Towards a Foreign Policy for the 99%

published by Foreign Policy in Focus

Towards a Foreign Policy for the 99 Percent

By Kevin Martin, December 18, 2012

Relief, rather than elation, was probably the emotion most U.S. peace activists felt when President Barack Obama won re-election. While Obama has been very disappointing on most peace issues, Mitt Romney would have been all the worse. So what now to expect from a second Obama term?

Most likely, more of the same; anyone expecting Obama to be decidedly more pro-peace this time around is likely to be sorely dispirited. However, there is a diverse, growing peoples’ movement in the United States linking human and environmental needs with a demand to end our wars and liberate the vast resources they consume. This, combined with budgetary pressures that should dictate at least modest cuts in the gargantuan Pentagon budget, could lead to serious constraints on new militaristic ventures such as an attack on Iran, “modernization” of the entire U.S. nuclear weapons enterprise at a cost of over $200 billion, a permanent U.S. force of up to 25,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, or an absurd military “pivot” toward the Asia-Pacific aimed at isolating Russia and especially China.

We in the peace movement need to be able to think, and act, with both a short- and long-term perspective. In the near term, swiftly ending the war in Afghanistan and ensuring no long-term U.S./NATO troop presence, stopping drone strikes, preventing a war with Iran and building support for a WMD-free zone in the Middle East, pushing for serious cuts to the Pentagon budget, and advocating progress toward nuclear disarmament will consume most of our energies. Renewed emphasis on a just and lasting peace between Palestine and Israel should also garner more attention and activism. Finally, peace activists will need to lend solidarity those working to save social programs from austerity-minded elites and to address climate chaos.

In the longer term, we need to hasten what Professor Johann Galtung calls “The Decline of the U.S. Empire and the Flowering of the U.S. Republic.” We have an opportunity in opposing the outrageous “Asia-Pacific Pivot,” which the military-industrial complex has concocted without asking the American people if we support it or want to continue borrowing from China to pay for it (too weird, right?). We can point out the insanity of this policy, but we can also devise a better alternative, including building solidarity with the peoples of Okinawa, Jeju Island, Guam, the Philippines, Hawaii, and other nations in the region opposing the spread of U.S. militarism and advocating peaceful relations with China.

Defining the Democratic Deficit

This pivot is just the latest example of the fundamentally undemocratic nature of U.S. foreign policy.

The more we in the peace movement can point out that our tax dollars fund policies contrary to our interests, the easier it will be not just to build specific campaigns for more peaceful and just policies, but also to create a new vision for our country’s role in the world—to create a new foreign policy for the 99 percent.

So we peace activists need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. We need to offer credible, sustainable alternatives on the issues listed above, with specific actions ordinary people can take that make a difference. But we must go further and advocate a foreign and military policy that is in the interest of the majority of this country, one that comports with widely shared ideals of democracy, justice, human rights, international cooperation, and sustainability.

It’s no news flash that elite and corporate interests have long dominated U.S. foreign policy. Illustrating this democratic deficit has two related aspects. The first is the question of access: “he who pays the piper calls the tune.” Currently, although it technically foots the bill, Congress—let alone the public—has barely any say in how U.S. foreign policy is set or implemented. On a second and integrally related note, in whose interest is it to perpetuate a gargantuan military budget, maintain a vast and expensive nuclear arsenal, or start an arms race with our banker, China? It’s hard to imagine that any ordinary person could conclude these policies serve anyone but the 1 percent.

Notions of justice and human rights are widely resonant in the United States, but they require careful consideration and explanation. “Justice” should not be invoked simply as it concerns parties to a conflict, but rather should entail racial, social, and economic fairness for all those who are affected by the grinding military machine. Emphasizing the broader social consequences of militarism will be key for growing our ranks, especially among people of color, community activists, and human needs groups. And while “human rights” is a no-brainer, it requires courage and commitment to communicate how U.S. foreign policy constantly contradicts this ideal abroad, even as our government selectively preaches to other countries on the subject.

International cooperation, while it can seem vague or milquetoast—especially given the neglect or outright stifling of “global governance” structures by the United States—is a highly shared value among people in this country and around the world. Selling cooperation as a meaningful value is fundamentally important for undermining the myth of American exceptionalism, which so many politicians peddle to sell policies that only harm our country in the long run.

