Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
November 27, 2022
Hello All – Something important is happening in Iran. The rising up of millions of people, especially young people and people in Kurdish areas, has not happened since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. This is a national uprising, not isolated in university neighborhoods or middle class areas, as was the Green Revolution of 2009. Some 400 insurgents have been killed in 25 of the country's 30 states. According to the UN Human Rights Council, more than 14,000 people, many of them children, have been arrested at the protests. Several dozen of those arrested face the death penalty, and it appears that Iran will soon execute some people, "to discourage the others." The Iranian leadership is now threatening to escalate repression.
The uprising in Iran comes at a time when it appears that the Biden administration has abandoned any interest in restoring the Iran Nuclear Agreement, negotiated by President Obama in 2015 and broken off by President Trump in 2018. There are also political points to be made about Russia's use in Ukraine of drones made in Iran. And so there is little cost to the Biden people to profess support for the uprising in Iran, as Biden promised to "make Iran free" shortly before the recent election.
Indeed, we are once again at a place where the US leadership promises support for dissenters and protesters in an official enemy nation. These expressions of support do not mean that the Biden administration will take action to benefit the protesters. Rather the goal will be to weaken the Iranian state, a bi-partisan project since the 1979. Since then, our government has placed hundreds of sanctions on Iran for a great many things, including several sets of sanctions on Iranian officials identified as human-rights violators during the current uprising. We should be skeptical about US statements in support of the Iranian revolution, and loudly oppose congressional efforts to apply new sanctions to Iran, which will only injure the "ordinary people" who are trying to free themselves though revolt.
Some useful/insightful reading on the revolution rising in Iran
(Video) Defiance in Iran: Despite Crackdown, Anti-Government Protests May Grow into "Nationwide Revolution"
From Democracy Now! [November 23, 2022]
---- The situation in Iran is "critical" as authorities tighten their crackdown on the continuing anti-government protests after the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the so-called morality police. United Nations human rights officials report Iranian security forces in Kurdish cities killed dozens of protesters this week alone, with each funeral turning into a mass rally against the central government. "The defiance has been astounding," says Middle East studies professor Nahid Siamdoust, who reported for years from Iran, including during the 2009 Green Movement, and calls the protests a "nationwide revolution." [See the Program]
Also of interest – "US Sanctions on Iran Don't Support the Protests, They Deepen Suffering," an interview with Noam Chomsky, ZNet [November 24, 2022] [Link]; "For Iranian Women, the Uprising Was a Long Time Coming," by Kiana Karimi, The Nation [October 27, 2022] [Link];; and "How the Islamic Revolution Gave Rise to a Massive Women's Movement in Iran," by
News Notes
For people with Other Things to Do, it's hard to follow the in-the-weeds details about what the Hastings Board of Education, or similar entities, are doing with our children and our tax money. Last week Julien Amsellem, the editor of the Hastings High School newspaper "The Buzzer," published an outstanding article on the big raises received by school administrators and the tiny raises received by actual teachers, and how the real & likely impact of the official disrespect for actual teaching affects students. To read this, go here.
Basketball star Brittney Griner remains locked in the Russia prison system with a 9-years' sentence of having a vape cartridge in her airport luggage. She has been transferred to a prison colony in Mordovia, 250 miles southeast of Moscow. Not much noise from the world of professional sports or Congress: if she were white or male, would people care more? For an update on her situation and what the chances are of her being released in a prisoner exchange, go here.
