Medea Benjamin's Blog

Egypt’s Hunger Strikers Suffer Amidst increasing Human Rights violations


By Manar Ammar

Since the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, human rights abuses in Egypt have been piling high. The new authority that came from protesting has now banned any political public expression. In the Raba’a Massacre last year, at least 800 supporters of the deposed president were killed by government forces, in what rights defender call the worst massacre in Egypt’s modern history. The police officers involved in breaking the Raba’a sit-in remain at large, and many still serving in their positions, while thousands of protesters and average citizens are serving severe sentences for expressing disdain.

Rights workers in Egypt report police arrested protesters and held hundreds, including children, in Central Security Forces camps where they reported being subjected to torture. Local rights groups say the number of detainees in the months following nears 80,000.

But the Egyptian government’s attempt to silence and imprison activists were just beginning. Detainees report being subjected to solitary confinement, lack of proper medical care, inhumane and degrading treatment at the hands of officers and a bias judiciary system that serves power, not justice.

After handing Alaa Abdel Fattah a 15-year sentence, who stood outside the court not being allowed in to be present for his own court sentencing, the judge later excused himself from the case, due to the absurdity of the prosecution’s evidence, which at some point included footage from music videos, a galloping horse and a homemade celebration tape of Alaa’s family.

Alaa is now back in prison and on a hunger strike.

Late last month, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced activist Sanaa Seif and human rights lawyer Yara Sallam and 21 other defendants to three years in prison for allegedly violating the Protest Law.

Sana and Alaa are siblings, who lost their father, prominent human rights lawyer Ahmed Seif just weeks ago. Alaa entered a hunger strike on on August 19, while Sanaa followed him a few days later. Their family, mother and university professor Laila Sueif and sister and activists Mona Seif joined them in the strike.

“We do this because it’s important to show solidarity,” Sueif said in a tired voice over the phone from Cairo earlier this month. “This is our family and we won’t back down.”

Meanwhile news about the deteriorating health of Egyptian-American journalist Mohamed Soltan, 26, has captured attention. The Ohio State University graduate has been on a hunger strike for over 285 days since his detention and is now slipping into a coma, according to local reports.

On Wednesday, a judge refused an appeal from 12 rights groups for an immediate release of Soltan based on his medical condition.  Soltan is one of dozens of journalists currently jailed in Egypt for reporting on the opposition. Being on the front lines and doing one’s job is now a crime in the new Egypt. The list of charges against them included inciting violence against the government and defamation against the country.

Soltan’s alma mater, The Ohio State University, has been holding vigils and solidarity events in his name, calling on President Barack Obama to intervene on Soltan’s behalf. While the White House has largely remained silent during the 14 months Soltan has been held, the US finally in October spoke out for their imprisoned national.

According to local Egyptian newspaper reports, the US Embassy in Cairo has issued a letter calling for Soltan’s release. But nothing more. Obama, despite speaking out for imprisoned Americans in North Korea, has said nothing on Soltan’s case, likely not wanting to interrupt amicable relations with the new dictator in Cairo, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, despite the overhauling of crackdowns on people of conscience that appears to be a return to the dictatorial ways of Hosni Mubarak, who Egyptians forced from power, only for him to be replaced by an oppressive military power, desperate to not let it control slip out of its hands again.

One of those who went into a solidarity strike was Nermeen Yousri, an Egyptian cancer researcher and political activist. Many of her friends are in prison. She joined the strike last months and had to break it later due to medical reasons, and spoke about her reasons for joining the strike:

“I simply decided to go on hunger strike, when everything else we did to support the detainees, simply ended up with more people behind bars.. Literally everything.. Marches, silent stands, putting up posters, even wearing t-shirts with a picture of someone who’s in prison, could send you too to prison.. And unlike what many people think, you’re not really safe if you lay low and keep silent,” Nermeen like tens others who joined the strike, highlights the importance of solidarity.

“Also, one very important reason of my strike, is solidarity with striking detainees.. They’re in prison, subjected to all forms of pressure to end their strikes.. And threatened with solitary confinement and other forms of torture.. So the least we can do is to let them know they’re not alone in this.. If I was in prison, I know it’d mean a lot to me if people were striking with me.”

Egypt also had to defend it human rights record in front of the UN following the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) examination earlier this month.

According to Amnesty International, the Egyptian delegation in Geneva rejected criticism from UN member states “despite damning evidence of human rights violations collected by Amnesty International and others.”

Amnesty called the Egyptian defense “cynical” and that the Egypt they tried to present  “was unrecognizable,”

“At best, they are completely disconnected from the scale of the human rights crisis engulfing the country. It was a pathetic attempt at a cover up.”  Said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Program.

In the midst of the increasing crack on public and political freedoms in Egypt, the group of individuals who choose this hard fight, are not showing any signs of backing down, and they deserve our solidarity and respect.

Manar Ammar is a CODEPINK intern and Egyptian writer focused on social change and human rights issues.  www.codepink.org  

Photo by Shirien

November 10, 2014

“I don’t want you to feel weak. We are strong.” -Rasmea Odeh, after receiving the verdict

CODEPINK: Women for Peace, a women-initiated peace and social justice organization, deplores the conviction of Rasmea Odeh by the a U.S. federal jury in Detroit. Activist Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian-American woman, was found guilty Monday of one count of Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization. CODEPINK condemns the selective targeting and punishment of Palestinian-Americans and allies who are engaged in Palestine solidarity efforts, such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Further, CODEPINK questions the legitimacy and fairness of the verdict in light of the denial of essential evidence into her trial.

