Massachusetts Peace Action
Annual Meeting – February 9, 2013
Workshops
(see general information on the meeting)
Killing Drones and the Law
Facilitators / Resource people:
Carol Coakley, Metrowest Peace Action and MAPA board member, will facilitate.
Nancy Murray, American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, will speak on the legality of drones and targeted assassinations.
Description: We will start with an overview of the history of drones used to kill people deemed as threats and touch on the moral and legal issues of targeted killings, sovereignty, necessity and domestic and international laws. Number of deaths: civilian and suspected terrorists, known and unknown.
Action Step: As an additional abridgement of our civil liberties and the rule of law we could oppose them entirely or adopt reforms as suggested by Robert Naiman and others starting with taking the program away from the CIA and giving it to the military, compensation to civilian casualties, etc.
Skills Training: Letters in opposition ready to sign, examples of creative actions by others for educational purposes, support of drone protestors, boycott of companies involved in their production and operation.
Reading: Josh Begley’s tweets @dronestream, Nick Mottern model drone kits KnowDrones.org, Living Under Drones, Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control by Medea Benjamin, Drones Watch, Jeh Johnson’s speech (DOD lawyer soon to retire)
War, Peace, and Climate Change: Looking at and Acting on the Connections
Facilitators / Resource people:
Rosalie Anders, MAPA board candidate, former environmental planner for the City of Cambridge
Guntram Mueller, MAPA board member, chair of nuclear weapons abolition task force, retired professor of mathematics, UMass Lowell
Susan Lees, OccupyArlington and 25% Campaign
Description: War and preparation for war, the aftermaths of war, and the world’s nuclear arsenals have profound climate implications. Our military budget siphons off resources needed to deal with climate change. A military-oriented society may opt for militarized solutions to the climate crises that lie ahead. How do peace organizations and activists connect with these issues and with the actions happening around climate change? What perspectives can we bring to the search for solutions? How might we tap into the interest and energy around climate action?
We’ll start with a short presentation of the magnitudes of the issues, and end up with a discussion of plans for action on various levels, primarily federal, but also personal, local, state-wide, and international.
Three activists who have been engaged in both environmental and peace issues will facilitate a discussion.
This is an opportunity to share ideas and develop direction for future action.
Next Steps: We hope that there will be sufficient interest to start an ongoing working group. We also hope that people who attend the workshop will be better informed about possibilities for individual and group action in Massachusetts (ongoing protests, divestment, other activity)
Iran: Groundwork for Positive/ Peaceful Outcomes
Facilitators / Resource people:
Jamal Abdi, National Iranian American Council
Shelagh Foreman, MAPA program director, facilitator
Description: 2013 may be a critical year that decides whether the decades long standoff between the U.S. and Iran becomes a military confrontation or is resolved diplomatically. Jamal Abdi, who will provide a more comprehensive picture of U.S. – Iran relations in the plenary session, will provide a brief overview of the situation with regard to diplomacy, sanctions, Iran’s nuclear program, and the state of Congress and the Obama Administration to help us answer the question: how can we make 2013 the year we prevent war with Iran and help advance a peaceful resolution?
Action plan: Reset attitudes toward Iran in Congress and the media. Strengthen ties with National affiliates working on US-Iran issues.
Skills: Messaging, organizing an emergency campaign aimed at Congress and media, evaluate previous campaigns. Develop a media response team. Lobby training where necessary: evaluate congressional delegation performance and possibilities.
Future work: We will make contacts, who will help to direct and refine ongoing work. Develop transferable skills, ie media work. Relate our Iran work to other MAPA core programs: nuclear proliferation, cooperative foreign policy.
Defunding Militarism with the Budget for All
Facilitators / Resource people:
Cole Harrison, MAPA communications director
Tim Carpenter, executive director, Progressive Democrats of America
Russell Freedman, Massachusetts chair, Progressive Democrats of America
Laurie Taymor-Berry, legislative liaison, Survivors Inc., voices of low-income women and member of Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom
Description: Massachusetts voters passed the Budget for All resolution in all 91 cities and towns where it was on the ballot in November by an average margin of 3 to 1. The Budget for All builds the alliance between the peace movement and social, economic and racial justice movements by saying: Stop the cuts, invest in jobs, tax the 1%, bring the troops home and cut the Pentagon budget. It builds on Peace Action’s previous 25%, Fund Our Communities Not War, and Move the Money campaigns.
The workshop will discuss the conceptual basis for the peace movement’s focus on cutting the military budget to fund human needs. Workshop participants will share our experiences campaigning for the Budget for All, evaluate the strong points and areas for improvement of our work on the Budget for All in 2012, and make plans to expand the work further in 2013.
Action plans: Educate Congress via nonthly vigils/ letter drops at Congressional offices (coordinated with PDA nationally as well as PA affiliates in CA & WI). Letters to the editor and op-eds in your local paper. Local/ regional events in mid-February to call attention to the issue. Advocate for State Legislature action. Outreach and build alliances.
Skills Training: how to organize meetings with members of Congress on a monthly basis and be part of a later national effort.