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After $1 trillion wasted on the Afghanistan war and 42 years of American interference in that country, we must learn the lessons. We must change course, rebuild our wounded society, and re-engage with the world on the basis of respect and equality rather than arrogance. Send your letter here.
Saturday, August 18, 1-3pm, N. High St. and W. North Broadway [northwest corner]
Join us on Saturday, August 28, from 1pm to 3pm, at the intersection of North High St. and North Broadway [northwest corner] for a “Justice for All Rally.”
On this anniversary of Martin Luther King’s iconic March on Washington, we welcome the participation of all justice groups at our Rally here in Columbus!
We are highlighting the intersections of all six pillars of justice: Social, Environmental, Political, Economic, Racial, and International. This includes the need to pass S.B. 1, the “For the People Act,” and S.B. 4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Act.” Time is running out for Congress to pass these and other critical bills, such as the budget and infrastructure bills, that continue to bend the arc of justice.
The Columbus event is part of a statewide “Justice for All” day of action along U.S. Rte. 42 from Cincinnati to Cleveland. It is also a sister event to the “March On for Voting Rights” event in Washington, D.C.
Co-sponsoring groups for this event include the following.
Friday, August 27 9pm Eastern time
Should peace advocates be apologetic for the unfolding disaster in Afghanistan?
Events in Afghanistan have been moving quickly since the U.S. announced it would withdraw by September 11th, 2021. Each new day seems to bring news of another city taken by the Taliban. At the salon on Friday, August 27th, David Swanson of World BEYOND War will provide some background into the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation of Afghanistan, and will lead a discussion of the following questions: What should have been done for the past 20 years and what should be done now? Are the alternatives really horrible suffering or more war? What other possibilities once existed, and what still exist today?
In many ways, war is ever more and less visible. Of course in U.S. academia, the Pinkerist pretense that we are living through a period of great peace is accomplished by all sorts of statistical manipulation, but first and foremost by declaring civil wars to not be wars, and declaring U.S. wars to be civil wars — a tricky thing to do when the minute the U.S. leaves, Afghans, for example, decline to keep killing each other (damn them!).
But in the United States, war and militarism — or some weird shadow of them — are everywhere: endless thank yous, special parking places and airplane boarding, endless recruitment ads and weapons ads, countless movies and television shows. War is relentlessly normalized. And, oddly, the ubiquity of war celebration has made war so unquestionable that there are few objections when war is not mentioned — even on occasions when it should be.
Thursday, August 26, 7pm, Tuttle Park, 240 W. Oakland Ave.
The morbid symptoms of capitalism stretch over the entirety of the world. The pandemic, war, imperialism, homelessness, unemployment, racism, sexism, and all of the ills of the current order dominate our lives. But there is an end if we make it. Join Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists to discuss how we can organize for a new world based on solidarity and socialism — the cure is in our hands if we fight for it.
We will outline the principles and organizing methods of our group, so this will be a good first meeting for anyone interested in getting involved in socialist organizing.
We will be meeting outside at the park, weather permitting. A folding chair or towel may be useful for seating.
Hosted by Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists.
Facebook Event
Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance has made his name as a “hillbilly” turned venture capitalist. He met with Trump back in March and is now one of the many Ohio Republicans trying to get Trump’s blessing in the race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Rob Portman. Even with all of his money and connections, Vance faces an uphill battle due to his previous anti-Trump positions, his connection to Silicon Valley elites, and the distrust he garners from real working-class Appalachians.
Vance’s best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy (and subsequent Netflix film of the same name) described his life’s journey – from growing up in Middletown, Ohio, while occasionally visiting family in Kentucky then joining the Marines and attending Yale. He went on to become a venture capitalist and, naturally, a poster boy for the American Dream.
After his book became a success, Vance became a CNN contributor where he explained to confused liberals why Trump won the 2016 election, although he didn’t support Trump himself. He marketed himself as the spokesperson translating Trump supporters’ anti-establishment anger to media and financial elites.
We warmly invite you to actively participate in an unprecedented gathering of progressive economic and social justice leaders, healthcare experts, community organizers, voting rights advocates, climate and green jobs activists at the Inaugural National Justice Roundtable, Monday, August 30th, from 1pm to 5pm EST, 10am-2pm Pacific Standard Time. (see list of speakers and participants below).
Due to the very dangerous Covid-19 Delta Variant, the NJR will be broadcast via zoom and radio for those who prefer to participate at the Summit on-line.
The legendary Dolores Huerta, one of the founders of the Farm Workers Union, Rudy Arredondo, President of the National Latino Farmers and Ranchers Trade Association, and Reverend Graylan Hagler are the Senior Advisors of the National Justice Roundtable.
If you want to know how the United States wound up with “government by stupid” one need only look no farther than some of the recent propaganda put out by members of Congress, senior military officers and a certain former president. President George W. Bush, who started the whole sequence of events that have culminated in the disaster that is Afghanistan, is not yet in prison, but one can always hope.
My city sits on the western edge of a body of water that has figured large in the nation’s history, Lake Erie. My wife and I are fortunate to live in the part of Toledo where the lake is literally our front yard.
Grade school history classes, consisting mostly of memorizing wars and generals, taught that in the first battle for Lake Erie a small American fleet of wooden ships built in Erie, Pennsylvania, by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, defeated the British in the War of 1812 and that’s the reason Michigan and Ohio are not the southern boundary of Canada.