TALKING WITH THE CHOIR AT THE FAIR

I spent Friday-Saturday-Sunday at the Common Ground Fair in Unity. About 50,000 people from throughout Maine and nearby states gathered for the annual celebration of the organic farming movement and alternative politics.

Veterans for Peace and Bring Our War $$ Home campaign shared a booth and talked with legions of people during the course of the fair. We handed out literature and sold buttons, bumperstickers and the very popular Americans Who Tell the Truth series of portrait cards by Maine artist Robert Shetterly.

I began asking people who approached our table if they knew how much money the Congress was spending on the Afghanistan war each month. Many would say they knew, or they didn't want to know, but in fact few people knew that the figure is $10 billion every month. But they were all clear that those tax dollars could be better used back here at home.

My follow-up question to people was, "I'm making a list of ideas. Please tell me how you think we can get out from behind this eight-ball." There were some interesting suggestions but quite a number of folks said they didn't think we could do anything to stop the coming collapse and return to feudalism. One man told me that the night before a group of his friends sat around a dinner table and they all came to the conclusion that nothing could be done. Their "knight in shining armor" Barack Obama, who was going to bring hope and change, had betrayed them. Now all was lost.

It's like a self-reinforcing circular firing squad. An epidemic of resignation. But I was not satisfied to leave it there. I prodded and poked and tried to find some sign of life and usually if I could get the people to talk some more they would work their way back to the land of the living. Many would throw me the old line that I was just "preaching to the choir" which is the excuse for those who want to say they agree with me but don't really want to get engaged. I would respond that the choir is not singing the song - in fact, most of the choir aren't showing up for choir practice. The choir is waiting for the choir "director", a leader who would make everything OK again.

I found that if I really listened to those who were sincerely wanting to find a way out of this dark time they were extremely grateful. One woman talked to me for some time and as she turned to walk away, she stopped and thanked me for seeking her opinion. I witnessed this several times and it occurred to me that few people are ever asked by anyone what they think. No one cares what they think!

I left the fair on Sunday afternoon and drove to nearby Belfast where a 4:00 pm rally was being organized by local peace and pro-democracy groups. Dud Hendrick (Veterans for Peace) and I both were among the speakers. About 50 people turned out in the middle of town for the event and many more folks drove by waving and honking approval of the signs being held that included the messages Tax the Rich and Bring Our War $$ Home.

The Common Ground Fair is a wedding of the movements. The alternative culture movements of cooperation, decentralization, and sustainability are linked with the activists for progressive political action. We need all of these strands of the environmental, social and political movements to be moving together, reinforcing each other, supporting one another.

Each of our problems and challenges today lead us back to the corrupt system of corporate control that puts a price tag on everything in our world - a price tag on nature, on freedom of speech, and on the vision of our collective future.

It will take all of us in the choir to do our part in these days ahead. We each have a role in singing the song of resistance to endless war and corporate control. We each have a part in giving voice to the path out of this dark nightmare. We must all keep singing....no matter how hard it might be at this time.

ANOTHER SPARK THAT LIT A MOVEMENT

Berkeley in the '60s (1990 - Mark Kitchell) from Stuart Christie on Vimeo.

As we see the rising of people on Wall Street it is good to remember our connection to past struggles like this.

See this powerful documentary about the process of youth radicalisation in America (Berkeley, California) from the anti-HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) in May 1960 onwards . . .

HEDGES ON WALL STREET PROTESTS

This video is from the Occupy Wall Street livestream and was posted at YouTube on September 26

SUNDAY SONG

SPACE JUNK POLLUTES SPACE

An old NASA satellite is out of control and plunging back towards Earth. But U.S. scientists have been left guessing where it will land - as it could be anywhere on the planet. RT's Peter Oliver sought out some top Russian astronomers and cosmonauts to look at whether we should be watching our heads.

They also talk about the growing problem of space junk that orbits the Earth at 15,000 mph.

TO BECOME HUMAN AGAIN

• The gigantic hammers are busting the sacred rocks on Gangjeong village coastline again. The South Korean Navy has ordered that all signs, flags, and banners be taken down in the village. Sounds like martial law to me. Activists defied orders and barricades and made their way back onto the rocky coast to interrupt the destruction.


• The execution of Troy Davis has once again exposed the mean-spirited nature of America. People all over the world are broken hearted and furious about this latest display of racism and violence. The U.S. is always scolding others around the world about the need to "renounce violence". U.S. corporate controlled politicians like to lecture the Palestinians or the Taliban about the absolute necessity for them to quit their ways of violence. Then the hypocritical U.S. sells more weapons to Israel and turns its head as they slam the helpless people in Gaza. Or the U.S. fires its drone-directed missiles into a wedding or funeral in Pakistan making sure that even more people become "terrorists" in retaliation to the senseless killing of innocent people. The blood has flowed in the hearts and minds of the American people since the early days of the Pilgrims landing on Massachusetts shore in 1620. It's been a blood lust ever since - genocide of Native Americans, introduction of slavery, civil war, westward expansion, innumerable wars and Manifest Destiny turns into today's endless war for global corporate domination.


• It's no wonder that more than 10% of the American people are taking anti-depressant drugs. People who understand the true nature of corporate control are suffering from social isolation and the anti-human nature of this capitalist system. It's no wonder that people don't believe that we can change anything - that all the doors to true democracy are slammed shut, locked, bolted, and guarded by the corporate police. The lesson of the Jeju Island resistance to the destruction of Gangjeong village is that the human spirit can indeed survive and flourish even in the midst of this violence and anti-nature assault. In fact, the process of fighting for each other and for the natural world is what reconnects us to our humanity. Fight and survive. Fight and find your true humanity. Fight and come alive again. Fight and reject the corporate death machine. We don't have to kill in order to fight. We can shake off our mental chains and stand against the insanity of a corporate order that rejects life and has declared war on the natural world.

COVERAGE IN WATERVILLE PAPER

We got coverage in this morning's Waterville newspaper about our work yesterday at the University of Maine-Farmington. You can see it here

Dan Ellis and I will now head to Waterville to hold our Bring Our War $$ Home banner on a busy street during the noon rush hour. After that we go to Belfast to do the same for afternoon traffic and then to the Afghanistan war documentary film at the public library.

Will get home late tonight.

So we've had something in two major papers in Maine the last two days. Got to keep pumping up the jam.

Give us a hand and write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Use the words Bring Our War $$ Home.

Let's help shape the debate as the "Super Committee" in Congress tries to do everything they can to avoid cuts in Pentagon spending. Make a demand.

