The U.S. government and its European allies have been illegally using unilateral economic sanctions (“Unilateral Coercive Measures”) as a weapon of war and mass destruction to topple governments that do not submit to the U.S. and European states’ domination of their country. The main objective of these unilateral sanctions is to destroy those small countries’ economies and bring their people to their knees through mass starvation so they will be left with no choice but to revolt against their own government. This criminal, anti-human policy of targeting defenseless populations is in clear violation of United Nations Charter and International Law.

Panel:

Kevin Zeese of Popular Resistance on the effects of sanctions in Venezuela and Iran. Kevin is currently on trial for being a protector of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC, at the request of the Venezuelan government. The Embassy Protectors will not be able to tell the jury that Guaido is not the elected president or mention International Law.

Tom Seery, of Peace Action of WI who traveled to Iraq during the UN sanctions that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children. He accompanied a relief delegation to Iraq in 1998.

Art Heitzer, Chair of the Cuba Committee of the National Lawyer’s Guild and active in the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, on the US economic blockade which since 1060 has attempted “to bring hunger, desperation and overthrow of government” in Cuba.

__________

Sponsored by Peace Action of WI   Co-sponsors: WI Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, National Lawyer’s Guild- Milwaukee Chapter, Milwaukee Veterans for Peace Chapter 102, Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom, End the Wars Coalition of Milwaukee    

Call Peace Action WI for Info: 414-269-9525                  
Peace Action of WI
http://www.peaceactionwi.org/

Solidarity Rally For Chrystul

UPDATE: Chrystul’s March 16 status hearing has been postponed because the Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to hear her case!

We’re still going to gather at the courthouse and have a solidarity rally instead. Please come out, get informed and build power behind Chrystul to get these unjust charges dropped!

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THE CASE:

There’ll be a hearing at the District II Court of Appeals, in Waukesha. It hasn’t been scheduled yet, but we’re ready to pack that court room!

Judge Wilk’s decision to not apply Wisconsin’s “affirmative defense” law (statue 940.302) to Chrystul’s case might be overturned by the appeals court. An affirmative defense allows a person to be acquitted of criminal charges if they prove those charges are the result of being trafficked. This would give Chrystul a much better trial.

Chrystul is doing well, all things considered. She’s definitely feeling impatient in the county jail. Sending her a friendly letter is always a welcome way to brighten up her long days:

Chrystul Kizer (ID: 138378)
Kenosha County Pre Trial Facility
1000 55th St Kenosha, WI 53140

Signing and sharing the petition to DA Graveley is also impactful, as is donating to the legal support fundraiser. We’re exploring options for Chrystul and those funds will help make that happen! Find links to all those things at https://freechrystul.wordpress.com

#FREECHRYSTUL FACEBOOK PAGE

https://bit.ly/39r0LLb

SAG-AFTRA is the union representing members who are the faces and voices that entertain and inform us. New technology and new attitudes are changing their workspace. Our guest is Rebecca Damon, the national Executive VP of SAG-AFTRA and President of SAG-AFTRA’s New York Local.

https://www.centerforenvironmentalrights.org/news/our-partnership-with-menominee-tribal-members-on-the-rights-of-the-menominee-river

February 18, 2020 · In January 2020, the legislature of the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin adopted Resolution 19-52, Recognition of the Rights of the Menominee River.

As the resolution explains, the Menominee people’s “place of origin was at the mouth of the Menominee River where the five clans of the Menominee were created.”

With the river facing grave threats from water pollution, global warming, and the proposed open-pit gold-zinc mine known as the “Back Forty Project,” the Tribe determined that to the protect river it “must secure the highest protections for the river through the recognition of the river’s inherent and legal rights.”

The resolution recognizes rights of the Menominee River including:

• The right to naturally exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve;

• The right to restoration, recovery, and preservation;

• The right to abundant, pure, clean, unpolluted water;

• The right to natural groundwater recharge and surface water recharge;

• The right to a healthy natural environment and natural biodiversity;

• The right to natural water flow; and

• The right to carry out its natural ecosystem functions.

