Monday, May 25, 2020: Who and What We Must Remember This Memorial Day hosted by Margo Okazawa-Rey

Click here to listen to the show. 59:50 min

Protesters in the Oura Bay demanding the end of
construction of new US base there

May 24 was the International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament, a women’s day we in the US hear very little about.  The US Memorial Day is for honouring and mourning the military personnel who have died while serving in the US Armed Forces as colonizers and more latterly in the name  of “national security.” But many of us know that armed conflict and militarism go hand-in-hand with global capitalism. I remind listeners also that working-class men and women of colour are disproportionately represented among the military enlistees and casualties. Women in the military also face domestic violence and sexual assaults committed by male military personnel. On today’s show, my guests and I will emphasize peace, disarmament, and decolonization while we mourn.

Cornerstone of Peace Naha, Okinawa

We’ll be asking you to rethink the various aspects of the military apparatus in the US, from the war-based economy and military spending, to environmental impacts of wars and military operations, and the militarized violence especially against women and civilians. We will talk about other causalities of wars and militarism. These are especially relevant in the current Pandemic when we see the militarized responses to it in many places around the world including the US.  We see in the US especially the failures of the state, the economic systems, and political and moral leadership currently in place.  Finally, and most important, we’ll  be urging you to imagine what real security, all the way from in your lives  and communities to the entire country and the world, would look and feel like, and to think about useful ways young people can work in their communities to realize that vision, rather than serving in the military.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies ... 
a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
The world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending the sweat of its laborers,
the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children… 
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war,
it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

-US President General Dwight D. Eisenhower April 17, 1953  

Guests:
Rev. Deborah Lee is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity based in Oakland CA. For over 25 years as a faith-based, social-justice leader, she has worked in popular education, community organizing  and advocacy connecting issues of race, gender, economic justice, anti-militarism, LGBTQ inclusion and immigrant rights. She is a founding member of International Women’s Network Against Militarism and also Women for Genuine Security.

Gwyn Kirk is a scholar activist who teaches women’s and gender studies courses, most recently at Mills College, Oakland. She is a founder member of the International Women’s Network Against Militarism and also Women for Genuine Security, the US-based partner in this Network.  Her writing focuses on ecofeminism, militarism, and transnational feminist peace organizing.

Martha  Matsuoka is at  Occidental College, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy. Her work focuses on metropolitan regionalism, sustainable community development, social movements, and environmental justice. She is a founding Board  member of Asia Pacific Environmental Network and a founder of Women for Genuine Security and International Women's Network Against Militarism.

Click here to listen to the show. 59:50 min