Category: Military
nazi Germany Invades Poland, Fast For Life On The U.S. Capitol Steps, International Day Of War Tax Resistance, & More, in Peace & Justice History for 9/1
| September 1, 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland, overwhelming the Polish Army with 58 German divisions and air cover from the German air force, the Luftwaffe. This action started the second world war, prompting England and France to declare war on Germany two days later.  |
September 1, 1945 The Emperor of Japan surrendered unconditionally to the U.S. and its allies in a ceremony on the deck of the battleship U.S.S. Missouri, ending the second world war. |
| September 1, 1986 Angelo (Charlie) Liteky & George Mizo, both Vietnam veterans, began an open-ended Fast For Life on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. They were calling attention to their opposition to U.S. support of the Nicaraguan contras and repressive regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala.  Charles Liteky “our expression of a deeply felt desire to do everything and anything we can . . . to stop the war with Nicaragua.”  George Mizo Liteky was a Catholic chaplain in the Vietnam War and had received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Charles Liteky and his subsequent peace efforts |
| September 1, 1987 During a nonviolent protest at the Concord (California) Naval Weapons Station, a Navy munitions train ran over Brian Willson. An Air Force and Vietnam veteran, Willson and the other protesters were attempting to stop shipment of weapons to Nicaragua and El Salvador.  Brian Willson bird-watching California, 1997. They considered U.S. policy in Central America a violation of the Nuremberg Principles. (Here is a link to those principles.) Willson lost both legs and suffered other injuries but has remained an active and articulate leader in the anti-military movement.  Ron Kovic (author ‘Born on the Fourth of July’) and Brian Willson (also born on the Fourth of July) Willson’s testimony before the U.S. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Investigations |
| September 1, 1989 White House staffers decided to purchase some crack cocaine so President George H.W. Bush could hold the illegal drug in his hands during a national address. On the first attempt, the drug dealer didn’t show up. On the second try, an undercover drug agent’s body microphone didn’t work. Trying for the third time, Bush’s team managed to purchase the crack, but the camera operator videotaping the deal missed the action as a homeless person assaulted him. |
| September 1, 1997 Kurdish and British activists blockaded an arms trade exhibition outside London. 89 members of Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT)were arrested for protesting the presence of Turkish, Chinese and Indonesian government representatives in Britain to purchase weapons. The Labour government had pledged “[We will] not permit the sale of arms to regimes that could use them for internal repression or external aggression . . . .” Great Britain is the world’s second largest arms manufacturer (by dollar volume) after the U.S.. Campaign Against the Arms Trade home |
September 1 – International Day of War Tax Resistance. “Refusing to pay taxes for war is probably as old as the first taxes levied for warfare…” War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee  |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september1
The US v John Lennon, The IRA Ceases Military Operations, & More in Peace & Justice History for 8/31
| August 31, 1921 Marcus Garvey, leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, often referred to as the Back-to-Africa movement in the U.S., was declared “Provisional President of Africa” in a Harlem (New York City) ceremony.  Black nationalist Marcus Garvey is shown in a military uniform as the ‘Provisional President of Africa’ during a parades up Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York City, in August 1922, during the opening day exercises of the annual Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World. Hear one of his speeches recorded that summer |
August 31, 1965 Draft card burning, 1967 U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed into law a bill criminalizing destruction of draft cards. Although it could result in a five-year prison sentence and $1000 fine, the burnings became common during anti-Vietnam War rallies and often attracted the attention of news media. |
August 31, 1974 In federal court, John Lennon of The Beatles testified the Nixon Administration had tried to have him deported because of his involvement with anti-war demonstrations at the 1972 Republican convention in Miami. The U.S. v John Lennon trailer |
| August 31, 1994 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) declared a permanent and “complete cessation of military operations” after 25 years of bombing and 3000 deaths (both republican and unionist) intended to end British control of Northern Ireland.  |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august31
Thurgood Marshall, Lech Walensa, & Much More, In Peace & Justice History for 8/30
| August 30, 1963 A “hotline” telephone link was installed between the Kremlin in Moscow and the White House in Washington, D.C. The intention was to allow direct communication in the event of a crisis between the U.S. president and the leader of the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.). It had been agreed to following the Cuban Missile Crisis. |
| August 30, 1964 The Democratic Party National Convention refused to seat any delegates from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). The Credentials Committee chose to seat the all-white delegation from Mississippi’s regular Democratic Party despite overwhelming evidence of the state party’s efforts to disenfranchise Mississippi’s Negro citizens. A proposed compromise of two non-voting guest delegates from MFDP was rejected by its leaders. The dispute, the political intrigue, and the long-term effects |
| August 30, 1967 The Senate confirmed the appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first Supreme Court Justice of African-American descent. Marshall had been counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and had been the lead attorney in the Brown v. Board of Education case. He was appointed to the Court by President Lyndon Johnson after having served as Solicitor General of the U.S. for two years, and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for four.  Thurgood Marshall Who was Thurgood Marshall? NAACP |
| August 30, 1971 Ten empty school busses were dynamited in Pontiac, Michigan, eight days before a school integration plan was to begin. Following Federal Judge Damon Keith’s finding that Pontiac’s school board had “intentionally” perpetuated segregation, a plan was developed by the board that included bussing of 8700 children.  The bombers were later identified as leaders and members of the Ku Klux Klan, arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned. |
