NACC Newsletter #60

The Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia

4554-12th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105. An affiliate of the War Resisters League and National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee
Tel: (206) 547-0952, Fax: (206) 547-2631. E-mail: nacc (at) drizzle (dot) com
Nonviolent Action
Reprinted from Issue 60 (Winter 2001) of NACC's quarterly newsletter, Nonviolent Action.

A New Kind Of Peace

While the U.S. writhed this fall over a series of minor exposures (and four deaths) from anthrax-tainted mail, now believed by the FBI to have come from an American, a lot of other things were going on. Afghanistan was getting pounded, with an unusually large number of civilian deaths and the prospect of mass starvation this winter; India and Israel used the crisis to escalate attacks in Kashmir and Palestine; and much of the world's public opinion, especially in Islamic countries and elsewhere in the Third World, careened from a deep sympathy toward America on September 11 to suspicion, anger, and outrage over America's hypocrisy over the next two months. Osama bin Laden and his fellow travelers are unquestionably very, very happy. Whether bin Laden started it or not (and the evidence thus far is astonishingly weak), this is his original recipe for world war, and the U.S. is following it like it's reading from his script.

The task of eradicating terrorism rests more than anything else on not just neutralizing existing terrorist plots, but our ability to reach the "hearts and minds" of the much larger number of individuals who are at risk to commit or support such unspeakable acts in the future. That's why "war" is wrong, even as a metaphor; our biggest task is to persuade people, not defeat them.

There are two sets of campaigns in this struggle: security (prevention measures, police, intelligence, and military conquest), and persuasion. On both fronts, the Bush Administration's strategies have been worrisome. At home, increased domestic security has meant horrific abuses of constitutional rights (the USA PATRIOT Act, the 1,200 mysterious detainees and counting; the blank check to rogue intelligence operations).

Abroad, beyond the horrific impact on the ground of American military attacks, the U.S. has been doing almost everything imaginable to not favorably persuade potential allies or members of the "enemy." Our bombs and big gunships are destabilizing a volatile (and nuclear) region, blowing up villages' worth of innocent people, forcing out aid programs, and putting millions of people at risk of starvation this winter. We have used our military campaign as a pretext for newfound chumminess with mass rapists, torturers, and even slavers (the Northern Alliance); brutal dictatorships (Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia); and even a regime waging a near-genocidal campaign against Muslim civilians (Russia, in Chechnya). The most commonly listed existing Islamic grievances with America -- Israel, Iraqi sanctions, military presence in Saudi Arabia -- are being exacerbated, not solved. And when anti-Americanism increased as a result, the U.S. responded by declaring it needed better spin -- not better policy. (Meanwhile, that "better spin," already easily accessible through the pro-U.S. propaganda of our domestic media via CNN, was already insulting people as well.) By embracing death and tyranny throughout the region, America is potentially inspiring hordes of future terrorists who will inevitably find a way to step in whether or not Al-Qaeda and others are immobilized.

Bush is, as Bowie once sang, putting out the fire with gasoline. We've now started a shooting war in which absolutely nobody can explain what victory will look like or how we'll know when we've won. Bush's answer, quite literally, has been "it's over when we say it is."

That would be absurd if it weren't so dangerous.

The old kinds of resolution of a war -- peace through conquest (think World War II), or peace through stalemate (think Israel/Palestine, which is no peace at all) -- won't do in a "war" against self-defined individuals. The fundamental problem with Bush's war paradigm has been his even more dangerous rhetoric about Good and Evil, dividing the world into two camps: bad and good, enemy and friend. (It's an invitation for other divisions, too: Islam and Judeo-Christian, white and non-white, rich and poor.)

We are battling a tactic. And tactics, and ideologies, can change, just as people can and do change, just as people are each, ourselves, varying combinations of good and evil. Bush wants a war on an unseen Other, but with a new century and a shrinking world, that is no longer possible. We are the other. By identifying the enemy as any individual who decides to hate us in a certain way, we've declared a war on the world, on each other, our neighbors, ourselves. When anyone can be the enemy, everyone becomes the enemy.

