Texas Labor Against the War

Fresh off his concert in Houston, David Rovics graces Austin with his moving calls for resistance against the Empire.  Texas Labor Against the War calls Rovics “the greatest since Phil Ochs.”

MonkeyWrench is happy to host this evening of music and politics with David Rovics. Described by Amy Goodman as the “musical version of Democracy Now!,” Rovics is an internationally celebrated political folks musician. David has traveled the world as a professional flat-picking rabble-rouser, and regularly tours on four continents, playing for audiences large and small at cafes, pubs, universities, churches, union halls and protest rallies. He has shared the stage with a veritable of who’s who of the left in two dozen countries, and has had his music featured on Democracy Now!, BBC, Al-Jazeera and other networks. His essays are published regularly on CounterPunch elsewhere, and the 200+ songs he makes available for free on the web have been downloaded more than a million times. Most importantly, he’s really good. He will make you laugh, he will make you cry, he will make the revolution irresistible. The show will cost $10 for those with a paying job, and $5 for students and the unemployed. A portion of the proceeds go to MonkeyWrench Books.   http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/events/monkeywrench-presents-evening-music-david-rovics

On Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events#!/event.php?eid=165936730093904

http://www.davidrovics.com/

Don’t miss David Rovics, playing and singing against war and imperialism.  This is a benefit for KPFT Radio 90.1 FM

Monday, November 22,  – 8:00 PM
@ Anderson Fair
2007 Grant Street  
(One block east of Montrose at the corner of Welch and Grant, behind Texas Art Supply)

“Musical version of Democracy Now!”–Amy Goodman

“Greatest political musician since Phil Ochs.”–Texas Labor Against the War

http://www.davidrovics.com/

http://www.kpft.org/

http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/alice-embree-war-is-over.html

Texas Labor Against the War joined other groups in a press conference highlighted by Texas State Representative Lon Burnam of Fort Worth and Iraqi-American Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, at Under the Hood Outreach Center and Cafe on Monday, August 30, 2010.  For the full Killeen Daily Herald story, go to http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=44003

RALLY FOR PEACE

By Amanda Kim Stairrett
Killeen Daily Herald
August 30, 2010

Peace activists gathered in Killeen Monday morning to speak out against U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The event, which was hosted at Killeen’s Under the Hood Café, focused on Iraq and the president’s recent announcement that U.S. combat operations ended there today. Speakers also questioned the deployment of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment to Iraq. The final of several thousand of the regiment’s troopers departed Fort Hood for the Middle East Friday in what military officials call an advise-and-assist mission. Those soldiers will assist Provincial Reconstruction Teams and help prepare Iraqi security forces to care for and protect their own nation.

The 1st Cavalry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team will deploy soon for the same mission.

Central Texas activists were in town Aug. 23 to protest the regiment’s deployment. As buses carried soldiers from main post to West Fort Hood’s Robert Gray Army Airfield, demonstrators waited on the overpass with their headlights turned off, according to information from Fort Hood and videos posted on YouTube by participants.

As the buses drove south on Clarke Road Gate at about 3:40 a.m., the demonstrators held up banners and chanted. Several blocked the buses’ path for a short time.

“Acting to protect Department of Defense personnel and equipment, Fort Hood police moved the demonstrators away from the intersection to the sidewalk,” read a statement from Fort Hood.
Individuals were released without incident and the bus convoy continued to the airfield, it went on to read.

Post officials did have advance knowledge about the demonstration, they said.

Monday’s speakers included Cynthia Thomas, Under the Hood manager; Rep. Lon Burnam, a Democrat from Fort Worth and former director of the Dallas Peace Center; Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, a peace activist of Muslim and Jewish heritage; Larry Egly, of the Peace and Justice Support Network of Mennonite Church USA; and Leslie Cunningham, of Texas Labor Against the War.

CodePink Austin, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace were also represented.

Monday’s event was just one of two in Central Texas “aimed at peeling back the mass deception surrounding ‘the end of combat operations,’” according to information from Under the Hood. The first was a talk in Austin Sunday featuring Wasfi.

Most Americans are lulled to sleep because they think the war is over, Burnam said. He attacked Presidents Bush and Obama, saying the “expansionist” war was an illegal and immoral occupation — something that was fiscally wrong to start seven years ago.