PRESENTATION IN VIRGINIA

My talk at the Military Industrial Complex at 50 conference in Charlottesville, Virginia this past year.

REACHING OUT TO STUDENTS

I am sitting in the Student Center at University of Maine-Farmington with fellow activists Dan Ellis (Brunswick) and Mark Roman (Solon). We are behind two tables that are laden with our literature and we've already handed out hundreds of flyers to the many students who pass by this busy spot.

We've got our Bring Our War $$ Home banner hanging on the wall behind us and signs on either end of the table.

At 11:30 this morning I was able to talk with about 25 people for an hour about our month long Care-a-Van around Maine. Sitting in the room was a reporter from Waterville Sentinel newspaper who had heard about the meeting which was set up on the campus by fellow Veterans for Peace member Doug Rawlings. Doug teaches Peace Studies here and is also organizing the concert tonight with folksinger David Rovics. We'll have a literature table there as well.

At 4:00 pm Dan, Mark, and I will move out onto the street in the downtown area for an hour of holding signs and banners and leafleting folks on the street as they prepare to head home from work.

This morning I picked up the Portland Press Herald and saw that my letter to the editor about endless war spending, along with a couple others on the same subject, were printed in the paper. You can see them here

It is our goal during this 30-day period to reach beyond our normal organizing boundaries - to reach deeper into the public and help expand people's consciousness about our work to Bring Our War $$ Home. Today is an example that if you get out and do the work you can indeed break the chains of our inner boxes.

Tomorrow Dan and I head to Waterville and Belfast for more of the same.

TAKING IT TO WALL STREET

Protests continued today on Wall Street in New York City following this on Saturday.

This is a great spot to hold protests as it is the symbol of greed, corporate control, the excess of capitalism, the arrogance of the rich and their contempt for working and poor people in this country and around the world.

Anyone who defends the rich from tax cuts and strict regulations, and claims to have the interest of working people at heart, is playing games with our heads.

This is why we have government - to protect the majority against the greed and corruption of the oligarchy.

EVACUATING TOKYO?

More than 60,000 protested in Tokyo today against nuclear power. This report indicates that radiation levels are climbing in Tokyo. Can you imagine evacuating 35 million people?

Nuclear power stations must be shut down everywhere on this planet. We can't wait for more accidents like Cherrnobyl and Fukushima.

See news article about Tokyo protest here

SKUNKS, POTATOES, LEAFLETS, PEACE

We got home last night from Virginia and the conference called "Military Industrial Complex at 50". I'd venture to guess there were up to 150 folks who passed through the event during the course of the weekend. Many great speakers and a good hosting by local activists in Charlottesville. Our host family loaned us their second car so MB and I could come and go as we wished. Some wonderful meals were served including an authentic Afghanistan supper the first night prepared by local Afgan restaurant.

You can see an article about the confab in the local Charlottesville newspaper here

It was fun to be back in the south again - land of growing militarism, grits, and southern drawls (each one distinct in their own way from different parts of the region).

But it felt good to come back to Maine when we landed in Portland. As our plane made its way to the gate I could smell that distinct smell I've come to know in our state - skunks. Just about everywhere you go in Maine, as it gets dark, you are bound to smell a skunk. I turned to MB on the plane and said, "It seems Gov. LePage has just made a visit to the airport." But then as we drove north on I-295 I could smell skunk spray along the highway, so it appears our right-wing governor was just one step ahead of us.

Today I plan to dig up potatoes in our garden and prepare for a busy week with the Bring Our War $$ Home Care-a-Van. In the morning a handful of us head north to University of Maine-Farmington where we will spend the early part of the day talking to and leafleting students. In the afternoon we will stand in the downtown and hold signs and banners and hand out more leaflets about the campaign. Then in the evening we'll attend the David Rovics concert at the university.

We'll spend the night at the home of Veterans for Peace co-founder Doug Rawlings and then head to Belfast the next day where we'll repeat the bannering, leafleting and such on the streets of that community before attending an evening documentary film showing of Kill/Capture (the US military campaign in Afghanistan and targeted raids using classified intelligence, drones, and Special Operations Forces as a tactic) at the public Library at 6:00 pm.

Then on Friday I'll head back north to the Common Ground Fair where the Bring Our War $$ Home campaign will share a table with Maine Veterans for Peace on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. The fair draws tens of thousands of Mainers each year and is a wonderful place to do outreach.

SUNDAY SONG

MORE GANGJEONG VIDEO

Sung-Hee Choi writes about this video:

Director Cho says he had to make this 30min. long video hurriedly so that it can be watched upon need, soon. However, you will be never bored. The video is a wonderful record of people’s strong resistance against unjust police crack-down in the Gangjeong village on Aug. 24 and Sept. 2. Since Aug. 24, near forty people including mayor, Kang Dong-Kyun have been arrested and seven people have been imprisoned unjustly under the charges of such as obstruction of business or special obstruction on government affairs etc. A second 4. 3, indeed. What they have wanted was to save the Peace Island, Jeju, in peaceful way, from the Government’s inhuman and violent policies that would eventually bring war base in the Island.

This heartbreaking and inspiring video was shown in people’s candle light vigil in the Gangjeong village tonight, reminding people both days’ intense emotion and heightening their will to win the struggle.

MILITARISM'S MORAL CORRUPTION

Gangjeong village artist and activist Gillchun Koh with Noam Chomsky at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) yesterday discussing the current fight on Jeju Island to stop construction of Navy base

• Matt Hoey in Boston yesterday arranged to have Gillchun Koh meet with Noam Chomsky to brief him on the current situation in Gangjeong village. Matt also set up a speaking event for Koh the night before at Boston College. Good work Matt.
• MB and I arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia yesterday after two uneventful flights from Portland, Maine. Things began last night with a dinner and then talks by David Swanson and Ann Wright who courageously had just come from major skin cancer operations three days before. Several old friends from Florida days (Clare Hanrahan and Ruth Zalph) are also at the conference and it was fun to see Lisa Savage and Mark Roman from Maine walk in the door sporting their usual Code Pink attire. This morning the venue changed and we are sitting in a huge auditorium at the Piedmont Virginia Community College. I speak later this afternoon and MB does her talk tomorrow morning.
• Virginia is the #1 recipient of Pentagon funding in the nation. Charlottesville has 161 military contractors in the community bringing in $919,914,918 during the last 10 years. There can be no doubt that the culture of this state, and increasingly the entire nation, has become militarized. When militarism is your #1 industrial export product, as is the case in the U.S., you've got to turn a steady stream of conflicts into hot wars in order to justify these kinds of levels of military spending. We have become a killing culture.....morally and ethically America is bankrupt. It's moral corruption at its highest level. It's an issue that most Americans choose to ignore.
  