On October 22, 2013, Rasmea Odeh was arrested at the age of 67 in Chicago on charges of immigration fraud. The case brought forth in 2013 was nine years after she became a US citizen, one year short of the statute of limitations on her allegation, and close to 20 years after she filled out her immigration papers. Odeh allegedly committed fraud on her immigration forms in 1995 because she did not report her conviction by an Israeli military court, a conviction she maintains is based on a false confession. In 1969, Odeh was jailed, tortured, and sexually assaulted by Israeli authorities; she spent ten years in jail because of a confession that was illegally obtained by this system of torture.

The circumstances of Rasmea Odeh’s coerced confession, conviction and incarceration by an Israeli military court more than twenty years ago were not allowed into evidence. In her case, Judge Drain allowed Odeh’s alleged conviction by the Israeli military to enter the case as evidence, but did not allow an expert witness to testify regarding her torture and sexual abuse that resulted in the false confession and severe PTSD from these experiences.

It is with great heaviness in our hearts that we learn of this unjust verdict. Odeh is a long time advocate of peace, human rights and the end of the occupation of her people and the brutal policies of displacement, death and dispossession inflicted upon Palestinians by the Israeli government. As leader of her community, Rasmea Odeh is an inspiring example of the resilience of women activists who dare to organize despites histories of trauma and violence. While true criminals–– war criminals–– walk free, activists like Odeh are repressed, targeted, villainized, and arrested.

The institutional violence and deliberate oppression inflicted upon Odeh is not an isolated incident, but part of an ongoing persecution of Palestinians by Israel and its allies. Furthermore, the urgent necessity to condemn and organize against the targeting of people of color in America, especially those that speak to power, is ever-important. As we read the news headlines of Odeh’s case and are on the eve of the potential indictment of Darren Wilson in the murder of Mike Brown, we recognize that our “justice” system in the United States is wrought with injustice and much work is needed for the future.

As women and allies committed to peace and social justice, we see the attack on Rasmea Odeh as an attack on women of color who dare to challenge power and organize for a more just world. We stand with Rasmea Odeh and all those fighting for peace and justice. “There is justice in this world. We will find it,” declared Rasmea Odeh today after learning of the verdict. May we be brave enough to rise and make her words reality.

Until Palestine is free…

CODEPINK: Women for Peace

Block the Boat and BDS See Success in Oakland, Palestine

By Joseph Mayton

OAKLAND: As activists prepared to head to the Port of Oakland October 25 before the sun broke the horizon, word came down that the Israeli transport vessel Zim Beijing would not be attempting to dock that morning. Instead, they would remain out at sea in order to avoid the activists who were congregating at the port in an effort to force the boat away from American land. The following day, activists were again ready to force the hand of the Israelis, but this time the boat never approached, a sign the activists and others supporting the Boycott Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement have claimed as a major victory in the ongoing battle for justice in Palestine.

The efforts have now seen the Israeli vessel turn away from American shores and make towards Russia. Coupled with the BDS movements’ attacks and public pressure on Israeli companies using occupied, and illegal under international law, Palestinian land for factories that saw popular soda making company SodaStream announce it would be closing its factory being housed on Palestinian land, the BDS movement is making strides against the illegal usurpation of Palestinian territory.

“For the first time ever, an Israeli ship has been completely turned away before reaching its port of destination due to sustained overwhelming community organizing,” the Arab Resource and Organizing Center said in a statement after Zim turned away permanently from Oakland.

The success of the Oakland Block the Boat action came on the heels of another Block the Boat success in Los Angeles, after activists their braved angry counter-protests in blocking another Israeli ship from docking only the week before the Zim Beijing failed to dock in the San Francisco Bay.

“The Block the Boat protests have elevated BDS work to include direct action that has an immediate material impact on the State of Israel,” said Block the Boat Oakland organizer Lara Kiswani.

“Zim is Israel’s main shipping line and an Israeli security asset. 98 percent of Israeli trade is conducted through maritime, and by disrupting Zim’s business at ports throughout North America we are disrupting international commerce and costing Zim a great economic and political loss,” she added.

The support that the Block the Boat campaigns have received in recent months has shown once again that despite Washington’s unending blank check support for Israeli policies in Palestine are not going unnoticed by concerned citizens, American and others, who are banding together to support the action against what many have dubbed the Israeli “Apartheid State.”

“The recent Block the Boat rally and march in Oakland was highly spirited with supporters from all over the Bay Area in attendance,” said CODEPINK’s Nancy Mancias. She was a participant in the group who took to the Oakland port over a number of early mornings to maintain pressure against the Israeli’s maritime shipping lanes.

“Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists once again show success in bringing the plight of the Palestians to the forefront with halting the Israeli Zim ship’s arrival to the Post of Oakland,” she added.

BDS aims to hit the occupation where it hurts the most: the bank.

SodaStream, a company that has seen actress Scarlet Johansen become the face of the soda making endeavor, has faced a large and concerted effort among Palestinian activists and their fellow BDS proponents, who have lashed out at the company for using Palestinian land – stealing water and resources that belong to Palestinians – and reports of abhorrent workers’ conditions had seen the movement push forward in demanding an end to the factory on illegal territory.

