Activists to protest visit by Israeli leader

 By Reginald Johnson

  

  The organization Jewish Voice for Peace will sponsor demonstrations in Connecticut this Sunday and Wednesday to protest the visit to Washington by Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich.

 Shelly Altman of the New Haven chapter of JVP said the actions will take place Sunday at 10 am (DST) at the Federal Building, 150 Church Street, New Haven and Wednesday at 4 pm at the Connecticut State Treasurer’s office, 165 Capitol Avenue, Hartford.

   Jewish Voice for Peace opposes Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and supports the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement against Israel due to repressive policies against the Palestinians.

 Henry Lowendorf, of the Greater New Haven Peace Council is urging people to take part in the protests.

   “The Apartheid state is becoming more and more open about its repression --- displacement, exile, ethnic cleansing, murder, theft --- of Palestinians with Pogroms by fanatic Jewish settlers that mimic those many of our Jewish ancestors fled a century ago,” said Lowendorf. “Dare we also imagine KrystalNacht?”

  “Only because the US subsidizes Israel financially, politically and militarily can it continue to exist and metasiasize as an Apartheid state,” he said. “So we must take a stand. Now is the time.”  

Protestors tell DeLauro: stop war in Ukraine

 

 By Reginald Johnson

  NEW HAVEN ---- For over a year, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, has been an ardent supporter of the United States’ military aid program for Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia.

The U.S. has provided over $100 billion in assistance to Ukraine --- much of that lethal aid --- and DeLauro has used her influence as a leader on the House Appropriations Committee to make sure the aid packages got approved.

 Last Friday marked the 1-year anniversary of the start of the war and a group of area residents gathered in chilly weather outside the congresswoman’s office at 59 Elm Street to say they don’t like DeLauro’s pro-war position and demand an end to the Ukraine conflict.

  “We’re here to stop this war. It’s killing thousands of people and destroying the infrastructure of Ukraine and Russia and is causing economic pain for all of Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States,” said Henry Lowendorf, a member of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, which organized the vigil.

   Lowendorf said they want DeLauro to get behind the idea of a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war.

  “What we want Rosa to do is to cut the silence of the Biden administration that there are alternatives to war and start promoting negotiations. It is absolutely regrettable that when someone from the Pentagon like Gen. Mark Milley says that we need to negotiate, he can be shut down by the Biden administration – ‘you can’t talk like that,’ said Lowendorf.  He added that when some congressional progressives suggested peace talks, they were also shut down.

  “So the result is, dissent is being crushed,” he said.

Members of the group carried signs that read “Don’t Escalate --- Negotiate,” and “Diplomacy Works --- No More Wars.” and handed out fliers to passersby.

 Several drivers honked their horn in approval at the sight of the protest.

     

 

Ukraine War protestors outside Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro's office in New Haven. (Henry Lowendorf photo)

   The flier warned that the longer the war goes on, the chances increase that nuclear weapons will be used. “Both the U.S. and Russia possess enormous arsenals of nuclear weapons. If used, they spell doom for civilization.”

  The protest also took aim at America’s bloated military budget, which siphons money away from addressing domestic needs such as housing, health care, education and the environment. The leaflets invoked the words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, who criticized the U.S. for spending so much money on war. In his famous “Beyond Vietnam” speech in 1967, King said that “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

   Just a ten percent reduction in America’s $858 billion military budget by Congress, the flier suggested,  “would return billions of dollars back to cities like ours.”

 Lowendorf and others urged people to call their local congresspersons and the White House and ask that the military budget be cut and that diplomacy be used to end the war in Ukraine.

 The Congressional switchboard is 202-224-3121 or toll free at 800-826-3688. The White House number is 202-456-1111 to leave a message.

  The end of the flier read simply: “Remaining Silent Prolongs The Wars.”

 

 

 

Protestors to Trump: Hands Off Venezuela!

      

 By Reginald Johnson

    

   NEW HAVEN ---- As tensions mount between the United States and Venezuela and a military conflict grows more likely, people rallied around the country last Saturday to  protest President Trump’s threats against the Latin American country.

    One of those rallies took place in New Haven, where about 25 people gathered in chilly temperatures at the corner of Church and Elm streets downtown to protest US policy and demand that their elected representatives stand and be counted.