• Two of the Jeju Island protest leaders were released from jail yesterday. People in the Gangjeong village worried they both were going to be salted away for some long jail time so this came as a surprise. Is it a sign of the impact of the growing global awareness about the Jeju Navy base issue? Last night when Ann Wright spoke she mentioned the Jeju struggle and I will do so today in my talk as well.
  

COST OF AFGHAN WAR - UK VERSION

SELLING WEAPONS PROMOTES "FOREIGN POLICY OBJECTIVES"

The world's largest arms fair offers any number of ways to kill, destroy, and conquer, by land, sea, and air. Yet this year's event, held in London, is a little different, given how easily it has been discovered that many of these companies have been supplying equipment to countries which used them against their own populations during the Arab Spring. Liam Fox, Britain's most senior defence minister, arrived at the fair to reassure any nervous manufacturers that despite all the controversy they need not worry about a lack of political backing. Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee reports from London, UK.

STARTING NEW COLD WAR

GETTING THE WORD OUT

• I did a live TV interview this afternoon via Skype with Russia Today (RT). Just waiting to see the clip posted on their web site. We talked about the new deal that Hillary Clinton signed with Romania to allow U.S. "missile defense" interceptors to be deployed in their country. The U.S. has also recently signed a deal with Turkey to put a "missile defense" radar in that country. Previously the Pentagon agreed to a deal with Poland to deploy a PAC-3 (3rd generation Patriot) missile interceptor system there. So with these deployments, and NATO expansion eastward, the Russians are finding themselves being boxed in. Why? It's important to remember that Russia has the world's largest supply of natural gas and significant stocks of oil........



• Our new Bring Our War $$ Home radio ads will start next week on five radio stations in Maine. Supporters of the Maine campaign have donated $1,600 toward the one-minute radio spots that will run on conservative talk show stations from Portland to Presque Island. The ad was recorded by legendary Maine media personality and story teller Robert Skoglund (The Humble Farmer). You can listen to the ad here



• MB and I head to Charlottesville, Virginia early Friday morning where we both have been invited to speak at a conference called Military Industrial Complex at 50: A National Conference. MB will talk about economic conversion and I will talk about the global military agenda of the US. CodePink Maine coordinator Lisa Savage will also be a speaker at the event. A slew of other great activists will be speaking as well. Should be an exciting conference.

PUBLISHED IN DENMARK

Activists at a peace festival this past weekend in Denmark were read a statement from the Global Network

• I was recently contacted by Andre Emile Brochu who lives in Malmo, Sweden. I met Andre when I went to Sweden as part of a speaking tour to Scandinavia in September 2008. Andre was born in Farmington, Maine and spent summers in Livermore Falls but escaped to Sweden during the Vietnam War as a draft resister and he decided to stay there. He led a group of us through a long peace march and rally in Malmo that was a part of the European Social Forum and then made sure to find a great restaurant for our hungry Global Network team that he was escorting around.

A week or so ago Andre contacted me and asked for a statement from the Global Network that could be read at an upcoming peace festival in Denmark that he was going to be attending. So I wrote it and sent it to him and today got back a link to an article that included my statement. You can see it here

Andre wrote to me, "So you have been published in Danish just like Kirkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen."

• I had a wonderful day yesterday in Biddeford and Saco as I rejoined the Walk for Fukushima. I met the walkers at a park in Biddeford where Richard Rhames and I taped an interview with Mia and Steve Athearn about why they are walking for both our public access TV shows. Then we went to city hall for a meeting with Mayor Joanne Twomey who took us into her office. There on the wall, right by her desk, was a sketching of Gandhi, MLK, and Dorothy Day. She spent an hour with us asking questions about the purpose of the walk and also talked about how much she appreciates the work of the Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home. About six months ago, when we held our last rally in the state capital in Augusta, I invited Mayor Twomey to speak and her golden words went out across the state over public radio. She said, "I'm tired of firing people because of budget cuts. I challenge every mayor in the state of Maine to say Bring Our War $$ Home!" Perfect.

After we finished with our meeting at city hall we went to the nearby town of Saco where a pot luck supper was to be held at the First Parish Congregational Church. Since we had some time on our hands before the dinner, and the church sits right on U.S. Hwy 1, I got one of the other walkers (Alex) to join me across the street by the war memorial where we held the Bring Our War $$ Home banner for about an hour. As the rush hour traffic wizzed by I held out a leaflet for anyone to grab - I had about 7-8 takers. One woman passed by in her car and then approached us on foot and asked if she could interview me. Come to find out it was the editor of the local Biddeford Courier newspaper so she took some pictures and asked me some questions. Another reporter had earlier spotted us outside city hall when we arrived for the meeting with the mayor and she invited him to come up with us to her office. So that got covered as well.

The supper at the church was great (some really good macaroni and cheese) and then there was an excellent sharing circle afterwards with the church folks who came to feed the walkers. Church member Tom Kircher invited me to say a few words about the connection between the Walk for Fukushima and the Bring Our War $$ Home campaign. I told the story about the years of dangerous NASA plutonium space launches and how the nuclear industry views space as a new market for their deadly product. I suggested that if we could convert the military industrial complex to building solar, wind, mass transit and the like we could decentralize power production, get rid of the nuclear industry, and have some impact on the coming ravages of climate change. But we're going to have to make strong demands on the political system if we hope to make that happen.

PENTAGON WANTS ALL YOUR $$$$$$$$$

In order to keep the fear campaign humming along, former Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld is out beating the drum for more Pentagon spending.

"The Department of Defense is not what's causing the debt and the deficit. It's the entitlement programs," he told Human Events in an exclusive interview. "If we make that mistake, we're doomed to suffer another attack of some kind, and our intelligence will be less strong and less effective."

Rumsfeld also said that Obama's decision to keep many of the tools and tactics President Bush implemented to fight terrorism is reassuring. Even though Obama spent his entire 2008 presidential campaign promising to roll back those same terror-fighting policies, the President has discovered that they've "contributed to the protection of the American people these past 10 years."

This is just the beginning of the scare campaign from the military industrial complex that we will now witness. Their public relations effort will be intense and is intended to ensure that Congress buckles under their fierce pressure.

