Meeting the sailors at BIW

 

Four of us (Peter Morgan, Jane Newton, John Morris and myself) stood yesterday for an hour at midday at the Navy gate at Bath Iron Works. I held the sign pictured above and Peter Morgan (also above) held his Veterans for Peace flag. (This photo was taken at a previous vigil.) We handed out about 25 flyers to mostly Navy personnel. 

Many sailors politely refused with their heads hung knowing that the 'freedom' they are protecting does not allow them to take and read a simple flyer about the need to covert BIW to building sustainable technology like commuter rail systems, offshore wind turbines and tidal power systems.

The Navy has their own facilities at the shipyard. They monitor the destroyer construction process. Once the ships near completion Navy crews come to BIW to begin to learn how the ships work. Since there are six destroyers under construction at BIW there are more Navy personnel around than I can ever remember seeing.

So in addition to our Saturday vigils (held during Advent and Lenten seasons) it seemed like a good idea to begin holding midday vigils at the Navy gate twice a month. So yesterday we began to do so. (During our Saturday protests we rarely see Navy personnel - we mostly see BIW shipbuilders.)

It is my feeling that the Navy personnel need to see our signs, flags and banners before they set sail. These warships are today provocatively bumping up against Russia and China.  They port at US bases near those two countries and are often exposed to peace protests.  It seems like we have a good chance for these sailors to see these similar protest messages before they leave US ports.

Our Maine congressional delegation (1 Republican, 1 Independent, & 2 Democrats) have joined together demanding that the US build even more destroyers. “We have a goal, in law, of building 350 ships,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said. “Right now, we’re at about 296. The Chinese are closer to our goal than we are so it’s so important that we have an adequate budget so that we can continue ensuring we have the best naval fleet in the world.”

 

 

There is just one major problem - money. I noticed yesterday that the Air Force has decided to stop building the F-22. The national debt (now over $28 trillion) is catching up with Washington's dreams of eternal global domination. The chicken$ are coming home to roost. Right now Washington just keeps printing more money (what I call 'Confederate dollars' essentially meaning they are worthless).

So the question is how much longer can the US keep building these expensive destroyers - and aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and F-35 boondoggle warplanes, keep 800 military bases functioning around the globe, etc? 

How can Congress keep forking over the funny money while our collapsing Covid economy worsens, climate crisis blows hot and other unattended issues remain unresolved?

So our plan is to go to BIW on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday every month from 11:15 am for an hour. 

One final thought - a large group of sailors yesterday came out of their black-gated compound at BIW and immediately I saw one of them make eye contact with me from afar.  I said to myself - he wants to take a flyer. As the group approached me they all refused the flyer except for this one sailor who reached out and took it. I know with confidence that when they were sitting down having their lunch all of them asked to see it.

That is how these things work.

Bruce 

The truth is coming out....

 

Saagar Enjeti details the "lab leak hypothesis" and how it demonstrates the way "the culture war in America corrupts basic facts."

This is the story referred to in the video:  Origin of Covid — Following the Clues
Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?
 

By Nicholas Wade who is a science writer and has worked on the staff of Nature, Science and, for many years, on the New York Times. 

 

The storm which Netanyahu unleashed

 

By Adam Keller

Tuesday morning we woke up with the news of twenty-one Palestinians killed in Gaza, nine of them minors, and two Israeli women killed in Ashkelon (one of them; it later turned out, was a migrant worker from India, and since then, the death toll on both sides more than doubled). Then came the email which I was expecting. Noa Levy of Hadash sent out an urgent call for emergency protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, A second message, from the Forum of Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Families and Combatants for Peace, endorsed the Hadash call and added a Haifa protest venue initiated by the Haifa Women for Women Center. “The government is playing with fire - all of us get burned! In a desperate attempt to cling to  power, Netanyahu is dragging us into war, into killing and suffering and pain for both peoples. Stop the escalation! Cease the fire! Stop the expulsion of families from Sheikh Jarrah, stop the police rampage in East Jerusalem. There can be no peace and no quiet as long as the West Bank lives under occupation and Gaza suffers a suffocating siege. The solution: an end to the occupation, an end to the siege of Gaza, and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, with East Jerusalem as its capital. We all deserve to live in freedom and security. The time to act is now!”  

And so, there were several  hours of frantic work at the computer and phone, spreading the message by Facebook and Whatsapp to all who waited for such a call on such a day. And then taking the bus to Tel Aviv. The Kugel Boulevard, main Holon thoroughfare on which all buses to Tel Aviv travel, had its completely normal daily bustle. On King George Street in Tel Aviv there were already several hundred people gathered outside the Likud Party headquarters. Among them familiar faces, the determined minority of Israelis who always show up on such days, as in 2014 and 2009. “Stop the fire, stop the bloodshed!” chanted several hundred throats. And “On both sides of the border/Children want to live!” and “Sheikh Jarrah, don’t despair/We will end the occupation yet!” and also “Gaza, Gaza, don’t despair/We will end the siege yet!” and “Netanyahu, Netanyahu/The Dock at the Hague waits for you!”.

Dispersal, and a vague feeling of frustration. But what more could we have done? Perhaps we would have felt more satisfied to be violently dispersed and spend the night in detention - but here, unlike other locations, the police did not interfere with the demonstration. There were only two bored police officers watching from the side. Our favorite vegan eatery was nearby, so we went in. Everything was just like any other evening out in downtown Tel Aviv, it felt a bit strange to have life as usual while terrible things happen elsewhere.  

The air raid alarms wailed just after we paid our bill and started walking. We went into a nearby big pharmacy. The pharmacy staff were quietly efficient – “Over here, turn left, the basement stairs are there”. About a hundred people – staff and clients and everyone who happened to be on the street – crowded in. Even in the basement, we could clearly hear the explosions in the sky. “Are these the missiles themselves, or the interceptors?” wondered an old woman. Another old woman said “Don’t worry, dear, if this goes on we will all learn to know which is which”.  

After a quarter of an hour we thought it was over and everybody emerged and started again down the street – and then the air raid siren sounded again.  This time we went into the basement of a private house with very friendly young people who offered to let us stay the night. “You can stay here, no need to risk going out again, we have spare beds”.  

I must say that up to that point it still felt like a bit of a game. I realize now that we shared the arrogant illusion of most Israelis that the Iron Dome missiles were giving us virtually complete protection. But as we were huddling in the second basement of the evening, the phone rang: “Are you OK? Good to hear your voice, I heard of the burned bus in Holon, I was so worried!” “I am in Tel Aviv, what bus is that?” A quick look at the news websites showed the Kugel Boulevard where we had passed just three hours before. It was a war zone, flames and scattered debris everywhere, and the skeleton of a completely burned bus in the middle.  It was reported that the driver heard the alarm, stopped the bus and told everybody to run just a minute before the bus was hit.  

