Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
January 8, 2019
Hello All – When President Trump announced last month that US troops would be leaving Syria, and that half of the 14,000 soldiers in Afghanistan would also be withdrawn, we celebrated this as good news. While supported by about half of the US population, however, these moves by the president drew heavy fire from most of Congress and the mainstream media, and his Secretary of Defense resigned in protest. In the ensuing weeks, it appears that President Trump has been both out-maneuvered and simply disobeyed, and the troop withdrawal now appears unlikely in the near term.
While this is not surprising, given the chaos of the Trump team's decision making, I think the important thing to notice is that the justification given by National Security Adviser John Bolten and other administration deep thinkers is that one of the purposes of US troops in Syria is to combat Iran's presence and influence in Syria. While ISIS no remains much of a combat force, and the wish to overthrow Syria's President Assad seems more and more to be just a fantasy, the presence of Iran in Syria gives a semi-justification for remaining in Iran that has the support of Trump and the Republicans, and many congressional Democrats.
Because Iranian forces, being allied with President Assad, have some legitimacy for remaining in Syria, and because they are given some protection by Russian forces there, the efforts of the United States – or Israel, for that matter – to dislodge the Iranians risks a major war. And needless to say, many in both the United States and Israel would welcome that … if it were not for the danger of conflict with Russia and perhaps nuclear war.
The chaos of the Trump administration – with the loss of the House to the Democrats, the schism with the Pentagon, the fragility of the financial system, and now the government shutdown – makes this a moment in which a Wag-the-Dog war seems possible. With little anti-war opposition in Congress and virtually none in the mainstream media, the Good Ship USA may soon be taking on water. Those working for peace and justice may have full employment very soon.
The Senate's anti-BDS Legislation
The legislation is called "S-1," Senate business numero uno as the new legislative session starts. And it is somewhat amazing, and certainly attention-getting, that the first thing the Republican-run Senate wants to do is to pass a law to fight the growing movement called "Boycott, Divest, and Sanction," or "BDS."
As I understand it, the goal of the anti-BDS supporters in the Senate was to include the proposed law in a much larger package, such as December's congressional spending bill that failed to pass and thus shut down the government. And so now the proposed law is in the dazzling sunlight, giving Congress their first opportunity/occasion to debate why they think that Americans should be penalized for expressing opposition to Israel and urging a boycott of products (made in the Occupied Territories or not), or of corporations whose products facilitate the Occupation, or (for some) of travel to Israel, boycotting of conferences and concerts, etc.
"The Right to Boycott" is generally conceded to be well established in US law. The ACLU and similar legal organizations, as well as B. Sanders and others in Congress, have said that, whatever you think of Israel or BDS agitation, it's protected by the Constitution as "free speech." Legal arguments, and the state of play in the 26 states that already have laws or executive orders penalizing BDS activities (including New York), are helpfully explained at the website of Palestine Legal. A useful round-up of opinion from many organizations and writers was published yesterday by Mondoweiss. A good analysis of S-1 was published a few days ago on The Intercept. [Link]. As of this evening, at least 17 Democratic Senators say they will not vote for the Bill as long as the government is shut-down; and this includes Schumer and some others who are supportive of the anti-BDS legislation.
It is almost surreal that legislation clearly intended to stop "free speech" on behalf of the interests of another country should insert itself into the middle of a serious crisis of government and legitimacy. But that's the state of the USA today.
News Notes
This afternoon in Cortlandt the town judge found three pipeline opponents "guilty" of trespass for their attempts to stop the construction of the Spectra pipeline (next to Indian Point) in October 2016. However, the defendants were given an "unconditional discharge," as the judge rejected the demands of the town prosecutor that they be given a heavy fine and mandated to perform 300 hours of community service. The case was notable because the judge allowed the defendants to present the "necessity" defense, meaning that their action was not a crime because they acted to prevent a greater harm, i.e. a potential explosion damaging Indian Point nuclear plant and the harm caused by global warming and by the release of gases (methane, etc.) from the pipeline. In the end, the judge rejected the necessity defense on what seemed to me technical and basically bogus grounds. To see if you agree, read the excellent article (with pictures) by Erik McGregor here.