Ending that war, achieving a new kind of peace, will require refusing to have an enemy. It requires an effort to ensure that those people irrevocably committed to terrorism will fail, not just because it's too hard to carry out such acts (no matter how we try, it won't be), but because few will support their cause. It means welcoming people, not defeating them. It means, for example, using the endless resources and creativity of America to feed all of Afghanistan, not just 37,000, not just a day at a time. It means using U.S. influence to insist on freedom, democracy, self- determination, economic opportunity, and all that other good stuff for all people, including the Palestinians, Iraqis, Algerians, Egyptians, Saudis, and all the other peoples whose oppression the U.S. now aids, directly or indirectly. It means giving people across the Islamic world (and everywhere else, for that matter) reason not so much to love America or the West as to stop seeing us as the Other, recognizing that we're all on a fairly tiny planet together and can no longer risk global conflagrations. There's too much to lose, and too much to gain by knowing, trusting, and defending each other.

To some people, this approach probably sounds like hopeless hippie stuff. But it is, in fact, exactly the premise George Bush is starting from: his inability to understand why people hate America, because it's such a force for good, and his recognition that America needs to state its case (that it's a force for good) more clearly. As a goal, he's right. Assuming it's not all cynical rhetoric, the only gap here is that America's actions are not matching its words -- they're continuing to move in the opposite direction.

Achieving peace in this "war" requires, at the most basic level, recognizing that it is far too dangerous for humanity to allow the planet's affairs to be decided solely through the marketplace and the missile. There must be provisions, in how our planet's technology, resources, and wealth are distributed, to ensure that everyone, everywhere has the chance to be fed, to be housed, to be secure. We haven't even done that in America. We need it across the planet. We have the technology, the resources, the creativity. We now have ever more urgent reasons to find the will.

Now that this war has started, unless the protagonists want to walk away from it, this is, ultimately, the only kind of peace that will stick. With it, cultural and religious differences, nationalism, and disparities in wealth will still leave the U.S. as the focus of some people's resentment. For a handful, the bin Ladens, that resentment will continue to be twisted into psychotic rage.

But we can choose whether the bin Ladens are seen as heroes or pathetic nut cases, whether they are joined by dozens or millions. Without this kind of peace, we are outnumbered, defenseless, doomed, condemned to the sort of slow defeat-through-mosquito-bites that happens with "asymmetrical" wars against an un-bomb-able, unquenchable foe. Or, worse, the kind of global conflagration in which everybody loses.

The only alternative is a peace that will propel us into a new world, a world of six billion family members. To get there, first of all, we have to stop dropping munitions on Afghanistan, and start airlifting serious amounts of food. Now. And then, we need to apply that model on a massive scale. In a war where "everyone must choose," the best way to defeat our potential enemies is to tear down the walls and befriend them.

--Geov Parrish

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Greetings From NACC!

As this newsletter goes to press on November 11 -- Veteran's Day -- it's with the awareness that things could be very different by the time you read these words. The informative, entertaining features we had planned for our autumn newsletter are long gone; changed, like so many other things, by the events of September 11.

Since then, the political terrain has changed; Americans' views of the world have often changed, sometimes radically. But many things have not changed, simply because the violence that has shaken the world for decades, in which America has often participated, came to America's shores, and because America then chose the only response it sometimes seems to know. Hunger has not changed; neither has poverty, racism, the oppression of women, or countless other ills of the world. The need for community has not changed, nor the need to treat our natural world with respect. And our commitment to nonviolence -- as a lifestyle, as a vision, and as a powerful means for creating a better world -- has not changed.

Given the tremendous amount of material already written, and the likelihood of a lot more happening before our next newsletter, we've chosen the things to include in this newsletter with an eye toward what might be most useful: in terms of framing the issues that are out there, and in getting information from alternative sources. We hope it helps.

We've also included some information specific to NACC; as the next article outlines, we've moved up our granting cycle of resisted war taxes for 2002 and decided to give priority to projects and groups responding to the war and the events of 9/11. Thanks to a volunteer who saw our plea in the last newsletter, we have a new and updated web site! Check it out, or use it to get more info on the grant program and applications: http://seanacc.org. Also, NACC has prepared a download-and-print-able pamphlet of articles giving background on war-related issues; it's available from that site, at the NACC office, or via e-mail at nacc (at) drizzle (dot) com.