After months of delay, the US Dept. of Justice has opened an investigation into the killing, last May, of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli sniper. It is possible, though not likely, that the investigation could lead to an attempt to enforce the US Leahy Law, which would cut of US funds to the Israeli military for a "gross violation of human rights." For some useful details on the prospects for this investigation, go 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 (winter schedule) on the first Monday of each month, starting with December 5th, 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. (And for Susan Rutman's video of October 2022 in Vermont, 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 Rewards for stalwart readers are in appreciation of the music of the amazing Rhiannon Giddens. First up, something from her early music: Carolina Chocolate Drops: Southern Voices. I especially like her appreciation of the connections between songs and history: check out the powerful "Julie." And, finally, here is a moving rendition of the civil rights anthem, "I Shall Not Be Moved." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
Featured Essays
(Video) Family of British-Egyptian Political Prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah on Their Struggle for His Freedom
From Democracy Now! [November 22, 2022]
---- In a wide-ranging interview recorded in Cairo, we speak with Laila Soueif and Sanaa Seif, the mother and sister of British-Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah, about his health, his case, his family and his hopes for freedom. After visiting him in prison, they describe how El-Fattah started a water strike on the first day of the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh to draw international attention to the country's human rights violations and protest his seemingly indefinite imprisonment. He paused after collapsing and suffering a "near-death experience" when prison officials appeared reluctant to record his full water and hunger strike. Seif says they set a date to restart his hunger strike, once he regains physical and mental strength. [See the Program]
'The US can still become a fascist country': Frances Fox Piven's midterms postmortem
By Ed Pilkington, The Guardian [UK] [November 24, 2022]
---- Frances Fox Piven has a warning for America. Don't get too relaxed, there could be worse to come. "I don't think this fight over elemental democracy is over, by any means," she said. "The United States was well on the road to becoming a fascist country – and it still can become a fascist country." … While many observers have breathed a sigh of relief over the rout of extreme election deniers endorsed by Trump, and his seemingly deflated campaign launch, Piven has a more sombre analysis. All the main elements are now in place, she said, for America to take a turn to the dark side. Now, with the Republicans having taken the House of Representatives, she foresees ugly times ahead. … How does America look today perceived through the lens of her years? "I do think that the only way to live is to live in politics. To me, it's an almost life-transforming experience – to be part of the local struggle. Even a dangerous struggle. You make friends that never go away. You see people in their nobility, and you find your own nobility as well. I would not trade my life for anything." [Read More]
Maya Lin's Vietnam memorial blazed a path in 1982, but no one followed
By Philip Kennicott, Washington Post [November 16, 2022]
---- Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which opened 40 years ago this month, changed everything and nothing about how we understand memorials. Its list of soldiers lost in the war, more than 58,000 names carved into black granite, foregrounded not the valor of combat, but the toll of it. Its simplicity and abstraction, just two long walls set at an angle in the earth, broke with centuries of established memorial architecture. Its refusal to editorialize on a war that was deeply unpopular at home and destructive to millions of innocent people in Southeast Asia was a radical departure from the standard cant about noble causes that had defined war memorials for centuries. [Read More]
War & Peace
How Terror Came Home and What to Make of It: My 10 Years as a Military Spouse in America's Post-9/11 World
By
---- Recently, an agent of the Department of Homeland Security called me and started asking questions about a childhood acquaintance being investigated for extremism. I put him off. My feelings about this were, to say the least, complex. As a military spouse of 10 years and someone who has long written about governmental abuses of power, I wanted to cooperate with efforts to root out hate. However, I also feared that my involvement might spark some kind of retaliation. … Indeed, the American version of the twenty-first century, marked by our government's devastating decision to respond to the September 11, 2001, attacks with a Global War on Terror — first in Afghanistan, then Iraq, and then in other countries across the Middle East — has had its grim effects at home as well. It's caused us to turn on one another in confusing ways. After all, terror isn't a place or a people. You can't eradicate it with your military. Instead, as we learned over the last couple of decades, you end up turning those you don't like into enemies in the bloodiest of counterinsurgency wars. [Read More]
It's Time to Cut Off Arms Sales to the Saudi Regime
By William D. Hartung and Annelle Sheline, The Nation [November 25, 2022]
---- Saudi Arabia's conduct should still spur Congress to take action to reevaluate the US-Saudi partnership. Of particular importance: pressure to end Saudi Arabia's involvement in the brutal war in Yemen, which has continued for over seven years at the cost of nearly 400,000 lives. Following the recent expiration of the UN-brokered truce, Saudi Arabia could decide to restart air strikes, which it conducts with US assistance. A War Powers Resolution focused on ending unauthorized US military support for Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen would both have privileged status and require prompt congressional action. It is the best way forward if the goal is to call Saudi Arabia to account. A War Powers Resolution is waiting to be brought to the floor, with the support of well over 100 members of Congress from both houses and parties. However, these cosponsorships will disappear once the 118th Congress convenes: The time for congressional action is now. [Read More] [FB – Both Reps. Bowman and Jones became co-sponsors of this War Powers Resolution in May 2022].
