Colombia and nuclear disarmament

Two sets of events this month promise progress towards a culture of peace.

In Colombia, the newly-elected President Gustavo Petro promises to re-invigorate the peace process, while at the same time the Colombian Truth Commission has published its long-awaited report.

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The struggle for truth

As the Culture of War, now led by Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, continues to use the control of information and outright lies as a major weapon in their arsenal, the struggle for truth becomes ever more important for the culture of peace. As Gandhi said, “‘Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.’ He called it Satyagraha.”

This is not safe or easy, as we see in the following recent exampes of those who engage in this struggle.

Julian Assange has been imprisoned for many years now and threatened for extradition to the United States where he could be imprisoned for the rest of his life. In a letter this month to President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, more than 30 progressive advocates, intellectuals, and former heads of state argued the charges against Assange should be dropped. The charges against Assange stem from his publication of classified material that exposed U.S. war crimes, including video footage of American forces gunning down civilians in Iraq.

According to a report by Yahoo News, the CIA and senior officials of the Trump administration discussed how to assassinate him.

Dmitry Muratov, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his independent journalism criticizing Russian policies, was attacked recently by someone shouting “Here’s to you for our boys” (i.e. Russian soldiers). Perhaps saved by his notariety as a result of the prize, he was not assassinated like several others of his journalist colleagues. Although his journal, Novaya Gazeta, has been shut down by Russian authorities, there are plans to re-open it abroad.

Glenn Greenwald is an American journalist who has been defending freedom of information for almost 20 years now, including defense of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, and publishing investigative reports on corruption in Brazil and elsewhere. In an article this month republished by CPNN, he reviews the extreme censorship now being orchestrated from Washington has greatly limited the possibility to know what is truly happening in the Russian Federation and the Ukraine. He asks, “Why is there so much urgency about silencing the small pockets of dissenting voices about the war in Ukraine?” And he responds, “The answer seems clear,” and he documents the enormous contracts being given to the military-industrial complex to expand the war.

As an example of how censorship limits the possibility of knowing what is happening in Russia, the reader should recall the editor’s note on the CPNN article of January 19 this year, prior to the invasion of Ukraine: “: In recent weeks, Russian President Putin has proposed new peace treaties between Russia and the US and between Russia and NATO. Google lists perhaps a hundred news articles that mention Putin’s proposals but nowhere in any of the articles could I find a reference to the actual text of the proposals or to the historical context that includes American assurances at the end of the Cold War that NATO would not be expanded towards Russia. Instead, the articles listed by google support American and NATO claims that that Putin’s proposals mask a justification for Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Finally, after a rather long and detailed search, I found the following article (not listed by google) that links to the treaty proposals and to the historical context. Here it is.)

Sergey Aleksashenko, a former deputy governor of the Russian central bank, now writes a dissident blog from inside the Russian Federation. As republished in CPNN, he documents the censorship now being conducted by the Russian authorities which is so extreme as to become ridiculous at times. Somehow, despite the Russian censorship, he continues to publish daily blogs about the situation there.

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas Davies, from the American peace organization Codepink, condemn not only the war crimes committed by Russia in the Ukraine, but even more so the long list of war crimes committed by the United States military in recent years, such as those in Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq. ” The United States and its allies have waged war in country after country for decades, carving swathes of destruction through cities, towns and villages on a far greater scale than has so far disfigured Ukraine.”

Marina Ovsyannikova is the Russian journalist who dared to interrupt a live news bulletin on Russian state TV Channel One holding a sign reading ‘NO WAR. Stop the war’. CPNN carried a link to the video of the event in which she describes her motivation.  She was immediately arrested and according to a more recent article in Haaretz, “A court fined her the equivalent of about $270, but she still faces charges of violating a law against ‘false news,’ which makes it illegal to refer to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “war.” If convicted, she could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.”

Oliver Stone, the film-maker who dared to defy the American authorities with his film JFK about the asassination of President Kennedy, has now published a film about the coup d’etat in the Ukraine in 2014 orchestrated by the American government, including Vice-President at the time Joe Biden. This provides key evidence of why the Russians have invaded, including links to the conversation between the US ambassador to the Ukraine and a top State Department authority on how to form the new government in 2014, and a statement from Vladimir Putin, asking what can be done to stop the encroachmen of NATO against his country.

In CPNN in recent weeks we have published statements and petitions from hundreds of thousands of Russians opposed to the war as detailed in last month’s bulletin. And most recently we have published also a call from Ukrainian pacifists who dare to criticize their own country as well as the Russians.

The Ukrainian Pacifist Movement writes, “We condemn military actions on both sides, the hostilities which harm civilians. We insist that all shootings should be stopped, all sides should honor the memory of killed people and, after due grief, calmly and honestly commit to peace talks. . . . War is a crime against humanity. Therefore, we are determined not to support any kind of war and to strive for the removal of all causes of war.”

Finally, we turn to the censorship of China.

As re-published in CPNN, “Chinese professors have been restricted from airing their views and are reluctant to contradict the official Communist Party line on international relations and political events. However, a group of five prominent history professors from top Chinese universities were willing to go against the official narrative in a rare joint letter condemning the invasion of Ukraine.”

“The letter, signed by Nanjing University’s Sun Jiang, Peking University’s Wang Lixin, Hong Kong University’s Xu Guoqi, Tsinghua University’s Zhong Weimin, and Fudan University’s Chen Yan, described the Russian invasion as a “war that began in the dark”, and for an immediate end to the fighting. . . . The letter was immediately removed by censors when it appeared on 26 February on the Chinese social media platform WeChat but not before it had been viewed and commented upon – including attacking the professors on China’s social media with some calling them spies or traitors.”