The mainstream media has not given enough attention to the efforts of the Trump administration to destroy Veterans' healthcare. Using the deadly combo of reduction of services and privatization of care (a Koch Brothers' plan), this basically very good system is on the ropes. For a good overview, read "Five Myths about VA Health Care." (h/t GMac).
In entertainment news this week, at the top of the charts is "'Sonic attack' on US embassy in Havana could have been crickets, say scientists." When our spies in the US Embassy in Cuba got headaches and worse, the obvious culprits were the Cubans (and maybe the Russians) using cutting-edge microwave techniques. An analysis of the sound patterns, however, pointed to the "song" of the Indies short-tailed cricket as the source of the problem. (An in-depth article by Glenn Greenwald is linked below,) The emergence of weaponized crickets reminded me of a story I wrote about in the early 1980s, when the United States blamed the Soviets for using chemical weapons in the jungles of Southeast Asia. This deadly poison, dubbed "Yellow Rain," turned out to be naturally occurring bee shit. Until this was discovered, books were written about Yellow Rain, and Congress held hearings.
For a news bright spot, I recommend "A Historic Day in Congress" by James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. "I spent Thursday morning," he writes, "at the offices of two new Members of Congress, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. The scenes at both were just delightful. Throngs of Palestinian Americans jammed into Tlaib's offices, spilling out into the hall. It was much the same at Omar's, but there the crowds were largely Somali Americans and Yemeni Americans. Many had traveled hundreds and even thousands of miles to witness history being made. You could feel their excitement. It was a day of celebration, validation, and empowerment."
As many newsletter readers know, right-wing researchers dug up a video of socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez actually dancing while a college student, and they posted it on line to discredit her before her supporters. Needless to say, it's/she's fabulous, and the video only adds to her credibility as an actual person. AOC was also in the news this week to explain to 11 million viewers of the CBS program "60 Minutes" how socialism was the way to go, and that if she didn't have all the answers, that's OK, no one else does either.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our rallies are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's immigration policies are often targeted, depending on current events. We (usually) meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page.
Please Support CFOW
CFOW's expenditures are small, but if you would like to support our work financially, please send a check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
This Newsletter
Articles linked in the CFOW newsletter are intended to illuminate some of the main action-issues about which we are concerned. Coming mostly from the "dissenting media," they provide an alternative to the perspectives of the mainstream media. In addition to the excellent Featured Essays, I especially recommend the article by Stephen Zunes on why we should move our troops out of Syria; the set of articles that outline and analysis parts of the Democrats' legislative program for this congressional session; Gideon Levy's review of Israel/Palestine in 2018; and an interesting essay ("Our History") on the 50th anniversary of "Liberation Theology" in Latin America. Read on!
Rewards!
As President Trump rolls out a new chapter in his hateful war against immigrants and refugees at our southern border, here is Annie DiFranco with a beautiful version of Woody Guthrie's 1948 (I think) classic song, "Deportees." And a few years earlier, in the time of "Grapes of Wrath," Woody recorded another migrant classic, "Pastures of Plenty." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Is Donald Trump an Asteroid? Honestly, This Could Get a Lot Uglier
By Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch [January 7, 2019]
By Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch [January 7, 2019]
---- Sixty-six million years ago, so the scientists tell us, an asteroid slammed into this planet. Landing on what's now Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, it gouged out a crater 150 kilometers wide and put so much soot and sulfur into the atmosphere that it created what was essentially a prolonged "nuclear winter." During that time, among so many other species, large and small, the dinosaurs went down for the count. It took approximately 66 million years for humanity to evolve from lowly surviving mammals and, over the course of a recent century or two, teach itself how to replicate the remarkable destructive power of that long-gone asteroid in two different ways: via nuclear power and the burning of fossil fuels. And if that isn't an accomplishment for the species that likes to bill itself as the most intelligent ever to inhabit this planet, what is? [Read More]
Forgotten France Rises Up
---- December 15, place de l'Opéra, Paris. Three yellow vests read out an address 'to the French people and the president of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron' saying: 'This movement belongs to no one and to everyone. It gives voice to a people who for 40 years have been dispossessed of everything that enabled them to believe in their future and their greatness.' The anger provoked by a fuel tax produced, within a month, a wider diagnosis of what ails society and democracy. Mass movements that bring together people with minimal organisation encourage rapid politicisation, which explains why 'the people' have discovered that they are 'dispossessed of their future' a year after electing as president a man who boasts he swept aside the two parties that alternated in power for 40 years. Macron has come unstuck. [Read More]
Why are Leftists cheering potential demise of Rojava's socialist experiment?
