THE SAN DIEGO COALITION FOR PEACE AND
JUSTICE meets quarterly on the SECOND
MONDAY of March, June, September and December at
the Peace Resource Center at 7 pm, 3850
Westgate Place, San Diego.Call (619) 263-9301
or email info@sdcpj.org. For directions, click
here.
Join us at a public event and rally to highlight the unjust killing of Fridoon Nehad.
WHO: Community organizations and "Justice for Fridoon Nehad" organizers.
WHAT: An Alternative 'State of the City' Press Conference and demonstration against the status quo.
WHEN: Thurs, Jan. 14th at 5-6 pm prior to Mayor's speech @ 6.
WHERE: In front of Balboa Theater, 868 Fourth Ave. @ E St, prior to the gala event.
WHY: We are outraged at Police shootings like that of Fridoon Nehad (See our specific Demands below*) and we want the administration of justice and sustainability for ALL San Diegans.
As the mayor, City Council, Police brass, and hundreds of San Diego's movers and shakers assemble to listen to Mayor Falconer declare the wonders of his administration during the "State of the City" speech, we will gather for a reality check.
The brutal and unjustified killing of Fridoon Nehad is exemplary of what's wrong with their San Diego. The killing of an innocent immigrant who had suffered the consequences of war, and who came here looking for peace and opportunity, typifies what many San Diegans are experiencing -- the killing of their dreams, while being brutalized by the system around them. Fridoon was shot 30 seconds after Officer Browder arrived on the scene. Like Fridoon, many San Diegans don't feel like they have a chance to survive police encounters and could be victimized at any moment.
While the city's elite celebrate their progress and "living in paradise", hundreds of thousands of us feel the crushing weight of economic inequality and marginalization. We gather outside the Balboa Theater before the Mayor's speech to testify to another reality, that of ordinary working people who toil in the tourist plantations, making millions for the owners, while living the indignity of poverty wages. We 'Fight for $15' - raising the minimum wage, we fight for affordable housing, for quality education, for clean elections, for dignified employment, for people before profits, for a Community Review Board (to monitor police), for a peace economy, for accountable, publicly-owned utility companies, for a campaign to end homelessness, for youth opportunities, for social services for the disenfranchised and for a sustainable environment. We want a new San Diego, new police ethics and new leadership of our city. Join us to transform the "old boys network" into a socially just city. Justice for Fridoon!
~~~~~~~~~~~
WE DEMAND:
1) Fire and Indict officer Neal Browder, NOW!
2) The resignation of District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, NOW! For her role in the cover-up of the evidence in the killing of Fridoon, her 'Gang Injunction' abuses and much more.
3) Full transparency and release of information on all Officer Related Shootings.
4) Place Women Occupy San Diego's petition for a Community Review Board (to investigate police abuse) on the ballot.
5) Statements of accountability from Mayor Faulconer and City Councilmembers on Dumanis' failure to indict Officer Browder, the release of the video and their reactions to the shooting.
In June 2012, Victor Ortega was shot and killed by Officer Johnathan McCarthy.
A U.S. District Judge has recently noted inconsistencies in some of the statements made by McCarthy,
who claimed Victor tried to take away his service weapon.
There is a further inconsistency around Officer McCarthy’s use of a non-lethal Taser and the facts
leading up to the struggle between McCarthy and Ortega. Victor Ortega was a loving father, husband, son,
grandson,brother, nephew, cousin, and friend to many.
Brandon Duncan and Aaron Harvey
Coalition Against Penal Code 182.5/SD33
Brandon (Tiny Doo) Duncan and Aaron Harvey were two of 33 young black men recently arrested and charged with "conspiring"
with gang members under CA Penal Code Sec. 182.5.
This law makes a person who has been identified as a gang member by police (even if not a gang member, but falsely listed)
or supports gangs (rap lyrics) responsible for any crime committed by a gang member.
The injustice was so obvious that a San Diego judge dismissed the charges against Brandon and Aaron on March 15,
but many others remain charged and in jail for crimes the D.A. knows they did not commit.
