vietnam, defending a weak government from armed rebels of the National Liberation Front, i.e. opposition from southerners. In early August the US military was conducting raids on the coast of North Vietnam (the Gulf of Tonkin), primarily for intelligence-gathering purposes. This useful video explains how a confused naval encounter on the night of August 4th led President Johnson and his Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to put out a (knowingly false) claim of "unprovoked aggression on the high seas," and using the claim to get from Congress a Joint Resolution giving the President the power to conduct war. A year later there were 184,000 troops in Vietnam, and by 1968 the number reached 536,000. And following the US attacks in the Tonkin Gulf, North Vietnam committed its armed forces to support the rebellion in the South. The small war became a Big War. As with the Authorization to Use Military Force that Congress passed shortly after 9/11, there was little congressional opposition to the Tonkin Gulf Resolution of August 1964. (But in the Senate, Senators Ernest Gruening of Alaska and Wayne Morse of Oregon voted No, and so each year we thank them and remember them as stalwarts for peace.)
Will this August, in the year 2020, bring us more war? Starting "a small war" may be just what President Trump needs to divert the nation from the disasters now priming the American people to reject him in November. Certainly there are "hot spots" and dry tinder in many parts of the world, and a real or simulated attack on Americans or "American interests" anywhere in the world – including within our own borders – may be viewed as an opportunity by Trump to find a way out of the crisis he has brought us to. Stalwarts should pay attention and be on guard.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Taking the Covid Crisis into account, we meet (with safe distancing) for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 11 to 11:30 a.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Another vigil takes place on Mondays, from 6 to 6:30 pm, in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. In this time of coronavirus, we are meeting (by Zoom conference) each Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. If you would like to join our meeting, please send a return email to get the meeting's access code. 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!
That US nuclear policy came to be known as MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) says a lot. The insanity of our leaders was captured in the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, when "mutual assured destruction" becomes a reality. But the Reward this week goes to a film about how "The Bomb" affected my childhood and that of millions more who are now Seniors: "The Atomic Cafe" (1982). The lead filmmaker, Kevin Rafferty, died last month, and his obit includes some interesting background about the making of the film. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
UPRISING AND CRISIS
Tear Gas and Thugs at the BLM Protests in Portland
[FB – Bette Lee writes that she "is a 70 year-old Asian American activist, who's been involved in the struggle for justice and equality for over 30 years. She is a substitute teacher at an alternative high school for mostly Black and Brown students. She currently resides (and resists) in Portland."]
---- On the 59th night of BLM protests on July 25th at the federal courthouse, I was one of the thousands of protestors who went there. It took me a while to struggle through my fears of getting infected with the virus and the limits to my mobility due to old age and hip arthritis. But like so many others, I could no longer stay home. I knew from my previous experiences at many protests over the years, against war, racism, ICE, inequality, and exploitation of workers, that the police were extremely violent, often attacking us with little or no provocations. What was new was that the police had been attacking the BLM protesters non-stop for 58 nights with tear gas, pepper spray, flash grenades, and "non-lethal" munitions. … None of the protestors who were standing with me had done anything wrong, but the feds and cops kept firing tear gas at us. I saw a few people being arrested near the Apple store downtown. Dozens of police cars with sirens blasting, blue lights flashing, sped down the streets. It was scary how quickly Portland had been transformed from the City of Roses to "Little Beirut." Then the police and feds marched off, got into their cars, and drove off. It was a surreal scene—the streets were suddenly empty and quiet again, as if nothing had happened. But we know better. Our resistance is growing, and we will be back! [Read More] And for more insights into "the Battle of Portland," read "Minneapolis police say 'Umbrella Man' was a white supremacist trying to incite George Floyd rioting" by Libor Jany, Minneapolis Star Tribune [July 28, 2020] [Link], and "Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Lieu Introduce Amendment to Curtail Federal Crackdown on Protesters" by Aída Chávez, The Intercept [[Link].
