CFOW Newsletter - Focus on the War in Ukraine - will it be endless?

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

July 31, 2022

 

Hello All – For many weeks we have had brief flashes of hope that there might be a settlement – or at least real negotiations – seeking to end the Russia-Ukraine war.  And yet nothing happens.  In an essay in The Nation this week, Professor Rajon Menon assembles facts that support his assertion that "Calls for a Diplomatic Settlement in Ukraine are Misplaced."  Despite thousands killed on both sides and enormous property damage in Ukraine, no cracks appear in the determination of both countries to fight to the death. "All that matters now," he says, "is Russian and Ukrainian leaders' undiminished confidence that they will be victorious. So long as at least one side does not change its upbeat view, there can be no negotiation toward a political settlement, which will necessarily require difficult compromises by both of them."

 

And yet there are other parties to this war, namely the United States and NATO. It was not long ago that the USA was openly declaring that its goal in the present war, in addition to saving Ukraine, was to destroy Russia as a powerful state. And to this end, economic sanctions against Russia – the most sweeping sanctions in the history of the galaxy – combined with almost-open-ended military support for Ukraine – would do the trick.  But now it appears that Russia has found ways to cope with the sanctions, bolstered by the high price of gas and oil and the willingness of non-US allies to buy these products at discounts.  Moreover, the blowback from sanctions has caused turmoil in Europe, as high energy and food prices fuel popular protest and anticipate a recession.  Several governments have already toppled. And so we have to ask whether the "larger interests" of the United States and NATO could be the weak link in Ukraine's ability to sustain a war.

 

The Professor's article also assumes stability in the (very small) governing circles in both Russia and Ukraine.  Questions about a revolt of Russia's elite and Putin' inner circle arose early in the war, on the grounds that the war was insane, but so far it seems that Putin has simply shrunk the size of his circle and encouraged people not comfortable with what was happening to leave town.  In Ukraine, on the other hand, there are many reports of instability within Zelensky's government and entourage.  Many political parties have been banned, mostly on the left.  Purges and arrests of government circles have taken place, most typically when Ukrainian officials offer to collaborate with Russian occupiers.  Zelensky's announced yesterday that he was ordering hundreds of thousands of civilians living in eastern Ukraine, in the Donbas, to leave their homes, to evacuate the fighting area. An overwhelming refugee problem just in time for winter. This seems irrational, to put it mildly.

 

And so it might be that – rather that a frozen conflict in place for many more months – it could be Ukraine and its supporters who will seek to end the fighting, to end the terrible costs that the war is inflicting on the USA, on NATO, and on Ukraine itself.

 

The "Tonkin Gulf Incident"

This coming Thursday will be the anniversary of the 1964 Tonkin Gulf Incident, which opened the door wide to further escalation by the United States in its war against Vietnam. The "Incident" grew out of US naval involvement in support of a covert operation against what was called North Vietnam, and then an imagined attack by North Vietnam against one of the destroyers (falsely) claimed to be in "international waters."  In the event, President Johnson produced a resolution giving him broad powers to fight a war in Vietnam, which was quickly passed by Congress.  The vote was unanimous on the House, but in the Senate there were two dissenters, Alaska's Ernest Gruening and Oregon's Wayne Morse. Morse was a passionate supporter of democracy, of "the people's" right to control foreign policy.  Here is a clip from a TV interview Morse made at the time.  Each year we honor Ernest Gruening and Wayne Morse and thank them for their bravery; we will always remember them.

 

News Notes

New York's congressional redistricting disrupted both congressional districts in Westchester.  Jamaal Bowman is running for re-election in a revised CD 16, but the revisions in CD 17 pushed out Mondaire Jones when Sean Patrick Maloney, formerly of CD 18, decided that the new CD 17 was a better fit for him.  But Maloney has been challenged by liberal Democrat Alessandra Biaggi.  Especially for those in the new CD17, check out her campaign website and her campaign platform.  And of course she welcomes your donations.

 

Today National Public Radio (NPR) reported that "Alleged police misconduct cost Yonkers, N.Y., millions. The complaints kept coming."  NPR examined records of alleged police misconduct filed between 2007 and 2020. The "misconduct" usually involved excessive force, and the payments were made to have the cases dismissed before going to a jury.  The NPR story has a lot of useful information; check it out here.

 

US churches continue to consider their attitudes toward Israel and Palestinian political rights.  Earlier this month, the Episcopal Church passed several significant resolutions, including one on "Freedom of speech and the right to boycott." Read about the background to this important story here.

 

CFOW Nuts & Bolts

Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester.  Weather permitting, 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 is held each Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. To learn about our new project, "Beauty as Fuel for Change," go here; and to make a financial contribution to the project, go here. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. 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 for stalwart readers focus on the new Roger Waters tour, "This is Not A Drill."  As political commentator Kevin Gosztola raves in his review of the performance in Minneapolis, it is a "revolutionary concert experience," one with incredible staging and seating in the round that can barely be captured on You Tube.  But – give it a try – here is a recording of the July 23^rd concert in Detroit. In a simpler format here is a recent version of his anti-war classic, "Two Suns in the Sunset." Enjoy!

 

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

 

CFOW Weekly Reader

 

Featured Essays

(Video) Ukrainian Feminist: We Need Western Solidarity in Fighting Russian Imperialism

From Democracy Now! [July 28, 2022]

---- We speak to Oksana Dutchak, a Ukrainian feminist and co-editor of the leftist journal Spilne, who fled to Germany because of the "inability to live under the constant pressure of fear" as Russian invaded. She says Western leftists and feminists who have misgivings about Western military support for Ukraine often overlook that Ukrainians are fighting for self-determination and against imperialism. "What does it mean to stop the war? How it should be stopped? There are questions which should be in the center if you want to give a political answer to the challenges Ukrainian society is facing," she adds.[See the Program] Dutchak's manifesto in favor of national defense, and critical of those in the West (and elsewhere) who oppose sending arms or aid to Ukraine, is must reading for anyone wrestling with this issue.  Read "10 Terrible Leftist Arguments against Ukrainian Resistance" here.|

 

(Video) Economist Jayati Ghosh: Global Debt Crisis Is Perfect Storm of Unrest, Economic Disaster, Starvation

From Democracy Now! [July 27, 2022]

---- We look at the looming possibility of a global recession amid rising inflation, the pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine. World financial institutions and wealthier countries should take stronger actions such as writing off debts that are crippling developing nations, says Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "This is just completely lack of political will. It's not because we don't know what to do." Her piece in The Guardian is headlined "There is a global debt crisis coming — and it won't stop at Sri Lanka," and she also discusses other countries on the brink of an economic collapse, including Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Panama and Argentina. [See the Program]  For those attempting to follow the turmoil in Sri Lanki, Ghosh has an article in the [UK] Guardian last week, "There is a global debt crisis coming – and it won't stop at Sri Lanka [Link].

 

Biden Should Remove Cuba from the Infamous State Sponsors of Terrorism List

By Medea Benjamin and Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, Code Pink [July 28, 2022]

---- As the Cuban government celebrates the July 26 Day of the National Rebellion–a public holiday commemorating the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks that is considered the precursor to the 1959 revolution–U.S. groups are calling on the Biden administration to stop its cruel sanctions that are creating such hardship for the Cuban people. In particular, they are pushing President Biden to take Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Being on this list subjects Cuba to a series of devastating international financial restrictions. It is illegal for U.S. banks to process transactions to Cuba, but U.S. sanctions also have an unlawful extraterritorial reach.  Fearful of getting in the crosshairs of U.S. regulations, most Western banks have also stopped processing transactions involving Cuba or have implemented new layers of compliance. This has hampered everything from imports to humanitarian aid to development assistance, and has sparked a new European campaign to challenge their banks' compliance with U.S. sanctions. [Read More]  And for a brief reminder of the role of "July 26^th" in Cuban history, check out this short video "M-26-7 - The 26th of July Movement (Cuba)."

 

War & Peace

After the Fist Bump

By Phyllis Bennis, In These Times [July 21, 2022]

---- Biden's first presidential trip to the Middle East had a lot to do with consolidating U.S. power and countering Chinese and Russian influence there, strengthening the Israeli- and Saudi-led anti-Iran coalition under U.S. leadership, and increasing arms sales. The timing had a lot to do with the war in Ukraine, and the price of oil at home, with global shortages and price hikes linked to war-driven sanctions against Russian crude. Biden's trip had a message for all of that. MBS and the Israeli leadership have been eager to reaffirm their tight partnerships with the United States, following their strategically consistent but symbolically extreme embrace by Trump. Biden's greetings made clear that consistency was indeed his agenda, and that apartheid, war crimes and murder of journalists would pose no barriers to those special ties between Washington and its favored Middle East allies. But far more consequential were the actions — what Biden did and didn't do during his meetings. [Read More]

 

The Climate Crisis

Humanity can't equivocate any longer. This is a climate emergency

By Rebecca Solnit and Terry Tempest Williams, The Guardian [UK] [July 28, 2022]

---- We are declaring a climate emergency. Everyone can, in whatever place on Earth they call home. No one needs to wait for politicians any more – we have been waiting for them for decades. What history shows us is that when people lead, governments follow. Our power resides in what we are witnessing. We cannot deny that Great Salt Lake is vanishing before our eyes into a sun-cracked playa of salt and toxic chemicals. Nor can we deny that Lake Mead is reduced to a puddle. In New Mexico a wildfire that began in early April is still burning in late July. Last August, the eye of Hurricane Ida split in two – there was no calm – only 190mph winds ripping towns in the bayous of Louisiana to shreds; and 7m acres in the American west burned in 2021. The future the scientists warned us about is where we live now. The climate emergency has been declared over and over by Nature and by human suffering and upheaval in response to its catastrophes. The 2,000 individuals who recently died of heat in Portugal and Spain are not here to bear witness, but many of the residents of Jacobabad in Pakistan, where Amnesty International declared the temperatures "unlivable for humans", are. The heat-warped rails of the British train system, the buckled roads, cry out that this is unprecedented. The estimated billion sea creatures who died on the Pacific north-west's coast from last summer's heatwave announced a climate emergency. The heat-devastated populations of southern Asia, the current grain crop failures in China, India, across Europe and the American midwest, the starving in the Horn of Africa because of climate-caused drought, the bleached and dying coral reefs of Australia, the rivers of meltwater gushing from the Greenland ice sheet, the melting permafrost of Siberia and Alaska: all bear witness that this is a climate emergency. So do we. Yet the anxiety we feel, the grief that is ours, pales in comparison to the ferocity of our resolve. [Read More]

 

The King and the Queen of the Endangered Monarch Butterfly: A Story of Proactive Environmentalism

By Jonah Raskin, Counterpunch [July 29, 2022]

---- Call them the king and the queen of the endangered monarch butterflies. Ole Schell and Elizabeth Weber, both of whom grew up in a world of privilege, have put their own privilege to work for the environment. They are leading the charge in the San Francisco Bay Area to save the beloved monarchs from extinction. This summer they mounted a stunning exhibit in the tiny town of Bolinas in western Marin County to inform and educate citizens about the plight of the butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and about efforts to create habitat for them and bring them back to former nesting grounds where they have not been seen for years. If and when change comes, it often comes from places like Bolinas on the margins, not at the centers. There were an estimated ten million monarchs in the 1980s. In July 2022, the International Union for Conservation of Nature issued a report that said the population has declined by an estimated 99.9 percent.  [Read More]  In an excellent short video, Ole Shell describes  "Creating the West Marin Monarch Sanctuary."