Missiles for Poland Raise Questions on NATO Stance in Ukraine War
November 23, 2022]
---- When a missile slammed into a Polish village just a few miles from Ukraine last week and killed two local residents, fears surged that Russia had attacked a NATO country and threatened a global conflagration — until it turned out that it was probably a wayward Ukrainian air defense missile that had fallen into Poland by accident. Just how risky the situation remains, however, was put into focus this week when Poland announced that it had accepted a German offer of Patriot air defense systems and would deploy them "near the border" with Ukraine. Poland, like the United States, has provided steadfast support to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February, supplying weapons and unwavering diplomatic backing, but it has no desire to get into a war with Moscow. Still, even though the new missiles from Germany will not be fully operational for years, by which time the war in Ukraine may well be over, Poland's plans to deploy them close to the conflict zone signals growing worries that its own security may be at risk, and that the war next door could spread, by accident or by design. [Read More]
The Climate Crisis
Climate Change Should Have Dominated the Midterms. It Didn't.
By Tom Engelhardt, The Nation [November 25, 2022]
---- In case you hadn't noticed, for example, there was one issue that couldn't loom more ominously in this all-American world of ours, that couldn't be more crucial to our future lives, and that was missing in action during this election season. I'm thinking, of course, about climate change, the ominous overheating of this planet thanks to the greenhouse gasses that continue to spew into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. This very year, it looks as if fossil-fuel emissions will once again rise to record levels. … Whether we truly know it or not, whether we accept it or not, whether we paid the slightest attention to COP27, the recent UN climate meeting in Egypt, or not, trust me on one thing: The perilous heating of this planet is the topic that will, sooner or later, leave all others in the dust. New cold wars and hot wars will make no sense whatsoever in such a future. After all, we're now on a tipping-point planet. Or rather, let me put it this way: Either attention to climate change will leave all else in the dust, or climate change itself will leave us all in the dust, and how truly sad that would be! [Read More]
After Failures of COP27, only a Radical Effort to Slash CO2 can keep Climate from Going Chaotic
By Peter Schlosser, Arizona State University [November 23, 2022]
---- Since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015, countries have made some progress in their pledges to reduce emissions, but at a pace that is way too slow to keep warming below 1.5 C. Carbon dioxide emissions are still rising, as are carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. A recent report by the United Nations Environment Program highlights the shortfalls. The world is on track to produce 58 gigatons of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 – more than twice where it should be for the path to 1.5 C. The result would be an average global temperature increase of 2.7 C (4.9 F) in this century, nearly double the 1.5 C target. Given the gap between countries' actual commitments and the emissions cuts required to keep temperatures to 1.5 C, it appears practically impossible to stay within the 1.5 C goal. [Read More]
The State of the Union
[FB] – It's Not Your Grandfather's Working Class Anymore – In the last few decades the nature of "work" and the shaping of the world's working class has changed dramatically. In the USA, de-industrialization and the loss of manufacturing jobs, so destructive to the working class and the unions it built, has been replaced by a working class largely based in service work (e.g. clerical and nurses and teachers), and by the millions of workers anchored to the new digital economy. Tightly controlled for years, this new working class is standing up. Last Friday, for example, Amazon workers in 35 countries struck for higher wages and the right to unionize. On November 17th, Starbucks workers at 112 stores (including 7 in NYC) began strike action. Colleges and universities, which for decades have cut teaching costs while bloating administration, is another sector of action. On November 16th, and after months of negotiation, hundreds of part-time faculty at the New School in NYC went on strike, while on November 14th, 48,000 academic workers at the University of California went on strike, making it the largest strike in the nation this year. Inequality, inflation, and deteriorating working conditions are forcing workers to unite and act in self-defense. And just so we don't forget, the demands of thousands of railroad workers, whose strike was put on hold in October, face a new strike deadline of December 8th. Will Congress force the railway workers back to work? Will everything then be OK? We shall see.