By Pete Dolack, ZNet [January 4, 2019]
---- Lost in the discussions of Donald Trump's abrupt announcement of the withdrawal of United States troops from Rojava is the possible fate of the democratic and cooperative experiment of the Syrian Kurds. Threatened with annihilation at the hands of Turkish invaders, should we simply wipe our hands and think nothing of an interesting experiment in socialism being crushed on the orders of a far right de facto dictator? … What do the Kurds want? The Syrian Kurds, surrounded by hostile forces waiting for the opportunity to crush their socialist experiment, made a realpolitik decision in accepting the presence of U.S. troops, and a limited number of French and British troops. The dominant party in Syrian Kurdistan, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), is strongly affiliated with the leading party of Turkey's Kurds, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK has been locked in a decades-long struggle with successive Turkish governments. … To ignore what the Kurdish people, in attempting to build a socialist, egalitarian society, have to say are acts of Western chauvinism. It is hardly reasonable to see the Syrian Kurds as "naïve" or "puppets" of the U.S. as if they are incapable of understanding their own experiences. And Turkey's invasion of Rojava's Afrin district, which was disconnected from the rest of Rojava, resulting in massive ethnic cleansing, should make clear the dangers of further Turkish invasions. [Read More]
---- Lost in the discussions of Donald Trump's abrupt announcement of the withdrawal of United States troops from Rojava is the possible fate of the democratic and cooperative experiment of the Syrian Kurds. Threatened with annihilation at the hands of Turkish invaders, should we simply wipe our hands and think nothing of an interesting experiment in socialism being crushed on the orders of a far right de facto dictator? … What do the Kurds want? The Syrian Kurds, surrounded by hostile forces waiting for the opportunity to crush their socialist experiment, made a realpolitik decision in accepting the presence of U.S. troops, and a limited number of French and British troops. The dominant party in Syrian Kurdistan, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), is strongly affiliated with the leading party of Turkey's Kurds, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK has been locked in a decades-long struggle with successive Turkish governments. … To ignore what the Kurdish people, in attempting to build a socialist, egalitarian society, have to say are acts of Western chauvinism. It is hardly reasonable to see the Syrian Kurds as "naïve" or "puppets" of the U.S. as if they are incapable of understanding their own experiences. And Turkey's invasion of Rojava's Afrin district, which was disconnected from the rest of Rojava, resulting in massive ethnic cleansing, should make clear the dangers of further Turkish invasions. [Read More]
(Mainstream) Media Tutorial
Veteran NBC/MSNBC Journalist Blasts the Network for Being Captive to the National Security State and Reflexively Pro-War to Stop Trump
By Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept [
---- A veteran national security journalist with NBC News and MSNBC blasted the networks in a Monday email for becoming captive and subservient to the national security state, reflexively pro-war in the name of stopping President Donald Trump, and now the prime propaganda instrument of the War Machine's promotion of militarism and imperialism. As a result of NBC/MSNBC's all-consuming militarism, he said, "the national security establishment not only hasn't missed a beat but indeed has gained dangerous strength" and "is ever more autonomous and practically impervious to criticism." [Read More]. As an example of the Cold War framework of the mainstream media, read Greenwald's most recent piece, "NBC and MSNBC Blamed Russia for Using 'Sophisticated Microwaves' to Cause 'Brain Injuries' in U.S. 'Diplomats' in Cuba. The Culprits Were Likely Crickets," The Intercept [January 7, 2019] [Link].
