Category: History

Peace & Justice History for 2/18

February 18, 1688
Francis Daniel Pastorius and three other Pennsylvania Quakers (members of the Society of Friends) made the first formal protest against slavery in the new world. At the Thones Kunders House in Germantown (now part of Philadelphia) they signed a proclamation denouncing the importation, sale, and ownership of slaves: “. . . we shall doe [sic] to all men like as we will be done ourselves; making no difference of what generation, descent or colour they are.”
More on Germantown Society of Friends 
February 18, 1961

above: Bertrand Russell and Edith Russell watching the actress Vanessa Redgrave address the Committee of 100 meeting in Trafalgar Square, which preceded the anti-Polaris “sit-in” outside the Ministry of Defence on February 18, 1961.
In London, Sir Bertrand Russell, 88, led a march of 20,000 and sit-down of 5,000 in an anti-nuke rally outside the U.K. Defense Ministry, and was jailed for seven days. It was the first public demonstration organized by the Committee of 100, the direct action wing of the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament.

Early CND demonstrator
The CND today
February 18, 1970
Five of the “Chicago Seven” (Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, and Jerry Rubin) were found guilty of crossing state lines to incite a riot during the 1968 Democratic convention.

The Chicago Seven
John Froines and Lee Weiner had both been charged with making incendiary devices (stink bombs) but were found not guilty of all charges. None of the seven were found guilty of conspiracy. Attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass and defendants Weiner and Dellinger were sentenced for contempt of court, except for Weiner for more than a year. All appealed.
More on the group Summary of the legal issues 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february18

What I love about this video is that Rev Ed makes a point about using pronouns and one I plan to start doing.  Hugs

Peace & Justice History for 2/17

February 17, 1958
The first meeting of Britain’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was held. CND developed the peace symbol which became its logo.

CND history 
February 17, 1975
Several hundred residents of Wyhl, Germany, occupied the site of a nuclear power plant with the intent of halting construction. The contractor had begun building despite a court order to suspend doing so. Police responded to the protesters with dogs, water cannon, and arrests.
By the following week, however, over 25,000 had joined the occupation, and police withdrew for eight months.
This is believed to have been the first such nuclear plant site takeover in the world. The occupation was nonviolent, and a sort of village sprang up with a “Friendship House” and a “popular university.” Local farmers supported the occupiers with food.

Stand-off between anti-nuclear activists and police at Wyhl, Germany
Following the negotiated withdrawal of the occupiers, a panel of judges permanently banned construction of the plant, and the land is now a nature preserve.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february17

Peace & Justice History for 2/16

February 16, 1936
A coalition known as the Popular Front (Frente Popular), comprised of socialists, communists, republicans, and labor groups, narrowly won a majority in the Cortes, Spain’s parliament, defeating the National Front.
February 16, 1959
Fidel Castro was sworn in as Cuba’s youngest prime minister after leading a years-long guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile.

Fidel Castro
Castro, who had become commander-in-chief of Cuba’s armed forces after Batista was ousted on January 1, replaced the more moderate Jose Miro Cardona as head of the country’s new provisional government.

Fulgencio Batista
More background on Fidel
As reported at the time, including a filmed interview with Castro in English
February 16, 1982
Citizens’ Action for Safe Energy (CASE) succeeded in stopping construction of Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant near Inola, Oklahoma. Public Service of Oklahoma announced the cancellation, the first of its kind solely due to citizen protest.

CASE’s founder, Carrie Barefoot Dickerson, known as Aunt Carrie, and her husband, Robert, spent nearly a decade and all their financial assets organizing folks around Tulsa and the state. The Dickersons’ principal concern was the potential damage to health near the plant, and elsewhere through uranium mining and processing.
Aunt Carrie, her allies and their success 
watch video  (2011)
February 16, 1996 
Seven activists were arrested for blocking the road to the ceremony commissioning the nuclear submarine U.S.S. Greeneville at the Norfolk (Virginia) Naval Base.
February 16, 1996
The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), representing Mexico’s southern indigenous peoples, and the Mexican federal government signed the San Andrés Accords.
Begun in 1994 in Chiapas state, the EZLN had pushed the government for:
• Basic respect for the diversity of the indigenous population of Chiapas;
• The conservation of the the natural resources within the territories used and occupied by indigenous peoples;

Subcommandate Marcos, leader of the Zapatistas, and two of his officers
• A greater participation of indigenous communities in the decisions and control of public expenditures;
• The participation of indigenous communities in determining their own development plans, as well as having control over their own administrative and judicial affairs;
• The autonomy of indigenous communities and their right of free determination in the framework of the State.
February 16, 2005 
The Kyoto Protocol went into effect after countries responsible for 55% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions had ratified the treaty, following Russia’s agreement to its terms. The agreement’s purpose was to reduce such gases to 12% below their levels in 1990 by 2012 and, thus, slow global warming.  
180 countries had agreed (except for the United States and Australia, two of the world’s top emitters of GHG per capita) to rules for implementing the Kyoto Protocol on July 29, 2001, in Bonn, Germany. President George W. Bush withdrew the U.S. from the process shortly after he took office that same year. His reasoning was that, since India and China had not signed on, they would gain a competitive advantage. The U.S. is now responsible for 15.6% of the earth’s GHG (with 5% of its population).
History, background on the Kyoto Protocol

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february16

The DeLegitimitizing of America; “fake news”, fake reality, and the dismantling of the Judicial System.