Perhaps we should have taken the young people’s offer and stayed the night with them. Getting back home was a long and weary experience. The main roads were blocked by the police, and we saw ambulances and fire trucks rushing forward. The bus from Tel Aviv let us off a long way from home and there were no taxis to be had in the whole of Holon, so there was a very long and weary trudging through dark empty streets. At home I had a whatsapp exchange with an old friend. “Stay alert, this night is not yet over” she wrote. “The government is sure to order a strong retaliation for this attack on Tel Aviv, and the Palestinians will want to retaliate for the retaliation”. She was completely right. After 3.00 PM there was a very long series of alarms, one after the other. The explosions were more vague and seemed a long distance off. This time they were aiming at the Ben Gurion Airport.  

One of the missiles had fallen on a hut in Lod (Lydda), and killed a fifty year old man and his teen daughter.  It later turned out that they were Arabs, that they had lived in an “unrecognized” neighborhood where no building permits are issued, and that this prevented them from building a more solid structure which could have saved their lives.  

 

And so here we are, with the conflict escalating and the death toll rising ever more steeply. And I should recapitulate, at least briefly, how we got to this.  

Last Friday – just five days ago, though it seems like an eternity – public attention in Israel was totally riveted to the complicated dance of party politics. Prime Minister Netanyahu, facing three serious corruption charges at the Jerusalem District Court, had just failed in his efforts to form a new cabinet. The mandate passed to the oppositional “Block of Change”, whose leaders embarked on delicate negotiations aimed at forming a very heterogeneous government coalition comprising right-wing, left-wing and center parties, which have virtually nothing in common except the wish to see the last of Netanyahu. We had very mixed feelings about it, especially since the intended new Prime Minister Naftali Bennet is, if anything, more right-wing than Netanyahu. Still, the new government would have very strong mechanisms of “mutual veto” in place that would prevent Bennet from doing too much harm – though the same would also prevent the new government from doing much good, either. And this government would be the very first in Israeli history to rely on an Arab party for its parliamentary majority (other than the Rabin Government in 1995, whose tenure was cut short by the PM being assassinated).  

Anyway, there were very concrete plans to have the new cabinet ready for parliamentary approval by Tuesday, May 11. The anti-corruption demonstrators who have been demonstrating every week outside the Prime Minister’s residence were joking about when the movers will arrive to take away the Netanyahu family furniture. But Netanyahu had other irons in the fire.  

First, there was the planned expulsion of hundreds of Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarach neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Dozens of them were due to be expelled within days and extreme right settlers were going to enter into their vacated homes. Protests in Sheikh Jarach and elsewhere in East Jerusalem met brutal police repression. Then, protests spread to the Haram A Sharif (Temple Mount) compound, and so did the police repression. Police started to shoot “rubber” bullets directly into demonstrators’ faces, causing them to lose eyes – at least two of them losing both eyes and becoming blind for the rest of their lives. Footage of the police breaking into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site and a place considered even by secular Palestinians as a major part of their national heritage, spread widely through the social networks, escalating the protests. And then there was the plan to have thousands of radical young settlers hold the provocative “Dance of the Flags” right through the Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, chanting their habitual racist slogans. The police and government reiterated hour after hour that the “Dance of the Flags”  would take place as scheduled. And it was then that Hamas in Gaza threatened to retaliate for the attack on the Palestinians of Jerusalem, and the government declared that it would not bend to “the ultimatums of terrorists”. And at the very last moment the “Dance” was cancelled – but it was too late.  At 6.00 PM the salvo of seven Hamas rockets at the outskirts of Jerusalem – which in fact caused no casualties or damage, but which precipitated the Israeli deadly retaliation on Gaza.      

And now, a bit more than 48 hours later, here we are, in the midst of an escalating war, the Israeli Air Force destroying high rise buildings in Gaza and proudly announcing the “elimination” of senior Hamas activists – but unable to hinder the Palestinians’ ability to go on shooting rockets. And relations between Jews and Arabs, fellow citizens of Israel, have descended to unprecedented depths of inter-communal violence. In Lod, the police declared a night curfew “to stop the rampaging Arabs” but Arab inhabitants refuse to abide and are involved in violent confrontations with police around a local mosque. And in Bat Yam and Tiberias, mobs of extreme right Jews are assaulting random Arabs and smashing up Arab-owned shops. And repeated again and again in the media is the government's total refusal to make a ceasefire. “No, no, no ceasefire – we must teach Hamas a lesson!”  

Of course no ceasefire. Why should Netanyahu want a ceasefire? Every day in which the shooting continues is one more day of keeping that dreaded movers’ truck away from the Prime Minister’s Residence, one more day of keeping power in his own hands. If there was concrete proof that Netanyahu did it all consciously and deliberately, it would make up criminal charges far more serious than those he is facing at the District Court of Jerusalem. But any such evidence is probably classified Top Secret and would only be published fifty years from now. So, we can’t prove that he did it deliberately, though there can be little doubt about it. We can only end the war and immediately afterwards get rid of him.  

Perhaps what is happening now will shake President Biden out of the attitude of keeping a low profile on Israel and the Palestinians? After all, all this mess had fallen on his desk with quite a loud clatter.

~ Adam Keller is an Israeli peace activist who was among the founders of Gush Shalom, of which he is a spokesperson. A long-standing supporter of Yesh Gvul, Keller has served several prison terms for refusing reserve military duty in the 1967-occupied territories. In April-May 1988, Reserve Corporal Adam Keller was charged with "insubordination" and "spreading of propaganda harmful to military discipline" in that while on active military duty he had written on 117 tanks and other military vehicles graffiti with the text: "Soldiers of the IDF, refuse to be occupiers and oppressors, refuse to serve in the occupied territories!" as well as placing on electricity pylons in the military camp where he was serving - and on inside doors of the stalls in the officers' toilet - stickers with the slogans "Down with the occupation!". 

The Ethnic Cleansing of East Jerusalem

 

By Richard Greve, Human Rights Activist  

It is astounding that in the 21st century, a nation would evict one group of homeowners because they are of a particular religion and allow another religious group to take over their homes, chase out the occupants, and then allow the other group to move right in.

This is what Israel is doing to the NonJewish population of East Jerusalem in two different neighborhoods at this time. NonJews are being evicted from their homes and Jews are moving into the houses, with the backing of the Israeli forces.

The purpose of this is to clear out as much of the NonJewish population so that Israel can change the demographics of the city. This is what is called ethnic cleansing. It has been a slow but insidious process for years in the territory that Israel has occupied since it conquered the West Bank in 1967. The ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem has increased recently.

What Israel is doing is not only cruel, but a violation of International Law and its obligations under International Law to protect the lives and the property of a conquered people. Israel has totally defied this law, and has confiscated large areas of the West Bank and settled hundreds of thousands of Jews there in Apartheid Settlements For Jews Only. What Israel is doing is considered a Crime Against Humanity.

The US government has been silent and acquiescent in this crime by its silence, and by paying for Israel’s weapons to carry out the crimes. This means that the US is complicit with the crime. We are helping, indirectly, to fund it. If the American government doesn’t care about Israel’s crimes it should be concerned about its own collusion with violations of International Law.

