This video is a slightly edited 68-minute version of the Thursday November 19, 2009 luncheon talk, Sharing the Burdens of Climate Change, by Professor Mike Howard of the University of Maine Department of Philosophy. [This post will be updated shortly to include the document files for Mike's handout.]

5 Years After the Invasion And Occupation of Iraq:
What Is To Be Done?

Thursday, March 20th, 2008 7:00 PM
140 Little Hall, University of Maine, Orono

Sponsored by the Maine Peace Action Committee

This podcast is presentation 1 of 4 in the main program. The downloadable audio file (below) is identical to the audio in the video viewable above.

1. “Iraq: Some Historical Background and Analysis and Some Relations with Iran”, Alex Grab, Professor of History, who teaches courses on the Middle East.

2. “My Military Experiences in Iraq”, Brian Clement, UMaine student who served in the U.S. military in Iraq.

3. “The People of Iraq Under Occupation and War: Where Do We Go From Here?”, Rick McDowell, who moved to Baghdad in 2003 working for the American Friends Service Committee, returned to the U.S. in 2005, and has maintained close relations with Iraq over the years.

4. “The Larger Lessons of the Iraq War: Militarism, Imperialism, and Empire”, Doug Allen, Professor of Philosophy, MPAC, and Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine

5 Years After the Invasion And Occupation of Iraq:
What Is To Be Done?

Thursday, March 20th, 2008 7:00 PM
140 Little Hall, University of Maine, Orono

Sponsored by the Maine Peace Action Committee

This podcast is presentation 2 of 4 in the main program. The downloadable audio file (below) is identical to the audio in the video viewable above.

1. “Iraq: Some Historical Background and Analysis and Some Relations with Iran”, Alex Grab, Professor of History, who teaches courses on the Middle East.

2. “My Military Experiences in Iraq”, Brian Clement, UMaine student who served in the U.S. military in Iraq.

3. “The People of Iraq Under Occupation and War: Where Do We Go From Here?”, Rick McDowell, who moved to Baghdad in 2003 working for the American Friends Service Committee, returned to the U.S. in 2005, and has maintained close relations with Iraq over the years.

4. “The Larger Lessons of the Iraq War: Militarism, Imperialism, and Empire”, Doug Allen, Professor of Philosophy, MPAC, and Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine.

5 Years After the Invasion And Occupation of Iraq:
What Is To Be Done?

Thursday, March 20th, 2008 7:00 PM
140 Little Hall, University of Maine, Orono

Sponsored by the Maine Peace Action Committee

This podcast is presentation 3 of 4 in the main program. The downloadable audio file (below) is identical to the audio in the video viewable above.

1. “Iraq: Some Historical Background and Analysis and Some Relations with Iran”, Alex Grab, Professor of History, who teaches courses on the Middle East.

2. “My Military Experiences in Iraq”, Brian Clement, UMaine student who served in the U.S. military in Iraq.

3. “The People of Iraq Under Occupation and War: Where Do We Go From Here?”, Rick McDowell, who moved to Baghdad in 2003 working for the American Friends Service Committee, returned to the U.S. in 2005, and has maintained close relations with Iraq over the years.

4. “The Larger Lessons of the Iraq War: Militarism, Imperialism, and Empire”, Doug Allen, Professor of Philosophy, MPAC, and Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine

5 Years After the Invasion And Occupation of Iraq:
What Is To Be Done?

Thursday, March 20th, 2008 7:00 PM
140 Little Hall, University of Maine, Orono

Sponsored by the Maine Peace Action Committee

This podcast is presentation 4 of 4 in the main program. The downloadable audio file (below) is identical to the audio in the video viewable above.

1. Iraq: Some Historical Background and Analysis and Some Relations with Iran, Alex Grab, Professor of History, who teaches courses on the Middle East.

2. My Military Experiences in Iraq, Brian Clement, UMaine student who served in the U.S. military in Iraq.

3. The People of Iraq Under Occupation and War: Where Do We Go From Here?, Rick McDowell, who moved to Baghdad in 2003 working for the American Friends Service Committee, returned to the U.S. in 2005, and has maintained close relations with Iraq over the years.

4. The Larger Lessons of the Iraq War: Militarism, Imperialism, and Empire, Doug Allen, Professor of Philosophy, MPAC, and Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine

This rocks!

This outstanding podcast and video features a speech given by University of Maine Professor of Philosophy, Doug Allen. Doug’s complete bio appears below the fold.

