Tag: Peace

Peace & Justice History for 11/23

November 23, 1170 BCE
 
The first recorded strike took place in Egypt when necropolis workers who had not been paid for their work in more than two months sat down and refused to work until they were paid and able to eat.
More about this 1st strike 
November 23, 1887
Black Louisiana sugarcane workers, in cooperation with the racially integrated Knights of Labor, had gone on strike at the beginning of the month over their meager pay issued in script (not cash). The script was redeemable only at the company store where excessive prices were charged. When the first freeze of the season arrived and damaged the crop, the plantation owners were angered. The Louisiana Militia, aided by bands of “prominent citizens,” shot and killed at least 35 unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage, and lynched two strike leaders in what became known as the Thibodaux Massacre.
More on the Thibodaux Massacre
November 23, 1981
President Ronald Reagan signed off on a top secret document, National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), which gave the Central Intelligence Agency a budget of $19 million to recruit and support a 500-man force of Nicaraguan insurgents to conduct covert actions against the leftist Sandinista elected government. This marked the beginning of official U.S. support for the so-called contras in their war against the Nicaraguans.

Read (most of) the memo 
More on the Reagan policy 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november23

“Arctic Avian”

Lapland Longspur

Peace & Justice History for 11/22:

November 22, 1909

In New York City, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union went on strike against sweatshop conditions in what became known as the “Uprising of the 20,000” and the “Girl’s Revolt.”
The strikers won the support of other workers and the women’s suffrage movement for their persistence and unity in the face of police brutality and biased courts. A judge told arrested pickets: “You are on strike against God.” This was the first mass strike by women in the U.S.
ILGWU timeline 
November 22, 1963
President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas during a motorcade.
Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president within hours.
November 22, 1968

What is believed to be the first interracial kiss on U.S. broadcast television occurred in an episode of Star Trek between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols.
More about this kiss 
November 22, 1998
7,000 marched on the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, outside Columbus, Georgia.They were protesting the school’s training of Latin American soldiers and other security personnel who return to their countries and are involved in violence and oppression of their populations. 2,319 people were arrested for trespassing.
Protests at the School of the Americas, organized by SOA Watch, occur every November. The school is now known by the U.S. Army as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

2002 protest at SOA
Visit School of the Americas watch.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november22

Reblog from Ten Bears

Wodin’sday Waste of Words …

All the links are worthy; today I’m partial to both the one about a Trump-proof climate action Pres. Biden could take that would benefit the entire world, and the story about the “Indian peach”.

NoVember 20, 2024

Honoring Lives Lost: Transgender Day of Remembrance 2024

I have only a little to add to Janet’s eloquent observance post. But I want to say, especially to those who believe that people would not die if they kept “their business” to themselves, that these people were doing no more than any person does: they were just trying to get by. Every human bleeds the same color blood as every other human, and all of us humans are the same: human. It is way past time for people to be treating every other human as they themselves want to be treated.

Peace & Justice History for 11/20:

November 20, 1816
The term “scab” was first used in print by the Albany (N.Y.) Typographical Society.
A scab is someone who crosses a union’s picket line and takes the job of a striking worker.
 
Read The Scab by Jack London 
November 20, 1945
The International War Crimes Tribunal began in Nuremberg, Germany, and continued until October 1, 1946, establishing that military and political subordinates are responsible for their own actions even if ordered by their superiors.Twenty-four high-ranking Nazis were on trial for atrocities committed during World War II, ranging from crimes against peace to crimes of war, to crimes against humanity. The Nuremberg Trials were conducted by judges from the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and Great Britain.The Nuremberg defendants
Read more 
November 20, 1959
The United Nations proclaimed “The Declaration of the Rights of the Child,” because “the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.”
Read the text of the Declaration 
November 20, 1962
President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order forbidding racial discrimination in public housing.
November 20, 1969
Eighty-nine American Indians seized Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, offering to buy the island from the federal government for $24 worth of beads (the alleged price paid to the Canarsee Delaware Indians for Manhattan Island; it was actually 60 Dutch guilders).
Their numbers swelled into the hundreds at times; the General Services Administration, which had responsibility for the site of the former federal prison, and Coast Guard gave them the opportunity to leave the island peacefully.They were reclaiming it as Indian land by right of discovery, and demanding fairness and respect for native peoples. The occupation lasted for more than a year. Said Richard Oakes, a Mohawk from New York, “We hold The Rock.”
Indian people and their supporters wait for the ferry.
Photo/Ilka Hartmann
 
a new entrance to Alcatraz; Photo/Michelle Vignes 
Read more about the occupation 

LaNada Boyer (formerly Means) inside one of the Alcatraz guard barracks where occupiers lived from 1969-71. Much of the graffiti from 30 years ago remains throughout the island today. Photo by Linda Sue Scott.
November 20, 1977

Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat addressed the Israeli Knesset (parliament).
“I come to you today on solid ground to shape a new life and to establish peace. “But to be absolutely frank with you, I took this decision after long thought, knowing that it constitutes a great risk….”
Text of Sadat’s speech to the Israeli Knesset 
Listen to the speech 
November 20, 1987
SANE (The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy) and FREEZE (the campaign to freeze all testing of nuclear weapons) merged at their first combined convention in Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the largest U.S. peace organization.
Peace Action today 
November 20, 1993
The U.S. Senate approved the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), creating the world’s largest trade area covering Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november20

Midweek Poetry

Personal Poem Esther Belin

When I walk around downtown Durango
I sometimes find myself searching for the location
Of shops and restaurants no longer there