BDS groups and activists praised their own efforts to end the factory in the West Bank, but SodaStream claimed the move was “business related” and had nothing to do with the international pressure unleashed by the fast-growing activist movement.

The decision is “purely commercial” and forms part of a “global growth plan” being initiated by Lod, Israel-based SodaStream, spokeswoman Nirit Hurwitz said.

While the Israeli company attempted to deflect their decision to move the factory as unrelated to the relentless campaign against SodaStream, it is clear that the boycott movement and pressure that had been put forward by the BDS movement had a massive impact on how the company did business, or didn’t, as recent company reports indicate that SodaStream was losing money.

Still, even as optimism currently surrounds the BDS movement and two successful campaigns against Israeli provocation in a seven-day period have manifested, the announcement in late October of Israel’s continued expansion of West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements show that despite the efforts of the global community to create change and force the hand of Israeli entities, there is still much work that needs to be done in order to end the illegal occupation and oppression of Palestinian land and the Palestinian people, respectively.

Joseph Mayton is a longtime journalist whose work has previously appeared in The Daily Beast, The Progressive, Occupy.com, The Guardian, and other international news media.

Block The Boat return to Oakland!

By: Manar Ammar

In the 50 day military assault on Gaza, dubbed ‘operation protective edge’, Israel murdered upwards of 2000 people, with as many as 1,800 civilians including around 500 children losing their lives. 11,000 people in total were wounded and some 100,000 were displaced after their homes were leveled in the bombing and shelling.

The attack on hospitals, schools, United Nations’ shelters shocked the world awake to the realities of the Zionist military occupation. No one was sparred. Not the children who played soccer on the beach, neither mothers who had to decide whether to divide their family around the house, in case it was hit, so not everyone would perish.

What started as a march on Oakland’s port to protest the Israeli aggression soon turned into a power house movement. This escalation against Israel seemed to morph on its own, as the world watched in horror the bloody images on their TVs from Gaza every night for almost two months.

Thousands marched in solidarity with the Palestinian people onto the port of Oakland on August 16. Their mission was to stop Israel’s Zim Piraeus vessel from unloading its cargo. In addition to being partially owned by the Israeli government, Zim Integrated Shipping services is the largest cargo shipping company in Israel. The cargo remained unloaded for four days, a victory for the activists that helped create more momentum.

The march opened the door for action against Israeli crimes and has put the American West Coast on the frontlines of that action against racism and violence.

The Block The Boat Coalition of Los Angeles just claimed another victory over Zim Savannah last weekend when they delayed the docking of the ship at the Long Beach port for around 34 hours. On Saturday October 18, hundreds of activists showed up on the port at 6 am, protested against the unloading of the ship and forced it to stay at sea. Until Sunday morning, the activists were told that the ship is still not docking and that no workers were assigned or called to take its load off.

As the BDS movement continues to grow around the world in light of increasing Israeli war crimes and its Apartheid regime, Block The Boat movements continue to gain steam and are planning a return to the Bay Area.

Block The Boat Oakland plans to return to the docks on October 25, to continue to put economic pressure on Israeli’s Zim shipping line as well as exposing the growing list of human right violations and massacres happening against the Palestinian people. For more information visit the Arab Resource Organizing Center.

Manar Ammar is a CODEPINK intern and Egyptian writer focused on social change and human rights issues.  www.codepink.org

This article is reprinted from OtherWords. 

President Barack Obama proudly signed the law that repealed the Pentagon’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, freeing lesbian, gay, and bisexual Americans (although not trans people) to openly serve in the military four years ago.

But when it comes to budgeting, the concept lingers on. “Don’t ask us how we spend money,” the Pentagon basically says. “Because we can’t really tell you.”

Every taxpayer, business, and government agency in America is supposed to be able to pass a financial audit by the feds, every year. It’s the law, so we do our duty. There’s one exception: the Pentagon.

Down the Hole, an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib

Year after year, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) declares the Pentagon budget to be un-auditable. In 2013, for example, the GAO found that the Pentagon consistently fails to control its costs, measure its performance, or prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse.

Congress thankfully, did give the Pentagon a deadline to get itself in better financial shape — 25 years ago. Taxpayers are still waiting.

The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 requires every federal agency to pass a routine financial audit not once, not twice, but every year. All the other agencies do it.

What does the Pentagon deliver instead? Promises. The Defense Department always swears it will conduct an audit — and then requests five more years to do it.

How has Congress responded? By doubling the Pentagon’s budget between 2000 and 2010. Many members are now railing against “cuts” that will still keep military spending at stratospheric levels over the next decade.

How bad could things be? Well, the most recent scandals may help answer this question.

In Afghanistan, the Air Force bought the Afghan government 20 Italian transport planes for $486 million. When it found out the planes didn’t work, it crushed them into scrap metal, recouping just $32,000.

Other examples of disastrous post-9/11 spending abound. In his new book Pay Any Price, New York Times investigative journalist James Risen reported that more than $1 billion in funds intended for Iraq’s reconstruction may have wound up in a Lebanese bunker. Or not. U.S. investigators couldn’t get to the bottom of that one.

Former Pentagon boss Robert M. Gates once described the U.S. military as a semi-feudal system — “an amalgam of fiefdoms without centralized mechanisms to allocate resources, track expenditures, and measure results relative to the department’s overall priorities.”

Gates also complained that it was nearly impossible to get accurate information and answers to basic questions, such as “How much money did you spend?” and “How many people do you have?”