Israel must be placed on immediate sanctions, and all funding to the Israeli regime must stop until it ceases and desists in its crimes.

Addicted U.S. looking for another war

 

My guess is that intervention by Germany and France helped pressure Washington to back-off pushing its puppet regime in Kiev to jump off the cliff and provoke war with Russia.

I'm certain that Russian allies like China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and other nations also made it known to the US that Biden's early aggressive language aimed at Putin, and NATO military moves along the Russian border, are a threat to world peace.  

The US has long ago lost its moral authority to dictate terms to the world. There is a seismic shift  underway.

Washington is a lonely drunken angry cowboy at the bar. He has no future. His own nation is coming apart at the seams. Climate crisis is raging. Poverty is growing and still the Congress (which is really nothing more than paid servants of the war industry) is on its knees.

So the addict looks for another drink - in another town. He's been run out of so many.

Maybe someone should write a country song about the cowboy.

Bruce 

J. Narayana Rao: Key Global Network leader

 

Global Network board member J. Narayana Rao (front row left side of banner) during a previous Keep Space for Peace Week event in Nagpur, India

In the late 1990's the Global Network held our annual space organizing meeting in Darmstadt, Germany (1997 & 1999). At one of those two meetings J. Narayana Rao from Nagpur, India showed up for the first time. To this day I don't remember how Rao heard about the GN but somehow he did and we were very lucky to have his membership.

When Rao arrived in Darmstadt he handed me a couple space issue journals that he had put together at his own expense and distributed throughout India.  

Rao's career was with the Indian railway and he was a leader in the union.  He was also long active with the Indian Communist Party and with Gandhian organizations.

In 2006 Rao organized a speaking tour throughout India for Mary Beth Sullivan and I. While on this  trip Rao took us to the Gandhi Ashram Sevagram. 

Several times over the years he organized speaking trips for me and other GN leaders.

He organized space issue conferences numerous times in various Indian cities (the one pictured below was in 2010 in Nagpur) and invited various GN members to speak at the events.  All the while he was reaching out to Indian political leaders, academics, union members, students, media and others with our message.

 

One of the most memorable speaking tours Rao organized was when he took me north to Kashmir during a time of martial law.  Just the trip there was a miracle in itself.

In 2019 a space law conference was held in Visakhapatnam at the DSNLU law university and organized by Dr. Aruna Kammila who Rao had earlier brought to the GN. This historic event was the first time that I am aware of where the agenda was to discuss the need for space law to prevent warfare and the colonization of planetary bodies for private profit. The hall was full of students and faculty from 20 law universities across India.  It was a great tribute to Rao's vision and determination.

At that time Rao had just had a serious illness and operation and could not come to the conference. I was able to talk with him on the telephone and share with him how well the event was going.

The organizer of our 2016 trip to India & Nepal was J. Narayana Rao (right) with GN board convener Dave Webb (UK) (left). Will Griffin joined us on that trip as well.

 

 

These days India is having a terrible time with the Covid virus. The country has little public healthcare. Agri-business corporations like Monsanto are attempting to destroy India's long tradition of village farming. Much of the huge population in India has become 'expendable' in the eyes of its corporate friendly government. A 'modern brand' of neo-feudalism is now replacing India's hard fought for democracy - much like the rest of today's world.

The US is turning the Indian government into an ally against China. India is also becoming a major space power. 

India's health budget is about $30 billion this year while they spend $49.6 billion on their military.

 

Rao (center) with other GN leaders in Visakhapatnam

 

Rao is like a father figure to me and many others in the GN. One of my fondest memories of him was in 2008 when we held our annual space conference in Nebraska. We began the trip first in Colorado Springs with a protest outside the annual space symposium sponsored by the mega-aerospace industry. We then drove in a blinding snowstorm to Omaha, Nebraska. Rao was in the back seat of the car watching vehicles slide off the road into snow drifts. I asked him what he thought of it. His response was memorable as he said, "No one in Nagpur will ever believe what I am now seeing."

Rao is one of the best leaders/organizers that we've ever had in the Global Network. During these days of Covid lockdown, and still recovering from his surgery, we send him our very best wishes for full recovery.

Bruce 

Russia lays down the truth at UN Security Council - Washington/London not happy

 

Remarks by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Remarks at the meeting of the UN Security Council, “Maintenance of international peace and security: Upholding multilateralism and the United Nations-centered international system,” held via video-conference, Moscow, May 7, 2021

First of all, let me thank Mr Wang Yi, State Councillor and Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, for organising today’s debates. Maintaining multilateralism and the UN-centred international system is as topical as ever and demands the UN Security Council’s constant attention.

Today the world finds itself in a critical stage of development. The coronavirus pandemic has posed a grave challenge to everyone without exception. Normal life has been completely upended. It is difficult to predict the long-term or deferred consequences of the crisis, although we can see some positive trends thanks to the massive deployment of coronavirus vaccines.

The pandemic broke out in a world that was already far from perfect. In recent years, we have seen growing international tensions, as well as escalating regional conflicts and cross-border challenges and threats. The entire architecture of global governance created after the Second World War is being tested.

It is clear that the prospects of the international community’s sustainable and predictable development are directly connected with our ability to find effective solutions to common problems and our readiness to exercise collective leadership in order for true multilateralism to prevail.

Russia, like the majority of countries, is convinced that such work must be carried out solely on the basis of universally recognised norms of international law. The United Nations must serve as the key platform for coordinating efforts: it is the backbone of the modern global order, where all independent states are represented. Today, its unique legitimacy and unique capabilities are especially needed.

The core tenets of international law enshrined in the UN Charter have withstood the test of time. Russia calls on all states to unconditionally follow the purposes and principles of the Charter as they chart their foreign policies, respecting the sovereign equality of states, not interfering in their internal affairs, settling disputes by political and diplomatic means, and renouncing the threat or use of force. This is especially important at the current stage in the difficult process of forming an international multipolar system. At a time when new centres of economic growth, financial and political influence are gaining strength, it is necessary to preserve the internationally recognised legal basis for building a stable balance of interests that meets the new realities.

Unfortunately, not all of our partners are driven by the imperative to work in good faith to promote comprehensive multilateral cooperation. Realising that it is impossible to impose their unilateral or bloc priorities on other states within the framework of the UN, the leading Western countries have tried to reverse the process of forming a polycentric world and slow down the course of history.

Toward this end, the concept of the rules-based order is advanced as a substitute for international law. It should be noted that international law already is a body of rules, but rules agreed at universal platforms and reflecting consensus or broad agreement. The West’s goal is to oppose the collective efforts of all members of the world community with other rules developed in closed, non-inclusive formats, and then imposed on everyone else. We only see harm in such actions that bypass the UN and seek to usurp the only decision-making process that can claim global relevance.

The well-known idea to convene a Summit for Democracy proposed by the US Administration is in the same vein. The establishment of a new club based on interests, with a clearly ideological nature, has the potential to further inflame international tensions and deepen dividing lines in a world that needs a unifying agenda more than ever. Of course, the list of democracies to be invited to the summit will be determined by the United States.

