August, 23 2010, 09:00am EDT
War Veterans/Military Family Members Successfully Blockade Fort Hood Deployment to Iraq
KILLEEN, Texas
Five peace activists successfully blockaded
six buses carrying Fort Hood Soldiers deploying to Iraq outside Fort
Hood's Clarke gate this morning at around 4 a.m. While the activists
took the width of Clarke Rd. and slowed the buses to a halt, police made
no arrests, but instead beat the activists out of the streets using
automatic weapons and police dogs so the deploying Soldiers could
proceed.
Among
those blockading were three veterans of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan and one military spouse. (See attached bios) The action,
organized by a group calling themselves "Fort Hood Disobeys," was aimed
at preventing the deployment of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
Soldiers to what the veterans termed an illegal and immoral occupation.
While
standing in the street, the activists held banners reading "Occupation
is a Crime" and "Please Don't Make the Same Mistake We Did. RESIST NOW."
From the TX HW-190 overpass, additional supporters attempted to hang
larger banners that read, "Tell the Brass: 'KISS MY ASS' Your family
needs you more" "Sick of Fighting Your Wars" and "Col. Allen [3 ACR
Commander]: Do not deploy wounded Soldiers."
This
latest deployment comes less than two weeks after President Obama
announced the second end to combat operations in Iraq. FHD organizers
denounced this as a lie, and pointed to the deployment of the 3rd ACR, a
combat regiment, to Iraq as clear proof. They have stated they will
continue to organize direct action in the Fort Hood community to oppose
the wars as long as troops continue to deploy.
The action organizers have established a website at forthooddisobeys.blogspot.com
where they will be posting statements, photographs and video from the
actions as they become available during the next 48 hours. As well, for
the length of the day, FHD ran live webcasts updating their supporters
and depicting portions of the direct action. All live broadcasts from
the day are archived at https://bit.ly/b1WEyv.
For more information or to arrange coverage of today's events, call 347-613-8964 or write to forthooddisobeys@hushmail.com. See attached bios for more information on those who participated in today's action.
------------------
Participant Bios:
I
am Bobby Whittenberg-James, a Marine veteran of the war against the
people of Iraq, a Purple Heart recipient and a third generation military
service member. I joined the Marines in June of 2003, believing the
lies about weapons of mass destruction and an imminent threat to our
safety. I have since come to learn that these wars and occupations do
not keep the people of the United States or the Middle East safe, but
instead serve the interests of politicians, capitalists and
corporations; the ruling elite.
These
unjust wars and occupations rob the people of Iraq, Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Yemen of their dignity and their right to
self-determination and serve to make the people of both the Middle East
and the United States less safe. They also serve to further destabilize a
region that has suffered under the boot-heel of western colonialism for
over a century. The US Empire also supports both financially and
militarily the brutal apartheid regime that occupies Palestine. All of
this is done in our name with our money, and I am here to say "Not in my
name!"
The
recent information leaks about the US Empire's wars lay bare their war
crimes and crimes against humanity. We must face the truth, even if it
makes us uncomfortable or shows us something about ourselves that we
don't want to see. When we find the truth, we must respond accordingly. I
will not be complicit in the killing of people. Since I do not believe
that the government or the capitalists will end these wars, I will vote
with my body.
Bobby Whittenberg-James
Disobedient
------------------------------
I
am Crystal Colon. I was a sergeant in the Army for five years,
stationed at Fort Hood the entire time, save two deployments to Iraq
totaling 26 months. I was a Signal Support Systems Noncommissioned
Officer, coordinating communications for various commands. I was
honorably discharged in Jan., 2010, and have been organizing in the
veterans peace movement ever since.
I
first began to question the war in Iraq during my first deployment in
'05-'06. After my friend Robbie was killed, I was very deeply affected. I
started questioning why we were in Iraq. It felt like he had died for
nothing. After returning from Iraq, I planned to leave the military. I
was stop-lossed and forced to return to Iraq for 15 months, in total
held beyond the length of my enlistment more than 450 days. Since
leaving the military, I have been active with the veterans peace
movement, speaking out about my experiences and supporting troops who
refuse to fight.
I
am doing this today because I can't allow this war in which I have
fought to continue. I can't allow other Soldiers to make the same
mistake I did, deploying in support of a war crime. As a veteran of
Iraq, how could I not do this today? For the people I helped occupy, for
the friends I lost and stilI have over there, for the Soldiers on those
buses. How could I not do this today? I should have disobeyed. I should
have never boarded those buses to Iraq. I wish someone had tried to
stop me.
