Executive Director, Peace Action. Organizer, Peace Activist, Writer. Peace Action works for smarter approaches to global problems here in the U.S..
If we want to address problems like war, poverty, global warming, terrorism -- the US needs to work together, cooperatively, with other nations. It also means overcoming the partisan politics and divisive rhetoric that often drown out alternatives to war. By getting regular Americans involved, we build the political will needed to break through that deadlock. We're the group behind the treaty tha
If we want to address problems like war, poverty, global warming, terrorism -- the US needs to work together, cooperatively, with other nations. It also means overcoming the partisan politics and divisive rhetoric that often drown out alternatives to war. By getting regular Americans involved, we build the political will needed to break through that deadlock. We're the group behind the treaty tha
Operating as usual
With Iran Deal on Life Support, White House Looks to Finish the Job
If sanctions and coercive diplomacy by the U.S. escalate into regime change, it wouldn’t be the first time. Ask the Iraqis .. Three years after the signing of the Iran nuclear agreement, an array of TV monitors in downtown Vienna still carries live images from Iranian nuclear facilities. Inspector...
Here's our statement on the US strikes on Syria. How do you reinforce a norm against illegal (chemical) weapons through illegal military strikes. It will never work.
Washington, D.C. — April 13, 2018 — In response to U.S. military strikes against Syrian government sites, Jon Rainwater, Executive Director of Peace Action, released the following statement: “President Trump’s decision to strike Syrian forces was impulsive, dangerous and a clear violation of...
Our take on the violence against protesters in Gaza. We'd like to see more members of Congress speak up against the egregiously disproportionate use of force by the Israel Defense Forces and to defend the right to protest without putting one's life in danger. If you agree, you know what to do..... contact your members of Congress.
The right to demonstrate for change in government policy without fear of a violent retaliation is a cornerstone of international human rights. Eighteen Palestinians lost their lives in the recent protests in Gaza and more than 1,400 were injured. Independent reports indicate that the violence by the...
Peace Action
Diplomacy works better than anything else.Take action and sign the People's Treaty with North Korea here: http://org.salsalabs.com/o/161/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=22577&okay=true
My latest in HuffPost addresses how the distorted view of U.S.-North Korean relationship -- from the Korean War to Clinton to now -- is making diplomacy to address the conflict more difficult.
The Trump administration’s recent mixed messages could well be causing a global outbreak of whiplash. On one day the Secretary of State takes to the airw...
What would constructive diplomacy with North Korea look like? This week the U.S. and South Korea are conducting military exercises and North Korea is calling them "war maniacs". But at least they are not threatening nuclear war. If we take that relative lull in bellicose language as a chance to move forward with diplomacy what is the first step?
The roller coaster of U.S.-North Korea tensions is at a relative low ebb after weeks of rhetorical nuclear brinksmanship between President Trump and Kim ...
In all of the global #Resistance to government policies that hurt human rights, Okinawa's protest movement stands tall. They are protesting U.S. military plans to expand bases there that would harm the environment and basic rights. They deserve our support. Here is my piece in Common Dreams about that.
Last week tens of thousands of people gathered to demonstrate for human rights and against harmful U.S. government policies. At a huge racetrack, they held thousands of identical signs that carried a simple message “NO.”
Here's a piece I wrote about the Israel Anti-Boycott Act. It is shameful that Congress is trying to constrain Americans right to participate in Constitutionally protected free speech and political action. If we want to stop violence as a means of settling political disputes we shouldn't be taking tools out of the tool box of non-violent political action.
OPINION | Choosing silence now could mean having silence chosen for you in the future if Congress succeeds in adding an asterisk to the First Amendment.
Will Congress Confront Trump Administration's Syria War “Adhocracy”?
For a statement that was intended to read like a bright red line, this week’s White House statement on Syria created more confusion than clarity. The sta...
No president should be in the position of making a decision to start a nuclear war in the space of minutes -- especially Trump.
Two members of Congress, Rep. Ted Lieu and Sen. Ed Markey, have proposed urgent legislation to prevent the U.S. president from starting a nuclear war without a declaration of war by Congress.
Please sign it today.
Petition: Stop Trump from starting a nuclear war. Tell Congress to end the nuclear first-strike policy.