THE NEW CONGRESS: THE DEMOCRATS' PLANS
Democrats Unveil Ambitious Plan to Fix Election System
By Steven Rosenfeld, ZNet [January 6, 2019]
---- On the second day of the 116th Congress, the new House Democratic majority will introduce H.R. 1, the most comprehensive democracy reform legislation seen this century. It addresses voting rights and electoral procedures, campaign finance rules and loopholes, and seeks to institute higher ethical standards for federal officeholders and more. One can look at the For The People Act as a wish list of inclusive, transparent and publicly accountable solutions and best practices that seek to come to grips with today's world of voting, election advocacy and voter engagement—or suppression. … The bill's overall framing is to counter systemic corruption that blocks some citizens—but not others—from voting; or allows large donors to hide their identity while funding attacks they wouldn't publicly want to be associated with; or enables current and recent officeholders to personally profit from serving in the highest levels of the federal government. [Read More]. For more insights, watch election expert Ari Berman on (Video) Democracy Now! "Dems Introduce Sweeping Voting Rights Bill to Combat Rampant Voter Suppression' [January 7, 2019] [Link].
---- On the second day of the 116th Congress, the new House Democratic majority will introduce H.R. 1, the most comprehensive democracy reform legislation seen this century. It addresses voting rights and electoral procedures, campaign finance rules and loopholes, and seeks to institute higher ethical standards for federal officeholders and more. One can look at the For The People Act as a wish list of inclusive, transparent and publicly accountable solutions and best practices that seek to come to grips with today's world of voting, election advocacy and voter engagement—or suppression. … The bill's overall framing is to counter systemic corruption that blocks some citizens—but not others—from voting; or allows large donors to hide their identity while funding attacks they wouldn't publicly want to be associated with; or enables current and recent officeholders to personally profit from serving in the highest levels of the federal government. [Read More]. For more insights, watch election expert Ari Berman on (Video) Democracy Now! "Dems Introduce Sweeping Voting Rights Bill to Combat Rampant Voter Suppression' [January 7, 2019] [Link].
'A Giant Step' Toward Humane Healthcare as Democrats Announce First-Ever Hearings on Medicare for All
By
---- In an essential and historic step toward developing a humane, effective, and universal solution to America's for-profit healthcare crisis, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has reportedly won approval from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to hold the first-ever hearings on Medicare for All in two of the most powerful committees in Congress. "It's a huge step forward to have the Speaker's support," Jayapal said in an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday. "We have to push on the inside while continuing to build support for this on the outside." According to the Post, Medicare for All legislation is set to receive hearings in the Rules and Budget committees, both of which are chaired by Medicare for All supporters—Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), respectively. While dates for the hearings have not been officially announced, Jayapal said House Medicare for All supporters expect to release legislation in "the next couple of weeks." "This will ensure that Medicare for All is part of the 2020 Democratic presidential platforms," said Jayapal, who will sponsor the House bill. [Read More]
(Video) Sunrise Movement: Pelosi's Actions on Climate Fall Woefully & Inexcusably Short of What We Need
From Democracy Now! [January 7, 2019]
---- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is facing criticism from some climate activists for failing to back a Green New Deal. Last week Pelosi announced the formation of a new Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, headed by long-standing Florida Congressmember Kathy Castor. But the committee is far weaker than what backers of a Green New Deal had envisioned. The committee will not have subpoena power or the power to draft legislation. We speak with Varshini Prakash, founder of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate group that has occupied and lobbied at congressional offices, risking arrest to demand adoption of the Green New Deal and bold climate leadership. [See the Program]
For more on the Democrats' debate about how to approach the climate crisis – "New Congress Members See Climate Solutions and Jobs in a Green New Deal," by Marianne Lavelle, Inside Climate News [January 3, 2019] [Link]; "Democrats might have put a roadblock on the path to a Green New Deal," b [Link]; and House Dems formalize climate committee plans without Green New Deal language," by Timothy Cama, The Hill [January 2, 2019] [Link].
Pay-Go: What's the controversy about, and is it important?