Another initiative with the goal of global leadership that bypasses the UN is the French and German idea to create an Alliance for Multilateralism. What could be more natural then discussing the tasks of strengthening multilateralism at the UN? However, Berlin and Paris think differently and issue joint documents declaring that “the European Union is the cornerstone of the multilateral international system” and promote the conclusions of the Council of the European Union under the title “The central role of the European Union and European institutions in promoting multilateralism.” Presumptuous, you might say. The EU does not think so and declares its own exceptionalism despite all its invocations of equality and brotherhood.

By the way, as soon as we suggest discussing the current state of democracy not just within states but on the international stage with our Western colleagues, they lose interest in the conversation.

 

New ambitious initiatives to create narrow partnerships are emerging all the time within the Alliance for Multilateralism, on issues that are already being discussed at the UN or its specialised agencies, for example, on cyber security (with 65 member countries), respect for the international humanitarian law (43 member countries), the Information and Democracy Partnership (over 30 countries), etc.

This also reveals the West’s true attitude toward multilateralism and the UN, which they do not regard as a universal format for developing solutions acceptable to everyone, but in the context of their claims to superiority over everyone else, who must accept what is required of them.

Another example of the dictatorial methods introduced by the West is the practice of imposing unilateral sanctions without any international and legal grounds, with the sole purpose of punishing “undesirable regimes” or sidelining competitors. During the pandemic, such restrictions have limited the capacity of a whole range of developing countries to counter the spread of the infection. Despite UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s call to suspend such unilateral sanctions during the pandemic, we mostly see them becoming harsher.

We believe such efforts to impose totalitarianism in global affairs to be unacceptable, yet we see it more and more from our Western colleagues, above all the United States, the European Union and other allies, who reject all principles of democracy and multilateralism on the global stage. As if to say, either it’s our way, or there will be repercussions.

It is striking that Western leaders, while openly undermining international law, do not hesitate to argue that the main task of world politics should be to counter the attempts of Russia and China to “change the rules-based order.” Such statements were made the other day following the G7 ministerial meeting in London. In other words, there has already been a substitution of concepts: the West is no longer concerned with the norms of international law and now requires everyone to follow its rules and observe its order. What’s more, US representatives freely admit that the USA and Great Britain have had the biggest hand in shaping these rules.

I am not saying all of this to ratchet up the confrontational rhetoric or advance an accusatory agenda. I am simply stating facts. But if we all support multilateralism in word, let us honestly search for ways to ensure that there is fairness in deed, without attempts to prove one’s superiority or infringe on another’s rights. I hope that this approach to maintaining multilateralism and the UN-centred system will guide the activities of the UN Secretary-General and his team.

I am convinced that the time has come to do away with medieval and colonial habits and recognise the reality of today’s interconnected and interdependent world. Honest and mutually respectful cooperation based on equal partnership between all states, guided by pragmatism and devoid of any ideology or politicisation, is what is needed now. It is the only way to improve the atmosphere in the world and ensure predictability in the advancement of the human race. That is especially true of such global challenges as the threat of terrorism and the proliferation of WMDs, climate change, new infectious diseases, and protecting human rights, starting with the most important one – the right to life.

I agree with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who stressed recently that no country can overcome such global threats to the lives of our citizens alone, not even the United States.

The permanent members of the UN Security Council are called on to play a key role in fostering open and direct dialogue about the most pressing problems of our time. According to the UN Charter, they bear special responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. President of Russia Vladimir Putin proposed convening a summit with the leaders of the five permanent members. We hope to make this idea a reality once the epidemiological situation in the world stabilises.

In conclusion I would like to emphasise that the UN, as the main multilateral platform, must keep pace with changes on the global stage. The organisation must constantly adapt to ever-changing conditions, while continuing to fully respect the division of labour between the main UN Charter bodies and maintaining the support of all the member states. At every stage of change, our actions must be measured by the improvements made to the United Nations’ real-world effectiveness.

Russia stands ready to continue working constructively with all partners who share these approaches in order to bolster the authority and fully unlock the potential of the UN as the true centre of multilateralism.

Thank you for your attention.

~  Sergey Victorovich Lavrov is the Foreign Minister of Russia. A veteran politician and diplomat, he has been an integral part in shaping Russia’s political and international ties with the world. He has been an essential member of the Russian government for decades, first as the Russian Representative to the United Nations and eventually as Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004. He has held a number of important positions throughout his career.

History lesson: A great American leader

 

The video replays the “Canton, Ohio” speech made on June 16, 1918 by Eugene Debs. 

Eugene Debs made his famous anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio, protesting World War I which was raging in Europe. For this speech he was arrested and convicted in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio under the war-time espionage law. He was his own attorney. 

His appeal to the jury and his statement to the court before sentencing are regarded as two of the great classic statements ever made in a court of law. 

Eugene V. Debs did not speak on election night in 1920. The Socialist presidential contender was, in his words, a “candidate in seclusion,” imprisoned in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for speaking out against the draft during World War I.

Outside the lockup, his supporters handed out photos of Debs in convict denim along with campaign buttons for “Prisoner 9653.” Reporters had hoped to hear a fiery oration. But the warden did let Debs write out a statement.

“I thank the capitalist masters for putting me here,” he wrote. “They know where I belong under their criminal and corrupting system. It is the only compliment they could pay me.”

Debs making his famous Canton, Ohio anti-war speech that landed him in prison.

He’d run for president on the Socialist Party ticket five times since 1900. Eight years earlier, he’d won 901,551 votes — about six percent of the vote. However, this time he was politicking from behind bars.

The jury found him guilty. On Nov. 18, 1918 — a week after Armistice Day — he was sentenced to three concurrent 10-year sentences and lost his right to vote.

In the 1920 election, Debs and his running mate Emil Seidel garnered 913,693 votes, but — as in his previous campaigns — no electoral votes. The winning candidate, Republican Warren G. Harding, promised a “return to normalcy,” restoring the prewar way of life.

On April 13, 1920, the Socialists demonstrated in front of the White House and delivered a petition for Debs’ pardon. Film star Mae West wrote to Harding to push for a pardon.

Almost a year later in March, the warden drove Debs to the rail station. He then boarded a train for a trip to Washington — unaccompanied and unsupervised — to meet with Attorney General Harry Daugherty at Harding’s behest.

The White House planned to keep the meeting secret, but Daugherty, a blustery, machine politician, bragged about it to reporters. When the news hit the papers, veterans groups protested and Harding now had to factor in the political optics of their opposition. He finally released Debs on Dec. 21, 1921 — just in time for Christmas.

“He is an old man, not strong physically,” said Harding when commuting the sentence to time served. “He is a man of much personal charm and impressive personality, which qualifications make him a dangerous man calculated to mislead the unthinking and affording excuse for those with criminal intent.”

En route to his home in Terre Haute, Ind., a gaunt and weary Debs stopped at the White House for a meeting with Harding. There is no record of what either man said. Debs died in a suburban Chicago sanitarium, while being treated for his heart condition, in 1926.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter pardoned many Vietnam War draft resisters who had fled to Canada. But Eugene V. Debs, imprisoned for his opposition to an earlier draft, has never been pardoned. 

