Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
October 1, 2023
Hello All – It's time to end the fighting in Ukraine. Already 500,000 people have been killed or wounded. Our government says it is not time for a ceasefire or negotiations. WE DISAGREE!
Russia is to blame for invading Ukraine. The USA and NATO are to blame for attempting to bring Ukraine into NATO. Russia can end the war by withdrawing its troops. NATO and the USA might have prevented the war by saying that Ukraine would never join NATO. We can't undo the past, but we can work for peace going forward.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine has gained any ground in the war this year. The war has expanded to new areas, and new weapons have killed more people. But the war is now a stalemate. No one will "win." The war is causing great damage in many parts of the world. One result is a food crisis in Africa. Another result is that little attention is paid to our main danger, the near-certainty of climate destruction. The escalation of the war also increases the danger of a nuclear war, by accident or on purpose.
It's time to stop. Our government should speak out FOR negotiations, instead of opposing them. This weekend Code Pink and allied organizations promoted antiwar demonstrations in dozens of US cities and towns. The call for action included several demands that all of us should discuss and consider:
· The war must end now to prevent hundreds of thousands more dead and maimed soldiers and civilians.
· The war must end now to stop the further destruction of Ukraine.
· The war must end now to avert the imminent danger of nuclear war.
· The war must end now if the world is to come together to prevent certain climate catastrophe.
· The war must end now to alleviate the growing impoverishment of working people worldwide, caused by the rising costs of food and energy, further aggravating the food crisis in the Global South.
· The war must end now to stop the billions of our tax dollars diverted from housing, public health, education, public transportation, responding to the climate crisis, and numerous other important needs here at home to pay for the war.
Last week, at the opening of a new session of the UN General Assembly, at least 50 heads of state pleaded for an end to the war in Ukraine, on the basis of both the dreadful slaughter now underway and because of the collateral damage that the war is causing for the rest of the world, not least the Global South. We share in their call: it's time to stop the war. It's time for our government to talk about a ceasefire and negotiations, rather then hold out the illusory promise that somehow a blank check for more money and weapons can make Ukraine whole in response to Russia's criminal invasion.
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 in Yonkers on Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. 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 join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. 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!
The Rewards for stalwart Newsletter readers this week come from the Almanac Singers, formed in the early 1940s by Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and others, and preserved in union halls and Folkways records into the 1950s and 1960s, when I learned the songs and broadened my views of American history. This week they complement the autoworkers' strike and the labor upsurge dawning in America. Whether you have memorized the lyrics or are just hearing them for the first time, enjoy the Almanac Singers and "Talking Union."
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
Featured Essays
Edward in Palestine: Reflections on Edward Said 20 years after his death.
By Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson, The Nation [September 27, 2023]
---- Hard to believe," we kept saying to ourselves as we lived through another troubled (and deadly) year in occupied Palestine: It was hard to believe that it will be 20 years this September since Edward Said died. Like so many of his friends, we could still hear his voice, sometimes angry and hectoring, sometimes humorous—and, so very often, thoughtful, insightful, and surprising. Both of us had met Edward in New York on a number of occasions but it was his visits to Palestine—even after his diagnosis with leukemia in 1991—that we most treasured. … At the time of his death and after, commentators said that Edward sometimes advocated a binational state and sometimes a one-state solution—variations on a theme, perhaps, but distinct in their approach to national rights and self-determination. What Edward was offering us—and continues to offer today, in an ever-worsening time—was not a policy option a project for thinking through and working toward a common future. For him, connection—not partition—was the only way forward. [Read More]
(Video) Fearing Ethnic Cleansing, 90,000 Armenians Flee Nagorno-Karabakh After Azerbaijan Military Blitz
From Democracy Now! [September 29, 2023]
---- The government of Nagorno-Karabakh is dissolving itself after decades of struggle for autonomy from Azerbaijan, just days after Azerbaijani forces carried out a military blitz to seize the breakaway region, which has a majority of ethnic Armenians. More than half the territory's 120,000 people have reportedly fled to Armenia, while thousands more remain without food, shelter and clean drinking water. "Basically, this is ethnic cleansing," says Roubina Margossian, managing editor of EVN Report, an independent media outlet based in Armenia. "This is the victory of a dictatorship over a democracy." [See the Program]
Also illuminating – "Stunningly Sudden End to a Long, Bloody Conflict in the Caucasus," by Andrew Higgins and Ivan Nechepurenko, New York Times [September 27, 2023] [Link]; "How the war in Ukraine helped stoke an Armenian tragedy," by Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post [September 28, 2023] [Link].
