Please call your Representative and Senator and ask them to co-sponsor HR 1134, the People Over the Pentagon Act of 2023. 

The People Over the Pentagon Act of 2023 is legislation proposed in the United States Congress that would reduce the amount authorized to be appropriated for the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2023 by one hundred billion dollars.

First introduced into Congress by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), it has 13 co-sponsors as of March 2023. The bill has not been introduced in the Senate yet. Please ask your Senators to introduce it now. And ask your Representative to co-sponsor the bill.

Bill purpose: This bill would affirm the desire of the American people to reprioritize our financial resources to build a budget that works for people like you and me instead of weapons contractors or war-hawks. By the end of this decade the annual Pentagon budget could be as high as a trillion dollars. This bill would cut the Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2024 by one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000).

Application of the funding cuts: The Department of Defense shall take into consideration the findings and recommendations contained in the Congressional Budget Office report entitled "Illustrative Options for National Defense Under a Smaller Defense Budget," dated October 2021.

Funding cuts will not apply to: The Defense Health Program, each military personnel account and each account providing for pay and benefits for persons appointed into the civil services should be funded at the level provided for in fiscal year 2024. 

In our last issue of Justice Rising, Ingeborg Breines wrote about  "Neighbors as Friends Not Enemies," the person-to-person diplomacy project that seeks to bring people from Nordic countries and Russia into dialogue. If you were moved by this story, you'll be happy to know that it is not the only instance of peacebuilding at the grassroots level. In fact, a new initiative seeks to "de-demonize" across another divide: Iranian and American, and to promote non-violence within Iran itself.

The recently founded "Iranian  Nonviolence" (IN) initiative has been meeting weekly online to talk and learn about non-violence as an ethically evolved collaborative and peaceful approach to human interactions and to managing conflicts. These Sunday gatherings are held on the online Clubhouse mobile application. Participants in these live bilingual (English-Persian) waging-peace "rooms" include Iranians both in and outside Iran--and also those who do not speak Persian (Farsi). 

The guest at the group's upcoming session on Sunday, Feb. 5,  is Prof. Michael Nagler, founder of the Metta Center for Nonviolence. The Center helps people develop, sustain, and deepen their commitment to nonviolence globally, and has Special Consultative Status at the United Nations.

The session starts at 1 p.m. Eastern time. 

The meetings hope to establish a bilingual forum within which Iranian people (especially inside Iran) can build on the heritage of non-violence found in their culture and poetry to engage in peace-building, especially with American people.

For more information, including how to connect on Clubhouse, visit 
Iranian Nonviolence's web page. 

A new resource for peace work is heading your way! Our upcoming issue of Justice Rising is almost ready for the printer. In it you’ll find articles that explore our country’s military/industrial/corporate and Congressional complex—including our ever-growing “defense” budget—and examine the US’s complex relationship with violence, from militarized policing at home to imperialism overseas. 

The issue also features 

• a look at the transition from a war budget to a moral peace budget, and the need to take action to shift federal spending to real human needs;
• the impact of the US military on climate;
• building a movement-driven foreign policy rooted in a feminist peace;
• and more!

Featured authors are Christine Ahn on "Vision for a Feminist Peace," Christine Sorenson on "The Corporate War Machine," Pamela Haag on "Why do Americans Love Guns?," Cindy Piester on "The US Military’s Outsize Impact on the Climate Crisis," Martin Hart-Landsberg on "Reimagining Policing Means Challenging Militarism," and much more, including articles by Alliance writers Jim Tarbell, editor of Justice Rising, David Delk and Nancy Price.  

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked global calls for peaceful settlement of the conflict. It has also emboldened hawkish demands for a no-fly zone, fears of a showdown between nuclear powers or the use of “tactical” nuclear weapons, and greatly increased military spending. A national peace movement for a peace economy has never been more necessary!

Good news! If you’re a member of the Alliance for Democracy, you’ll automatically receive a copy. If you’re not a member, we’ll happily send a copy at your request—just contact us at afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org, or call the office at 978-333-7971. We’ll also post Justice Rising online so you can read and print individual articles. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to share them there, too.

Liberty Tree is hosting an event this Thursday, March 11, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern, on Zoom and Facebook live featuring various activists weighing in on "Movements at the Millenium." 

Event organizers note, "We often are called to look back to the 1960s for lessons. But what of the 1990s and the movements at the turn of the millennium?" 

It's been 20 years since the Battle of Seattle, and robust campaigns against global corporate rule continue to make impacts and inroads. If we are hoping that 2020 is the start of a period of major change for the better across borders and issues, what can we draw from this history to help make that happen? 

Participants in the conversation will be Bill Fletcher, Jr., Shannon Gleeson, Hillary Lazar, Ben Manski, Suren Moodliar, Jackie Smith, Norman Stockwell, and Lesley Wood in conversation. You can register in advance here.

The speakers will be referencing a recent special issue of the journal Socialism and Democracy focusing on "Movements at the Millenium: Seattle +20".

On today's edition of "Corporations and Democracy" radio, hosts Annie Esposito and Steve Scalmanini explore "Will New Supreme Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett Become the Most Radical Right-Wing Member of the Supreme Court" with guest Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and former president of the National Lawyers Guild.

In the second half of the program, Annie and Steve welcome Harvey Wasserman, a long-time writer and radio host, for a take on "The Integrity of the Presidential Election."

