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| Preparing to head to India for the Space Law conference. Concerned about the colonization of the planetary bodies for 'profit, exploitation, and militarization'. I will post reports while on the trip. |
Dear Friends,
I write to ask
for your support as I prepare to leave on a month-long organizing journey on
behalf of the Global Network. This will be my schedule.
- Oct 11-14 Visakhapatnam, India
- Oct 15-17 Kathmandu, Nepal
- Oct 18-23 Moscow, Russia
- Oct 24-30 Train to Lugansk People Republic (LPR) and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border
- Nov 1-Nov 13 Simferopol & Yalta, Crimea
India:
Our board member Aruna Kammila is a professor at the Damodaram
Sanjivayya National Law University in Visakhapatnam and has organized an International
Space
Law Conference on the theme "Explore
but don't exploit." We
will focus on building an international consciousness and support to demand
that United Nations space law treaties (Moon & Outer Space Treaties) be
respected and followed rather than ignored by creating the mad rush to
privatize space on behalf of the aerospace industry and the rich.
Just like
the US withdrawal from other treaties in recent years (ABM, Iran Nuclear Deal,
and INF) there is growing concern that Washington’s number one agenda for space
is to turn it toward privatized domination and exploitation. We’ve had enough of that. Aruna’s hard work to
organize this conference will allow for deep learning. GN board members Lindis
Percy (UK) and Subrata Ghoshroy (Boston) will also be there.
Nepal:
I’ve been invited to return to Kathmandu where I will meet with GN
chapter leaders and speak at several colleges across the city about our
work. During our previous visit to Nepal
in 2016 (see the reports from that India-Nepal trip here) a
group of local college professors asked if they could create a chapter of the
Global Network in Kathmandu. We of
course said yes. Since then, delegates from Nepal tried to attend our annual
conferences in Alabama and England but their Visa applications were rejected. Thankfully this past spring they were allowed
to join us in Moscow during our Russia study tour. Their persistence inspires
us all.
Moscow:
Here I will meet with a number of political activists, including our
newest board member, Leonid Ilderkin from Ukraine who now lives as a political
refugee in Russia. Among the topics of discussion will be their perspectives on
the 2014 US-orchestrated coup d’état in Ukraine which put into power many
fascists backed by Nazi death squads
primarily from western Ukraine. Few westerners know that tens of thousands of
people in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, were killed and arrested by
the new regime in Kiev, the capitol of Ukraine. More than one million other
Ukrainians escaped to Russia because of the constant shelling of the Donbass
(the part of Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine near the Russian border). The US-NATO have been key players in arming,
training and directing these attacks in the Donbass. A good article for background information on
these events is here.
Lugansk & Donetsk: Leonid will take me via overnight
train to Lugansk in the Donbass at the invitation of a labor leader there. A few months ago this gentle labor man, whom
I met at a conference in Moscow one year ago, asked me to create an Online
petition calling on the US & Canada to stop arms sales/grants to
Ukraine. He was so grateful for the
support that he invited me to visit, and is planning to have me speak at a
conference in nearby Donetsk. We will spend several days meeting with people
there who are trying to get the world to understand their current struggle for survival
as they are daily under attack by the Ukrainian Army and the Nazi death squads
that still operate with impunity.
The west
claims that Russia invaded Ukraine, but there is no evidence of that. Following the 2014 coup, and the indiscriminate
killing of citizens in the Donbass by the Ukrainian government, a self-defense
force was created in the region – primarily in the region of Lugansk and
Donetsk. Coal miners, musicians, teachers,
electricians, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers joined the self-defense
forces to protect their communities and families.
The Pentagon
established a base in western Ukraine and rotates in US Army Special Forces
troops from Ft. Carson, Colorado who are sent to train the Ukrainian Army. The Ukrainian fascist “godfather” was Stephan
Bandera who donned a Nazi uniform during Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union
during WW II and helped Hitler kill Jews, Communists, Poles and more. Today the Ukrainian Nazi death squads have
been brought into the newly formed ‘National Guard’ and are being trained at
this US-run base. See a video of Obama’s
ambassador visiting the base in early 2016 here.
Crimea: Last spring during our Russia Study
Tour we visited Crimea where local citizens reported on their successful 2014 citizen
referendum to re-join Russia rather than wait for Ukraine to bring its violent
repression to their peninsula. We were able to participate in the
May Day parade in Simferopol which celebrated working people around the
world. That same day local leaders
hosted a conference and invited all our 24 tour members to attend. They spoke to us and asked us to speak to them
in return. Four from our group expressed
that we were ordinary people who had come in the spirit of peace. We told them we worry about war, about
US-NATO expansion now encircling Russia and China, and wish to build peaceful
bridges among our peoples. They received
us with deep respect and generosity.
I was asked
by one of the leaders of the Black Sea
Association for International Cooperation in Simferopol to bring some US
veterans back to Crimea for further conferences in early November. So Simferopol will be my last stop on this
month-long journey.
Needless to
say this trip is costing the Global Network some funds. Only a small part of my expenses will be
reimbursed by my hosts. Most of the
places I will be visiting are living in hard circumstances. It is my hope that you can make a special donation
to the Global Network’s travel fund to help with this trip.
Some years
ago the GN board asked me to work harder to build better relationships with
peaceful people and groups in Russia and Eastern Europe. It has not been easy, but since 2016 we’ve
made major steps forward in that direction.
Clearly it takes traveling and establishing personal relationships to
make that happen. It also costs money.
This trip
will offer a profound privilege and opportunity to the GN to deepen our
solidarity with friends in India, Nepal, Russia and eastern Ukraine. We need each other now more than ever.
I wish you
the best as we approach the fall season and the end of the year festivities. Always let’s keep in mind our earnest work to
bring a loving spirit to this beautiful Mother Earth that we all have the good
fortune to live on.
In peace,
Bruce K.
Gagnon
Coordinator
PS You can donate by sending a tax-deductible
check to the GN at PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011 or by going to our web site www.space4peace.org
and clicking on the secure Green Donate
Now button. Thank you very much.
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