Notes from national peace & justice unity meeting

 

 

On October 13 there was an important meeting via Zoom to build unity among key peace and justice movement organizations in the US.

The meeting was attended by leaders from the US Peace Council, Black Alliance for Peace, United National Antiwar Coalition, United for Peace & Justice, Veterans For Peace, Answer Coalition, Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, WorldBeyondWar, Code Pink, Popular Resistance, Task Force on the Americas, and International Action Center. 

The meeting was facilitated by Ajamu Baraka (BAP).

Here are some of the statements made by various leaders during the call.

• We all need to work to build a movement which is more unified in messaging and campaigns. Groups should still do their work but where (and when) possible more unity is important.

• The Afghanistan failure - who is responsible and why were we there? The Afghan withdrawal is part of a larger US military strategy.
  

• The US is stationing troops in Taiwan to train the military there for a possible war with China. A new US global war strategy is being implemented towards China.
  

• Two-thirds of the national US budget is for war.

• Forty-two million Americans are on food stamps, facing evictions while climate crisis worsens.

• We must find ways to work together.

• Must focus on our local communities addiction to military spending. Got to talk about jobs and conversion of the war machine if we hope to stop endless war and deal with environmental issues.

• There is unity among the US corporate ruling class on China and Africom.
  

• The US has economic wars (sanctions, etc) and military wars and they are linked. We must show the links in our work more often.

• A campaign is needed for re-nationalization of our economies rather than privatization and globalization.

• Must link climate crisis.

• Israel and Turkey are moving to take control of the Middle East as the US 'pivots' into the Asia-Pacific.

• There can be no serious nuclear disarmament negotiations without dealing with the Pentagon encirclement of Russia and China with so-called 'missile defense' systems.

• The US is desperate as it sees its economic/military empire collapse making it more dangerous than ever.

In the end it was agreed that this was an important meeting and that we should hold a similar one in the near future to build on it. No date was set but the urgency was evident.