Lastly, NACC's work has, of course, increased: organizing, granting, trainings, and war tax resistance information and counseling. Particularly with the grants, the more we have, the more we can support the anti-war efforts underway -- either through escrow account interest (see info on p. 8) or directly through your donations. The challenge is tremendous. Thank you for your help, and for the commitment each of you brings to your communities, your conversations, your lives, in this difficult, challenging, and ultimately hopeful time. Many thanks!

Geov Parrish, Coordinator, NACC

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September 11 And Beyond: Some Suggested Talking Points

Updated November 11, 2001. An updated version of talking points on the War on Terrorism and other 9/11-related issues, along with lots of other useful information, is available at the web site of the War Resisters League, http://www.warresisters.org.

Immediate Issues

Several million innocent civilians are at risk of starvation this winter. This would not only be a disaster on the scale of some of the worst killing fields of world history, but, because aid organizations have pulled out due to the risk to aid workers and food from U.S. bombing, the United States will be blamed by much of the world for these entirely preventable deaths. It would thus be not only a catastrophe in its own right, but would guarantee a worldwide level of anti-Americanism -- and terrorism against American citizens and targets -- never before seen. For weeks, aid organizations and foreign governments have begged the U.S. government to stop its bombing for long enough to get food in to where it's needed. Our voices must be added to that call, immediately and loudly, not only for the impact it might have on our government, but to remind the rest of the world that not all Americans agree with this deadly policy. The 40,000 or so PBJs and handiwipes now being dropped daily upon the fields of Afghanistan -- many of those fields littered by landmines -- are pitifully inadequate, and are considered by much of the world to be a propaganda exercise and an insult. Ditto for suggestions that the Taliban is poisoning its own people, and that increased bombing is being done to make it safe for aid workers to return. (As though the Taliban would disappear in a matter of days before winter started. The Soviets probably thought the same sort of thing once.) The bombing must stop, immediately. Any resulting relief for Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group is insignificant compared to the damage to the U.S. should millions starve.

British, European, and Asian media have repeatedly reported that even before the recent escalation in bombing, and before starvation sets in, Afghan civilian casualties have been far more extensive than the U.S. or its media have acknowledged.

So far, the case for Osama bin Laden's culpability in the September 11 attacks has been circumstantial at best, according to numerous sources. The Taliban are still another step removed from this issue, and the civilians and refugees of Afghanistan are caught in this crossfire. In only two months, the U.S. has gone from having the moral high ground, through being victim to one of the worst crimes in world history, to being resented and hated through much of the world. This can only get worse, and more dangerous for our future, should U.S. tactics of the last two months continue -- or even escalate, as many are urging.

In generating its international coalitions to combat terrorism, the U.S. is, once again, inspiring future terrorism, by allying itself with despots widely resented throughout the Islamic world: the tyrannical and corrupt Saudi royal family; the military rulers of Pakistan; Uzbekistan's dictator; and the mass rapists and thugs of the Northern Alliance, whose rule of Kabul from 1992-96 was so brutal that citizens welcomed the Taliban to restore order and security.

There are many other, better ways to combat terrorism other than a military response. Stress them. A military response may seem appropriate; but, in fact, it is not only less effective, not only ineffective, but counter-productive in that it creates far more terrorism than it eradicates. You cannot conquer a tactic; what is needed is persuasion, and that is an area in which the United States is failing spectacularly -- and all the fancy military hardware in the world cannot help.

September 11 was not an act of war. It was a crime -- just as hijacking one jet plane has always been a crime -- even though the consequences were horrific. Wars are fought by nation-states, or armies that want to control nation-states, against other states, for control of a defined geographic area. The Bush Administration has once again flouted international convention and law by unilaterally using its military to retaliate, without working through the legal system to bring the surviving perpetrators to justice.

The Bush Administration is also considering military operations in numerous other countries it alleges have supported or harbored terrorists. Again, unilateral American invasions will create far more problems than they can possibly solve.

Targeting countries that "harbor terrorists" is unjustifiable. Unless those terrorists have been there since September 11 or have committed prior crimes, whole countries are at risk of being punished for "permitting terrorism" before a crime is committed.

Nationalism is the conviction that one's compatriots are uniquely virtuous -- almost certainly the same attitude that fueled the September 11 attack.