Delegitimization: To remove the authority, the very veracity of a thing, an idea, a process or a person.

We saw it become more and more used as a word in the 1990’s, raising to a regularly seen word in the modern era.

The idea of a politician lying to the people is as axiomatic and expected as to be enfolded within the very image of the word “politician”. The sad part is not the lie, it is the full purchase of the lie by those who prefer the lie to the reality that they might be wrong.

Nonetheless, the very invention of the modern internet created an unexpected leveling of information sources where the respected scientists and journalists somehow were delegitimized to become equal footing with the internet troll and conspiracy theorist.

My grandfather used the term “talking out both sides of your mouth”. Certain “news” pundits used the politicization of reality to unashamedly become very rich. They sold themselves and whatever morals they once held for this idea that the public doesn’t have the right nor the need for the actual truth.

From a very good 2018 article in the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42724320 In the future, the term “fake news” might come to be seen as a relic of febrile 2017 (if we’re lucky). But the fight against misinformation won’t go away. Companies and governments are now starting to take concrete action… Google and Facebook have both said that they are going to be hiring a lot of people to review content and enforce their terms of service…” we have instead seen Zuckerberg first accused by the republicans of violation of the 1st Amendment only to then bend the knee to Trump, and the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk to remove such standards and accuracy oversights. We witnessed live the overthrow of journalistic integrity by the very people journalists are meant to hold accountable.

Musk went on to purchase both president trump outright and the “mandate” to purge the government similar to his destruction of Twitter all the while publicly declaring fascism alive and well.

In the midst of this, we have seen the republicans refuse to allow evidence that trump attempted to bribe a desperate foreign head of state to implicate Joe Biden in a conspiracy of fraud, only to then fire and oust the people who did their job in reporting that problem to the government.

The very same republicans who were once cowering under their chairs as the Jan.6th insurrectionists smashed their way in an attempt to keep trump in power and hang Mike Pence, again – if a bit late – for doing his job. They later called it a “tour”, then cheered when the very person responsible for their crimes came back into power and pardoned each and every one of them.

And refused to do their jobs when it was found that trump had stolen boxes upon boxes of national secrets.

Trump violated the law and was – shockingly – expected to account for his actions, garnering sexual abuse convictions, fraud convictions, rico election fraud accusations… and they were ignored. The government employees charged with the thankless task of holding a president to the very laws of the country he once headed were fired, ostracized, threatened. The supreme court was packed with the questionable… yeah, we’ll leave it at that. The Justice Department was put into the hands of his former personal attorney, the one who was refusing to allow him to be held accountable for his crimes, foregoing the very notion that the Justice Department is the “People’s Attorney”.

I’m absolutely out of breath! I’m no where near a complete description and I’m out of breath. I can only wonder if there will ever be a history book describing this, or if we are witnessing the final acts in the decimation of the education of our youth and the idea of facts, reality, justice. What will be left that made America what it is? The Constitution? Already disrespected. The People? They are cowed into hysterical sycophantic abasement on the one hand and bewildered incredulity on the other. I just don’t know what is left and I seriously question what will we become now.

Let’s talk about Trump, steel, aluminum, prices, and inflation….

Let’s talk about how Trump, Bragg, names, and what’s next….

More About Erasing People, + Action for Fighting

‘We Will Not Surrender’: How to Stand Up to Trump Administration Attacks on LGBTQ+ Health Research

PUBLISHED 2/14/2025 by Wendy Bostwick

The Trump’s administration’s unprecedented war on LGBTQ+ health research—erasing data, censoring science and threatening lives—demands urgent resistance from the medical and research communities.

For the first time in a long time, I was scared. Two weeks after the election, I gave a lecture I’ve delivered countless times, on the critical need to measure sexual orientation and gender identity in health research. Such measures are necessary to identify the unique health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. In my 25 years of doing research in and with LGBT communities, this is a topic that has shaped my career.  

Yet this time, I began my lecture with a caveat: I was uncertain—and afraid—of what the new administration might mean for the hard-won progress we’ve made in LGBT health research, to say nothing of the civil rights gained for my community in the past 30 years.  

Not only was my fear justified. It was understated.

Within the first three weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, an avalanche of executive orders and questionably legal actions have validated my fears, leaving me unsteady and reeling. The Trump administration has aimed to disrupt—if not destroy—research and the scientific process … most especially research focused on LGBT populations, with transgender and non-binary people expressly targeted.