The Russian Peace Movement

As we stated in last month’s bulletin the mass media is jammed with articles about the war in Ukraine, whether Russian atrocities or Western arms being sent to expand the war.

We see our role in CPNN to provide the other side of the news, the mobilization of the peace movement.

Peace Activists Against War in Ukraine

(Editor’s note: This was originally published on February 21 prior to the invasion.)

The commercial mass media, more than ever an arm of the culture of war, has trumpeted claims that the Ukraine is about to be invaded by Russia in open warfare and that the US and NATO are moving forces into the surrounding countries.

What you don’t find in the commercial mass media is any mention of the antiwar declarations by peace activists in all of the countries concerned.

By careful searching we have been able to find these declarations. Here they are.

Ukraine: The Ukrainian Pacifist Movement has published a declaration on their facebook page, demanding:

• compliance with the Minsk peace agreement of 2015,
• withdrawal of all troops,
• suspension of all supplies of weapons and military equipment,
• suspension of total mobilization of the population for war, propaganda of war and hostility of civilizations in the media and social media.

and going beyond the Ukraine they demand:

• global deescalation and disarmament,
• the dissolution of military alliances,
• the elimination of armies and borders dividing people.

Russia: An open letter, signed by many Russian artists, politicians and academics, and even a retired colonel of the armed forces, criticizes what they call “the party of war in the Russian leadership.” “Only one point of view. is presented on state television, and that is the point of view of the supporters of the war.  We hear about military threats and aggression concerning Ukraine by America and Western countries. But the most dangerous thing is that war is being presented as an acceptable and inevitable course of events. People are trying to deceive, corrupt, impose on us the idea of a holy war with the West instead of developing our country and raising our standard of living. The question is not discussed, but it is ordinary people who will have to pay this price – a huge and bloody price.”

Ironically, the Google document with the full list of signatures is blocked by Google, with the statement that “You can’t access this item because it is in violation of our Terms of Service.”

(Editor’s note: More recently, as of February 26, protests have intensified including thousands of Russian artists and scientists who have signed open letters against the war.)

United States: The United National AntiWar Coalition (UNAC), which brings together most of the leading antiwar organizations of the United States, has issued a statement recalling that the United States promised Soviet leaders at the end of the Cold War that NATO would not expand east of Germany, and criticizing the West for breaking this promise and threatening Russia. UNAC demands:

• No US weapons or military advisors for the Ukrainian military;
• Stop the US saber rattling;
• No war with Russia;
• Keep Ukraine out of NATO.

France: An extensive list of French peace organizations and trade unions have signed a statement condemning the “geopolitical games at work both on the part of the Russian Federation, the European Union, NATO and others” and demanding:

• Immediate negotiations for de-escalation;
• Stopping threats, NATO and Russian troop concentrations and arms deliveries to all parties;
• A ceasefire in Ukraine and the implementation of existing agreements;
• That the United Nations be the privileged framework for developing political and diplomatic solutions to settle the Ukrainian question.

United Kingdom: Stop the War Coalition has issued a statement opposing war in the Ukraine and criticizing the role the the Britsh government has played by talking up the threat of war continually, advancing no proposals for a diplomatic solution and sending arms to Ukraine and deploying further troops to Eastern Europe. Among other demands, the Coalition call for “a halt to the eastward expansion of NATO” and “a new security deal for Europe which meets the needs of all states and peoples.”

Germany: A petition signed by over 200 German politicians and peace activists states that “A one-sided blaming of Russia, as practiced by some Western governments and in the major media, is unjustified  and is increasingly taking on the character of war propaganda.” The petition demands:

• Concrete steps to de-escalate, no military supplies to Kiev;
• No more war rhetoric, confrontational politics and sanctions against Russia;
• Active advocacy for the implementation of the Minsk II agreement, which is binding under international law ;
• Negotiations with Russia based on a clear commitment to detente and the principle of common security;
• Active advocacy for arms control and disarmament negotiations.

In addition to these declarations by peace activists, the European Leadership Network has published an updated set of seven far-reaching recommendations for reducing the military tensions between Russia, the US and NATO that is signed by 26 leading Russian academicians and 49 leading academicians from the West. In addition to academicians among the signatories from the United States are former ambassadors to Russia, Ukraine and NATO, a former Secretary of Defense, and several retired admirals and generals. On the Russian side there are also very high-placed signatories in addition to academicians, including the former head of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, a former ambassador to the United States, a former Chief Military Representive to NATO and a retired general of the armed forces.

Will the political leaders of Russia, Ukraine, United States and NATO listen to these voices, even though they are not found in the commercial mass media. We can only hope so.

MEDIATION AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

While it is difficult to find progress in the culture of peace in international relations, the methods of the culture of peace such as mediation and restorative justice continue to advance at the level of inter-personal relations.

The greatest advances continue to be seen in Latiin America.

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The Failure of COP26

Once again, this time the 26th, the Conference of Parties has failed – the conference of the nation-states of the world to deal with the climate crisis.

As described by Greta Thunberg, it was a “greenwashing event” of “blah, blah, blah”: “The leaders are not doing nothing; they are actively creating loopholes and shaping frameworks to benefit themselves, and to continue profiting from this destructive system. This is an active choice by the leaders to continue the exploitation of nature and people and the destruction of presents and future living conditions to take place.”

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Cities, Towns for Culture of Peace

As we have previously remarked in this bulletin most recently in 2020 and 2016, the leadership for a culture of peace is often taken by cities and towns, since, unlike nation-states, they are not heavily invested in the culture of war and since they tend to be more responsive to the needs of their citizens.

This month, there are four articles in this regard from Mexico.

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International Day of Peace

In our survey of the Internet this year we found actions for the International Day of Peace in 628 communities located throughout the world. This total is similar to what we found last year, with the greatest number of actions taking place in Europe.

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