Dissent, Protests Continue To Grow In Maine

UU Church members in Topsham, April 15, 2023

You meet the nicest people when you engage in peace building work. In fact, that's how I met my husband twenty years ago, and we're still at it.

Luke is a new friend while Regis and I have known each other for years. I appreciated this opportunity to talk about how the U.S. public perceives the U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine based on where they seek information, and how we're bringing our messages of dissent to the general public on Saturdays in Maine.

Interested in learning more about anti-nuclear war ambassador Samantha Smith and her diplomacy with the U.S.S.R.? Check out her page and the educational project associated with her memory on the website Americans Who Tell The Truth.

Belfast, May 20, 2023

Mainers Brave Bitter Cold To Join Thousands Across The U.S. Demanding: No War With Russia!

photo credit: Martha Spiess

Yesterday thousands rallied across the U.S. to protest the threat of war with Russia, expansion of NATO, and arming Ukraine at taxpayer expense. 

photo credit: Bob Klotz

Around 30 people stood in Topsham at the big intersection where thousands of people passed by during the hour long protest. Sponsoring organizations Maine Natural Guard, Peaceworks of Greater Brunswick, Peace Action Maine, Maine Veterans for Peace and WILPF-Maine sent representatives. It was also exciting to see members of many other organizations in our state join us including Maine Poor People's Campaign and 350 Maine. 

WMTW Channel 8 and WABI Channel 5 news both ran segments on our protest that included my statement: "I have grandchildren. They don't want nuclear war. My children don't want nuclear war. And all the people you see standing out here don't want nuclear war.

What happened to diplomacy? Let's sit down and talk. Let's talk about our mutual security needs and work something out."

Many of the messages shared yesterday reflected a concern that nuclear war could be a consequence of U.S.-NATO military attacks on Russia. 

Cynthia Howard in Topsham photo credit: Martha Spiess

Although the corporate press have repeated that unnamed sources believe Russia plans to invade Ukraine, no evidence for this claim has been produced.  Ukraine and NATO nations have moved approximately 150,000 troops and nuclear-capable weapons to several borders with Russia, and in response Russia has increased to around 100,000 the troops stationed on its own border with Ukraine. 

Russia has repeatedly said it has no intention of invading Ukraine.

The president of Ukraine has asked the U.S. and NATO to tone down their bellicose rhetoric as it is alarming the people of that nation.

Note that Russia has a long-standing no first use policy on nuclear weapons. The U.S. does not, nor has it signed the United Nations treaty on the ban of nuclear weapons after more than a year in effect.

photo credit: Russell Wray

Elsewhere in Maine yesterday a group including Veterans for Peace members gathered on a bridge in Ellsworth. Russell Wray reported: "We stood for an hour and got quite a bit of positive response, honks, thumbs up, and even clapping." It was bitterly cold throughout, and Rob Shetterly reported that he thought about jumping into the Union River to warm up. We also heard that a group stood in Bucksport.

An online rally at noon brought together representatives of national and international peace groups including the Black Alliance for Peace, United National Antiwar Coalition, the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, World Beyond War, WILPF-U.S and many more. Recording on YouTube & Facebook. 

Bruce Gagnon and I were on from Maine, and Bruce spoke to his experiences visiting Russia and the Crimea and Donbass regions of Ukraine following the 2014 coup that installed a Nazi-aligned government there. Bruce's same day blog post about U.S. mercenary corporation Blackwater joining the Nazi Azov battalion in Donbass may be read here.

Photo source: Organizing Notes

Militias displaying Nazi insignia are common in Ukraine and operate there with the tacit agreement of the government.

I spoke about how U.S. imperialism is in trouble abroad as Russia and China released a joint statement on security, economic development, and public health policy just prior to the opening of the Winter Olympic games in Beijing. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is in trouble at home with extremely low approval ratings. No national plan for public health in a pandemic as U.S. deaths approach 900,000 without universal healthcare and galloping inflation further impoverishing those struggling to feed and house themselves are contributing to loss of faith in the current government's ability to respond to people's needs. 

Promoting a land war in Europe seems to be a desperate strategy to improve the Biden administration's approval ratings as nonstop war coverage by corporate press outlets tends to improve a war president's standing in opinion polls.

Meanwhile, in calls with investors, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin expressed pleasure that the worsening situation in Ukraine is helping their profits.

See reporting by Sarah Lazare here.