Peacr Action's statement on Flynn's exiting the White House back door. Now we need to get rid of Bannon, Islamophobe in Chief.
Washington, D.C. — February 13, 2017 — In response to Michael Flynn’s resignation from the post of National Security Advisor, Jon Rainwater, executive director of the United States’ largest grassro…
New START Was and Is a Good Deal for America, and the World
Washington D.C. – February 9, 2017 – In response to reports that President Trump denounced the New START treaty as one of President Obama’s “bad deals” in a call with President Putin, Jon Rainwater…
There are solidarity rallies this afternoon at JFK, Dulles and SFO where refugees caught in Trump's draconiam refugee policy/Muslim ban have been detained.
Refugee supporters are asking people to rally at airports where the detentions are happening. See the article below for more imformation.
#Resist
Pr*sident Donald Trump’s immigration ban has created chaos and consternation at airports in the U.S. and around the world. It is also sparking resistance. Protesters opposing the ban—which affects refugees, holders of U.S. visas from seven proscribed...
Here's my post explaining all the ways in which a non-fly zone will not protect Syrians but could lead to more suffering. Coming soon posts about a better way to address the conflict.
This is Part One of Peace Action’s multi-part series on U.S. Syria policy. Choosing the Path of Peace in Syria After five years of war, there is an urgent need for solutions that can save lives and bring peace to the war-torn country of Syria. Witnessing the humanitarian disaster should be unbearable to any human being with a heart. In cities like Damascus and Aleppo, some of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, whole neighborhoods with their homes, schools, and hospitals have been leveled. [ 2,264 more words ]
https://peaceblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/03/choosing-the-path-of-peace-in-syria-part-one-the-siren-song-of-the-no-fly-zone
In more election news...
Ryuichi Yoneyama, the newly elected governor of Niigata, says he will not restart Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power station shut down after Fukushima
Such madness.
We need a national day of mourning. We need to pause and take stock.
Or maybe we need a several million person march against violence -- all political and preventable violence -- on the U.S. Capitol.
Can we wake up and see that our country is awash in violence and now is that time for all of us to end the cycles of violence and end the social permissiveness towards violence? We need to address gun violence. We also need to address domestic violence with its tie to gun violence. We need to address terrorism and the state violence (a.k.a. "U.S. military force") that breads terrorism that our nation now takes for granted as if it is just a common fact of life. And we need to address police violence.
Can we at least start acknowledging that all these forms of violence have the same root, the same mindset, and they all need to be addressed?
Here's a piece Peace Action President Kevin Martin and I wrote about the recent tragic police killings and the concrete policies we can be push for in our communities to make the violence stop.
Our statement on the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the need to end police impunity, deliver justice, and overcome institutional racism in our society, written earlier today. Now the horrific events in Dallas tonight challenge us all to address the pandemic of violence in the United States.
It's easy to feel impotent but there are clear steps to make towards change. The main missing ingredient is political will.
http://www.joincampaignzero.org/#action
Campaign Zero is a comprehensive platform of policy solutions to end police violence in America.
Proud to endorse this progressive champion ....
Washington, DC — July 5, 2016 — Peace Action, the nation’s largest peace organization, endorsed Russ Feingold for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin. “Peace Action has long taken a stand against the kind of rhetoric that drives fear, anger, and violence in our communities. I look forward to working alongside them to reduce threats to peace and ensure economic justice here in Wisconsin and across the world,” said former Senator Russ Feingold of the endorsement. [ 306 more words. ]
https://peaceblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/largest-peace-organization-endorses-feingold-for-senate
Our military-first approach to "fighting ISIS" isn't working. It isn't making us safer.
WaPo today:
"More broadly, Istanbul shows that the threat of major, coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic State has not been much diminished by successes such as the recent recapture of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, or the killing of senior Islamic State commanders and organizers in U.S. raids and drone strikes. The elimination of the terrorists’ two principle bases, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, is necessary not just to liberate Iraqis and Syrians but also to protect the citizens of Western democracies and allies such as Turkey. Progress toward that goal is still too sluggish — especially when it comes to forging the political arrangements that will be necessary to create an Iraqi alliance that can capture multiethnic Mosul and peacefully govern it afterward."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-horror-in-istanbul/2016/06/29/56695248-3e0c-11e6-80bc-d06711fd2125_story.html
Tuesday’s deadly attack underscores the need for cooperation across national borders to defeat the Islamic State.
