In the years following the September 11 terrorist attacks, peace and justice groups in Oakland, California have organized a number of successful public readings of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech in front of our Federal Building.  We have involved local elected officials, community activists and students in the readings, which have often been preceded by press conferences linking the reading to issues of current concern.  The readers are instructed not to change Dr. King’s words or add any of their own.  Thus, local elected officials are compelled to hear Dr. King’s original words coming out of their own mouths.

Here’s a downloadable “kit” to help you organize a public reading in your community.

1. We have divided the speech into 16 sections, with an introduction.  We suggest that you print out the introduction and speech in an enlarged font and assemble several 3-ring binders including the full set of materials.
2. Invite local elected officials, community leaders, activist groups and high school students to participate in a public reading in front of your Federal Building, City Hall or other suitable location.  You may want to hold a press conference involving representatives of these constituencies in advance. You may need to secure a permit for a public assembly or sound system.
3. Set up a “podium” and some visuals.  The podium can be as simple as a music stand draped with a cloth, where you can support one of the open binders, and posters or banners depicting Dr. King and whatever messages you want to project.
4. Begin the reading by sounding a gong or bell, signifying a moment of silence, and have someone read the introduction.  You may wish to prepare a list of readers in advance, which you could post on butcher paper or a whiteboard. You should have an extra binder or two available so that readers can practice reading their sections in advance.
5. Provide your readers with a set of simple instructions so they will know that they should not make additional remarks. You may also wish to provide readers with badges identifying them as readers.
6. If there’s a lot of interest from prospective readers, you may wish to repeat the reading several times.  In Oakland we have done as many as three consecutive readings, ending with a symbolic ceremony at sundown.

Materials

• Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, By Rev. Martin Luther King, 4 April 1967 (divided for reading)

• 2022 Introduction for California readings

• 2022 Introduction for readings outside California

• “Más allá de Vietnam: Un tiempo para romper el silencio” Por el Rev. Martin Luther King – Traducción al español de introducción (en 2 partes) y discurso (en 16 secciones)

• “Next Reader” dividers

• Guidelines for readers

• Badges for readers

• Readers list

• Short slide show from previous years’ readings in Oakland, CA

• “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” April 4, 2022 flier (English)

• “Más allá de Vietnam: Un tiempo para romper el silencio,” 4 de abril de 2022 volante (Español)

• Zoom reading of “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” by members of the California Poor People’s Campaign, recorded March 22, 2022

   

  (prepared by Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation: wslf@earthlink.net)

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When Dr. King gave this speech, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War. The country was in turmoil as peace activists resisted the draft, and anti-war and civil rights protesters took to the streets. King’s speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home. And it was controversial in some parts of the civil rights movement.

In this powerful speech Dr, King provides both a diagnosis and a cure that remains fully relevant today. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism, into one “moral fusion” campaign.

UFPJ encourages groups around the country to organize public participatory readings of the speech this April 4 as part of the Poor People’s Campaign Mobilization for the June 18 Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington.

We have prepared a toolkit which provides everything you need to organize your own reading. You can organize a reading in person or online. Let us know if you’re planning a reading!

Listen to an audio recording of Dr. King delivering “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” on April 4, 1967.

Heads up, member groups! UFPJ will be inviting member groups to participate in a virtual reading of “Beyond Vietnam” on April 4 and launching a Poor People’s Campaign working group. You’ll be hearing more from us soon.

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It is time for the people of the world to cry Enough! No more war threats, no more War! The peace movement must be a global people’s movement, aligned with the policies of no government.

The governments of the United States and its allies bear responsibility for refusing to include the post-Soviet Russian government in security arrangements that would allow it to feel secure within its borders. After the Cold War, Russia’s government sought a European security order in which it could be a full participant. Russia also relied on assurances from the United States government and its allies that NATO would not be expanded to the East.