Sunday song

 

Helping people in need: The appropriate medicines for our time

 

Psilocybin mushrooms have been used for millennia by several cultures from Europe to Mesoamerica. More than 116 species have been identified thus far in the genus Psilocybe alone. New scientific evidence is pointing to the fact that, not only can they be psycho-spiritually transformative, but they are capable of stimulating neurogenesis, i.e. the growth of nervous system tissue.

These recent discoveries show psilocybin’s potential for helping address such conditions as depression and anxiety, but perhaps as well to help prevent dementia, Alzheimer’s and other neuropathies. In fact, they may increase intelligence. But these exciting new findings have generated a rush of investors seeking to corner medicalized psilocybin, which raises the question: Should psilocybin mushrooms come to market as People’s Medicine or Profit Medicine?

Paul Stamets, one of the world’s leading authors, inventors, educators and entrepreneurs in the field of mycology, and very possibly the planet’s foremost expert on psilocybin mushrooms, shares his thoughts on the latest research and the rapidly evolving landscape of psychedelic medicine.

Stamets delivered this talk at the 2020 Bioneers Conference, introduced by Kenny Ausubel. Watch more conference videos at https://bioneers.org/2020talks/​

Stamets, speaker, author, award-winning mycologist, medical researcher, groundbreaking mycological entrepreneur, and a visionary thought leader in the study of fungi and their uses in promoting human health, ecological restoration, and detoxification of the environment, is the author of six books, including: "Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World," "Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms," and "Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World." Paul has discovered and named numerous new species of psilocybin mushrooms and is the founder and owner of Fungi Perfecti, LLC, makers of the Host Defense Mushrooms supplement line. And Paul’s work has now entered mainstream popular culture. The new Star Trek: Discovery series features a Lt. Paul Stamets, Science Officer and Astromycologist(!).

Learn more about Paul and his work at his website: https://paulstamets.com/

V-P Harris lectures Guatelmala

 

Krystal Ball and Emily Jashinsky discuss Vice President Kamala Harris' statements that "political corruption, violence against LGBT people and Afro-descendants are some of the root causes of migration" to the U.S. from Guatemala.

What a team we have in Washington....ugh 

Who owns space?

 

 The latest space issues video by the Global Network

The Pentagon and multinational corporations are privatizing outer space, placing profit over people. 

Laws are being implemented in order to benefit billionaires, compromising decades-long United Nations international treaties. 

Exporting American capitalism, colonizing Mars, privatizing asteroids and other celestial bodies are all a continuation of Westward Expansion, Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism. 

And the nuclear power industry drools at the thought of nuclearizing space exploration and mining operations.

We must fight back to keep space for peace before it's too late! 

Activists in Norway protest US nuke subs porting in Tromso

 

Activists in Norway protest proposed docking of nuclear submarines in Tromsø

The Norwegian government has signed strategic agreements with the US to open up and upgrade its air bases and ports to cater to US military exercises and maneuvers

By Peoples Dispatch


On April 28, Wednesday, peace groups and anti-nuclear activists protested in Rådhusparken in Tromsø, Norway, against the arrival of nuclear submarines in the harbor at Tønsnes. Activists from groups such as No to Nuclear Powered Military Vessels in Tromsø (NAM), No to Nuclear Weapons Tromsø and The Grandparent’s Climate Action participated in the protests. The municipal council of Tromsø also discussed the proposed arrival of nuclear submarines.

Norway has become an important host and party to NATO-US military exercises in the Scandinavian region. The Supplementary Defense Cooperation Agreement (SDCA) was the latest agreement signed between the governments of Norway and the US. Under the agreement, the Rygge and Sola airports in southern Norway, and Evenes airport and Ramsund naval base in Nordre-Nordland/Sør-Troms are designated to be developed as bases for US military endeavors [which will be aimed at Russia and will make Norway a prime target in any war].

The Red Party has claimed that the Nord-Hålogaland Home Guard District (HV-16) in Tromsø will face the burden of the mobilizing of security forces for the US at Evenes and Ramsund, and possibly the US nuclear submarines at the Grøtsund industrial harbor in Tromsø. Earlier, the Olavsvern base in Tromsø had also been open for military expeditions but the port was sold to a private party in 2009. Now, along with Haakonsvern in Bergen, Tønsnes in Tromsø is an available option for NATO. Under pressure from the Norwegian government, the Tromsø municipal council was forced to agree to receive allied nuclear submarines at the port despite strong opposition from the local population.

Protesters claim that the municipality of Tromsø, with 77,000 residents, is under-equipped and ill-prepared to ensure the safety of its residents in case of a nuclear accident. According to reports, under pressure from protestors, the municipal council has decided to seek clarity from the law department at the Ministry of Justice on whether it can refuse to fulfill its obligation to receive the allied vessels in its ports.

Jens Ingvald Olsen from the Red Party in Tromsø asked over social media on April 23, “are nuclear submarines, with diplomatic immunity so that the Norwegian authorities cannot inspect the arsenal of weapons, really safe to take to the civilian quay in Tromsø?”

“The population of Tromsø is exposed to an unjustifiably great risk only so that the American crews will have a few days off in a larger city, and not have crew changes in the area between Senja and Kvaløya, as they have done for several years” he said.

Ingrid Margareth Schanche, chairperson of Norway For Peace, told Peoples Dispatch, “the most important struggle for us now in Tromsø, is to stop NATO facilitating a harbor about 18 kilometer outside Tromsø city center. It will be used by NATO’s nuclear submarines as a port of embarkment of equipment and personnel.”

Israel's interference in U.S. politics - a personal story

 

 

Years ago, while coordinating the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice, I organized a statewide conference about Israel's war on Palestine. In our then newspaper (called Just Peace) we had one of our leaders write an article about the conference and the larger issue of genocide against the Palestinian people.

Soon after mailing out the newsletter I got a phone call from a rabbi at the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando. They asked me to come and meet with them.  When I asked what the topic was for the meeting they refused to say.  I really had no idea what was on their mind, so mostly out of curiosity I went to their offices.

The rabbi led me into a large meeting room and sitting atop a dark wooden raised platform (like one you'd find that most city councils might use) was the board of directors of the local Jewish Federation.

They called me up to to the podium facing them (I still had no idea what was going on) and the president of the board held up a copy of our Just Peace newsletter and launched into a yelling rant about the article in our paper covering Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people.  

 

This went on for several minutes and I just stood there listening in complete amazement. I was thinking, "Who the hell does this guy think he is?" as he began to threaten the Florida Coalition.

He concluded his threats with this one - "If we ever see another article like this again in this paper we will withdraw all support for your organization!"

Finally I understood why I had been invited to appear before this arrogant 'board of directors'. My response to the board was this: "In fact the Jewish Federation has never donated a penny to the Florida Coalition.  We just mail the newspaper to you as a courtesy.  We will not be intimidated and will continue to report on Israel's illegal and immoral treatment of the Palestinian people."

