Texas Labor Against the War

Thanks, Jeff Zavala, for the video evidence.  More to come on how we can support the young woman who got 3 broken ribs by the police but was herself charged with assault!

http://blip.tv/zgraphix/freeze-flash-mob-police-brutality-don-t-buy-war-5793178

CodePink Austin, along with allies from Veteran’s for Peace and Women in Black staged a Don’t Buy War “freeze” at Barton Creek Mall on Saturday, December 3rd. The strategically chosen mall location was between the Santa photo station and the Gamestop store, which prominently advertises the ‘Modern Warfare 3′ video game. The goals were to raise awareness about the continuing wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, to educate shoppers about the costs (both human and economic) of the wars, and to dissuade parents from purchasing war toys. The creative action was well received by shoppers, and several veterans approached the group to thank us. All was peaceful until mall security and APD arrived, and an APD officer brutally attacked a young woman who had joined the group spontaneously. Produced for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala. A ZGraphix Production. http://zgraphix.org http://twitter.com/zgraphix http://facebook.com/zgraphix.org http://austin.indymedia.org

U.S. Labor Against the War marches in New York, supports the “Occupy” movement.

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/section.php?id=153

by David Morris

(reprinted from the Houston Peace and Justice Center, http://www.hpjc.org/node/275)

U.S. military spending now exceeds the spending of all other countries combined.

In all the talk about the federal deficit, why is the single largest culprit
left out of the conversation? Why is the one part of government that best
epitomizes everything conservatives say they hate about government—- waste, incompetence, and corruption—all but exempt from conservative criticism?

Of course, I’m talking about the Pentagon. Any serious battle plan to reduce
the deficit must take on the Pentagon. In 2011 military spending accounted for
more than 58 percent of all federal discretionary spending and even more if the
interest on the federal debt that is related to military spending were added. In
the last ten years we have spent more than $7.6 trillion on military and
homeland security according to the National Priorities Project.

In the last decade military spending has soared from $300 billion to $700 billion.

When debt ceilings and deficits seem to be the
only two items on Washington’s agenda, it is both revealing and tragic that both
parties give a free pass to military spending. Representative Paul Ryan’s much
discussed Tea Party budget accepted Obama’s proposal for a pathetic $78 billion
reduction in military spending over 5 years, a recommendation that would only
modestly slow the rate of growth of military spending.

Indeed, the Republican government battering ram appears to have stopped at
the Pentagon door. This was evident early on. As soon as they took over the
House of Representatives, Republicans changed the rules so that military
spending does not have to be offset by reduced spending somewhere else, unlike
any other kind of government spending. It is the only activity of government
they believe does not have to be paid for. Which brings to mind a bit of wisdom from one of their heroes, Adam Smith. “Were the expense of war to be defrayed always by revenue raised within the year … wars would in general be more speedily concluded, and less wantonly undertaken.”

The Tea Party revolution has only strengthened the Republican Party’s resolve
that the Pentagon’s budget is untouchable. An analysis by the Heritage
Foundation of Republican votes on defense spending found that Tea Party freshmen
were even more likely than their Republican elders to vote against cutting any
part of the military budget.

What makes the hypocrisy even more revealing is that the Pentagon turns out
to be the poster child for government waste and incompetence.

In 2009 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found “staggering” cost overruns of almost $300 billion in nearly 70  percent of the Pentagon’s 96 major weapons. What’s more, the programs were
running, on average, 21 months behind schedule. And when they were completed,
they provided less than they promised.
The Defense Logistics Agency had no use for parts worth more than half of the
$13.7 billion in equipment stacked up in DOD warehouses in 2006 to 2008.

And these are only the tips of the military’s misspending iceberg. We really
don’t know how much the Pentagon wastes because, believe it or not, there hasn’t
been a complete audit of the Pentagon in more than 15 years.

In 1994, the Government Management Reform Act required the Inspector General
of each federal agency to audit and publish the financial statements of their
agency. The Department of Defense was the only agency that has been unable to
comply. In fiscal 1998 the Department of Defense used $1.7 trillion of
undocumentable adjustments to balance the books. In 2002 the situation was even
worse. CBS News reported that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted, “we cannot
track $2.3 trillion in transactions.”

Imagine that a school district were to reveal that it didn’t know where it
spent its money. Now imagine the Republican response. Perhaps, “Off with
their desktops!”