Doug covers Dr. King’s philosophy, methods, and the lessons we must learn from his true legacy. Unfortunately, a “fake” King is the image typically in use today. Doug also reads the not-enough-read King texts. And he calls us out to disrupt our normal compliance with injustices we see around us everywhere in plain site–as King would. Ending our acquiescence to the litany of war, multi-faceted violence, and economic horrors that especially affect the most vulnerable is the major theme in King’s life and the one that Doug helps us understand is the lesson we should learn when we honor that life today.

The downloadable audio-only attached podcast is basically the same as the video, except included are an introduction by emcee Angel Loredo and additional concluding remarks.

Featured Speaker
Douglas Allen, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maine, is author and editor of 13 books and 100 scholarly book chapters and journal articles. Dr. Allen served as President of the International Society of Asian and Comparative Philosophy, 2001-2004. He has had Fulbright and Smithsonian grants to India, and he was honored with the Maine Presidential Research and Creative Achievement Award and the Distinguished Maine Professor Award. His most recent books are Myth and Religion in Mircea Eliade, Comparative Philosophy and Religion in Times of Terror, and The Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi for the Twenty-First Century.

Doug Allen is a scholar of peace and nonviolence and a peace and justice activist strongly influenced by the life and philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. This started with Doug’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement in the South, and he has taught King’s philosophy for a Black Studies program in Illinois and at the University of Maine. King continues to shape his research, teaching, and activism.

Doug’s activism includes the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam Antiwar Movement, the Anti-apartheid Movement and other struggles against racism, feminist and environmental movements, and opposition to U.S. global policies since 9/11 and the Iraq War and occupation. A founder and faculty advisor to the Maine Peace Action Committee at the University of Maine, he serves as Education Coordinator of the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine in Bangor. Recipient of Maine’s Hands of Peace Award in 2005, he received The Scroll of Peace International Award for Peace Research in India in 2006. In recent years, he has been giving talks and publishing articles on terrorism, religion and violence, and the war in Iraq. Many of his presentations focus on Mahatma Gandhi, King, and positive alternatives based on a commitment to nonviolence, peace, equality, freedom, and democracy.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Shot at the Labor Temple in Brewer, Maine, this video is a trip through the Underworld featuring job stress, pension loss, health care failure, & crushing debt. Worker solidarity is the only way to slay these monsters. Created by William Rice for the Eastern Maine Labor Council & Food AND Medicine, October 2007.

Here is what you’ve all been waiting for–the Eastern Maine Labor Council & Food AND Medicine production of “The Adventures of EFCA Man” performed at the 2007 4th July Solidarity Celebration in Brewer, Maine. You have a choice of Windows Media or mp4 (playable with a QuickTime plugin).

Most of you should be able to play one or the other format in your browser with your broadband connection. Sorry if you have dial-up, you probably won’t see much. You get the full 34-minute performance, including the catapulting. The whole files are quite large, so full downloads will take a while, even at broadband speed. Be patient, then enjoy!

July 4, 2007 / Brewer, Maine

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud (D-ME, 2nd District) gave a short, meaty speech on Independence Day at a labor solidarity family celebration sponsored by the Eastern Maine Labor Council and Food AND Medicine. Mike spoke about the recent announcement by Quaker Fabrics of Fall River, Massachusetts that it is expecting to close due to free trade policies, the effect of NAFTA on immigration, and terrible labor repression in Colombia.

Mike referred to recent activity by trade unionists to convince the Democratic Congress that approving a free trade agreement with Colombia is not a good idea at the same time it appears to be open season on union organizers in that country. (See also, media file associated with THIS June 28, 2007 hearing in the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittees on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, Bill Delahunt [D-MA], Chairman, and on the Western Hemisphere, Eliot L. Engel [D-NY], Chairman.)

Also included with this post is a downloadable audio-only mp3 file of Mike’s July 4 speech.

Additional links to news stories are below the fold. U.S. companies are alleged to be implicated in the murder of Colombian labor leaders. (Mike mentions “Operation Dragon” in his speech–”an effort to neutralize 175 social and labor leaders,” according to a USW press release.)

U.S. companies tied to Colombia labor activist murders at House hearing
The Associated Press
Published: June 28, 2007

WASHINGTON: The United States shares the blame for Colombia’s suffering, a top Democrat said Thursday at a congressional hearing focusing on allegations that U.S. companies funded illegal right-wing militias that have killed hundreds of union activists in the Andean nation.

“We are complicit in the devastation of that society,” said Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Democrat. “So it is a moral imperative that requires us to help Colombia end that cycle of violence”

Delahunt, who chairs the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, spoke during a hearing in which Chiquita Brands International Inc. and the Alabama coal company Drummond Co. Inc. were singled as having close ties to Colombia’s paramilitaries. Chiquita has acknowledged having paid paramilitaries $1.7 million (€1.3 million) in protection money over six years. Drummond has denied having made any payments….

