Thousands March Against Racism

MARCH AGAINST RACISM

On Monday, January 21, from coast to coast, thousands took to the streets to march against racism. The Martin Luther King March Against Racism Coalition called for nationwide actions, saying, "There is a time for celebrations and there’s a time for fighting. Now is a time that we need to fight. And fight like hell. On this King Holiday we must organize and march against the forces of racism, reaction and war, not just the war abroad but the war raging here at home. To know what’s happening, is to know that nothing is more important than jump starting a multi-racial movement against racism." (read full call at http://troopsoutnow.org/jan21.html#call )


In New York City, more than a thousand people defied sub-freezing temperatures for an opening rally outside WABC, which recently put the racist and sexist shock-jock Don Imus back on the air.

After a spirited march, activists then rallied outside the Time Warner Building, where Lou Dobbs broadcasts his nightly anti-immigrant program. Dobbs eventually came out of the building, but retreated inside when confronted by the multinational crowd.

At the same time, activists from the Coalition joined organizers from across the U.S. on the streets of Jena, Louisiana, to confront a rally by the Nationalist Movement, a Klan-like organization.

Other local actions included:

Boston: Rally & Speak out Against Racism – Fund Dr. King’s Dream – Cut the Military Budget and use the $ for Jobs, Education, Housing and Healthcare. End the evils of militarism, economic exploitation & racism – as Dr. King asked. Join Boston city councilors, community, labor, immigrant rights and youth leaders and organizations. On Boston Common at Park St. Contact

Cleveland: To honor Dr. King: Challenge the Ohio prison system. Sat., Jan. 19, the Cleveland Lucasville Five Defense Committee will stand with death row inmates in their just demand for contact visits -- the right to embrace their loved ones. Protest outside Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.

Denver: March Against Racism and War, Jan. 21st, 9:00 a.m., City Park. Gather at water fountain on 18th Ave. & Detroit. “Martin Luther King Jr. Stood for Something. Take Back Martin Luther King Day!” “…and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.”- Martin Luther King Jr. March for the Jena Six; Paul Childs; Frank Lobato; Ishmael Mena; Jamaal Bonner and all victims of police brutality; for the people of New Orleans; for Indigenous people; for immigrant workers; for all political prisoners; for the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Colombia and the oppressed around the world--Shut Down the War Machine! Stop Police Brutality! Long Live International Solidarity!

Detroit: 2008 MLK Day March & Rally Against War, Racism, and Poverty, Mon., Jan. 21, 12 p.m., Central United Methodist Church, Woodward and Adams, Detroit Keynote speaker: Rev. Dr. Lucius Walker, Director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace; For information go to www.mecawi.org

Los Angeles: International Action Center Forum Against Racism, Saturday January 26, 4343 Leimert Blvd, LA. Educational forum on the state of racism in the U.S., commemorating and honoring Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy. Special emphasis on the increased repression against Black people and immigrant communities. Panelists will address police murder and brutality, remembering victims like Tyisha Miller, Devon Brown and others; prison industrial complex and political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal and the San Francisco 8; destruction of housing belonging to Katrina victims; how to build the struggle to free the Jena 6, heightened racism against immigrants, especially attacks on Mexican people in California; and the media's consistent distortion and exclusion of people of color. For more information, call 323-936-7266.

Philadelphia: International Action Center sponsoring a program with panel of speakers against Racism, Tues., Jan. 22, 7 p.m. at Calvary Church, 48th & Baltimore.

Providence: RI Poor Peoples Campaign, RI Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee and RI Peoples Assembly press conference/rally on the steps of the State House at 11 a.m. launching their Poor Peoples Campaign for a March on the Statehouse on April 4, the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination.

San Diego: Monday, Jan. 21, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Community gathering at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, 6401 Skyline Avenue, San Diego, CA. Program will include drumming, the playing of Dr. King's “Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence” speech, poetry, spoken word, presentations by community activists and music. Event sponsored by San Diego King/Chávez Coalition for Justice and Unity. Contact: Gloria Verdieu at 619-255-4585.

Green Party Presidential Debate

The first Green Party debate between candidates on the Green Party's California ballot for President of the United States was held Sunday, January 13 at 2 p.m. at the Herbst Theater/Veterans Memorial Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue.

Six-time Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney, longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader - who is not yet an announced candidate, university professor Jared Ball and environmental engineer Kent Mesplay participated in "Campaign 2008: A Presidential Debate that Matters."

"Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan - a former Democrat - co-moderated the debate. Sheehan, running as an independent Congressional candidate against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, was joined by other prominent progressive elected officials, to be announced later.

Information on Green presidential candidates, with links to candidates' web sites: http://www.gp.org/committees/pcsc/index.shtml

Commentary: Connecting the Dots

Connecting dots is tricky business and we cannot be sure that the
coincidence of the President's visit to Israel, the Persian Gulf
incident, and the jump in the stock market means that the President is
trading war against Iran for an infusion of Israeli money into Treasury
bonds, or into the stock market itself. If the connection is correct,
however, such a "stimulation" of the economy means, not only an unhuman
genocidal war, but an infusion of money with no production of wealth,
more inflation, and an economically, physically exhausting war.

-Jean G Braun

Ryan Nominated for Nobel Prize

George H. Ryan is nominated for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize

University of Illinois Law and Human Rights Professor Francis A. Boyle has nominated George H. Ryan for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. The current growing moratorium movement spreading across the United States is a reality directly connected to Ryan's courageous opposition to the death penalty both in the US and around the world, and to his visionary action to impose the first US moratorium against the death penalty in 2000.