The Autoworkers Strike
FB – Putting them together, the essays linked below portray the UAW strike as the catalyst for the greater empowerment of America's 99%. A win for the workers will raise ALL boats and progressive causes, not least the peace & justice movements supported by CFOW. Another 25,000 workers walked out last week, continuing the creative tactics (here and here and here) that have caught the interest of the mass media and the support of three out of four Americans. The strike is part of a strike wave, not seen recently in US labor history. And it continues: Last week the Hollywood writers' union won a smashing victory, and this week the Kaiser Permanente workers approved a three-day strike, setting the stage for the "largest healthcare strike in US history." In this interesting article, former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich argues that "Strikes aren't bad for the US economy. They're the best thing that could happen." These notes conclude with an outstanding speech by NYC's AOC to UAW Local 250: "Solidarity IS the strategy." Read more….]
The UAW Strike Could Spark a Broader Revival of Working-Class Militancy
An interview with Nelson Lichtenstein, Jacobin Magazine [September 2023]
[FB – Nelson Lichtenstein, an historian of the US labor movement, has written many books, among them a biography of UAW founder/leader Walter Reuther, "the most dangerous man in Detroit."]
---- With its ongoing strike against the Big Three, the UAW is attempting to recapture the fighting spirit of its heroic early days. The union's militant approach marks a sharp break with the recent past — and could spark more insurgency across the labor movement. … As everyone from the conservative labor economist on one side to the most militant worker on the other would agree, this is a moment of labor empowerment. One of the issues in this moment, despite this period of favorable conditions for labor, is that companies are remaining intransigent when it comes to union recognition. That's obviously clear with Starbucks and Amazon, but it's also the studios; it's also the automakers. … We may live in a social democratic moment — not a revolutionary moment, but a social democratic moment. Winning is good. Winning begets more winning. I think we're having some of that winning and that creates enthusiasm. [Read More]
The War in Ukraine
CFOW recently joined Code Pink's "Peace in Ukraine" coalition. To learn what the coalition is doing, go here. To learn more about Code Pink, go here. This week the coalition launched the "Global Days of Action for Peace in Ukraine" from Saturday, September 30 through Sunday, October 3rd. To learn more, go here. For a user-friendly "Background on the crisis in Ukraine,"go here. Of great interest, imo, is an article by Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J. S. Davies, published this week by World Beyond War, "Global Leaders Plead for Peace in Ukraine at UN." This week opposition to new funding for Ukraine played a role in the near shut-down of the US government. Also in Congress, 75 Democrats (including "the squad") joined 85 Republicans in voting against the Biden administration's proposal to send more artillery shells loaded with cluster bombs to Ukraine. I believe this is the first bipartisan opposition to a specific weapon system. According to one account: "the administration has also agreed to provide Ukraine with Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) that will be armed with cluster munitions. The provision would be a huge escalation as the ATACMS have a range of up to 190 miles, meaning Ukraine could use them to fire cluster bombs into Russian territory" [Link].