At that point I turned and walked out.

This was an important lesson for me. I learned something about how AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and its local underlings actually work. They browbeat and threaten anyone who dares show the slightest bit of support for the beleaguered Palestinians.

I'll always remember how AIPAC essentially threw Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) out of the US Congress because she dared 'defy' their warnings that she should halt her support for Palestine. In the end they ran other black candidates against her and twice got her defeated. 

We hear alot about so-called 'Russian interference' in US elections (without any evidence) but we do have overwhelming evidence that AIPAC (on behalf of the apartheid Israeli state) routinely and directly interferes in US political affairs.  

 

What is daily being done to the Palestinian people breaks my heart. It makes me angry. It motivates me to speak out against apartheid Israel. 

I was active during the campaign in the 1980's to oppose the apartheid regime in South Africa. What Israel is doing today is virtually the same brand of apartheid. But pressure from Israel makes a real global movement to stop them much more difficult to organize.  But that is now changing.

The American people should demand that the US government stop being spineless lackeys for Israel. The American people should stop giving Israel military aid which is used to destroy Palestinian lives and to wage war and destabilization regionally (Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Iran).

During the Obama administration the Congress passed, and Obama signed, a $38 billion 10-year military funding bill for Israel. Included in this bill was $500 million for cooperative programs for 'missile defense'.

The time has come for change. For the sake of the Palestinian people.

Bruce 

What do you know about Oman?

 

 

Oh, man...

No, it's Oman.  Who knows anything about this very strategic colony of the UK?

“The most senior people from the British establishment, heads of intelligence, military, banking, oil & politics, are secretly flown out on a Gulfstream jet…”

Quite an interesting and important video.

A must watch.

British colonialism still lives....

CIA now advertising jobs on social media

 

 

Just in case you need a job and don't mind creating instability, chaos and murder. 

Oh yeah, and regime change as well.

These CIA ads are real and disgusting. They are obviously intended to attract young people of color.

My advice, don't fall for the BS. 

CIA is a key element inside the Deep State, at least at the higher levels. They work for the corporate oligarchies that run much of the world.

Avoid the CIA like the plague.

Bruce

New Global Network Space Alert show - first episode

 

 

Dave Webb (GN board convener and creator of our website) is from Leeds, England.

Tamara Lorincz (GN board member) is from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Bruce Gagnon (Bath, Maine) coordinates the GN and is the show moderator.

We discuss US-NATO aggressive moves to take control of space.

Dave and Tamara also talk about how their particular countries are involved in these expensive and destabilizing space warfare programs.  

We'll do another show every month.  

Thanks go to GN board member Will Griffin (Philadelphia, PA) for doing all the tech work.

Please help us share this video.

It has nothing to do with freedom & democracy

 

 

Less than 100 days into his presidency Joe Biden is already angling for war with Russia… 

The excuse? Ukrainian sovereignty. 

But Russia has 200 years of experience when it comes to Western forces sending troops to its borders - and it's led to a series of devastating wars. And again today, we are seeing the highest number of troops by NATO and the US (Defender 21 war games) stationed against the Russian border. 

Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by analyst Alex Krainer and author Dmitry Orlov to discuss why the real reason behind this growing tension is rarely discussed in mainstream media. 

RT UK is a channel based in London covering British news and politics, protests and interviews with people who make a difference.

Covid report from India and Nepal

 

 Late last week the Global Network sent an email to our mailing list in India and Nepal inquiring about the severity of the Covid situation and asking for information that we could pass on. Below are some early responses from both countries.

 

• The COVID situation in India is at its worst. Every other person is getting affected. Just last night one of our colleague passed away due to COVID and even my son got affected, just battling with the situation. Take care all of you and be safe.

         Thanks
        Aruna Kammila

 

• Thank you so much for your kind concern regarding the impact of Covid19 in Nepal and India. As you know, Nepal has open border with India and any adverse development of the infection in India will have direct bearing on Nepal too.  Many Indian citizens opt to go abroad using Nepal as the departure destination by air. Moreover, the governments in both countries resemble in their character while dealing with public affairs, especially in regard to common or working class people. So they do not give priority to the cause of common people when it directly affects the health condition of these people. It is for these reasons that a very pathetic situation has emerged in both countries. In  Nepal, we are under strict curfew imposed on the people and situation is dire and threatening from all accounts. We are just at the mercy of fate in case if we are forced by the virus to approach the hospitals as they are overwhelmed. The rate of death due to Covid is higher in Nepal in terms of our population which is far less than that of India. I myself am an example of Covid positive but survived anyhow. Only today, over two dozen people died of Covid, and the number of Covid people is on surge in thousands. However,  I would like you not get worried as the efforts are on rise to bring the situation under control. We hope to get triumph over the pandemic with our collective efforts and your best wishes.

         Regards and thanks,
         Dr. Shreedhar Gautam

 

 

 

• Thank you and thank the Global Network for these kind hearts of love and reminiscence to the people of East! It's my pleasure to see the US bureaucracy under the Joe Biden regime for imparting essential aid and supports in India for the pandemic of Covid - 19. The situation of the Covid - 19 patients in Nepal are surging at high speed to the cause of the open border relations between the two neighboring countries - India and Nepal. Even today the cases have reached up to five thousand seven hundred and six in 24 hours in Nepal.

         With best and warm regards, 

          Prabhu Ray Yadav 

          Nepal

 

• It is to inform you that we have large Nepali Migrant workers in India and in New Delhi also. We seek help from you as per your last email. Kindly tell us how you could help Nepali community here in New Delhi. Looking forward to hearing from you.

          Warmest Regards
          Gurubar Singh Thapa

 

• Thanks for your concern. As an Indian politician from the major opposition party, the INC (Indian National Congress), who follows some of your email, I would suggest that you follow the social media outputs of the Indian National Congress Party, starting with @INCIndia on Twitter. Our interim party President, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, has also been interviewed by two leading dailies (Indian Express and Hindu), and has made specific suggestions. Our former PM., Dr. Manmohan Singh, had written a letter with specific suggestions to the govt., that would be worth reading as well, and is available online. Our party has set up control rooms/helpline numbers across the nation, the IYC (Indian Youth Congress) is doing some amount of social service in Delhi, and the states in which the INC is in power has chief ministers who have been responding well to the crisis. Happy to be of further help, I'm currently in Gurugram, Haryana, National Capital Region, India. 
  

          Shruti Devi

 

• Thanks Bruce for your care and response of Nepal and Nepali people. There is a lock-down twenty districts of Nepal. Nepal has nothing any own resources regarding Tika, injections or medicines. If any kinds of support available, that will be highly appreciated.
  

With best regard
Satya Narayan Shah
Nepal

~ For more information you can read:   ‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’: Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe

 

~ If you'd like to make a donation, one of our Global Network board members has suggested the following:  Regarding helping India, I have made a contribution to a good organization in India that helps women on the front-lines of the covid crisis there and is related to peace & nonviolence. A Canadian woman is the connection. Go here

Debate in Canada: Opposition grows to steroidal NATO

 

Tamara Lorincz (kneeling on left) is also a board member of the Global Network

The Saturday Debate: Should Canada leave NATO?  

