Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
October 31, 2021
Hello All – COP26 is in motion. This is the 26th meeting of the UN's "Conference of Parties" tasked with finding ways to stop or mitigate our Climate Crisis. The 25th meeting, in 2015 in Paris, resulted in an agreement of sorts, with nations pledging reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and other "greenhouse gases." This is the agreement from which Trump withdrew and Biden rejoined; but even if all the nations of the world honored their pledges, the resulting increase in the Earth's temperature would rise well above the 1.5⁰ Celsius, or 2.7⁰ Fahrenheit, that is considered the maximum increase compatible with a sustainable living environment.
Can the meeting in Glasgow next week reverse this trend towards disaster? It does not look good. China makes vague promises about something that might happen in 10 or 20 years, and the USA seems unable to implement a "Green New Deal" in the near future. Many other nations are wedded to coal; and the Captains of Fossil Fuels show no sign of listening to reason. The Ships of State are piloted by madmen.
Needless to say, we have no choice but to keep up the fight. No one with children or grandchildren wants to pass on to them a world that is unlivable. And surely there can no longer be any question of human responsibility for rising world temperatures. Yet the inertia of the world's governing classes and economic elites is astonishing. What can we do to change this?
Here is some good/useful reading reflecting on our crisis as the Glasgow meeting begins:
An Open Letter to the Global Media by Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate
By Greta Thunberg Vanessa Nakate, Time Magazine [October 30, 2021]
---- Melting glaciers, wildfires, droughts, deadly heatwaves, floods, hurricanes, loss of biodiversity. These are all symptoms of a destabilizing planet, which are happening around us all the time. Those are the kind of things you report about. Sometimes. The climate crisis, however, is much more than just this. If you want to truly cover the climate crisis, you must also report on the fundamental issues of time, holistic thinking and justice. So what does that mean? Let's look at these issues one by one.
COP26 Pledges Will Fail Unless Pushed by Mass Organizing
An interview with Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin, Truthout [October 28, 2021]
---- Outcomes have always been uncertain. Defeatism is not an option; it translates as "species suicide, bringing down much of life on Earth with it." There are steps forward. Crucially, there is widespread understanding of the measures that can be taken, quite realistically, to avert impending disaster and move on to a much better world. It's all there to be acted upon. …There has also been considerable progress since COP21: sharp reduction in cost of sustainable energy, significant steps towards electrification and constant pressure to do more, mostly by the young, those who will have to endure the consequences of our folly and betrayal of their hopes. The recent global climate strike was a noteworthy example. … We're all in this together, not each alone trying to collect as many crumbs as we can for ourselves. That consciousness is essential for survival, at home and abroad. In particular, there must be an end to provocative confrontations with China and a serious rethinking of the alleged "China threat" — experiences we've been through before with dire consequences, now literally a matter of survival. The U.S. and China will cooperate in approaching the urgent crises of today, or we're doomed. The choices before us are stark. They cannot be evaded or ignored [Read More]
There's No Cheap Way to Deal With the Climate Crisis
---- There will be no bargains with an overheating climate. As President Joe Biden takes an unfinished plan for U.S. emissions cuts to a global climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, next week, Congress and the country remain hung up on what that agenda, wrapped in the Build Back Better Act, might cost. The current price tag of nearly $1.9 trillion for climate and other social spending might seem enormous — though less so than the original $3.5 trillion plan. But over the long term, either would be a pittance. By zeroing in on those numbers, the public debate seems to have skipped over the economic ramifications of climate change, which promise to be historically disruptive — and enormously expensive. What we don't spend now will cost us much more later. …. The bills for natural disasters and droughts and power outages are already pouring in. Within a few decades, the total bill will be astronomical, as energy debts surge, global migration swells and industrial upheaval follows. The scale of the threat demands a new way of thinking about spending. Past budgets can no longer guide how governments spend money in the future. [Read More]
News Notes
Every 10 years, following the Census, congressional districts are reapportioned, with states gain population getting an additional seat or two in the House of Representatives at the expense of states that lose population. New York will lose one seat, and preliminary maps from the Redistricting Commission propose to change CD 16 and CD 17 to the detriment of incumbents Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones. The Redistricting Commission will hold a hearing in White Plains on Monday, November 8th. CFOW will send out more info soon; but asap please sign up to testify in person or register so that you can testify via mail or email.
