Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
September 18, 2022
Hello All – Wednesday, September 21st, is the International Day of Peace. Established by the United Nations in 1981, the UN resolution mandates "a day of global ceasefire and non-violence," a day for "commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples."
There is more to peace and peace-making than just the absence of war. Each year, therefore, the International Day of Peace highlights an aspect of peace-building that is essential to making a true culture of peace. This year the theme is "End Racism, Build Peace." This theme underscores that not only is ending racism a righteous thing in itself, but that the enduring presence of racism throughout the world is an obstacle to building a culture of peace. If we want peace, we must work for justice as well.
Where do we begin? It is logical that to work for peace, we start with ourselves, our communities, and our country. We put our effort into things that we can hope to change, because we are citizens, voters, activists. Yet Americans have a unique responsibility for crafting an enduring peace, in that our nation's influence stretches over so much of the work. Alone as a military superpower, our country has a military budget of a trillion dollars, with more than 800 military bases around the world. Our armed forces, at any moment, are engaged in military conflicts in dozens of countries, as combatants or "advisers." Additionally, as possessor of a large nuclear arsenal, the United States has the power, on purpose or by "accident," of ending human civilization. Thus, while we are acting locally, we are thinking globally, striving to guide the US role in the world toward peace and away from war. This is a job for everyone; please lend a hand.
News Notes
We don't hear much about Guam, one of the few remaining US colonies. For that reason I found this Democracy Now! interview with Guam author Julian Aguon especially interesting. With the US "pivot to China," and the transfer of thousands of US troops from Okinawa to Guam, the island is on the front lines of possible war. Aguon describes the US militarization of Guam as "Nothing less than cataclysmic." [See the Program]
A New York Times investigation found that dozens of congressional representatives in both parties had bought and/or sold many stocks over the past year, a great share of which concerned companies related to their congressional oversight. Not surprisingly, this was especially true for congressional reps (and their families) whose duties included making "national security" policy. Read all about this here.
It is now clear that Israel will not admit to deliberately shooting Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, a US-Palestinian citizen, and that the United States government will not make any independent investigation, in effect rubber-stamping Israel's stonewalling. The US stance was challenged this week by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, whose "Leahy Law" of many years standing requires the USA to cut off aid to countries that are human rights violators. Will the US/Congress enforce the law in this case? Read more 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. Another Facebook page focuses on the climate crisis. 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 Newsletter was composed with the assistance of music from my favs, the New Orleans jazz band Tuba Skinny. While CFOW stalwarts were saving the world despite the summer heat, Tuba Skinny was off on tour in Perugia, Italy. Here are some nice tunes from their concerts there: Six Feet Down; Cold water shout; and Running down my man. Lots more on line. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
Featured Essays
On the Shambles of the American Health Care System and the Need for Medicare-for-All
Sen.
---- I understand that there is a lot that is going on in this world today. We're worried about climate change. We're worried about the terrible war in Ukraine. We're worried about inflation and the fact that wages are not keeping up with prices. We're worried about massive income and wealth inequality and the increased concentration of ownership that we see in our country – among many other things. But the American people remain deeply concerned about an issue that by definition touches every single one of us – and that is our collapsing and dysfunctional healthcare system. While it is not discussed much in the corporate media or here in the halls of Congress, we have today in the United States the most inefficient, bureaucratic and expensive health care system in the world. That's not just what I believe. That's what the American people know to be true because of their lived experience with that system. … The American people increasingly understand, as I do, that health care is a human right, not a privilege and that we must end the international embarrassment of the United States being the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all of its citizens. Again, that is not just Bernie Sanders talking. That is what the overwhelming majority of the American people believe. [Read More]
How Russian Trolls Helped Keep the Women's March Out of Lock Step
---- Linda Sarsour awoke on Jan. 23, 2017, logged onto the internet, and felt sick. The weekend before, she had stood in Washington at the head of the Women's March, a mobilization against President Donald J. Trump that surpassed all expectations. Crowds had begun forming before dawn, and by the time she climbed up onto the stage, they extended farther than the eye could see. More than four million people around the United States had taken part, experts later estimated, placing it among the largest single-day protests in the nation's history. But then something shifted, seemingly overnight. What she saw on Twitter that Monday was a torrent of focused grievance that targeted her. In 15 years as an activist, largely advocating for the rights of Muslims, she had faced pushback, but this was of a different magnitude. A question began to form in her mind: Do they really hate me that much? That morning, there were things going on that Ms. Sarsour could not imagine. More than 4,000 miles away, organizations linked to the Russian government had assigned teams to the Women's March. At desks in bland offices in St. Petersburg, using models derived from advertising and public relations, copywriters were testing out social media messages critical of the Women's March movement, adopting the personas of fictional Americans. They posted as Black women critical of white feminism, conservative women who felt excluded, and men who mocked participants as hairy-legged whiners. But one message performed better with audiences than any other. It singled out an element of the Women's March that might, at first, have seemed like a detail: Among its four co-chairs was Ms. Sarsour, a Palestinian American activist whose hijab marked her as an observant Muslim. [Read More]