By Tamara Lorincz

Toronto Star

The pandemic and the climate emergency have rightly caused Canadians to rethink national security and defence. Many are questioning Canada’s continued membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which the Trudeau government has said is the “cornerstone” of our country’s defence policy.

NATO is an anachronistic Euro-Atlantic military alliance. It was founded in 1949 by 12 Western countries, including Canada, for collective defence against the Soviet Union and to stop the spread of communism.

By 1992, though, the Soviet Union had collapsed and the Cold War was over. NATO should have disbanded, like the Warsaw Pact, instead it expanded. Over the past three decades, 14 more countries have joined the alliance.

The key architect of the expansion of the transatlantic alliance in the mid-1990s was Lockheed Martin, the American weapons giant, which founded the U.S. Committee to Expand NATO. Company executives traveled to the newly independent countries in Eastern Europe to convince them to join the alliance. The U.S. Committee to Expand NATO then lobbied the U.S. Senate to approve the accession of Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic in 1998.

At the same time, Lockheed Martin pressured the Clinton administration to give loan guarantees to these new Eastern European allies to buy American weapons.

The U.S. Committee to Expand NATO later evolved into the Project on Transitional Democracies headed by Lockheed Martin executive Bruce Jackson. In the early 2000s, the project pressured the U.S. government to approve more members into the alliance: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

NATO expansion guaranteed a market for American defence companies. To become a member, countries have to institute political, economic and military reforms. They have to move toward a free-market economy and upgrade their militaries to be interoperable with the U.S., which commands the alliance.

This explains why the White House constantly chastises allies like Canada to spend more on their militaries and why Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics are major funders of the NATO Association of Canada, which has its office in Toronto.

At the Wales Summit in 2014, NATO members pledged to spend 2 per cent of GDP on their militaries and of that amount to spend 20 per cent for weapons. To meet those targets, the Canadian government is spending $553 billion to modernize our military over the next 20 years.

No wonder Lockheed Martin Canada enticed retired Canadian Air Force Lt.-Gen. Charles Bouchard, who commanded the NATO operation that destroyed Libya in 2011, to become CEO and help the company secure lucrative defence contracts in Canada.

Canada is planning to buy 88 new fighter jets for $19 billion and to build 15 new warships for $77 billion. Yet, these costly, carbon intensive weapons systems will exacerbate the climate crisis. NATO is locking Canada into fossil-fuelled militarism that will make it much more difficult to decarbonize.

 

According to NATO’s latest Defence Expenditure report, Canada spent $30.8 billion on the military, which is 1.4 per cent of GDP, in 2020. That’s an increase of $12 billion for the defence budget over the past seven years.

Imagine if the Canadian government had instead invested that money on pandemic readiness as was recommended by the SARS Commission in 2007. Canada was woefully ill-prepared for COVID-19 without adequate personal protective equipment, health-care personnel and domestic vaccination production.

NATO’s continued reliance on a dangerous nuclear deterrent also poses an existential risk. Canada is shamefully not joining the new landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to abolish the worst weapons of mass destruction, because of our membership in the nuclear-armed alliance.

NATO’s past expansion and current efforts to bring Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance, despite a promise not to move closer to Russia, is irresponsibly provocative. Canada is fomenting this tension with 540 soldiers leading a NATO battle group in Latvia right now. By contrast, Canada has only 42 blue-helmeted soldiers on UN peacekeeping missions worldwide trying to de-escalate conflict and preserve peace.

Without a doubt, NATO’s post-Cold War record has been disastrous with repeated violations of international law and increased violence. Canada and allies conducted a 78-day illegal bombing operation in Serbia without UN Security Council authorization in 1999 that killed thousands of people. NATO forces, including Canada, are implicated in war crimes committed against innocent civilians during its ruinous 20-year mission in Afghanistan.

It is time for Canada to leave NATO. Our country should work co-operatively and peacefully with the international community through the UN system on disarmament and achieving the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, which will provide genuine security for all of us.

~ Tamara Lorincz is a PhD Candidate, Balsillie School of International Affairs, and fellow with the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, and member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. The Toronto Star is Canada’s largest newspaper with the biggest circulation.

Sunday song

 

May 2: Remember the Nazi massacre in Odessa

 

No U.S.-Ukraine War on Donbass and Russia!
Stop the Drone Strikes on Civilians!
Stop Killing Children!
Justice for the Victims of the 2014 Odessa Massacre!

For seven years now, the right-wing government of Ukraine, supported by the United States and other Western powers, has been at war with the people of the independent Donetsk and Lugansk republics in the Donbass region of Eastern Europe. Some 14,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations. The people of Donetsk and Lugansk live under a brutal military blockade imposed by Ukraine and its Western allies.

On March 22, a 71-year-old pensioner was killed by sniper fire near the capital of Donetsk. 

On April 3, in Aleksandrovskoye, Donetsk, a Ukrainian military drone strike killed five-year-old Vladik Shikhov and wounded his 66-year-old grandmother.

On April 4, another Ukrainian drone strike wounded a civilian in Nikolaevka, Lugansk. 

Many members of the antifascist People's Militia have also been killed while defending residents. 

Since January, Ukraine has been building up its military forces on the front line of the conflict. It uses prohibited weapons, targets civilians, schools and homes in violation of international law and regional ceasefire agreements.

Battalions of troops affiliated with neo-Nazi organizations have been sent to the region, replacing regular Ukrainian army troops. But the Ukrainian and U.S. governments and mainstream media blame Donetsk and Lugansk for taking steps to defend themselves, and threaten Russia for pledging to protect the people there if Ukraine invades. 

 

Meanwhile, workers of all nationalities across Ukraine suffer repression, joblessness and price hikes while their government sells off the country’s resources to Wall Street.

The U.S. government, under both the Trump and Biden administrations, desperately wants to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project that would allow Germany and other Western European countries to purchase Russian gas. Children, elders and other civilians in Donetsk and Lugansk are considered expendable targets by Kiev and Washington as they try to provoke a crisis to give them an excuse to further NATO military expansion and punish Russia.

In recent days, the U.S. and NATO have been warning of a Russian military build-up near the Ukrainian border, but never mention that one of the largest U.S. Army-led military exercises in decades has begun and will run until June: Defender Europe 2021, with 28,000 troops from 27 countries operating in a dozen countries from the Balkans to the Black Sea, which borders both Russia and Ukraine.

This is where the real danger of war is coming from. We say no!

Our joint call for international actions is related as well to another horrific tragedy.

May 2, 2021, marks the seventh anniversary of the Odessa Massacre, when a massive mob led by openly fascist organizations murdered scores of people at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine. In February of that year, a right-wing coup backed by the U.S. government overthrew the elected president of Ukraine, unleashing neo-Nazi organizations against anyone thought to oppose the coup, especially Ukrainian citizens of Russian ancestry. 