Our efforts to call on all elected officials to Bring Our War $$ Home is now more important than ever. Be sure to write a letter to your local newspaper immediately to help counter this right-wing public fear campaign.

This attack on social progress in America must be resisted by all of us. Find ways each day to help stop the lords of feudalism from taking us back to the 17-18th centuries.

FIREFIGHTERS ON 9-11

We all must support the call for a real independent investigation

MORE CARE-A-VAN TODAY

My friend Starr Gilmartin (Trenton, Maine) vigils on the bridge near her home every Sunday. I saw her at the grassroots media confab on Saturday and she said she needed a good 9-11 themed sign for yesterday's vigil. So I suggested "Call 911 - End the wars". She wrote it down and last night I got an email with the photo above - so she used it. Came out good.

I drove a van load of seven of us from around here to Portland last night. We had dinner together and then went out to the Back Cove for the vigil of light once it got dark. I was quite impressed with the numbers of people who showed up. (I'd guess 500) The cove is at least four miles round and there were people around large sections of it. There was a church group next to where we were standing and they had at least 50 people with them.

I handed out Bring Our War $$ Home flyers I made for the month long Care-a-Van and ran into lots of people I know. Not everyone who came seemed clear as to why they were there.....I think the organizers kept it a bit vague in order to draw a larger crowd. So our banner and the flyers helped give some focus, at least on our part of the cove.

Today I drive south to Biddeford where I will meet up with the Walk for Fukushima at 2:00 pm and interview them while my buddy (and fellow public access TV activist) Richard Rhames films it for his show called "Out in Left Field". Then at 3:00 pm we have a meeting with the mayor of Biddeford and after that I want to hold our banner and hand out Bring Our War $$ Home flyers on a busy street.

In the evening will be a pot luck supper at the First Parish Congregational Church, 12 Beach Street, 6:00 pm in Saco that Tom Kircher has organized for the walkers and the Care-a-Van.

LIVING WITH NATURE

A beautiful story about humans living in harmony with the natural world.

LOOK FOR THE TRUTH

I posted this video a couple weeks ago but it seems appropriate to re-post today.

Bring the truth forward.

DOWN THE ROAD

Lisa Savage and Steve Burke print Bring Our War $$ Home T-shirts during the WERU Radio's Maine Grassroots Media Conference

I drove north early yesterday morning so I could make it in time to hear artist Robert Shetterly (Americans Who Tell the Truth) speak at the opening of the WERU community radio sponsored Grassroots Media Conference in Unity.

It was a full day of workshops and talks about how to expand the growing network of alternative media throughout our state. It appeared that at least 75 people were there and I was happy to be amongst some of the best organizers and activists in the state. The food was also really good - most of it donated by local organic farmers.

One workshop I attended was "Why we need a regular news/analysis publication in Maine and how we can create one" lead by Larry Dansinger. About 30 people came to this workshop so it was clear that the subject was one that was high on people's priority list. I suggested a statewide Internet vehicle was needed where people representing many of our disparate groups could post articles about their work or calendar events. But for it to work we'd all have to promote it widely. One woman suggested a cooperative be organized to run it. I volunteered to serve on a committee to explore the idea.

CodePink Maine's coordinator Lisa Savage, Mark Roman and Steve Burke set up a Bring Our War $$ Home T-shirt making operation in the lobby of the conference where all day they banged out four different designs onto T-shirts. Steve used to be in the T-shirt business and had a bunch of left-over shirts that he sold for $1 each. It was great to see so many people taking a shirt home with one of the four different Bring Our War $$ Home designs that were available.

Today I do a radio interview after lunch and then we are driving our first Care-a-Van load of people from here down to Portland for the "It's time for light" gathering around Back Cove to call for an end to war. It begins at dark (6:30 pm) so we'll all turn our flashlights on and hopefully have enough people show up so we can circle all the way around the cove.

For the next month I'll be traveling around the state from local event-to-event in a van loaned to us by Maine Veterans for Peace leader Peggy Akers. I imagine I'll be blogging about many of the events and I'll be wearing one of my two new T-shirts from yesterday.

See you down the road.

SUNDAY SONG

BRING OUR WAR $$ HOME CARE-A-VAN BEGINS ACROSS MAINE

For Immediate Release
Contact: Bruce Gagnon 443-9502
Lisa Savage 399-7623

The Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home has announced that a statewide series of local anti-war actions, observing 10 years of war in Afghanistan-Iraq-Pakistan-Libya, will begin on September 10 and last until October 9.

The events are intended to remind citizens in Maine that our state's share of war spending since 2001 comes to $3.4 billion. The campaign, which began two years ago with a rally inside the Hall of Flags in Augusta, has now spread nationally. Recently the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting passed a Bring Our War $$ Home resolution, the first time they have taken a foreign policy position since the Vietnam War.

Bring Our War $$ Home resolutions have passed in Maine by the Deer Isle Town Meeting, Solon School Board and the Portland City Council. Similar resolutions have also passed city councils in Hartford, Ct, Amherst and Northampton, MA, Eugene, OR, and Los Angeles, CA.

In addition to the 17 local events (held in 14 Maine communities) the Bring Our War $$ Home campaign has purchased radio ads on five Maine stations from Portland to Presque Isle carrying their message. The radio ads are narrated by Maine's Humble Farmer Robert Skoglund.

According to Bring Our War $$ Home co-coordinator Bruce Gagnon, "Recent national polls show that 70% of the American people want us out of Afghanistan and they want the $10 billion we waste on that war every single month to be brought back to our local communities and states to help solve our fiscal crisis. We are not going to have an economic recovery as long as we keeping flushing people's hard-earned tax dollars down the endless war hole. We are organizing this month of actions across Maine in order to help people apply pressure on all of our elected officials to publicly say - Bring Our War $$ Home."

The month-long series of events will be connected by a Care-a-Van that will attend each event and will hold signs and banners in the communities at each stop. Flyers will be handed out in towns and to students at many colleges during the month. Letters to the Editor will be sent to newspapers across the state as well during the month.

