International Affairs (Click to see specific nations and regions)

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Olympia City Council passed proclamation supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

January 21, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

Thanks to Bob Zeigler, Bob Delastrada, and other members of the Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons who helped this effort succeed. Thanks to Olympia City Council member Clark Gilman who shepherded this proclamation through the City’s process and helped pass it at the City Council’s meeting on Tuesday January 18, 2022. They passed this proclamation: Proclamation re Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons                  

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FLYER / FACT SHEET on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

January 21, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

The Olympia Coalition is joining the WORLDWIDE CELEBRATION of the first anniversary after the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) went into effect on January 22, 2021.  I sent our Saturday celebrations to ICAN, and they posted the information to the ICAN events calendar: https://www.icanw.org/106247/bannering_and_sign-holding_at_olympia_wa_usa Also, I wrote an EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND ONE-PAGE FLYER/Fact Sheet that succinctly explains the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, why it’s important, and how people can get more information.  I promote our Olympia group, our statewide WANW coalition, and ICAN. It needed a 14-inch page, so – if you want to print it […]

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The U.S.’s “democracy” is seriously weakening!

January 17, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

The U.S. likes to think of itself as the best democracy in the world — and a beacon and role model for other nations. American politicians like to brag about this. But ACTUALLY, the U.S.’s democracy has been SERIOUSLY WEAKENING for a number of years — and in several ways. Our nation suffers many serious problems, but extremely rich people and big businesses profit from those problems (pollution, low wages, racial injustices, an out-of-control and constantly escalating war machine, elections that are dominated by Big Money, news media that favor the Establishment, Republicans’ many deliberate actions to cheat in elections […]

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“America First” is morally wrong, cruel, stupid, dangerous, and counter-productive in many ways

January 16, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

Trump pushed an “America First” dogma, but the slogan pre-dated him by nearly a century.  Isolationists tried to pretend that the U.S. could exist by itself without regard to the well-being of the rest of the world.  They believed we could get away with being selfish. Also, that was the English language translation of Hitler’s slogan, “Deutschland uber alles,” which meant Germany over everybody else.   Selfishness and contempt for other people are morally wrong for reasons any decent person should immediately understand.  The “America First” dogma leads directly to cruelty toward other nations. The “America First” dogma also leads […]

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Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke STRONGLY AGAINST nuclear weapons

January 14, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

This information came from a great non-profit organization, the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (www.orepa.org), which organizes against nuclear weapons.  It is located near the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, plant where the U.S. government makes plutonium pits, etc., for our nuclear weapons.   More than fifty years after his death, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered as a civil rights icon, recalled for his stirring words at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 when he declared “I have a dream!” Beyond that, for lots of people, things get blurry. When an MLK parade is led by the local high […]

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Good news! Chile’s voters elected a young, very progressive president!

December 26, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Since the 1840s Chile had Latin America’s oldest and longest-running democracy — until President Nixon, Henry Kissinger, the CIA, and Chile’s military and mining companies overthrew it on September 11, 1973.  They installed General Pinochet, an EXTREMELY BRUTAL dictator who murdered and “disappeared” thousands of Chile’s people and ran the nation in a fascist way to serve big business and the military.  A 1998 referendum restored democracy in 1990 after 17 years of dictatorship. In recent years several South American nations have flexed between right-wing leaders and left-wing leaders. On December 19, 2021, Chile’s voters elected 35-year-old Gabriel Boric, a […]

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Christmas Eve & New Year’s Eve: Yes, Olympia’s peace vigils occur as usual both Fridays!

December 23, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Olympia’s weekly peace vigils occur all year around, regardless of holidays and regardless of weather!   We warmly (!) invite you to join us FRI DEC 24 and FRI DEC 31 (and every Friday) from 4:30 to 6:00 (or as much of that time as you can spare) at the SW corner of 4th & Water downtown (across the street south from the Kissing Statue).  (This is for 2021, and our vigils will continue every week in the future too.) I’ll bring a good, varied selections of signs, or you may bring your own.  We support peace, human rights, nonviolence, […]

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MORE GOOD NEWS: New York City joined ICAN’s appeal for cities to oppose nuclear weapons!

December 18, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

The main international non-profit organization promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is educating people worldwide.  ICAN — besides urging national governments to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) — is also urging state/provincial/local governments to pass resolutions supporting the Treaty. New York City has joined this effort.  See this great news: https://worldbeyondwar.org/new-york-city-joins-ican-cities-appeal/?link_id=33&can_id=1d662460c0abb8939c5044c82927552b&source=email-wbw-news-action-we-took-over-a-pipeline-company-office&email_referrer=email_1383052&email_subject=wbw-news-action-solidarity                      

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In early December 2021, the 57th and 58th nations ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons!

December 18, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

The movement is growing to PROHIBIT NUCLEAR WEAPONS worldwide. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was ratified by the 50th nation in October 2020.  Since then, several more nations have ratified the Treaty.  The 57th and 58th nations ratified it in early December 2021. See information about the TPNW at www.icanw.org Mainstream news media in the U.S. are ALMOST TOTALLY IGNORING this bold, historic effort for peace, so “WE THE PEOPLE” must educate the American people and organize skillfully to promote the Treaty!          

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Sign up NOW for FREE, PRACTICAL ONLINE WORKSHOPS to help you make more progress on issues YOU care about

December 18, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

ALL OF US — new people, experienced organizers, and everybody in between — can STRENGTHEN OUR SKILLS and add resources to our “toolboxes” so we can make more progress in working on our issues. That’s why I’m offering my 6 FREE ONLINE WORKSHOPS. Please see information on the flyer I posted at this link – and SIGN UP NOW! 6 practical workshops on Grassroots Organizing — 2022 JAN-FEB — FLYER.docx Let’s build strong nonviolent grassroots movements that will significantly move public opinion — and change the dominant paradigms — and push governments, big businesses, mainstream media, and other entrenched entities to do […]

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COP26: Information, Analyses, Successes, Shortcomings

December 14, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

The November 2021 global climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, generated a lot of news.  Some news sources thought COP26 made progress.  Other news sources criticized it from several perspectives.  Here — in no particular sequence — are a variety of reports about what COP26 did and did not accomplish, and what we need to do now: (I have a few more articles, but this is enough for now.)   COP26 Brought progress but also disappointment:  The United States released a slew of new climate commitments at COP26, last month’s international climate conference in Glasgow. Climate advocates view the results of […]

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Nonviolent Grassroots Organizing Creates Light and Progress

December 9, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Nonviolent Grassroots Organizing Creates Light and Progress Glen Anderson (360) 491-9093 glenanderson@integra.net The January 2022 theme for the Olympia-based publication Works In Progress (www.olywip.org) – “Where do we find light” – is a smart question to ask.  I recommend finding light in two places:  in ourselves and in the world around us. Contrary to the cynical assumption that human beings are inherently competitive and cruel (and contrary to the religious assumption that we’re doomed by “original sin”), powerful research affirms humans inherently want to cooperate and be good to each other.  I read the book Humankind: A Hopeful History written […]

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President Reagan armed and supported Saddam Hussein

December 8, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Just like in Orwell’s novel 1984, the U.S. government and mainstream news media suppress historical facts that would embarrass the government and media. One example is the fact that during some years in the 1980s President Reagan armed and militarily supported Iraq’s Saddam Hussein — especially to help him wage Iraq’s war against Iran (1980-1988).  A million Iranians and somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 Iraqis died in that war. When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were issuing propaganda in order to fool the American public, media and politicians into their totally unnecessary and illegal war against Iraq (2003 and […]