Crystal Colon
Disobedient
----------------------
I
am Matthis Chiroux, former Army sergeant and War Resister. I was
press-ganged into the Army by the Alabama Juvenile "Justice" System in
2002. While in the military, I occupied the nations of Japan and Germany
for more than four years, with shorter tours in the Philippines and
Afghanistan. I was a Public Affairs Noncommissioned Officer specializing
in strategic communications. In reality, I was a propaganda artist. I
was discharged honorably to the Individual Ready Reserve in 2007.
While
I have always been against the war in Iraq, I began resisting it
actively in 2008, after I received mobilization orders for a year-long
deployment to Iraq. I refused those orders in Congress in May of 2008,
calling my orders illegal and unconstitutional. I believed appealing to
Congress would end the war. When 13 Members signed a letter of support
for my decision and sent it to Bush, I thought we had won a victory for
peace. This was more than two years ago. The president has changed, and
the wars and destruction drag on.
Today,
I am blocking the deployment of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment with
my fellow vets and military family members because the wars will
continue to victimize our communities until we halt this bloody machine
from within. I am putting my body on the line in solidarity with the
people of the Middle East, whose bodies have been shot, burned,
tortured, raped and violated by our men and women in and out of uniform.
I cannot willfully allow Americans in uniform to put their lives and
the lives of Iraqis in jeopardy for a crime. We are here because we have
a responsibility to ourselves as veterans and as humans of the world. I
will not rest until my people, ALL PEOPLE, are free.
In Struggle and Solidarity,
Matthis Chiroux
Disobedient
------------------------------
I
am Cynthia Thomas, and I have been an Army Wife for 18 years. My
husband has been deployed three times since the wars began. During his
second deployment, he was severley wounded and medevaced to Walter Reed
Army Hospital on Life Support. Even though he had Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, suffered three fractures in his back,
three fractures on his pelvis and countless other injuries, the Army
deployed him a third time. This was devastating to our two daughters,
our step-son and to me.
Three
months after my husband deployed for the third time, our step-son
called to inform me he was joining the Marines. That was the exact
moment I realized that our children would be fighting these endless
wars. I decided that I needed to start resisting.
The
reason I am doing this today is because for the past 3 years that I
have been speaking out and advocating for Soldiers, things have only
gotten worse. I have heard countless stories from Vets and Active Duty
Soldiers that give people nightmares. I have heard stories from family
members that would shock people awake if they would just listen! Our
military community is being destroyed!
If
these wars are destroying our Soldiers and military families with 12 to
15-month, often repeat deployments, how do you think the Iraqi and
Afghan people doing? They have been living these wars 24/7, 365 days a
year for nearly a decade! My youngest daughter is an Operation Iraqi
Freedom baby. She was less than one-year-old when her father left to
invade Iraq. I look at her, and I see an Iraqi or Afghan child having to
live in constant fear with no end in sight! I am doing this for our
community, for my girls, for my husband and our Marine. I am doing this
for the Iraqi and Afghan People. Enough is enough. If Soldiers really
want to go fight, they'll have to go through me.
Cynthia Thomas
Disobedient
---------------------
Photograph
ID: All five participants in the blockade action. From left to right
are Iraq Veterans Bobby Whittenberg-James and Crystal Colon, Jeff Grant,
Military Spouse Cynthia Thomas and Afghanistan Veteran Matthis Chiroux.
LATEST NEWS
Critics Blast 'Reckless and Impossible' Bid to Start Operating Mountain Valley Pipeline
"The time to build more dirty and dangerous pipelines is over," said one environmental campaigner.
Apr 23, 2024
Environmental defenders on Tuesday ripped the company behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline for asking the federal government—on Earth Day—for permission to start sending methane gas through the 303-mile conduit despite a worsening climate emergency caused largely by burning fossil fuels.
Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC sent a letter Monday to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Secretary Debbie-Anne Reese seeking final permission to begin operation on the MVP next month, even while acknowledging that much of the Virginia portion of the pipeline route remains unfinished and developers have yet to fully comply with safety requirements.
"In a manner typical of its ongoing disrespect for the environment, Mountain Valley Pipeline marked Earth Day by asking FERC for authorization to place its dangerous, unnecessary pipeline into service in late May," said Jessica Sims, the Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices.
"MVP brazenly asks for this authorization while simultaneously notifying FERC that the company has completed less than two-thirds of the project to final restoration and with the mere promise that it will notify the commission when it fully complies with the requirements of a consent decree it entered into with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration last fall," she continued.
"Requesting an in-service decision by May 23 leaves the company very little time to implement the safety measures required by its agreement with PHMSA," Sims added. "There is no rush, other than to satisfy MVP's capacity customers' contracts—a situation of the company's own making. We remain deeply concerned about the construction methods and the safety of communities along the route of MVP."