  Pres. Trump said in response to a question about  possible US military intervention that “all options are on the table” for the United States to achieve its goal of replacing the government of President Nicholas Maduro and install the pro-American Juan Guaido.            .

   Several speakers said that the US needs to keep its hands off Venezuela and respect its sovereignty. They charged that the main reason that the US wants Maduro to step down is because the US wants a more pliable government in Caracas so US corporations can gain control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

   “What is the problem with Venezuela?  It’s just that they decided to be independent from the United States and that is the only thing they are guilty of,” said John Lugo, of Unidad Latina en Accion in Connecticut.

 Lugo also said that “The money that is being spent on Venezuela by the US is money that could be used in this country --- we have a homeless crisis, we have a food crisis in the United States and yet we keep invading and destabilizing countries like Venezuela.”

   Jim Pandaru, a Vietnam veteran, said his experience taught him how wrong war is. “Venezuela.  What’s it going to be tomorrow? Iran? …. We have to stop this madness.”

  Henry Lowendorf, co-chair of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, which sponsored the rally, asked people to sign a petition demanding that US Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3,  speak out against Trump’s harrassment of Venezuela  and support and co-sponsor legislation which would block the US from using its military in that country.

  “We are asking her to speak out because she has been silent as most representatives in Congress have been about Trump’s threats to invade  Venezuela; she has been silent about the deadly sanctions against Venezuela; and she has been silent about the coup,” he said.

  Lowendorf also suggested that people who live in other districts in Connecticut get their congress members to support the legislation, which has been introduced  by U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island.

   At the end of the speeches, the group marched over to DeLauro’s office at 59 Elm Street, chanting  “Stop the War on Venezuela!” Stop the War on Venezuela!”

   DeLauro’s office was closed, but the group said they will be back and present the petitions on Monday.

    Lowendorf said he worries that the United States will create some incident to serve as a justification for intervening in Venezuela.

   “They’re trying to provoke something they can use,” he said.

Shut Down a Cold War Relic

By Reginald Johnson                                      

    Nearly 25 years after the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, many people are wondering, why is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) still around?

   NATO, an alliance of nations including the United States and western European countries formed in 1949 to deter any potential aggression by the Soviet Union and its allies, is not only still around, but has increased its membership and been involved in several military interventions.

   NATO forces led the intervention in Serbia in 1999, took part in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and aided in the bombing of Libya in 2011.

   Defenders of  NATO say the alliance is still needed to provide vital help in combatting terrorist forces around the globe and countering perceived expansionism by Russia.

  But critics, both in Europe and the U.S., claim NATO has become a point organization for protecting western imperial interests around the world.  The bombing of Libya, for instance, they say, was done to make sure that western oil companies could regain access to Libya’s rich oil fields, something they had lost when former dictator Mohammar Quaddafi came to power.

   “NATO is an extension of the Pentagon,” said Henry Lowendorf, a leader of the New Haven Peace Council. “The U.S. calls the shots, and these other countries go along.”

   “Everybody thought, when the Soviet Union fell, that would be the end of NATO. Instead they grew. NATO grew,” Lowendorf said.

    Acting in violation of the agreement U.S.officials struck with the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev --- that NATO would not take on any more members and move its borders to the east towards Russia --- NATO did just that in the last two decades, picking up new members out of the former Iron Curtain group, such as Poland, Lithuania and Hungary.

   The eastward advance has caused great distress among Russian officials, and is fueling the crisis over Ukraine. That country, which borders Russia, is now led by a western-oriented government, which took power after a coup in February. Government forces have been fighting a civil war against pro-Russian dissidents in eastern Ukraine who are refusing to be under the control of the new regime. The Ukrainian government recently applied for NATO membership.

 Lowendorf and a small group of others recently held an anti-NATO protest in downtown New Haven, handing out leaflets to passersby and holding placards that said “NATO, U.S. War Puppet” and “Dissolve NATO.”

Protests are also taking place in Wales, where NATO countries are holding a summit this week. President Obama will be attending.

Nancy Eberg, Mary Compton and Henry Lowendorf protest NATO.