Finally, while the environmental movement still has loads of work to do, the successful promulgation of the concept of sustainability is an important achievement, one we can easily adapt to military spending, the overall economy, and a longer-term view of what kind of foreign policy would be sustainable and in the interest of the 99 percent. Climate activists and peace activists need to know that they have a vital stake in each other’s work.

A glimpse of the power of democracy was in evidence on Election Day, and not just in the legalization of gay marriage and recreational marijuana in a few states. When given a choice, as in referenda in Massachusetts and New Haven, Connecticut advocating slashing military spending and funding human needs, people will choose the right policies and priorities; both initiatives won overwhelmingly.

Contrary to the hopes many people in this country and around the world invested in Barack Obama (which he didn’t deserve and frankly he never asked for), it’s never been about him. It’s about the entrenched power of the U.S. war machine, and about how we the peoples of this country and around the world can work together to create more peaceful, just, and sustainable policies. We can do it; in fact we have no choice but to do it.

Kevin Martin has served as Executive Director of Peace Action and Peace Action Education Fund since September 4, 2001, and has worked with the organization in various capacities since 1985. Peace Action is the country’s largest peace and disarmament organization with 90,000 members nationwide.

Recommended Citation:

Kevin Martin, “Towards a Foreign Policy for the 99 Percent” (Washington, DC: Foreign Policy In Focus, December 18, 2012)

Preserving the Island of World Peace – Noam Chomsky and Matthew Hoey on the struggle to stop a missile defense base on Jeju Island, South Korea

We’ve written on this blog before about this struggle to stop constuction of a missile defense base on Jeju Island, South Korea, as well as the fight against U.S. military bases on Okinawa. And of course Peace Action is a co-sponsor of a conference in Washington later this month on Asia-Pacific Peace and Security, where these issues will be highlighted .

Here is the latest on the struggle on Jeju Island, in the Korean newspaper The Hankyoreh, by Noam Chomsky and Matthew Hoey.

Also, for those in the DC area, there will be a protest at the White House state dinner for South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak October 13 at 5:30 pm.  It’s important for international solidarity with the people of Jeju, and for the U.S. and especially the Korean media, that there be a strong protest of the base when President Lee when he visits the White House.

Finally, see Matt Hoey discussing the struggle on the lovely shoreline of the island.

Support Okinawan Peace-Makers!

The Japanese island of Okinawa is perhaps the most beautiful place I’ve ever been blessed to visit. Okinawa’s people, peaceful history (before the stationing of Japanese troups there during World War II, there was no culture of war or even indigenous weaponry on the island), culture, geography and language (which pre-dates the Japanese language, and is thought by many linguists to form the basis for Japanese, along with Chinese languages) are all unique and wonderful. The only stain on this idyllic place are U.S. military bases.

The small island bears the heaviest burden of U.S. bases of any part of Japan (even though the island is closer to Taiwan than to Tokyo). Many Okinwans feel doubly oppressed, by the Japanese and U.S. governments, with the placement of U.S. bases causing severe social, environmental, agricultural and financial problems on the island. (Many Okinawans also feel it ought to be independent of Japan.) Peace Action has been proud to stand with our sister group Gensuikin and other peace movement, civic and governmental allies in Okinawa in calling for the removal of U.S. bases, especially the Futenma Marine base (the last two years, our Organizing and Policy Director, Paul Kawika Martin, and Peace Action of New York State Executive Director Alicia Godsberg have also travelled to Okinawa to support organizing efforts there).

This week, Okinawa peace-makers are runnning an advertisement in the New York Times, bringing their demands to a larger international audience. Please take a moment to read and learn more, (and here is the website with even more information) and circulate the ad to friends you think might be interested in learning more and supporting the cause of peace for the people of Okinawa.

Bringing the message back from Japan

By Alicia Godsberg, Executive Director Peace Action NYS

(Note: Alicia represented Peace Action at the Gensuikin Conference in Hiroshima/Nagasaki,August 3-9,
and also made a trip to view the U.S. bases in Okinawa and meet with peace activists.)

The rest of the trip in Japan was so packed and busy, I barely had time to sleep let alone write, so this blog is coming to you from Brooklyn – tired, but grateful for what I’ve seen and learned.

