January, 04 2011, 10:58am EDT
Let's Mark the Anniversary of Citizens United vs. FEC Supreme Court Ruling By Building a Movement For the People!
Join Us in DC - OR - Organize in Your Community Jan 20-22
WASHINGTON
To mark the first anniversary of the
controversial "Citizens United" Supreme Court ruling, a coalition of
advocacy groups and concerned citizens will host the For the People
Summit, including a strategic conference at the Washington Plaza
Hotel and a satirical "We the Corporations" Rally at the U.S.
Capitol.
Jim Hightower author of Swim Against the
Current, will deliver the keynote address on Friday evening.
Other speakers include Dean Baker of The Center
for Economic and Policy Studies, Marge Baker of
People for the American Way, John Bonifaz of Free
Speech for People, David Cobb of Move to Amend, Eric
Hensal of Murray Hill, Inc., Ellen Hodgeson
Brown author of Web of Debt, Steve
Meacham of City Life Vida Urbana, Sanho Tree
of the Institute for Policy Studies, and Kevin Zeese
of Voters for Peace.
Bill Moyer of The Backbone Campaign and Annabel
Park of the Coffee Party are two of the principal
organizers. "It's very hard to make progress on any issue without
addressing the problem of money in politics," Park said, "because
right now it takes a nearly impossible amount of effort for ordinary
people to compete with the daily influence that entrenched lobbyists
enjoy. To succeed, we need to step outside the traditional
left-right-center framework and find common cause across party
lines."
Today, a growing coalition that also includes Center for Media and
Democracy, Alliance for Democracy, and Move to Amend launched a new
website - MovementForThePeople.org - inviting people
around the country to create local events and/or participate
on-line.
"The greatest political reform of our time will be to abolish the
legal concept of 'corporate personhood' and the inherently
anti-democratic equation of money with political speech," Moyer
said. "I believe this monumental task will be achieved in the coming
years built on a foundation of community-based battles to return
power to the People."
In Washington, Summit events will include:
- Lobby Day on Capitol Hill (Jan. 20)
- "We the Corporations" Satirical Rally (Jan. 21 at 11 AM at the
U.S. Capitol Area 9) - 2-day strategic Summit (Jan. 21 and 22 at the Washington Plaza
Hotel at Thomas Circle)
Nancy Price of Alliance for Democracy serves on
steering committee for the new coalition. "The Summit will be an
open discussion putting aside political, cultural, and ideological
differences because the problem of money in politics is uniting
America like few issues can," she said. "80% of us disapprove of the
Citizens United decision. 87% disapprove of the job Congress is
doing. The American public will not accept a future in which we are
no longer a self-determining people."
LATEST NEWS
Working Families Party Urges New York Voters to 'Leave It Blank' for Gaza
The state party's co-directors encouraged Democrats to "use their voice at the ballot box to send a clear message to President Biden that he must correct course on the war on Gaza."
Mar 29, 2024
As the death toll from Israel's war on the Gaza Strip hit at least 32,623 on Friday, the New York Working Families Party endorsed the "Leave It Blank" campaign, which encourages Democratic voters to cast a blank ballot in the state presidential primary next Tuesday to increase pressure on U.S. President Joe Biden to end the bloodshed.
Since January, when New Hampshire residents critical of U.S. complicity in Israel's genocidal assault wrote "cease-fire" on their Democratic ballots, voters across the country have used the primary process to stage similar protests. In Michigan, home to many Muslims and Arab Americans, over 100,000 people voted "uncommitted" last month.
"Instead of disconnecting from democracy, what we need to be doing is leaning into our democracy."
"Many New Yorkers are struggling with the question of whether to show up for Tuesday's presidential primary. We're urging voters to use their voice at the ballot box to send a clear message to President Biden that he must correct course on the war on Gaza," said New York Working Families Party co-directors Ana María Archila and Jasmine Gripper in a statement.
"With the general election seven months away, voters can make a strategic appeal to President Biden to listen to the overwhelming majority of voters who support a permanent cease-fire, the safe return of hostages, and emergency humanitarian aid," they added.
Biden is expected to face Republican former President Donald Trump in November. Although the Democratic president called for Israel to end the "indiscriminate bombing" of civilians in Gaza, his administration has also continued to arm Israeli forces—sending fighter jets and 2,000-pound bombs that can take out an entire city block.
"The war in Gaza has really splintered the Democratic coalition that is urgently needed to defeat Trump and his right-wing extremist agenda," Archila toldGothamist. "And it has created a very serious moral dilemma for voters across the country."