Instead, the government of the U.S. and its NATO allies pursued a far more confrontational course, expanding NATO to include former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact countries, and leaving open the possibility of membership for Georgia and Ukraine, moves which would extend the alliance right up to Russia’s borders. It was against this background that the 2014 overthrow of Ukraine’s government occurred, leaving Russia with a government backed by Western powers on its doorstep. Followed swiftly by Russia’s occupation of Crimea and the revolt of two regions in Ukraine’s East, the crisis devolved into a complex proxy war in the breakaway regions, with forces supported by Russia facing a Ukraine military receiving varying degrees of support from the government of the United States and its NATO allies.

The people of Ukraine have borne the brunt of all this. In eight years of fighting, 14,000 Ukrainian soldiers and noncombatants have been killed, and over 1.5 million displaced.  Russia also likely has suffered combat casualties in Ukraine, although the numbers are unknown. The society and infrastructure of Ukraine’s East have been badly damaged by eight years of fighting.

And now the people of Ukraine find themselves at the center of a renewed and broader crisis, one that could draw the militaries of the United States, its NATO allies and Russia into direct conflict. The Russian government has deployed a significant part of its land forces towards Ukraine’s borders.  At the same time it is making demands for a sweeping renegotiation of Europe’s security arrangements, including a significant rollback of NATO. The United States and NATO have for the most part rejected those demands, offering instead negotiations on a narrower range of arms control and confidence-building measures, and refusing to place any limits on further NATO expansion.

The United States government and some of its NATO partners are increasing weapons shipments to Ukraine. The U.S. also is placing military forces on alert for rapid deployment to Europe. Russia, the United States, and NATO all are conducting significant naval exercises in the waters in and around Europe. It must be emphasized that Russia and the United States together hold over 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons, and a wider war in Europe could involve four out of the original five nuclear-armed states.

All of the governments make much of their “sovereign” rights to deploy their militaries however they wish within their borders or in international waters, and to make alliances and send weapons and military forces to any allied country that will accept them. That does not mean that every alliance is wise, or that a government can deploy its forces at will in ways that an adversary is likely to understand as a threat. The United Nations Charter, a treaty to which all the antagonists here are a party, prohibits member states from “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state….” (Article 2, sec.4) It also requires members to “settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice, are not endangered.” (Article 2, Sec. 3). Further introduction of more weapons and forces, overt or covert, into or around Ukraine and its disputed regions by any party only increases the likelihood of a war that careens out of control.

All military forces of all nations must stand down, and their governments must stop insisting that this crisis is necessary. It is up to the peoples of each of the antagonists to demand this of their governments.

Here in the United States, what we must demand of our government, in the hope that the people of all countries involved on all sides of this deepening crisis will make similar demands on theirs:

Immediately:

–We call on the government of the United States to be willing to negotiate with any and all states without conditions. Its “security” policies have played a significant role in bringing Europe, and the world, to the brink of disaster.

–The people of the Ukraine are on the front lines of the ongoing war and most at risk should it intensify. We call on the government of the United States to use all diplomatic means to encourage an immediate cease fire, a pullback of military forces from the conflict zones, and negotiations aimed at giving Ukraine’s people a real voice in their future, free of coercion from armed formations of all kinds, whether state militaries or regional militias. The United States should also provide humanitarian assistance to be directed to ordinary people in all of Ukraine’s regions, sustaining social benefits and public services and aiding in reconstruction of housing and public infrastructure damaged by war.

–We call for an immediate cessation of shipments of weapons or other military aid to Ukraine, and of the introduction of additional U.S. military forces and equipment of any nature into Europe.

–We call for an immediate, and world-wide, moratorium on U.S. military exercises outside the borders of the United States, and especially of provocative exercises, tests, and deployment of nuclear-capable forces.

–We call for a halt to the rush to additional sanctions against Russia, its government, or its economy. Ill-considered sanctions are more likely to impair than enhance good faith negotiations.

–We call for a moratorium on expansion of NATO.

And then we call for:

— Reversal of NATO decisions to expand rapid reaction forces and supporting infrastructure in Eastern Europe.

–Termination of U.S. programs to deploy U.S. ballistic missile defenses in Europe.

–Removal of U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe.