King Charles III May Keep His Head—His Kingdom Is Another Story
By Tariq Ali, The Nation [September 14, 2022]
---- On September 9, 2022, Charles III became king after a long reign by his mother. He had been waiting impatiently for some time, hoping his aging parent would follow Juliana's example in Holland and retire, but it was not to be. Charles's reign can't be too long, but the current state of Britain and the monarchy invite some questions. The most important of these is whether the monarchy can survive if the United Kingdom breaks up and Scotland decides to leave the UK and join the EU. For the first time, opinion polls in Scotland are revealing that 49 percent of Scots favor independence. Another few years of Conservative rule and this could easily become 50-plus percent. A majority vote to exit if there were a new referendum would force a rethink in England and perhaps even compel its rulers and politicians to move in the direction of a written constitution. Why did the country that first established the tradition of successful revolutions and executing their hereditary rulers cling for so long to the monarchy, adapting and using it at different times to satisfy the same basic needs: maintaining a stabilization of the ruling class and an organic embrace for all its institutions, including the Labour Party and the trade unions? [Read More]
War & Peace
Anti-War Voices Warn US Bill on Taiwan 'Will Make War Much More Likely'
---- A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday approved a bill to dramatically boost American military support for Taiwan, a move that prompted warnings from both China and anti-war voices in the United States that such a policy increases the likelihood of armed conflict. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 17-5 in favor of the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022, which according to its text "promotes the security of Taiwan, ensures regional stability, and deters People's Republic of China (PRC) aggression against Taiwan. It also threatens severe sanctions against the PRC for hostile action against Taiwan." The bill comes during a period of heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing and follows US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) provocative trip to Taiwan last month, a visit the Chinese government answered by suspending climate and military cooperation with the United States and forging closer ties with Russia. [Read More]
(Video) "In the Shadow of Invasion": Artist Molly Crabapple & Ukrainian Journalist Anna Grechishkina Document Ukraine War
From Democracy Now! [September 15, 2022]
---- Ukraine has accused Russia of bombing a dam in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih — where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was born — forcing evacuation in parts of the city due to flooding. The bombing is the latest Russian attack on civilian infrastructure since Ukrainian forces recaptured over 3,000 square miles of territory from Russia during a counteroffensive this past week. For more, we speak with New York-based artist and author Molly Crabapple, who just published a series of sketches documenting her recent travels across Ukraine alongside Ukrainian journalist and motorcyclist Anna Grechishkina. "I wanted to see with my own eyes how Ukrainians were writing and defining their own future," says Crabapple. Her new piece is titled "In the Shadow of Invasion." [See the Program]
U.S. to Release Stolen Afghan Central Bank Funds to Swiss Bank
By Ryan Grim, The Intercept [
---- The United States is preparing to announce the release of a significant portion of seized Afghan central bank funds after months of silence. The funds will be transferred to the Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, and the U.S. will set up a trusteeship to oversee the disbursement of the money for the purposes of both monetary policy and humanitarian aid. The plan will continue to bypass the Afghan central bank, undermining one of the few institutions established by the United States during the occupation that remains independently operating. Humanitarian and economic experts have said the central bank — which operates independently of the Afghan central government in the same way as the U.S. Federal Reserve — is best suited to the task of stabilizing Afghanistan's economy and easing the humanitarian crisis. … After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the U.S. seized $7 billion of foreign currency reserves from Da Afghanistan Bank and directed European allies to seize another $2 billion stored there. Without reserve currency to stabilize prices and balance exports and imports, the Afghan economy went berserk, with prices skyrocketing, the currency collapsing, and imports halting. Personal bank accounts were frozen, and paychecks for most workers stopped cold. The result has been a dystopian scenario: Widespread famine touching more than 90 percent of the population, even as food supplies remained plentiful. More than 1 million Afghans have fled the country because of these conditions. [Read More]
The Climate Crisis
Why Resolving Democrats' Internal War on Climate Policy Will Be Hard
[FB – Six years ago Westchester stalwarts learned all about "permitting reform" in an unsuccessful effort to stop the dangerous Spectra high-pressure gas pipeline from being built a stone's thrown from the Indian Point nuclear plant. Now this issue is in Congress.]