Other panelists include:
Community Oversight of Police -Stephanie Jennings, Women Occupy San Diego
Brutality and the Border - Pedro Rios, American Friends Service Committee
A People's History of the Police - Krishna Jerry Toolsie, Black and Brown Lives Matter
Sponsors (alphabetical):San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice, United Against Police Terror, Women Occupy San Diego
Endorsers (alphabetical): Activist San Diego, American Friends Service Cmte. (San Diego), BDS - San Diego,
Black and Brown Lives Matter Coalition, Black Student Justice Coalition,
CAPB-SD, International Socialist Organization (San Diego), National Lawyers Guild (San Diego Chapter),
Peace Resource Center San Diego
February 22, 2015
Join with the SDCPJ and the Peace Resource Center
Sunday, February 22, 2015, 3 pm
Marjorie Cohn will discuss her new book
Drones and Targetted Killing:
Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues
Marjorie Cohn is a former president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where she teaches criminal law and procedure, evidence, and international human rights law. She lectures throughout the world on human rights and US foreign policy.
The Bush administration detained and tortured suspected terrorists; the Obama administration assassinates them. Assassination, or targeted killing, off the battlefield not only causes more resentment against the United States, it is also illegal. In this interdisciplinary collection, human rights and political activists, policy analysts, lawyers and legal scholars, a philosopher, a journalist, and a sociologist examine different aspects of the U.S. policy of targeted killing with drones and other methods. It explores the legality, morality and geopolitical considerations of targeted killing and resulting civilian casualties, and evaluates the impact on relations between the United States and affected countries.
San Diego is the US capital of spying and killer drone production.
No Drones Days of Action starts on Thursday afternoon with street action and evening Overpass Light Brigade messaging;
More demonstrations on Friday; winding up on
Saturday with a general assembly at the Church of the Brethren/Friends Center campus.
THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY to help move this nation away from empire and toward a better future.
May 15 - Thursday
4-7 pm - San Diego Veterans for Peace demonstration at
Federal Building Front St. and Broadway, downtown San Diego. Street theater staged serial 'drone attack' by Artful Activist San Diego.
8-9:30 pm - Overpass Light Brigade, light/sign demonstration at
Clairemont Drive bridge over the I-5.
Parking: Mission Bay Visitors Center, west of Clairemont Drive overpass.
Participant Guidelines - from the Drone Diego Coordinating Committee (host committee)
These three days are comprised of multiple events, each event coordinated by different organizations.
We are protesting nonviolently. We ask you to be open and respectful to all and to not use physical or verbal violence against those who disagree with us.
We ask that there be no property destruction or damage during the protests that are part of these four days of action.
We ask that you respect the wishes of the organizers of the individual events. If you are not in agreement with the particular event tactics or organizers,
we invite you to hold a protest of your choosing at a different time.
Sponsoring/Endorsing organizations: San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice; Peace Resource Center of San Diego;
Veterans for Peace San Diego Chapter; San Diego Overpass Light Brigade; Women Occupy San Diego (WOSD); Occupy San Diego;
Artful Activist San Diego; Canvass for a Cause (CFAC); Back Country Voices; San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality (SAME);
San Diego BDS; United Against Police Terror San Diego; Green Party of San Diego; Code Pink; San Diego International Socialist Organization;
AFSC-San Diego..
Housing Available for Out-of-Town Activists!
Make your plans to come to Drone Diego and local activists will welcome you into our homes.
Don't delay! For housing info, contact Lynn: dissential@gmail.com
Federal Building, Front St. and Broadway, downtown San Diego
With the release of the State Department’s final environmental impact statement, this is a crucial moment to protest Keystone XL. Join us Monday evening to send the message to President Obama that Keystone XL fails his climate test and he must reject it. NASA's James Hansen famously called the Keystone "Game over for the climate" because of the huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions that would result from using it to open up the tar sands in Alberta to mass production.
We’ll be bringing some candles and signs, but please bring some as well if you can. We'll also have chants and songs.
Event organized by SanDiego350.org with support from Citizens Climate Lobby, Sierra Club San Diego, Women Occupy San Diego and other local organizations.
San Diegans call on URJ members to speak out against Netanyahu when he addresses their convention
Wednesday December 11, 2013.
San Diego -- On Wednesday December 11, 2013, thousands of members of the largest branch of Judaism in the U.S.
will gather in San Diego for the 2013 Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) Biennial.
We, a coalition of organizations in San Diego working for justice and peace in the Middle East,
were dismayed to learn that Benjamin Netanyahu had been invited to become the first sitting Israeli Prime Minister to address the gathering.
Over the past few years, the Israeli parliament (Knesset) has passed numerous discriminatory laws, culminating in the approval of the
Prawer Plan on June 24, 2013. The Plan will result in the destruction of more than 35 Palestinian Bedouin villages in
Al-Naqab and the forced expulsion and confinement of more than 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins.
Their only crime is living on their ancestral lands, which the Israeli government intends to repopulate with Jews.