Our civil liberties are at great risk -- especially, but not limited to, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, our right to dissent, and our physical and online privacy. The recently passed "anti-terrorist" legislation is in flagrant violation of the Bill of Rights, particularly in its provisions allowing law enforcement officials, without meaningful judicial review, to conduct "Sneak and Peek" operations. To "sneak" (breaking and entering) and "peek" (looking at or taking disks, hard drives, or other evidence) is exactly what is prohibited by the 4th Amendment (banning unreasonable search and seizure). A number of other provisions that are already or may soon become law are similarly flawed.

Some 1,200 people have now been detained in the last two months in the U.S.; almost none have been charged with any crime, or allowed contact with lawyers, consuls, or even family. We have only our government's word that they are non-citizens. These are the actions of a police state, and beyond such immediate cases, they set a chilling precedent.

U.S. media coverage has been awful for the past two months, and seems to be becoming worse. On any given day, comparing newspapers even in Britain (the main U.S. military ally in this war) with even more detailed publications like the New York Times or Washington Post suggest that American media is living in an alternate universe. Effectively, the American public has less information on how this war is actually being waged, and how the world is responding to it, than almost anywhere else in the world. Demand that mainstream U.S. media cover the news more fully and objectively, and seek out and publicize alternative news sources.

Long-Term Issues

To prevent future terrorism, we must both neutralize those people who have committed or are planning to commit terrorist acts, and even more importantly, ensure that they do not have popular support, so that more terrorists don't replace them in the future. The task of the U.S. is not to conquer, but to persuade. To this end, the United States must more consistently work for the ideals of freedom, democracy, economic opportunity, and self-determination that it claims to champion. In the Islamic world alone, a whole host of U.S. policies -- its support for Israel, Iraq sanctions, military bases in Saudi Arabia, support for brutal dictatorships in Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and elsewhere, arms sales, and the like -- must be reviewed. The U.S. must also address the grinding poverty throughout the region, poverty that allows people to become desperate enough that the bin Ladens of the world become appealing. That means reversing the policies of institutions like the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and other forces that are making the gap between rich and poor ever greater. As a first, cost-effective step in persuasion, the U.S. should take the resources and creativity now being used to bomb Afghanistan, and try feeding the country instead.

September 11, 2001 must mark the end of America's cultural isolationism. While the government, military, and corporations that act in our name commit horrors abroad, most of us have remained willfully oblivious. While the world has gotten smaller, ordinary Americans have ignored it. Now that the world's grimmer realities have come home, everyone, regardless of ideology, must start paying closer attention to what is done in our name overseas, and demanding that those acting in our name do so in a way consistent with our ideals of freedom, self-determination, and democracy.

National Missile Defense ("Star Wars") must die. It is now breathtakingly obvious that its premise is preposterous, far down the list of possible threats to the U.S. Mythical intercontinental missiles from some country unable to repair its typewriters isn't how we're at risk.

Our military failed to prevent this attack because for years, national defense hasn't been the purpose of our "national defense". Terrorism cannot be fully prevented, but the Department of Defense needs to stop conquering the world and start defending us. Every other country in the world manages to promote its "economic interests" without trying to run the world. And the money saved could then be used to strengthen and promote opportunity and justice in our own society -- a far more effective form of national security.

The "War on Terrorism" is likely to be at least as dangerous an indefinite pretext for abuse of power, at home and abroad, as the "War on Drugs" has been. It will almost certainly be used as a pretext to demand additional U.S. control of other countries' sovereignty.

We must combat the inevitable backlash against immigration. People commit terrorism because they are murderers -- not because they are foreigners. Ask Timothy McVeigh's victims.

The blank check being written in response to this attack -- when Bush's tax cut for the rich, military spending, and an economic downturn had already eliminated the federal budget surplus -- is likely to mean raiding (and privatizing) Medicare and Social Security; further draconian cuts in social spending; additional tax cuts for the wealthy; and wasteful, unnecessary new Pentagon toys. The aviation and insurance and insurance industries are receiving massive bailouts, but the workers they are laying off aren't seeing a dime of it. If the government claims it doesn't have enough money, here's an idea: tax the rich and big corporations fairly.

It's more important than ever that alternative energy and conservation be promoted to reduce our dependence upon foreign oil, and that Alaskan oil be reserved for domestic use. Republicans are pushing quick passage of not only the Cheney/Bush energy plan (including ANWR drilling), but unrelated issues like fast track authority in the name of "uniting behind the President."

