Peace | Majority Agenda Project

War is Killing Massachusetts

Submitted by pshannon on Thu, 04/14/2011 - 16:35

Last year, Massachusetts taxpayers sent $19.9 billion to the Pentagon to fund the trillion dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, sustain over 800 military bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Egypt, Afghanistan and other countries all around the world, and “improve” our vast stockpile of nuclear weapons – among a number of other very expensive projects.

Whither One Nation?

Submitted by msolomon on Thu, 01/13/2011 - 03:40

The October 2, 2010 “One Nation Working Together” rally at the Lincoln Memorial was a successful expression of the working class and multiracial foundation of the progressive majority. The large turnout of labor unions, African Americans and other communities of color provided a solid start for building a broadly based national coalition to urgently address the crisis of unemployment and inseparably related crises in education, health care, housing, militarism and the environment. While the imperative issue of peace and the ending of Washington's wars was not insistently stressed (except for Harry Belafonte's inspired speech and the strong words of Bob King of the UAW), the peace movement was a large, highly visible and indispensable presence whose major role in the coalition cannot be questioned.

Green Activists Need Allies in Anti-War Movement

Submitted by rozziecole on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 22:28

By Sandy LeonVest
Common Dreams, August 18, 2010

The most recent tally of the cost of war by the non-profit National Priorities Project (NPP) puts total military-related expenditures (through September, 2010) at a mind-numbing $1.09 trillion.

That's 'Trillion'- with a 'T' -- $749.9 billion for Iraq and $337.8 billion for Afghanistan since 2001.

In a less Orwellian world, such stunning numbers would be taken up as a mantra by those agitating for change of any sort. Yet, as relevant as they are to our "national well-being," the trillions of US dollars funneled into the war machine in the past decade are rarely (if ever) cited in the ongoing climate change narrative.

Derber: Case for a Holistic Change

Submitted by eileen on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 13:46

Watertown Community Access Television

Boston College sociologist, Charlie Derber is interviewed here by Eileen McCluskey on the "Voices Near & Far" cable TV program.

One Nation Working Together - For Jobs, Justice and Education for All!

Submitted by suren on Mon, 08/30/2010 - 17:20

August 30, 2010–One Nation Working Together released a powerful and lyrical vision statement today: For Jobs, Justice and Education for All! Speaking to "peace abroad and jobs at home" and the need for a green economy, it quickly drew many "likes" on Facebook but also prompted one supportive but cautionary comment: "You know, we really need many nations working together." Here's the full text:

Bennis: The Peace Movement & 10-2-10

The noted peace movement thinker, Phyllis Bennis explains why she's supporting the One Nation Working Together mobilization: "I think Oct 2nd is a great example of what it means for us as a peace movement to take on the dual challenges of both bringing our anti-war, anti-military budget messages to a much broader mobilization than our own, making the links about how the costs of war directly impact all the key issues around jobs, health care, the environment, housing, the economic crisis/recovery, etc., AND demonstrating our willingness/capacity to mobilize in support of the broad call around jobs etc. because it's important in its own right...

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The Ministry of Oil Defense

Submitted by suren on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 14:51

$7.13 trillion! Trillion! New York Times Magazine columnist Peter Maass cites new studies for the non-war costs of US carrier groups along major oil routes: over three decades, the cost of patrolling the Persian Gulf, in purely economic terms, amounted to $7.13 trillion. Of course, these costs are not figured into the price you pay at the pump, but you can be sure that's where your tax dollars go. Here's Maass' full essay from Foreign Policy magazine.

Rainbow PUSH, Auto Workers Campaign for "Jobs, Justice, & Peace"

Submitted by rozziecole on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 14:03

Rev. Jesse Jackson and United Auto Workers President Bob King issued the following statement at a July 12th press conference in Detroit.

DETROIT (July 12, 2010) No group has suffered more from America's economic meltdown than working men and women. The auto industry was decimated and workers paid the price. Urban America is in crisis and teachers, transportation workers, and all who do the hands-on work that make our cities run are the first to feel the effects of budget cuts. Unemployment continues at around 9.8%. Detroit is ground zero of this national crisis with an unemployment rate that is far higher. From December 2007 to June 2009, auto assembly and parts production accounted for 325,000 lost jobs. The auto industry has gone from a high of 1.5 million workers to 400,000 today.

In Appalachia and the Gulf, years of unenforced regulation, driven by corporate greed and government complicity, have led to needless deaths and destruction in the coal and oil fields.

Barney Frank Budget Task Force: Military Budget Savings of $1 Trillion

Submitted by rozziecole on Fri, 06/11/2010 - 21:28

One problem with the U.S.' far-flung military commitmenets is that they generate wars, conflicts, and resentments; but they are also extremely costly. A policy task force convened by Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank released a report in Washington today which details a package of $1 trillion of realistic military budget cuts. In a final section, the Cato Institute representatives on the task force say they would cut deeper, adopting a "strategy of restraint" which focuses on defending the U.S.

WASHINGTON - June 11 - House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), along with a bipartisan task force that includes members of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Cato Institute, Center for Defense Information and others, announced the release today of a new report that identifies $960 billion in Pentagon budget savings that can be generated over the next ten years from realistic reductions in defense spending. The report was produced by the Sustainable Defense Task Force, a group convened in response to a request from Rep. Frank to explore options for reducing the defense budget's contribution to the federal deficit without compromising the essential security of the United States.

"A Very Deep Hole" - Call for Strong Leadership on Jobs

Submitted by suren on Tue, 06/08/2010 - 15:29

Writing in the New York Times today, Bob Herbert reacts to the latest dismal employment data (see also our piece from last Friday). Before pointing to solutions, he writes starkly of the crisis: "Unemployment is crushing families and stifling the prospects of young people... Entire communities are going under." He continues, "The economy is sick, and all efforts to revive it that do not directly confront the staggering levels of joblessness are doomed."

Is there a solution is sight? No: "There is no plan that I can see to get us out of this fix. Drastic cuts in government spending would only compound the crisis...