Congress, charged with oversight, is afraid of stepping on the Pentagon’s powerful toes. The House did, to its credit, pass an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act a few months ago that would require the Pentagon to rank its departments in order of how auditable they are.

The amendment, however, lacks any penalties for recalcitrant divisions.

A bipartisan group led by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Michael Burgess (R-TX), and Dan Benishek (R-MI) wants to push the Pentagon further. TheirAudit the Pentagon Act of 2014 (HR5126) calls for cutting any “un-auditable” Pentagon operation by one-half of 1 percent. It will be an uphill battle to get majority support for even that slap on the wrist, given how lawmakers have failed to get the Pentagon to carry through with the audit they first demanded more than 20 years ago.

I find this particularly amazing due to my own personal experience as the co-founder of a small and scrappy feminist peace group called CODEPINK. In 2008, the Internal Revenue Service singled us out for an audit. We underwent a tedious, energy-draining accounting of every dollar spent and complied with every bit of minutiae the IRS requested. It wasn’t fun, but it was our duty and we did it — and passed. And every year we’re prepared to do it again.

If CODEPINK can handle an audit, why can’t the Pentagon? It’s high time the Defense Department fulfilled its commitment to account for every taxpayer dollar in its $555-billion budget.

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the peace group CODEPINK and the human rights organization Global Exchange. She is the author of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.

By Nathan Sheard

October 9th marked the two-month anniversary of the murder of Michael Brown Jr., his body left to decay in the hot, summer sun for over 4 hours before finally being peeled off of the pavement and thrown into the back of an unmarked SUV. The evening before this anniversary, supporters from across the U.S. began to fill St. Louis area churches, homes, hotels, and streets, to show their solidarity with local organizers on their 61st day of protest.  They would later be greeted with the news that VonDeritt Myers Jr., another black teen, had been killed at the hands of the St. Louis police department.

In cities and towns across America, protests continue, many of which are being planned to coincide with October 22nd, the National Day Against Police Violence. On the other side of the world, in Palestine, some of the earliest displays of support for Ferguson protesters came from young people engaged in their own fight for liberation and against violence based in systemic racism and oppression. It is understandable however, that many engaged in liberation work question whether this moment will become the powerful catalyst of a burgeoning movement, or like so many before, simply be a ripple pushing back against the tide of capitalist white supremacist heteropatriarchal imperialism.

We’ve experienced the empowerment of convergence around causes and moments that have provided us with increased optimism but eventual frustration, as what we hope to be the sprouting seed of movement proves to be moment. There are, however, real signs of commitment to continued struggle: a new generation of young leaders building connections that go beyond our individual experiences, based in an intersectional understanding of oppression and the coordinated effort needed to battle it.

Throughout the Weekend of Resistance, the expected happened. People took to the streets in anger, frustration, rebellion, and solidarity. The unexpected happened as well. Sunday evening—hours into a program that featured many long-respected voices from a number of denominations of faith, as well as organizations including the NAACP—the youth who had been fired up and in the streets for 65 days stood up and made it clear they couldn’t couldn’t take any more of the endless talk about peace without plans for action. The voices of the establishment drowning out the work they had been doing in the streets, day and night, month building upon month. Those that were there saw a moment of appreciation both from the young toward the elders, as well as from the elders toward the young. As the youth in the audience who stood up expressing their frustration had come hoping to hear a blueprint for action from their elders, they began insisting that they would no longer sit silently through well-worded rhetoric that ignored the realities and urgency of the struggle they fight daily in protests—a war they had long been fighting through their daily lived experience. In response, those long-recognized as movement leaders stood up, exiting the stage to hand over their seats, no doubt with understanding that this yielding of the floor was largely symbolic. The youth were already shaping the fight for their future. This was a moment of realization that no longer would the politics of respectability be allowed to silence the need for respect. The final note was heard when Rev. Osagyefo Sekou—for whom a mutual respect had been cemented in being side-by-side with the youth in the streets from the beginning of the Ferguson uprising—began to close the event with a call for folks to join in an action for the following day. His intended call to action was interrupted by a young woman demanding they not wait for tomorrow. We marched through the South Side that night, finally taking and holding space on the largely white campus of St. Louis University. We would bring the fight that had been ongoing almost exclusively in communities of color to the clock-towered square of those whose privilege made it all too easy to ignore the systemic violence being wrought on marginalized communities.

Even before this clear passing of the baton, the prioritizing of movement over moment was visible in national organizing meetings arranged by Black Life Matters, a trans teach-in from the Missouri Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Network, numerous training’s on civil disobedience by Hands Up United, NVDA training’s by the Ruckus Society, training’s on legal observing from the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild, and many more offerings from a number of inspiring groups. The tone clearly not one of “How do we make this weekend grand?” but “How do we connect our struggles toward collective liberation? How do we connect the struggles of U.S. residents in their individual towns and varied experiences? How do we connect the struggles of folks experiencing oppression abroad? How do we raise up the voices of all those oppressed within a system that is dependent upon the subjugation and division of people?” All these conversations took place in spaces led largely by young black women.

As Dr. Cornel West and Rev. Sekou had penned in their recent article published in Ebony, “This new generation has an intersectional analysis, grassroots legitimacy, intergenerational connections, social media savvy, and above all prophetic rage.” Many have come to understand that what we have is not a problem with police brutality alone. We have a human rights crisis. Black and brown communities in the U.S., much like Palestinians in occupied Palestine, and marginalized peoples throughout the world—are not regarded as deserving of human protection or dignity by the police, prosecutors, courts, media, or politicians.

