In Solidarity With Chattisgarh
By Swathi Ramakrishnan
The central Indian a state of Chattisgarh was formed when the sixteen Chhattisgarhi-speaking southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained statehood on November 1, 2000. It is a heavily tribal populated area (with only 20% of its 20 million population residing in urban areas), which is extremely rich in minerals and forest resources.
The new state government immediately entered into contracts with several industrial houses such as the Tata and Essar to set up mines and ore processing plants on land leased from the state. This situation where the state claims rights to the land and the people who live on that land are treated as peripheral to the national economy, created a perfect situation for strengthening the Maoist insurgency in the state.
The Naxalite-Maoist movement is a violent underground insurgency primarily composed of the most marginalized Dalit and tribal communities of India. The Naxalite insurgency, which is active in 13 out of the 29 states in India, is at its strongest in Chattisgarh. This forms a threat to the state's plans for heavy industry and profits in this region.
To counter the Naxalites, the state formed a counterinsurgency Salwa Judum campaign to intimidate Naxalite sympathizers and supporters. This vigilante group accompanied by State Forces forced people to leave their villages and move into Camps in Chattisgarh and neighboring states. More than 40,000 people live in temporary camps where they cannot adequately support themselves and their families.
In addition, the state formed and amended draconian laws such as Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005(CSPSA) and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 2008(UAPA) which led to the arrest and prosecution of many human right activists like Dr. Binayak Sen, Kopa Kunjum and others who dared to challenge and critique state violence and repression. Read more »
Local Activists Should Organize for Counter Recruitment
By Frank Gage
For some time now the U.S. Military has gone into our schools to recruit students for military service. They use many different tactics to seduce our children. Military recruiters show video games, throw parties and make big promises. They promise money for college, job training, discipline, travel and other enticements.
They mislead youth about military service and say it is glamorous and heroic. The most popular and patriotic promise they make is the chance to “serve your country.” I am not only a veteran, but devoted to my country, and let me be very clear, anyone in the military today is not fighting for their country. They are fighting for big oil and major Corporations. Let me prove my point.
Since Bush & Cheney invaded Iraq in 2003 most of the big reconstruction projects have been awarded by the United States. According to the New York Times, starting this month, many new contracts are expected to be awarded for drilling hundreds of new wells, repairing thousands of miles of pipeline and building several giant floating oil terminals in the Persian Gulf and possibly a new port. KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which was once run by Dick Cheney, has been awarded over $24 Billion since the war started in 2003.
We did not go to war with Iraq because of 9/11; we started the war so we could secure and control this oil rich nation. Oh, by the way, there were never any “Weapons of Mass Destruction”; even Bush admitted that. (Remember hearing lately that the United States is accusing Iran of making weapons of mass destruction? Sound familiar?) Afghanistan doesn’t have much oil, but they do have location. Afghanistan is a strategic piece of real estate for the construction of pipelines.
Afghanistan is on the border of Iran and Turkmenistan, which have the 2nd and 3rd largest natural gas reserves in the world. According to a report by the Institute for Afghan Studies, oil and gas in the Caspian Sea and the surrounding area is worth roughly $3 trillion. Read more »
PeaceJam Buffalo Update
By Victoria Ross
PeaceJam, in its second year, is a jewel – with each youth shining with his/her own strengths, abilities, and desires for peace. Our volunteers and partners, the Stop The Violence Coalition (STVC) and Erie County Council for the Prevention of Alcohol and Substance Abuse (ECCPASA), are also steadfast. On Tuesdays from 4-5:30 at St. Mary’s School for the Deaf, we study violence, non-violence, and current events; formulate our Global Call to Action project; and work toward PeaceJam Northeast’s March 27-28th Conference in Hartford, CT.
Samweli Yambende, 17, from Burundi, who also participated in last year’s PeaceJam, has this to say of the program: “PeaceJam is the key for peace in the world. Also, peace is connected alliance, working with a group, and this is the group I work with. Last year was my first. All I know is peace starts with people. I enjoy working with PeaceJam to increase the peace in the world.”
Janice Burns, a volunteer from ECCPASA, writes: “The youth’s involvement and ideas inspire me, showing that we have so much to look forward to as they move into leadership positions in our world. The Global Call to Action allows the participants to use what they have learned, bringing an idea full circle. Read more »
One Country, One Plight and One Woman’s Relentless Hope
By Thomas K. Rogers III
For nearly two decades, thousands of political prisoners have remained incarcerated in Myanmar, the Southeast Asian state formerly known as Burma. The most prominent of those detained is Aung San Suu Kyi. This Oxford graduate, who then went on to receive a PhD at the University of London, is the daughter of General Aung San, who in 1947 won independence from the United Kingdom for his people of Burma. Her father was assassinated in 1962 in a successful coup, which led to a state controlled by a xenophobic military government that still exists today.
When Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988 to care for her sick mother, who died soon thereafter, she found herself leading a pro-democracy movement. In light of the ailing economy, ill treatment of the Burmese people, strict censorship, lack of freedom and the constant state of fear that existed among the citizens, Suu Kyi and a few others founded the National League for Democracy (NLD).
In 1990, the military junta-run government agreed to hold general elections. Much to their surprise—but to none of the people or outsiders—the NLD won about 80 percent of the parliamentary seats. This was a clear indication that an overwhelming majority of the Burmese people wanted peace, a stable and prosperous economy, just treatment under fair laws, freedom of expression and protection, not only from the international community but also of their human rights.
Following this, the military rulers imprisoned Suu Kyi and approximately 2,100 other pro-democracy supporters after refusing to transfer power to the NLD. Their crime: causing social unrest. Due to laws that allow wide interpretation of what a threat consists of, this mass jailing episode continues to remain possible.
According to Amnesty International, a non-profit organization that campaigns for the recognition of human rights for all, “People from all walks of life… are serving long prison sentences for acts of peaceful dissent. Many of them are in poor health and have suffered torture, inhumane or degrading treatment. Many have died in detention or prison.” Read more »
Why Support Call for BDS?
By Thawab Shibly & Nick Kabat
In 1959, the African National Congress of South Africa (ANC) made an appeal for international boycotts, divestments, and sanctions (BDS) to be applied against South Africa, whose apartheid regime had begun in 1948, the same year as the creation of the state of Israel. People around the world quickly heeded the ANC call, particularly at the campus level.
By 1988, 155 campuses had divested from companies operating in conjunction with the Apartheid regime. At the state level, anti-apartheid demonstrators achieved considerable success. By the end of the 1980, twenty-three countries had applied sanctions against South Africa. And then finally in 1990, thirty-one years after the ANC call for BDS was made and under extreme international pressure, the apartheid system began to come to a halt.
Now, twenty years later in Israel and Palestine, another group of people live oppressed under a system that both demeans and dehumanizes them. Countless sympathetic cries from activists all over the world have done nothing to change their situation. They still are denied basic food and medical supplies. Their homes are still being demolished, their lands confiscated, and their basic rights and dignities taken away.
Taking from the example of South Africa, Palestinian civil society has made a unanimous call for BDS to be applied against Israel until it meets the following three demands:
“-It ends its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantles the Wall between Israel and Palestine;
-It recognizes the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinians and citizens of Israel to full equality; and
-Respects, protects and promotes the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.”
UB Students for Justice in Palestine has chosen to endorse the BDS call because Palestinians don’t need our sympathy anymore; they need action. And more importantly it puts this global issue in a local context; we may not be able to witness the conflict first-hand but we can look at how locally sold products fund oppressive Israeli policies and boycott those products. Read more »
Protesting Drone Attacks from Air Force Base in Syracuse, NY
By Charles L. Bowman
On a beautiful Sunday, November 15, 2009, approximately 200 peace activists from all over New York State gathered at Syracuse NY’s Hancock Field to protest the controlling of Reaper drones – stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan – at the Syracuse air?eld. The protestors came from Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton, Ithaca, Albany, Saratoga, New York City, from smaller towns in between, and of course, from Syracuse. Buffalonians represented the largest contingent from any one city.
The event was organized by the Syracuse Peace Council, now celebrating its 73rd year, and by Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Last November, Kathy highlighted the drone attacks in her speech at the WNY Peace Center’s annual dinner to an over?ow crowd of 300.
Why all the fuss? Drones represent a fundamental change in how the U.S. now wages war. Drones are war-planes where pilot and crew sit in front of computer screens in comfortable and safe places – such as Syracuse NY – and drop bombs on targets in foreign countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. After an 8 hour day at the their Syracuse office, pilot and crew can be home with loved ones in time for supper. Not so for their human targets in distant lands, who unknowingly celebrated their last supper with their loved ones.
A year ago, President Obama took the oath of office. At the time it seemed another fundamental change was in store in the way we wage war. Dare we think he’ll wage peace? It seemed possible, as he offered an olive branch to the Muslim world in his inaugural address. But three days later, he ordered his ?rst drone attack in Pakistan, killing at least 14 people. President Obama chopped down an olive tree to offer that branch.
Far from being an isolated incident, President Obama’s drone attacks outstrip President Bush’s drone record. In 2009, there were 46 attacks in Pakistan, killing 558 people. He increased the pace in January 2010 with 10 drone attacks between January 1st and 19th which killed 91 people. So much for the new era of peace and respect with the Muslim world.
