Dear Progressive Reader,

Today is Veteran’s Day. Initially set aside in 1938 as a day to honor veterans of World War I, and later made into a national holiday to honor all veterans on June 1, 1954. The date of November 11 was chosen to commemorate the end of the fighting in World War I on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918—exactly 105 years ago. It was called “Armistice Day” from the Latin arma sistere – for weapons to come to a stop.

But sadly, the weapons have not come to a stop. In fact, since that day when fighting ceased in the “war to end all wars,” Britain's Imperial War Museum estimates that in excess of 187 million people have died in the wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—and that calculation predates the current wars in Ukraine and Gaza. “When will they ever learn?” as Pete Seeger famously sang in his 1955 folksong, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”

This past week, the death toll so far in Gaza exceeded 10,000 (more than 40 percent of whom were children), and the total killing in the war in Ukraine was tallied at nearly 500,000 military deaths last August, with the United Nations noting that the civilian casualties (dead and wounded) in Ukraine had exceeded 27,000 in the period since February 2022.

Over the past century, since the “armistice” was declared, human beings seem to have continually improved their ability to kill, maim, and destroy each other. As Jim Carrier wrote in The Progressive last August, “While the world survived the madness of the Cold War when six countries, led by the United States and the Soviet Union, stockpiled 70,000 warheads, the threat of a second nuclear disaster looms again today.” The prestigious Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has placed the planet as close as it has ever been to total destruction—this measurement based in part on nuclear threats, and in part on the climate crisis. And the “military-industrial-complex” (as President Dwight Eisenhower dubbed it in 1961), continues to be one of the most significant contributors to climate change. We must rethink this madness, we must change course. The very survival of our species is at stake.

This week on our website, peace activist Kathy Kelly addresses the urgent need for a full ceasefire in Gaza, not merely a “pause.” Plus, Jeff Abbott reports from Guatemala on the support for sanctions to address the attacks on democracy in that country; Peter Dreier analyzes the recent victory of the United Auto Workers in the United States; and Mark Fiore illustrates the denialism of new House Speaker Mike Johnson. Also, Ed Rampell reviews the new film Rustin, about peace and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. The movie is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions in partnership with the Internet giant Netflix, and documents some of the forgotten history behind the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It is in theaters now and premieres on the online streaming service November 17.

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. - The new 2024 Hidden History of the United States calendar is now available. You can order one online and have it mailed to you in time for the holidays. Plus, October was National Book Month, and we are excited continue to offer a “half-off sale” on all of the books in our Progressive online shop! We have many new selections for your fall reading list. Your donation to The Progressive will get you a choice of one of these great books provided to us by the authors. You can see all of the titles we have to offer by clicking here.

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