Affected communities are drawing the parallels between the realities of oppression and doing the necessary work to build a united front. Recent events have highlighted these connections, where we have seen local police departments ramping up with tools of war provided by the same U.S. military that arms Israeli forces against the Palestinians and continues to carry out violent action throughout the world for capitalistic gain. The action taking place in the street is only the most visible and recordable sign of the work being done in smaller, more intimate spaces––the work of confronting interpersonal and internalized forms of oppression, and the work of feeding the fire to speak truth to power and confront structural, institutional, and systemic forms of oppression and violence.

The understanding is growing that we can not successfully overcome oppression and violence targeted at groups marginalized because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion or other socially meaningful perceived or adopted identity—without recognizing that our liberation is either collective or it is non-existent. The world we are fighting for belongs to the youths of this generation and of those to come. They are justly taking the reigns and the leadership. Making a moment into a movement will require planning beyond the day, and centering the voices most affected and with the largest stake. It’s time to lead by example, without hesitating to get out of the way.

Nathan Sheard is the Campaign Organizer of CODEPINK’s Communities Organizing to Demilitarize Enforcement (CODE) campaign, part of the Mutant Legal activist collective and a founding member of Just Info (a 24-hour hotline providing no-cost legal information in New York City). 

By Col. Ann Wright

Almost 60 days after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot six times and left for 4 hours and 34 minutes in the street in front of the apartment complex where he lived, the youth of Ferguson, Missouri are not letting their community, state or country forget. Their cries of “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” have echoed across American cities as they press for police accountability in the large numbers of police shootings of unarmed persons of color.

 Nor are they letting the country forget the militarized response by local and state police agencies to protests that followed Brown’s shooting. After more than two months, there still is no decision by the county’s grand jury on whether Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will be charged in the death of Brown.

I joined CODEPINK: Women for Peace, Veterans for Peace and Palestine Solidarity groups in Ferguson and St. Louis for the Weekend of Resistance October 9-12, 2014. The weekend was an important acknowledgement of continuing local community and national concern for police brutality, racism and injustice. Organized by those who daily have challenged police brutality in Ferguson, the four days of solidarity provided an opportunity for persons from around the country to join those on the front lines.The protest baton in Ferguson is firmly in the hands of the youth of the community. While supported by many of their elders, the spirit and commitment to challenge police brutality has been generated by the younger generation as they take on the mantle of the leaders of the movement.During the 60 days since Michael Brown’s death, they have held a daily vigil, sometimes 24-hours a day, in front of the Ferguson police station. In the evenings, a larger group forms across the street from the police station with signs against police brutality and in the evening a larger group crosses the street to stand directly in front of the police station.

With the killing of 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers on October 9, the night before the Weekend of Resistance began, vigils are also held at the site where he was killed on Shaw Street in South St. Louis by an off-duty St. Louis police officer working for a private security company who fired 17 bullets hitting Myers seven times, including the fatal shot to his head.The police say the off-duty officer felt the three youth were “suspicious” upon emerging from a local deli and began following them. The police officer reportedly said that three shots were fired at him and he returned fire with 17 bullets. Surveillance tapes at the deli show him buying a sandwich with no weapon visible. Police say that a weapon that had been fired three times was found at the shooting scene.Many of the youth leaders have been very disappointed by the lack of assistance from major civil rights groups including the Missouri NAACP. They feel they have been carrying the load without much help from organizations they had hoped would have spoken out more strongly and would have provided long-term support to challenge systemic police brutality.

During the Weekend of Resistance, activists joined many actions planned by the youth organizers. On Friday, October 10, despite an intense rainstorm, hundreds marched in Clayton, Missouri demanding that the county prosecutor step down.

 On Saturday, October 11, thousands marched in St. Louis, challenging police brutality and racism, and in the evening marched from Michael Brown’s memorial in the apartment complex where he lived and died to the Ferguson police station.

On Sunday, October 12, 150 women gathered to share stories of social injustice in the St. Louis area. Later in the afternoon, nationally known Hip Hop artists portrayed police brutality and injustice intensely in spoken word and songs. That evening, an inter-religious symposium with local and national speakers, including Dr. Cornell West, culminated with rebellion in the audience in support of youth of the front lines of protest being allowed to speak to the 4,000 person audience. Democracy prevailed when the organizers rightfully changed the program to include the voices of the youth leaders.

Later than evening, the vigil for Vonderritt Myers ended in marches that came together at 1 am on the campus of St. Louis University, where Myers’ father is employed. Police attempted to stop the march by blocking the sidewalk on a major bridge leading to the campus, but with the intervention of the National Lawyers Guild, the riot police who had been ominously hitting their police batons on the street in an attempt to intimidate the 500 marchers, finally faded away without instigating an incident with the marchers.

With national and international media in St. Louis to cover the protests and the heightened national dialogue on militarization of police, law enforcement had made the decision to keep their military vehicles out of sight. However, heavily armed riot police used pepper spray and tear gas twice during the weekend, once when protesters blocked an intersection at the end of a march in memory of Myers and a second time when marchers blocked the entrance to a local gas station.

