Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
April 18, 2021
Hello All – After almost 20 years of war in Afghanistan, the war is coming to an end. Or is it? While President Biden has announced that US troops will be gone by September 11, 2021, many questions remain unanswered. Similar questions surround Biden's announcement some weeks ago that the US would no longer support "offensive operations" by Saudi Arabia in Yemen. In both cases, the President's statements and policy maneuvers seem to reflect a divided government – President v. Pentagon v. State Department v. CIA v. Congress, etc. – as well as an understanding that the American people have had enough.
In the case of Afghanistan, it is important to recognize that the decision to "leave" by September 11th means abrogating the agreement Trump made with the Taliban to leave by May 1st. As for the Taliban, they may reasonably think the agreement they made, which included a pledge to refrain from attacking US troops, is no longer binding on them. Additionally, the President did not say that the US would no longer bomb the Taliban; rather, he pledged that "we will keep providing assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces." Nor is it clear whether all or how many of the 18,000 "contractors" or "mercenaries" – some American, many not – will be leaving and when. And apparently some forces from other NATO countries may remain in Afghanistan after September 11th. On Tuesday, The New York Times cited current and former US officials who said the US "will most likely rely on a shadowy combination of clandestine Special Operations forces, Pentagon contractors and covert intelligence operatives" to conduct operations inside Afghanistan." We have been warned.
The war that began nearly 20 years ago was illegal and immoral from day one. Rather than pursue the Taliban's offer to apprehend Osama bin Laden if the US would provide some evidence of his complicity in the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration chose to wage war on a country and its people. Throughout these two decades, the United States has dropped more than 80,000 bombs on Afghanistan and waged a secret war with Special Forces, CIA operatives, mercenaries, and paramilitary units. Approximately 100,000 Afghan civilians and some 2,300 US service personnel have been killed, and trillions of dollars have been wasted. Even at the last moment, diplomacy that might have involved Iran, Pakistan, India, Russia, and China – Afghanistan's neighbors – has been disregarded. The incoherence of US policy in Afghanistan reflects a US government divided over the basic question of whether War or Peace is in the "National Interest."
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Taking the Covid Crisis into account, we meet (with safe distancing) for a protest/rally on Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Another vigil takes place every Monday from 5:30 to 6 pm, in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. In this time of coronavirus, we are meeting by Zoom conference; if you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, Tuesday and Thursday at noon and/or Saturday at 5 pm, please send a return email. Our weekly 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!
Happy birthday, American Revolution! Tomorrow, April 19th, is the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord (Mass.), the opening salvos of the Revolution. On that day, the British sent a routine search-and-destroy mission from Boston to seize political leaders in Lexington and stores of gun powder and ammo in Concord. Notified of the attack ("one if by land, two if by sea"), Paul Revere rode ahead to awaken the "Minutemen," the patriotic stalwarts of the day. I grew up in Lexington, and so every April 19th we marched and waited for "Paul Revere" and watched "the battle" on the town green/commons. Anti-imperialism was taught in the elementary schools. A good beginning for any child. – Here is some rare, documentary footage of that "April morn."
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
"Marx's Old Mole is Right Beneath the Surface" – An interview with Noam Chomsky
Interviewed by David Barsamian
[FB – Marx picked up the idea of "the old mole – burrowing under the ground and suddenly popping up – from Shakespeare; and it has become a favorite metaphor for revolutionaries re: the surprises of historical developments.]
---- U.S. politics has recently been roiled by converging crises, from the pandemic and uprisings over racial justice to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6. What are the prospects for progressive politics under the new Biden administration? Noam Chomsky takes on climate, race, immigration, and revolution in this edited version of a radio conversation between Chomsky and Alternative Radio host David Barsamian, conducted on March 15, 2021, in Oro Valley, Arizona.
DB: You write in the preface [of his new book], "Will the species survive? Will organized human life survive? Those questions cannot be avoided. There is no way to sit on the sidelines."
NC: Like it or not, that's a fact. It's this generation that will decide whether human society continues in any organized form, or whether we reach tipping points that are irreversible, and we spin off into total catastrophe. Same question with regard to the growing threat of nuclear weapons: there's just no alternative to deciding right now. There are other problems. The pandemic will somehow be controlled at enormous and needless cost of lives, but there are others coming. And they could be more serious unless we take serious steps to prepare for them—both the scientific work and the social background. Then there will be other major issues of species survival—not just the human species. We are racing forward to destroying other species on an incredible scale, which hasn't been seen for 65 million years. And now it's happening much faster than it did then. That's what's called the fifth extinction. We're now in the midst of the sixth extinction. [Read More]
(Video) American Insurrection: Deadly Far-Right Extremism from Charlottesville to Capitol Attack. What Next?