–More than three quarters of a century after the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and more than half a century after the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom committed in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to negotiate in good faith for an end of the nuclear arms race and the elimination of nuclear arsenals, immediate commencement of negotiations encompassing all nuclear-armed states for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

–Commencement of broader negotiations towards peaceful, inclusive security arrangements for Europe in which the NATO military alliance, its roots deep in the Cold War, will no longer be seen as needed by any of Europe’s people, allowing all U.S. forces in Europe, after more than three quarters of a century, to finally come home.

The most powerful countries have been in a permanent state of mobilization for war for over 80 years. We have lived under the threat of nuclear war for three quarters of a century. It is time to bring all the troops home, to bring us all home from the war.

The United for Peace and Justice Coordinating Committee

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According to Bishop William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, National Co-Chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: “It is NOT just a day of action. It is a declaration of an ongoing, committed moral movement to 1) Shift the moral narrative; 2) Build power; and 3) Make real policies to fully address poverty and low wealth from the bottom up.”

The Poor People’s Campaign believes that any nation that ignores nearly half of its citizens is in a moral, economic and political crisis. There were 140 million people who were poor or one emergency away from economic ruin before the pandemic. Since March 2020, while hundreds of thousands of people have died, millions are on the edge of hunger and eviction, and still without health care or living wages, billionaire wealth has grown by trillions.

There are abundant resources to meet our needs, and we march to summon the political will to do so. America must have a moral revolution now. It is time to nonviolently disrupt, protest, shake up and alter the direction of our nation towards a moral agenda of love, truth, justice and equal protection under the law.

On June 18, 2022 the Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls will be a generationally transformative and disruptive gathering of poor and low wealth people, state leaders, faith communities, moral allies, unions and partnering organizations. We are building power for an agenda that lifts all people by challenging the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism!

Click here for an Organizer’s Manual with more details about the June 18 Mass Poor People’s & Low Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the polls.

Start making plans to go to the Washington, DC! Click here to RSVP for June 18.

Help get the word out! Click here for a Digital Toolkit with graphics, videos, Rally Bus rideshare information, sample social media posts and more.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. We encourage you to find your State Committee and join the Campaign!

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Exactly one year before his tragic assassination two months later, King stated: “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work, weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism, into one “moral fusion” campaign. The Poor Peoples Campaign Jubilee Platform calls for cutting U.S, military spending by half including by closing 60% of U.S. foreign military bases, ending the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere, and dismantling and eliminating nuclear weapons.

It is increasingly clear that the multiple national and global crises we are confronting, including nuclear weapons, climate change, systemic racism, a growing wealth gap and rising national authoritarianisms arise from the same foundational causes, and that we are unlikely to prevail on any of them as single issues. We need to come together as never before to build political power through durable, diverse, multi-issue coalitions, networks, and networks of networks based on our shared commitments to universal, indivisible human security.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a national organizing partner in the Poor People’s Campaign. With active committees in 45 states, and support from an extraordinary range of constituencies including labor unions, faith organizations, racial justice, anti-poverty, environmental and peace groups, the Poor People’s Campaign is building towards a generationally transformative Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Worker’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington and to the Polls, June 18, 2022. Get involved. Join your state committee. Find a bus coming to Washington D.C. from your state on June 18!

In the runup to June 18, we are working with the Poor People’s Campaign to organize public participatory readings around the country of Dr, King’s seminal speech, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, on April 4, the 54^th anniversary of his tragic assassination in 1968. Click here for a downloadable “tool kit” to help you organize a public reading in your community.

The post The Poor People’s Campaign: Picking up Martin Luther King’s Unfinished Work appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

Regrettably the TPNW has been rigorously opposed by the United States and other nuclear armed states, as well as those allied states under “nuclear umbrellas.” However, the five original nuclear-armed states, the U.S., Russia, U.K., France and China are required “to pursue negotiations in good faith” to end the nuclear arms race “at an early date and to nuclear disarmament” under another treaty. That treaty, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), entered into force in 1970. The States Parties to the NPT meet for month-long review conferences every five years. The 10^th NPT Review Conference, originally scheduled for May 2020 and postponed several times due to Covid, was supposed to take place starting January 4 at the United Nations in New York, but it was postposed again due to the surging pandemic. Nonetheless, after months of planning and preparation, there’s been a burst of activity around the NPT.

