Call for Local Spring Asia-Pacific
Events
Around the World
After twelve years of war in the Middle East
and Central Asia, the Obama Administration is “pivoting” to the
Asia-Pacific. Sixty percent of the U.S.
military forces are being deployed in the region to “contain” China. The popular phrase in Washington to describe
this process is a “re-balancing” of US forces.
The increased militarization of
the US’s Asia-Pacific policies is anything but benign. It is fueling region-wide
arms races, increasing the dangers of war, as we have seen in the territorial
dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, reinforces Japan’s transformation into
a national security state, and has devastating impacts on the people of Jeju
Island, Okinawa, Guam and Hawaii where new bases are being built.
The House Armed Services
Committee will begin a series of hearings in February to further demonize China
and to create the support for additional Congressional funding for the military
“pivot”.
The Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization invites peace groups, faith communities, and API solidarity
groups to join us to counter-organize around those hearings this coming spring.
We invite you to organize local or regional educational forums or other public
events to create greater public awareness about the pivot.
Our plan is to follow up after
the spring events by organizing a national conference on the Asia-Pacific in the
fall of 2014.
We will soon provide a list of
Asia-Pacific resources including speakers, films, books, websites, and articles
that could help further grow the issue in our communities.
The pivot is an issue that will
touch every community. The military
industrial complex fully knows that in order to pay for the massively expensive
“re-balancing” the remaining slim thread of social spending must be cut to cover corporate imperial ambitions. The military also creates a large
carbon footprint that will only exacerbate climate change.
We hope that with your
collaboration, we can connect the dots between cancerous militarism,
environmental degradation, a new costly arms race, and human rights abuses.
Please let us know if you have
any comments, questions, or suggestions or would like to offer to become a local
or regional spark plug for these events.
Contact us at: JGerson@afsc.org or globalnet@mindspring.com
In peace,
Christine Ahn – Women
De-Militarize the Zone (DMZ)
Liberato Bautista - United
Nations Ministry of the General Board of Church and Society
Jackie Cabasso – Western States
Legal Foundation
John Feffer – Foreign Policy in
Focus
Bruce K. Gagnon – Global Network
Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
Joseph Gerson – American Friends
Service Committee
Subrata Ghoshroy – Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Mark Harrison – United Methodist
General Board of Church and Society
Christine Hong – Korea Policy
Institute
Kyle Kajihiro - Hawaiʻi Peace and
Justice
Peter Kuznick - American
University
Judith LeBlanc – Peace Action
Hyun Lee – Nodutdol
Andrew Lichterman – Western
States Legal Foundation
Ramsay Liem – Boston College
Kevin Martin – Peace Action
Stephen McNeil – American Friends
Service Committee
Satoko Norimatsu - Peace
Philosophy Centre (Vancouver)
Mike Prokosch – Working Group for
Peace & Demilitarization in Asia & the Pacific
Arnie Saiki – Moana Nui Action
Network
Chloe Schwabe - Columban Center
for Advocacy and Outreach
Tim Shorrock - Journalist
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