USW Congressional Letter Condemns Colombia’s Failure to Prosecute Trade Unionists’ Murders Cites Evidence of Witnesses in Protective Custody Being Suppressed by Colombia’s Prosecuting Authorities; Urges Rejection of Trade Deal
Press release from United Steel Workers
Pittsburgh – June 8, 2007

The United Steelworkers (USW) union today informed members of Congress that the union is “aware of witnesses in protective custody in Colombia who have knowledge” about the murder of trade unionists by paramilitaries connected to the government, “but who have never been asked about this knowledge” by the Colombian authorities.

“As long as the Uribe administration continues to suppress crucial evidence about these murders and its own connection to them, it is unconscionable for Congress even to consider passing a trade agreement with that government, let alone give it billions more in aid when there’s indisputable evidence his administration has conspired with paramilitaries to assassinate workers,” said USW President Leo W. Gerard.

The USW’s letter specifically cites the case of three Colombian trade union leaders at the mining operations of U.S.–based Drummond Company who were murdered by paramilitary forces.

The USW took the unprecedented step of filing an Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) case against the Drummond Company, resulting in part from first-hand testimony of these human rights violations gathered during visits to Colombia by a U.S. delegation of the USW.

“While the Attorney General of Colombia claims to be investigating Drummond for the murder of three trade unionists in 2001,” the union’s letter states, “the USW is aware of witnesses in protective custody in Colombia who have knowledge about Drummond’s connections with these murders, but who have never been asked about this knowledge.”

Recently the Fiscalia of Colombia exposed an attempt to assassinate Senator Gustavo Petro, a plot, according to the Fiscalia, hatched by Julian Villate who, in August 2004, admitted to being one of the leaders of “Operation Dragon,” a plan to put 175 social and labor leaders under surveillance and to neutralize these leaders, in part by assassination.

The USW letter pointed out that “At the time, Mr. Villate indicated that the Colombia Ministry of Interior and the DAS knew of and approved this plot.

“Notwithstanding Mr. Villate’s admitted involvement in ‘Operation Dragon,’” the USW wrote, “he remains at large and gainfully employed by the Drummond Company.”

The letter further pointed out that “while the U.S. has been providing the DAS with assistance to protect trade unionists, the former head of the DAS, Jorge Noguera, is currently under indictment for colluding with illegal paramilitary groups that kill trade unionists.”

Despite $4 billion in aid from the U.S., much of it to the Colombian military to eradicate coca trafficking, in 2006 there was an 8% increase in coca production, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has concluded that both the Colombian military and paramilitary forces are the major drug traffickers in Colombia.

The USW’s letter concluded by urging Congress to “discontinue all further military assistance to Colombia, condition non-military assistance with strict auditing procedures and refuse to approve the bi-lateral free trade agreement.”

Recorded at Brewer, Maine on July 4, 2006

With the annual 4th of July celebration at the Eastern Maine Labor Council rapidly approaching, it’s a good time to re-watch the video of the incredible oratory AFL-CIO organizer Stuart Acuff gave at this event in 2006. You’ll just have to listen to it to get the full effect!

“…lies like none of us have expected since Richard Nixon…
they lied to get us into an un-necessary war,
they lied about torture,
they lied about extraordinary renditions,
and they have lied to deface and defame the honor of the United States of America…

“Bush trade policy has cost us 3 million good manufacturing jobs.”

–Stuart Acuff

This 10-minute video is edited slightly to fit into YouTube. The audio-only file, accessible below, plays as delivered.

Recorded in Portland, Maine May 22, 2004

This post is a test of the Podpress media player plugin. Dennis had and has it righter than any other Democrat.

This video also is posted at From Every Village Green.

Now, additional media is available. The podcast presented here includes audio of the entire event. Community radio WERU broadcast a short excerpt of this file along with other audio from peace events around the state on the March 24, 2006 Weekend Voices program. Below the fold is an archive image of the extraordinary newspaper coverage the event received.

22 min; 25 MB; 160 kbps mp3; download link here ->

Bangor demonstration makes impression

Extraordinary coverage of March 17–18 peace events

Local newspaper cares now, this war must end

Years ago, the Bangor Daily News was among the very most reactionary newspapers around–much like the Union Leader in New Hampshire. As recently as 2002 they all but ignored several of our peace rallies at the Federal Building in Bangor. They’re making up for it. What you see above truly is amazing coverage. I thank them from the bottom of my heart.