by Larry Kerschner The Korean War was fought between 1950 and 1953 between South Korea and United Nations forces and North Korea and China. While this was promoted as a United Nations action, 88% of the troops were supplied by the United States. The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when the armistice agreement was signed.   Sixty years after the armistice to halt fighting was signed a state of war still exists.  The last elements of the Chinese Army left Korea in 1958. The United States still has 23,000 troops occupying South Korea. This unfortunate reality is due to the persistent U.S. government opposition to signing a peace treaty with North Korea.  Recently as part of Obama’s military shift to…

by Bernie Meyer After watching the impressive documentary, The Ghosts of Jeju, at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action on Martin Luther King Jr. 2014 weekend, I was prompted to ask, “What is the religious makeup of the young police who were arresting the blockaders at the U.S. Navy Base construction site entrance?” (Jeju is an island off the South Korean coast.) These young men and women arrested Catholic nuns and priests, Buddhists, officials of the village, and many lay people who were courageously acting on a daily basis to prevent the construction. I wondered what was going through their minds. The response was that Koreans are 80% Buddhists, 10% Christian, and 10% other religions. And, “most are conservative.” What…

by Larry Kerschner The United States government was, in theory, designed to “promote life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  It was also not necessarily envisioned to be permanent. “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it …”  Corporations were also originally viewed as having a license granted by the government that was time-limited and designed to accomplish a specific social good.  Capitalism, despite predictions of its demise by Marx, produced some semblance of prosperity gaining a general sense of approval among the working class.  This approval allowed corporations, over time through financial support of politicians, to gain control of all three sections of the…

by Robert Poteat December 23, 2013, was the one hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Federal Reserve Act.  This Act is arguably the greatest attack on humanity in all of history.  It is the culmination of centuries of political, financial, intellectual, and moral corruption.  The corruption has only increased in the one hundred year history of the Federal Reserve Banking System.   Stated purpose of the Act:  An Act To provide for the establishment of Federal reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of re-discounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes.  The Act gave the power and privilege of creating the nation’s money supply to…

by Bert Sacks    We can learn the essential facts of the killing of President Kennedy in Dallas from just two sources.  The first source is the book JFK and the Unspeakable: why he died and why it matters by Jim Douglass.  The second is the November 25, 2013, issue of Time magazine.  Yes, Time magazine! It’s not that Time intended to inform us of what actually happened 50 years ago in their commemorative issue “The Moment that Changed America.”  The blurb on the cover gives away their intention: “Inside — The Conspiracy Industry.”  This, despite the disclaimer in the article, “I don’t mean to belittle the passion of the Kennedy investigators when I say their search has become an industry…

The 2013 WWFOR Fall Retreat, “Realities of the ‘New Jim Crow.’ What Will I Do? What Will We Do?” brought together about 60 activists from the region. You can watch the excellent keynote by Mary Paterson (of No New Jim Crow Seattle). Mary and our other presenters offered workshops that allowed participants to learn more and explore future actions. We hope that the follow up from the retreat will reinvigorate FOR members to connect racial and economic justice to issues of militarism and to work with our allies on these issues. Here are a few other “follow-up” opportunities: Join Ruth Elder and Kathy Wilkinson in the new Washington State Chapter of CURE (Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants). CURE is…

by Larry Kerschner There is a saying that “Hitler’s arms were only three feet long.” The same can be said of any war or act of government violence … can only happen with the actions and agreement of those who are part of the government machine. Soldiers kill others. Presidents usually do not directly kill others. There would be no war if the soldiers did not kill. This seems simplistic but most things that are true are ultimately simple. The military likes to pretend that, especially in a “volunteer” military, troops are obligated to participate in any “war” they are sent to. This begs the question of what a “war” is. In the United States the legal war authority for…

by Chuck Schultz People who originally lived in America were called Indians.  Aborigines in India are called Adivasi.  I thought of India as being an ancient civilization without aborigines living there.  But there are dozens of groups claiming to be indigenous because India has regulations concerning indigenous land claims.  Defining indigenous groups in India is not easy.  After all, waves people have occupied the subcontinent for millennia.  Before India was occupied by British, Macedonians, Persians, Mongols, and other invading hordes, there were people in India.  And there are still a few dozen languages spoken in India.       Like America, all continents have “indigenous” groups.  Ascertaining who are indigenous is like deciding when time began.  I read that we are all…

by No New Jim Crow Seattle Campaign (nnjcinfo@gmail.com) Transformative Justice (TJ) is an alternative to jail, prison, and punishments. Its purpose is to repair damaged relationships, encourage healing in individuals and communities so that they can thrive. TJ is victim-focused, offender-focused, repair-focused – as opposed to focused on laws broken, crimes committed, and punishments. TJ is community-focused — as opposed to individual-focused: the power for solving problems resides in the community rather than in the state. TJ asks who/why/what: who was harmed, why did the harm happen, what is necessary to repair the relationships damaged as a result of the harm, and who is responsible for the repair? TJ is concrete. It has a structure and a process. “Peace-Making Circles”…

by Ruth Elder & Kathy Wilkinson Ruth Elder and Kathy Wilkinson are excited to announce that a new Washington State Chapter of CURE, Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, is forming. CURE works for criminal justice reform and interacts with policy makers at all levels of government. CURE is a grassroots human rights organization that was founded in Texas in 1972 and became a national organization in 1985. Today, CURE is an international organization with chapters in many states in the US and in several other countries. CURE has taken positions on a number of topics including alternatives to incarceration, the death penalty, the sex offender registry, and drug laws. Washington CURE also works to support those who are…