End Wars and Occupations IOT Monthly Conference Call - Progressive Democrats of America

 December 2011
sound  chat room 
 
Link to Sound File  Link to Chat Room Archive

Jean Aguerre spoke about the “51st State,” the area that's comprised of Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico. The plan to grab so much land for perfecting drone/automatic warfare is old, but we citizens only became aware of the desire to get so much territory for it recently. The effort to prevent this is really critical and our people need all the help they can get. January, we really need to activate people to work on this. 56% of discretionary payments in the Federal Budget go to the military/intelligence portion.
Tom Hayden, who is currently directing the Peace and Justice Resource Center in Culver City, CA, will be directing PDAs anti-war efforts. He'll be providing analysis and direction to the PDA network.
Rusti Eisenberg of the Legislative arm of United for Peace and Justice spoke next and summarized the ending of the Iraq War and how the peace movement was crucial to that happening. Unfortunately, the provision permitting the government to detain someone indefinitely was indeed passed and is law today. The Merkley Amendment may appear to be a highly technical bill that won't make much difference, but it's a helpful thing to work on.
The Occupy movement has opened up space for anti-war groups to educate the people more. The anti-elitist change of mood also helps. Another speaker said that Occupiers are pretty well informed as it is, but was extremely pleased by all of the people engaging in civil discourse on the issues of the day at her local Occupation.