"Who's Gaining Ground in Ukraine? This Year, No One" was the title of a significant article in the New York Times this week. With wonkish data and a detailed map, the article shows that – adding net gains to net losses – the battle front has changed only a tiny fraction during the period of Ukraine's "counter-offensive." The article concludes: "The clock is ticking for Ukraine's counteroffensive to make significant territorial gains. Heavy rains are expected next month, and muddy terrain could prevent the use of heavy vehicles, such as the newly arrived U.S. Abrams tanks and the Challenger tanks supplied by Britain."
Also in the news this week:
This War Wasn't Just Provoked — It Was Provoked Deliberately
By Caitlin Johnstone [September 24, 2023]
---- While we members of the public were blindly speculating about whether or not Russia would attack Ukraine, the US intelligence cartel was fully aware that the US was taking actions ensuring that that would happen. That's the environment the US security state knew it was operating under when it continued to taunt the idea of adding Ukraine and Georgia to NATO right up until the final moments before the invasion. This war wasn't just provoked, it was knowingly provoked. Off ramp after off ramp was sped past by the US war machine at a hundred miles an hour on its beeline toward a horrific proxy war, because empire managers had calculated that such a war would serve US interests. And now we routinely see US officials like Mitch McConnell openly saying that this war serves US interests. They really couldn't be more obvious about it if they tried. [Read More]
A Year of Lying about Nord Stream
By Seymour Hersh [September 26, 2023]
---- The Biden administration blew up the pipelines but the action had little to do with winning or stopping the war in Ukraine. It resulted from fears in the White House that Germany would waver and turn on the flow of Russia gas—and that Germany and then NATO, for economic reasons, would fall under the sway of Russia and its extensive and inexpensive natural resources. And thus followed the ultimate fear: that America would lose its long-standing primacy in Western Europe. [Read More]
War with China?
A useful site for learning about China, and about US-China military tensions, is the Committee for a SANE US-China Policy. Two of their website's sections for "learning more" are "Taiwan, the U.S., & China" [Link] and "China, the U.S., & the war in Ukraine" [Link]. Another useful resource is Code Pink's, "China is not our enemy" campaign. An overview of "official" US policy/strategy towards China was laid out in the 2022 National Defense Strategy, which described China as the "top threat" to the USA, a view reiterated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last Thursday. Many US-China tensions in the South China Sea focus on conflicting claims about national rights to small islands, "reefs" and "schoals," and even to artificial islands constructed by China. Last week the main players were China and the Philippines, with whom the USA has a new military treaty and where the USA is building new bases.
Philippines Wants to Retake Shoal from China in South China Sea
By Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com [September 26, 2023]
---- The Philippines is taking steps to retake Scarborough Shoal, a disputed chain of rocks and reefs in the South China Sea that has been effectively controlled by China since 2012. … Since Marcos came into office last year, tensions between China and the Philippines have significantly escalated. Marcos is moving much closer to the US and signed a deal granting the US military access to four new bases in the Philippines. The US and the Philippines have also increased military exercises and recently conducted a joint patrol in the South China Sea. The US has strongly backed Manila's claims to the South China Sea and has repeatedly warned Beijing that the US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty covers attacks on Philippine vessels in the waters, turning the area into a potential flashpoint for war between the US and China. [Read More] Also useful to understanding the issues and tensions illustrated by the article above are "South China Sea: Beijing hits back at Manila over Scarborough Shoal barrier 'farce'," by Laura Zhou, South China Morning Post [September 27, 2023] [Link]; "Tensions With China Cross a New Line in the South China Sea," by Sui-Lee Wee, New York Times [September 26, 2023] [Link]; and "U.S. Claims to Central Pacific Flout International Law," by Edward Hunt, Foreign Policy in Focus [September 18, 2023] [Link].
The Climate Crisis
How Long Can America's Climate Hypocrisy Last?