How did Congress’ respond to DOD’s delinquency? It gave it absolution and
allowed it to opt out of its legal requirement. But as a sop to outraged public
opinion Congress required DOD to set a date when it would have its book
sufficiently in order to be audited. Which the Pentagon dutiful did, and missed
every one of the target dates. The latest is 2017 and DOD has already announced
it will be unable to meet that deadline.

Adding insult to injury, last September, the GAO found that the new computer systems intended to improve the Pentagon’s financial oversight are themselves nearly 100 percent or $7 billion
over budget and as much as 12 years behind schedule!

The Pentagon is not just incompetent. It is corrupt. In November 2009 the
Pentagon’s Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), the federal watchdog
responsible for auditing oversight of military contractors, raised the question of criminal wrongdoing when it found that the audits that did occur were riddled with serious breaches of auditor
independence. One Pentagon auditor admitted he did not perform detailed tests
because, “The contractor would not appreciate it.”

Why would the Pentagon allow its contractors to get away with fraud? To
answer that question we need to understand the incestuous relationship between
the Pentagon and its contractors that has been going on for years, and is
getting worse. From 2004 to 2008, 80 percent of retiring three and four star
officers went to work as consultants or defense industry executives.
Thirty-four out of 39 three- and four-star generals and admirals who
retired in 2007 are now working in defense industry roles — nearly 90 percent.

Generals are recruited for private sector jobs
well before they retire. Once employed by the military contractor the general
maintains a Pentagon advisory role.

“In almost any other realm it would seem a clear conflict of interest. But
this is the Pentagon where…such apparent conflicts are a routine fact of life”,
an in-depth investigation by the Boston Globe concluded.

U.S. military spending now exceeds the spending of all other countries combined. Knowledge
military experts argue that we can cut at least $1 trillion from the Pentagon
budget without changing its currently expressed mission. But a growing number
believe that the mission itself is suspect. Economic competitors like India and
China certainly approve of our willingness to undermine our economic
competitiveness by diverting trillions of dollars into war and weapons
production. Some argue that all this spending has made us more secure but all
the evidence points in the opposite direction. Certainly our $2 trillion and
counting military adventures in the Middle East and Afghanistan and Pakistan
have won us few friends and multiplied our enemies.

Defense experts Gordon Adams and Matthew Leatherman, writing in the Washington
Post offer another argument against unrestrained military spending.

“Countries feel threatened when rivals ramp up their defenses; this was true
in the Cold War, and now it may happen with China. It’s how arms races are born.
We spend more, inspiring competitors to do the same — thus inflating defense
budgets without making anyone safer. For example, Gates observed in May that no
other country has a single ship comparable to our 11 aircraft carriers. Based on
the perceived threat that this fleet poses, the Chinese are pursuing an
anti-ship ballistic missile program. U.S. military officials have decried this
“carrier-killer’‘ effort, and in response we are diversifying our capabilities
to strike China, including a new long-range bomber program, and modernizing our
carrier fleet at a cost of about $10 billion per ship.”

For tens of millions of Americans real security comes not from fighting wars
on foreign soil but from not having to worry losing their house or their job or
their medical care. As Joshua Holland, columnist for Alternet points out 46 states faced combined budget shortfalls this year of $130 billion, leading them to fire tens of thousands of workers and cut
off assistance to millions of families. Just the supplemental requests for
fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan this year were $170 billion.

What is perhaps most astonishing of all is that cutting the military budget
is wildly popular. Even back in 1995, when military spending was only a fraction
of its present size, a poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes
reported that 42 percent of the US public feeling that defense spending is too
high and a majority of Americans were convinced
that defense spending “has weakened the US economy and given some allies an
economic edge.”

This March Reuters released a new poll that found the majority of Americans support
reducing defense spending.

The next time you hear Republicans insist they want to ferret out government
waste and reduce spending and stamp out incompetence ask them why the one part
of government that exemplifies everything they say is wrong with government is
the one part of government they embrace most heartily.

David Morris is co-founder and vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and director of its New Rules Project.
You can follow David at defendingthepublicgood.org

Posted July 7, 2011

In the Deficit & Debt Debate, the Problem Is a Deficit  of Facts

by Michael Eisenscher, National Coordinator, U.S. Labor Against the War
July 27th, 2011

[TxLAW note:  Where should the cuts be?  Who should pay?  Here are Eisenscher's suggestions.  For the full statement (well worth reading!), see http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=24517]

End the war in Afghanistan and finish withdrawing US troops from
Iraq ($118 billion). Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the
Afghan war isn’t worth fighting.  31% want U.S.  troops home from Afghanistan
immediately; another 21% say within a year.[11] They are
right.  These wars are not protecting us from Al Qaeda or other terrorist
networks.  Instead, they help them recruit.

Close half of our military bases overseas, with appropriate force reductions ($55
billion).

Stop trying to control fossil fuel supplies abroad – at a cost of $103 billion a year.[12] We don’t need to dominate the world’s gas and oil supplies
to guarantee our own security.  Investing in sustainable and renewable energy
systems here would make us more secure.  But even as is, all the world’s major
suppliers happily sell as much as the U.S.  is prepared to buy.

There’s $276 billion – $2.76 trillion over ten years.  We could get to $3.5 trillion by
terminating destabilizing Cold War weapons systems, cutting thousands of nuclear
warheads (the ultimate weapons of mass destruction) from our stockpile of 5000,
and actually tackling $60 billion in annual military cost overruns. . . .

If in addition, Bush era tax cuts for the very wealthy were rescinded, a new top
bracket were instituted for millionaires and billionaires, capital gains were
taxed at ordinary income rates rather than the 15% now in effect, a small
transaction tax was applied to speculative stock trades, tax loopholes that
allow the wealthy and large corporations to reduce or evade taxes altogether
were closed, the cap was lifted on maximum income subject to Social Security
taxes ($108,600) so that high earners paid on all their income, the estate tax
were restored to 2008 levels (45% on estates larger than $2 million), a
“Medicare for All” single-payer health plan replaced the for-profit model we
have now – in other words, if the privileged elite actually had to shoulder
their share commensurate with their wealth – the issue of the deficit and debt
would simply evaporate, and Social Security and Medicare would be put on a sound
basis for many decades to come.  Add to that the impact of real economic
recovery that puts people back to work, which would bring additional revenues
into the treasury, and we’ d be debating how to spend budget surpluses rather
than whose ox is to be gored.

July 19, 2011

This evening the Austin AFL-CIO Council [Central Labor Council] was privileged to have members of the Fort Hood Operation Recovery team as guests and presenters.  Visitors to the CLC meeting were Aaron Hughes, Scott Kimball, and Sergio Kochergin of Iraq Veterans Against the War; Lori Hurlebaus of the Civilian Soldier Alliance; Alice Embree of the Fort Hood Support Network (who is also a member of the Texas State Employees Union).

Aaron spoke of the need for solidarity among soldiers, veterans, and workers.  Soldiers are workers–they are public employees; and our unions have many veterans as members.  Many soldiers come from union families and go back to unions when discharged.  But the unemployment rate among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is 21% (12% more than the national average).  The rate is even higher among African-American and female veterans–about 30%.

Many soldiers suffer from war trauma and nonetheless are redeployed.  Suicide rates among active-duty troops are twice as high as that of the civilian population, and veterans with PTSD are 6 times more likely to attempt suicide.  20% to 50% of all service members deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  One in 3 women in the military are sexually assaulted.  1 in 3 soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq say they can’t see a mental health professional when they need to, and nearly 20% of service members are taking some kind of psychiatric drug.

Aaron pointed out the huge expense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This money is needed at home–and we owe veterans the benefits and health treatment they need.

Most of the CLC delegates signed the pledge of support for Operation Recovery that our visitors passed around.  It states:  “I pledge to support the Operation Recovery campaign to the best of my ability.  In a war where soldiers are being injured faster than the military can treat them, I will work alongside veterans and service members to end the cycles of trauma and abuse.”  The pledge sheet further explains:  “Join Iraq Veterans Against the War and Civilian Soldier Alliance in our effort to stop the deployment of troops suffering from Military Sexual Trauma, Traumatic Brain Injury, and PTSD.  By signing our pledge, you agree to do what you can to help defend the rights of soldiers to heal and to hold accountable those who are responsible for deploying traumatized troops.  As the Operation Recovery campaign unfolds, we will be calling on you to help in a variety of ways.”

There was discussion from the CLC delegates, several of whom are veterans.  A Teamster rep described their program to get members back into jobs when they get home from the military.  A member of AFSCME indicated she has personal experience with veterans’ mental health problems and wants to get a group she works with in touch with Operation Recovery.  There was also interest among the delegates in U.S. Labor Against the War–USLAW brochures were available as well as Operation Recovery literature.

For more TxLAW stories on Fort Hood Operation Recovery, see http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/07/08/killeen-ivaw-its-audacious-and-a-little-crazy-what-were-doing-at-ft-hood/, http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/05/27/killeen-ivaw-operation-recovery-action-at-ft-hood/, and http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/07/17/killeen-under-the-hood-update-july-2011/

For LOTS of information about Operation Recovery, to sign the pledge, and to donate, see http://www.ivaw.org/operation-recovery

Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/operationrecovery
For more on the Civilian-Soldier Alliance, go to http://www.civsol.org/

–Leslie Cunningham, July 21, 2011

(Photo Larry Kolvoord, Austin American-Statesman)

Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and supporters constructed a symbolic “guard tower” outside the East Gate of Fort Hood on Thursday, May 26, 2011. During a press conference held at the foot of the tower, veterans Sergio Kochergin, left, and Aaron Hughes stood atop the tower. The group claims that Fort Hood is the center of a mental health epidemic that is sweeping the Armed Forces. 

Austin American-Statesman, http://galleries.statesman.com/gallery/photos-day-may-2011/#170585; also in the print version of the Statesman May 27, 2011. 

E-MAIL FROM IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR, MAY 27, 2011:

IVAW puts Fort Hood Commander on watch

Left – Op Rec Team members at Under the Hood Outreach Center / Right – Op Rec Team at guard tower put Gen. Campbell on watch  

Yesterday morning, 6 members of our Operation Recovery Team went to Fort Hood Commander, General Campbell’s office to deliver a letter requesting he meet with us about the plight of traumatized troops under his command.  We were turned away, then surrounded by Fort Hood security officials who became sympathetic to our cause when we identified ourselves as veterans who are dealing with PTSD.  But we were ultimately escorted off base.  

In response, we held a press conference about the issue of un-treated trauma that is ravaging the Fort Hood community as well as the military at large.  We then erected a guard tower across from the gates of Fort Hood as a symbolic act to let Commander Campbell know that we are keeping watch over his actions (or lack thereof) when it comes to the health and well-being of soldiers at Fort Hood.  As we stood watch at the gates of Fort Hood, we handed out over 200 purple ribbons to soldiers entering the base.  These ribbons symbolize our solidarity with the tens of thousands of soldiers who are suffering from un-treated trauma because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Get Involved with IVAW’s Operation Recovery Campaign

There are a number of ways you can support our efforts to stop the deployment of traumatized troops at Fort Hood: 

• Join our Operation Recovery Facebook group and share with your friends.
• Sign the Operation Recovery Pledge.
• Make a donation and put “Fort Hood” in the Special Projects box.
• Go to our website to download fact sheets and other materials.

Learn more by watching this short video about IVAW’s Operation Recovery Campaign at Fort Hood and meet the veteran organizers behind this effort

“I could celebrate a plan that would redirect our country towards seeking out the causes of violence, so that we will not again come to the place where our nation devotes a trillion dollars and thousands of lives in order to terminate one man’s life,” said DPC board member Rev. Diane Baker. “I pray that instead we could imagine using a trillion dollars to enrich the lives of our own citizens, and the lives of billions of our neighbors with whom we share the planet.”

DALLAS PEACE CENTER HOPES BIN LADEN DEATH IS TURNING POINT
Press release, May 2, 2011, http://www.dallaspeacecenter.org/?id=1

On May 1, President Barack Obama announced was made that Osama Bin Laden was killed in a military operation.  He declared that “justice has been served.”  If this is so, then we need to reflect on the price of that justice, and our opportunities for going forward. The death of Osama Bin Laden should be used as a turning point at which we can put away our instruments of war in Afghanistan and use diplomacy to further address concerns and grievances.
  
As peacemakers, we deplore all violence in all of its forms. Even though we understand why it was necessary to apprehend Osama bin Laden, and stop the violence he was inflicting, we do not see this as a moment of celebration.

“If the US is acting on its own form of justice through the use of violence, without the rule of law and a due process, then how is this going to stop people in other parts of the world from doing the same thing,” asks DPC President of the Board Dalia Abdelhady. “We need justice for all, including our enemies.”

Because of America’s rush to war, more than 7,000 American and coalition soldiers, along with tens of thousands of Afghani and Pakistanis, are dead. The only way to change our mourning to joy is to learn from this terrible chapter in our history.

With less than 125 Al Qaeda operatives left in Afghanistan, according to government sources, and the death of the Al Qaeda leader, now is the time to re-think US strategy in Afghanistan by encouraging our congressional members to accelerate the drawdown of U.S. troops and bring the war to an end.

“I could celebrate a plan that would redirect our country towards seeking out the causes of violence, so that we will not again come to the place where our nation devotes a trillion dollars and thousands of lives in order to terminate one man’s life,” said DPC board member Rev. Diane Baker. “I pray that instead we could imagine using a trillion dollars to enrich the lives of our own citizens, and the lives of billions of our neighbors with whom we share the planet.”

Part of this enrichment should surely be the education of our populace on peaceful conflict resolution. Although nothing excuses acts of terror, in order to achieve a comprehensive defense against terrorism our country must stop celebrating our kill, and assess our own role in growing terrorists.

Istanbul--200,000 rally at Taksim Square (photo Reuters-Stringer)

 May 1, 2011, Istanbul, Turkey–200,000 people march.  Milwaukee, Wisconsin–100,000.  These were among the largest events in the world on May Day, International Workers Day–or simply Labor Day for most of the world, El Dia del Trabajo. 

 Born in the U.S. in 1886 in the struggle for the 8-hour day, May Day was associated with anarchists, socialists, and communists, so the U.S. government undermined it with the establishment of a new and innocuous “Labor Day” holiday in September.  Kept barely alive by a few leftists, May Day was brought back to the U.S. in a big way by immigrants in 2006 and became a big day for the expression of immigrant issues and the demand for immigrant rights.  As U.S. workers tried to reclaim our holiday,

Milwaukee (photo Tom Lynn, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

 consciousness grew about the need for solidarity with workers all over the world, and more U.S. workers joined with immigrants in the celebration of this holiday.  The biggest expression of this unity in 2011 was in Wisconsin. 

Some of the issues around the world:  More jobs, union rights, better working conditions, higher wages to counter higher prices for food and fuel; migrant worker rights; an end to the growing income gap between rich and poor; democratic political rights and an end to autocratic governments; an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ciudad Monte, Tamaulipas, Mexico--workers remember the "martyrs of Chicago" along with their own fallen comrades (noticiaselmexicano.com) Dhaka, Bangladesh (photo Pavel Rahman-AP)

Beirut, Lebanon (photo Migrant Workers Task Force)

Ankara, Turkey (photo Umit Bektas-Reuters)

Manila, Philippines--workers demand immediate wage increase, burn President Benigno Aquino III in effigy (photo Aaron Favila-AP)Jakarta, Indonesia (photo Irwin Fedriansyah-AP)

Hyderabad--All India Trade Union Congress (photo Mahesh Kumar A.-AP)

Mumbai--Striking Air India pilots (photo Vivek Prakash-Reuters)

Katmandu--Supporters of CP (Maoist) and activists of Nepal Trade Union (photo Binod Joshi-AP)

Baghdad--Members of the Iraqi Communist Party (photo Khalid Mohammed-AP)

Basra (Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq--uslaboragainstwar.org)

Cairo, Egypt--May Day in Tahrir Square (photo Khalil Hamra-AP)

Lahore, Pakistan--Union workers rally (photo K.M. Chaudary-AP)

Madrid, Spain (photo Arturo Rodriguez-AP)

Moscow, Russia--members of the Left Front (photo Ivan Sekretarev-AP)

Lisbon, Portugal--Against the IMF, for Leftist Unity (photo Armando Franca-AP)

Caracas, Venezuela (photo Ariana Cubillos-AP)

Havana, Cuba--Students in Revolution Square (photo Enrique de la Osa-Reuters)

Mexico City--Workers protesting labor law "reform" burn image of Labor Secretary Javier Lozano (photo Marco Ugarte-AP)

Houston (thefirecollective.org)

Houston (thefirecollective.org)

Dallas (labordallas.org)

San Antonio (blogs.sacurrent.com)

Atlanta, GA--Protesters urge Gov. Nathan Deal to veto anti-immigrant legislation (photo Rich Addicks-AP)

New York--rally for jobs and immigrant rights (photo Seth Wenig-AP)

Los Angeles, California (photo L.A. County Federation of Labor)

Milwaukee--Voces de la Frontera has been organizing big May Day marches since 2006 (photo Tom Lynn-Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Milwaukee--This says it all (photo Tom Lynn-Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)