Schedule of Care-a-Van Events:

* Sept 10 WERU Maine Grassroots Media Conference at the Unity College Centre for the Performing Arts. Conference participants will make Bring Our War $$ Home T-shirts. Among the several panel discussions will be: “Political Art Activism” featuring Rob Shetterly (Americans Who Tell the Truth) and Lisa Savage (Bring Our War $$ Home) http://weru.org/news/maine-grassroots-media-conference
* Sept 10 Penny Poll at the Orono Festival join members of the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine and the Orono Peace group to invite members of the community to share their federal budget priorities. Contact the Center if you would like to help. info@peacectr.org
* Sept 11 Portland "It's time for light" around Back Cove to end war 6:00-8:00 pm (Bring flashlight) gracebraley@yahoo.com
* Sept 12 Saco Potluck supper and meeting to discuss Bring Our War $$ Home and Maine Walk for Fukushima (which will arrive in Saco that day), First Parish Congregational Church, 12 Beach Street, 6:00 pm tkircher@maine.rr.com
* Sept 17 Brewer 3:00-6:00 pm Building Bridges for Peace, First Congregational Church in Brewer (45 Church Street) with keynote by Terry Rockefeller of Families for Peaceful Tomorrows who lost her sister on September 11th in the attack on the Twin Towers. She has traveled to Iraq to meet with peace organizers. http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/profile/TerryKayRockefeller The keynote will be followed by panelists sharing what motivates them to continue to work for peace and activity tables by various organizations working for peace. A community simple supper will conclude the day which is free and open to the public. info@peacectr.org
* Sept 20 UMFarmington event featuring singer/songwriter David Rovics and Ruth Hill at 7:00 pm in the Emery Performing Arts Center; Teach-In at 11:00 am - 1:00 pm in the Student Center, leafleting of students about tuition hikes and student debt rawlings@maine.edu
* Sept 21 Belfast film showing of documentary Kill/Capture (the US military campaign in Afghanistan and targeted raids using classified intelligence, drones, and Special Operations Forces as a tactic - It interviews Afghan and Taliban leaders and their responses to the campaign - it's impact on them and the consequences of the whole operation), Belfast Library, 6:00 pm liscoe@roadrunner.com
* Sept 23-25 Bring Our War $$ Home tabling (with Veterans for Peace) at Common Ground Fair, Program in speakers tent. To volunteer to work our table please contact Diane at enviroadvocate@aol.com
* Sept 25 Bangor 7:00 pm Film showing Scarred Lands, Wounded Lives at the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine (96 Harlow Street). The film recognizes our deep dependence on the natural world and our humanly caused threats to the future of the planet. But it also focuses on what is often ignored by environmentalist: the extreme threat of the environmental impact of war and massive preparations for war. info@peacectr.org
* Sept 25 Belfast Rally to Restore Democracy 4:00 - 6:00 pm at Post Office herboldcharlotte@gmail.com
* Sept 27 Blue Hill Program featuring Voices for Peace choir & Robert Shetterly at Bay School's Emlen Auditorium in Blue Hill, 7:00 pm dudhe@myfairpoint.net
* Sept 30 Afghanistan war Teach-In at Bowdoin College in Brunswick entitled 10 Years of war in Afghanistan: What have we learned, what can we do? Smith Auditorium, 3-5 pm Speakers Include: Paul Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Gould, Allen Wells, Nat Wheelwright, Lisa Savage, Dud Hendrick ssternli@gwi.net
* Sept 30 Interview of Paul Fitzgerald & Elizabeth Gould on public access TV program This Issue in Harpswell
* Oct 1 BIW vigil in Bath emphasizing drone warfare during Keep Space for Peace Week at 11:30 am globalnet@mindspring.com
* Oct 2 "A Time for Reflection on 10 Years of War" in Bath led by local religious leaders at 1pm karenwainberg@gmail.com
* Oct 6 UMOrono Bring Our War $$ Home: The Lessons of 9/11, the Afghanistan War, and the Killing of Osama bin Laden, program includes Doug Allen 12:30-1:45, Bangor Room, Memorial Union (Campus leafleting of students about tuition hikes and student debt after the event) Douglas_Allen@umit.maine.edu
* Oct 9 Finale event of Care-a-Van featuring Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscots and Indian drummers plus Bring Our War $$ Home speakers/singers in Augusta to observe Indigenous People's Day globalnet@mindspring.com or lsavage3@gmail.com (exact location yet to be determined). Noon until 3:00 pm. Bring finger food to share.

MOVED BY MIE'S WALK FOR FUKUSHIMA

I joined the Walk for Fukushima yesterday from our house in Bath to Brunswick - about a 10 mile day. The walkers stayed here the night before and I cooked for them (homemade pasta sauce from my garden veggies and beet burgers). Some others brought food as well including CodePink Maine's Lisa Savage who made a Japanese dish - she lived in Japan four years many moons ago.

Mie Athearn (and her husband Steve) live in Rockland, Maine but Mie comes from Fukushima. Her family is all still there and it is very moving to listen to her describe the feelings of desperation felt by the people as they have no income, can't be sure about the food they eat, have no way to move anywhere, and worry about the children's future after radiation exposure.

Mie suffers from Lyme Disease and can barely walk but her strong will to do something in support of her family and the people of Fukushima has over taken and she has been walking each day since they began six days ago in Rockland.

The plan is to reach the Japanese consulate in Boston where Mie will present a petition demanding that the government of Japan do more to help the people and that it tell the truth about the true radiation contamination levels that they currently withhold from the people.

If one ever doubted the insanity of nuclear power all one has to do is listen to the heartfelt stories of people like Mie and you will become clear that the entire nuclear industry must be shut down yesterday!

You can follow Mie's progress on the Walk for Fukushima on Facebook here

ANN WRIGHT ON JEJU NAVY BASE

RECREATING THE COLD WAR

There is oil under the Arctic waters -​ black gold! And serious conflict is underway about who should control it. There appears to be little concern on any side about environmental implications of drilling in the Arctic regions.

Should we not be pushing all the harder for sustainable societies? Should we not be demanding conversion of the military industrial complex to build an alternative energy future?

And who will make this demand? Surely not the Democrats in the U.S. Isn't it time to call for a new progressive political party that unites the Greens, labor, women, people of color and other constituencies. The old go it alone strategy is just not working. We've got to build a truly united progressive block if we have any hope of surviving on this beautiful planet.

WHEN THE AIR IS NOT FREE

THEY CALL THIS PROGRESS & SECURITY - THE PRAYER OF LIBERATION

Imagine your family has been fishing and farming in a village for more than 300 years. Then the government decides they want your land and coastline for a Navy base. They stage a phony vote with less than 10% of the villagers present, bribe a few people, and then take a vote by having people clap to show they are in favor of the base.

