RE: [xmca] Shhhhhh. They might hear you!!

davidpreiss@puc.cl

----
I'm one of those people whose first participation in the peace movement
began in New York way back when we demonstrated in City Hall Park against
compulsory air-raid drills and our slogan used to be, "Peace Is Our Only
Shelter." We wore buttons that said, "Stop The Testing" and "Strontium 90
Builds Bones." 
With others of my generation, I moved along to organizing
"Writers-and-Artists-Protest-the-War-in-Vietnam" ads in The New York Times,
in emulation of the French intellectuals' protests about Algeria. Rallies
and demonstrations became more and more frequent; veterans destroyed their
honorable discharge papers, and we took them to the White House in a little
coffin; we organized poetry readings and art exhibits and anthologies, and
showed slides of napalmed children. We moved into the support and
encouragement of draft resistance. And the war dragged on and at home
poverty continued and racism intensified. And the demonstrations got bigger
and bigger, but they still were one-issue efforts--Stop the War in Vietnam.
And at last a better understanding of the futility of this one-issue
campaign began to get through my thick head and some other thick heads. 
Today, I believe we cannot bring the wars to an end--and I use the plural
"wars" because there are wars going on in many countries, and in all these
wars the United States has a hand--we cannot bring the wars to an end
without bringing the capitalist-imperialist system to an end. These wars,
whether in Asia or in Latin America or wherever they erupt, are wars of
national liberation, in which people are fighting for self-determination
against America's puppet governments, America's CIA and its "advisers,"
America's napalm, America's giant corporations, even when American troops
are not involved. 
Now the peace movement must become the revolutionary movement, must work to
educate people to the realization that the struggle of black people inside
the U.S. is a struggle for self-determination parallel to those outside the
U.S., and that it will become a race war if we, white radicals, do not act
toward revolution. A one-issue peace movement attempts to deal with only a
single symptom of the disease that infects every aspect of our society; just
as people concerned about the ecological disasters and threats of yet
greater disaster attempt to deal with symptoms only if they do not realize
that the greed of a profit system underlies the pollution of our resources.
We must get together to uproot the cause, even while we continue to struggle
against the effects--and we must not confine our struggle to any single
effect. Anyone who works to end the war in Vietnam but does nothing to stop
the political and racial oppression that is happening around us simply does
not understand where it's at. Everyone who's out today to demand an end to
the war has a moral and rational obligation to be out demanding that the
trial of Bobby Seale and the other Panthers be stopped too. As many people
must flock to New Haven when that trial begins as flocked to Washington in
November. More and more, people must be prepared to act militantly. The days
of mere protest are over, and the days of separating war, and racism and
pollution of natural resources, and social injustice, and male chauvinism,
into neat little compartments are over. I say this with the conviction--and
if it sounds apocalyptic, o.k., it is apocalyptic--that unless all men and
women of good will realize this very, very soon, and act on it, there will
be no future, but an increasing horror followed by annihilation. 
Even at best we are not going to escape a period of terror, of increased
repression, of bloodshed. It is happening already. But our one chance of
survival, and not of mere survival but of a decent and humane life for
ourselves and our children and our children's children, lies in solidarity
and in the recognition now of the necessity of revolution.
David D. Preiss Ph.D.
Profesor Auxiliar / Assistant Professor
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Escuela de Psicología.
Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860. 
Macul, Santiago de Chile.
Chile
 
Teléfono: (56-2) 354-4605
Fax: (56-2) 354-4844.
 
Laboratorio de Creatividad, Educación y Cultura
Blog Lab: http://laboratoriocreatividad.blogspot.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Phil Chappell
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 7:11 AM
To: mcole@weber.ucsd.edu; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] Shhhhhh. They might hear you!!
Mike,
My bet is each of us in our respective countries could tell similar  
tales. Thanks for your colleague's powerful words from Israel. I  
guess something as crass and unsophisticated as what is going on will  
result in similar means to terrorise populations across the decades -  
bombs, chemicals, torture and lies. Despite Hollywood's best  
attempts, you can't really say that it is any more than crass and  
unsophisticated.
Way down in the article you posted there is a retell of why Weise and  
Bauer were moved from their seats just before Bush started speaking -  
she had a "No more blood for oil" bumper sticker on her car.
Emily, I agree with you in an idealist way, the revolution is in us,  
however Mike reminds us that as professionals, we don't have adequate  
tools to tackle the issues at the scale that is probably needed.  
Where to?
World leaders - what an oxymoron. It reminds me of the latest  
nickname for Australia's PM, John Howard.
Bonzai. A stunted and twisted bush ;-)
Phil
On 24/07/2006, at 5:33 AM, Mike Cole wrote:
> Phil et al-- Apropos of my distressed reply this morning see below 
> mike
>
> Ps- Sorry about the botox ad. the price of free speech, as they
> call it?
>
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