Ceding To Fascism With Pre-Anticipatory Obedience

A squadron of 6 U.S. Air Force bombers has reportedly been flying over the Mediterranean Sea. The squadron includes B-52 Stratofortresses i.e. nuclear-capable bombers, among others. The aircraft took off from an American base in England on Monday.

Meanwhile, officials in both the U.S. and the Zionist entity threatened to "unleash hell" on Gaza if they don't submit to being permanently displaced from their homeland. Hamas had this to say about that:

"Trump must remember that there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties and this is the only way to return the prisoners," Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP, referring to the hostages. He added, "The language of threats has no value and further complicates matters."

I recall President Theodore Roosevelt, the architect of U.S. imperialism, explained his strategy as "speak softly and carry a big stick." Now that we are ruled by small stick energy we boast and bluster on the world stage. Does the language of threats have no value? Probably not at the negotiating table where Hamas and Israel are poised on the brink of Phase 2 of their ceasefire agreement.

But, 47 and the elongated muskrat and their ilk think the language of threats plays well at home.

Speaking of threats, my friend and fellow organizer Bruce Gagnon received a threat from my alma mater yesterday. A resident of Brunswick, Maine where Bowdoin College is located, Bruce had local police at his door yesterday with a document promising to arrest him for criminal trespass if he sets foot on campus for the next 12 months. Here in a blog post he explains why his entirely nonviolent support for the recent student encampment led to Bowdoin enlisting local police to threaten him.

It's not a threat it's a promise when I say that I joined fellow Bowdoin alumni in boycotting the college's big fundraising day that's coming up, and have sent letters to a slew of administrators explaining why. Their refusal to address the Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum results nine months after its passage is shameful. Their persecution of students of conscience and the college's failure to live up to its oft vaunted commitment to pursue "the Common Good" is hypocritical.

A senior who was suspended for participating in the peaceful occupation of a student union that is supposed to be open 24/7 for student use but was instead locked down by college security forces told the Portland Press Herald what she thought was behind Bowdoin's cowardice:

[Oliva Kenney] characterized the college’s response as “pre-anticipatory obedience” to the Trump administration.

"I do believe that the college is concerned about how the Trump administration will react to colleges that have demonstrated any form of sympathy to Palestine protesters, but what they’re doing, really, is ceding to fascism before the true consequences of fascism have even descended upon them.”

Some community supporters have expressed disappointment that the students didn't hold out for longer than five days. It can be challenging to put yourself in the shoes of someone whose family has invested around a quarter of a million dollars in your degree only to be suspended, kicked out of your dorm and off the meal plan, and barred from attending classes -- all of which were paid for in advance. 

Do Bowdoin students have the support of their parents? Some do, some don't. One thing I can say for sure: most of these families have deep pockets and probably a lawyer or two in the mix. Will the college ultimately get away with trampling their progeny's access to education they paid for in defense of an indefensible genocide and ethno-state? Color me doubtful. 

I'm joining other alumni, including parents, in withholding donations to Bowdoin until they see their way clear to walking the walk, not just talking the talk, of "the Common Good." Estate planners may need to revise some decisions previously made.

Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank has been repeatedly bombed this month, displacing 17,000 people  Source: Al Jazeera

Zionists continue bombing Lebanon, gobbling up land in Syria, and shooting at children in Gaza and the West Bank. In fact, violence in the West Bank has ramped up significantly during the "ceasefire" in Gaza with 

Creating Israel was a mistake, but the Anglo-American imperialists who did so to create a permanently Western-aligned entity in occupied Palestine thought they had a big stick. They were wrong in thinking that indigenous Palestinians would cede to fascism with pre-anticipatory obedience (I'm excepting Palestinian Authority quislings here). 

Gazans and Palestinians in the West Bank won't back down, and neither will their supporters. Free Palestine!

Long Range Missiles Flying Both Ways But Who's At The Controls?

 

In the puppet show that is U.S. national politics, the best time to ramp up a war is when no one really knows which puppet to pretend is calling the shots. Giving the green light to ATACAMs long range missiles fired into Russia this week by Ukraine with a lot of U.S. help and also to Shadow Storm long rangers from the UK -- we all know Biden isn't mentally capable of this. But it's convenient for headlines and propaganda purposes to assign him this agency. 

And to posit that this is all being done in a big rush before the incoming administration can bring peace. Uh huh. A less peaceful group than those appointed by 47 thus far would be challenging to assemble.