Feb 5 demonstrators in New York City, photo courtesy Codepink

Guard Against The Greed And Ignorance Driving Climate Crisis

Research in the UK turns up the unsurprising fact that a tiny group of humans cause the lion's share of air pollution via air travel. I'm old enough to remember when the fawning press called these elites "the jet set" due to their excessive use of machines that allow for swift travel. 

The wealthy use travel to show off their privilege. For example, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz flying to Cancun during a statewide power outage last winter in Texas. 

Or, in an anecdote I was told by an Afghan friend, a bride in Kabul flying to Dubai for her wedding makeup.

Of the two examples, one was the direct result of unprecedented freezing weather crashing a U.S. state's (unregulated) power grid. 

Thus, climate change begets climate change.

Then there's greedy capitalist Elon Musk's SpaceX flops that belch carbon and other greenhouse gases to exalt his ego if not to consolidate his wealth.

My friend and neighbor Barry Dana, past chief of the Penobscot Nation, has been ringing the alarm bell about air travel for years. His response to my sharing the news that a handful of people cause most of the climate damage due to aviation was, "I see flying to be one thing we have in our daily choices that we have the power NOT to do." He is critical of Native environmental activists who fly in indigenous experts from around the globe to confer about our climate problem.

My response is to listen to Barry, an educator for traditional wisdom about how to live sustainably on this planet, and to make my choices accordingly.

But the elephant in the climate change room is actually military aviation.

Neoliberal rag The Guardian naturally did not offer this context in their article about elite air travel.

Source: Brown University, Watson Institute, Costs of War Project

Luckily for us, academics have been studying military contributions to climate crisis for a while now. I've been collecting their reports here for a few years and was excited to learn that peace activist emeritus Kathy Kelly referred to my collection in an interview recently. Podcaster Kollibri terre Sonnenblume characterized this as:

"most US Americans are ignorant of the consequences of US militarism." 

No kidding.

Like The Guardian, the corporate press here in the U.S. works overtime to ignore the real drivers of climate change. To help craft this false narrative, military emissions were exempt from being quantified in the Kyoto climate protocols, and were made optional in the Paris climate accords. Because our planet's atmosphere isn't affected by pollution if it has the right flag on it?

Now, with a former Raytheon board member heading the Pentagon, this problem is unlikely to be addressed. The U.S. military is well aware that climate change is a thing and they have lots of contingency plans for dealing with the coastal flooding of many of their 800 bases around the planet.

I founded the Maine Natural Guard to help people connect the dots between climate crisis and U.S. taxpayer funded military aviation. So few people seem to care that we bomb civilians constantly no matter which of the two corporate parties is in power at the moment, but many do care about the existential threat of climate emergency. 

I'm glad to see Veterans for Peace has a web page for their Working Group on Climate Crisis and Militarism with their #1 focus: "The unequal burden of both climate change and militarism on people of color and the poor." 

This point is important to bear in mind as we witness the ramp up to war with China, Russia, or (are the generals insane?) both. When I read Ann Wright's comprehensive review "In Alarmist Turn, NATO Is Increasingly Positioning Itself In Opposition To China, I saw our carbon bootprint spreading like the stain it is.

Want to be part of the solution?

Add your name to join the Natural Guard effort from wherever you are!

I pledge to speak out about the effects of militarism on our environment, because the commons we all share that sustain life are valuable to me.

In discussions about security and safety, I will remind others of the need to count in the cost in pollution and fuel consumption of waging wars all around the planet.

In discussions about acting soon to protect our loved ones from the effects of climate chaos, I will remind others of the need to examine the role of the Pentagon and its many contractors in contributing to planetary warming.

The Case For Conversion -- Because #ClimateEmergency Is Not Going Away

Channeling Senator Susan Collins and her many corporate sponsors outside BIW in Bath prior to my arrest April 1, 2017

My husband and I and many friends have been arrested at General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works war ship factory multiple times protesting the celebration of wasteful, carbon-belching weapons of mass destruction.

Current rap sheet for Mark and me:

Aegis 9 group just prior to our arrest

April 1, 2017 Aegis 9 arrested and charged with criminal trespass. Acquitted February 1, 2018 by Justice Dan Billings  prior to jury deliberations, on the grounds that the state failed to make their case.

LBJ 25 group with supporters just after our arrest

April 27, 2019 LBJ 25 arrested and charged with obstructing a public way. Charges dropped by (new) Sagadahoc County District Attorney Natasha Irving.