When the majority learns what happened they force out the corrupt mayor who helped instigate the first phony meeting and more than 800 people turn out (just over 1,000 live in the village) and hold a real vote where 94% of the people say NO to the Navy base. They elect new leadership that supports the people and stands in strong opposition to the base. That mayor now sits in jail for resisting the destruction of the people's way of life. But the government does not recognize the second vote - the one that happened in a real democratic way with no bribes.

This is the story of Gangjeong on Jeju Island. It's the story of the global military industrial complex in operation. It's the story of a corporate criminal syndicate. This political power structure must be destroyed and put behind bars with walls and fences and barbed wire.

This out-of-control military industrial complex is killing life on this planet. It is the biggest polluter on the planet and they use force of arms to stay in control. They have no problem attracting all the young people they need to serve in these global "armed forces" because jobs are hard to come by these days - whether you are in the U.S., South Korea, or anywhere else.

This global military machine needs to be taken apart one tank, warship, bulldozer, airplane, and military space satellite at a time. We need to shut down the weapons manufacturing process and use our money and the skill of the workers to build things we need to survive on this planet like solar, wind, rail and the like.

We need to acknowledge, and repeatedly say out loud, we have no faith in this war machine. We don't want to pay for it anymore. We don't accept that we have to be controlled by the military mindset and all the politicians that it buys and controls. We reject the idea that war makes us safer. We reject the idea that more militarism is progress. We reject that the military can push the people around like we are slaves. We throw off our chains.

We stand as free human beings with rights to breathe, to walk where we wish, to think and speak as we wish.

We stand in solidarity with the wind, the sun, the fish, the birds, the plants, the rocks, the rain and the dirt that produces our food. Machines don't create life. Bombs don't give life. Guns don't produce life. Power comes from our connection to the Mother Earth.

The militarism is a sickness - a mental disease. We reject this sickness - we cast if off from our bodies and from our minds. We are free like the wind. We shall not be chained in our body or our mind. No more.

WALK FOR FUKUSHIMA IN MAINE

Mie Athearn, a Japanese woman living in Maine and a native of Fukushima Prefecture, is undertaking a "Walk for Fukushima" to deliver a message to the Japanese government appealing for stronger actions to protect children from radiation hazards in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.

Ms. Athearn, acutely aware of the heightened stresses being experienced by her close family members over the ongoing releases of radioactive contamination from the crippled reactors, and distressed by the Japanese government response seemingly dictated by expediency and downplaying, has decided to walk from Rockland to the Japanese Consulate in Boston to seek an audience with officials there urging a stronger public health response to the crisis.

She was also inspired by the Peace Walkers who came through Rockland last year, led by Japanese Buddhist monks and nuns. Just back from their latest pilgrimage from Boston to Albany, with stops at nuclear power plants in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, the Grafton Peace Pagoda is now lending its support to the Walk for Fukushima.

With her husband Steven, Jun Yasuda of the Peace Pagoda, and others who may join along the way, Mie plans to set out from Rockland on Sunday, September 4 and expects to arrive in Boston on September 19, covering a distance of nearly 200 miles. The walk will partly coincide with a series of anti-nuclear actions within Japan planned for the week of September 11, and culminating with a "goodbye nukes" rally in Tokyo on September 19. Those dates are, respectively, six months since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and five months since a Ministry of the national government, MEXT, directed Fukushima Prefecture to adopt a much laxer standard for radiation exposure, making higher-than-controlled-workplace doses for children officially acceptable.

They also plan to make a stop at the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant in New Hampshire.

People wanting to lend a hand by offering overnight accomodations, daytime rest stops, organizing events along the way, or joining some portion of the walk themselves may contact Mie at mkathearn@mail.goo.ne.jp

For more information call Steven Athern.... (207) 593-7422

Schedule, "Walk for Fukushima"

9/4 Rockland - Warren
9/5 Warren - Nobleboro
9/6 Nobleboro - Edgecomb
9/7 Edgecomb -- Bath (Dinner at 6:00 pm at Addams-Melman House in Bath. All are welcome. Please RSVP to 443-9502)
9/8 Bath - Brunswick
9/9 Brunswick - Falmouth
9/10 Falmouth - Portland
9/11 4-5 miles in Portland (Lights around Back Cove 6-8 pm)
9/12 Portland - Saco
9/13 Saco - Wells
9/14 Wells - York
9/15 York - Portsmouth
9/16 Portsmouth - Seabrook
9/17 Seabrook - Topsfield
9/18 Topsfield - Saugus
9/19 Saugus -- Boston

TO GET TAR SANDS OIL YOU HAVE TO DESTROY THE EARTH

The Tar Sands Action (smile)
By Ted Glick

My mind has been a jumble the last couple of days as I’ve tried to think about what I would be saying in this column. I knew I would be writing about the historic and amazing Tar Sands Action in Washington, D.C.

I am literally smiling as I embark on this writing journey. There was so much positive energy, so many wonderful experiences, so much hope for the future in and around the two weeks of sitting-in and standing-in in front of the White House, August 20-September 3.

One of the things I will never forget is how, day after day, new people kept arriving at Lafayette Park in the morning prepared to walk across the street and get arrested, 1252 of them. Wave after wave, daily, this kept happening. And over the last four days, from August 31 to September 3, the numbers kept getting bigger and bigger each day. On the last day, 243 people crossed Pennsylvania Avenue and stood and sat, first in the rain—most without rain gear--and then in the hot sun, some for four hours, before being arrested.

The vast majority of those arrested had never done so before. They were from all over the country, just about every single state. They ranged from teenagers to grandparents in their 80s, predominantly white but racially diverse, people of faith, landowners, movie celebrities, climate scientists, elected officials and more.

Then there was Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network and North Dakota, speaking Friday morning in Lafayette Park before she and others crossed over and got arrested, speaking from the heart, speaking of the many people close to her who have died of cancer at young ages because of the fossil fuel industry’s poisoning of her community’s air and water. Was there anyone in the audience of hundreds not moved to tears?

There were the young people Saturday morning and afternoon who sang and chanted for hour after hour on the Lafayette Park sidewalk to keep up the spirits and energies of those across the street in front of the White House who kept waiting for hours for their turn to be handcuffed and put into police wagons or buses.

There were the sobering things I learned about the tar sands throughout the two weeks, especially from the Indigenous people from Alberta province in Canada who have been leading this struggle for years: The second-largest area of (extra-dirty and thick, tar-like) oil in the world, behind only Saudi Arabia. The ethnocide of Indigenous people taking place as their land, water, health and millennia-old culture are being devastated as the forests are destroyed and massive strip mines moonscape the land. All of the toxic chemicals that must be added to the thick tar sands oil in order for it to be able to flow through pipelines, which increases the likelihood of corrosion and leaks. The plan for the pipeline to be built over the Ogallala Aquifer, water source for many millions in the US, and the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills of Nebraska.