Then there's coverage of the initial Russian response, which was to use its Intercontinental Ballistic Missile for the first time ever. The ICBM released five other missiles over Ukraine that air defense systems there could do nothing to intercept. These were not nuclear missiles but a point being made by use of the delivery system is: they could have been.

Back to the U.S. lurching toward Armageddon with who exactly at the wheel? Here's an unsubstantiated internet rumor to chew on:

https://x.com/TonySeruga/status/1858728300899979298

The intermingling of corporate interests and a form of government that nobody believes is "for the people" is just about complete. Faced with the fact that very few want to be soldiers in the imperial wars corporations said, Great, we'll just replace them with a lot of expensive hardware, like drones. We borrow the money to finance this, CEOs make big bucks, and winning is not the point.

People say that the alphas[sic] all have bunkers with fantastic life support systems and elaborate security provisions. Or that some of them will be blasting off for outer space to escape nuclear war fallout. 

This fails to explain in my mind how the lust for even more wealth could bring someone to the brink of destroying Eden, our planet.

I can only hope for cooler heads in Russia and China to prevail, or possibly for coders anywhere to figure out how to interfere with the ultimate deployment.

Hey, a girl can dream.

Fascists Won WWII: Hear Me Out

These times are so confusing. The candidate Democrats insist I must vote against in order to stop fascism just published an op-ed in The Hill, co-authored by RFK Jr., warning that we must avert nuclear war. I'll admit I did not have that on my bingo card for 2024.

As a writer I was struck by how well-written it was -- by a staffer or two no doubt. When running for office, candidates can employ good writers able to state large truths clearly and elegantly. But once in office, imperial war mongers must employ hacks to spin elaborate confabulations to conceal even small amounts of truth.

Nukes were first used on Japan allegedly to defeat fascism there (but really to warn the communist USSR that we had two different kinds ready and waiting to use on them). Then Nazi rocket scientists and Japanese biological warfare experts were whisked away to the U.S. to found NASA and work for the Pentagon.

The Nuremberg show trials helped goad the United Nations into declaring the final European settler colonial project as Zionists were given Palestine.

Italian partisans fighting fascism in 1945

I'm reminded of something my friend told me her father said about fighting in Europe with the partisans.  Just as they had apparently defeated fascism, he said, the Zionists betrayed the socialist revolution and instead went for the land grab that is Israel.

Weaponizing antisemitism confused a lot of people, because the Nazis were emblematic of antisemitism taken to its murderous Final Solution. Generations of Jewish people around the globe were confused by slogans like "a land without a people for a people without a land."

But as the steadfast resistance of the Arab Palestinian generations denied Zionists their victory, technology ushered in real-time reporting from citizens watching their loved ones blown apart by the Israeli military and beset by pogroms conducted by violent settler militias.

https://x.com/NoorAbdelHaq1/status/1428359017873625090

Videos of gangs beating up on lone Palestinians is extremely reminiscent of depictions of Nazi violence against Jews in Europe, at least for this old history major. Sometimes the victims are Orthodox Jews in traditional clothing and ear locks, because they, too, oppose Zionism.

Young Jews aren't buying it. That's why police departments in the U.S. and Europe are beating the crap out of university students protesting the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Often at the invitation of university officials. That's also why universities came back strong this fall with attacks on student freedom of speech and assembly. It's the fascist playbook, is it not?

Other educators are busy "partnering" with war profiteers who now infest colleges and even high schools and middle schools. These are often presented as exciting STEM initiatives that invite youngsters to admire robotic "dog" weapon systems, or thermal imaging gadgets used to locate warm human bodies to murder.

Fascist leader of Italy Mussolini thought this sort of thing ought to be called "corporatism" i.e. the marriage of state and business interests. Neoliberals in the U.S. like to call it "public-private partnership." But fascism is much more to the point and it fits so much better in headlines.

Controlling information is a key element for fascism to continue succeeding. Silicon Valley's social media products exist for this precise reason, with accounts going dark all over Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Even TikTok has now banned RT and Sputnik accounts after the U.S. engineered a takeover if they wanted to be able to operate in the U.S. The EU is on board and apparently so is the UN.

https://x.com/samhusseini/status/1837844183056351647

So I conclude that, though they may have pretended to lose, fascists actually won WWII. And more significantly, they're now poised on the brink of a life ending WWIII with nukes all round. 