To Ali one of the greatest and bravest peace activists of our time. Rest in power and peace.
The video contains interviews from the period where he sacrificed so much to say no to the draft. He could be funny, poetic, and fiery. A unique talent.
"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?
No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would put my prestige in jeopardy and could cause me to lose millions of dollars which should accrue to me as the champion.
But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality…
If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. But I either have to obey the laws of the land or the laws of Allah. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail. We’ve been in jail for four hundred years.”
https://youtu.be/HeFMyrWlZ68
"My conscious won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for wha...
This is great news. Peace Action, which is quoted in this WaPo article, is pushing for the president to not go empty-handed but to announce some new leadership initiatives on nuclear non-proliferation.
President Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit the site of the world's first atomic bombing.
There is still time before he leaves office for President Barack Obama to reduce the danger of nuclear weapons, as he advocated in his Prague speech in 2009. Working with our Japanese colleagues, …
Largest Peace Organization Endorses Edwards for Maryland Senate Silver Spring, MD — April 21, 2014 — On the heels of what could be a close primary election this coming Tuesday, April 26, Peace Acti…
It’s well past time for Congress to get its act together and stop throwing money at the Pentagon. That’s why we just joined this broad right/left coalition to send a proposal to Congress outlining 7 specific, concrete cuts they could make right now to save over $38billion in wasteful and unnecessary Pentagon spending. Help us spread the word!
http://budgetpriorities.org/press-release-17-groups-from-across-the-political-spectrum-sign-letter-identifying-38-6-billion-in-pentagon-savings/
WASHINGTON, DC – Today a coalition of seventeen organizations from across the political spectrum sent a letter to Congress outlining $38.6 billion the Pentagon could save by cutting and/or reforming seven specific programs. The letter demonstrates trans-partisan support for eliminating and reducing…
This is a guest post from Martin Hellman that was originally published on his Defusing the Nuclear Threat blog. For reasons explained in my March 1 blog post, I’m posting draft chapters of my forthcoming book with my wife Dorothie: A New Map for Relationships: Creating True Love at Home and Peace on the Planet. We felt pressed to maintain the interest created by the ACM Turing Award announcement (mentioned in that March 1 post), so these are from a draft manuscript, and the final version will hopefully be even better. [ 1526 more words. ]
https://peaceactionwest.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/a-new-map-for-relationships-chapters-5-6/
This is a guest post from Martin Hellman that was originally published on his Defusing the Nuclear Threat blog. For reasons explained in my March 1 blog post, I’m posting draft chapters of my forth…
https://peaceblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/13/a-trillion-dollars-for-new-nuclear-weapons/
New Hampshire Peace Action Executive Director Will Hopkins and Arnie Alpert of New Hampshire’s American Friends Service Committee office had a terrific op-ed in the Manchester (NH) Union Lead…
"Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he is troubled by civilian deaths in the Saudi-led bombing campaign and would like to see restrictions placed on US sales of air-to-ground bombs. Though he said support for the measure might be slim, he sees "a growing discomfort [in Congress] about the growing level of arms sales to the Mideast, and a lot more people willing to ask questions than there were just a few years ago."
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2016/04/12/bill-would-limit-us-bomb-sales-saudi-arabia/82942344/
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said he is is proposing a bill to limit US munition sales to Saudi Arabia in protest for its conduct of the war in Yemen.
https://peaceblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/kerry-obama-and-hiroshima-please-take-action/
Recently we sent you a request to contact President Barack Obama on further initiatives to reduce the danger of nuclear weapons, as he advocated in his Prague speech in 2009, and again less than tw…
Amateur cartographers report on the shifting battle lines to create maps that are among the most accurate and up-to-date reports on the hostilities.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160408-online-mapmakers-chart-syrian-conflict/
Amateur cartographers report on the shifting battle lines to create maps that are among the most accurate and up-to-date reports on the hostilities.
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Organizer Gabe Murphy at the Bernie Sanders office for precinct training gearing up for Nevada caucus. The hard work is paying off #FeelTheBern
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