 

Israel/Palestine

AIPAC declares war on any support of Palestinian human rights

By Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss [July 28, 2022]

---- AIPAC's all-out assault on Andy Levin and Donna Edwards reflects their ongoing effort to shift the boundaries of acceptable politics on Israel. AIPAC spent well over $3 million to defeat Levin, using their new political action committee, the United Democracy Project, to leverage the race. That is an enormous amount of money in a single district primary race. But this is the AIPAC strategy, and it has proven effective. Last week, AIPAC used over $6 million in campaign spending to defeat Donna Edwards in Maryland, a progressive with a strong congressional track record who was trying to get back into Congress.  The race is looking grim for Levin. A poll released on July 21 showed Stevens with a commanding lead of 58% to 31% over Levin. The poll could be overstating the margin, and the head of Target Insyght, Ed Sarpolus, which carried out the poll noted that, "sometimes polls like this get much tighter by election day," but it's a huge margin. Sarpolus also stated that "Unless something happens, Haley is going to win." [Read More]

 

Our History

Thinking about George Orwell

FB – Many people have read George Orwell's books Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949), and some have read his memoir about the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia (1938), or his earlier novels about lower-middle-class life in England in the 1930s. His writing typically reflects the themes of authority/illegitimate authority, and the need for free thinking and free speech.  Recently I read two shorter pieces by Orwell that I would like to share, as I think they bear on Our Times:

 

George Orwell's 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

---- Suppose that Hitler's programme could be put into effect. What he envisages, a hundred years hence, is a continuous state of 250 million Germans with plenty of 'living room' (i.e. stretching to Afghanistan or thereabouts), a horrible brainless empire in which, essentially, nothing ever happens except the training of young men for war and the endless breeding of fresh cannon-fodder. How was it that he was able to put this monstrous vision across? It is easy to say that at one stage of his career he was financed by the heavy industrialists, who saw in him the man who would smash the Socialists and Communists. They would not have backed him, however, if he had not talked a great movement into existence already. [Read More]

The Freedom of the Press: Orwell's Proposed Preface to Animal Farm (1945)

---- Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news – things which on their own merits would get the big headlines – being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ʻit wouldn't doʼ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question [Read More]

 

CFOW Newsletter - Focus on what should we do now?

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

July 24, 2022

 

Hello All – There is general agreement among Democrats and those to the left of the Democratic Party that America is "in a crisis."  And therefore we have to act.  To vote. To do … what else?  And here the divisions among Democrats, and among those who foresee a dystopian future and want to defeat it, become apparent.

 

In the current issue of New York Review of Books – perhaps the flagship of east coast liberalism – Mark Danner writes: "We're in an Emergency – Act Like It!" He writes:

 

The 2022 election will be the first held in the shadow of an attempted coup d'état—a nearly successful and still-unpunished crime against the state. It will be the first held after a Supreme Court decision that not only uprooted a half-century-old established right but that threatens the rescinding of other rights as well. And it will be the first in which it is clear that, from Republican legislators' relentless efforts to change who counts the votes, the very character of American governance is on the ballot. … American voters have not confronted so grave a choice since 1860. Now as then, two dramatically different futures are on offer

 

The looming danger is in the world revealed by the January 6^th insurrection and committee, and in the world revealed by the Supreme Court in its abortion and environmental protection decisions. "If any election cried out to be nationalized," writes Danner, "to be fought not only on the kitchen-table issues of inflation and unemployment but on the defining principles of what the country is and what it should be—it is this November's."  And to this end Danner proposes a liberal version of Newt Gingrich's 2010 "Contract with America," though this liberal contract focuses on promises of congressional and executive action to support the right to abortion, to safeguard contraception and same-sex marriage, and to end the filibuster so that progressive legislation – indeed, even "moderate" legislation – can be passed.

 

And yet what is missing from this proposed "Contract with America" is any substance that might speak to the additional needs of low-income Americans; and thereby win the fall elections for the Democrats.  Danner notes that the failure of the Democrats to raise taxes on corporations and the very wealthy -- "a wildly popular measure vital to the entire Democratic program" – "casts embarrassing doubt on their legitimacy as a working- and middle-class party." Indeed, advocating a social-democratic, Sanders-style legislative program is rejected by much of the Democratic Party leadership, which has rallied against many left-of-liberal Democratic office-seekers, in favor of "centrists" and "moderates," as Robert Reich points out in an article linked below.

 

Finally, Danner's "Emergency" seems not include what CFOW and many others regard as the elephant-emergencies in the room, the climate crisis and the danger of nuclear war.  In this the proposed "Contract with America" reflects our political reality, as poll after poll find that US voters and US media personalities do not regard either question as important – or, for pollsters, questions even worth asking about.  Yet the military budget, the war in the Ukraine, and the increasing military friction between the USA and Russia surely puts the issue of nuclear war on the table.  And our evening news shows beyond a doubt that our climate crisis is not just looming, it has arrived.  Billions of dollars misspent, and billions unspent, and yet this disasters cannot even rise to the level of "Emergency" in progressive messaging.  This silence may be our real emergency.

 

News Notes

The climate crisis, the Covid pandemic, and the war in Ukraine have dramatically raised the cost of food and threaten millions of people with starvation. According to the World Food Programme head David Beasley, at least 325 people are on the brink of starvation.  For a useful overview of what's happening and what can be done to save millions, read "How the Treasury Department could prevent mass starvation with no cost to the taxpayers," by By Mark Weisbrot, Marketwatch [July 21, 2022].

 

The congressional redistricting mess has resulted in the displacement of the progressive politician serving CD 17, Mondaire Jones, and his likely replacement in the person of a Democratic "moderate," Sean Patrick Maloney. Regarding the context or back story of this disappointing event, I found this article – "Local Grassroots Organizations Condemn Sean Patrick Maloney for Prioritizing Political Gains over Working Class Communities of Color" – by A.J.Woodson in his Black Westchester illuminating.

 

There are many stories about big money – particularly Republican big money – and how it is deforming our electoral "system."  Here's another good one: "Just 27 Billionaires Have Spent $90 Million to Buy GOP Congress: Report," by Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams [July 18, 2022].

 

CFOW Nuts & Bolts

Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester.  Weather permitting, 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 is held each Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. To learn about our new project, "Beauty as Fuel for Change," go here; and to make a financial contribution to the project, go here. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. 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 for stalwart readers come from a 1994 project focusing on black and white contributions to the Delta blues coming out of Memphis and Nashville.  It is called "Rhythm, Country & Blues."  Here are two clips from the album – Al Greene and Lyle Lovett, "Funny How Time Slips Away"; and Aaron Neville and Trisha Yearwood, "I Fall to Pieces." There are more songs in this interesting documentary about the music and the musicians. Enjoy!