"Corporations and Democracy" airs from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. [Pacific Time] on Mendocino and Ukiah public radio stations KZYX & Z, 90.7, 91.5, and 88.3 FM, or you can listen live at the station website, www.kzyx.org. 

Hopefully by now you have a plan to vote. Maybe you've already cast a mail-in or drop-off ballot, or taken advantage of early voting, along with more than 60 million Americans so far.

Now do you have a plan for the day after election day?

President Trump has repeatedly dodged questions about whether or not he'll leave office if he loses the election, all the while making false claims about the security of voting by mail. Contentious elections over issues that shape the soul of the nation are not a new thing, but what's new is a president positioning himself to resist the peaceful transfer of power by alleging that votes have been miscounted or have been fraudulently cast. 

In response, Protect the Results have called for demonstrations the day after the election, to "honor the valid results of the 2020 election, ensure that every vote is counted, and...demand that the losing candidate put their ego aside and concede for the good of our country." 

As of this past weekend, more than 245 events have already been organized around the country, timed to begin as early as November 4. If you would like to participate, we encourage you to sign up for a local event online. Being on the list ensures that the organizers can reach you with information, and helps them with planning.  

Twenty years ago we saw the Supreme Court put a premature halt to ballot counting in order to hand the election to George W. Bush. Four years later, Alliance activists had enough concerns about the conduct of the Ohio Secretary of State to start the Ohio Honest Election Campaign, and challenge the results based on allegations of planned voter suppression in mostly Black, heavily Democratic precincts. Our concerns about voter suppression and the accuracy of electronic voting machines go back a long way. But to campaign on "If I lose it's rigged" is something new. 

We hope that regardless of party you'll take a stand. Make plans to come out for the promise of democracy on November 4th and be prepared to stay out for as long as it takes to know for sure who won the 2020 presidential election. 

​Alliance co-chair David Delk has written a great letter to the editor in support of public banking, looking to the success of the public Bank of North Dakota in making Paycheck Protection Program loans to struggling businesses in that state.

Economic forecasts predict long-term unemployment and business closures as the result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Until there's a widely available and safe vaccine, there will be no hoped-for "V-shaped" recovery. In fact, what we have seen so far is the largest corporations getting bigger and the rich getting richer, as they take over market and services from smaller and locally-owned retailers, restaurants, and service providers.

As financial institutions committed to putting the public good first, public banks would be a key component of a broad economic recovery, if there were more of them! Fortunately there are active campaigns to establish public banks in cities and states across the US. The Massachusetts and Oregon campaigns are Alliance-sponsored projects.

by David Delk
​
Portland Public Banking Alliance is moving forward with a dual focused plan to advance creation of a Portland (OR) municipal public bank while at the same time beginning the process for a state-wide initiative campaign to amend the state constitution to allow formation of a state public bank.
 
Language in the Oregon state constitution has been interpreted to prohibit such a bank. We are working on the initiative language now with a view to getting this on the ballot in November 2022.
 
In the city of Portland we have identified several candidates running for Mayor and City Council positions who support a municipal bank formation. Happily those candidates are in a strong position to join the council next year to give us a majority of council members, and a likely strong partner voice in the Oregon legislature.
 
Organizing at the state level continues as we need to change state law to facilitate municipal bank formation. While the state constitution is said to prohibit a state public bank, no such language exists regarding municipal bank formation. But a couple of changes need to be made to state law to ease the path to achieving that goal. We continue our outreach to current members of the Oregon legislature as well as candidates running for those positions. And we will reintroduce the Municipal Banks Bill in the new legislative session.

by Barbara Clancy

The Massachusetts Public Banking campaign, a sponsored project of Alliance for Democracy, is organizing for a 2021 refiling of our bill to create a public bank to fund municipal infrastructure projects. We are also assessing potential changes to the bill to help the state build a more just and resilient economy following the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Our steering committee is looking at how to broadly define infrastructure in order to win more municipal and public support, as well as considering whether the bank should be empowered to lend directly to small businesses as well as cities and towns. Steering committee members are also very aware that the economic crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic could easily be a precursor for more long-lasting disruption caused by climate collapse. That realization makes our work all the more urgent.

David Delk has given this talk on Citizens United v. FEC to several groups in Oregon. In it, he explains the need for an amendment to the Constitution saying that its rights belong to people, not corporations, and that governments must regulate campaign finance, and gives a call to action to support a Senate version of HJR48, the We the People Amendment.

My topic today is Deepening Democracy.
 
You might expect that I will talk about how to get out the vote, how to get rid of the Electoral College, how we need to reinstate the Voting Rights Act of 1964 which the Supreme Court punched a big hole in recently.  Or maybe about, here in Oregon especially, how to control the flow of unlimited money into the political process, specifically by supporting the legislative referral to the Nov 2020 ballot amending the OR constitution to allow limits on political campaign contributions in Oregon.   We all need to support this referral in our communities.
 
But instead I want to talk about Citizen United, because Jan 21st is the 10 anniversary of that awful decision.  It struck yet another blow against democracy by allowing even more special interest corporate money into the politics system, swamping the voices of ordinary people like you and I.
I want to talk about corporate personhood and the court system’s granting of human rights to corporations. Court-created corporate personhood has given the rights and privileges of human beings to corporations while removing them from the duties and obligation of being our servants.