By David Wallace-Wells, New York Times Sept. 27, 2023
---- After years focused on climate awareness and the provision of renewable energy, more and more of those concerned about warming are arguing that genuinely pursuing global goals means turning to the problem of fossil fuel supply. Last week, New York's Climate Week effectively opened with what was called a March to End Fossil Fuels — a much more pointed formulation than has framed similar climate marches in the past. … Christiana Figueres, the former United Nations climate chief, declared that she'd given up on working with the fossil fuel industry on decarbonization and that they should be excluded from future climate conferences. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the industry "the polluted heart of the climate crisis." In July, Al Gore delivered a fiery TED Talk asking, of the oil and gas business, "Do you take us for fools?" [Read More]
The State of the Union
Why Can't We Stop Unauthorized Immigration? Because It Works.
By Marcela Valdes, New York Times Magazine [October 1, 2023]
---- American consumers benefit from these systems every time they find exceptionally inexpensive ways to get their lawns cut, their bathrooms cleaned, their houses built, their apples picked, their nails painted and their young and old cared for. The prices we pay for these services have been subsidized for generations by transnational migrants. In the United States, versions of these economic dynamics have always been in play, but what has changed over the past 100 years is the way that immigration policy has created a permanent class of disenfranchised "illegal" workers. … The only immigration policies that Congress can bring itself to enact, it seems, are funding more border security and ICE raids. But these actions alone will never fix America's immigration problems. No matter what anyone says on Capitol Hill, migrants know that if they can just make it inside the United States, they will find relative safety — and plenty of work. [Read More]
Israel/Palestine
When will Israel seek forgiveness for its crimes against Palestinians?
By Gideon Levy, Middle East Eye [September 26, 2023]
---- These lines are being written in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. … The broader religious and traditional meaning of Yom Kippur and the days leading up to it are always a time of soul-searching, and above all a time when we seek forgiveness for sins we have committed. … It has never occurred to Israel to ask for the most significant forgiveness of all the kinds it ought to be seeking: that is, asking forgiveness from the Palestinian people. Israel has never asked forgiveness for its sins towards the Palestinians committed in 1948, nor for those committed against them continuously since 1948, nor even for the sins it has committed against them during this past year, as demanded by Jewish law and tradition every year. [Read More]
Our History
This Nation Owes a Debt to the Vietnam Veterans against the War
By Camillo Mac Bica, Vietnam Veterans Against the War [September 27, 2023]
---- The VVAW took the lead in influencing, orchestrating, and augmenting opposition to the Vietnam War that eventually contributed to bringing it to its ignominious conclusion.Veterans have and continue to play, an important role in instigating social and political change in this country. … Soldiers coming home from war joined VVAW members in speaking out through their poetry, short stories, novels, memoirs, and testimony to Congress and the American people about their experiences in war and afterward. Their intention was to educate the public about the horrific battlefield conditions they experienced while fighting America's war in Vietnam, the nightmarish atrocities against innocent civilians that in many cases they may have committed, and the lack of care and horrendous conditions they suffered at Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals upon their return home. Beset with grief and shame about what they did in the war and incensed about how they were treated upon their return, the veterans felt betrayed and abandoned by the government that sent them to war. [Read More]
Remembering Ngô Vĩnh Long, Renowned Scholar of Vietnam and Antiwar Activist
By An Thùy Nguyễn and Douglas Allen, Critical Asian Studies [January 2023]
---- Internationally renowned historian and antiwar activist Ngô Vĩnh Long died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Bangor, Maine on October 12, 2022, at the age of seventy-eight. Dr. Long was a leading scholar of the Vietnam/Indochina War and of the history of Vietnam from ancient times through French colonialism and US neocolonialism, postwar Vietnam, US-Vietnam relations, and Southeast and East Asia, especially China. From his undergraduate years at Harvard until the end of his life, Ngô Vĩnh Long was a courageous intellectual activist and an activist intellectual. He often described himself as a proud Vietnamese patriot who cared deeply about Vietnam, its past, and its suffering, as well as about the United States, his second home. Even in the darkest of times, he maintained his vision and hope for a much better Vietnam, a more egalitarian US, and much better US-Vietnam relations. [Read More]