 

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

 

CFOW Weekly Reader

 

Featured Essays

(Video) 187 Minutes: Jan. 6 Hearing Examines Trump's Refusal to Urge Mob to Stop Violent Attack on Capitol

From Democracy Now! [July 22, 2022]

----- The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol held a primetime hearing on Thursday night focused on former President Donald Trump's refusal to take action as his supporters attacked the Capitol on January 6. Lawmakers dissected the three-hour period on January 6 after Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and "fight like hell." For 187 minutes, Trump refused to call off the mob or reach out to law enforcement or military leaders to try to stop the violence. Instead, Trump called Republican senators, urging them to stop the certification. "For hours Donald Trump chose not to answer the pleas from Congress, from his own party and from all across our nation to do what his oath required," said Congressmember Liz Cheney, the committee's vice chair. [See the Program] Also of interest: "187 Minutes of Treason," by John Nichols, The Nation [July 22, 2022] [Link].

 

Asking "What About…?" Is Essential to Achieving Justice

By Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Nation [July 22, 2022]

---- The war in Ukraine and the Western reactions to it offer a real-time example of how sympathy and hypocrisy sometimes go hand in hand. Of course Ukrainians deserve sympathy—and much more—for their suffering under Russia's invasion. But as other populations who are undergoing or have undergone bombardment, occupation, or other forms of domination—often by nations in the West or their allies—have remarked, "What about us?" This raises the issue of when one can reasonably ask this question without being accused of "whataboutism"—the practice of deflecting a demand for justice or care with a self-serving claim about one's own victimization or that of supposedly equally deserving others. As someone who came to the United States as a refugee fleeing the Vietnam War, I've asked myself "What about…?" many times. When I visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which commemorates the more than 58,000 Americans who died in the war, I wonder about the 3 million dead Vietnamese and whether a nation's memory and moral imagination can be capacious enough to remember not only one's own dead, but the dead of one's enemy and allies. The problem is mirrored in Vietnam, where the government built numerous memorials to honor the 1.1 million North Vietnamese war "martyrs" but erased the more than 200,000 South Vietnamese soldiers who died.  [Read More]

 

Voting Isn't Enough. Our Democracy Requires Radical Reform

By Representative Ilhan Omar, The Nation [July 19, 2022]

---- Our country is in a crisis. On a near-daily basis, evidence mounts implicating the former president of the United States in a coup attempt against our republic. And in just the past two weeks, a spate of extremist Supreme Court decisions have gotten rid of a woman's fundamental right to make decisions about her own body, our government's ability to regulate clean air and water as required by law, and the separation of church and state, all while curbing our ability to regulate deadly weapons.  The legitimacy of a democracy rests on the consent of the governed, on the premise that decisions made by civic institutions reflect the will of the citizens and noncitizens they impact. From the January 6 insurrection to the increase in voter suppression, it has become increasingly clear that our country is in the midst of a legitimacy crisis, with the Supreme Court at the heart of it. But the court's recent rulings signify more than just a curtailment of our rights. As an immigrant who has seen countries descend into civil conflict, I recognize a familiar trend here: These are the latest signposts in the frightening backsliding of US democracy into authoritarianism. [Read More]

 

War & Peace

Why is Biden joining the warpath against Iran?

By Ted Snider, Responsible Statecraft [July 20, 2022]

---- On July 14, the White House announced the signing of the "Joint Declaration on the US-Israel Strategic Partnership." That declaration states not only the familiar U.S. commitment "never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon," but, as Biden had said, "it is prepared to use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome." But why, in Biden's words, would the U.S. "use force" against Iran? Why, in the words of the Joint Declaration, would it use "all elements of its national power?" There are several problems with the joint declaration's commitment. Not the least of which is the question of whether it is legal under international law. Would international law permit a pre-emptive war against a country that has not attacked or threatened to attack the US in order to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon? … The second problem is that, despite popular conventional belief, it is not altogether clear that Iran is even pursuing a nuclear weapon. [Read More]

 

Time Is Running Out to Save the Truce in Yemen

By Hassan El-Tayyab, Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) [July 2022]

---- The deadline to extend the truce in Yemen is fast approaching, and without serious steps to save it, the truce could fall apart. Despite its flaws, the first nationwide cease-fire in more than seven years of war has brought some relative hope to Yemen. Agreed to back in April for an initial two months, and then extended for another two months in June, the U.N.-brokered truce between Yemen's Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition fighting them "offers a rare opportunity to pivot towards peace that should not be lost," as Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy to Yemen, told the U.N. Security Council. Yet the Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, have indicated that they will not accept an extension of the truce without significant changes, especially the easing of the ongoing blockade of Yemen. … The U.N. is pushing for a six-month extension of the truce, and has reportedly presented its proposal to both the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition. But an agreement on extending the truce again will only happen if Yemen's warring parties act responsibly and fairly. The United States has a role to play as well. President Biden and the U.S. Congress have an enormous amount of leverage that can be used to ensure that the truce continues and Yemen's peace process stays on track. [Read More]

 

The Climate Crisis

A Burning Planet: Should the climate movement embrace sabotage?

By Thea Riofrancos, The Nation [July 23, 2022]

[FB – I especially recommend this article to all those who, like me, think violent thoughts and imagine violent actions when reading about how the fossil fuel executives or government officials are pushing our civilization closer to extinction. Why doesn't someone … [fill in the blank with whatever]? – This article maintains that, in spite of our march to doom, nonviolent action still holds out the best chance of saving ourselves.]

