[pjw] REPORT BACK: Special guests: Friday rally #110 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello again Iraq Affinity Group supporters

OK, let's start with the obvious issue-- we got rained on last night, but 
not too badly, for most of the rally and march. So after 16 weeks where 
the worst was just a little drizzle, that's kind of a great winter/spring 
track record!

There were eight of us at Pioneer Courthouse Square explicitly for the 
Friday Rally for Peace and Justice. It turned out we were layering our 
weekly event on top of a rally marking Quds day, celebrated on the last 
Friday of Ramadan every year to support Palestinian liberation. Twelve 
people were already at the Square when we arrived; they stayed right up 
until we started the march. One of our eight people also left, so seven of 
us went on the march route.

With the rise in COVID cases of 50% week-over-week here in Oregon (and 
cases on the rise in 47 of 50 states) we're still asking people to mask 
up and stay distanced.

We had a lot of positive responses, not just in conjunction with the 
Palestine solidarity banners but along the march route as well. One person 
walking by the rally said "that's a protest I can support!" Another person 
stopped to take a picture of the Ann Wright Livestream flyer (enlarged to 
11x17 and hanging on the little green wagon of peace); I handed her the 
letter-sized flyer.

  https://pjw.info/ann_wright_livestream062022.pdf

I'm not sure whether anyone took the hard copies of our candidate 
questionnaires. If you need a hard copy to help you vote, contact me at the 
office 503-236-3065 (text or call). Remember the PJW and PCW 
questionnaires are linked here:

https://tinyurl.com/CWqre22

So, at the rally here's some of what we talked about:

--First, in honor of our special guests, I recapped some of the news we've 
been talking about regarding Israel/Palestine, such as the attacks at the 
Al Asqa Mosque, ongoing killings in the West Bank, the ongoing blockade of 
Gaza, etc. and how all these things are being done with impunity while the 
war in Ukraine gets all the attention.

--On that note, it was pointed out in this article that governments 
representing half the world's population are neutral on Ukraine:

  https://archive.ph/S5wbE

---And, NATO says they expect to be backing Ukraine militarily for years 
(not weeks, months):

  https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-04-28/nato-says-ready-to-support-kyiv-in-a-war-against-russia-that-could-last-years

---ALSO, Defense Secretary Austin has explicitly said the US' goal is to 
weaken Russia. What could possibly go wrong.

  https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3462190-pentagon-chief-says-us-wants-to-see-russia-weakened/

--Meanwhile, the Iran nuclear talks remain stalled, boiling down to the 
one issue of whether the US will take the Revolutionary Guard off the 
"terrorist" list; Biden faces opposition from his own party on this.

  https://www.politico.eu/article/iran-nuclear-talks-freeze-amid-terrorist-label-spat-even-with-deal-on-the-table/

--On a slightly more optimistic note, the House and Senate have each 
proposed bills to reduce (and be more transparent about) civilians harmed 
in US military actions. Of course, this assumes it's OK to hurt ANYONE in 
a military action, but it's a step forward I guess.

  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/28/lawmakers-push-to-prevent-civilian-harm-in-us-military-operations

--I'm sure there is no possible selfish reason the US is calling for Libya 
to put aside its political divisions so that oil production can re-start.

  https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/us-calls-end-libya-oil-blockade-immediately

--In Iraq, they have told Turkey they can't keep coming over the border to 
chase Kurdish independence fighters and claiming "self-defense."

  https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/25042022

--The UN said (and I'm not sure why they needed an analyst to figure this 
out) that freezing Afghanistan's assets is causing setbacks for Afghan 
women.

  https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-asset-freezes-worsen-afghan-womens-suffering-un-experts-2022-04-25/

In local news, I noted I could not find a link to send out about this, 
but on Thursday the City Council refused to vote on the report 
commissioned to see whether the Portland Police are racially or 
politically biased. I think they basically agreed with Portland Copwatch's 
analysis which is (as I wrote on Feb. 5) "this animal has a beak, a tail,
webbed feet and quacks but we can't definitively say it is a duck." For 
the record, yes, the PPB is racially and politically biased.

KGW did a story on this last night, _during the rally_:

  https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/portland-leaders-frustrated-report-racial-political-biases-police/283-ba0f6850-34f0-401f-a8d7-f9d39de023a1

Along the march route, I noted that news came out this week that Israel is 
currently detaining 579 Palestinians without charged, the highest number 
since 2016. As a reminder, there are only 37 people still held in 
Guantanamo Bay.*

  https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/palestinians-detained-israel-highest-five-years

As we headed back to the Square, I noted how even with aid to Ukraine the 
US is showing how they use our tax money for war, not human needs: the $33 
billion President Biden is asking for is made up of $20.4 billion for 
military purposes, $8.5 billion for the economy, and only $3 billion for 
humanitarian aid. With people living on the streets here, is this the best 
way to spend money, throwing more fuel on the fire?

  https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-business-europe-economy-5656f58ae48cb3cf37da0d0c431a15b8

I have to say I'm embarrassed that after we did a special Friday Rally 
marking May Day last year I didn't mention the multiple significances of 
international workers' day, including its use by GW Bush to 
prematurely declare the end of the Iraq war, Obama to kill Osama Bin 
Laden, and Trump to theoretically get out of Afghanistan.

This week we had a similar experience with the Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial 
Sign where it went down the block from the Gucci store and froze up, but 
this time it didn't go out until we were around the corner on the south 
side of Pioneer Place Mall. It turned itself back on again when we stopped 
to put the signs back into the wagon. Gremlins!

We hope to see more people come out as the "pandemic phase" goes 
"endemic" in the US (according to the usually reliable Dr Fauci), but with 
this coming Monday marking two weeks since the transportation mask mandate 
was lifted, it's probably good to still be cautions.

thanks
--dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group


*- I said there were 38 but I must have missed one of the releases:
https://www.closeguantanamo.org/Prisoners