From Democracy Now! [April 14, 2021]
---- A scathing new report by the Capitol Police's internal watchdog reveals officials knew Congress was the target of the deadly January 6 insurrection, yet officers were instructed to refrain from deploying more aggressive measures that could have helped "push back the rioters." Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports domestic terrorism incidents surged to a record high in 2020, fueled by white supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists on the far right. The Post found that, since 2015, right-wing extremists have been involved in 267 plots or attacks, leading to 91 deaths. Reporter A.C. Thompson, who explores the threat of far-right extremism in the new PBS "Frontline" documentary "American Insurrection," says there was a "massive pool of radicalized individuals" ahead of the January 6 attack who were being pushed toward violence by "an abundance of lies by the former president, by this entire conspiratorial right-wing media and social media ecosystem." [See the Program]. And to watch the 85-minute PBS documentary, "American Insurrection," go here.
Building Asian American Liberation from Below: Linking Antiracism and Anticapitalism
By Promise Li, Spectre Journal [April 16, 2021]
---- Anti-Asian violence is hitting a new high, fueled by the racialization of the Covid-19 virus as a "Chinese virus" by the Trump administration and more recently, by the Biden administration's "tough on China" stance. Last month, 6 Asian massage workers, who have long been criminalized and stigmatized, were brutally murdered. Nearly 3000 firsthand reports of anti-Asian attacks were logged by Stop AAPI Hate between just March and December of last year, with countless other incidents gone unreported by local police departments. Asian American organizations have responded with rallies and vigils in major cities and suburbs with large Asian American populations. … Asian American leftists, like those in Los Angeles-based grassroots organization Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED) to New York's Asians 4 Abolition, have called for an alternative: connecting the recent surge of violence to other symptoms of capitalist exploitation from gentrification to poor labor conditions that daily harm communities of color. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
Starving Yemen
---- Yemen is starving to death. More accurately, Yemen is being starved to death. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf States, has deliberately chosen to weaponize starvation in its war against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The Saudi-led coalition has imposed a land, sea, and air blockade of Yemen which keeps desperately needed food, fuel, and medicine from the 90% of Yemenis who are completely reliant on humanitarian aid from the outside world. … The war would not be possible without US support. The Brookings Institution's Bruce Riedel declares that if the US and UK cut off logistic support the Royal Saudi Air Force would be "grounded." [Read More] For the broader context, Human Rights Watch has put out a report, "Biden Needs a Middle East-Wide Human Rights Policy" [Link].
The Hawks Who Want War With Iran Are Working Overtime
By Ariel Gold and Medea Benjamin, Code Pink [April 2021]
---- [The recent] cyberattack on an Iranian nuclear facility, reportedly by Israeli intelligence, is the latest gambit from the coalition of Israeli leaders, Christian fundamentalists, and hawkish Washington neocons who want to block a US return to the Iran nuclear agreement. If they're successful, millions of ordinary Iranians suffering under draconian sanctions will pay the price. … The opponents of the Iran deal are trying to keep in place the draconian wall of sanctions that the Trump administration imposed precisely to make it more difficult for a future US administration to rejoin the JCPOA. But these sanctions are causing immense suffering for ordinary Iranians, including runaway inflation and skyrocketing food and medicine prices. [Read More]
(Video) Biden Sanctions Russia for Cyber Espionage While Remaining Silent over Israeli Cyberattack on Iran
From Democracy Now! [April 16, 2021]
---- The United States has imposed new sanctions on Russia and expelled 10 Russian diplomats after the Biden administration accused Moscow of being involved in major cyberattacks. The Treasury Department claimed Russia interfered in the 2020 election and was behind the SolarWinds hack, which compromised the computer systems of nine U.S. government agencies and scores of private companies. The sanctions target 32 Russian entities and individuals and bar U.S. banks from purchasing Russian government debt. Russia vowed to retaliate against the new sanctions and accused the Biden administration of degrading bilateral relations. "The most dangerous aspect of this is it introduces something new into international relations, because despite the way that it's being described, this was not an attack on the U.S.," says Anatol Lieven, senior fellow for Russia and Europe at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. "Never previously have sanctions been imposed in response to an espionage case, for the very good reason that every country, including the United States, engages in espionage." [See the Program]. Anatol Lieven spelled out his views on sanctioning Russia in "Why Biden's new Russian sanctions are shortsighted, and dangerous," Responsible Statecraft [April 15, 2021] [Link]. And Glenn Greenwald reviews the atrocious performance of the USA media Establishment in swallowing the false story about Russian bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan: "Journalists, Learning They Spread a CIA Fraud About Russia, Instantly Embrace a New One" [Link].
