10 Steps Toward Radical Revolution in the USA

One. Human rights must be taken absolutely seriously. Every single person is entitled to dignity and human rights. No application needed. No exclusions at all. This is our highest priority.

Two. We must radically reinvent contemporary democracy. Current systems are deeply corrupt and not responsive to the needs of people. Representatives chosen by money and influence govern by money and influence…

Three. Corporations are not people and are not entitled to human rights. Amend the US Constitution so it is clear corporations do not have constitutional or human rights. We the people must cut them down to size and so democracy can regulate their size, scope and actions.

Four. Leave the rest of the world alone. Cut US military spending by 75 percent and bring all troops outside the US home now. Defense of the US is a human right. Global offense and global police force by US military are not. Eliminate all nuclear and chemical and biological weapons… (End lawless militarism  -targeted assassinations, indefinite detention, etc.)

Five. Property rights, privilege, and money-making are not as important as human rights. When current property and privilege arrangements are not just they must yield to the demands of human rights. Money-making can only be allowed when human rights are respected. Exploitation is unacceptable…

Six. Defend our earth. Stop pollution, stop pipelines, stop new interstates, and stop destroying the land, sea, and air by extracting resources from them. Rebuild what we have destroyed. If corporations will not stop voluntarily, people must stop them. The very existence of life is at stake.

Seven. Dramatically expand public spaces and reverse the privatization of public services. Quality public education, health and safety for all must be provided by transparent accountable public systems. Starving the state is a recipe for destroying social and economic human rights for everyone but the rich.

Eight. Pull the criminal legal prison system up and out by its roots and start over. Cease the criminalization of drugs, immigrants, poor people and people of color. We are all entitled to be safe but the current system makes us less so and ruins millions of lives. Start over.

Nine. The US was created based on two original crimes that must be confessed and made right. Reparations are owed to Native Americans because their land was stolen and they were uprooted and slaughtered. Reparations are owed to African Americans because they were kidnapped, enslaved and abused. The US has profited widely from these injustices and must make amends. (And what about the ongoing illegal U.S. Occupation of Hawaii?)

Ten. Everyone who wants to work should have the right to work and earn a living wage. Any workers who want to organize and advocate for change in solidarity with others must be absolutely protected from recriminations from their employer and from their government…

Bill Quigley is Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach Bill at quigley77@gmail.com. See the full article http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/9607-10-steps-toward-radical-revolution-in-the-usa

Let Non-violence be our Guiding Light!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760. Phone (808) 966-7622.
Email ja@malu-aina.org   http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (Jan. 27, 2012 – 540th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

A Culture of Resistance is Born: the People United in an Independent Movement

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

The Occupy Movement that developed in 2011 profoundly shook the foundation of the 1%.  Almost instantly a new form of political power was created, all truly grown from the grass roots, and handed the 99% some REAL political capital for the first time in decades, and installed the Occupy Movement as a force to be reckoned with…

How We Got Here: No doubt every occupier has their own story, this is ours.  On December 16, 2010 we joined with Veterans for Peace and other organizations in an anti-war protest.  The theme of the protest was developing a ‘culture of resistance’ in the U.S.  Many of us spoke that day about the need for resistance, perhaps none more clearly than noted author Chris Hedges who said “Hope will only come when we resist the violence of the state. . . . those who resist here today with non-violence are the last thin line of defense between a civil society and its disintegration.”  That day 132 Americans, mostly veterans, were arrested standing against the corporate-military state that the United States has become… 

No More War! No War on Iran!

Where We Are Going: When we called for the Washington D.C. Occupation of Freedom Plaza  in early June, we said this occupation would be “the beginning.”  We saw the occupation of Freedom Plaza as a tactic, much like a lunch counter sit-in or Freedom Ride during the civil rights movement, designed to educate and mobilize people for a much bigger and longer effort to end a government dominated by money and militarism and shift power to the American people…

The Occupy Movement should stay independent of any corporate-funded parties. In Let the Trumpet Sound, the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. King is quoted as saying: “I feel someone must remain in the position of non-alignment, so that he can look objectively at both parties and be the conscience of both—not the servant or master of either…” 

In the end, whoever is elected will need constant pressure from the Occupy Movement to put the people’s necessities first. So, our job is to build a strong independent movement in 2012 and beyond. (See the full article below.)

http://october2011.org/blogs/kevin-zeese/culture-resistance-born-2011-people-united-independent-movement

Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers are organizers of Occupy Washington, DC at Freedom Plaza. They co-direct It’s Our Economy, a project seeking to democratize the economy.  Margaret, a pediatrician, is Congressional Fellow for Physicians for a National Health Program, a single payer advocacy group. Kevin, an attorney, is co-chair of the cross-partisan anti-war group, Come Home America and president of Common Sense for Drug Policy.

Don’t let the 1% Divide Us –the 99%

 1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.

Phone (808) 966-7622.  Email ja@malu-aina.org   http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (Jan. 20, 2012 – 539th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Here’s the post in case you had a hard time opening it in the prior format

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30247.htm

10 Reasons the U.S. is no Longer the Land of the Free

By Jonathan Turley, Published: January 13

Very Important and disturbing article.  When you see the long litany of the slippery slope since 9/11 it chills the soul.
I’m surprised this article was printed in the Washington Post.

Please share with others.  Mahalo.

Jim

http://tinyurl.com/7nqmk8q

Dr. Martin Luther King, the Occupy/Peace Movements, and Hawaii Independence!

What does Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Occupy Movement, and Hawaii Independence have in common? Unfortunately, too many people would probably say nothing.

Rev. King is mostly remembered for his inspiring 1963 “I have a Dream” speech in Washington D.C. Few remember that he was assassinated on April 4, 1968 while mobilizing to return to Washington in the summer of 1968. This time he wasn’t going to simply give a speech and go home. He was planning to stay, to Occupy Washington with massive civil disobedience over issues of economic injustice and war. (Does this have a familiar ring to today?)

One year to the day of his death, on April 4, 1967, Rev. King gave another inspiring speech to thousands at Riverside Church in New York City. King spoke out strongly against the U.S. War in Vietnam. King united concerns for civil rights, economic justice, and peace. He referred to the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism. He expressed support for the right of the Vietnamese to be free and independent and called the United States “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” See the full speech (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm)

Below are just a few words from King’s speech. Replace Vietnam with Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. and the message remains clear and relevant today.

“Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.”

The U.S. Must stop waging wars of empire and stop occupying and dominating other countries for economic and political interest. This applies to Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. and it also applies to Hawaii. Justice in Hawaii demands an end to U.S. Occupation which has been ongoing since January 17, 1893 when the lawful independent nation of Hawaii was overthrown by U.S. sugar interests with the assistance of U.S. Marines.

This year, in commemoration of the illegal overthrow of Hawaii, Dr. King’s vision of justice, peace and non-violence, and the courage of an entire new generation speaking out against the corruption of money and power on Wall St, and in Washington, let us unite on common ground. Our future and the planet depend upon it.

United We Stand!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622.  Email ja@malu-aina.org   http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (Jan. 13, 2012 – 538th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office