The Peace & Justice Report

Last month Don Thompson interviewed Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He was a co-founder of the Global Network when it was created in 1992.Between 1983–1998 Bruce was the State Coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice and has worked on space issues for 27 years. In 1987 he organized the largest peace protest in Florida history when over 5,000 people marched on Cape Canaveral in opposition to the first flight test of the Trident II nuclear missile

Last month we spoke with Barbara Stephens and Woody Ryan of the Mortgage Justice Group of Sarasota.this is an organization
of citizens helping citizens in foreclosure.They educate and give support to anyone who is going through the foreclosure process.Last month members of the group played a key role in helping to stop the passage of Several Florida legislature bills, including HB 213 and the amended PCB, sponsored by Kathleen Passidomo backed by The Bankers Association,attempted to make Florida a non-judicial state which would preclude homeowners from defending a foreclosure in order to “fast track” the foreclosure process, denying Floridians their day in court.

On this show we talk with David Swanson about his new book The Military Industrial Complex at 50.This is the most comprehensive collection available explaining what the military industrial complex (MIC) is, where it comes from, what damage it does, what further destruction it threatens, and what can be done and is being done to chart a different course.
Authors (from within and without the MIC) contribute chapters to this book. The MIC, this book expertly argues, kills large numbers of people, endangers us, hollows out our economy, transfers our wealth to a tiny elite, devastates the natural environment, and threatens civil liberties, the rule of law, and representative government.
David Swanson is the author of When the World Outlawed War, War Is A Lie, and Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union. He blogs at davidswanson.org and warisacrime.org and works for the online activist organizations rootsaction.org and democrats.com.

This election year, the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) is running New Yorker Stephen Durham for U.S. president and Seattleite Christina López for vice president in an energetic national write-in campaign The FSP campaign platform calls for taxing corporate wealth, ending all U.S. military involvement abroad, creating full employment through a massive public jobs program and reducing the standard workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay. The campaign also stands for bringing back and expanding social services, restoring civil liberties, and a host of other measures designed to eliminate poverty and discrimination and raise workers’ standard of living.
Durham and López are respected activists with a wealth of experience gained fighting for reforms like these while popularizing socialist ideas and the need for radical change
We join the interview in progress with Stephen responding to John's question about the process in which the Freedom Socialist Party separated from the Socialist Workers Party.

Last week,Don&Bob interviewed Deborah Sweet on the Peace & Justice Report.Debra Sweet is the Director of World Can’t Wait, initiated in 2005 to “drive out the Bush regime” by repudiating its program, forcing it from office through a mass, independent movement and reversing the direction it had launched. Based in New York City, she leads World Can’t Wait in its continuing efforts to stop the crimes of our government, including the unjust occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and the torture and detention codes, as well as reversing the fascist direction of U.S. society, from the surveillance state to the criminalization of abortion and immigrants. She has worked with abortion providers for twenty-five years, organizing community support and helping them withstand anti-abortion violence. Since the age of 19, when she confronted Richard Nixon during a face-to-face meeting and told him to stop the war in Vietnam, she has been a leader in the opposition to U.S. wars and invasions. Debra says, “Stop thinking like an American, and start thinking about humanity!”

Roy Bourgeois was on the phone this past Tuesday with us,he spoke from his office outside the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus,Ga where thousands will gather from Nov 18-20 for the annual SOA Vigil where they will take a stand for justice, to close down
the SOA and to resist US militarization. In 1990, Roy Bourgeois founded the School of Americas Watch, an office that does research on the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). Each year the school trains hundreds of soldiers from Latin America in combat skills all paid for by U.S. taxpayers. Since Roy began the SOA WATCH he has spent over four years in US federal prisons for nonviolent protests against the training of Latin American soldiers at Ft. Benning, Georgia. www.soaw.org
Roy also spoke to us about the ongoing struggle within the Catholic Church around the issue of women being ordained priests.

This past Tuesday we featured interviews with Kathy Kelly and Ann Wright.
We also played a recording of Marian Wright Edelman,she spoke at the
dedication of the Martin Luther King Memorial(10/16/11)
Kathy Kelly is an American peace activist, pacifist and author, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, one of the founding members of Voices in the Wilderness, and currently a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She has been described as "probably the most respected leader in the American peace movement".[1] As part of peace team work in several countries, she has traveled to Iraq twenty-six times, notably remaining in combat zones during the early days of both US-Iraq wars. She has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and written of her experiences among targets of U.S. military bombardment and inmates of US prisons. Ann Wright is a former United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. She received the State Department Award for Heroism in 1997, after helping to evacuate several thousand people during the civil war in Sierra Leone She is most noted for having been one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.