With quiet intention, I will walk past familiar places:
Carver’s, Brown’s Shoe, Maria’s Bookshop

When in deep thought, I walk into the Animas
Chocolate Company – and like the numerous times
Before, the rows of truffles within the case

Deeply absorb me – the chocolatier’s artistry of
Small batch truffles, neatly arranged

Multi-colored, diversely shaped, shiny speckled &
smooth surfaced, gold dusted, nut-layered
globes rotate into my thoughts, a lasso spiraling

my focus like a funnel, like a warm caress leading me
by the hand, a lover’s scent lingering in the air

I do not buy a tray of truffles, nor an Americano coffee,
or any discounted chocolate tucked in the bin
by the east wall – rather I deeply absorb into

The something missing from this morning – the lingered
Yearning, the inability to coax last night’s thoughts:

Come forth & sing! Strands of hair beneath my pillow
Lost (or loose among) – inventoried in last month’s
Balance sheet – Did I?

O Asphyxiation – how You applaud My lapses
The lapping of consummating downtown walks

This evening there is a ruckus on Main St.
I lift my head, and see Nancy who just came from
The Pride event at the 11th St. Station

She’s covered with rainbow hearts &
We split one down the middle and pose

Click
Click
Click again

The goofiness, the anointing of laughter, the
Hug in broad daylight on Main St. in this

Mountain desert, tourist-tangled, tousled about
Like miners searching for a Mother-lode-of-
Gold town, the place I call home

Copyright © 2024 by Esther Belin. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 19, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.

More about this poem and this poet.

Tuesday Poem

Amber McCrary

Stories

You are a Diné woman
A cosmic energy of earth and sky
Nihimá Nahasdzáán
Azhé’é Diyiní

Winter is over
So, we put our stories in the drawer
Then we take them out for the next winter

It is said stories are only told in the winter
So, the bears and snakes do not hear them

My father is not a traditional man
But he grew up as a traditional ashkii yázhí
He speaks the tongue of the sky and earth

of our people
He knows the ways of our land
But denies it all

One day I tell him
about watching coyote and lizard
stories as a young girl in boarding school
in my Navajo culture class

I tell him excitedly how the videos are now on youtube
but I still don’t understand them
because the videos are only in Navajo

I show him the cute coyote and lizard video
in hopes he will translate for me
He stops me the first ten seconds in
And tells me I shouldn’t watch it

Not because he doesn’t believe in cultural preservation
We are only supposed to watch and tell those stories during the winter, he says
Ohhhhhh, I say as I close the app

All the years my dad talks down on our traditions
I find it interesting, he still abides by the way of the seasons
because he knows snake and bear might hear

Or maybe he said it for other reasons

Copyright © 2024 by Amber McCrary. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 18, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.

More about this poem and this poet here.

Peace & Justice History for 11/19:

November 19, 1915
Joe Hill, a labor organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was assassinated by firing squad in the courtyard of the Utah State Penitentiary in Salt Lake City.

The IWW, or Wobblies as they were known, were advocates of organizing all workers into One Big Union. It is reported that Joe had been framed for murder by copper bosses, the press and government forces.
Just prior to his execution, as Joe stood before the firing squad he propelled himself him from organizer to labor martyrdom with these words: “Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize!“
Joe Hill: The Man Who Didn’t Die,  and more 
The IWW today 
November 19, 1969
In an effort to undercut growing opposition to a draft made necessary by the Vietnam War, Congress passed a law requiring random selection of draftees through a lottery.
The Selective Service System would call up young men based upon their birthday, first with 19-year-olds and those with expired college deferments.
November 19, 1977

Sadat arrives in Israel
In an unprecedented move for an Arab leader, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat traveled to Israel to seek a permanent peace settlaement with Egypt’s neighbor after decades of conflict. This action was extremely unpopular in the Arab World and especially among Muslim fundamentalists. Egypt and Israel had fought four wars since 1948.

Sadat on November 9:
“ Israel would be astonished when they hear me say this. But I say it. I am ready to go even to their home … to the Knesset and discuss peace with them if need be.”
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on November 11:
“ Let us say to one another, and let it be a silent oath by the peoples of Egypt and Israel: no more wars, no more bloodshed and no more threats.”
Together in Israel:
Sadat:
“ I wish to tell you today and I proclaim to the whole world: We accept to live with you in a lasting and just peace.”
Begin:
“ Everything must be negotiated and can be negotiated.
We Jews appreciate courage, and we will know how to appreciate our visitor’s courage.”
Sadat’s speech to the Israeli Knesset (parliament):

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november19

Monday’s Poem

(Someone must have wished for Summer before it’s even Winter?)

Sufficient

Ina Coolbrith

Citron, pomegranate,
     Apricot, and peach,
  Flutter of apple-blows
     Whiter than the snow,
  Filling the silence
     With their leafy speech,
  Budding and blooming
     Down row after row.

Breaths of blown spices,
     Which the meadows yield,
  Blossoms broad-petaled,
     Starry buds and small;
  Gold of the hill-sides,
     Purple of the field,
  Waft to my nostrils
     Their fragrance, one and all.

Birds in the tree-tops,
     Birds that fill the air,
  Trilling, piping, singing,
     In their merry moods, —
  Gold wing and brown wing,
     Flitting here and here,
  To the coo and chirrup
     Of their downy broods.

What grace has summer
     Better that can suit?
  What gift can autumn
     Bring us more to please?
  Red of blown roses,
     Mellow tints of fruit,
  Never can be fairer,
     Sweeter than are these.

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on November 17, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.

More about this poem, and this poet on the page.