Essential Dissent

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A panel from the 2020 UNAC conference. UNAC, the United National AntiWar Coalition, held their 2020 national conference at the People's Forum in New York City (Feb 21 - 23).

https://www.unacpeace.org/

Moderator: Cassia Laham

Panelists: Jean Luc Pierite, Makasi Motema, Diane Moxley, Jeff Mackler

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A panel from the 2020 UNAC conference. UNAC, the United National AntiWar Coalition, held their 2020 national conference at the People's Forum in New York City.

Featured presenters: Bahman Azad, Bernadette Ellorin, Camilo Mejia, Joe Lombardo

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Thomas Jefferson called the U.S. an “Empire of Liberty.” Barack Obama called the U.S. an “Indispensable nation.” These manifestations of American exceptionalism and American innocence provide the doctrine of U.S. empire building at home and abroad. Danny Haiphong and Roberto Sirvent’s new book, "American Exceptionalism and American Innocence - a People’s History of the United States from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror" not only exposes this doctrine as myth but also analyzes its impact on the class struggle to develop a world free of U.S. capitalism, war, and white supremacy. Join anti-imperialist activists and journalists in a discussion about the book and its relevance as a tool toward dismantling the actually-existing fake news of U.S. Empire.

Panel sponsored by Black Agenda Report: https://www.blackagendareport.com/

Watch the full livestream: https://youtu.be/AV_IZ1OFKCE

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Watch the full livestream: https://youtu.be/x5o_5y5Rm7o

January 24, 2020

The four arrested Venezuelan Embassy Protectors - Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, Adrienne Pine and David Paul - were on an East Coast speaking and fundraising tour from January 24 to January 28, 2020.

They are facing trials on the trumped-up charge of "interfering with certain protective functions" of the government for their heroic effort to prevent the transfer of the Venezuelan Embassy to a minority leader illegally appointed by the U.S. government as President of Venezuela. This is a misdemeanor charge that carries a maximum of one-year imprisonment and a $100,000 fine each.

The judge has already denied them the ability to present vital evidence in their defense. During the hearing, she referred to the embassy protectors as a "gang," and stated that the facts supported their guilt. She made it clear a trial will result in their conviction, and promptly made rulings that will ensure that outcome.

Embassy Protection Collective: https://www.facebook.com/ColectivosporlaPaz/

Popular Resistance: https://popularresistance.org/

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This panel took place on 6/28/19 at Left Forum 2019.

Abstract: Speakers will address the present day US campaigns to overthrow the governments in these countries. They will focus on US disinformation campaigns against these countries, the present US anti-war movement in defense of Iran's, Venezuela's, and Cuba's sovereignty, and how the peoples in these countries are organizing to combat US threats.

0:00 Dan Kovalik (United Steel Workers)

Event Organizer: Stansfield Smith

Daniel Kovalik is Senior Associate General Counsel of the United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO (USW). He has worked for the USW since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. While with the USW, he has served as lead counsel on cutting-edge labor law litigation, including the landmark NLRB cases of Lamons Gasket and Specialty Health Care. He has also worked on Alien Tort Claims Act cases against The Coca-Cola Company, Drummond and Occidental Petroleum – cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in Colombia. The Christian Science Monitor, referring to his work defending Colombian unionists under threat of assassination, recently described Mr. Kovalik as “one of the most prominent defenders of Colombian workers in the United States.” Mr. Kovalik received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford University School of Law and was the recipient of the Project Censored Award for his article exposing the unprecedented killing of trade unionists in Colombia. He has written extensively on the issue of international human rights and U.S. foreign policy for the Huffington Post and Counterpunch and has lectured throughout the world on these subjects.

Dr. Bahman Azad is an Iranian-American peace and justice activist living in the United States. He has been active in the peace and justice movement since his arrival in the United States in 1973, first as a student activist against the Shah's regime in Iran and then as a member of the Executive Board of the U.S. Peace Council. He joined the Veterans for Peace in the early 1990s and has been serving as Chair of VFP’s Iran Working Group. He is currently the Organizational Secretary of the U.S. Peace Council, Coordinator of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases and the Global Campaign Against US/NATO Military Bases, and the representative of the World Peace Council at the United Nations. He was the organizer of USPC’s Peace and Solidarity Delegation to Venezuela which traveled to Caracas in March 2019.Bahman has a Master's degree in Economics and a Ph.D. in Sociology. He is a retired Professor and former Acting Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University, New Jersey.

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US vs. USSR, US vs. Russian Federation

How the US tried to undermine the Soviet Union when it existed and how it is trying to undermine the Russian Federation today. The panelists will discuss and critique political and ideological falsehoods and fabrications in the continuing Cold War waged by the U.S. and NATO against Russia--both historical anti-communism and the more intense lies in the current antagonism in the US drive for global hegemony.

Moderator: Martin J. Sawma

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This Left Forum 2019 panel includes three people who recently visited Odessa to memorialize those killed in a right-wing massacre in 2014. It also includes a Ukrainian national. Panelists discuss the situation with the war in Donbass, the recent elections, the growth of Fascism and more.

Moderator: Joe Lombardo

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Moderator: Nellie Hester Bailey

Panelists: Raymond Nat Turner, Margaret Kimberley, Danny Haiphong, Glen Ford

The Black Agenda Report team discusses "late stage" capitalism, the shrinking U.S. empire, and the dangers of a desperate ruling class on the wane.

Left Forum: http://www.leftforum.org/

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Panelists: Max Ajl, Kali Akuno

The Green New Deal proposal has reframed social issues as ecological issues, and ecological issues as political issues. This panel explores the Green New Deal as a political battlefield, a space within which different ideas, proposals, and possibilities for managing the future come into play. We explore the role of agriculture, the global south, resource extraction, and paths to a sustainable and just future in light of the reshaping of the political battlefield through the Green New Deal proposals.