Just this past June, the Religious Action Center (RAC) spoke out and joined over 750 rabbis, numerous human rights groups,
and Bedouin communities in asking Netanyahu to stop the Prawer Plan.
Recent news reports suggest that the current version of the plan may be scrapped,
but all indications are that forced removal of Bedouins from their homes will not only continue,
but intensify. Further, Bedouin communities remain without basic services like water and electricity,
while Jewish villages and towns in the area enjoy full access to public services.
The forced removal of Palestinian Bedouins would be the largest Israeli land grab since the creation of Israel in 1948,
when more than 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed.
Sadly, it is in line with decades-long Apartheid policies that include the imposition of a brutal military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza,
treating Palestinians in Israel as second-class citizens and denying millions of Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes.
Netanyahu’s government, arguably the most racist in Israeli history with members who openly advocate the expulsion of the indigenous Palestinian population,
has continued the massive expansion of illegal Israeli colonial settlements in the West Bank and the continued siege of the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu has also been the principal advocate internationally for war on Iran.
We call on members of the URJ to take a stand against Apartheid, racism and oppression when Netanyahu speaks.
We ask participants in the convention not to celebrate the very kinds of discrimination and oppression that URJ members have fought against in the past.
###
Media contact: Dr. Nasser Barghouti, Nasserb63@yahoo.com. (760) 846.1787
Signed by:
San Diego BDS Committee
Jewish Voice for Peace, San Diego
San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice
International Socialist Organization, San Diego
Veterans for Peace, San Diego
Karama
SAME Alliance
Canvass for a Cause
Student for Justice in Palestine, SDSU
Student for Justice in Palestine, UCSD
October 21-23, 2013
October 21-23, 2013
Join with Afghan women's rights and anti-occupation activist
Malalai Joya
A Woman Among Warlords:
Prospects for Afghan Women and Non-Intervention In Afghanistan
A Feminist Reaseach Colloquium, co-sponsored by the Bread and Roses Center of the
Department of Women’s Studies, and the Center for Intercultural Relations, SDSU
The San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice opposes United States military intervention in Syria. Here’s why:
The U.S. problem with Syria is not Syria, it is the U.S.
U.S. military interventions around the world, notably in the Americas and the Middle East, have always been rationalized by humanitarian arguments.
But inevitably and almost universally, these interventions have actually been motivated by dreams of global power and war profiteering.
The reality of U.S. military interventions, beyond abhorrent profits by corporate war contractors and munitions vendors, has been failure of humanitarian objectives;
and worse outcomes for the citizens of the invaded nations including the cost of countless human lives.
The “positive” outcome of war profiteering has been at the cost of the U.S. taxpayer.
The United States, thanks to the military adventurism of the last decade-plus, has had its reputation reinforced as hated invader and occupier.
This includes the effect of the global drone wars.
Any U.S. military intervention in Syria will not only not resolve that nation’s internal divisions – it will, as our military invasions have done, make things worse.
Worse for the Syrians – and worse for the U.S. And again, who will profit?
The San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice opposes any U.S. military direct or indirect entrance into the Syrian conflict.
Our national experience shows that war breeds war, and death breeds death. U.S. military adventurism breeds both, and a deepened earned hatred of the U.S.
No good can come of this.
The SDCPJ supports the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people free from outside interference.
We support neither the the Assad regime nor the authoritarian sectarians (like the al Nusra Brigades).
Peace activist and world-class troublemaker Medea Benjamin will be providing updates on her recent Yemen trip (including drones and Guantanamo), explaining the changes in US policy in recent months, talking about plans for the upcoming DC Drones Summit, and also describing recent developments at the UN regarding drones.
For more information, or to download a printable flyer, click here.
July 30, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Manning Verdict - Riseup Rally
Cleared of "aiding the enemy", but found guilty of most charges
San Diego
5 pm, HILLCREST, 6th and University
North County
4:30 pm, VISTA, corner of So. Santa Fe Ave & Vista Village Dr
“If you had free reign over classified networks… and you saw incredible things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC… what would you do?”
“God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms… I want people to see the truth… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.”
-Quotes from an online chat attributed to Bradley Manning
Use the links below for more information and responses to the verdict
Jeremy Scahill - Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield
San Diego CA May 2, 2013
Jeremy Scahill is an author and journalist, a self-taught journalist. He is the National Security Correspondent for The Nation magazine and reported from four continents.
He spoke recently in San Diego on his new book and movie, Dirty Wars
The U.S. occupation of Iraq has led to over
4,000 American deaths and roughly 30,000 injuries.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died and millions are homeless.