---- In the United States, climate activists' commitment to pacifism is capacious enough to foreclose property damage, let alone bodily harm to fossil fuel executives. But despite these heroic efforts, corporations emit with impunity and states continue to delay any action to stop them—and all the while, the world gets hotter and hotter. It is this consensus about peaceful activism amid elite recklessness that Andreas Malm rejects. How to Blow Up a Pipeline will not tell you how to blow up a pipeline, but it will try to convince you that efforts to physically dismantle the infrastructural tentacles of fossil fuel capitalism are historically grounded, strategically intelligent, and morally imperative. "There has been a time for a Gandhian climate movement; perhaps there might come a time for a Fanonian one," avers the book's penultimate line. "Perhaps" is performatively ambivalent, equal parts prediction and provocation. While slippages between these rhetorical modes pervade the text, one thing is crystal clear throughout: For Malm, the climate movement needs to attack the crisis at its root, defusing "carbon-emitting devices" one by one. [Read More]  Also of interest: "If this isn't an emergency, what is?" by Bill McKibben (founder of 350.org) [July 22, 2022] [Link].

 

Civil Liberties

Religious Doctrine, Not the Constitution, Drove the Dobbs Decision

By Linda Greenhouse, New York Times [July 22, 2022]

---- No one really buys the argument that what was "egregiously wrong" with Roe v. Wade, to quote the Dobbs majority, was the court's failure to check the right analytic boxes. It was not constitutional analysis but religious doctrine that drove the opposition to Roe. And it was the court's unacknowledged embrace of religious doctrine that has turned American women into desperate refugees fleeing their home states in pursuit of reproductive health care that less than a month ago was theirs by right. To be sure, the Supreme Court has not outlawed abortion. Justice Samuel Alito left that dirty work to the states: Who will rid me of this bothersome right to abortion? … The Casey decision was five days shy of 30 years old when the court overturned it, along with Roe v. Wade, on June 24. Given that this was their goal from the start, the justices in the Dobbs majority really had only one job: to explain why. They didn't, and given the remaining norms of a secular society, they couldn't. There is another norm, too, one that has for too long restrained the rest of us from calling out the pervasive role that religion is playing on today's Supreme Court. In recognition that it is now well past time to challenge that norm, I'll take my own modest step and relabel Dobbs for the religion case that it is, since nothing else explains it. [Read More] Also of interest: "'They've taken down the mask': A new generation of abortion bans make no exception for rape," by Jess Bidgood, Boston Globe [July 21, 2022] [Link]

 

The State of the Union

Controlling Bodies and Subverting Democracy: How Dobbs Is an Attack on Us All

By Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Tom Dispatch [July 21, 2022'

---- For millions of us, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision on abortion means that life in America has just grown distinctly more dangerous. The seismic aftershocks of that ruling are already being felt across the country: 22 states have laws or constitutional amendments on the books now poised to severely limit access to abortion or ban it outright. Even before the Supremes issued their decision, states with more restrictive abortion laws had higher maternal-mortality and infant-mortality rates. Now, experts are predicting at least a 21 percent increase in pregnancy-related deaths across the country. … While the Supreme Court's grim decision means more pain and hardship for women, transgender, and gender non-confirming people, it signals even more: the validation of a half-century-old strategy by Christian nationalists to remake the very fabric of this nation. For the businessmen, pastors, and politicians who laid the foundations for the Dobbs ruling, this was never just about abortion. The multi-decade campaign to reverse Roe v. Wade has always been about building a political movement to seize and wield political power. [Read More] Also of interest is "The So-Called "Pro-Life" Movement Couldn't Care Less About the Living," by

Katha Pollitt, The Nation [July 21, 2022] [Link].

 

AIPAC's horrendous role in this year's Democratic primaries

By Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Clinton [July 22, 2022]

---- On Tuesday, in a House Democratic primary contest to represent a predominantly Black middle-class district north and east of Washington, DC., Glenn Ivey, a former state's attorney for Prince George's County, defeated Donna Edwards, the first Black woman elected to the House from Maryland. (Edwards left the seat to run unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2016 and had hoped to return.) Progressive groups backed Edwards, but television and radio were saturated with ads questioning her willingness to perform basic services for her constituents and to make the kinds of compromises necessary for legislative success. The argument was horse manure. Where did the money for those ads come from? The American-Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its new super PAC, the United Democracy Project (along with another group, the Democratic Majority for Israel). Together they spent almost $7 million to defeat Edwards. That's a staggering sum for a single Democratic primary. What did Edwards do to deserve this degree of AIPAC enmity? [Read More] Also of interest is this program from Democracy Now!, "The Israel Lobby Is Spending Millions to Defeat Progressive Democrats in Primary Races," with Peter Beinart.

 

Israel/Palestine

Palestinians Face Forced Expulsions as Biden Pledges Allegiance to Israel

By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout [July 16, 2022]

---- President Joe Biden's much-heralded visit to Jerusalem has confirmed that the United States remains Israel's enabler-in-chief. Biden promised to continue providing Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military aid (more than the U.S. gives any other country) to maintain the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. … In the newly released Jerusalem U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Joint Declaration, Biden and Lapin "affirm that they will continue to work together to combat all efforts to boycott or de-legitimize Israel, to deny its right to self-defense, or to unfairly single it out in any forum including at the United Nations or the International Criminal Court." That means the Biden administration commits to: opposing the constitutionally protected boycott, divestment and sanctions movement; affirming Israel's illegal claim of self-defense against Palestinians under its occupation; stymying the International Criminal Court's investigation of Israeli war crimes; and voting against any criticism of Israel in the UN General Assembly. [Read More]  Also of interest is "For Both Israelis and Palestinians, Biden's Agenda Looks Like Trump's," by Giorgio Cafiero, Gulf State Analytics [July 2022] [Link].

 

At the Movies

FB – This week's film is "Official Secrets," which came out in 2019 and is now available (free) via Kanopy if you have a library card.  This film is a true-to-life drama documenting the heroic actions of a British intelligence analyst, Katherine Gun, who "leaked" information showing how the Blair and Bush governments were spying on certain members of the UN Security Council in get information to use in "pressuring" those countries/individuals to support a vote for war against Iraq in early 2003. Needless to say, this leads to big trouble for Katherine; but, sadly, did not prevent the war. I thought the film was terrific and the acting great.  When the film first appeared in 2019, Democracy Now! ran a two-part interview with the real Katherine Gun, the news reporters portrayed in the film, and the film's director. Go here to see this excellent program.