According to Gothamist:
Archila said she viewed the blank vote campaign as something that would engage and unify Democrats at a moment when they lack enthusiasm.
"Instead of disconnecting from democracy, what we need to be doing is leaning into our democracy," she said. "And we know that voters who show up in the primary are more likely to show up in a general election."
Archila and Gripper's party joins a growing number of groups supporting the campaign. They include IfNotNow NYC, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action, MPOWER Action: Muslim Grassroots Movement, Peace Action New York State, Sunrise Movement NYC, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action, and multiple chapters of Democratic Socialists of America.
Members of some groups backing the "Leave It Blank" initiative were among those who staged a protest at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Thursday as Biden was joined by former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton for a fundraiser. Jay Saper of JVP said that "we will continue to raise our voices of dissent until Palestinians are free."
At least eight elected officials have also backed the call: state Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-25); state Reps. Zohran Mamdani (D-36), Marcela Mitaynes (D-51), and Phara Souffrant Forrest (D-57); and New York City Council Members Alexa Avilés (D-38), Tiffany Cabán (D-22), Shahana Hanif (D-39), and Sandy Nurse (D-37).
"This is our best chance to make clear that Democrats in New York will not accept the taxpayer-funded killing of innocent civilians."
"I urge all New Yorkers who want a cease-fire to join me in casting a blank ballot in the presidential primary on April 2nd," Hanif said in a statement Friday. "Our taxes are being used to fuel the death of Palestinians. This is a simple way we can join the national effort to encourage the president to listen to his base before it's too late."
The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military aid and Biden has sought $14.3 billion more since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, which led to Israeli forces bombing and blockading the Palestinian enclave for more than six months.
The Leave It Blank campaign "is an opportunity to register our collective outrage over the Biden administration's continued policy of disregard for human life in the Gaza Strip," said Avilés. "The presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party must know that its members stand with Palestine."
Noting that "Blank ballots will be counted," Mamdani declared that "this is our best chance to make clear that Democrats in New York will not accept the taxpayer-funded killing of innocent civilians."
In addition to New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin have votes scheduled for Tuesday. The Nation on Friday published a guide for how to continue the "uncommitted" momentum in the remaining Democratic primaries and caucuses in U.S. states and territories.
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'Obscene': Biden Quietly OKs More 2,000-Pound Bombs, Warplanes for Israel
"Arming a war criminal makes you a war criminal," one critic admonished the U.S. president.
Mar 29, 2024
Despite growing worldwide calls for an arms embargo, the Biden administration in recent days has approved the transfer of billions of dollars worth of new weapons shipments to Israel, including warplanes and 2,000-pound bombs that have been dropped on densely populated areas of Gaza with devastating results.
The Washington Postreported Friday that the administration has "quietly" authorized arms shipments including more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, as well as 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines worth approximately $2.5 billion. The transfers are the latest of more than 100 arms shipments authorized by the Biden administration since the October 7 attacks on Israel.
"'Quietly,'" Palestinian American writer and political analyst Yousef Munayyer scoffed in response to the report. "This is cowardly from the administration. If you are going to be full backers of genocide, own it. We see you and history sees you as well."
"It is scary to think of the world U.S. support for Israel is creating. A world with no rules, no limits in war, where norms don't exist, and where genocide is supportable," he added. "Good luck getting anyone to listen to you about international law after this."
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said in a statement: "We strongly condemn the Biden administration's unbelievable and unconscionable decision to secretly send hundreds of new 2,000-pound bombs and other weapons to support Benjamin Netanyahu's genocide. Arming a war criminal makes you a war criminal."
According to the Post:
The 2,000-pound bombs, capable of leveling city blocks and leaving craters in the earth 40 feet across and larger, are almost never used anymoreby Western militaries in densely populated locations due to the risk of civilian casualties.
Israel has used them extensively in Gaza, according to several reports, most notably in the bombing of Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp October 31. U.N. officials decried the strike, which killed more than 100 people, as a "disproportionate attack that could amount to war crimes." Israel defended the bombing, saying it resulted in the death of a Hamas leader.
The Biden administration's arms shipments to Israel continue despite urgent pleas from United Nations officials, international human rights groups, and some progressive U.S. lawmakers to stop arming Israel's 175-day Gaza onslaught, during which Israeli bombs and bullets have killed more than 32,600 Palestinians—mostly women and children—while wounding over 75,000 others and damaging or destroying hundreds of thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, mosques, and other structures.
