Undercurrents

This week HIMC presents audio testimony from Winter Soldier 2008. This week’s segment comes from the panel Racism and War: the Dehumanization of the Enemy, Part One. The Winter Soldier panels were largely censored by the mainstream media. In the coming weeks, RadioActive will rebroadcast some of these testimonies to help disseminate these eyewitness accounts from Iraq and Afghanistan. For more information go to www.ivaw.org

Tune to WWUH 91.3 fm Wednesday April 16 at noon, then again on WESU 88.1 fm Tuesday April 22 at 1pm.

Share This

By Steve Thornton

(cross-posted with permission)

“Fred” is the Norwegian word for peace. It’s among the first few words I learned when I traveled to Norway earlier this month. US Labor Against the War was invited by the Norwegian Peace Initiative to send a labor representative, and I got the job. (more…)

Share This

This is the text of a letter I sent to The Hartford Courant a few days ago.  They didn’t print it.

“You wouldn’t know it from reading this paper, but there was a four-day conference last week in Washington featuring the testimony of dozens of veterans of the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.  For some reason, we’d never heard what they had to tell us. (more…)

Share This

Congressman John Larson made an appearance in Elmwood yesterday to rationalize his failure to end the occupation of Iraq, an occupation he opposed from the outset. He blamed the president. He blamed Republicans. He blamed the Senate. He blamed the system. And he didn’t take so much as a teaspoonful of personal responsibility. (more…)

Share This

Rules of engagement–ROE for short–don’t involve prenuptial etiquette but the use of deadly force against human beings. I watched a couple of dozen young Americans testify to their personal experiences with rules of engagement, and their testimony was compelling. These kids were given the power of life and death over defenseless people in places far, far from home, and it hurt them grievously. (more…)

Share This

At last night’s Council meeting after the Mayor’s State of the City address an historical and democratic action was enacted.  The chamber had emptied of all the hangers-on and was littered with paper indicating this seat for the Perez family.  Only the serious and dedicated remained to hear the Consent and Action calendar.   Clarke King, the president of my union AFSCME 1716, was present along with gadflys’ Alyssa Petersen and Nick Carbone.  No one from the mainstream media was present; only Hartford Cable Access was there filming.  There was no public portion.

Council went through the agenda, voting on several, amending some and sending others to committee.  The last item was #39, the anti war resolution.  Council persons Deutsch and Cotto presented the resolution and debate was engaged.  Council person Segarra began with an affirmative support for the resolution as written citing the loss of life and economic cost to the city. Council persons Boucher and Ritter also responded with support saying the war had damaged lives on both sides.  Council person Deutsch informed the chamber that five GI’s had died that very day in Iraq.  Council person Kennedy, while supporting the thrust of the resolution, stated that City Council had no business interfering in national foreign policy.  Council person Cotto said to the contrary that as we bleed and die for that foreign policy, we have every right and responsibility to act.  Part of the resolution calls for a monthly reading of the casualty figures and honoring the dead and wounded.  Council person Cotto said while that may be depressing perhaps we should be depressed once a month.  In the course of living our lives and enjoying events and activities we need to remember what is happening to those of us caught up in war.  Council person Airey-Wilson said nothing. (more…)

Share This

For Ken Krayeske’s first-hand account of the action at City Hall, set your browser to http://www.the40yearplan.com/article_031108_Anti_War_Resolution.php

 

Share This

Don’t miss out on Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore in an intimate studio concert this Saturday, March 1 , 7:30 p.m. at 555 Asylum Ave., Hartford. Callahan is a veteran of the San Francisco music/political theater scene now living in Switzerland. Besides being a member of the Looters, a West Coast anarcho-rock group, he has written an in-depth critique of the music business. He also penned the war resister’s anthem, “Johnny Refused”. Call 860-548-9144 for tix and info.

Share This

No Nukes-No War is a group of activists from various parts of Connecticut who share the conviction that war and the weapons of modern warfare threaten the survival of humanity. (more…)

Share This