Writings, video, audio by David Swanson
By World BEYOND War, September 18, 2020
1. The effort to extradite and prosecute Julian Assange for journalism is a threat to future journalism that challenges power and violence, but a defense of the media practice of propagandizing for war. While the New York Times benefitted from Assange’s work, its only reporting on his current hearing is an article about technical
By David Swanson, September 16, 2020
“I’m going to perform a magic trick by reading your mind,” I tell a class of students or an auditorium or video call full of people. I write something down. “Name a war that was justified,” I say. Someone says “World War Two.” I show them what I wrote: “WWII.” Magic![i]
If I insist on additional answers, they’re almost always wars even further in the past than WWII.[ii] If I ask why WWII is the answer,
Photo by Kristian Laemmle-Ruff
By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 16, 2020
A new book by Kieran Finnane has the title “Peace Crimes.” It refers to acts of civil disobedience against war, or civil resistance to war. My hope is that the phrase continues to sound as absurd as it does now, and that someday the phrase “war crimes” joins it in sounding outrageously ridiculous. “Peace crimes” should sound ludicrous because acting peacefully for peace is the most anti-criminal action
On September 21, the International Day of Peace, you will be able to watch online the new film “We Are Many,” and you darn well should. The topic is the single biggest day of activism on earth: February 15, 2003 — an unprecedented statement against war, too often forgotten, and far too often misunderstood.
On every continent (yes, Antarctica included) in 72 countries and 789 cities people turned out by the tens of millions. In many cases, this was by far the largest demonstration ever seen
This week on Talk Nation Radio: Undoing Gerrymandering. Our guest is Brian Cannon, executive director of FairMapsVA — that’s VA for Virginia — the website is http://fairmapsva.org
The organization is working on the Vote Yes campaign for a redistricting reform amendment. Before leaving to
The majority of this video is in Norwegian:
Tid for forandring: Fra krise og militarisme til fred og velferd from Norges Sosiale Forum on Vimeo.
The portion of the above video that is in English is also here:
By David Swanson
The Monopoly game originally had an anti-monopoly, pro-cooperation (not corporation, COOPeration!) version. Somebody should revive it, along with the understanding of the game as a warning of horrific evils, not just arcane Wall Street issues, and not just an opportunity to inculcate greed or generate fun family arguments.
“Horrific evils”? Can I be serious? I’m afraid so. Pick up a copy of Thom Hartmann’s The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed
Kevin Zeese was a major constant reliable presence in the movement for peace and justice. He used writing, editing, online and all other forms of communication. He organized events, protests, occupations. He risked arrest. He ran for office. He was an attorney and used the courts and shared his expertise. He thought independently. He acted collaboratively. He maintained good relations with those he disagreed with — even those he disagreed with over that most disagreeable of topics in a collapsing
If we were to look beyond words to actions, there would be no doubt that virtually all U.S. politicians have, in effect, taken the Trump/Kissinger view of U.S. troops for as long as there have been U.S. troops.
“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” –Donald Trump, according to Jeffrey Goldberg.
“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” — Henry Kissinger, according to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
It we were to