The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights congratulates the Menominee Tribe on its historic decision.  We are proud to have worked with the Menominee tribal non-profit organization, Menikanaehkem, to draft the resolution, and we continue to work together to protect ecosystems and species within the Tribe’s historic lands.

The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights is committed to advancing the rights of nature.  This represents a fundamental and necessary shift in human governance toward the natural world — providing nature with the highest level of legal protection within human law, through the recognition of legal rights — and moving away from laws and legal systems which regulate the exploitation of nature to those which ensure human activity does not interfere with nature’s health and well-being.

We partner with indigenous people and organizations, communities, grassroots groups and civil society, and governments around the world to develop, advance, implement, and enforce rights of nature laws and policies.

https://afgj.org/nicanotes

Media bias against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government is unremitting, and international NGOs are feeding it by misreporting a violent land dispute in the Bosawás nature reserve.

By John Perry

(This article was originally published by Graystone Project, Feb. 19, 2020

https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/19/nicaragua-peace-media-international-ngos-violence-reporting/

Here’s a headline you won’t see in the corporate media: Nicaragua is at peace.

After the violent attempt to overthrow the government in 2018, which cost at least 200 lives, the country has largely returned to the tranquillity it enjoyed before. This is not only the impression that any visitor to Nicaragua will receive; it is confirmed by statistics: Insight Crime analysed homicide levels across Latin America in 2019 and showed that only three countries were safer than Nicaragua in the whole continent.

What’s more, three of Nicaragua’s neighbors, in the ‘northern triangle’ of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, are all among the most violent countries. They are specifically plagued with high levels of fatal violence against women. In the first 24 days of 2020, for example, 27 Honduran women met violent deaths, while next-door, Nicaragua continues to have one of the lowest levels of femicide in Latin America.

But wait. A headline in January denounces the “Tragic Epidemic of Violence in Nicaragua.” This month the UN slates the Nicaraguan government for supposedly allowing “repeated attacks against indigenous peoples.” A UN situation report talks about a “general environment of threat and insecurity.” Toward the end of 2019 the purported “systematic, selective and lethal repression of peasant farmers” was reported.

Where do these allegations come from, and what do they mean? ….

March 21 – 22, 2020

Fordham School of Law

140 W 62nd St

New York City

http://US-CubaNormalization.org

An international conference against imperialism will be held in Larnaca, Cyprus, on March 28-29, 2020; with the theme “Confronting Imperialism’s War Machine: The Global Struggle for Peace, Social Justice, National Sovereignty and the Environment.” The website of the conference is: https://antiimperialistconferencecyprus.org/

Sanctions are used by the US to deny medicine, food and other necessities to people in countries that will not follow the dictates of Washington and Wall Street.  This is done along with propaganda and funding of opposition groups to try and cause dissent in those countries and push for regime change.  Millions have died due to US sanctions.  Sanctions are simply another form of war and since they are aimed at civilians, should be considered a war crime.  Join us on March 13 – 15 to oppose these sanctions.

For more information, to endorse the call, see or list actions and get information on how the US uses sanctions around the world, please click here: https://sanctionskill.org/ 

Around 300 hundred people registered for the national conference of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), which was held at the People’s forum in New York City over the weekend of February 21 – 23.  This was the fifth national conference that was held by UNAC, which is also celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2020.  The conference, which was titled “Rise Against Militarism, Racism and the Climate Crisis – Building Power Together,” brought together a range of experienced antiwar leaders and younger activists who are stepping into leadership of our movement.

Participants at the conference came from 27 states and 4 other countries.  The conference was livestreamed.  The livestreams were viewed by more than 5,000 people. The links to the videos are below [read more]

YouTube videos by Joe Friendly
No Sanctions Panel
Medea Benjamin
Opposing War & Imperialism panel
Militarism, Racism & Climate Crisis
Make Peace an Election Issue
Seeing through the Fog of Propoganda
workshop
Opposing US War Against Russia
and China workshop

Livestreams
Friday night
Saturday Panel 1
Glen Fords keynote (in written form followed by video)
Saturday Panel 3
Sunday
March to Grayhound
Ann Wright