How Trump Politicized Schools Reopening, Regardless of Safety
By Diane Ravitch, New York Review of Books [July 30, 2020]
---- One of the most difficult issues of the pandemic is when and how schools should reopen. Parents and teachers are eager for them to reopen, but only if the schools are safe and protected from the disease that is ravaging so much of the nation. Parents want their children back in school. They are tired of pretending to be teachers, organizing their children's time every day. Teachers are eager to resume in-person instruction, but not at risk of their lives. Even students are eager to return to school, to see their friends, to engage in class discussions, to participate in school activities…. US states could follow suit, but for school to resume safely here, two necessities must be in place. First, the pandemic must be under control. Infection rates must be low and dropping. Nations that have successfully opened their schools tamed the coronavirus first. Second, the schools must be able to provide safe conditions, meaning small class sizes, extra nurses, disinfected and active ventilation systems, additional cleaning staff, and personal protective equipment for children and adults. Since every state's tax revenues have been diminished by the economic effects of the pandemic, school budgets are being slashed at the very moment when they need more resources. … No one is certain of the right course of action. But one question persists: If the Trump administration is willing to spend trillions to bail out corporations, banks, and airlines, why is it not willing to put up the $400-500 billion necessary to ensure the safety of our nation's schools, children, and educators and to achieve what it claims to want: the reopening of our schools? [Read More]
Trump's October Surprise: A Vaccine for Covid-19?
By Gregg Gonsalves, The Nation [July 29, 2020]
---- The time it takes to develop an effective vaccine is ordinarily denominated in years. For some pathogens, like HIV, a vaccine has proven to be elusive after almost four decades. Yet President Donald Trump clearly expects a vaccine against SARS-Cov-2 (the virus that causes the disease Covid-19) to be available this year. … With the nation's response to Covid-19 an utter failure, the hopes of many have been redirected to the promise of a vaccine that will arrive like a Christmas present, neatly wrapped and tied with a glistening bow. No one wants to wake up Christmas morning to see nothing under the tree for them. The hype about a SARS-Cov-2 vaccine is so intense, it's almost inconceivable that the White House won't roll out something in October as a boost to its fortunes at the voting booths the next month. In fact, leading scientists have warned of an October surprise, in which, despite insufficient data, the president could instruct Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn to issue an Emergency Use Authorization, circumventing the normal approval process for vaccines for the sake of political expediency. [Read More]
More useful/interesting reading about our crisis – "Federal Agents at Protests Renew Calls to Dismantle Homeland Security" by Alice Speri, The Intercept [[Link]; "How Police Unions Fight Reform" by n, The New Yorker [July 27, 2020] [Link]; and "Trump Can't Delay the Election—So He's Trying to Make It a Chaotic Mess" by John Nichols [Link].
FEATURED ESSAYS
Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation
By John Lewis – Published posthumously in The New York Times [July 30, 2020]
---- Though I am gone, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity. That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, though I was admitted to the hospital the following day. I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on. … Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring. When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide. [Read More] Also interesting is "With John Lewis in Stockholm 1969" by professor/peace activist Richard Falk, ZNet [August 2, 2020] [Link]
Raise the Social Cost: An Important Strategic Concept
---- In the late 1960's, McGeorge Bundy, who had been the national security adviser to Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, in a debate at MIT, said he had turned against the Vietnam War. … Bundy's fear was the Vietnam War was causing the growth of a radical and activist left in the United States whose commitment to ending the Vietnam War, to ending racism and capitalism by any means necessary was too high a social cost, greater than continuing the Vietnam War. This is the essence of the concept of raising the social cost and the belief by many from the 1960's to the present of the value of militant actions, ones that go beyond what is legal and peaceful. The politics of "No Business as Usual" or interrupting the normal day to day functioning of capitalism is consistent with this idea of raising the social cost. … Direct action that goes beyond what is legal is one but only one important part of a strategy in this period to win key demands such as demilitarizing, disarming and defunding the police, single payer health care for all, including undocumented immigrants, abolishing ICE, a Green New Deal, reparations, releasing prisoners, affordable housing, free childcare, etc. Direct action is only part of a strategy. Popular education, rallies, demonstrations, building organizations, institutions, and ongoing campaigns are central to a many pronged strategy. We need more political economic analysis, more organization and major wide-spread and ongoing campaigns around these demands. [Read More]
The New Nuclear Threat
By Jessica T. Mathews, New York Review of Books [August 20, 2020 issue]
