ACTION ALERT: Democracy Awakening 2016: No New US Wars: An Appeal to US Peace Organizations

February 2nd, 2016 - by admin

Code Pink and World Beyond War – 2016-02-02 19:57:15

Special to Environmentalist Against War

ACTION ALERT: Not Another US/NATO War on Libya
World Beyond War (February 1, 2016)

To: The US Congress
Uphold your Constitutional responsibility and your duty under the United Nations Charter and the Kellogg-Briand Pact, basic human decency, and a minimal ability to learn from past mistakes by blocking all funding for another war on Libya.

Why is this important?
The illegal 2011 overthrow of the Libyan government subjected the people of that nation and surrounding nations to violence, weapons proliferation, chaos, and desperate insecurity. In no way will compounding the problem with the same approach again improve matters in this case or establish good precedents.

How it will be delivered
In Washington, D.C.
ACTION: SIGN HERE:


Appeal to Peace Organizations in the United States
Medea Benjamin and David Swanson / Code Pink and World Beyond War

A big, multi-issue coalition effort is planned for this spring. We’ve lobbied for peace groups to be included in it. Now we need to take advantage of the opportunity. Please sign your organization up to be part of it here.


Democracy Awakening
Check out http://democracyawakening.org and the plans for April 16-18 in Washington, D.C., and around the United States. There will be teach-ins, a big rally, and nonviolent direct action.

Here’s a coalition description: “We’re a broad coalition of organizations representing the labor, peace, environmental, student, racial justice, civil rights and money in politics reform movements. We share a firm belief that we will not win on the full range of policy issues we all care about until we combat attacks on voting rights and the integrity of the vote by big money.”

Does that sound like something your organization can get behind? You can join up and then choose how deeply to get involved. If you’d like to be part of a peace-focused teach-in on April 16 in Washington, D.C., please contact rebecca@codepink.org.

This is going to be huge.
Check out the list of organizations participating at http://democracyawakening.org.
And please sign on your organization here.

Democracy Spring
In addition, just before Democracy Awakening, a separate but related effort is planned called Democracy Spring. See: http://www.democracyspring.org

This will start with a march from Philadelphia beginning on April 2nd. Over 1,500 people have already pledged to risk arrest in nonviolent action in Washington, D.C., between April 11 and 16. The demand to Congress is to end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections.

Your organization can endorse by emailing http://www.democracyspring.org

While we encourage everyone to be involved in as many events as possible through Democracy Awakening and Democracy Spring, we want to have a strong presence on the last day of the sit-in on the 16th and the big rally on the 17th.

Militarism is, as Dr. King said, tied up so intimately with racism and extreme materialism, that we need to challenge them together. Militarism strips away the resources and the political will to solve our other problems.

The peace movement needs allies, allies who could put the dollars dumped into militarism to better use, who can see the advantages for the environment of opposing its leading destroyer, who can restore the civil rights that are lost in the fever of wars of “freedom.”

Here is a chance to build that larger coalition for the better world that peace makes possible.

Join us on Facebook and Twitter.


Mapping Military Madness:
David Swanson / World Beyond War

Once again this year, the clear winner, in not just women’s soccer and incarceration, but also in militarism, is the United States of America, sweeping nearly every category of military insanity with seemingly effortless ease. Find all of last year’s and this year’s maps here: bit.ly/mappingmilitarism

In the area of money spent on militarism, there was really no competition:
http://www.worldbeyondwar.org/wp-content/uploads/statplanet/StatPlanet.html

Troops in Afghanistan have declined, but there remains no question which nation still has the most.

There are more major wars in the world now than a year ago, but only one nation is involved in some significant way in all of them.

When it comes to weapons sales to the rest of the world, the United States really shines. The other nations should probably be competing in a different league.

In nuclear weapons stockpiling, Russia makes an amazing showing, nudging out the US for the lead, just like last year, even as both nations’ stockpiles have slightly diminished, and both nations have announced plans to build more. No other nation even makes it on the chart.

Among nations with other WMDs, such as chemical and biological weapons, the United States is right in there. But it’s really in the reach of its military presence that the United States makes every other nation look like amateur killers.

US troops and weapons are everywhere. Check out the maps.

We’ve added a map showing the nations receiving the greatest number of US and allies’ air strikes, and we’ve updated the count of drone murders in each country being regularly droned.

Further maps display which nations are taking steps to facilitate peace and prosperity. The United States’ ability to fail so stunningly in these categories while excelling in the others is the mark of a true champion warmonger.

A picture is worth 1,000 words. Adjust the settings to make your own maps of militarism here.