Tax Resisters Divert Their Money From War to Human Welfare
By Ella Fassler, Truthout [April 15, 2021]
---- Howard Waitzkin, a medical doctor, a professor focusing on social medicine, and an activist, believes mass war tax resistance could serve as a wrench. For about four decades, Waitzkin has withheld federal income taxes proportional to the amount that would go toward military spending. He redirects some of his income tax funds toward "creatively constructive purposes that move beyond capitalism," including a program he coordinates that provides medical and mental health services to active-duty GIs who can't access them in the military. Waitzkin hasn't been arrested or fined. In fact, most tax resisters haven't faced severe consequences. … An estimated 20,000 antiwar activists were resisting income taxes in the early 1970s, while hundreds of thousands refused to pay telephone taxes. Others vowed to live modestly, by earning salaries below the federal income tax threshold. Today, an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people in the U.S. participate in various war tax resistance tactics. [Read More]
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
(Video) Remembering LaDonna Brave Bull Allard: Standing Rock Elder Helped Lead 2016 Anti-DAPL Uprising
From Democracy Now! [April 12, 2021]
---- LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, Standing Rock Sioux tribal historian, has died of cancer at the age of 64, and we look back on her work, through interviews on her land and in the Democracy Now! studio. Allard co-founded the Sacred Stone Camp on Standing Rock Sioux land in April 2016 to resist the Dakota Access pipeline, to which people from around the world traveled, making it one of the largest gatherings of Indigenous peoples in a century. "I don't understand why America doesn't understand how important water is. So we have no choice. We have to stand. No matter what happens, we have to stand to save the water." [See the Program]
Ten Reasons to Oppose Militarism & War on Earth Day
By John Miksad, World Beyond War [April 18, 2021]
1. The U.S. military is the largest institutional polluter in the world. Since 2001, the U.S. military has emitted1.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, equivalent to the annual emissions of 257 million cars on the road. The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest institutional consumer of oil ($17B/year) in the world, and the largest global landholder with 800 foreign military bases in 80 countries.
2. The U.S. military emits more greenhouse gas emissions than 150 nations.
3. The majority of "Superfund" sites in the U.S. are current or former military- related installations, sites designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where extreme hazardous waste threatens human health and the environment.
[And seven more – read them here.]
New Wind and Solar up 50% globally in 2020, as China beats US by over 4 to 1
---- The new report on 2020 by the International Renewable Energy Agency reveals that the world's renewable energy generation capacity increased by an astonishing 10.3% in 2020 despite the global economic slowdown during the coronavirus pandemic. It beats the previous record for an annual increase in this sector by a healthy 50%. The bad news for Americans is that most of this increase took place in Asia, especially China. In this strategic set of technologies, China is eating America's lunch. … In 2020, the global net increase in renewables was 261 gigawatts (GW). That is the nameplate capacity of some 300 nuclear power plants! There are actually only 440 nuclear power plants in the whole world, with a generation capacity of 390 gigwatts. So let's just underline this point. The world put in 2/3s as much renewable energy in one year as is produced by all the existing nuclear plants! [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES
(Video) U.S. Lawyer Steven Donziger Speaks from House Arrest in NYC After Suing Chevron for Amazon Oil Spills
From Democracy Now! [March 15, 2021]
---- Decades of reckless oil drilling by Chevron have destroyed 1,700 square miles of land in the Ecuadorian Amazon, but the company has refused to pay for the damage or clean up the land despite losing a lawsuit 10 years ago, when Ecuador's Supreme Court ordered the oil giant to pay $18 billion on behalf of 30,000 Amazonian Indigenous people. Instead of cleaning up the damage, Chevron has spent the past decade waging an unprecedented legal battle to avoid paying for the environmental destruction, while also trying to take down the environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, who helped bring the landmark case. Donziger, who has been on house arrest for nearly 600 days, says Chevron's legal attacks on him are meant to silence critics and stop other lawsuits against the company for environmental damage. [See the Program]. For more on Donziger and Chevron, read this interview with Donziger in Jacobin Magazine: "The Kafkaesque Nightmare of Attorney Steven Donziger, a Literal Prisoner of the Chevron Corporation" [Link].
