All posts by Augustus

Music, Occupy Wall Street, Royal Book of the Week

Celebrate Woody Guthrie 100th Birthday with one of our favorite books

July 14, 2012 Augustus 1 Comment

For Woody Guthries’s 100th birthday. The children’s book “This Land Is Your Land” first appeared in 1998, and has since been updated with a special edition. The book has bright, folk art style illustrations by Kathy Jakobsen which bring Woody Guthrie’s classic song to life. It includes interesting details such as: a scene with a soup kitchen in a poor neighborhood; images of Woody Guthrie playing guitar with friends; and depictions of picnics and sing-a-longs in various regions of the USA. There is also a tribute to Woody Guthrie written by his friend Pete Seeger.

Every page will stimulate discussion about how things were and are around America, as well as the lessons and culture of Occupy Wall Street. And, your child will become familiarized with a song that has been sung over and over again — with old and new verses — at Liberty Square and many other occupations.

“This Land Is Your Land” is truly beautiful, fun, and thoughtful. It is a great book to use to explain to children ideas such as economic hard times, the joy and power of community, and the focus of Occupy Wall Street. Continue reading Celebrate Woody Guthrie 100th Birthday with one of our favorite books →

Royal Book of the Week

Nader Approved: Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated and Battling the Corporate Elite

July 11, 2012 Augustus 1 Comment

Ralph Nader just recommend a book from one of our favorite publisher as summer reading. Here is what he had to say:

Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated and Battling the Corporate Elite by Bruce E. Levine, Chelsea Green, 2011. Going beyond the how-to-become-active civic handbook, Levine, a clinical psychologist invites us to explore what he calls the “learned helplessness” that has “taken hold for a great many Americans…locked into an abuse syndrome in which revelations about their victimization by a corporate-government partnership produce increased anesthetization rather than constructive action.” The author, citing historian Lawrence Goodwy, then shows many ways toward “individual self-respect” and “collective self-confidence,” the “cultural building blocks of mass democratic politics.”

antiwar, Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Book of the Week, Social Justice

MLK: Declaration of Independence from the War

July 4, 2012 Augustus 2 Comments

The sixteenth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace contains Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1967 speech Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam. The speech, which is also known as Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence ,was given in the Manhattan’s Riverside Church exactly one year before King was assassinated. It is sad to realize that Dr. King’s 45 year old attempt to seek freedom from war applies equally to the Vietnam War as it does to the wars that the United States is now waging in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen.

Through the lens of history, it is hard to understand how controversial the speech was in 1967. It is common wisdom today that the Vietnam War was a mistake, despite the US government’s recently started 10-year plan to rehabilitate American’s view of that war. In 1967, all the major media backed the Vietnam War. Dr. King was regularly attacked in national newspapers such as the New York Times for speaking out against the Vietnam War. Peace activists are still attacked in today’s media for opposing today’s wars for the same reasons that Dr. King cites.

Dr. King responds to his critics who say that he should only speak about the domestic issue of civil rights, and keep silent on the VietNam War. The critics make the lesser evil argument that Dr. King is hurting the cause of civil rights by speaking out against the war. Dr. Kings explains in the introduction of his speech that those critics misunderstand both who he is , and misunderstand”the world in which they live.” Dr. King gives seven reasons why he must speak out: Continue reading MLK: Declaration of Independence from the War →

antiwar, environment, Nonviolence, Occupy Wall Street, Peace, Royal Book of the Week

Independent books for July 4th

July 3, 2012 Augustus 1 Comment

Books for Independence Day

There’s never been a better time to speak out against injustices, stand up together for our rights and take action to preserve sovereignty, community and democracy.

Occupy World Street

A Global Roadmap for Radical Economic and Political Reform

As demonstrators worldwide demand change, Occupy World Street offers a sweeping vision of how to reform our global economic and political structures, break away from empire, and build a world of self-determining sovereign states that respect the need for ecological sustainability and uphold human rights.

In this refreshingly detailed plan, Ross Jackson shows how a handful of small nations could take on a leadership role; create new alliances, new governance, and new global institutions; and, in cooperation with grassroots activists, pave the way for other nations to follow suit.

“Ross Jackson presents us with an extraordinary global plan to tackle the multiple crises of our times—awesome in conception, sensitive in detail, and realistic enough to succeed.”—Richard Register, author of Ecocities—Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature.

2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years

Commemorating the fortieth Anniversary of The Limits to Growth, 2052 asks, what will happen to humanity over the next forty years?

We know that much needs to change to make our future more sustainable. But will we rise to the occasion? How much change is likely to occur? And how do we prepare to live good lives in the world that is likely to emerge?

These are the questions that propelled Jorgen Randers, a renowned analyst of global trends, to ask dozens of leading experts around the globe to weigh in with their best predictions on how our economies, energy supplies, natural resources, climate, food, fisheries, militaries, political divisions, cities, psyches, and more will take shape in the coming decades.

Continue reading →

antiwar, Nonviolence, Nonviolent Communication, Occupy Wall Street, Peace, Royal Book of the Week, Social Justice

What’s in your Occupy Handbook?

June 18, 2012 Augustus 2 Comments

Peace Couple was queried about receiving a free review copy of a book of essays called the Occupy Handbook (535pp, 2012, Back Bay Books).

The book’s title got me thinking about the possibility of which essays would be in my personal Occupy Handbook. First, would be a selection from the Fellowship of Reconciliation‘s 1958 MLK comic book that was translated into Arabic and used as a nonviolent training tool for the Arab Spring. Paired with that would be an essay from Gene Sharp, whose 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action shaped the tactics of the Arab Spring. Next, I would include an article by Adbusters and Naomi Klein about the fomenting of Occupy in the US. Delving into the Occupy movement itself would require an exploration of the power of consensus and direct democracy: So, I would include writings that reflect the concepts shown in the video Consensus (Direct Democracy @ Occupy Wall Street):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dtD8RnGaRQ]

The Occupy Handbook we were sent to review is heavily tilted toward economic issues (and covers them well), but the book barely acknowledges the democracy, social justice, antiwar, and environmental issues that have been raised by the Occupy movement. That is why it would be important to include the fruit of consensus process such as Occupy Wall Street’s One Demand and the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City which contain a much broader vision of a better world than simply economic reform.

In terms of people who have informed the Occupy movement, I would include:

Continue reading What’s in your Occupy Handbook? →

Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Book of the Week, Uncategorized

Prasad: The Way to Disarmament

May 15, 2012 Augustus Leave a comment

The fifteenth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace contains Rajendra Prasad‘s 1963 essay The Way to Disarmament. Like the recently discussed writings by Merton, Fromm, and Muste, finding the path to peace through disarmament is the focus of Prasad’s essay. Dr. Prasad spent his life working for Indian independence and was the first President of the Republic of India. He wrote the essay a year before he died.

Prasad decries the technological advance of warfare. He found that this “misuse” of science and techonolgy vastly increased the scale of human life that was destroyed, and seperated the destructive act from the realization that human life was being taken. His discussion is immediately relevant to the use of drones to murder today. Prasad looks to his contemporaries for guidance on how to move foraward”

This is what Mahatma Gandhi meant when he said that ultimate nonviolence was only safe defense not only for the individual but for nations. Continue reading Prasad: The Way to Disarmament →