View this email in your browser ([link removed])

Dear Progressive Reader,

Last week, the United States again blocked ([link removed]) a ceasefire resolution in the United Nations Security Council. It was the second time ([link removed]) in recent weeks that an attempt to end the massive civilian casualties and provide an avenue for humanitarian aid was halted by a U.S. vote, with Ambassador Robert Wood saying ([link removed]) that the resolution’s call for a ceasefire “will only plant the seeds for the next war.” As Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies note ([link removed]) in their extensive analysis of the vote, “The real disconnect at the root of this crisis is the one between the isolated
looking-glass world of U.S. and Israeli politics and the real world that is crying out for a ceasefire and justice for the Palestinian people.” The resolution was immediately taken to ([link removed]) the U.N. General Assembly where it passed overwhelmingly 153 to 10, with twenty-three nations abstaining. Unfortunately, General Assembly resolutions do not have the force of law, but, as the United Nations rules explain ([link removed].) , “While the decisions of the General Assembly have no legally binding force for governments, they carry the weight of world opinion and the moral authority of the world community.” As of this writing, the death toll in Gaza from Israeli retaliation for the inexcusable surprise attack by Hamas on October 7 has exceeded
([link removed]) 19,000 people, a large percentage of whom are children. An additional 50,000 are believed to have been injured in the fighting.

Much of the nation (and the world) looked back ([link removed]) last month on the sixtieth anniversary of the November 22 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Almost anyone who was living and conscious that day will tell you you they remember exactly where they were ([link removed]) when they heard the news. But another less remembered sixtieth anniversary took place earlier this year. On June 10, 1963, Kennedy gave the commencement address at American University in Washington, D.C. The young President, who had just turned forty-six ten days before, issued a bold call for nuclear arms control, friendship with the Soviet Union, and an end to war as a means for settling differences between people and nations. “What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war,” Kennedy explained
([link removed]) . “I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children—not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women—not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.” President Joe Biden was a twenty-year-old student ([link removed]) at the University of Delaware (about 100 miles away) when this speech was given. Today, Kennedy’s call for peace can and should inform our current President’s foreign policy. Instead, Biden seems to be treading ([link removed]) the old, out-dated path of providing weapons to more and more conflicts—a path about which Kennedy warned us sixty years ago: “While we proceed to
safeguard our national interests, let us also safeguard human interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of both [and will] offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.”

This week on our website, historian Peter Dreier offers a compelling portrait ([link removed]) of peace and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, whose life was also recently depicted in the new Netfilx film Rustin ([link removed]) . Joe George also reviews ([link removed]) the new film Zone of Interest, which chronicles the life of a Nazi concentration camp official; Glenn Daigon interviews ([link removed]) labor scholar Kate Bronfenbrenner on the new union movement; Charlie Squire writes ([link removed]) on the leftist case for collecting objects; and Jeff Abbott reports on
([link removed]) an anti-mining victory in Panama. Plus Mike Ervin looks at ([link removed]) how Florida is choosing not to care for its disabled residents; Maurice Cunningham analyzes ([link removed]) the “rise and fall of Moms for Liberty” and their attack on school boards; and Stephen Zunes brings one more story ([link removed]) of how Henry Kissinger contributed to suffering—in this case for the people of the Western Sahara. And, as the United Nations climate talks wrap up in Dubai, two new op-eds by authors Aliyah Lusuegro and Mustafa Qadri look at the role of the ([link removed])
Pentagon ([link removed]) in the climate crisis, and the legacy of the ([link removed]) United Arab Emirates ([link removed]) in failing climate refugees.

Our Hidden History of the United States ([link removed]) calendar for this week notes that December 10 was both the anniversary of feminist, suffragist ([link removed]) , and peace activist Jane Addams ([link removed]) receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, and on that same day, in 1948, the adoption, by the United Nations, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was shepherded ([link removed]) by Eleanor Roosevelt. These are two important events in the history of progressive movements for peace and justice that should be remembered and honored in the current moment.

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. - Don’t miss a minute of the “hidden history” of 2024 – You can still order The Progressive’s new Hidden History of the United States calendar for the coming year. Just go to indiepublishers.shop ([link removed]) , and while you are there, checkout some of our other great offerings as well. There is still time to get your items delivered for the holidays.

P.P.S. – If you like this weekly newsletter, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to this free weekly email, please share this link: [link removed].

P.P.P.S. – If you don’t already subscribe to The Progressive in print or digital form, please consider doing so today ([link removed]) . Also, if you have a friend or relative who you feel should hear from the many voices for progressive change within our pages, please consider giving a gift subscription ([link removed]) .

P.P.P.P.S. – Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated to support The Progressive! We need you now more than ever. If you have not done so already, please take a moment to support hard-hitting, independent reporting on issues that matter to you. Your donation today will keep us on solid ground and will help us continue to grow in the coming years. You can use the wallet envelope in the current issue of the magazine, or click on the “Donate” button below to join your fellow progressives in sustaining The Progressive as a voice for peace, social justice, and the common good.
Donate ([link removed])

============================================================
** Twitter ([link removed])
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Website ([link removed])
Copyright © 2023 The Progressive, Inc.

P.O. Box 1021 • Madison, Wisconsin 53701 • (608) 257-4626

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])