On Monday, October 13, religious leaders in the community joined in a “Moral Monday” march to the Ferguson police station. Clergy talked nose-to-nose with members of the Ferguson police department who were lined up in front of the station. Displaying for the cameras a different image from 60 days ago, Ferguson police had name tags on their shirts and had ditched the hard helmets with visors for a softer look with regular police hats. However, lurking in the parking lot were the ninja turtle riot police fully decked out with padded uniforms with no name tags, black batons, plastic shields, tasers and weapons.

Religious leaders of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths talked with about 20 Ferguson police officers as they stood in a line in front of the police station. Remarkably, a few of the police officers actually responded to the comments of the clergy and a couple of conversations developed. More remarkably, a several of the conversations ended with hugs between the clergy and the police officers!

However, as one could predict, most police officers stood stone-faced with jaws clenched. They are the ones we hope can be reached to do their jobs with respect for those they serve.

Other actions on Moral Monday included actions at three Wal-Marts in memory of John Crawford, 22, who was killed on August 5 by police in an Ohio Wal-Mart while carrying a pellet gun sold at Wal-Mart.

Other actions on Monday to remind the community of police killings took place at an upscale Mall, at a Missouri State office and at a political fundraiser.

The Weekend of Resistance was a time for mothers and fathers whose children had been killed by police to get together. Colletta Flanagan travelled to Ferguson from Dallas, Texas. Flanagan’s son Clinton Allen was killed by police last year in Dallas. Flanagan formed a group called Mothers Against Police Brutality, and was in Ferguson in support of the mothers of Michael Brown and Vonderrit Myers and other mothers whose children haven been killed by police.

Flanagan said…

 ”I’ve seen claims of ‘public safety’ used to justify senseless abuses, including my son Clinton Allen’s murder at the hands of a Dallas police officer. I don’t want the same unaccountable culture of secrecy to protect the agencies using ‘national security’ as a pretext to assault me and my neighbors’ rights. No one’s security required my son to be taken from me, or his life to be taken from him, and no one’s security requires that my government tap my phone or track my use of the Internet.”

Communities around the country will hold more actions for police accountability on October 22, the national day of action against police brutality.

(Retired) Col. Ann Wright spent 29 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves. She was a diplomat in the State Department for 16 years, serving in the U.S. embassies of Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada and Nicaragua. She resigned in 2003 in protest of the then-impending invasion of Iraq. In 2009, she co-authored, Dissent, Voices of Conscience.

By Anastasia Taylor

On October 4th, 2014 citizens around the world attended demonstrations against the use of drones, satellites, and ground stations for surveillance and killing. It was a day known as the Global Day of Action Against Drones, with events that connected the international community by the palpable threat that lowers the threshold to war and diminishes international security: drones. On this fall morning I was outside the Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C with a group of activists dedicated to the anti-drone movement. We held up signs saying, “When drones fly, children die!” and passed out pamphlets with information about the horrors of drones. Some people were intrigued, some were confused, and others were in disbelief. All eyes were focused on the animated protestors of killer drones. Taking turns on the mic, we described to perplexed tourists the raw truth that United States killer drones have killedalone. We explained that just behind the museum walls was a glorified drone exhibit which failed to reveal that the very same technology was responsible for killing at least 200 children in Pakistan. We illustrated that this number could be represented in the amount of children that entered the doors of  the exhibit that very same day. We spoke about the fear the United States has instilled halfway across the globe where families no longer trust blue skies. We described how killer drones fail to make our citizens safer, but rather increase anti-American sentiment. We called for a worldwide ban of these weapons that undermine global stability.

Meanwhile in Germany, multiple actions were occurring from “Fly Kites, Not Drones” in Dresden to the “Rally Against Drones” outside Africa Command (AFRICOM), where so-called “targeted killings” in Somalia are coordinated from. At the very same time people were gathering in London to collect signatures against drones while groups in Jeju Island, South Korean activists held educational events on how drones violate human rights. The Global Day of Action Against Drones exemplified how global citizens embrace the idea that one’s identity transcends geographic and political borders. With the awareness of the strong interdependence of individuals and systems there is a certain sense of accountability.  The international community must be held accountable to fuel the effort needed to stop drone warfare and invasive drone surveillance. Our rights as human beings depend on it.

Now two weeks later, the Obama administration is launching drone attacks in Iraq. Already 18 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in an airstrike in Iraq’s Anbar province. The  fact remains that decades of bombing in Iraq has allowed ISIS to flourish. Drone strikes that inevitably will kill more innocent people will only strength ISIS’s propaganda campaign. This is why Obama administration’s war plans and the use of drones in Iraq and Syria are destined to fail. Meanwhile the 400th drone strike in Pakistan occurred on October 11th, contributing to a grand total of 2,379 drone victims killed. Shockingly, only 12% of the casualties have been identified as members of al-Qaida.

As a young American student I am appalled by the war-mongers who continue to drop bombs, and use killer drones in over seven countries over a six year period. I will not stand by as my government continues to fuel the military-industrial complex that endangers the lives of so many. As a result, I am involved with a group of young activists with CODEPINK that launched a Youth Manifesto declaring that there is No Future in War. I urge my peers to take action against the individuals that use the drone industry to fill their pockets and demand that there is greater transparency on the real motives United States engages in military interventions. We deserve better. The world deserves better. And together we can reclaim our future.

Anastasia Taylor is a  current student at Northeastern University and intern at CODEPINK. She is passionate about international human rights and hopes to be involved in empowering women through international sustainable development after graduation.