| August 30, 1980 Striking Polish workers, their numbers approaching 150,000, won a sweeping victory in a battle with the Polish Communist government for the right to independent trade unions and the right to strike. Their lead negotiator was Lech Walesa, head of the union, Solidarnos´c´ (Solidarity).  Lech Walesa announces the deal to cheering crowds of shipyard workers. |
| August 30, 1999 Residents of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a U.N.-sponsored election. More about the East Timor election |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august30
Brotherton, The “Joe 1”, & More, in Peace & Justice History for 8/29
| August 29, 1758 The first Indian reservation, Brotherton, was established in New Jersey. A tract of three thousand acres of land was purchased at Edge Pillock, in Burlington County. The treaty of 1758 required the Delaware Tribes, in exchange for the land, to renounce all further claim to lands anywhere else in New Jersey, except for the right to fish in all the rivers and bays north of the Raritan River, and to hunt on unenclosed land. History Of The Brotherton Reservation |
| August 29, 1949 The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb in a test at Semipalatinsk in eastern Kazakhstan. It was known as Joe 1 after Josef Stalin, then General Secretary of the Communist Party.  ” Joe 1, the first Soviet atomic bomb Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, key developer of the Soviet bomb, later worked for peace The Semipalatinsk test site |
| August 29, 1957 Following consultations among the NATO allies and other nations, the Western (non-Communist) countries presented to the United Nations a working paper entitled, “Proposals for Partial Measures of Disarmament,” intended as “a practical, workable plan to start on world disarmament.” The plan proposed stopping all nuclear testing, halting production of nuclear weapons materials, starting a reduction in nuclear weapons stockpiles, reducing the danger of surprise attack through warning systems, and beginning reductions in armed forces and armaments. |
August 29, 1957 African Americans in Milledgeville, Georgia, wait in line to vote following the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, the first such law since reconstruction. The bill established a Civil Rights Commission which was given the authority to investigate discriminatory conditions. A Civil Rights Division was created in the Department of Justice, allowing federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote, among other things. In an ultimately futile attempt to block passage, then-Democrat, former Dixiecrat, and later Republican Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina set the all-time filibuster record: 24 hours, 19 minutes of non-stop speaking on the floor of the Senate. A filibuster is the deliberate use of prolonged debate and procedural delaying tactics to block action supported by a majority of members. It can only be stopped with a 60% majority voting to end debate.  Senator Strom Thurmond with his 24-hour filibustering speech |
August 29, 1961 Robert Moses,leader of SNCC The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was pursuing its voter registration drive in Amite County, Mississippi. Of 5000 eligible Negro voters in the county, just one was registered to vote. SNCC leader Robert Moses was attacked and beaten this day outside the registrar’s office while trying to sign up two voters. Nine stitches were required but the three white assailants were acquitted. Bob Moses recorded the incident Hear Moses recall the time |
| August 29, 1970 Between 15 and 30 thousand predominantly Chicanos (Americans of Mexican descent) gathered in East LA’s Laguna Park as the culmination of the Chicano National Moratorium. It was organized by Rosalio Munoz and others to protest the disproportionate number of deaths of Chicano soldiers in Vietnam (more than double their numbers in the population).  There had been more than 20 other such demonstrations in Latino communities across the southwest in recent months.  Three died when the anti-war march turned violent. The Los Angeles Police Department attacked and one gunshot, fired into the Silver Dollar Bar, killed Ruben Salazar, a Los Angeles Times columnist and a commentator on KMEX-TV (he had been accused by the LAPD of inciting the Chicano community). The Chicano Moratorium Ruben Salazar LA Times |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august29
National Guard On Trash Duty After Trump’s Budget Cuts
Why is the National Guard on trash duty in Washington, DC? While the Trump administration claims the troops are needed to combat crime, we examine what this says about the true agenda behind the deployment and break down how this costly, aesthetic-focused mission is not about public safety but about political aesthetics.
Israeli Politician Calls Gaza A “Holocaust”
Israeli politician Ofair Kasif has publicly condemned the situation in Gaza as an “absolute apocalypse, a holocaust.” Kasif’s brave statement, the starvation of Palestinians, and the ongoing destruction in Gaza is why this lone voice from within the Israeli establishment is so vital, and how his blunt assessment of “no war, only a holocaust” challenges conventional narratives.
Dispatch From Gaza’s Nasser Hospital | Dr. Tarek Loubani | TMR
How American Aid Sites in Gaza are Killing Palestinians
For me this was the hardest to watch. I have had to go without food while others ate. I was hospitalized and suffered clinical death due to malnutrition. At the table if I was allowed the meals could turn quickly for me from possible danger to happening harm. I spent a lot of time diving under the table to doge something thrown at me or in dodging the blows aimed at me. Being kicked under the table was common and if I yelped or complained I was the one punished. I learned to eat without looking at my food always looking around out the sides of my eyes because to look scared brought more violence. I was told I ruined their meals. I often could only choke a few bites out of fear and anxiety. I basically ate one meal a day which was at school and mostly was two hot dogs and a serving of french fries, and when school was out I would take a sandwich and stay away from the house. The only place I could eat freely and in peace was my grandparent’s home I went to on the weekends. What these people are going through is a war crime and a crime against humanity that the government of Israel and the military people must answer for. Never again applies to more than Jewish people. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 