There was the statement by our nation’s leading climate scientist, James Hansen, that if the Keystone XL pipeline is built and the tar sands is fully exploited, it’s “game over” for the planet as far as surviving climate change.

There was all the news coverage, this issue becoming all of a sudden a major national story. In retrospect, the decision of those who called this action for the “dog days” of late August, when Congress and the President are out of town, turns out to have been very prescient. There was lots of press coverage in the first week which then led to even more and more extensive coverage in the second week, including Bill McKibben being on the national PBS news program. Tim DeChristopher reported to friends that the protests were one of the three national news stories on the late night television news he saw in the Nevada jail where he’s currently housed.

There hasn’t been an action like this in the United States for a long, long time. The last ones I know of in terms of comparable numbers were the 1414 people, my late ex-wife and excellent political artist Peg Averill among them, arrested in Seabrook, New Hampshire in 1977 outside the site where a nuclear reactor was beginning to be built, and the many thousands arrested over several days in early May of 1971 in Washington, D.C. in a Vietnam war protest.

But neither of them went on for two straight weeks.

I know that some of those not in touch with what’s been happening within the climate movement in recent years were amazed to watch the Tar Sands Action unfold over these two weeks. But it didn’t come out of nowhere.

Two and a half years ago thousands of people were prepared to be arrested at the Capitol Coal Plant action in Washington, D.C. Then, more recently, there was the 10,000-person Power Shift conference and actions in mid-April in D.C. and the powerful, week-long March on Blair Mountain of hundreds, and a thousand on the last day, in early June. There was the example and leadership of Tim DeChristopher, who publicly called for just this kind of day-after-day, provoke-a-political-crisis type of action from the stage at Power Shift, three months before he was sentenced to two years in prison. And, without question, there was the exemplary, day-to-day leadership given by Bill McKibben. Without Bill, without his passion, his tireless work, his writing and speaking, this action never would have happened.

But it wasn’t a one-man show, not at all. Scores of mainly young people worked hard leading up to and during the two weeks of the action doing all of the things needed to make this be such a success. When Bill and 51 others were unexpectedly kept in jail for 53 hours after the first day’s action, there wasn’t an iota of letting up or hesitation. On the second day, as those 52 sat in jail, 45 people crossed over to the White House sidewalk, all of them knowing they could receive the same treatment. As it turned out, the willingness of those 45 to not back down, to show the police that we were serious about our plans for scores to get arrested each day for two weeks, led to a dramatic pull-back by the police. They went back to their original plan to use “post-and-forfeit,” essentially a $100 fine on everyone arrested, and then let them go within a few hours of their being arrested.

At the rally in Lafayette Park on September 3rd, it was announced by Bill McKibben that there were plans being developed to keep this movement going. It has to; Obama is supposed to make a decision about the Keystone XL pipeline by the end of the year. One big upcoming date is October 7th, when the last of a number of public hearings around the country on that pipeline will be held in Washington, D.C.

Bill also reported on an action taken in Seattle, Wa. where 40 or so people paid a visit to the newly-opened office of the Obama re-election campaign. A repetition of that tactic would be a way to keep getting the attention of Obama and his people: public visits to such offices all over the country, especially by people who worked for and/or voted for him in 2008, so that the Obama campaign understands that we are serious, that we expect Obama to finally carry through on his promises during the 2008 campaign.

“Let’s be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil.” That’s one of the things Obama said, along with this big applause line, that his election was “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

He hasn’t yet delivered. Worse, he and his administration have opened up public lands in Wyoming for coal mining, allowed most mountaintop removal permits to proceed forward, done nothing to stop natural gas fracking, supported the expansion of deepwater ocean drilling beyond the Gulf of Mexico and, so far, given lots of indications that he will approve the Keystone XL pipeline. These methods of extreme extraction of fossil fuels are exactly the wrong direction to be going.

Michael Marx of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Oil campaign gave an excellent speech on Saturday in Lafayette Park. He called for us to help Obama find his “inner lion” so that he can finally begin to do what he promised he would do in 2008, which will only help his chances of reelection. He went on to say that if that is going to happen we need to find our own inner lions and we need to “bare out teeth.”

For those who want to see Obama reelected, for those who are turned off by all of his administration’s many betrayals of his campaign promises and unsure of what they’ll be doing about the Presidential election, and for those who have had it with both Republicans and Democrats, the campaign to defeat the Keystone XL pipeline is a classic unifying issue, an urgent issue. The next few months are key. Let’s keep building the Tar Sands Action momentum and win one for the people and the earth this year. Si, se puede!!

Ted Glick is the National Policy Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. He worked on the Tar Sands Action for two months. Past writings and more information can be found at http://www.tedglick.com/ Follow him on twitter @jtglick.

YESTERDAY IN GANGJEONG- PEACE PLANE ARRIVES

Regina Pyon writes from South Korea:

Peace plane arrived from Seoul. . .police barriers and police fence and police walls. . .Peaceful and joyful cultural event at Gangjeong.

You can figure that when many of these folks go back home to the mainland, having personally experienced the massive police presence in Gangjeong village, that they will become strong voices throughout their nation in support of the struggling villagers.

Now this energy needs to be taken around the world. All of you reading this can do something to help. You can share this information with others.....write a letter to the editor.....call the nearest South Korean embassy or consulate and express your indignation about the treatment of the Gangjeong villagers who are just trying to protect their farm land, the coral reefs, the fish, the water, the sacred rocks, and the plant life. You can help organize to send someone from your community to Gangjeong village to stand in solidarity with the people.

This issue on Jeju Island ties all our important work together. It's environmental, human, and about stopping a dangerous and provocative Navy base in an already unstable Asia-Pacific region. It's an issue that encapsulates all the evils of the U.S. military empire in action.

Help throw a wrench into the wheels of this endless war machine.

COVERAGE OF JEJU PEACE ISLAND RALLY

Some photos and video from the big rally in Gangjeong village yesterday. More than 1,000 people came from around the island and from the mainland to stand with the villagers. The police turned out in huge numbers to hassle the people and attempted to take the long sticks on which the big puppets were carried. The police had demanded that the festival not be allowed to address the villagers opposition to the Navy base.

The arrogance of the Navy and the South Korean government is so extreme that they think they have the right to control what the people think and say. It is quite evident that the South Korean right-wing government does not understand the meaning of the words freedom and democracy.