The administration’s actions have been swift and ruthless. (snip)

The American Public Health Association filed a lawsuit to challenge federal funding freezes. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has publicly condemned censorship and used their website to post some of the purged data. Organizations that rely on federal data should publicly take a stand, much like the American Association for Public Opinion Research just did. These aren’t just commendable actions; they’re blueprints for what every medical and scientific organization should do immediately.

Academic publishers and journal editors can no longer remain neutral. They have an ethical imperative to actively resist censorship and protect academic freedom. Their platforms, influence and resources need to be deployed in this fight—now, not after more damage is done. 

A commentary by editors of the British Medical Journal is an excellent example. In it, they forcefully decry the Trump administration’s ludicrous order for CDC scientists to withdraw or retract scientific articles containing the aforementioned forbidden words, plainly explaining, “This is not how it works.” Article retractions, they note, do not happen on demand. They happen when there is evidence of data fabrication or manipulation, not because of political pressure. 

Some may imagine that silence in the face of injustice will shield them from harm, particularly if their work is seemingly unrelated to issues of sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. But when healthcare data and related research about LGBT groups are suppressed, it is not just scientific integrity that is undermined. We’re actively worsening health outcomes and costing lives. And this is a cost we all will bear.

Strengthening our cross-issue collaborations and advocacy efforts is imperative. This crisis demands unprecedented coalition-building across scientific disciplines, civil rights organizations and public health institutions. The administration’s assault on LGBT people and health research, as well as science writ large, may seem overwhelming. They are counting on our paralysis and division. We should not—must not—fall prey to this tactic.

It the midst of this deliberately wrought chaos, we must also take care of each other and ourselves. We cannot let these actions crush our spirit and obliterate our hope. I have found comfort in the work of Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark, who reminds us that hope is itself an act of resistance. “They want you to feel powerless and surrender and let them trample everything, and you are not going to let them,” she posted on her site, “Meditations in an Emergency,” recently. “The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything, and everything we can save is worth saving.”

Science is worth saving. Speak up. Push back. Build coalitions. File lawsuits. Protect data. Continue research. The future of science and countless lives hang in the balance. We cannot wait another day. We will not surrender.

They Cannot Erase People!

Erasing Transgender History: A Modern Struggle

Peace & Justice History for 2/15

February 15, 1898
The man-of-war (battleship) USS Maine was sunk in Cuba’s Havana Harbor as the result of an explosion, 260 American naval personnel dying as a result, another 58 wounded. An insurrection against Spanish colonial rule in Cuba had persisted for years, and brutal Spanish tactics had engendered strong American reaction. That is why Consul General Fitzhugh Lee had asked President William McKinley to send the Maine “for the moral effect it might have.”
Spain’s Governor-General Weyler had forced 300,000 Cubans into towns and cities to insulate them from the insurgents but had made no preparations for their food, housing or health care. Half of the reconcentrados, as they were called, died as a result. Pres. McKinley had tried since coming into office to reach a settlement through negotiation but Spain rejected his efforts. Following the sinking of the Maine, popular opinion in the U.S. moved toward war with Spain, partially in response to inflammatory press coverage. Congress then voted McKinley $50,000,000 to be used for the national defense at his discretion, and provided for a contingent increase of the army to 100,000 men.
The cause of the explosion ???
February 15, 1998
About 2,000 people – including a tractor convoy consisting of over 100 farmers – staged a demonstration in the north German town of Ahaus in protest against the planned shipment of nuclear waste to a storage facility in the town.
A consignment of full CASTOR (Casks for Storage and Transport of Radioactive Material) containers was expected at the Ahaus interim nuclear storage site within the next two weeks.
February 15, 2002
President George W. Bush approved Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as the site for long-term disposal of 70,000 metric tons (77,000 tons) of highly radioactive nuclear power plant waste.
12 years and $6.8 billion worth of study and construction had gone into the site 90 miles from Las Vegas.

It is officially estimated that, by the time it is completed in 2017, the total construction cost will be $23 billion.
2000 additional metric tons of such waste are generated by U.S. nuclear power plants each year, leading to concerns that the facility would be full shortly after its opening. All such waste is currently stored onsite at individual nuclear power plants.

Problems with the Yucca Mountain site
What are the alternatives 
FAQs on Yucca Mountain 
February 15, 2003
The world said NO to war…
In the single largest day of protest in world history, millions on 6 continents demonstrated against the U.S./U.K. plans to invade Iraq. Reported totals included 1 to 2 million in London and Rome; 1.3 million in Barcelona, Spain (a city of 1.5 million); 500,000 each in Berlin, Paris, Madrid, and New York. Smaller demonstrations were held in over 600 cities and towns across the U.S., including tens of thousands in several cities, and 150,000 the following day in San Francisco.
Total participation is estimated at 25 million in more than 100 countries.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february15