Russell Chisholm, co-director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition—which called MVP's request "reckless and impossible"—said in a statement that "we are watching our worst nightmare unfold in real-time: The reckless MVP is barreling towards completion."
"During construction, MVP has contaminated our water sources, destroyed our streams, and split the earth beneath our homes. Now they want to run methane gas through their degraded pipes and shoddy work," Chisholm added. "The MVP is a glaring human rights violation that is indicative of the widespread failures of our government to act on the climate crisis in service of the fossil fuel industry."
POWHR and activists representing frontline communities affected by the pipeline are set to take part in a May 8 demonstration outside project financier Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Appalachian Voices noted that MVP's request comes days before pipeline developer Equitrans Midstream is set to release its 2024 first-quarter earnings information on April 30.
MVP is set to traverse much of Virginia and West Virginia, with the Southgate extension running into North Carolina. Outgoing U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other pipeline proponents fought to include expedited construction of the project in the debt ceiling deal negotiated between President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans last year.
On Monday, climate and environmental defenders also petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, challenging FERC's approval of the MVP's planned Southgate extension, contending that the project is so different from original plans that the government's previous assent is now irrelevant.
"Federal, state, and local elected officials have spoken out against this unneeded proposal to ship more methane gas into North Carolina," said Sierra Club senior field organizer Caroline Hansley. "The time to build more dirty and dangerous pipelines is over. After MVP Southgate requested a time extension for a project that it no longer plans to construct, it should be sent back to the drawing board for this newly proposed project."
David Sligh, conservation director at Wild Virginia, said: "Approving the Southgate project is irresponsible. This project will pose the same kinds of threats of damage to the environment and the people along its path as we have seen caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline during the last six years."
"FERC has again failed to protect the public interest, instead favoring a profit-making corporation," Sligh added.
Others renewed warnings about the dangers MVP poses to wildlife.
"The endangered bats, fish, mussels, and plants in this boondoggle's path of destruction deserve to be protected from killing and habitat destruction by a project that never received proper approvals in the first place," Center for Biological Diversity attorney Perrin de Jong said. "Our organization will continue fighting this terrible idea to the bitter end."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Seismic Win for Workers': FTC Bans Noncompete Clauses
Advocates praised the FTC "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
Apr 23, 2024
U.S. workers' rights advocates and groups celebrated on Tuesday after the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to approve a ban on most noncompete clauses, which Democratic FTC Chair Lina Khansaid "keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism."
"The FTC's final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market," Khan added, pointing to the commission's estimates that the policy could mean another $524 for the average worker, over 8,500 new startups, and 17,000 to 29,000 more patents each year.
As Economic Policy Institute (EPI) president Heidi Shierholz explained, "Noncompete agreements are employment provisions that ban workers at one company from working for, or starting, a competing business within a certain period of time after leaving a job."
"These agreements are ubiquitous," she noted, applauding the ban. "EPI research finds that more than 1 out of every 4 private-sector workers—including low-wage workers—are required to enter noncompete agreements as a condition of employment."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has suggested it plans to file a lawsuit that, as The American Prospectdetailed, "could more broadly threaten the rulemaking authority the FTC cited when proposing to ban noncompetes."
Already, the tax services and software provider Ryan has filed a legal challenge in federal court in Texas, arguing that the FTC is unconstitutionally structured.
Still, the Democratic commissioners' vote was still heralded as a "seismic win for workers." Echoing Khan's critiques of such noncompetes, Public Citizen executive vice president Lisa Gilbert declared that such clauses "inflict devastating harms on tens of millions of workers across the economy."
"The pervasive use of noncompete clauses limits worker mobility, drives down wages, keeps Americans from pursuing entrepreneurial dreams and creating new businesses, causes more concentrated markets, and keeps workers stuck in unsafe or hostile workplaces," she said. "Noncompete clauses are both an unfair method of competition and aggressively harmful to regular people. The FTC was right to tackle this issue and to finalize this strong rule."
Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, praised the FTC for "listening to the comments of thousands of entrepreneurs and workers of all income levels across industries" and finalizing a rule that "is a clear-cut win."
Demand Progress' Emily Peterson-Cassin similarly commended the commission "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
While such agreements are common across various industries, Teófilo Reyes, chief of staff at the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, said that "many restaurant workers have been stuck at their job, earning as low as $2.13 per hour, because of the noncompete clause that they agreed to have in their contract."
"They didn't know that it would affect their wages and livelihood," Reyes stressed. "Most workers cannot negotiate their way out of a noncompete clause because noncompetes are buried in the fine print of employment contracts. A full third of noncompete clauses are presented after a worker has accepted a job."