Due to George Ryan's commitment to humanitarian principles and his tireless efforts to create dialogue in support of seeking justice for the 3,350 men and women warehoused on death rows throughout the US, the United States Supreme Court has in effect imposed a nation wide moratorium on executions. George Ryan's dream to end governmental killing has temporarily come to fruition.

The growing momentum for the outright abolition of the death penalty in the United States is due to the heroic efforts of George H. Ryan. He has done more effective work against the death penalty than the entire American Abolitionist Movement put together. For that reason the world should award him the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize.


For information contact :

Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (phone)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu

http://www.thenobelpeaceprizetoryan.com/

The Global Network Protests StratCom

The U.S. Strategic Command (StratCom) for years has been the site from which a nuclear war would be controlled. Since 9/11, its mission has expanded. It is now also command central in the U.S. “War on Terror” and for the U.S. plans to dominate space militarily. This “New StratCom” is responsible for overseeing any Global “First Strikes,” the National Security Agency’s “warrantless wiretaps,” and Ballistic Missile Defense.

StratCom (at Offutt AFB) today is the most dangerous place on the face of the earth. It is secretive. Its mission is destabilizing. It operates outside the law. And its transformation has occurred so quickly, most of the world is completely unaware of its missions and dangers.

The Global Network brings together world citizens who will, for the first time, gather to shine a light on what StratCom has become. Building global awareness is essential if we are to get StratCom to back away from the brink.

The conference will be hosted by Global Network affiliate Nebraskans for Peace.



Conference Agenda
Friday, April 11
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Rally at StratCom’s Kinney Gate at Offutt A.F.B., Omaha, Nebraska



6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Dinner at Creighton University (St. John’s Parish basement) Welcome by nationally known Native American activist Frank LaMere of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and Native American drumming group.



Saturday, April 12

8:00 am Registration coffee/bagels, tabling at Creighton University (St. John’s Parish basement)

9:00 – 9:15 Welcome and Purpose of Conference


9:15 – 11:00 Plenary Panel Discussion I: StratCom’s New Mission: From Waging the War on Terror to the Domination of Space

11:15 – 1:00 Plenary Panel Discussion II: U.S. Bases Worldwide & Their Connection to Space Technology


1:00 – 2:00 Lunch at St. John’s Parish Basement

2:15 – 3:45 Workshop Session I

4:00 – 5:30 Workshop Session II

6:00 – 9:00 Dinner and Speakers/Music



Sunday, April 13
9:00 am – 1:00 pm Global Network Membership meeting (All are welcome to join us on Sunday for our annual meeting for local grassroots reports, Board elections, the coordinator’s report, and to participate in our strategy discussion for the coming year.)





Workshops for Saturday Afternoon



§ Wars of the Future: Military Transformation

§ StratCom and U.S. First-Strike Policy

§ Mission Moon & Mars: U.S. Bases on the Planetary Bodies

§ Anti-Bases Network: Building Alliances to End the Empire

§ Space Command: Military Arm of Corporate Globalization

§ Missile Defense Developments in Europe: U.S., NATO and a New Cold War

§ Missile Defense: Deployments in U.S. & Asian-Pacific Region

§ Converting the Permanent War Economy

§ Organizing around Campus Militarization

§ Space Law-fare as New Weapon of War

§ Echoes from Other Lands: Voices of People Displaced By U.S. Bases

§ Creative Nonviolent Disobedience to Empire





Conference Speakers (List is in Formation)



§ Bob Anderson, Stop the War Machine

§ Olivier Bancoult, Republic of Mauritius Chagos Refugees Group

§ Brian Bogart, Student Activist, University of Oregon

§ Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation

§ Leslie Cagan, United for Peace & Justice

§ Frank Cordaro, Des Moines Catholic Worker

§ Stacey Fritz, No Nukes North

§ Bruce Gagnon, Global Network

§ Bishop Thomas Gumbleton

§ Regina Hagen, International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation

§ Dud Hendrick, Maine Veterans for Peace

§ Elizabeth McAlister, Jonah House

§ David Meieran, Bite the Bullet

§ Greg Mello, Los Alamos Study Group

§ Lindis Percy, Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, England

§ Bal Pinguel, American Friends Service Committee

§ J. Narayana Rao, All India Peace & Solidarity Organization

§ Tim Rinne, Nebraskans for Peace
§ Joanne Sheehan, War Resisters League

§ Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

§ Mary Beth Sullivan, Global Network

§ Bill Sulzman, Citizens for Peace in Space

§ David Swanson, After Downing Street

§ Jan Tamas, No To Bases Initiative, Czech Republic

§ Carol Urner, Woman’s International League for Peace & Freedom

§ David Webb, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, England

§ Loring Wirbel, Citizens for Peace in Space

§ Col. Ann Wright, Retired U.S. Army & U.S. State Department





Event Endorsers (List is in Formation)

After Downing Street
Bite the Bullet Campaign
Codepink
Committee for the Rescue & Development of Vieques
Fellowship of Reconciliation
International Network Against Foreign Military Bases
Nebraskans for Peace
No Nukes North-Alaska
No To Bases Initiative-Czech Republic
Omaha Catholic Worker
Peace Action
United for Peace & Justice
Veterans for Peace
Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom

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