There's plenty more. The important thing is to act now -- through protest, lobbying, letters, e-mails, talk shows, public education -- before political elites use our panic and rage to win outrages they've dreamed of for years.

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E-mail Addresses Needed!

Slowly, NACC is joining the cyber revolution. We are planning a major database overhaul, and would dearly like to include e-mail addresses. While we do have a few, they're only a precious few (and many of them are likely outdated).

The usual cautionary that we will not sell, share, nor trade your e-mail address with anybody So if you could take a moment to e-mail your e-mail address to us at nacc (at) drizzle (dot) com, we'd appreciate it immensely.

Also, you can customize your database record, if you choose. To wit, let us know into which of the following groupings (other than database-wide mailings) you'd like to be included:

Local Seattle events, actions, announcements, and volunteer opportunities.
Meeting minutes (not exactly the second coming of Tolstoy, but gives an idea what we're up to).
NACC grant announcements and news.

If you are especially interested in any of the following foci, feel free to let us know that as well: War Tax Resistance, Nonviolence Training, Direct Action, Youth/Draft Counseling, Military Spending/Boeing, Third World Solidarity, Prison Solidarity, Art & Revolution.

As regards snail-mail, we're currently mailing four newsletters and two fundraising letters per annum to our entire database. If you'd rather not receive either of these, then let us know that as well.

If you're not already on our mailing list, and would like to be, then by all means e-mail us the above information, as well as your name, address, and (optionally) phone number.

Finally, while NACC relies primarily on volunteer energy and support, it does take some cash to keep the office, phone, and organizing work afloat. The more of it we have, the more we can do. And the more we have left over, the more we can grant to other worthy groups. Please help! Questions? Contact the office at (206) 547-0952 or nacc@drizzle.com. Make donations payable to NACC.

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Money for Organizing, Not for War!

    (Image courtesy Fragments.)

As we wrote in our last newsletter, NACC finished its first annual full funding cycle for money granted from the interest on our CMTC Escrow Account funds (see back page). Five groups received a total of $6,000 to help with: the death penalty, Iraq sanctions, counter-recruitment work, and two community center projects.

We were just starting to plan for year two when Sep. 11, and the following war, erupted. As a result, we've decided both to move up the deadline for granting next year's funds and give priority (but not exclusive priority) to groups working on anti-war and 9/11-related issues.

First, some background. Since the early 1980s, the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign Escrow Account has held between $250,000 and $300,000 in resisted war taxes. The money has been deposited by war tax resistance (WTR) practitioners, and until last year, NACC primarily used interest generated to support our WTR and activist organizing. The CMTC Escrow Account is an alternative tax fund like many others around the country, but has been somewhat unique in that our depositor base is national, not local, and our interest has been used to support our own political work. Most alternative tax funds grant or loan interest (and sometimes principal), and haven't funded their own activist work as part of their basic function. The CMTC account has, for a number of years, been the largest WTR Escrow Account in the country.

Self-funding has allowed NACC to maintain an office and part-time staff, produce Conscience (now Nonviolent Action), write and distribute WTR resources, and provide WTR counseling. In the past five years, NACC has also initiated and participated in local organizing with an anti-militarist, social justice, and nonviolence focus. And now, with a major new war prospectively stretching years into the future, our work is more important and timelier than ever.

That's where the money comes from. It's up to you to suggest where it should go. Applications are now available from our web site (http://www.seanacc.org), via e-mail (nacc (at) drizzle (dot) com); or by calling ((206) 547-0952) or writing (NACC, 4554 12th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98105 USA). Applications must be received by Feb. 1, 2002; funding decisions will be made by March 15, 2002. Good luck!

The Conscience and Military Tax Campaign (CMTC) Escrow Account

The CMTC Escrow Account is the largest escrow account of resisted war taxes in the US. Since 1979, we have reinvested the resisted money in socially responsible community development projects across the country, using the interest to fund war tax resistance organizing and counseling work, peace and social justice activism, and grants to support nonviolent activism around the country and the world. We need depositors! Your money helps us continue this vital work, and it's returnable to you at any time. For more information on opening a CMTC Escrow Account, contact the NACC office.

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The Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia

4554-12th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105. An affiliate of the War Resisters League and NWTRCC
Tel: (206) 547-0952, Fax: (206) 547-2631. E-mail: nacc (at) drizzle (dot) com