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) executive director Mike Pierce pointed out that the FTC on Tuesday "recognized the harmful role debt plays in the workplace, including the growing use of training repayment agreement provisions, or TRAPs, and took action to outlaw TRAPs and all other employer-driven debt that serve the same functions as noncompete agreements."
Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director at Open Markets Institute, highlighted that the addition came after his group, SBPC, and others submitted comments on the "significant gap" in the commission's initial January 2023 proposal, and also welcomed that "the final rule prohibits both conventional noncompete clauses and newfangled versions like TRAPs."
Jonathan Harris, a Loyola Marymount University law professor and SBPC senior fellow, said that "by also banning functional noncompetes, the rule stays one step ahead of employers who use 'stay-or-pay' contracts as workarounds to existing restrictions on traditional noncompetes. The FTC has decided to try to avoid a game of whack-a-mole with employers and their creative attorneys, which worker advocates will applaud."
Among those applauding was Jean Ross, president of National Nurses United, who said that "the new FTC rule will limit the ability of employers to use debt to lock nurses into unsafe jobs and will protect their role as patient advocates."
Angela Huffman, president of Farm Action, also cheered the effort to stop corporations from holding employees "hostage," saying that "this rule is a critical step for protecting our nation's workers and making labor markets fairer and more competitive."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Discriminatory' North Carolina Law Criminalizing Felon Voting Struck Down
One plaintiffs' attorney said the ruling "makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society."
Apr 23, 2024
Democracy defenders on Tuesday hailed a ruling from a U.S. federal judge striking down a 19th-century North Carolina law criminalizing people who vote while on parole, probation, or post-release supervision due to a felony conviction.
In Monday's decision, U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs—an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama—sided with the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute and Action NC, who argued that the 1877 law discriminated against Black people.
"The challenged statute was enacted with discriminatory intent, has not been cleansed of its discriminatory taint, and continues to disproportionately impact Black voters," Biggs wrote in her 25-page ruling.
Therefore, according to the judge, the 1877 law violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.
"We are ecstatic that the court found in our favor and struck down this racially discriminatory law that has been arbitrarily enforced over time," Action NC executive director Pat McCoy said in a statement. "We will now be able to help more people become civically engaged without fear of prosecution for innocent mistakes. Democracy truly won today!"
Voting rights tracker Democracy Docket noted that Monday's ruling "does not have any bearing on North Carolina's strict felony disenfranchisement law, which denies the right to vote for those with felony convictions who remain on probation, parole, or a suspended sentence—often leaving individuals without voting rights for many years after release from incarceration."
However, Mitchell Brown, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs, said that "Judge Biggs' decision will help ensure that voters who mistakenly think they are eligible to cast a ballot will not be criminalized for simply trying to reengage in the political process and perform their civic duty."
"It also makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society, specifically Black voters who were the target of this law," Brown added.
North Carolina officials have not said whether they will appeal Biggs' ruling. The state Department of Justice said it was reviewing the decision.
According to Forward Justice—a nonpartisan law, policy, and strategy center dedicated to advancing racial, social, and economic justice in the U.S. South, "Although Black people constitute 21% of the voting-age population in North Carolina, they represent 42% of the people disenfranchised while on probation, parole, or post-release supervision."
The group notes that in 44 North Carolina counties, "the disenfranchisement rate for Black people is more than three times the rate of the white population."
"Judge Biggs' decision will help ensure that voters who mistakenly think they are eligible to cast a ballot will not be criminalized for simply trying to re-engage in the political process and perform their civic duty."
In what one civil rights leader called "the largest expansion of voting rights in this state since the 1965 Voting Rights Act," a three-judge state court panel voted 2-1 in 2021 to restore voting rights to approximately 55,000 formerly incarcerated felons. The decision made North Carolina the only Southern state to automatically restore former felons' voting rights.
Republican state legislators appealed that ruling to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, which in 2022 granted their request for a stay—but only temporarily, as the court allowed a previous injunction against any felony disenfranchisement based on fees or fines to stand.
However, last April the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed the three-judge panel decision, stripping voting rights from thousands of North Carolinians previously convicted of felonies. Dissenting Justice Anita Earls opined that "the majority's decision in this case will one day be repudiated on two grounds."
"First, because it seeks to justify the denial of a basic human right to citizens and thereby perpetuates a vestige of slavery, and second, because the majority violates a basic tenant of appellate review by ignoring the facts as found by the trial court and substituting its own," she wrote.
As similar battles play out in other states, Democratic U.S. lawmakers led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont in December introduced legislation to end former felon disenfranchisement in federal elections and guarantee incarcerated people the right to vote.
Currently, only Maine, Vermont, and the District of Columbia allow all incarcerated people to vote behind bars.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular