resist militarism

Posts Tagged ‘resist militarism’

Vigil Against Human Executions, Torture, Murders & Assassinations

You are invited to attend an upcoming series of 30-minute silent meditation/prayer vigil sessions against human executions, torture, murders & assassinations—these sessions are aimed at bringing more peace to the community, to the nation, and to the whole world.
12/19/21: Vigil for Mr. Bigler Jobe Stouffer II, scheduled to be executed in McAlester, Oklahoma.
For more information, contact:  thundersnowstorm@yahoo.com
How the sessions run:
·       6:30 p.m. — A few minutes before the silent vigil, please get comfortably seated, connect to Zoom, and mute your microphone.
·       OPENING:  6:35 p.m. When the bell rings, the silent vigil (25 minutes in length) will begin. It will be a silent meditation session or silent prayer session (your choice).
·       CLOSING:  7:00 p.m. Another bell will ring at the conclusion of the vigil, at which point some short reflective meditations will display for another 10 minutes.
·       ZOOM will automatically time out after 40 minutes.

Webinar: End Militarism to Stop Climate Change

Communities across the U.S. and across the world have been devastated by military occupation, war, and state-sanctioned police violence. The U.S. military is also the single largest consumer of fossil fuels in the world and has served as the enforcer of the occupation of Indigenous sovereign lands while upholding violent resource extraction across the world. Addressing climate change requires ending the military-industrial complex. At the same time, increasingly militarized police forces perpetrate harm in Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Pacific Islander communities, poor, and marginalized people, and violence against women, and gender non-conforming peoples.

A Just Transition to a Regenerative Economy must end wars, military culture, and the violence of militarized forces and police in our communities and across the world.

Anti-militarism and Abolitionist movements in the U.S. and delegates from our communities will convene in a virtual town hall with our international allies in the Global south while participating in the 2021 UNFCC in Glasgow, Scotland.

We will hear testimonies from communities resisting militarism and occupation in their communities both inside and outside the U.S. and ultimately call on U.S. elected officials to take action to move away from funding unending wars and military presence and prioritize investing in regeneration and repair for communities impacted by militarism in the U.S and all over the planet.

 

Speakers will include:

Participants at the COP26 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow:

  • Alejandria Lyons – Southwest Organizing Project
  • Ramon Mejia – GGJ Alliance
  • Sheila Babauta – Micronesia Climate Change Alliance
  • Sharif Zakout – Arab Resource & Organizing Center

Testimonies from international allies from the Global South and frontline community leaders in the U.S.:

  • Seydi Sarr – African Bureau of Immigration and Social Affairs (ABISA)
  • Kyle Kajihiro – Oahu Water Protectors
  • Youkyoung Ko – WILPF, Korea Peace Now!
  • Sha Merirei Ongelungel – Indigenous Environmental Network

Our speakers will discuss a just transition to a regenerative economy, alternatives to policing and military intervention, and a pledge for U.S. Members of Congress to sign on.

Can you support this event with a simple tweet? Click here for sample tweets to share on your social media accounts.

Resistance Rooted in Love

Resistance in the wake of Love: A conversation with Oscar Lopez Rivera. Please reserve your space now!
Learn what people and organizations are doing about Puerto Rico’s recovery, what Oscar Lopéz is doing, and how you can help! Watch this amazing promotional video El Batey put together!

About this event

Topics discussed:

  • Recent examples of resistance
  • The Puerto Rican Diaspora
  • The Prison Experience in the US
  • Community Organizing in Puerto Rico
  • The Struggle to Audit the Colonial Debt
  • Decolonizing Puerto Rico

Born in 1943 in San Sebastián, Puerto Rico, Oscar López Rivera emigrated to Chicago with his family at the age of 14. Growing up in Humboldt Park, he soon learned that “being Puerto Rican would determine where I went to school, what church I was allowed to attend,” and a host of other injustices. An intelligent student, Oscar grew up as a mischievous, fun-loving young man who loved dancing and music; he was also a hard working young man who aspired to own his own business. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1965, like tens of thousands of young Latinos, African- Americans and other minorities, obeyed under the threat of imprisonment for draft dodging.

Returning to his family and community after his tour in Vietnam, for which he was awarded a Bronze Star, he was profoundly impacted by how he saw the Vietnamese treated, and the similarities with the treatment of minorities in the U.S. He determined to change these conditions, and along with other young Puerto Ricans, organized and fought for improvements in housing, healthcare, education and different needs. Convinced of the need to change the unequal relationship between the conditions of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. and in Puerto Rico to the U.S. government, he became a leader in the struggle to free the Five Puerto Rican Nationalists, who were serving lengthy terms for their pro-independence efforts.

His strong belief that Puerto Rico should be free from U.S. colonial control led him to clandestinity. He was arrested in 1981, and convicted of seditious conspiracy and related charges, along with ten others who were arrested the previous year. Sentenced to 55 years in prison, he became the longest held Puerto Rican political prisoner in the history of Puerto Rico’s struggle for independence, regarded as the “Nelson Mandela of the Americas.” In 2017, as the result of a broad human rights campaign, and after he served almost 36 years in prison, President Obama commuted his sentence, only days before leaving office. The Puerto Rican people and their allies celebrated the May 17, 2017, end of his sentence.

Since then, he has continued to energetically advocate an end to U.S. colonialism, and has resumed his role as an organizer, working to establish a holistic community center in Río Piedras, from which he will train organizers as well as deepening his relationship to the municipalities of Loiza and Comerio, working on educational and community-based projects.

The tour will highlight the US and Puerto Rico campaign for an independent audit of Puerto Rico’s $74 billion debt.