In handcuffs after blocking a bus headed for a war ship celebration at Bath Iron Works on June 22

June 22, 2019 Inouye 22 arrested and charged with obstructing a public way. Awaiting mail from DA Irving notifying us that obstructing a public way charges have been dropped in favor of -- jaywalking! Our understanding is that a $150 fine will have to be paid or we will risk losing our drivers license. Ongoing legal strategizing on how to respond is still in process.


The publicity generated by our risking arrest is the point.

Because when we convene a news conference to lay out the case for conversion of Maine's military-industrial capacity to address climate emergency, corporate media and elected officials pay very little attention.



If the embedded video of our news conference does not work for you, here's a link to the video on YouTube: Climate Crisis Demands Conversion, Press Conference.

A Green New Deal that fails to address the Pentagon's enormous greenhouse gas emissions will not be successful. 

This is an inconvenient truth that is unaffected by Pentagon propaganda, or the refusal to count military emissions as part of the climate problem.

I will continue working to get the word out, before climate catastrophe overtakes us all.

Recently I was interviewed by Mutiny FM, an internet radio station out of San Francisco. (Big thanks to Inouye 22 member Sadie Fulton for arranging this!) You can hear host Roman Rimer interview with me beginning around the 27 minute mark in the archived podcast.

And, also this week, I did an interview for Bruce Gagnon's This Issue show on local access television about the urgent need for conversion. Please listen to our discussion and join in.



If the embedded video of Bruce's show does not work for you, here's a link to the video on YouTube: This Issue with Lisa Savage.


Climate emergency is not going away. We must all pull together, and soon.

Protests At BIW Warship Launch On April 27: Convert Weapons Industry To Address Climate Change

This press release goes out to Maine news media this week. Please share!

MEDIA ADVISORY: PROTESTERS AT WARSHIP LAUNCH AT BIW WILL CALL FOR CONVERSION OF THE SHIPYARD TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE

Statewide peace groups will gather to protest the “christening”[sic] of a Zumwalt class warship at General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works shipyard on April 27. The ship will be named for President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), who was driven from office by anti war protesters over his conduct of the Vietnam War.

Bruce Gagnon of Brunswick, a member of Veterans for Peace (VFP) who became a activist while in the Air Force during the Vietnam era, said, “Our real security needs as a nation are to urgently address climate change and plan for sea level rise that is already underway. How will this affect BIW’s shipyard in Bath?"

"Continuing to build expensive, provocative and polluting weapon systems like Zumwalt destroyers ignores climate change as the biggest threat to our collective safety.”

Left to right: Bruce Gagnon and Mary Beth Sullivan outside General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works shipyard, February 2018

Gagnon has helped organize protests at BIW for the past several years. In 2018 he fasted for 37 days to oppose a tax giveaway by the state of Maine to General Dynamics.

The Pentagon has identified climate change as the greatest national and global security threat---yet, at the same time, the Pentagon has the largest carbon footprint on the planet.

War machines endanger all life and exacerbate climate change.

A 2017 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report projected at least a six inch sea level rise by 2050.

Banner by the Artists' Rapid Response Team (ARRT!) of the Maine Union of Visual Artists

“Endorsing the Conversion Campaign addresses these truths and provides a rational “lens” through which to “see” an apocalyptic reality,” says Dud Hendrick of VFP, one of a dozen organizations sponsoring the BIW Conversion Campaign. “The absolute imperative of “Conversion” is all the more undeniable to us in Maine, having the longest coastline in the nation. And, a widely predicted collapse of the lobster fishery in Maine waters due to the associated rising water temperatures would be cataclysmic in every conceivable respect for my home town of Deer Isle.”

“Conversion” should influence every decision our Congressional delegates make in the conduct of their work as our representatives,” concluded Hendrick.

“Making warships at BIW is not even a good jobs policy. Researchers have consistently found that investment of the same resources in sustainable energy solutions like commuter trains or wind turbines would produce many more jobs,” said Mary Beth Sullivan of PeaceWorks of greater Brunswick. “We need conversion of the BIW shipyard now.”

Sullivan referenced the UMass Amherst study in 2011, “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities: 2011 Update” by Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier.

Civil resistance action at BIW on April 1, 2017 resulted in nine arrests for criminal trespass; all defendants were acquitted of the charge, with the judge ruling that they were exercising their 1st amendment right to free speech.