HUMAN BEING FIRST

• I was up late last night doing a radio interview on a network that plays on about 36 stations around the country. The show began at midnight and went until 2:00 am. The host and I talked about the weaponization of space and ended by discussing what it means to be a human being. We were both on the same page as we concluded that the only way we can ever have a chance of stopping the corporate military criminal syndicate is for each of us to rediscover what it means to be human - and use our energy and light to protect the Mother Earth and the future generations.



• Signs of fall are coming to Maine as leaves are just beginning to turn bits of brown and some have started to fall to the ground. The leaves on the squash plants are turning a yellowish brown as they finish their cycle. Many unattended apple trees in the neighborhood are dropping their forgotten fruit - we went for a walk today and salvaged as many as we could from a couple trees by a local school. No one seems to bother with them.



• It was interesting to see the alarm that was raised a couple days again when the magician in the White House once again caved in to the Republicans when he ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to back off regulations that would have tightened government smog standards. The business community cheered and the environmental community groaned. Is anyone keeping score of the list of Obama's betrayals of the people and the planet? The list is getting longer by the minute.



• Last Monday a "dedication" was held on the island of Kauai in Hawaii at the site of a new "missile defense" testing complex. The Barking Sands Pacific Missile Range will become the home of the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex. Basically what is happening is that in September 2009 Obama announced that the Pentagon would take the interceptor missiles (Standard Missile -3 or SM-3), now on-board the Navy Aegis destroyers, and also deploy them on ground-based launch platforms. The Aegis "missile defense" system, named after the legendary shield of Zeus, is deployed on 81 naval ships around the globe with more than 25 additional Aegis-equipped ships planned. (Most of these ships are built in Bath, Maine.) Obama plans to deploy the ground-based Aegis system in Romania in 2015 and in Poland in 2018, after they are tested at the new center in Hawaii. Russia and China see these systems being continually deployed around their borders at sea and on land and they understand that they are part of the Pentagon's first-strike program of the sword and the shield. The Obama plan is guaranteed to ratchet up the arms race.

SUNDAY SONG

SINGING AGAINST DRONES & WAR

Interesting interviews with people on the street in Minneapolis, Minnesota after the singing.

HEDGES ON THE CORPORATE COMMODITY CULTURE

A powerful speech by one of the great writers, social commentators, and activists of our time.

VIDEO FROM RAID ON VILLAGERS

Latest news:

'As of 12:20pm, while 33 have been already arrested, Hyun Ae-Ja and Mr. Go Gwon-Il are still in the protest site, Mr. Go Gwon-Il chaining himself on the top of tower and Hyun Ae-Ja [former national assembly woman] chaining herself to the container box in a key spot of a three fork road. Politicians are coming to the site, including Lee Jung-Hee, Chairwoman of Democratic Labor Party. Some police have withdrawn and some villagers pass across the site. The spot is originally farm road and a disputed road. The government has forcefully taken it. The situation there is in lull for a while.

In front of the construction site gate, Catholic fathers and nuns are still in stand-off with police. The way to the Gangjeong stream is all blocked.

Gangjeong is totally isolated. #600 bus from Jeju Airport to Gangjeong changed the route, doesn't stop here, goes to Worldcup Stadium directly from Jungmoon.

Catholic peace camp was also demolished at around 4:30 p.m. and big wall has been installed across the main street near the naval base construction headquarters. Priests were dispersed but came back and were sitting near the wall. They had supper there on the street. Tomorrow will have mass at 11 o'clock.

A wonderful news is that the villagers themselves are not cowered by today's tragedy and show determined postures.'

GANGJEONG RAIDED - MANY ARRESTS

The latest news is that this morning at 4:00 am the South Korean police (many in plain clothes) and military staged a massive raid of the Gangjeong village on Jeju Island. Sirens blared and villagers ran to the two construction gates to set up non-violent blockades. More than 100 college students have come to join the villagers. By 9:00 am some number of Catholic Priests and 38 villagers and supporters have been arrested. More are likely to be taken to jail before this is all over.
It appears this raid was timed to try to "preempt" the major protest festival planned in the village this weekend where more than 1,000 are supposed to come including many from the mainland. The right-wing government is obviously going after as many of the leadership as possible in order to create organizational confusion and a sense of despair. But in times like this new leadership will emerge to keep things going.

Writing from South Korea Global Network board member Sung-Hee Choi, recently released after three months in prison for holding a banner, said, "We need international solidarity. Please protest against the South Korean authorities with letters, press interviews and others."

It is more than obvious that the South Korean government is returning to its previous form of military dictatorship - and sadly it appears to be under the encouragement of the U.S. government who wants more military bases there. The people of South Korea have grown weary of turning their lands over to the always greedy U.S. military whose appetite for more and bigger bases knows no end. All of this is of course actually aimed at "containing" and "managing" China.

The U.S. throws out the threat of North Korea to justify these moves on the chess board but this massive buildup is well beyond the point of dealing with the shriveling Korean government to the north. The real prize for the U.S. in this deadly and dangerous game of empire building is China.

Follow breaking news on Twitter #Gangjung and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/SaveJeju

Please contact the South Korean embassy in Washington DC directly:

Phone: 202-939-5660/5663
Fax: 202-797-0595
Email: info@koreanconsulate.org (send to all of them)

web@mofat.go.kr

korean-embassy@mofat.go.kr
sasiapacificreg@mofat.go.kr (MoD Asia Pacific )
consular_usa@mofat.go.kr
disarmament@mofat.go.kr

Help spread the word.

HERSHEY EXPLOITS FOREIGN STUDENTS

Democracy Now looks at the story of 300 foreign students who came to the United States as part of a work-study program, and found themselves engaged in what they refer to as captive labor at a Hershey’s packing plant in Palmyra, Pennsylvania. The students — from Eastern Europe and Asia — went on strike two weeks ago, after they were reportedly required to lift heavy boxes, work eight-hour shifts beginning at 11 p.m., and stand for long periods of time while packing candy on a fast-moving production line. Federal agencies have launched four investigations into the alleged exploitation.

The walkout apparently marks the first time that foreign students have engaged in a strike to protest their employment. The guest workers are demanding a return of the $3,000 to $6,000 each student paid for the cultural exchange program to work at Hershey; that Hershey end exploitation of J-1 student cultural exchange workers; and that the 400 jobs the guest workers filled instead be given to local workers paid a living wage.

PROJECT 2012