To counter the BDS movement, in 2016 Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order requiring state agencies to divest from companies that boycott Israel. Last July, Ben & Jerry's ice cream announced that it will no longer sell its products in the Occupied West Bank. Under international law, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are occupied territories, and not part of Israel; but last week NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli moved to divest $111 million of state pension funds from Unilever, Ben & Jerry's parent company [Link]. CFOW is part of the NYS Freedom2Boycott Coalition, which sent a letter to the Comptroller arguing that "Your claim that Ben & Jerry's refusal to sell ice cream in Israeli settlements threatens NY state investments is an attack on free speech."
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) A "Black Lives Matter/Say Their Names" vigil takes place every Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email. Our newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. 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!
This week's Rewards are inspired by some reading this week about the early Civil Rights Movement. Ella Baker was a critical force in the development of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the southern students who moved from sit-ins to voter registration. Her memory is celebrated in "Ella's Song" by the Resistance Revival Chorus. In the early 1960s, the student movement was a "singing movement." The Freedom Singers grew out of the massive arrests in Albany, George in 1962; a year later they sang "We Shall Not Be Moved" at the famous March on Washington where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. The women from the Freedom Singers went on to form Sweet Honey in the Rock; here they sing "Woke Up The Morning with My Mind Stayed ono Freedom." There's lots more on-line. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
How Biden is trying to rebrand the drone war
By Nick Turse, Responsible Statecraft [October 25, 2021]
---- For months, the White House and Pentagon have been touting the efficacy of "over the horizon" warfare — purportedly an accurate and effective targeting of terrorists in nations where the United States has few or no boots on the ground. "Terrorism has metastasized around the world," said President Joe Biden in August. "We have over-the-horizon capability to keep them from going after us." While peddled as innovative, experts say that over-the-horizon warfare is effectively a rebranding of the drone campaign that has been employed for almost 20 years in places like Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. It is also, they told Responsible Statecraft, likely to fail. … The debate regarding over-the-horizon warfare is occurring as the White House attempts to complete its new rules for overseas counterterrorism operations and the Pentagon is doing the same in terms of civilian casualties. All of it comes in the wake of the Taliban victory in Afghanistan and a parting drone strike there that calls the efficacy of remote warfare into question. [Read More]
Dangerous Brinkmanship Over Taiwan
By Michael T. Klare, Campaign for a SANE US-China Policy [October 27, 2021]
---- In recent weeks, the airwaves have been full of inflammatory rhetoric over Taiwan, increasing the risk that tensions over the island's status could provide the spark for a military conflict, even a catastrophic war, between the United States and China. … On this side of the Pacific, politicians from both parties were quick to condemn Xi's foreboding threats and to offer support for Tsai's uncompromising posture. Many Republicans demanded an ironclad US commitment to defend Taiwan in the event it was attacked by China, and President Biden, when asked by Anderson Cooper of CNN whether the United States would defend Taiwan under those circumstances, said, "Yes, we have a commitment to do that." [Read More]
Recently the Campaign for a SANE US-China Policy sponsored an excellent webinar on the US, China, and Taiwan. Mike Klare was one of the presenters. I thought is was very informative, and perhaps you will think so too. Here is the link. If you need a passcode, it's C%d%4au1.
More Problems of War & Peace
Why Biden Should Continue Withdrawing After Afghanistan
By Trita Parsi, et al., The Nation [October 26, 2021]
---- One month after the Afghanistan pullout, it is still unclear whether we witnessed the beginning of a series of military withdrawals—as part of Biden's proclaimed end to the era of regime change wars—or if Afghanistan will remain a mere one-off. While Washington's foreign policy elite was up in arms against Biden's withdrawal, a closer accounting of the political and strategic fallout reveals an opening for Biden to make good on his promise to disentangle the United States from the Forever Wars and begin a broader US withdrawal from the Middle East, starting with Iraq and Syria. The political cost of withdrawing from the Middle East has largely already been paid, and the geopolitical consequences have been strongly positive. … The US military's continued presence in Syria is illegal and serves no vital US interest. After the defeat of ISIS, the Trump administration justified the presence of troops by claiming they were needed to counter Iranian influence. But countering Iranian influence—real or imagined—in Syria is not a vital US interest and Congress never approved such a mission. The same is true for Iraq. [Read More]
Top 3 Ways Biden can restore Iran Nuclear Deal if he Really Wants To
---- The Biden administration is acting as though the Iran issue is a low priority. The attitude seems to be that if Iran wants to go back into compliance, we'll see what we can do for them. Maybe. Maybe, we'll just screw them over anyway. In actuality, the US is on a war footing with Iran and is strangling its economy with no shred of justification in international law. It is dangerous to back an enemy into a corner that way, and wars have been started by less. Biden is risking conflagration in the Middle East that could spiral out of control at the drop of a hat. [Read More] Also important for context: "Revealed: Biden rejected way forward in Iran deal talks" by Trita Parsi, Responsible Statecraft [Link].
