Rising Up for a Livable Future: A One Day Conference connecting Endless War, Climate Emergency, and Injustice

Special Guest: Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley

Rising Up for a Livable Future

A One Day Conference connecting Endless War, Climate Emergency, and Injustice

Saturday, November 9, 2019, 9am – 5pm

Washburn Auditorium, Brattle Campus, Lesley University
10 Phillips Place (corner of Brattle & Mason Streets)
Cambridge, MA

(from Harvard Square walk out Brattle Street, turn right on Mason and left on Phillips Place)

 

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Featuring the following confirmed speakers:

Ayanna Pressley, U.S. Congresswoman

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pin and one of the Peace Movement’s most powerful voices

Michael McPhearson, anti-racist movement leader and past Executive Director of Veterans for Peace

Alexandra Pineros Shields has organized to advance the human rights of immigrants for the past 30 years. She is Executive Director of the Essex County Community Organization and Lecturer at Brandeis

Merrie Najimy is President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA)

Nick Rabb is an organizer for the Sunrise Movement and artificial intelligence researcher

Kevin Peterson is Director of The New Democracy Coalition, a Boston racial justice advocacy project

Danny Sjursen is a recently retired Major in the U.S. army who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and a former history instructor at West Point

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A CALL TO ALL WORKING FOR A LIVABLE FUTURE

Wherever we look these days we see wars and rumors of wars. We see the military budget rising into the stratosphere and the growing danger of war – even nuclear war — as our country undermines arms control agreements and plans a $1.7 trillion upgrade of our nuclear weapons.

But what do war, war spending, and useable nuclear weapons have to do with the flourishing climate movement, the growing effort at the border to protect the rights of immigrants and refugees, and relentless movements for economic justice and against rasicism?

The answer is, “Everything”.

For the heart of the matter is that, the ultimate purpose of wars and militarism is not to protect the country. Rather, it is to enforce a way of life based on climate destruction and the vast social inequality and xenophobia that lie at the root of the serious issues that we face. Many of the crises we face can only be addressed through international collaboration. War and the threat of war make such cooperation among nations impossible.

It’s long past time to put Militarism back into Martin Luther King’s “giant Triplets of Racism, Materialism and Militarism” that must be conquered if we are to effectively wage the struggle for the beloved community of which he dreamed. It’s time to implement his insistence that the fight against Militarism is an essential component in our movement for social justice, liberation from racism and the very survival of our planet.

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Sponsored by:  Massachusetts Peace Action; Our Revolution Massachusetts; Extinction Rebellion; Veterans for Peace/Smedley Butler Brigade; Mass. Alliance of HUD Tenants; American Friends Service Committee; City Life/Vida Urbana; Campaign for Peace, Disarmament, and Common Security; Physicians for Social Responsibility-Greater Boston; 350MA; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom/ Boston Branch; Progressive Democrats of America; Institute for Peoples Engagement; Massachusetts Korea Peace Campaign; United for Justice with Peace; Biodiversity for a Livable Planet; We the People: Womens Action for New Directions;