Spending on the war thus far has been:
Peace and Justice
Position Paper of the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice
Adopted November 8, 2010
The San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice (SDCPJ), is a broad-based coalition, founded shortly after September 11, 2001 in opposition to the looming US invasion of Afghanistan, and later Iraq. From the outset, we have linked our opposition to these wars and occupations to our opposition to anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia within the US, and more recently, to support for the right of self-determination for the people of Palestine.
We believe that peace in the Middle East will be attained in parallel with the advancement of social justice for all people in the region. It is an elementary principle of social justice that all people have equal rights, independent of nationality or religion. This principle applies universally, including to the people of Israel/Palestine.
We have always recognized that these wars and occupations are not isolated aberrations of US foreign policy. Instead they form part of a global US political and military strategy which, in the Middle East, is based on the control of oil and other resources. With almost 1000 military bases throughout the world, and a military budget exceeding that of all other nations combined, the US seeks to be the world's dominant hyper-power for the profit of a small elite.
The causes of the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq are necessarily and intimately related. They are also intimately related to the causes of the occupation of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Gaza, and the Syrian Golan Heights. Each is responsible for immeasurable suffering and destruction. Opposition to one occupation should imply opposition to all.
Living as we do in the US, our main responsibility is to work for peace and justice within the US, opposing the role of the US government and its military in their denial of elementary rights to people throughout the world. Therefore, we call for and work to support:
1. An end to all United States military aid to Israel, which is in itself one of the biggest obstacle to a peaceful solution between the two peoples, along with an end to all US military aid to other nations in the region;
2. Opposition to the illegal occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories, and the dismantling of the wall;
3. Recognition of the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;
4. Respect, protection and promotion of the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties, as stipulated in UN resolution 194; and
5. An end to the blockade of Gaza and recognition of the democratically-elected government in Gaza.
Based on these points of agreement, the SDCPJ commits to the following actions:
1. Linking our opposition to the US occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan to opposition to the US-supported Israeli occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories;
2. Actively supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign (see http://bdsmovement.net/);
3. Using our internet presence to make clear our support for the right of self-determination for the people of Palestine, including an end to all US military support for Israel;
4. Sponsoring public meetings on the subject of Palestine; and
5. Working collaboratively with other groups including American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the San Diego Coalition for Justice in Palestine (SDCJP), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Al-Awda, the Middle Eastern Cultural Information Center (MECIC), Jewish Voice for Peace, and other organizations that defend the rights of the Palestinian people and seek a peaceful resolution for all peoples of the region.
All honest supporters of social justice must stand in opposition to antisemitism, an irrational hatred of Jews as a people. However, criticism of Israel and Zionism, opposition to the expulsion of the Palestinians from their historic homeland, and rejection of the occupation of Palestine are not antisemitic. An honest accounting of Israel's role in the world would be a major step forward in overcoming antisemitism. Progress towards peace and justice can only be based on honesty and solidarity, overcoming national and religious divisions.
Below are the "strategic guidelines" as adopted by the Coalition at the June 19, 2006 meeting
San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice
Strategic Guidelines
The peace movement has experienced remarkable success in shaping public opinion with regard to the war on Iraq. Recent polls substantiate that nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose the war. Unfortunately, public sentiment has not been reflected in public policy. A disempowered Congress, a toothless media, and an unyielding administration bent on "staying the course" necessitate our finding new ways to engage with power. With this in mind, the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice adopts the following guidelines to be used in the planning and implementation of future SDCPJ activities:
1) SDCPJ will engage in nonviolent activities
2) SDCPJ will engage in anti-war activities of high visibility
3) SDCPJ will engage in activities that increase the political costs of the war
4) SDCPJ will engage in activities that directly impede the administration's ability to prosecute war
5) SDCPJ will plan and implement activities which reflect a high degree of moral outrage with the continuing occupation of Iraq
6) SDCPJ will carry out activities proportional to the crimes committed in Iraq
7) SDCPJ will engage in activities virtually assured to penetrate media blackout
8) SDCPJ will engage in activities that demand response from elected officials
9) SDCPJ will engage in activities that empower participants and challenge the climate of fear
10) SDCPJ will prioritize outreach to new groups and individuals, and the formation of new alliances
The San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice welcomes your comments and ideas. Please email your thoughts to info@sdcpj.org
Attend San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice Meetings
Peace Resource Center, 3850 Westgate Place. Meetings are generally the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. If unsure, or for more information, call 619-263-9301 or email info@sdcpj.org.