---- The cold war ended peacefully, and the deployed nuclear arsenals of the US and Russia have been reduced by nearly 90 percent, but we are not safer today—quite the reverse. After decades of building just enough weapons to deter attack, China is now aggressively modernizing and enlarging its small nuclear arsenal. Russia and the US are modernizing theirs as well with entire menus of new weapons. Activities in space are enlarging the global battlefield. Advances in missile technology and conventional weapons "entangle" scenarios of nuclear and nonnuclear war, making outcomes highly unpredictable. The risk of cyberattacks on command and control systems adds another layer of uncertainty, as does research on artificial intelligence that increases the prospect of accidents and the unintentional use of nuclear weapons. Arms control agreements that significantly limited the US–Soviet arms race are being discarded one by one. And from Russian efforts to destabilize America through social media attacks on its democracy, to Chinese bellicosity in the South China Sea and clampdown on Hong Kong, to erratic lunges in US foreign policy, there is deep and growing distrust among the great powers. Yet the public isn't scared. Indeed, people are unaware that a second nuclear arms race has begun—one that could be more dangerous than the first. [Read More] And speaking of China, here's the latest from Michael Klare: "What Would It Take to Avert Military Escalation With China in the South China Sea?" from The Nation [July 29, 2020] [Link]
OUR HISTORY
Harlem's Pearl – James Baldwin [On his 96th birthday]
By Michael K. Smith, ZNet [August 2, 2020]
---- Grandson of a slave, the eldest of nine children in a Harlem family rooted in bitter poverty, he grew up amidst junkies, winos, pimps, racketeers, pick-pockets, and con-artists. Surrounded by despair, he took refuge in literature, reading with such focused intensity that his mother took to hiding his books. He knew the Bible so well he became a teen sensation in the pulpit, luxuriating in Old Testament rhetoric and poetry. By then he had devoured everything he could get his hands on close to home. His brilliance stood out. One of his teachers, a Communist with a Theatre Project job thanks to the WPA, began giving him books and taking him to plays and movies and museums, nurturing his keen mind while teaching him an ironic lesson about the supposed master race: "She gave me my first key, my first clue that white people were human," … Of course, taking fair measure of a life lived on three continents, and dedicated to human liberation by embracing every vulnerability, probing all weaknesses, and excavating the most deeply buried truths is an impossible task. Perhaps all one can say is that – by the power of his spoken and written words – Baldwin transformed a horrifying legacy of pain and rage into grace and light. It's hard not to be grateful for that. Had he lived, Baldwin would have turned 96 years old tomorrow. Happy Birthday, James, and well done! [Read More]
---- Grandson of a slave, the eldest of nine children in a Harlem family rooted in bitter poverty, he grew up amidst junkies, winos, pimps, racketeers, pick-pockets, and con-artists. Surrounded by despair, he took refuge in literature, reading with such focused intensity that his mother took to hiding his books. He knew the Bible so well he became a teen sensation in the pulpit, luxuriating in Old Testament rhetoric and poetry. By then he had devoured everything he could get his hands on close to home. His brilliance stood out. One of his teachers, a Communist with a Theatre Project job thanks to the WPA, began giving him books and taking him to plays and movies and museums, nurturing his keen mind while teaching him an ironic lesson about the supposed master race: "She gave me my first key, my first clue that white people were human," … Of course, taking fair measure of a life lived on three continents, and dedicated to human liberation by embracing every vulnerability, probing all weaknesses, and excavating the most deeply buried truths is an impossible task. Perhaps all one can say is that – by the power of his spoken and written words – Baldwin transformed a horrifying legacy of pain and rage into grace and light. It's hard not to be grateful for that. Had he lived, Baldwin would have turned 96 years old tomorrow. Happy Birthday, James, and well done! [Read More]
Panthers Forever: Revolution at Home and In Exile
By Yoav Litvin, interviewing Charlotte and Pete O'Neal, Roar Magazine [July 9, 2020]
[FB – All unsuccessful revolutions or radical opposition movements create exiles; the US has been no exception, but there is little awareness in the USA of this radical Diaspora of freedom fighters. This essay recounts the life-in-exile of Black Panthers Charlotte and Pete O'Neal, now living in Tanzania. Here is the interviewer's introduction.]
---- In the 1960s and 70s, The Black Panther Party (BPP) represented the vanguard of the revolution in the United States. It promoted armed self-defense, a sophisticated educational agenda and outreach to Black communities as well as other oppressed groups in the US and abroad via the Black Panther newspaper. The Panthers' community work and organizing included free breakfast for school children and health clinics programs. At the age of 29, Pete O'Neal founded the Kansas City chapter of the BPP, soon to be joined by the 18-year-old Charlotte Hill. … In 1970, Pete was sentenced to four years in prison on dubious charges for illegal gun transport. Rather than going to jail like many of his fellow BPP members, Pete seized an opportunity to escape. Together with Charlotte, they fled to Algeria, finding refuge at the BPP international division in Algiers, before moving to Tanzania two years later. The O'Neals currently live in the village of Imbaseni near Arusha, Tanzania, where they founded the United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC) in the early 90s. They have been engaged in farming and community service reminiscent of the programs pioneered by the BPP. In the following interview, Pete and Charlotte O'Neal speak about their revolutionary trajectory and share thoughts on the current uprisings in the US and the world. [Read More]