---- Last month, Senator Chuck Schumer struck a deal. Now the majority leader seems determined to see it through, despite ever more Democrats expressing their skepticism. The broad outlines of the bargain reached principally between Schumer, as Senate majority leader, and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin was this: In exchange for Manchin's vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which contained numerous Democratic climate priorities, Schumer would put something called permitting reform into the continuing resolution, or C.R., that needs to pass to keep funding the federal government after the end of the month. In essence, permitting reform means streamlining the process by which new energy infrastructure—clean or otherwise—gets approved at the federal level. … Climate activists, as well as progressives in the House and Senate, are now in open revolt. Seventy-seven Democrats, including several committee chairs, have signed a letter led by Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl M. Grijalva proposing to excise permitting reform from the continuing resolution. The letter reportedly came as a surprise to Democratic leaders. The signatories extend well beyond The Squad, including a number of New Democrats seemingly aggravated by Schumer taking their votes for granted. [Read More]
The State of the Union
(Video) "30 Years in the Making": U.S. Rail Strike Averted by Tentative Deal as Workers Decry Grueling Conditions
From Democracy Now! [September 15, 2022]
---- Railroad workers have reached a new tentative union contract with rail companies, averting a potential strike set to start on Friday that could have shut down rail service across the United States. The deal, which has yet to be released in writing and ratified by union members, is said to grant one paid sick day to workers, allow workers to attend medical appointments without being subject to attendance policies, and give a "semblance of a schedule" to rail workers, who are currently on call to work 24/7. Locomotive engineer Ron Kaminkow, the organizer for Railroad Workers United, says the railway crisis is "30 years in the making," and describes how resentment has grown among workers as rail company executives slash resources for their employees while raking in record profits. [See the Program] I expect that the websites Railroad Workers United and Labor Notes will be the places to keep up-to-date with the perspectives of rank-and-file workers in the coming days. Also useful for some background on railroad work and the conditions that led to the stand-off with the railroad companies are "The Federal Government Is Trying to Stop Railroad Workers From Striking," by Joe Burns, Jacobin Magazine [September 2022] [Link]; and "The Looming Rail Strike Was Years in the Making," by Noah Lenard, Mother Jones [September 14, 2022] [Link].
The Trump Judges Are Officially Running the Show
By Elie Mystal, The Nation [September 2022]
---- Trump has finally found a judge who will do what he expects: rule on his behalf despite all relevant law, logic, and precedent. On September 5, US District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, nominated by Trump and confirmed nine days after the election he lost, ordered the federal government to stop investigating the former president for hanging on to classified documents and potentially violating the Espionage Act until a special master can review the documents. Her excuse? The special master is necessary to make sure that none of the documents are protected by attorney-client or executive privilege. … Trump can assert no claim of executive privilege, because he is no longer the chief executive—Joe Biden is. But even if Trump could assert executive privilege, he has no privilege over documents that belong to the US government and cover sensitive defense information and intelligence. Moreover, even if he did have some kind of heretofore unknown executive privilege over these documents because he splattered them with Big Mac sauce, he's not entitled to steal them and keep them in his home. They belong in the National Archives, not Trump's beach club. [Read More[
Israel/Palestine
(Video) Ariel Koren on Google's Relationship with the Israeli Military
An interview with Peter Beinart [September 9, 2022]
---- On September 9, Peter hosted an online discussion entitled, "Ariel Koren on Google's Relationship with the Israeli Military." He was joined by special guest Ariel Koren, who recently quit her job at Google after claiming the company retaliated against her for opposing Google's growing partnership with the Israeli military. There aren't many people who can explain, from the inside, how high-tech companies approach human rights, and there aren't many people in any industry who jeopardize their careers over issues of conscience—Ariel is among the few. [See the Interview]
Our History
Ten Years Ago, Chicago Teachers Gave Us All a Jolt of Hope
By Alexandra Bradbury, Editor of Labor Notes [September 2022]
---- The Chicago Teachers Union's 2012 strike didn't just put the union on the map; it gave a jolt of hope to the whole labor movement. When they started, their union had problems common to local unions across the U.S.: uninspiring leaders, inactive members, too few stewards, a heavy-handed employer, no strikes in recent memory, a general sense of passivity and hopelessness. Yet just a few years later, 27,000 teachers in the nation's third-largest district struck for a week and a half under the slogan "Fighting for the Schools Chicago's Students Deserve," rallying the public to their side and beating back a powerful mayor. … These activists who formed the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) inside CTU succeeded because they trusted their fellow members and put getting members moving at the heart of their organizing. They didn't shy away from telling hard truths, like that Chicago schools were systematically shortchanging Black and Latino students. They set their sights high and built to a strike, even when the legal hurdles were supposed to make that impossible. Ten years later, CTU remains one of the guiding lights of our movement, but it's no longer so alone. [Read More] And for an assessment of the lessons of the Chicago teachers' experience for unions today, read "Rail Workers, Nurses, Teachers Are Fighting From the Bottom Up," by Jane McAlevey, The Nation [September 15, 2022] [Link].
