The Statement of Citizens in the Globe for Stopping the Naval Base Construction in Jeju Island and Keeping East-Asian Peace

Please give this as much attention as possible. This is a very important issue:Below is a petition that the National Association of Professors for Democracy in Korea have circulated regarding the Naval Base construction in Jeju Island. This is a contentious issue at the moment, and the struggle against the base (which I believe will how nuclear submarines or vessels) has garnered support from a variety of international scholars and celebrities.

best regards,

Jamie Doucette

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Please sign up for Stopping the Naval Base Construction in Jeju Island
and Keeping East-Asian Peace

The South Korean government and the Navy is constructing a naval base
at Gangjeong village in The Jeju island, which was designated as a
Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO and whose landscape is well-known as one
of the most beautiful ones in the world. For the past several years,
the grassroots people’s movement and the hundreds of civil society
organizations have been fighting against such a destructive and
anti-environmental effort. Against this, the National Association of
Professors for Democracy in Korea is collecting solidarity signatures
from citizens around the world. The NAPD is a representative
organization of professors, which was founded during the
anti-dictatorship movement in the late 1980s and has
more than 1,000 professors in S. Korea among its membership.
Please look at the attached draft of the statement, and sign in solidarity.
Please send your information to
mingyo87@hanmail.net with your information such as name, position,
nationality, and email address. We will be waiting for our your
signature until the 2nd of April 2012.

National Association of Professors for Democracy in Korea
Co-represendative: Do-Heum Lee, Hee-Yeon Cho, Chang-won Seol,
Seung-seok Kim, Yong-tae Choi
Emai: Mingyo87@hanmail.net
Telephone: 82-2-2610-4232
Homepage: http://www.professornet.org/
DeclarationAgainstJejuMarineBase(English).doc
14K View Download

The Statement of Citizens in the Globe
for Stopping the Naval Base Construction in Jeju Island
and Keeping East-Asian Peace

In 2012, the South Korean government and the Navy force a naval base to be constructed in Jeju Isalnd, while many Koreans, including the majority of island residents, repeatedly request it to be stopped.

Each time explosions go off at Gureombi, Jeju, whose landscape is well-known as one of the most beautiful in the world, the islanders and Korean people rage at the ruthlessness, fraud, and inhumanity of the South Korean government and the Navy.

The Lee Myung-Bak Administration has committed illegitimate and illegal actions like removing the Absolute Preservation Zone of its anti-development regulations without due procedures. Problems with the naval base design were exposed in the technical assessment, which betrayed the lie of the government that it would develop a beautiful military-civilian tourist port. However, the Lee Administration continues to cheat the people, proclaiming that the project has no problem. The Ministry of National Defense also tried to persuade Jeju residents to believe it would construct the beautiful military-civilian tourist port in which two cruises could harbor simultaneously. But the simultaneous harboring of the two cruises in the port was proved to be impossible in the simulation assessment. But the Ministry of National Defense lied again, saying, “According to the statistics of last year, only 5 of 345 cruises traveling in the world have more than 150,000 tons of weight. The possibility that two 150,000 ton ships come into the Jeju port is almost zero.”
Wherever weapons are, there happen killing and war. If a military port is constructed in the peaceful island of Jeju and bombs and missiles are brought, military balance of East Asia will be broken and tension will rise up. If a war were to break out, the whole of East Asia would be involved in the war, and the whole of the Jeju Island would be a gunpowder magazine.

Gureombi and its seashore and coast display the extraordinary beauty of natural landscape and are celebrated tourist areas and ecological preservation zones. In Jeju Island live animals and plants which are in danger of extinction, and UNESCO designated it as a Biosphere Reserve in 2002. The Korean government also declared Jeju as a Natural Heritage Protection Zone, which is authorized by Cultural Heritage Adminstration. In October, 2004, the Jeju Island was also designated as Absolute Preservation Zone in which any form-changing activities are prohibited. The Gureombi seashore is special to the islanders because it has about 20 Yongcheonsu springs, which is very valuable to their life.

Recognizing the value of preserved nature in the island very well, the residents and Korean people have been united to demand the naval base construction to be stopped, resisting it. But the Lee Administration arrested more than 329 people for the last 2 years. By making dispatched special military forces even do violence to the resistants, the government committed cruelties like organized criminal gangs. The government also abused its rights by threatening the Seogwipo mayor to abolish the farming road construction plan in the city and by pressing the Technical Assessment Committee to positively estimate cruise arrival and departure in the port.