By Anna Kaminski

From the Climate March that occurred on Sunday, September 21, 2014 to the protests in Hong Kong to the ongoing struggle against police brutality in Ferguson, there is no denying that we are in a global moment characterized by widespread discontent. As an activist, it is both empowering and heartwarming to see people in the streets unifying under the belief that “we need change”. We do need change. Not only have the systems going unchecked led to a rise in police brutality and the normalization of racism, but it has also led to the normalization of gender-based violence, the radical destruction of the environment, and the grave abuse of state power.

Despite my sense of empowerment when looking at examples of student involvement – like students at St. Louis University coming out to join the Ferguson protests – I am hesitant to get overly enthusiastic about the results and wonder what will happen when students realize that they have a midterm coming up. While I do know that exposure to this culture of protest is ultimately a good thing, I wonder how long students will maintain their interest if they don’t have institutional support or a larger platform for sustained engagement.

The anti-war movement is currently trying to rebuild itself by reaching out to other movements and drawing connections between war and issues like climate change and police militarization.  I recognize there has been little protest with regard to Obama’s new wars in Iraq and Syria. While protests under Bush drew millions, this time around, we’re lucky if 30 people show up. As the new DC Coordinator for CODEPINK, a women-led anti-war organization, I am bottomlining the new Youth Engagement Campaign and launch of a national Youth Action Network. This campaign aims to get students not just involved in the anti-war/human rights movement but interested in making connections and mobilizing for change across the wide spectrum of injustice. However, before I can even try to make a plan for getting students on board, I must first understand the reasons for a lack of their participation in movements, which frankly should be more popular.

Among seasoned anti-war activists, it is common to point to Obama’s election as the turning point when protests dropped off.  This certainly has pertinence but it isn’t the only reason. At the time of Obama’s election, people mobilized by rallying for change, progress, and hope. Unfortunately, we not only got a strict adherence to the status quo of partisan politics, but we also got a grave abuse of executive power. This abuse of power and the maintained status quo have only further contributed to the lack of widespread youth involvement in calling for change.

Student pacification through our education system, coupled with a conscious fear of NSA spying, is one of the greatest contributing factors to the lack of student involvement.  Student loan debt and the fear of being watched and penalized for being “radical” during college has pushed students to become careerists from early on.  If you want to work in diplomacy, students feel that they must think twice before writing that op-ed for their college newspaper critical of our foreign policy. If you want to design greener airplanes and work for Boeing, you might think twice about getting involved with your college chapter of Greenpeace, which has been referred to by some as an “eco-terrorism” group. Finding a job at the end of your college career is a valid concern and legitimate cause of stress. At American University in DC, it almost seems poetic that the Department of Homeland Security is just across the street.

Furthermore, in many instances the flaws lie with the institution of education itself. In the social sciences, instructors must always remain unbiased, using real world occurrences such as the use of drone strikes on ISIL as an opportunity to teach about applying theory rather than coming up with solutions rooted in historical, political, social, or economic analysis of what is occurring on the ground. A protester on the Saint Louis University campus said it best in response to a police officer who, trying to keep demonstrators from entering the campus, said “Students are trying to get an education here.” One student responded defiantly, “This is an education.”

In addition to pacification by education, young people and adults have become pacified by entertainment media. The collective trauma of 9/11 on US citizens created an emotional vacuum which pop culture moved quickly to fill. The reality of war was replaced with reality television, which provided an opportunity for escapism and avoidance of the harsh reality of Bush’s war.  Moreover, social networking services put the focus back on the individual, which has created a culture rooted in self-interest and even sometimes a normalization of vanity.

I certainly can’t condemn the reasons that movements have failed to sustain as I am also a product of my education and the post- 9/11 era social politics.  All I can do is try to make a plan to support youth and find creative ways to re-engage them.

We must first realize that a demand for justice is simply not enough. Being opposed to war and racism is not enough; it serves to inspire but not to sustain. Movements framed in the negative only further disenchant younger generations. Instead of being “Anti” we must be “For.”  We have to be “for” the solution but first we must imagine what that solution looks like.  We must realize that the causes of climate change, racism, war, sexism, poverty are all intertwined. Basic principles of economics demonstrate that supply needs to meet demand. Today, the supply of reform must meet the demand of change. We need to creatively think of viable solutions, implementable alternatives, and work collectively on a roadmap for how to get there.

At CODEPINK we have worked on a Youth Manifesto, which clearly states our opposition to War and its correlation to issues across the spectrum of social change. While I ask the youth to join us in opposing war, I must also reiterate the most important point. We are not only opposed to war in a concrete sense, but we are opposed to the war on progress. When we say join us we mean “us” in a grander sense—be a part of the real movement for change, hope, and progress. We must learn from the activists who have come before us and continue to push forward. This manifesto is the step forward that as young people, we all need to take.  The movement is restarting. Are you coming?

 

Anna Kaminski is the DC coordinator for the peace group CODEPINK, based in Washington DC as well as a visual artist. She is interested the correlation between art and politics and open source media. Get involved with CODEPINK and follow her on twitter @annaekay

By Alli McCracken

Three years ago, during the height of the Occupy movement, I was ejected from a Congressional hearing for allegedly “assaulting” Leon Panetta, then Secretary of Defense and former Director of the CIA. He was testifying to the House Armed Services Committee about “lessons learned by the Department of Defense over the preceding decade.” I jumped out of my audience seat to tell him that young people were paying the price of those “lessons,” and we were sick of the government funding war instead of education. The baseless assault charges against me were ultimately dropped.