Another PeaceWorks member has spent the past year gathering names of people willing to engage in civil resistance on April 27. Karen Wainberg of Brunswick says she had more than 50 names on her list at this time.

Mark Roman of Solon plans to be there representing the Maine Natural Guard, an organization dedicated to pointing out the Pentagon’s enormous carbon footprint.

“I cannot stand by and watch lawmakers waste our tax dollars on warships that are huge polluters when that money could be spent on climate change solutions, or on housing and food for the 43,000 children in Maine living in poverty,” said Roman.

He has been active in the Bring Our War Dollars Home campaign at BIW since 2009.

Naming the warship after LBJ supports the Pentagon’s attempt at revisionist history around America’s most unpopular war. VFP, which was founded in Maine by Vietnam War veterans, maintains a website called Vietnam Full Disclosure to counter the Pentagon’s efforts to whitewash that war. Several VFP members from around the U.S. are expected at the April 27 protest.

Organizations sponsoring the April 27 protests and resistance include Americans Who Tell the Truth, Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST), Durham Quaker Meeting, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Island Peace & Justice, Maine Natural Guard, Maine Veterans for Peace, Maine War Tax Resistance Resource Center, Midcoast Peace & Justice Group, Pax Christi Maine, Peace Action Maine, Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine, Peace & Justice Group of Waldo County, PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick, and Peninsula Peace & Justice.

##

Defeaning Silence On The Carbon Belching Elephant In The Climate Room

How lucky was I to be in action with family and friends at yesterday's Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice march in Portland, Maine. These powerful banners created by Ellen Davidson of Veterans for Peace in New York were trundled up to Maine by Ellen and Tarak Kauff, a VFP member who spoke at our Peace Hub preceding the funeral march for the cod.

Gigi, seen here helping grandpa and me hold the "Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming --People, Peace and the Planet" banner, held several signs throughout the course of the day. Gigi is a tireless social justice warrior whose mom, Selene Spivak, spoke at the end of the Peace Hub reminding us that the next generation is counting on us to leave a habitable world.

Videos of all the Peace Hub speakers will be available soon thanks to dedicated Peace Action Maine videographer Martha Spiess, and I will share them when I see them. For now here's a short video I made of Bruce Gagnon speaking about the need for conversion of the military-industrial factories to building sustainables: a win for jobs, a win for unions, a win for peace, and a win for the environment.

Maine Public Radio managed to cover the march without a whiff of the fumes constantly belching from the Pentagon's war machine. A glimpse of one banner did sneak in behind the dead cod puppet, but six hundred words was not enough to get "public" radio to mention the elephant in the global warming room. Their coverage was focused on the covert Democratic Party agenda for the entire climate march: register and get out voters. As if voting for Democrats would reduce Pentagon budgets and their CO2 exhaust, a bi-partisan problem that continues under any administration. ("Progressive" rep for Portland Chellie Pingree just voted along with Tea Party rep for the poorer half of Maine, Bruce Poliquin, to authorize the biggest Pentagon budget in history. Nuff said.)

The Maine Natural Guard was out in force yesterday reminding folks to connect the dots between militarism and climate change. Pictured here in our team shirt is Jason Rawn. Mary Beth Sullivan is wearing hers behind the banner, too, and Cynthia Howard rocked her shirt while holding this excellent banner which mimics the popular book series _____ for Dummies.

My remarks at the Peace Hub were excerpted from this excellent article by Stacy Bannerman, "Is Climate The Worst Casualty of War?" We handed out nearly 100 copies of Bannerman's article along the way of the New Orleans funeral-style march through Portland's downtown. And I continued to share these with high school students assembled at City Hall to hear many of their own, including water warrior Luke Sekera, who called out the Nestle Corporation for its theft of Maine's groundwater. Luke mentioned that he has been at this for seven years now. Yup, since he was 9 years old.

Colorful banners created by the Union of Maine Visual Artists' Artists Rapid Response Team (ARRT!) were everywhere, including this beauty created for and carried by the Maine Poor People's Campaign.

This national campaign -- founded to combat Martin Luther King Jr.'s evil triplets of racism, militarism and extreme materialism -- sees how all the pieces of our corporate oppression are connected.

It's time to stop pretending that the Democratic Party will do anything to save us.