Please join CFOW rally for Jamaal Bowman for Congress - Saturday noon in Hastings

Hi All – Please join CFOW tomorrow in Hastings, where we will hold a rally in support of the re-election of Rep. Jamaal Bowman.  Our rally starts at noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton Ave. and Spring St.).  The rally will be short, given the heat.  Speaking at our rally will be Hastings mayor Nikki Armacost, Luke Hayes from Jamaal's office, and some people from the newly formed "Jews for Jamaal." Richie Schlossberg will speak on behalf of CFOW.  And Steve Siegelbaum of the Walkabout chorus will give us some music.

 

CFOW's support for Jamaal Bowman goes back several years, to the time when he challenged incumbent Eliot Engel in the 2020 Democratic primary.  We had several meetings with Jamaal during this time; we liked him and decided to endorse him, the first ever CFOW endorsement for any politician.  Not least, our endorsement was based on our strong disagreement with Rep. Engel's pro-war, pro-military, and pro-Israel politics.  But we also liked Jamaal as a person, and believed that he would be a strong advocate for peace and justice, and for the needs of the people in his congressional district.  And we were right; and continue to be right in supporting him for re-election.

 

Many things – not least the messed-up redistricting process – have made this a difficult primary election for Bowman – and for us. Redistricting has eliminated one-third of the African-American voters who were in his old district and are not now in his new district.  Additionally, by rescheduling the primary for Congress for August 23^rd – separating it from the primaries held on the original date of June 28^th – many Democratic voters are not aware that there is an August primary, and a great many in Bowman's expanded district – now including Dobbs, Irvington, parts of Tarrytown, etc. – are not aware that he is now/to be "their Congressman." And of course it is not helpful to have a little-known primary election in August, while many voters are away on vacation, and during the hottest time of the year!

 

Thanks & best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

 

 

 

CFOW Newsletter - Focus on President Biden's terrible trip to Saudi Arabia

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

July 18, 2022

 

Hello All – President Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia was a terrible disaster for those seeking peace and justice in the Middle East.  While the visit is presented to the US public as an effort to increase the supply and lower the price of gasoline, the visit will further militarize the Middle East and increase arms sales to a repressive dictatorship. As Noam Chomsky and others note in articles linked below, Biden's trip and his agenda are in keeping with decades of US policy towards Saudi Arabia, including the policies of President Trump.

 

For supporters of peace and justice in the region, it is the US support for the Saudi war against Yemen that causes the most pain. The United Nations has described the situation in Yemen as "the world's greatest humanitarian disaster."  By the end of 2021, an estimated 377,000 people had died in the war, including 154,000 directly due to armed conflict, while an additional 223,000 people died due to hunger, disease, and lack of proper medical care.  A majority of these indirect deaths are believed to be children under the age of 5.  Moreover, attacks by the Saudi-led coalition have destroyed infrastructure across Yemen. Saudi forces have targeted hospitals, clinics and vaccinations centers. Blockades have starved the population and made it hard for hospitals to get essential medical supplies. After more than five years of war, Yemen's health system has almost collapsed.

 

Our government has tried to cover up its role in enabling and supplying weapons for the bloody war in Yemen.  A leaked report issued by the (US) General Accounting Office last month concluded that the Saudi-led alliance "has carried out deadly strikes using combat jets and munitions that have been supplied and maintained largely by American companies with the approval of the State Department and the Pentagon." US arms sales to Saudi Arabia were supported by President Obama at the outset of the war against Yemen, and then peaked during the Trump presidency, with US companies such as Raytheon, Boeing, and Lockheed selling billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and its war-coalition partner the United Arab Emirates. But protests against the war surged after the Saudi murder of journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, and after the CIA concluded that the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had ordered the assassination.  It was on the wave of these protests that presidential candidate Joe Biden declared Saudi Arabia and its ruling royal family a "pariah," which should be made "to pay a price." But now, with the price of gasoline high and the fall elections looming, humanitarian concerns are cast aside.

 

It is way past time for the United States to end its support of Saudi Arabia's war against Yemen.  Pushing back against Biden's pro-war policies, on Thursday Democratic Senators, including Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, introduced a joint resolution aimed at ending the unauthorized U.S. military role in the Saudi-led coalition's war in Yemen. The House introduced a similar bill last month led by Reps. Jayapal (D-Wash.) and DeFazio (D-Ore.) and supported by Westchester's Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones.  The Senate resolution will be voted on soon, an important step towards peace in Yemen.  Please call NY Sens. Schumer (202) 224-6542 and Gillilbrand (202) 224-4451. Ask them to support the Joint Resolution to end US support for the Saudi war against Yemen. Thanks.

 

Some useful reading on Biden's trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia

 

Repeating the colonial mistakes of the past

By Terry Ahwal, Mondoweiss [July 17, 2022]

---- As Americans, we should all be terrified of what President Joe Biden accomplished on his trip to the Middle East.  At first, we were offended because he sidestepped the plight of the Palestinian people who live under a brutal Israeli occupation, but as we watched him throughout this trip became apparent, it is much worse than what has been reported. It appears that President Biden came to the Middle East to implement the roadmap created by Benjamin Netanyahu. [Read More]

 

(Video) "Shameful": Biden's Trip to Saudi Arabia for More Oil Ignores Human Rights Abuses, Khashoggi Murder

From Democracy Now! [July 14, 2022]

---- One of Biden's aims is to convince Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, an answer to pressures at home over skyrocketing gas prices from the Russian war in Ukraine. "If we're willing to sacrifice for oil prices, there are much less heinous sacrifices to be making than to continue military support for the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE," says Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now. [See the Program]

 

Biden's Middle East Trip Contains Echoes of Trump's Policies

An interview with Noam Chomsky, Truthout [July 15, 2022]

---- U.S. relations with the family kingdom called "Saudi Arabia" have always proceeded amicably, undisturbed by its horrifying record of human rights abuses, which persists. That's hardly a surprise in the case of "a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history … probably the richest economic prize in the world in the field of foreign investment," as the State Department described the prize in the mid-1940s, when the U.S. wrested it from Britain in a mini-war during World War II. More generally, the Middle East was regarded at a high level as the most "strategically important area in the world," as President Eisenhower said. While assessments have varied over 80 years, the essence remains. [Read More]

 

News Notes

Much of the USA is acting as though Covid is a thing of the past, or perhaps part of our "new normal" that we will have always with us, but is not dangerous.  Yet the daily table of "deaths" and "hospitalizations" in The New York Times and else suggests this is not true, and that we are facing yet another surge of the disease.  Useful reading/viewing on this can be found in science writer Ed Yong's recent segment on Democracy Now!,  "(Video) "Reinfection Wave": Ed Yong on BA.5 Omicron Variant Spread Amid Mask Mandate Rollbacks, Funding Cuts" [July 14, 2022].