FB – "Pay-Go" is the framing used traditionally by Democrats to mean that funding for new or expanded programs must be found by cutting or diminishing other programs, or by raising taxes. "Debt" cannot be increased. The Republicans' version is the same, except that they add "no new taxes." In both cases, this framing makes it difficult to launch big new federal programs. And this seemed to be what the Democrats were doing when they inserted "Pay-Go" language into the "Rules" that will direct the legislative traffic in the House of Representatives. Needless to say, this would make large state investment programs such as "Medicare for All" and "The Green New Deal" impossible. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and two other progressive Democrats voted against this Rule on these grounds; read "Nancy Pelosi Rams Austerity Provision Into House Rules Package Over Objections of Progressives," from The Intercept [[Link]. But other progressive Democrats, including the Progressive Caucus, say that this is a misunderstanding of what "Pay-Go" will/can do under the new House rules. Read "Behind the Pay-go Battle Is a Central Contradiction That Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Her Allies Will Need to Resolve," from The Intercept [January 4, 2019] [Link] and "Congressional Staffing for Dummies: The Pay Go Dispute," by [Link]. So it may be that the Pay-Go rule will not prevent passing the legislation we care about. Maybe.
WAR & PEACE
Despite Everything, U.S. Troops Should Leave Syria
By , Foreign Policy in Focus [January 3, 2019]
---- Donald Trump's sudden decision to remove U.S. forces from Syria appears to have been impetuous and ill-considered — apparently a result of a conversation with Turkey's autocratic president Recep Erdoğan. That doesn't mean, however, that the United States should remain in that country. It's quite reasonable to question how and why Trump made his choice. This doesn't mean it wasn't the right one, however. … Though falling well short of the kind of egalitarian anarchist utopia that some Western leftists have claimed, Syrian Kurds have nevertheless organized one of the most democratic, popular, and well-functioning governing structures in the Middle East. During the past couple of years, they were able to make accommodations with the Syrian regime in several areas where government forces did move in — without violence and without any U.S. support that would have enabled them to keep control. The most legitimate concern is in regard to Turkey moving its forces into northern Syria to attack the SDF and slaughtering many thousands of Kurdish civilians in the process. … More pertinently, how are 2,000 U.S. troops in such a vast area an effective deterrent for Turkish intervention? They did nothing to halt the Turkish offensive that seized the SDF-controlled Afrin region back in March, for example. Given the small number of U.S. troops in an area more three times the size of Lebanon, it would be easy for Turkish forces to avoid confronting U.S. troops while slaughtering Kurds, and it would be hard to imagine Trump moving U.S. troops into position to stop it. A more effective deterrent than simply keeping U.S. troops in Syria would be for Washington to make clear to the Turks that the United States will suspend all arms transfers and strategic cooperation with Turkey if it moves any more troops into Syrian territory. [Read More]
The War in Yemen
Is the End of the Brutal War in Yemen Finally at Hand?
From Truth Dig [December 31, 2018]
---- When the new Congress convenes Jan. 3, it is expected to pass a House resolution upholding congressional war powers and ending all direct U.S. involvement in the Saudi coalition's war in Yemen. But hopes remain high that H. Con. Res. 138 will help to end the Yemen war itself. Congressional strategists and activists who have been working on the issue believe passage of the war powers measure will force Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the negotiating table. Together, they are challenging the position of some former Obama administration officials who have warned the war powers resolution alone cannot bring the conflict to a close. Those former officials, led by Brookings Institution fellow Bruce Riedel, say that cutting off the Saudi pipeline of spare parts is the only way to prevent further airstrikes, which have been central to the Saudi war strategy. Proponents of the war powers resolution, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, argue the Saudis will not be able to continue the war without the political-diplomatic support of the United States, and the Yemen resolution will make dramatically clear the Saudis can no longer count on U.S. support. … The war's swift conclusion appears all but inevitable. While Crown Prince Mohammed may be committed to final victory, the Saudi regime remains heavily dependent on U.S. political-diplomatic cover, as it has since the beginning of the bombing campaign in Yemen. Ironically, that political reality could now tip the balance toward peace. [Read More] The Pentagon says its involvement in Yemen is helping to reduce civilian casualties. Check out "See No Evil: Pentagon Issues Blanket Denial That It Knows Anything About Detainee Abuse in Yemen," by Alex Emmons, The Intercept [[Read More].