The Korean people gave president Lee Myung-Bak only 5 year governance, not the transcendental privileged right to do anything as he like. The naval base construction will not only destroy the beautiful nature of Jeju irrecoverably but break the peace of East Asia.

In these respects, the citizens in the globe who cherish the lives and nature of Jeju Island and love the peace of East Asia and the world urgently demand the followings:

1. The Lee Myung-Bak Administration must instantly stop the illegitimate and illegal construction of the naval base in Jeju Island.

2. The political forces of South Korea must immediately launch Congressional and Special Prosecutor investigations to probe the frauds and human rights violations of the Lee Myung-Bak Administration.

3. The head of Jeju Island, Governor Woo Geunmin, must take all useful administrative actions to impede the naval base construction such as the cancelation of landfill permit.


4. The U. S. government and Army must tell the truth about their involvement with the Jeju naval base construction and must instantaneously withdraw their military imperialism to endanger the peace of East Asia and the world.

5. The Japanese government must not collaborate in constructing the Jeju naval base, which threatens peace in its own country, and must abandon its imperialist orientation.


6. Conscientious citizens of Germany and Canada must actively join the peace movement to demand the stoppage of the Jeju naval base construction, which threatens the peace of the world.

March, 2012

Citizens of South Korea, Japan, the U. S., Canada, and Germany
who love peace and nature.

Have you had enough? New Party on the horizon

Rocky Anderson

418 Douglas Street

Salt Lake City, UTAH 84102

E-mail: rockyandersonrocky@yahoo.com

Press Release  -  October 21, 2011

Have you had enough?

New Party on the horizon

The former Mayor of Salt Lake City and Executive Director of High Road for Human Rights, Rocky Anderson, calls for the formation of a new political party and a sustained movement committed to the public interest.

Two months ago, Anderson “divorced himself” from what he referred to as “the spineless, gutless Democratic Party.” Responding to an email from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which showed as the subject, “Standing strong,” Anderson wrote: “How dare you send an email with the subject line ‘Standing strong.’ You didn’t do it on Iraq, you didn’t do it on torture, you didn’t do it on signing statements, you haven’t done it onAfghanistan, you haven’t done it on defense spending, you haven’t done it on real health care reform, you haven’t done it on the debt ceiling fiasco.”

(Rolly: Rocky Anderson says adieu to the Democratic Party,” The Salt Lake Tribune, August 12, 2011.)

Anderson continued: “I’m done with the Democratic Party… I think the answer is a new political party that actually will advocate for and promote the interests of the public rather than the narrow interests of the wealthy who bought and paid for not only Congress but the White House… The Constitution has been eviscerated while Democrats have stood by with nary a whimper. It is a gutless, unprincipled party, bought and paid for by the same interests that buy and pay for the Republican Party.”

(Romboy, “Former S.L. mayor Rocky Anderson divorces himself from ‘gutless’ Democratic Party,” Deseret News, August 13, 2011.)

This country needs a new, powerful party that can win elections, according to Anderson.  “The pensions and other savings accounts of the middle class in this country have been decimated. The only way out is another party. I would call it, frankly, a second party that actually represents the interests of the American people. There isn’t a real opposition force in Washington, D.C., any more, and we the people have the capacity to change that -- and we must if our republic is going to survive.  I consider myself an Independent, but I would be very pleased to work with others to form not just a political party to run another campaign, but to launch a sustained movement for major change in this country.”

(“Rocky: Not a Democrat,” (Interview with Rocky Anderson by Lexie Levitt), City Weekly,September 26, 2011.)

Anderson said that people are fed up with the Democratic and Republican parties, Congress, and the Obama administration to the point of being ready to support a new party that rejects the corporatism and militarism of the two “Wall Street lap-dog” major parties.

The polls support Anderson’s view that the people of the United States are desirous of a new party, and bold, new leadership, like never before. Patrick Caddell and Douglas Shoen have written:

“The United States is in the midst of what we would both call a pre-Revolutionary moment, and there is widespread support for fundamental change in the system.  An increasing number of Americans are now searching beyond the two parties for bold and effective leadership.”

(Caddell and Schoen, “Expect a Third-Party Candidate in 2012,” The Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2011.)