A few years and trillions of dollars later, I found myself sitting in front of Leon Panetta once again, this time for his book talk at George Washington University, where he was gunning for more war. Just when we thought the US was finally leaving Iraq alone, the world was hit with a paranoid media frenzy: showcasing ISIS beheadings ad infinitum, hysterical Congresspeople claiming that they were “coming for us all,” paving the way to more war, war, war–– no questions from the public, no Congressional debate. Bombs started falling on Iraq and Syria, innocents are dying, ISIL is gaining traction, yet the White House is declaring the whole operation so far “successful.”

Don’t be fooled: this operation has indeed been a success for some. The weapons-making company Raytheon just signed a $251 million Pentagon contract to produce the Tomahawk missiles the US is dropping on Iraq and Syria. Some media pundits speculate US involvement for a few months, some a few years, but Panetta said we better count on closer to 30 years.

Despite Panetta’s reputation for being a relatively “liberal” Democrat, his legacy is now associated with the expansion of President Obama’s killer drone program–– covertly bombing countries that the US wasn’t, and still isn’t, at war with, killing countless civilians with total impunity.

Without acknowledging America’s role in creating ISIL, or how counterproductive and economically draining over a decade of war has been, Panetta has generated national attention recently for bashing President Obama for not going hard enough on ISIL. In his new book Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace, and during an interview with Susan Page of USA Today timed to coincide with the release of his book, Panetta revealed his true feelings: that President Obama is deficient of leadership skills, indecisive, and weak when it comes to national defense and militarism.

Apparently this revelation, which Dana Milbank of the Washington Post called a “stunning disloyalty,” comes as no surprise since Panetta has been jumping the gun to criticize President Obama since his time as Secretary of Defense. While in office, Panetta wanted to leave some residual troops in Iraq after the withdrawal in 2011, a deal he says could have been negotiated with more effort. He also wanted to arm the Syrian rebels as early as 2012, and frowned upon Obama’s “failure to act” after seeking congressional authorization to bomb Assad in Syria in 2013.

So what does Panetta have to gain from attacking President Obama, a fellow Democrat, with so much time left until the next Presidential election? Some media outlets think it’s no coincidence that he’s on a book tour at the same time as Hillary Clinton, touting the same hawkish foreign policies that will appeal to independent-leaning Republicans in 2016. As one right-wing outlet put it, “he’s flying the same exact anti-Obama flag that the hawkish Clinton wing of the party has been flying all year trying to position themselves for the next stage in their own political careers by stepping on President Obama’s neck.”

Like Panetta, Clinton has made claims that the blame for ISIS’ sudden power grab lands squarely on Obama’s failure to intervene in the Syrian civil war. In an interview with the Atlantic, Clinton said America must develop an “overarching” strategy to confront the growing threat of ISIS, and she went so far as to equate this struggle to the one the US waged against Soviet-led communism. It seems like these now-former Washington insiders are ganging up on the President to pave the way for a dangerous future foreign policy framework.

On October 14, Panetta spoke at an event at George Washington University about his new book. CODEPINK teamed up with the George Washington Progressive Student Alliance to host a protest outside of the event. We passed out hundreds of fliers about the killer drone program under Panetta, and hollered over the megaphone about war criminals not being welcome on campus.

I made my way into the event and took a seat in the front row. The university president fawned over Panetta, who entered the room to a standing ovation.

Panetta bemoaned miniscule cuts to the massively bloated defense budget, saying that it is harmful to our national security. When he mentioned the sequester in that context, I couldn’t stay in my seat any longer. “We need more cuts to the Pentagon’s budget!” I said loudly, trying to move toward the stage so he would be able to hear me. “We don’t want money for war spending, we need that money here at home,” I continued. “Stop pushing the President to go deeper into war. Young people are sick of it, and the opinions of war criminals like yourself are not welcome here!” As I was talking, a large security guard plucked me up by my jacket and quickly yanked me out of the room.

Three years after my first disruption of Panetta, more than ever I stand by my words. I would do it again, and honestly, I probably will do it again. Whether it’s Leon Panetta, or Hillary Clinton. I’m horrified at the prospect of Clinton being the more “liberal” Presidential choice in 2016. If President Obama campaigned for hope and change, but ultimately enshrined some of Bush’s most egregious foreign policies, what are we in store for next from explicitly pro-war candidates?

Many young people are sick of these war-mongers running the United States (and I know plenty of older folks who are too!). Over the summer of 2014, the youth wing of CODEPINK launched a Youth Manifesto to declare that there is No Future in War. Using that as a resource, we’ve launched a youth outreach campaign to help support student groups organize and mobilize. In a very short amount of time we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from students who are sick of being robbed of their futures. It’s time for the old, worn out politicians, who have dragged us into more war just to get elected and fatten their wallets, to step aside. We deserve better than the broken two-party system that routinely forces us to choose the “lesser of two evils.”

I, for one, am certainly not “ready for Hillary.”

Alli McCracken is the National Coordinator for the peace group CODEPINK, based in Washington DC. She is passionate about intersectional politics and she is fed up with neoliberal bullshit. Get involved with CODEPINK and follow her on twitter: @AlliMcCrack.