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From: Matt D., United for Peace & Justice [mailto:info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2016 7:56 PM
To: miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Video: UFPJ Tackles Forever War & Nuclear/NATO Threat at Left Forum
2016
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Dear Miriam,
Exactly one month ago, United for Peace and Justice participated in the Left
Forum 2016 in New York City. The Left Forum is one of the largest gatherings
of radicals and leftists in the United States, with thousands of
participants and hundreds of workshops, panels, and plenaries.
CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR VIDEOS BELOW, OR CLICK HERE TO FIND THEM ONLINE!
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Last year, the UFPJ coordinating committee decided to represent our network
at the Left Forum 2015 by tabling. We had been too preoccupied with
organizing for the Peace and Planet conference, march, and rally to
adequately organize any panels, but we did support and promote the panels of
our member groups. We tabled all three days, between the Jacobin Magazine
and US Labor Against War.
This year, UFPJ focused more energy on workshop and panel planning, and
promotion for the Left Forum. Our goal was to connect with more UFPJ
activists, to provide important peace movement and anti-war analysis at the
Left Forum, and to inspire challenging discussions that would influence our
strategy and future actions.
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_Shot_2016-06-21_at_6.57.03_PM.png> We partnered with Peace Action NY,
American Friends Service Committee, and the US Peace Council and co-hosted 3
workshops (see video of each below). Both Jackie Cabasso and Terry
Rockefeller, UFPJ's co-conveners were in attendance, as well as Matt De
Vlieger, UFPJ's part-time staff. We also flew-in George Martin, former UFPJ
Co-Chair to participate in our events.
Through the three workshops (not including others we attended) we engaged
about eighty-five attendees of the Left Forum. Hundreds of others have
already viewed video of our panels' online live-stream on Facebook.
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Another dozen or so people joined the small social meet-and-greet we planned
at a nearby lounge to connect with other Peace Movement activists and
organizers.
We also met dozens of people who identify as members of UFPJ in conversation
between panels, and at the many tables in the conference center lobby.
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Overall, it was a meaningful experience for us to connect in person, in one
place, with other peace movement leaders and movers to assess the state of
our movement and discuss plans for our shared future. It was also made clear
to us how necessary it is to have UFPJ as a reasoned and experienced body in
a broader Leftist gathering.
You can view video of some of the discussions we had and read background
info below.
Thanks to those of you who participated and donated online makes this
peace-work possible. Please donate here, to keep our program going in this
time of need.
Peace,
Matt De Vlieger
Follow United for Peace and Justice on
Web | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
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Video
US Militarism's Expanse and the Need for a Movement to Cut Military Spending
and Invest in Human Needs
United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) was formed in 2003, as millions of
people around the world said no to the impending U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Thirteen years later, despite the fact that we inhabit a war culture and
machine with a vast reach and capacity never seen before, UFPJ continues to
stand strong in opposition to endless war. It falls upon us as peace
activists to inspire American people - and people around the world - to call
for an end to war, to protest drone attacks and nuclear weapons
modernization, to wage campaigns to cut the military budget, to stand up in
our communities to bring attention to the futility of war, and to demand a
full focused effort on diplomacy and redirection of resources to meet human
needs and protect mother earth. It's time for the movement for peace and
justice to rise again!
Read the accompanying statement here:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/2016/03/02/us-militarisms-expanse-and-the-need
-for-an-international-movement-to-cut-military-spending/
Chair/Facilitator: Matt De Vlieger View Bio
Speakers/Co-Facilitators: Jackie Cabasso View Bio, Joseph Gerson View Bio,
George Paz Martin View Bio, Terry Rockefeller View Bio
The Imperative of Nuclear Disarmament in an Increasingly Dangerous World
We live in an era of fluid, contentious, complicated, provocative and
potentially dangerous military geopolitical struggles for power and
influence. Almost every month, even every week, we see signs of intensifying
military and political tensions between the United States and Russia,
especially in regions already marked with strife such as in Syria and
Ukraine, and separately between the United States and China, across the
South China Sea and North Korea. As all these countries have, between them,
over 15,000 nuclear weapons, the possibility of any of these tensions
quickly escalating into nuclear war is significant. South Asia continues to
be a potential nuclear flashpoint, especially in the region of Kashmir.
Instead of trying to reduce the danger from these nuclear weapons, all of
these countries are in the process of modernizing or further advancing their
nuclear weapons programs. All of this is happening in a world where elites
envision and plan for continually escalating competition for increasingly
scarce resources. Military planners, in turn, interpret this as a sign of
impending armed competition in both conventional and high tech arenas. How
should people on the left think about what is happening and how should they
organize against these dangerous trends? This panel will discuss these
questions, by drawing upon the activist/scholars' research and their work
with local, national and international campaigns to eliminate the dangers of
nuclear war.
Chair/Facilitator: Jim Anderson View Bio
Speakers/Co-Facilitators: Jackie Cabasso View Bio, Joseph Gerson View Bio,
M. V. Ramana, View Bio, Matt De Vlieger View Bio
No to NATO/No to War!
NATO is an imperial alliance. Beyond the ostensible goal of containing the
USSR, now Russia, NATO reinforces US interventions across the Middle East
and North Africa. With the war against Serbia, NATO began wars violating the
UN charter, followed by Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Eight NATO nations are
at war in Syria. The Ukraine crisis, with potential nuclear dimensions, is
rooted in NATO's expansion. Violating the commitment not to move NATO closer
to Moscow, President Clinton began the expansion to Russia's borders and new
"partnerships" with Ukraine, Georgia, Asia nations and the Global South.
Given the history of invasions of Russia, Moscow's militarized responses to
NATO expansion were predictable. July's NATO summit will be in Warsaw. It
will build on President Obama's commitment to quadruple spending for U.S.
Eastern Europe war preparations. Activists from across Europe will demand
peaceful alternatives in a counter-summit. Bahman Azad, professor of
economics and sociology, serves on the Executive Board of the US Peace
Council, active in Veterans For Peace and the International Campaign in
Solidarity with the Iranian People's Green Movement. Joseph Gerson is
Director of the American Friends Service Committee's Peace & Economic
Security Program. He serves on the steering committee of the No to NATO/No
to War Network, the board of the International Peace Bureau and is
Co-Convener of the Peace & Planet Network.
Chair/Facilitator: Jackie Cabasso View Bio
Speakers/Co-Facilitators: Bahman Azad View Bio, Joseph Gerson View Bio
Help us continue to do this critical work and more-- make a donation to UFPJ
today.
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