"Have you had enough?" asks Anderson. “Would you support the formation of a new party that will commit to:

• affordable universal health care;
• an end to the wars;
• a significant reduction in the military budget and an end to the military-industrial-congressional complex;
• investigation of illegal conduct, including war crimes, by executive officials during the current and prior administrations;
• investigation of the events on 9/11 to answer significant questions that have been raised;
• prosecution for illegal conduct leading to the economic melt-down;
• disincentives for U.S. companies to send jobs overseas;
• employee and environmental safeguards in trade agreements;
• implementation of major domestic jobs and infrastructure programs;
• an end to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy;
• campaign finance reform to end the corrupting influence of money in politics;
• treat substance abuse within a public health framework rather than as a criminal matter;
• repeal the PATRIOT Act;
• compassionate and rational immigration reform;
• marriage equality;
• an end to subsidies for oil and gas companies;
• a ban on a Canada-to-Mexico tar sands pipeline;
• air quality protection, including stricter ozone limits; and
• aggressive action and leadership on the climate crisis and the environment?”

Rocky Anderson has been in the process of contacting some of America’s leading social, environmental and political activists with the goal of creating a powerful, broad-based political alternative to the increasingly unpopular Republican and Democratic Parties. He intends that the new party will have candidates in local, state, and federal races throughout the nation.

Anderson plans on hosting a meeting soon between leaders in various sectors of the country in order to draft a new platform and a long-term strategy capable of attracting a majority of voters, including millions of dissatisfied Democrats and Republicans who, until now, had nowhere else to go.

Anderson has stated his intention to do what is possible to get on the ballots in all 50 states and to campaign for candidates aggressively in all states. "The Democratic and Republican Parties have acted as if voters have no other real options. The people of this country will demonstrate that we, indeed, have another option - a party that will work in the public interest, rather than for the defense contractors, the health insurance companies, and the rapacious financial institutions that have caused such economic havoc in our nation and the world."

Anderson anticipates a broad-based coalition, similar to the one built by the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP), which won impressive political gains in the Canadian federal elections last May. The NDP is the political party that brought universal health care to the Canadian people.

Press info: Mackenzie Scott - Tel. 801-520-0491

Rocky Anderson - Tel. 801-557-9007

E-mail: rockyandersonrocky@yahoo.com

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Bill Hilty: The nation's wars are a heavy burden on the state

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Bill Hilty: The nation's wars are a heavy burden on the state

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune---

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Bill Hilty: The nation's wars are a heavy burden on the state

• Article by: JACK NELSON-PALLMEYER and BILL HILTY 
• Updated: July 25, 2011 - 7:02 PM

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/126142923.html

Budget gap could have been easily closed with the money we send away.

Citizens in Minnesota are being encouraged to see scarcity as the new normal. If you are an elected official at any level of government, your job has been reduced to managing austerity.

It doesn't have to be this way -- if we address the elephant lurking in the budget deficit hall. That would be the high costs of militarization and war.

Technically, the military budget is a federal issue, distinct from state, county and city budgets. However, we can no longer maintain the fiction that distorted federal spending that prioritizes war and militarism is disconnected from state and local budget crises and is eroding living standards.

According to the nonpartisan National Priorities Project, Congress devotes 58 cents of every dollar of federal discretionary spending to war-related purposes. To better understand the impact on Minnesota of privileging military spending priorities, consider this: We have just experienced a painful government shutdown over how to deal with a two-year $5 billion shortfall. Yet Minnesota taxpayers over the same two-year period will spend $8.4 billion just for our share of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

This will bring Minnesotans' total contribution to those wars to about $36 billion. Additionally over the next two years, Minnesotans will pay $26 billion for our share of the nation's base military budget, a budget that has doubled since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Every Minnesota citizen and every layer of government is impacted negatively by current war-related priorities. Faced with pressing local needs, taxpayers in Fergus Falls will pay $17 million for their share of counterproductive Iraq/Afghan wars over the next two years; Minneapolis taxpayers will contribute $255 million.

We believe it is time for Minnesotans to communicate clearly to our members of Congress and to President Obama that federal funding priorities must shift from unnecessary wars to meeting essential needs. A new citizen-driven effort, the Minnesota Arms Spending Alternatives Project (MNasap), is a vehicle for doing so.

We have crafted a simple resolution that can be adapted and enacted by individuals, community groups, library boards, city councils and other elected bodies throughout the state. It reads in part: "Whereas our nation desperately needs to better balance its approach to security to go beyond military defense and include the economic, social, and environmental needs of our communities, state, and nation ... Therefore [we] call on Senators Klobuchar and Franken, and Representatives Walz, Kline, Paulsen, McCollum, Ellison, Bachmann, Peterson and Cravaack as well as President Barack Obama, to shift federal funding priorities from war and the interests of the few, to meeting the essential needs of us all."

