Nonviolent Resistance

The Tragedy at Fort Hood
By Stephanie Westbrook

When I read of the tragedy at Fort Hood in my home state of Texas, where a soldier killed 13 of his fellow troops and wounded 30, I couldn't help thinking of my brief experience at the base.

It was the summer of 2006. I was in Crawford, Texas, home to Bush's ranch and Camp Casey, the activist camp out organized by Cindy Sheehan who lost her son in Iraq. It was the second year for Camp Casey. But this time, Bush had chosen to spend his holidays elsewhere, which left us with more free time.

Fort Hood, the largest army base in the U.S., where most soldiers heading off to war pass through, is an hour and a half from Crawford. We decided to go there to give information to members of the military. With us were veterans of the war in Iraq and we had leaflets from the GI Rights Hotline, an association that provides counseling to soldiers, including information on how to get out of the military.

Seven Activists Faced Trial in Philadelphia but Charges are DISMISSED!
By Elaine Brower | Op Ed News

On Monday, November 2nd, seven defendants, flanked by their eye-witnesses and friends, appeared at Philadelphia Municipal Court for trial based on arrests at the “Army Experience Center” on May 2nd of this year. The charges against us stemmed from a protest which began at St. Stevens Church, and followed by a lively and raucous march to the Franklin Mills Mall where the “AEC” is housed. Escorted by Philly Civil Affairs police, and some local PD, hundreds of people gathered outside the storefront violent video gaming center aimed at pre-teen military recruitment, and voiced their dissent.

The hundreds that joined together shouted and chanted “SHUT DOWN THE AEC” and “WAR IS NOT A GAME!” and were determined to stop any of the youngsters trying to enter the center to spend their time playing war games on our tax dollars. Oddly enough, those of us who were arrested, placed ourselves in a silent vigil in front of the AEC, wearing death masks in all black clothing, and hanging around our necks were the names of the dead soldiers and Iraqis killed since the illegal and immoral invasion of that country. Read more.

America the Betrayed
By Richard Cook

...Whitman a hero to the Beatniks of the 1950s who tried to rediscover an authentic American voice in the streets and on the roads and highways of this great land. The spirit of Whitman was surely present through the rebellion of the 1960s, when America’s young men and women rose up and fought the Establishment to stop the Vietnam War and bring civil rights to racial minorities.

The Establishment fought back with a vengeance and, through the most egregious betrayal in history, reduced the world’s greatest industrial democracy to the pathetic shadow of its former self we are today.

The first thing the Establishment did was destroy the industrial job base by shipping millions of good jobs to China and other Third World nations, where slave laborers could be forced to churn out consumer products at a fraction of the cost of similar work done by American workers. Read more.

By Dan Hodges, Chair, Health Care for All-California

Around 3PM this afternoon I was one of 12 single payer activists who were
escorted from the reception area of Nancy Pelosi's office in the San
Francisco Federal Building and arrested by members of the Federal Protection Service of U.S. Homeland Security.

Just before noon we went to Pelosi's office to ask Dan Bernal, the district director, make a phone call either to Pelosi herself or Terri McCullough, Pelosi's chief of staff in Washington. We wanted to directly communicate two demands: that the Kucinich amendment be included in the health care bill that will soon be brought to a vote in the House and that the Weiner amendment be voted on by the House, as previously promised by Pelosi.

On Oct. 29, 2009, four activists, who support a Medicare for All solution to our healthcare crisis, were arrested in Baltimore, MD, for trespassing. They were engaged in a “patients before profits sit-in” at a 17-story tower, which houses an office of the insurance giant, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. In this video, the four: Ms. Patty Courtney, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Dr. Eric Naumburg and Mr. Charles Loubert, explain their decision to choose arrest in order to serve a higher cause--the passage into law of a universal healthcare system that will serve all Americans. For more details on the Single Payer issue, the arrests and the exact charges placed against each defendant, check out: http://mobilizeforhealthcare.org

By David Swanson

"Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben." - Friedrich Nietzsche

On Thursday night I had the privilege of viewing a premier of a film together with its star. The theater was in the U.S. Capitol, and the film was "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" ( http://www.mostdangerousman.org ). This is a powerfully and engagingly constructed film about one of the most effective instances of whistle-blowing in our nation's history.

Ellsberg risked life in prison to expose the lies that had taken this nation into war in Vietnam, lies from Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. And Nixon believed that Ellsberg had incriminating documents on his own lies, which led Henry Kissinger to call Ellsberg "the most dangerous man in America."

By Margaret Flowers, M.D., Congressional Fellow, Physicians for a National Health Program

Let me begin by saying that I don't have any desire to be arrested. I am a pediatrician with 3 teenagers and a husband who would prefer that I do not spend time in jail. I have never actually spent the night in jail and I imagine it’s not very pleasant. To be honest, I am a bit frightened. But, I expect that these are normal feelings and I am dedicated to act despite my reservations because there comes a time when our conscience dictates that we act. That time is now (or "way past now" as doctors and patients whom I've met in my travels have told me).

By Kevin Zeese

We had a pretty big day today in the Mobilization for Health Care. Hundreds of people protested in ten cities, 73 risked arrest and 37 were arrested. We are now over well more than a thousand people demonstrating as part of the Mobilization for Health Care and 118 arrests and triple that risking arrest. We still have nine more Mobilizations between now and next Tuesday. If you are on Facebook I've posted a lot of photographs, videos and news reports on my FB page.

For more information see www.MobilizeForHealthCare.org

Below is the press so far from today's Mobilizations, no doubt there will be more.

San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/chronrx/detail?&entry_id=50532

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/sunrise/sfl-insurance-sit-in-bn...

NJ.com (Star-Ledger / Trenton Times / Jersey Journal blog)
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2009/10/7_prosters_arrested_after_bloc....

By Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith, The Nation

On June 7, 2006, a 28-year-old Army lieutenant named Ehren Watada released a video press statement announcing that he was refusing to deploy to Iraq because the Iraq War was illegal and his "participation would make me party to war crimes." After three years of trying to convict him by court martial, the Army has finally given up and allowed Lt. Watada to resign. Despite his direct refusal of an order to deploy, Watada did not spend a single day in jail.

Watada's Story

By Kevin Gosztola, CommonDreams.org