Israel Palestine
It's Not Antisemitic to Oppose Israel's Apartheid Rule Over the Palestinians
By
---- For the last two decades, pro-Israel advocacy groups have been promoting a propagandistic definition of "antisemitism," now known as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition. Their manifest purpose is to stigmatize and stifle legitimate, accurate criticism of Israel. A concerted effort is currently underway to foist this text on the United Nations. We should firmly resist this effort. The IHRA definition is worthless as a weapon in the struggle against antisemitism, but it can be used — and has been used — to silence Palestinians and those who defend their rights. …. The adoption of this partisan definition by the UN would be a disaster for Israel's Palestinian victims, the integrity of international law, and the many Jews in Israel and the diaspora who have courageously fought to hold Israel to a single, universal human rights standard. [Read More]
Why My Organization Has Chosen to Defy Israeli Military Orders
By Shawan Jabarin, Director of Al-Haq [November 21, 2022]
---- Early on the morning on August 18, 2022, the Israeli army raided seven prominent Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations in occupied Ramallah, damaging property and confiscating files and equipment. The army welded the doors of these organizations shut and affixed military orders demanding their closure. Al-Haq was one of those raided; I am the general director. Following the raids, I was summoned for interrogation by Israeli intelligence officers and threatened with imprisonment and other measures should our organization continue operating. These raids, closures, and threats of imprisonment followed the unilateral and illegal designation by Israel of six leading Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations as "terrorist" organizations in October 2021. They are the result of the one year of inaction by the international community, which has not challenged Israel enough to rescind the designations. For the Palestinian people, this international inaction is all too familiar after seven long decades of Israeli impunity and apartheid. [Read MOre]
Our History
Staughton Lynd's Radicalism From Below
By Marcus Rediker, The Nation [November 23, 2022]
---- When Staughton Lynd, Tom Hayden, and Herbert Aptheker traveled to Hanoi to declare peace with the Vietnamese people in 1965, they stopped off in Paris to meet several North Vietnamese officials. After a long discussion, a small, elderly Vietnamese man pulled Staughton aside and said to him, "Professor Lynd, you need to understand that we are going to win this war whether you help us or not. For every soldier killed by the United States military, two will join the National Liberation Front." Staughton enjoyed telling this story about someone who had knocked him off his savior's horse and put him in his place with only two sentences. Staughton would add, recalling the story: "That's the kind of dialectical thinker I would like to become." The last line was pure Staughton. He was always becoming, always changing, always seeking as the times and the movements from below changed. Staughton sought out the unity among various struggles from below. He campaigned against the Cold War and its nuclear obsession, against white supremacy, against American imperialism, against the closure of steel plants in Youngstown and Pittsburgh, against capital punishment and the prison-industrial complex, against capitalism and its oppression of workers. He believed with all his heart that the major political task of our time was to build a movement culture that would, as he put it, "connect the dots." It would be hard to find a radical thinker who made significant contributions to so many different movements from below. [Read More] Also very interesting is "An Historian in History: Staughton Lynd (1929-2022)," b [Link]. The very good New York Times obituary of Lynd is rescued from its pay wall here.