Civil Liberties
(Video) Wikileaks' Julian Assange Must Not Be Extradited for Exposing War Crimes in Afghanistan
From Democracy Now [October 28, 2021]
---- As an appeals court in London is deciding whether Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes, we go to London to speak with British writer and activist Tariq Ali. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison in the U.S. under the Espionage Act for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ali calls the case "a political trial" and a "punitive attempt by the British government … to try and punish Julian on behalf of the United States." [See the Program]
The State of the Union
Another Buffalo Is Possible
---- In the past year, Buffalo has been back in the national spotlight for two disparate but connected reasons. The first came in the summer of 2020, during a Black Lives Matter protest, when reporters captured footage of a seventy-five-year-old man named Martin Gugino speaking heatedly to police. Apparently provoked by Gugino's remarks, an officer shoved him to the ground, cracking his skull and causing a brain injury that would leave him hospitalized for a month. Two officers were suspended with pay and charged with assault. Almost a year later, a local housing activist, India Walton, stunned Buffalo's Democratic establishment by winning the mayoral primary, defeating the four-term incumbent, Byron Brown. The first African American mayor of the city, Brown has been a favorite of businesses and developers, presiding over a transformation of Buffalo's downtown. Walton would be an unlikely successor. A Black woman who identifies as a democratic socialist, she became a mother at fourteen, as well as a high-school dropout and a welfare recipient. She survived sexual assault and domestic violence. Walton went on to become a nurse, but she left her profession to work as a community organizer. Even in the midst of a general election, she is outspoken about democratic socialism. [Read More]
Israel/Palestine
It is the Israeli Occupation of the Stateless Palestinians that is the settler Colonial State, and, yes, Apartheid
---- Apologists for Israeli policy have taken umbrage at the characterization of Israel as a settler colonial state that practices Apartheid. … Israel proper, within 1967 borders, most resembles the US, Mexico and Australia in this regard, in organizing the settler population in the European manner with parliamentary rule and uneasily incorporating the indigenous population (American Indians, Mexican Indios, Aboriginals, and Palestinians), giving them an ambiguous and lesser status as a discriminated-against population. The apologists also cover up the 1947-48 expulsion by Jewish immigrants from Europe of over half of the indigenous Palestinians from what became Israel, creating what have today grown to be some 10 million refugees. But it is the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian territories which Israel seized by aggressive invasion in 1967 that most resembles other settler-colonial states. [Read More] Also informative is this Democracy Now! segment from last May – "'It Is 'Apartheid': Rights Group B'Tselem on How Israel Advances Jewish Supremacy Over Palestinians," with Noura Erakat [Link].
Our History
"If Black Women Were Free": An Oral History of the Combahee River Collective
By Marian Jones, The Nation [October 29, 2021]
---- Last year, fierce protests erupted across the US out of rage against austerity, a botched Covid-19 response, and the brutal murder of George Floyd. Demonstrators blocked traffic, occupied public spaces, and destroyed police property. At the same time, there was an upswell in mutual aid, rent strikes, and labor organizing. This surge of activism and organizing built upon the history and analysis of radical Black feminism, especially the Boston-based Combahee River Collective, who in 1977 authored the landmark Combahee River Collective Statement. The collective recognized the necessity of working across race, gender, sexual orientation, and class while emphasizing the contributions of queer Black feminists to Black liberation and feminism. The group's political strategy was to form coalitions with other activist groups while retaining their independence as Black women. They were socialists who rejected capitalism and imperialism, but wrote in their declaration that they were not convinced that "a socialist revolution that is not also a feminist and anti-racist revolution will guarantee our liberation."They coined the term "identity politics" to describe their unique position as Black women facing a variety of oppressions. The statement emphasized economic, gender, and racial repression and made fighting on all fronts key to its emancipatory politics. [Read More]