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE COLLAPSE
A Surge of Climate Lawsuits Targets Human Rights, Damage from Fossil Fuels
By Nicholas Kusnetz, Inside Climate News [January 4, 2019]
---- The past year saw a surge in new lawsuits filed against fossil fuel companies, and major developments in cases pressing governments for action in the United States and abroad. And while the plaintiffs haven't secured any substantial victories in U.S. courts, they may be scoring a different victory by drawing attention to the inaction of Congress and the Executive Branch. … What began with a handful of California cities and counties in 2017 spread across the country this past year, as New York City, Baltimore, Rhode Island and local governments in Colorado and Washington State sued fossil fuel companies. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation to help pay the costs of protecting residents from rising seas, worsening wildfires, extreme heat and other effects of climate change. Two law firms are arguing most of these cases. They allege that energy companies knew about the dangers associated with their products, but lobbied against capping emissions anyway while sowing doubt about climate science. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
In 2018, Israel's mask finally came off
By Gideon Levy, Middle East Eye [December 31, 2018]
---- 2018 wasn't a good year for Israel. It was even worse for Palestinians, of course. On the surface, it wasn't an especially dramatic year - just a lot more of the same, without major new wars, and without much bloodshed if you compare it to most previous years. Things appeared frozen in place. The occupation continued without impediment, likewise the settlement enterprise. Gaza tried to resist forcefully from inside its wretched cage, using its paltry and limited powers. The world averted its eyes from the occupation, as it has customarily done in recent years, and focused on other things entirely. … The laws passed this year must not be viewed solely as anti-democratic laws that endanger Israel's democracy, as the situation is usually described by liberal circles in Israel. They are intended to do something much more dangerous. They aren't intended just to undermine the bogus democracy, to impose yet more discrimination on Palestinian citizens of Israel and turn them into second-class citizens by law. Their real intention is to provide legislative cover for the act of formally annexing the territories beyond the recognised sovereign boundaries of the state of Israel. In 2018, Israel moved closer to realising these objectives. The relative quiet that has prevailed in the country is deceptive. The apartheid state de jure, not just de facto, is coming. [Read More]
Exporting the Technology of Occupation
By Antony Loewenstein, New York Review of Books [January 4, 2019]
---- Besides spyware and cyber tools, Israel has developed a growing industry based around surveillance including espionage, psychological operations, and disinformation. … Over more than half a century of occupation, Israel has mastered the arts of monitoring and surveilling millions of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel itself. Israel is now packaging and selling this knowledge to governments that admire the country's ability to suppress and manage resistance. Israel's occupation has thus gone global. The country's defense exports reached a record $9.2 billion in 2017, 40 percent higher than in 2016 (in a global arms market that recorded its highest ever sales in 2017 at $398.2 billion). The majority of these sales were in Asia and the Pacific region. … he occupation has thus fueled Israel's industrial and defense policy-making through an economic boom that has benefited companies that build, operate, and manage the settlement enterprise. … Today, growing numbers of American Jews are distancing themselves from Israel, rejecting its government's embrace of ethno-nationalism and supporting instead a one-state solution. For the time being, Israel looks set to remain a major global player in the manufacture and sales of weapons systems and surveillance equipment and expertise—that is now one of the main ways the country defines itself internationally. But international opposition is growing, thanks largely to calls by the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement for a military embargo on Israel and its defense industry. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
The Left Side of the Church
By Hugh McDonnell, Jacobin Magazine [December 2018]
---- The fiftieth anniversary of 1968 has occasioned much reflection on that pivotal moment in the twentieth century. If the quintessential image of that year of upheaval is students assembling barricades in the Paris streets, or protests at Berkeley against the Vietnam War, it was also marked by challenges to political and social power throughout the world. Curiously overlooked, however, is the gathering in Colombia of the Medellín Conference of Latin American Bishops — a pivotal event in the development of liberation theology throughout Latin America. The declarations of the conference broke new ground in expanding the notion of theological "liberation" to imply a positive humanizing process, and attacking the political, social, and economic structures that kept millions of Latin Americans poor and oppressed.
Recalling liberation theology's rejection of the church's traditional role as a bulwark of reaction and insistence instead on a "preferential option for the poor" takes on added importance [today.] [Read More]