On January 3, the U.S., Russia, U.K., France and China issued a Joint Statement by the Leaders of the of the Five Nuclear-Weapon States on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races. Remarkably, despite rising tensions among them, the “N-5” came together to issue a superficially reassuring joint statement, starting out with an affirmation “that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” The Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons issued a response, ‘Nuke-Speak’ Should be Turned into Real Action to Prevent Nuclear War, End the Nuclear Arms Race, and Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, welcoming this affirmation but calling out the N-5’s Orwellian “Nuke-speak.” With potential flashpoints over Ukraine and Taiwan, the risk of another use of nuclear weapons is as high as it has ever been. The nuclear disarmament process is stalled, and the five NPT Nuclear-Weapon States cannot credibly claim they are meeting their NPT obligations.

On January 4, Peace & Planet went ahead with its Online International Conference: Building our Movements & Impacting the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, featuring distinguished speakers from Finland, Argentina, Israel, Russia, Iran, Germany, South Korea, USA, South Africa, Norway and Japan. Read the Peace & Planet Message to the 2022 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference and to the International Community.

On January 10, a comprehensive Joint Statement from Civil Society to the States Parties of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, was released by Reaching Critical Will on behalf of more than 90 organizations worldwide including United for Peace & Justice. The joint statement presents three key messages: Global support for the NPT is strong, but its long-term viability cannot be taken for granted; the grave state of global affairs and the rising risk of nuclear conflict and arms racing requires new and bolder leadership from responsible states; and those that resist change also say the “environment” is not right for further progress, but responsible actors everywhere are rising to the challenge. A video presentation is available here.

More people are becoming aware that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a strong proponent of nuclear disarmament. In 1963, he wrote: “I am convinced that the church cannot remain silent while mankind (sic) faces the threat of being plunged into the abyss of nuclear annihilation. If the church is true to its mission, it must call for an end to the arms race.” On January 11, 2022, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico released a new pastoral letter urging the local community and the world to join “a renewed commitment to the cause of peace” with the goal of eliminating all global nuclear weapons arsenals. Titled, “A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament,” the 50-page document can be downloaded here. For a one-page summary, click here.

Two months before his tragic assassination, Dr. King declared:  “We have played havoc with the destiny of the world and we have brought the whole world closer to nuclear confrontation . . . I am still convinced that the struggle for peace and the struggle for civil rights as we call it in America happen to be tied together.” Some groups are linking the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday (this year, Jan. 17) with celebrations of the one-year anniversary of entry-into-force of the TPNW on Jan. 22. Click here for Resources for MLK Holiday and Ban Treaty Anniversary, including a banner, quotes, and a sample letter to the editor.

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work, weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism, into one “moral fusion” campaign. The Poor Peoples Campaign Jubilee Platform calls for cutting U.S. military spending by half including by closing 60% of U.S. foreign military bases, ending the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere, and dismantling and eliminating nuclear weapons.

It is increasingly clear that the multiple national and global crises we are confronting, including nuclear weapons, climate change, systemic racism, a growing wealth gap and rising national authoritarianisms arise from the same foundational causes, and that we are unlikely to prevail on any of them as single issues. We need to come together as never before to build political power through durable, diverse, multi-issue coalitions, networks, and networks of networks based on our shared commitments to universal, indivisible human security.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a partner in the Poor People’s Campaign. With active committees in 45 states, and support from an extraordinary range of constituencies including labor unions, faith organizations, racial justice, anti-poverty, environmental and peace groups, the Poor People’s Campaign is building towards a generationally transformative Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Worker’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington and to the Polls, June 18, 2022. Get involved. Join your state committee. Find a bus coming to Washington D.C. from your state on June 18!

Forward together, not one step back!

The UFPJ Coordinating Committee

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As explained by Bishop William J. Barber II, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, along with Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis: “Congress must pass voting rights protections and the Build Back Better plan before the end of the year to help the country heal from the pandemics of systemic racism, poverty, voter suppression and COVID-19 that are wreaking havoc on our daily lives, our democracy and our nation’s social and moral infrastructure. So we are telling Congress and President Biden to get it done in ‘21!”

