War, Empire & the 2016 Elections

Originally published December 8, 2015

War & Empire

…with Black Agenda Report’s Bruce Dixon and Author / Activist Paul Street

6:30 PM – Thurs., Dec. 10
Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago

An International Human Rights day discussion with Bruce Dixon of Black Agenda Report, journalist Rafia Zakaria & and author Paul Street. 

Across the Middle East, people in every country face war, drone bombings, sectarian violence and/or brutal dictatorships. President Obama has bombed nearly twice as many countries as George W. Bush, and both presidents’ repeated announcements that America’s wars were “ending” are sick jokes.

The racist Israeli occupation and other violence against Palestinians have only grown more brutal. The U.S. response? A huge INCREASE in the billions it was already sending to the Israeli military, and huge additional arms shipments to the Saudi dictatorship to support its brutal invasion of Yemen.

Against this backdrop, a look at the presidential candidates on offer from both major parties presents a dismal picture. Almost totally united on war funding, on supporting the U.S.’s longest-ever wars, on Israeli domination of the Palestinians, and on the U.S. controlling most of the planet against the wishes of most of its peoples.

While there are domestic policy differences among the candidates, in a world where the U.S. spends almost as much on its military as the rest of the planet combined, the promises some of them make about paid maternity leave, free higher education, living wages, and decent retirement incomes, are stupid mirages that only the most naïve should fall for. 

As Martin Luther King, Jr. and his co-thinkers realized a generation ago, you cannot fund human needs and empire at the same time.

So how do we get out of this mess?

Please join an informed discussion on December 10th, International Human Rights Day, with:

*** Bruce A. Dixon, managing editor at Black Agenda Report, and a member of the state committee of the Georgia Green Party.

*** Paul Street, an independent researcher, journalist, historian, author and speaker based in Iowa City and Chicago. He is the author of seven books to date, including “They Rule: The 1% v. Democracy” and “Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis: A Living Black Chicago History.”

Co-sponsored by the Gay Liberation Network and Voices For Creative Non-Violence. For more information, email LGBTliberation@aol.com

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