My last post was about Hiroshima, but I left out something very important – on our way to the
opening ceremony for the Gensuikin conference we passed several groups of high school students who
were out collecting signatures for a petition against the use of nuclear weapons.

My translator Yasu told me that although school is out for the summer, students in Hiroshima have to attend peace education on August 6, the anniversary of the atomic bombing of their city. The importance of peace education is something the Japanese delegation brings up every year in the United Nations during the meetings of the General Assembly’s First Committee (the disarmament committee), and it is something we in Peace Action NYS have talked about.

At our regional retreat last month in New Hampshire, we also discussed the importance of peace education for young people, and I think this is an extremely important issue. I was lucky to have spoken to some high school students in Brooklyn in May about
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and have been invited back by their teacher for next year – I think I will talk about peace with the students next time.

In Nagasaki the workshop on nuclear energy that I participated in was even larger than in Hiroshima, and at both places there were excellent discussions with the audience about the safety and future of nuclear power in the world and in the United States. Fukushima is still creating environmental and humanitarian disasters in Japan, and the audience was interested to learn about the anti-nuclear
power movement in New York and the greater U.S. Again, recent U.S. sub-critical nuclear experiments were discussed, as was the need for the swift entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

The commemoration of the atomic bombing in Nagasaki on August 9 we attended was smaller than the one in Hiroshima, but that was because several were taking place throughout the city instead of one big ceremony. Ours was at the hypocenter, above which the atomic bomb detonated 66 years earlier, and again it was a powerful and emotional moment. In Hiroshima people talked of it being the first city where an atomic bomb was exploded and that was unbelievably sad; in Nagasaki people spoke of the necessity for it to be the last place an atomic bomb is ever used, which in some ways was even more powerful of a message. The atomic bomb museum there did not spare you from personal and gruesome stories of radiation effects on people, which only reinforced the idea that such a horrible event can never be allowed to happen again.

The trip took an entirely different turn when we flew south to the island of Okinawa, home of many U.S. military bases and a culture that is distinct from that of mainland Japan. At this point I was the only foreign guest with the conference, and I was asked last minute to speak a few times about the U.S. military presence there. I was able to travel throughout the island and meet local peace activists engaged in 24/7 sit-ins to prevent the U.S. from building new heliports in the northern forests and who were protesting the noise pollution from existing U.S. bases that are located on top of civilian neighborhoods.

I promised the activists there that I would take their message back to the peace activists in the U.S. – that the U.S. is seen more like an occupier than an ally in Okinawa and the people of Okinawa do not want any U.S. military bases on their island, let alone any expansion of them. In my brief speech to a rally outside Futenma Air Base, near where a Marine helicopter crashed 7 years ago into
the local university, I said our peace movements need to work together, with the Okinawan peace activists continuing to protest so that our military and government can no longer use the excuse that the people of Japan want our military there to protect them, and our peace movement in the U.S. will use the budget crisis at home to try and prevent the continuing spread of U.S. military bases
abroad (as well as at home).

I think the thing that will stick with me the most from the first part of the trip is the human face of the very abstract idea of the effects of nuclear weapons, and how this has to inspire all of us to keep going with our anti-nuclear weapon work despite the heavy challenges it faces.

From Okinawa, I think I will be left with the sour taste of seeing with my own eyes how the U.S. has basically taken over that beautiful island without regard for the people or environment there, and the awful feeling that left in me as an American who loves all the amazing things about my country, but knows we are falling short of our own ideals in so many places.

A big thank you to everyone at the Peace Action national office for allowing me to have this incredible experience, and to everyone in New York who kept things going in the NYC office while I was away.

Organizing and Policy Director Paul Kawika Martin in Japan

Sonali Kolhatkar, the host of Uprising, interviewed Paul from Hiroshima last Friday. The show runs on over a dozen stations including: KPFA, KPFT, KRFP, WVJW, WXOJ-LP, FRSC, and The Journey Radio.

 

Paul is in Japan for the 65th anniversary commemorations of the U.S. nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and also to visit Okinawa to learn more about the controversy over US military bases there as a guest of our sister peace group GENSUIKIN, which brings a Peace Action activist to Japan every year. GENSUIKIN also sent a delegation to New York in May for our terrific events around the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.