Image: Anthony Freda

Maine Natural Guard At Peace Hub In Portland Climate Action Saturday, September 8 Noon

Calling all Maine Natural Guard members to help bring the essential message that the Pentagon is the biggest polluter on the planet to a climate action being organized by 350 Maine:

RISE for Climate, Jobs and Justice

Saturday Sep 8 -- noon

Portland, Maine

The Maine Natural Guard will display our MNG t-shirts and messaging:

Click here to order your shirt

or other costumes:

That's Natasha Mayers holding her giant (cardboard) carbon footprint

That's Cynthia Howard as a polar bear who recognizes the largest cause of carbon polluting

We will carry signs such as:

​image: Suzanna Lasker

Image: Lisa Savage

Image: Jason Rawn 

Bruce Gagnon in action for life on the planet

Last Run (serigraph by Kenny Cole)

Also, since part of the call by organizers is for jobs (i.e. RISE for Climate, Jobs and Justice) messages about the urgent need for conversion of the military-industrial mess we're in would also be a great fit. For example:

Mary Beth Sullivan showing that public transportation light rail could be built at Bath Iron Works instead of warships.

Jenny Gray sharing her conversion vision

You can join the Natural Guard campaign by signing the pledge here.

Be a communication worker and help bring news of the path of real resistance to people befuddled by corporate media messaging.

Add your name to join the Natural Guard effort from wherever you are!

I pledge to speak out about the effects of militarism on our environment, because the commons we all share that sustain life are valuable to me. 

In discussions about security and safety, I will remind others of the need to count in the cost in pollution and fuel consumption of waging wars all around the planet.

In discussions about acting soon to protect our loved ones from the effects of climate chaos, I will remind others of the need to examine the role of the Pentagon and its many contractors in contributing to planetary warming.

Mark Roman, Ridgely Fuller and other climate activists at Bath Iron Works bridge banner drop

We welcome all who want to help bring this important message on September 8, one which is very often omitted from climate events.  FMI call me at 399-7623

thanks!

Lisa

For more information on the September 8 event:

This is our invitation to participate in a joint action as part of the global RISE for Climate, Jobs and Justice  in Portland on Saturday, September 8th beginning at noon. It’s  part of a worldwide mobilization taking place four days before the  Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. 350 Maine is  coordinating the event focused on the rising and warming waters of  the Gulf of Maine, but we expect the Maine Chapter of the Sierra  Club to join us as co-sponsors. Our goals for the event are to move the state legislature toward  climate action; get voters to ask what candidates in the November  election are going to do to take action on climate change; and to  register new voters. We want people to see and understand how much is at stake and how important it is to elect people willing to  work seriously on environmental issues as well as jobs and justice.    

The New Orleans Style Funeral procession we are planning will  pass through the center of town and end at a point currently being  determined, but at a place where a modest and active rally can take  place combined with voter registration.  We want as many people  as possible to be involved in the action with individual groups  taking responsibility for a specific components of the overall  program.  This should be a fun event that carries a serious message  and purpose.      Accordingly, some of the ideas being considered include:  ● The Leftist Marching Band to lead the funeral procession  ● A coffin containing a Gulf of Maine codfish and/or other  endangered species inside   ● Puppets, cheerleaders and dancers  ● People in costumes that emphasize mourning or sea level  rise  ● Floats or similar (e.g. Noah’s Ark, a giant lobster, fishermen  with empty nets, etc.)  ● Fishermen & lobstermen with empty traps and nets (income  & job loss)  ● Symbols of rising, warming seas (e.g. blue ribbon)  ● Children, teens, college students participating in any way  they see fit  ● Rally point activities that are lively and active:  o With local performers (singers, dancers, band)  o Limited talks that include funeral orations or memorial  addresses  o Tables with displays of Portland areas likely to be  flooded, climate action plans (simple, easy things  everyone can do), Children’s Trust, etc.  o Voter registration  ● YOUR IDEA PLEASE

The event wants to be big and memorable.  Would you be  interested in helping us pull it off?  Will you get involved and help  make it happen?    You, ------, are invited to play an active role in the overall  planning and event coordination and/or to simply take an active role  in the event itself.  Since we are working on a tight schedule, we’d  like to hear from you a.s.a.p. one way or another.     Let us know what you think.

With best regards, Espahbad Dodd & Chuck Spanger, 350 Maine 

Take the Natural Guard pledge 

to connect the dots between 

militarism and environmental harm.