Today, President Obama called on Congress to give him greater authority to merge government agencies—a power last granted to Ronald Reagan.  In his usual serious but humble fashion he also announced that the Small Business Administration has been moved to a Cabinet level agency.  You might be asking why this matters for those in the peace and justice movement. Great question.

Peoples’ and Civil Society letter to the United Nations Member States calling for the UN General Assembly to declare 2012-2022 as the International Decade for People of African Descent.

Chicago is a city of vibrant smiles. Tourists and locals fill galleries, shops, and restaurants with bright eyes and robust laughs; but in the Windy City, some of that laughter echoes across one of the largest urban food deserts in the country.

Do you remember those posters and bumper stickers that read, “Support the troops”? Maybe you have one of your own. Well, December 16th is the time to get your stickers, signs and banners together and join the largest veteran led-civil resistance to the US wars in recent history. FOR and other United For Peace and Justice member organizations are calling on you to join Veterans For Peace in Washington D.C. on Thursday, December 16th for civil resistance action. If you can join the D.C. action please visit Stop These Wars for more details.

There is great debate about the differences between spirituality and religion. Three days into the quadrennial gathering of the branches, groups and affiliates of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, I began what I suspect will be a series of writings about the debate that lives in FOR and many communities of faith. Here I offer some thoughts as we continue our conversation in fellowship.

Dear colleagues,
I have heard some of us make statements along the lines of racism being different, easier, or that we are beyond racism. Often we do not have recent and tangible ways of showing just how real racism is. Let me share with you a piece of my reality.

Saturday my neighborhood became a place for Nazi demonstrators to forward their cause. Yesterday morning, people -our fellow humans- took to the streets of my neighborhood to protest an anti-white supremacy and white privilege workshop being held at the local YWCA.
The calls to action on their websites identified that they felt that the leaders of the workshop and participants were race traitors. I am not going to share with you all of the racist rhetoric of the group but I encourage you to think about what this really means for the US and

By Iranian blogger Shant Baghramian

Finally the day comes: 4th of November 2008. The American elections, and Barack Obama become the projected president of the U.S. He is the one who convinced American people about change. It is good and fascinating.

In order to express my thoughts about this event, I want to organize my entry in two parts: a) All happenings up to the election of Obama b) After election and up comings.

a) Election of Obama

1) Lately reading political texts of Karl Popper, about the government, I liked the part that he declare the question as below: Which political power is the best one?

Counter It!

Minnesota’s antiwar youth training camp

Last summer the Pentagon was busy preparing for an ambitious “surge” in military recruitment to meet the bipartisan plan to expand the military by 92,000 troops. At the same time, young people in Minnesota were also busy preparing our response.
Twenty two young activists — high school and college students as well as several trainers — gathered for four days in August at Garden Farme in Ramsey, MN to develop our skills and strategy. Organized by Youth Against War & Racism in partnership with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Ruckus Society, and others, the “Counter It! Training” was a great success.

The Twin Cities have seen "No WAR, No RNC" sprayed across bus stops, public trashcans, light posts, and sidewalks for months now. Downtown Minneapolis has been beautified by a hosts of murals on large buildings and electric boxes and flyers for RNC festivities are placed all over the state. Well, it seems that the beautifying is over.

A number of convergence spaces have been raided throughout the metro and near metro area. It is true that many organizations plan to March on the RNC and we’ve hit the point where spaces are being raided. At this time, there are a number of neighbors who have been detained. Here is the latest information from Minnesota’s presses, IndyMedia, and the UpTake:

From MN IndyMedia: Click headline for full story.