[pjw] Event: Medea Benjamin talks Ukraine war Wed 11/16 in person at 7 PM

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello IAG supporters

Next Wednesday our allies at the Peace Action Group of the First Unitarian 
Church are sponsoring an in-person talk by Medea Benjamin. Details are 
below. Note that the COVID protocol for this event is "masks strongly 
recommended," and that it is indoors in one of the Church's two chapels, 
so factor that into your scheduling.

thanks
dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

"Ukraine, Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict"

Wednesday, November 16, 2022
7 PM to 9 PM. 
Doors open at 6:30 PM. 

First Unitarian Church,
Elliot Chapel, SW 12th Ave. and Salmon  Street. Portland OR

$5 donation requested, no one turned away for lack of funds

Chief sponsor is Peace Action Group of First Unitarian Church, Portland as 
well as the Economic Justice Action Group of First Unitarian, Alliance for 
Democracy and Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility.

https://www.codepink.org/ukraine_book_talk_first_unitarian_portland

Russia's brutal February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has attracted widespread 
condemnation across the West. Government and media circles present the 
conflict as a simple dichotomy between an evil empire and an innocent 
victim. In this concise, accessible and highly informative primer, Medea 
Benjamin and Nicolas Davies insist the picture is more complicated.

Yes, Russia's aggression was reckless and, ultimately, indefensible. But 
the West's reneging on promises to halt eastward expansion of NATO in the 
wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union played a major part in prompting 
Putin to act. So did the U.S. involvement in the 2014 Ukraine coup and 
Ukraine's failure to implement the Minsk peace agreements. The result is a 
conflict that is increasingly difficult to resolve, one that could 
conceivably escalate into all-out war between the United States and 
Russia-- the world's two leading nuclear powers.

Skillfully bringing together the historical record and current analysis, 
War in Ukraine looks at the events leading up to the conflict, surveys the 
different parties involved, and weighs the risks of escalation and 
opportunities for peace. For anyone who wants to get beneath the heavily 
propagandized media coverage to an understanding of a war with 
consequences that could prove cataclysmic, reading this timely book will 
be an urgent necessity.

About the authors:

Medea Benjamin is a co-founder of CODEPINK and the fair trade advocacy 
group Global Exchange. She is the author of Drone Warfare, Kingdom of the 
Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection and Inside Iran. In 2012, she was 
awarded the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation's Peace Prize; she is also 
recipient of the 2014 Gandhi Peace Award and the 2010 Martin Luther King, 
Jr. Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Nicolas J.S. Davies is the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American 
Invasion and Destruction of Iraq. He has written extensively for 
Huffington Post, Alternet, Consortium News, Common Dreams, Salon, The 
Progressive, and Foreign Policy in Focus.