  The Ukraine situation is expected to be a chief topic of discussion, as well as a push by the U.S. and the UK to make other member countries increase their defense spending and meet the NATO requirement that each nation spend at least 2 per cent of their GDP on the military.

 

   Lowendorf and others say it’s time to fold up NATO.

  “We’re asking that countries of NATO decide that NATO has no positive value in the universe and be dissolved,” he said. “We’re looking for the people of the United States to join the people of Europe, who know more about NATO than we do, and call for its dissolution. Shut it down, get rid of it.”

Fighting Back Against NSA Spying

                                            

By Reginald Johnson

        After a successful national protest earlier this month against the sweeping surveillance over Americans’ phone calls and email activity by the National Security Agency, it’s critical to keep up the pressure on Congress to rein in the spying programs.

    According to the website “The Day We Fight Back,” which promoted the Feb. 11 event of the same name, some 555,000 emails were sent to members of Congress urging them to rein in the NSA through reform legislation;  89,000 phone calls to Congress were made; some 301,000 people signed a petition demanding privacy as a human right; the website the daywefightback.org  was shared 420,000 times on Facebook; and more than 37 million people worldwide saw the “The Day We Fight Back” banner on the website the day of the protest.

  “Together we demonstrated that activists, organizations and companies can work in unison to fight mass surveillance and laid a foundation for escalation over the months to come,” said a statement on the website following the protest.

   The statement added that the fight still has a long ways to go. “To push back against surveillance, we need to keep acting to educate and urge our representatives to take action,” it said.

   The Feb. 11 protest was organized by a coalition of civil liberties organizations, digital rights groups, companies and activists who are determined to force the government to curtail the dragnet surveillance that was exposed last year by whisteblower Edward Snowden. The former contractor for the NSA released a trove of classified documents which showed that the NSA was tracking the phone records, email communications,  social network activity and web activity of hundreds of millions of Americans and foreigners.

  Billions of records of phone calling “metadata” --- showing who made a call, to whom, how long the call was, and the location of those taking part ---- are being swept up by the government.

  According to The Washington Post, one of the papers which published the revelations made by Snowden, the NSA is also harvesting both the metadata and content of emails, web activity, social networks and chats, as part of what the agency calls “upstream collection.”

   The government claims that the NSA surveillance is both constitutional and a necessary tool in fighting terrorism.

  But civil liberties advocates claim that the NSA spying program is a clear violation of the Constitution’s guarantees of the right to privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of association.

   The American Civil Liberties Union, which is part of the coalition fighting the NSA surveillance, says that the agency’s “aggregation of metadata constitutes an invasion of privacy and an unreasonable search” and is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment. Also, the phone tracking program violates the First Amendment “because it vacuums up sensitive information on associational and expressive activity.”

  The ACLU is suing the government to end the spying program and have all the collected data deleted.

  According to Josh Levy, of the internet rights group Free Press, the NSA surveillance programs “attack our basic rights to connect and communicate in private, and strike at the foundations of democracy itself. Only a broad movement of activists, organizations and companies can convince Washington to restore these rights.”

    During the “Day We Fight Back” protest, people either calling or emailing their representatives in Congress were urged to tell them to support the USA Freedom Act, which would end the bulk collection of phone data by the government and make the deliberations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) --- which authorizes NSA surveillance programs --- more transparent.

   Another bill is going through Congress, offered by U.S. Dianne Feinstein, D-Ca., relating to the NSA. However, the bill, though offering some cosmetic reforms in the FISA process, would largely keep in place the existing NSA surveillance programs.

   Several members of the Connecticut congressional delegation were called by this reporter in the “Day We Fight Back” protest. A staff member for U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, said the congressman was still weighing whether to support the USA Freedom Act. A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy also said the senator hadn’t taken a position on the bill yet.

  The position of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., was clear, however. Blumenthal is a co-sponsor of the USA Freedom Act, a staffer said.

   Activists see an urgency in rolling back the legal authority for the spying programs, as more and more revelations keep coming out about how extensive the government surveillance is, both in the United States and abroad.

  Recently The Guardian newspaper in the UK reported that the British spy agency GCHQ, with aid from the NSA, had intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of Internet users not suspected of wrongdoing.