Burnam heavily criticized the Iraq war’s financial burden on the country, saying it was wrong for Bush to start two “outrageous” wars while providing tax cuts. Burnam said he was tired of officials using the “financial back of us working folks” to fund conflicts, and quoted a 1953 speech by President Dwight Eisenhower: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

It is time for Obama to end the occupation, end tax cuts for the rich and cure a deficit that will hurt “our children and grandchildren,” Burnam went on to say.

Thomas said Under the Hood started a telephone campaign to make sure non-deployable soldiers were not deployed. The organization has previously worked with soldiers and families from the regiment who said they were not fit to deploy.

The administration and command know there aren’t enough soldiers to cover two wars, Thomas said, and they continue to ignore family members and soldiers instead of focusing on their well-being.

“This community is not going to be able to survive it much longer,” she said.

The 1 percent of the U.S. population in uniform are the ones fighting and paying the most, Thomas said.

If people really wanted to support the troops, they would be fighting for them to come home, she added.

Contact Amanda Kim Stairrett at [email protected] or (254) 501-7547. Follow her on Twitter at KDHmilitary or www.facebook.com/astairrett.

For more information

Under the Hood is located at 17 S. College St. It is open daily from 5 to 10 p.m. Visit the café online at www.underthehoodcafe.org.

For more information about Texas Labor Against the War, visit www.txlaboragainstwar.org or call (512) 470-8485.

Peace and Justice Support Network of Mennonite Church USA can be found online at http://peace.mennolink.org.

The Iraq Debacle
As corporate media heralds the end of combat forces in Iraq, Fort Hood is deploying 3,000 troops to Iraq from the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment. Many of them have been deemed “undeployable” due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and other conditions resulting from previous deployments during this decade of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several upcoming events are aimed at peeling back the mass deception surrounding “the end of combat operations.”

5:00 pm, Sunday, August 29th, 1700 South First, Austin, Texas. Iraqi-American doctor, Dahlia Wasfi will speak in Austin about the U.S. Policy in Iraq: A Humanitarian Catastrophe. This event is co-sponsored by Texas Labor Against the War and CodePink Austin and will take place at the Texas State Employees Union meeting hall.  (TSEU is on S. 1st St. near Annie, across from Freddie’s Restaurant.)

10:00 am, Monday, August 30th, Under the Hood, 17 S. College, Killeen, Texas. A press conference will highlight the Iraq debacle – its impact on US. soldiers, Iraqis, and funding to meet domestic needs. Dahlia Wasfi, Iraqi-American doctor and Rep. Lon Burnam from Fort Worth, Texas will join representatives from many groups including Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, CodePink and Texas Labor Against the War.

for more information:  http://www.underthehoodcafe.org/

on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112882012098277

From the MonkeyWrench Bookstore Calendar.  MonkeyWrench is located at 110 E. North Loop, Austin.  Call them at 512-407-6925 for directions to the store

TYRANNY OF OIL: THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL INDUSTRY
Monday, December 14, 8pm

Antonia Juhasz is on the National Advisory Board of Iraq Veterans Against
the War and The (True Cost of) Chevron Program Director at Global Exchange
in San Francisco. She’s the author of The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most
Powerful Industry–And What We Must Do To Stop It, just newly released in
paperback, updated with a new preface on Big Oil and the Presidency of
Barack Obama.

Note from Texas Labor Against the War: In 2007, with Ms. Juhasz’ permission, we issued as a pamphlet her excellent NYTimes article, “Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?” which laid out how big oil corporations, aided by the US government, were trying to take over control of Iraq’s oil resources.  This short pamphlet is still available at MonkeyWrench–and Iraqi labor unions are still struggling against the privatization of Iraqi oil.

The regular meeting of Texas Labor Against the War will NOT be held Sunday, November 9.

Some of our folks will be out of town on that date.

Texas Labor Against the War will hold our regular monthly meeting Sunday, Sept. 14, 6:30 – 8:00 pm at the Texas State Employees Union hall at 1700 S. First St., Austin, TX (across from Jovita’s and Freddie’s).

Topics for discussion include Iraq Moratorium plans, upcoming TSEU General Assembly, the war in Afghanistan, the elections, and any other relevant matters that members bring to the meeting.