THE STATE OF THE UNION
An Asylum Mirage: As Biden Continues Trump's War on Asylum, Danger Mounts in the Deadly Sonoran Desert
By Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept [
---- With national political and media attention returning to the U.S.-Mexico border in recent weeks, most of the focus has been on the record numbers of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Texas. Thousands of those children have been moved into facilities well beyond capacity. Republican lawmakers have seized on the moment to file midnight dispatches from the banks of the Rio Grande reporting that Biden and the Department of Homeland Security are presiding over the humanitarian crisis that stems from a break with the policies of Trump. Biden and DHS, in turn, have run with a message that the border is closed and asylum-seekers should stay away until further notice. The processing of unaccompanied children in the United States presents clearly urgent questions of human rights, law, and policy. It is also just one facet of the larger story of Biden's first months in office on the border. [Read More]
What Happened at Amazon?
FB – After raising the hopes of so many, the failure of the union drive at Amazon in Bessemer, Alabama was a great disappointment. Why did the union lose, and what does this mean for labor organizing in the South or against giant corporations like Amazon? In the last Newsletter I printed a highly critical view of the union's campaign by veteran organizer Jane McAlevey. McAlevey is not alone in her criticism of the union's campaign, but I would like to call your attention to two more positive views of the campaign that present a more optimistic picture of where the union movement might be going: "The BAmazon Loss and the Road Ahead" by Joe DeManuelle-Hall, Labor Notes [April 14, 2021] [Link]; and "Bessemer was just the beginning" by Luis Feliz Leon, In These Times [April 15, 2021] [Link].
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Rep. Betty McCollum Leads Effort to Block Israel From Using U.S. Aid to Destroy Palestinian Homes
By Alex Kane, The Intercept [
[FB – Rep. Jamaal Bowman, CD-16, is among the sponsors of this legislation.]
---- Since 2015, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., has been the leading congressional critic of Israel's military detention of Palestinian children, introducing multiple pieces of legislation that would bar Israel from using U.S. military aid to arrest Palestinian youth. By targeting Israel's detention of Palestinian children — just one aspect of Israel's military occupation, but one that involved a highly vulnerable population — McCollum was attempting to make her bills appeal to the widest swath of Democrats possible. For most others in her party, the check the U.S. wrote to Israel every year was not up for debate. McCollum is now planning to introduce legislation on Thursday that would bar U.S. aid from subsidizing a wider array of Israeli occupation tactics, an indication of just how far the debate over U.S. aid to Israel has come in the past six years. "There is nothing out of the ordinary about conditioning aid. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
B. Traven: Fiction's Forgotten Radical
By Clinton Williamson, The Nation [April 14, 2021]
[FB – We know "B. Traven" best through his novel The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, made into a great film with Humphrey Bogart. This essay focuses on Traven's story, The Cotton Pickers; but his magnum opus, imo, is the six volumes comprising "The Jungle Novels," which tell the story of the Mexican Revolution that began in the early 20th century.]
---- Despite writing a remarkably diverse body of work focused upon the multiple, intersecting freedom struggles of the poor, nearly every discussion of B. Traven begins with the enigma of his identity. The man behind the pseudonym sent his manuscripts from and received his royalty checks in Mexico, living there from at least 1924 through 1969. According to an anarchist comrade, Erich Mühsam, and decades later seconded by Traven biographer Rolf Recknagel, he most likely was Ret Marut, a German stage actor and anarcho-communist writer who briefly served as the director of the press division of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic. … It appears that Ret Marut, too, was also a pseudonym, just like Traven Torsvan and Hal Croves, two other identities he seems to have adopted while in Mexico. [Read More]
(Video) Ramsey Clark, Former U.S. Attorney General Turned Fierce Critic of U.S. Militarism, Dies at Age 93
From Democracy Now! [April 12, 2021]
---- Former U.S. attorney general and longtime human rights lawyer Ramsey Clark has died at the age of 93, and we look back on his life. Clark was credited as being a key architect of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. He served as attorney general from 1967 to 1969, during which time he ordered a moratorium on federal executions and opposed J. Edgar Hoover's wiretapping of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., though he was also involved in the prosecution of antiwar activists. After leaving office, Clark became a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy. "The world is the most dangerous place it's ever been now because of what our country has done, and is doing, and we have to take it back," Ramsey Clark said while addressing a protest against the inauguration of George W. Bush on January 20, 2005. We also play an excerpt from an interview with Clark about defending the Hancock 38, a group of peace activists arrested at a U.S. drone base near Syracuse, New York. [See the Program]