 

John Froines, a member of the famous "Chicago Seven" trial in 1969, died last week. John was an active member of the peace movement and a planner/organizer for the demonstrations in Chicago in 1968; but he differed from his co-defendants in having a serious day job, as a research chemist, both before and after 1968.  This obituary from the Washington Post recounts John's post-1968 career as a researcher and activist to protect Americans from the toxic impact of pollution and unsafe materials. In this, a sustained career in doing good, John reflects the career arcs of thousands of 1968-er protesters.

 

I got a call from an opinion polling outfit yesterday, wanting to know my opinion on political things, and especially the Democratic primary election for Jamaal Bowman's congressional seat.  OK, I said; and answered the normal flow of questions coming from the Democratic Party mainstream, attempting to drive a wedge between "acceptable" reforms (Joe Biden) and unacceptable reformers (AOC, "socialists").  At the end, I pointed out that no question addressed the main questions of our day: the dangers of (nuclear) war and the climate crisis.  That's OK, said the interviewer; lots of other polls raise those questions.  But they don't. As Noam Chomsky points out in a recent interview, both questions are largely ignored by both opinion-makers and opinion-seekers. On any list of "priorities," both questions rank near the bottom or simply don't make this list: "Humanity Faces Two Existential Threats. One Is Nearly Ignored."

 

CFOW Nuts & Bolts

Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester.  Weather permitting, 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 is held each Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. To learn about our new project, "Beauty as Fuel for Change," go here; and to make a financial contribution to the project, go here. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. 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!

 

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

 

CFOW Weekly Reader

 

Featured Essays

No Starvation for Oil

By Kathy Kelly, Waging Nonviolence [July 11, 2022]

---- As President Joe Biden embarks on his trip to the Middle East, those of us back home must acknowledge the suffering the United States has caused in places like Yemen. … The war has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, creating an unprecedented level of hunger in Yemen, where millions of people face severe hardship. It seems that his trip will not include Yemen, though if this were truly a "sensitive" visit, he would be stopping at one of Yemen's many beleaguered refugee camps. There he could listen to people displaced by war, some of whom are shell-shocked from years of bombardment. He could hear the stories of bereaved parents and orphaned children, and then express true remorse for the complicity of the United States in the brutal aerial attacks and starvation blockade imposed on Yemen for the past eight years. From the vantage point of a Yemeni refugee camp, Biden could insist that no country, including his own, has a right to invade another land and attempt to bomb its people into submission. He could uphold the value of the newly extended truce between the region's warring parties, allowing Yemenis a breather from the tortuous years of war, and then urge ceasefires and settlements to resolve all militarized disputes, including Russia's war in Ukraine. He could beg for a new way forward, seeking political will, universally, for disarmament and a peaceful, multipolar world. [Read More]

 

The European Union: Myth and Reality

By Evan Jones, Counterpunch [Julyl 15, 2022]

[FB – Discussions of the Ukraine War, and the roles of the USA and Europe, have generally factored in "NATO," but there has been little discussion of the European Union.  Here is a useful primer on the EU, which Ukraine seems poised to join.  What will this mean for Ukrainians, or for Europe?]

---- The European Union is run on a day-to-day basis by Germany for German interests. Yet for this crucial issue of Ukraine, German leaders have failed to look not only after the interests of Europe over which it exercises tutelage but those of Germany itself. One would imagine that Germany has common interests in mutual security accords with Russia, complemented by common interests in enhanced trade and investment relations. But no. Even apart from the unhinged warmongering German Greens, Washington DC has decreed that the pursuit of such common interests should not take place. Given that the German elite takes German economic self-interest very seriously, the subjugation to Washington is powerful indeed. … What did one expect from the European Union? The sincere pro-Western Maidan demonstrators had swallowed the kool-aid on Europe. Europe has rules comparable to the standard fare of the IMF, which also came visiting Ukraine to dictate the true path. You can't enter the promised land unless you jettison your sovereignty and commit to dismantling a range of public services and social support systems. Ticket of entry. Which is why the then Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych rationally said no thanks as we can't afford it. [Read More]

 

(Video) In "Immense World," Science Writer Ed Yong Shows "How Animal Senses Reveal Hidden Realms Around Us"

From Democracy Now! [July 15, 2022]

---- The Atlantic's science writer Ed Yong, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his coverage of the pandemic, joins us to discuss his fascinating new book, "An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us." He says it is a way of "expanding on the world around us through the eyes and noses and ears of other creatures we share this planet with… I hope that it's also a call for empathy, a call to do radical acts of perspective taking for creatures whose lives are very different to ours. I think one could argue, reasonably, that a lot of the problems that we're facing now, the pandemic and otherwise, stem from a catastrophic failure of empathy. But I think empathy is a muscle. I think you can build it, and I think if you repeatedly flex it, it's easier to extend it in every aspect of our lives, to people whose experiences are very different to ours, to creatures whose lives and senses are very different to ours. I hope that the book helps people to get in touch with that, at a time when I think we all sorely need more of it. [See the Program]

 

The "Pink Tide" in Latin America

Latin America's Second Wave of Left-Wing Governments Could Be More Powerful Than the First

By Kyla Sankey, Jacobin Magazine [July 2022]