The claim is made by drone supporters that collateral damage is minimal, with few deaths of the innocents. It turns out that almost all of those killed by our drones are civilians. A July 20, 2009 Brookings Institution report indicates there were 10 civilian deaths for every militant killed.
And a study of the period between January 14, 2006 and April 8, 2009, indicates the ratio is more like 50 Pakistani civilians killed for every militant. During the later period, there were 60 drone attacks killing 14 militants and 687 civilians. The collateral damage is the militants, not the citizens. Read more »
Israeli Historian Ilan Pappé to Speak at UB
By Jim Holstun
On Wednesday, March 24th, at 7:00 p.m., the Palestine-Israel Committee of the Western New York Peace Center will host a public lecture by Professor Ilan Pappé in the Woldman Theater (Norton Hall, Room 112) on UB’s North Campus. Professor Pappé will speak on “The Past and Present Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.”
Ilan Pappé is one of the leading Israeli “Revisionist Historians” who, since the 1980s, have transformed our historical understanding of modern Palestine and Israel. Among his many books are The Modern Middle East, a superb and wide-ranging textbook that pays special attention to the lives of women, the poor, and country people. His A History of Modern Palestine charts the history of ethnic and national struggle and oppression, but also moments of cross-ethnic solidarity and peace.
And his The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, a book that charts for the first time the systematic and carefully-planned Israeli policies embodied in “Plan Dalet,” which led to the deaths and violent expulsion of more than 700,000 Muslim and Christian Palestinians from their homes, and the internal displacement of many thousands more. Pappé has also written with great insight about Israeli and Palestinian culture: drama, film, and fiction. He brings to all of his work an enormous erudition and academic rigor, but with a wide-ranging imagination and human sympathy that are all too rare in historical writing.
Professor Pappé was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1954 and taught for many years at the University of Haifa. There, because of his teaching, his scholarship, and his support for the human rights of Palestinians living in Israel and under Israeli occupation, he suffered under a systematic campaign of official and un-official harassment, including attempts to have him fired and regular death threats. In 2007, he took up a teaching position in England, in the Department of History at the University of Exeter. Read more »
Afghanistan & Iraq: Changing Organizing Tactics
By Elea Mihou Fox
In December, President Obama announced plans to deploy 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan. There has been little public outcry in response to this decision. The enormous human, economic, and social costs of continuing and escalating war efforts have largely been ignored.
While many people are vocal about their concerns over the state of the economy, the lack of employment opportunities, and the need for greater healthcare access and reform, few have made the connection between military spending
and social programs. Right now the military gets 57% of the Federal Budget, which means that more than half of our taxes are devoted to war – not the public good.
As unfortunate as this is, our national spending and priorities are not going to change until we build a strong social movement that is capable of forcing reform. The WNY Peace Center is one of the largest locally autonomous peace organizations in the country. If we can develop the right strategies in WNY, we could also serve as a model for a national movement that our country desperately needs. To do this, we must change our approach to antiwar activism, and get back to community organizing.
Public opinion has consistently been against the war in Iraq and escalation in Afghanistan for years, yet the peace movement is faced with shrinking numbers and insufficient support. In part, this is because the peace movement has been largely using the same tactics since the Vietnam era and has not fully recognized the nation’s changing social conditions or appealed to the next generation of activists.
We put most of our efforts into public events and demonstrations, and place little emphasis on expanding our organizational capacity or developing new ways to build a strong base of informed and active citizens. The Peace, Justice, and Antiwar Coalition (PJAW), of which the WNY Peace Center is a founding member, has decided to change our tactics. Instead of only promoting and collaborating on demonstrations and public events, we are going to launch a grassroots campaign around Afghanistan. Read more »
As Buffalonians protest, Gaza Freedom March attempts to enter the Strip
By Irene Morrison
About 30 people gathered in Buffalo on December 27th, a wet and snowy Sunday, to remember Israel's assault on Gaza, which began one year ago, a boiling point in a conflict that has been ongoing since 1948.
Internationally, the Gaza Freedom March is attempting to break the blockade on Gaza's border with Egypt, and to send in some badly needed humanitarian aid. Though they have not yet been successful and have now called for a hunger strike, should they be allowed into Gaza, the aid they bring is only a drop in the bucket compaired to the aid Gazans really need. The March is intended to call attention to this, as well as to pressure Egypt to fully open its border and lift the siege on Gaza.
How you can help the Gaza Freedom March:
Contact your local consulate here.
Contact the Palestine Division in Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo:
Ahmed Azzam, tel +202-25749682
Email: ahmed.azzam@mfa.gov.eg