Author name: davidswanson

Is this moment, when the United States is shipping immigrants about like they’re nuclear waste, the ideal time for Ken Burns and PBS to claim they’re going to tell the truth about the U.S. and the Holocaust? They claimed that about Vietnam too. (Here’s my very mixed review.)

Of course, I hope to learn some new things from Burns and company, and do not claim to know everything, but of what I know, this is what I would make his latest film include if I had the power (but will be read more

One of my favorite blogs is that of Caitlin Johnstone. Why have I never written about how great it is? I’m not sure. I am too busy to write about most things. I have invited her on my radio show and had no reply. I do know that one of my favorite things to do is also one of hers: correct the mistakes of others. I like to correct my own mistakes too, of course, but it’s not as much fun, and only seems useful to write about when my mistake read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 7, 2022

Friendly advice to my brothers and sisters in Finland and Sweden.

1. There are people at the Pentagon and Lockheed

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 4, 2022

It’s tricky to oppose both sides of a war, and rarer even than supporting both sides. The weapons dealers support both sides.

In obedience to their televisions, people all over the world spend a great deal of time expressing the opinions dished out by those televisions regarding a particular war that is far from the worst war at the moment. It is the war that creates the greatest risk of nuclear apocalypse, but that does not typically enter read more

By World BEYOND War, August 29, 2022

World BEYOND War’s Second Annual War Abolisher Awards will recognize the work of an environmental organization that has prevented military operations in state parks in Washington State, a filmmaker from New Zealand who has documented the power of unarmed peacemaking, Italian dock workers who have blocked the shipment of weapons of war, and British peace activist and Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn who has taken a consistent stand for peace despite intense read more

By David Swanson

Every Single Member of Congress Is Willing to Let Yemeni Children Die.

If you want to prove that statement wrong, I think you’ll want to start by proving wrong one or more of these five points:

1. A single member of the House or Senate can compel a speedy vote on ending U.S. participation in the war on Yemen.
2. Not one single member has done so.
3. Ending U.S. participation would effectively end the war.
4. Despite the temporary truce, millions of lives depend on ending the war.
5. The passionate speeches in 2018 and 2019 by Senators and Representatives demanding an end to the war when they knew they could count on a veto from Trump have vanished during the Biden years chiefly because Party is more important than human lives.

Let’s fill these five points out a little:

1. A single member of the House or Senate can compel a speedy vote on ending U.S. participation in the war on Yemen.

Here’s an explanation from the Friends Committee on National Legislation:

“Any member of the House or Senate, regardless of committee assignment, can invoke section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution and get a full floor vote read more

Dante wrote bizarre and powerful poetry about Hell and Heaven that united Italians around a non-Latin language and the Western world around various images and misquotations regarding who’s destined for which circle.

He also wrote a book in Latin defending and praising monarchy, which was recently praised as useful read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, August 18, 2022

For years now, the people of Montenegro have sought to protect the Sinjajevina mountain plateau from the destruction to be brought by creating a military training ground vastly larger than the entire military of Montenegro could ever use. The NATO nations for whom the project actually exists have sought to keep their roles quiet. But after people read more

By David Swanson

Pope Francis’s new book is called Against War: Building a Culture of Peace.

I’m sure some Catholics will recommend it to you. But let this atheist do so as well.

Perhaps this book won’t be promoted by those Catholics sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court or in the U.S. Congress or just living in the United States and owning a television. But if 5 percent of Catholics in the world were to read this book and act on it, we’d see the abolition of war and militaries. read more

By World BEYOND War, August 8, 2022

A webinar hosted by World BEYOND War on August 8, 2022, with Todd Pierce and David Swanson moderating.

Sponsors:
Project for the Study of American Militarism,
World BEYOND War,
Women Against Military Madness,
CODE PINK,
Veterans For Peace,
Andy Worthington,
Mondoweiss,
Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste,
Antiwar.com,
RootsAction.org,
Canadian BDS Coalition,
UNAC,
Twin read more

When New York City recently released a grotesque “public service announcement” video explaining that you should stay indoors during a nuclear war, the corporate media reaction was principally not outrage at the acceptance of such a fate or the stupidity of telling people “You’ve got this!” as if they could survive the apocalypse by cocooning with Netflix, but rather mockery of the very idea that a nuclear war might happen. U.S. polling on people’s top concerns read more

Join Citizens for the Universal Abolition of Nuclear Weapons at noon on Saturday, September 24, 2022 at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle for a march to and rally at the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building where we will call for the universal abolition of nuclear weapons.

This event is organized entirely by volunteers. Click here if you would like to help with this important event!

Our keynote speaker is David Swanson. David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive read more