The state government shutdown has ended, but the pain will be ongoing for many Minnesotans. As a recent Star Tribune editorial ("New budget rests on shaky structure," July 20) states, borrowing against future state revenues and delaying school payments will have serious consequences, and the budget "inflicts too much pain. The hurt will be felt most keenly on college campuses and among those who serve low-income disabled and elderly people."

Imagine what we can accomplish if we stop squandering wealth and talents on militarization and counterproductive wars. Schools could reduce class sizes and have adequate supplies. Bridges could be repaired. Food shelves could be adequately stocked but rarely needed. We could take steps to make homelessness rare and temporary. Cities and states could adequately provide essential services, including meeting their authentic security needs. Critical investments could be made in infrastructure and green technologies. Public libraries could expand hours and programming. Urban and national rail systems could be built. The country could address climate change and end child poverty. All Americans could have access to quality, affordable health care.

This sounds like a fantasy only because current choices keep us on the dead-end road of militarization. It is a realistic possibility once we demilitarize priorities, realistically assess security needs and refocus governing on serving the common good.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is associate professor of justice and peace studies at the University of St. Thomas. Bill Hilty, DFL-Finlayson, is a member of the Minnesota House. For information on the resolution campaign, contact MinnesotaASAP@gmail.com

Previously Pallmeyer and Hilty authored this resolution:

Resolution Calling for Re-ordering Priorities

Resolution Calling for Re-ordering PrioritiesResolution Calling for Re-ordering of Priorities:

Whereas Minnesota is faced with a $5.028 billion budget shortfall; and,

Whereas past budget cuts have resulted in painful reductions in essential services and future cuts would further erode the quality of life for and, in fact, endanger the lives of many citizens; and,

Whereas many cities and communities in Minnesota are laying off police, firefighters, teachers and other essential employees; and,

Whereas past budgets have been balanced by cutting social services, under investment in essential infrastructure, and other measures that push the crisis onto local governments and the poor; and,

Whereas Minnesota taxpayers even during these times of economic crisis and fiscal austerity are poised to pay the equivalent of the entire state biennial budget, more than $35 billion over the next two years, for their share of the Defense Budget of the Federal government; and,

Whereas Minnesota taxpayers alone have already spent more than $27.5 billion, and will spend $8.4 billion more over the next two years for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and,

Whereas 58 cents of every dollar of federal discretionary spending is devoted to military purposes; and,

Whereas military spending priorities at the national level negatively impact budgets and quality of life at all levels of government and society; and,

Whereas our nation desperately needs to better balance its approach to security to go beyond military defense and include the economic, social, and environmental needs of our communities, state, and nation;

Therefore be it resolved that we, the Legislature of the State of Minnesota call on Senators Klobuchar and Franken, and Representatives Walz, Kline, Paulsen, McCollum, Ellison, Bachmann, Peterson and Cravaack as well as Congressional leadership and President Barack Obama, to shift federal funding priorities from war and the interests of the few, to meeting the essential needs of us all.

Approved [date]

Drafted by Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Representative Bill Hilty.

A more comprehensive alternative I put together based on talks with people across the Great Lakes Region:

A program for real change...

* Peace--- end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and shutdown the 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil. 

* A National Public Health Care System - ten million new jobs. 

* A National Public Child Care System - three to five million new jobs. 

* Works Progress Administration - three million new jobs. 

* Civilian Conservation Corps - two million new jobs. 

* Tax the hell out of the rich and cut the military budget by ending the wars to pay for it all which will create full employment. 

* Enforce Affirmative Action; end discrimination. 

* Raise the minimum wage to a real living wage 

* What tax-payers subsidize in the way of businesses, tax-payers should own and reap the profits from.

 

* Moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions. 

* Defend democracy by defending workers' rights including the right to collective bargaining for improving the lives and livelihoods of working people. 

* Roll-back and freeze the price of food, electricity, gas and heating fuels; not wages, benefits or pensions. 

* Wall Street is our enemy.

How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you? 

Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood for a real change. 

Obviously the resolutions by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Representative Bill Hilty will never be realized as government policy while we are stuck in this "two-party trap" because militarism and wars are an integral and primary component of Wall Street's imperialist agenda.