---- Until recently, Latin American commentators were widely reporting on the inevitable "ebbing" of the pink tide. By the mid-2010s, the commodity boom that began in the early 2000s had rapidly gone into decline. The Right had grasped the opportunity to destabilize its opponents through campaigns of sabotage, propaganda, and scandal, and left-wing governments were facing crises on all fronts. Whether through elections (Argentina), "parliamentary coup" (Brazil), "silent coup" (Ecuador), or outright military coup (Bolivia), by the second half of the last decade, the left turn seemed to be giving way to the rise of a new right in the region. For their part, social movements appeared to be in a state of fatigue or, even worse, direct confrontation with left governments, and initially lacked the energy or will to defend them against the right-wing assault. If Lula wins in Brazil, by the end of the year, Latin America's six largest economies will for the first time all be under left-wing rule of one kind or another. It is no small feat, then, that today there is no better place for thinking about alternatives to neoliberalism and authoritarianism than Latin America. Gustavo Petro's historic win in Colombia will likely be joined by Lula's success in Brazil's October presidential election to conclude a cycle of electoral victories for the Left. By the end of the year, for the first time in its history, Latin America's six largest economies — Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru — should all be under left-wing rule of one kind or another. [Read More]

 

The Pink Tide Surges in Latin America

By Roger D. Harris, Dissident Voice [July 12th, 2022]

---- While the political balance between progressive and reactionary states south of the Rio Grande continues to tip to the left, even the corporate press pronounced Biden's June Summit of the Americas meeting in Los Angeles a flop. Most recently, Colombia elected its first left-leaning president, following similar victories in Chile, Peru, and Honduras, which in turn followed Bolivia, Argentina, and Mexico.  And the frontrunner in Brazil's presidential contest slated for October is a leftist. However, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and especially Cuba – countries led by explicitly socialist parties – are critically threatened by US imperialism, subjected to severe sanctions. In short, the geopolitical situation in the Western Hemisphere remains volatile. What does this portend for US hegemony and for socialism? [Read More]

 

The Climate Crisis

Are cities ready for extreme heat?

By John Morales, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [July 18, 2022]

--- Heat is the silent killer. It doesn't roar like the winds in a hurricane or tear roofs off homes like a tornado. But it is deadly, all the same. In the United States, heat kills more people than any other weather hazard. As global warming drives average temperatures higher, dangerously hot episodes can be expected to proliferate. It is extremely unlikely that temperatures could have reached their deadly-hot levels in India without manmade global warming—levels that researchers say were made 30 times more likely by the climate crisis. Some 70,000 dead across Europe in a 2003 heat wave. Up to 56,000 in Russia in 2010. North America's most memorable heat waves in recent years include one in greater Chicago in 1995 that killed at least 700 people, and a "heat dome" event last year that killed hundreds in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. Worldwide, millions that would otherwise succumb to high heat could be saved if countries implemented policies that reduced and stopped the burning of fossil fuels. The United States alone could save 7.4 million souls across the planet if it reached President Biden's goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, a study by the Climate Impact Lab consortium estimates. This doesn't even take into account other climate hazards—just heat. Acting on the climate crisis today at the local, national, and international level can keep millions from morbidity and death. Heat is silent. You don't have to be. [Read More]

 

Israel/Palestine

The Israel Lobby's New Campaign Playbook

By Peter Beinart, Jewish Currents [July 15, 2022]

---- In retrospect, one of the most important elections in recent US history occurred last year in a bright-blue congressional district in northeastern Ohio. The early favorite was Nina Turner, a well-known former state senator and co-chair of Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign. But in February, several months after Turner launched her bid, two fledgling pro-Israel organizations, Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) and Pro-Israel America, endorsed her primary opponent, Cuyahoga County Democratic party chair Shontel Brown, presumably because of Turner's stance on Israel-Palestine. …The template created last year in Ohio—pro-Israel groups spending extraordinary sums of money to defeat progressive candidates—has this year gone national. It has transformed the way Democrats wage congressional primaries and laid bare the financial chasm separating the pro-Israel establishment from its liberal Zionist and pro-Palestinian opponents. But it has also illustrated the interconnections between the effort to preserve unconditional support for Israel and the effort to preserve economic policies favored by corporate power. If the formula born in Ohio succeeds—and so far it is succeeding—it will create a new generation of congressional Democrats unwilling not only to hold the Israeli government accountable for its misdeeds, but unwilling to hold America's energy, health care, and financial industries accountable either. Critics of Israel often complain about the phenomenon known as "progressive except Palestine." What this year's campaigns make clear, however, is that if the Democratic Party isn't progressive on Palestine, it's unlikely to be genuinely progressive on almost anything else. [Read More]

 

Our History

Canons of the Cold War: The Weaponization of Literature

By Luke Beirne, Counterpunch [July 15, 2022]

---- During the Cold War, stemming from propaganda programs of the Second World War, the American State spearheaded a series of literary and cultural programs intended to foster a socio-political environment among European 'intellectuals' that would allow for the widespread perpetuation of liberal-democratic ideology. This produced a system in which culture was explicitly weaponized on a mass-scale by the American State. These operations initially began during the de-Nazification of post-war Germany but, as the Soviet Union began to pose a serious threat to America's European influence, shifted to anti-communism under the pretense of creating a space in which artistic-intellectual activity could exist free from authoritarian interference. During this time, the American State organized and funded conferences, literary magazines, libraries, publishers, writers, and translation programs. It also ran parallel operations targeting art, theatre, cinema, science, and journalism. The culmination of America's Cold War cultural operations was the Congress for Cultural Freedom, which has been described as both the cultural counterpart to the Marshall Plan and as a cultural NATO. The CCF organized, funded, and directed cultural activities and publications in an attempt to establish a global network of sympathetic artists. Whereas the Marshall Plan focused upon economic liberalization, the CCF focused upon intellectual liberalization, establishing what was purported to be an ideology-free zone in which artistic freedom was able to exist. In reality, it was a space in which American State ideology was continuously reproduced, serving to bolster and secure American hegemony. [Read More]