 

It was that coup - rarely mentioned by any Western media in coverage of the region’s current rising tensions - that led to the majority-ehtnic Russian people of Donetsk and Lugansk to declare themselves independent of Ukraine. For the same reason, the majority-Russian ethnic people of Crimea held a referendum in which they decided to reunite with the Russian Republic, which they had once been a part of. It was the right-wing coup that precipitated these events, not “Russian aggression.”

On May 2, in Odessa, a multi-ethnic city on the Black Sea, progressives had gathered outside the House of Trade Unions on Kulikovo square and were gathering signatures on a petition demanding that the Odessa province have the right to elect its own governor, rather than be appointed by the new right-wing central government. They wanted a federated government in Ukraine.

 

Without warning, they were attacked by a much larger, fascist-led mob. They retreated into the five-story trade union building, which the mob then set on fire. At least 42 people died from the flames, smoke inhalation or from being beaten to death after jumping from the building’s windows to escape the fire. To date, not one person has been convicted of participating in the massacre, even though there are scores of cellphone videos of the events. (Just google “May 2, 2014, Odessa.”) Further, the Ukrainian government has never allowed an independent international investigation of the tragedy. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. government continues to support both the Ukrainian government and the neo-Nazi organizations that back the coup and led the attack in Odessa.

Some of these organizations, including the Azov Battalion, have linked up with U.S. white-supremacist groups, providing them with paramilitary training.

Each year on May 2, despite the threat of attacks by the fascists, Odessans gather at the site of the massacre to pay their respects to those who died there. And each year, antifascist organizations throughout the world hold local actions to show their support and to press the Odessans’ demand for an international investigation into the tragedy. 

The people of the United States, United Kingdom, the countries of the European Union or any other country would gain nothing from a war with Russia, the only purpose of which would be to promote the profits of Big Oil, other corporations and banks. We are the ones who would pay the price, in blood and resources. We don’t want U.S. troops or any other soldiers to be sent to fight and die in another needless conflict. And we cry out against the U.S. proxy regime in Ukraine killing our sisters and brothers in Donetsk and Lugansk. 

End U.S. aid to the Kiev regime! End all U.S. wars and sanctions! 

In solidarity with the progressive people of Ukraine, we demand the following: 

1.  An independent international investigation into the Odessa Massacre of May 2, 2014.
2.  An end to support by the governments of the United States and other Western powers for the neo-Nazi organizations such as Right Sector, Svoboda Party, C-14 militias and the Azov Battalion.
3.  An end to military support for the Ukrainian government in its war on the people of Donbass, who refuse to be dominated by the right-wing government.
4.  Pressure the Ukrainian government to outlaw the neo-Nazi organizations in Ukraine.
5.  Ban entry to the U.S. or countries of the European Union and their allies by any members of Ukrainian neo-Nazi organizations.
6.  An international Investigation into the financing of Ukrainian neo-Nazi organizations by Ukrainian official leadership, with the imposition of international sanctions on those found guilty.  

~ For more information on the Odessa Massacre, see: https://odessasolidaritycampaign.org

Corporate media repeating CIA lies

Pushback with Aaron Maté

On the same day that the claim of "Russian bounties" in Afghanistan collapsed, another US intelligence-sourced, evidence-free claim was treated as vindication for conspiracy theories about Trump-Russia collusion.

Glenn Greenwald and Aaron Maté discuss the predictable demise of the "Russian bounties"; the Biden administration's new evidence-free assertion that Paul Manafort associate Konstantin Kilimnik passed Trump campaign polling data to Russia; and why major US media outlets continue to parrot Russiagate disinformation no matter how many times the "bombshells" turn into duds.

Guest: Glenn Greenwald. Journalist whose latest book is "Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Bolsonaro’s Brazil."  He writes at https://greenwald.substack.com/

Odds & Ends

 

 

• Sputnik reports:  United States Secretary of War Lloyd Austin said in his first major speech that the US and its allies should prepare for a new type of military conflict.  “The way we fight the next major war is going to look very different from the way we fought the last ones,” Austin said on Friday at the change of command for US Indo-Pacific Command at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

 

• Ed Mays from Seattle liked my recent presentation called 'Is Russia Truly our Enemy?'. He asked me to record it again for his show on national Free Speech TV. So I did. That should increase dramatically the numbers of people viewing this timely talk.  You can watch it here

 

• Donetsk News Agency reports: The People’ Council has declared rights of Ukrainian banks to credit payment debts of Donetsk People's Republic residents on loans taken before November 14, 2014 null and void. The newly adopted law on Ukrainian banks property stipulates that the rights of Ukrainain banks to due payments on liabilities arising before November 14, 2014 are declared null and void. The date is the day when Ukrainian president signed the 875/2014 presidential decree on banning bank services in Donbass. The document was voted for unanimously by 89 deputies present at the meeting. 

 

• Consortium News reports:  The unfolding pandemic horror in India has many causes. These include the complacency, inaction and irresponsibility of government leaders, even when it was evident for several months that a fresh wave of infections of new mutant variants threatened the population. Continued massive election rallies, many addressed by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, brought large numbers to congested gatherings and lulled many into underplaying the threat of infection.  The incomprehensible decision to allow a major Hindu religious festival — the Mahakumbh Mela, held every 12 years — to be brought forward by a full year, on the advice of some astrologers, brought millions from across India to one small area along the Ganges River and contributed to ‘super-spreading’ the disease.  The exponential explosion of Covid-19 cases — and it is likely much worse than officially reported, because of inadequate testing and undercounting of cases and deaths — has revealed not just official hubris and incompetence but lack of planning and major deficiencies in the public health system. The shortage of medical oxygen, for instance, has effectively become a proximate cause of death for many patients.

 

• Strategic Culture Foundation reports:  “The Western powers are like dogs with an old bone on the subject of alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria. There is no meat on it but they continue to gnaw away,” says former British ambassador to Syria in an interview with Finian Cunningham. The United States, Britain, and other NATO powers failed in their covert military efforts for regime change in Syria, thanks in large part to the principled intervention by Russia to defend its historic Arab ally. However, Peter Ford, the former British ambassador to Syria, contends that regime change is still very much a top priority for Western powers and their criminal agenda of reshaping the Middle East according to their imperial objectives.

May Day solidarity message to the Donbass

 

 

I was asked by a labor leader in Lugansk (Donbass) to send a solidarity message via video that would be posted on their union web site.

This labor leader is the person who invited to me come to Lugansk and Donetsk in 2019. He organized my tour and took good care of the three international activists visiting at that time. While in Lugansk (his home town) he made sure that we met and spoke with many different people ensuring that we got a deep understanding of the situation. My report from that trip is here

Since 2014 I've been checking on the situation in the Donbass virtually on a daily basis. 

I first met the labor leader at a peace conference that I stumbled upon while in Moscow in late 2018.  I had gone there to do advance work for the Global Network Russia Study Tour in the spring of 2019 that took us to Moscow, Crimea and St. Petersburg.

Bruce