The Moral Monday actions began with an early morning motorcade from Senator Joe Manchin’s office in Martinsburg, West Virginia to DC. There, poor people, low-wage workers, miners and other directly impacted people from 33 states addressed hundreds of people at a noon rally in support of voting rights protections and Build Back Better. Tens of thousands more watched a livestream of the rally.  Following the rally, more than 70 people were arrested during a mass nonviolent moral direct action on Capitol Hill to demand meetings with senators who have met for months with lobbyists, serving corporate interests rather than the common good. Sign a letter to Senator Manchin: Moral Mandate to Stop the Lies and Meet with West Virginians.

According to Rev. Theoharis: “Poor and low-income people are saying that we can no longer wait for voting rights, living wages, healthcare, immigration reform and so much more and that we also must take life-saving action to compel Congress and the White House to defend our democracy and lift from the bottom so everyone rises.”

Watch a video recording of the Mass Moral Monday in DC here.

UFPJ is proud to be a national mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign. Other partners in the Dec. 13 Moral Monday included SEIU/Fight for $15, Black Voters Matter, Common Defense, Presbyterian Church (USA), Unitarian Universalist Association, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, American Friends Service Committee, Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, Hindus for Human Rights, the National Council of Jewish Women, Pax Christi USA, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism,  Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice, Indivisible, Order of Lutheran Franciscans, Dayenu, Institute for Policy Studies, Forward Justice Action Fund, Sunrise Movement, League of Women Voters, DC Vote, Coalition for the People’s Agenda, the Union for Reform Judaism the Deaconess Community ELCA, Global Women’s Strike and Women of Color Global Women’s Strike.

The Dec. 13 rally was the last Washington, DC program of 2021 for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, which will hold a news conference on Jan. 10, 2022, at the National Press Club to announce details of a Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington that will be held June 18, 2022.

Join the Poor People’s Campaign and find your State Committee here

The post The Poor People’s Campaign: Get it Done in 2021! appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) came into effect in 1970 with the promise of creating a nuclear weapons free world. The nuclear powers have refused to fulfill their part of the bargain, leaving humanity hostage to unspeakable possibilities that could end civilization. Close to $100 billion of public funds are spent annually on nuclear weapons at the expense of urgent human needs and investment in common security. Without a strong multilateral commitment to nuclear disarmament, this will continue to rise. Beginning January 4, diplomats will converge on the United Nations for the 10^th Review Conference of the NPT, with the ostensible goal of holding governments accountable to fulfill the Treaty’s promise. They cannot afford to fail.

With new nuclear arms races, confrontations over Taiwan, Ukraine, the South China Sea and Kashmir, the stakes for the Review Conference and the world couldn’t be higher. Yet, the bar that diplomats have set for a successful NPT Review Conference couldn’t be much lower.

To send a powerful message to the NPT States Parties, and to build our national and international abolition and peace movements, the Peace & Planet network organized an online conference in which movement leaders and analysts shared their expectations for the Review Conference and spelled out what our governments must do to ensure full implementation of the Treaty.

Speakers included:

Tarja Cronberg SIPRI (Finland), Maria Pia Devoto (Argentina), Sharon Dolev METO (Israel) Alexey Gromyko Russian Academy of Sciences_(Russia) Emad Kiyaei METO (Iran), Marion Kupker (Germany), Taeho Lee PSPD (South Korea), Fred Lubang, PCBLNISA (Philippines), Jasmine Owens, Physicians for Social Responsibility (USA), Matthew Parks COSATU (South Africa), Liv Torres LO Union (Norway), Yayoi Tsuchida of Gensuikyo (Japan).

 Peace & Planet Network Participating Organizations: Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Campaign for Peace, Disarmament & Common Security, Gensuikin, Gensuikyo, International Peace Bureau, International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, International Trade Union Confederation,  Mouvement de la Paix,  Peace Action, Peace Action New York State, Peoples Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Public Council of the South Coast of the Gulf of Finland, Stop the War Coalition Philippines, United for Peace & Justice, Western States Legal Foundation

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