Activists Speak out – Reports from Hancock and Beyond

Voices Rising for Yemen – Final Day

November 14, 2018 ucgdew Leave a comment

Header and photos all from Voices for Creative Nonviolence by Kathy Kelly, published on Voices for Creative Nonviolence, November 8, 2018 Over these past three days, Voices and a coalition of justice-minded organizations have been at and around the United Nations in New York City protesting the ongoing U.S.-Saudi attack on famine- imperiled Yemen. Details are available at www.vcnv.org along with next steps for people looking for ways to get involved. Participants Kathy Kelly, Brian Terrell, and Jules Orkin write

Game of Drones

November 7, 2018 ucgdew Leave a comment

Friends, this is a great film on the damage done by drone warfare and the increasing potential for state terrorism presented by drones. The video is from 2016 but I have never seen it before so I’m glad it turned up in my email today. The film has interviews with whistleblower Sean Westmoreland, and many of the antidrone activists and drone victims from Waziristan whom we met there as well. And, interviews with our good friends Nick Mottern of Knowdrones.com

Documenting the Poor People’s Campaign, Albany 2018

June 27, 2018 ucgdew Leave a comment

Image: Taken from the Fort Orange Club Action, 31 Arrested. Why are you here? Ann Tiffany, “Because I’m committed to making a change” Videos by John Amidon of Upstate Drone Action participants and others at the Poor People’s Campaign events in Albany, May and June of 2019. John Amidon is an active member of the Upstate Drone Action Coalition and of Veterans for Peace.

Thousands of Hearts and Minds

April 18, 2018 ucgdew Leave a comment

by Ed Kinane To work against militarism and for social justice is to struggle for hearts and minds. We “educate, agitate, and organize.” We reach out to the public to mobilize its conscience. But the public is large and we are few. Most ways to reach the public are costly. Or shaped by other agendas. So mostly we operate small scale. We could however make much greater use of a familiar and broad public forum: letters to the editor. LTEs

Billboards Opposing Drone Wars Are Going Up All Over Syracuse, NY

March 3, 2018 David Swanson Leave a comment

by David Swanson, originally published on World Beyond War, Feb 21. 2018 World Beyond War has been raising funds for and renting billboards in opposition to war. We’ve run into censorship from numerous billboard companies but persevered, and more billboards are on their way. First we put this message up here in Charlottesville, Va., and then in Baltimore, Md. (see explanation of the 3% calculation here): Now we’re putting these two images up on billboards in Syracuse, NY, where drone

GETTING BEYOND WAR AND MILITARISM: the “To-Do” List

January 10, 2018 Ed Kinane Leave a comment

Violence begets violence. War profits only the few, the rich, the powerful — the 1%. As moral beings and tax paying citizens we must vigorously oppose war. Especially those wars of aggression perpetrated by the United States and its allies and proxies. These mostly occur in or near the Islamic oil lands (Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen). We must oppose resource war and wars of weapon demonstration (drones over Gaza). We must oppose war for corporate profit. War industry lobbying (Lockheed Martin)

Standing Up to the National Anthem

January 10, 2018 James Ricks Leave a comment

by James Ricks of Upstate Drone Action, previously published on United National Antiwar Coalition Blog and Ithaca Gazette This Nation’s anthem was composed by Francis Scott Key, a racist, white supremacist, anti-abolitionist lawyer. He felt that black people, free or slave, were genetically inferior to white people. That perception was the foundation of his legal pursuits. When he was the District Attorney for the City of Washington, he defended slavery and prosecuted those in the abolitionist movement. He argued in court that

We are Killing Terrorists and Attack We Will

December 8, 2017 ucgdew One comment

Those who slaughter innocent people will find no glory in this life or the next. They are nothing but thugs and criminals and predators, and that’s right losers. ~President Donald Trump We are Killing Terrorists and Attack We Will, Trump’s Most Vicious Racist Rants by Brian Terrell, Originally Published in “The Sower“, Dec. 17, 2017 On Monday, August 21, President Donald Trump delivered a prime-time speech almost shocking in its ordinariness. It was such an address as either of his

Standing Up to the National Anthem

December 6, 2017 ucgdew Leave a comment

This Nation’s anthem was composed by Francis Scott Key, a racist, white supremacist, anti-abolitionist lawyer. He felt that black people, free or slave, were genetically inferior to white people. That perception was the foundation of his legal pursuits. When he was the District Attorney for the City of Washington, he defended slavery and prosecuted those in the abolitionist movement. He argued in court that the institution of slavery should be continued, continued ad infinitum, I suppose, as there is no known cure

Protesters Speak Out at Hancock (Video)

October 6, 2017 ucgdew Leave a comment

Hancock is a Reaper Drone hub on the US mainland which is focused on training drone pilots and technicians, and flies deadly Reaper drone missions over Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hancock is scheduled to increase it’s personnel by half over the coming year. Upstate Drone Action members have been engaging in civil resistance at Hancock since 2011. On September 26th, activists delivered a People’s Indictment to the base and stood in the inbound lane of the main entrance to Hancock with