The International Court of Justice in January found that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and ordered the country to prevent genocidal acts. However, Israel has been accused of ignoring the ICJ order, and amid ongoing atrocities—including the forced starvation of Palestinians—the court on Thursday issued another order demanding that Israel allow desperately needed humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Last December, when the death toll in Gaza stood at approximately 18,000, President Joe Biden implored the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Palestinian civilians in the embattled enclave.
However, U.S. support for Israel—which already included nearly $4 billion in annual military aid—has continued unabated, with the Biden administration seeking an additional $14.3 million in armed assistance and repeatedly bypassing Congress to fast-track emergency weapons shipments.
"The U.S. cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day and the next send him thousands more 2,000-pound bombs that can level entire city blocks," U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on social media Friday. "This is obscene. We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel."
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told the Post that "the Biden administration needs to use their leverage effectively and, in my view, they should receive these basic commitments before greenlighting more bombs for Gaza. We need to back up what we say with what we do."
Biden administration officials have claimed they don't have any leverage over Israel, drawing ridicule from observers who point to the indispensable military and diplomatic support the U.S. provides.
The staggering death and destruction wrought by Israel's assault on Gaza has drawn criticism from even staunch supporters of the key U.S. ally.
Referring to the worsening famine in Gaza—which one U.S. State Department official acknowledged anonymously to Reuters on Friday—New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote on social media: "Really, POTUS? With Gaza facing starvation and Netanyahu defying you over Rafah, you ship billions of dollars in additional weapons to Israel, including 2,000-pound bombs, without end-use restrictions? Bibi is rolling you."
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AIPAC-Funded Challenger to Jamaal Bowman Has a Very Narrow Definition of Genocide
"Latimer should try listening to survivors and descendants of genocide—from Native communities here to Rwanda to Bosnia to Cambodia to Jews," said one advocacy group.
Mar 29, 2024
Jewish progressives on Friday condemned comments by Westchester County Executive George Latimer, who was recruited by the pro-Israel lobby to challenge progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman, and who was quoted as saying genocide is defined only as one notorious method that was used by Nazis to kill Jewish people during the Holocaust.
"Genocide is when you create gas chambers and you force people into them to kill them," Latimer said in a recent interview, according to Gothamist. "You cannot put that on an equal equivalent with the military action [in Gaza]."
Latimer's comments came as the death toll in Gaza, which Israel has been bombarding since October, reached at least 32,623 people. At least 17 children are among those who have died of starvation so far, as a near-total blockade of humanitarian aid imposed by Israel has pushed parts of northern Gaza into a famine, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification global initiative.
The United Nations' top expert on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories is among those who have documented numerous statements by high-level Israeli officials demonstrating genocidal intent, and said in a report this week that "the overwhelming nature and scale" of Israel's assault shows the country is trying to "physically destroy Palestinians as a group." The International Court of Justice said in January that South Africa's claim that Israel is committing a genocide is "plausible."
Latimer's comments amount to "straight-up genocide denial (using some of the dumbest logic I've seen in a while)," said Naftali Ehrenkranz, digital director for youth-led advocacy group Get Free.
The Jewish-led Palestinian rights group IfNotNow said Latimer had erased with his comments not only "the millions of victims and survivors of genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, [and] Bosnia," but also 2 million Jewish people who were killed in mass shootings during the Holocaust, up to 1 million who died of starvation and disease in ghettos and concentration camps, and at least 250,000 who were killed in other acts of violence by the Nazi regime.
Roughly 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war, around 1.8 million non-Jewish Polish people, and as many as 500,000 Romani people were also among those who were killed via various methods during the Holocaust.
"The Genocide Convention was created to describe and prevent the intentional destruction of a group of people. Atrocities too awful to fathom," said Jewish Voice for Peace. "To say otherwise denies the horrors of genocide inflicted upon peoples across the world."
Bowman is one of four members of Congress from New York who have demanded a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, and he has condemned Israel's U.S.-backed military action as an unfolding genocide.
The Intercept reported in February that 42% of Latimer's campaign contributions had come from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), with the pro-Zionist lobbying group donating more than $600,000 to the effort to unseat Bowman.
Latimer "has repeatedly called his opponent's calls unrealistic and out of step with the party," Gothamist reported on Friday, but a poll released late last month by Data for Progress found that 77% of Democratic voters support a permanent cease-fire.
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