In the words of the great WWII film Underground (Podzemlje), f the motherf'ing fascists.

Does The State Of New Hampshire Work For Elbit Systems? If So, Why?

https://www.wmur.com/article/protester-merrimack-elbit-systems-hearing-4224/60372028

The first of the protesters who shut down Elbit Systems in New Hampshire on March 22 was arraigned yesterday in Merrimack District Court. Bruce Gagnon, who noted that the NH protest of Israel's genocide in Gaza was "a trickle in a global flood of activity" entered a plea of not guilty. This came after officers of the court reduced his scheduled misdemeanor charges -- criminal trespass and resisting arrest -- from A (worse) to B (better, and aligned with the rest of those arrested).

Ray Brewer of WBUR was on hand for Bruce's court appearance and you can see his reporting here. A cameraman told Bruce that in 34 years of covering Elbit's Merrimack facility he had never seen anything like the lockdown that shut the factory down for the day. Bruce asked him if he perceived the action as non-violent and he said definitely, yes.

But the part of yesterday's reporting that interested me the most was this exchange (you can see and hear part of it in WBUR's video linked above):

In court, prosecutor Jason Moore asked that an additional condition be added to Gagnon's bail order.

"The state is asking that there be no entry within 300 feet of any Elbit property," Moore said. "There's also an Elbit property in Cambridge that's been the site of some protests, as well."

At this point the judge asked, "Cambridge, New Hampshire or Cambridge, Massachusetts?" And then reminded the prosecutor that his jurisdiction does not extend to other states.

I love that this happened on camera because it raises the fascism-defining question: Does the state of New Hampshire work for Elbit Systems? And if so, why?

Several years ago Bruce and I, along with my husband and six others, were arrested outside General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works warship factory and charged with being on the wrong side of a white line in the snow. At trial we were acquitted of the charge of criminal trespass when the state prosecutor failed to make his case, and one of Justice Dan Billings' observations was that the Bath Police seemed to be taking orders from BIW security, "and that is not how it is supposed to work."

Why not? Because courts, prosecutors, district attorneys, and attorney generals of states are supposed to work for the people. So are police.

A man with a badge wearing plain clothes that appears to work for Elbit was present with the 70 police who responded on May 22, and was also present, masked, in court yesterday. We're guessing his goal is to keep tabs on the prosecutor and the judge. Will the governor respond to Elbit pressure to turn prosecution over the the NH Attorney General as has been done in the case of protesters arrested in November at Elbit?

Why do our taxes fund a justice system that works on behalf of wealthy genocide profiteers instead of us? 

Mussolini would be proud.

Bruce's next court date is May 7 for a "Trial Management Conference" while the remaining seven defendants will be arraigned April 18. He will continue asking for his case to be consolidated with the others; yesterday the judge said it was not up to him but depended on "the docket." Stay tuned...

Planet Burning, Lawsuits Churning, Pentagon Still Turning Toward Climate Destruction

It's another record breaking hot season for the Northern Hemisphere. Despite the fact that the summer solstice just occurred we're seeing Arctic ground temperatures in the 110+ degrees Farenheit range (38+ Celcius), a 1,200 year drought shaping up in the western United States, and spring wildfires in Siberia, Arizona, and New Mexico. Some of these are believed to be "zombie fires" that wintered over under the snow cover in the Arctic, unextinguished.

The lawsuit by young people suing the federal government for inaction on climate, thus depriving them of their constitutional right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," is on appeal with a hearing set for today at 1pm EDT to review oral arguments in Juliana v. United States.

Meanwhile, the state of Massachusetts has seen progress in its lawsuit against petroleum giant Exxon Mobil for knowing the risks of climate crisis yet concealing them from consumers and the general public.

"Greenwashing" similar to that currently engaged in by Hydro-Quebec on behalf of what some in Maine are calling the "Massachusetts extension cord" project currently destroying acres of carbon-sequestering trees to build a giant transmission line. Governor Janet Mills just vetoed a bill to ban foreign entities like HQ and the owner of the line, Iberdrola, from spending on lobbying and advertising campaigns to influence the outcome of citizen referendums; one on the ballot in November threatens the project.

I'm sure investment bankers at Goldman Sachs have made it crystal clear to Mills which side her bread is buttered on.

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

Meanwhile, the biggest polluter on the planet continues largely unchallenged.

In September, Maine will be visited by the super polluting and entirely unnecessary Blue Angels airshow. All these carbon emissions kill only indirectly i.e. these planes don't drop bombs on anyone, and they drop napalm onto the runway in Brunswick only to "entertain." 

Of course all airshows, like the military displays at sporting events that your tax dollars subsidize, are recruiting tools. Along with crushing student debt for postsecondary education, they steer the young people not born to affluence into donning uniform in order to qualify for "free" college.

Why don't the big environmental groups challenge the Pentagon on its non-stop hastening of climate crisis?

Some say its because most of them take money from the corporate owned and operated Democratic Party. Some say its because they dare not appear "unpatriotic" even if that's what it will take to keep Earth liveable for our grandchildren. Some want to stay in their silo of challenging climate crisis without venturing into the much more fraught arena of challenging our militarized, fascistic government that exists mainly to protect the profits of already wealthy corporations.

If embedded video of Veterans for Peace plenary session on the U.S. Military & Climate does not play for you, access it here: https://youtu.be/M_unc1AFbkw

Some say that an annual budget of $778 billion buys a lot of silence from potential opponents.

I notice that in the new guidelines the Biden administration is developing anyone who opposes the life-threatening system of capitalism will now be designated a terrorist.

Sign me up!

Insatiable Greed And A $600 Slap In The Face

Fascism got a bad name in the 20th century because of the mass genocide of the Holocaust, plus the rapacious colonialism (redundant, I know) of the Japanese imperial project. For decades since, teenagers have snarled "fascist" at parents enforcing curfew in reference to the violent policing that accompanied the rise of a white supremacist party in Germany.

But it was Mussolini, the dictator of Italy, that actually had it right: "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."

In other words, the precise system of government we have in the United States today.

Over the last several decades we have watched as corporate power captured, not only our legislative and executive branches of national government, but the judiciary as well. 

The predictable outcome of our descent into fascism is the passage and enforcement of laws designed to benefit our corporate overlords at the expense of the literally starving and homeless people.

During any crisis of the last several decades, the already wealthy have prospered while the already impoverished have perished before our very eyes with little to no government intervention. I think Hurricane Katrina is when I first realized that the federal government would stand idly by, fat with our tax dollars, while the poor drowned and starved. FEMA like so many other federal agencies was designed to enrich corporations while the matriarch of the Bush clan toured refugees being housed in a sports stadium and pronounced on network television, "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them."

The fact that so many of the "underprivileged" were Black was undoubtedly a factor in their abandonment by government of, by, and for the wealthy. Kanye West increased his fame when he said live on network television at the time: "George Bush doesn't care about Black people." 

So, failure to attend to the common good is nothing new. But it is accelerating mightily under the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other wealthy countries have managed the health crisis by recognizing that staying home is containment, and subsidizing people to stay home -- including staying housed -- is good health policy.

But the US Congress is in session this weekend struggling over whether to pass a relief bill that would provide $600 one time payments after sending a measly $1200 once months ago. (Note: I know at least one Black working mother who never even received that payment.)

Currently 1/3 of people in the U.S. report they are struggling to meet basic expenses such as rent, food, and utilities.

The uptick in memes and slogans advocating violent revolution is significant in my social media feeds.

A sampling includes this one with one of the planet's rapacious billionaires as poster boy:

Also:

But more specifically, Congress is in the crosshairs. Sample tweets:

$600 and whatever you can carry from your local Congressional representative’s second home

— Edward Ongweso Jr (@bigblackjacobin) December 18, 2020

 

The U.S. government gave over 40,000 millionaires an average of 1.7 million each in Covid Aid

This is our tax dollars they gave
to millionaires

AND wanna give middle class
& poor families only $600 in stimulus checks?

This is supposed 2 cover
8 months of back rent & mortgages?

— Kirk Acevedo🇺🇸 (@kirkacevedo) December 17, 2020

I also saw but cannot now find one that said, "The next stimulus is hidden inside in your member of Congress like a piñata."

Meanwhile reformers are insisting on a floor vote in the House on the wildly popular Medicare for All that our elected representatives will not even consider.

Fascists, drunk on power, always think the future is theirs. I think they're wrong about that.

Indigenous Children Gassed At The Border, Mocked At Football Games

I woke this morning intending to update readers on progress in pressuring Skowhegan Area High School to retire its racist team name/mascot, which some call Pretendians.

Yesterday I was contacted by three women: a news director at Maine Public Radio, an attorney from the Maine ACLU, and a leader of Suit Up Maine (formed to "promote equity and equality in civil rights, social justice, health care, the environment, education, the economy, and other areas that affect the lives of all people"). All three expressed interest in the school board meeting coming up on December 6. The facebook event to organize support for Native people in Maine calling for change has 161 people interested and 31 saying they plan to attend as of this morning.

Mockery of indigenous culture and history is commonplace in the U.S. right down to the present moment. Dehumanizing people is foundational to genocide as students of the Holocaust or ethnic cleansing in Rwanda know. Jewish people were compared with rats and referred to as vermin; Tutsi people were referred to as cockroaches. Then, they were slaughtered.

All hate crimes are preceded by hate language is what I told the school board at their November meeting. 

Which brings us to the gassing of asylum seekers -- many of whom are indigenous children -- at the U.S. border with Mexico.

A migrant family, part of a caravan of thousands traveling from Central America en route to the United States, runs away from tear gas in front of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Tijuana, Mexico.

(📷: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters) pic.twitter.com/pz7hkxsN9g

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 25, 2018

The demagogue with bad hair in the White House tweeted yesterday that many of those being gassed are "stone cold criminals." To say that he offered no evidence to support his claim would just be describing government by tweet as we have come to know it.

When the point is to demonize the Other who allegedly threatens our collective safety, empty threats are far more effective than facts.

The white supremacist culture of the U.S. has built an entire industry characterizing itself as the anti-Nazis. Most of that culture is war porn where beaches are stormed, buddies are glorified, and concentration camps are liberated by the "good guys" (that would be us). A zillion books and movies enshrine the national myth of violent "Christian" saviors. My friend Bruce Gagnon examined this myth yesterday in a blog post: "Was there an ideological contamination from the Nazis?"

Who now has the courage to speak up and say:

The U.S. imprisons thousands of children in concentration camps in Texas right now. 

The militarized U.S. Border Patrol is attacking children and their families fleeing violence in Central America that the U.S. creates and funds.

Brown citizens are being stripped of their passports even if they earned citizenship via enlistment in the U.S. military.

White militias are massing on the border with Mexico threatening refugees with further violence if they dare to apply for asylum in the U.S.

White supremacy is a disease. Mocking Native people and harming their children are symptoms of moral sickness. Claiming you do so in the name of Christ is ludicrous.

Silence is complicity in these crimes from here on out. 

There's a lot of historical precedent for that, too.

(Special thanks to Hope Savage for all the good meme shares.)

Fascism Is No Longer Creeping, It's Galloping Now 17 Years After 9/11

I'm supposed to be blogging about 9/11 today, justifying the endlessly profitable "war on terror." But I think I'll blog about the uses that have been made of those events instead.

Fascism is no longer creeping, it's galloping now was my husband's response to news that my posts of the Peace Hub video from Saturday's climate march had been removed by Facebook. Allegedly it "looked like spam" or perhaps "violated community standards" so my account was locked temporarily also.

Here are their messages and then the actual video so you can judge for yourself why spybook didn't like my posts:

Here is the offending video:



Link in case the video does not play here on Blogger or in your email feed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mktdshvHN5c&feature=youtu.be

In possibly unrelated news, we found recently that the soup kitchen in the town where we hold our weekly peace vigil had closed. Word on the street is that the place where Skowhegan's large homeless population could count on getting a hot meal was closed down because suddenly the volunteers were required to prove they had background checks, and they didn't.

This was our response on the bridge. (If you're wondering, yes, I do have a background check because I was forced to get fingerprinted in order to keep my job as a public school teacher after 9/11.)

We'll be there again on Sundays, noon - 1pm. Spread the word.

Violent, Dehumanizing Language Is For Fascists -- Don't Be A Fascist

Standing up to neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia in August, 2017 took a lot of courage. Unite the Right will be back, this time in front of the White House, on August 11, 2018 in case you missed your chance last year.

It's been coming on for a while now, this pressure in my head about the proliferation of slogans on punching Nazis, and of the even more common practice of dehumanizing name-calling e.g. piece of shit, idiot, and so on.

I'm no philosopher, but here are some of the many reasons I disagree with these tactics.

1) They are not effective because they appeal mostly to people that already agree with the user. We're not trying to win over the people who already get it -- we're trying to win over the confused ones on the fence. Aren't we?

2) They are not effective because they make the user sound belligerent rather than intelligent. Belligerence is highly correlated with not being smart enough to understand the complexities of fake news and celebrity spokesman-style corporate government masking the realities that lie beneath. Do you really want to sound like the tweeter in chief?

3) They are not effective because violence is not a good tactic when winning hearts and minds is your goal. Which program did the Black Panthers consider their most important (and the white supremacists of their day considered the biggest threat?). Yup, free breakfasts for children.

4) They are not effective because they do nothing to withdraw support from the systems of violent oppression we're all living under. A women's strike would much more effectively halt the machinery of the white supremacist military-police state. Did you know that the Montgomery, Alabama bus strike was only planned to last for one day? Once the boycotters' power was demonstrated, though, the bandwagon effect was enormous.

How come the Nazi rocket scientists were not on trial in Nuremberg?

5) They are not effective because they tend to perpetuate a simplistic either-or model of understanding social trends or historical events. The U.S. military did not defeat the Nazis, the Russians did. (Our allies in WWII, remember?) The U.S. government turned away boatloads of Jewish refugees who died in concentration camps, knew about the Holocaust but allowed it to proceed anyway, and after tardily "liberating" the camps ran show trials at Nuremberg while quietly bringing Nazi rocket scientists to the USA.

The U.S. government also never tried Japanese war criminals for their heinous crimes against occupied people using sophisticated (at the time) biological weapons they had developed. Want to guess why not?

6) They are not effective because we are always in danger of becoming the thing that we love to hate. Or put another way, they focus our attention on unproductive emotions and drain off energy for devising or recognizing creative solutions to the mess we're in.

7) They are not effective because they're not educational. There are millions of people who have sworn by an ideology at one point in their lives and then changed their minds. Most members of Veterans for Peace, for example, would fall into this category. VFP members I know often cite a conversation or a message as having opened the door of their closed mind and started the questioning process that led them to new understanding. Hearing "You are a piece of shit" is never cited as the catalyst for their transformation.

I know lots of people will disagree with me and use ad hominem attack words like "keeping your hands clean" or whatever.

I've been arrested standing up for my beliefs, and I've been in trouble at work many times for speaking political truths. No, I have never punched a Nazi and it's unlikely that I ever will; I'm a writer, not a fighter. With my low pain threshold and aging body, practically anyone could beat me in a fight. But that's not the actual reason that I sincerely believe the pen is more powerful than the sword.

The Nazis didn't win over the German people by violence. They won them over with sophisticated propaganda, and by making sure they could feed their children. They scapegoated the Jews, Roma, homosexuals and people with disabilities to give the humiliated and broke German workers something to feel good about.

Yes, I know that the antifa forces in Charlottesville last summer saved the clergy, according to several who were defended and lived to tell the tale.

Self-defense is another category of violence that has different moral implications than premeditated assault, and I'm glad the antifa did what they did.




Would I use a weapon in self-defense or to protect a child or other innocent target? Yes, I think I would. There are all kinds of subversive acts I'd be willing to take against fascists if I had the opportunity. There's a huge arena for action between cowering in fear/appeasement on the one hand, and threatening to punch Nazis in the balls on the other.

It's been my experience that most people in the U.S. are too scared to even speak up in the face of racism or other forms of violence, much less punch anybody. People I work with quiver in fear at the thought of sending a letter to the editor and that's the truth.

I admire a family member who plans to be in Washington DC next month to film the Unite the Right rally as a citizen journalist. I respect groups like Unicorn Riot that use the power of media and information sharing "dedicated to exposing root causes of dynamic social and environmental issues through amplifying stories and exploring sustainable alternatives in today’s globalized world."

Let's all do what we can as best we understand it, and let's keep this conversation going.

Corporate Government's Ugly Face Links #Jeju Island, South Korea And Maine

Photo by Ellen Davidson of Father Mun surrounded by police outside the navy base construction site on Jeju Island

A news dispatch from South Korea by Mainer Dud Hendrick of Veterans for Peace came via email. It's inspiring and also ominous. 

I was particularly struck by the efforts of corporation Samsung to collectively punish a village fighting to preserve natural resources and their traditional fisheries from destruction by militarization. It reminded me of the Trans Pacific Trade treaty (TPP) which, if adopted, would allow corporations to punish anyone interfering with their "right" to profit.

Photo by Dud Hendrick

Friends, 

Unbelievably, we're on our last day here in Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island, Korea.  It has been an emotional five days, as we have been given a crash course on the crime being perpetrated on this coastal community.  The completion of the base is nearly a fait accompli--the government is projecting that it will be completed in the coming year.  Having been here in April of 2013 and remembering the status of the base then has made this visit all the more disturbing--at the same time it has been uplifting.    

Photo of VFP delegation, provided by Dud Hendrick (front row, on right)

The protest has been continuing virtually non-stop for over 8 years, testimony to the depth of the passions the base has ignited.  During my first visit it was already clear that it would take a miraculous turn of events to stop the project.  Then I was impressed by the resolute dedication of the protesters; a conglomeration of Gangjeong villagers at the helm along with other Jeju islanders, mainland Koreans, and international activists. The resolve now goes way beyond "impressive."  One observation is that the leadership, a diverse array of characters,  seems to have remained stable.  Many of those who played critical roles in 2013 and prior---even going back to 2008--continue to do so. The rank and file come and go, but many, particularly the young, have stayed for years.   

Others, like a few in our 13-person delegation have returned several times--the most notable being Bruce Gagnon who you might say has been adopted by the village and Ann Wright, the famed peace activist and former U.S. Army colonel and foreign service diplomat who resigned her position in opposition to the Iraq war.  Bruce is deserving of the village's high regard that he is accorded--having visited five times and being, probably, the single person whose work has most brought Gangjeong to the world's attention. (My note: you can read Bruce's report back here.) 

An ironic twist--Samsung, the primary contractor on the project is attempting impose a hefty fine on the village of Gangjeong in penalty for all the delays caused by the protests.

 During our visit we have been honored to have received briefings from some of the prominent leaders who have provided the inspiration behind this enduring resistance:

Photo by Dud Hendrick of Ann Wright of Veterans for Peace with Father Mun Jeong Hyeon of  the Catholic Church Solidarity to Make Peace on Jeju Island

Father Mun Jeong Hyeon, the iconic leader of the protest, was awarded the 2012 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.  The founder of Catholic Priests' Organization for Justice in opposition to South Korean dictatorships, he conducts the daily mass at the naval base gate and is generally the point person in protest from dawn 'til dusk.  He has been a leading voice against the U.S. military presence in Korea for decades. 

Father Mun contributed his $50,000 Gwangju (cash) Prize to the anti-naval base campaign.  He is a strong proponent of reunification between North and South Korea and sees the U.S. as the primary obstacle preventing that dream, embraced by many Koreans, from becoming reality.

You can read more on how to support the struggle to save Jeju Island from U.S. Navy destroyers and other warships here on the website Save Jeju Now. 

The base is intended for warships such as the Zumwalt built in Maine at Bath Iron Works by General Dynamics; here, the Kennebec River ecosystem is disturbed by dredging so that the highly profitable ships can be moved out to sea and then to Jeju Island where a soft coral reef has been entombed in concrete to make a port for them.

How many public housing units could we have built with the money we spent on this thing?
Posted by Asher Platts on Thursday, December 10, 2015

Asher Platts, Managing Director of the Green Shadow Cabinet, posted this recent video of a $4 billion weapon of mass destruction moving through Portland's Casco Bay with the comment, "How many public housing units could we have built with the money we spent on this thing?"

Jeju Islanders recently heard bad news that the government also has plans to build an airport on their island, in an area considered sacred to agriculture. As reported by Sunny on the Save Jeju Island website: "This revelation came as a huge shocker for the Jeju Islanders, who had no say in the decision-making process."

South Korea's right-wing government, a close ally of the U.S., recently tried unsuccessfully to ban all demonstrations in order to suppress a growing mobilization of farmers, labor unions, and students on the mainland. Some responded to the government's ban on masks at demonstrations by making up as clowns and marching anyway on December 5 in Seoul.


What connects all this news is the theme of governments who represent corporate profits rather than their people. Democracy is a sham under such a system, and the police enforce corporate agendas rather than serving the public. Politicians in Maine like to call such arrangements "public-private partnerships" but fascism is more concise and accurate, and I know we must resist while we are still able. As Bruce Gagnon puts it, "Rattle your chains!"