Earlier this month John interviewed Steve Lendman,Steve is the author
of How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War. This book provides a powerful tool for showing angry Americans how they've been fleeced, including a plan for constructive change.

John and Bob from the Peace & Justice Report were in Freedom Plaza
covering October2011.On Saturday afternoon Ralph Nader motivated the crowd with a powerful speech detailing the criminal behavior of Corporate
America as well as the power of the people to bring about change
through growing occupations.

This morning we interviewed Lisa Simeone,Lisa is one of the planners of October 2011, during this event
people will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine to demand that our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation.Starting on October 6, 2011, thousands of concerned Americans will assemble in Freedom Plaza, in Washington DC to take control of our country and our lives. We will occupy the plaza and hold a People's Assembly where we come up with just and sustainable solutions to the crises we face and demand that these solutions be presented and that the people's needs be addressed. We will plan and engage in creative acts of civil resistance and demand that our inherent rights and freedoms be protected, and that our children have a chance to live in peace,to breathe clean air, and to grow edible natural food.
Lisa is currently the host of three nationally syndicated programs: Soundprint, Chicago Symphony Orchester Series and NPR World of Opera

This show was dedicated to the new booklet by Stephane Hessel, "Indignez Vous!" Hessel’s short work stands as a call to commitment to the youth of the world to stand up and claim their world away from the multi-national corporations which seek to subjugate the working people of the world to the goals of neoliberal capitalism. Johannes Werner from WSLR’s Florida Caribe joined us in the studio and Chris Hedges from Truthdig was with us on the phone. The discussion was lively and positive.

Today, we interviewed Steven Salaita, an associate professor at Virginia Tech, and talked to him about his new book “Israel’s Deal Soul.” Dr. Salaita brings up many controversial subjects in his book but deals with each in an even and well documented manner. He is aware of the nature of the topics he covers but doesn’t hold back the truth of the situation for the Palestinians and their struggles. During the first half of the show we talked with Dr James Petras,the discussion centered around the new booklet by Stephane Hessel, “Indignez Vous!” As a sociologist, Dr. Petras was able to deconstruct the booklet and to show that it lacks documentation and at times, Dr. Petras thought, overstated its position.

This summer Don had a discussion with David & Winonah Myers
The 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides is being celebrated this
year.A U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibited segregation at interstate public transportation facilities - at airports, train and bus stations - but the law was ignored in the Deep South. People of color were supposed to know their place,no matter what federal judges said.
David and Winonah joined the Freedom Rides as college students,they were
two of nearly 400 freedom riders who had been arrested,many served brief jail sentences and happily got out.Not Winonah Myers, who stubbornly refused bail, refused even to file an appeal. Jailed on June 11, she stayed behind bars until Christmas Day.Of all the Freedom Riders, white or black, she served the longest sentence.

Don and Bob interviewed Cheri Honkala on the 8/16 show,Cheri is considered by many to be the nation's leading advocate for poor people's rights. She is the National Coordinator for the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. Honkala speaks worldwide about the struggle against poverty in the U.S., and the denial of basic economic human rights.Single mom, formerly homeless, recipient of numerous awards for her leadership in the struggle to end poverty. Mother and son (the actor, Mark Webber,) lived on the streets homeless, using their experience to organize the poor. Playwright of "Taking it Back," a one-person play about her life pregnant and homeless.
Cheri Honkala was one of the keynote speakers at the Democracy Convention(8/24-8/28) in Madison,Wi.
Cheri will talk with us about her keynote address as well as her thoughts on the current state of affairs and its affect on the poor.She will also
talk about her campaign for Sheriff of Philadelphia.Her
campaign has been progressively building since collecting enough signatures to get her name added to the ballot as a Green Party candidate last month.

On July 5th Landon Frim was interviewed on the Peace and Justice Report. Mr. Frim is a doctoral candidate and Instructor in the Dept. of Philosophy at the Stony Brooke Campus of the State University of New York. Landon talked about some of the hard choices that must be addressed by the State of Israel. Mr. Frim's latest article, A Realist's Utopia, published on Counterpunch formed the basis of the discussion. He is also the co-chair of the Faith and Socialism Committee of the Socialist Party USA. Landon spoke at length about how the aims of faith on social issues are the same as those of the Socialist Party

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